Any candidate who wants to appeal to voters on labor issues has to propose bold solutions to even be noticed, standing next to Sanders and Warren.
The form of political action that Clinton defenders in labor advocate is a suffocating loser. It seeks accommodation when confrontation is required. It is more concerned with the longevity of the union as an institution – an important consideration for labor, but one that demands a more courageous vision – than with the overall strength of its members vis a vis their employers, which in fact is the only guarantor of institutional survival.
The battle lines are clear. Democracy is in peril and the left must take itself seriously electorally and politically. Ruth Potts speaks to Gary Younge, who was based in Muncie, Indiana, for the US election, about the implications of Donald Trump’s victory.
TPP "will cost American jobs, harm the environment, increase the cost of prescription drugs, and threaten our ability to protect public health".
How – and how far – the “political revolution” will continue remains to be seen. What has already occurred is a surge of support for the Green party. Many of Sanders’ delegates will be pressing the campaign’s radical demands within the Convention. This activity will draw its participants beyond what they could hope to achieve within the constraints of Sanders’ candidacy. Yet it was the vast reach of that candidacy which made possible these steps to go beyond it.
As Clinton’s speech recognized, a Trump presidency promises an unprepared, dangerous foreign policy. But her refusal to engage with the real, robust alternative offered by Sanders may say more about her own war-driven foreign policy than anything else.
Socialism can mean what we citizens wish for it to mean, by exercising our People Power! Hooray for Bernie Sanders! His vision and his rousing passion for the plight of the people is the greatest remedy for the painful ills of humankind that fear and greed have brought us. I warily approve of Hillary Clinton and would want for her "negotiating experience" to prevail. I've been joking for some time now about him teaching her, and teaming up. This would be powerful.
Many union members, both Democrats and independents, believe in the policies and the overall vision of an expanded New Deal that both the labor movement and Sanders have long promoted. Yet Sanders appears to have more confidence that the broad American public will back those ideas and reject likely Republican and media attacks on his proposals than do many top union officials who often complain about Democrats who will not support labor and its agenda.
"To be a transformative political leader Sanders needs to engage in full-scale political education about the impossible self-defeating logic of pursuing economic growth and national security in conventional ways."
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