----- Original Message -----
Nathan Newman wrote:
>It is pathetic that no leftwing website probably gets one-hundredth as
much
>traffic every day, but the militant liberals are kicking the left's ass on
>organizing right now.
From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> -I'm with you on this up to a point - but what's the post-electoral -strategy? Because if Kerry wins, it can't stop.
As far as I can tell, it's organize, organize, organize. Look at the recent attack by the left on Sinclair for annoucing it was running an anti-Kerry film. I can't remember a consumer assault that's had a visible effect on the stock price in a matter of days. Imagine that same energy tied into more general pro-labor, anti-corporate campaigns.
That's not speculation. There are some very strong union folks among the main posters at the Daily Kos, plus a number of other sites around the blog and netactivism world. SEIU and a number of the major unions are hooking up with them planning for post-election organizing.
Here is what Kos over at the Daily Kos said last Tuesday (an excerpt):
"November is just a battle by kos Tue Oct 12th, 2004 at 16:30:33 GMT
Everyone wants to know what will happen after November 2. The consensus being that traffic will wane (it will) and the blogs will become less important. At least until the next election. But that consensus is wrong. Republicans didn't get to where they are by ramping up every four years and taking it easy in the meantime. They have built a massive infrastructure, and it never sleeps, never rests.
It's a lesson liberals are just now starting to learn.
We can relax in December, but whatever gains we make in November, we'll have to work tirelessly next year to consolidate."
So no one on the militant Dem side of the game is planning on letting up after the election. They are organizing like hell. I used to identify with the left because they were where the action was in fighting for social change. At this point, much of the self-identified "left" is either holding meaningless rallies with the usual suspects or tailing the much more energetic organizing and outreach by the liberals.
The left used to drive social change in a way disproportionate to its membership size due to its energy and ability to engage in mass organizing and outreach. That seems to be on the massive decline right now. Instead, the most interesting story of the last year is the reemergence of liberalism as a dynamic organizing force and the sidelining of the left as the engine of progressive action.
I'd love to see a coherent, dynamic left reemerge that could compete with the liberals for leadership of the mass movement hungering for social change, but I've seen little evidence of it in the last couple of years.
Folks can deny that the blogs like Daily Kos or groups like MoveOn are antiwar organizations, but the fact remains that they are organizing millions of people to oppose the war and mobilize them for action. And they won't stop after November. There will no doubt be splits as some move into slavish support for Kerry for fear of worse action by the rightwing if they don't back him to the hilt, but there will be a large faction of "critical supporters", such as the Deaniacs, who will hold his feet to the fire on the war.
And that will be a far more dynamic force than the few folks claiming they are the "real" antiwar movement because of their purity.
Nathan