Why not free meals for all?

 That free meals for children during school breaks was ever an issue is surely a brazen example of the iniquities of capitalism.

 

The story ran like some synopsis for an updated staging of the musical ‘Oliver’, only it isn’t fiction. Why is it that the sixth largest economy in the world, that has borrowed, and will continue to borrow, many billions of Covid pounds, jibs at a few relatively measly millions to feed children plunged into poverty through no agency of their own?

 

A more pertinent question is, why should a resource that’s as vital to life as is air be rationed by the ability to pay?  A society that is struggling with the present pandemic to keep people breathing would not tolerate a system denying oxygen to those without the requisite bank balance.

 

Yet that is the logic of capitalism. Children, many of key workers on pathetically low pay who daily put themselves at risk of infection, are at the mercy of a squabble between national and local governments as to who will provide a meal a day for them.

 

The logic of socialism is that food will be available to freely supply the needs of everyone, adult or child. As it will be for all necessities of life. People will take what they need because they won’t have to take or hoard more, just in case. After all no one deliberately tries to breath in more air than they need.

 

Such will be the outcome of socially organising production to satisfy self-determined needs, rather than the capitalist need to satisfy profit taking and the restrictions on access this necessarily entails. Surprise, surprise, this option is not being promulgated in any of the media coverage of children and their inconvenient urge to eat between term times.

They share the same hypocrisy




Since its foundation the United States has been a battlefield between the classes and been involved in a perpetual conflict. The privileged few have triumphed and have the rest of us at their mercy. The privileged few control the political machinery. Their money and their political servants write the platforms and dictate to the politicians. There is no attempt to conceal the fact that both the Republican and Democratic parties are financed and controlled by representatives of the plutocracy which owns and rules the land. Political parties are responsive to the interests of those who funds them. They get donations from the capitalist class only for the reason that they represent the interests of that class. Professional politicians of whatever party serve the interests of their masters. He who pays the piper calls the tune as the old saying goes. The policies of  politicians reflect the material interests of their masters, regardless of any theatricals to disguise the fact. Presidential election campaigns show a lot about the country’s politics that the ruling classes’ political representatives produce for public’s consumption to manipulate the public perception. It’s the power of the ruling classes to distract the voters with scandals and diversions than for the media to concern itself with genuine class interests, irrespective of the capitalists’ feuding factions.

We are living under a system which is more and more clearly revealed as the enemy of humanity. Capitalism only means poverty and oppression.  It imposes draconian cuts in living standards on the already poor, simply in the interest of still greater profits for the capitalist class. Capitalism is responsible for the thoughtless destruction of the environment. The profit motive is incompatible with safeguarding the world’s resources. So long as it is profitable, environmental destruction is perfectly ’logical’ under capitalism. 

Humanity’s problem is not limited resources but the waste of resources which is an essential part of the process of capital accumulation. Its armaments industry monopolizes most of the world’s research and development and cynically profits from wars of unparalleled destructiveness. Capitalism’s guiding principle, the quest for profit, takes precedence over any human interest. Capitalism undermines the future of humanity. Capitalism cannot be reformed. It has undergone many changes in its history, but these have simply meant finding new ways to exploit the laboring people. Capitalism is red with the blood of workers. The only solution is to destroy it and build a new social system.

Socialism means liberty, leisure, literature, art, fellowship, life itself. Society must have a new economic basis. The class conflict and political corruption must end. The Republicans and the Democrats are composed almost entirely by those in the service of the ruling class. The Republican and Democratic parties stand for private ownership and competition.

The World Socialist Party alone stands for common ownership and co-operation. The Republican and Democratic parties uphold the wage system; the World Socialist Party demands its end. What have the Republican or Democratic parties got to offer to the wage-slaves of the United States? The millions of us, male and female, black and white and yellow and brown,  produce all this nation’s wealth. The World Socialist Party demands the machinery of production in the name of the workers and the control of society in the name of the people. We demand the abolition of capitalism and wage-slavery and the surrender of the capitalist class. We demand equal rights of all the people regardless of race, color, creed or nationality. Socialism will end war by ending the war-producing system. Socialism will end this atrocity. We demand that poverty shall cease once and forever and that all children born into the world shall have equal opportunity to grow up, to be educated, to have healthy bodies and trained minds, and to develop and freely express the best there is in them in mental, moral and physical achievement. We demand complete control of industry by the workers; we demand all the wealth they produce for the enjoyment of all the people. We demand the earth for all the people. 

