[O29] Arabs and Muslims, "Middle America, " and building our movement

[Ty dePass]

gente - Chrystie joins the conversation to insist that no one voted against
'Stop the racist scapegoating of Arabs and Muslims' as a march demand; on
the contrary, <snip>"The vote was on whether or not we were going back and
re-examining our list of demands."<snip> for her, the issue is more about
process than politics: <snip> "Clearly, with three weeks to go, we need to
move on." <snip>

 

i hadn't planned to get into this exchange at all, but i couldn't let this
rather facile rejoinder slide by w/o a comment-i've been there before. but
what surprises me most about this entire exchange is why it took so long for
anyone to notice that this demand was so conspicuously absent from the
original list. as Keith, and others have noted, since 9/11 anyone who even
looked like they might be an Arab-or know an Arab-has been subject to
arrest, detention, deportation, and vilification by the Bushwhackers and
their corporate media shills. Chrystie says <snip> "We should all be
focusing on making this rally happen rather then [sic] all of this
in-fighting and drawn out political discussions. <snip> 

 

if this were a stage production of "Oklahoma," i might take her point, but
this is a political mobilization, a step on the way toward what we all hope
will become a mass ant-war movement. to be voting down a demand of such
obvious relevance/significance to this effort because of logistical concerns
suggests that there hasn't been enough political debate; further, that this
group isn't really ready (politically, organizationally or ideologically) to
step up to the task of building a movement. 

 

like i said, i've been there before many times. in '82, the Sane/Freeze
folks called for a massive nat'l demo in NYC to oppose deployment of Trident
missiles in Europe. on the run up to the march, activists engaged in
anti-racist and internat'l solidarity work argued for the inclusion of
demands linking the defense spending to racially-orchestrated social service
cuts, the "poverty draft," low-intensity warfare against revolutionary
governments in Nicaragua and Angola, and US support for Israel and apartheid
So. Africa. reasonable, we thought: after all wasn't Reagan's war against
the "Evil Empire" unfolding on multiple fronts? and didn't we all share a
responsibility for building a united front against war and racism at home
and abroad-the kind of militant, multiracial mass movement Dr. King had
envisioned? the Sane/Freeze folks disagreed-vehemently: we were introducing
divisiveness into their coalition, diverting attention from other pressing
tasks, diluting the event's political message.yada, yada, yada. sound
familiar?   

 

("tio") Ty

 

it ain't what we don't know that hurts us...it's what we do know, that ain't
so...

 

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