Fw: Sectarian trivia

["Barry Buitekant" <Barry.Buitekant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think the points that Michael Pugilese made about Joseph Hansen and Max
Eitingon need clarifiying.

Firstly Elisabeth Poretsky said nothing about Joseph Hansen in her book
'Our Own People- A Memoir of 'Ignace Reiss' and his Friends'. This book was
published in 1969. The attempt by the Workers League and Gerry Healys WRP to
prove that Hansen was a stalinist agent implicated in the murder of Trotsky
did not start until 1975.

Secondly what Stephen Schartz was saying (in the New York Review of Books of
January 24, 1988) was that Max Eitingon (who was the member of Freud's
circle) was
implicated  in among other things the murder of Ignace Reiss. He also stated
that Max was a brother of Leonid Eitingon who is widely regarded as an
organiser of the assassination of Leon Trotsky. Theodore Draper wrote a long
article in the New York Review of Books dated April 14, 1988 which sought to
show that Max Eitingon was in no way a stalinist agent and was not the
brother of Leonid. My view is that Draper was correct. But anyone interested
should read the articles themselves.

Barry Buitekant


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Pugliese <debsian@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Date: 05 February 2000 18:47
>Subject: Re: Sectarian trivia
>
>
>>As they say in Texas, I didn't have a dog in that fight, though I
suspected
>>Mark Curtis was guilty of rape. For what its worth, I heard Curtis was
>>expelled at some point in the recent past by the Barnes regime. That must
>>leave the SWP at around 300 or so members. Pretty sad.
>>    On the Workers League, I used to have their huge "legal dossier" type
>>document presuming to prove Joseph Hansen was a GPU agent. What silliness,
>>extrapolated from a book by a Elizabeth Poretsky, I believe, and the Max
>>Eitengon character, that Steven Schwartz alleged was a Stalinist saboteur,
>>in the pages of the NY Times Book Review. Schwartz was disproved by,
>>Theodore Draper in the NY Review of Books about the Eitengon allegations.
>If
>>memory serves, a brother of Max, was a big shot in the original circle
>>around Freud in the first psychoanalytic congress or association. If I can
>>find the NY Review of Books piece by Draper, I'll post it as it was an
>>interesting biton the intersections between Freudianism and the Comintern.
>>Ask Wilhelm Reich, who was unlikely enough to run afoul of
>>the Freudians, the KPD, and the US Govt. specifically the FDA.
>>                                Michael Pugliese
>>                                   Michael Pugliese
>>.........................................................................
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: John Lacny <deathtocapitalism@xxxxxxxxx>
>>To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 1:09 PM
>>Subject: Sectarian trivia
>>
>>
>>> > > World Socialist Website, http://www.wsws.org/
>>> > >
>>> > > The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal:
>>>
>>>      Since I've never had much experience with the
>>> intricacies of internecine bickering among the Trot
>>> sects, and since many on this list have, I wonder if
>>> someone may indulge my curiosity about a certain
>>> question.
>>>
>>>      Was Mark Curtis-- the SWP member and CISPES
>>> activist convicted of rape in Iowa back in the 1980s--
>>> a genuine political prisoner, a real victim of a
>>> frame-up?  Or was he a bona fide sexual assailant?  I
>>> seem to recall from my reading of recent sectarian
>>> history that the owners of the World Socialist Web
>>> Site-- formerly the Workers League, now the Socialist
>>> Equality Party-- were vociferous in calling the Curtis
>>> defense campaign a hoax perpetrated by the SWP on the
>>> workers' movement. I know that Workers League types
>>> are potential scabs in any case (go back and read some
>>> of the stuff they wrote about the strikes in Decatur,
>>> where they make excuses for scabs on the grounds that
>>> the "union bureacracy" led the strikes badly), but do
>>> they have a point here?  Or are they scabbing on the
>>> fight to clear the name of a genuine political
>>> prisoner?
>>>
>>>      I know this is an arcane question which postdates
>>> the time most ex-SWPers on this list left that group,
>>> but can anyone provide a fully-documented answer?
>>>
>>>      Thanks,
>>>
>>>      John Lacny
>>> __________________________________________________
>>> Do You Yahoo!?
>>> Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
>>> http://im.yahoo.com
>>
>>
>>
>