The New--- ~INTERNATIONAL Toward Socialist Unity ISL Address on Dissolution Urging Members to Join SP·SDF

Tile FormostlllS Tile ROlli Mllst Detide To Beirllt by Gordon Haskell by Jallas Falk '"inll: New Class or New Democracy? by Michael Harrington A Keyne~ian Views the Recession by Herman Roseman Alew Look at the New Deal by George Rawick Distussien: French Socialism and The Fifth Republic • Michael Harrington • Andre Glacomettl • Max Shachtman SOc THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Social Responsibilities of Organized Labor ...... 140 THE Reviewed by Ben Hall NEW INTERNATIONAL A Marxist Review Attorney for the Damned...... 142 Yol. XXIY. Nos. 2·3 Whole No. 179 Reviewed by P.H. SPRING.SUMMER 1958 Yo I. XXIY. Nos. 2·3 On the Line ...... 143 SPRING·SUMMER 1958 Whole No. 179 Reviewed by Sam Bottone TABLE OF CONTENTS The First International: Minutes of the Hague Our Last Issue ...... 71 Congress of 1872 with OUR LAST ISSUE by the Editors Related Documents ...... 144 With great sadness we announce this final issue of T he New ISL Statement ...... 72 Reviewed by A.L. International. The reasons for this are amply stated in the accompanying ad­ by the Political dress of the Independent Socialist League on its unification with the Socialist Committee) ISL MAGAZINE CHRONICLE Party-Social Democratic Federation. Before closing the columns of the NI we American Troops in Korea ...... 144 wish to take note of its long and valiant history. Except for the interruption NOTES OF THE QUARTER: by M.H. in the years 1937-1938, the NI has appeared continuously since 1934, its own Let the Formosans Decide ...... 76 CORRESPONDENCE evolution corresponding to the changing years and the evolution of world by Gordon Haskell An Exchange Between events. Few Marxian socialist periodicals in our time have lasted as long. The Road to Beirut...... 80 Hal Draper and H. W. Benson .. 146 by Julius Falk Quite obviously, no adequate resume of the NI is possible in this brief farewell note. It suffices to point out that the NI, through its successive editors INDEX FOR YEARS 1957-1958 ...... 149 ARTICLES lnd ~oards, maintained a consistently high level of theoretical and political dis­ Despotism's Fortress in Asia ...... 90 CUSSIOn. The NI won a justly deserved reputation in this and other countries by Michael Harrington as an "expert" on Stalinism. Within its columns the earliest public discussion A New Look at the New Deal...... l04 MAX SHACHTMAN, Editor took place on the "Russian question" and the nature of the Russian state. by George Rawick rULlUS FAU) Managing Editor Together with the Workers Party it helped to develop the "theory of bureau­ The SFIO and the Fifth cratic cAustralia $2.00 per year; bundles 35 cents each for flve copies and In the post-war years down to the present, the NI espoused the cause of BOOKS IN REVIEW up. Britain. Ireland and Europe. lO/-Brltish. or $1.40 democratic socialism, not as a temporary tactic in the class struggle, but as U. S. per year; Asia 1/-BritIBh. 01 $1.00 per year. The American Communist Party, Address all editorial and business communications to central to the great cause of socialism, against capitalism and Stalinism. The A Critical History ...... 137 The New International. I:;',; west 14th Btreet. New York fight for d.emocratic socialism to it was the struggle for the new society of free­ Reviewed by Michael Harrington 11,N. Y. dom, the Independence of all nations big and small as the indispensable pre­ lud~ to the world br?therhood of all nations and peoples. That meant a never­ endIng struggle agaInst all forms of imperialism, capitalist and Stalinist, and To All Our Subscribers all forms of totalitarianism.

This is the last issue of the New International. The reasons for IN OU~ DECISION T.O dissolve the NI, we are acting in the service of a larger and its discontinuation are stated in the announcement from the editors more Important Idea: the construction of the democratic socialist movement and the Independent Socialist League's statement of dissolution. The arrangement made for former members of the ISL ioining i~ t~e United States, the success of which will be of enormous meaning to so­ CIalIsts eve~yw~ere. Mos.t important of all, the new growth of socialist influence the Socialist Party.Social Democ~a~ic Federation aslo provides f~r and. ~rgan1ZatIOn can Insure the successful struggle against capitalism and transferring all unexpired subscrlphons to be filled by the SocialISt StalInIsm. Call. oflicial organ of the SP·SDF. :rhe same provisions have been made for the readers of Labor Acflon. THE EDITORS to the N.E.C. of the SP-SDF. It was in our Party, under the program submit­ Independent Socilllist League s followed by informal discussions be­ ted and set forth; and further recom­ tween representatives of both organi­ mends that the incoming N.E.C., directly and through its delegated officers or com­ Statement 01 Dissolution zations, and by discussions among mittees, immediately take this matter in their membership. hand so that there may be promptly In May-June 1958, the national con­ achieved the expressed purposes to bring I S L Members to Join SP-SDF vention of the SP-SDF in Detroit, af­ these socialists, from the ISL, into active membership in our Party. A new step forward has What ruined socialism in the U. S. was ter extensive debate, adopted a resolu­ tion urging unaffiliated democratic so­ The resolution further provided for been taken in the great work of re­ its identification with Russian tyranny by a majority of radicals as well as by cialist groups in this country to join the amalgamation into the Young Peo­ uniting and rebuilding the ranks of non-socialists. It will not arise from its its ranks. ple's Socialist League, the youth affili­ the American socialist movement. present stage of fragmentation and isola­ ate of the Party, of the Young Socialist tion-more, it will not deserve to do so-­ With reference to the I.S.L., the con­ In January 1957, the Socialist Par­ unless it comes forward unambiguously vention declared, "During almost a League which has been fraternally as­ ty and the Social Democr~tic Fe~er­ as a democratic movement. score of years, the ISL has been stead­ sociated with the ISL. ation, products of a separation lasting The resolution reiterated the stand­ ily evolving and moving from their Following the Detroit Convention more than two decades, united into poin t of the ISL: prior organizational viewpoints. To­ the entire matter was submitted to the SP-SDF and issued a Statement on day, as it is amply est-ablished by their discussion and vote of the SP-SDF Socialist Unity in America. "The dem­ It takes its position against capital­ writings and statements, private and membership in a national referendum. ocratic socialist movement has never ism, against Stalinism, and for socialism, public, over the past number of years, The voting in the referendum just exacted uniformity of opinion from its making clear in its platform that the so­ cial system it proposes to substitute for the ISL represents and supports a concluded, has ratified the decision of members," said the Statement, "but it capitalism in the U. S. is not what pre­ truly democratic socialist ideology. In the convention. Formal notification of does require the sharing of a common vails in Russia or other nations domi­ their most recent national convention, this decision has now been given to purpose. Both the SP and the SDF nated by the Communists. It stands for last year, the ISL formally resolved the ISL. democracy everywhere and gives moral have believed in democratic socialism. and declared their readiness to dis­ At a full meeting of the National They are fully in accord with the So­ support and encouragement to those who fight for it in every nation. It defends solve their own organization so that Committee of the ISL held in Detroit cialist International's program." In its democracy in the U. S. and strives to ex­ their members can be free to make at the conclusion of the SP-SDF con­ conclusion, the Statement declared: tend it here and in all capitalist coun­ their respective, individual applica­ vention, the resident Political Com­ tries of the world. But it stands equally tions for membership in the SP-SDF, The goals of freedom, democracy and mittee was voted full powers to take for democracy in Russia and its satel­ pledging themselves to our principles equality, and the means of their achieve­ lites. It insists that the people deserve at all measures necessary to meet the ment, are shared jointly by Socialists and least the same democratic rights there as and binding themselves to the discip­ terms of the resolution adopted by the trade unionists. \Ve invite all democratic we demand here. line and control of our Party, on an SP-SDF convention as soon as it be· socialist groups and individuals to join equal basis, rights and responsibilities came effective. with us in helping to make real the con­ After examining all the groups pro­ of membership in our Party. They cept of human fellowship in freedom. By virtue of these powers, the PC of claiming the socialist goal, the resolu­ seek, however, in the light of these tion stated: the ISL hereby announces the dissolu­ In July 1957, the Independent So­ assumptions and pledges that none of tion of the ISL. cialist League, by the unanimous vote "Of all the groups, one stands out their members, so applying for mem­ It urges all members of the League of the delegates to its national con­ uniquely: The SP-SDF." Furthermore, bership in our Party, shall be under to join the ranks of the SP-SDF. It vention, adopted a resolution analyz­ any disabilities or objections because "it is already broad enough in character calls upon all independent and un­ ing the state of American socialism, of their prior affiliations." to serve as an inclusive movement em­ affiliated socialists to take the same hailing the end of the long period of bracing a ,,-ide range of democratic so­ The resolution of the Detroit con­ action. It endorses the decision of the division and of sectarian isolation and cialist tendencies. It represents, to the vention concluded with the recom­ YSL to join with the YPSL for the stagnation of socialists In this coun­ interested public, socialism in general; mendation that: unlike the Socialist Labor Party, it is not building of a powerful youth affiliate try, and endorsing the proposal to hostile to the labor movement; it is small of the SP-SDF. unite all democratic socialists into an but it is not discredited and enjoys the In furtherance of the program initi­ effective movement under the banner respect, if not the support, of many mili­ ated by our Unity Convention in 1957, Furthermore, the ISL has arranged tants in the labor movement. It can play this National Convention of our united that Labor Action and the NEW IN­ of the SP-SDF. This resolution, taking SP-SDF extend comradely welcome into note of the complete discreditment a special role in unifying and rebuilding TERNATIONAL, shall, as provided by the the movement.... membership, in our party, to all of the and collapse of the Communist move­ present members of the ISL, who will convention resolution of the SP-SDF ment in the U. S. pointed out: This resolution was communicated make their applications for membership and by our own proposal to the Party, 72 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 73 be put at the disposal of the SP-SDF, pect now exists. United in the ranks of last decades has proved this beyond to the Negro people in the United to be used, or discontinued, as may the SP-SDF, we shall seek in common the possibility of dispute. We reject States. We stand for the fullest demo­ appear best and most advisable. with all other comrades to realize the the concept of a one-party dictator­ cratic rights of the members of the \Ve are sure that we express the opportunities to the full, in word and ship in which all other political par­ trade-union movement, in which we views of all the comrades of the ISL deed, with enthusiasm and conviction. ties are prohibited or suppressed as a shall seek to have the voice and vision when we take this great occasion to The socialist political movement we violation of democracy in general and of socialism heard again loudly and declare in the present address: support is an independent democratic of socialist democracy in particular. effectively. movement. We reject totalitarianism, or any dic­ WE LOOK BACK with pride upon the \Ve are fundamental and thorough­ tatorship over the working class, as THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST MOVEMENT eighteen years of the existence of our going opponents of capitalism and we the road to socialism. We reject the must be democratic first and foremost independent organization, years dur­ seek to replace it completely by a so­ imposition of "socialism" on the work­ in its internal life, so that its members ing which our comrades fought to up­ cialist society; we aim at a movement ing class "for its own good," against bership may be able to arrive freely hold with honor the banner of social­ that is completely independent of the its will or without its freely-arrived-at and fairly at decisions on policy and ist freedom, democracy and interna­ Stalinist social system; the Communist democratic decision. The road to a so­ activity, where the views of the major­ tionalism. For almost two decades, regimes based on it and of the politics cialist government and a socialist so­ ity prevail at all times with scrupulous wi thou t ever fal tering in our socialist of the movements that support it in ciety lies only through the ever-greater assurances that the rights and con­ activity, we have also seen to it that any way. We do not seek to "reform"" expansion of democracy. To these science of minorities are in no way our s~cialist principles were made it-a totalitarian slavery is not to be propositions the socialist movement violated. This requires in tum