Roosevelt's New Deal Had Its Roots in Working Class Power

I don't take notes of any substance on these things and I try to keep them short so I can sometimes forget something I'd planned on mentioning or I run out of time.  But I wanted to add one thing with regard to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

There is no doubt she is refreshing and no wimp. It is good to see someone who has not yet been molded and adopted the staged, boring persona of the present body politic. I can't say I have no hope for her at this point or I'm certain where she'll end up, but it is not looking good. She did not have to vote for the multi-millionaire Pelosi for speaker. It is evident so far that she does not see the working class as the force for change society and the only force for change. She has not championed direct action and mass action including strikes, occupations and workers relying on our own strength and instead likens herself to the US capitalist politician Franklin Roosevelt. She has not pointed to the strategy and tactics used by the teachers/educators last year which included violating the anti-worker laws against strikes and stressed that we must build on what the teachers/educators began. She has not to my knowledge suggested that workers need our own party.

These are all reasons that are valid criticism and that she is instead trying to rise up out of her class than rising up with it. But what is certain and what socialists, union activists and all those seeking to change society for the better must unconditionally do, is to defend her against the vicious, crude attacks on her character by the present misogynists, racist, social scum that find their way in to the ranks of the present body politic.

During the debates I wrote a blog post in defense of Hillary Clinton as she faced some of the most vile attacks on her as a woman. Many working class males who listen to the right wing garbage that goes for news or social commentary in our society also fell prey to the sexism that exists and attacked her on gender terms. Every woman knows this to be true.

I received some comments that wondered why I would defend this war monger which is what she is. But I was not defending her as a war monger. To attack her as a women is harmful to working class unity because all women will experience what she experience. In fact, the US ruling class is so degenerate and rotten, the sexism and racism gets worse the higher up we go. It is the crushing weight of institutionalized sexism and racism that bears most heavily on people, education, health care, jobs, the justice system, you name it. It's not the day to day interaction with individuals