<< Some "activists," specifically those who, as Ehrenreich puts it, those in
the business of competing for "crumbs" of access offered up to liberal
leadership deserve bashing. We might disagree on who those are, still, I
would be interested if you are even willing to identify a single "leader"
who you would categorize as a sell out. If you are not able to do so-and
you know as well as I do that there are plenty-is an indication of a
quasi- Stalinist worship of leadership and authority on your part, one
which would probably find great resonance with many others on this list,
but is one which responsible progressives are justifiably suspicious of.
In any case, the principle you endorse, that rank and file must always
uncritically accept and defend the prerogatives of leadership of
organizations ostensibly set up in their interest has proven to be just as
demobilizing and counterproductive as the anti-organizational tendencies
you identify.
Finally, your personal history, which you repeatedly trot out here, would
only be relevant if past associations of self-described progressvies were
any kind of reliable guide to where their true loyalties rest. For every
Noam Chomsky there are five "apostates" as they have been described on
this list: take your pick-Norman Podhoretz, Donna Shalala, Marvin Olasky
the list goes on and on. My sense is that you are much closer to the
latter than to the former. Whatever the reality, given the numerous
instances of this "left apostacy" phenomenon I would ask that you forgo,
in future discussions, recitation of your resume. We all know it by now
anyway. >>
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --