EDITORIAL
The Bosses’ Two Parties Are Still Our Enemies

Jul 22, 2024

At their national convention, the Republicans sounded like a whole new party. Donald Trump said he was upset that people are suffering from inflation and the lack of good jobs. And he proclaimed he would fix all that. Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance presented himself as a defender of the working class. Vance joined with Trump promising to improve things for workers, union and non-union. The Republicans even had a speech from Teamster president Sean O’Brien denouncing corporate greed.

What is clear is that the Republicans, despite being led by Trump and Vance, two multi-millionaires, are trying to make a shift away from being known as the party of big business. They try to present themselves as a party fighting for ordinary working people. The Republicans clearly are trying to cover up decades of their anti-worker history, including Trump’s own history.

As a businessman, Trump ripped off many people who worked for him and advised the auto companies to move their plants to where they could pay cheaper wages. As president, Trump took overtime pay away from millions of workers, weakened safety rules for coal miners, oil rig workers and farm workers, and issued executive orders to reduce wages for federal workers. Trump’s platform includes blaming immigrants for any and all problems that workers face. He tries to divide the working class in order to weaken it.

Despite the Republicans’ history, their attempt to sound pro-worker may gain the votes of many workers, who are angry about inflation and the economy and blamed Biden. But the whole Democratic Party opened the door for the Republicans by defending the Biden administration. It’s not a surprise that many working people wanted to vote against Biden and may now vote against whoever the Democrats finally decide to run.

For decades, the Democrats presented themselves as the party of the working class. But that, too, has always been untrue. The Democrats have taken credit for gains made by the working class through its own struggles.

In the 1930s and 40s, the working class conducted a massive fight with sit-down strikes that improved their lives and established unions. During the 1960s civil rights movement and rebellions, millions of people protested and came into the streets, pushing back Jim Crow laws and the worst abuses of racism. After these fights, the Democrats tried to claim credit for what the working class and the black population had done themselves by passing a few weak laws. Democrats used the votes of workers and black people to get elected, but once in power the Democrats served the interests of the capitalist class. This is what has opened the door for the Republican party and people like Trump, a boss and a billionaire, to masquerade as a friend of the working class.

The Republican and Democratic parties both serve the same master—the capitalists, the billionaires, the CEOs. They serve the interests of capitalism, which are directly opposed to the interests of workers. The capitalists’ interests are to wring every penny of profit and every ounce of labor from the working class.

The Republicans and the Democrats both have proved what side they are on. They are our enemies. We have always needed our own party.

No matter who wins this year’s election, the Republicans or the Democrats, it is not going to change things for the working class. Both parties will continue to serve the capitalist class, and the capitalist class will continue to exploit the working class, taking more of what workers produce. The economy will continue to worsen for workers.

The only thing that will change our situation is when the working class is ready to use the power we have and make a fight for a better life. A working class party can speak for the working class and can help to organize the fight that is needed. That party needs to be built.