EnMasse

CNT-FAI · Member Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 33 Location: usa

Sorry for the botched username, guess i'll have to live with it.

I was posting on Babble for a month or so on the subject or working-class organising & meta-issues within the Left. Sadly i got very little interest, consistent with my failure to evoke much discussion on this in other Left forums, much to my disappointment & suspicion that this lack of interest in these matters is a large part of our failure.

In sum i think we need to be reforming ourselves, re-examining old tactics, discovering what really works & what doesn't, get creative & try new things. I think we need self-examination in order to get to the place where we constitute a political force. See Jacques Ellul, THE POLITICAL ILLUSION. He explains how political parties are obsolete in the modern world & that the alternative is building pressure blocs that will be independent of whatever partyu happens to be in power.

For example, demonstrations are useless as far as i can see, except in certain very specific combinations of circumstances. They are just habit with us, no matter how ineffectual they are. Imagine if all that energy were spent connecting with working people. And leadership: we need more than journalists & academics. Talking heads will not make the revolution.

I knew nothing about the split until now, but can only suggest that the last thing the Left needs is more splitting. Possiibly we are too concerned with our own issues in a bad way? No wonder most workers reject the Left & most have never even heard of any Left organisations, except polite garden-party sorts like the Greens who are not going to make any more basic change than the Democratic Party. Who would die for the Green Party? If only we could put some of the passion of our internecine struggles into making radical change. As it is, i see on the blogs that our enemies are laughing at us.

My intent is not to offend anyone, but we live in engineered political gridlock in America, so patience wears thin. I find it difficult to see the Left only going backwards under the pressures of the Corporate State. I first became involved in 1965, so i have some perspective. We are not winning, so isn't it time to reconsider our strategy & tactics?

Future's so bright i've got to wear shades.

Tehanu · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:40 am Post subject:

Welcome Danton! Hope you enjoy EnMasse. If you want to change your username, just go to the "Profile" link at the top of the page (second line down on the left) and enter a new username under "Registration Information."

We've had a fair bit of discussion here on how the left can get more relevant/reform ourselves (e.g. this current thread. Personally, I think that ironically one of the big problems in North America is complacency. If I'm doing okay, and so is my next-door neighbour and my cousin and my friend, then why would I get upset about something that doesn't seem to affect me unduly?

I think this is both an incredibly selfish and also a very naive and shortsighted attitude, but it seems pretty common. So my question would be how the left can bring issues "home" to people.

I suspect that in the USA the Iraq war is starting to get people a bit riled up, but is it enough? I mean, people got riled up during the Vietnam War but did society fundamentally change?

skeptikool · *BANNED* Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 1758

Danton1897:

CNT-FAI · Member Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 33 Location: usa

Thanks, Tehanu (i just edited my post). Complacency: yes, but many people are NOT doing well & they could be receptive to organising. The Communists did very well with this in the 1930s, helping meet people's actual needs, not just talking about far-off or abstract issues.

(I'm not a Communist, more of an Anarcho-Syndicalist, but just providing an illustration of successful working class organising. Of course the New Deal, WW2, & the "Cold" War put an end to that, but it could be revived.) Beyond the official veneer of bourgeois prosperity, millions are in pain as a result of Republicrat policies.

Thje Vietnam War did not transform society, but then there was no revolution. There was some shift of values. There was improvement in some areas, such as civil rights. However. the US has been on a Rightward course since then. If we spend energy fighting among ourselves, then i think we betray the working classes - & ourselves.

The Repubs got themselves in a mess with fighting 2 wars & threatening a 3rd. This could be grist for our mill as we find ways to communicate more disillusionment with the system to working people.
_________________
Future's so bright, i've got to wear shades

From each acording to her/his abilities, to each according to her/his needs. --Karl Marx

CNT-FAI · Member Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 33 Location: usa

I tried to change my username - when i clicked the page just stayed as it was except my username reverted to its wrong form...
_________________
Future's so bright, i've got to wear shades

From each acording to her/his abilities, to each according to her/his needs. --Karl Marx

Diane Demorney · Bazinga! Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 4746 Location: Calgary

Hi Danton! You might have to re-enter your password to make the name change go through.
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Scissors cuts paper. Paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard. Lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes scissors. Scissors decapitates lizard. Lizard eats paper. Paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporizes rock. And as it always has, rock crushes scissors.

CNT-FAI · Member Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 33 Location: usa

That was it, thanks!
_________________
Future's so bright, i've got to wear shades

From each acording to her/his abilities, to each according to her/his needs. --Karl Marx

Tehanu · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:17 am Post subject:

Ah, the new name definitely works better Wink

CNT-FAI · Member Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 33 Location: usa

I changed it again, don't care to emulate a guy who lost his head. Smile

_________________
Future's so bright, i've got to wear shades

From each acording to her/his abilities, to each according to her/his needs. --Karl Marx

Tehanu · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:22 am Post subject:

But he lost it advocating for a good cause, if I recall correctly! Now, if you'd called yourself Robespierre ... Shocked

sparqui · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:43 am Post subject:

Hello and welcome CNT-FAI!
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“If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a tractor.”

-- Gilles Duceppe

Diane Demorney · Bazinga! Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 4746 Location: Calgary

Just out of curiousity, what does your name mean? I know it's late and I'm supposed to be watching BSG... Hi VK! Hello

_________________
Scissors cuts paper. Paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard. Lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes scissors. Scissors decapitates lizard. Lizard eats paper. Paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporizes rock. And as it always has, rock crushes scissors.

Hephaestion · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:51 am Post subject:

Maybe it means C(A)N(')T - FAI(L)... Smile

Welcome, CF, and don't forget to check out the TAT Page...
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin

CNT-FAI · Member Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 33 Location: usa

Yes, Danton was a worthy man. Too many people are tempted to tell me not to lose my head. Smile

CNT-FAI is a reference to the Spanish Revolution of 1936:

The CNT (Confederation Nacional de Trabajo - National Confederation of Labor was Anarcho-Syndicalist & the biggest party at the start of the war. the FAI (Federation Anarquista de Iberica) was the underground branch of the party. This party originated the red & black flag.

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/spaindx.html

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/e/es%7Dcnt36.gif

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/5/5d/180px-Woma...
_________________
Future's so bright, i've got to wear shades

From each acording to her/his abilities, to each according to her/his needs. --Karl Marx

sparqui · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:42 pm Post subject:

That first link is an incredible resource. Thanks CNT-FAI!

Last year, I read Stuart Christie's Granny Made Me an Anarchist: General Franco, the Angry Brigade and Me. It was a fascinating look at the aftermath of the anarchist movement post Civil War.
_________________
“If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a tractor.”

-- Gilles Duceppe

CNT-FAI · Member Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 33 Location: usa

You're welcome. The recent film LAND & FREEDOM by Ken Loach is worth seeing if only because the SCW is such a rare topic for a film.

Such a movie could never be made in the US. It does not however really clarify the politics involved (Altho it must be said that would be a difficult task, the film is a bit hard to follow without more of an attempt to do so. Before seeing it a reading of Orwell's HOMAGE TO CATALONIA is recommended (especially chapter 11) if you don't already know the history. See also the Epilogue to THE SPANISH LABYRINTH, by Gerald Brennan, for further clarification.)

Here is another website on the Revolution & Civil War:

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9820/
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Future's so bright, i've got to wear shades

From each acording to her/his abilities, to each according to her/his needs. --Karl Marx

TS. · Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 6:45 am Post subject:

Welcome CNT-FAI! It is always good to have new voices.

If you are interested in more information in the split from babble, you can find it here under the heading "How did EnMasse come to be?".
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"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson