Issued: August 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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August 6, 1979
Dear Friends:
The undersigned are members of various Guardian bureaus and other contributors and supporters of the Guardian who are thoroughly dismayed at the decision by the Guardian staff to dismiss Irwin Silber and no longer to publish his writing in the pages of our newspaper.
As we learned from the message to Guardian readers that appeared in the July 11 issue of the paper, the staff decided on this action as the result of a political criticism directed by Silber at the present Guardian leadership. This criticism was put forward in a political report to the founding conference of the National Network of Marxist-Leninist Clubs (NNMLC), formerly the Guardian Clubs, of which Silber is the national chairperson.
We agree with the staff that these criticisms reflected substantial political differences probably requiring an organizational separation. But this is an entirely distinct matter from the decision to stop publication of Silber’s writings. While Silber has made strong criticisms of the party-building orientation of the staff, he has continued to write regularly and has contributed some of the best political analysis to its pages during the months following his resignation as Executive Editor. During that period, he continued to write the majority of the Guardian’s editorial viewpoints as well, although obviously not the ones dealing with Indochina. He has not attacked the newspaper itself, discouraged readership or financial support or done anything else which can be interpreted as antagonistic to the continued operation of the paper.
The staff has deprived its readership of Silber’s writings, but has not even attempted to demonstrate that they are politically wrong or injurious to the people’s movement. In fact, staff members have stated that Silber is the best Marxist political analyst in the country. His writings have been an important contribution, not only to the growing Marxist-Leninist forces, but also to the progressive movement as a whole.
Silber’s dismissal from the Guardian is a loss to our movement. For whether one agrees with all of his views or not, there can hardly be a Guardian reader who has not been influenced for the better by his work many times over. In a left characterized by a low level of theoretical development, he has made significant contributions to the development of Marxist-Leninist theory and to the general ideological reorientation of our movement. On crucial political questions over the years, he has brought to bear an analysis that is a rare as it is welcome in our movement. His film reviews and other cultural articles have made breakthroughs in Marxist cultural writing.
Now we are told that the people’s movement will be deprived of access to this analysis because the criticism of the Guardian staff was just “too much.” We are convinced that this narrow, petty attitude confirms a turn away from the strong Marxist-Leninist orientation that has guided the Guardian’s political direction over the past decade. The Guardian is not a private holding of a particular grouping of individuals, but an institution belonging to our movement as a whole. The Guardian staff has taken on the responsibility of directing the operation of this critical institution of the revolutionary movement.
The staff has fulfilled that responsibility through past periods of difficult political struggle. As the paper maintained its political bearings in the midst of difficulties, many of us chose to give it extra measures of support. We not only subscribed, but also offered our time, energy, money and political capabilities to advancing the work of the Guardian, improving its quality, organizing distribution, raising funds and becoming sustainers.
This decision to dismiss Silber and keep his writing out of the pages of the Guardian demonstrates an inability on the part of the Guardian staff to place the interests and needs of the progressive movement above their narrow concern for image and authority over “their paper.”
Should this pattern continue we will have to seriously reconsider our support for the Guardian.
In a more immediate sense, we are writing to you to see what can be done to reverse this latest decision. We urge the following:
1. Join us in protesting Silber’s firing from the Guardian. Add your name to those who have signed this letter. We will submit this letter with all signatures we receive to the Guardian staff as a petition demanding Silber’s reinstatement.
2. Send your own personal letter of protest to the Guardian. Please send us a copy. Ask others to do the same.
3. Sending out this mailing involves an expense which the signatories themselves have thus far advanced. If you can make a small contribution to help defray these costs, it will be appreciated. Please send this contribution to Morris Wright, 3557 Lincoln Ave., apt. 3, Oakland, Ca. 94602
4. Judge the matter for yourself. The complete text of Silber’s political report to the NNMLC, in which he lays out his summation of the recent political struggles within the Guardian staff and between the Guardian and the former Guardian Clubs may be obtained ($2.00 plus 20 cents postage) from the NNMLC, P.O. Box 11113, San Francisco, Ca. 94101.
In struggle,
NY:
Frances M. Beal
Abe Weisburd
Tom Angotti
Madeline Tress
Willie Gerena-Rocket
Boston:
Tim Patterson
Marion McDonald
Annie Wercker
SF:
Morris Wright
Neal Cassidy
Steve Linsley
Pat Gold
Ellen Rosenzweig
Charles Hill
Barbara Flynn
Dave Armstrong
LA:
William Bollinger
Gary Embrey
Mike Silverberg
Jeff Kremen
Phyllis Bennis
Robert Cardenas
Ohio:
Cathy Wollard
Marilyn Flower
Evan Morris
DC:
Jim Regan
Vicki Baldassano
Seattle:
Shirley Hamburg
Mike Withey
Ellen Punyon