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articles critical of Newman and NAP in the Advo- cate, which for many years has served as a voice for Black residents in the area. In response to the Advocate articles, NAP em- barked on a smear campaign against its critics —a tactic it frequently employs. An article by William Pleasant in NAP’s National Alliance newspaper attacked Tisdale, Lawrence, Stern and Berlet. A photograph of Tisdale (who is Black) is accom- panied by a bold headline which reads: “Jackson Advocate publisher Charles iisdale: The Advo- cate has come to play the role of a Black front for a national network that is a nesting place for agents.” . The same article claims that Dennis King and | their earlier false and sectarian charges of La- Rouche affiliation or cultism.” (In fact, both Ber- let and King still stand by their earlier charges.) Ken Lawrence and Dan Stern are described as “absorbed in another agenda, beyond sec- tarianism, bordering on straight out provocateurigm.” NAP organizers also began cir- culating charges that Ken Lawrence was a govern- ment agent. When Tisdale refused to back down from his criticisms of NAP, and continued to detail the Emily Carter responded by filing a defamation lawsuit against Tisdale, the Jackson Advocate and Ken Lawrence. (A judge subsequently ordered Lawrence dropped from the lawsuit). After the lawsuit was filed, when well-known organizer Flo Kennedy accepted an invitation to speak at a ban- quet spunsored by the Jackson Advocate, a self- described NAP member disrupted a press conference with her by shouting “You're a very stupid woman.” Other critics of NAP are fre- ; quently ridiculed or attacked in an unprincipled manner, 8 ore ee ~ ad Penetration and Disruption of Rival tics used by the group is to penetrate sive organization and seek to take it over or recruit away its membership. One of the themes in the Jackson Advocate series on NAP was the frequea- 12 - Political Research Associates SHRI Chin Bertet have shows “a willingness t6 relent ou tat Blacks and dispossessed people ia cy with which NAP engaged in what critics con- sidered disruptive tactics. Lily Mae Irwin, a well- known welfare rights activist told the Advocate how, in 1985, NAP tried to merge with the group she was leading, the Mississippi Welfare Rights Organization. After she refused the merger idea, she soon discovered NAP was scheduling their meetings with her key organizers opposite the regular monthly Welfare Rights Organization meetings. “Yes Siree,” said Irwin, “they were trying to hold meetings at the same time we were; they were trying to mess us up.” Eddie Sandifer, a well-known Mississippi Gay rights activist, told the Advocate he resented the claim by NAP that it is the party of gays, lesbi eople in general. In Palme ticular, Sandifer was angry that NAP contacted =~ several members of the Mississippi Gay Alliance and invited them to NAP meetings, but did not -~ contact him, the group's leader. “I think their pur- pose isto divide and conquer,” said Sandifer. “[’m very suspicious of them....I’m worried about what they are doing in Mississippi.” A long-time gay activist in California voiced similar concerns to the author after NAP spon- sored a gay tights conference in that state. He feared the NAP wanted to duplicate the work of existing gay organizations as a way (o build credibility and recruit new members for the NAP. A woman activist in New York told the author of a call she received from a friend in England complaining of disruptive activities by a NAP or- ganizer who attended furictions of a women’s peace group. Disruption has been a halimark of NAP organizing for years, and reports of this na- ture have been consistently surfaced over the years from a wide variety of sources. One early example of a Newmanite attempt to penetrate and manipulate a progressive organiza Peo avolved the mew-defunet People’s Party, & multi-racial progressive electoral party which once ran Dr. Benjamin Spock for President. In early 1978, according to a former People’s Party ne People’s Party “expelled the New- operating within the party as a secret faction with - an undisclosed agenda as to their intentions and plans.”