Socialist Alternative #101 - March 2024

SOCIALIST

ALTERNATIVE ISSUE #101 l MARCH 2024

WHY I JOINED SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE

BENSON GILKISON, MADISON Having grown up in a “Liberal” household in the Midwest, I was raised to strongly believe in the power of the Democratic Party and its ability to serve its people; my understanding of politics fell into a false belief that Republicans were the cause of all systemic failings I could see. Year after year, I kept being confronted by the reality of the disorder we were living under: ICE raids in Madison, trans healthcare bans, the steady increase of police brutality and school shootings. I kept looking to the Liberals to save us, and only saw them wring their hands and offer sheepish consolations. By the time I was actually able to vote in an election, I no longer wanted to, but still had no idea of any alternative

route. I found temporary hope in Bernie’s campaign, thinking that a leftist approach to our current system may enact meaningful change, but was ultimately let down by his bowing to Biden. I saw every representative I adored continue to serve their own profits, while their constituents suffered the consequences.

In 2020 I was introduced to abolitionist politics, which highlighted the need to abandon reformism and split from the Democratic Party – but didn’t show me a way beyond the system of capitalism that created all the social ills I was so depressed by. I knew I needed the guidance and community of an organization, but the ongoing pandemic made it feel impossible to connect with any, so I was resigned to further developing my political analyses in isolation. But finally in October 2023, I came across a Socialist Alternativetable at a Palestine rally, and was drawn to the way SA drew a direct connection between the genocide in Gaza and the need for global class struggle and for a socialist world. All of my fears that were fueled by isolation suddenly dissipated; connecting with these Madison comrades allowed me to shift from an unsure leftist to someone confident in the rich value of Marxism.

WHAT WE STAND FOR No To Imperialist Wars

are pushing hundreds of thousands of workers to go on strike. We need effective strikes that hit the bosses where it hurts most – their pocketbooks – to win lasting victories like Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA).

• Unions should stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars on electing Democratic Party politicians, and spend it instead on efforts to organize the unorganized.

• Union leaders across all unions should accept the average wage of a worker in their industry and should be accountable to their membership and the broader working class.

• An injury to one is an injury to all! Unions need to fight all manifestations of racism, sexism, queerphobia, and all forms of oppression as part of the struggle to rebuild a fighting labor movement.

• Unions should form consumer protection committees to monitor price increases, which should have the power to review corporate finances, especially when money is squandered on CEO pay and stock buybacks.

• We call for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza; an end to US military aid to Israel; and an end to the occupation and siege of Palestine.

• We need a massive anti-war, anti-imperialist movement linking up workers and youth across borders, for the end to Israel’s massacre in Gaza and to challenge the capitalist powers whose geopolitical chess game continually throws working people into the meatgrinder of war.

• Socialist Alternative completely opposes Russian imperialism’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

We oppose military aid from Western imperialist countries, which only fuel this war and devastate the lives of working people.

• We oppose the aggressive imperialist agenda of NATO and the US for whom Ukrainians are a pawn in the wider Cold War conflict with Chinese imperialism.

• De-escalating the rapidly deteriorating situation in Ukraine requires the return of Russian troops to the barracks in Russia and the withdrawal of all NATO troops from Eastern Europe.

• No trust in the nationalist, fake “anti-war” position taken by Trump and other right-wing • Republicans are resorting to divide-and-rule populists: Only socialist internationalism can scapegoating because the GOP have no end war and destruction and win lasting real answers to the questions facing workpeace and stability for the working masses ing people, but the corporate Democratic around the world!

Party offers no solution to right-wing attacks against workers and marginalized people and has repeatedly failed to use their majorities to protect our rights.

• We desperately need a strong, pro-worker • Inflation, unaffordable healthcare, sky high candidate to take on Trump and Biden. The rents, and a lack of basic respect on the job

A New Political Party For Working People

Rebuild A Fighting Labor Movement

high votes for “uncommitted” demonstrate the broad support for a genuinely anti-war, anti-big business candidate. We support the strongest possible independent, workingclass candidate as a step towards building a new working class party.

Mobilize Against Gender Oppression & Attacks On Bodily Autonomy • The overturn of Roe v Wade opened the door for vicious attacks on bodily autonomy across the country. We need a mass movement against the reactionary right on the scale of the 60s and 70s when Roe was first won.

• Free, safe, legal abortion. All contraception should be provided at no cost as part of a broad program for reproductive health!

• Fight back against brutal anti-trans legislation and all right-wing attacks on LGBTQ people. Noncompliance with these bigoted laws should be organized by the labor movement among workers tasked with enforcing them.

• Full legal rights and equality for trans and queer people, including the right to selfidentification! We completely oppose the attempts of the right wing to spread antitrans bigotry and isolate LGBTQ people from society.

• Fighting gender oppression means fighting for our rights to bodily autonomy, reproductive justice including universal childcare, and Medicare for All including free reproductive and gender-affirming care.

Invest In Our Basic Needs • Pass strong rent control. End economic evictions. Tax the rich and big business to fund permanently affordable, high-quality social housing.

• No pay cuts! We need a significant raise in the minimum wage and to tie raises to inflation.

• An immediate transition to Medicare for All. Take for-profit hospital chains into public ownership and retool them to provide free, state-of-the-art healthcare to all.

• Capitalism failed to stop COVID-19, with the “post-pandemic” new normal consisting of total indifference to public health. We urgently need permanently free and accessible testing, paid sick leave, and to take Big Pharma into public ownership – vaccines should be for public health, not profit!

• Bring back the COVID-era child tax credit and make it permanent. Fully fund highquality, universal childcare. No cuts to food stamps!

• Fully fund public education! End school privatization. Give educators an immediate 25% raise and increase staffing. Cancel all student debt and make public college tuition-free.

A Socialist Program For Environmental Disaster

be responsible for relocation costs, health costs, and home remediation.

• We need a union jobs program to rapidly expand green infrastructure including a massive expansion of free, high quality, fast public transit.

• Fossil fuels can’t coexist with a sustainable future – ban new oil and gas drilling and take the top 100 polluting companies into democratic public ownership, while implementing a democratically planned, just transition to 100% green energy!

No Deportations & End Racist Policing • The crisis at the border need not be a crisis for working people: we need to rebuild a movement that unites immigrants and native-born workers against the billionaire class to fight for good union jobs, social housing, education for all.

• No migrant detention and deportation! No border wall expansion! We need full legalization and citizenship rights for all migrants!

• There is still a massive fight to be waged against police violence. We need a new movement in the streets and mass organizations of struggle to fight for Black liberation!

• Arrest and convict killer cops! Purge police forces of anyone with known ties to white supremacist groups or any cop who has committed violent or racist attacks.

• End the militarization of police: ban the use of “crowd control” weapons and disarm police on patrol.

• Put policing under the control of democratically-elected civilian boards with power over hiring and firing, reviewing budget priorities, and the power to subpoena.

• Beyond fighting to end racist policing, we need a struggle against all forms of racism in our society, including segregationist housing and education policies.

The Whole System Is Guilty • Capitalism produces pandemics, poverty, racism, transphobia, environmental destruction, and war. We need an international struggle against this failed system.

• Bring the top 500 companies and banks into democratic public ownership.

• We need a socialist world! This means a democratic socialist plan for the economy based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and the planet.

FIND US ONLINE

www.SocialistAlternative.org • We need fully-funded emergency systems to protect and evacuate people from everinfo@SocialistAlternative.org increasing storms, floods, and fires, and @Socialist Alternative we need to tax the rich to reimburse work@SocialistAlt ing people for their destroyed homes and /SocialistAlternative.USA livelihoods.

• In the wake of ecological disasters like chem- /c/SocialistAlternative ical spills, corporations should immediately @socialistus

EDITORIAL

THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM IS KILLING US

GREYSON VAN ARSDALE, CHICAGO Statistically speaking, you’re not excited about the 2024 Presidential election.

According to a new poll, 59% of registered voters have little or no enthusiasm about a Biden-Trump rematch. It’s not difficult to see why: both men have been President within the last decade, and the results have not been good.

Trump’s presidency was a disaster for working people. He emboldened the far right and hate groups, ratcheted up geopolitical tension and economic protectionism, attacked environmental protections and other safeguards, stacked the courts with right-wing judges who have done their level best to unravel the rights that decades of civil rights movements have won, and much more. His callous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic caused, at minimum, hundreds of thousands of deaths that could have been avoided by acting sooner. He capped off his Presidency by instigating the attempted January 6 coup to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

And despite the fact that a huge number of workers and youth voted to oust Trump in the 2020 elections, Biden has represented no real alternative to Trump’s reactionary politics. His administration rolled back COVID-19 stimulus and protections the instant it could with no regard for public health, and firmly blocked any and all attempts to cut police funding in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Right now, Biden is carrying out a thoroughly Trumpian agenda on immigration; pushing to urgently build the border wall and putting more obstacles in the path to achieving legal asylum in the US. For many, what has been the straw that broke the camel’s back is Biden’s unflinching support of the Israeli state in its wanton massacre in Gaza, which has by early March killed over 30,000 Palestinians.

“We’re not going to do a damn thing other than protect Israel in the process,” Biden said at a Democratic fundraiser in December, when asked if he’d place any conditions on military aid to Israel. “Not a single thing.”

Now, as the body count racks up ever higher in Gaza, Trump has loudly proclaimed that he supports the “total victory” of Israel, and said, “you’ve got to finish the problem.” The full weight of the American political establishment stands firmly behind Netanyahu’s genocidal war, on either side of the traditional political aisle.

Undoubtedly, as the BidenTrump match-up nears, the Democratic Party will ramp up all available pressures to “vote for the lesser evil.” There will be inescapable MARCH 2024

CAN WE BUILD AN ALTERNATIVE? ad campaigns, pundits on television, paid YouTubers and TikTokers, insisting that Biden is the only real choice. But the actions of both major parties and their chosen candidates have caused a realization among many workers and youth: that Biden and the Democrats don’t provide any solutions to the horrors brought down on us by the right wing, and inflict plenty of their own.

Under the purposefully limited, restrictive American two-party system, can there be another way?

The honest answer is: there must be.

What Is The Two-Party System Anyway?

The existence of two major parties in the United States is not preordained by any law or rule, but it is the outcome of a number of mechanisms that will tend to result in two major parties forming. One of these is “first-past-the-post” elections, also called “winner take all”, in which representation is only allocated based on who wins the single most number of votes, as opposed to systems of proportional representation. Another is the American electoral voting system, which essentially applies “winner take all” to the state level: in a Presidential election, candidates generally win delegates from states, which then vote at the electoral college.

On top of that, both major parties are motivated by simple arithmetic to make it harder for third parties to form. Restrictions on parties on a state level vary, but getting and maintaining ballot access state-to-state requires navigating a labyrinthine puzzle of bureaucracy.

But though there have rarely been more than two major parties at any point in American history, what those parties are has continually changed. Shortly after the founding of the United States, it was the Federalist Party and the DemocraticRepublican Party. Then it was

“Today, a plurality of Americans politically identify as independents – 49%, far more than the amount that identify as either Republicans or Democrats.

The simple fact of the matter is that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have a program that responds to the needs of workingclass people, and a political revolution is long overdue.” the Democrats and the National Republicans, and then the National Republicans collapsed, and a new Republican Party was formed from the remnants of Whig and Free Soil party members, which had been minor parties before. The modern Republican and Democratic Party are not historic constants – they, too, can be overturned.

Today, a plurality of Americans politically identify as independents – 49%, far more than the amount that identify as either Republicans or Democrats. A majority of Americans also support progressive policies that neither major party has any interest in: universal singlepayer healthcare, and raising the federal minimum wage to $15. A majority of Americans, and even a plurality of Republicans, support a ceasefire in Gaza. The simple fact of the matter is that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have a program that responds to

the needs of working-class people, and a political revolution is long overdue.

