This article is a good example of what were speaking of earlier tonight, when
we spoke about how some folks are near the bottom, at their breaking point
already. While reading this I was asking myself how many 19 year old black
males in the Brownsville (Brooklyn) housing projects have even heard of the
TPP? Does the cop debate its merits before shooting them? I am starting to
think that both the right and the left have gone so far away from what people
relate to.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2016 9:57 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Sanders Delegates Are Not Going Away Quietly at the
DNC
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Home > Sanders Delegates Are
Not Going Away Quietly at the DNC ________________________________________
Sanders Delegates Are Not Going Away Quietly at the DNC By Steven Rosenfeld [1]
/ AlterNet [2] July 25, 2016 Hundreds of Bernie Sanders delegates and their
supporters met for several hours on Monday morning to orchestrate their
protests on the floor of the Democratic Convention that will open later today
and to hound members of Congress who are rejecting their issues-starting with
the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal and a Medicare-for-all health
care system.
"If you are against the TPP and are delegates and can be whips for us, I need
names," yelled California Sanders delegate, Susan George, from the podium as
activists unfurled a yellow and black banner with three-feet-tall letters
reading TPP = BETRAYAL. "This is for tonight," she continued. "We need a whip
in every state."
"Hey, hey, ho, ho-TPP has got to go! You got that down for tonight?" blared
Larry Cohen, the ex-Communications Workers of America president and Sanders
campaign representative. "The important thing here this morning is how we stop
the TPP. We all know what's wrong with it. We all know the TPP stinks and no
TPP!"
"No TPP! No TPP! No TPP," replied the crowd, as Cohen continued introduce
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley to moderate, saying he "does the right thing in every
single case, including being the only U.S. senator to endorse Bernie Sanders
for president."
"Bernie for president! Bernie for President! Bernie for President," the room
erupted, as hundreds jumped to their feet and screamed.
That outpouring was part of a building crescendo that started at 9:30 A.M.
in a remote wing of the downtown Philadelphia Convention Center where the
Sanders campaign had convened a series of meetings to discuss how to keep two
issues alive that have animated their movement-single-payer healthcare and
opposing the TPP. But a parade of speakers began expressing their deep and at
times visceral frustration with Democratic Party establishment, from not
adopting a progressive platform, to standing with big business on trade at the
expense of American workers and immigrants, to rejecting Hillary Clinton for
president.
In between, organizers with the Sanders campaign let it be known that they were
trying to gather enough delegates to bring their issues to the convention floor
on Monday night, such as a proposed platform amendment where all Democrats
agree not to adopt the TPP after the November election and before the next
Congress is sworn in next January.
The session started quietly enough, although the Sanders campaign's volunteers
tried to bar reporters from entering. At first, it was only perhaps 100 nurses
and top officials from National Nurses United in their ubiquitous red shirts
and a smattering of dozens of delegates who filled a cavernous banquet hall.
The first speaker was James Zobgy, the longtime president of the Arab American
Institute who was picked by Sanders to serve on the platform committee and
introduced the amendment to support a single-payer, Medicare-for-all national
health care system.
"It, like several of the other planks that were introduced, it was a
no-brainer," Zogby told the room. "But something weird happens in this process
where people take their policy brain out of their heads and put in their
politics brain. The fear of actually doing it stopped there. They play this
chicken little game of the sky will fall [if they adopted a call for single
payer]."
"This year we had a candidate running around the country calling for Medicare
for all," said Micheal Lighty, NNU policy director, who, like other speakers
tried to inspire the activists to keep going and cited progress in states like
Colorado, Minnesota and California. "We cannot win on any of our issues unless
we fight for all of them. That is how we have to think of our fights and the
political opportunities now. We are part of this broad social justice movement.
The work we do electorally is a means to that, but not the end game."
As the room began to fill, those in attendance were not there to hear consoling
words. When Donna Smith, president of Progressive Democrat of America spoke,
she said many reporters have been asking her if PDA would endorse Clinton. "PDA
will not endorse Hillary Clinton," she firmly declared, prompting the whole
room to jump to their feet and cheer.
