Re: [Marxism] Obama's speech and a revolutionary strategy for U.S. unions today

[Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

JB writes:

"I really DON'T want to be in a discussion with La Botz and the
Monthly Review crew on the correct revolutionary strategy for the labor
movement. I very much want to be in a discussion with the "Yes We Can" crowd
on how to bring about the change we want."

I've posed the question before and still haven't heard an answer so I'll try 
again - how? There's a lot of talk about the Obama "movement" but as far as I'm 
concerned that "movement" consists of two things - isolated individuals (and by 
"isolated" I don't mean that they're few and far between, just not connected 
with each other) and an election campaign. There is no "movement" as in some 
kind of independent or even dependent group which shows any evidence of lasting 
past the election, so how one is going to be in a "discussion with the 'Yes We 
Can' crowd" without joining your local Democratic Party is an open question.

The only place I know where such discussions DO take place is on the discussion 
boards of such extremely popular (orders of magnitude more popular than any 
left-wing publication) websites as Daily Kos, Firedoglake, and the Huffington 
Post, which have hundreds of thousands of readers. I remember posting here 
several years ago encouraging people to take part in discussions (or even, in 
the case of Daily Kos, post "diaries") at those sites. I do so regularly, on 
the 
assumption that out of 100,000 readers of Daily Kos, if just a few percent of 
them are "reachable," it's a lot more worthwhile talking to them than just 
preaching to the choir on this list (if nothing else, it's a great way to 
sharpen your own thinking). I encourage JB, and anyone else who thinks his 
advice is sound, to do so.

I will caution JB about one thing, though. The "Yes We Can" crowd at the moment 
is focussed on one thing and one thing only - electing Barack Obama. Only in 
passing are they thinking about what kind of change we want, and as far as 
"how" 
to bring about that change, most of them, despite what Obama himself may have 
to 
say, are counting on voting for him and other Democrats as the beginning and 
end 
of the "how."


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