What's the alternative? Voting for the enemy? Collaborating with the
enemy to keep the enemy in power? That doesn't lead anywhere but to keep
the enemy in power. Just how long has it been now that liberals have
been urging us to vote for the enemy and to collaborate with the enemy
to keep the enemy in power? And what has happened? The enemy is still in
power.
On 2/19/2016 9:53 AM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
First of all, there are so many factions in the left that although they talk
about organizing a labor party, they never settle on one because each faction
accuses the other faction of not being politically correct. Second, they can
talk about organizing all they want. The SWP has been doing it for, God knows
how long. Clearly, they are going nowhere when they get perhaps a few hundred
people to a rally. The Green Party, perhaps most understandable to the
mainstream, never even gets on the ballot in all 50 states. People don't even
know who their candidates are. It all reminds me of religious folk looking
foward to going to heaven.
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: Thursday, February 18, 2016 11:48 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Socialist Action sponsors election debates
I don't know why you don't understand what they see as an alternative to
bourgeois politics. They all keep explaining it over and over. It is to
organize independently of that oppressive system, a labor party for starts.
On 2/18/2016 10:29 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
I've read Ford before and, of course, all the others who talk about how the
Democratic Party is not the solution. My problem is that it is never clear to
me, just what precisely they think people should do. How exactly, do they think
we can make change if we cannot use the political system that is available to
us? The fact is, most people don't even know who Jill Stein is, let alone
candidates from other parties.
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: Thursday, February 18, 2016 8:37 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Socialist Action sponsors election debates
http://socialistaction.org/socialist-action-sponsors-election-debates/
Socialist Action sponsors election debates
Published February 17, 2016. | By Socialist Action.
Feb. 2016 Banner Gloria
By GEORGE BRYAN
— SPECIAL FEATURE: Seven presentations from the debates — Two Socialist
Action-sponsored public forums entitled “Debating the 2016 Presidential
Election and the Key Issues of our Time” attracted a total of 250 Bay Area
political activists in Oakland and San Francisco over the weekend of Feb. 4-5.
Bernie Sanders’ campaign in the Democratic Party presidential primaries has
seized the attention of radicalizing youth across the country as well as that
of working people who hold the Wall Street capitalist establishment in
contempt. Sanders’ claim that he is a “socialist” has proved to be no serious
impediment to capturing the imagination of millions who believe in social
equality and despise the government’s ceaseless pandering to the banks and
corporate plunderers.
The two Socialist Action debates provided a unique opportunity for speakers and
their parties to present their views on the Democratic Party and on
working-class alternatives to capitalist politics, including the Sanders
campaign.
Black Agenda Report Executive Editor Glen Ford joined the panel. His remarks
appear here in full. The debaters representing the Bernie Sanders campaign were
Tom Gallagher, San Francisco president of Progressive Democrats of America and
former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and Peter Olney,
retired ILWU organizing director and leader of the Labor for Bernie campaign.
Marsha Feinland, vice chair of the California-based Peace and Freedom Party and
four-time candidate for the U.S. Senate, spoke for her ballot-certified party.
Laura Wells represented the Green Party’s Jill Stein for President campaign.
Gloria La Riva, an organizer of the ANSWER Coalition and the presidential
candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, also participated.
Jeff Mackler, National Secretary of Socialist Action moderated the debate and
was a debate participant, stressing opposition to all capitalist parties and
the need for labor-based independent working-class politics as well as the
necessity of united-front-type mass mobilizations to advance the cause of the
oppressed and exploited.
We are printing here excerpts or extended remarks of most of the above
speakers. Technical difficulties, time, and space limitations compelled
Socialist Action to in some cases provide only brief excerpts from some of
them. In some instances, written texts were simply unavailable.
Wherever possible we have provided links to the full remarks of all speakers or
their websites.
Sixteen different organizations set up literature tables during the two
debates. Socialist Action’s popular literature table sold several hundred
dollars of its popular pamphlet series as well as 16 subscriptions to this
newspaper. Three activists asked to join Socialist Action and two dozen signed
up for future Socialist Action forums and classes.
