It’s absolutely stunning, though not surprising, that Jacobin magazine is regurgitating its op-ed, “Like It or Not, If We Run Third Party, We Will Lose,” from 2020.
The idea that independent working-class campaigns can never succeed was garbage five years ago, and it’s toxic waste today. My organization, Revolutionary Workers, Seattle’s working people, rank-and-file union members, and I are living proof of this. We won four elections and unparalleled working-class victories with me as an independent socialist – no thanks to most of the labor and NGO leaders, and certainly no thanks to the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party has always been a party of the capitalists. Today, it has also become a party of genocide, with its lowest approval rating in 35 years.
Trump and the Republicans are also deeply unpopular.
Working people are furious and fired up to fight against both the genocidal anti-worker parties of the billionaires.
For a supposedly socialist publication to tweet this out at such a time is a criminal abdication of responsibility.
There’s more to this sordid story.
The op-ed’s author, Dustin Guastella, is a leader of the Teamsters union. The Teamster President Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention, kissing up to Donald Trump and the equally horrifically anti-worker and Zionist Senator Josh Hawley. The union leadership is also currently pouring tens of thousands of dollars into right-wing Republican candidates. Jacobin is promoting a five-year-old article by a labor leader who is currently hugging openly anti-worker right-wing politicians.
The working class needs to dispense with all the various snakeoil salesmen and build class-struggle campaigns and the antiwar movement independent of both Democrats and Republicans.
I’m running for the U.S. Congress against genocidal Democrat Adam Smith. I’m fighting to end the genocide, end all U.S. military funding to Israel, and end the brutal Israeli occupation. I’m also campaigning for free healthcare for all, funded by taxing the rich, and for national rent control. Join us at KshamaSawant.org.
Related Off-site Links:
Kshama Sawant, a Seattle Socialist, to Challenge Veteran WA Democratic Congressman – Jerry Cornfield (Washington State Standard, June 2, 2025).
Kshama Sawant: How Socialists Beat the Democrats in Seattle – On Strike! (December 15, 2023).
Left Parties Advanced in the 2024 U.S. Election – Alan Zundel (Political Dharma, March 5, 2025).
Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism – The Humanist Report (March 6, 2025).
Jill Stein and Kshama Sawant on the Fight the Rich Movement – Sabby Sabs (January 26, 2025).
Trump Is Unpopular – and So Are the Do-Nothing Democrats – Jeet Heer (The Nation, February 18, 2025).
You Don’t Actually Need to Pick a Team – Caitlin Johnstone (CaitlinJohnston.substack, February 21, 2025).
The Left Can Only Win If There is a Left – Richard Moser (CounterPunch, August 2, 2024).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• A Timely and Important Conversation
• History Matters
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• Breaking the Mold: Why Progressives Should Push for Marianne Williamson to Lead the DNC
• Inauguration Day Thoughts
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
• “A New Chapter of the Democratic Party Needs to Begin”
• What the Republican Party Now Stands For
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Jill Stein: “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
• Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
• “Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
• AOC Falls in Line
• The Cassandra of U.S. Politics on the “True State of the Union”
• Will Democrats Never Learn?
• “The Next Step Is a Green Step”: Cornel West Endorses Jill Stein (2016)
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making?
• Hope Over Fear: Voting Green
1 comment:
Just don't assume Zohran Mamdani represents a current exemplar of a working-class based campaign, as he did best with White, progressive, college-educated voters, and Asian voters, and but not as well with low-income and Black working-class voters. The idea(l) of a "working class" voting bloc in the USA remains more of a theory than an actuality, and a more rickety theory than ever. NYC is massive; the theory may have more purchase in results in smaller municipalities. But at the national swing state/district level...I wouldn't bet the bank on it unless and until the many silos of the American Left care MUCH more about sustained electoral victories than the fissiparous political agendas of each silo.
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