a clearer, to ourselves and to others. We reformed but replaced fundamentally is unequivocally committed. movement that is broad in its compo­ have not hesitated to abandon old by socialist democracy. We do not fa­ We aim at building a democratic SItIOn, its outlook, its concepts; that views and doctrines that proved to be vor a socialist movement that is a socialist movement, for the aim of so­ avoids iron and sterilizing dogmas obsolete or false and, always eschew­ "rival" of the Communist movement cialism is nothing but the fullest at­ which it seeks to impose upon all ing dogmatism, we have readily modi­ but one that is its uncompromising tainment of democracy. The socialist others, including dissenters in its own fied our views to suit them to new con­ opponent, as socialism has always movement differs from all others in ranks; that avoids the demand for con­ ditions and new problems or old prob­ been the opponent of movements that that it is the only consistent and formity on all questions and prob­ lems in new forms. We continue to be­ aim at or defend the suppression of thoroughgoing champion of democ­ lems that are of interest to it; that re­ lieve, as we have repeatedly said in the labor movement and of democ­ racy in all spheres of economic, po­ jects all concepts of a "monolithic" the past, that only complete ideologi­ racy, that aim at or defend the ex­ litical and social life. In that most ur­ party and barrack-room discipline. An cal and political independence frQIIl ploitation of the working classes. gent of political struggles of our day, "monolithic" parties have had their the camp of world capitalism on one As democratic socialists, we reject the strugle against the war danger and day to the full; all of them have yield­ side and the camp of world Commu­ completely as incompatible with our for world peace, we stand unambigu­ ed disastrous results, the Communist nism on the other, can assure both the principles and our aims any and all ously opposed to all forms of imperial­ Parties more than any other. maintenance of socialist principles regimes, even if they proclaim them­ ism and colonialism and unreservedly We of the ISL have sought to sum­ and the eventual triumph of its eman­ selves as "socialist" or "people's de­ in favor of the democratic right of marize and to learn from the vast va­ cipating goal. mocracies," that are in actuality to­ self-determination for all peoples and riety of movements and experiences of In now dissolving the ISL in order talitarian, as in the case of Russia, nations. No peace is possible if this the past, to emulate what proved to for our members to join in the up­ China and their satellites. By the same right is trampled on or evaded; no be wise and to avoid what proved to building of the SP-SDF, we are under­ token, we reject all political move­ foreign policy is democratic if it is not be wrong and even fatal to socialism. lining the fact that we are not bound ments, parties and doctrines that sup­ imbued with respect for this elemen­ As Marxian socialists, which we have by any narrow and partisan consider­ port such regimes, that are their de­ tary right. From this follows our oppo­ been and which we remain, we reject ations that are the hallmark of the fenders or apologists. We stand for the sition to capitalist imperialism and to all dogmas, including those defined as sect. We are deeply convinced that the traditional socialist conception that Communist imperialism. From this principles. The teachings of socialism, opportunities for building a genuine the winning of the battle for democ­ standpoint, for example, we hail the properly understood, have been a movement are now greater in this racy is the establishment of a workers' French Socialists who have defended guide to socialist thought and socialist country than they have been for a long government dedicated to the inaugu­ and still defend this democratic right action which excludes dogmas. We do time. \Vhen socialism faces the realis­ ration of a classless society. A "social­ of foreign peoples under French rule, not subscribe to any creed known as tic prospect of rebuilding its political ist" government that denies or sup­ while opposing those socialists who Leninism or defined as such. We do movement, all socialist sects become presses democracy is a contradiction have denied or evaded this right. We not subscribe to any creed known as futile and even reactionary. This pros- in terms, and world experience in the stand for the fullest democratic rights (Continued on page 148) 74 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 75 ting on an overdone, old-fashioned For some weeks, fear ofa military Notes of tile QUllrter thriller. explosion involving the United States has been dampened by the prospect ALTHOUGH THE SITUATION itself and that some deal might be negotiated Let the Formosans Decide Chiang'S direct interests make the between the U.S. and Chinese govern­ A Democratic Alternative to an Imperialist Dilemma danger of war very real, we do not ments in the ambassadorial "negotia­ think that either the United States tions" in Warsaw. The public posi­ government or the Stalinist govern­ tions of the two major parties in this THE QUEMOy-MATSU CRISIS ted time the American Strategic Air struggle are utterly contradictory and has been compared by one American Command can deliver nuclear wea­ ment of China have any intention of going to war against each other now. irreconcilable. Hope in a fruitful out­ journalist to an international game pons over Russia more effectively than come of the negotiations is thus either of Russian roulette. Each side is bet­ Russia's ICBMs can deliver them over Each is acting in the interest of what it deems to be its political objectives hope for a miracle, or is based on the ting that the other will not dare pull the United States-and who regard idea that the public positions of the the trigger. But one mistake, one mis­ the occasion which triggers off the at this time. And in the situation which results, the United States con­ two contestants are not their real calculation, one misinterpreted direc­ war of minor importance. There may positions. tive by a local commander, one act of also be a few madmen in the Chinese tinues to suffer one political defeat excessive zeal in playing the game, and Russian governments who think after another. The government of China says that Quemoy, Matsu and Formosa are and the results could easily be fatal that, all things considered, the politi­ The arguments put forth by Dulles Chinese territory, and that any means for thousands and possibly many cal advantage of a war started over and Eisenhower for their policy in of getting them under the control of millions of human beings. Quemoy would be so great that it the Taiwan Strait are not only absurd the government of China is legitimate, A major danger inherent in the would hardly be possible to anticipate on tqeir face, they are utterly ineffec­ and purely an internal affair of the situation is that one of the partici­ a more favorable circumstance in tive. Who can take seriously the country. The United States govern­ pants, Chiang Kai-shek, would like which to start an armed conflict which charge that what is involved here is ment says that these territories belong the hammer to fall on the loaded is probably inevitable in the long run an attempt at "territorial aggrandize­ to the government of the Republic of cylinder. Nothing else could serve his anyway. ment" by the Stalinist government of China (Chiang Kai-shek), and that the interests better, and he has done But aside from these tiny groups, China? Who can be convinced by the U.S. cannot dispose of all or any of everything in his power to set the argument that if the Chinese govern­ the whole of humanity is horrified at them without the agreement of that stage for a major blow-up in the Tai­ ment is permitted to "get away" with the game being played out around government. Chiang says he has noth­ wan strait. The American newspapers Quemoy. This horror is dulled only Quemoy and Matsu today, they will ing to give, and makes only one de­ headlined the "scoop" that Chiang take South Vietnam and Burma to­ by the feeling that the whole thing mand: abdication of the government was seeking to convince the U.S. gov­ is utterly unreal, a ghastly bluff on morrow? No one in Asia believes this. of China to him. ernment to launch an all-out attack both sides. It simply seems incredible Everyone knows that if the Chinese on the Chinese mainland, or at least that the United States would get em­ Communists decide to take over the On what, then, can one base any to permit his bombers to attack the broiled in a major war over a hand­ whole of Indochina or Burma, the hope of a negotiated settlement? If gun emplacements from which Que­ ful of tiny islands some eight thou­ only context in which they could be one is not given to wishful thinking moy is being shelled. No reporters sand miles from her coast,' or even expected to do this would be either any such hope must be based on the are needed on the spot to get a over Chiang's sterile little clique on in the course of a world war in which conclusion that neither side means "scoop" like that. It is inherent in Formosa. Thus, even though a num­ military considerations could out­ what it says. Thus the idea arises that the logic of the situation, from ber of prominent politicians in this weigh political ones, or as part of a the government of China might ac­ Chiang's point of view. country have spoken out against the social revolution in these countries cept recognition, admission to the But that point of view is a limited "Dulles doctrine," and polls indicate where military aid by China would United Nations, and evacuation of one, to put it mildly. Chiang and a that sentiment is running five to QRe appear to be, and would be in actual­ Quemoy - Matsu in exchange for a few dozen people around him may be against getting into war over these ity, an adjunct to the civil war which pledge not to seek to take Formosa willing to precipitate a world war as islands, the political atmosphere is had been generated by' indigenous by force. On the other hand, it is as­ their only \ hope of regaining their not one of tension or crisis. The causes. In any event, there would and sumed that the United States really power over China. There may be a American people are taking the crisis could be no analogy to the Quemoy­ has no interest in Quemoy-Matsu, few madmen in and out of high gov­ like disinterested spectators who go Matsu situation, and it could set no and realizes that recognition must be ernment and military positions in the about their business as usual, glancing preced ~nt for any such imperialist granted to the actual government of United States who desire a preventive up once in a while at a TV screen on action by the Chinese. China sooner or later. As to Chiang'S war now on the theory that for a Iimi- which some ridiculous actors are put- SDriDQ-J,ummer 1958 77 76 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL heated objections - presumably they And we do not raise the question The United States government the present course. That would be too could be taken care of by sufficiently of the desires of the Formosans only should agree in advance to abide by radical an innovation in the ways of powerful behind-the-scenes pressure because we are for justice and for free­ whatever decision the people of For­ the world for anyone to take its pros­ from an American government which dom everywhere, though that reason mosa might make. The same demand pects seriously. What we hope for, is his sole means of political and mili­ should suffice. We raise it also because should be made of the government of and count on, in the long run at tary support. in this case, in our opinion, the cause China and of Chiang Kai-shek. The least, is a growing awareness among of justice and ,freedom is conjoined refusal of anyone of them to yield the people, wherever they are free to At the moment of writing this, it with the cause of peace. And we raise, to such an obviously democratic, fair express themselves and to think, that appears that a deal along the lines it, further, because only by starting and peace-oriented solution would things are going in too dangerous a indicated above is not in the making. a campaign here in America and put the brand of the imperialist direction, and something has to be The headlines announce a deadlock throughout the world for a solution squarely on the guilty party. If the done about it. ~t Warsaw and air battles over Que­ which takes the Formosans into ac­ demand for such a program should The idea of a solution in the Far moy. It is not surprising. The Eisen­ count can the initiative be taken out become widely popular, on the other East based on a plebiscite in Formosa hower administration's policy is at of the hands of the little cliques in hand, it is clear that anyone of the is not something dreamed up by least as rigid as was that of Truman­ Washington and Peiping and Taipei three governments which would clever but isolated socialists in the Acheson in their day. And the Chi­ who are juggling with the peace of the espouse it and seek to put it into ef­ United States. Leaders of the British nese, no doubt, feel that they have world today. fect would by that very act win such a tremendous political victory in ,enormous political capital throughout Labor Party have come out for it. the making that there is no reason to The people of Formosa have the the world. Leading liberal publications in the do anything at this time but increase right to decide their future. If they United States have been gravitating the pressure. want to be a part of Stalinist China, What chance is there that any of increasingly toward it. Even from they have a right to make that deci­ the governments involved will actual­ within the liberal wing of the Demo­ ly . tak~ the initiative in proposing