Socialist Alternative #88 - November 2022

ALTERNATIVE

SOCIALIST

ISSUE #88 l NOVEMBER 2022

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INSIDE U.S. MIDTERMS KY AMAZON UNION CAMPAIGN REVOLT IN IRAN

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WHAT WE STAND FOR Expand The Social Safety Net & Fight Inflation •

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contraception should be provided at no cost as part of a broad program for women’s reproductive health!

• We need a robust fightback against the Inflation and the rising cost of living is brutal anti-trans legislation in many states eating into our paychecks, and capitalist and all right-wing attacks on LGBTQ people, politicians have no solutions – we need a including noncompliance organized by the class struggle to turn the tide on this race labor movement among workers tasked with to the bottom! enforcing these bigoted laws.

No pay cuts! We need pay raises that • Fighting gender oppression means fighting exceed the level of inflation and a signififor our rights to bodily autonomy, reproduccant raise in the minimum wage. tive justice including universal childcare, Pass strong rent control. End economic and Medicare for All including free reproevictions. Tax the rich and big business to ductive and gender-affirming care. fund permanently affordable, high-quality public housing.

Make the child tax credit permanent and Rebuild A Fighting Labor fully fund high-quality, universal childcare. Movement Cancel all student debt and make public • As thousands of workers are winning union college tuition-free. recognition for the first time, it is critical We need an immediate transition to Medithat unions fight to win strong contracts. care for All. Take for-profit hospital chains We need unions that are armed with clear and Big Pharma into public ownership and demands and prepared to go on strike to retool them to provide free, state-of-the-art win them. health care to all.

Fully fund public education! End school • Union leaders across all unions should accept the average wage of a worker in privatization. Give educators an immeditheir industry and should be accountable to ate 25% raise and hire more educators and their memberships and the broader working school staff. class.

Unions should form consumer protection committees to monitor price increases. • An injury to one is an injury to all! Unions need to fight evictions, poverty, racism, They should have the power to review corsexism, and all forms of oppression. porate finances, especially when money is squandered on CEO pay and stock buy- • Unions should stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars on electing Democratic backs. Profits off basic goods should be Party politicians, and spend it instead on heavily taxed and price-gouging companies efforts to organize the unorganized. should be brought under democratic public ownership.

Mobilize Against Attacks On Bodily Autonomy • The overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court opened the door to a series of vicious attacks on bodily autonomy in states 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.

• Fight for free, safe, legal abortion. All

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A New Political Party For Working People

• The capitalist Democratic Party offers no solution to right-wing attacks against workers and marginalized people and have repeatedly failed to use their majorities to protect our rights, like same-sex marriage and abortion.

• Biden’s record is a series of broken promises to working people, from promised $2,000 stimulus checks that never came to the “public healthcare option” he said he’d fight for.

• We need a new, working-class, multiracial left party that organizes and fights for workers’ interests and is committed to socialist policies to lead the fight against the right and point a way out of the horrors of capitalism.

No To Imperialist Wars • Socialist Alternative completely opposes Russian imperialism’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Ordinary Ukrainians who already suffer exploitation, oppression, corruption, and growing poverty conditions now face

WHY I JOINED SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE JOAN WRIGHT, SEATTLE When I moved to Seattle, one of my first memories was being handed a flier outside my grocery store and being invited to come to a meeting to launch the Tax Amazon campaign. I had never heard of Socialist Alternative before, but I was intrigued by a movement to tax big business to fund affordable housing and green jobs.

My first thought was “Wow, that’s incredible people are doing this!” But, to be honest, I didn’t attend the meeting and was skeptical that it could be won. I definitely didn’t believe that I could play a role.

Weeks later, a volunteer canvassing a park collected my signature for the ballot initiative. Shortly after, at a protest, another volunteer was collecting more signatures from the crowd and told me that in just 20 days, volunteers and particularly Socialist Alternative members had already collected 20,000 signatures.

I was impressed by this enormous organizing feat, but I was even more inspired by the political clarity of the movement: unafraid to challenge the stonewalling by the Democratic establishment and never wavering from a fearless class struggle strategy.

Shortly after, with the credible threat of a ballot initiative, the political establishment conceded and Tax Amazon won. When I

heard the news, I was stunned. I didn’t think it was possible, but I was proven wrong. And I saw it first hand: the victory came from the organization of working people with a fighting strategy led by socialists.

I knew I needed to be there for the next fight and decided to join Socialist Alternative. Since joining, I’ve been on picket lines, canvassing routes, and workplace organizing committees. Right now, I’m proud to be campaigning to increase the Amazon Tax to fund free abortion in Seattle. I didn’t believe I had a role to play, but the revolutionary socialists leading the way gave me revolutionary optimism and showed me that we are going to win. J

the horror of war and bloodshed. people safe from natural disasters and • We also oppose the aggressive imperialist extreme weather as these become more agenda of NATO and the U.S. for whom frequent.

Ukrainians are a pawn in the wider Cold War • Fossil fuels can’t coexist with a sustainable conflict with Chinese imperialism. future – take the top 100 polluting compa• De-escalating the rapidly deteriorating situnies into democratic public ownership while ation in Ukraine requires the return of Rusimplementing a democratically planned, sian troops to the barracks in Russia and just transition to 100% green energy. the withdrawal of all NATO troops from Eastern Europe.

End Racist Policing And Criminal • Build a massive anti-war and anti-imperialist movement linking up workers and (in)Justice youth across borders! Sending increasingly • Arrest and convict killer cops! Purge police destructive weapons to the conflict only forces of anyone with known ties to white serves to escalate and poses a greater risk supremacist groups or any cop who has of all-out war – only socialist internationalcommitted violent or racist attacks. ism can end war and destruction and win • End the militarization of police. Ban police lasting peace and stability for the working use of “crowd control” weapons. Disarm masses around the world. police on patrol.

• Put policing under the control of democratically-elected civilian boards with power over End The COVID Chaos hiring and firing, reviewing budget priorities, • We need free, easily accessible tests availand the power to subpoena. able in every community across the country. • While alarming acts of violence have risen, Workers exposed to COVID should be given the Democrats’ pivot to “law and order” paid self-isolation days after exposure or policing is reactionary and will only bear after developing symptoms. down on people of color and the poor.

• We need to take Big Pharma profiteers into public ownership, dramatically ramp up vaccine research and production (especially The Whole System Is Guilty for new variants), and distribute it freely to • Capitalism produces pandemics, poverty, the rest of the world. inequality, environmental destruction, and war. We need an international struggle against this failed system.

For A Socialist Green New Deal • Bring the top 500 companies and banks • We need a union jobs program to rapidly into democratic public ownership. expand green infrastructure.

• We need a democratic socialist plan for the • Massively expand public transit and make economy based on the interests of the overit free. whelming majority of people and the planet.

• While taking climate change head-on, we also need to expand infrastructure to keep S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

U.S. MIDTERMS CALVIN PRIEST, SEATTLE

Forecasts of a midterm “red wave” for the Republican Party failed to land this month, and instead a divided outcome was driven by growing levels of polarization in U.S. politics.

Republicans failed to win either house of Congress outright on election night, and as we go to print, both the House and Senate are still too close to call. While a small majority for Republicans in Congress appears most likely, even if so, they will have made smaller midterm gains than any opposition party has over the party in the White House since 2002.

What Happened to the “Red Wave”?

The corporate media are broadly portraying the better-than-expected outcome as a victory for the Democrats. The results, however, represent more of a vote against the Republican Party and its Trumpian leadership than they do a clear vote for Biden and the Democrats. Biden’s approval ratings remain in the low 40s and two thirds of voters polled feel the country is moving in the wrong direction.

Democratic voters appear to have turned out mainly over anger at the Republican attack on abortion with the Dobbs ruling and concerns over the right-wing and threats to democratic rights. Exit polls consistently showed abortion as one of the top two issues, and abortion rights victories were won in four the five states where it was on the ballot. The fifth appears to be headed in the same direction. This follows on the heels of the decisive defeat for the Kansas referendum attacking abortion rights in August.

Relative success for the Democrats seems to have been almost exclusively driven by turnout – which was at similar levels to the historic highs of 2018 – and despite the fact that the Democrats lost ground with every single demographic group. In recent months, there was a wave of voter registrations by women and young people that likely contributed to historically high Democratic voter representation at the polls.

Republicans also appear to have been hurt by Trump-linked candidates who made it through the primary only to weigh down their party’s fortunes in the general election.

The corporate media have talked a lot about the highly consistent trend of the President’s party losing ground in the midterms, and discuss it as if it is a “law of gravity.”

Certainly it’s statistically true, and 20 out of the last 22 midterms have followed this trend — but this is not about Newton’s Laws of Motion, it’s about capitalism. The President’s party loses ground because its politicians unmask themselves as representing the rich rather than working people while in office.

And since under capitalism, working people normally have no representation and no real alternatives (and in the U.S. have never had their own mass party), the only means they have to attempt to vote for change is to throw NOVEMBER 2022

EDITORIAL

POLARIZED ELECTIONS PAVE WAY FOR DEEPER CRISIS OF U.S. CAPITALISM

them all out.

Biden Agenda Blocked The outcome of the balance of power in the Senate may have to wait until December, when a Georgia run-off election could be decisive for the second time in two years.

But regardless of whether or not Democrats manage to hold onto the Senate, the Biden agenda will be blocked by the anticipated House Republican majority. The huge divisions within the Republican Party will make for a deeply polarized and chaotic environment, but those differences will not help Biden because the one area of overwhelming agreement will be obstructing Biden’s already fractured agenda.

Ironically, the narrowness of the Republican majority likely points toward more chaos rather than less, because with a narrow

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis majority the hard right-wing Freedom Caucus will hold the balance of power. The Freedom Caucus will be unafraid to use its leverage – unlike the Squad, who have held the balance of power in the House for the last two years but effectively been whipped into line

by Biden and Pelosi.

The Squad has for two years held a historic opportunity to fight for the popular program they ran on – including a federal $15 minimum wage and Medicare for All – and they threw it away. Now the right wing will use its balance of power to pose as the defenders of working-class people. This is a dangerous development, which could further open the space for the growth of right-wing ideas in the absence of leadership from the left.

2024 Starts Now Much of the corporate media has concluded that the midterm elections represent

a defeat for Donald Trump.

The results are more mixed – though a number of high-profile Trump-endorsed candidates were voted down, others fared better, such as Sen. Chuck Grassley in Iowa, Eric Schmitt in Missouri, and J.D. Vance in Ohio.

Even the closeness of the Senate race in Georgia (and now run-off election) by disastrous Trump favorite, Herschel Walker, is a victory for Trump. And while the former president may have hurt the total Republican vote overall, the right wing made many advances with more than 210 “big lie” Republicans winning seats in the U.S. House and Senate and in high-profile state races. These advances confirm the tight grip that Trump maintains over the Republican Party.

Trump has been hinting for weeks that he’ll announce his run for the presidency in 2024 shortly after the midterms and he’s not about to pause for soul searching now – he’s projecting a formal announcement on November 15.

He will use his presidential run to further reinforce his hold over the party and go after any dissenters among the Republican leadership. Speculation that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a big winner in the midterm elections, might challenge Trump is unlikely to go anywhere. What’s more possible is a Liz Cheney independent run on behalf of the former Republican Party establishment, more to damage Trump than to have any real shot at winning the race.

Deep Crisis in Both Parties The deepening levels of division inside both parties come from the growing crisis of capitalism itself, and the inability of the ruling class to agree on any way forward. The adamant but predictable refusal of either party to present any solutions to the social and economic breakdown faced by tens of millions of people, as billionaires amass more increased riches, will continue to fuel historic discontent. This crisis of capitalist parties is a global phenomenon, as evidenced by the utter disarray in the British Tory Party.

