Today's
Stories
April 27, 2006
Jose Pertierra
Honor and Injustice:the Case of
the Cuban Five
April 26,2006
Robin Philpot
The Rich Life of Jane Jacobs
Sherry Wolf
Democrats, Their Apologists and Abortion:
the Jig is Up
Pratyush Chandra
Nepal: a Saga of Compromise and Struggle
Joshua Frank
Zig-Zagging Through the War With John
Kerry
Gary
Leupp
The Neo-Cons and Iran: No Negotiations
Bill
Quigley
Katrina: Eight Months Later
April
25, 2006
Paul
Craig Roberts
The World is Uniting Against the Bush Imperium
Linda
S. Heard
Is the US Waging Israel's Wars?: the Prophecy of Oded Yinon
Ralph
Nader
Political Science: Gingrich, "Futurism" and the Abolition
of the OTA
Mike
Whitney
Preparing for the Economic Typhoon
Michael
Donnelly
Lutherans Betray Michigan's Loon Lake Wetlands for Pieces of Silver
Sharon
Smith
Breathing New Life Into May Day
Website
of the Day
SDS Ver. 2
April
24, 2006
Tim
Wise
What Kind of Card is Race?
John
Stanton
Strike Iran, Watch Pakistan and Turkey Fall
Dave
Lindorff
Dangerous Times Ahead
Steve
Shore
Berlusconi Defeated: The Long Wait is Over ... Or Is It?
Amadou
Deme
Hotel Rwanda: Setting the Record Straight
Mickey
Z.
15 Minutes of Radical Fame: America Meets Bill Blum and Ward Churchill
Ralph Nader
Lee
Raymond's Unconscionable Platinum Parachute
Alexander
Cockburn
Obama's Game
Website
of the Day
Too Stupid to Be President?
April
22/23, 2006
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The General, GM and the Stryker
Jeff
Halper
SUMUD vs. Apartheid: the Elections in Palestine and Israel
Jeff
Klein
How to Manufacture a War Criminal: Saddam and Me, a True Story
Thomas
P. Healy
Out Now: an Interview with Anthony Arnove
David
Underhill
Stuck in Mobile with the Rev. Graham Blues Again
Lee
Sustar
"We are Going to Keep Marching": an Interview with Immigrant
Rights Organizer Martín Unzueta
Deb
Reich
The Little Mermaid on Highway Six: Rooting for Ordinary Israelis
to Wake Up
John
Chuckman
America's Gulag: Purge at the CIA
Fred
Gardner
More Suppression of Marijuana Research
Julian
Edney
Can Our Economy Run Without Fear?
Seth
Sandronsky
The GOP and California's Levees
Brynne
Keith-Jennings
The Meddlesome Ambassador Trivelli: Undermining Democracy in Nicaragua
Dave
Lindorff
Where are the Frogs?
Catherine
Ann Cullen and Harry Browne
Springsteen Polishes His Roots: First Impressions of "We Shall
Overcome"
Bill
Pahnelas
Bush Passes the Buck on Soaring Gas Prices
Jim
French
Time to Overhaul US Farm Policy
Ron
Jacobs
"I Know I'm Not Dreaming, Because I Can't Sleep Any More"
David
Krieger
The Courage of Sophie Scholl: Resisting Hitler
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets'
Basement
Buknatski, Engel and Ford
Website
of the Weekend
Eye of the Storm
April
21, 2006
Jonathan
Cook
The Sinister Meaning of Olmert's "Hitkansut":
Deporting Hamas MPs
Lawrence
R. Velvel
Physical Courage, Moral Courage and American
Generals
Evelyn
Pringle
How to Out a CIA Agent
Christopher
Brauchli
The Rich are Different
Pratyush
Chandra
Pure-and-Simple Revolutions in Nepal and Venezuela
Michael
George Smith
This is What a Movement Looks Like
Missy
Comley Beattie
Serving at the Decider's Pleasure
Sarah
Hines
The Bracero Program: 1942-1964
Website
of the Day
Hunger Strike at U. of Miami
April 20, 2006
Chris
Kutalik
As Crisis Deepens, Is Labor Finally
Showing Signs of a Comeback?
