VLVL (6) Sasha: Hollywood blacklists

[jbor]

>> an echo of the way the IWW bickered itself into the ground and
>> thereafter devolved into a bunch of ineffectual picnic organisers who ended
>> up letting the fascists sneak in to steal the prize. Another failure of the
>> left, "a failure of public will".

on 30/9/03 4:05 PM, Mike Weaver at mikeweaver at gn.apc.org wrote:
 
> You don't perchance think that the strength of the opposition might have
> been more responsible for the defeat of the IWW?

>From the little I've read, including your notes on the Wobblies, I got the
impression that in-fighting between the Syndicalists and traditionalists,
and violent acts by some of its members, were responsible for its decline.
And, for me, the story of the failure of the IWW as a politically active
organisation throws new light on the historico-political symbolism or
significance of that "Becker-Traverse" family picnic at novel's close, in
the midst of which the "fascist" Brock swoops in and almost manages to
spirit away the willing American child.

best

> The bickering starts when
> the struggle slows down - energies turned inwards etc. And what's this
> putdown of picnics? When the power of the opposition is too great to
> challenge head on the best thing to do is ease back, keep the flame lit and
> the social networks alive.