[lbo-talk] NYT on French unions

Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
Tue Apr 4 12:04:58 PDT 2006


----- Original Message ----- From: "Gar Lipow" <the.typo.boy at gmail.com> -Nathan you are both wrong and supporting my point. Wrong because there -were plenty of non-partisan smartly phrased anti-war stuff on the -Internet. There was a huge center left blogsphere even then full of -beautifully crafted messages - (Atrios/Duncan Black, Billmon/Whiskey -Bar, Jeanne D'Arc (who is more grass roots, and maybe not quite so -center these days). Hell you had your own Blog. Maxspeak had his.

Of course there's been an anti-war blogosphere, which have had significant effects on the debate over the war over time. The question was why the antiwar movement and its marches have been so marginal to the debate. So I think you shifted the question a bit.

-But your larger point is at least half right. I think lack of money -and media makes a huge difference - but most of all what makes the -difference is lack of boots on the ground - grassroots people putting -in a little bit of time every week. That is the gold standard; that is -the basis for everything else. If you have that they can help get your -message out.

Absolutely-- and it needs to be united through good strategy.

-Of course it -is not enough by itself. You need really smart intellectual labor - -including wonkery and theory. You need media and communication. But -everything else works better if you have that day to day movement to -work in.

Yes, good wonkery can aid good movement work and vice versa. I spend a lot of my time on the wonkery part but in conjunction with all the good folks doing the day-to-day stuff.

-- Nathan Newman



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