No ANSWER

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

The best way to marginalize the WWP would be simply to out-organize, 
rather than to post e-mail messages about its position on North 
Korea, etc., much less on Hungary in 1956.  The reason is that such 
criticisms won't resonate at all except with those who have already 
bought into one brand of left politics or another and thus care very 
much about the history of the political left.  In short, no one 
except confirmed leftists give a damn about what the WWP stands for. 
This is America, the land of no historical memory, with no 
established organization on the left nationally known beyond leftist 
cyber-ghettoes.  Likewise, criticisms of the WWP's methods (e.g., 
inflating the number of supporters, taking the credit even when 
credit is not fully due, making opportunistic alliances, seeking to 
take the leadership of a coalition) or structure (e.g., 
authoritarian, hierarchical, etc.) won't do either, because that's 
how things work in the real world beyond the cyber-ghettoes mentioned 
above and thus no surprise to Americans outside them.

To out-organize the WWP, you'd simply have to work harder, for 
instance, contacting all the likely constituencies sooner and better 
(e.g., in protest against Israel, contact all the mosques, Islamic 
centers, Arab-American organizations, black organizations, etc.) than 
the WWP would.  All those Muslims and Arab-Americans at the Ellipse 
didn't attend the WWP rally because they approved of all parts of the 
WWP politics; they did so because it was the WWP, not other 
formations, that contacted them first, made convenient transportation 
available, etc.

It's that simple, as far as mobilization is concerned, but this 
simple and yet hard work of collecting phone numbers/e-addresses of 
leaders & members of likely constituencies, networking with them in 
person (and not only immediately prior to big events, but also 
regularly), attending their social functions (dinners, picnics, etc.) 
when appropriate (especially when invited), sending out 
announcements/invitations/etc. in a timely and respectful fashion, 
making it easy for large numbers of people to participate, (if 
possible) winning over intelligent, articulate, and attractive 
individuals from targeted constituencies to your politics, etc. is, 
alas, *not* the normal practice of leftists (if it were, the left in 
the USA would be bigger, I think).

BTW, the WWP's strength is only in mobilization for demos, not 
party-building.  It's telling that every time it holds demos and 
rallies, participants in them change radically depending on issues 
(e.g., Serbian-Americans for an anti-NATO rally, Muslims and 
Arab-Americans for a pro-Palestinian rally).  In other words, it has 
gained no large permanent following.

Can other formations do better, though?  For instance, can critics of 
the WWP (be they anarchists, the SP, Solidarity, or whatever) educate 
Muslims and Arab-Americans who show up at pro-Palestinian demos into 
caring also about Plan Colombia and other issues; and beyond single 
issues, can they win many of them over to passionate oppositions to 
imperialism in general, and best of all, to left-wing class politics?
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of 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/>