Re: Dan Styron, Barnesites

["Juan R. Fajardo" <fajardos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In 1988 or 1989 or so I met a fellow who was part of a recruiting team
in the San Francisco Bay area.  He came down to Santa Cruz with a couple
other folks.  Several months later I learned that he had put a rifle in
his mouth and taken his own life.  But he was far too young for Louis to
have met him as an adult in 1967.


It has been know for a while that Jack and Mary-Alice were an item, but
not much was ever mentioned about it while I was around the YSA/SWP.
Certainly it never did seem to matter to anyone to any greater degree
than that any other two people in the party were a couple, married or
otherwise.  It was viewed as essentially private, personal business.  In
any case, that there might be sexual or amorous relatonships amongs
leaders of a    political party is not a new development, it has happened
before and will again, and is not necessarily symptomatic of any moral
turpitude.

As for wild parties at Oberlin, to anyone who participated in those
conferences, it would immediately seem that such would be highly
unlikely. Did people use the occasion for rendevouz and pecadillos? I
would be surprised to hear that none such ever happened, but to the
extent that they might have, I never heard of it, never saw it, and
certainly it must have been less than at other conferences that I have
attended in the professional field with people of the same age range.

Parties and large unofficial gatherings were discouraged at Oberlin
(prohibition was not necessary as peers ensured that remiders were
sufficient) in order to avoid any unpleasantness which might sour things
with the college and community.  As a comrade put it, "They like our
business, so they like us. But they don't like us that much."   Were
there gatherings for leadership only?  Undoubtedly there were, but with
the SWP playing host to leaders and reps from different countries, I
find it hard to believe that anything that might produce "strange
stories" could have taken place.

- Juan