Re: [Marxism] Report from Boston

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

We had 75-100 people come to an anti-war, anti-occupation protest in San
Jose at a John Kerry Fundraiser (see
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/06/1686658.php ), but that's one of the few
(actually, outside the DNC demo, the only) such protest I've heard of (no
doubt there have been others). We certainly encountered some resistance to
holding such a demo, even though we clearly billed it as an "antiwar demo at
a Kerry event" rather than an "anti-Kerry demo" (which it wasn't; we're as
opposed to Kerry as we are to Bush, and we don't want either of them in
office), and no doubt there were many people who didn't come who have come
to previous, similar events when Bush was in town.

As far as New York, I think your fears that no one will show up are
misplaced. For precisely the reason that people did NOT come to Boston, they
WILL come to New York, because they are convinced that it is Bush, and not
the capitalist system (or even just the two parties) which are the problem.
Unfortunately, a large demo in New York now is going to send the wrong
message, specifically, no matter what the intentions of the demonstrations,
the content of the speeches, or the words on the banners, the demonstration
will be interpreted, particularly because of the contrast to the small demos
in Boston, as an ABB, "vote for Kerry" event. Which will just reinforce
Kerry's understanding that he is free to ignore the antiwar movement, since
he has their votes (most of them, anyway) in his pocket.

(By the way, I think a SMALL demo in New York would probably send an even
WORSE message, so I'm not opposing such demos, I'm just lamenting the fact
that the Boston demos were small which is going to have the effect I
describe above).

_________________________________________________________________
Planning a family vacation? Check out the MSN Family Travel guide!
http://dollar.msn.com


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism