The Revolution Continues blog is news, views, opinion and other expressions of hope from a leftist point-of-view. (We are not affiliated with any candidate, political party or organization. All are welcome.)
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Is No Democracy At All)
by C.A. Matthews
I believe most Americans understand that the United States is not a democracy or even qualifies as a representative democracy. The US is, in fact, an oligarchy, whichmeans politicians work for their big money donors and not for the people.
The Princeton Study proved that no matter how hard average voters try to influence their elected representatives—try to make them vote for or sponsor a bill that would benefit ordinary people and not billionaires—the result will be the same. Whatever corporations and the super rich folks who own them want, they’ll get. To put it plainly, “Screw the needs of ordinary Americans!”
I came across an example this week that illustrates the American oligarchy in action. I will make a few suggestions on how we can fight back against their tactics, but feel free to come up with some actions of your own. Please write them in the comments below because sharing knowledge is power. Thank you.
From a recent Jill Stein for President campaign email:
On Thursday June 27th, the FEC [Federal Elections Commission] informed us that our campaign had qualified for primary matching funds. Then minutes later, FEC told us the Treasury department will withhold our payments to give priority to general election funding–just in case the Democratic and Republican candidates decide they want it.
Let me explain why that’s so outrageous...
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Free the indigenous people of Palestine from the internment camp created by their occupiers! Free Palestine! Watch this short video from 2 years ago to understand better what's going on there today. Related article links are located in the links section below this week's blog post. It's a post inspired by an incident this past week that proves the 1%/capitalists/occupiers are everywhere and could be anyone, even a person you thought you could trust to be on the people's side...
Why The Revolution Hasn’t Started Yet
Part II: Team Work by C.A. Matthews
If you want our society to change for the better so you don’t have to keep asking, “Why hasn’t the Revolution started yet?” then you need to grow up emotionally and treat your fellow workers as equals, worthy of your trust, respect, and forgiveness. Anything less won’t cut it. —from Why The Revolution Hasn’t Started Yet
I never thought I’d be writing another piece along these lines—and so soon—but needs must.
The Revolution hasn’t started yet because some of us are still not on the same page as to what being a socialist means. I’m not talking about technical terms or academic explanations. I’m talking about what it means to want to make the world a better place.
Hopefully I explained it well in my first essay that wanting to make the world a better place means that you want it to become a better place for all human beings. And I meant all, not just for those you like or those who look like you, think like you, or like the same kinds of food, books, music, movies, and video games as you. If we make a decision to leave anyone out, then we’re not truly wishing to reform society to bring about equality. We’re just wanting to change things a little bit to make life easier for ourselves and those who are essentially clones of us. That’s not socialism; that’s just maintaining the capitalist status quo.
When we make the decision—consciously or unconsciously—to leave out the other 99% of human beings and keep the good stuff only for the 1% we agree with and like to be around, then we are not acting like a socialist. The 99% versus the 1%… Now, where have I heard those percentages before?
The Revolution hasn’t started yet because it’s not going to start with just the 1% who want it to begin in order to meet their own personal wants and desires. No person is an island unto themselves, so you have to acknowledge that, by the end of the day, the Revolution must involve the whole planet and the entirety of its inhabitants or else it’s a bust.
We can’t go it alone, in other words. The Revolution is going to take a team effort. So we must form teams and nurture them.
To be a team working toward a socialist Revolution means we have to respect and trust our fellow team members. We make a promise to each other that we’ll work together to reach our goals of equality and that we will be there for each other, come what may. We can’t bail out on our team members when times get tough. We can’t just walk away without giving a decent reason as to what why we wish to leave the team.
We make a promise when we join the team to keep the lines of communication open. That means we can’t hold grudges and stuff all our hurts or confusions deep inside ourselves. We have to share what’s on our minds. We have to talk—and listen—to each other as equals, respecting each other’s unique perspective.
Sure, we might need to take a break or some R and R occasionally, but we don’t leave our fellow teammates out in the cold without any explanation about what’s going on with us. We can’t afford to keep our fellow workers out of the loop or else misunderstandings could occur. Misunderstandings can break up the team and destroy the efforts we’re making as a team. Because we truly respect and trust each other and want only the best for all of humanity, we won’t risk breaking up our team. We should see our team of fellow socialists as an essential tool to make the whole of Planet Earth safer, healthier, and happier.
