delicate times for the left

[Jim Farmelant]

Underlying the notion that the left lost the war is
the expectation, that a strong antwar movement
could be mobilized in just a few weeks.  Well, escuse
my historical ignorance but I cannot think of a
past situation where that ever happened.  As I
recall, in the case of the Vietnam War, it took years
for a strong antiwar movement to coalesce.  
Remrarkably, in the Gulf War, a noteworthy
antiwar movement did manage to mobilize within
a relatively short period of time.  But it would
be most unrealistic to expect a strong antiwar
movement to have mobilized in just a few short
months, especially given the nature of the 9-11
attacks.  However, assuming the Bushies are
serious about extending the "War against Terroris"
to multitudes of other countries, there should
be ample oppurtunities for antiwar mobilization
to develop in the future.

Jim F.

On Thu, 17 Jan 2002 13:36:04 "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
writes:
> >From: "Ian Murray" <seamus2001 at attbi.com>
> >
> >Did the left lose the war?
> >
> >Kabul fell in five weeks. The Islamic world has not
> >erupted. So did the left get it all wrong - and does it
> >matter?
> >
> >Andy Beckett
> >Thursday January 17, 2002
> >The Guardian
> >
> >... These are delicate times for the left, in Britain and
> >elsewhere. First, two of its traditional enemies, the
> >Pentagon and New York's financial district, were bloodily
> >assaulted. Then, the leaders of this revolt against
> >American dominance of the world were revealed, almost
> >certainly, to be religious radicals of considerable
> >ideological ambiguousness. Then the traditional instruments
> >of American oppression in the eyes of its critics - bombing
> >and the use of dubious allies - were deployed in response,
> >with apparent success. And a solid majority of the British
> >public approved, as did the great majority of
> >left-of-centre politicians in Britain and abroad.
> 
> As Beckett says, ObL & Co. are "religious radicals of considerable 
> ideological ambiguousness" and not surrogates for the left.  Al 
> Qaeda's 
> speedy apparent collapse simply clears the decks, permitting the 
> public to 
> focus on issues that bring profound discredit to capitalists -- with 
> Enron 
> being issue #1.  In the US at least, I don't see how these are 
> "delicate 
> times for the left."
> 
> Carl
> 
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