‘Feel the Bern!’
2016Peter Olney 2016-02Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 6 →
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Peter Olney and Tom Gallagher both spoke on behalf of the Bernie Sanders Campaign. Gallagher’s remarks were unavailable for this edition; his writings can be found at TomGallagerwrites.com. Excerpts from Ol ney’s presentation appear below:
Nowhere has there been a more profound effect than in the Labor for Bernie initiative and the debate within labor. Yes, the usual suspects SEIU, AFSCME, most of the building trades have lined up with Hill ary without any profound debate or discussion in the ranks. There’s a sense of inevitability and a fear of retribution! However, the debate rages, and three sig nificant national unions have endorsed Bernie—NNU, CWA and APWU—and over 40 locals. ...
On the power of the Sanders candidacy within the Democratic primary: He has taken the Primary Route and so should we. It’s Bernie, and the fact that he has labeled himself a socialist is great for our cause. ...
He is espousing views that unions espouse 364 days a year—economic inequality, rapacious Wall Street pillagers of the economy—but then on election day they advise their members to vote the “lesser of two evils,” not an irrational choice given that elections have consequences for labor and labor law, the envi ronment, and peace.
Bernie’s run within the Democratic Party primaries 6 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 2016 puts him on Main Street, in the debates, and he is not a spoiler. We go all out for Bernie win or lose and then we settle for whoever emerges from the process as our candidate against the racist, xenophobic candi date of the GOP!
But we are trapped, you say, voting forever for a can didate of a corporate party. It was Tony Mazzochi [for mer head of the Oil and Atomic Workers union] who said: Business has two parties, we need our own—a Labor Party. True enough, but politics is the art of get ting from A to B.
This is the challenge for the legions of labor for Ber nie supporters and the challenge we must discuss and confront, not whether to support Bernie in the prima ries—that is a must—but how to take the energy and organization coming out of the campaign to create a permanent and ongoing organization and movement.
(Left) Tom Gallagher. (Right) Peter Olney.
To that end, discussions are underfoot to cement a permanent alliance of the national unions that have endorsed Bernie and the locals that endorsed him to stay together past the primaries, the convention, the general election and even the White House to contin ue to carry out a political strategy that takes the pri mary route in federal, state, and local elections. That engages in non-partisan elections at the most basic level, and that unites with other forces in the com munities of color, immigrant communities, and with other political formations like Working Families Party and Move On to build an alternative political pole, and maybe one day a Socialist Party in this country.
After all, who wants to die a Democrat!
FEEL THE BERN! n