Gary Leupp
Cheney, the Neocons and China
Joshua
Frank
Stop the War! Dump the Democrats!
Diane Christian
The Authority to Kill
William
S. Lind
Sweeping Up: the Real Problem Wasn't
the Execution of the War, But the Enterprise Itself
Ramzy
Baroud
A Case for the Palestinan Government
Justin
E.H. Smith
Doctors and Lethal Injection
April 19, 2006
P. Sainath
More Kids? Pay More for Your Water
Norman
Solomon
When Diplomacy Means War: Bait-and-Switch
on Iran
Anthony Papa
When Justice Isn't Blind: Double Standards
for the Rich and Poor in New York
Mike
Ferner
Movement Blues
Stanley Heller
The Massacre at Qana, 10 Years Later:
Still No Justice
Rifundazione
"We Defeated Berlusconi"
Christopher
Reed
Secrets of the Garden of Bliss
Alexander
Cockburn
The Pulitzer Farce
Website of
the Day
Bunker
Busters: the Movie
April 18, 2006
Paul Craig Roberts
How Safe is Your Job?
Eric
Wingerter
Washington Post vs. Venezuela
Juan Santos
What Immigrants Need to Learn from
the Black Civil Rights Movement
Greg
Weiher
The Zarqawi Gambit Revisited
Sam Bahour
Is Hamas Being Forced to Collapse?
Behzad
Yaghmaian
In the Gaze of New Orleans
Website of
the Day
The
FBI and the Jack Anderson Files
April 17, 2006
Kevin Zeese
An Interview with the First Arab-American
Senator: Jim Abourezk on Bush's Lies and the Dems' Complicity
Uri Avnery
Olmert the Fox
Norman Solomon
Why Won't Moveon.Org Oppose the Bombing
of Iran?
John Ross
A Real Day Without Mexicans?
Laila al-Haddad
The Earth is Closing in on Us: Dispatch
from Gaza
Jeffrey Blankfort
A Tale of Two Members of Congress
and the Capitol Hill Police
Website of the Day
Dixie
Chicks: Not Ready to Back Down
April
15 / 16, 2006
Jeffrey
St. Clair
How Star Wars Came to the Arctic
Ralph
Nader
Remembering Rev. William Sloan Coffin
Thaddeus
Hoffmeister
The Ghost of Shinseki: the General Who Was Sent Out to Pasture for
Being Right
Kevin Prosen
/ Dave Zirin
Privilege Meets Protest at Duke
Thomas
P. Healy
Taking Care of What We've Been Given: a Conversation with Wendell
Berry
Kristoffer
Larsson
Are 40 Percent of All Swedes Anti-Semitic?: Anatomy of a Statistical
Flim-Flam
Fred
Gardner
Continuing Medical (Marijuana) Education
Edwin Krales
New York's Katrina: the Hidden Toll of AIDS Among Blacks and the
Poor
Brian
Cloughley
Don't Blitz Iran: Risking the Ultimate Blowback
John Holt
Walking Off Vietnam with Edward Abbey's Surrogate Son
Seth
Sandronsky
What Billionaires Mean By Education Reform: Oprah, Bill Gates and
the Privatization of Public Schools
Rafael Renteria
Making It Plain About New Orleans
Michael
Ortiz Hill
In the Ashes of Lament: an Easter Meditation
William A.
Cook
An Israel Accountability Act
Gideon
Levy
Shooting Nasarin: a Story About a Little Girl
Andrew Wimmer
Stopping the Bush Juggernaut: a New Citizens Campaign
Madis
Senner
Talking Points for Easter Weekend: Jesus Didn't Lie, Mr. Bush
Michael Kuehl
The Sex Police State: Women as "Rapists" and "Pedophiles"?
