To counter the charge that it’s unrealistic, and overly idealistic, to want to bring about real change in our world, as well as the trusty “life isn’t fair” rationale always used to justify injustice, is why we’re striking. We didn’t accept that line of reasoning during the civil rights movement, and we don’t accept it now. We think it’s far more unrealistic to think that a small cadre of elites will be able to keep up their never-ending pursuit of power consolidation and mass manipulation without waking us up in the process. We think it’s far more unlikely that in 1000 years, humanity will still be playing this game of perpetual one-upmanship, instead of picking up the far more efficient and beneficial manner of interacting with each other in honesty, cooperation and genuine respect.

Read the original in its entirety. It’s excellent.

The Wasatch Socialist Party will take part in May Day demonstrations in Salt Lake City. Our own Josh Belka will be speaking, and of course many of us will be marching.

The march begins at 5 pm at the County Building and proceeds to the Capital. We hope you can join us!

Don’t know much about May Day? This holiday is international, transcending many national and religious differences. It is a day by, of, and for working people the world over. In many countries, May Day is a day off from work. In the US, of course, it is hardly recognized. We know many people cannot take the day off from work, but we are working for a day when May Day is recognized and we all have the freedom to enjoy the day with our families and to remind governments the world over of the power of working people.

Symptom #2: Paranoia. The disease of imperialism manifests in paranoid behavior. We believe that the government and corporations are engaged in unprecedented surveillance and data-gathering on citizens, whether they are criminals or not, whether they are terrorists or not, and especially when their “crimes” are crimes against property.

Homeland Security means property security.

If you agree with us that our country is suffering from this disease, we suggest you consider taking a look at what the Socialist Party has to offer in terms of cures.

Symptom #1: Mania. The disease of imperialism manifests in extreme behaviors. We believe our own country exhibits manic behavior, especially in terms of defense spending:

This is but one symptom of the disease of imperialism. We will discuss more soon.

If you agree with us that our country is suffering from this disease, we suggest you consider taking a look at what the Socialist Party has to offer in terms of cures.

About IWD History….
1909: The Woman’s National Committee of the Socialist Party calls for a national day of protest on the last Sunday of February to support women’s suffrage in the context of the broader movement for women’s rights, workers’ rights, and social justice.
1910: The Women’s Congress of the Socialist International meets in August in Copenhagen and approves the call for an international day of protest.
The specific date is left open to the participants in each country.
1913: Russian socialists begin celebrating International Women’s Day. Their intention is to organize rallies for the same day as that set in the United States, but since the Julian calendar lags several days behind the Western calendar, the events take place in early March by our reckoning.

About IWD and Peace…..
In August 1914, World War I erupted, leading to the slaughter of millions. International Women’s Day became a focal point for those calling for an immediate end to the war. On February 23, 1917, (March 8 on the new calendar), tens of thousands of Russian women celebrated International Women’s Day by surging onto the streets of Petrograd demanding peace.

These militant protests led to the downfall of the czar and, soon afterward, Russia’s decision to leave the war. Senseless war continues. Once again we are told that military action in Iraq and Afghanistan is intended to promote freedom and peace, and once again we know the real reasons are about power and wealth. As we demonstrate our opposition to war and occupation this and every International Women’s Day, we commemorate the heroic actions of the women in Petrograd in 1917 and the women in Tehran in 1979. In doing so, we maintain an unbroken link in the struggle for peace, justice, and equality.

About IWD and Power….
International Women’s Day is about power: theirs and ours. Their power puts courts and legislatures in charge of whether or not a woman can have an abortion. Our power leaves this decision where it belongs: with the woman herself. Their power dictates a profit-driven “managed care” health care system, at the service of the health insurance industry and transnational pharmaceutical companies. Our power lies in grassroots organizing, for a national system of universal health care under community control.

Their power rests in greedy corporations owned by an ultra-wealthy few that deplete the world’s resources and exploit its people. Our power depends on building a mass movement for a new society rooted in cooperation, equality, and workers’ control.

Their power dumps toxic waste sites in our poorest communities-of-color, and builds dams that destroy the livelihoods of countless farmers in our poorest countries. Our power demands environmental justice. Their power busts unions. Our power is at our worksites, talking with our co-workers about the connections between workers’ rights, human rights, and women’s rights. Their power is “welfare reform” that pushes women into low-paid, dead-end jobs, and their children into inadequate child care. Our power is the fight for the creation of good jobs with pay equity and benefits, and the full funding of quality child care, education, and social services.

