By Simon Gallagher – La Marx US
The candidacies of Joe Biden and Donald Trump represent and defend the interests of the ruling classes. Their candidacies serve the interests of bankers, millionaires, Wall Street, and Pentagon bosses. Both parties are responsible for the growing poverty and inequality of our people, as well as for the war crimes that are perpetrated against the peoples in Palestine, Ukraine, and in the past in Iraq, or Vietnam. Don’t vote for them! Annul your vote, vote blank, or abstention in the 2024 presidential elections!
U.S. imperialism is going through a great crisis
The next elecions are taking place in the midst of a huge crisis of the U.S. imperialist state. But this crisis is not the product of the rise of China, or Russia, or the “end of the dollar,” the explanations formulated by the “Decoupling Theory” or other similar charlatanisms that are not real, nor do they explain what is really happening. The current imperialist crisis is the result of the revolutionary world upsurge of the working class and the peoples of the world that is hitting to Democrats and Republicans mercilessly, and as well as the collapse of the capitalist world system that has no solution in sight. To read our analysis about the “decoupling theory” click here.
All the counterrevolutionary policy of both imperialist parties is completely in crisis. Today there is no global agreement or “world order” that gives a strategy to the ruling classes, on the contrary, there is a lack of control and complete disorder in the world situation, and the struggle of our workers, as well as of our people, has put capitalist governments in crisis. Democrats and Republican capitalists governements has made a trully disaster between our workers and people, from the beginning of world capitalist crisis in the 2008/ 2009, the number of people living in poverty is approaching the 40 million people, an universe equivalent to the total population of many countries in the world .
While the 1% of Wall Street oligarchy is more rich every day for the 99% there are inequality, inflation, unemployment, indebtedness, and poor health. The vast majority of people living in poverty have less education and end up unemployed, as well as higher incarceration rates have also been observed with one in five millennials living in poverty. But even these official data are lies, the poverty data are much higher barely made up by unemployment benefit programs, or million living under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as Food Stamp Program (FSP)
Political revolution is destroying the oldier capitalist parties
This provokes the hatred of the people against all the political and social leaders who defend capitalism. The process of rupture, distancement and disillusionment in the old parties of sectors of the people, to the extent that they are hit by the crisis of capitalism, is called Political Revolution. It is a worldwide phenomenon in which millions move away and turn their backs on the old organizations, which provokes the crisis of bourgeois democracy. This implies an advance in the consciousness of our people, who every day believe less in the old treacherous leaderships of the mass movement.
Both parties, the Democratic and Republican are the head of the world Counterrevolutionary Front. Your crisis, provoke a crisis of leadership, a bewilderment among its leading cadres, and a crisis of its institutions surprised at every step by the events that they fail to prevent such as the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Palestinian insurrection of October 7, 2023, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, or the explosion of the global women’s movement. The crisis is developed in the midst of a process of rejection of global institutions such as the UN, WHO, IMF, G7, G20, Davos, etc., whose summits receive a massive repudiation.
At the same time, the candidacies of Biden and Trump are the expression of the decadence of the ruling classes, the world counterrevolutionary front lacks bourgeois leaders with prestige. Today it’ doesn’t exist a Roosevelt, nor a Kennedy, nor an Eisenhower, no voice with political authority, on the contrary, the bourgeois leaders are a complete mediocrity, repudiated and rejected by wid sectors of population. The ruling classes are aware of this situation and have panicked which was evident after the presidential debate Jun 27 2024.
The political revolution is destroying the false left
A serious crisis is hitting all leftist organizations in the world, and our country is no exception. The leaders of 99% of the leftist groups have adopted a policy of integration, support or calling for votes for capitalist governments and coalitions, including imperialist governments. The application of this policy of “class collaboration” or “popular frontism” means a break with the Marxist principle of class independence, which aggravates the crisis of the world left to unprecedented levels. To read more about the world crisis of the left click here.
In the U.S., as a result of the global process of political revolution, as well as the shift to the left of sections of the mass movement, a new activism is resurfacing that seeks Marxist and socialist ideas. But this activism runs up against the reality that 99% of the U.S. left supports, integrates, and calls for support for the imperialist government of the Democratic Party. Stalinist groups such as the Communist Party and social democratic groups collaborate publicly and shamelessly with capitalist governments and coalitions, placing ministers, advisers and deputies in these governments. With this “politics of class collaboration,” the leaders of the groups of the 99% of the world left are publicly betraying the American people.
Among the many expressions of the leftward turn of the masses in the United States has been the explosive growth of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), which forms the basis of the Progressive International (PI). Headed by Bernie Sanders and Alexis Tsipras of Greece’s Syriza, IP is an international organization designed to push for “progressive” governments that protect capitalism and imperialism, from the “left.” The DSA is today the most important left-wing organization in the United States, and integrates the imperialist Democratic Party with candidates on its lists, fulfilling the role of acting as a decompression valve for the political regime, diverting the rise of the workers and the people towards the dead end of reformism. To read more about Progressive International click here.
But after the initial enthusiasm, due to its treacherous policy of supporting the Democratic Party, the DSA has entered a serious crisis. DSA suffers a collapse of its members, the collapse of its finances and a wave of layoffs of paid leaders and political cadres. The crisis in DSA drags down all the opportunist currents that have joined it, such as Solidarity that responds to Mandelism, Socialist Alternative (SA) headed by Seattle councilwoman Kshama Sawant, Tempest, Red Star, Bread and Roses, Reform and Revolution, Marxist Unity Group, Socialist Majority, etc. All of these sections are betraying the American people by supporting the imperialist Biden administration and capitulating to U.S. imperialism. They lie to activism by presenting themselves as “Marxists” or “socialists“.
