This years' campaign for the American presidency has been a hard fought one, with both sides doing everything legal -and sometimes illegal - to win. In the end it has come down to a dead heat between Vice President Al Gore and his opponent, Governor George W. Bush. Yet, with this seemingly divided electorate, many Americans still seem uninterested in who wins. In fact, nearly one half did not even bother to vote. Why would so many choose not to vote? Do they not care who will be directing the country? Of course they care. However, a vote for Bush is a vote for Gore and the working class understands that both Gore and Bush are two sides of the same coin: the coin of capitalism, only held by the ultra rich in America. Just as the rich own this coin so too do they own the two major American political parties. With the capitalist domination of the only two political parties in this nation, workers will never have a say unless they form a party of their own - a workers party by workers, for workers and their interests!
These two political parties target the working class each election year, and with good cause. The working class is the largest segment of the population and so the parties target workers: they speak on workers rights, and how they are going to give a tax cut to those hard working American families. They even put on a hard hat for a photo opportunity with some average blue-collar workers so as to make the working class feel good about giving their vote to that specific candidate. Yet, after the election is done and they have gained the vote of the working class, they leave the working class in the same conditions on the way out as they did on the way in. The working class will still be slaving away in jobs that pay too little to properly take care of their families, still paying taxes only to fund corporate welfare, still struggling to make ends meet while their employers live lavish lives provided to them by the blood, sweat, and tears of the working class. This song has become all to familiar to the wage slaves of this nation; it is a broken record which the American public has tried to turn off by way of not voting.
Slave masters and slaves. It is only natural that these two are at constant odds because the slave masters function is to keep the slave under his steel-toed boot of oppression. The slave masters boot is shrouded by the illusion of democracy and through this the two party dictatorship of the Republicans and Democrats has been formed. Each election year the workers are allowed to "choose their oppressor" as Karl Marx said. How does the slave master acquire his boot of oppression? He draws the money stolen from the workers in the form of stolen surplus value and buys himself a boot to, in turn, oppress the same workers he stole the money from in the first place. This year over $540 million was given to the two boots of oppression, the political parties, by these slave masters, these parasites, these heartless oppressors of the working class majority. However, for the interest of clarity, I will refer to them as capitalists from here on out.
In this past election record breaking amounts of money were poured into each party from those who can afford to do so: the rich. It is only natural that once elected, a candidate and his party will return the favor. Since both parties take in massive amounts of money it is clear that companies are smart enough to hedge their investment. Often times both parties receive contributions from the same company. This way, if the Democrats win or the Republicans win, capitalists still will have a seat at every policy-making table and either way the rich are sure to win. Just as some cops were on "the take," to use the parlance of the 1920s, so too are the political parties of this so called "Home of the Free." Like a modern day Al Capone, capitalists buy politicians just as Capone did officers of the law. With such blatant corruption it is easy to understand the feelings of apathy within the American working class.
In recent years we have been witness to a series of 3rd parties, such as the Green, the Reform, and the Libertarian Parties whose ranks are filled with disenchanted voters. However, none of these parties truly are parties for the largest segment of the population: the working class. These parties focus on smaller factions of the population such as the petty-bourgeoisie, environmentalists, and the extreme right and it is for this very reason that they can not become mass parties. These parties only serve as protest votes against the two parties who back the dictatorship of capitalism. This is why we, the working class, need a party of labor.
A party of labor, created specifically for workers independent of the corrupting, filthy, deep pockets of the wage slave master of capitalism, such as corporations, is what is needed today. The working class, the working poor, and the poor make up nearly 90% of the population with the petty-bourgeoisie of middle management and upper management making up 9% and the capitalists less than 1% of the population. Currently 90% of the population does not have a political party with their interests at heart. Yet, the capitalists, who make up less than 1% of the population, have 2 parties, both of which institute policies of oppression upon the majority. This oppression must end! The majority, the workers must unite! We must retake the power which is rightfully ours. We must break the chains of oppression. We must form a working class party! A labor party!