Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 11:09:52 +0200
From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se>
Subject: M-G: Re: Free Speech


Bob M puts it in a nutshell in a cogent post:

>Below is the latest philth from Proyect on the M-I list! It is quite clear
>the Stalinists and their main frontman are trying to climb out of the pile
>of shit that they have turned the M-I list into with their bans, purges and
>special rules. Now they want to let Hugh and Dave (not even mentioning
>Steward,Utica Rose, nor the Workers Voice people) back in while keeping a
>number of other people out. It is a clear attempt by these bureaucrats with
>button power and Stalinist or neo Stalinist ideology to split the opposition
>to their incredible manuvers. Only one answer can be given to these
>characters. These Stalinists and their hangers on must be given a lesson in
>workers democracy they will long remember!
>
> I would like to thank Rakesh for his firm support of taking up the struggle
>against Godena and Proyects attempts to climb out of the shit they have
>turned M-I into with their latest manuvers. This goes for all others like
>Jim, Karl and numerous others who are beginning to speak up against the
>Stalinist purge with Proyect as the frontman.
>
>Drop all the bans and exclusions! Reinstate all who have been banned or
>expelled. Because if they are allowed to do this the lists at Jefferson
>Village will be destroyed or become an appendage of the Stalinist school of
>falsification, lies and manuvers which are a deadly threat to the workers
>movement..
>
>Warm regards
>Bob Malecki


Louis P doesn't know where to draw the line on expulsions, because for him
there is  no principled line -- it's all gut feeling, and his gut varies
with the varying ill effects of each day's lunch:

>>Meanwhile, Hugh and Dave got a 7 day suspension because they started
>>crossposting Levy's demented crap against the moderator's instructions.
>>When they come back, they can start calling for socialist parties,
>>socialist revolutions and socialist republics without fear of punishment.

Neither Dave nor I have any intention of playing court jester to Louis the
Snitch or Louis the Torpedo.

Either M-International keeps to its own rules, as declared in the statement
of purpose, and applies the rules without fear or favour, or it's dead. And
it won't matter how gracefully Doug H waves his feathers at Wall Street,
how committed Dennis G is to student and post-grad democracy at the
university of Illinois or how earnestly Justin S agitates for the rule of
law and against the dangers of mob rule and arbitrary tyranny. The
injustice they rail against is here, now, among themselves, and it's time
they took a good look at their own associates. The pressures of bourgeois
ideology within the workers' movement are enormous, insidious and perhaps
the greatest obstacle to a revolutionary transformation of the world from
the barbarity and murderous rapacity of senile capitalism to the sanity of
a freely cooperative socialist mode of production.

As Elmer Diktonius, a revolutionary Finno-Swedish poet who lived through
the revolutionary and counter-revolutionary decades at the beginning of the
century put it:

	If you can't smell the stench of this society,
	then it's in your own nostrils.

Cheers,

Hugh


PS Go, Rakesh, go!

>>> The most important reason for suspension remains willing and continuous
>>> violation of the three post a day limit. This has not been an issue with
>>> Jerry, Dave, and Hugh. I think if Fred posts 6 times a day after already
>>> having been warned, I think he should not be able to post the next day and
>>> get a one day penalty (not a one week suspension). If someone posts twelve
>>> times a day, then she should receive a three day suspension (for the 9
>>> extra posts), plus three more days as a penalty--an overall six day
>>> suspension.






     --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---