Quoth hrearden:

> In Browne's book "How I found freedom in an unfree world" which was 
> published in the 70's if I recall correctly he did not seem to 
> advocate being involved in electoral politics. I could be wrong by I 
> seem to recall that being the case.

Not exactly. It's not that he _didn't advocate being involved_ in
electoral politics. It's that he _advocated not being involved_ in
electoral politics. For more than two decades prior to changing his
mind, affiliating with the LP and running for president, he urged
people to avoid "the politics trap" altogether, saying that no good
could come from being involved with the state in any way and that
therefore one should avoid it to the greatest degree possible.

> I do seem to recall reading 
> things writen by anarchists during Browne's runs for office criticle 
> of Browne and refering to Browne as a sell out because he was a 
> candidate.

I don't recall reading many "sellout" accusations per se, although
that would be an understandable reaction to a long-time, well-known
anarchist suddenly deciding to do electoral politics. Most of the
stuff I read circa 1994-96 by Harry's fellow anarchists was more in
the nature of "you were right, Harry! Take your own advice!"

Interestingly, he picked a great time to remake himself. Almost all of
the material by or about Harry on the Internet reflects his post-1994
career -- for the obvious reason that the Internet was just beginning
to "go public" in 1994 -- and references to his prior anarchist work
are sparse outside of side notes.

I hope that his estate will collect his earlier essays and articles
and publish them as a collection (perhaps with the finished portions
of the book he was working on when he died, _The War Racket_). I
suspect they will. It would be profitable (and knowing Harry, I think
a profit is the epitaph he'd want), and it would add to his stature.
As we can see, the Paul Irelands of the world are already trying to
diminish that stature by turning Harry into a two-dimensional,
cardboard-cutout caricature of 1/6th of his life.

Tom Knapp





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