Will Sanders challenge the billionaires?
BY JEFF MACKLER
“Wall Street’s Think Tank: The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)” is my friend
Larry Shoup’s latest book (2015) describing in great detail this ruling-class
institution and its multi-billionaire corporate, banking and intellectual
membership. It was founded in 1912 by the world’s richest man, David
Rockefeller of the Chase Manhattan Bank fortune.
Shoup lists virtually all the U.S. ruling class’s multi-billionaire families.
This elite .01 percent, or perhaps .001 percent, make virtually all decisions
in the U.S. regarding critical economic and political questions.
Not surprisingly, Shoup demonstrates that the U.S. ruling class is bipartisan,
with both Democrats and Republicans partaking in the decision-making
institutions that formulate ruling-class policy. Indeed, a few years ago The
New York Times famously noted that President Bill Clinton, a CFR member along
with Hillary, was “the best representative corporate America ever had.” Both
Clinton and President Obama, to name but two examples, received more funds from
Wall Street and corporate America for their campaigns than their Republican
Party opponents.
To really understand what we’re debating tonight, I ask you to, at least for
the moment, suspend your imagination and have a look at life in capitalist
America through two different lenses. Lens number one is created for us by the
corporate media. We have a democratic choice, we are told, Bernie or Hillary?
Or Bernie v. Trump? Or Hillary v. Trump? or Hillary v. Cruz, or Rubio, or Jeb
Bush or some other reactionary Republican.
The “rebel” Bernie stands for a “political revolution” against the billionaire
class, against Wall Street, against the one percent. He is against “most”
imperialist wars, although our Sanders debaters tonight honestly state that
Bernie is somewhat “weak on foreign policy issues.”
But Bernie is against racism and poverty, for women’s rights, for LGBT rights,
for free public college tuition, for single-payer health care, and against the
environmental destruction associated with global warming. He is for taxing the
billionaire class. “Unprecedented,” we are told.
Are we for or against these intelligent, well-spoken, progressive, sane and
caring Democratic Party human beings or are we for the racist bigot,
warmongering misogynist, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant billionaire moron, Donald
Trump, or his ilk? Isn’t Hillary the prime recipient of corporate capitalist
America’s financial largess? Isn’t Bernie the only candidate whose funds come
in relatively tiny amounts from working people?
All of the above is the projected image of Bernie Sanders looking at politics
through the lens of the world created for us by the corporate media and its
pundits. For you movie buffs, you might recall the Jim Carrey film called “The
Truman Show.” Carrey plays the part of a working man living on an island where,
unbeknownst to Carrey’s character, Truman, the entire population of his fake
community are Hollywood actors. Truman is the only person on the island, who,
has no idea that his entire life, including his wife and friends, bosses, and
hundreds more are actors, scripted by a Hollywood-type director, who molds
Truman’s life, including his phobias and values, and broadcasts it 24 hours
daily on a television show.
To a significant degree, don’t we all live in a “Truman Show” world, where what
we see, learn, and come to believe, and even value, is manufactured for us by a
ruling class that controls most of society’s institutions—from the media to the
educational system, to the puppet politicians. Isn’t it true that capitalism
runs an almost year-round election cycle in which we are told that everything
can change if we simply vote the bad guys out and the good guys in?
In contrast, let’s have a look at the real world, again, the world where
“liberal” Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, receive the greatest portion
of all corporate campaign money. The “progressive” Democrat Obama, the first
Black president, deported more immigrants, two million, than any president
before him. “The Great Deporter!”
Obama has seven wars to his credit, either ongoing or begun under his
administration—Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen Africa’s
re-colonization wars, drone wars around the world, covert wars, death squad
wars, and privatized army wars. Bernie supported most of these horrors except
Iraq. That war was a “mistake,” he insists. “There were no weapons of mass
destruction.” Yes, friends, the Iraq War was a so-called mistake wherein the
U.S. government murdered 1.5 million people, mostly civilians! But was it
indeed a mistake, or is imperialist war inherent in U.S. capitalism’s genes?
