NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/alt/activism/d/4388

Text File | 1993-01-01 | 12.7 KB | 269 lines

Newsgroups: alt.activism.d
Path: sparky!uunet!nwnexus!odin
From: Hank Roth <[e-mail]>
Subject: REDBAITING on the nets
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Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 17:41:31 GMT
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REDBAITING ON THE NETS

On a Jewish (Fidonet) echo conference which I don't usual read
but which I accidently browsed I came across this very revealing
and personal diatribe against me. It was NOT a private exchange,
but was broadcasted very publicly for ALL to read on a public
echo conference so I have no compulsion against sharing it with
everyone to see how it demonstrates the paranoid "Jewish"
right-wing lunatic fringe and how they use "redbaiting" to
manipulate public opinion.

 ---------------------------Quoted as copied----------------------

From: Murray Kahl

To:   Y. Y. Hodakov

Subj: Re: URGENT



This fellow Hank Roth, a Jew, is from a different background
[than ARF] as
he is a communist,  despises all religions equally and does
        ~~~~~~~~~~  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
little except criticize Israel, posts full texts of PLO
              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
speeches, whines continually how Israel is mistreating the
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    ~~~~~~~~~~~
Arabs, every possible cliche you can possibly imagine.

~~~~~~~
He wants revolution to destroy the corrupt, capitalist system,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
and it is only a plot between the UN and the US to take
                 ~~~~
over and free the proletariat (sounds familiar), and
 worst part is that whenever possible he edits the material he
 has to post and deletes information, or refuses to answer
questions. One example is he posts many screens of text of a
                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
speech from one who hates Jews and Israel with every inch of
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
his soul, and all he would name him was an "observer" at this
UN meeting (I have mentioned this before). He didn't have the
courage to  say that the PLO has observer status and this was the
speech of a PLO official. If he doesn't post at least 10
                                                ~~~~~~~~
posts a day critisizing Israel,  American Jews, any Jews (he
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
has also attacked Chabad specifically) something is wrong. What
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
compounds this is that I have seen the same posts on other
areas in both Fidonet and the Internet and he has admitted that
                                                  ~~~~~~~~
he does this with a "group."

                     ~~~~~
I have never once seen him display the slightest sympathy for
                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jewish victims of terrorism (Toledano, Helena Rapp etc.), but
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
always tells us these sad stories of Arabs, and asks for
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sympathy, AND letters of protest to everyone imaginable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have offered to debate him many times, and a legal scholarly
debate on  areas such as the 4th Geneva Convention, but all
I see is his tuchas as he runs, and he claims he is an
                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
attorney with experience in International law.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----------------------<END of QUOTED TEXT>----------------------

[Kahl's [PUBLIC] scathing and irrational personal attack on me
speaks voluminously about his mental condition, his paranoia,
his chauvinism and very specificially his "redbaiting." -----HR]


Lately I have been the target of some very persistent
"redbaiting" from Murray Kahl, ET AL. The tactic is the same
whenever anyone challenges the dominent paradigm. It is part of
the right wing reality to fear change and to oppose dissent.

This "red-baiting," has been used by demagogues for years and
also by the innocent. It is a virtual reductio ad absurdum for
some [the innocent] to oppose distributional imbalances and at the
same time defend the established order. While exploitation of labor
is a form of injustice akin to theft, the labouring poor have in
spite of that been conservative, patriotic, religious and
subservient to the paternalism of power. And they are confused
and manipulated by "redbaiting."

It [redbaiting] has been part of our culture from the founding of
the United States.  Though there were no reds then, and
"redbaiting"  specificly began after the 1917 Russian Revolution,
but historically it had a parallel usage from the close of the
18th century to attack whoever was on the cutting edge of social
change.  Jeffersonian democrats were referred to pejoratively as
"Jacobins", to imply a guilty association with the most radical
wing of the French Revolution.

Prior to the Civil War, those who would advocate the abolishment
of slavery were likewise denounced by pro-slavery opponents as
"abolitionists", the term of opporobrium then.

"Anarchists" were the boogie men of the labor movement in the
1800s, those who helped and inspired unionism.

As long as we have injustice in society, there will be "baiting"
of one form or another. It is a preferred demagoguery of the
apologists for class oppression, for race oppression, ethnic and
sex oppression.

And this insideous "red-baiting" also serves to divert attention
from the issues and to manipulate public opinion. Our history is
replete with examples where "scapegoating" and "red-baiting" has
set back class struggle for justice.

But struggles have been successful also, for civil rights and
civil liberties; many of these battles won just in the last 40
to 50 years, but perhaps they could have been won in less time
if we opposed the baiting from the right.

It took 23 years to abolish the House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC). These irrational attacks on those who challenge
