AUT: Re: [arn-l] AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER

[Bussardre@xxxxxxx]

Regarding the suggestion about "MassRefusal,"   I wonder how many of you have
observed the kind of "MassRefusal"  that I have observed in my own family
among the next generation--ages 25 to 40.

Among my family circle of  11 nieces and nephews, including my own two
daughters, only 3 have "chosen" to have children.  The other 8 are loving family
people--we have gathered together at Easter and Christmas for 35 years--but they
are reluctant to bring children into the world because of the economic and
political climate and all the uncertainties that face families today.

Billee Bussard





In a message dated 3/27/2004 1:53:18 PM Eastern Standard Time, Newdem@xxxxxxx
writes:


> Subj:[arn-l] AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER
> Date:3/27/2004 1:53:18 PM Eastern Standard Time
> From:Newdem@xxxxxxx
> Reply-to:arn-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To:ndworld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ACTNOW2003@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
> five-point-plan@xxxxxxxxxxx, arn-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, care@xxxxxxxxxxx, LABOR-L@xxxxxxxx,
> aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent from the Internet
>
>
>
> I think that this letter will be of interest to those in the antiwar,
> anti-education reform, labor, or revolutionary movements.
>
> Dave Stratman
> Editor, New Democracy
> newdemocracyworld.org
> 5 Burr Street
> Boston, MA 02130
> 617-524-4073
> ******************
> AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER
> March 27, 2004
>
> Dear Ralph:
>
> Before you declared your candidacy, many people, including The Nation
> magazine and other former supporters, called on you not to run for President
> in 2004,
> fearing that your candidacy would lead to George Bush's re-election.
>
> I am writing now to call on you to withdraw from the race, but for reasons
> having nothing to do with George Bush or John Kerry.
>
> You said on "Meet the Press," when you announced your candidacy, that
> "there's a democracy gap" in our country, and I agree.
>
> You said, "There's just too much power and wealth in too few hands,
> increasingly giant corporation hands, that have no allegiance to our country
> or our
> communities other than to control them or to abandon them. They have taken
> over
> Washington."
>
> I agree.
>
> You said, "Washington is now a corporate-occupied territory."
>
> I agree.
>
> You said "corporations are saying no to the necessities of the American
> people. They're saying no to health insurance for everyone, no to tax
> reform, no to
> health and safety standards, no to stopping corporate welfare into hundreds
> of billions, no to straightening out the defense budget..."
>
> I agree.
>
> You said you believe that Al Gore would have invaded Iraq. You said, "He
> would have. I think he was a hawk. He may have done it in a different way."
> You
> said, "[Gore] and Clinton got through Congress a regime-change resolution as
> a
> pillar of our foreign policy."
>
> I agree.
>
> You said, "The corporate government remains in Washington, whether it's
> Democrats or Republicans. The military industrial complex, as Eisenhower
> pointed
> out, is getting bigger and devouring half of the federal budget's
> discretionary
> expenditure.... Washington is corporate-occupied territory, and the two
> parties are ferociously competing to see who's going to go to the White
> House and
> take orders from their corporate pay masters. So...they may be different in
> their rhetoric. But in the actual performance these corporate interests and
> their
> political allies are taking America down. They're taking our country apart:
> massive poverty, massive child poverty, massive consumer debt, environmental
>
> devastation....So, basically, it's a question between both parties flunking:
> one
> with a D-, the Republicans; one with a D+, the Democrats."
>
> Again I agreeâ??though I think this understates the destructive role both
> parties play in American life.
>
> The question is, given the situation you describeâ??a government dominated by
> money and in the hands of corporate power; a duopoly of power between
> Democrats
> and Republicans, who answer to the same corporate paymasters, both of whom
> are tearing our country apart and taking it down; a mammoth, out-of-control
> military-industrial complex with a vested interest in maintaining the
> situation
> dominating the governmentâ??how can we change it?
>
> I agree that it is important to raise these issues and bring them to public
> attention as widely as possible, and I applaud your effort to do that.
>
> But you are as aware as I am that you stand zero chance of winning the
