>> http://www.newsandletters.org/redesign/Issues/2001/Oct/anti-war_10-01.htm
The thrust of the article was that under "vanguardist" pressure (the ISO, in this case), an organizing meeting voted down a proposal to make condemnation of the 9/11 attacks a point of unity of the coalition.
Chuck0 responds:
>Pretty fucking typical. Why in the hell should anti-capitalist
>organizers like myself not criticize sectarians when they continue to do
>the same shit that has screwed up movements for the past half century?
>I've seen these groups pull this shit in the past, which is why I've
>been so outspoken during the current situation. Most of the younger and
>newer activists have never had to deal with Left opportunism like
>this...
Chuck0, your own political stance is miles away from N+L's. Why, then, trust uncritically to their meeting reportage? The fact is that the meeting was run, or facilitated, by Direct Action Facilitators who were adhering to a consensus-based and anti-hierarchical style which was somewhat different from what the "vanguardists" including myself were used to. The N+L guy who made the motion and was standing directly behind me wasn't used to it either. When he wasn't recognized when he wanted to be, he got the floor by means of bellowing at the top of his lungs. Is this hierarchical or non-hierarchical? I'm really not sure. None of us from WWP got the floor during this whole discussion, because we were respecting the DAN facilitator who didn't call on us. We could have bellowed as loud as the N+L guy, I bet.
In any case, there was a fair amount of discussion of the initial "condemnation" proposal, which took a long time because the facilitators really wanted to get a consensus which they weren't going to get. Someone from DAN, I think, pointed out that "if there is this much disagreement about it, it's not going to be a point of unity!" The thing that really killed it, I think, was a guy from the Palestinian community who got up and opposed it.
The second proposal, which also failed, was not, as N+L misreports, a proposal to "mourn the victimes of September 11." It was a proposal to "mourn all victims of violence". There was some pacifist support for it, but the Marxist and anarchist left both voted against it.
I'm not sure how this all gets summarized as "sectarians pulling shit." The N+L report argues that the newer and less experienced were disproportionately in favor of the motion. I didn't see that, but suppose it were true? Why would that make it a good motion? The N+L people who were pushing it were not new fresh faces, believe you me, they have been around as long as I have.
Lou Paulsen Chicago