1 Re: Adam Shatz's "Egypt: Two Faces of the Old Order"
  -- Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie
2 Re: Movie Review, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel --
  Charles Lenchner, Mercedes Vazquez
3 Re: Can This Third Party Make a Difference? --
  Christopher Lowe, Tom G
4 Re: Virtual Blackout on Voter Suppression in Florida
  -- gabe falsetta, Ted Pearson
5 Re: Platform of Greece's Syriza Left Coalition -- 
  David Worley

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11111

From: Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie
Re: Adam Shatz's "Egypt: Two Faces of the Old Order."

It is irrefutable that the outcome of the first round of
the presidential elections in Egypt is a disappointment.
The two alternatives-between moderate Islam or a *ancien
regime* remnant-are far from satisfactory. But, we
should not ignore the fact that the majority of Egyptian
voters (64-65 percent) endorsed neither alternative.
This opposition will not simply dissipate. Moreover,
Tahrir Square remains a powerful political force in
itself as long as it continues to serve as a focal point
and symbol of the Egyptian revolution. The new president
will have to come to terms with this ever-ready popular
mobilization. Furthermore, I am not persuaded that a
return to the *status quo ante* is inevitable at this
remarkable historical moment of social upheaval.
Finally, it took a Civil War, the 19th Amendment to the
US Constitution, and the Civil Rights Movement for the
United States to realize its democratic ideals. The
establishment and consolidation of democracy in the land
of the Pharaohs is not divorced from the historical
process and will also take some time.

Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie,
Howard University

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From: Charles Lenchner
Re: Movie Review, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

What a lovely review. David McReynolds is a treasure.

---

From: Mercedes Vazquez
Subject: thanks

I loved the Movie Review, The Best Exotic Marigold
Hotel, thanks for posting it. I am going to see the
movie right now. Please inform the author.

Mercedes (42 years old, yes, under 50)

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From: Christopher Lowe
Re: Can This Third Party Make a Difference?

Thanks for sharing the MJ story on the Reardon-Schaufler
race, which took place in a legislative district a few
miles east of where I live.

However, the story is misleading in a couple of ways.
Oregon does not have fusion, it has what we call Fusion
Lite. Under Fusion Lite, a candidate can accept the
nomination of up to three parties, with the designations
following the candidate's name. Cross-endorsement may
provide information about a candidate, like any other
endorsement. But it doesn't tell a candidate or a large
party how many votes are due to the endorsement, unlike
full fusion where voters can choose which party line
they use to vote. The story doesn't give figures on the
difference WFP may have made in general elections in
Oregon, as it does in for New York. That's because
Fusion Lite prevents such knowledge.

Second, the Oregon WFP is nothing like MoveOn.org,
though the Portland MoveOn Council, who are good people,
did cooperate with the Reardon campaign and progressive
Democrats and the WFP to turn some people out to work
for Reardon and help mobilize other resources.

MoveOn as a whole actually is quite bad at retail
politics. They can mobilize in certain ways, money more
than people, especially if those ways depend on internet
technology, but they don't know how to organize. In fact
MoveOn National's methods regularly obstruct effective
local on-the-ground organizing. Oregon WFP by contrast
has been getting major props for the ground game they
ran in support of Reardon, coordinating efforts by other
groups in addition to their own, turning out volunteer
canvassers, and hiring other with money raised from
their own support base and by allies (probably including
MoveOn). They helped organize 14,000 door knocks --
compare that to the figure in the story of 4000 votes
cast.

In Portland, Oregon WFP developed a significant alliance
with Occupy Portland around "move your money" politics
last November, leading up to a day of action on December
5, 2011. WFP had been working on the issue for some
time, and had developed important analyses of what local
banks and credit unions did most in the local economy.
It fit with WFP's strong though ultimately unsuccessful
push for a "virtual state bank," which gained the
backing of State Treasurer Ted Wheeler.

