Most of the organizers on both sides of the issue described themselves as Marxists of one sort or another who supported an NLF victory and cheered it when it came.
But this deeply-felt solidarity didn't inhibit the larger part of the Marxist left from maintaining its political self-discipline and recognizing that the immediate task at hand was to build the broadest possible coalition to end the war, and that narrowing their political constituency by tying the antiwar movement to the Vietnamese resistance was the worst possible support they could give to the NLF. The politically astute NLF leadership itself understood and agreed with this orientation.
It was, of course, also easier in those days for Marxists to support their ideological kin in Vietnam; today few us feel the same political kinship to Hezbollah or the other Islamist groups who now lead contemporary national struggles, although we can admire their steadfastness and their social welfare policies which have everywhere given them a solid base among the poor, and unconditionally support their right to self-determination.
If it was considered bad politics to inject the NLF into the Vietnam antiwar movement then, why would we think it is good politics today for the Middle East antiwar movement to identify itself with the Hezbollah through its slogans or program?
The point is to put maximum pressure on Western governments to end their support of Israel, and this necessarily requires a movement which is inclusive enough to interest the majority of the population which has many more illusions and qualms about Hezbollah and the Islamists than anyone on this list.
The desire to turn the antiwar movement into an "anti-imperialist" one is usually the result of frustration and impatience with the slow pace of its development within the larger population outside the left. But the possibilities of an "anti-imperialist" movement broadening itself in current circumstances are even more limited - does that even need saying? - and it's safe to assume that if this tendency had become ascendent during the Vietnam war, it would have relieved the considerable mass pressure on the Johnson and Nixon administrations which helped bring that war to a close.
----- Original Message -----
From: mike larkin
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 2:14 PM
Subject: [lbo-talk] We're All Hezbollah Now
cp:In California, Diane Feinstein argued for complete support of the Israeli
undertaking at a rally, and the green candidate for governor, Todd Chretien,
held a counterrally where he called Hezbollah a grassroots national
resistance force.
Now that is just shameless pandering to California's Islamist vote.
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