Bush Can Be Stopped: A Letter to the Left

For the sake of peace, democracy, social justice and racial equality, George W. Bush must be defeated in 2004. We believe that he can be defeated and that the left, facing this unprecedented challenge, has a significant, even crucial role in achieving this objective.

The forthcoming election is unlike any other in recent memory. The Bush Administration, arguably the most right-wing in the nations history, has sought to effect a qualitative change of frightening proportions in the conduct of the nations foreign and domestic policies.

* It has demolished whatever minimal stability has been achieved in treaties and agreements over the last half century to reduce the threat of nuclear war. It openly seeks world domination through military force and preemptive war with Iran, North Korea, and Latin America now in its sights after Iraq.
Its arrogant and reckless quest for a new US empire is inflamed by a frightening fundamentalist religious zeal.

* The Bush Administration is conducting a cruel war on the poor while outrageously lining the pockets of its corporate supporters. It is deliberately driving up the federal debt to create an excuse for wiping out a century of hard won social programs. Its economic and tax policies have contributed to growing recession and unemployment. It has sought to sabotage affirmative action, labors interests, womens rights, and has grievously undermined education, health care, and the environment.

* Using its fraudulent war on terrorism and playing on the publics fears after 9/11, the Bush Administration has savaged the rights of immigrants and foreign nationals, has fanned racism, conducted arrests without warrants, declared detainees enemy combatants without the right to counsel and access to families, has vastly expanded spying on the public, and is now preparing an even more repressive Patriot Act II while packing the courts with compliant right-wing ideologues.

Traditional debates on the left about the value of electoral politics and the lesser evil pale in light of the need to defeat Bush and his congressional accomplices. The essential choice between elementary decency and unprecedented reaction need not be between political parties, but between a powerful movement for peace and justice on one side and Bush and his right-wing zealots on the other.

During this period, people on the left can exercise vital influence on the countrys politics and on the outcome of the election by:

* Articulating, advocating, and acting upon the inseparable connection between the deepening economic and social crisis at home and Bushs drive to dominate the world through military force establishing that those domestic and foreign policies are cut from the same ultra-right cloth, aiming to line the pockets of Bushs corporate friends and advance the interests of his right-wing and fundamentalist constituency.

* Building organized expressions of popular sentiment on the issues through demonstrations, hearings, conferences, petitions, voter pledges and other forms all seeking to positively influence the electoral process.

* Working in the coming weeks and months to build voter registration and mobilization among neighbors, co-workers, fellow students, retirees, and others; encouraging local peace, justice, and community, religious and social action groups to press candidates at all levels on the critical issues.

* Supporting and assisting emerging movements around issues which will spur voter registration, mobilization, and fund raising like Progressive Voter 04, the Peoples Convention, MoveOn, US Labor Against War, and campaigns organized by United for Peace and Justice, Win Without War, labors Partnership for Americas Families, and others.

* Assisting in focusing the energies of activists upon the dozen critical battleground states and upon key Senate and House races.

* Actively supporting the Presidential candidate of their choice even one who may not fully reflect their convictions, but who differs from the destructive policies of the present administration and is responsive to the demands of a growing grassroots movement for progressive change.

* Stressing the need to fight racism, the persistent element in driving the right-wing agenda; the pivotal factor in fueling repression and demolishing social programs which injure all working people.

* Developing independent political forms with progressive political content, which will continue to contest for influence and office after 2004.

The left has a critical role to play in articulating the issues, in advancing unity against the right, in mobilizing the vote against Bush, in building an independent progressive political majority for the present and future. We can and must rise to that challenge. Please join us in this historic effort.

Initiating signers
(organizations for identification only)

David Bacon, labor journalist, Berkeley, CA

Frances M. Beal, Black Radical Congress National Council, Oakland, CA

Carl Bloice, moderator, portside, San Francisco, CA

Linda Burnham, Women of Color Resource Center, Oakland, CA

Margaret Burnham, Assoc. Prof., Northeastern University Law School

Brett Bursey, President, South Carolina Progressive Network,
Columbia, SC

Leslie Cagan, co-chair, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, New York, NY

James Campbell, co-chair, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, Charleston, SC

Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Barry Cohen, moderator, portside, New York, NY

Carl Davidson, Chicago, IL

Angela Davis, University of California at Santa Cruz

Ossie Davis, actor, writer, New York

Ruby Dee Davis, actress, poet, playwright, New York

Donna DeWitt, President, South Carolina State AFL-CIO, Columbia, SC

Charles Ensley, Local 371, SSEU, AFSCME, New York, NY

Martin Fishgold, President, International Labor Communications
Association, New York, NY

Al Fishman, Peace Action of Michigan

Henry Foner, New York, NY

Paul Friedman, First Vice President, SEIU-1199 New Jersey

Elaine Hagopian, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College,
Boston, MA

Bill Henning, Vice President, Communication Workers of America, Local
1180, New York, NY

Lennox Hinds, Vice President, International Association of Democratic
Lawyers, New York, NY

Connie Hogarth, Center for Social Action, Manhattan College, NY

Arthur Kinoy, National Lawyers Guild, Center for Constitutional
Rights, New Jersey

Frank Llewellyn, National Director, Democratic Socialists of America,
New York, NY

Eric Mar, Vice-president, San Francisco Board of Education, CA

Dr. Manning Marable, Institute for Research in African-American
Studies, Columbia University, New York, NY

Ray Markey, President, New York Public Library Guild, Local 1930,
AFSCME, New York, CA

Elizabeth Martinez, Institute for Multiracial Justice, San Francisco,
CA

Robert & Ellen Meeropol, Rosenberg Fund for Children, Easthampton, MA

Charlene Mitchell, co-chair, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, New York, NY

Bill Moriarity, Local 802, American Federation of Musicians, New York,
NY

Linda Rae Murray, MD, MPH, Chicago, IL

Michael Parenti, Author, Social Commentator, Berkeley, CA

Michael Ratner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York,
NY

Mel Rothenberg, Chicago Jobs with Justice, Committee for New
Priorities

Pete Seeger, musician, writer, environmentalist, Beacon, NY

Jay Schaffner, moderator, portside, New York, NY

Mark Solomon, co-chair, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, Boston, MA

William K. Tabb, professor, Queens College, New York, NY

Don White, CISPES-LA and KPFK LAB(Local Area Board), Los Angeles, CA

Tim Wise, Nashville, TN