US: Democratic Party Bid to Kick Socialists Off Ballot Ahead of Nov Polls

Natalia Marques | 30 Aug 2024

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Democrats are waging legal battles in an attempt to limit ballot access for socialist candidate Claudia De La Cruz in key states.

Claudia De la Cruz speaks at the rally outside the US Capitol protesting Netanyahu's visit on July 24 (Photo via @votesocialist24/X)

In key states for the 2024 US Presidential elections, the Democratic Party machine is carrying out attacks on the democratic process, attempting to limit ballot access for socialist candidate Claudia De La Cruz. In the critical states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, which historically are often toss-ups between the presidential candidates of the two major establishment parties, Democrats are attempting to secure their victory by pushing left-wing progressives off the ballot. 

De la Cruz’s campaign won a major victory on August 29, however, when Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ruled that there was no basis for the campaign to be excluded from the ballot. The campaign is celebrating the win but claims that this is not the end of the fight. “Now, we need to defend this legal victory from any appeal filed by the Democratic Party’s well-funded army of lawyers who are waging war on third parties nationwide. We expect legal fees related to an appeal of this ruling to total around $25,000,” the campaign stated. 

“The Democratic Party is deploying an army of lawyers and millions of dollars to try to kick the Vote Socialist campaign off the ballot in key states where tens of thousands of people have already signed the required petitions for ballot access,” stated De La Cruz’s campaign. De La Cruz is running as a socialist on the ticket of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, alongside running mate Karina Garcia.

It is significant that these attacks are taking place in areas dubbed “swing states”. In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania  by a narrow margin, reversing Trump’s victory in the state in the 2016 election. In 2020, Biden narrowly won Georgia by little over 10,000 votes. Biden’s win in the state resulted in years of legal disputes and attempts to delegitimize the elections by Trump and his right-wing supporters.

In Ohio, Claudia’s campaign is also under attack by Republican Party officials, indicating the willingness of both parties to go after third party candidates. Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced this week that Claudia would not be on the ballot due to paperwork technicalities in the submission process. LaRose also recently conducted a purge of over 150,000 voters from the roles, forcing residents to go out of their way to check if they are even still eligible to vote. 

Fight for democracy

The ongoing legal challenges to De la Cruz’s socialist campaign are taking place in states where dozens of volunteers worked for months to collect signatures. Due to a patchwork of laws spanning across the country, it is an automatic process for candidates from both major parties to get ballot status. 

However, for third parties, it is a lengthy and arduous process, with some states requiring tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of signatures gathered from potential voters over a limited period of time, just for candidates to be able to appear on a given state’s ballot. The Vote Socialist campaign carried out this lengthy and difficult process by teams of volunteers in several states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Ohio.

As the recent legal challenges show, the struggle is not over once the thousands of petitions are submitted to secure ballot access, and that the dominant parties will try tooth and nail to tear those victories down. 

Claudia De la Cruz remarked, “This is an assault on democracy. Both parties will stop at nothing to eliminate independent third party options. The idea that people could cast a vote for a campaign that stands against the two-party system dominated by Wall Street and the war machine terrifies the political establishment. That’s why their lawyers and politicians are pushing to kick us off the ballot.”

De la Cruz emphasized that the legal challenges to ballot access are part of the broader, historic strategy of the US ruling class to pursue different policies of voter disenfranchisement to limit the participation of oppressed minorities in the democratic process. “It is no coincidence that the state officials most aggressively trying to disqualify our campaign are the same ones waging racist efforts to disenfranchise Black, Latino and impoverished voters in huge numbers. Georgia was once the heart of Jim Crow voter disenfranchisement, and right wing officials are still at it – with the help of Democratic Party lawyers,” De la Cruz stated.

This is not the first time the Democratic Party machine has chosen to spend its efforts targeting leftist candidates rather than the right-wing that they claim to oppose. In 2022, Jacobin published a piece about the shocking attempts by Democrats to block the Green Party from the North Carolina ballot, including going to someone’s house to persuade him to remove his name from a ballot access petition for the Greens. 

In Pennsylvania, last week, a state court ruled in favor of the Democratic Party-backed lawyers seeking to kick the campaign off the ballot. De la Cruz’s campaign is appealing the decision in the state. 

