Re: [Marxism] Toward a Left

[sobuadhaigh@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Richard wrote:
>
> All politics in the US is episodic, expressions of
>outrage or demands for some action by government or 
>a challenge to some corporate power, etc. The episodes 
>may have a short life, from days to weeks or in some 
>cases persist for years, but they all finish one way 
>or another.

There are important manifestations of political life 
in the US that are not episodic and this is particularly 
relevant vis-a-vis Israeli policy and Palestinian suffering. 
According to the work of Janice Terry at Eastern Michigan 
University, the ability of the Israeli lobby to amass 
incredible power and political influence arises not from 
episodic outrage but from a from permanent mobilization. 
AIPAC and its allies lobby and campaign continually in a 
way that other ethnic communities only do in times of 
crises. For example the Greek community worked fervishly 
to influence Congress in response to the Turkish 
intervention in Cyprus but was not mobilized to intervene 
in the political process before, or after, this incident.

The well oiled AIPAC and the rest of the Israel lobby 
stand in sharp contrast to the resolute, but 
uncoordinated and under resourced, groups trying to 
stand in solidarity with Palestine. These groups are 
a patchwork of narrow specializations where one focuses on lobbying 
congress, one sends volunteers 
to participate in activism on the West bank, another 
does educational work in a city with a large Middle 
Eastern population and all of them are unconnected 
with the national groups that specialize in organizing 
demonstrations. Everyone swings into action, of course, 
in response to events but given the deeply entrenched 
nature of the opposition more is needed in the way of 
sustained work.

I would hope that the absolute horror of what is happening 
to the people of Gaza might be a catalyst to some new 
thinking on solidarity work. A new form is needed to bring 
together committed activists to do long term work in a 
variety of initiatives that serve the common purpose of 
challenging American complicity in Palestinian oppression. 
This form will not be the creature or the conveyor belt to 
a "party" but rather a project in which members on a variety 
of groups and parties could work together in  principled 
unity.Such a form that could bring together members of the 
American Left outside of the frantic need to finely demarcate 
ideologically. This project would strive for a unity around 
a program to support the united Palestinian resistance 
by targeting public ignorance and the corporate/legislative 
complicity.

Who knows, perhaps such a non-sectarian approach might 
also find resonance in other projects to stop the 
criminalization of foreign born workers and to compel 
county governments to bloc sheriffs from  evicting homeowners. 
We need a Left in this country and that will require Leftists, 
somehow and somewhere, working together.

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