Is Socialism Stick Ball

Arieh,

Barack Obama can pog mo hoin (That is Irish Gaelic for kiss my ass!). He is the second most loathsome individual with a chance to be elected president of the United States of America. The Social Democrats, USA-Socialist Party of America did not endorse Obama for Obama's benefit.

We know that Obama is plenty capable of taking care of his own ambitions at any cost to others. He was friendly with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhine who gave up bombing the Ladies' Rooms of government and corporate buildings, but never gave up their commitment to far-left politics after their wealth prevented their prosecutions. At the same time Obama palled around with the faculty of the University of Chicago's pro-fascist business and economics departments. Obama's other known associates included the Richard Daley, Jr's Chicago political machine and Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Of course Obama can dispense with a friend as easily as make one. He treated the Rev Jeremiah Wright as a pariah. This is the man he claimed "brought me to God" and he married Obama and his wife and baptized their children. Wright's speech had some very intemperate language, but in other regards was little different than the address given by Dr. Martin Luther King to the Riversides Church during the Vietnam conflict. Arieh, you make an excellant point about the Social Democrats page at Obama website. Thirteen people raised more than $9,000 for Obama (This is nearly as much as the 500 members of the Socialist Party of the United States of America raised for their presidential candidate nationally.)

Obama's election will continue the progress of a broad tradition of liberal Democratic tradition that has always been extremely flawed. FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Humphrey, were all tainted by the excesses of war. Most of them also reneged on commitments to Labor, minorities, and the poor. I certainly do not believe that blacks are voting for Obama, they are voting for themselves as a further step on the march to equality. Obama is the descendant of Muslim slave masters not of blacks brought to the Americas as unpaid stoop labor. Conversations with blacks of all ages, economic strata across 12 states last month convinced me that few blacks see Obama as a "messiah".

As to the blog, the Progressives for Obama listserv publishes many posts by people who have never explained or repented their connections to very far left organizations. For instance, four years before he ran for the U.S. Senate Tom Hayden gave a speech holding a rifle over his head and calling for the creation of "liberated" zones where the police would fear to go, modeled on the "no go areas" of Northern Ireland then engulfed in sectarian turmoil. There are actually two pictures on the blog. For anyone who does not recognize the other figures in the second photo, they are Barack and Michelle Obama. I had not planned on doing all the layout and all the posts myself. However, as most democratic socialists and social democrats are busy emailing articles to each other about the economic meltdown apparently no one else as time to write on election. Even most of posts on progressives for Obama are forwarded articles. If folks don't get my humor, well I seem to be writing for myself.

Obama will either win or loose on his own merits not my efforts. Locally, and nationally if possible, I want everyone that works as open socialist or social democrat on Obama's campaign to begin preparing rallies demanding that the incoming Democratic congress and president prepare public works, green jobs, infrastructure rebuilding programs, and mortgage restructuring. This means we must demand that Obama abandon many of his irrational promises. An expansion of the war in Afganistan is not only economically prohibitive, it is militarily fool hearty. The Macedonians, Mongols, Moguls, Tartars, British, and Soviets all failed to conquer the Afghans as their terrain is the most inaccessible habitable on earth. Obama actually wants to sanction an expansion of civilian nuclear power industry. This is an invitation to a catastrophe. The clean coal that Obama supports is more global warming and environmental degradation in the making. The bailout Obama championed needs complete retooling. Obama may be as contary to the Labor Movement as Bill Clinton was. Clinton also came to power with majorities in both houses.

I support Obama for just one reason, the Employee Free Choice Act that may begin to rebuild the Labor movement. It certainly will not do it quickly. However, a vibrant trade union movement is the foundation of a social democratic movement. Perhaps in a decade it will be possible to build an organization of the size that DSA was in the late 1980's i.e. about 1,200. With so few people on trade union payrolls these days and the unions having no money to give to social democratic groups are size for the time will be limited. There is no one to pay for the activities of a socialist organization and certainly no one to pay someone to be a professional social democrat which accounts for the flight of the previous leadership of the SD, USA and to some degree that of DSA as well. Actually as of Saturday, the SD-SP had 27 members so you were very close. This does not count the 12 who did not renew or the 2 who resigned. With 20 activists we are about equal in active members with DSA and the SP of the USA. Arieh, DSA took the road you suggest and kept the discussion very academic and in house and lost 10,000 members.