What Would A New Party Need To Be? After launching a $7 million ad during the Super Bowl, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced via Instagram Reel that he was starting a new political party, “We The People.” He explained that this was essentially only a mechanism to make it easier to get him on the ballot in some states like California, where it’s easier to get on the ballot as a new party versus as an independent candidate.

This approach is just as useless as the rest of RFK Jr.’s candidacy.

Working-class people need a party of our own, which doesn’t just represent us but is democratically organized so that we can set our own platform and program, based on our own needs.

Cornel West, an independent presidential candidate and prominent left activist, has also launched a new party formation in recent days – the “Justice for All” party.

While it’s unclear what intentions West has for his campaign, a campaign spokesperson claimed that the party aimed to have a national convention later this year. If West actually intends to coalesce a national convention of workers and youth excited by the progressive demands of his platform and as a step towards building a mass working-class left party, this would be an enormously positive development.

Building a party that could represent the interests of the broad working class and provide a staging ground for a massive battle against the political establishment wouldn’t be easy. From day one, there would be pressure on the party’s most public-facing individuals to adopt a conciliatory approach and make backroom deals with the two major parties. To give working-class people real authority over their

elected representatives, a working-class party would need to have recall power over electeds, and electeds would need to take the average working-class wage, instead of the exorbitant salaries and stock portfolios of establishment politicians.

Socialist Alternative member Kshama Sawant, who held a city council position in Seattle for ten years until her exit this winter after four consecutive electoral victories, only took the average wage of a worker in Seattle. The rest of her salary was put into a solidarity fund to support workers’ struggles, which made major donations in the past few years to campaigns to unionize major corporations like Amazon, among others.

On this principled basis, Kshama and Socialist Alternative were able to build movements of workers and youth to win a series of victories: landmark renters’ rights laws, the first-ever tax on Amazon to fund affordable housing, the first $15 minimum wage in any major city, millions of dollars in funding for community needs through the Peoples’ Budget movements, and so much more. We urgently need an independent party that could apply these lessons nationwide, and win even bigger victories like a massive raise in the federal minimum wage, Medicare for All, and a green jobs program to fight climate change.

The task of building a party that can actually follow through on fighting for the needs of working people is not an easy one. It will have to overcome immense obstacles just to get on the ballot, but the main challenge will be to put together a program and a strategy to win that can convince millions of working people – who are disenfranchised by the total corporate rule of the Democratic and Republican Parties – to join the fight to forge something new. But until that task is taken up, every election will be a version of the same question: to vote for one of two options that mean more of the same problems. J

3

2024 ELECTIONS

THE “DEMOCRATIC” PRIMARIES ARE ANYTHING BUT MEAGHAN MURRAY, MINNEAPOLIS Fox News’ special coverage of Super Tuesday was titled, “Democracy 2024: Super Tuesday.” CNN’s was “America’s Choice 2024.” CBS News: “America Decides.” It read like a joke. What democracy, choice, and decisions look like in 2024 are a former president who oversaw 400,000 COVID deaths by his last day in office and a current president whose involvement in the massacre of over 30,000 Gazans has earned himself the nickname “Genocide Joe” by those on the left.

Yes, there are others on each state’s ballot, but the likes of Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson are hardly considered challengers. But the Democratic Party would rather we all move past this primary stage and focus on November.

In fact, they may be hoping progressives and young people just don’t show their faces at all until then, for fear of who – or rather, what – they might cast their vote for. And in some states, the Democrats have simply canceled primaries.

Those states’ delegates automatically go to Biden, without say from voters.

The headlines after South Carolina’s Democratic primary in January said that Joe Biden won “in a landslide.” But if you look at the turnout data, there’s another story here: no one’s excited for Joe. South Carolina’s Democratic primary had some of the lowest turnout numbers in recent memory.

The Democratic Party’s primaries feel anything but democratic – the most alluring candidate on some primary ballots isn’t a candidate at all, but the option to mark oneself as “Uncommitted.” This is a way for voters to show that they are not yet won over by any of the party’s presidential candidates. It is also being used as a way to show support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza – protesting the president’s culpability in the slaughter by withholding a vote for him. Biden will likely be the winner in every state’s Democratic primary, but the final numbers on votes cast could reveal what Democrats are afraid of: their nominee is not liked, he is not worth going to the polls for, hundreds of thousands have declared they are “uncommitted,” showing growing discontent within the party, and it could be an omen for the presidential election results in November.

To the Democrats, seeing the primaries’ voter turnout totals and the number of “Uncommitted” or “No preference” votes is worse than, well, there being no primaries at all.

Delaware, Biden’s home state, just straight up canceled their primary – he was the only person to file to be on their ballot, so to avoid what could potentially be a damning tally on his home turf, there just won’t be any vote at all. The same thing in Florida: the Democrats just… canceled it. Florida’s 250 delegates will go to Biden by default.

This all spells out what a travesty Biden’s first term has been, and how undemocratic the Democratic Party really is: millions are still mired in student loan debt, US oil and gas production hit an all-time high in 2023, nearly 80% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, we lost federal abortion rights under Biden (and he was in office during the decades when Democrats could’ve codified those rights), and he paid us less in stimulus money than Trump. The United States funneling billions of dollars to the war in Ukraine and Netanyahu’s terror in Gaza – billions of dollars that are desperately needed in education, social services, and public housing – is the last straw for many, especially young people, Muslim, and Arab-American voters.

The Democrats have no plan to address the crises working people are faced with, and it doesn’t appear that they have a plan to get their presidential nominee to stop sending funds to the right-wing Israeli government. Their only plan, it seems, is to continue down the same messaging path they’ve been on since 2016: you hate Trump more though, right?

It’s clear that even if the Dems get rattled by shaky primary results, we still need a party for the working class. People are exhausted by the two-party system and the corrupt politicians it continues to prop up. We need a party made up of people willing to fight against capitalism, not on its behalf. J

4

TONY WILSDON, SEATTLE

THOUSANDS VOTE UNCOMMITTED IN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES

Joe Biden’s complicity in the murderous bombing and invasion of Gaza is costing him hundreds of thousands of votes in the primaries.

Who is his opponent? “Uncommitted.” In Minnesota, 45,000 people – 19% of voters – voted Uncommitted in the Democratic primary. This followed more than 100,000 Uncommitted votes in Michigan, and slightly smaller votes in other states on Super Tuesday.

While there is no shortage of reasons to vote against Joe Biden, his continued support for the genocidal war on Gaza was the final straw for hundreds of thousands of voters who are prepared to make him pay.

This anger has been most pronounced among Muslim Americans and younger voters. According to exit polling done by the Center on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), 94% of American Muslims who voted in the Democratic Party in Michigan voted Uncommitted. Younger voters in particular are quick to call out Biden and the Democrats, because they haven’t been ground down by years of betrayals on key issues like healthcare, police violence, the environment, and immigration.

Socialist Alternative supports the biggest possible Uncommitted vote against Biden in the primaries. We believe the campaign needs to be built all the way through November, opposing both Biden and Trump, and should be connected to the building of a new political party. We call for an immediate ceasefire and ending US financial support for Israel’s brutal policy and siege and occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.

people have died as a result of wars launched by the US. Imperialist devastation is a bipartisan project, and anti-war activists will find no reliable allies in the Democratic or Republican parties.

Growing anger at Biden’s policy has put the administration under pressure. While the Biden administration now says it is committed to a ceasefire, it has vetoed several ceasefire resolutions and has continued the supply of weapons to Israel’s war machine without cease.

The Biden administration can hardly say it is looking for a constructive solution in Gaza and at the same time provide billions of dollars to fund and arm Israel’s murderous bombing and military invasion of Gaza.

“All working class and oppressed people who have been left out to dry by the Democratic Party should unite under the Uncommitted and From “Uncommitted” To A #AbandonBiden banners New Party and begin constructing No Support For Biden Or Forcing a serious change of direca working class political tion in US policy towards the Middle Trump In November East would require a mass movement Voting Uncommitted is an important alternative to the rotten that genuinely threatens the future of the vehicle to register public anger at Biden’s two parties of war.” Democratic (and Republican) parties and policies, but it can only have a lasting impact if the campaign in opposition to Biden is taken up though the general election itself.

Working people are being given a terrible choice between a dangerous reactionary and a liberal imperialist who has done nothing to defend the rights of workers and oppressed people while dragging the country deeper into a global inter-imperialist conflict. We can no longer accept these as our only options.

As Hassan Abdel Salam, a member of the Abandon Biden National Coalition, told The Hill “He [Biden] can’t do anything for us to support him. No one can tolerate a policy of death that lasts this long; people have to be held to account.”

Limiting opposition to Biden and the Democrats only to the primary assumes that the Democratic Party is a vessel that can be filled with progressive politics if enough of an outcry is built.

Unfortunately the party’s whole history speaks otherwise.

A devastating and recent example of this was the wholesale revolt by the Democratic Party leadership against Bernie Sanders after he won the first three primaries in 2020. Looking back over the last century provides even more devastating examples of the real nature of the Democratic Party. They were the party that led the US into the bloody Vietnam War. They have backed US imperialist wars in all areas of the globe. Just since 2001, 4.5 million

begins to challenge the capitalist order which is at the root of imperialism. A movement like this can’t be limited to just taking action in the primaries, we need to be willing to defeat Biden, and begin building a political alternative, whatever the short-term political consequences. In the November election, we need to register the strongest possible protest vote for the best independent left candidate.

All those committed to building an alternative to the Democratic Party need to use the present anger at Biden to put in place a strategy to expose him at every step throughout the rest of this election cycle. Uncommitted delegates were elected in Michigan and possibly other states. These delegates need to plan to put Biden and the Democrats on the spot at the convention.

Assuming the nomination of Biden, they need to link up with Cornel West, the Greens and other progressives and socialists to call for a new working class party through 2024. Already exit polling suggests that if an election were held today, nearly a third of Uncommitted Muslim American voters in Michigan would be prepared to support either Cornel West or Jill Stein.

There are many more Americans who are fed up with the terrible choice they are being offered this year than just those who voted Uncommitted, including many independent voters, nonvoters, and even some Republicans. Biden’s presidency has been filled with terrible news for working-class people. 2023 was a record year for police murders – with Black Americans nearly three times more likely to end up in the grave at the hands of the state than white people. 2023 saw record setting oil and gas extraction in the US despite toothless climate goals. The cost of food climbed 5.8% last year, eating into our meager wages.

All working class and oppressed people who have been left out to dry by the Democratic Party should unite under the Uncommitted and #AbandonBiden banners and begin constructing a working class political alternative to the rotten two parties of war. An important step in this process will be mobilizing as many people as possible to protest the Democratic National Convention this summer and using those protests as a launching pad for a conference to found a new anti-war, pro-worker party.

In the interests of workers all over the world, we have to unite. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

BORDER DEAL SHOWS THE CRISIS FACING DEMOCRATS & REPUBLICANS MARIE O’TOOLE, NYC

along by the Trump wing. Regardless of the Republican dysfunction, Democrats have also suffered political damage.

Congress has been in a gridlock for most of February over the border deal that Democrats Accommodate The almost was, highlighting just how incapable Right the bosses’ two parties can be at pushing The Democrats have bent over backtheir own agendas. What’s at stake for them includes immigration reform measures, mili- wards to accommodate their colleagues to tary aid for the war in Ukraine, the bolstering the right, turning further away from their own of Taiwan in the face of Chinese imperialism, empty lip service on immigration. In 2020, and financial support for the Israeli state’s Biden made promises on the campaign trail massacre in Gaza. All of these proposals to reverse course on Trump-era immigrashould be opposed by working people. If only tion policy. He was clear at the time that he temporarily, the parties of the ruling class are would not stand for expanding the border doing the work of stopping this bill for us as a wall or imposing daily limits on the number of asylum seekers accepted at the border. Yet, result of their own crisis.

