At 9:43 PM -0400 10/11/02, JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
> >I read about some of them at
>><http://lpa.igc.org/lppress/lpp61_elections.html>; is this the
>>strategy, winning nonbinding referenda?
>
>Organizing around issues rather than simply candidates, yes. We're working
>on a binding universal health care one in Florida
That's a worthy campaign. Activists may think, though, why they need to join the Labor Party to initiate or participate in such campaigns. Why do they need "another hat to wear," if the LP is not to run candidates with a program including universal health care?
Skipping the part on which I don't disagree with you, I'll move to the part about war and international policy in general:
At 9:43 PM -0400 10/11/02, JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
> >No criticism of -- much less opposition to -- the war on Iraq (not
>>even from the point of view of preventing potential harms to US
>>service personnel that you mentioned earlier) here. Is this as far
>>as the LP can go on international policy?
>
>I know things are moving dizzyingly fast, but if you'll cast your mind back
>to July, when this resolution was passed, or May, when its precursors were
>submitted by locals, you'll recall that invading Iraq was not so much on the
>agenda, whereas Fast Track, for example, was being crammed down our throats
>as a national security issue. Your very own Ohio LP is submitting an anti
>Iraq war resolution to the next national council meeting. I admit I am sort
>of tired of people who say, the LP isn't real if it doesn't do X. (Where X =
>have a resolution against the war, run candidates immediately, endorse Nader,
>take a position on Mumia, etc. etc.) Please. We have the staff and budget
>of a medium-sized union local.
>
>This war in Iraq has the feel of a watershed of sorts. I'm glad WDK said
>what he did about his co-workers in Tampa. My somewhat conservative union
>friends (not left, supported invasion of Afghanistan) are not really in
>support of the Iraq policy. I think it's partially an intense hatred for W
>himself as a rich fuck who represents everything they despise about the
>elite, not to mention his unionbusting. W's losing people on this one, I
>hope a lot of people.
>
>>The thing is, we want neither a Japan nor a hard landing, but we may
>>be in for either anyhow, in part because of our weakness at present
>>and for the last several decades here. Surely such macroeconomic
>>questions affect jobs, health insurance, childcare, wages, work
>>hours, etc.
>
>Yeah, and if we kick less we get less. Go figure.
>
>>Dare I say it, I also think that a program that lacks opposition to
>>the kind of war that Bush & Co. will be waging is neither coherent
>>nor very pro-worker.
>
>Riiiiiight. I guess I just don't see things in this harsh all-or-nothing
>light. I don't think it's a matter of demanding that the LP, or anyone else,
>take a Correct stand on the war, we're talking about some difficult terrain
>here--which I think is shifting--but it does no good to act like the splits
>don't exist. The worker-anti-war split on Vietnam is still there--deep and
>bitter. W. may yet bring us together but he can also rip us apart.
>
>>>To me, the question is how to find the resources to build around the solid
>>>working-class agenda we have, cause people fucking love it when they hear
>>>about it. Abolish insurance companies? Abolish Mondays? Free college?
>>>Where do I sign?
>>
>>A good number of Americans will want to sign it if they ever hear
>>about it, but the LP being what it is, not too many Americans have heard
>about it yet;
>
>And taking a clearer stand against imperialism will, I'm sure, help spread
>our fame far and wide.
Two issues:
(1) If the Labor Party has an ambition to govern the nation one day, like the SP in France and the SDP in Germany, it cannot avoid developing its own international policy, including policy concerning the US armed forces, not just in response to emergencies like the war on Iraq but also to lay out a medium- to long-term vision. Social democratic parties in other nations all have their own international policies, not just policies on workers' rights and social welfare (even the Greens in the USA do!).
(2) Potential constituencies of the Labor Party are those who are not satisfied with the Democrats and the Republicans, mainly the ones to the left of both. Developing a coherent program not just on domestic but also international questions that clearly distinguishes the LP from the two reigning parties, _without_ ignoring or simply pooh-poohing the sort of gut-level sympathy for and solidarity with working-class men and women in the US military (which is _not_ the same as unconditional support for the military brass or imperial wars, as WDK and you noted), is a way of getting those potential members excited about the party. Some Democrats did vote against the resolutions in the House and the Senate to support Bush in his war efforts; some Democrats always will. If the LP has an ambition to one day replace the Dems, it has to offer what the Dems cannot and will not offer, both in domestic and international affairs, especially as domestic and international are inseparable in this age of so-called "globalization."
At 9:43 PM -0400 10/11/02, JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
> >other Americans will want to know how we gonna
>>pay for all that while paying for war and maintaining profits.
>
>Well, to start with, healthcare is cheaper when it's provided publicly. The
>LP program calls confiscatory taxes of CEO earnings over 20 times the average
>wage in a company, as well as other tax changes, so maintaining profits is
>not really on the agenda.
Poor prospects of profits, lower levels of investment, and fewer jobs, though, under capitalism. That's why social democratic parties that have had experiences actually governing nations also have had experiences of imposing wage restraints, social program cuts, and the like on workers, with many of them -- especially the British Labour Party -- by now having transformed themselves into "Third Way" parties. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>