-Caveat Lector-
from David McReynolds
---------- Forwarded message ----------
The Socialist Party
has its convention October 15-17 in New Jersey. At that time I will seek
nomination as the Socialist Party's candidate for President in the year 2000.
I had been asked during the last year or two if I was considering running
"ever again" (and at 69 "ever again" has a limited shelf life). I said no.
I'd done it once. I was glad I'd done it, it was certainly a real honor,
but a Presidential campaign, even for a small party which will be lucky to be
on the ballot in 15 states, is a drain not only on the candidate but on many
others who work at least as hard on petitioning, fund raising, arranging
speaking dates, etc.
However a "Draft McReynolds" committee was formed, without consent, much less
my knowledge, sometime in May and on June 9th several of the younger members
of the Socialist Party asked me to join them for dinner at one of the
inexpensive Indian Restaurants on East 6th Street, here in Manhattan, at
which time they handed me a letter signed by a number of SP members and, more
important to me, people who were not in the SP, urging me to run for
President on the Socialist Party ticket.
I said it would take me a while to think the matter through. I finally said
I would let them know on August 1, which I did, and an announcement went out
to the Socialist Party's list shortly after that saying that while I could
not in conscience be drafted (having refused that honor during the Korean
War, I could hardly submit to it now), I would volunteer to run.
My reasons for seeking the nomination are both political and, in a narrower
sense, organizational. In the political sense, I believe the tradition of
democratic socialism has been largely ignored in this country. Too many
people think "the Left" is represented by Workers World, the International
Socialist Organization, the Socialist Workers Party, or the Communist Party,
etc. I mean no disrespect to those groups, which hold their beliefs
sincerely (and fiercely), but the traditions of a radical but peaceful
approach to social change, a tradition which champions both social justice
for all, with respect for the political and religious rights of all, must be
revived. And that is the great tradition of the Socialist Party, of Eugene
Victor Debs, Norman Thomas and Frank Zeidler. Our numbers are indeed few. But
the ideas for which we struggle are ideas which have animated humanity from
the dawn of civilization - freedom, decency, fairness, peace, justice. And we
know, having learned at great cost, that these ideas, which seem so simple
they should be shared by all, can in fact, be carried into reality only by
great and prolonged struggle.
Also I am stunned so many on the broader left were captured by Bill and
Hillary Clinton, so much so that even on the Balkan War, which was so clearly
a violation of the United Nations Charter, many felt they had to support
Clinton. (And some, alas, felt they had to support Belgrade and overlook the
horrendous violations of human rights in Kosova ordered by Milosevic.)
We hear talk from both Republicans and Democrats about the need to cut the
federal budget - but no one is willing to aim a spear at that sacred cow, the
military budget. In fact, we have accepted the militarization of our country
to such a degree there is little opposition to seeing the ROTC program
carried into our High Schools. We are not even ashamed - or aware of - the
fact our nation is now the largest seller of "conventional weapons" in the
marketplace of the world. Weapons destined for oppression in lands as distant
as Indonesia. We hardly seem aware that our nuclear weapons program continues
at full tilt, as if the Cold War had never ended.
There is silence on the fact we have now become a "Gulag nation," with the
largest numbers of men and women in prison of any nation on earth - and that
these prisons are being turned into an industry - prison labor is now
competing with free labor. There is no outrage at the vast number of young
African American males who have lost their voting rights because of felony
convictions and approach the job market with this impossible strike against
them.
There is no willingness to demand a single payer medical system. We are
concerned only about making sure the middle class has decent medical care.
What about the poor? What happened to that compassion for the poor which once
marked our political life? Where is a voice raised on their behalf? For the
immigrants whose wages are so low and living conditions so poor?
Where is our concern for providing decent housing at low rent for the
millions in sub-standard housing?
There is no hint in the major parties that capitalism is the main reason for
our foreign interventions and the incredible string of human rights
violations these interventions have triggered.
We seem to think we can tackle the environmental problems without dealing
with the profit motives that to a great extent have generated those problems.
