>Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair have an excellent column in
>NY Press this week . . .
. . . I'm guessing the "EPI policy wonk" is Max Sawicky, who committed the heresy of saying on this list that without the unions, the protesters would have been dismissed as a bunch of hippies. . . .
I don't think so. As I see it, most of that column is not about me. Other EPI people have done journalistic pieces on Seattle.
I'd like to note that my comments on these lists were not repeated in my column, which appeared in fine newspapers throughout this great nation of ours. I posted my column here, and anyone who read it would not have found a disparaging word about anarchists. I also emphasized that violence came from police. I also criticized AFL policy before the WTO talks began. I also said it would have been a good thing for the labor march to join the sit-downers. Since I'm not an anarchist or communist, I could envision a trade regime that would be worth participating in, but we're not there yet.
As for the column, the simplest critique would be to say that AD/JSC are so desperate for signs of upheavel that they paint the labor movement/working class as something it is not. Workers visited the anarchists. They are not going to become anarchists. If they go anywhere -- and I think they will -- it will be to social democracy and populism. Both imply a less cataclysmic view of social change.
mbs
"I stand by all of my misstatements."
-- J. Danforth Quayle