Reject Harris and the Democrats, Build the Communist Party
“As Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure that America has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” - Kamala Harris in her acceptance speech for the nomination at the DNC, August 2024
Inessa Rosario, Jean Paul Mella
Introduction
On 21 July 2024, President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign following weeks of pressure from Democratic Party leaders after a disastrous debate performance. Biden quickly endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to succeed him as the nominee. The following weeks were filled with fanfare and pomp for the newly anointed leader of the Democrats from many sections of the bourgeoisie and opportunists. Many gleeful sycophants have focused on Harris’ background as a woman of color, overlooking her record and undying loyalty to the genocidal capitalist ruling class to concentrate on her minority credentials.
The prospect of a presidential race between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris presents the U.S. working class with the same essential circumstance as before Biden’s withdrawal: two bourgeois candidates from two bourgeois parties vying for control of the bourgeois state. While Harris is being portrayed as a progressive alternative to Trump, or even as a defender of the people’s rights against fascism, such portrayals must be seen for what they are: capitalist propaganda. As communists, we must is to expose Harris for what she truly is: an agent of the capitalist class and an enemy of the working class. The workers have no interest in supporting either face of the oppressing ruling class.
Since the launch of her candidacy, Kamala Harris has raised an extraordinary $310 million in July alone. Her campaign received a $150 million commitment from the Future Forward PAC, funded by capitalists such as Fred Eychancer of Newsweb Corp, Reid Hoffman of Greylock Partners, and Donald Sussman of Paloma Partners. Venture capitalists like Bradley Tusk have also committed significant sums. Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, in her endorsement of Harris, stated that Harris “will defend women's rights—and all Americans' rights—from the Oval Office with a determined, compassionate focus.” By the end of August, the Harris-Walz campaign had raised over $540 million, indicating that the capitalist class views Harris as their chosen representative.
These capitalists would not invest so heavily in Harris' campaign without expecting a return on their investment. Their substantial financial backing should dispel any notion that Harris is in any way concerned with the interests of the working class. Her record shows her to be a consistent and ardent defender of the monopolies, from her early days in California politics to her current role as vice president.
Kamala’s Record as Attorney General, Senator, and Vice President
Kamala Harris’ career as a politician spans over two decades, marked by a series of political maneuvers that reveal her alignment with the capitalist class. Her tenure in public office has been characterized by a shift from a "tough on crime" stance in the 1990s to a more progressive image in recent years, though her actions often tell a different story.
As District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, Harris initially vowed not to seek the death penalty. However, as Attorney General of California (2011-2017), her office argued in favor of retaining the death penalty. Despite calls for criminal justice reform, Harris either opposed such reforms or remained silent [5]. In 2010, under her leadership, her office defended wrongful convictions secured through prosecutorial misconduct, resulting in the dismissal of over 600 cases [5].
As Attorney General, she championed legislation that criminalized truancy, threatening parents of truant children with fines and jail time—measures that disproportionately impacted working-class families, particularly Black and Brown communities [5]. In her push to enforce these policies, Harris demonstrated an explicit willingness to weaponize the legal system to the fullest extent against the vulnerable, working-class people.
In 2014, when a federal judge ruled the death penalty unconstitutional, Harris appealed the decision. Her office also sought to block court-ordered reductions in California’s overcrowded prisons, and at one point argued against providing gender-affirmation surgery for trans inmates [5]. These actions run in direct opposition to her ardent claims of being a life-long and career-long “ally”, a clear demonstration of her opportunistic hypocrisy. In 2019, while she was running for president, she explicitly wrote in an ACLU questionnaire that she supported taxpayer funding of gender-affirmation surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners. When asked if she would use “executive authority to ensure that transgender and non-binary people who rely on the state for medical care - including those in prison and immigration detention - will have access to comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care.” She replied, “Yes” [4]. Harris frequently justified these actions by claiming she was simply following the law and representing her client, and that is precisely the crux of the matter. Her contradictory record on this issue reveals her hollow, pandering hypocrisy.
