Democratic Socialists of America: Support for Sanders a major mistake.

Labor Day 2017 Oakland CA. Photo by Alex Chis

by Sean O'Torain
Member DSA

There is a saying in working class politics that the art of revolution is the ability to combine analysis of the objective situation with subjective action. In plainer language, this means having the ability to understand what is taking place in the world and how socialists, in this case we in DSA, should act to further our aim of replacing capitalism with socialism. Against this background I would like to comment on the DSA’s decision to endorse Sanders as the Democratic Party candidate for president in 2020. Let me say right off the bat that I believe this is a major mistake which will damage DSA and the struggle of the working class. Let me also say that this should not be the end of the story for DSA. This decision can be changed. There was no comprehensive discussion in the DSA on this issue and the various alternatives. I would like to suggest a different alternative.

First I would like to make some comments on the objective situation. Capitalism is in a major crisis. Economically its period of slow growth will end soon and very possibly in a major slump. As this unfolds it will combine with the extreme inequality to fuel explosive movements of the working class. Capitalism through climate change is threatening life on earth as we know it and if capitalism continues it will wipe out the human species. Climate change is already fueling movements worldwide. There is also the fact that capitalism is a system of war and there are more than sufficient numbers of nuclear weapons to end life on Earth as we know it.  These fundamental contradictions of capitalism, these threats to life on earth as we know it, and to the existence of the human species, are what lies at the root of the political crises of just about all the traditional political parties in the US and internationally and the rise of new political forces. 

In the US, this process of the desire for a new political alternative is at work. Recent polls found that 57% of Americans want a new political party rather than the Republicans and Democrats, and in the last election, close to 100 million people chose not to vote for either of the two capitalist parties. While traditional parties throughout the capitalist world are in crisis because of the crisis of capitalism, the rejection of the established parties in the US has a particular twist to it. 

US capitalism, US Imperialism, has been the dominant force in the capitalist world for the past 100 years. This has allowed it to loot the rest of the capitalist world, and from this loot to make concessions to sufficient sections of its own working class to allow it to maintain relative class peace, its two capitalist party monopoly and its capitalist system.  The workers’ movement of the 1930’s and the black revolt and women’s movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s forced concessions from US capitalism. These concessions were made in such a way as to maintain the discrimination against and the special oppression of racial and other minorities and women. This has allowed US capitalism to continue with its divide and rule strategy.  However, this period when US capitalism ruled the capitalist world and could make concessions to sufficient sectors of the working class at home to ensure relative class peace and its own rule has ended. 

The particular twist to the crisis of the traditional parties in the US is because US capitalism, US Imperialism, as it goes deeper into crisis, can no longer afford to maintain its worldwide military, political and diplomatic presence, its hundreds of military bases abroad and at the same time allow significant sections of the US working class to live at the bearable standard of living they experienced in the post World War 11 decades.

Starting with Reagan and the firing of the striking Air Traffic Controllers, US capitalism, US imperialism, has been carrying out an offensive against the US working class. This is how it seeks to solve the crisis of its inability to continue to afford to play their world role. That is, they intend to take the cost of its world role out of the hide of the US working class. This looting of its own working class has taken place, is taking place, under both its capitalist parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. What this means is that the two capitalist party monopoly in the US no longer has the economic basis to maintain itself. The era of the two capitalist party monopoly in the US has come to an end. 

This new period that has opened up could have seen the rise of a mass working class party. However, this has not happened because the leadership of the trade union movement with its 14 million members supports capitalism and from this position it clings on to and props up the capitalist Democratic Party. In doing so it crushes any movement in the direction of a mass workers or labor party. One example of this was its action which wrecked the Labor Party Advocates. 

Because of this pro capitalist role of the trade union leadership, instead of leading to a mass workers’ or Labor Party the economic crisis in which US capitalism, US imperialism, finds itself  has led to the end to the two capitalist party monopoly in the US taking the form of the crisis in the Republican Party which has been captured by the corrupt and stupid Trump. Increasing numbers of the more conscious capitalist elements are leaving that party or at least considering an alternative. This process will accelerate when the present economic growth comes to an end.

The ending of the two capitalist party monopoly is also being reflected in the increasing division  within the Democratic Party, the increased difference between the wing that  wishes to make some reforms to capitalism and the conscious determined pro capitalist leadership, the Schumer’s and the Pelosi’s and co, which dominates that party. Out of this, two different parties are likely to develop at some stage. It is very likely that if not in 2020 then very soon thereafter, the US electorate will be faced with a number of major pro capitalist candidates and parties offering their view of how US capitalism, US Imperialism, should be managed.

There are two dominant political features in the objective situation in the US at this time. One is as stated, that US capitalism, US imperialism, can no longer afford its world role and maintain sufficient sections of its own working class at a level that allows them to support or at least tolerate capitalism. The other major development in the US objective situation which is either not understood or is deliberately ignored by most political opinion including left political opinion, is the significant increase in the objective strength of the US working class.  US capitalism has strengthened its own potential gravedigger. 

