Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Jun 20, 2010, at 11:07 AM, Bob Morris wrote:
>
>
> It's undignified to say "I told you so," but I'll check my dignity at
> the door and say that, and also point out that crises are *not*
> fertile ground for radical agitation unless everything has completely
> fallen apart, maybe. I do wonder, though, what all those leftists who
> have been predicting crisis every day for the past four decades make
> of this.
(Sects are a dead end, true, but some are less awwful than others.)
I mostly agree, but would divide in two: predicting crisis is one thing, but is separable (or can be) from assuming that crisis = left "opportunity." As you say, it doesnt.
But crises do or may energize a handful of activists. The CP got built in the '30s, and though I agree with almost all the criticisms that has been made of it from 1936 on, still it was the CP, ex-CPers, CP fronts, graduates of CP summer schools, etc who one meets at every important turn in the great upsurge of the '60s. (I disagree rabidly with all those on both left and right who keep trying to trivialize the huge achievements of htat period.) At least metaphorically, one can say that the seeds of Montgomver, Berkeley, and the '69 Moratorium are to be found in the Sitdown strikes of the '30s -- howver shortlived the achivements of those strikes were. And that came out of left response to crisis.
Carrol