Bush & Kerry: evil and lesser of two evils
WHAT'S THE ANTIDOTE TO ELECTION-YEAR QUAGMIRE?
By Greg Butterfield
With the U.S. presidential election less than two months away, both
the Democratic and Republican candidates are running to the right, and
alienating the left wings of their respective parties in the process.
On Sept. 9, the Rev. Jesse Jackson lashed out at Sen. John Kerry, the
Democratic nominee, in a CNN interview. Jackson has campaigned on
Kerry's behalf, trying to galvanize support among African Americans
and labor unions. But he said the Kerry campaign was frustrating his
efforts at every step. In particular, Jackson was angry that Kerry
boycotted a West Virginia "Invest in America" jobs rally organized by
labor and civil-rights groups. Jackson spoke at the rally, which drew
30,000 people. Kerry, campaigning just 30 miles away, didn't show up.
Jackson criticized Kerry for "distancing himself from his base"--those
in the African American community, women's and lesbian/gay/bi/trans
movements, labor unions, etc., who traditionally vote for Democratic
candidates. He said Kerry's ballyhooed "shakeup" of his nearly
all-white campaign staff was inadequate. "It can't be just a vanilla
shake," Jackson stated.
There are signs that Kerry's campaign is in trouble, from falling poll
numbers to a pro-Bush turn in the corporate media, despite enormous
popular anger at Bush and his program of "endless war."
Kerry has doggedly sold himself to Big Business as the best candidate
to successfully carry out the occupation of Iraq. But recent events
have undercut this appeal. As the Iraqi resistance grows ever wider
and fiercer, there is less of a basis for Kerry's plan to
"internationalize" the occupation.
At the same time, his belligerent, pro-war stance is increasingly
alienating anti-Bush, anti-war progressives--like the 500,000 who
marched in New York Aug. 29 against the Republican National
Convention.
Meanwhile, the Log Cabin Republicans announced they would not endorse
President George W. Bush's re-election campaign because of his push
for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The gay
Republican group's board voted 22-2 to withhold its endorsement--the
first time it has done so. (Washington Blade, Sept. 10)
The decision followed the Republican National Convention's adoption of
a viciously anti-gay party platform that attacked other forms of
"legal recognition and the accompanying benefits" for same-sex couples
in addition to marriage. Top Republicans had earlier promised to
remove that language.
"It is impossible to overstate the depth of anger and disappointment
caused by the president's support for an anti-family Constitutional
amendment," said Log Cabin political director Chris Barron. "This
amendment would not only ban gay marriage, it would also jeopardize
civil unions and domestic partnerships."
A DIFFERENT KIND OF ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Workers in the United States have grown accustomed to demoralizing
elections where they can count on being ignored, put down or stabbed
in the back by the candidates who supposedly represent them.
To see how differently an election struggle can be waged, just look at
the successful campaign to stop the recall of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez on Aug. 15.
President Chavez won enormous popular support as the leader of the
Bolivarian revolutionary process. He established an international
policy independent of the U.S., including friendly relations with
socialist Cuba and opposition to the Iraq war. His government diverted
the country's oil profits away from Western banks and put them into
projects to benefit the impoverished workers and peasants.
While Bush seeks to write the right of same-sex marriage out of the
U.S. Constitution, the Bolivarian Constitution, adopted under Chavez's
leadership, enshrines the rights of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people,
as well as Afro-Venezuelans, Indigenous people and women.
On paper, the Venezuelan oligarchy seemed to hold all the cards in its
bid to run President Chavez out of office. Just like in the United
States, the wealthy ruling class has a virtual monopoly on the mass
media. And they had the complete backing of U.S.
imperialism--including generous funding and guidance from Washington's
National Endowment for Democracy.
But Chavez and his supporters mobilized workers and peasants in a
struggle against the recall. Teams went door-to-door and
village-to-village consolidating mass support for President Chavez and
gains of the Bolivarian process. Huge demonstrations were held.
Neighborhood Bolivarian Circles prepared for militant action in the
event of fraud or a coup d'etat. People's organization helped get
voters to the polls and made sure no one blocked them from voting
because of their class, race or gender.
The recall attempt was decisively defeated.
Imagine the impact of such a struggle here against the Bush regime.
ABB = DESPAIR
Billionaire Senator Kerry is unlikely to galvanize that kind of
movement behind him. Not only is his program devoid of progressive
content--Kerry recently declared himself the "true candidate of
conservative values"--but he has done everything possible to distance
himself from any and all movements against Bush.
