>So one in five Americans consider the president illegitimate. Sounds
>like a nice start to a legitimization crisis to me...
Perhaps, though I suspect that (at the very least) one in five Americans has always thought of the U.S. government as illegitimate since the anti-Vietnam War movement, despite the mass media & the governing elite's indefatigable efforts to rewrite history & manufacture consent. The problem in recent decades has been, among other things, due to (1) demobilization since the end of the anti-war movement; and (2) the mass media's successful efforts to minimize & trivialize protests (against the Gulf War, for instance), often refusing to cover them altogether.
Seattle, etc. may have broken the vicious circle of (actual & imaginary) demobilization & demoralization.
About (2), see the following articles by my good friend Eric Swank:
Swank, Eric. 1993/1994. "Shall We Overcome?: The Sense of Power Among Gulf War Protesters." _Critical Sociology_ 20:31-51.
Swank, Eric. 1997. "The Ebbs and Flows of Gulf Protests." _Journal of Military and Political Sociology_ 25:211-29.
Swank, Eric. 2000. "Who Can You Trust?: Determining the Credibilities of Newspapers that Cover Protest Mobilizations." _Research in Social Movements, Conflict, and Change_ 22.
>IF there were left organizations with enough power, or even desire,
>to push this fight. Which there aren't.
Enough power, no, but desire, yes.
At 9:54 AM -0500 12/14/00, Jonathan Sterne wrote:
>Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 09:54:32 -0500
>From: Jonathan Sterne <jsterne+ at pitt.edu>
>Subject: Re: inauguration protest?
>To: David Shumway <shumway+ at andrew.cmu.edu>,
> mlg-ics Mailing List <mlg-ics+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
>
>At 05:09 PM 12/13/00 -0500, David Shumway wrote:
>>Anyone know plans to protest the Bust inauguration? I know many of you
>>don't think Bush is any worse than Gore, but the point is not Gore. It
>>is that this election demonstrates utterly the lack of democracy in the
>>US. My view is that a large peaceful protest would help to build
>>opposition to the Bush administration. Ideally, there should be
>>constant protests for the next four years. These should be inconnection
>>with the effort to get rid of the electoral college--which serves to
>>discourage candidates from seeking votes from the poor and minorities.
>
>Right on, David. Here's something from another list I'm on.
>
>--J
>
>>Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 09:41:03 -0500 (EST)
>>From: AShuman101 at aol.com
>>Subject: Re: MLArching on Washington
>>
>>following up on this, it's interesting to see the proliferation of protests
>>being organized.
>>
>>there's inaugurauction! from the folks who brought you dc's protests last
>>april. it's already being referred to as j20 with the first articles on
>>police infiltration appearing on indymedia and the first interviews with
>>police officers appearing in the washington times and possibly the post.
>>www.inaugurauction.org
>>
>>there's the million voter march in the initial planning stages for may.
>>www.votermarch.org
>>
>>and there was jesse jackson's call yesterday for a week of nonviolent,
>>nationwide protests the week of january 15th, as he called bush's presidency
>>"a velvet coup." don't know whether these protests will really happen, as
>>jackson was a considerably muted presence on cnn last night, where larry king
>>asked him about dubya's appeal to black americans.
>>
>>we'll see how these coalesce,
>>aaron
At 12:02 AM -0600 12/14/00, Lou Paulsen wrote:
>From: "Lou Paulsen" <wwchi at enteract.com>
>To: <marxism at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: JANUARY 20!!! (READ AND RESPOND!!)
>Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 00:02:26 -0600
>
>All right, let's talk reality. This is a POLL of the US subscribers to this
>list.
>
>Do YOU agree that we have to build for the January 20 protest against the
>inauguration of Bush with a significant commitment of our resources? And
>are YOU going to do it? Are you going to start tomorrow? tonight?
>
>And if not, why not?
>
>Full disclosure: yes, it's true that my party has been working on plans for
>a counterinaugural demonstration for weeks. So you might be tempted to say,
>"Please, Lou, we know you feel obliged to build your party's events, but
>don't spam us with them."
>
>I would like you NOT to say that. In general I DON'T spam this list with
>the activities calendar of Workers World or the IAC. However, I believe
>that things have changed since yesterday, and I HAVE to post this. It's my
>DUTY. And you HAVE to address it. It's YOUR duty.
>
>I believe that even if the counterinaugural demonstration had been called by
>my least favorite group on the left, I would be writing here urging people
>to go to Washington on January 20, although first (in that hypothetical
>case) I would be writing my party's leadership and urging them to take it
>up.
