Por qué socialistas revolucionarios convocan a un apoyo crítico

8 de febrero de 2020 

No tenemos ninguna expectativa hacia el partido Demócrata. Es un partido guerrerista de multimillonarios y banqueros. Cualquier noción de que el Partido Demócrata represente a la clase trabajadora es una farsa. En su esencia, sigue siendo una institución neoliberal empeñada en preservar el dominio capitalista.

Guerras imperialistas destructivas han sido libradas bajo las administraciones del Partido Demócrata; los derechos de los trabajadores y beneficios para los pobres han sido despojados por cada administración, independientemente del partido. Lo que sí es constante, independientemente de qué partido gane, es el sistema de capitalismo e imperialismo que es el origen de tanta miseria humana.

Entonces, ¿por qué convocamos a un apoyo crítico al movimiento Sanders?

Bernie Sanders como candidato no es la cuestión crucial. Lo que sí es crítico es la lucha que su campaña ha despertado contra el sistema del Partido Demócrata. Una lucha que ha causado miedo en la clase dominante.

Esta campaña es un movimiento de la clase trabajadora, principalmente de jóvenes y cada vez más de los oprimidos, que desconfían profundamente del sistema de ambos partidos. Es un movimiento alimentado por la creciente ira contra el gobierno de los multimillonarios y la  creciente brecha entre ricos y pobres que ha dejado a tantos trabajadores empobrecidos.

El hecho de que la clase dominante esté tan preocupada y tan frenética por parar este movimiento, indica claramente su propio temor de que el movimiento, galvanizado en torno al cuidado médico,  la educación gratuita, la contención de la crisis climática, etc., bien podría perder el control. Lo que significa que podría abandonar la apretada camisa de fuerza del Partido Demócrata.

Los ataques cada vez más virulentos contra Bernie Sanders han ido ganando fuerza desde que se hizo evidente que la campaña de Sanders podría ganar las primarias. Por supuesto, habrá millones de trucos desde ahora hasta la Convención Demócrata en julio, y hay una gran probabilidad que haya robo de las elecciones.

La debacle del Caucus de Iowa fue un recordatorio repugnante de que las fuerzas detrás de la cortina mueven los hilos. Que hicieran tanto para destruir el Caucus de Iowa en un intento por frenar la campaña de Sanders, demuestra su verdadero desprecio por su susodicha democracia.

Multimillonarios rechazan hasta pequeñas reformas — su respuesta es la guerra imperialista

La clase de multimillonarios y banqueros no está inclinada en este punto para dar mucho en forma de concesiones, ya sea para proporcionar servicios de salud, educación, frenar a los propietarios depredadores o aumentar el salario mínimo — ni mucho menos detener el terror policial y el sistema supremacista blanco que lo impulsa, cerrar los centros de detención de inmigrantes, respetar los derechos de indígenas, dar justicia a la mujer, a los géneros oprimidos y la comunidad LGBTQ2S o salvar el planeta.

El capitalismo como sistema está en crisis y por esto se le hace más y más difícil satisfacer las necesidades de las mases. No solo se ha ampliado la brecha entre ricos y pobres, sino que la próxima generación enfrenta la amenaza de un colapso planetario.

Lo que mueve a los capitalistas es la guerra imperialista en todas sus formas, ya sea por intervención directa o por sanciones. Los demócratas y los republicanos están unidos en los ataques imperialistas contra Venezuela, Cuba, Irán, Palestina, Corea, Zimbabue, China y otros países.

La importancia del movimiento

¿Llevaría Sanders esto a la conclusión lógica, o sea, abiertamente romper con el Partido Demócrata? Si bien es poco probable según sus propias palabras, sigue siendo una pregunta importante. Sin embargo, lo que hacen sus seguidores es aún más crítico.

Es el movimiento lo que nos interesa, y el potencial de una lucha más grande para empujar a la clase trabajadora hacia una dirección independiente en su propio nombre.

Muchos de nosotros en Struggle-La Lucha estuvimos muy activos en la organización y promoción de la “Marcha del Millón de Trabajadores” (17 de octubre de 2004), que fue fundada y dirigida por sindicalistas negros que convocaron a la marcha nacional en gran parte con el objetivo de desarrollar un movimiento independiente de trabajadores que se liberara de las cadenas del Partido Demócrata.

