Mass Movements and "The Left"

Chip Berlet cberlet at igc.org
Tue Aug 27 14:55:42 PDT 2002


Hi,

Um, Carrol, there is this whole area of study in Sociology called Social Movement Theory where there is a lot of material on how mass social movements form--what ingredients are needed--and how people with grievances are recruited into social movements--primarily face-to-face interaction in the context of an attractive framing of issues. Social movements cannot be summoned into existence by Marxist study groups or parties. But once a social movement gets rolling, leftists can certainly attempt to influence the goals and direction of the movement. The Civil Rights Movement is a clear example--the progressive Highlander Center played an important role in training movement leaders.

-Chip Berlet


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Carrol Cox
> Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 5:03 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: Mass Movements and "The Left"
>
>
>
>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> >
> > Carrol Cox wrote:
> >
> > >But in all that literature there is not one single word on
> the subject
> > >of how marxists should _start_ a mass movement.
> >
> > And who said that was a goal? There are plenty of movements,
though
> > how mass they are is subject to debate. Even in the dismal
> U.S. we've
> > got the globokids, unions, greens, community organizers,
> etc. I don't
> > always like their analysis and wish more of them would act
> in common.
> > But it's not a matter of creating a movement ex nihilo.
> >
>
> The main point is that _current_ discussion among leftists (aside
from
> practical work within local contexts) must, willy-nilly, try
> to concern
> itself with theoretical preparation for, essentially,
> _we-know-not-what_, i.e. for The Mass Movement which will catch us
by
> surprise when it comes.
>
> And of course, "There are plenty of movements." (Note the
> plural.) I've
> even started half a dozen or so in the last 30 years, and a couple
of
> them even had some local achievements. But it's like
> thousands of drops
> of water intermittently falling at the top of a large sand hill.
They
> make little trenches as they flow down. If enough drops fall in to
a
> single trench, it begans to achieve permanence. (This is a
metaphor
> Gould uses in developing the point that there was nothing
inevitable
> about evolution. He remarks that it would have beeen
> perfectly possible
> that when the sun went nova several billion years from now
> only a mat of
> gray-green algae would have been here on earth.) But of course
most of
> those drops of water sink into the sand and leave no pathway for
> following drops.
>
> But there have been relatively few mass movements in u.s.
> history -- in
> the last 80 years 3: the CIO, the Black Liberation Movement, the
> Anti-War movement, maybe, almost, the women's movement of the '60s
&
> '70s would make a fourth.
>
> What those movements all were were movements of a sector of
> the working
> class, but the sectors never merged into a working-class movement
as
> such. Both King & Malik were feeling their way towards such a
merging
> shortly before their deaths.
>
> Carrol
>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list