The only thing that can alter that course of events is mass struggle, and a genuine commitment to political activity independent of the Democrats’ electoral calculations.
Politics
Trump on the Home Stretch
Three weeks before the election, the chatter of the 24-hour news cycle confuses more than it explains. This article will argue that underneath the chatter and against a backdrop of a marked decline in working class living standards and resurgence of COVID-19, Trump and his advisors have formulated an overall […]
Does the U.S. face a crisis of democracy?
It’s common today to hear pundits declare that the U.S. is facing an “unprecedented” crisis of democracy. Liberals at the MSNBC network have banged on for years about how “Russian interference” in the 2016 and 2020 presidential election poses an existential threat to U.S. democracy and sovereignty. At […]
Pulling punches on the so-called “dirty break”
Many Leftists in the US, including some former advocates of independent politics, have embraced the idea of socialists running on Democratic Party ballot lines. (Some have gone even further, urging a vote for Joe Biden.) The argument has been that this will give our side time to build up our […]
Getting Ready for the November election crisis
Trump prepares his crisis Donald Trump gave a clear outline of his post elections plans in the first of the TV Presidential debates. Trump will send teams of thugs to polling places under the guise of poll watchers. Mail-in ballots will be denounced as frauds and counterfeit. A bottomless pit […]
A difficult period for the working class
The International Socialism Project has held a series of discussions on the rapidly changing US political scene. This article is based on an introduction made to a meeting on September 13. It covers three points: Trump and the far right, the mood of the working class, and the state of […]
Elections in a time of multiple and deepening crises
In one of the most volatile political years in a generation, the stability and even predictability of the presidential election has stood out. On March 8, a few days after the Super Tuesday Democratic primary and before the full national weight of the COVID-19 pandemic asserted itself, former Vice President […]
“The two governing parties are presiding over a failed state”
Interview with Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins The Green Party, at a virtual convention completed on July 11, nominated the ticket of Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker to run in the U.S. presidential election in November. To find out more about the candidates and their platform, visit their campaign […]
The Democrats: Defenders of Empire
The following is chapter six of Lance Selfa’s The Democrats: A Critical History. The footnote references have been removed. One of the enduring truisms of American politics since the 1960s is the notion that Republicans are “strong on national defense” while Democrats are “weak.” In 2004, largely on this […]
The struggle has moved far “Beyond Bernie”
Bernie Sanders ended his second presidential bid in April—endorsing Joe Biden and urging his supporters to vote for him. Since then, the political climate in the U.S. has been transformed. The Covid-19 pandemic, the ensuing economic crisis and large scale unemployment, followed suddenly by the mass uprisings triggered by the […]
Sanders backs Biden: Whither the Left?
In what was likely the most predictable event in the Democratic Party primary season, Sen. Bernie Sanders on April 13 endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee to go up against President Trump in November. No one should have been surprised that the Sanders campaign ended this […]
Ganging up on Bernie
The primary season is barely underway, but the Democratic Party’s “Anybody but Trump” strategy has already given way to “Anybody but Bernie.” Not surprisingly, the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) long-standing plan for former Vice President Joe Biden to assume the mantle of party nominee backfired badly in the first two […]
Upton Sinclair and the Democrat’s dirty tricks
AFTER DECADES of asserting his independence from the two capitalist parties in the U.S., one of the best-known socialists in the country registers as a Democrat to run in the party primaries. He campaigns on a program of pro-working class policies, taxing the rich and putting the unemployed to work. […]
Whatever happened to political independence?
Every four years, you can count on a group of prominent left-of-center figures to issue a statement aimed at the broad left urging a vote for the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Whether it’s the positive case of “Progressives for Obama” or the fear-induced call to support the “lying neoliberal warmonger,” […]
US social democracy and the Marxist left
Us history is full of examples of how revolutionaries abandoned their project and dissolved into reformist organizations. Max Shachtman’s Workers’ Party is one historical example.
