Becker & Lerner on KPFA News

[Chuck0]

Nathan Newman wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "steve philion" <philion at hawaii.edu>
> 
>>I listened to this. It seemed to me that Lerner really had little to go on.
>>My guess is that he wants to hear a certain Zionist perspective that jibes
>>with his.
> 
> 
> Of course he does. Coalitions are all about people with differing views
> wanting their differing views represented.  If they are not, the coalition
> shrinks.
> 
> But if the antiwar movement excludes anyone who supports a two-state
> solution in the Middle East, then it is an incredibly shrunken alliance on
> the issue of Iraq.  Which is frankly how ANSWER has framed its work since
> 911.
> 
> ANSWER is promoting narrowness throughout the movement, trashing those views
> they disagree with, while demanding that anyone who criticizes them be
> excluded from polite left company.  As I've noted, my own organization the
> National Lawyers Guild is about to declare any criticism of ANSWER "red
> baiting" and are debating whether to demand that all local chapters and
> leaders fall into line and drop all  criticism of ANSWER.  That means me,
> specifically, although it applies more generally to the New York City
> chapter which refused to endorse ANSWER events, except for an exception made
> for the October rallies in DC.
> 
> That this is even being debated in the NLG just reflects the reverse
> McCarthyism involved in charges of "red baiting."   HUAC is not currently
> meeting and state-sponsoring repression is not going after Communists, but
> speakers or members of left organizations are being told that their
> dissenting speech on ANSWER is unacceptable, that to remain a member or be
> allowed to speak, they must repudiate those views or at least remain silent.
> 
> We had the ludicrous debate on the redbaiting resolution where the main
> person cited my personal blog as evidence of my moral failings as a leftist
> and the need to pass this anti-redbaiting resolution, then when someone
> asked if the resolution-makers legal work for ANSWER and the WWP might bias
> his position, he declared that even mentioning the fact was McCarthyism.
> That's the game.  Smear other people, while making any attempt to
> substantiate criticism of ANSWER's repressive methods  impossible.
> 
> -- Nathan Newman

Amen, Nathan!

I've already gotten some shit for signing on to the Rabbi Lerner statement. I 
chose to do so to show support for those who are engaged in public criticism 
of ANSWER, which is hard to do when ANSWER engages in cop-baiting and reverse 
McCarthyism against critics. Look, my negative opinion of Marc Cooper and 
Todd Gitlin haven't changed. I'm sure that I would disagree with many of the 
opinions that Lerner holds, but the American left has this severe problem 
with free speech inside our movements. Yes, ANSWER has a right to determine 
who speaks at their rallies, as I have the right to determine who is printed 
in the pages of my zine. But ANSWER is poisoning the atmosphere of the Left 
with their defensive suggestion that *anybody* who raises criticisms of the 
WWP's involvement in their coalition is guilty of red-baiting.

I've been pretty pissed at the anti-radical nature of Cooper, Gitlin, and the 
other's criticisms of ANSWER. This Rabbi Lerner controversy, imperfect as it 
is, starts to get to the heart of *activist* concerns with the ANSWER 
coalition and it hegemonic control of the peace movement. This incident is 
just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ANSWER's sectarianism, 
opportunism, vanguardism, entryism, and authoritarianism.

Chuck0

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"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 
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you resist is the degree to which you are free..."
---Utah Phillips