This is the first time I’ve ever attended a national political convention, so I’m learning new stuff left and right.
One of the things I’ve learned is that a convention isn’t just what you see on TV — there’s a ton of stuff happening all over the city, starting days before the convention opens and ending days after it closes. The convention doesn’t officially open until Monday, but when I came to Denver on Saturday morning there was already a dizzying amount of activity; there were protesters in the streets and groups caucusing in the conference rooms.
One example of all that activity is a rally that was held today for labor activists of all stripes and affiliations to show that there’s one thing that we all agree on: the times call for a leader, and that leader is Barack Obama.
SEIU has a new blog and they opened it today with some great live-blogging from the rally, so I won’t bore you by repeating the details; just go read their excellent account. Instead I’d just like to highlight a point that was made by CtW Chair Anna Burger when she addressed the rally that I think is really important.
When you’re heading into the critical stretch of an election season, she said, it’s easy to think that Election Day is the moment of decision — that if we elect the right people, our work will be done.
But it won’t be done, she told us; it will just be beginning. Electing the right people is a step in the right direction, but it’s only the first step; it’s incumbent on us not just to elect people who promise to do the right thing, but to make sure they follow through, and turn them out of office if they do not.
Her words reminded me of a story told by the pioneering organizer Saul Alinsky in his final book, Rules for Radicals:
It is not enough just to elect your candidates. You must keep the pressure on. Radicals should keep in mind Franklin D. Roosevelt’s response to a reform delegation, “Okay, you’ve convinced me. Now go on out and bring pressure on me!” Action comes from keeping the heat on. No politician can sit on a hot issue if you make it hot enough.
Our work today is to elect leaders like Barack Obama and Joe Biden who understand how it feels to see your American Dream slipping away, and who are committed to turning things around. But our work tomorrow, after election day, is to help them move their agenda of restoring the American Dream from rhetoric to reality.
Make no mistake — those who have profited by keeping workers from achieving the American Dream are gearing up for the fight of a lifetime to keep that agenda from being implemented:
Big business is mobilizing an enormous campaign with one and only one purpose: to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act. How serious are they? They are ready to spend $100 million to make this happen…
They’re terrified that if you have the power to decide your own fate — to reverse decades of inequality and start bringing the benefits of your productivity home to your own family, rather than having it go to send some Wal-Mart executive’s kid to boarding school — you’ll use it. And that would put an end to an era that has been extraordinarily profitable for those fortunate few at the top.
So they’re going to come out swinging. They’re going to do everything they can to keep that power out of your hands. They’re going to tell our leaders that you can’t be trusted with it. They’re going to tell our media that you aren’t smart enough to use it wisely. They’re going to tell you that power is complicated and scary and that you’d be better off trusting them to do the right thing by you.
They’re going to say whatever they have to say to keep you from having the power to stand up for your rights.
Today we work together to elect leaders who will stand up with us in defense of the American Dream. And tomorrow we will stand up with them to make that happen.
UPDATE (8:39AM, August 25): Great coverage of the rally from the Huffington Post.
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Are the Democrats going to repeal Taft-Hartley? McKinney/Clemente would. Are the Democrats going to implement universal single-payer public health insurance? McKinney/Clemente would. Are the Democrats going to resettle all the Katrina displaced persons in their old home towns and meanwhile maintain their right to vote? McKinney/Clemente would. Are the Democrats going to withdraw ALL the troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan and quit wasting American lives to no purpose but fattening oil companies' wallets? McKinney/Clemente would.
I'm a Canadian member of Local 1.on, so it's not my dues money you are wasting on supporting the left wing of the bankers' party, but when will you brothers and sisters wake up? The only way to get politicians to be our friends is to own the party. And you don't own the Democrats the way we own the New Democrats. You never will. You really have to break with them the way Sister McKinney did.
You want the American dream, brothers and sisters, you are going to have to reach out and TAKE IT.
Posted by B. Ross Ashley on August 25, 2008 at 6:03 PM
Posted on August 25, 2008 at 6:03 PM