Forwarded from Anthony (reply to Mac and Stan)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

In reply to Mac Stainsby and the Goffs

Re: Judi Bari, Irv Sutley, the CPUSA, etc.

1. Thanks to Mac for the adaptation of Joe Hill. Judi would have felt
honored if she were around to read it.

2. The Gooff's think I made a preposterous assertion in my original
post. I did not. They wrote,

"I can't comment on the veracity of any of the rest of this piece,
but I can say that the labor bureaucracy in the US is not connected
to the CPUSA, traditionally or otherwise.  This is a preposterous
assertion.  The CPUSA has been known to tail the positions of COPE on
the question of supporting Democrats, but that's not in any way the
same thing.  The AFL-CIO and its affiliates have treated the CP as
anathema for decades.

"I would be very interested in seeing the supporting evidence that
Sutley was acting on behalf of the party, if this is in fact what
happened."

The first place to look for the supporting evidence is Judi Bari's
own account of events, which can be found at,

http://www.monitor.net/~bari/judibomb.html#uzi

Judy did not say in her account that Irv was a CP member, that he was
acting on behalf of the CP-USA, or that the Pulp and Paper Workers
Union bureaucracy was connected to the CP. I said these things.

I knew Irv Sutely for many years. He was a regular candidate of the
Peace and Freedom Party for US Congress, and he was active in various
protest movements. He was publicly proud of being a CP member, and
worked as a leader of their caucus in the Peace and Freedom Party of
California. I can not prove that he was acting under CP discipline
when he set Judi Barri up, however, the CP was publicly hostile to
Earth First Activities in the Save the Redwoods campaign. I should
have been a little more careful with my words.

Irv Sutley may have been a police agent working against both Earth
First and the CP. However, the CP was about to explode in the post
Berlin wall crisis which saw the CP in california split into two
factions, each suing the other in court over the party's assets.
Where Irv landed in that mess, I do not know. He did however,
continue to run for public office on the P&FP slate, and work closely
with the people who made up the former CP caucus in the P&FP.  To my
knowledge, those people never have disassociated themselves with Irv,
nor with Irv's actions against Judi. Neither did they ever say one
word in solidarity with Judi, or in her defense.

As far as the CP's historic connection to the labor bureaucracy, the
Goffs are simply mistaken. On the West Coast, the CP's connection to
the bureaucracy was never broken by the witchhunts, although it went
slightly underground (the same is true, but usually to a much lesser
extent, in other parts of the country). Many leaders of the ILWU, UE,
Hotel and Restaurant Workers, and Pulp and Paper, Boilermakers, etc.
were long time CP members, although most were not publicly members
after the Taft Hartley Act was passed. The lower down in the ranks of
paid bureaucrats you went, the more CPers there were. Of course, this
legacy was dwindling by the 1980's - as was the CP, and as were the
unions. But it was still true at the time of the events in question.

I suggest you read any history of the labor movement you want. Pay
close attention to the chapters of the expulsions of the UE, ILWU
etc. from the CIO.  Or ask anyone who was an active member of the
unions on the West Coast. I was for many years, and I worked closely
with many CPers, some of whom tried to recruit me. My knowledge of
what I say comes not only from the books, it comes from many years of
close involvment with the CP in California, with the unions there,
with the Peace and Freedom Party, and with the various protest
movements.

All the best, Anthony


--
Louis Proyect, lnp3@xxxxxxxxx on 06/13/2002

Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org



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