"The convention starts in about four and one-half hours, are you going to take
this social movement to the convention," Benjamin Day, executive director of
healthcare-now.org loudly asked. "Eighty-one percent of Democrats support
Medicare for all. What will it take, 85 percent? It's not about convincing, it
is about organizing. It is not just single payer, it is the racial justice
movement, environmental justice, TPP. Keep this fight going! Let's turn this
entire convention into power. We will win this thing!"
But it was the TPP session that followed where the room filled with people and
the energy to challenge the Democratic Party establishment rose to a new level
and got specific. As Merkley introduced speaker after speaker, it became clear
that nobody was ready to surrender to mainstream Democrats and abide by
politely getting in line with Clinton.
When Gustavo Torres, executive director of the Washington, D.C. based Casa in
Action, a immigrant rights group, told the room that prior trade agreements
like NAFTA left hundreds of thousands of Mexican peasants without work and
pushed them to migrate to the U.S. without documentation, people grimly nodded.
"We believe it is very important to send a message," he said. "We want
Secretary Clinton and Sen. [Tim] Kaine to be president, right?"
"No!" voices immediately replied. "Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!" chanted row after
row of delegates and activists, followed by loud clapping.
"We want to send a message that the TPP is not a good deal for our families,
right here and in central America," Torres said, quickly summing up and leaving
the stage,
Several minutes later came the CWA spokesman Chris Shelton, who told the room
that never before has every major international union opposed a trade
agreement. When he said that 28 House Democrats and 13 Senate Democrats voted
to give the president fast-track authority to negotiate the TPP, people started
yelling back, "Take them out! Take them out!"
He told the room that the Sanders delegates changed the platform's draft
language that said "there was a diversity of opinion about the TPP. The only
word I could say was bullshit!"
"Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!" the room responded.
"Our mission now is to get the officials of the Democratic Party take their
implicit rejection of the TPP and make it an explicit rejection," Shelton said.
"I urge all of you to take action. Hold your members of Congress
accountable-including those 41 assholes who voted for fast track. Tell them how
angry you are that they turned their backs on workers. and then we must go home
and organize. Are ready to stand up and fight? Are you ready to stand up and
fight?"
"Yes. Fight! Fight! Fight!" the room replied. "Stand up! Fight! Stand up!
Fight."
Immediately after, the speakers got down to specifics. Lori Wallach, director
and founder of Global Trade Watch, told the room that any delegate needed to
sign their petition to amend the party platform to say the party would not
support a TTP vote in the lame-duck session after November's election. Other
volunteers passed out sheets with anti-TPP talking point and buttons.
"The thing we have to do to keep the Bernie revolution going is win on TPP,"
Wallach blared. "There will be no bigger setback for corporate America!"
"If you're a convention delegate, please come up here and sign this amendment
now," delegate Susan George told the room, taking the podium. That promted
dozens of delegates to head to the side of the stage. As they massed and were
also asked what state delegation are they from-to create a united front on the
convention floor later on-the campaign's Larry Cohen took back the microphone.
"You've heard these amazing panels. It's up to us. This week is up to us. We
need every state to raise this issue," he said. "Are you with us or against us?
We passed out the list of the 41 senators and representatives who voted for
fast track. You are eating breakfast with them. Ask them, 'Are you with us or
against us?'"
"And when you are in the hall and you hear the chant, you pick it up," Cohen
continued. "Hey, hey, ho, ho, TPP has got to go. The president needs to hear
it. The speakers need to hear it. Every night. Jump in!"
Then Cohen told the room that everyone had to leave the ballroom because the
Secret Service needed to conduct a sweep because Sanders was coming and
non-delegates had to make room for their 1,900 delegates. As the delegates
filtered back into the room and waited, their periodic cheers were louder than
anything heard before-and the man who inspired it hand't even arrived.
After the closed-door meeting, delegates said Sanders gave a standard stump
speech, encouraging them to keep on fighting, but also said they had to support
Hillary Clinton. That prompted boos, according to people in the room.
"You could feel the pitchforks come out," said one nurse in a red NNU shirt,
who added that the energy among delegates to protest and be heard was not
deterred.
