WRL Homepage • WRL Programs • WRL Literature • WRL Actions • WRL Employment • About WRL
|
Homepages: | |
|
Letters Nobody for President I recognize that David McReynolds has made extraordinary contributions to the WRL and the cause of peace and justice generally and that his Socialist Party shares an office with the WRL, but I wish the Nonviolent Activist had not printed three pages of his campaign musings. No other presidential candidate was offered such a luxury, not even Bradford Lyttle of the Pacifist Party, a lifelong WRL member. Though many WRL members including myself are socialists, I imagine most did not vote for McReynolds. The League ought to be a nonpartisan organization open to all pacifists, not a mouthpiece for the SP. In his article, McReynolds called Nader’s campaign (which many WRL members supported) and the Green Party “a vaguely defined anti- corporate movement.” A better term than “vaguely defined” would be broad and inclusive. That Nader chose not to tie himself down to a particular economic doctrine and used rhetoric designed to attract people outside of radical-left circles does not make him unworthy of our support. McReynolds also cut down the International Socialist Organization (one of the youngest, most active and most racially diverse left-wing groups in my DC area) as “usually sectarian.” Whatever is meant by that, it seems ironic given that the ISO opened up and united with millions to campaign for Nader instead of holding to a sect of several thousand and running a no-profile campaign as the Socialist Party, Workers World Party and the Socialist Workers Party all did. For the sake of not alienating members from other groups, I urge the WRL to maintain a healthy separation between itself and the Socialist Party USA (or any party for that matter). —Nathan Harrington Rockville, MD David McReynolds responds: Second, no other candidate was on WRL’s staff for 39 years, and no other candidate asked to do a report. Given my long association with WRL, it would have been strange had there been no mention of the campaign. This hardly makes WRL a Socialist Party mouthpiece; I’m the only SP member on the WRL staff or the NVA Publications Committee. Third, and most important, there is a long historic link between the SP and WRL. The League’s founders were active members of the SP, which was one of only three socialist parties in the world that refused to support World War I. U.S. SP leader Eugene Victor Debs was jailed for his opposition to that war. When the Soviet Union’s course became clear in the late 1920’s, WRL, committed to individual freedom and opposed to all authoritarianism, remained close to people in the Socialist Party, but not to those groups that grew out of a Leninist tradition. The International Socialist Organization is all the things Nathan says it is; it is also a fairly traditional Trotskyist organization with an internal discipline alien to WRL’s traditions. I stand by my position that Nader, for all his virtues, is not very radical. One doesn’t have to be a socialist to feel this way. It is certainly valid to disagree with my view—but not to urge that the NVA ban that view, which seems the unwitting intent of Harrington’s letter. Marxist Eurocentrism, cont. In the Jan.-Feb. 2001 “Activist Letters,” Kai Utsumi challenged Bill Weinberg’s assertion in Weinberg’s book Homage to Chiapas that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels “rejoiced” over the U.S. victory over Mexico, and Weinberg cited his source for the assertion. The discussion continues: Yes, Engels did “rejoice” at the conquest of Mexico by the United States, and I know of no record of Marx refuting that statement. However, in the 1850s, Marx extolled the Taiping rebellion in China, which was a peasant uprising against the foreign Manchu rulers (supported by England, France and the United States). In his last decades, his numerous studies, such as the “Ethnological Notebooks,” led him to appreciate indigenous society in North and South America. The point is that Marx’s thinking and personal humanity (more than Engels’) grew as he was developing his body of ideas of freedom for all people. —Kai Utsumi Los Angeles, CA Committed to Change When I was 18 I was arrested for an LSD offense. Prior to sentencing a year later, I did everything I could to escape the fact that I was going to prison. I drank hard every night. One night I got into a fight with a friend of mine and was additionally charged. That was my “bottom.” That was more than five years ago. I have remained sober and committed to change since that awful night. I have completed numerous programs, including a paralegal certificate, and ongoing correspondence courses through Ohio University. My major is social science; my goal is to work as a violence prevention educator/counselor. I’d like to work with violent offenders in prisons as well as outside of prisons. I have worked here as a facilitator for a myriad of programs, including domestic violence classes. I deplore violence, yet my own violence brought me to an understanding of how out-of-control I was. It also made me realize the need for people willing to work for a nonviolent world. I grew up in a small suburb of Cleveland. Prison opened my eyes to a world of hostility and injustice I was never exposed to in my youth. I’m 25 years old now. Most of the friends I had back home have gone on in their fields of study or live at bars and clubs. My life has changed dramatically and I know no one interested in the values I’ve sworn myself to. I’m hoping through this missive to meet like-minded individuals willing to share thoughts and ideas and help me further my vision and understanding. I also welcome correspondence from other prisoners (Ohio allows it). I will answer all who take the time to write. —Daniel Monnett #311688 PO Box 1812, Marion, OH 43301-1812 |
WRL Homepage • WRL Programs • WRL Literature • WRL Actions • WRL Employment • About WRL