We know our cause is just. Forward to lay the foundations for a new society.





 

Corbyn’s crucifixion

 The suspension from the Labour Party of its erstwhile leader Jeremy Corbyn initially appears to be of little note for socialists. There can be sympathy for the hounding of a decent man, but hey ho that’s capitalist politics for you.

 

Actually, this is more serious. While Corbyn does not in any sense meet the criteria set out in the our principles of what is required to be a socialist, he is throughout the media and in the popular consciousness precisely that. Indeed he probably self-identifies as a socialist.

 

During the lead up to the 2019 general election, in a number of BBC Radio 4 vox pops. he was frequently cited as the reason for Labour voters of many years standing insisting they would not vote for the Labour Party. Corbyn was too extreme, to the point him being denounced as a ‘communist’.

 

As socialists who state that socialism and communism are synonyms, that the Labour Party never was, is not and never will be a socialist party, such prevalent sentiments as expressed in those vox pops. are of concern.

 

Capitalism’s defenders are none to discerning when it comes to identifying perceived socialist threats. The faintest whiff of red smoke and any vaguely smouldering embers are to be stamped on. If possible the word socialist, never mind the concept, is to be anathema.

 

Socialist understanding of the Soviet Union from its inception is that it was state capitalist and not socialist/communist in any sense. Yet there can be little doubt that Lenin, who thought himself a socialist, found himself through circumstance as head of a ruling regime that had no way of pursuing socialism.

 

Thus the compromise of state capitalism proved to be no pre-emptor of socialism as perhaps Lenin hoped. However, it did allow for an ideological claim of communism in the making, an iron curtain indeed behind which the nomenclature became the capitalist class spawning the oligarchs of Putin’s non-Soviet Russia.

 

By posing as communist for over 70 years, the Soviet regime has been responsible for considerable ideological damage that actual socialists have to deal with. Present-day inheritors of Lenin’s legacy continue to serve to obscure the ubiquity of capitalism throughout the world, be it ‘free market’ or state capitalism.

 

This serves ‘free market’ capitalism particularly well politically as those state capitalist countries who continue to don the communist mask tend to the brutally authoritarian, thereby confirming the popular conception.

 

There is, though, a risk in all this for capitalism in that the concept of socialism may be traduced, but it continues to exist and where that may lead is unpredictable. For example, while the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 could not of itself have led to socialism, had the idea inspired the working class around the world to seriously consider what was possible for it to achieve, then capitalism would have had a problem.

 

Therefore, any hint of socialism succeeding, however erroneous, must be pilloried and, where possible, crushed. Even politicians who are merely trying to ameliorate the worst effects of capitalism without challenging capitalism itself must be thwarted and shown to fail. All the better if those politicians self-identify, or failing that can be branded, as socialists/communists/Marxists.

 

Thus the case of Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension from the Labour Party takes on a significance for socialists. On his being elected leader a whole mechanism of vilification was slipped into gear. Ironically, it was his declared support for a beleaguered Semitic people, Palestinians, which ultimately led to his downfall, branded a denier of anti-Semitism.

 

As a case study in character assassination, it should serve as a warning as to the opprobrium that will be manufactured and freely distributed to the public should anyone appear to be gaining influence contrary to capitalism’s well-being.

 

The synthetic outrage produced through blending anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism has proved to be powerful. It has placed a brand of aggressive ultra-nationalism beyond criticism and forged a potent political weapon to strike down opponents, leaving them apparently morally, as well politically, compromised.

 

The wider impact is to identify anti-Semitism with socialism. It doesn’t matter that Corbyn really isn’t a socialist, just another would-be reformer of capitalism. If this is indicative of action that can be so vigorously pursued against a reformer, what can those expect who do wish to replace capitalism with socialism through the agency of a self-aware working class acting on its own behalf.

