Re: The Leo Casey anti-Cuba statement with updated - - 4/16 -- signatories

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hunter Gray wrote:
> Note by Hunterbear:
>
> Sent out by Leo Casey on Wednesday, April 16, 2003. I'm forwarding it on,
> with these brief comments of mine, to the full range of lists in my purview
> and to a number of individuals.  Note the signatories.
>
> He et al. now claim about 145 names. Contains the signatures of many
> ex-radicals, some well known. It's been sadly interesting and revealing to
> watch some people -- mostly DSAers -- try in torturous fashion to
> rationalize signing this by indicating in list discussions that they are
> still supportive of Cuba. But most others who've signed haven't even tried
> to do that.
>
> As we've noted before, the whole tenor of the Casey statement is essentially
> poisonous -- but the final sentence  puts its motives into brutally clear
> perspective: "By its actions, the Cuban state declares that it is not a
> government of the left, despite its claims of social progress in education
> and health care, but just one more dictatorship, concerned with maintaining
> its monopoly of power above all else."
>
> As I noted, too, the other day, I occasionally hear hints of DSA rumors
> about hoped-for mergers of other Left groups into it. "Wallowing in poison
> ivy" was -- and is -- my term for what'll happen  to any committed radical
> who wanders into a great big piece of DSA.  Keep your canoes out of those
> Everglades.
>
> Hunterbear --  DSA [25 years a member], Solidarity, CCDS, SPUSA
>
> ==============================================================
> Below is the statement, with an updated list of signatories. If you wish to
> add your name, e-mail LeoCasey@xxxxxxxx
>
> We are women and men of the democratic left, united by our commitment to
> human rights, democratic government and social justice, in our own nations
> and around the world. 


Thanks for passing this on, Hunter. Just some comments on various 
signatories.

> Theresa Alt
> Eric Alterman

as expected

> Ayaz Ahmed
> David Anderson
> Kevin Anderson

A News and Letters leader, as is Peter Hudis below. This is a small 
group that was inspired by Raya Dunayevskaya, who was "Forrest" to CLR 
James's "Johnson" when they were in the Trotskyist movement. They are 
bitterly hostile to all the governments that have come under the 
imperialist gun for the past 20 years or so, from Serbia to Cuba to 
Iraq. I don't think they have an analysis of imperialism, but tend to 
put all 'capitalist' states, including Cuba, on the same plane. 
Disgraceful, in my opinion.

> Stanley Aronowitz

$150,000 per year CUNY professor and DSA leader.

> Tony Avirgan

A bit of a surprise. He and his wife Martha Honey were involved with the 
Christic Institute in the 1980s which posited a 'secret team' that had 
subverted the constitution in the war against Nicaragua. I guess the 
nearly mighty have fallen.

> Margot Backus
> Sanda Balaban
> Ike Balbus
> Ivan Baxter
> David Bensman
> Marshall Berman

CCNY professor and author of "All That Is Solid Melts into Air", a 
highly regarded book that I have reached the age of 58 without having 
read. I have survived this.

> Michael Bérubé

Frenetic State Department liberalism.

> Asatar Bair
> Ken Brociner
> Dan Brook
> Ricardo Brown
> Wendy Brown
> Wayles Browne
> Chaz Bufe
> Eamonn Callan
> Lorenzo Canizares
> Leo Casey

Semiprofessional redbaiter.

> Aaron Cohen
> Marc Cooper

as expected.

> Francesco D'Alessandro
> Lennard Davis
> Bogdan Denitch

Blowhard Serbophobe whose interventions into the Balkans were funded by 
George Soros. CCNY professor and DSA bigwig.

> Bill Dixon
> Mark Dow
> Mel Dubofsky
> Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema
> Taner Edis
> Itzhak Epstein
> Stuart Elliot
> Victoria Elliott
> Andy English
> Miriam Erlich
> Gertrude Ezorsky
> Hampton Fancher
> Michelle Fine
> Barry Finger

3rd camp Draperite on editorial board of "New Politics"

> Joyce Fitzgerald
> Nancy Fraser
> Adil Hajjoubi
> David Garrow
> Joyce Gelb
> Todd Gitlin

as expected

> Peter Goodman
> Andrew Hagen
> Andrew Hammer
> Patrick Nielsen Hayden
> Richard Healey
> Michael Hirsch
> Peter Hudis
> James Hughes
> Maurice Isserman

Writes honest history books about the CP. Must have gotten up on the 
wrong side of the bed.

> Doug Ireland

Liberal journalist who used to work for the Village Voice. Guess he 
picked up some fleas there.

> David Jacobs
> Alan Johnson
> Ira Katznelson
> Michael Kazin

Dissent editor and ultra-Zionist.

> Harvey Kaye
> Gary Kent
> Michael Kircher
> Eric Kirk
> Gary Kinsman
> Peter Kosenko
> Magali Sarfatti Larson
> Lee Levin
> Jeffrey Levine
> Mark Levinson

Makes very good high-end audio products. Not sure why he is here. ;-)

> Ernie Lieberman
> Ann Lieberman
> Melvin Little
> Chris Lowe
> Josh Lukin
> Anora Mahmudova
> John G. Mason
> Marvin and Betty Mandell
> Shannon McLeod
> R. Miles Mendenhall
> Mark Crispin Miller

Wrote good exposes on the bourgeois media. Obviously makes an exception 
for lies about Cuba.

> Cary Nathenson
> Nathan Newman
> Rafael PiRoman

This is a howler. PiRoman is a PBS reporter with no connections to the 
left. The other day I watched him with a panel of experts discussing 
Iraq. His hostility to anybody questioning Bush's lies was palpable.

> Maxine Phillips
> David Plotke
> Stephen Plowden
> Katha Pollitt

another Nation Magazine figure. I guess they are operating on some kind 
of democratic centralism basis.

> Danny Postel
> Samantha Power

Executive Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at 
Harvard. Michael Ignatieff is director.

> Adam Przeworski
> Michael Pugliese
> Peter Reardon
> Matthew Rothschild

Editor of the inaptly named Progressive.

> Joel Rogers
> Michele L. Rossi
> John Sanbonmatsu
> Anders Schneiderman
> Joseph M. Schwartz
> Jason Schulman
> Michael H. Shuman
> Timothy Sears
> Mark Seddon
> David Norman Smith
> John Soldini
> Clifford Staples
> Judith Stein
> Paul Thomas
> Daniel Walkowitz
> David Walls
> Bert Wand
> Peter Waterman
> Luke Weiger
> D. Langlois Williams
> Ian Williams

This idiot spoke at the last SSC conference in a panel on George Orwell. 
He seemed half-drunk. He told "us leftists" that we would eat our words 
after we saw how Saddam Hussein would use WMD's. I am still waiting.

> Ellen Willis

Midge Decter to Stanley Aronowitz's Norman Podhoretz.

> Reginald Wilson
> Elisabeth Young-Bruehl
> Robert H. Zieger


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