> Absolutely. People wonder how ANSWER got so big in anti-war
> demonstrations. They did so by getting off of their asses and organizing
> starting from day one. If the DLC Democrats and liberals had been out
> organizing from day one, ANSWER would never have gotten so big. They
> decided to sit on their hands and see what was happening, and then
> tut-tut'ing as back seat drivers how the people actually setting things up
> were doing things. We could have Nation columnists like David Corn go on
> the O'Reilly report and tell the world that the anti-war marches were all
> secretly controlled by communists. I was alive in the 1960's, but I
> wonder if this is how it was like back then. I suspect it was.
I hate to burst your bubble, Lance, but you are pushing an incredibly revisionist history of ANSWER and how it came to dominate the anti-war movement. I invite you to go through the LBO-talk archives and search on my past explanations of how ANSWER rose to power. I happen to be one of those activists who was screwed by ANSWER in their opportunist scramble to take the stage.
In short, ANSWER took the stage as opportunists in the wake of 9-11. As members of the IAC, they had been trying to take over the anti-globalization movement for almost two years. In the spring of 2001, the IAC attempted to become players in the nascent organizing that was happening in Washington for the anticipated fall protests against the World Bank and IMF. We were expecting the fall protests to be huge, since this would be the first time since Seattle that the IMF & WB held their big September convention in the U.S. I distinctly remember the apperance of Brian Becker at a meeting of the Mobilization for Global Justice, where the leader of the WWP was given 5 minutes to position himself and the IAC as significant coalition partners for the Fall protests. Around this time, I helped start the Anti-Capitalist Convergence with a group of anti-capitalists who wanted to push a more radical line at the fall protest. We were also trying to organize the younger activists who had been turned off by MGJ's NGO-style of doing things.
When it became evident that the MGJ didn't care squat about the IAC (probably because MGJ included veteran activists who were wary of the IAC's sectarian agenda), the IAC announced in June that they were going to organize a generic anti-Bush mobilization which just happened to be scheduled for the same weekend as the anti-globalization protests. Meanwhile, those of us in the ACC and MGJ were doing planning and organizing, to the point where it was evident that tens of thousands would be coming to DC for the protests. The ACC was an organiztion with a shoe-string budget, yet we were doing organizing around the country. I would argue that the ACC was probably responsible for generating most of the buzz around the world about the protests (just check out Mikey Flugennock's posters from that period).
The anti-globalization movement got screwed by 9-11. There is just no way that you can plan for something like that; what happened in this country was beyond what any of us had experienced. On September 11, I was supposed to attend a meeting that afternoon where the black bloc was going to talk about stuff with the AFL-CIO and the religious NGOs. The night before, I had been working on secret plans with an affinity group that was planning a black bloc takeover of D.C. General Hospital. We had been working on the hospital privatization issue for some time, but when Genoa happened, several of us decided that the black bloc would have to do something different during the September protests.
The IAC "lucked out" and had a press conference before 9-11. The MGJ and ACC had press conferences planned, but 9-11 threw a wrench into everything. The ACC met after 9-11 and decided to go ahead with an anti-capitalist anti-war protest. But when the Mobilization for Global Justice met, the activists in that group were confronted with an orchestrated behind-the-scenes effort by organized labor and the NGOs to make sure that NO protest happened. The rank-and-file activists in the MGJ wanted to shift gears and do an anti-war protest, but the organization was forced by professional activists into cancelling the protests. When the cancellation was made public, this had a deleterious effect on the ACC mobilization. Not only did people get the impression that the protests had been called off, but groups that were organizing buses cancelled their plans. In several cities, such as Chicago, people who were supporting the ACC and MGJ were sharing plans. As a result, when the ACC held the *first* national protest against the war in late September, we could only turn out 2000 into the streets.
When 9/11 happened, the IAC was able to turn on a dime like the authoritarian organization they are. They quickly came up with the idea for ANSWER, while the anti-globalization groups were going through the messy democratic process of deciding what to do. The subsequent ANSWER march capitalized on the six months of organizing that had been done by two real anti-globalization coalitions. They lucked out in that they had already established a generic protest on that date, which is something they have continued to practice since then.
So when some of you bitch at me for dissing ANSWER and ask me why I'm not organizing big national protests, please keep in mind that I had helped organize a protest which was expected to number around 100,000, only to see all of our hard work come crashing down on 9-11.
> The WWP is out agitating and organizing right now, I don't know where
> these other people are, but liberals and DLC types seem to appear from
> wherever they come from when things get rolling and start criticizing and
> back street driving and so forth. I can tell you what WWP has been doing
> in terms of solidarity that has been requested in the past few months from
> workers in Colombia, Venezuela, Haiti and so forth. Can someone tell me
> who has been doing more organizing, agitation and education regarding
> Colombia's situation in New York than the WWP in the last year? I can't.
You can't? Do you read the left press or any of the news items posted here? The WWP is a small group when it comes to doing activism. I know of many activists who are out there organizing who have nothing to do with the WWP.
> This seems to be a case of criticizing anyone out there organizing. See,
> if you sit on your ass and do nothing, no one can criticize you. If some
> "better" organization comes around and starts out-organizing the WWP with
> regards to their various causes, I'll probably hook up with them. Until
> them, I'll stick with the doers, not the whiners.
I'll stick with the doers too, which doesn't include WWP/ANSWER because they are doing nothing but organizing an activist bus service.
My comrades and I could easily do what ANSWER/WWP does with these mass protests. We aren't doing that right now because those protests are ineffective and are based on poor strategic thinking.
Chuck0