Disagree. Our work is not resisting the draft, it is carrying the class struggle into the very heart of capital's military machine. That cannot be done by resisting the draft.
The failure of the "new left," in particular SDS, to move from anti-Vietnam war, anti-draft, to anti-deferment, isolated it from larger class struggle inside the military. Draft to enable efficient imperialist war? Not any longer. Vietnam proved that. Grenada, Panama, Gulf War 1, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Gulf War 2 have proved it again. We don't support the death of draftees, no more than we support the death of workers who are compelled to work in unsafe conditions. What we don't support is the false privilege that isolates the military from the actual social conflicts precipitating and precipitated by their deployment. dms o----- Original Message ----- From: "Carrol Cox" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 7:46 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] dems, etc > dmschanoes wrote: > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Peter Hollings" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 11:30 AM > > Subject: Re: [PEN-L] dems, etc > > > > The mandatory service bill is a poison pill. It will make unjustified war > > unpopular and unsustainable. > > > > Peter Hollings > > ________________________ > > And that is the single best reason for supporting reinstatement of the > > draft. > > > > No. It is true that the draft will make our work easier. Nevertheless > part of our work is resisting the draft. That is not particularly > contradictory either. The purpose of the draft is to enable efficient > imperial war. We can't support that just because it will give us good > slogans. If you want to you can secretly hope that despite our > resistance the draft will be implemented. Just as you can secretly hope > that wherever u.s. troops are sent there will be heavy u.s. casualties. > But that really doesn't make very good agitational material. And > objectively [that horrid word] what you are doing if you support > reinstatement of the draft is supporting the death of draftees. The > draft won't make our work easy unless it really hurts those who are > drafted and their friends, relatives, neighbors, and only heavy > casualties among draftees will do that. Mere experience of military > service by everyone will have no effect on our work. > > Carrol > > > dms >
