QUEBEC CRACKPOTS

John Lacny jplst15+ at pitt.edu
Wed Apr 25 09:49:24 PDT 2001


ChuckO writes:


>> The best example of what
>> you're fantasizing about was the Days of Rage/Weatherpeople
>> thang in Chicago, and that probably hurt more than helped.
>
>That's a bit different and you know it. The Weatherpeople thought they
>were going to start a Maoist revolution.

Chuck, I hope you're not actually saying that if people follow Weather-like tactics with the exception that they think they're going to start an ANARCHIST revolution, that things will work out just fine.

Once I was having a historical discussion with someone about the destructive influence of sectarianism in SDS, and this person said that the only problem was that the sectarian spinoffs of SDS "went to the workers with Maoism." This guy was a member of the ISO, and apparently he thought that just "going to the workers" with "third camp" Trotskyism would work out fine and dandy.

Isn't there some minimal set of tactics -- or at least a negative example of a set of tactical no-nos -- that all serious left activists, no matter what tiny trend they come from, can agree on? My hunch is that most folks are going to be swayed for or against what you're doing depending on how serious you are in articulating their concerns and organizing to empower people; whether the scripture you cite is the Little Red Book, Statism and Anarchy, or the Transitional Program of the Fourth International doesn't really count for shit.

John Lacny



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