CCDS Mobilizer

ONLINE NEWSLETTER

Vol 2, No. 2

Summer 2010

National Coordinating Committee Meets and Discusses
the 2010 Election, and Saving the Progressive Majority

Meeting July 31- August 1, 2010

The NCC met in a video conference July 31 and August 1. The first point was the upcoming national election. Ted Pearson opened with a PowerPoint presentation on “Can the Progressive Majority be Saved?” Jean Hardisty and Deepak Bhargava said in The Nation, “Eighteen months into the Obama era, the progressive movement is experiencing malaise, based on disappointment about what has been accomplished so far and confusion about the path forward”. This problem was reflected in many of the local chapter reports, also. The report laid out a strategy of mass actions that can help progressives reshape the national agenda, especially the Oct. 2 “One Nation-One Dream” march on Washington called by the NAACP and endorsed by the AFL-CIO.

A video of Van Jones speaking in July to the Netroots Nation was shown. Jones called on the Netroots Nation to keep going. We thought we’d crossed the finish line on Election Day, 2008, he said, but actually we’ve just got to the starting line.

Key battle ground states for CCDS in the Senate and Congress races were identified: Illinois, New York, California, Pennsylvania , Kentucky, and Ohio.

This was followed by a good and frank discussion. What should our approach to the Blue Dogs be? How to support Obama when his policies are contrary to the progressive agenda? How to respond to attacks such as that on ACORN. The importance of discussing race and racism, support for immigrant rights with white workers. “Local mass struggles are key.” There will be Jobs with Justice actions on August 6th and August 28th (in Detroit) followed by a JWJ National Day of Action on September 15th.

Members called for more focus in the work of CCDS. Harry Targ proposed that we focus our work on jobs, the war and military budget, and the environment. Targ noted in his proposal that “of the four issues that have activated progressives over the last year (jobs, peace, health care, the environment), CCDS as an organization seems to be most “advanced” in its resources and activism around jobs, peace and the environment.

The October 2 “One Nation-One Dream” mobilization is a national priority under the slogan “Demand the Change we Voted for.” It has broad support including NAACP, LaRaza, AFT-CIO, SEIU. There will be a strong peace contingent present, especially if we help organize it.

It's Time to Fight for Full Employment is out in pamphlet form! This CCDS document written by Randy Shannon is a major step forward in our work and a valuable tool in the fight for jobs. Shannon opened this discussion stating the “Overarching slogan should be "Peace and Prosperity -- Yes. War and Austerity -- No!" This booklet is a timely analysis of the economic struggle that can raise the level of understanding and unity around the economic issues. It was suggested that the Labor Committee organize a national discussion of this important work. The booklet can be ordered from the CCDS website. Click to order the Full Employment Pamphlet.

The NCC launched a strategic planning process. Renee Yvonne Carter explained that it was needed because of “not only the financial straits of the organization, but to clarify its mission, both to our members but also to other progressive groups; to assess, reassess and adjust our programs of work. … This is a dynamic process--when the political landscape changes, the strategic plan should change with it. It makes us focus, and also think outside the box. “

This process will start with taking a local inventory. Carl Davidson explained “Success of strategic planning depends in the work of everyone on the NCC. Many of us are key organizers in a chapter or region. In order to move forward we must know where we are.” This information will be assessed at the next meeting of the NCC which will be in 3 months. The next meeting will be a held by video conference but the following meeting will be a face to face meeting in 6 months.

This meeting also took on other pressing issues facing the organization. We were reminded that while we made significant gains in sustainers and fundraising after our last letter we still are not meeting our monthly expenses. We need to push forward with membership and fundraising and our sustainer drive.

This was first meeting by video conference and it went very well. Sandy Eaton stated that “This is the next best thing to actually having a face to face meeting”. Renee Carter stated that it Worked “surprisingly well” It is hoped that the standing committees can transition to video conferencing soon as well.

The Organizational Report given by Janet Tucker, combined with the committee reports and local and regional reports reminded us that much has been accomplished since our last meeting and good work is going on everywhere. To enhance better communication between local areas and the national organization there are plans for the Mobilizer to come our more frequently so that we can communicate the wonderful work we are doing.

