[Peace-discuss] Comment on the Tea Party

[C. G. Estabrook]

A good comment from another list on aspects of the Tea Party. I met and admired
Karl Hess, who helped establish the anarchist community in Adams-Morgan in DC.

--CGE

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:34:21 -0400
From: Thomas Bias <biastg at embarqmail.com>
To: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>

...If the antiwar movement holds fast to principle, it can reach out to the Ron
Paul supporters who oppose the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the PATRIOT
Act. By holding fast to principle, I mean not compromising with any form of
racism, sexism, or hostility to the labor movement. It will involve a
certain amount of agreement to disagree.

By the way, do you all remember the incendiary phrase from Goldwater's
speech accepting the Republican nomination for President in 1964: "Extremism
in the defense of liberty is no vice"? The speechwriter responsible for that
was a young guy named Karl Hess. Well, the week after I joined the YSA in
1969, I attended the Hiroshima Day antiwar demonstration in Washington, DC,
and Karl Hess was one of the speakers! He had broken with the Republicans
over the war issue (he went on to participate in the founding of the Free
Libertarian Party, the forerunner of the present-day Libertarian party).
Now, this demonstration was organized by the New Mobilization Committee, in
which the SWP played a prominent role. Was it a mistake to invite Hess to
speak? I think not.

To a great extent the Tea Party movement is (pardon the expression) a
tempest in a teapot: it's not as big as the media would like to make it out
to be. I just watched Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) on "Meet the Press" talking
about how they had only gotten 1500 people out to a Washington demonstration
on tax day, and that if he organized a demonstration against euthanizing
puppies he could get 100,000 in the streets with a snap of his fingers.
Furthermore, the ruling class is hardly threatened to the point where it
needs to turn to an extraparliamentary fascist movement to defend itself.
Truth be told, Obama is actually doing a very good job defending the ruling
class's interests, and if we stay on message explaining that, we can
convince.

Tom

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