Bernie Sanders voted for each and every military appropriations bill at some $1
trillion a clip annually. He backed the racist, Zionist Israeli slaughter in
Palestine and its near dismemberment today from his first day in Congress.
Bernie Sanders’ lifetime voting record has been 98 percent Democrat!
A few weeks ago, Bernie Sanders met with President Obama, in effect seeking his
support, or at best “neutrality” in his presidential bid. He stated that he
agreed with Obama’s purported military policy of trying to “avoid placing U.S.
troops on the ground in the Middle East.” Sanders failed to indicate any
objection to the 1100 U.S. military bases around the world or the additional
1000 bases at home, or the fact that half of the troops in Afghanistan today
are non-governmental, privatized death-squad troops like those that operate
globally in covert wars, as is the case today in Syria, and in the Middle East,
Africa, and Latin America.
Bernie Sanders’ calls to tax the billionaire class and for a “political
revolution” are aimed at capturing the powerful anti-establishment sentiment
that permeates society as Congressional approval ratings have sunk to all-time
lows in the range of 12-14 percent. In truth, banks and corporations, who in
essence write the tax codes, avoid most taxes outright. If there ever was an
example of the role of government with regard to capitalist profits, it was
Obama’s unprecedented bailout gift of $32 trillion to the very corporations
whose policies came close to bankrupting the nation. And working people paid
for these corporate bailouts! The world’s richest corporation, Apple Computer,
pays virtually no taxes!
Bernie’s token tax proposals amount to sheer bluster, as does his notion that
he will lead a “political revolution” to transform the U.S.
financial system. And transform it on the basis of keeping the system of
private property and worker exploitation intact! One might ask whether Sanders
intends to begin his political revolution by eliminating the
one-trillion-dollar annual war budget that funds the military-industrial
complex, or the National Security Administration’s trillions for surveillance
operations, or the $89 billion monthly at near zero interest rates—the
“economic stimulus” or “quantitative easing”
program—that until just a few months ago was gifted to Wall Street banks and
corporate America, who turned around to invest these government billions in the
nation’s casino capitalism financial markets. Sanders is silent on these
matters.
All the evils of today—racism and ever-rising police murder, massive
incarceration of the oppressed, poverty, sexism, union-busting, never-ending
wars, homophobia, anti-immigrant prejudice, skyrocketing college tuition,
environmental destruction, and more—are no accident to be explained by the
faults of this or that president or elected official, but rather the overt
manifestations of a crisis-ridden capitalist society.
What is needed today is not a change at the top or a political revolution or
even a token billionaire tax, but rather a social revolution that ends the rule
and control and ownership of the tiny monopoly finance capital billionaire
ruling class over virtually everything including us.
I am compelled to note that tonight’s pro-Sanders speakers, Tom and Peter, have
been explicit. If Bernie loses the Democratic Party primary contest Bernie will
support Hillary’s candidacy. No matter their “lesser evil” rationale, this
simple fact tells us once again that Sanders’
effort devolves into once again channeling today’s deep discontent at the
insults to our lives that a failing capitalism is compelled to impose, back
into the billionaire Wall Street system itself. For revolutionary socialist
parties like Socialist Action, the road forward excludes choosing between
capitalism’s latest lesser-evil offerings.
I believe that our democratic, open and honest debate will help to advance
future collaboration in the streets and narrow the political gap that currently
divides us on key critical questions.
Feel the Bern!
