Mamdani Must Break From the Democrats, Sanders and AOC If He wants To Produce the Goods

Mamdani with Sanders and AOC. Not a good sign. Source

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retied
HEO/GED

10-27-25

 

I watched some clips of the last public debate between Andrew Cuomo who is now running as an independent, Zohran Mamdani, the Democrat and Republican Curtis Silwa, the main contenders in the New York City mayoral race. As of this writing, Mamdani is ahead of both Cuomo and Silwa. You can watch some clips of the debate and the blatant racism Mamdani faced in the debate here, from two New Yorkers who have a You Tube Channel called Due Dissidence.

 

As of this writing, Polls give Mamdani around 45% of the vote, ahead of his main rival, Andrew Cuomo, at roughly 30%, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican, between 15% and 20%.

 

I don’t intend to go in to the details of Mamdani’s platform but it is a mild reform platform and you can read more about it here. But the major NYC unions have endorsed him including SEIU, and AFSCME District Council 37, the largest union body in the city and a council of my former union. The New York Central Labor Council AFL-CIO has also endorsed Mamdani. It really looks like a Muslim immigrant could be the next mayor of one of the most important cities in the country and the world. So both New York and London England will have Muslim mayors; and both of them have to put up with racial abuse and the nastiness that emanates from the foul mouthed Donald Trump, the convicted felon and serial sexual abuser who is the President of the US.

 

When discussions about racism, sexism or any other issues relating to discrimination and the inequality in society are forced in to the open and reluctantly covered by the capitalist media, the general focus is on how backward and prejudiced the working classes are, particularly the white working class; it’s their fault. But, leaving aside Trump’s assault, watch that clip in the video I linked to and we see who the real racists are. I will tell you from my experience, and I worked with plenty of blue-collar white workers as that’s my background; such blatant racism, which couldn’t be obscured by their efforts to accuse Mamdani himself of being a racist and anti-semite, would not have been tolerated in my years as an activist in the trade union movement and my own local Afscme 444. 

 

Look at the response to Mamdani’s candidacy from the billionaires and multi- millionaires that, in truth, are the unelected rulers of the US. According to Forbes, “26 billionaires and members of billion-dollar families from around the country have sunk at least $100,000 each into supporting Cuomo…” In all, they have spent, “over $22 million to back opposition campaigns, flooding the airwaves and mailboxes of Big Apple residents with anti-Mamdani messages” Forbes adds.

 

Wow! What new Yorkers could do with $22 million.

 

Trump and others have threatened to deport Mamdani who said he’ll  arrest Israeli genocider Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York City in accordance with the ICJ ruling. What we can see here is that if a politician speaks to the needs of the working and middle classes of this country, they will win our support. In my union with overwhelmingly a male blue-collar membership, majority white, we had women, black, Latino and a lesbian president. I am not saying prejudiced ideas disappear overnight but we are drawn to those that fight for our interests and in the course of the struggle, we begin to see that prejudices, that are introduced in to society from the people that are opposing Mamdani, are against our material interests.

 

What Can Mamdani Accomplish?

 

And here is where we get to the nitty gritty as they say. It is refreshing to hear what Mamdani is saying, after all, he is standing up for working class people against the billionaires and the rich; he is tapping in to a real mood out there. And do not let the capitalist mass media fool you, there is a lot of anger against the wealthy in US society and a huge percentage of Americans want the government to do more for them. A Pew poll in 2021 found that 87% of Americans believed that the government should play a role in ensuring clean air and water; 64% said it should ensure health insurance for everyone and 43% said it should provide high speed Internet access. WSJ 8-13-14-22

 

A Gallup poll in 2023 found that, “Sixty-three percent of U.S. adults currently agree with the statement that the Republican and Democratic parties do ‘such a poor job’ of representing the American people that a third major party is needed.’” 

 

So there is no surprise that there was a great deal of excitement after Alexandra Ocasio Cortez defeated the machine Democrat, James Crowley, a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi, in the 2018 Congressional election. Cortez was calling for racial, generational and ideological changes as she took on the Democratic Party machine. She was an organizer for Bernie Sanders before her Congress run.

 

But she has joined the very machine she claimed to oppose. She is now a rising star in the Democratic Party with a bright future; she has betrayed them as far as working people are concerned.

 

But AOC’s (as she’s more familiarly known) betrayal is not due to character flaws. It’s not necessarily dishonesty either and many union leaders start off as militants or opposing the present union bureaucracy’s class collaboration campaigning around program that speaks to workers needs. What changes them?

Rooted in the Working Class

Mamdani is facing a powerful foe; the entire US ruling class. He cannot underestimate the degree the unelected rulers of the US will go to in order to preserve their position in society and keep the gravy train running. 

 

His first mistake is that he’s in the Democratic Party. This is the other billionaires party and the same billionaires that sat in the front row at Trump’s inauguration will be in the front row at some Democrat’s inauguration if that party wins the White House in 2028.

 

Believe me, I understand and sympathize with his position. On top of the animosity that comes from a mild reform platform that wants to bring some relief to working people, he is a Muslim, an immigrant, and brown skinned; they are using all of that against him. 

 

But he has already made a huge mistake having a private meeting with the Partnership for New York City, 350 member organization representing banks, law firms and corporations. 

 

I am a realist also. As an unpaid rank and file union official I met with my employers. I negotiated with my employers.  But myself and others in the leadership of our local union at the time were vociferous opponents of the Team Concept. This is the view that workers and bosses (union and management) are on the same team, we have the same economic interests. In the workplace it has many names, labor/management committees, quality of life circles, or interest based bargaining. It is a disaster for workers and is at the root of the betrayals and concessions the present heads of organized labor force on their members.

 

So when we meet with our class enemies we meet with them not as equal participants in the economy and politics of life but as opponents engaged in a struggle over influence in society. In the case of politics we are independent of the bosses, we are not on the same team intending to meet a happy compromise, or what I was once told is a win, win situation. There is no such thing. 

 

We meet independently of them and how well we fare is dependent on the balance of class forces; how well organized are we? How conscious are our troops? Are they organized to take direct action and use that most powerful of weapons to attain our immediate goals, shutting down economic activity and profit making to achieve these goals at least partially.

 

From what I understand, Mamdani requested the meetings with the guys spending millions to make him disappear. It’s clear he wants to convince them they will be safe. He said he wants to, “…work with the business community.”. But they do not want to work with him as things stand. They will work with him if he pledges to put their interests above those of the people who are presently supporting him

 

The last meeting was, according to the NY Times, behind closed doors with no news media present, and more than 100 executives attended. This is not a good sign and unless he retreats from this position, and the Democratic Party, he will end up in the same position as Sanders and AOC, part of the problem not a solution.

 

It’s impossible for one person like myself who is not on the ground in this situation to give an extensive opinion on strategy other than what I have already stated, but I can say this. Leaving aside the problem of being in the Democratic Party Mamdani has tremendous support and that support should be organized in to functioning groupings throughout the city and should spread beyond New York. 

They should not simply be a voting bloc and as far as meeting with the enemy that’s fine. But it should be in the open and rather than meeting with the corporate leaders in their offices they should be invited to meetings organized in the communities where they can put their ideas forward and Mamdani and his supporters theirs. Meeting the enemy on their terms is the beginning of the end for Mamdani.

 

Mamdani’s time would be better spent in the communities building community/ worker power and activity preparing to hurt the moneyed interests where it matters most---the pocket book. 

Fighting Oligarchy: Sanders Campaign For Vote Blue in 2028

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

HEO/GED

4-17-25

 

I was out walking the dog a while ago and passed a residence displaying a flag I didn’t recognize. On closer observation I saw the words Fight Oligarchy on it. I Googled the term and I see I can buy a “Fight Oligarchy”, flag which was described as an anti-Trump, or resistance flag for $10.

 

Then I remember watching a couple of clips from Sanders’ rally in Arizona and I see he has a new campaign entitled, “Fight The Oligarchy”.  Oligarchy is one of the terms that liberals like Sanders uses as a substitute for capitalists or capitalism when it comes to describing the system of production in which we live. Plutocrats or plutocracy is another term they often use to avoid the C word. Apparently, this self- described “socialist” fails to recognize that capitalists govern. As for “Our Revolution”, I assume it has entered the history books along with the Dodo.

 

I will give Sanders’ credit as he initially tapped in to the mood for change in US society back in 2016, particularly among the youth; they did not want more of the same and Hilary Clinton was widely despised. Numerous polls revealed that some 36% of Americans supported socialism or socialist policies back then. 

 

At the time, myself and the other co-founder of this blog, Sean O’Torain, figured that Sanders would betray much of his fresh young base and ultimately support the Democratic Party machine and call for a vote for Hillary Clinton which he did. We thought that many of his supporters would turn to the Green Party, the only other party that has significant ballot access.

We were wrong and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) , the left wing of the Democratic Party, or what many people refer to as “progressives” captured many of Sanders’ supporters and saw its membership grow from about 6000 to 70,000 in a matter of months making DSA the largest socialist (in name at least) organization in the US. We then joined DSA. I leave that experience to another time.

Sanders went on to endorse Biden in 2020 and then Kamala Harris in 2024. He is known as the best recruiter for the Democrats. Sanders’ failure to offer an electoral alternative to the Democratic Party, along with his weak stance on Zionism, has cost him and the rest of us.

 

So the Sanders rally in Arizona was part of the national Fighting The Oligarchy Tour starring Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez known as AOC. Cortez first ran for office in 2018 unseating entrenched Democrat Joe Crowley in the Democratic primaries for her district and is one of the leading “progressives” along with Sanders. Like Sanders, AOC has had the opportunity to change the balance of forces electorally and has refused to do so. In my view she has completely gone over and is a bright star in the Democratic Party’s future. 

 

Thousands have attended the rallies which is to be expected as much of Sanders’ reform program is supported among a huge sector of US society. Health care, public services and transportation, housing, climate change, economic inequality, immigrant rights and preserving social security to name a few. In addition, the madness, insecurity and extreme right-wing agenda of the Trump Administration has people scared. 

But appealing for a return to the status quo will not make it.

 

It is heart-warming to see thousands of people at rallies, picket lines, any gathering when the goals are inclusive and are for improvements in living standards and so on. But what are the end goals for Bernie AOC and the Fight Oligarchy Campaign? Well I received this appeal from Sanders yesterday:

 

“Richard, it’s Bernie Sanders.

 

𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒔.

 

At this particular moment in history, despair is not an option. Let us never forget that real change only happens when ordinary people stand up — by the millions — against oppression and injustice.

 

And as I have traveled all across the country, Americans are fighting back, saying loudly and clearly: NO to oligarchy, NO to authoritarianism, NO to kleptocracy, NO to massive cuts in programs that working people desperately need, NO to huge tax breaks for the richest people in our country.

