While the Democratic National Convention has come to an end, many reflections and lessons can be taken away from the discourse of all the people who came to Philadelphia to have their voices heard. From all over the country, working class people, grassroots organizers, and activists, from all ages, came together to fight for social change, and stand for the future of the United States.
The overall sentiment after a week of struggle in the streets is disillusionment with the Democratic Party. Election fraud is a key element that contributed to undermine the establishment of the Democratic Party. Ryan, a protester who traveled from Austin, Texas, pointed out to Liberation News that there’s been too much corruption: “A much deeper corruption that we’ve seen for a while, that’s why we’re coming together, and saying is not acceptable anymore”.
The status quo is losing its legitimacy and opening the opportunity for new people’s movements to start building and unite against the ruling class. In fact, many protesters highlighted the need for this new movement to unify in order to become stronger, and form a bloc capable of taking on the establishment and building the future we envision for the generations to come.
This can be illustrated in the words of Bob, from New York:
“I hope what happens at the Democratic Party is that 45 percent of the Democratic Party leaves and they join with the green, and all the independents who stood back behind Bernie, the people that were robbed, almost half of the Democratic Party. I hope they all leave and we will form a bigger bloc, something bigger than either party, if a good chunk of the Democrats are fed up with the corruption and they leave, then we will be the future of America, not the establishment… they have taken all our profits, they have kept our pay at a minimum and I’m not going to stand for it anymore.”
Tony, a demonstrator who came all the way from Portland, Oregon, pointed out: “Whatever the outcome might be, there is a growing energy, a movement is starting to coalesce and they’re going to unify and they’re going to form a party, because we need to form a third party that is going to represent the people, because we don’t have one right now, and I know I want to be a part of it.”
Consequently, the Sanders campaign had a great impact on bringing hope back to many millions of people, and opens up the opportunity to envision an alternative. With or without him, the movement has grown as a ripple effect, and every day more proclaimed: “We’ll find other avenues; this isn’t going away.”
Undeniably, there is a new awakening of the social movement in the United States, and it is a decisive time to join the struggle. As many of the protesters expressed – this is a revolution and we need to change things!
