-----Original Message----- From: Nathan Newman <nathan at newman.org>
>It is not the choices, it is the disguised politics using front groups.
>That is the hypocrisy.
>
>If the were honest about their politics, they would not attract many people
>to their rallies, so they hide them in front groups.
>
>That is what is wrong with the IAC and lies pollute any movement.
And yet a few weeks ago Newman wrote that "ironically" WWP had the best practice among the non-Marxist left. This is a perfect example of "Jack's rule" that "when you hate somebody, every fucking thing they do is wrong." If we conducted ourselves in a disruptive and a sectarian manner, that would be obviously wrong. But when we conduct ourselves in a non-sectarian manner and do not isolate ourselves from the rest of the movement and work in coalitions on a principled manner, that is also "wrong" because it makes it more difficult for Newman to organize his crusade against us and expel us from the movement with fire and sword. It would be much easier for Newman if we behaved like the Spartacist League. Actually he would prefer it if we went around ringing bells and yelling "Unclean! Unclean!"
For the record, WWP's politics are very clearly spelled out in our newspaper and on our website. IAC is not the same as WWP. ANSWER is even less the same as WWP; it is a coalition which IAC initiated in which you can participate if you are against the war for communist reasons, pacifist reasons, democratic reasons, anti-imperialist reasons, etc.
Leaving aside the question of WWP's evilness or goodness, I would like to ask Newman if he generally believes that there should be coalitions at all involving people and formations with different beliefs and ideologies, or if they should all shatter into their component trends. If WWP is hypocritical for working in coalition with pacifists, are consistent pacifists hypocritical if they work in coalition with, for example, Newman? Is Newman hypocritical if he works with them? Does he recommend the medicine of sectarian purism to everyone else, or only to WWP?
Lou Paulsen