[Marxism] Ottawa Citizen article on UCLA witch-hunt

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ottawa Citizen; Date:2006 Jan 21;
UCLA alumni group's campaign denounced as 'McCarthyism'
BY RANDY BOSWELL

         A distinguished Canadian scholar teaching at the
University of California in Los Angeles is at the centre of a
storm in American academia over a conservative alumni group's
campaign to pay a "bounty" to students who supply evidence of
professors promoting "radical" left-wing ideas in classrooms.
         Toronto-born cultural theorist Peter McLaren, an
award winning but controversial writer and lecturer in education
studies and Marxism, has been cast as the No. 1 villain on a list
of the university's "Dirty 30" professors compiled by alumni led
by the former head of the campus Republican party.
         Mr. McLaren has condemned the campaign as "McCarthyism,"
and three UCLA graduates - an ex-congressman and two prominent
professors - have quit the alumni group's advisory board in
protest over a tactic that has sparked a new debate about warring
ideologies in U.S. universities.
         UCLA chancellor Albert Carnesale has denounced the
campaign as "reprehensible."
         Andrew Jones, president of the Bruin Alumni Association,
has said the group is "dedicated to exposing UCLA's most radical
professors" for "actively proselytizing their extreme views in the
classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class
topic."
         The group recently announced a $100 U.S. reward for each
student who submits evidence of "one-sided" lecturing at the Los
Angeles university: "We are paying for top-quality class notes,
lecture recordings and other materials because volunteer labour
and Internet anecdotes do not provide solid proof of abusive
professor behaviour."
         Mr. McLaren, who teaches at the university's graduate
school of education, received his doctorate from the Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto
and has taught at Brock University and the University of British
Columbia.
         A former Toronto public school teacher, he is the author
of dozens of books and hundreds of academic articles highly
critical of the U.S. government and education systems of
capitalist countries.
         His ideas, frequently translated and published around the
world, are influential among international sociologists and are
often the subject of other scholars' writings.
         "He is an academic demi-god in Latin and Central America,
fêted by, among other states, the socialist regime of Venezuela's
Hugo Chavez," the alumni website states, adding that Mr. McLaren
is "arguably the premier critical pedagogy theorist living today."
         But the praise, as such, ends there.
         "Everything that flows from Peter McLaren's mouth and pen
is deeply, inextricably radical," the alumni group argues. "There
can be reasonable debate in assessing whether certain professors
operate from an entirely separate world-view. But there is no
question about McLaren's complete separation from normal thought."
         The Bruin site calls him a "monster" and notes that
"McLaren, in keeping with the radical left's identity politics,
has been a friend to the gay community."
         It also describes a photo that appears on Mr. McLaren's
UCLA homepage: "He stands before the camera expressionless, long
blond hair tousled just so, beady little sunglasses cloaking his
knowledge of the evil which lurks in the hearts of men."
         Mr. McLaren, currently on sabbatical in South America,
could not be reached for comment. But earlier this week he told
the Los Angeles Times that the alumni group's campaign was
"beneath contempt" and bound to backfire.
         "Any sober, concerned citizen would look at this and see
right through it as a reactionary form of McCarthyism," he said.
"Any decent American is going to see through this kind of
right-wing propaganda."
         Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom resigned from the
alumni group's advisory board, rejecting the targeting of leftwing
professors as unwarranted "vigilantism."
         Former Republican congressman James Rogan also quit the
board, telling the Times: "I am uncomfortable to say the least
with this tactic."

      Peter McLaren, left, shown with Nicaraguan revolutionary
Ernesto Cardenal, is at the top of an alumni list of UCLA's 'Dirty
30' professors. The Toronto-born professor, an award-winning but
controversial writer and lecturer in education studies and
Marxism, is described on the group's website as a 'monster' and
'in keeping with the radical left's identity politics, . a friend
to the gay community.'


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