Robert Wrubel wrote:
>
> --- Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
> "the left is in far healthier state now than it was in
> 1999, if you measure its health not against impossible
> goals but in terms of a wider and deeper
> "infrastructure".
>
> Just for the sake of clarity, in what ways do you
> think the left infrastructure is stronger than it was
> in 1999? The proliferation of left websites like this
> one is ofen mentioned as evidence, as is the internet
> activism of sites like Moveon and the Dean campaign.
> You could also say the web is merely a giant sandbox
> the rulers have allowed us to play in.
Simple. The number of local non-electoral organizations and the interchange among them. There was nothing, for example, in Bloomington/Normal in the '90s. Now we have a web of local relationships, a reasonably thriving local group, with increasing visibility locally. That seems to be happening widely over the last 6 years. And though the UFPJ's subservience to the DP (following in the footprints of the CP) is pretty disgusting, still it is growing in terms of local groups, and the network it represents could explode under the right future condtions. These local groups, with their relationships with other local groups, also represent a framework (infrastructure as WD put it) that could (and in many cases would) rapidly take up medical care issues if that campaign blossomed. Even the slobs in MoveOn (8 people with a mailing list as Carl Davidson described it) can't help but be useful. There were three people in the local MoveOn group that cooperated with BNCPJ in starting monthly demos on the 19th of each month.
Even minimal groups that are lethargic are something. During the First Gulf War four of us left over from Central America Solidarity work triggered a brief flurry that produced the largest demo in B/N in the last 70 years. Had that war lasted we might have really had something. Dean campaign? Who is that?
>
> How come the biggest anti-war demonstration was the
> first, and all subsequent ones smaller? I dont mean
> to sound sneering: I'm sincerely curious what you're
> talking about.
Of Course! That was take-off point for my post. We are building infrastructure, remember, without any pretences to influence national policy now. NON-ELECTORAL infrastructure. The core is still growing. Around 5 to begin with, now between 10 and 20: that is huge. We even have a link with the local immigrant movement.
Carrol
Carrol