Socialist Scholars Archive
(from R L Norman ) Bogdan Denitch: After ten years of work, I do not see the conference as moving forward in any significant way and I believe that a major impediment to that moving forward is the cultural style elucidated by yourself [Bogdan Denitch] as political director which actively encourages incompetence and general stupidity on the part of most potential workers. I've never denied you the right to be this way, but I feel under no obligation to work in yet another conference. I might add that this is not the only view on the conference. In a private discussion with another long time leftist, he had the outlook that you have, that the conference is a necessary event primarily for the encouragement of many leftist isolated out in the university hinterlands, who see the conference as a place to see old friends each year. Another person, whose name can go unmentioned, would just as soon see the conference die. The first party oddly enough is a non DSAer who has organized conferences; the second person is a DSAer, appropriately enough. The general problem, is that you are unable to exercise even minimal supervision on the vast number of details on the conference and are unwilling to allow anyone else that dubious privilege. Thus anyone who does anything becomes a target for your attacks. True many details don't make a rat's ass. In some years I may have been too concerned with minor problems; but in the past six or seven years, I have had to develope a strong system of priorities simply in order to survive. After several hard learned lessons, I figured out that you would not bother to check up on even the most important details. The most flagrant example of this tendency was Peter Kott's refusal to even obligate the college for theater space and child care in 1992. His previous acts of incompetence in relation to the tables and ad sales and his inability to even get an internal CUNY mailing out (after copious promises) apparently had not taught you [Denitch] a damn thing. [ This act of stupidity left the conference with informal child care that year and no insurance. If a child had been injured, we would have had not the ability to pay for medical care. The school was usually willing to handle these matters- but the necessary paper had to be shuffled, in a timely manner) The fact is that the conference got along better the first two or three years without Kott than it has with him, especially the last two years. While it is true that we had the CUNY Chancellor's [the late Joseph S. Murphy ] intervention back then, it is also true that we have had the weight of obtaining important political figures over the past several years as an inducement to the college. I believe that Kott is a known fuckup within the college and our continued use of him despite his continual fucking up of things has called into question our own political competence at the college. I personally would not trust the man to take out the garbage. I should add that this was not my initial response, I was glad to have a contact of such importance at the college. My suggestion is that he be given no responsibility for anything which matters, which is to say, if it must be done for the conference to survive, he cannot be allowed to do it. Stupidity of Control (WRTW) You [Denitch] have a fetish for 'Who Reports To Whom' (WRTW), and have confused such with 'Who Does What' (WDW). The military or other large bureaucracies can afford such confusion, as it has enough inertia to carry itself forward by its shear size. A small guerilla operation cannot allow too much incompetence, as it will be destroyed by the bureaucratic military it is facing. Our nickle and dime organization has plagued by fuck-ups from the beginning, people who promise you to do something, then either forget or simply do not give a shit. I guess that Richard was perhaps the prime example of this attitude. The Friday night in which the Fugs played at Reade Street for the conference [early in the conference- about 1984 or 1985], Vern Mogensen and I were drinking at a table when Richard walked up. One of us casually asked him how the secuity looked. We weren't checking up on him, simply asking him how things looked, trying to make conversation. He let us know in no uncertain terms that he wasn't concerned with it, that he was attending another conference the next day. He did not do security that Saturday and as a result, we lost thousands of dollars and hundreds of registrations. The lost moneyhurt, but the loss of the registrations was potentially worse. Back then we had the CUNY Chancellor to back us for money, but names are the seed for future work. One good part of the story is that Richard got himself a good administration job as dean at District 65. Once again an asshole used the conference as a spring board, without even a by-your-leave. Richard was probably not the first to figure out that he could play you for a mark by 'reporting' to you and he certainly was not the last. The list of people who 'report' to you in some fashion is quite long. The list of those who actually do the conference any good is quite short. Over the years, you [Denitch] have continually referred to the DSA operation at CUNY as a 'political' operation. If this is how the former Yugoslav political economy worked out in practice, I now have an idea why the Slovenes wanted out. It also shows why western style capitalism will run rings 'socialist' economies. It also tells me that the conference is unlikely to grow under your leadership. 1993 DSA Youth Section Conference
SSC Conference as Surrogate for DSA for Denitch
Yet if Irving Howe, whose views on leftism in general are not that far from yours, can still have some standing in DSA, and truly Irving is an arrogant jerk at the personal level if ever one breathed; I question how Irving can have something like real editorial board meetings with something like his peers, when you apparently cannot or will not have the equivilant with regard to the conference. Perhaps it is as you have said, and as George Fisher said in his analysis of why the first SSC self-destructed, too much democracy combined with too large a focus.
Cultural Studies
I'm basically through playing Kott-type games. Either we get a reasonable facsimile of an organization, complete with a rough table of organization and job descriptions or this whole shooting match is yours. Then every one can report directly to you.
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