Shane Taylor wrote:
>
>
>
> But the anti-war mobilization and the global justice movement, with their
> overlapping currents of anti-capitalism, are some kind of left. The form
> of their organization is certainly open to dispute, but their existence
> isn't.
>
My argument on the existence or non-existence of "The Left" was in response to that widespread habit (on this list and elsewhere) of voicing what are merely personal prejudices as criticism of "The Left." Even when such prejudices are also accurate assessments of this or that current of the left or this or that political principle, they are still merely personal whines because the lack of any coherent context within which they could effect either practice or thought. The phrase, "no wonder the left is so weak" is a more widespread (and empty) slogan of the present than was any bit of jargon in the Third International. Whenever that phrase (or equivalent) appears, you know the speaker or writer has nothing to say and merely enjoys the sound of his/her own voice. It is particularly fatuous when used by anyone who is also in the habit of complaining about jargon or sectarianism.
Carrol