RE: [Marxism] RE: Moderator's note

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

Chris Brady wrote:


The National Alliance Party in Canada is awfully hardcore reactionary. Even the 
old blue Conservatives find them "slightly off" (as Canadians seem prone to 
understatement). They are most strong in Alberta, where, fittingly, there's oil.


Response Jim C: Yes, this is the group to which I was referring and thought 
that it was also the group to which Les Evenchick was referring. The group in 
Portland to which he alludes, the so-called "Strasserites" (from Gregor 
Strasser, high-up in the S.A. later purged by Hitler and who espoused--along 
with Goebbels earlier--a kind of pseudo "left" fascism with pseudo "leftist" 
rhetoric designed to bring in certain lumpenproletariat and declassed workers 
whose social positions made them "instinctively" anti-capitalist and 
anti-Prussian "aristocracy") is not tied-in with the Alliance Party in Canada 
to my knowledge and the Alliance forces would never take an openly 
"Strasserite" or even fascist position even with some of those tendencies and 
tactics in common with some elements of the Portland-based group (who basically 
issue pronouncements of their vanguardism and meet in their post office box and 
have faction fights--sound like any groups we know of on the left?) 

The so-called "National Alliance" or "Alliance Party" in Canada came out of the 
previous "Reform" Party which came out of elements associated with "prairie 
populism", technocracy, so-called "wise-use" elements, anti-Indians and 
small-scale farmers losing their farms and ways of life. They do employ some 
nominally "anti-big-business", "anti-Americanism" national chauvinism and 
"anti-capitalism" (not capitalism in general but only certain versions, forms 
and levels of it) and they have been known--like the nazis--to wear different 
masks and employ different rhetoric depending upon the types and levels of 
education/sophistication of the audiences. They are strongest in the prairie 
provinces and in northern British Columbia. I have heard from Elders at the 
Bella Bella, Carrier and Lil'Wat Reserves in northern B.C. that elements of the 
Reform Party, and later Alliance, have been involved with biker gangs (as shock 
troops and dope distributors) in northern B.C. and with anti-Indian and 
anti-Treaty types in Canada and the U.S.

These creatures approached some of our Blackfoot (the ones who like to 
freelance and do self-promotion) to offer an alliance with them against the 
Tories, Liberals and NDP. With a couple of exceptions, they were rebuffed 
immediately and told to fuck off.

But this does illustrate something about cyber "warfare/activism". There is 
often so much certainty on issues or about conditions and struggles about which 
we have little direct experience and evidence and about which there are serious 
and very divergent points of view among activists with some serious experience 
and "credentials" as activists. For example, from Jeffrey St. Clair in 
Counterpunch:


Stolen Trust 
Gale Norton, Native Americans and the Case of the Missing $10 Billion
by Jeffrey St. Clair

Elouise Cobell comes right to the point. "Gale Norton should be thrown in 
jail." Cobell is a leader of the Blackfeet tribe, and lives along the Rocky 
Mountain Front in northwestern Montana. Norton, of course, is secretary of the 
interior and, as such, oversees the US government's relationship with Indian 
tribes.

Response (Jim C): Total bullshit. Cobell was once Treasurer of the Blackfeet 
(Amskaapipiikani) Tribe in Browning where, according to the most respected and 
knowledgeable Elders at Browning she helped to loot the tribal treasury and act 
as a right-hand-joe-girl for Tribal Chairman (for over 45 years) Earl Old 
Person considered on of the most corrupt Tribal Chairman the Blackfeet have 
ever had to suffer--and a darling of the BIA who helped him to pull off a 
recent coup deposing the duly elected--for the first time in a long 
time--Tribal Chairman Allen Talks About. Further, according to Elders at 
Browning who know the place very well (as do I as I live there and go there 
often)
Cobell's husband is a major dope dealer at Browning, the Elders have made the 
FBI and BIA well aware of it, and for some reason, despite the BIA supposedly 
heating ol Elouise, no one has moved against her husband.

[snip]

The case begin in 1996 when Cobell, who has been called the Rosa Parks of 
Indian Country, filed a federal class action suit against the Interior 
Department, seeking both money that's been owed to Indian people and a radical 
change in how the trust fund is managed. Six years later, the case now stands 
as the largest class action suit in history, with more than 500,000 claimants. 
And, as it wound its way through the courts, it has tarnished two 
administrations and exposed the continuing war on Indian people by the federal 
government.

