> I'll give an example from the Civil Rights Movement. The
> original idea for the Montgomery bus boycott was for a
> short action with very limited goals. More conservative
> elements of the local NAACP envisioned a brief
> demonstration boycott. The goal was to tweek Jim Crow so
> as to allow Blacks to fill up the bus from the back, while
> whites filled it up from the front. The two groups would
> meet somewhere in the middle, depending on ridership -
> but there would be no empty seats reserved for whites
> while Blacks stood.
A point I made the other day right here. Some on the left -- including the embattled CPUSA -- were disdainful of the Montgomery Bus Boycott for this very reason. But mass enthusiasm ran ahead of the initial formal demands. This is the way movements work in the real world. Organizers get people in motion, and then the people drive demands. They do not get people in motion that way by thinking up all the perfect solutions and then proselytizing. It has never worked that way. They get people to confront their oppressors -- initially, maybe even to win partial victories -- to demonstrate that the people are strong and the enemy is weak; that's what allows the people to get over both their "false consciousness" and their fear.
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories