The Euston Manifesto: For a Renewal of Progressive Politics
It's not Illinois politics but anyone on the left should be concerned. If there is a left worth fighting for anywhere, anymore; Norm Geras and Nick Cohen have defined it with this manifesto.
Below is the conclusion to the preamble announcing their statement of principles.
via NormsBlog; also check The New Stateman.
It is vitally important for the future of progressive politics that people of liberal, egalitarian and internationalist outlook should now speak clearly. We must define ourselves against those for whom the entire progressive-democratic agenda has been subordinated to a blanket and simplistic 'anti-imperialism' and/or hostility to the current US administration. The values and goals which properly make up that agenda - the values of democracy, human rights, the continuing battle against unjustified privilege and power, solidarity with peoples fighting against tyranny and oppression - are what most enduringly define the shape of any Left worth belonging to.Cross Posted at Bill Baar's West Side
11 comments:
Will someone please put a limit on the number of posts Bill can do in a day, this is getting really old.
Just passing time over the keyboard with lunch waiting for the ierra Club to tell me why the Illinois State Water Survey all wet about Hg not entering the soil from the power plants.
Anon-
Why does it matter? If you don't like Bill's posts then ignore them. There is a by-line under the title.
At least posters elicit some kind of discussion in their postings. Otherwise we might as well just have RSS feeds to our newsreaders.
Gish...because I don't want to have to pass up 10 posts by Bill, which are usually pointless, to get to the ones that are newsworthy...thanks for butting in though.
You're welcome. I like to point out lameness wherever possible.
Pardon me while I shed a tear for your lost half minute everytime you need to do that.
This manifesto is an interesting use of the Blogosphere too.
I've become a reader of The Guardian's Comment Free. It's a model the Trib or ST should look at.
Here's Brian Brivati writing there,
I tend to share the late, great, Peter Jenkins attitude to political activity. When describing his commitment to the Social Democratic party, Peter said he would certainly go out to canvas but not when it was raining. So it takes a lot for me to show up. Just before Christmas I attended the second meeting of the Euston group which today publishes its manifesto in the New Statesman. The text was born from the responses that Norman Geras kept getting to his blog on key issues like Iraq, anti-semitism on the left and so on. People would email him and say: I thought I was the only person who thought that on the left.
[***]
The manifesto came out of the blogsphere but it is intended to cross over into the real world. It is published in the spirit of providing a space for all those who have found their views echoed in Norm's work over the last few years and who find themselves agreeing with Nick Cohen's articles. It will be interesting to see who responds and how they respond in the weeks to come and just how large the alternative left's constituency actually is.
It will be interesting to see how it unfolds not just in terms of who's out there, but how blogs connect us and shape ideas.
I'd love to sign the manifesto. It details very well all the reasons that I voted against Bush in 2004. How do I sign?
You can sign right here.
Gish, don't you have better things to do than stick your nose in where it doesn't belong, or is this how you validate your day?
anon 8:12
Get your self a name.
Every nose is welcome to comment on my posts with minimum ground rules.
I'm leaving your comment as a sample of the rare kind I'll delete.
Anon 8:12am-
So my nose doesn't belong here yet the original anon poster (perhaps you/perhaps not) does.
I read this blog. I read Bill's posts. More often than not I disagree and post some thoughts. Usually that results in a nice civil debate which I enjoy participating in and seeing the results.
My nose belongs in this given that the original poster is trying to infringe on my enjoyment of this blog because they are too much of a baby to skip past Bill's posts.
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