Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Chicago discussion, against liberalism, for a Working Peoples' Party.

There is a bit of a discussion on a Chicago list about liberalism and a possible alternative to the Democrats. Below is my contribution.


Sean writes:

The central issue here is not liberalism. It is class. We need a Working Peoples Party. The capitalist class have two mass parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, the working class has none. So the bosses have political monopoly. We need to start to build the mass Party of the Working Class. We have the resources to start building this right away. The first obstacle we have to get over are the pessimists and the left sectarians amongst ourselves on the left. In the Chicago area alone there are hundreds of activists in and not in different groups and others who would be active if they saw a non sectarian alternative. Let us try to bring these people together and work towards an activist coalition which in turn would work towards building a Working Peoples Party. Let us draw up a fighting program and method of struggle which would take up specific struggles and link these to the electoral struggles. On this basis run a Working Peoples Party candidate against Daley and select a few city councilors if we have the resources and use these races to get our alternative out there and begin to build an alternative, a mass Working Peoples Party.

If there is not agreement to have a socialist program for this Party then it would still take the movement forward as long as takes on the bosses offensive. This means having a program that rejects all cuts in wages, services and conditions, a program which stands for $15.00 an hour minimum wage or $5.00 an hour increase whichever is the greater for all, a program which stands for free education for all to all levels and free health care for all at the point of use. It also means a program that fights racism and sexism as crimes against humanity and as weapons of the capitalist class to divide and rule the working class. And it means a program against the wars and occupations of the US corporations abroad. The objective of these are to defend the property and power of the US corporations abroad.

But it would not only be what we stand for, it would also be how we fight for it. We should fight for this program through mass direct action, occupations, street actions, organizing the unorganized and from these develop electoral struggle. Lobbying would be out. Mass action to make sure that there is no business as usual for the bosses when they attack every aspect of our lives. We should have a method of struggle which bases itself amongst working class people by building Hand of our Homes and Schools Committees in the neighborhoods and Hands of our Jobs, Wages, Benefits and Rights Committees in the workplaces. We should have a method of struggle that takes up the false policies of the union leaders which sees them cooperate with the bosses in the workplace through the so called team concept and in the political arena with the Democrats. We should organize Committees of action in the unions to fight for this program. We need to have a Party which commits itself to an independent movement of the working class, independent organizationally and independent politically.

There are significant resources of the left in this area and throughout the US. Left sectarianism prevents these forces working together on the fundamental issue of building an alternative to the Democrats and the Republicans. We must examine our own behavior to see to what extent it is an obstacle in building a working class alternative. We must openly identify left sectarianism and campaign against it as a method which damages the working class movement. Against left sectarianism, this must be one of our slogans as we struggle against the bosses and their wars and their system, if we do not struggle against left sectarianism this will be an obstacle to our struggle against the bosses and their profit addicted capitalist system.

Please check our blog, See the blog address below for much information on the Californian student struggle.

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