Michael Parenti on Chomsky, Zinn...etc.
Josh Dougherty
Parenti takes a jab at Chomsky & Zinn as "pretend" leftists:
Audio of the interview, relevant section begins at approx 14:00
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=7139
Transcript:
(After discussion of recent Cuban crackdown, statements by Bush admin., and
US actions regarding Cuba)
Parenti: ..So, the Cubans do have a right to defend themselves. And, I'm
very sorry that people like Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn saw fit to sign
this petition condemning the Cuban government for putting on trial these
people who were working in collaboration with the US government to overthrow
the Cuban government
Interviewer: Can you give our listeners a little more background? I'm not
aware of this declaration you just mentioned...that Zinn signed....
Parenti: Well there was a petition circulated by a number of people who
pretend to be on the left, condemning the Cuban government for putting these
25(?) so-called dissidents in prison, putting them on trial and finding them
guilty of collaboration with the US government to subvert the Cuban
government. And this petition put these people in the best light, just
calling them "dissidents" and denounced the Cuban government for doing that.
A variety of people in the so-called Democratic Socialists of America also
signed that petition, as well as the luminaries I just mentioned.
Interviewer: What was their intention for signing that? What were they
trying to accomplish?
Parenti: Their intention is to give vent to the centrality of their
politics, to the heart and guts and soul of their politics, which is
anti-Communism. Of course they're against imperialism. Of course they're
against the big corporations. Of course they're against capitalism doing
all these things..some of them are anway. But their real passion is to be
fighting communism, the first trace of anything where people on the left
fight back using any kind of coercive power against the coercive power that
is being delivered upon them all the time. The first time that happens,
they're up in arms and signing petitions and denouncing other people on the
left as "Stalinists" and "Communists" and whatever else.
That is their cental passion and preoccupation. Some of them can't get five
minutes into a lecture without making denounciations of "Stalinism" and
Stalin. Stalin's been dead for half a century, but that has been for all
their lives and all their careers the centrality of their politics. And
that isn't the centrality of my politics. The centrality of my politics is
the search and the fight and the struggle for social justice, and to take
seriously the people that are running and ruining the world. These guys are
playing for keeps, and if we can't fight back against them, then forget
about it.
Inteviewer: (sounded baffled...changed the subject)
The petition in question:
http://home.igc.org/~jlandy/cpd/antiwar/cuba_stmt.html
Apparently, this petition has gotten little play. I remember seeing this
petition and Chomsky's signing it a few months ago, but it's was difficult
to actually find the actual petition through standard internet searches.
Josh
Jeffrey Ketland
>From a recent interview with Michale Parenti on the Flashpoints radio show,
>Parenti takes a jab at Chomsky & Zinn as "pretend" leftists:
>
>Audio of the interview, relevant section begins at approx 14:00
>http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=7139
>
>Transcript:
>(After discussion of recent Cuban crackdown, statements by Bush admin., and
>US actions regarding Cuba)
>
>Parenti: ..So, the Cubans do have a right to defend themselves. And, I'm
>very sorry that people like Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn saw fit to sign
>this petition condemning the Cuban government for putting on trial these
>people who were working in collaboration with the US government to
overthrow
>the Cuban government
[snip]
Josh:
>The petition in question:
>http://home.igc.org/~jlandy/cpd/antiwar/cuba_stmt.html
>Apparently, this petition has gotten little play. I remember seeing this
>petition and Chomsky's signing it a few months ago, but it's was difficult
>to actually find the actual petition through standard internet searches.
I signed the petition---defending the civil liberties of Cuban dissidents
and other individuals arrested in Cuba. There were Amnesty International
protests too at the Cuban crackdown. If I recall right, the petition is
associated with a group calling themselves "Campaign for Peace and
Democracy".
Obviously, one should take a stand against this sort of repression.
I think a letter describing it appeared in the Guardian (UK) around the same
time.
(Of course, Chomsky signed countless petitions defending the liberties of
Soviet dissidents too).
-- Jeff
Dan Clore
>
> From a recent interview with Michale Parenti on the Flashpoints radio show,
> Parenti takes a jab at Chomsky & Zinn as "pretend" leftists:
>
> Audio of the interview, relevant section begins at approx 14:00
> http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=7139
>
> Transcript:
[snip]
> Parenti: Their intention is to give vent to the centrality of their
> politics, to the heart and guts and soul of their politics, which is
> anti-Communism. Of course they're against imperialism. Of course they're
> against the big corporations. Of course they're against capitalism doing
> all these things..some of them are anway. But their real passion is to be
> fighting communism, the first trace of anything where people on the left
> fight back using any kind of coercive power against the coercive power that
> is being delivered upon them all the time. The first time that happens,
> they're up in arms and signing petitions and denouncing other people on the
> left as "Stalinists" and "Communists" and whatever else.
[snip]
That gets to the heart of the matter: whether the
application of "coercive power" is being used *against* an
initiation of "coercive power". No one disputes the right to
self-defense. That issue is addressed in the petition, so
there's not much to discuss.
--
Dan Clore
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