Eric Blanc (Jacobin Magazine), fears a Corporate Democrat repeat of the 2000 elections when Gore refused to fight once the Supreme Court gave the election to Bush. He says a workers' movement is needed to push back the right and points to the recent teacher strikes as an example. On theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay.

Transcript

Paul Jay

Hi, welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast. I'm Paul Jay. And remember, if you can click the donate button if you haven't already. Viewers keep this project sustainable.

In the coming months, I plan to talk to activists and journalists out in the field, organizing and reporting on the working class in different parts of North America. That means Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. And from time to time, globally. The subject will be how the building of a people's movement is going. What are the main challenges and how to develop a broad front politics?

Today, I'm joined by Eric Blanc. He was a national surrogate for the Bernie Sanders campaign and the author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics. And he reports for Jacobin magazine. Thanks for joining us.

Eric Blanc

Thanks for having me on.

Paul Jay

So first of all, if Trump actually is well enough to go out and campaign, and assuming this bravado is more than just bravado, and he actually is able to keep in the campaign, then the scenario seems to be—many people are predicting and Steve Bannon, who's probably still in Trump's ear, is actually calling for a kind of war to begin on November the 3rd. Meaning that Trump hopes/thinks that he's going to be at least near or even ahead in the electoral college at the end of the night on November 3rd. And he's going to refuse to recognize mail-in ballots that come in later. He's strongly hinted at that. Bannon and some others have outright called for that. Bannon said the war will begin November 3rd.

If that is the scenario, the Democrats will fight it in court. The Supreme Court may decide in Trump's favor. Maybe not, but likely will if they actually get this new nomination through, which is a question mark now because everybody's dropping with COVID in terms of the White House and senators and such. 

But anyway, one way or the other, and even if Biden has an outright victory, there needs to be a really strong, broad, popular people's movement.

If, one, Trump's to be blocked from a kind of coup and/or, two, the Biden administration settles into the old Obama-Biden ways and creates the conditions for another type of Trump in 2024.

So, one way or the other, there needs to be a broad movement. And you've been calling for getting organized for such now, and you've been out in the field covering teachers in states that normally go in Trump's favor. So, what have you learned, and what are people doing to get organized?

Eric Blanc

I think the urgency of the moment should be underscored to begin with. The scenario you laid out is right. The first thing that needs to be said is that the stakes of November 3rd and November 4th are extremely high. The question of defending basic democratic rights and institutions in this country is at stake. And if there's any lesson to be learned from the last forty-plus years of corporate Democrats, it’s that they're not going to put up a fight in any real significant way against the ri...