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Clouds Blur the Rainbow

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Clouds Blur the Rainbow
AuthorChip Berlet
LanguageEnglish
Subjectpolitics, psychotherapy
GenreNon-fiction
PublisherPolitical Research Associates
Publication date
June 1987
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN[[Special:BookSources/ISBN+0915987031+%2C+%3Cbr%3E+ISBN+978-0915987030 |ISBN 0915987031 ,
ISBN 978-0915987030]] Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Preceded byCounter Intelligence: A Documentary Look at America's Secret Police 
Followed byRight woos Left: Populist Party, La Rouchian and other neo-fascist overtures to progressives, and why they must be rejected 

Clouds Blur the Rainbow: The Other Side of New Alliance Party is a non-fiction report by Chip Berlet, published in 1987 by Political Research Associates (PRA). The pamphlet was written during the 1988 Presidential campaign of Marxist psychologist and political activist Lenora Fulani, and was written and distributed to dissuade progressive voters from supporting Fulani's bid and her New Alliance Party.[1].

Berlet presents his view that Fulani and her campaign manager and tactician Fred Newman "use totalitarian deception to manipulate social and political activists,[2] and describe Newman and Fulani's therapeutic approach, Social Therapy, as "totalitarian cultism".[3] Fulani went on to garner a quarter of a million votes and became the first African American and first woman to achieve ballot status in all 50 states.[4][5]

Reception

Berlet and Lyons cite the report in their 2000 work, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort.[6] The report is cited in Mandery's 2001 book on the history of political campaigns, Eyes on City Hall.[7]

In citing Clouds Blur the Rainbow in a 2004 article, Doug Ireland of The Nation referred to Chip Berlet as "Political Research Associates' excellent senior analyst".[8] The same article criticized Ralph Nader's 2004 3rd party Presidential campaign for allying with what the author referred to as "the ultrasectarian cult-racket formerly known as the New Alliance Party?"[8]. Noting that Nader's it made "no sense," Ireland wrote that "Nader's flinging himself into the embrace of the Newmanites" was "worse than a crime, it's a mistake."[8]

Stanley Kurtz of the conservative magazine National Review has described researchers from the Political Research Associates' publication the Public Eye as "conspiracy mongers".[9]

Response from Fulani and Newman

In a 1991 interview, Newman described the criticisms as “absurd” and the product of jealousies on the left, and claimed that the majority of social therapy clients don't involve themselves in his political activities.[10] In the Boston Globe in 1992, Fulani claimed "the entire thing is a lie," and cited what she described as Political Research Associates ties to the Democratic Party.[11]

The report also figured in a 1993 lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by Fulani and Newman against the FBI and Janet Reno.[12] FBI documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act showed that the FBI had classified Fulani's New Alliance Party as a ”political cult” which “should be considered armed and dangerous.” A copy of Clouds Blur the Rainbow was amongst the items that were contained in the FBI files.[13]

Newman, Fulani and the New Alliance Party challenged the FBI in the lawsuit, asserting the FBI "political cult" labeling had violated their constitutional rights, and was using private third-party organizations to evade federal guidelines prohibiting investigations of political organizations in the absence of evidence of criminal activity. In her ruling on the case, Federal judge Constance Baker Motley ruled that the "political cult" charge "could not be directly traced to the 1988 FBI investigation," and that "any stigmatization which NAP suffers could be traced to a myriad of statements and publications made by private individuals and organizations, many of which preceded the FBI investigation.[14]

Berlet's claims of cultism have been disputed by some of Newman's peers in the therapeutic milieu.[15] According to British psychologist Ian Parker, "Even those [Newman and Holzman] who have been marked by the FBI as a 'cult' may still be a source of useful radical theory and practice. Like a weed, a cult is something that is growing in the wrong place. We would want to ask 'wrong' for who, and whether it might sometimes be right for us. We have no desire to line up with the psychological establishment to rule out of the debate those who offer something valuable to anti-racist, feminist or working-class practice."[16]

Lenora Fulani referred to the report in a public address in 2006, saying: "It was all a pack of lies – making false allegations of anti-Semitism and cultism against me and Dr. Newman. It was fairly vicious.".[17] In an article on BlackElectorate.com, Fulani characterized the book as a "diatribe" written by "white leftists."[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Radical America, 1987; Vol. 21, No. 5
  2. ^ How Fred Newman & Lenora Fulani Use Totalitarian Deception to Manipulate Social and Political Activists, PublicEye, Chip Berlet, retrieved February 21, 2007.
  3. ^ Chip Berlet, Institutes for Social Therapy and Totalitarian Cultism, Public Eye, retrieved February 21, 2007.
  4. ^ 1988 vote: the final word. The New York Times. December 29, 1988
  5. ^ Grann, David. The Infiltrators. The New Republic, December 13, 1999.
  6. ^ Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, The Guilford Press, November 2000, p. 411. ISBN 1572305622, ISBN 978-1572305625.
  7. ^ Evan J. Mandery, Eyes on City Hall: A Young Man's Education in New York Political Warfare, Westview Press, March 2001, p. 379. ISBN 0813398150, ISBN 978-0813398150.
  8. ^ a b c Doug Ireland, Nader and the Newmanites, The Nation, January 12, 2004
  9. ^ Dominionist Domination, Stanley Kurtz, May 2, 2005, National Review Online.
  10. ^ Street-Wise Impresario; Sharpton Calls the Tunes, and Players Take Their Cues. The New York Times. December 19, 1991.
  11. ^ The Boston Globe. February 13, 1992.
  12. ^ Federal Lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, New Alliance Party, Fred Newman, Lenora Fulani, Rafael Mendez, v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, William Sessions, director, James M. Fox, acting director, Janet Reno, United States Attorney General, 93 Civ. 3490., May 21, 1993
  13. ^ Anderson, Kelvyn. Capitolism: The FBI’s Spying Campaign against Candidate Lenora Fulani’s New Alliance Party. Washington City Paper, March 6, 1992
  14. ^ New Alliance Party vs. Federal Bureau of Investigation, 93 CIV 3490 (1993)
  15. ^ Nissen M et al Theory & Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 3, 417-426 (1999)
  16. ^ Parker, I. (1999) "Critical Psychology: Critical Links", Annual Review of Critical Psychology , 1, pp. 3-18.[1]
  17. ^ Lenora Fulani, Keynote address, March 17, 2006, Atlanta, Georgia, Southern Regional Conference of Independents.
  18. ^ Lenora Fulani, Politics Mondays: "The Real Al Sharpton (By The Real Lenora Fulani)" by Dr. Lenora Fulani, BlackElectorate.com, March 10, 2003
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