I’m going to try something new. On different days I do different types of entries. I want to try to do at least one set of headlines every day. On top of that, there are short blog entries. And depending on my time, mood, and creative state, sometimes I’ll post a larger, or extended size article. Besides topical blog posts, I’m going to try posting what I’ll call “tidbits”, which will be about the the size of a normal blog post, but be on a bunch of different topics I’m thinking about. Here goes…

Ralph: Please Don’t run

I’ve supported independent electoral politics fo as long as I can remember. I think they can help build a movement if effective framing, organizing, and leadership are all emphasized. Ralph doesn’t do these things when he runs for president.

In 2000, when 3% of the electorate supported his candidacy, he went home November 3. That isn’t what someone who has party-building, let alone movement-building in mind. Firstly, our independent campaigns should be run in such a way as to maximize the amount of people who we reach and make into long-term radical organizers. This means that until we have the actual power to take the White House, winning the White House isn’t the main goal, its a secondary goal. The main goal is to convince masses of people that we need an independent party (or parties), and that people can indeed change our society. This means talking about your campaign not merely as a challenge to the Republican and Democratic parties, but as a method to build power which, in the long term, will actually be aimed at seizing the institutions of society. And the main goal certainly isn’t the stated goal of Nader’s campaign. His website says:

“Our goal is simple: to ensure that no American is denied the opportunity to vote for Ralph. This is the central and overriding focus of the campaign for the next few months.”

Pretty individualistic if you ask me…

Secondly, running a campaign that helps build an independent party and the movement in general means that on November 3, 2008 your campaign doesn’t pack up and go home. It means continuing to help build the movement, and ensuring that all of your campaigners and supporters join progressive organizations and local party branches. I understand this is an additional commitment, but if you don’t do this, then you are saying your stated goal is winning the presidency, i.e.”fighting the good fight” as opposed to fighting to win. If thats your goal, fine. But you deserve the support of no voters, and no progressive organizers. I’ll be writing a longer piece within the next few weeks about this topic, and independent party politics in general.

Finally, Nader is going to have no quantitative or positive impact on the election. The media, in turn, will portray all independent and progressive candidates as “long-shot” efforts and not worthy of the support of progressive voters. Nader should pocket his ego and leave the race now! He is hurting our movement and independent politics. Let the Green Party build a progressive mass electoral organization, and run a candidate which highlights the need to abolish the electoral college in favor of direct elections, more inclusive debates, public-financing of elections, and other important electoral reform issues.

Kosovo, Venezuela, Colombia, & Ecuador

Americans should be watching what does on in Kosovo and Colombia VERY carefully. The United States is getting very aggressive in both places. The last thing we need are more wars, coups, or assassinations. CNN has just reported that Venezuela has:

“ordered 10 battalions of military forces to the country’s border with Colombia, and ordered the closure of Venezuela’s embassy in Colombia’s capital city of Bogota.”

(As a quick note on messaging and how the corporate media works, most corporate news outlets will say “Today the United Kingdom ordered troops into…” when talking about a super power, as opposed to “Today President _____ of Third World Nation ordered troops into” when talking about a weaker or poor nation. When talking about leaders of countries in the global south, often they don’t refer to what an action taken by another government, by instead by one individual leader. This allows for them to assassinate or state coups in such countries. Its harder to get the public to support a war against “Iraq” compared to a war to get rid of “Saddam Hussein.”)

Hugo Chavez: Get Rid of the Military Uniform!

And while I’m at it, Chavez has got to stop wearing that military outfit. He was democratically elected - and reelected - several times. He’s begun a radical and nonviolent revolution which is transforming Venezuela and its surrounding states. Looking like a military commander doesn’t help a peaceful and egalitarian progressive leader with his image. He should make his dress match up with his politics of hope and change.

Bill Maher: “Rove Reversal”

On the Huffington Post, comedian Bill Maher makes an interesting observation about how ballot initiatives can force massive voter turnouts. He said:

“If the Democrats want to win in 2008 they must pull a “Reverse Rove.” If the Democrats want to beat the Republicans, and I mean really beat them, not just by a few hundred votes in Florida, Ohio, or Pennsylvania, they’ve got to start thinking like the Turd Blossom. In the 2004 presidential race Karl Rove mobilized Republican voters by getting initiatives banning gay marriage on the ballots in 11 states. If the Democrats really want to mobilize their base they must push for swing state ballot initiatives that call for reinstating the draft. Even if it’s a local draft, calling up young men and women to serve in their state’s depleted National Guard units. That would really get the Democratic base to turn out en mass: young people, reasonable mothers and fathers, the anti-war crowd — America’s true silent majority.”

