> Those who are uniformly negative with respect to
> every particular strategy for party building they
> are confronted with typify a temperamental
> characteristic which is all too common on the left:
> they believe passionately in "grassroots organizing"
> in theory but manifest complete apathy or negativity
> when confronted with or asked to participate in most
> specific instances of it in practice. You will judge for
> yourself whether Henwood's response typifies
> reasonable skepticism along these lines or cheap, hip
> cynicism which - its worth mentioning - defines the
> essential tone of discourse across the board of the
> subsidized establishment left. (See Amy Wilentz'
> despicable article on Haiti in the the current Nation
> for a pretty good indication of what I'm talking about.)
I, too, thought that Amy Wilentz's article was despicable. If someone were running around saying, "There's no use defending Aristide, he sold out to the IMF, what we need is a THIRD PARTY in Haiti, I mean, what's the difference between Aristide and the macoutes, anyway?" I would think that's despicable too.
Oh, wait. People like Alexander Cockburn's beloved Lee Sustar of the International Socialist Organization (big Nader supporters, not coincidentally if you ask me) are indeed saying something like that:
http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-1/486/486_07_Haiti.shtml
Believe you me, I am also put off by people who express "cheap, hip cynicism" towards real-life "grassroots organizers." Considering that just about every progressive mass organizer in this country wants to see Bush defeated, perhaps that should tell us something?
- - - - - John Lacny
People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs!