[PEN-L:27165] Re: Re: Anti-Bush protest at Ohio

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks. Rather than agreeing or disagreeing with the political line can I
propose some questions? After all one of the problems with the Communist
International was of communists in one country forming a line that was not
well integrated with the conditions of struggle of communists within the
country itself. Now we have no Communist International,  and perhaps no
communists, just international email lists, where you often cannot work out
where the contributor is writing from.

The Turn Your Back on Bush website reports

> there were four graduates who stood and turned their backs during Bush's
> speech, despite the threat of arrest and the denial of a diploma. About
> ten other people in the stadium did the same. Fortunately, most of them
> were treated respectfully and no one was arrested. Some of these people
> are available for interviews.


How does the local campaign react to the successes and the costs of this
demonstration?  Few political platforms are perfect and practical activity
is a compromise, but is it thought this required too much heroism from a
small minority, or that the political capital of embarrassing Bush and the
university authorities was worth it? Is this vanguard too far out ahead of
a larger movement? Or did its actions make a larger movement more possible?

The leaflet appears well written, with authoritative references, for an
academic audience. But it could have been written by radical passionate
young Democrats wanting to focus everything on contempt for Bush.

How well did the message get over that real patriotism is not in logical
contradiction with real internationalism?

The leaflet ends "we'll seek to unite diverse communities in our struggle
to build a world without exploitation and oppression, that is, a material
foundation for a world free from terrorism."

Are there staging posts along the way?

Or is contempt for Bush in agitational and progandist terms readily
translatable into strategic contempt for global finance capital?


At 21/06/02 06:04 -0400, you wrote:
> > But could Yoshie or someone else post the core paragraph of a leaflet or
> > press statement about the political content of the protest. What I want
> > to see is how the line places the conflict in the context of a wider
> > appeal which in principle with a fair hearing ordinary working and
> > progressive people of the USA could sympathise with or even support.
> > Otherwise the central terrain of battle is lost.
> >
> > Chris Burford
> >
> > London
>
> You can download the press release at
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/14June2002.doc>.  Here's the website for
> the protest: <http://www.turnyourbackonbush.com/>.
> --
> Yoshie
>
> * Calendar of Events in Columbus:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>


Chris Burford, London