I don't care for the WWP either, but not for the usual 'reasons' of (now historically stale) doctrine - hey folks, the era of the Russian Revolution is _over_, time to move on - but because dull, unimaginative and just plain stupid as they are, the WWP/ANSWER is inadequate to the permanent mobilization we need to build.
Anything that has Marc Cooper's sig on it is not to be signed. Cooper hates leftists. You can always count on this type to do exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. The anti-ANSWER group smells worse than ANSWER, especially as they have chosen to go outside the antiwar movement, objectively isolating themselves from it. That will be the only real result of this.
The timing is pure Cooper, of course. What better time to start a row than on the eve of the war when tensions are at their height, as the regime is tentatively exploring ways to repress the movement as with the permit games in NYC, the 'orange alert', and so forth?
Good work, Lerner, Cooper, CPD et al. For the record, I am in full support of Lerner's or anybody else's right to speak on stage or anywhere else. I say give them enough words to hang themselves in the movement. That's the way to thrash out the issues, but it looks like many of the CPD folks are doing the job themselves, falling on their swords in this manner.
When you consider the crucial historical conjuncture we have arrived at, the greatest of all of our lives without any exaggeration, the narrow petty mindedness of this artificially manufactured 'dispute' is appalling.
-Brad Mayer
"Am I the only one who doesn't get the Lerner flap? Let me get this = straight. Lerner goes around bashing ANSWER publicly. ANSWER returns the = favor by not inviting him to speak at their San Francisco rally Feb 16 = (and Lerner himself says he never even *wanted* to speak). ANSWER then = get depicted as totalitarian Kim Jong Il wanna-bes, with implied charges = of anti-Semitism thrown in for good measure.
Lerner's weakness for anything that puts him in the spotlight isn't = news. But the way this has become a rallying cry, including a letter = demanding Lerner be allowed to speak signed by all sorts of lefty = luminaries, is baffling. =" http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0211-09.htm