One of the reasons for the strengthening of the working class over the past 70 years is that capitalism has expanded its reach over the entire US territory. Plants have moved or been set up in the south and west partly to get away from areas where the trade unions had more of a presence. One result has been an increase in the numbers of the working class and another has been an increasing diversity of the working class with people of all racial backgrounds working together and also women entering the paid workforce as never before.

At the same time, fewer and fewer corporations dominate the US economy. Small businesses and family farms have been decimated and been replaced by huge corporations. One example is where Mom and Pop diners with one or two workers at most in each have been replaced by Starbucks, by MacDonald’s etc., with hundreds of thousands of workers. Think also about Walmart and how many small, family owned and operated stores it has replaced, or Home Depot and how many family owned and operated hardware stores it has replaced. All these developments have increased the size of the working class in absolute terms and also in relation to the other classes. This process has brought hundreds of thousands of workers together wearing similar uniforms pushing similar buttons on similar machines. In manufacturing, in agriculture, in retail the middle class has been decimated and the working class has been strengthened in numbers and also by being brought together working for a smaller number of corporations.

There has also been the rise of high tech with the new workforces. The top five corporations in the US today in terms of market value are all based on the new technology in some form or another. While sections of these workforces such as in Silicon Valley are well paid there have already been signs of organizing amongst coders and also more generally in sectors depending on the new technology and the Internet. There have been signs of organizing at Amazon and even Uber and the recent strike of Uber drivers. The so-called gig economy will increasingly be faced with its employees moving to organize and act collectively. Of course most of the low paid workers who make high tech possible are in countries like China Vietnam etc. However in these countries also the new working classes are beginning to show themselves and this in turn will have positive effects on the US working class.  

These developments in the US along with the black revolt of the 1950’s and 1960’s, the women’s revolt, etc have resulted in the working class being more integrated, more diverse than ever before. Women have entered the paid workforce as never before. This has strengthened the working class and is also a major factor in the rising of the women that is taking place.

The US working class is bigger in numbers than ever before. It is bigger relative to the other classes in society than ever before.  It is more integrated than ever before. This major objective factor has to be taken into account when the DSA looks to the future, and how our 50,000 plus membership should act. But it is not only that the US working class is bigger than ever before, more integrated than ever before but also the US working class is more disenchanted with the US system than any time in recent history. The large percentages in opinion polls that favor socialism over capitalism have to be noted and conclusions drawn.  This increased support for socialism, even if many are not clear what socialism is, exists when no major political party is campaigning for socialism and when the trade union leadership strongly oppose it, both by never mentioning it and making clear they support capitalism, and also by suppressing socialist opinions and organizations in its ranks. 

This is the objective situation in which DSA’s remarkable growth has taken place. For those who say that nothing has changed in US society and we have to continue supporting the “lesser of the two evils” by this they mean the Democratic Party and in this case Sanders; these comrades have to answer the following question. How do you explain that the DSA has grown from around 5,000 members to over 50,000 members in a couple of years? The explosive growth of the DSA itself proves that we are in a new period in the USA. The objective situation has changed and the working class is stronger in numbers and diversity and the capitalist system is weaker and the crisis of its political parties is a reflection of these developments. This then poses the following question to DSA – in light of these changes why is DSA heading into the 2020 election propping up a Democrat for President and therefore propping up the two capitalist party monopoly? 

Why are we acting as if nothing has changed? This is what we are doing by supporting Sanders for the Democratic nomination and inevitably if he wins the nomination supporting him for President. How could DSA not support Sanders for President after supporting him for the nomination. The decision to support sanders has not been thought through. One of the tasks of a party that wishes to changes things is to, as the phrase goes, base itself on foresight rather than being astonished. Supporting Sanders has the potential to seriously mass working class alternative more difficult at least in the initial stages.

Every Democratic candidate for the Presidential nomination, including Sanders, supports capitalism.  He hedges when asked is he a socialist as he does not want to lose the support of the many young people who mistakenly believe he is a socialist. Sanders supports US capitalism, and its imperialist foreign policy. He just wants to try and make the system a little less unequal and unfair and regulate it a bit more. Capitalism can never be fair as it is based on the unpaid labor of the working class.  Sanders is not even the candidate for the Democratic nomination who has the most serious and far-reaching plan for regulating capitalism and trying to make it a little less unfair.

Elizabeth Warren has a much more serious program for this. She also leads on things like getting rid of the undemocratic Electoral College. This is not to suggest we should support Warren just to point out Sander’s support for capitalism, as is the case with all the candidates for the Democratic Party nomination. Warren is at least honest and openly states she supports capitalism but as she says “with rules”. 

