Chip Berlet wrote:
>
> John Lacny:
>
> "social movements do not just respond to
> divisions within the ruling class; they CREATE them by causing the kind of
> disruption that needs to be dealt with. Politicians and other elite figures
> then feel bound to follow the on the movement's coattails, and not the other
> way around."
>
> This needs to be posted on the wall of every activist, along with the corollary:
>
> Political parties do not create social movements, and generally try to deflect their radical demands. Social movements, when they become powerful, pull political parties toward their demands.
I would add one corollary -- no one EVER knows in advance _which_ initiatives will "take off" and which will be merely mocking footnotes to history. Without numerous foolish efforts, no abolitionist movement, no CIO, no civil rights movement, etc. That is one of the reasons that leftists fearful of looking foolish are such a drag.
Carrol