Their power dupes young men and women into signing away their rights and often their lives for the sake of U.S. imperialism. Our power gets the word out on alternatives to “jobs” in the military and calls for huge cuts in the military 
budget. Their power blames hunger and poverty on over-population. Our power blames hunger and poverty on policies and practices consciously designed to protect and enrich the global capitalist class, in particular the agribusiness of the most developed countries.

Their power gets channeled through politicians whose primary allegiance is to the economic requirements of global capitalism. Our power gets exerted through political action completely independent of both mainstream, capitalist parties. Their power resides in exploitation, inequality, domination, violence, and deception. Our power resides in cooperation, compassion, respectful communication, justice, and collective action.

March 8th — International Women’s Day– is our day. It’s our opportunity to come together to speak out for a world where democratic socialist feminist values and programs enable people to live lives in ways they never will be able to under capitalism and patriarchy. That’s the truth. That’s our power.

A statement by United for Social Justice explains what is wrong with Utah’s HB497.

   HB497 requires and/or allows (depending on the alleged offense) local law enforcement to request immigration status papers from anyone they stop, detain, or arrest. In some cases, whether the officer decides to request proof of immigration status will likely be based on such factors such as appearance or English speaking ability, which will further encourage racial profiling.  Furthermore, HB497 sets forth a limited list of documents that law enforcement will accept as verification of immigration status.  Many individuals who are lawfully present in the U.S. do not have one of the acceptable documents.  This puts them at risk of being subjected to unreasonably long detentions during traffic stops or other encounters with law enforcement.  This law turns Utah into a “show me your papers” police state, which is inconsistent with American ideals of freedom and democracy.  

As members of the Socialist Party we recognize the intimate link between racism and capitalism. We are dedicated to the abolition of class society, and to the elimination of all forms of oppression, including those based on race and national origin.  We defend the rights of all immigrants to education, health care, and full civil and legal rights and call for  unconditional amnesty for all undocumented people.    We recognize that borders are merely lines drawn by racist imperialists that wish nothing more than to divide the workers of the world. As socialists we unite to build  a world without borders in which everyone will be able to freely visit and live wherever they choose.

Rigorous studies—using regression analysis to home in on the effect of RTW laws— show that RTW laws:

• reduce wages by $1,500 a year, for both union and nonunion workers, after accounting for different costs of living in the states (Gould and Shierholz 2011)
• lower the likelihood that employees get healthcare or pensions through their jobs—again, for both union and nonunion employees (Gould and Shierholz 2011)
• have no impact whatsoever on job growth (Lafer and Allegretto 2011)

To the extent that enacting RTW legislation ever served as an effective economic development strategy—and the evidence is weak on this point—globalization has rendered RTW irrelevant.  In the 1970s and 1980s, companies may well have moved to RTW states in search of lower wages. But in 2012, companies looking for cheap labor are overwhelmingly looking to China or Mexico, not South Carolina. The impotence of right to work in the era of globalization is evident in the widespread job losses experienced by RTW states over the past 15 years. The loss of manufacturing jobs post-NAFTA has been felt in every state in the country.  The highest rates of job loss have been in right-to-work states, with the Carolinas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida all losing a higher percentage of their manufacturing jobs than Indiana (Public Citizen 2011).

So who is behind this renewed push for Right to Work legislation? Disenfranchised workers? Nope. One need look no further than the Chamber of Commerce and organizations such as the American Legislative Exchange Council, both which value profit over people.

The Socialist Party stands for the right of all workers to organize, for worker control of industry through the democratic organization of the workplace, for the social ownership of the means of production and distribution, and for international solidarity among working people based on common opposition to global capitalism and imperialism. We believe that the international organization of labor is the only way of combating the exploitation of workers in a global capitalist economy. Working people have no country, but rather an international bond based on class. Workers throughout the world have far more in common with each other across national boundaries than with their bosses in their own countries. Ultimately a socialist revolution must be an international revolution that cannot survive if confined to individual countries amidst capitalist imperialism. In the meantime we call for the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act which allows for so-called Right to Work laws.

