The capitalist electoral system is a sham. It is a rigged
system to ensure the domination of the tiny ruling class of Wall Street
bankers, corporations and big-business owners.
In the United
States, two capitalist parties dominate
political life inside the system. Candidates from the Democratic and Republican
parties bask in the glow of the electoral contest. The contest, however, is
really one between two parties of war and exploitation, two parties of extreme
wealth. The candidates will spend—or rather, waste—$2 billion just to win
office.
The elections will sorely disappoint anyone longing for real
change. Those who want a better life, a better world, an immediate end to the
imperialist wars, better wages for workers, free health care and full economic
and social equality for everyone will not get any of those things from the
big-business candidates currently on parade.
Given all that, some people have asked why the Party for
Socialism and Liberation is running Peta Lindsay and Yari Osorio for the office
of president and vice president in this year’s election.
After all, the PSL is not a party of professional
politicians. We are a party of professional revolutionaries and our candidates
have spent their lives fighting against war, racism and Wall Street. We know
that revolution is necessary if we want real, lasting change. We know that
revolutions are made in the streets, in the workplace and in the military units
when workers—in and out of uniform—become conscious of their power. The
electoral system is not the final arena of struggle for the working class.
So why would revolutionary socialists participate in these
elections?
Most importantly, the elections are where the attention of
workers will be drawn this year.
Well over 100 million workers, students and organizers
participate in the capitalist elections every four years. Those who do not
directly participate are forced to listen closely, because the corporate media
focuses on the elections many months before they take place.
The PSL’s entry into the 2012 elections gives workers,
students and oppressed people the opportunity to cast a vote against the
system. Instead of voting for a party that comes around every four years to pay
lip service to “the interests of working people,” the PSL campaign provides an
opportunity to work with a party that is already fighting in poor and working
people’s interests.
Last year saw an upsurge of activism, marches and
occupations. Wall Street is hoping that this budding movement will close up shop
and instead get sucked into supporting one of their candidates promising
change.
The capitalist hacks and their media mouthpieces cannot be
the only voices speaking to people about “change.” The PSL campaign will get
into debates; go door to door; and hold rallies, speak outs, protests and
sit-ins to say that real change comes when poor and working people get
organized and take action.
There are some progressives who will argue against our
campaign. They will say, “You will not get elected,” and then cynically accuse
us of conspiring to take away votes from President Obama, the “liberal”
alternative to the right-wing Republican candidates. But three years into
Obama’s presidency, things have not simply stayed the same—they have gotten
worse for working and poor people. Millions more working-class people are
unemployed, are without health insurance and have had their homes foreclosed.
More immigrants have been deported than under Bush, union busting is on the
rise, as are the epidemics of police brutality and mass incarceration.
We cannot wait around for the “change” that will never come.
The PSL is running to push that growing hunger for
revolutionary change into the forefront of this electoral cycle. It is an
opportunity for workers to wage political combat against the capitalist
establishment and their corrupt representatives.
We will take the ideas of socialism—a better, more just
society, the way forward for humanity—to
the workers and poor people in the United States.
Join the PSL’s 2012 campaign. Raise the banner of socialism.
Champion the cause of the working class. Become an advocate for people’s rights
and revolutionary change.