Breaking up a team for personal wants or desires comes across as an action a capitalist would take. A capitalist is an individual who sees himself or herself as being intrinsically better than others and possibly more deserving of attention. It’s a person who relishes getting their own way and telling others what to do since they know better, so it isn't necessary to share the limelight or the decision-making processes. A capitalist might join a team and say they’re doing it for the sake of the Revolution, but they see the others on the team only as being good for window-dressing and grunt work purposes. The voice and image that matters are the capitalist’s.
To reiterate, socialists treat everyone with respect, freely giving their trust and forgiveness to their fellow workers. This is necessary for all to benefit from the better society socialism is building. No one is left behind! Socialists aren’t doing all this work on their own for their own glory—they’re members of a team, working together to realize the dream of a better world for all of creation, human beings as well as the plants, animals and the totality of the environment.
The reason I’m revisiting my previous article this week is because of the actions of one of the persons it was inspired by. Suddenly what I thought was true of all socialists, that we all are working hard together to bring about the better society, might not be quite as true for this particular person as I first believed. I might have projected my hopes and dreams onto this person, thinking he was happy to be working toward building this better world as a member of our big team. I was wrong. Recent events have convinced me that maybe deep down this person wants to do things on his own because it would be of more benefit to his own team, the 1%.
It’s heartbreaking to come to this realization. I’m deeply disappointed, but it’s better to discover the truth now rather than later. Later on when the corporate contributions via political action committees (PACs), Super PACs, and millionaires’ checks come rolling into this person’s campaign war chest, we’ll see how, slowly but surely, this candidate’s focus will shift toward his wealthy capitalists donors at the expense of the working class.
It might have already happened at a $250 a ticket soiree held in this person’s honor. The workers who thought they were on the same team, but who couldn’t afford this type of luxury, weren’t welcome. Worse yet, the venue where the event was held is known for being hostile to its own workers unionizing. That doesn’t sound like a place a socialist would want to be seen partying at, let alone allowing it to host their fundraiser. Why cater to capitalists at the expense of those you presumably wish to help unless you feel they are not worthy of your help to begin with?
This is not a campaign I’d be proud to be a part of as a socialist. The duopoly candidates accept corporate money via PACs/Super PACs and host champagne receptions with rich capitalists. I thought the candidate was on our team—the workers who wish to bring about a better society—but maybe I misunderstood. He seems to be on a team of one.
Our team was doing hard work to help this candidate get on the ballot in multiple states. Ballot access work for alternative party candidates in the US truly takes a team effort. We really felt that the candidate was a member of our team, and he respected our efforts. We were all equals.
But it seems this person prefers to pay strangers to collect signatures for his ballot access instead. It explains why he suddenly announced he was leaving our team’s party in the middle of our ballot access work. He wants to be free to take PAC dollars and kiss up to rich capitalists to raise funds to pay for these professional petition circulators. He didn’t seem to appreciate our team’s volunteer efforts, even though we had been doing quite well gaining ballot access so far.
In a recent online interview, this person demonstrated that he isn’t really into “grassroots democracy” which is practiced by our team’s political party. He stated plainly that he didn’t want to go through our team’s party primary or its debates or even attend state party events in order to meet with fellow team members.
This person said in the interview that meeting with members of the party was a waste of time and took him away from the real people he wanted to reach with his campaign. He even stated a horrible falsehood that the party didn’t reach out to people of color and that nobody in those communities even knew who we were, but they knew who he was, so it was better if he just walked away from our team’s party now.
Ouch.
Does that mean the people of color who are members of our team's party don’t count in his eyes? Those who worked hard for his campaign's ballot access don’t count? Those he claims aren't worthy of his time don’t count? That he doesn't consider any of us to be his equals?
And this person claims to be a “socialist”?
Apparently, this person, who freely joined our party, wants to be free to use campaign finance methods such as PACs that have totally corrupted the duopoly. Can’t he see that by pushing away the enthusiastic volunteer ballot petitioners and accepting large sums of cash from millionaires/billionaires is exactly what the capitalist corporate-owned-and-operated candidates of the duopoly do? Does he believe those large sums of money won't affect him like they've have for every candidate before him?
If he wants to run his campaign like a capitalist/duopolist, then perhaps he’s not really interested in building a better world for all that he thinks he is.
The Revolution hasn’t started yet because some folks, who may have fooled themselves into thinking they’re socialists, are actually arrogant lone wolves of the capitalist class. They don’t hunt in a pack. They want to do it all by themselves, and you should be grateful to get anywhere near their presence without a minimum $250 donation.
