The caption in the photograph reads: “Winners! NP-endorsed candidates Patricia Martin (far left), Danny Davis (center), and Barack Obama (far right), celebrate with Chicago New Party members Ted Thomas and Ruth Schools after their victories in the Democratic primary last month.”
This photograph is from the front page of the Spring 1996 edition of New Party News: “New Party members won three other primaries this Spring in Chicago: Barack Obama (State Senate), Michael Chandler (Democratic Party Committee) and Patricia Martin (Cook County Judiciary)…’these victories prove that small ‘d’ democracy can work’ said Obama.”
The New Party Socialist candidates proudly posed together after their impressive election wins in Chicago, running on “the return of power to the people.” Barack Obama ran and won election in Chicago under the New Party’s banner. Chicago’s New Party described itself as left-leaning and progressive. They used the name “New” in their name to avoid the stigma of Marxism and Socialism. However, Chicago’s New Party included many Marxists and Socialists who believed in the essence of Obama’s hope and dreams: “The New Party believes that the social, economic, and political progress of the United States requires a democratic revolution in America — the return of power to the people. Our basic purpose — reflected both in our own governance and in our aspirations for the nation — is to make that revolution happen.” No one in the New Party accepts capitalism as a viable political ideology.
