> What more should "we" be doing? What do you have in mind? A handful of
> anarchists and newly emboldened UFPJ cadre blocking troop deployments?
> It'd get crushed in a second. Radicalized unions striking against
> imperial war? That'd be a lot more formidable, for sure. But to do
> things like this you need seriously mass organization of a sort that's
> way beyond us now. You seem to think that if only present-day radicals
> had more balls, the empire would be quaking.
We should be doing something more than sitting around wanking off about Bush and dissing anybody who likes Nader. We need to abandon the mass Washington protest spectacles exemplified by the crap that ANSWER organizes. Hey, if the UFPJ started blocking troop deployments, that would be much more effective than having an annual anti-war protest in New York City. Perhaps Leslie Cagan could go do something useful instead of using UFPJ to build her marginal leftist celebrity.
Mass organization? Boring! WRONG ANSWER! Which mass organization brought us Seattle? There was NO mass organization that organized Seattle, in fact the usual suspects who preach mass organization were caught by surprise when Seattle happened. Nobody wants to join a mass organization led by the likes of the WWP or the British SWP. What people need to ask is what can we do to advance our goals? What works? The dogmatic answer "build mass organizations" is invalidated by the fact that after decades of preaching this line, American leftists have nothing to show for it.
> You also seem to have a really limited sense of audience.
I would argue that you are projecting your own fear about promoting our ideas to the general public. I'm the *last* activist who can be accused of having a "limited sense of audience." I run websites that reach hundreds of thousand of people. My anarchism revolves around taking our ideas to average people, who are hungry to hear them.
> How many
> Americans would support you right now? The reason a lot of dissenters
> hung low after 9/11 was because they were nervous how they'd be
> perceived by masses of people.
Nervous about how they would be perceived? This is either a case of our comrades being a bunch of chickenshit cowards or having a deeply flawed analysis of the situation. Perhaps we need to just punch in the face any idiot comrade who scares everybody with talk about "COINTELPRO." The spectre of COINTELPRO is to the left what Al Quaeda is to average Americans. It's much ado about nothing. Even during the height of COINTELPRO during the 60s and 70s, most activists were unaffected. And there are more activists now, so what is the excuse? Are we really hypocrites when we pass around that Pastor Neimoller quote?
It looks like my suspicions about the Chicken Littles and Cassandras of the Left were right on target. All this paranoia about Ashcroft, government repression, and all those anti-radical Americans led many of us to cower in the closet for two years when we should have been out there stirring up dissent. And now our political goals are put on hold for another years as all the liberal sirens scream about how we have to focus on defeating Bush so we can bring Bush Lite into power.
I'm more than just a bit disappointed to hear that activists and leftists hung low after 9/11. I didn't hang low. I organized protests. The DC police targeted myself and my activist friends in a COINTELPRO-style campaign, some of which was recently revealed in hearings held in DC. I have comrades like Sherman Austin who is doing prison time for exercising his free speech on his website. I have a friend, Robert Thaxton, who is still in prison after an anti-globalization protest in 1999. I have other friends who have been arrested, harassed, beaten, terrorized and so on for NOT lying low after 9/11.
My friends and I are out there dissenting. There is no reason to lie low and be scared. John Ashcroft and his minions are like the cowardly wizard behind that curtain. Lots of flash and special effects, but little bite. What's more, many average Americans have protested Ashcroft
and Bush. I guess it's good that they weren't exposed to the Chicken Littles running around the Americna left.
> I don't think that sort of thing bothers
> you, but that goes back to my question - how many Americans support your
> kind of politics? Does that matter? Or would bolder action by a few more
> black bloc'ers trump popular opinion?
The number of people who support anarchist politics is small, but growing. People out there are interested in anarchist, leftist and radical ideas. If some of you would get out of your academic circles this would become obvious. Doug, of all people, should understand this since he does book tours.
Look, there is no reason for us to hide our ideas. The odds of you being assaulted for speaking your mind is at an all time low. I remember people counterprotesting our anti-war protests back in 1990-1991. I've been to quite a few protests since 9/11 and can count the number of vocal counterprotesters on two hands.
If the above arguments don't convince people to get out there and be open about our ideas, then consider the fact that leftist, progressive and anarchist books, magazines, and other materials continue to find an eager audience. Radical websites are getting millions and millions of visits.
I just think that it was a big mistake for people to have laid low after 9/11. Now we have to make up for lost time.
Chuck http://chuck.mahost.org http://www.infoshop.org