Campaign for Economic Democracy

Template:TOCnestleft Campaign for Economic Democracy was an independent "progressive" California based political movement led by Tom Hayden.

1978 Democratic Party conference

CED leader Tom Hayden, attendedthe Democratic Party mid-term national conference in Memphis, (December 1978) as a visitor. Both in the convention center with delegates and at the ACORN "counter-convention" Hayden secured interest in and support for CED.

Hayden announced in Memphis that he and others would commence a campaign in the spring of 1979 to provide input into the Presidential choice of the Democratic Party for 1980. He claimed the drive would be national and probably start in eastern urban centers.

CED and IPS

CED, headquartered in Los Angeles, was an outgrowth of Hayden's unsuccessful Democratic Party primary race for a United States Senate nomination.

CED was closely linked with the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) through NCASLPP (National Conference for Alternative State and Local Public Policies) in which Hayden, Dick Flacks, Fred Branfman, Derek Shearer and other CED leaders were active.

Electoral successes

California based with 25 chapters across the state, CED remained vague in defining its goals or just what "economic democracy" really meant. CED made the promotion of solar energy in California the cornerstone of its economic program for the state.

CED stated-We need new rules for the 1980's...working with neighborhood organizations, the trade union movement, and activists in California's minority communities to build a progressive coalition to fight big business and bureaucratic government.

CED claimed credit for several successful November 1978 elction races-including the return of Rep. Ron Dellums to Congress, Diane Watson to the California Senate, Larry Kapiloff, Chet Wray, Tom Bates, Richard Alatorre, Art Torres, Gary Hart and Doug Bosco to the California Assembly, Susie Wilson to the San Jose Board of Supervisors, Jane Dolan to the Butte County Board of Supervisors, Lillian Sing to the San Francisco Community College Board and Rosario Anaya to the San Francisco Board of Education.

Additionally, CED was successful in working for the passage of various local propositions related to rent rebates and ecology and made inroads into the San Francisco Charter Review Commission and the State Democratic Party. CED's greatest effort and success however, was in securing the defeat of candidates and propositions characterized as "right wing".

References

Template:Reflist