>Most of the Labor Party supporters I know have grown disgusted with the LP's
>abstention from politics. Sure, it's great to organize around issues, but
>that's not the point of a PARTY, is it? If "objective conditions" aren't
>ripe to be running people for office (and I'm not sure when they will be, if
>not now...), then why form a political party? The whole line of thinking is
>a tangled rag of incoherence.
I don't agree. For a tiny, young party to start running candidates runs the risk of celebrity-chasing; this is one of the many problems of the Nader candidacy. The focus on elections is distracting and depoliticizing. It makes much more sense to me to try to sign up members, build an organization, and fight around specific issues that could aid the organization-building. Otherwise you end up like the New Party, which has turned out largely to be a support group for "progressive" Dems in a handful of political backwaters.
Doug