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Readers Respond: An Open Letter to the Green Party About 2020 Election Strategy

Portside Readers, including: Eisenscher; Collier Lamont; Millstone; Kinnucan; Jones; Young; Krug; Schwartzman; Zeese; Hawkins; Nack; Schwartz; and Markey Portside
Friday Portside posted An Open Letter to the Green Party About 2020 Election Strategy, by Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, Bill Fletcher, Leslie Cagan, Ron Daniels, Kathy Kelly, Norman Solomon, Cynthia Peters, and Michael Albert.

The Left Needs A United Front In Every State

Anthony Thigpenn and Jon Liss Organizing Upgrade
There has been a growing movement of grassroots state power building independent political organizations (IPOs). Drawing lessons directly from this experience, the authors share three specific state-based strategies for organizers and activists.

books

Taking on Dirty Power in Richmond, California

Michael Hirsch The Indypendent
A founding member of California's independent Richmond Progressive Alliance pens a memoir detailing how her fledgling group waged its successful electoral and community organizing effort against Chevron, the city’s largest, predatory employer.

"Corporate Free" Richmond Candidates Moving Up

Steve Early Beyond Chron
Two Progressive Alliance leaders–city councilors Jovanka Beckles and Gayle McLaughlin–are preparing to run as “corporate free” candidates for higher office.

Sanders' Impact on Millennials: 'He's Moving a Generation to the Left'

Max Ehrenfreund Washington Post
"He's not moving a party to the left. He's moving a generation to the left," Della Volpe said of the senator from Vermont. "Whether or not he's winning or losing, it's really that he's impacting the way in which a generation - the largest generation in the history of America - thinks about politics."

Why Progressives Need a National Electoral Strategy - and Fast

Bill Fletcher, Jr. AlterNet
In the current cycle are two related but distinct problems. First, progressives have no national electoral strategy to speak of. Second, elections cannot be viewed simply or even mainly within the context of the pros and cons of specific candidates. Progressives are very divided about the relative importance of electoral politics, and our near exclusive focus on the candidates, that there is no coherent national progressive electoral strategy.

labor

Why Workers Need the Working Families Party

Chris Shelton The American Prospect
As the new international president of my union, the Communications Workers of America, I hope other labor and progressive leaders will join me in helping to jumpstart Working Families Parties across the country. It’s a strategy we can’t afford to neglect.

Why Bernie? What Should the Left Do? Views from Two Veteran Progressive Activists

David McReynolds; Ted Glick Portside
It would be very healthy for a democratic socialist to press the flesh, meet ordinary folks, let them see what a socialist looks like, what socialism stands for. Now we have a socialist doing that. Bernie Sanders is off and running, to huge and enthusiastic crowds. The campaign is sharpening the differences, functioning as a pole of attraction to bring together a mass popular alliance that is a key aspect of a strategy for taking power away from the corporate rulers...
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