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Just another professional protester and Nobel Prize winner
Good morning,
The Editors of The New Republic take a stand against Occupy Wall Street in the November 3 issue of the magazine.
How should liberals feel about Occypy Wall Street? TNR says, “deeply skeptical.” Click here to read why.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need further information.
Thank you,
Annie Augustine
Media Relations, The New Republic
aaugustine@tnr.com / (202) 508-4482Please click here to learn more about TNR’s new iPad App.
That’s right: Everyone’s favorite neoconservative neoliberal and hater of FDR and LBJ, the guy who bought what once rivaled The Nation in terms of helping to shape the American liberal mindset and turned it into a slightly spiffier version of The National Review, the guy who actual liberals (as opposed to the straw ones Peretz’ fellow traveler Howard Kurtz has discussed over the years) have laughed at, if not ignored, for over three decades, has come out against Occupy Wall Street.
I know, I know, I’m shocked too. NOT.
Meanwhile, an actual liberal, a bonafide hero, a Nobel Prize winner, and a man who’s put more on the line every week of the past four decades than Marty Peretz has during his entire adult life (well, besides the $380,000 of his Singer-heiress wife’s money he used to buy TNR in 1974), has come out in favor of Occupy Wall Street — and has promised to visit it soon:
Solidarity hero Lech Walesa is flying to New York to show his support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
“How could I not respond,” Walesa told a Polish newspaper Wednesday. “The thousands of people gathered near Wall Street are worried about the fate of their future, the fate of their country. This is something I understand.”
A former shipyard worker who led Poland’s successful revolt against Soviet communism, Walesa said “capitalism is in crisis” and not just in America.
“This is a worldwide problem,” he told the Lublin-based Dziennik Wschodni newspaper. “The Wall Street protesters have focused a magnifying glass on the problem.”
Oh, dear. Just another “professional protester”, as Dana Milbank and Marty Peretz would no doubt call him. (Y’know, just like Joseph Stiglitz, that other professional protester and Nobel Prize winner who’s endorsed Occupy Wall Street?) But then again, that epithet does have a touch of truth in it. He did parlay his protesting into not only freedom for Poland, but the presidency of Poland – if that’s not opportunistic self-promoting professional protesting, I dunno what is!
If I have to choose between the hot-tempered bigoted ass who used his wife’s money to ruin The New Republic and the guy who freed Poland and won the Nobel Peace Prize, I won’t be siding with the ass, that’s for sure.
(Crossposted at Mercury Rising.)
51 Comments
Good job Phoenix. I detest latte’ sipping neo-liberals.
So do I, especially ones who without fail manage to find the most morally reprehensible position on an issue and then stick to it like a trustafarian holding a coke straw.
American radicals can learn a lot from Solidarnosc (circa 1980-1).
And Welesa most certainly did not free Poland. Solidarnosc (1980-1) along with Gorbachev realizing that the Soviet Empire was irrational and untenable “freed” Poland and its sister Warsaw Pact members. Popular resistance in the satellite countries and the unsurpassable legitimation deficit of their state socialist regimes leading these countries set the stage for the destruction of these regimes. Eastern European liberation was inevitable once Gorbachev abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine. Before then, popular forces in these countries always had to reckon with the Soviet Army. Only armed might kept the Soviet empire integrated.
None of them were socialist. All of them were authoritarian dictatorships.
You might want to re-read what a socialist government actually is.
Wow, good catch on Walesa. How will the GOP spin machine call us protesters “communists” with Walesa’s supporting us? Ha ha!!!
Wasn’t Peretz involved wit the formation of the DLC in the mid 80s?
Before we get into hero worship I would be interested in knowing if lech once president of Poland passed legislation, put down the framework to create a society in poland that benefitted all and not just those at the top. Anyone know?
Good point. I’ve been wondering about that myself, esp in light of how conservative Polish govt became subsequently. Recent development is that some outsider got 10% of the vote & thus representation in the legislature. But what I read on him (can’t recall his name) was particularly opaque on what his policies are.
The New Republic. The in-flight magazine of
Air Force Onerendition flights.OMG can we have this posted on FDL. we all need a laugh
http://www.theonion.com/video/presidents-approval-rating-soars-after-punching-wa,26349/
Lech stared down execution and torture to lead Poland to its current prosperity and freedom as a Union Organizer for the shipbuilders. And unlike the Union organizers in the US, he then went on to be and still is one of the biggest promoters of Free Market Capitalism and Entrepreneurs in the world.
http://www.21to21.com/tag/lech-walesa/
it does not matter what the New Republic thinks or Fox News says or CNN or MSNBC or NPR or Bill Maher says…the issues of our time are global and as much as Fox wants to paint Occupers as Commies Dems and as much as MSNBC wants to tie the movement with Obama and as much as people like Bill Maher who don’t get this movement is NOT left (Hey Bill There are Ron Paul supporters at OWS)..it does not matter…I cannot know the future but things will change
In other laughablee news, Reuters, in an article front-page in today’s NYT, reveals that a foundation that gets money from George Soros had the nerve to contribute $26,000 to Adbusters from 2007-2009. Ergo, Occupy is a Soros phenomenon. Boogah-boogah. IMO, getting a real revolution going for the price of a used car makes Soros the greatest investor in history.
