Stopping The Crimes One Pays For

[joanna bujes]

At 04:09 PM 05/13/2002 -0400, Michael Pugliese wrote:
>Apparently, the premise of the piece in New Politics,(on the
>Frances Stonor-Saunders book on the CIA and the CCCF) , the left
>socialist journal, did not/cannot sink in to certain brain cavities.
>Uncritical alignment with either Cold War Empire With All It's
>Requisite Means of Coercion and Consent exerted a powerfully
>baleful influence on the Broad Left from 1917 on. That Chomsky,
>himself, is anti-Leninist and had a youthful acquaintance with
>Oehlerite neo-Trotskyists, but, is unable to make his uncritical
>followers, do that neccessary work of housecleaning the barnyard
>of ideological kneejerkoffism is something, that as you can see,
>is more than annoying to someone who read, American Power and
>the new Mandarins, " by the Noamster back in 9th grade.
>   Remember the braying at the N.Y. Town Hall meeting, "Artists
>and Writers for Solidarity, " after Solidanosc was crushed by
>the tanks. When Susan Sontag said (sadly) that more truth about
>Soviet repression was in the (goddamn) Readers Digest, than in
>The Nation or The New Republic, of the 30's and 40's, was true.
>Have you ever done any research in the dusty corriders where
>back issues of left  and liberal magazines gather dust and read
>the apologetics and worse for repression carried out by regimes
>and movements that claim to act in our name?
>   Ever read, "Couch Liberalism and the Guilty Past, " by Harold
>Rosenberg? It's a polemic against the lit critter, Leslie Fiedler's
>article in Commentary after the Hiss case. Progressives back
>then, just waking up, to the destruction of the radical and libertarian
>ideals of the original Russian Revolution drowned in rivers of
>blood by good 'ol Uncle Joe, made the same argument you are doing
>that. That they knew what was really going on but, "No enemies
>on the Left, "(even if the solidarity extended to the regime
>was misplaced since the fSU killed more Bolshevik militants and
>cadre than Hitler ever dreamed of) and that the Primary Contradiction
>was one's own Imperialist Ruling Class. (Which, I don't fuckin'
>deny. Jeesh. My radicalization was fueled by the Vietnam War
>and Reagans assault on Nicaragua, etc.) But, and I'll leave it
>at this, leftists that at this late date, cannot, even a s a
>grudging aside, on a list that is like a family quarrel, admit
>the obvious...Well...

Michael,

As much as I appreciate your references and url's etc., I would much prefer 
it if you actually wrote about what you think/feel etc. I find it really 
strange that the one person who complains/rants/raves about Stalinism the 
most on this list should almost never have any straightforward 
message/thought to convey. Why all this compulsive second hand stuff? If 
your independence of thought means so much to you, why don't you use it?

Joanna