Socialist Strategy

European and Canadian socialism grew in different ways. We in the USA must take a different approach.In this era we have technology at our disposal. So let's start with Computers. Most socialist parties have a website. The websites seem pretty good and are attractive when well conceived. We have to go beyond a Party website though.We must have some other offerings on the web. Take a look at http://www.care2.comAnd others like it. What a socialist Party must do is take its commissions, make a Care2 Type website which indirectly referrers to its party and includes the Party in its links.We must be subtle on our promotion of Socialism. Have commission start varied websites (Similar to Multi Level Marketing.). The cause must be a different organization, but listing a Socialist Party on its links.Ok, how about TV? It is possible to have TV and Radio on and off the web.BET start in a Basement with two VCRs I hear. In Philadelphia Pa there is a station called Mind-TV, Independence Media. It runs shows hosted by a Lesbian Feminist, ethnic groups; it ran Italian soccer and RAI. It now runs Korean Dramas which are vastly popular. Once again with out mentioning a Socialist Party, we can do the same thing with the success formula of WYBE. And this can be franchised across the country.We can have an Indy News thing where varied socialist Parties are Interviewed.Host Political Debates and have shows like CNN and FOX. Imagine.'This Week with David McReynolds."Or CNN like news, even Comedies like a Daily show.Music Videos and Youth entertainment. Show for all people like PBS Brit-Coms (British Comedies). Leftist movies from around the world and America.Socialist oriented entertainment. Cool, hip, happening.We should include Libertarians and other Right Parties, the FCC may screw us.Radio can be done on the Web or by other means.Maybe some Party members can get on of those low frequency jobbers requiring no license.This may all cost money, but it maybe a worthy investment. Freedom Broadcasting can be in NYC, Philly, Chicago, SF, LA, and more.Blogs are great, but there are way too many. A SP can put something together like the Huffington Post. Perhaps It should be called the American Call.We have to use a Psychology here. If we use the name socialist, it may detract some people. Many Americans have a preconceived notion of socialism. Subtlety is the key here. People may say, 'That is socialist news, I cannot listen to that!"Although this will require and Investment, there is a return with a profit. And the Party won't need to ask for too much money.The next step is even more difficult and complicated. Building locals and creating Socialist Jobs.As I have tried to create a Labor Union. This Union would foster Self Help credit Unions, Worker owned Co-operatives that would have intentions to franchise.Chrysie Hynde started a Vegetarian Restaurant to get kids away from Mall Culture. Why not take it and franchise it around the country? How about Power to the people supermarket chains? Something Like Co-op Atlantic in Canada?
Revolutionary Cooperative Movement, that goes to be a model of a new skill to produce. This model is free of scanning. The workers are the owners, and organize the production democratically. The product of our distributed work and in proportional way to the time that each one contributed in the production process. In them we create this Cooperative Revolutionary Movement as the first pacing in the fight to liberate the humanity of the poverty and scanning. When this movement to grow, goes to create the social and economic base for the construction of a movement of revolutionary unions, and a revolutionary party of workers who together go to finish the workmanship that in we start them here in the Cooperative Would revolutionize. In we go them to adopt spacific and positive ways. In we go them to construct, to produce, to educate, to organize, and to vote to carry through our goal of peace and prosperity without scanning for everybody and with respect our Land All member of the cooperative goes to have intellectual and administrative responsibilities, and all have that to help with the workmanship hand
http://nlp.0catch.com/ficu1.htm
In essence there must be an attraction to build and keep membership.Starting discussion list have been done to death, website, communications posts are Ok, but…..We need to harness the creativity and ideas of the masses. The Social Liberal website lists something called the Idea Factory. We must listen to the people. Not only that, we must have interactivity with the people.Unions in the day had workers to mingle with. Now with the Blue Collar disappearing and part timers who cannot Unionize, we need a different format and avenue of reaching the masses.A Socialist Think tank may not be the answer. But creating external avenues maybe.Like creating an alternative party media center. A WBS net where people can load interactive streaming chats, build websites, and have fun. Creating a Internet playground Maybe just the ticketThere are ideas galore we can come up with. many strategies. But we should pursue them and use the weapons we could have at our advantage. Finally: Our approach must change. We must be giving people what they can relate too.We must send out a positive message. Give positive examples. Carry signs during protests people can relate too.It is wonderful to protest for varied causes. But how about some points as where life can be better and positive?Rick Steves Travel show took him to Sweden and Denmark. He actually spoke about the pluses of Socialism and showed some examples. This was on PBS.We also have to back up our candidates and give them some material and research. Socialist Parties must start backing up their lesser than Presidential Candidates.The Quality if life, sustainability, education, and the rest. The Socialist Party USA has had some past successes. Play off the successes of History and other Socialists around the world.

