Re: [Marxism] Answer to an ISO'er

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:
>
>
> As I have tried to indicate, the strategy of the SWP in the 1960s and 70s
> is one that I recommend. No matter how hostile I am to that group's present
> and past "Leninist" posturing, they did very good work in building an
> antiwar coalition. I do have criticisms of one or another aspect of the
> work, but won' t take the time to expand on that right now. This mostly has
> to do with a certain rigidity about civil disobedience, etc.

I think it would be useful for ex-SWP members to try at least to find
out what the SWP anti-war strategy looked like from the outside during
those decades.

Here is one point to start with: The single-issue line was an illusion,
because it occurred _within_ a context in which innumerable sections of
the population were in movement. Hence while any single demonstration
(whether at a local or a national level) was/is de facto "single issue"
even if declared multli-issue, any movement, _especially at the local
level_, MUST BE multi-issue or it is not a movement.

There is no movement now that even remotely corresponds to the huge
variety of movements that constituted the context for anti-war action in
the '60s. It follows that for present purposes we simply cannot use the
'60s as a model for anti-war strategy now. That is like using the
swimming strategy of goldfish as a model for playing baseball.

Carrol

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