Miriam, you misrepresent everything I said. The best way I can refute
this is to just refer you back to my last message. Reading that message
shows that I said nothing like you are claiming I said.
___
Neil deGrasse Tyson
“God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.”
― Neil DeGrasse Tyson
On 3/5/2020 4:24 PM, miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Isn't using the election as solely an opportunity for agitation and propaganda a rather
cynical way to treat the working people who might be attracted by that candidate's
campaign? It sounds like all those poor unsuspecting people who might be tricked into
getting involved, are being used as pawns to further the SWP's objectdives of which they
are unaware. "We're offering these pretend candidates so we can use their campaign
to seduce you into believing a philosophy which, we believe, is in your best interests in
the end. But we aren't going to tell you that we don't believe in this election, that
we're actually planning a revolution to overthrow this rotten system, and you might
become embroiled in this revolution, whether or not you originally planned to, and it
might become violent".
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2020 3:32 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] Re: Fight for gov’t-funded,
cradle-to-grave health care!
You are completely missing the point that Alyson Kennedy has absolutely no
expectation or intention of becoming president. The ruling class would cancel
the election before they would let that happen.
Furthermore, if there was a realistic prospect for her being elected then the
class struggle would have had to sharpened to the point that we would either be
in the middle of a civil war or else we would be on the brink of it. Alyson's
candidacy is simply a move to take advantage of the bourgeois electoral system
to spread agitation and propaganda. But suppose that she did get elected and
suppose she survived the violent attacks that would be launched against her and
her supporters if she did get elected and then she took office. If she then
went ahead and merrily administered the bourgeois state she would have upon
that instant transformed into a social democrat. That would be a complete
betrayal.
Her job would be to give the bourgeois state its final kicks to ensure its
collapse. Then she would participate in building a new workers and farmers
state, possibly being a delegate to a new constitutional convention.
___
Neil deGrasse Tyson
“God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.”
― Neil DeGrasse Tyson
On 3/5/2020 11:56 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
The article states: "The Socialist Workers Party campaign is grounded
in the conviction that it is possible to emulate that example(the
Cuban Revolution). We can mobilize in our millions to overthrow the
dictatorship of the capitalist class here, take power into our own
hands and open the door to working people running society."
And then the article concludes, "Join us in campaigning for Alyson
Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett, the working-class alternative in 2020!"
My problem with this article is that we can't take both approaches.
Either we advocate for Revolution and the replacement of our current
Ruling Class with a government which represents All the People, or we
send Alyson Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett to be our sacrificial
offerings. That approach appears hopeless. Let's suppose, and it is
a real long shot, that Alyson Kennedy and Malcolm Jarrett squeak out a
victory, and find themselves in the White House. Then what? I mean
what do we Revolutionaries do? We have just won the top two offices
in the nation, and the most influential top dogs in all the World.
Are they prepared to lead a Revolution from within the Establishment's
System? Do they attempt to swim upstream and make what social changes
they can make? To me it is a lose lose situation. The fact is that
we live in, and have lived in from the beginning, in a Class System.
This nation of the people never set out to be the government of All
the People.
Although I have no dog in this presidential fight, I plan to vote for
Bernie Sanders. Not because I think that he will win, or even if the
Heavens opened up and God smote all his opponents and Bernie, like
David with his sling, did win, but because I believe it is my only way
of spitting in the Establishment's eye. Bernie will be as unable to
return America to the New Deal Days, as would Alyson Kennedy and
Malcolm Jarrett.
But on the other hand, if we are truly serious about a People's
Revolution, then we need to stop pretending that we can "make a
difference" through tucking a few Progressives into the System. It's
like tossing red meat to a pack of wild dogs.
As a defender of the American People and their Rights and Dignity, I
am faced with deciding whose laws I must obey. Do I take the safer
path and obey the laws that have been bought and paid for to protect
the properties and positions of the long established Ruling Class? Or
do I obey those basic laws that defend the dignity and security and
health, and all the Rights that belong to First Class Citizens?
This is no easy decision. But it is one that every Citizen must make,
because we cannot serve two Masters. Either we support the right of a
few to own us, or we defend the Right to Human Dignity by All the
People. This constitution we live under was created back when we were
a collection of 13 Colonies and an Agrarian Society. The Document was
truly revolutionary in its day. It declared that the Colonists were
no longer the economic slaves of the King of England. In the
situation the Colonists found themselves, there was no
misunderstanding over whether they could somehow take over the
government and make changes to existing laws. There was only one of
two roads, compliance or revolution.
The ensuing struggle was costly for many Landholders. Many chose to
duck and cover, hoping the King would reward them once the uprising
was quashed.
While Times are very different today, we live in an Urban Society and
number 50 states and over 300 million People, we are still faced by
the same two roads. We can duck and cover and accept what is "given"
us by our Ruling Class, hoping they make wise choices that somehow
include us, or we can set them aside, thanking them for their long
years at the helm of our Ship of State, but recognizing that they have
outlived their day, and that they have become far too self serving.
But if we do the latter, we must realize that once declared, the New
Revolution must follow. Are we ready for it?
Carl Jarvis
On 3/5/20, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://themilitant.com/2020/02/29/fight-for-govt-funded-cradle-to-gr
ave-health-care/ Fight for gov’t-funded, cradle-to-grave health care!
article
Vol. 84/No. 9
March 9, 2020
The U.S. government, the most powerful imperialist power on the
planet, like every other capitalist power around the world, is far
from prepared for the spread of coronavirus. The virus is new, no one
is immune, and it will take time to develop an antidote.
The rulers in China and Iran tried to pretend things weren’t so bad
and working people are paying for it. The administration in
Washington tells us they’ve got everything in hand and complain the
media is trying to make coronavirus “look as bad as possible.”
The deadly impact of the virus will fall overwhelmingly on working
people in the U.S., as it does elsewhere, exacerbating the broader
social, economic and moral crisis of capitalism bearing down on us.
Millions of workers already confront the declining availability of
health care. Hospitals have been closing in rural areas and
working-class neighborhoods, where the owners decide they aren’t
making enough profit. The system of health insurance in the U.S. —
whether it’s “Obamacare,” private health insurance or the
Medicare-for-all insurance schemes promoted by a wing of the
Democrats — is designed to guarantee a profit for hospital bosses and
drug and insurance companies, not to provide the health care working
people need and deserve.
If we can’t afford to pay the rising costs they charge for premiums,
deductibles or copays, we have to go without something that should be
a basic human right.
The capitalist rulers consider the provision of health care to
workers a nonproductive expense. Hospital bosses are notorious for
transporting homeless people seeking care out of the city and dumping
them. The capitalist rulers seek to impose the responsibility for
medical care onto individual workers and our families. And if you
don’t change your lifestyle — quit smoking, lose weight, etc. — they
want to make you pay more. You’re on your own.
Health care is social right
Health care is a social question. The working class and our unions
need to fight for government-funded cradle-to-grave health care for
all. Our labor produces all the wealth, more than enough to provide
care for all, for a lifetime. The problem is the employers
expropriate that wealth for themselves. So they don’t have to worry
about the costs of getting treatment.
Health care as a social right can only be won by class struggle,
including breaking from all the capitalists’ parties, which insist
that the health insurance racket is untouchable. It will take massive
struggles by workers and our allies to take the hospitals and drug
companies out of the hands of the capitalists who run them for profit
and organize to run them under workers control in the interest of
all. But it can be done.
Revolutionary Cuba is the one country in the world where health care
is not a commodity, where the surplus workers and farmers produce is
used to provide lifelong, preventative health care for every person.
And where thousands of volunteer medical workers provide much needed
care throughout the world, treating all they look after with dignity
and respect. A vivid account is provided in the recently published
Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa.
The volunteers’ internationalism, author Enrique Ubieta writes,
“is an expression of their revolutionary humanism.”
As Che Guevara said, to be a revolutionary doctor you have to make a
revolution.
Revolution transformed working people in Cuba This is only possible
because Cuban workers and farmers made a revolution and the
government today is in their hands. Making that revolution
transformed working people. They simply look at the problems they
confront — from the U.S. rulers’ economic war against them to the
threat of coronavirus — as the responsibility of the whole people.
Whatever they face — a hurricane, a threat of disease, or anything
else — they prepare, mobilize the whole people and resources of their
government, and take it on.
The Socialist Workers Party campaign is grounded in the conviction
that it is possible to emulate that example. We can mobilize in our
millions to overthrow the dictatorship of the capitalist class here,
take power into our own hands and open the door to working people
running society. Join us in campaigning for Alyson Kennedy and
Malcolm Jarrett, the working-class alternative in 2020!
article end
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___
Neil deGrasse Tyson
“God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.”
― Neil DeGrasse Tyson
