Lerner (presumably) speaks out

Thomas Seay entheogens at yahoo.com
Mon Feb 17 11:19:25 PST 2003


In a way, the whole problem stems from the organizational model: one or a handful of groups "leading" the movement. As much as I have come to realize, thanks to the recent discussions, that Lerner is an opportunist asshole, I still maintain that the rule excluding someone from speaking if they have publicly criticized one of the organizers is a bad one. By the same token, we should not attempt to exclude WWP or ANSWER.

The way to expose people's position is to let them come out and debate it...not to snuff it.

It seems to me this false notion of UNITY plays a role in all of this. We think we will be tarnished by our association with Workers World Party, so we try to sweep them under the rug. We are all supposed to be UNITED, so one bad apple (whichever apples you happen to think are bad..not necessarily just WWP) will spoil the whole bunch, or so the thinking goes. Let's not go down that road of policing the movement or we become that which we criticize.

There are a number of ANSWER members who have no idea of the role of the WWP's role in their organization. Let's beg the Becker Bro's qua WWP leaders and other members of the WWP to speak their full position...then let the ANSWER rank and file make up their mind if they want to stay in ANSWER or not. For god's sake, dont sweep the WWP under the rug where, in some ways, they would prefer to remain.

The question of hegemony is another question...if we got rid of the present model of UNIFIED, CENTRALIZED MOVEMENT Organization, we wouldn't have to worry about this so much. I dont have a good idea how we should go in that direction, though I have the good feeling that we are headed in that direction. I think the Internet certainly plays a huge role in helping us move towards that.

-Thomas

===== <<Be like me! The Primal Mother, eternally creative, eternally impelling into life,

eternally drawing satisfaction from the ceaseless flux of phenomena.>>

-Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy"

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