November 3rd is election day. The approaching election finds the parties of reaction and reform in full swing. Another presidential election in which many eligible voters will abstain. Those who will vote are in a situation of having to chose between two candidates of the ruling class. It is precisely because workers do care about who is in control that they feel there is no real choice between the Trump and Biden. Although the two differ on their approach some of the issues, neither Biden or Trump, Democrat or Republican, take a stand on the side of the worker. And how could it be otherwise. Both the candidates represent the interests of the capitalists. Both politicians evade the real issues and instead spout demagogic rhetoric and sound-bites. The deepening pandemic calamity exposes how the “fundamentals” of the economy impact particularly on working people, particularly African Americans. The market system has been a failure.
The Democratic Party establishment preferred to risk a Republican victory by opting for Biden as their candidate and making Kamala Harris, a top cop, as his VP running mate. The Democratic Party leadership is incapable of putting forward much of a political vision which could potentially energize large segments of the American people, and instead, will continue to chase after the Republican party as both parties move further toward the right. Those progressive Democrats who might be capable of doing so, like Bernie Sanders, are doomed to remain on the margins. The corporations has no reason to fear that its freedom to exploit, to blackmail, to pollute, to roam freely in search of the greatest profit margins, will be curbed by Biden. Any differences with Trump don’t make the slightest difference to them. Both candidates express a reluctance to challenge the economic basis of Wall St greed. The electoral system remains undemocratically rigged to deny a voice to anyone outside the party duopoly. Basic reforms have yet to be achieved, such as the elimination of the electoral college or proportional representation instead of first-past-the-post.
It is not enough to refuse to vote or to vote for the “lesser of two evils.” Workers must start acting and operating as a political force in the country if they are to become one. You’re the majority and there is no reason for you not to start making your power and position in society felt. The Democrats and Republicans strive at all times to cover up class contradictions, to speak in the name of the “whole people” instead of in the interests of their class. supporters of Biden try to cover up class conflict, to gloss over them as opposed to exposing them. There can be no further social progress until the working class is united and by permitting certain sections of the population to be discriminated against, the capitalists are given a powerful weapon to split and sabotage the working class movement.
Socialism will mean real freedom. It means not having to pay for food, housing, healthcare, education and all the other necessities for life. Socialism means that the wealth of society is shared by everyone. It means once people are capable of living without stealing from their neighbors, stealing will stop. It means living in a friendly town where hatred has ended and people are no longer afraid of one another because of the color of their skin or the language they speak. The World Socialist Party of the United States (WSPUS) party does not bow to lobbyists or big business. Our party fights only in the interests of the exploited majority. The Democrats continuously betrayed the interests of working people who refuse to jettison their loyalty because of the threat of the “greater evil,” the Republicans. The idea of building a socialist party though seen as a good idea is always put off to the indefinite future. By legitimating “lesser evil” politics the likes of Chomsky actually discourage potential recruits from leaving the Democrats and joining the socialists.
Whatever happens this November, the WSPUS is committed to independent political action and democratic functioning so that the party will be able to run future campaigns that challenge capitalist rule without compromise or apology. Unless socialists commit to work today to prepare the chances we will succeed will be very much smaller. We do not accept that the Democratic Party is susceptible to a progressive takeover, let alone a socialist one. We do not believe it will ever satisfy the needs of labor. All evidence demonstrates that activists entering into the Democratic Party to transform it have instead been themselves transformed by it.
