Kshama Sawant says that if we in the left want to rebuild from the 2014 elections, we have to take Socialism seriously:
Socialism has been declared dead many times. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing collapse of the “communist” regimes in Eastern Europe, the global capitalist elite launched an unprecedented ideological offensive. The obituary was written not only for socialism, but for the basic ideas of collective struggle by the working class.
Now, after three decades of virtually untrammeled neoliberal policies, with class questions again brought to the fore by unprecedented levels of inequality, we have been witnessing a renewed interest in socialist ideas. Half of the young Americans surveyed between the ages of 18 and 29 viewed socialism positively, according to a Pew Research Center poll in December 2011.
The winter of Occupy sparked a debate in my own organization, Socialist Alternative. Looking ahead to the 2012 presidential-election year and the inevitable pull of corporate politics, Socialist Alternative called for independent candidates representing the 99 percent to run across the country.
Sawant ran successfully for a Seattle City Council seat. She is up for reelection this year against three Democratic opponents. Her signature accomplishment was the passage of a law, one of the first in the nation, setting a $15 minimum wage. Among other accomplishments:
This same process, with the relative strength of movements measured against that of big business, played out on issue after issue in my first year on the council. We organized a “People’s Budget” coalition and won increased funding for social services, including year-round homeless shelters for women and basic services for homeless encampments. We also won $1.6 million in raises for low-paid city workers and strengthened the enforcement of labor laws. We fought alongside tenants and community organizations to defeat an Orwellian attack on low-income housing called “Stepping Forward,” forcing the Seattle Housing Authority to back off from plans to begin 400 percent increases on rental rates over five years. Organizing with indigenous activists, we established Indigenous People’s Day (on the day celebrated federally as Columbus Day), putting a spotlight on the brutality and genocide unleashed under colonialism, and on the need to fight against the continued poverty and marginalization of indigenous communities. We have also helped publicize and support campaigns against regressive taxation, rising rents, climate change and the school-to-prison pipeline.
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All of these gains are only a taste of the fundamental change we need. While successfully defending low-income housing was a victory, we also need to build thousands more units. While raising funds for social services is a real step forward, we need tens of millions more just to address critical needs. Genuine socialism means planning the entire society and economy on a rational, democratic and sustainable basis—delivering a high standard of living to all while protecting the environment.
Historically, we have decided on third party candidates on an individual basis. For instance, we rejected Ralph Nader, believing that his candidacy in 2000 would take votes away from Al Gore. We also rejected Cindy Sheehan (for the most part) after she ran against Nancy Pelosi. On the other hand, we have always embraced Bernie Sanders, who is the one Socialist who has been elected at the statewide level in recent times. And we embraced Angus King, who is an institution in Maine.
There are two approaches we can take in light of the 2014 elections. The first is to return to the ideals and approaches of Roosevelt's New Deal and Kennedy's New Frontier. The other is to break our bubble and reach out to Greens, Socialists, and Left-Libertarians who have some views that are compatible with ours but who would not vote/consider themselves to be Democrats.
There are risks to both approaches. The upside of returning to our roots is that it gives us a clear set of values. We can evaluate primary candidates based on how well they uphold the values of the New Deal and vote accordingly in the primary election. Most of the Democrats who lost in 2010 and 2014 were corporate Democrats who compromised many of our ideals in the name of "bipartisanship" or "compromise." The downside is that many people who voted in the national elections did not vote in the 2010 and 2014 election. The question is, how do we reach out to such people?
The upside of forming a coalition with Socialism and Left-Libertarianism is that we bring more people into the fold who would otherwise not vote for us. Forming coalitions has been a fact of American politics since our founding; the New Deal Coalition and the GOP's Southern Strategy were two examples of important coalitions that formed in the last century. In a lot of other countries, their governments would not function unless they formed coalitions with other people. Also, many people did not vote in the last election because they felt that neither party spoke for them, so they stayed home. The downside is the Nader effect -- Ralph Nader got enough votes in Florida to deny Al Gore victory in the 2000 election. He also got enough votes in Missouri and New Hampshire, among other places. The other downside is that it is a lot more difficult to keep a coalition together over the years. For instance, it only took the New Deal Coalition 30 years to fall apart because some of the Democratic Party wanted to pass the Civil Rights Act while others wanted to continue segregation. Also, some in the party at the time wanted perpetual warfare in Vietnam, while others wanted to get out of Vietnam. So, there is much opportunity, but there is much risk in this approach as well.