I'm not romanticizing militias and don't share Cockburn's enthusiasm for them. But I am suggesting that we understand them. They are not ideologically hardened SS cadre with a line about the Zionist Occupation Govt and the One True Common Law. Some of them are, but many are not. I wouldn't waste a lot of time trying to oerganize them into Solidarity, my group, but Katha's dismissal of them is a little too glib.
--jks
On Tue, 2 Jun 1998, Katha Pollitt wrote:
> I just don't understand this infatuation with the Militias on the part
> of some leftists. These are not big groups, they don't don't have our
> politics -- in fact, they have the opposite of our politics, and the
> idea that they are waiting around for leftists to explain to them what
> they "really" believe is such a fantasy!
> Why not pay these people at least the respect of taking seriously the
> beliefs they say they have? You might as well say the nazis weren't
> "really" anti-semitic, but were just using that vocabulary to express
> their class anger. It might even have been true, sometimes, but so
> what? They still beat up, stole from and murdered jews. And it was still
> the job of the left to oppose them. People who have joined militias have
> made a very strong commitment to a set of repulsive ideas -- they are
> not like the Baltimore racist mentioned earlier on this list, who turned
> out just to be afraid of crime.
> I don't care if there are a handful of blacks or women involved in the
> militias. All that shows is that some blacks and some women are REALLY
> confused. After all Ward Connerly is black.
> Alexander Cockburn's love affair with the Militias makes my skin
> crawl. Is this where the "class, not race or gender" position leads? To
> romanticizing gun fetishists, religious fanatics, stalkers and killers?
> Best, katha