 

Once the working class is so motivated, then such a political weapon will be blunted. But until then, those who have accepted the task of propagating socialist ideas need to take heed of what could be the personal consequences of becoming more influential.

 

There is the further, perhaps more important, point concerning democracy. Socialists do not advocate the suppression of ideas, rather they should be brought out into the open and subjected to scrutiny. Through debate erroneous notions can be exposed and correct ones clearly identified. This does not preclude individuals continuing to expound erroneous ideas, the safeguard being their dismissal by the majority. That is democracy.

 

This most definitely applies to socialists. If some, or even all, we advocate can be demonstrated objectively to be wrong, then so it must be. It would be utterly pointless finding some mechanism whereby such a demonstration could be suppressed. This applies to all bodies of ideas and ideologies. Any agency working to frustrate this for self-serving purposes is opposed to democracy.

The Socialist Party was vigorously opposed to Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. However well meaning, his ideas would not have brought the benefit of socialism to the working class. This for the very good reason that socialism is not something that can be conferred, it must be achieved by the working class itself.

 

This opposition was open and political, not personal. His subsequent vilification though the media, and by many of his own backbenchers, served the interests of the working class not one iota. But it has most definitely served the interests of capitalism by casting guilt by association, however vague and erroneous that association may be, with socialism. The juicier story is proving to be the ongoing, and rather laboured (pun intended) anti-Semitism row. If there is a strand of anti-Semitism running through the Labour Party it would be one of the threads of racism sown into all societies based around national identities.

 

Zionism is but one manifestation of this and it is quite possible that those who take a specifically anti-Zionist stand slip into expressions of anti-Semitism without recognising they are doing so. While the world continues to be divided by national boundaries, so will the curse of casual, as well as intentional, racist comments and behaviour.

Suspending Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour Party not only won’t cure the problem, it deflects from the root cause. It would well serve those who are celebrating Corbyn’s predicament to examine their own attitudes as to whether they can honestly acquit themselves of ever having had a racist thought. To quote a statement attributed to a Jewish teacher, ‘Let he (or she) who is without sin cast the first stone.’

 

Perhaps Jeremy Corbyn will now take stock and come to realise that the best interests of society are to be served through pursuing actual socialism, not some reformist parody. In which case he may come to realise suspension, perhaps expulsion, from the Labour Party is a blessing, even if initiated by dark deeds.

DAVE ALTON


A Dis-Spiriting Election



The U.S.  presidential election approaches, a lesser evil contest between Trump and Biden.

Do I vote against Trump or help Trump?” Noam Chomsky asks.

The truth is that the choice offered is an illusion. Voters are held hostage by both parties. The Democratic Party is positioned against universal healthcare, ending military aggression, stronger environmental protection, and fair distribution of wealth. By voting for the Democrats at the ballot box, the electorate validates and legitimizes a party that perpetuates war, racism and exploitation which existed long before Trump appeared on the scene.

Americans are programmed every four years for participation in an election that is usually described as the most important since the last one. Eligible voters will choose neither the ruling power’s candidates who act as  puppets for Wall St. This time around the liberal media are telling us that the fear of fascism and end of our democracy is reason to vote the lesser evil. Talk of “our” democracy is like the slaves referring to “our” plantation. The fact is that plutocrats and the oligarchs own and control America’s democracy. “We, the people” have learned only too well how to be slaves. Worse, we have come to think of our servitude as liberty. We, the people” are asleep. Time to wake up, fellow-workers, and break free of our chains. Election issues such as Trump’s personal taxes or Hunter Biden’s business speculation are irrelevant to the real interests of working people which do not feature on the media agenda. People seem content to sit back and watch the reality TV that passes for politics today. It’s the equivalent of bread and circuses, a carefully calibrated exercise in how to manipulate, polarize and control a population. upcoming election will keep workers divided and at each other’s throats, so busy fighting each other that they will never unite against capitalist tyranny. It is time for us all to refuse to be pacified, patronized or placated. The poor are growing. Racial justice and human rights are increasingly non-existent. We are sheep. We are being bred to be followers.

