En Passant

If unions, advocates for the elderly and health care activists want to draw a line against the Washington establishment’s threats, they would have millions standing behind them.

But taking such a stand will require recognizing that the austerity drive in Washington is being carried out by both parties – and that working people have to confront the Democratic White House every bit as much as the Republican Congress.

Lance Selfa, author of The Democrats: A Critical History, unravels in Socialist Worker US the myths circulating about the 1 January “fiscal cliff” and explains what’s really at stake – far-reaching and harmful attacks on the social safety net.
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The US Presidential election is a choice between two representatives of big business. Romney offers a shit sandwich. Obama asks if you want fries with it. The task is to fight the one percent and build an alternative. Occupy gave us a glimpse of the possibilities. Winning the immediate fight and building that alternative, as Occupy and now the Chicago teachers’ strike shows, can only be done on the streets and in the workplaces, through demonstrations and strikes.