¿No deberíamos los socialistas y comunistas revolucionarios estar en el movimiento Sanders, especialmente si toma un giro crítico, para que podamos agitar, educar y explicar cuál podría ser el próximo paso?

Referéndum entre capitalismo y socialismo

Tanto antes de la convención demócrata — pero también, si por alguna razón imprevista Sanders gana la nominación — lo que de hecho tendrá lugar es un referéndum entre capitalismo y socialismo.

No importa tanto si Bernie Sanders es o no un verdadero socialista o un “demócrata del ‘New Deal’”: el socialismo es cómo el establecimiento burgués de ambos partidos define el tema. Trump ya está definiendo esto, al igual que muchos en el sistema del Partido Demócrata.

Llamado a revolucionarios disgustados con las elecciones burguesas

El sistema electoral de los EUA es totalmente antidemocrático. Solo fijémonos en quien puede y no puede votar y cuantas veces las elecciones han sido manipuladas, robadas, subvertidas o compradas en interés de la clase dominante. Se podría hacer un buen contraste entre el sistema electoral cubano y el estadounidense en una discusión sobre cuál es más democrático.

Adicionalmente, el sistema electoral como está constituido en los EUA no cubre a la policía ni al ejército que no son elegidos, pero sus actos pueden ser una cuestión de vida o muerte. Tampoco son elegidos nuestros patronos, que ejercen el poder diario en nuestras vidas.

Sin embargo, fue el arquitecto de la revolución Bolchevique, V.I. Lenin, quien abogó por que los revolucionarios participaran en la política parlamentaria, no como un fin sino como un medio.

Las elecciones son un barómetro de la lucha, pero aún más importante en este caso, son donde se está llevando a cabo la lucha de un gran sector de la clase trabajadora.

¿Por qué es así? Muchos de nosotros tenemos un historial dentro del movimiento sindical y obrero.

Cualquier trabajador con experiencia o representante sindical dirá que la mayoría de los trabajadores no quiere irse en huelga. ¿Por qué lo harían? Significa no cobrar su paga, arriesgarse a perder su trabajo y enfrentar grandes dificultades que podrían afectar no solo a él, sino a sus hijos pequeños.

Una huelga, una sentada, una toma del lugar de trabajo solo se materializa en torno a la lucha real, después de que se agotan las rutas más fáciles. Quizás no en etapas, pero generalmente no como una primera opción.

Y requiere una preparación y un trabajo minucioso por parte de los organizadores que constantemente hacen el trabajo de extraer lecciones y de crear conciencia, como solíamos llamarlo popularmente.

Entonces no nos debe sorprender que muchos de los trabajadores y aquellos en la comunidad, tanto jóvenes y viejos, quieran ir con lo que ya están más acostumbrados y lo que parece más fácil, y eso es votar por el cambio en las elecciones.

Es solo la necesidad lo que impulsa la lucha de clases hacia adelante.

Apoyo Crítico

Finalmente, nadie está proponiendo que los revolucionarios nos unamos al Partido Demócrata, abandonemos nuestro llamado al socialismo revolucionario o suavicemos nuestras críticas a Bernie Sanders. Todo lo contrario. Él no es un antiimperialista; ni siquiera se puede afirmar que es completamente anticapitalista. En estos temas y quizás en otros, encontraremos formas de hacer críticas claras y efectivas.

Quizás la crítica más importante de su campaña en el frente interno ha sido su incapacidad de aceptar el llamado a reparaciones para los descendientes de los esclavizados. Podemos explicar por qué apoyar las reparaciones y oponerse a la supremacía blanca fortalecerá el movimiento de la clase trabajadora y por qué es un puente necesario para construir la solidaridad.

Pero ninguna de estas críticas será efectiva o significativa al margen de la lucha en carne y hueso.

Necesitamos estar con la clase trabajadora, la cual aprenderá intentando y errando a través de la experiencia, que solo podemos ganar nuestra liberación si estamos en las calles, realizando sentadas, mediante huelgas y, en última instancia, organizando el poder de clase a escala global. Como dijo Frederick Douglass, “Si no hay lucha, no hay progreso”.

Debemos recordar que la Revolución Rusa de 1917 se basó en el llamado a la “paz, el pan y la tierra”.

