[lbo-talk] Politics vs the DP

[Carrol Cox]

What Doug describes has certainly been my experience locally. Even those 
who moved away from the Dems were apt to slip back with the slightest 
excuse to do so. And in the last  3 or 4 years it has particularly bled 
the initial leadership. We are now in the uncomfortable position of 
having radicals at the center. That's not good. In a healthy movement 
much of the leadership should come from left liberals rather than Reds. 
Now Jan, myself and a couple others have to "think" something like, 
"What would be the group's actions or signs, etc, if left DP members 
were in the majority.

It's awkward. Luckily other groups (primarily IPA-CIOP (Illinois 
People's Action/ Central Illinois Organizing Project and Latinos Unidos 
para Cambi) have greatly increased their public actions. (And in any 
case, BNCPJ has shifted its emphasis from the P to the J. Moreover, the 
local Move-On, unlike the CPUSA (or rather like the CP of the '60s 
rather than now), while pushing Democrats as elections near in between 
times behaves more like an activist group. And a new group (some older 
students, some community people) has emerged -- Common Action (whose 
members tend to describe themselves as Socialist Anarchists. And unlike 
many anarchists, they not only with Reds but with activist liberals. So 
despite the smallness of BNCPJ and its lopsided 'center,' the total 
activist left here has grown considerably in the last 60 moths.

Carrol

On 6/15/2011 3:37 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Jun 15, 2011, at 4:30 PM, SA wrote:
>
>    
>> Wait a minute. So if Dems don't complain, there's no public opposition? That means complaining Dems must have been critical to the antiwar movement in 2005-2007.
>>      
> Yes. That's consistent with Heaney's results. E.g., partisan composition of antiwar demos in January 2007 was 55% Dem, 40% no party. When Hopey took office, it was 50% no party, under 30% Dem. Without significant participation by Dems, there is no popular antiwar movement.
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