Guardian on China Killings
In his June 11 column (“Leftist Cacophony for Human Rights Grows Silent on the Beijing Massacreâ€), Alan M. Dershowitz asserts that China’s bloody crackdown produced “a resounding chorus of silence†from U.S. leftists. Without quoting any of their positions, he claims Marxist papers, including the Guardian, “were busy trying to fit the events in China into their political orthodoxies.†Based on this premise that the left has refused to condemn China’s leaders, Dershowitz argues that leftists’ criticism of human rights violations by right-wing regimes is hypocritical.
Dershowitz’s premise is false, however. The Guardian, an independent radical news weekly that is widely read on the left, denounced the killings in no uncertain terms, in a front-page editorial June 14, our first issue after the crackdown. (Previous issues included favorable reports on the pro-democracy movement.) The editorial stressed “the necessity of incorporating democratic rights like freedom of assembly and the press into socialism.â€
A survey of left organizations published in our June 21 issue further contradicts Dershowitz’s “chorus of silence†claim. Nearly all major U.S. left groups published editorials or issued statements strongly condemning the Chinese decision to crush the student protests. The Workers World Party, cited by Dershowitz as typical of left opinion, was in fact the only national Marxist group to support the repression.
One is led to conclude that Dershowitz’s blatant misrepresentation of the left’s position was an effort to fit events into his political orthodoxy.
WILLIAM RYAN
Editor, Guardian
New York
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