Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 15:26:39 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Scott=20Hamilton?= <s_h_hamilton-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Re: no war but the class war, again


 
Steve wrote:

we're not just a bunch of leftist robots who
> keep on
> repeating exactly the same actions again and again
> and again.

You are if you keep up the level of abstraction your
latest leaflet shows. It's the easiest game in the
world to say that 'revolution is the solution'. The
problem is that no one wants to play the game. I very
much wish they did, but in the meantime some training
is in order. 

Whether NWBTCW likes it or not, it is part of a
Popular Front which leads workers to the feet of Ken
Livingstone and sundry Bishops. This PF will either
block effective anti-war action, or be transformed
into the vehicle for effective anti-war action on a
terrific scale. Everything depends on the strength of
the workers who are part of the PF. Will they look to
the UN and God to stop the war, or will they take
matters into their own hands? You can't blame them for
not having done so yet, given the defeats thay have
suffered over the past two decades, the historic
weakness of the British working class, and the
misleadership of the Labour left and the centrist SWP.


Revolutionaries like NWBTCW must play a role in
breaking workers inside the PF from the class
collaborationist leadership of Livingstone, Benn and
co. They cannot do this by trying to conduct mass
conversions to the cause of revolution with abstract
platitudes. They can only do it by advancing tactics
and demands that are the *concrete expression* of
revolutionary politics, that are stepping stones
rather than obstacles to working class independence
and unity. NWBTCW's leaflet advances not a single
demand or tactic in opposition to the leadership of
the march. Nor does it deal with the dramatic events
in the two weeks leading up to the march, when the
vehicle for invasion looked like changing from the US
to the UN.

I don't propose just saying 'strike against the war'
again and again: what I say is that concrete examples
of anti-war action by workers need to be raised (ie
the general strike in Namibia last year, the blacking
of Israeli goods in Norway) and concrete actions be
proposed. For instance, there must surely be potential
for the political opposition of the Firefighters to
war on Iraq should be fused with the economistic
strugle of the Firefighters with the Balir government.
And there is such a rich British heritage of
anti-nukes direct action against military
installations. Alright, most of it was led by the
middle class, but it is still salvagable, to say the
least. And NWBTCW should work with the revolutionary
groups that also fight against the PF nature of Stop
the War (ie, off the top of my head, Workers Power,
Red Action, and the CPGB - PCC)

Having said all that, I do think the NWBTCW leaflet
provides a snappy read on the broad nature of war. I
might pillage it for the AIC! My view, though, is that
this historical and theoretical stuff should be the
icing, not the cake.


Cheers
Scott




--- Antagonism <antagonism1-AT-yahoo.com> wrote: > Scott
writes:
> 
> > Why does
> > NWBTCW not advocate anti-war strike action and the
> 
> Because we've already done that many times before in
> different
> ways, eg,
> 
>
http://www.geocities.com/nowar_buttheclasswar/nwbtcwleaflet1.html
> 
> and we're not just a bunch of leftist robots who
> keep on
> repeating exactly the same actions again and again
> and again.
> 
> cheers
> 
> steve
> 
> 
> ====> Antagonism                         
> web: http://www.geocities.com/antagonism1
> email: antagonism1-AT-yahoo.com                     
> mail: Antagonism, BM Makhno, London WC1N 3XX, UK
> 
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