No Vote to West or Stein!

In yet another move that undermines their presidential campaign, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) has endorsed the moribund Cornel West campaign in Alaska and Green darling Jill Stein in Montana and Arkansas–states where PSL candidates Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia are not on the ballot. In exchange, the PSL gets endorsements from their liberal rivals in a total of seven other states. This opportunist electoral deal, based on supposed “shared values” among the campaigns, comes as no surprise.

From praising the “uncommitted” movement to platforming Democrat Rashida Tlaib at their Palestine conference in Detroit, the PSL has consistently obscured the necessity of class independence in their campaign. These new deals with West and Stein are simply an extension of how the PSL always builds movements–from the struggle against cop terror to the fight to free Palestine—by catering to liberal elements and putting them in charge. This latest maneuver just reaffirms that PSL, while providing a working-class alternative in this election, does not have a program to win the things they stand for.

West and Stein claim “shared values” with the PSL campaign, but not the ones that count most: opposition to capitalism and capitalist rule. Liberal leaders like West and Stein cling to the ruling class, making them major obstacles to advancing the struggles of workers and the oppressed because any real gains must necessarily cut into capitalist profits and power. When push comes to shove, liberals–who accept the sanctity of private property and the inviolability of the capitalist state–oppose taking the measures necessary to address the plight of the masses. Building political coalitions with them is antithetical to directing anger at the Democrats into a broader working-class counteroffensive against the attacks of the two main capitalist parties.

To advance the fight against war and racial oppression or the struggle for better wages, housing and healthcare–to advance the fight for anything the working class needs—requires an intransigent fight against liberal misleaders who confine struggle within the framework of capitalism. It is on this basis that a revolutionary workers party guided by the goal of socialist revolution will be forged and lead the march to victory.

The PSL proclaims the necessity of building such a party. But they recoil from combatting the liberal politics that stand in the way, especially when it comes to liberalism outside the Democratic Party. Their promotion of West and Stein obscures the need to “end capitalism” and throws sand in the eyes of those who look to them for answers.

The task in this election is to rally working people in a way that prepares them to fight back against the next administration and advance their interests in opposition to the ruling class as a whole. This means fighting to polarize society on class lines–a fight that West and Stein oppose and PSL abdicates. Despite the PSL’s unholy alliance with the two liberal campaigns, Claudia and Karina continue to insist on the necessity of a socialist solution; and in places where it is possible to vote for them, they are formally running against all the capitalist candidates, West and Stein included. Cohering all those who want to fight for black people, women, Palestine, etc. around opposition to capitalism and lesser-evilism is qualitatively better than uniting around whatever hippy pipe dream of green capitalism Stein is professing or the religious poetry of West. The PSL program is an obstacle, but their campaign still provides a lever to fight for what’s needed.

Our instruction is clear: Vote for Claudia & Karina everywhere possible, including by write-in! No vote to West or Stein in Alaska, Montana, Arkansas or anywhere else!