Re: A post-October 25 redbaiting and split drive is underway: response to Weinberg

[Robin Maisel <robinmaisel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Fred Feldman wrote:

> Probably banking on the likelihood of a modest but (especially under
> the present conditions) highly significant turnout for the October 25
> marches, a new campaign is underway to split the antiwar movement and
> use red baiting to break up the progress made toward forging a real
> action coalition.
>
> Robin Maisel adds his two cents:
      There is a reason why "single issue" and "non-exclusionary"
united actions and organizational coalitions are required at this time.
It is exactly the same reason why they were required during the Vietnam
war.  There is no mass radicalization among workers yet which can take
them out of the orbit of the capitalist parties (whether you think of
that as the Democrats and Republicans alone or add to that the
assortment of "third parties" in various colors).
   Under those circumstances there is always going to be pressure to
funnel the movements which have the potential to act independently back
into the shell game which is called the "election cycle" of 2 or 4
years.  It is not accidental but intentional.  It is done by those who
do not want to see independent working class political action -  even
when there is none going on right at this moment - because they truly
believe that the best way to advance the cause of the workers is to
support capitalist candidates.  And the reason they want to support
capitalist candidates is that that they are opposed to independent
working class action because that independence leaves the workers open
to revolutionary ideas and actions such as the factory occupations in
Argentina, the land takeovers in Brazil and Bolivia and because they see
that those actions could lead workers to follow the example of  Cuba
(for example).
   So, how do you divide and demobilize independent actions which go
beyond the limits set by the capitalist ruling class and their political
parties.  A good beginning is red baiting.  That has worked very well in
the past.  Others are anti immigrant, racist and anti-feminist baiting.
The newest baiting is "terrorist" baiting and "war crimes" baiting.  But
wait, they will come up with other objections to united actions
independent of the capitalist parties and their system.  This is not
new.  I (and a lot of others) have seen this film before.
   How to change this?  First, keep building movements independent of
the capitalist parties which bring people into action such as big
demonstrations.  During the Vietnam war a large number of Democrats and
Republicans (yes, even Republicans) voiced opposition to certain aspects
of the war.  That was manifested in slogans like "Declare Victory and Go
Home" and "Negotiate Now."  But those were slogans, not program.  None
of the capitalist politicians called for ending the system which brought
on the war to begin with.  On the contrary, they supported that system
with a "kinder, gentler" face.
   99 percent of the participants in the antiwar demonstrations were
NOT in favor of independent working class political action and in fact
had never thought about it in a systematic way.  But they were opposed
to letting the ruling class have its way on that war and that raised the
specter of independence, which haunted the ruling classes not only in
the US but world wide.  Like the specter of communism in 1848 (and a
communist revolution was not on the agenda anywhere in the world in
1848), the specter of class independence haunts imperialism today.  In
February1917 the mass action of the workers, soldiers and peasants
overthrew the Tzar and Tzarism in Russia.  They did that under slogans
which demanded not communism but democracy.  But 10 months later they
overthrew the "democratic" government of the Russian capitalists and
landlords in favor of a government of workers, peasants and soldiers
because only such a government could tackle the problems of "bread, land
and peace."  The capitalist class and its supporters learned a thing or
two from that experience.  They don't want to see a repeat of that event.
   And the capitalist classes know that things can get out of hand very
quickly.  One day they are fighting in the electoral arena, the next in
the streets of La Paz and Buenos Aires or in every city and town across
the length and breadth of Cuba as they saw in 1959.
   There is no mass working class radicalization threatening the ruling
class in the US at this time, but that doesn't mean they have forgotten
history.  They will use every chance they get to divide and movement, be
it of students, housewives and househusbands, African Americans,
Latinos, Asians and women in order to protect their rule.  At his time
the easiest way to do that is to red bait on the one hand, and sucker
people into supporting one of the capitalist parties (and that goes far
beyond the Democrats and Republicans) on the other.  The best way to
derail them is to continue to have actions and coalitions for actions
which are independent of their parties.  That means non-exclusionary and
"single issue" demonstrations and coalitions.  That means no red
baiting, war crimes baiting, Gulf War baiting, etc.  It means
concentrating on single issue demonstrations.  What is impelling people
to march is opposition to the war(s).  My guess is that if we took a
poll of the participants in toady's marches, 99% will say they are there
because of the war.  Only a very tiny number will say they are there to
oppose racism, sexism, red baiting, Zionism, the FTAA or anything else.
Those will be on different demonstrations at this time.
Robin Maisel
10/25/03



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