123hop at comcast.net wrote:
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> Yet, to get away from the black/white picture of 30/60, a lot of the activism of the 60's was carried on by red diaper babie; there was a tradition and history to draw upon.
That's right. And it's actually misleading to compare different periods. My primary concern is to rescue the '60s both from the outritht lies about the Panthers _and_ from the way in which the students involved get trivalized, not only by our enemies but by too many leftists.
I haven't been able to forumalte and develop it yet, but for over a year I've spent a good deal of time thinking how to get a grip on how important the activities of CP members,s ex-members, and 'fellow travellers" were during that _last_ frustrating interim between periods of upsurge. Red Diaper babies is only part of it, however 'wrong' Party plicy was, without their work from 1940 to 1965 the history of the '60s might have been much less inspiring.
And let me state again a point I've made several times on several lists but which many are reluctant to even consider. Negative criticisms (however accurate) of left politics of the past are of no use whatever in the present. Identifying past errors gives no aid in avoiding the same errors in the present. For example, the largest single eerror made in the '60s was the delay in getting the anti-war movment underway by those who insisted we had to give a persuasive answer to the question, but what should the u.s. do in Vietnam? What is _your_ solution? Only when most of us began to rject those questions and say Fuck it, bring the troops home now! Let the government sovle the transportation problem -- only then did we begin to build a decent movement.
But of course when the next war comes on (as it will) there will be a year of stupid 'nuancing' before a serious anti-war movement can get underway.
But (disregarding all the errors etc) a focus on what earlier movements did _right_ can actually be useful Maybe if one can convince others that such and such _was_ right. I don't know how many if any I've convince that the'60s showed that multi-centered left, with lots of wranglibng among the parts, can achieve coherence better than can a hegemonic party, which I think the 60s showed.
Carrol