-- Shane
>From MaxSpeak.org:
THE FRONT. Some friends take me to task for not being sufficiently clued-in on the current state of the anti-war movement. In particular, people who attended the large demonstration in New York on October 6th tell me it was a fine event. The sponsor of this action was the "Not In Our Name" coalition. Endorsers span the breadth of the usual liberal and radical suspects. I have a high regard for most of them. The rhetoric of the coalition is what it should be, from the practical standpoint of stopping a general war in Iraq. So what's the problem?
Maybe there isn't any. The fact remains that the so-called Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) evidently plays an important administrative role in this operation. There can be no other reason that the designated spokesperson for the coalition is a fellow named C. Clark Kissinger, whom I've never met or laid eyes on, but who is well-known as a long-standing RCP cadre from way back. Kudos to CCK for sticking with it all these years, while assorted other New Left personages went into New Age philosophy or selling real estate.
The intent of descriptions of the NION coalition that reduce it to the RCP is clear: to pimp for the President and defeat the anti-war movement. Change the topic to the RCP's demented party rhetoric, on display here. I don't want to do that. The purpose of NION is well-founded, and it seems to be moving on the right track. Its demonstrations merit support, absent superior alternatives.
The natural dynamic in a coalition like this is for the more radical components to dilute their message. A staunch Marxist-Leninist might see it as selling out, or compromising with liberalism. The message of NION is decidedly liberal. The contrast with the RCP is obvious.
In the 60s, a similar phenomenon afflicted the Socialist Workers Party, a Trotskyist group that ran the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC). The SWP was invisible in NPAC (much like the RCP in NION), to the dissatisfaction of some of its members. Despite itself, through NPAC the SWP did a great service. The SWP's stewardship of NPAC didn't do it much good organizationally. It did not provide lasting recruits to the SWP proper. Today the SWP is small potatoes, as radical outfits go.
The bottom line is that in a successful coalition effort, the 'front' becomes the whole, and the group behind the front becomes unimportant. Focus on the group and you're not on point, or you're trying to change the subject.
There will be liberals and unaffiliated folks who will find the NION 'line' insufficiently concerned with U.S. national security and insufficiently critical of foreign dictators who have been targeted by the Bush Administration. As I've said before, this sort of criticism of NION is fair, but to be made in good faith, it is properly secondary to opposing George Bush's war. Bush is a greater threat to the nation than C. Clark Kissinger. It remains for any such persons to make sure their anti-war voice is heard as well.
I have to be off so I will not have time to respond to the multitude of comments until the weekend. Thanks to all for reading and writing.
Posted by maxbsawicky @ 12:16 PM EST
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