Las palabras del vicepresidente Mike Pence en un mitin de campaña en Atlanta, el 11 de agosto de 2019 no deberían olvidarse. Él dijo: “El momento en que Estados Unidos se convierta en un país socialista es el momento en que Estados Unidos deja de ser Estados Unidos”.

Para la clase capitalista, realmente no importa qué tipo de socialismo se esté considerando (al menos en este momento), ya sea una versión revolucionaria o simplemente una reforma que cree que reducirá su margen de ganancias. Por supuesto, todo eso cambiaría si se enfrentaran a estas dos opciones, reforma o revolución. Es nuestro trabajo ver que la última opción esté finalmente sobre la mesa.

Hosted by Socialist Unity Party – San Diego and The Brown Building

Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM PST

The Brown Building
4133 Poplar St, San Diego, California 92105

To commemorate Black History month we are screening the film “The Murder of Fred Hampton”
Join us for refreshments and discussion. Door opens at 2:00 pm; film starts at 2:15 pm.

Description of the film:
Fred Hampton was the leader of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. This film depicts his brutal murder by the Chicago police and its subsequent investigation, but also documents his activities in organizing the Chapter, his public speeches, and the programs he founded for children during the last eighteen months of his life.

On Facebook

February 17, 2020 at Sistas’ Place, Brooklyn

Black History Month 2020, the December 12^th Movement will honor our contemporary freedom fighters whose lifelong commitment to our struggle has had an indelible impact on our lives. We will pay tribute to their courage, integrity, and principled work in Black political, cultural, and social movement for self-determination.

The Black History Celebration will be held at Sistas’ Place on Monday, February 17, 2020 at 7pm. Located at 456 Nostrand Avenue (corner of Jefferson Ave), Brooklyn NY.

Our Heroic Honorees include:

Sonny Abubadika Carson, Political Activist, Founder of The Committee to Honor Black Heroes

Amiri Baraka, Our Poet Laureate, Black Arts Movement, Blue Ark

Coltrane Chimurenga, Founder and Field Marshall of December 12^th Movement, Black Men’s, Movement

Jitu Weusi, Educator, Founder of “The East” the renown historic Cultural institution in Brooklyn..

Dr. Khalid Muhammad, Founder, New Black Panther Party

Sekou Sundiata, Cultural Artist – Warrior Poet

John Watusi Branch, Founder of the African Poetry Theater, Educator

Robert Taylor, Chief of Staff, December 12^th Movement

Ronald “Slim” Washington, NJ Black Transit Workers Union Organizer

Elombe Brath, Founder of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition & December 12^th Movement

Dred Scott Keyes, Activist, Journalist/Engineer WBAI Pacifica Radio

Stan Kinard, Educator, Community Leader / Organizer

Sam Pinn, Institution Builder, founder of Fort Greene Senior Center, 966 Jazz in Brooklyn

“History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are but, more importantly, what they must be.”    Dr. John Henrik Clarke

Two helicopters brought RCMP officers to the Unist’ot’en Healing Center around 11 a.m. today, as police appeared to be ready to evict the last of three locations set up by Wet’suwet’en members fighting a gas pipeline through their traditional territory.

But after failed attempts to talk with the pipeline opponents at the center, officers returned to the helicopters and left the scene.

Freda Huson, the director of the healing center, donned regalia as the helicopters arrived, including a blanket representing the land. Women from the healing centre headed to the gate to the camp with her and began a ceremony.

When an RCMP officer called over the gate and asked to speak to Huson, a legal observer staying at the camp told him she was in ceremony.

Huson later walked toward a large fire that had been built on the snowy bridge, with a copy of the injunction granted Dec. 31 barring the Wet’suwet’en from blocking Coastal GasLink’s access to its pipeline work sites.

“RCMP are liars!” she yelled, throwing the injunction in the fire. “It’s not worth the paper it’s written on.”

The women ring bells to summon ancestors and call out the names of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Media — including The Tyee — are on the scene, as well as legal observers. Others in the camp remain in the healing center, which is at kilometer 66 on the Morice West Forest Service Road.

Huson explained the song that was part of the ceremony.

“We’re trying to save the water, the land for all humankind. Not just us. And they won’t listen,” she said. “So that’s why it had to come to this.”

