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

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Marvin Gandall wrote:
> 
> All the more reason why blaming the inability to build an active antiwar
> movement on the political deficiencies of one or another small opposing
> groups of left activists is to lose sight of the forest for the trees.

We have a responsibility to point out errors on the left here, 
especially when it involves self-described Marxist groups. The Party of 
Liberation and Socialism runs ANSWER like the CPUSA used to run its 
front groups in the 1930s. It is an organizing model that must be 
discarded for us to move forward. Real movements involve contradiction. 
Obviously the war in Vietnam had a much different dynamic than the war 
in Iraq, but there is one thing they have in common. They are both 
deeply unpopular wars. The inability to tap into this discontent has to 
be understood in terms of both reformist and ultraleft errors. 
Basically, the CPUSA/CofC led coalition sees itself as a kind of 
leftwing version of moveon.org. Everything is geared to what was 
referred to as the "election cycle" in that highly revealing phone 
conference transcript that Michael Lerner posted on the Tikkun website. 
Opposed to UFPJ you have two "coalitions" led by tiny Marxist sects that 
compete with each other over who is the most authentic 
"anti-imperialist" antiwar formation. These sorts of sects are doing the 
only thing that they are capable of doing. They simply lack the faculty 
to critique themselves, since that would require thinking outside the 
"vanguard" box. My remarks are not really directed toward people who 
can't think outside the box, but to the hundreds of young 
revolutionary-minded people on Marxmail who are our future.

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