----- Original Message ----- From: <JBrown72073 at cs.com>
> Well, there are two ways you can deal with criticism.
There are more, but anyway...
> For example, I
> observed that I bet the feds have a lot of agents and informants in the
WWP.
> One reaction you could have to that is to say, Jenny is objectively
helping
> the ruling class since she's scaring people off from joining the WWP, and
> accusing it of being riddled with agents, and therefore is saving the
gov't a
> lot of money.
Did you think that comment was directed at you? It wasn't.
>The other way is to say, yeah, it's a problem, and although
> people knowing that we may be infiltrated might scare people off, it's
also a
> fact o' life in the USA, and because it's a general problem in the
movement
> we shouldn't go around saying specific people are agents when they
criticize
> us, it's divisive and paralyzing.
I honestly don't think WWP is very infiltrated, because we don't grow that fast or have all that many new faces (yet) (here). Of course you have to assume that all your phone conversations and e-mails can be going into the database, but that's another matter. ANSWER has a lot of new faces and some might be agents, I suppose, but if you play 'spot the agent' all the time you drive yourself nuts to no purpose, meanwhile defeating your whole purpose of going among people and sharing the message and making new relationships. No, the idea is to keep busy so that even if the agent is there, he/she has to help build the movement in order to stay there.
In any case, my understanding of the work of agents is that they don't infiltrate you and then pick fights with other tendencies. When the Feds want to start a fight with another tendency, they forge papers and stuff. The agents stay dutiful and inconspicuous and collect data, or else they pick fights within your own organization, or else they try to lure you into lunatic criminal adventures. The corollary is that if someone is criticizing or slandering you, the chances are 99 to 1 that he or she is not an agent, but just some irritating sincere person.
LP