President Barack Obama’s second-term inauguration (20-21 January) did not inspire the mass enthusiasm aroused by his first inauguration in 2009. There is widespread disillusionment with Obama, who helped save big business after the 2008 slump but has failed to deliver improvements for working people.

The Occupy-inspired Sawant campaign demonstrates the increasing openness to working-class politics, the hunger for a fighting alternative to big business politics, and the potential for left-wing independent candidates to successfully challenge the corporate Democratic and Republican parties. But this victory is just a beginning, and what’s needed are hundreds of such campaigns nationally, combined with mass protests and labor struggles, to challenge the domination of Wall Street and the 1% over U.S. society.

Social Security Act was born out of intense working-class struggle from all around the country. 1934 and 1935 saw mass movements that were winning real victories; there were local general strikes and demonstrations of tens of thousands of workers in places as widespread as San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Toledo, Ohio. Additionally, the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) won millions of new workers into its ranks, largely due to its militant tactics and ability to improve people’s lives. It was only out of fear of these movements and the growing socialist organizations that the Democrats enacted the New Deal, which included Social Security.

The label “right to work,” a term created by corporate interests, is intentionally deceptive. This legislation doesn't provide the right to a job for the hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers in Michigan. What it does is undermine the democratic basis of workers’ right to organize.

Huge space exists for building a new mass party of working people to challenge both corporate parties for power.

The next few months will be dominated by three fiscal battles: Congressional authorization to raise the “debt ceiling” to allow the government to continue to borrow to meet its obligations, the $110 billion in automatic “sequester” spending cuts in 2013, and finally adopting a budget to fund federal government operations in 2013.

Unlocking vast natural gas reserves through hydraulic fracturing, popularly known as fracking, is hailed as a solution to global warming and an economic boom for towns and cities that won the geographic lottery: a win-win in the eyes of the ruling class. But mounting scientific evidence indicates further development of natural gas will not solve global warming and actually delays badly needed investment in renewable technology.

One cannot understand the shocking events at Newtown without looking at the increased social costs on U.S. society of a failing capitalist system. By shredding the social safety net, creating massive inequality and implementing devastating neo-liberal polices, capitalism has failed all these children, their families and even their attackers at every level.

We are republishing below a letter from the International Socialist Organization (ISO) to Socialist Alternative (SA) regarding our request, and their refusal, to endorse our candidate, Kshama Sawant, who was challenging the most powerful legislator in Washington state, Democratic Speaker of the House Frank Chopp. Running as a Socialist Alternative candidate, Kshama Sawant received 29% and over 20,000 votes in her Seattle district.

Despite the “official” New Orleans unemployment rate climbing to 9.5%, and close to 30% of New Orleanians falling below the poverty line, the Democratic-controlled city council still rammed through a Sewage & Water Board rate increase initiative from the city’s corporate mayor, Mitch Landreau.

Michigan, a bastion of union power, is now suddenly days away from possibly becoming the 24th “right to work” state in the country. Decisive action, mobilizing the full force of the labor movement, is the only thing that will stop the Republicans' major attack on workers’ rights.

In this interview on Pacifica Radio KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston, Texas, Campaign Organizer Ramy Khalil discusses how it was possible for the Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant to win 29% of the vote running against the Washington State Speaker of the House as an openly Socialist candidate.

This article, initially written in the final days of the election season, appeared in a shortened form in Justice newspaper. This is a longer version with tremendously useful statistics and analysis. It comes as no surprise to many people: spending on the 2012 election broke all records. But, the estimated $6 billion in spending does not simply break the record, it shatters it.

Austerity measures - such as the T fare hikes - will continue, as any economic recovery will be diverted into the pockets of big business. Already the MBTA debt is owed to big banks and rich investors. Everywhere across the U.S. and internationally, public services are cut and unions attacked while the debts owed to multibillion dollar banks are off the table. 2013 promises to be a year of struggle and fighting back. The fight for public transportation to be affordable and well-funded is shaping up to be a major battle here in Boston.

Public confidence in capitalism’s institutions has disintegrated - the combined product of unbelievable wealth inequality, chronic unemployment, sky-high costs of health care and education, racist policing, crackdowns on protesters, endless wars, and systematic environmental destruction. The cherry on top is the incredible record of banking-sector scandals, crises, and failures since the start of the Great Recession.