[Marxism] Chip Berlet interview and the "Nader-Republican alliance"

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The 1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement was an alliance of all
tendencies on the Berkeley campus of the University of California
against university's attempt to prevent campus groups from advocating
off-campus actions that "might" be illegal. This was a period of civil
rights struggles in which there were several actions that won jobs for
African-Americans in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area. Sometimes
these actions lead to arrest and imprisonment. The university attempted
to prevent the fund-raising and organization of protests that might
lead to "illegal" activity. The students wanted to be treated as full
citizens and take their chances with the courts without "prior
restraint" or campus administration assertion of "in loco parentis" (in
place of the parent).

The Free Speech Movement won a great victory against the university's
attempt to institute prior restraint of speech. It was the first of
many victories in opening up the campuses throughout the U.S. from
repressive policies in all areas of campus political and social life.

The FSM alliance included groups from the extreme left to the extreme
right (of that day) including two student factions of the Republican
Party. There were both Scranton (Governor of Pennsylvania who had
campaigned against Goldwater for the Republican Party nomination) and
Goldwater student organizations. This broad alliance was one of the
great strengths of the student movement in the early 1960s and was an
important ingredient in the Berkeley student victory.

The Nader/Camejo campaign continues in that tradition. It is completely
legitimate to get aid from disparate political organizations in order
to pursue democratic rights. In the present election, it is the
Democratic Party that is playing a repressive role by using its legal
and financial muscle to exclude, divert, and weaken the Nader/Camejo
campaign. It is the Democratic Party that is using its economic,
political, and social power by demanding government action to repress
the Nader/Camejo campaign and the right of all Americans to vote for
them. This Democratic Party campaign is an essentially right-wing
attack against our civil rights, above all the right to participate in
elections in order to help determine our future within a more
democratic United States.

from Brian Shannon
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