Reasons for not voting for Hillary! Hillary Clinton, Empire, and 100 years of imperialist decay...
The majority of the nearly 3,000 delegates to the 2016 convention of the American Federation of Teachers voted on July 20, 2016 to endorse Hillary Clinton for President of the United States. Ms. Clinton spoke to the convention on July 18, 2016. The last 100 years of global capitalism can be useful for our historical frame of reference. Next year will be the centenary of the publication of Lenin's Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Its thesis is that, as of 1917 (then in the midst of WWI), capitalism had reached its highest stage of development of human society, after which it will spiral into an epoch of decay. Meaning war, imperialism, economic collapses, war on unions, barbarism (read fascism as it evolved later), anarchy, etc. There are labor activists today who are familiar with this book, yet sadly few of them actually agree with its argument. That is, put its theory into practice.
I mention all this because it offers a new perspective on why many labor activists are adamant about their approach to the Democratic Party (the capitalist party of imperialism par excellence). This, even setting aside hard-knock experiences outside of political theory. They vigorously reject this theory through their backing progressive campaigns to reverse the imperialist decay of the Democratic Party. They were led to believe Obama would be the "peace" president, but learned differently. They thought Obama would enact an Employee Free Choice Act, which didn't happen. Obama wasn't working for them, but for Penny Pritzker who bankrolled his early rise to prominence, and who was later rewarded by getting appointed Secretary of Commerce. If your choice had been to ignore certain political theories, then it was easy to believe Obama would stop the wars and take the side of labor. You were told that by the Party line, transmitted down through progressive anti-war organizations and the AFL-CIO.
The fact is that, despite the repeated bait-and-switch scams pulled on workers election after election, progressive activists just keep lapping it up. For this, the ruling class, and DNC, has contempt for these 'suckers'; contempt which emboldens them to punch progressives in the stomach again and again while they follow orders from Wall Street and the Pentagon. Certainly, the world must wonder whether progressives are deficient in some way.
Barack Obama campaigned for President of the United States on a platform that included opposition to George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" corporate education "reform" laws. A month after he was elected and before his inauguration, Obama came to Chicago to announce that he would appoint the union-busting Chicago schools' "Chief Executive Officer" Arne Duncan (above right) as U.S. Secretary of Education. Duncan's "Race To The Top" programs viciously expanded charter schools and continued the privatization and union busting policies that the Bush administration would only dream about, while many so-called "progressives" continued to support the Obama administration and lie in defense of Obama's presidency. Photo by the Telegraph, UK.But we all know that such activists are intelligent enough, can advance arguments, read and discuss difficult material. The root of the problem is an ideological flaw, which paves the way toward serfdom. In some cases, this is also underpinned by direct, concrete relationships with Democratic Party aparatchiks.
Those who should know (and therefore act) better are willing to submit themselves to a ritual humiliation every election cycle, enacted with incantations of hope that the rulers (the Caesars) will throw them some scraps. Anything, even a few words, by which they can delude themselves that they are moving forward in some way. But the moving escalator they are on is always moving backwards faster than they can walk forwards.
In states where independent labor candidates are running (as has happened in Ohio) or socialist candidates are running (as in Seattle), campaigning for them would be a healthy step, even though they might not win, because it is a public step to break out of the cycle, the psychosis. Where there are no such candidates, like in Chicago, it would be far healthier for the labor movement to organize public events declaring that workers here do not have a worthy party to support, and that they hereby declare their dedication toward building such a party. That would be a positive step which would uplift spirits; but the labor rallies coming in the fall for Hillary here will do nothing more than demoralize and deaden the intellects of workers. That demoralization and subservience will weaken them and chain them even more to capitalism, as they actually need to prepare to oppose fascism and imperialism.
Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emanuel were very close before Rahm's union busting and other antics caused her to create a great deal of distance between the two during the Democratic Party primaries and then decisively as the Democratic Convention of 2016 neared.If you wear a Hillary button or t-shirt, look more closely and see behind it the visage of Rahm. They are peas in a pod. These Democrats will explain-away even more racist murders by police and official whitewashes. Having gone to many anti-KKK and anti-Nazi rallies, I can predict that it will be these police that Hillary supports who will be there to defend 20 Klan members against a thousand righteous anti-racist activists.
This week the DNC, and presumably Berine Sanders too, will tell us that workers must learn to somehow adjust to senile, toxic capitalism 100 years after Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism was written.
