ai! A third ticket in ‘68? y MIKE DAVIDOW H CHICAGO T Ee Politics Convention, ther; first national political- and rap evass-roots racial- Ms ast tebelling USA of the hy peneek took a cautious ty ard an independent {td ticket ; Aelctign the 1968 presiden- Ad : ley mate in Which local poli- acti 1 tational Was counterposed to tally a Mdependent. ticket hey aan Up with a perspec- Progestin that stressed {tion activity and organi- ‘fen Desi avored “an indepen- E an ati ticket to pro- ig Sates native in 1968 in FJ n fe) re War? jy. 2 Teferendum Ny, The Av istnam. He de- jy have, American people ‘ty, itto AY ©Pportunity to + Ot livion those oh Oo emsely » th €s from ew s° Who lead us koa go VOrld bu lhe deaq at to the ; Noteg ; orld.” lig), ere Many as- M 4 for |, matPaigned assi- Now” On Johnson in dis; it is Peon oypees of betrayal. NES © been blasted itty "© Drom v© been shat- Was Shi 'S€ of a Great to escape s Prosperity, Widgets a dream de- lq askeq. “Tt e Move® in the Ver freedo Memeng eet ieee . istory of ztions want to run. In the final analysis what hap- pens particularly in our great cities where the interacting cri- sis, the war in Vietnam and the crisis of our cities have unleash- ed the deepest political ferment since the great depression of the 1930’s, will determine the out- come of the issue which the con- vention debated so heatedly. The New Politics Convention, reflecting the variety of political currents flowing especially among those radicalized by the war in Vietnam and the rebel- lions in the Black communities, understandably doubts, hesitations and confu- sion on how to meet the chal- the dismayed, the desperate and the angry.” It recognized that a national crisis has been brought about by the interacting “war in Vietnam and the universal ur- ban disaster,’ and urged the convention to “carry on next year a national campaign to stop the war and transform the cities.” At the same time it opposed the creation of a third ticket on the grounds it would “at this point in our history be top heavy and, would be mostly shells with little local content.” But, the revealed “the adoption of the merged resolu- tion by an overwhelming vote revealed that most of those op- lenge of ’68. It was expressed posed to an independent. natio- in the two vote defeat of a reso- lution which took a_ clear-cut stand for an independent presi- dential ticket. Another resolu- tion which laid heavy stress on and counterposed local action to such a ticket won 13,519 to 13,- S172 An amendment proposed by Mal Burnstein, Oakland, Cali- fornia, which essentially incor- porated the third ticket resolu- tion into the victorious one was then overwhelmingly adopted. The merged resolution was sup- ported by leaders of the move- ment behind the “Local’’ activi- ties resolution, among them Ar- thur Waskow and Paul Booth, members of the national board of the National Conference for New Politics. The merged resolution empha- sized that “local action is cru- cial” and called for a “national year of local organizing” to bring into full political action their races and lands. In one majestic chorus they are singing in the words of our freedom song: “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around.” Sounding even stronger on the same theme, Dick Gregory, who announced himself as an “Inde- dependant candidate for presi- dent,” declared that “the day you hire a (convicted) child molester as your baby sitter will be the day the rest of the world will let this country guard their freedom.” Gregory pounded away at his central them: that America was so sick that it had no choice but to turn to ending racism and militarism at home in order to save itself from destruction. He charged that America is the number one most racist country on earth. H described REV. KING nal ticket were nevertheless willing to encourage its develop- ment wherever possible and were open to convention on its validity for ’68. The opposition to an indepen- dent presidential slate in 1968 was not homoegeneous. A size- able group which was none the less a minority among the sup- porters of the local activities group, was essentially against ull electoral activity. They were largely youth from the students for a democratic society. But the overwhelming majority who upposed the third ticket resolu- tion did so because they are not convinced the forces for a mean- ingful independent presidential campaign exists and they do not feel an adequate groundwork on a grass-roots level is yet laid. These delegates, as Robert Scheer, managing editor of Ram- parts magazine and a peace Can- didate who came close to win- Make ‘68 referendum Mn Vietnam war —King vividly, so that no one might misunderstand, the racism that can praise in its history book a White Patrick Henry, who sound- ed the call against the British redcoats, while it condemns ia k Rapp Brown, who insists that Black victims of oppression in America should fight for their freedom. Gregory concluded by saying, “It’s not a fight of Black against White, but of a wrong against right, and right has never lost yet.” He called on the conven- tion to Jaunch a campaign for electing a Black