For some people who are committed to the Democratic Party, commitment is rooted in self interest at least in the short term, I think. The Democratic Party still delivers some things for petty producers (e.g., doctors, lawyers, Black, Latino, and Asian small businessmen and -women, etc.) and high- to upper-middle strata of the working class (e.g., university professors, better-paid unionized workers in manufacturing and the public sector, etc.), though even they are on balance losing out to the ruling class, especially in the long term. For poorer workers, who also happen to be mostly either unable or unwilling to vote, the Democratic Party can't and won't deliver, even in the short term. The latter, unfortunately, have yet to get organized.
At 7:39 PM -0700 10/26/04, R wrote:
>i don't see the depth and range of concern in the american people
>necessary for independent political action to be effective. there
>currently is a lot of anxiety about shrub and his pals which
>misleads people into believing there exists the possibility that
>grass roots activism and independent action will be meaningful in
>the future. surely, there are many caring, well meaning people in
>the US; but they don't seem able to work together effectively for a
>long enough period, or have a realistic grasp of the obstacles, to
>create lasting, meaningful change.
It's difficult work in a difficult time, but we need to stay in the struggle, continuing to assert independent political action on the electoral and social movement fronts. Political organizing doesn't come naturally to anyone, so there is no other way for people to learn how to do it unless they learn on their own through trials and errors. Knowledge, skills, experiences of activists and organizers as well as personal networks among them, developed through their political involvement in various struggles, will be the foundation on which they can work more effectively when political circumstances change. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>