>
>Up until yesterday, you might have said, "Yes, a demonstration at the
>inauguration would be a good thing, but then there are a lot of other things
>going on. There are a lot of national demonstrations. We have local
>responsibilities," etc., etc. But things have changed. This is NOT a
>normal inauguration any more. This is an inauguration which will FOREVER be
>linked in history with racism, fraud, and the lifting of the pretty mask
>that usually hides the rotting corpse-face of "bourgeois democracy" in the
>United States.
>
>It is the fruit of that election which, unlike all others since maybe
>Debs-McKinley (1896), has momentary split apart the bourgeois parties and
>caused some true things to be told about their racist system, their
>hypocritical ruling-class courts, and their whole system of class rule.
>Even as I write this, they are repairing the split. Gore and Bush will now
>shake hands and embrace and talk about "the things that unite us" being the
>important things, WHICH IS TRUE, applied to them. The workers and oppressed
>whose emotions have been mobilized are being told to forget what happened,
>to repress it into unconsciousness, to keep the secret, to keep their mouths
>shut and smile and act as if everything was all right, as if they were
>abused children in a dysfunctional family!
>
>"There is a tide in the affairs of humanity which, taken at the flood, leads
>on to revolution." (Shakespeare, revised.) This is our chance. NOW is our
>chance. We have not had a chance like this in the US in 30 years. In the
>next few days, tomorrow, TONIGHT, we should be getting out press releases
>and calling the talk shows and saying, "NO!!! To hell with what Al Gore
>says, we don't accept the outcome! We don't accept Bush as legitimate, we
>don't accept your whole system as legitimate! We don't give a fuck for all
>your commentators and pundits and historians and authorities who are telling
>us about what wonderful fucking speeches Gore and Bush made about
>reconciliation and bipartisanship and "healing"! We are not going to be
>'healed', we are going to come to the inauguration and protest!! The whole
>world WILL be watching, and we are going to tell the whole world what we
>think of this president, this court, this Congress composed equally of open
>enemies and craven sneaking lickspittle enemies." If we do this now, before
>they solidify the iron wall, before they line up every 'labor lieutenant'
>and every Democratic party hack to talk about how we have to look forward to
>compromise and unity, we WILL be listened to. We will be heard, yes, by the
>youth, by the workers, by the poor, by the masses. If not by millions -
>then by thousands. But who knows? There are moments every once in a while
>when we, yes, the 150 people on this list in the US, yes, the relatively
>small numbers in WWP and in all the parties and formations represented here,
>we are presented with an opportunity to AFFECT HISTORY.
>
>Every sufficiently organized and angry person in this country who CAN make
>it to DC WILL make it to DC. Do you think the anti-globalization youth are
>going to miss this? They are making their own plans. What about Florida?
>Is it out of the question that thousands from the oppressed communities in
>Florida will come up to have their voices heard if not their votes? CAN
>you sit this out? CAN you stay at home and watch it on television??
>
>This is a list full of Marxists. Marxism is not a religion or a social
>science or a hobby. It is a commitment to CHANGE THE WORLD. In a country
>like the US that is a damned difficult proposition. And among the chief
>difficulties is the "civil religion" of the US, as it has been called - the
>belief in the system, in voting, in the constitution, in the wisdom of the
>forefathers, in the impartial courts, in pledging allegiance to the flag, in
>the "best government on earth, for all its flaws." It is a more choking and
>paralyzing dogma than any manifestation of Christianity or any other
>religious fundamentalism. Now, unpredicted by anyone, the noxious clouds of
>this dogma have momentarily been dissipated. WE DO NOT GET THIS KIND OF
>OPPORTUNITY EVERY YEAR, or EVERY DECADE. This is our opportunity to
>AGITATE - to POLITICALLY EDUCATE - to fan the flames of the anger of the
>masses. Furthermore, it is an opportunity that comes just as a recession is
>about to hit.
>
>I am addressing this to EVERYONE here in the US. I don't demand or expect
>that you march under WW's banners. You can like us, tolerate us, respect
>us, scorn us, trust us, mistrust us, hate us, WHATEVER. March under
>whatever banners you feel like. Organize however you feel is appropriate.
>I'd like you to endorse it, but if you don't want to, don't. But come!! If
>there is a city, a state, or for that matter a campus, a union, a stratum, a
>'sphere' where WWP is weak or nonexistent and your group / circle / tendency
>is stronger, this is your chance to show how much better you can organize
>than us! But please, DO, recognize the importance of this thing. Do
>organize for it. Don't miss this historic opportunity. GET ON THE BUS.
>But first, GET THE BUS.
>
>Down with the racist dictatorship of the rich! Protest the inauguration!
>
>Lou Paulsen
>Chicago
>
>General info and press releases: www.iacenter.org
>NY and some local leaflets are at: www.mumia2000.org
>To endorse, go here:
>http://home.earthlink.net/~npcboston/jan20end.htm
Yoshie