Biden is like all politicians. His campaign is constructed on the fuehrer principle. Biden loftily invites his supporters to send him suggestions and proposals – but they have no voice in making decisions, shaping policies, selecting officials and naming his cabinet. That is why they will reject all one-man leader organizations and build on the tested foundations of democracy and control from the grass-roots.

The Democratic Party today is like a ship in a storm that has already sprung one bad leak, is on the verge of springing others and never wilt be the same, even if it should succeed in reaching port. This capitalist party has suffered from internal dissension, conflicts and crises because it has appealed to and won the support of diverse and even antagonistic groups. What keeps the Democratic ship afloat? It’s true that the party machine bosses still command but it mostly only due to the devotion and donations of Big Business, a gang which is  just as responsible for the existence of the Republican Party. The real duty of all workers is not to prop up the Democratic Party , but to to launch an independent socialist party which could emerge at once as a major movement on the American political scene.

Listening to the speeches, messages, resolutions, and platform promises pouring out of the various campaign headquarters nowadays, you might get the impression that nothing is too good for the African American people and other minorities. In that case, you will be surprised when all the shouting is finished and the votes are counted, to find the minorities in pretty much the same position as before. To win equality it is necessary for African-Americans and all the other minorities to change not only the laws, but the whole system.

When they talk about defense of the “national interest” they are not talking about democratic practices, which they violate a thousand times each day. They are talking about defense of the capitalist system – of profits to be coined out of the exploitation of labor. What they want to defend is the “American way of life” that enables them to suck these profits out of the toll of the working people. Racial discrimination and oppression are basic parts of that “way of life” because they divide the workers and thus make it easier for them to be exploited. What the workers need to defend and extend are their democratic rights. To do that they must unite, regardless of color, and fight relentlessly against the reactionary defenders of exploitation and oppression. Politics will have real meaning for the working people only after they have taken it out of the grip of the capitalist enemies of democracy.

One reason why Biden will get a big vote in November is that he is telling the people a considerable number of truths and half-truths about Trump. These are the things a worried people want to hear, the things they know to be true. But it is not enough, therefore, to point an accusing finger at the greedy and evil man who is running the government today.  His individual avarice and lust for power are important factors in the situation, but not the decisive ones.  In the first place, Trump is not acting on his own; they are the representatives and administrators of their class, the capitalist class in his administration. Without the consent of sections of the ruling class, Trump would never dare embark on such a dangerous adventures. America’s problems are not merely some quirk in an individual. The simplistic answer, Get rid of the bad man, put in a good man. and then we won’t have no more to worry about will not bring about any real fundamental solutions to what ails us. There is no need here to enter into the question of Biden’s sincerity. History has taught us to be on guard against capitalist reformism. The reason is that you cannot end misery and anxiety without ending its cause, capitalism. As long as the influence of Biden and the Democrats is able to dissuade the people from replacing capitalism with a socialist system, just so long will the suffering of working people persist. .

Nothing embarrasses the American capitalists so much as the truth about their own revolutionary past. How the present rulers hate to be reminded that the United States was born and grew great as the result of a revolution (and a civil war). How they squirm at the memory that our own ancestors were revolutionaries in a “subversive” movement. The reasons is not hard to find. When American Big Business is reaching out for domination of the world and using all its resources to preserve an outworn and oppressive social system, it is naturally not interested in extolling American revolutions for independence and the establishment of new social systems. That independence struggle was labelled seditious, disloyal and subversive by the forces of “law and order” – and so it was from the viewpoint of the British. American capitalism which came to power by revolution, can, like other outworn systems, only be replaced by the same process. 

Those of us who are the most consistent fighters against the tyranny of Big Business willingly give credit to the revolutionary forerunners of the present ruling class for the struggles they led against tyranny in the past. For us, unlike the apologists of Big Business, the truth about the revolutionary past is not a source of embarrassment to be concealed but of enlightenment and inspiration, providing many rich lessons still applicable in the current struggles against oppression.

 Previous revolutions resulted in the establishment of the rule of a new minority. The coming revolution will for the first time bring power to the representatives of the overwhelming majority of the population. This time around the goal of the revolution is nothing less than the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a class-free society. Our revolution cannot be prevented by red scares and witch hunts.