Kerry even appointed Stan Greenberg, an advisor to the Venezuelan
right wing in the recall against President Chavez, to his campaign
staff!
While millions of working-class people have been taught to view the
Democratic Party as their representative, it is actually a creature of
rapacious U.S. capitalism.
It originated as the party of the Southern Slavocracy before the Civil
War. In the Twentieth Century, the Democrats morphed into the "soft
cop" that could be used to co-opt and derail independent movements of
the workers and oppressed by offering a few crumbs in exchange for
class peace. But like the Republican Party, it is tied to the wealthy
ruling class by a million threads and serves its interests.
Kerry is exposing the Democratic Party's true face to the masses.
He dissed Latinos by coming out against driver's licenses for
immigrants. He opposes same-sex marriage rights. He supports the
Patriot Act, and missed a crucial vote on extending unemployment
insurance, sending it to defeat. He's taken belligerent positions
against Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea, to name a few.
Kerry was one of the 100 senators who refused to hear the
Congressional Black Caucus's protest over Bush's theft of the Florida
elections in 2000.
Official statistics released in August showed that the ranks of the
poor and uninsured swelled again in 2003. Yet rather than offering an
emergency program to provide jobs, income and health care, Kerry
instead chose to engage in a hypocritical debate with Bush over his
military record during the criminal U.S. war in Vietnam.
And while the Bush junta carries out war crimes against the heroic
Iraqi resistance, Kerry had the nerve to slap his supporters in the
face--again--saying he would have voted to invade Iraq even knowing
there were no "weapons of mass destruction."
As the 1,000th U.S. GI died in Iraq in early September, Kerry promised
to bring the troops home before the end of his first term--that is, in
four long years!
A raft of articles have appeared since the RNC by progressives in the
"Anybody But Bush" current, bemoaning Kerry's loss of momentum and
highlighting the rotten qualities of his campaign, on websites and
publications like ZNet, Common Dreams, The Black Commentator and many
others.
Though some of these articles contain useful dirt on Kerry, all of
them are permeated with a feeling of despair, summed up by columnist
Lorenzo Kippler's appeal: "Vote for Kerry… Don't consider your
decision to be a choice between the 'lesser of two evils.' Instead,
think of a Kerry vote as a return to the status quo ante--a small step
back from the Apocalypse."
ALL OUT FOR THE MILLION WORKER MARCH
What's missing from the "Anybody but Bush" perspective is the most
important thing--the struggle. It is devoid of the idea that workers,
oppressed people, women, LGBT people, immigrants, youths and students,
and rank-and-file GIs could be mobilized to fight independently in
their own interests.
But all is not doom and gloom. Far from it. There is something new in
the air that is wholly in the spirit of the Venezuelan struggle.
It's called the Million Worker March.
This movement, whose inaugural event is set for Oct. 17 in Washington,
D.C., was initiated by Black-led Local 10 of the International
Longshore & Warehouse Union in San Francisco and championed by African
American leaders of AFSCME and Teamsters councils in New York City.
It has struck a chord with rank-and-file unionists with its call to
"organize in our own name" for jobs, wages, health care, and to bring
the troops home now--not in four years. The idea has caught on,
spreading through the country like wildfire. More union locals,
district councils, community and anti-war organizations are coming
aboard every day.
The MWM is an important step in the direction of independent,
class-struggle politics by a sector of the labor movement. That it
comes during such a difficult election year only highlights the
powerful discontent that exists under the thin surface of U.S.
electoral politics.
Also spreading this fight-back message is the Workers World Party
election campaign by three militant workers and people of color: John
Parker for president, Teresa Gutierrez for vice president and LeiLani
Dowell for Congress.
After a rally in New York City Sept. 18, these socialist candidates
will tour the country, talking about the need to build an independent
movement, why workers should have their own party, and mobilizing for
the MWM.
The struggle won't be over when the votes are cast Nov. 2.
Developments like the Million Worker March and the
Parker-Gutierrez-Dowell campaign ensure that forces will be in motion
to confront whoever is in the White House next year to demand jobs,
equality and an end to the war.
Butterfield is co-campaign manager for the WWP Presidential Campaign
Committee.
Reprinted from the Sept. 23, 2004, edition of Workers World newspaper.
http://www.workers.org
http://www.vote4workers.org
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