While I don’t think we should be scaring people into voting - that’s an innately reactionary method - I think he’s correct that the left needs to actually get questions on the 2008 election ballots that riles up young progressives. Especially around global warming legislation, a withdrawal from Iraq, and issues around education, healthcare, and other progressive reforms.

The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Call to Beloved Community

The left needs to get back to the language of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, to populism, togetherness, love, dignity and respect. Here’s one group that’s doing it:

“As we gather to celebrate his life, let us look at the urgency of now: Let us find the courage to confront the questions:

On peace and war: How can we begin to create peace amidst this war? How do we restore relationships of respect and integrity within the community of nations?

On sustainable living: How do we live more simply so that others may simply live?

On immigration: What do we need to do to protect our brothers and sisters from other lands who have come to find the promise of America and found the terror of deportation and raids in the night?

On healthy communities: How do we become engaged in our communities to create and restore ways of living that encourage the imagination and productive capacities of our young people?

On justice: How do we guarantee that all of us have the basic human right to education, the sustenance of life, and respect for our work?”

When we talk about the unfulfilled promise of the American Dream, of radical grassroots American history, of dignity, respect, and of a rainbow colored nation we will start winning again.

and finally

International Longshore and Warehouse Union: Strike Against the War in Iraq?

Word on the Street is that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union might strike against the Iraq War on May 1!! I’ll try to find info soon. Stay tuned!

The Spring 2008 Issue of Yes! Magazine is all about Climate Solutions! It shows the threats climate change poses, the visions of what a Post-Carbon world could look like. Anyone concerned about how a green economy could be won, how it could work, and how we can get there, should pick up a copy. Its very accessible and a great way to spark conversations with people you talk to.

Here’s Sarah van Gelder, Yes! Magazine’s Executive Editor, in her introduction to the issue, called “Welcome to a Different Planet”:

“The depth of our crisis came home to me at a conference of environmental journalists last fall, where one climate scientist after another spoke about the dangers confronting migratory birds, water supplies, agriculture and food supplies, coastlines—every strand of the web of life. Their words were carefully chosen, but their voices revealed their alarm.

How bad could it get? In spite of increasingly sophisticated models, no one can predict exactly. But as the temperature rises, there is increasing disruption to the interconnected systems that keep our climate stable and within the narrow range that can support life. The shrinking of the polar ice cap and the opening of the Northwest Passage are among the clearest signs yet that the planet is warming faster than climate models predicted.

The good news is it’s not too late to act. We have the technology and, in much of the world, we have the social stability to act. And we have precedents. When the United States mobilized for World War II, car factories turned to building tanks and trucks. Americans planted 20 million victory gardens, recycled rubber, and brought women into the workplace to build battleships.

We’ll need to mobilize in the same way to combat the global threat of climate change—especially here in the United States where we are among the largest greenhouse gas polluters. Here is some of what it will take:

• We need to turn car factories into wind turbine factories, and hire young people and those displaced from the fading oil and coal industries to operate them, to install renewables, and to retrofit buildings.
• We need to shift taxpayer subsidies away from oil and coal production, to climate-friendly solar, wind, and other renewables.
• We need to stop all construction of new coal plants unless technologies that capture CO2 and sequester it are proven effective.
• We’ll need to switch from most liquid fuels to electricity generated using clean renewables. (There are sustainable biofuels, but food-based biofuels are not among them.)
• Any new buildings, transportation, and factories should be climate neutral so we avoid locking ourselves into destructive climate impacts for years to come.
• We need to use more brains and fewer BTUs. We can get a long way to a climate-neutral economy just by being more efficient with the energy we use.
• Justice must be at the core of our work. Decades of excessive fossil fuel use enriched some people; those who missed out on that abundance will not forgo a path out of poverty while the wealthy continue to over-consume. To win this race against time, we’ll need everyone, including the poor. That means the wealthier will have to cut their own energy use while helping to finance the efforts of the poor to leapfrog over the fossil-fuel age straight to green jobs and renewables.

Climate scientist James Hansen famously said we have 10 years to reverse climate disrupting trends, or we will be living on a very different planet.

The reality is that we will be living on a different planet either way. If we continue as we are, it will be a planet of extreme weather, rising sea levels, large refugee populations, and violent conflicts over remaining land and resources. If we make the needed changes, it can be a planet of widely shared, renewable energy technologies. We might find that a less materialistic, more locally based way of life taps a whole new level of creativity as people seek out the smartest, most sustainable, and most beautiful ways to make or grow what we need. And our grandchildren will thank us for leaving them a world where they too have a shot at a good life.”

Sarah van Gelder wrote this “letter from the editor” as part of Stop Global Warming Cold, the Spring 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Sarah is executive editor of YES! Magazine.

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