With a worsening economic crisis, and a recession all but certain next year, the coming months don’t bode well for the Democrats. Biden may be able to fend off challengers in a Democratic primary, helped by the better-than-expected primary outcome, but that will not represent Democratic unity so much as fear of the party leadership of what

a wide-open primary could look like (Sanders or others could step in if Biden steps out).

Meanwhile the divisions in the GOP will likely be on full display as Kevin McCarthy attempts to preside over an emboldened Freedom Caucus and other forces in the House, and a potential for more organized rebellion by right-wing Republicans in the Senate.

As a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, said: “At the end of the day it doesn’t matter: one chamber, two chambers, if Republicans have control, the next 18 to 24 months in this country are going to be a new political hellscape unlike anything we’ve seen ever.”

While this turn for the worse looks likely to bear out, capitalist democracy is generally a “hellscape” for ordinary working people, as they normally have no representation under this system.

Newly elected PA Senator John Fetterman

“Commitment to America” What will Republicans do with their likely majority in the House? To begin with, the Republicans will likely move aggressively to block the Biden agenda. In the short term, this could well play to their benefit as Democrats are still seen as largely responsible for the crisis in the economy. However, in the medium and longer term, things will get harder for the GOP, and they will be forced to further articulate their own agenda.

There may be hints in the “Commitment to America” program advanced by presumed incoming House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy’s program is quite thin, especially compared to Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” (after which it appears to be named), but its main emphasis is calling for

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L ABOR

From the Organizing Committee of Unionize Amazon Northern Kentucky (KCVG)

would be by forming a union. We met almost daily after work to discuss the key demands, make decisions democratically, decide the next steps in the campaign, and formalize our independent group of coworkers.

The next step is to put forward our demands, launch our campaign to unionize our workplace, and begin seeking an existing union that is willing to collaborate with our organizing committee to collect union authorization cards.

Launching Unionize Amazon Northern Kentucky (KCVG)

In late September, Amazon announced that workers company-wide would not receive the expected $2 per hour “Peak Pay” increase during the period of breakneck pace over the holiday season. Since then, we’ve also learned that Amazon squandered billions on stock buybacks and failed investments.

In response, thousands of workers around the country took to Amazon’s “Voice of the Associate” board in outrage over Amazon’s insulting ‘cost-of-living’ raises, which were as low as $0.40/hr in some areas, essentially amounting to a pay cut given inflation. Workers here at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Air Hub, known to workers as KCVG, immediately started petitioning our coworkers for the raises we deserve.

We found that hundreds of our coworkers felt the same way, and in addition to the peak pay issue, workers began raising other demands about our workplace. On November 3, Amazon management assigned workers a weekly mandatory overtime (MET) shift from November 27 to December 23 during Peak Season, with only three weeks’ notice, leaving many workers to scramble over alternative plans for necessities like child care, second jobs, course schedules, etc.

A growing group of workers at the Northern Kentucky Air Hub, a $1.5 billion facility where Amazon packages are sent by plane across the country, began talking about how the only way to win any lasting change at Amazon

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Our most popular demand is for a $30/ hr starting wage. Amazon workers have made Jeff Bezos the third-richest man in the world.

On top of that, inflation has sent prices of basic necessities like gas, groceries, and rent through the roof. Winning $30/hr at Amazon KCVG would allow us to afford a better standard of living, and raise the expectations for all workers to fight for more.

In addition, workers are calling for 180 hours of paid time off, without a cap on accrued time. KCVG Learning Ambassador Steven Kelley said, “We’re working to live, not living to work. Amazon’s annual turnover rate is 150% because we’re running ground support equipment (GSE), supervising planeside operations, and training our coworkers without a real pay incentive. We deserve to be paid for those responsibilities and have real time off for ourselves and our families.”

Workers are also fighting for union representation at all disciplinary meetings. “Management selectively enforces the rules in our workplace to intimidate us,” said Annie Gilb, a ramp worker at KCVG. “With a union, we will have clear disciplinary standards, representation in every meeting with HR or management, legal resources, and a transparent process to address grievances.”

There are many other important demands around seniority, transparency, and safety that workers democratically discuss at our weekly meetings. We understand the importance of continuing to identify issues, especially from KCVG workers of different genders, ethnic or racial backgrounds, and job categories.

These demands are included in the campaign’s initial trifold leaflet, which includes Spanish and French translations to be accessible to the widest possible layer of workers at the facility, many of whom speak English as a second language. “In order to win a

union, we have to act like a union,” said Griffin Ritze, a cargo tug driver at KCVG. “Unions are built on clear demands like $30/hr, a basis of mutual respect and solidarity with our coworkers, and a willingness to take collective action to win.”

Taking On Amazon, A UnionBusting Giant Amazon is well aware of the public opinion polls that show 71% of workers support unions. That’s why the only way Amazon can succeed at stomping out a unionization effort is to lie, manipulate, and intimidate workers to vote against their own interests. Their union-busting apparatus pushed them to victory in the union elections in Staten Island, NY at the LDJ5 fulfillment center and in Albany, NY at ALB1.

KCVG workers know we need to get out ahead of Amazon’s union-busting operation.

“Amazon won’t explain that dues make our union strong by giving us the resources we need to win our demands and defend us from retaliation,” said Braeden Pierce, a ramp worker at KCVG. “We vote on the amount, which will always be much lower than the raise we win in a contract.”

Amazon can spend endless amounts of money on union-busting. We push back against this by pointing out that our union’s messaging and strategy at KCVG is decided democratically by workers ourselves. Amazon’s high-paid, professional consulting firms who come up with misleading anti-union lies are the real “third party.”

While Amazon viciously opposes unions, Amazon couldn’t operate without unionized labor. Amazon Air pilots are members of Teamsters 1224. Union labor builds Amazon’s warehouses. Unionized workers at UPS and the USPS handle a third of Amazon’s deliveries. These workers can directly support the struggle by refusing to cross picket lines and handle Amazon’s packages in the event of pickets, walkouts, and strike action.

“The second I learned about the organizing at the Air Hub, I immediately donated $1000 of my own salary to the cause,“ said

Ryan Timlin, the President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 and member of Socialist Alternative. “The rest of the labor movement needs to put real resources into supporting these workers too.”

Amazon’s Largest Air Hub Amazon Air was flying 187 daily flights as of March of 2022, doubling in size over the last two years. A third of the newest conversion of the 737 cargo jets have been purchased by Amazon. The development of major Air Hubs in Leipzig/Halle (Germany), San Bernardino, and Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky has positioned the company’s air freight network within 100 miles of 73% of the U.S. population and expanded their distribution in Europe.

Jeff Bezos personally broke ground on the KCVG Air Hub in 2019. The facility is intended to become the epicenter of Amazon’s air freight operations where their Network Control Center is headquartered.

Through completion of the site’s first phase of development, its current capacity is 33 planes, though it will eventually have enough aircraft parking for 100 cargo planes. For reference, the UPS Worldport in Louisville Kentucky has capacity for 125 planes.

New flights are being added every week.

Currently, this facility alone processes upwards to 35% of freight in Amazon’s network, with further development bringing the site’s share of volume upwards to 80%. The work we do here constitutes a huge amount of Amazon’s profits; this in turn gives us enormous leverage in organizing to win what we deserve.

“Being able to successfully win this campaign would give us the ability to help our fellow workers get the benefits they deserve.

It would give the workers the right to decide what is best for them,” said Jordan Martin, a ramp worker. “A victory at KCVG would inspire Amazon workers everywhere. We need as much support in this endeavor as possible and that’s why we’ll work as hard as we can to represent our coworkers.” J

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

L ABOR GENEVIEVE MORSE, BOSTON The labor movement is faced with unprecedented opportunities and challenges. Inflation continues to get worse and a looming economic collapse threatens workers’ already meager living standards. Corporations consistently use economic downturns as opportunities to make cuts to benefits and wages on the job. These attacks can radicalize working class people, giving unions a historic opportunity to organize.

Support for unions is at historic highs. It will be on labor leaders across the country to step up and fight against the corporations demanding working people pay for the next crisis.

In March 2022, the new leadership of the Teamsters took office. For many Teamsters, Sean O’Brien and Fred Zuckerman represented a changing of the guard away from the corrupt Hoffa-led regime that sold out members contract after contract. The O’Brien/Zuckerman slate won on the promise of a “team dedicated to rebuilding the Teamsters as a militant fighting union from bottom to top.”

This new leadership will be tested on one of the most important battlegrounds in the U.S. economy: logistics. They will be tasked with negotiating a new contract for the 350,000 Teamsters that work at UPS. Unfortunately, the Teamster leadership is already showing signs of buckling against the enormous pressure from the political establishment and big business. The only check on this would be to build a rank-and-file force capable of taking on both UPS and anyone else that stands in their way to get the best contract in decades in 2023.

Change We Can Believe In? O’Brien and Zuckerman were voted into office with the support of the reform caucus “Teamsters for a Democratic Union” (TDU), but O’Brien has deep historic ties with the corrupt and bureaucratic Hoffa leadership dating back to 2006. In 2013, Hoffa rewarded O’Brien for his loyalty by making him the lead negotiator for the UPS contract that year.

Members were overwhelmingly dissatisfied with this contract’s gains, or lack thereof, and voted 53% in favor to 47% against. O’Brien negotiated 18 additional “mini contracts’’ that were later voted down by members.

Zuckerman and O’Brien only joined forces when O’Brien began to get blocked by Hoffa on wanting to reach out to locals about issues in the upcoming contract. O’Brien saw this as an opportunity to join forces to take out Hoffa and form an alliance, not on a principled program of demands to create a more democratic and militant union, but to stop himself from getting iced out by Hoffa.

Today the O’Brien/Zuckerman alliance is built on a house of cards. Only 14.4% of the union voted in the election of the slate, which was the lowest turnout since 1991. Many old guard Hoffa loyalists are still present throughout the Teamsters. There has been no signal that the O’Brien/Zuckerman slate will continue the fight into every local, which is a critical task in reestablishing militancy in the Teamsters on a national level.

NOVEMBER 2022

Organizing Amazon Is The Key To UPS There have been a few signs that O’Brien does not actually plan to launch an all-out fight against UPS or big business as he’s promised. Organizing Amazon, a project the Teamsters have eyed for years now, has been put on the backburner in favor of focusing on the upcoming UPS contract.

The Teamsters have hired about a dozen or so staffers to begin the organizing project at Amazon. Although this is better than putting no resources into the campaign, it is totally insufficient for the scale of operations that would be needed to organize solid union drives at facilities across the country.

Where they have taken initiative, there’s a mistaken approach to organizing – most importantly, a failure to organize around bold, clear demands for the workplace. In a recent statement O’Brien said: “A union would give Amazon workers the voice on the job they need to make the company what it currently only pretends to be – one where shareholders do well because workers are doing well, not one where shareholders do well instead of workers doing well.”

This is framing a campaign to unionize Amazon as about making Amazon a good company to invest in, rather than making it about workers needing to fight for $30/hr to make Amazon a workplace where one can actually make a decent living.

Many labor leaders take a similar approach to organizing. They prioritize having a relationship with the bosses and following their lead, rather than fighting for what would most benefit workers. At the recent TDU conference, O’Brien told the room of hundreds of Teamsters that the future of logistics, particularly UPS, is a seven-day work week. In

should be a warning shot for the Teamsters and others who may want to fight for a better contract in the coming year. The question here is, will O’Brien and Zuckerman be willing to stand up to the Biden administration if it attempts to interfere with negotiations?

