Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 23:27:29 -0500
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Fwd: The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 4 Jan 2000 -- 4:01 (#373)


Wow! Looks like my point has been proven. The Mumia movement cannot
stand any internal criticism without killing the messenger.

Chuck0

__________________________________________________________________________

            The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 4 January 2000
                          Vol. 4, Number 1 (#373)
__________________________________________________________________________

CONTENTS

Latest Anti-Fascist Readings
Mumia and "State Department Anarchism" by tallpaul -- 4 Jan 00
On the self-rightousness of the Mumia posts [Letter to anarchist critics
   of the Mumia Defense Campaign by Arthur J. Miller -- 25 Dec 99
Tables of Contents: 3 new FTP supplements on Mumia

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

LATEST ANTI-FASCIST READINGS

Latest Anti-Fascist Readings via <http://www.anti-fascism.org> have been
updated to include include:

   Antifa Info-Bulletin (#231) 2 Jan 00
   E-News 31 Dec 99
      online bulletin of United For Intercultural Action
   Holocaust Newsletter (#4:01) 2 Jan 00
      Jen Rosenberg's Holocaust Guide at The Mining Company.

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MUMIA AND "STATE DEPARTMENT ANARCHISM"
by tallpaul -- 4 Jan 00

Mumia is still on death row. You might think this is due to the ongoing
conservative/police campaign to keep him there, but according to a
representative of the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop you would be wrong. "Yes,
there
are cops and right wing assholes that are attacking the movement," he
wrote. "For the most part, they are irrelevant, because there aren't
very
many of them." The real problem, he argued was "if they [the Free Mumia]
did any amount of self-examination, they would find that their alliance
with cultish Left groups is responsible for the alienation of average
African Americans from Mumia's case."

The movement to free Mumia spans an enormous part of the political
spectrum, including various Green Parties[1], the Nation[2], Black
Radical
Congress[3], the students and faculty of Evergreen State College[4], the
Black United Fund[5], Amnesty International[6], the Congressional Black
Caucus[7], and the San Francisco longshore workers[8].

One is bewildered at the anarchist contention that, e.g. Amnesty
International's limited reach into the U.S. Black community is because
C.
Clark Kissinger of Refuse & Resist writes articles on the Mumia case.

Rather, the new anarchist criticism of the Mumia defense work seems the
latest in a particular form of "organizing" where anarchists maintain
the
best way to build a movement is to destroy those who build it. One past
example was from Bob McGlynn of Neither East Nor West / New York
(NENW/NY)
whose response to a call for united anti-fascist action was to urge
people
to "boot the left." McGlynn later told others upset with the current
situation in Cuba to join the CIA-funded anti-Castro organizations. When
we
last wrote of this, NENW/NY-supporter and reader Bill Weinberg wrote
proclaiming that "McGlynn is not our leader," which, if true, lacks
punch
coming only years after McGlynn's calls and only after they were
criticized.

This form of "State Department anarchism" is not a generic failure of
anarchism, as seen by the anarcho-syndicalist support for the Mumia
defense[9] and anarchist Arthur J. Miller's post included below. Rather
it
parallels what anarchist Murray Bookchin has called the dichotomy
between
"social anarchism" and "lifestyle anarchism."[10] Bookchin's social
anarchists have always been part of the left and played a major role in
fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War. We may disagree with their
analysis of society and vision of the future but we must recognized that
the tendency has historically stood for broad humanist values in a
tradition of heightened personal and social responsibility. 

"Would you rather have a kick-ass grassroots organizer working for you,
or
a Lefty who sells newspapers with articles about Mumia?" asked the
Atlantic
Infoshop rep.

Let us leave aside the rather strange view that the Congressional Black
Caucus of the Democratic Party are neither white nor "Lefties."

>From past journalistic work on New York's Lower East Side -- once held to
be a world center of contemporary anarchism -- I saw that Bookchin's
lifestyle anarchism often represented little more than a personal
parasitism that frequently reflected sociopathic or narcissistic
personality disorders.