Has anyone at The New Republic apologized yet for the Iraq war?
Left you a short comment on last night’s thread. Yes, I’m wondering about whether human race is on a path toward extinction. Didn’t want to get into an arm wrestling contest with others who still think humans are the center of the universe, which is why I didn’t make it explicit why I raised the subject.
Whatever the future brings, the elites will need protection. If those working the security racket were shrewd, they’d shake down the elites for everything they’ve got.
I responded to you. It’s certainly one of the plausible scenarios, IMO.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s I subscribed to both TNR and the NR. I thought Buckley’s mag was a bit more colorful than TNR. And they had glossier covers.
Dropped them both when their classical music articles/reviews became vapid. FWIW, back then The National Review sturdily backed Walesa’s movement in Poland, while TNR was more into Russian refuseniks like Natan Sharanski and Helsinki Watch. I ended up donating a lot to Helsinki Watch, which helped get Sharanski out of the USSR and into Israel, where he became a leading nutcase politician. The group that freed him morphed into Human Rights Watch, which Sharansky now vilifies. Perhaps Sharansky’s close friend, the putz Peretz, will now vilify Walesa.
Phoenix Woman,
This is wonderful news about Walesa. Last August was the thirtieth anniversary of the birth of Solidarity (they call the phenomenon simply “August” in Polish) so I took some time to brush up. The best history I’ve read of it is actually Timothy Garton Ash’s near contemporaneous account of it, “The Polish Revolution”. Really inspiring.
They had a list of demands, by the way. We will, too, in the end.
Andrzej Wajda is doing a film portrayal of Walesa with a well-regarded actor named Robert Wieckiewicz in the lead. Wajda’s in his dotage, but his “Katyn” was still quite good.
Walesa was the head of Solidarity, so saying that he “freed” Poland is acceptable shorthand. What Solidarity managed to do was create a democratic shadow state ready to assume power through the “Round Table” accords of 1989. Solidarity and the Round Table were one of the few episodes in 300 years where Poles showed farsightedness and brilliant political discipline in resisting occupation. Many regard the armed uprisings of the distant past with more respect than their more recent liberation, while right wing fantasists consider the Round Table positively treasonous, and Walesa the chief traitor.
Poland got more conservative? Funny, that’s the opposite of what I’ve seen — in fact, the biggest thing I’ve noticed since Poland came out from under Soviet rule is the reversal of the officially-promoted anti-Jewish feeling instituted in 1968 as Wladyslaw Gomulka was forced by Soviet pressure to undo the reforms that had market the first part of his time as the de facto leader of Poland.
It’ll be easy to malign Walesa. A mere electrician by trade, he’ll be mocked for his age, political irrelevance and lack of sophistication.
Of course, Cons like you are infamous for liking him only because he helped fight off Soviet rule — so tell me, does he make you support labor unions or Occupy Wall Street? Because he backs both, you know, which is not compatible with your ideology.
Palikot. A kind of self-promoting center-left figure who broke off from the “liberal” (in their sense) ruling party.
Poland, to my eyes, is exceptionally well led by their current prime minister and his coalition; I was happy to see them win again. They are “liberal”, i.e., right-wing economically and liberal in other respects, but they are to the left of doctrinaire figures like Balcerowicz. Their policies are also leavened by the respectable left-wing Polish People’s Party (often translated as “Peasants’ Party”), which represents much of the rural, and consequently poor, population; this party predates WWII and has a more respectable pedigree than the left wing post-communist party that Kwasniewski headed. The current coalition are opposed by the very unpleasant party headed by Kaczynski, intellectual heirs to pre-war nationalist/fascist strains and their paranoiac world view. They are, on the other hand, not economically right wing, and, thus, to my mind, less awful than our Republicans.
I don’t see too many Ron Paul supporters over at OWS. In fact, I haven’t spoken to even ONE yet. You MIGHT find some at a teabagger event, however.
Really! For the price of the catered food at a typical ALEC function, Soros helped set in motion a movement that’s already shoved the Overton Window leftward enough to allow talk of “Great Haircuts” (aka debt jubilees) to reach the mass media. Right-wingers, instead of attacking him, should try to figure out how he gets such bang for the buck. ;-)
Indeed.
Marty Peretz should be made to watch a taped rendition interrogation. Of course, no doubt he’d try to inoculate himself by reciting the names of captured IDF soldiers or some such.
Poland definitely got more conservative since Solidarity. For a negative appraisal of this change, see “The Shock Doctrine”.
By conservative, I think the commenter means wedded to neoliberalism. After all, Solidarity really was a socialist trade union. Among its demands were things like very generous maternity leave and many other aspects of a social welfare state.
