US Electoral Politics

March 30, 2024

The November Elections and a United Front for Revolution

This is Part Three in a series on anti-fascism and revolution. Part One focused on the failures of the Social Democratic Party of Germany’s (SPD) lesser-evilism against the Nazis and looked to one of its leading members, Franz Neumann. Part Two looked at what he ended up calling for, which was a “united front for revolution,” and considers this in terms of Lenin’s approach to revolution, the role of a revolutionary party, and “soviets.” Part Three looks more in depth at a united front for revolution through the writings of Clara Zetkin, one of the co-founders of the German Communist Party (KPD).
Typically, when someone uses the phrase “united front” today, like to “save multiracial democracy,” they’re talking about a coalition of progressive non-profit organizations engaged in what’s ultimately some sort of “get out the vote” effort. At their core, these approaches seek to reform the institutions of settler colonial and capitalist oppression, attempting to place a diverse, equitable

December 21, 2023

by Atlee McFellin

Revolution Against Fascism

The previous article began with the late Franz Neumann on the failure of voting for the lesser evil against Hitler. This was the path chosen by social democrats in Germany like him, those who prioritized saving their own middle-class privilege over stopping fascism. The present article explores the path that the social democrats didn’t choose, the path of what he called “political revolution.”

This isn’t what today’s democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the “Squad” mean by the phrase. What they mean is a more conservative version of what Neumann was arguing against. They’re advocating a more conservative version of the social democracy that failed against the Nazis

December 15, 2023

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Rise Up for Palestine

The Israeli military has now killed more than 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza, at least half of them women and children. The mass murder is relentless, with accounts of mass executions now emerging, and other types of barbarism. Over 1.9 million of the 2.2 million people of Gaza have been displaced. These terms of death and displacement surpass the 1947-1948 Nakba, when Zionist militias fighting for the creation of the state of Israel murdered thousands of Palestinians, and sent more than 750,000 permanently out of their historic homeland.

This second Palestinian Nakba, and ongoing genocide, continues to be bankrolled by the United States. Early in November both parties voted to send 14 billion dollars in military aid to Israel. Just days ago, 412 members of both parties voted yes to a right wing Republican resolution which equates antizionism—criticism of racist Israel settler-colonial ideology and state policy—with antisemitism.

November 25, 2023

by Atlee McFellin

Voting for the Lesser Evil Led to Hitler’s Conquest of Power

This is a quote from a man named Franz Neumann. He passed away in 1954. He was Jewish, a socialist, and among the top leadership of the largest political party in Germany during the rise of the Nazis. They were called the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). It’s where the phrase “democratic socialism” comes from. Back then they called it “social democracy.”

The SPD was handed the presidency of the Weimar Republic from its founding in late 1918, shortly after the end of World War I. The SPD was the largest party until the Nazi’s “soft coup” in early 1933. In the quote above, Neumann is describing the two options that were facing the SPD. When he refers to the Communists, he’s referring to the SPD’s main rival on the left, which was the Communist Party of Germany, the KPD.

November 15, 2023

by Kim Gasper-Rabuck

The Israeli Genocide of Palestinians: Made in the USA

For decades the fight for liberation of the US working class has been hamstrung by dependence on and support for the Democratic Party within the two-party capitalist system. The belief in the ability to slowly turn bourgeois democracy into democratic socialism is still considered “realistic” by many on the left. Unfortunately, that ignores the reality that working class people have some control over the capitalist political system or the capitalist parties.

July 17, 2023

by Justin Akers Chacón

Fascismo al Estilo Americano

Estamos viviendo un periodo de resurgimiento, ascenso y aumento de las fuerzas de extrema derecha y fascistas a escala internacional. Esto incluye partidos y movimientos políticos fascistas reconstruidos del pasado, junto con formaciones nuevas neofascistas que toman forma dentro de los Estados Capitalistas y los sistemas electorales en el presente.

May 8, 2023

by Justin Akers Chacón

The American Way of Fascism

We are living through a period of reemergence, rise, and surge of far right and fascist forces internationally. This includes reconstructed fascist political parties and movements from the past, alongside novel and neo-fascist formations taking shape inside capitalist states and electoral systems in the present.
The miasma of fascist regeneration emanates from within the cascading crises of the capitalist system, increasing in both depth and frequency over the last two decades. This crises include recurring episodes of recession and stagnation; imperialist and inter-imperial conflict and war; distress, weakening, and collapse of traditional bourgeois political parties; and the rising frequency and intensity of class struggle, authoritarianism, culminating in both revolutionary and counter-revolutionary movements.

April 24, 2023

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Urgency for Resistance: Interview with Madison Abortion and Reproductive Rights Coalition for Healthcare (MARRCH)

On July 4th of 2022, there was a very large gathering at the state capitol in Madison, and there was a speak-out, inviting community members to come up and speak on a bullhorn about how Roe v Wade being overturned had affected their reproductive rights, fertility, and just life in general. And they shared stories that were very personal. The organizers there had passed around a notebook asking for those serious about joining a social movement or creating a social movement to put their name and email or phone number in there so that they could follow up later.

April 11, 2023

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Rise Up to Defend Abortion Rights!

The attempted legal ban of the abortion drug mifepristone hinges on a 150-year old, archaic and previously dormant law called The Comstock Act of 1873, which has been described as “the only realistic way to force through a national ban” on abortions in general. The Comstock Act prohibits mailing anything that could be used in an abortion procedure, so the recent ruling in Texas, if it’s held up by the Supreme Court, would mean “that all abortions already violate criminal law.”

The judge who issued the recent ruling in Texas is Matthew Kacsmaryk, member of an emerging Christian fascist organization called the Teneo Network, whose goal is to “crush liberal dominance” everywhere.

October 24, 2022

by Zack Frailey Escobar

Capital’s Card Tricks: student debt relief amid rising interest rates & inflation

The Democrats have spent the majority of the past two years kissing the feet of the party’s rightmost members, fossil fuel lackey Joe Manchin and Arizona-based narcissist Kyrsten Sinema, and trying to hide Joe Biden from TV cameras. After a total lack of response to the catastrophic overturning of Roe v. Wade, and with their poll numbers in the mud, it seemed like they were a party adrift, no longer driven even by the paper-thin motivation to win elections. In the run up to the midterms, however, the Democrats have shown that they still have a few tricks up their sleeve in the form of (some) student debt relief—that is, if the right-wing doesn’t block it through its allies in the judiciary.