January 2026 saw some of the most significant developments in the recent history of the American class struggle. The ICE murder of Renee Good set off an explosive anti-ICE movement, culminating in a de facto political general strike. The subsequent murder of Alex Pretti threatened to spread the movement nationally, forcing Trump to back off, at least temporarily. What conclusions can we draw from this experience?
1. Sudden, massive upsurges in the class struggle are not a thing of the past. They are not an impossibility in the United States; in fact, they are inevitable. The events in Minnesota were a classic example of how a mass movement can erupt virtually overnight on the basis of events that politicize a wide layer of society. Quantity transformed into quality as all of the accumulated anti-ICE rage in Minnesota reached a tipping point, culminating in the elemental political eruption of January 23.
2. Events, events, events drive changes in mass consciousness. Opposition to Trump’s government was already present in Minnesota, but the brazen extrajudicial murder of Renee Good drove hundreds of thousands of ordinary people to political action. The advanced layer of the working class can learn from books and theoretical arguments, but the masses of workers draw political conclusions on the basis of events. And what profound conclusions Minnesotan workers have begun to draw! The need for self-organization; a total distrust of (at least certain wings of) the capitalist state; and a growing understanding of the power they can collectively exert over the economy. They also learned from the anti-ICE movement in Los Angeles last June and in Chicago last fall, while building on the experience of the 2020 George Floyd movement.
3. The undercurrent of left radicalization in the US goes far beyond what most people think. Contrary to the claims of the liberal media, there has been no fundamental “shift to the right” among US workers. While some layers of the working class are still testing Trump’s program, another huge layer already opposes him entirely and has moved to the left. Symptomatic developments such as the election of Zohran Mamdani are only the tip of the iceberg. In Minnesota, we saw ordinary people mobilizing en masse against the armed bodies of men of the capitalist state. Embryonic organs of working-class self organization emerged in the form of neighborhood mass meetings and Signal chats. Among a certain layer, discussions about the need for armed self-defense also took place. And the fact that the idea of a general strike gripped the minds, not only of the activists, but a far broader layer of society, represents a turning point for the class struggle in this country.
4. The idea that the Trump administration is a fascist government or a burgeoning military-police dictatorship is entirely false. Whatever his personal inclinations may be, Trump is not in a position to construct a powerful Bonapartist or fascist regime. The movement in Minnesota exposed the weakness of Trump’s government. Faced with the organic movement of the masses—and the clear possibility that Alex Pretti’s murder would set off an even larger nationwide social explosion—Trump was forced to backtrack, removing Greg Bovino from his post and publicly stating “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit.” This completely vindicates the methods of mass collective struggle witnessed on the streets of the Twin Cities, and shows that the class balance of forces in the US overwhelmingly favors the working class. Trump is an expert at distracting and diverting attention, and prefers to double down and go on the offensive whenever possible—but there are clear limits to how far he can go.
5. The current period of crisis and instability is exposing the real nature of bourgeois “democracy.” Bourgeois democracy has always been the dictatorship of the capitalist class over the exploited majority. In the US especially, it has always relied on repression and state violence to maintain capitalist rule. Events like the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are eroding illusions, clarifying the real role of the capitalist state in the minds of millions. These are striking changes in a country where capitalism and its institutions once held so much legitimacy.
6. With a revolutionary leadership, the movement could have gone significantly further. The mood and potential for an all-out general strike were 100% present. This could have shut down not only small businesses, schools, and cultural institutions, but the major levers of the economy: transportation, energy, communications, logistics, manufacturing, etc. After Alex Pretti’s murder, this could have spread across the country. The trade union bureaucrats did everything in their power to direct the energy of the masses into safe channels. Pressure from below had forced them to set a date for a “day of action,” but they conspicuously avoided doing anything more. What was required was to widen and spread the neighborhood committees into the workplaces, and above all to link them through elected representatives into a citywide body accountable to the mass assemblies and capable of coordinating the movement. Armed with this program, a Marxist cadre organization of even just 500 or 1,000 members rooted in workplaces across key industries in Minneapolis-St. Paul could have made all the difference.
7. The reformists understand nothing. In the leadership of DSA, on the editorial board of Jacobin, and in some corners of the trade union bureaucracy, certain liberal-reformist socialists pay lip service to the class struggle, while in practice merely propping up the Democratic Party and other institutions of the ruling class. These people pay homage to the history of the US class struggle, but they never actually believed that things like this would happen again. They accused the revolutionary socialists of “waiting on events,” themselves failing to understand the depth of the crisis and the inevitable convulsions on the horizon. Now that it has happened, they “support” it, but they still cannot understand what it really represents.
8. We have entered a new epoch of class struggle in the US. January 23 was only the beginning—a dress rehearsal—and a sign of far bigger things to come. The second quarter of the 21st century will look markedly different than the first. Mass movements, militant strikes, general strikes, and eventually a full-blown revolutionary situation are in our future.
9. The only real weakness of the US working class is its lack of a revolutionary party. The roughly 160 million wage and salary workers in America constitute a potentially unstoppable power, but this potential cannot be fully realized unless and until it has a leadership worthy of the name. In Minnesota, we saw the immense creativity of the working class when it is pushed into action, but also the clear limits of spontaneity on its own. To go further, and to eventually win political and economic power, the working class needs a Marxist leadership. A mass revolutionary party could harness the power of the working class to transform society on socialist lines.
10. Such a party will not drop from the sky. It has to be consciously built in advance of future movements and revolutionary upheavals; it must be ready ahead of time. Just as the ruling class dedicates the time and resources to train and educate the general staff that commands its state, so must the leadership of the working class have a serious training ground of its own. The working class needs a party of professional revolutionaries—people who have thoroughly studied Marxist theory and the lessons of the class struggle. Any and all serious class fighters should join the RCA and help build the party of the coming American socialist revolution.