Author Archives: Richard Moser

About Richard Moser

Richard Moser has over 40 years experience as an organizer and activist in the labor, student, peace, and community movements. Moser is author of "New Winter Soldiers: GI and Veteran Dissent During the Vietnam Era," and co-editor with Van Gosse of "The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America." Moser lives in Colorado.

What We Have Here is a Failure to Negotiate

Posted on December 20, 2020 by Richard Moser

No relief worth a damn? No healthcare? What we have here is a failure to negotiate. And that is a direct outcome of the failure to challenge power. I was only chief negotiator once but I sat at enough bargaining … Continue reading →

Posted in Capitalism, Cooperation, Corporate Power, electoral strategy, Labor Movement, Movement Culture, organizing, Organizing Strategy, Socialism, Strategy, union organzing, unions, War, Working Class | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Ranked Choice Voting Begins: The People of Maine, Lisa Savage and Howie Hawkins Challenge Lesser of Two Evil Voting and the Politics of Fear

Posted on October 9, 2020 by Richard Moser

The electoral system is broken.[1]  One way to restore a semblance of democracy is Rank Choice Voting (RCV). RCV gives voters more power because we can rank candidates by order of preference free from narrow binary choices.  And, RCV insures … Continue reading →

Posted in Organizing Strategy | 6 Comments

The Last Third Party to Win Waged Political Struggle with a “Revolutionary Reform.”

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Richard Moser

  The last third party to win — the Republican Party — used a revolutionary reform they called the “non-extention of slavery” to fundamentally alter the existing two-party system. The history of the anti-slavery movement and the early Republican Party … Continue reading →

Posted in American Culture, Corporate Power, electoral strategy, Green Party, organizing, Organizing Strategy, revolutionary strategy, Strategy, War, White Supremacy, Working Class | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Last Third Party to Win: The Republicans, The Civil War, The “Slave Power,” and The Current Crisis

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Richard Moser

“Third parties can never win” or so you have heard a thousand times. Except — and it’s one huge exception — under historical circumstances much like the conditions we currently face. We are living in a rare historical moment when … Continue reading →

Posted in American Culture, American Exceptionalism, Capitalism, Climate Change, Corporate Power, electoral strategy, Empire, Green Party, History, Movement Culture, Organizing Strategy, Racism, revolutionary strategy, Strategy, War, White Privilege, White Supremacy, Working Class | Leave a comment

Still Triangulating After All These Years

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Richard Moser

While it’s stunning to watch the DNC repeat the losing strategy of 2016, we should know this is part of a decades-long history of moving toward the right: aka Triangulation. It’s not that the Democrats don’t want to win — … Continue reading →

Posted in Electoral Strategy for 2016 | Tagged | 2 Comments

Cops and Constitutions

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Richard Moser

(Doug Brown/ACLU of Oregon) The cops are violating the Constitution by attacking people exercising their basic rights — — that much is obvious. The rounding up of random protestors because they “fit the description” is related to the discriminatory policing that … Continue reading →

Posted in American Culture, American Exceptionalism, Capitalism, Climate Change, Corporate Power, Empire, Military, Organizing Strategy, Racism, Red Scare, revolutionary strategy, White Supremacy, Working Class | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

White Privilege: The Psychic Wage, Mass Incarceration and Class Solidarity

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Richard Moser

Also at CounterPunch White Skin Privilege White privilege is a thing. It’s just not the same thing the corporate Democrats use to boss us around with. The concept of white privilege was not invented by some liberal university professors. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Movement Culture, Organizing Method, Organizing Strategy, Racism, revolutionary strategy, Strategy, Uncategorized, White Privilege, White Supremacy | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Can White People ‘Organize Their Own’ Against White Racism?

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Richard Moser

“ Their (the poor “whites”) own position, vis-a-vis the rich and powerful . . . was not improved, but weakened, by the white-skin privilege system.” “The ‘white race’ is the historically most general form of ‘class collaboration.”  Theodor W. Allen* … Continue reading →

Posted in American Culture, American Exceptionalism, Capitalism, Corporate Power, Empire, feminism, History, Labor Movement, Martin Luther King, Movement Culture, organizing, Organizing Strategy, Racism, revolutionary strategy, Socialism, Strategy, White Privilege, White Supremacy, Working Class | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is the General Strike?

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Richard Moser

Also at CounterPunch. The General Strike in the US is a multi-faceted, poly-centered resistance movement responding to the general crisis of capitalism and corporate power triggered by the Covid-19 crisis. The pandemic is revealing to millions what was always well … Continue reading →

Posted in American Culture, Capitalism, Climate Change, Cooperation, Corporate Power, electoral strategy, Empire, Green Party, History, Labor Movement, Military, Movement Culture, organizing, Organizing Strategy, Red Scare, revolutionary strategy, Socialism, union organzing, unions, White Supremacy, Working Class | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

General Strike v. Fear and Fatalism

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Richard Moser

The General Strike is already underway. It will test us all. The big question: Is there any shred of democracy left in America? Only you can answer that. Only you can decide what course of action is best for you. … Continue reading →

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