Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 12:50:16 +0000 (GMT)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Scott=20Hamilton?= <s_h_hamilton-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Perplexing Peter


 
Peter wrote:

Scott you correctly say that I have no idea how
> to put my politics into > practice...I could choose
to take > part in mainly Leninist campaign groups 
> recognising the futility of such > efforts I prefer
to spend my time Trotbaiting and > getting punched in
the > head by my kung-fu mates.

You shouldn't tell me Peter - you should explain
yourself instead to the people who are actually living
with the consequences of imperialism, eg the sort of
immigrant communities - Pakistani, Nepalese, Afghan -
that the AIC has been dealing with. 

Tell the Somali refugees who are getting beaten up by
thugs mobilised after S 11 that you have better things
to do, until the great proletarian revolt kicks off.
Tell my Iraqi friend who has lost half his extended
family due to imperialism that you don't want to do
anything right now for fear of being contaminated by
Bolshevism. I think you'd soon be needing all your
kung fu skills, if you attempted such explanations...

When Peter talks of 'futility of Leninist campaign
groups', he is talking about the efforts of the
Anti-Imperialist Coalition, the Auckland grouping set
up after S 11. I belong to the AIC and promote it and
the whole anti-imperialist wing of the anti-war
movement on this list, and Peter doesn't like that. Of
course, this is his right. Does he have the right,
though, to liken the results achieved by the AIC and
similar groups to the results of his own peculiar
supermilitant quietism?

Peter should have a look at the real achievements of
the anti-imperialist section of the anti-war movement
in NZ and around the world, before he claims that
we're all engaged in a 'futile' exercise.

In NZ, we have not created anything like a mass
proletarian movement of the kind Peter waits for
passively, but we have nevertheless notched up some
very worthwhile achievements, for instance:

We have been a driving force behind protests of up to
800 people, and two national days of action. Do you
call that 'futile', Peter?

We have won a number of mass trade unions over to an
anti-war position. Do you call that 'futile', Peter?

We have relentlessly harrassed the 'centre-left'
government, picketing their party conferences and
their MPs' offices, homes, and public appearances, and
exposing them to the public with anti-war propaganda.
We can claim some credit, perhaps, for the fact that
the junior, 'left' party in the government has
collapsed under the weight of its leadership's support
for the war. Do you call that 'futile', Peter?

We in the AIC, an Auckland-only group of only about 15
hardcore members, raised about $700 for the Afghan
Workers Solidarity Campaign, an international 
exercise in humanitarian aid that exhibits all the
hallmarks of the 'workers' self-organisation' and
'autonomy' that Peter likes to rave on. Do you call
that 'futile', Peter?

When the government locked up a number of Afghan
refugees illegally, we helped raise the alarm and
picket the courts until the government released them.
Do you call that 'futile', Peter?

We have kicked off a campaign against a repressive new
'anti-Terrorist' Bill, holding meetings and
distributing leaflets in an effort to inform a largely
oblivious public of the dangers to its civil
liberties. Do you call that 'futile', Peter?

The AIC is the only political group in the country
that has tried to raise awareness of and solidarity
for the revolution in Argentina, holding a picket, a
street meeting, and a public talk and distributing
hundreds of copies of a leaflet. Do you call that
'futile', Peter?

The AIC is the first group in the country to highlight
the danger of a new war on Iraq; we are trying to lay
the foundations for a mass protest movement against
such a war with our propaganda. Do you call that
'futile', Peter?

I don't mean to show off with the above examples:  I'm
aware that our efforts pale into insignificance in
comparison with those in other, larger countries with
a more insurgent populace. 

It must also be noted that the efforts of the
liberal/social democratic wing of the anti-war
movement have produced some very worthwhile results -
the recent 20,000-strong 'No War on Iraq' march in
London, for instance.

Even contextualised, though, the efforts of NZ's
anti-imperialist anti-war movement deserve more than
the contempt Peter offers.

Peter might argue that the political positions staked
out by outfits like the AIC are out-and-out
reactionary, and doom any practical activism to
futility or worse. Such an argument can be tested by
an examination of the literature that the AIC has
produced, much of which is online at
http://www.geocities.com/anti_imperialist_coalition/leaflets.htm


Curiously enough, there is much here that autopsy
members would agree wholeheartedly with; indeed, one
or two autopsy members' posts live on in the leaflet
on open borders. It's also curious that a number of
the leaflets have been taken up by avowed
anti-Leninists: the full text of the leaflet on
Argentina, for instance, turned up on -AT-infos, the
international anarchist news service, and in the last
issue of thr-AT-ll, NZ's anarchist paper. 

It might also be instructive to look at the archives
of the e mail list set up by AIC member shortly after
S 11 to aid the coordination of the activities of the
radical, anti-cap, anti-imp wing of the anti-war
movement (check it out at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/antiwar_anticap_nz/ -
you'd have to join to read the archives). This list
has become the venue for a rich and intense debate
about the way forward for far left in NZ, a debate
which is focused and disciplined by the unity which
common action has brought to a significant section of
the far left here.

Perhaps Peter has a retraction to make?

Cheers
Scott 












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