Stephen Zunes on WWP

[Chuck0]

Michael Pugliese wrote:
> <URL: http://www.nationalreview.com/10feb03/york021003.asp >
> If Stephen Zunes, who writes for Z, and teaches at USF, a Jesuit school 
> with a Dean who was close to the murdered Jesuit professors of El 
> Salvador back in '80 (See this collection of the writings of one of 
> them, <URL: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/
> catalog/MARWRI.html > ) wants to speak at our rally on the 16th, will 
> IAC/ANSWER/WWP deny him too?
> 
> He was quoted by Byron York in NR, ""The Workers World Party is one of 
> the most obnoxious groups on the far Left," says Stephen Zunes, an 
> associate professor of politics at the University of San Francisco who 
> studies the antiwar movement. The WWP exercises influence, Zunes 
> explains, by its sheer energy and resourcefulness. "Historically, you 
> have these groups that are just able to out-organize anybody else. One 
> thing you can say about Marxist/Leninist groups is that at least in the 
> organization stage, they are very efficient." The Workers World Party 
> has simply out- hustled other leftist groups in the work of getting 
> parade permits and organizing big events. According to Zunes, that has 
> created a problem for more moderate antiwar organizations. "It causes 
> division among the non- authoritarian Left groups. They say, 'Do we 
> march at a rally organized by a group like this? I don't feel 
> comfortable with this, but it's the only game in town.'"

I'm getting the vibe more and more that the WWP's brief hegemony over the 
peace movement has begun to wane. If people are still going to ANSWER 
protests, they are doing so more with an eye to subvert those events for 
their own style of dissent. That could even be seen at the January 18th 
protest, with all the different signs and lack of consistent blocs.

Other groups want to do something different and I think this weekend's 
protests will show what anti-war dissent will look like from now on.

Chuck0

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