The American political system, from its very inception, was never intended to be democratic. It was designed to be always in favor of the wealthy despite the noble ideals of many of the participants and ever since the history of United States contains the dark shadows of oppression and repression. The deep injustices were covered up by patriotic symbols: the flag, the national anthem and legends that turned the founding fathers and the industrial barons into heroes. Regardless of who is president or the party which controls Congress the official narrative remains one that glorifies the military and worships plunder, justified in the name of Manifest Destiny. The culture of indigenous peoples and the ecology of nature are destroyed in the pursuit of profit for the corporate masters behind the scenes.

One’s refusal to submit to the choice that is offered on the ballot is not throwing one’s vote away nor a mere gesture. It is an act of civil disobedience. Another world is possible, but not without us fighting for it. We must defeat this malignancy of the “lesser of two evils” politics so that we claim our own power.

‘Profit over death’

 According to a recent report published by the Rand Corporation, insulin prices in the US remain five to ten times higher than the prices of the same insulin in other countries.

In May 2020, the Trump administration announced changes for some medicare recipients to cap monthly copays for insulin at $35 a month, claiming the new model would provide an average out of pocket savings of $446 a year, with beneficiaries able to enroll into the new program if they aren’t currently for coverage in 2021. Trump signed another executive order aimed at high insulin costs in July 2020, directing federal health care centers to pass along discounts for insulin and epinephrine to certain low-income Americans, and another order aimed at permitting state insurance plans to allow for drug importation of insulin products made in the USA.

Trump claimed the orders will cut the price of insulin to “pennies a day” without acknowledging the limited scope of his orders, as diabetics are still struggling to afford insulin as costs remain high. During the first presidential debate, Trump falsely claimed his orders lowered insulin costs “so cheap, it’s like water”.

“The executive orders are very narrow in scope and don’t do anything for the root of the problem,” said John Tagliareni, leader of the Iowa Insulin for All chapter and a type one diabetic since 1998. He explained the orders provide a small discount for some health clinics and rely on foreign governments, like Canada, that have negotiated affordable drug prices with insulin manufacturers. “Those executive orders are political talking points, it’s not actual legislation,” added Tagliareni. “It does nothing on overall costs. It does nothing to the pharmaceutical companies for price gouging the American consumer because there’s no competition.”

For many of the 26.9 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes, including nearly 1.6 million with type one diabetes who require several daily insulin doses, the struggle to afford insulin is a constant problem.

 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/30/americans-diabetes-insulin-cost

Preventing Pandemics

  The current pandemic might cost the world economy $16 trillion (£12.2 trillion) by next summer but it is much harder to calculate the human cost.

document has been drawn up by an organisation established by the UN, which is known as IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) warns that, without a co-ordinated global plan, more will die from future pandemics more dangerous than Covid-19. The document is tasked with protecting the natural world on behalf of people.  More than five new diseases are emerging every year. 70% of new diseases like ebola and zika, and almost all known pathogens with pandemic potential, such as influenza, HIV, and the novel coronavirus, have their origins in animals.

These diseases “spill over“ – jump from one species to another – during contact between wildlife, livestock, and people. The report says mammals and birds are estimated to harbour more than a million undiscovered viruses. 



The document says: “Pandemics are becoming more frequent. Without preventive strategies, they will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, kill more people, and affect the global economy with more devastating impact.”



Preventive measures – such as cracking down on the wildlife trade – would cost between $22bn and $31bn annually. It’s a large sum, but a fraction of the economic cost of coping with a pandemic like Covid-19. The drivers of pandemics, including agricultural expansion and intensification, the wildlife trade, wildlife consumption and global travel. The recommendation to lower the consumption of farmed and wild meat – especially from emerging disease hotspots



It criticises current strategies which rely on responding to diseases with new vaccines after they’ve emerged.

The authors say: “Covid-19 demonstrates this is a slow and uncertain path, as the human costs are mounting in lives lost, sickness endured, economic collapse, and lost livelihoods.”

