Letters from Tomis

Introduction

The Fourth of July, often celebrated in the United States as a triumph of liberty, democracy, and national independence, holds a different resonance when viewed through the lens of Marxist analysis. For many, it is a day of patriotic festivity and the glorification of the founding fathers’ legacy; for Marxists and socialists, however, it represents a class-based mythos, obscuring the realities of capitalist exploitation, settler colonialism, and racial hierarchy embedded in the birth of the American republic. Rather than seeing the American Revolution as a universal emancipation, Marxist theory regards it as a bourgeois revolution that replaced one ruling class with another—entrenching the power of property-owning elites at the expense of enslaved Africans, dispossessed Indigenous peoples, and landless laborers.

This essay explores how Marxist thinkers and socialist movements interpret the Fourth of July, focusing on themes of class struggle, the ideological function of nationalism, and the historical contradictions between American revolutionary rhetoric and its capitalist foundations. In doing so, it seeks to unmask the celebration of U.S. independence as a ritual that conceals structural inequalities and reaffirms the ideology of the capitalist state.

The American Revolution as a Bourgeois Revolution

From a historical materialist perspective, the American Revolution is interpreted not as a democratic revolution in the interests of all, but as a bourgeois revolution—a transfer of power from feudal-monarchical Britain to a capitalist oligarchy of American elites. Karl Marx, in his 1853 writings for the New York Daily Tribune, observed that the American Revolution, while breaking colonial ties, did not dismantle systems of exploitation. Instead, it allowed for the unfettered growth of capitalist relations on the continent, particularly in the North, and the expansion of the slave-based plantation economy in the South.

In this framework, figures such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are seen not as liberators but as representatives of a propertied class seeking independence in order to protect and expand their economic interests. The contradiction between their stated ideals—liberty, equality, self-rule—and their practices, including slavery and land theft, is not a historical anomaly but a predictable result of a revolution driven by class interests rather than universal emancipation.

Independence for Whom? Race, Class, and the National Myth

The Declaration of Independence proclaims that “all men are created equal,” yet at the time of its writing, this equality excluded enslaved Africans, Indigenous peoples, women, and the poor. Marxist critiques view this exclusion not merely as moral hypocrisy but as a structural necessity of capitalist development. American independence created the political conditions necessary for capitalist expansion, including westward land seizure, industrial development, and the perpetuation of racialized labor systems.

Black Marxist thinkers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Claudia Jones highlight how the myth of July 4th reinforces white supremacy and bourgeois nationalism. Du Bois, in Black Reconstruction in America (1935), argues that the American Revolution failed to resolve the contradiction between “free labor” and slavery, instead entrenching a racial caste system essential for capital accumulation. Jones, writing in the mid-20th century, further emphasized that U.S. independence was not a liberation for Black, Indigenous, or working-class Americans, but a reinforcement of their subjugation through emerging capitalist institutions.

Nationalism and the Ideological Function of the Fourth of July

Marxist theory treats nationalism—especially in its bourgeois form—as a tool of ideological domination. In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels describe how the ruling ideas of a society are the ideas of the ruling class. National holidays like the Fourth of July serve to reproduce these ideas, masking class antagonisms with symbols of unity. Fireworks, parades, and patriotic songs redirect working-class discontent into national pride, thereby legitimizing the very system that exploits them.

The American flag, revered on July 4th, becomes in this view a banner of imperialist expansion and capitalist domination. The working class is encouraged to identify with a nation-state that is, in reality, structured to serve the interests of capital. From a Marxist perspective, the celebration of independence becomes a ritual that reinforces capitalist hegemony through the performance of consent.

Socialist Alternatives to Bourgeois Patriotism

While Marxists reject bourgeois nationalism, they do not reject the principle of human liberation or the idea of struggle against colonial oppression. Indeed, many socialist movements have drawn on the rhetoric of independence and self-determination in anti-imperialist contexts—from the Haitian Revolution to modern-day Cuba and Venezuela.

However, Marxists distinguish between national liberation and bourgeois independence. The former refers to the collective emancipation of oppressed peoples from imperial domination, often as part of a broader socialist or anti-capitalist transformation. The latter refers to the replacement of one elite by another, typically without altering the underlying economic structure.

In this context, socialists call not for the abolition of revolutionary ideals but for their fulfillment in a truly emancipatory society—one that abolishes wage labor, racial oppression, and imperial violence. As Eugene V. Debs once said, “I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.”

Revolutionary Memory and the Rewriting of July 4th

Rather than abandoning July 4th altogether, some socialists argue for its reappropriation—a transformation of its meaning from one of bourgeois pride to one of revolutionary critique. The goal is not to celebrate the American founding as it was, but to expose its contradictions and connect it to ongoing struggles for socialist liberation.

Contemporary socialist organizations often use July 4th as a day of protest, teach-ins, and alternative history events—highlighting labor struggles, anti-colonial resistance, and the ongoing fight for economic justice. They emphasize figures like Frederick Douglass, whose 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” remains one of the most incisive critiques of American hypocrisy, and international figures like Simón Bolívar or Ho Chi Minh, who saw in the failure of American democracy the necessity for revolutionary alternatives.

Conclusion

From a Marxist and pro-socialist perspective, the Fourth of July is not a neutral celebration of freedom but a mystification of class domination, settler colonialism, and capitalist accumulation. It reflects the victory of the bourgeois class in seizing political power, while excluding vast swaths of the population from its promises. Yet it also contains within it the seeds of contradiction—the language of liberty and equality that, in the hands of the working class, can be radicalized and transformed.

Rather than embracing patriotic myth or cynically rejecting all commemorations, Marxists seek to expose the class character of such celebrations, challenge their ideological function, and offer an alternative vision: not of independence for the few, but of collective liberation for the many. True freedom will not be found in the fireworks of July 4th, but in the dismantling of capitalist exploitation and the construction of a socialist future.