Run away, run away: Spartacists in Boston, May 8

As a participant, I was interested to read the description of the May 8 anti-fascist demo in Boston in the latest issue of Workers Vanguard. At one point in the demonstration, we had to cross the street to confront the home-grown fascists and their police protective contingent. The Sparts, who initially had their own demonstration of about 6 people separate from at least 200 antifascists (i.e., the rest of us), declined to cross the street to go after the Arkansas Nazis. WV commented, " . . . there was no opportunity to stop the neo-Nazis in the street. Thus, we did not join in the false heroics of a small number of leftists who went directly up against riot police escorting the fascists down Congress Street."

What actually happened was that the main body of demonstrators crossed the street, not "a small numberof leftists," and, yes, we stood there yelling at the fascists and their police colleagues while the oh-so-left Sparts disappeared from view. Tendencies like the ISO and Workers World, for whom the Sparts have nothing but contempt, at least knew enough to cross the street to confront Nazis.

To stand there yelling at the cops and the fascist vermin was not "heroic," just something I felt we should do. Had the cops charged us, I would have tried to get out of the way, but nothing like that happened.

In print, the Sparts have always seemed to me to be principled and strong on theory, and I admired them for that, but, viewed close up, they turned out to be a tad chicken-hearted on May 8.