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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Joshie wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>"BTW, even
though the Million Worker March organizers are critical of <BR>the Democratic
Party (e.g., <BR><</FONT><A href=""><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/tyner10152004/</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>>), <BR>the march's demands read more like the
program of a political party <BR>than the slogans of a demonstration, and both
the Green Party and the <BR>Nader/Camejo campaign endorsed the Million Worker
March, the march <BR>organizers didn't cross the Rubicon and explicitly come out
in <BR>support of the Green Party or Nader/Camejo or any new political party
<BR>on the left. They chose to assert independent political action on
<BR>the social movement front, not on the electoral front."</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Though I was
physically unable to join Charles Brown and the Detroit contingent to the MWM, I
watched the several hours that C-span provided. If Charles took the bus,
he'll be on the road till sometime this evening. Ten
thousand participants can be objectively disappointing if one
uses numbers criteria to judge success. But what if we
use message content to judge success? The speakers I raptly
watched used terms like "capitalism" and "socialism." These kinds of
terms are very rare in movement public discourse. One speaker pronounced
"we need a labor party."</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>It made me
think, "Well, we already have a Labor Party, but it's moribund."
</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I further
thought that, as intended by the MWM organizers, this demo may be
an important opening salvo in the most current phase of class
struggle. After C-span shifted from MWM to coverage of Bush-Kerry, I
looked over the program demands of some recent political action groups that are
worker based. About 1994-5, Labor Party organizers began
assembling a remarkable package of 'Economic Justice' demands that, if
enacted, would bring capital to heel and enhance the working class. This
class-based, economic program was then fully adopted by Ralph Nader (with the
help of LP head Tony Mazzocchi) and inserted in the Green Party platform at its
2000 Denver convention. Prior to this, class was only lightly touched
on in Green politics. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I also reviewed
programmatic material from U.S. Labor Against the War and found that class was
deeply imbedded therein, but it embodied more of an international
dimension than did the Labor Party 10 years ago. Then I remembered USLAW's
national conference on 10/24/03 in Chicago where I heard Clarence
Thomas report on his just-returned visit from Iraq (post-'Mission Accomplished')
where a small USLAW delegation met with Iraqi labor leaders. Thomas'
report clearly was about class struggle. Many earlier activists/leaders of
the Labor Party were part of this meeting.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Then I reviewed the "Million Worker March List of
Demands" and found it to be an update of and complement to the Labor Party
program, adding important elements re. the environment (thanks to the Greens),
democracy, civil liberties (thanks perhaps to the ACLU, NAACP, etc),
etc. MWM demands were domestic, and didn't include solidarity with workers
abroad, for whatever reason. Nevertheless, I see MWM demands as emerging
out of lists of demands put together by other
class-struggle-based, but slightly divergent, sets of unionized workers
and worker-supportive organizations (not NGOs). There is a rapid
evolution of programmatic synthesis of the importance of class. This
is emerging from left logic and human necessity, and being
expressed in various documentary forms.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But the MWM expressed an element of that logic and
necessity that is critically necessary, and relatively unique these days:
the leadership of those who represent the most oppressed and
exploited. The 60s taught many the importance of such a principle, but it
was not followed very scrupulously by progressives in the following
decades. We may finally have enough knowledge and fortitude to put
the race-class package together coherently. Yoshie
mentioned that Theresa El-Amin had told of Black trade unionists
converging on D. C. early on to network and plan, especially on the South.
That reminded me of the year 1997 when Theresa and I seemed to be on the same
side of a volatile race-class debate being held on the old Labor Party
email discussion list (some on LBO were on the old LP list). Racism, etc
was being charged. In practice, however, I believe the best of the old
Labor Party was expressed in locations where minority rank and file (in or out
of unions) guided the action in principled ways.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bob Mast</FONT></DIV>
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