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Recent articles by Wayne Price
The Authoritarian Vision of Che Guevara 0 comments Resistance at Standing Rock 1 comments Is Trumpism Fascism? 3 comments Recent Articles about North America / Mexico The LeftShould the Left Call for a Third Party? Sep 07 16 Party of Which People? Aug 01 16 A Socialist On City Council: A Look At The Career Of Kshama Sawant May 19 16 Not My President!
north america / mexico |
the left |
opinion / analysis
Saturday December 17, 2016 03:40 by Wayne Price drwdprice at aol dot com
The New Resistance The rise of a U.S. movement which rejects the legitimacy of Trump's presidency. In demonstrations across the United States, protestors have raised signs saying, “Not My President!” Obviously they are not denying that state machinery has given Donald J. Trump the position of head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ruler of the mightiest and wealthiest state in the world. What they are denying is Trump’s legitimacy for the position, his moral right to claim the presidency. The Rigging of the 2016 U.S. ElectionThe most obvious aspect of the unfairness of the 2016 election results is that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. She won almost 3 million more votes than Trump. Due to the distribution of the votes, however, she lost in the archaic Electoral College. In the 18th century, this was originally created to be a buffer between the voters and the election of the president, to be a compromise between large and small states, and to strengthen the power of the slaveholders. The distorting influence of the Electoral College is increased by the “winner take all” rules of almost every state, so that Democrats in Texas and Republicans in New York might as well stay home. No other capitalist democracy has such an indirect system; in all others, the “popular vote” is just the “vote.” Despite its obvious injustices, the establishment has never made an effort to alter or abolish the Electoral College. Another major distortion of the election, was the vicious efforts of the Republican party to suppress the votes of African-Americans, Latinos, young people, and other sections which tended to vote Democratic. This was the first election since the Supreme Court ended federal oversight of electoral changes in formerly segregationist states. The Republicans went all out in trying to suppress the votes, especially of Black people. They limited early voting, made new requirements that voters have state IDs, closed voting sites in Black neighborhoods, dropped people from voting lists, and justified all this with lying claims that there was a problem of “voter fraud.” The Democrats fought back, winning court cases and limiting the suppression, but the suppressors did their best to work around these rulings. This is not to mention the long-term results of the high rate of incarceration among African-Americans and Latinos, followed by the denial of the vote to thousands of ex-prisoners, as well as the many legal residents who cannot vote. Then the Republican head of the FBI, James Comey, interfered in the election. Eleven days before the final vote, he announced that the FBI was going to investigate a new set of emails which might have been sent by Hillary Clinton, implying that they might include illegal material. At the time of his announcement, he had no information whatever about the emails, but many voters got the impression that the emails’ case was being reopened and that Clinton had done something wrong. A week later, he announced that nothing had been found—but the damage had been done (considering how close the vote was and also that early voting had already started). Meanwhile, agencies of the Russian government had hacked the emails of the Democratic and Republican Parties—but only published emails from the Democrats, in order to embarrass them and to help Trump get elected. Despite the evidence, Trump denied Russian involvement and urged the Russians to do more hacking of Clinton’s records. Republican leaders refused to issue a bipartisan statement with Democrats denouncing the intervention in U.S. elections. (But U.S. outrage is hypocritical, since the U.S. military and CIA have often intervened in foreign countries to overthrow governments, elected or not.) These negative effects are in the context of the generally undemocratic and unfair political system of U.S. “representative democracy.” The flood of big money into politics has only increased since the “Citizens United” Supreme Court ruling. The gerrymandering of districts distorts the House of Representatives as well as the state legislatures. The Senate has two Senators from each state, no matter the size of its population, elected for six years. Supreme Court justices are chosen for life. And so on. The Character of President TrumpThe distortion of the electoral process is compounded by the nature of the new president, Donald J. Trump. Hillary Clinton is just another establishment politician, close to Wall Street and to hawkish foreign policy advisors. She and her husband had gotten rich while in politics. Her only positives were that she would have been the first woman president, and that she was not Trump. But Trump is something else, something way out of the box. Personally he is vile and disgusting, the type of man whom most decent people would not want to meet their families. A sexual predator, pathological liar, bully, cheater of his workers and contracters, corrupt, and racist. Politically, his policies are reactionary and dangerous. He denies the very reality of climate change, which threatens the survival of humanity. While not personally a fascist, he has