alanjjohnstone
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Good to know who you replying to, ALB….Phil Sharpe is floundering and flailing about …i may try and apply the coup de grace
1000 new members is impressive but remember that is more than like website sign-ups with subs paid by pay-pal and not necessarily 1000 class-conscious activists.You yourself reported the decline in Left Unity…And Momentum is just as controlled by the party bureaucrat machine as the Sanders Our Revolution, with the grassroots mere foot-soldiers for protest marches.I did consider the spontaneous and mostly unplanned protests promising bu remind folk of our blog cautionary warning that we do need organisation – but proper organisation. http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2016/11/president-donald-trump-and-fight-back.html
Osama, palliatives is what some political parties do, not them all. The Socialist Party has made a spirited defence in not making reform demands, which if i guessed my dates correct was followed by De Leon's SLP who also dropped the minimum programme. I could cite the reasons why the "impossiblists" discarded a minimum programme and left it to the "possiblists" but our case is made better that i can on this website if you use the search facility. Some will look around and say that many minimum demands has been met and you can see by the improvements.But look deeper and many are cosmetic, many were introduced not by the reform parties but by establishment openly capitalist parties, many has unforeseen and unintended side-effects, many strengthened capitalist exploitation, not alleviated it and most importantly, none of the reforms has brought us one inch closer on the path towards socialism.
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1130/letters/ALB and myself had further letters publishedI see our earlier letters have elicited replies.Phil Sharpe's responds to us all and Jack Conrad gives an analysis of the socialism/communism difference and Arthur Bough concentrates in rebutting Vin's letter.I got things to do today so i will read them in depth and ponder how to answer.But as guests of WW we have to judge whether we have over-stayed our welcome or not.Perhaps it might be better if other members pick up the baton.
Another backtrack?Donald Trump’s team has removed the statement on his website to ban all Muslims from the US. On the same night that millions of votes were pouring in for the real estate mogul turned politician, the page linking to his December 2015 statement regarding a temporary and complete Muslim ban has been removed.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-president-election-muslim-ban-immigrants-website-statement-removed-a7408466.html
We have had Governor Huey Long, Father Conghlin, Governor George Wallace.Who can forget Ross Perot in 1992 – 20 million votes, nearly 20%.And we have Teddy Roosevelt, of course…Republican/Progressive Party maverick president
There were other candidates being voted on and the Republicans prevailed again. But there were referendumsMeasures that would increase the minimum wage were approved in Washington, Colorado, Maine and Arizona. Voters in Washington backed a move to raise the hourly wage floor to $13.50, while the other three states got behind increases to $12 per hour. Voters, meanwhile, backed referenda that would end marijuana prohibition in California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada. The question failed, however, in Arizona. Medicinal marijuana was also approved through questions posed directly to voters in Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Montana.Conservatives also prevailed in a number of ballot measures, affirming support for the death penalty in Nebraska and Oklahoma. Californians, meanwhile, backed a move that would expedite capital punishment, while defeating another that would have scrapped state executions entirely.South Dakota backed an initiative that would put a 36 percent interest rate cap on short-term loans, in a minor blow to the payday lending industry.California voters also approved Prop 63, which will institute a number of gun control measures in the state, and Prop 57, Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to shrink the jail population by loosening parole rules and offering a new chance at prison release for non-violent offenders. Proposition 56, which will raise the tobacco tax by $2 a pack, also passed.Prop 55 means higher tax on the wealthyAnd let us now forget that because of the failure of Proposition 60 in California porn movie actors won't be required to wear condoms…a crippling blow in the class war.
Quote:Rather than devoting huge energy pointing to the absurdity or toxicity of this new populism, democracies would be better served by beginning a debate about what it means to represent and be represented; what form democratic representation might take in an era of instantaneous communication.And what should our answer to this be?Could we perhaps begin with our own organisation…the EC meetings and our conferences and meetings on live streaming? Instant member input and feedback via Skype or whatever? If we argue a leader-free democracy works for the Party, can we now go on to argue that participatory live-time decision-making also works for us. Shouldn't the party be the lab for experiments in active democracy via laptops and mobile phones?But it does seem we diverge from half of our fellow-workers when we try to speculate on how they vote. Is this dis-connect a serious sign of our isolation?
Yeah, ALB…i'm still in shock…It is Our Revolution i meant …They will be in disarray having to re-arrange their analyses now. Originally it was a grassroots Democratic rank and file grouping to elect and campaign for Sanderesque candidates but now many will be arguing that it becomes more activist …https://ourrevolution.com/election-2016/
Quote:Statement on Election Results"Too many communities have been left behind in the global economy. Too many young people cannot afford the cost of the college education. Too many cannot afford basic necessities like health care, housing, or retirement. "Those of us who want a more equitable and inclusive America need to chart a new course that represents the needs of middle income and working families. The most important thing we can do is come together in unity and fight to protect the most vulnerable people of this country. Just like we did yesterday, Our Revolution will be on the front lines of the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal tomorrow morning. We will do everything in our power to ensure that the president-elect cannot ignore the battles Americans are facing every single day. "Tonight Donald Trump was elected president. Our job is to offer a real alternative vision and engage on the local and national level to continue the work of the political revolution in the face of a divided nation."November 9, 2016
If Clinton won, there would be a long period of acquiescence to provide her with room to keep the promises she made to the Sanders supporters before opposition would be mobilised aginst her.Will Trump get this breathing space? Perhaps the Trump win and the disgraceful Democratic performance could mean a much faster coalescing into a resistance, unconstrained by the Democrat middle-roaders The Sanders 'Our Movement' can no longer be used as a gentle pressure group by the Democrat liberals but will perhaps become an all-out resistance to Trump and all the Republican politicians that have been elected and who are set on implemented an array of right-wing policies.How will Obama treat the remainder of his presidency now that he will not hand over to an "heir" but his 8-year legacy such as Obamacare is to be dismantled? His only claim to fame is being the first black president who achieved very little.Will he still have his eye on the post-presidency years of serving Wall St as the two Clintons have done and will continue doing and so maintain his moderate positions? Or will he use his executive power to put a spanner into the works of Trump?Unlike Brexit, there is no constitutional argument to keep the dissent among the elite. If carried out, Trump's threats will lead to street protests.
How long will it be before Trump back-tracks on all his policies and threats?More importantly, when will theworkers from rural and the rust states learn that the promises and pledges were election rhetoric. Humiliated in defeat and having rejected Sanders "progressive" policies, do the Democrats shift to the right to re-capture the votes?Will it move left-wards? I said elsewhere some speculate already that it will be Elizabeth Warren for 2020 Republican president senate and congress, and with advisers such as John Bolton expected to have positions of power what will be the impact on domestic and international affairs?Obamacare? The Iran Deal? …so so many questions…And can we say that Trump will serve as puppet to his pay-masters ? Will it be The Wall or Wall St?
I very quickly cut and pasted blog posthttp://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2016/11/president-donald-trump-and-fight-back.html
The new saviour of the progressives according to the liberal media is now Elizabeth Warren.Warren for 2020And they are still giving Sanders a role in Our Revolution.Is the Democratic Party going to be disowned?
