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Will a Democratic Congress Change Anything?
This is Todd Chretien's "last blog" before election day.
Todd Chretien is the Green Party candidate running for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein.
Todd Chretien is the Green Party candidate running for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein.
Will a Democratic Congress Change Anything?
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Todd’s Last Blog
There’s just four days to go before the elections and, as long as the Democrats can keep John Kerry in hiding, it looks like they have a good chance to take the House and the Senate. It certainly is entertaining to see the Republicans tear themselves apart. The question is: will this change anything?
This time next year, will there be any fewer American troops in Iraq? Or if some of them are “redeployed” will this only be a tactical move in order to increase the bombardment of Iraqi cities by the US Air Force?
This time next year, will immigrant workers and their families be any closer to winning their rights? Or will the Democrats unite with Bush to ram through a “guest worker” program, otherwise known as “indentured servitude.”
This time next year, will the people of Iran be any safer from military threats? Or will Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama spend the year posturing about “getting tough” on Iran?
This time next year, will we be any closer to getting a national health care system? Or rejuvenating public education? Or ending the death penalty? Or emptying our prisons? Or stopping global warming? Or ending our support for the forces of reaction against the workers, students and indigenous people of Latin America?
If we leave it up to the “Democratic” Congress, then I really doubt it. Instead, I expect that we will be told the following: “Yes, now we do control Congress, but just barely. Therefore, we can’t do anything to let the Republicans criticize us. You anti-war and immigrant rights types should just shut up and help us elect Barak or Hilary president, then we can do something…”
If this strategy eventually pays off in a Democratic sweep in 2008, we’ll then hear: “Yes, now we control both houses of Congress and the presidency, but we can’t make the mistake we made in 1994, when allowed the Republicans to criticize us for even mentioning national health care. So, we’ll have to be as right wing as possible for at least the next year in order to defend our majority in the 2010 mid-term elections.”
And so on. Pretty soon, it will be 2012, we’ll still be in Iraq, and maybe Iran, and we’ll get the “It’s the most important election of our lifetime” line.
What can break this cycle? Only you can, or rather, only we can. We need to break free from the strangle hold that the Democrats have on us. If we believe the Democrats will end the war in Iraq, then we won’t build one for ourselves. If we believe the Democrats will fix our public education system, then we won’t use our powerful teachers unions to strike for higher pay, better conditions and resources for our kids. If we believe the Democrats will grant immigrant workers their rights, then we won’t build a powerful civil rights movement to take them.
We won’t convince everyone all at once about the need to free our movements from the Siren call of the Democrats, but if they win, and it’s still a big if, then they will begin turning their back on the very voters who put them in office. Our job will be to hold out a hand to these people and begin a discussion about the need for a new political force that represents workers, students, immigrants, prisoners, poor, African Americans, women, gays and lesbians, and rank and file soldiers.
The real work begins on November 8.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Todd’s Last Blog
There’s just four days to go before the elections and, as long as the Democrats can keep John Kerry in hiding, it looks like they have a good chance to take the House and the Senate. It certainly is entertaining to see the Republicans tear themselves apart. The question is: will this change anything?
This time next year, will there be any fewer American troops in Iraq? Or if some of them are “redeployed” will this only be a tactical move in order to increase the bombardment of Iraqi cities by the US Air Force?
This time next year, will immigrant workers and their families be any closer to winning their rights? Or will the Democrats unite with Bush to ram through a “guest worker” program, otherwise known as “indentured servitude.”
This time next year, will the people of Iran be any safer from military threats? Or will Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama spend the year posturing about “getting tough” on Iran?
This time next year, will we be any closer to getting a national health care system? Or rejuvenating public education? Or ending the death penalty? Or emptying our prisons? Or stopping global warming? Or ending our support for the forces of reaction against the workers, students and indigenous people of Latin America?
