Why the SEP is opposing the California recall

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Why the SEP is opposing the California recall
By Jerry Isaacs
17 September 2003

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The Green Party’s 2000 presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, supported the campaign to remove Clinton from office, saying that if he had been a senator at the time he would have voted to impeach the president. Insofar as the Greens’ presidential candidate publicly defended the impeachment it helped provide a cover of legitimacy to the political conspiracy by Christian fundamentalists, right-wing multimillionaires and fascistic elements.

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In the Bush administration—the most right-wing government in US history—we see what the proponents of Clinton’s impeachment were seeking to achieve. Those on the so-called left who provided legitimacy to this political conspiracy, including the Greens, cannot avoid taking responsibility for the outcome.

In California, the Greens are once again in a de facto political bloc with the Republican Right, with Peter Camejo, their candidate for governor, calling for a “yes” vote on the recall of Davis. What is the calculation of the Greens? They have embraced the recall at least in part to intervene and increase public exposure of their party in the hopes of gaining respect as a “legitimate” party in the eyes of the media and the powers-that-be. Lacking any genuine political independence, the Greens vacillate between the Democrats and Republicans according to what is politically expedient. Their concern is not developing an independent and anti-capitalist movement of the working class, but gaining influence in order to exert pressure on the two parties of big business.

A genuine socialist party, however, cannot be indifferent to the fate of the democratic rights of the working class. Part of the struggle to develop the political consciousness of working people is teaching them to defend their previous gains, including the right to vote and to have their votes counted, against the threats of the extreme right.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/corr-s17.shtml