> This is absolutely the key! The problem would not have happened if
> the moderator of the meeting had firmly said, "That is off topic.
> Next." But the moderator is a nice liberal woman member of the
> Democratic Socialists of Columbus, Ohio, so she put the topic on the
> meeting agenda. . . .
Right. It's absolutely key for the chair to say that something is off topic. This gets harder to do when the meeting is filled up with people who insist on letting everybody speak.
At my age, and after years of experience in the movement, I've figured out that you have to be firm about these things, even if it pisses off people who aren't causing the problems.
> I 100% agree with you. The problem is that most anti-war activists
> here mistake polite tolerance of BS for "freedom of speech" and "broad
> coalition building," so they have no stomach for confrontation.
> Strangely, a number of these very polite people are anarchists and
> socialists, and some of the latter even belong to Marxist-Leninist
> organizations like the International Socialist Organization!
> Apparently, politeness overrules whatever ideology they have. Michael
> Pollak's observation is correct: "the main norm [of the USA] is
> politeness" ("Hitch on Borat,"
> <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2006/2006-November/022637.html>).
You are in Ohio, right? The good ole polite Midwest.
I'm horribly polite in person and it comes out in meetings. My personality in person is more reserved than my online persona. I don't like pissing people off online or off, but you just can't affor to be polite to people who will derail your meetings in a serious way. You don't have to control every minute of the meeting, but a 20 minute digression on something off topic is worse than a 2 minute aside.
> BTW, a local twist is that the Columbus chapter of World Can't Wait,
> an RCP front group, apparently has many overlapping members with
> "Columbus 911 Truth":
> <http://www.columbus911truth.org/>; damn, the group has even organized
> a "TRUTH Film Festival": <http://www.truthfilmfestival.com/>!). This
> "right opportunist deviation" is a purely local phenomenon, not the
> deviation of the RCP itself, right? If so, whatever happened to
> democratic centralism? If there is any use for democratic centralism
> at all, it has to be to put an immediate stop to BS of this nature.
> "Marxists" who buy into BS have forsaken Marxism.
I found out a few weeks ago that the point person for WCW in Kansas City is also one of our biggest 9/11 Truthers. KC is a hotbed for the 9/11 truth movement. I don't think this person is a big commie, because she was a Republican just a few years ago (before 9/11). She's probably like your local WCW person, an activist doing double duty and attracted to WCW for its liberal focus on impeachment.
I think it's funny if the RCP reaps what it sows. It creates a liberal front group to raise funds and ends up attracting the more militant liberals.
Hilarious.
Can't wait for Chairman Bob's VERY IMPORTANT COMMUNIQUE on WTC Building 7.
Chuck