Not Just a Smear Tactic

Matthew N. Lyons

April Rosenblum. The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Anti-Semitism Part of All of Our Movements. Self-published, 2007. Download at www.thepast.info

In July of 2006, Bluestockings bookshop in New York City announced it was hosting a workshop for social justice activists on “opposing anti-Semitism in the movement.” The announcement sparked a heated online discussion on New York’s Indymedia website. Some people asked if the workshop was going to be “some Zionist bullshit” and why it wasn’t going to address other forms of discrimination, such as “Zionist anti-Semetism [sic]” against Palestinians. Critics doubted the existence of any real anti-Semitism on the left, or they suggested that it was caused by “right-wing Jews” having “cried wolf too many times.” One charged that “whining about anti-Semitism is like whining about ‘anti-white,’ or ‘reverse racism.’” They added that “Jews are one of the wealthiest groups in the world with the most privilege.”

Anna Feigenbaum

Ward Churchill. Pacifism as Pathology. AK Press 2007; Peter Gelderloos. How Nonviolence Protects the State. South End Press 2007

In a 2001 In These Times article on the FTAA demonstrations in Quebec City, Abby Scher, like many others, reflected on the effective interplay between protesters’ violent and non-violent tactics. She ended her discussion with the question: “Is Quebec… a wonderful demonstration of ‘a diversity of tactics’ – or a turning point where the gap between tactics yawns larger?” Now, six years later in a post-9/11 climate, the ‘War on Terror’ continues, corporate power grows, and frustration has set in amongst many movement participants. As protesters are finding themselves disheartened, pessimistic, and often downright bored with ineffective demonstrations, questions about movement tactics are resurfacing. Specifically, many people are voicing a call for more confrontational direct actions in our struggles against globalization and imperialism.

This review is from http://burning.typepad.com/burningman/2006/01/upping_the_anti.html the website of "Red Flags: News and Views from the Revolutionary Left"

Upping The Anti: New Radical Journal from Canada

Upping the Anti is an exciting new journal printed in Canada that does one of my very favorite things: they argue. Not in a mean-spirited way, but by printing a number of contradictory opinions side-by-side. Located at the nexus of what the editors describe as the "three antis" that guide the Canadian far-left -- anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism and anti-oppression -- they are constructing a dialog among activists and sharing it with the rest of us. Putting the toughest arguments to print means we move forward, or at least open the door. Too much of the left press is dedicated to singularly selling one vision, or on the flip side, producing generic activisty content that is neither challenging nor rigorous.

This is a review of the Journal by our comrade Karl in Montreal from his blog
http://sketchythoughts.blogspot.com

I feel guilty.

It has been almost three weeks since i received my box of Upping the Anti – the Toronto journal of radical theory and action, put out by comrades from Autonomy and Solidarity – and still nothing on this blog about it…

…the problem is that the journal is actually really good. Lots of interesting interviews and “panel discussions,” and some good articles to boot - it feels like it deserves a thorough review, and as with any such daunting task the easiest way to approach it is procrastination.

Nevertheless, one can’t procrastinate for ever, and it really is a good journal… so why don’t we just begin at the beginning?

The editorial to UTA #1 explains that “Upping the Anti refers to our interest in engaging with three interwoven tendencies which have come to define much of the politics of today’s radical left in Canada: anti-capitalism, anti-oppression, and anti-imperialism.”