-----Original Message-----
From: Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>I continue to worry that the
>BRC will drain blacks away from such organizations to the detriment of
the
>radical development of us all, and I consider this a frightful
consequence
>of the kind of black separatism that the Million Man March has made
>respectable. I raise the concern openly with every hope of encouraging
the
>thoughtful conter criticism you offer in your last post.
I think the idea that the BRC will "drain blacks" away from other struggles or unity efforts is likely to be dead wrong. And I think the BRC is less an organization made respectable by the Million Man March than an attempt to counter exactly the kinds of politics Rakesh critiques by the creation of a radical black pole informed by class analysis. The goal of the BRC, as the organizers make explicit, is not as a substitute for other movements but as a way to energize them and creation a sum larger than its parts.
I also think that by ovecoming some of the divisions among black radical activists, it will also contribute to overcoming the general fragmentation of the Left. Precisely because of the centrality of race in America, divisions over its analysis has been at least one of the central ideological fragmentators on the Left. If the BRC is able to create a broader ideological umbrella where divisions are not ignored but "we can all get along", exactly the kind of historical sectarianism reflected in Louis's ideological venom on race may be softened in favor of civility and a greater trust in joint struggle.
--Nathan Newman