BUT IF A DEAL cannot be made, what sion for themselves, in a free election. cratic Party mutterings, perhaps dim will be the end of it all? The Chinese If they want to be independent, that thIS kInd of a solution to the con­ and quiet ones, have been heard along could stop firing their artillery, pocket too should be their right. The gov­ flict? It would be going too far to say these lines. ernment in Peiping has no more the that there is no chance at all, as the their political winnings, and wait for But announcements from Britain or right to establish its rule over them by ~tali.nists might conceivably propose another day when things would lie mutterings in the U.s. have not been force than Chiang has to maintain It WIth the firm conviction that their favorably for a repetition of the whole enough to sway the policy of the State his rule over them by force. And the proposal would be rejected by Chiang game. In that event, nothing would Department. What is needed is, first have been solved. It would simply United States has no right to impose a and the United States. They could a campaign to convince decisive sec­ mean that a bomb which could touch solution which seems desirable to its furthe; enhance their political capital off World War III would be lying government on the people of For­ by dOIng so. But they are faced with tions of the labor and liberal move­ there waiting for another day. mosa, either. one ticklish difficulty which inhibits ments that only such a solution can them. If a free plebiscite supervised remove the danger of war from that Further, any such "solution" of the Thus, the only solution which to us by the UN is good for Formosa today, area, even for the time being; and problem leaves one major factor in seems to have a reasonable chance of why not for Hungary or West Ger­ the situation completely out of ac­ working both to re-establish the demo­ many or Tibet tomorrow? The idea then a campaign to convince the na­ count. That is the wishes, interests cratic rights of the Formosan people, of the common people having the tion. If the present crisis in the Tai­ and future of the people Formosa and to minimize the danger of war 0: right to determine freely their destiny wan strait fails to erupt into full­ itself. And here we are not talking of over the future of Formosa is this: goes against the grain of the Stalinist Chiang and the few hundred officials There should be an international scale war, such a movement will have plus the hundreds of thousands of campaign for a free and democratic mentality at the very least as much time to come into existence and to soldiers who were shipped to the plebiscite to be organized under as it does against the grain of the assert itself. In a sense, one could say island when his rule on the mainland United Nations auspices and super­ ideological woodwork of a man like that given time enough, the rise of Dulles. collapsed. We are talking of the For­ vision in Formosa. The questions to such a movement is inevitable. But mosan people themselves, those who be decided in such a vote would be, But we do not count on govern­ it will not come without effort-and have lived on the island all their lives, roughly: unity with the rest of China; ments accepting the advice of demo­ and whose fathers and grandfathers independence under Chiang Kai-shek; the time may not be unlimited. cratic socialists or of just plain demo­ lived there before them under the or independence under a democratic rule of various foreign powers. form of government. crats who see the danger and folly of GoRDON HASKELL SDrina-$ummer 1958 78 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 79 1 flage a hideous spectacle by belliger­ of the much touted Doctrine. Notes of the QUllrter ently putting itself forward as the Any Arab leader who expressed champion of democracy in the Middle even a mild interest in the $200 mil­ East. Thus, the enormous propaganda lion offered to win acceptance of the The Road to Beirut capital in store for the West was all Doctrine was risking his political fu­ but lost by an irresponsible exhibi­ ture. Only two Arab countries ac­ Washington Takes Off the Glove in the Middle East tion of 19th century imperialism. cepted any part of the boodle-Leba­ non and Jordan. In Jordan, King H us­ uary 1957 in Dulles' response to sharp Blatancy and poor timing. These From Suez 1956 to Lebanon sein had to overthrow his country's questioning from Democratic Sena­ were Dulles' real grievances that 1958. Just two years! Yet, in that brief more or less democratically elected tors who wanted to know why the brought on his distemper. No new period, the United States has run the parliament and cabinet and establish U.S. appeared to be abandoning its policy or approach toward Arab na­ political gamut from opposition to a military dictatorship in order to do British and French allies. Dulles, re­ tionalism followed his Senate testi­ the British-French-Israeli adventure in it; in Lebanon, the civil war has its plied, in effect, that any hope of a mony. On the contrary, the lapse into Egypt to its own direct military inter­ source in President Chamoun's sup­ successful Western policy in the anti-~mperialist rhetoric soon suc­ vention in the Middle East. port of the Doctrine. The Lebanese Middle East was predicated upon our cumbed to the more genuine anti­ opposition viewed this support as a I t is true tha t the landing of disassociation from all foreign imperi­ nationalist idiom of the Eisenhower violation of the 1943 convenant which marines in Lebanon is not exactly the alist overlords in the area. In his Doctrine for the Middle East. An same as the Anglo-French military established Lebanon's independence words: "improvement" on the Truman Doc­ operations two years ago. Egypt was trine, the Eisenhower panacea made and provided for its renunciation of invaded whereas the Marines were in­ Let me also say that if Western Europe it clear that the United States would all foreign military and political al­ vited in-by a government on its last were part of this plan [the Eisenhower resist by force any Communist aggres­ liances. legs. That does make a difference, we Doctrine], then I can say to you that it would be absolutely doomed to failure sion in the Middle East. The Monroe suppose. But it is not one that can from the beginning, because a plan for Doctrine was stretched to cover the WHILE LEBANON SUPPORTED THE Doc­ make much of an impression on the the Middle East of which certain of the Mediterranean. What constitutes trine, it was challenged, not only by Arab world. Despite legal and moral most interested Western Europe na­ Communist aggression, of course, was a wide section of Lebanese opinion distinctions the Suez operation in 1956 tions are a part will not succeed. . . . left to the discretion of the Eisenhow­ that cut across religious lines, but by and American intervention today have There was no consideration of that [mak­ ing a joint declaration with the British er "team." Egyptian-Syrian propaganda, as well. this much in common: both are at­ and French] because I cannot think of The effectiveness of the Cairo and tempts by foreign powers to impose The new presidential Doctrine was anything which would more surely turn little more than an ill-concealed threat Damascus broadcasts provoked several by force their own military, economic over the area to international commu­ to the Arab nationalist movement that bizarre twists to Washington's Middle and political ambitions on the Middle nism than for us now to try to go in East policy. In the first place the there hand-in-hand with the British and its neutralist orientation, its reluc­ East; and both have the broad objec­ State Department denied the right of tive of stemming the tide of militant French. ;, tance to place itself in the' Western i camp, might be interpreted as a pro­ the ~yrians and Egyptians to propa­ nationalism that is sweeping the Arab And, then, the unkindest cut of all: gandIze the Lebanese. "The United world. Communist policy which might have If I were an American boy who had to to contend with economic, possibly Arab Republic is subverting the Leb­ Immediately after the Suez aggres­ fight in the Middle East, I'd rather not military, retaliation from the West. anese regime," was Dulles' cry. And, sion it appeared that the strong moral have a British soldier on my right hand Predictably, the Eisenhower Doc­ as eve~one knows, the State Depart­ tone taken in the Eisenhower admin­ and a French soldier on my left. trine boomeranged. Inadvertently, it ment WIll not tolerate any subversion istration's repudiation of this imperi­ But this stern, anti-imperialist re­ stiffened Arab resistance to the West in the Middle East! Dulles has added alist adventure might presage a new monstration, which sounded hollow and made Nasser's objective of a some more weight to the White Man's effective policy; one that could re­ to us at the time, was soon revealed Burden: the United States, 5,000 miles Un~ted ~rab Republic of Egypt and cou p some of the prestige America lost as just part of the game of internation­ Syna eaSler, and, by design, it promo­ from Lebanon, is to decide whether it when, following Nasser's refusal to al diplomacy. The British-French cam­ ted the rival-pro-Western Arab Union is good or bad for the Lebanese to submit to Dulles' clumsy attempt at paign to de-nationalize the Suez Canal listen to other Arab broadcasts, and, Of. Iraq and .10rda? Aside from oper­ economic blackmail, the State Depart­ was too blatant. And its timing was atIng as a dISrUptive force within the more than that, whether the United ment reneged on economic commit­ outrageous, following on the heels of Arab world, the Doctrine provided an Arab Republic has the right to agitate ments (the Aswan dam) to Egypt. the Hungarian revolution. The Krem­ its Arab neighbors. e~sy mark for the Kremlin propagan­ lin, unmasked by the Hungarian . This new note of moral indigna­ dIStS. These were the t~ngible effects Not content to rest his case here, tIOn reached its highest pitch in Jan- working class, was now able to camou- Spring-Summer 1958 81 80 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Dulles decided to pile nonesense on stimuli of American radio subverters? ser's leadership might make a clean taken adventure. What has Dulles absurdity. The Russians, he told the Despite Dulles' interdiction violent sweep. accomplished? The Chamoun reg.ime world, were guilty of "indirect ag­ propaganda attacks continued - from To forestall this, U.S. and British got no more than a stay of executlo~; gression." What exactly is the mean­ both directions accompanied by al­ troops moved into Lebanon and Jor­ the old regime was not restored In ing of this contribution to the jargon leged plots and counterplots, tension dan. For a time Washington was seri­ Iraq; the humpty-dumpty ~ussein re­ of international diplomacy is not en­ mounted with the U.S. 6th Fleet ously contemplating a counter-revolu­ gime is still fated for an Irreparable tirely clear. Not even its author could cruising in Levantine waters and Rus­ tion in Iraq, but could not find even fall; Nasser has gained in prestige; the be precise about his formulation. But sia threatening to attack Turkey in a core around which to build a new Kremlin has been given a propaganda one variant of "indirect aggression," the event of a Syrian-Turkish con­ regime since both King Feisal, the gift which it has exploited to the full; it seems is when country "a" (the flict. By the middle of May the civil former Regent, and Prime Minister and the United States can hardly hope Russians) propagandizes country "b" war broke out in Lebanon sparked by Nuri Said had been murdered. But to play the role that it occasionally (the United Arab Republic) and the assassination of an Opposition edi­ had these men been spared there is entertained for itself-that of an un­ country "b" relays this propaganda tor and the widespread apprehension no reason to believe that they could derstanding and disinterested anti­ (subversion, of course) to the popu­ that President Chamoun would use have rallied any popular support. colonial power ready to conciliate lation of country "c" (Lebanon) then his majority in Parliament, based as Virtually the entire population of Arab nationalism. country u a" is the "indirect aggres­ it was upon an election whose honesty Baghdad turned out in the streets But what is most damaging for sor" against country "c." had been widely questioned, to change the day after the revolution to cele­ American prestige and interests is that Aside from the special kind of mad­ the Constitution and provide for his brate its success. the mistaken adventure is turning into ness that brings forth such an argu­ re-election. The issue was clear cut an utter rout with the recent accession ment from a Secretary of State, how though: the Opposition wanted to HAD THE U NJTED STATES FOLLOWED to power of the new president, Gener­ vulnerable the United States is made change the pro-Western orientation through the logic of its Lebanese in­ al Fouad Chehab. The marines who by the concept! For what is the term of the Chamoun regime to one of neu­ tervention it would not only have had had been "invited" in by the pro­ that one would give to country "x" trality in the Cold War and bring it to occupy Iraq but most of the Middle Western Chamoun regime are now (the United States) which broadcasts closer in line with the dominant Arab East as well. Dulles and Eisenhower confronted by a government with defi­ its propaganda (subversion, of course) sentiment in the area. The charge that could not see their way clear to doing nite neutralist leanings, its new pre­ directly to country "y" (Russia). Log­ the civil war was based on outside in­ this-at least, not now. Even the Wall mier being Rashid Karami, a leader ically, that should then be labelled filtration into Lebanon was laid to Street Journal recognized that the of the anti-Chamoun