Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 01:23:27 -0500
Subject: M-G: Concerning Zeynep and marxism-international


>
>By now,  most of us have read Adolfo's remarks on bourgeois feminism which
>Sid forwarded to m-i earlier this evening.    I forwarded a post from Adolfo
>on the same subject a few days ago.     The trouble with Adolfo is that he
>writes extremely well and always has sensible things to say,  if he is not
>always politic in how he says it.    One is tempted,  therefore,  to
>overlook points here and there with which one disagrees.     The overall
>thrust of Adolfo's writings is richly excellent,  and a valued addition to
>any list purporting to concern itself with Marxist struggle.
>
>Why,  then,  was I physically sickened by reading Adolfo's latest effort
>courtesy of Sid Chatterjee?    It is difficult to read of a comrade you
>know,  trust and respect as a "harlot" of the "bourgeoisie",  a "sub-human
>detritus" who deserves to have her bones "broken,  one by one",  and who
>offers her services to the enemy in "stabbing" workers "in the back" on
>behalf of "imperialism".      "Vile twister",  "hypocrite",  and "tyrannus"
>are also used to describe someone who I know constantly risks her freedom
>and probably her life in the cause of Turkish -- yay, in the cause of all --
>workers.     What on earth could have provoked this storm of slander and
>abuse?     
>
>To disagree with Zeynep,  or,  indeed,  any moderator or member of
>marxism-international,  is one thing.   I have many disagreements with her
>especially on the matter of affirmative action and the role of feminism in
>the struggle for socialism.    She knows -- as does,  I imagine,  most
>people -- that my thinking is much closer to Adolfo's on this matter,  as
>well as on a number of others.     Too,  sharp disagreements and the
>deprecation of an opponent's political position are common stock in an arena
>such as this.
>
>Yet,  it is equally obvious that the type of abuse directed at Zeynep by
>this forwarded post cannot fairly be countenanced, by her,  by me,  by
>anyone who has a decent regard for the aim and purpose of
>marxism-international.    And I must warn anyone contemplating authoring or
>forwarding to this list any post similar in character not to do so.    This
>can constitute an official warning,  if such is needed,   that this type of
>thing will simply not be tolerated .
>
>It is well known that I hold Adolfo in quite high esteem.    It is painful
>in the extreme to have to make these comments publicly,  and especially in
>full view of his leering opponents,  those jackals who have been chattering
>excitedly in his absence,   forwarding this or that excerpt from other
>forums to the moderators.   That,  too,  is a practice that need not be
>continued.     Nonetheless,  in view of his wholly unwarranted and savage
>attacks on Zeynep as a person,  as a comrade,  as a committed revolutionary,
>I have no other choice.    
>
>I recognize my own role in fostering in some respects the milieu in which
>these personal attacks find root.   In that vein,  I apologize to the list,
>to Adolfo,  and especially to Zeynep whose service to our struggle is richly
>undeserving of this kind of abuse.
>
>Louis Godena 
>
>
>

And why is that so, comrade Godena?  What is so wrong to have that opinion
of Zeynept Tufekcioglu's unprincipled behaviour as to label her actions
counter-revolutionary?

Is she not spreading the SAME ideology as that of Hillary Clinton, Madeleine
Albright and the US STATE DEPARTMENT?  What service is this to OUR STRUGGLE?

I think that you fail to distinguish clearly between enemies and friends.

I think that you too stand in need of understanding the words of Chairman
Mao Tse-tung regarding criticism - criticism is for removing (hitting and
shaking, if you like) the conscience of those acting in error if that be the
case.  That was the meaning of his exhortation on the use of "horns" of
which I spoke previously to the same chorus of anti-Marxist howling.

You say that my attacks are on the person of Zeypnet Tufekcioglu - who you
vouch for.  However, try as I may to obtain any information about her
"courageous activities" on behalf of Turkish revolutionaries - and you know
I have relations with all those sources - not a word in her favour has been
spoken.  You must mean a crypto-Trotskyst run Ngo of some sort, such as the
"Leftwing" Mother Courage once run in Peru.  

That is not how things stand with Marxists.  Zeynept Tufekcioglu is not just
another person walking down the road.  This a person who is exercising
bourgeois authority within the public domain in order to DEFEND
counter-revolutionary positions IDENTICAL to those of US imperialism.

She and you do not have the same version of events as I can prove that by
quoting the several postings you made (when you were apparently talking on
her behalf while recovering her tongue only several days afterwards) in
relation to the incidents she is now trying to distort IN THE SERVICE of the
enemies of the revolution and their absurd allegations. Nevertheless, I see
you countenance a liar and a dissembler for merely personal reasons.    