To read the full report of the Economic Policy Institute go to: Working hard to make Indiana look bad:The tortured, uphill case for ‘right-to-work’

Socialist Party USA Presidential Candidate Stewart Alexander

by Stewart Alexander, 2012 Socialist Party USA Presidential Candidate

The phrase that came to mind immediately upon hearing President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech is “too little, too late.” After spending the last few years coddling the banks and the richest 1%, Obama has the nerve to now call for “economic fairness.” To him, this means tweaking payroll taxes and making a rhetorical call to reverse the Bush tax cuts for the rich. For working people in America real fairness means the right to a job, a guarantee of healthcare for all and an end to the Military Industrial Complex. Obama won’t deliver this. That’s why I am running for President against him.

Job creation has been and will continue to be the most obvious way that Obama has sold out working people throughout America. These decisions were made early on in his administration when he made the conscious decision to pour billions of dollars into the Banks that had funded his campaign instead of using those funds to create an emergency employment program to put people back to work. The result is that Americans have experienced nearly three consecutive years of more than 9% unemployment and nearly double that when those workers who given up looking for jobs are counted. This has meant real human suffering for millions of people.

Although Obama has hailed the recent decline in these same unemployment rates, a closer look at the numbers reveal the hollowness of his claims. Economist Doug Henwood has paged through the Unemployment report and discovered that much of the reduction is due to the effects of holiday seasonal employment and, in particular, a shift to online purchasing for Christmas gifts. Of the 200,000 jobs created in December, some 42,000, or over 1/5, came from the hiring of extra couriers and messengers. Bars, restaurants and healthcare companies picked up the bulk of the rest of the new hires. Hardly the manner in which we want to grow the economy.

The jobs program that the Alexander/Mendoza 2012 campaign is proposing calls for the creation of a Full Employment economy. We have a three-pronged approach. First, we want to create an Emergency Jobs Program that will put millions of workers back to work immediately in fields like environmental cleanup, infrastructure creation and maintenance, and education. Second, we support proposals to publicly fund a worker owned and managed cooperative sector. This will serve to not only put people back to work, but to re-build the manufacturing capacity of our country. Finally, we want to fund job training programs that lead to job sharing or job splitting, where workers will work less yet retain the same amount of pay and benefits.

A serious restructuring of the tax code that allows us to take back the wealth created by our work and accumulated by the 1% is key to funding our job creation plan. We want more than Obama’s proposed payroll tax cut. We deserve more than just reversing Bush’s economically suicidal tax breaks for the rich. We need a radical restructuring of the way in which we think about wealth. The great riches of this society need to be put to use to help us all – to make life better for the 99% and create new opportunities for work, relaxation and community.

This is why we propose creating a progressive tax structure where the rich pay far more than the average working person. In a democratic socialist society neither Obama nor Romney would be allowed to pay an effective tax rate of 26% and 17% respectively. Corporate taxation, financial gains taxes and personal income taxes will be modernized – all loopholes will be closed and the rich will pay a steep tax on their income. This is what economic fairness looks like to a socialist.

If Obama’s proposals for “Economic Fairness” are hard to believe, his attempt to present his Presidency as one of peace is simply a farce. The hands of the Obama administration are dripping with blood. He has approved a brutal Drone war on the people of Pakistan that has resulted in massive civilian casualties. He has accelerated the war in Afghanistan, which has increased casualties among soldiers and terrorized the civilian population driving them into the political arms of the Taliban. And Obama has continued to take an aggressive political stance on Iran thereby moving the country closer to another war.

All this, plus a clear continuation of the Bush era security state policies. Obama’s approval of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) annihilates centuries of civil rights protections. The President now has the right to indefinitely jail any citizen in the America without having to work within the protections of habeas corpus. Added to the NDAA is the fact that, as I write this, Bradley Manning is rotting in a jail cell. Manning is Obama’s prisoner – a moral testament to the President’s commitment to continue the job of restricting civil liberties.

My campaign is staunchly anti-militarist. This means that I commit to bringing the troops home now through the elimination of all foreign occupations and the closing of all foreign military bases and I aim to dismantle the Military Industrial Complex. My campaign calls for an immediate 50% reduction in military spending. We think that democratic socialism offers the best hope for the creation of a world based on peace and solidarity. Eliminating the security state will move us a long way in that direction. America should be a model for civil liberties not a test case for how many rights can be restricted.

