What we have, is a whole lot of labels. We also have a variety of conceptual
frameworks through which to view reality.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 4:29 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re:
[blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets
working class
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-targ
e
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’
© Copyright 2019 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -
New York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxxx
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