>If American leftists had built a mass political party on the left, instead
>of supporting the Democratic Party, they could have developed and sustained
>a newspaper like the _Akahata_,
This is only a matter of opinion. There is absolutely no reason why the left (socialists and communists) can't follow the view that defeating the far right because of the immediate danger it poses to democracy etc. and still have a mass circulating publication or several of them as part of a mass movement. Remember, over 56 mllion people voted against Bush. That is pretty mass, and given that the Democratic Party is a shell of its former self, that was accomplished by political forces, for the most part, outside of the Party's machine. As you have pointed out time and again what one does after pulling the lever is the signature difference between the left and the center.
>No mass political party on the left -> no mass-circulation daily newspaper
>on the left.
I agree with this. But publications are also a starting point for organizing. So if you publish things that appeal to just a few thousand people (all of the journals you mentioned --ATC, S&S, CNS, MR, SR--combine at about 8,000 subscribers, maybe--it's impossible to say what the overlap is--) in a country of 300 million, isn't a real starting point for mass anything. These are very important journals, and I think everybody should get a subscription, if they can afford it, but a mass publication intent on building a mass party (or coalition of parties) has to move millions not just a few dozen people. I don't think the marxist/socialist/communist left has got a handle on how to do that right now.
In my opinion, blaming the broad left's electoral line is too simplistic. If anything the broad left's anti-bush electoral policy put it closer to the mass of working class voters.
A(nother) meeting among publishers and writers who claim to speak with working class voices--and who are primarily interested in the question of circulation development, writing, production, promotion, organizing readers etc. might be worthwhile--as long as we all left our sectarian hangups--myself included--at home.
all my best,
Joel Wendland