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.

My analyses of public opinion, coupled with intuition, leads me to think that if somewhere between 10-20 percent of workers got behind more advanced demands it is sufficient to change the political debate in the country. Ideas count--ideas set movements in motion. A reason for the low level of protest is that the current ideas for solutions to the crisis are not motivating people. However, the right wing’s demagogic solutions are to some degree and will become more convincing as economic reality shows centrist-liberal solutions to be inadequate. That is, if more advanced solutions do not fill the vacuum.

Auspices of the canvass: If necessary, and I am not sure it is, perhaps some temporary name like would be needed. For example: “Organizing to make the economy work for workers,” or “Ad hoc committee for making the economy work for workers.” Or a title on materials that simply reads: “Ideas for making the economy work for workers.”

Organization: Minimal. A couple basic informational fliers and a blog for exchanging canvassing experiences and results. Experience should determine the next steps. If the experiment were successful, hopefully, existing social change organizations, like unions, or peace and social justice groups will duplicate the effort.

Educational program ideas

Fundamental to this project is the need to explain the structural imbalances and distortions that capitalism’s intense 30-year global search for cheap labor and higher profits has visited on American workers, the U.S. economy and workers around the world. Any strategy for social change must accurately identify key structural issues and bring people’s attention to concrete ideas for restructuring the economy to work for workers.

I suggest the following educational themes to work on: 1. Big government is not the problem; it is corporate control of government that is the problem. What we need is a pro-labor government; instead of one owned by corporations. 2. Shrinking government expenditures due to massive tax breaks for the rich has reduced economic stability because the government is starved for investment capital for public projects, social benefits and infrastructure improvements. A larger public sector can generate a more stable economy. 3. Growing income inequality reduces the standard of living and buying power of workers and promotes a reliance on credit, which further distorts the economy, causes crisis and increases banks’ interest profits. 4. The struggle to stop speculative financial games is a struggle to gain control over the wealth we produce and ensure it goes instead into productive investments that create jobs. 5. How health care insurance premiums consume investment capital and enrich the rich. 6. The drain on the economy of military consumption to support the goals of Big Oil and American transnational corporations. 7. Win workers over to the trade union argument that “we are in it together,” and that the “go it alone” path leads to impoverishment and economic insecurity. 8. Provide information and analysis on how federal taxes are spent and who pays. The misinformation and myths workers have about taxes hinders all struggles—whether for jobs, health care or building our cities. The most important tax issue: That military and war spending account for an estimated 50 percent of the federal budget. How to shrink this and reinvest it to create value producing jobs, building public infrastructure and providing shared benefits is in the self-interests of workers.

Possible titles of educational materials that convey the themes of experiment:

“Alternative solutions to the economic crisis: Putting workers and families first.”

“Has capitalism failed us? Economics as if people mattered.”

“Where did the money go? Understanding how capitalism works.”

Why not a full employment economy?

Two views, two choices on social benefits: We are in it together, or go it alone.

“Working people for working class solutions: Middle class, poor, unemployed, blue and white collar.”