Republicans, Democrats, Socialist Democrats or Green Party, all of
them need one thing in order to make a serious run for a major office.
Money. And the Ruling Class has a surplus of it, since they take it
freely from the Working Class. There are only political parties in
the minds of some Americans. But in actual practice there is only
room on top for the Ruling Class. Well, of course there is the
Working Class, too. Somebody has to support the Drones.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/12/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm not sure that the Greens have denounced Capitalism. I doubt that the
Social Democrats have either. But when you listen to some of the Green
candidates, they sound like Socialists, as do some of the Social Democrats.
They may not sound like the Socialists of the party that the Militant
supports. I know that Richard Wolfe is a political economist and he's a
socialist, but again, I wouldn't want to make a guess as to whom he votes
for. But I don't see this whole thing as black or white, but more like a
continuum. I can accept a social welfare state which is "regulated
capitalism". To the criticism that capitalism will always evolve to the
nightmare we have now, my response is that you can start with a humane state
socialism which evolves into an authoritarian state socialism just like
capitalism becomes corrupted. It has to do with some human beings wanting
power and control over others. All human institutions become corrupted.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 2:46 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy]
Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets working class
The Republicans seem to be good at bridging gaps between them and the
Democrats too. That leads to an authoritarian monopoly. A monopoly?
How can it be called a monopoly when it's two parties? Well, they both serve
the same interests. And I don't think the Greens, as a party, has denounced
capitalism yet either.
___
Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open
mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says
everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind
the fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
On 12/12/2019 12:59 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
I don't think that the Greens are a Capitalist party. They may not be a
Communist party, , but they're hardly Capitalist. One of the problems with
the communist parties (which call themselves "socialist" parties, is that
they derogate any leftist party that doesn't fit neatly into their
definition of a party that will serve working and poor people. It's a very
authoritarian position. It's why the Left never wins. Everyone is a purist
so its fragmented. The Republicans, on the other hand, managed to bridge
gaps between their Libertarians, "Never Trumpers", Evangelicals, and
traditional Republicans and with their majority and some trickery, they
win majorities in state houses, and the Senate, and they gave the
Presidency to a maniac.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 12:29 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets
working class
https://themilitant.com/2019/12/07/democrats-drive-to-oust-trump-targe
ts-working-class/
Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets working class
By Terry Evans
Vol. 83/No. 46
December 16, 2019
The Democratic Party is sharply divided, with its leaders panicking that
their drive to impeach and indict President Donald Trump — which began the
day he took office and has continued ever since — is failing to win
support. They fret that none of their myriad of presidential hopefuls can
defeat the president in 2020.
One of their responses is to step up efforts to keep working-class and
other third parties off the ballot, dealing blows to the political rights
of working people.
The ruling U.S. capitalist families maintain their hold on power through
their two-party system, convincing workers and others to vote for the
“lesser evil” of a Democrat or Republican, back and forth, in each
election. The fraying of this operation is one of the key things revealed
by the Trump victory in both the 2016 Republican primaries and against
Hillary Clinton in the presidential race.
Three smaller capitalist parties — Greens, Libertarian and Constitution —
“played a spoiler role in crucial states such as Wisconsin and Michigan”
in 2016, Michael Scherer claimed in the Washington Post Nov. 27.
Desperate to put the Clinton family back in the White House that year, the
New York Times ran an op-ed shortly before the vote urging its readers not
to vote for Alyson Kennedy, presidential candidate of the Socialist
Workers Party — a party the Times otherwise studiously refuses to
mention.
The Democrats’ solution? Make it even harder for other parties to run.
This fall New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo tasked the state’s
nonelected public financing commission with hiking petitioning
requirements for parties other than the Democrats and Republicans to get
on the ballot. The commission obliged Nov. 25, tripling the number of
signatures. And, if some third party manages to make it — like the Working
Families Party — the commission more than doubled the number of votes they
would have to get to stay on the ballot for the next election.
The Working Families Party was originally set up to corral workers
frustrated with the Democrats to vote for their candidates anyway by
putting them on an “independent” ballot line. But in the last couple
elections its leaders have occasionally chosen more radical-sounding
Democrats to run, including against the regular party leadership’s
offerings.