Pennsylvania chairperson for the De la Cruz campaign Stephanie Pavlick said, “We are appealing this unjust decision. On the basis of bureaucratic technicalities and frivolous paperwork issues, the Democrats want to deny Pennsylvanians the right to vote for Claudia and Karina in November. They know they can’t defend their pro-corporate, pro-war record, so they want to do everything they can to make sure that the only other candidate on the ballot is Donald Trump. We will keep fighting back against this campaign against democracy!”

Uphill battle for third parties

The Vote Socialist campaign notably will not appear on the ballot in all states in the US. The hurdles that third party candidates must cross to have a spot on the ballot varies from state to state, and some states make these hurdles insurmountable for a campaign run by working class, unpaid volunteers. 

This includes states such as New York, for example, which changed the rules for ballot access in 2022, increasing the required signatures for ballot access for independent candidates from 15,000 to a whopping 45,000, to be collected in the span of six weeks. Even for candidates who might be running on a third party ticket, the barrier of entry in New York for a “group” to qualify as a “party”, thus gaining automatic ballot access, has become practically insurmountable. There is no procedure for a group to transform itself into a party in advance of an election, a process that exists in 39 states. For a group to qualify as a party, it must poll 2% in elections for state Governor or US President, which in 2020 was 172,337 votes. This makes ballot access in New York State essentially impossible for candidates who don’t have an excess of money to spend on petitioning drives. 

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch

HINDUTVA IS FASCISM

Who Can Stop Bulldozer (in)Justice?

Subhash Gatade | 30 Aug 2024

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Where are Indians, who like the conscience keepers of Israeli society or the legendary Rachel Corrie, are ready to swim against the tide?

Our Problem is Civil Obedience…' (1)

These words of the legendary American historian, playwright, philosopher and socialist intellectual, Howard Zinn (1922-2010), are still repeated the world over whenever people living in a country have no qualms in gulping whatever the rulers do or say.

Not much is known about the brief history of this speech which was delivered in the Baltimore campus during the heyday of the anti-war movement in the US, (1971). That was the period when a mass movement had emerged opposing the US government’s participation in the Vietnam war, where Zinn was invited to address students in one of the universities.

What had happened a day before was rather unplanned and unexpected.

The federal police had detained Zinn when he, along with other war protesters, were participating in an anti-war demonstration. He was asked to appear before the attorney the next day.

The immediate problem was whether to appear before the courts, perhaps get a warning from it and return home, or to opt to leave for Baltimore, respect the invite by the radical students and then submit oneself before courts the next day. It was clear that such 'misdemeanor' would have cost him a few days/months behind bars.

Zinn left for Baltimore, where he delivered the said speech, which received a thunderous applause from students and teachers, and when he presented himself before the courts the next day, as expected, he was sent to jail for a few weeks.

Time and again, as the phenomenon of, what is popularly known as "bulldozer justice, raises its head in India, which is now called the 'biggest country that regularly holds elections', this poser by Zinn in his Baltimore speech sounds more and more appropriate.

The growing normalisation of this metamorphosis of a bulldozer into the dispenser of 'justice' is for everyone to see.

Sometime ago, a leading news magazine talked of India's ‘bulldozer raj’ wherein merely in a span of two years, 1,50,000 houses were razed and around 7.4 lakh people have been left homeless in two years. It also discussed how Muslims and other marginalised groups bear the brunt as these massive yellow machines force their way through houses and business establishments.

One also learns how, within less than a fortnight of the elections results, a massive demolition exercise was undertaken in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), in and around Akbarnagar, where the state government demolished around 1,800 structures, including 1,169 houses and 101 commercial establishments despite people living in the area since many decades.

What is significant is that this summary action could be undertaken despite Article 21 of the Indian Constitution that guarantees the fundamental right to protection of life and personal liberty. It also emphasises that no person can be deprived of these fundamental rights except according to procedure established by law.

The latest in the series seems to be demolition of one Haji Ali's massive house built at a cost of around Rs 5 crore in district Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh

What the country and its people witnessed – as usual rather mutely again -- this time was that this house of a Congress leader was demolished in the daytime, without any proper notice being served, nor any prior information about it.

It is unclear who ordered the demolition of the huge house and even the crushing of three cars parked there? Under what law did the police and administration serve such summary justice to a citizen of India, whether it is a crime to lead people to raise their grievances or asking people not to get violent and remain peaceful? And, even if the crowd gets unruly, does it mean that the community leader or a respectable man in the area, who is supposedly leading the procession, will face demolition of his own house and establishments?

