IPA is top down & most of its 'troops' probably still prefer that -- but still....
"Base" is perhaps a misleading term here (as Michael S has suggested). If the DP has one, it consists not of workers (mere voters) but of the shrinking numbers of local union leaders & other DP 'regulars.' We had our regular 30-minuted anti-war demo today. Large numbers of cars responded to our signs (honk for peace). They are a potential constituency, but not a base.
I talked to a Mennonite couple last night after a talk given by a retired Air mechanic and union activist from the Bay area (he had been in Egypt). They are clearly part of our base -- what we talked about was pulling all the various Church social committees together in a central Illinois anti-warcoalition. A methodiest woman who came over from Peoria told of going to some national convention, where a woman asked her if her group was Christian. She replied that she was Christian, but she worked with whoever opposed war. The woman lost interest in her. So there are (as one would have guessed in any case) quite different 'tendencies' within religious anti-war people.
Carl Fenimore (the speaker from California mentioned above) also spoke May 1 at a rally held by the local Latino group (Latinos Unidos para Cambio). He noted that unions had been powerful in the early '50s, but they focused on health benefits for their members, not a National Health Service for everyone; about raises for their members, not a higher minimum wage for everyone -- and the reward 50+ years later, those powerful unions had shrunk to a miserable 8% of the workforce. We'll be talking to him a gain this weekend at the Labor Notes Convention in Chicago.
Carrol
P.S. All those old radicals now linked to the DP are evidence for my thesis that history teaches no lessons, because if there is any lesson the history of the last 70 years teaches is how disastrous relations to the DP are for leftists.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of michael yates Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 8:42 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: [SPAM_ISU] :[lbo-talk] Spanish promiscuity or German erectile dysfunction?
If the Democratic Party has a base, wouldn't it be best for the left, such as it is, to focus its attention on that base? And if this is so, then there are many ways to do this, and especially now that various mass actions, such as OWS, the Wisconsin uprising, and the like, have shown that the base is restless and ready for action. Why hurl insults at one another? People in the cornfields can do what they can there, and people in the big cities can do the same. Some are good at big things, some at small, but aren't all needed? Some are good organizers, some are good writers, some are good at logistics, and so forth. And maybe the fact that some have had to make compromises to secure unity isn't relevant to others in other circumstances. I will say one thing that I am pretty certain about. The Democratic Party is the enemy of the "base." It will never not be the enemy. So let's not decry the evils of capitalism and then hold our noses and vote for Obama and the Dems. That's t!
alking left and walking right. Better not to vote. I last voted for a Dem president in 1972. And even McGovern is now an asshole. Fight with and for the base. ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk