[lbo-talk] Tariq Ali endorses Kerry, denounces Nader

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Oct 29 14:09:32 PDT 2004


Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:


>John Kerry is likely to be the next POTUS.

Who knows? Maybe so, and maybe by 5 points. But who knows?


> Will Mr. Tariq Ali be advocating a vote for the Republican
>presidential candidate in 2008, on the grounds that "you have to
>punish him, and the best way to punish him is to remove him from
>office" and "[t] here's no third party"?

I can't speak for Tariq, but how would anyone know what to do four years from now? Or are you so rigid that you always know exactly how you'll act regardless of the circs?

There is no third party worthy of the name. The Greens are barely at the toddler stage. Ralph is a celebrity, not a party. He's a petit bourgeois small biz type running with someone who was once and may still be a Marxist, with no organization to speak of anywhere in the U.S.

That said, I completely agree with Tariq when he said?


>Then you come to Kerry. As I said, pressure should be put on Kerry
>from Day One. If he carries on with the war, attack him. But the
>position would be clear: we removed Bush because he went to war, and
>if you carry on with the war, then you could be removed as well. You
>won't serve a second term either. I honestly can't see any argument
>against this. People who say, "Are you advocating a vote for Kerry,
>you sellout," my response is, are you seriously advocating that Bush
>should stay in power? Because that's the alternative.

He also said in a part of the interview I didn't transcribe that should Kerry win, his inauguration should be the occasion for the largest antiwar demo in U.S. history. I agree with that as well.

I'm uploading the audio files of the full interview now.

Doug



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