Should workers and Activists Vote for Kerry?

The pressure is on to vote for Kerry. And there is no denying that the Bush/Cheney ticket present real horrors. First and foremost is their bloody invasion of Iraq and their intent to steal everything in sight in that country. But even beyond that, there is Bush’s close ties with the Christian fundamentalist far right here, along with the influence of the lunatic neo-conservatives. Both of these forces have developed an ideology that even major strategists of the capitalist class abhor because they are so extreme as to destabilize the world. As Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards pointed out, Cheney as a member of the House of Representatives even went so far as to vote against the Meals-on-Wheels program, Head Start, the freeing of Nelson Mandela, and making Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday. And bear in mind, this is probably the most influential vice president in recent history.

As usual, the entire union leadership is campaigning for Kerry and the Democrats. In addition, figures such as radical filmmaker Michael Moore, radical intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and Global Exchange activist Medea Benjamin are out there campaigning for Kerry/Edwards. Nor is it surprising that a large layer of young people and workers are doing the same, or at least planning to vote for the Democrats.

“Lesser Evil”
“It is not true that there is no difference between these two”, the argument goes. “Bush and Cheney are so extreme and so evil that we have to get them out of office. Let’s help elect the Democrats, and then we’ll fight them for the things we need and want.” It is understandable why people would feel this way.

There is, of course, is a degree of truth to the argument that Bush is “worse” than Kerry. But what does this difference consist of?

The main difference consists of the following: As we explained in our analysis of the first presidential debate (“Debate 2004” by Sean O’Torain on http://www.laborsmilitantvoice.com), the difference is over how US capitalism can best rule the world. Bush represents the view of some of the more crude elements within that class, including the oil industry, that the US with its immense military superiority, does not need to rely on any allies. It can simply crush any opposition that dares raise its head, regardless of who likes or dislikes it. Kerry, on the other hand, represents the view of a more far-sighted wing of US capitalism that world stability and alliances are necessary in order to assure global profiteering. They believe that the best way to ensure world domination by US capitalism is in conjunction with their allies.

How Reforms Have Been Won
“Yes, yes, that is true,” some will respond, “but still, one of the two will be elected, and it will be easier to win some reforms under Kerry than under Bush.”
When looking at the record, though, there is little evidence for this. It was under Nixon that some of the major reforms were passed, including Medicare. These were passed because there was a huge uprising in the streets (the Vietnam War protests), and US capitalism had to do something to prevent the dissatisfaction from spreading. They were pursuing a policy of “guns and butter” (as LBJ put it).

The great labor advances of the 1930s were not won by counting on President Roosevelt. In fact, in those instances where the labor movement relied on Roosevelt (such as in the “Little Steel” organizing drive) the movement was utterly crushed. The same was the case during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s; the reforms that were won were won on the streets.

In other words, nothing has ever been won by electing one representative of capitalism over another.

Beyond Mere Protests
Some will still argue that we should vote for Kerry but not rely on him, that we should vote for him while also continuing our protests. “They are not mutually exclusive,” they will argue.
But this really goes to the heart of the matter. US capitalism has shown that it is not going to bend to mere protests. This was most clear in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, but the same has been true over and over. On the economic sphere, there were enormous protests against the signing of NAFTA; these went ignored. The labor movement has mounted protest after protest (some masquerading as strikes), yet wages and benefits continue to be slashed.

What must be built is an independent movement of the working class that actually starts to challenge the capitalist class for power over our lives. As revolutionary socialists, we believe that ultimately this challenge must be
resolved by the elimination of capitalism and the building of a socialist society. But matters are not so black and white as this at present. A serious strike, which physically shuts down production through mass pickets and occupation of the work place is also a challenge for a certain degree of power. When tens of thousands shut down San Francisco on the first day of the US invasion of Iraq, this was a similar challenge.

Today, capitalism is on the offensive and everywhere the working class is being driven backwards. The key task is reversing this, and this can only be done by building an independent movement based on the working class, one which does not feel bound by corporate legality. This should be the starting point, not what one does in the polling place on an election day. How one votes should be determined by what one does the rest of the year.

