Re: [Marxism] Seymour/Ayers

[Aaron Aarons <aaron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 14:42 -0500 2008/12/02, Louis Proyect wrote:
>I just listened to Doug Henwood's interviews with Richard (Lenin's Tomb) 
>Seymour and Bill Ayers at http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html.
>
>What a contrast. Richard is erudite and razor-sharp and Ayers is an oozing 
>pile of platitudes. When Doug asks Ayers what he hoped to accomplish by 
>setting off bombs at office buildings (he uses a rather droll formulation: Did 
>you hope to inhibit capital's ability to reproduce itself--totally lost on the 
>leaden Ayers),

Did the organizers of the great peace crawls "hope to inhibit capital's ability 
to reproduce itself"? Hardly likely, since they weren't even anti-capitalist, 
and they didn't call for the defeat of U.S. imperialism.

There was a war going in -- an imperialist war of aggression against the people 
of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It was right and proper for those who identified 
with the victims of imperialist aggression to carry out military actions 
against legitimate targets in the imperialist heartland,  or anywhere on the 
planet (or off) where such targets could be successfully attacked.

>Ayers replies that the Weathermen were issuing a "screaming warning".

I never did like the W.U.'s political rhetoric, and thought it was 
self-important and a turn-off, but I celebrated then, as I do now, every act of 
violence or sabotage against the U.S. ruling class, especially if it doesn't 
hurt INNOCENT people.

>At the time Fred Halstead of the SWP described such behavior as a 3 year old 
>lying down on the floor holding his breath until his face turned blue.

What a stupid comparison! If you want to use a similar analogy, it's like a 3 
year old trying to stop the man raping his sister by hitting him with a plastic 
spatula, rather than stabbing him with a knife. The W.U.'s greatest failing, 
aside from its dumb rhetoric, was its unwillingness to kill even the most 
deserving criminals. But the greatest failing was of people like me, who lacked 
the moxie to do even as much as they did.

If I had the necessary courage and, more important, the ability to function 
coherently in non-verbal activities, I'd be writing pacifist screeds while 
planting bombs and assassinating warmakers.

 - Aaron

At 22:44 -0500 2008/12/02, Ethan Young wrote:
>As one who thrilled to Ayers's antics in 1969 and disdained the SWP's antiwar 
>mmvmt strategy, I do declare that Fred Halstead has certainly gotten more 
>right on since his death.

Really! We've had Halsteadian peace marches for the last 7 years and they've 
done nothing to interfere with the U.S. crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and in 
their dungeons around the world.

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