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A Re-Examination of the Past 3 American Communism: iii ARe-Examination I! of the Past I , by Max Shachtman • U. S. Foreign Policy in the Clouds • The Crisis in American Education , Origins 'of the Venezuelan Revolt by Juan 'arao STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP. MANAGEMENT. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL THE NEW INTERNATIONAL AND CIRCULATION REQUIRED BV THE ACT OF CON· A Marxlsf RevIew GRESS OF AUGUST 24. 1912. AS AMENDED BV THE ACTS OF MARCH 3. 1933. AND JULY 2, 1946 (Title A Marx',' aey'ew 39, U. S. Code, Section 233) of THE NEW INTERNA· Yol. XXIII. No. 4 Whole No. 177 TIONAl, published quarterly at New York. N. V •• for 1957. Yol. XXIII. No. 4 FALL 1957 Whole No. 177 FALL 1957 New York 11, N. Y. 1. The names and addresses of the publishe~, editor, managing editor, and business managers are: Publisher and Editor, Max Shachtman; Managing Editor. Julius Falk; TABLE OF CONTENTS Business Manager, L. G. Smith, all of 114 W. 14th St., NNew York 11, N. Y. Ameritlln Communism: 2. The owner is: The New International Publishing Co., ArtIcles: Yetta Barsh, Max Shachtman, Albert Gates, all of 114 W. 14th St., New York 11, N. Y. AMERICAN COMMUNISM: A RE- A Re-Examination of the Past 3. The known bondholders, mortgagees, and other secur­ EXAMINATION OF THE PAST............ 207 ity holders owning or holding 1 per cent 0: .more of total by J\fax Shachtman amount of bonds, mortgages, or other SeCUrItIes are: None. The radical movement ken away from it in thirty years, only 4. Paragraphs 2 and 3 include, in cases where the stock­ in the United States has been shat­ the Independent Socialist League, the AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE holder or security holder appears upon ~he books. of the CLOUDS .......................................... 245 company as trustee or in any other fidUCIary relatIOn, the tered by a cumulative crisis. If we A merican Socialist group and a sub­ name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee by Sam Bottone is acting' also the statements in the two paragraphs show define the radical movement, for the group exist, all the others having van­ the affia~t's full knowledge and belief as to the circu!Il­ THE CRISIS IN EDUCATION ................ 251 stances and condition under which stockholders and securIty purposes of this review, as the organ­ ished without trace or regret. To com­ holders who do not appear upon the books of the company ized expression of those who avow plete the picture by adding the names by Frances Wright as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a bona fide owner. the goal of socialism, it would be an of any other groups that exist would ORIGINS OF VENEZUELAN 5. The average number of copies of each ~sue of this exaggeration if we said that it lies in only make it more dismal. REVOLUTION .................................. 254 publication sold or distributed, through the mails or oth~r­ wise, to paid subscribers during the 12 months preceeding utter ruin, but not if we said that by Juan Parao the date shown above was: Where does this picture present it­ JULIUS JACOBSON, every section of it has suffered a deb­ self, and when? In the United States Magazine Chronicle: acle. Sworn to and subscribed before me this 26th daJ of today. Practically every other capital­ HOOK GOES SOFT ON GOMULKA ...... 269 September, 1951. The oldest of the organizations in ist country in the world has an influ­ by Michael Harrington ZENO JOSEPH DiPASQUALE, Notary Public, State of this country, the Socialist Labor Par­ ential and even a powerful socialist New York No. 31-0960125. (My commission expires March ty, leads a hermetically-sealed vege­ (or Communist) movement; in the Booles in Review: 30, 1959.) table existence, uninfluenced by the United States, the most advanced of WHAT Do You KNOW ABOUT world and witheut influence on it. all the capitalist countries, the one LABOR? ............................................ 272 The I.W.W. is nothing more than the materially ripest for socialist reorgan­ Reviewed by Ben Hall Published quarterly by The New International Publlsh­ Jug Co., at 114 West 14th Street, New Yori 11. N. Y. dream of a gloried but irretrievable ization, there is none. Wherever a Re-entered as second class matter March 8, 1950, at the past. The principal traditional organ­ significant labor movement exists, oost omce at New York, N. Y•• udner the Act of March 3, ization of socialism, the Socialist Par­ there is also a socialist movement MAX SHACHTMAN, Editor i819. subscription rates: In the U. S.