Gitlin on the student peace movement

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Thu Sep 20 16:44:01 PDT 2001


Jeffrey David Hyslop wrote:
>
> Students rally against war
> Some collegians urge peaceful action amid America's
> fervor for retaliation
> By Jill Lawrence
> USA TODAY
> September 20, 2001
>
> [...]
>
> Todd Gitlin, a sociologist at New York University, says students have a right
> to be skeptical, but they also have a responsibility to suggest realistic
> alternatives.

Gitlin must (at least at one time) known better than this. The demand to offer a "realistic alternative" is simply fatal to a protest moveement. This recognition was the great contribution of the SWP to the anti-war movement of the '60s. It will take a while for most newly activated people, students or otherwise, to learn this. The movement must simply say no to everything the state tries to do.

Carrol



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