 

If we are going to solve the problem of oligarchs’ massive influence over our politics, we MUST elect progressives to Congress who have the guts to take on the billionaire class and the rising far-right. Candidates who are prepared to take on the status quo in our political system.

 

But the Progressive Caucus doesn’t take money from Super PACs or max-out checks from billionaires. Instead, they rely on people like you chipping in $27 at a time.

 

Richard, I am humbly asking: Will you give $27 to the Progressive Caucus today? https://secure.actblue.com/donate/cpc-p2p-ga-v-q22025-bernie?refcode=bs-txt-20250416-b2&amount=27&refcode2w=gJscJv

 

Together, we can elect a new generation of progressive leaders to Congress who will fight for working people, not big corporations and the 1%”.

 

So here is Bernie with the same, strategy, limited entirely to the electoral arena. Elect Democrats, the “progressive” ones like him and AOC. As I have pointed out repeatedly; the era of the domination of the two capitalist parties over US society is over. And I wrote in a previous post, “Sixty-three percent of U.S. adults currently agree with the statement that the Republican and Democratic parties do “such a poor job” of representing the American people that “a third major party is needed.”, according to a Gallup poll.

 

Sanders’ misleads people with his comments that people are “fighting back”. They are saying no, but saying no, is not fighting back if it is not accompanied by action; it’s merely expressing discontent. It’s a start, yes, but it will not stop an offensive like that we are facing now. Bernie wants us to say “no” on a ballot slip and elect AOC. 

Millions have opposed the US/Israeli genocide in Gaza and millions opposed the Iraq war but protests alone cannot stop prevent capitalism  heading rapidly toward the abyss.

 

Action would mean an appeal to workers, organized and unnorganized to join him and the campaign in building a movement that can organize strikes, work stoppages and slowdowns; that can encourage and help build self-defence committees in our communities as the militarization of the police and recent events prove very clearly that we need them.  As a socialist he should make it clear that working people can only rely on our own strength our own communities and our own organisations. We cannot look to the courts or the Democratic Party to change the disastrous path the so-called free market is taking us down

 

He can appeal to organized labor’s leadership to get off their asses and join in that campaign and not supress it. Sara Nelson of the Flight Attendants Union has said a General Strike is needed; The Fighting Oligarchy campaign should raise this at its rallies, encourage attendees to support Nelson’s call and help build on it. It is a serious mistake to just make those thousands feel good with the false hope that Democratic Party progressives can bring about health care, affordable housing, improved public education, social services and end to climate change. What sort of socialist ignores workers’ power on the job and our ability to stop the cogs of capitalism from turning?

 

As far as electoral politics goes, Sanders could have led a left split from the Democratic Party and ushered in a left reform alternative years ago; a genuine opposition. Who knows who would have followed him out. Winning is not everything, building sometimes take time. A new formation with already established leaders and a serious base would change the balance of class forces electorally as each election time the two Wall Street parties would have to consider their policies in the light of, “what if they all vote for the opposition”. It will have a huge effect on mass consciousness in the US.

 

I hope that something will arise out of this latest campaign, it’s not always easy to control people when they are called out. But Sanders has had his time and the opportunity to make some real change. He chose instead to maintain then status quo. History won’t be kind to him. 

Yes It's True. I Wish Bernie Sanders Would Just Bugger Off.

 Source

By Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

GED/HEO

5-24-23

 

A friend of mine was quite upset on hearing me say that I wish Bernie Sanders would just go away. I can understand that to a degree and there’s no doubt Sanders played a role in raising the concept or just the word socialism in US political life.

 

It’s clear to anyone that lives in the US or follows US politics, that the disgust with the two capitalist parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, has been increasing exponentially each election cycle. The trade union hierarchy has given hundreds of billions of dollars of their members’ hard-earned dues money to the Democratic Party over the years and we have some of the weakest workers rights in the industrial democracies. In California where I live, the Democrats have so much power it's almost a one party state. In addition, they have provided resources in the form of precinct walkers, phone banks and so on.

 

The trade union hierarchy does this despite having the resources to provide a genuine working class political alternative to these two Wall Street relics, because their greatest fear is the tremendous potential power that their14 million members represent; just one or two major unions could bring the US economy to a halt. Having the same world view as the captains of industry and seeing the trade unions as employment agencies with them as the CEO’s, when capitalism enters a crisis they move immediately to bail it out---at their own members’ expense of course.

 

They are aware of the anger and desire for change that lies beneath the surface in US society, the mood that Sanders tapped in to and then channeled in to the Democratic Party where such movements are laid to rest.  What is so disgusting about Sanders as far as I am concerned is that he betrayed people, especially young people.

 

This was still evident in a recent interview he gave to a British journalist. Sanders repeated all the rhetoric about the horrors of capitalism and has clearly been pretty much alone in putting forward a class oriented (less of the identity politics) program. But his position hasn’t changed one iota as he recommended a vote for the warmonger Biden, the former Senator from DuPont. It is the same as positions liberals, both genuine types and horrible left saviors of the working class, have put forward over the past period. The Republican is so bad we must vote for the lesser of two evils. This is a thoroughly defeatist and demoralizing position. How can only having the choice of two evils not be demoralizing.

 

When I pointed this out to my friend, his defense, of his position and Sanders’, was he had no choice.  Firstly, this is not true. He had a movement that could easily have played a different role in the 2016 election breaking from the Democrats and standing independent candidates on a class oriented program. Health care, education, housing, pay and benefits, jobs instead of incarceration, the unorganized, these are all strongly supported issues among workers, especially young workers. Who knows what the so-called “squad” might of done had Sanders took the lead instead of playing the same old game supporting the Democratic Party machine which he’s always done.

