Chris Hedges: The Socialist Alternative [View all]

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from truthdig:


The Socialist Alternative

Posted on May 1, 2016
By Chris Hedges


SEATTLE: The disintegration of the ruling political parties, along with the discrediting of the established political and economic elites, presage radical change. This change may come from the right. It may result in a frightening proto-fascism. If it is to come from the left it must be pushed forward by dogged activists and citizens who are willing to accept that stepping outside the system will mean surrendering all hope of power for perhaps a decade. To continue to engage in establishment politics, especially attempting to work within the Democratic Party, will further empower corporate capitalism and extinguish what remains of our democracy.

Willingly entering the political wilderness requires a vision that is worth sacrificing and fighting to achieve. It means that some of those who begin the revolution against corporate capitalism will not live to see its culmination. It will mean marginalization, harassment, persecution, prison and, if the movement becomes effective, state violence. History has taught us that. But given the alternative—the planet’s ecosystem destroyed by the fossil fuel and the animal agriculture industries, greater pillaging by corporate oligarchs and the rise of a global security and surveillance system that takes from us all pretense of liberty—the battle is worth it.

Kshama Sawant, the socialist City Council member in Seattle, and her Socialist Alternative Party have begun to create change where it will first be most effective—locally. She has created a petition calling on Bernie Sanders to run as an independent presidential candidate through November on a third-party ticket.

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“Europe is a guide,” she said. “The roots of the European Union were entirely pro-capitalist, pro-banker and pro-bond holder. It was sold as an experiment in democracy and equality. That was a sham. Britain is looking at dropping out of the European Union. The framework of capitalism does not provide a solution to the refugee crisis. The right wing is offering solutions and gaining ascendancy in countries such as Sweden, France and Greece. This is not because people are predisposed to be right wing or anti-refugee. It comes from the vacuum of a real socialist alternative to capitalism. This vacuum creates the fodder for the right wing. It is precisely because of the rise of right-wing movements that we need to build a genuine left-wing movement. The right wing won’t be countered by supporting Clinton.”

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_socialist_alternative_20160501