Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 17:56:25 -0400 To: Dhorowitz@earthlink.net From: Marty Jezer <mjez@sover.net> Subject: Re: [sixties-l] "Stalinist"? -- To David Horowitz Where I come from, David, the term "Stalinist" is an insult, like calling someone a fascist or a racist. I've written books and have a 40-year record of political activism, so if you have any specific reason to accuse me of being a Stalinist, please come forward with it. I've got a fat pile of FBI records. J. Edgar Hoover spent taxpayer money trying to pin that label on me and came up with nothing. But, of course, you're acting from malice and ignorance. You throw the term "Stalinist" around like, well.....a true Stalinist, as a grandiose insult, because you have nothing concrete to say. As a Stevenson Democrat during the 1950s, then a member of CORE during the nonviolent phase of the civil rights movement, then as a nonviolent activist and a founding editor of the War Resister's League weekly, WIN Magazine, my record hardly fits that of a Stalinist. I was also a Yippie (at least until August 68) because I loved its sense of humor (and Stalinists have no sense of humor), was active in The Resistance, the no-nuke Clamshell Alliance, and as an "anti-interventionist" rather than an anti-imperialist Sandinista. As a socialist, I was Debsian and an outspoken anti-Leninist when Marxism-Leninism was a minor craze during the 1970s. For the past ten years, my issue has been campaign finance reform, and my solution total public financing (i.e., Clean Money). I believe in democracy and I believe that radicalism is an American tradition. Some Stalinist. There are people on this list with whom I've fought political battles going back to the 1960s. There are some people who I'm still arguing with. But I would never call them names or insult them. I'll march for justice with anyone who will march with me, if not on one issue than on another. I don't think I'll ever meet you on any march for peace, equality, opportunity, democracy, or justice. This list is for discussion. Honest disagreements help people learn. You're here to insult and harass, and you're paid to do it. You're here in violation of the open and earnest spirit of the group. I don't expect or care for an apology from you. You're not worth it. Abbie Hoffman wrote that people have a choice. They can either go for the gelt or they can devote their lives to justice. You've gone for the gelt, David. And as Abbie said to Judge Julius Hoffman, you're "a shanda fur de goyem." (Loosely -- and ecumenically -- translated as a "whore for right-wing racists, anti-Semites and other greedy people who disdain justice but love power." You say you have 40,000 people that support your efforts. I assume that, if true, you got these names from mailing lists. So in addition to the right-wing foundations who support your harassment of the people on this list, let's hear what mailing lists those 40,000 contributors come from. With your usual disregard for truth, you talk about left-wing academics making huge salaries. That's a right-wing myth that's bandied about without substantiated. Yeah, a few lefty academics have become tenured professors. They're in the classroom teaching students. Should they be paid less than their apolitical or conservative colleagues? Should they be fired from the jobs? Should they be denied tenure? Barring some new personal attack from Horowitz, I hope this is the last you'll hear from me on the subject of David Horowitz. I suggest that others let his posts go by without comment. And that we can continue our sometimes interesting and passionate discussions. Cheers, Marty Jezer At 06:22 PM 9/26/2000 -0700, David Horowitz wrote: >Spoken lilke a true Stalinist Marty. If were still on the left I would have an >academic sinecure for six figures, courtesty of my political comrades, and >would >waltz into campuses collecting five figure fees (how many speeches do you think >say a Communist hack like Angela Davis gives in a year at $25,000 a pop?) Or >some >Hollywood halfwit named Greenwald would be doing my biopic. Of course there are >leftwing losers (maybe we should call them "idealists") who are still doing >it on >a volunteer basis. Just for the record, not that you would care, I am supported >by 40,000 contributors across the United States, many of them no better-heeled >than you. I like to think of it as a movement. Just for old times' sake. > See the film "STEAL THIS MOVIE" and read the book Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel on which it is based. Author: Stuttering: A Life Bound Up in Words (Basic Books) Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel (Rutgers University Press) The Dark Ages: Life in the USA, 1945-1960 (South End Press) Rachel Carson [American Women of Achievement Series] (Chelsea House) Check out my web page: http://www.sover.net/~mjez To subscribe to my Friday commentary, simply request to be put on my mailing list. <mjez@sover.net> It's free!
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