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Mass. Election Lesson: 'Don't Mourn, Organize'

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www.peoplesworld.org Jan 29, 2010 Mass. election lesson: ‘Don’t mourn, organize’ By Joelle Fishman on’t Mourn, Organize!” This is the inability to get out the vote. When national Re- growing call from labor and progres- publican strategists saw the opening of a weak sive forces following the upset elec- Democratic campaign, their play book went into D tion in Massachusetts of Republican effect. Millions of dollars were raised on-line from Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate. around the country, utilizing the “Tea Party” net- Even before the polls closed, the right-wing work built up over the summer. TV airtime was and the media began their spin that the president filled with ads, and automated phone calls went and Congress should forget their agenda and give in to Republican obstructionism Such an approach would be a much larger di- T H I S W E E K : saster than the loss of one seat. • Mass. election lesson: ‘Don’t mourn, organize’ Voters were angry and looking for relief from • Editorial: Setting the record straight the economic crisis: they did not see the jobs that were created from the stimulus; they feared • Is this a socialist moment? that their health benefits would be taxed or tak- • Los trabajadores de Rite-Aid luchan en away; and they didn’t hear Democrat Martha • Thousands commemorate a legend Coakley address their concerns. Meanwhile Scott Brown used populist rhetoric and clips of JFK to READ MORE NEWS AND OPINION DAILY AT WWW.PEOPLESWORLD.ORG claim the Kennedy legacy. “You see,” said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, “they believe that Wall St. is being taken into voters’ homes. care of. They believe that corporate America is be- The anger and frustration about jobs and the ing taken care of. They believe the insurers are be- economy is national. To regain momentum, big, ing taken care of. But they don’t think that work- bold, decisive actions are required that will create ers are being taken care of.” millions of jobs and rebuild the economy. It will The Democratic Party in Massachusetts was take standing up to the opposition, not giving in. divided after the primary elections, adding to the A state labor leader told The Hill magazine, Page 1 “If officials go running to the center like some are dication of inconsistent thinking and flux on the calling for, and away from what they campaigned part of voters in a time of hardship and the big- on, they learned exactly the wrong lesson from gest wealth gap in history. It was a protest telling this election.” Democrats they must take on the opposition and An exit poll on health care showed that “by deliver for people’s needs. The anger and a margin of three-to-two,” former Obama voters Republican strategist Dick Morris was glee- frustration about who voted for Republican Scott Brown said the ful after Massachusetts, imagining how to create a jobs and the Senate health care bill “doesn’t go far enough.” Republican majority in this year’s elections. This economy is Six-to-one Obama voters who stayed home agreed. trumpeting is part of the plan to create a favor- national. And to top it off, 80% of all voters still want the able political climate for reaction, including wide- choice of a public option in the bill.” spread use of racism and anti-immigrant bashing. An AFL-CIO poll showed that the recent But these dire projections will not become Democratic compromise to tax working family’s reality if labor along with the African American, health care benefits is a losing strategy. Voters Latino, Asian Pacific American, women and youth who thought their health care would be taxed vot- voters, in the first place, mobilize like never be- ed 64% for Brown in protest. fore at the grassroots and push Congress and the Health Care for America Now is mobilizing president to take on Wall Street and deliver for to “Finish Health Reform Right,” demanding that jobs and economic security including government “health care must be affordable for everyone, not programs financed by cutting spending on the tax benefits and hold insurance companies ac- wars, and taxing extreme wealth. countable with the choice of a public health insur- ance option.” Joelle Fishman is chair of the Political Action The election in Massachusetts should not be Commission of the Communist Party. read as a shift to the right, but rather as an in- Setting the record straight By PW Editorial Board t is said by some that Communists have no racism and other forms of division, coming from differences with President Obama. Just to right-wing extremists, against our nation’s first set the record straight: Communists have African American president. I differences and have stated them. We op- The left has something to learn from