VIETNAM, BLACK LIBERATION STRUGGLE, REFLECTED IN U.S. ELECTION RESULTS
By Joseph Hansen
The state and municipal elections in the United States November 7 are being assessed for possible indications on how the mood of. the voters may affect the presidential elections in 1968.
National interest centered in particular on the referendum in San Fran~ cisco which read:
"Declaration of policy: Shall it be the policy of the people of the city and county of San Francisco that there be an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of United States troops from Vietnam so that the Vietnamese people can settle their own problems?"
The final tally of votes from the city's 1,341 precincts was: Yes, 76,632. No, 132,406. The total vote cast in the election was 255,596 but only 209,038 were recorded for and against the Vietnam policy declaration. Of those who went to the polls, 46,558 abstained from voting on the proposition.
Thus out of the total vote, 52% were opposed, 30% in favor and 18% abstained on a proposal to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam.
The first conclusion of bourgeois analysts was that the voters had repudi-~ ated the demand. Thus New York Times columnist Tom Wicker said [November 9] that the vote "demonstrated that however American voters may feel about the war, they are by no means ready to take the extreme step of pulling out of it altogether."
Robert Coate, Northern California chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, took a less emphatic view. He expressed the belief that if the word "systematic" had been substituted for "immediate" in the proposition the "yes" vote would have been overwhelming.
Lawrence E. Davies, San Francisco correspondent of the New York Times indicated the class basis of the vote.
"Voters in exclusive residential districts of San Francisco, along with members of the economic middle class," he wrote November 8, "helped pile up a prevailing 'no' vote yesterday on a proposal to pull American troops out of Vietnam." There was no distinguishable difference, he added, on the way Republicans and Democrats voted on the issue.
"The heaviest 'yes' vote, the check of precincts chosen on the political, ethnic and economic bases indicated, came from areas such as Fillmore and Hunter's Point.
"These are districts in which the Negro population is heavy, to which poverty and redevelopment programs have been aimed and which were the scenes of violence in the summer of 1966."
The Haight-Ashbury precincts -so-called "Hippieville" -- also returned "ves" majorities.
The heaviest "no" majorities were recorded in wealthy residential neighborhoods like St. Francis Wood and the Marina and in the Sunset, "with its middleand upper-middle-class populations south of Golden Gate Park toward the Pacific Ocean."
As a reflection of the true sentiment in the population, it must be borne in mind that in the United States broad sectors of the lower-income brackets rarely go to the polls, often failing to register so as to be eligible to vote.
Most important of all, those most affected and most concerned about the war in Vietnam, the 18- to 21-year-old age bracket subject to the draft are excluded from voting.
Writing from San Francisco the day after the election, Fred Halstead, the 1968 presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers party, reported in the November 13 issue of The Militant:
"An unofficial straw vote taken at 15 polling places throughout the city for youth over 18 but not yet 21 showed an overwhelming support for Proposition P. With returns in from 14 of the unofficial polls, the vote ran 2,912 'yes' and only 272 'no.'"
The vote in San Francisco in favor of the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, impressive as it was, must be considered to be but a faint reflection of the mounting opposition to the war among the working class, the black people and the youth.
Besides the indication of the strength of the antiwar sentiment in the United States and the varying attitude toward the war in Vietnam in the different social layers, which was provided by the vote on the sharply worded referendum in San Francisco, the election was of interest in what it revealed about the effect of the black liberation struggle.
The most obvious manifestation was in the victory of various black candidates, the two main ones being Carl B. Stokes, who won the post of mayor as the candidate of the Democratic party in Cleveland, and Richard D. Hatcher, who won similarly in Gary, Indiana.
Both victories were by thin majorities but they were historic firsts and thus of some significance.
The most important item in both cases was the size and solidity of the black vote. In Cleveland, Stokes received 94.5% of the black vote. The turnout was 84% of the estimated black registration. Besides this, Stokes cut rather substantially into the white vote. In Gary, Hatcher received 76% of the black vote. The city is listed as having a 55% Negro majority in a total population of 180,000. The black voters turned out more heavily than the whites and this proved decisive.
The bourgeois commentators point to a significant shift in the attitude of white voters in these two cities (although less so in Gary than in Cleveland) and in other parts of the country where the issue of skin color came to the fore. The "white backlash" which was blown up so heavily in previous election propaganda proved to be less formidable, at least on the electoral level, than those impressed by racist as-~ sertions had been led to expect.
Little has been said in the bourgeois press, however, about the most significant aspect of the victories -- the shift in tactics adopted in particular by the Democratic party.
The success of Stokes and Hatcher was made possible because in both instances they had received the blessing of the Democratic machine. The approval originated not so much from the local level as from the top command nationally and thus reflected a decision of the highest circles of the American ruling class. The decision is to permit a bit more color in the political fagade.
The purpose is obvious. It is to divert the black people from struggling in the streets, to draw them into safe electoral channels where tight control can be maintained.
That the objective is well understood by the Negro candidates of the Democratic party is shown by their attacks against the concept of "black power." They are quite consciously assuming the role of presenting an "alternative" to black power.
The irony of the situation is that they could not have advanced into this position without the series of explosions in the ghettos that turned more and more in the direction of a militant struggle for "black power" or black liberation.
The concession granted by the ruling class in the electoral arena to the black people -- agreement of the white capitalist power structure to include some colored decorations -- thus illustrates once again the truth of the Marxist observation that concessions are won as a
by-product of the class struggle.
The Stokes and Hatchers will do their utmost to oppose, divert and dampen the black power struggle to which in the final analysis they owe their own present positions as public figures. What success
they will achieve in this remains to be
seen. It is quite dubious, however, that
they will achieve much.
The concession in all likelihood
will prove to be too little and to have
come too late.
THE CASE OF