The trouble for them began over disagree- four years later, Biden was forcefully backments over how US imperialism should pos- ing the latest Congressional border package ture in the new cold war with Chinese capital- that sought exactly that. The deal would have ism. The Biden administration has invested turned away almost 90% of daily asylum heavily in the Ukraine war, seeing it as an seekers through imposed limits during border opportunity to weaken Putin, one of China’s emergencies. It would have also added holdkey allies. A section of the right-wing is cyni- ing facilities, border agents, and DNA colleccally posing as anti-war through their opposi- tion from migrants.

This is not the first time that the Democrats tion to military funding to Ukraine, but they are doing this because they would prefer US imperialism to focus on confronting China.

With no solutions to problems like the economy, the GOP is leaning hard on the migrant crisis as a wedge issue for the next elections. For a moment, Biden and the Senate thought Until 2023, the Biden administration used they had arrived at a deal: the the Trump-era Title 42 to deny entry into the US right wing would allow money to immigrants under the guise of public health to increase by the billions to safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, US allies around the world, in Biden has replaced Title 42 with what immigrant exchange for strong measures justice groups say amounts to an asylum ban: at the border. the new rule requires immigrants to prove they The road to the deal almost applied and were denied asylum status in another seemed clear, but Trump country on the way to the US. stepped in at the eleventh hour to blow it all out of the water. He saw it as completely unacceptable to let the Biden administration win any kind of deal, even with major concesArrests of migrants made by border patrol sions, when he can hammer agents between February 2021 and September Biden over immigration for 2023. the next eight months. The power that Trump, a man who currently does not hold any Average amount of time immigrants wait in office, has over his party was “limbo” for their asylum applications to be promade clear when even Mitch cessed, if they filed their application with US CitiMcConnell voted against this zenship and immigration services. very bill he helped develop.

The situation has once again showcased the divides in the Republican Party. Traditional establishment figures have Number of applications for asylum that are looked towards compromise currently backlogged and waiting for a response. to keep the political machine in operation, but they have *Data from the New York Times. been halted and even pulled

Seeking Asylum In America

6+ Million

10 Years

2+ Million

MARCH 2024

IMMIGRANT JUSTICE

have made it clear that they are no friends to immigrants and asylum seekers.

Biden broke his promise not to expand the border wall last year when he pushed forward with twenty miles of construction along the Texas border. Earlier that year, he essentially renewed Trump’s COVIDera immigration policy that gave border patrol authority to turn away asylum seekers. This latest border deal attempt is a culmination of the Democrats’ rotten, right-wing immigration policy. Immigration activists feel rightfully angered and betrayed by the “lesser of two evils.”

As immigrants and American-born workers face the effects of mass migration, we should never forget the role that Joe Biden and his party have played in creating the kind of instability, inequality, and war that have led directly to this situation. US imperialism has for the better part of a century been the biggest factor driving down living conditions for billions of people. These problems have only accelerated with its new cold war against Chinese imperialism. US imperialism is a bipartisan project, but for at least the rest of the year, the Democratic Party has their hands on the wheel of this deadly machine.

Rotten To Its Core While the crisis facing both Congress itself and the two major parties shows the difficulty the ruling class has in charting a path forward in these disordered times, they will dust themselves off and regroup. Deep dysfunction is characteristic of this government. Just think back to the fifteen votes needed to elect a Speaker of the House and the standoff over last year’s potential government shutdown. Still, the billionaires and the bosses will not back down on fighting to defend their interests. In spite of the infighting, the US government continued to throw its weight around internationally and extend attacks on immigrants. At the time of writing, the Senate package that passed is struggling to be seen in the House, but representatives are continuing to propose alternate bills that address the same issues.

This system and its representatives are absolutely rotten to their core. We do need comprehensive immigration changes, but not in the way that politicians on either side of the aisle are proposing. We need legalization and equal rights for undocumented people, an end to deportation, and accommodation for asylum seekers. The capitalist system seeks to divide our class along different lines such as nationality or immigration status. Fighting against the attacks on immigrants would actually strengthen our class overall, especially when connected to demands for funding permanently affordable housing, social spending, and good union jobs to address so many of the issues currently being pinned on migrants. These programs could be funded by the money that has gone towards record profits for the rich over the past few years while the rest of us have struggled with the cost of living.

We also need mass protests against rightwing immigration policy and against imperialism. The US ruling class drives migration by its profit-driven devastation of the economies of countries around the world. Mass migration, along with the massacre in Gaza and the war in Ukraine are ultimately class issues, and addressing them will require political independence for working people: a new party of our own to stand up against the corporate Democrats and Republicans. It will also require an international mass movement rooted in the drive for socialist change to be able to strike back against this system. The ruling parties are showing their cracks in how they address the different challenges they face today, but the most important missing element is a confidently and independently led movement of workers, the poor, and the oppressed against their injustice. J

5

WA R O N T H E P O O R

The Predatory Trap Of Payday Loans RYAN WATSON, CHICAGO For millions of Americans, living paycheck to paycheck is a harsh reality. They struggle to make ends meet, pay their bills, and save for the future. They face constant financial stress and uncertainty, especially when unexpected expenses arise, such as medical emergencies, car repairs, or home maintenance.

They have little or no access to conventional credit, such as bank loans, credit cards, or overdrafts.

They are often excluded from the mainstream financial system, which is designed to serve the wealthy and the middle class.

Banking System Profits Off The Poor The banking system, after decades of deregulation and consolidation, has become more predatory and profitable than ever. It has raised fees on overdrafts, bounced checks, ATM withdrawals, and account maintenance, making billions of dollars off the poor. According to a report by the Center for Responsible Lending, banks collected $11.68 billion in overdraft fees in 2020, with 9% of account holders paying 84% of the fees.

These fees disproportionately affect low-income, people of color, and young people, who are more likely to have low or irregular incomes, live in underbanked areas.

The poor are the ones paying these fees, and the consequences are devastating. They fall further into debt, lose their savings, and damage their credit scores. They are often forced to close their bank accounts or have them shut down by the banks.

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), 7.1 million households in the U.S. were unbanked in 2020, meaning they had no checking or savings account.

Without a bank account, the working poor have few options to access credit. They are forced to

6

use credit cards, which charge high interest rates, fees, and penalties. They often max out their credit cards, miss their payments, and incur late fees and over-limit fees. They end up owing more than they can afford, and their credit cards are canceled by the banks. They are trapped in a cycle of debt that is hard to escape.

Payday Loan Predatory Policies This is where the bottom feeders come in: the payday loan predators. Payday loans are short-term, small-dollar loans that are due to be repaid by the next payday, usually within two to four weeks. They are marketed as a quick and easy way to get cash in an emergency, but they are actually a trap that exploits the desperation and vulnerability of the working poor. Payday loans charge exorbitant interest rates, fees, and penalties, often exceeding 400% annual percentage rate (APR). They also require access to the borrower’s bank account or a postdated check as collateral, giving them the power to withdraw money directly from the borrower’s account or cash the check on the due date.

Payday loans are designed to be unaffordable and unpayable.

They do not consider the borrower’s ability to repay, income, expenses, or credit history. They only care about the borrower’s ability to provide collateral and pay fees. They often trap the borrower in a cycle of debt, where they have to take out new loans to pay off old ones, or roll over their loans by paying only the fees and extending the due date. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the average payday loan borrower takes out 10 loans per year.

Payday loans are not only costly, but also harmful. They cause financial distress, emotional stress, and health problems for the borrowers. They lead to overdraft fees, bounced checks, bank account closures,

by: ANDREW BELLESIS, PITTSBURGH

Americans now owe a collective $1.13 trillion in credit card debt. This debt burden has exploded by a staggering 47% in only three years, draining the savings of millions of workers as the economy emerges from the pandemic. The stresses of sky high inflation – caused by competition between the US and China, supply chains disrupted by climate change and war, and uncontrolled price gouging by corporations – have hit working people the hardest. 46% of Americans now carry over credit card debt month-to-month, driving them further into debt as credit card interest rates hit record highs.

The most economically strapped Americans are hit with predatory late fees if they default on their monthly payment, perpetuating a vicious cycle of debt. Poor credit scores prevent people from leasing apartments, finding employment, or buying a car. This is a contributing factor to America’s growing homelessness crisis.

Record credit card debt also comes against a backdrop of increasing household and student debt. While big banks were bailed out during the 2009-2010 recession, working people were left to fend for ourselves, and we are still suffering the financial consequences over a decade later.

Younger workers in particular are struggling with a collective $1.74 trillion in student loan debt. The Biden administration has forgiven less than 10% of student loan debt as conservative courts moved to block larger scale forgiveness efforts and the Democrats failed to aggressively pursue reforms.

Debt affects all aspects of people’s lives and health.

One scientific study reported that “high financial debt is associated with higher perceived stress and depression, worse self-reported general health, and higher blood pressure.” It is also linked to increased risk of suicide. Canceling debt would hurt nobody but the bankers’ profits while helping millions of workers live healthier, happier, and longer lives.

Corporate media paints workers’ debt as a moral failing, and economists chastise us for not budgeting credit card defaults, bankruptcy, and foreclosure. They also contribute to social problems, such as family breakdown, domestic violence, crime, and suicide. According to a study by the Center for Community Economic Development, payday lending drains $774 million in fees from low-income communities every year.

Politics and Corruption However, despite the widespread opposition and regulation, payday lending persists and thrives in the U.S. Why? The answer is simple:

effectively. But the hard truth is that no amount of budgeting and financial literacy can make up for massive price increases in the sectors of the economy that affect working people the most: food, gas, and housing.

Woefully inadequate pay raises have only fueled this fire. The Biden administration’s half-measures like limiting “junk fees” barely put a dent in the problem, and the enforcement mechanism is already under attack by the right-wing court system.

If debt is such a big problem for working people, why aren’t the Democrats rushing to the rescue and using all tools at their disposal to alleviate this pain? The answer is that both corporate parties are beholden to big business and take large donations from the financial industry to fund their campaigns.

During the 2020 election cycle, Wall Street spent $2.9 billion lobbying politicians and funding campaigns. Of the money pumped directly into campaigns, 47% went to Republicans and 53% to Democrats.

This shows that the financial industry buys off politicians in both parties.

While the Republicans are openly hostile to canceling workers’ debt, the Democrats use the more subtle strategy of dangling big promises of relief in our faces, just to abandon us under the first sign of discontent from bank executives.

Fighting back against the big banks will require the mobilization of millions of workers in the streets and in the workplaces. Our demands should include loan forgiveness, taxing big business, banning predatory loans, and breaking up the largest banks. We should also demand a reduction in interest rates, elimination of late fees, and scrapping credit scores.

In parallel, workers must fight for universal healthcare and strong rent control measures so that our wages do not immediately go back into the pockets of the banks, landlords, and insurance companies. Such reforms will reduce the need for working and poor people to rely on credit to scrape by. A new worker-led, independent political party could unite people around a common program and serve as a catalyst for change, putting the capitalist class in a position where they are forced to make concessions to workers.

However, as long as the capitalists remain in charge of the economy, they will attempt to roll back any concessions won by working people. This is why we must bring the top 500 companies and banks into public ownership so that we can determine how the wealth that we produce will be allocated to best address our needs. J

money and politics. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the payday loan industry contributed $15.3 million to federal candidates and committees in the 2020 election cycle, with 69% going to Republicans and 31% going to Democrats .

