Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 14:44:36 -0700 From: David Stevens <phylstevens-AT-worldnet.att.net> Subject: M-G: WV Smears Militant as HUAC Collaborant -- McCarthyesque "I am Not Now and Never Have Been" WV Smears Socialist Militant as HUAC Collaborant! McCarthyesque "I am Not Now and Never Have Been" In yet another smear of a socialist militant, identified as "M.L." in _Workers Vanguard_ No. 688 (10 April 1998), _WV_ places the letter under the McCarthyistic header: "I Am Not Now and Have Never Been ..." !!! The letter itself details the correspondent's objection to having been libeled an "ex-member" of the fake-socialist Cliffite ISO [International Socialist Organization, affiliated to the British SWP]. The letter writer, citing adherence to Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky, rejects the charge of former ISO affiliation, calling it the political libel which it is. Yet even while reluctantly conceding that their former charge was untrue, the official organ of the Spartacist League prints this letter under the repugnant words: "I Am Not Now and Have Never Been ..." !!! Comrades in UK mightn't appreciate what this shit means, because I dunno if the witch-hunts in the Labour Party were ever conducted with the fervor and faith the late 1940s to 1950s United States exhibited during what's called the McCarthy era. I don't think so ... Both US Senator Joe McCarthy's investigating committee in the US Senate, and its equivalent in the House of Representatives, called the "House Un-American Activitees Committee," HUAC. And contrary to the way bourgeois liberalism writes the history texts, it didn't unfucking die with Joe McCarty, either. (HUAC lived on to contend with the antiwar movement of the 1960s-1970s. I forget whatever the name of the current equivalents are). What was considered "Un-American"? Well, you see, that was for the committee to decide. These committees would _sub poena_ witnesses to compel them to answer questions like "Are you now or have you ever been" a [member of the Communist Party, member of the Socialist Workers Party, member of any organization the committee deems to be a front organization, or a subversive organization, or a front for a subversive org, or else a front for the front of an organization that might become subversive given half a chance ...]. A witness who didn't answer questions would go to jail. A witness who answered the questions would be compeled to answer more questions. Questions about their friends and associates and their friends' and associates' politicial views and their friends' and associates' acquaintances' presumed views, and so on. Not only revolutionists, but many principled bourgeois civil libertarians, refused to answer any of those questions, and would be jailed for contempt of Congress. But the people who would fink out were always forced (in a sort of Orwellian Winston Smith way if they could pretend to be believed) to swear: "I Am Not Now and Have Never Been ..." a [fill-in-the-blank-with-accusation, in the current instance the charge of being a former member of the ISO]. So -- in essence -- by tagging the letter with that headline -- WORDS THE WRITER NEVER USED -- _Workers Vanguard_ essentially is accusing this socialist militant of rolling over link a fink. This is outrageous. First, _WV_ politically libels this comrade by declaring against clear evidence that the comrade is "a former ISOer". Now, _WV_ wants to pretend that only a fink would have called them on it! Whatever the sort of politics that motivated the Spartacists to place those words: "I Am Not Now and Have Never Been ..." !!! in front of this letter, it is disingenuous, demagogic and stultifying -- repugnant to the interests of political elucidation and therefore working class self-emancipation and therefore revolutionary Trotskyism -- for _Workers Vanguard_ to smear a principled socialist opponent as a fink. _Workers Vanguard_ should be ashamed of themselves. Clearly, they are not. This was published as an ostensible _correction_ of the smear published in _Workers Vanguard_, No. 686, 13 March 1998! One must presume that they've had time to say what they mean with all the accuracy and precision that the world workingclass should expect from the Spartacist League and _Workers Vanguard_. Down with HUAC Socialism! Against Libel, and Against McCarthyesque Smears! - David Stevens --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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