----- Original Message ----- From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 5:09 PM Subject: Re: MLK & Direct Action (was Re: racist opinion a crime?)
> Gordon:
>
> >Yoshie Furuhashi:
> >> ...
> >> It is always the case, whenever organized blacks take actions on
> >> their own behalf, that they get accused by "white moderates" for
> >> "playing into the hands of the Right."
> >> ...
> >
> >But this was not _my_ criticism. I am not qualified to be a
> >critic of political tactics, for one thing. My uninformed
> >guess is that there is no objective evidence whatever that
> >the students are "playing into the hands of the Right"; I
> >think it is probable that by drawing attention to David
> >Horowitz's clown show, and especially to its race-baiting
> >and racism-provoking aspects, they have drawn attention to
> >the issue of reparations in general and made its opponents
> >look bad by associating them with Horowitz, which seems to be
> >what they want to do. As far as I know, their liberal critics
> >here have not presented a shred of evidence to back up their
> >assertions that the students' activities were counter-
> >productive; it's been all talk. But in any case the selection
> >of tactics is something for the people actually engaged in
> >literal, concrete struggle to decide upon, not a guy writing
> >theory on a mailing list.
> >
> >I'm asking people to look down the road and see if it's the
> >one they want to take, based on my idea of where it leads.
> >I think use of force, justified or not, home-grown or through
> >the State, American or French, may be of very limited value;
> >may, in fact, give us more of the same at a high price.
> >My criticism is from the Left, not the Right.
>
> I don't think I have anything about which I disagree with you,
> Gordon, on this topic (in fact, I like your opinions on many other
> issues as well). I simply used your post to return to the question
> of direct action (as opposed to state action), not to suggest that we
> have disagreement. By direct action, I don't mean use of force
> (except in war, self-defense, etc.); direct actions by leftists are
> non-violent in the USA today, for obvious reasons. I'm concerned
> with less this particular case of direct action at Brown than the
> oft-heard rhetoric of "playing into the hands of the Right" in
> general. This type of controversy is not new, & we'll hear it again,
> with a different event as a trigger.
>
> You probably recall the Hecklers at the OSU on CNN:
>
> ***** U.S. policy on Iraq draws fire in Ohio
>
> ...February 18, 1998
> Web posted at: 9:01 p.m. EST (0201 GMT)
>
> COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- The Clinton administration's plan to launch a
> military strike on Iraq ran into plenty of flak in the American
> heartland Wednesday.
>
> At a town meeting held in St. John Arena at Ohio State University and
> aired exclusively on CNN, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
> Defense Secretary William Cohen and National Security Adviser Sandy
> Berger encountered a noisy, opinionated crowd and considerable
> opposition to another war with Iraq.
>
> Albright was drowned out at one point by a group chanting, "One, two,
> three, four, we don't want your racist war," as she tried to explain
> U.S. policy to the audience of 6,000.
>
> The heckling became so intense at one point that Albright interrupted
> CNN's Judy Woodruff and said, "Could you tell those people I'll be
> happy to talk to them when this is over. I'd like to make my point."
>
> Similar outbursts greeted Cohen and Berger as they laid out again a
> U.S. position that is familiar to those who have followed the
> building crisis in the media....
>
> <http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/18/town.meeting.folo/> *****
>
> Our heckling -- which local liberals & conservatives criticized then
> & later as evidence of our "lack of respect for free speech," etc. --
> was much more effective than polite questions with no disruptions
> would have been. People all over the world heard it. I'd like
> LBO-talkers to remember that we were just *a minority* at this fake
> "town meeting," unsupported by the rest of the audience who probably
> hated us temporarily for being loud, disrespectful, & generally
> obnoxious, even aside from our criticisms -- inside & outside the St.
> John Arena -- of U.S. foreign policy. So, my message to the Brown
> student activists is, "Don't be afraid of being a minority that
> alarms the majority. You may succeed, you may fail, but don't let
> others cow you into submission to what is acceptable to the
> proverbial general public. We always start as a very small minority."
>
> Yoshie