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Jack O’Dell’s Climbin’ Jacob’s Ladder and the Future of the Democracy Charter

by Brandon Wallace

Jack O’ Dell’s Climbin’ Jacob’s Ladder makes a succinct case for the perseverance of progressive struggle in the face of open hostility from social, political, and economic forces in the United States. O’Dell offers up brilliant interpretations of Reconstruction Era politics and the ensuing social and political movements leading up to the Civil Rights Movement. Throughout the book, he weaves together a historical continuum based on race, labor, and class politics through the 1980s and Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition.

One inspired item that O’Dell incorporates into the book is the Democracy Charter. Based on South Africa’s Freedom Charter, the Democracy Charter proposes thirteen premises to serve as a basic commitment of the United States to the people who reside within it. Those premises include:

An end to homelessness.
Full employment.
A commitment to human rights.
Free education from early childhood through college.
An anti-aggression foreign and military policy.
Universal healthcare.
A social security system with undiminished integrity.
A farm economy restructured to rest on family and cooperative enterprise.
A prison system committed to rehabilitation.
Restoration, preservation, and protection of the environment.
Expanded public management of resources strategic to our nation’s economy.
The right to have every vote counted.
The airwaves maintained as public property.

Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism has been made a steward of the Democracy Charter, charged with the effort to put before the public a concrete and tangible plan of action surrounding this document. In this effort, websites have been formed, study groups have commenced, and strategic plans of action have been put forward. These efforts have been largely academic exercises.

Another avenue for popularizing the Democracy Charter rests takes into account one of the most important aspects of this document, the fact that it is a charter. A charter is a basic tool of government built on the idea of a social contract.

With this idea in mind small groups can be formed with the specific goal of introducing the Democracy Charter before city councils, state legislatures, community boards, and other bodies that would have the authority to adopt the Democracy Charter as a statement of their values and a declaration of their beliefs.

We have seen this practice before with regards to sanctuary cities and various other causes and efforts.

Another plan of action recalls Betty Reardon’s Anti-Patriarchy Project, which is based on several goals that have been implemented into a U.N. charter and are espoused in communities around the globe, much the same as the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. Using this model, and building on Malcolm X’s aborted plan to take the U.S. before the United Nations on the charge of crimes against humanity, the Democracy Charter could also find a useful home in the United Nations with a larger, global aim.

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Good Jobs, Green Jobs 2010: Green Energy
Manufacturing To Solve the Jobs Crisis? A Very Tough Battle

By Carl Davidson
SolidarityEconomy.Net

On May 4-6 nearly 3500 people attended the 2010 'Good Jobs, Green Jobs' conference in Washington DC. Carl Davidson and Ted Pearson represented the CCDS. This third and largest conference was organized by the Blue-Green Alliance of several hundred environmental, community groups and trade unions initiated by the United Steel Workers and the Sierra Club.

Last year's gathering was fresh from Obama's victory and several new recession-fighting initiatives and was highly spirited and visionary. Now after a tough year, the mood had shifted. There was still plenty of idealism and optimism but the fierce resistance of the GOP and finance capital were sobering.

"We must seize this opportunity to turn the economy around and end global warming," said Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers in closing remarks. "If the Republicans take majorities in the House and Senate in November, only Heaven will be able to help us. For our children, our grandchildren, and all the future generations we cannot allow this to happen."

There were many more youth at this Convention than at the one a year ago. They were Black, white, Latino and Asian American, and came mainly from the Sierra Club, the Apollo Alliance and the "Corps Network" as well as Green for All.

A series of large plenary sessions alternated with workshops. A Green Innovation Expo featured booths from more than 100 green nonprofits, unions, government agencies and a variety of 'high road' green energy companies. There was frequent mention of GAMESA, the Spanish wind turbine construction company, which now has major investments in the U.S.

The final day of the conference was devoted to lobbying on Capitol Hill.

There were scores of workshops. One workshop discussed "Can Green Jobs Solve the Biggest Unemployment Crisis Since the Great Depression?" There was little optimism around the central theme of the workshop. The panelists, each in their own way, believed it was possible for green jobs to be a big part of the solution to the crisis, but everything depended on a good number of less likely 'ifs…' "

There was very little emphasis on war and militarism. At the workshop on 'Infrastructure and Jobs Creation,' a question asked "Would not cutting the military budget and ending the wars, and investing the money in green infrastructure and technology development do more to create jobs than is now possible?" This drew loud applause from the audience and both panelists agreed it was true.

