Redbaiting on Left? Blackout of March 21 antiwar protest?

John Walsh at Counterpunch says liberals have censored any mention of the upcoming ANSWER antiwar protests this Saturday in DC, LA, and SF because one of the major players is Marxist. Thus, it’s red-baiting by UFJP, MoveOn, and the rest.

Now some in UFPJ have characterized A.N.S.W.E.R. as loony lefties because a leading member is a group calling itself “Marxist-Leninist.”  Zowie, kids!  That is really scary!

That’s a little inaccurate. PSL, the Marxist group being referred to, isn’t a leading member group in ANSWER, it’s more like the only group, the rest being non-players. And before someone foams at the mouth at me about this, I was a member of both groups for quite a while.

There’s been bad blood between UFJP and ANSWER for a long time. So it’s hardly news that UFJP isn’t supporting ANSWER now. Besides, founder of UFJP Leslie Cagan was a member of the Communist Party before founding a splinter group, the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. So, I’m unclear how an alleged blackout of an antiwar march by one red against another could be called red-baiting.

But that’s not what’s happening. Rather, everyone is almost completely focused on the economy, Ponzi schemes, AIG, job loss, the recession, etc, The war is not front page news now. That’s why it looks like turnout for Saturday’s protests will be dismal. People are preoccupied with the economy. It’s not because of supposed red-baiting.

The ANSWER protest in DC this Saturday will deliver coffins to corporate offices of companies profiting from the war. A dramatic gesture perhaps, but one that will not resonate much in these economic hard times. Maybe a better tactic would have been to tie the antiwar protests to the enormous amounts of money spent there which could be better spent here to help our own citizenry. Now that would have resonance.