The Gus Hall Test
Gus Hall was the long-standing leader of the American Communist Party. It claimed to stand for the workers. In reality, it did more harm to workers than good. Its critics always alleged it was working for the Soviet Union. When the latter collapsed, documents were released showing this was the case - Gus Hall lived large on Moscow gold.
Even at the height of the Cold War, there were Americans prepared to support freedom of speech for Gus and his comrades. As Orval Etter, founder of the Pacifica Forum,
reminisces here
,
"The pinnacle of free speech came in 1963, when Arthur Flemming, the president of the University of Oregon and a well-known Republican, facing opposition from a broad spectrum of governmental and civic leaders, provided Gus Hall, head of the Communist Party USA, a platform to address a university convocation."
Now it's 2010, and the Pacifica Forum is holding out for academic freedom in the same university. How do Gus Hall's dwindling band of followers reciprocate? They stab us in the back:
Fraternal Greetings from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Workers must not, V.I. Lenin taught, present a "democratic screen" for reaction.
No Free Speech for Fascists!
"The so-called right to be a racist is a denial of the people's rights as a whole.
"These are 'rights' that perpetuate oppression.
"These are 'rights' that need not... be respected!"
(Jarvis Tyner,
New Forms of Racism
, 1976)
We must explain that fascism and "racism are an obstacle to working class unity."
(Henry Winston,
Class, Race and Black Liberation
)
Monopoly capitalists use fascism against the working class.
But it's "victory is not inevitable."
(Georgi Dimitrov,
The United Front
)
We stand in solidarity with your fight to Boot
Pacifica Forum
Off the Oregon Campus!
-- from the
Gus Hall Action Club
, Minnesota --
http://gushallactionclub.blogspot.com/
Home Page