Mark
Scaramella
When Even God Can't Follow His Own Commandments: the Timeless Scarcasm
of Mark Twain
Nate Mezmer
187 Proof: Living and Dying Hip-Hop
Jesse
Walker
Playlist
Poets' Basement
Engel, Laymon and Subiet
Website
of the Weekend
Pink Serenades Bush
April
14, 2006
Col.
Dan Smith
Candor or Career?: Why Few Top Military Officials
Resign on Principle
Saul Landau
Ho Chi Minh City Moves On Without Regrets
Stan
Cox
The Real Death Tax
Kevin Zeese
Hersh vs. Bush on Iran: Who Would You Believe?
Brian
McKinlay
Bad Times for Bush's Buddies
Howard Meyers
Dwarves, Knives and Freedom: Bush, Jr. is No LBJ
Ishmael
Reed
The Colored Mind Doubles: How the Media Uses Blacks
to Chastize Blacks
Website of
the Day
Asshole: a Film Strip
April
13, 2006
CounterPunch
News Service
Powell's "Bitch"?
Norman
Solomon
The Lobby and the Bulldozer
Stanley Heller
Time to Shake Up the Peace Movement
Jeff
Birkenstein
Bush and Freedom of Speech
Evelyn J.
Pringle
Not So Fast, Mr. Powell
Michael
Donnelly
The Week the Bush Administration Fell Apart
Kamran Matin
Synergism of the Neo-Cons: What's Going On In Iran?
Website
of the Day
"Don't Be Afraid of the Neo-Cons"
April
12, 2006
Vijay Prashad
Resisting Fences
Alan
Maass
The Suicide of Anthony Soltero
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Insane First Strike Policy: If You Don't Want to Get Whacked,
You'd Better Get Your Nation a Nuke ... Fast
Ron
Jacobs
Resistance: the Remedy for Fear
Ramzy Baroud
The Imminent Decline of the American Empire?
Randall
Dodd
How a Wal-Mart Bank will Harm Consumers
Missy Comley
Beattie
The Boy President Who Cried "Wolf!"
P. Sainath
The Corporate Hijack of India's Water
Website of
the Day
"The System is Irretrievably Corrupt"
April
11, 2006
Al
Krebs
Corporate Agriculture's Dirty Little Secret: Immigration
and a History of Greed
Lawrence
R. Velvel
The Gang That Couldn't Leak Straight
Sonia Nettinin
Palestinian Health Care Conditions Under Israeli Occupation
Willliam
S. Lind
The Fourth Plague Hits the Pentagon: Generals as Private Contractors
Robert Ovetz
Endangered Species in a Can: the Disappearance of Big Fish
Pratyush
Chandra
Nepalis Say, "Ya Basta!"
Grant F.
Smith
The Bush Administration's Final Surprise?
Laray
Polk
Loud, Soft, Hard, Quiet: Marching Through Dallas for Immigrant Rights
Francis Boyle
O'Reilly and the Law of the Jungle: How to Beat a Bully on His Home
Turf
José
Pertierra
A Glimpse into the Mindset of Terrorists: Posada Carriles, Orlando
Bosch and the Downing of Cubana Flight 455
Website of
the Day
The Dead Emcee Scrolls
April
10, 2006
Ralph
Nader
Tinhorn Caesar and the Spineless Democrats
Heather Gray
Atlanta and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Uri
Avnery
The Big Wink
Joshua Frank
Big Greens and Beltway Politics: Betting on Losers
Seth
Sandronsky
Immigration and Occupations
Michael Leonardi
The Italian Elections: "Reality is No Longer Important"
Evelyn
Pringle
Did Bush Pull a Fast One on Fitzgerald?
