Claudia De la Cruz, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s presidential nominee, spoke to Binghamton University students on Monday about key issues like anti-imperialism, economic justice and the failures brought on by the two-party system in the United States.

Spearheaded by several student groups, including the Young Democratic Socialists of America and the Latin American Student Union, De la Cruz’s visit attracted a diverse crowd of students and community members looking to hear about alternatives to the current duopoly ruling U.S. politics.

Hannah Dickinson, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation began the evening by thanking the participating organizations, including YDSA, LASU, the Graduate Students Employee Union, and a community group, Binghamton Solidarity for Palestine.

The first student speaker, a Students for Justice in Palestine representative, said the U.S. political system is unable to effectively address the Palestinian plight, adding that only candidates like De la Cruz offer a true alternative to the status quo.

YDSA Chair John Ferrara, a senior double-majoring in biology and Italian, echoed similar ideas about the importance of establishing a socialist alternative. Ferrara urged students to move past the lesser-evil narrative and instead support candidates who fight for working-class interests, like De la Cruz, Jill Stein and Cornel West, who he called the “actual left-wing candidates.” Ferrara implored students to turn their anger and frustration into organized action.

After the student speakers addressed the audience, De la Cruz took the stage. She began a chant to energize the crowd and incite an activism-focused frame of mind. She then distinguished between “policies” and “politics” — that in the United States, politics are often reduced to performance or sport, where people cheer for their chosen candidates only to return to the same lives they lived before.

“People engage in politics in this country as if they were watching wrestling,” De la Cruz said. “As if they were watching football. As if they were watching some sort of sport were they all actually cheer on for whatever team they are in or love. It gives them a certain level of emotional satisfaction if you will. But then, whether you win or lose, you go back home. And you’re confronted with the realities of having to pay rent. And you’re confronted with the realities of having to wake up and go to a job where you’re exploited.”

She called the two-party system “democracy for the rich,” arguing that voting alone cannot bring real change. Instead, De la Cruz urged students to become involved in grassroots organizing and that collective action drives real social change. She criticized the state of democracy in the United States, denouncing it as primarily beneficial to solely the wealthy and the ruling class. De la Cruz said socialism, not liberalism, is what confronts fascism, condemning both Democrats and Republicans for perpetuating capitalist exploitation.

Citing figures like Eugene Debs and Fred Hampton, De la Cruz mentioned organized movements from history, hailing them as the real rivers of change and stressing the importance of a long-term commitment to socialism and collective action.

Ferrara shared that hosting De la Cruz was to offer students a glimpse of a future beyond the traditional U.S. political system.

“Most importantly, we hope to remind them that these electoral protest campaigns are just one tiny aspect of achieving liberation — we must all do our part by getting organized, unionized, and class conscious,” he wrote.