Fighting Oligarchy Tour

Bernie Says “It’s Time to Take Power!”

Yes, but how do we do it?

Fighting Oligarchy Tour

Bernie and AOC began their tour with a rally in Omaha, Nebraska on February 21 and finished the current series on April 16 in Missoula, Montana. Over the 55 days, they held 15 rallies attended by over 200,000 people. In the Folsom, CA rally, AOC told the 26,000 attendees, “We are all here together because we share in the frustration and the heartache that comes from watching those in power actively tear down or refuse to fight for everyday working Americans like us.” ¹

The American people are fed up and on the move!

The massive turnouts for Bernie and AOC mirror the protests happening all over the country. The Hands Off Our Democracy movement launched on April 5 with 1400 demonstrations that are still continuing. People are fighting back against illegal deportations of undocumented workers and students, the fight for peace and justice in Palestine is regaining momentum.

It is time for the working class to begin to organize to take political power.

But how do you do this?

Bernie, “go outside your comfort zone…and run for office.”²

According to Bernie, one of the objectives of the Fighting Oligarchy Tour was to “rally people to get engaged in the political process and run as independents outside of the Democratic Party.”³

Yes, but it’s not enough. AI makes it impossible to go back to the “old democracy”.

AI has changed the world. The threat of authoritarianism grows from the fundamental change in how society works. We cannot vote away AI-induced changes even if it saves Medicaid, Social Security and the housing and nutrition programs.

Elon Musk is implementing the ruling class plan for the new AI-run world.

Musk knows that new technology is “disrupting” capitalism by eliminating the role for mass industrial labor. By firing half of the federal workforce, he is sending the working class a message, “this is our house, we will do what is necessary to keep it that way.”

The fight is over who will own and control AI.

Technologies such as AI are too powerful to function in a competitive, capitalist economy. They were created with public money but are used to create private wealth. These technologies demand a cooperative framework. The only way to achieve that is by seizing state power, eliminating private property and making economic and social cooperation the law of the land.⁴

We can win this fight not by being “independents” but by forming a party by and for the working classes.

Bernie is standing up to Trump and Musk and that’s a good thing. Yet Bernie’s Democratic Party has no intention of creating a cooperative economic system. To make that happen, we must organize as a working class to seize state power. Allowing the competitive economy to persist will result in continuing and increasing class inequality, environmental destruction and war.

“I’m not a mathematician, but I do know that 99 percent is a hell of a lot bigger number than 1 percent. So let us stand together, let us defeat Trumpism, let us create the kind of America we know we can become.” (Bernie Sanders)¹

Footnotes