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
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Source URL:
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uietly-dnc
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Sanders Delegates Are Not ;
Going Away Quietly at the DNC [4] http://www.alternet.org/ [5] ;
http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Home > Sanders Delegates Are
Not Going Away Quietly at the DNC
Sanders Delegates Are Not Going Away Quietly at the DNC By Steven Rosenfeld [1]
/ AlterNet [2] July 25, 2016 AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to
TwitterShare to Google+More AddThis Share optionsShare to Email Hundreds of
Bernie Sanders delegates and their supporters met for several hours on Monday
morning to orchestrate their protests on the floor of the Democratic Convention
that will open later today and to hound members of Congress who are rejecting
their issues-starting with the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal
and a Medicare-for-all health care system.
"If you are against the TPP and are delegates and can be whips for us, I need
names," yelled California Sanders delegate, Susan George, from the podium as
activists unfurled a yellow and black banner with three-feet-tall letters
reading TPP = BETRAYAL. "This is for tonight," she continued. "We need a whip
in every state."
"Hey, hey, ho, ho-TPP has got to go! You got that down for tonight?" blared
Larry Cohen, the ex-Communications Workers of America president and Sanders
campaign representative. "The important thing here this morning is how we stop
the TPP. We all know what's wrong with it. We all know the TPP stinks and no
TPP!"
"No TPP! No TPP! No TPP," replied the crowd, as Cohen continued introduce
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley to moderate, saying he "does the right thing in every
single case, including being the only U.S. senator to endorse Bernie Sanders
for president."
"Bernie for president! Bernie for President! Bernie for President," the room
erupted, as hundreds jumped to their feet and screamed.
That outpouring was part of a building crescendo that started at 9:30 A.M.
in a remote wing of the downtown Philadelphia Convention Center where the
Sanders campaign had convened a series of meetings to discuss how to keep two
issues alive that have animated their movement-single-payer healthcare and
opposing the TPP. But a parade of speakers began expressing their deep and at
times visceral frustration with Democratic Party establishment, from not
adopting a progressive platform, to standing with big business on trade at the
expense of American workers and immigrants, to rejecting Hillary Clinton for
president.
In between, organizers with the Sanders campaign let it be known that they were
trying to gather enough delegates to bring their issues to the convention floor
on Monday night, such as a proposed platform amendment where all Democrats
agree not to adopt the TPP after the November election and before the next
Congress is sworn in next January.
The session started quietly enough, although the Sanders campaign's volunteers
tried to bar reporters from entering. At first, it was only perhaps 100 nurses
and top officials from National Nurses United in their ubiquitous red shirts
and a smattering of dozens of delegates who filled a cavernous banquet hall.
The first speaker was James Zobgy, the longtime president of the Arab American
Institute who was picked by Sanders to serve on the platform committee and
introduced the amendment to support a single-payer, Medicare-for-all national
health care system.
"It, like several of the other planks that were introduced, it was a
no-brainer," Zogby told the room. "But something weird happens in this process
where people take their policy brain out of their heads and put in their
politics brain. The fear of actually doing it stopped there. They play this
chicken little game of the sky will fall [if they adopted a call for single
payer]."
"This year we had a candidate running around the country calling for Medicare
for all," said Micheal Lighty, NNU policy director, who, like other speakers
tried to inspire the activists to keep going and cited progress in states like
Colorado, Minnesota and California. "We cannot win on any of our issues unless
we fight for all of them. That is how we have to think of our fights and the
political opportunities now. We are part of this broad social justice movement.
The work we do electorally is a means to that, but not the end game."
As the room began to fill, those in attendance were not there to hear consoling
words. When Donna Smith, president of Progressive Democrat of America spoke,
she said many reporters have been asking her if PDA would endorse Clinton. "PDA
will not endorse Hillary Clinton," she firmly declared, prompting the whole
room to jump to their feet and cheer.
"The convention starts in about four and one-half hours, are you going to take
this social movement to the convention," Benjamin Day, executive director of
healthcare-now.org loudly asked. "Eighty-one percent of Democrats support
Medicare for all. What will it take, 85 percent? It's not about convincing, it
is about organizing. It is not just single payer, it is the racial justice
movement, environmental justice, TPP. Keep this fight going! Let's turn this
entire convention into power. We will win this thing!"
