I recently
posted about Sociologist Frances Fox Piven, co-author of a 1966 article entitled "A Strategy to End Poverty," which has become the centerpiece of a right-wing conspiracy theory. Right wingers call it The Cloward-Piven Strategy and they think it is the 'blueprint for a radical takeover of American society' ~ the left's long-standing plan of the destruction of Capitalism through orchestrated crisis and redistribution of wealth.
I noted how I would love to sit and chat with her and remarked how she is likely appalled about all that has been done to warp her and her late husband's important work on women and poverty issues.
Little did I know that Ms. Piven was recently subjected to the devious actions of yet another punk right wing operative when he interviewed her under false pretenses. I am shocked to have just read this article excerpted below today in The American Prospect.
Words cannot express the anger and contempt I feel for these people who have distorted Ms. Piven's and her late husband's works and who have destroyed ACORN with their hate and deception.
It is truly painful to watch the video clips (at link below) of this fine woman in this context.
The ACORN Conspiracy, Continued
Right-wingers remain convinced that ACORN is part of a nefarious plot to destroy America, and they'll use any means they can to prove it.
Peter Dreier | March 23, 2010 |
Sociologist Frances Fox Piven often gets requests from students who want to interview her about her political theories and activism. So when Kyle Olson phoned her in January and told her he was a college student in Michigan who wanted to videotape an interview with her about her recent book Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America, Piven agreed. Temporarily housebound and recovering from a car accident, the 77-year-old Piven invited Olson to her New York apartment. On Feb. 1, Olson and a friend arrived from Michigan with a video camera. She offered them something to drink. Then, for about an hour, Piven and Olson sat around her dining room table and talked about everything from the Founding Fathers to Fox News while the friend taped them.
Two weeks later, Piven, a professor at the City University of New York and former president of the American Sociological Association, learned that about eight minutes of the taped interview had appeared in three segments on Big Government, Andrew Breitbart's conservative news Web site. The outlet achieved national prominence when it published James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles' highly edited but hugely destructive hidden-camera recordings of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) employees. ... Now, Olson has employed these same "gotcha" tactics on Piven, all while advancing a damaging mythology of Barack Obama that depends on a strained interpretation of an article Piven co-authored decades ago.
Olson is not a college student. He is a 31-year-old Republican Party operative and commentator. He runs a Michigan-based conservative advocacy organization, the Education Action Group, which primarily attacks teachers' unions. Olson has also paid for billboards in Michigan that attack pro-choice candidates, developed an anti-ACORN Web site, and written articles blasting liberal leaders like Obama and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern.
The real reason for Olson's interview with Piven was a 1966 Nation article she co-authored with Richard Cloward. "A Strategy to End Poverty" has become the centerpiece of a right-wing conspiracy theory -- the blueprint for a radical takeover of American society. The 6,327-word piece proposed organizing the poor to demand the welfare benefits for which they were eligible in order to pressure the federal government to expand the nation's social safety net and establish a guaranteed national income. To that end, Cloward and Piven helped create the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), which had some success in increasing participation in the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children program through organized protests and political advocacy.
~snip~
Piven admits to being "unnerved" by Olson's alleged misrepresentation in order to get her to agree to the interview.
"He interviewed me under false pretenses," Piven says. "If I'd known he was a right-wing operative, I wouldn't have let him into my apartment. I might have talked to him in my office or over the phone."
Contacted by phone at his Michigan office, Olson hung up as soon as he was asked about his interview with Piven. When called again for comment, his colleague, Steve Gunn, answered for him. "He doesn't have any interest in talking with you. He doesn't care anything about you," Gunn said. "If you call again, I'll call 911. You have a miserable day."
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_acorn_conspiracy_continued