Organizing the left

joanna bujes joanna.bujes at ebay.sun.com
Thu May 16 10:27:41 PDT 2002


At 06:36 PM 05/15/2002 -0400, Nathan wrote:
>Not because they are some abstract "independent force" but because they spend
>MORE time doing electoral work than the pro-choice movement. I agree that
>the pro-choice movement is too legalistic but their actual electoral
>apparatus is pathetic, as are most liberal groups.

Every time Planned Parenthood calls me for a contribution, which I invariably make, I try to talk to them about organizing folks and criticize the fact that their entire political effort is exclusively focussed on lobbying. Needless to say, this gets no response. They don't even have a "number" they can shuffle me off to.

My gut feeling about a lot of "left wing" non-profit groups is that the leadership is more interested in fluffing themselves up in their hands-clean middle-class positions than in organizing any major opposition to the right-wingers. Planned Parenthood is one example, but there are others.

Joanna



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