October 26, 2024

Don’t give in to the election jitters!
Step up defense of all oppressed people

Report at National Radical Women meeting by Helen Gilbert, National Radical Women Organizer

There’s no denying that the times are spooky and scary!

As we enter the final days of the presidential campaign, we see some of Trump’s fellow Republicans denouncing him as a fascist and would-be dictator.

On the other side, the historic candidacy of a woman of color is squarely in line with the capitalist politics of the Democratic Party. Harris and the Democratic Party are totally willing to keep supplying arms, troops and dollars to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to overlook its bombings and assassinations in Lebanon and Iran. Harris is committed to the same racist border policies as Trump. Her support for abortion doesn’t include a real platform of presidential action. Even mainstream news media is sounding an alarm that Harris’s desire to draw in rightwing voters risks alienating traditional Democratic Party supporters.

Radical Women has never had faith that capitalist parties or politicians could do anything to solve the unending humanitarian crises in the U.S. and around the world. We don’t vote for capitalists and in this election we haven’t even seen radical candidates to support. But the ballot box is only one lever of social change and not the most powerful. If the Democrats were at all interested in defeating far-right movements they could have done that decades ago, rather than moving farther and farther right themselves as the global situation gets worse and worse.

As revolutionary socialists, Radical Women knows that social change has to come from the bottom, from the working class and its allies, from oppressed women, people of color, lgbtqi+ folks, immigrants and others. We know it’s a long range project that won’t be solved this election by any means. We’re revolutionary optimists because we have not had the illusion that the system could save us. In many ways more people than ever are coming to this conclusion and our movements have stronger ties of multi-issue solidarity than ever before.

Still, there is a lot of fear and anxiety about the elections from friends, family, social media and mainstream media. I’m sure everybody has felt the pressure. Some dire predictions may be purposely heightened in order to persuade people to vote a certain way. But a lot of their concerns are truly warranted. We are looking ahead to political scenarios that do not include a fairy tale happy ending. It seems clear that the far-right will be strengthened following this election whether their candidate is in the White House or he loses and they mount another campaign of lies and hysteria over stolen elections.

Most of us haven’t lived through times like this when far-right fascist politics swept the globe. But many of us in Radical Women have decades of experience in anti-fascist organizing and movement building. The lessons of that work strengthen us for the days ahead. It will be crucial in the post-election world to build grassroots coalitions and united fronts that put the interests and needs of oppressed people and the working class in the forefront. We need to be prepared to go into action to defend those most under attack – particularly immigrants and trans people. We need to protest attacks on the free speech of anti-Zionists and Leftists and keep pushing for the liberation of Palestine and an end to all U.S. funds to Israel.

The elections will hopefully bring numerous victories for state measures in defense of abortion rights, and every victory is important, no matter how small it seems. There’s no doubt that the fight for reproductive justice and access to abortion is going to continue no matter who wins on November 5.

We need to convey these messages and be ready to go into action. So we need to stay grounded politically. Radical Women members are in this for the long haul, and no one said overthrowing capitalism was going to take place on our timetable. A sure-fire way to stay positive is to learn from the histories of people fighting oppression and organizing against the far-right, including our own history. We need to build alliances by reaching out and making common cause wherever working people fight back in strikes and union organizing. No matter who wins, Radical Women members plan to be in the forefront of building a movement for a better, socialist future.