[lbo-talk] DC: Costs of big marches

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Steven:
>>>I agree with the historian Deutscher that a good dock strike against a
war is preferable to demonstrations.  But the unions aren't ready for that. 
A mass civil disobedience of 100,000 people to block the transport of troops
or of war equipment would be great, and I would  wholeheartedlysupport that.
But we don't have those 100,000 people either. In the actually existing 
movement, the options are either attempt to build the biggest popular
demonstration  with the largest numbers to show the leaders and the world
the breadth of the movement,  arrange to have a few dozen worthy saints get
arrested by sitting on the sidewalk or wirte letters to congress people?  I
personally would choose the first, as the best of some not very satisfactory
choices. May be, as time goes on, as we get more and more people in the
street, other, more effective tactics may available. Sadly, I don't think we
are there  yet. SR<<<
 

I do not want to sound flippant, but that argument sounds pretty much like
"In order to fly to the moon, we need a rocket and a bunch of dedicated,
hard working people"  We do have a bunch of dedicated and hard working
people, so let's fly to the moon."    

You seem to forget that mass demonstrations and mobilizations of the past
were an outcome of the objective conditions that made it possible to
sabotage the capitalist project - not the cause of it.  That mobilization
could prompt people to action but did not give them the weapons - they
already had them.  The mobilization simply asks them to use these weapons on
a particular target.

The mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin (subject the famous film) is a case in
point.  The sailors were already in control of the ship's guns, the
agitators merely persuaded them to disobey the officers and turn those
turrets the other way.  Or take the fascist coup of 1926 in Poland, which
started as an empty show of force by a populist military leader Jospeh
Pilsudski.  Pilsudski had only a handful of units loyal to him when he
entered the nation's capital. Most of the military were loyal to the
government.  However, the army was immobilized by a railroad strike
organized by Socialists who saw Pisludski as "their" man (he used to be one,
to be sure).  Without the railroad strike, the coup would have been squashed
like a bug.   Later on, Pilsudski "paid back" his socialist supporters by
imprisoning them, but that is another story.  An important part is that what
started as any empty show of force ended up grabbing real power solely
because it persuaded people who already controlled the railroads to derail
the military trains.   

It is quite obvious that in today's organization of economy and society, the
working class is far too fragmented and scattered across the globe to be
able to derail the capitalist locomotive - with or without mobilization.  So
saying we need millions to go with us is like saying that we need a rocket
to fly to the moon.  Or assuming a can opener like in that old economist
joke.

Wojtek