Disgust with Democrats and Republicans creeps higher. Conditions are ripe for a mass working people's party in the US

Many genuine fighters in the ranks of organized Labor like to say that the Union leadership at the highest levels never passes up an opportunity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Numerous strikes, from the year-long Hormel strike, the two Greyhound strikes, to the recent five month grocery strike in California, all potentially powerful movements that could have transformed the political scene in the US and the relationship between the classes, were defeated primarily due to the role played by the heads of the AFL-CIO, and the more recent CTW split.

The basis of these betrayals is the Labor leaders' support for the Team Concept, the idea that workers and employers have the same interests.  This pits worker against worker as we compete to help our individual employers (or nations, or regions within a nation) drive their competitors from the market.  But industrial disputes or any sort of workplace action are not the only activities that are sabotaged by the failed policies of the Labor hierarchy.

In the political arena they play the same role supporting time and time again the “other” employer’s party, the Democrats.  Organized Labor spent some $400 million electing Barak Obama and other Democrats who are, with their Republican partners, savaging wages, conditions and social services that took generations to win as they wage predatory wars abroad.

“The fastest growing political group in America is none of the above.” Writes the Wall Street Journal.*  There is a “Pox on both your houses.” mood out there, it adds. It reports on the growth of that sector of the US population that is disgusted with the two big business parties citing a Washington Post/ABC poll that found that 42% of those surveyed identified themselves as political independents.  The same survey found that 33% identified themselves as Democrats and 20% as Republicans.  The trend in the country is clear, a“…movement away from both parties.” The Journal adds.

This is not the first time this mood has arisen.  So deep is the disgust with the political choice, or non choice that US workers have, those that don’t abstain from voting altogether resort out of desperation, to voting for former wrestlers, film stars or an idiot like Ross Perot. Coupled with those that have withdrawn from the process altogether as a sort of protest action in a way, the situation is ripe, actually overripe, for a genuine working class political alternative in the US.

Most workers hate the politicians, which is understandable.  But they are often mistaken as to the causes of the politicians actions that are so detrimental to our well being.  From our life experiences we see that no matter which party is in power, working people lose.  Along with this, we see that the politicians enrich themselves through government service or outright corruption; so many working people simply see the problem as one of personal failings, of corrupt individuals.   The real nature of the political process, the fact that these politicians are representing class interests, the interests of big business, is obscured with the help of the heads of organized Labor who are equally distrusted as they push these politicians and their parties on a public that has already abandoned them. 

All round, conditions are extremely favorable for a mass political alternative to the two capitalist parties.  The hatred of bankers and the speculators that caused the present crisis is so pervasive, that the US Chamber of Commerce was unable to use the term “capitalism” in its recent campaign to boost popularity for the market. 

Writes one New York Times columnist: "We cannot continue transferring the nation's wealth to those at the apex of the economic pyramid - which is what we have been doing for the past three decades or so..."

The liberals are worried, concerned as they are about social explosions and the limits of tolerance, they are warning their class about the , "Hurricane of rage that they are stirring up with their extreme looting of the state's finances and their shameless filling of their own pockets.."  

Numerous opportunities have been lost.  But there is resistance to the present assault on working people.  The handing over of trillions of dollars to bankers has not gone unnoticed by those who have lost their jobs, homes, or their college dreams. As campaigns develop, like the solidarity campaign that has sprung up around the one-day strike for education in California, they can combine direct action with political action at some point as they grow. Running candidates rooted in such campaigns and armed with a program that demands what we need, not what we are told by the big business media and their two political parties is “realistic”, can tap in to the anger that lies beneath the surface and would break the monopoly that the two capitalist parties have over US political life; it can offer an alternative to increased poverty, political resignation and the culture of defeat.

If we don’t fill the political vacuum that exists here in the US, at some point more ominous forces will.