By PETER OLNEY
Peter Olney and Tom Gallagher both spoke on behalf of the Bernie Sanders
Campaign. Gallagher’s remarks were unavailable for this edition; his writings
can be found at TomGallagerwrites.com. Excerpts from Olney’s presentation
appear below:
Nowhere has there been a more profound effect than in the Labor for
Bernie initiative and the debate within labor. Yes, the usual suspects
SEIU, AFSCME, most of the building trades have lined up with Hillary
without any profound debate or discussion in the ranks. There’s a
sense of inevitability and a fear of retribution! However, the debate
rages, and three significant national unions have endorsed Bernie—NNU,
CWA and APWU—and over 40 locals. …
On the power of the Sanders candidacy within the Democratic primary:
He has taken the Primary Route and so should we. It’s Bernie, and the
fact that he has labeled himself a socialist is great for our cause. …
He is espousing views that unions espouse 364 days a year—economic inequality,
rapacious Wall Street pillagers of the economy—but then on election day they
advise their members to vote the “lesser of two evils,” not an irrational
choice given that elections have consequences for labor and labor law, the
environment, and peace.
Bernie’s run within the Democratic Party primaries puts him on Main Street, in
the debates, and he is not a spoiler. We go all out for Bernie win or lose and
then we settle for whoever emerges from the process as our candidate against
the racist, xenophobic candidate of the GOP!
But we are trapped, you say, voting forever for a candidate of a corporate
party. It was Tony Mazzochi [former head of the Oil and Atomic Workers union]
who said: Business has two parties, we need our own—a Labor Party. True enough,
but politics is the art of getting from A to B.
This is the challenge for the legions of labor for Bernie supporters and the
challenge we must discuss and confront, not whether to support Bernie in the
primaries—that is a must—but how to take the energy and organization coming out
of the campaign to create a permanent and ongoing organization and movement.
To that end, discussions are underfoot to cement a permanent alliance of the
national unions that have endorsed Bernie and the locals that endorsed him to
stay together past the primaries, the convention, the general election and even
the White House to continue to carry out a political strategy that takes the
primary route in federal, state, and local elections. That engages in
non-partisan elections at the most basic level, and that unites with other
forces in the communities of color, immigrant communities, and with other
political formations like Working Families Party and Move On to build an
alternative political pole, and maybe one day a Socialist Party in this country.
After all, who wants to die a Democrat! FEEL THE BERN!
Blacks and the Democratic Party
By GLEN FORD
Glen Ford is an executive editor of Black Agenda Report. His presentation to
Socialist Action’s Feb. 5 and 6 forums was closely based on a recent BAR
article, which is excerpted here with permission of the author.
Blacks in the South will probably not vote for Bernie Sanders, although they
most resemble the “Scandinavian social democrats” of Sanders’
dreams. However, Black voters don’t express their politics through the ballot.
Rather, Blacks are drawn into the jaws of the Democratic Party, not by
ideological affinity, but in search of protection from the Republicans.” It is
the politics of fear.
Bernie Sanders has succeeded in stalling the Clinton juggernaut in Iowa, and is
expecting a resounding victory next week in New Hampshire.
However, the euphoria will fade as his supporters confront the likelihood that
their quest to transform the Democratic Party “from below” will be derailed in
the South by Blacks, who are the decisive bloc, or outright majorities, in the
region’s Democratic primaries, and who make up about a quarter of the Party’s
support, nationwide.
It is a great paradox that the Sanders campaign will almost certainly be
rejected by the very voters whose fundamental political leanings are most
closely aligned with the “Scandinavian social democratic” model on which
Sanders has based his career.
Black voting behavior over the past two generations all but guarantees they
will back the national Democratic candidate they perceive as most likely to
defeat the Republicans—the “White Man’s Party.” White supremacy and the rule of
capital in the U.S. are buttressed, electorally, by two pillars: (1) the
bifurcation of the major party system into a White Man’s Party, whose
organizing principle is white supremacy, and another party that is somewhat
more inclusive of Blacks and other “minorities,” and (2) control of both
parties by capital.
For Blacks, the Democratic Party is a trap within a trap. If the overarching,
perceived necessity is to block the Republican/White Man’s Party at every
electoral juncture, then Blacks see no option but to huddle under the
Democratic tent, despite the fact that it is, like the Republicans, a Rich
Man’s Party.
It is a politics of fear, born of generations of raw terror at the hands of the
White Man’s Party. The modern Democratic Party, like the post-Civil War
Republican Party, is not a haven, but an enclosure, which Blacks fear to exit.
