Re: "Rebels with a Cause": a documentary about SDS

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As always Lou this was very interesting.  I do not disagree with your
general analysis, but I would also factor in the isolation from the working
class being at least partially the responsibility of the working class
itself.  The depoliticisation of the working class was so thorough and
successful through the combination of the long boom and the Cold War
offensive.


On Friday nite I went to a dinner which was organised by the Women's
Committee of the Qld Trade Council.  Each union nominated a female member
to receive an Emma Miller award.  Emma Miller was a pre-WWW1 union
militant, who at the age of 73 took the Head of Police off his horse with
her hat pin. The police were charging a workers' demo during the General
Strike of 1912. She stuck the pin in him and  the copper limped for the
rest of his life.

My good friend Carole Ferrier received an award - a certificate and an
ornamental hat pin.  Carole lectures at the University of Qld and has been
through the ISO experience. At the presentation she spoke very wittily
about how women should hold onto their pins, because they might need them
one day.  I was very struck by how her speech failed to connect with the
almost totally working class audience.  These women were rank and file
trade unionists and they knew what it was to struggle but theirs was the
ideology of laborism.  Fundamentally they sought mutual love and
forgiveness with the boss rather than victory in the struggle to the death
against the capitalist class.


It is hard to believe that once upon a time the working class was familiar
with Marxist ideas. The struggle for the workers to find their way back to
political understanding will be a long one but of course they will do it.

regards

Gary