by Jacob Bielski
Springfield, MA

In protest of the Biden Administration’s support for the Israeli state’s invasion, bombardment, and starvation of Gaza, 101,067 voters cast “uncommitted” ballots in the Michigan Democratic Primary on February 27th. 

The campaign sparked a grassroots movement on Super Tuesday when 16 states and the US territory of American Samoa held their primaries and caucuses. Tens of thousands of voters in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Colorado, Minnesota, Alabama, and Tennessee followed Michigan’s example. In Minnesota, 19% of Democratic Primary voters cast ballots for uncommitted, compared to Michigan’s 13%.

The movement is spearheaded by Muslim-American communities and youth opposed to the Israeli state’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli invasion of Gaza revealed cracks in the Democratic Party. Despite key Democratic voting groups, including progressives, youth, people of color, and the AFL-CIO calling for a ceasefire, the Biden administration has failed to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas, continues to provide military aid to Israel, and sabotaged UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

While the vote uncommitted movement is an important expression of anger against the Biden administration’s policies, the working class should have no illusions about the ability of primaries to change the Democratic Party’s support for war. Voting uncommitted only elects uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention if they pass a 15% vote threshold in each state, which has only happened in Minnesota so far. Additionally, uncommitted delegates could still vote for Biden or another candidate in favor of war, big business, and neoliberal economic policies.

The Democratic Party’s
Real Record on War

Despite many Democratic voters coming to oppose the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s, the mass deployment of US troops to South Vietnam began under the Kennedy administration, and the Johnson administration continued the war from there. Kennedy’s administration further sponsored the Bay of Pigs invasion, as well as other attempts to sabotage the Cuban revolution. Going back further, the Democratic Truman administration ordered the atomic bombing of Japan, escalated the Cold War, and sent US troops to back up the military dictatorship in South Korea.

In 2008, voters elected Barack Obama on a wave of anti-war sentiment stemming from the Bush administration’s costly invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. While Obama oversaw the withdrawal of some US troops from Afghanistan, his administration continued the war in Afghanistan. It also authorized ten times as many drone strikes as Bush in the Middle East.

Trump’s “America First” Foreign Policy: Continued U.S. Imperialism

Despite tapping into anti-war sentiment surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Trump campaign offers no alternative. On March 5th, Trump called on Israel to “finish the problem” and offered no coherent solutions to the war beyond saying it would not have occurred if he were president. Looking at his actual record in power, Trump emboldened Netanyahu and his far-right supporters by moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump became so popular among the far-right Jewish settler movement that a proposed development in the occupied Golan Heights is named Trump Heights in his honor. Trump ordered missile strikes on Syria in 2017. The Trump administration also made numerous efforts to escalate tensions with Iran, culminating in the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in 2020.

Outside the Middle East, the Trump administration continued US imperialism’s bloody legacy in Latin America. The administration supported attempted coups against the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela. Trump’s antagonistic approach to US-Mexican relations, including calling for missile strikes against drug cartels, led to Republicans calling for US troops to intervene in Mexico during the 2024 Republican primaries. For any reservations Republican politicians have over funding a war in Ukraine, they continue the Bush administration’s hawkish legacy in other parts of the world.

Vote Independent Not Uncommitted

Working-class people and youth must seek a real alternative to the two parties of war and big business in the upcoming general elections. Independent, left-wing candidates with genuine anti-war records, such as Jill Stein or Cornel West, could offer a logical next step for voters seeking to voice their anger over Biden and Trump enabling Israeli war crimes while failing to address the needs of working-class people facing stagnant wages and a cost-of-living crisis.

The 19% result in Minnesota was achieved by raising $20,000 and mobilizing voters over eight days. A three-week campaign won the 100,000+ votes in Michigan. For comparison, the Jill Stein Campaign for the Green Party received about 51,000 votes in 2016. 100,000 Democratic voters in Michigan could triple the vote share for left-wing independents and make ballot access easier for an anti-war alternative to the two parties of imperialism. A sustained effort to raise funds, organize voters, and run independent candidates could form the basis for a new anti-war workers’ party in the United States.

Many of those who vote uncommitted will be under massive pressure in the 2024 election to hold their nose and vote for Biden, in which case the capitalist media will quickly bury those “uncommitted” votes as a flash in the pan with no real effect. However, a significant vote for a genuine ceasefire candidate or party-in-formation could put the issue on the table in a way that can’t be ignored. In Canada, the New Democratic Party forced significant concessions in the form of healthcare reform despite never winning a federal election.

It will be up to workers, progressives, and youth to discuss which independent, pro-worker and anti-war presidential candidate presents the strongest campaign with widespread ballot access to unite with. The Independent Socialist Group will continue to research and discuss the candidacies and conclude which presidential campaign to support. As workers and youth, we should also look to local and state races for progressive, anti-war candidates to support. Supporting such campaigns could be a first step toward building a workers’ party.

Ultimately, it is necessary to break with the Democratic and Republican parties to build an independent party with the backing of unions, working-class people, and youth to support a foreign policy of solidarity with workers around the world, environmental protection, and the economic and democratic rights of workers in the United States. In such a party, candidates would be subject to recall by the membership and accept only the salary of the average worker they represent. The party would further be accountable to the membership through truly democratic conventions, unlike the shams run by the capitalist DNC and RNC. It would also refuse donations from big business and rely on membership dues to eliminate capitalist influence over the party.

The energy around the movement to vote uncommitted in the Democratic Parties has serious potential, and it must not be wasted by being funneled into another failed attempt to reform the pro-business, pro-war Democratic Party. Time and time again, these have failed, from the Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern campaigns during the Vietnam War to the Dennis Kucinich campaign during the Iraq War or the Bernie Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020. Working-class pressure can bring an end to the invasion of Gaza and the other crises workers face at home and around the world, but it must take a course independent of the Democratic and Republican parties.