From: "Jesse Lemisch" <utopia1 at attglobal.net>
Chuck says: "the goal was not to shut down the gas station." Literature from Code Pink (who my original posting made clear was the primary organizer, endorsed and enthusiastically reported on by KC SDS)* announced in advance: "Stop Fueling the War Machine: Gas Station Takeovers!... disrupt business as usual... attempt to occupy the pumps... If we... block a pump, Cars can't make us move,,, Walking in circles back and forth on a sidewalk that happens to block the entry way to a gas station is PERFECTLY LEGAL!"
So, of course Chuck is totally wrong about the stated goal of the demo. Was the demo intended, in addition, to piss people off? Chuck says, "The goal of the group was not to piss people off." He may well be right: they had no idea that shutting down gas stations at 5pm on a Friday would piss people off. What shape will our hoped for new new left be in if it can't see these connections and doesn't want to?
Whatever the intent, the demo did indeed piss people off. If you were hurrying home to your little family, dog, etc, in your PT Cruiser, saying, "thank god I made it through to another Friday in these last days of capitalism," you'd be pissed off too. But as I indicated on my satirical posting on the SDS list, who cares about gas station owners, attendants, and -- least of all, drivers, who I described as "a tiny privileged minority in this country. mainly white and brimming over with false consciousness"? Such disregard and contempt is reminiscent of the collapse of the first SDS, amidst cries like the old Weather slogan, "Fight the People." (For sympathetic responses to the Weather Underground in the new SDS, see various postings on the SDS list, and my "Weather Underground Rises from the Ashes: They're Baack!" New Politics, XI, no. 1 (Summer 2006), pages 7-13. http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue41/Lemisch41.htm )
Do great demoes like those mentioned by SDSers -- civil rights, Free Speech Movement, draft resisisters, etc. -- inconvenience people? Of course they do. Is this such a great demo? There's no way of reading this as other than an attack on drivers for in some utterly unexplained way contributing to the war. Like so many Americans, these people, who are now conscripted in the role of enemy, are trapped in a system (gas power, no public transport, etc.). I suggest an SDS fall offensive along the lines of the KC demo, a kind of "gas summer," in which people on bicycles shut down gas stations across the country. surely this will end the war. Other related actions:
Here in NYC, where the MTA notoriously cooks the books, degrades services, raises fares and fucks the union, I propose that we shut down the subway at 5 pm on a hot Friday, all singing "Charley on the MTA." This will help us build our movement and help to bring down capitalism. Afterwards, we should fight monopoly utilities like Con Ed by pulling the plug at 5 pm on Friday (if it's hot). This, too, will help to bring down capitalism and bring us many new supporters.
The responses to my critique on the SDS list consisted of obscene attacks from many (there were some who understood), and an utter failure to think about what kind of actions build/don't build a movement. As I said in an earlier posting, those who post on a list are not necessarily typical of the members of an organization, so I hope for something better. But it bodes ill that SDS leadership has either vehemently supported obscene attacks on people trying to raise these points, or just remained silent. In a very short time, the new SDS has gone through all the stages of the original organization, and is now at June 1969, with people gagging, jumping off the list, revoking ther membership. Seeing no connection, Chuck concludes, "I'm all for fucking shit up and pissing off people." I await the promised arrival from SDS of my "Fuck Jesse Lemisch T-shirt," to be rotated with the SDS "Fuck Shit up T-shirt."
Jesse Lemisch
* my posting on the SDS list included a statement of approval of the action by Kansas City SDS which identified the action as Code Pink initiated with SDS participation and enthusiastic apprioval.