History of Movement
History shows that it is not possible to build such a movement and then go out and vote for the corporate politicians. This is so because if a political activist is planning to vote for them, then they will have to advocate that others do the same; in other words, campaign for them.

Consider a few cases:
At one point the Civil Rights movement was forced to conclude that it needed to have a presence in politics, rather than just protest what others were doing. One of the things that came out of this conclusion was the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). This was sort of a hybrid, a mixed bag, partly oriented towards the Democrats and partly towards political independence. When it could not find a way to build an independent party, and when the movement as a whole could not find this, then this movement got sucked into Democratic politics. Thus the political careers of such former civil rights workers as John Louis and Julian Bond. What happened was that the movement was demobilized, taken out of the streets and into the backrooms of politicians, where it was sold out and died.

It is a similar story with the labor movement today. Along with trying to maintain “good relations” with the employers, the union leadership is intent on not going any further than the liberal wing of the Democrats will accept. This is why it is steadily being driven backwards. It is also part of the reason why the Democrats are steadily moving further to the right. They know that the union leadership will ensure that they unions will back them no matter what.

Workers’ Representatives
These histories show that part of building an independent movement must include running candidates outside of the Democratic party “workers’ representatives” and the building of a mass workers’ political party. If this is not the strategy, then the movement will get lured over and over again back to the Democrats, since there will be no alternative to this. It is not possible to build this alternative while planning to vote Democrat, though.

Organize!
Some will say, “okay, when the alternative comes along, then I’ll support it, but until then I’ll vote Democrat.” But the point is that the alternative will not just “come along”, it must be fought for and organized. The argument of voting for the Democrats, in other words, is really based on the acceptance of things as they are. It is based on failing to commit to organizing and struggling.

If a person limits their political “activity” to casting a ballot once every few years, then there is little reason not to vote for the lesser evil. However, the very best that that person can argue is that they will be slowing down the rate at which we are all driven over the cliff. What we argue is that we must reverse the direction. In order to do this, we must organize an independent workers’ movement. This cannot be done while planning to vote for the politicians of big business.

The Right to Vote
This does not mean that the right to vote is unimportant. It is no accident that whenever a military coup takes over, or when the capitalist class decides it is necessary and possible to deliver a crushing blow to the working class, they put in power a dictatorship one of whose first acts is to eliminate the right to vote. This is because often in those situations workers are electing or about to elect real workers’ leaders.

In this country, we saw the Civil Rights movement of the 50’s and 60s, in which thousands off people made huge sacrifices, including sacrificing their lives in some cases, in part for the right to vote. We also saw what happened in the last presidential election, which was stolen by the Bush family, based on fraudulent voting counts and the denial of the right to vote to thousands. As socialists, we believe the working class movement must defend the right to vote and oppose all restrictions as well as other undemocratic procedures. This includes the Electoral College, as well as the use of touch screen voting machines with no paper record. This is too open to fraud.

In the future these issues will become more important, when real workers’ representatives are running for public office.

November 2
As already explained, we do not believe that which representative of Corporate America gets elected on Nov. 2 will have a major affect on what happens in the US or globally. Also, as explained, we think that what activists do the rest of the time is what is most important, and that how one votes should flow from this. However, there is still the secondary question of whose name to put on a scrap of paper (or a computer screen, nowadays). In California, there is the small “Peace and Freedom Party” which is an openly anti-capitalist party. This party is running Leonard Peltier for president. (Peltier is serving a life sentence in connection with a shoot out with the police. He was a leader of the American Indian Movement AIM.) We recommend voting for him in California, as a means of registering a vote against the two major capitalist parties.

In many other states, Ralph Nader is likely to be on the ballot. However, Nader is running on the far-right, racist and nationalist Reform Party ticket. This is the party of the right wing bigot, Patrick Buchanan. There is no way that a socialist or anti-capitalist can give any vote to a candidate associated with this party. This is true despite the fact that Nader’s campaign is in general oriented to the “left”. But every vote for him will also strengthen the Reform Party. In some states, there may be other left wing candidates on the ballot. Where there are not, we recommend either writing in some name such as Eugene Debs or Fred Hampton, or else casting a blank ballot.

We believe that this approach would be the most in keeping with the struggle an independent workers movement and a real workers’ political party.