The US Congress is Working as it Should. But not for you.

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

GED/HEO

9-24-21

 

If you wonder at the level of disgust in the US political system and hatred of politicians in general that most of the US workers and middle class have, you have to look no further than the fiasco in Congress at the moment around the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. The bill passed in the US Senate with bipartisan support and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised to bring it up in the House by September the 27^th.

 

Sounds simple enough.

 

The problem is that differences among Democrats in the House are threatening to block that vote. What are referred to as centrist Democrats are opposed to a $3.5 trillion social welfare bill that their party is discussing. This bill,  “would expand access to healthcare, offer universal prekindergarten and reduce carbon emissions, among other measures…” the Wall Street Journal reports. In addition to the spending, centrists are opposed to some of the tax increases also included in the bill in order to finance it. I have not read the bill but my guess is that the tax increases that they are opposing are those that affect big business.

 

Meanwhile, progressive Democrats in the House------ they call themselves “progressives” to avoid being called socialists even though some of them are Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members though you’d never know it-----are holding up this $1trillion infrastructure bill by refusing to vote on it unless the $3.5 trillion social welfare bill is passed.

 

Discussions between Democrats over the size of the $3.5 trillion bill are ongoing and according to reports in the mass media, could go on for weeks.

 

The Democratic Party power is pressing the left/progressives to make a deal with the centrists and pass the damn bill. Pramila Jayapal from Washington who is the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, warns that, “….. little short of passage of the bill in the Senate would be sufficient to persuade progressives to trust that moderates would ultimately support the climate and antipoverty bill.” She’s referring to the $3.5 trillion passing in the Senate.

 

Now this sounds a bit complicated but the $3.5 trillion bill is sitting in the Senate and can be passed by a simple majority vote as opposed to the 60 which is normally required for most legislation; the Democrats have a majority of one in the US Senate. If the agreed upon “reconciliation bill” is passed that allows this to occur. Jayapal claims this was agreed to by both parties. Phew! You’d almost need to be a lawyer to get through most of this stuff, and most of them are; those that aren’t get one.

 

The opposition to the $3.5 trillion social welfare bill is considerable among the run of the mill Democrats (centrists) one might call them. The top Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer, a Rep. from Maryland, is afraid that if the “progressives” hold out for the $3.5 trillion, the centrists hold firm, and Pelosi introduces the Senate infrastructure bill to the House as planned on Sept 27^th all is lost and the party fragmented even more. He’s applying some pressure to the liberals openly stating that if they hold out, he doesn’t believe the centrists will crumble. We can tell whose side he’s on and the centrists have made it clear they’d prefer both bills to go down (remember we’re talking about health care and social welfare here) than accept a $3.5 trillion price tag. It’s not defense spending after all which is more important for our health, meaning their financial wwell being.

 

I hope I have explained some of this process right and I am in complete sympathy with those brothers and sisters who have just given up and/or drawn the false conclusion that all politicians are crooks because politics itself is bad. I even have some sympathy, though not as much, with those workers that voted for Trump simply as a “f&%$k you gesture against the system. Believe me, I get it when you shrink from reading about the goings on in Congress as it’s boring and you simply don’t have time with your three jobs, overtime, child care and so on.

 

But here’s what we have to understand if we want to

(a) stay sane

(b) understand what is happening and why.

 

You see, this is not the government acting dysfunctionally. It is functioning exactly how it is was designed to function.

 

The US Congress, the government, or what we call the state, is an organ of class rule. It is a capitalist state. It is not a slave state or a feudal state. What I am describing above is the representatives of capitalism in the two most powerful capitalist parties on the planet, all arguing with one another about how best to govern society. What to produce and when. How to spend the wealth workers create and where to spend it. This is the function of these two parties and it would be that way if Lenin himself were in one of them.

 

Ohio 2020 Source The Nation

An Independent Party of the Working Class

Unlike most other advanced capitalist economies, we have not had a national party of our own in the US. Imagine if there was a real opposition in Congress with delegates from an independent working class party based on workers organizations in our communities as well as workplaces and the trade unions with their 14 million members. Delegates that could be recalled easily and on wages no higher than the workers in the communities they represent. Delegates that would or could appeal to the worker to use our power on the job as a tool of persuasion. As it is at the moment, the capitalist parties have no opposition. Either way, their candidate gets in.  With an independent alterative, they would have to consider what they do in the light of the fact that the electorate might move to this alternative.

 

In addition, a party of our own would change the balance of class forces in society. A party is different than a trade union and it would give us a place to fight, to actively participate in politics from trade to the environment and global relations; a place to challenge capital. It would change class consciousness.

 

This in itself is not enough. As I have said, the system is rigged, workers cannot make this system work in our interests. Yes we can win concessions from it at times. We built unions, we won the right to vote albeit from their candidates. We have national parks certain legislation that benefits us. Some of the most blatant open racism and sexism of the past is not possible today.

 

As a socialist I believe that we have to dismantle this system and build anew. But it is not enough that I have reached that conclusion, millions of American workers will have to draw that conclusion and hundreds of millions worldwide. I do not believe that happens overnight; but it can happen quite rapidly as the system descends further in to crisis and there are going to be some very hard lessons learned in the period ahead because no matter what happens in this present debate in Congress, I know it will be working class people, the poor and the middle classes of the world that will pay for this pandemic economy. International solidarity against global capitalism is key. We have no side in the battle between Chinese and US capitalists or any of them.

 

Generally, people rise up against a system of oppression, not with the understanding that we have to have revolutionary change. They confront the immediate and seek to change it, to reform it or make it better. But we cannot make capitalism better; it has reached the end of its history and can only end life on this planet not improve it. It has meant nothing but misery and abject poverty for the majority of the world’s people.

 

It is inevitable that as a movement develops it will find political expression and that political expression will be party of reform, this seems inevitable to me but, as I say, it can be short lived. We draw conclusions about the need for revolutionary change through the struggle for reform and when we experience defeat or blockage, then changing the system becomes an option. Revolutionary socialists, who have studied working class history and the successes and failures of past revolutions and movements, can play a positive role in the process if we are prepared not only to share this learning with other workers but most importantly listen and learn from their experiences as well.

 

Can we end up in racial wars, national wars, or a totalitarian system like the old Soviet Union. Of course we can. The Russian Revolution was the most important event for workers internationally, it’s important we familiarize ourselves with it and why it degenerated.

 

There’s one more conclusion we should familiarize ourselves with: Nothing is guaranteed in this world.