Date: 17 Jul 96 02:16:21 EDT
From: "Chris, London" <100423.2040-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: I am afraid you lose, Adolfo


This is my reply to Tony, which I composed 2 days ago 
but which I held up because on checking I was not sure
whether the spoof photos were spoof photos.

_____________________________________________________________
I would like to comments on Tony's post on this thread.

It comes over to me as honest.  


>>> I for one am not totally convinced that they are cops. This is a very
difficult allegation to prove beyond all doubt. But by their behaviour
every honest person should be highly suspecious of them. 
<<<

I think the sectarian personal attacks on you are not in the 
spirit of "curing the sickness to save the patient" and sound
highly exaggerated. However I think you have to see them in the 
context of a retaliation against an attack saying New Flag are
agents of Fujimori.

Unless both sides are convinced that it is in their interests to 
go on insisting that the other side are agents of the bourgeoisie,
it would be better to admit that things have been said in a 
highly antagonistic style. The political differences may still 
be very serious, but they would be presented in a clearer form
if the criticism had involved less lashing out.

Both Adolfo and New Flag come over the me as Peruvians who 
are passionate about their struggle and who have lashed back
against criticisms they see as utter slanders. 

Gina, Jay, and Tony come over to me as US citizens who are in 
solidarity with a struggle that is not their own, and are 
trying to think through what they should do in 
a situation of fierce splits, and end up on opposite sides.
Jay sounded shocked and disgusted by the attack on Tony, but that still 
does not mean that New Flag are in the pay of the intelligence services,
as Tony, recognises.



Marcelina and Luis come over as extremely jumpy about contacts
>from people they think they cannot trust, like Ken, and like
Jay's photos. Jay's publishing of what appears to be spoof photos
(I do not easily have a uunedecoder) presumably is a way of 
saying New Flag have made very heavy weather of what at the time
was an innocent desire to have a memento of what was a public 
occasion. 

At the same time I think it is clearly very stressful to be 
seen as anything like a public channel for information about the 
PCP, whether it is New York or London. I think Adolfo's 
bravado and bombast are in part a reaction to and a denial of this.
No doubt he will say I am psychologising here, but although he 
belittles the stress of a police interview, at other stages of 
the argument he claimed that it was very stressful that I
repeated the details of the bank account that had apparently 
already been made public.

I have not ever read the Maoist Sojourner, but if it is
by MIM, I did not find their last analysis objective.

No, I have never read "A World to Win", and cannot track down how
to do so in England, despite the fact that Simon Strong
says it was published in Nottingham in about 1991. 
I agree the bits that Tony posts from Fujimori's proposals 
look like a call for capitulation, but it is not clear what
the other counter proposals were. Anyway it is very unsatisfactory
to have such a long and intense flame war, with Adolfo accusing
New Flag of agreeing with Avakian, when the rest of the l'st 
cannot find out what Avakian said. There is a great big
gap in the plot. It is not so much like Hamlet without the 
Prince of Denmark, as Paradise Lost without Satan.

This matters because of Adolfo's style of polemic of guilt by
association.

Can someone please publish details of how it is possible to 
get "A World to Win" in England?

Chris B

London.


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