The Gov. Scott Walker victory in Wisconsin’s recall election last month should not surprise us. The Democrats are incapable of defeating the right. Don’t the last 30 years demonstrate that? Every vote for a Democrat has meant the success of the “Republican” agenda, based on the loyalty of both parties to the 1%. In fact, Democrats, Obama in particular, have proven adept at advancing reactionary policies that would have sent protesters into the streets if George Bush had carried them out. Wisconsin is one more reason we need a fighting labor party!
The root of this election is the treachery of the Democratic Party, which squashed a mass movement of workers in defense of their right to collective bargaining and a standard of living that they had fought for. The Dems and their union bureaucrat flunkies pulled the plug and sent workers ringing door bells for the Democratic Party’s 1%. What the Dems and their apologists in the union bureaucracy avoid is that the big questions of working-class power are really determined in the streets and in worker action, principally strikes, and not in the ballot box.
> The article above was written by Marty Goodman, and is reprinted from the July 2012 print edition of Socialist Action newspaper.