Responding to Antifa and Riseup
On Revolutionary Politics and Non-Violence

DiMaggio, Anthony
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/01/responding-to-antifa-and-riseup-on-revolutionary-politics-and-non-violence/
Date Written:  2017-09-01
Publisher:  CounterPunch
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21322

"The left" of contemporary 2017 America is deeply divided and fractured, and it is a shadow of its former self, considering the decline of organized labor, and the disappearance of left-public intellectuals in higher education. In this environment, what remains of "the left" desperately needs to reach out to the masses of Americans, including liberals, moderates, and political independents, and to pull them further to the left, if there is to be any chance of meaningful change. And berating anyone who is not perceived to be on the far left, rather than patiently working to bring these individuals into a broader left movement, is a recipe for irrelevance.

Abstract: 
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The "you're just a liberal and that's bad" line on the far-left is a shop-worn cliché, and it suggests a failure of left radicals to cultivate mass support for change. It reveals how off the mark those who engage in such condemnations are regarding larger efforts at mass movement building. "The left" of contemporary 2017 America is deeply divided and fractured, and it is a shadow of its former self, considering the decline of organized labor, and the disappearance of left-public intellectuals in higher education. In this environment, what remains of "the left" desperately needs to reach out to the masses of Americans, including liberals, moderates, and political independents, and to pull them further to the left, if there is to be any chance of meaningful change. And berating anyone who is not perceived to be on the far left, rather than patiently working to bring these individuals into a broader left movement, is a recipe for irrelevance. No substantive political change will ever be achieved with small groups of vanguard leftists shouting in condemnation against those who are not hardcore enough in their politics.

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