In the long run, the Democrats’ goal is to keep working-class parties like
the Socialist Workers Party from using ballot status to present an
independent revolutionary program of struggle, a road to fight for workers
and farmers to take political power into their own hands.
While the Democrats unanimously back trying to get Trump ousted — and have
a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Dec. 4 to consider articles of
impeachment — they fear they will not be able to get him. So far working
people have responded to their carefully stage-managed witch hunt with
growing disinterest. In fact, recent polls show opposition to Trump’s
ouster is growing.
Democratic Party crisis deepens
In response, the Democrats are split between one wing that believes they
have to find a way to win back workers who voted for former President
Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and then switched to Trump in 2016, all in
search of some “change,” and another wing that writes off such workers as
reactionary and “irredeemable.” This wing’s strategy for 2020 is to ignore
the working class and try to seize the presidency by appealing to a new
“base” — Blacks, Latinos, women, immigrants and sophisticated professional
layers in the country’s metropolises.
Both wings of the Democratic Party, like other meritocrats and the
capitalist rulers they serve, fear the working class, sensing the crisis
of capitalism impacting on the livelihoods of working people will lead to
rising struggles.
On his side, Trump is campaigning for reelection by pointing to the fact
there are more jobs today, which gives workers more confidence to fight
for better wages and working conditions.
But the real beneficiary of the stock market boom today is the capitalist
class, whose growing wealth stands in stark contrast to what workers
face.
The crisis of the capitalist system continues to deepen — regardless of
modest cyclical ups and downs. Workers’ life expectancy is falling, the
U.S. rulers’ wars go on and on, bosses from Asarco copper mining to
Walmart are pushing for speedup with more hours and less safety, and
household debt is exploding.
Trump also brags he has “Made America Great Again” worldwide by
rebuilding Washington’s military might without committing more troops
to ground combat. The president flew to Afghanistan Nov. 28 and
announced his administration intends to reduce U.S. troop numbers
there from
14,000 to 8,600 and resume talks with the Taliban. He said U.S. forces
would remain until “we have a deal or we have total victory.” Last year
Washington launched more airstrikes against the Afghan people than at any
time since the war began 18 years ago.
The reality is that the U.S. rulers’ strategy today is no different than
that under Obama. The best they hope for is to preserve the weak Afghan
government and contain the Taliban.
Both Republicans and Democrats — Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders,
Joe Biden, etc. — seek to protect the interests of the capitalist ruling
class.
Not one Democrat vying for the party’s presidential nomination proposes
U.S. forces get out of Afghanistan now.
In contrast to both the Democratic and Republican wings of the
capitalist two-party system, the Socialist Workers Party candidates in
2020 “demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S.
troops from Afghanistan and the Mideast,” Alyson Kennedy, the party’s
candidate for president in 2016, told the Militant Dec. 1.
“Washington’s wars abroad,” Kennedy said, “are fought in the interest of
the same capitalists who have for years held down wages and worsened the
conditions of working people at home.
“Party members organize together with co-workers and others to fight the
bosses’ attacks, build solidarity with workers’ battles from Asarco to the
Canadian National rail workers fighting for safety,” Kennedy said.
“We call for building a labor party based on these struggles — a party
that advances a break from the Democrats and Republicans and the fight to
establish a workers and farmers government.”
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Copper strikers fight Asarco union busting •All out
in solidarity with striking copper workers!
•Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets working class •SWP drive expands
reach of ‘Militant,’ books, fund •Protests in Chile demand end to attacks
by gov’t, capitalist rulers •Communist League in UK: ‘Jew-hatred is deadly
threat to the working class’
•CN rail workers ‘strike for safety’ won broad backing
Feature Articles •French rulers expand military intervention into West
Africa
Also In This Issue •Australia: Women make gains in right to choose
abortion •‘The making of a union bureaucrat’
•Over 10,000 farmers in Germany protest against gov’t restrictions
•Iraq upsurge continues, prime minister to resign •Socialist Workers
Party Fund Drive Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 8) •Fall Campaign to sell
Militant subscriptions and books Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 8)
On the Picket Line •New York labor rally supports Amazon warehouse
workers •Senior residence workers in Quebec strike for higher pay
Books of the Month •‘Peoples of Cuba and the US are fraternal and
invincible’
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New York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxxx
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