Comment: The story below has got to be a major embarrassment for the ISO, which has been fawning over Chomsky for years, endorsing Chomsky's views without criticism, even though Chomsky is an "anarchist," a member of the IWW (or he was in 2000-2001 )

 

Chomsky's name has been on the cover of ISR, the ISO's magazine, more often than the names of Marx, Engels, Lenin, or Trotsky, and even more often even than the name of Tony Cliff, the English ex-Trotskyist who invented the International Socialist (IS) tendency, and who, interestingly, did not oppose the expulsion of the ISO from the world IS tendency a few years ago.

 



 

Chomsky backs 'Bush-lite' Kerry

Matthew Tempest

Saturday March 20, 2004

The Guardian

Noam Chomsky, the political theorist and leftwing guru, yesterday gave his reluctant endorsement to the Democratic party's presidential contender, John Kerry, calling him "Bush-lite", but a "fraction" better than his rival.

Professor Chomsky - a linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a renowned chronicler of American foreign policy - said there were "small differences" between Senator Kerry and the Republican president. But, in an interview on the Guardian's politics website, he added that those small differences "can translate into large outcomes".

He describes the choice facing US voters in November as "the choice between two factions of the business party". But the Bush administration was so "cruel and savage", it was important to replace it.

He said: "Kerry is sometimes described as 'Bush-lite', which is not inaccurate. But despite the limited differences both domestically and internationally, there are differences. In a system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes" . . .