Re: [Marxism] Death Notice for the American antiwar movement

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ron J wrote:
> 
> Some people allow the bosses to set their agenda and others decide that they 
> will organize the people and set it.  This epitaph is defeatist nonsense 
> based on a negative reading of the current situation and an overemphasis on 
> the system and its candidates.  We have to build an antiwar movement that 
> isn't beholden to the Democrats, nont allow the democrats to play taps at its 
> funeral.

I would generally agree, with some important qualifications.

Many activists have from the beginning invited confusion by an
overestimation of what an antiwar movement can do -- stopping a war is
NOT one of those things, and some (many?) activists not seeing this
drifted away from what they considered a lost cause. If you think about
the anti-war movement of th '60s it obvious that from the beginning that
movement owed a good deal to those who had 'failed' so dismally to stop
the Korean War. That is, an anti-war movement, except under very special
conditions, is to be measured primarily by its sucess in recruiting and
training (or providing the context for self-training) of new left cadre.
Despite the low visibility of the current movement, I think it is having
some success in that.

Information we don't have (does anyone?) is how many local anti-war
groups are still (a) maintaining at least monthly meetings and (b)
achieving _some_ minimal visibility in their communities. 

Carrol


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