tempted to say one, two, three many demos although living in age of irony can make motivation to do so differ greatly from che's optimistic call for one, two, many vietnams some 40 yrs ago...
'all out in d.c/nyc/s.f./wherever on _____' (fill in date) demo calls by alphabet soup (ufpj, answer, abc, xyz) groups have little, if any, relevance for folks other than those who always go to 'national' protests, march for several miles, stand/sit at national mall/centralpark/pentagon, listen to endless procession of tedious speeches, go home...
'big events' are also relevant for new 'recruits' who get jazzed - rightly so - about opportunity to be part of something, but who often drift away after a short time because of their experience with 'activists'...
irrespective of which political banner is waved or what slogan is chanted, some - and i'll stress some even though i think it indicative of too many *activists* - folks have no problem with hierarchy so long at they're at the top of it, have little conception of (or, in some cases, regard for) human development as a political issue, are more interested in dramatic gesture, and have little awareness of (or, in some cases, regard for) how interpersonal relationships reflect larger values...
so while *movement* analysis can grow sharper, *activists* lose the ability to relate to others (both to one another and to those outside their own milieu), *organizing* is reduced to getting people to d.c. (or nyc or _____ fill in blank) where people march, *leaders* make speeches at them, and mainstream media - maybe - provides sound bite and picture that likely fails to convey message that *movement* wants conveyed*
references to social/political movements are overused, while there's good bit of anti-war sentiment around, is there really an anti-war movement at present, moreover, will 9/24 tap into anti-war mood that exists*
there's little for local groups to take from national demos for time being, different situation, perhaps, if local organizing served mostly as point of reference for national demos...
'the left' is not weak because it is divided, it is divided because it is weak, marx wrote (in letter to friedrich bolte, if memory serves) that socialist sectarianism and actual working class movement exist in inverse relationship to one another...
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