[lbo-talk] Question and answer (was: ISO)

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Mon Nov 7 18:34:37 PST 2011


In any case, though I forget & get sucked in too often, the only way I ordinarily answer a question is that the question is not asked but someone's statement implicitly is an answer to some unstated question.

The main fact about all the Occupations is their fantastic and world-shaking success, which cannot be reversed or affected in any way by whether the Occupations continue or "fizzle out." They will of course fizzle out sooner or later, but that is really of no interest. What is of tremendous interest is figuring out how various left groups (from local Church Justice groups to National Organizations) can best expand on the great opening up of political possibility created by these Occupations.

And even if we fail; even if capitalism is still to strong to be shaken at this time (as proved to be the case after Seattle), the greatness, the tremendous success, of these actions will not be affected, just as the General Strikes shag has described remained a great success for the left even though they were followed by the disasters of the '50s and '60s. This is even truer of the Paris Commune.

Nitpicking particular real or imagined "errors" or mistakes of any of the Occupations remains a mere annoying distraction from the thinking we need to do.

Carrol



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