You could say that they “don’t play well with others,” but that’s assuming they even know we “others” exist in the first place. A socialist would acknowledge that their teammates can provide invaluable insights and assistance. A socialist would have the humility to ask for and accept help from others they see as equals instead of ditching them and buying help. A capitalist feels free to walk away from those they see as “less than” at any time and hang out with their rich friends because they're more important. It’s called hierarchy.
This person, a candidate who likes to call himself a “Jazz Man,” is really a solo artist. He wants to do things his way without a thought to how his fellow band members could be of benefit to the cause. He’s not interested in making harmonious music with others. He said in the interview he felt he was better off without our party volunteers around, bringing his image down, keeping him away from the real people who counted more, in his opinion.
In other words, "Screw the workers who can only donate their blood, sweat, and tears instead of big fat checks!"
The Revolution hasn’t started yet because we the workers, the loyal teammates, need to stop relying on capitalists to lead us through this corrupted and corrupting system of government. We must start leading ourselves without the so-called leadership of famous personalities and other arrogant types who believe their own press releases. We must build our own teams of equals and call the shots.
We must do it ourselves. Worker standing beside worker. As equals. As brothers and sisters. Together.
It’s
been difficult, if not next to impossible, to become excited by the
American political scene in recent years. The whole electoral process
itself seems like a sham, a game meant to distract the public away
from things that really matter, like providing health care and housing
for all. The race results are decided
months,
if not years, in advance. The billionaires/oligarchs know exactly who
they want running the show so they can continue to benefit monetarily
from their endless wars for resources. They know which
Wall Street-owned candidate
will turn a blind eye and give them a free hand to abuse the workers
so production costs never cut too far into their profit margins.
Knowing
the futility of making any mark on
American
elections makes me
mad enough to throw a flaming Molotov cocktail into the whole
stinking cesspool of politicians, wiping them off the face of the
earth for good. Or maybe I could just throw a rock into their
mansions’ front windows
with a note attached declaring, “I'm mad as hell, and I'm
not taking it anymore!”
A
rock… Hey, that’s an idea!
Yard Rockrecently
announced
his run
for the White Housevia
his campaign manager, Lee Camp. Yard Rock is very old in geologic
age but very young when it comes to political campaigning. Still, he
has an impressive platform worth supporting:
Has
never supported a war (and never will)
Has never supported an increase in
Pentagon spending (and never will)
Did not support the Global War on
Terror that has killed roughly 6 million people
Did not support the invasion of
Iraq
Did not support the invasion of
Afghanistan
Did not support the invasion of
Libya
Has committed no war crimes (and
never will)
Has committed no rape or sexual
assault, nor even been accused (and never will)
Has never supported the US prison
state – largest prison population in the world (and never will)
Has not been involved in
increasing the US prison state (and never will)
Has never supported corporate tax
cuts (and never will)
Has never supported Big Pharma
(and never will)
Has never supported Big Ag (and
never will)
Has never supported Big Oil (and
never will)
Has never supported Big Banks (and
never will)
Has never supported corporate
media (and never will)
Has never endorsed the persecution
of Julian Assange (and never will)
Has never endorsed the propaganda
known as Russiagate (and never will)
Has never endorsed the anti-China
propaganda (and never will)
Has never supported cuts to food
stamps, social security, medicare, medicaid, housing programs,
public schools, infrastructure, or transportation (and never will)
Has never raised questions about
the veracity of the climate crisis (and never will)
Has never supported the
out-of-control police state (and never will)
Has never endorsed the pathetic
exploitative US healthcare system (and never will)
Has never doubted or fought
against Indigenous rights (and never will)
Has never taken a dime from
corporate America (and never will)
No Super PAC funding
Never accepted donations from Big Pharma, weapons manufacturing, etc. (This rock is not a puppet!)
Has never voted to send arms to
Israel
Did not vote for latest spending
bill
Did not support Trump’s tax cuts
for the rich
Did not support the 2008 bank
bailout
Did not support the PATRIOT Act
Did not support NAFTA
Currently holds no assets in stock
market
No appearance on Epstein’s
flight logs
Never endorsed a Democrat or
Republican candidate
Has never cooperated or supported
the FBI or CIA
Is not white
Has never appeared on SNL
Supports the efforts of wild orcas
to tip over yachts
I’m
really excited by the candidacy of Yard Rock. I think he’s a solid
candidate. It’s
hard not
to
love him. Only
the most igneous and sedimentary of American voters would ignore this
stone while he’s on a roll. He’s the
genuine
rolling stone, all right. (And
Keith
Richards is a mere child by comparison.)
