Michael Yates
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> Doug wrote to Michael Yates:
>
> >I thought I'd made it clear what I thought. But maybe I didn't. I
> >wouldn't have written the article Marc did, nor would I have
> >published it in NY Press. I'm not comfortable bashing the left for
> >the amusement of cynical rightwingers. But I think Marc makes lots of
> >good points - about the odd cultishness of the Free Mumia movement,
> >about its excessive claims of innocence, and about its inability to
> >broaden into a comprehensive anti-DP movement. All Marc's critics
> >seem to have forgotten that he made very strong anti-death penalty
> >statements - unlike C Clark Kissinger, who's inspired by memories of
> >revolutionary firing squads performing public executions.
>
> If the failure to organize a comprehensive anti-Death Penalty movement is
> the main criticism of the Free Mumia movement, why not use the Labor Party
> as a vehicle for it, instead of kvetching from the sideline? I think it
> would take a mass working-class political party or movement -- something
> far bigger than the Free Mumia movement can ever hope to be -- to reverse
> Americans' sentiments toward capital punishment, cops, & prisons. Then,
> you'd have to battle not a Clark Kissinger & a Ramsey Clark, but a Max, a
> Wojtek, top labor officials, many crypt-Dems, etc., first to make the Labor
> Party get off its ass, and then to make it take up an anti-death-penalty
> campaign. Doug & Nathan have a point, but you guys don't see the beam in
> your own political eyes (of the Labor Party, the Dems, the AFL-CIO, etc.).
> Doug can use his newsletter, radio show, etc. to promote the cause, too,
> unlike Mike, Carrol, etc. Where's political responsibility? I mean,
> political responsibility of organic intellectuals? Don't mourn, organize!
>
> Yoshie