[lbo-talk] labor leadership not so sure about Wisconsin

Dissenting Wren dissentingwren at yahoo.com
Mon Feb 21 17:41:40 PST 2011


The only people who can fight for the sheer fun of it and enjoy it even as they lose are those with little at stake. The fight in Wisconsin may or may not be lost. If it is lost, Wisconsin's public workers will not enjoy it.

----- Original Message ---- From: Joseph Catron <jncatron at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Mon, February 21, 2011 7:07:02 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] labor leadership not so sure about Wisconsin

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 3:59 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:

Look, the odds are high that the Wisconsin struggle will end in defeat, one
> way or another. As Luxemburg recognized in the passage I quoted, that is
> _not_ the measure to apply. The Commune Lost! Thousands were executed.
> Thousands sent into exile. The Commune Lives. We are going to face a large
> number of defeates. We did in the '60s. If we merely calculate the chances
> of winning, we are as bad as the Union officials.
>

Or as I. F. Stone said:

“The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing - for the sheer fun and joy of it - to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose. You mustn't feel like a martyr. You've got to enjoy it.”

-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað." ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



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