The industry also spent $6.7 million on federal lobbying in 2020, with the top recipients being the CFPB, the Treasury Department, and the House Financial Services Committee.

The payday loan system is an integral part of the banking system, and both systems are intertwined and interdependent and backed by both

major parties. They work together to exploit and oppress the working poor, who have no voice and no choice in the matter. They are the victims of a predatory and corrupt system that is rigged against them, that system is capitalism. Working people will need a banking system that will also support the working poor with rules that aren’t governed by the tenements of capitalism, tying it to a living wage and rent control. This will require a new working class political party that is willing to take on the banks and the payday lending industry as a whole. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

H E A LT H C A R E

ANDY MOXLEY, SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE EWS (ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND) The US healthcare system is infamous worldwide for being an absolute travesty.

The everyday stories of working-class people facing traumatic choices about whether to seek medical aid or pay rent are shocking for those who hear it for the first time. Americans spend about $4.3 trillion in healthcare costs per year (roughly 17% of GDP) – roughly twice that of similar countries – yet we live shorter lives and infants are more likely to die than in those places.

So where does the money go? It lines the pockets of insurance companies, big pharma, and the entire racketeering for-profit system erected around them. During the height of the pandemic when people were dying and suffering in droves, these companies reported record profits.

A recent development has brought into focus again how deeply destructive and fragile the US healthcare model actually is. Due to a cyberattack in late February, a division of UnitedHealth Group (which recorded $22 billion in profits in 2023, the most profitable in the US health industry and among the top 25 of all companies), had to shut down its massive and sprawling system of electronic healthcare payments which processes up to 15 billion transactions annually. The knockon effect of this is still being felt weeks later as medical facilities from small clinics to gigantic hospital networks are unable to p a y

bills (with places like urgent care facilities facing the prospect of shutting down all together), process insurance, provide critical care, or fill prescriptions, potentially leaving millions without any safety against illness and disease as the problem lingers.

“During the height of the pandemic when people were dying and suffering in droves, these [insurance] companies reported record profits.”

The government has intervened to front some of the payments and “request” the private insurance companies to relax their rules to deal with the crisis, but it’s unlikely that this will be able to fill the massive gap.

This is coming at the same time as, unless a funding deal is reached, the ending of COVID-era pandemic rules around Medicaid threates the collapse of healthcare facilities across the country that provide services for up to 30 million mainly low-income people.

Repackaging Failed Solutions Given the scale of the crisis growing deeper by the day, one would

“I AM BURIED IN BILLS”

How In America’s For-Profit Healthcare System, The Patient Always Loses DANIEL REGUIERA, CHICAGO In August of this year, I was hit by a car while riding my motorcycle home from the gym, severing my spinal cord at L1. I’m now a paraplegic and permanently disabled, living most of my (mobile) life in a wheelchair.

Despite having “good insurance” my experience has been anything but stellar. After the spinal fusion surgery to put my spine back into place, I waited in the hospital for over a week and a half as insurance figured out if I would be covered for transfer to Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, which would teach me to navigate using a wheelchair.

While I waited, in an incredible amount of pain, the overworked nursing staff took far too long to address my needs, my need to be cleaned, catheter container to be emptied, etc., making my experience in that hospital as

MARCH 2024

close to a purgatory as I’ve experienced. The nurses were constantly understaffed, so they couldn’t pay enough attention to their patients – the logical result of a healthcare system that underpays its workers while the hospital bosses make millions.

Eventually I was transferred to Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, an amazing hospital and rehab facility specializing in spinal cord injury. But as I recovered and worked with physical therapists, I’d soon learn that despite having “good insurance” through my wife’s work, that Blue Cross Blue Shield was trying to kick me out of inpatient rehab a full three weeks early. This was obviously a huge stressor for me and my wife, as we had to scramble to get equipment for me to be able to go to the bathroom and shower at home. My physical therapists scrambled to teach her and I how to roll me up the stairs in our second floor apartment.

HEALTHCARE IN FREEFALL: BIDEN AND TRUMP CAN’T HEAL US

think that the two frontrunner presidential candidates would have some solutions. But neither Biden nor Trump offers any fundamental alternative to the exploitative system that currently exists. Despite every day introducing new elements bringing the healthcare system closer to complete collapse, it’s deja vu with the two main parties.

Democrats and Republicans, this time in the form of Biden and Trump, are warring not over massive overhauls to fix the fundamentally broken system but in a scene that could’ve been directly lifted from a decade ago (the Republicans tried to repeal parts or all of it 50 times by 2014), the main point of contention is the Affordable Care Act. A repeat of the same fight that reemerges every few years while we pay the price for a broken system. While we should oppose Trump’s attempts to take away access to insurance from millions of working people, Biden’s effort to continue to apply the same band-aid solution to an ever gaping wound will not heal us.

The historic level of ACA enrollment for 2024 of 21.3 million people does not reflect

They sent me home in a “loaner” wheelchair that was not remotely suitable for moving or commuting through an urban environment like Chicago. As I struggled with this wheelchair, the insurance dragged their feet on every line item (including the air-filled tires!) for weeks and weeks. My doctor was thankfully able to push back on them to get all the line items included for no out-of-pocket cost, but even this is a ridiculous process. In the “peer to peer” process, the insurance’s doctor-for-hire calls and argues with your doctor for what you do and don’t need. And if your doctor doesn’t pick up the phone when they call (from a random number), your case is automatically forfeited.

I’m now doing physical therapy weekly and continuing to manage and advocate for my care as I work from home. The best case scenario under this for-profit medical system, with “good insurance” like mine, now has me fielding bill after bill for the medical and rehabilitation services that were rendered the day of my accident and continue to be rendered. I am buried in bills. I have a pile of bills that I address when I have the time and energy, and the pile continues to grow. I’m indebted to a myriad of hospitals and third-party services across the board, and keeping track of the amount of debt and

confidence in it but rather desperation as COVID has made people desire some health coverage versus none at all – reflected in the rates of uninsured dropping over that time but still making up over 26 million people in 2022. But none of this will solve the innate crisis embedded in a privatized healthcare system dominated by oligopolies like UnitedHealth. Only by a mass working class struggle for a true, universal and free at point of use system of Medicare for All can begin to reverse the tide of disease and despair. J

debtors is a task that makes my head spin.

We desperately need universal healthcare, and a medical system that operates for the benefit of the people, instead of profiting off of our misery. At every point in my recovery from an accident that dramatically changed my life, my wife and I have had to split our attention between the actual tasks of recovery and navigating a system that seems hellbent on bankrupting us. This is to say nothing of the experience I would have had if I had worse insurance, or was uninsured.

Every day we don’t have Medicare For All in this country, people are being completely taken to the bank by the for-profit healthcare system.

We need to build a mass movement to win it, powered by the millions of people like me who have been totally taken advantage of, and by the organized labor of healthcare workers who are capable of using their strike power to shut down this rotten system. Public, single-payer healthcare in Europe wasn’t the result of some benevolent government – workers won it themselves, and we can too.

Capitalism won’t heal our sickness or heal our injuries – we have to fight to build a system that will. J

7

by KEELY MULLEN, CHICAGO

T

he past several years has seen a profoundly depressing rollback of important gains for women. This has happened through the courts and the legislature, but perhaps even scarier – it has happened for some of us in our homes and schools.

Some of the most parasitic ideas at the core of the manosphere have been echoed at dinner tables and in classrooms by our sons, brothers, classmates, and friends. New data published by the Financial Times paints a very dark picture of the feminist backlash. Young men and boys in countries around the world are being courted by the far-right, and some of them are taking the bait.

In the US, Gallup data shows that women aged 18 to 30 are now 30% more liberal than their male peers. While this positively reflects the increased desire of many young women for genuine equality, it also reflects a dark truth: the feminist backlash has come for the boys.

While this reality will come as no surprise to many young girls who have been slapped with misogyny from their peers both online and in person, the picture is somewhat complicated.

While 16% of Gen Z boys believe that feminism has done more harm than good, a bloodcurdling fact, 36% think it has done more good than harm. Abortion rights are also extremely popular, with 85% of Americans thinking abortion should be legal in at least some cases.

Those that have fully succumbed to the crazed and destructive narrative of the toxic manosphere remain a minority. These ideas, and their propagators, are outnumbered and there is solidarity to be found in all corners of society. In order to prevent this cancer from spreading, we need a mass, youth-driven struggle against the rollback of women’s and LGBTQ rights.

Revolutionary Women’s History LESSONS OF FEMINIST VICTORIES FROM 1917 TO 1973

The Power Of Movements We are taught in school that history is linear and change is slow. We are taught that yes, society is diseased, but it will eventually heal if we wait. We are taught not to take change into our own hands.

The truth, however, can be much more uplifting. Mass movements are the drivers of history, and attitudes can change rapidly when powerful movements are built. In the wake of George

THE HISTORICAL EXAMPLES IN THIS SPREAD ARE EXCERPTED FROM SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE’S BOOK “SOCIALIST FEMINISM AND THE NEW WOMEN’S MOVEMENT” 8

Floyd’s brutal murder at the hands of the racist Minneapolis police, support for Black Lives Matter skyrocketed to 67%. In just the first month of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza, support for the Palestinian masses shot up by more than 10 percentage points among young voters.

It is precisely because of the power of mass movements that politicians and figureheads are so afraid of them. Many young people will vividly remember how hard the Democratic Party tried to turn our righteous anger at the repeal of Roe v. Wade into a “Vote Blue” campaign.

Major women’s rights organizations and political groups wanted to channel our indignation into safe and controllable channels. The same thing happened with Black Lives Matter when Democratic politicians opportunistically cosplayed as anti-racist activists (the image of Nancy Pelosi kneeling in a dashiki during the George Floyd uprising of 2020 is surely burned into some of our minds) only to turn around and stab the movement in the back the second the momentum dissipated.

Building powerful movements, and sustaining them, requires learning the lessons of history. What has worked, what has failed, and how can we fight back today?

Learning From History Nothing that is given to us by the rich or their purchased politicians is done out of good will. It is almost always wrested out of their hands by the will of a movement.

While we’re confronted with a systematic rollback of abortion rights, dire attacks on the rights of trans teens, and a growing flirtation with the far-right among young boys, we need to study the lessons from hundreds of years of movements against oppression.

Our tasks today are mammoth. We are fighting to win back the right to abortion, and to expand those rights to include free, universal childcare, Medicare for all with full coverage for reproductive and gender-affirming care, and more. To do this, we will need to cohere a mass movement of the multi-gendered, multi-racial working class imbued with the spirit of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 70s and the revolutionary socialist feminism that was central to the Russian Revolution. J

Follow the QR code to read the full book S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

Chuvash Autonomous Oblast Zhenotdel members, 1925

Some of the most profound and rapid leaps forward in women’s social and economic position took place in 1917 following the heroic events of the Russian Revolution.

Women in pre-revolutionary Russian society faced profound levels of oppression. Women and girls were very limited in their ability to seek economic independence, and often had no access to education or even the ability to read and write.

1917 T

he real gains of the Russian Revolution for the working class as a whole, and for women in particular, have become obscured or distorted beyond all recognition. Yet women’s liberation formed a key component of the Bolsheviks’ program, and the revolution paved the way for radical reforms which went far beyond those achieved in the more economically-developed capitalist countries at that time.

Marriage, for example, became a mere civil procedure, with the right to divorce granted on request by either partner. Legal, free abortions were available to all women who needed them.

The early Soviet Union was the first country in the world to rescind all anti-gay laws, and to allow people to legally change their gender. The principle of equal pay for equal work was introduced and legislation passed to protect women in the workplace. This included 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, the right for nursing mothers to work no more than four days a week, and to have regular time off for breastfeeding.

