Re: [Marxism] Our alternative should be an antiwar movement,

[Bonnie Weinstein <giobon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There is a pretty big coalition that has formed in San Francisco to build
for October 27. A list of endorsers for this action can be found at
bauaw.org. It includes virtually every antiwar group in the area including
UFPJ, ANSWER and Not In Our Name. They have been compelled to come together
by the momentum against the war that is building and broadening.

I have been working in this coalition since it formed. I have also
consistently worked with ANSWER in the past and was involved in the Feb.
15/16, 2003 "liaison committee" that formed to build that demonstration
before the war began--by the way--which was the last time there was a real
coalition building an action in and around the Bay Area until the current
organizing around Oct. 27.

The list of endorsers for this action is growing by leaps and bounds and
includes virtually every labor council in the Bay Area who have actually
been sending delegates to the Steering Committee for the Oct. 27 Coalition
to End the War Now! Bring the Troops Home Now! These steering committee
meetings are based on one organization, one vote and majority rule.
Unfortunately, it also means that independents have a voice but not a vote.

Still, the meetings are typically large--over 60 people representing
different organizations (check the list of endorsers.)

Of course, the real test of this coalition is if it begins to plan for
future actions after Oct. 27 and stays together. This is the real challenge.

Since many of the groups were thrust together by momentum and not
choice--this will be the difficult part--to keep everyone together.

Whether we will stay together or not depends upon whether or not masses of
workers and independent activists are drawn to it.

As I said, it looks very promising so far. There is a list of meetings
already scheduled which can also be found at bauaw.org.

You can also check out the coalition website at oct27sf.org. It also has all
the latest endorsers, etc. and meeting times and places.

I also think that the demonstration against the war in New Jersey was a
breakthrough since it was really representative of the Black community in
action against the war. I don't agree with other things they were promoting
(gun control, etc.) but this was a giant step forward on the road to mass
action against the war and the involvement of the ranks of the working
class.

Unfortunately, there is no leadership party that can play the role that the
old SWP did in the anti-Vietnam War movement to encourage the united front
and play a leading role in it, and that is a tremendous disadvantage that we
have to overcome somehow.

Still working on that.

--Bonnie Weinstein






On 9/7/07 6:29 PM, "Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Ben writes, "regardless of the inherent flaws in the Greens (which have
> doomed the party to structural and functional failure) it is sort of comical
> to watch you attempt to galvanize the left into yet another single issue
> campaign."
> 
> Ben here rails against something I didn't say. I'm through wasting my time
> with people who won't --or can't-- read.
> 
> Eli suggests that one way to build an antiwar movement is to write comments
> on the Daily Kos. I don't read the Daily Kos and I don't know anyone who
> does. 
> 
> Eli suggests a second variant: "Join ANSWER, or Troops Out Now Coalition or
> World Can't Wait or even UfPJ if you prefer, or any organization which is
> ACTUALLY BUILDING the antiwar movement by organizing demonstrations and lots
> more. I work with ANSWER in San Francisco and I'm sure it won't be a
> surprise to anyone when I say there's an awful lot of work being done by a
> very small number of extremely overtaxed people.
> 
> "Demonstrations like Sept. 15 and Oct. 27 don't 'just happen' and there is
> PLENTY of work to do."
> 
> This is based on the theory that it is better to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING,
> rather than NOTHING. There was a time when I might have agreed with that,
> but not any more. TONC and ANSWER are both political expressions of Marcyite
> sects. Neither one can build a genuine mass-action oriented, immediate
> withdrawal wing of the antiwar movement, and their existence prevents the
> emergence of such a formation. The role that the Marcyite coalitions play
> for the left wing if played by UfPJ for the antiwar movement as a whole.
> Their suggestion this week is to call your congresscritters. Their
> suggestion last week was to call your congresscritters. Their suggestion
> next week will be to call your congresscritters. As for joining the
> Avakianite "World Can't Wait" front group, was that some kind of joke?
> 
> OH, but they're having "mass actions." So what? Protest demonstrations are a
> TACTIC not a strategy. When, where and how they are carried out needs to a
> be a function of a strategic perspective that bases itself on an
> understanding of politics and social forces. ANSWER and TONC will BOTH claim
> to be doing this, but what the WWP and PSL are really about strategically is
> building their own sects. As for UfPJ, its strategic perspective is leading
> everyone into the Democratic Party, which is, as I've said before, the roach
> motel of social movements: folks check in, but they don't check out.
> 
> At any rate, there is no answer or tonc here, only an IAC chapter around the
> three WWP members who've been here for a quarter century. The UfPJ-type
> formation is a coalition of non-profiteers who bear moral witness at midday
> one Friday a month in front of the offices of I forget which Senator. They
> are all very nice people, but if they were capable of organizing something,
> it would have happened by now.
> 
> I don't believe this is JUST because of their individual or collective
> failings in organizing technique, but ALSO quite simply that their approach
> just plain doesn't work -- not here, not now. I don't know what a successful
> approach for organizing an antiwar movement today is. Wish I did. But I do
> know what it looks like when the approaches you are following simply aren't
> working. It looks like what we have here.
> 
> The people who actually have organized something in town are the ones in the
> immigrant rights movement, so --frankly-- I'm going to stick with them.
> 
> Joaquin
> 
> 
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