Borderline red baiting. And you seem so self satisfied, even proud, of having contributed to it. What a joke you are.
On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 12:44 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > (This is written by the NY Times reporter I spoke to a couple of weeks > ago.) > > NY Times September 22, 2013 > A Mayoral Hopeful Now, de Blasio Was Once a Young Leftist > By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ > > The scruffy young man who arrived in Nicaragua in 1988 stood out. > > He was tall and sometimes goofy, known for his ability to mimic a > goose’s honk. He spoke in long, meandering paragraphs, musing on > Franklin D. Roosevelt, Karl Marx and Bob Marley. He took painstaking > notes on encounters with farmers, doctors and revolutionary fighters. > > Bill de Blasio, then 26, went to Nicaragua to help distribute food and > medicine in the middle of a war between left and right. But he returned > with something else entirely: a vision of the possibilities of an > unfettered leftist government. > > As he seeks to become the next mayor of New York City, Mr. de Blasio, > the city’s public advocate, has spoken only occasionally about his time > as a fresh-faced idealist who opposed foreign wars, missile defense > systems and apartheid in the late 1980s and early 1990s. References to > his early activism have been omitted from his campaign Web site. > > But a review of hundreds of pages of records and more than two dozen > interviews suggest his time as a young activist was more influential in > shaping his ideology than previously known, and far more political than > typical humanitarian work. > > Mr. de Blasio, who studied Latin American politics at Columbia and was > conversational in Spanish, grew to be an admirer of Nicaragua’s ruling > Sandinista party, thrusting himself into one of the most polarizing > issues in American politics at the time. The Reagan administration > denounced the Sandinistas as tyrannical and Communist, while their > liberal backers argued that after years of dictatorship, they were > building a free society with broad access to education, land and health > care. > > Today, Mr. de Blasio is critical of the Sandinistas’ crackdown on > dissenters, but said he learned from his time trying to help the Central > American country. > > “My work was based on trying to create a more fair and inclusive world,” > he said in a recent interview. “I have an activist’s desire to improve > people’s lives.” > > Mr. de Blasio became an ardent supporter of the Nicaraguan > revolutionaries. He helped raise funds for the Sandinistas in New York > and subscribed to the party’s newspaper, Barricada, or Barricade. When > he was asked at a meeting in 1990 about his goals for society, he said > he was an advocate of “democratic socialism.” > > Now, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, describes himself as a progressive. He > has campaigned for mayor as a liberal firebrand who would set out to > reduce inequality in the city by offering more help to poor families and > asking wealthy residents to pay more in taxes. He said that seeing the > efforts of the Sandinistas up close strengthened his view that > government should protect and enhance the lives of the poor. > > “It was very affecting for me,” Mr. de Blasio said of his work with > Nicaraguans, in a recent interview. “They were in their own humble way, > in this small country, trying to figure out what would work better.” > > An Epiphany Abroad > > The roots of Mr. de Blasio’s progressive brand of politics lie in the > shadows of volcanoes, thousands of miles from the city he now hopes to > lead, at a decaying health clinic in Masaya, a small Nicaraguan city. > > Mr. de Blasio, bearded, gawky and cerebral, had arrived in the city as > part of a 10-day tour of Nicaragua in 1988, the capstone of the year he > spent as an employee of the Quixote Center, a social justice group in > Maryland. > > The center, founded by Catholic leaders, officially did not take sides > in the Nicaraguan dispute, though much of its aid went to help families > sympathetic to the Sandinistas. And its work was intensely political. > One of the center’s leaders once likened American efforts in Nicaragua > to a “policy of terrorism,” and its harshest critics accused it of > hewing to a Marxist agenda. In the mid-1980s, the Treasury Department > investigated whether the center had helped smuggle guns, but the claim > was never substantiated, and the group’s leaders said the inquiry was > politically motivated. > > At the time, gunshots and protest songs permeated the Nicaraguan air as > the Sandinistas waged war with the contras, a counterrevolutionary > movement backed by the United States. The Sandinista slogan declared, > “Free homeland or death!” > > American leaders feared that the Sandinistas, who received weapons from > the Soviet Union and supplies from Cuba, would set off a socialist > movement across Latin America. But the United States’ decision to > intervene in Nicaragua was unpopular, especially after it was revealed > that the Reagan administration had covertly financed the contra > rebellion, even after Congress had voted to cut off assistance to the > fighters. > > The involvement of the United States galvanized activists across the > country who saw parallels to Vietnam. Tens of thousands of Americans — > medical workers, religious volunteers, antiwar activists — flocked to > Nicaragua hoping to offset the effects of an economic embargo imposed by > the United States. Many were drawn to the idea of creating a new, more > egalitarian society. Critics, however, said they were gullible and had > romanticized their mission — more interested in undermining the efforts > of the Reagan administration than helping the poor. > > At the health clinic in Masaya, Mr. de Blasio had an epiphany, he > recalled. It came in the form of a map posted on the wall, which showed > the precise location of every family in town. The doctors used it as a > blueprint for door-to-door efforts to spread the word about the > importance of immunizations and hygiene. > > The idea was simple, but Mr. de Blasio saw it as a symbol of what a > robust government, extremely attuned to community needs, could achieve. > “There was something I took away from that — how hands-on government has > to be, how proactive, how connected to the people it must be,” he said. > > Overseeing Aid Efforts > > Communists, traitors, radicals: Many epithets were leveled against the > American supporters of the revolutionary Nicaraguan government. > > “The United States was doing something illegal and immoral, and our > struggle was to end that,” said Dolly Pomerleau, a founder of the > Quixote Center. > > In 1987, Mr. de Blasio was hired as a political organizer, soon after he > finished