The American Civil War, unlike the conflicts that plague the world today, was just and historically progressive. The Union north smashed the Confederacy of southern slave states and carried out the biggest expropriation of private property in history at the time, with the emancipation of 4 million enslaved people. The Union cause was praised by Karl Marx, who said Lincoln’s battle cry should be: “death to slavery!” With elections in the US just a few weeks away, the American bourgeoisie once again has civil war on its mind…. 

With recent polls showing nearly half of Americans believe that a new civil war is on the horizon, it is vital that revolutionaries study this period of history to prepare for the third, socialist revolution.

This week, Spectre of Communism Podcast welcomes John Peterson – executive editor of The Communist, the organ of the Revolutionary Communists of America. John discusses the enduring lessons and contemporary relevance of the Civil War, which communists consider the Second American Revolution. 

For more from John Peterson on the US Civil War, we recommend issue 38 of In Defence of Marxism magazine, which includes a detailed article on this topic.

John has also presented a series of podcasts on this topic, as part of the regular podcast of the Revolutionary Communists of America, the US section of the Revolutionary Communist International.