Response to Amiri Baraka's post from JoeMosley.
Subj: [CrashList] Re: [BRC-DISC] Re:NAder isn't arousing anything
Date: 9/5/00 6:58:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Amiri Baraka)
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Art McGee)
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!
JoeMosley - So what, would that be the end of the world? We survived Nixon
and Bush, we have Clinton, now you hope that we will "move the Gore wagon
slightly to the left." Is that what you would call progress? I don't! I
believe that the progressive members of our society have treated Clinton and
will treat Gore as how a teenager who has been sodomized by her boy-friend,
is hurt, disturbed and ambivalent, but does not make a fuss because she
believes that he loves her. While if she was penetrated by another, she would
scream rape and seek reprisals. If a Republican was in the White House,
progressives would not forgive and forget: the sordid Lewinski affair; the
"three strikes and you are out" mandatory judicial sentencing; the mandatory
punitive sentences for "minor" crack violations compared to the "slap on the
wrist" for "minor" cocaine violations; the unfair implementation of "welfare
to work-fare" reforms; and the list could go on...
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.
JoeMosley - Please tread carefully Mr. Baraka, in your zeal to trivialize
Nader, your bias is showing. You conveniently fail to recognize that Ralph
Nader and Winona LaDuke were nominated by the Association of State Green
Parties, they were drafted by the ASGP and they are running on the ASGP
platform. They are also building a party that is free from the corrupting
influence of greedy corporations, a party that is challenging the hegemony of
the corporate controlled Democratic and Republican parties. Win or lose, the
Green Party will change the political paradigm, detain the creeping
plutocracy (what I believe you call Imperialism) that is perverting our
democratic institutions and facilitate the emergence of other political
parties.
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!!----
JoeMosley - There is a very important kernel of wisdom in this statement, Mr
Baraka, but I would phrase it differently, i.e., NADER CAN BE USEFUL TO THE
PEOPLE, IN A PRACTICAL POLITICAL SENSE, IF HE AGREES TO AND SUCCEEDS IN
HELPING TO CREATE A BLOC OF ANTI-PLUTOCRACY ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS TO
DEFEAT BOTH GORE AND BUSH. Please be consistent Mr. Baraka, in one sentence
you belittle those who think they can clean up "Imperialism" and in another
sentence you want to create a bloc to demand concessions from the "High
Priest" of the "Imperialists." You cannot have it both ways Sir!
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,
JoeMosley - I would "give my right arm" to see a cohesive bloc of these
organizations, but their potential would be wasted "demanding concrete
concessions from Gore. In my opinion, a bloc of this magnitude could propel
Nader into the White House and exact concrete concessions from his
administration.
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.
JoeMosley - I sincerely hope that I am wrong, but I perceive in this
statement the effect of what I choose to call "the crabs in a bucket
syndrome." Put a bunch of crabs in a bucket and they will try to claw their
way out but they only succeed in dragging each other back into the bucket.
Eventually very few, if any, manage to escape. Their action may not be
malicious, none-the-less, the effect is devastating.
JoeMosley - Nader and the ASGP have a platform, Min. Farrakhan and the
Nation of Islam has a National Agenda, The National Coalition of Blacks for
Reparations in America (N'COBRA) have a plan. Surprisingly, there is no
dichotomy between these initiatives. Each of these organizations could adopt
the documents of the others without making major changes in their own
document. How many of the organizations that you mention are in the same
situation? Instead of trying to derail the Nader campaign why not support
this effort as a first step in a movement to dismantle the "duopoly" and
create a level playing field for all parties?
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
JoeMosley - Mr. Baraka, I believe your Weimar analogy is a bit off base. In
Weimar, the Communists and Social Democrats had the upper-hand which they
lost because of the split. Today Democrats and Republicans have the
upper-hand, we have nothing. What can we lose? In conclusion, why vote for
the lesser of two evils when there is a better choice?
_______________________________________________
Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
