Socialism, a word long taboo in official American politics, has emerged in the 2016 US elections. Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont, is running on the Democratic ticket with the claim that he is a “democratic socialist,” calling for a “political revolution” against the “billionaire class.”

Despite his “socialist” pretensions, Sanders is a defender of the capitalist profit system and the American war machine. He has gone out of his way to defend the Obama administration’s war policy in Syria, which has turned millions into refugees, as well as the continued occupation of Afghanistan and Obama’s illegal drone murder program.

Social inequality in America has grown so vast and all pervasive that it has become impossible to simply sweep under the rug behind the old fiction that America is the “land of opportunity.” Instead, the political establishment is taking another tack: seeking to use Sanders’ campaign to channel the growing political opposition of workers and young people to social inequality back behind the Democratic Party.

Socialism means internationalism and opposition to imperialist war, implacable hostility to the parties of big business, and the nationalization of major corporations under the control of working people. Join the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, the student and youth movement of the Socialist Equality Party for a discussion of the program of genuine socialism.

Chicago, Illinois
Wednesday, November 11, 4:00 p.m.
Powell's Bookstore
1218 S Halsted St.
Speaker: Joseph Kishore, SEP national secretary

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Tuesday, November 17, 7:00 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library, Central Square branch
45 Pearl Street
Speaker: Patrick Martin, WSWS correspondent