BY MAURICE WILLIAMS

As the November 5 presidential and Congressional elections draw closer, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) is clamoring louder for working people to "defeat the ultraright" by voting for the "lesser evil," i.e. U.S. president William Clinton and other politicians in the Democratic Party. This is "the last, the best chance to prevent a takeover of the White House by the right wing and to break their grip on Congress" declared an October 19 editorial in the People's Weekly World, the CP's newspaper.

"The elections will decide whether our country will move forward in a more progressive direction, democratic direction," wrote CPUSA national chair Gus Hall, "or continue moving backward, to the right and even in a dangerously fascist direction."

Hall implied that unless the Democrats win a majority in Congress, independent political action by working people is useless, since the Republicans will "take no heed of protests, demonstrations, or people's pressure." Working people of oppressed nationalities and other "immigrant peoples will continue to be unequal victims of racism, brutality, discrimination, and repression," he declared.

"No one knows better that we ultimately need to change the whole two-party capitalist system," said Hall, but "under the circumstances of a fascist danger we believe the lesser evil tactic is the only winning tactic."

He assures readers that this "tactic" is "permissible" because it's "for the 96 elections only" (emphasis in original). Unlike previous election years, the Communist Party did not even make a pretense of standing its own candidate for U.S. president.

In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx explained that the "executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." In carrying out these responsibilities, the Democrats and the Republicans are political twins and servants of the wealthy class - the barons on Wall Street.

The capitalist two-party system is aimed at drawing workers and others into backing one or another wing of the bourgeoisie. For the rulers, the most important thing is that most people feel a stake in the outcome, not which of the two parties wins a particular election.

That's why the CP's "lesser of evils tactic" is class collaboration - an approach that subordinates the interests of the working class in exchange for a harmonious relationship with the bosses and their political servants. It is a dead end.

Hall says the results of the elections will determine if the fight against racism, for women's rights, and other working class struggles are "easier or more difficult." While the CPUSA chair touts his organization as "Marxist-Leninists and revolutionaries," he expresses total disregard for the power of working people engaged in political action.

U.S. socialist agitator and labor leader Eugene V. Debs rejected the perspective of tying the interests of working people to the capitalist class or their two-party system. "There can be no peace and goodwill between these two essentially antagonistic economic classes," he said. "Nor can this class conflict be covered up or smoothed over." Speaking out against Washington's war against its European rivals in World War I, Debs stated working people will remain as cannon fodder for the imperialists "as long as you give your support to the political parties of your masters and exploiters." Debs himself was the Socialist Party candidate for U.S. president five times between 1900 and 1920. Mobilize votes for the Democrats
The People's Weekly World described the October 12 march for immigrant rights in Washington D.C. as a way to "mobilize voters" for the Democrats. While most of the speakers at the rally agreed with that perspective, the demonstration as a whole represented something different. The 20,000 protesters, many of whom were young, reflected the beginning of a movement by immigrants in response to a bipartisan series of attacks on the rights of immigrants and other working people launched by Clinton and Congress. The thousands of young Chicanos present demonstrated a rise in the struggle by that oppressed nationality as well. Many had been part of protests against the 1994 anti-immigrant ballot measure passed in California known as Proposition 187. At the height of those protests two years ago, some 70,000 people marched in Los Angeles for immigrants rights.

A quick review of a few of Clinton's actions - from signing the welfare law to supporting the antigay Defense of Marriage Act - shows the Democratic president has done a good job of advancing the capitalist offensive against working people. An October 15 article in the New York Times gave another typical example. It noted that the Clinton administration has reduced federal aid to the Canton, Ohio, public transportation system from $1.2 million to $523,000. This jeopardizes the system, which could shut down, leaving many workers, the handicapped, and elderly people stranded.

Hall acknowledges that working people have become more "alienated from electoral politics than ever before." He tries to explain away the various laws signed by Clinton as a "tendency to cave in to the right."

Instead of urging protests against these assaults on working people, Hall calls for a "massive campaign" to convince workers that it is in our "vital self-interests to vote in this election." Working people will then "have a fighting chance to win the support of the president and Congress through people's political power and pressure," Hall stated.

Communist leader V.I. Lenin, however, exposed the contradiction between "democracy" proclaimed by the capitalists and thousands of subterfuges that turn working people into wage slaves, which opens the "eyes of the people to the rottenness, mendacity and hypocrisy of capitalism." He explained in The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, "It is this contradiction that the agitators and propagandists of socialism are constantly exposing to the people, in order to prepare them for revolution!"

James Harris, the Socialist Workers presidential candidate, presented this perspective at a recent meeting with students at University of Minnesota. "I'm not really interested in your vote," said Harris. "I'm here to urge you to become part of the struggle to change the world."  
 
 
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