I am going to show my ignorance but I do believe a "skunk at the picnic" argument is worth discussing:
WHEN has a mass working class movement in the streets successfully protected "democratic rights"? --- I actually mean that sincerely not merely rhetorically. The only example I can think of is the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s but in the end its success depended on massive federal intervention -- with legislation and with guns (think of the army protecting the Selma to Montgomery marchers) --- think of the implicit threat of federal military intervention enforcing the Voting Rights Act after 1965 --- I will concede that the sit down strikes of the 1930s were able to face down the demands by the bosses that local officials call out the National Guard to clear the plants which would have produced tremendous bloodshed -- but most mass efforts (for example the Wobbly free speech fights in the period before World War I) ultimately led to the complete crushing of the Wobblies with massive arrests during World War I followed by massive assaults on leftists with the Palmer Raids after WW I. --- in the end, it was the Wagner Act of 1936 (year?) which created the basis of the big increase in unionization that peaked as a percentage of the population in the 1950s and stayed high and strong through the 1960s ... I can go back to the 1877 strike wave -- the Pullman Strike of 1894 -- all crushed by force --- Reconstruction was ultimately defeated by force and violence -- even before Federal Troops were withdrawn all but three Southern states had fallen to white supremacists --- In the US, there has always had to be a POLITICAL majority (Congress, a President...) which enforced the will of the people --- yes, mass action was necessary to push the politicians but if they didn't act and left the "field of battle" to the right wing suppressors, the people ultimately LOST --- That doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate and support those with the courage to take to the streets -- one could make the case that the women's marches in January of 2017 set the stage for the Democrats' re-taking the House in 2018 and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations setting the stage for the Presidential victory by Biden and --- most importantly --- the victory in the two Senate seats in Georgia ---- BUT AGAIN -- it was the political process (flawed and limited [and limiting] as it is) that created whatever success the movements on the ground achieved ... SO -- what am I missing? When (and how) has mass mobilization in the streets "protected Democratic rights"?? On Mon, May 31, 2021 at 12:05 PM John Reimann <[email protected]> wrote: > > "So far the entire left, and liberal media is counting on the Democrats > strategy to stop this train wreck by passing some economic concessions to > the working class and to try and push through a new voting rights law....* > History has shown that the only way to stop this attack on our democratic > rights is through a mass, working class based movement in the streets* > ...." > https://oaklandsocialist.com/2021/05/31/organize-to-stop-republican-threat/ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8862): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8862 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/83213044/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
