I don't want to go too far into the purity trip, since that's what this
desire to read others out of the movement is, but Gitlin has been extremely
supportive of the American empire's attacks on Iraq and Yugoslavia (check
out the article he wrote last spring supporting the bombing of Yugoslavia
in Mother JOnes). As Marty J. knows, a similar scenario regarding former
new leftists and their support of Clinton/Blair's military adventures
played itself out here in Vermont last spring when a group of antiwarriors
took over "socialist" Bernie Sanders' office here in Burlington to protest
his unabashed support of the bombing. This happened in Germany as well
within the Green/Red coalition. Although I still have a difficult time
with so-called leftists supporting any imperial adventure, I also realize
the need for maintaining some kind of rapport with those who do, although I
will never vote for Bernie Sanders again--the support of the attacks on
Yugoslavia was the final straw for me (after his support of the Crime Bill
in 1994 and his continued support of the sanctions/attacks on Iraq, I just
can't go there again). I tend to see this as typical behavior of social
democrats in general throughout history (think Luxemborg/Knieblecht in the
German insurrection after WW I).
HOwever, all that being said, the battle for revolutionary purity was
epidemic in the U.S new left in the late sixties and early seventies.
-
Ron Jacobs
Burlington, VT
http://moose.uvm.edu/~rjacobs/ronshome.html
http://moose.uvm.edu/~rjacobs/iaag.htm
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