> Ralph Nader's Racial Blindspot
> by Vanessa Daniel, special to COLORLINES magazine and www.colorlines.com
>
> a powerful new movement. Yet the gatherings in Seattle, DC and
> elsewhere have been riddled with bitter racial politics stemming from
> the marginalization of people of color from every aspect of these
> actions.
Evidence, please? There were plenty of folks of color on the ground, and unprecedented levels of folks from abroad.
> potential for a common ground and mutually supportive alliance. By
> far the most progressive candidate, should Nader choose to pull race
> from the margins to the center of his campaign, he could provide
> great impetus to the growing people's movement and positively reframe
> the election year debate.
A fine example of why the American Left has been its own worst enemy for 60+ years: instead of asking, how do we hook up the networks of hip hop activists, anti-sweatshop groups, community groups, enviro-justice folks to fight global capital globally, we have vague moral pronouncements about how Nader should exercise leadership in "his campaign" -- which it really isn't. It's everyone's campaign. Where micropolitics doesn't push forwards to the class politics of the global, it regresses back to the Cold War moralism it claims to have transcended. Still, it's heartening to see Daniels took the time to talk with Winona LaDuke and others, rather than jumping to orthodox conclusions. And it does look like promising things are starting to happen at the micropolitical level (see http://www.ctwo.org/growl/ for more).
-- Dennis