A further appeal to the leadership of the DSP and the moderator of the
Green Left list

By Bob Gould

An individual writing under the pseudonym Roger Raven has today
(Sunday) made even more precise his accusation that I am an agent
provocateur. He says that Gould is a "Hard Right agent provocateur"
and he associates my role as a "Hard Right agent provocateur" with
what he calls my "black armband" view of Soviet history.

Presumably anyone who doesn't have a Stalinist view of Soviet history
is in danger of being classified as a right-wing provocateur if they
express their views strongly, as I tend to do.

The term agent provocateur has a precise meaning in the workers
movement: that the person involved is an agent of forces outside the
workers movement, usually the state.

It's fantastic for a man writing under a pseudonym to make such an
assertion about anyone without presenting any evidence. Is it now the
case that on the Green Left list it's possible to accuse someone of
being an agent provocateur without evidence and for the moderator of
the list and the DSP leadership to say nothing about this?

I've previously raised a similar issue concerning indiscriminate
labelling of people in the labour movement as scabs, and sensibly the
people who were using that rhetoric dropped off. At least those people
weren't hiding too hard under a pseudonym.

I pointed out that the term scab introduced the dangerous possibility
of people accused of scabbery taking legal action, as well
indiscriminate use of the term being a bad thing in principle. Much
the same applies to the accusation that I am an agent provocateur,
made by someone who clearly has a developed Stalinist view of
historical events.

Alan Bradley reduced the question to some kind of conflict between
myself and the person who calls himself Roger Raven, but that's furphy
in a situation in which a specific accusation has been made against me.

I repeat my request that the moderator of the Green Left list assert
in the most forceful to the person who calls himself Roger Raven that
he present evidence for his assertion, and if he can't, I insist that
he immediately withdraw the allegation, and that the moderator of the
list take whatever action is necessary to get him to present evidence
or withdraw the allegation.

It's a concrete allegation that can't just be left hanging, and as I
value my political honour and reputation I don't intend to leave it
hanging.