The Limits of Democracy under Capitalism

2020 has been a momentous year—a petri dish of capitalist chaos and instability not seen in generations. Tens of millions of American workers have been pushed off the cliff of a devastating economic meltdown and subjected to a criminally mishandled global pandemic. Sociopathic cops have been unleashed against peaceful protesters, backed by homicidal extreme-right vigilantes. In response, there have been unprecedented mass protests, semi-insurrectionary uprisings and occupations, and emergent neighborhood defense committees.

As if all of this were not enough for a single twelve-month span, the US is barreling blindly towards an electoral reckoning which, no matter the outcome, will test the limits of the American capitalists’ experiment with bourgeois democracy. Not since the election of 1864—when the country was embroiled in an all-out civil war—has a presidential contest been held in the midst of such unpredictable uncertainty.

Discussion Hosted by Alex Gillis, come and join in an interesting conversation in this event of the Marxist Student Association and the International Marxist Tendency.