Socialism, The Real Deal

I’d like to congratulate Jimmy Lee Hollis on his article on Socialism. Though I must admit, the article was misleading and less than the accurate. The problem with Socialism is that there are too many varieties. Most Democratic Socialists, Social Democrats, and Labor parties affiliated with the Socialist International are Anti-Communist and Anti-Leninist.There have been off shoots of Socialism which where very unsavory. These are artificial Socialisms. Even Hitler knew in Europe that using the word Socialism would appeal to the working class and poor.When Socialism was founded, by Robert Owen, who perpetuate worker owned co-operatives, he visited the USA. He told our forefathers about the Concept of Socialism.They applauded wildly at the prospect. Even Benjamin Franklin started the Nations first worker owned Co-operative and in Paterson NJ, our Nations first Industrial City, Conservative Alexander Hamilton Started the Paterson co-operative of Useful Manufacturers.Socialism is more than Co-operatives, in places like Scandinavia their Socialism has worked to the point where they have:
Among the positive sides of this high-taxation system, one can note: * almost no poverty or starvation, as is the case in American ghettos * virtually no homelessness problem * very little crime * equal opportunity to education & health care, regardless of the wallets
But some say this will not work in the USA. What plays in Peoria, plays on Broadway.Another example is that if a US worker is forced to have an expensive car and drive for two hours each way to get to work, spending money burning gasoline, that shows up as a bigger contribution to GDP than that of the Finnish worker who lives in a comfortable Alternative Energy heated house, doesn't need a car, and rides an inexpensive tram in to work.Public transportation in NJ and the USA today is almost the cost of caviar.
Socialism is a complicated doctrine. It embellishes the best of Humanity, Public ownership (That doesn’t mean your TV is your Neighbors TV too.), Compassion, and Environmental Concerns. Democratic Socialists in Europe where Green even before the Green Party came into existence.What enlightened societies where ever conceived by Conservatives?Wasn’t it the conservative view that the world was flat and that The Planets evolved around the Earth? Didn’t conservatives usher in the Spanish Inquisition and persecuted people on thought crimes?And modern Capitalism has only offered us Strife, Social Problems, and mental and emotional problems in this dog eat dog world.But we have had Socialism and Socialist ideas in America. Teddy Roosevelt leftThe Republican Party to form the Progressive Bull Moose Party. His ideas paved the way for New Deal Administration of Franklin D Roosevelt. Kennedy and Johnson both ushered in the Great Society programs. I admit, some of those programs are seriously flawed, but with out them, we would be worse off. Even Nixon carried on some socialist ideas, like the Universal Income.And we had socialism in America: Oklahoma had 17 socialist locals, with a socialist Mayor once serving in Oklahoma City. Haledon and Passaic had socialist Mayors which vastly improved the quality of life in those towns.Milwaukee was the best example. In the early 20th Century that city had mostly Socialist mayors who improved that city with great reforms. Milwaukee was the only City in the USA not to go into default during the Great Depression.Who says Socialist Economics doesn’t work? In 2004 the Milwaukee CentennialPosted an article that was titled ‘Things where not this Bad in Milwaukee when the Socialists where in Office.” In the USA, before ballot access oppression, the Socialist Party had many Mayors and Councilmen serving through out America. And one congressman elected to the US House of Representatives, Emil P Siedel. There was an American Labor Party Congressman also. Vito Anthony Marcantonio, longest serving Socialist in Congress. And of course today we have Bernie Sanders of Vermont.Socialism is about Improving the quality of life in Community and Nation.Socialism isn’t about mere handouts and laziness. It is about providing a positive future with a positive way of life for all, with human rights, democracy, and social justice.