“They tore down our traps. They’ve disrespected my chiefs. So that is why it comes to this. Why we have a cremation ceremony for Canada.”

“Shame on you Canada,” she said. “Shame on you Justin Trudeau. Shame on you John Horgan, when you spoke of reconciliation in our feast hall, and you basically spit in my chiefs’ face by refusing to talk to them. So that’s what that song is. It’s not a boastful song. It’s asking, why did it have to come to this?”

The RCMP action today is the latest move to enforce the injunction and allow Coastal GasLink to resume work on a $6.6-billion pipeline from northeastern B.C. to an LNG plant in Kitimat, B.C.

The project has received support from some Wet’suwet’en elected councils, but hereditary chiefs are fighting to block the project. They evicted the company from their lands Jan. 4.

On Thursday, police launched a pre-dawn raid on the first Wet’suwet’en camp at kilometer 39 of the Morice road. They arrested six people, detained journalists and dismantled the camp.

On Friday, officers, including tactical squad members with rifles, moved in by helicopters and vehicles on the Gidimt’en camp at kilometer 44 on the road, eventually arresting four people. An unknown number of people refused to leave and remain in a cabin at the camp.

RCMP officers who arrived at the Unist’ot’en Healing Centro were greeted by dozens of red dresses hung along the road under a clear blue sky.

Karla Tait, volunteer director of clinical services at the healing center, said the dresses have become a symbol of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

“The reason that we have dresses here is because we know that the violence against Indigenous women and girls and communities increases with the presence of industrial camps,” she said.

“Just these past two years we’ve had two women from our own community of Witset go missing,” Tait said. “One was discovered murdered… Despite being such a small Indigenous community, I think we’ve lost about seven women, that I’m aware of, that we don’t have any suspects or any leads on their whereabouts.”

Witset has a population of about 815.

Coastal GasLink was building a work camp to house up to 400 people when hereditary chiefs closed the West Morice Forest Service Road, Tait said. The camp is about 20 kilometers along the road from the healing center.

The final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, released last year, dedicates a chapter to resource extraction projects and their impact on Indigenous women.

Transient workers housed in “man camps” are a major concern, the report notes, as high-paying, high-stress jobs contribute to an increase in drug and alcohol abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence.

“This increased rate of violence is largely the result of the migration into the camps of mostly non-Indigenous young men with high salaries and little to no stake in the host Indigenous community,” the report found.

The RCMP faced challenges and rising tensions at several points along the Morice road today.

The RCMP and Wet’suwet’en pipeline opponents have traded accusations over damage to a bridge at the Gidimt’en camp at kilometre 44. The RCMP say bridge support beams appear to have been cut and it’s unsafe for all traffic, including foot traffic.

Police said a criminal investigation would be launched. The Wet’suwet’en pipeline opponents say the police did the damage when they used trucks to pull down a metal gate on the bridge.

The RCMP faced criticism from Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders for expanding an exclusion zone that barred access to the area “with some exceptions for Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Elected Council members by arrangement with the Senior Commander.” The exclusion zone had been established at kilometre 27 on the forest road.

On Friday the RCMP moved their checkpoint to kilometre four, near the turnoff from Highway 16, blaming two blockades on the road near the former checkpoint and saying spikes had been placed along the road to damage the tires of vehicles operated by the RCMP.

Another 11 people were arrested today at a warming centre at the former checkpoint, the RCMP said, after they “barricaded themselves inside, some using chains in an effort to prevent their arrest.”

And supporters of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs blocked roads and train tracks in cities across Canada. Access to the Port of Vancouver was blocked and in Victoria marchers disrupted traffic and a group occupied the front steps of the legislature. Rail service was disrupted in Ontario and Quebec.

Source: The Tyee

New York City, Feb. 6 — Rain didn’t stop hundreds of students, parents and teachers from rallying this afternoon at the Board of Education headquarters on Chambers Street. They demanded an end to racism in New York City public schools. The protest was part of the “Black Lives Matter at school” actions held coast-to-coast this week.

Sixty-six years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education outlawed school segregation, education in New York City is profoundly unequal. Rich parents send their children to private schools like the Horace Mann school, whose annual tuition is currently $53,200. 