 Half of all work tasks will be handled by machines by 2025 in a shift likely to worsen inequality, a World Economic Forum report has forecast. Routine or manual jobs in administration and data processing were most at threat of automation, WEF said.

“The world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year. China’s entrepreneurs have done much better than expected. Despite Covid-19 they have risen to record levels.”

In the Hurun China Rich List 2020 Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, retained the top spot for the third year in a row, with his personal wealth jumping 45% to $58.8 billion.

The combined wealth of those on the Hurun China list – with an individual wealth cut-off of 2 billion yuan ($299.14 million) – totaled $4 trillion, more than the annual GDP of Germany.

More wealth was created this year than in the previous five years combined, with China’s rich-listers adding $1.5 trillion, roughly half the size of Britain’s GDP.

Booming stock markets and a flurry of new listings have created five new dollar billionaires in China a week for the past year.  Only billionaires in the United States possessed greater combined wealth than those in mainland China.

Zhong Shanshan, who recently listed his bottled water maker Nongfu Spring Co. shot straight into the top 3 with $53.7 billion, trailing Tencent founder Pony Ma. The wealth of He Xiaopeng surged 80% to $6.6 billion after the listing of his electric vehicle maker Xpeng Motors in New York

 A hyena, a wolf and a fox corner a poor little pig. The hyena said, “Come home with me. I’ll put out some nice juicy peach slices.” The wolf said, “Come home with me. I’ll open a tub of delicious ice-cream.” The fox said, “Come home with me. I’ll place a big red apple in your mouth.”

For the next few weeks working people will be flattered and cajoled. Our passions and prejudices will be stimulated. We will be lured with glittering promises and persuaded with specious arguments. No lie or deception will be left unsaid that can possibly swing a vote. It is a time of vast social discontent. It is a time of unrest and seeking. The people are edger to listen, ripe for answers.

There is a forlorn hope that there exists a path to pull  the Democratic Party to the left and somehow that is through the voting for Biden. In fact, the left is in its classic hopeless position of supporting a corporate centrist. The only difference between Republicans and Democrats on climate change is that the Republicans don’t believe it’s real, so we shouldn’t do anything about it. The Democrats believe it’s real, but we shouldn’t do anything about it.  Workers must break with the discredited Democratic Party and admit that it can no longer be regarded as the lesser of two evils. 

Political theater is nothing new. Presidential candidates are masters at it. They play  ping–pong back and forth between pandering to the right then to the left. The election fight this year could be called the Battle of the Demagogues. The Democrats are committed to capitalism, defending capitalism continually. How can you expect this party to come to your aid in your daily struggles? The Democratic Party survives because it rests on the apathy and indifference of its voters. The Republican Party is the political machine of Wall Street. The Democratic Party is not a bit better. Like the Republicans, the Democrats stand for capitalism. But powerful as it is, government intervention is not omnipotent. It is one thing to prop up temporarily this or that, it is another matter to long sustain all the economic activity. They cannot avert the inevitable downward plunge. 

Liberal phonies always use glittering generalities. Only Biden repeats them more often, more vaguely and more shamelessly. This windy demagogy is the foundation of his reputation as the “people’s champion.” Fortunately, we are not forced to judge him by words alone. Biden had ample opportunity to demonstrate in deeds his self-proclaimed affinity with the American people He was once the “Crown Prince” to “King” Obama. In all those years he did little to benefit for the workers, the African American or poor farmers. It is a matter, of public record, if not of public knowledge. A brief look at the Wallace record is enough to show that you can’t properly judge a man by what he says when he is running for office. He surrounded himself with a retinue of conservative big businessmen and was the representative of business in government. He championed consistently but one program the capitalist exploitation of labor for profit. How much reliance can you place in a man who kept his mouth shut in time of war.

 Working people should engage on the political arena with its own independent socialist party and, its own socialist presidential candidate and not help confuse the field with another splinter capitalist party like the Green Party. Such third parties cannot solve a single one of the burning problems before us today. A socialist party alone can effectively stem the influence coming from Big Business promoted by the bi-partisan duo-poly in Washington. Both want to preserve the status quo.

Shall we continue to play the politics of the “lesser evil”? How do we propose to free the American workers from subjection to the two old political machines of Wall Street? 