rebels. Thus the "direct aggression." And, if the United rest by two reports of the United policy of "creating our own little American troops, if they are to main­ States is justified in meeting "indirect Nations Observation Group in Leba­ principalities in the Middle East and tain the pose of defending a legitimate aggression" by direct force, then what non which concluded that while there preparing to police them endlessly" government, might find themselves po­ should the Russians do in face of the had been some movement across the had to be rejected. Further occupation licing the country for an anti-Western "direct aggression" (or, perhaps, "di­ border, as happens in any civil war, in the Middle East would not only government whose troops would be rect indirect aggression") of Radio it was unimportant and the evidence have been tremendously unpopular hunting down pro-Western supporters Free Europe? More than that, doesn't to substantiate the charges was incon­ throughout the world but could have of ex-President Chamoun; either that the theory of "indirect aggression" clusive. led to a war with Russia; the Kremlin course-which is absurd on the face of lend more than just a bit of credence The precarious balance in Lebanon might well have carried out its threat it, or attempt to overthrow the new to the Kremlin charge that if it and the Middle East continued until to overrun Iran as its answer to government if it continues to move in weren't for the American Radio July 14 when King Feisal's Iraqi American military intervention in a neutralist direction-which is prob­ broadcasts inciting the Hungarian dictatorship was overthrown by a Iraq. This, in tum, might have meant ably too crass, even for Dulles. people there never would have been brief revolution which, as all evidence the United States and Russia plung­ The only course that is open to the "regrettable" revolution and the since then showed, had the widespread ing off their brinks into the maelstrom Washington is an ignominous with­ "regrettable" necessity of suppressing support of the people. of total global war. drawal of troops from Lebanon. American inspired subversion with With the fall of the Iraqi regime, The United States neither wants • Russian force? After all, why should the entire Western position in the nor is prepared for war with Russia, WHAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR American anyone believe that the revolutionary Middle East was in virtual collap~e. today. reversals in the Middle East? Why activity of the Arab masses is the It would no longer be possible to Looked at from the point of view of hasn't the United States proved cap­ creature of Russian propaganda while build a core of pro-Western states to practical politics, sending American able of developing some reasonable the revolutionary zeal of the Hungari­ challenge Egyptian - Syrian influence, Marines to Lebanon can be judged policy to prevent total disaster? an people was not a response to the and pan-Arab sentiment under Nas- nothing more than a horrible, mis- In the first place, it must be remem- 82 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 83 bered that when we are dealing with but there is every reason to doubt portion of petroleum energy, if only on a THE UNITED STATES has no principled the question of policy we are also that even this team of Democratic standby basis. objection to national movements per considering the human element. The heavyweights could have prevented There are other courses of action that se. That much is true. Washington might induce a more understanding and recent twists and turns of the State De­ the imminent disaster for the United was not distraught when India gained reasonable attitude in Colonel Nasser­ its freedom from England and it is no partment, its misadventures, its be­ States in the Islamic world. They courses of action which recall Winston wilderment when faced by the com­ might make a better show of it, but Churehhill's admonition to the French, secret that the Tunisian nationalist plexities of the modem world and its not too much more than that. quoted from Thiers: "Think of it always; movement - whose political orienta­ inability to present a policy that can We already have had the experience speak of it never." tion differs from Nasser-led national­ at least give the appearance of holding of the Truman administration which When by our own efforts our bargain­ ism-had not met with any special ing position had been improved, a broad together in some coherent fashion for had the benefit of the skillful talents hostility from the State Department. and imaginative economic program for In such instances America could afford the Middle East-or anywhere else­ of Dean Acheson as Secretary' of State. the area as a whole would both be and must take into account the personal The best this combination could do appear to be the generous act of one 'in to be liberal: national independen~e quality of American policy-makers. was the Truman Doctrine which a strong position, rather than an act of did not seem to conflict with Ameri­ And men like Eisenhower and Dul­ sought to consolidate-or secure-Am­ appeasement from weakness. (Italics ca's Cold War interests and some­ added.) les are clearly lacking in the capacity erican authority in the Middle East times opened up interesting commer· to develop conceptions which they with the kind of ultimatums and Here, then, is the face of imperialist cial possibilities. But, nationalism in then try to apply consistently, or if threats made more explicit in the strategy without benefit of elegant the Middle East! That is another mat­ consistency proves impossible, to read­ Eisenhower Doctrine. But, more than rhetoric. England and France attempt ter. For the concrete forms and objec­ just intelligently. If ever there was a that, had the Democrats been in a po­ to seize the Suez Canal by military tives that nationalism has taken in unity between style and content in sition to carry out their policy at the force. The Egyptians retaliate by sink­ that area are regarded as a threat to politics it can be found in anyone of time of the Suez crisis it would have ing ships to block the canal. We urge America's political, strategic and eco­ the president's elucidations of Ameri­ led to a national, perhaps an interna­ our European allies to leave the canal nomic interests. can foreign policy. tional, calam.ity. At that time the most blocked. You see, "This could give The economic conflict is a matter of However, while incompetence is eminent and sophisticated Democratic canal users like India a refreshing oil. American capital is more heavily certainly one reason for the mess personalities took the Eisenhower ad­ sense of realism." After giving neutral­ invested in Middle East oil than in Washington has made of its foreign ministration to task for deserting its ist India an object lesson in Achesoni­ any other field in any other part of the affairs, it would be unfair to attribute European allies. The Democratic Par­ an Applied Democracy, we see to it world. It is also the most profitably in­ its failures solely, or even primarily, ty has always given priority to the that by one means or another (new vested, as labor productivity in this to the Eisenhower team's lack of North Atlantic alliance and it is most pipe lines, large tankers taking new fabulously rich area is roughly equiv­ finesse and imagination. The admin­ likely that they would have either sup­ routes, etc.) European dependence on alent to that in the United States istration's ineptness is exceptional, ported or sympathetically tolerated the canal is bypassed. When, through while wages doled out to the Arab oil but it is not unique. It does not op­ the Anglo-French aggression against economic pressure and "other courses workers are about one-tenth those erate in a total vacuum or in total Egypt rather than antagonize their of action" in line with Thiers' cynical paid to American workers. As the de­ darkness. On the contrary, Eisenhow­ European allies and weaken NATO. injunction, Nasser is brought to his mand for oil appears to be unlimited a er is all too fully conscious of his class Dean Acheson, writing in the Re­ knees, then the United States could very high percentage of the profits responsibility; his trouble is that he porter magazine shortly after the Suez offer a prostrated and cowed Middle gushing out of the wells is being re­ tries to fulfill this responsibility with crisis, gave a candid view of what East a "broad and imaginative eco­ invested. And the threat to the oil a kind of primitive devotion and in­ American policy would have been had nomic program" which would "both industry of the use of atomic power stinct. he and his Democratic co-thinkers be and appear to be the generous act as a substitute source of energy in the This question of class rule and been its architects: of one in a strong position." future acts as a further incentive to class responsibility, we believe, sets Can anyone doubt that if this strat­ develop the oil fields even more ex­ The canal mi,ght have been left blocked egy advocated by the ideologue of so tensively today. certain limits on the effectiveness of by Nasser's ships. This could give canal any policy designed by any admini­ users like India a refreshing sense of many American liberals had been From its enormous profits, and in­ stration which is obligated to defend realism. We might still start on freeing transformed from a Reporter article spired by the prospect of endless rich­ American capitalist interests in the Europe from so much dependence on the to an active guide for State Depart­ es, American capital has served as a modern world. Adlai Stevenson is in­ canal by pipelines through non-Arab ment policy America's prestige corruptive economic and political in­ comparably more cultivated than countries and by vigorous construction throughout the colonial world and in fluence in the Middle East where ad­ of large tankers. We might much more all uncommitted nations would have ministrators and monarchs have been Eisenhower and Dean Acheson is in­ energetically hasten the day when. nu­ finitely more competent than Dulles, clear energy could replace a substantial reached the vanashing point? bribed and bought. 84 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. SDrin:.Summer 1958 85 those bound by tradition and others allies in democratic dress. Thus the The danger for private foreign capi­ tionalization for a particular country; bound to the bribes and munificent nation and the entire world were re­ tal from Arab nationalism is clear: it but it doesn't eliminate the enormous salaries paid by foreign oil companies. cently treated· to the spectacle of threatens to nationalize the oil fields. immediate advantages. Moreover, Thus, the nationalist offensive inevit­ Washington propagandists mounting That would not only eliminate a most where Iraq is rich in oil, Egypt is not. ably evolves into a revolutionary a democratic halo around a cadillac­ lucrative area to plunder, it could be­ The surplus monies which Iraq could struggle on several fronts: against the loving absolute feudal monarch who come a threat to the oil industry in not productively use today in its own foreign enemy, against the ruling bu­ was then paraded before the public as the United States as well. The Middle country could be used in Egypt for reaucracy and against outmoded social a staunch ally of democracy in the East produces two-thirds of tIle essential, vast water projects that it institutions. And political reality has Middle East. That Ibn Saud, far from world's supply of oil. Bearing in mind cannot finance. The well-being of the proved that the nationalist movement being a real live version of Rudolf the high productivity of labor and low Egyptian economy, in turn, particu­ cannot carry on this struggle for inde­ Valentino, is the ruler of one of the labor costs, Arab governments could larlyits agriculture, could be of po­ pendence and reform if it is commit­ most barbaric sheikdoms in the Arab easily drop the price of oil on the litical and economic assistance to Iraq. ted to the West in the Cold War. How world-where a thief can have his world market to the alarm of their The American government - be it could Arab nationalism fight against hand cut off, or a man's head be American competitors. Eisenhower or Stevenson at the helm­ the pernicious influence of the British placed on a chopping block for even This drive of Arab nationalism for cannot be indifferent to Arab nation­ owned Iraq Petroleum Company and, lighter offenses-was of little impor­ control of its own oil resources is not alism's inherent threat to American simultaneously, declare itself political­ tance; Saudi Arabia was-that is no only a matter of prestige or propa­ investment. It would be a crudity, ly committed to the West in the Cold longer certain-part of the pro-West­ ganda. It follows from the peculiar however, to insist that the Marines War? ern bloc and rich in oil which is all character of most oil enriched Arab have landed in Lebanon only to pro­ Once this nationalist movement the credentials one now needs in the lands that any movement which seeks tect American capital. In addition to took a definite neutralist direction, Middle East for receiving Washing­ to raise the Arab masses out of the this concern the Americans can hardly the United States was forced to adopt ton's benedictions. depths of poverty (and to instill in afford to lose control of an element­ a harsh policy. Washington wants sta­ The royal welcome Washington them a sense of national pride and oil-that is so vital to the economic bility in the Middle East; but it also gave Ibn Saud is typical of the Ameri­ personal dignity) must utilize the and military needs of their European needs a political commitment. At one can approach that has given the Krem­ enormous revenues from the oil fields allies who are almost wholly depend­ point the State