Socialist-leaning Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ Tuesday entry into the Democratic presidential race is making the left-wing mainstream media giddy. But Bernie isn’t scoring any points with “The Socialist Worker.”
“Sanders is violating the first principle of socialist politics: class independence,” Howie Hawkins wrote for the longtime socialist publication in a piece entitled “Bernie Sanders Is No Eugene Debs,” referring to the five-time Socialist candidate for president. Hawkins called the Democratic Party “a party that poses as the champion of working people, but serves business interests.”
Sanders’ decision to run as a Democrat violates Debs’ legacy, Hawkins wrote.
“Sanders has now gone into coalition with the billionaire class he professes to oppose and that finances the Democratic party. Sanders won’t see the billionaire’s money. But he has made it crystal clear that he will support their candidate by promising to support the winner of the Democratic presidential nomination,” Hawkins continued.
“As a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sanders does a disservice to Debs’ memory and his commitment to working-class political independence by displaying a Debs portrait in his office. By choosing to run for president in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders has shown he is no Eugene Debs.”
Socialism, the socialist writer said, should not be confused as a mere wing of the Democratic Party.
“Sanders is confusing people about what socialism is. Socialism is not so much a social theory, a platform of policies or social ownership of the means of production. Socialism is, above all, the movement of the working class for their own freedom and power in a full democracy.”