The 1919 Program of the Communist Party (as the Bolsheviks renamed themselves) declared that housework and childcare would not just be

the individual, private responsibility of women within the family but would be socialized and provided publicly by the state.

Day nurseries, kindergartens, public laundries, and restaurants were set up and free lunches introduced in schools. In 1920, 90% of the population of Petrograd, the most industrialized city in Russia at that time, were choosing to eat in communal restaurants.

Transforming Attitudes But the workers’ government also had to take account of the existing consciousness of both men and women. Most people lived in rural areas where the peasant family was still structured on a patriarchal basis and backward attitudes prevailed.

The 1919 Program stated that “the party’s task at the present moment is primarily work in the realm of ideas and education so as to destroy utterly all traces of the former inequality or prejudices.” A conscious campaign was needed to change the backward and reactionary attitudes toward women which were deeply ingrained within society. This included a concerted effort to engage and involve women as active participants

in building the new social order.

Women had played an important role in carrying out the revolution itself. It was female workers who sparked the February 1917 Revolution when, on International Women’s Day, thousands marched to the factories demanding peace, bread, and the overthrow of autocracy.

Now their self-activity was vital for transforming society and achieving their own liberation.

In 1919, a special women’s department, the Zhenotdel, was established to conduct work among women. Women’s “commissions” were set up at every level in order to involve women in the party and in the construction of the new society. The Zhenotdel was involved in tackling issues such as childcare, housing, public health, and prostitution. It organized delegate conferences of working-class and peasant women, recruited women to government departments and party work, and young working-class women enthusiastically and energetically participated in outreach work with women in rural areas and remote parts of the country.

Counter-Revolution The Bolsheviks had always argued that it would be impossible to build genuine socialism in a single country, particularly one as economically and culturally backward as Russia. The revolution would need to be extended internationally to the advanced capitalist countries like Britain and Germany.

While workers in many countries were inspired by events in Russia, and revolutionary movements broke out in Europe and elsewhere, unfortunately, none were successful in overthrowing capitalism because of the weakness of their leaderships. The defeat of these revolutions and Russia’s subsequent international isolation reinforced the demoralization which had already set in among a working class decimated, exhausted, and weakened by war, starvation, and long working hours.

Economic backwardness and international

The Women’s Strike for Equality, New York City, August 1970

The Birth Of NOW And Women’s Liberation Groups

T

he National Organization of Women (NOW), founded in 1966, developed a strategy and tactics to deliver full legal equality of women to men before the law. NOW was effective in winning reforms through a barrage of lawsuits combined with protests and mass actions, particularly against employment discrimination.

NOW’s efforts helped to popularize demands around childcare, abortion rights, equal tax and divorce laws, and against sexist images of women in advertising and media. It was the face of feminism for the majority of ordinary women in this period.

While NOW raised relatively bold demands, it did not seek to challenge the capitalist system, but to win women an equitable place in it. In the interest of appearing more acceptable to the “mainstream” of society, NOW’s leadership consciously pushed away radical feminists, along with socialists and anti-capitalists.

For many of the young women who were involved in the antiwar and Civil Rights movements, the liberal feminism epitomized by NOW was not enough. They wanted to be part of a movement that challenged oppression and imperialism at its root.

MARCH 2024

isolation laid the basis for the rolling back of workers’ democracy and many of the gains of the revolution, together with the rise of a bureaucratic elite, concerned primarily with “managing” society and maintaining its own privileged position.

The interests of workers, including women, became subordinated to those of the bureaucracy, with Stalin at its head. Many of the legal gains which the revolution had granted women were now reversed. Access to divorce became more difficult and abortion was made illegal in most cases.

In 1930 the Zhenotdel was formally abolished in a situation where the original aims of the revolution, including the full economic, political, and sexual equality of women, were far from being realized.

Genuine Socialism Nevertheless, bureaucratic degeneration is not the inevitable outcome of a socialist revolution, as many capitalist commentators argue. Nor is it the case that women’s oppression will always be with us if we achieve socialism. The rise of the Stalinist bureaucracy and its undermining of the gains of the revolution were rooted in the specific conditions which prevailed in Russia and internationally at that time.

Clearly, a democratic workers’ government in a more economically advanced country today would not face the same economic and cultural problems that the Bolsheviks did after the 1917 revolution. However, although socialism will lay the basis for a transformation in economic and social relations, it will require the active participation of working-class women and men in the planning and running of society, as well as the transformation of ideas and attitudes. And clearly, in order to address all the disasters created by capitalism globally, including impending climate catastrophe, the struggle for socialism must be international. J

1973

Women’s liberation spread like wildfire from 1967 into the mid seventies. Consciousnessraising groups multiplied and dozens of mostly very small organizations produced publications that included feminist theory, politics, poetry, and fiction. The women’s liberation movement never developed any broad coalition or unified organizational form, which was one of its key weaknesses. Despite the lack of a formal organization or program, there was agreement within the women’s liberation movement on the need to expand the possible roles of women in society beyond wife, mother, or sex object.

Activists in women’s liberation groups were pioneers in providing educational resources and health services to help women directly. Women’s liberation organizations created the nation’s first rape crisis centers. Small groups of feminists all across the country built women’s shelters for women in abusive relationships.

Broad Feminist Movement Wins Roe Both mainstream feminist organizations and radical feminist groups were active in the fight for abortion rights. NOW became the first national organization to demand the abolition of all laws restricting abortion in 1967. NOW founder Betty Friedan was central to the establishment of National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL), which led the mainstream campaign for abortion rights. NARAL often worked with the women’s liberation movement to stage provocative events, such as speak-outs where women testified about their own abortion experiences.

Debates against anti-abortion activists were another favored tactic of NARAL, and the organization produced materials giving advice on how to stage and win debates and how to get maximum media coverage.

The 1960s and 70s saw an upheaval of struggle in the US that had genuinely revolutionary potential.

From the Civil Rights movement and Black freedom struggle to the anti-Vietnam war movement to the women’s liberation movement – change was afoot.

In 1973 Roe v. Wade was won, federally protecting abortion rights. This victory was not delivered from on high by well-meaning politicians or Supreme Court justices. Rather, it was fought for by a broad coalition that crucially included many socialist feminist groups.

Any renewed women’s movement we build today will have to include a determined, bold, socialist feminist wing that is prepared to use all tools at our disposal to win back hard-won rights and to expand them much further.

The Chicago Women’s Liberation Union staged a direct action at the American Medical Association’s convention, where activists infiltrated the event and presented a list of demands that included free, legal abortion. Speak-outs where women testified about their harrowing experiences undergoing illegal abortions and protests in the state legislature helped turn the tide in New York State, and abortion laws were relaxed in 1970.

Similar campaigns were erupting across the country and 14 states liberalized abortion laws to varying degrees prior to the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide was a historic victory for the women’s rights movement. In a sequence that bears similarity to the more recent struggle for marriage equality, a conservative Supreme Court bent to the pressure of a nationwide mass movement and the resulting shift in popular attitudes on abortion. The court, representing the interests of the ruling class, was forced by the movement into action if it wanted to avoid further mass radicalization. J

9

L ABOR MOVEMENT

MINNEAPOLIS, 1934:

by CHRIS GRAY, MINNEAPOLIS

WHEN SOCIALISTS LED A GENERAL STRIKE OF TEAMSTERS

coal delivery drivers in Minneapolis.

Shoveling and delivering coal was not a skilled job, but it was essential to the economy.

Open battle between striking Teamsters and the police in the streets of Minneapolis.

For an individual worker 2024 may go down in history as a turning to win anything, it would be necessary to point for the labor movement in America. There mobilize the power of the whole working are seismic shifts taking place deep within the working class. During the pandemic, tens of mil- class behind the strike. The socialists took a lions of workers rethought their work lives, and systematic approach to building links to the quit their jobs for something better. Unions are unemployed workers, anti-eviction strugclawing back from decades of retreat. In 2023, gles, and welfare protests. They used their there were 384 strikes, involving a half a million base in the Teamster local to force the local workers. Many of these strikes delivered the best labor council to pass a solidarity resolution contracts in decades, and in some cases, work- in the event of a strike. The local labor leaders in turn were assured by the conservaers dared fight for even more.

The US working class still has a long way to tive national Teamster bureaucracy that the go. The titanic battles of the 1930’s shaped the socialist revolutionaries would be expelled modern labor movement. In 1933, barely two before any strike actually happened. million workers were organized into unions. By The revolutionary backbone of the 1934 1949, 25 million workers were union members, Teamster strike was a small group of socialand things like “labor law” existed for the first time. ists who were seasoned organizers that While strikes are on the rise, we have not yet were united by a shared set of ideas. They seen a decisive change in the balance of class were first united together by their support power between workers and billionaires. This for the 1917 Russian Revolution, and later is why 1934 matters, when three numerically were expelled for opposing Stalin. They had small strikes in Minneapolis, Toledo, and San worked together for decades by the time Francisco showed workers that they could fight they recruited Farrell Dobbs a year before back, and taught them how to fight effectively. the strike, whose book Teamster Rebellion Of these, the socialist-led strike of Minneapolis is a must-read on the historic strike. delivery drivers and warehouse workers stands out as an exemplary display of conscious class Teamster Rebellion(s) power, and should be studied by any serious There were actually multiple Teamster revolutionary worker today. strikes in Minneapolis in 1934. The first one In the beginning of the Great Depression, the was timed during a frigid cold front in Feblabor movement was actually in decline. In June and July 1930, 60 corporations and industries ruary. In a tactic that is still used against announced wage cuts. The conservative leader- essential workers today, the corporate media ship of the AFL did nothing. The AFL as a whole screamed about the welfare of families in was losing 7,000 members a week in 1931. By a cynical attempt to win public opinion in favor of the bosses. The Minneapolis Team1933, it was half the size it was in 1920.

Conservative labor leaders refused to fight. sters responded by continuing coal delivThe old labor leaders were wedded to craft eries to working-class neighborhoods and unionism, the idea that the power of a worker small businesses, and dumping scab coal comes from their knowledge and skill over pro- with the unemployment societies to manage duction. They viewed unskilled workers as a distribution. The strike was over in two days. threat to their position, nevermind unemployed The bosses gave them modest wage gains workers. They failed to recognize that capitalism but refused to recognize the Teamster union is constantly looking for ways to deskill and dis- local 574. empower workers, so they can pay less in wages.

Then there was the July strike, where The socialists in Minneapolis had already history was made. They used the time after embraced the ideas of industrial unionism, and the February strike to widen support for the were making systematic preparations to unionize

10

union struggle among workers who were ready to fight. This strike over the summer was much larger. It culminated in a physical test of force, where strikers, unemployed workers, and the wives and partners of workers challenged armed police. Many were hurt and some were killed before the union was eventually won. However, July would not have been possible without the small victory in February, and the small victory in February did not automatically lead to July. What connected these events were the militant leaders of the strike who linked every small victory to the need to constantly raise the confidence and organizational power of the working class, and ultimately the need for a socialist world.

Socialists And The Wider Union While a lead was given to this strike by socialists, its backbone was a wider layer of radicalized workers who led the strike to victory. Knowing that the bosses would eventually turn to the police for help, and recognizing that even progressive politicians like Governor Olsen were not prepared to break with capitalism, the strike leaders understood the union would need to function even in the event of their arrest. Workers elected a hundred-person strike committee which was the final authority on all questions facing the July strike. These workers came up with ingenious ideas like the “flying pickets” that systematically chased down and disabled scab trucks.

The socialist leaders of the strike channeled the fighting spirit and ingenuity of the workers into a focused force that could win.

The school where this happened was the strike headquarters, an old mechanic’s shop which the union had purchased in advance.

