[lbo-talk] Tariq Ali endorses Kerry, denounces Nader

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

John Adams jadams01 at sprynet.com, Fri Oct 29 15:50:58 PDT 2004:
>>You can't turn it on after election day just like that -- a social 
>>movement is not like an electrical appliance that has an on-and-off 
>>switch.
>
>True enough--which is why those who found the election too 
>distasteful to sully their hands with might instead have been 
>fruitfully organizing toward an Inauguration Day anti-war protest.

Nader/Camejo supporters and Green Party activists can't be accused of 
finding "the election too distasteful to sully their hands." 
Actually, the main complaint of Democratic Party ideologues is that 
Nader/Camejo supporters and Green Party activists "sullied their 
hands" by running their own candidates.

In any case, those who have not toed the AnybodyButBush party line -- 
e.g., indefatigable ANSWER organizers -- have and will be mobilizing 
for the inauguration protest (as I mentioned, I saw many ANSWER 
volunteers handing out flyers for it at the August 29th anti-Bush/RNC 
march in New York City).  The problem is that the ABB party line has 
so demobilized and depoliticized activists that I doubt that 
organizing for the inauguration protest has had much traction so far. 
The ABB party line has done nothing but generate a great deal of 
illusion that Kerry will be "the lesser evil" even on foreign policy, 
and frenetic activity for electing Kerry (or even watching polls 
religiously) will be sure to produce many burnouts -- out of sheer 
fatigue alone, if nothing else.

And remember, January 20th in Washington D.C. will be PRETTY DAMN 
COLD.  To have a feisty protest on such a day, we need many Winter 
Soldiers, but the ABB party line has grown only Sunshine Patriots!

That said, we'll have to stay in the struggle and do the hard work of 
rebuilding the independent movement against the occupations both on 
the electoral and social movement fronts, so we can do better and the 
movement won't be killed so easily in 2008.

I hope that Mr. Tariq Ali won't stand in the way the next time.
-- 
Yoshie

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