[lbo-talk] communist witches were not spectral

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 11 08:08:38 PST 2006


On 1/11/06, Leigh Meyers <leighcmeyers at gmail.com> wrote:
> Really, I've been around (and around...) and I can't say that
> I've ever met anyone who truly IS a 'Communist' (big 'C').

I've met some CP people in the past (in Berkeley and New York, where else?). I remember back in the 1970s, they were much like very liberal and pro-labor Democrats, sometimes with utopian conceptions of what might replace capitalism. They had good things to say about the USSR, natch. One referred to Joan Baez as singing a "racist" song ("The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," originally by The Band). The true reason for this slam, I thought, was that Baez had criticized the USSR.

When I was active in the campus union (a branch of AFSCME), there was a somewhat covert fight going on between the CP people and the "Schactmanites" (Draperites?). I think the latter were better in terms of long-term politics, but the former were less sectarian in style.

Neither group had any spies. Not even FBI ones. -- Jim Devine "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list