Can it be said that the varied stand taken by the administration over this action not only exposes confusion at the highest level, but has put them on the defensive. As analysts have put it rather sharply, first the demolition was justified by saying that it was on government land, then the tune changed and a claim was made that it was situated near a water body. And the last one heard was that although the land belonged to Shahzad Ali, its map was not approved.

Since when is such a construction, supposedly on a map not approved by the authorities concerned, summarily demolished, without going through the procedure to rectify the anomaly, pay some fine or at best remove a portion of it?

In fact, the blatant manner in which the palatial house was demolished and the so-called explanations offered, shows that it is increasingly difficult for the MP government officials to save themselves from charges of 'partisan governance' or functioning not as upholders of the Constitution but as 'servants of the BJP' (Bharatiya Janata Party).

Merely two weeks before this controversial demolition, the Congress party, under the leadership of its ex-Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, had led a massive rally that had sought an FIR to be filed against the Bhind DM for ‘Religion-Based Demolition of Houses'.

What should not be missed here is that these demolitions are just the 'tip of the iceberg' in BJP-ruled states.

Less than a week after the results to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were announced in May, 11 houses, built on government land by 11 persons in tribal majority district Mandla of MP, were demolished as part of action against the alleged illegal beef trade in the state. As alleged by victims, no procedure was followed before the demolition, no notices were issued, just a claim that the houses were built on 'government land' and bulldozers just barged into their area and razed their houses under heavy police protection.

It looked like a case of 'police/administration taking over the job of a mob' where state vigilantism was legitimising violence against the minority community, a replay of sorts of the 2015 incident in Dadri (near Delhi) when villagers had barged into the house of one Akhlaq, merely on the suspicion that he was storing beef in his fridge, and lynched him.

The gravity of the situation could be measured from the fact that as of now at least 1,000 petitions against ‘bulldozer justice’ are pending in Madhya Pradesh courts. The Supreme Court is yet to take cognisance of this form of summary justice.

The question arises as to why are the courts at various levels - even its highest level - have not yet taken a cognisance of such acts of 'summary justice' being meted out in different BJP-ruled states.

Remember, this is not merely a question of Madhya Pradesh, a BJP stronghold since the past over two decades, - but in other BJP-ruled states as well. For example, Udaipur in Rajasthan, witnessed the killing of a (Hindu) boy by his (Muslim) classmate under some pretext. What the police did, is unbelievable. While the courts had not decided about the issue and had not even started deliberating about it, the administration went to the house of the accused boy, whose family lived as a tenant in another Muslim man's house, and it demolished the whole house.

This type of vindictiveness and vengeance against a particular section/community of people cannot be merely explained in legal terms or its alleged lacunae?

Perhaps such acts can take place when either there are discriminatory laws that allow the State and its machinery to target particular ethnic, cultural groups or members of a particular social/religious community, or there is a biased official behaviour that has its roots in the historical fault lines of the society.

History tells us about the promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws (1935) in Germany under Hitler that enabled official persecution of Jews and institutionalisation of anti-semitism in Germany, which even culminated in their ethnic cleansing. Such a situation, puts the minority among them devoid of any rights, leaving them at the mercy of the majority community.

One can encounter a similar situation where formally such discriminatory laws do not exist but for various historical and other reasons such biased or discriminatory treatment is increasingly normalised.

There may be situations where everybody is equal before law, thus de jure, such laws may not exist but de facto, discrimination targeting a particular community exists.

It cannot be denied that this deep penetration of biases in the bureaucracy itself -- what writer Apoorvanand calls 'Hindutvafication of the Indian state machinery' - is the 'most horrific development of the last ten years'. He very well underlines that they should not forget that at some point of their own lifetime, the society will go back to the ways of justice.

"The victims do remember the names of all the officers who sign the orders to take out bulldozers and do the encounters. A day will come, and it is not too far, when they will have to face justice. When their present-day actions will be judged by the principles of justice and each one of them will have to answer for the crime that they are committing now individually. Each individual is responsible for their act. All the administrative and police officers, who are thought to be the brightest minds which are in their positions after cracking the UPSC examination, must not have forgotten the Nuremberg trials. All the accused were in the dock as individuals. Let us hope that these officers remember their individuality and start exerting their minds, the greatest gift that God or nature has bestowed on humans. They must not allow themselves to be turned into the cogs of this Hindutva wheel crushing Muslims or the hands turning this wheel."