In opposition to all these capitalist politicians and their stooges, the World Socialist Party of the United States stands for an end to the anarchy of capitalism with its pandemics and poverty. The WSPUS stands for the modern socialist system of running industry. Socialism alone can guarantee enduring peace and plenty. It replaces the profit system and thereby eliminates the basic cause of wars, racism and political reaction. End the rule of the piratical cliques of capitalists who run industry for greedy personal ends. Put order into the planning in of our industrial system. Join the struggle for peace and security by building socialism. The present agony and protracted crises of humanity stems from the working class delaying too long in overthrowing this outlived capitalist order. Capitalism cannot bring harmonious development, cannot feed, clothe or shelter the people.

  A white man was found with a small young Indian child. He was asked “What are you doing with this child?” He answered, “I am protecting him. He’s an orphan.” “And how do you know he’s orphan?” , “I killed his parents.” was the reply.

In just 20 years, after gold was found, 80 percent of California’s Native Americans were wiped out. An estimated 100,000 Native Americans died during the first two years of the Gold Rush alone; by 1873, only 30,000 indigenous people remained of around 150,000. And though some died because of the seizure of their land or diseases caught from new settlers, between 9,000 and 16,000 were murdered in cold blood—the victims of a policy of genocide sponsored by the state of California and gleefully assisted by its new citizens.  In 1848, California became the property of the United States as one of the spoils of the Mexican-American War. Then, in 1850, it became a state. 

The Act for the Governance and Protection of Indians was passed in 1850. The name of the law sounds benign, but it was malign in the extreme. It allowed Native Americans to be enslaved  even though California was admitted to the union as a free state – free as in no black slavery allowed. Indian men, women and children were openly bought and sold in city streets throughout the 1850s. The act “facilitated removing California Indians from their traditional lands, separating at least a generation of children and adults from their families, languages, and cultures (1850 to 1865). This California law provided for “apprenticing” or indenturing Indian children and adults to Whites, and also punished “vagrant” Indians by “hiring” them out to the highest bidder at a public auction if the Indian could not provide sufficient bond or bail. White settlers and the California government enslaved native people and forced them to labor for ranchers through at least the mid-1860s. Native Americans were then forced onto reservations and their children forced to attend “Indian assimilation schools.” It permitted the ownership of Indian children (Section 3: “Any person … obtaining a minor Indian … and wishing to keep it”,) In 1860 the act was expanded to provide for the ownership of Indian men and women into adulthood. And the Act denied Indians equal standing under the law (Section 6: “In no case shall a white man be convicted of any offence upon the testimony of an Indian”).

 Governor Peter Hardeman Burnett explained in his  speech of January 6th, 1851, “That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected.” 

He proceeded to set aside state money to arm local militias against Native Americans. Militias raided tribal outposts, shooting and sometimes scalping Native Americans. Soon, local settlers began to do the killing themselves. Local authorities placed bounties on Native Americans. And at one point the price was about of for a male body part, whether it was a scalp, a hand, or the whole body; and then $5 for a child or a woman. In many cases, they only had to bring in the scalp. And in other cases, the whole body was brought in to prove that they had this individual, they’d killed this person, and receive their reward. 

Militia expeditions and vigilantes to kill at least 6,460 California Indians between 1846 and 1873. The U.S Army also joined in the murder spree, killing at least 1,600 native Californians.

In 1850, for example, around 400 Pomo people, including women and children, were slaughtered by the U.S. Cavalry and local volunteers at Clear Lake north of San Francisco.

It wasn’t until after 1900 when the law was repealed and many Californians learned the fact that it was still legal to kill Native Americans. California only apologized for the genocide it carried out against its indigenous residents in 2019.

 Migrants make international payments to support their families back home. Now these important transfers have declined dramatically amid the global coronavirus outbreak.

According to World Bank spokesperson Alexandra Klopfer Hernandez, global remittances have dropped recently. “There was a sharp decrease in payments during April and May following the lockdown,” she said. Hernandez remains pessimistic about the future: “We predict a further decline of remittances because of high global unemployment among migrants and the economic crisis.”

As early as spring, the World Bank was projecting that the pandemic would cause a 20% drop in remittances. In 2019, remittances worth $554 billion (€473 billion) were transferred by migrants to their families back home — $133 billion of which was sent from Europe.