More generally, a lot of people from one older stream of
"organized left" in or around the unions and Jobs with
Justice who also often support the WFP and formed and
elements of Occupy Portland. What OP did was break down
the silo-ing of that stream from others that were partly
ideological (leaning more autonomist/diy/anarchist vs.
more social democratic or democratic socialist) for
those who were ideological, and partly generational, and
partly by mobilizing previously less political people.
Oregon WFP provided an important means of working for
those in OP who looked to "solutions" understood in
relatively conventional terms. Further, WFP has ties
with local Alliance for Democracy people who are the
main carriers of Move to Amend, again resonating with
anti-corporate-personhood elements of OP.

Another role Oregon WFP has played in the past year is
candidate forums, both for the special election to
replace resigned U.S. representative David Wu in the
First District, and in the Portland mayoral race, in
which both candidates and questions often excluded from
"mainstream" events of the sort were included.

One thing the WFP has not done, nor really any of the
other small parties, such as the Pacific Greens
(Oregon's Green Party) or the Oregon Progressive Party
(which has Nader movement ties) is look at small party
mutual cross-endorsement. The WFP has almost exclusively
cross-endorsed Democrats, apart from one relatively
progressive Republican in rural Eastern Oregon; the PGP
and Progressives are programmatically anti-Democratic.
Oregon WFP is deeply allergic to any hint of playing the
spoiler. In some circles that enhances its credibility,
but it also limits some potentials for challenging the
power structure.

By not seeking out candidates they could mutually cross-
endorse, the progressive small parties, including WFP,
along with the progressives in the DP (who are not
clearly organized, PDA has no organized presence in
Oregon) continue the pattern of progressive
fragmentation. I can't say that there's a clear
strategic path that such unification would create,
though one does wonder about challenges to either
Oregon's loudly self-proclaimed Blue Dog Democrat in the
fifth district, Kurt Schrader, or to the underperforming
technocratic incumbent of the ultra-safe third district
(most of Portland), Earl Blumenauer. Earl, as he likes
to be known, given the safety of his seat, really ought
to take more chances and leadership than he does, in
addition to improving his lousy votes on trade.

Whether due to the absolute absence of such a path, or
the absence of will to seek it out, the lack of even any
explorations of such possibilities demonstrates the
continued domination of the two-party structure of
politics, despite WFP's occasional ability to make a
difference at the margins in the state.

Chris Lowe
Portland, Oregon

---

From: Tom G
Re: Can This Third Party Make a Difference?

Maybe in Oregon ( I doubt it). Differences and reforms
that while good as far as they go just don;t BEGIN to
really go in the right direction of challenging this
oppressive corporate system we live under. Not the
change we are looking for, much as I may admire certain
hard-fought gains won by WFP, which essentially
functions as a lefti-populist wing within the Dems, not
even with the juice to challenge the wars. And THAT is
truly sad.

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From: gabe falsetta
Re: Virtual Blackout From National Media on Voter
Suppression in Florida

This information must be sent to the major
newspapers.... if they receive other sources of this
info perhaps a little pressure or embarrassment may move
one of them to write something.

peace

---

Re: Virtual Blackout From National Media on Voter
Suppression in Florida

Not entirely true that national media is ignoring this
critical story. The story was on "Morning Edition" on NPR today:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=&islist=false&id=154045821&m=154045810

But a lot more coverage is needed.

=====
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From: David Worley
Re: Platform of Greece's Syriza Left Coalition - The
Solution is With the Left!

With modifications, this could be the basis for a
political platform for the U.S. left--the political (as
opposed to moral) demands that OWS has not been able or
willing to articulate as a whole piece. Once formulated
to meet U.S. context, such a platform could be pushed
both within the Democratic party by sympathetic
activists and elected officials and parallel to the
Democratic party by labor unions, media and community
groups, single-issue activists, and even small electoral
parties like Working Families Party in New York.

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