WWP CANDIDATES SAY:
No to Bush lite, yes to an independent workers' voice
If Sen. John Kerry were the subject of a beer
ad, it might go something like this: "Bush lite-fewer
promises, same bad taste."
Let's get real. Democratic candidate Kerry is no savior of
poor and working people. He's hardly a "lesser evil" at all.
While the Democratic Party's voting base-people of color,
women, lesbian/gay/bi/trans people, labor and other
working-class people-is steadily moving in an anti-war,
anti-corporate direction under the blows of the Iraq occupation
and the economic crisis, Kerry is busily trying to drag
everyone in the opposite direction.
What a difference 12 years makes. In 1992, then-Democratic
candidate Bill Clinton promised a peace dividend, a massive
jobs program, national health care, an end to the persecution
of lesbians and gays in the military, and much more. Of course,
he betrayed every single one of these promises when he came to
office. Clinton's strategy was to pose as a progressive while
carrying out the right-wing agenda of the capitalist ruling
class for war, privatization and repression.
Fast-forward to 2004. John Kerry isn't even bothering to
make those kinds of promises to get elected. He's openly
pro-war and pro-occupation. He pays lip service to gay rights
and immigrant rights, but opposes same-sex marriage and
supports police roundups of immigrant families. Kerry and the
Democratic leadership are counting on people's fear and anger
at George W. Bush to override common sense and make them vote
for their candidates, whose program is fundamentally the same
as the current Commander-in-Thief.
It's no secret that Bush and the clique around him are
dangerous. Millions of progressive people feel obliged to hold
their noses and vote for Kerry in Nov ember to get Bush out.
But the truth is, Kerry's goals are nearly indistinguishable
from Bush's.
Kerry's support among Black, Latin@, Asian, Arab and Native
voters is weak, and with good reason. Kerry has surrounded
himself with a nearly all-white retinue. He either hasn't
seriously addressed the issues of highest concern to the
oppressed communities and other workers--like jobs, health care
and education--or else he has taken an opposite position, like
his support for the occupation of Iraq.
Kerry has given workers and progressive people plenty of
reasons to oppose him.
* Trying to shore up support among Latin@s, Kerry addressed
the National Council of La Raza June 29, promising a
"comprehensive immigration reform bill in his first 100 days as
president" for undoc umented workers to get citizenship more
easily. Hours later, he stabbed immigrants and Latin@s in the
back.
Speaking on the Telemundo TV network, Kerry said he opposed
issuing drivers' licenses to undocumented workers, the same
position taken by right-wing Cali fornia Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. Even worse, he came out in support of the
racist raids by the Immigration and Nat urali zation Service
(now part of the so-called Department of Homeland Security)
that are terrorizing immigrant families from Texas to
California. (Los Angeles Times, July 1)
* Also June 29, Kerry spoke at a meeting of Jesse Jackson's
Rainbow/PUSH organization, his first attempt to reach out to a
Black civil rights organization. Kerry tried to ride the
coattails of the 40th anniversary of the civil rights law of
1964, but the best promise he could come up with was a tuition
tax credit for college students and a vague promise to give
additional federal aid to states that keep tuition increases
below the inflation rate. (Chicago Tribune, June 30)
If Kerry were serious about supporting the Black community,
this would have been the perfect opportunity to announce a
massive jobs-creation program to address the double-digit
unemployment facing African Americans. But no. Not a word,
either, about the heinous police brutality against Stanley
Miller, a Black man, captured on videotape in Los Angeles. No
apology for his support of the racist war of aggression against
Iraq, or for the fact that he wants to keep U.S. military
personnel-overwhelmingly working class and youths of color-in
that occupied country indefinitely. No change in his position
to send even more youths to kill and die in Iraq.
Earlier, Jesse Jackson complained that while he was prepared
to campaign for Kerry, he had not been asked to. The truth is
that Kerry doesn't want his campaign to be associated with the
memory of the great civil rights struggles or any progressive
movement, including Jackson's populist challenges to the
Democratic Party mainstream in 1984 and 1988. Reverend Jack
son, we have a proposal for you: Come and campaign with us, the
candidates who embrace this legacy and are really fighting for
jobs, peace and social justice!
Kerry has uttered not one word about the scandalous 2000
Florida elections that publicly exposed the disenfranchisement
of thousands of African American voters. When members of the
Congres sional Black Caucus were seeking the support of just
one senator to support their petition challenging the Florida
vote that gained Bush the presidency, Kerry and the other 99
senators were nowhere to be found.
