Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 09:52:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-panix.com>
Subject: M-I: My phone conversation with "Murray"


I called "Thomas Murray" on his cell phone yesterday. The first thing he
wanted to know was if I would give him permission to tape the phone call. 
I said sure, since I had nothing to be afraid of. He was the guy who was
harassing us. 

There are several things that stuck out in the course of the conversation.
He kept threatening me with legal action. But he used what we in the
Trotskyist movement used to call a "defensive formulation". He would ask,
"Are you threatening me? This is being taped and can be used in court." My
reply was always, no I am not threatening you--I am just trying to figure
out who you are in case a reporter or a lawyer representing the civil
liberties point of view needs to get in touch with you.

This actually is a key question because we don't really know the identity
of this character. Anybody can figure out that I am for real since I am
listed in the NY and Columbia phone directories under my real name. 
"Murray" gave genuine phone numbers to the Ombudsman at Columbia (but was
a little freaked that she gave them to me), but the address he gave does
not jibe with the phone numbers. If you call Olympia, Washington
information and ask for the phone number of a Thomas P. Murray at the
address he specified, the operator will tell you that there is no Thomas
P. Murray with a listed or *unlisted* number for that address or any other
address in Olympia. So the identity of this character is still an open
question.

"Murray's" biggest concern was the damage to his reputation when he was
accused of stalking an adolescent schoolgirl who used to be a regular on
the old Marxism list, a young Communist named Charlotte Kates. "Murray"
admitted to me that he met her at her high school graduation ceremony.
What a striking admission. What business does a middle-aged man have at a
schoolgirl's graduation ceremony? By his own admission, he and Ms. Kates
had had email correspondence lasting for some months. After reading the
lurid sexual details vis-a-vis Yoshie Furuhashi on thaxis that were the
topic of a phone conversation between "Murray" and Malecki, it is not to
difficult to figure out what is on "Murray's" sick mind. It certainly is
not radical politics.

In any case, it is not our intention to try "Murray" on the Spoons lists. 
It is bad enough that we have to deal with his various personae. I am much
more interested in gathering material on his off-list activities that I
can show to an attorney. It is a big joke that "Murray" keeps threatening
to sue me, Yoshie or the Spoons folks. Lawyers cost plenty of money and he
doesn't have a case. Meanwhile, I have a rolodex filled with the numbers
of constitutional lawyers that I've worked with in the past who would love
to sink their teeth into a cyberspace/Cointelpro type case for free. Can
you imagine "Murray" spending $30,000 to sue me or Yoshie, while we are
represented for free? I can't. My lawyer contacts include Michael Ratner
of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who I consulted with in 1988
after the FBI harassed Tecnica volunteers. He is the most capable
constitutional lawyer in the country. My rolodex also includes my old good
friend Michael Smith, who participated in the SWP's successful suit
against the FBI in the 1970s. (Michael's new book on "Che Guevara and the
FBI" has just been published by the way. Look for it in your local
bookstore.) 

Now some people have written me privately raising the question of whether
somebody as nuts as "Murray" can be working for the FBI. We have to
understand that the FBI tends to hire "stringers" to infiltrate and harass
left-wing groups. We are not talking about Elliot Ness in these cases. We
are talking about psychopathic and/or mentally deficient scum that are
recruited from the lumpen proletariat or the petty-bourgeoisie. "Murray" 
with his cell phones, his tape machine hooked up to the cell phone, and
his email hacking expertise obviously has brains. What he is lacking in is
the ability to behave like a normal human being. He is nothing but a
degenerate fascist. 

It is much more important for us to finally confront the question of the
nasty details of FBI/CIA or other police agency spying and disruption of
the Spoons mailing-lists. When somebody like Adolfo Olaechea is treated in
a warm comradely fashion here--as he should be--this is bound to raise
eyebrows among the secret police. He does, after all, have a $500,000
bounty on his head to bring him back to Peru. 

The defense of these lists from harassment must take a high priority. We
have been much too lax in the past. The Freedom of Information Act must be
deployed on our behalf. I will be submitting a request this weekend to the
FBI and the CIA. It is AGAINST THE LAW for such agencies to snoop on us,
or to work with freelance fascists like "Murray." This law was not enacted
to protect radicals. It was enacted to protect ruling class figures like
reporters and politicians from dirty tricks like the kind that Nixon
pulled. But if this law is on the books, we absolutely have to take
advantage of it. 

People understand that this is a high-priority task. I have been speaking
to Louis Godena about it this week. Whatever squabbles we have had in the
recent past, both of us understand that this matter must override
everything. Louis has had his hands filled dealing with "Murray's"
attempts to infiltrate marxism-international, so he knows what a menace
this guy is. Louis is sending me a report on all this and I have already
received one from Sid Chatterjee, who dealt with "Murray's" attempt to get
him in trouble with the Syracuse University administration. I also have
plans to speak to Charlotte Kates this weekend to get the details of her
encounter with "Murray."

The reason it is important to keep the snoops and provocateurs off of the
Spoons Marxism lists is that these lists remain the ONLY Marxist forum on
the entire Internet. The bourgeoisie does not like this. It does not like
the idea that Marxists from the four corners of the world are responding
to the defense of Australian "wharfies" or Colombian guerrillas. If there
is a Vietnam war in our future, the Internet will be an instantaneous
teach-in on US intervention. Mailing-lists like ours will be the brain and
nervous system of such an anti-intervention movement. This worries them. 

As much as Seattle Ben gets on my nerves, he is right about this. The
Marxism lists are not so important for what they are today, but what they
represent down the road. They are a vehicle for the uncensored exchange of
revolutionary socialist ideas. The bourgeoisie has been trying to put us
out of business ever since the 1850s and we have no intention of shutting
down, whatever happened in the Soviet Union. We have sharp teeth also.

(Would somebody please crosspost this to thaxis, where "Murray" and his
pals Levy and Malecki dwell.)

Louis Proyect




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