John wrote: Then what ARE you talking about, Chuck? The way you present it here, there are two factions on "the left," the anarchists and the sectarian paper-sellers. Where does Jobs with Justice figure in all of this? Or how about all of those former "paper-sellers" up at Labor Notes who've been organizing rank-and-file caucuses in unions for years, with precious little coverage from the bourgeois press, to be sure, but with not a little success considering what they're up against? And as for the student movement, how about USSA (no, not USAS; I mean USSA)?
I agree it is a false dichotomy to characterise the left in the narrow terms that Chuck appears allthough I can't comment on what you refer to as "sectarian paper sellers" in the US because I'm not sure what that actually means.
The left in Australia is similarly diverse, but the "paper sellers" [Green Left Weekly and Socialist Worker] are also the activists organising the rank and file groups in trade unions, building campaigns and actions on campus, for public education and against school closures, refugee rights and close the detention centres, against racism and One Nation, women's rights like repeal of criminalising abortion laws, international solidarity with workers (eg Indonesia, Korea and Pakistan), S11 in Melbourne, against uranium mining, dumping of nuclear waste in the outback and the Lucas Heights Reactor, GM food, and more.
Our next major action will be on May 1. We are blockading the Stock Exchange in each major city, as the symbol of corporate finance and power, in order to keep the flame of the anti-capitalist movement glowing and toward another national gathering in Brisbane in October at the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government) meeting where we will demand an end to the WTO trade rounds.
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