Six Discussion
Points for UFPJ
2008 Assembly

By Carl Davidson
Keep On Keepin’ On

1. The antiwar movement has won a major victory with the defeat of McCain by Obama; antiwar forces were among the first to launch Obama’s campaign, and now it’s time to consolidate gains. Now it’s time to press the Obama White House early in 2009 for an end to the war and to block wider wars with a broad ‘Yes, We Can!’ mobilization from below.

2. Start by reaching out primarily to the millions of Obama volunteers and Obama voters, especially the younger generation, but also the pro-Obama women, labor organizers, and communities of color.  If you want change from below, this is where the engine is. Let go of any forces who want to hold this back and keep us locked in far narrower circles.

3. Organization building trumps movement-building. Build or create mass democratic grassroots groups bringing together the best local activists from the Obama campaign and other allies. Build or create new coalitions with local partners in labor, campus and community groups.

4. Start local UFPJ-allied blogs to have a public face, and link it to others. Use social networking to enhance face-to-face meetups. Join the new wave of meetups coming out of the Obama movement.

5. Develop, with our allies, a local or area-wide program of deep structural reform and immediate needs for your area, and take it upward and outward through the elected officials and government bodies, all the way to the top. Link this effort to the economy.
Green Jobs over War Jobs, New Schools, Not More Prisons, HealthCare Not Warfare, Peace and Prosperity, Not War, Greed and Crisis.  Green Infrastructure, not Pentagon Waste; Buyout, not Bailout. Show how any decent gains require an end to the war and cutting the defense budget. Here is where will find new partners linking all the key issues connected to the war.

6. Break decisively with the ultraleft mindset, in order to deepen and broaden left-progressive unity.  In order to end the war and achieve other gains, we have to make political alliances with forces among the broad masses, and elected officials, who are to OUR POLITICAL RIGHT. That’s what is seriously demanded of us, not any attempts to drag us leftwards.