This seasoned citizen says it all!
Posted on 03/09/2003 3:35:16 PM PST by Diago
From: scott@rednet.org (Peoples Weekly World) Subject: Kucinich win shows labor's political power Date: 1996/11/22 Message-ID: <574nh2$meg@news.missouri.edu> distribution: usa followup-to: alt.activism.d resent-from: rich organization: Scott Marshall newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive originator: rich@pencil.math.missouri.edu
**Kucinich win shows labor's political power**
(Reprinted from the November 23, 1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. May be reprinted or reposted with PWW credit. For subscription information see below)
By Rick Nagin
Cleveland - The election of Dennis Kucinich in Ohio's 10th Congressional District was a ground-breaking event demonstrating the powerful political potential of a mass, grassroots coalition led by labor.
Trade unionists and seniors provided the largest numbers of some 5,000 volunteers but many others came from Hispanic, environmental, peace and other organizations. Some were unemployed workers or shoppers at the outdoor mall where the headquarters was located who just walked in and offered to help. On any day after early September there were probably 100 people working for some period of time in the headquarters, a beehive of activity and camaraderie, where anyone could find plenty of baked goods, bagels and cream cheese and other snacks brought in by the volunteers.
According to the campaign staff, the volunteers canvassed at least 600 of the district's 750 precincts, some as many as four times. They turned the western half of Cuyahoga County and especially the west side of Cleveland into a sea of 15,000 bright yellow yard signs reading "Light Up Congress! Elect Dennis Kucinich" - a reminder of the historic fight Kucinich had waged as Cleveland mayor when he refused to sell the city-owned power plant to a private electric company.
The staff estimated that the volunteers made 100,000 phone calls and mailed out one million pieces of literature. Many organizations issued their own literature and did their own mailings including the AFL-CIO's Labor '96, the UAW CAP Council, the Sierra Club, Peace Voter '96, gay rights and senior groups. The United Auto Workers and the Steelworkers did plantgate distributions. The Ohio Council of Senior Citizens distributed 12,000 pieces with the positions of Kucinich and his opponent, incumbent Martin Hoke, on senior issues to senior buildings, nutrition sites and bingo games. This was after the National Council of Senior Citizens and the Cleveland AFL-CIO Retiree Council mailed voter registration and absentee ballot forms to 16,000 union retirees.
The coalition embraced many political viewpoints: Democrats, independents, Greens, socialists, Communists, members of the Labor Party, even some disgruntled Republicans. Democratic Party figures, including First Lady Hillary Clinton, Congressmen Louis Stokes, Joseph Kennedy and Barney Franks visited Cleveland to help in the effort. Especially significant were visits by Congresspersons Luis Gutierrez and Nydia Velazquez who spoke to large meetings and rallies and on the radio mobilizing an unprecedented vote in the Hispanic community.
But it was the grassroots, labor-community coalition that Kucinich had in mind on election night when he gave his impassioned victory speech with jubilant leaders of organized labor standing behind him, their right fists held high, chanting, "We are the party of the people! We are the party of the people!" The coalition was inspired by both Kucinich's personality and his program.
Respected as a champion of the underdog and working people, Kucinich was the son of a truck driver, who grew up in extreme poverty even living for a time out of the family car. As mayor, he had battled the power structure, the utilities, the banks, the mass media and, although his efforts saved the city light plant, he had waged the fight alone with no organized base and was ruthlessly crushed after the banks retaliated, forcing the city into default.
Despite years of ostracism and ridicule in the media, Kucinich staged a dramatic comeback in 1994, when he was elected to the state senate, one of the only Democrats in the country to unseat an incumbent Republican in the year of the Gingrich "revolution." At a time when other candidates of his party believed they should move to the right and fell like flies, Kucinich declared himself to be a Roosevelt Democrat and championed the views of an emerging left- center, labor-community coalition.
In the state legislature he spoke out on behalf of this growing coalition, leading fights against privatization, the locating of a nuclear waste dump in Ohio, and the cutting of badly needed services to seniors and Hispanics. With the AFL-CIO mobilizing to defeat the Gingrich gang in Congress, it was only natural that Kucinich's campaign would become a national rallying point.
Unlike many other Democrats whom labor supported as "lesser evils," Kucinich raised the stakes. He issued a bill of rights for working people stating his belief that people have a right to a job, a right to a safe workplace, to decent wages and benefits, to strike, to participate freely in the political process. Issued on glossy paper with a bright yellow background, the program was distributed throughout the labor movement and posted on union bulletin boards everywhere.
The Republicans reacted with fury to this open challenge to their decades of labor-baiting bully tactics. Kucinich's program, Republican county chairman Jim Trakas announced, is "very similar to the Communist Manifesto" and is "what Lenin stood for." Kucinich blasted this reversion to "McCarthyism."
Martin Hoke, a loutish multi-millionaire, had been lucky to face seriously wounded opponents in his two previous races. He had unseated Mary Rose Oakar in 1992 when the longtime Congresswoman was embroiled in the House banking and post office "scandals." In 1994 he faced County Treasurer Francis Gaul, the focus of blame for the collapse of a key bond fund. Hoke, as Kucinich was fond of saying, was a man who woke up one day on third base and thought he had hit a triple.
After the 1994 elections, Hoke jumped on the Gingrich bandwagon with a vengeance, championing the Contract on America, denouncing labor, federal social programs and efforts to raise the minimum wage while skipping important votes for photo opportunities with the House Speaker.
At first Hoke adopted an upbeat, positive posture,bwith TV ads showing him fraternizing with workers and playing the piano for senior citizens. But as an AFL-CIO television campaign exposed his ultra-right voting record and positions, he found himself trailing by eight to ten points. The mask was then removed and the phony smile replaced with the snarl of labor-baiting and character assassination. Voicing his class hatred, Hoke assailed "Washington labor bosses" who, he said, were "stealing their members' dues" to "run a campaign of lies and smears" against him.
In fact, It was Hoke's campaign that degenerated into lies and smears as he saturated TV with ads slandering Kucinich's role as mayor and wildly charging that his health care proposals would bankrupt the country. When Rep. Barney Frank appeared for a Kucinich fundraiser, Hoke falsely charged that Kucinich advocated homosexual marriage and scurrilous, unsigned leaflets were distributed at churches, charging that Kucinich's supporters favored sex with children and animals.
The smears were endlessly propagated by a right-wing talk show host who made it his mission three hours every morning to stop Kucinich. The poisonous attacks, aimed at suppressing voter turnout, caused the race to tighten considerably. In the final week before the election the focus of the Hoke campaign shifted to virulent red-baiting directed at this writer.
In what was probably a first since the beginning of the Cold War, Kucinich refused to knuckle under, calmly stating that I was one of 5,000 volunteers and declaring, "It's Halloween and Hoke is dressing up as Joe McCarthy. Karl Marx is not running my campaign but apparently Harpo Marx is running his." On Nov. 5 Hoke was defeated by a vote of 108,000 to 102,000 with 10,000 going to a candidate of the Natural Law Party. It was a stunning rebuke to Hoke's shameful attempt to whip up hatred and hysteria. Although he spent a million dollars - over twice as much as Kucinich - he could not shake the solid majority of voters who showed outstanding maturity.
Unable to accept defeat gracefully, he never actually conceded and the next day denounced what he claimed was a "war that John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO declared on the people of America." The "war," he whined, will continue because the Republicans, although seriously weakened, retain control of Congress. While the war was hardly declared by labor, it is certain that labor and its allies will continue their efforts to reverse the nearly two decades of assault on unions and all that is decent in this country, and they will be able to count on the staunch, heart-felt support of Congressman Dennis Kucinich. ##30##
************************************************************ *** * Read the Peoples Weekly World * ********* **** * Sub info: pww@igc.apc.org * **** * **** 235 W. 23rd St. NYC 10011 *** * ** **** * $20/yr - $1-2 mos trial sub * **** * *** * * ********* ************************************************************ Tired of the same old system: Join the Communist Party, USA Info: CPUSA@rednet.org; or (212) 989-4994; or http://www.hartford-hwp.com/cp-usa ************************************************************
The coalition embraced many political viewpoints: Democrats, independents, Greens, socialists, Communists, members of the Labor Party, even some disgruntled Republicans.
He urged us students to get involved in politics. I did - it wasn't too long after that when I found FreeRepublic.com. I don't think that was the outcome he wanted, but it was my reaction.
I see they updated kucinich.com nicely. That site has been around for quite awhile. Thanks.
No wonder this area can't attract new business/industry.
Oh but C-town is going to get a new convention center which they need like a hole in thier head...I live in Lorain County and have watched the downfall of the city the last few years because they can't attract new business.Michael White was a piece of crap who I truely can't stand and Campbell so far has no vison beyond her nose.School systems in huge trouble....good lord I can go on and on and on!
This seasoned citizen says it all!
I call it a "bait & switch". What these guys really want to do is tack on a bunch of big socialist spending programs to this package (like "funding for the arts"). Whatever form this boondoggle takes I will work to defeat it.
Wolstein has no-tax private sector ideas on this and of course they aren't interested. His location proposal kinda sucks, though.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.