Editor,
Steve Chavez's guest column outlining the insidious influence that communist and radical socialist groups have on the local "peace movement" only scratches the surface of this shadowy world.
If you navigate the Stop the War Machine's Web site, the first link in the "Other Resources" section of the site is to the International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) organization. This group was also the main organizer of the major protests held around the country, including a significant action in Albuquerque, on Jan. 18.
As newspapers ranging from the Washington Post to the San Francisco Chronicle have reported, ANSWER is a closely tied to the World Workers Party -- a Marxist party that broke away from Trotskyite Socialist Party in 1958 to endorse the Soviet Union's brutal invasion of Hungary. This past action gives the organization the rather extraordinary distinction of embracing both Trotskyism and Stalinism. Today, the World Workers Party is content to expound virulent anti-Americanism and anti-Semitic criticism of Israel while at the same time offering support to the regimes of North Korea, Iraq and other rouge states.
ANSWER is also funded by the International Action Center that was founded by former Johnson administration attorney general Ramsey Clark. According to the Washington Post, his organization has provided legal counsel and public relations for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Libya's Moammar Gaddafi; ex-Nazi concentration camp guard Karl Linnas; and former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. The message from these groups is plain -- the people that they support, the Milosevics and North Koreas of the world, are not immoral or international criminals but heroes bravely defying U.S. imperialism. Brazen acts of aggression such as the invasion of Hungary aren't wrong, but justified if they oppose the United States and help herald in international socialism.
Do all protestors and campus activist groups agree with these sentiments? Surely not. I am positive that the vast majority of campus activists are sincere, well-meaning people. However, they should be aware that the groups and movements they associate themselves with, the arguments that they employ, originate in groups that subscribe to a perverse, immoral and criminal ideology.
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The reach of these groups is staggering. Look at the advertisement in the Daily Lobo for the walkout on Wednesday. Listed as sponsors for the event along with the usual anti-war groups are The Hemp Coalition, Earth Foods, College Greens and Students For Clean Energy. What any of these groups have to do with "protesting U.S. imperialism and the academy's support for the military" is beyond my abilities of perception, but the reach of these large socialist umbrella groups like ANSWER is clear.
Even groups that ostensibly have nothing to do with issues of war or peace are subverted to preach their message.
The Green Party is always cajoling us to "follow the money" and see where our candidates come from, so maybe it's time that the participants in the peace movement follow the money and influence to see where their actions come from.
Michael Carrasco
UNM student