A Record of Political Opportunism
Throughout her career, Harris has maintained close ties to the capitalist class while presenting herself as an advocate for marginalized communities. As a senator, she supported the DREAM Act and other reforms, but her history reveals a pattern of political opportunism. In 2008, she endorsed a policy by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom to hand over arrested, undocumented juveniles to ICE, further demonstrating her role as an enforcer of policies that harm the very communities she claims to support [1].
Harris frequently cites a settlement she reached with several of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders over their fraudulent behaviors, and foreclosure practices that led to the 2009 financial crisis, as proof of her willingness to hold the big banks accountable. But it is then no surprise that she let some of the banks who were the most responsible for this widespread misconduct off the hook. In 2013, Kamala Harris declined to prosecute Steven Mnuchin’s OneWest Bank for foreclosure violations, and did not explain. Steven Mnuchin is most notably known as a hedge fund and investment bank executive, as well as Donald Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury [5].
As vice president, Harris has continued to advance policies that are in line with U.S. capitalism-imperialism. Tasked with stemming migration to the southern border, she echoed the administration’s hardline stance on immigration, famously warning migrants, "Do not come." This statement is emblematic of the Democratic Party's broader approach to immigration, which remains rooted in the same punitive policies as previous administrations [3, 7]. Those that foment the very conditions that cause working people around the world to go to such lengths because they exist at the mercy of capitalism-imperialism.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. has continued to arm Ukraine in its inter-imperialist conflict with Russia, funneling hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into a war that solely serves the interests of the bourgeoisie in their struggle against each other for resources and markets [6]. Harris has also pledged unwavering support for Israel, further entrenching U.S. involvement in its genocidal policies in Gaza [2, 8]. Her actions and rhetoric make it clear: Harris, like her predecessors, serves the interests of the ruling class.
The Illusion of Choice
The 2024 presidential election presents the working class with a false choice between two representatives of the capitalist class. There is no real choice under capitalism—only the illusion of choice and the ephemeral promise of “freedom.” As communists, we reject the framing of “lesser of two evils” entirely. Let there be no confusion: the solution is not to vote for the Democrats to stave off the Republicans, nor is it to vote for a third party or an independent candidate—none of these options provide a path to demolishing the capitalist mode of production and building the new world of socialism-communism. Instead, the only path forward for the working class is to fight for real change. This can only be accomplished by building the revolutionary communist party, arm-in-arm with the Communist Workers' Platform USA.
Sources:
[1] Chaidez, A., Weichselbaum, S., & Blankstein, A. (2024, July 24). Kamala Harris’ criminal justice policies in California angered both Progressives and police. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/kamala-harris-criminal-justice-policies-california-rcna163518
[2] Democracy Now! (2024, August 30). Kamala Harris refuses to condition U.S. military support for Israel. https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/30/harris_middle_east_gaza_israel_palestine
[3] Hendricks, T. (2024, August 10). As Republicans attack Harris on immigration, here’s what her California record reveals. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/08/10/nx-s1-5061760/kamala-harris-immigration-record-california
[4] Kaczynski, A. (2024, September 9). KFILE: Harris pledged support in 2019 to cut ice funding and provide transgender surgery to detained migrants | CNN politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/09/politics/kfile-harris-pledged-support-in-2019-to-cut-ice-funding-and-provide-transgender-surgery-to-detained-migrants/index.html
[5] Lartey, J. (2024, July 27). Unpacking kamala harris’ complex record as prosecutor. The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/07/27/kamala-harris-prosecutor-california-police-election-crime
[6] Masters, J., & Merrow, W. (2024, May 9). How much U.S. aid is going to Ukraine?. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-us-aid-going-ukraine
[7] Paz, C. (2024, August 28). How is Kamala Harris getting away with this?. Vox. https://www.vox.com/policy/369177/democrats-kamala-harris-truce-immigration-progressive-border-security
[8] Zhang, S. (2024, August 30). “genocide will continue”: Fury grows as Harris vows to keep Biden’s gaza policy. Truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/genocide-will-continue-fury-grows-as-harris-vows-to-keep-bidens-gaza-policy/