At root, Black participation in the Democratic Party is not a matter of free
allegiance, but the perception that there is no other effective means to hold
back the barbarians of the White Man’s Party.
In practice, it is institutionalized group panic, a stampede every four years.
Blacks are drawn into the jaws of the Democratic Party, not by ideological
affinity, but in search of protection from the Republicans.
This is an entirely different dynamic than an alignment based on
thoughtful examination of political platforms. …
Under these stilted circumstances, the Democratic candidate’s actual political
positions become near-irrelevant to the Black primary voter, compared to the
candidate’s perceived ability to win a national election.
When the voter is seeking protection from what is seen as the greater, more
racist evil, rather than searching for a candidate and party that takes
positions more aligned with the Black political world view, independent
politics goes out the window. Indeed, independent, leftist electoral campaigns
can be viewed as a going AWOL from the fight, or worse, collaborating with the
Republican enemy.
Blacks voted for Jesse Jackson in his 1984 and ’88 primary campaigns, but he
opted out of an independent run for president, preferring to remain in the role
of “power broker” within the Democratic enclosure.
It’s not likely that Black voters would have supported Jackson in an
independent race, anyway.
When Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter from the Left, in 1980, his
effort collapsed largely from lack of support from Black elected
officials, who stuck with the Georgia peanut farmer even after he had
shown himself to be a deeply conservative politician (a founding
“neoliberal”) whose austerity policies opened the door to Ronald Reagan.
The Black Radical Tradition is real and enduring, but it is not expressed
through participation in the Democratic Party. Rather, entrapment in the
Democratic Party enclosure (within the larger Rich Man’s duopoly) grotesquely
warps Black political behavior. This distortion profoundly diminishes the
prospects for progressive electoral activity in the United States.
It is true that the Democrats would collapse were it not for the Black core of
the party. It is also probable that that would be a good thing.
What is certain is that the Democratic Party oozes out of every orifice of
Black civic society like a stinking pus, sapping the self-determinist vitality
of the people and transforming every Black social structure and project into a
Democratic Party asset.
The task of Black activists and their allies is to ensure that our first and
last hope—movement politics—once again becomes central to the struggle, so that
we can, as Dr. Cornel West puts it, “break the back of fear.” This will require
the most intense internal struggle among Black Americans to break the chains
that bind us to that vector of fear, the Democratic Party.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen
Ford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
For socialism
The presentation by Gloria La Riva, presidential candidate of the Party for
Socialism and Liberation, was not available as we went to press. The following
statement is from her campaign website: www.votepsl.org.
“Capitalism is a corrupt, bankrupt system that is destroying the environment
while the super-rich accrue obscene wealth,” stated Gloria La Riva. “The
capitalist bankers torched the economy and the federal government bailed them
out with our money. What an outrage! Today the criminal bankers are richer than
ever while millions of working people have been plunged into poverty.
A socialist system shatters this destructive model. Socialism means that the
wealth of society, all of which was created by the labor of working people,
would be used to create a sustainable environment while providing every person
with a decent job or an income for those who can’t work, free education and
affordable housing.
Socialism means making health care truly affordable by making it free for all
people. The military-industrial complex and the Pentagon war machine, with its
1,000 bases around the world, are not for ‘defense’
but for Wall Street’s global empire. It should be dismantled. Massive military
production is a complete waste and should be converted to useful civilian
production.”
Defeat the two-party system
By MARSHA FEINLAND
I was invited here to speak for the Peace and Freedom Party candidate for
president. There are four candidates seeking the presidential nomination of The
Peace and Freedom Party: Gloria LaRiva of the Party for Socialism and
Liberation, who is one of the panelists; Lynn Kahn, an independent , who is in
the audience; Monica Moorehead of the Workers’
World Party; and Jill Stein, of the Green Party. I am not representing
any particular candidate. I speak as a member of the Peace and Freedom
Party, which is the only party on the ballot in California that
advocates for socialism. …
Every four years, trade unionists and other usually dependable class-struggle
fighters devote their energy to supporting and working for a Democratic Party
presidential candidate. They act on their fear of the increasingly grotesque
Republican Party. The Republican Party becomes the force that dominates the
political landscape as the “leaders” of the working class call any effort to
build a working-class party “unrealistic,” and support for the Democrats
“imperative.” So we end up on the never-ending see-saw of one capitalist party
or the other in charge.
