Marc Cooper lurches even further rightward

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Today Marc Cooper proudly announced on his blog 
(http://www.marccooper.com/) that he is being named advisory editor of a 
prowar journal called "Democratiya".

>>Announcing "Democratiya"

I'm happy to join in announcing the official birth of "Democratiya" -- a 
free bi-monthly online review of books. [www.Democratiya.com, but it is 
inaccessible at this moment].

I'm even happier to be among the advisory editors who are united in a 
belief that an internationalist Left has a crucial role to play in a 
troubled world.

Please take a read of this inaugural issue.<<

A fellow named "resistor" provided some commentary on the editorial company 
that Cooper will be keeping:

Alan Johnson is a Trotskyist apologist for the occupation, recently split 
from the Trotskyist-Zionist (yes there's one!) groupuscule the Alliance for 
Workers Liberty whose leader is the bizarre sectarian Sean Matgamna

90% of the Advisory Editors are supporters of the war on Iraq

A few examples

Dr David Hirsh, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Leads the campaign against boycotting Israeli universities - doesn't seem 
too bothered about the Palestinians though

Paul Anderson, City University, London
I've met him - admits working for the British Foreign Office, very pro-war

Jane Ashworth, Project Director, Engage
Another ex-AWL trot

Harry Barnes, Joint President, Labour Friends of Iraq
Naive MP formerly anti-war, now under the influence of Johnson and Ashworth

Nick Cohen, Journalist and Author
Rabidly pro-war and now in favour of elitist education - drinks like Hitchens

Linda Grant, Novelist and Journalist
wrote article for the Guardian promoting the Jabotinsky 'Iron Wall' 
solution for the Palestinians

Johann Hari, The Independent
very pro-war, once boasted in the Guardian that he'd slept with a nazi and 
a muslim fundamentalist

Christopher Hitchens, The New School, New York
Need I say any more?

Quintin Hoare, Director, The Bosnian Institute
Pro war in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo

Dr Marko Attila Hoare, The University of Cambridge
Pro war in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo - used to be allied to the lunatic 
Trotskist group the Workers Revolutioary Party

George Howarth MP
A nobody in british politics

John Lloyd, Editor, The Financial Times Magazine
A really nasty customer. Formerly a leading member of the British and Irish 
Communist Organisation who were ultra-Stalinist but supported the Unionists 
in Northern Ireland (nicknamed British and Irish Communist Orangemen) Lloyd 
appeared on BBC once defending discrimination againmst Catholics as they 
were 'disloyal'

Branka Maga?, The Bosnian Institute
Pro war in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo

Kenan Makiya, Brandeis University
Another Trot

Professor Martin Shaw, University of Sussex
Pro war in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo - best known for running a campaign 
against John Pilger

Francis Wheen, Journalist and Author
Mate of Hitchens - has no political credibility

Nice company you're in Marc

===

Apparently, Cooper is for democracy in Iraq but not on his own blog. When 
confronted by this powerful analysis of the forces behind this online 
journal, he advised resistor: "Resistor: rr time here is about up. Either 
use the space given you to make some interesting arguments or leave. thank 
you very muh. Im not going to pay bandwith for you to continually DENOUNCE 
all those who are not as pure as you. In any case, I'm sure you have little 
extra time seeing as how you need to be out there resisting."

The same exact processes that has led Hitchens to break with the left are 
now operating on Marc Cooper, who was Salvador Allende's translator and a 
fairly cogent left-liberal journalist for a number of years. The wars in 
Yugoslavia and Iraq have created enormous pressures on some liberal 
journalists who have to walk a professional tightrope. On one hand, they 
have to maintain some kind of credibility with the sort of person who reads 
the Nation Magazine. On the other, they are part of social milieu that 
tends to see things in terms of preserving the national interest of the 
United States. If this means pulling out of Iraq--eventually--because it 
leads to further instability, then they will support this position as do 
erstwhile supporters of the war like George Packer, who writes for the 
quintessentially yuppie publication, the New Yorker Magazine. On the other 
hand, if this means supporting the war to rid the world of 
"Islamofascists", they will take the route of Christopher Hitchens. Cooper 
appears poised to fall off the tightrope into Hitchens's side.

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