Good question, Jeff. I haven't quite resolved it myself. I suppose that,
as long as one enters any alliance with your (and history's) warnings in
mind, s/he can make certain alliances on certain issues.
-ron j
At 09:39 AM 06/21/2000 +0100, you wrote:
>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
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jun 22 2000 - 20:42:49 CUT