R. Nesbitt | Red Phoenix correspondent | Maryland****–****

A mock-up of a “new” U.S. passport featuring Donald Trump superimposed over the Declaration of Independence. Posted by Trump on Truth Social, “Welcome, but be good!“

Today, July 4th, 2026, marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence of the new United States of America from the British Empire.

This event was a watershed moment in advancing the era of bourgeois revolutions against the remnants of feudal political power in the West, and served as a tremendous accelerant for a thorough and devastating colonization of North America, the opening of new and wealthy markets of Oceania and East Asia, and — with the class collaboration of the American bourgeoisie with the American slave-holder — the calcification of atrocious slave economy in many southern and western states. All of which ultimately culminating in a vicious civil war that, instead of abolishing slavery, nationalized it for the monopolistic benefit of the American capitalist.

It is difficult to understate the profound impact that the American bourgeoisie have wrought on a global scale. It has, in two and a half centuries, risen from a desperate effort of no more than 50% of the American population, dependent on the intervention of imperialist competitors to their British masters (like France & Spain) to becoming the dominant entity in the imperialist stage of capitalism.

This is a fragile grip.

The last decade of American political life has seen a rabid growth of right-wing, nationalist populism, a time-honored response of the bourgeoisie as a class to the crises of their own making. Recession and economic depression, endless war, debt, poverty, competition, and environmental and social collapse. The Trump regime has worked tirelessly as an expression of this moribund façade, with military parades, obscene ballrooms and “public” parks guarded by storm troopers complete with disastrous, bloody adventures into Asia. From the withdrawal from America’s 20 year occupation of Afghanistan to the ongoing genocide in Palestine; from renewed wars with Lebanon & Syria to an intermittent and hapless war with Iran and failed peace talks for the 75-year old Korean conflict — the obnoxious, hypocritical and deluded celebrations the American worker is exposed to today, are the desperate song of a dying order clinging to life.

The renewal of which depends on that same working class’ ignorance, apathy and consent to dance with this damning downward spiral to the tune of “national defense, patriotism, and America First”

It would be the epitome of ignorance as well, to deny the historical progress engendered by the first American Revolution, over feudalism, even Vladimir Lenin, one figurehead of the first successful socialist revolution in history, extolled this to American workers.

It would be even more ignorant to deny the history that working Americans have played in the forging of this progress, from those peasants and proletarian Patriots, to the post-war rebellions against undemocratic policy, debt and war, such as the Whiskey Rebellion, Fries Rebellion, and Dorr’s Rebellion. Alongside those revolts by the enslaved themselves against bondage, such as Nat Turner’s revolt in Virginia and the hundreds of thousands of slaves who fled to British service, to Canada and to the North to play the decisive role in waging the anti-slavery cause in the Civil War.

The best of American progress (now long-spent under capitalism) has for decades been forged by the American worker. And it too has lent its hand to restraining the behemoth of American capital from barbarous wars of imperialism such as the capitalist intervention against the Bolshevik Revolution, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The celebration of capital for the 4th of July is an appeal to calm. An attempt to re-assure and pacify the working class to believing that the work is done, that all is left for us to do is to vote occasionally (what little of that privilege that still remains in its bastardized form) and to be good little citizens, aware of our place and our fates (even when citizenship is under attack every day by the Trump regime; the vanguard of American capital).

But history has shown us, that, in the same way as the American bourgeoisie while it was still (and perhaps briefly) progressive, did not quit the fight, did not “pack their bags and leave” when faced with British imperialism, but they waged their own unremitting struggle (with the blood of American, French and Spanish peasants, slaves and proletarians) for independence and “freedom”; So too must the American worker today not consign themselves to indignant disgust, much less willing delusion with the hollow celebrations.

This 4th of July, we too must learn and roll up our own sleeves and commit to our own, unremitting struggle (and with our own blood, sweat and tears) build a new America that does not promise “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” for all but builds it and enforces it.

Every. Single. Day.

Let the frescoed halls of our own oligarchic tyrants tremble under the collective affirmation that “we aren’t going anywhere, we built this country and you are destroying it, it is our turn for justice and freedom”.

It is long since past due that a new and socialist society declared its triumphant independence from this decrepit order of capital!

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