An Anarchist Respondes To Anarchist Sectarianism

An anti-communist letter to the scene from 'anarchist'...
THE MOST RADICAL OF RADICALS

Caleb Maupin is not at all representative of the left in Cleveland. He's a member of the ultra-authoritarian Workers World Party, and he spends most of his time setting up front groups, using the names of organizations he's not a part of, and getting young people arrested for WWP publicity stunts. It is true that they exploited the Collinwood High School walkout for their own purposes. The WWP also likes to talk people up on how awesome North Korea supposedly is. There are so many other, more honest, and less outrageous leftists groups in Cleveland that Scene could spend time reporting on.

Drew Retherford

Cleveland

A response from an Anarchist:

To the Editor:

In reference to a letter I read in the Volume 41, Issue 9, Scene yesterday:

I wish Drew Retherford had been politically sophisticated enough to be encouraged and delighted when students at Collinwood High School walked out in protest of financial cuts in education. They did so on their own initiative, spontaneously, as a free people, without being “manipulated” by “authoritarian radicals” to do so. It is a terrible insult to write that those wonderful young people -- who had to endure Police brutality in order to exercise their Civil Rights under the First Amendment to the US constitution -- were manipulated by a member of an “ultra-authoritarian leftist group.”

Do not blame a hard-working activist for the arrests of those students, who were committing no crime. Blame the police, who were certainly “ultra-authoritarian.” Caleb Maupin did not get involved in order to “exploit” the students. When he heard about the walkout, he went to the demo and filmed the Police harassing, beating, and arresting the demonstrators, and then he uplinked the film to You-Tube on the internet, so we could all see that typical government response to a free people exercising their right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The students know, as do any students of history, that demonstrations in the street, not paper petitions, are the only actions which will motivate any government to listen to the people’s needs.

It is not easy for not-radical, not-communist young people to challenge authority like that. I admire them for it.

Drew Retherford seems to be childishly unaware that it is The People United, not individuals, whatever their politics, who have, and will again, create a better world for all of us.


Barbara Louize
an anarkhist, 66 years old
Cleveland Heights