What secret? Issues of race and racism are discussed endlessly in the United States, not always in healthy terms or useful ways, but far more than discussions about class in any form. What makes any group a radical force is endlessly debated-- blacks vote overwhelmingly and almost homogenously for Democrats which, unlike Doug, I think is a good reformist move but, like Doug, would not take as any sign of incipient revolution.
The very idea of groups being some "force" implies some inert group laying at the side of the road, waiting for the proper revolutionary leadership to wield it like a sword against monopoly capitalism/fascism. It ignores the complexities and self-organization that already exists and the need for organizing based on what exists in actually existing communities of individuals.
>I know what I'm talking about there, Nathan. We can discuss definitions
till
>hell freezes over but as a working concept, fascism fits the current
social
>syndrome.
In what way? I feel perfectly free to call up the police and tell them I think Bush is a fraudulent leader and the war is a bad idea. We had a very nice march of thousands of people through the streets of New York where the police, under the law, were forced to direct traffic away from our march. It's silly to call it fascism. The anti-war left is just in an impressively small minority on this issue at the moment. Large democratic majorities doing bad things is not fascism by any reasonable definition.
-- Nathan Newman