 

This would have galvanized millions and regardless of immediate victory, a vibrant growing movement from below in any situation places pressure at the top and brings more gains as opposed to sitting down with the power trying to make deals.

 

At very least Sanders could say and could have told his interviewer that it’s his personal position that Biden is the only choice given the alternative (least evil and usual excuse) but stress that we need a political party of our own based on workers organizations and our communities fighting for our needs not the needs of the investors and the “billionaire class” as he calls them.

 

But he can’t even say that as the fear of a conscious and active working class movement is so great; better not to give them any ideas. The idea is to convince us we cannot change anything. This is why we get almost no coverage in the US mass media of the French workers struggles or the mass. Strikes taking place in Britain. Why there are always these imaginary fears and countries we are supposed to fear on a daily basis, China, Russia, Iran, N. Korea Iraq, Venezuela, different ones at different times. If racism sexism, right wing extremism were as strong and ingrained in the US working class that we are led to believe in the capitalist mass media, they wouldn’t be so cautious.

 

This is why I just wish Sanders would go away. I’m sick of him.

US Capitalism is Sick. The Working Class Must Euthenize It.

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 44, retired

Interesting response from the doctor in the above video. He talks of the profound “fear and insecurity in the general (US) population.” That something could go wrong in a public health system. What would one do if something does go wrong? It puts you in another strata in society the Dr. says.

 

This is true of all aspects of capitalist society, as I have said time and time again, never ending fear and insecurity keeps people on their toes and malleable. Fear of destitution, fear of foreigners, fear of our neighbors. As the doctor says, the result is people in the US are “so isolated, alienated, incapable of identifying with the commonwealth of their brothers and sisters and the rest of us in society.” This is not an accident as it leaves us unable to challenge the “monetized system of illness and death in our society.” It paralyzes us and we feel we can do nothing to change it as an individual.

 

This situation is the source of the sickness that permeates US society from top to bottom where people like a young man knocking on the wrong door or a woman in a car that turns on to the wrong driveway can get shot for doing so which is what happened the last few days. When people shoot each other over an argument about pizza and so on.

 

We cannot change this situation as individuals, the doctor is right. But we are not simply paralyzed by the seemingly insurmountable challenge this lays before our feet. There is a major obstacle to finding a solution and that is there is no alternative in US society.

 

The ideology of the US ruling class, the most aggressive and ruthless capitalist class on the planet dominates society. These conditions must be our own fault as an individual is responsible for our own condition, for our own destiny. This ideology reigns supreme.

 

That there is overwhelming support in US society for a national health system or medical care for all is understood. This was a major part of Bernie Sanders’ platform. Sanders was shut down not by the conservative pro-market forces on the so-called right, but by his own party and the leading figures in it. Hillary Clinton, Biden, Obama, Bloomberg, all ensured that Medicare For All never saw the light of day.

 

Sanders himself is to blame for not using the tremendous support he had on the ground and in particular among the youth for not breaking with the Democratic Party machine and forming a left political alternative. This would have transformed the situation and also strengthened the movement in the streets, schools and workplaces that he had awakened. He is not an innocent party here.

 

In addition, the heads of organized labor, an organization with some 14 million members are criminally negligent in their refusal to participate in such a development, instead supporting the Democratic Party and its Wall Street sponsors as they always do.

 

So the ideology of capital and the so-called free market dominates US society completely; it reigns unchallenged. This leaves a tragic vacuum when it comes to explaining events and forming some sort of alternative, an alternative to the selfish, narcissistic and individualistic ideology of the ruling class. And this ideology runs counter to the inherent nature of the working class that tends to collectivism, solidarity and class unity. We are gregarious collective animals and the ideology of capital is in reality alien to us, hostile to us. This situation lends to all sorts of failed alternatives and theories. Religious salvation and a plethora of competing sects and philosophies seeking an answer in some sort netherworld. Obsession with sex, appearance, and individual personal relations are promoted as the path to happiness.

Despite this, we rely on each other and care for each other in our daily lives especially in the workplace. The tremendous solidarity and humanity exhibited during the COVID pandemic is an example of what human nature is.

 

It is this absence of a clear, material explanation of how we got where we  are and how to proceed that will ensure the movement that will arise in response to this crisis will have its fair share of confusion, reaction and radicalism and extreme violence. But in the last analysis ideas have a material base and I believe history teaches us that when the working class moves in to struggle to resolve these crises, this powerful tendency to seek class allies come to the fore an tends to overcome the divisive tactics of racism sexism and nationalism etc. 

 

We are as I said collective creatures. When these movements develop we draw conclusions through them, we learn through the struggle to reform and make things better but when that door is closed we learn further the need to change the very structure of society, that we must throw out the old and build a new world. A global society, a democratic socialist system of production that produces for social need in harmony with the natural world not in opposition to it.

Briahna Joy Gray with Nornam Finkelstein on Identity Politics and his Latest Book

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired
GED/HEO

2-16-23

 

A great discussion here with Briahna Joy Gray and Norman Finlkelstein about his new book,  I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom. I have just purchased it.  I am not familiar with Ms. Gray until now but she was Bernie Sanders campaign manager, I am very familiar with Norman Finkelstein and his work.

 

They both take up the so-called “Squad” in the Democratic Party with regards to “Force the Vote” and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and the Squad’s response to the removal of Ilan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee with AOC turning it in to an issue of identity claiming she was removed as part of the war against women of color. While many of those supporting that decision are likely both misogynists and racists, the reason she was removed was because of her politics.

