Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Chuck Munson wrote:
>
> >But don't get in the way of those who want to burn the convention center down.
>
> You've got to be kidding, Chuck. There's the immediate problem of
> massive numbers of cops who would have shredded anyone who tried, and
> the less immediate one of discrediting any movement that did
> something like that. Are you really interested in a political
> transformation, or just in getting your ya-yas out?
Doug, I of course agree with your response to Chuck -- his kind function objectively as provocateurs and in general really fuck up the development and growth of mass movements. After 34 years I still haven't quite got over my grudge against the Weathermen.
BUT BUT BUT.
They do _not_ in fact "discredit the movement," any more than any other feature of capitalist social relatins do. We are back to the issue of those features of the "left" or "would-be left" that it is simply pointless to whine about, and objections to Chuck0 or Mark Rudd are simply whining about the weather.
One simply has to take into account the actuality of ultra-leftists (to use the politest term) as one of the conditions we face, like prisons, biased news reporting, or any other feature of capitalism which operates to repress radical or revolutionary organizing. They simply aren't going to go away until the conditions which generate them go away.
The only effective response to them is effective organizing of struggles on the most advanced (and militant) basis possible at a given time and place. And that does require lots of squabbling. "Unite all who can be United" is one of those truisms that gives one little guidance on just who can be united around what principles and practices. No fromulae for that.
I _think_ it was a mistake in the "anti-globalization" movement to ever even attempt to "woo" or meld with the AFL-CIO bureaucracy -- the only real effect of the "Turtles & Teamsters" slogan was to create more room for maneuver of the likes of Chuck0. A mass movement, true, is going to have to include many AFL-CIO members, and even some locals as a whole. That's a prohlem to work out as we go along. . . . . .
Carrol
>
> Doug