Working people want and need jobs. US capitalism and its politicians , addicted to profit, ignore them.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are swamping the US elections. The majority of these are coming from anonymous capitalist bribers and going to the Republican Party. But huge amounts are also going to the Democratic Party. Using their unelected non democratic stooges on the supreme court the US capitalists have now seen to it that they can bribe the politicians without their identity being known. They have made legal what was once illegal. The US is not a democratic society. It is utterly corrupt. Its political system is based on bribery.
On top of that the capitalists own all the mass media, censor the news and control and set the curriculum for the education system. Then there is the set up where all votes are not of equal value. The thirty million population of California elects two Senators while the less than one million in Delaware also elects two Senators. This is entirely corrupt and undemocratic.
The result of the bribery and gerrymandering is that US workers can see no alternative. This is a central reason why there is so much violence, so much mental and psychological tension in US society, the rise of the nutty groups such as the Tea Bag movement, the fact that the US with only 5% of the world's population has 25% of the world's prison population, a central reason for all these ills is that the majority of working class people know there is something wrong, are increasingly in difficult circumstances, are seriously suffering, but can see no way to do anything about it.
The reason they can see no alternative is because of the role of the union leaders. These leaders control the unions. There are over twelve million members in the unions. These organizations are the basis on which an alternative can be built. The millions of members, the millions of dollars they give to the Democratic Party, the tens of thousands of full time staff and the hundreds of thousands of union activists and delegates they provide to the Democratic Party, this is the base instead for an alternative to the present situation.
Along with that the union leaders allow the capitalists to set the agenda. All discussion in elections is about how capitalism works and how working class people can fit into its needs. That is fit into its need for more and more profit. The first thing the union leaders have to do is break from this approach. Reject the idea that the capitalist way is the only way and instead start from what their members need, what all working class people need and organize the unorganized and build a working peoples party to fight for this. They have to end their abject acceptance of capitalism and their unquestioning bootlicking support of the Democratic Party.
This country is ripe for change. It is crying out for change. Working class people are desperate for change. But not the con artist claim of the Republicans and Democrats about change. Both these capitalist parties represent only more of the same. The agenda must be changed and people given an alternative. No to the demands of capitalism for more and more profits and for their continued control of the economy and politics. Instead yes for working class people to control the economy and society. Over 35% of Americans in a recent poll said they favored socialism over capitalism. And this is when there is no mass force campaigning for socialism. The potential for changing this country exists right now. But the logjam that is the union leaders had to be tackled. The left and all activists have to take this up.
But also the left and all activists have to look at the moat in their own eyes. We have to recognize that left sectarianism and ultra leftism are major problems in the left which prevent us building a substantial movement for change. We have to discuss these problems and tackle them, and develop united front action which can connect with the existing consciousness of the working class to combine our forces to build an independent fighting workers movement against capitalism.
Part of such a campaign should be addressing this issue of the bribery of the US political system. The union leaders should announce that they will no longer spend their members money in this way. Instead mobilize their millions of members into political action and to build a mass working peoples party. This mass mobilizing approach is our strength. The labor movement should campaign for a law to prevent any contribution to any politician or political party being over $10.00. And that all contributors have to be identified. Linked to this that any contribution to any organization which contributes to political causes, would be no more than $10.00 and that all contributors would have to be identified. The alternative working peoples party and campaigns can be built on the involvement of the working class in action in their workplaces, their communities, their schools and colleges and their maximum ten dollar contributions. When the working class movement has millions of activists on the ground, millions of activists taking strike and mass action, then they do not need the hundreds of millions of dollars the capitalist parties need, they do not need the secrecy, both of which are used to corrupt the system.
On a final detail which shows the movement that will explode in this country in the coming period. Capitalism is very over confident that they can continue to rob working class people and get away with it. They are making a serious mistake. More people than ever before, 40 million, are now on food stamps. The Republicans in their arrogance are condemning this. The Democratic controlled Congress have cut $11.9 billion off the food stamp program. The Senate are planning to cut another $2.2 billion. Incredible arrogance and over confidence.
People are getting very mad. This will take a positive political form some time in the future. The union leaders should lead. The left and activists should press them to lead and as they do so challenge their own left sectarianism and ultra leftism and build a united front movement which can draw into action millions of workers to fight what is going on and provide an alternative. The opportunity to build an alternative is here. And as US capitalism gets further into economic crisis, further bogged down in its wars in the Middle East and Central Asia and as its military increasingly goes into crisis the opportunity will increase.
Sean.
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