The Worker, Vol. 39, Number 8
Note from the editor:
Members, friends and supporters of the Workers Party are invited to take part in our solidarity campaign by delivering the slogan "If you are illegal, then I am Illegal!" to a partner while shaking hands and looking into each other's eyes. The profit comes from doing it with love in your hearts. We would be overjoyed to accept your remarks. WorkerspartyUSAChicagoBranch@gmail.com
Popularize the Program for Democratic Renewal!
Perhaps nowhere is the power of capital — the power of a handful of multimillionaires over the whole of society — so crudely and so openly practiced as in the United States.
The stock exchange is "everything," and the role of Congressional elections is reduced to marionettes and puppets. Senators in particular are placemen of the monopolies. The legislative branch was structured to include a Senate that was not subject to the popular franchise in the same way as the House of Representatives, with the specific intent of creating a check against the so-called "turbulence and follies of democracy." The Senate is designed so that only a fraction of its members face election at any one time. This system ensures continuity and insulates the body from shifts in popular will.
The working masses are allowed only to decide which particular representative of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in Congress. Real power does not rest with elected officials but with the financial oligarchy.
This dynamic renders the legislative branch primarily an empty talk shop that serves to either legitimize or conceal the actions of the executive, rather than wielding genuine power itself.
The Supreme Court has also regularly broadened the power of the executive branch, shielding its actions from legislative and judicial scrutiny and thereby reducing Congress's role to a secondary or reactive one.
In June, Supreme Court case Trump v. CASA, Inc. was a case in point which specifically addressed unilateral Presidential power to end birthright citizenship for the children of certain immigrants. The Trump v. CASA case was presented and decided as a corrective measure against "separation of powers" that might serve to limit Executive "emergency powers" which enable the President to set aside the Constitution, suspend civil liberties, and rule by force of arms. The executive branch portrayed itself as a constitutionally hamstrung institution that had been rendered defenseless against limits on emergency orders. The ruling overturned the power of federal judges to issue rulings about domestic Presidential policies not authorized by a congressional statute.
The court's portrayal of the Executive Branch as a kitten without enough teeth or claws to protect itself is a form of hypocrisy that the capitalist ruling class would like wide acceptance of for the aim of covering the ills it creates. It is happening in a stifling environment of increasingly volatile demands that the poor and most vulnerable, the youth, and the exploited classes must exist solely and exclusively to serve the interest of the 1%. While the Congress goes through the motions of making rules, the Executive is more empowered than ever to ignore them, change them, or do something completely different. Trump V. CASA Inc. can only be classified as the very image of Chief Justice Marshall's affirmation that the president has political powers where "he is to use his own discretion and is accountable only to his country in his political character and to his own conscience."
Just as enormous estates were acquired through land seizure, fraud against Native Americans, and bribery of royal officials during the colonial era, today the judiciary is composed of men from this same propertied class or their loyal servants. The judiciary remains as an institution which automatically prioritizes the demands of the monopoly capitalist class, enforcing its will over the vast majority and worsening the concentration of arbitrary power.
While pretending to deal out equal justice to all classes, the judiciary is savagely biased against the workers. The Supreme Court is an instrument of the monopoly capitalist class, designed to enforce and legitimize the class rule of the bourgeoisie over the working class and oppressed peoples. Along with the police, army, and jails it is used by the capitalists to suppress the rights and struggles of the masses.
With the help of the courts, it is primarily the monopoly of the Democratic and Republican parties which ensures that the expansion of executive power is a consistently implemented program. Both parties are a single party of big capital who are bought-and-paid-for by the same corporate interests and thus have a consensus on all fundamental issues, including war, foreign intervention, and attacks on guarantees for human rights. This ensures a future in which, no matter which party controls the White House or Congress, the policy of increasing executive power to serve the capitalist class continues unabated.
Top government posts are frequently filled by executives from major corporations, and a "revolving door" exists between corporate suites, the Pentagon, and the federal bureaucracy under the authority of the president and Congress. This direct merging of state and monopoly power ensures that government policies—from taxation and budget priorities to labor laws and foreign policy—serve to protect and expand corporate profits.
Democracy means rule of the majority, yet the political power is wielded precisely to protect the system of capitalist exploitation and exclude workers from decision-making. The 3-branches of government at all levels from local to federal serve as real instruments of the capitalists for advancing their class interests and suppressing the struggles of the people.
