A VIEW FROM .4.MERICA THE TACTICS and strategy ot the varlous sects have been wrong and haven't helped to achleve the goals for which their members yearn; nelther have the assorted and sordld betrayals ot the Communlsts and others helped any, although these have been tar trom the declslve factors in revolutlonary failures. The sects and thelr strategy and tactics are, unfortunately, an integral part of the developmental process (as we ail are) ot the proletariat (ln the broadest sense), rather than separate, external agents whlch can determlne lts fate. Thelr influence has been symptomatic ot, rather than the cause of, the defeats of revolutlonary movements. Parcellzed struggles end up by being moulded by the laws of the old social order, just as that order ltself consolldates through parcellzatlon. Fragmentary elements. such as the partlcular relations of the unlversity. the famHy, the workplace, etc., cannot be attacked slngly and ln an abstract manner. (On one level the.y never really are.) Unless the attack ls launched on the whole, the parts cannot be destroyed; they are adapted and reintegrated. · The dormant and defunct student lett ln the U.S. never went beyond the superflclal slogans «anti-lmperiallsm,, «antisexlsm,. «antl-raclsml), «particlpatory democracy,, etc. The inadequacy, and even at times lrrelevance, of these narrow slogans was demonstrated again and again. For example, the occupation of Columbia University, in April of 1968, occurred «ofticially, to protest the sins of the university, especlally racism both intemally and with respect to the residents of the surrounding neighborhood of Harlem. A few hours after the occupation of the first building spontaneously began, the Black Student Association ordered all non-blacks out of the building because of the indecislon of S.O.S. (Students for a Democratlc Society, the most lnfluential leftist student group on the campus) as to whether or not to partlclpate ln a declared occupation. For reasons havlng more to do wlth our deep frustrations and the desire to act. as well as the brief experlence ot collective activity, than wlth the fonnal issues, a crowd of those of us who had been expelled promptly stormed. occupled and barrlcaded the unlverslty presldent's office. Although the S.O.S. steerlng committee initially voted agatnst the occupation and «activlst leaders, such as Mark Rudd advised people to leave to avoid arrest, the occupation conttnued. Assemblles were set up in every building (the occupation quickly spread to five buildings and lts life covered the 25
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