The Specter of Sanders at Left Forum: Left Forum Day 1

A specter is haunting Left Forum- the specter of Bernie Sanders.

At the conference’s plenary talk on Friday, three speakers addressed the Vermont Senator’s candidacy and its influence on the left over the past year. The three speakers- Chris Hedges, Tariq Ali, and Medea Benjamin- had varying levels of enthusiasm for the Senator’s candidacy. But they all spoke about the Independent Senator and his run for the democratic nomination during their talk: Capitalism and Militarism — At Humanity’s Peril: Organizing Our Power.

[H]edges spoke first, and addressed the Sanders candidacy shortly into his remarks.

“The mistake Sanders made was running as Democrat,” Hedges declared. “It’s a rigged system.”

Hedges said that Sanders made a “Faustian bargain” with the Democrats over 20 years ago.

“He campaigned for [Bill] Clinton in 1992 and 1996- after NAFTA, after welfare reform, after the crime bill. In 2004 Sanders called for Nader to suspend his campaign.” Hedges sighed. “He’s always been a watchdog for the Democrats.”

Hedges called for a different approach to effecting change for the left.

“We have to get out of the idea we will make change in confines of Dem party,” Hedges told the crowd. “We have a moral imperative to defy the system- we have to build a viable left.”

[B]enjamin took a different approach.

“I think Sanders did a good thing by running as a Democrat,” she said. She described the corruption and divisions in the party that the Sanders-Clinton primary has exposed.

Benjamin also pointed to what she described as the good done by President Obama as an example of what could be achieved by a Democratic president with activist pressure.

Benjamin saw the possibilities of the Sanders moment for American politics. She echoed Hedges’ call for a viable left.

[A]li, for his part, looked at the Sanders movement as part of a unique international moment.

“For those of us in Europe, what is really exciting is watching these huge mobilizations of people for a candidate who talks of socialism,” he said.

There is an opening for popular movements on the right and the left, Ali said, describing rising French nationalism on the one hand and Jeremy Corbyn’s election to the leadership of the British Labour Party on the other as evidence.

“There is anger on the streets and in the homes,” said Ali. “But this generation is responding with movements- people are demanding a little social democracy.”

Ali said that Sanders’ candidacy was part of this global movement, and hopefully a harbinger of a stronger left to come in the future.