Dear Friend,
As Election Day 2020 approaches, multiple crises are wreaking havoc across the country. The pandemic that has taken more than a million lives across the globe has triggered an economic crisis that will deepen, not resolve, in the months ahead. The consequences of global warming are manifesting more and more acutely. Political polarization continues to escalate, with protesters who are demanding racial justice facing violence both from police and white supremacists, egged on by Trump. And the blows are falling hardest on Black people, others of color, women, and poor people, as they always do.
In this tempest, the “lesser evil” argument is being promoted frenetically. The rationale is that Trump is just too dangerous to do anything other than vote for his Democratic Party opponent. The same case was made when Nixon ran, and Reagan, and the Bushes senior and junior.
Yes, Trump is more openly and crassly pushing the supremacy of the wealthy white elite than his predecessors. But it is precisely because the stakes are higher today that workers and poor folks cannot afford to give one iota of credibility to the Democratic Party and its ability to solve 21st-century problems.
Substituting Biden for Trump will not restore the millions of jobs that have been lost, nor empower communities to hold police accountable, nor wrest stolen wealth out of the hands of the uber-rich, nor result in the forceful and immediate action needed to check the ravages of global warming. The Democrats have a long history of war-mongering and betraying the needs of working and oppressed people. And this is not fixable! They are wholly committed to the capitalist system, with all its inequity and barbarity.
The truth is, elections are a scam, propping up the illusion of democracy, which is actually denied to the working-class majority. And the longer workers continue to buy into this rigged game by voting for one of the two ruling-class parties, the farther off meaningful change will be.
For this election, FSP has studied the platforms and records of the anti-capitalist candidates for president, and our recommendation is to write in for Jeff Mackler and union activist Anne Montague of Socialist Action (SA) as the best option. Their campaign demands, for example, disarming the police and cutting their funding; rebuilding poor neighborhoods and tribal lands under community control; creating a massive public works program at top union wages; reducing the work week to create jobs; ending all forms of discrimination against women and LGBTQ+ people; establishing free, universal, nationalized healthcare; building quality housing costing no more than 25 percent of income; taxing the rich; shutting down the war machine; and addressing the climate catastrophe by nationalizing big oil and agribusiness under workers’ control.
There are issues on which FSP disagrees with Socialist Action, including SA’s support for repressive regimes that are supposedly anti-imperialist, like Bashar Assad’s in Syria. But in this election, SA presents an independent, working-class vision worth backing.
Whatever happens on November 3, or in the upheavals that may follow Election Day, the explosive issues of 2020 will still remain, and neither of the twin parties of capitalism has any intention or capacity to solve them. It’s clearly up to us who believe in freedom and a better future to join together to fight for oppressed and working people.
As the election approaches, the Freedom Socialist Party will be organizing to defend democratic rights for working people and continuing to fight for the socialist world everyone deserves. If you would like to discuss these issues, attend a study group or event, volunteer or get involved, please give me a call at (206) 985-4621, email fspus@socialism.com, or make an appointment to stop by the National Office. Read more about us at socialism.com and on Facebook/fspUS.
In solidarity and struggle,
Doug Barnes
National Secretary
Freedom Socialist Party
