Re: [Marxism] McKinney, Greens, Liberals

[Alex Briscoe <obeynow20001@xxxxxxxxx>]

My test of apparatus is paid staff.  Sure, there are
tireless/priveledged volunteers who have the means and
will to volunteer like few others, but that doesn't
mean: paid organizer, dbase admin, branch organizers,
owned printing press, etc.  See the SWP 1970s for a
model of a small but significant nationwide apparatus.

Much of the leadership in the ILGP, espec in Champaign
and Carbondale seeks a working relationship with the
GP-US.  The GP-US NC and SC is dominated by those with
ties to NGO workers, executives and funders who are
pretty much joined at the hip with the Dems.  Shit
rolls downhill and lands on the leadership of the
ILGP.  You are half right in saying that the
leadership of the ILGP may or may not want to
accomodate the Dems, but they do want to accomodate
the GPNC/SC and even their friends in the NGOs in IL.

Nader made the mistake of not fighting for the
nomination when he had numerous roadblocks put in his
way by  would-be apparatchiks on the GPSC, like Greg
Gerritt.  

Re PC: look at the circumstances: we have two
candidates, one has a snowball's chance in hell and
one has a snowflake's chance in hell.  Besides
capitulation to the Dems, what is one of the other
primary motivators of well-meaning, middle-class white
people?  I mean, I had one Green that's close to me
already say that to not support McKinney is racist
because you're supporting a white male instead.  Hugh
Esco, I remember was spreading all sorts of
accusations around.  McKinney herself blew up at Nader
and called him a racist when he offered a joint ticket
with himself as the Prez cand, in part b/c she had not
committed to an all-out run at that point.  Let's not
ignore the 60+ year history of well-meaning middle
class white people.

The activists in the ILGP are not liberals but they
are somewhere in between left/liberal/populist.  That
vague trichotomy is the problem at this conjuncture. 
However, I have hope that events in the next 5 to 10
years will push our activists in the ILGP as well as
many others to a much better philosophy and praxis.

In the meantime, let's just work on our favored
campaigns, try not to get too worked up, recruit some
small numbers now and look to the future.

Yours,

Alex 



lex Briscoe <obeynow20001@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Here in IL, I think it boils down to those who are
> active in the would-be apparatus of the ILGP (we
have
> a skeleton of a structure, but not enough money or
> staff to have a true apparatus) supporting McKinney
> b/c she's not a threat to the Dems/GPNC and b/c
she's
> the politically correct choice.

This is a ridiculous assertion, and indicative of the
degradation of
your analysis of the ILGP and the GPUS, which has
become clouded by
petty sniping and sour grapes over the failure of
Nader to be the
nominee (ultimately the result of his decision to not
seek the
nomination).

The ILGP has an "aparatus" capable of hosting the
national convention,
running over 50 candidates statewide, and transforming
itself into an
established party with all the statutorily required
committees and
officers, building new county-level organizations, and
defending its
ballot line in the ass-backwards Illinois primary
system.  It has
plenty of problems, and as a state-wide coordinating
committee
representative for my Local, and the Chair of the Cook
County GP I am
exposed to them constantly.  However, it is not a
skeleton.

There is no basis for your suggestion that McKinney
support is driven
by a desire to not threaten the Democrats, at the ILGP
or the GPUS
level.  Your crass assertion that "political
correctness" is a major
factor in that support is just straight up spiteful
and pulled out of
your ass.  I have seen no evidence to support either
assertion you
make in any of the national committees I participate
in, nor at the
convention itself.

Recognizing the need to build a national party, as
well as support the
development of state parties, by reaching out to new
people (black,
white, brown, whatever) is not political correctness. 
Choosing a
candidate with 12 years of experience in the US
Congress, and even
more before that in the Georgia State Assembly, is not
a cop-out to
keep the Democrats safe.

Comrade, you played a large role in my entrance into
the ILGP, so it
is not lightly that I make such a charge.  However, I
cannot be silent
while you misrepresent, and basically slander by
calling them
Liberals, the rest of the people I have been working
with in the ILGP
and the GPUS.  You need to check yourself.


--- Alex Briscoe <obeynow20001@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Here in IL, I think it boils down to those who are
> active in the would-be apparatus of the ILGP (we
> have
> a skeleton of a structure, but not enough money or
> staff to have a true apparatus) supporting McKinney
> b/c she's not a threat to the Dems/GPNC and b/c
> she's
> the politically correct choice.
> 
> I think that McKinney would be a great national
> candidate if more than 1/100 of 1% of the population
> knew who she was.
> 
> If Nader, McKinney, Barr can get into the google
> debates, that would create a lot of space for indy
> polit action, but absent a deep, acute crisis of
> capitalism between now and Nov, that ain't gonna
> happen, I'm afraid.
> 
> A note on this year's primary: when I criticized the
> media chair here for laying down on publicity for
> the
> primary (and thus getting the word out that Hawkins
> was a stand-in for Nader), I was race-baited for
> referring to Obama as Black Hillary.  Seems that
> Mumia
> has praised Nader now for similar comments.  Oh,
> those
> damn Black revolutionaries, making life difficult
> for
> the liberals.  
> 
> (Note to rrrevolutionaries and recovering
> Barnesites:
> I am probably going to be busy with observing the GP
> Convention, putting up delegates, a Green Alliance
> meeting, a block party and a branch meeting this
> weekend, so if you attack me as a racist, insensitve
> bastard who should be put on a show trial, I
> probably
> won't be able to get back to you until Monday).
> 
> Anyway, with the crushing wave of bourgeois press
> publicity for the multicultural neo-liberal option,
> neither McKinney nor Hawkins nor Nader was/is
> getting
> much press.  There's a blackout.  So, I don't think
> that 750 votes for McKinney in IL is going to amount
> to much.
> 
> Alex Briscoe
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "Mark Lause" <markalause@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> 
> > Greens.  Although we have no local McKinney
> campaign, the coalition
> > around her candidacy elsewhere seem to be people
> with little or no
> > real roots among the Greens. 
> 
> I can only speak from my experience in the ILGP, but
> there is deep
> support for her candidacy here.  Rich Whitney,
> gubernatorial candidate
> from 2006 whose 10.4% of the votes made the ILGP an
> established party,
> is the head of the McKinney delegation from
> Illinois. 
> I have been
> working with many long-time Greens who are excited
> about the McKinney
> campaign.
> 
> She got 1,513 votes, just under 50% of the total, in
> a
> four way race,
> where Howie Hawkins (the Nader stand-in) got 464. 
> The
> remainder of
> the votes went to Kent Messplay and Jared Ball, with
> over 300 each.
> This was an open primary, where anyone can pull a GP
> ballot.
> 
> 
> 
> ***************************
> ***************************
> http://www.votenader.org
> http://www.ilgp.org
> http://www.northsidegreenparty.org
> http://www.greenallianceusa.org
> http://www.labornotes.org
> http://www.solidarity-us.org
> http://www.internationalviewpoint.org
> 
> 
>       
> 


***************************
***************************
http://www.votenader.org
http://www.ilgp.org
http://www.northsidegreenparty.org
http://www.greenallianceusa.org
http://www.labornotes.org
http://www.solidarity-us.org
http://www.internationalviewpoint.org


      

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