Who really speaks for us?

 

The truth and reality about U.S. politics is that neither ruling-class party speaks for the working class. When we exclude the fancy language Trump's election campaign is based upon “Greed is good and regulations bad.” Contrary to the rightwing Biden is not a “socialist” nor is he the FDR New Deal liberal his own supporters like to portray him as. His economic program is mainstream capitalist. Trump is no threat to the Washington "establishment" just as Wall St has nothing to fear from Biden. Far-right leaders historically always tap that type of genuine anger to serve their reactionary goals. It is not an exaggeration to say that Biden will be the best Republican president in modern times. His nomination as the Democratic Party candidate to stand against Trump has perhaps effectively demobilized the liberal left, to an extent that no Republican president could ever do. Who speaks for the working class and poor? No capitalist political party does. There is no electoral solution to class warfare. It requires a new types of organization and parties and a willingness to take whatever steps are necessary to bring fundamental change. 

On November 3, progressives will not vote for an ally . They will vote for a preferred enemy. 

 We know how the story goes - hope and promises of change but which lead to policies that reinforce rather than reverse trends towards greater inequality and state violence. Nevertheless, Sanders, Chomsky, Angela Davis all line up to extol Americans to vote for the lesser evil, even if Biden is still an evil to be opposed when or if he is elected.  Progressives have painted Trump as a mortal threat to democracy and even to the future of humankind. Being told you have the chance to choose between two radically different enemies to fight for your survival makes the choice and the motivation to vote far clearer even if the dichotomy is a false one.

Whatever Biden's faults and they concede he has many, we are told we must still vote for him regardless. Despite the last two Democratic presidencies, Clinton and Obama, entrenched the very forces that have enabled the disasters of the Bush and now Trump presidencies rather than act in any way as transformative. America was a country beset by multiple interlocked crises that seem beyond the possibility of a solution by ordinary mainstream politics - a sentiment which helped get Trump elected into the White House in the first place. Many disaffected voters are no lining up behind the liberal dog-whistles. They are becoming to understand that the system is simply too rotten to reform, that Clinton-Bush-Obama-Trump-Biden are merely the see-saw political-economic system of the United States. The lofty political rhetoric from right and left is something they have heard just too many times before. While Trump offers bread and circus media shows to his base of adoring followers, the Democratic Party is too timid to even embrace policies that the vast majority of its voters support such as Medicare 4 All and free college education.

This election is not about voting for the president who will lead us out of the darkness towards the light, as Biden kept suggesting but for the Left it is about choosing which enemy they would rather spend the next four years fighting.

The tragedy for the U.S. working class is that there is so little pressure from below on the powers-that-be for the moment. People who are facing massive insecurity in their employment and their families’ survival right now are generally paralyzed by fear, or waiting for some kind of salvation from Trump or Biden and as always the current debates over salvation take place within strictly capitalist bounds. The role of socialists is not to assume position as supplicant begging palliatives but to build movements to change society. This will not be quick or easy, but it is most urgent for America and the world. There can be no easy victories but it is now time that the workers' voices are heard and take center stage of politics. It is the harsh truth that those of us who would prioritize human needs and democracy over capitalist profit and corporate power do not have a political party capable of mounting a serious challenge to austerity in the electoral arena. Our own, the World Socialist Party is presently ill-equipped to take on such a role other than an agitational Marxist study group.

The central issue facing our society is how to respond to the deepest crisis of global capitalism since the 1930s. Unfortunately, we won’t be hearing a substantive debate about this. The Democratic and Republican parties both favor making working-class people pay to bail out the corporations and get capitalism back on its feet, in order to preserve the wealth and the rights of banks, large corporations, and those few families who live off profits and interest.

In there different approaches both Trump and Biden  asks us to lower our hopes and expectations of a decent life for our families and communities. And it seeks to transform political and economic institutions in order to be sure that workers and governments will remain “disciplined” into the future.

