Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> [barf bags with "Vote for Kerry" inscribed on them is a nice idea]
>
> THE ELECTION IS OVER WE LOST Now on to November 3rd
>
> Sam Smith [Progressive Review <http://provev.com>]
> [clip]
> Two unusual rules could prevent this from turning into the sort of
> internecine blood bath that progressives seem to love. The first
> would be that the only issues discussed would be those about which
> there was a reasonable opportunity of agreement. The second would be
> that agreement would not be expressed by majority vote but by some
> form of census.
>
> This is not a fantasy. One of the steps taken that led to the
> creation of the national Green Party - out of state groups and
> factions that had plenty of differences with each other - was a
> national conference attended by 125 members of over 20 third parties
> ranging from the socialists and one of the last members of the
> American Labor Party to Greens, Libertarians and members of Perot's
> Reform party. At the end of the weekend we had full consensus on 17
> issues and a high degree of agreement on others. Even some of us who
> had organized the conference were stunned.
In other words, as I have been saying for years -- not as my own invention but as what everyone knows who tries to do anything -- that the way a mass movement gets going is by people who already agree with each other talking to each other.
Carrol