CHICAGO—Before a cheering crowd in Chicago, Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night, becoming the first woman of color to top a major party ticket in U.S. history.
Her speech leaned heavily into defending constitutional democracy and voting rights from Trump and MAGA Republicans and hit back hard at the GOP’s misogyny and racism. The Jan. 6 coup attempt, right-wing voter suppression, and the reactionary Supreme Court were all slammed by the Democratic nominee, and the defense of women’s reproductive rights received top billing.
Included with those positives, however, was a foreign policy vision that will leave many in the peace movement disappointed. In mapping out a strategy for her administration, Harris relied on familiar themes: bolstering the U.S. war machine, strengthening the NATO alliance, continued backing for the Israeli military, and stepping up confrontation toward China.
The protests both outside and inside the convention center against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza appear to have had some impact, however, as Harris acknowledged the scale of human suffering imposed on Gazans, urgently called for progress toward a ceasefire, and explicitly supported Palestinians’ right to self-determination.
With the speech, the Harris campaign clearly emerged as the vehicle for the broad democratic and people’s movements to defeat Trump and fascism in November but showed the need for the coalition that beats him to stay mobilized and united after the election.
Defending democracy
Harris’ remarks were filled with pledges to uphold U.S. freedoms and attacks on the policies of the convicted felon who heads the Republican ticket. The freedoms Harris listed include “the freedom to breathe clean air, the freedom to drink clean water, the freedom to love whom you love, and the freedom to vote, which unlocks all the other freedoms.
“In our system of justice, a harm to any one of us is a harm to all of us,” she said. “We are all in this together.” But that’s not what Trump thinks, Harris said. She sketched a vision of moving forward rather than being consumed by division and grievance.
“Our nation has a chance to move past the bitter battles of the past,” Harris declared, emphasizing she would adhere to “the rule of law, fair and free elections, and a peaceful transfer of power”—all clear digs at Trump, who has admitted his desire to be a “dictator on day one.”
The freedom to choose when, whether, and how to have children was a key point, and it will be a major component of the Democratic campaigns for the presidency and Congress from now through Election Day.
As Harris noted, Trump named the three U.S. Supreme Court justices at the core of the Dobbs case majority two years ago that eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion. That ruling produced a strong and continuing anti-Republican electoral backlash nationally and prompted several GOP-governed states to immediately limit abortion access.
The results, Harris said, include children raped by stepfathers and forced to carry the fetus to term, states passing laws ordering MDs to report miscarriages and abortions or face loss of their licenses, or worse.
“Simply put, we trust women,” Harris said, “and when Congress passes a bill to restore abortion, I will sign it.” Getting such a bill from Congress, however, will require landslide Democratic victories in the races for House and Senate around the country—in addition to a White House win for her.
Given her background in civil rights, Harris also strongly criticized Trump’s insurrection and attempted coup three years ago. She slammed Trump’s vow to pardon and release the Jan. 6 invaders.
“Donald Trump tried to take away your votes. And when he failed, he sent an armed mob” to the Capitol to do so. “He fanned the flames. His explicit intent is to jail journalists, political opponents, and anyone he sees as a political enemy, and to set the military against our own citizens—especially after the U.S. Supreme Court just set him free from prosecution.”
Trump has advocated having troops patrol U.S. cities when millions of protesters thronged the streets after Minneapolis police murdered unarmed unresisting Black man George Floyd. He still supports that scheme and would expand it, defying U.S. law.
And the three Trump-named justices were the core of the court’s ruling for almost unlimited presidential immunity. “Donald Trump would use the immense power of the presidency not to improve your lives, but to enrich his only client, himself,” Harris noted.
Citing Trump’s platform, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Harris also reminded the nation of GOP plans to cut Social Security and Medicare, eliminate the Affordable Care Act, and kill the Education Department, among other goals.
Imperialism continued
Delegates inside the hall listened intently to Harris’ vision for U.S. foreign policy, which in broad strokes is a continuation of that pursued by Biden and other recent Democratic administrations—though there were signals of some nuance.
She pledged to be “steadfast in advancing our security interests,” which amounted to strong backing for the NATO war alliance, continued funding to prolong the war in Ukraine, and “making sure…that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.”
