RE: The Nation Magazine's tainted liberalism

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

The most urgent task for the left is to develop a
mass-circulation alternative to the Nation Magazine that relies on the
grass roots rather than liberal millionaires. Such alternatives are taking
shape right now with the Counterpunch web and print editions, but much more
is needed with the survival of the human race at stake.


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


Yes, absolutely true, and the "grass-roots" can only be found at the
"grass-roots". For example, Alexander Cockburn did a piece on an "uprising"
at the "Blackfeet" Reservation in Browning, Montana. In this piece, he
virtually touted Elouise Cobell as some kind of Joan D'Arc of the Blackfeet.
On virtually any piece on Browning, one will find Cobell's name. Why? One
reason is the old "rolodex syndrome" where lazy "journalists" with a looming
deadline need a quick source and "pithy quote" for their pieces so they pull
up the same names over and over. Another reason is detachment; it is so easy
to run the search engines, cut-and-paste and voila, a "radical" piece on
Indigenous issues and Peoples. Problem: Anyone who knows Browning and has
lived there knows that Elouise Cobell and her kind have no standing
whatsoever among the real Traditionals and radicals there. They know her
history of running the Blackfeet National Bank into virtual bankruptcy with
non-performing loans primarily to non-Blackfeet; they know that her husband
Turk Cobell is alleged by the insiders to be one of the biggest dope dealers
at Browning; they know she has been cutting deals with the
commonly-viewed-as-corrupt Tribal Chairman Earl Old Person for years.

So some asshole sits at his computer, does a little search and cut-and-paste
and cranks out an article that reveals not one iota of understanding of the
reality of the place and struggles he is purporting to write about. And with
his patent negligence and laziness, unwillingness to make even one phone
call to verify what he has lifted from bourgeois sources, he does more
damage to those really involved in serious struggles while touting a traitor
as an example of the best we have to offer in radical activism. This is so
typical.

One can only "know" the taste of a pear by biting into one. One can only
"know" and advance grass-roots" realities and struggles by being there and
participating in them.

Jim Craven

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