ILPS-US Statement on Biden Stepping Down from the US Presidential Race
Joe Biden has stepped down from the 2024 US Presidential race. Biden stated in a letter, “it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down.” His words reflect a sobering truth for the Democrat Party, that their party’s policies have become completely unmasked for their anti-people nature. It is clear that Biden’s poor physical performance at the first debate with Trump and his mental stumbling throughout his presidency were an alarming sign that Biden could no longer perform the leadership role needed for the job. But a physically deteriorating figurehead is not the problem with the Democrats - it’s their policies that fail to serve the people’s needs, and the fact that more people are realizing it.
Let us note this above all else - Biden did not step down willingly. The power interests behind the Democrats did not alone decide that Biden had become a liability for their pseudo-progressive image. Instead, Biden was forced to step down in large part because of the surges of people demanding that he do so. After months of hundreds of thousands in the US taking to the streets (millions worldwide) including two rallies that surrounded the White House, uprisings of students at nearly one hundred universities, ceasefire resolutions being passed in unions, universities, and city governments, an unprecedented “uncommitted” write-in vote campaign for electoral ballots and thousands of courageous peace-loving people facing arrest, violence and political repression, it became clear that the call to stop the US-backed Zionist genocide is unavoidable by those in power. All of this comes as more and more people began to see the reality behind Biden’s policies that have led to skyrocketing inflation (including a 21% rise in food prices and 5.8% in rent costs), increased indebtedness to the big banks, higher health insurance premiums and more fossil fuel subsidies than any of his predecessors in the new millennium. The people spoke through their organizing, their actions, and their efforts to turn their demands into a political weapon.
Biden took the opportunity to repeat the same lies that the Democrats have peddled for years about one-sided examples of economic and political recovery, saying, “I know that none of this could have been done without you, the American people.” In truth, it is the people, and only the people, who have the power to build a world where the powerful can be held to account. Until that world is won, the ruling elites of either party will do whatever they can to keep the people’s power down. This victory proves that the power of the people is alive and well, and now that it has forced Biden to end his bid for presidency there is much more that can be achieved if we continue to organize and build unity within the ranks of our broad united front of the people.
As the Republicans flex to make it seem like this was a victory of Trump over Biden, let us not give them any chance to celebrate. While the Democrats play lip service to progressive values, the Republicans are the most openly fascist wing of the US ruling class. They took every chance at their recent National Convention to spew ultranationalist rhetoric to divide and rule the people, brag about destroying legal access to abortion (legal abortion has been gutted in nearly half of US states since the Supreme Court Dobbs Decision), celebrate the pushing of LGBTQ+ folks back into the shadows, and threaten to crack down on all migrants fleeing their homelands. The Republican agenda is the most dangerous agenda for the working class and for all of humanity today.
As the Democrats scramble to present Kamala Harris as the candidate to represent the people, the former California Attorney General that cut her teeth in unleashing paramilitary police forces on anti-racist activists, let us not give them any chance to save face. The Democrat’s agenda is a smokescreen that appears to speak for human rights and progressive values, but ultimately it is trying to preserve the same crisis-ridden imperialist system that both parties use to enrich the elites they represent.
On the surface the Presidential election seems to be a mere conflict between the Democrats and Republicans. But at its core, it is still a basic conflict of the ruling class against the workers and all exploited classes of the US and the world. They are trying to win our hearts and minds and to fool us into thinking that their system is stable even though their factions are fighting. Now is the time to prove that our unity is stronger than theirs will ever be, and we know that their system is on the way down.
Regardless of what happens next and however the ruling class reshuffles itself now, the people forced Biden to step down. The people rising for Palestine and against the gaslighting of the working class brought their un-ignorable demands and made history once again!
Biden is still President until January 20th, and we must continue to struggle against his policies keeping working people in destitution and arming militaristic and fascist forces to the teeth, like the genocidal Zionist regime, to keep the imperialism system alive and the people of the world in check. ILPS-US calls on its members to Defend Peoples’ Struggle against all forms of reaction and state repression in these final months of Genocide Joe’s regime. We must continue exposing Kamala Harris and the Party as a whole for the anti-people policies they have pushed these past years. Whoever wins the 2024 election, we must continue to grow our anti-imperialist united front from the fights we wage in the second half of the year.
All out to Washington DC on July 24 to say No to war criminal Netanyahu’s visit to the White House!
All out to Chicago this August 19 and 22 for the March on the Democratic National Convention and whoever the Democrats choose as their new genocide-supporting figurehead!
Defend Peoples’ Struggle and Long Live International Solidarity!