I would like to suggest that DSA open up a serious democratic discussion on its support for Sanders. A discussion looking at the points I raise above. The DSA today exists in a period of enormous change. In the near future there will be an economic downturn possibly a slump and this will lead to explosive movements in the streets and cities and workplaces of the USA. There will be more and more climate change and pollution disasters which will add even greater impetus to the already developing movement against climate change. There will be continuing wars and with this will come discontent in the military. Forty per cent of the US military are presently minorities or women. There will also be continued and increasing movements to oppose racism and sexism. This is the time for a bold initiative by the DSA. We are the largest left group in the US we must recognize that the objective situation is one that is ripe for change, one which is already changing and we should act accordingly. This is not the time to cling on to supporting Sanders as if the US is the same as it has been for the past century. 

This is a challenging time for the DSA. It is also a time of great opportunity. And for DSA, as the largest socialist group in the USA, it is also a time of great responsibility.  If we take a bold initiative now we can affect the objective situation and help change US political life and offer a way forward for the working class. If we do not we can be seriously damaged as the mood for change will express itself one way or another. Imagine if Sanders wins the nomination and he gets elected president. He will be hit by one capitalist crisis after another with the economy, the environment as climate change continues and the increasing threat of war. Sanders response will be to prop up capitalism, help it out of its predicament at the expense of workers living standards and the environment. Imagine what this will do to the DSA if we are seen to have helped elect him

In other countries we see the rise of right wing parties mainly because no serious mass left parties exist.  The task facing the DSA is to help build a mass socialist alternative for the US working class. By supporting Sanders we would not be facing up to our responsibility of helping develop a mass working class socialist alternative, an independent working class movement, a mass socialist party based in the working class. 

To this end I suggest that DSA recognizes that there was no real discussion on the different alternatives for the DSA in terms of 2020. Being asked whether or not to support Sanders is not a discussion. It is a head count. I suggest that DSA withdraws its support for Sanders and organize a discussion which takes into account the changed situation in the USA and the opportunities for a major change.

We in the DSA should see the run up to and the 2020 elections as an opportunity to make our case for socialism. That is, for taking into public ownership under working class control and management the major corporations that dominate the US economy. That DSA expand our position on climate change to propose the taking of the energy industry out of private ownership and as with all other major sectors of the economy be taken into public ownership and be developed not for profit but on the basis of need and sustainability and a democratic socialist plan. 

The collective power and collective brain of the working class expressing itself through democratic structures on an international basis, this is the way to have a future for the planet, for life on earth, for the human species. Not the profit addicted system that is run by war criminals, and crooks and people blind to the reality that their system, capitalism, and their decisions are leading humanity towards destruction. This capitalist class both in the US and internationally have proven that they cannot run the planet. They must be replaced.    

On this basis, we in DSA can reach out to the working class and the youth. Mobilize our 50,000 plus members to go to the rank and file of the union locals, the workplaces, the working class communities, the schools and colleges and campaign for our socialist alternative. And on this basis build “Socialists for 2020” committees or some such name. And after a defined time basing ourselves on these bodies, convene a conference to select candidates for President and Vice President in 2020. Whether this candidate is run under DSA’s name or a more general title such as Socialist Candidate or Workers Party candidate can be decided when it is seen how the campaign develops.  But DSA should take the initiative now to set this process in motion. That is, to help give an alternative to capitalism and one which is in the interests of the US and international working class.  

The struggle against capitalism is the struggle for the consciousness of the working class. Capitalism understands this. It uses all its resources to convince the working class that it cannot build a new society, that in fact, it does not even exist as a separate class. The US is one of the few advanced economies where the term middle class is used to describe workers. This is not an accident. 

Unfortunately capitalism is helped in this suppression of any reference to the working class as a class, by the various forces that base themselves on identity politics. These politics deny the existence of the working class and the centrality of the class struggle.  Capitalism uses all its resources to falsely explain that capitalism is the only possible system ignoring the historical materialist record of previous existing societies such as collective tribal societies, slavery, feudalism and now capitalism.  Elections are one arena where the struggle for the consciousness of the working class takes place. DSA should use our resources to put forward the working class and a socialist alternative to the criminals and gangsters of the capitalist class and their capitalist system,  DSA should openly campaign for democratic international socialism as the alternative to capitalism.  

I can hear the objections. But if DSA helps build a movement that puts a socialist working class based candidate on the ballot in 2020 this will let Trump win again. This is by no means certain. Trump might not even be on the ballot in 2020 with all the crimes that are hanging over his head. But this is to miss the point. There will most likely be more than two major capitalist candidates running in 2020. Also those who use this argument, which is basically to vote for the lesser of two evils, did not have much success with their strategy in 2016. Their strategy was one of the reasons Trump is in the White House. But the fundamental point is that change for the better in US society, whether on issues such as those facing working class people, or those facing minorities and women have been won on the streets and in the workplaces through mass action not the ballot box or the courts. These capitalist bodies only ratified the changes that were forced by mass action.

