Announcements

Tuesday, January 10, 2005
The "Election" and the Crowning of an Emperor: Business as Usual vs. The Hope of the Future

Capitalism is an enemy of democracy. The American people have bought into the idea of voting for the "lesser evil" candidate for too long, and for their sins they have now given tenure to an administration which intends to concentrate all of the wealth and power of the United States into the hands of a very few people.

George W. Bush is the perfect front man for this administration. He is the living representation of corporate leaders who hide in the shadows and profit from the suffering of the American people and the rest of the world. The Bush administration is, in the final analysis, an epitome, a symbol, of latter day globalized capitalism. It is the decayed system, the degenerate empire underneath, that is the master. The senses of the American people have been dulled by a constant barrage of lies and misinformation about what is happening in the world. They have been lied to about the "War on Terrorism." They have been lied to about the outsourcing of jobs. In fact, the very"election" itself was a lie. As a result, George W. Bush is about to be imposed upon the American people once again.

The cries of "mandate, mandate!" are as phony as the proverbial three dollar bill. Right wing propaganda machines (such as FOX News and major corporate media), manipulated voting machines, intimidation and suppression of voters, and outright destruction of ballots have insured that the neo-con clique under this neo-con figurehead will be in power for another four years. The truth is that less than 60% of the eligible electorate even bothered to vote at all (a "big" turnout by recent standards), meaning that "none of the above" is the real winner once again.

So, out of votes actually counted, only a little over 1/4 of the possible voters opted for Bush, while slightly less voted for Kerry, the other military-corporate "candidate". Even though the two major "choices" were almost identical, there was great passion on the part of both sides. Millions waited in the rain for hours to cast votes for John Kerry. Millions who had never voted before or even considered voting braved right wing "challengers" and fatigue to try to topple the Emperor, especially in minority communities. The mood was grim but inspired, dogged but filled with exhilaration. The tragedy was that the "alternative " to the Emperor was only another face of the same monster --- "Bush-lite" as Kerry has been called. But the passion was real, the desire for basic change undeniable. Voters, election protectors, lawyers, union member volunteers, students --- masses of people in motion. A lot of potential, wasted on the lie of the "lesser evil". Anybody but Bush!

Some socialist activists on the Left fell into the "anybody but Bush" trap, trying to discredit independent candidates. This "strategy" has been totally discredited. In some cases, like the Green Party, it undid years of work.

The plain fact is that capitalism, monopoly-imperial capitalism, is and has been for a century totally incompatible with anything that can even be remotely called "democracy". Democracy in this epoch can only be restored by the creation on a world scale of SOCIALIST democracy --- the social ownership and democratic control of the economy, and the full recreation and deep democratization of social institutions, governmental departments, the culture, the communities, and all other aspects of society.

The motive force for this transformation? We say that it is primarily and overwhelmingly the working class, and after that other hard working sectors as well. Blue collar, white collar. Skilled, unskilled. Industrial, service, public, agricultural. Men, women. Working farmers and ranchers, very small business, independent professionals, soldiers. All races, ethnicities, nationalities, sexual orientations, religions and creeds. All conditions of ability and disability. All of the vast and varied mass of humankind. But primarily those who sell their ability to do useful work in exchange for a wage or a salary. Increasingly for these people, this means literally being one or two paychecks away from ruin, if they are "lucky" enough to have a job at all. Those workers that are part of the Wal-Martization of the American economy. Democracy (and with it economic and social well being) can only mean
that all social institutions are run under a profoundly democratic system of direct and representative democracy made up of committees, councils, and assemblies of the working people, where the right of immediate recall of representatives is the rule, and with no economic, governmental or other official being paid any more than the average skilled worker. Direct, informal, minute by minute democracy would be the order of the day in the workplace, with distinctions between"skilled" and "unskilled", "management" and "labor", "brain" and"brawn" being gradually and steadily dissolved.

In the mean time, we of the Debs Tendency urge the Socialist Party to get actively and constantly involved with the day to day struggles of the people to survive and fight back against the attacks of this barbaric social system that is imperial capitalism. Running candidates is good, but it does not even come close to being enough. We must concertedly be in the streets and workplaces, at the rallies and on the picket lines, in the coalitions and united fronts, in occupied facilities and in the barracks. We must strive to be among the most
principled activists and among the most determined fighters. We must be ready to provide democratic leadership where and when that is called for, and we must have a program of radical demands and a plan of action that fully and directly address the real and basic needs and aspirations of the working people and oppressed, and that influence their thinking toward the logical conclusion of their struggles --- a revolutionary democratic socialist society.

This will require that the Socialist Party become fully democratic, organizationally efficient, politically determined, imbued with radical principle, and outwardly oriented toward real mass work. We must always welcome and fully facilitate unfettered democratic discussion and decision making in the party, but once decisions are made, we must then stress united and coordinated action and implementation. Take it to the streets and to the people in real life. Not a debating society, but a vital instrument of the working class and the oppressed. That is the kind of Socialist party that we must create. No support to any section of the ruling class. No "lesser evils". Only full independence of the working class and oppressed sectors of the people.

Of immediate need is for the Socialist Party to:

Continue to vigorously put into effect the United Left Front resolution passed at the National Convention in 2003.

Continue to foment the growth of the party at the local level by also finding ways to fund organizing drives.

Continue to organize for independent political action and ballot reform.

Intensifying educational and training efforts in the party.

Continue to be active in the anti-war and anti-imperialist movements
that grew organically out of the United for Peace and Justice and
ANSWER coalitions.

Seriously work on building connections and working with those most affected by the Iraq War: the working class in the people of color communities. This work must be carried on by reaching out to people of color community organizations that are leading the fight against the war, fighting for better job conditions, for living wages, and against racism.

Become ever more involved in the ongoing Million Worker March movement, the most dramatic and exciting development within the American working class in decades.

We urge all Socialist party members who read our appeal to contact us, communicate with us, work with us, and join us in building a stronger Socialist Party USA.

Debs Tendency, Socialist party USA. debstendency.org