Re: [Marxism] Disjunction between antiwar sentiment and size of protest

["Mark Lause" <MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually, the demonstrations leading into the war never a serious attempt by
the masses of people at mobilizations and demonstrations, not even from the
onset.  The problem's not a disaffection with those recent actions, but it
goes back to how the media and government structured perceptions of the
demonstrations and their impact from the 1960s onward.  Actually, you can go
back to the civil rights movement was, after the fact, recast as a change of
heart by those in government...a lawyerly revision of the law.

The Left in general (not just the forces in ANSWER), failed to find a way to
contest this at the time or since.  Of course, those forces that are
orientated towards an electoral strategy centered on the Democrats never saw
any particular reason to focus on this.  (And the "radical intellectuals"
were too busy posting their post-modern, post-whiteness on their gendered
otherhood to address the issue of demonstrations.)

In the 2006 election, what had been the core of the "Greens for Democratcy
and Indepenence" urged a national coordinated effort to win "a million votes
for peace" by running independent antiwar candidates.  This was not a "vote
Green" campaign but an effort to encourage all sorts of currents to
cooperate in forming district-wide united fronts against the war.

Pretty much the entire spectrum of the Left--including pretty much all of
the groups in and out of the coalitions--yawned and got distracted by
something else.... And let's not dwell on the response when I suggested that
we find some way to influence the national nominations of the Green Party to
secure a broadly appealing radical and antiwar ticket....

You would think that the prospect of having to listen to more of that kind
of damned whiney pathetic ABB rhetoric in 2008 (and afterwards) would be
enough to energize us.

ML







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