Response (Jim C): Whomever called Elouise Cobell the "Rosa Parks" of Indian 
Country, a) does not know Indian Country; b) does not know Elouise Cobell; c) 
has never been to Browning and talked with diverse voices there; d) has just 
slandered Rosa Parks. This is what happens when amateurs play with issues and 
talk about places and people they know nothing about--and worse, dress it up as 
some kind of "leftist" analysis.

"We're not after money from the government," Cobell says. "The government has 
taken money that belongs to us."

Response (Jim C): Tribal corruption, known about and aided and abetted by the 
Feds and State governments, is one of the main tentacles and instruments of 
genocide--and sources of theft of "owed monies". In this regard, ol Elouise and 
her cohorts have been in the thick of it--all the time as darlings of the BIA. 
What has happened Indian Country is that due to fiscal crises and other factors 
the BIA and U.S. Government have cut loose their old whores and 
toadies--traitors--and now these types are attempting to play at being 
"Traditionals" and play at anti-BIA/U.S. Government "activism" hoping that Rez 
members will forget their years of whoring, selling out, and outright betrayal 
of what they dare to call their own "blood" and own "Tribe".

[snip]

"This scandal makes Enron look like a pimple," Cobell says. "It's worse than 
Enron, because it's the government that is lying, covering up and breaching its 
trust. They stole people's entire life savings. They robbed an entire race of 
people. If banks had ripped off white people, they'd be shut down in a New York 
second and everybody responsible would go to jail."

Response (Jim C): Shere fucking hypocrisy. She is merely describing herself and 
what she and her kind have been doing for years--known about and aided and 
abetted by FBI/BIA/Interior/Montana State Government/Head Start/. And yes a 
whole lot of white people--and others--have been ripped off by banks (including 
the so-called "Blackfeet National Bank changed to Native American Nation Bank 
where Elouise Cobell was Director and drove it into the red) without anyone 
going to jail. Here she is just pandering to some anti-white sentiments among 
some Blackfeet while this woman has always been a darling of some of those same 
"white" (and corrupt nominally Indian) interests. Jeffrey St. Clair simply does 
not know what the fuck he is writing about and is doing damage with his 
ignorance wrapped up in so much summary assertion and certainty on his part.

[snip]


Cobell won't be so easy to get rid of. In the past, government officials have 
always counted on the poverty of Indian people as they trample over their 
rights with near impunity. But Cobell is a creative businesswoman and a master 
fundraiser. So far she has raised $9 million for the trust lawsuit from private 
sources and foundations, notably the Lannan Fund of New Mexico, which 
contributed $2 million to the cause.

Response (Jim C): Yes, Elouise is quite a "creative" fund raiser--for herself 
and her cronies. She got a whole host of grants (like the MacArthur "Genius 
Grant" for $350,000) on the basis of recommendations from BIA types, Interior 
types, being in the rolodexes of lazy, sloppy and dilettante "journalists" like 
St. Clair and being on a host of committees that have done nothing and produced 
nothing. Her actual standing in Browning (she has an office located next to a 
Blackfeet Café owned by my relations) is not anything like what St. Clair is 
giving off.



She'll probably need every penny, because there's no indication that the Bush 
administration is backing down. "The government is going to fight this no 
matter what, even if it's morally, legally or ethically in the wrong," Cobell 
says. "That's a real country in itself." That's just the way things go in 
Indian country.

But Cobell also sees the litigation has having served to unite the tribes in a 
common front. "I actually see it as a miracle," Cobell says. "I've never seen 
tribes come together and work so hard." 


Response (Jim C): The only "common front" is among some members of various 
Tribal Councils that have looted their respective Tribes, are deeply in the red 
and are looking to this lawsuit to produce settlements for paying back IIM 
(Individual Indian Money) accounts that will then be deposited in bogus 
institutions like the so-called "Native American National Bank" (in which 
Cobell is still heavily involved) to produce future cash flows for the same 
corrupt ones that have looted the Tribal treasuries. It is obvious that St. 
Clair has never been to Browning, I wonder if he even talked with Cobell 
herself. But there is a lesson in all of this: Don't be so certain, summary and 
vehement--or play with--issues about which one really knows very little and 
from only one analytical angle.

Jim C.


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