Lifestyle "grassroots organizing" meant at best no organizing but
frequently included attempts to consciously disorganize other efforts
via
slander, libel, and threats of violence.

This "organizing" was more rooted in a McCarthy-era anti-communism (as
with
McGlynn) than any traditional humanism. It saw "communism" as the main
evil
and almost any form of progressive organizing led by non-anarchists as
examples of a  "leninist piggery" that had to be defeated.

Certainly we can recognize Weinberg's separation from McGlynn's
politics;
let us hope that others associated with the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop do not
wait as long to similarly clarify their group's position.

                                 * * * * *

[1] TINAF #186 -- 2 Dec 99: 22) [N.Y.] Green Party (press release),
"Kovel,
N.Y. Green Party  Candidate for Senate Condemns Court Decision on
Mumia,"
31 Oct 98; TINAF #371 -- 26 Dec 99: 143) Lode Vanoost (MP -- AGALEV -
Flemish Green Party), "Together for Mumia! -- Resolution to the Belgian
Parliament," 21 Oct 99

[2] TINAF #187 -- 3 Dec 99: 40) The Nation (editorial), "Abu-Jamal's
Last
Hope," 7 Dec 98

[3] TINAF #249 -- 5 Apr 99: 66) Bay Area Black Radical Congress
(statement), "NAACP Head Should Endorse New Trial For Mumia Or Quit," 12
Jan 99; TINAF #371 -- 26 Dec 99: 144) Black Radical Congress, "Mumia
Abu-
Jamal: Death Warrant Signed," 18 Oct 99

[4] TINAF #289 -- 24 Jan 99: 119) Concerned Students, Faculty, and Staff
of
the Evergreen State College, "Mumia Abu-Jamal's presence at the
Evergreen
State College graduation ignites controversy," 18 May 99

[5] TINAF #289 -- 24 Jan 99: 123) Monica Yant, Larry Fish, and Craig R.
McCoy (Philadelphia Inquirer), "City drops charity tied to Abu-Jamal:
The
Black United Fund can no longer receive donations through a Phila.
Employees' fund-raising program," 20 May 99

[6] TINAF #147 -- 25 Dec 99: 137) Amnesty International, "Pennsylvania
governor signs death warrant on Mumia Abu-Jamal: an overtly political
act,"
14 Oct 99

[7] TINAF #147 -- 25 Dec 99: 138) CBC press release, "Congressional
Black
Caucus Questions Due Process for Mumia Abu-Jamal," 15 Oct 99

[8] TINAF #332 -- 14 Sep 99: Chris Kinder (Labor Action Committee)
"Mumia's
Life Still Hangs In the Balance: Join Union Week of Action," 10 Sep 99;
TINAF #254 -- 10 Apr 99: 90) The Dispatcher (newspaper of the
International
Longshore Workers Union -- ILWU), "Interview With Mumia Abu-Jamal," Feb
99

[9] TINAF #371 -- 26 Dec 99: 40) via John Persak (IWW), "For Mumia --
Tentative/Provisional Walkout  Demands for the city wide walkout in
Seattle
USA, November 30, 1999, 16 Oct 99

[10] Murray Bookchin, "Social Anarchism Or Lifestyle Anarchism: An
Unbridgeable Chasm" (San Francisco: AK Press), 1995

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ON THE SELF-RIGHTOUSNESS OF THE MUMIA POSTS
[Letter To Anarchist Critics Of the Mumia Defense Campaign] 
Arthur J. Miller -- 25 Dec 99

Have I somehow gotten on to  an anti-Mumia e-mail list? Where has it 
every
been that self-righteous anarchists who place self-image over substance
every freed anyone? Here are a few facts that are missing in this
discussion.

1. Do Blacks support Mumia? I don't know if any of you have noticed but 
we
are slowly coming out of a time where NO COMMUNITY supports any type of
radicalism, let alone political prisoners. Black  radicals have the same
problem as White radicals, as do Native radicals, as do so on and so on.
So
your analysis sucks because it does not take  in the fact of the general
isolation of all radicalism in all communities. So it is true that, for
the
most part, the non-radical Blacks do not actively support Mumia. 