The campaign of the “advent of the ultra-right” collapses
IP has launched a worldwide campaign that “the right and fascism are coming”, raising the spectre of the “advent of the far right” to justify support for “progressive” capitalist and imperialist governments. But this entire campaign has received a slap in the face of reality with the election results in France and England that show that there is no “turn to the right”, and make it clear that the whole campaign of the “advent of the far right” is false. On the contrary, “progressive” governments and coalitions have been imposing themselves in the United States. USA, Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, etc.
On the other hand, defining coalitions such as Britain’s Labour Party or France’s New Popular Front (NFP) as “left” coalitions is also false. No “progressive” government is leftist, they are capitalist governments that capitalize on the turn to the left of the masses to divert it, contain it, or slow it down, in the service of capitalism. When they take office in imperialist countries, such as France or England, they are capitalist-imperialist governments, which we have to fight with all our strength because they defend the interests of the ruling classes, the bankers and the Corporations.
All of these campaigns spring from publications like the DSA-driven Jacobin Magazine to confuse the people, established by a constellation of opinionologists and hired charlatans working to develop the reformist strategy and support for “progressive” capitalist governments around the world. The aim of IP, DSA and Jacobin Magazine is to abort and sterilise any radicalised current that emerges in order to prevent the development of a revolutionary Marxist current independent of the state. To read more on our analysis about Jacobin Magazine read here.
Call to vote “against Trump’s fascism” is a lie
The campaign that all these groups are launching is that in the next elections we must vote for Biden “to stop the advance of fascism with Trump”. This campaign is false. It tries to make you believe that Trump’s candidacy is a “fascist attempt” to get you to support Biden, don’t fall into the trap. First because Trump is not a fascist candidacy, he is a pro-imperialist, neoliberal candidacy and defender of capitalism, but it cannot be confused with fascism.
Fascism is a regime that adopts methods of civil war against the people, which can be applied when there is a defeat of the workers. It is aregime that eliminates the most elementary democratic freedoms, that eliminates the unions, closes Parliament, eliminates the elections of bourgeois democracy and murders thousands of workers and popular sectors. It is impossible today to impose that regime in our country. There was an attempt to implement an undemocratic regime in the country under George Bush, the “war on terror,” and the Patriot Act, but that attempt was defeated.
From the moment our people defeated that attempt, a workers’ and people’s upsurge began that the ruling classes seek to channel by deceiving the people through elections and bourgeois democracy. Whoever says that “fascism is coming” is lying to get you to vote for Biden, and in this way proposes to lead you down a path of loss of class independence, calling for confidence in a candidacy that defends the interests of the ruling classes such as that of “Genocidal Joe”. Do not pay attention to the charlatanism of those who propose “Vote Biden to stop the far right”, they are liars.
Disillusionment advances in the traitorous old left
In turn, the break with the Marxist principle of class independence leads to the break with all principles. 99% percent of the leftist groups no longer support the revolutions of the world, with all kinds of excuses. They refuse to support the liberation revolution of the Ukrainian people, objectively siding with Putin’s criminal invasion. In Palestine they refuse to support the military action of the Palestinian militias and call for “peace”. Many other currents, due to their adherence to the Decoupling Theory, are located in the field of defense of the aggression and invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s government.
Without exception, the SWP, Alan Woods’ IMT, Peter Taafe’s ILC, or David North’s WSWS of the United States act in defense of the murderous Putin, supporting and justifying his invasion and aggression against Ukraine, which makes them spokesmen and appendages of a war criminal, in the name of Marxism.
This reality has unleashed a process of “global disillusionment” of the world’s activists with the left, which includes the existence of valuable cadres who detach themselves from these currents in the search for Marxism, and a truly revolutionary leadership. By annulling the vote, blank ballot or abstaining, we act in defense of the demand of our demands for support for the national liberation revolution of the Ukrainian and Palestinian peoples, as well as defend the democratic demands on the truth about the WTC of 9/11, 2001 that led to the Iraq War.
Let’s vote null, blank or abstain in defense of our demands
By annulling the vote, blank ballot or abstaining we are acting in defense of the demand for equality against the interests of the 1% oligarchy raised by the Occupy Wall Street movement, against the bailouts of the bankers and owners of the Global Corporations. With the annulment of the vote, the blank vote or the abstention, we defend our demands in defense of the rights of African Americans that have been raised by the Black Lives Matter movement or others, the demands of the Latinos, immigrants, workers, and women’s rights and demands such as those launched by the #Me Too movement.
With the annulment of the vote, the blank vote or the abstention we defend the demands of the working class around the movement of “New Unionism“. We are witnessing the revival of the phenomenon of unionization and the emergence of thousands of new and young union leaders in the food processing plants, drivers, carpenters, Hollywood technicians, university assistant professors, with important triumphs such as the Amazon workers of Staten Island, or the workers of the Buffalo Starbucks store, or the successful big strike by the autoworkers of the “Big 3” General Motors, Stelantis and Ford.
Keep in mind that ballots generally do not include a specific option for “blank ballot.” Instead of an explicit option to cast a blank ballot or void vote, you can leave blank the section of the ballot where a presidential candidate is selected to abstain from voting for any candidate. This act of not marking any option is considered a blank vote. The exact rules and procedures for handling blank ballots may vary from state to state. From La Marx US we launch this campaign calling for the next presidential elections, as part of the struggle for class independence, and the task for the regroupment of revolutionaries to end capitalism once and for all, and impose Global Socialism.
