USA: Can’t Vote Out Capitalism here Serbia, Brazil, Israel elections here (WEB ONLY)
USA: Can’t Vote Out Capitalism
LOS ANGELES (USA), October 28— The results of thousands of local and state elections will mostly be known by the time you read this. Some of our readers and friends will either be celebrating or despondent. Some may be cautiously optimistic but still anxious that Republicans might not abide by the results.
As communists, we challenge the illusion that US Senate and House elections can make a qualitative change in anything. Even if a “blue wave” flips the Senate.
“Real decisions are made in corporate board rooms,” remarked a teacher comrade. “For example, it was the banker J.P. Morgan who took the US into World War I.”
When war broke out in Europe in 1914, Morgan pulled strings to become the exclusive US purchasing agent for Britain. His company earned $30 million (equivalent to almost $800 million today). Within two years, J.P Morgan & Co. had also facilitated $$billions in loans and credits to the Allies. The US government was pressed into guaranteeing these loans to keep munitions flowing. That dragged the US into the war to guarantee an Allied victory.
Capitalism’s drive to maximize profits shapes our jobs (if we have them). The food, water, and air available to us. Our access to medical care – and what that care is like. Our entertainment. Whether giant data centers suck up resources to power AI. All that and more.
The capitalist propaganda machine cranks up before elections to convince us that “your vote is your voice.” What they mean is: Shut up and vote.
But the machinery of government mainly exists to help the capitalists exploit and repress us. Secondarily, when it works smoothly, it helps capitalists manage their differences. That’s not happening now.
So we see “No Kings” protests focusing on early voting. Energy drained into “get out the vote” postcard writing. So many people in the US are angry with fascist immigration cops, anti-Black racism, genocide in Palestine, and the rising cost of living. But we don’t see mass protests like the ones rocking France, Spain, Albania, Greece, Italy, Mexico, and Argentina.
That’s why we need to speak out loudly and clearly about the need to destroy the capitalists’ state power with communist revolution.
Communism will transform production from profit maximization to meeting the masses’ needs. It will create real popular decision-making through local collectives linked globally as a mass communist party.
We start learning how to do that today. By building communist social relations based on mutuality, respect, and struggle. By learning and teaching communist revolution.
Do Elections Matter?
“Most folks I know don’t vote. Or do so reluctantly, due to widespread corruption,” said a comrade. “At times, local politicians are decent allies.”
“Most people I know are ‘Vote blue [Democrat] no matter who’ types,” said another. “So conversations don’t really go anywhere.”
“So both alternatives make no difference??” asked the first comrade, a bit incredulously.
“Not really. Especially since most Democrats run as unopposed incumbents. Or are in such a blue district they win by default. Very few races have third-party options. Most judges run unopposed. The ballot measures are important though.”
A third comrade agreed. “It can matter for local things and propositions, and it’s easy enough to do. So I do vote. But I specifically don’t put a lot of energy into electoralism.”
Many of our friends get enthusiastic about “third-party” candidates. Especially those who oppose the genocide in Palestine. But some friends have rightfully become disillusioned with social-democrats like New York Mayor Mamdani. He gives lip service to Palestine and material support to Zionism. This “anti-establishment” fake recently met with Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase. The bank that’s been running US foreign policy for over a century!
The party we need is not one that calls itself socialist (or even communist) but in actual practice draws angry youths into capitalist electoral politics. We need the International Communist Workers’ Party.
With our line of mobilizing masses for communism starting now. With our strategy of organizing concentrations among soldiers and industrial workers as well as youth. With our doors wide open, waiting to welcome you and your friends.
Serbia, Brazil, Israel: Elections Won't Defeat Fascism
October 28— As Red Flag goes to press, surprising election results are coming in from Serbia, Brazil, and the Zionist state (“Israel”).
The “Student List” in Serbia ousted the party of long-time dictator Vucic in a landslide upset . In Brazil, incumbent president Lula da Silva defeated the openly fascist Flávio Bolsonaro after losing to him in the first round of the election.
The final outcome of the Israeli election won’t be known for some time. The butcher Netanyahu seems to have lost to General Gadi Eisenkot who also has plenty of Palestinian blood on his hands.
The surprise was the huge voter turnout among Arab Israelis. Will Arab politicians form a bloc with Eisenkot? Will he allow that in order to dump Netanyahu? Would any of that stop the genocide in Gaza? The expulsions of Palestinians in the West Bank? Or end Israeli apartheid?
In truth, these “anti-fascist” victories are no such thing. Take Serbia. Massive youth protests began two years ago after government negligence and corruption led to the deaths of sixteen people in the collapse of a railway station canopy.
Now the US imperialist mouthpiece Foreign Policy claims that “Gen Zers in Serbia have proved that youth can achieve transformative change through nonviolent political engagement.” But the Student List denies even wanting closer integration with the European Union, Serbia’s main trading partner. Its nationalist program includes maintaining control over Bosnia. And maintaining ties with fascist Israel.
Former central bank governor Dejan Soskic is a key leader in the ‘Student List.” The new government may shift away from state-subsidized low-wage industries, but it will certainly be solidly capitalist. It’s counting on tax reform and anti-corruption measures to pacify the masses. It won’t attack the corruption at the heart of capitalism: the theft of workers’ surplus labor in the form of bosses’ profits.
In Brazil, this will be Lula’s fourth term as president of one of the world’s largest and most unequal economies. Once a working-class radical, he is now a political insider reporting a net worth of nearly $1 million. Bankers and businessmen may not like him, but they have prospered under his policies.
Masses of youths and workers worldwide rally under the banner of anti-fascism. But the global crisis of capitalism, not politicians’ personalities, is what’s pushing the world deeper into fascism.
Elections give the capitalist state a chance to adjust itself to be a more effective instrument of class rule and oppression. The working class can’t “capture” it for our own purposes. We must smash it. Only communist revolution can bring the changes we need.