The other day, I mentioned a novel I started reading which dealt with Ethel
and Julius Rosenberg. Most of the action is set between 1947 and 1953 in New
York City, and this was a time when I was a child and young teenager in New
York City. I remember the politics of the 1950's very distinctly and the
book brought it all back to me. I mention this because the majority of
working people with whom I came into contact were convinced, by the mass
media, that Russia was a looming threat to America, that we were in danger,
and that Communists were very dangerous people. I did know a few adults who
had formerly been Communists and who were not so negative about Communism.
However, all of them were terrified of their former politics being
discovered because they were in danger of losing their jobs. Friends of the
family who lived and worked in Washington D.C., actually did lose their jobs
and the best high school math teacher I ever had, was fired, perhaps because
he refused to sign a loyalty oath. I'm not sure. I think that they were just
firing teachers from the New York City schools who had been Communists. My
parents' best friends, who lived in the same apartment building as we did,
were Communists, or had been. I met their friends at a summer camp where
Progressives vacationed. But most people had been thoroughly brain washed by
our government and that has never changed. Not only people in my generation,
but people in their 40's and 50's whom I encounter, would be horrified by a
candidate who talked about the state ownership of production. The African
American people whom I've known in my community are no more open to
socialism or communism than the white people. I don't have first hand
knowledge of the political views of working people from South and Central
America. I do know that Immigrants from european countries, whom I've met,
seem rather politically conservative. So to talk about how Sanders isn't a
real socialist, seems to me to be an exercise in theoretical politics
because the real socialism that is being described in the article, isn't
acceptable to most Americans now, nor has it been in the past. We are
witnessing crowds cheering racist, xenophobic candidates, people terrified
that if they attend large gatherings, they may be targeted by a foreign born
terrorist, people escaping into reality TV and religion, and people
denigrating the government. This idea that Sanders isn't socialist enough,
is insane because if he were, he wouldn't have gotten as far as he has.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2015 8:53 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Why Bernie Sanders isn’t socialist: In defense
of revolutionary socialism
http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/11/09/why-bernie-sanders-isnt-socialist
-in-defense-of-revolutionary-socialism/
Why Bernie Sanders isn’t socialist: In defense of revolutionary socialism
By Danny Haiphong posted on November 9, 2015
Share
If Bernie Sanders loses the Democratic Party nomination, does socialism also
lose? A recent reading of Fidel Castro’s speeches from the late 1980s
defending socialism cast a spotlight on the differences between building a
real socialist society, in Cuba, and “socialism” as it is discussed in the
context of Sanders’ election campaign.
Cuba’s revolutionary leader, in a 1988 book entitled “In Defense of
Socialism,” provides key insights into what the defense of socialism looked
like for Cuba in the last years of the Soviet period. Fidel explained to the
Cuban people that “imperialism is trying to present socialism as failure in
practice … and it is extolling to the utmost the alleged advantages of its
selfish and repugnant capitalist system.”
This only intensified after the Soviet Union fell in 1991. The world
capitalist crisis of the 1970s produced a general slowdown in production and
prompted U.S. imperialism to escalate its war on socialism around the world.
Many young people born after the Soviet period were left with little
opportunity to examine the prospects of revolutionary socialism.
These conditions supported Sanders’ rise in this year’s presidential
elections.
A Nov. 5 CNN article suggests that the Sanders campaign is losing ground to
Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s deep corporate support and long record of
performance in service of the military industrial complex has ultimately
made her the favorite for the Democratic Party nomination.
However, the number of months Sanders stayed competitive with Clinton had
much to do with his self-proclaimed title as a “socialist.” He promoted
policies such as student debt relief and universal health care to back up
his title. But Sanders isn’t a socialist. Socialism must be defended from
the misleading confines of the capitalist elections.
The appeal of Sanders-style socialism rests on the reality that workers and
oppressed people are being drained by the crisis of U.S. capitalism.
Savage austerity, ruthless privatization and heightened exploitation have
degraded the social condition of all workers, especially Black workers.
Simultaneously, U.S. capitalist society has continued to teach the masses
that socialist countries such as Cuba are corrupt dictatorships at worst and
unrealistic at best.
Sanders has been useful to the ruling capitalist class, even though they
don’t reward him for this. His campaign hooked the growing number of
disaffected workers back into the Democratic Party with his commentary on
issues such as the lack of affordable health care and the predominance of
low-wage work. He has done so under the assumption that such issues can be
resolved under the dictates of U.S. capital.
The task at hand is to distinguish revolutionary socialism from Sanders’
politics so the two are never confused. The fundamental contradiction under
capitalism is that between the tiny clique of capitalists that privately own
the means of production and the billions of workers they exploit. The
capitalists keep power through the army, police, courts and media that serve
them. It is this social relationship that allows the bosses to exploit
workers and oppressed peoples for immense profits here and around the globe.
Revolutionary socialism is socialized production administered by the
government, popular army, and other forces that serve the proletariat and
oppressed people. Until workers and oppressed people seize the means of
production, i.e., the banks, factories and distribution centers by taking
state power, no revolutionary country or movement is safe.
The seizure of state power by the oppressed masses is a necessary
precondition to the fundamental transformation of the social relations
inherent under capitalism. The state must be transformed into a body that no
longer manages private property, but rather administers things.
That is, the state must be transformed into an organ of the masses capable
of suppressing the old order and implementing the necessary economic and
political policies of the new. Sanders-style socialism keeps the old order
intact and thus represents a variant of the ruling capitalist system.
This variant of the capitalist system fits snugly into the Democratic Party
milieu. Sanders has openly endorsed the proxy war on Syria and the bloody
invasion of Yemen currently being conducted by Saudi Arabia. He has a track
record that includes support of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and
a staunch defense of Israeli expansion in Palestine.
Sanders’ support of imperialist war is a negation of socialism.
Imperialist war only serves the interests of the ruling capitalist class,
which requires endless warfare in order to expand into new markets and
maintain influence in old ones.
This is not the type of socialism Fidel was defending when he addressed the
Cuban people at close of the 1980s. The Cuban people were defending
revolutionary socialism, a social system that has been in place in Cuba
since 1959. Under revolutionary socialism, Cuban workers hold ownership over
the means of production and plan the economy around the necessities of
housing, health care, and education for all. Cuban socialism has fulfilled
these necessities for the vast majority of Cuban people.
Cuban socialism is rooted in international solidarity, not imperialist war.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fought alongside anti-apartheid forces in
South Africa and continue to stand with the peoples of the world through the
administration of free, quality health care. Cuban socialism is a model for
the oppressed.
Even if the Sanders campaign raises domestic issues that a workers’
party would support, his style of socialism is a model for the oppressor.
There should be no question that it is Cuba’s socialism we defend.
.
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