It recommends:

setting up an expert pandemic prevention panel like the world’s climate change panel;an international accord to build preparedness, enhance prevention, and control outbreaks;a common approach on assessing major land-use projects that might expose humans to animal viruses.



Lee Hannah, from the green group Conservation International, told BBC News: “The challenge isn’t what to do, we know what to do – reduce deforestation and re-establish healthy relationships between people and forests. The question is whether there is the political will to invest $10bn or more each year globally, and then sustain that investment to avoid trillions of dollars in damages and untold tolls in loss of life and disruption.”


The recommendation to lower the consumption of farmed and wild meat – especially from emerging disease hotspots – may face resistance from nations such as Brazil. Ranching and the production of animal feed contribute significantly to the South American country’s economy.



https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54721687

No Change

 



“The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.” – Julius Nyerere, first president of Tanzania


The Democratic Party decided to risk another Trump term to nominating Bernie Sanders despite his popularity and majority support for his policies, Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free public education through college, demilitarization, and massive taxation of corporations and billionaires. Instead they chose to run against Trump a corporate-friendly candidate who was polling more weakly against Trump. Now millions of people have signaled that they will not vote for either rotten candidate on November 3. 



Meantime, the Left insist that Trump is the anti-Christ and working people should vote for a lesser evil, a saintly grandfatherly figure such as Biden, and yet begin organizing campaigns to try to save the world from that evil they just recommended you to vote for and hopes to get into office. The World Socialist Party of the United States has maintained its integrity and honesty about both candidates, which has angered our opponents who believe that part of supporting a candidate is lying about him.


If you place trust in a Biden presidency believing in him, his presidency will turn out as disappointing as Clinton’s or Obama’s and lead straight to yet another Republican right-wing as Bush’s or Trump’s victories.


For the Democratic Party, Trump has been the perfect pantomime villain and he has served as the Pied Piper for the Right. The Democrats are aligned with Wall St. And much of their opposition to Trump has merely been media PR stunts without any actual political opposition, hence their support for border security, the defense budget and the Patriot Act, as well as Trump’s foreign policies. Real resistance to Trump, top would threaten the Democrats own cozy relationships with the corporations that fund and run the government. And that’s just not something they’re willing or able to do.


Many on the Left will hold their noses when voting for Joe Biden as the saying goes because the lesser evil is still an evil, especially Biden who has a record of warmongering, being an errand boy for big banks and facilitating the incarcerations of many thousands with his crime bill. Not only have over the years been given abysmal choices for president but they have grown worse with time. It is the ability of industrialists and financiers to buy Republican and Democratic politicians and their control over the news media to choose the campaign issues. The Democratic Party leadership obeys the wishes of its corporate benefactors. Who pays the piper calls the tune. Sanders, a liberal in the tradition of FDR and not actually a socialist (despite what he calls himself) was easily beaten in his two attempts to become the Democratic Party nominee. Many Democrats would have followed the example of Blairites in the British Labour Party who would rather have Tory government than a have Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister. Even if Sanders had somehow managed to become President, the corporate Democrats with the enthusiastic assistance of the Republicans would undoubtedly have undermined him and defeated his policies. 


The American Republican-Democrat duopoly is foolproof way keeping power with Wall St. And it is helped by an anachronistic hopelessly out of date Constitution. Has it never occurred to American the general unwillingness of Democrats to amend the Constitution, to make the Electoral College more reflective of the actual will of the voters? Most any other system would be more democratic but replacing it with a more representative proportional multiple-party system would require fundamentally changing political structures. Not totally democratic as  as capitalism’s built-in inequalities and power imbalances can’t be wished away but must be eliminated through the construction of a better world. However, it would be a be at least an improvement.


 The ultimate reason for the two-party system winner-take-all electoral process is that it was designed by the privileged few to serve the privileged few.  It may offers the illusion of democratic choice, in contrast to a one-party system but if the candidate standing for one of the parties is objectionable, then our choice is between the “lesser of two evils.” Voting for a party or an individual becomes a sterile exercise in ensuring the other side doesn’t win. The election campaign strategy is to attract away voters from the other party, thereby encouraging the parties to draw closer to one another, lessening differences between them. The importance of the candidates’ character and personality comes to the fore, blurring political principles.


