On Tue, 2 May 2000, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Come on now. You're never going to win any significant number of
> First World workers to your cause with this sort of gloomy stuff. No
> wonder Leninism is so dead. Not "things are awful, rise up!," but
> "things could be lots better than this!" Optimism! Possibility!! I'm
> shocking myself by sounding so upbeat; maybe it's the new century.
Alex Cockburn wrote something similar 20 years ago quoting his father, Claude the commie, from 50 years earlier still, who complained that the typical communist speech in Hyde Park went something like "Friends, even now our comrades are hanging from the thumbscrews of British Imperialism in India; even now our comrades are being crushed under the jackboots of British Imperialism in South Africa; even how are comrades being beaten to a pulp by the rabble of British Imperialism in Ireland; friends, join the Communist Party."
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com