I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity. The people are awakening. In due time, they will and must come to their own. . . . Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the Southern cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.

—Eugene Debs

Even though the historic electoral uprising did not produce the hoped-for landslide victory, there is much to celebrate, and even more to fight for. Right now, we must press the demand to count every vote as the precondition for winning other advances, including an economic recovery package that addresses the needs of workers.

The Republican majority in the Senate may not be broken, but it is still likely that Donald Trump will be defeated. Early and absentee votes, which tend to be heavily Democratic, are still coming in and being counted. Removing Trump will be a major blow to the extreme right. In particular, it will disorganize and demobilize much of his base.

The people’s movement has also won some important down-ballot races, including doubling the number of women of color Representatives known as “The Squad.”

And we shouldn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. This election is one moment in the larger struggle that pits a mass democratic upsurge against the entrenched power of the extreme right. Voting rights are emerging as the center of this struggle. Let us be clear: African Americans disproportionately voted early or via mail-in ballot. Considering that a million ballots could be tossed, Trump’s attempt to stop the counting of those ballots is the most vicious attack on voting rights since the overthrow of Reconstruction. 

As Communists, we fight for the leading role of the working class in the struggle for democracy. Much of what we’ve seen in this election vindicates our position, from the tireless efforts of organized labor and the Poor People’s Campaign to the great working-class majority that powered the historic march to the polls. Were it not for our multi-racial working class, Trump would have won in a landslide!

However, a substantial section of our class, particularly a section of white workers and more especially white working-class men, remain under the sway of white supremacy and the extreme right. The reasons for this cannot be reduced to simplistic binaries of “identity politics” vs. class; nor can it be dismissed as a result of closed-mindedness or lack of education. A fuller account must look at how class consciousness develops or is thwarted in its development, in a media environment saturated with white supremacy, male supremacy, and anti-communism.

Let’s be clear: a possible democratic victory in the fight for the White House will be largely due to the near majority ballots of black voters in Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, etc., along with Latino voters in Arizona and elsewhere.

Even with the acceptance of the votes and certification of the election for Biden/Harris, the fight will not be over. Take Trump at his word. What will compel his administration to hand over power? Here the mixed election results, the narrowness of the contests, amplify the degree of the danger. We are confronting two mass movements, of unequal strength—one fascist-tinged and in power, the other democratic and ascending. This is no ordinary election, and the situation remains far from clear. It’s time to stay awake, vigilant, and mobilized.

Beyond analysis, we must redouble our efforts to demonstrate what is at stake for all working-class people in the struggle against the extreme right: unemployment insurance, health care, safe schools and workplaces, among other things. There is no democratic path, let alone a road to socialism, that does not involve winning them to the struggle.

All souls to the polls; now all feet to the streets. We marched to the polls to vote against fascism. Now we march back out, along with millions of others, to demand that every vote be counted. We are in a new moment, learning from every advance and from every setback. And whatever the outcome, the struggle continues!

Image: Peg Hunter (CC BY-NC 2.0).

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