Re: openness: the same thing was true of the
Communist Party of the US. During all the years that they were in the forefront
of the labor movement in the US (their leaders were prominent in most of the
militant unions), they kept their radical views secret, and the ruling class was
able to use this to both decimate the CPUSA and severely weaken the unions
during the anti-communist crusades of the early 50s (HUAC, McCarthy, the
Rosenberg trial, etc.).
Jonathan
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 5:59 AM
Subject: Re: Cuba trip and AAAS
session
Friends,
On Herb's post
regarding 1) Cuba; 2) a presence at a AAAS meeting and 3) rules for the SftP
listserv, a couple of remarks.
Please don't send suggested rules to me.
Someone else ought to step forward, perhaps you Herb. I don't want to be a
nexus for SftP communication or organization. If it's too much for you, Herb,
maybe someone else can do it.
On planning AAAS presence, you said, "We
should not identify ourselves as SftP or any other organization." My approach
to people is to be totally open, not to hide anything. I don't see SftP as any
kind of "disciplined" so-called vanguard group trying to worm our way into an
influential position in some other organization. If our sympathies are with
the radical left we ought to be open about it, in my opinion. There is really
nothing to hide.
I learned from Mitch Verter's recent biography of
Ricardo Flores Magon, the pre-eminent anarchist of the Mexican revolution,
that eventually he lost many comrades with much bitterness because he had
concealed from them part, probably the most radical part, of his dream for
Mexican society, fearful initially that his organizing efforts would be less
successful if he did not. My personal reaction is always one of great anger if
I later discover that I've been deceived by someone I trusted. I urge
openness.