The Democratic Party and the Republicans may compete fiercely against one another to win elections and that is because they represent different groupings within the capitalist class. But they still remain accomplices and collaborators for their masters on the many issues that the ruling class are at one.


If we are to ever have elected bodies that are responsive to non-manipulated popular will we must overthrow capitalism itself.

THE WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY

OF THE UNITED STATES




Bush-Fires in Australia and Climate Change

 Australia’s summer bushfires were fuelled by climate change a royal commission found. The royal commission explained natural disasters were becoming increasingly unpredictable and difficult to manage as a result of global heating and the bushfire disaster of 2019-20 was a glimpse of things to come.

Craig Lapsley, a former Victorian emergency management commissioner, said the $10bn cost of the bushfire disaster laid out in the report was “staggering”.

“Not to mention the loss of life, long-term health costs, and impacts on Australian jobs and communities,” he said. “Australians have paid a heavy price for climate change inaction and we will continue to do so if federal and state governments continue to back new coal and gas instead of renewables.”

Greg Mullins, the former New South Wales Fire and Rescue chief, called on governments to implement all 80 recommendations made by the commission. “The bushfire royal commission has laid out the facts in no uncertain terms: climate change drove the black summer bushfires and climate change is pushing us into a future of unprecedented bushfire severity.” Mullins said, “The federal government absolutely must act on the root cause of worsening bushfires in Australia, and take urgent steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This clearly means no new coal or gas, and a rapid transition to renewable energy.”

The Australian Conservation Foundation said in the face of climate disasters and extreme weather events, governments were falling short. “We have a small window of opportunity to reduce the impact climate change has on future bushfire seasons and the threat it presents to life, property and nature,” the climate change program manager, Gavan McFadzean, said.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/30/morrison-government-urged-to-cut-emissions-to-tackle-root-cause-of-worsening-bushfires

The Two-party One-Party State

 


“It is infinitely better to vote for freedom and fail than to vote for slavery and succeed.” – Eugene Debs

 

We seem to be entering into a new period of serious economic and social crisis. While a socialist revolution seems more than doubtful, all working-class activities in defense of their own interests possess a potential revolutionary character because capitalism itself is always dysfunctional and unstable. Everyone faces the actual crises and has to react to them in some way or another but nobody can predict the dimensions or direction. Working people presently appear prepared to accept, within limits, austerity cuts, if only to avoid the miseries of drawn-out confrontations with the employers and the state. Yet all we are being offered is the choice between different cancers.

 

The fact that our class enemies fall out amongst themselves over what they consider the better policy in their overall interest does not mean we support them. The World Socialist Party is vehemently anti-capitalist, so we do not support the Democrats or their left-wing nor do we give support to those neo-fascists claiming to be anti-capitalists and anti-State. The socialist response is straightforward. If you want to get somewhere, aim for that destination directly, rather than going on detours and trusting that you will eventually, by a roundabout a route, arrive at where you want to get to. 

 

Working people cannot ignore the history of Democrats and Republicans working together to create institutional impediments that make third-party challenges well nigh impossible. Facilitating the will of the people does not correlate with excluding viable candidates although there exists widespread and historic loathing of the duopoly.

 

There are liberals who promote the belief that another Trump term would be an existential threat and at all costs he must be defeated. Shall we then forget that Bush oversaw the invasion and destruction of the Middle East and withdrew from Kyoto climate agreement, following his father’s example of invading Panama and Kuwait, that Reagan conducted secret corrupt wars paying the murderous Contras with drug money, invading Grenada, that Kennedy authorized the invasion of Cuba, LBJ’s escalation of the Vietnam War, or that the ‘saintly’ Jimmy Carter continued American support of the brutal Indonesian dictatorship and supported the Afghan Mujahideen, that Bill Clinton passed Wall Street-friendly financial rules and imposed draconian sanctions upon Iraq as well as crime legislation that led to mass incarceration of Americans, while Obama bailed out the corporations but failed to curtail the foreclosure of ordinary American’s homes and increased the deportation of illegal migrants and initiated a drone assassination scheme. Just who has been the greater evil? As for being Trump being dumb, wasn’t it Gerald Ford who was accused of not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Nor do not recall Bush being a great intellectual. Some liberals have a selective memory.

