More than ever, we need an International Alliance of the Left.

[Wat_Tyler]

Our matters are no-longer national, they are international. The Bush Administration and it's allies are a global threat, and they need to be tackled globally. We need some sort of structure, perhaps a international equivalent of DU, perhaps some other form, to unite the ever-fragmented left against this international threat.
We do not need to agree on anything, only to agree to combat this threat. We need Americans, Canadians, Brits, Germans, French, Aussies, Kiwis, everyone we can to combine information channels, to create political economies of scale to combat neo-conservatism.

Now, how the fuck do we do it?

[LibInternationalist]

1. hasn't this been tried before?

Debout, les damnes de la terre, etc.

It's a great sentiment, but wow has it been discredited

[Wat_Tyler]

4. If it didn't work last time, keep trying.

Something has to be done to challenge the threat globally.

[TexasSissy]

2. Not a good idea to involve other countries in our government.

Any more than it would be a good idea to be involved in the election of officials in other countries.

Just doesn't look right. Middle America would be horrified that French citizens have "selected" one of our candidates.

But posting each other, giving support on the internet and such, sounds good.

[Wat_Tyler]

5. I don't mean an international party, just a series of ties and links.

Share information, organize action - on a global level.

[deutsey]

3. Starting a national alliance of the left would be a good start

I believe that's really our only hope now. Start organizing people shut out of the power structure on a local grassroots level and integrate them into larger regional and national structures.

I think that's what happened at the turn of the last century. Workers and farmers organized, agitated, struck, and created their own networks of support and communication outside governmental structures. They had to if they wanted to take care of themselves and make sure their interests were heard. The 8-hour workday, child labor laws, etc., didn't just come about out of the kindness of Big Business and the government it owned. They came about in large part because people organized and fought, literally, to improve their reality.

They eventually had an impact over the Democratic Party in the '30s; the same could be said of the Civil Rights movement. It was the Democratic Party at the forefront of organizing African Americans during all those years between Reconstruction and the '60s, but they eventually began to absorb that movement into its Party structure.

I think that's the only kind of approach we have now. We are responsible for fighting for our rights and for ensuring our lives are what we want them to be, not the Democrats, certainly not the Republicans...us.