This is my reply, which Portside promised to run, to a recent open letter by Manning Marable and Fran Piven in behalf of Carl McCall and the WFP.(circulate widely)
stanley aronowitz
RESPONSE TO MARABLE AND PIVEN: VOTE FOR ARONOWITZ AND A REAL ALTERNATIVE
My good friends Manning Marable and Frances Fox Piven have written an open
letter urging progressives to vote for Carl McCall on the Working Families
line. I want to tell you the reasons why New York progressives should vote
for me on the Green Party line, Row G:
In their letter Manning and Fran acknowledge that McCall has run an
"uninspiring" campaign. Nevertheless, being "tired of Pataki" they are
willing to suspend disbelief in order to build a progressive alternative to
the center-right direction of the Democratic Party. But McCall is precisely
following the rush to the center that has marked Democratic policy and
behavior since the 1970s. What Manning and Fran forget to mention is that
he supports the House Resolution giving the Bush administration a free hand
to pursue the war against Iraq. Nor do they address McCall's preoccupation
with creating a "good business climate"(read giving more corporate welfare
in the hopes of fostering private job creation). And in the wake of a
looming $8-10 billion state budget deficit, McCall has refused to commit to
a tax program that can close the gap and fund our state's needs.
The Green Party and my campaign have taken a clear class-based approach to
taxation. I have called for a 2% general welfare tax on incomes above
$80,600, the maximum subject to social security tax payments, and a 1/100th
of 1% tax on assets of corporations on the New York, Amex and Nasdaq stock
exchanges. I have also called for restoration of the commuter tax abandoned
by state legislature several years ago. We advocate free tuition for CUNY
and SUNY; repealing the provision of the state's labor relations Act, the
Taylor law, that bans strikes by public employees and imposes severe fines
on unions; restoring the state's environmental superfund, which Pataki
stole to trade contracts for endorsements; unconditional repeal of the
Rockefeller drug laws, which have jailed thousands of people for nonviolent
drug offenses, and decriminalization of drug use. And, of course, while
McCall supports the war, I have waged a campaign against it, as well as
against the militarization of American society signified by the arms build
up and by the infamous Patriot Act, which Congressional Democrats supported
nearly unanimously.
Contrary to cynics' expectations, my campaign has managed to get a good
deal of media coverage, especially in Upstate New York. I have been
profiled in the New York Times, the Village Voice and the New York Press
and have won the endorsements of the Albany weekly Metroline, Rochester's
City Paper, and the rank and file Transit local 100 paper, the Advocate. In
the two gubernatorial debates in which I participated, I was able to
distinguish a radical position from the conservative and centrist politics
that prevailed among the major party candidates.
The Greens are a genuine left party with a broad economic, ecological,
anti-war and democratic perspective. We are also the fastest growing
national political party. In New York State we have grown to 60 locals,
around a thousand activists and more than 25,000 registered voters. Despite
the absence of big money we have won the time and energies of hundreds of
volunteers, among them rank and file union members, black, Latino and Asian
radicals and progressives, and, equally important, a large base among young
people. We, too, need 50,000 votes to retain our ballot status. Even more
important, we need to show that a candidate willing to campaign for a real
alternative politics can win support. Voting for McCall, even on the WFP
line, sends an ambivalent and timid message. After this election, the
Greens will undoubtedly work closely with the WFP and other progressive
organizations and social movements on specific issues and on local
elections. But in this vital race I urge you to vote for me as a clear
statement of your opposition to the war and to politics as usual.
--
Louis Proyect
www.marxmail.org
