Why I love the AVA

[gordonzola]

I'd fallen behind in my reading so I just now caught up to the fact that Bruce Anderson of the Anderson Valley Advertiser just stepped up his campaign to convict Judi Bari’s husband of the car bombing that eventually killed her. Anderson’s theory is that her husband tried to kill her, and while he very well may have been (or continue to be) an FBI informant, the bombing was personal, not political. Anderson also views the Redwood Summer Justice Project as a scam, Darryl Cherney as a fraud, and that the case is easily solvable with a few subpoenas for DNA samples.

Anderson just recently published a series of articles bylined to Mike Sweeney, the husband, where he "confesses" all. Because the proper authorities won’t take action, Anderson is hoping to get sued for libel by Sweeney so he can argue truth as a defense in court, call witnesses, and basically put Sweeney on trial. Instead of a libel action, Sweeney responded by complaining to the Post Office about mail fraud because he didn’t write the articles.

Clearly Anderson is willing to risk his livelihood on his belief that Sweeney did it. He’s also threatening to do a citizens arrest if the local DA won’t take action. The whole case has implications for the Left, credibility of activists, and the underbelly of political movements and it’s going to be fascinating how it plays out. The AVA is my favorite newspaper, certainly the best written weekly in the country, but keep in mind that I do not expect to agree with my reading material 100% of the time.

Check out the website and you can read a few articles and even get a free copy.

Comments

[brownstargirl.livejournal.com]

Judi Bari and the sister you mention, Gina Kolata, are both red diaper babies--daughters of the American Old Left... Anyay, it makes a lot of sense to me that Judi would "identify" as working class (with all the problematic issues that attach to all identity politics)

Aha. Thank you for filling that in; it makes total sense.

My reference point for Judi IDing as working class comes from a xeroxed packet of info about the bombing and interviews with Judi that I read at a friend's house in Kitchener, Ontario back in 1995, where she ID as such and talked about actually having respect for the loggers and being able to speak to them regularly, and just seemed to get a lot about activist classism and arrogance. But it makes sense that she's an old lefty. I mean, she could've been a working-class lefty, or she could've been a slumming it kid, but the other makes the pieces of her work come together the most, based on old red diaper kids I've known.

Have y'all read the letter Bruce says is written by Judi that's up on the AVA site, though? I'm willing to be open to alternative theories about what went down, but I have a harder time buying that the letter is for real. It just seems way too crank caller-ish.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

The letter is not real and isn't meant to be read as real. It's written from "her" point of view to outline what he thinks happened.