Department hoped to lin the political opportunity it has for more constructive purposes than ent upon the Middle East for their promote stability in the Middle East been seeking in the Middle East. Rus­ fat dividends to foreign investors and supplies. There is no cause to believe above all, in Egypt, with land reform sia has no record of economic pene­ bullet-proof cadillacs for reigning that, today, the Arab world, if it con­ programs. (These land reforms were tration in the Middle East; and no sheikhs. Most Arab lands have highly trolled oil, would cut itself off from limited to promoting credit and co­ history of political involvement before efficient oil fields - but practically its Western market. Where else can operative marketing and the like; they the war. In this sense, it begins with nothing else. Other industrial enter­ its oil be sold? But there is no assur­ were not designed to reform the basic a clean bill of health in the eyes of prises are primitive by comparison, ance, either, that tomorrow the Mid­ inequities of ownership and income thousands of ardent Arab nationalists. much of the land is barren and what dle East will not find other markets or which related to the fundamental or­ Furthermore, the fact that the Krem­ is under cultivation is usually unpro­ use such control of oil for political­ ganization of Egyptian society.) Now lin has no prior history in the area, ductive. However, the revenues that retaliatory purposes against the West. the accent has changed. The quest for removes whatever restraints might would accrue to an Arab nation in The best way to avoid this danger is stability plus political commitment otherwise exist to its demagogic sup­ control of its own fields could provide to frustrate the nationalist encroach­ plus the need to protect oil invest­ port of Arab nationalism. Every reac­ the money necessary for wider indus­ ment on Western capitalism'S private ments has led Washington to seek out tionary move by the Americans, there­ trial development and, above all, for oil preserves. and support the most reactionary ele­ fore, can be easily exploited by the executing large irrigation projects ments in the Middle East: the sheikhs, Kremlin for its own imperialist, global without which all talk of land reforms To EFFECTIVELY CONTROL its oil re­ landlords, monarchs and lackeys who interests. Dulles repudiates economic and increased agricultural production serves, to institute land reforms and know that the advance of Arab nation­ commitments to Egypt, and Russia en­ is of limited meaning. further these reforms with income alism is a threat to their political pow­ ters the scene with promises of eco­ It is true that not all Arab countries from oil, to develop its industries and and wealth. This is no longer a theo­ nomic aid; Americans sponsor the rich with oil could productively invest to modernize and extend its educa­ ry. It is proved by recent events in ]'laghdad Pact, and the Russians join in their own economies all the income tional facilities, the nationalist move­ Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. the Arab nationalists in denouncing derived from nationalized oil fields. ment is brought into head on collision Naturally, Washington feels com­ it; Washington places its trust in the This limit to productive internal in­ with pashas and sheikhs, with land­ pelled to clothe its Middle Eastern most reactionary social elements and vestment limits the value of oil na- owners and corrupt officials, with Spring-Summer 1958 87 86 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. frankly admitted to in his important debates on Hungary the Arab nation­ the Russians become the champions cies pursued by the dominant nation­ alist current, N asserism, which cannot book, Egypt's Liberation: The Philos­ alists did not denounce the Russian of social change (at the same time as ophy of the Revolution. suppression of the Hungarian revolu­ they maintain most friendly ties with be endorsed.· A detailed discussion of these objections is beyond the scope Our third objection concerns the tion and the United Arab Republic the absolute feudal sheikhdom in nationalist attitude toward Russia. has refused to support the recent mo­ Yemen); where the Americans send of these Notes. However, they must be mentioned to avoid any misunder­ The charge that there is a Khrush­ tion that the U.N. investigate the mur­ Marines to Lebanon the Russians sup­ chev-Nasser axis is an absurdity that der of Imre Nagy. There is no moral ply the United Arab Republic with standing of our views. First, the Arab nationalist move­ has gained currency in certain liberal or political justification for this public arms. ment has taken an indefensible posi­ quarters. There is no such axis. All indifference to Russian totalitarian­ The tremendous propaganda capi­ o~e has. to do is to look at the speed ism. What is more, by pacifying the tal which naturally accrues to the Rus­ tion vis-a-vis Israel. It proclaims with­ out any equivocation its intention of WIth whIch the Communist Parties are Kremlin, the Arab nationalists are sians is not limited to the Middle East. smashed wherever nationalism takes pursuing a self-destructive policy, be­ With the world's attention focused on totally destroying the Jewish State. That the Arab world has legitimate po~er to see how silly the charge real­ cause the fundamental interests of to­ the area the Kremlin appears as the ly IS. The dominant nationalist move­ talitarianism and nationalism are ir­ champion of underprivileged peoples grievances against the Israelis can not reasonably be challenged by demo­ ment is not at the service of the Krem­ reconcilable. If Russia builds up a in the eyes of many millions through­ lin, but, neither has it publicly repudi­ popular base among the Arab masses out the colonial world. It was not for crats. But Israel is a fact; it is a State and not a mere Zionist plot. It is also ated the Kremlin. The Nasserites, in and intellectuals, the present Arab nothing that Khrushchev recently pro­ exchange for the "support" given nationalist leadership might rue the posed a toast to the Kremlin's best the most advanced state in the Middle East, socially, culturally and economi­ them b~ the Russians, are playing day it decided to subordinate criticism friend - the American Secretary of along WIth the Russians, conciliating of Russian totalitarianism to what it State, John Foster Dulles. cally, with a labor and socialist move­ ment that is powerful and a parlia­ them, sometimes praising them (at the considers its immediate interests. mentary system that is far more demo­ same time that they are wary of them). WITH THE PERIOD just after the end of Thus, at the United Nations political JULIUS FALK World War II the Arab masses, immo­ cratic than exists anywhere in the bilized for centuries, began to move Arab world. In addition, it must never out of their lethargy and, in the dec­ be forgotten that Israel provided a ade since, Arab nationalism has refuge for hundreds of thousands of evolved into a movement of such European Jews who escaped Hitler's power and passion that even the most slaughter chambers. Without Israel obtuse should be able to recognize it where could these tragically uprooted as an irreversible national revolution­ have turned? (The argument offered read ary force. It must be accepted. But not by Arab intellectuals that Israel is not merely because it is inevitable. Its aim justified because the Jews are not a is also just. Ending the power of the "nation" culturally is callous and LIBERATION MAGAZINE foreign pashas will not automatically irrelevant; perhaps they are not a cul­ tural entity but the Nazis failed to guarantee that the best of all possible fhe confroversial independenf monfhly worlds will immediately emerge in the see this fine point and their persecu­ Middle East. It would, however, per­ tion of the Jews has resolved any mit a start in the right direction. How question that they are a dispersed peo­ else could a more stable and demo­ ple with certain common problems and interests.) cratic society arise if not through the subscription $3 a year unleashing of Arab energies and po­ Second, the nationalist movement tentialities, the precondition of which wherever it has come to power has not is national independence? replaced the political rule of the old 110 CHRISTOPHER STREET. NEW YORK 14. N.Y. But if we sympathize with the over­ ruling class with political democracy. In Egypt and Syria opposition politi­ all objective that does not mean that send 25c now for a sample copy we endorse all the specific forms that cal parties are not permitted. This nationalism has taken and all of its policy, indefensible from a democratic methods and all of its programs. point of view, Hows from a basic dis­ There are any number of specific poli- trust of the masses which Nasser· has Spring-Summer 1958 89 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 88 • force; and this is why a movement for prestige still adhered to it. It had, af­ Despotism's Fortress Asia the general strike could not provoke a ter all, led a victorious struggle against rebellion in the army."3 the hated Kuomintang; during various 'S China Ruled by a New Democracy or a New Class? But Trotsky was mistaken in his pre­ periods of its turn toward the lower diction that such a conquest of power peasantry, particularly after 1946, it had carried out a program of land re­ ant class relations, and then to the would lead to the establishment of a The seizure of power by form. In the period immediately after actual policy of the Government, the bourgeois regime. This error followed, the Chinese Communists is one of the the Communist conquest, there was grim reality which contrasts so much of course, from his general characteri­ most important events of the twentieth activity on the part of the working with the statements of hope and of so­ zation of Stalinism as a "centrist" force century. For Communism has tri­ class in some areas-up to the confis­ umphed in a land populated by over cialism. with strong tendencies to capitulate to capitalism. In reality, as we shall see, cation of factories in the case of the 500 million people during an era of Liench'ang iron works in Tienstin. epochal colonial upheavals and, more the Communists, once they seized pow­ IN 1932, LEON TROTSKY made a re­ er} established themselves as a new These revolutionary manifestations than that, China offers the colonial markable prediction-the full implica­ were, of course, immediately put world a disguised alternative to capi­ class force, hostile to bourgeoisie, tions of which he himself did not un­ workers and peasants. The crucial down. In their place, the workers were talist-imperialist exploitation - totali­ derstand. He wrote, given the "right" to have "Factory tarian industrialization. point is that Chinese Communism came to power without any major in­ Committees." But, as the regulations What kind of a power is this that The absence of a strong revolutionary party and of mass organizations of the tervention on the part of the working ma?e plain, "If a decision passed by a looms so large in our time? What are proletariat renders control over the com­ class. Its motor force was the action of maJonty of the Factory Committee its prospects for the future? manding stratum virtually impossible. the peasantry. And once in power, its shall be judged by the Head of the On the one hand, there are those The commanders and commissars appear Factory (or the Manager) to be in con­ in the guise of absolute masters of the policy conformed perfectly to Trot­ who distinguish sharply between Mao­ situation and upon occupying cities will sky's analysis in one basic respect: the flict with said Factory's best interests, or when the said decision shall be in ism and Stalinism, who believe that the be rather apt to look down from above ~omman~ers and commissars appeared Chinese path of totalitarianism will be upon the workers. [And] In old China In the guIse of absolute masters of the conflict with the instructions of higher every victorious peasant revolution was less brutal, temporary and more demo­ situation and "looked down" upon authority, the Manager or Head of the cratic than the Russian. A recent study, concluded by the creation of a new dy­ Factory is empowered to prohibit its nasty.... Under the present conditions, the workers-or rather, established a The Political Economy of Growth by the peasant war by itself without the repressive regime against the workers, implementation." 5 Paul A. Baran (Monthly Review Press, direct leadership of the proletarian van­ against the entire nation. Thus it was that this "socialist" 1957; $5), can be taken as a compre­ guard can only pass on the power to a force maintained an co All China F ed­ new massacre of the workers with the In a very perceptive comment, Har­ hensive and serious statement of this eration of Trade Unions" which de­ point of view. And on the other hand, weapons of "democratic dictatorship." 