So we do it the old way. We run candidates for local offices where they can explain what social democracy means to their neighbors and friends. Arieh, I know you prefer a generic term like progressive. Our mutual friend Rabbi Miller wants to redefine social democracy as a non-socialist ideology.It is ashame that Wikipedia does not see it that way. I do not know how people react in and around New York City. In Western Pennsylvania, if you put forward a program which is obviously democratic socialism they recognize it as such. In the late 1970's Tom Hayden brought his Campaign for Economic Democracy program to Pittsburgh. Hayden hoped to take his organization national. During the Q&A I asked Hayden if his "economic democracy" was not just Western European social democracy in disguise. Hayden did a tap dance about Stalinism. The next questioner, whom I had never met,asked Hayden why he was ducking my question. Hayden tried more malarkey (That Irish for bullshit) Then a local reporter told Hayden he was being deliberately disingenuous. The crowd turned hostile and Tom with Jane Fonda in tow beat a quick retreat without Fonda signing autographs, which was the reason many were there.(The China Syndrome was released that year).

Arieh, call socialism stick ball if people in your area will buy it. Here call socialism stick ball the charitable ones will consider you delusional, the less charitable will call you a liar to your face. Especially, in a time when the rich are moving heaven and earth to get socialism for themselves, it strikes me foolish to tell workers they are not entitled to it as well. I try to find out which of the the founders of the Socialist Party of America spoke in this area. If Mother Jones, James Connolly, Helen Gurley Flynn Gene Debs, Phil Randolph all spoke within 25 miles and not only needed to wonder how their message was going over, but were in fear for their lives. I'll take being viewed as eccentric any time. Without these people there would not have been an industrial union movement, black civil rights movement, or the the ideas that made the New Deal what it was.

Rick,

I could not agree more. Not only is Powell a war criminal, he is a repeat offender. First, he tried to cover up the Mi Lai massacre. Then he was responsible for the "highway of death" in the first gulf war. Finally, he presents the lies at the United Nations that precedes a the U.S. attacks that begin the senseless genocidal war in Iraq.

It would be a great idea if we could publish social democratic ratings, as Americans for Democratic Action publish liberal ratings. We might be able to do it not only for congress members but for local races as well. If that forces the the Democrats, to defend their positions so much the better. It will certainly draw distinctions with third party candidates. If we add a democracy scale it will demonstrate how far of the mark the the totalitarians that pretend to be socialists are. After all if the endorsement of socialists was not important, then Obama would have rejected the endorsement of Chicago DSA when he ran for the state house and much of this discussion would not be happening.


In Solidarity,

Gabe McCloskey-Ross




Rick Kisséll Wrote:

Translation: Get your asses back in the closet! NOW!

And what does it tell you that Obama would be embarrassed to have your endorsement, but not those of Colin Powell and Ken Adelman?

http://counterpunch .org/mowrey10242 008.html

Arieh Lebowitz wrote:

Lookit.

Notwithstanding that apparently many if not most of the social democrats in some way associated with the "SociaLDemocracy_ USA" email discussion list support him and want him to be the next president of the USA, Barack Obama needs the visible, public support of such a group right now like a lukh in kup {Yiddish for a hole in the head.}

I mean, really. That Democratic Socialists for Obama blog: http://democraticso cialistsforobama .blogspot. com/ that you are soliciting material for has only one photo - of Stalin and Lenin. Notwithstanding that the photo's caption says "The individuals above represent the anti-thesis of our paradigm," I mean, really - you are just giving a small bottle of kerosene to the McCain people. Granted that most people under 25 would neither recognize the people, and might have a bit of trouble understnding the caption ... but hey.

As for the "Social Democrats for Obama page at the Obama / Biden website," which you say is at http://my.barackoba ma.com/page/ group/SocialDemo cratsforObama. , it doesn't exist: when I hit the link I was told it was an "Invalid Group" - I would not at all be surprised if some people at the Obama campaign saw it and almost sprained his wrist deleting it.

We can discuss other matters at another time, but it seems to me that if you want to help Obama win, leave out any reference to socialist, social democrat, social democracy ... even in your signature. If and when he is elected, then do what you will.

But not until then, at the earliest.

That your group is the only socialist grouping to endorse Barack Obama is interesting, but to the outside world, of limited significance, esp. if it is a group - or group of overlapping groups? - of under 10,000, and more like under 30 {I am guessing}, individuals. Or am I wrong? No disrespect, but, well ... so what? As noted above - and what seems to me commonsensical - Obama neither needs nor wants the explicit public endorsement of any left group, even if it has the word "democrat" or "democracy" somewhere in it, even if "the individuals above represent the anti-thesis of [y]our paradigm."