The actions of Tufekcioglu may seem just a simple detail to you, despite the
fact that honest communists were forced to take a stand of principle and
thus set up this list, an action you still fail to grasp in full, prattling
about an imaginary question of our return to M-I.  

Have we not been sufficiently clear in saying that such a thing will never
happen under the present regime?  And that means the RESIGNATION of ALL the
moderators of M-I INVOLVED in the counter-revolutionary incident and a TOTAL
reorganisation of that list.  Since that is impossible, and the recent
measures of Queen Bee-risha have made that crystal clear, why are you still
prattling about my abscence and that it is "difficult" to defend me and my
actions in front of the COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES? I need not such defence on
your part.

Their attacks can only be seen by revolutionaries as proof that I have drawn
a clear line of distinction with them, which is precisely what you have not
done.  
Zeynept T.- Queen Bee-risha of M-I - seen from here, is a liar and a
burocratic bully who refuses to even countenance the most minimal
self-criticism AFTER a serious counter-revolutionary incident resulted from
her actions, and she still FULLY defends those actions and is trying to
explain these away in the most comical and flippant fashion.

Moreover, in defending those actions, she has gathered around her a coterie
of reactionary revisionists and agent provocateurs - and taken to her bossom
all the snakes and frogs of the counter-revolutionary swamp - who are now
standing up PRECISELY in defence of US IMPERIALIST OFFICIAL FOREIGN POLICY
as explained to the world by the US SECRETARY OF STATE as a CENTRAL PRIORITY
for the class interests of the main enemy of the world's people.

That is - in essence - what Tufekcioglu and her CURRENT coterie represent,
defend and promote. Would you deny that?  

And you cringe in pain because we wish their bones to be broken?  What about
the bones of "comrades Hillary and Madeleine"?  Do these also crack
painfully in your ears?  Have you ever heard of class hatred?  Of
anti-imperialist solidarity IN THE VIOLENT STRUGGLE for the overthrow of
imperialism AND ITS AGENTS, whosoever they turn out to be?  

Is that coterie around Queen Bee-risha right now not promoting "comrades
Madeleine and Hillary's" OFFICIAL U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT policy - not just in
the air and in non-chalant ignorance - but attempting to argue for it IN THE
NAME OF MARXISM, and moreover, to USE it in struggle against the
revolutionaries amid abundant and wanton lies and adjectivating the
revolutionaries to their hearts content?

The class struggle is not, comrade Godena, an academic salon, nor a boudoir
in which we all throw pillows at each other and then adjourn to the bar for
a welcome break and a personal touch.  Criticism of reactionary ideas and
positions must be trenchant and no personal feeling should come into that.
Tough, but that is how things stand and have stood in the movement
throughout its history.

And that is a simple truth because what is ultimately involved is not a mere
debating point but a question of life and death for millions.  Should the
NEW FASCISM advanced by US imperialism not be challenged with utmost
determination and in the most ruthless fashion - and was not Zeynept
Tufekcioglu herself a little while ago all for ruthless criticism of
revolutionary organisations to the point of countenancing the Pol-pot
allegations against the PCP of vile individuals like Utica Rose and malecki
as just another opinion among "comrades" ? - these positions, which are
central - AS THE US IMPERIALIST CHIEFTANS THEMSELVES PROCLAIM TO THE FOUR
CORNERS OF THE WORLD and you seem not to have even heard yet - to the
IDEOLOGICAL WEAPONS that US imperialism is now READYING to use PRIORITARILY
against the world's people and principally against the proletariat, will
inevitably gain ground, disarming the class and the people so that their
enemies will slaughter them in their millions - and that means millions of
broken bones too.

In adopting a liberal and fundamentally personal position centered on the
individual as a person, rather than on the role that individual is playing
in the actual and concrete class struggle, you are in fact contributing to
the cause of the class enemy far more than you think.  And that should
surely cause your stomach to churn quite a lot more than whatever rough
words are said against any individual, however close to your heart.

May I remind you of the words of the Classics:

"Whosoever conciliates with the opportunists, inevitably would end up
sinking into opportunism himself". (HCPSU (b) Short Course).  

Finally, question yourself:  Who are my true sisters and comrades in arms?
The promoters of bourgeois feminism such as Furuhashi and Tufekcioglu
whatever they may personally mean to you, or the millions upon millions of
the working class and oppressed masses of women WHO WOULD INEVITABLY have
their bones broken if such "harlots of imperialism" are not unmasked and
laid out to dry?

I think that you need a "sense of proportion" grounded in a proletarian
based point of view. And you do need it most urgently. I see - and you know
it now yourself - that the vultures of counter-revolution are beginning to
sniff the air around you and to find it of a pleasing pungency.    


Adolfo Olaechea

 



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