Colorado Springs: A Communist Reflection

There are more homeless people in the city since I last lived here. There are more black people. There are more fascists. The place is less religiously & ideologically homogenous, but even still evangelicals and conservatives who once dominated the social and political landscape are extra evangelical and conservative. The cost of living has gone up and class stratification here is pronounced in distinct ways. There is definitely an entrenched petit bourgeoisie supported by conservative technicians and intellectuals, many of which are either in or within one degree of separation from someone in the military.

There are a total of 4 military installations in the city: Schriever Air Force Base and Peterson Air Force Base to the southeast. Peterson Air Force Base hosts the US Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, whose mandate, in their words is “to conduct homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation to defend and secure the United States and its interests.” They also say this mandate encompasses the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles, including in its sphere of influence the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida, portions of the Caribbean region including the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The Air Force Academy is to the northwest, and North American Aerospace Air Defense Command, or NORAD, is to the southwest in Cheyenne mountain. There also includes an active air defense system in the same complex.

Intermingling with the heavy military presence is the evangelical church. It contains a fairly wide economic strata, but the ultimate power brokers in these institutions are petit bourgeois (and aspiring petit bourgeois) whites who wield a significant amount of economic power. They are also within one degree of separation from someone who is in the military or police, if they aren’t functionaries in these institutions themselves. Those not in the state apparatus usually work at Christian nonprofit organizations, publishing houses, foundations, or evangelical think tanks like Focus on the Family, started by the far right evangelical James Dobson in 1977. There are similar organizations, but the common thread they have is being active in promoting socially conservative views and heavily influencing public policy.

Like most cities, geographically it is divided up along economic lines. The petit bourgeoisie, professionals, business owners, landlords, technicians, state functionaries, nonprofit industrial complex employees, and civil administrators reside in the northern, northwestern, and northeastern part of the city. The lower economic strata resides in the south. The cost of housing is increasing due to gentrification and many working families can’t keep up with it. Many elderly are having to return to work, mostly as cashiers, service & hospice workers, or in the tourism industry. Littered throughout the suburbs are strip malls with corporate chains, restaurants, and independent businesses of various sizes. The youth aged anywhere from 17–24 are employed in these in large numbers regardless of education. Unions are scarce. There are also a significant number of migrants and undocumented who are super-exploited by private independent industries.

It is upon this sector of the population that revolutionaries should base their praxis. They are not as susceptible to the social conservatism that grips the upper economic strata. The church has less of an ideological stranglehold, though there are still, mostly older people, who still cling to religious orthodoxy. Even still, the combination of exploited migrant labor, poor people of all ethnicities, young people disaffected with the capitalist system, recent college grads strapped with student debt and realization of capitalism’s failure to deliver them a sustainable living after graduation, means that the ground is fertile for injecting revolutionary politics.

There is significant ideological polarization on display here and at the same time it’s subtextual. It’s been long understood who holds the political, economic, and military power, and progressive forces seem miniscule in comparison, and may be for quite some time. The grip of Christian orthodoxy is strong. I hypothesize that it’s been that way since the city’s founding as a haven for people trying to cure themselves of tuberculosis, as the high altitude and climate was conducive for treatment. Many people died trying to get there, and the springs was considered a “promised land” of sorts. In addition to this, the nonprofit industrial complex is very tied to the church, so on that basis Christianity is very much a part of the political economy here. There is nothing “bad” about christianity by itself, but it has a class character. Nat Turner and Nat Turner’s slave master have read from the same book, but were obviously in an antagonistic relationship with each other. Christianity needs to be declassed or some kind of liberation theology needs to be injected into it for those who subscribe to it. That will be another layer of work the revolutionaries have to undertake.

Pushing militant atheism alongside revolutionary politics is not a solution here, and is the quickest path to isolating ourselves from the masses of people who live here. In addition to reading theory, comrades need to study up on theology. There are historical examples of revolutionaries and movement leaders that have invoked certain scriptures to push a revolutionary agenda. Comrades need to study and read speeches of King, works by Jose Miranda and Camilo Torres Restrepo. I’m not suggesting comrades convert to Christianity, I most certainly am not one. But we need to be able to elucidate our politics in a manner that’s palatable to the masses, in accordance with the material conditions in a given environment. Practical means for accomplishing this will need to be developed through social practice, trial and error.