 

There is also a long discussion about the rise of Sanders and his capitulation that is taken up in the book.  Finkelstein talks about how Sanders could have built a “mass movement on a class platform” but at that moment the weapon of identity politics was brought in to “fragment it” to “destroy it”.

 

Finkelstein points out that had Sanders pursued this path the capitalist owned mass media would have gone on the offensive against him. MSNBC, Fox News, “they understand their class interests” he says and “…they don’t worry about their pronouns, they worry about their bank accounts” Nice to hear some sensible stuff coming from a left position as the left is so often absent when responding to the nonsensical, reactionary approach of identity politics.

 

I have news for the pronoun addicts, the vast majority of the working class is not worried about pronouns either, this is a very 1^st world and, I hate to say it, petit bourgeois issue.

 

I agree with Finkelstein on the mass movement that arose around police violence and he gives the example of the protests around George Floyd, that there was real solidarity in this movement, ethnic solidarity and solidarity among youth of all backgrounds. “it was very moving to me” says Finkelstein and he is right. It was of considerable concern to the US ruling class and the divisive issue of identity politics is yet another strategy they use to undermine and weaken working class unity.

 

The issue of the rail strike came up as well as the leadership of DSA and what causes the betrayals of people like Sanders. Ms Gray mentions moral failure, in other words character flaw, structural problems and so on. And they both correctly recognize the pressure that comes down on leaders or potential leaders of mass movements, they get bought off etc. This is always a danger, but it is being rooted in the mass movement, rooted in the working class and not just organizing and leading the class but learning form the working class.

 

Marx’s profound statement that the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself is brought up in the context of the role university educated or academics can play in our movement. Universities in my view are capitalist think tanks, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn very important things about society and life through the university experience. The main issue for those academics who want to be part of the workers movement is that they listen not just teach, that they learn from the working class as well and that they place the knowledge they have through their education at the service of the working class. Examples of this from academia are not common, but there are heroic figures today and historically that have played this role at great sacrifice to themselves.

 

Anyway, just a few comments here, but do take the time to watch the video and get the book.

Bernie on the Campaign Trail and Where is the ILWU?

Source US Guardian

 

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired
GED/HEO

11-06-22

 

“Obviously everybody should be turning out for what is the most consequential midterm election in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said before his rally in Austin, Texas. “But in the real world, I worry very much that Democrats have not done a good enough job of reaching out to young people and working-class people and motivating them to come out and vote in this election.” Sanders on the Democratic Party Campaign Trail 

 

I just wish Bernie Sanders would go away. Here he is again, the good Democrat that he is and one of his party’s leading recruiters, blaming the electorate, young people in particular, for not bothering to come out and vote his party in these midterms and at the same time covering his left flank by criticizing the party for not reaching out to these young people; not motivating them to get up and vote.

 

He’s right about one thing, there are millions of workers, many of them young people no doubt, who have opted out of the electoral process in the US. In the 2016 election, almost 100 million chose not to participate and historically, less than half of the voting-age population casts ballots in midterms. The most recent one, in 2018, was an exception when just over 50% turned out. This is worrying for the US ruling class as participating in the (Bourgeois) democratic process is such an important part in legitimizing the rule of capital but they can’t escape it. The Democratic Party isn’t failing or not doing a “good job” getting working class people to the polls; it has nothing to offer them.

Millions of US workers have opted out of the electoral process not because they don’t care about politics or what is happening in the world around them, which is what some liberals argue. But voting is not an exercise in civics, and workers have learned through decades of experience that on the important issues, food, shelter, jobs, health care and now climate catastrophe, we have lost ground on all these major issues under Democratic and Republican administrations alike. Sanders had an opportunity to change that, to lay the foundation for a left alternative to the Democrats and instead chose to be that party’s chief recruiter.

 

Both capitalist parties are in crisis as the era of their domination of US political life is coming to an end. More and more people are rejecting the argument that one must vote for the lesser of two evils. This is no real choice at all.  The best people can be accused of is having given up, that they feel there is nothing they can do. Possible splits in both parties can’t be ruled out with the Republican Party undoubtedly moving further to the right, populated with fascist elements, Christian Zionists, white nationalists and other distasteful elements, and the Democrats perhaps a left split with some of the progressives and left wing of that party. The latter doesn’t offer much hope mind you as we saw the cowardly retreat within 24 hours, after a letter the progressive Democrats in the House sent to Biden urging, “vigorous diplomatic efforts” towards a “negotiated settlement and ceasefire” in Ukraine was withdrawn blaming the letter’s premature release on staff.

 

And once again, the trade union leadership gets off scot free. The silence atop organized labor obscures, when it comes to politics, the fact that these leaders head an organization of 14 million and have the structure and resources, particularly human capital, to offer the millions that are despairing and not participating in the electoral process a real alternative. It is inevitable though, that an independent working class alternative to the two parties of capital will arise at some point in the struggles ahead.

 

California, which is the 4^th largest economy in the world, is one example where organized labor has tremendous potential power. There are over 2 million workers affiliated to the state AFL-CIO, the California Labor Federation and some 800,000 workers affiliated to the Los Angeles Labor Federation. At this writing, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) that represents dockworkers on the U.S. West Coast has been in contract negotiations for some five months. Biden joined negotiations back in July and there were hints of possibly using Taft Hartley against the ILWU imposing a “cooling off” period, a weapon that the bosses use to undermine the union while at the same time getting some rank and file pressure off the leadership. It’s a pre-emptive shot across the bow.

