AN OPEN LETTER ON THE ELECTION

FRANCES FOX PIVEN & MANNING MARABLE

We are writing to fellow scholars and students because we feel strongly about the coming election. We are voting for Carl McCall on the Working Families Party line, and we want to share our reasons why.

We believe that the left -- progressives, liberals, whatever term you prefer -- is right on the big issues. The values of equality and solidarity, respect for minorities, belief in the dignity and power of working people -- they may go out of fashion, but they are no less important for that.

We are tired of Pataki as governor. We are tired of living in a state that lags so badly in protections for workers and the poor. We are tired of seeing New York's progressive traditions dwindle away. We are tired of seeing a state that once led the country in social provision becoming meaner and more punitive every year.

We wish McCall were a better candidate. But uninspiring as he can be, he's far and away better than Pataki. On the minimum wage, on health care, on the budget, even on the environment, McCall's positions are significantly more progressive. Whatever the New York Times may say, it's simply not true that there's no real difference between the candidates.

But our biggest concern is not just about the candidates, big as the difference is there. It's about building a movement. That means coalitions. It means working with unions, with communities of color, with working-class white voters upstate. That is exactly where the Working Families Party's greatest strengths lie. Democrats take such coalition work for granted, and the Greens don't even know where to begin.

There is a racial aspect to this election that goes unmentioned in the mainstream media. The fact that Carl would be the state's first African-American governor should be celebrated, not ignored. We should make a special effort not to forget this.

There is a terrible and enduring gap between white liberals and the leaders of the black community. Black Americans are perhaps the strongest and most natural constituency for progressive ideas, and in the past, as we all know, have been in the vanguard of progressive change in this country. But in the past generation, black and white progressives have largely gone our separate ways, to the great detriment of both. This election is a chance to begin healing that rift. But if black leaders in this state look at returns the day after the elections, and find white liberals have abandoned McCall, we will have suffered a great setback instead.

Working Families is our best hope of building a new kind of politics in this state. It's a slow process. No, the WFP won't be running its own candidate for governor this year, and probably won't in four years either. And it certainly won't be running a presidential campaign, with all the media attention that goes with it. But in the long run, the slow organizing and coalition building of the WFP will yield far more power for working people, and far more meaningful change.

Some say McCall can't win. Maybe, maybe not. But if we don't vote for him, he certainly won't. And even if he loses, votes for WFP preserve their ballot line and build power for working people, poor people and their allies. That's what we are voting for on the WFP line, Row H.

We hope you join us.

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STANLEY ARONOWITZ RESPONDS:

My good friends Manning Marable and Frances Fox Piven have written an open letter urging progressives to vote for Carl McCall on the Working Families line. I want to tell you the reasons why New York progressives should vote for me on the Green Party line, Row G.

In their letter Manning and Fran acknowledge that McCall ras run an "uninspiring" campaign. Nevertheless, being "tired of Pataki" they are willing to suspend disbelief in order to build a progressive alternative to the center-right direction of the Democratic Party. But McCall is precisely following the rush to the center that has marked Democratic policy and behavior since the 1970s. What Manning and Fran forget to mention is that he supports the House Resolution giving the Bush administration a free hand to pursue the war against Iraq. Nor do they address McCall's preoccupation with creating a "good business climate"(read giving more corporate welfare in the hopes of fostering private job creation). And in the wake of a looming $8-10 billion state budget deficit, McCall has refused to commit to a tax program that can close the gap and fund our state's needs.

The Green Party and my campaign have taken a clear class-based approach to taxation. I have called for a 2% general welfare tax on incomes above $80,600, the maximum subject to social security tax payments, and a 1/100th of 1% tax on assets of corporations on the New York, Amex and Nasdaq stock exchanges. I have also called for restoration of the commuter tax abandoned by state legislature several years ago. We advocate free tuition for CUNY and SUNY; repealing the provision of the state's labor relations Act, the Taylor law, that bans strikes by public employees and imposes severe fines on unions; restoring the state's environmental superfund, which Pataki stole to trade contracts for endorsements; unconditional repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws, which have jailed thousands of people for nonviolent drug offenses, and decriminalization of drug use. And, of course, while McCall supports the war, I have waged a campaign against it, as well as against the militarization of American society signified by the arms build up and by the infamous Patriot Act, which Congressional Democrats supported nearly unanimously.

Contrary to cynics' expectations, my campaign has managed to get a good deal of media coverage, especially in Upstate New York. I have been profiled in the New York Times, the Village Voice and the New York Press and have won the endorsements of the Albany weekly Metroline, Rochester's City Paper, and the rank and file Transit local 100 paper, the Advocate. In the two gubernatorial debates in which I participated, I was able to distinguish a radical position from the conservative and centrist politics that prevailed among the major party candidates.

The Greens are a genuine left party with a broad economic, ecological, anti-war and democratic perspective. We are also the fastest growing national political party. In New York State we have grown to 60 locals, around a thousand activists and more than 25,000 registered voters. Despite the absence of big money we have won the time and energies of hundreds of volunteers, among them rank and file union members, black, Latino and Asian radicals and progressives, and, equally important, a large base among young people. We,
too, need 50,000 votes to retain our ballot status. Even more important, we need to show that a candidate willing to campaign for a real alternative politics can win support. Voting for McCall, even on the WFP line, sends an ambivalent and timid message. After this election, the Greens will undoubtedly work closely with the WFP and other progressive organizations and social movements on specific issues and on local elections. But in this vital race I urge you to vote for me as a clear statement of your opposition to the war and to politics as usual.

[This exchange appeared on the listserve "Portside" a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.]