More repulsive is how Black students are kept out of New York’s famed specialty public high schools. Almost two million Black people live in New York City. That’s about 25 percent of the city’s population. Yet, out of 895 students offered admittance to Stuyvesant High School last year, only seven were Black, less than 1 percent. 

Only 12 African American students were offered places at the Bronx High School of Science, half of the 25 Black students who were offered admission the year before.  Back In 1960, at least ten Black students graduated from this famous school, including Kwame Ture, then known as Stokely Carmichael.

‘Counselors not cops!’

“Black Lives Matter!” was shouted by the multinational audience on the steps of the old Tweed Courthouse behind City Hall. People brought colorful banners and signs. 

Among the demands raised was hiring more Black teachers and mandating Black history and ethnic studies. “Fund counselors not cops” was another.

Black and Latinx students spoke of the racism, sexism and neglect they’ve suffered. Last year almost 28 percent of Black high school students didn’t graduate. 

At the same time, Black college students have even more student debt than white students. 

What a difference from socialist Cuba, where education is free, including medical school. There are no metal detectors in Cuban schools. Education is a human right that NYC students are fighting for.

On February 3, the presidential candidate of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), Luis Arce, and his running mate, David Choquehuanca, registered their candidacy at the office of the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) for the general elections on May 3 in Bolivia. Despite the constant political persecution by the coup regime, led by far-right, Jeanine Áñez, the leftist party MAS, led by former President Evo Morales, presented the list of its candidates for president, vice-president, senators and deputies and successfully filed their nomination.

The MAS candidates, Arce and Choquehuanca, arrived at the office of the TSE accompanied by a massive crowd of the MAS leaders, supporters and social movements, who marched with them from the San Francisco Plaza to the electoral office.

“We have the people on our side, we are the only party, the only political option that represents the interests of the poorest people, of the indigenous brothers, peasants, of the impoverished middle class, which has been increasingly impoverished by this de-facto government. There are many people who are suffering, not only because of the limitation in political participation, but also in the economy. We have the support of the majority of the people,” said Arce, minutes after filing his nomination, manifesting his confidence in the people of Bolivia.

Arce also sharply criticized the de-facto government for its hostile actions against the MAS functionaries to prevent their participation in the elections. Referring to the recent incident of harassment and attempted arrest of the legal representative of President Morales, Patricia Hermosa, and his lawyer, Wilfredo Chávez, Arce said that “we denounce the harassment that our delegates suffer before the Electoral Court, another trick of the de-facto government that does not want us to take part in the elections.”

Hermosa and Chávez came to the TSE with all the necessary documents to register former President Morales as a candidate for the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. However they were stopped from doing so and became the new victims of the harassment and political persecution of the dictatorial government of Áñez. Hermosa, who was carrying the power of attorney by President Morales and a military service notebook, was arrested by the police and sentenced to six months preventive detention the same day. Chávez, who couldn’t be arrested with Hermosa, had taken refuge at the Argentine embassy in La Paz, Bolivia.

President Morales condemned Hermosa’s arrest on twitter and denounced the lack of evidence to carry out the arrest. “Justice in Bolivia is subordinated to the dictatorship. In a completely illegal way, they send my representative Patricia Hermosa to prison; without any evidence or legal basis they deprive former public servants of their freedom,” Morales wrote.

However, despite the coup regime’s desperate attempts to prevent Morales’s participation, he was successfully registered as a candidate for the Senate. Social and peasant leader, Leonardo Loza, informed the local media yesterday that Morales’s name is on the official list of the MAS candidates and he is a candidate for the Senate from the department of Cochabamba.

The persecution of the former government members happened over the weekend as well. On February 1, the former Mining Minister Cesar Navarro and former Agriculture Minister Pedro Dorado were arbitrary arrested at the El Alto airport when they were about to board a plane to Mexico to seek political asylum in that country. The officials were granted a safe-conduct which allowed their free departure from the country, despite that, the Interior Ministry arrested them disrespecting the safe-conduct granted by its government. After spending hours in detention and the public apologies of the interim government, both officials were released and they managed to reach Mexico.

Last month, the de-facto government tried to impede Arce’s participation in the upcoming elections by filing a false corruption case against him.

