Mass movements, social media. Changes for activists?

The new technology plays a major role in the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.

Some years ago I saw that there were over 100 million people on the Internet in China. Then more recently I see that just about everybody here in the US where I live walks around with a cell phone. And a central part of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East was the use of cell phones and the Internet. As I said those years ago when I saw the figures from China any left or radical group that is working the same today as they were ten years ago are idiots. I am sorry I cannot be more diplomatic but that is the way I see it. They are idiots.

But it is not only that. There are also the developments in the working class especially in the advanced capitalist countries. The bureaucratic leadership has clamped down on the rank and file even more than they have in the past. They have recruited young inexperienced student staffers in some cases to help them in this sabotage of the movement. Look at the massive movement in Madison. It looks like it is defeated. It has been run into the sand by a leadership determined not to fight. A leadership which kept holding tightly on to its head, kept it marching up and down, kept relying on the Democrats, and at the same time gave away pay and benefits and then expected people to fight to keep negotiating to give away more wages and benefits. Incredible. Why would anybody fight to stay in a union which was demanding the right to give away wages and benefits in negotiations?

You would be forgiven for thinking these leaders are idiots. But they are not. It is that they are completely committed to capitalism, they can see no alternative, they do not believe the working class can build an alternative and so they see no alternative but to go along with capitalism. And this is what they do. They go along with capitalism and this means cutting wages and benefits and rights. Working people naturally do not like this so they have to be put down by the leadership. This is what the leadership do. They suppress any opposition to their strategy of going along with capitalism in their ranks. This believe of the leadership in capitalism is the source of the problem. They also of course get their perks from capitalism, higher wages and more secure jobs than their members.

The question is how will this change? I do not know. There can be spontaneous explosions such as the Middle East and North Africa where the system becomes just too much to bear any longer. This is one possibility. And given the leadership and the crisis of the left and radical movement probably the most likely. But what about this left and radical movement? Can this movement, can we not, do something to set in motion, to accelerate the new movement.

I see that many new movements in the recent past have been started by the youth using new "tricks." I was thinking about this the other day. One of the biggest crooks in the US is Alan Greenspan and he is walking around like he owns the place. Working people should know how central a role he played in wrecking their lives. We can picket his house, give out flyers etc. identify him everywhere he goes, follow him everywhere he goes, organize workers to take strike action against him, that is do no services for hum of any kind. . But how about something else, something more imaginative and taking into account the new technology and also which would involve some political thought. How about organizing a competition on the internet for which musical group in the US can write the best song savaging Greenspan? Have concerts and gatherings all over the country to see the country's youth compete. We can do the same thing with other capitalist crooks and this would begin to create a new genre of music. Not protest songs and music. But fighting and combative anti capitalist songs and music. A new genre.

I read recently that young people in Florida have taken up the issue of teenage smoking in the state. They created a series of fierce commercials showing how the tobacco companies manipulate young people into addiction. One showed two young people in an ad agency promoting cigarettes. They tried then went on and tried to give the ad agency which promoted the cigarettes a prize for the most kids killed. this had an affect.

Then there is the prank phone call development. Walker in Wisconsin was already caught in this thinking he was talking to the right wing billionaire Koch who bank rolls him. He gave away some secrets such as he was thinking of putting provocateurs into the workers demonstrations.

Anyway the main point is that things have changed and the movement must change. A revolutionary once said that we need to have a sense of history, a sense of proportion, a sense of humor to be a revolutionary. I would add now that more than ever before we need a sense of imagination.

Sean.