> And while we can haggle over the existence or non-existence of a "left," it's not like there's a big sector inclined to support armed struggles overseas. How many will even openly back the Palestinian resistance, on which most in left circles are far more knowledgeable?
>
> (I gather the answer is more than in 2012, and a lot more than in 2008-2009, but still not many in the scheme of things.)
The more limited impact of today’s solidarity movements is related, IMO, to the disappearance of a socialist left once rooted in the working class. Most liberal-minded people who are sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and Kurds would like to see a just and peaceful resolution of the conflicts which they’re engaged in and don’t fully understand that they legitimately take up arms in self-defence when channels for peaceful change are blocked and their protests are violently suppressed. Support was higher in the 30’s, during the Spanish Civil War, and in the 60’s, during the Vietnam War and the Cuban Revolution, when there was a generally higher level of political consciousness resulting from their own experience in struggle of workers and allied groups, furthered by the Communist Party and smaller Marxist organizations in their midst which helped to organize and advance their political education.
> On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 2:49 AM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:
>
> I think the main dynamics are:
>
> 1) the new war has fallen off the front page, replaced by Ebola, gay marriage, elections.
> 2) what's happening with the Syrian Kurds isn't useful to any big configuration in the U.S. It's not useful to the USG because the situation points up the fact that key U.S. ally Turkey is playing a double game. It's not useful to the anti-war movement because the key complaint of the Kurds is that the U.S. isn't doing more to attack ISIS in their area.
> 3) Congress is in recess. If Congress were in session now, there would probably be some squawking about what’s happening to the Syrian Kurds and that would generate some press coverage.
Your second point seems to me to be the most important one. The US wants Turkey to send ground forces in against the IS, and is not responding to the Syrian Kurd appeals for heavy weaponry and air support at the insistence of the Turks who want to see the movement for a Kurdish homeland on both sides of the border weakened rather than strengthened. As you know, the PKK, which is allied with the YPG, also is still included on the US’s “terrorist” list for waging a long guerrilla war (which it is threatening to resume) against control from Ankara.