-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Please forward to LBO-Talk Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 09:25:09 -0400 From: Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> To: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> References: <3.0.1.32.20010110134109.00e855d8 at popserver.panix.com>
Yesterday Chip Berlet wrote two lies about the SWP, one harmless and one not.
He wrote, "I thought the great contribution of the SWP to the anti-war movement of the '60s was the demand that each demonstration had to have 20 slogans none of which related to each other and few of which related to the war in Vietnam." Of course, as has already been pointed out and as should be clear to anybody who was conscious during the 1960s, the opposite was true. The SWP, to the chagrin of its opponents on the left, fought to exclude demands other than immediate withdrawal. Perhaps Berlet was alive in the 1960s, but not conscious. I am aware that segments of the new left did rather over-enjoy their psychedelic drugs.
The more harmful lie was: "Anyway, we can't be too hard on the SWP in the 60's because such a large percentage of its membership were actually FBI informers." When I challenged him on the "large percentage" question, he referred me to an article written in 1986 titled ""Socialist Workers Party V. Attorney General: Using Civil Rights Litigation Against Federal Intelligence Agencies (Parts I & II), Police Misconduct & Civil Rights Law Report, Vol.1, No.17/18, 1986"--as if this proves anything.
In fact I worked closely with the Political Rights Defense Fund in this period and am a very close friend of Nelson Blackstock, whose book "Cointelpro" documents the FBI campaign against the SWP. Unless Berlet can offer evidence to the contrary, those of us in the party were aware of only one figure uncovered as an FBI agent during this period, namely Ed Heisler who actually revealed this fact himself. The case against the FBI did not produce the names of agents, nor a percentage of membership. So when Berlet refers to a "large percentage", he is just bullshitting people. This obviously does not speak well of his Political Research Institute.
Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org