[CrashList] Re: [BRC-DISC] Re:NAder isn't arousing anything

[Amiri Baraka]

THE NADIR OF SOCIAL- DEMOCRATIC LIBERAL POSTURING     Weimar is recycling it's eerie presence , tightening around us today! Ralph Nader's feverish personal "campaign for president" is useful in the sense that in a general way, he raises some issues that , hopefully, like Bradley's gesture, moves the Gore wagon slightly to the Left. But for Nader to insist that his individualistic petty bourgeois  for a moral remaking of the Imperialist state is politically advanced as  the practical politics of our time place and condition,  is sad  and dangerous. Because, only the slowest among us can not see that if Nader takes his , in essence, politically solipsistic show all the way to the hoop, then he will quite simply help Bush get elected!      The politics of individual moral cant is the "protest" politics of the petty bourgeois "loyal opposition" crying out because they think Imperialism can be cleaned up enough (consumer advocacy) for them & some of we, to be INCLUDED.     First, Nader is not that much Left of Gore. His recent speeches, while trying to tighten up his "gap" vis a vis Blacks and oppressed nationalities, is still saccharin covered generality, in the main. Nader is a consumer advocate, at worst, quality control for imperialism's commodities.     NADER CAN ONLY BE ULTIMATELY USEFUL TO THE PEOPLE, IN A PRACTICAL POLITICAL SENSE, IF HE AGREES TO AGGRESSIVELY HELP CREATE A LEFT BLOC.. OF THE MAIN ANTI IMPERIALST ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS AND DEMAND CONCRETE CONCESSIONS FROM GORE!!----      Some of the main groups that should be in such a bloc would be Marxist-Leninist Organizations, including the CPUSA, Freedom Socialists,  Committee of Correspondence, Social Democratic organizations like the DSA, SDA, , Puerto Rican Socialist Party (The Trots and Anarchists abhor the dirty bourgeois electoral arena, that's one characteristic of their objective Opposition to Revolutionary Democratic Struggle, the only real precursor and path to Socialism!) Anti Imperialist Organizations ...both multi national and national in form;  e.g., Black Latino, Asian, Native  Peoples groups, Trade Unions, Black Radical Congress, Black United Front, RNA, NAACP, Pan Africanist, Professional and Academic Organizations, Cultural and Arts Groups, Media Groups, Nation of Islam and American Muslim Mission, Independent Publications and Presses. Consumer Coops, Agricultural Coops, Advocacy Groups, particularly around Welfare, Immigration, Police Brutality. Police Control Boards,     The Congressional and State Legislative Black and Latino Caucuses, ABC LEO, Individual Politcal and Activist figures,and their organizations, e.g., Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, RAndall Robinson, Marable, Gates, West, Afro American, Latino Publishers Groups, Minority and Small Business Organizations, Church related groups,           The Black Radical Congress could put out a call for such a meeting. This letter is a CALL  FROM UNITY AND STRUGGLE NEWSPAPER 808 S.10THST NEWARK NEW JERSEY  973 242-1346  / 1509 FAX     The CPUSA with other  influential groups could put out such a call. The Greens SHOULD join with this effort IMMEDIATELY. The Nation of Islam , because of its call for a Million Family March in October, and Sharpton because of his Aug 26 National Action Group led march on DC , have the public visibility to cooperate importantly in such a call.        Such a meeting must produce A PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM, a multi-national mass document that could  forcefully project the key elements of an actual Anti Impeialist stance and demands on the Democratic party. More importantly, such unity would provide the material basis for a broad  People's Democratic United Front as the basis for the Revolutionary Democratic Workers Party that could begin to do the concrete practical work of creating an mass revolutioanry democratic alternative political structure , that could actually win local elections and create the intense propaganda and agitation network to educate, mobilize and organize the many, to defeat the few.        Either Nader and the Greens abandon the isolated glamour of moral pontification as a Loyal Opposition to Imperialism or they risk the Weimar replay of helping elect the far Right, BUSH 2. I know the choice is between a Murderer (B-2) and a Prostitute (Gore rimes with W....) but folks, that is literally where we are. Being serenaded by the dismally ignorant chorus of Trot-Anarchists, one of who said, "I bet you voted for Clinton". To which we say, I bet you voted (by non-voting)  for Bush. (Note to All  , read The Casebook on Weimar, Univ of Calif, to see how close we are to Weimar 2! Hitler came to power because of a split between Communists and Social Democrats!} Amiri Baraka From: John Woodford To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2000 5:31 PM Subject: [BRC-DISC] Re:NAder isn't arousing anything Michael Albert . promoting Nader, says " What seems missing on both sides, therefore, is recognition that the most important impact of the Nader campaign will be changing the political climate in the country by energizing the left, and that our arguments need to take account of this impact. Take the cases most often bandied about: .. BUT big problem NAder has so far proved himself unable or unwilling to arouse or energize anyone or anything.   He acts more like a Trojan Horse--a sham gift to the erstwhile "left," one sparking no surge, no oomph, little of nothing.     A bigger point--one that shold have been the first of the three the author cited--is, if one votes for Gore under current circumstances, is one then accepting a peculiar American institution in which, under arguments 1 and 2 of the author, one will never see an end to this choice. Under our current model of politics, the perpetual motion machine of mediocrity serving symbolically as a democratic institution while serving in fact as fronts for the Moneybags and Fat Cats, can run on and on.   There will always be a Democrat somewhat like Gore--although it is hoped one cannot be found that is more like a Republican than he and his running mate and their policies (not stuff Gore has espoused but really policies he's supported and enacted--hardly "left"). And there will always be, a few shades more rightist or even further Fuehrer, depending on the era, there will be the Bu-shite.   And we would forever here that commandment: Thou must vote for Gore-tech, lest thou be ruled by Bu-shite. Yet sometimes the Bu-shites win, and lo and behold , as we've seen, things are not much different than they have been or would be under the Gore-tech.   As uninspiring as Nader is, as weak and perhaps phony, if the Democrats conclude that the Gore-Lieberman Southern strategy fails, new folks will have to be installed to give the party access to the pork four years from now. That leaves the left immobilized in an electoral politics swamp, forever mired, forever crying, Oh, Give Us the Lesser, Give Us the Lesser..       As for Cheney. He may be more likely to convert than Lieberman is. *****