(Are Cynthia McKinney and the Green Party a real alternative for American workers and youth?)As I posted last night, one my biggest gripes with sections of the American revolutionary left (including the US branch of the IMT) is that they are undergoing a reorientation away from the construction of a new revolutionary worker's movement and towards the left-social democrats of the Green Party USA. Two of the more prominent revolutionary socialist groups to have backed the Green Party this year are the Workers International League (the American branch of the IMT) and Solidarity. So we must ask ourselves, is the Green Party USA the best alternative out there for workers and revolutionary change? Also what is going on with current attempts to unify the campaigns of several American revolutionary socialist groupings?
So to the first question, does the Green Party represent the best interests of the workers and revolution in the United States? I would have to say no, especially when we throw in the idea of revolution. While I'll admit that the Greens are far more progressive than the Democrats, (just see here and here), and they certainly are at the forefront of the battle to protect the environment (something all real socialists support), they are still broadly a left-social democrat institution. Now, I know right now you might be saying "but I really like the Green Party's platform", hell so do I, it has many great points to it, and as I said, it is certainly far more progressive and left than even the most extreme Democrats like Dennis Kucinich, but the intrinsic problem with the Greens is that they have not come to grips with the systemic nature of the capitalist problem, even as it pertains to the environmental question. At the moment they still are in the mode of trying to reform capitalism into a cleaner, nicer, less-heartless variety, but once they realize that capitalism is irreformable I fully believe that their platform will shift more to the left. The Green Party does not offer up the fundamental revolutionary change that is really needed to emancipate the working class. So why support a non-revolutionary organization when well established revolutionary parties and movements already exist?
Which leads me right into my next question, what about the ongoing efforts to unite the various campaigns on the American revolutionary left? Since the 2000 election cycle in the US, there has been talk by various groups about the possibility of building a more united campaign (though not necessarily the merger of parties) in order to better present a socialist alternative to the current parties of the bosses. This year saw the most concerted effort (though it still fell way short) towards this end, as the Peace and Freedom Party, Socialist Party USA and Freedom Socialist Party attempted have a joint campaign. While Brian Moore (of SP-USA) did not get the nomination from the PFP (it went instead to Ralph Nader, and he was also competing against Cynthia McKinney and Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation), his running mate Stewart Alexander is a prominent member of the PFP. Hopefully in later years we can begin to see even greater integration between groups like SP-USA, PFP, FSP and also others like PSL and the Socialist Workers Party.
To me, while we have this type of broad effort going on it is backwards and counter-productive for groups like the Workers International League and Solidarity to support the social democratic campaigns of the Green Party. Hopefully in the next election cycle either the Greens will shift more to the left, or the revolutionaries in the WIL and Solidarity will realize that backing social democrats, while it may be more progressive than backing the Democrats, it does not further the goal of a worker's revolution.
So to the first question, does the Green Party represent the best interests of the workers and revolution in the United States? I would have to say no, especially when we throw in the idea of revolution. While I'll admit that the Greens are far more progressive than the Democrats, (just see here and here), and they certainly are at the forefront of the battle to protect the environment (something all real socialists support), they are still broadly a left-social democrat institution. Now, I know right now you might be saying "but I really like the Green Party's platform", hell so do I, it has many great points to it, and as I said, it is certainly far more progressive and left than even the most extreme Democrats like Dennis Kucinich, but the intrinsic problem with the Greens is that they have not come to grips with the systemic nature of the capitalist problem, even as it pertains to the environmental question. At the moment they still are in the mode of trying to reform capitalism into a cleaner, nicer, less-heartless variety, but once they realize that capitalism is irreformable I fully believe that their platform will shift more to the left. The Green Party does not offer up the fundamental revolutionary change that is really needed to emancipate the working class. So why support a non-revolutionary organization when well established revolutionary parties and movements already exist?
Which leads me right into my next question, what about the ongoing efforts to unite the various campaigns on the American revolutionary left? Since the 2000 election cycle in the US, there has been talk by various groups about the possibility of building a more united campaign (though not necessarily the merger of parties) in order to better present a socialist alternative to the current parties of the bosses. This year saw the most concerted effort (though it still fell way short) towards this end, as the Peace and Freedom Party, Socialist Party USA and Freedom Socialist Party attempted have a joint campaign. While Brian Moore (of SP-USA) did not get the nomination from the PFP (it went instead to Ralph Nader, and he was also competing against Cynthia McKinney and Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation), his running mate Stewart Alexander is a prominent member of the PFP. Hopefully in later years we can begin to see even greater integration between groups like SP-USA, PFP, FSP and also others like PSL and the Socialist Workers Party.
To me, while we have this type of broad effort going on it is backwards and counter-productive for groups like the Workers International League and Solidarity to support the social democratic campaigns of the Green Party. Hopefully in the next election cycle either the Greens will shift more to the left, or the revolutionaries in the WIL and Solidarity will realize that backing social democrats, while it may be more progressive than backing the Democrats, it does not further the goal of a worker's revolution.
2 comments:
The nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party will not be decided until the convention of August 2-3 in Sacramento, CA. The presidential primary election of January, in which Nader received the most votes, is not binding on the party.
Thanks for the correction.
I should have clarified that I am solely a member of SP-USA and not PFP, so I was not aware that the primary was non-binding.
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