When the administration adopts a biased attitude, when the judiciary prefers not to expedite such cases, and when  under the overall ambiance, the rest of the civil society adopts a very compromising stand over such 'egregious violations of rule of law', then what is the way out for concerned citizens or idealistic youth who yearn for justice and peace!

Perhaps, the need of the hour is that they strive for a more creative and inspiring solution.

With 'ethnic cleansing' of Palestinians continuing unabated within Israel, it would be inspiring to know that there are still Israeli youth who are trying to physically block the ethnic cleansing unfolding in the West Bank.

Meet the Israelis Who Are Trying to Physically Block the Ethnic Cleansing Unfolding in the West Bank

Under the cover of war, backed by Israel's army and police, settler violence targeting Palestinian shepherding communities is surging. These Israeli activists are putting themselves in harm's way to protect them.

And they can also look toward the legendary Rachel Korrie to take inspiration in these difficult hours.

Remember, it was 2003, when a 23-year-old Corrie, an American peace activist, was crushed under an Israeli bulldozer when she was protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Southern Gaza. The demolition of the particular house was no lone incident, it was part of a campaign unleashed by the brutal Israeli regime wherein it had already destroyed over a thousand homes in Gaza strip.

Rachel, part of a group of Palestinian and International activists was: “[s]eeking to halt the destruction of Palestinian property. That day, they had been acting as human shields to stop the flattening of a home in the Rafah refugee camp occupied by the families of two brothers, Khaled and Samir Nasrallah.

There were reverberations of Corrie’s unique martyrdom across the globe. What is worth emphasising here is that following Corrie, a few other peace activists were also martyred while defending the homes of Palestinians, sacrificing their lives for defending Palestinians wronged by the Israeli regime.

It has been over two decades that Corrie and other peace activists have been martyred.

We need to think afresh, and ask ourselves, what prompted the Israeli youth or the likes of Corrie to get ready for the ultimate sacrifice.

Perhaps they knew by heart the famous speech by Zinn and had no qualms implementing it.

…. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. And our problem is that scene in All Quiet on the Western Front where the schoolboys march off dutifully in a line to war. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem. We recognize this for Nazi Germany. We know that the problem there was obedience, that the people obeyed Hitler. People obeyed; that was wrong. They should have challenged, and they should have resisted; and if we were only there, we would have shown them.

The question arises, whether youth in India or concerned citizens are ready to learn proper lessons from this famous speech by Zinn?

The writer is a senior independent journalist. The views are personal.

 

Bihar: Rampant Illegal Sand Mining Threatens Gangetic River Dolphins in Ganga, Tributaries

Mohd. Imran Khan | 02 Sep 2024

The damage to river biodiversity due to large-scale mechanised extraction of sand is badly affecting the habitat and staple food (fish) of the endangered species.

Gangetic dolphin. (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Mrinal Kaushik)

Patna: As illegal sand mining by powerful sand mafia continues in Ganga and its tributaries in Bihar on a large scale, contrary to the claim of governments, it is adversely affecting Gangetic the river
dolphins’ food and natural habitat. Even during ongoing monsoon, when sand mining has been banned on paper officially in compliance with the order of the National Green Tribunal, rampant illegal sand mining is going posing a danger to Gangetic dolphins in Ganga, and its tributaries Gandak, Ghaghra, Mahananda, Parman and Kosi.

Experts say though government agencies have been working for conservation of this national aquatic animal (dolphin), illegal sand mining should be stopped for their survival of them. Large-scale illegal sand mining is damaging river beds and its ecology. It is  also changing the morphology and natural flow of rivers, as huge volumes of sand is being extracted through machines.

The damage to river biodiversity is badly affecting the habitat and staple food (fish, mainly small fish) of Gangetic dolphins (platanista gangetica). Extract sand from river beds is also posing a serious threat to dolphins because they spent most of their time under water and come out for few seconds to breathe. Mechanised digging of river bed in Sone, Ganga and tributaries have created ditches and big pit, bad for rive health, add experts.

