>The Old Left on the other hand took public outreach seriously and took
>creating messages that appealed broadly quite seriously-- "Communism is 20th
>Century Americanism" being everyone's favorite absurd overreaching of the
>effort, but the sentiment was correct. They consciously picked slogans that
>would attract people to events that would not have attended more narrowly
>defined politics.
And then the Red Purge came.... There may be some immediate gains to be made on the home front by becoming the loyal opposition, but at what long-term costs to international solidarity, as well as the survival of the Left itself? The Popular Front pushed the rhetoric of Americanism to the Left as far as it could go, but by doing so, it made stronger the very petard by which it got hoisted when political winds changed with the defeat of Axis powers and the beginning of the Cold War. As the American Empire got on with its post-war program of vanquishing populist and socialist struggles when they became unmanageable by supporting the Right not just in colonies but also Japan and Western Europe, Communists got labeled un-American and purged out of institutions such as industrial unions that they had worked hard to create.
While you contrast the Old and New Lefts, they had at least one thing in common: both were unable to withstand the counter-offensive from the Right. In both cases the Left couldn't create a new hegemonic bloc on its own terms, though American leftists, old and new, made valuable contributions to struggles at home and abroad that we should not forget.
Both the Old and New Lefts had various faults that we could criticize to our hearts' content as hindsight is 20/20, but I'm not sure if there was anything Old and New leftists could do that would have actually made a big difference. Since the USA assumed imperial hegemony, there has never been a year when it didn't make any war, covert or overt. That's in the nature of the beast. Either the masses of Americans will decide that they don't want to live in an Empire any longer and that they would rather have a relation of equality with other nations; or they will continue to live in an Empire, maintaining US troops all over the world, paying taxes to the warfare state. Leftists can help ordinary Americans make this crucial decision by telling them the truth. The decision, however, is for them to make. We ought to respect the intelligence of Americans, rather than treating them as if they were children or consumers to be brainwashed by clever marketing. -- 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/>