Remember that very broad definition of socialism that I offered? I never
figured out how Silvy thought that I was only allowing my so-called
little group to be socialists. But I would say that most socialists
would disagree with me about a lot of things and that would not keep
them from being socialists.
___
Sam Harris
“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen
yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence
as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell
him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who
will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every
incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what
so ever.”
― Sam Harris,
On 2/16/2020 9:25 PM, miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Well, I hear a lot of young people on podcasts, who consider themselves to be
socialists, and who don't agree with your point of view. I suspect that the
percentage of people who do, is small. But there certainly are a lot of people
who feel that there's no point in voting because their vote won't make a
difference in their lives.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2020 8:20 PM
To: miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy]
ALYSON KENNEDY, SWP CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT:,‘Workers need our own party, a
labor party’
Do you really think that Alyson Kennedy is going to take any votes away from the
Democrats? Back in 2016 I had decided to vote for Jeff Mackler, but at the last minute I
voted for Alyson because I couldn't remember how to spell Jeff's running mate's name. If
I had not voted for either of them I probably would have gone for, perhaps, the candidate
of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and if that option was unavailable there were
some other choices. What I would not have voted for was Hillary Clinton. What I am not
going to vote for this year is any of the Democrats being promoted. As far as I can tell
that goes for pretty much every other voter who is completely disgusted by that
capitalist electoral field. I expect that most people will again not vote. Again, just
about everyone I have ever talked to when asked why they don't vote say something
disparaging about the Republicrats that they think they have to choose from. Only very
occasionally have I ever heard one actually say that they don't care. Most of those
nonvoters will not vote even for an alternative candidate because they think it will do
no good to bother and they are not entirely wrong either. If they did vote, though, I
would expect that they would then vote for an alternative. But if any votes are being
taken from the Democrats it is a minuscule number. And then, so what if votes are taken
from Democrats? The Democrats are not interested in our interests. They are our enemies
as much as Donald Trump. As Alyson said in the article that started this thread, "We
don't have a dog in that fight."
___
Sam Harris
“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen
yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence
as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell
him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who
will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every
incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what
so ever.”
― Sam Harris,
On 2/16/2020 3:54 PM, miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
And as I have pointed out before, if spreading the party's ideas involves
helping Donald Trump win or taking away votes from a candidate who can win who
might improve things for us a bit and help millions of people and open up a
space for more union organizing and universal medical care and increase an in
taxing the wealthy, then encouraging voting for that candidate is more
destructive than constructive.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2020 2:20 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy]
ALYSON KENNEDY, SWP CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT:,‘Workers need our own party, a
labor party’
As I have pointed out before, the point of Alyson Kennedy's candidacy is not to
get elected. It is to spread the party's ideas.
___
Sam Harris
“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen
yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence
as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell
him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who
will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every
incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what
so ever.”
― Sam Harris,
On 2/16/2020 12:53 PM, miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
And given our laws and how they and the financial elites support our present
two party system, electing a third party candidate is a pipe dream. I hear
lots of people on the left who want to change the system, and there are a
number of different ideas about how to do it. There's a lot of organizing
going on via social media and podcasts, but I don't know whether it reaches the
majority of working class people. Given the complexity of our system, making
change is a mammoth task.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2020 11:04 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] ALYSON KENNEDY, SWP CANDIDATE
FOR PRESIDENT:,‘Workers need our own party, a labor party’
Building a strong Working Class party is the logical solution. But of course,
that calls for involvement and some sacrifice of time and energy. Our
Capitalist System enables the Boss to delegate his work, giving him time as
well as money and connections, to become involved in politics.
We see examples of socialists elected to lower offices, such as the Seattle
City Council, and making progress in social reform. But electing a socialist
as president without strong support in Congress, would be like playing Russian
Roulette with a gun loaded with five bullets.
However, since socialism has been around as long as democracy, it is not
appearing to be catching on.
Capitalism has the advantage of setting the rules to the political arena.
