On 2013-07-15, at 1:02 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Marv Gandall:
>
>> *I take it from your comments that the US left should be abstaining from
>> the spontaneous protests which have erupted against the Zimmerman acquittal
>> because they cannot possibly have any effect on public consciousness.
>
> You take it incorrectly. I understand the reasons for protest completely. But then what? How are protests in New York and Los Angeles going to change Florida law or police practice? How do we get beyond the politics of self-expression and testimony to something that's actually effective? I don't know the answer to this, but I don't see much sign that people are even asking the question.
It's an old and much-discussed question. Marxists, anarchists, and even social democrats and left liberals have for generations been interrogating themselves of how we get from here to there - from organizing local demonstrations, strikes, and other forms of mass action to building powerful national movements for change. They haven't seen protest as a fuzzy means of self-expression and bearing witness, something which I associate with counter-cultural and religious radicals past and present. The revolutionary left encouraged mass protest with the aim of overthrowing capitalism; the reformist left encouraged it with the aim of wresting concessions from the system. The answers to the question of how to precisely go about accomplishing their respective aims have been many and varied and the source of bitter and sometimes violent disagreement within and between these left tendencies.
In terms of the efficacy of protest, I would say the record has been mixed. Capitalism has not been overthrown, and in times like the present, when workers are insecure and in retreat and political consciousness is low and limited, there are grounds for yours and Wojtek's skepticism. But it is indisputable that the historic legislative gains won by trade unionists, blacks, women, and gays in better times couldn't have been secured without the prior mobilization of these constituencies and their supporters in the streets. All mass movements necessarily begin as localized actions which draw attention to their grievances and recruits to their cause, and it's only in retrospect that the outcome is known, never in advance.
So my answer to your question is that we don't know if the protests in New York or Los Angeles will spread and result in changes to state and federal laws governing the criminal justice system, anymore than we could have foreseen that the Zuccotti Park sit-in would expand into a now-moribund national movement which had some effect on public consciousness if not on legislation. In my view, this is justification enough to support any outbreak of popular discontent against injustice and repression, and the Zimmerman protests fall within that category.