Oh, I agree that on pure politics, the WWP are probably the worst of the worst, in many ways worse that the RCP, since I find the excuses for revolutionary violence, however stupid and wrong, even lamer than the WWP's apologetics for the murder of innocents by the armed power of the states the WWP supports.
And my opinion - however low - of the WWP may be influenced by my experience with them on the West Coast where they actually did play well with others on occasion. Not that I would support most of their rallies, but this kind of thing - a general fuck-you to George Bush - is more up their alley. I am glad other groups are getting involved and hope the IAC/WWP don't end up with much control - they can do the extensive wheat-pasting of posters that they are so good at - and hopefully others with longer-term strategies can set the agenda.
It's a short notice plan for protests; better to pack the protests with as many of us as possible and take over the movement from the streets. On this issue, I have the same attitude as my attitude towards the Dems - I go where we need the mass action or votes and assume that we can fight for leadership as we gain power on the ground. Some folks demand ideological control before they even get involved in a movement on the assumption that the danger of cooptation is greater than the danger of inaction or irrelevancy.
This is somewhat a return to the debate we had on intellectual work versus activism. I don't support mindless activism on a continuous basis, but I think a large and constant commitment to action is the best venue for promoting theoretical challenges to leadership and overall strategies. I have always found that I can always have a greater impact on the intellectual and strategic directions of the movement when I speak as a fellow activist, even when its in opposition from the floor, than just tossing intellectual spitballs from the distance.
Groups like the WWP can only dominate a coalition when other activists are too passive or leave the organizing at key junctures to them - they have too few people to seriously compete for power if larger numbers of people get involved and challenge them in a principled and consistent way. So screw it, if they want to do the initial work of pulling a protest together, I'll go and help the good folks take over during and after the event.
-- Nathan Newman