2. The ranting and raving about the top down form of support
organization
fails to take one thing into view. The anarchist grassroots autonomous
form
of support organizing in todays world does not work. The reason for this
is
not because anarchist ideas are wrong, but rather that most
anarchists today lack the needed self-discipline to make it work. The
problem seems to be that many modren anarchists are more worried about
the
freedom to be ineffective and "doing your own thing" rather than
understanding that in defense work you must be heading in the same
direction and cooperate  in joint action. Anarchists, for the most part,
spend some much time just talking to each other about how  to criticize
everything and doing very little real support work. This is something I
know about, I have been an anarchist for over 30 years and I have done
defense/support work continuously since '67. Among all the groups of
radicals that have stood out over the years of giving the less amount of
real support have been the anarchists. This has even been true even when
I
have worked on anarchist cases. 

3. You criticize the Marxists work in Mumia support. I am an anarchist, 
I
don't like Marxism, but the truth of the matter is that is has been the 
Marxists who have built up the support for Mumia. That support has been
built to the greatest level of any political prisoner since Huey  Newton
or
Tom Mooney. Had it been left to anarchists Mumia would be  dead! Rather
than sit on your butts criticizing others what you should be  doing is
trying to make anarchist defense/support work effective! The  way to
overcome Marxism and liberalism is to out organize them thus  showing an
effective alternative to authoritarianism. 

4. True, to many of us it does not matter if Mumia killed the cop or
not. 
The same is true with Leonard Peltier. But the point of defense/support 
work is to free the politcal prisoner and in building the type of
movement 
it will take to do that the question of innocence is important. 

5. In reading all of your posts it seems to me what you are really doing 
is trying to convince yourselves to do nothing and to justify it in your
own  self-righteousness. Defense/support work is damn hard to do
effectively and what we need is not more self-righteousness, but rather
more people who are willing to do the hard work on a consistent level. 

I know that some of you will want to trash me for telling the truth.
What 
I have said does not come from someone who has sat of the sidelines
seeing
things from some damn armchair. I have been in the frontlines of  this
work
for a very long time and though you can trash me personally  you cannot
in
truth deny my words. And right now what I see is people  who are doing
more
to harm Mumia than to support him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLES OF CONTENTS: 3 NEW FTP SUPPLEMENTS ON MUMIA


The Internet Anti-Fascist: Saturday, 25 December 1999
FTP Supplement #147 (#370): Articles On Mumia Abu-Jamal -- Part 13
You can access the full text of the petition filed Friday in Federal
District Court in Philadelphia at
http://mojo.calyx.net/~refuse/mumia/101699petition.html.  We encourage
everyone to put this information on their own pages, or link to it.
                    RECENT ARTICLES BY MUMIA
128) Mumia Abu-Jamal, "The Easiest Road ... Death," 23 Oct 99
129) Mumia Abu-Jamal, "Peltier's Life: A Sun Dance," 11 Nov 99
130) Mumia Abu-Jamal, "A Child = A Man," 19 Nov 99
131) Mumia Abu-Jamal, "Just Another Form Of Imperialism," 3 Dec 99
                   ARTICLES ON THE MUMIA DEFENSE
132) Refuse & Resist!, "More on Possible Death Warrant for Mumia," 4 Oct
99
133) via Refuse & Resist!, "Emergency Call to Action: STOP THE EXECUTION
OF
     MUMIA ABU-JAMAL! *this message contains details of "day after"
     demonstrations for Mumia," 8 Oct 99
134) via Leonard Weinglass, "PA Governor Signs Mumia Abu Jamal's Death
     Warrant Despite Expected Habeus Corpus Petition Citing New Evidence
of
     Innocence, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Racial Bias," 13 Oct 99
135) C. Clark Kissinger (Refuse & Resist!), "Update on the Signing of
     Mumia’s New Death Warrant and Planned Protest Actions," 13 Oct 99
136) International Action Center, "Mumia's Death Warrant Signed -- 
     Demonstrate!," 13 Oct 99
137) Amnesty International, "Pennsylvania governor signs death warrant
on
     Mumia Abu-Jamal: an overtly political act," 14 Oct 99
138) CBC press release, "Congressional Black Caucus Questions Due
Process
     for Mumia Abu-Jamal," 15 Oct 99
139) Jahahara Armstrong, "10,000 New Foot Soldiers To Free Mumia:
October
     15 Rally in Paris Expands the Fight to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal," 18
Oct
     99

