"The Chipper" originally said:
"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"
In the chart, the only figures for the 60's show percentages of 11% and 8%. I think this represents a large percentage, but we can disagree. But Louis, what happened to your forceful claim that there was only ONE informer when the figures show as many as 52 in the SWP in 1960 alone?
Also, you claimed: "The case against the FBI did not produce the names of agents, nor a percentage of membership." While it is true the names of the agents were not produced, the Special Master appointed by the judge had access to the unexpurgated FBI files and compiled the charts used in the final ruling.
You also said: "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."
The Blackstock book was an excellent early report on COINTELPRO, but it came out before the case ended and before the final ruling with the chart of informers. I think actually reading the final court ruling trumps being the friend of an author. Perhaps we disagree.
You claim my research, which turns out to be accurate, "obviously does not speak well of his Political Research Institute."
It's Political Research Associates, actually, and it is not mine, I am an employee as senior analyst. I have never been director, a post always held so far by women.
I apologize for having been too glib about the Socialist Workers Party. They were the victims of a massive illegal operation by the FBI. I was trying to add some levity to a gloomy period for the left.
But you once again demonstrate why you are so unwelcome on so many lists. Thankfully, most of the people with whom I worked on coalition projects who were in the SWP and YSA over the years were nothing like you.
=Chip Berlet
----- Original Message ----- From: "Louis Proyect" <lnp3 at panix.com> To: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>; <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Friday, September 21, 2001 11:02 AM Subject: Re: SWP & Informers
> Chip Berlet:
> >Since the SWP and the YSA have relatively few members, these informants
> >comprised a not insignificant percentage of the membership.
> >
> >
> >Year % and # of members who were FBI
> >
> > SWP YSA
> >1960 11% (52/466) 8% (9/115)
> >1973 3% (28/1095) 6% (77/1256)
> >1976 2% (19/1000) 3% (41/1185)
>
> I see we have backtracked. Now it is no longer a "large percentage of its
> membership" but a "not insignificant" percentage. In fact 2 or 3 percent
> membership in the SWP during the 1960s is *insignificant*. (The YSA had its
> own kind of membership norms, which were a lot more relaxed than the SWP's.
> I am aware that many campus locals bended the rules on drugs and might have
> even allowed in someone as addled as Chipper Berlet. And, yes, Chipper, you
> can go fuck your mother.
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
>