15 December 2014
By Richard Winger
Ballot Access News
"As of December 9, all briefs have been filed in the Sixth Circuit in
Erard v Michigan Secretary of State, 14-1873. The Socialist Party
challenges Michigan ballot access laws for new parties, arguing that the
state discriminates against newly-qualifying parties, relative to old
ones. For the 2016 election, for example, Michigan requires a
newly-qualifying party to submit 31,565 signatures. But a party that
was already on the ballot in November 2014 only needed to poll 16,491
votes for any statewide race to remain ballot-qualified...."
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Monday, December 15, 2014
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
5 Failed presidential bids by Wisconsinites
11 November 2014
By Tom Giffey
Volume One (Chippewa Valley, WI)
Frank Zeidler: "Long before garden-variety Democrats were getting slammed as “Socialists” by the far right, actual Socialists were getting elected to prominent political positions. In fact, Milwaukee was a Socialist hotbed, and Zeidler served as the city’s mayor from 1948 to 1960. In the 1970s, he helped form the Socialist Party USA, running as its presidential nominee in 1976, when he gained a mere 6,000 votes nationwide...."
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By Tom Giffey
Volume One (Chippewa Valley, WI)
Frank Zeidler: "Long before garden-variety Democrats were getting slammed as “Socialists” by the far right, actual Socialists were getting elected to prominent political positions. In fact, Milwaukee was a Socialist hotbed, and Zeidler served as the city’s mayor from 1948 to 1960. In the 1970s, he helped form the Socialist Party USA, running as its presidential nominee in 1976, when he gained a mere 6,000 votes nationwide...."
Read More
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Democrats Steer to the Right and into Defeat
8 November 2014
Socialist Party USA National Action Committee
If progressives can learn one thing from the 2014 election cycle, it is that they no longer have a place in the Democratic Party.
With Republicans on the offensive, Democratic incumbents and hopefuls spent the entire election running away from anything perceived to be associated with President Obama. In effect, this created numerous Democratic campaigns that ran to the right of a president that was already on a long-standing drift to the right of his own. This is in contrast to the normal state of affairs, which is where Democrats campaign on ideas that appeal to the progressive base and then do not deliver when elected.
This set of events left progressives and even many liberals without the party that they would normally identify with and vote for. The result was a sweeping defeat for Democrats in the congressional and gubernatorial elections, losing their Senate majority in the process.
At the same time that voters gave a resounding defeat to the Democrats, they also voted heavily in favor of raising the minimum wage in several states. Voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota all approved minimum wage initiatives by double-digit margins, while at the same voting down statewide Democratic candidates by double-digit margins in three of the four states. By doing this, working class voters have proven that they are prepared and willing to embrace the issues and cast off the party and politicians that fail to deliver on them.
Outside of the twin parties of capitalism, Tuesday's election saw candidates running to the left of the Democrats collectively receive over a quarter of a million votes. The parties and specific beliefs of these candidates may be different, but the fact that so many people threw their support behind at least one left-wing candidate cannot be ignored. Our own Adam Adrianson can take credit for 33,000 of these votes from his Socialist Party campaign for the Michigan State University Board of Trustees.
Moving forward, progressives in the United States have to realize that they no longer have a party that represents them. The Democratic Party is on a one-way charge to the right, and progressive-minded people have no place on that trip.
Politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are the limit of what the Democrats have to offer. They serve as icons to entice progressives and liberals with populist messaging and hopes of building a radical element within the Democratic Party. In reality, they are puppets meant to distract voters and activists with hopes that will never be realized in the current political alignment.
Aside from staying in place and becoming increasingly marginalized and powerless, the only alternative for progressives in the United States is to break from the Democratic Party and move to the Left. By this, we mean the real Left, rather than the left that the Democratic Party has pretended to be.
Socialism, specifically democratic socialism, offers the social justice and economic democracy that progressives yearn for but will never see in a Democrat majority or the capitalist system. By moving towards democratic socialism, working class people who currently identify as progressive or liberal will find radical ideas they could have never dreamed of with the Democrats, along with a rapidly growing movement that is dedicated to building a new society of radical democracy from below.
We hope you will join us in this struggle.
Socialist Party USA National Action Committee
If progressives can learn one thing from the 2014 election cycle, it is that they no longer have a place in the Democratic Party.
With Republicans on the offensive, Democratic incumbents and hopefuls spent the entire election running away from anything perceived to be associated with President Obama. In effect, this created numerous Democratic campaigns that ran to the right of a president that was already on a long-standing drift to the right of his own. This is in contrast to the normal state of affairs, which is where Democrats campaign on ideas that appeal to the progressive base and then do not deliver when elected.
