On Jan 31, 2010, at 7:38 AM, Julio Huato wrote:
> I've been arguing with colleagues, friends, and myself about whether
> -- nationally -- the left should focus its work mainly on (1) a DP
> insurgency or on (2) agitation and organization of mass actions.
>
> If (1), whether the insurgency should be organized around (i) an
> "elegible" leading figure (Russ Feingold) or (ii) an "unelegible" but
> more clearly lefty one (Denis Kucinich, Michael Moore).
I don't have the time for a fuller response, which I'd like to take up later, but just one point for now: why focus on any figure? Why not organize around specific issues, like the living wage or single-payer? (I.e., like the Working Families Party without the electoral compromises it often makes.) Those seem far more possible, and the act of fighting for something specific can unite a lot of people (and would probably be a better antidote to racism than a round-the-clock regimen of Tim Wise lectures). Figures like Feingold and Moore are just individuals, and poor vehicles for a movement. They might be useful allies, and a movement of the sort I'm evoking would push at least some of the better Dems in a better direction - but focusing on the personalities seems very risky to me.
Doug