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Great analysis. The comparison of the right-wing protesters with left-wing mobilization is especially interesting. I'm left with a few questions, however.

-Who is your intended audience? Is it the independent left?

-If there really is this large left-organizing base in cities, and in the union rank and file, where are they? Why would they be waiting for "the Democrats (and unions and community groups" to "choose to finally open up some political space on their left"? If these folks could really be so effective at countering the right-wing protesters, why can't they be effective at pushing the Democratic and union leadership to 'open up some political space'? Why don't they just use this apparently untapped potential to put single-payer on the agenda?

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your comments.

The intended audience of this editorial is anyone in the Boston area (and beyond) who is interested in independent left perspectives on issues of the day. That obviously includes people on the independent left in its various incarnations - plus people in the Democratic Party and people on the political right.

To answer your larger questions, I didn't say that there was a large left organizing base in cities, I said that there were experienced groups of independent left organizers in most cities. Certainly the potential organizing base is large, but given all the thorny political challenges facing the growth of an independent left in the U.S. that potential is rarely realized.

Regarding "waiting for the Democrats" et al to open up political space on their left, the independent left will have to wait for the Democrats to decide it's advantageous to bring the left into the larger political arena because right now the left isn't strong enough in most places to force the Democrats to do much of anything.

Nor is it clear that that's the best place for the independent left to put our energies. Historically, center-left parties like the Democrats expend at least as much effort keeping left formations subdued as they do combating the right; so I'm not holding my breath on this option anyway. I think that's a debate worth having though.

And left single payer organizers are already pushing as hard as they can to open up such space on that issue already. But there are clear limits to what that movement can do at the moment. Not to mention that health care is only one arena where the left has been hung (understandably, since there are serious political disagreements in play) out to dry by the Democrats.

Still, it could be that a more concerted effort could be mounted by some grouping of organizations on the independent left to open up the aforementioned political space, but it must be remembered that this strategy has been pursued many times in the last several decades with limited positive effect - most notably by the Democratic Socialists of America in the 1980s (and its predecessor groups New American Movement and Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee in the 1970s), but also by various Marxist-Leninist organizations in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of said left formations got behind left populist efforts like the Rainbow Coalition to help Rev. Jesse Jackson in his two runs for President in 1984 and 1988. Opinions currently vary among socialist and communist left organizations about how to interact with the Democrats. Although, some of them would certainly consider trying to force open some space regardless of the pitfalls of previous efforts.

But significant anarchist and anti-authoritarian formations in this same period and since have largely stayed away from electoral politics. Which makes sense ideologically since most of the several anarchist schools of thought are in favor of direct democracy over representative democracy. Major exceptions would be Left Greens (of the U.S. variety) and other libertarian municipalists who do believe in town meeting forms of government operating in confederations at the larger level. Some anarcho-communists, libertarian socialists, and council communists have similar beliefs. So it's unlikely that there would be much support for efforts to push on the Democrats from the libertarian left - although it's not inconceivable that some formations from that quarter might participate in larger efforts towards that end in a limited way.

Finally, left party building efforts like the Green Party and the Labor Party have different positions on the political space question at different times and places. Their very existence militates towards opening up such space, but there have been times when such efforts have been more pointed on their part. Generally, however, they want to stick to an independent political course that exists on its own terms - not in relation to another party. Fusion parties like the Working Families Party in New York state - one the only states like allows it - exist precisely towards the goal of opening up political space to the left of the Democrats. But it has been generally observed in left circles that fusion efforts (where small parties are allowed to endorse major party candidates) rarely result in pushing a major party like the Democrats to the left. More often than not, the fusion party is simply ignored.

So this is a tough question no matter how you slice it. More comments would be welcome.

Jason Pramas
Editor/Publisher
Open Media Boston

p.s. - to the general audience, I am aware that I discuss strains of political thought in this reply that you have more than likely not heard of before, but rest assured they all exist and have more adherents than you'd expect in a country like the U.S. ... that is, more than zero and less than a few thousand people ... but numbers can be deceptive ... history shows us that small political movements can explode in size under the right conditions; so it does not do to discount any political movements based on size alone ...

Thanks for your reply.

"To answer your larger questions, I didn't say that there was a large left organizing base in cities, I said that there were experienced groups of independent left organizers in most cities. Certainly the potential organizing base is large, but given all the thorny political challenges facing the growth of an independent left in the U.S. that potential is rarely realized."

I'm not quite sure of the distinction here.

"Regarding "waiting for the Democrats" et al to open up political space on their left, the independent left will have to wait for the Democrats to decide it's advantageous to bring the left into the larger political arena because right now the left isn't strong enough in most places to force the Democrats to do much of anything."

Thanks, I think that clears up most of my confusion on that point.

I'm familiar with the debate you outline between electoral politics and the alternatives (whatever they may be...). But what is striking is that majorities seem to be in favor of single payer; why can Obama mobilize people to elect him, but there's no national organization that can mobilize people in favor of what they already support?

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