The answer is that it’s looking less likely by the day.

A national strike at UPS would have enormous implications for the U.S. and global economy. Approximately 3% of U.S. GDP goes through UPS and 6% through the Teamsters as a whole. With 1.2 million members, a shutdown of that size would become a political crisis for the U.S. ruling class and politicians from both parties. With the contract expiration happening in July of next year, the political pressure to cave in negotiations will be put squarely on the O’Brien leadership.

The leadership is talking out of both sides of their mouths already. In a recent post, Zuckerman was quoted saying, “We want to go to UPS and kick the shit out of them.”

However, when the Biden administration forced the Teamsters into arbitration to stop a strike of railroad workers, O’Brien “welcomed” Biden’s intervention, even though the vast majority of workers voted against the rotten compromise.

The greatest barrier to rebuilding a fighting labor movement is the union leadership’s reliance on and ties with the

ideas or former ties with Hoffa. Joe Allen and two TDU presidential candidates thought endorsing O’Brien was a mistake. This highlights what is the most troubling trend in Teamster politics, the long decline of Teamster reform caucuses, most notably the political retreat of TDU. It is one thing to critically support candidates, it is another to uncritically throw your lot in with them as TDU has done with O’Brien.

To keep a check on the business-union politics of O’Brien, a political transformation would need to take place inside the ranks of TDU. TDU could start this process tomorrow if they wanted. This should include making TDU much more open to new membership and adopting a clear program of demands to bring especially new members around them.

This needs to include mobilizing members of TDU to union meetings, putting forward ideas for the next UPS contract fight, such as $10/hr raises, an end to the two-tier system,

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE TEAMSTERS?

order to “keep up” with the times, members should be prepared for that reality.

Unions helping the boss, and in this case UPS, to “stay competitive” – i.e. reduce UPS wages to those of its non-union competitors – is a race to the bottom for workers. When big business believes the union won’t fight, they become bolder in their resolve to drive down wages, ignore the contract, and retaliate against workers that stand up for themselves.

It’s an ominous sign for the new O’Brien and Zuckerman administration, and should be a warning that rank-and-file workers will need to get organized.

Don’t Trust The Democrats The recent interference of the Biden administration into the railroad workers’ strike

Democratic Party – and this could be a key stumbling block for the new Teamster leadership in gearing up for a fight against UPS. Unions spend hundreds of millions of dollars in dues money each election cycle supporting big business candidates. Socialist Alternative members have been arguing that union dues should instead go to organizing the unorganized at Amazon, Starbucks, and other workplaces, and into strike funds to support workplace actions.

Who’s Co-Opting Whom?

Teamsters for a Democratic Union supported O’Brien and they have not acted as though they have any issues with his political

and an end to part time work.

At the TDU convention last month, members of Socialist Alternative were there putting forward the need for TDU to become a fighting political force in the Teamsters.

This means ending ties with Democratic politicians that never deliver, fighting for bold, clear demands, and preparing now for a strike in 2023. UPS and Amazon are used to getting their way because union leaderships across the country don’t believe their members can fight and win.

We need to strengthen TDU to become a real opposition to business-union politics by forming a socialist wing in the TDU. J

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WORLD EVENTS Thousands defy the government’s crackdown to march to the cemetery where Mahsa Amini is buried on Oct. 26, 2022.

WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM

IRAN IN REVOLT AGAINST BRUTAL REGIME

ERIN BRIGHTWELL, BAY AREA Women, young people, and workers are revolting against the repressive, misogynistic, and corrupt ruling regime in Iran. The mass movement began in mid-September in reaction to the horrific killing of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, a young Kurdish woman, by the socalled morality police for allegedly not wearing the hijab correctly.

The movement has taken up the slogan, “Women, Life, Freedom”, which originated with women activists in the fight for Kurdish liberation. Young women are at the forefront of this movement, which is demanding an end to state control of women’s bodies, an end to the repression and deadly violence against protesters, and an end to the regime itself.

Women’s Oppression In Iran Since the Iranian revolution of 1979 was stolen from the Iranian masses by the authoritarian theocratic regime headed by Ayatollah Khomeini, women have been once again relegated to second-class status. Gender segregation is standard in schools and many other settings, abortion is illegal, women are severely limited from accessing divorce, and

Washington, DC

they must obtain permission from their husband or father to travel abroad.

Women face frighteningly restrictive and dangerous conditions in Iran, but certain recent societal trends have contributed to women developing more confidence to fight back. The Iranian population is becoming more urbanized, and more women are attending university and working outside the home.

For the last 20 years, women have outnumbered men in Iranian universities.

This is not the first time that the requirement to wear the hijab sparked mass

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protests. In 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini decreed that women must wear the hijab on March 8, International Women’s Day, when women activists had already planned demonstrations.

Seven days of protests ensued, with women sometimes having to defend themselves from reactionary religious men who physically attacked protesters on the streets. Protesters chanted, “We didn’t have a revolution to go backwards!” The decree was rescinded as the new regime struggled to assert itself, but two years later the requirement to wear a hijab was firmly re-established.

Today the hijab is a symbol of the state’s oppression of women, and women have been publicly burning their hijabs in the streets in protest. Protests developed rapidly following news of the death of Jina Amini in the Kurdish region of Iran where she was from, and then in Tehran. Soon, protests spread to cities all across the country, including in some cities that have traditionally been highly religious bastions of support for the regime.

Solidarity Spreading Widely Students have energetically joined the protests, and pictures and videos have gone viral worldwide, such as the one showing a

Berlin

group of young school students giving the middle finger to “Islamic Republic” written on the blackboard.

Workers have also joined the protest movement, going on strike and closing retail shops, schools, and factories. Importantly, oil workers have initiated some strikes, shutting refineries and threatening the flow of profits from Iran’s dominant export. The determination and fearlessness of protesters and their uncompromising demand to end the rule of the Ayatollah, the spread of protests across the country, and the development of strikes

as part of the movement – all of these factors mean that the Iranian regime is facing the biggest threat to its rule since it first took power.

Several large protest movements have developed in Iran over the last 15 years which pushed the regime to further consolidate itself around religious hardliners. In the 2019 presidential election, more moderate candidates were removed from the ballot, ensuring that Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner with a reputation for brutality, would become the next president. Raisi’s rule has been marked by cracking down further on women’s rights and social freedoms. These actions are in sharp contrast to the consciousness of big sections of Iranians, especially youth, many of whom are connected to the experiences of young people in other countries through social media and who reject the restrictions on personal freedom imposed by the regime.

Underlying the resolve of the protest movement and the demand to overthrow the Islamic Republic regime is the increasingly dire economic situation of working class and middle class people. Particularly after Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2019 and imposed punishing economic sanctions, Iranians have faced unemployment, a sinking currency, and out-of-control inflation.

Young women are at the forefront of this movement, demanding an end to state control of women’s bodies, an end to the repression and deadly violence against protesters, and an end to the regime itself.

It’s now estimated that 60% of the population is living at or below the poverty line.

Young people face extremely high unemployment, and are often unable to move out of their parents’ homes or start families. As one protester said, “There’s just too many people with nothing to lose now.”

Taking On The Regime In contrast, the ruling regime in Iran, including the battle-hardened Revolutionary Guards, an organized force of hundreds of

thousands, has everything to lose. Significant sections of the economy are controlled by the so-called Revolutionary Guards, reaping the profit that the Iranian working class produces.

With protests continuing to flare up, most recently to mark the 40th day since Amini died, the regime has few choices, and has not made any move to offer concessions to the movement. Instead, police and the Basij, the paramilitary wing of the Revolutionary Guards, have killed hundreds of protesters and arrested thousands. Recently, the regime has begun to bring arrested protesters and other political prisoners to trial, and on November 8 the Iranian Parliament voted overwhelmingly to to impose the death penalty on all 15,000 protesters in custody.

Struggling to control continued protests, the regime is buckling down with even more bloodshed in an attempt to stifle the movement through violence and fear.

There is an urgent need for Iranian workers and youth to rapidly build organizations to coordinate a revolutionary fight against the regime, under the democratic control of workers and students themselves. Neither the return of the pro-Western monarchy that was defeated by the revolutionary movement in 1979, nor liberal pro-capitalist figures offer

Istanbul

a way forward for the Iranian masses. Ultimately, any and every capitalist force vying for power in Iran is focused on control of the flow of profits from the oil industry, and will use the most brutal repression to put down revolutionary threats.

The liberation of women in Iran and the liberation of Iran’s minority groups like the Kurds would require a transformation of society along socialist lines to democratically run the economy for the benefit of the entire working class, and to put an end to division and oppression. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

WORLD EVENTS

CHILE REJECTS NEW CONSTITUTION

VILMA ÁLVAREZ & FERNANDO LACERDA, ISA IN CHILE On September 4, more than 15 million Chileans voted in the referendum on the approval of a new Constitution. However, more than 61% of Chileans voted “Rechazo” – to reject the new draft. This means maintaining the current text of the Constitution, created during the Pinochet dictatorship and representing the beginning of neoliberalism in Chile.

The result surprised much of the left that were betting on the victory of the “Apruebo” (approval), since Pinochet’s Constitution had been harshly repudiated by the massive rebellions that began on October 18, 2019. The victory of the Rejection vote represents a boost to the Chilean right, and a defeat for the government and political coalition of current President Gabriel Boric. Unfortunately, Boric’s government prioritized agreements with the right wing while crafting the new constitution, as opposed to building a campaign on the streets to win a victory for Approval.

The defeat of the Approval campaign opens a new moment in the political conflicts that began in 2019. For the right, the victory of the Rejection means an opportunity to intensify their attacks against the working class. For the Boric government, the defeat has been interpreted as a sign that further concessions to the right-wing sectors are necessary. For the socialist and revolutionary left, the result of the referendum signified an expression of the political limits of what happened after the social explosion of 2019.

Understanding the result of the September 4 referendum is crucial for the entire working class in Chile and for evaluating the perspectives for struggle.

Why Did The Rejection Vote Win? The victory of the Rejection does not mean that Chilean people defend the Pinochet constitution. As Marxists, we know that referendums and elections express the consciousness of the masses, but often in a contradictory way. Contrary to what some claim, the result does not indicate a turn to the right in mass consciousness. Rather it expresses a rejection of the limits of class conciliation.

This conciliation was carried out by the Boric government and its political coalition, formed by the alliance between parties of Apruebo Dignidad and Socialismo Democrático.

For us, the reasons for the victory of the Rejection campaign are related to the absence of the mass organizations of the left in Chile and the limits of the text of the New Constitution itself. As we have pointed out previously, the proposed Constitution approved by the majority of the Constitutional Convention (CC) was profoundly limited, and did not point NOVEMBER 2022

REIGNITE THE POPULAR STRUGGLE!

Graffiti in Santiago on Oct. 23, two days before the referendum to draft a new constitution. This draft was later rejected by the Sep. 4 referendum.

to real and meaningful changes in the current political and economic system in Chile. Its content did not represent the demands of the revolutionary masses of 2019 and, for that reason, workers and youth were not attracted to the case for Approval.

Initially, the Chilean masses took to the streets on October 18 to fight the neoliberal measures of the Sebastián Piñera government and, within a few weeks, the struggles deepened politically: a successful general strike was held on November 12, in which the working class demanded the end of neoliberalism, real changes in the economy, and a sovereign Constituent Assembly.

Unfortunately, the so-called “Peace Accords” of November 15, 2019 – signed and imposed from the top down by all the parties (including Frente Amplio, Boric’s party) – tried to institutionalize and control the popular struggle. The ruling class feared a new general strike, and the development of a genuine revolutionary situation.

