Going public

Louis Proyect lnp3 at panix.com
Sat Oct 24 17:40:37 PDT 1998


Ken Lawrence:
>Since Louis has forced me to post, I shall add a general point to the
>specifics I stated directly. For me, the greatest weakness of the
>revolutionary movement in the United States is none of the above -- that is,
>none of the reasons that have been confidently offered by the sects, by the
>opportunists, by the best and most serious students, scholars, and activists.
>It is the almost unanimous inability to countenance ambiguity.

You send me private mail basically warning me that Ward Churchill is some kind of agent-provocateur. This is your idea of what the revolutionary movement needs more of? You disgusting piece of ------. I wrote a political explanation of what took place in Nicaragua and your response to my rather measured and dispassionate analysis was that I was "unprincipled" and that my "Trotskyist roots" were showing. I have no idea what kind of ambiguity you are advocating. Myself, I prefer directness. And I will tell you directly that you are a no-good troublemaker.


>Despite that unifying factor, a lack of scruple rules out regarding
someone as
>comrade, except in the most general sense, regardless of agreement on points
>of doctrine. Trustworthiness, not adequacy of political line, is the single
>most precious socialist virtue, as anyone on the front line of struggle will
>tell you.

I consider Ward Churchill a political ally in my struggle to synthesize Marxism and indigenism. The FSLN has basically analyzed its policy on the Atlantic Coast as a dogmatic mistake. All the issues you raise about Ward's "sincerity" can not be countered because they go beyond his words and his actions. All I can say about you is that you are the sort of person who likes to put the snitch-jacket on people. Usually the snitch-jacket is used to smear people with alleged FBI connections, but in your case you go for the big-time, the CIA. You haven't hear the last of this.

Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)



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