[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Street / Campaign and Debate Reflections / Oct 17

[C. G. Estabrook]

You and I agree, Mort, that Chomsky's take on the election is the correct
one. (You'll recall that he signed a letter that asked Nader supporters in
swing states to vote for Kerry, not because he supported Kerry but because
that was the way to end the Bush administration.)

I was surprised at the vituperation against Nader that came from good
liberals after the 2000 election.  It's just as bad now: the patently
false charge that the "Nader group" is guilty of the ultimate
identity-politics sin, racism, is a new low. Liberal Nader-bashing may
reflect a certain elitism -- if Ralph's on the ballot, it is thought, the
American electorate will be too stupid to be convinced (by said liberal
elitists) on how to vote.

From your example, I think what you find "illogically extreme" in Cockburn
is largely a matter of writing style, although he doesn't agree with
Chomsky (whom he admires) on how to vote this time.  --CGE


On Mon, 18 Oct 2004, Morton K.Brussel wrote:

> I would only comment, Carl, that Street from my readings of his blogs 
> and articles, is not a hate consumed antiNaderite, that he voted for 
> Nader last time, that he gives Nader his due, but that he sees Nader 
> now as completely self-consumed, illogical, and counterproductive to 
> common goals. Exasperating!  As for Cockburn/St. Clair, both have been 
> valuable critics and muckrakers, but too often illogically extreme 
> [viz.: "
 These days the left and PC crowd would find that the woman 
> was opposed to affirmative action, or some such, and would have driven 
> her out with oaths  and curses."], thus counterproductive at the 
> present time especially in their fanatical denigration of Kerry 
> relative to Bush.
> 
> I prefer your mentor's more balanced conclusions. Is he selling out, as 
> Cockburn asserts?
> 
> Mort
> 
> On Oct 18, 2004, at 11:13 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 
> > [A generally good commentary, I think, Mort -- it starts strong, and 
> > it's
> > certainly correct that the differences between the Bonesmen, such as 
> > they
> > are, lie in domestic, not foreign policy.  But the paragraph I've
> > excerpted below could come from those Alexander Cockburn describes as 
> > "The
> > older crowd [who] hate Bush ... but they hate Nader more." Attributing 
> > a
> > "racial problem" to Nader (quoting a "leftist" who says "gonna" and
> > "ain't" -- undoubtedly a sign that s/he's down with the people), which 
> > the
> > liberal Kerry is supposedly free of, is simply McCarthyism.  --CGE]
> >
> > Alex Cockburn, writing of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, 40 
> > years
> > ago:
> >
> > ...Flowers of the sixties, now gone sadly to seed, have been coursing
> > round the nation's courthouses, challenging Nader's efforts to get on
> > state ballots. The older crowd hate Bush, that's for sure. But they 
> > hate
> > Nader more. So here was the great irony. Most of those mistily honoring
> > the FSM don't much care for free speech when it looks as though it 
> > might
> > be risky, might inconvenience their favored candidate, even though the
> > favored candidate, John Kerry, wants to fight a better war than Bush in
> > Iraq and then march on to Teheran.
> >
> > In fact the original FSM movement was a much bigger tent than people 
> > now
> > recall. My old friend Conn Hallinan, who was an FSM militant and 
> > arrested
> > in Sproul Hall in the largest mass university arrests (800) in the 
> > history
> > of the US, has just reminded me of this. Hallinan says, "We had right
> > wingers, libertarians, conservatives and of course weirdos. There was 
> > an
> > FSM activist, who went on to successfully challenge the law forbidding
> > women to hang off the side of cable cars in San Francisco. She was a
> > right-wing libertarian."
> >
> > These days the left and PC crowd would find that the woman was opposed 
> > to
> > affirmative action, or some such, and would have driven her out with 
> > oaths
> > and curses. They have no idea of tactical coalitions. So much for the
> > heritage of Sixties radicalism. Not everyone's gone to seed, to be 
> > sure.
> > There's Lenni, who finally got me off the chair and actually there are
> > many, many more who understand the importance of the third word that 
> > comes
> > after Free Speech, namely "Movement". Without a movement you have 
> > nothing,
> > and you've built nothing. That's what the ABB "leftists" don't 
> > understand
> > now. November 3 will be a bit late in the day to start looking for one.
> >
> > It's the long-term movements that count, the ones that don't sell out
> > every four years, to support someone like Kerry who wants to widen the 
> > war
> > in Iraq and then go and burn down Teheran. These days many communities
> > campuses have pro Palestinian groups on them. There were almost none
> > thirty years ago. That's a real Free Speech Movement, and one that has
> > made a difference and will make a difference long after this campaign 
> > is
> > over.
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 18 Oct 2004, Morton K.Brussel wrote:
> >
> >> We're all by now weary of long commentaries repeating common themes,
> >> but I particularly admired this one by the clear headed, passionate 
> >> and
> >> compassionate Paul Street. It appears on ZNET, which can use your
> >> support (http://www.zmag.org) as a subscriber.
> >> MKB
> >>> ...
> >>> And the notion of some people on the left not caring if he returns is
> >>> beneath contempt. I recently read one my fellow radicals saying that
> >>> "things will be bad under Kerry and things will be bad under Bush."
> >>> Ho-hum.  Oh well. Whatever.  I know what the radical means, of 
> >>> course:
> >>> capitalism sucks but take that message to the black community and see
> >>> what kind of response you get, comrade.   An African-American leftist
> >>> recently wrote me to mention the "calllous indifference" of some of
> >>> "the Nader crowd"  to "a significant constituency that they hope to
> >>> appeal to:" Blacks.  This cold disregard, this leftist feels,
> >>> "denote[s] a racial problem that these people are gonna have to deal
> >>> with at some point. Non-leftist black, brown, asian, etc. folk ain't
> >>> impressed with such disregard."  Good point...
> >>>
> >
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