http://socialistaction.org/is-sanders-campaign-a-new-movement/
Is Sanders campaign a ‘new movement’?
Published August 8, 2015. | By Socialist Action.
DEM 2016 Sanders
By DANIEL ADAM
Senator Bernie Sanders continues to draw large crowds to his
presidental campaign rallies. Now, unfortunately, a growing wing of the
socialist movement in the United States is seeking a way in.
On July 29, Solidarity published a winding statement approved by its
convention entitled, “Connecting Sanders’ Audience’s Aspirations to
Clear Working Class Political Alternatives.” It seems to be an effort to
support the enthusiasm for Sanders without supporting the candidate
himself—or the Democratic Party, whose nomination he seeks.
The paper suggests there is a movement separate from Sanders that can be
continued if and when he loses the nomination and throws his support to
Hillary Clinton. It calls on Sanders supporters to not “waste this
moment where folks are coming together around an anti-corporate,
anti-austerity program by … voting for Hillary and calling it a day.
…The tragedy would not be so much people pulling the lever for Clinton,
but dissipating and disbanding this mass outcry.”
Dan La Botz, a leading member of Solidarity (who won 25,000 votes as a
Socialist Party candidate in 2010), posted a far more explicit piece on
July 30 entitled, “Sanders for President: a Political Phenomenon that
Challenges all Preconceptions.”
He concludes that Sanders’ campaign may “contribute to the launching of
a new period of social movements and upheavals with a higher level of
political consciousness” and that he will “work with the Sanders
campaign in the primary period, hoping—like other Sanders
supporters—that out of this experience we can build a new, stronger,
left in America.”
Socialist Alternative’s Kshama Sawant, who was elected as a socialist to
the Seattle city council two years ago, took a further leap into the
Sanders camp with an announcement that she would conduct an Aug. 8 joint
rally with Sanders. She called for supporters to attend, wearing 15 Now
t-shirts. Sawant solidarized with Sanders as an “alternative to
corporate politics,” and concluded, “let’s greet Bernie Sanders with a
sea of red supporters. Let’s show him how strong the socialist movement
is in Seattle!”
The assumptions that some tendencies in the socialist movement have made
to justify their support must be examined. In the first place, there is
nothing new about Sanders’ rallies that “challenges all preconceptions.”
Obama’s first presidential run was able to build many mass gatherings,
with 10,000 to 20,000 participants at most primary rallies and far more
in the general election—75,000 in Oregon and more than 100,000 in Missouri.
The excitement for the former community organizer was qualitatively
greater than that for the alleged “socialist” today. Obama’s campaign
was peppered with movement flavor, right down to iconic posters and
“yes, we can” slogans. The campaign (we were then told) depended upon
small donations, and Obama made a few promises to his supporters to pass
reforms like universal health care, a ban on torture, and a closure of
the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Organizations like Progressives for Obama said this was a “movement,”
and “one greater than the candidate himself ever imagined,” which would
“renew our economy with a populist emphasis” and “confront the challenge
of global warming.”
However, the rallies for Obama did not spawn a new movement, but rather
ushered in one of the lowest periods of working-class and left activity
in American history. How could it have been otherwise? Support for
candidate Obama naturally became support for President Obama, and with
him the capitalist state that he heads. Historic rallies for the
candidate produced historic support for imperialism.
In exactly the same way, Sanders’ mass rallies are not rallies for
socialism, but rallies for the capitalist state. As in any election, the
primary question does not turn on a handful of promised reforms, but on
the advancement of the rule by one class or another—either the workers
or their bosses. The question, then, is not which class supports a given
party, but which class the party supports. Decades of working-class
votes, for instance, have failed to change the class basis of either the
Democrats or the Republicans.
As James P. Cannon, the main founder of the American Trotskyist
movement, observed in regard to the 1948 third-party campaign of Henry
Wallace, “the class character of [a] party is determined first by its
program; secondly by its actual policy in practice; and thirdly by its
composition and control.”
There is nothing in Sanders’ program that threatens the rule of
business. As Sanders himself observes, every proposal of his fits neatly
within the experience of imperialist states. They could be taken up by
any number of other capitalist politicians.
Sanders’ practice will be fully explored in a future Socialist Action
article. Suffice it to say here that with his voting record and his
commentary, Sanders has thoroughly proven his loyalty to the Democratic
Party and big business over 35 years in office. No serious political
person disputes this.
In his career, he has graduated from small-time deals in waterfront
developments to big-ticket items like F-35 jet manufacturing. When
Sanders wants to know what he should do next he goes to the heads of
Lockheed Martin and the Democratic Party, not to union locals.
Conservative George F. Will notes that any definition of “socialist”
that includes Sanders would have to encompass most of the Republican
Party. Meanwhile, Sanders caucuses with the Democrats, attends their
policy lunches, and owes them his committee seats. Howard Dean says that
Sanders is a liberal Democrat who votes with the party “98% of the
time.” Clinton instructs her canvassers to tell voters that Sanders is a
“Good Democrat” and that her votes were identical to his 93% of the time
they were both in the Senate.
Managing a capitalist state means organizing society under the
leadership of the capitalist class. It requires the cooperation of
investors and the political parties who represent them. This has been
Sanders’ job for the last 35 years.
Sanders’ call for a “political revolution against the billionaires,”
which Socialist Alternative has mistakenly trumpeted, is completely
hollow. Sanders’ platform and campaign rhetoric are closely restricted
to issues and proposals that lie within the parameters established by
the Democratic Party. It is impossible to build any effective
“anti-billionaire” tendency within the Democratic Party—Sanders’
speeches notwithstanding—since the party operates expressly to further
the interests of big capital.
Undoubtedly, many working people join Sanders’ campaign activities in
hopes of building a movement against the big corporations. But they soon
find they have no mechanism or leverage with which to alter or affect
the Democratic Party’s pro-corporate politics.
Moreover, to support Sanders means to defend what he says and
does—especially against growing movements that demand more than he
offers. Supporters must defend his attacks on immigrants, his opposition
to anti-racist politics, his support for imperialism and for Israel.
They must defend his politics because they cannot offer recruits any way
to change them. A person either buys the whole campaign or doesn’t
participate.
Joining his campaign doesn’t change the politics of Sanders and the
Democrats—it changes yours!
The forces that will create a “new period of social movements and
upheavals” must come from outside the Democratic Party—Sanders included.
And we can hear them already. They’re saying, “15 Now!” and “Black Lives
Matter!”
Photo: Ross D. Franklin / AP
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Posted in Elections. | Tagged Bernie Sanders, Democratic Party,
Democrats, Socialist Alternative, Solidarity.
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