[lbo-talk] Michael Lerner tattles: the state of the antiwarmovement

wrobert at uci.edu wrobert at uci.edu
Thu Sep 13 11:30:16 PDT 2007



>
>
> wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
>>
>>.
>> There are two other things that seem to be missing from current
>> efforts as well.
>
> Well, that's easy to fix. All you have to do is go out tomorrow with all
> your troops and start doing the things that we should be doing but are
> too stupid to think of.

I'm glad you're not taking a schematic brief sketch of a critique too personally...


>> The first is I don't see any really effort to
>> either create structures or cultivate the kind of subaltern
>> structures that Gramsci discusses.
>
> Jesus Christ! Thousands of people have been busting their butts doing
> just this for 30 years. Do you have the faintest idea of just how
> fucking hard this is to do? Well, that's easy to fix. All you have to do
> is go out tomorrow with all your troops and start doing the things that
> we should be doing but are too stupid to think of.

Repeat. I don't think I ever claimed it was easy. Surprisingly enough, I've also been involved in organizing for about a decade myself. Still despite a lot of hard work, I don't see a lot of planning.... I don't go in for the sort of repetition compulsion that I have seen in anti-war demo planning....


>> This seems to because a sort of
>> obsession with either celebrity or the if we tell the truth, they
>
> Huh! What the hell are you talking about? And do you know how many
> cities have anti-war groups? And what percentage of those cities have
> you visited? You must have visited a lot of them to know that we are
> obsessed with celibrities, because I've certainly not noticed it
> anyplace.

This might be a parochial concern being so close to Los Angeles right now... Minneapolis was more of a repeat kinda city...


>> will come tactics (something that comes out of Chomsky... as much as
>> I admire the man...) The second is that I don't sense that there is
>> any attempt to link anti-war activity with a larger critique of our
>> society (there is a fairly widespread opportunism on the part of
>> activists....)'
>
> Oh for pete's sake. WE DO NOT HAVE THE CADRE. WE ARE WORKING ON
> RECRUITING AND TRAINING THOSE CADRE, BUT THEY DON'T JUMP OUT OF THE
> BUSHES AT US. WE ARE DOING ALL THE THINGS YOU TALK ABOUT AND WE ARE EVEN
> HAVING SOME SUCCESS -- BUT IT IS HARD HARD HARD. This is what I mean
> when I say it's really stupid to criticize " the left" because no one
> who is doing it admits to being Part of the Left, they are merely like
> you sitting on the sidelines and kibiitzing, witnout even knowing what
> they are kibitzing.

Okay, we've moved into the yelling section. Somehow I can't work myself up to being properly chastened. Where did I mention that this is easy. I should also included a need to create institutional supports for subalterns as well, but I was keeping my comments brief. I personally don't think that we've been doing all that well in the last thirty years. I think that a lot of this has to do with things that are out of our control, but I don't think that everything is out of our control. You may believe this, but I think that its fatalism. The question is what can we do with the level of involvement now. One thing might be devising some tactics that feel like they mean something for the people involved so that they don't burn out. The other would involve trying to create stronger organizations, which is a more long term element.

To end, I guess I'm kinda tired of this bullshit. You have know idea what I have been involved in when it comes to organizing, but you certainly can make enough assumptions about it. And why? To defend some bullshit piece of turf? It reminds me of an old colleagues comment that the territoriality of radicals is like bald men fighting over a comb. Movements that mean something are critical. I can read this in old left and new left material, and experienced it working with a lot of people I respect in and out of the TC. But keep doing the same thing over and over again. I'm sure it will work... someday. robert wood


> PLEASE. Go out and do it. Show us how stupid we have been.
> Carrol
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list