“I have long believed that we need an alternative to the Democrat and Republican parties, and since 1974 I have acted on that belief via involvement in various organizations with that objective. All during that time I have believed, on a tactical level, that to get to the kind of alternative we need, one that had the mass support necessary to be able to actually contest for power, it was necessary that it include both people who saw themselves as independent of the Dems/Reps as well as a significant number of progressive Democrats and maybe some Republicans. I’ve also learned from experience about the very practical problem of a winner-take-all system when it comes to explicit third party building. The weakness of the US Green Party is exhibit number one for why this is such a huge problem.”
-21st Century Revolution: Through Higher Love, Racial Justice and Democratic Cooperation, p. 104



It was 50 years ago that I first joined an organization trying to build a progressive alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties. The group’s name for a while was the very unwieldly “National Interim Committee for a Mass Party of the People,” eventually and mercifully changed to “Mass Party Organizing Committee.” The organization grew out of a long paper, “Toward a Party of the People,” written by civil rights/labor/progressive attorney Arthur Kinoy.

I was reminded of my long years in the wilderness trying, unsuccessfully, with many others to build such a political force when Bernie Sanders last week put out an intriguing “Tough Times” email. In it Independent Sanders made it clear that though he supported Kamala Harris and though he works with Democrats in the Senate to try to advance positive legislation, he continues to believe that an alternative to both parties is necessary, that what happened in 2024 only reinforced that belief and his commitment to play a leadership role toward that alternative.

As he put it, we need to “learn the lessons of the [Democratic Party] defeat and create a party that stands with the working class and is prepared to take on the enormously powerful special interests that dominate our economy, our media and our political life.”

I was struck by Bernie’s call for the Left to ask a series of “political questions that, together, we need to address.” He listed nine of them in his Tough Times piece, including: how we build a multi-racial, multi-generational working class movement; building a 50 state movement; Citizens United and billionaires buying elections; more working class candidates for office; supporting Independent candidates; better support to union organizing; strengthen our use of social media; and building sustainable, issue-based organizing structures.

Intriguingly, he asked, “How do we put together listening sessions around the country that intentionally seek input from people who did not vote for Democrats in the last election?” Listening is almost always a very good thing to be doing, especially if it’s clear that there’s a need for some major personal or political change.

Where would the independent progressive movement be without Bernie Sanders? His 2016 Presidential campaign was absolutely huge—15 million votes for a forthright socialist who targeted what he called the “ruling class,” the 1%, the power elite, the billionaire class. Those of us who voted for him and the country as a whole were witnesses to the breadth of support for this kind of politics.

Reading what Sanders wrote it would be very easy to think that he was calling for the creation right now of a new political party other than the Dems and the Reps, but he has clarified since in an interview in The Nation with John Nichols that he is not doing so. He believes that strong, class-conscious progressives can run either in Democratic primaries or as Independents.

This is an absolutely key point for those individuals and organizations who right now, after Kamala Harris’ unfortunate defeat, believe that what the Left should do is to abandon the Democrats and create right now a(nother) third party.

The Green Party experience over 28 years of running candidates for office is instructive here. This year, after all those years of existence, their candidate for President got ½ of a percent of the national popular vote. This is not an aberration; it’s a feature of every GP Presidential campaign since 2000 when the Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke slate received 2.7% of the popular vote.

What we need to be consciously constructing right now is a “third force,” a progressive alliance that is clearly different than both the Democrats and the Republicans as far as what it stands for both domestically and as far as foreign policy: “for racial and gender justice and equality; for the right to organize and unionize on the job; against militarism and for justice-based peace; for detoxification and protection of our natural environment and a rapid shift from dirty and dangerous fossil fuels and nukes to clean, renewable energy sources; for immigrant rights, reproductive rights and an end to mass incarceration; for a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, tuition-free public higher education and student debt cancellation; and more.” (21st Century Revolution, p. 96)

Who is going to give leadership to the building of such an alliance? One person, one absolutely key person, is Bernie Sanders, but it cannot be him alone. As he said in his Tough Times piece, “these are some of the political questions that, together, we need to address. And it is absolutely critical that you [all of us] make your voice heard during this process.”

As we fight the many necessary battles against Trump and MAGA’s regressive, destructive plans, we also need to consciously build upon the many connections that already exist toward a much better organized, independent and progressive, political third force. 


NOW IS THE TIME.