Source

The negotiations are pretty much done in secret as apparently the ILWU leadership, the port bosses and the Biden Administration are all agreed that there will be no strike and no disruption of the post Pandemic economy. This is the Team Concept at work and this long standing effort of the employers and the trade union bureaucracy to undermine union power and solidarity is being ramped up. Myself and others faced this obstacle in our negotiations and it has many different names, Interest Based Bargaining is one example.

 

 Forbes recently reported on the ILWU discussions and the need for changing the “What’s in it for Me” mentality to negotiations and contract talks to a “….highly collaborative….What’s in it for We” approach. It is being packaged as a ”New Approach” but it is the same old Team Concept, the disastrous policy that bosses and workers have the same economic interests. It is at the root of the concessionary contracts and outright betrayals labor’s rank and file has to deal with. There does not appear to be any left or organized opposition within the ILWU rank and file as finding information about the talks through the media blackout is not easy. I checked out the Dispatcher, the ILWU’s official publication and couldn’t find much there. Maybe I missed it but it appears everyone’s pretty tight lipped about it.

 

The ILWU and organized labor in California have the potential to shut down the economy of the state. Such power could also be used to raise not just issues that directly affect union members but society as a whole. Homelessness is at crisis levels in California as are house and rent prices. The mentally ill wander the streets aimlessly, education is being priced out of reach for working class people and public transportation is a disgrace.  Health care, dental care in particular is in need of change and of course, the $15 an hour minimum wage is starvation wages in California.

I raise this as an example of what could be. Of real power that slumbers in the lap of organized labor to use a famous phrase. I realize that given the deafening silence of the labor hierarchy on matters of national and international importance, so many people never consider organized labor as having any real power at all, particularly union members who pay dues as wages and benefits decline and concessionary contracts are forced down their throats.

 

But we should not kid ourselves, this potential being squelched by the ILWUs leadership in the interests of labor peace and teamwork, could if handled right, change the balance of class forces in this country and give people a sense that we could make some headway. Appeals could be made to the rest of organized and unorganized labor. It would ripple throughout US society and inspire millions of workers, including the unorganized and low waged who are clearly on the move at this time. The right wing bureaucracy atop organized labor knows this and it is why they do all they can to avoid it.

 

We cannot wish mass movements in to existence but there is no avoiding the battles ahead as the offensive of U.S. capitalism continues apace. The delay and the absence of any significant organized opposition in the streets and workplaces will ensure that it will not be business as usual; U.S. history proves that.

 

DSA, The Squad and The Democratic Party

This is an interesting article, we share it here and it was originally published at PopularResistance.org  The DSA leadership, is not only wedded to the Democratic Party and, along with Sanders has acted as a recruiter for it, they have also applied the same approach to the organized labor, contracting out DSA’s union work to former AFL-CIO staffers and figures in the lower levels of the labor bureaucracy gathered around Labor Notes. We wrote of our differences with the approach of the DSA leadership as well as Labor Notes here.  DSA with its thousands of members, and the forces behind Labor Notes that has the resources and proven success in organizing large gatherings of rank and file workers have refused to openly defy the present union hierarchy's dance of death with the Democratic Party and break from this party that has been the death of social movements as they have arisen in the US. Richard Mellor

 

DSA’s Moment Of Truth

By Shamus Cooke, Counterpunch.

January 13, 2021

 

Above photo: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi performs the swearing-in of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on January 3, 2019.

 

Now that Democrats control the House, Senate, and the Presidency, expectations have been raised around covid relief, rent relief, a Green New Deal, cancelling student debt and Medicare For All.

 

Covid has especially elevated the demand of Medicare For All: the trillion dollar healthcare industry that annually leaves tens of thousands of uninsured dying unnecessary deaths — while bankrupting hundreds of thousands more — has proven a historic failure in the face of the pandemic, while pushing millions more into the realm of the uninsured. The totality of the disaster is similar to a poorer nation in the throes of war or famine.

 

The demand for Medicare For All was further elevated recently by a coalition of independent Left media figures, such as Jimmy Dore, Krystal Ball, Katie Halper, and Briahna Joy Gray ( herself a DSA member) with the campaign to “Force the Vote,” i.e., force Nancy Pelosi to hold a Medicare For All vote in the House of Representatives.

The idea was brilliant in its simplicity, arguing that it was criminal for the AOC-led “Squad” to vote for Nancy Pelosi to be House Speaker, yet if they were to be accomplices they should withhold their votes — which Pelosi actually needed — until they forced her to schedule a House vote on Medicare For All.

 

What the Force the Vote campaign didn’t expect was the vitrole and energetic opposition from sections of the Left. The debate that ensued resulted in some discrediting of individuals or groups like Jacobin magazine — who unleashed a torrent of abysmal arguments to discredit the Force the Vote campaign.

 

The debate became politically significant because so many people engaged in a discussion around key issues for the Left, including power, organizing, strategy, and the limitations of depending on the leftwing of the Democratic Party.

 

The weak arguments used to discredit Force the Vote betrayed years of common sense around organizing around Medicare For All — and organizing in general. The key anti-Force the Vote arguments can be summarized as “now isn’t the time,” “the demand isn’t strategic,” and “Jimmy Dore [the comedian/podcaster who invented the strategy] can’t be the messenger.”

 

Perhaps the worst argument against Force the Vote came from DSA, whose leadership waited a month to even issue a statement.

