Begin forwarded message:
> From: Chuck <chuck at mutualaid.org>
> Date: July 27, 2006 3:57:55 PM EDT
> To: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Cc: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Subject: Re: Jesse Lemisch on the KC gas station action
>
> Jesse Lemisch just doesn't get it.
>
>> From: "Jesse Lemisch" <utopia1 at attglobal.net>
>
>> 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?
>
> Lemisch is either being dense here or defensive after being
> corrected on his confusion about the demo.
>
> I was at the meeting of the Code Pink people in the parking lot
> before the demo. The parameters of the demo were discussed and one
> person brought up a concern about pissing off motorists. One of the
> Code Pink organizers emphasized that the goal of the protest was
> NOT to shut down the gas station, but to talk to people.
>
> They had the misfortune to run into a deranged motorist who
> attacked one of the activists.
>
>> Whatever the intent, the demo did indeed piss people off.
>
> How does Jesse know this? The only thing I know about pissed off
> people is the one guy who assaulted one of my friends and then had
> the police arrest her.
>
> If people protested according to Lemisch's view of dissent, nobody
> would leave the safety of their barcalounger.
>
>> 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 )
>
> Does Jesse Lemisch actually exist as a real person? This outrage is
> out of touch with reality, especially what happened in Kansas City.
>
> I've run into types like Lemisch before. They are a rare species,
> activists who don't want activists to do activism.
>
>> 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.
>
> So Lemisch is arguing that the U.S. invaded Iraq and is intervening
> in the Middle East because there is a date palm shortage?
>
> People who drive cars are complicit in their government's policies.
> What is wrong with an attempt to talk to these people?
>
>> 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:
>
> Sounds good to me. Bring the war home.
>
>> 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.
>
> So I take it that Lemsich was against the transti workers strike?
> Heaven forbid that those transit workers should fuck up the ability
> of working class people to get to their jobs!
>
> > But it bodes ill that SDS leadership has either
>> vehemently supported obscene attacks on people trying to raise
>> these points, or just remained silent.
>
> There is no SDS "leadership." The SDS is not the RCP. Thank god!
>
>> 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.
>
> Wow! What's up with this animosity towards the SDS? The Kansas City
> action was organized by CODE PINK. The people who do Code Pink
> aren't hard to miss. Hint. They all dress in PINK!
>
> By the way, Lemisch is confusing a DISCUSSION list with the SDS
> organization. SDS has other lists, including an organizing list.
>
>> 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."
>
> That's my take on things and I have a right to state my position.
>
>> * 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.
>
> Whatever. The gas station action was done by Code Pink, but who
> cares about the facts?
>
> Chuck