Bravo, Elaine. My thoughts exactly. Ian Robinson On Wed, 18 Jan 1995, Elaine Bernard wrote: > Come'on Doug, play nice. In the same spirit that I took up > J. Case, I'm sure you don't mean CP as a term of endearment. > Play nice boys! There's some real politics here, so cut out > the red baiting bullshit. I think the real CP, Trotskyist, > New Left, American Left legacy is ignoring political differences > and real discussion and decending everything to the level of > name calling. If you don't agree with me, you're a (fill in > the gap) and therefore your criticism is unworthy of further > concern or debate. > > On the issue of NYC I tend to think that it is rather unusual. > The largest city in the country, with strange, strange, politics. > I wish Mike Davis who move there and do for NY what he did > for LA in CITY OF QUARTZ. However, that aside, I do think > that in building a grassroots, democratic, membership based > political party that Madison, Milwaukee, Little Rock, etc > will be more typical than NYC. > > As for the fusion tactic, the difficulty here is keeping as > a tactic, and only a tactic, to gain state wide (or city wide > or whatever level the group is interested in apply it) ballot > status. The barriers that the state has set up in this country > to prevent democratic self-organization in elections is worthy > of a totalitarian state. It's a real barrier and problem for > any third party. > > My view is there will be opportunists in the New Party, and > sectarians, and we'll go too slow sometimes and too quickly > other times. But in a grassroots democratic party if we > build a culture of real debate, over policy and tactics > I believe we will be able to resolve differences -- and > in fact, on occasion operate quite differently in different > states and communities depending on the strength of the > organization and it's level of organization (that is, has > it elected people, does it have access to ballot status, > has it been able to reform election laws...) > > Because I believe this discussions are absolutely essential > to the growth and development of any third party, I think > it's important for leftist, who agree or are critical of > specific tactics, actions or policies to aid in creating > a political culture where these issues can be debated and > discussed on their merits -- not on who is an trot or who > is a stalinist. > > Elaine Bernard >
