Thoughts on Michael Parenti

[Woodsman]

I am wondering what are some of the opinions on Michael Parenti since I do not see much mention of him.

[Prometeo liberado]

Is he gonna shave or let it grow? Fence rider.

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

This is my favorite work by him. It is on the God of ignorant neo-liberalism, Vaclav Havel:

Must We Adore Vaclav Havel? by Michael Parenti
No figure among the capitalist restorationists in the East has won more adulation from U.S. officials, media pundits, and academics than Vaclav Havel, a playwright who became the first president of post-communist Czechoslovakia and later president of the Czech Republic. The many left-leaning people who also admire Havel seem to have overlooked some things about him: his reactionary religious obscurantism, his undemocratic suppression of leftist opponents, and his profound dedication to economic inequality and unrestrained free-market capitalism.
Raised by governesses and chauffeurs in a wealthy and fervently anticommunist family, Havel denounced democracy's "cult of objectivity and statistical average" and the idea that rational, collective social efforts should be applied to solving the environmental crisis. He called for a new breed of political leader who would rely less on "rational, cognitive thinking," show "humility in the face of the mysterious order of the Being," and "trust in his own subjectivity as his principal link with the subjectivity of the world." Apparently, this new breed of leader would be a superior elitist cogitator, not unlike Plato's philosopher, endowed with a "sense of transcendental responsibility" and "archetypal wisdom." Havel never explained how this transcendent archetypal wisdom would translate into actual policy decisions, and for whose benefit at whose expense.
Havel called for efforts to preserve the Christian family in the Christian nation. Presenting himself as a man of peace and stating that he would never sell arms to oppressive regimes, he sold weapons to the Philippines and the fascist regime in Thailand. In June 1994, General Pinochet, the man who butchered Chilean democracy, was reported to be arms shopping in Czechoslovakia - with no audible objections from Havel.
Havel joined wholeheartedly in George Bush's Gulf War, an enterprise that killed over 100,000 Iraqi civilians. In 1991, along with other [e]astern European pro-capitalist leaders, Havel voted with the United States to condemn human rights violations in Cuba. But he has never uttered a word of condemnation of rights violations in El Salvador, Columbia, Indonesia, or any other U.S. client state.
In 1992, while president of Czechoslovakia, Havel, the great democrat, demanded that parliament be suspended and he be allowed to rule by edict, the better to ram through free-market "reforms." That same year, he signed a law that made the advocacy of communism a felony with a penalty of up to eight years imprisonment. He claimed the Czech constitution required him to sign it. In fact, as he knew, the law violated the Charter of Human Rights which is incorporated into the Czech constitution. In any case, it did not require his signature to become law. in 1995, he supported and signed another undemocratic law barring communists and former communists from employment in public agencies.
The propagation of anticommunism has remained a top priority for Havel. He led "a frantic international campaign" to keep in operation two U.S.-financed, cold war radio stations, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, so they could continue saturating Eastern Europe with their anticommunist propaganda.
Under Havel's government, a law was passed making it a crime to propagate national, religious, and CLASS hatred. In effect, criticisms of big moneyed interests were now illegal, being unjustifiably lumped with ethnic and religious bigotry. Havel's government warned labor unions not to involve themselves in politics. Some militant unions had their property taken from them and handed over to compliant company unions.
In 1995, Havel announced that the 'revolution' against communism would not be complete until everything was privatized. Havel's government liquidated the properties of the Socialist Union of Youth - which included camp sites, recreation halls, and cultural and scientific facilities for children - putting the properties under the management of five joint stock companies, at the expense of the youth who were left to roam the streets.
Under Czech privatization and "restitution" programs, factories, shops, estates, homes, and much of the public land was sold at bargain prices to foreign and domestic capitalists. In the Czech and Slovak republics, former aristocrats or their heirs were being given back all lands their families had held before 1918 under the Austro-Hungarian empire, dispossessing the previous occupants and sending many of them into destitution. Havel himself took personal ownership of public properties that had belonged to his family forty years before.
While presenting himself as a man dedicated to doing good for others, he did well for himself. For all these reasons some of us do not have warm fuzzy feelings toward Vaclav Havel.
-- Michael Parenti

Sorry there is no link; I got it from another comrade on this website. It is good, though. I really do not know much about Michael Parenti other than the fact that he is a pretty good alternative to more reactionary and mainstream historians.

[Ostrinski]

I imagine the Marxist-Leninists like him. He is an esteemed historian and ML.

[Grenzer]

I imagine the Marxist-Leninists like him. He is an esteemed historian and ML.

So he's basically the Niall Ferguson of Stalinism? Gross.

[Ostrinski]

Haha idk. I never read anything by him.

[NewLeft]

I haven't read much from him either, however this is well written:
http://www.revleft.com/vb/michael-pa...833/index.html

I read his Dirty Truths book a while back, it is a good starter book. It debunks myths like the "liberal media"..etc.

