I appreciate Ron Jacobs recalling the criticism of Rosa Luxemberg of the
German Social Demeocrats who rushed so fast to Germany's entry into WW1
that they syumbled over their principles. But I am mystified, if that's
the correct word, at Ron's desire to keep folks who have decided to take
sides with the empire, the Gitlins of today (or the Social Democrats of
yesteryear--or today for that matter) when they will betray their
principles, and maybe you, at the first opportunity.
Jeff Blankfort
> Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 12:18:45 -0400
> From: Ron Jacobs <rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu>
> Subject: Re: [sixties-l] Patterns
>
> 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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