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322 Boggs wrote this letter to fellow activists on September 20, 1984. Letter to Friends and Comrades Dear Friend and Comrade: GREETINGS! In a few weeks the hoopla of the 1984 presidential campaign will be over and we will be faced not only with four more years of Reagan but a counterrevolutionary movement emboldened by success. It should now be clear to all who are for human progress that all great advances must be based on social and political struggles outside the electoral arena. Having lived through the demise of the movements of the 1960s and early 1970s, we should also be clear that once any movement allows itself to be incorporated into electoral politics, it cannot be resurrected. A new and different movement must be built on much broader and deeper foundations and issues. Today the high technology that made possible the nuclear bomb has become a cancer threatening to destroy every institution humanity has created down through the ages to protect itself. Those at the bottom of our society, particularly young blacks, Hispanics , and Native Americans, have been made expendable to the point where they cannot even build families. Our communities have been turned into wastelands. Public transportation is not only constantly breaking down but its cost has become prohibitive. Crime has become so normal that we fear one another more than we used to fear wild beasts. Our earth, waters, and air have become so contaminated by industrial waste that if the bomb doesn’t kill us first, dioxin will. Yet, instead of challenging the system, most Americans are collaborating with it. Rather than recognize that the American Dream of unlimited economic expansion has become a nightmare, even those most victimized by it are trapped in pursuing wants and fantasies. Millions, pressed to the wall even to meet basic needs, are putting their hopes into catching the lottery. More and more people are using not only drugs but religion to escape from making the hard choices between right and wrong that have now become critical. Thus the corruption is not only in our oppressors but in ourselves. I believe the time has come for those who recognize the need to create a just and humane society to begin building a new movement not only against the system but for Ward.indb 322 12/21/10 9:28 AM Letter to Friends and Comrades 323 the transformation of those who are being destroyed by their collaboration with the system. If you agree, I hope you will want to join me in issuing a call that summons the American people to chart a new and different course. This call should be issued before the election in order to make clear that our perspectives for a new movement are not dependent on the results of the election. Please let me hear from you as soon as possible. Please feel free also to suggest others you think may be interested and whether, where, and/or when we should meet to prepare this call and to plan its promotion and distribution. Comradely, James Boggs Ward.indb 323 12/21/10 9:28 AM ...

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