In the US election – as in African ones – there are large numbers of voters totally devoted to the establishment candidates. It is as though the downtrodden, unwilling to take responsibility for their own futures, settle for the hope that a greater amount of crumbs will trickle down to them from the master’s table.

What do African Americans have to gain from their continued support for centrist Democratic candidates? Joblessness, poverty, mass incarceration, police terrorism and institutional racism remain. African Americans must break with the Democratic Party to establish their own organization that will speak in their name, fighting for a program of total liberation and socialism.