province of professional Democratic party people or professional campaigners. In Santa Monica we’ve learned to use all of these techniques as well as professionals. But we’ve merged these techniques with the older style, new left, community organizing tactics of going door-to-door and having potluck dinners. We’ve taken the skills that people learned in the movements of the sixties, added a progressive content on the issues, and then run candidates who’ve come out of our local coalition. They are not young lawyers who come to us and say, “Endorse me.” They are people who are local activists and have been selected by the coalition. In some cases they are asked to run; people are sometimes reluctant to run. Then we run them on a slate and support them as a coalition. We don’t divide up the money among them individually; we have one block of money, one unified campaign structure. This means that the sixties- style activists, and older people from the thirties who have been active all their lives all work together, creating a genuine leftliberal unity in Santa Monica, at least when it comes to elections. I realize that coalition politics is something that is probably rare around the country at the moment, unfortunately, but it is a model that we feel quite good about. And I think that in Santa Monica we have done what the United Auto Workers talked about a few years ago—built a progressive alliance: worked locally with real people, real groups, and presented a united front with a left perspective on the issues, not a middle of the road, wishy-washy, Jimmy Carter perspective. CSQ: In your book, Economic Democracy: The Challenge of the 1980’s, you state that progressive groups across America have, “...educated activists on policy issues and developed alternative experts—people with knowledge and skills, and democratic politics who would be able to staff a national reform government in the 1980s or 1990s.'' Where is the leadership to direct such a drive to take over the government? Shearer: I think that it is developing. There are people out there who were active in the sixties who have gotten older and learned electoral skills. They’ve been hired by unions to run union organizing drives; they’ve gotten tenure at universities as economists or planners; they’ve been elected to city councils, or in the case of Oregon, elected to the state legislature. They are not yet visible at the national level, but they’re certainly rooted in states and cities. The part that has yet to develop is a more formal, national left organization or presence. There just doesn’t seem to be one at the moment because there is no left organization that has the resources to go national. Only the unions have the resources and they’re moving very slowly. I think that’s probably good because one of the problems in the sixties was that the leaders were perceived as those whom the media annointed. It was, “Who did the press conference in Washington?” Those people didn’t necessarily have the base. They weren’t accountable; there was no organizational structure. My feeling is that the people who are coming up out of city and state politics do have to be accountable to a base. They’ve learned to work with a lot of people on the left, and even to work with people a little bit to their right. They’ve learned a lot of new skills. They’ve had to build THE HOUSE WITH THE BUILT-IN CHICKEN COOP BY ESTHER DIAMOND Around 80 years ago some houses in Portland were planned and constructed with built-in chicken coops. Our old family home, now occupied by my sister and her family, has a built-in chicken coop. It was one of the few built-ins they put in the houses in those days, besides the indoor bathroom and the pantry. A house with these “conveniences” plus a full cement basement was considered a well-built home. My sister’s house is located in old South Portland (the Lair Hill Park area) and I am sure there must be other The ice box wasn’t too effective for keeping food but it sure kept our linoleum clean ... homes of this type located around the fringes of downtown Portland. What is a built-in chicken coop? Well, it’s a place to keep two or three live chickens for a few days until you wanted to cook and eat them. This । was good planning on the part of the builder because in those days the only refrigeration we had was an ice box. The ice box wasn’t too effective for keeping food in the hot summer, but it certainly kept our linoleum clean. I can still hear the frantic holler “THE ICEBOX IS RUNNING OVER!” This call resounded all through our big two-story house at least twice a week and was quickly followed by the sound of running footsteps to the kitchen where we all congregated with mops and rags. The chicken coop comprises the area underneath the front porch. It is about 2^2 to 3 feet high and is enclosed on three sides by wood latticework which allows the entry of fresh air and filtered sunshine. The fourth side is the cement foundation of the basement wall of the house. local political organizations to get elected. When those people come together later in this decade at a national level it will be much more solid than it was in the sixties. I could give you a list of names. There are people who are running The floor is earth for the chickens to scratch in or do whatever they do in