The author of this message is DavidMcR at aol.com
I'm reposting the piece by Michael Moore so folks will know what I'm talking about. On this one I'm with Michael Moore. I will write more later, but if I never hear Pam Africa again, it will be one time too many. She was one of the featured speakers at the Mumia Rally and March in Los Angeles which I attended (it is also probably the last Mumia Rally I will attend) and her repeated "Mother fucker" language will not rally even the Black community, let alone reach out beyond. (Reminded of David Hilliard of the BPP in '69, shouting, "Kill the Motherfucker, Nixon! " at a rally in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. editorial comment, M.P.)
I sat through an evening at the Peoples' Convention and had to listen to an RCP speaker who had nothing whatever to say except that voting didn't work. (He was effectively answered by others present - but how did he get a speaker's place in the first place? A crank asking a question, yes. But a speaker?
The Mumia Rally had lots of youth present but aside from a few of us from the Socialist Party, the other groups were all those idiotic initials that symbolize alienation. (Complete with a huge banner uging a vote for Nader put up by "Socialist Alternative" - it seems every Trotskyist group in the country has suddenly rushed to Nader, in hopes of peeling off recruits).
Listening to the black speaker from RCP at the Mumia Rally and to Pam Africa, I thought of the majesty, the dignity, of King, of Chavez, of the great leaders of the movement for serious revolutionary change. And then I end up listening to a collection of cranks.
Christ almighty, one of the demonstrations - which I missed- was an animal rights group in LA which stopped another demonstration from using a horse drawn carriage.
Good God almighty, I'm for animals, really - ask any of them - and I'm against Mumia being executed. But what I didn't see was the great and powerful rallies we saw during the Peace movement and the Civil Rights movement.
Moore may drive us crazy sometimes, but he is speaking some hard truths that we need to hear in order to save us from the ground being marched on by ISO, RCP, SWP, WW, IAC, etc. etc. etc., endlessly capturing each other, with marches which only seem large to those who are young and never saw a massive action.
Fraternally, David McReynolds
<< Is the Left Nuts? (Or is it me?)
by Michael Moore... (Y'all have read this long ago...M.P.)