The only way to defeat the Republicans is to defeat the two-party system. What
about the “good” Democrats? The ones in Congress who support the Conyers health
care bill (a Medicare-for-All bill originally introduced by Ron Dellums), and
the Progressive budget, an impressive document that provides everything a good
welfare state should. Can’t we take over the Democratic Party and make it our
party?
No. While the “good” Democrats keep working-class and well meaning
people voting for them, their policy documents never go anywhere. The
dominant forces in the party prevail. Here is a short list of what
their
achievements: They didn’t filibuster Bush’s Supreme Court appointments; They
didn’t contest the 2000 elections; They bailed out the banks and let the
homeowners get foreclosed on; They do not significantly tax the rich; They will
not give us a decent health care system; They are dismantling our public
schools (note that liberal Democrats George Miller and Ted Kennedy helped
author the No Child Left Behind Act); They promote extraordinary police and
surveillance powers; And they perpetuate the war machine.
The Democratic Party is a ruthless enforcer, destroying its own when necessary!
In 1934, Upton Sinclair, a socialist, won the Democratic Party primary for
governor of California. His program was called End Poverty in California, and
EPIC clubs sprang up all over the state. But the Democratic Party
establishment, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Hollywood and the press, refused
to endorse Sinclair and ensured a Republican victory. There is no reason to
believe that the Democratic Party is now ready to take on the socialist mantle.
It is easy to feel hopeless and demoralized. The task of building an
independent party of the working class seems daunting. But we can look at some
emerging movements for encouragement. Significant portions of Occupy, the
living wage campaign, the environmental movement, anti-eviction defenders, and
the struggle against police violence and mass incarceration all are taking on
an anti-capitalist stance.
We need to join the growing movements. We need to connect our political theory
with the real struggles on the ground. We need to put aside sectarianism and
work together. We can build a workers’ party. We can and we have to.
What will Sanders’ supporters do when he endorses Clinton?
By LAURA WELLS
It is fitting that I am representing Jill Stein [and the Green Party].
Many people have come up to me and said, “I know who you are! You’re Jill
Stein!” No, but thank you. Jill and I have something in common. We were both
arrested outside debates for offices for which we were candidates, presidential
and gubernatorial.
The specific charge against me in 2010 when I ran for governor was a crime I
was absolutely committing—guilty as charged: “trespassing at a private party.”
Jill Stein is working to make it a “public party.” Her campaigns in 2012 and
already in 2016 have helped to smash a chink in the armor of the private
parties, and helped make debates and elections more public.
The big question about the 2016 election is the following: “What are the
supporters of Bernie Sanders going to do when the Democratic Party does not
nominate him?”
The institution of the Democratic Party has very different values from the
people who register as Democrats and who vote for Democrats, and that
institution has all the power it needs to push Bernie to the side.
They instituted super-delegates who will not be on Bernie’s side, and
they have big media. …
So, what are Bernie Sanders’ supporters going to do when he endorses the
Democratic nominee, likely Hillary? She is the embodiment of all the lousy
domestic values Bernie has been attacking so effectively. … People power means
we can organize in solidarity and take to the streets.
People power also means we can vote, and change our voter registrations.
Yes, voting is important. That’s why they change laws and elections to
create more hurdles and restrictions for voters and for independent
political parties. …
Here is my recommendation if you are feeling the Bern. … AFTER THE PRIMARY,
change your voter registration to an independent party, like the Green Party or
Peace and Freedom. … A majority of people want strong parties outside of the
Democratic-Republican Party. Here’s how third parties get strong: you vote for
them, and you register in them.
