[lbo-talk] What's the Matter with New York City?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Apr 3 13:37:02 PDT 2006


Carrol Cox wrote:


>Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>>
>> We're Americans too. We don't do mass demos very often.
>
>It would seem that the only people who always remember that demos do
>make a difference are the French. One of the tasks of leftists in the
>u.s. is to defeat the "back to the drawing board" syndrome amongst
>americans, many of whom seem to believe that if one tries a tactic once
>or twice and it doesn't produce immediate visible results, it's time to
>look for new tactics. The trouble is, of course, that for mass political
>movements the number of available tactics at various stages are quite
>limited, and that demos are what bind _all_ tactics together over time.
>This hasn't changed for two hundred years. It won't change.

I'm not quite as down with the nothing ever changes formula as you are - though reading Hofstadter's American Political Tradition makes me feel like nothing's changed in American politics since around 1870. But you're right on this one. At the Women Action Media! conference this past weekend in Cambridge (I, as trailing spouse/childcare provider, was the only man in evidence among 350 attendees), one of the young members of a Gen Y panel, sounding like Nathan Newman, said that mass demos don't work anymore, and it's now all about the Internet. Well one or two mass demos a year won't work. But large, persistent demos make the bourgeoisie feel like it's losing control. Ask de Villepin if mass demos are obsolete.

Doug



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