The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (Knomad), which is co-financed by Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which has looked into the effects of a 20% remittance drop, pointed out that remittances exceed all foreign direct investment and development aid combined.

Knomad wrote that “the despair of those 800 million people who rely on these payments will grow; and the economic stability of many poorer countries is in jeopardy.” Germany, France, Spain, Great Britain, Russia and Italy are the most important countries when it comes to remittances in Europe. According to Germany’s central bank, maintenances have steadily increased over the past five years, growing from €3.5 billion to €5.4 billion.

Marina Manke of the International Organization for Migration(IOM) says there are no reliable figures regarding the volume of international payments amid the pandemic. “We have neither up-date-date figures, nor figures on the effects of COVID-19,” she said. So for now, the organization must rely on local surveys and estimates.

“Half of the Moldovan migrants we interviewed confirmed they no longer have an income, so they stopped sending money to their families back home,” says Manke. 

The financial reports of TransferWise, Western Union and MoneyGram — service providers which facilitate remittances — reveal a sharp drop in international payments. Western Union reported a 17% revenue drop in its second financial quarter compared to the same period last year, while MoneyGram reported a 13% decline between April and June. Experts are now calling on these and other financial service providers to lower their fees so that migrants can do more to support their loved ones back home. Currently, remittance fees range from between 3% and 7% per payment, which means that when $554 billion in remittances were paid last year, financial service providers earned between $16 and $38 billion — a considerable sum of money that could be used to improve the lives of poor families, and give a boost to developing economies.

https://www.dw.com/en/global-poor-hit-as-covid-19-causes-drop-in-remittances/a-55306293

 More than 26,000 extra deaths occurred at home this year. Compared with normal years, there have been more deaths at home from a number of major causes, including cancers and respiratory diseases, during the last six months. The ONS figures show that deaths in private homes have been above the five-year average since the peak of the pandemic in early April, while deaths in hospitals have been lower than normal since the start of June.

More men than normal are dying at home from heart disease in England and Wales, and more women are dying from dementia and Alzheimer’s.

In contrast, deaths in hospitals from these causes have been lower than usual. The Covid epidemic may have led to fewer people being treated in hospital. Or it may be that people in older age groups, who make up the majority of these deaths, are choosing to stay at home.

 Projected population growth for Australia is 600,000 fewer people in 2022  than had previously been estimated. 

“The arc of our nation’s history is bending before our very eyes – a smaller and older Australia awaits us,”  economic consultancy Deloitte Access Economics latest quarterly business outlook has reported. “That loss of migrants will have impacts for many years; it weighs on the pace of recovery, slowing everything from housing construction to the utilities. And, combined with a slumping birthrate, it will change the outlook for school numbers.”

Deloitte is not alone in its predictions – the Treasury, based on an assumption the international border would reopen by late 2021, predicted Australia would have 1 million fewer people than anticipated in two years time.

Australia has relied on population growth – mostly through migration – to shore up economic growth for the past three decades. 

That not only means changes to infrastructure and growth plans – it also cuts down on the amount of revenue governments across the country had anticipated on receiving, putting increased pressure on already stressed red-line budgets.

 Australia’s existing population includes about five million baby boomers. Younger migrants of working age have traditionally been used to boost the workforce as the older generation retires. Deloitte forecasts the absence of migrants from the labour force will “cut into longer-term growth relatively more than just the overall slowing in growth might suggest”. Deloitte predicts Australia’s net migration arrivals will shrink by 20,000 in the 2020-21 financial year and only increase by 20,000 the next.

And that is the best-case scenario, based on predictions the rest of the world, not just Australia, will have a handle on the coronavirus sometime in the next year.

Combined with a slump in the domestic fertility rate (a downward trend Treasury predicts will continue for the next decade), Australia is looking at a substantially older population than was forecast just a year ago. The substantial drop in migration will further compound Australia’s birthrate – fewer migrants also means fewer mothers giving birth.

“That’s two-thirds of a million missing Australians,” the analysts said.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/19/covid-rewrites-australias-future-with-huge-drop-in-population-signalling-challenges-ahead

 Different states have different rules for write-in candidates, but they can be divided into three categories. Nine states—Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota—won’t accept any write-ins at all. Most states are in the middle in that they accept write-in candidates, but require them to file paperwork ahead of time for their votes to be counted. However the following are the states that socialists can express their support for the World Socialist Party of the United States (WSPUS)

Iowa

Iowa is one of the seven states that do not require a write-in presidential candidate to file some paperwork in advance of an election. In Iowa, a write-in candidate is not required to file any special paperwork in order to have his or her votes tallied.

