First Published: Unity, Vol. 7, No. 15, October 26-November 15, 1984.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The outcome of the November 6 presidential vote has deep implications for the future of the entire country and the world. At stake is not just a question of whether Ronald Reagan or Walter Mondale will be the president of the United States. It is a question of whether the reactionary onslaught of the last several years will continue or be checked at least temporarily.
Every reactionary force in the country – from the Ku Klux Klan, to Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, to the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal – is doing its utmost to assure a Reagan victory. The past four years have been a gluttonous feast for their anti-people appetites and they want “four more years.”
Reagan brought these reactionaries foreign invasions and a colossal buildup of the military. Reagan helped lead the way against workers and the unions. Reagan ii creased the ranks of the poor while he bloated the coffers of the rich. Reagan terminated government commitment to civil rights and inspired a resurgent racism throughout the land. Reagan has legitimized every current backward trend including anti-abortion and religion in the schools.
The right wing nightly dreams of what it can do under another Reagan Administration.
The Left, progressives, and everyone opposed to the right must go all out to frustrate the reactionary tide. While this fight goes on day in and day out in many different ways, the spearhead of the struggle now focuses on the election on November 6.
We must mobilize all we can to contribute to the defeat of Reagan and other reactionaries and support progressive and anti-right candidates.
We have already contributed to the building of a mass movement against reaction and for progress, witness the successes of the Rainbow Coalition and the voter registration movement. We will continue to make a difference on the electoral front.
Defeating Reagan means electing Walter Mondale in his place. No other candidate has a serious chance of setting back Reagan at this time. There is no other alternative if we want to check the right-wing movement. Like the Republicans, Mondale and the Democrats are imperialists and are also moving to the right, but with the weakness of the left at this time, we must utilize the contradictions within the bourgeoisie to stall the rightward move of the entire U.S. ruling class.
The vast majority of the people in the U.S. have objective interests in opposing Reagan, but many may not vote because of voting restrictions, problems in getting to the polls, disinterest because of Mondale’s backward campaign, and unclarity about what another Reagan victory will mean. We must change this and get out these millions to send Reagan into retirement.
The left must work hard to educate, fully mobilize and weld together the diverse elements of the anti-Reagan front that will continue the fight against the right no matter the outcome on November 6. The left must explain why both the Republicans and the Democrats are moving to the right, why this shift is rooted in the crisis in imperialism, and why we must defeat Reagan in order to set back the entire ruling class.
We work for the defeat of Ronald Reagan, through the support of Walter Mondale, as a step in the building of an independent people’s movement against the right wing, against the rightward motion of the bourgeoisie as a whole, and as a part of the basic struggle to end the rule of monopoly capitalism and for socialism.
Either way the election goes, the left must step up its work and play an active role among the people, consolidate its strength gained through the campaign, and prepare for further struggle.
If Mondale wins the election, the left must begin immediately to organize opposition to his rightist policies in foreign and domestic affairs. The opposition built against Reagan will provide a base to continue the struggle against Mondale.
If Reagan wins, the left will need to sum up the lessons of the election, combat demoralization among the anti-Reagan forces, and provide the backbone for the inevitable attacks by an emboldened right.
Unlike the careers of professional politicians, the future of the left does not depend upon the outcome of one election, but on our own sustained ability to forge a mighty people’s movement against monopoly capital.
But the task at hand is to defeat Reagan, and we say:
All out to get out the vote! Reagan and the right must go! Vote Mondale/Ferraro November 6!