Stephon Boatwright says he “sees everything through the glasses of revolution.”
Boatwright, 21, is a junior political science major at SUNY Oswego and former member of the U.S. Army Reserve. He is a native of Syracuse and one of the newest members of his hometown’s chapter of the Socialist Party — also known as the CNY Reds.
“I felt like I was living in a one-party system. And that party’s mantra was isolated wealth and inequality,” said Boatwright. “I needed to find a political alternative. And I found it in the Socialist Party right here in Syracuse.”
Boatwright is one of about 50 CNY Reds members claimed by party organizers. The group is 32 years old and traces its roots in Syracuse to the early 20th century and East Syracuse’s strong connections with railway workers’ unions.
The local party has never succeeded in electing anyone to public office. But party members say their numbers are growing as the nation’s bitter partisanship, political polarization and social problems grow unchecked by contemporary elected officials.
Party-supporter and Green Party perennial candidate Howie Hawkins suggests that the Socialist movement is naturally attractive to young people, like SUNY student Boatwright. Today’s unemployment levels, unstable job market and rising price of higher education and healthcare frustrate the young in particular, said Hawkins.
“They are getting sick and tired of the same old exchange of power between Democrats and Republicans and want some new perspectives being offered,” said Hawkins.
The Green Party and the CNY Reds are a part of a loose alliance of local political groups. Other allies include the Syracuse Peace Council, the Young People’s Socialist League and the Liberty Union Party.
As a national movement, the Socialist Party’s heyday was between the first and second World Wars. Its founder, Eugene Debs, was imprisoned in 1918 for speaking out against World War I, released from prison in 1921 and was later nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Socialist Party languished with the U.S. fear of the Soviet Union and Sen Joseph McCarthy’s infamous hearings into Americans’ patriotism and “communist infiltration.” McCarthy’s hearings and investigations cost many Americans their jobs and reputations.
In Syracuse, the Socialist Party revived in 1978. That year, Ron Ehrenreich, once the vice presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America, formed the CNY Reds after graduating from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship. Enrenreich, now 55, recalls being inspired by his former Maxwell professor David Edelstein, a proponent of a socialist movement in Syracuse during the early 1970s. Edelstein shared what he believed were the problems with the current U.S. political system’s “infatuation with capitalism,” said Enrenreich.
Under capitalism, said Ehrenreich, Americans face the “decimation of social safety nets, massive cuts to wages and benefits, and privatization of public services, in the name of mercilessly strict adherence to the free-market system.”
But, said Ehrenreich, “Democratic Socialism ensures that regardless of how much money you have, you are still able to participate in the political decision making process. It levels the playing field in terms of wealth and political participation.” He added: “Nowadays the only voices being heard are the ones who have enough money to get their message out there. This creates a very skewed perception of reality. It must change.”
Enrenreich’s day job is as treasurer of the Cooperative Federal Credit Union in Syracuse. In his spare-time passion for the CNY Reds, he helps organize its free, public meetings and spreads the Socialists’ word with pamphlets and essays.
The national party and the CNY Reds are focusing on the healthcare debate, the economy and the vast restructuring of the financial system, he said. They want to see expanded healthcare benefits for all, a broader distribution of wealth and less influence by the financial system on American politics.
Although the Reds run no local campaigns, Enrenreich said, they try to influence the local Democratic and Republican political thinking and agenda.
That’s possible for the Reds and other third parties in New York state because laws and political culture are more welcoming to them, said Kristi Andersen, a Syracuse University political science professor and an elected official in Cazenovia. The state requires fewer signatures and less paperwork to start a third party. And New York allows more parties on the election ballots come election time, she said.
This means that Democrats and Republicans have more votes to potentially lose to third parties, giving those third parties potential leverage in policy-making or political action.
“The Independence Party, the Working Families Party, the Green Party—they can offer their support to Democrats or Republicans in exchange for cooperation or some level of political discourse. If they don’t get it, they usually run candidates that detract from one of the two parties’ total vote count,” said Andersen. “Most of the time, it’s in the best interest of Democrats and Republicans to listen what third parties have to say.”
For his part, SUNY Oswego junior Stephon Boatwright is anxiously awaiting his graduation. He wants to travel as a lecturer, speaker, and campaigner for the Socialist Party of America, he said.
He describes the party’s message as “social equality, increased participation in politics and the refocusing of the U.S. government back onto its normal citizens instead of its biggest financial supporters.” That, Boatwright predicted, will soon fall on more receptive ears.
With the Socialist Party, he said, “It’s not ‘their’ party, it’s ‘our’ party.” Added Boatwright. “I honestly think they’re the future.”
(Joe Frandino is a senior with dual majors in political science and newspaper journalism.)
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