There’ve been good public demonstrations and protests recently in SLO County about the Phillips 66 rail spur and the California Coastal Commission, etc. But still, the rail spur has only been tabled, and the progressive director of the Coastal Commission was thrown out of office despite massive support. Nationally, killer cops keep getting away with murder, and repressions against the homeless and the poor in general continue unabated. The power of big corporations, the right wing, and entrenched establishment forces (and phony anti-establishment demagogues like Trump) are in many ways stronger than ever. What will it take to defeat them?
It will take massive and constant, ongoing organized movements to do it. A few isolated protests will not do it. I admire the courage and seriousness of the people who have taken positive, progressive action. But we must all learn and face the fact that it’s going to be a long fight on all fronts of all issues, and permanent, powerful, popular, deeply progressive, overlapping movements are the key. These must eventually spill over into the electoral arena with the founding and building of a mass political party that really is a party by, of, and for the working people, poor, the struggling middle class, students, youth, environmental defenders, oppressed minorities, women, and all plebian sectors. The Democratic Party is not it. Real and solid gains can then be attained and defended against attack.
— Jim Griffin – San Luis Obispo
— Jim Griffin – San Luis Obipso
— Jim Griffin – SLO
This article appears in Apr 7-14, 2016.
