24 March 2012.
Comrades,
We are writing to alert you to a vicious slander of one of our supporters, Jason Wright, circulated by Sam Trachtenberg's Revolutionary Regroupment website. The latest issue of our journal, 1917, contains a report on the IBT's Sixth International Conference in which we noted our recent failure "to win over members of the Coletivo Lenin (CL) in Rio de Janeiro, some of whom eventually aligned themselves with Sam T., a talented but troubled former IBT member who departed in September 2008 after deciding he was no longer prepared to carry out the directives of the organization."
On 21 March, Sam posted an emotionally-charged and at times delusional critique of this report on www.regroupment.org in which he falsely asserted that comrade Jason "had for several years [been] working at a clerical position for the Dept. of Homeland Security."
Two days later, we wrote Sam a short letter (reprinted below) correcting this misinformation and requesting a retraction within 24 hours. Regrettably there has been no retraction, and we are therefore circulating our letter to expose this odious lie.
Yours for workers' democracy,
Gary H.,
for the International Bolshevik Tendency
To Sam T.:
We have read your 21 March screed directed at us and note that it is largely a pastiche of distortions, falsifications and inventions as well as your previous criticisms. Given your troubled mental condition which would appear to involve more than simply depression, and which we observed gradually worsen during your time in the IBT it is difficult to know which of your misrepresentations are genuinely delusional and which are malicious. While we do not intend to comment on most of your allegations, we were struck by the claim that you “wrote many of their [IBT] documents for so many years.” Whether or not you actually believe this, it is simply not true. We tend to view this assertion as an example of how, at least in some instances, you are genuinely “incapable of recognizing reality.”
A far more serious (and in fact slanderous) allegation is that Comrade Jason had a job “for several years working at a clerical position for the Dept. of Homeland Security.” This is absolutely untrue. It is not clear to us whether you are deliberately inventing this or have derived it from a confused recollection of the fact that Jason, who has long been a unionized state civil servant, was one of the clerks assigned to x-ray mail sent to members of the legislature for a period of time after “9-11.” This had nothing to do with the Department of Homeland Security. The IBT would never have any supporter employed by any police agency, including the Department of Homeland Security, and none of our supporters would ever entertain such a notion. If you are indeed still capable of “making rational political judgements,” we presume you will be anxious to immediately retract this false allegation. If we do not see a correction on your website within 24 hours (and a notification of the change on the Leftist Trainspotters list to which you posted a link to your article), we will have to conclude that you are deliberately promoting a vicious slander.
Bolshevik greetings,
Tom Riley
for the International Bolshevik Tendency
