An elderly woman from Brooklyn stopped glaring at an old man across the walkway long enough to explain to me that she'd been at every forum since the days when the forum was more honestly called The Socialist Scholars Conference and that "each year there's hostility between one camp of Socialists and one camp of Communists. I may not be the best to speak to because I am a Socialist but it always seems to me that they show up for planned and announced events expecting to hijack them and then they get very bitter when they can't." Had I not feared either or both might break a hip, I might have suggested the three of us launch into the song and dance number "Jet" from West Side Story.
The events kicked off Friday and four attendees swore that Socialist Barbara Ehrenreich scored the festival's highpoint with her remarks during the opening plenary. None could remember what she'd said but all agreed she exhibited tremendous enthusiasm. Enthusiasm aside, might that indicate the festival's biggest weakness when less than 24-hours later, no one can remember what an "outstanding" speaker had to say?
The crowd was largely of the AARP generation with some middle-aged participants sprinkled in. Time and again, when I encountered someone in their twenties or late teens, I would discover they were a student of Pace University and were present either for extra credit or as a class assignment. (More students might have been present as attendees had the festival not been scheduled during spring break.) The crowd was majority White with a few African-Americans. So few, in fact, that when I spoke to a person of color, almost without fail, I would discover they were from another country.
The speakers? They practically out numbered the participants. Though this was not a press-intensive event, there were a few outlets present (most notably, WBAI) and the most optimistic crowd estimate was given at 1,000. That was contrasted with an estimated 650 speakers meaning the speakers might have been more effective had they each paired off one-on-one with one attendee.
Sasha Lilley, fresh from her very public spanking at KPFA which found her removed from management and pushed back to a minor three-day-a-week program, was present and that might have been a surprise if you hadn't wandered through the tables of books PM Press carted to the festival (in the hopes of selling those books). (Lilley is married to PM Press founder Ramsey Kanaan who was also present and very friendly. In fact, you'd have more fun -- and get more information -- shooting the breeze with Kanaan outside the sessions. None of Kanaan's observations appear in this article, to be clear.) Lilley qualified as "the youth vote" at this conference -- among attendees or among speakers.
I was repeatedly told by those working the conference that the whole point of this year's "solidarity" conference was to pass the reigns on to the next generation of "community organizers" ("activist" is an apparently verboten term at the festival). But I repeatedly saw leaders over the age of 65 passing the baton to speakers well over the age of 55. Apparently, the Left Forum 2041 festival is when the young leaders of today will really get a seat at the table.
For now, Howie Hawkins was, swear to God, touted as a "new star" of the left. The 58-year-old male, who has repeatedly run for public office and repeatedly not been elected, made a beeline for every member of the press he could spot. The "new stars" were best summed up by a Pace University student working at the festival who told me she felt like she was spending the day with her grandparents "and hoping they go down for a nap soon."
She shared that observation with me a few minutes after I arrived and right before she was approached by an attendee. The 68-year-old White male was confused as he pointed to his schedule. To "show support," he wasn't sure whether he should attend "Being a Black Lesbian in America, A Discussion of How The Life Has Changed" or "Black Liberation Theory: Towards Praxis & Solidarity" or catch"the great Bill Fletcher" who would be part of "Forbidden Fruit: The Role of Sprituality in the Left." All three sessions started at 3:00 pm. The student suggested he instead attend "Puerto Rico: Colonialism & the Struggle Against the Privatization of Education" which only confused him more. He finally decided to go with "Identities, Multiculturalism, and Solidarity" which started at the same time and, he hoped, would cover "all the issues."
The session no one wanted to miss was "Full On Crazy: Grudge F**kin' Our Way Into History" but they called it "The Tea Party and The Media." The panelists were Richard Kim, Laura Flanders, Glen Ford and Adele M. Stan. And the moderator, who couldn't even get her introductions correct, was Socialist "It Girl" Frances Fox Piven, wig hat almost firmly in place.