At the plenary the next day Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, made the case for the AFL-CIO's fight for jobs. "We're 11 million jobs in the hole," Trumka declared, "and that's on top of the unemployment that already existed." He closed by saying, "Now is the time to reject false choices and make forward-looking choices. Now is the time to invest in new technologies that generate energy, grow the economy, and create good green jobs. Now is the time to build the alliances, present the plans, and fight the fights that will create a cleaner, greener, more prosperous and more just America."

Senator John Kerry also addressed the plenary. He had a more difficult task – pushing a major bill on carbon emissions through the Senate that was being weakened and gutted even as he spoke.

At the workshop on “'What Green Jobs Mean for the African American Community” the jobs issue came to a head. The Rev. Lenox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus had done a good job of opening up the subject. "I just spent seven days on the road talking with African American communities, mostly young people, in Indiana, Missouri and Arkansas about clean-energy, on the Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! Tour," he said. "We have officially put our elected officials on notice: 2010 must be a year of action on clean energy and climate legislation."

"Are there really any jobs?" asked one organizer, who described himself as someone working with dozens of young men recently released from prison or otherwise part of the long-term unemployed. "Or are we just talking bureaucratic run-arounds? Is there an office somewhere where we can go and sign up for a job today? I mean the folks I'm working with are desperate. They've got nothing, not even a place to live." Finally

He got convoluted answers, but nothing concrete. "So again, are there really any jobs?" he persisted. "Tell me where we go!" Finally, Maya Goines of the Dept. of Labor admitted that there were no jobs to hand out, only programs and projects that were being planned, and that hopefully would come to scale in the near future and reach into his community.

One of the more inspiring workshops was held at the end. Entitled 'Using Community Investment to Create Green Jobs You Can Own,' it featured the newly created Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio, and started with a 10-minute video highlighting three worker-owned coops-an industrial laundry, a solar panel assembly and installation firm, and a huge greenhouse/community garden growing fresh produce in the city on a large scale.

Carl Davidson is a national co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (www.cc-ds.org) and a nation board member of the Solidarity Economy Network. (www.ussen.org) If you like this article, make use of the PayPal button at www.carldavidson.blogspot.com.

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U. S. Social Forum: High-Energy Gathering - A New Generation of Activists in the Left and Social Movements

By Carl Davidson

When 15,000 vibrant and politically engaged people gather in one spot for five days and organize themselves into more than 1000 workshops, dozens of major plenaries and late night parties across five major cultural hot spots, no one article can claim to give a full account and get away with it.

But that’s what happened in Detroit June 22-26 at the US Social Forum. Cobo Hall and nearby universities buzzed with thousands of people trying to shape a new world.

I won't even try to capture it all. I'll just affirm the common conviction that it was a major happening and a huge success, an inspiration and affirmation of hope that progress is being made towards a better future.

The Forum started on June 22 with a massive march of thousands through the streets of a devastated and de- industrialized Detroit. "What an amazing day!" said Allison Flether Acosta of Jobs with Justice.

New entry of the Trade Unions One important new addition to the young crowd in the streets was the participation of organized labor. Newly elected UAW President Bob King joined Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams; Al Garrett, president of AFSCME District Council 25; and Armando Robles, UE Local 1110 president, in leading the march, chanting `Full and Fair Employment Now!' and `Money for Jobs, Not for Banks!'

The opening events, unfortunately, were either ignored or strangely spun by the mass media. "This ain't no Tea Party,' said Noel Finley, in a scarce account in the Detroit News, somewhat awed by the sight of it all. "The forum is a hootenanny of pinkos, environuts, peaceniks, Luddites, old hippies, Robin Hoods and urban hunters and gatherers."

There were 1062 workshops and panels, 50 major assemblies, and the huge march of thousands through Detroit - all in a festive and cooperative atmosphere.

Tediously Planned and Well Structured

The USSF core was organized into `tracks' around common freshly defined themes, including:

* Capitalism in Crisis: tearing down poverty, building economic alternatives & a solidarity economy * Climate Justice: sustainability, resources and land * Indigenous Sovereignty * Displacement, Migration and Immigration * Democracy and Governance * To the Right: internationally and domestically * To the Left: building a movement for social justice: intersections and alliances across race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability. * Strategies for Building Power & Ensuring Community Needs (housing, education, jobs, clean air...) * Organizing a Labor Movement for the 21st Century: crisis and opportunities * Media Justice, Communications, & Culture * Transformative Justice, Healing, and Organizing * Endless War: militarization, criminalization and human rights * International Solidarity and Responsibility: building a unified response to global crises * Detroit and the Rust Belt

The result was an amazing array of workshops, on every topic under the sun, ranging from `how-to' hands-on organizing techniques to oral history and theoretical debates.

