Boots Riley Endorses Bernie Sanders for President, Cites Grassroots Movements

He mentioned Black Lives Matter and Occupy movements of recent years.

On Tuesday night, Boots Riley took to Twitter to announce his endorsement of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. He tweeted a lengthy, nuanced explanation shortly after. Read the full thread on Twitter.

“I’ve never voted for a candidate in my life,” the Oakland native and The Coup frontman said. “But I will be voting for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and the general election.”

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Riley cited the last 20 years in grassroots movements, naming Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. He called upon his followers to extend these movements’ tactics to demand better from elected officials.

“I’ve spoken out many times over the years about the dangers that electoral politics hold for mass movements,” he began. “Reducing involvement to this one moment, this one person, and making it unclear to masses of people that power under capitalism comes at the point of exploitation.”

READ: From The Coup to ‘Sorry to Bother You’: Boots Riley is Oakland’s Undefinable Storyteller

“I’m not voting for Bernie because I don’t disagree with him on things,” Riley explained. “What I am endorsing is the movement that has grown around him…millions of people who are willing to consciously and openly engage in class struggle to make these reforms happen. These struggles will radicalize millions of people and has the ability to organize the working class in the US to a point we haven’t seen before. We keep going from there.”

The next Democratic primary takes place in Nevada on Saturday, February 22.

SOURCE: Twitter