> election.
>
> Even more to the point, you must be aware that no significant change in
> American society has ever come about through the electoral process. Change
> has only
> come about through determined direct action by millions of people. It was
> mass action that organized the first industrial unions in America through
> sit-down strikes and the forcible takeover of factories and mines. It was
> only
> courageous mass action by millions of black people and their white
> supporters which
> resulted in the achievement of civil rights for blacks. It was only the mass
>
> action of millions of Americans in the streets and the frequent refusal and
> rebellions by American soldiers in Vietnam and the heroic struggle by
> millions of
> Vietnamese that brought that war to an end.
>
> The very reasons you offered that impelled you to runâ??a society and a
> government dominated by big money and powerful corporationsâ??make change
> through the
> electoral process more implausible now than ever.
>
> The electoral process has traditionally been used by the corporate
> paymasters
> who rule our country and who own both parties to provide the illusion of
> democracy, divide the populace over secondary issues, and persuade people to
> place
> their hope in the corporate party of their choosing. The electoral process
> is
> used, in other words, to prevent people taking matters into their own hands,
>
> organizing their own countervailing power, and challenging corporate
> domination.
>
> The massive movement against war in Iraq before the war began shows that
> there is a huge swath of people in our country who oppose the disastrous
> path on
> which corporate government is taking us. There is a fault line running
> through
> American society which divides the war-makers from the people. The electoral
>
> process is meant to disguise that fault line, hide its significance from
> people, and once again force them to choose between two corporate parties.
>
> I am writing to ask you not just to resign your candidacy, but to do
> something far more activist and effective.
>
> New Democracy, the organization of which I am part, has called on American
> voters to engage in MassRefusal/2004 (massrefusal.org) We are calling on
> people
> to refuse to vote in this presidential election, this sham vote over which
> representative of the corporate parties will rule us. We are calling on
> voters to
> announce to their friends and to the world that they refuse to take part in
> fake democracy and that instead they are determined to fight for real
> democracy, that they are determined to take our country into their own
> hands.
>
> I am asking you to join us in MassRefusal/2004. I am asking that you
> announce
> to the world that you are resigning your candidacy because what's needed now
>
> is not another candidate but a mass movement to challenge corporate power. I
>
> am asking that you throw in your lot with us. I do not ask that you
> discontinue
> speaking out wherever you can on these issues. Far from it. I ask that you
> redouble your efforts to expose corporate domination of American life
> wherever
> and however you can.
>
> We envision MassRefusal/2004 as only one of many steps in strengthening the
> existing movement to change the direction of our society. It is a step that
> millions of people can take together that makes a strong political statement
> at
> little individual risk. We expect to follow it with other refusals: refusal
> to
> allow the military to recruit our children; refusal to enlist in the
> military;
> refusal to fight endless wars; refusal to work for Empire. We hope that many
>
> who engage in MassRefusal/2004 will come together to plan what to do next to
>
> build the movement.
>
> The situation in our country which you have so penetratingly described is
> extremely serious; on this, I know that we agree. President Bush has
> promised a
> future of endless war; candidate Kerry has said nothing to indicate that he
> has
> any other course in mind. And how could he, really? As you have made clear,
> the course of US government policy is not really in the hands of elected
> officials but in the hands of their corporate paymasters.
>
> The future is indeed frightening, but it is also full of hope. The
> magnificent resistance of millions of Americans to the lies and war
> propaganda of the
> Republican/Democrat/corporate machine shows that we have a firm foundation
> of
> shared anti-corporate values on which to build for a second American
> revolution.
>
> I hope you will join us now.
>
> For New Democracy,
>
> Dave Stratman
> Editor, New Democracy
> newdemocracyworld.org
> 5 Burr Street
> Boston, MA 02130
> 617-524-4073



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