Nathan:
The New Left wasn't destroyed by the Right-- it collapsed of its own infighting. Sure COINTELPRO contributed, but the 70s and even the 80s was not McCarthyism. The Right were just smarter organizers.
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-CB: Since the Old and New Left were such "failures", why are you on the Left ? What makes you think you can succeed - -where they "failed" ? It seems that your current Left perspective is that the Left should support "imperialism" where Saddam,
-Milosovec and Bin Laden are its opponents. I take it that's the lesson you learned from the failures of the Old and New - Left opposing imperialism: If you can't beat 'em; join 'em.
First, the Old and New Left had considerable success on domestic policy-- unions and the New Deal with the Old Left, civil rights and a host of issues in the 60s & 70s. What I am criticizing and seeking analysis of is why they undermined their long-term viability through various self-destructive behavior. To notice the fact that none of the left organizations have more than a few thousand members and most have a few hundred or less is not anti-Left but just a statement of fact. You may not like my analysis of why they ended up that way and still fail to grow, but that is a separate question.
I am Left because I want to achieve global socialist democracy and recognize collective struggle is necessary to achieve that.
As for supporting imperialism, I'm not even convinced the term is very useful in a world where the WTO operates by unanimous consent and the United Nations has ratified every action of the United States. The old Leninist idea of imperialism was an analysis of competitive nationalism translated into the international economic squere. Today's situation is not one of competition but of global hegemony by the United States operating with the almost unanimous consent of existing international institutions and their constituent nation-states.
BTW for those who have poor memories (since I repeat this pretty often), I opposed the Gulf War and opposed the bombing of Afghanistan. As for Kosovo, I support US military to stop genocide just as I supported US troops in Little Rock to stop segregation. Defense of the Bull Connors and Milosevics of the world is not anti-imperialism.
-- Nathan Newman