Black party

Scan page 7

(Continued from page 5)

Malcolm said in November 1964 regarding the Johnson vs. Goldwater election, "It isn't a president who can help or hurt; it's the system." The approach of NBIPP's charter is clearly to replace the system, not individuals. Our party does not purport "to be opposed to Reagan" or any other individual. NBIPP should go about the serious and relevant task of educating Black Americans about the true nature of this heartless, exploitative capitalist system and its "giant political con game," as Malcolm aptly described it.

Jesse Jackson is a committed member of the Democratic Party. He supports capitalism. He supports Zionism and its political state, Israel, which he calls "the most brilliant flower in God's garden." He supports imperialism and its NATO alliance and differs only in tactics and style from Reagan, Mondale, and others of that ilk in their support of the basic status quo.

Malcolm was severely critical of the Jackson type of leadership. At a 1964 Detroit meeting he said: "Any time you throw your weight behind a political party (Democratic) that controls two-thirds of the government, and that party can't keep the promises that it made to you during election time, and you're dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that political party, you're not only a chump, but you're a traitor to your race." It is not likely that Jackson will get the Democratic nomination. He has stated that if he does not get it, he will marshal his forces and supporters behind the Democratic nominee in return for some concessions. The first stage of the Jackson sucker trap is to mobilize unwary Blacks and others into supporting him. Then it is relatively easy to hook most of them into the politically backward movement to stop Reagan. NBIPP and other politically advanced organizations should vigorously oppose this and instead give serious consideration to supporting the candidates of the Socialist Workers Party, Mel Mason for president, and Andrea Gonzalez for vice-president. They are the only candidates committed to carrying out the basic program of NBIPP. These writers urge support for the Mason-Gonzalez campaign. streets is the development of an instrument at the political level to fight for the interests of working people. A party with the means and resources to mobilize working people around their own demands could prove to be a catalyst in the development of a coordinated political struggle that organizes and taps the potential of the workers and their allies for mass action on every front.

President Reagan—with the total support of the Democratic Party-has been carrying out a resolute drive for drastic cuts in social programs and services. Funding in education, housing, health care, and food have been trimmed to the bone. Unemployment compensation has been cut while millions suffer the catastrophe of being without work. Social security and welfare programs are cut while utility rates and rents skyrocket beyond the means of those on fixed incomes. Women and minorities face pervasive discrimination as affirmative action programs are gutted. Unions are faced with concerted employer assaults on wages, working conditions, and benefits while the vital signs of corporate profits register healthy increases under Reagan's "economic recovery."

Reagan's bipartisan cutbacks are carried out in the name of a "balanced Lebanon, since a large sector of the population already opposes the U.S. presence there. Wouldn't millions of people support a party that pledged not to vote one dime for the U.S.-sponsored slaughter in El Salvador-something even the most liberal of Democrats refuse to do.

The basis for launching an independent political party, one in which the American workers, Blacks, and others can put forward their own program, already exists. It lies in the unions. But it will require that the union leadership refuse to throw away union money and resources to elect the latest "lesser evil" Democrat.

Any relationship with the Democratic Party, as Sidney Lens points out, will invariably "subordinate" the interests of the working class to those of the ruling class. The strategy of reliance on the Democratic Party compels labor and its allies to tone down their demands and curtail the independent expression of their own power. The establishment of a real working-class political party implies a thorough break with dependence on capitalist parties. It would signify a qualitative leap forward in the working class struggle for power—a struggle that can only culminate in the establishment of a socialist society. • Socialist Action February 1984 7