* Kerry is moving to assure the super-rich and the corporate
monopolies that he will carry out their goal of world
domination, only with more finesse and savvy than Bush. A new
Kerry policy paper, reported in the July 2 Boston Globe,
documents these aggressive plans that echo the current occupier
of the White House. They include "forceful action" against
Iran, full support for Israel's construction of a 425-mile
apartheid wall to imprison the occupied Palestinian population,
and a pledge to isolate Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian
leaders.
Add this to Kerry's earlier threats to Cuba, Venezuela and
other sovereign countries trying to remain free of U.S.
domination. Add it to his June 29 pledge of support for the new
U.S.-puppet regime in Iraq: "I believe it is critical that the
president get real support, not resolutions, not words, but
real support of sufficient personnel, troops and money, to
assist in the training of security forces in order to be able
to guarantee a rapid real transition, and most importantly, in
order to provide adequate security on the ground."
Kerry's message is clear: more war, more money for the
Pentagon, more body bags. Anyone feel a draft?
* The Democratic Party is moving to block candidates to the
left of Kerry from getting on the ballot, even if they have
successfully navigated the biased state laws designed to keep
third parties off. On July 2, Ralph Nader, who is running a
progressive reform campaign, accused Kerry and the Democrats of
"dirty tricks" to keep him off the ballot in Arizona. Based on
a minor technical error in the complicated petitioning process,
the Democrats got a judge to invalidate 70 percent of the
signatures gathered by Nader supporters and ban him from the
November ballot. The pro-war Democratic leadership fears Nader
will attract rank-and-file Democrats with his anti-war
platform. (Associated Press, July 3)
These are only the most recent offenses. Don't forget that
Kerry, who is from Massachusetts and who takes the lesbian,
gay, bi and trans community's support for granted, opposes
same-sex marriage rights. Don't forget that this former federal
prosecutor voted for the USA Patriot Act and, unlike more than
300 cities around the countries, has not demanded its repeal.
Don't forget how he showed his contempt for the whole working
class earlier this year when he willfully skipped a Senate vote
on extending unemployment benefits. His vote would have passed
the amendment; instead it went down to defeat, and millions of
jobless workers have suffered.
What about Boston? This major city in Kerry's home state is
the site of the Demo cratic National Convention, where he is
expected to become the party's official nom inee. Has Kerry
done anything to address the pressing issues for workers and
oppressed peoples there? No, he hasn't.
Kerry hasn't taken a stand against the racist forces, led by
Mayor Thomas Menino and City Council President Michael
Flaherty, who are trying to re-segregate the city's public
schools under the slogan "return to neighborhood schools." With
one call to Menino and Gov. Mitt Romney, Kerry could end the
stonewalling that has prevented Boston school bus drivers and
monitors, teachers, firefighters and others from getting a
decent contract. All he would have to do is threaten to pull
the DNC out of Boston. Instead the Demo cratic Party and Kerry
campaign are putting pressure on the unions to accept a rotten
compromise. So far, the unions are standing tough with
community support.
No one should be surprised that the "progressive" Kerry is
so indifferent to the struggles of people of color, LGBT people
and union workers on his own turf. After all, Kerry is a
wealthy member of the ruling class in that old-money state. His
wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, is a billionaire and heir to the
Heinz ketchup fortune. If Kerry becomes president, his family
will be the richest ever to occupy the White House.
That's why workers need their own voice in this election,
the Workers World Party election campaign: John Parker, an
African American man from Los Angeles, for president, and
Teresa Gutierrez, a Latina lesbian from Queens, N.Y., for vice
president. We are two workers, two people of color, two
socialists, two longtime fighters against war and for the
rights of all poor and working people. We stand for everything
Kerry does not: Immediate withdrawal of the troops from Iraq,
abolishing the Pentagon, same-sex marriage rights TODAY, a
massive program to create living-wage union jobs, and much
more.
Join us in the streets of Boston July 25 for the National
March on the Democratic Convention to Bring the Troops Home
Now, sponsored by the ANSWER coalition (Act Now to Stop War
& End Racism). We'll be there, not to pressure Kerry to be
more "reasonable," but to help expose him as the corporate
stooge he is. We'll be there to join with all those who are
organizing an independent fight-back movement. That's the best
way to change the political climate, no matter who is in the
White House.
John Parker & Teresa Gutierrez
Workers World Party candidates for president and vice
president
Reprinted from the July 15, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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