Re: [Marxism] Yesterday's protest: SF protest

[Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

David W. writes:

"A few thousand at best marched in SF. If Eli was there, he can give his count. 
My count was less than 3,000."

Well, I wouldn't quibble with that. ANSWER says 4,000 
(http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage), and since 
they actually deploy one or two counters at demonstrations, I'm happy with that.

"It was overwhelmingly members of left and single issue cause organizations, in 
other words the more activist end of SF's large left progressive community."

I couldn't identify the affiliation of the "overwhelming" number of people, but 
clearly at this conjuncture, it's hardly surprising that "the more activist 
end" of the community would be an attendance.



"Overall I'd say it was a rather dismal failure."

No event which brings thousands of people into motion, if nothing else to 
reinforce their own dedication to the cause(s), can be called a "dismal 
failure." Remember that tens of thousands of people were reached with leaflets, 
posters, etc., events organized leading up to the demonstration, more will see 
the videos after the demo, etc.

If there is a "dismal failure," it's on the part of the "UfPJ/'moderate'" wing 
of the left, not to mention people like David T.'s friend who "said he hated to 
admit it but down deep he felt glad that ANSWER's march had been such a flop." 
Yes, that's a great way to oppose capitalism and imperialism, hoping for the 
failure of demonstrations against it. How about JOINING in the coalition and 
actively working to BUILD the demonstration so it isn't a "flop"? Oh, sorry, 
too much work, we leave that to ANSWER.

Nothing symbolized THIS "dismal failure" more for me than this morning's 
"coverage" on Democracy Now. I now reproduce IN ITS ENTIRETY that coverage:

"And protests were held in Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles and
other cities on Saturday to mark the sixth anniversary of the US
invasion of Iraq."

Disgraceful.

What this all boils down to is that there are a large number of people who, 
just like Obama himself, claimed to be "antiwar," and even marched in some 
demonstrations (notably the pre-Iraq invasion ones), but really weren't opposed 
to the war on any principled grounds, just on the grounds that it was "the 
wrong war at the wrong time" or that we should "finish the job in Afghanistan 
first" or that we should "give the inspectors a little more time" or "wait for 
the U.N. to authorize an invasion and thereby make it 'legal'". They weren't 
actually opposed to the RIGHT of imperialism to impose its will on the people 
of the world, and certainly weren't opposed to the war that was going on BEFORE 
the invasion called "sanctions" (not to mention regular bombing of the "no-fly" 
zones), or the economic war that has been going on for nearly 50 years against 
Cuba (and to the extent that they ARE opposed to THAT war, it isn't because 
they don't think the U.S. has the "right" to do so, only that they think it is 
an ineffective way to bring down the Cuban revolution), or the economic war and 
constant threats of military action that are going on right now against Iran.

So we had those people with us before the invasion on largely tactical grounds. 
Now we don't. That's where we are. At any moment, we have to work with what we 
have and build from what we've got. If it isn't 100,000 people in the streets, 
it isn't. "Disappointing"? Perhaps. "Discouraging"? No doubt. But "dismal 
failure"? No way.



Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


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