opened the door for fascists and works with them. Even just in terms of competence, for a politician he is uniquely ignorant of how the U.S. government works, at home and abroad, and is unwilling to learn from others. He could set off an international crisis just from ignorance and arrogance. Whatever the results of the election, millions of U.S. citizens will not accept such a person as their national leader. Working Class Vote?Yet a little less than half the voters did vote for Trump. (Somewhat less than half the eligible voters did not vote at all.) They had mixed motives. Some were out and out white supremacists. Many feared Latino immigrants and Muslim and Arab immigrants. Many hated Hillary for good and bad reasons, because she was an establishment politician and also because she was a woman. But also a great many reacted against the economic stagnation of the last decades, the end of the post-World War II prosperity, the lack of good jobs, the off-shoring of industry to low-wage countries, the loss of the “American dream.” Trump’s victory, such as it is, is sometimes blamed on the “working class.” But the working class is much broader than older white male industrial workers. It includes African-Americans and Latinos, who are mostly working class and who hated Trump. It included young workers, who rarely supported Trump. It included many of the “better-educated,” many of whom are white-collar workers (such as teachers). It included a lot of working people who did not vote for either Trump or Clinton, out of disgust for both. Overall, it was not so much that Trump brought out new white working class voters, but that Clinton lost many voters and voting groups which had previously voted for Obama. The Democrats really had very little to say to working people. Around 1970 the Democratic leaders had deliberately decided to stop looking to the working class and the unions, and to focus on the “professional” middle class. (See Price 2016.) It is usually safe for the Republicans to whip up their traditional base of small businesspeople, lower middle class people, better-off and prejudiced white workers, and religious fanatics. Even at their most hysterical, such forces do not threaten the capitalist system. This time, however, these got out of control. They nominated, and then elected, someone who was completely unsuited for the job of president. Still, they did not threaten capitalism. But it has always been dangerous for the Democrats to whip up their traditional base of the working class: workers who are white and People of Color, male and female, straight and LGBT, U.S.-born and immigrant. The workers’ interests clash with those of big business. Their needs require lowering the profits of the capitalist class. Their numbers make them a majority of the population (if we count everyone who works for a wage or salary, without being a supervisor). They have an enormous potential power outside of the voting booth. The workers run the machines and processes of production, transportation, communication, and all services. Democratically organized, in unions or councils, they could stop the society in its tracks and even start it up in a different way. As far as the Democrats are concerned, this must not happen; the working class must not become aware of its power. It is for these reasons that the Republicans can be vigorous to the point of nihilism in mobilizing their base to fight for their views, but the Democrats have been mild and compromising in their efforts, capitulating to the right again and again. However, the very results of this election shows the limitations of the Democrats’ methods, especially of channeling all opposition into elections. We cannot beat the greater evil by relying on the lesser evil. Not Our President!The limited, distorted, and corrupt system of U.S. “democracy” has produced this abomination of a Trump presidency. Now the political establishment is mostly trying to make its peace with Trump, if he will let it. The “Never Trump” Republicans have lined up for jobs in the new administration. President Obama has been making nice to Trump, saying that we must all hope that he “succeeds, because if he succeeds then we all succeed.” (We hope he fails.) Others are asking the public to keep an open mind. Meanwhile Trump has been appointing ignorant, vicious, crackpots to important posts in his government and tweeting inane and hostile comments. We anarchists and revolutionary anti-authoritarian socialists do not regard any president as “legitimate,” nor any government or state. Undoubtedly it is better to live under a capitalist limited democracy then under fascist or Stalinist totalitarianism. But either way, the people live under the rule of a tiny minority (the “one percent,” more or less), which takes the lion’s share of society’s wealth. The government is supposed to be democratic, but there is no pretense that the economy is anything but a set of top-down corporate dictatorships. A participatory, self-managed, radically democratic society would be drastically different from any form of capitalism and any form of state. But a movement has been growing—one which at least rejects the legitimacy of this new president. Right after the election results were known, demonstrations broke out all over the country. People are organizing anti-Trump groups in communities across the land. People have declared that they will resist any efforts to round up immigrants or to put Muslims on lists. Under pressure, city governments have announced that they will not cooperate with such measures, even if they lose money. Working class issues continue, particularly the unionization of fast-food workers and the fight for the $15 minimum wage. Black Lives Matter continues. The Standing Rock anti-pipeline struggle of Native Americans and environmentalists has won a recent victory but continues to fight. The issue of anti-fascism has been revived in people’s awareness. Dark days are ahead. The people of the U.S., working class and oppressed, are facing perhaps the greatest crisis of our history. The failed U.S. political and economic system has produced this evil Trump administration. Millions will not accept it. Anarchists and other revolutionary libertarian socialists will not accept it. We will encourage massive popular resistance in every area and in every way possible. References
