[lbo-talk] Re: Just Do Something!

[Dennis Perrin]

> I saw that. Though it was long ago, I remember it as a rout - Berman
> was rambling and pathetic, and Noam was at his precise and reletnless
> best. No contest, really. From a sporting point of view, it would
> have been much more entertaining if someone better than Berman had
> been arguing the Zionist position.
>
> Doug

Did anyone see Berman on the Nicaragua panel at the SSC oh so many years
ago? Can't remember who went against him -- Holly Sklar, among others, I
think -- but Berman was ridiculous, skating around the contra issue, trying
to find an "anarchist" way of embracing the Nicaraguan "resistance."
(Remember that Berman was once considered an anarchist.) Both the panel &
the audience took him apart, and Berman was barely saved by a pro-contra guy
who grabbed the mike and made strident anti-Sandinista remarks. The audience
erupted with "No pasaran! No pasaran!" Then Berman stepped to the mike and
softly said, "See? I'm not so bad."

DP