It is by such mass action that the present offensive of capitalism will be thrown back if it is to be thrown back. That is by mass action not electoral politics.  DSA Comrades we have to see the lead up to and the coming election as a fight for the consciousness and the organizing of the working class as an independent anti-capitalist force. We should see this period where our responsibility is to help build a mass working class movement against capitalism and one which reaches out to the working class internationally. Supporting Sanders is an obstacle to building such a movement. It is important to remember what happened last time with Sanders. He ended up supporting Clinton and one third of those who voted for him as the nominee ended up voting for Trump. 

I can also hear the voices saying that DSA acting to put a socialist working class based candidate on the ballot as an alternative is the raving of a lunatic. It has never worked before. Well just look at a couple of examples to see the thirst and the opportunity for change, things that have never happened before. In the Ukraine a comedian won over 70% of the vote against the incumbent. In Chicago an African American gay woman won 70% of the run off vote for mayor. In Chicago there was a low turn out it is true. This is explained by the fact that on the major issues important to US capitalism she is a traditional right wing capitalist candidate. She even refused to support taxing the speculators in the Chicago Stock Market and Board of trade. 

While taking this action on the political front it is important that we in DSA integrate this work with helping to build coalitions of action, or united fronts of action on all the major issues - the economy, wages, jobs, health care, defense of public education, the environment, climate change, racism, sexism, state violence, mass incarceration, etc. Especially explain and seek to build coalitions on climate change in the rank and files of every union local, in every workplace, every community, every school and college, the rank and file of every section of the military. 

The building of such coalitions of action, of such united fronts of action, should be integrated with our campaign for a socialist alternative in 2020. These coalitions need not be based on socialist programs but on opposing through mass action in every area where the capitalist offensive is hurting the working class, minorities and women. Within these coalitions or united fronts we in DSA can help develop in a non sectarian and democratic manner a revolutionary socialist current while at the same time supporting the anti capitalist program for the coalitions, the united fronts themselves.

This is the best way in which to bring together the greatest numbers to oppose the capitalist offensive and in these struggles more and more people will come to conclude that capitalism must be ended. Groups like Black Lives Matter, like the climate change groups, the movements defending public education, like the Moral Monday, can be brought together on this basis.

A very important front on which we in DSA have to fight as we mobilize for 2020 is in the trade unions and in organizing in the workplaces. A new period has opened up in this area. In 2018 there were twenty major strikes involving 485,000 workers, that is almost half a million. This was the highest in 33 years. This new movement was kicked off and headed by the Teachers and Educators movements and strikes in states like Kentucky, Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado, West Virginia, North Carolina and others. These strikes involved unionized and non unionized workers and were organized by new activists in many cases using social media and also in all cases these strikes and this organizing was against the wishes of the existing trade union leadership who because of their pro capitalist policies cooperate with the bosses in cutting workers living standards and spending on public education.  “Controlled Retreat” the trade union leaders call it. A more accurate description is surrender.

We in DSA must recognize the importance of this new development. It is one way that the new union movement will develop and how workers will organize and also shows how the trade union leadership will oppose these new movements unless they control them and keep them within their pro capitalist control.  We in DSA have to be clear which side we are on in this new movement – on the side of the rank and file or on the side of the existing and pro capitalist leadership. Unfortunately our leadership in DSA has contracted out the guidance of our union work to groups such as Labor Notes. This group and others refuse to point out the role of the trade union leadership refuse to explain that it is the pro capitalist policies of this leadership which results in their capitulation to the bosses.

We in DSA should link our work preparing for 2020 to the rising movements such as the Teachers and Educators, support these movements, support their methods of organizing and seek to draw them into our campaign for a working class alternative in 2020. We should help spread these movements and their methods throughout the working class and help organize the unorganized  and help turn the existing trade unions into democratic and fighting and anti capitalist forces. We should seek to build these movements into our work for a working class alternative in 2020.

On a final note DSA must recognize that there are no solutions to the major issues threatening human society either on a capitalist basis or on a national basis. The economic crisis, the climate and environmental crisis, the social crisis, the threat of war, none of these can be resolved on a national or a capitalist basis. DSA should take the steps suggested above and reach out not only to the US working class but also to the International working class. Only the collective power and the collective brain of the international working class can take the world economy and the human species out of capitalist hands and organize a society based on genuine democracy. That is the democracy of the majority that is the working class and not the “democracy” of the minority the capitalist class, and based on collective ownership and workers control and management of the dominant sectors of the US and world economy and on a democratic socialist and sustainable and planned world.  

Further reading on this: Labor and DSA Leadership Ignores the Mood, Offers No Alternative in 2020