Fun With Figures

Inattentive readers of Workers Vanguard (WV), flagship of James Robertson’s Spartacist League (SL), may have missed a remarkable bit of good news buried on page nine of the 10 March issue. It seems that the anti-Klan mobilization in New York last October 23rd has undergone a posthumous growth spurt. The front page of the 29 October 1999 issue of WV had reported that, “at least 8,000 determined anti-Klan protesters” participated in the event (of whom fewer than 2,000 attended the SL rally, while the rest joined the Democrats at the site where the KKK actually appeared–see our letter to the SL of 13 November 1999).We now learn:

“This program [i.e., the SL’s program] was given concrete expression in the mass labor/black mobilization led by the Partisan Defense Committee and the Spartacist League to stop the Klan on October 23. Despite the efforts of the Democrats and reformist leftists like the ISO [International Socialist Organization] to stop that mobilization, up to 10,000 trade unionists, blacks, immigrants and youth turned out on October 23….”

This gain of 25 percent in total attendance at an October event over the past several months is impressive enough, but the information that it all took place under the SL’s leadership is perhaps equally important. If this continues at its present rate we may soon see reports of 20,000 or more. Regrettably the increased turnout is only available retrospectively.