Re: [Marxism] Antiwar "leaders" can't break reformist habits

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

While I agree with most of what Sharon Smith has to say, I have to comment
on this:

> Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the women's peace group Code Pink, told the
> San Francisco Chronicle on January 23: "It was easier to mobilize people
> before the war. Now, many people have fallen into thinking that we can't
> just cut and run."

> This pessimistic conclusion is somewhat premature--and disingenuous, since
> the antiwar movement itself has thus far failed to attempt to build an
> opposition that is clear on this question.

Benjamin's statement isn't a CONCLUSION, it's an observation, and I
challenge anyone to provide evidence that it isn't a correct observation. It
is a simple FACT that many people who opposed the war, and marched in
pre-invasion marches, take the position that "we're there, now we have to
'finish the job'". Putting one's head in the sand and imagining that isn't
so is simply failing to acknowledge reality.

PESSIMISM is taking that observation and throwing up one's hands and saying
"we can't do anything about it." But REALISM is acknowledging the facts on
the ground and deciding how to proceed based on those facts.

The central problem I see, in the antiwar group I participate in, is that,
as reflected in this article, people think that, because we haven't stopped
the war yet, we have failed, and "we" must be doing something wrong (well,
some of us were, in the last election, that's for sure). They think there's
some "magic bullet" somewhere and if the movement had only been pursuing
that magic formula, we would be successful by now. That isn't to say that
strategies and tactics aren't important, they are, but not nearly as
important as the overall relationship of forces, which can't be changed
overnight simply by hitting upon some magic formula for success.

Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com



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