Money is the main tool. And unfortunately, the Working Class has been robbed
so often that they simply hand over their money with barely an objection, not
even understanding that the United States is as much a Class System as is India.
.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/16/20, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://themilitant.com/2020/02/15/workers-need-our-own-party-a-labo
r
- party/ ALYSON KENNEDY, SWP CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT:
‘Workers need our own party, a labor party’
article
BY GEORGE CHALMERS
Vol. 84/No. 7
February 24, 2020
MILITANT/GEORGE CHALMERS SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy
talks with auto mechanic Rogelio Rodriguez at his home in Dallas Jan. 24.
Working people
need to break with the capitalists’ parties, she said. figure SWP
presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy talks with auto mechanic
Rogelio Rodriguez at his home in Dallas Jan. 24. Working people need
to break with the capitalists’ parties, she said.
MILITANT/GEORGE CHALMERS SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy
talks with auto mechanic Rogelio Rodriguez at his home in Dallas Jan. 24.
Working people
need to break with the capitalists’ parties, she said. figure end
DALLAS — The two main capitalist parties, the Democrats and
Republicans, are in crisis, Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party
candidate for president, told participants in a campaign rally here
Feb. 8. And, she said, more and more workers are concluding that
neither the Democratic or Republican parties are on the side of
working people.
MILITANT/SUSAN LAMONT Malcolm Jarrett, right, SWP candidate for vice
president, visits Reggie Jackson in Hogansville, Georgia, Oct. 1.
Jackson got campaign
book Tribunes of the People and the Trade Unions. figure Malcolm
Jarrett, right, SWP candidate for vice president, visits Reggie
Jackson in Hogansville, Georgia, Oct. 1. Jackson got campaign book
<em>Tribunes of the People and the Trade Unions.</em> MILITANT/SUSAN
LAMONT Malcolm Jarrett, right, SWP candidate for vice president,
visits Reggie Jackson in Hogansville, Georgia, Oct. 1.
Jackson got campaign
book Tribunes of the People and the Trade Unions. figure end Kennedy
explained that she, SWP vice presidential candidate Malcolm Jarrett
and over 20 SWP candidates coast to coast are campaigning on the
need for workers to have our own party, a labor party, based on our unions.
“One of the ways the wealthy class maintains its rule has always
been its use of the two-party — or more — system,” Kennedy said. “If
you don’t like what one capitalist politician is doing, they tell
you to vote for another capitalist politician from the other party
in the next election.
“The 2016 election showed that the capitalist rulers can’t depend on
this anymore,” she said. “More workers said, ‘He’s worse, she’s worse,’
and that has
the capitalist class worried.
“More and more workers sense the dead-end of lesser evil politics,”
Kennedy told the Militant in an interview a couple days later. “But
it’s not immediately apparent to them what the alternative is. What
workers need in the political arena will grow out of our experiences
fighting to defend our wages and working conditions, for our social
and political rights, against the capitalist rulers’ wars abroad.
“Through these battles we’ll transform and rebuild our unions, and
transform ourselves, deepening our self-confidence and class
consciousness,” she said.
“We’ll learn the burning necessity of constructing our own political
party, with a program to take power out of the hands of the
capitalist exploiters.
“A labor party can unite and mobilize all those who are exploited
and oppressed by capital, the vast majority,” she said.
“We don’t have a dog in the race for which Democrat or Republican
gets elected in 2020,” Kennedy told the rally. “Join with the SWP
campaign to fight for our own party, a labor party, to organize a
class struggle for power.”
Not a ‘vote-catching machine’
A labor party would need a program that raises the same kinds of
demands that the Socialist Workers Party is promoting in its 2020
campaign platform.
“The SWP campaign program says our unions need to fight for workers
to take control of production,” she said. “That’s how workers can
defend ourselves on the job at the same time as we learn how the
working class is capable of organizing the economy itself, of
replacing the bosses and their government, and of running society ourselves.
“Think what this would have meant if Boeing workers had conquered
control of building and testing the Boeing 737 MAX plane!” she said.
“Workers control of production would enable us to deal with the
questions of industrial pollution of the atmosphere that contributes
greenhouse gases and other contamination,” Kennedy pointed out. “It
is only the working class that is capable — and has the class
interests — to defend our land, air and waters.
The defense of science and culture, of everything important to
humanity, falls to the working class.
“All of that would point in the direction of working people forming
their own labor party, fighting to put a workers and farmers
government in power,”
Kennedy said.
Open door to Israel-Palestine talks
During the discussion at the forum, Kennedy was asked what the
campaign’s view is of the Trump administration’s recently announced
Middle East peace proposal.
She encouraged participants to read the December 2017 Socialist
Workers Party statement, “For Recognition of a Palestinian State and
of Israel.”
“This is a very important opening for working people in the Middle
East and worldwide,” Kennedy said. “It should be grabbed by the
Israeli and Arab governments and the leaderships of the Palestinian
organizations to open serious negotiations.”
“These negotiations,” she said, “would have to recognize, as our
statement points out, ‘the right of Jews everywhere to take refuge
in Israel in the face of the global rise of Jew-hatred and
anti-Semitic violence, as well as the unconditional right of the
dispossessed Palestinian people to a contiguous, sovereign homeland
on territory — including East Jerusalem — conquered and occupied by
the Israeli government during the 1967 war.”
There have been no negotiations for decades, she said, a result of
anti-working-class leaderships there.
“The Palestinian people deserve a leadership that takes the moral
high ground,” she said. “The U.S. proposal as it stands would leave
the Palestinian state looking like a gerrymandered U.S.
congressional district. But what could emerge from serious
negotiations would have to recognize today’s realities. This could
open the road to the fight for two viable states.”
Our starting point, as the SWP statement makes clear, Kennedy said,
is “the class interests and solidarity of workers and toiling
farmers across the Middle East — be they Palestinian, Jewish, Arab,
Kurdish, Turkish, Persian or otherwise, and whatever their religious
or other beliefs — as well as working people in the United States
and around the world.”
Participants at the meeting contributed $450 for the national SWP campaign.
SWP Campaign Coupon
Click here
to email Socialist Workers Party 2020 Campaign.
article end
list of 3 items
Share
list end
RELATED ARTICLES
article
Socialist Workers Party 2020 campaign platform This is the SWP’s
fighting campaign platform to confront the economic, social and
moral crisis caused by capitalism: UNIONS/FOR A LABOR PARTY Support workers’
struggles to organize to defend themselves, to use union power on
behalf of ourselves and all… article end IN THIS ISSUE Front Page
Articles list of 6 items • ‘Workers need our own party, a labor party’
• Coronavirus shows need for revolution in health care • 2020
election deepens crisis of Democrats, Republicans • Miami car
caravan protests US restrictions on travel to Cuba • ‘This is a fight for the
future,’
Asarco miners say as strike enters fifth month • Iraqi workers,
youth protest attacks by the gov’t, Tehran list end Feature Articles
list of
1 items • Cuba’s fight against Ebola in Africa is ‘a beacon of light’
list end
Also In This Issue
list of 5 items
• Sinn Fein vote surge fueled by social crisis, calls for Irish
unity • UK: ‘Solidarity with protests by working people in Iran!’
• Havana book fair highlights solidarity between Cuba, Vietnam •
Sign up for the 2020 May Day Brigade to Cuba!
• Answer US slanders against Cuba!
list end
On the Picket Line
list of 2 items
• East Bay transit workers fight bosses’ takebacks, seek support •
French workers continue protest against Macron’s pension assault
list end 25, 50 and 75 years ago main region end © Copyright 2020
The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor - New York, NY
10018 - themilitant@xxxxxxx Cookies This site uses cookies to
improve your experience.
Learn more.
Okay, thanks
--
___
Sam Harris
“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that
frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require
as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the
extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed
was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for
eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the
universe, and he seems to require no evidence what so ever.”
― Sam Harris,