1 old Isaacs characterized the Chinese Communist movement in this way: fined its purpose in the following way: there is the attitude which maintains Half of Trotsky'S prediction came "to ensure and consolidate labor dis­ that the dynamic of totalitarian indus­ true. The Chinese Communists did During the decades following 1927. the cipline, correctly organize labor, fully trialization, with its emphasis on heavy take power without the intervention CP had become a party of de-urbanized and rationally use working hours, intellectuals and peasant leaders whose industry and its restrictive control of of the urban working class and on the raise labor productivity and tum out the consumption of the masses, will backs of the peasantry. After the dis­ ma~n strength lay in the military force WhICh they created and with which they quality products." Any reference to lead toward a new form of class society. astrous Stalinist policies of the Twen­ ultimately won power. Apart from its the defense of the rights of the workers This view was recently argued in Ye­ ties produced a crushing defeat of the broadly agrarian character and pre-occu­ was, of course, omitted. More recently, gael Gluckstein's Mao's China. revolution, the workers turned deci­ pation, this party and this military force Chung Ming, chairman of the Shang­ I t is the thesis of this article that the sively away from the Communists and had no consistent class base through the years... it shifted from one hai Trade Union Council, told Wal­ latter analysis is correct, that China were not to come into contact with section of the peasantry to another now ton Cole of Reuters that "The trade under Communism represents the bas­ them until the late days of the Civil seeking the support of the lower strata, unions are organized to enable the tion of bureaucratic collectivism in War in the Forties.2 Indeed, even in ~ow .of the ~pper strata, at times adapt­ workers to accomplish the state plans Asia, that it is one of the most powerful the last stages of the rise to power, an mg Itself WIthout difficulty even to the and observe the laws promulgated by observer quite sympathetic to the landlords. It came as a force from the forces against socialism, against democ­ outside, bringing its program with it.4 the state." 6 racy, in the modern world. In order to Communist cause wrote, "The Chi­ (Emphasis added.) document this, let us turn first to the nese Communists were quite weak in Nevertheless, the camouflage of way in which power was seized by the the cities; the Chinese proletariat did And yet, when the Chinese Commu­ "workers' rights" is still insisted upon Chinese Communists and the result- not represent a sufficiently strong nist Party entered the cities, a certain by the Chinese Communists. At the Spring-Summer 1958 90 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 91 eighth All-China Trade Union Con­ tum the land into the private proper­ while the country's needs in this respect a series of natural calamities, led to a are increasing every year.... During the lop-sided development. Consequently, gress held in Peiping in December, ty of the peasants. The rich peasant period covered by the three Five Year 1957, Lai Jo-yu, President of the Fed­ economy will also be allowed to exist Plans, we must manage to arrive at some 1957 was a year of cut-back and repres­ eration, announced a wider basis for in the rural areas. . . ." radical solution of the problem of agri­ sion, and the "anti-rightist" campaign 9 was inextricably linked with this fact. the shop committees. After outlining And indeed, in the period of the cultural cooperatives. Nevertheless, the Communists have all the rights of "suggestion" enjoyed final phase of the Civil War, the Com­ In other words, the determination maintained their power, and done so, by the workers, he carefully stipulated munists were quite successful in ap­ of the regime to industrialize was the even with their disastrous mistakes, by that all this was to be "under condi­ pealing to the masses of the peasantry. main factor forcing the decision to en­ fighting against the peasantry, by ex­ tions that the rights of the manage­ After some hesitation, they announced gage in large-scale collectivization. In ploiting them through terror. In one ment given by the state in carrying out a program for land reform in 1946, Mao's report, it was made clear that brief period, over half a million peas­ its work are not infringed upon." 7 and it was this act (coupled with their this was done against considerable op­ ants were rounded up in a single Chi­ And on May 13, 1957, the People's previous work among the peasants) position within the Party itself (which nese city and sent back to the country­ Daily, official organ of the regime, which secured them a wide basis of is, after all, overwhelmingly peasant in sidel stated its horror at the fact that work­ support. Thus, when power was taken social composition). ers had . . . gone on strike. This fol­ in 1949, the standard line was that the The result of this policy was a mas­ THE CHINESE BOURGEOISIE has, of lowed, by some two or three months, task of the government was to carry sive flight from the land into the course, been completely subjected to Mao's affirmation of the right of the out the bourgeois revolution as a stage o cities.1 It resulted in such a crisis of the power of the state apparatus. This workers to strike. on the way to socialism. the regime that Mao made his speech In short, the Chinese Communsists has not, however, meant total control. For that matter, during the period of February, 1957, "On Contradic­ In part, Mao's policy toward the capi­ turned upon the workers as soon as of consolidation of power (roughly tions" in which he tried to mollify the they took power. They disarmed what­ talists is historically conditioned. Dur­ 1949 to 1955), there were continued opposition. This, as is well known, ing the last days of the Civil War, the ever revolutionary committees there reaffirmations of the right of peasant failed and was followed almost imme­ were; they denied the right to strike; Kuomintang regime had become so property. On February 15, 1953, the diately by the violent campaign corrupt and repressive that it had even they established fraudulent unions Central Committee of the Chinese against the "rightists," i.e., against any­ whose real function was to maintain aliena ted a good sector of bourgeois Communist Party stated, one who raised his voice in minimal opinion.l1 Gluckstein quotes a leading labor discipline and to increase pro­ criticism of the regime. But of this de­ On the basis of present economic condi­ capitalist weekly in Hong Kong on the ductivity. In all of this, there is not the velopment, more a little later on. least shred of evidence to suggest that tions, the individual economic system of eve of the Communist seizure of the peasants will necessarily continue to In summary, then, the Chinese Com­ power: we are dealing with a state representa­ exist and expand for a long time to come. tive of the working class in any way. munist policy toward the peasant has It is even necessary to permit the con­ been dedicated to a line of super-ex­ The remaining foreigners in Shanghai The peasantry fared no better. The tinued development of the economic sys­ are looking for an improvement when the Chinese Communists had a long his­ tem of the wealthy peasant. Moreover, ploitation in order to obtain surpluses Communist-appointed administration will tory of a zig-zag policy with regard to the Common Program states that the for investment purposes. This has assume control; as it has been for the last peasants' ownership of land will be safe­ the peasants. In the period immediate­ been met by violent resistance, and has three-and-a-half years, life appeared to guarded wherever the agrarian reform is strengthened all the totalitarian as­ many as intolerable in chaotic Shang­ ly after the destruction of the Revolu­ carried on.s hai.12 tion in the Twenties, there was the es­ pects of the state power. For that mat­ tablishment of peasant "soviets." But But this line of accommodation to­ ter, this totalitarianism is inherent to But this policy of concessions toward this experiment was short-lived. In the ward the peasantry lasted only until Communist China, since it is the only the bourgeoisie, like the similar atti­ years that followed, the fundamental 1955 (and it was often contradicted way in which such a program of tude taken toward private peasant mechanism which determined Com­ before then.) On July 31st of that forced industrialization can possibly property, was to be a temporary affair. munist land policy was the ,course of year, Mao announced the massive be carried out. But even here, we must Having established the regime and the struggle with the Kuomintang. In swing toward collectivization. In his be careful not to simplify for the to­ achieved some economic order, the Mao's famous pronouncement on report, he emphasized that talitarian power itself is,_ wracked by Communists launched the "Five-Anti" "New Democracy" in 1940, he stated socialist industrialization cannot be sepa­ its own crises. Bureaucratic planning campaign. Hundreds of thousands of that the new republic "will adopt cer­ rated from the development of agricul­ has resulted in enormous waste, and private holdings were investigated, tain necessary measures to confiscate tural cooperatives, not be undertaken by this has introduced an element of in­ and the state announced that it had the land of big landlords and distrib­ itself. For one thing, everyone knows that stability into the regime. In 1956, for discovered illegal profits of over two in our country the production of market­ example, a general overestimation on and a half billion dollars. After this ute it among peasants.... This is not able grain and of raw materials for in­ to build up socialist agriculture, but to dustry is at present at a very low level, the part of the planners, coupled with campaign, and the resultant fall in 92 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Sprlag-Summer 1958 93 production, there were other attempts reaucrats-the wealth of the nation oped societies pursuing the path of accomplish," he does not note the fact to conciliate the capitalists, but all being exploited is not as great as that totalitarian accumulation (and there­ that such terror as has taken place in the within the context of tight state con­ of Russia-but it is growing. Indeed. fore, one would assume, of China course of all social revolutions-frequent_ trol. Moreover, the commanding the path of privilege in China has above all) which is sharply at vari­ ly excessive, always painful and deplor­ heights of the economy are completely been made easier because of the Rus­ able - represents the inevitable birth ance with the interpretation in the pains of a new society, and that such statified. As early as 1952, the regime sian experience. In 1952, the People'S first section of this article. His study squeezing of living standards as has oc­ announced that Daily was able to editorialize on "The is a serious one ( and by no means con­ curred has effected primarily, if not sole­ Incompatibility of Socialism and ly, the ruling class whose exce::;s con~ump­ nationalization extended to about 80 per fined to this one subject), and de­ Equalitarianism." serves careful treatment and analysis. tion, squandering of resources and capi­ cent of the heavy industry, and 40 per tal flight had to be "sacrificed" to eco­ cent of the light industry; the govern­ During the period of criticism which In dealing with it, we will initially be nomic development.18 ment operated all of the railways and operated after Mao's speech on let­ concerned with Baran's generaliza­ There can be doubt that such a revolu­ ahout 60 per cent of the steamships ply­ tions and then relate them to the ac­ ing the home waters; it controlled 90 ting "a hundred flowers bloom:' tionary break with the centuries-old per cent of all loans and deposits through Chang Po-cheng, assistant director of tual experiences of the Chinese Com­ backwardness of the antedeluvian Rus­ the People's Bank; finally state compa­ munists. sian village could not have been achieved the Teachers' College Propaganda with the consent of the irrational, illiter­ nies were responsible for about 90 per Department, and Hwang Chen-lu, Technically, Baran's book is not ad­ cent of imports and exports, for about ate and ignorant peasantry.... What is dressed to totalitarian regimes like decisive . . . is whether the changes that half the wholesale trade and for about editor of the college review, made a China, but nations like India. And do take place actually correspond to so­ 30 per cent of the retail trade.I3 joint statement at the Teachers' Train­ ing College of Shenyang. In part, they yet, the real heart and soul of this ciety's objectivity extant and objectively At the Eighth Congress of the ascertainable needs.l9 said, "The Communist Party having study is the author's commitment to Chinese Communist Party, a program set itself up as a privileged class, we a Communist-type accumulation of From these representative quota­ of continuing statification was laid find worthless Communists at all the capital. That, obviously, is the guid­ tions, it is clear that Baran stands for out. Typically, it was proposed that ing principle of his theory which is a totalitarian (if necessary) mobili­ the old capitalist apparatus in a fac­ important posts .... Certain militant Communists are drawn to high sal­ much more than a simple economic zation of the considerable resources tory should be assimilated into the critique of waste under capitalism; it of underdeveloped societies for the state management upon nationaliza­ aried public offices like flies to a dish of honey, and these activists set up is a program for Communism in Asia, purpose of creating socialism. And the tion.1 4 And even now, the "joint" a justification for it. specific points which I would like to state-private companies, and the state barbed wire fences and an iron cur­ Here are the main points of Baran's emphasize by way of analysis are: the power of taxation and investigation tain between the Communist Party and the people."15 thesis: extent, and the source of the economic (as in the "Five-Anti" Campaign) surplus which Baran believes is avail­ mean that bourgeois enterprise is on All of this gives us a picture of the . . . contrary to the commonly held able; the difficulties of even a totali­ view that receives a great deal of empha­ suffrance, that it has a temporary regime which emerged from Mao's tarian mobilization; the fact that such conquest of power in 1949. After win­ sis in Western writings on underdevel­ lease on life, and will be tolerated as oped countries, the principal obstacle to a technique cannot lead to socialism. ning a victory on the basis of peasant long as it maintains a