On Fri, 9 May 2008, Doug Henwood wrote:
> If I were to give a serious answer to Charles's question it'd be to
> organize around specific issues, like single-payer health care, both to
> achieve the specific goal and to build a movement, and forget (for now)
> the presidency
I couldn't agree with you more. My only question is how. I'd be willing to give substantial amounts of time and energy and creativity if someone could show me a political business plan to realize this goal where my contributions made sense. The Labor Party method of passing referendums is extremely laudable, but I don't see how it adds up. They've had lots of victories that no one has ever heard of and it seems at a distance like it could go on that way forever. The Physicians for a National Health plan turns out one great piece of information after another other (not least being your interviews with Steffie Woolhandler), both topical and deep background, and they have an advanced program of training organizers and getting them to give talks. But having mingled with them, I didn't see any real role for non-physicians.
Isn't it possible for those us who believe this is the nazz issue to organize in way that makes sense? Some of us organize a website where all the arguments were easy to access; others a speaking bureau; others a media response and outreach department; others a legislative pressure that organized people single issue style the way Vigurie started doing in the 1970s? As Pierre Bourdieu proposed during the Kosovo war, isn't it possible to organize some kind of progressive think tank that's based on wiki type organization rather than money? We have people, we have knowledge, we have energy, we have conviction. What we don't seem to have yet is a model for how to pull it together in a way that works today. And the ways that worked in yesteryear have such a stink of failure about them that it's almost impossible to convince anyone to come on board.
Michael