27 May 2016
790 KABC (Los Angeles)
Democratic
presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is often labeled “socialist” by
his detractors on the Right, but the Socialist Party USA’s standard
bearer says that’s a stretch.
“I think
what Bernie Sanders advocates is more of a social democracy,” says
Socialist Party USA presidential candidate Mimi Soltysik.
“It’s sort of an expanded welfare state; a stronger social safety
net. He’s not really talking about a socialist program. He’s kind of a
New Deal Democrat. As socialists, what we advocate for is worker control
of, worker ownership of the means of production. Bernie Sanders also
has a strong history of support for the military (and) imperialism and
we certainly don’t see that as part of any responsible socialist
program.”
Soltysik
says other “socialist” countries such as Soviet Russia and the People’s
Republic of China have big militaries because they have historically
been surrounded by enemies. He also attributes the economic failure of
the socialist policies of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, in part, to the
hostility of the U.S. and other capitalist countries.
He says that unlike Sanders, the Socialist Party USA wants to do away with the U.S. military establishment.
“If we were
in control in some sort of fairy tale situation where we were actually
in office, we’d instantly cut the U.S.’s military budget by 50 percent
with an overall goal of cutting it by 90 percent.”
Soltysik
says the world is tired of being bullied by the U.S. and that other
countries would respond favorably if the U.S. would abandon its
militaristic behavior.
“Historically
when another country sits on resources that the U.S. wants, if that
country says to the U.S. and the West, ‘You can’t have our resources,’
we’ll either attack directly through the military or we’ll topple the
government and install somebody who’s going to allow us to do what we
want. We’ve seen this in 1953 with Iran’s (Prime Minister) Mossadegh,
(President Salvator) Allende in Chile, (Congo Prime Minister Patrice)
Lumumba…”