It was stocked with food and provisions so strikers could stay on the pickets. It had a telephone system where working class people could report scab trucks, and flying pickets could be deployed, and a makeshift hospital staffed with sympathetic doctors, nurses, and university students.

Strike leaders also organized a Women’s Auxiliary. Many historians mistakenly frame the Women’s Auxiliary in terms of finding useful roles for women in a majority male workforce, but this is not how its leaders, who were lifelong socialists themselves, saw their role in the strike. The Women’s Auxiliary played a crucial role in helping to mobilize the whole working class into the struggle, and was part of a strategy to focus the broad class anger that existed among unemployed

workers and the wider labor movement, also drawing support from small business people, into the city-wide general strike that actually led to victory.

The General Strike The bosses want total control over the workplace, which is why they oppose unions so much. When workers stop working, the boss can’t make profits off their labor. So any strike quickly becomes a test of power.

As the socialist-led Teamster strike used solidarity to mobilize the entire weight of the working class into the struggle, the bosses’ Citizens Alliance came to life. From strike headquarters, the workers fought with organization, discipline and clubs. Ten blocks away, at the Minneapolis Club – which still hosts Chamber of Commerce meetings – the bosses mobilized cops, the courts, deputized frat boys, and politicians to break the strike.

There were numerous skirmishes and a few outright battles. On Bloody Friday, the cops set an ambush. Cops armed with shotguns hid inside a scab truck while others stood watch, and reported it to strike headquarters. When the flying pickets arrived to stop the scab truck, the cops opened fire, killing three strikers on the corner of 701 N. Third St. This provoked mass outrage among working class people in Minneapolis, culminating in a city-wide general strike. The preparatory work of building solidarity paid off, and even the conservative union leaders were forced to support the action (even though they opposed the socialist-led strike).

The bosses failed to break the mass transportation strike that paralyzed the city. Eventually President Roosevelt intervened to reopen business in Minneapolis. He turned to Minnesota’s independent Farm-Labor Governor Floyd B. Olsen to intervene. Olsen was a capitalist politician who attempted to present himself as a friend of labor. By siding with business and calling in the National Guard to block the effective picketing by striking Teamsters, Olsen lost his authority among the working class. He went as far as ordering the national guard to raid the strike headquarters and arrest the key leaders.

In the end the power of the strike and the broad support among the working class of Minneapolis prevailed. Teamsters across the city won recognition, they won their key economic demands with higher wages, and they won union representation on the job. This was only possible because of the powerful rank-and-file committees that had carefully been built prior to the strike, ensuring that the workers themselves were in direct control of all aspects of their strike.

The socialist-led Minneapolis Teamster strike was a model for how strikes focus the energy of the whole working class at the point of attack.

More importantly, it opened the door to the unionization of millions of “unskilled” workers that were abandoned by conservative labor leaders. Two other general strikes in 1934 paved the way for millions of workers to join the CIO over the next three years. The Toledo Auto-lite Strike was led by a former pastor active in unemployment organizing, and the San Francisco Waterfront General Strike was led by a member of the Communist Party. These three strikes spearheaded the larger labor struggles in auto-manufacturing, steelmaking, textiles, and mining that took place in the 1930s, and are essential for workers to learn about today as the labor movement is once again on the rise. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

E D U C AT I O N

EPISODE 23

H C T WA

Democrats Have Failed Our Public Schools

On Strike is the video broadcast of Workers Strike Back, hosted by Kshama Sawant and Bia Lacombe.

We cover issues from the perspective of workers’ needs, not billionaire greed. We provide socialist analysis and strategy to build working-class movements, fight against oppression, and for a new mass party for workers and young people. These same ideas have been used by Kshama in her decade as the only socialist on the Seattle City Council, overcoming big business and Democratic Party opposition to win four elections and victories such as the $15/hour minimum wage and the Amazon /OnStrikeShow Tax.

“

@OnStrikeShow

@OnStrikeShow

Whenever anyone says there's no money to fund this, there's no money to fund that, they are lying. There is money, you just have to fight for it, and it means taking up battles with the rich.”

There is a profound crisis in public education in the United States. For decades, politicians at the state and federal levels have starved public schools of necessary funding.

School buildings across the US are falling apart and in need of major repairs. Educators are buying school supplies with their own money.

Class sizes have increased dramatically in school districts across the country, negatively affecting student outcomes and increasing educator workload and exhaustion to unsustainable levels. On average,

teachers made 26.4% less than other similarly educated professionals in 2022—the lowest level since 1960.

Underfunding schools, and attacks on educators’ and other public school unions, has been a bipartisan policy by both the Republican and the Democratic Parties.

These politicians cite budget shortages and lack of revenue, cutting teacher pay and closing schools entirely while cutting taxes on the rich. Taxing wealthy corporations and billionaires, meanwhile, would raise the money necessary to fix many of these urgent issues.

The crisis in education is only deepening, but inspiring struggles of unionized educators across the country have shown that there is a way forward if we have the right strategies and tactics to win. It’s important that we draw out the lessons of these struggles, because they apply not just to educators, but workers everywhere looking to fight back.

In this episode, Bia and Kshama interview Joe Sugrue, a rank-and-file union educator and Workers Strike Back member, about the lessons of educator struggles and concrete steps to fight back against the death spiral of brutal budget cuts. J

Minneapolis Teachers: No Trust In Mediation, Build The Strike Fund, Prep For Strike Now JASON HARDWIG, SHOP STEWARD, MINNEAPOLIS FEDERATION OF TEACHERS LOCAL 59

Both teachers and education professionals chapters of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59 have filed for mediation, taking a big step towards preparing itself for the need to build a powerful strike. We are now much more enabled to act and plan as unified chapters! We could all potentially strike together as early as mid-April, giving us options as we move forward. But there’s much more to do to win our demand for 30% raises and automatic steps for ESPs and 16% raises for teachers plus long overdue pay parity for Adult Education staff.

The Democratic Party controlled school board’s counter offers to both chapters’ demands are essentially pay cuts: “raises” of 3% and 2% over two years that will be canceled after inflation takes its bite. The lowest paid ESPs currently make around $18.02/ hour. Meanwhile the school board just gave the superintendent a 15% raise.

They are trying to privatize the public schools by driving out educators through poverty wages and driving out students through budget cuts. Our power to change this comes from our ability to strike, not mediation. Mediation is historically a hostile process for workers. Mediation sessions are MARCH 2024

closed to the public and the state mediator is an unelected bureaucrat. The mediator for the teachers has already demanded that negotiation updates be withheld from our members before sessions can proceed.

But in Minnesota, a “blue state”, it is the Democrats who are most to blame for the sorry state of public education. They control the Governor’s mansion, the legislature, the City Council, and the School Board. What do the lowest paid ESPs who doorknocked for Governor Walz twice now have to show for it when many of them still make less than $20 an hour in a city where average rents gobble up half of their income? Democrats can’t blame Republicans for underfunded schools because there are hardly any Republicans around.

This reliance on the Democrats results in at least hundreds of millions of dollars in lost money for schools annually because they will not take on corporations and their tax lawyers. At best we get inadequate reforms that don’t solve the crisis. The very weak tax reform reporting law passed this past summer in the state showed the immense amount of money that big business in the state keeps from the public. That law alone has accounted for an uptick in the state surplus form $2.4 billion to $3.7 billion!

If a true all out fight against these billionaire businesses were to be led by strike-ready

workers and a party they could trust, closing down all the loopholes and raising rates, there would be more than enough money to fully fund not only schools, but also to launch affordable housing initiatives, more public transportation, and expanded public health care. To prepare for a Yes vote to strike and movement we in MFT must: • Throw away all new union T-shirts that have only one chapter logo on them, which shows divisions to the bosses, and reprint newly minted strike-ready T-Shirts that have both our chapters’ logos boldly displayed on them, united for our 2024 campaign!

• Not rely on passive hopes in mediation and prepare with strike teams in every building to reject any weak offers to either chapter and to refuse to settle any deals until both our chapters are made whole with our wage demands.

• Demand all levels of government – city, county and state – tax profiteering corporations to fully fund schools, affordable housing, and social services.

• ​​ Call for joint demos between all the unions that have contracts expiring in 2024 and link up demands with common days of action including fights for new contracts that expire on or around May 1st 2028 - the day autoworkers have called for a general strike

against billionaires!

• Arm every member now with easy to use QR codes that link people to a strike fund donation page, our demands and our analysis of the board’s budget so we can reach out in coordinated teams to families and tell the real story of this years budget. We should knock on their doors, phone up parents and send out mass texts. Pledge to join our pickets, pledge to donate today, defend Public Education and Schools in MPLS! • Send members in trained teams to local unions to make appeals for contributions to our strike fund, pledges of attendance to our rallies and pickets, to pass resolutions of support and use social media to boost our signals.

• Continue to build all member CAT meetings and bargaining update meetings during mediation. Raise the alarm in our umbrella unions (Education Minnesota, National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers) to demand that they back stop our strike fund as well as St Paul’s campaign. It’s in the interest of all public school districts nationwide to support and see a big win for Metro educators! Rally with St. Paul educators in joint actions! J

11

C L I M AT E C H A N G E MANDY GEE, CHICAGO 2023 was the warmest year since global records began in 1850, and we just completed the hottest February in recorded history – after record-breaking temperatures in January, December, November, October, September, August, July, June and May. In fact, the past seven years have been the warmest in the history of human civilization.

With dramatic temperatures comes severe, erratic weather; Los Angeles has already received 75% of its annual rainfall in only the second month of 2024 after yet another atmospheric river besieged California, causing nearly 500 mudslides, several deaths, and around $11 billion in damages. 2023 saw an unprecedented drought and heatwave in the Midwest, the US’s third-largest tornado outbreak on record, devastating flooding in Libya, and wildfires raging across Canada for almost half the year.

While one

might want to attribute this winter’s unseasonal warmth up to El Niño, a natural climate pattern that leads to warmer winters and typically occurs every few years, weather events have never been this severe. The reality is that the capitalist system itself is scorching the planet.

Crossing The 1.5° Celsius Threshold In early February, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that for the past year, the Earth has been 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than in preindustrial times. This is not an arbitrary number – it is the “optimal” warming threshold determined by climate scientists, based on assessments of the impacts of climate change at different levels of warming. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in 2018 that at 1.5°C, extreme heat is significantly less common and intense in many parts of the world than at 2°C. The report warned that a 2°C temperature increase would cause more extreme weather and worsen Arctic sea ice decline and rising sea levels, coral bleaching, and ecosystem loss. Additionally, around 10% of species on land would become critically endangered, the Amazon rainforest would collapse into a savanna, and 800 million to 3 billion people would experience c h r o ni c

HISTORY ED

AR T YE

HINORETC TES ORD

water scarcity.

Despite nearly a century of discoveries pointing towards global warming, it was only in 2015 that global “action” was taken in an effort to curb climate change. At the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference, 196 nations pledged to “[hold] the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.” Signers of the treaty – also known as the Paris Agreement – agreed to “finance programs” and “share resources” with the goal of peaking greenhouse gas emissions before 2025, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 43% by 2030, and becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

Tragically, this is far from our reality. Even if every country were to follow through on their plans, current climate pledges would still keep the world on track for 2.5°C or so of warming by 2100. And countries aren’t following through; since the agreement was signed, carbon emissions – with the exception of 2020 – have gone up every single year. Following the pandemic slump, demand for natural gas and coal has boomed, ​​with global consumption of the latter reaching an all-time high of 8.5 billion tons in 2023. Just one year before greenhouse gas emissions need to peak, the oil, gas, and coal industries continue to provide over 80% of the global energy supply. While the usage of these fossil fuels has declined, from 87% in 2010 to 82% in 2023, at that rate of decline it would take nearly 200 years for fossil fuels to be fully phased out.

countries, Norway, is the third-leading exporter of natural gas in the world, and continues to derive over 50% of its energy from fossil fuels.

