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Vivid Example of the Election Morass

I happened upon two rallies yesterday at Columbus Circle. One was an Obama rally, probably a couple hundred folks or so, and the other, just the other side of the statue, a rally by a NYC grassroots org Community Voices Heard (CVH). The latter rally had a few dozen folks, low income people of color, chanting "our communities are under attack, what do we do, stand up fight back!", and was held as part of the Global Day of Action called by the World Social Forum. Tombstone placards at the small but spirited CVH rally announced the "death of affordable housing".

Meanwhile, the Obama rally called on folks to do "everything" - wear buttons and shirts, make calls, drop everything else to sacrifice for the campaign - before Feb 5th to win NYC for Obama.

I overheard a CVH staffer saying the Obama folks were angry at the CVH rally and were running around to the police there saying CVH didn't have a permit and would have to move.

This was blunt picture of the shallowness and failure of Democratic Party politics. Here's a group of homeless and low-income residents crying out against the destruction of housing in NYC, and the Obama activists are telling them drop 'their concerns' or pipe down to not disturb 'the real campaign'.

Relatedly, I'm pretty depressed imagining what our fellow fighters around the world will think when they inquire as to what actions took place in the US on Jan 26, the WSF day of action, only to learn that most were too entranced with circusmaster Wolf Blitzer and the South Carolina primary to be otherwise bothered.

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