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WSWS : News & Analysis : North America

Socialist Equality Party endorses campaign of John Christopher Burton in California

Statement of the Socialist Equality Party
9 August 2003

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The Socialist Equality Party welcomes the campaign of John Christopher Burton in the California recall election. Burton, a civil rights lawyer and socialist, has a long and distinguished record as a defender of democratic rights in the Los Angeles area. He is an active supporter of the SEP and has contributed numerous articles to the World Socialist Web Site.

As the candidate’s statement submitted by Burton to the California secretary of state makes clear [see “Candidate’s statement of John Christopher Burton”], Burton is running on a principled basis. He is calling for a “no” vote on the recall of Governor Gray Davis, while lending no support to the policies of Davis or the Democratic Party. His campaign is dedicated to presenting to the working people of California an alternative program to the pro-big business policies of both the Democrats and the Republicans.

We welcome Burton’s call for socialist policies, and his insistence that the burden for the economic crisis in the largest state in the US not be placed on the backs of workers, young people or small businessmen. Burton is forthrightly calling for the transformation of large corporations and banks into publicly owned and democratically controlled utilities, in order for “the satisfaction of human needs, not the amassing of corporate profit” to become the basis of California’s economy.

The Socialist Equality Party strenuously opposes the recall drive, and will seek to mobilize the working people of California to defeat it. This campaign has been financed and organized by extreme right-wing elements in the Republican Party. They aim to exploit the legitimate anger and frustration of Californians over the breakdown in basic social services such as health care and education and the growth of unemployment in order to overturn last November’s election, which returned Davis to the state house for a second term. Should they succeed, they plan to impose a reactionary social agenda even more draconian than that being implemented by Davis and the Democrats.

The unstated plan of the multimillionaires who have spearheaded the recall drive, such as Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, is to remove all legal and moral restrictions on the accumulation of private wealth and corporate profit. In the guise of a “grass roots” movement against an unpopular governor, the Republican right seeks to implement policies that are broadly opposed by the voters of California.

They are targeting for destruction such basic social necessities as public education, public health care, housing subsidies and other welfare benefits. They want to scuttle all laws protecting the environment and workers’ health and safety. They aim to further reduce taxation of corporations and the very wealthy.

The irony—which the media takes care to obscure—is that these very forces in the corporate and political underworld played a critical role in the economic destabilization of California. It is no secret that Enron’s Kenneth Lay—for years the biggest financial backer of George W. Bush and confidante of Dick Cheney—played a central role in precipitating the energy crisis that wracked the state in 2001, withholding energy supplies to boost prices and profits while economic and social life teetered on the brink of chaos. During the entire course of the energy crisis, Lay was defended and protected by the Bush administration.

The accounting fraud and other criminal methods employed by major telecommunications, energy and hi-tech corporations and their banking partners—many of them politically tied to the Republican Party—played an important role in the speculative rise and subsequent collapse of the stock market bubble—a disaster that has had a devastating impact on the finances of California.

The current drive to unseat Davis is a continuation of the efforts of right-wing Republicans to undermine democratic rights—including the right to vote—and subvert democratic political processes. This was the essential content of the impeachment drive against Bill Clinton, which was followed by electoral fraud in Florida and the theft of the 2000 presidential election. All of these conspiracies are directed, in the final analysis, against the democratic rights of the working class.

Just as the Socialist Equality Party opposed the Kenneth Starr investigation and impeachment drive against Clinton, and the theft of the 2000 election—on the basis of an independent socialist perspective, not support for the Democratic Party—so today we oppose the latest attempt at a political coup, this time in the country’s largest state.

And just as the Democrats proved themselves unwilling and unable to expose the forces behind the impeachment drive and the 2000 election fraud, so now they refuse to mount a serious fight against the California recall drive. It is already clear that the Democrats have no intention of exposing the sinister political significance of the recall campaign. They fear a genuinely popular movement against the policies of the extreme right far more than a Republican takeover of the state house.

Were the Democrats to succeed in beating back the recall drive, they would only intensify their own attacks on health care, education and other vital services, in compliance with the demands of their corporate backers.

The political and economic crisis in California—whose economy would rank, if the state were an independent country, among the 10 largest national economies in the world—has vast implications, both nationally and internationally. The World Socialist Web Site intends to utilize all of its resources to provide comprehensive reportage and analysis of the recall election. Our editorial staff will be deployed to provide the best possible coverage of the campaigns of the major candidates—Republicans, Democrats, Greens and independents—and draw out the most important political lessons of this experience for the working class.

We will provide continuing coverage of the campaign of John Christopher Burton, which we believe will mark an important step in raising the level of political consciousness and developing the basis for a mass socialist party of the working class.

We call on all readers of the WSWS and all supporters of the Socialist Equality Party to assist the editorial board in carrying out this critical political work. We urge readers to contact the editorial board and contribute articles on campaign events and political developments in California. We also urge readers to provide financial support, so that we can carry out the level of coverage and political analysis that the recall election requires.

See Also:
John Christopher Burton, civil rights attorney and socialist, to run in California recall election
[9 August 2003]
Candidate’s statement of John Christopher Burton
[9 August 2003]
California budget imposes massive spending cuts
[6 August 2003]
Recall election for California governor set for October 7
[28 July 2003]
In the midst of budget meltdown
Republican right tries to overthrow California Governor
[3 July 2003]