[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: After the Elections, What Next?

Thu Nov 25 16:24:27 PST 2004

>
>After the Elections: What Next?
>Mark Dudzic, Labor Party National Organizer
>
>http://www.thelaborparty.org/election.html
>
>There is no question that the outcome of the 2004
>elections must be seen as a stunning defeat for working
>people. Bush will use his "mandate" to attempt to
>steamroll a series of radical new initiatives aimed at
>the very heart of working people's ability to survive
>and to organize on their own behalf. Once implemented,
>many of these changes will take decades to reverse.
>
>Even more disturbing is how the election was apparently
>won. The Republican Party has crafted and perfected a
>message that couples pro-corporate economic policies
>with a populist social conservative appeal. They have
>turned the class anger of millions of mostly
>unorganized, mostly white, workers into a revolt
>against a bi-coastal liberal "elite". This is the stuff
>of which fascism is made.
>
>This does not mean that anywhere near a majority are
>fundamentally committed to the GOP's divisive, punitive
>politics. The real problem is that the Democrats cannot
>and will not offer an alternative vision that speaks to
>people's real, everyday concerns. As Tony Mazzocchi
>constantly pointed out, "If we don't lead the way,
>groups with an ugly agenda will capture the minds of
>our members." Others will drop out altogether,
>convinced that the entire system is corrupt and
>irrelevant.
>
>How long will labor and its allies continue to prop up
>the hollow shell of a party that can't win elections
>and promises, at best, to implement a kinder and
>gentler version of the corporate agenda that has
>devastated the lives of so many working people?
>
>Now is the time for the labor movement to commit its
>resources and activism into shifting the terms of
>debate and building a new working class majority.
>
>The Betrayal of the Activists The stakes were high in
>this election and the drive to defeat Bush mobilized
>unprecedented numbers. Tens of thousands of
>rank-and-file union members volunteered to work on this
>campaign. Many took unpaid time off or traveled to
>distant states at their own expense. They saw this
>election as a fight for their survival. New forms of
>organization also emerged that used the Internet and
>new technologies to educate and mobilize in creative
>and exciting ways.
>
>But the disjuncture between the hopes and aspirations
>of these activists and the policies and positions of
>their candidate was truly striking. Legions of anti-war
>activists campaigned their hearts out for a pro-war
>candidate. Laid-off textile workers and steelworkers
>went to the wall for a man who had never voted against
>a single trade agreement. Lifelong advocates of health
>care as a right devoted their every waking hour to
>elect someone who promised to throw another half a
>trillion dollars down the sinkhole of private,
>for-profit health insurance. It was not Kerry's
>rhetoric or charisma that brought out the passion of
>these people. Rather it was their passion that animated
>a directionless and vapid campaign and almost brought
>it to victory.
>
>And now that the election is over, the Democratic Party
>will surely move further to the right. They will run
>away from their natural base and toward some fictitious
>"center" that itself keeps shifting to the right the
>faster they run toward it. They will frame this call
>for retreat in the "scientific" language of poll
>results and computer simulations. The stalking horse of
>the mythical "swing voter" will be used to supplant the
>aspirations and values of the very real activists who
>keep them in the game.
>
>Change the Terms of Debate This approach flies in the
>face of the lessons we learn in our daily lives as
>organizers and leaders: people are not one-dimensional.
>Their consciousness is constantly being shaped and
>reshaped by the swirl of events, conditions, beliefs,
>relationships, hopes and fears that surround all of us.
>Even those who don't believe in evolution worry that
>their grandmothers have to cut their pills in half to
>make them last until the next social security check.
>Even those who think abortion is immoral fear for their
>children's future in a world where a college education
>is rapidly becoming a luxury for the rich. Even the
>most passionate of gun owners wonder how they will pay
>their heating bill this winter.
>
>We cannot build a new majority by pandering to
>irrational fears and prejudices or privately held moral
>and religious beliefs. The Republicans already own that
>turf. But we can create a new working class
>constituency by changing the terms of political debate.
>History has shown that people will transcend their
>personal ideologies and lifestyle choices if they
>believe that politics can make a real, material
>difference in their lives. We must also reach out to
>those 40% of eligible voters--overwhelmingly poor and
>working class--who did not vote in this election. They
>are the sleeping giants who could form a new majority
>if they believed that government could provide positive
>improvements in their lives.
>
>Kerry did not come close to advancing such a vision.
>His campaign seemed bent on lowering expectations from
>the very beginning. He openly asserted that he would
>not stop job outsourcing and his jobs program boiled
>down to wonkish tax breaks for corporations. Unwilling
>to take on the insurance and pharmaceutical industries,
>he could not promise to make health care a right for
>all Americans. He largely ignored the women's, civil
>rights and environmental movements. Heavily dependent
>on organized labor for funding and ground troops, he
>never once mentioned unions in the four and one-half
>hours of nationally televised debates. And he couldn't
>find a way to forthrightly and unambiguously oppose the
>war in Iraq.
>
>All that Kerry's supporters could do was to point out
>how dangerous his opponent was to the well being and
>security of the American people. While this was itself
>a powerful message, in the end it wasn't enough.
>
>This is the tragedy of American politics: People no
>longer trust government to make a positive difference
>in their lives. An entire generation of workers has
>grown to maturity without any experience of government
>proactively advancing their interests. And as the labor
>movement declines in both numbers and influence, many
>of the same workers have had no experience with unions.
>For decades, our political debates have been dictated
>by the global corporate agenda. A vision of politics
>organized on behalf of the vast majority of people who
>work for a living never makes it to the starting gate.
>
>Politics As Usual Like the Whig Party of the 1850's,
>the Democratic Party seems headed toward oblivion.
