[lbo-talk] Signs of the times

[SA]

wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
> And if they genuinely think that, they would be wrong.  I'm not denying
> that media can't help inform and create forms of common sense in a
> movement, and to contribute to a sort of imagined community, but
> ultimately a movement is made up of coordinated political action, more
> specifically masses of people involved in this activity, civil rights,
> ACT-UP, feminism, these were political movements, watching a tv program,
> whether Democracy Now or Glenn Beck does not constitute this, it's an
> involvement in a spectacle.  Once again, what is really remarkable about
> this organizing is how little was accomplished with so much.  robert wood
>   

Again - I agree with you, watching TV isn't political act. But when 
millions do it, it is the marker of a successful movement. Start an 
internet podcast called Communism Now More Than Ever. If in ten years 
it's got an audience of 30 million people, then you can be sure there 
must have been a gigantic radical movement that sprouted in the 
intervening years. Actually, our very own Carrol Cox, who knows 
something about organizing, once said this well:


> The most powerful and well-written analysis conceivable witll not 
> persuade anyone who does not know it exists or has no reason to read 
> the first paragraph. And that brings us back to reaching people before 
> we can talk to them or give them things to read.

http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20090330/005303.html

SA