[lbo-talk] M19 in New York City

Chuck0 chuck at mutualaid.org
Sun Mar 20 18:36:59 PST 2005


Lance Murdoch wrote:


> I find it hard to believe for somebody who follows the liberal/socdem
> left closely that you are so uncritical of UFPJ. Most leftists (and
> "post-leftists") recognize the liberal/socdem/Democratic Party/Paul
> Berman/DLC element lurking with UFPJ (and the Green Party and whatnot)
> and hate it. And so on and so forth.

I can see it pretty clearly. I don't support UFPJ and I agree with all the criticisms of them.


> The ANSWER rally was a big communist circle jerk (although lots of
> normal people against the war showed up as well).

I'm not totally against marches and rallies. They have their positive qualities, but ANSWER's strategy as one of the dominant organizations is to organize the same thing over and over again. Thinking outside of the box for ANSWER usually means marching to a new spot somewhere in Washington. It never involves putting together a campaign with a mixture of tactics.

The April 16, 200 anti-globalization protest in Washington, DC showed how you could have a day of events that complemented each other, but were still different. There were the black blocs. There were the intersection blockades and the NVCD. There was the permitted rally on The Ellipse. The rally provided a "safe" space for families and people who didn't want to confront the cops. The rally was also covered by C-SPAN, which meant that many people cold learn about why the protests were taking place. But away from the rally, many confrontational things were taking place.


> I simply recognize the good and bad in all movements. ANSWER's pluses
> is on a day when the entire world was protesting the war, they were
> organizing big rallies where I was anyway. As another poster said, in
> London they cheered when they heard this. And their black/Latino
> outreach seems better than UFPJ's.

Movements have their good and bad qualities, but I don't think we can afford to ignore, gloss over or tolerate the glaring bad qualities. People say that they like ANSWER because they organize big demos. Big deal. I could organize a mass national mobilization if I thought that was the right strategy. It isn't. Sometimes, the Million Worker March is just a bad idea.


> I don't have faith that UFPJ lib/socdem types will stay anti-war.

They won't. They are Democrats. They just oppose wars started by Republicans.


> Maybe they will swallow this "democracy breaking out in the Mideast"
> nonsense. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. I have gone to
> ANSWER events against US policy in Colombia, and bought their book on
> it. They protested in front of NYC Coca-Cola HQ, they had a forum on
> what was going on in Colombia with speakers from Colombia, and they
> published a book with articles by Gloria Gaitan, Tirofijo, Paul
> Wellstone and others about the war in Colombia, which I thought was
> pretty good.

Good for them, but two years into this war, people should ask more about ANSWER's accomplishments in terms of the war.


> What the hell has UFPJ or the local libs/socdems done about the
> billion a year going to Colombia, the hundreds of trade unionists
> murdered and so forth? They're probably busy getting anti-Cuban
> petitions signed like Leo Casey or whining about Castro in Dissent or
> the New Republic. At least ANSWER is doing something about it, by
> God. I'd rather stand with them while the libs/socdems sit on their

How about working with NGOs and other organizations who are doing real activism on Colombia? ANSWER is not the avatar of all activism. Thank god.


> I spend most of my time working with non-hierarchical collectives, and
> I like to do stuff with the IWW as well. But if ANSWER is doing work
> on Colombia or whatever when other people aren't - I will certainly
> work with them.

That's your choice. I just know from experience that ANSWER is a huge sham front for the WWP.

Chuck



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