An Open Letter to Bernie Sanders on Turning His Campaign Into a Movement

[eridani]

http://inthesetimes.com/article/19056/no-matter-what-happens-in-the-election-the-political-revolution-is-just-beg

1. Build our own lists. The conflict with the DNC and NGP-VAN shows us that we can’t trust the Democratic Party machine with our organizing infrastructure. We need our own membership lists that they don’t control.

2. Let us become members and organizers. Change will not happen with one election or one politician. We need a social movement. Social movements are made up not of one politician speaking out on stage against the establishment, but of millions of individuals standing up and working together. Create a pathway to membership in your campaign, which would bring with it more responsibility and a long-term commitment.

If your five million donors became members, we would be larger than any labor union in the United States and on par with the NRA, which has more effectively held a gun to the head of the government than any political organization in US history. If we provide training to help members become organizers, there is no reason why we couldn’t double or triple the size of your base, large enough to make the political revolution permanent and pervasive—and extend it into workplaces and communities as an economic and social revolution.

3. Practice democracy. What sets your campaign apart is the promise of democracy. Let’s make that promise real inside the campaign. Allow us to become not just donors, voters, or consumers of Bernie, but producers of this political revolution. Formalize a democratic process for campaign members to decide on campaign planks and plan actions.

This will allow you to outflank Hillary’s latest gambit to market herself as the “intersectional” candidate by giving an open invitation to labor, racial justice, feminist, environmental, LGBTQ, anti-war, and other social movements to become not just talking points or staff positions, but full coalition partners in the campaign. It will also reassure those of us who have been hurt by politicians in the past that this will remain a relationship of equals, and you won’t forget about us when we get you elected. And it will help turn the political revolution into a revolution of everyday life—where democracy becomes something we practice every day in our neighborhoods, workplaces, unions, and community organizations, not just every few years at the ballot box.

4. Take the fight local. You’re a fighter. That’s what we love about you. Let’s commit to staying in the fight together, making global change through local organizing. Whether we get you elected or not, the struggle will only have just begun. If you are in office, you will need a massive grassroots apparatus to unseat Republicans and pressure or remove moderate Democrats to see through the political revolution, and extend it into an economic and social revolution. If the centrist machine steals the election, then we can work together to pressure the government for our demands directly or elect democratic socialist representatives at lower levels of government.


How Bernie Sanders Can Harness the Kind of Momentum Transforming British Politics

http://inthesetimes.com/article/19049/bernie-sanders-jeremy-corbyn-labour-party

After a string of recent primary victories, Bernie Sanders’s insurgent campaign has a fair amount of momentum behind it. Still, many are asking what comes next, and how to carry the political revolution forward—whether he wins the Democratic nomination or not.

Lessons for Sanders might come from the movement that formed around another white-haired progressive challenger to the political establishment: British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Riding the wave of his country’s emergent social movements, Corbyn’s rise to the top of the party last summer marked a break with Tony Blair’s “New Labour” brand. It also christened a new generation of Labour Party activists, eager not just for a better candidate but a new kind of politics.

Formed just weeks after Corbyn’s election, the grassroots organization Momentum is channeling the energy of Corbyn’s campaign into “a mass movement for real transformative change.” Over a hundred local groups are now running campaigns at the local level and pushing for a more democratic Labour Party, holding a mix of rallies, town hall-style meetings and pop-up political education events.

To learn more about Momentum and what it might mean for the future of the Sanders campaign, I spoke with James Schneider, a national organizer with Momentum and a journalist who’s been involved with the group since its formation.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

1. here in Colorado that is here now

and the best part is we have people already in many positions

we are so very lucky - many Sanders democrats are running at all levels of government

the future is here - now

[wilsonbooks]

2. It is happening and will continue to happen.