BUILDING INDEPENDENT PARTY FOR 98% = “THE SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE” – CHRIS HEDGES AND SEATTLE’S KSHAMA SAWANT

“The Socialist Alternative” by Chris Hedges, TurthDig May 1, 2016

Click for Source Article by Chris Hedges on TruthDig

FACT: Disintegration of Ruling Political Parties, along with complete discrediting of the established political and economic elites = Coming Radical Change = COMPLETE BYPASSING OF ESTABLISHMENT POLITICS

FACT: Bernie Sanders has proven that Candidates can run based on support from Millions of Americans and NOT the SUPER-RICH and Corporations.

Kshama Sawant = “Hillary Clinton epitomizes the establishment. This is why there must be a genuine left-wing option.

From the right = Frightening proto-fascism = Rise of [Donald] Trump and the bigotry, racism and Islamophobia.

From the left = Pushed by dogged activists & citizens stepping outside the Criminal Run system = Surrender of Power for a decade = Political Wilderness and some who began the revolution against corporate capitalism will not live to see its culmination. = Marginalization, harassment, persecution, prison and, if the movement becomes effective, state violence.

FACT: Attempting to work within the Democratic Party = Further empower corporate capitalism and extinguish what remains of our democracy.

THE ALTERNATIVE TO REVOLUTION = Planet’s ecosystem destroyed by the fossil fuel and the animal agriculture industries, greater pillaging by corporate oligarchs and the rise of a global security and surveillance system that takes from us all pretense of liberty.

WHEN DO WE START since the battle is worth it.

LOCAL REVOLUTION: Kshama Sawant, the socialist City Council member in Seattle, and her Socialist Alternative Party have begun to create change where it will first be most effective—locally.

Kshama Sawant = Created a petition calling on Bernie Sanders to run as an Independent Third Party

Kshama Sawant = “The earth-shattering momentum of the Sanders campaign…mass consciousness in America is dominated by a yearning for a left-wing challenge…to the big corporations. There is latent anger against the unfairness, against climate change, against the low standards of living young people endure. These are passions that can begin a process of real social change. This is being expressed in the support for Sanders.”

Kshama Sawant = “America is angry at the corporate domination of politics. America is disgusted with the U.S. Congress and the two-party establishment. America wants social change that will have a transformative impact on people’s lives and the environment.”

Kshama Sawant = “Hillary Clinton, the establishment candidate, expected a coronation. She did not get that. Sanders upended every calculation the ruling class made…The Democratic Party establishment, along with the media, have made war on Sanders…The Democratic Party is hostile to genuine social change.”

FACT: DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS ON ITS DEATH BED from an incurable disease of EXPOSURE through AMERICANS DISCOVERING TRUTHS!

Kshama Sawant = “The only realistic chance to make change in America is to break out of the two-party stranglehold.”

Kshama Sawant = Sanders needs to DROP the Democratic Party and run as in an Independent Party = “I have been unambiguous in this call.” Sanders hs connected with tens of millions of people but CLINTONS AND The Democratic Party reject them.

Kshama Sawant = “We had no doubt that a truly left-wing campaign, with an open socialist, calling for the taxing of Wall Street, single-payer health care and an end to corporate politics, would resonate with tens of millions of people. The only question was whether the Democratic Party could be a collective vehicle to carry out such a campaign.” = NOW WE KNOW THAT DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS DEAD to 98% of Americans and only serves the $Billionaire class.

FACT: Sanders originally running as an independent would have been marginalized by the media establishment. = The conundrum we face.

FACT: Movements cannot be built with one presidential campaign, but an organized party of candidates.

Kshama Sawant = “If Sanders runs as an independent through November he will win seven, maybe 10 million votes. That would not be enough to win the presidency. But if he ran as an independent and got 10 million votes, we would have 10 million votes for single-payer health care, 10 million votes to tax Wall Street speculation, 10 million votes for a political revolution against a billionaire class. That would be a phenomenal starting point to lay the basis for an independent party of the 99 percent. It would strike real fear into the heart of the establishment.”

Kshama Sawant = Appealed to the Green Party and its presumptive nominee, Dr. Jill Stein, to “make a public call to Sanders to run on the Green Party ticket.” She said she expects to support the Green Party ticket in the presidential race.
“We are calling on Bernie to convene a conference of activists, organizers, his campaign supporters, to discuss building a new left party for the 99 percent, free of corporate money and independent of the Democrats and the Republicans,” she said. “We may have to do this. We cannot fold up and go home if Bernie does not do it.”

Kshama Sawant = “A lot of the people who are voting for Trump are doing so because they are angry at the establishment,” she said. “They could be drawn toward a left-wing alternative if there is one running through November. My question to those who say Bernie should not run through November as an independent is this: In an era when there is historic anger against the establishments in both parties, why should a Donald Trump have a monopoly on the anti-establishment vote? Why shouldn’t the left fight for every single anti-establishment vote?”

FALSE BELIEFS: Americans are apathetic + Things aren’t bad enough yet + Things getting far worse will NOT mobilize People by itself = Naive to believe that when things get worse, people get into combat mode as many are forced out of activism by necessity to survive during massive job losses.

FACT: Anger over INEQUALITY + INJUSTICE + BANK WELFARE = Did and Does Increase Support for Sanders but his Independent Message and MOVEMENT is KEY.

FACT: You have to have a MOVEMENT STRUCTURE READY TO CATCH THE WAVE FOR CHANGE like Union Movement during the recovery after WW II and The Depression = CATCH THE WAVE OF URGENCY! = “There must also be an understanding of how movements are built and how change happens. And lesson No. 1 is not to be paralyzed by one presidential election year.”

CATCH THE WAVE OF URGENCY = Following another double-dip economic crisis. = Needs a GENUINE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT alternative to more Bankster C’R’apitalism or RIGHT-WING TRUMPISM!

FACT: European Union built on pro-capitalist, pro-banker and pro-bond holder = Sold as an experiment in democracy and equality = WAS A COMPLETE SHAM.

Kshama Sawant = “My biggest fear is that there could be an abdication of responsibility by the leadership of the left to provide an alternative. We can’t react to events. We have to shape events. We need a party of the 99 percent.”