After the November 15 agreements, we saw the victory of independent left groupings in the election of delegates to the Constituent Convention in May 2021, and the victory of Gabriel Boric against a representative of the reactionary right in the 2021 general elections. However, both the constituent delegates and the new Chilean government adopted a policy of class conciliation, aimed at maintaining “political stability”.

Since then, the living conditions of the working class have worsened considerably: in addition to a pandemic that punished the poorest sections of society, there has been massive inflation and rising food prices. The gradual

deterioration of living conditions means that the working class will only support policies that produce real changes – and this was not offered by the new constitutional text.

The new constitution offered fine words on social welfare, women’s rights, indigenous peoples’ rights and others, but without defining concrete measures to make those rights a reality. The text did not present any proposal to make the necessary economic changes to reduce the alarming social inequality in Chile. Although the CC text made progress in proposing the legalization of abortion, it did not present a single concrete proposal for the building of a free public healthcare system. Similarly, the text did not propose the nationalization of copper and other natural resources in Chile, and in fact guaranteed the maintenance of private sector participation in the exploitation of Chile’s natural resources.

In other words, the text approved by the CC did not address the demands that arose in the struggles that began on October 18.

It is true that the victory of the Rejection is a victory of the right – but this was only possible because the center-left has only acted to save the capitalist system, and not to offer a real alternative.

After The Rechazo The victory of Rechazo was first and foremost a defeat for the coalition that today governs the country. For the right wing, the victory of Rejection means an opportunity to rescue old projects that represent the political and economic interests of imperialism and big business.

In this context, the attempt to approve a free-trade agreement between 11 AsiaPacific countries, known as TPP-11, has resumed. The treaty proposes not only the opening of markets and the implementation of trade, environmental, and technological agreements between the countries involved but it also contains attacks like eroding labor rights and deepening the exploitation of Chile’s natural resources by international finance capital.

If Chile approves the TPP-11, the taxation of foreign products and the control of transnational corporations will practically disappear. This means opening greater opportunities for international agribusiness companies to freely appropriate Chilean natural resources.

The process of Boric and Frente Amplio’s capitulation to the maintenance of the capitalist order is expressed in state repression.

From day one, the Chilean riot police and the armed forces have acted freely in their violent repression against protesters. Boric not only failed to release Piñera’s political prisoners, but maintained the repressive policy of previous governments. Recently, the Boric government contributed to the arrest of Hector Llaitul, a representative of the Mapuche people. ISA Chile stands for the release of all political prisoners of Piñera and Boric.

Build a Socialist Alternative!

The situation in Chile continues to be explosive. There is still a deep social unrest created by the inequality in Chile. The working class has been facing an accelerated process of worsening living conditions. All responsibility for the defeats suffered recently falls on the policy of class conciliation by Gabriel Boric and his coalition.

The worsening of social conditions and Boric’s successive capitulations to the interests of financial capital may be answered in the future with a new wave of demonstrations and strikes. A few days after the defeat of the new constitution, the streets of Santiago were occupied by students demonstrating for their rights, in addition to raising fundamental slogans such as: the release of political prisoners, against the TPP-11, and for a sovereign constituent assembly.

On September 22, as part of a day of homage to the union leaders assassinated by the Pinochet dictatorship, a national strike of the ports in Chile was held. These are signs of what’s to come. Only the revival of struggle will be able to reverse the growing process of Boric’s capitulation to capital and prevent the growth of the extreme-right in the next period. However, this requires that the Chilean working class and youth be armed with a program capable of burying neoliberalism and what remains of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile once and for all. J

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THE RIGHT-WING WAR ON TRANS YOUTH what’s behind it and the strategy to fight back

GREYSON VAN ARSDALE, CHICAGO

A

t the end of October, two Florida public health boards voted in favor of new guidelines that, if accepted, will have a devastating impact on transgender youth in the state. Not only would these new guidelines ban gender-affirming health care for minors, they would also pull existing treatments for young trans patients, forcibly detransitioning them.

The public hearing for these guidelines was stacked against trans youth, with proponents of the ban given the floor first. “Experts” in testimony gave blatant misinformation, such as the outrageous unfounded claim that 90% of transgender teenagers end up detransitioning. Vice News reported in August that 10 researchers whose work was cited in the Florida guidelines say that their research was misinterpreted or distorted to justify the ban.

Just since 2020, 18 states passed laws mandating that trans students only play on sports teams corresponding with their sex at birth. This year, two states have passed bans on gender-affirming health care (including surgeries, which are rare for minors, as well as the more common treatments of puberty blockers and hormone therapy). Some right-wing governors have taken even more draconian action, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pulling coverage for gender-affirming care from the state’s Medicaid, and Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott ordering the state’s DHS to investigate parents of transgender kids for child abuse.

For transgender people, it feels like there’s a war on our very existence. Exacerbating this feeling of terror is the fact that Democrats have consistently melted in the face of the right wing’s anti-trans fervor rather than posing any real resistance.

In June, President Biden released an executive order that he claimed would take steps to enhance access to gender-affirming care for trans youth. In reality, the order did little more than request sample policies from

8

different federal departments for examples of inclusive state legislation. The issue, of course, is not that Republicans don’t know how to write laws that increase safety for trans people – it’s that they oppose that safety altogether.

“My message to all the young people: Just be you,” Biden said at the signing of the executive order, clearly aiming to win an award for missing the point. “You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. You do belong.”

What’s at stake for transgender people is not a feeling of belonging. The right wing, as it mounts a frenzied culture war to politically dominate a chaotic and unstable era, is increasingly limiting transgender people’s access to healthcare and even moving forward to limiting aspects of self-expression.

Queer youth have not taken this lying down. This year there have been encouraging walkouts of increasing size in states like Florida and Virginia against these attacks. But to turn the tide on the Republican onslaught the movement to defend queer youth and marginalized people must be hundreds of times bigger and armed with a fighting strategy. How do we get there, what caused this situation in the first place, and how can we win a safe future for queer people?

The Culture War Targeting Trans Kids Anti-trans sentiment in this moment has taken on a foaming-at-the-mouth quality that seems nigh impossible to reason with, and undeniably scary as a result. But while the transphobic culture war is particularly acute right now, it is only one part of a broader phenomenon – one that has concrete causes, and can be fought and defeated.

Over the last several years, the right-wing cultural firestorm has taken aim not just at transgender young people, but at a multitude of issues that Republican politicians and news outlets have selected. For the better part of a year, Fox News ran endless stories railing against “critical race theory” being taught in schools. By now, seven states have banned CRT in school curricula.

In an era marked by the ravages of COVID, the destruction of climate change, and the ever-increasing cost of living, the Republicans don’t have to campaign on solutions if they can instead campaign on fear mongering. This relentless pandering to sections of the core reactionary base of the Republican Party has been key

to their electoral turnout strategy.

Three major factors have turbo-charged this wave of attacks on trans rights: left movements’ recent failures to win concrete victories, extreme social dislocation which leaves people vulnerable to right-wing fear mongering about “traditional American values,” and the reactionary right’s jockeying for full control of the Republican Party.

Left Movements Undermined In 2020, working-class and young people poured into the streets in the largest protest movement the country has ever seen: the Justice for George Floyd movement. This movement reflected a deep anger within U.S. society at racist police brutality and the hostility of the justice system, and demonstrated huge multi-racial solidarity against anti-Black racism. It also took the form of a more general youth revolt against inequality.

Crucially, the movement went beyond demanding minor reforms like those that were characteristic of earlier forms of the BLM movement, like body cameras. It drew more far-reaching conclusions about capitalism’s allocation of resources to police, with an atrocious share of taxpayer dollars going to police departments to the detriment of desperately needed social services like school funding, affordable housing, and COVID relief.

But without any grassroots organizational structure and without any consolidated political form, the movement’s demands were placed in the hands of the Democrats, who were all too happy to echo slogans of the movement to capitalize on mass fury for votes. Meanwhile, the same Democrats who controlled (and still control) most of the country’s major cities, kettled and tear-gassed protesters.

Democrats did not levy their power to wage an allout war on racist police brutality, to tax the rich to fund affordable housing and necessary community services.

Virtually every Democrat who postured as a “BLM ally” in 2020 has canned their promises to take measures to curb police violence, and in most cities they have introduced major increases in police budgets.

In other words, despite taking up hollow “woke” antiracist slogans, the Democratic Party tossed aside the demands of the biggest protest movement in U.S. history, and the movement didn’t have the structures necessary to stay upright.

In a similar vein, instead of taking on the Supreme Court with mass protests akin to the ones that won Roe

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

v. Wade in the first place, Democrats diverted that energy to the midterms, a dead-end for the goal of winning back abortion rights. By taking up struggles against oppression in words (like Biden using the term “Latinx”) and then doing absolutely nothing to fight oppression (like Biden deporting and detaining more people in his first year than Trump), they actually make a mockery of these very struggles.

This continual demobilizing of people fighting to win progressive demands is a massive boost for the forces of right-wing reaction.

While a majority of people support progressive measures like abortion rights, if their path forward to win those things is constantly undermined, the right is left with all the momentum.

For exactly this reason, queer student activists should be wary of Democratic Party groups and NGOs that will seek to corral momentum into acceptable channels.

displayed over abortion rights. Even as many sympathetic straight and cis students. Large Republicans crowed about the overturning of walkouts in Florida and Virginia show just how Roe v. Wade, the party’s top strategists were many young people are willing to go to the mat panicking – the right to abortion is popular, for queer rights. and 60% of people opposed the decision to In order for this resistance to grow and overturn Roe. Many Republicans immediately spread, these student organizations and dempivoted away from hardline stances against onstrations need to build out a broader moveabortion, seeing it as a threat to their electoral ment not just among students, but among chances. But the insurgent reactionary right working-class people generally and organized doesn’t see the same threat present in attack- labor. ing trans rights.

The right-wing culture war firestorm surThe result of these three factors is a dire rounding queer youth has also swept up teachsituation. A reactionary wing of politicians and pundits believe wholesale attacking the rights of queer people is a road to electoral Safety At Work And School! power. A section of the populace is vulnerable to divisive rhetoric as a A union in every workplace – common result of distrust sown by decades struggle is our best defense against of establishment failure to serve attacks from the bosses and the right

of wanting fair wages, as the Supreme Court prepares to potentially gut labor laws alongside anti-discrimination protections, the need for a unified movement is more present than ever.

Labor unions should endorse, build, and mobilize to walkouts and demonstrations against these discriminatory attacks. We need a common program to fight anti-trans hysteria and protect the jobs and livelihoods of workingclass people caught up in the right wing’s culture war.

We also need to use the tactics of the labor movement – strikes, pickets, and mass demonstrations – to put a halt to these reactionary attacks. Mass action is the best antidote to rightwing momentum. Student groups fighting attacks on trans youth should coordinate a national day of action around a common program, and labor unions and left organizaBuild fighting student organizations tions should mobilize to build these to protect marginalized students from mass demonstrations. harassment and discrimination Crucially, working-class people and queer and marginalized people broadly need a political party of our Free Healthcare For All! own based on this method of strugNo one should go bankrupt from medical gle. The Democratic Party has spent care – tax the rich to fund single-payer & take decades undermining our moveour health out of the hands of the bosses ments and wholeheartedly serves big business, putting their interest Free and accessible genderdecisively at odds with the interests affirming and reproductive care of workers and queer people. While there are well-meaning queer activLegal Recognition & Equal Rights! ists who pursue a path to change Trans people have the right to use our within the Democratic Party, this chosen names, chosen pronouns, and effort would be much better served participate in activities corresponding to our building an independent party gender identity, at work and at school accountable to our movement, one run by and for working-class people.