As long as the U.S. working class remains disorganized and subject to political influence by the capitalist parties (like the Democrats and Republicans), it cannot win its emancipation.
The problem of a sham democracy serving the rich can only be solved when the working class—the immense majority—stops relying on the existing system and its parties and instead forges its own independent political party and movement to consciously organize and lead the revolutionary struggle to take political power for itself.
The most decisive immediate task in defending our rights against their usurpation by big capital is to break the political monopoly of the Republican and Democratic parties, which are two wings of the same capitalist class, both implementing a racist, repressive and militarist agenda.
We must put forward a proactive program that serves the people, contrasting sharply with the anti-social agenda of the capitalists. This includes demanding economic rights (jobs, healthcare, education), democratic renewal to empower the people, and a democratic foreign policy against imperialist war.
The immediate program of the Workers Party includes the program for Democratic Renewal so that the decision-making power is placed in the hands of the people.
The program of democratic renewal demands the abolition of any and all political privileges and the creation of mechanisms which guarantee the masses of the people the right to participate fully and directly in the political process and in governance.
Political parties must be denied the privilege to nominate and select candidates for public office, and this right must be returned to the people. The electorate must also retain the right to recall elected officials at any time. The entire operation of government must remain under the direct supervision of the people. Any power not expressly delegated by the people to the government must remain with the people themselves.
Constituency committees comprising all citizens must be organized in workplaces, communities and wherever the people are concentrated. Such committees will have the right to nominate and select candidates, to hold elected officials accountable, to set the agenda of government, and to participate directly in governance.
The program of democratic renewal recognizes the right to self-determination, up to and including the right to secession, for the Native peoples, the people of Puerto Rico and other oppressed nations.
The program of democratic renewal demands equality -- equal rights and duties -- for all regardless of race, national origin, sex, etc. This includes the right for all nationalities to develop their own culture, language, etc. Most importantly, equality means that everyone has the right to participate fully in the political process and governance, to take part as decision-makers in exercising control of their lives.
The Party calls on workers to reject the Republican and Democratic parties. The workers must reject the blackmail of "lesser evil" politics and instead build their own political party—the Workers Party—as the only genuine alternative. It is the working class which must lead the struggle to break the political monopoly of big business and empower the people.
Unlike the capitalist class, which lives by exploiting others, the working class has no objective interest in any system of exploitation. Its social existence is not based on the oppression of anyone. Therefore, its emancipation is tied to the abolition of all exploitation and oppression, making it the only class that can forever free the whole of society. The just struggles of the workers deserve the support of everyone.
The stock exchange is "everything," and the role of Congressional elections is reduced to marionettes and puppets. Senators in particular are placemen of the monopolies. The legislative branch was structured to include a Senate that was not subject to the popular franchise in the same way as the House of Representatives, with the specific intent of creating a check against the so-called "turbulence and follies of democracy." The Senate is designed so that only a fraction of its members face election at any one time. This system ensures continuity and insulates the body from shifts in popular will.
The working masses are allowed only to decide which particular representative of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in Congress. Real power does not rest with elected officials but with the financial oligarchy.
This dynamic renders the legislative branch primarily an empty talk shop that serves to either legitimize or conceal the actions of the executive, rather than wielding genuine power itself.
The Supreme Court has also regularly broadened the power of the executive branch, shielding its actions from legislative and judicial scrutiny and thereby reducing Congress's role to a secondary or reactive one.
In June, Supreme Court case Trump v. CASA, Inc. was a case in point which specifically addressed unilateral Presidential power to end birthright citizenship for the children of certain immigrants. The Trump v. CASA case was presented and decided as a corrective measure against "separation of powers" that might serve to limit Executive "emergency powers" which enable the President to set aside the Constitution, suspend civil liberties, and rule by force of arms. The executive branch portrayed itself as a constitutionally hamstrung institution that had been rendered defenseless against limits on emergency orders. The ruling overturned the power of federal judges to issue rulings about domestic Presidential policies not authorized by a congressional statute.
The court's portrayal of the Executive Branch as a kitten without enough teeth or claws to protect itself is a form of hypocrisy that the capitalist ruling class would like wide acceptance of for the aim of covering the ills it creates. It is happening in a stifling environment of increasingly volatile demands that the poor and most vulnerable, the youth, and the exploited classes must exist solely and exclusively to serve the interest of the 1%. While the Congress goes through the motions of making rules, the Executive is more empowered than ever to ignore them, change them, or do something completely different. Trump V. CASA Inc. can only be classified as the very image of Chief Justice Marshall's affirmation that the president has political powers where "he is to use his own discretion and is accountable only to his country in his political character and to his own conscience."
