I should not be surprised that, when the Alligator reported on the active role the International Socialist Organization took in organizing for the National Equality March in Washington D.C., Rafael Yaniz accused the paper of trying to "indoctrinate" its readership. He stands firmly in the tradition of American reactionaries comfortable with any attack, no matter how spurious, to direct attention away from the real struggles of the left to better the lives of working people and oppressed groups. It is telling that he has no "counter position" to our fight for LGBT civil rights; he merely objects to our existence and is happy to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Who seeks to "indoctrinate" whom, Mr. Yaniz? Is it the ISO, eager to take to the streets to fight oppression wherever we see it? Or is it you, with your bizarre case that socialists should be barred from newspaper coverage? Socialists and the working class have struggled for more than a century against your brand of ideological censorship.
We didn't take it from Bismarck, President Wilson or Sen. McCarthy, and we surely won't take it from you.
Perhaps if you spent a bit more time examining your politics and world, Mr. Yaniz, and less time indulging in infantile reactions to newspaper articles about people actively working to better the lot of the downtrodden, I would see you at our Thursday night meetings. Until then, I can only hope the Alligator ignores your totalitarian opinion.