the dirt. The only entrance is from the inside of the basement. A small window which opens like a door is located about four feet up from the basement floor. We never had to worry about a chicken thief. The chickens were placed into the coop through this window along with their food and water. They also had to be captured and taken out of this window when needed for dinner. Since none of us four kids would climb into the coop to catch a chicken, mama had to do it. She had no trouble climbing up and through | the window, but climbing back out again with a terrorized chicken flapping in her arms was a different story. And she could expect no help from her chicken children who ran to the furthest reaches of the house upon hearing the first squawks. I never did witness the slaughter of a chicken in our house but afterward I tried to help mama pull out the feathers. For reasons unknown to me, God didn’t intend for chicken feathers to come out easily and I soon gave up. Later, the chicken was held over the open flame of our wood-burning kitchen range to singe off the remaining fine hairs. Then it was washed with hot water and prepared for roasting. The chickens were so large that one almost filled a turkey roaster. We have never dined on such delicious chicken since those days. The built-in chicken coops were not intended for raising chickens but simply for a few days storage between the time you bought them from the downtown markets on Yamhill Street until the time you wanted to prepare them. I recall many trips to town accompanying mama or my older sister; we bought our chicken and carried it home in a shopping bag on the streetcar. Occasionally a chicken would try to get out of the shopping bag and I became very embarrassed during those noisy tugs-of-war. But the other passengers in the streetcar didn’t seem to mind. They just watched and smiled and once in a while a kindly man would help us hold the chicken. Upon request we “kept” our neighbors’ chickens for a few days. Their houses didn’t have a built-in chickencoop. Our old houses will soon be destroyed because downtown Portland is stretching out toward us. But if you happen to be driving around an area of old homes and see a large front porch with lattice woodwork around the foundation, you can immediately identify it as a house with a built-in chicken coop. Perhaps you can visualize the family who occupied the house. They didn’t have an automobile, a radio or a television set and yet, most of the time the big old house was rollicking with laughter and happiness. for office in various cities and states who may emerge as national leaders. It’s hard to see now which ones may eventually be senators or presidential candidates, but there are a lot of possibilities. U.S. Representative Ron Dell- ums is a perfect example of a local leader who has developed a national following, particularly through his work with the Congressional Black Caucus. Ron started out as a black social worker in Berkeley and got involved in local politics in Bob Scheer's campaign in 1966 when Scheer, a new left activist and writer for Ramparts, ran for congress as a peace candidate. Scheer needed someone to show him around and introduce him to the black community. He met Dellums; Dellums got involved, then ran for and won a seat on the Berkeley City Council. Then he ran for the Berkeley- Oakland congressional seat as an anti-war, left-wing candidate and won again. Tome, Ron Dellums is a good case study of where left leadership can come from. It starts as part of a local effort and then goes on to the national level. Now Ron is the only openly socialist member of congress. He’s won a lot of respect for his leadership on national issues, such as health services. He’s a national figure, an international figure, really, on defense and military spending, and human rights issues. To me, Ron's a good case study of where left leadership can come from. It started as part of a local effort and then goes to the national level. Ron then turns around and tries to endorse local candidates for other elected offices—like county supervisor, state assembly, city councils. He has used his position to try and help other people get elected. He’s a good example of someone trying to be a responsible left public figure. CSQ: What of Jack Anderson’s comments that Dellums is “quixotic,” ineffective and tilting at windmills? Shearer: I think that is partly a function of the fact that he is black. And to be effective as a member of congress, given a conservative congress, that is no real useful thing to be. My view is that Ron’s skills are best realized in his articulation of the progressive perspective on national and international issues, and that's fine. I don’t mind that there are other people who can work the floor and count the votes. Again, he was not elected to congress in order to make the congress work better for the middle. It’s like saying that Gretchen Kafoury is not one of the most effective members of the Oregon State Legislature because she is pushy and talks about her issues too much and her bills don’t pass. Well, if her bills were to pass in the form that the current legislature would allow, she would be selling out 14 Clinton St. Quarterly Illustration by Nancy Norman
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