SAYING NO TO JOE

Abby Martin : 'The reality is that Biden is never going to concede to the left.'

The decision of Bernie Sanders to endorse corporate Democrat Joe Biden as the Democrtic Party's presidential candidate has split the American left. While some are prepared to vote for him as the 'lesser evil', many others aren't. Abby Martin of The Empire Files says that Biden is never going to concede to the left and voting for him just perpetuates a failed political strategy that has seen the American political system move progressively further to the right.

THE DECISION of Bernie Sanders to endorse Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate has split the American left. While some are prepared to hold their noses and vote Biden in an effort to dislodge Donald Trump, others think this is just the continuance of a losing 'lesser evil' strategy that has hamstrung the American left for decades. It has parallels to New Zealand where, for the past thirty years of neoliberalism, much of the left has continued to argue that Labour is preferable to National. And things have continued to get worse.

The rejection of the 'anyone but Trump' strategy has propelled the influential Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), America's largest socialist organisation with over 100,000 members, to announce it will not be endorsing Joe Biden. It also did not endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016. It says that Sanders has helped to forge a grassroots revolution but that revolution cannot be allowed to be steered into support for the corporate and centrist politics of Joe Biden and that it must continue independently of the two party horse race.

Abby Martin of The Empire Files supported Bernie Sanders bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination because, she says,  he represented a genuine and independent grassroots movement. But she says that the American left is now being asked to support someone 'even worse than Clinton, who opposes medicare for all and has total contempt for millennials.' Too add insult to injury, Abby observes, he'll end up being 'crushed' by Trump.

Martin is scathing of the suggestion that Biden, a career establishment politician, can be pushed to the left. She points to his reactionary track record and to the corporate interests backing his campaign, as ample evidence that Biden is a non starter as far as the American left is concerned. This seems to be especially true in a America where Donald Trump has only helped to push more and more Americans to the left. With more Americans than ever seeking real change, Biden has little to offer. Throwing a few concessionary breadcrumbs in the direction of the left will not be enough to convince  the left to support Biden. If this remains true then his election fate is sealed, as was Hillary Clinton's in 2016.

'The reality is that Biden is never going to concede to the left. He's a centrist Republican. He's never going to move one inch to the left', says Martin.

She says that the limitation of electoral politics has been exposed again.

'We have been shown the true limitation of voting for progressives in what is a right wing plutocracy.'

While she is supportive of left wing congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar,  she says that there is only so much they can achieve within the current system. Ocasio-Cortez herself has stopped short of endorsing Biden and she will have noted the decision of the DSA, an organisation she has close connections with, not to endorse him.

Martin has advised her many followers to ignore the calls from 'rich liberals and establishment Democrats' to support Biden.

'Don't waste you're vote on Biden. All you will be doing is giving the Democratic Party a blank cheque to do whatever it likes and it will push the electoral cycle further to the right. Don't feel you have to capitulate to a corrupt two party system just in order to try and get rid of Trump. Don't be shamed into voting for Biden.'

Martin  proposes getting back to basics, including 'occupy-style agitation', nationwide mass strikes, shutting down 'business as usual', and the defence of workers rights. 

'Its time to work and campaign outside of the election cycle, more than ever before.'

She says that coronavirus pandemic has not only exposed the failure of capitalism but underlined that socialism provides the only real solution. She says that, in the end, she believes in 'revolution not reform' and adds 'the lotus flower grows out of the mud.'

'There is no reforming this corrupt system.'

Abby says she will be voting Gloria La Riva for President. La Riva is the presidential candidate for the Party of Socialism and Liberation.