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Author Archives: Josh Eidelson
Teenagers with bats seriously beat one of the striking clerks in LA yesterday. He was sent to the Hospital; they were questioned and sent home. As Nathan Newman observes:
Anti-union propaganda always harp on “union violence” but they rarely talk about the violence employer-related thugs regularly inflict on peaceful picketers…Like the hyping of “union corruption”- rarely more than pissant embezzling by a few isolated officials, a pale reflection of the mass looting by Enron and other corporate officials, the hype of “union violence” while ignoring employer and government violence is one of the Big Lies by the Lying Liars of the rightwing to undermine public support for unionism.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for conservatives to condemn the “cultural explanation” and “media influence” behind this particular crime, or to explore how it is that we convince sixteen-year old boys that standing up for a living wage is a provocation worthy of violent retribution.
ABC’s The Note has gotten a hold of a draft of a memo from Kerry’s newly-fired Campaign Manager to his replacement – his advice to her is worth a look:
1. At the slightest provocation, particularly during live television interviews, The Candidate will throw the staff under the bus. For instance, I was once sacrificed on “Meet the Press” for some on-the-record criticism of HoHo that in retrospect reads in tone and substance like a Connie Morella press release compared to what The Candidate is now saying about Dean…
4. The corrollary of “Let The Spouse Be the Spouse” is “Let Chris Black Be Chris Black.” You’ll know what I mean shortly if you don’t already.
5. I have no fu***** (REDACTED) idea what Cam is doing, but The Candidate seems to believe he is the second coming of Tad Devine…
8. You’ll be tempted to ask the research shop to get you a memo on The Candidate’s achievements in Congress. Save yourself some time and don’t.
9. Often, we line up endorsements and come up with a plan about how to unveil them for maximum strategic effect. Remember: this works best if the endorsers don’t just blurt out their support whenever they feel like it. Also, if you set up endorsement press conference calls, remind the endorsers not to trash the significance of their own endorsements.
10. Getting into Canada requires proper ID. (Actually, that one belongs on a different list — ignore it …) …
14. You’ll be wondering what the fourth-quarter fundraising number will be like. It’s not something I want to commit to paper. Just have Gibbs practice in front of a mirror: “We’ll have enough resources to get our message out.”
15. I think we finally have an answer on the Iraq vote that works. As John Sasso always says, “8th time’s the charm.”
16. Best to get The Candidate to stop musing in public about decisions that he hasn’t made yet. And, since we have budgeted to take those matching funds, make darn sure that The Candidate is fully ready to write a personal check before you let him make any announcement. In fact, I’d suggest having the check in hand — certified.
17. Finally, have fun. There are still a lot of people in the party like you who believe that The Candidate is the party’s best and only hope of beating George Bush, and we have all seen moments and flashes in which John is That Man.
Your task, in the few short weeks you have, is to somehow make him perform at that level each and every day. There’s no evidence it can be done, but you gotta try. You and New Hampshire can make The Candidate The Comeback Kid.
The Tikkun Community has launched a new national campaign in support of the Geneva Agreements on a permanent Israel-Palestine Settlement. Check it out.
A thoughtful piece by Noam Schieber on Joe Trippi’s organizing model:
when you’re raising money from people in small increments, and when those same people think they’re being listened to, then those people start to feel like they own the campaign. And, once they start to feel they own the campaign, it’s almost impossible to pry them away. In the language of political organizing, you never have to worry about your ones backsliding into twos.
Trippi gets a perfect test of this proposition in late June, right in the middle of the $7.6 million push. Dean goes on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and, according to just about every pundit in Washington, falls flat on his face. But the average Dean supporter doesn’t quite see it that way. He sees the same candor and forthrightness that won him over in the first place. And, truth be told, he thinks Tim Russert is a bit of an asshole– constantly trying to trap Dean in contradictions and hypocrisies. Furthermore, he’s annoyed at how dismissive the media is when it comes to a campaign that, after all, he partly owns. Pretty soon, he’s writing e-mails and ponying up more cash, trying to send a message to the people who would tread on his investment.
