[Peace-discuss] Michael Lerner

[C. G. Estabrook]

I think Mort's right on both points.  Here are some estimates of Lerner's
activities from some people who know him, garnered from Doug Henwood's
excellent Left Business Observer list:

[1] Henwood himself writes, "I couldn't sign that statement because even
though I thought Lerner should be allowed to speak -- despite his annoying
piety and self-promotion -- but I though the organizers of that petition
were really looking for a club to bash ANSWER with. I'm not a member of
the ANSWER fan club by any means, but I thought this was the wrong fight
to have at the wrong time."

[2] Dick Reilly, an independent Palestine solidarity activist in Chicago,
writes, "...it's truly sad that Mike, desperate for his three minutes of
fame on the big stage, would pull a stunt like this. Arrogance doesn't
begin to cover this. He's lost any credibility with me ... and I've know
the guy for years. It also may have just a bit to do with Lerner and
Tikkun taking considerable flak from younger, progressive anti-Zionist
Jewish activists, many who have just returned from a stint inside the
Occupied territories with the International Solidarity Movement, who are
just a little miffed by his inability to recognize apartheid when he sees
it."

[3] Joanna Bujes: "I have met Lerner, heard him speak for well over three
hours on the situation in the Middle East and left with my blood pressure
in dangerous territory.  I don't think he gives a rat's ass about WWP's
anti-democratic practices. I think he's a megalomaniac who has managed,
once again, to get a lot of airtime ... at a crucial moment when forces
were coalescing for the most major anti-war protest to date. I'm not
whining/complaining about redbaiting, I'm just describing what I see
Lerner as doing and I find it revolting."

And finally Lou Paulsen, a WWP member, writes of the involvement of
Michael Berube, formerly a member of the UIUC faculty:

...a petition began to circulate on the internet, apparently initiated, so
far as I can tell, by Marc Cooper and Michael Berubé, who have written
anti-ANSWER articles in the past.  On February 11 this petition was posted
on the www.commondreams.org site ...  This petition reads in part:

"We, the undersigned, protest ANSWER's refusal to let Rabbi Lerner speak
at this Sunday's rally. At a time when the antiwar movement needs as broad
a platform and as broad an appeal as possible, ANSWER has chosen instead
to put the interests of sectarianism ahead of the interests of all those
who oppose this foolish and unnecessary war. We believe this is a serious
mistake, and that it exemplifies ANSWER's unfitness to lead mass
mobilizations against war in Iraq."

Marc Cooper is a contributing editor of The Nation.  David Corn is the
Washington editor of the Nation.  Furthermore, after David Corn published
an article in the LA Weekly in November, attacking ANSWER, Cooper
published another article in the LA Weekly taking the same position.  He
writes of "Our [his and Corn's] invitation to think of ways to broaden the
peace-movement leadership".

I believe it is not coincidental that Corn's article and Cooper's petition
appeared simultaneously.  This was a concerted campaign by these two
Nation writer/editors to use their positions of influence to spread lies
about ANSWER and portray it as "unfit to lead mass mobilizations."

Cooper's first collaborator was Michael Berubé, an academic who wrote a
slanderous article attacking ANSWER and NION in the Chronicle of Higher
Education back in November ... Almost instantaneously -- also on February
11 -- the Cooper/Berubé petition and the Tikkun article were publicized on
the frontpagemag.org site of raving anticommunist David Horowitz, here,
under the heading "Peace Demonstration Bares its Anti-Semitic Teeth, by
The Nation and Tikkun Magazines."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=6109

How did this information get to Horowitz so immediately?  Because Berubé
probably publicized the petition to Horowitz directly.  Berubé is not only
on cordial terms with Horowitz, he is a contributor to Horowitz's site,
where Horowitz uses him as a left foil.  Here for example Berubé
participates in a 'Frontpage Symposium' with Horowitz.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6007 ...

So we can see how in the age of the Internet the lie really does run
around the world seven times in the space of a couple days, getting used
by worse and worse people.  First, by Lerner furthering his own agenda;
then by Cooper and Corn, using the lie as a weapon to beat up ANSWER; then
by the right-winger Horowitz, to smear the whole "Peace Demonstration" as
"anti-semitic", and putting this smear in the mouth of "Tikkun" and "The
Nation"; and finally, by the SF Observer to (falsely) claim that there is
a "Rift" in the Peace Coalition...


On Thu, 13 Feb 2003, Morton K.Brussel wrote:

> My guess is that many people who signed on to the letter condemning
> the San Francisco organisers of the protest/rally did not wait to
> learn the full story, and were conned by the likes of David Corn, Marc
> Cooper and Eric Alterman, "cruise missile liberals" on the Nation
> staff.  McChesney was only one of many I was surprised to see signing
> on to that letter. I've got to believe they did it through ignorance.
> 
> The whole business is unfortunate and harmful to our anti-war efforts.
> 
> Mort Brussel
>