Chapter XV from The Little Teal Book
What comes to mind when we picture the American Dream? For the general American, it may look like the archetypical sitcom family life with a husband, wife, two children, cars, and a dog all living in a template home in suburbia. Such was the vision of America that was sold to the white middle class of the 1950s (and those to whom such was an aspiration). We must, however, deconstruct our thoughts of what an American Dream ought to look like in our new state. We are no longer operating with the individualist, libertarian mindset that led to large, isolated neighborhoods, nor are we enslaved by the automobile-centric mindset that leads to the so-called “white picket fence” version of this American dream. Let us then redefine the American dream—not as a goal for an individual person to aspire to, but as the ability of the American nation to provide the means for any person to build a life for the good of themselves, their family, and their wider community. An American Dream for the American Nation is that dream of each person being provided with the tools for success and liberty that all people ought to be afforded.
Say not that this dream is for every American to have a suburban house isolated from the world, but that it is for every American to have nutritious food, clean water, adequate shelter, and community with other people. We take the proverb that it “takes a village to raise a child” and apply it to the rearing of the whole American nation. We have the guiding philosophy that the wider community (represented by their party for freedom and democracy, and their democratic state) ought to jointly provide the conditions that allow any citizen (taking “citizen” to mean “resident,” and not the imperialist and xenophobic distinction between “citizen” and “foreigner”) to live his life to the fullest and provide for himself, his family, and his community. Any American dream that contributes to the well-being of society and toward personal fulfillment is the Neo-Unionist American dream.
The articulation of these principles was clearly stated by two revolutionary documents: The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program (1966) and Chapter V of the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (1972; rev. 2025). The BPP lists the fundamental demands of their party as “land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace” (§10), and it is fundamentally these demands that constitute the base structure for building the American dream. This is especially true when one considers the demand for “full employment” (§2) and self-determination for the community (§1). Let it be here stated that if man is presented with the essential needs as outlined in §10, with the employment of §2, and the fundamental dignity of §1, he has been given the necessary tools to succeed in a truly egalitarian community.
When we now look into the constitution of the DPR of Korea, we must again take notice of examples of what may constitute an American Dream in Chapter V (articles 62–86)—that chapter that concerns the “Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens.” The basic needs of survival and full societal participation articulated by the BPP parallel the DPRK’s constitution, which lists those civil and community rights that are unambiguously necessary for the development of the dream. To again answer “what is our American dream?” would be to include a dream of free—albeit not societally destructive—practice of faith (art. 68), open organization (art. 67), work and employment (art. 70), universal medicine (art. 72), residence and travel (art. 75), and an axiomatic declaration that the state “shall effectively guarantee the genuine democratic rights and freedoms as well as the material and cultural well-being of all citizens” (art. 64). In synthesizing these documents, we state firmly that the American dream is to have a state where the most basic levels of one’s hierarchy of needs are fulfilled by the community, and where each person may learn, study, and work to actualize the best iteration of themselves—for themselves, their family, and their community.
Fundamentally, the socialist, Neo-Unionist American dream is the thought-out, systemized, and codified will of Lady Columbia herself. It is a dream that every valley and land will be exalted (M. L. King, 1963), that every human being is a king (H. P. Long, 1934), and that we revolutionaries, our party for freedom and democracy, and the soldiers of our new state may study politics and war so that the American nation may study mathematics and philosophy. And only shall the American nation study mathematics and philosophy, so that their children may study painting, music, tapestry, and porcelain (J. Adams, 1780). The American Dream is not an isolated white picket fence; it is the win pulled from daring to struggle; it is the liberty and justice for all, and the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans. We socialists address the American Dream by proclaiming and creating not a dream, but the natural and material consequences of democracy.
