EEUU: La convención del Partido Demócrata

2004: ¿El año en el que desaparecen las ilusiones?

Autor: Yosef M., desde E.E.U.U.

Fecha: 28/7/2004

Traductor: Celeste Murillo

Fuente: Panorama Internacional

2004: The Year Illusions Disappear?




On Sunday, July 25, thousands of people gathered in Boston to declare that the Democratic Party represents no alternative to the current Republican administration. The militant demonstration, which was organized by ANSWER and UFPJ’s Colaitions, that began with speeches on the Boston Common and continued in the streets, underlined the fact that John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, has no differences with George W. Bush, a politician justly despised the world over for his war of aggression against Iraq and his support for Israel’s suppression of all the rights of the Palestinian people. Kerry himself, who voted for the war in Iraq, has endorsed the U.S. occupation of Iraq and U.S support of Israel, as well as voting for the Patriot Act, the most serious threat to civil liberties in the U.S. in fifty years. Kerry also backed NAFTA, which constitutes an attack on working people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border, and Kerry backs U.S. military intervention in Colombia, which threatens Venezuela and the rest of Latin America.


Bush and Kerry come from very similar backgrounds; they both attended the same elite university, Yale, and they are both members of the same secret society of Yale alumni, Skull and Bones. Bourgeois media in the U.S. have not bothered to conceal the fact that Kerry and Bush agree on every important issue. Kerry, who is twenty times richer than Bush, is offering himself to the U.S. ruling class as one who can carry out their wishes more successfully than Bush. If Kerry is elected, the attacks on working people in the U.S. and overseas will undoubtedly continue.


During their long march past the Fleet Center, the site of the Democratic Party convention, the demonstrators demanded an end to the occupation of Iraq and the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.


Despite the presence of hordes of police in riot gear, U.S. Army snipers on rooftops and government helicopters overhead, both young and old marched. Demonstrators came from New York and from all over New England. A many trade unionists participated: longshoremen from the ILWU, service employees from the SEIU, teachers and transportation workers, and members of the coalition New York City Labor Against the War, as well as grocery workers from the UFCW. The demonstration was endorsed by the president of the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, USWA (the steelworkers’ union) Local 8751, and the secretary-treasurer of OPEIU (the officer-workers’ union) Local 334.


Many unorganized workers also participated. Only 13% of the U.S. working class is organized; only 9% of private-sector workers are in unions. The leadership of the union federation AFL-CIO supports Kerry; union leaders usually try to prevent workers from striking. When a strike does break out, union leadership typically isolates the strike, thereby guaranteeing defeat.


Trade unionists played a very important role in preventing an attack on the demonstrators by a small group of lumpen-element fascists, who tried to provoke a fight. A large number of workers, wearing the insignia of their unions, spontaneously surrounded the fascists and pushed them off the Common, away from the demonstration. Those fascists will not soon forget the beating they received from the trade unionists.


The (Stalinist) Communist Party U.S.A. (CPUSA), the International Socialists (ISO), and the Democratic Socialists (DSA), were absent from the march. (DSA and the ISO are the two largest leftwing groups in the U.S.) The CPUSA and DSA always support the Democrats, and this year they will vote for Kerry. The ISO chose to attend the Boston Social Forum, which was going on at the same time as the demonstration; the Boston Social Forum was regarded by the marchers as a pro-Democratic Party gathering.


The Bolivarian Circles in the U.S., a group consisting of U.S. leftists and Venezuelans working in this country, had said that they would take part in the demonstration; they did not actually participate, however, probably because members of the Bolivarian Circles in the U.S. are supporting Kerry.


Several small leftist groups, notably the Spartacist League, Workers World, and the Workers International League, were present at the demonstration. Groups representing Haitians and Palestinians also took part.


The demonstration against the Democratic Party convention showed that key groups of workers are disappointed with, and alienated from, their traditional political and union leaderships. This alienation is also reflected in the preparations for the coming October 17 Million Worker March in Washington, D.C., which was “initiated by Local 10 (San Francisco) of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and has been endorsed by all ILWU longshore locals on the West Coast, some Central Labor Councils, a growing number of local unions and workers organizations across the country.” (1) The March organizing committee has blasted Bush’s occupation of Iraq, his Middle East policy and his attack on civil liberties in the U.S. The march organizers have also accused Kerry of “outflanking Bush from the right” (1). While it is significant that these organizers are willing to criticize a Democratic presidential candidate, they stop short of encouraging working people to break with the Democrats, which is absolutely necessary.




(1) http://www.millionworkermarch.org