by B.W. Sculos
Vice President, Rio Grande Valley United Faculty (TFA/NEA) (Personal Capacity) 
Edinburg, TX

In the leadup to the 2024 US Presidential election, the working class is confronted with two major party candidates who will not represent our interests. Both Democratic Party nominee President Joe Biden and Republican nominee former President Donald Trump will continue to focus on benefiting corporations and the rich at the expense of working people.

Trump’s 34 felony convictions reveal some of his corruption and the convictions might help many people look deeper into the character and crimes of the capitalist class in general. However, Trump’s more serious offenses against the working class, including the poor, will not be prosecuted by a legal system constructed and controlled by the capitalist class and their two political parties. These include the Trump regime’s tax breaks for corporations and the rich, attacks on workers’ rights, repression against the BLM movement, racist incitement against immigrants, anti-environment policies, etc. Trump’s real crimes will not be the focus of election year propaganda from the corporate media or the proceedings of the capitalist court system.

For the working class, there are two main progressive candidacies to consider on a national level: Jill Stein for the Green Party and the independent campaign of radical civil rights activist Cornel West. Though the metric for victory will most likely not be winning the presidency, their campaigns raise many demands that are worth voting for and supporting, and after the elections they could join with other groups and activists to help build the foundations for a working-class political party to organize against the two corporate parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

The Independent Socialist Group has written many times about the need for an independent working-class political party (most recently in the context of the 2024 elections, see website). Many working-class progressives will feel pressured to vote for Joe Biden, but these would be wasted votes, giving a mandate to a pro-capitalist politician and political party. The Democratic Party is already spending hundreds of millions trying to challenge the idea that they are in the back pocket of Wall Street. 

Switching out the Trump regime for the Biden regime, replacing Republicans with Democrats in Congress, and the disgust many people have for this rerun election show that working-class people, deep down, also know about the false promises and anti-working class policies of the Democratic Party. Biden, despite having both the presidency and Democratic majority in Congress for the first two years, failed to act on the promises made to working-class voters. The Democrats did not attempt to raise the federal minimum wage, create universal healthcare, or guarantee abortion rights. The Democrats didn’t fight for the “Protect the Right to Organize” Act, and used government repression to take away the right of union railroad workers to strike, forcing a contract on them that the majority had voted down. Biden, despite running against Trump’s immigration and border policies, is actively continuing some of the worst, including detention facilities and the construction of the border wall.

But it’s also the Biden administration’s adamant support for Israel’s ongoing genocide against Gaza that is causing many young people and students especially to reject the Democratic Party. It’s worth noting that Trump and the Republicans are no better an option when it comes to ending the mass extermination of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians. Recall, Trump and the GOP gave cover to the Netanyahu government to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem (an act of extreme aggression against any future peace process), supported illegal Zionist settlements in the West Bank, and implemented cuts to UN aid for Palestine. Both candidates and their parties have also supported the use of militarized police against the student-led encampments on college campuses around the country for having the audacity to organize for Palestinian rights and peace in Gaza. 

Although some voters might be drawn to the independent campaign of Robert Kennedy Jr, he’s not a real option for the working class. The policies he pushes include anti-science, anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and he supports the Israeli state’s invasion of Gaza and occupation of Palestine. Both Jill Stein and Cornel West have consistently supported the liberation of the Palestinian peoples and have been active in the recent movements to end the genocide. Both the Stein and West campaigns represent a place to go for the supporters of the popular “Vote Uncommitted” primary election trend.

“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… could put the issue on the table in a way that can’t be ignored.” (Vote Uncommitted, ISG website)

2024 Left Independent Campaigns

Cornel West

West, who has consistently identified as a socialist, is putting forward a campaign that has powerful political demands which would greatly benefit the working class, such as a wealth tax on billionaires and an end to corporate stock buybacks. West is a long-time critic of US imperialism and more recently supported the best working-class demands of the Movement for Black Lives. As a major figure in the Black civil rights movements, West is deeply critical of what he and other Black radicals have called the “Black misleadership class.” West calls former President Obama a “war criminal” for ordering drone assassinations, the US/NATO bombing in Libya, and the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. West also opposed Obama’s deportation of record numbers of migrants, and all but abandoning poor communities of color in the US.

West’s campaign also centers support for LGBTQ+ people and working-class women, voting rights, environmental protections, and educational justice. West calls for abolishing student debt and an $80,000/year minimum salary for all public school teachers. West’s platform also includes the demands for a $27/hour federal minimum wage (or higher where $27/hour wouldn’t be a living wage). The campaign also calls for the nationalization of the fossil fuel, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the abolition of all “right-to-work” laws and a massive expansion of workers’ rights. The West campaign calls for implementing a humane immigration policy with protections for migrant workers and an easier pathway to citizenship. He also raises the need to “Go beyond Medicare for All towards true health justice” and “Moving beyond the Green New Deal to a global Green Reconstruction initiative”.

