On Sat, Nov 9, 2024 at 06:31 PM, Mark Baugher wrote: > > So what if the leader of the single-issue coalition, which I called a > "united front," spent decades in the labor movement and the coalition had > a large collection of unions participating in the march? That describes > the National Peace Action Coalition in 1971.
Swell, and would that coalition accept a radical Marxist group as a member? IF so would that group be permitted to present speakers at the demonstration, identifying the cause of the war and proposing radical solutions-- in its own name of course? > > If it "severely constrained" the anti-Vietnam war movement, then how come > the people implementing this tactic had the larges coalitions, held the > biggest demonstrations, and organized the largest march in US history to > that point of 300k-500k people? Unlike the PSLs 300k demonstration in > Washington DC, this one really happened and was actually counted by third > parties. > > Size isn't everything. The war went on until 1975; more casualties were sustained by the Vietnamese after the phasing out of US ground combat forces than before; US imperialism rolled along, and the single issue movement, unable to deal with events in Chile, for one, and the 1974 strike wave, dissipated more or less. Let's be clear, as important and "virtuous" as the single issue demonstrations were, the questions of causes, what's next , were not identified and answered, leaving the institutions and the mode of production unthreatened. It is my personal opinion that the force that caused the US to rethink its persistence was its loss of control of the battlefield, not the size or number of demonstrations. As for choice of terms, call it what you want. If it-a movement- is to do something more than produce the next generation of Democrats, then the causes of, and institutions executing the programs behind, the conflict have to be identified and representatives of those institutions have to be excluded from the platform. That means no John Lindsey addressing an anti-war rally while he sends the police into Columbia University to arrest those occupying the buildings as, IIRC, occurred in 1968. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33445): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33445 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109441085/21656 -=-=- 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/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
