A look behind California's recall vote
By Saul Kanowitz
San Francisco
An enormous amount of money and media space is
being used to cover the Oct. 7 recall vote and the
complementary special election for governor of California. The
Democratic and the Republican parties are calling on the
workers and poor people in California to vote for their party's
respective candidates.
Both big-business parties are saying they can solve the
problems plaguing the state of California. What course of
action best serves the independent interests of the
multi-national working class in California?
Historically, the right to recall elected officials is a
progressive social development. It removes barriers between the
masses of people and the representatives of the government.
Recall can facilitate the will of the majority of society,
who are the workers and the poor. During the Paris Commune of
1871--the first attempt to establish a government of the
workers--the right of recall was one of the laws the communards
enacted.
The current recall campaign and referendum, however, has a
completely different character. It began as a right-wing attack
on the already bankrupt program of Gov. Gray Davis, who is a
political centrist and a Democrat. With heavy funding and hired
canvassers, the campaign was able to gather enough signatures
to force a recall referendum on Oct. 7.
On that day voters will vote on two points. First, they vote
yes or no on the recall of Governor Davis. Then they vote on
who should replace Davis as governor. If Davis loses the recall
vote, whoever of the many candidates gets the most votes
becomes California's next governor.
Democratic Party and "lesser evil"
The Democratic Party points to this right-wing offensive in
order to put pressure on progressive organizations and the
labor movement to provide resources, first to "get out the no
vote on the recall" and then to back the campaign of Lt. Gov.
Cruz Bustamante. Once again they ask the working class and
oppressed to choose the lesser of two evils. The message is,
"Well, Davis may be a disappointment, but what is coming is
even worse."
Organizing for a no vote on the recall gives legitimacy to
the Gray Davis administration.
But what is Davis's record? During the height of the
economic boom, he presided over an energy crisis in which
billions were shelled out to the energy companies. This
exacerbated the current budget crisis that has led to enormous
cuts in social services and increases in fees for services and
education that fall most disproportionately on the poor.
In October 2002 Davis vetoed a bill that would have given an
estimated 1 million-plus undocumented workers, mostly from
Latin America, the right to obtain a driver's license or state
ID. By denying these workers the basic right to drive, Davis
kept a section of the workers in a desperate and vulnerable
position. This in turn drove down the living standards of all
working and poor people in the state.
This bill could have served as a modest effort at combating
racism and building solidarity between documented and
undocumented workers. Now, Davis is having to turn to the
Latino community and admit he was wrong to veto the bill. He is
now promising to sign it and is asking for their vote.
In several cases involving women who had been victims of
domestic violence and had been convicted of killing their
abusers, Davis overturned decisions by the state parole board
that would have granted them parole.
Under the Davis administration, the prison-industrial
complex consumed more of the state budget than the
deteriorating educational system. The prison system was the
only sector to see an increase in funding for the fiscal year
2003-2004.
Workers, oppressed people and the middle class in California
have all become angry and disillusioned with the Davis
administration. Those drawn to work on the recall campaign are
mostly disenchanted middle-class and poor whites. The recall
forces appealed to them with reactionary and racist demagogy,
objectively against their own class interests. But they are not
a cohesive right-wing movement that present an immediate threat
and must be stopped at all costs, including surrendering
independent working-class politics, which is what some are
urging.
Instead of spending resources to shore up the capitalist
electoral system, the interests of the working class and
oppressed people would be better served by calling for a vote
of no confidence in both arms of this system, the Democratic
and Republican parties.
What makes a Terminator 'viable'?
The program of the big-business candidates arbitrarily
identified by the capitalist media as "viable" is more of the
same, but under the direction of a different face or party.
They all call for continued cuts in social services and
education, "efficiencies" in government--which is code for
attacks on state workers--and tax and fee increases that
protect the rich and hurt the poor.
This goes for the three major Repub lican candidates, State
Senator Tom McClin tock, former baseball commissioner Peter
Ueberroth and movie actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as for
Bustamante.
Among the 135 candidates left on the ballot as of Aug. 26,
some are more progressive. But without an enormous social
upheaval, none of the progressive or radical candidates will
sit in the governor's chair. The budget crisis will still be
placed on the backs of the workers and the poor, as it is
now.
During the 2002 gubernatorial campaign, the labor movement
gave millions to Davis' election. The governor is reportedly
seeking an additional $10 million from labor for the recall
campaign. But whether Davis remains in office or Bustamante,
Schwarzenegger, McClintock, or Ueberroth wins, the workers and
oppressed of California will face the same fundamental
conditions.
It's not that there are no differences among the major
candidates. It's that it would be more effective use of
resources to organize independently of them.
Is another world possible?
What if that $10 million went towards organizing a statewide
march against the budget cuts? What if the state AFL-CIO
provided buses free to all poor and oppres sed communities
affected by the Repub lican/ Democratic budget for a mass rally
in Sacramento to denounce the big-business legislature?
What if students from around the state, at the University of
California and Community College levels, brought their
grievances on the 30 percent or more increase in tuition to
Sacramento--and refused to leave until the legislature taxed
the wealthy to complete the construction of the Merced campus
and roll back tuition?
What if the lesbian, gay, bi and trans community got out the
rainbow flag and brought demands for statewide domestic partner
benefits to Sacramento?
What if the labor and progressive movement issued drivers'
licenses or IDs to the million undocumented workers and those
workers showed up at Sacramento demanding validation of their
IDs?
What if all this happened on the same day and no one refused
to leave until all these demands were met?
That would be the beginning of a genuinely progressive
recall of the bankrupt capitalist system.
Workers World Party does not call for a no or a yes vote on
recall. At the same time, it endorses the gubernatorial
candidacy of C.T. Weber of the Peace and Freedom Party, which
has popularized an anti-racist and anti-war program in the
state since the Vietnam War.
Reprinted from the Sept. 4, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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