From: chriswa@microsoft.com (Chris Waldron)
Subject: RON DANIELS Speech (part 3)
Date: 22 Jul 92 21:19:50 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
Distribution: soc.culture.african.american

Four Excerpts:

    "As long as the Democratic party and the Republican parties are
    owned by the corporate elite in this country, then nothing ever
    will fundamentally change. [...] [we need to] stop wasting time
    and wasting our votes, on people who are not committed to
    fundamental change. [...] It was Eugene Debs who said, It is
    better to vote for that [...] which you believe in and not get it,
    than to vote for that which [...]  you don't believe in, and get
    it [...] It is because of Eugene Debs and people in the streets
    and at the ballot box, that we have social security, we have
    workers' compensation.  Movements *outside* of the Democratic
    party, fighting for radical change [...]

    "I don't like somebody [Clinton] who has used right-to-work laws
    as a way of attracting business to his state. [..] those
    businesses attracted with right-to-work laws, have the worst
    environmental records and the worst occupational safety records.
    [...] [the "Free" Trade agreement, supported by Clinton] is going
    to be a degradation for American workers.  It's going to peg the
    price of American labor to the 4 dollars a day that Mexican
    workers are forced to work for.  And that's not right for American
    workers, and it is not right for Mexican workers either.

    "here's Bill Clinton, he goes back, he has an African American who
    has been lobotomized, who goes back to the state of Arkansas to
    preside over the execution of an African American who is mentally
    deficient [...]  And then we have someone, a *genius* ... a Rhodes
    scholar --- [...] who has been golfing at an all-white country
    club for years and didn't know that he was golfing at an all-white
    country club.

    "the fact of the matter is, the biggest political party in America
    today is not the Democrats, it's not the Republicans, it's 91
    million people in 1988 who did not register or did not vote.  70
    million of those people are not registered to vote.  2/3 of them
    are low income people.  About 12 million of them are *students*.

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        "What we need is economic democracy."

[Speech continued (part 3):]

[...]

That's what we're up against.  Nothing short of a *fundamental
challenge* to the rule of the rich and the super-rich and a [...]
reorganization of this society will do.  What we need is economic
democracy.  What we need is a situation where we have
worker-community ownership.  Community-owned enterprises.  We need
a situation where we have cooperatives, community development
corporations, a _new paradigm of economic democracy_ where the
people seize back control of the most vital thing in their lives:
the ability to work and own a living.  That's what needs to be in
the hands of the people.  And unless we have that we will not have
a reinvigorated democracy, we'll have the same old same old.  And
people are sick and tired of being sick and tired in terms of a
system that afflicts and exploits and oppresses the vast majority of
people in this country.  That's what we must be talking about in
terms of a radical politics as we go into the 21st century. <applause>

And it's in that context that when you look at a Bill Clinton,
<laughter> what you see is a Republican in George Bush, and a
"republicrat" in Bill Clinton.  Because if you understand what I'm
saying about the need for radical fundamental change, then rotating
Presidents is not what we're talking about.  Just rotating Presidents
will not bring the radical change that we need.  Because as long as
the Democratic party and the Republican parties are owned by the
corporate elite in this country, then nothing ever will fundamentally
change.  There is beyond my rhetoric a difference between Bill Clinton
and George Bush.  But the difference is _incremental_, it is not
_fundamental_.  There is a *small* margin of difference.  And at times,
the small margin of difference makes a difference.

But you reach a point in the crisis of life, the crisis of society,
when small little increments of change will not do.  It may do for
me because I'm in the middle class, [...] and you know I can get
along okay.  But it does not do for those who live in South Central.
It does not do for those who are locked in the ghettos and the
barrios and the reservations in this country, who indeed are being
afflicted.  In fact as Malcolm X would put it, those who are in the
ghettos and the barrios and reservations are catching more hell
today --- the statistics tell us they are catching more hell!  In
Watts what do they tell us?  There was a rebellion in 65, the people
live *worse* in Watts now than they did 25, or whatever it is, 30
[...] years ago.  They're worse off now!  Because we live in a
society that neglects, and does not pay attention to the needs of
the least of us.

So what we're talking about is a _radical fundamental_ change.
So thank God we have now greater disaffection than at any time in my
lifetime, with the Democrats.  [...] I mean the only way you can
vote for Bill Clinton [...]  seriously, the people who say, [...]
I got to defeat George Bush, I know my friend Jesse Jackson says we
got to defeat George Bush, so I guess he's going to have to hold his
nose too.  [...]  What you have in Clinton is someone who attacked
Jesse Jackson in 1988.  Who said Jesse Jackson was too liberal.
And if we like Jesse's politics, how can you like Clinton's politics?

Beyond the *theater*, you know what I mean, [...] penetrating beyond
the polls.  You know George Bush had to wait 24 hours before
commenting on the Watts, I mean the insurrection, Clinton had to
wait.  I kept saying, what is he going to say?  So he had to wait
[...]  Take a poll! What should I say? Which way is the wind
blowing? [...]  You know, they're running all over the place.

And that's the other thing that has people frustrated.  Cause people
want to know, Where do you stand? who are you? what do you really
stand for?  The thing about Paul Tsongas, [...] I disagreed with
Paul Tsongas, but at least I knew exactly where he stood!  I could
gauge him.  With Slick Willie, [...]  he's all over the place
[pantomime searching east and west].

What I know I don't like!  I don't like somebody who comes from a
right-to-work state.  I don't like somebody who has used right-to-work
laws as a way of attracting business to his state.  And then [...]
those businesses attracted with right-to-work laws, have the worst
environmental records and the worst occupational safety records.
I don't like that.  I don't like a person who claims to be an
environmentalist who's better than Bush, but the chicken drippings
are running all into the Arkansas river. <laughter>  Because he's
cut a deal with the poultry industry, with Tyson (sp?) Poultry Company.

I don't like somebody [...] who's in a situation where he escaped
the Vietnam war --- that was an intelligent decision --- <laughter>
but in order to make up for it, he became a hawk.  He was so much
involved in the situation in Central America that he sent his
National Guard to Honduras to take exercises down there.  He was a
governor who was engaged in some state foreign policy.  Sent his
National Guard down there to engage in exercises.  And someone who
[...] believes in fast-tracking the North American free trade
agreement.  Even though we know the free trade agreement is going to
be a degradation for American workers.  It's going to peg the price
of American labor to the 4 dollars a day that Mexican workers are
forced to work for.  And that's not right for American workers, and
it is not right for Mexican workers either.

And then we have someone, a *genius* ... a Rhodes scholar --- you
know to be a Rhodes scholar you got to be pretty heavy, a lot of us
would like to get a Rhodes scholarship, that's really seriously
deep! <laughter> --- but here's a man with a Rhodes scholar, who has
been golfing at an all-white country club for years and didn't know
that he was golfing at an all-white country club.

And someone who because he wanted to show he was tough <thump> on
crime --- and I am telling you I am unalterably and will forever be
opposed to the death penalty, it is *wrong* <applause> --- here's
Bill Clinton, he goes back, he has an African American who has been
lobotomized, who goes back to the state of Arkansas to preside over
the execution of an African American who is mentally deficient.  And
now he comes trying to claim he has a great record on civil rights.
He plays Willie Horton, the Republicans played Willie Horton, almost
all of them in some way or another take advantage of the race card
in American politics.  And that's one of the things that's been
destructive.

So I cannot trust Bill Clinton.  He is not my kind of presidential
candidate.  So I don't think rotating Bill Clinton into office on
the basis of him being a "republicrat" will change anything.

What we need is a new force.  We need a new force in American
politics, and that's what my campaign is all about.  When I was
coming in, [...] Tom Condit (sp?) was telling me that you're in the
right place, you're going to the right campus.  He said the
anti-apartheid movement, and a number of serious struggles, emanated
from folks right here.  So I said let me get up in here real quick.
Because what we need to do is build a movement that could finish the
unfinished democracy.  My campaign is about political education.  It
is about mobilizing the unmobilized.  [very rapidly] Because the
fact of the matter is, the biggest political party in America today
is not the Democrats, it's not the Republicans, it's 91 million
people in 1988 who did not register or did not vote.  70 million of
those people are not registered to vote.  2/3 of them are low income
people.  About 12 million of them are *students*.

So we need to be talking about how to organize the unorganized!
Because if we organize some significant portion of those forces then
we have a real possibility for change.  Because what we need to do
is stop wasting time and wasting our votes, on people who are not
committed to fundamental change.  We need to be reminded that Eugene
Debs got nearly a million votes for President!  It was Eugene Debs
who said, It is better to vote for that [...] which you believe in
and not get it, than to vote for that which [...] you don't believe
in, and get it.  It seems to me that what we need to be talking
about is standing on principle.  It is because of Eugene Debs and
people in the streets and at the ballot box, that we have social
security, we have workers' compensation.  Movements *outside* of the
Democratic party, fighting for radical change, and fighting for the
kind of society that we know must become.


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