[Marxism] Elaine Brown Speaks For Me

["Sky Keyes-Vogt" <skeyesvogt@xxxxxxxxx>]

I think Elaine Brown is right on with her criticisms of the Green Party.  I
was once a very enthusiastic member of the Green Party in CT and even now as
a former member - still - its sad to see the course that the party is
taking.  I think we all wouldn't mind seeing a strong 3rd party to the left
of the Democrats, but the Green Party leadership seems hell-bent on
thwarting that from happening.  The whole one person/one vote issue has been
discussed in detail on this list so I will only mention it in passing as
most likely the lynchpin issue that affects all others.  What I'll focus on
is the resistance by supposedly such a progressive party towards becoming
something minorities can relate to and associate with.  Here we have (had)
two strong black women willing to stand for party leadership (presidential
candidacy) and hopefully bring in more minorities into the party, and the
formal party leadership seems to be scared of both of them.

Does anyone remember Nader's little spat with the
african-american Green Party member Elizabeth Horton Sheff (of Sheff vs.
O'Neil fame)?  For those of you who forgot it went something like this:

Elizabeth Horton Sheff said, "His appeal is not broad enough to reach my
community."   And Nader responded something to the effect of 'I was marching
for civil rights when she was in diapers.'

At the time I was surprised that Ms. Sheff would criticize the godfather of
the Greens, but after careful consideration I realized she was totally
right:  Ralph Nader has almost no appeal to minorities, something i
witnessed when I tried to appeal to minorities to vote for him in '00.  His
response, that he marched for civil rights back in the day, is simply not
enought to encourage blacks, latinos and native americans to join the party
or vote for it.  He is quick to attack corporations and has a lot of great
criticisms and talking points about our economy, but he rarely speaks
directly to racism and class divisions.

As much as we may feel Nader is a great guy, I agree with the previous
posting where the author noted that this is either about a throwback to '04
or looking to the future of what the Green Party could be.

Elaine Brown wrote in her withdrawal letter, "What [my effort to become the
Green presidential candidate] revealed, though, was how the Green Party,
while advocating 'diversity,' remains dominated by whites."  I can't
disagree with this statement and thats why I don't affiliate with this party
any longer.  Until they raise the banner of class struggle and demonstrate
their commitment to the fight against racism by embracing the ghettoes and
barrios and candidates who poor minorities can relate to I can't get down
with them.
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism