WASHINGTON — Last Friday night, I attended the opening panel of
the National Conference on Organized Resistance, expecting to find
the Youth Chapter of the Angry Left. Instead, I found a defeated,
Sad Sack Left.
Since the panel was held at American University in the heart of
“blue” territory (Kerry got around 90% of the D.C. vote), I
anticipated throngs of radicals. Surely they’re emboldened and
eager to consider “Beyond the Indefinite Empire: Post-Election
Organizing.” In the absence of such crowds, I passed the correct
building, but doubled back when I saw two young men with water
bottles, one of whom wore long underwear under his T-shirt.
Eureka!
Trailing them, I found my way to a 300-person-capacity lecture
hall. Maybe 75 folks milled about. Late? No, 6 p.m., right on time.
The revolution must not be in a hurry. I felt suspect even
incognito, in jeans and Carhardt jacket. I had no piercings, no
deliberate dishevelment, no “Not My President” t-shirt, no
radicals-in-arms. My beard was my only saving grace. Scanning the
room, I saw pink bracelets. Registration? The revolution must not
be free. As we waited, one young man protested business casual:
“I’ll wear a button-down, but I won’t tuck it in, just to let them
know I’m still human.”
They got rolling at 6:15, at which point it would have been
generous to estimate that the room was a third-full. The first
speaker was Chris Crass, admired by the crowd for his anti-racist
work with white parts of the global justice movement. Sporting
black suit and tie, blue shirt, and mustache/chin strap facial
hair, he greeted the revolution, “Hi comrades.” They replied with a
murmur.
And so began an hour of self-recrimination. They didn’t yell.
They didn’t cry. But they sure came close. Nation
contributing editor Liza Featherstone, a tallish woman in all black
— hair, shirt, jacket — plugged her book about the left
“suffering from a lack of engagement with ideas.” Even though the
left proudly professes its lack of a worldview, she said, its
ideology is all-consuming. It’s a deviation she calls
“activistism.”
The left constantly examines its own race, class, and gender,
she said, but it fails to ask: What’s the point of action? The
Million Worker March, she quipped, was more like a couple thousand.
About the counter-Inaugural protests, she noted, “What were we
saying? That the people have spoken and we disagree?” The right
wing builds structures the left neglects, such as think tanks and
journals, she said. “Have you been to the Heritage Foundation?” she
asked. “It’s opulent, but it shows the importance they accord to
such ideas.”
Notorious University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen — the prototypical post-9/11, Blame
America Firster — was also sulking. He recalled his great
sacrifices for the radical cause, like giving up hair cuts and
shaves. “I looked like a lunatic,” explained Jensen. But in spite
of such advances, he conceded, “We failed. We’ve gotten the s***
kicked out of us for the last 30, 40 years. … The other side
out-organized us and out-thought us.” Jensen said he pushed past
the typical post-election temptations — “drunkenness, Canada,
suicide” — but he’s still on a multi-week bender. The answer isn’t
more organization, he stressed. The left needs some deep
reflection: “Take some time to mourn the consequences of our
failure.” Preaching to the choir can’t be the problem, he added,
since there is no choir anymore.
Cindy Milstein, a board member for the Institute for Anarchist
Studies, attempted a little hope: Radicals have harassed meetings
of world leaders, raised the cost of business, and shut down
streets. They marched between national party conventions. People
were more political than ever last year, but there was no thought
or vision behind their politics. They need to learn from Bush. He
embodied values, albeit “white, English-speaking, terroristic
fundamentalist” ones. The right has a consistent program and
values. They’ve captured the hearts, minds, and policy of “a
geographic area we call the United States.” The visionary plan of
the “Christian right” worked on single issues in institutions, the
culture, and the economy “in a hell of a strong way.” They dominate
the schools, radio, books, music, think tanks, and city
councils.
That’s how it went. This crowd couldn’t even summon Ohio
conspiracy theories. What was billed as a rally seemed more like a
funeral.
It was time to leave when Crass announced the next
disappointment. The crowd eagerly expected all-star activist Jaggi
Singh to show up, but he was denied entry into the United States.
Nary a peep from the choir. Crass ranted about systematic
harassment of the left, but couldn’t muster the anger for a battle
cry. Requesting a moment of silence, Crass asked the assembled to
“send a whole lotta love” to Jaggi. A scattered few bowed their
heads. On the Christian right they would call that a prayer.