The Whole System Is Guilty

Why Has Nothing Changed?

While continuing business as usual might feel illogical as humanity faces more climate and air pollution-related deaths and the genuine threat of resource wars in the future, that’s the nature of the capitalist system (and the nation state that protects its interests) – illogic is a law of capitalism. In Marx’s Capital, he explains that the capitalist system of production and distribution is so full of inherent contradictions, that its own development, if the laws of its own existence are permitted to freely assert themselves, will lead to its ultimate destruction. We are living through this prophecy.

Plus, we must be clear that a transition to renewables alone would not curb climate change. Enterprises like agriculture, manufacturing and construction, fast fashion, the transportation industry, and the military industrial complex belched over 25 billion tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere in 2023.

Looking squarely at the facts, it is clear that nothing short of a top-to-bottom overhaul of the global economy can actually slow down global warming. This will never happen under capitalism.

Even if the world’s capitalists did magically decide to move to 100% renewable energy as soon as next month, there is next to no infrastructure established to make this a reality. This is not because it’s unaffordable – it’s because short-term superprofits are the priority for the global capitalist class and their politicians.

Retooling the energy grid would come directly into conflict with the profits of fossil fuel corporations and other sections of the ruling class who would ferociously resist any policies that would undercut their shareholders’ dividends.

For example, converting the entire US power grid to 100% renewable energy in the next decade is technologically and logistically attainable, and would only cost an estimated $4.5 trillion – this doesn’t sound like too much when compared to the $8 trillion the US government has spent on war since 2001, or the $8 trillion lost in tax revenue since Bush’s 2001 tax cuts.

The money for a transition to clean energy clearly exists, but the US government (and all major world powers) is joined at the hip with fossil fuels, subsidizing billions for the industry every year. And fossil fuel corporations pay this back in kind with millions in campaign contributions each election cycle – mostly to Republicans, but with donations to Democrats and “liberal groups” as well.

Neither party has any real interest in, or incentive for, upending the status quo and this is the case for the ruling class globally.

Even one of the so-called most “progressive”

We are entering the age of climate lethality, but we are not doomed. Because we don’t have to sit here and accept our fate. But the measures required to slow down, and reverse, climate change are simply not compatible with the capitalist system – and so we must overthrow it.

In doing so, we can usher in a socialist society free of corporate greed, where workers democratically control the industries they work in and make decisions collectively around how to retool their workplaces, and the entire world, to sustainably meet people’s needs in a way that works in harmony with our environment.

And this is not a fantasy – the heroic workers of Russia, with the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and the Bolshevik party, overthrew the Russian tsar in 1917 and implemented democratic worker’s control in the country.

These workers immediately began to implement revolutionary reforms.

To begin with, we must demand a massive green jobs program with high-paying unionized jobs, fully-funded emergency systems, a ban on new oil and gas drilling, and we need to take the energy companies into public ownership under democratic workers’ control.

As climate change is international, so too is the capitalist system, and its overthrow requires the struggle of the international working class fighting for a socialist program and a world where working class people have power to reshape the economy around the needs of people and the planet. If you want to join the fight for a sustainable, socialist future, get involved with Socialist Alternative! J

1.50C IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO FIGHT CLIMATE CATASTROPHE 12

“Neither party has any real interest in, or incentive for, upending the status quo — and this is the case for the ruling class globally.”

Are We Doomed?

S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

T

he two-year anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine encapsulates an era which has jettisoned the previous geopolitical equilibrium and its “rules-based order”, and in which predatory imperialism is increasingly exposed as it threatens to drag humanity through an epoch of war and bloodshed.

Events unfolding in the Middle East are adding more bloody scenes to this picture, as have the mountains of bodies stacked up by wars in Ethiopia, Nagorno-Karabach, and elsewhere in the last short period.

Working-class and young people, and socialists around the world should heed the warning of this war. Among its many lessons are the need not to underestimate the degree of disorder being built up in the 2020s, or to underestimate the depravity of capitalism and imperialism.

A Previously Unthinkable Conflict On European Soil

any hopes of imminent Russian defeat, and emboldened the establishment political voices which push back against the pro-Ukraine war policy of Western governments.

These voices, drawn largely from utterly reactionary sectors, have their clearest expression in the US Republican right and Trump.

Their “isolationism” (a misnomer) does not reflect an opposition to US imperialism asserting itself by any means. In reality, they coalesce around the idea that this is the “wrong war” for US imperialism today, and favor a more rigid focus on the conflict with China

served as an economic lifeline for Russia, helping to neuter the impact of historic sanctions. China has also used the conflict to establish an even more dominant position within the China-Russia relationship, with Putin totally dependent on Xi’s support and backing.

On top of the bloodshed, the fundamental nature of the war assigns it a deeply reactionary character. Working class people in Ukraine, Russia and internationally have nothing to gain from the war or a victory for either side. Russia succeeding in annexing Ukrainian territory will strengthen and embolden the Putin regime and its allies, whetting the appetite for further

UKRAINE WAR:

Fear Of Trump 2.0 Events in 2024 are difficult to predict, not least because of the crucial US presidential election campaign. The prospect of a second Trump presidency, which the pollsters currently predict, has provoked severe unease in European capitals. Trump’s incendiary remarks from rally podiums, to the effect that he will abandon NATO allies that don’t “pay up”, have only added to this.

This has led to renewed calls for European imperialist powers to further accelerate their beefed up militarist policies, in order to “stand on their own two feet”. This push, in line with the interests of key parts of the ruling class, will undoubtedly deliver some results. However, US leadership within the western imperialist bloc is more decisive now than ever, and the prospect of EU powers “going it alone” in successfully backing Ukraine in a full-scale war with Russia ultimately does not appear to be realistic.

TWO YEARS INTO AN EPOCHDEFINING CONFLICT

Capitalism has never – and can never – be a system without wars. Even in epochs marked by lower levels of armed conflict, wars have continued to happen, and the ruling class has continued to pump trillions of dollars into preparing for more wars. This was the case throughout the period of unchallenged

by DANNY BYRNE, ISA INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE “unipolar” US world domination which followed the collapse of Stalinism.

However, during this period, when planning for warfare in the barbarity.

“On top of the bloodshed, this fundamental nature of the war 21st century, very few foresaw On the other hand, assigns it a deeply reactionary character. Working class people a war like this one, and Western the NATO-backed in Ukraine, Russia and internationally have nothing to gain from political and military establishUkrainian regime the war or a victory for either side... Only international working ments certainly did not prepare defeating Russia class struggle for peace and socialism and against imperialfor one. The prevailing doctrine for would be an historic ism can overturn the reactionary juggernaut in this region.” the “wars of the future” was one of victory for the equally a move away from “close combat”, barbaric West, and meat-grinder trench warfare, and lead not to liberation towards conflicts dominated by methods of Zelensky, Biden and others have publicly for the Ukrainian people, but to the entrencha long-range, aerial, unmanned, technologi- blamed the US Congress and its failure to ment of an ultra-militarised reactionary cal, cyber, and economic nature. approve new military aid packages for Kyiv for vassal regime. Only international working Instead, the most important war in Ukraine’s recent defeat in Avdiivka. In the clos- class struggle for peace and socialism and Europe for decades has more resembled ing stages of the battle for the city, Russia was against imperialism can overturn the reacWorld War I, with “meat grinder” close reported to enjoy a 10–1 artillery advantage, tionary juggernaut in this region. combat for control of rat-infested trenches, making it impossible to hold the line. where thousands are slaughtered to claim a This underlines the depth of the Ukrainian Does Russia Have The Initiative few hundred square meters of ruins. regime’s dependence on Western imperialism In 2024?

The initial stages of the war, marked by for its war effort, and the decisive role played the brutality of the invasion and a Ukrainian by US imperialism in particular, in this war.

Western analysts are beginning to cohere armed resistance which was much stron- This is part of the picture, identified by ISA around the idea that 2024 will be “Russia’s ger than many expected, awoke some “war since the beginning, of this war being at root year” in this conflict. As well as their modest enthusiasm”, especially in Western coun- an inter-imperialist proxy war. gains on the battlefield, they are alarmed at tries, as millions of ordinary people were The billions of dollars in different types of indications that Russia is winning the “war moved by genuine solidarity and sympathy aid to Ukraine has never represented an ounce in the rear”, essentially the race of military with ordinary Ukrainians. However, the real- of concern for Ukraine’s people or its right to production and procurement. ity two years on has seen weariness and exist. This is “money well spent” (and other This is alongside the deepening crisis in opposition to this bloody conflict grow, both people’s blood well spilled) by Western impe- Ukraine, which has many expressions. Zeleninternationally and in Ukraine itself. rialism in defense of its ugly struggle for world sky celebrated the new year with the sacking domination. They have sought to use this war of the army’s chief of staff, Valeriy Zaluzhny, An Inter-imperialist Proxy-War to decisively weaken Russia, and to send a after months of conflict amid rumors the clear warning to China with a view to brewing latter would challenge Zelensky – and maybe The war has seen numerous twists and conflicts in the Pacific arena. Within this, US beat him – in the next presidential election. turns, and passed through several phases, imperialism has also used the war to solidify The fact Zelensky canceled these elections and now seems mired in a bloody stale- its leading position within the West and NATO. is a blow to those who claim the war is about mate. What has led to the current situaOn the other side, Chinese imperialism’s keeping Ukraine free and democratic. tion? While many factors, not least falling clever diplomacy cannot obscure its backing The situation which existed at the start Ukrainian morale, play their part, a crucial for Russia, which is by far its most important of the war, with a population keen, willing one has been the ebbing flow of military aid ally on the world stage. While avoiding open and eager to fight, has been transformed to to Zelensky. The disastrous NATO-backed, direct military support and assistance, it has its opposite. Army recruiters are more often Ukrainian counter-offensive has frustrated MARCH 2024

met with fear and hostility than with enthusiasm. Protests have even repeatedly taken place, most recently led by women demanding shorter periods of service for those on the front line, echoing similar protests which have arisen sporadically in Russia through the course of the war.

In contrast, a superficial look at Moscow would give the impression that Putin is “sitting pretty”. As fake “elections” approach which will keep him in power, his two most prominent potential opponents – Wagner commander Prigozhin and opposition politician Navalny – have both recently ended up in body bags.

However, the memory of how easily Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries rolled through Russian territory on their famous “march to Moscow” will remain as a cloud over Putin’s head.

For Working Class Struggle Against A New Age Of Bloodshed For socialists, it is crucial that right-wing populists are not allowed to posture as the only (fake) “anti-war” voices. Socialists must take a clear stand against this war, based on an understanding that neither of the imperialist blocs currently fighting for world domination represents the interests of working class and oppressed people.

We call for the end to the war, for the withdrawal of Russian troops, the right of Ukraine to exist as an independent nation free from domination by imperialism of any kind, opposition to NATO, and for the right of self-determination of all minorities and regions within Ukraine.

Only the working class in Russia, Ukraine and internationally can put an end to the war and Putin’s dictatorship.The fight for this program must be part of a bold rallying call to the working people of the world to organize and struggle against the dragging of humanity towards ever-greater war and bloodshed.

As the Middle East is showing us today, this war is not the last one which this decadent system will foist upon us, and the danger of wider military conflagrations is great, as the imperialist not-so-Cold War heats up. ISA makes no prediction that World War III is “around the corner”, but the banner of peace and socialism must be raised high, the banner of hope for a better future. J

13

IN ACTION

S O C I A L I S T A LT E R N AT I V E I N A C T I O N

SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE NYC In New York City, several thousand people came out to rally despite the rain. Hundreds of people carried umbrellas over their protest signs as we marched through the streets.

Despite the significant turnout, many people are unsure of what steps need to be taken now to win.

There is obviously a huge willingness to come out and participate in protests, but now the question is how to translate this willingness into a fightback against the massacre in Gaza and against the occupation more broadly.

Socialist Alternative members talked to hundreds of people about the need to challenge the bipartisan war machine, based on rebuilding a fighting labor movement alongside social struggles. The huge antiwar mood has already translated into a huge “uncommitted” vote in the Democratic primary, protesting Biden and the Democrat’s relentless imperialism, and this needs to be turned into a real challenge to the two-party system. Dozens of people signed our petition to organize a fightback against war, and to get involved in socialist politics!

Such a large turnout in bad weather shows that the solidarity with the Palestinian people is still deeply felt among large sections of American workers and youth.

The major fight now lies in organizing an alternative to the rotten imperialist politics of the two-party system, and applying the power of the labor movement to shut down American weapons and artillery to the Israeli regime’s war. J

LOS ANGELES Over 1,000 people showed up in Los Angeles to protest the Israeli state’s war on Gaza and growing attacks on Rafah in early March. Socialist Alternative members talked to dozens of protest attendees about taking the movement forward – many people were paying attention to the growing “uncommitted” vote in the Democratic Primary to protest Joe Biden’s continued support of Israel’s assault. Neither major party will end the war on Gaza – and people are hungry for a genuinely anti-war candidate to stand up against the warmongering establishment.

The protest gained steam as it went on, gathering momentum despite the rain. It’s clear that even as Israel’s assault continues, with ever-greater loss of life, there is still huge willingness among ordinary people to fight against the war. J

Join the socialists! → socialistalternative.org 14

S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER NORFOLK SOUTHERN DERAILMENT SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE PHILADELPHIA

A year after the East Palestine disaster, Norfolk Southern’s profit driven corner cutting has caused another train derailment, this time in the Lehigh Valley, an hour north of Philadelphia. While the derailment does not appear to be on the same scale as East Palestine, Norfolk Southern’s unchecked disregard for safety is astonishing.

Between January and October 2023 there were 742 derailments, including 59 collisions, 12 fires, 138 highway-rail-crossing incidents.

Like many industries, the railroads underwent a massive transformation over past decades as neoliberalism swept the globe. In the early ‘90s, the freight magnates, seeing an opportunity to massively expand their profits, introduced a concept called “Precision Scheduled Railroading” (PSR).

They made the trains longer, reduced the staff, scrapped safety inspections, and lobbied the government to whittle down regulations.

In the years leading up to the devastating train derailment in East Palestine Ohio last year, Norfolk Southern saw more than 10% increases in their yearly operating revenue. In 2021, the company raked in $12.75 billion. In 2022, their profit – the amount they keep after all their bills are paid – was $8.65 billion.

The derailment in East Palestine

MARCH 2024

GET INVOLVED!

Socialist Alternative is an active organization with members across the country. Joining means basic agreement with our ideas and a commitment to putting them into action. Apply to join and a member in your area will reach out to you shortly! If you don’t see an area near you listed below, contact our national office.

(646) 371-9016 info@SocialistAlternative.org facebook.com/SocialistAlternativeUSA Instagram: @Socialist_Alternative Twitter: @SocialistAlt Tik Tok: @socialistus Socialist Alternative is part of International Socialist Alternative (ISA), (ISA) which has sections in over 30 countries.

Learn more about the ISA at internationalsocialist.net.

reportedly cost the company over $1 billion in clean up costs. This would certainly come as a shock to the town’s residents who are still living with the effects of the derailment.

What is the board’s plan to deal with the hit to their earnings? “Aggressive cost management.” Also known as, cutting the same corners that caused the disaster in the first place.

Norfolk Southern is reportedly investigating how they can run more trains and speed up the movement of cargo, all with less workers.

Despite increasing derailments and safety issues, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw received a 37% pay increase since East Palestine, to $13.4 million in yearly compensation.

Joe Biden, who received significant campaign contributions from Norfolk Southern, and who finally visited East Palestine a year after the disaster, has taken no steps to address the ongoing issues with the railroad industry.

In fact, from breaking the railroad worker’s strike to failing to hold a single

person accountable for East Palestine, he has only made the problem worse.

When industrial disasters happen, it is working class communities that suffer.

As long as critical infrastructure is in the hands of insatiable corporations like Norfolk Southern, disasters like this will continue to happen. The working class needs its own party! One that can hold criminals like Alan Shaw accountable and that can take critical infrastructure out of the hands of the capitalist class and put it in the hands of the working class, to democratically manage it in the best interests of workers and communities.

Norfolk Southern’s ongoing derailment disaster has shown why the railroads should not be in private hands, run for profit rather than need. Their cost-cutting frenzy over the past several decades is exactly what produced these disasters to begin with. If they cannot afford to clean-up after their mess, then they should be taken into public ownership to be overseen and managed by rail workers themselves who have warned about these dangers for years. J

GET SOCIALIST NEWS IN YOUR MAILBOX

SOCIALISTALTERNATIVE.ORG/PAPER

REPORTS

SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE AND GET OUR MONTHLY PAPER DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR.

MID-ATLANTIC

NEW YORK CITY, NY...............ny@socialistalternative.org PHILADELPHIA, PA...........philly@socialistalternative.org PITTSBURGH, PA............................sapghbc@gmail.com Contact our national office for: BALTIMORE, MD & CAPITAL DISTRICT, NY

NEW ENGLAND

BOSTON, MA...................boston@socialistalternative.org WORCESTER, MA........worcester@socialistalternative.org Contact our national office for: NEW HAVEN, CT; PROVIDENCE, RI; & PORTLAND, ME

MIDWEST

CHICAGO, IL..................chicago@socialist.alternative.org MADISON, WI................madison@socialistalternative.org MILWAUKEE, WI........milwaukee@socialistalternative.org MINNEAPOLIS, MN...............mn@socialistalternative.org Contact our national office for: CINCINNATI, OH; COLUMBUS, OH; DETROIT, MI; GRAND RAPIDS, MI; & KANSAS CITY, MO

PACIFIC

LOS ANGELES, CA........socialistalternativela@gmail.com BAY AREA, CA................bayarea@socialistalternative.org SAN DIEGO, CA............sdsocialistalternative@gmail.com SEATTLE, WA..................seattle@socialistalternative.org Contact our national office for: PORTLAND, OR & TACOMA, WA

SOUTHEAST

GAINESVILLE, FL....................gainesvillesalt@gmail.com NORTH CAROLINA....................nctrianglesa@gmail.com Contact our national office for: ATLANTA, GA; BIRMINGHAM, AL; NEW ORLEANS, LA; NW ARKANSAS; & ORLANDO, FL

SOUTHWEST

HOUSTON, TX............houstonsa@socialistalternative.org SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE ISSN 2638-3349

Editor: Keely Mullen Editorial Board: George Brown, Tom Crean, Grace Fors, Chris Gray, Josh Koritz, Calvin Priest, Greyson Van Arsdale, Tony Wilsdon Editors@SocialistAlternative.org

15

SOCIALIST TOM CREAN, NYC

As we go to print, the situation in the Middle East is on a knife’s edge. The vicious assault by the Israeli military against the people of the Gaza Strip, using the pretext of the horrific October 7 attack by Hamas, has become a genocidal war. Over half the population of Gaza has now been forced into a tiny corner of the territory in the town of Rafah next to the Egyptian border, with the Israeli military threatening to launch a full scale offensive on the town.

Meanwhile negotiations for a ceasefire have been ongoing, involving Israel, Hamas, the US, Qatar, and Egypt. The basic outline seems to be the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a period of up to six weeks. This would not be a permanent ceasefire or anything resembling a solution to the underlying problem but would certainly provide some relief to the besieged population.

However, it is also far from certain that a deal will be reached. If Israel launches the attack on Rafah during the month of Ramadan, beginning March 10, the holiest month in the Muslim calendar, the entire Muslim world could revolt. Brutal allies of the US like the Egyptian regime could face mass civil upheaval. The exchange of attacks between Israel and the Hizbollah militia in Lebanon, far better armed than Hamas, could tip into all out war, possibly drawing in the Iranian regime. All of this is against the backdrop of a growing global inter-imperialist conflict between the US and its allies and China and its allies, including Iran.

It is vitally necessary for the mass movement to step up the pressure in the streets for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and for international working class action in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The Threat Of Mass Starvation It is very hard to overstate how catastrophic the situation is on the ground in Gaza. Over 30,000 people have been killed, 12,000 of them children. Most neighborhoods have been turned to rubble, the infrastructure that makes human existence possible has been pulverized, the few hospitals

left perform surgery without anesthetic and now the threat of mass starvation.

As a recent article in the New York Times states, “the hunger threatening millions is a man-made catastrophe.” The article reports that in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is most serious, nutrition screenings in January showed that 15 percent of children aged 6 to 23 months were acutely malnourished.

The director of the main humanitarian relief organization on the ground, UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, stated in early March that compared to the minimum aid in January, only half as much aid is getting in. This is after the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must take action to prevent genocide! At one of the key border crossings, the Israeli military has allowed far right activists who advocate for ethnic cleansing to block trucks.

There is no other conclusion that can be drawn other than that the Israeli state is using mass starvation against the Palestinian population as a weapon of war.

The Biden administration has sent thousands of bombs and military aid to Israel.

But now, fearing a full-scale war in the Middle East, it has grown increasingly critical of Israeli policy in words and is now itself calling for an immediate ceasefire. This call is also based on the massive global and domestic opinion against Biden and US imperialism. But actions speak louder than words. And the key action of the United States is to

ALTERNATIVE

continue the flow of weapons to Israel. So while criticizing the effects of these barbaric policies, Biden gives Israel the means to continue committing these crimes against humanity. And dropping food packages from planes onto the beach in Gaza is simply putting a bandaid on a gaping wound.

US imperialism again stands exposed in front of the entire world as caring only about its “strategic interests” which are ultimately about the “freedom” to plunder the planet in the interests of profit. People’s lives are completely secondary.

What Is The Way Out? Millions have gone on the streets across the world in solidarity with the Palestinian people. This must continue. The threat of the masses to reactionary US “allies” in the region who also couldn’t care less about the Palestinian people deeply worries US imperialism and can bring real pressure to bear.

But so can the international working class.

Dock workers must refuse to load military supplies bound for Israel. More than half of union members in the US are part of unions calling for a ceasefire. It is time to back up this position with the threat of strike action.

The current war is rooted in the decadeslong occupation of Gaza and the West Bank

by the Israeli state which is armed to the teeth. Many on the far left promote the idea that the Israeli population is one reactionary mass. But Israel is a class divided society where a mass movement against the domestic agenda of the far right threatened to topple the reactionary Netanyahu regime last year.

On the basis of capitalism, the oppression of the Palestinians will continue even if a new arrangement is cobbled together. The terrorist strategy of the reactionary nationalist Hamas is a dead end for the Palestinian people.

But neither will the Jewish population be able to live in security on the basis of capitalism. Already the Israeli economy is in deep crisis due to the war and massive social cuts are threatened. The only way forward for ordinary people is through working class action in Israel, Palestine and across the region to topple the vile ruling class and create a socialist Palestine and a socialist Israel within a socialist federation of the Middle East.

Socialist Alternative Says: • End the Genocidal War on Gaza • End the Occupation • End US Military Aid • For international workers action in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against imperialism! J

END ISRAELI STATE TERROR!

ISSUE #101 l MARCH 2024

FOR A SOCIALIST MIDDLE EAST