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These legal groups have obvious limitations, but from time to time they bring some good lawsuits against the Klan and other fascists. The real shame is that nobody on the left that I know of is keeping tabs on the Minutemen, the Klan etc., so if we want any information at all, we have to go to groups such as the SPLC for the background. I don't think anyone here is suggesting the SPLC is an organization which should be emulated by future working-class organizations, if and when they do arise. It's so very easy to criticize the way-too-obvious shortcomings of other organizations, but that should be the first step to laying the groundwork for something different. Criticism without doing the spade work to bring about some kind of alternative is really just empty. For my part, I'll take the good information and leave the bad. Good info. can be useful. Here in the south Latino organizations will continue to work with the ACLU for obvious reasons. Many if not most are undocumented workers. As far as I'm concerned, the Latino groups are in the vanguard, as demonstrated by the mass May Day demos of 2006. Those demos were all about pressuring Congress for an extension of legal rights to work in the USA without the fear of being arrested and deported. Without the fear of deportation, union organizing becomes more possible. The Latino groups are still pushing the same agenda. More power to them. If they want the legal cover provided by ACLU lawyers, that's fine by me. At least the latter care enough to be involved, and are doing something useful with their law degrees. Greg On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 12:12 AM, <sha...@aol.com> wrote: > > Well, I have a take on the SPLC and it follows. Its self-righteousness and > bevy of acolytes make me cringe. Its petty-bourgeois moralism is repulsive. > Punishing the consequences of capitalist decay can run the risk of a > fundamental assault on civil liberties and it seems to me that the SPLC comes > close to that. The defense of the bill of rights is better left to the ACLU - > even though that organization, when it extended from civil liberties to > civil rights as its focus evolved into an organization for the political > advancement of its cadre. > > Historically, the National Lawyers Guild should have filled the role that > these organizations now attempt to. But after falling in love with itself > in the sixties it fell prey to the would be leftists who wanted to > transform it into a left political party. > > The only organization that came close to acting as a vanguard for democracy > realized through law was the Workers Defense League which pretty much > disappeared after Roland Watts. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
