T.O. 133 – The “Uncommitted Vote” and the Fight for a Labor Party

OPEN FORUM by Alan Benjamin, Editorial Board member, The Organizer

Moving forward to forge a Labor Party – a mass independent working-class party rooted in the unions and communities of the oppressed – in the heart of the belly of the imperialist beast is no easy task. The obstacles are numerous and the stakes for the ruling class are very high. Every mass movement, every protest, must be contained and brought back into the fold of the Democratic Party.

Such is the case of the “uncommitted” vote that took off this past Spring in Michigan and Minnesota, among the few states where even a small margin of votes makes the difference in a U.S. presidential election.

What Is the “Uncommitted Vote”?

A professor at Loyola University posted an article on the internet that explains this vote:

“A movement to vote ‘uncommitted’ in the 2024 primaries has emerged, which encouraged thousands to show their disapproval of the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza. Voting ‘uncommitted’ is different than not voting at all. When a voter selects ‘uncommitted’ on their ballot, they are still voting for one party but are not committed to any of the candidates listed on the ballot… .

“On Super Tuesday, voters across the country chose ‘uncommitted’ on the Democratic primary ballot as a form of protest.”

An article in the Associated Press explains in greater detail how this works:

“The Democratic Party has what’s known as the 15% rule. Under Democratic National Committee rules, any candidate — as well as ‘uncommitted’ — is eligible to win delegates if they receive at least 15% of the statewide vote or 15% of the vote in any congressional district.

“For example, Minnesota Democrats held their primary on Super Tuesday, March 5. The ‘uncommitted’ vote crossed the 15% threshold statewide. The resulting tally translates to 64 delegates pledged to Joe Biden and 11 for ‘uncommitted.’

“In Colorado, ‘noncommitted delegates’ only received 8% of the vote in the state’s Democratic primary on Super Tuesday, which was not enough to send a delegate. That means all 87 of Colorado’s delegates at the Democratic National Convention are pledged to Joe Biden.” (May 15, 2024)

A Vote That Expressed Workers’ Outrage

The “uncommitted” vote expressed voters’ outrage at Genocide Joe Biden and his continued support for Netanyahu and his ilk.

“Many voters refused to endorse President Biden, protesting his involvement in funding the ongoing war against Palestinians,” wrote Gus Griffin in the inaugural issue of the newsletter published by the Ujima People’s Progress Party (UPP).

“This movement began in Michigan and Minnesota, where cities have seen an increase in Muslim, East African, and Middle Eastern populations due to U.S. foreign policy causing instability and forced migration.

“In Michigan, over 100,000 voters chose ‘uncommitted’ in the Democratic primary.

 “Uncommitted”: All Within the Framework of the Democratic Party

I agree with Gus Griffin: There is no doubt that the hundreds of thousands of voters who cast an “uncommitted” vote did so to advance the struggle for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to end U.S. arms’ shipments to Israel.

I also agree with comrade Griffin when he writes:

“The ‘uncommitted’ vote is a sign that many Americans are ready for a change. They want alternatives to the current political system and are willing to organize and vote to make their voices heard. This movement could be the beginning of a significant shift in American politics.”

But for this effort to bear fruit, the movement — especially the labor movement – will have to break its ties of subordination to the Democratic Party.

While the aspirations of the “uncommitted” voters are progressive, the framework for securing their demands, the Democratic Party, not only fails to offer an independent, working-class political perspective, it can only lead to a dead-end. The reason is that the Democratic Party is a capitalist party, and as such it is the gravedigger of all progressive mass movements and of all efforts to promote the independence of the working class.

A stark example, one among countless others, was the steadfast effort by the South Carolina Democratic Party (SCDP) officialdom to prevent the South Carolina Labor Party (SCLP) from fielding three independent candidates for state office in 2022. The SCDP went so far as to take the SCLP to court, overturning the decision by the South Carolina Election Board, which had certified the three SCLP candidates.

All efforts to work within the Democratic Party to prepare the ground, down the road, for a dirty break with the Democrats have been co-opted back into this capitalist party.

Take DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She was hailed by DSA as a fighting socialist who was going to pave the way for a fighting new party. Instead, she has become one of Genocide Joe’s main allies in Congress. The New York Times calls her a “rising star” in the Democratic Party.

The “dirty break” – an invention of top leaders of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – is no break at all. That is why proponents of the Labor Party have always called for a “clean break” with the Democrats.

