See below...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Todd Archer
> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 9:28 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: RE: McQuinn responds to smears - Q2
>
>
> Chip, where, in your opinion, does McQuinn and his statements
> stand in
> relation to Norm Finkelstein's new work, "The Holocaust Industry".
>
> In his words (from his website, the intro to the German
> edition of the
> book):
>
> "In The Holocaust Industry, I report how American Jewish
> organizations,
> institutions, and prominent individuals have instrumentalized
> the Nazi
> holocaust to shield Israel from criticism and, more recently,
> to blackmail
> Europe. The main criticism of the book was not that I got
> the facts wrong
> but that in depicting this coordinated undertaking I had contrived
a
> "conspiracy theory." In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
> observes that
> capitalists "seldom meet together, even for merriment and
> diversion, but the
> conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in
> some contrivance
> to raise prices." Does this also make Smith's classic a
"conspiracy
> theory"? (5)"
>
> http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/
>
> Todd
Hi,
Could we back up a bit? I do not completely agree with Janet Biehl, and I find much of Jason McQuinn's writing to be thoughtful and challenging. What I was initially responding to was the claim that there was absolutely no basis to criticisms of McQuinn by Biehl.
Not so. There is a basis, and it should not be dismissed by claiming that it is all about a factional fight among anarchists.
I disagree with Joe Golowka who also dismisses the whole issue be waving the wand proclaiming critics of antisemitism as stooges of imperialism. Thanks, but no thanks.
What I am trying to argue, is that right now there is a concerted effort by rightists to peddle conspiracism and antisemitism to the political left and anarchists, and that in some (albeit rare) cases there is a willingness to dabble in both by the political left and anarchists.
This claim is buttressed by the fact that I work in an international (fragile) coalition of socialists, progressives, and left anarchists who decry this tendency within all of our movements. It is happening in at least ten countries.
To me the issue is not McQuinn, but the larger tendency, and getting people past denial that this recruitment attempt is happening.
McQuinn and his statements were less informed and less sensitive than Norm Finkelstein's new work, "The Holocaust Industry," and I think were unfortunately shaped by stereotypes about Jewish power, even though given McQuinn's other statements, that was not his intent.
-Chip Berlet