Price, Wayne (2016). Party of Which People? Review of Thomas Frank, Listen, Liberal. http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29505?search_text=Wayn...Price Written for www.Anarkismo.net |
Front pageAmerican Anarchist and Wobbly killed by Turkey while fighting ISIS in Rojava Attaque fasciste sur la Croix Rousse et contre la librairie libertaire la Plume Noire Red November, Black November – An Anarchist Response to the Election 1986-2016: 30° anniversario di Alternativa Libertaria/fdca El feminismo es cuestión de vida o muerte ¡Contra el machismo dominante Anarquismo Militante! [Colombia] El NO se impuso, ¿qué sigue? Hamba kahle comrade Bobo Makhoba (1975-2016) Where to now, Zimbabwe? Beyond the “good” charismatic pastor. Contre la loi Travail: le bras de fer continue Announcement of Nationally Coordinated Prisoner Workstoppage for Sept 9, 2016 Opinião da CAB diante a atual conjuntura Brasileira ¿Habemus pacem? Los desafíos en el tránsito de La Habana a Colombia Inside the Zimbabwean Uprising La experiencia de Mujeres Libres: 80 años del surgimiento del feminismo anarquista organizado Con Lucha Y Organización Fortalecemos La Resistencia Algunas reflexiones en torno al poder y la institucionalidad a 80 años de la Revolución Española North America / Mexico | The Left | en Sun 18 Dec, 21:24 May Day In Vermont-Put People and The Planet First! 10:37 Mon 30 Apr 0 comments On May Day, 2012, march as a Popular Front in Montpelier, Vermont in support of: Organizing for America and the “Enthusiasm Gap” 18:50 Wed 06 Oct 0 comments WASHINGTON — Democrats desperately need other Democrats – to vote. – Liz Sidoti, of the Huffington Post Hundreds arrested, beaten and tear gassed as police repress protest at Toronto G20 16:30 Tue 29 Jun 1 comments At least 600 arrests took place at the G20 summit in Toronto as police used considerable force to break up protests. Media reports& video (below) indicate that many of the beaten were journalists covering the protest. The G20 was meeting to co-ordinate further attacks on the global working class. This is what the coded statements from the G20 about 'austerity budgets' and 'cutting deficits' will mean in practice. This despite the "risk that synchronised fiscal adjustment across several major economies could adversely impact the recovery" acknowledged in the final G20 communique. [Italiano] [Vermont, USA] Stop The Press! 01:24 Mon 07 Dec 2 comments The Montpelier based Catamount Tavern News, Vermont’s only union affiliated newspaper, has decided to shutdown the presses [Vermont, USA] Obiturary for an Underground Newspaper 01:21 Mon 07 Dec 0 comments Well folks, this is it: the last article of Catamount Tavern News. Vermont elects America's first socialist senator 17:39 Thu 09 Nov 5 comments Amidst the Democratic mid-term election victories on November 8th, an independent won the Senate race in Vermont. What is significant is that he is a self-proclaimed socialist and so the first socialist senator in US history. The previous best result in a Senate race by a socialist was in 1930 when Emil Seidel won 6% of the vote. Marcos on the Plan for the zapatista departure 07:14 Mon 19 Sep 0 comments zapatistas open the other campaign EZLN reveal details of new strategy 19:44 Tue 19 Jul 0 comments The EZLN has announced the end of the Red Alert due to the end of the consulta and the announcement of the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona. This set of communiques includes the re-opening of the Caracoles and details of the "Sixth Committee" which is to meet with people or organizations who do not participate in elections to form 'the other campaign'. Meetings will then be held in Chiapas of various sectors with the aim of issuing a common statement agreed by all on September 16. Upping the Anti editorial statement 17:27 Mon 18 Apr 0 comments Editoral statement of new Candian publication called 'Upping the Anti' published by the Autonomy & Solidarity website which "is an on-line network for anti-capitalists who believe that revolutionary transformation will come from workers and oppressed people self-organizing from below and not from the top down organizing of any state, party or union bureaucracy" Should the Left Call for a Third Party? Sep 07 0 comments There are non-anarchist radicals who advocate creating a new, third, party, to replace the Democrats at least. They share many of the values of anarchists. However anarchists regard this as a mistaken strategy. A New Vision or a New Reformism? Apr 01 2 comments There is a new approach on the U.S. Left, which rejects both capitalism and state socialism. In several ways it resembles anarchism. It has been promoted by The Next System Project, and has been critiqued recently by Sam Gindin--who makes some insightful comments, but also demonstrates limitations. The Attempted “Rehabilitation” of the Communist Party USA Feb 26 3 comments In recent decades, there have been efforts to "rehabilitate" the U.S. Communist Party as an historical model for the