A Reply to Those Who Should Know Better

As someone who has followed closely the political evolution of DSA, I was not surprised to read that DSA had thrown itself into the Democratic Party’s ‘uncommitted’ vote campaign. I was shocked, however, to read two articles in the July 25-31 issue of Informations Ouvrières [Labor News], published in France. [1]

 I had the opportunity many times in the past to discuss with comrade Pierre Lambert, who was the founder of the weekly Informations Ouvrières. He shared 100% the position of Leon Trotsky (and of James P. Cannon) on the Labor Party question in the United States. A political principle ingrained in all of us is that you cannot give political support to the Democratic Party, as it is a party owned and run by the ruling class. That universal principle — that affirmation of the centrality of the struggle for working-class political independence – has been thrown out the window by those who took control of the Informations Ouvrieres legal name and masthead.

The lead article is titled, “Building with DSA the Party That Workers Need.” Echoing the DSA’s “dirty-break” orientation, the article puts forward the need for a new party sometime in the future … but what kind of party?

It is not a party based on the trade unions and communities of the oppressed. Rather, it is “a new party that represents a mass movement of common people willing to stand up and fight for a world liberated from war, reaction and corporate exploitation.” This could easily describe many of the class-less, left-populist organizations that gravitate around the Democratic Party.

The second piece in Informations Ouvrières is an interview conducted by its editors with two members of DSA: Neil Geiser (Metro DC) and Anlin Wang (Philadelphia DC and member of the International Committee of DSA). The title of the interviews reads: “The ‘Uncommitted’ Vote and the Mass Campaign of the DSA.” The piece is a clear endorsement of DSA’s policy.

Geiser summarized the goals of this campaign: “We went door-to-door in a campaign aimed at encouraging participation in the primaries of the Democratic Party…. In Maryland we added some phone-banking. Ten percent of primary voters in Maryland voted. We are very proud of the work we carried out.”

Anlin Wang explained that an objective of this campaign was to increase pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza, adding, “We are part of a coalition that will be protesting at the Democratic Party convention [in August].”

There you have it again: The practical implementation of DSA’s orientation is to increase participation in the Democratic Party.

One of the lessons we learned from the Vietnam antiwar movement is that the best way to pressure for an end to the war is to build a mass, independent, broad-based, united-front campaign in the streets around the demand to ‘Bring Our Troops Home NOW!’ – not by catering to this or that wing of the Democratic Party. That’s how we helped the Vietnamese people win the war.

Today, the united-front demand ‘Stop Arming Israel’ has taken off internationally and recently gained traction with a large sector of the U.S. labor movement.

It is a deadly illusion to think that the Democratic Party can ever be a lever for working-class struggle. The opposite is true. The Democratic Party is the main party of imperialism. It is funding the bloodbath in Ukraine, most recently with $61 billion in arms’ shipments to Ukraine. It is leading the chorus clamoring for war preparations against China. In years past, it headed the U.S. interventions in ex-Yugoslavia, Korea, Haiti, Libya … and the list goes on.

We in Socialist Organizer and The Organizer newspaper have proudly upheld the banner of working-class independence and internationalism – and we will continue to do so. [2]

We invite you to join our ranks and to support the important effort to build a mass working-class party rooted in labor and oppressed communities promoted by Labor and Community for an Independent Party (LCIP) – breaking clearly with the Democratic Party.

ENDNOTES

[1] Pierre Lambert, now deceased, was an historic leader of the Fourth International, having spearheaded the reproclamation of the FI in 1993. For more information on the 2016 split in the Fourth International that gave rise to the Organizing Committee for the Reconstitution of the Fourth International (OCRFI), the current with which Socialist Organizer is affiliated, go to socialistorganizer.org and theorganizer@earthlink.net.

 [2] A recent world conference of the OCRFI concluded its adopted Manifesto as follows: “The working class holds the future of humankind in its hands. Decayed imperialism is everywhere calling into question democratic rights, including the right to demonstrate and the right to organize trade unions. Everywhere, the wheel of history is turning backwards with regards to the rights won by working women, or the right to education for the younger generation. Everywhere, the independence won by peoples is under attack, just like the formal equality won by Black people in the United States. In recent years, the former colonial powers and imperialism have even declared a total blockade of Mali and then Niger. By fighting for their right to organize, for democratic rights, for the rights of working women, for the sovereignty of nations, and against social regression, the working class and the labor movement, allied with all the oppressed layers of society, are coming up against the capitalist system, the system of private ownership of the means of production. This working-class resistance is opposed to the course on which the capitalist powers are now embarked, that of war, which is becoming more widespread, that of the march towards the Third World War, which can only be prevented by broadening the mobilization of the international working class.”