Answering Chris was Re: my column

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Chris.

So you are back again!! Happy New Year etc. Now what can I say to your
remarks appended to my column? My initial response was that they reeked of
Phariseeism.  But as that is a Christian concept that would probably only
make matters worse.

You say my reference to Authority is 'trendy'. That stung.  You know
nothing about my political praxis.  Trust me I have never been trendy in
Brisbane. Being gay and a communist is ample warrant of that. Some 12 or
more arrests are ample testimony to my near pariah status.  If you doubt my
word ask Alan Bradley who is by no means a friend of mine.

As to the serious questions about United Front work with the Anarchists I
would suggest that it is sectarian to rule it out a priori as you seem to
do.  There cannot be any Marxist principle which says never work or
collaborate in a united front with Anarchists. The decision has to be made
case by case.

Having said that I believe that the Anarchist movement have given
us  valuable critiques of the trade union bureaucracy and of the
state.  Lenin himself picked up both of these legacies in his concept of
the 'labor lieutenants of capital' and the phrase 'we support the Labor
Party as a rope supports a hanging man'.  There is also of course his
libertarian text State & Revolution. For those of us who do not fetishize
the tail ending of the union bureaucracy these concepts of Lenin and the
Anarchist critiques are still very valuable.

Now I work with the Bookchinites because there is absolutely nothing else
on the Left here in Brisbane.  Especially since the tragically untimely
death of Bob Leach of the Progressive Labor Party.  Bob BTW also had a
column in the Anarchist paper I write for , The Neighbourhood News.

I do of course collaborate as much as I can with the DSP - the only force
of organised Marxism worth talking about.  I have spoken at rallies and
meetings the DSP have organised and I will continue to do so.  But the DSP
and I go back a fair while.  They have an agenda and if you fit into it ok
if not then there is no way they will provide a platform.

For example I once composed a letter replying to an attack on me in the
Green Left weekly around my campaign against the Greens. They had given
their preferences to Tories in the State election and thus brought down a
Labor Government. The only other instance of that happening is I believe in
Sweden where there too the Green Party brought down a Social Democratic
government and got Tories elected.

For me this electing of a conservative government was a move to the right
by the Queensland Greens, the moral equivalent of crossing a picket line or
scabbing. However DSP wanted and still want a merger/alliance/something
with the Greens, so they will protect them from attacks on the Left.  Thus
I had a great deal of trouble getting my letter published and it took
intervention by a member of the Central Committee to get it printed.  There
were of course excuses about length etc. But the point is that GLW is not
the open platform it claims to be. To say this is not to make an attack on
the GLW but simply to point out that it is still a Leninist publication.
But the real point I wish to make is that there are limits to the scope
that the DSP will offer me, whereas the Anarchists put no limits whatsoever
on what I can write.

So I will continue to write for NN.  I will continue to work with
revolutionaries and I will even continue to work with the left elements in
the trade union bureaucracy. But I will never make the mistake of equating
the leadership of the unions with the working class. And Chris is I think
the sticking point between us.

comradely regards (It is a New decade etc after all!!)

