The Coming Storm

Liberals and a host of self-described socialists argue that, deficient as his party and his personal record may be, people must vote for Joe Biden in 2020 because Trump and the Republicans are that much more odious. Once again, working people are urged by these pitiable strategists to vote for the least worst corporate candidate. Rather than weighing the full impact of lesser evil voting, its advocates pretend the scheme has only an up and no down side. But as we will see, the costs of lesser evil voting far outweigh any presumed benefits. Without a doubt, Trump’s policies and actions have been despicable – from his support for criminal aggression against Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, Yemen and elsewhere; his racist attacks on immigrants and people of color; his tax cuts for the rich at the expense of programs for working people; his deadly mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis; his eagerness in the wake of the pandemic to bail out corporation...

** This article was published on Counterpunch  March 30, 2017 ** It’s a sleep that puts Rip Van Winkle to shame. The long, fitful slumber has lasted for more than a generation. But the alarm has sounded and the snooze button is wearing out. Sooner or later, the giant that is the American working class will awaken. When that happens, the game will be dramatically altered; the majority, so used to playing defense, will take the offense; the score, so long lopsided, will begin to shift. What will it look like once that celebrated last straw has been added to the camel’s back? How will we know that the long slumber is over? Oh, we’ll know! Union Power The place to focus our attention is on the working class. This is not for abstract, doctrinaire reasons, but because that is where the power lies. It is there that numbers and proximity to production combine to yield a force capable of challenging the 1% for control. Control of what exactly? The whole works, includi...

** This article was published on Counterpunch May 13, 2016 With the imminent demise of the Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic Party nomination, discussion has turned to what should come next. Some, including Seattle Socialist City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, have agitated for creating a generic "party of the left". But what does that mean?   As we shall see, it's a troublingly vague slogan whose beauty, if it exists at all, is solely in the eye of the beholder. But first, we must step back and survey the lay of the land.   Those inspired by Sanders campaign and those disillusioned with the two major parties come in various flavors. 1. In the first category, there are those who see the status quo—characterized by unequal distribution of wealth, endless war, rampant racism, unemployment, mass incarceration and diminishing expectations—as fundamentally unjust, while having no coherent analysis whence comes the injustice. These are liberals , progressives or...

** This article appeared in Counterpunch January 12, 2016 ** I wholeheartedly support the populist programs that Bernie Sanders advocates—from single-payer healthcare, to free college tuition, to taxing the rich and more.   But borrowing from Malcolm X , Bernie is a house socialist and I'm a field socialist. Bernie doesn't want to replace or overthrow capitalism.   Like all house socialists, he thinks capitalism can be fixed or tamed with reforms.   By contrast, we field socialists understand that the essence of capitalism—private ownership of major industry, resources, banks, and the exploitation of labor by appropriating surplus value (profit)—is antithetical to democracy.   In fact, for all of Bernie's talk about "democratic socialism", he and other house socialists turn a blind eye to the lack of economic democracy that is the very hallmark of the capitalist system.   Because Bernie is in favor of tweaking capitalism but opposed to dismantling...

Disillusionment with the Democratic and Republican parties has always been high.  Not since 1964 have more than 60% of eligible voters turned out for a presidential election.  Since 1900, 42% of eligible voters on average stay home each presidential election, effectively choosing “none of the above” rather than voting for either of the anointed candidates.  The number abstaining in non-presidential election years is even higher. For many, elections are irrelevant as they know their lives will not fundamentally change, regardless of which of the major parties rules the roost.  But for an increasing number, abstention is more conscious.  There is growing recognition that both the Democrats and Republicans represent Wall St. and big business, leaving the majority who slave away, working for a living, only the narrowest of choices between this or that representative of the slave masters.  In 2013, a record 42% of Americans identified themselves ...