What I like about him: He doesn't always write for a left audience or obscure everything under Marxism.

[Agathor]

I've read a few of his articles, but not enough to form an intelligent position on him and his work. My unintelligent position is that he should be used sceptically. Some of his stuff is interesting, but when he writes about something that I know a little bit about, I find errors and oversights.

[KurtFF8]

The selection above about Vaclav Havel is from Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism. It's a pretty good book in terms of combating some anti-Communist arguments by the Left.

I actually just appealed to the book yesterday in an argument over at PoFo about the nature of the "failure" of East German industry.

Also, the band Choking Victim used excerpts from speeches of his throughout their album so you would think Marxism-Leninism would be more popular amongst punks at this point

[WanderingCactus]

He's a bit of a doofus.

(I've only read his book on Caesar, but it was presented in a really stupid moralizing way, so...)

[Brosa Luxemburg]

I imagine the Marxist-Leninists like him. He is an esteemed historian and ML.

Actually, this is a common misunderstanding. Parenti is a socialist, but really has never gone into detail after that. He likes Lenin, but doesn't like Stalin and doesn't care for Trotsky either.

I like Parenti, in fact I got one of his articles in my sig. and a quote from his book Blackshirts and Reds. I would reccomend that book to people as well. I don't agree with everything in it, but it is an engaging and thought provoking book.

[x359594]

Parenti is a progressive socialist academic with a long history of advocating for working people and students. He paid his dues with tenure denial and a beating by the cops when he was at the University of Illinois in the early 1970s.

His textbook Democracy for the Few is very useful and I hope it's widely read in colleges across the US. Parenti writes clearly and presents his ideas forcefully. He isn't saying anything new to the revolutionary left though, but his books provide good talking points when arguing with liberals.

[ed miliband]

Actually, this is a common misunderstanding. Parenti is a socialist, but really has never gone into detail after that. He likes Lenin, but doesn't like Stalin and doesn't care for Trotsky either.

I like Parenti, in fact I got one of his articles in my sig. and a quote from his book Blackshirts and Reds. I would reccomend that book to people as well. I don't agree with everything in it, but it is an engaging and thought provoking book.

doesn't he really like milosevic as well?

[Per Levy]

Actually, this is a common misunderstanding. Parenti is a socialist, but really has never gone into detail after that. He likes Lenin, but doesn't like Stalin and doesn't care for Trotsky either.

on "contrary notions" on page 190 in the article "left, right and extreme moderats" he says that trots, anarchists, anarcho-syndicates, libertarian socialists are anti-communists because they fight "stalinists". not to mention that on the same page he pretty much says that social-dems, progessives and "issue-oriented marxists" are the good ones who want to implement a social democratic goverment that would spend less on war and more on stuff the people need.

he is good writer but i find him quite naive.

[x359594]

doesn't he really like milosevic as well?

I don't know if he really likes Milosevic but he has expressed the opinion that Milosevic is a scapegoat and didn't deserve to be put on trial in the Hague.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

on "contrary notions" on page 190 in the article "left, right and extreme moderats" he says that trots, anarchists, anarcho-syndicates, libertarian socialists are anti-communists because they fight "stalinists".

I haven't read contrary notions but I know from other writings I have read of his he thinks that they are wrong for considering Stalinists more of a threat than capitalism. Some might be offended by that position, but I am not (and I am a left-communist).

[ed miliband]

I haven't read contrary notions but I know from other writings I have read of his he thinks that they are wrong for considering Stalinists more of a threat than capitalism. Some might be offended by that position, but I am not (and I am a left-communist).

left communist? wouldn't you then see stalinists as the left wing of capital

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Here is a quote from Blackshirts and Reds.

"Those of us who refused to join in the Soviet bashing were branded by left anticommunists as "Soviet apologists" and "Stalinists," even if we disliked Stalin and his autocratic system of rule and believed there were things seriously wrong with existing Soviet society."

Page 45, last paragraph.

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

Parenti pointed something very interesting out: while ultra-leftists, particularly in the 20th century, checked under their beds every night for Stalin and basically every other socialist leader, capitalism was beginning to become less of a pressing issue. "Stalinism" was the new enemy and capitalism was starting to be ignored. This was, and still is, wrong on many levels.

[ed miliband]

Here is a quote from Blackshirts and Reds.

"Those of us who refused to join in the Soviet bashing were branded by left anticommunists as "Soviet apologists" and "Stalinists," even if we disliked Stalin and his autocratic system of rule and believed there were things seriously wrong with existing Soviet society."

Page 45, last paragraph.

that doesn't address what i say

you say you are a left communist but defend parenti's defence of stalinism by saying:

he thinks that they are wrong for considering Stalinists more of a threat than capitalism

if you are a left communist wouldn't you see stalinism as a form of capitalism? so this stalinist/capitalist dichotomy you make makes very little sense from the tradition you claim to be part of