Americas

This year's mid-term elections mark yet another change in the consciousness of the U.S. working class. Workers' consciousness is not fixed in stone. We can't have a one-sided approach to what is an infinitely complex process, especially in a country as rife with contradictions as the U.S. This brief, initial analysis will be followed by a series of articles in the coming days and weeks, which will examine various aspects of the elections and their aftermath.

After 16 years the Sandinistas have made a comeback. The vote for Ortega represents a desire for fundamental change on the part of the masses. But Ortega has bent over backwards to reassure the capitalists that he can be trusted. No long-lasting reforms are possible in Nicaragua under the domination of US imperialism and as long as capitalism survives in the country.

Although they may differ with the Republicans on this or that secondary issue, on all fundamental questions, the Democrats consistently defend the interests of big business against the interests of working people. How could it be any other way? They are directly funded by the employing class and most of them are extraordinarily wealthy themselves.

Yesterday, some 40 activists gathered in front of the Mexican embassy in Brussels. Young people and veterans of international solidarity work joined with Mexicans, Chileans and others to protest against the brutal repression of workers and peasants in Oaxaca.

The armed forces have been used against the working people of Oaxaca in Mexico. The real face of the Mexican ruling class has been shown to the masses. Here we publish a statement by the comrades of the Marxist tendency, Militante, in Mexico on what measures the movement should take now.

On 12th September 1998, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González, were arrested in Miami. They were combating reactionary exile Cuban terrorist networks. The US authorities ignored this and later the 5 received severe prison sentences. Only international solidarity and continuous and unrelenting action can end their imprisonment.

What is a revolution? Trotsky explained that it starts when the mass of ordinary people who normally are not interested in politics, rise up and start to take their destiny into their own hands. This is clearly what has been developing in Mexico over the recent period.

Yesterday's Morning Star published an interview with Celia Hart. "If revolutionaries manage to capitalise on this [revolutionary] process to our advantage, a new era of socialist revolutions will begin worldwide. But history won't wait for us and we in the organised left-wing ranks must grasp the rich and splendid process now open to us."

With its 1.4 million members, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters could well be America’s strongest union. This fall, Teamster members will be able to vote for either Jimmy Hoffa Jr., current president of the Teamsters, or Tom Leedham. A victory for Leedham could potentially be a starting point to build a more militant union, run from the bottom up.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan take a toll out on workers both in the US and overseas. How much more can the world working class take?

This November, millions of American workers will go to the polls to exercise their democratic right to vote. But since in most cases this means selecting which of the two bosses' candidates will rule their district, millions of others will stay home, unable to stomach such "choices."