Counter "Black Book" neo-fascism

SUMMARY: The English edition of the "Black Book of Communism" misplaced
decimal points in 11 figures, multiplying already exaggerated mortality
rates in the Soviet Union and China by a factor of 10. Thousands of
mainstream news sources reviewed the book favorably for over a year before
MIM caught the error and pressed the book's editor for a corrigendum.

Furthermore, the book underestimates the death toll of fascism and counts
Nazi invaders killed by the Red Army in communism's death toll -- as if
fighting fascism were a crime. Hence the "Black Book" is an important part
of the propaganda offensive of neo-fascists, endorsed by the likes of
Harvard University Press, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

ACTION: Because of the ignorant and reactionary nature of common
reviewers, we call on our readers who like web-surfing, typing and
discussing to counter the neo-fascist offensive all over the Internet. We
encourage readers to post MIM articles and excerpts, available on our
website.

A more extensive article is included below for those who want to learn
more. The latest developments in the struggle for a corrigendum can be
found at http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/agitation/blackb6.html. That
link also contains a history of the struggle.

--mim4

Amerikan quota of anti-communism: multiply by 10

by Web Minister, [email protected]

After editor Mark Kramer wrote to MIM to admit that there were several
decimal misplacements in the "Black Book of Communism," MIM conducted an
investigation of the French edition of the book. We found 11 figures with
misplaced decimals in the English edition China chapter, conveniently
affecting all the most important numbers in the China chapter and the
whole book when it comes to calculating a death toll of communism. The 11
misplaced decimals can be considered the Amerikan quota of anti-communism,
because they were not in the French edition (at least not the Robert
Laffont Pocket edition).

What it means is that it is possible to take the largest numbers in the
accusations against us communists--blow them up by a factor of 10--then
spread them in the United $tates in English through Harvard University
Press, and nobody out of over a thousand reviewers will notice except for
MIM, for a period of over a year. The book came out in 1999 and errors
were not acknowledged until February 26, 2001. This is what we mean by the
anti-Amerikan quota of anti-communism. The Europeans have to be
careful: whatever they say over there will be multiplied by 10 by the time
it gets here when it comes to anti-communism.

MIM found Australians already discussing the "Black Book" and we raised
our campaign, to which a die-hard reactionary on the Internet in the
Usenet newgroup for Australians called "aus.politics" said, "Your
(sic.) the dishonest one, ther eroor (sic.) was in printing, not
calculation."

MIM then replied with the following quote: "Just weeks after The Black
Book of Communism was published, in late October 1997, the volume's two
most distinguished contributors--Nicolas Werth, a historian of the Soviet
Union, and Jean-Louis Margolin, a China expert--angrily repudiated the
editor Stphane Courtois in a series of interviews and articles published
in Le Monde. The scholars were infuriated by Courtois's introductory
screed indicting international communism for "crimes against peace, war
crimes, and crimes against humanity" and characterizing fellow travelers
as "common prostitutes." Worst of all, they complained, Courtois had not
permitted them to see the introduction prior to publication. On October
31, Werth and Margolin were quoted in Le Monde excoriating Courtois for
effacing "the historical character" of communism and for vastly inflating
the number of deaths that occurred under it."(1)

We spelled out that "in other words, we are criticizing Margolin and
Margolin has already in turn criticized Courtois who came up with the 100
million nonsense. So the errors are the following: 1) The calculations
were repudiated by Werth and Margolin, who wrote the Soviet and China
chapters. 2) We at MIM in turn said even Margolin had gone way too far and
English editor Mark Kramer has had to admit some errors so far."

The die-hard reactionary did not get it, so someone else repeated the same
thing. Then, the die-hard said it was only a printing error. So yet again,
someone explained that there are separate errors--both printing errors and
calculation errors. This is typical of die-hard reactionaries, but what is
valuable is that MIM knows that some people "do get it" when they see a
debate on the Internet--even if they are not participating themselves.

In any case, the point is that the reactionaries are using this book and
the post-modernist climate in academia to take up the neo-Nazi
offensive. They are all comparing the 100 million figure Courtois used
(which includes deaths of Axis invaders in addition to fictional deaths
over a period of 72 years) and the 25 million Nazi caused deaths (which
does not even count all the World War II casualties caused by the Nazis
and only covers 12 years in fewer countries.)

On the Usenet newsgroups since 2000, there have been 328 messages
mentioning the "Black Book of Communism" excluding our own. The range of
groups includes talk.politics.guns to co.general to
soc.culture.vietnamese. Readers can check on this for themselves by going
to my-deja.com (now owned by Google) and doing an advanced power search
for the phrase "Black Book of Communism." The book is also getting heavy
mention in standard political groups like alt.politics, alt.politics.usa
and alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater.

A Google search for "Black Book of Communism" comes up with 1,360 hits. In
contrast, while the Maoist Internationalist Movement has been on the
Internet much longer, our name occurs on only 380 web pages. Sifting
through the reviews, we find all the major bourgeois propaganda organs
like the Wall Street Journal, New Republic and NPR radio--all speaking in
remarkable unison.(2) It is important that we communists understand this
phenomenon--the unison of the bourgeois media and academia on this subject
and it is important that we not underestimate the propaganda offensive of
the neo-fascists. Major institutions such as the Catholic Church have
joined the fray on behalf of neo-fascism. The fact that none of these web
pages or major media reviews caught any substantial errors in the book is
indicative of what kind of reviewers have influence in the French and
English-speaking imperialist world.

Because of the ignorant and reactionary nature of common reviewers, we
call on our readers who like web-surfing, typing and discussing to post
MIM articles and excerpts, available on our website all over the Internet
to counter the neo-fascist offensive. MIM articles are especially
effective in response to discussions already under way. People who do not
mind signing my-deja.com's legal masochism created by Google for accounts
can post to Usenet groups. Another place to get free Usenet access is
http://news.interbulletin.com . There are also countless forums hosted by
web pages. MIM material may be distributed anywhere on the
Internet. Please just include a reference to our web site. We recommend
that Internet surfers try to use the most security they can and post
anonymously if they are going to be communist and not just
dissident. People who use search engines on the Internet and Usenet can
have their pick of political topics to discuss and enemies to beat
back. MIM's web page also has search engines, so it is possible to find
the exact response you need to spread to counter the reactionary
offensives.

Notes:
1. http://www.linguafranca.com/br/9911/shatz.html
2. A nice list of these uninformed reviews can be found
at: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm . Short style
reviews can be found at: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/reviews/COUBLA_R.html