Tom Kerr
FoxNews Does Ward Churchill
Lucinda
Marshall
The Lynching of Cynthia McKinney
Website of
the Day
Brown Berets
April
7 -9, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
If Only They'd Hissed Barack Obama
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Saga of Magnequench: Outsourcing US Missile
Technology to China
Patrick
Cockburn
The War Gets Grimmer Every Day
David Vest
The Rebuking and Scorning of Cynthia McKinney
Dave
Lindorff
The Impeachment Clock Just Clicked Forward
Gary Leupp
"Ideologies of Hatred:" What Did Condi Mean?
Elaine
Cassel
The Moussaoui Trial: What Kind of Justice is This?
Saul Landau
Vietnam Diary: Hue Without Rules
James
Ridgeway
"This is Betty Ong Calling": a Short Film
Ron Jacobs
Why Iran was Right to Refuse US Money
John
Walsh
Kerry Advocates Iraqization: Too Little, Too Late
Ramzy Baroud
The US Attitude Toward Hamas: Disturbing Parallels with Nicaragua
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush Finds Democracy Has Its Limits
Todd Chretien
What the Pentagon Budget Could Buy for America
Jonathan
Scott
Javelins at the Head of the Monolith
John Bomar
What They're Saying About Bush in Arkansas
Michele
Brand
Iran, the US and the EU
Ronan Sheehan
Remember When the Irish First Met the Chinese?
Mickey
Z.
Let Us Now Praise OIL
Don Monkerud
March of the Bunglers
Michael
Dickinson
The Rich Young Man: a Miracle Play
Website
of the Weekend
The Case Against Israel and Munich: Compare and Contrast
| April
27, 2006
You Can't Rely on Them Politically
Why Leftists Mistrust
Liberals
By ROBERT
JENSEN
Some
of my best friends are liberals. Really. But I have found it is
best not to rely on them politically.
Bashing the left to burnish credibility in mainstream circles is
a time-honored liberal move, a way of saying “I’m critical
of the excesses of the powerful, but not like those crazy lefties.”
For example, during a discussion of post-9/11 politics, I once heard
then-New York University professor (he has since moved to Columbia
University) Todd Gitlin position himself between the “hard
right” (such as people associated with the Bush administration)
and the “hard left” (such as Noam Chomsky and other
radical critics), implying an equivalence in the coherence or value
of analysis of each side. The only conclusion I could reach was
that Gitlin -- who is both a prolific writer and a former president
of Students for a Democratic Society -- either believed such a claim
about equivalence or said it for self-interested political purposes.
Neither interpretation is terribly flattering for Gitlin.
Perhaps more important than such cases are the ways in which liberals
can undermine the left even when claiming to be supportive in a
common cause.
The most recent example in my life came when a faculty colleague
at the University of Texas wrote about the controversy sparked by
the publication of David Horowitz’s tract about the alleged
threat radicals pose to universities, The Professors: The 101 Most
Dangerous Academics in America. The thesis of UT classics professor
Tom Palaima’s op/ed piece in the Austin daily paper was that
people typically don’t give students enough credit for their
ability to evaluate critically the statements of faculty members.
Palaima discussed me by name in his piece, believing he was coming
to the defense of faculty with dissident views who are being attacked
by Horowitz.
I saw it differently. My concern about this isn’t personal;
Palaima’s piece and Horowitz’s book have had no effect
on my professional life. But these attacks and our responses to
them have serious political and intellectual consequences more generally.
First, some definitional work: In the contemporary United States,
I use the term “left” or “radical” to identify
a political position that is anti-capitalist and anti-empire. Leftists
fight attempts to naturalize capitalism, rejecting the assertion
that such a brutal way to organize an economy is inevitable. Leftists
also reject the idea that the United States has the right to dominate
the world, refuting the assertion that we are uniquely benevolent
in our imperial project. Liberals typically decry the worst excesses
of capitalism and empire, but don’t critique the system at
a more basic level.
