Re: [Fwd: Swans' Release: July 19, 2004]

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Hoover wrote:
> another panelist referred with reverence to eugene debs, well i dig debs
> too but real importance at that time was neither his 6% of prez vote in
> 1912 or million votes he got in 1920 while in prison, more significant
> was over 1300 - mostly local - elected socialists prior to ww1...

I think it would be deeply reactionary to back somebody like Nader if
another Eugene V. Debs was available. Politics is the art, however, of
knowing what to do next.

> nader's advocacy of old-fashioned trade unionism (gompersism? business
> unionism?)
> apparently stops with those who've worked for him over years if accounts
> i've read
> about organizing at public citizen and multinational monitor are
> accurate...

The race is not between Ralph Nader and our ideals. In such a race, the
ideals will always come in first. The challenge remains as ever to
construct an alternative to the 2-party system. Nothing permanent may
come out of the Nader-Camejo bid, but it takes an enormous amount of
guts to stand up to the liberal establishment as Nader does. I don't
Michael pays sufficient recognition to this.

> we've really had enough 'party of person' candidacies/parties...
> michael hoover

I don't think this is what it is about. Our problem is not "parties" in
general but the specific capitalist political machine in the USA which
is an obstacle to the construction of a mass movement. Whatever Nader
did wrong to his own employees, he put himself and his resources at the
disposal of the Seattle anti-globalization protest. That's not what any
Democratic Party presidential candidate ever did.


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