Hillary Clinton is the preferred presidential option for those who want to maintain society as it is. The people who desire such continuity, of course, are those who already hold power. That is why she is the favorite Democratic Party candidate of Wall Street, corporate America and the military contractors whose sole concern is to find new ways to dominate and exploit the world’s people. Because she is a woman, some say Clinton’s presidency would be a victory for equality and oppressed people. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright even said it would be a “revolution.”
The vast majority of women and oppressed people, and the working class, surely do need a revolution—but a real one that changes who holds power and whose rights are upheld, not just a symbolic change of who sits in the White House presiding over the same system. People now want bold, revolutionary change.
That largely explains the energy behind the Sanders campaign. It is why young people, including women, are rejecting Clinton’s message in huge numbers. It is why Black women have continuously challenged Clinton for her role in mass incarceration and labeling young Black men “super predators” in the 1990s. It is also why so many are standing up and disrupting Donald Trump, a candidate who has managed to personally embody all the worst features in U.S. society: white supremacy, extreme inequality, xenophobia and macho arrogance.
Right now, there is a mass media campaign aimed at women, Black, Latino and LGBTQ voters to get in line and vote for Clinton against Trump, regardless of whatever reservations people might have. Of course Trump is as odious as an individual candidate can get. But many of the outrageous things he threatens—reckless militarism, attacks on immigrants and other oppressed people, suppression of protestors, and conciliation with white supremacists—Clinton already has an established record of carrying out in office.
Madeleine Albright tried to shame women into showing solidarity with Clinton as a feminist duty. This is astonishing, coming from Albright, who supported genocidal sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of women and children in Iraq.
But most women are looking for more than just someone who shares their gender. Working-class women in particular are looking for a movement and a candidate who will actually fight for their interests in all aspects of life.
Women are immigrants, documented and undocumented. Women face white supremacy, police brutality and mass incarceration in our daily lives. Women are mothers and caregivers struggling to provide for and take care of our families in a society without universal health care, quality retirement, child care or family leave. From young to old, millions of women face poverty. Women struggle to survive sexual and domestic violence. And women workers face all the workplace issues of inadequate pay and hours, abusive bosses and superexploitation. Hillary Clinton is the chief representative of this status quo.
All feminists would want to see a woman leader. But the question is “what kind of leader?”
There is a hunger for genuine progressive and revolutionary women’s leadership that says “no human being is illegal” instead of signing off on mass deportations. That is, women’s leadership that calls for dismantling the racist police and court systems, rather than justifying these institutions. Women’s leadership that fights for a living wage for all, rather than serving on Walmart’s board of directors and opposing a living wage. On vital reproductive rights, women are tired of waiting for politicians to strike deals and are seeking a struggle orientation to turn back the right-wing attack. The women of the United States need someone who does not just say these things, but fights for them.
What has made the difference historically in all the people’s movements is not which party holds office, but the level of unity, organization and struggle on the ground. Equality and liberation will not be won by voting for one corporate-backed candidate or another.
There will be a woman on the ballot in many states across the country who has spent her life in the struggle for justice. Gloria La Riva, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s 2016 presidential candidate, is fighting for a new system—socialism. From her time as a student organizing building takeovers to demand affirmative action, to organizing the community to fight against gentrification in San Francisco to playing a leading role in the international (and successful!) movement to free the Cuban Five, her beliefs and actions are the polar opposite of Clinton’s.
We urge our readers to reject the lesser-evil trap that has brought us decades of right wing policies from both major ruling class parties. Join us in the La Riva/Puryear campaign for President, and most importantly join us in the streets as we continue to fight for a new system and a new world.