• Canada and Australia ty, which had well over 100,000 mem­ which finds in it its political nourish­ JULIUS FALK, Managing Editor $2.00 per year; bundles 35 cents each for five copies and up. Britain, Ireland and Europe, 10/-British, or $1.40 bers almost fifty years ago-in 1912, to ment and not only the historical bear­ U. S. per year; Asia 1/-British, 01 $1.00 per year. be exact-and still had over 100,000 er of its ideas. But not in the United Advisory Sta. Address all editorial and business communications to Michael Harrington George Post The New International, 114 West 14th Street, New York members forty years ago, is reduced States which now has the largest and Cy Jackson Max Martin 11. N. Y. to a small regiment now trying again most powerfully organized labor move­ to rebuild the party into a significant ment in the history of the world. movement. The Communist Party, Here, support for an organized so­ which managed to build itself up in cialist movement from trade unions the Forties to a membership of al­ embracing eighteen million men and 'THE NEW INTERNATIONAL' most 100,000 and a tremendous in­ women is next to zero. Here, the most Is the leading Marxist magazine in the United States, internationally fluence outside its immediate ranks, militant and significant mass move­ recognized as among the foremost organs of Marxist thought and is now a wreck that is not only ridi­ ment of that tenth of the population culecf but discredited and despi~ed. made up by the Negro people is un­ political analysis in the world. The Trotskyist organization, after folding without any serious socialist SEND SO¢ FOR THE CURRENT ISSUE three decades of existence, remains a influence upon it. OR SUBSCRIBE AT $2.00 A YEAR wing without a body, unable to fly, These are the realities. They are unable to land. Of the multiplicity of bitter ones. The socialist worthy of New International, 114 West 14 Street, New York City groups that broke away or were bro- the name must be ready and able to acknowledge even the most dismaying European capitalism and must travel WITH THIS FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT al­ consideration of all the forces in­ facts, to examine them with sober ob­ exactly the same road in exactly the ways well in mind, the problem of the volved. jectivity and the utmost of critical same way. On the contrary: Ameri­ socialist movement here must never­ The "one side" to be examined is freedom, to reconsider and re-evalu­ can capitalism is indeed unique and theless be examined in another as­ the Communist Party. For this bias, ate the past in the light of the present. so it has been from its earliest days. pect. The various theories, ideas, there is more than a little justifica­ There is no other way to decide on It is indeed-to employ a once un­ analyses, polic i es, tactics practises tion. The Communist Party has been those steps which are necessary and justly - scorned term - "exceptional," adopted by one or another section of the dominant section of the radical possible for changing today's reality even if within a definite and limiting the movement-what part did they movement in this country for forty into a reality more favorable to the framework. It can even be said that play in contributing to or in averting years. In addition, the Communist advancement of socialism. the distinctive national peculiarity its present sorry state? We cannot as­ Party is unique in that, among other of the historical development of Amer­ sign everything to objective condi­ things, it embraces within its own To reconsider and re-evalute the ican capitalism, and therefore of its tions over which we have little or no history a wider range of theories, pol­ past does not automatically imply working class, and therefore of the so­ control at any given moment, above icies and practices than any other or­ the necessity of rejecting and repudi­ cialist movement and its problems, all to the conditions of the historical ganization avowing socialism has ever ating it. It does mean such a critical has never been fully or adequately past. The socialist movement has as known. It has run the full gamut, up re-examination as makes it possible thought out by the very socialists who its purpose not merely to understand and back, from insurrectionism to for those who have not been inun­ possess the analytical instruments re­ conditions but to alter them. And parliamentary opportunism, from rev­ dated by helplessness and hopeless­ quired for the task. This fundamental while we cannot jump over our own olutionary trade-unionism to collabor­ ness, for those who are both confident task is one of the most important and heads, let alone over society as a ation with the most conservative of of the socialist future and determined urgen t ones to be performed by those whole, we can and must work out trade-union officialdoms, from revo­ to bring it closer, to choose from concerned with the reconstruction of those policies best calculated under lutionary boycottism in elections to among the elements of the past.
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