We talk about a low minimum wage when we might better talk about a "maximum
wage" - such that no CEO in the nation could earn more than, let's say, four
times the lowest paid worker in the country.
We have waged a war on "drugs" which has created a federal agency with a
vested interest in continuing the supply of drugs - we have chosen prison
rather than education or rehabilitation or simply, in the case of most drugs,
decriminalization.
We have spent decades discussing the issues of race without understanding
that the issue of racism is linked to class and we must lift employment
opportunities at decent wages so that those on the bottom rung have a chance
to get out of the terrible "lock" of a permanent underclass. More even - that
they have a chance to take an active part in the political life the nation.
We have finally come to accept women's rights as a valid issue but we are not
yet clear that on the issue of abortion a woman must have a genuine right of
free choice - either to have an abortion or to have a child with medical and
financial help. We have made great progress on the issues of gay and lesbian
liberation - progress, which as a homosexual who "came out" in 1969, I can
measure with amazement. But it is a battle that is not yet won.
We have hundreds of billions for the military but we have failed to see that
we must rebuild our national network of railroads as one part of shifting
away from an economy based far too heavily on fossil-fuels. We have cities,
such as Los Angeles, where the public transit is so poor that "cars have won
the battle", meaning the elderly are trapped in their homes.
The Socialist Party represents to me a concern about these and many other
issues. It represents, of course, the drive to achieve the social ownership
and democratic control of major corporations, the rights of workers to take
direct part in the decisions in their plants.
But it also represents compassion of a very different order than that of
George Bush Jr., whose "consevative compassion" is that of the Corporate
State, determined to maintain rule by a tiny elite. The Socialist Party
represents a compassion which seeks to liberate those who rule us from that
burden, which seeks to free not only the nonviolent offenders now in prison,
but those men and women who, as their guards, are no less trapped.
The Socialist Party has not yet adopted its platform. The full details of
that platform, when adopted, and of my campaign, if I am nominated, can be
obtained from our web site: http:.//votesocialist.org/
If you want information on the Socialist Party send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you can help with petitioning and want to be part of the campaign, contact
the Campaign Manager, Shaun [EMAIL PROTECTED]
And if you want a copy of our monthly magazine, which in itself has been one
of the strongest reasons to believe in the revival of the Socialist party,
send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and ask for the latest issue.
I have been deeply impressed by the growth of the membership in the Socialist
Party, primarily among young people, so that it is now over a thousand, the
highest point in some years. I'd like to use the campaign to build both the
ideas of the Socialist Party and its framework so that both in elections and
through education, demonstrations, mass actions, etc., the ideals of Debs are
given a new life for our time, when politics has been haunted and shadowed by
furtive men funded by great wealth. And that we can oppose the major parties
with a "politics of radical compassion". And that we can help create new
ideas and make sure they have a home in the market place of the nation. Yes,
in a sense, I say "demand the impossible".
This is being sent out now because our plans for a press conference are put
over to early September and in the meantime the Left should be aware that the
Socialist Party will almost certainly enter the electoral arena with vigor. I
myself will be out of town until early September but eager to find all
possible media outlets and opportunities for discussing the political issues
which will dominate our campaign.
I wish it did not need to be said, because it is so obvious - we cannot win
the election, nor carry even one state. The ballot laws are rigged against
minor parites, and the Socialist Party has no corporate donors (small
surprise) and very few millionaires (if any) among its members. But if any
fear we might possibly take votes from "the lesser of two evils" I would
counter that so many today refuse to vote, the disgust with the political
whore house is so deep, that the votes we get will come from the young, from
those who had given up hope, from those who would not have wasted their time.
I want to build a new sense among Americans that politics do count, that just
as the massive civil disobedience campaigns of the Civil Rights movement, of
the Vietnam peace movement, of the Act Up movement - movements in which I
took part and in the course of which I was arrested more than once - all
helped create political changes. Electoral politics is not disconnected from
those actions, but is another weapon in the hands of the American people.
In Solidarity,
David McReynolds
New York City
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