[Peace-discuss] Shock of recognition

[C. G. Estabrook]

Carrol Cox, a long-time activist in Bloomington-Normal, describes a situation 
that seems quite familiar... --CGE


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Setting the agenda for the intelligentsia
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:35:08 -0500
From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>

...We have about 200 people here on the e-mail list of the local anti-war
group. About 6 to 12 come to meetings, and only about 30 at most to
demos anymore. They are waiting for Obama to be good. When I talk to any
of them individually I try gently to urge them to see the hopelessness
of that; at demos if I speak I talk about the need for more people in on
the planning. But most of them simply don't think it will do any good.
And that's what the other thousand or so leftists around the nation have
been doing for decades ... (By leftists I mean someone who (a) recognizes the
necessity of a mass movement and (b) belongs to a local active group if
one is around, whether or not he/she likes the group.)

Waiting for "The Left" to do it for you is the same as waiting for Obama
to do it for you. Someone (many someones) have to work to create a Left.

Carrol