https://socialistaction.org/2018/06/29/dsa-member-wins-democratic-primary-in-new-york/
DSA member wins Democratic primary in New York
/ 18 hours ago
July 2018 OcasioBy STEVE XAVIER
The results of the primary election result in New York’s 14th
Congressional District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens,
stunned the Democratic Party machine. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a former
Bernie Sanders campaign worker and member of the Democratic Socialists
of America (DSA), defeated 10-term Congressman Joe Crowley. Crowley, who
out-spent Oscasio-Cortez by 18-1, had seemed poised to challenge Nancy
Pelosi for leadership of Congressional Democrats.
Ocasio-Cortez ran a grassroots campaign that was endorsed by liberal
organizations and individuals like MoveOn, Justice Democrats,
gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, and the DSA. The Ocasio-Cortez
campaign relied heavily on the volunteer efforts of DSA members.
The fact that Ocasio-Cortez spent merely about $128,000 in her campaign
and refused to take corporate money demonstrates that grassroots
campaigns can win. However, if trapped in the confines of a bourgeois
party, like the Democratic Party, any campaign will be limited in its
effectiveness.
During the campaign, Ocasio-Cortez called for ICE abolition, Medicare
for all, and a federal jobs guarantee. Ocasio-Cortez also criticized
Israeli actions in Gaza during the Great Return March. She made a trip
to the U.S.-Mexico border to see conditions facing refugees trying to
seek asylum in the United States. Crowley, under pressure from
Ocasio-Cortez, called ICE a “fascist” organization, but stopped short of
calling for abolition of the agency.
Rightists responded to the victory of Ocasio-Cortez with crude
red-baiting. The reactionary Washington Times called her victory an
“affront” to the Founding Fathers and a “slap in the face to America.”
To drive their point home, the editors also called Ocasio-Cortez “by
socialist nature an enemy of the American way of life.” Fox News talking
head Sean Hannity declared that the “Democratic Party is falling apart!”
He called Ocasio-Cortez’s political views “scary.”
Party tops circle the wagons
What does this electoral victory mean? First, it points to fissures in
the ranks of the Democratic Party, although that has been denied by
long-time party leaders. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi insisted
that Ocasio-Cortez’s victory did not mean that the Democratic Party is
moving to the left or that it faces widespread challenges by younger or
somewhat more progressive candidates. She assured the public that
socialism is not “ascendant” in the other party of Wall Street. Last
year, during an appearance on CNN, Pelosi made it clear that the
Democrats are a capitalist party.
Indeed, the party has demonstrated repeatedly that it is the party of
neoliberal austerity, support for imperialist adventures overseas, and
defense of the status quo. In the face of union busting and the erosion
of civil rights and women’s reproductive rights, the Democrats offer at
best a sympathetic nod.
Time and again, the Democrats have demonstrated which side they are on,
despite their claims to be the party of “regular folks” and the “middle
class.” During the 2016 primary contest, the party hierarchy pulled out
all its stops to sidetrack the campaign of the social democratic Senator
from Vermont, Bernie Sanders. Sanders supporters comprise many of the
disaffected Democrats who joined the ranks of the reformist DSA in the
wake of Trump’s election.
Similarly, DSA reported a spike in new members after Ocasio-Cortez’s
victory and the Janus decision, with more than 1100 people signing up
on-line on the day after the election. The win caused a huge rise in
interest in socialist ideas, as the news media reported the upset of a
sitting Congress member by a “democratic socialist.” Merriam-Webster
reported a 1500% increase in searches for the definition of democratic
socialism.
But there remains a fundamental disagreement about how to define
socialism. For many “democratic socialists,” socialism is a slightly
more radical sounding of New Deal liberalism. Their socialism, they
believe, can be achieved through work inside the Democratic Party to
reform the existing system.
Marxists disagree with this watered-down vision of socialism. We see
socialism as the democratic ownership and control of the economy and
society by the working class and its allies.
Elections are a useful tool for socialists to address a broader
audience, but real socialism cannot be won by electoral means—if for no
other reason than the fact that the capitalist class manages the
elections through restrictive ballot laws, controls the major media, and
lavishes funds on their chosen candidates. Moreover, the capitalists
have no intention of relinquishing power to the will of the majority;
they have never failed to use either fraud or brute force when necessary
to maintain their rule.
Socialism can only be achieved through the organization of the working
class and oppressed into a massive revolutionary movement that is
independent of the capitalist parties.
“Reform” the Democrats?
Socialist participation in the Democratic Party is an error that can
only reinforce illusions in bourgeois solutions to the problems facing
working people. Time and again, the Democrats have demonstrated that
they are “the graveyard of social movements” by either co-opting the
leaderships of movements or, failing that, smashing them with repression.
Ocasio-Cortez, although she is a fierce critic of the current Democratic
Party, believes that the party can be changed. In a recent interview
with Glenn Greenwald, Ocasio-Cortez conceded that the Democrats are “not
doing a very good job” fighting Trump, and “if the main priority is
fighting this administration, then we need to address the systemic
problems which kind of resulted in his rise in the first place. … As
long as the Democratic Party continues to work with special interests,
lobbyist groups, and corporations to really perpetuate economic
marginalization of Americans, as well as social and racial
marginalization, then we’re not going to get anywhere.”
She concluded, “There’s no way we can get through this without changing
the Democratic Party.”
However, socialist and progressive activists tried to reform the
Democrats for decades. The DSA was founded on the notion that the
Democratic Party could be realigned—but this vision was proven to be a
mirage. Although activists tried again and again to reform the party,
the party moved to the right.
The fundamental truth that all socialists have to grasp is that the
Democratic Party serves the interests of the rich. As an institution, it
is resistant to change and will do what is necessary to preserve its
status as a party of Wall Street.
The Democratic Party’s role in smothering working-class militancy can be
seen in the alliance of the trade-union bureaucracy with the party. For
example, during the Wisconsin labor upsurge a few years ago in response
to Gov. Scott Walker’s union busting, labor tops and the Democrats
diverted the movement into a campaign to recall Walker, sapping all of
the energy out of a growing mass mobilization. In contrast, the recent
teacher strikes were victorious because of their defiance of union
bureaucrats and politicians who posed as allies.
The Occupy Movement of 2011 revealed how the Democratic Party oscillates
between the carrot and the stick in its relations with social movements.
On the one hand, Democratic Party operatives tried to make inroads into
the occupations, at times even dominating the stage at protest rallies,
in order to divert the participants into supporting electoral campaigns.
On the other hand, the movement was physically broken up by cops called
in by Democratic mayors.
Participation in the Democratic Party, rather than in an independent
campaign, will mean pressure on even the most principled candidate to
moderate their positions in the interests of “electability.” This
process may have already begun with Ocasio-Cortez’s backing away from
her earlier more radical-sounding rhetoric on immigration. Appearing on
National Public Radio, Ocasio-Cortez, when pressed on the Trump
accusation that the Democrats want “open borders,” expressed her support
for border security.
We understand that many DSA members want to fight this system, and we
will be in the streets side by side with them in the fight for workers’
rights and to defend immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, and oppressed
nationalities from reactionary attacks. But at the same time, we argue
that the political independence of working-class and oppressed people is
crucial to winning their struggles and in building for a socialist
future. The road forward cannot be through the swamp of Democratic Party
politics. We need a clean break with ruling-class parties. Now, more
than in any recent period, the opportunity to build a new mass
working-class party is before us.
Democratic socialist candidate in St. Louis accepts police union endorsement
In St. Louis, a Democratic Party candidate for State Representative,
Cydney John Johnson, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America
(DSA), accepted the endorsement of the St. Louis Police Officers
Association (POA). In a Twitter post, Johnson said the endorsement
“humbled” him. Johnson is a former co-chair of the St. Louis DSA local.
Johnson abruptly quit the DSA, when the local threatened to pull their
endorsement of his candidacy because of the cop union endorsement.
The POA made headlines just a few years ago for supporting the killer of
Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, Mo. It was also in the news for the
assault on a Black woman protester by the union head, and for demanding
that members of the Rams football team be punished for protesting in
solidarity with Ferguson. In 2014 it was reported that the cop union in
St. Louis maintained segregated locals for cops—one for whites and the
other for Black officers.
Rather than accepting the endorsement of a cop union, a socialist
candidate should vehemently decline it and use the opportunity to
explain in clear terms the destructive role of the criminal injustice
system in Black communities. It’s a reflection of the all-inclusive
character of the DSA that there is no organizational control of
campaigns of candidates who are members. The dangers of opportunism in
these situations is very real.
This incident brings to mind the incident last year when police union
organizer Danny Fetonte was elected to the DSA National Political
Committee. Fetonte’s election to the group’s governing body sparked
outrage in the ranks of the DSA. Many DSA members had protested against
police brutality and witnessed the defense of violent killer cops by
these organizations.
Fetonte’s defense of the cop unions as being part of the social justice
movement displayed both deception and lack of understanding about the
role of the cops, courts, and prisons in society.
Socialists reject the notion that cops are part of the working class.
Police unions play a disruptive and reactionary role in the labor
movement. Police, the courts, district attorneys, and the prison system
are all part of the repressive machinery of the capitalist state. Their
major role is to violently suppress the labor movement and organizations
of oppressed people when they fight for their rights.
Like the rest of the capitalist state machinery, these repressive
organizations have to be abolished through the actions of the working
class and oppressed. Socialists must fight for the oppressed without
compromise. Accepting endorsements from cops isn’t acceptable.
Photo: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from Facebook, via Mother Jones.
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June 29, 2018 in Democratic Party, Elections, New York.
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