Jackson and the rainbow coalition'? In Socialist Outlook space. Revolutionaries may say contradicuons What lies at the end of the What attitude should socialists have towards Jesse On disarmament, central tervene more effectively • with in the Es working class. Funki social change. over many years. politician, The rights, iesbian 'rcaganomics" awakened with care. strength. party" sional must popular democracy, That process has Paradoxically precisely because of now produced the kind of choice the Us The primary system is a wonderful asset for the US ruling class: a winnow- ing process disguised as an exercise in bourgeoisic dreams about: Dukakis ver- primaries, it sometimes backfires. The 1968. Mass opposition to the Vietnam Four years later, George McGovern, classic example is Now Hampshire, war was expressed in a big vote for Eugene Macarthy: within weeks Lyn: all comers in primaries across the coun- took flight and running on a clear anti-war platform (and not much else) decisively detcared try and won the nomination. Of course, ensure a Nixon victory in the These ire historical facts. They are not tantamount to an argument in or in favour of either of these two The Jackson candidacy Is different Macarty and MoGovern) because it is building a mass oppositional movement Jackson himself has made this clear, don Johnson withdrew from the race, favour of entering the Democratic Party "rainbow executive Of course there are other, powerful voices in the Jackson camp, notably black perty bourgeois politicians, for whom the campaign is a mere bargain- ing counter in the battle to secure per- in a Dukakis The closer we move to the conven- tion, the more intense the debate within the Jackson camp will become. Already black marxist Manning Marable has called on Jackson to declure publicly the Democrats to establish a new, mass- Marxists are pertectly entitled to re- ject Marable's strategy, though for this rejection to carry weight it must be ac- and other prominent "rainbow' activists. director of the rainbow movement' as have Ron Daniels, the DEBATE sus Bush — no choice at all. from previous candidacies. the self-consciously part of a based, left-wing movement. of breaking is called sonal advancement administration. Democratic movement'. what "rainbow'? GRANT'S ARTICLE includes some crrors The Us communist party has never Apart from backing Roosevelt in 1944, the CrUsA has either stood its own can- third party initiatives, such as the Pro- even allow the CP inside their party is didates for president or backed various gressive Party in 1948 and 1952, whose away from the The notion that the Democrats would The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) did not support us imperialism in reason that it did not come into being Both organisations have at various - for the simple cimes endorsed attempts to influence the Jackson during his first til at the I hold no brief for cither the CPUSA or proach and his understanding of the the primary The Democratic Party would not pre- has no members, branches or dues; its "inside the Democratic Party' the DSA. But these errors: of face are symptomatic of a fault in Grant's ap- tend to have a democratic structure. It perpetuating; its elected representatives are under no obligation to adhere to par- The conduct of the big quadrennial national committee is more or less self- Labour Party's annual bash look like an The primaries are run by individual state governments, To vote in the Democratic primary in most scates you Democrat when you place yourself on the electoral roll, In some states vou can vote in cither Democratic or Republican The intricate mysteries of delegate ly in the popular vote in the primaries selection make it possible to score heavi- and still end up a big loser at the conven- tion — as happened to Jackson in 1984 of fact and, in my opinion, analysis. neither showed any enthusiasm Democratic Party from the left makes are merely required to 'register' ty policy — which hardly exists. and will happen again in 1988. exercise in soviet democracy nominating conventions Democratic Party and 'progressive forces' Korca or Vietnam - until the early 1980g! nomination in 1984. object was to the debate. Democrats,
there is a general consensus for the proposal to reduce the abortion time-limit to 24 weeks? Definitely not, In the light of the defeat of David Alton's anti-abortion bill, should pro-choice campaigners accept that argue GILL LEE and ANN POTTER. Now is the time to go on the offensive in support of a woman's New