Movements are a wrong approach to leftism. We don't have to move anything--history is already moving. We have to harness what is already there, what is already moving, and give it a sharp, focused direction. Mass movements do not necessarily do that, and can even detract from it

Obama was nothing if not a "movement" candidate. He had a diverse, broad coalition that carried him to the White House. And without any kind of clear direction, this movement did little more than give ideological cover and leftist bona fides to a dedicated corporate puppet

Progressive neoliberals and bourgeois socialists love to wrap themselves in "movements" so that, if they get into power, they can use these movements as ideological cover and point to them for ideological legitimacy to obscure their basic neoliberalism

And, at the same time, the movements themselves become avenues for careerists within them to legitimize themselves with traditional power networks