Maybe I'm being naive here, but I disagree that we can't find unity. As an activist faithfully described it in an email to me(see below the fold), each group only allies with others for the purpose of pushing their own agenda. That is normal and to be expected. What we need is a LEADER who can bring all these different agendas together to work for a common purpose. And to do that he needs to understand the basic fundamental rule of leading a coalition: getting each group to understand that the current goal they are united in attaining is in each of their own best interests.
There couldn't be a more perfect time for such an alliance to exist as right now.
An activist wrote me the following in a personal email:
What I have learned about activism and politics these past four years makes me no longer a novice as I was when I first stepped into the arena; what I have learned is that every organization, be it political, progressive, activist, peace group, anarchist, religious, non-partisan, non-political, non-denominational, cross-community coalition, seems to have at it's center it's own agenda and it's own message and it's own identity and it's own territorial turf - some with longstanding turfs built over decades of activism. Collaboration efforts seem to produce the same results over and over again - which to my eyes seems a pretense at harmonious collaboration with an intention for each to deliver it's own message and agenda anyway - only in partnership with others doing likewise. I guess you could say I'm discouraged with what I've seen and learned and experienced these past years since I stepped into the work of activism. Even so, in activism, we all do need each other and will continue to need each other, to need to learn how to collaborate, how to work with maturity in purposefulness in the months ahead towards the 2008 elections.
What I'd like to tell Lietta and everyone else who's observed the same thing is this: Don't Get Discouraged!!! This is perfectly normal behavior. What we need is someone to take up the challenge of bringing all these disparate (and feeling more and more desperate daily) groups of people and uniting them in common cause.
And actually, that's not as hard as it sounds once they all understand they have a common obstacle that is preventing all of them from succeeding and that therefore, they have a common agenda. Let me explain:
Against the war in Iraq? Fine, then tell me why all your efforts have gone for naught? I'll tell you why: 1: Bush won't end the war. 2: Congress won't end the war. We all know the solution to the first problem - elect someone who WILL end the war. The only fly in that ointment is that between now and then Bush is likely to embroil us in an even larger war, one that we can't extricate ourselves from so easily. Which brings us to the second problem, that Congress won't end the war. What will it take to get Congress to end the war. To answer that question, you need to know WHY Congress won't end the war. They won't end the war because too many corporate interests are at stake and that means too many lobbyists and financial contributors, the chief of which is AIPAC, supported their election campaigns for the express purpose that they NOT end the war.
Nothing the peace movement can do between now and 2008 will alter this equation. But there are things the peace movement CAN do between now and 2008 so that after the next elections, this equation will be changed. The peace movement needs to replace our corrupted, BRIBED officials with honest congressmen who answer to the people, not to the corporate elites behind this war.
To do that requires a threefold mission: 1: make sure our elections are not rigged so that we CAN replace our corrupted officials with ones who answer to us. 2: Raise enough money to get our people elected to replace the corrupted ones. 3: Last, but certainly not least, come up with people to run for office to replace those corrupted ones. This last mission should be much simpler than it seems to be because the activists themselves form the perfect pool from which to find such candidates.
Trying to get America to act on global warming? Why haven't you succeeded despite having the entire scientific community calling for this? 1: Bush won't acknowledge global warming. 2: Congress won't take all the steps necessary to get America off its dependence on oil.
None of this is new. It's been going on for decades. What's the answer? The same answer as to the peace movement above. The SAME threefold mission.
How many other activist movements could I name? I could name ALL of them, but this email is already long enough. The reason why all of them have failed to achieve any significant success is always for the same reasons and they ALL have to accomplish the same threefold mission in order to make permanent change in our nation, our system of economic and social justice and our society.
Hell, I'm terrified of the thought of having to stand up and talk in front of a group of people, but to hell with it, if we can bring them all together, all the leaders of these diverse activist groups, then I'll stand up there and explain it to them. I'll explain why we need UNITY and why we should divert our resources and energies into these common goals to take back our country and put it back on the course our forefathers intended it to be on.
If they can't come together now, in what really, truly is our darkest hours, then there really is no hope left.
So now that we've identified our common objectives within which all political activists from all progressive persuasions can unite behind, how do we go about this?
First, let's create a list of every Senate and House position coming up for election in the U.S.
Second, let's identify which current candidates we can support and which ones we need to beat out in the primaries.
Third, let's find candidates within our own activist ranks to run against them in each primary. Which "persuasion" of activist we should choose would depend upon the area they would be running in. An environmetalist activist might do well in Seattle, but not in, say, Kansas City. Find the best fit for each area.
Note that our chosen candidates should support ALL our agendas, not just the field from which they were chosen.
Fourth, raise grassroots attention to each and every candidate and raise money to get them elected.
Fifth, find out what obstacles will exist in the Democratic Party to prevent our candidates election bid and work to overcome them. This is where marches, signs, and the traditional activist techniques can come into use to be deployed against those forces within the Democratic Party that WILL oppose us.
Note: I don't propose we run independent candidacies. It might work for Cindy Sheehan but it won't work for anyone else. We take the Democratic Party BACK from the corporate interests that control it.
Finally, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, let's make sure that in every election we put up a candidate that we have fair and honest elections. That means diverting resources away from traditional activist activities and focusing on stopping the corporate elite from stealing our Democratic Primary elections illegally.
I'm sure that others can - and will - come up with even more ideas to help this plan succeed. But we need to unite NOW and we need to get behind a plan of action and we need to do it ASAP.
So what do you activists in the world out there think? Can we all get together under one roof and plan this thing out?
