The following was written by Martin Schreader, a supporter of the Workers Party in America and Organizer of the Workers’ International Industrial Union, in response to yet another thread on Democratic Underground by a “middle class” radical proclaiming they will stage a revolution in the next 25 years. It is taken from Martin’s blog on DU, Class Hacked: Musings of a Class-Conscious Worker.

There Will be a Revolution, But It Will be against You, Too

I offer this as a comment on the OP [Original Post — Ed.], but, in a sense, also as a warning to those on here who might actually get their hopes up about it.

Revolutions are funny things. Unless they are betrayed and crushed from within, revolutions tend to go well beyond the margins set for them by their (self-appointed, more often than not) leaderships. They get "out of hand". "Excesses" happen. Even in the most orderly and idealized revolutions in history, someone gets tarred and feathered (or whatever the equivalent is for their country). There's no avoiding it, so you can only accept it or work against the revolution -- in which case, if the revolution succeeds anyway, you'll be a target.

The coming revolution here will not be "left" versus "right", even if it starts that way. It will be have versus have-not -- it will be those who have given up their lives to work versus those who have given up work to live. It will not be Wall Street versus Main Street. It will be the back streets against Wall Street and Main Street.

Did you really think we forgot about what you've done to us? Did you think we forgot about how you got yourself an exemption from so many laws and regulations because you're a "small business", or how you helped shred social welfare programs so you could get a piece of that corporate welfare pie? Did you think we forgot about how you evicted us from your rental properties, or shut off our electricity and heat because we lost our jobs? Did you think we forgot about how when you didn't want to pay taxes, you used your connections to shift the taxes on to the things we consume?

Did you think we forgot about how when the surplus we created through our collective labor began to become smaller, we were punished with longer hours, lower pay, layoffs, cuts to our health care, or sick time, or resting time -- all while you maintained your standard of living? Did you think we forgot how your streets paved with gold were laid down by us? Did you think we forgot about us sewing those straps on to your boots, and then pulling them up for you?

Did you think we forgot how you suspected we were shoplifters or drug addicts because our clothes were tattered, and had your security (or security cameras) follow us through your store? Did you think we'd forget about how your screaming about "safe streets" turned ours into something resembling occupied Iraq? Or how, when your little brats went ballistic and shot up a suburban high school, it was our schools that became virtual prisons, starved of resources and then shut down (and then you had the nerve to blame us, the teachers and everyone but yourselves)?

Did you think we forgot? If so, you thought wrong. You may think we're stupid (you say it enough among yourselves), but we have long memories when it counts.

And decades of white flight, suburban sprawl and gated communities haven't protected you any more than the castles of feudal Europe protected the heads of the absolute monarchs. You still need us. We are still the ones you have to turn to when your toilet breaks, or your lawn needs to be cut, or your car needs repair. If something goes wrong in your life, we are the ones you call to fix it. We hate you for that. We'd rather tell you to go to hell, but since you control whether or not we get to eat, we have to smile and lie through our teeth at you.

And as much as you'd like to avoid us, you can't. We are everywhere, making and delivering the things you want in order to maintain your lifestyle at our expense. You still need us. We're the people who make your car, clothes and half-caff mocha latté.

But we don't need you. Stop believing your own propaganda. We don't need supervisors, managers, officials and owners telling us our job. We don't learn from your video "orientations" or "development seminars" or "motivational speakers". The first thing we do when we start working is ask our co-workers what the job is, and they tell us. If all of you disappeared tomorrow, we'd all still be able to do our jobs, produce the goods we have to produce, deliver them where they need to be. The difference is that we'd be able to stand up a little straighter because you wouldn't be on our backs any more.

Stop believing your own propaganda. We don't trust you enough to tell you the truth. It doesn't matter if you're our manager, our boss, the local cop, councilperson, Congressperson or president. We don't trust you and, more often than not, will tell you something just to get you to go away. As the saying goes, "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies".

You need us, but we don't need you. We already realize that. We have only to act on it. Should the revolution come -- tomorrow, 10 years from now, whenever -- you should expect that we will act on it ... with "excess". And you should expect to get the same mercy and goodwill you've shown us through the years. After all, as I said, we have long memories.

We can wait. We have patience. You won't know when it's coming, since it won't be started on the Internet, or through some blog or podcast or cable channel. It will start in your little establishment just after pay day, or at the local store in between shifts, or in your backyard while it's being landscaped, or in your house when the carpets are being cleaned, or at your kids' daycare center or school. And it will be a whisper -- a quiet conversation just out of your range.

It will change the world, and you won't even know it's happening ... until it happens to you.