Revolution #004, May 29, 2005, posted at revcom.us
Rick Del Vecchio's review of Bob Avakian's memoir in the San Francisco Chronicle had a big impact in the Bay Area, letting tens of thousands know about the book and about the significance and drama of Bob Avakian's life. But there were some who were very upset that such a review had appeared in a mainstream newspaper.
"SF Chronicle Digs Communism" was the title on an item on the Little Green Footballs web log—as if the Chronicle had suddenly turned pro-communist because it published a favorable review of a book by a communist revolutionary. This blog, known as LGF, is not some fringe operation (though it certainly is rabidly reactionary—it calls Rachel Corrie, the internationalist peace activist who was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer while protesting the destruction of a Palestinian home, "Rachel Pancake"). Run by California web designer Charles Johnson, LGF was voted "Best International Blog" in an poll by the Washington Post in November 2004. And it was one of main forces that behind the right-wing offensive that led to the ouster of CBS News anchor Dan Rather after a controversy over a new story about Bush's National Guard record during the Vietnam War.
Similar attack pieces appeared in the website of the Cal Patriot , which publishes a right-wing newspaper at UC Berkeley, and the (so-called) American Thinker . These Internet postings aimed to mobilize their right-wing base in a email and letter campaign against the Chronicle and DelVecchio—and to threaten others in the media. Such threats are part of these times—when the President's spokesman tells those in the media to "watch what you say" and when journalists and academics are coming under serious fire for not blindly towing the ever-more-radically-conservative line.
Marc Cooper, a writer for the social-democratic weekly The Nation , has joined these right-wing publications in their attack. On his blog, Cooper posted a name-calling, low-level, substance-less attack on Del Vecchio (calling him a "dope") and on Bob Avakian (calling him a "head-case," a "cult- leader," and a "whackjob"). Cooper's online articler ends with this suggestion: "Fire the guy at the Chronicle and hire this civilian." (Cooper was referring to someone who wrote a review attacking Avakian's memoir on amazon.com.) Discussion on this topic on Cooper's blog site was directed at anyone who has publicly recommended that others read Avakian's memoir, including Cornell West and Howard Zinn, who had written blurbs that appear on the book jacket.
Writing in her online blog, Sunsara Taylor responded to Cooper:
"Why should people who write the kind of low-level ad-hominim attacks Cooper did here have any credibility among progressive people? Cooper himself can't answer the substance in what Avakian has to say and he doesn't want anyone else to even look into it.
"Cooper assails Rick DelVecchio for his `yawning ignorance of the subject about which he so blithely writes.' The trouble with this argument is that DelVecchio clearly did read From Ike to Mao and Beyond and demonstrates an accurate, sweeping and even poetic grasp of its contents, while Cooper demonstrates nothing but prideful and glaring ignorance of the book's contents..
"Cooper's snide, proof-texting, uncritical approach not only prevents people from learning anything new about the world, it also conforms to the `unthinkingness' of the times being demanded by those with the power. He is aligning himself with aggressive measures to cleanse the discourse in America of everything oppositional and revolutionary."
In a widely distributed e-mail, several of the honorary hosts of the Berkeley book launching wrote: "These attacks require a sharp rebuke. We cannot let mobilization of their minions bombarding the Chronicle with emails and letters attacking the review and the reporter who wrote it [to go on] without a strong, effective response."