Re: [Marxism] Bush's Speech

[Octob1917@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 9/3/2004 2:06:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
cutemdown2003@xxxxxxxxx writes:
And look how the Panthers ended up. Every Left organization that has tried to
act as a social service agency, either fades away, or ends up in the
democratic party

No, the Panthers were in fact purged. Exactly because they were effective and
began to pose a threat to the establishment, not in a real, material sense,
but symbolically as resistance. Yes, it is important to organize in the
workplace, but the dyanmic there has changed dramatically over the past 30 
years.
There are no longer the manufacturing towns, the huge mining camps, steel and
auto plants where workers stayed at the same jobs and lived in close proximity
for years. We are all part of a transient workforce in the US, which makes it
difficult to organize, to instil class consciousness. This is why I think it
must come from the oppressed communities, from among the marginalised, the
so-called lumpen proletariat. After all, most workers in the US today would 
consider
themselves as either middle class or trying to get into the middle class.

That said, there is hope. The upcoming Million Worker March could turn
everything I've just said on its head. I heard Clarence Thomas from the ILWU 
local
10 speak last month and he was truly inspirational. His talk plus the website
and the list of demands has given me hope. We should all get behind this
movement, as it represents a recognition by the most enlightened members of the 
rank
and file that they are faced with a class war, regardless if a Democrat or a
Republican sits in the White House.

Cheers


JoeD
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