Comparing what you have said or done vis-a-vis the Communist Party USA is ... meaningless. Simply meaningless. Or am I missing something? That your group has made an endorsement of Obama, vs. the CPUSA, which "has written many good things about Obama, but has made no formal endorsement, " well, who ... should be impressed?

You should not be - but seem to think that you are - are in the same universe as either the CPUSA. Same for the the Committees of Corespondence for Democratic Socialism. That the latter is split over whether or not to support Obama I am certai n is keeping Obama strategists up at night. I mean, seriously. I was never near the carroll at NYC's City College in its heyday, and I never really discussed politics with others at the rad publication stand at Eighth Street Books near Cooper Union here in New York, but if this is your universe, or even the exhibition hall at what used to be called the Socialist Schiolars Conference, we're on different pages. Simple as that. And that the Socialist Party of the United States of America "is running its own rather pitiful third-party effort," I can't see the clear difference between that and the "Social Democrats USA for Obama." I mean hey, what are the News & Letters Committees position on these matters. Now that's important!

I leave it to others to compare how the Social Democrats, USA--Socialist Party of America views Obama's candidacy vis-a-vis the Democratic Socialists of America. More to the point, I would like to see what real value exists in such vis-a-vis's.

I may come back to this another time, but I believe it was Pete Hamill who summed it up when asked about the prospects for socialism in America - `don't call it socialism: call it stickball,' or something to that effect.

Your real audience is not or should not be the small universe of people who are all tied up within the sd-ds dsa-dsoc catnam which period was max schachtman really on the top of his form and all that mishegas {Yiddish for ... mishegas} not the small world of people who remember intimately when such and such a caucus was not expelled but became the nucleus of the new whoziwatzis, which totalled a grand 387 people in its heyday, but the really large universe of many hundreds of thousands if not millions of "normal" people in the U.S., who speak plainly and simply, know that their jobs are less secure, their pensions fading, their lives are not as good as their parents' and their kids' lives will be tougher than theirs. They understand bread, and they need roses, too, but not the overwhelming majority of the baggage - expressions, and often constructs, and for sure much of the organizational memorabilia {one might say inscrutabilia} of last century, or even the one before that. They need ... stickball.

>> Arieh

Helping Obama

-- On Sun, 10/26/08, Arieh Lebowitz wrote:

David:

Is there a serious concern that a significant number of the folks associated with the new Social Democrats USA will NOT vote for Barack Obama? Or, more specifically, that they will cast their votes to third party candidates? Please clarify.

I am being deluged - as many people with email are - with such material. However, it appears to be prepared and dissemianted by people who are already sure how they will vote to others who are equally if not more sure how they would vote. [This is a not uncommon problem with folks of an idealogical or partisan bent.]

In addition to sending such things out to me and others, let me suggest a different approach: make ten copies {or more} and leave them near the copies of People, Us, Cosmo, etc... in laundromats. You will have a larger audience of undecided working people in laundromats than in email discussion lists such as this one. Of course, the thing you sent would have to be edited a bit, as it is NOT aimed at the laundromat crowd, but the "I'm on the democratic left, and everyone in my addressbook is similarly on the demleft" crowd.

>> Arieh

Dear Arieh,

We are the only socialist grouping to endorse Barack Obama. The Communist Party USA has written many good things about Obama, but has made no formal endorsement. The Committees of Corespondence for Democratic Socialism is split over whether or not to support Obama. The Socialist Party of the United States of America is running its own rather pitiful third-party effort. Now let's look at how the Social Democrats, USA--Socialist Party of America view Obama's candidacy vis-a-vis the Democratic Socialists of America.

From the Social Democrats, USA . org website:

Now we are engaged, not in a new struggle, but in the next phase of that same struggle[the civil rights struggle of the 1960s]. Public discrimination on the basis of color and gender is illegal, but private racism and sexism remain virulent. Barack Obama and that of Senator Hilary Clinton are proud to be the beneficiaries of the appropriate use of executive authority. However, the last eight years has seen a woeful usurpation of authority by the White House. The George W. Bush administration used the first foreign attack in more than a half century against Americans, upon their own soil, to govern by executive fiat. The administration lied about the dangers of one regime and ignored the actual perpetrators. Bush led a war, not against the terrorists of 9-11, but against the American working class. Using tax breaks for corporations and the rich, wealth has been redistributed from the average wage earner to the economic elites. Never has the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us been so wide. Those supporting George Bush and John McCain count on American workers being divided. These financial elites are literally banking on Americans remaining preoccupied by differences in race, color, creed, gender, national origin, and life style. By concentrating on what makes us different, we allow our government to fail us. We must make our government again “uphold, support, and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic”.

