SA wrote:
>
.... a CP that had - what, 10,000 members?
This is a HUGE number. We neverhad that many activists in the '60s.
Of course, the question is whether all 10 thousand CP members were "activists" -- i.e. local organizers. It's also, of curse, difficult to pin down what "organizers" here means. In an SDS that, at its peak at ISU, numbered 25, I would say there were 5 who were "organizers" in the sense that they felt responsible for the chapter rather than passive supporters of it.
A query: You speak of public perceptions. How imprtant do you think those perceptions were? What political difference did they make? Why?
On the whole, however, I find your portrayal a bit more convincing than Marvin's -- since it fits with my tendency to see economic slump as a negative for left activity. Gary MacLennan, on the marxism list, recently quoted someone to the effect that capitalism was in most danger at its best and at its worst, noting that it was at its best in the '60s. Economic slump, however, tends to dishearten people, as well as making it difficult for them to find the time and resources to participate actively in political work. On the other hand, we have nevere yet seen capitalism at anything like its potential worst. The fascist regimes in Germany & Italy were driven to maintain themselves through war, which ultimately marked the limits of their mode of repressing the working class. I'm sure a bourgeois democracy can be a far more efficient and ruthlesds repressive force.
Carrol