Protect trans people from

Social Dislocation Ordinary people are facing a crisis of social dislocation. Trust in major U.S. institutions has been on the decline for some time. In 2022, Gallup reports only 7% of people have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress. The presidency, the criminal justice system, and banks have all seen precipitous drops in support in the last several decades.

There is a general sense among people that society is in crisis. The 2008 financial crisis kicked off a tornado of world and U.S. events that have been enormously destabilizing.

Just the last several years we’ve seen enough instability to fill 100 years.

In this context, right-wing politicians, pundits, and news outlets have done what they’ve done for nearly a century: find an enemy.

The right’s survival depends on their ability to tap into social isolation and direct it away from any sort of united struggle against the system.

They’ve done this by scapegoating different groups who they can position as threatening “our way of life.” In the past they’ve pointed to feminists, gays and lesbians, Black radicals, immigrants, communists, and Jewish people, and now their primary target is the trans community.

The weakness of the labor movement in actively taking up struggles against oppression contributes to the ability of these ideas to take hold.

Republicans’ Strategy War This feeling of crisis is a huge boon for the “X factor” driving this wave of attacks – insurgent Republicans, who are vying for full control of their party. While the GOP as a whole has been transformed by Trump, there are still figures like McConnell who, while having no moral or political opposition to these attacks on marginalized people, see this strategy as potentially dangerous to the Republican Party and to capitalism more generally. The insurgent reactionary right don’t see these risks and aim to use their scapegoating strategy not just for electoral success, but to supplant the more restrained characters in the Republican Party.

This difference in strategy was clearly

NOVEMBER 2022

discrimination in healthcare, housing, employment, and public spaces Legalize abortion across the country

A Party For Our Interests!

Democrats have stood by for decades while queer rights balance on a knife’s edge. Workers, young people, and the marginalized need a party that fights for us Build a new party independent from corporate money, accountable to the movement

the needs of working people. Meanwhile, the opposition party at best ignores attacks on trans people and at worst sells out movements that could decisively break the momentum of the right wing.

The Antidote To Right-Wing Hysteria Even with the anti-trans wave thoroughly demystified, these forces still seem larger than life. The reactionary right is moving quickly, and the Republican Party broadly is making no effort to scale back the rhetoric, like they have on unpopular abortion bans.

Queer students have provided an admirable lead fighting these attacks in “red states,” and have been joined by large groups of

ers and nurses – many of them queer and trans themselves – in its wake. Anti-trans and anti-CRT bills have targeted what teachers can include in curriculum, and healthcare providers like nurses are being targeted for providing the services required by their patients. In both cases, the right wing has relentlessly politicized and polarized the act of educators and healthcare providers just doing their jobs.

But attacks on the rights of transgender people also signal something fundamental at risk for the working class broadly. The ease with which transgender workers and students can be legally discriminated against, our healthcare and even rights to use public spaces stripped from us, demonstrates how little is protecting cisgender and straight people who threaten the status quo as well. As corporations fire trans and cis employees alike for the crime

Building The Common Struggle Since before even the Stonewall era, queer and trans people have had to grapple with what kind of approach and strategy it takes to defend our existence. Like the labor movement and the Civil Rights movement, no advancements in our standing in society have been given freely by the system – we’ve had to fight for every one.

For exactly this reason, it would be a mistake to limit ourselves to an approach that’s acceptable to the establishment.

Queer rights are a working-class issue, and it’s the methods of working-class struggle and solidarity that show us how to move forward and win. A united program for the rights of queer and trans people stands not just to defend us from the right wing, but to win improvements to the lives of all working-class people.

This common struggle points toward what is ultimately necessary to win a world where our rights aren’t constantly at risk. Autonomy over our bodies, safety in public spaces, free and accessible healthcare, high-quality and affordable housing, safe workplaces and living wages – this is the reality that queer and transgender people are desperately seeking, but it is also the world that the working class has long been denied. In the face of the capitalist system that is determined to keep that world from us, we owe it to ourselves to build the movement necessary to win a socialist world. J

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H E A LT H C A R E

WHAT HAPPENED TO MEDICARE FOR ALL? So why is it that after two and a half years of a health care crisis, and with a Democratic majority in D.C., Bernie and other progressives have dropped any real struggle for Medicare for All? T h e answer, sadly, is simple: they are protecting Joe Biden and the Democratic establishment. They know that fighting for Medicare for All, or a host of other progressive measures, would require a struggle against the leaders of their own party who are tied by a thousand threads to Big Pharma and the insurance giants.

A Timeline Of Betrayals From Progressives

KEELY MULLEN, CHICAGO For the American working class, navigating the for-profit maze of insurers, providers, pharmacies, and clinics is enough to make you sick. Bernie Sanders’ promise that he’d fight for Medicare for All was one of the key things that drew millions of people into his campaigns in 2016 and 2020.

A universal, high-quality health care system seems like a no-brainer. In 2020, 69% of voters supported Medicare for All. And this was only one month into the pandemic which exposed the deep rot at the core of our existing for-profit system.

Despite popular support, corporate politicians of both parties agree and have consistently attacked, blocked, and ignored proposals for Medicare for All.

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Two years ago, in the summer of 2020, after dropping out of the race for President, Bernie Sanders teamed up with Joe Biden to come up with a “united, bold vision” for the Democratic Party. The goal of the “Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force,” according to Bernie, was to “move the Biden campaign into as progressive a direction as possible.”

Out of this task force came a 110-page policy wish list that became the basis for Bernie’s proclamation that Joe Biden could be the next FDR. Months before this, on March 10, 2020, just three days before lockdowns cascaded across the country, Biden signaled to the health care industry that he’d protect their profits and, if elected, he would veto any Medicare for All legislation that reached his desk. Bernie, on the other hand, was proposing making it illegal to sell any private health insurance that covered benefits offered by a Medicare for All system.

So what did these political rivals manage to agree to in their Unity Task Force? A public option for health care. This was a major climbdown for Bernie Sanders, but was also an admission from Biden that the Obama-era Affordable Care Act – which the New York Times described as “the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality” in decades – was deeply insufficient.

While a far cry from Medicare for All, winning a public option as it was laid out in the task force’s recommendations would provide some real relief to working people.

What was the price to be paid for this concession from Biden? Bernie would, going forward, only talk about Medicare for All in hushed whispers if at all.

This was a tragic foreshadowing of Bernie’s (and the Squad’s) approach to Biden and the Democratic establishment for the following two years.

Medicare For All’s Great Disappearance After the 2020 elections, progressives made a fatal calculation that they could trade in their campaign for Medicare for All in exchange for victories on other fronts. They broadly stopped talking about Medicare for All, they didn’t support the grassroots marches for M4A in July 2021, and Bernie introduced his Medicare for All Act of 2022 with little more than a press release and a tweet.

The problem is that those victories never came. The public option never came. Lowering the Medicare eligibility age never came. And neither did a $15 an hour minimum wage, a tax on the rich, a Green New Deal, universal childcare, or paid family leave.

If the starting point was Medicare for All, and the end point is that the biggest healthcare “victory” won under Biden was that starting in 2026 Medicare can directly negotiate the prices of 10 drugs, we have to evaluate why the left failed so badly.

The Biden-Bernie agreement to support a public health care option quickly became irrelevant after Biden took office.

Rather than hold Biden’s feet to the fire on even this limited promise, Bernie and the Squad set their sights lower and lower, instead focusing on the demand to lower the Medicare eligibility rate.

Now, to be fair, lowering the eligibility rate would be a win – it would be a legitimate life saver for many Americans

continued on p.14

STILL LIVING WITH COVID In September, President Biden gave 60 Minutes the sound bite that rang across the world.

“The pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.”

Profit Over Science In the run-up to the 2020 election, one of Biden’s main offensive points was on Trump’s criminal mishandling of the pandemic, emphasizing that his approach would be driven by science.

But while the campaign to vaccinate Americans started strong in early 2021, it did not stay that way. The ‘get shots in arms’ campaign hit a wall by the end of 2021, as federal funding ran dry. While 79% of people got one dose of the vaccine, only 68% are considered ‘fully vaccinated’ – and just 33% got a booster.

Though Biden emphasized a “science-backed approach” on the campaign trail, his administration has abjectly failed to live up to that standard.

The issue is not a lack of guidance from experts, but that the Biden administration has sublimated public health to the goal of maintaining the profits of the very few, just as his predecessor did.

Early on in vaccine distribution, Biden refused to open U.S. vaccine patents so the lifesaving medicine could be shared with the world, a decision that nakedly only benefits massive pharmaceutical corporations. Now, instead of waging a public campaign to get people booster shots before winter, the steady drumbeat from the Biden administration has been the nebulous goal of “learning to live with COVID.”

What Does “Living With COVID” Look Like?

Uninsured people in the U.S. will have to pay out of pocket for vaccines, perhaps over $100 per shot, and over $120 on average for PCR tests. This is a recipe for disaster for the poor, and makes the ideal of “everyone getting COVID boosters yearly” a laughable prospect under the conditions of for-profit healthcare.

A situation wherein working-class people are expected to shoulder the immense burden of trying not to get COVID, while the virus gets more and more transmissible and the government cuts funding for necessary public health services, is unacceptable. Though we will undoubtedly have to figure out how to shoulder an endemic version of COVID for a long period of time, doing so on the terms set by capitalist politicians will prove devastating.

Medicare for All is the starting point for fighting back against COVID and the future pandemics that will likely be thrown at us, as it is the only basis on which working-class people will be able to access the vaccines, boosters, and testing to protect ourselves and our communities.

We also urgently need to invest in public health infrastructure, expanding hospital capacity, and incentivizing more people to become healthcare workers.

At every turn, the capitalist politicians of the U.S. have prioritized the short-term gains of the wealthiest people on Earth over the medium- and long-term needs of public health. Working people deserve better. To finally live in a world where our health is not mortgaged for the interests of the wealthy few, we’ll have to win it ourselves. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

COP27: BURNING DAYLIGHT MEAGHAN MURRAY, MINNEAPOLIS

someone else’s problem. COP27 is no different.

The annual United Nations climate conference, the Conference of Parties (COP), is entering its 27th year with little to show for it. Since COP21, when political elites just barely agreed to goals to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, exactly zero of the 40 goals set by the World Resources Institute have gotten “on track” to stop warming before the 1.5° goal.

It’s been so ineffective that climate activist Greta Thunberg has pledged to not attend this year’s summit, putting “greenwashing” politicians and corporations on blast and instead arguing that COP is “not really meant to change the whole system… so as it is, [COP’s] not really working, unless of course we use [it] as an opportunity to mobilize.”

Location, Location, Location

War Puts Climate on the Back Burner Hundreds of thousands did mobilize for historic demonstrations at COP26 last year, to which International Socialist Alternative sent a 300-strong socialist delegation, but UN diplomats and “climate czars” like John Kerry will never be the ones leading the protests. In fact, he and other political leaders have used the war in Ukraine as an excuse for why they can’t get anything done.

The geopolitical mess following Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, and the involvement of NATO, the U.S., and China has sent governments’ climate goals into a tailspin. With Russia cutting natural gas flows to Europe and gas prices skyrocketing, the E.U. and many neo-colonial countries are resorting to a different dirty energy source this winter: coal.

After decades of wasted time, no region is fully ready to flip the switch from natural gas to renewables. U.S., Russian, and Chinese imperialism is affecting working people around the world on multiple fronts with war, inflation, oil companies making record profits, the subsequent energy crisis, and their staunch unwillingness to transition to green energy.

