Hillary Clinton's victory over Bernie Sanders in the New York Democratic Party primary held Tuesday, April 18, makes her bid to become the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party a near certainty. This is a devastating blow to supporters of Sanders.

However, nearly 7 million people have donated an average of $27 to his campaign and these small contributions continue to rise regardless of whether he wins or loses states. His rallies attract tens of thousands of young people, sometimes at a few hours' notice. This is a movement for change with time on its side. So how will the political revolution that Sanders initiated come about?

The Sanders campaign turned a spotlight on the murky world of corporate sponsorship of politics and grotesque inequality in society. Sanders advocates the following: breaking up the big banks; a minimum wage of $15 an hour; free tuition fees for university students; and healthcare for all. In doing so, he has not only won mass support, his campaign has offered community, labor, student, socialist and green activists the chance to speak to the people and to mobilize and organize them.

The politics of the United States is unique amongst advanced industrialized countries because it has no party based on the working class. By contrast Europe has Labor parties, Social-Democratic parties, Communist parties and other socialist coalitions with strong roots within the working class. Consequently, when these parties took office big reforms could be introduced. Many of these reforms became anchored within the structure of society in a way that made them difficult to eliminate. For example, free, or very low-cost, university education not only benefits students - it also provides society and private business with an educated workforce paid for at public expense. This permits medium to long-term strategic planning by government and business, which can be designed to foster economic and social objectives.

Perhaps somewhat strangely many of the most oppressed people in the U.S. are the most politically conservative. Many poor white workers support Donald Trump and many poor black workers support Hillary Clinton rather than Bernie Sanders. However, the support for Clinton within the black population represents a passive political stance that is based on older and more conservative sections of their community. The effective interlinking of social unrest with political organization was never going to come from the Democratic Party itself, which is, and has always been, a capitalist party.

Time is a great educator and experience is the best teacher. The disintegration of the American Dream is palpable and evident in the fate of millions of workers who have lost their jobs, homes, and hopes since 2008. And the economic foundations of social peace under capitalism have withered away as wages have fallen. Today the living standards of the younger generation are lower than those of their parents. An important element of this process has been the decline of the middle classes, as a large part of the middle class has sunken into the working class. Eventually a workers' party will emerge that captures and channels the anger of the masses into a new political organization.

A protest movement against the corrupting influence of money over the political process escalated this week when hundreds of different community and activist groups mobilized protests outside Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Similarly, independently organized protests against Donald Trump's rallies have been well publicized and attracted thousands of young people to demonstrate. Indeed, each specific issue that Sanders has addressed will become a campaign in its own right. In the long-term a socialist political party that adopts all of these demands and has strong roots in working class communities will be needed to bring about a fundamental transformation of the social system.

Bernie Sanders galvanized the movement for change by addressing inequality, the corruption of politics by big money, and the way that economics serves a tiny minority. But Sanders is just one honest man inside a corrupt political system dominated by private capitalist interests. As the Greek philosopher Archimedes once said: "Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the world." Sanders has shown the validity of this ancient wisdom, as his campaign for the Democratic Party nomination is the focus of an awakening socialist consciousness. It is the younger generation's duty to take up his baton and stamp their own mark on society, creating organs of popular representation, and formulating policies that can break the oligarchic political and economic power of capitalism.

The idea of socialism is back, and we can hear its cry, loud and clear, from inside the belly of the beast.

Heiko Khoo is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)