Since the civic-military coup against the constitutional president Evo Morales on November 10, selective persecution of MAS functionaries and social leaders has become normal practice on part of the coup-born government. After the right-wing coup, the MAS deputies and ministers, who sought refuge in the Mexican embassy located in La Paz, were intimidated by an increased military presence and arrest warrants were issued for five MAS ministers. A warrant has even been issued for former Bolivian President Evo Morales accusing him of sedition, terrorism and financing of terrorism.

Source: Peoples Dispatch

Saturday, February 8, 2020 at 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM EST

Foley Square
111 Worth St, New York, New York 10007

Merely two days after Trump’s inflammatory and hateful State of the Union speech, an acting ICE agent shot a man in the face in Gravesend, Brooklyn.

This is a hate crime. The acting ICE agent must be brought to justice — this escalation is a clear sign of violence and the agent must be investigated, charged, and arrested. ICE acted illegally in this situation and did not identify themselves, did not have a warrant signed by a judge, and they assaulted Gaspar with repeated tasering.

Both men were unarmed.

We demand justice for Eric (#JusticeForEric) who as a Mexican National should have never been forced to interact with ICE and who remains in the hospital and heading into surgery soon. Meanwhile, Gaspar is being ripped away from his family because ICE waited to detain him as soon as he was discharged from the hospital today. We MUST stop his deportation (#FreeGaspar).

Gaspar is a victim of broken windows policing and was put into the crosshairs of ICE. The New York Courts MUST stop sharing arrest records with ICE and putting our immigrant communities at-risk.

New York needs to be a REAL sanctuary state.

? We’re calling on Governor Cuomo and the New York State legislature to pass the Liberty Act.

? We’re calling on the State and New York General Attorney Tish James to investigate and prosecute the acting ICE agent who shot Eric.

? We are calling to stop deportations and to abolish ICE. Their rogue and cruel tactics should no longer prey on the many immigrant communities across New York City, New York State, and the rest of the country.

Join us with signs, banners, songs, prayers, and chants at 4 PM on Federal Plaza.

We will begin with a speaking agenda that will elected officials, advocates, community leaders, faith leaders, activists, and more before entering into an open mic rally.

Amplify & share this out!

#JusticeForEric #FreeGaspar #AbolishICE #ICEShotAManInTheFaceToday

On Facebook

We stand with the Wet’suwet’en Nation as they assert jurisdiction over their lands and protect the inherent rights of their people. We condemn the colonial violence carried out by the RCMP and the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline company, including a raid on their sovereign lands.

Use this toolkit to organize your event and add Idle No More, Indigenous Environmental Network and Indigenous Climate Action as co-hosts so we can help to amplify.

* Wet’suwet’en Supporter Toolkit:
http://unistoten.camp/supportertoolkit2020/?fbclid=IwAR1HjIW4IsEofzS5ZVkYnFeLOl3m-Txgo0xLlhanhtVzjtHcRKbFGOkiw8w

The rights of the environment and natural world are inextricably linked to human and Indigenous rights. Show your support for the development of alternative climate solutions driven and directed by Indigenous worldview, rights frameworks, and knowledge built from millennia of ancestral knowledge and direct relationships with Mother Earth.

The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs issued an eviction notice to CGL on January 6, 2010 that applied to “Camp 9A” on Dark Horse territory, as well as the neighbouring Gidimt’en, Tsayu, and Laksamshu clan territories.

Since then, CGL has refused to comply with the eviction notice and British Columbia has not upheld its commitment to implement UNDRIP or removed its RCMP from sovereign Wet’suwet’en land.

CGL represents the expansion of the fossil fuel economy and the continued colonization of Indigenous lands and territories. Climate justice demands that these processes stop and that Indigenous sovereignty is respected as it deserves.

Anuc ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law) remains the highest law on Wet’suwet’en land and must be respected. Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous rights, Indigenous laws and Indigenous ways of knowing and being are a way of sustainably managing territories in direct relationship with the natural world. These practices have proven success in maintaining lands and territories for millennia demonstrated by the fact that 80% of the world’s biodiversity remains in Indigenous lands and territories.

Colonialism caused climate change and Indigenous rights and sovereignty are the solutions to the climate crisis.

