[lbo-talk] Self-fulfilling Prophecy

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>I used to repeat these arguments and have even published them in 
>various places. Now I don't know what to think or do. It's true that 
>no mass political party of the left rooted in social movements will 
>happen if someone doesn't actively created it. It's also true that 
>no attempt to actively create such a party has gotten anywhere in 
>the US, for various specifiable reasons well known to all here, and 
>which have not changed at all. There is no particular reason to 
>think that if we keep butting out heads against that wall, that the 
>wall will break instead of our heads.  And sometimes, the recent 
>election was in my opinion an instance, there is a genuine lesser 
>evil. Or anyway a greater one.  I am not sure that the obvious 
>responses, which I can write as well as you, and have done so, are 
>worth making here. I am just reporting that it seems to me that we 
>are at an impasse. It won't last forever, but I do not see a way out.
>
>jks

Let's say we struggle for independent political action on the 
electoral and movement fronts, considering the latter front as the 
primary one, for the next four years.  At the end of the four years, 
we may still not have the party we need, but in the process we will 
have networked with an increasing number of US activists with whom we 
will have worked toward common goals of political, economic, and 
social democracy.

The way John Kerry lost the popular vote (and conceded the electoral 
college vote without consulting rank-and-file Democrats) in 2004, as 
well as the way the Democratic Party lost overall in 2002 and 2004, 
gives us a fighting chance in the next four years.

The political turmoil inside the AFL-CIO that Andy Stern of SEIU is 
causing now may also create additional openings for political space 
on the left.
-- 
Yoshie

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