November 9, 2006 - Issue 205

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On Election Day, Amiri Baraka sent out an email with the charge for the day: …”get rid of the Republican Majority. If you’re getting yr butt whipped, you got to disrupt that butt whipping…”

My response was simply an affirmation of “Ashe!”

I’m not in love with dem Dems but any organizer worth his or her salt understands the degrees of separation between the Democrats and the Republicans. It’s about under which regime will you have the better organizing conditions.

Mind you, I was a lil giddy the day after—the day after the GOP got its righteous butt whipping—but only for a spell. Reality quickly sunk in as I thought about the character of the Democrats.

John Kerry tried to assert himself in the waning days of the campaign and got smacked back in line. He wasn’t allowed out of his cage for the rest of the campaign.

Charlie Rangel fired on President Hugo Chavez for talking about his President Bush.

Hillary is dodging the raindrops of criticism against her position on the Iraqi war.

They are a pitiful lot for sure. But where is the plan of radicals to build our own power base? Where is our radical vision for the different world we say is possible? Where is our agenda to change the quality of life for the majority of working class and poor people in this country who are on a slippery slope?

Radicals of all hues need to heighten the discussion about political strategy and the kind of organization that we need to carry it out. That’s the kind of debate that I’d like to see us engaging in seriously before we get bounced in the next election.

BC Editorial Board member, Jamala Rogers, is the leader of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black Radical Congress National Organizer. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.

 

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