Democratic Opportunism: How They Turn Protests Into Votes for Capital
By Isabelino Montes
The recent protests against ICE raids and deportations, like the one organized under the slogan “No kings”, reflect a legitimate impulse to fight back against the fascist advance in the United States. As the imperialist system collapses under the weight of its own crisis, these protests emerge as fertile ground for the political awakening of the working class. Yet a closer look at these mobilizations reveals an undeniable truth: they are not led by the most militant sectors of the people, but by the “progressive” faces of capital. Once again, the Democratic Party seeks to channel social anger into the dead end of the ballot box.
Behind the megaphones, banners, and calls to action is the left wing of the Democratic Party, pushed forward by organizations like Indivisible, MoveOn, Public Citizen, Human Rights Campaign, and more than a hundred groups organically linked to the Democrats’ electoral machine. These rallies weren’t just joined by state party committees, but also by figures like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are not standing alongside the people in struggle, but rather redirecting their energy into the electoral farce through their influence in organizations like 50501 Movement.
The hypocrisy reaches the point where Christy Walton, heir to the Walmart empire, funded full-page ads in The New York Times in “support” of the protests. Genuine support? Nothing could be further from the truth. Her gesture, like those of so many capitalists, is part of the business. Walmart is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the state. Through the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program, the company gets up to $9,000 for every immigrant worker who meets certain conditions: receiving SNAP, living in impoverished areas, or holding temporary refugee status. All told, Walmart could be saving $1.76 billion a year—$262.5 million in tax credits and $1.5 billion in public subsidies like food stamps and Medicaid.
With that money, thousands of immigrant workers who keep this country running could have already been granted citizenship. But for capital, immigrants are cheap labor, not political subjects. That’s why both Democrats and Republicans legislate and manage immigration according to the needs of capital not the working people.
The problem isn’t just that Democrats show up at the protests. The problem is that they lead, manipulate, and absorb them. That’s how it was with Occupy Wall Street in 2011: while activists camped out, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) gathered signatures and sent out campaign emails. That’s how it was with Black Lives Matter after George Floyd’s murder: they used the slogans, captured electoral support, and once in power, ignored central demands like cutting police budgets. The same is happening now: NGOs like Open Society, Ford, and Borealis, closely tied to the Democratic Party, have funneled over $100 million into the movement, undermining its independence and subordinating it to “progressive” capital.
Not even the unions are spared. The AFT and NEA, historically tied to the Democrats, are abandoned when teachers go on strike. Then both Democrats and Republicans act with the same repression: fines, legal threats, court orders. But first, of course, they promise “support” for their demands.
Let’s remember 2006. Millions marched in over 250 cities on what became known as “A Day Without Immigrants,” defying the HR4437 bill that criminalized undocumented immigration. The Democratic Party seized the moment to push voter registration. Fifty-five percent of the Latino vote went to them in that year’s midterms, and in 2008, Obama won with 67 percent of the Latino vote. The result? A record number of deportations: 2.5 million people expelled between 2009 and 2017. History doesn’t lie.
Today, as then, these mass mobilizations carry powerful energy. But their political content is still dominated by millionaires, NGOs, and Democratic Party operatives who block the autonomous political organization of the working class. That’s the trap. They offer inclusion while keeping intact the machinery that exploits us.
What should we do?
The moment demands a political organization of our own class-based and permanent. We can’t keep letting our struggles serve as a ladder for opportunists. We need to build immigrant workers’ committees from neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools, to put forward their own political program:
Redirect funds currently going to NGOs and companies like Walmart into a program of automatic dual citizenship for immigrant workers with over five years of labor in the U.S. and no criminal record.
Reject “purchased citizenship” for millionaires and promote citizenship as a right tied to work, not wealth.
Recognize immigrant workers’ committees as the legitimate bodies to define immigration policy from a class perspective.
Demand equal pay and full labor rights for all immigrant workers, with or without papers.
Class solidarity is already showing itself in the streets. But we must raise it to an organizational and political level. History has already shown us that Democrats are no allies. They are the progressive mask of the same system that deports and jails us. The task is clear: build a workers’ alternative, from our workplaces and neighborhoods, with no bourgeois parties, no foundations, no Walmart heirs.
The time is now. The betrayal is documented. History demands that we build a class organization capable of defending immigrant workers and the entire exploited working class of this country. No more concessions. No more votes handed over. Let’s take to the streets and take control of our own struggles!