Perhaps in an attempt to prove her bonafides as a steward of U.S. imperial power, the Democratic nominee promised to “ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”
In addition to implying the maintenance of heavy spending on the Pentagon, another component of that lethality includes ensuring “Israel has the ability to defend itself,” i.e. the continued provision of U.S. weapons to the Israeli military. The statement prompted heckling from some in the audience, according to a People’s World reporter stationed inside the United Center.
The forceful endorsement of U.S.-Israeli ties was tempered, though, by the open endorsement of “Palestinian self-determination” as part of any long-term peace deal—a declaration that earned Harris thunderous applause and a standing ovation.
That combination, plus her criticism of the humanitarian toll the right-wing Netanyahu government inflicts on Gaza and its people—including tens of thousands of dead and a wrecked infrastructure—seemed to open some daylight between her and the uncritical support for Israel that her boss, retiring President Joe Biden, pushes.
Whether the shift will be enough to win back Arab-American voters—who were denied a speaking slot at the convention podium—remains to be seen. They’re a key voting bloc, especially in Michigan, one of the seven “swing states” that could decide the election.
Economics and immigration
The economy and immigration rounded out the topics addressed by Harris. While, expectedly, her language about fighting for the working class was not as militant as that voiced by others, like United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, Harris emphasized the need to “build a strong and growing middle class.”
She trashed Trump for giving tax breaks “to himself and his billionaire friends” and said that if he is re-elected, his plans for more tax cuts for the rich would add $5 trillion to the national debt. In a defense of the free trade agenda, she alleged Trump’s intention to impose higher tariffs would raise prices for the average family by $4,000 annually.
Other than a vague pledge to “bring together labor and workers and small-business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs, grow our economy, and lower the cost of everyday needs,” Harris’ speech was otherwise short on details of what she’d do when it comes to overseeing U.S. capitalism.
Harris did, however, repeat persistent attacks against the forces of greed. Indeed, she cited it as one of her past accomplishments, when as California Attorney General, she took on big banks that wanted to shortchange homeowners whom they had illegally foreclosed upon.
On immigration reform, Harris criticized Trump for blocking the bipartisan comprehensive “reform” bill earlier this year in Congress. The catch is that the “reform” in that bill was not really what’s needed, immigration advocates say. The measure would continue crackdowns on asylum seekers, largely blockade the U.S. southern border, and hire more Border Patrol officers.
When Biden pushed the bill earlier this year, Rossana Cambron, co-chair of the Communist Party USA, said it was “not a good strategic move for Biden” and that it would “push more votes away.” The CPUSA leader said the bill perpetuated “the narrative that immigrants are at fault for the poverty and insecurity people feel in this country, when in reality it is the system that puts profits before people that’s at the root of the problem.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said the bill took completely the wrong approach to the challenge at the border. “Enforcement-only actions on immigration, like shutting down the border, are the same types of tactics that Trump used,” she said. “They don’t work.”
Nevertheless, Harris stuck to it and said Trump “killed [the bill] because it would hurt his campaign.” She promised to bring it back and sign it into law.
November and beyond
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler was the first union leader to immediately comment on Harris’s speech. She said “Working people face a choice between a candidate who walked picket lines shoulder-to-shoulder with striking workers and a candidate who crossed them,” a choice between a “pro-union administration” and “a shameless union-buster.”
Abbas Alawieh, the co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement that mobilized 750,000 voters against Biden during the Democratic primaries to protest the president’s support for the assault on Gaza, said after the speech: “What’s needed at this moment is courageous leadership that breaks from the current approach.”
Along with other Uncommitted delegates, he spent Wednesday night and most of Thursday sitting-in outside the convention hall to demand a Palestinian-American speaker be allowed on stage before the DNC closed—a request that was denied.
Together, the two leaders articulate the challenges ahead for the labor and democratic people’s movements. Trump and fascism must be defeated, requiring an overwhelming landslide victory in the battle for the presidency and Congress. At the same time, labor, progressive, and pro-peace forces must remain mobilized well beyond Election Day to win change and move to the next stage of struggle.
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