Re: moderator's note

[John Edmundson <jwe21@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't post much to this list, generally preferring to lurk about
reading other people's contributions but the brief reemergence of Joan
camer0n has prompted me to make a couple of comments, mainly because my
first thought as to write to her and advise her to calm down and ease
herself back onto the list, rather than restart her all out war.

I have to say that my immediate reaction on opening my mail and finding
about two digests full of nothing but cross postings by Joan Camer0n was
to cringe and think, has she no idea how to regain a place on this list?
I've disagreed with much of what Joan has posted in the past, and
probably agreed with a little. The kind of spamming (is that the correct
term?) that she's undertaken this time and last time she clumsily
sneaked onto the list under an assumed name is an abuse of its function.
However, I do strongly believe in Marx' principle that we ruthlessly
criticize every existing idea, and that does include indigenous
traditions. If a Ghanaian guy dies trying to prove the efficacy of a
bullet resistant spell, I would imagine that the Ghanaian left, such as
it is these days, probably tries to address these things itself, and
that's the appropriate place for that to happen.

I think Joan Camer0n's approach is over the top and not in the least
conducive to rational debate but I do think it should be acceptable, and
permissible, to discuss these things without being automatically deemed
a racist for doing so. I'm thinking here of other people who may be
afraid of raising something now for fear of being denounced and thrown
off the list too. I consider female genital mutilation to be pretty
abhorrent for example, but I don't think that makes me a racist.
Instead, I look at the kind of developments that occurred in Burkina
Faso under Thomas Sankara, and which I believe endured for some time at
least after the counter revolution there (I don't know where that's at
more recently) to see how a genuinely progressive movement can address
this sort of thing itself by being on the ground and in touch with the
real people, both the practitioners and victims of the practice.

I'm sorry Stan Goff has unsubbed in protest, I appreciate reading his
contributions (and agree with some of them) and I hope re resubs. His
contribution, especially his insights into military thinking, are
invaluable. I don't believe he has been here long enough to have
witnessed the whole sorry saga of Joan Camer0n, so hopefully he'll come
back soon.
Cheers,
John Edmundson


~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.