[Marxism] Re: Stan Goff's comments

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I basically agree with Stan Goff.  My angle was off, viewing the broader
GI work from the standpoint of which left groups were most involved.  I
have no doubt that MFSO and BTTHN are carrying out a very important
course in work with the GIs.  I also think that the opportunities are
probably getting too broad for one group to handle.

I think GI Special is pretty good, although I have noticed its tendency
to favor hard-boiled GI lingo in what I think of as the James Jones
literary tradition.  (But I loved "From Here to Eternity".)

I'm sure that Workers World tries to recruit GIs to its politics with
its GI work, and I don't doubt they have some success, too.  GIs may
start with Bring the Troops Home Now or even much less -- I don't want
to go on that crazy mission.  But a lot of them won't stop there, and,
of course, no reason why they should. Stan Goff didn't.

I think its a bit of an exaggeration to portray these groups as trying
to make the socialist revolution out of every GI protest.  They all seem
to be quite interested in ending the imperialist war, as they were
during Vietnam, and hardly any of them thinks the socialist revolution
is nigh.

It would be better if there were broad, inclusive coalitions against the
war that were committed to getting rid of the war even more than getting
rid of the current occupant of the white house.  That type of formation
is pretty weak at the moment, I am finding in the wake of the debacle of
the anti-Bush campaign.  And that is why MFSO and the rest need the left
groups organizing meetings in their own name and therefore plugging
their own stuff.  That's a reflection of the weakness of the movement at
the moment

The current weakness is partly a product of the debacle of  a strategy
that was almost unprecedentedly concentrated on the elections.. Many
people are still mindblown by their "rejection" by the electorate, and
others -- who saw the antiwar movement primarily as a way to get the
Democrats in -- are pulling up stakes and heading out.  Lots of new
people, especially youth, are heading in.  And I think antiwar sentiment
among the troops in Iraq, who can't afford to be too focused on the
elections, seems to be rising rapidly. I think that things will improve
in the coming months.
Fred Feldman
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