I believe these
> groups, as small and ill-funded as they are, have many accomplishments
> to their credit. I hate war, and am thus particularly impressed in
> recent years by the IAC’s role in building opposition to Bill Clinton’s
> war against Yugoslavia, the bombings of Iraq and, as part of ANSWER,
> it’s mass mobilizations against George Bush’s war on terrorism.
Oh yeah, I remember the IAC's lame ass mass mobilization against the war in Yugoslavia. See, that pathetic event is one of the chief reasons why I'm so outspoken against WWP/IAC/ANSWER. In 1999, the left and the peace movement on the East Coast pretty much allowed the IAC to call for a mass moblization against the war in Yugoslavia. Only, the IAC didn't organize an immediate mobilization; they scheduled the event for June.
When the protest rolled around, the war had ended the day before. The IAC rally tok place on a Saturday morning in an out-of-the-way part of the Mall near the Lincoln Memorial. After the crowd spent several hours getting sunburned while listening to an endless platform of speakers, the crowd then marched across a closed Potomoc bridge to the Pentagon parking lot, where we had to listen to more speakers. Not only did nobody see the rally, but it was hardly mentioned in the Post the next day.
It was a big exercise in having the lamest symbolic protest possible.
I would argue that the IAC had no effect on the War on Yugoslavia and if anything, probably hindered an effective dissent from taking place.
> On another issue, I think that left sectarianism is becoming an
> increasingly serious problem within the U.S. movement.
By "left sectarianism" do you mean criticism of the WWP/IAC? This bogeyman of "sectarianism" is always dragged out to shut up critics of sectarian groups.
> It seems, at
> times, that some on the left deliver their main blow not against
> imperialism or the ruling class, but against others on the left with
> whom they disagree.
The amount of time that we critics of the IAC spend on our criticism is tiny compared to the other activism that we are doing. But this criticism has to be done because there is a culture in the American Left of silencing internal criticism. Critical thinking and criticism are important for any movement that wants to learn from its mistakes.
> The article on the April 20 event that I wrote for
> the Mid-Hudson Activist Newsletter, which I posted on this list, was a
> attempt to put forward a point of view on an important development for
> the left and antiwar movements. I had expected it might elicit some
> serious comment and criticism which could possibly result in a
> beneficial exchange of views. Instead, most of what it seems to have
> generated on this list is vulgarity, immature put-downs, a speculation
> about my view of the Hungarian revolution, and now the above attempt to
> expose me as some kind of red spy seeking to dupe the innocent. This is
> no way to build the left, but that hardly seems to matter.
I'm not one of those who is interested in "building the left," mainly because this abstract phrase is a codeword for "building authoritarian sectarian parties."
Don't like the fire, Jack? Things have changed.
<< Chuck0 >>
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)