Steven Rosenfeld writes in AlterNet in “Why the New Sanders Group OurRevolution Is Leaving Many Bernie Backers Scratching Their Heads” that “The shape, direction, agenda and transparency of Our Revolution has become an issue in progressive circles. The most obvious reason is that for political change to occur the movement, as Sanders himself has said, has to be bigger than any candidate. With that principle in mind — that elections have to be subsets of social movements — the organizers of the Bernie Delegates Network, which has been keeping in touch with 1,250 of their 1,900 delegates at the Democratic Convention, sent out a petition Tuesday concerning the new group’s agenda, inclusiveness and candidate endorsements. The petition was posted on RootsAction.org, and received several thousand signatures in its first hours.”
KAREN BERNAL, nekochan99[at]hotmail.
Bernal is former California Bernie Sanders delegation co-representative. She is among the signers of the RootsAction petition, which states that in “OurRevolution” events and material so far “one particular focus was notably absent: International relations and antiwar activism and policy, including such matters as intervention, bases abroad, drones, nuclear danger, disarmament, the military budget, adherence to international law, and more. We believe ‘OurRevolution’ should address these immense violations of human well being as well as their connections to all the other topics already addressed.”
The petition continues that the picture of the new organization that emerged from its August 24 live-streamed kickoff event “evoked concerns of having a typical corporate structure including a board and a chief executive but having no explicit membership rights, powers, or even responsibilities and little visible evidence of diversity, as well.”
The signers of the petition expressed concerned that “many will get the impression that only progressive Democratic Party candidates will get ‘OurRevolution’ support, not Greens, for example. We hope it will become more clear that ‘Our Revolution’ will support progressives of all kinds whose campaigns can usefully educate and especially elicit and organize support for social change, including trying to win office to advance that change.”