certain effi­ their development is not shortage of capi­ .First, there is Baran's confident as­ support, the Chinese Communists ciency of production. To see in such tal. What is short in all of these coun­ sumption that a considerable surplus turned against the peasants; turned tries is what we have termed actual eco­ a pattern (as some socialists do) a already exists in these societies-that on the workers and bourgeoisie; em­ nomic surplus invested in the expansion capitulation "to the right" is truly they are not short of capital-and that an incredible feat of theory. barked on a program of forced heavy of productive facilities. The potential eco­ nom cisurplus that could be made avail­ the only problem is rational mobiliza­ industrialization; and began the work In other words, the Communist re­ able for such investment is large in aU tion and investment of the existant of creating a series of class privileges of them.l6 gime of China has carried out a war surplus. On this point, we can do no for the members of the Party. In short, against the three major and non­ The principal obstacle to rapid eco­ better than to heed an analysis made we have a near classic case of bureau­ nomic growth in the backward countries ruling classes of the nation: against by one who is in sympathy with Ba­ cratic collectivism, of the power of a is the way in which their potential eco­ the peasants, the workers and the ran's general friendliness toward Com­ bureaucratic class resting upon its nomic surplus is utilized.17 bourgeoisie. Each class has, in its own munist industrialization. The follow­ control of statified industry. And if Professor Mason ... objects to way, felt the lash of state power. At the "extraordinary rapid rate" of in­ ing quotation is from Number 3 of the same time, the growing totalitarian crease of national income that can be at­ The New Reasoner (an English pub­ might of the state has provided a pa­ OUR DISCUSSION, SO FAR, relates to Paul tained in a socialist society because it lication which is the organ of a group sition of privilege for the Commu­ Baran's recent book, The Political would depend on a "totalitarian regime exercising the weapons of terror (and) of ex-Communists, almost all of whom nists themselves. These have not yet Economy Of Growth. For Baran has . . . squeezing standards of living . . . still regard Russia and China as some reached the level of the Russian bu- developed an image of underdevel- that no democratic state could possibly kind of a socialist formation), and 94 THE HEW .HTEIHAT.OHAL Spring-Summer 1958 95 the peasants who have, in the main, dollars or pounds of constant value, was signed by "A Contributor." It is political attitude of this critic, and paid for the new investment, and paid have probably not changed much one a devastating critique, and, in its sec­ his sympathies for Communism in in living standards; and that the work­ way or the other since more than ond paragraph, considerably more particular. But this is exactly what ers have also been tremendously con­ thirty years ago."24 Again, it must be frank than anything in The Political makes his over-all analysis the more stricted by the regime. emphasized that this is in the context Economy of Growths telling-for he does agree with Baran. There is, for one thing, a "scissors" of increased productivity, and that a The chief criticism is that a rather Now, let us tum to the actual situ­ between countryside and city, that is, stable level of wages thereby signifies facile view is taken of economic growth ation in China and attempt to give an economic mechanism which puts an increase in exploitation. once the socialist revolution is accom­ flesh to a more extended criticism of plished. This appears to stem in part the peasant at an enormous disadvan­ But we need not stay on the ground from Professor Baran's own qualitative Baran's statements. According to the tage. Communist sources indicate that of statistical speculation. There is, estimates, and from Dr. H. Oshima's un­ Political Economy of Growth, we the prices of manufactured articles for example, this very interesting state­ published quantitative estimates, of the should expect to find in China (a) were increasing at a much faster rate ment of the People'S Daily in Septem­ potential surplus available even at the that investment is obtained from the than those of agricultural products.22 ber, 1957. It is from an editorial en­ current level of output of backward coun­ surpluses of the old ruling class and tries, but wasted by their present eco­ And a year after the collectivization titled, "We must Try to Reduce the nomic and social systems. According to of imperialism; (b) that therefore drive was begun by Mao, one corres­ Consumption of Cereals in the Dr. Oshima's estimates, which Professor there is no decrease in the consump­ pondent reported that the People'S Town." Baran quotes, the wasted surplus was, in tion of the masses, or only a relatively Daily Malaya (1947) 23 per cent of gross na­ The standard of living in the towns small decrease. having always been relatively high and tional product, in Ceylon (1951) 20 per de,.l ..... o,1 +"'at the situation was not bad cent, in the Philippines (1948) 16 per To begin with, Chinese Communist from the economic point of view, and the consumption of cereals fairly impor­ cent, in India (undated) 10 per cent, and sources themselves contradict Baran's that state control had resulted in in­ tant, will not the townsfolk grumble at the Party and the government now that in Thailand (undated) 26 per cent. No point of view. The major source of creased productivity. But, it added that from the political and psychological point they are being asked to reduce their con­ indication is given as to how these esti­ extracting surplus, if we are to credit mates have been compiled. But if the of view the situation was deplorable.... sumption? ... In order that town dwell~rs same conceptual basis has been used as Mao's speech of July, 1955, is through Indeed, the whole scheme had fallen down may actively support the slogans callIng that adopted by Professor Baran, then the collectivization of agriculture, i.e. on one fundamental issue: the earnings for reduced consumption, we need only they substantially overestimate the po­ through the exploitation of the peas­ of the peasant had not increased.23 explain to the people that the economies effected in the case of cereals are of great tential available for mobilization in the antry. This, as we shall show, does not service of economic growth. In the first Thus, contrary to Baran's model, political and economic significance for place, Professor Baran includes in the simply mean the allocation of the old the source of surplus from investment the consolidation of the alliance between potential surplus all military expendi­ profits to social investment, but ra­ was not simply a utilization of the workers and peasants.25 ture. But the socialist revolution will not ther it is achieved through decreasing old (monopolized by imperialism and This kind of evidence is sharply op­ bring the backward countries into some the share of the peasant (and the the native ruling class) potential, but posed to Baran's thesis of an accum­ hypothetical world united in a socialist worker) in the increased productivity commonwealth which will enable them to a result of the increased exploitation ulation primarily derived from cur­ dispense with armies and armaments. of the nation-that is, through the re­ of the peasantry (using that term in tailing the profits of the old, para­ Secondly, Professor Baran's potential striction of the consumption of the its "classic" sense as designating the sitic classes. We have instead a picture surplus involves some double counting. masses. ratio between the paid and unpaid involving two elements: the possibility He includes not only the excess consump­ In terms of real wages, our problem tion of the upper income groups, but also portions of the working day). of an absolute decrease in living stand­ of the output of workers engaged in man­ is complicated by the difficulties at­ The situation of the workers is, of ards (suggested by the People'S Daily ufacturing "luxury articles of all kinds, tendent upon obtaining valid statis­ course, somewhat better than that of editorial); and the certainty of a rela­ objects of conspicuous display and marks tics. It is possible, for example, to the peasantry. However, all govern­ tive decrease, that is, of the increase of of social distinction." But the latter are make a favorable comparison between what the rich consume all over again. ment figures must be used quite crit­ the surplus which is taken away from The tremendously high rates of eco­ a post-1949 year and various years ically, since they usually do not indi­ the producers. This is not to argue nomic expansion in the Soviet Union and during the Civil War. By December cate the amount of wages that is "con­ that there is a wide-spread immisera­ the countries of Eastern Europe have of 1949, the inflation had reached tributed" to one or another cause tion as compared with the era of the been achieved not merely by the mobiliza­ such a level that, if the period of imposed by the regime, e.g. the Korean Koumintang. It is merely to document tion of Professor Baran's potential sur­ July 1936 to June 1937 is taken as the plus, but also by freeing resources War. But even given these difficulties, the question of who is paying for all through an initial reduction in standards base of 1, prices were: food, 11,600; Gluckstein's conclusion, after balanc­ those steel mills. Baran's theory would of living of the bulk of the population, agricultural food stuffs, 12,293; ani­ ing the available statistical informa­ suggest that the answer is the old pro­ which is excluded from Professor Baran's mal products, 10,089 and so on. Even tion, was: "This rough calculation fit-makers. The reality is to the con­ 20 concept. making allowances for this situation, suggests that real wages expressed in trary: never having been asked about Clearly, I do not share the general we can definitely establish that it is Spring-Summer 1958 97 96 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL it, the workers and peasants are pay­ low level of output of the principal ag­ ularly those who took the "hundred nese Communists in heavy industry­ ing. ricultural products."27 Those who be­ flowers" speech seriously. In the Feb­ must be seen in a larger context, and lieve that this has been done by simul­ ruary 6, 1958 issue of France-O bseroa­ that includes bureaucratic mismanage­ It must be emphasized that none of taneously raising the level of peasant teur, Francis Fejto reports the depor­ ment, the inefficiencies of totalitarian this should be taken as a denial of living standards had better pay more tation of a million such people to the planning. the technological accomplishments of attention to the Chinese Communist collective farms. This is one method the Chinese Communists nor as a The democratic socialist concept of press. For some time now, and partic­ of solving the manpower problem. theory of galloping immiseration. social planning is based on the idea ularly since the collectivization drive, Through the stabilization of currency, To summarize this criticism of of policy control by the people them­ there have been regime reports of a the creation of a unified economy and Baran's first proposition: the evidence selves, and a constant exchange of "Blind, massive" flight of the peasan­ other actions of the Communists, does not indicate that the problem of information between central agencies try to the towns. The most recent state­ there has been a rise in real wages in China's development has been one of and local groupings. But under condi­ of this theme can be found in many sectors of the country. But even m~nt mobilizing a potential surplus which tions of totalitarianism, these checks the dispatches to the New York Times here, this fact must be seen in con­ had previously been dissipated by the on the errors of the planners are simp­ from David Chipp of Reuters (who text. As the United Nations Economic ruling class. On the contrary, the ex­ ly not present-and the conditions for recently returned from China).28 Survey of Asia and the Far East, 1957, ploitation of the workers and peasants appalling waste are created. Khrush­ pointed out, the priority of capital Indeed, the most obvious sign of has been the mainspring of accumula­ chev's speech on the decentralization over consumer goods has given rise peasant discontent has been the intro­ tion; and this has been done without of the ministries gave us a view of the to very real inflationary tendencies in duction by the Communists of a sys­ raising the living standard of the mas­ fantastic situation prevaling in Rus­ China. To counter this, the regime tem of internal passports-that hal­ ses appreciably, indeed it has some­ sia up until two years ago (and there has employed two main measures. lowed technique of the most reaction­ times resulted in an absolute decrease is every likelihood that the fundamen­ One is the direct restriction of con­ ary tyrannies. It is now impossible to in consumption. Thus, even with a tal problem remains since only the sumption through rationing. The move from one place to another with­ totalitarian apparatus, there is no easy structure of the Russian system was other is the standard Stalinist tech­ out official permission.29 This, most transition to industrialization in an altered, and not its basic premise). nique of siphoning off purchasing observers agree, was aimed at the pea­ underdeveloped country which relies And in China we can see similar situ­ power (after the "real" wage figures sant resistance and flight to the cities. primarily on its own resources. Baran's ations developing. Indeed, there is have been trumpeted to the world) It hardly corroborates the Baran thesis view not only does not illuminate the