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DOWN, PAT!
To The Editor:
Recently, it was reported that 4th District
U. S. Representative Pat Swindall (R.) stated
vociferous opposition to the Civil Rights
Restoration Act The Act was passed by
Congress and subsequently vetoed by President
Reagan.
Mr. Swindall says that private organizations
and employers should be able to discriminate
for whatever reason they wish. Apparently 'he
hasn't heard of such laws as the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
which have the overwhelming support of the
American people.
The Civil Rights Restoration Act simply
clarifies Congressional intent that if a program
receives federal funding and is found to have
violated federal anti-discrimination statutes, the
entire school, college or company will lose
funding.
Mr. Swindall has shown time and again his
blatant disregard for Civil Rights-especially
for lesbians and gay men. His attacks on us are
constant and pervasive. We must, as a
community acting in concert with others of like
minds, put an end to this kind of bigotry.
Register and vote. It counts!
Sincerely,
Bruce Rose
SNOOPY SAYS...
To the Editor:
Congratulations-a truly grand product and a
classy act Southern Voice is off to a very
good start and it lodes (and reads) as if the
collective efforts of many very talented and
knowledgeable individuals are producing a
publication that not only looks first rate, but
also has contenL.a pleasant surprise-form and
content
It was Charles Schulz-via his cartoon
character, Snoopy, that said that there is no
greater burden than great potential. Southern
Voice lias set quite a standard and from here on
out the real challenge is to neither imitate one's
self but rather, to continue to weigh and
consider.
I look forward to future publications,
commentary, sound reporting and the
application of information, ideas, education and
whimsy.
.Kudos to the Art Editor, S. Hill, or rather
Director-in any event, the work is good.
With warmest regards, I remain,
B. Serrano
San Luis Obispo, California
"The Other Side” of the
New Alliance Party
To the Editor
Congratulations on the publication of
Southern Voice; I know from experience how
difficult it is to produce a newspaper of this
* caliber and I applaud the efforts of you and
SAME.
I am concerned about the article in the last
issue "New Alliance Party/Questions Linger."
Though Ms. Jackson brought up some crucial
questions about this group, by asking Tammy
Weinstein (the NAP Coordinator for Georgia)
and other NAP members to answer the
questions, the view the article presents is one
sided. Serious concerns remain about NAP and
its reasons for approaching lesbian and gay
groups. The fact that $300,000 has beat
contributed by 17,000 individuals, is
frightening in light of their tactics and ethics.
I would like to suggest that people read a
detailed research report that identifies all its
sources, which was written three months ago
by Political Research Associates (an
independent research institute which collects
and disseminates information on right-wing
political groups and trends). It would be
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informative for anyone considering working
with the NAP, voting for Lenora Fulani (their
presidential candidate), or anyone interested in
their history, tactics and involvement with gay
and other groups: The report is "Clouds Blur
the Rainbow: the Other Side of the New
Alliance Party." PRA’s address is 678
Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 205, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 02139. The article includes
discussion of NAPs relationship with
LaRouche, NAP Organization, Newmanite
"Therapy" Centers, Political Opportunism, and
Support for Farrakhan, highlighted below:
NAP’s relationship with LaRouche
NAPs characterization of their relationship
with LaRouche is at best self-serving and at
worst largely fictional. Some ten percent of the
current NAP executive board are comprised of
people who were at one time under the political
leadership of LaRouche. NAP supporters
relentlessly misrepresent the nature of
LaRouche and their relationship with him, as
did Tammy Weinstein in Southern Voice,
March 15. While actual membership by New
Alliance Party executive board members may
have lasted a few months, the working alliance
lasted far longer. LaRouche's group (the
National Caucus of Labor Committees -
NCLC) has used homophobia and sexuality as
a weapon against internal dissent They have
collected and disseminated intelligence on
progressive groups, providing intelligence to
domestic and foreign government agencies.
This has been revealed in documents released
under the Freedom of Information Act NAP
was at the center of the first documented
instance of NCLC collaboration with U.S.
intelligence agencies. The theory, ideology,
strategy, tactics and internal organizing
practices of NAP and the LaRouchites are
similar. The question is not how long NAP
worked under the political leadership of
LaRouche, but how they can explain what
attracted them to LaRouche in the first place.
To this day NAP leadership has refused to
renounce or to deal candidly or accurately with
the fact of their association with an
organization which was at best a collection of
paranoid sexist homophobic thugs and at worst
a nascent fascist political movement.
Newmanite "Therapy" Centers
Wherever the party has a major organizing
effort underway, there is a related "therapy"
group reaching out to "persons with progressive
politics who are also seeking emotional or
psychological counseling." The connection
between the leadership of the NAP and the
Newmanite Social Therapy centers is
manipulative and unethical. (The report
outlines the connection in detail.)