Amid these crises, extreme weather events will continue.

The world’s poor and working class are paying the cost for ruling class inaction.

Our Planet, Not Their Profits A conference of the world’s political and economic elite will not face up to the reality: we need system change. We live in a capitalist system that runs on waste and destruction, and can never be expected to spare an inch of the Earth so long as there’s a dollar of profit to be made. To tackle climate change would mean tackling capitalism.

The billionaire class and its politicians won’t do that. So instead, they burn daylight for two weeks. Leaders congratulate themselves for creating benchmarks – not even meeting them – and the proposals coming out of the meetings are watered down and greenwashed. The goal of the last 26 COPs has been to kick the can down the road until it’s

NOVEMBER 2022

C L I M AT E

(AND FOSSIL FUELS)

measures need to be taken to protect people from the disasters brought on by warming, this is clearly a way of avoiding the kind of drastic action that’s necessary to reduce emissions. The UN, and pretty much all the world’s major leaders seem content to take a “one step forward, two steps back” approach until it has us all walking underwater.

While Egypt has committed to converting all gasoline-run buses in its major cities to electric (with some powered by natural gas) in 2015, Egypt received $12 billion from BP, one of the biggest polluters on the planet, to build a new capital city. In return, BP was able to launch new natural gas projects in the country. And a major sponsor of COP27? Coca Cola, one of the largest plastic producers in the world.

COP27 is already saying it louder than any previous conference – capitalism has no solution to climate change. The task of building a movement capable of taking the world out of the hands of fossil fuel companies and the rich falls to us, the working class and young people. J

COP27 is taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, a resort city cradled by the Sinai desert and Egypt’s Red Sea coast. The event has a designated “protest area” – in the middle of the desert, far away from the conference center and all the action.

Sharm el-Sheikh has a population of just 12,000 people.

Why isn’t Cairo, the country’s capital, the host? Why not Giza or Alexandria? Because there’s a greater chance for “civil disruptions” in those locations – everyday Egyptians and climate activists could organize.

Last November, ISA members were among 100,000 protesters in the streets of Glasgow. We chanted “climate struggle is class struggle” and “our planet, not their profits,” marching as a socialist contingent. But this November, COP’s happening in a “climate criminal sanctuary” made up of luxury resort hotels and government officials’ estates, connected by big, wide highways.

Hiding from their complete lack of action, global leaders are curtailing protest as cover.

Security around Sharm elSheikh has ramped up too, and Protestors are throwing mashed COP27 is expected to be the potatoes at Monet paintings, smashing most heavily-surveilled COP in pie into wax statues at Madame Tushistory. This, coupled with the sauds, and gluing themselves to walls country’s decade-long ban on at national galleries. Stunts like these public protest, will make any have become more and more common mobilization efforts extremely in the past few years as the climate difficult. movement has struggled to cohere

MASHED POTATO MONETS WON’T SAVE THE WORLD

The Bar Is On The Floor The conference kicked off on November 6, but the media was already downplaying its expectations. 2021’s results were so pathetic, COP26’s president cried about their failure to deliver in his closing remarks.

While COP26 was described as “the most exclusive COP yet,” COP27 is poised to break that record. One participant said it was billed to them “as a lovely vacation at all-inclusive resorts – you’d think we were going on a dream holiday.”

The theme this year, President El-Sisi says, is “mitigation, adaptation, and climate finance.” While serious

WE NEED MASS ACTION TO STOP THE CLIMATE CRISIS

was a big mistake and contributed to the sense among some young people that collective action is just not on the cards. For some of them, it seems the only options left are individual publicity stunts and isolated acts of civil disobedience.

itself into a united force.

Why We Need Mass Are these stunts enough to shake world leaders into acting? Or will we Movement Tactics need a different type of movement Ending society’s crippling reliance altogether? on dirty energy, the minimum required to slow the destruction caused by climate change, will require the conscious Why Are They Doing This? participation of millions of people. Like Over the years, young people have all transformative change that has come been given the run around by the politi- before it, winning an immediate green cal elite and billionaire-backed non- transition will require a mass moveprofits. They’ve been told to trust that ment. The tactics we use now should there are adults looking out for their be determined with this in mind. It is future: politicians, philanthropists, clearly in the interests of all of humaneven CEOs. But with hurricanes, floods, ity to slow the worst effects of global fires, and freezes getting worse – they warming, so how can we bring millions are rightfully starting to wonder who the of working people into this fight? hell is in charge?

First and foremost we need to make Many young people have turned away clear that climate destruction is not from the traditional environmental non- caused by irresponsible individuals but profits like the Sierra Club and Green- by a system that puts profit above all peace. They correctly see these orga- else. Our movement should not take nizations as toothless lobbying groups, aim at other working people, like the fundamentally unwilling to break with Tyre Extinguishers have done in counfossil-fuel backed politicians. tries around the world, deflating the Before COVID, young people were tires of regular people’s cars. organizing vibrant student walkouts We need a climate movement based demanding an immediate transition to on the collective action of young and renewable energy. But rolling COVID working class people. A starting point lockdowns had kids out of school for in this project would be the creation of over a year, taking the wind out of the youth climate organizations with demosails of climate walkouts. This left the cratic structures, prepared to work movement disoriented. closely with the the labor movement.

Some new organizations that had It’ll be this force, the united working gained momentum in the years lead- class and youth prepared to take on ing up to COVID, like the Sunrise the polluting elite, not shock-and-awe Movement, pinned their hopes on Joe stunts alone that can turn the tide on Biden to deliver a green transition. This deadly climate change. J

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FIGHTING THE RIGHT

COULD TRUMP WIN IN 2024?

Trump rallies support for GOP candidates at a campaign event in Iowa on November 3, 2022.

BRYAN KOULOURIS, ST PAUL Though a “red wave” never materialized in this year’s midterms, the narrow majority won by the Republicans in the House means that the extreme-MAGA wing of the Republican Party will have more leverage than ever. In this context, the question of whether Trump could win a second term in 2024 seems straightforward: yes, he could still win. But this poses only more questions. What would a Trump victory and second term look like?

And, perhaps most importantly, how can we fight back against a renewed offensive from the right wing?

For some Democratic pundits, the answers are simple: people aren’t smart enough or informed enough to know what’s best for them, and the solution is “voting blue no matter who.” This simplistic analysis is exactly what got us here in the first place, and we need to look deeper to find the answers that can equip working and young people to fight back against Trumpism.

of mobilizing mass protests to defend reproductive justice. The Democrats had many opportunities over the course of decades to write abortion rights into federal law but they chose to keep the threat alive, likely for shortsighted electoral consideration.

The Democrats are not only overseeing runaway inflation, but we are also on the cusp of a renewed recession and the possibility of a global depression. Working people want solutions for the economy that neither big business-controlled party can provide.

The Republicans have the advantage in posing as an opposition even though they have no real answers either. Democrats won’t deliver Medicare for All because they’re beholden to their insurance and big pharma backers. They won’t tax big business to create an environmentally sustainable program of quality union jobs because they depend on fossil fuel money. More than this, Democrats can’t overcome the boom and bust cycle that is inherent to capitalism.

How Did We Get Here?

Why Does Trump Control The GOP?

Nearly two years into the Biden presidency, things have gotten worse for working people and the oppressed. Inflation is at a runaway pace, rising interest rates put home ownership further out of reach for a generation of workers, abortion right have been gutted, gun violence is on the rise, and Biden is building “Trump’s” anti-immigrant wall along the southern border.

No amount of attacks on Trump’s character will trick people into thinking the Democrats have done a good job in power. Now, with Republicans making gains in the midterms – limited as they may be – the gridlock in Congress will only get worse, and the Democrats will fail to deliver. It didn’t have to be like this, but the Democrats are fundamentally controlled by big business, and their leadership continues to move to the right despite all the performative “woke” rhetoric.

While avoiding the central question of the economy, Democrats focused on abortion rights in the midterms. Cynically, Democratic candidates made fundraising appeals in the aftermath of Roe being overturned instead

Despite his 2020 election defeat and nonstop scandals, Trump controls the GOP now more than ever. He’ll very likely run for President and easily win the Republican primaries while “never Trump” Republicans lose elections, retire, and become powerless pundits.

While Trump’s frenzied endorsement of 300 candidates in the midterms, many of whom hold extreme and offensive views, cost the Republicans the expected “red wave,” this does not fundamentally change the balance of power in the party. In fact, with a narrow majority in the House, the extreme Trumpist representatives will have increased power to disrupt business-as-usual. They could become a major thorn in the side of Republican leaders like (likely) Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

Trump’s message combines anti-establishment rhetoric against “free trade” deals that drove millions into dead-end jobs and “isolationist” foreign policy rhetoric that contrasts with decades of warmongering political consensus. All while playing on rural and

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suburban voters’ racist fears, hate of citydwelling elites, and “strong man” attacks on Democrats. The raw material for this political polarization existed without Trump, and the covid “culture wars” intensified the situation.

Given the Democrats’ regular practice of gaslighting poor and working people, for example insisting inflation isn’t that bad, the Republicans are far better positioned to make gains as the economy goes into further decline.

Trump and the Republicans have also gotten more support from people of color than they’ve enjoyed in decades. This opening is left due to the Democrats offering nothing more than rhetoric as institutional racism gets worse on many fronts.

While leading Democrats also use their power to enrich themselves through “insider trading” scams, they attack Trump’s very real corruption and anti-democratic maneuvers.

But just focusing on the threats to democracy likely won’t be enough to mobilize a base that can decisively defeat Trump, and the consequences could be quite severe for working people and the oppressed. We can already see under Biden that the far right is growing, and the tragedies of right-wing political violence could become something much more organized and threatening in the coming years.

Seeing this terrible situation, many hope that Trump will get sick and be unable to run.

While it’s tempting to wish for this given what a repugnant individual Trump is, the political polarization underlying his rise is inherent in this period of capitalist disorder. There’s also a danger that a more effective, younger Trump-type could emerge with even more dangerous politics. On top of this, some in the ruling class have floated the idea of trying to legally prevent Trump from running, but this would likely backfire, whip up Trump’s base, and motivate them to vote in larger numbers than even 2020’s high turnout.

What Would A 2024 Trump Victory Look Like?

It isn’t inevitable that Trump wins in 2024. As he emerges back into the spotlight, he could commit big blunders. However,

due to the undemocratic electoral college, he could again lose the popular vote and gain back the White House. More than this, Republicans have worked hard in the last two years to disenfranchise voters and put Trump loyalists into key positions with the 2024 elections in mind. Socialists will need to be prepared to defend democratic rights and mobilize working people against any attempt to steal the election. At the same time, we should recognize that the January 6th debacle was a deep embarrassment for U.S. capitalism that they won’t want to see repeated.

Trump entering the White House in 2024 would be overseeing a world in crisis. This would have the potential to undermine him, but it would also create more polarization and the potential for global chaos. Which wing of the ruling class has power does affect the world situation, but movements from below have a decisive impact. History has instructive lessons on this.

Richard Nixon was a deeply right-wing, racist person. Still he ruled from 1969-1974, a high point for Black power, women’s liberation, and labor organizing in the U.S. Under his watch, Roe became the law of the land, union power increased tremendously, and progressive legislation was passed on numerous issues, including the environment. Compare this to Bill Clinton’s rule in 1993-2001, a low point for struggles in the U.S. Under Clinton, horrendous free trade deals gutted union jobs, welfare was severely undermined, and the criminal injustice system took on policies of mass incarceration. The key difference was the strength and weaknesses of movements.

In the coming two years, strong movements based on a working-class program could cut across support for Trump. Recent union drives and strikes are a key factor that can push back against right-wing populism.

