Below are the final paragraphs of an article by Scott Tucker here. Where he talks of 'socialist' candidates think 'independent of the two main parties' not socialist as in the World Socialist Movement's meaning of democratic production for use rather than for profit. This is an opinion of an individual seeking a better capitalism, a reduction of the control and influence of corporations, increased involvement for citizens in the political process and a rethink of what democracy means; however the repeated call for a class-conscious struggle for democracy is heartening, alerting us to the knowledge that there are potentially more of us out there than you think!
Independent political action by workers and citizens is difficult
without at the same time waging a battle for truly public communication.
There are moments when the big TV networks and media companies can be
shamed into public service, but they are usually content to feature
faction fights between corporate politicians. One hundred years after
the World War I, we are witnessing a new collision between imperial
spheres of interest.
A class-conscious peace movement must wage an open political battle
against the capitalist parties, or the next huckster of hope and change
may well be Hillary Clinton. Many readers of this article will have
their own list of urgent issues in ranked order, and independent
political action may not rank high for some of you. The great danger of
leaving politics to professional politicians, however, is that democracy
dies at the roots, and the toxic fruits of the corporate state remain
war and empire. The city of Detroit is proof that the working class did
not invent class war, but the city of Seattle is proof that a socialist
can still win a seat on a city council.
In every midterm election and in every presidential election, the
public is subjected to organized lying. If the choice is between a
Reaganaut and a Clintonista, or between the party of Retrogrades and the
party of Deadbeats, don’t be too sure you can vote by rote for the
lesser of two evils. For all the gridlock and faction fighting in
Washington, Congress remains the front office of the ruling class. Each
of us can make a few decent promises for the sake of sanity and
self-respect. If partisan politics is one of your favorite spectator
sports, ask yourself: Why? Call up a dozen neighbors and hold a house
meeting. Or stand up at the next photo-op for a career politician and
tell him or her to earn an honest living. If they are truly public
servants, then we should expect better than CEOs of a corporation.
Ending the corporate state begins with you, and you and you. And with
me, and my friends and my comrades. We can have “the two-party system”
or we can have democracy in this country, but we cannot have both. If
the corporate parties succeed in shutting down fair debates and shutting
out socialist candidates, then we, the people, still have the choice to
march on our polling places on Election Day in open protest against a
capitalist Congress. We can have clean air and water, or we can be
sleepwalkers on a poisoned planet. We can have a class-conscious
struggle for peace, or we can have a new nuclear arms race. Capitalism
is a global system even the ruling classes do not completely control,
and that is why our advanced productive forces also make possible a
nuclear Armageddon. Only the great majority of workers can wage a
class-conscious struggle for democracy at home, and if necessary, a
global strike for peace across national borders.
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