By Keith Preston

If recent events are a foreshadowing of events to come, which they may well be, it would seem that the lumpenproletariat faces five primary dangers when it comes to future revolutionary activity.

1. State repression: There has been very little state repression so far, but that does not mean there will not be more in the future. Certainly, there is a danger of COINTELPRO-like repression, which is probably already occurring or at least being planned. However, an even greater danger would be full-on repression of the kind that the Empire has used in the colonies of the East and South in the past (e.g. Chile, El Salvador, Yemen, hundreds of others).
2. Capitalist class co-optation: This is presently the most immediate danger and clearly the prevailing ruling class strategy at the present.
3. Co-optation by neo-Jacobin/neo-Maoist Blue Tribe Khomeinists: The objective of this sector is to ride the wave of popular rebellion to state power (see the last 400 years of left-wing revolutions). This is obviously not the most immediate threat at the present time but it is a danger that looms in the future.
4. Non-state extra-legal repression by Red Tribe Falangists: The right-wing has performed better in these events than I would have expected. I would have thought that most of the right-wing would have retreated into “red state fascism” (Lew Rockwell’s terms for the “USA! USA!” yahoos) but the right-wing has been split between reactionaries calling for repression, critics of the insurrectionists on tactical grounds, sympathizers with the rebellion, or those who are simply indifferent. Also, protests have taken place even in deep-red zones which means that anti-System thinking is starting to permeate the entire society. However, it’s possible that could change if substantial sectors of the Red Tribe feel existentially threatened. It is essential that such sentiments are not fueled.
5. Inter-tribal warfare: While this seems to be a goal of some on the far left and far-right, and a minority of people in all ethnic groups, so far it does not seem to have emerged as a dominant trend. A Yugoslavian or Rwandan-like situation must be avoided at all costs.