This YDN piece sets forth the common – and accurate – wisdom that Tuesday’s election and September’s primary, in which the New Haven Democrats captured one seat each from the Greens and the Republicans, for a total of 28 out of 30 on the Board of Aldermen, and in which several critics of Mayor DeStefano were replaced with allies, represents a significant shift in the power on the board, and a consolidation of control behind DeStefano and his team. This has tremendous positive potential, as evidenced in DeStefano’s victory speech Tuesday night, in which he identified as his first two priorities domestic partnership and campaign finance reform – both areas in a which New Haven has the potential to pass progressive legislation matched by only perhaps a dozen other cities in the country. DeStefano’s shift to the left, however, has not happened in a vacuum – besides his growing commitment to running for Governor in 2006, DeStefano has been pushed by his critics from the left, including, as Paul Bass argued a couple weeks back, the Greens.
The one Green left on the Board, however – Joyce Chen – has gotten the most headlines of her term by vocally and visibly opposing domestic partnership. That stance, and her rhetoric in defending it, cost her the support of many of her constituents – myself and many progressive undergraduates included. The unions’ work in support of Joyce, who has a record of support for the social contract that labor and community movements have been pushing in this city, and the Democratic party’s work in support of Democrat Andre Nicole Baker, created an ugly scene between members of both camps at the polls, despite the co-operation of both in winning several wards for pro-labor progressive Democrats, among them Drew King in Ward 22, where most undergrads who aren’t in Ward 1 or 2 live. Drew beat Office of New Haven and State Affairs-supported incumbent Mae Ola Riddick’s write-in campaign, after having defeated her in the September primary and this summer at the Ward nominating committee.
Meanwhile, the YDN editorial board, which instituted an annual tradition of calling on Ward 28 Alderman Brian Jenkins to resign his post as leader of the Black and Latino Caucus after his minority address, is now worried that without him there’ll be fewer voices to keep DeStefano in check.
Dean has locked down the SEIU and AFSCME endorsements. As I noted before, I have my reservations about parts of Dean’s policy record, but out of the current crop of candidates he’s distinguished by full and unapologetic rejection of each of the major outrages of the Bush administration, his willingness, deftness, and passion in articulating an alternative vision for this country, and his capacity to organize effectively around it. And as Nathan Newman notes:
I’m left a bit stunned at what could be a consolidation quite early of Dean’s innovative online organizing with the powerhouse on-the-ground operations of SEIU and AFSCME (along with the other unions that will soon fall into place). Janitors and computer jockies organizing together is an amazingly powerful idea.
And we ain’t seen nothing yet. We are a year from Election Day, yet Dean is starting with an online organization of over 500,000 people, while the SEIU, for example, has already held multiple national meetings of thousands of their top activist organizers to be sent back into the field to mount the largest political mobilization in history. Thousands of SEIU members will be taking a one-year leave of absence to go organize in swing states on the payroll of the union’s political operations– a cross-state organizing effort that’s never been done and being started orders of magnitude earlier than any previous political year…
Ben Healey won last night, 3-1, in a resounding referendum on a vision for a more progressive future for New Haven.
Our turnout is strong and exciting in Ward One. Less than eight hours left to vote – get out there if you can.
The polls open for the New Haven Aldermanic elections in another ten hours. As I’ve noted here before, Ward One, where I and the majority of Yale undergraduates live, is made up almost entirely of students and represented by one, which provides a unique opportunity to engage with local politics. The race tomorrow pits an incumbent who’s worked to use that seat to build strong coalitions of common interest and shared vision with people and movements throughout the city against a challenger who believes that seat should be the Yale Corporation’s bulwark against the frustration of the rest of the city. Ben Healey’s built a strong record of progressive struggle and real change over the past years, advancing clean elections, living wages, environmental justice, domestic partnership, and the right to organize. That’s why Mayor John DeStefano and a diverse group of student leaders came out to stand with an enthusiastic crowd in support of Ben. And that’s why students – LWB readers included – should and will turn out tomorrow to re-elect him.
Israel is currently preparing for a major national strike, as workers refuse to see the crippling economic impact of the intifadah and the occupation paid for by demolishing their pensions. As the Times notes:
Mr. Netanyahu is trying to substantially reduce the government’s role in the economy, and has been cutting budgets and benefits and dismissing workers. But in a country founded on a socialist ethos, he has encountered considerable resistance, particularly from labor groups.
Good to be reminded that there are still people ready to stand up for the good and noble parts of original vision of Labor Zionism.
Meanwhile, this sounds strangely familiar…
Weeks of negotiations have produced no breakthroughs, and the sides did not appear close to an agreement.
Israel’s infrastructure minister, Yosef Paritsky, said the government had offered “very generous proposals, but I think Amir Peretz chose to make a political move and launch the strike in order to glorify himself.”
Josh Eidelson 