Good News: AFL-CIO Gets A Clue on Political Spending

Dennis R Redmond dredmond at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU
Mon Oct 18 13:38:58 PDT 1999


On Fri, 15 Oct 1999, Anderson Bob wrote:


> So the AFL-CIO is going to pour $40 million into trying to get voters to
> join a party which is losing members as fast as a bucket with no bottom
> loses water. Sweeney is compounding the error of rushing to endorse Gore
> with thinking Prop 226, a single issue campaign, can be transfered to the
> Dem Party and Gore. This is mixing apples and oranges, and $40 million
> will be wasted.

Maybe, maybe not. If the money goes to funding local grassroots activity, it won't be wasted; it's up to local Green and Labor Party groups to get involved with their local labor councils and network on this stuff, i.e. offer candidates, ideas, etc. to the new, social movement union-based labor movement. Whatever the problems of the grassroots thing (and yes, some of the dough will end up in the coffers of the Demublicans), this is far better than throwing money away on TV spots.

The Gore endorsement, of course, sucks. But Greens have got to engage/argue with/contribute to the rebuilding of the labor movement if the mighty Red-Green Dragon is ever going to put in an appearance on American shores.

-- Dennis



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