From: "Dave Bedggood" <dr.bedggood-AT-auckland.ac.nz> Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 00:32:27 +0000 Subject: M-TH: (Fwd) Fw: Free speech James does not appear to have posted this onto MTH or MG so I am doing it without his permission. Dave. ---------- > From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk> > To: marxism-international-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU > Subject: M-I: Free speech > Date: Friday, October 24, 1997 10:20 > > The discussion over the suspensions from the MI list demonstrates that > no principle informs the suspensions, and no clarification arises from > them. Since the suspensions all those that supported the action have > been locked into vituperative exchanges without any political content > whatsoever with the suspended - either shadow-boxing here, or sniping on > other lists like Marxism-thaxis. > > In particular the self-appointed psychiatric faculty are keen to make a > diagnosis Bob Malecki. You ought to re-read some of your own posts some > time. What are we to make of anyone who is preoccupied with what Bob > Malecki has to say? That they are on the same level as he is, and are in > no position to patronise him. Again the question that cries out to be > answered is what has been clarified? So far, nothing. > > It is not even as if one could say that a distraction has been removed. > There has been as much written denouncing Levy and Maleki since the > suspensions as was written before. Nor have the rudeness, vilifications, > or personalised back-biting been reduced: its just that one side have > been silenced, but the other side are more than willing to redouble > their efforts to befoul my in-tray with their obscene rantings. > > Most grotesque of all is the attempt to infuse this personal row with > the semblance of a political difference. They are 'Trots' say the > champions of censorship. So what are you? Stalinists? Are you really > saying that it was wrong to point out that the Soviet Union reduced its > own citizens to the level of famine and cannibalism? Was it wrong to > point out that the Communist International under Stalin sold Poland to > the Nazis, and the Greek partisans to the Generals (only after disarming > them)? You don't want to hear about the past? Why? Guilty consciences? > > I am not that interested in the past either, as it happens. But I don't > object at all the crapulously laudatory postings about third-rate party > hacks that serve no other purpose than nostalgia. I mean, there is a > serious discussion about what happened in 1492 in progress, you can > hardly object if someone has some left over business from 1956 or 1968. > The embargo on the past seems only to apply to those uncomfortable > reminders that all to many on the left kow-towed to the most barbaric > dictatorship of the twentieth century. Well, I don't care about your bad > consciences. But I do object when to save your delicate sensibilities, > we on this list are denied the right to decide for ourselves what we can > and cannot read. > > I said earlier that no political light had been shed by the suspensions. > So let's learn a real lesson. Free speech is not a procedural question, > or a bourgeois trick. Free speech rests on the idea that all of us have > a right to decide for ourselves, because we value our own ability to > make such judgements. Free speech is not a privilege for those that > speak - a privilege to be given or taken away - but a right for everyone > concerned. The defence of free speech only matters when it is the speech > of someone who is not approved of, or who does not fit the consensus. > You don't have to defend popular speech. > > I have been amazed by those who say that they want some people excluded > from the list because they don't like what they say. What kind of world > do you want to live in? One where people only say what you want to hear? > That is the egotism of an infant, not the outlook of a grown adult. > > Lift *all* the suspensions. > -- > James Heartfield > > > --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- Dave Bedggood --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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