Labor and allies primed to get out the vote

By Tim Wheeler

This article was reprinted from the August 29, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

Across the nation, the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and other mass organizations are already engaged in mobilizing voters for the crucial 1998 elections.

With control of the U.S. Congress and many state legislatures at stake, with both progressive and reactionary initiatives on the ballot, much could hinge on how successful grassroots organizations are in changing the minds of millions of alienated non-voters, a majority of them working class, African American, Latino, Native American, Asian American, and white.

Voter turnout over the past 40 years has plummeted. According to the Federal Election Commission, 49 percent of the voting age population cast ballots in 1996, the last presidential election year.

It enabled the right wing, mostly Republicans, to take control of scores of legislatures as well as the U.S. House and Senate. They have enforced policies that maximize profits for Big Business and the rich while slashing programs that benefit the people.

Kristi Means, a spokesperson for the NAACP national office in Baltimore, told the World the NAACP has sent out a directive that every chapter should organize a voter registration and voter education project.

"The disenfranchised who have been excluded for so long are the people who may not see a reason for voting," she said. "If there are no candidates who are standing up to represent our interests, why vote? We need to educate people on the issues and personalize it so that people can see 'why this makes a difference to me.' We have a right to hold candidates accountable, to question them," she continued. "What happens after November 3 is just as important as election day itself."

The NAACP has sent $50,000 and several organizers to Washington state to help defeat Initiative 200, a measure identical to California's Prop 209 that outlawed affirmative action. Michelle Ackerman, a spokesperson for the "No! Initiative 200 Campaign" in Seattle, told the World they are battling the deceitful wording of Initiative 200. "We hope to cut through the confusion. In California, 27 percent of those who voted for Prop 209 thought they were voting for a civil rights measure."

She added, "We're targeting for registration people who are likely to vote no on Initiative 200, to insure that people who want to vote no get to the polls November 3 and cast their ballots," she said.

The campaign will feature community meetings in which participants are invited to bring their address books, rolodexes, etc. Everyone will write postcards to family, friends, and neighbors urging them to vote "no" on Initiative 200. "This will be part of our major, statewide organizing efforts against Initiative 200."

Jon Ogar, communications director of the Michigan State AFL-CIO, told the World that their get-out-the-vote drive will begin on Labor Day with a giant parade down Detroit's Woodward Ave. "We concentrate on our own membership, about 620,000 Michigan trade unionists," he said.

The August edition of America@Work, the AFL-CIO monthly news magazine, features an article headlined "Working Women Vote." It reports that 5.2 million union members, including about 2 million women, are not registered voters. The article reports that union organizers "are visiting worksites, speaking at union meetings and joining with community allies to help devise strategies to make sure that working families make their voices heard." So far, more than one million new voters have been signed up in this "Vote like a worker" drive.

This year, as in 1996, the "Working Women Vote" project will "reach out to union and nonunion women around pocketbook issues - quality affordable healthcare, strengthened Social Security and expanded pension coverage, good jobs and good wages, workers' right to organize."

The League of Women Voters is so alarmed by the steadily declining voter turnout that they have launched an ongoing drive called the "Get Out the Vote (GOTV) interactive democracy project" aimed at sectors of the population with the lowest voter turnout, African Americans, Latinos, low income people and youth.

Instead of stressing "civic responsibility," the League's public appeals now stress self-interest. "Your job. Your taxes. Your social security. Your children's education. It's about you and your family. Vote on November 3."