It is one thing to put one million individuals in the street for a one-issue demonstration (like the "March for Women's Lives" organized by Planned Parenthood and other liberal non-profits for the benefit of the Democratic Party on April 25, 2004 -- see <http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/040425_march-evening.html>). That's doable (and demonstrably so) in the United States, though I don't mean to say that's a piece of cake either. It is *entirely another thing* to hold a demonstration, like the Million Worker March, which asks participants to *organize ourselves consciously as workers* advancing *a demand for comprehensive reforms that would improve the lot of the working class as a whole*, which requires *a much higher level of political consciousness and organization* than one-issue demonstrations against the Iraq War, for reproductive rights, against the George W. Bush administration, etc. (even though pro-working-class perspectives are implicitly offered here and there in pro-choice, anti-war, anti-Bush, and other demonstrations).
>Demand labor law reform, a reversal of the widening rich-poor gap,
>expanding Social Security and uncapping FICA, and demand a backbone
>from AFL-CIO leaders, and target rank-and-file folks plus the
>general left. . . . Work our butts off to make it happen.
Done and done, but the AFL-CIO leaders have already sent a memo rejecting it (see <http://www.millionworkermarch.org/article.php?list=type&type=7>), and responses of leftists who are not labor activists are uneven at best, as you can see from this listserv itself.
>Promise not to march until 1 million will attend.
When you organize a demonstration (or anything else for that matter), you have to put together an initial organizing committee, decide on its date, time, and location (the ideal lead time for a national mobilization is from six months to one year), and begin to work hard to mobilize for it. Without the firm date, time, and location set in stone, no one can say that she will be able to show up, much less organize buses and vans for it (chartering one bus will cost you at least $2,000, and you want to make sure that everyone who gets on the bus will pay up, except the genuine hardship cases, for whom you need to solicit donations from better-off people who are unable to attend but support it).
>And why siphon away people's energy and stunt their hope and imagination
Are those who do not attend the Million Worker March all doing what they think of as more politically important than it on October 17, 2004? Are they all pounding the pavements, making phone calls, etc. for electoral campaigns for left-wing candidates? Are they organizing something else politically in their communities? Or are many of them watching TV or reading newspapers, feeling outraged by what they see but impotent to do anything about it? -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.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/>