Re: [Marxism] A War Protest Falls Short in Manhattan : NYT

["Mike Friedman" <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

I was at the protest yesterday with my 14 year-son... one of the parents
mentioned by the NYT, I guess. Their observations were largely true. I
remarked to my son that, I was greatly surprised that more youth was not
present, particularly among the LES crowd. I expected to see some of his
friends from schoool. His mom remarked to me that there was no publicity
for the event. And I certainly saw nothing, no flyers, nothing posted in
the street. I think UfPJ's current mantra -- cited in two NYT articles --
that the demonstration's low turnout and the general low turnout at
anti-war protests, is bullshit. An excuse. I think, insofar as factors
under their control are concerned, they need to look at their own
long-term and demoralizing sectarian attitude toward other anti-war
groups, for one. Perhaps others can comment on what I perceive as a lack
of transparency in how ALL these coalitions conduct their affairs. There
is also an excessive reliance on the internet and failure to get out into
the street and organize, leaflet, poster, etc. And there is UfPJ's
historic tendency to turn off the tap during election campaigns. There was
a much more significant turn-out for the March 19 activity at City Hall to
demand funding for educartion and an end to the war in Iraq. My son
attended that demonstration with his friends, and noted that it was much
larger, younger and drew more people of color, in spite of the fact that
it was raining. Estimates of crowd size ranged up to 10,000. I believe
both major anti-war groupings had a presence at that demo, which was
convened by broader social forces (others can elaborate) than yesterday's
demo.


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