graduate school at Columbia, earning $12,000 a year. He worked > inside the Quixote Center’s Maryland office, converted apartments filled > with homegrown squash and peace posters. Hunched over his desk with a > phone to his ear — his colleagues likened him to “Big Bird with a beard” > — he oversaw efforts to solicit and ship millions of dollars in food, > clothing and supplies to Nicaragua. He also proved to be a skilled > provocateur, twice being arrested during rallies against United States > foreign policy that were held in the Washington area. > > It was not the first time Mr. de Blasio had dabbled in political > protest. Growing up in Cambridge, Mass., he had spoken out as a high > school student against the spread of nuclear power. As an undergraduate > at New York University, he was a co-founder of a coalition to push for > greater financial transparency and more student feedback at the school. > > Mr. de Blasio traces his idealism in part to his parents, who were both > intellectuals with activist streaks. His mother was a writer and union > member, and his father, an economist, had led an effort to push for > higher wages for maids as a student at Yale. > > His parents were shaken during World War II, when his mother, then > working at the Office of War Information in New York, was accused of > being a Communist for attending a concert featuring a Soviet band. > > Mr. de Blasio said his mother’s troubles left him with “a sense of not > being paralyzed in the face of injustice, not accepting a lie and being > scared because of the popularity of a lie.” > > Later, when his mother began to have doubts about her plan to write a > book about the Italian resistance, focused on themes of social upheaval, > it was Mr. de Blasio who made sure she finished it. > > Committed to a Cause > > After more than a year in the trenches at the Quixote Center, Mr. de > Blasio had begun to miss the round-the-clock rhythms and Italian food of > New York City. So he took a job in the city at a nonprofit organization > focused on an area he knew well — improving health care in Central > America — and, shortly thereafter, joined the mayoral campaign of David > N. Dinkins. > > His activism did not stop. In the cramped Lower Manhattan headquarters > of the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, where he > volunteered, Mr. de Blasio learned to cause a stir. He and a ragtag team > of peace activists, Democrats, Marxists and anarchists attempted to > bring attention to a Central American cause that, after the Sandinistas > lost power in a 1990 election, was fading from public view. “The > Nicaraguan struggle is our struggle,” said a poster designed by the group. > > The activists tried everything: brandishing George H. W. Bush masks on > subway cars, advertising parties to celebrate the Cuban revolution and > hawking subscriptions to the international edition of Barricada. (Mr. de > Blasio, who was living in a basement apartment in Astoria, Queens, was > one of the first to sign up.) > > Despite some debate over whether it should support only humanitarian > causes, the Nicaragua Solidarity Network held dances to benefit the > Sandinista party. “They gave a new definition to democracy,” Mr. de > Blasio told The New York Times in 1990 in an article about the wistful > reaction of American activists to the defeat of the Sandinistas. “They > built a democracy that was striving to be economic and political, that > pervaded all levels in society.” > > At a retreat later that year, members of the network were asked to > articulate their visions for society. One suggested a “real peace > movement,” according to minutes of the meeting. “Rewards for altruism,” > another said. Mr. de Blasio suggested “democratic socialism.” > > In a recent interview, Mr. de Blasio said his views then — and now — > represented a mix of admiration for European social democratic > movements, Mr. Roosevelt’s New Deal and liberation theology. > > Mr. de Blasio remained supportive of the Sandinistas, often referred to > by their acronym, F.S.L.N., even after they lost power. “People who had > shallow party sympathies with the F.S.L.N. pretty much dropped > everything when they lost,” said Jane Guskin, a fellow activist in the > solidarity group. “Bill wasn’t like that.” > > He has remained interested in Latin America — he even honeymooned in > Cuba (in violation of a United States travel ban). To this day, he > speaks admiringly of the Sandinistas’ campaign, noting advances in > literacy and health care. “They had a youthful energy and idealism mixed > with a human ability and practicality that was really inspirational,” he > said. > > But Mr. de Blasio said he was also not blind to the party’s > imperfections. He said the revolutionary leaders were “not free enough > by any stretch of the imagination,” pointing to their efforts to crack > down on dissent by shuttering newspapers and radio stations. > > A Shift in Focus > > By the beginning of 1990, Mr. de Blasio had a foot in two worlds — > government official by day, activist by night. > > He was becoming a part of the institution he had railed against — the > establishment — as a low-level aide to Mr. Dinkins in City Hall. On the > side, he helped raise funds for the Nicaragua Solidarity Network and > forge alliances between New York and Nicaraguan labor unions. > > Mr. de Blasio’s answering machine greetings in those days seemed to > reflect a search for meaning. Every few weeks, he recorded a new > message, incorporating a quote to reflect his mood — a passage from > classic literature, lyrics from a song or stanzas of a poem. > > Increasingly, he was distressed by what he saw as “timidity” in the > Democratic Party, as it moved to the political center in the dawning of > the Clinton era, and he thought the government should be doing more to > help low-income workers and maintain higher tax rates. > > In 1991, at one of his final meetings with the Nicaragua Solidarity > Network, he argued that the liberal values the group had defended were > “far from dead” around the world, with blossoming movements in places > like Mexico, the Philippines, El Salvador and Brazil, according to > minutes of the meeting. He spoke of a need to understand and build > alliances with Islam, predicting it would soon be a dominant force in > politics. > > Over time, he became more focused on his city job, and using the tools > of government to effect change. The answering machine messages stopped > changing. He no longer attended meetings about Nicaragua. > > His friends in the solidarity movement were puzzled. At a meeting early > in 1992, Mr. de Blasio was marked absent. A member scribbled a note next > to his name: “Must be running for office.” > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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