A little more detail on which levels to run campaigns on: on the State-wide or Presidential level one cannot possibly win, so the aim here should be to sabotage the smooth functioning of the two-party electoral system by denying the Democrats office. This is where the right wing of that party is located anyway. That we already have the potential to do that is the main revelation of the Nader campaign. Of course, we can expect a big flame from reform-minded trade union officials and many other official movement leaderships, (I personally relish the prospect) but these only support the Democrats at this level because they think they can win. Once they realise that the Democrats can't win (or win enough) at this level, they'll have to come up with a different tactic, but they'll now have to relate themselves to us in a manner other than by simply showing us their backsides. These campaigns can of course be useful for drawing in radical activists - away from the Democrats.
On a more 'local' level, from Congressional and State assembly districts on down, as well as municipal office, the aim should be to try to win by concentrating on the most 'progressive'/working class districts, those where the Republicans get less than 15% of the vote and have no chance of winning. There can be no talk of 'lesser evils' here; the Democrats have these districts locked up if we don't oppose them, and always have a good chance of winning even if we do oppose them. Again, we will incurr the wrath of the same political spectrum mentioned above, this time from the 'progressive wing' of the office-holding Democratic party politicians and their coteries. But there is much to gain in the effort. It will force, if not 'stimulate' a badly needed debate within the broad Left. Above all, it can be the organizational frame for uniting 'our own' communities, which should be the same as politically uniting the working class in those locales. The most immediate task along these lines is to bridge the gap between the middle class progressive radicals of all political stripes (who in California, at least, aren't neccessarily white, especially in the Bay Area, which only emphasizes the class character of this divide) and the almost entirely non-white lower and middle working class (again, especially in places like California or Texas, except that Texas is missing the pivital Asian sector). This was another feature that the Nader campaign revealed.
In the coming recession, we don't need more Rodney King riots out here, we need to advance beyond this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- Madonna? I always preferred Pat Benatar (N.J.) in "Seven the Hard Way"
What are we waiting for? We have the right to be angry What are we running for? When there is nowhere we can run to anymore
We can't afford to be innocent Stand up and face the enemy
It's a do or die situation We will be invincible
Yes, that reminds me of the white racist s.o.b. (I will never forgive those m-f-rs) working class east side of my birth, "Ballmore", MD, with its Bethlehem Steel mill shipyard kamikaze blasting GM auto assembling plant neighborhood.
-Brad Mayer
Oakland,CA
> Brad Mayer wrote:
>
> >But at least the Labor Party can remain "forever young", and forever
> >irrelevent.
>
> So how to become relevant? Organize whom, run which candidates in
> what elections on what platform?
>
> Doug
>