OUR SOCIALIST VISION for changing society begins from the notion that “the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself.” That argument, advanced by Marx and Engels long ago in the Communist Manifesto, resonates with us. In our view, the job facing socialists today is to build a social movement that can challenge the profit system. 

The World Socialist Party seeks to secure a future that neither the two candidates for president, nor the parties they represent, has the interest to create. 

The Sweatshops of LA

  Sweatshops and mistreatment are thriving western cities like Los Angeles, California, where labor rights violations are occurring every day. Los Angeles is home to over 50,000 garment workers and is the largest garment manufacturing hub in the United States. 

Ayesha Barenblat, raises awareness around these injustices in her recent documentary 'Made In America', a short film which takes you into multiple LA clothing factories, talking to local garment makers and a labour conditions inspector, about what’s really going on behind closed doors. The aim is to highlight various forms of exploitation which garment workers in America have been subjected to for years.

Ayesha explains, “When we think of fast fashion production, the United States might not be the first country to come to mind. However, the truth is that even in America, garment workers are being thrust into vulnerable situations and are being taken advantage of on a daily basis. We thought it was time to look deeply at American manufacturing and push past the smoke and mirrors to see what is really going on in our own backyards.” 

Under piece-pay rate, garment workers only receive around $0.3 for each piece they create. This in turn translates to about $5 an hour - which comes out at way below California’s $15 an hour minimum wage.

In addition to this, garment workers are usually paid in cash and rates are set and changed by their employers each week. Today, it’s common industry practice for employers to reduce already promised piece rates. This means that garment workers have no clarity on what their take home pay will be week by week. The piece rate system thus results in hazardous working conditions as garment workers race against the clock to complete as many items as possible for maximum pay. Ayesha explains that they rarely take bathroom breaks and end up taking their work home to get help from their families.

"Garment workers in the USA have long worked in subhuman working conditions," says Ayesha. “You need to know that people, not machines, make your clothing. Start by asking, ‘who made my clothes.’ By keeping in mind the origins of how your clothes are made, you begin to form a connection with the human hands that made them.” 

The dangers of producing garments in such conditions have only heightened during Covid-19 as workers have not had time to sanitise work stations or wash their hands, leading to outbreaks inside factories.

“Governments, brands, and factories should address issues in sweatshops, but consumers need to be a part of the movement too,” Ayesha adds, “we all play a part in shifting the industry for the better. The fact is, companies respond to the demands of the consumer, and they will prioritise what the consumer wants. Their every decision revolves around you (the consumer) and your decisions on where you will spend your money. If enough consumers show a great demand for ethical and sustainable products and transparency, it forces companies to take action.” 

The Garment Worker Center (GWC) in LA has been working with Remake to transform the fashion industry in order to eliminate sweatshop labour. GWC is currently leading an anti-sweatshop movement across the state to improve conditions for tens of thousands of local garment workers.

On 29th June 2020, the Garment Worker Protection Act (SB1399) was passed by the California Senate with a 5 to 1 vote. "SB1399 is designed by workers, to close loopholes in the law that today result in workers being paid well below the California minimum wage, and for brands like Fashion Nova and Ross to benefit from this wage theft,” explains Ayesha. “This bill will prevent brands and retailers from benefiting from the layers of subcontracting to avoid accountability under law. In addition, the bill will eliminate piece rate, and instead assure that workers are paid California’s minimum wage. The passing of the bill is a major win for garment workers and a game changer for the fashion industry overall.”

The Garment Worker Protection Act will also serve as a powerful piece of legislation for other states, particularly New York, another hub for domestic manufacturing.

https://www.euronews.com/living/2020/08/17/new-documentary-exposes-subhuman-working-conditions-in-la-sweatshops

Capitalism is bad for your mental health

A study found that the UK has experienced what lead researcher Prof Nick Freemantle called “a massive increase, a profound increase” in anxiety, which began in 2008 when the worldwide crash caused by bad bank loans triggered large-scale unemployment and financial insecurity. The findings emerged in one of the biggest studies of anxiety undertaken in the UK for many years, examining trends in diagnosis and treatment by GPs since 1998 by analysing 6.6 million patients at 795 practices across the country.

Anxiety has trebled among young adults, affecting 30% of women aged 18 to 24, and has increased across the board among men and women under 55  with the financial crash, austerity, Brexit, climate change and social media blamed for massive rises in the condition. Some of those events may well have “contributed to feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness, coming as they did after years of financial insecurity”, elaborated Freemantle, a professor of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, and director of the Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit at University College London.

In 2008, 8.42% of women aged 18 to 24 suffered anxiety, the study found, more than trebling to 30.33% by 2018. The proportion of women aged 25 to 34 with anxiety more than doubled over that time, from 9.08% to 21.69%, while there were smaller increases among women aged 35 to 44 and 45 to 54.

The incidence of anxiety in young and middle-aged men followed the same trajectory, although fewer had been diagnosed when the study period started, a gender divide that has not narrowed. Generalised anxiety disorder trebled from 4.95% to 14.88% among men aged 18 to 24, more than doubled from 9.08% to 21.69% among those aged 25 to 34 and rose to a lesser degree among those aged between 35 and 54.

The surge was accompanied by a big rise during 2009-14 in sick days workers in England and Wales took off due to stress, depression and anxiety. Six in 10 (62%) of those with anxiety also had depression, they found.

“Given the steep increases in anxiety revealed by this research, and the sheer number of people affected, it is now clear that Britain has a really serious and worsening problem with anxiety, which can have devastating effects on people’s lives. And these data stopped just before the Covid-19 pandemic; we can only speculate on how they would look now.” Experts warned that the profound impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on people’s health, jobs and daily lives almost certainly meant anxiety had increased even further this year.

“Rates of anxiety crept up a bit from 1998. But suddenly there was this explosion in 2008 in both the absolute numbers and also in particular in women and especially young women. That’s when the increase went through the roof,” Freemantle explained. “These findings illustrate the human cost of what was going on in society at the time – that is, a recession. The 2008 crash was characterised by unemployment, especially youth unemployment. Young people who were just starting out in adult life had the rug pulled out from under them," he added.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/14/uk-has-experienced-explosion-in-anxiety-since-2008-study-finds

Strikes and the Public

 

POLITICIANS FIGHT FOR THEIR INTERESTS, WE MUST FIGHT FOR OURS

 Trump offers us four more years. Every reactionary force in the country – from white supremacists, to Christian evangelical preachers, to Fox TV– is doing its utmost to assure a Trump victory. The right wing nightly dreams of what it can do under another Trump administration. Within the Democratic Party there is a growing polarization, with some Democrats moving to the right, but others being swinging more leftward. Today the conservative trend have very much the upper hand under Biden, and this is likely to continue. But more and more of us are refusing to vote. Time and time again we’ve seen the promises and phony solutions of both main parties turn bitter as they sweetened the honey for their Big Business friends in Wall St.

Each day working people face the reality of no secure jobs, bad working conditions, poor health care, dilapidated housing and bad education for our kids. We see our whole lives going down the drain. But there’s a growing consciousness among working people that we don’t have to take things as they are. Workers are walking off the job. People are taking to the streets. It is scaring the rich rulers of this country to see that workers can unite to fight back, even ignoring their laws when need be. The wealthy elite are trying to offset the anger by telling us to vote for their front-men. To keep us under control, they tell us, “everything will work out if you have trust in the system and use your ’right’ to vote for the best man to do the job.” The media does its best to create enthusiasm so voters feel that they really are making a big decision in their lives.

Many voted for Trump. Their reason? “He may be a crook, but at least he gets things done.” His whole campaign revolves around his image as the Action Man; Mr. Tough Guy who goes against the Washington establishment to get what he wants; and then parades his list of miniscule accomplishments. But really what’s there to thank Trump for? It was labor that did those things anyway and he just took the credit. Why should we thank him for the things we deserve anyway? The people who should be grateful to Trump are his rich cronies he’s been serving all along with tax cuts and corporate welfare. it’s most likely if Trump  grabs victory on Nov. 3 he’ll be up to his dirty tricks again against the people.

The Republican platform is not stupid, from the point of view of the Republican leaders. The Republican platform is stupid and dishonest? Agreed. But this same stupid and dishonest platform has carried dismay and confusion into the ranks of the Democratic Party. Biden promises us good times ahead. Like two hoodlum gangsters, Trump and Biden, face each other down. In campaign speeches and ads, they concentrate all emphasis on the crimes of the other, and let their own virtues rest on vague and noble generalities that can never be pinned down. For honest men and women, there is no real choice between racketeers. The fight has got to be against all gangsters and gangsterism.

It is a popular myth that this is an affluent society, that the people of this country have the highest standard of living in the world, or for that matter, in all history.  Yet it is true that individuals in this country are fabulously rich and that the nation as a whole possesses an enormous quantity of wealth. So how is it that so many are so poor? we see that the wealth of this country is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals. And it also turns out though that the wealth of this nation is in large part the wealth of the world. There is the ruling elite of America, and the rest of us must subordinate ourselves to their interests. We depend on them for employment. If we’re not employed, we depend on them for our “hand-out”, whatever form it may take. The elite make the laws and these “laws” include  tax exemptions for the rich.

 We have to realize that all our different fights are really one fight, that against a common enemy. We have to stand strong and together, for in unity there is strength. We must galvanize others into taking action. The World Socialist Party see our task as one of organizing people, of winning new people to the struggle against capitalism. Political liberty is rooted in economic freedom. The one who controls and owns the means that sustain my life, owns and controls me. I am his slave and in no sense free. You are divided at the ballot box upon alleged issues, issues in which you have not the slightest interest.

Name Change or Society Change?

 New Zealand's Maori Party said on Monday that the country should be renamed to better reflect the country's indigenous culture. They want the nation to be called "Aotearoa". The word means 'the land of white cloud' in the nation's indigenous language. They want the name change to take effect by 2026. Efforts to rename the Pacific nation has gone on for years. The name New Zealand comes from the Netherlands' colonial era, with the country named after the Dutch province of Zeeland.

Both English and Maori are official languages in New Zealand. The Maoris are the largest ethnic minatory, representing 16.5 percent of the population. But those with indigenous roots complain that English has become too dominant and ignores the country's history.

"It is unacceptable that only 3 per cent of the country can speak its official language," Maori Party candidate Rawiri Waititi was quoted as saying.

Apostasy Day

On 22nd August, thousands participated in Apostasy Day. Overall, 83,000 people engaged in the day reaching 233,000 people.

 Apostasy (ردة‎ or ارتداد) is the abandonment or renunciation of religion. It is punishable by death in Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, UAE, and Yemen and a criminal offence in many more Muslim-majority countries. In Pakistan, a disbelief in God is punishable with the death penalty under a blasphemy law. In Saudi Arabia, atheism is equated with terrorism. In some countries without the death penalty, Islamists kill those deemed apostates, including in Bangladesh and Muslim-minority India. In many countries, such as in Europe and North America, apostates can face threats, shunning and honour-based violence, including from their families. Individuals from Orthodox Jewish, Christian, Hindu and other backgrounds can also face shunning and violence for apostasy.

22 August is being chosen as Apostasy Day because it is the UN Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. Moreover, late August marks the start of a second wave of mass executions of apostates in Iran in 1988 after brief “trials”. Thousands who responded negatively to questions such as ‘Are you a Muslim?’, ‘Do you believe in Allah?’, ‘Is the Holy Qur’an the Word of Allah?’, ‘Do you accept the Holy Muhammad to be the Seal of the Prophets?’, ‘Do you fast during Ramadan?’, ‘Do you pray and read the Holy Qur’an?’ were summarily executed.

