Joseph Kishore

Joseph Kishore (born 1980) is an American Marxist and writer who has been active in the Trotskyist movement since 1999. He is the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and a writer for the World Socialist Web Site.

In February 2024, SEP (US) National Chairman David North announced that Kishore was selected by the SEP as its presidential candidate in the 2024 US election. His running mate, for vice-president, is Jerry White.

Career
Kishore became active in the socialist movement in 1999 while attending Rutgers University in New Jersey. He joined the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (then called Students for Social Equality), and then later joined the Socialist Equality Party.

Kishore was first elected National Secretary of the SEP in 2008, at the party's founding congress, and has been re-elected to the position since then. In 2020, Kishore was the presidential nominee of the SEP in 2020 United States presidential election with running mate Norissa Santa Cruz.

Political activity
Kishore writes and comments on both American and international matters,  as well as on science. He has written and commented on US labor struggles, including the auto industry and public education, as well as the history of the socialist movement.

As National Secretary of the SEP, Kishore participated in the party's intervention in the Workers Inquiry into the Bankruptcy of Detroit, a campaign in defense of the Detroit Institute of Arts and the austerity measures imposed by the 2013 Detroit bankruptcy.

Views
Kishore advocates for the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of an international, socialist society. He stated in a 2020 interview that the working class "must take political power in their own hands, seize the wealth hoarded by the rich and turn the giant banks and corporations into democratically-controlled utilities."

American working class

In a speech on May Day in 2014, Kishore said:"'The American working class is the sleeping giant of world politics. The financial aristocrats confront no more powerful adversary than the workers of this country.'"Donald Trump and Joseph Biden

Speaking about the 2024 American Presidential Election at a 2023 May Day Rally, Kishore stated, "the population of the United States is to be presented with the 'choice' between perhaps the two most hated political figures: the current president, Biden, an aging octogenarian who can think of nothing but war, and the fascist conspirator himself, Trump." Kishore argued that "unending war... has not ushered in an 'American century,' but a series of ever more extreme economic and political crises," referring to January 6 as an "attempted fascistic coup, spearheaded by the former president Trump."

Identity Politics

Kishore has been critical of racial and gender-based identity politics, stating in 2019, "The politics of racial, gender and other forms of identity is the politics of the upper-middle class, of all races and genders. It is a mechanism for dividing the working class, subordinating it to the right-wing, pro-war politics of the Democratic Party, and a mechanism for carrying out bitter struggles within the top ten percent for access to positions in academia, corporate boardrooms and the state." Kishore's essay Race, Class, and Socialism appeared alongside interviews with historians Gordon Wood and James McPherson in a volume critiquing the New York Times' 1619 project from a socialist perspective.

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Kishore has described Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez as "channeling opposition into the Democratic Party." He wrote, "the fundamental fraud promoted by Sanders, along with individuals such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is that the Democratic Party can be pushed to the left and made a force for progressive change."

2020 Presidential Campaign and Ballot Access
In 2020, Kishore filed lawsuits in Michigan and California alleging that requirements to gather 200,000 signatures for ballot access was "effectively impossible" given the "ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and the state's countermeasures to it." The lawsuits argued that "the outbreak of the coronavirus left [Kishore's campaign team] no choice but to cancel all subsequent public events and campaign activity, including ballot gathering and initiatives, so as to protect volunteers, staff and the public at large from spreading the coronavirus."

Selected Writings

 * The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party (US) with David North
 * The Crisis of the World Capitalist System: The Perspectives and Tasks of the Socialist Equality Party 2008-2010
 * The Defense of Culture and the Crisis in Detroit

External sources

 * Federal Election Commission: TANNIRU, JOSEPH KISHORE
 * WSWS: Joseph Kishore
 * Mehring Books: Joseph Kishore