File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-04-03.022, message 31


Date: Tue, 1 Apr 1997 16:04:11 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>


Zeynep, defending "Utica Rose's" participation:

"A number of list subscibers have made similar comments in the past, though
not directed at the same political stripe and with various degrees of
hostility. I would like to remind everyone that this is an open list and all
revolutionary and progressive people are welcome, as long as they follow the
basic guidelines stipulated in the rules. Statements suggesting anything to
the contrary are not welcome here."


Louis:

Maybe I'm missing something, but this is the sort of thing that Utica Rose
says on a daily basis:

"for folks who are presumably in support of confiscating inheritances, watch
them carefully tend their own patrimony. the marx-engels-lenin-stalin-mao
crowd are nothing other than working class patriarchs. their Authority drapes
a shroud over the murders, betrayals, persecutions and prosecutions of
workers, students, intellectuals and progressives. their fellow travellers
have a cottage industry of prevarications and outright lights to defend the
shroud."


I find nothing "progressive" about this. This is plain old fashioned
red-baiting. Not only is it not progressive, it violates the list rule to
make an "Active effort to keep repetions to a minimum." Not only is "Utica
Rose" a disgusting red-baiter, it does nothing but repeat this kind of
red-baiting garbage day in and day out without let-up. The notion that
"Utica Rose" is a progressive, to put it bluntly, is a crock of shit. Zeynep
goes out of her way to make "Utica Rose" feel at home, while people like
Gary McLennan flee in disgust.

Currently we have an unmoderated list and a sadly unmoderated one at that.
It is only moderated when Zeynep finds some time to put in the effort. Jon
Flanders meanwhile seems to have zero interest in the health of the list.
For a couple of months Zeynep posted once a month and now it seems to be
Jon's turn. I wonder if one of our problems is that we have a board of
moderators who apparently lack consensus on some basic issues. I wonder if
Louis G. would consider "Utica Rose" a "progressive". If "Utica Rose" is a
progressive, then the term lacks meaning except in an Orwellian sense.

By the way, if you want to take a look at how a list should be moderated,
take a look at PEN-L. Michael Perlman is engaged with list threads on a
day-to-day basis. He helps to steer the discussion and does a fine job of
it. He doesn't disappear for a month at a time.

Yesterday I opened my inbox and found the usual rants from Rahul and Jerry
Levy (the George Orwell twins) and Utica Rose. Even after the nasty
"Stalinists" have fled, we are left with their residual bleating about
Stalinism. On top of that we got the usual crap from Malecki and Rodwell.

I regard it as a slap in the face to this list to hear Zeynep describe
"Utica Rose" as a "progressive". I don't miss Mark Jones or Adolfo, but if
we are going to end up with a mailing-list that can't make distinctions
between the red-baiter "Utica Rose" and genuine progressives, we are in deep
shit.










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