[lbo-talk] Critical Mass

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>[lbo-talk] A Calculated Provocation
>Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com, Mon Apr 19 14:23:21 PDT 2004
<snip>
>Chuck0 wrote:
>
>>Lastly, the problem with the Days of Rage approach was that it was 
>>organized by leftist students who saw themselves as the vanguard of 
>>some imminent revolution. A Days of Rage approach that was 
>>organized on a more open, democratic basis would pose a serious 
>>threat to American Empire.
>
>But aren't you advocating some sort of vanguardist strategy? Most 
>Americans are patriotic Christians, so there has to be some limit to 
>your idea of democratic organizing here - some self-selected group 
>of anarcho-radicals who can't possibly claim to speak for any 
>serious majority.

Whether to win an election or organize a successful direct action, it 
is not necessary to appeal to a majority.  Take a presidential 
election.  Only about half of the eligible electorate turn out to 
vote in a presidential election, and winning a plurality of that 
half, i.e., winning about 25% of the eligible electorate, will give 
the victorious party the key to the highest office in the nation. 
Successful direct actions need an even smaller proportion of the 
public.  If 2-3% of the US population simultaneously engaged in 
direct actions -- even just marching down the middle of streets 
without permits and expensive police escorts, sitting in offices of 
senators and representatives, etc., while taking care to observe all 
the rules of non-violent civil disobedience -- it would be far more 
effective than any past action in the history of 
anti-war/anti-intervention activism.  If 5-10% of the US population 
engaged in such direct actions, it would be nothing short of 
revolutionary -- that would be roughly a critical mass, the quantity 
of political participation necessary to trigger a political chain 
reaction.

How do we get there?  The first thing to do is to ditch the *myth* 
that we have to win the majority of Americans.  Trying to appeal to 
the majority of Americans becomes a mental block, a serious obstacle 
to the essential task of helping to facilitate effective political 
participation of a sizable minority (the necessary size ranging from 
2-25%, depending on political purposes, objective conditions, etc.) 
of the US population.  What you need to do to reach a critical mass 
-- building and mobilizing a political base of the 2-25% of the US 
population, most of whom are _always_ opposed to any US wars and 
foreign interventions and in favor of a pro-working-class economic 
program _in a knee-jerk fashion_ -- is the *opposite* of what you 
need to do to make yourself respectable to the majority of Americans.
-- 
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus: 
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, 
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>