>Riven by its own internal contradictions, it is
>incapable of breaking with its corporate masters and
>presenting a clear program that can bring together a
>majority of the American people. While it would be
>naive to expect that labor and its allies can afford to
>completely abandon its relationship with the Democratic
>Party, it would be equally naive to expect that
>relationship to produce any real alternatives for
>working people.
>
>In the absence of any alternative, our political
>activity over the next four years will be reduced to
>preventing catastrophe. Victory will be defined as
>simply surviving for one more day. If that is all we
>do, we will be in the same weak position in 2008 that
>we found ourselves in this year.
>
>We need to do more. Our challenge is to create a new
>politics and set the terms of the debate. We can do
>that by organizing around the issues that neither
>political party is capable of addressing because of
>their corporate ties. The right to health care and
>education; the right to organize, bargain and act in
>solidarity with one another; an all out assault on the
>corporate criminals who are looting our future. These
>are issues that can move millions into a new political
>alignment.
>
>A project this vast cannot be accomplished in the six
>months before an election. We need to start now if we
>hope to build a new movement. And the only force with
>the resources and independence to take on such a
>project as this is the labor movement.
>
>The Crisis in Labor The unions and activists who came
>together to found the Labor Party in 1996 were part of
>an upsurge that also swept new leadership into the
>AFL-CIO, began to win important national strikes for
>the first time in 15 years and seemed on the verge of
>organizing a million new members a year. Fed up with
>four years of Clinton administration sellouts and
>betrayals, we felt that we would fairly rapidly bring
>in the broad labor support necessary to become a mass
>electoral party.
>
>Today, the labor movement is under siege and consumed
>by internal divisions. Its weakness is measured not
>only by the lost strikes and failed organizing drives
>but also by its diminished political capacity to speak
>on behalf of the interests of working people. In some
>states and regions, more workers identify with the
>populist social conservatism of the Bush/Rove team than
>with the lunch bucket politics of the AFL-CIO. That we
>have failed to capture the hearts and minds of these
>workers is a disgrace and a shame.
>
>The debates now raging within labor about its future
>are long past due. They need to be about more than just
>building density and allocating jurisdictions. How do
>we begin to build an independent politics of labor? How
>do we become a real movement again that is seen to
>speak for the vast majority of workers both organized
>and unorganized? How can we build real power for
>working people?
>
>Labor needs its own political party. The opening lines
>of our Electoral Policy say it best: "The Labor Party
>is unlike any other party in the United States. We
>stand independent of the Democratic and Republican
>parties. Our overall strategy is for the majority of
>American people--working class people--to take political
>power." And here we must be frank: we do not have an
>effective Labor Party in this country because the labor
>movement has not met the challenge of creating and
>sustaining one. That is the task at hand.
>
>What Next? How we respond to the loss of this election
>will determine our very survival as a movement. There
>are some basic steps that we need to take now to
>prepare for the kind of bold and visionary independent
>political party that will have the power to build a new
>majority of working Americans:
>
>1. Abandon the Inside Game. We need to embrace the
>reality that we stand on the outside, confronting
>global corporate power. There is no chance that we will
>be called back to the table to get our piece of the
>pie. The sooner we realize this, the easier it will be
>for us to act like a real opposition and seek out new
>allies and new strategies.
>
>2. Promote Clear and Bold Solutions. This is no time
>for policy wonks. Instead of tinkering with the
>Medicare drug negotiating authority, we should declare
>that health care is a right. Instead of trying to
>expand the Pell Grant system, we should call for free
>higher education. We need to build a movement from the
>bottom up around clear and easily understandable
>principles.
>
>3. Shift Resources. The labor movement contributed
>massive amounts of time, energy and resources to the
>failed Kerry campaign. In four years, we will be
>expected to contribute even more to the next Democratic
>candidate. We need to learn from the example of right
>wing social activists and invest in building a real
>base around boldly articulated issues. If we move our
>activists and organizations into well-financed
>strategic national campaigns around issues of concern
>to all working people, if we declare our political
>independence, we can change the national political
>landscape.
>
>4. Deepen and Broaden the Debates. The future survival
>of the labor movement concerns all of us. The debate
>over that future should not be confined to the
>Executive Council of the AFL-CIO. Workers need to be
>involved from the local union level on up. We need to
>talk about political density as well as market density.
>We need to talk about ways of building real power for
>working people that go beyond simple technical fixes.
>
>5. Act Like a Real Movement. All too often labor is
>seen as an interest group that is divorced from the
>reality of the millions of workers and poor people
>struggling to earn a living. While they might hope for
>the wages, benefits and security that go with a union
>job, they may not see that our struggles are
>intertwined with theirs. Whenever we have found ways to
>make our issues resonate with large numbers of
>unorganized workers, we have made advances. We must
>restore our ability to create large-scale social
>turmoil--which is the only real source of our power.
>
>Sometimes a defeat can act as a catalyst for change.
>The crushing of the Pullman Strike over 100 years ago
>led unions to reconsider how they organized workers and
>led Eugene Debs to organize a new movement that broke
>with the Democratic and Republican parties. The
>activism unleashed by this year's election changed many
>people's lives. Fed up with Bush and all that he
>represents, they yearn for a better world. We must
>speak to those millions and build a new politics of
>hope. We must reach out to those who have fallen under
>the sway of populist conservative demagogues and
>present them with an alternative that will make a real
>difference in their lives. We must convince those who
>have concluded that politics is nothing more than a
>corrupt rich man's game that activism can bring real
>change. We must build a Labor Party out of the ashes of
>this election.
>
>Don't mourn, organize!
>
>This is our first contribution to the debate over the
>direction of the labor movement in the post-election
>period. Let us know what you think at
>elections at thelaborparty.org
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand