The Chimes of Freedom Clashing: The Prospects for a United Anti-Fascist Front to Restore Democracy in America, Part III: Moving Forward Toward a Humane and Habitable Social Democracy

Editor’s note: All Things Being Equal is delighted to feature this three part series from Sam Webb (“The World-Wide Webb”) exploring our current situation of authoritarian rule in America, its historical underpinnings, and the possibilities and prospects for political action to begin to restore democracy in America heading toward the November midterm elections and beyond. Here are links to Part I and Part II.

How do we go forward then? What are some of the main ingredients that when taken together would move us closer to transformative change? 

To repeat, the starting point of transformative politics isn’t a wish list, but a sober and concrete assessment of the balance of class and social forces on the ground and the political tasks that follow from that. 

And, again to repeat, the overarching and immediate task of Democrats and their supporters in November is to retake control of the House and Senate. And in doing so throw Trump and the MAGA off its perch and into more of a defensive posture during Trump’s final two years (?) in office. 

On this matter, Democrats and most of the anti-Trump, anti-Maga movement are on the same page. And the coming election gives us that opportunity that we must seize.

This unanimity, however, breaks down when it comes to how to govern, if given the opportunity, and which political and economic policies to pursue.

The line of division within the party runs between the party's centrist leadership and the progressive wing over health care, aid to Israel, and many other issues.

This division isn’t new however. For more than 30 years the top layers of the Democratic Party, while fighting right wing extremism, defending democracy, and moving a modest liberal agenda, embraced many aspects of neoliberalism (the supremacy of capitalist markets, deregulation, financialization, tax breaks for the 1 per cent, and the pruning of the welfare state) and supported U.S. hegemony in the global theater.  

They weren’t as invested — some will surely disagree — as their Republican counterparts in neoliberal policies and forms of governance, but they were on board the neoliberal train nevertheless.

And, as for foreign policy, nothing that happened in the past four decades has suggested that the Democratic Party has given up its policy of maintaining U.S. global supremacy. 

Not surprisingly, a cohort of Democratic Party  Congresspeople as well as the popular movement beyond Washington didn’t share these views. And, as you would expect, it created a struggle, sometimes below the surface, sometimes for all to see, over the party’s direction and legislative priorities.

This is not only likely to continue, but grow sharper in the next few years.

If I was asked to locate a single tipping point that created the intra party struggle I would be hard pressed to identify it. What I would say is that a throughline connecting the passage of NAFTA and the crime bill to the tepid response to the economic crisis of 2008 to the “forever wars” to the raft of killings of innocent and young Black and brown men and women to the inadequate response to the climate crisis, to Biden’s failure to challenge the genocide of the Palestinian people living in Gaza, to the deepening crisis of everyday living — all this and more – pressed home to millions that the Democratic party’s leadership was out of touch with its base on many issues.

While young people are the fiercest critics, the opposition to the political moderation and inaction of the Democratic Party leadership in the face of multiple crises goes beyond the young and is growing.

Indeed, it includes major sections of the labor and people’s movement and, of course, the growing number of progressive (and socialist) elected representatives at all levels of governance. 

It is in this context that progressive and left activists who embrace a transformative political agenda should see the November elections. Assuming that the Democrats regain control of the House and Senate, the opportunity not only to slow down Trump’s train, but also to press a progressive agenda  becomes more feasible. It will be complicated for sure. At one moment joining with the entire Democratic conference to oppose Trump and his policies; at another finding one at loggerheads with fellow Democrats over a progressive piece of legislation. 

This will take more than a dollop of strategic clarity, tactical flexibility and, not least, sustained grassroots mobilization on the part of a movement that has transformative aspirations. The latter was missing during the Biden presidency. The progressive features of his agenda were met by passivity from the progressive-left forces in and outside the Democratic Party. That should be a “no no” after the elections no matter what the outcome.

Any insurgent movement with transformative ambitions, however, must be up to its ears in more than intra party struggles over one or another piece of legislation. Its footprint should be found everywhere in the struggle for jobs, a higher minimum wage, infrastructure renewal, affirmative action, a just immigration system, equality for people of color and women as well as Medicare for all, protecting the climate, defending trans people, preserving earned-benefit programs, enacting a people’s federal budget, and articulating a new foreign policy rooted in peaceful and mutually beneficial relations between nations and peoples.

Far from a diversion, these struggles are the force field of a movement that hopes to gain the necessary breadth, depth, and understanding to effect progressive and radical change at every level of governance.

A constant struggle for unity in all its forms is also essential to a transformative movement. At its core is the fight against racism, male supremacy, nativism, homophobia and transphobia and other forms of inequality and oppression. 

The search for common ground and a common program of action is not at loggerheads with the fight for equality. In fact, the common ground will be wider, deeper and more durable to the degree the broader movement vigorously fights for equality in all of its forms. Progressive or left wing economic populism and candidates that backbench such struggles may make some noise, even big noise, but won’t move the struggle to higher stages, certainly not scaling the heights of capitalism and certainly not moving forward to socialism.

While in recent decades vast political, economic, social and demographic transformations have occurred, the fight for full racial equality retains its overarching importance. 

Anyone who devalues the practical struggle for racial equality and against racism in general and Black equality and anti-Black racism in particular limits the sweep of any victory at best. At worst, it provides an opening to the most backward sections of our ruling class to gain ascendancy and crush its opposition. Indeed, for six decades racist appeals were the grease that smoothed the passage to power of the extreme right in general and Trump and Trumpism in particular.

And this racist offensive has not ebbed. Actually, it has ramped up. A firm and broad rebuff to this offensive, therefore, is more imperative than ever. And white workers and the left should be in the middle of this fight. 

Also vital to effecting transformative change is an understanding of which social forces have to be assembled to effect such change. Not any kind of movement can make fundamental change; it takes more than the left, more than progressives, more than radicalized youth. A transformative movement will only materialize to the extent that it is able to attract significant sections of the working class and labor movement, people of color, women and youth to its center. I would only add that sometimes we forget and some have never learned that the African American people from time immemorial have been the brains and the brawn — the frontrankers — of many of our struggles.

Movements like Occupy Wall Street had a dramatic impact on the political discourse of the country and stimulated a surge of activity, but to turn them into the hub of a broader movement with progressive and radical aspirations, as some hope, betrays any understanding of the power relationships in capitalist society. 

A movement that has transformative aspirations also has to strengthen its own political and organizational capacities to reach, mobilize, and unite millions as well. For a number of years people’s organizations and the left have been exploring new ways of thinking and organizing in order to expand their size, influence, and power. Some successes have been achieved, but this process still has considerable distance to go. 

Still another ingredient to building a transformative movement is a vision of deep-going democratization of our economic and political institutions. In this era of a flagging economy, multiple crises and shrinking democracy, the reforms that grew out of the post-World War II period no longer suffice. What is needed is a program that breathes new life into our democracy and challenges the logic, profits, prerogatives and growth at any cost of corporate capitalism and the military industrial complex. Among other things, some public ownership is in order, including at the level of the commanding heights of the economy — AI for example — and an expansion of the cooperative/solidarity sector of the economy. 

Yet another ingredient of a movement with transformative aspirations is a willingness to challenge the growth of the coercive powers of the state and the military-industrial complex with its far-flung global network of bases, both of which are rationalized in the name of fighting whoever is our putative “enemy” at the time. On the other hand, an alternative foreign policy that accents peace, cooperation, and the elimination of nuclear weapons should be high on the agenda.

And, of course, a movement that represents the future must be a tireless fighter to transform the economy along sustainable lines and make the world habitable for human beings and other species. As climate scientist James Hansen put it, we are facing a “planetary emergency.”

Finally, a transformative movement in the words of the now deceased, but deeply missed people’s champion, Jesse Jackson, has to “Keep Hope Alive.”