Fist and Rose - 1 comment

I'm on the mailing list of Walt Brown, Socialist Party USA's Presidential candidate in 2004, and came across this interesting blog a couple of days ago:

Fist and Rose is a tendency of the Socialist Party USA which is rooted in the social democratic tradition of this party and democratic left movements around the world.

They have a manifesto on the site:

Our primary aim is for the Socialist Party USA to re-establish our traditional past ties with the Socialist International (the worldwide federation of labour, social democratic, and democratic socialist parties)... [our own Labour Party is a member]

In America's current politically conservative direction, we need to see a movement evolve which would establish an alternative to the harsh capitalism of the US Republican Party and the reformed-capitalism of the US Democratic Party. While it is self evident that the Republican's vision of capitalism runs contrary to the aspirations of democratic-socialism, the current leadership of the Democrats runs far short of what we would like to see regarding the fundamental questions of the existing capitalist system...

Being critical of the mainstream Democratic leadership these days, we recognize that there are Democrats with politics and ideology consistent with the aims and desires of all of the democratic-left in the United States and around the world. They like to call themselves "liberals" or "progressives," yet they are still marginalized today. They are or should be our political allies, and it is our job to convince them that their ideal of "liberalism" or "progressivism" is synonymous with democratic-socialism...

In our domestic activist work, we want our movement to be one that is sane and sensible. This means we reject sectarianism, ideological purity, political correctness, and outlandish rhetoric to which the average person cannot relate. Further we reject authoritarianism whether in comes in the guise of Communism, Fascism, Monopoly Capitalism, or Theocracy. The aims of the Fist-and-Rose Tendency is to make democratic-socialism the political mainstream inside the United States. If you agree with our aims, join us and be counted.

There are only a few posts at the moment, but it's good to have a non-Democrat left outlook from the USA. The States may not be a socialist heartland but at least we'll get a better idea of the range of centre-left and socialist options there, for which tens of thousands of people are happy to vote. Quite what they'll think of the left-wing paradise we're making here in the UK, I don't know!

Have a look anyway.