If the Democrats, with control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency cant deliver on our issues, what use are they? Working-class people are a massive social force when we can clearly see our interests and organize. We make the products that are the economy. We have power in numbers. All the social gains we have enjoyed: public education, social security, an end to segregation in the South, and womens rights – have been won through struggle. None of this was given away by the two-party corporate system out of the goodness of their hearts.
In the last election, the leaders of our unions and community organizations told us to vote for the Democrats. The unions alone spent over $400 million supporting Democrats. We need to demand that unions cut off their funding to Democratic candidates. This money could be used for both organizing drives and to field working-class candidates against pro-war, pro-corporate Democrats and Republicans.
Meetings of union activists, community organizers, Green Party members, peace campaigners, and socialists should discuss strategies to fight against this deepening crisis. Struggle will need to be coordinated and organized in the streets, campuses, and workplaces to fight for jobs, education, and health care. At the same time, we need to run candidates who are not tied in any way to the two parties or big business. We need candidates who will unequivocally fight for our interests.
In the next while the rift between the corporate nature of the Democratic Party and the needs of workers will widen into sizable cracks. This is a real opportunity to build an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans.
Now is the time to step up the debate on why working people need their own political party. A new party should refuse to take corporate money and should stand for the interests of working people. It should be democratically controlled by those who build it, so it will fight for our interests. Socialist Alternative, the organization that publishes Justice, will help fight to build a working people’s party. We would argue that a new workers’ party should fight against capitalism and adopt a socialist program to achieve the fundamental change we need.