ex-radicals?

[Chuck0]

Nathan Newman wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
> 
>>the role of The Nation comes as no surprise, either.
> 
> 
> -How's that? Despite Corn & Cooper's associations with The Nation,
> -these articles haven't appeared there, because such attacks on the
> -antiwar movement aren't welcome in the magazine. Corn's appeared in
> -the LA Weekly, Cooper's in the LA Times, and the odious Gitlin's in
> -Mother Jones. Perhaps you should rephrase this.
> 
> Which speaks to why Hitchens left the Nation, since even dissenting views
> from long-time columnists are not welcome there.  This closing down of
> dissent within some left institutions is exactly the problem with the whole
> "red baiting" charge, since rather than defending dissent, it's actually a
> call for intolerance and silencing dissent.
> 
> At the moment, I am being denounced by name within the National Exec
> Committee of my own organization, the National Lawyers Guild, for being
> critical of the WWP's connection to ANSWER on my personal blog, and a
> resolution is being voted on to denounce all such criticisms as red-baiting
> and denying that ANSWER can in any way be described as a front group of WWP,
> thus making any accusation of such "unfounded" and a "vicious attack."  Our
> executive director wanted to add part of the resolution that no local
> chapter could criticize the WWP's role or otherwise deviate from the
> national line (something the NYC chapter already has done in its own
> resolutions), so this "anti-red baiting" position is turning into its own
> form of authoritarianism within various left organizations and publications.
> 
> BTW our own Chuck O was described as an agent of the cops by the leadership
> of the NLG (repeating the views of our WWP-allied DC folks) based on the
> post I forwarded where Chuck described ANSWER's treatment of other activists
> over the January protests.  Anyone who criticizes the WWP's role gets
> described one way or the other as agents of the rightwing, a pretty
> disgusting approach to treating differing opinions by people who all oppose
> the war with Iraq.

I'm really glad that Nathan has spoken up about the bullshit that ANSWER and 
their supporters are up to. I've noticed an increased amount of attacks on 
myself this week. Some of you may have seen the longer article from the 
WWP/ANSWER circle that denounced critics as red-baiters. As I've pointed out 
many times since I started criticizing ANSWER and their WWP puppet-masters, 
the charge of "red-baiting" is a move employed by authoritarians to stifle 
debate and discussion among activists and in the greater Left. They seek a 
movement that is organized from the top down and one that doesn't tolerate 
anybody questioning how things are done. This is an evasion of accountability 
and transparency by the core ANSWER group and it is our job as progressive 
activists to call them on their bullshit.

I have been an outspoken critic of the WWP, IAC, and ANSWER precisely because 
of the Left's preference to silence internal critics and argue that we should 
all blindly work together for the sake of greater unity. This form of free 
speech stifling on the Left came to my attention in the late 90s when I 
raised some questions about how the Free Mumia movement was organized.

This gives me further incentive to update the Infoshop webpage on the WWP, 
IAC, and ANSWER. Anybody who wants to help with writing arguments, relating 
anecdotes, or doing research is invited to contact me.

I will not be silenced.

Chuck0

------------------------------------------------------------
Personal homepage        -> http://chuck.mahost.org/
Infoshop.org             -> http://www.infoshop.org/
MutualAid.org            -> http://www.mutualaid.org/
Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/
Anarchy: AJODA           -> http://www.anarchymag.org/

"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. 
You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you 
assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which 
you resist is the degree to which you are free..."
---Utah Phillips