This set of events left progressives and even many liberals without the party that they would normally identify with and vote for. The result was a sweeping defeat for Democrats in the congressional and gubernatorial elections, losing their Senate majority in the process.
At the same time that voters gave a resounding defeat to the Democrats, they also voted heavily in favor of raising the minimum wage in several states. Voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota all approved minimum wage initiatives by double-digit margins, while at the same voting down statewide Democratic candidates by double-digit margins in three of the four states. By doing this, working class voters have proven that they are prepared and willing to embrace the issues and cast off the party and politicians that fail to deliver on them.
Outside of the twin parties of capitalism, Tuesday's election saw candidates running to the left of the Democrats collectively receive over a quarter of a million votes. The parties and specific beliefs of these candidates may be different, but the fact that so many people threw their support behind at least one left-wing candidate cannot be ignored. Our own Adam Adrianson can take credit for 33,000 of these votes from his Socialist Party campaign for the Michigan State University Board of Trustees.
Moving forward, progressives in the United States have to realize that they no longer have a party that represents them. The Democratic Party is on a one-way charge to the right, and progressive-minded people have no place on that trip.
Politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are the limit of what the Democrats have to offer. They serve as icons to entice progressives and liberals with populist messaging and hopes of building a radical element within the Democratic Party. In reality, they are puppets meant to distract voters and activists with hopes that will never be realized in the current political alignment.
Aside from staying in place and becoming increasingly marginalized and powerless, the only alternative for progressives in the United States is to break from the Democratic Party and move to the Left. By this, we mean the real Left, rather than the left that the Democratic Party has pretended to be.
Socialism, specifically democratic socialism, offers the social justice and economic democracy that progressives yearn for but will never see in a Democrat majority or the capitalist system. By moving towards democratic socialism, working class people who currently identify as progressive or liberal will find radical ideas they could have never dreamed of with the Democrats, along with a rapidly growing movement that is dedicated to building a new society of radical democracy from below.
We hope you will join us in this struggle.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
An Economy Fit for Humans
9 October 2014
By Chris McCaffery
The Collegian (Hillsdale, MI)
"At the Enactus-Praxis socialism debate on Sept. 19, Socialist Party USA vice president John Strinka’s position was attractive to many students I talked to not because socialism is a more compelling system of government, or because they believe central planning and redistribution is a panacea. Rather, it was because, in one student’s words, “He [Strinka] talked about human beings....”
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By Chris McCaffery
The Collegian (Hillsdale, MI)
"At the Enactus-Praxis socialism debate on Sept. 19, Socialist Party USA vice president John Strinka’s position was attractive to many students I talked to not because socialism is a more compelling system of government, or because they believe central planning and redistribution is a panacea. Rather, it was because, in one student’s words, “He [Strinka] talked about human beings....”
Read More
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Male Co-Chair Of Socialist Party USA Discusses Socialism In The U.S.
10 September 2014
By Matthew Tinoco
Neon Tommy (Los Angeles)
"Mimi Soltysi is the male co-chair of Socialist Party USA one of the largest and most organized socialist factions in the United States today. Senior Reporter Matthew Tinoco met him for lunch at a cafe in Mid-City for a talk about the state of socialism and capitalism in contemporary America:. . . ."
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By Matthew Tinoco
Neon Tommy (Los Angeles)
"Mimi Soltysi is the male co-chair of Socialist Party USA one of the largest and most organized socialist factions in the United States today. Senior Reporter Matthew Tinoco met him for lunch at a cafe in Mid-City for a talk about the state of socialism and capitalism in contemporary America:. . . ."
Read More
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Socialists Will Not Make the Ballot in Michigan
23 August 2014
By Sarah Ferris
Washington Post
"A federal appeals court ruled against a group of Socialists in Michigan this week, rejecting claims that the state’s election laws discriminated against new parties. . . . . Michigan’s Socialist Party was first formed in 1901, though it has been reenergized in the last decade. The party has run candidates in multiple statewide elections since 2004. . .."
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By Sarah Ferris
Washington Post
"A federal appeals court ruled against a group of Socialists in Michigan this week, rejecting claims that the state’s election laws discriminated against new parties. . . . . Michigan’s Socialist Party was first formed in 1901, though it has been reenergized in the last decade. The party has run candidates in multiple statewide elections since 2004. . .."
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Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Courts Won't Put Socialists on Michigan Ballot
20 August 2014
By Associated Press
Detroit Free Press
"A federal appeals court has turned down a request to place five Socialist Party candidates on the November ballot. The court recently ruled that Matt Erard hasn't demonstrated that granting an injunction is in the public's interest...."
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By Associated Press
Detroit Free Press
"A federal appeals court has turned down a request to place five Socialist Party candidates on the November ballot. The court recently ruled that Matt Erard hasn't demonstrated that granting an injunction is in the public's interest...."
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