Michael Moore said recently in the context of the Flint water crisis that the auto workers sit-down strikes in 1936-37 in Flint created the middle class. Out of the Flint stikes came the CIO, which immeasurable empowered workers in their fight for a living wage. An interestingly ironic corollary to this notion is that this strike and thereby the development of the middle class was led by the Communist Party USA, and some allied groups such as the Socialist Party, the Socialist Worker’s Party, the IWW, and the League for Industrial Democracy (which founded SDS).  Of these, the Communist Party […]

It’s terrific that our Bernie revolution has brought the concept of socialism back into the national political dialogue. If we were to do nothing further, this would still be huge, as they say. What we haven’t done yet is incorporate the essential concepts of Marxism into our discussions. The vicious attack of anti-communism that started in the 50s has everyone scared to say the word Marx. A lot of people have even come to blame Marx for the failures and crimes of the late Communist movement, which is sort of like blaming John Locke for the extremism of the thermadorian […]

If by some bizarre fluke of the electoral process, Bernie is denied the nomination, we need to think about our next steps. The whole brouhaha over Bust or Blue is a reactionary distraction which only helps the ruling class. As Robert Reich so artfully put it early on, the ruling class is still the ruling class. They don’t give up easily. Our task, win or lose, is to unite our movement and consolidate the power we have achieved. The choices we make regarding what to do or how to vote should not be seen as individual decisions, as strongly as […]

How does he do it? How many times have we thought this, said this, or heard this? How does he do it. An under-appreciated aspect of the Sanders campaign is its living contradiction to ageism. He’s great on ending racism and sexism for the most part, some ways to go, but what he is manifesting to the world is a 74 year old man with the energy of a 25 year old. Is he on amphetamine, like Kennedy? I wouldn’t blame him. (I used to like that speed stuff). Most likely it’s the energy of the people. There is nothing […]

Let’s pull this Bernie thing off. We should focus all of our energy here. I think the strategy is to connect with people on a human level. I get and even admire the tactic of Bernie or Bust. We gotta play hardball, I get that. But it is a tactic. A negotiating position. It’s not even an issue, because Bernie is going to win this. What it will take to win our revolution is unity and solidarity among the largest grouping in the world, the international working class. Name it. That’s what it is.  Anticommunism has been so thoroughly victorious […]

They say it will be impossible for Bernie to catch HRC’s big delegate lead, but Bernie has proven over and over that just because something’s impossible, doesn’t mean he can’t do it. Bernie entered the race promising to take the big money out of politics, which is of course impossible. But then he just did it. In one year he has raised money on the same competitive level as all the other candidates, but without taking a dime from big money. This is an enormous political accomplishment, almost on a par with Obamacare or the Iranian agreement. It shows that […]

Happy Vernal Equinox, everyone! Here is what I think needs to happen. The Bernie Sanders movement – not the campaign – needs to come together and consolidates its gains. Regardless of whether Bernie wins or not, we need to develop the organization to carry out our vision. I’m willing to put in some time into this. We need have some serious convenings. I don’t know the best way. By cities? By neighborhoods? I know this much: the revolution will be organized one-by-one. The revolution is a lot about tearing down the barriers between us, figuring the hell out how to […]

Significant escalation in the election process: the people shutting down Donald Trump’s rally in downtown Chicago. We honor the courageous demonstrators. Yes, we understand that this was a setup, that Trump thinks it’s in his interest to foment chaos and argue we need a strong man to whip the country in shape. But the history of the world consists of unintended consequences. I think that might be a corollary of the uncertainty principle. The capacity of human beings to imagine a vision and successfully fulfill it is not high. Something bad usually happens on the road to utopia. But presumably, […]

Fellow Bernie folks: We’re being tricked. We’re being bamboozled. We’re being fed bread and circuses. This election is not a god damn football game. We act as if it were, to the point of vilifying our opponents solely for the purpose of enhancing our rivalry. This strikes me as highly counter to the democratic socialist ethos that we are attempting to build. You are what you eat. We need to step back, get serious, and focus on the bigger picture. I’m sure we all have different visions of the revolution. Our visions together will combine into some kind of heck […]