My family and I certainly very much appreciate the solid, thoughtful words of support that have come from a good number of you all -- on list and off list. The sanguinary rivers that are converging on long-suffering Humanity from the very Four Directions make this noxious ASDnet episode one that should not proceed into monopolization of the good thoughts and good works of any of us. But it all does warrant comment -- so here are my thoughts:
The anonymously rank and obviously racist thing of yesterday afternoon -- neither creative nor witty and obviously the antithesis of courage -- that was posted on ASDnet is not, I'm quite sure, the work of an occasional visitor to the list. Normally, that would be a reasonable enough assessment. But the ASDnet situation is a Grand Canyon away from any normalcy. This Skull & Crossbones potion falls well within the narrow and crude denigrating tradition that's come to frequently characterize ASDnet -- especially, but hardly exclusively, directed against me -- and very much when I've posted on various Native topics or, say, boosted the coming Paul Robeson Peace Arch concert commemoration [May 18] near Vancouver B.C., and certainly when I've taken my traditionally and explicitly and emphatically Left socialist position on a number of key issues. [The obvious attack, now and at previous points, on my very good friend, Louis Proyect of Marxmail, is certainly revealing and significant. ] It's clearly coming from somewhere within the group on ASDnet -- which is certainly not restricted in DSA to that oft-unhappy discussion list: a faction that, for all practical purposes, are Democrats and nothing more. [There can be -- and are -- very profound differences between so-called social democrats and democratic socialists who are genuinely socialist.] After this, of course, it's speculative, since we're dealing with anonymous cowards whose depth and finesse would hardly impress, say, the creatively and intricately caustic Henry Mencken -- or Ambrose Bierce. What isn't speculative is the basic silence that prevails on ASDnet when something ugly like this breaks out . Or, there's the typically convoluted comment by Jim Chapin yesterday [Friday] evening to Evan Godt's very thoughtfully critical statements about the affair. This is how Chapin sought to handle the matter -- certainly no denunciation of "racist swill" [as Sam Friedman so accurately tagged it on our RedBadBear.] Said Chapin -- endeavoring, I'm sure, very unconvincingly to any half-way objective mind, to turn it all around and attack Evan's criticism: "Doesn't this constitute abuse, not of a person, but of a whole class of persons? I think that most of the people on this list, both those with whom I usually agree and those with whom I often disagree, have had rather interesting lives. Jim Chapin " The suggestion that Evan made that "they" "get a life" obviously touched a nerve. And it's also very accurate. While there are certainly people on ASDnet who've had and have interesting lives, and productive ones, there are many who have not and who -- when History has reached out Its hand -- have pulled back with fear and timidity. And these people very much resent anyone who has an interesting and productive life -- who has done things and continues to do so. And some of these people, whose very limited bundle of talents does include knifesmanship [note my gender use], act viciously. And, of course, they do so within their traditions of cowardice and anonymity. But, as I say, the real problem in ASDnet -- and one in DSA -- is the failure of many of the "good people" [of various philosophically socialist shadings -- but good people] to speak out on racist attacks of this sort. [Some who would and have on other occasions may very well be away during this critical demonstration period.] It's reminiscent of what we used to call "the Silent South" -- the moderate Whites who never spoke. And that was the reason that the Movement worked -- as any well-grounded and courageous and committed and focused Movement always does -- with those "of the fewest alternatives" who were and are willing to courageously move out -- move out through Hell and High Water -- to the Sun. DSA has many good people within it. But the jury is still 'way out on the matter of its basic, enduring, ultimate relevancy. Jeffrey Levine's good concerns -- and those of others -- that I stay on ASDnet can be easily answered by me with an affirmative. Once again, our great appreciation to every one of you who has expressed genuine concern in this latest, sad episode. Here is the full Skull & Crossbones thing for anyone who hasn't seen it: Fraternally -- and in Solidarity - Hunter Gray [ Hunterbear ] www.hunterbear.org ( social justice ) Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ ====================================================================== Note from HunterWeasel: I have to put this note before all of the e-mails I forward to the ignorant, insensitive and crude DSAers on ASDNET, because they are stupid white men who do not appreciate the truths of the Great Spirit of tribal religion. Look you stupid racist honkies, I will not sit by idly in my lier... whoops, liar... no, no, no, I mean lair..., while you pass judgment on how I worship the weasel by cutting out its innards. The following is a piece authored by one of my comrade hunters, the weasel Lou Proyect, in which he explains the correct Trotskyist [or is that Stalinist?] position on tribal rites. FW: Viva Female Genital Mutilation And Other Tribal Religious Rites The renegade Ellen M. Woods, in her anti-Marxist tract "Women's Liberation and the Tribe," puts forward a characteristically petite-bourgeois analysis of female genital mutilation among the tribes of Somalia. Woods, a founder of the Smithian school on the origin of capitalism, suggests that women should have a "right" to refuse the deeply held, culturally integral pratice of genital circumcision. What could be more anti-Marxist than the concept of "rights"? And what does a woman need a clitoris for anyway? Like the third volume of Capital, the manuscript breaks off at this point. " Hunter Gray [ Hunterbear ] www.hunterbear.org ( social justice ) Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