Mike Griffin, a Labor Party supporter and one of the leaders of the historic War Zone labor struggle in Decatur, Illinois in the mid-90s, explained back then labor's relationship with imperialism: "There's been a deal cut out there. And a lot of you will shake your head no, but I've seen it. It's never a smoking gun. I've seen it, that says 'we'll go along with the boss. We'll allow you to roll back wages and working conditions. You can make us a third world nation along with the rest. We can become part of the global world order. That we're part of the new world order. We'll let that happen, Mr Employer, if you just don't beat us to death. Just beat us a lot, but don't beat us to death.' "
Comments:
By: Rich Gibson
Clinton's and Kiddies
Here is how the Clinton's care for children---Madeline Albright on killing them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0WDCYcUJ4o
By: George Schmidt
Nach Hitler Uns! didn't work that time, either...
You don't give power to someone who brags about wanting to establish a dictatorship. Period. History will probably be repeating itself (first as tragedy, now as farce) in the USA in 2016, but I'm not counting on it. At the time of the 1932 election in Germany, the "Weimar inflation" had already been ended and the Great Depression was not hitting Germany as badly as it had hit the USA. But instead of figuring out how to oppose the Nazis (which were in the process of losing votes), the Communist Party and some others adopted the notion of "Nach Hitler, Uns..." (after Hitler, us). Hitler and the Nazis knew that once they had gained executive power, they would utilize it ruthlessly and quickly. And they did, as the "granularity" of German history shows. And so I've made up my mind how to operate in the November 8 election in the USA. And I'll continue noting that Donald Trump (and his family) have those "right wing" roots as a matter of fact, and not simply as a rhetorical insult against them. Trump is following the "Make Germany Great Again!" script, and I suspect that he (and his Eastern European "conservative" advisors) know it. It's too late now for us to recover from the dearth of historical knowledge and understanding that's the result of too many years of "social studies" and reality nonsense, but maybe after this we can challenge the curriculum (and curricula) again. Meanwhile, as a reminder of how quickly an empowered executive can strike, I recommend the recently published book "Hitler's First Victims." The first leftists thrown into Dachau didn't know what hit them, and some were dead within a few months. So much for that "Nach Hitler Uns..." nonsense...
By: Larry Duncan
War on Two Fronts
George writes: "You don't give power to someone who brags about wanting to establish a dictatorship." I believe George is implying that the Clinton dynasty and the DNC are not establishing a dictatorship, as Trump wants to. But Clintonism/DNC is a dictatorship of finance capital as it carries out its objective of subjugating the domestic unions under corporatism and crushing any efforts by foreign peoples to gain independence from American imperialism. (While this happens, another wing of the bourgeoisie -- Trump's -- prepares its attacks.) George should survey the thousands of Bernie supporters who were robbed by state primary vote heists and Debbie Wasserman Schultz's dirty tricks. They've just had an up-close and personal experience with dictatorship. To return to the main concept in my article: All permutations of parties supporting capitalism in this historic period of its decay must be, or rapidly evolve toward, dictatorial control by finance capital and the bourgeoisie. This is a scientific, materialist analysis of what class interests political parties represent. It is not an analysis founded upon idealism. The DNC has the opulent budget to disguise its real nature with industrial strength Fabreze and warm-and-fuzzy speeches. Trump does not bother as much with masking his intentions. This is an important difference between the DNC and the newly-coined RNC. For George and for lesser-evilists over the decades, there is a Faustian bargain: They will allow the steady march toward the dictatorship of capital and imperialism, just as long as it's made to look pretty enough so that they can deceive themselves and their followers that it will somehow be OK, palatable. This ideology of make-believe is stated in another way by George: "It's too late now for us to recover from the dearth of historical knowledge." But it's never too late to put down the crack pipe, folks, painful as it may be at this late hour of the day. There are those who have been and continue to move toward the EXIT from the Democratic Party, from its dictatorship, while at the same time preparing for war with the other dictatorship of Trump. Let's not to block the exits. We have to prepare for a war on two fronts with one big enemy as it faces its own big fissures.
By: Jean Schwab
We need to vote for Hillary
So many people have wrongfully labeled Hillary just as we have( at times) been wrongfully labeled at Substance. I would have to know more about the author of the book and the other people before recommending a book or stating negative things about Hillary. I do know that she has always worked for children and families. I actually don't trust anything that Trump says. I'm voting for Hillary.
By: Jean Schwab
We need to vote for Hillary
I don't agree with you and while mistakes have been made, after Bill Clinton left the White House we were stable financially and our economy was good. Larry, this is why some people did not vote for Quinn. Someone wrote some negative articles and some of my friends voted for Mickey Mouse or a third party and look what we have now. He is the worst Governor and everything about him is wrong and it all started when people started talking and writing like you. Hillary now has Bernie giving input. She has been working all her life for children and you may not agree on everything. but she has done many great things.