Re: Sick matters and cold marchers

[Craig Brozefsky <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Here's an example of the "polemics" Dennis Perrin used on Henwood's list:
>
>  >>Yeesh. I click on the streaming video and who do I see first? Why,
> Larry  Holmes of the fascist Workers World Party, the folks who backed
> Chinese state violence in Tienanmen Square. (I see that Holmes has
> been working on  his Farrakhan impression.) Must we link arms with
> assholes like these? parasites who have no popular support but who
> latch onto any movement they can to advance their twisted
> authoritarian agenda? Fuck them and Ramsey Clark.

I'm glad that the people who show up for the marches here in Chicago
are not so prone to red-baiting.  At the Jan 11th anti-war march, a
Spartacus Youth League(?) contingent with a loudspeaker and large
banners made an appearance.  They had several chants, including one
starting, "Support the North Korean Worker State" and the one with the
megaphone would launch into rants from time to time.  I admit I
laughed when I heard that, as I don't consider NK a "worker state" and
don't think the rest of the marchers do either, but all the same, any
strong anti-imperialist message is welcome.  Personally, I find the
continuous hawking of newspapers and predatory proselityzing on the
edges of the crowd more annoying than any well-intended but
mis-informed chant.

I think just about ever group participating has let loose a stinker of
a chant, or otherwise silenced the crowd with a poorly thought out
comment from the podium at some point over the last few events.
Sometimes it's just stage jitters or over-enthusiasm, but even when
it's pre-calculated adherence to a party-line I think the reaction
from the crowd at large is healthy and corrective.  Contrary to what
some mailing-list activists believe, people who show up for these
events are capable of critical thought and of giving others a peice of
their mind when it is warranted, but they also know when to let things
slide in order to let the energy and solidarity of the events grow.

So while you may read red-baiting on various mailing lists, don't
worry too much about it becoming a problem here "on the ground."
Perhaps the general good cheer of people at the events boosts
resistance to such ideological jackassery.  Or perhaps people like
Mr. Perrin are too valuable as intellectual laborers to waste their
time walking amongst the ideologically unsound masses, instead working
on the next polemic for the giant popular support base they have
waiting for them once they fine tune their rhetoric.

Chicago may not bring out 15k people for their march, but just under
2k (by my estimate) in the eyeball freezing, blood thickening cold of
Jan 11th was respectable IMO.  My favorite chant so far has been
"We're cold, We're cranky and we don't like the government" as the
march pulled into Federal Plaza after several hours of standing around
on an frigid Chicago afternoon.

--
Craig Brozefsky                           <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Free Software Sociopath(tm)     http://www.red-bean.com/~craig
Ask me about Common Lisp Enterprise Eggplants at Red Bean!

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