On December 19, two days after Obama proposed major cuts to Social Security, MoveOn.org sent a mass email asking for feedback from its 7 million members: Standing up to a President we fought so hard to elect, right after an election, isnt easy. Which is why we urgently need your advice. It requested a vote on whether or not to demand that Congress reject Obamas proposed cuts.
Two days later, MoveOn reported a massive response: 98.6% of respondents in favor of fighting Obama and over $150,000 in donations for that cause. MoveOn has no intention of breaking from the Democrats, but this overwhelming rejection of Obamas policies is a stark indication of the deepening anger among working people toward the Democratic Party leadership, which is completely beholden to Wall Street interests.
Even more, it shows the huge space that exists for building a new mass party of working people to challenge both corporate parties for power.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, immediately following the election, assured that labor unions were to thank for Obamas victory. Especially in the cases of union-heavy swing states, he claimed, We did deliver those states. SEIU alone, the top spender for the Democrats, put $120 million into the federal elections in 2012 thats $54 million more than Obamas own Super PAC. Tens of millions more dollars were raised by progressive groups like MoveOn, whose political demands are far to the left of the Democratic Party.
These are wasted resources. Imagine if the resources of unions and social movements were put behind a united campaign to challenge the two parties of the 1%. A genuine working peoples party could have been a vehicle during the elections and after to organize mass resistance to the brutal austerity demanded by Wall Street.
No More Corporate Politicians!
A real party for the 99% shouldn’t just be about running candidates every few years. Instead, it should provide a vehicle for ordinary people to fight for their interests around the clock. Such a party should mobilize in communities, workplaces, and the ballot box for a bold, working-class program that calls for expanding, not cutting, education and social programs; major tax hikes on the super-rich and big business; single-payer health care, including universal access to the full range of reproductive health services; a green jobs program to end unemployment and clean up the environment; legalization for all undocumented immigrants; and total restructuring of the racist criminal justice system, among other crucial demands for working people.
Mega-rich corporate politicians have no need to fight for the people when they have Wall Street on their side. To take the profit out of their politics, elected leaders of a party of and for the 99% should receive the wage of an average worker and not accept corporate funding.
Elected leaders must be part of building movements on the ground, instead of hiding in the capitols. A democratically run party would make candidates accountable to the people no more lip-service from politicians who have corporations to answer to!
As we look at the year ahead of us, the brewing frustrations of the 99% will manifest into new social movements. These movements will be even more powerful if they can unite to build a broad, working-class political party to seriously challenge the power of the two capitalist parties.