The 2012 Republican National Convention (RNC) is less than 4 weeks away. The RNC will take place in Tampa Bay, Florida from Monday, August 27 through Thursday, August 30. The RNC will host over 4,000 delegates from all 50 states and over 15,000 members of the press corps. The scene inside the convention will undoubtedly be a media circus celebrating the Mitt Romney and the Republicans shameless agenda of tax breaks for the rich, slashing public services, and scapegoating immigrants, people of color, women, and LGBT people instead of the real criminals the crooks on Wall Street who ran the economy into the ground.
It is clear that the right-wing agenda needs to be stopped. But do President Obama and the Democratic Party really represent an alternative? The left can make excuses for the Democratic Party until the cows come home, but we shouldnt forget that in 2009 Obama and the Democratic Party had a filibuster-proof majority of the government and a huge public mandate, and they didnt make good on any of their promises! Then in the 2010 elections the Republicans took back the House, mainly because Americans were so dissatisfied with the job the Democrats were doing. In the end the Democrats didnt push back the right-wing agenda; they actually gave the Republicans credibility by making promises they didnt intend to keep!
Working people and oppressed groups cannot rely on the Democratic Party to beat back the right wing because the Democratic Party is just as tied to Corporate America as the Republicans. Only determined protests, strikes, and occupations by large numbers of workers and youth can beat back the right. And that is exactly why Socialist Alternative is helping build a regional student walkout and mass protests against the Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay this August.
Socialist Alternative has also made important strides building new chapters of our organization in the South in the last year. For the first time in years, we now have a handful of energetic members in New Orleans, Louisiana, Tampa Bay, Florida, and a brand new branch in Mobile, Alabama! For those like myself who grew up in the South, nothing could be more exciting than the idea that working people could one day have an engine to organize and fight back against the racist justice system and economic stagnation that has plagued the South for generations.
But in order to promote the student walkout and other mass non-violent protests against the RNC, we need to raise approximately $5,000 to fly organizers to Tampa and to pay for gas, leaflets, posters, literature, T-shirts, and buttons. We cant live off our capital investments like Mitt Romney. We dont have corporate sponsors like President Obama. We depend on grassroots activism and the donations of our membership and working people who support our work. Please donate to help us make a huge impact at the RNC and strengthen the forces of socialism in the South. If you want to see working people bring the fight to the Republican Party this August, please make a donation today! Donations of $100 or $500 can go a long way, but if all you can donate is $10 (or even less), please dont hesitate. Every little bit helps.
Click here to donate online, or mail checks payable to Socialist Alternative to PO Box 150457, Brooklyn, NY 11215.
Thank you for your support,
Ryan Mosgrove
Socialist Alternative member and Florida native