While just a small sampling of the policy positions of the West campaign, these examples by comparison show an alternative to the horrors of the corporate party platforms of Trump and Biden.

Still, it is difficult to get people active in support of a campaign that lacks a presence on the ground where they live. It is equally difficult to get people to be active in a campaign for a candidate that’s not on their ballot on election day, or who they don’t even know is running. Additionally, West has lacked consistent political independence from the Democratic Party. West was a major supporter of Bernie Sanders’ Democratic Party primary bids, and though West called for Sanders to run as an independent, he supported Sanders running as a Democrat. In 2016, West ended up supporting Green Party candidate Jill Stein. In 2020, West supported Biden instead of the Green and Socialist candidate Howie Hawkins. Hopefully, West continues his independent campaign in 2024 instead of capitulating to the Democratic Party.

Jill Stein (Green Party)

Jill Stein’s Green Party presidential bid is another option that the working class should be paying attention to. While West does not seem to be building an organization or party for the future, Stein’s connection to the Green Party does have the potential to contribute to the effort for independent working class political representation. The Green Party also has wider ballot access than West (as of this writing, 21 to West’s 7 states) and a larger organization in place to make more gains.

While there are many weaknesses in the political strategy of the Greens in the US, their platform centered on “People, Planet, Peace” is genuinely supportive of things that the working class desperately needs. For example, Stein supports a $25/hour federal minimum wage, and similar to the West campaign, she supports abolishing all student debt, ending anti-union “right-to-work” laws, humanizing the immigration process with clear protections for migrants, and establishing a national single-payer healthcare system. Stein’s campaign also calls for environmental policies she refers to as an “ecosocialist Real Green New Deal,” which is more expansive than the extremely limited Green New Deal floated by a small handful of Democratic Party politicians. 

Similar to West’s campaign, Stein’s platform includes strong demands like opposing US imperialism, cutting military spending 50-70%, and supporting communities of color, including indigenous peoples. The Stein/Green Party program also has demands against police and state violence, economic exploitation, and “systemic injustice.” Jill Stein has been consistent in her opposition to the Democratic and Republican Parties. Political independence is not something the working-class can afford to be ambivalent about. In fact, in our fight to oppose the corporate class, we need to go further and build a party of our own as working people.

What Can Workers Gain in the 2024 Elections

The working class is rightly tired of vague promises from capitalist-backed politicians. We deserve so much better. One of the strengths of both the Stein and West campaigns is that unlike candidates of the two corporate parties, their campaign websites are specific on policies that they support and what implementation of their demands could look like. 

While neither of these campaigns are socialist, both are options for working-class people, including socialists and progressives, to support as a way to move beyond the corporate duopoly over electoral politics. Support for the Stein and West campaigns could contribute to the vital task of building the political independence of the working class. Ideally, the best thing for the working class and socialist activists to do is put their efforts toward a single campaign. ISG calls for the merging of the Stein and West campaigns.

It’s crucial for independent campaigns to seek to build something beyond election day, such as coalitions around issues, organization stemming from protest movements, and the foundations of a new working-class party. While ISG critically supports some Green Party campaigns, the party has political weaknesses. What it stands for publicly is often abstract and not put forward clearly. Its candidates can be all over the place in what they stand for. In this election campaign so far, the Green Party is not popularizing its campaign around a few compelling demands. The Green Party, in general, lacks clear orientation to unions and the working class. Additionally, while certainly not a corporate party run by big business interests like the Democrats and Republicans, the Green Party is also not a dues-paying membership-based party, which means its internal democracy is limited. State party chapters hold too much power, a criticism that Green activists like 2020 presidential candidate Howie Hawkins has raised. We do not believe the Green Party, as a whole, can form the foundation of a mass, left, independent workers’ party. However, we do believe sections of the Party – including socialists and other left activists – can play an important role in the fight to build a new worker’s party.

Unions, progressive, and left activists should unite behind the strongest independent left campaign in the 2024 elections. Hundreds of thousands of votes for Stein’s or West’s progressive platforms could be used as a launching point for a campaign for a workers’ party. A further escalation of the Palestinian liberation movement, a resurgence of other progressive social movements, and a re-energized labor movement could cut across Trump’s or Biden’s anti-worker policies and also begin to gather the forces to build a mass, left political party based in the working class. Socialist, labor, and progressive organizations that recognize the need for such a party should link with supporters of the Stein and West campaigns to organize a conference as a concrete step forward towards unifying their campaigns. That conference could begin discussion about a common program, key issues to campaign on, and running candidates as part of a new mass workers party.