Left. Anti-authoritarian socialists and anarchists find this troubling. Whle the CP did some good things it also did some very bad things. A brief summary of its history demonstrates that and explains why this is. No Vote Counts: Avoiding the Trappings of Democratic Socialism Nov 21 0 comments As we engage in larger social movements, it can be easy to lose sight of our endgame and essentially function as a type of "social democrat." Here are some key reasons and methods for avoiding this, as well as countering the progressive election logic during voting season. Power to the People, Not Politicians! Nov 05 0 comments Campaigns teach by more than what is in their written programs. Even if the campaign was more explicitly radical, functionally it is teaching people that social change comes about through electing better politicians. The campaign has all the features of a mainstream election effort – adoration of a single personality, exaggeration of his “leadership”, meaningless pledges to “get results for you”. This is an elitist approach that reinforces the passivity of people by making someone else the “leader” who gets things done, instead of arguing for all of us to take control over our own lives. The activists and community members who have dived into the Ty Moore campaign are not prioritizing organizing one-on-ones to plan direct actions at work, at school, or in their neighborhoods, or discussing and debating how to replace the racist police with community militias or how narrow gender-roles stifle our humanity or how to build rank & file power against the union bureaucracy. They are rallying around “our guy” and training people to fundraise and to get out the vote. This is the main lesson that participants in the campaign are gaining: How to participate in this unjust system. more >>May Day In Vermont-Put People and The Planet First! Apr 30 Vermont Sierra Club 0 comments On May Day, 2012, march as a Popular Front in Montpelier, Vermont in support of: [Vermont, USA] Stop The Press! Dec 07 2 comments The Montpelier based Catamount Tavern News, Vermont’s only union affiliated newspaper, has decided to shutdown the presses EZLN reveal details of new strategy Jul 19 EZLN 0 comments The EZLN has announced the end of the Red Alert due to the end of the consulta and the announcement of the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona. This set of communiques includes the re-opening of the Caracoles and details of the "Sixth Committee" which is to meet with people or organizations who do not participate in elections to form 'the other campaign'. Meetings will then be held in Chiapas of various sectors with the aim of issuing a common statement agreed by all on September 16. Upping the Anti editorial statement Apr 18 Upping the Anti 0 comments Editoral statement of new Candian publication called 'Upping the Anti' published by the Autonomy & Solidarity website which "is an on-line network for anti-capitalists who believe that revolutionary transformation will come from workers and oppressed people self-organizing from below and not from the top down organizing of any state, party or union bureaucracy" |
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Jump To Comment: 1 2Yes, Trump and his circle are disgusting... but many of these protestors were willing to accept the war-mongering, lying, hawk Hillary Clinton (who also defended a sexual predator, in this case her husband) who is directly responsible for screwing beyond belief the Middle East, Haiti, etc. and who also supported the wall with Mexico. And many of these protestors are doing so because they want the aggressive democrat party to be back in power (responsible also of the worst situation of institutional violence against AfroAmericans in decades, or have you forgotten that Black Lives Matter too and not only for elections?) To what a degree these protests are being used to make sure a return of the democrats to power? I don't think anarchists should be involved in a "not my president" campaign that is a shopfront for the democrats. Who's our president? None. I am glad, very glad Clinton lost. The problem is that Trump won.
In response to JA, who thinks we should not join the anti-Trump movement.
First factually, many of the anti-Trump protestors did not support Clinton. Many of them did not vote for either one. Many were supporters of Sanders, who posed as a "democratic socialist", and had not followed him into support for Clinton. Many others voted for Clinton, "holding their noses" (blue clothespins were passed around--literally) in opposition to Trump, not in support of Clinton.
But JA is right that many did have illusions in Clinton. In fact, very, very, few of the anti-Trump protestors were revolutionary anarchists!
Yet many are genuinely shocked that such a person as Trump could be elected, contrary to the popular vote, due to various distortions and manipulations of bourgeois democracy. They really had not realized that this could happen (unlike JA and myself).
I want to build a bridge between the tiny minority which is revolutionary anarchist and the large number of people who are genuinely appalled by the results of the U.S. election system, who are really outraged and feeling disloyal toward the government. I won't do this by covering up my rejection of Clinton (as I do not in the article). But I am glad to join with thousands and millions of people who want to fight against the government. Of course, this puts anarchists in conflict with liberals who want to channel all protest into the Democrats. JA's approach would give up this opening, surrender the anti-Trump movement to the uncontested domination of the liberals. That would be a big mistake.