Gary





At 08:44  7/02/00 -0800, you wrote:
>There are a lot of problems with contributing to anarchist
>journals.  While Gary's column has the trendy passing reference to
>'authority' there is also a more global problem of anarchism generally -
>its theory, its practice, its politics.  It's not clear whether this was
>intended for Irish anarchists or our sorry lot of Brisbane anarchists.
>
>I for one would not be 'seen dead' contributing to overt anarchist
>journals - but this is a personal call.
>
>The Irish anarchists are amongst the worst.
>
>Chris Warren
>
>
>
>On Sat, 05 February 2000, Gary MacLennan wrote:
>
> >
> > Comrades - this is the first of my 2000 columns which I write for the
> local
> > anarchist throwaway.  I have been mightily encouraged by some kind
> comments
> > from list members and so have been emboldened to post this.
> >
> > regards
> >
> > Gary
> >
> > 1. The experience of returning from wintering out in Ireland to the
> > excruciating rigors of a late summer heat wave has been an exhausting
> and a
> > disorienting one for me.  Not even the copious amounts of cold beer that I
> > have consumed can disguise the realization that this land is for the
> > European a strange and peculiarly unreal destination. The nagging question
> > that must have so haunted the first white settlers, persists  what are we
> > doing here?  There have of course been many attempts to create myths that
> > would provide an answer or to be more accurate to shore us up against
> > doubt.  The most successful of these was that this was a great white
> nation
> > founded as a god fearing civilization  an isolated but still blessed
> > bulwark against the heathen hordes of alternatively Asiatic barbarism or
> > Russian communism.   However capitalist modernity has ruthlessly and
> > brutally destroyed this myth. The bulwark has been battered down by the
> > forces of globalization.  The erstwhile hordes are the eagerly sought
> after
> > customers of today.
> >
> > No new myth has been forged to endear us to the vicissitudes of
> > late-capitalist modernity.  Regularly commentators on the Right such as
> > Michael Duffy, bemoan the fact that John Howard cannot come up with a
> story
> > which will have us all eagerly striving together. This is what right wing
> > commentators mean by the ?vision thing?. Not only has Howard been
> unable to
> > articulate a vision, worse in his opposition to the Republic he murdered
> > the only possible alternative myth.  This was that we had grown up as a
> > nation and now no longer needed the mother country Britain. We could now
> > become an adult nation  a new republic.  By and large middle class
> > Australia bought this myth.  It seemed to reconcile us to capitalist
> > modernity and globalization while at the same time give us our own niche.
> > However in a fit of resentment against the modernizers the working
> class of
> > Australia voted down the republic. So now we are adrift and all the social
> > surveys show that we are plagued by insecurity, anxiety and depression.
> >
> > But the dialectic never dies.  As Holderin pointed out where there is
> > danger there too the remedy begins to grow. I was immensely buoyed up by a
> > seemingly trivial incident. In the one day cricket game against Australia
> > the Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar came on to bowl.  He had been
> > labelled as a thrower by a committee of the International Cricket
> > Council.  Thus Authority had designated him as a pariah.  His whole career
> > and way of life had been threatened. However his country had pulled some
> > strings and although under a cloud he had been permitted to participate in
> > the one day series.
> >
> > How would Australians respond to his presence against their own
> > team?  Would they go with Authority or would they side with the outsider,
> > the Asian, the foreigner?  No one knew.  The answer when it came was truly
> > beautiful in its sincerity, spontaneity and unpredictability. The entire
> > Southern Stand at the Gabba cricket ground rose at the end of Akhtar?s
> > first over and gave him a standing ovation. The people had spoken.
> > Authority had been rejected.  The most noble of all human
> > emotions  solidarity with the underdog, the outsider, the victim - had
> > manifested itself.
> >
> > For there is another Australia.  One that is seen all too rarely but is
> > nevertheless still there.  It is an Australia which holds faith with the
> > knowledge that this nation was forged in the fires of slavery and
> genocide.
> > It is an Australia which knows that beneath the smoothly efficient mask of
> > Authority is the  reality of cruel and brutal domination and exploitation
> > of the people.  It is an Australia which still feels the pulse of freedom.
> >
> > 2.  Lest it be thought that I am suffering from nostalgia for the Old
> > Country I have to report that the dominant impression I received of
> Blair?s
> > Britain is that of an enormous dumbing down of the popular culture.  This
> > finds its clearest expression in the activities of the paparazzi in the
> > Murdoch Press.  The issues that dominated public attention were the
> Queen?s
> > refusal to link arms with Tony Blair for the singing of Aul Lang Syne,
> > whether soccer star David Beckham wore his wife, Posh Spice?s underwear,
> > and the divorce traumas of Scarey Spice. The Daily Mirror had a headline
> > ?Ma?am was right? defending the Queen?s refusal. I almost puked at the
> > sight of that.  The paparazzi then outdid themselves and succeeded in
> > producing a photo which revealed Beckham was wearing white y-fronts.  We
> > were subsequently innundated with photos of Scarey Spice grieving topless
> > in the surf in Phuket and photos of her husband?s career as a dancer in
> the
> > gay bars in Amsterdam.
> >
> > Meanwhile the slaughter continues in Chechnya, hundreds of thousands
> die of
> > starvation in Sub-Saharan Africa, and as a species we humans continue
> > recklessly on the path of eco-suicide. Yet these facts seldom figure in
> the
> > media. Noam Chomsky in his book Manufacturing Consent argues that popular
> > media works  to distract the working class from the political process.  It
> > serves above all to hide the fact that their citizenship is only a hollow
> > mockery. A month in Blair?s Britain has reminded me all too forcibly of
> how
> > accurate his analysis is.
> >
> > 3.      Finally back to the happy couple Posh Spice and David Beckham
> > Manchester United?s Golden Boy. When he was sent off in the World Cup he
> > was renamed as  ?Stupid Spice? by the British media.  Every week he is
> > endlessly mocked and ridiculed by the soccer fans. The revelation about
> him
> > wearing his wife?s underwear has spawned a thousand jokes about David
> > finding life a drag etc. When he was sent off again in the tournament in
> > Rio De Janeiro the tabloid media had a feeding frenzy.  He is of course
> one
> > of the most brilliant of contemporary soccer players and has been crucial
> > to his team?s success.
> >
> > As for his wife Posh Spice, she made millions from her career as a Spice
> > Girl. Over the New Year British Television showed a program which was
> to be
> > the beginning of a new career for Posh as an interviewer of the rich and
> > famous.  The quality press urged us all to view this program so we could
> > see how empty the lives of the pop stars were and how stupid and inept
> Posh
> > Spice was .  I tuned in at the end to see her interview with her husband
> > David.  This was seemingly the worst interview and viewing it was supposed
> > to confirm our intellectual and cultural superiority.   Now like most
> > academics I am more than prepared to feel superior to others, however my
> > experience of watching the program was radically different.  These may not
> > have been the brightest of young people, but they were both beautiful and
> > moreover had patently discovered the ignoble truth that lust is greater
> > than love, or if you like Eros is more powerful than Agape. I thought of
> > the lines from Keats? Ode on a Grecian Urn:
> >
> >          Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
> > Though winning near the goal  yet do not grieve;
> > She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
> > For ever wilt thou love and she be fair!
> >
> > ?
> > More happy love! More happy, happy love!
> > For ever warm and still to be enjoy?d
> > For ever panting and for ever young;
> > All breathing human passion far above,
> > That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy?d
> > A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
> >
> >
> > So for once I resisted the allures of intellectual snobbery and I wished
> > Posh and her hubby well.  Life will no doubt hunt them down. Nothing
> > against time?s scythe can make defence. Moreover Keats was right when he
> > described this world as one
> >
> >          Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
> >          Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow.
> >
> > All too true, but I will never rejoice in that.
>
>
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