 

DSA’s Problematic Response

On January 5th DSA published a response to Force the Vote that deserves close inspection, since it says a lot about how the leadership views organizing, the Democrats, and how political change occurs.

 

The first major error in the DSA statement occurs in the 3rd paragraph:

“But we also recognize that Speaker Pelosi alone can’t deliver us a floor vote. The Medicare for All bill in the House needs to pass through six Committees’ jurisdiction, and it currently lacks financing language (i.e. how to pay for it), so it’s not a bill that can be voted on yet.”

 

This argument amounts to the same, tired proceduralism often used by the establishment to justify inaction on progressive causes.

 

In fact, Nancy Pelosi can deliver a floor vote: as House Speaker she has tremendous power to push legislation through Committees and out onto the floor, and she often does this quickly.

 

Pelosi regularly bends committees to her will when she wants a law to pass, creating endless committee shortcuts when legislation is prioritized. Pelosi’s power ultimately is rooted in her position in the party, where she and other leaders cajole less powerful Democrats to do their bidding or face the consequences.

 

Even if this weren’t the case, political bureaucracy should never be an excuse for socialists to put on the brakes on organizing.

 

The DSA statement is also incorrect to suggest that the Medicare For All bill “currently lacks financing language.” Section 701 of House Bill 1384 contains the funding language, which includes the Universal Medicare Trust Fund and taxation language. There may need to be additional details to work out, but this can also be done quickly and is not a legitimate basis for opposing Force the Vote.

 

The next DSA error is another obvious one:

“But without a majority of Democratic Representatives cosponsoring, and many of the progressive members shut out of powerful House committees, we simply don’t have the leverage right now to force it through for a floor vote.”

 

Again, committees are not the insurmountable barrier the DSA statement makes them to be. Nor do you need a majority of Democrats to co-sponsor a bill before it gets a House vote — though currently 112 out of 122 Democrats have co-sponsored the bill, i.e. the majority.

 

Using co-sponsorship and committee positions as the key indicator of “leverage” is not only misleading, but dangerous. It suggests that socialists shouldn’t organize around demands until sufficient progressive Democrats have been elected or appointed — by the corporate Democrat leadership — to important committee posts.

 

This could take years if it ever happens at all, and to suggest such a strategy lays the groundwork for demoralization, delay, and inaction (incidentally the DSA statement was released days after AOC was publicly humiliated by Democratic leadership by being refused a committee position she was assumed to get).

 

The DSA statement then bolds a sentence for emphasis: “Even if we had all these things, we know that elected officials will never respond to our demands unless we organize our class to fight for them, not just in DSA but in the labor movement too.”

 

So…even if we get all the progressive Democrats elected they “will never respond to our demands” unless there is an additional, undetermined amount of outside organizing?

This point is true of all demands when they are placed upon an adversary who has a self interest in maintaining the status-quo, yet in this case it’s being used to sidestep the question posed by the Force the Vote strategy. Yes, we need to organize for power, and Force the Vote could have been — and may still be — an organizing opportunity to help us do exactly that.

 

DSA’s main point is thus no point at all — a tautology. Imagine If a workplace demanded a better healthcare plan but the union leaders dismissed the demand by saying “the boss will never respond to our demands until we organize as a worksite to fight him” — missing the fact that the demand for better healthcare is precisely what you organize around to build the power necessary… to win better healthcare. It’s the union leadership’s job to help do this, just like it’s DSA’s job to help “organize as a class” around demands such as Force the Vote.

 

This is organizing 101, which in this debate has been shelved in favor of defeating a campaign that has succeeded in many respects, despite open hostility from some on the Left. Force the Vote has put Medicare For All back on the table after the election of Biden had presumably sunk it. This alone is reason enough to support the demand, even if it’s done passively by signing a petition; but actively causing the campaign harm by promoting shoddy arguments is reprehensible.

 

It also hides the fact that the Force the Vote tactic could actually work: the Squad currently has immense leverage they aren’t using, and if they waged a public campaign to pressure Pelosi to hold a Medicare For All vote, she’d have a difficult time saying no. A floor vote in this context is not mission impossible like the DSA statement makes it appear. The Squad is thus a legitimate and strategic organizing target for the Left, a key fact ignored by DSA’s statement.

 

The last bolded sentence of the DSA statement says: “We are socialists, and we are organizers, so we know that there are no shortcuts to liberation.”

 

It’s true that shortcuts are imaginary, but this truism turns into an excuse when it’s used to justify inaction — “we would help you organize your campaign to apply leverage but there are no shortcuts to liberation”. A key job for an organizer is overcoming barriers, not dwelling on them like DSA’s statement does.

 

How Organizers Actually Think

The best critique of the DSA statement comes from DSA itself. As Jimmy Dore noted on his podcast, DSA published a document in 2019 called ‘House Pressure Campaign Guide for Medicare for All’, which includes the following:

“…single-payer advocates have been successfully turning Medicare for All into a litmus test for politicians. A floor vote in the House will force representatives to finally reveal whether they’re on the side of healthcare profiteers or the side of the working class.”

 

This was true in 2019 and remains true now. Countless organizing campaigns have made use of floor votes, not only to reveal what side the politician is on but to agitate the community prior to the floor vote, so that a “no” vote is more politically consequential, i.e., floor votes are often used as opportunities to educate, agitate, and organize.

 

The fact that DSA leadership, Jacobin, and other sections of the Left now view this long-standing approach to organizing as “unstrategic” portends badly for the future and mis-educates in the present.