 

Although it’s a favorite conservative media narrative to link Biden with the left-wing extremists, like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the fact is that the most common criticism of Biden was that he was not progressive enough. Most notably, he is not for

Medicare-For-All nor is he for AOC’s version of the “Green New Deal.” Conservative media continues the drumbeat that he is a “Trojan Horse” or that he will be led by “The Squad” – but those are all tacit acknowledgements that he (Biden) is not CURRENTLY adopting their policies.



There is an attempt to convince voters that Biden, eventually, will make a hard left turn. But, if elected, it’s far more likely that the left of the party will have to move toward Biden – not the other way around.

 

Democrats and the Republicans are mortal enemies just one day – election day. Then we fight tooth and nail. The rest of the time it’s live and let live with them – bipartisanship.

 

 Republicans accuse Democrats of collusion with BLM and Antifa to establish a socialist tyranny. Democrats accuse Republicans of marching with the Proud Boys and militias towards a fascist autocracy. Both sides accuse the other of planning a coup if they are defeated in the election. It is all  a distraction. Portraying the two-party duopoly through the lens of its extremist wings is misleading. It leads people to see the two major parties as more significantly different than they are. Hidden behind the spectacle of rhetoric is underlying class unity on matters of importance to Wall St. and the Pentagon.

 

 While the many problems of Americans are systemic weaknesses of the capitalist system, the public political debates is on the likeability of Biden’s or Trump’s personalities – a character contest.

 

 Sanctions against Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Iran, Syria, etc. – costing hundreds of thousands of lives – will continue whoever occupies the White House. The multi-trillion-dollar modernization of the US nuclear arsenal will continue. Private healthcare and health insurance profits remain guaranteed to be protected. Deportations of migrants will carry on. The wealth gap will keep on widening.


With unity on the major issues, the two parties of capital try to distinguish each other over their posture on gesture politics – tokenism. But what the two parties really offer is the choice between the good cop and the bad cop. For sure, Trump’s reign in the White House has been reprehensible but so was Obama’s deportations and drone assassinations, Clinton’s crime and welfare bills and both president’s sanctions policies. Let us not forget that it was the Democratic Party, not the Republicans, that defeated the Bernie Sanders soft-left program, first by Hillary and then by Joe. It is not the Republicans who have gone after the Green Party to exclude them from being on many of the state’ ballot. Biden/Pelosi/Schumer control the Democrats not Sanders/AOC. And the Biden alliance have birds of the feather on both sides of the aisle. There is little daylight between Mitt Romney and Biden.

 

Biden is now the preferred choice of Wall St who are lavishing funds upon the Democratic campaign, which is outspending Trump 2:1. The ruling class are well aware that they are the guaranteed winners whoever prevails right now the Democrats are perceived as better representing their interests.

 

The revolution, which will surely come, will be peaceful. Not a drop of blood will be shed provided the socialists are allowed to control the situation. We will win by the ballot. We realize that we can do nothing until we have complete control of the government. We must have the Presidency and Congress before we can accomplish anything, and we will attempt nothing until we control these offices. Then we will simply take, in the name of the people, the means of production and distribution. They have been paid for, over and over again, by the people, and are ours by every moral right – Eugene Debs

 

The Arrival of the ‘World Socialist’

 


The World Socialist Party of the United States is excited to announce the first issue of our new quarterly journal, World Socialist. It contains articles on the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, the US–China confrontation, the presidential election, ‘human nature,’ the Wall Street bombing of 1920, revolution in ancient Anatolia,  ‘How I became a socialist,’ and Marx’s idea of socialism — plus book reviews and comics.

For the online version just follow the following link:

World Socialist No. 1 (Fall 2020)


The plan is also to produce a hardcopy version for sale at $2.00, as soon as an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is obtained.