Left Must Go With Democrats For Victory, Harrington Says

"The auguries are good for Democratic Party leftists" Michael Harrington, chairman of the Socialist Party, U.S.A., told 100 people in Emerson Hall yesterday.

Harrington called for a coalition of the working class, the minorities and the poor, and the "new strata," such as youth, to defeat President Nixon. "The defeat of Richard Nixon is not a guarantee of social blessedness but it is certainly a precondition," he said.

"The Left has to go with the Democratic Party," Harrington said. We don't have to accept it but we must try to change it. A fourth party movement is a tactic to re-elect Nixon. Our tactic should be to get the best possible democratic candidate nominated and then get him elected.

For radicals to be successful, Harrington said "the Left must go where the people are now and move with them. The American working class is not a working class of bronze giants with copies of Lenin in their hip pockets."

In the coming election year, Harrington said "the left should address the distribution of wealth and equality in society. We should begin to democratize--to limit--corporate power."

"The Left should talk about new cities and towns which are racially and socially integrated," Harrington said.

Nixon is attempting to "maximize private and corporate interest" he continued. "Nixon is teaching the working class the lesson that they must organize politically to defend their economic gains."

Harrington said the liberal left should emphasize domestic policies. "International questions are important but in terms of strategy the left has to begin to build its mass movement on domestic policy."

In "the present situation of the left," Harrington continued, "the issue is not going to be capitalism versus socialism or revolution versus repression, but liberal versus conservative and Democrat versus Republican."