Re: [Marxism] Greens to be on Ohio State Ballot

[Marvin Gandall <marvgandall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis wrote:

> Marvin G.:
> > My strong sense is that dissenting Democrats like Cindy Sheehan and
> > Cynthia
> > McKinney don't have a sectarian view of the Greens as "vote splitters" and
> > feel much closer politically to them than to the DP leadership.
>
> These are not the typical "dissenting" Democrats. In NYC, you have liberal
> Democratic Party clubs. An old friend of mine, who was in the
> Revolutionary Union in the 70s (Avakian's group that later became the RCP)
> was active in the Upper West Side Democrats but dropped out in disgust
> about 10 years ago and became a GP member. The social base of the DP in
> NYC consists of schoolteachers, union functionaries, social workers,
> retail shop owners, doctors, etc. They *do* have a sectarian view of the
> Greens and wish that they would go away. These people will only be
> persuaded to join the Greens if it becomes a powerful force but they have
> Trojan horse in the GP that is doing everything it can to keep the GP
> impotent (Ted Glick, Medea Benjamin, et al.)
==========================
No doubt there are many Democrats like those you describe who are only
mildly disgruntled with their leaders. But Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia
McKinney can't be as unrepresentative of the DP left as you suggest. Sheehan
is on the board of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and McKinney
is a DP congresswoman. They are both known nationally; Sheehan is the best
known internationally of anyone on the US left, except perhaps for Noam
Chomsky and Micheal Moore. Neither got to where they are without a
substantial following and they can't be that out of step with their
constituencies.

If either announced they were quitting the Democrats to join the Greens
because of Iraq, it would be get national coverage. I'd certainly be
impressed. It would suggest to me that a political realignment was underway
which threatened the DP hold on the liberal left. More to the point, a
defection of this sort would make an enormous impression on those rank and
file Democrats across the US - and they are not a few - who are increasingly
disaffected from the leadership, and give the Greens a greater opening and
credibility than they have ever had. Your view makes it appear that most
Democratic dissidents would greet the news with a yawn, and that it is
really relative unknowns like Ted Glick and Medea Benjamin who hold the key
to altering the relationship between the two parties.

I don't think it's necessary for Green party supporters to drop their
criticisms of the DP and join the Democrats - or vice-versa - for the
reasons I mentioned previously. But I do think there are solid grounds for
working together today, and letting history decide how things shake out
tomorrow - which it will do anyway. Joaquin Bustelo's recent accounts of how
he conducted himself in coalition work with Latino activists, the majority
of whom identified with the DP, provides a template. When support for the DP
was proposed, he did not think it necessary "to make a huge stink about it,
just make the point that I don't agree and move on, trusting that the actual
experience of people, rather than preaching, would clarify this issue."
Maybe it will require a real mass struggle of the kind Joaquin is engaged in
for his approach to become generalized across the left.




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