The Left's "Silver Lining"

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Wed Dec 5 11:15:33 PST 2001



>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>Apparently, Doug wants to have it both ways: criticizing anti-war
>>leftists for "preaching to the choir" first; and criticizing civil
>>liberties activists for making temporary coalitions with rightists
>
>It's fine to make coalitions with rightwingers over civil liberties.
>It's fine to make coalitions with anti-imperialist libertarians,
>too. My objection was entirely to the CP whitewashing of just how
>awful the folks they're proposing to make coalitions are. Ace & his
>sidekick just love to piss on liberals, but Schaffly & Co. get a
>nearly free pass. And though Ace has written thousands of words
>denouncing Bernie Sanders - many of them deserved - I've never seen
>an unkind word about Ron Paul or that madman Larry Pratt.
>
>Doug

At the level of organizing, it's impossible to make even temporary coalitions while endlessly repeating just how awful your coalition partners are, be they liberals or rightists or whatever. Who wants to join you even for a moment if you behave like that?

However, Alex C. ain't an organizer -- he's a political columnist on the left. Does it make sense for him to knock on liberals harder than rightists? In principle, yes, as it should be obvious to anyone that rightists aren't our lasting friends, whereas it's not always obvious to all why liberals sell leftists down the river (after taking leftists' contribution in time, energy, money, etc.). I do agree, though, that Alex C. takes this sound principle to a ridiculous extreme. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



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