chabot@amber.DEC (Lisa S. Chabot) (09/13/84)
In the September 27, 1984 issue of The New York Review of Books, I found an
informative and unsettling article by Canadian George Woodcock, writer (and
author of a history _Anarchism_) about his difficulties with the US
immigration department--he found himself placed on their black book of
"inadmissable" aliens because he had publicly declared himself to be an
anarchist--despite the fact that he rejects violence as a method but is
instead a pacifist. Below I will quote (unauthorized --sorry.lsc.) from
the article. I have posted this also to net.books because of the effect
of ideological exclusions on foreign authors.
Woodcock describes the history of his personal philosophy and the history
of his involvement anarchism, and his gradual shift to a detached objectivity
towards anarchism. In 1951 he had no trouble teaching in California on a
Gugenheim Fellowship, nor any trouble in 1954 when teaching in a temporary
positioon at the University of Washington. But in 1955, when offered a
permanent post at the University, he was denied permanent residence.
After many years of no trouble from airport immigration officers,
last year Woodcock was stopped and denied permission to stopover briefly in
Honolulu en route to Sydney.
"...And then, ... my name turned up again in the Honolulu black book. Why
was it there, and not on the computers at the other places? Have old lists,
under Reagan, been revived and redistributed?
"I have no answer to that question, but I have learned, since then, that
many other writers and intellectuals are in the same position because of events
in the 1950s. The Canadian list of more than three thousand once included
Pierre Trudeau, because he attended an economics conference in Moscow; his name
was quickly removed after he became prime minister. The attorney general of
Manitoba, Roland Penner, is still on the list because of the communist
affiliations of his parents; he travels on a special diplomatic visa. The 97-
year-old poet and painter, Barker Fairley, one of the most respected Canadians,
is there because once, long ago, he was married to a woman who had been a
Communist. Many writers from European, African, Asian, and Latin American
countries are in the same position. Pablo Neruda was inadmissable. Gabriel
Garcia Marquez has recently been turned away. The list could go on for pages.
"There is not automatic process by which the black book is revised. ...
Getting off the list requires either an act of Congress, as happened with
Arthur Koestler, who had been a Communist during the Thirties, or an applica-
tion for defector status (amounting to a recantation), which nonetheless is
difficult to obtain. Otherwise, exclusion can be waived only in special
cases for specified periods of time. This too is a cumbersome legal process,
involving a great deal of groveling, and has no guarantee of success..
Woodcock cites efforts by US legistlators and organizations to change the
immigration act to eliminate the ideological exclusion clauses.
Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts has introduced a bill which
will have more hearings. Initiated by the ACLU, a conference of more than 40
organizations will be held in Washington on September 18 to repeal the
McCarran act (and interested parties are directed to contact Deborah A.
Trevino at the Center for National Security Studies, 122 Maryland Ave., NE,
Washington, DC 20003 (202) 544-5380 ).
"Perhaps at last the need for the tedious waiver procedure, which many of
us find too humiliating to pursue, will be brought to an end and American and
foreign writers and intellectuals will once again mingle freely without
discrimination for ideological reasons."
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Thanks for tolerating the typos (casualities in a battle between me and a
noisy phone line).
L S Chabot
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