Will Harris and Walz Save Us From Capitalism's War on Workers

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

HEO/GED

8-08-24

 

The US mass media constantly reminds us of our favored nation status as the world’s leading democracy and champion of human rights. Newsworthy soundbites about the violence and fear that others face simply exercising the right to vote are not uncommon and we get a daily reminder of this with regard to Venezuela and other victims of US aggression.

 

But the 2024 national elections in the US are taking place in an atmosphere of fear and apprehension as well; one might even say a frenzy. It is not the disastrous US health care system, or lack of it, that takes hundreds of thousands of lives every year, or gun violence, housing, the devastating effect of climate change or the Zionist genocide in Palestine. Nor is it the fear of hordes of economic refugees flooding the southern US that is the source of this anxiety; it is the fear of another four years of the degenerate Donald Trump.

 

The mood had been particularly somber up until now as it became increasingly  likely Trump would defeat the bumbling Joe Biden and end up in the White House for a second term. Myself, along with millions of other Americans, thought it likely.

 

But, and as a confirmation of the volatile and unpredictable nature of the present period, within a few weeks of Biden’s forced withdrawal (major donors played a big part here) the mood has shifted considerably in the other direction amid a gasp of relief, and hundreds of millions of dollars has flowed in to the Kamala Harris/ Tim Walz ticket. The mood is almost ecstatic right now. As a consequence, I think it likely that Trump will lose in November. Incidentally, as I write I get a text message from Barak Obama via “Forward Blue”.  “Tuning out is not an option” it reads, and could I, “rush” a $15 donation to “HUMILIATE Trump”.

 

Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting voting for Trump or that workers should not be concerned about a Trump presidency. Trump is not only a nasty character personally, a liar, a sexual deviant, a lazy man that has never done a hard day’s work. His rhetoric and whipping up of racial animosity and xenophobia has given extreme right wing elements that have a long time presence in US society a voice. He has emboldened them to come out in to the open.  He is an open racist and without a doubt no friend of women or women’s rights winning over right wing Evangelical Christian elements on the abortion issue.  There is cause for concern.

 

For those desperate enough to vote for a politician who supports an ongoing genocide in order to keep Trump out; the reasoning goes something like this.: If Trump is elected, he will impose a Putin like autocratic rule as soon as he enters the Oval Office. We will lose our democratic rights, our unions will be smashed and an autocracy so powerful will make it almost impossible to organize workers at all. Fascism is on the doorstep with a Trump presidency.

 

This is the unfortunate situation in which workers find ourselves. It’s not new. Every election cycle we are told by the trade union hierarchy and the liberal establishment represented by the Democratic Party, that we must vote Democratic or we’ll end up with the “other” party and things will be much, much worse. Anyone that doesn’t vote Democrat in this instance is voting for Trump. We call it the lesser of two evils syndrome and it is a decision we are faced with every four years.

This strategy was confirmed this week when the Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris was speaking at a rally in Detroit. Prior to the rally, she met briefly with the founders of the Uncommitted National Movement, a group of Democrats that led a mass vote protesting US President Joe Biden’s support for the genocide in Gaza during the swing state’s February primary. In the mass media in the US this is traditionally referred to as “Anti-Israel” protests as neither Ms Harris nor most of the members of the US Congress, accept the ICJ’s ruling that Israel is committing genocide.

It’s likely many of these may have been Arab or Palestinian Americans and some protestors at the rally chanted, “Kamala, you can’t hide, we won’t vote for genocide.” When it appeared they wouldn’t cease Harris responded, “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” There you have it.

I will not be voting for Kamala Harris. For one thing she is committed to arming and funding the Zionist state and has not condemned the genocide or supported the rulings of the ICJ. She defends Israel’s genocide in Gaza repeating the much used claim that Israel has a right defend itself despite the fact that under international law, an occupying power is not defending itself when it is crushing the resistance of the occupied.

Also, I am very familiar with Harris’ opportunistic rise in national politics from her time as an assistant DA here in Oakland Ca to State Senator and now a candidate for president of the US with a real chance of winning. It would be an historic victory as she would be the first woman of color, the first Asian, the first woman of African heritage and so forth. All these secondary features are touted as an example of how progressive she must be and why we should vote for her, other than keeping Trump out of course. Plus, she picked another progressive white male to strengthen her links to the white middle class liberal elements. Identity politics is rampant in the US.

I have numerous differences with this this whole scenario.

Firstly, given the very opportunistic nature of Trump who would join the Communist Party if it benefited him financially, it is impossible to say for sure what he will do. He backed tracked on Tik Tok, he criticized the Arizona attack on abortion rights as going too far; he says something one minute then contradicts it the next depending on the pushback. But let’s say those genuine folks who take him at his word are right and Trump attempts to introduce dramatic measures curbing civil rights, attacking unions, rounding up immigrants and so on and pledges to bring fascism to America.