 

Force the Vote simply used a classic organizing strategy that placed a demand on someone in power. And while DSA leadership did not believe the demand was strategic (anymore), they failed to propose a better strategy, which reminds us of that old organizing axiom, “don’t oppose, propose”, i.e., don’t stall the campaign, help push it forward. This concept is related to another organizing axiom “lead, follow, or get out of the way” — these truisms were abandoned by some Leftists in their rush to get in the way of Force the Vote.

 

Both axioms point to the critical importance of momentum in organizing: once a demand grips the mind of enough people the more realistic it becomes, since power is building. The last thing an organizer should ever do is sour momentum — which is the jet fuel of organizing — especially if there’s no better proposal on hand.

 

What does the DSA statement propose in response? Abstract power building/electoral work that includes “…forming tight socialist voting blocs in every district…,” i.e., nothing that relates to the present moment rife with opportunity while doubling down on an electoral strategy dependent on the Democrats.

 

There are no shortcuts in organizing, but it’s also true that an organizer must always be on the lookout for organizing opportunities — issues that come up during the course of a campaign that can be used to agitate and unite the base while putting pressure on the organizing target.

 

An organizer takes issues like health care and transforms them into a demand — like Medicare For All — using it like a battering ram aimed at people in power who have the ability to advance the issue. The organizing target in this case was the Squad. The target was excellent and the demand was solid, so what went wrong?

 

The Wrong Target?

The likely reason that some Leftists chose to attack Force the Vote is because the Squad was the organizing target, and the campaign was actually succeeding in applying pressure that made them look bad.

 

How did the Squad react to considerable media and social media pressure? Except for a few bad arguments from AOC the rest of the Squad completely ignored the campaign in a deafening silence. When Force the Vote held an online town hall that included some prominent Left figures and invited the Squad to attend— another long standing organizing tactic— the invitation wasn’t acknowledged and the Squad refused to even send a staff representative (even establishment politicians send their staff to show at least feigned interest in the issue).

 

If the Squad won’t interact with popular Left demands because they’re aiming for “party unity” — as AOC has mentioned repeatedly — then how is the Squad fundamentally different than any other Democrat? And If DSA politically follows AOC while she’s committed to following Nancy Pelosi, what role is DSA actually playing?

 

Force the Vote exposed an inconvenient truth for some on the Left: the Squad have been moving to the political Right, playing the inter-party game that has effectively tamed radicals for decades inside the Democratic party.

 

For example, after AOC was first elected she used radical rhetoric and participated in a sit-in at Nancy Pelosi’s office. But the new AOC is “maturing” into a typical politician, who justified her vote for Pelosi as House Speaker by… blaming Trump. A later statement showcased a further change in rhetoric, away from Medicare For All towards a “push” for “healthcare”, and instead of a Green New Deal “climate justice” was used.

The Squad increasingly resembles a PR stunt with no political cohesion, its different members holding wildly different views on important issues, all bound together under the Democratic Party leadership — the strongest section of the U.S. ruling class, where at the top billionaires dictate policy to party leaders.

 

Moving Towards Socialism? Or somewhere Else?

A key part of organizing is the ongoing process of assessing your supporters and your opponents. A new assessment is needed with each new action, or demand issued, since those who fought with us yesterday often become tomorrow’s adversaries.

 

Some on the Left refuse to assess the Squad this way, because these politicians are being used to justify a theory of change tied to the Democratic Party. Some still believe that the path to socialism involves the Democrats, in the hopes that the party can be taken over by socialists (though this has badly failed with every attempt for nearly a 100 years). The back-to-back destruction of Bernie Sanders presidential campaign by Democrat leadership was merely the establishment doing what it did to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition in the 80’s.

 

Presenting demands to the Squad is one way to determine if a Democrat-centered strategy has any hope or if it’s hopelessly flawed, like the majority of socialists have claimed for decades.

 

If the Squad is not a viable avenue for change, then political independence must be sought — a key task of socialists for decades that some on the Left have dismissed as “impossible.” The creation of a mass working-class party has been attempted several times and has failed, in part, due to sections of the Left undermining the efforts by clinging to the Democrats.

 

The newborn “People’s Party” is another attempt at political independence, though it’s too new to know if it can evolve into a working class alternative to the Democrats. But such efforts should be treated kindly, since wherever there exists a large political vacuum attempts will be made to fill it — if the People’s Party ultimately fails, a new attempt under a different name is inevitable. While there exists no working-class party people will attempt to build one.

 

DSA must be flexible when such efforts are created, rather than dismiss them or view them with hostility.

 

Socialists should know that political vacuums will be filled with the energy of class struggle funneled through unexpected channels (comedians continue to fill these voids in different ways in various countries, while prior generations had radical clergy leading class struggle). Under these conditions new parties can grow suddenly, just like DSA’s unexpected explosion of growth in 2016.

 

Ultimately DSA will either spend its energy building independent political power or invest their energy building the Democrats — the two strategies represent paths going in opposite directions.

 

DSA should conduct a membership-wide discussion on how it’s going to relate to the Squad and the Democrats more broadly, while re-evaluating strategies like Force the Vote. The time is too urgent to simply accept political submission to the Leftwing of the Democratic Party, and there are too many DSA members uninterested in re-trying the strategy.

 

In a pandemic people deserve and are demanding bold action, and DSA must help lead these efforts rather than stymie them. If DSA doesn’t step up in a powerful way a new or existing socialist organization will become the funnel for the political energy that continues to build.

 

Shamus Cooke is a member of the Portland branch of Democratic Socialists of America. He can be reached at shamuscooke@gmail.com.