My peaceful life as a graduate student in mathematics and political science has these many years been unnoticed by The Daily Collegian. This delightful state of affairs no longer prevails -- the Feb. 22 Collegian quoted me in two front-page articles.

In the first, I disagreed with Zdzislaw Rurarz's (the former Polish ambassador to Japan) argument that Eastern Europe is facing a period of Stalinist revival. To the contrary, I argued an analysis country by country shows very different phenomena emerging.

In some countries, democratic institutions are evolving very rapidly, while in others democratic movements are paralleled by the rise of fascist and anti-Semitic groups and ideologies.

Rather than a revival of Stalinism, the real threat to Eastern European democracy is the rebirth of fascism and anti-Semitism. Yes, the Stalinist fanatics who gave us yesterday's oppression are dead, thank God! But we must not close our eyes -- too often, yesterday's oppressed become tomorrow's oppressors.

The very next (afternoon) at 12:20, I walked toward Pattee, hoping to pursue my research into Eastern European communism. The library stairs were cluttered with a tiny demonstration under the slogan "Victory to the ANC!" Among this demonstration's organizers, I recognized virtually the entire membership of the local Marxist-Stalinist group.

Having previously debated these opportunistic "supporters" of the anti-apartheid movement, I felt compelled to point out such a close connection between the demonstrators' local organization and these Stalinists.

Unfortunately, this parallels the close ties between the ANC and Communist Party of South Africa, which has only recently retreated from its Stalinist past.

The Collegian's "news" coverage of these events implied my behavior improperly interfered with the demonstrators' right to free speech. Such editorializing is entirely improper, even in a signed news article.

Unlike the previous academic debate with Mr. Rurarz, the debate on the library stairs is precisely the kind of free speech that is protected by our First Amendment. I have just as much a right to free speech as does someone with a bull horn or, for that matter, local fundamentalists who evangelize.

Under such circumstances, a speaker does not raise his or her hand, but jumps in and speaks up. In this case, I decided to speak up, without anyone's permission, as is my right and duty as an American.

My brief and highly audible speech again repeated the historical fact that yesterday's oppressed sometimes become tomorrow's oppressors. The close ties between the ANC and the Communist Party of South Africa (with which Nelson Mandela has a close association) forces us to be intellectually honest and examine just what the ANC stands for.

Has Mandela changed? Is he now a Democrat and no longer a Stalinist? I freely admit this is possible and hope he has. In fact, we should evaluate whether he ever was a true Stalinist --might he have been a democratic reform communist like the Czechoslovak communist Alexander Dubcek?

As for those members of the local Stalinist cell distributing Workers World, they believe the very same ideology of hatred that fascists or racists do. Instead of hating race, they hate class.

Should they succeed in their revolution, they will decide who are and who are not members of the enemy class. I warned the protestors that embracing these Stalinists' support is morally equivalent to we Eastern Europeans accepting the KKK's or Eastern European fascists' support. Replacing a dying evil with a vital and fanatic new ideology of hatred would truly be tragic.

As for myself, I do believe we must actively support those pluralist democratic movements which make no distinction between class and racial oppression. Here I must distinguish my personal and my professional approach to politics.

In his academic research, a scholar must separate himself from his ideological biases and present an objective analysis of political movements and structures. This value-free scientific approach must not preclude our defense of those values we love when we express our personal opinions in the public forum.

Those of us who believe in pluralist democracy's moral superiority must love it and be ready to defend it under any circumstances. There are times when democracy's defenders must even die for it, an attitude dramatically different from that which animates the value-free research of our professional lives.

The essence of pluralism is that one's enemies have the right to organize and present their views. Thus it is our duty to carefully analyze whether those who fight against one form of oppression are not in reality trying to establish their own.

Therefore, I was shocked how the Collegian misrepresented my views on the ANC and the heroic African struggle against apartheid. Perhaps my heavy accent and my animated style contributed to this unfortunate misrepresentation.

These are my personal views which do not in any way represent those of the Penn State political science department. Finally, I am not a member of that department.