IN NOVEMBER, VOTE, but do not write in Bernie Sanders! He is not a
movement, he is an individual. We can use as building blocks what
Bernie has brought to the table, like injecting the term “socialism”
back into our national dialogue. What this country needs now are
organizations, including political parties that serve as the electoral
arm of the social movements, that take no corporate money, and that
are not controlled by the 1%. …
You may see the small parties as imperfect, but to blame third parties for
their weakness is like blaming poor people for their poverty. Yes, we’re
imperfect and make mistakes, but it’s the system that makes people poor and
independent political parties weak. People power makes us strong, and breaks up
the two-party system that has given control of our government to the 1% and
their corporations.
IN NOVEMBER, DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT. Glen Ford’s description of Obama as
the more “effective evil” rather than the “lesser evil” is right on
point. Sometimes it takes a Democrat to accomplish a conservative
agenda, like bailing out Wall Street, and implementing trade
agreements like NAFTA and the TPP/Trans-Pacific Partnership. …
Already in 2016 Jill Stein’s campaign is ahead of the game on multiple fronts.
Many people who had put their hearts and souls into Obama’s 2008 campaign are
working with her to see how much headway the electoral arm of the movement can
make this year.
In summary, 2016 is a great year to work together to use all the power we have.
Let’s not give our money to the 1% and their corporations—as much as we can
avoid it! And let’s not give them our voter registrations and our votes.
Photo: Gloria La Riva, presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and
Liberation, speaks in Oakland on Feb. 4. Seated at left is Jeff Mackler,
National Secretary of Socialist
Action. By Nick
Brannon / Socialist Action
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(17) December 2011 (3) November 2011 (33) October 2011 (14)
September
2011 (13) August 2011 (34) July 2011 (24) June 2011 (19) May 2011
(19) April 2011 (15) March 2011 (15) February 2011 (16) January
2011
(15) December 2010 (17) November 2010 (1) October 2010 (6)
September 2010 (3) August 2010 (8) July 2010 (7) June 2010 (2) May
2010 (9) April 2010 (3) March 2010 (8) February 2010 (3) January
2010 (9) December 2009 (6) November 2009 (5) October 2009 (16)
September 2009
(3) August 2009 (2) July 2009 (5) June 2009 (2) May 2009 (7) April
2009 (6) March 2009 (16) February 2009 (9) January 2009 (10)
December 2008 (11) November 2008 (8) October 2008 (16) September
2008 (14) August 2008 (18) July 2008 (12) June 2008 (3) May 2008
(2) April 2008 (3) March 2008 (14) February 2008 (11) January 2008
(11) December 2007 (8) November 2007 (1) July 2007 (1) June 2007
(1) April 2007 (1) March 2007 (1) February 2007 (3) December 2006
(11) November 2006 (11) October 2006 (13) September 2006 (15)
August 2006
(11) July 2006 (12) June 2006 (7) May 2006 (14) April 2006 (6)
March
2006 (14) February 2006 (5) January 2006 (2) December 2005 (9)
November 2005 (8) October 2005 (13) September 2005 (12) August 2005
(9) July 2005 (16) June 2005 (16) May 2005 (16) April 2005 (12)
March
2005 (14) February 2005 (19) January 2005 (15) December 2004 (14)
November 2002 (17) October 2002 (19) September 2002 (22) August
2002
(21) July 2002 (15) May 2002 (21) April 2002 (21) February 2002
(15) January 2002 (15) December 2001 (17) October 2001 (24)
September 2001
(18) July 2001 (19) June 2001 (18) October 2000 (17) September 2000
(21) August 2000 (19) July 2000 (16) June 2000 (26) May 2000 (21)
April 2000 (22) March 2000 (28) February 2000 (18) January 2000
(20) December 1999 (20) November 1999 (26) October 1999 (25)
September
1999 (18) August 1999 (40) July 1999 (38) June 1999 (24) May 1999
(27) April 1999 (25) March 1999 (26) February 1999 (29) January
1999
(24) July 1998 (12) 0 (2)
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