"The white left in New York is moribund"

[Carl Remick]

Am sorry Lou Proyect is off the list.  Would be interested in his take
on the following -- an excerpt from Salon's current article on the
NYPD's slaughter (mowing down with 41 bullets) of an unarmed African
immigrant, Amadou Diallo, Feb. 4:

Over the weekend, the streets in front of his [Diallo's] former home
were mobbed with peaceful protesters, many of whom had never been to a
political event in their life. 
The quick mobilization in response to Diallo's death is a measure of the
killing's shocking brutality. But it also points up the central role of
New York's immigrants in building opposition to Giuliani. On Tuesday,
more than 1,000 people showed up outside the federal courthouse in
downtown Manhattan to protest Diallo's killing. People poured off the
subway onto Centre Street, a steady stream from 11 a.m. until well after
2. They were almost entirely African-American or African-born, and very
few of them were the usual suspects from anti-police-brutality rallies.
For once, the International Socialist Organization, the Free Mumia set,
the black Muslim radicals were in the minority. 
Instead, people in the crowd were using a different rhetoric, talking
about a different kind of politics. "They're trying to pit us against
Archie Bunkers, against pro-cop white bigots," one woman told me. "But
we know they're not our enemy. It's the poor and the working people, and
they're pitting us against one another. Little by little, the people are
starting to understand." 
The rhetoric of class struggle may have been a little antiquated, or a
lot antiquated, but the Diallo rally showed the potential for a new kind
of politics. People weren't shouting the usual slogans or going through
the usual motions of street protest. Even the Rev. Al Sharpton, the
biggest protest hack of all, put aside his usual race rhetoric and
appealed for a more universal system of justice. 
The absence of white protesters was noteworthy, and yet predictable. The
white left in New York is moribund. Aging Upper East Side intellectuals
and Vietnam War protesters never show up at protests in this town
anymore, and probably never will again. The political landscape of New
York has changed entirely. The white intelligentsia isn't angry about
anything and has little or nothing to offer the political debate. Their
dirty little not-so-secret is that they benefit from Giuliani's
repressive policies.
<http://www.salonmagazine.com/news/1999/01/cov_14newsa.html> Their
streets are cleaner, their fear of crime dissipated, their place in the
city's socio-political firmament secured. Many old radicals are
comfortable now.

[end of excerpt]

Carl Remick