Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 15:41:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Kevin Cabral <kcabral-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: Stalinists and Free Speech


On Sun, 3 Mar 1996, CEP wrote:

>     These brief comments are intended to give you my opinion
>     about recent dennunciations from Charlotte about censorship
>     in the SOCNET and the responses she received from other people.

	A few corrections about Charlotte's rantings..

> 
>     1. She lied when she said that Stalinists and PCP supporters
>     (nowadays the same thing) were censored by SOCNET.  Only Elsequin,
>     a deranged individual was thrown out of SocNet for insulting and
>     flaiming other members without engaging in any kind of
>     political debate.  If he would be at a meeting and did the same
>     thing I will volunteer to throw him outr myself.

	I strongly agree, but Elsequin was never on SocNet nor thrown off.
Sendi has been the first person ever to be WARNED that they would be
thrown off if their behavior continued, but otherwise nobody I know has
been kicked. 

>     2. Having said that, I'm oppossed to any kind of censorship of
>     political discourse or postings (you don't like them, just
>     ignore them. Period).  But that's different from Elsequin's
>     behavior.

	I agree, but as long as it is done responsibly. Elsequin and Sendi
enter forums with the goal of disruption, to create flame wars. 

>     (where they were told repeatdly to piss out), the SocNet (Social
>     democrat) and Charlotte and couple other garbage Stalinists are
>     even flaming alt.politics.socialism.trotskyism ... they are 

	This is very true, but I must correct you that the SocNet is a
forum for the Socialist Party USA which is a democratic socialist party,
not a social democratic party.

>     4. Scott Marshal, the Stalinist leader of the CPUSA, is mentioned
>     as the "Internet Coordinator" in the CPUSA web page.  Maybe this
>     is an "strategy" to build the "mass party", who knows ... the point
>     is, don't worry about them.  Just ignore them and they will 
>     dissappear as their dreams of "leading revolutions" and "mass
>     parties".  

	Scott, how do you respond to that? As Scott has never struck me as
a Stalinist, or a bad guy either. I have my qualms about his CPUSA
affiliation, but his politics seem to be fine for me. 

Kevin 
Cols, Oh





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