The newly established Apostasy Day, renew calls for the:

• commemoration of the victims of apostasy laws
• an end to the criminalisation and the death penalty for apostasy in countries under Islamic laws
• an end to shunning, threats and honour-related violence from families of apostates
• affirmation of freedom of thought, conscience and belief as well as opinion and expression in compliance with the United Nation Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 18 & 19).

https://www.ex-muslim.org.uk/2020/08/22-august-2020-first-international-apostasy-day/

Out of sight, out of mind

 Decades of neglect have contributed to a nursing home crisis that, coupled with the coronavirus, has caused countless deaths and untold suffering. America has been failing the elderly for years. There were more than 1,246,000 people in certified American nursing homes in 2019. That’s more than the population of eight U.S. states. But they have no senators, no members of Congress, nobody to speak for them. Too often, they are “out of sight, out of mind” when important decisions are made.  New York State Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, ordered hospitals to return older COVID-19 patients to nursing homes, a  decision that contributed to the death toll.

In what is probably an underestimate over 60,000 American nursing home residents and workers have died from COVID-19. Many more fallen sick. While the pandemic has made the lives of nursing home residents worse, Long-term factors which have had an impact includes an over-reliance on the private sector for social services and Medicaid’s often onerous rules for nursing home coverage, including “spend down” rules that require an older person to use up their assets and “excess” income before qualifying for nursing home assistance, under strict and often complicated rules over how the money can be spent. Medicaid pays for about two-thirds of all Americans in nursing homes — and homes aren't cheap. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average nursing home cost over $80,000 a year in 2016. Nursing home life is expensive. As of 2016, the average monthly cost was $6,844 for a shared room, and additional care needs can drive the cost much higher. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/nursing-home-covid-19-death-tolls-reveal-america-s-shameful-ncna1237023

The Humpty Dum-Dee Election

 

A uneducated worker who rebels is wiser than the most learned scholar who writes apologies for his chains.

Reforms will not abolish capitalism. Instead, reformists demand the re-distribution of profits. The World Socialist Party go further. We demand the abolition of the profit system altogether. We recognize the advances made by the capitalist system. The next and logical step is workers to assume common ownership of production and democratic control of it. Wage-labor does not mean prosperity, only a regular pay-check for those who aren’t "troublemakers." 

When a ruling class is in a crisis, it cannot tolerate its government, its executive committee, posing as a friend of labor. This is too dangerous. It demands that its government become the overseer of labor. The ruling class does not always use such harsh language, of course. In the first stages it employs a milder tone. Hence the demand for “national unity.” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: “equality of sacrifice.” Carried out in practice – and practice is what the ruling class insists on – national unity is a demand for the working class to do all of the sacrificing, it is a demand for the subordination of working people to the ruling elite. 

Our business is to assist in the emancipation of our fellow-workers. This is our work. There must be no class doomed to toil through life as mere workers at wages. Humanity condemned to a world in which private property, the state and hard work are necessary consequences of the capitalist system.

Whoever wins the election, Tweedledum Trump or Tweedledee Biden, Wall Street will continue business as usual. A worker in revolt is wiser than the learned scholar who writes apologies for his chains.

Instead of being exploited by red-white-and-blue merchant prince, American workers may choose to be  exploited by a robber baron.  Marx and Engels said: The executive of the modern government is nothing but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole capitalist class. Most workers still think they can somehow use the capitalists’ own executive committee to get their own interests. But surely because labor has voted Democratic and Republican, we cannot expected it is fated to always continue voting Democratic and Republican. Workers should be fighting their own enemies not the ‘enemies’ of their enemies. The working class as a class is still capitalist-minded. It must yet take its first steps towards its own emancipation. Once one adopts the standpoint of the “lesser evil” theory we has conceded everything to Joe Biden and every stooge in the DNC and all the protestations about the value and necessity of a socialist party are reduced to zero. The Democratic and Republican Parties are both instruments of the capitalist class and therefore have the same essential philosophy. It would be futile to deny that the “lesser-evil” theory is alluring and easily deceptive or to overlook the fact that millions of workers will go to the polls in November and cast their ballots for Biden on this basis. Unless a socialist party organizes the dissatisfaction of the American people, other movements will arise to direct it along an anti-worker path.