"The role of propaganda in contemporary American politics," snarled Frances, sounding a lot like Cloris Leachman's Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety (the session played like High Anxiety as well), "I think that this kind of media [right-wing media] has been important in the rise of the Tea Party because it has created what I consider a lunatic, paranoid story about particular" and here Francy was ranting and yelling and misusing the microphone. But she saved her nastiest faces for when spitting out "the mainstream media" repeatedly -- a group which she apparently loathes even more than, in her words, "the station called 'Fox News'." She climbed on the cross about how she and the forum weren't getting the coverage and backing they needed from "the mainstream media."
Louder than you'd expect someone of her size or age to get, she yelled, "IT WOULD BE MUCH BETTER IF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA COVERED US AS WELL!"
There you have it, the greatest crime in America today is that Frances Fox Piven doesn't get enough attention from the press.
She kept going on about "last summer" when she meant the summer of 2009 which may have been even sadder than when she was, for example, talking about radio programs and a radio network apparently unaware that they were no longer around. (Laura Flanders would gently correct her.)
"Last summer," Frances insisted yet again when she meant the summer of 2009, "hysterical tea party people screaming 'Don't let the government get their hands on my medicare!' I mean you laugh but --"
But no one was laughing, Francie.
Was she hearing laughter in her head?
At a certain age, maybe people need to step away from public speaking even if they are a Socialist "It Girl."
I was mainly there because it had been passed onto C.I. that Laura Flanders would be delivering a more modulated and nuanced take on the Tea Party than she'd offered in what were nightmare appearances (for anyone who ever respected her once clear and consistent voice) on MSNBC.
I'm sure Laura and her crew think she made a huge step but she didn't. She came off like a damn fool. "There is no question," she insisted, "of the role of racism in all of this."
But it's not just racism, she would go on to say.
It's not racism at all.
The Tea Party was created because of Laura Flanders and her ilk.
She quoted herself saying that it was surprising there was a right-wing revolution (Tea Party) when there wasn't a left wing one.
As she talked, and as she drug her eighty-one-year-old uncle (and his twin brother) through the mud for cheap laughs, it became clear that she still doesn't get it and she probably never will.
The left created the Tea Party. It wasn't big money funds or big money people. It wasn't Glen Beck. It wasn't Fox News.
Laura's confused because her uncle Carl used to listen to her show. A lot of us used to, Laura. Some of us wrote you off in time not to be antagonized by your screeching. Maybe your uncle wasn't one of them?
Laura Flanders created the climate for the Tea Party. She did so by repeatedly playing the race card. She and other fools on the left (Bob Somerby has documented this repeatedly at The Daily Howler; Ava and C.I. have done so here) thought they could steamroll Barack into the nomination and then into the White House by screaming "racism" at anyone who ever criticized the bi-racial politician.
They continue to demonize their opponents with that false charge. Francis Fox Piven ridiculously complained about those opposed to ObamaCare. What kind of Socialist is that stupid woman? ObamaCare isn't single-payer. The left should have been screaming their heads off (and some of us were). But for Francy Pantsy it's all about skin color. And that's true of so many whether they're David Lindorff or John Kerry. Race, when it was brought up in regards to Barack's run, was repeatedly cited as a plus or something that evil people would use to prevent him from becoming president.
Is everyone missing Chris Hedges repeated criticism of "identity politics"?
Laura Flanders was. Her 'racist' uncle Carl is against unions and thinks big union bosses rip him off. And he's against this and he's against that and goodness.
Carl doesn't really seem out of touch. Laura Flanders does.
I see unions as an overall plus. But someone who belongs to a union -- as Laura's uncle does -- is no doubt aware of the actual day-to-day realities. And it's not always going to be pretty. And, yes, union bosses do profit. But Laura is pie-in-the-sky and can't understand why any union member might not love unions. She can't understand her uncle or anyone who is not just like her.
When diagnosing 'the other,' she automatically assumes the worst because they're 'not like her.' So she goes for the 'opposite.'
She has no clue.