Transforming unions into fighting organizations that also put forward a political alternative to both parties is a crucial task for socialists. We also need vibrant street protests, direct action, and ongoing organization for movements against oppression, from anti-racism to women’s liberation to trans rights and beyond. The Democrats and the bureaucrats connected to them try to push our struggles into “safe” channels, and we need to resist this through strong worker organization from below with socialist ideas and methods.

Still, many people will ask, “can’t we organize in our workplaces and communities while still voting Democrat to stop Trump?” Problem is, electing Democrats only creates more breeding ground for right-wing populism, and it’s urgent for working people to have our own voice in politics. With looming environmental and economic devastation, we need to make steps in this direction now, even if it spoils hopes of corporate Democrats.

Many on the left say that a new mass party of working people isn’t possible because of our electoral system. However, times of crisis, like the one we’re in now, opens up new possibilities. The Republicans themselves rose rapidly in the context of a looming Civil War. That new party helped overthrow slavery less than 160 years ago, and we urgently need a working-class party today that helps to end all exploitation and oppression. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G

U. S. ECONOMY JOSHUA KORITZ, NYC Food and energy prices are already between 13-20% higher than they were a year ago. Rents and housing costs are on the rise. The rise of prices represents a real problem for working people hoping to maintain their standard of living as we head into 2023.

Far from being a U.S.-only problem, most countries around the world are seeing higherthan-average inflation, and some, like Turkey, are experiencing inflation rates close to 80%.

Domestically and globally, corporations and billionaires are terrified of inflation getting worse and eroding their profits and increasing instability in the global economy.

From this type of global perspective, with money markets in flux, it seems unlikely that inflation can be solved in the U.S. alone and that it is a worldwide issue that may be here to stay.

Politicians have seized on inflation frustrations and, despite having no idea how to combat rising costs nor any sense of when it might slow down, predictably used it to attack incumbents. This has resulted in inflation becoming the biggest issue in the 2022 midterm elections.

The efforts of Biden and the Democrat majority alongside the work of the Federal Reserve have not slowed inflation. Republicans attack Biden for the 2021 stimulus, but it wasn’t checks to working people that caused this crisis. In the past year, Biden championed the Inflation Reduction Act which is more focused on limited environmental protections than on anything that could affect the rise of prices.

Meanwhile the Federal Reserve has quadrupled interest rates within 2022, with the stated goal of slowing wage growth and increasing unemployment in order to force workers to take lower wages. Wage growth is below the inflation rate. All economists agree that a recession is coming and corporations are raking in the profits and building reserves in anticipation of the coming downturn.

Biden is showing his prioritization of big business over working people in his support of the Fed’s moves, making no criticisms of the Fed’s stated policy of making working people pay to stop inflation.

Party was to ignore inflation. Biden led the way by claiming the economy was “strong as hell,” a statement repeated by Pete Buttigieg. Democrats focused on the danger that Republicans pose to abortion rights following the Dobbs decision and to “democracy” with the rise of election deniers.

This strategy delivered Democrats far less overwhelming Republican victories in the midterms, but they have still lost control of

termed “deglobalization.”

Bernie, Warren, and AOC have redirected their criticisms to focus on the Fed’s monetary policy. While Bernie is correct that “it is wrong to be saying the way we deal with inflation is by lowering wages and increasing unemployment,” it is possible that the Fed’s actions will slow inflation, but only at the cost of huge unemployment and a deep recession.

This course would be anything but the “soft

stimulus payments to working people particularly. This rings completely hollow, though, considering the vast majority of the stimulus packages did not go to working people, but to big business.

Regarding actual proposals to fight inflation, Republicans have been intentionally vague. Their “Commitment to America” promises to “Fight Inflation and Lower the Cost of Living” mostly by cutting government spending and cutting taxes while increasing oil production and “moving supply chains away from China.”

These policies have little chance of affecting inflation in the short term. The vagueness of Republican plans to address inflation are a selling point for big business.

INFLATION PAINS POLITICIANS HAVE NO ANSWERS

Inflation Electioneering Nationally, inflation frustration has focused on the ineffectiveness of incumbent Democrats with Biden in the White House and narrow majorities in the House and Senate. In the weeks before the election, voters favored Republicans on economic issues by nearly 20%.

The election “strategy” of the Democratic

NOVEMBER 2022

the House and the Senate hangs in the balance. This means the next two years will be a stale-mate between two parties fundamentally committed to capitalist stability, even if it means workers suffer.

The Guardian reports that $10 billion has been spent on advertisements – fully three times what was spent in the 2018 midterms and already more than in the 2020 presidential elections. It is ironic that this increased spending is based on parties that have no answers for the problems they want to address. Republicans only say they oppose “Biden’s tax and spend agenda” without saying how they would curb inflation. Meanwhile the same Democrats that sat idly by while the right wing dismantled abortion have not offered any policy or plan for how to preserve or extend abortion rights.

landing” they claim to desire. We completely oppose this logic, the capitalist class caused this crisis and should pay for its remediation.

Bernie’s tame criticism should also be aimed at Biden, Pelosi, and the Democratic leadership that backs the Fed 100%. By not fighting for big business and billionaires to pay for this crisis, Bernie and AOC are allowing the right wing to stand alone in its criticism of Biden and the Democratic Party on inflation.

Democrats have generally ignored inflation in their campaign ads and speeches. Shockingly, when they did mention the economy, they pointed to the low rate of unemployment and high profits to claim that everything is fine! Even despite this gaslighting from the Democrats on the economy, their losses in the midterms were padded by widespread fears of Republican attacks on the oppressed.

Democrats Ally With The Fed While the economists state that we’re not yet in recession, inflation is making working people feel like we are.

Some Democrats like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren sought to blame rising corporate profits for inflation. This was a populist approach aimed at exposing the Fed’s policy of slowing wage growth and easing a “tight” labor market. While profits contribute to the increase of money in the economy, this is not a primary driver of inflation at this point.

The primary cause of inflation in 2022 is the supply chain crisis. Hastened by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, supply chains ground to a halt and now corporations and governments are planning to recreate the supply chains locally in a process called “nearshoring.” The roots of this process are deeper, however, as the age of neoliberal globalization reached its limits and has turned into its opposite, a process increasingly

WHILE THE ECONOMISTS STATE THAT WE’RE NOT YET IN RECESSION, INFLATION IS MAKING WORKING PEOPLE FEEL LIKE WE ARE.

The Republicans’ Pitch On the other side of the aisle, Republicans went on the offensive blaming inflation and the slowing economy on Biden. Their strategy boiled down to: encourage people to blame Democratic policies and claim to have a different plan.

They’ve focused their attacks on the

The Way Out For Working People

Inflation frustration is real. Prices are rising. Working people want answers and continue to take matters into their own hands by organizing unions in workplace after workplace.

We are shifting out of the era of neoliberalism which featured globalization, an outsourcing race to find the lowest wages, and finance capital dictating terms across borders. The new era features much more instability, an emphasis on borders, and the strong-man governments that can prop up domestic corporations – all framed by the new cold war between the U.S. and China.

In this new era, it is possible that the Fed’s goal of 2% inflation is unobtainable – higher inflation is here to stay.

To fight this, working people need Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) in our union contracts, attached to the minimum wage, and implemented in all social welfare programs.

To keep the costs of housing down, we need strong rent control measures and to build high-quality public housing. We need price caps on utility bills and consumer protection committees to monitor price increases with power to review corporate finances, especially when money is squandered on CEO pay and stock buybacks.

We cannot trust or wait for the Democrats or Republicans. From both corporate parties we get vague promises, dismissals of the problem, and the idea that increasing profits are somehow good for working people. A new party, free of corporate money and based on working people, could expose Democrats and Republicans alike for supporting the Fed’s attack on wages and jobs. The lack of such a party leaves open space for the right wing as the Democrats ignore working people’s pain and defend their billionaire friends.

This bout of inflation will not go away just because billionaires and corporations want it to. Working people have to look out for ourselves and each other by fighting independent from corporate money and influence. J

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WA R & I M P E R I A L I S M “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party isn’t willing or able to provide a serious challenge to U.S. imperialism.

When AOC and “The Squad” were first elected, they seemed to offer an alternative to business as usual. They self-identified as socialists and had the backing of a mass movement. However, by relying on the Democratic Party as their vehicle for change, they have steadily accommodated themselves to the party milieux and the CPC.

Opposing Imperialism

Rep. Pramila Jayapal at a press conference in August.

PROGRESSIVES FAIL AGAIN TO OPPOSE IMPERIALIST WAR GEORGE MARTIN FELL BROWN, MADISON The war in Ukraine has undergone a serious escalation in the past couple of months.

Ukrainian forces began their eastern counteroffensive at the beginning of September. The blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines in September, and the bombing in October of the Kerch bridge connecting Ukraine to the Crimean peninsula, represent further escalations. Throughout October, Russian bombings have wreaked havoc on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. And, throughout this period, there have been constant threats to use nuclear weapons.

Amidst this tragedy, we have also seen the farce of the response from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) in the U.S. On October 24, the CPC produced a letter, signed by 30 Congressional Democrats, including the entirety of “The Squad,” making a vague call for Biden to adopt “a proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a ceasefire.”

Less than 24 hours later, Representative Pramila Jayapal retracted the letter on behalf of the CPC. The letter was released without the knowledge of a number of the signatories, and Jayapal says it was “drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff

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without vetting.” It provoked an intense backlash from the Democratic Party establishment, accusing the signatories of aiding Putin and calling on the CPC to clean house.

The letter, and its subsequent retraction, is embarrassing. But not for the reasons the Democratic Party establishment says.

Failure of “Progressive” Democrats In the U.S., there has correctly been massive sympathy for the plight of ordinary people in Ukraine facing endless bombardment by Russian imperialism. This sympathy has been relentlessly manipulated by U.S. imperialism to gain support for greater intervention by NATO. U.S. imperialism isn’t genuinely concerned with Ukrainian self-determination, but is using the Ukrainian military as a proxy in the new Cold War conflict with Russian and Chinese imperialism.

In a matter of months since the invasion, as The Intercept reported, U.S. military aid to Ukraine exceeded the combined amount sent in 2020 to Afghanistan, Israel, and Egypt, the three biggest historical recipients of U.S. aid. Throughout this, the members of the CPC have disgracefully supported every appropriation bill to finance the U.S. agenda.

The letter, for all the ire it drew from the

Democratic establishment, wasn’t a criticism of the U.S.’s role in escalating the conflict.

In fact, the opening paragraph explicitly expressed appreciation for Biden’s appropriations of military aid for Ukraine. And they reassured Biden of the CPC’s own status “as legislators responsible for the expenditure of tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in military assistance in the conflict.”

Rather, the letter was a plea that these tens of billions of dollars of military assistance be accompanied by “vigorous diplomatic efforts in support of a negotiated settlement and ceasefire.” This isn’t that different from Biden’s own position. Former president Obama made similar comments earlier in October without any similar blowback.

The letter represented only the most tokenistic pushback against warmongering in order to re-establish the CPC’s “progressive” credentials. Even this proved to be too much for the progressives to defend after the letter was publicized. Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas went so far as to accuse the CPC of “making common cause with Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, J.D. Vance, and the rest of the MAGA crowd.”

In the face of the backlash, many of the signatories rapidly distanced themselves from the letter, even before it was withdrawn. Ro Khanna was one of the few who stood firm and defended signing the letter, calling it “common sense.” Nonetheless, he also defended his support for military funding and declared, “I will continue to support and stand with Ukraine in terms of the aid and the military they need.”