As for official anti-Semitism, one of the several meanings of “Solidarity” was a solidarity between Poles and Jews. They were very wary of Jew-baiting in 1980 and very forceful in calling out and repudiating it. They explicitly understood that what happened in 1968 to intellectuals (particularly Jewish scapegoats) and then 1970 to workers was inextricably linked.
“Katyn” is a frightening masterpiece.
Err, and who are you to judge? I mean, he was only jailed for a couple years and threatened with ruin and physical violence.
He wasn’t appointed dictator, either, so he didn’t “put down the framework” of anything all by himself, though he did play an admirable part in knocking down what came before.
Actually, they were state socialist systems. At least that was what I was taught by the ex-pat dissidents I studied with.
Those were the words of the person I linked to. I’m not sure if Lech is one of the biggest promoters of Free Market Capitalism and Entrepreneurs in the world, now that he’s a supporter of OWS.
But I think you’d admit OWS has many strange bedfellows.
Walesa is a phenomenon. Still mustachioed but thickset now, he stands for many values that in the West might be thought conservative. Fierce patriotism (“nationalism,” say his critics), strong Catholic views, the family.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988170-1,00.html
You’re completely ignorant of the subject.
And, no, hats off to this brave man, but he didn’t stare down torture and execution.
See my other comments if you have any genuine interest in this subject or just want to regurgitate right-wing boilerplate.
Acceptable to whom? Perhaps only to those whom history and hagiography are the same.
This is fantasy. There was no shadow government — Where did it meet? Who elected it? What was it’s constitution? From what did it derive its authority?
And how this is relevant?
Interestingly, the Polish coverage of this states that Jeffrey Sachs has been involved (how, it doesn’t state) in OWS. I don’t know what the truth of that is.
the point is Occupy is not an arm of the Dems and wants diversity I saw a report by Matt Tiberi saying there were Ron Paul people at OWS I tend to trust MT based on his past reporting of Wall st maybe they need name tags (or tea bags) :)
He’s not one of the biggest promoters, obviously, but he was a supporter of Poland’s “shock therapy” (i.e., dramatic transition to a market economy with all it’s consequent effects, good and bad). So, yes, he was one of the biggest supporters at a critical juncture, something of which he’s generally proud but also has some mixed feelings about, because when you privatize a state people can get ripped off.
You’re trying to fit him into an American template, and it won’t work.
Given his personal heroism and past support for a liberal (European sense) economy, his support for OWS should also make you show you reflect a little about OWS. When they protest “Wall Street” are they really protesting the “free market”? To take a few examples, are the loansharking (usurious credit cards), counterfeiting (securitization of shit mortgages), forgery (robo-signing), and consequent taxpayer-funded bailouts really the beneficial manifestion of the “free market”?
Walesa correctly understands that we have a regime, a more resilient one than he faced, that has to be removed from power.
Check that: there’s ONE guy with an “End the Fed” sign over at OWS. But ron Paul supporters at political events is like a Starbucks: there’s one at every corner. LOL
In my conversations @OWS over the the past three weeks, what I get is a nuanced view opposed to the same neoliberal policies that have created the stark inequalities negatively impacting lives on a mass/ global scale.
Ron Paul would be advocating for MORE of the same and his stance on social justice issues is deplorable. As a Latino, I won’t even entertain Ron Paul’s idiocy. His stance on war and the influence of money in politics are merely examples of the cliche that even a broken clock is right once or twice.
Ignorance this time from the left. Re: “shadow government” –Who was on the ballot in 1989? Geez.
And sorry about the “irrelevant” mention of Polish history in discussion an important figure in…Polish history. Sorry I’m interested in the country and trying to transmit that enthusiasm in a comments section. How gauche of me.
Candidates on a ballot do not make for an existing shadow government.
By the way, I wouldn’t count your chickens about him coming.
A transsexual candidate was elected to parliament with this party.
recommended and tweeted
It doesn’t get more perfect than this description from your post. In concur 100%
“. . . If I have to choose between the hot-tempered bigoted ass who used his wife’s money to ruin The New Republic and the guy who freed Poland and won the Nobel Peace Prize, I won’t be siding with the ass, that’s for sure.”
Love it. I just sent this comment to Ron. He hates trustafarians.
Much as Hunter S. Thompson held that William Randolph Hearst “badly bent the spine of American journalism” during a critical formative period for it, Eric Alterman holds that Peretz did incalculable damage to American liberalism before people realized he wasn’t at all liberal.
“Walesa” means “lazybones” in Polish, by the way.
I stopped reading The New Republican decades ago.
I went to TNR to leave a remark in the comment thread under Marty’s column and of course it was CLOSED for comments for non-TNR readers.
Guess Peretz didn’t want the hundreds of mocking and angry remarks he would get…if you can’t take the heat Marty, don’t cook up a crock of shit in the kitchen!
I would not vote RP either I am not voting any candidate from any major party