More on BB antics and their defenders
c b
reforms. Reforms will come ultimately by votes in elections , ballot
initiatives and referenda, that is through peaceful mass action.
Already, Occupy has spurred a campaign for a constitutional amendment
against unlimited corporate money in politics. It has forced economic
inequality into the national political dialogue.
In the short run, the dozens of urban riots in the 60's won some
reforms in the War on Poverty and Great Society. In the long run, it
motivated the Nixon Southern Strategy and the Reaganites, who have
come to dominate the US polity; and they r steadily reversing the 60's
reforms and even the 30's reforms.
I think strict non-violence , which includes peaceful civil
disobedience, should be the Occupy tactic. This will influence mass
voting in our favor.
I don't disagree that the police are the main violent actors in the
Occupation context. Strictly speaking vandalism is not violence,
because violence is force used against humans, not material objects.
However, I think the fundamental problem with BB's and anarchists'
strategy is that it is not to make reforms through voting, so the
tactics are not aimed at influencing votes.
Charles
Ethan Young
They were mass uprisings, the same thing, for restless communities in the 60s, that mass strikes and workers councils were in the post-WWI period. You can't call them into being. They break out and change social relations, and with them public perception of those who make up those relations. It wasn't protesters getting firehosed that turned 'nigger' from common parlance to a taboo dirty word among larger popular segments.
This is not a case for small putschist groups trashing and fighting cops. Just the opposite. That practice only highlights the powerlessness of the left. Who wants to stake their lives on a bunch of powerless losers?
Contrast that with Wisconsin. Many a finicky purist denounced the turn to a recall campaign as a sell-out to the Democrats. They wanted the unions to call a general strike, ignoring history, law, and physics. Now the GOP is in a tailspin precisely because of efforts like the recall campaign, which is pulling the tea party weed out by the roots, and demonstrating what can be accomplished when people turn their progressive sentiments into politics.
The key difference is mass action, which happens when it doesn't not happen, not when we want it.ey
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c b
> I'm in general agreement on BB/OO but disagree on impact of mid-to-late 60s urban explosions. They did more than trigger reform and backlash. They asserted the power - real and potential - of communities that had been dismissed as defenseless pariahs since the end of reconstruction.
^^^^^^^
CB: Yes, true. I pretty much am a radical today as a representative
of the Detroit urban rebellion of 1967. My whole life and career r
shaped by trying to follow the lead of that protest.
So, my statement regarding urban rebellions of 60's is
criticism-self-criticism,, sober self-criticism. In Detroit it was
the bullet and then the ballot, Malcolm X in reverse.
^^^^^^^^^
>
> They were mass uprisings, the same thing, for restless communities in the 60s, that mass strikes and workers councils were in the post-WWI period. You can't call them into being. They break out and change social relations, and with them public perception of those who make up those relations. It wasn't protesters getting firehosed that turned 'nigger' from common parlance to a taboo dirty word among larger popular segments.
^^^^^^^^^
CB: Yes, they are spontaneous, in Lenin's sense in _What is to be done
?_ However, I disagree on the second point. The urban rebellions
begot more use of the term "nigger" , not less. See George Wallace
winning Michigan Democrat primary in 1968 , year after Detroit
rebellion, and archtype Reagan Democrat in Macomb county surburb of
Detroit. White supremacist workers reacting against Detroit. It was
the non-violent Civil Rights tactic that won out against open use of
"nigger".
^^^^^^^
>
> This is not a case for small putschist groups trashing and fighting cops. Just the opposite. That practice only highlights the powerlessness of the left. Who wants to stake their lives on a bunch of powerless losers?
^^^^^^^^^
CB: Speak for yourself (smiles)
^^^^^^^^
>
> Contrast that with Wisconsin. Many a finicky purist denounced the turn to a recall campaign as a sell-out to the Democrats. They wanted the unions to call a general strike, ignoring history, law, and physics. Now the GOP is in a tailspin precisely because of efforts like the recall campaign, which is pulling the tea party weed out by the roots, and demonstrating what can be accomplished when people turn their progressive sentiments into politics.
^^^^^^^^
CB; I certainly agree with that 100%
>
> The key difference is mass action, which happens when it doesn't not happen, not when we want it.ey
^^^^^^^
CB: Sometimes. Sometimes we can have planned and organized mass
action. As in 1 million people for nuke disarmament in 1982 in NYC.
For 1 million occupying Wall Street !