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs demands:

– That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.
– That the UNDRIP and our right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.
– That the RCMP and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s (CERD) request.
– That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by CGL respect our laws and our governance system, and refrain from using any force to access our lands or remove our people.
——————————————————————————–

Wet’suwet’en call for action:

Unceded and sovereign Wet’suwet’en land is under attack. On December 31, 2019, BC Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church granted an injunction against members of the Wet’suwet’en nation who have been stewarding and protecting our traditional territories from the destruction of multiple pipelines, including Coastal Gas Link’s (CGL) liquified natural gas (LNG) pipeline. Hereditary Chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans have rejected Church’s decision, which criminalizes Anuk ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law), and have issued and enforced an eviction of CGL’s workers from the territory. The last CGL contractor was escorted out by Wet’suwet’en Chiefs on Saturday, January 4, 2020.

We watched communities across Canada and worldwide rise up with us in January 2019 when the RCMP violently raided our territories and criminalized us for upholding our responsibilities towards our land. Our strength to act today comes from the knowledge that our allies across Canada and around the world will again rise up with us, as they did for Oka, Gustafsen Lake, and Elsipogtog, shutting down rail lines, ports, and industrial infrastructure and pressuring elected government officials to abide by UNDRIP. The state needs to stop violently supporting those members of the 1% who are stealing our resources and condemning our children to a world rendered uninhabitable by climate change. Light your sacred fires and come to our aid as the RCMP prepares again to enact colonial violence against Wet’suwet’en people.

We ask that all actions taken in solidarity are conducted peacefully and according to the laws of the Indigenous nation(s) of that land.

* Donate to Unist’ot’en:
https://unistoten.camp/support-us/donate/

* Donate to Gidimt’en
https://www.yintahaccess.com/becomeadonor

On Facebook

Why revolutionary socialists call for critical support

We have no illusions about the Democratic Party. It is a billionaire and bankers’ War Party. Any notion that the Democratic Party represents the working class is a sugar-coated charade. At its core, it remains a neoliberal institution bent on preserving capitalist rule. 

Destructive imperialist wars have been waged under Democratic Party administrations; workers’ rights and benefits for the poor have been stripped under every single administration, regardless of party. What is constant regardless of which party prevails is the system of capitalism and imperialism that is the root cause of so much human misery.

So why are we calling for critical support of the Sanders movement?

Bernie Sanders as the candidate is not the pivotal issue. What’s critical is the struggle that his campaign has unleashed against the Democratic Party establishment. A struggle which has struck fear in the ruling class. 

This campaign is a working-class movement, mostly of young people and increasingly of the oppressed, that deeply distrusts the Establishment of both parties. It is a movement fueled by increasing anger against the rule of billionaires and the growing gap between rich and poor that has left so many workers impoverished. 

The fact that the ruling class is so worried and so frantic to cut this movement off at the pass is a clear indicator of their own fear that the movement, galvanized around health care, free education, curbing the climate crisis, etc., may well get out of control. Meaning that it might leave the constricted straitjacket of the Democratic Party.

The increasingly virulent anti-Bernie Sanders attacks have been picking up steam ever since it’s become clear that Sanders’ campaign might win the primary. Of course, there are a million tricks between now and the July Democratic Convention, and the likelihood of a stolen election looms large.

The Iowa Caucus debacle was a sickening reminder that forces behind the curtain pull the strings. That they would go so far as to wreck the Iowa Caucus in an attempt to slow the Sanders campaign demonstrates their real contempt for their own so-called democracy. 

Billionaires reject even mild reforms — Imperialist war is their answer 

The class of billionaires and bankers isn’t inclined at this point to give much in the form of concessions — whether it’s to provide health care, education, curb predatory landlords or raise the minimum wage—let alone push back police terror and the white supremacist system driving it, shutting down the immigrant detention centers, respecting Indigenous rights, providing justice for women, oppressed genders and the LGBTQ2S communities or saving the planet.

Capitalism as a system is in crisis and because of this it has become harder and harder for it to provide for the needs of the mass of people. Not only has the gap between rich and poor widened, but the next generation faces the threat of planetary collapse.

What the capitalists are driven to is imperialist war in all its many forms, whether by direct intervention or through sanctions. Democrats and Republicans are united in the imperialist attacks on Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Palestine, Korea, Zimbabwe, China and other countries.

