For British socialists, the words United States and reaction are more often than not synonymous. American atrocities committed in Vietnam immediately flash through our minds. We instantly think of the sinister C.I.A. manipulating and toppling governments in distant lands, of National Guards rifle-butting anti-war demonstrators, of white police clubbing Afro-Americans. In short we correctly identify the U.S.A. with gunboat diplomacy, assassinations, violence and with lying and hypocritical politicians like Johnson and Nixon.
If this was the only face of the U.S.A., it would indeed be a sick picture. Fortunately, it isn't. The other side of American society is the working class which, while still lacking a political party of its own, is highly organised on the trade union front and has shown itself capable of powerful and dynamic struggles - witness the organisation of the C.I.O. in the late thirties and early forties. As delegates to the Democratic National Convention meet in Chicago, they are faced with taxi, telephone and transport strikes.
At the present time, large layers of youth and black Americans are being radicalised, mainly through the war in Vietnam. It is a fore-runner to the radicalisation of the great mass of American workers. Eventually they will move into action to defend their rights and place a government into power, which represents their own interests and not the interests of a small group of wealthy financiers.
The idea that class struggle and socialism are alien to American society is promoted not only by big business in the U.S.A. itself but also by their counter-parts in other countries. The 1968 elections, for example, are generally presented by British propaganda outlets as a "contest" between the Democratic and Republican parties. As if there can be any choice as far as the working class is concerned between two capitalist parties! The "differences" between the Rockefellers and the McCarthys are similar to the differences between the Enoch Powells and the Heaths, i.e., whose policies can best serve the interests of capitalism most efficiently.
The ruling class is well aware of the criticism and dissatisfaction that exists in large sectors of the population over such questions as Vietnam. How else can we explain the withdrawal of Johnson and the promotion of "peace" candidates like McCarthy? In fact nearly all the bourgeois candidates find it gets votes to appear as "doves" and to disassociate themselves from Johnson's South East Asian policy. They all talk about "peace" - but each and every one of them supports capitalism which has war embedded right in its heart.
The field however is not limited to capitalist politicians. Anyone not wishing to vote for the status quo has an alternative -- in fact thanks to the Socialist Workers Party (the organisation of American Trotskyists) they can vote for a fundamental change and vote socialist. The S.W.P. is contesting positions up to and including the president and vice-president. Fred Halstead and Afro-American Paul Boutelle are the respective candidates for the highest offices in the country. The main points in their programme are: "Bring the GIs home now, black control of black communities and workers power." While the electoral laws make it hard for minority parties to get onto the ballot (in Ohio 25,000 signatures from registered voters are required) the S.W.P. anticipates that sufficient signatures will be got to put them on the ballot in more than 20 states. A vigorous campaign is underway to reach hundreds of thousands of American citizens in order to explain amongst other things why the White House and Pentagon carry out a policy of genocide against the Vietnamese people, what must be done to establish a government of peace and progress.
In an open letter to American radicals Halstead and Boutelle emphasised the importance of building a revolutionary leadership. They stated: "We must learn from the French experience, as from other revolutionary experiences, that not only will the workers, black people and students of this country at some point rise to challenge the capitalist rulers, but that an essential ingredient for their victory is a revolutionary leadership. Such a leadership is being forged in France today, and we have to build one right here.
"We urge you to help build this kind of revolutionary socialist movement by joining and supporting the 1968 Socialist Workers' Campaign."
Their campaign is being conducted by means of radio and TV interviews, meetings, leaflets and speaking tours. A highlight in the campaign is Halstead's trip to Vietnam where he will talk with the American armed forces about the nature of the war, the anti-war movement, and the S.W.P. programme.
One might assume that all left forces would see the need to decisively break with capitalist politics and run their own candidates. This is not the case. The trade union bureaucrats, getting a cushy living from the present system and having a thoroughly reformist outlook, are by-and-large supporting the Democrats as the "friends of labour". The American Communist Party, having learnt nothing from their support of Johnson in 1964, have a more complicated orientation but it is basically the same as the trade union flunkies': support the Democrats as the "lesser evil". Not wanting to isolate themselves from an increasing number of radicals who just won't swallow this line, the C.P. have given their election programme a few twists. They talk about supporting Senator candidate McCarthy in order to stop Vice-President Humphrey. At the same time they promote the idea of fielding a third ticket and drafting Dr. Spock and Mrs. King for it.
And just to blur the issues still more they have nominated from their own ranks a presidential and vice-presidential candidate to run under the CP ticket - the nomination of their own candidates amounts to a token campaign. (The decision to run was announced in April but the nomination did not take place until July when it was too late to get on the ballot in most states). Their real position of supporting the Democrats is the concrete application in the USA, of Moscow's "peaceful co-existence" line. While the application of this policy may vary from country to country the intended result is the same: preservation of the status quo. The French CP rushed to save de Gaulle when his Government was on the verge of being overthrown from the left. In latin America, the Moscow-influenced CPs oppose the Cuban position of revolutionary struggle. In Britain it is personified in the peaceful and parliamentary road to socialism. In the USA it is support of capitalist politicians.
The SWP campaign provides a welcome relief from the politics of class collaboration. It states the class struggle issues as they really are and shows the way forward by projecting a socialist programme.