Author: furryjester

Crossposted on Dailykos
I know that the title of the diary may seem to suggest otherwise, but this is a serious question.  I’m hoping for answers from the activist writers here I respect so much, like Meteor Blades and Madman in the Marketplace and others whose names maybe I don’t know, who have done this and who understand better than I what it’s meant to accomplish.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this – about Cindy Sheehan’s planned protests all this week at the White House, about the die-ins, about getting arrested.  I’m planning to go, on Friday.  I don’t know what I’ll do when I get there.

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Crossposted on Dailykos

It’s a fight that crops up repeatedly on liberal blogs, and – if you’re like me – in discussions with your Democratic friends and neighbors, with potential volunteers, and with voters.  How much do we compromise with people and movements who don’t support ideals that are important to us? To what degree do we support candidates who don’t stand for the same things we do, in order to get some of what we want? There are those who say that we progressives ought to stop supporting Democrats and form a third party.  There are those discourage any political activity whatsoever outside of electing Democrats, on the grounds that it is self-sabotage.

The interesting thing about this debate is – no matter what pioneers we may think we are – we are not the first progressives or radicals or leftists or liberals to engage in it.

After the flip, I’ve copied excerpts from an exchange of letters between Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, the early 20th century radical anarchists, on just this topic: to what extent should activists cooperate with other activists who have some goals in common, but not all?