[Marxism] A reply to Stephen Zunes

[Louis Proyect]

Making Excuses for Empire:
A Reply to the Self-Appointed Defenders of the AEI
by George Ciccariello-Maher and Eva Golinger

As much as we enjoy puns in titles, Stephen Zunes' recent defense of 
Gene Sharp's Albert Einstein Institution (AEI) in the article "Sharp 
Attack Unwarranted," doesn't have much else going for it.  Zunes spends 
most of his time diverting attention from the real issues: the AEI's 
role in imperial projects, a role which is politically irresponsible at 
best and consciously undertaken at worst.  Unfortunately, in the process 
of mounting such an unwavering and uncritical defense, Zunes compromises 
what he claims to be his own political values (especially with regard to 
the AEI's training of the right-wing Venezuelan opposition).

Beating around the Bush (Administration)

Diverting attention is a sure sign that someone doesn't have much in the 
way of an argument, and this seems to be the method of choice for the 
self-appointed defenders of the Albert Einstein Institution and its 
"Senior Scholar" Gene Sharp.  Stephen Zunes' article seems to tell us a 
great deal: that Sharp is an octogenarian with a cluttered home in a 
working-class area, a "mild-mannered intellectual" who gives "rather dry 
lectures," that he has a long history of civil disobedience and an 
arrest record to match, that he was even under surveillance by the FBI. 
  What Zunes doesn't tell us is why this matters, or what it has to do 
with the AEI's support of the Venezuelan opposition.  Rather he merely 
asserts the paramount importance of the personal, claiming that "Gene 
Sharp's personal history demonstrates the bizarre nature" of the charges 
we have leveled in the past.

full: http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/cmg050808.html