Some radicals see all “protest” as pointless while others have made public activism a way of life. Others are overcoming the atomization of protest as just another alienated activity.
Another persistent concern is choosing one’s terrain of struggle. Some radical environmentalists say we should all save the wilderness, even if it means making that a single issue. Meanwhile, social justice activists say that radical greens should put aside nature issues and work on labor, race, gender, etc.
Some anarchists constantly argue about the “correct” perspective (platformism or primitivism, anarcho-communism or libertarian socialism, post-left anarchy or post-anarchism, and so on). Recently, we learned about a conversation where one activist suggested that another group drop a long standing campaign against a new Wal Mart to do more work opposing the war in Iraq. But to understand modern imperialism is to grasp ‘ global capitalism. In essence, Wal Mart is the War is Wal Mart.
We need more opposition to the symptoms and to the totality of our collective social problems, we need more “against” all forms of tyranny and more—”for” peace, community, ecological justice and freedom—everything for everybody all the time.
Developing, honing, and practicing a revolutionary politics cannot come if every one of us attacks the other for not supporting the right cause at the right time. Let any notion of a “correct line” die with the remnants of the organizationalist Left and create the space for all kinds of resistance by all kinds of people all the time. Struggle Where You Want To!