Labor gave the USSF important financial support and populated the event with a cohort of labor activists from around the nation. The AFL-CIO presented two workshops

Importance of Full Employment Campaign

A two hour workshop on the Fight for Jobs and Economic Recovery was led by an AFL-CIO staff person and the national jobs coordinator of Jobs with Justice. The workshop focused on the tasks of organizing the unemployed locally and mobilizing for the October 2nd National March on Washington for Jobs and Justice. The second focus of the workshop was around how to raise the militancy of tactics in the struggle for jobs. The workshop of 80 people broke into 8 subgroups to separately come up with proposals for local organizing and raising the level of militancy, then reported back to the body.

The Immigration rights workshop was also organized by the national AFL-CIO. Panelists included a founder of the Alliance of Guest Workers founded in 2007, who responded to the abuse of immigrant guest workers who are recruited by corporations on the basis of false promises

The role of CCDS

Democracy Charter Panel: Carl Davidson, standing, Tim Johnson,
Bill Fletcher, Frances Fox Piven

The Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism organized two panels - 21st Century Socialism, and the role of the struggle for democracy in the South. But we also cooperated with others in panels on the peace movement and the economy, on Vietnam and Agent Orange, on Anne Braden's Legacy as a Southern Activist, and especially on the Democracy Charter initiative launched by civil rights veteran Jack O'Dell. We put together our own program, a "CCDS Track' of some 32 panels and two `Peoples Movement Assemblies.'

"I attended three workshops that were very large," said Randy Shannon, a CCDS National Committee member, "two were packed with youth. The composition of these workshops reflected that of the USSF overall, which is predominantly young people."

Inter-Generational Dialogue

"I'm an old radical," said Jack Norris Jefferson County KY, "and I've never been around this many other radical people - including lots of young people in leadership roles."

The Metro DC CCDS chapter also organized a workshop on “Rapid Solarization.” The major venue for groups to display their wares was the huge Macomb sector of Cobo Hall, which had hundreds of tables and displays. CCDS had a good, well-stocked table.

Cultural activities: 'The Leftist Lounge’

CCDS's Mark Solomon in discussion period of
Socialism Is the Alternative panel
Bill Fletcher, Frances Fox Piven

There was a `Leftist Lounge,' for late-night parties and revelry. "The most fun I had was at the Leftist Lounge," said Tina Shannon, a CCDSer from Beaver County, PA. "It was a series of warehouses turned into dance clubs. The walls were covered with posters from social movements and pictures of activists and videos documenting protest in different places. The music in each room had a different flavor. The crowd was mostly young and very diverse. The social atmosphere was welcoming.”

Somehow it all worked out. One reason is that Social Forums are a `political space,' where groups with conflicting and contending idea can seek common ground, or at least co-exist cooperatively for a time. There was no document or set of unifying principles or common political platform to wrangle over. An assembly under the bigger tent can come up with a statement which is reported to the closing assembly, but it's not binding on anyone.

The assembly on the Oct 2 March on DC for jobs initiated by the NAACP, La Raza and several unions said, "Support the One Nation, Working Together march to be held in Washington, DC, October 2, 2010. Jobs, Education, Housing, Immigration Rights, Cut the Military Budget!"

Climate Change Crisis Photo: Kentucky workshop
on Anne Braden's Legacy

The assembly on Displacement, Migration, and Immigration said, "The freedom to move across borders that were set up to colonize and exploit people for profit is a basic element of human dignity.” The assembly on endless war and militarism said, "We call for a diametrical shift of U.S. tax revenues from war and militarization to meet human needs, here and abroad." Some argue that the the WSF approach to resolutions and platforms bends too much towards anarchism, avoiding a unified spearhead against a common target. A few others argue that the Social Forums have become `tame' and `taken over' by foundation-funded Non- Governmental Organizations, or NGOs. Still others have become more receptive to the recent call by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to found a new `Fifth International' of socialist and related anti-imperialist liberation movements, which would have a higher level of unity and discipline.

But these criticisms are all a minor chord in the background. When all is said and done, there's still nothing quite like the cross-fertilization and synergy that arises en masse from the formula devised by the Social Forum.

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