[lbo-talk] A Counterpunch essay on state secrecy

[Carrol Cox]

Doug Henwood: I basically agree, but as several people have pointed out, the
effects abroad may be more powerful than those in the U.S. Nigerians now
know just how extensively Shell penetrated their gov; Australians now know
that Washington had a stoolie in Canberra; Arabs now know that many of their
govs were cheering on a U.S. attack on Iran. Etc. Of course, we sorta knew
these things all along - but now we really *know* them.

And I mostly agree with this. Those effects are, however, only pot4ential
effects. I understand that in some places the information is already being
incorporated into political action (demonstrations, etc) that can make the
news an active element. But, for example, most Arab states are ruled by
despotic governments in bed with the u.s. And repression works more often
than not.

And a jump to a topic which might be connected.

Over the last 40 years in all sorts of contexts, and in many posts on this
list, we have heard the song, "The Student Movement of the '60s Failed to
Reach the 'Working Class.'"

They had it all wrong.  One could more accurately say that the Labor
Movement of the '30s failed to reach the students.

Young workers (that is, students) are going to be at the very heart of any
serious mass movement in the U.S. -- as they have been in countless places
in the past, and as they seem to be now in Europe.

A "working-class fetish," that turns the "working class" into an identity
rather than a class, continually confuses left thought.

Carrol