injustice by scapegoating and baiting them blunted the effect
of a real "free" market of ideas.

Attacks the peace movement, women's lib, union organizing and FBI
misuse of power has in part been possible by manipulating
public sentiment through baiting. There is today greater
awareness of these abuses of power by federal intelligence and
law enforcement agencies which are all a matter of public record.

We now know (from FBI files) that all areas of social activism
not only on the LEFT but also the center of the political
spectrum were the target of FBI scrutiny and surveillance. And we
now know these official "redbaiters" also carried out unlawful
and unconstitutional acts to disrupt, harass and even incite to
murder. In Greensboro, NC in 1979 five members of the Communist
Workers Party, (most were Jewish doctors) were murdered by the
Klan and COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) was implicated
by infiltrating the KLAN and fomenting the confrontation.

Some, like Kahl expect everyone to satisfy some kind of
politically right-wing correct litmus test as his incessant
inquisitorial tone would imply. And pragmatically, witch-hunters
historically have not and do not accept honest answers. What he
wants to hear and will not be satisfied until he hears is that I
[and my group, however they may be] are planning the violent
overthrow of the U.S. government. He won't accept anything less.
His arguments are too often extraneous to the subject matter and
consistently keeps coming back to this conspiracy theory of his,
and eluding to me and my "groups", which are all figments of a
very wild imagination.

"Redbaiting" is like a "political smear" and nothing new.  In
our time we have heard "liberals" besmirched and denigrated
It is a mechanism employed by those who fear change to discredit
those who attempt to bring change.

The baiting is an attempt to discredit by alleging a communist or
socialist association, and this has been the most common
political smear employed in the United States during this
century. We shouldn't forget that it's most evil and devastating
manifestation occurred during the "McCarthy period" of the
1950s, when a cloud of fear and suspicion hung over this entire
country.

These same people employ "terrorist-baiting" against the Arabs,
and especially against ALL Palestinians. To the baiter, there are
NO good Palestinians, none that can be trusted and all are
members of some terrorist organization. They do it with Muslems,
they do it with the Japanese and many of these baiters who are
NOT Jewish, bait the Jews. To some Christian and also anti-
Christian groups, Communism has always been a Jewish conspiracy
(Ask the Liberty Lobby.)

Lately we call those the government justifies targeting, like
Noriega, "drug dealers," used to justify an invasion. He was
baited by the social order in power in this country. No matter
that the CIA has dirty hands when it comes to drug involvement
and Noriega was our man in Panama. But the baiting was the
excuse.

The baiting was the reason the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, a
legislative product of the McCarthy era, and has been used by the
government since that time to deport foreign-born dissenters and
to deny entry to the U.S. to foreign visitors for political
reasons. It is "redbaiting" that kept them out. The law, by the
way was enacted over President Truman's veto, and bars Communists
[and others] whose it is believed by allowing them in might be
"prejudicial to the public interest."

Among the more publicized McCarran-Walter Act exclusions in
recent years are: Nino Pasti, a retired Italian Air Force General
who was barred for opposing American nuclear deployments in
Europe; Hortense Allende, the widow of Salvador Allende, the
former President of Chile assassinated in 1973 during a bloody
coup in which the CIA played a role; Four relatives of Salvadoran
political prisoners who were invited to receive a human rights
award in Washington, D.C.

In February, 1987 seven Palestinians with Jordanian passports,
and the African spouse of one of them, were rounded up, shackled
and jailed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, under
provisions of the McCarran Walter Act. Government prosecutors
were unable to present any evidence of violent or criminal acts,
and the immigration judge eventually freed them all on bail
despite the government's protests.

This renewed offensive by netters, who tend to the right anyway
[against peaceful dissent] is the logical extension of
the Reagan/Bush rhetoric which discredits through "red-baiting" and
"terrorist-baiting."

Much of the "red-baiting" and "terrorist-baiting" are the current
manifestations of a long line of scapegoating tactics employed by
persons who to some degree hold a conspiracy view of history.
Rather than deal with issues, they reduce debate to an
inquisition to ferret out some real or imagined connection
between the proponent of a viewpoint and some vague mysterious
conspiracy.  This obsession with conspiracies was described by
the late Professor Richard Hofstadter in his classic essay, "The
Paranoid Style in American Politics."

Hofstadter says that the political smear is a "paranoid style"
often aided and abetted by disinformation which emanates from
members of the government [of the social order] and it is the
hallmark of the authoritarian right-wing.

It is our democratic right to work for peaceful change.
Unfortunately "red-baiting" only diverts attention from the
substantive matters under discussion, and prevents the real
issues from being considered. There is no forum that is
appropriate for the irrationality of "redbaiting."

"Redbaiting" by Murray Kahl or anyone else is a breach of good
sense and belittles these conferences, and never tends to move a
discussion forward.

Any visceral, vitriolic attacks against conferees divert our
attention from the context of the discussion. I admit to falling
into that trap at times too, especially when I am responding to
someone who I perceive to be a bigot or demagogue. To some extent
that is a natural human frailty and because we are ALL [all of us
who think and talk] guilty at times, we need to try harder if we
are to have proper forums and some degree of `intellectual'
discourse.


                     Hank Roth