NAP and the LaRouchites' practice include a
methodological link between the psychological
and the political which forms a theoretical
world-view and justification for indoctrinating
members through so-called "therapy." Though
LaRouchite philosophy is apparently neo
fascist and NAP apparently left-progressive,
both rely on psychologically manipulative
theories to control core members; both match a
cult paradigm and are far from democratic,
despite outward claims and appearances.
Several critics call the NAP "the LaRouchies of
the Left''
Political Opportunism
NAP makes a distinction between the ewe
cadre (primarily white intellectuals) and the
"organic" members (primarily people of color).
The white-intellectuals are in the process of
using "therapy" to raise the consciousness of
the primarily Black and Latino recruits so that
"some day in the future they will have the
wherewithal to actually lead the
organization”...but not yet. This has been
described as "paternalistic racism."
The group's political and organizational
history has been rewritten to meet current
needs.
There is a continuing effort to imply a NAP
connection with the Rainbow Qpalition,
including use of the name "Rainbow Lobby" as
their office; NAP leadership seems to have
gone out of its way not to clarify. One example
- a letter on NAP stationary was sent to gay
activists on the west coast with the slogan "The
Party of the Rainbow." Jackson has had
publicly to distance himself and the Rainbow
Coalition from NAP on several occasions.
One of the tactics used by the group is to
penetrate a progressive organization and seek to
take it over or recruit its membership. Eddie
Sandifer, a well-known Mississippi Gay rights
activist, told the Advocate that he resented the
claim by NAP that it is the party of gays,
lesbians, Blacks and dispossessed people in
general. NAP contacted several members of
die Mississippi Gay Alliance and invited them
to meetings, but not him, the group leader. "I
think their puipose is to divide and conquer,"
said Sandifer. ’Tm very suspicious of them and
what they are doing in Mississippi."
A long-time gay activist in California voiced
similar concerns after NAP sponsored a gay
rights conference. He feared the NAP wanted
to duplicate the work of existing gay
organizations as a way to build credibility and
recruit new members for the NAP. Dennis
Serrette, NAP's last presidential candidate, left
the party after unsuccessfully struggling for a
meaningful leadership role for Black NAP
officials, who felt had organizational titles but
no real influence or control. "Ileft the party
because it continued to claim it was Black-led -
I knew better..." Serrette denounced them as
running a racist, sexist "therapy cult" that put
people of color in public leadership positions
merely as window dressing.
Support for Minister Farrakhan
When Minister Louis Farrakhan addressed a
New York City rally of supporters in 1985, he
was greeted with a telegram of support from the
then NAP mayoral candidate Dr. Lenora
Fulani: "It is with deep respect and the most
profound commitment to the liberation of our
people that I welcome you to New York..."
NAP at the time was seeking "a working
relationship with Farrakhan's Nation of Islam,"
and members of both groups had attended each
others conferences. Fulani was not unaware of
the controversial nature of Farrakhan's remarks
regarding Jewish groups as well as lesbian, gay
and other groups. "I remain concerned that
Minister Farrakhan’s language can be
interpreted as anti-Semitic or anti-gay. But I
know, as do my Jewish friends and followers,
that the Jewish people have nothing to fear
from the Nation of Islam."
Minister Farrakhan's language is indeed a
cause for concern, as are the actions of his
organization. In Chicago, representatives of the
Nation of Islam invited the author of a book
calling the Nazi Holocaust a hoax to share their
stage with other special guests. Members of
anti-Jewish white racialist groups have been
invited to attend National of Islam events.
There is ample documentation that Farrakhan
regularly makes references about the Jewish
people that reflect a bigoted and stereotyped
bias.
The refusal of the NAP to deal candidly with
and accept criticism for the LaRouche period,
attempts to provoke the'FBI to target former
members and critics, and the connection
between the NAP leadership and the
Newmanite Social Therapy centers are among
many valid unanswered questions surrounding
the New Alliance Party; so long as such
relationships exist, the NAP must be judged in
the context of lacking clarity concerning basic
moral issues involving personal and political
exploitation. Such clarity surely is crucial if
lesbian/gay issues are to be understood and
included in any political movement
Sincerely,
Beth D. Coonan
Viewpoints is part of a continuimg effort to provide a forum for our community. We invite your
ideas, comments and feelings and your responses to ideas expressed in yhis space.
The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not neccesarily represent the views of
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Mail to:Southern Voice/Viewpoints, PO Box 54719, Atlanta, Georgia, 30308