I am writing this also to encourage voters to take a serious look at my campaign. They will find that socialist politics are clearly distinct from the politics of the 1% peddled by politicians such as Obama, Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul. Under their leadership, the State of the Union is neutered – reduced to an exercise in cheerleading for the politicians that have faithfully towed the line for their corporate benefactors. The proposals of the Alexander/Mendoza campaign are made in the interest of the 99%. We think Americans deserve a clear choice come November. We will be working hard to make that possible. Join us in making a demand for jobs, peace and freedom in 2012!

JOIN US!

HELP US!

VOTE SOCIALIST 2012!

I have a dream, and if you think about it, it's a Socialist dream.

It’s that time of year – a time when we hear variations on the same line in the news: “We’ve come a long way, but we still haven’t fulfilled Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream.” At once, a statement like this fills us with pride – de jure segration has been eliminated, after all – but makes us beg the question: why not? What aren’t we doing to achieve what King wanted?

This brings us to another common theme of this time of year: the nearly complete void in discussion of what King was actually doing in his activism. What Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon pointed out 17 years ago is still true today: there’s little coverage of what King was arguing for in the last years of his life. King wasn’t just the preacher who had a dream that “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” He was also advocating economic policies that we Socialists fully endorse. You won’t see that on NBC, CBS, or FOX’s coverage of MLK Day.

Indeed, after winning the battle against de jure segregation, King wanted more, specifically for the poor – black, white, Latino, and Native American. In 1968, he often asked, “What does it profit a man to be able to have access to any integrated lunch counter when he doesn’t earn enough money to take his wife out to dine? What does it profit a man to have access to the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities when he doesn’t earn enough money to take a vacation?” In other words, what good is it that segregation is outlawed when poverty segregates people even more thoroughly? One of his answers was for a guaranteed income for all, an idea that the Socialist Party USA Presidential Ticket is advocating for. A guaranteed income is fundamental idea in American thought, going back to Thomas Paine. Even Nixon advocated for it in 1968. A guaranteed income would help prevent poverty for all citizens of the country. Yes, it’s Socialism. And yes, it’s American. And yes, it was an idea MLK fought for.

What’s holding a guaranteed income back? King rightly noted that rampant militarism was a key roadblock. In his 1967 speech against Vietnam, he argued

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

And of course, the spiritual death of the 1960s is our spiritual death today, as we maintain the largest military budget in human history with hundreds of bases, grotesquely expensive weapons, and inadequate health and mental care for soldiers who do our fighting. All the while, we rack up debts in war and debts in tax breaks for the 1%, and we gut basic services, education, and jobs for the 99%.

But of course, simply shifting money from bombs to preventing poverty is no solution, in King’s view:

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

What is this edifice? King’s answer couldn’t be clearer. It’s capitalism:

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, “This is not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, “This is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

Given the context, with a brutal Stalinist, totalitarian regime in the USSR, MLK had little hope for Marxism. But, he did recognize Marxism’s revolutionary spirit:

It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when “every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.”

Unfortunately for King, the stunted, twisted and wrong vision of Marx in the USSR made democratic socialism an option he couldn’t suggest – even though he was suggesting socialist ideas as solutions to social problems. If he could read the Socialist Party USA’s Principles, he very well might agree with our own condemnation of totalitarian communism:

Under capitalist and authoritarian “Communist” states, people have little control over fundamental areas of their lives. The capitalist system forces workers to sell their abilities and skills to the few who own the workplaces, profit from these workers’ labor, and use the government to maintain their privileged position. Under authoritarian “Communist” states, decisions are made by Communist Party officials, the bureaucracy and the military. The inevitable product of each system is a class society with gross inequality of privileges, a draining of the productive wealth and goods of the society into military purposes, environmental pollution, and war in which workers are compelled to fight other workers.

We don’t want authoritarian communism. We want Democratic Socialism. We want “a new social and economic order in which workers and consumers control production and community residents control their neighborhoods, homes, and schools.” We want militarism and empire to come to an end. We want universal health care, universal education, and universally guaranteed incomes. We want a country where people work the jobs they enjoy for a brief part of the week and then spend the rest of their time learning and building communities. We want racism, sexism, and homophobia to wither away.

In other words, we want the world King dreamed of. This is our way of honoring King.