And it was this attitude that helped create the Tea Party.
It was the attitude that elevated Barack Obama to God (reality has brought him down to earth) that created the backlash.
That is how it works and it's a damn shame Laura Flanders can't grasp it.
It was people like her and their inability to remain ethical and consistent in their ways that created the backlash. Instead of remaining functioning political analysts, too many on the left acted as if they were hormone-crazed Justin Bieber fans and it was repulsive to see.
If you weren't left, it probably came off more than repulsive, it probably came off as insane.
And that's what started the Tea Party movement. And the non-stop publicity that Laura, The Nation, The Progressive, et al have given the Tea Party (ensuring that the MSM would be interested as well) is what allowed it to take off.
For eight years, Americans on the right and left and in the center and apoliticial had seen left 'leaders' rail against the Iraq War (less so the Afghanistan War; however, Laura Flanders was one of the few to publicly take on that war as well), against Guantanamo Bay, against illegal wire tapping and much, much more. Immediately after the end of the Democratic Party primaries, Barack Obama gave a speech indicating ending the Iraq War might have to wait (Tom Hayden had a 24-hour outburst on July 4, 2008 and then shut his mouth like a good little lap dog), that (as he told CNN's Money) NAFTA was a good thing and that he would vote for immunity (and did) for the telecoms in the illegal wiretapping. All that before he was president.
And to the non-left, that was pretty damn confusing because people like Laura Flanders still pranced around saying, "Vote for Obama! Change we can believe in! We are the ones we have been finger banging!" They have no idea how whorish they came off. The same people who were disgusted with the press slobbering over Bush (and I well remember Laura's ranting about the second inauguration on The Laura Flanders Show in January 2005) were acting as bad as -- if not worse than -- the Republicans under Bush. Peggy Noonan at her most lunatic and frenzied in 2003 had nothing on the Cult of St. Barack.
On the left, you embarrassed me. To the right? You scared the hell out of them. They thought Jonestown was spreading across the USA.
What I learned from it was that when a Republican's back in power, I won't be so driven by fear. (Yes, after reading Matthew Rothschild's conspiracy 'reporting,' I did believe in 2006 that Bush was about to round us all up on the left and put us into detention centers.) There are many things I will loudly oppose but there are many other things I will easily dismiss.
I learned that because the 2008 election was a gift for those of us who don't whore. It allowed us to see that our own side could be as crazy as the right. And in teaching us that, it not only held up a mirror to our own past actions, it freed us to speak the truth and to leave the mental prisons.
I had a plane to catch so I left just as Glen Ford began speaking. I don't think I missed anything and, had the session started on time (instead of how many hours late?), I would have caught the whole thing. Between Francy and Laura, I'd gotten the Deluxe-Package on crazy already. If you missed the festival, which concludes today, I don't think you missed anything either.
But if you are planning to attend, the only really interesting panel takes place this evening. Today at 5:00 pm the session to attend is "From the Bush Regime's 'War on Terror' to Obama's 'Overseas Contingency Operation' -- Why We Resist" featuring World Can't Wait's Debra Sweet, Iraq War resister Mathis Chiroux and others.
Otherwise, the festival largely appears to exist just so a bunch of old people who don't feel they get enough attention (poor, Frances) can get up in front of a small number of people and pontificate at length.
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Notes: A big thank you to Ava and C.I. who helped with editing this piece and also with a major polish and a turn of a phrase on more than one occasion. They rejected co-writing credit so I'm thanking them in this note. ADDED: They really need a co-writing credit. This went up an hour ago and a friend called to say he enjoyed it but didn't I go to any session? Uh-huh. Well it's not up here. We'd already cleaned up our mess (which would include rough drafts in long hand) and had no idea what trash bag it was in. Ava and C.I. basically co-wrote with me the sections involving Piven. (As I'm sure longterm readers will notice.) I've again offered them a byline but they say the note of thanks was more than enough. And my apologies if you read this earlier today before we knew that half the article wasn't up with what we posted.