[Marxism] Re: About last night's demo

[gregory meyerson]

bravo franklin:




there is such a thing as "storming the stage" for a good reason, with 
detailed preparation on campus, with detailed response to the 
difficulties of defending fascists with the free speech alibi.  with 
well prepared leftists willing to engage in lots of discussion after 
the event.



In 1985, when I was Northwestern, several hundred people stopped adolfo 
calero from speaking as part of his fund raising tour for the contras, 
who were in the midst of a murderous campaign.  lots of people wanted 
to "hear what he had to say."


organizations on campus leafletted, informed students and faculty about 
the contras and calero, dealt with the problems of defending speech 
when that speech cannot be separated from organizing imperialist murder 
(the speech/act distinction cannot be rigorously upheld, which means 
we're left with our best judgments in any given circumstance).  several 
organizations were active in shouting down calero, and the event was 
brought to a close when a central american religious task force member 
tossed pig's blood on the guy.  Fortunately, calero didn't have carrie 
like super powers so instead of incinerating the aggressors, he 
retired.


as for suppressing his speech, he got a full page spread in the tribune 
the next day while protestors letters and articles were suppressed, 
even months afterwards.


my dissertation adviser was fired for "inciting a riot."  aka: saying 
calero was a butcher.


the right wing for years afterwards told ridiculous lies about the 
incident.  they all called us boneheads too.



"boneheaded" with good reason, at least on occasion.



gm
On Oct 6, 2006, at 9:30 AM, Franklin Jennings wrote:

> On 10/6/06, Mark Lause <MLause at cinci.rr.com> wrote:
>>
>> Well, well, well, Democrats in ultra-left actions?  Same old hat.
>>
>> You can change things by mobilizing the masses or you can try to 
>> influence
>> the rulers with whining moralizing, tough talk, superficial theatrics.
>>
>> Storming a stage, ranting about unfairness, and writing your 
>> Congressman
>> all
>> make politics about YOU and not the relationship of class forces.
>
>
>
> You ever consider that maybe the actual students -- regardless of 
> politics
> -- just don't want a bunch of fascists on campus? It's pretty basic. 
> Doesn't
> require a lot of intense analysis. That's what drove be away from 
> socialist
> organizations to begin with -- people would just sit around and 
> deconstruct
> everything to death. Sometimes you just want to get something done. 
> Like if
> you don't want the fascists on campus, you do something to get rid of 
> them.
> The same thing has happened here in California with military 
> recruiters.
> Last year at UC Santa Cruz they were driven out of a job fair. Is that
> ultra-left too? Come on... give the kids some credit for doing 
> something.
> Damn...
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