this ap- posed the nearly unconditional Wall Street bail- proach. We are too comfortable in our role as an outs. We oppose the deployment of more troops exceedingly small, but “principled and militant” In expressing our to Afghanistan. We argue for a bigger stimulus grouping in U.S. politics. Such a posture may feel differences with package. We oppose the tax on health plans, and satisfying, but it won’t help us evolve into a politi- the president, support universal, free health care as a right. cal player that exercises a major influence on U.S. Communists go And, we said, the president should push the politics, nor get us a flea hop closer to socialism. to great lengths envelope more, take much bolder action on job The president has made mistakes, particu- to state them in a creation, otherwise he runs the danger of the ex- larly his handling of the financial, jobs and health constructive way. treme right turning the popular discontent over care crises, but he isn’t the main obstacle to social the economic crisis against him. change. But in expressing our differences with the The role of the left is to help navigate these president, Communists go to great lengths to state differences, while at the same time infusing en- them in a constructive way. ergy and clarity and sustaining the strategic unity The main organizations of the working class of the people’s movement against the main enemy and people don’t turn their differences with the - right-wing extremism and powerful sections of president into an unbridgeable divide between big capital. In doing so, the left will move into the them and him. They consider him a friend and center of U.S politics. are mindful of the unrelenting attack, steeped in www.peoplesworld.org Page 2 Is this a socialist moment? By Sam Webb s this a socialist moment? I hear this ques- tion when I travel. So here is the answer I usually give when asked at public meetings. It depends on how we understand a “social- I ist moment.” If it means that the American people in their majority are insisting on a socialism trans- formation of society, there is little evidence for it. People are angry and frustrated; they want gerly participate in it. change; they are ready to struggle for jobs and re- Like everything else our vision of socialism lief, health care, public education, housing assis- needs to adjust to new conditions (economic cri- tance and so on. But are they demanding a system sis) and challenges (economic and environmental change, a socialist society? Not yet. To say other- sustainability, nuclear disarmament, world pov- wise seems like a stretch to me. erty and inequality) as well as examine the experi- The cloth of If, however, what is meant is that many more ence of socialism in the 20th century. socialist people are ready to give socialism a hearing, not After all, there are no universal models into experience is a reject it out of hand, then I would say, “Yes, this which every country fits. The cloth of socialist ex- beautiful weave is a ‘socialist moment’.” This is no small thing. It perience is a beautiful weave of many colors and of many colors wasn’t that long ago that socialism didn’t have threads, not a drab monotonous gray. Each coun- and threads, much currency among broad sections of the Amer- try fashions a socialism that bears a deep imprint not a drab ican people. It was considered a failed model, un- of its own history, politics, economics and culture. monotonous democratic and worse, a bankrupt idea - some- The experience of successful and unsuccess- gray. thing best consigned to history. ful socialist revolutions and societies has to be In fact, the ideologues of capitalism thought filtered carefully into our national context. In no they had buried the socialist idea once and for all, case can those experiences be uncritically and but to their chagrin the genie is once again out of simplistically imported. the bottle, thanks in large measure to the condi- As Gus Hall, the former leader of the Com- tions buffeting the domestic and world economy. munist Party USA, said on many occasions, “We It is not economic determinism to say that force of are for Bill of Rights Socialism,” referring to our economic circumstance and the crisis of everyday nation’s Bill of Rights, which in his view would be living for tens of millions is shaping and reshaping preserved and expanded upon in a socialist soci- mass thinking, although in contradictory ways. ety in the United States. Communists and socialists should welcome the rebirth of this dialogue on socialism and ea- www.peoplesworld.org Page 3 Los trabajadores de Rite- LOCAL NEWS Aid luchan por su primer LOCAL CONTACT [email protected] contrato Por Juan Lopez uando se trata de romper rales, los trabajadores votaron para sindicatos, la farmacia gi- afiliarse al ILWU en Marzo del 2008.
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