The March 4th committees are putting forward a program against increases in fees and to expand education places and jobs, to make the rich pay for this, to cut spending on war and the military industrial complex and spend the money wasted there on education and social services, to take the money they spend on incarceration and spend it instead on education and to fight for full rights for undocumented workers and youth. They are linking this to strike action, occupations, snake marches, disruption of the businesses and lives of the capitalists and capitalist politicians who are making the decisions to attack working peoples lives. The result is that we have a movement that both in its program and its methods is challenging and confronting the capitalists offensive against working people. This is of great significance. There is a movement which is approaching mass proportions that is coming into collision with the capitalist offensive.
What is the role of activists and socialists in this? Our role is to fight to defend the program and methods from both the right and the ultra left and keep the movement expanding and going forward against the capitalist offensive. In this way the greatest number of people will learn the most lessons concerning the nature of the struggle they are involved in, the forces involved, how to fight, who our friends are and who our enemies are. Engels once said that a real movement of the working class is worth a thousand programs. We think this is a bit of an exaggeration and that it is important to raise the issue of capitalism and socialism, we also believe that it is our main task to fight for a program and method, for this. But it is also important to build a united front movement that helps the greatest number of people to become involved against the capitalist offensive and with methods that seriously confront that offensive. In this way the greatest number will take the greatest step forward.
This movement is of course under pressures from different sides. It is under pressure from its own right wing, that is the union bureaucracy and those who support the union bureaucracy. These forces want to tame the movement and curtail it to calls for "progressive taxation' without being concrete on what this means, and to actions such as feeble after work rallies and to lobbying the Democratic Party. This approach will not allow the workers to see the need to confront the capitalist offensive and to see their own strength in the way they would through fighting for the March 4th strike committees and using the direct action tactics of the March 4th strike committees. These are the policies of the Union leaders and they reflect the desire of the union leaders to maintain a cozy relationship with the Democratic Party in politics and continue their so called team concept in the workplace, that is collaborate with the capitalists in politics through the capitalist Democratic Party and collaborate with the capitalists in the workplaces directly by helping the capitalists compete and attack workers wages, jobs and conditions. This wing of the movement in California has a lot of resources. They have the resources that the union bureaucracy controls. But this wing of the movement is being fought and success is being achieved. This is very important and again is a tribute mainly to the youth. The programs of the March 4th strike committees and the strikes and disruption planned by these bodies show the successes that are being achieved. This wing of the movement has to be supported.
However the overall movement is under pressure from another source also. Some of the best fighters in the movement are the youth. Understandably they are nauseated by the role of the union leaders and the politicians of both parties. Their correct tendency to oppose supporting either of the two capitalist parties can tend to go further and make the mistake of rejecting politics as a whole. There is a tendency in some cases to reject any tactic but direct disruptive action. The organizers of this blog support direct disruptive action, there can be no more business as usual for the capitalists and their politicians and agents while they attack working people. However we believe we need to look further ahead and deeper into the issues.
What is to be done after March 4th to take this movement forward? March 4th is already set to be a great success. but will it bring out the millions we would wish for, will it shut down the state as we would wish. Given the refusal of the union leaders to lead, in fact their actual sabotage of the movement in a real sense this is extremely unlikely. So after March 4th how can we take the movement, the network that has been built and expand it into hundreds of thousands in a fighting movement to deal with the issues we are facing? There is talk about moving on to mobilize for the anti war actions on March 20th. This is fine. There is talk about campaigning to bring students to college and school and insist they are placed. There is nothing wrong with this. But neither of these will expand the movement in the way that is necessary to build a movement of millions around a program and strategy to defeat the attacks and to save the working class and youth of the state from the capitalists plans. For this we need to take the nucleus that comes out of March 4th and from it present a strategy that appears doable to working class people and youth and on this basis build a movement of hundreds of thousands and hopefully millions that can win. We must not think small. We want to win.
But before going on to that we should consider a danger in turning the March 4th movement towards the anti war actions on March 20th. The March 4th movement has been built on the demands explained above. If it is to be sustained and developed these demands must continue to be at its centre. The March 20th anti war action must not be allowed to take over the March 4th movement. Instead it should be linked in this way. End all wars and occupations, bring home all troops, defund the military industrial complex and use the money saved to fund education and services for the working people of the country. In this way people will not see as if the March 4th movement is being used to build the anti war movement rather that the anti war movement naturally leads to increased funding being available to fund education and all social services and to create new and expand existing social services. If after March 4th the movement is just directed to March 20th and anti war actions there is a real danger that it will be seriously damaged and decline. Many people involved will think that they did not sign up for this.
So what after March 4th? March 4th committees and this movement overall is already a state wide network. The task is to maintain and build and extend it. This can be done. But to do so it must have a program and method of struggle that brings in more forces in a way that challenges the capitalists alternative of making working people pay and which instead puts forward the alternative of making the rich pay. There is a great opportunity to do this in California after March 4th. But to do this we have to break out of the narrow tunnel vision of the traditional left.
The US capitalists have overplayed their hand in the California. They did this in the past when they pushed through an initiative, a state wide vote, which now means that a two thirds majority is necessary to pass laws that increase taxes. This is entirely undemocratic. All reasonable people think so. This must be made a central issue right away and particularly in the post March 4th period and the struggle to fund education and services and to deal with the state's budget crisis. At the moment there is an initiative on the California ballot called the California Democratic Act. If passed this would remove the two thirds requirement. This is hated by the capitalists. We have to see that this is progressive and support it. If it wins it will throw the capitalists on to the defensive and open up new opportunities for us. The California Democracy Act has to be supported. This can draw in new forces to politics and struggle and into confrontation with the capitalist offensive. This will be very progressive.
Some of our Comrades who are fighting side by side with us against the bureaucracy in the March 4th committees may think this is to create illusions that things can be changed through initiatives on the ballot etc. Well some things can be changed in this way. The capitalists locked in their low taxes by such an initiative in the past. But more important from our point of view, the workers in Oregon just recently passed an initiative which increased taxes on those earning $250,000 and more per year, increased taxes on the corporations and decreased taxes on 270,000 unemployed peoples income. This increased tax revenue took the pressure off the attack on education somewhat. Society cannot be changed unless capitalism is overthrown and we must explain this, but changes can be made and a bigger movement built that confronts the capitalist offensive and makes big steps forward in consciousness through the struggle for such an initiative. We have the capitalists spitting upon their own beloved democracy with their two thirds law. They have made a mistake. We must expose this and explain in words and in deeds that only the working class movement through struggle can establish a real genuine democratic society.
After March 4th the March 4th committees should meet and reaffirm their commitment to their program and methods. There should be no watering down of these. But it should also meet with the movement that is organizing for the California Democracy Act and seek to develop a united front with these forces. In the discussions for this the March 4th movement should attempt to convince these forces that they should not just campaign against the two thirds law but should also campaign for taxing the rich and give a specific figure above which people would have increased taxes as was done in Oregon (demanding only progressive increased taxes can be used by the right wing to scare people by saying this will include a lot of working class people) try to convince them they should also campaign for increased taxes on the corporations and to bring in a tax on oil and gas where it comes out of the ground. California is the only major oil producing state which does not have such a tax. This is a major looting of the state's wealth.
Let the March 4th committees maintain their fight for their program and methods and build further out of the success we will have on March 4th. Let us also approach and become involved with the struggle for the California Democracy Act and as we seek to convince these people to involve themselves with the March 4th committees seek also to convince them to adopt a program such as was passed in Oregon plus tax oil and gas where it comes out of the ground. The California capitalists can be thrown onto the defensive by such a campaign. They have been using this undemocratic two thirds law to loot the state. This must stop. They are not paying any significant taxes because they are protected by the two thirds undemocratic law. The March 4th movement should go for a united front with the California Democracy Act movement on this basis. This California democracy Act movement should be invited to speak at all the March 4th committee events and join the March 4th committees.
As we put forward this alternative we have to take up the capitalist mass media. they will launch a vicious campaign to support the two thirds undemocratic law. We must point out their interests in the outcome. The owners of the mass media would have to pay more taxes. But also we must campaign for any debate and coverage in the media on this issue to have equal numbers of contributors from the pro California Democracy Act and the pro tax the rich opinion as would be there from the other view. This is not to say there will be much chance of getting such an equal coverage but it must be fought for to expose the undemocratic nature of the whole system.
The organizers of this blog are socialists. We believe that we can only solve the problems of society through ending capitalism and establishing democratic socialism on a world scale. We explain this in our publications and intervention in the movement in California and wherever we intervene. We also seek to build a socialist organization which can help lead a movement to end capitalism. We appeal to our readers to join us.
But we understand we are in a united front in California and we are building this and we understand that in a united front the task is to bring the greatest number of people together against the capitalist offensive on a program and with methods which confront that offensive. We will continue as a priority to work with our Comrades in this movement and discuss the issue of the need yes to struggle for socialism and develop our socialist identity while at the same time to build a united front which can bring the greatest number of people into confrontation with the capitalist offensive and in this way help the greatest number of people learn the greatest number of lessons and through their own actions have the greatest affect on changing their lives for the better as we struggle for socialism.
Sean.
1 comment:
We need to be informed by writing like this every day.it is as essential as eating lunch.we have to discuss political ideas that leads us to fairness all the time.
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