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SAN
FRANCISCO—On Oct. 10, the Socialist Action Bookstore hosted a political debate
with three candidates for the U.S. Senate seat in California.
Matt
Gonzalez, former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors,
moderated the exchange among Todd Chretien (Green Party), Marsha Feinland
(Peace and Freedom Party), and Jeff Mackler (Socialist Action Party).
The
candidates each expressed opposition to their common political adversary,
Democratic Party multi-millionaire Diane Feinstein. Chretien spoke for
every candidate when he noted the Democratic Party’s historic role as the
“graveyard of social movements.”
None
of the candidates disagreed on the urgent necessity of struggling against
war, massive job layoffs, and the overall attacks on human and democratic
rights.
Mackler’s
opening remarks highlighted his 40-plus years of activism in
united-front-type coalitions, the type of which can engage millions in
independent political action around common issues such as ending the Iraq
war immediately or for immigrant rights.
Mackler
also explained his campaign’s objective to build Socialist Action and
publicize its revolutionary program. This is a modest step, he said,
toward the future construction of a massive revolutionary party of
working people that can challenge the capitalist system and fight for
socialism.
Similarly,
Feinland said that her campaign seeks to explain that ‘the people we need
to organize are the working class. They need to build a party that
represents their interests.”
“I
want to begin,” said Chretien in opening, “by talking about the war in
Iraq because I think that defines American politics today.” He went to
point out the war’s heavy toll, which includes at least 150,000 Iraqis
killed and more than 2700 dead U.S. soldiers.
Wrapping
up his comments, Todd Chretien, who is a key spokesman for the
International Socialist Organization (ISO), said, “The Green Party is an
attempt to say to people of this country that you should stand up for
yourself. If you’re going into the streets you shouldn’t vote for the
people who are opposing you. It is an attempt to step out of the straight
jacket of the two-party system.”
Mackler
voiced his disagreement with the Green Party program, on which Chretien
is running. “The Green Party,” he said, “is an electoral vehicle for
middle-class reform of capitalism, and Green Party candidates regularly
support Democrats.”
Though
Chretien explained that “one of the key battles is destroying the hold of
Democratic Party over the working class, students, and people in this
country,” he has volunteered for the 2006 campaign of Aimee Allison. She
is one of Chretien’s endorsers and Green Party candidate for Oakland City
Council.
Allison’s
website states that she “is a driving force in the Draft [Ron] Dellums
movement,” which gathered “more than 8000 signatures in favor of his
candidacy.” Dellums is the 2006 Democratic Party mayoral candidate in
Oakland.
Toward
the end of the debate Chretien outlined ISO’s perspectives: “You have to
have principles which say that the vast majority of people in this world
should run it, that we have to get rid of the people who run it, and we
need great revolutionary change to do that.”
No
socialist would disagree with that sentiment. However, the real principle
under debate was that of class politics and the necessity for the
workers’ movement, as Feinland mentioned, “to have a party that
represents working-class interests.”
“Elections
pose the question of which class shall rule,” said Mackler. It’s a
question that Chretien’s Green Party campaign never
poses.
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