Statement on Events at the Capitol
Jan 6, 2021
This January 6th, as congress proceeded with the count of the electoral college votes, a mob of armed white supremacists, neo-nazis, the alt-right and QAnon conspiracy theorists, stormed the U.S. capitol intending to forcibly stop the counting of the votes.
While acknowledging the deeply undemocratic nature of the electoral college and the nation’s electoral system as a whole, the Ithaca chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America condemns in the strongest terms the attempt of the far right to stop the process that would ensure the end of Donald Trump’s tenure in office. No election was stolen, no fraud committed.
But this is not the main lesson we should be focusing on. As socialists, what is important to recognize is not so much the assault on procedure of a broken political system that can only offer duopoly so much as it is important to recognize the alarming ascendency and growth of white supremacist / nationalist violence in America.
It is critical to understand the complicity of law enforcement and public officials in this dangerous development whether it is the Republican Party, the two recently elected representatives who publicly support QAnon, or centrist Democrats who offer only an inadequate and lackluster response. The incompetency, unpreparedness and delay seen last night on the part of law enforcement or security is certainly curious to say the least. We have seen in videos of the police or security forces giving a half-hearted defense before letting a mob of white supremacists into the capitol, being vastly outnumbered, and at times taking photos with some individuals. This is not without precedent either. The ideological sympathy of law enforcement and right wing insurrectionists is now more abundantly clear than ever before.
Many have noted that last night's events are an example of white privilege. This is true, but it may be more accurately described as a display of white power in American society. Figures and members from the fascist Proud Boys, European Heritage Association, Nationalist Social Club, Matthew Heimbach of the now defunct Traditionalist Workers Party, men with white supremacist tattoos dressed in garb glorifying “camp auschwitz”, and so on, were let into the capitol building with little to no resistance.
Compare the response of law enforcement last night with the response given to anti-racist protesters that we saw this past summer which was met with disproportionate, swift and brutal force. Make no mistake, if this were Black Lives Matter or any anti-racist protest, the full force of the state would be used immediately. One only needs to recall the use of riot police, teargas, and beatings to clear Lafayette Square in Washington D.C., the illegal abduction and questioning of activists by unidentified federal agents, or any of the other police violence that happens everyday.
The rise of this sort of white-supremacist violence did not happen in a vacuum and neither did it start with Trump. Rather, the phenomenon of Trumpism revealed and gave confidence to those tendencies that were always there in American society and they will certainly not disappear with the end of the Trump presidency. The events that took place on January 6th are a clear indication that an organized left and working class is needed that can defend against any instances of authoritarianism and bring a more humane future in a deeply fragmented society. This includes workplace organizing and growing a militant labor rank-and-file, mutual aid for the most vulnerable, protecting one another from evictions and homelessness, preventing the worst of the climate crisis, and what is perhaps most immediately needed: taking a principled stand against white supremacy, racism, and fascism.
Ithaca DSA Steering Committee
