I was threatened today by Andrew Kliman. It took place after the last session for today's meetings of the IWGVT mini-conference in New York City. I was talking to Fred Moseley while waiting for the elevator. Andrew approached us, pointed a finger at me, and said: "You better watch your step". He did this in front of several witnesses, including Fred. My first reaction was to laugh and ask: "Are you threatening me?". He did not answer me but instead looked at me momentarily with a very stern, serious (and what I viewed as threatening) expression. He did the above knowing full well that I have a serious heart condition having lived through a heart attack in 1997 and unstable angina and angioplasty less than a year ago. I view the above as a serious threat and an attempt to bully and intimidate me into silence about his perspectives on political economy. A short description of what I said earlier in the day in open session appears at the end of this message. I call upon the IWGVT Conference Organizer, Alan Freeman, to denounce this blatant threat and attempt by Kliman to suppress my perspective and intimidate and bully me. I call upon the Conference itself to defend me by denouncing Andrew Kliman for his threatening behavior and to insist that it not happen again. In solidarity, Jerry -------------------------------------------------------------------- Earlier in the day I addressed two comments to Andrew at the IWGVT sessions. In one session, Andrew asked all in attendance the question: "What can allow value theory to progress?". He then added that what was needed was for different interpretations of Marx to be tested. In my comment, I noted that Andrew was making the *presumption* that the answer to the question "What can allow value theory to progress?" is in Marx's writings and can be found by testing interpretations of Marx. In the next session, and shortly before the incident described above, Andrew made basically the same slip which I called him on. He suggested that he was part of a group who were "defenders of Marx". I noted that we were supposed to be discussing differing interpretations of Marx rather than attempting to become "defenders of Marx". While Andrew obviously didn't like my comments, some did. In any event, I had the right to make the statements I did and in no way disrupted the conference for others or behaved in an aggressive or menacing manner (as did Andrew).
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