Pierce H. | Red Phoenix correspondent | California–

Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and Iraqi War veteran running for Senate in Maine, recently had his campaign steeped in controversy for his past statements and a Nazi insignia chest tattoo. He first gained national prominence in late August following an endorsement from progressive darling Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and, despite several controversies, remains polling ahead of “establishment” Democrat Janet Mills. However, Platner, just like Sanders, serves as a distraction for the American working class from truly effective and revolutionary politics

Graham Platner is apparently so progressive that even after it surfaced that he had a tattoo of a Totemkopf, a popular Nazi symbol, Sanders stood by his endorsement. Looking at his platform page tells a different story. Platner speaks often of the “billionaire class,” an odd specification due to his presentation of the dichotomy between them and the working class. Why is it the billionaire class and not the capitalists? Why fight so strongly against billionaires and not the system of capitalism which, through its endless efforts towards exploitation and consolidation, creates such billionaires? If he was consistent in his worldview he would at least support the “thousandaire class” – the working class – in our efforts to take back the means of growing our bank accounts. This kind of talk only serves to further the already-underdeveloped class consciousness the American worker experiences.

One of his policies is to “never, ever vote to send Americans into a pointless war,” such as the one Platner served in. He fails to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died because of the invasion, only acknowledging the American casualties as tragedies of war. Why not all wars, or better yet, all imperialist wars? The terminology “pointless” also reveals Platner’s ignorance, willful or not, towards the intentions of the Capitalist class. Notice how there are no negative feelings shown towards the American Invasion of Afghanistan. This selective condemnation shows a lack of structural analysis on Platner’s part. The war was not caused by blind jingoism, nor preventing terrorism, it was for access to the natural resources of Iraq for forceful and cheap exploitation, primarily oil for the oil giants. This pattern repeated itself in Afghanistan, as opium production exploded under American occupation, which the pharmaceutical companies were more than willing to exploit. No war is pointless under Capitalism, especially Monopoly Capitalism, as the Capitalist class will do anything to protect and maintain its profits.

Not only does Platner not oppose wars so long as they aren’t “pointless”, he seeks to “take on waste and corruption at the Pentagon” through a series of anti-corruption campaigns seeking to streamline money away from the pockets of CEOs and back towards efficiently producing weapons. These weapons will, of course, be used in the “pointless wars” that Platner opposes so vehemently. Additionally, he seeks to close “the massive shipbuilding gap” with China. These ships will then be used to threaten and even defeat the Chinese military in an effort to exploit the Chinese working class even more than they already are by their own Capitalists. Is a war against the Chinese working class “pointless” to Platner, or do enough American workers have to die for him to consider it as much?

Some of Platner’s policies are worthy of praise. His opposition of America’s support of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians is a rare exception among moderate Democrats in America. Additionally, his support of union efforts in their uplifting of the American working class is commendable. The question, however, is what he can do to not only implement these policies but maintain them. It has been nearly ten years since Bernie Sanders sought out to reform and “force the Democratic Party left” during the 2016 Primary, and he has little to nothing to show for it. The Democratic Party as a whole has never been more right-wing and fascist-collaborationist than the current day. The only times it does put up a meager resistance to the violent, fascistic agenda of the Republican Party is due to the pressure the American working class puts on them.

Have the efforts of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or “The Squad” borne any fruit for the American working class? They represent little more than the controlled “radical” opposition within the controlled opposition that is the Democratic Party, the same Party actively sidelining and suppressing the  very individuals  insistent on participating in it. The class forces  required for the Capitalist class to even consider granting these concessions to the working class would require so much effort on the part of Bernie Sanders and his fellow Social Democrats that it would be less difficult to build independent working class organizations, ones which are actually run by and accountable to the working class and materially threaten the power of the Capitalists. The hesitancy or outright refusal to do so, is because the role of Sanders, Platner, and the rest of Bernie’s  protégés isn’t as the “internal reformers” of the Democratic Party but as class collaborationists within the labor movement. Their role effectively is to syphon off the momentum of working class away from the formation of militant working class organizations and towards the “reform” of the Capitalist Democratic Party wherein which it is they are  more capable of easily dominating their constituents  and establishing themselves as a “reformist pressure valve” which the Capitalist class utilizes to placate the working class against the overthrow of Fascism and Imperialism

Down with the class collaborationists!

For a militant working class Party!

For socialism in our lifetimes!

Categories: Elections, Government, U.S. News