Re: Sectarian trivia

[Michael Pugliese <debsian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the clarification. I don't need to be as muddled as that Steven
Schwartz character. He is currently in the Balkans "reporting" for the San
Francisco Chronicle. He's gone from being at various times a Surrealist
poet, a Wobbly, a follower of a very obscure Spanish Trotskyist group called
FOCUS (acronym for Fuerza Obrera ???), a promoter of ex-Sandanista,
ex-Contra leader, "Commander Zero" (I'm blanking on his real name- he
testified at the Iran-Contra hearings, Ron Radosh also brought him around to
Social Democrats, U.S.A. meetings, and an employee of Ed Meese's Institute
for Contemporary Studies, before landing that gig at the SF Chronicle. And a
friend who has seen him eat Bouillabase says his table manners are horrid!
                                           Michael Pugliese

----- Original Message -----
From: Barry Buitekant <Barry.Buitekant@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2000 9:36 AM
Subject: Fw: Sectarian trivia


>
>
>
>
> 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
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>