Public Enterprise

Nationalization! What are you kidding? That is bad. What we should have is Public Enterprise. That sound much more business like. We hear about Nationalization all the time. Conservatives are crying that we are going to have European Socialism in America.And we should. Why carry on a Culture of ignorance and dystopia of Conservativism,When we can have the enlightenment of European Leftism.The conservative’s cry-Obama is spending money. Excuse me, last time I checked Government has an overhead. And that has to be paid for.Conservatives cry Government should act as a business. Well, it can and should.Nationalizing-ooops, I mean Public Enterprise is the way to go. Let’s look at privatization first. It has been a real cheat. When Governor Christie Todd Whitman privatized most of New Jersey’s public entities, citing they cost the state millions, our property taxes went up and now we pay the highest taxes in the Nation.Nationali---ooops, I mean Public Enterprise can be this:
Business organizations wholly or partly owned by the state and controlled through a public authority by Democratic Means. Some public enterprises are placed under public ownership because, for social reasons, it is thought the service or product should be provided by a Co-operative or ESOP. The Banks, Oil Companies, other Fortune 500 Companies.
Examples of this kind of public enterprise.
An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is an employee benefit plan which makes the employees of a company owners of stock in that company. Several features make ESOPs unique as compared to other employee benefit plans. First, only an ESOP is required by law to invest primarily in the securities of the sponsoring employer. Second, an ESOP is unique among qualified employee benefit plans in its ability to borrow money. As a result, "leveraged ESOPs" may be used as a technique of corporate finance.
Employee ownership appears to increase production and profitability, and improve employees' dedication and sense of ownership. However, democratic leadership must be protected from predator companies, and employee stock ownership can increase financial risk if the company does poorly. Notable employee-owned corporations include the John Lewis Partnership retailers in the UK, and the US news/entertainment firm Tribune Company. The most honored multi-national corporation based wholly on worker-ownership principles is the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation . Unlike the US, however, Spanish law requires that members of the Mondragon Corporation are registered as self-employed. This differentiates co-operative ownership (in which self-employed owner-members each have one voting share, or shares are controlled by a co-operative legal entity) from employee-ownership (where ownership is typically held as a block of shares on behalf of employees using a Employee Benefit Trust, or company rules embed mechanisms for distributing shares to employees and ensuring they remain majority shareholders)Entities proven to work, means profitability for the Company and its employees, and the Government.Let’s make Citibank a Public Enterprise. Lets say it makes $36,000,000,000 a year.Each lower level employees makes a living wage, working 32 hours. The Executive pay scale is reduced to more reasonable income and the Executives makes no more ( salary cap) the 7% to 10% more than the average employee.The Government owns a share and is the major investor at times. In which it takes back a portion of the profits the way a loan works to some degree. This allows the Government to have an income and reduce taxes on workers and communities. And even the Nation.See, conservatives this is Government acting as a business. The Government sets regulations, and receives an income/profit. This contributes to the national wealth.Also to keep government in check, and Citibank in check, A Department of Advocacy is created to assist with efficiency, labor issues, and keeping the government regulations in order. (Actually, outside of regulations, the government should be a silent partner.) So, with the Government getting a share of profits from the Public Enterprise, this should replenish national wealth, and there would be money for highways, Communities, schools, health Care, a universal Income, and more.Where it wouldn’t go? Not to executives who purchase seven homes with seven indoor pools. Exotic vacation welfare. Free stuff from the Government paying corporate welfare and supporting greedy industrial complexes that cost the tax payer billions.We would have a incredible surplus and enough for social programs and livable communities and abolishing poverty and that conservative dystopia.Remember-Nationalization-ooops, Public Enterprise is the Future!
Dedicated to Rob W Tucker