Where do we go from here?

During the past few election cycles while canvassing in working class neighborhoods, I have often wondered how workers I was speaking with might respond if I were advocating more far-reaching solutions to their economic grievances instead of the liberal-centrist solutions I spoke on behalf of. This question became more relevant in the fall of 2008 as mass layoffs swept through working class communities. I was then canvassing in working class neighborhoods in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota for a democrat contending for an open House seat.

Voters’ responses to the crisis were at the core anti-corporate; they were outraged at Wall Street banks and repeatedly suggested the responsible bankers should go to jail. There was also a mixed bag of irrational explanations and blame; and I detected an already existing cynicism about government and politicians’ roles that can only have grown deeper. To a person people asked the right questions: Where did the money go? Why should we pay for their mistakes? Where were the regulators? They wanted to know what happened, but didn’t believe the truth would come out and assumed no one would be held accountable. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions their assumptions were proven correct.

The political gridlock this past year has convinced me of the necessity of trying to raise the stakes by injecting into the debate bold pro-working class solutions to the economic crisis. This blog is my suggestion for an experiment in how this might be accomplished. In it I propose that activists’ conduct a grassroots canvass in working class neighborhoods to test the response to the solutions and explanations discussed here. I elaborate on this in some detail in the pages that follow. Hopefully the experiment will spark interest and possibly yield an answer to the proverbial question: Where do we go from here?

Raising the Ante: A proposal for a grassroots education and organizing experiment

Hypothesis: That many workers are open to more advanced explanations for the current economic crisis and remedies for it.

The experiment: Conduct door-to-door canvasses in a variety of working class neighborhoods to determine the extent to which this hypothesis is correct. Map next steps from accumulated experience.

Initially, this proposal is for a limited duration and scope to determine the degree to which workers might be open to more advanced analyses and solutions to the current economic crisis and to learning why the capitalist system causes reoccurring crisis. Should a significant number of workers respond positively, it is hoped this organizing practice could be expanded and become a catalyst for elevating demands and a corresponding level of struggle to win working class solutions to the economic crisis.

At this time, I am asking for feedback from 30 or so activists and colleagues about one-half of whom are labor union activists. Next steps will depend on the feedback. Should interest grow in this approach I would hope that some collaborative effort might take shape to develop materials and talking points. Some of the solutions I raise may or may not be on the mark and others could need modifying. Like the other activists who have written on this subject I am offering this for further discussion.

Advanced solutions: suggestions and analysis

I wish to recognize that there are urgent needs that Congress needs to act on, such as the AFL-CIO’s call to make a permanent fix to periodic federal extension of unemployment benefits. This is long overdue, no one who is laid off should loose their home or be evicted because they have run out of unemployment benefits or Congress didn’t include them in this vital income support system. No one should run out of benefits period. Workers didn’t create the crisis and income support should continue until people get back to work. My argument for calling for the following is that if bolder demands were also on the table, they could be the leverage required to more quickly and decisively win the urgent demands.

Job creation: By public capital investments in green economy industries and by expanding social benefits

In addition to direct and indirect outlays of public capital discussed below, job creation strategies should be tied to expanding social benefits that when enacted will create employment. An immediate demand should be made to pass legislation to lower eligibility for full Medicare benefits to 55. It is estimated a minimum of a million older workers would retire if they knew Medicare would meet their health insurance needs. If so, within months of passage, companies would be looking to fill hundreds of thousands of jobs.

I believe this is an immediate winnable demand if it is framed as an emergency act to create jobs. A one-page bill is all that is needed. The administrative machinery is already in place. Medicare is held in high regard as a government program that works. This demand can be made independent of the Democrats health reform legislation, should not detract from their efforts and could act as a lever to get Congress to act. If unity could be built around this goal in the context of a host of more advanced demands for jobs, it may be possible to ignite the underlying sentiment of anger and outrage that has remained largely untapped. To create momentum, however, it should be made absolutely clear that this demand is just the beginning. One issue politics will not excite people, as too many problems need solutions.

Thoughts of how the canvass might be conducted, its organizational auspices and popular educational ideas

The geographical areas selected should be small and manageable so four canvassers can easily knock on 100 doors in a morning or afternoon shift. A small area is important, as it may take several shifts to find someone home at each residence. As is possible, the last step before moving to another neighborhood would be to invite people to an informal gathering for further discussion and dialogue at a local café, community center or the home of a canvasser.

At the doors, canvassers would engage people in discussions about the current economic situation; causes of the crisis and what might they think are the best solutions. As is possible, canvassers would offer their own thoughts and in the course of the dialogue try find a way to connect on some issue, experience or idea. These canvasses can be thought of as focus groups and are opportunities to learn what people are thinking as well as to convey other perspectives and educational information.

As a benchmark, I would judge a canvass successful, if just one of 10 households responded favorably enough to participate in an extended one-on-one conversation or attended a discussion. Overtime, these individuals, armed with new information and in contact with each other could change the discussion in their neighborhood.

Possible electoral experiments to get solutions before the public

Taking the experimental idea one step further elections offer a great opportunity to educate, inform and have a dialogue with the public.  Much could be learned from campaigns of candidates running on an agenda of working class solutions like those discussed here.  Evidence gathered in canvasses would be a gauge of the interest and feasibility of electoral experiments.  If people respond positively to the ideas, I can imagine them asking questions like:  Why are these ideas not being discussed in Congress?  Or, Why doesn’t someone run for Congress who supports these solutions?  Enough responses like this could be read as indication of the viability of an electoral effort.  Also note that workers in the same breath may also say it is impossible to win such demands.

Such electoral activity would be trial initiatives and not an attempt to build a political party. No political identifier would necessarily be needed for individuals to run. A case could be made for any number of identifiers, yet in keeping with the experimental intent a variety might be tried.  While winning is obviously the goal in the long run, these efforts would be designed initially to test the waters and attempt to change and broaden the public discussion within single legislative or congressional districts.

My suggestion for an identifier if needed for the trial efforts would be something like:  The Alternative Electoral Project. The word alternative could attract attention of workers a majority of whom are fed up with both the Republican and Democratic parties.  I am quite aware of the enormous undertaking that even a small-sized experiment in a congressional district would entail.  Yet I am convinced that in this historical moment there is nothing to loose by trying and everything to gain. 

Unstable and volatile times tend to be ripe with possibilities if sufficient forces and leadership come together to take advantage them.  Of course the possibilities exist for reactionary, anti-labor forces as well.  And while they have many times the resources, their ideas are becoming much less salable among the working class.  They are trying to remake and repackage them and they may succeed once again in convincing enough voters.  They will surely succeed however if there are no genuine working class solutions in the public electoral arena.