In reply to the comments so far:
Michael Meeropol asks when has a mass movement in the streets ever protected democratic rights, and then he goes on to answer his very question by pointing to the Civil Rights movement. But just look back at the protests against the George Floyd murder, as disorganized and in a sense depoliticized as they were. Through the general affect on the consciousness, those protests secured the swift “guilty” verdict of Derek Chauvin. In fact, through that same process they raised the issue of racism in relation to Israel and empowers the “left” of the Democratic Party to pressure Biden to put pressure on Israel. In that sense, the George Floyd protests brought about the end of Israel’s bombing of Gaza. (See this article to trace the process.) https://oaklandsocialist.com/2021/05/22/israel-hamas-cease-fire-and-black-lives-matter-movement/ The problem with those protests and related ones is that they were controlled from the top by a cabal of non profiteers and union bureaucrats. Those forces represented the interests of the Democratic Party, and still do. That is exactly why the leadership of them united to oppose any continued street protests during last year’s elections and after them. That shows that a protest movement that doesn’t move from street protests to building a durable organization based on that movement won’t “get the goods”. The article points to the direction such a renewed movement must take - towards the construction of a new political party based on the working class. But agreeing with that goal should not be a precondition for working together to build a movement to oppose the Republicans. I will say that the article does lack one point: It should have explained that such a protest movement must have a democratically elected leadership andenable all political tendencies to have an expression. As far as Roger Kulp’s comments: I think the socialist movement has proven itself to be pathetic. The DSA wing (if you want to consider them to be socialists) simply follows behind the Democrats and has been unwilling to organize any protest over any issue, be it a government shut down, the ascension of a misogynist to the US supreme court, voter suppression or anything else. At best they simply tag along behind what others organize. Then there is the wing of the socialist movement which is living in a time warp and pretends that there is no difference between the Republican Party of today vs. of years past and is more concerned with proving to other “Marxists” that they have not fallen into the Democratic Party than they are concerned with trying to see today’s world as it actually is. The effect is to actually play the role of clearing the path for the Democrats! As far as the unions: What’s needed is the construction of opposition rank and file caucuses that struggle to make the unions fight for the members on the job and for all workers in society as a whole. In the past, it’s been extremely difficult to actually build such caucuses, mainly because of the extreme alienation that the overwhelming majority of members feel towards their unions. But we have to try. Raising what the unions can and should do about the Republican threat is one avenue towards trying. John Reimann -- *“Science and socialism go hand-in-hand.” *Felicity Dowling Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8901): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8901 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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
