The Virginia Worker

UFCW Local 400 member Daniel Blankenship, based in Southwestern Virginia, submits the following editorial in response to the Virginia Democrats’ redistricting campaign, which they argue is anti-democratic and makes the task of building an independent working class party all the more difficult.

Virginia liberals are plotting to undermine what scant democracy Virginia workers have access to. This is in response to the efforts of Republicans who are attempting to do the same in Texas and other states. The answer for workers isn’t based on choosing between two capitalist parties that work to further disenfranchise us and further institutionalize the corporate two-party system, but to expand access to democracy for workers. 

The Democrats’ referendum, if approved, would codify a 10-1 congressional district system that would favor Democrat candidates in every district except southwestern Virginia, which they are happy to abandon to Republicans – a deplorable territory in the eyes of NoVa elites. Congressional district nine has THE highest poverty rate in the state. Appalachian Virginia use to be a manufacturing hotbed, but with the rise of neoliberalism these working class communities were destroyed by offshoring of unionized manufacturing jobs and with it a decline in standards of living where deaths of despair and drug addiction run rampant with no prospects of reversing the economic decline of the region. Democrats have made it clear they will continue the immiseration of Virginia’s Appalachian workers.

Liberals have deployed five million dollars from one of their super PACs – the House Majority PAC – to hire the PR firm Two Capital Consulting to launch a front called “Virginians For Fair Elections” in the hopes of swaying voters in favor of the referendum. Nothing short of double-speak by these overpaid bureaucrats who have no standards beyond chasing a dollar. Other clients of Two Capital Consulting include unionbusting corporations such as Amazon, Lowes, the Retail Leaders Industry Association, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, as well as healthcare corporations like Cigna Group – which has automatically denied claims from patients, as well as defrauded Medicaid, while advocating against universal healthcare.

This Democrat campaign is what they prioritize despite CIA spook Spanberger blustering about an “Affordable Virginia Plan” while Virginia Democrats kill legislation to reduce rent or abolish “right to work” laws.

Who can trust such nefarious groups claiming to want “fair elections” as they do the bidding of the rich to screw working families over? Virginia has no working class representation. Approving the liberal referendum will only increase barriers to access the ballot. Instead we should be fighting to abolish the Dillon Rule, have publicly-funded political campaigns and end dark money in campaigns, introduce plebiscites, and lower the threshold for ballot access for an independent working class party.

We encourage all Virginia workers to vote “NO” on this referendum. We encourage all Virginia worker organizations to send a clear message that the Virginia working class won’t accept the machinations of the corporate two parties to deny us political representation and political power.