Chomsky reassessed?
by MICHAEL ALBERT
One of the late acts of Noam Chomsky’s incredible life was to become one of thirty initial co-signers of a document titled “Twenty Theses for Liberation.” Noam didn’t agree with every word, nor did any of its co-signers, not even those who contributed, as Noam did, to its actual words. All the co-signers including Noam did agree, however, on the aim. Propel an on-going conversation to continually update broadly shared vision and strategy. Work to unify a growing left. Win a new world.
That document, (still available at 4liberation.org) accrued three hundred signers, including ten organizations: Diem25, Academy of Democratic Modernity, Meta Center for Post Capitalist Civilization, Cooperation Jackson, Collaboration for Change, Srsly Wrong, Organizaciija Z’s Participatorno Druzbo, Real Utopia, Demokraisk Omstållning, and ZNetwork. The document highlights gender, race, class, authority, ecology, and internationalism. It does not elevate any one above the rest. It urges mutual aid, collective support, listening, empathy, patient collective self-correction, and outreach. So did Noam lie when he signed it?
As I signed it, I wondered, what if everyone who has learned from Noam and who has appreciated his efforts over the decades decided to give the Twenty Theses a close read? What if lots, and then lots more, decided to sign it and to bring it to still greater attention? Perhaps that could help put movements on a path to change Noam’s epitaph, which he not long ago said he would like to be “He Tried,” to instead be “He Helped.” And to change all of ours as well, when our time comes, to “We Helped” by way of going from 300 signers to 3,000 and then to tens and hundreds of thousands and more, all committed to developing and enacting shared vision and strategy. All working to unite diverse movements to undertake intersecting mutually supportive campaigns. All seeking to win a new world that each helps all to win. Did Noam lie when he signed that? And in his lifetime of literally countless words and deeds, did he lie tens of thousands of times?
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What Noam Chomsky’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein says about progressive politics
by KAVITA KRISHNAN
The Left icon overlooked sexual violence, much like India’s literary and cultural progressives have embraced a man whose rape conviction was overturned.
“I’ve met [all] sorts of people, including major war criminals. I don’t regret having met any of them.” That was public intellectual Noam Chomsky’s belligerent reply in 2023 to a newspaper’s question about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. More recently, Epstein’s emails reveal a close friendship with Chomsky and his wife.
Of particular interest is a testimonial (undated but written in or after 2017) written by Chomsky for Epstein, in which he describes their friendship of six years as a “valuable” and “rewarding” experience, thanks to Epstein’s intellectual breadth and insights, and says that “Jeffrey has repeatedly been able to arrange, sometimes on the spot, very productive meetings with leading figures in the sciences and mathematics, and global politics, people whose work and activities I had looked into though I had never expected to meet them.”
In the infamous BBC Newsnight interview, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was asked if in retrospect, knowing Epstein was a paedophile and sexual predator, he felt any “guilt, regret, or shame” about his friendship with Epstein. No, he said, “the reason being is that the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful…(it) had some seriously beneficial outcomes in areas that have nothing to do with (his crimes).”
Both Chomsky and Andrew are saying they don’t regret being Epstein’s friend because through him they could meet useful and important people.
Andrew faces the allegation of raping a young minor girl trafficked by Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein. I must emphasise here that knowing or meeting Epstein does not in any way imply that Chomsky was party to his crimes against girls and women. I’m not suggesting “guilt by association” nor am I interested in a “gotcha” moment at his expense.
But for me the question is this: what does Chomsky’s relationship to Epstein tell us about whether sexual violence survivors matter to our politics – to Left and progressive politics?
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