New Hampshire

New Hampshire state law does not require write-in presidential candidates to file any special paperwork in advance of the election.

New Jersey

New Jersey state law does not appear to require write-in candidates to file any special paperwork in advance of an election

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania do not require write-in candidates to file paperwork in advance of the election. Voters may write in the names of candidates on the Pennsylvania general ballot

Rhode Island

Rhode Island do not require write-in candidates to file paperwork in advance of the election. Rhode Island law does not require a write-in presidential candidate to file any special paperwork in advance of the election.

Virginia

Virginia do not require write-in candidates to file paperwork in advance of the election. A write-in presidential candidate is not required to file any special paperwork in advance of the election

Vermont

Vermont do not require write-in candidates to file paperwork in advance of the election. A write-in presidential candidate is not required to file any special paperwork in advance of the election.

A write-in candidate cannot become president because we the people do not actually elect the president. We elect ELECTORS, who comprise the ELECTORAL COLLEGE. They are chosen by political party leaders. That’s how the Constitution designed presidential elections, because the Founding Fathers did not TRUST the judgement of the American citizens. So, the winner of the presidential election is NOT the person who gets the most votes, but the person who gets a majority of nominated ELECTORS.

We must make it clear that the World Socialist Party seeks the votes only of those who want socialism. Vote-catching ploys and making opportunist statements which are not compatible with our Declaration of Principles so as to make the socialist case seem more enticing to our fellow workers commits an injustice to our party, as well as to those who would under those circumstances misguidedly cast their vote for ourselves. If we promised a host of reform measures then these votes would not express support for socialism but for those false remedies and in the next ensuing election are quite as apt to be turned against us, if another party comes up with an even more palatable platform of palliatives. Votes acquired by seeking ameliorations of workers’ conditions under capitalism are not votes for socialism but are fictitious. In our election campaign we state our principles clearly, speak the truth, seeking not to flatter, but only to convince our fellow workers and win them over to our cause through an intelligent understanding of our case.

No possible good can come from any kind of a political alliance with any other supposed “workers” or “progressive” party. We most certainly seek the support of trade-unionists, environmental campaigners and community activists but only of those who desire socialism and are ready to vote and work with us for the overthrow of capitalism. We hold no brief for those candidates who engage in political demagoguery merely for the sake of votes and we hold in contempt those who seek election for the mere sake of holding office. Their campaign promises are filled with empty platitudes and meaningless phrases. The World Socialist Party buys no votes with false promises or wishful thinking.

The World Socialist Party is the only party which honestly represents the working class in this general election. 

Members and supporters of the World Socialist Party  cast a write-in vote by writing “WORLD SOCIALIST Party” across the ballot paper.

What’s the alternative? To not vote at all? More and more people are doing this, and it’s not as bad as voting for one or other of the parties that stand for keeping capitalism going. But it’s a bit of a cop-out. The anarchists like it, because they don’t believe in electoral political action. We don’t agree with their view. Our predecessors were right to struggle for the vote. The fact that up to now it hasn’t been used properly is no reason for rejecting it as ineffectual. We say in this election, the working class should write-in for ‘WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY’. You don’t have to vote for any wannabe leader. The more people who stand up for socialism, the more able we’ll be to link up, and work towards the change we need. 

The World Socialist Party is like no other political party. First, because it doesn’t want power for itself. In the new society we advocate, there will be no power structures anyway and our organization would cease to exist. Second, because we have no leaders or followers and think instead that collective decision-making – democracy – is the only suitable way to operate a free society. Do you know of any other organization that can say this? We doubt it.

So what’s the catch? The catch is, we will not lead you and we can’t do all the work for you. You have to be your own leader, otherwise democracy is meaningless. So if you’re prepared to stand up for yourself, don’t wait for other people to do it first – get in touch with us and help out.

We say work with us for the overthrow of this system and the building of a new one that will be in keeping with our shared interests. The WSPUS do not support any capitalist faction anywhere or at any time. We will not engage in any tactical voting ruse such as support for the lesser evil.