''Clouds Blur the Rainbow: The Other Side of New Alliance Party'' is a
non-fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...
report by
Chip Berlet
John Foster "Chip" Berlet (; born November 22, 1949) is an American investigative journalist, research analyst, photojournalist, scholar, and activist specializing in the study of extreme right-wing movements in the United States. He also studi ...
, published in 1987 by
Political Research Associates
Political Research Associates (PRA), formerly Midwest Research, Chicago (1981–87) is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Mission
PRA studies the U.S. political right wing, as well as white supremacists, and para ...
(PRA). Berlet presents his view that
Lenora Fulani
Lenora Branch Fulani (born April 25, 1950) is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and political activist. She is best known for her presidential campaigns and development of youth programs serving minority communities in the New York City ...
and her campaign manager and tactician
Fred Newman "use totalitarian deception to manipulate social and political activists, and describe Newman and Fulani's therapeutic approach,
Social Therapy
Social therapy is an activity-theoretic practice developed outside of academia at the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy in New York. Its primary methodologists are cofounders of the East Side Institute, Fred Newman and L ...
, as "
totalitarian
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
ism".
Berlet concludes that the relationship between the
New Alliance Party
The New Alliance Party (NAP) was an American political party formed in New York City in 1979. Its immediate precursor was an umbrella organization known as the Labor Community Alliance for Change, whose member groups included the Coalition of G ...
and the
Social Therapy
Social therapy is an activity-theoretic practice developed outside of academia at the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy in New York. Its primary methodologists are cofounders of the East Side Institute, Fred Newman and L ...
practice of Newman and Fulani was "manipulative and unethical", and that "the NAP must be judged in the context of being a political movement that lacks clarity concerning basic moral issues involving personal and political exploitation."
Portions of the report appeared in an issue of the Marxist journal ''Radical America'' published in November 1988 under the title "Fiction and the New Alliance Party." The introduction by the journal's editors article noted that Fulani's New Alliance Party has attracted people "seeking something radical", but that the NAP had failed the journal's test for a "legitimate left organization", that NAP and its affiliates "were not just other legitimate groups with whom we must co-exist", and that the readers of the report who find anyone who is attracted to Fulani's NAP should "actively try to dissuade them from pursuing this course".
Cited in secondary works
Berlet and Lyons cite the report in their 2000 work, ''Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort''. The report is cited in
Evan Mandery's 2001 book on the history of
political campaign
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referend ...
s, ''Eyes on City Hall'', and in an essay in the 2002 book ''My Enemy's Enemy''.
In citing ''Clouds Blur the Rainbow'' in a 2004 article, Doug Ireland of ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'' referred to Chip Berlet as "Political Research Associates' excellent senior analyst".
[Doug Ireland]
Nader and the Newmanites
''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'', January 12, 2004 The same article criticized what the author referred to as "the ultrasectarian cult-racket formerly known as the New Alliance Party."
The work is also cited by Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth, in their book: ''
On the Edge: Political cults right and left''. ''
The Buffalo News
''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...
'' also cited the work in an article analyzing the New Alliance Party.
Responses by defenders of Newman
Defenders of Newman note that the report was published and distributed during the 1988 Presidential campaign of
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
psychologist and political activist
Lenora Fulani
Lenora Branch Fulani (born April 25, 1950) is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and political activist. She is best known for her presidential campaigns and development of youth programs serving minority communities in the New York City ...
. 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.
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. 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.
Berlet's claims of
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
ism have been disputed by some of Newman's peers in the therapeutic milieu. According to British psychologist Ian Parker, "Even those
ewman and Holzmanwho have been marked by the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
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."
The report and the FBI
The report also figured in a 1993 lawsuit filed in the
by Fulani and Newman against the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
and
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) was an American lawyer who served as the 78th United States attorney general. She held the position from 1993 to 2001, making her the second-longest serving attorney general, behind only Wi ...
. 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.
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.
Berlet, while upholding the charge of cultism, was critical of the FBI, noting that FBI characterizations were "not a protection of civil liberties but a smear of a group." ''
Washington City Paper
The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial mix is focused ...
'' reporter Kelvyn Anderson wrote at the time that the FBI investigation "sends a chilling political message: Groups outside of the political norm operate at their own risk and should expect state-sanctioned surveillance and intrusion into their affairs."
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."''. In an article on ''BlackElectorate.com'', Fulani characterized the book as a "diatribe" written by "white leftists."
Lenora Fulani
Lenora Branch Fulani (born April 25, 1950) is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and political activist. She is best known for her presidential campaigns and development of youth programs serving minority communities in the New York City ...
Politics Mondays: "The Real Al Sharpton (By The Real Lenora Fulani)" by Dr. Lenora Fulani
''BlackElectorate.com'', March 10, 2003
References
External links
has an online version listed by chapter.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clouds Blur The Rainbow
1987 non-fiction books
Books about politics of the United States