Michael Perelman wrote:
I suppose that we must look rather comical to some sitting in front of
our computers, laying out a strategy for revolutionary socialism.
Yeah, that's true. But not so comical to the young people who launched
lefthook.org a few months ago. When I met with them this weekend, we kicked
around some ideas about what role that their website might play in a couple
of years. It is by no means excluded that if they continue to enjoy support
of the kind that has been demonstrated up till now that a national
conference of young revolutionaries can be convened. Not only are these
people in no mood to compromise with the system, they know how to go out
and organize people. These are the people who matter to me, not burned out
professors and journalists who couldn't organize a demonstration or put
together an effective leaflet if their life depended on it.
First we need to be able to communicate why someone who has no idea
about the potential benefits of socialism should be interested in the
subject. Then we would have to find a way to indicate to them what
they could do now to further the goal of socialism, even though the
ultimate results might not come for decades.
Not really. The socialist movement grows not by convincing people of the
need for socialism, but through a critique of capitalism and effective
leadership of the mass movement. B-52's raining Volkswagen size bombs on
peasant villages recruited me to socialism, not elegant descriptions of the
"benefits" of a future world.
Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