But it was the TPP session that followed where the room filled with people and
the energy to challenge the Democratic Party establishment rose to a new level
and got specific. As Merkley introduced speaker after speaker, it became clear
that nobody was ready to surrender to mainstream Democrats and abide by
politely getting in line with Clinton.
When Gustavo Torres, executive director of the Washington, D.C. based Casa in
Action, a immigrant rights group, told the room that prior trade agreements
like NAFTA left hundreds of thousands of Mexican peasants without work and
pushed them to migrate to the U.S. without documentation, people grimly nodded.
"We believe it is very important to send a message," he said. "We want
Secretary Clinton and Sen. [Tim] Kaine to be president, right?"
"No!" voices immediately replied. "Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!" chanted row after
row of delegates and activists, followed by loud clapping.
"We want to send a message that the TPP is not a good deal for our families,
right here and in central America," Torres said, quickly summing up and leaving
the stage,
Several minutes later came the CWA spokesman Chris Shelton, who told the room
that never before has every major international union opposed a trade
agreement. When he said that 28 House Democrats and 13 Senate Democrats voted
to give the president fast-track authority to negotiate the TPP, people started
yelling back, "Take them out! Take them out!"
He told the room that the Sanders delegates changed the platform's draft
language that said "there was a diversity of opinion about the TPP. The only
word I could say was bullshit!"
"Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!" the room responded.
"Our mission now is to get the officials of the Democratic Party take their
implicit rejection of the TPP and make it an explicit rejection," Shelton said.
"I urge all of you to take action. Hold your members of Congress
accountable-including those 41 assholes who voted for fast track. Tell them how
angry you are that they turned their backs on workers. and then we must go home
and organize. Are ready to stand up and fight? Are you ready to stand up and
fight?"
"Yes. Fight! Fight! Fight!" the room replied. "Stand up! Fight! Stand up!
Fight."
Immediately after, the speakers got down to specifics. Lori Wallach, director
and founder of Global Trade Watch, told the room that any delegate needed to
sign their petition to amend the party platform to say the party would not
support a TTP vote in the lame-duck session after November's election. Other
volunteers passed out sheets with anti-TPP talking point and buttons.
"The thing we have to do to keep the Bernie revolution going is win on TPP,"
Wallach blared. "There will be no bigger setback for corporate America!"
"If you're a convention delegate, please come up here and sign this amendment
now," delegate Susan George told the room, taking the podium. That promted
dozens of delegates to head to the side of the stage. As they massed and were
also asked what state delegation are they from-to create a united front on the
convention floor later on-the campaign's Larry Cohen took back the microphone.
"You've heard these amazing panels. It's up to us. This week is up to us. We
need every state to raise this issue," he said. "Are you with us or against us?
We passed out the list of the 41 senators and representatives who voted for
fast track. You are eating breakfast with them. Ask them, 'Are you with us or
against us?'"
"And when you are in the hall and you hear the chant, you pick it up," Cohen
continued. "Hey, hey, ho, ho, TPP has got to go. The president needs to hear
it. The speakers need to hear it. Every night. Jump in!"
Then Cohen told the room that everyone had to leave the ballroom because the
Secret Service needed to conduct a sweep because Sanders was coming and
non-delegates had to make room for their 1,900 delegates. As the delegates
filtered back into the room and waited, their periodic cheers were louder than
anything heard before-and the man who inspired it hand't even arrived.
After the closed-door meeting, delegates said Sanders gave a standard stump
speech, encouraging them to keep on fighting, but also said they had to support
Hillary Clinton. That prompted boos, according to people in the room.
"You could feel the pitchforks come out," said one nurse in a red NNU shirt,
who added that the energy among delegates to protest and be heard was not
deterred.
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [3] Error!
Hyperlink reference not valid.[4]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/sanders-delegates-are-not-going-away-q
uietly-dnc
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Sanders Delegates Are Not ;
Going Away Quietly at the DNC [4] http://www.alternet.org/ [5] ;
http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