Taking note of this, the state government has initiated several measures, including crackdown on the powerful sand mafia but has failed to stop it. It has now chalked out an action plan against the sand mafia. The Bihar Police ‘s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) has prepared a list of 55 sand mafia who are accused of involvement in illegal sand mining in 13 districts -- Patna, Bhojpur, Gaya, Saran, Bhagalpur, Rohtas, Aurangabad, Arwal, Jehanabad, Banka, Nawada.

Meanwhile, a latest study has found the presence of Gangetic dolphins in Ganga tributaries, which is good news amid the
dwindling numbers of this species in Ganga. The Wildlife Institute of India reportedly revealed that there were 4,000 dolphins in Ganga and its tributaries.

However, the fisher community, allegedly being blamed for occasional killing of dolphins, said they were being wrongly accused and claimed that it was the illegal sand mafia operating in violation of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and other forest Acts, NGT’s regulations and Bihar Pollution Control Board’s guidelines that was to blame.

“Our livelihood is affected by illegal sand mining because it badly hits river fish. We are poor and falsely targeted for disturbing dolphins in rivers, but the sand mafia are powerful and continue to operate in lucrative illegal sand mining, which is posing the real danger to dolphins”, Anil Shahni, a fisherman near Digha ghat in Patna, said.

Gangetic river dolphins expert R K Sinha also expressed serious concern over survival of Gangetic river dolphins in the coming years if illegal sand mining continues. "Illegal sand mining is not only a threat but a real danger to the endangered Gangetic river dolphins because it has been disturbing their habitat, ending their staple food -fish - and destroying river ecology,” Sinha told NewsClick.

Sinha, who was behind India’s Conservation Action Plan for the Gangetic dolphin 2010-20, said dolphins usually search for its food – fish -- on riverbeds, but illegal sand mining is causing a decline in the numbers of fish in rivers. What dolphins will eat to survive?

Sinha, also known as the 'Dolphin Man', said that the presence of dolphins’ was a sign of a healthy river ecosystem.

“Dolphins prefer water that is at least 5-8-feet deep. They are usually found in turbulent waters, where there are enough fish for them to feed on”, he added.

Gangetic dolphins live in a zone where there is little or no current, which helps them save energy. If they sense danger, they can dive into deep waters. They swim from the no-current zone to the edges to hunt for fish and return, he said.

According to a recent report by Nichiket Kelkar and Tarun Nair, associated with the Wildlife Conservation Trust, sand mining threatens the survival and persistence of endangered riverine species like the gharial crocodile, freshwater turtles, otters, river dolphins, and water birds, as it destroys their nesting and breeding habitats.

Gopal Sharma, a senior scientist at the Zoological Survey of India, said, ”More than any other activities, illegal sand mining is increasing the danger for Gangetic dolphins. The state government should focus on checking illegal sand mining”.

Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bhagalpur district is India's only such sanctuary, spread over 50 km along the Ganges. In 2019, a team of researchers, on behalf of the government of Bihar, for the first time conducted a survey to assess the status of the dolphins in five rivers -- Parman, Bakra, Kankai, Mechi and Mahananda.

According to the survey, a total of 245 km was covered during the survey of the five rivers, in which dolphins were observed and documented in the Mahananda river only. The other rivers were too shallow. Parman was the only river where local people said that the dolphins could still be seen then.

“This dolphin species is very unique and is unlike any other dolphin species that exists today, because it is functionally blind. As the Himalayan rivers in the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin carry loads of sediment and are very murky, the river dolphin has lost its eyes naturally in the course of evolution. It navigates and searches for prey using echolocation by emitting ultrasonic click-sounds. This rare and fascinating animal is today highly threatened by multiple factors, of which the availability of
water is a primary threat”, the report said.

Sinha said that Gangetic dolphins' habitat also faces serious threats from climate change. He pointed out that increasing pollution due to large-scale discharge of industrial and municipal waste, siltation, and mechanised boats were the biggest threat to these freshwater dolphins.

The Gangetic river dolphin also frequently fall prey to poachers.
Their carcasses are found regularly on river banks.

Gangetic river dolphins fall under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, and have been declared an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The Gangetic river dolphin is one of the four freshwater dolphin species in the world. The other three are found in the Yangtze river, China, the Indus river in Pakistan and the Amazon river in South America.

The Gangetic river species – found in India, Bangladesh and Nepal – is blind and finds its way and prey in the river waters through echoes.

 

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Patna.