We are the Social Democrats, USA. We are the only legitimate heir to the Socialist Party of America. Our heritage includes Eugene Debs, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, Helen Keller, Norman Thomas, A. Philip Randolph, and Bayard Rustin. It was Randolph and Rustin who planned and brought together the 1963 March for Jobs and Justice. Dr. King might have had a very small audience if not for Randolph and Rustin. Randolph, a life long member of the social democratic movement, organized the first predominantly black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Rustin, a long time peace and human rights activist, counseled Dr. King, and his colleagues as they developed their plans for nonviolent resistance to “Jim Crow” Randolph and Rustin were able to unite the struggle of workers with the struggles of minorities, hence the March for JOBS and JUSTICE. The Labor Movement supported the March with both finances and numbers. Many other members of the SPA helped make the march a watershed moment. This included the individual Dr. King called “the bravest man I ever knew”, socialist elder statesman, Norman Thomas. Young People's Socialist League members Rochelle Horowitz and Tom Kahn wrote speeches for John Lewis, among others. The SD,USA enthusiastically embraces the candidacies of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. They are part of our own broad, pro-labor, anti-totalitarian, liberal tradition as were Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Walter Reuther, Harry Truman, George Meany, Lane Kirkland, Hubert Humphrey, and Michael Harrington. Obama and Biden are THE candidates to continue the dream of Jobs and Freedom for all.

From the Democratic Socialists of America website:
The campaign has 18 more days to run, and progressives have to continue to work hard to elect the Obama/Biden ticket along with as many progressive Democrats as possible. We say this not because we think Obama is particularly progressive. We don't. But Obama in office will have to respond to the pressure of progressive constituencies while McCain in office will not. The goals that progressives are fighting for - passage of national health care legislation, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act - can only be achieved if a president is elected who will sign them into law. And as we saw in the last debate McCain wants to appoint Supreme Court Justices who will overturn Roe v Wade. And who really thinks that McCain will remove troops from Iraq faster than Obama?

Like our comrades in DSA, we are not convinced that Obama is not a corporate Democrat after the model of Bill Clinton. Even if Obama has the temperament to be another FDR, he now lacks the resources. The bank bailout has left the United States treasury in its own credit crisis. Rather than expanding social programs, it is likely that the next president will need to re-trench on entitlements. This will put him at odds with Labor, minority groups, and community organizations. Capitalism simply can no longer export its contradictions. In addition, Obama has discussed a widening of the war in Afghanistan to include areas of Pakistan. All serious military analysts regard this as a fool's errand. It is likely that the Obama administration's new energy technologies will consist of more privately owned nuclear facilities and the oxymoronically named clean coal technology.

We in the SD-SP will do everything possible to see Obama elected. Then on November 5th, we will begin working with unions, community organizations, and ethnic rights groups to hold the feet of the elected Democratic House, Senate, and White House residents to the fire. I recently had a chance to travel through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. In discussing the election, I could not find any great support for the Democrats, particularly among blacks. Many blacks will vote to break the color barrier for the presidency, but few regard Barack Obama as representative of black America. Perhaps as Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post points out, it is necessary for Obama to be the whitest black president ever.

I don't believe their is hope for a new, New Deal because military Keysenism is no longer a pump primer. Too many military parts are made abroad to seriously effect the American economy with military spending. However, a serious concerted action by progressives may force the Democrats to provide a true economic stimulus package that includes infrastructure repair and a certain amount of green technology. This will take more than online patitions and calling members of Congress. It will take direct-action style demonstations at both the Washinton and district offices of Congressional members.

Arieh, your suggestions are very well taken and tomorrow I will work on a flyer that we can distibute in public places like laundromats, coffee houses, etc. Very sound advice! I would appreciate your comments on the proposed flyer when you see it tomorow evening. The same is true for everyone else reading this message. Also, I would point out there is now a Social Democrats for Obama page at the Obama / Biden website: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/SocialDemocratsforObama. Also, I am still soliciting material for the Democratic Socialists for Obama blog: http://democraticsocialistsforobama.blogspot.com/ .

In Solidarity and Friendship,
'Red' Gabe McCloskey-Ross, acting executive director, Social Democrats, USA--Socialist Party of America