mbs
Hey, Max, I was the guy on the sidewalk with the "Don't Vote! It Only Encourages Them!" sign. ;-)
Chuck0
Max Sawicky wrote:
>
> Just back from the Nader rally in D.C. Paid attendance
> was reported at 12,000. The crowd was mostly young and white.
> A few observations:
>
> 1. Content of the speeches was thoroughly internationalist. They
> basically rung every bell in the left repertoire on foreign affairs,
> tho I don't recall any mention of the Balkans. Plenty of reference
> to Colombia as the next Vietnam, which I think is an important
> point.
>
> 2. So many issues raised, including in Nader's speech, meant a
> lack of focus. The signature issue -- public financing of election
> campaigns -- is not a great choice. First, it reduces them to
> cheerleading for McCain-Feingold, second it's not clear to me
> that public financing can eliminate 'soft money' in campaigns;
> third, public financing doesn't necessarily help third parties.
> You can think of others.
>
> 3. The speeches were pretty good. Michael Moore, Cornel West,
> Jim Hightower, and Randall Robinson were quite good. These are
> tremendous assets to a movement. West may sound odd in a
> debate or a roundtable discussion because he sounds like he's
> talking to 10,000 people. Well, when he actually has a big crowd
> he is a formidable speaker, practically effortless. Robinson just
> oozes gravitas.
>
> 4. The Greens don't have many blacks, but I predict that will
> change. Robinson is the daddy of the reparations movement.
> During the speeches, two fellows carried a big banner around
> the hall to support 'HR 40', some kind of reparations bill in Congress.
> I already mentioned West. Nader spoke at length about
> DC Statehood. At the end of the event, on stage some people
> unfurled a banner for the "DC Statehood Green Party." In
> past years the Statehood Party was like a mascot of the local
> Dems. It had shrunk to the point where any ten people could
> have taken it over. Looks like that will change.
> A second reason is that one could see in the speeches the
> ingredients of a powerful critique bringing together the abortive
> war on drugs, the incarceration rates, capital punishment, and
> the 'prison-industrial complex.' The Dems finesse of the crime
> issue that helps them get votes makes them vulnerable on
> this front.
> Having Danny Glover (he spoke and read a Langston Hughes
> poem) involved won't hurt either.
>
> 5. Lenin had Latvians. Dukakis had Greeks. Ralph's gonna
> have Arab-Americans. If not the older ones, the kids will be
> coming around.
>
> 6. At this point, I fail to see any rationale for the Labor Party.
> People clearly translate politics as elections. The main reason
> for the LP to keep out of the elections is they had no credible
> candidates, in the sense of someone who could command
> attention like Nader. But that reason does not do them credit.
>
> 7. ISO was hanging around, selling their lit, in full support of
> the Nader campaign. I remember IS
> from 30 years ago, and I knew a few ISO'ers now, but I'd
> be curious to hear what others knew and thought of them.
>
> 8. Nader doesn't use speechwriters, and he should. But he
> did well enough. Needless to say, his appeal is content-driven.
>
> 9. There was plenty of reference to workers and labor issues,
> but it was all from the standpoint of sympathetic outsider. Workers
> were some other folks. Biggest cheers were for demands to stop
> commercial logging.
>
> 10. There was plenty of emphasis on what next, after the election.
> This is where the action is. Tomorrow, I'm looking up the Green
> Party.
>
> mbs
-- << Chuck0 >>
This was the year *everything* changed.
-- Commander Ivanova, 2261
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