[lbo-talk] Sam Smith on the Nov 3rd movement

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Mar 3 18:38:09 PST 2004


Carrol Cox wrote:


>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.

Not exactly - it's by people who agree on some things and disagree on others talking to each other, as the paragraph you quoted shows:


>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.

And getting Reds, Greens, and left-liberal Dems to talk to each other is a pretty tall order, as this list shows in miniature.

Doug



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