Do they honestly believe that the Democratic Party is our best defence against this scenario or that it will save us from Fascism? Is it likely the Democratic Party will lead the charge against the right wing agenda?  What this amounts to politically is arguing that there is a progressive wing of the US capitalist class that will defend workers and on whom we can rely to defend our material well-being. But that has not been the case under very favorable conditions and is highly unlikely to be the case under far more aggressive circumstances.

The genocide in Gaza is an offensive of capital, a defence of a European colonial settler state in the Middle East. Kamala Harris, and others in her party have defended this brutal slaughter, have supported a genocide happening as I write, have armed and financed the perpetrators giving them $18 billion dollars in 2024 alone. We only have to remind ourselves of the role of this party domestically. Do we really think a Harris/Walz administration will have our backs?

Barely a year ago the Democrats, in a favourable period for them politically, joined with Republicans in Congress in passing emergency legislation denying US workers the right to strike. A lot of blood was shed for that right. This forced rail workers to accept a contract they had already rejected through the democratic process.

Organizing unions, genuine unions that will take on the capitalist offensive and use the social power workers have to win what we need to live a decent life, protect the environment and cease US imperialism’s never ending wars, will not be tolerated by the Harris/Walz team. As the rail worker issue showed, when it comes to profits, workers’ rights be damned.

The split in the AFL-CIO that led to the Change to Win Coalition in 2005 was about increasing membership in order to get more Democrats elected in to office; this is the failed strategy of the bureaucracy atop organized labor. There were no major differences over program, strategy and in particular, the Team Concept which ties organized labor to the bosses as both members of the same team. The labor hierarchy’s continued support for the Democratic Party is the Team Concept in the political sphere and will always lead to betrayals as the Democratic Party will always bail capitalism out when it goes in to crisis and profits are threatened.

If Trump takes steps towards such measures are we to suppose there will be no blowback?  Rounding up immigrants alone, and most of them will be brown people, workers from Mexico and Central America, could well ignite a serious internal war as there are millions of Latinos in the US, some 20% of the population are Latino or Hispanic.

The Mexican population alone accounts for 30% of California’s  population, 40% if we add other nationalities. And California is the 6^th largest economy in the world with 12% or so of US GDP. The Los Angeles Federation of Labor has over 800,000 workers affiliated to it, many will be Latino. The fear that Trump will round up immigrants just as he wishes (who is undocumented and who isn’t is a task unto itself.) is overrated though Democrats, will undoubtedly stoke those fears.

There is tremendous  anger and disgust with the two Wall Street parties that lies beneath the surface of US society. It is expressed more often than not through self harm, drug addiction, senseless violence or an obsession with religion, gender and other forms of identity politics. It is this feeling of isolation and despair that the right wing forces appeal to but in the event of a wider revolt of workers against the capitalist offensive along class lines that would occur if the state tried to physically round up million of so-called aliens, that anger is just as likely to be expressed through working class unity and anger at the rich and the system that has been festering for decades.

I am an optimist, but I’m not a dreamer. I base my optimism in reality which means I accept there are dangers. But we must not lose sight of the fact that the US mass media, the political establishment, and the trade union hierarchy in one way or another magnifies theses dangers while stressing the weakness of organized labor in the face of the corporate assault. The US working class has been driven back but there is increased resistance both inside and outside organized labor. It serves the interests of the ruling class and its media and political parties to tout the strength of the right, the weakness of workers organized and unorganized, as they promote fear of fascism and race war.

But there is an overwhelming resistance to racist ideas in the US. There are so many examples of it. Why would a right wing character like the guy that owns Starbucks close all his stores for a day to have a phony session with his workers on racism. If racism was so entrenched he wouldn’t care? That same store is also losing hundreds of millions of dollars due to a boycott based on the opposition to the Zionist genocide, the genocide that Kamala Harris supports.

Just recently, the Republican Party leaders warned against attacking Kamala Harris on sexist or racial grounds as it will hurt Trump’s chances of a victory in November. “This election will be about policies and not personalities,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.  That is a clear recognition that such attacks are not supported by a significant section of society. If white workers were all racists, anti-abortion and supporters of the far right, why would Republican leaders worry about Trump’s nasty mouth.  But he can’t help himself and they know it.

In 2016, almost 100 million people refused to vote. The disgust with the two parties of capital is at an all-time high and the era of the domination of these parties over US political life is over.  

You don’t have to vote for the Democrat. You can vote Green, have a write in or write Labor Party as I used to do rather than support the lesser of the two evils. If you are active in a union, you should be raising this issue, that we need a party of our own. Write resolutions, raise the idea with others; build links with working class community organizations, renters rights groups environmental activists and so on and at all times internationally. At union conferences build links with like minded people and build some momentum for this alternative. This alone will have a better chance of restraining the capitalist offensive than placing one’s future and the future of our children and grandchildren in the hands of the Democratic Party.