IF HE WALKS LIKE A DEMOCRAT-IF HE TALKS LIKE A DEMOCRAT-IF HE TAKES HIS ASSIGNMENTS FROM THE DEMOCRATS-ISN’T HE A DEMOCRAT?
FORGET DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
NOTE: This blog was originally written prior to the Vermont Democratic primaries this summer. I have republished it here as a reminder. Since that time Mr. Sanders has build up a commanding lead over his Republican and “Democratic” and other third party challengers. As a recent Boston Globe article pointed out this self-proclaimed socialist would be the first such avowed socialist elected since the late, unlamented Wisconsin American Socialist Party Congressman Victor Berger did so in the 1920’s.
The article also pointed out that Mr. Sanders has a picture of socialist icon Eugene V. Debs hanging on a wall in his office. Every militant cherishes the memory of Debs, however, his party- the Socialist party in the 1920’s and thereafter turned into something very different from the militant anti-war, anti-capitalist party that Debs did so much to make a militant organization of the working class and its allies.
Other forces, notably the American Communist Party inherited that tradition. That the Communist Party thereafter lost its authority in the working class does not negate the fact that it gathered the best militants around it. I note further that apparently Mr. Sanders has no picture of the likes of revolutionary militant “Big Bill” Haywood gracing his office. Now that would, indeed, impress me.
All the above information is presented to point out that we are a long, very long way away from the old, militant traditions. Mr. Sanders represents the more insipid parliamentary road to socialism. We just do not have the centuries necessary to wait for that strategy to unfold, assuming it was the right strategy. But, for the sake of consistency, I point out to Mr. Sander’s supporters as I did last summer’s blog, re-posted below, the overarching question of the times. On the war in Iraq- Will you next year break the unanimous logjam for approval and vote against the war budget. YES OR NO. That is the only parliamentary maneuver against the war that means anything. I will invoke the shades of Debs here. He ran for President of the United States on the Socialist ticket from the Atlanta Penitentiary. Why? He was serving time for opposition to World War I. Against that courageous act is a simple parliamentary vote so difficult?
JULY 13, 2006
Is nothing sacred anymore? Picking on poor old Bernie Sanders the self-proclaimed “democratic socialist’’ Independent Congressman from Vermont who is running for the United States Senate. He is attempting to fill the seat of the retiring former Republican, now ‘Independent’ Jim Jeffords. Must be something in the Vermont milk that drives this independent thing. Okay, sure we did appreciate that Sanders (as an elementary act of political hygiene) voted against the Iraq War and all, but come to find out his voting record looks like a carbon copy of Ted Kennedy’s, the OTHER United States Senator from Massachusetts. And Kennedy is MR. DEMOCRAT. Which makes this writer wonder if Bernie walks like a Democrat, if he talks like a Democrat, if he takes his assignments from the Congressional Democrats-isn’t he a Democrat? Especially since the Vermont Democratic party is stepping all over itself NOT to run a Democratic candidate in the fall elections against Sanders. They even offered to put him on their party line. Bernie, however, is a little coquettish and insists on running as an ‘Independent’. I put this down to a personality quirk, though.
In any case, Congressman Sanders is a textbook example of why the so-called parliamentary road to socialism is utopian. As if the history of the international left, at least since 1914, hasn’t hammered militants over the head that unless you change the form of government the capitalists win every time. They have had a long time and much experience in the ways of keeping power. They are damn good at it. Remember that.
Make no mistake; militants use the parliamentary system, especially elections, to get their message out. We also use legislative office as a tribunal to talk over the heads of the politicians. But when the deal goes down we need our own governmental forms to get the things working people need. Bernie may have known that long ago when he started out but lost it somewhere along the way. Maybe it is that milk?
For those militants who insist on voting for Sanders anyway I pose a challenge. Make Congressman Sanders answer this simple question- Will he vote, YES or NO, against the Iraqi War budget next year, if elected? Forget those ‘softball’ non-binding ‘sense of the Congress’ resolutions on Immediate Withdrawal. On the parliamentary level that is the only vote that counts now in the fight against the war. Ask.
THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THE 2006-2008 ELECTION CYCLE UNDER THE HEADLINE- FORGET THE DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS, GREENS-BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!
Atleast we have a token Menshavik.
ReplyDeleteGood expose, on a subject the left ignores.
Hello Comrade Markin!
ReplyDeleteI just discovered your blog through the blog of a comrade, Fred Bergen of the TF-FI, from Rhode Island.
I must commend you for the great purpose of the blog, as well as the useful enough of the actual content. The entry on Bernie Sanders resulted in a flashback. It was about 1995 when I started to become politically conscious. And within a span of little more than a year I ran the spectrum on the political left. I started as a Democrat, never missing C-SPAN to watch the Democrats "taking on" the Republicans, after sometime I decided that only the Congressional Progressive Caucus members of the Democrats represented the poor and oppressed, after some more time I decided that only one member of the Caucus was worthy of support, the one who realized you couldn't work within the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders! But with in a few more months I had become more radicalized by reading Zinn's "A People's History of the U.S." and I decided that I was a socialist and so I needed to join the youth group of the SP-USA. They lost my application. This was a good thing because it gave me a chance to join their mailing list and see that most of their debates were about the progressive tax and whether abortion was "morally just or not." By this time I was reading Marx so I considered the CP-USA but that didn't last more a week because I read up on Stalin and didn't see much of Marx in the man... yikes.
At a rally sometime in the late 90s I came into contact with a Spartacist Youth and there began my journey into Trotskyism. I came to agree with them on almost everything. Well, I didn't agree on the way they behaved around other people. I thought there was some social dysfunction at work, maybe the water at their main office was being spiked by the CIA with some chemical to make the SLers behave in a way that would discourage membership growth I thought. Luckily, I came across the IG/LFI some time later. Very similiar politics, actually, even better, and the members were a social and lively bunch. The end.
Being a bit more serious for a moment, the article did bring back some of these memories since I had forgotten all about Bernie Sanders. I was not aware that he aimming for a senate seat. I am not surprise that the Democrats are not in a rush to run someone against him in Vermont. Why should they? It reminds me of the Green Party being careful not to upset the Democrats in many places around the country where they might actually have an influence! Not really what you would except from a political organization battling the other parties. But then again, political/economic interests speak louder than party loyalties.
About the IG/LFI in connection with your great no to elephants, donkeys and greens series, I'm proud to say that during the DNC protests our huge banner read:
No To Bush, Kerry, Nader
Democrats, Republicans
Warmakers, Strike Breakers
For a revolutionary workers party
Hasta Luego!
-Musa
email: musa@class-struggle.com
weblog: www.class-struggle.com
Markin, I've enjoyed reading your book reviews, but I haven't commented here before now. I'd just like to add to this great post that there is an actual socialist running against Sanders for Vermont's Senate seat. Peter Diamondstone is on the ballot as a candidate of the Liberty Union Party and Socialist Party of Vermont, a state affiliate of the Socialist Party USA. Diamondstone is a little eccentric, but he is a vocal socialist, unlike Bernie, who's been trying to distance himself from socialism for years (just look for the word on his Web site!). (In case you haven't heard, Bernie is now running in the Democratic primary. He's expected to win their nomination and then decline it.)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the SP-USA (of which I am a member), I feel I should say a few words, building off of Musa's comment. I can imagine that the SP was in a pretty sorry state in the mid-90s, though I only joined in 2003. However, it has been undergoing a renaissance recently: Membership has tripled in the last five years, despite the general exodus of most of the more conservative old guard. Most of the new members are young and radical, and now that we've gotten over the worst of the growing pains, we're looking forward to being more active and cooperating with others on the left in the struggle for socialism. I personally am moving to Boston in a month, and once I get there I'm hoping to help reinvigorate the SP's Boston Area Local.
-David Schaich
gmail: daschaich