Just as enormous estates were acquired through land seizure, fraud against Native Americans, and bribery of royal officials during the colonial era, today the judiciary is composed of men from this same propertied class or their loyal servants. The judiciary remains as an institution which automatically prioritizes the demands of the monopoly capitalist class, enforcing its will over the vast majority and worsening the concentration of arbitrary power.
While pretending to deal out equal justice to all classes, the judiciary is savagely biased against the workers. The Supreme Court is an instrument of the monopoly capitalist class, designed to enforce and legitimize the class rule of the bourgeoisie over the working class and oppressed peoples. Along with the police, army, and jails it is used by the capitalists to suppress the rights and struggles of the masses.
With the help of the courts, it is primarily the monopoly of the Democratic and Republican parties which ensures that the expansion of executive power is a consistently implemented program. Both parties are a single party of big capital who are bought-and-paid-for by the same corporate interests and thus have a consensus on all fundamental issues, including war, foreign intervention, and attacks on guarantees for human rights. This ensures a future in which, no matter which party controls the White House or Congress, the policy of increasing executive power to serve the capitalist class continues unabated.
Top government posts are frequently filled by executives from major corporations, and a "revolving door" exists between corporate suites, the Pentagon, and the federal bureaucracy under the authority of the president and Congress. This direct merging of state and monopoly power ensures that government policies—from taxation and budget priorities to labor laws and foreign policy—serve to protect and expand corporate profits.
Democracy means rule of the majority, yet the political power is wielded precisely to protect the system of capitalist exploitation and exclude workers from decision-making. The 3-branches of government at all levels from local to federal serve as real instruments of the capitalists for advancing their class interests and suppressing the struggles of the people.
As long as the U.S. working class remains disorganized and subject to political influence by the capitalist parties (like the Democrats and Republicans), it cannot win its emancipation.
The problem of a sham democracy serving the rich can only be solved when the working class—the immense majority—stops relying on the existing system and its parties and instead forges its own independent political party and movement to consciously organize and lead the revolutionary struggle to take political power for itself.
The most decisive immediate task in defending our rights against their usurpation by big capital is to break the political monopoly of the Republican and Democratic parties, which are two wings of the same capitalist class, both implementing a racist, repressive and militarist agenda.
We must put forward a proactive program that serves the people, contrasting sharply with the anti-social agenda of the capitalists. This includes demanding economic rights (jobs, healthcare, education), democratic renewal to empower the people, and a democratic foreign policy against imperialist war.
The immediate program of the Workers Party includes the program for Democratic Renewal so that the decision-making power is placed in the hands of the people.
The program of democratic renewal demands the abolition of any and all political privileges and the creation of mechanisms which guarantee the masses of the people the right to participate fully and directly in the political process and in governance.
Political parties must be denied the privilege to nominate and select candidates for public office, and this right must be returned to the people. The electorate must also retain the right to recall elected officials at any time. The entire operation of government must remain under the direct supervision of the people. Any power not expressly delegated by the people to the government must remain with the people themselves.
Constituency committees comprising all citizens must be organized in workplaces, communities and wherever the people are concentrated. Such committees will have the right to nominate and select candidates, to hold elected officials accountable, to set the agenda of government, and to participate directly in governance.
The program of democratic renewal recognizes the right to self-determination, up to and including the right to secession, for the Native peoples, the people of Puerto Rico and other oppressed nations.
The program of democratic renewal demands equality -- equal rights and duties -- for all regardless of race, national origin, sex, etc. This includes the right for all nationalities to develop their own culture, language, etc. Most importantly, equality means that everyone has the right to participate fully in the political process and governance, to take part as decision-makers in exercising control of their lives.
The Party calls on workers to reject the Republican and Democratic parties. The workers must reject the blackmail of "lesser evil" politics and instead build their own political party—the Workers Party—as the only genuine alternative. It is the working class which must lead the struggle to break the political monopoly of big business and empower the people.
Unlike the capitalist class, which lives by exploiting others, the working class has no objective interest in any system of exploitation. Its social existence is not based on the oppression of anyone. Therefore, its emancipation is tied to the abolition of all exploitation and oppression, making it the only class that can forever free the whole of society. The just struggles of the workers deserve the support of everyone.