Tom Morello and World Can't Wait

[flyby]

Tom Morello just signed the call for actions on November 2

World Can't Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime (http://worldcantwait.org)

[SonofRage]

Another front group is possible!

[flyby]

actually the November 2 events (and the Call for World Can't Wait Drive out the Bush regime) is a movement, not the plaything of any one group.

It is a rather narrow, and cramped view of events to view everything through this "front group" mentality.

sonofrage: great to see you again, by the way. Hope you are throwing yourself into the struggle in productive ways.

[Bad Grrrl Agro]

cool I'm organising in milwaukee

[Sabocat]

More impressive than Tom Morello to me is the endorsement of Howard Zinn.

[flyby]

actually the whole list of endorsers is (taken altogether) significant.

Can someone post it here (i gotta run).

[celtopunk]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19 2005, 06:22 PM
actually the whole list of endorsers is (taken altogether) significant.

Can someone post it here (i gotta run).
Here you go:

Anti-Flag
Bill T. Jones, Dancer
Boots, The Coup
Chris Daly, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Code Pink: Women for Peace
Cornel West, Princeton University
David Zeiger, Displaced Films (Sir, No Sir)
Francis Fox Piven
Howard Zinn, historian, author of A Peoples' History of the United States
Kathleen Hanna, Musician
Mark Leno, California Assemblyman
Michael Eric Dyson
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Not in Our Name
Ozomatli
Ron Kovic, author of Born on the 4th of July
Sam Hammill - Poets Against War
Studs Terkel
Sunsara Taylor, Revolution Newspaper
Tom Ammiano, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Tom Morello, Audioslave
Yuri Kochiyama, Oakland

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Bob Avakian didn't endorse, or were they affraid putting the words "chairman: revolutionary communist party" would scare off all the would be allies amongst the bourgeois liberals.

[flyby]

First of all, your tone is very petty. If you ahve a question, ask it. But why have a negative and sectarian little whine for every point we explore together.


In answer to your question: the RCP does not believe that its name, or its participation "scares people off" in any fundamental or prohibitive way. And, anyone who knows anything a bout their work, knows they are very upfront about their presence and views.

Carl Dix (national spokesperson of the RCP) and C. Clark Kissinger (writer for the Revolution newspaper) were both intitiating signatories of this call. And are featured in the public printing of this list i've seen.

It doesn'tmake sense to list every RCP spokesperson and supporter working on this project (for obvious reasons) but it is quite sufficient that this party has their national spokesperson endorse and sign prominently.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

What are the "obvious" reasons? They're not obvious to me.

Is it that they make up the large majority of signatories?

And it's quite funny that you labeled me sectarian for raising the question, since in another thread I expressed my support for this very action (which you aknowledged).

[flyby]

I didn't label you a sectarian (I don't know you overall, and don't pretend to evaluate you.)

But there is a sectarian tone to a bunch of responses: where everything gets torn down if it isn't by your narrow trend.

Anyone reading these threads can tell what I'm talking about.

This isn't personal, and I'm not evaluating you. And the fact that you endorse World Can't Wait is a good thing.

But the fact is that spokespeople of the RCP prominently endorse the World Can't Wait Call, and were among its initiators. And to suggest that the RCP hides its politics, or hides the things it actively supports is not factual. In fact, this revolutionary party is notoriously OUT THERE -- both putting forward its views and also talking about the importance of "join the vanguard" (as everyone knows).

As for the obvious reason: well, perhaps it wasn't obvious to you, so let me break it own: If a political party endorses a coalition or a movement, it would be strange if every prominent member, spokesperson, leader and supporter of that party added their names to the various literature. It would be overkill. When Carl Dix (the national spokesperson of the RCP) endorces the Call, everyone knows that the RCP has put itself behind this -- and everyone knows that (since this is a disciplined revolutionary party) it means that its membership and supporters are committed. You don't need to have every leader and member signing individually. Right?

But to return to the initial point: isn't all this nit-picky and petty? Shouldn't we be discussing the cardinal issues about how to defeat this war, and the rightwingers and Christian Fascists who have a grip on power?

Why the constant diversion into "who signed this or that"? Is any of this connected with how we are going to liberate people?

[SonofRage]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19 2005, 02:05 PM

sonofrage: great to see you again, by the way. Hope you are throwing yourself into the struggle in productive ways.
Thanks. I am RIDICULOUSLY busy these days.

[Severian]

Originally posted by celtopunk+Oct 19 2005, 12:36 PM--> (celtopunk @ Oct 19 2005, 12:36 PM)
[email protected] 19 2005, 06:22 PM
actually the whole list of endorsers is (taken altogether) significant.

Can someone post it here (i gotta run).
Here you go:

Anti-Flag
Bill T. Jones, Dancer
Boots, The Coup
Chris Daly, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Code Pink: Women for Peace
Cornel West, Princeton University
David Zeiger, Displaced Films (Sir, No Sir)
Francis Fox Piven
Howard Zinn, historian, author of A Peoples' History of the United States
Kathleen Hanna, Musician
Mark Leno, California Assemblyman
Michael Eric Dyson
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Not in Our Name
Ozomatli
Ron Kovic, author of Born on the 4th of July
Sam Hammill - Poets Against War
Studs Terkel
Sunsara Taylor, Revolution Newspaper
Tom Ammiano, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Tom Morello, Audioslave
Yuri Kochiyama, Oakland [/b]
The most "significant" thing about that list is that only one organization appears on it, other than the RCP front "Not in Our Name": Code Pink.

'Course, the "World Can't Wait" isn't listed among the actions on their website (http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?list=type&type=5) nor do the words "world can't wait" turn up on search of their website/ (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=+%22world+can%27t+wait%22+site%3Acodepink4peace. org&btnG=Search)

If they can't be bothered to put it on their website, I doubt they're doing much else to build this either...

So assuming they did in fact endorse, it's a pretty spectral endorsement.

Front group. And not even a very successful front!

[flyby]

hmmmm. Honestly, I prefer not to get drawn into the "nit-pick wars" -- where people snipe a nd avoid issues of substance. There are other threads dealing with WCW that at least deal with the questions of "is there a danger of fascism" and "how does one oppose fascism without ending up as a tail of some loyal opposition" (which are important and burning questions.)

This thread seems to be hijacked in another direction.... which disses people like Morello and the other signatories -- and basically portrays them as "dupes of the communists" (in a way that is rather classically anti-communist.)

I'll be sketchy:

point one: the sour negativism of these comments stand out -- full of one-sided innuendo.

point two: this is a movement with remarkably broad support, but not some rehashed "coalition of the left." And was never designed to be a "coalition." A discussion of why liberation doesn't emerge from "a coalition of the left" might be an important discussion to have, rather than the sour sniping.

point three: This is a very partial list drawn from the many thousands of signatories. This is a micro slice -- perhaps you don't know the people on this list, but with people like Sheehan, and Zinn, and Yuri Koshiyama endorsing you really ought to be more allsided.

point four: the main point is that this WCW is an approach and a thrust that is RIGHT ON TIME, it connects with peoples most radical and passionate sentiments. And it dares to step on the tracks right in front of the determined juggernaut of the Christian Fascists -- and call on millions more to get on the tracks too.

Mao talked about there are times when you can either lead, oppose or wander behind whining. Take your pick.