SonofRage
9th February 2005, 15:25
This is my comrade's report back from the National Conference on Organized Resistance this past weekend. If you look at the picture I'm attaching, you'll see that Bernardine Dohrn (yes, THAT Bernardine Dohrn) is wearing my Direct Action Tendency button which Tom take off my shirt and gave to her. She laughed because it's based on an old SDS logo and she was happy and pinned it on herself right away.
From SDS to NCOR: Socialism, Anarchism and Bernardine Dohrn
Growing up during the Sixties and early Seventies I was an admirer of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Participatory democracy as an internal structure for a political organization and as a model for deepening democracy in the United States had tremendous appeal. Despite being a few years too young to participate in SDS I nonetheless felt a part of the Movement and a personal regard for Bernardine Dohrn: "La Pasionara of the Lunatic Left" as she was called by J. Edgar Hoover. She was attractive, flambuoyant and brilliant as the spokesperson for the resistance. I was impressed with her revolutionary fervor and, being an adolescent, smitten as well.
However, SDS fractured in 1969 and in 1970 the leadership (the Weatherman faction) went underground to pursue Armed Propaganda as a means of conveying their revolutionary message. When Vietnam ended in 1975 the Weather Underground Organization (WUO) lost alot of their impetus and the peace movement itself seemed to grind to a halt. Many activists, myself included, joined socialist organizations in order to continue the struggle. Although The War had ended, the Empire was not dismantled and it used various lethal methods to continue State policy by other means. It had to be resisted, even with our depleted numbers.
Over the next two decades the Soviet Union collapsed and many struggles for national liberation faltered, some being impaled on the sword of US imperialism. Things seemed grim and neoliberal aggression continued, unchecked for the most part, both at home and abroad. Then came Seattle. The anti-globalization struggle rocked the complacent corporate rulers of the US and animated the Left. The emergence of a militant opposition to business as usual was not led by the Old Left (the socialist parties) nor by the New Left leaders of the Sixties. The resistance was populated by activists who identified as anarchist.
read more... (http://actiontendency.net/EW/current/ncor.shtml)
From SDS to NCOR: Socialism, Anarchism and Bernardine Dohrn
Growing up during the Sixties and early Seventies I was an admirer of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Participatory democracy as an internal structure for a political organization and as a model for deepening democracy in the United States had tremendous appeal. Despite being a few years too young to participate in SDS I nonetheless felt a part of the Movement and a personal regard for Bernardine Dohrn: "La Pasionara of the Lunatic Left" as she was called by J. Edgar Hoover. She was attractive, flambuoyant and brilliant as the spokesperson for the resistance. I was impressed with her revolutionary fervor and, being an adolescent, smitten as well.
However, SDS fractured in 1969 and in 1970 the leadership (the Weatherman faction) went underground to pursue Armed Propaganda as a means of conveying their revolutionary message. When Vietnam ended in 1975 the Weather Underground Organization (WUO) lost alot of their impetus and the peace movement itself seemed to grind to a halt. Many activists, myself included, joined socialist organizations in order to continue the struggle. Although The War had ended, the Empire was not dismantled and it used various lethal methods to continue State policy by other means. It had to be resisted, even with our depleted numbers.
Over the next two decades the Soviet Union collapsed and many struggles for national liberation faltered, some being impaled on the sword of US imperialism. Things seemed grim and neoliberal aggression continued, unchecked for the most part, both at home and abroad. Then came Seattle. The anti-globalization struggle rocked the complacent corporate rulers of the US and animated the Left. The emergence of a militant opposition to business as usual was not led by the Old Left (the socialist parties) nor by the New Left leaders of the Sixties. The resistance was populated by activists who identified as anarchist.
read more... (http://actiontendency.net/EW/current/ncor.shtml)