Biden and the Democratic Party establishment have a long history of propping up U.S. imperialism. Biden himself staunchly supported both the War on Drugs in Latin America and the War on Terror in the Middle East.

Then and now, the real agenda is to maintain and expand control of resources and markets as well as military superiority on behalf of the American ruling class.

However, this incident shows that even the

Socialists completely oppose the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and oppose all imperialist wars. Russia should immediately cease fire and withdraw all troops, mercenaries, and weapons from Ukraine. All U.S. and NATO troops, advisors, and military equipment should be withdrawn from Ukraine and Eastern Europe as well.

Socialists oppose all imperialism, especially that of our own countries. While Biden speaks about defending “democracy,” his administration has been sending Patriot missiles to the Saudi dictatorship, who are engaged in an equally brutal war in Yemen.

On the basis of capitalism there is no road to real independence for Ukraine, whether through imperialist war or imperialist diplomacy. We defend the right of the Ukrainian people to decide their own fate, including armed self-defense. What’s needed is an independent working-class-led struggle that opposes not only Russian imperialism, but also the reactionary Western stooge regime of Zelensky.

In Democratic Party circles, Zelensky is held up as a hero. But prior to the war, Zelensky was extremely unpopular among Ukrainians. He was associated with a flailing economy and declining living standards. The Russian invasion has boosted his popularity, but he has used this popularity to carry out vicious privatizations and attacks on workers’ rights. Law 5371, ratified by the Ukrainian government in August, stripped 70% of the workforce of union rights.

Ukrainian self-determination will be won by the working class of Ukraine itself, struggling to drive the Russian troops out, and struggling to build a political alternative to the Zelensky government and U.S. imperialism while appealing to the international working class for aid. This would include a class appeal to Russian soldiers, most of whom do not want to be part of this brutal occupation.

We can look to the revolutionary movements in Belarus in 2020 and Kazakhstan at the beginning of this year. In Russia itself, there was a rise in anti-war activity in response to Putin’s September mobilization of troops.

These struggles, rather than U.S. military aid or “proactive diplomatic pushes,” show the way forward.

Ultimately, we need to build an international, working-class struggle against all imperialist warmongers. We need to end the capitalist system that’s responsible for modern wars, and to replace it with a new society, based on a democratically planned economy and a free and voluntary confederation of socialist states. This is the only way to assure the right to self-determination, decent living standards, and freedom from repression and war. J

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

C O N T I N U AT I O N S

U.S. MIDTERMS

continued from page 3

spending cuts, deregulation of oil and gas, and the reshoring of manufacturing.

Efforts by Republicans to create manufacturing jobs could be popular, though highly unlikely to be anything other than empty, populist promises. On the other hand, one only has to look to Liz Truss’ disastrous and shortestever term as British Prime Minister to see how deeply unpopular neoliberal spending cuts are likely to be in the present crisis of capitalism.

Alongside this, there are many indications that the Republicans will launch a series of investigations and potential impeachment(s) as part of an offensive against Biden and the Democrats, some of which is likely to backfire. And certainly, if Republicans carry through with attacks on Social Security or Medicare, such as threats of a 5-year “renewal” requirement, it would seriously damage the Republicans and represent further right-wing overreach on their part.

We Need a Party of Our Own The rightward direction of the Republican Party, and its posing now as the “party of the workers,” represents an increasingly dangerous threat to ordinary people in the U.S. and globally. But the growth of the right-wing doesn’t come from nowhere, it comes from the complete failure of the Democrats to fight for working people, including its “progressive” members like the Squad.

The broken promises of the Democrats, even on Biden’s limited agenda, could have led to an even more decisive defeat had it not been for the right-wing overreach on abortion rights driving women and young people to the polls.

We need new mass organizations of struggle and a new political party for working people and youth. Such a party should root itself in mass movements, like Socialist Alternative’s

elected Seattle City Councilmember, Kshama Sawant, and fight unambiguously for working people, rather than trying to cut deals with the political establishment.

In this age of polarization and disorder, working people are looking for a way to fight back. The growing efforts to unionize in the U.S. at major corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, alongside the mass protests to defend abortion rights, show the hunger for progressive change. They also show the complete lack of leadership from the Democratic Party — who have been no friend of the labor movement and who failed to codify Roe over 50 years — as well as the urgent need for an alternative. J

WHAT HAPPENED TO MEDICARE FOR ALL? approaching older age. But facing no real pressure from the left, Biden put business interests first and stripped the proposal to lower Medicare eligibility from the American Families Plan.

Bernie has commented from the sidelines about all sorts of inadequacies of the Biden administration, but he’s ultimately caved on every key question. By doing so, he allows Biden to pose as a progressive, to try to hide his status as a bought-and-paid-for corporate politician.

He said he wouldn’t vote for a spending package that didn’t include Medicare expansion, but he did. He criticized the Inflation Reduction Act for being wildly inadequate on August 3, then said he was happy to vote for it on August 7. He urged Biden to delay the Medicare premiums increase in late 2021, and was then silent when Biden did nothing.

The scary thing is, AOC’s political trajectory has been far worse than Bernie’s. She started by joining sit-ins pushing for a Green New Deal, and in the run up to the 2022 midterms was reduced

to soliciting volunteers for antiMedicare for All Democrat Rafael Warnock.

This is a far cry from the progressives of the campaign trail who talked a big game about moving Biden to the left.

The Logical Conclusion of Captivity in the Democratic Party Bernie introduced Medicare for All legislation in the Senate in May. He did it with a press release, a few tweets, an op-ed, and a budget committee hearing. In an email to his supporters, Bernie wrote: “We can win this struggle if we engage people in the political process in an unprecedented way.”

I agree with him on this. Medicare for All could be won – but only on the basis of a massive political fight waged outside the halls of power - which are thoroughly dominated by big business. But Bernie knows as well as I do that the primary target of such a movement would be the

party in power, which right now is the Democrats. Calling a march for Medicare for All would mean marching to the steps of Biden’s White House, or Schumer’s Congress.

Bernie’s loyalty pact with the Democratic leadership is based on the distorted logic that the best way to fight the right is by lining up behind the political center. But if that were the case, why is the end result a scenario where Republicans are set to control the House? Why is it that Trump could very likely run (and win) in 2024?

The Democrats have shown time and again they’re not capable of stopping the growth of the right. The only way we can do that is by building a strong, working-class, left alternative to the Democratic Party that takes zero money from corporations and billionaires.

In 2016 and 2020, Socialist Alternative called on Bernie Sanders to break from the Democratic Party and begin constructing this alternative. If he’d done that, millions would’ve followed

continued from page 10 him. We could’ve built a political home for the millions of Americans who support Medicare for All, who support taxing the rich, who support a Green New Deal.

Bernie has so far rejected this task, and it’s likely he’ll continue to do so. But building a workingclass political force outside both corporate parties remains one of the most important projects for working people in the U.S. We can begin to lay the groundwork for this here and now. We can take the fight to our unions, demanding that they end the practice of writing blank checks to Democratic Party politicians using union dues. We can campaign within our youth or community organizations, demanding a clear stance of political independence from the Democrats. We can run independent candidates for political office in cities across the country.

It’s only on this basis of a divorce with the Democrats that we can launch a struggle to win Medicare for All, and beyond that – to win a better world. J

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15

SOCIALIST ISSUE #88 l NOVEMBER 2022

ALTERNATIVE

WORLD IN REVOLT OVER HIGH PRICES

GRACE FORS, CHICAGO

As we go to print, workers across Europe are taking to the streets against recordbreaking energy prices, food poverty, and a dramatic reduction in purchasing power caused by an inflation crisis wreaking havoc worldwide.

The global consumer price index doubled over 2021, and is expected by the IMF to peak at 8.8% at the end of 2022. As global crises become ever more serious, it is working class people bearing the brunt of price increases in food, energy, and shelter while corporations make record profits. But the bubbling pot of anger and discontent in society can only be contained for so long before it comes to a boil.

Already, outcries from below have ousted former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and forced the resignation of Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss after just 44 days in office, an event that the New York Times warns “sent perhaps the clearest signal yet that political peril awaits those who fail to address inflation and the erosion of living standards.”

Why Is This Happening?

The causes of this economic crisis are capitalism’s lack of preparedness for the pandemic and its inability to come together with a coordinated global response, an imperialist bloodbath ravaging Ukraine that is not in any working people’s interests, a climate disaster caused by corporations and billion-dollar dirty energy industries, and ultimately decades of

neoliberalism which decimated social services and drove wages into the ground. None of this is working people’s fault, but nevertheless we’ll be shouldering the burden, and no corner of the world is left unscathed.

Workers Ready to Fight In Europe, the cost of living crisis is especially painful. Heavy reliance on cheap Russian oil and gas by a number of countries has meant Western sanctions have had a major impact. For many working-class people, keeping up with bills and putting food on the table has gone from just manageable enough to unbearable or impossible. With a winter temperature drop just around the corner, millions of households will be forced to choose between heat and food.

But workers have been showing their willingness to fight. Britain’s “Enough is Enough” campaign is galvanizing workers and youth by the thousands as a lightning rod for fighting back against the cost of living crisis. Its five-point program calls for real pay raises accounting for inflation, slashed energy bills, an end to food poverty, decent homes for all, and taxing the rich. That tens of thousands have flocked to this program shows the importance of clear and bold demands.

The involvement of a number of major unions is an essential component of the movement in Britain, but workers can’t afford to wait around for the leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to organize action on the scale needed. As our sister party in the UK wrote: “We can prepare for a national day of coordinated action with

hundreds of thousands of workers on strike together. Enough is Enough and other campaigning groups should be built as platforms to bring together workers, tenants and students to broaden the protests and strikes that are taking place.”

In Belgium, a general strike took place on November 9. French oil refinery workers organized with the CGT union have been on strike throughout October demanding a 10% wage increase. Tens of thousands marched in six German cities on October 22 demanding relief from inflation and energy costs.

Victory At All Costs There will be more strikes and demonstrations in the coming months, particularly as energy costs continue to climb. It is crucial that the movement’s leadership, including the leadership of the major unions, put forward the best strategy and tactics to win.

These include organizing around a set of clearly defined working-class demands as well as democratic discussions in the unions around an escalation strategy which will go a long way in winning the buy in of rank-and-file workers. We also need broader structures for the movement to discuss next steps – involving both union workers as well as non-union workers and students.

Wherever rank-and-file union members sense unnecessary timidness from their leadership, they will need to provide the drive from below to continue determined plans of escalation and not allow unnecessary capitulations or demobilization. Down the line, mass campaigns against high prices and for

a working-class program could even form the basis for political alternatives to the capitalist parties overseeing this disaster.

The risk of the left and workers’ movement not organizing an almighty struggle can be seen in the various instances of European right-wing parties and figures making political gains. It is a huge danger that in times of crisis, unless a clear lead is given by the left and the workers movement, right populists are given an opening to position themselves as an anti-establishment force fighting against the status quo – and especially as the leading force against war. In all cases, there is no prospect of these reactionaries delivering relief to working people, and this misdirection carries massive consequences for all workers and the oppressed.

Paving The Way Forward Europe is on the precipice of a period of social and labor upheaval not seen in decades. It is critical that real gains for the working class are won through these efforts, and that the best fighting tactics and methods of organization are exported worldwide to address the life-and-death crisis that is coming for all of us.

We need cross-border coordinated mobilization to win key programmatic demands of these movements. It is clearer than ever that working people need to fight for a world where our ability to survive is not shackled to market dynamics and the imbecilic decisions of the ruling class who let us starve and freeze before infringing on corporations’ record profits. J