In order to intervene effectively towards the political milieu and the class struggle, it is necessary for revolutionary organizations to closely follow and analyze the development of the economic crisis, imperialist tensions and the class struggle internationally and in the particular country in which organization or the section of the organization is located...

With slaughter continuing in Iraq and elsewhere across the planet, two elections took place in the spotlight of the world’s media, one in the United States and one in the Ukraine, the former remaining in the news for many weeks. As is the case with all elections, neither of these will provide any solution to the poverty and growing barbarism into which capitalism is plunging the proletariat and the exploited masses. But each, in its own way, demonstrates the impasse in which world capitalism finds itself.

Despite the fact that the Democratic convention was an orgy of flag waving patriotism and war mongering, the so-called anti-war movement did not march in the streets. This movement demonstrated clearly that it is an appendage of the Democratic party with the specific function of controlling and manipulating the growing discontent with the imperialist war in Iraq for purposes of the factional disputes within the bourgeoisie. All the anti-war spokespersons within the Democratic party abandoned their opposition to the war for the sake of party unity in defeating Bush. Howard Dean, whose whole campaign in the primaries was based on a denunciation of the war and a call for withdrawal from Iraq, voiced his support for Kerry. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the self-styled ?progressive? candidate, who had previously called for the creation of a Department of Peace in the cabinet, likewise squelched his anti-war perspective, as did Ted Kennedy and Al Sharpton. Tom Hayden, the former SDS leader, a member of the Chicago Seven who faced federal charges for his role in leading protests at the 1968 Chicago convention, called upon the anti-war movement not to protest or disrupt the Democratic convention, but to support efforts to elect Kerry and defeat Bush. Farenheit 9/11 filmmaker Michael Moore not only voiced his support for the Democrats but promised to take his cameras to Florida on election day to make sure that the Republicans didn?t steal this election, like they did in 2000.Despite their leftist credentials, the leaders of United for Peace and Justice, which took the lead in organizing the massive protests on the eve of the Iraq war, also lined up behind the Democratic party, ignoring the Democratic war mongering. Instead they concentrated their efforts on organizing an anti-Bush demonstration at the Republican convention in New York at the end of August.

Once it became clear that dominant fractions of the ruling class had come to recognize that a division of labor between the two major political parties that coincided with the best interests of the national capital rested on the election of John Kerry, the mass media quickly fell into line to help facilitate this result. The first inklings of this came in the positive coverage of Kerry’s speech at New York University in September, where he changed position and clearly denounced the war in Iraq as the wrong war at the wrong time, a distraction from the war against terrorism and the crusade to find and kill Osama bin Laden. But the first clear expression of the media’s new orientation came in the coverage of the first presidential debate, focused on foreign policy – supposedly Bush’s strong card, according to the media pundits. The media made it clear that Kerry was the big winner in that debate, that Bush was the big loser, and that Kerry and the Democrats had emerged from the debate with a renewed confidence and self-assurance.

We are daily being bombarded with propaganda about how absolutely important the election is this year from the media, politicians, labor leaders, clergy, academia, civil rights leaders, rock stars, movie stars, and anti-war movement leaders ? from all the institutions that prop up the capitalist state. We are told that this is the most crucial election in our lifetime, that the future of humanity literally hangs in the balance. But it?s all a load of nonsense.

As we go to press, the bourgeois media has already been ablaze for months with intense coverage of the Democratic primary race. The media campaign that always accompanies American presidential elections got off to an early start this time around, as pundits weighed in on the race months before the official start of primary season in January with the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. As early as November of last year, the quirky former governor of Vermont, Howard Dean, who positioned himself as a harsh critic of Bush's Iraq policy, was declared the democratic front-runner, with the media all but anointing him the Democratic candidate in 2004. Quite clearly, the American bourgeoisie deliberately used the media campaign surrounding the primary race to attempt to accomplish several distinct propaganda goals at once: distract the American public from the continuing chaos, death and destruction resulting from the war in Iraq, revitalize the Democratic party as a viable party of government, and once again drum-up illusions that the electoral process is the appropriate avenue through which to seek political and social change and have one's just grievances addressed.