I
know what you’re going to say next—you’re going to say, “But
how is Yard Rock at the podium and on camera? Can he engage
and energize
the voters, bringing
them to a Rocky Mountain high?
Will he be able to convince them to vote for his bolder than most
other candidates’ platforms?”
Yard
Rock, by his nature, is a rather quiet and deep individual. It’ll
be rough at first getting the public to know him. He’ll
need a little help in this area to smooth things over with those who don't believe a mineral has got what it takes. That’s why I’m volunteering my
skills as his speech writer. I want
to
do him proud and help him wow audiences with a
volcanic blast of oratory that will, in turn, make
him win the presidency by a landslide.
The
avalanche of support Yard Rock’s candidacy will
bring
will be further
amplified
when he picks his running mate. There’s no need to mine the field
of independent candidates too deeply. It isn’t rock-et science:
Yard Rock should cement his run by choosing Dr. Cornel West as his
vice president.
Dr.
West has numerous good qualities that will support Yard Rock’s
strengths.
He’s tall, speaks well, and has powerful
arms to carry Yard Rock from podium to podium as they campaign. They
already agree on so much, particularly on ending wars. They both
realize they’ll
face a mountain of opposition from candidates from the
corporate-owned-and-operated parties. (That is, the duopoly or
uni-party, or as they like call themselves “The Ds and the Rs”.
They seem to have suffered a fissure at some point and now think
they’re actually differentiated strata, but any good rock hound
knows better. They’re
a composite ore.)
What have these Wall Street manipulated mannequins of mass
destruction really got on the integrity
of Yard Rock and the highly regarded Dr. West? Nothing.
Nada.
They gleefully
bury
bodies with
the backhoe of the military-industrial complex profit-making machine,
but they don’t offer the electorate the hope and compassion that
Yard Rock and Dr. West grant it. There’s going to be a tremendous
earthquake in Washington DC the day the Rock/West team cracks open and exposes
the faults lining status quo politics as usual there.
I
don’t want Yard Rock and Dr. West to peak too soon, so I’ll end
it here for now. I hope I’ve dropped a pebble into your well
of consideration, and I recommend you check out a
candidate’s
web site before making your decision. I’m heartened by the fact
that Yard Rock has the backing of Team Orca, a wonderful group of
cetaceans who know when their ship has sailed
in. (Or
is that a yacht?)
We
truly can be “boulder together.”
P.S.
What sort of campaign theme tune should we have for Yard Rock/Cornel West 2024? I'm leaning toward classic rock, but Dr. West is well known as a jazz
lover. Perhaps a fusion of the two genres?
Coming soon, the first book from The Revolution Continues blog: The Little Red Book of Revolution
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In a history-making effort, the Green Party US has become the first American political party to host an entirely digital Presidential Nominating Convention this past weekend. During the three day online gathering, Greens chose Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker to be their president/vice president candidates. The convention originally had been slated to take place in Detroit, but the pandemic put a halt to those plans as the party leadership felt it was unwise to risk their members' health and safety by meeting in person. In a few short months, the Greens pulled together a relatively smooth running digital meeting using a variety of platforms such as Zoom, Loomio, You Tube and Facebook live-streaming.
The opening two days of the convention were filled with press conferences and workshops like a typical in-person gathering, but this time the presenters spoke to a sea of webcam faces instead of a room full of live bodies. Nevertheless, chat and voice questions where asked and answered, discussions ensued, and many participants expressed gratitude for the recordings of the presentations and Powerpoints to share and re-watch at leisure. (Link to the workshop videos below.) Better yet, there was no cut off to the number of people allowed to be in a Zoom two dimensional room like there would be in a 3-D room, and the numbers at the workshops swelled throughout the convention.
Workshop topics included an in-depth look at the current administration's acceleration of the nuclear arms race; ways to handle the ongoing financial crisis and growing national debt; and re-branding the Green Party US as eco-socialists to reach a wider membership with independent voters. Many presenters emphasized how the Greens are the original creators of the Green New Deal, support shrinking the military and demilitarizing the police, and are the only American political party to enthusiastically support Medicare For All as part of their platform.
There were special guest speakers as well through out the day Saturday interspersed between delegate votes. Well known Greens like 2012 and 2016 presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and her running mate, peace activist Ajamu Baraka, gave stirring speeches. Lisa Savage, currently running for the US Senate (with a good chance of winning under Maine's ranked choice voting system), also addressed the convention along with other Greens who have served proudly in both party and publicly elected positions.
