The Tea Party Movement and the Crisis of Capitalist Rule

Statement of the Central Committee of the Workers Party in America
Perspectives on the Current Political Situation

The close of the first Tea Party Convention last Sunday marks a turning point in developing political crisis facing the exploiting and oppressing classes.

What began a little over a year ago as a disparate collection of rightwing populists and disaffected neoconservatives has been steadily galvanized into a mass movement of shock troopers to defend capitalist rule.

More to the point, in the course of the last year, the Tea Party movement have been politically transformed from a relatively “loyal” conservative populist opposition into a movement of semi-populist Nativist fascism.

Organize Strikes, Boycotts of War Materials!

Barack Obama’s speech last night, formally announcing the escalation of the Afghanistan occupation and committing another 30,000 troops to the conflict, was a clear signal that he plans to eagerly continue the agenda demanded of him by the exploiting and oppressing classes.

Obama’s support for expanding the Afghan occupation was never a secret. Repeatedly during last year’s presidential sweepstakes, the Democratic candidate emphasized his belief that Afghanistan was a “war of necessity” and that if he was elected then he would send more troops to the region.

Indeed, one of Obama’s first acts after being sworn in was to send 21,000 soldiers, most of them just home from Iraq, into the Afghan war zone.