Palaima’s op/ed piece started by stating, “Jensen’s
classes have a political content” and that this led to a conservative
student group putting me on a “watch list” of professors
who inappropriately politicize the classroom. I teach about journalism
and politics; of course my courses have political content, as does
every course that deals with human affairs. The political views
of professors -- left, right or center -- shape their courses in
some ways. But by marking me as political, Palaima’s essay
implies others are not, or at least not political as my class (and,
by extension, the classes of other leftist professors).
Palaima goes on to refer to my “radical opinions,” suggesting
students are free to accept or reject them, and are capable of doing
so. I agree that students have, and exercise, that capacity. But
by labeling my teaching as the expression of opinions, he adds to
the perception that I, or any leftist, turn the classroom into a
political pulpit. While my opinions shape my teaching -- just as
Palaima’s and all professors’ opinions do, of course
-- I don’t simply teach my opinions. I teach a mix of facts,
analysis, and interpretation. When I offer students my own analysis
and interpretation, I support it with evidence and logic.
Remember that Horowitz’s claim is not just that some of us
have left-wing political views but that we inappropriately politicize
the classroom. Though Palaima doesn’t explicitly endorse that
charge, his defense of me seems to concede that point, as he goes
on to defend my teaching on the basis that there is a diversity
of views on campus. Yet no one -- the conservative student group
that targeted leftist professors, Horowitz, or Palaima -- has ever
offered evidence for the claim that I am inappropriate in the classroom.
I have always invited anyone who wants to make such a claim to come
watch me teach; I am confident I can defend my teaching methods.
Finally, near the end of his column, Palaima refers to “political
extremists, on the left and the right” in a way that could
easily lead readers to assume that he believes that “extremist”
is an appropriate description of me. Given that is a term typically
used in public discourse for violent factions (such as terrorists)
or groups with ideas outside acceptable discourse (such as neo-Nazis),
such casual use of it is irresponsible, further marking me as someone
who need not be taken seriously.
When I raised these issues with Palaima, I made it clear I didn’t
feel personally aggrieved but thought our disagreements mattered
if faculty members are to make a principled defense of the university
as a place where independent critical inquiry is valued. He contested
my reading and said he hadn’t intended people to read the
column the way I suggested they might.
I think the most likely reading of Palaima’s piece -- given
that many people’s existing ideas about leftists and universities
are negative -- is something like this: “Jensen is a radical
who injects his politics into the classroom, but we shouldn’t
worry too much about it because students can manage to see through
it, and besides other professors are teaching from a different perspective.
And oh, by the way, there are lots of sensible professors with less
extreme ideas, such as …”
My response here could be seen as taking on the wrong target. Should
I not be critiquing Horowitz before Palaima? Well, I have written
such a critique and debated Horowitz on radio and TV. But just as
important: In a political moment in which virtually every major
institution in the country is dominated not just by conservatives
but by reactionary right-wing ideologues, it’s easy to assume
that liberals and leftists should find common cause. Those of us
committed to left politics need to evaluate such cooperation on
a case-by-case basis rather than assume it is always the best path,
for several reasons.
First, in the short-term in this country it is difficult to see
possibilities for serious progressive political change. That’s
not defeatist but merely realistic. In such a period, when no mass
movement is likely to emerge, one important political task is to
consolidate a base of activists with common values and deeper commitments.
In such a process, making the distinctions between liberal and left
is crucial to the project of building a core radical contingent
that can be politically effective in the future.
Second, when leftists and liberals form least-common-denominator
coalitions, liberal positions dominate. There’s no history
of liberals moving to include left political ideas when right-wing
forces are chased from power. Think Bill Clinton, here.
That said, we in left/radical movements have made more than our
share of mistakes. It’s time for a period of serious critical
self-reflection about our analysis and organizing strategies. That
process is not going to be advanced by ignoring the differences
we have with liberals. We need to be clearer than ever about those
differences in thinking about the long term.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University
of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist
Resource Center http://thirdcoastactivist.org/.
He is the author of The Heart of Whiteness: Race, Racism, and White
Privilege and Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our
Humanity (both from City Lights Books). He can be reached at
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu .
|
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