The importance of the movement

Will Sanders take this to the logical conclusion, that is, to openingly break with the Democratic Party? While unlikely from his own admissions, it remains an important question. What his supporters do is even more critical. 

It is the movement that we are most interested in, and the potential for a larger struggle to push the working class in an independent direction in its own name.

Many of us at Struggle-La Lucha were extremely active in organizing and promoting the “Million Worker March” (October 17, 2004), which was founded and led by Black trade unionists who called the national march in large part with the goal of developing an independent workers’ movement that would break from the chains of the Democratic Party.

Shouldn’t revolutionary socialists and communists be in the Sanders movement—especially if it takes a critical turn—so that we can agitate, educate and explain what the next step could be?

Referendum between capitalism and socialism

Both in the time leading up to the Democratic Convention — and also, if for some unforeseen reason Sanders wins the nomination—what, de facto, will take place is a referendum between capitalism and socialism. 

It doesn’t so much matter whether Bernie Sanders is or is not a real socialist or a “New Deal Democrat” — socialism is how the issue is being defined by the bourgeois establishment of both parties. Trump is already defining this, as are many in the Democratic Party establishment.

Appeal to revolutionaries disgusted by the bourgeois elections

The U.S. electoral system is wholly undemocratic. Just look at who can and cannot vote and how many times elections have been rigged, stolen, subverted or bought off in the interests of the ruling class. A good contrast could be made between the Cuban electoral system and that of the U.S. in an argument about which is more democratic. 

In addition, the electoral system as it’s constituted in the U.S. does not cover the police and military, who are not elected, but their actions can be a matter of life and death. Also unelected are our bosses, who exercise day-to-day power. You get the picture.

Nevertheless, it was the architect of the Bolshevik revolution, V.I. Lenin, who argued for revolutionaries to participate in parliamentary politics, not as an end but as a means.

Elections are a barometer of the struggle, but more importantly in this instance, they are also where that struggle of a large layer of the working class is taking place. 

Why is this so?  Many of us have a history inside the workers’ and union movement. 

Any experienced worker or union representative will tell you that most workers do not want to go on strike. Why would they? It means going without a paycheck, taking the risk that you’ll lose your job completely and facing major hardships that could impact not only yourselves but your young children. 

A strike, a sit-down action, a workplace takeover only materializes around the actual fight — after easier routes are exhausted. Maybe not in stages, but usually not as the first choice. 

And it takes painstaking preparation and work by organizers who consistently do the work of distilling lessons and of raising consciousness, as we popularly used to call it. 

It should not be surprising then, that the many workers and those in the community, both young and old, would want to go with what they are most accustomed to and what seems easiest, and that is to vote for change at the ballot box. 

It is only necessity that drives class struggle forward.

Critical support

Finally, no one is proposing that revolutionaries join the Democratic Party, drop our call for revolutionary socialism or blunt our criticism of Bernie Sanders. 

Quite the contrary. He is not an anti-imperialist; you cannot even claim that he is thoroughly anti-capitalist. On these issues and perhaps others, we will find ways of making clear and effective critiques. 

Perhaps the most important criticism of his campaign on the domestic front has been his failure to embrace the call for reparations for the descendants of those enslaved. We can explain why supporting reparations and opposing white supremacy will strengthen the working-class movement and why it is a necessary bridge to building solidarity.

But none of this criticism will be effective or meaningful from the sidelines of the flesh and blood struggle.

We need to be with the working class, who will learn by trial and error, through experience, that we can only win our liberation by being in the streets, by conducting sit-ins and sit-downs, by strikes and ultimately organizing working-class power on a global scale. As Frederick Douglass said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

We should remind ourselves that the Russian revolution of 1917 based itself on the call for “peace, bread and land.” 

Vice President Mike Pence’s words at a campaign rally in Atlanta, on August 11, 2019, shouldn’t be lost on anyone. He said, “The moment America becomes a socialist country is the moment America ceases to be America.” 

For the capitalist class it doesn’t really matter what kind of socialism is under consideration (at least at this moment), whether it’s a revolutionary version, or simply a reform that they believe will cut into their profit margin. Of course, that would all change if they were confronted with these two choices, reform or revolution. It’s our job, to see that the latter choice is ultimately on the table.