The Democratic Party w/ Cecilia Guerrero

In this episode Cecilia Guerrero joins us to pick apart the sordid origins and class orientation of the Democratic Party. Cecilia Guerrero is chair and founding member of A Luta Sigue, an organization based in Nashville, Tennessee which incubates and trains young people and workers within advanced sectors of the working class to build and lead their own class struggle organizations. The conversation opens with a history of the Democratic Party, which is also a history of the development of US capitalism. Cecilia takes us back to the formation of the Democratic Party and describes the role it played in opposition to the Republican Party during slavery and up to the Civil War. She then outlines how the party shifted and evolved up through the Robber Barron days around the turn of the century up to WWI.  We then explore how the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA), despite its successful origins, succumbed to opportunism and failed to be a vehicle for the working class in the United States. This resulted in the New Deal Democratic alliance being widely recognized as a working class party, despite, of course, being nothing of the sort. This shift paved the way for Franklin D. Roosevelt's program of throwing crumbs to the working class while working on behalf of the bourgeoisie to reform and stabilize capitalism. Cecilia goes on to describe how the Democratic Party has now fully embraced the role that it took on under FDR—promising watered down reforms to an increasingly exploited and immiserated proletariat as a release valve for their anger while never delivering meaningful change. She describes how the Democratic Party inserts itself into radical movements only to co-opt and neutralize them, providing examples from Ferguson to Nashville, where she herself organizes.  We then discuss the Democrats role in upholding imperialism through their history of supporting imperial exploit, particularly their uncompromising reliance on sanctions, predatory development schemes, and other forms of economic warfare. Finally, we discuss what needs to happen in order for us to break out of this two-party duopoly of capitalism and build a party that truly represents the working class.  Further resources: A Luta Sigue Workers Unity League Southern Youth Solidarity Network: Lessons from the 1934 San Francisco General Strike  Nashville People Power History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (bolsheviks): Short Course The Results and Significance of the US Presidential Elections. Lenin, 1912 After The Elections In America, Lenin. 1912 Letter to the Workers of Europe and America, Lenin. 1918 Struggle Against Opportunism in the Labor Movement – For a Socialist United States. William Dunne, 1947 Related episodes: From the Frontlines: Class Struggle and Class War in the US Southeast w/ Cecilia Guerrero Immigration, ICE, and Working Class Rebellion w/ Cecilia Guerrero A Marxist Perspective on Elections w/ August Nimtz Atlantic Slavery and the Plantation System w/ David McNally International Workers' Day w/ John from Working Class History Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism w/ Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante US Labor & Imperialism Pt. 1: the War Against Communism w/ Jeff Schuhrke Western Marxism w/ Gabriel Rockhill The Intellectual World War w/ Gabriel Rockhill China Pt. 9: Taiwan w/ Charles Xu and Feiyung Sun Black Scare / Red Scare with Charisse Burden-Stelly Iran Pt. 2: The Impacts of Economic Strangulation w/ Elina Xenophontos Migration as Economic Imperialism w/ Immanuel Ness Intermission music: "The Democrats" by Carsie Blanton Upstream is entirely listener funded. No ads, no promotions, no grants—just Patreon subscriptions and listener donations. We couldn't keep this project going without your support. Subscribe to our Patreon for bi-weekly bonus episodes, access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, and for Upstream stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. Through your support you'll be helping us keep Upstream sustainable and helping to keep this whole project going—socialist political education podcasts are not easy to fund so thank you in advance for the crucial support. patreon.com/upstreampodcast For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Instagram and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.