[Marxism] Re: Supporting the resistance?

["Marvin Gandall" <marvgandall@xxxxxxxxxx>]

M. Junaid Alam wrote:

The ISO - all of us - would have to be a group of real morons if things were
just as simple as a failure on our part to create some kind of structure for
the hordes of people to vent their anger and become radicalized. The people
themselves would also have to be morons if they were so pissed off but
nothing came of it unless a few radicals set up some structures for them. I
think the problem is far deeper.
----------------------------------
You're right. The problem is far deeper than the perennial excuse of a
"crisis of leadership" on the left - a  crisis, which if it exists, is a
symptom rather than a cause of mass quiescence.

In this case, Iraq has not, at least to date, developed into another
Vietnam - the original fear which drove the protests in 2003 - because 1)
there is no universal draft fuelling student protest, which was the backbone
of the antiwar movement in the 60's, 2) American casualties, as you note,
are nowhere near approaching those in Vietnam, 3) The level and quality of
the resistance is much lower than in Vietnam, and support for it by the
Iraqi population is much less apparent, to Americans and others, than was
Vietnamese support for the NLF, 4) the military and political risks of
intervention for the US are lower today, following the collapse of the USSR
and integration of China into the world capitalist economy, and 5) the
economic risks are also substantially lower, in that there is not the same
relative hemorraging of capital to pay for the war which played a major role
in the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. In the absence of many more
body bags, student panic about a universal draft, engagements on the order
of the Tet offensive, publicized atrocities like My Lai, and a growing split
in the ruling class over the economic and political consequences of the
intervention, it is naive to imagine that bringing back the leadership and
program of the SWP of the 60's will have much effect on things on the
ground.

MG



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