Where We Stand – Socialist Organizer Statement

The main obstacle facing the U.S. working class, the oppressed Black population, and the youth is the refusal of the leaders of the labor movement, and of the Black struggle, to break with the Democratic Party, one of the two capitalist parties — and to build a Labor Party rooted in the unions and oppressed communities, as well as an independent Black working-class party linked to the struggle to build a Labor Party. There is no political party that represents exclusively the interests of the exploited and oppressed.

The need for such an independent working-class party is all the more urgent given the strike wave and workers’ mobilizations this past summer – the most powerful in decades.

The subordination of the labor movement to the Democratic Party – and thereby to U.S. imperialism – is encouraged and promoted by the policies of Bernie Sanders, the DSA, and a whole array of leftist parties that are already calling to vote for Biden-the-Warmonger to stop Trump.

All of them serve one main purpose, which is to sheepdog workers and young Black activists back into the Democratic Party by covering its anti-worker policies with a pseudo “progressive” brush. This is why they get a lot of play in the mainstream media. This same accusation can be leveled at the majority of Black leaders who claim to champion the fight for Black liberation but subordinate themselves to the graveyard of all social movements: the Democratic Party.

At every major election, the refusal of these “leaders” to break with the Democratic Party and champion the struggle for a Labor Party and a Black working-class party creates a vacuum. It’s a vacuum that political currents claiming to be “independent” of both the Republicans and the Democrats seek to fill. In the 2024 presidential election, it’s Cornel West who is positioning himself to play this role, running as the Green Party’s presidential candidate.

Among the main slogans put forward by Cornel West in his bid as the Green Party’s candidate are ending poverty and houselessness, demilitarizing the police (abolishing Cop-Cities), Medicare For All (single-payer healthcare), education, reparations for Black people, and ending wars and ecological collapse.

Some of these slogans are very general. What, for example, does he mean by reparations? Is he talking about the right to self-determination for Black people? And when it comes to ending wars, does he call for the withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO troops from Ukraine? Overall, however, his platform is in tune with the aspirations of millions of workers, Blacks and young people — all of whom want profound change.

Having said that, we must note the following:

Cornel West does not call on the labor movement to break with the Democratic Party. He does not call for a genuine workers’ party or an independent Black working class party. In fact, he first announced his campaign run as the candidate of the People’s Party, a multi-class populist party that featured right-wing politicians of the LaRouche party at an “antiwar” demonstration last February organized by People’s Party leader Nick Brana.

Even when West stepped down as the People’s Party’s candidate, he continued to support the People’s Party’s politics and his initial decision to run as that party’s candidate. It was simply that the People’s Party was only registered in a few states, West explained, whereas the Green Party was registered in more than 20 states. He reiterated that he was “honored” to have been chosen as the People’s Party’s candidate.

Like the People’s Party, the Green Party is a multi-class formation that does not place its orientation and activities at the service of workers’ interests. Experience shows that “green parties” in the major imperialist countries always end up rallying to the side of imperialist governments and are often their most hawkish wing (as in Germany today).

Given the absence of genuine political representation for workers and Black people in the 2024 presidential election, thousands of activists, workers and young people are looking favorably at West’s campaign, and many are beginning to organize campaign committees.

Socialist Organizersupports the political orientation of the Organizing Committee for the Reconstitution of the Fourth International (OCRFI). We have no interests separate and apart from those of workers, young people and the oppressed. We address everyone fraternally – including all those who look favorably upon Cornel West’s candidacy: Join us in promoting the widest debate on the need for the U.S. labor movement and the Black Liberation Movement to break with the Democratic Party. Together, let’s organize this discussion in the columns of the monthly The Organizer newspaper. We await your contributions.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Why We Don’t Endorse Cornel West’s Presidential Bid

“We will seek to work with him and his supporters in a comradely way on mutually supported issues.”

By Millie Phillips

Cornel West, currently running for president of the United States on the Green Party ticket, could appear to be an ideal candidate for those with socialist aspirations. As a well-respected Black academic and progressive Christian theologian, he may appeal to many demographics that might mistrust the secular socialist left as overly white and anti-religious.

Being neither race-reductionist nor class-reductionist, he cuts across identity differences, an approach that could widen his support and help build more effective social justice movements. Unlike many DSA members (he was formerly an honorary chair of Democratic Socialists of America), West is not trying to herd left-leaning voters back into a party that consistently undermines their interests and betrays their trust. Unlike many academics, West is an engaging, accessible public speaker and writer.

Thus, the question is not why Socialist Organizer would endorse West, but why would we not?

We do not endorse Cornel West’s presidential bid and here is why: 

First: We don’t think his choice of office is strategic to building a mass movement of working-class voters who reject both ruling-class parties, Republicans and Democrats.

Within recent memory, there have been many unsuccessful challenges to the presidency by left-wing candidates both within and outside of the Democratic Party. They simply couldn’t compete with candidates supported by ruling-class money.

As supporters of Bernie Sanders learned the hard way, even a Democratic Party primary campaign that raised vast amounts of money and had enough support among voters potentially to win, was crushed by the Democratic Party leadership, which will do anything to defeat campaigns not beholden to its ruling-class masters.

Election laws developed by both capitalist parties ensure that third-party or independent campaigns remain marginal, limiting them to propaganda efforts with no chance whatsoever of winning beyond local, or, very occasionally, state-level offices. This leads to the next point; the dreaded “spoiler effect,” the claim that left-wing candidates take votes away from liberal Democrats and thus help get Republicans elected.

Second: We reject the “spoiler effect” and agree with West’s supporters that he should not be accused of it. If the Democratic Party truly cared about democracy more than it cares about defending capitalism and its war machine, it would work to change undemocratic election laws, doing whatever it takes to get rid of the electoral college and to establish national ranked-choice voting, eliminating the spoiler effect altogether.

If Trump (or possibly another Republican) defeats Biden in 2024, the Democratic Party will blame West for Biden’s defeat, exacerbating divisions among liberal-to-left voters and further tarnishing the image of third-party efforts. We reject the idea of “lesser evil” – neofascists and neoliberals are both leading us on a path to barbarism or outright annihilation. The Democrats have enabled the Republicans every step of their way toward outright fascism. However, many voters have yet to realize that both parties are just leading us down different forks of the same path.

Third: West’s choice to run on the Green and People’s Party tickets is not grounded in the political interests of the working-class – the vast majority of actual and potential voters.

His initial choice, the People’s Party, is a small, new populist effort credibly accused of internal abuses of power, including sexual and racial harassment. It cannot even offer ballot access for West. The Green Party is a more credible effort as regards elections, with some ballot access and local election victories, but is internally dysfunctional and not based in the working class. Neither seek to build a party that galvanizes the latent power of workers and their unions to challenge capitalist hegemony. 

Socialist Organizer wants to see a national working-class party with a significant base in labor unions, the only organizations in the U.S. that are organized based on class and have sufficient resources to pose a credible challenge.

Learning painful lessons from our work in the now defunct Labor Party, Socialist Organizer was among the organizations that came together to build Labor and Community for an Independent Party (LCIP), a group that seeks to build a base for such a new party well before declaring that one already exists.

LCIP believes we should start locally, not nationally, where independent candidates have a chance of winning and can be selected and held accountable by assemblies of local community and labor activists, and to use electoral victories to build up regional power sufficient to support a national party. 

We understand the appeal of Cornel West’s campaign and we seek to work with him and his supporters in a comradely way on mutually supported issues, but we remain committed to LCIP’s vision of how to build lasting working-class political power.

** * * * * * * * * *