The Internet Anti-Fascist: Sunday, 26 December 1999
FTP Supplement #148 (#371): Articles On Mumia Abu-Jamal -- Part 14
140) via John Persak (IWW), "For Mumia -- Tentative/Provisional Walkout
     Demands for the city wide walkout in Seattle USA, November 30,
1999,"
     16 Oct 99
141) via Kurt Svensson, "Stop the lynching of Mumia!," 17 Oct 99
142) "DAMN Roving Reporter", "Mumia Demonstration In San Francisco," 16
Oct
     99
143) Lode Vanoost (MP -- AGALEV - Flemish Green Party), "Together for
     Mumia! -- Resolution to the Belgian Parliament," 21 Oct 99
144) Black Radical Congress, "Mumia Abu-Jamal: Death Warrant Signed," 18
     Oct 99
145) Pam Africa (International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia
     Abu-Jamal), "Urgent Action Alert! Mumia's Life Depends On Us!," 21
Oct
     99
146) Irish Republican Socialist Party, "IRSP Welcomes Signing of Stay of
     Execution for Mumia," 26 Oct 99
147) Irish Republican Socialist Party, "Open Letter to Friends of Sinn
     Fein:  Act to Save Mumia Abu Jamal," 25 Oct 99
148) Leonard Peltier (from Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary), "On
Mumia's
     Death Warrant," 22 Oct 99
149) Gloria Seinem, "Statement On Mumia's Death [Sentence]," 24 Oct 99
150) International Action Center, "Mumia update: stay issued, protests
     continue," 28 Oct 99
151) Clark Kissinger (Refuse & Resist!), "Important Legal Update on
Mumia's
     Case," 27 Oct 99
152) Refuse & Resist!, "We Must Continue to Build a Broad, Diverse and
     Determined Movement!," 28 Oct 99
153) C. Clark Kissinger (Refuse & Resist!), "More Complete Update on
     Mumia's Case," 29 Oct 99
154) Christine Bahls (New York Daily News), "Sting draws fire over
     Abu-Jamal: Cops to stage protest over Brit rocker's Mumia support,"
1
     Nov 99
155) Angela Y. Davis et al (The Nation), "The Life of a Black Man," 15
Nov
     99

The Internet Anti-Fascist: Monday, 27 December 1999
FTP Supplement #149 (#372): Articles On Mumia Abu-Jamal -- Part 15
156) Louis Proyect, "Rising tensions over Mumia defense," 17 Nov 99
157) Leslie Feinberg (Workers World News Service), "Fight For Mumia's
Life:
     More Notables Climb Aboard Freedom Train," 25 99
158) Refuse & Resist!, "U.S. State Department Lies About Mumia
Abu-Jamal,"
     18 Nov 99
159) International Committee to Save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal,
     "COMMUNIQUE "5: The International Committee Received by the French
     Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 Nov 99
160) C. Clark Kissinger (Refuse & Resist!), "Report on National Planning
     Meeting, November 20," 25 Nov 99
161) Report of Workers United to Free Mumia Forum at HFCC, 6 Nov 99
162) International Committee to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal, "International
     Delegation To Washington To Save Mumia!," 10 Nov 99
163) Refuse & Resist!, "Fight Police Repression in Weymouth, MA," 28 Nov
99
164) C. Clark Kissinger (Refuse & Resist!), "Summary of the
Constitutional
     Claims in Mumia's Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus," 2 Dec 99
165) Refuse & Resist!, "Civil Disobedience for Mumia - February 28," 20
Dec
     99
                             * * * * *

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                               FASCISM:
   We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to
forget.     
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