American to the presidency. Other speakers included Don- na Allan, NCNP executive direc- tor William Pepper, and Dr. Ben- jaman Spock, Chicago Negro Alderman A. A. Sammy Rayner and Georgia State representative Julian Bond also took the podi- um for a few brief words. Master. of Ceremonies at the rally was Ossie Davis, who open- ed the rally by saying, “In 1964 I made a big mistake—I voted for Lyndon Baines Johnson, and I’m here to apologize. This con- vention is our one last chance to take back into the hands of the people the government of the United States. “We have to come out of this convention with a new way of doing things in America. We need to overcome our differen- ces and let our passion for peace, freedom and justice rise above those differences.” ning a democratic congressional nomination in 1966, pointed out, failed to appreciate the stimulus a presidential campaign could impart to local activities. Thus the significance of an independent peace and freedom presidential campaign as a na- tional referendum on the war in Vietnam and for the resolution of the crisis of our cities was largely lost sight of. Providing such an alternative in the 68 elections has great and growing appeal to millions of American voters, it cuts across all party lines and can rally far grearer numbers than just the radical- ized segment largely represented at this convention. The conven- tion revealed that the radicaliz- ed sector of rebelling grass- roots America is struggling to achieve a common outlook on its role in a period when the coun- try is facing its greatest crisis sinte the Civil War. At the same time it is confronted with the need to unite with the far larger body of Americans opposed to the war in Vietnam, who are not yet as radicalized. It is because an independent presidential tick- et and campaign, can unite this great movement that it poses such a challenge and opportunity for the New Politics born in Chi- cago last week. Labor and ew politics E HAVE to show the con- vention delegates that the labor movement is not one reactionary mass,” said Jack Spiegle opening the labor caucus at the convention of the Na- tional Conference for New Poli- tics. Spiegle, an organizer of the caucus pointed to the many small but growing rank and file committees for peace that are springing up around the country as well as organizations such as the Negro American Labor Council that are struggling na- tionally for an end to Jim Crow practices in the trade union movement, as well as leading the fight for the organization of the unorganized. Delegates and observers were present from many sections of the American labor movement, from the building trades and carpenters to teamsters and common laborers. In between were teachers, butchers, rail- roadmen, hospital workers, clothing workers, packinghouse workers, woodworkers from the Pacific Northwest, typographers, and many others. Many of the trade unionists addressed themselves in the dis- cussion to the dual problem of radical trade unionists: making other convention delegates aware ‘of the necessity to win workers to new politics through struggle on bread and butter issues and the need for new politics to offer workers on a national level an alternative to the Democratic Party in 1968. One member of the Amalga- mated Clothing Workers sum- med it up when he said, “The labor movement today, with its alliance with the Democratic Party is practicing company unionism in politics.’ He went on to say that political ques- tions confronting the labor movement today are in reality bread and butter issues. Refer- ring to the new Johnson war tax “when the struggles for a larger paycheck that are won in the shop are lost in the halls of congress, working people can no longer be content to remain within the two party conspiracy to take their hard won victories away from them.” Another worker called for the New Politics Convention to de- mand the nationalization of any industry that is so important that the workers cannot be allowed to strike. He said “any industry that is so important to the public interest that its work- ers cannot strike is certainly too important to be run for pri- vate profit in the hands of*a few.” Some present spoke of the need of the New Politics to spearhead an organizing drive among the unorganized. One trade unionist pointed out that the United States has relatively fewer workers organized than any other advanced industrial country of the world. In the course of the two hour meeting, not one person took the floor to oppose the running of a third ticket by the NCNP in 1968. Although there were some who wanted to launch a third party immediately, and others who wanted to limit the movement at this time to a ticket for the presidency as a first step towards such a party, none were opposed. The caucus ended with the election of a committee to pre- pare resolutions from the body to be presented to the plenary session. CAL) Dai NY; »\ y, jae bg) Reprinted from Boston Globe ‘Dr. Spock? President Johnson .. . I'd like Some Advice. No! No! NOT About Vietnam...’ . __.». September.15;.1967PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3