If we leave it up to the “Democratic” Congress, then I really doubt it. Instead, I expect that we will be told the following: “Yes, now we do control Congress, but just barely. Therefore, we can’t do anything to let the Republicans criticize us. You anti-war and immigrant rights types should just shut up and help us elect Barak or Hilary president, then we can do something…”
If this strategy eventually pays off in a Democratic sweep in 2008, we’ll then hear: “Yes, now we control both houses of Congress and the presidency, but we can’t make the mistake we made in 1994, when allowed the Republicans to criticize us for even mentioning national health care. So, we’ll have to be as right wing as possible for at least the next year in order to defend our majority in the 2010 mid-term elections.”
And so on. Pretty soon, it will be 2012, we’ll still be in Iraq, and maybe Iran, and we’ll get the “It’s the most important election of our lifetime” line.
What can break this cycle? Only you can, or rather, only we can. We need to break free from the strangle hold that the Democrats have on us. If we believe the Democrats will end the war in Iraq, then we won’t build one for ourselves. If we believe the Democrats will fix our public education system, then we won’t use our powerful teachers unions to strike for higher pay, better conditions and resources for our kids. If we believe the Democrats will grant immigrant workers their rights, then we won’t build a powerful civil rights movement to take them.
We won’t convince everyone all at once about the need to free our movements from the Siren call of the Democrats, but if they win, and it’s still a big if, then they will begin turning their back on the very voters who put them in office. Our job will be to hold out a hand to these people and begin a discussion about the need for a new political force that represents workers, students, immigrants, prisoners, poor, African Americans, women, gays and lesbians, and rank and file soldiers.
The real work begins on November 8.
For more information:
http://www.todd4senate.org/
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While he won't win, we continue to send statements that we are tired of the right wing pro-war, pro-israel spineless Democraps.
His group, the ISO, for which he is currently "boring from within" as a fake Green, has also established a rep as a top down authoritarian centralized mess of opportunistic sectarianism. Check out this complaint from an IWW union that the ISO tampered with: http://www.worldsocialism.org/usa/wiki/index.php?title=ISO_Sells_Out_Workers
And many of the anti-minutemen folks have complaints about the ISO as well:
http://deletetheborder.org/node/338
By now everyone knows of their role in attempting to control the anti-war movement:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2001/11/14/1092691.php
(There are many many reports on this online.)
As a high ranking ISO rep, Todd holds to the party line above all else as his interactions in the anti-war communities have shown. So if you are fine with someone who thinks crushing the Kronstadt rebellion was a good thing, and who finds Leninist organizational principles, such as subjecting workers' control to a centralized party control by decimation of their councils and soviets, to be peachy and vibrantly relevant to the movement today, then vote for Todd and empower the ISO within the movement. If you don't see Leninism as a legitimate basis for the pursuit of freedom, worker solidarity, anti-ideological and pro-dialectical thought, then it might be better to grapple with the hard questions toward the goal of participating in meaningful struggle in your own and others' interests.
If you apply the principles of Todd's critique of Democratic opportunism to the record of socialists in power see what you end up with. Nationalism, capitalism, wage slavery, wars, vangaurdist centralism, covert manipulations and so on. Unless people can honestly apply critique to the failures of the past, there can be no real new efforts for change of consequence. Apply the same critique to anarchists and others by all means, but don't lie yourself into feeling that Todd represents any kind of alternative. Look at his shallow analysis of the Russian Revolution, his manichaean counter revolutionary stance on "supporting the resistance", and his inexcusable management of Stalinist George Galloway's US tour, and his hypocritical focus on electoral politics while denouncing others with almost identical platforms, for a good representation of his positions. Nothing to do with revolution.
Will the Dems, now that they have a majority in the House, vote to attack Iran? You can count on it if they are told to.
Will Iran use the nuclear war-heads it already has if it is attacked? Yes.
And that may be the only good thing to come out of the whole affair, the end of apartheid "Israel" as we know it. See Tel Aviv while its still there!