 Change, not preservation of the capitalist state, is a basic component of socialism. There exists the myth of real difference between the two parties.  People choose the lesser of two evils, and sometimes the difference between the two evils is so small in their minds that they will choose because of the personality of the presidential contestants. The World Socialist Party believes it needs to fight for the interests of our fellow-workers against whoever occupies the Oval Office, and therefore will never endorse either the Republican or the Democratic Party. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are still twins even when one wears the smirking mask of Trump and the other, the smile of Biden.

It is in this light that the WSPUS put forward the argument – ’don’t vote on November 3^rd - ORGANISE!’

End Lesser Evilism

 The election in November must become an opportunity for the World Socialist Party to point out that democracy is an illusion for working people under capitalism, and teach the workers that they must rely upon themselves. The actual importance of the election is to determine which representative of the capitalist class will become the national CEO of the United States for the purpose of exploiting and oppressing the working people. It is what Marx call the “executive committee for the ruling class.”

 The two-party system is the two-headed monster of Big Business in government. Despite the pandemic the good times are flowing again for Wall Street and U.S. corporate profits have rarely if ever looked as lucrative. But it’s a brutal moment for working people, with very much worse possibly to come.

 Reneging on campaign promises is standard conduct on the part of the capitalist parties of both names. Between Trump and Biden there will no doubt be cries of “vote for the lesser evil”, a familiar refrain in every election. The working class cannot fight capitalism through the Democratic Party. The Democrats are a big party of the capitalists just like the Republicans. Biden is the bipartisan choice of the capitalists. To fight Trump, the working class must break free from the influence of the Democratic Party and organize its own independent political movement.

In America the idea of socialism is one of misconception founded on misrepresentation. The capitalists have used all manner of differences within the working class — differences of skill, gender, religion, ethnicity, skin color, for example — to divide the working class, to make one group hostile to another so that workers will not see themselves as a class and act in unity against the capitalists. Trump has overtly encouraged violence against Hispanic immigrants, Chinese-Americans, and African-Americans people. All three groups are made up overwhelmingly of workers. Yet, more than a few white workers support this and some have followed through with acts of racist violence.

 In the United States, employers have always tried to divide workers. Many had a policy of allocating jobs according to ethnicity, putting working groups together who spoke different languages and often had historic animosities. The idea was that this would make solidarity of all the workers very difficult to achieve. When people of diverse identities work together, they inevitably come to see each other as workers and full human beings deserving to take control of their lives and society at large. Workers are not just workers but full human beings, with communities, interests of all kinds, and concerns that go beyond work. All parts of life must be part of working-class organizational struggles. Housing, the environment, health care, family life, schooling, leisure, transportation, you name it. Workers will be much more attracted to such organizations than just to those that focus entirely on work.

Black workers were typically consigned to the worst, most dangerous jobs and were always paid much less than white workers. Given the history of slavery in the United States and the endless propaganda proclaiming the innate inferiority of Black people, this workplace discrimination fed right into white racial prejudices. If Black workers performed work no one else wanted to do, and for lower wages, then this was surely a sign that this is all they deserved to have.

The capitalist system, in its entirety, is the obstacle to emancipation from all inhumanity, indignity, wretchedness, barbarity, and exploitation.  In the electoral arena, one section of the exploiting class lends support to protesters demanding justice and dignity in order to settle a factional fight, while another section of the capitalist class pulls in another part of the population into its fold, cementing divisive politics from the top. Organizing along color or identity lines fails to lead down an emancipatory path but rather, ultimately play into the hands of the exploiting class. We must make certain that the working class is not divided internally. 

As revolutionary socialists the WSPUS declares that the evils of capitalism cannot be overcome without ending the system of capitalism. It has  actively worked to generate a cohesive and class-consciousness among fellow-workers, to build unity and break down prejudices within the working class. Political parties without a class point of view, without a goal against exploitation, and presenting no analysis of the way the working class is exploited assist in the ruling-class deceptions aim to win the support of the exploited classes by confusing the workers in them.