At a little after 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon the tally for the presidential nominee was declared official. Howie Hawkins, a founder of the Green Party US and the original GND candidate when he ran for governor of New York, was overwhelmingly chosen as the 2020 presidential candidate with Angela Walker as his running mate. Dario Hunter/Darlene Elias came in second in the vote tally with less than half the votes of Hawkins/Walker. A smattering of votes were given to other candidates, and a few delegates simply voted "non-committed." Former governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura did receive seven delegate votes. Perhaps he will feel encouraged to run in another four years, as Jesse seems to be a favorite of Young Ecosocialists Caucus members.
My view of the GP Presidential Nominating Convention
This was my first Presidential Nominating Convention, and I was proud to attend as a voting delegate from Ohio. I'd attended the 2019 Annual Meeting in Salem, Massachusetts. I found it fascinating to meet Greens from all over the country and exchange information and ideas with them. I was looking forward to attending the convention in Detroit--less than an hour away from my home--but the virus outbreak crushed those dreams of sitting with my state's delegation and shouting out our support of our favorite candidates during the delegate roll call. Oh, well, there's been a lot of disappointments during these months of COVID-19 lock down, nothing new there. I look forward to the future when perhaps I can serve as a delegate again and enjoy the excitement in person.
Just six weeks before many
international students start their fall terms, ICE has implemented a
rule change that would force thousands out of the country.
Under the new student visa regulations,
international students must enroll into in-person classes at their
institution to remain in the United States. ICE waited until many
colleges and universities had already finalized their class
schedules or made decisions about being entirely online for the term to
announce these changes.
ICE’s goal here is transparent: Force as many
foreign students out of the United States as possible, in the middle of a
global pandemic. Remember – the cruelty is the point.
There’s hope. MIT and Harvard have launched
lawsuits to block the Trump administration’s sabotage. Across the
country, students and teachers are making last-minute 1 credit courses
to help international students stay here. It’s inspiring
to see.
But it shouldn’t be the burden of college
undergraduates and TAs to block Trump’s inhumane policy agenda. Our
leaders have to act against a transparently xenophobic rule change that
was kept hidden until the very last moment.
Shockingly, it gets worse. Many experts suspect
that the Trump administration’s real motivation was to force colleges
and universities to reopen in-person classes this fall – even if it was
unsafe. As the second wave of COVID
crashes upon numerous states, it is unthinkable that our federal
government would force schools to choose between deporting students or
risking their lives.
Justice for Black communities.
That means higher wages, better jobs, and unions for all so we can
build real economic power. It means healthcare for all, action on
climate change, better education opportunities, criminal justice reform,
and most of all – listening to Black workers and leaders.
Elected officials and candidates use their authority to rewrite the rules so that Black communities can thrive. We need safe and fair voting so all of us can participate in our democracy.
Corporations take immediate action
to dismantle racism, white supremacy and economic exploitation wherever
it exists, including in our workplaces. Employers like
Checkers and McDonald's need to pay higher wages and give us sick leave,
we need personal protective equipment (PPE) and hazard pay during the
pandemic. We need to disrupt the cycle of poverty that has existed for generations.
Every worker has the opportunity to form a union, no matter where they work. People of color need a seat at the table to be able to fight for our families and communities.
We won't win because politicians or companies decide out of the goodness of their hearts to give us what we demand. We
will win only because we join together with ONE voice to force
politicians and companies to give us what we've always deserved.
Alex Harris
Checkers Worker
Tampa, FL
Fight for $15
P.S. The Strike for Black Lives will be happening during a
worsening pandemic. If you plan to attend an event in person, take a
look at our Coronavirus Safety guide.
***
From Fight for the Future:
Senator Brian Schatz (D–HI) has introduce an amendment that will prevent local police forces from getting tear gas,1 drones,2 armored vehicles,3 and high-caliber weapons of war4
from the military. This important amendment — in addition to
initiatives to defund police departments and hold police officers
accountable for committing crimes against the public — will help combat
systemic police brutality in the U.S.
Contact Congress TODAY to stop police departments from buying military weapons. Arming police forces with military weapons doesn’t reduce crime or protect law enforcement officers from violence.5 In fact, police forces that are equipped with these weapons are more likely to kill civilians.6
Even worse, militarized police forces often target Black and
minority-majority communities, where getting killed by the police is
among the leading causes of death.7 Local law enforcement agencies have bought billions of dollars worth
of guns, explosives, helicopters, and more from the military.8 Senator Brian Schatz (D–HI) wants to end this practice by passing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.9
This important amendment will prevent the transfer of military
equipment to local law enforcement agencies, but only if more members of
Congress support it.
