We can expect much commentary on why the socialist left should unite behind the Democrats in 2020 to get rid of the dreaded Trump. The Green Party will be told to stand down in the 2020 presidential campaign.
The quadrennial attacks . . .
Category: Electoral Politics
Should the Green Party Stand Down in 2020?
PSOE gains from useful vote against the reactionary right
With a turnout of more than 75%, the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español – Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) was the main winner (28.70% of votes, with 123 seats, as against 2016 when it obtained 85) against the PP (Partido Popular . . .
Yet Another Turkish Election
In February of 2019, districts in the Turkish cities of Ankara and Istanbul began selling produce directly to consumers at local markets in an effort to bypass retailers, who had been characterized by President Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan as “terrorizing” society . . .
Moldova — Like Nothing Happens
It’s been more than a month since the crucial event in political life of Moldova took place – the February parliament elections. The elections define the future development of the country, which is a parliamentary republic.
This small Eastern European state . . .
Reminiscences of the First Sanders Campaign
The words jumped from the screen like the familiar opines of old love letters.
‘Single-payer healthcare’, ‘break up the banks’, ‘fifteen dollar minimum wage’, ‘tuition free college’.
I had been surreptitiously scrolling through the news on a short break from my daily . . .
Can the “Green New Deal” Save the Planet?
It is never comfortable to give up long-held beliefs and connections, but the impending climate crisis makes that a burning necessity. And the fact that, scientifically, it’s possible to avoid the worst of this climate disaster gives a positive incentive to do . . .
One Party in the Age of Two Lefts?
One of the great challenges to redressing the split between Democratic Party avoiding and Democratic Party engaging socialists, is how to productively deal with a beguiling strategic predilection of the party avoiders. That predilection is to assail the Democrats as . . .
Should DSA Endorse Bernie Sanders? A Debate
Well, it’s happened: Senator Bernie Sanders has declared his candidacy for the 2020 Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. Seeing a historic opportunity, DSA’s National Political Committee has established an expedited endorsement process. Now DSA chapters all over the country . . .
Cedric Johnson and the Other Sixties’ Nostalgia
There is something politically familiar in Cedric Johnson’s two essays in Catalyst (Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2017) and New Politics (No. 66, Winter 2019). Because his political conclusions are very general, even vague, ones that build “on broad solidarity . . .
DSA’s Growing Pains
Barely five years ago, if you asked someone where a new U.S. socialist movement might appear, I would wager that nearly no one would have said with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Before 2016, DSA’s profile was . . .
Peel Back Tulsi Gabbard’s “Progressive” Veneer
Tulsi Gabbard is getting a pass from people who should know better, first from Glenn Greenwald and then from the folks at Democracy Now! They describe her as “progressive except that some leftists on some issues . . .
On Capitalism, Authoritarianism and What Is New about Trumpism
Below is a revised version of a presentation given to a panel on “Mass Incarceration and the Global Rise of Authoritarian Capitalism” at the Los Angeles Peace Center on September 23, 2017.
In this paper, I would like to address four . . .
The Left and the Democratic Party
The Experience of Almost a Century
What can socialists today learn from the experience of the left in the past as it grappled with the issue of electoral politics? Over the last 50 years, American leftists have in general adopted two alternative strategies for dealing with . . .
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Notes on the 2018 Midterm Elections
For those who expected the midterm elections to be a slow grinding of the far right and the nation’s wax museum-Bonapartist president, the mills of the gods on election night operated as if on seasonal layoff.
The Green New Deal Promises Peace and Progress. Will Nuclear Advocates Undermine it?
The environmental policy centerpiece of the incoming Democratic House of Representatives is what’s now known as “The Green New Deal.” But it’s already hit deeply polarizing pushback from the old-line Democratic leadership. And it faces divisive jockeying over the future of nuclear power.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador Promises the “Rebirth of Mexico”
Andrés Manuel López Obrador took the presidential oath on December 1 and then gave an hour and a half oration to the legislators as well as another lengthy speech to the people of Mexico City gathered in the zócalo, in which he reiterated his campaign promises to end corruption, to bring about economic prosperity, and to lead Mexico into a new historic fourth period of Mexican history, a period of "rebirth." The speech made clear that AMLO, as he is called by his initials in the press, is a reformer, but not a radical and certainly not a revolutionary as his opponents have claimed. His call for an end to neoliberalism and to corruption are accompanied by invitations to Mexican and foreign capitalists to invest and make a profit.
Why I'm Not Voting Green in New Jersey
The case for voting for Green candidate Howie Hawkins for governor of New York is a strong one and were I a New Yorker (I live in New Jersey), I would do so.
Howie Hawkins for Governor: A Step in the Left Direction
I write this largely for my comrades in the Democratic Socialists of America but also for all who are interested in building a more democratic, egalitarian, and just society. I argue here for voting for Howie Hawkins for governor, the only progressive candidate for that office on the ballot in New York State, and the only open socialist.
I am convinced that any future mass working class or socialist party in the United States will arise largely out of developments in the Democratic Party.
MST Open Letter on Brazil Election
Comrades and Friends of MST (Landless Rural Workers' Movement) around the World,
We would like to share some of our views on this delicate moment of Brazilian politics in the last week of the election campaign:
Gangster Politics
In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels referred to the state as “the executive committee of the ruling class.” Reflecting the collective capitalist interest in maintaining its accumulation process, capable of forging compromises among competing sectors of its own and other classes, this committee was also meant to enforce legal norms, contracts, and other rules of the game.
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