Big Ideas, Little Campuses: Socialist Presidential Candidate Visits SUNY Potsdam

It’s a usual quiet night in Canton, New York, the main street hums with the usual small-town traffic of old sedans and rusty pickup trucks. But as the sky turns a light pink with the slow setting of the sun, a crowd of students suddenly appears on the corner of Main St.

Donning black and white Keffiyehs, Palestinian flags waving, and banners upheld, the purpose of this gathering is no secret. “Not another nickel, not another dime! No more money for Israels crimes!” rings out across the intersection.

The chants are met by the occasional roar of a lifted pickup as it passes by, signaling the drivers discontent, or general annoyance, and other drivers throwing their fist in the air out the window, a show of solidarity with the protesters. But something is different about this protest.

The man with the bullhorn leading the students in their chanting is not a student, he is a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. McKay Burley spoke of how he first got in contact with SLU students over the summer during Potsdam Pride. “We were tabling, talking about bringing socialism to the North Country, and they saw our keffiyeh flying and came over, and immediately we clicked. We both wanted to stop the atrocities going on.”

But SLU is not the only university the PSL has connected with. On Wednesday, the PSL’s presidential candidate, Claudia De La Cruz, spoke at SUNY Potsdam to a crowd of students and faculty. A handful of SLU students were also in attendance.

 “The Party for Socialism and Liberation has been around for 20 years, we are drenched in people struggle, we organize around issues of working-class people, housing rights, immigrant rights, reproductive justice, police brutality, and mass incarceration,” said De La Cruz.

She said the PSL believes the two-party system does nothing to uplift the working class, and that the PSL has the opportunity to connect with the community in a way that is relevant, builds the party, and builds people power.

Speaking on why she chose the North Country to campaign, De La Cruz said her party prefers to visit the areas which have been abandoned by the two-party system, a system that she says does nothing but deliver empty promises. “Our desire in places like New York state is to let people know there is another option. But that they need to be participating in that option and building it with us. Socialism is not dead and there are people working to construct socialism in this country,” said De La Cruz.

De La Cruz believes socialism would benefit the North Country in terms of reviving industry, and creating incentives which encourage small farms to thrive, while taking away the profit incentives of large agricultural corporations which have come to dominate the region.

“Why don’t we actually invest in our local farmers to be the ones to produce for us on a massive scale? Why don’t we invest in them? And that’s what socialism is talking about,” De La Cruz said that socialism is not about the government taking over small business, but rather taking away the profit motive.

When asked what her Immediate policies would be if elected to the Oval Office in November, De La Cruz said she would immediately implement price controls on food, seize the top 100 corporations, fix the energy grid in Texas, release “political prisoners”, and house the homeless “We would defiantly stop all aid to the colonial state of Israel so that we’re able to put the four billion dollars that we actually send to Israel every year to work for working class people.”

De La Cruz is on the ballot in 21 states, has write-in status in 19 states, and is coming off a New York college tour, coming to SUNY Potsdam from SUNY Binghamton. The PSL came to campus via reaching out to the SUNY Potsdam Socialist Club.

 “The truth is we just got a text one day. Our club sponsor was in contact with McKay and the PSL was doing a college tour, and we got picked as a destination, so they reached out to us as the socialist club on campus,” said Sammy, the club president.

“Up until now, the only other group to reach out to us was the Socialist Rifles Association, if we could do something with them that would be nice,” said Socialist Club Treasurer Jasper. “The only criticism we had of the PSL was they didn’t do stuff like this, but now they’re doing it, so I can’t really criticize them on that anymore.”

The Socialist Club believed the PSL’s strategy of college outreach is effective and encourages groups like them to engage in more community action, “It’s going to be a thing that inspires our group and other people around here,” said Jasper.