The Other Socialist Candidate: An Interview with Mimi Soltysik

4 March 2016

By Garrett Griffin
Weekend Collective

In October, delegates of the Socialist Party USA gathered in Milwaukee and selected fellow political activist Emidio “Mimi” Soltysik of California as their candidate for president of the United States, with Angela Walker as their vice presidential candidate. Weekend Collective interviewed Mimi Soltysik to hear his thoughts on current American attitudes toward socialism, surprising ideas in the Socialist Party Platform, another democratic socialist named Bernie Sanders, and more.

WC: Many American voters may be unaware of the Socialist Party’s existence, much less its platform. What is the Socialist Party and what does it aim to do?

Mimi: The Socialist Party USA is a multi-tendency revolutionary socialist organization that emerged from the 1972 split of the Socialist Party of America (the party of Eugene V. Debs). At the time, one group decided it made strategic sense to work within the Democratic Party. The other group, called the “Debs Caucus,” wished to operate independent of the capitalist parties, and was also staunchly opposed to the Vietnam War. That second group is the Socialist Party USA. As far as what the Socialist Party USA aims to do, it makes sense to quote our Statement of Principles, which state that “the Socialist Party strives to establish a radical democracy that places people’s lives under their own control — a non-racist, classless, feminist, socialist society in which people cooperate at work, at home, and in the community.” Oh yeah....

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