Bigger than Tet: May 68 and the Despicable 2008 Democratic Primaries

It's one of the great ironies of this primary season, as we cycle into May, that the battle lines are being constructed around a supposed split between the supposedly "ignorant" "blue collar" workers, on the one hand, and the supposedly "effete" college educated and "inexperienced" students on the other. We are here now at the 40th anniversary of what is known in Europe simply as May 68: the student and worker uprising that toppled governments and threw authoritarianism into its greatest crisis since the 19th century.

We've learned fucking nothing, and it is posters on both sides on these boards who show their deep and abiding ignorance of left politics by perpetuating the false and self-destructive distinction between "workers" and (so to speak) "students." Yes, you. You who portray West Virginians and blue collar workers in general as racists and as backwards hicks. You're to blame. Yes, you. You who deride the invigorated and politically engaged students as know-nothing children. You're to blame. Yes, you. You who see an impassioned movement developing among white and pink collar workers, and call them arugula-eatin' elites. You're to blame. The greatest tragedy of this primary is not for Obama, the man, nor Clinton, the woman. it has nothing to do with either of them as people, and anyone who thinks it does is not about politics, but mere fandom and triviality. It is not about "supporters" on this board or others, and your precious feelings. It is about the struggle to create anew a fair and good society, and the disaster of this fundamental split in the ONLY COALITION THAT CAN MAKE THAT HAPPEN. A disaster of our own making.



WORKERS and STUDENTS

CARRY ON ONE SOLE COMBAT

Against the government’s intransigence
Against police repression
For the amnesty of condemned demonstrators

OUR FIGHTS CONVERGE
IN THE CONTESTING OF CAPITALIST SOCIETY

For political and union freedom
For a democratic university and education in service to the workers
For full employment and the transformation of the economic system by and for the people

WORKERS AND STUDENTS IN SOLIDARITY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A SOCIETY UNDER THE
DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF THE WORKERS (May 13, 1968)

:thumbsup: