Jerry White, the Socialist Equality Party’s 2012 presidential candidate, came to the New School on Thursday to talk to students and faculty about foreign policy, class war, civil liberties and Marxist theory.
White, a Queens native, began his political career in the 1970s. In 1975, he protested the City University of New York’s decision to begin charging students tuition at the formerly tuition-free institution. In 1979, he joined the Workers League, an international Trotskyite labor group, while working at the United Parcel Service.
At the discussion, held in a classroom on the fourth floor of the 66 W. 12th Street building, White accused democrats and republicans of implementing “policies of militarism, assaults on the working class and austerity which is supported by both parties.” He also criticized how many Americans absorbed the anti-war movement into the Democratic Party’s platform prior to President Barack Obama’s election in 2008.
White said he remains skeptical of the Occupy Wall Street movement, claiming that they received financial backing from many Democratic Party-backed labor unions. But he does believe that much of the world’s wealth is unevenly distributed, noting that 0.002% of the world’s population, or 30,000 individuals, controls wealth equal to half of the world’s goods and services.
White was also the Socialist Equality Party’s presidential nominee in 2008, running as a write-in candidate because the party lacked ballot access. White hopes to gain ballot access this time around, but said that if he does not, he will encourage supporters to write in his name once again.
This should show that intercourse training in the college method is
merely not enough. In her thoughts, your humble opinion becomes expert
viewpoint and quotes you as if you were Einstein.
This review is extremely bare-bones and, with regards to Jerry White’s views on the anti-war movement and the Occupy Movement, actually quite a bit misleading. This review makes it sound as though he and the SEP disapprove of them, whereas what he really was doing at the talk was primarily focusing on a critique of their leadership and pointing out some of their limitations.
Also, I don’t understand how this review managed not to AT ALL cover White’s actual platform and what he advocates FOR. It only mentions that he disapproves of both the Democrats and the Republicans–which I think should be obvious seeing as he is after all running against them. How about explaining how and why he differs from them?
P. S. It’s “Trotskyist” not “Trotskyite.” I’m pretty sure the latter is considered derogatory and used by Stalinists.