Getting a taste for it

It's official: George W Bush, the enormously wealthy son of a president and grandson of a senator, will battle Al Gore, the enormously wealthy son of a senator, for president in November. While the prospect of this choice hardly inspires a passionate urge to support one over the other, this election year has nevertheless witnessed a sharp rise in popular interest in politics. Change is in the air. The inspiration comes not from any of the candidates themselves. Even the New York Times commented recently that this year's crop of candidates 'arose from a privileged elite vaguely reminiscent of the nobility that the United States has always foresworn.' No candidate has made promises to workers that come close to matching Clinton's promises for universal healthcare, a freedom of choice act, or a ban on the permanent replacement of strikers that struck a chord with millions of workers when he first ran for president in 1992.

The call for change is bubbling up from below, on a variety of fronts. Last year ended with a rise in struggle on both coasts of the US. First came the 12,000-strong protest against the training of death squads by the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia in November. Ten days later the Seattle protest against the WTO drew 50,000, including a labour demonstration of 30,000, and forced the cancellation of the WTO's opening session before it was attacked by police.

In solidarity with the WTO protest, longshoremen up and down the West Coast went on strike for the day. In January 46,000 mostly black protesters demonstrated in front of South Carolina's state capital, demanding the state stops flying the Confederate flag with the slogan, 'Your heritage is our slavery.' Days later, a multiracial picket of South Carolina longshoremen battled the police to defend their strike. At the end of January, after years of protest against the death penalty in Illinois, the governor declared a moratorium on the death penalty there, declaring, 'The system is broken.' On 19 February 600 activists attended a New York conference to build support for Mumia Abu-Jamal. A week later 1,000 people demonstrated outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC on Mumia's behalf. In late February, a rash of student sit-ins began, demanding an end to their universities' complicity with corporations using sweatshop labour. In early March 10,000 demonstrated in Florida in defence of affirmative action.

An 'Open Letter to the President and Congress' demanding a death penalty moratorium, which was initiated by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, has now been signed by Sister Helen Prejan, author of Dead Man Walking, Jesse Jackson Jr and Jesse Jackson Sr, actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, Ron Tabak of the American Bar Association, Sam Jordan of Amnesty International, Larry Marshal of the National Center on Wrongful Convictions, and exonerated death row inmates Anthony Porter, Darby Tillis, Gary Gauger, Perry Cobb and Kirk Bloodsworth. Activists will be gathering signatures all over the US over the next few months to present to Congress en masse.

Throughout the primary season candidates have been besieged by anti-death-penalty protesters at campaign stops. When Bush kicked off his California tour, the ABC Evening News reported, 'George Bush planned to launch his California tour from Oakland today, but was heckled by opponents of the death penalty. Not exactly the way you want to start your Super Tuesday tour.' When Gore and Bill Bradley debated at the Apollo Theater in New York 200 protesters chanted outside, 'Hey Bush, Hey Gore, the death penalty kills the poor.' In Austin 300 protesters surrounded Bush's mansion, demanding a moratorium on the death penalty.

Plans have been underway for months up and down the East Coast and in the Midwest for the 16 April 'Mobilisation for Global Justice' protest of the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington DC, giving all those who wished they could have been in Seattle the opportunity to make their voices heard.

The protest, like Seattle, will last for more than a week and cover a broad range of issues. The highlights include another protest against the School of the Americas, Jubilee 2000's demonstration to cancel the debts of poor countries, and a rally to demand a stop to WTO expansion (which, unfortunately, has been billed as 'No Blank Cheque for China!' by the national labour federation, the AFL-CIO, giving it a protectionist twist). And, finally, a series of actions against the IMF and World Bank on 16-17 April. Two weeks after that a gay civil rights demonstration will also be held in Washington DC, on 30 April.

All this activism is having a marked effect on the political climate, even in the arena of mainstream politics. Not only has Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr proposed a seven year moratorium on the death penalty, but the state legislature of New Hampshire jumped ahead and voted to abolish the death penalty there. Even if the governor vetoes the bill, as he has threatened, the possibility of abolishing the death penalty has entered the national debate. And Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold has proposed abolishing the death penalty for federal crimes. The San Francisco and Baltimore city councils have joined Philadelphia in calling for state moratoriums on the death penalty. Even the stately Al Gore delivered his victory speech on Super Tuesday in front of a banner reading, 'Join the fight!' while Bush's nationally-televised victory speech was interrupted by the loud chants of anti-death-penalty protesters.

A sense of optimism has taken hold as people are beginning to get the taste of victory. Even at UPS, where management has thumbed its nose at the contract won by the 1997 strike ever since, a federal arbitrator has ruled that UPS management must immediately begin to honour the contract by creating 2,000 full time jobs as the contract states. The victories won thus far have been small, to be sure. But after 25 years of a sustained employers' offensive, even these small steps forward have brought a sense of hope for the future that has been missing over the last seven years, as Clinton broke every promise he made to working class people and dismantled the welfare state. Clinton promised change from above and failed to deliver. Now growing numbers are demanding change from below.

Even those small steps forward have brought a sense of hope for the future