Left Voices Call for Building a Progressive Majority

By Harry Targ

Over 100 activists, including 20 speakers on five
panels, from the labor, anti-racist, peace, women’s,
and socialist movements met to talk about ’Building A
Progressive Majority’ on Saturday, December 10 at the
SEIU 1199 meeting hall in New York City. The event
was sponsored and organized by The Committees of
Correspondence Education Fund.

Although difficult ’how to do it’ questions remain,
attendees agreed with Leslie Cagan, United for Peace
and Justice (UFPJ) coordinator, that the Left must make
every effort to help build a broad Left/Center
coalition that connects issues of peace and justice.
Cagan underscored that this means mobilizing Left
forces and taking Center voices seriously.

Carl Bloice, freelance journalist and member of the
National Executive Committee of the Committees of
Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS),
agreed that Left/Center unity is a necessity to fight
war, racism, and poverty.

He stressed that three pitfalls needed to be avoided.
First, Left and progressive activists should not forget
that the system is in crisis because of the growing
anger and activism of masses of people. (Frances Fox
Piven, Professor, City University of New York, on the
same panel documented the connection between mass
protest and progressive public policy in the history of
the United States).Second, activists must avoid
factionalism on issues and ideology. And
third,progressives must be prepared to challenge the
"2006 betrayal of the Democrats," that is they must
reject the Democratic Leadership Council Democrats who
embrace the war in Iraq and cuts in social spending.

Fighting racism and white supremacy is central to the
possibility of creating a progressive majority, added
Damu Smith, Black Voices for Peace. Addressing the
racist corporate/government response to the devastation
of Hurricane Katrina ’is a litmus test for the
progressive movement.’ If there is to be a movement, it
must incorporate the efforts of grassroots groups from
the Gulf region who are trying to regain control of
their lives and property from government. ’Katrina did
not hit New Orleans’, Smith said, ’FEMA hit New
Orleans.’ Reinforcing Smith, Chuck Turner, Boston City
Councilman, issued a challenge to the peace movement to
address the connections between the military-industrial
complex and the lack of resources for the African
American community.

Manning Marable, Professor, Columbia University,
referred to the ’New Racial Domain,’ a global political
economy driven by transnational capitalism and state-
enforced neo-liberal policies that rests ’on mass
unemployment, mass incarceration, and mass
disenfranchisement.’ Each of these is related to the
other two. Millions of dispossessed poor and people of
color at home and abroad are increasingly marginalized
at the same time that global capital seeks to privatize
every institution and natural resource in the service
of profit.

Elizabeth Rothschild, National Organizer, Young
Democratic Socialists, also highlighted the
relationship between struggling against racism and
building a progressive majority. In addition, she
related capitalism to racism, sexism, and the threat to
democracy. ’Capitalism is an undemocratic global system
of power distribution that reinforces and reproduces
and exacerbates racism and sexism.’ Democracy ’can only
be attained when we challenge capitalist production-
because democracy cannot be had in a system which
requires massive poverty.’ She outlined the ways in
which the system was tormenting youth:college costs are
rising, student loans are declining, jobs are scarce
for youth at all educational levels, and wages are low.
For thousands of youth, military service, is the only
remaining option.

The importance of rebuilding a trade union movement
that comes from the grassroots was emphasized by
Charles Ensley, President, Social Service Employees
Union, Local 371, AFSCME and Bill Henning, Vice
President, Communications Workers of America, Local
1180. Henning spoke of the influence of United States
Labor Against the War (USLAW) on the recently endorsed
AFL-CIO resolution opposing the Iraq war. Ensley made
it clear that labor has resources, human and financial,
to participate in a progressive coalition.

Michael Honey Professor and labor historian, connected
the anti-racist movement of the 1960s to poor and
working class movements of that day. He recalled that
Dr. King was marching in solidarity with Memphis
sanitation workers at the time when he was
assassinated. The assassination occurred just days
before the start of the Poor People’s Campaign
mobilization in Washington D.C. Honey suggested that a
progressive majority today can build on the 1960s
tradition, linking class, race, and gender.

In an inspiring keynote address, Amy Goodman, host and
producer of Democracy Now, described the pain and
suffering of Iraqi’s caused by the war and the fate of
victims of the Gulf Coast hurricane. She compared the
realities on the ground with the character of media
coverage of these events. She credited some journalists
with more accurate coverage of Hurricane Katrina
compared with the pro-U.S. military coverage in Iraq.
The difference, she suggested, resulted from the fact
that journalists were ’embedded’ in Iraq and somewhat
independent of government and military control in
Louisiana and Mississippi. She insisted that
progressives should work to build an independent media.

In the closing session, Charlene Mitchell, Co-Chair,
CCDS, talked about the need for Left dialogue and
action in this period of economic and political crisis.
She said that people are angry and activists from the
labor, anti-racist, peace, and socialist movements have
an obligation to come together to help build a
progressive movement based on an understanding of the
connections between class, race, and gender.. The
Symposium was important to begin the conversation, she
suggested. Now it was time to move toward activism.

Envisioning some next steps, Joseph Wilson, Professor
and Director, Center for Worker Education, CUNY,
recommended that a national convention be called to
launch the creation of a new national progressive
coalition. He called for energies to be channeled
toward the construction of radical think tanks to
generate ideas for progressive social change. Finally,
he endorsed the idea of recreating a progressive media,
print and electronic, to better inform potential
participants in a new progressive majority.

Symposium participants left energized by the
presentations and dialogue, and expressed their support
for the building of a ’new progressive coalition."

Harry Targ is a Professor in the Department of Political Science, Purdue University