evidence that the Chinese Commu­ through demanding "voluntary" sub­ of the "easy" transition. actual facts of the situation-it leads nists are attempting to follow the Rus­ scriptions to bond issues, contribu­ And then, we must take unemploy­ to a political assumption of a degree sian lead in a "decentralization" pro- tions to campaigns, etc., and through ment into account as another social of satisfaction and support for the re­ gram.31 gime on the part of the masses that forcing peasants to sell surplus grain cost of the heavy industry policy. Ac­ The case of the plow is the most is contradicted by everything we have at state prices rather than at the cording to a Hong Kong dispatch in recent, and illuminating example, in­ learned from China in recent years. higher level of a local market. Thus, 1957, it appears that the jobless now dicating the problems of totalitarian we must also take into account the total "many millions"30 in China. The THERE IS ANOTHER PROPOSITION in planning. Recently, China has been in various techniques of depriving the root of this situation, admitted by the Baran's thesis-more implicit than the midst of a severe agricultural crisis. masses of at least part of their ap­ regime, is that the headlong emphasis stated. Since he posits the primary The over-ambitious plans of 1956 ran parant gains. on building up a lop-sided economy problem as one of mobilizing actual into peasant opposition and severe Finallv, a few other points about with a huge heavy industrial base has potential, and in doing so contrasts the natural calamities. And the 2,500,000- the sou£ce of investment surplus and not kept pace with the population techniques of totalitarian industriali­ ton grain increase in 1957 was the living standards should be cleared up. growth. (Incidentally, Baran is a class­ zation to those of the state capitalist smallest increment to be reported As was mentioned before, the re­ ical "anti-Malthusian" which is a road (India), Baran is implicitly argu­ under a five year plan.32 In December, gime itself is conscious of the locus of luxury which even Mao cannot afford. ing in favor of the efficiency of totali­ 1957, an agriculture ministry spokes­ its surpluses. That is why Mao, in his In I 956, the regime reversed its pre­ tarian industrialization. For here, to man told a Reuters correspondent that speech of July, 1955, argued for col­ vious line and came out in favor "f be sure, we do have an enormous mo­ it is an "open secret" that some pea­ lectivization as a means of solving birth control and changed the laws on bilization of resources. However, this sants and cooperatives still "affected "contradictions between our require­ abortion.) factor-present, for example, in the by old ideologies" are engaged in ments in marketable grain and indus­ Finally, another group paying a great strides of Russian rocket research hoarding.33 Moreover, since the new trial raw materials-which are increas­ high price for industrialization are and production, or in the undeniable birth control campaign has not yet ing each year-and the present very the students and intellectuals, partic- material advances made by the Chi- proved effective the regime is faced 98 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 99 T Union de la Gauches Socialistes dis­ tion does not take into account the with the problem of finding food for for the individual enterprises to develop cussing the possibilities of peaceful available evidence of the waste of this an annual population increase of 13,- new products or improve or produce more of the old. It can occur if th~re is too I transition in advanced countries is of regime; and finally, his cavalier re­ 000,000 consumers.34 much planning and bureaucratlc control great interest in this regard.38 marks on violence have little or noth­ In this context, it is obvious that and interference in the economy...• In a But where there is violence in the ing to do with the Chinese situation­ country that has failed to open up t~e I.~ the development of agriculture is of or with socialism . prime necessity for Mao. And yet, channels of communication, there IS case of a socialist revolution we can grave danger that a hit-a~d:miss re­ during the first half of 1956, the Com­ make certain generalizations about it: search policy based on unreabstlc, p~rely first, that it is the last resort imposed CHINA IS A BUREAUCRATIC COLLECTIVIST munists manufactured 1,400,000 plows political motives will be set up by mex­ state; a dynamic, Asian repetition of which were . . . uselessP5 The plans perienced state bureaucrats. by the armed resistance of the minor­ I ity to the established, democratic will the Russian pattern. Its motor is were copied from a Russian model The description fits China beauti­ forced industrialization; its means, which had been designed for broad of the majority; second, that it is a fully. How can we explain the fantas­ temporary phenomenon; third, that the exploitation of the vast majority. flat wheatlands-and were almost com­ tic case of 1,400,000 useless plows? Or Its power rests ultimately upon terror. pletely unsuited for the terraced, in­ it is directed against the armed insur­ the over-estimation of the educational rectionists of the old classes. How does And those who believe that we have tensive agriculture of China. In addi­ facilities which resulted in a 40 per here a fundamental departure from tion, they were so heavy that one farm­ this relate to China? In the beginning, cent surplus of students in 1957 (one one can argue that the violence was Stalinism are wrong. Given the greater er could not drag one of them over of the reasons for the "voluntary," distance which the Maoists must tra­ the ridges between fields, and two that of the majority against a fanatical, back-to-the-Iand line of the regime)? anti-democratic and unrepresentative verse before they achieve industrializa­ water buffaloes sometimes balked at Yes, Chinese Communism industrial­ tion, given the fantastic pressures of pulling them. And yet, according to minority. But that revolution, as we izes-but at an enormous cost and demonstrated in the first section of population growth, there is every indi­ the monthly Planned Economy of De­ through an enormous waste. Baran cation that this will be an even more cember 23, 1956,36 the plows were sold this article, was betrayed in the very seems to assume that the only problem process of its success. It was the means terrible counter-revolution than the to regional distributors by "various of transition is a willingness to mobil­ Russian. compulsory means." Those farmers whereby a minority assumed total con­ ize potential surplus, he has left out a trol over the majority. Ultimately, the argument of those who received one called them "plows crucial element (indeed, in the long who support such a pattern of totali­ for hanging up purposes." run, the crucial element): democracy In China today, terror and violence tarian accummulation in the name of This is what was behind those which is an economic as well as a po­ are a built-in feature of the system "socialism" rests upon a curiously charming pictures of Mao turning a litical necessity for socialism. directed against workers and peasants, mechanistic foundation. There were furrow himself. Such a ritual has long against the majority, by a tiny and de­ those in the European socialist move­ One final point from Baran's book termined minority. For Baran to been associated with the Emperor; -his dismissal of violence as an "in­ ment before the first World War who but more importantly, it was a cover analogize this to Marx's discussion of pointed out that imperialism brought evitable" concomitant of revolution. violence, or to the general socialist up for a huge waste of resources. It is of course, true that the great rev­ "culture" to backward peoples, that attitude on violence, is incredible. It it shattered outlived social systems In a very interesting article, "Re­ Olutions of the past-the English in is true enough that a certain grim, search and Freedom in Undeveloped and prepared the way for the future. the seventeenth century, the French in brainwashing technique of "persua­ Countries,"37 Stephen Dedijer summed Consequently, they went on, imperial­ the eighteenth-were accompanied by sion" is often used by the Maoist, but up the effect of this bureaucratic waste ism was progressive. The Marxists of great internal convulsions, by violence. that cannot hide the ultimate basis on scientific research: that period (I am thinking particu­ But there were the struggles in which of the dictatorship-which is its mo­ a minority (in the cases cited above, larly of Luxemburg and Lenin) re­ This danger is also present with re­ nopoly of the means of destruction the bourgeoisie) were carrying on a jected this argument out of hand, for spect to the role of industry in developing and its willingness to use them against it divorced social development from research. The primitive peasant agricul­ struggle against feudalism .. We ca~­ the majority. tUre and small industry-mostly extrac­ not, of course, rule out VIOlence In the actual living struggles of the tive or manufacturing a narrow variety some areas of the socialist revolution Thus, on every count, I find Baran's workers and of the colonial people. of goods by primitive factories for the lo­ (in Hungary, for instance, it was made basic thesis lacking: first, his assertion In the Junius Broshure~ Luxembourg cal market-never had nor even felt the that a potential surplus of the old rul­ directed her scorn upon those bour­ need for research. There may exist a dan­ necessary by the totalitarian character ger that when the industry starts devel­ of the class enemy), but neither are ing classes suffices for industrialization, geois economists who saw each new oping under the narrow policy of "eco­ we bound by old predictions, particu­ or is the primary base of it, does not railroad as an advance of "progress nomics is primary" it contributes little to larly as they relate to the advanced correspond to the Chinese reality; and culture." the formation of a research policy. This countries. The thesis recently offered second, his assumption about the effic­ And so we must confront a new can occur in the general atmosphere of a iency of a totalitarian industrializa- dictatorship when there is little incentive by the French left socialists of the variant of this mechanism: only now Spring-Summer 1958 100 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 101 it is not based upon the statistics of This distinction never had any rele­ icisms of Mao in a certain context. 8. For a full and documented disCUSSion of Chinese Com­ munist peasant policy in this period, see Leon Tribiere, capitalist expansion, but rather upon vance; but to continue to maintain it The horrors of totalitarian accumu­ "The 1951 pre-Kolkhoze Policy in China at the Turning­ the charts of bureaucratic accumu­ now, in the face of the current evi­ lation, it goes almost without saying, Point in July, ·1955, and the Crisis in the Chinese Com­ munist Party," Saturn, Jan.-Feb. 1956. lation. In each case, the grand historic dence, is truly incredible. If it means are not documented in order to smear 9. Translated in Saturn, ibid, pp. 85-6. abstraction allows its proponent to simply that socialists do not support democratic socialist planning. And 10. Cf "Mao's China" by Michael Harrington in the Winter, 1958 issue of Anyil. ' forget the very heart and soul of s0- any imperialist power, i.e. that we do the necessary work of exposing Mao's 11. Belden, op cit, p. 483; and GIuckstein, Mao's China (1951), pp. 1921f. cialism-the actual lives of workers not support an American financed road must be coupled with a positive 12. GIuckstein, op cit, p. 193. and peasants. To be sure, and Lux­ attack by Chiang on the Chinese socialist alternative; and not abstract­ 13. Quoted in China Under Communism, by Richard Walker, p. 106. embourg noted this with regard to mainland, that has nothing to do with ly, but in terms of avoiding World 14. Proposals of the Eighth National Congress of the capitalist imperialism, there is a sense our attitude toward the social system. War III. Today, this means that inde­ Chinese Communist Party for the Second Five Year Plan (Peiping, 1956), p. 24-5. in which this accumulation pre­ But if "it means that in an intra­ pendent socialists must urge an Amer­ 15. Quoted in Saturn, December 1951, p. 81. pares the way for socialism. So did imperialist conflict, in a struggle be­ 16. Paul Baran, The Political Economy of Growth, pp. ican program of massive aid to the 226-1. American expansion during World tween two exploitative social sys­ colonial revolution, understanding all 11. Ibid, p. 228. War II, so did Perez Jiminez' policy tems, that the socialists "chooses" one 18. Ibid, p. 255. the while that this single point im­ 19. Ibid, p. 278. in Venezuala-so does any increase in over the other, then it is another form plies a far reaching campaign to 20. The New Reasoner, Winter 1951-58. pp. 121-22. 21. GIuckstein, op cit, p. 103. the productive power of the economy. of social patriotism. And there is change the very basis of American 22. Ibid, p. 104. If such a statistical evaluation were still another, and new, point. Since a politics. 23. Robert GuIlian, "Taking Away the 'Good Earth'" New Republic, March 13, 1951. p. 33. ' all that was necessary for the Marxist, third, imperialist war runs the risk of MICHAEL HARRINGTON 24. GIuckstein, op cit, p. 255. then politics would indeed be simple. the extermination of mankind, this 25. Quoted in Saturn, December 1951, pp. 151ft. NOTES 26. cr. Hans Bayer, "Chineseische Wirtschaftspolitik," But what is the policy of these becomes an over-riding consideration. Gerwekschaftliche Monatshefte 11, November 1951, p. 616. "progressivists" during a strike under We could not, for that matter, take 1. Both from "Peasant War in China," translated in the 21. Saturn, Jan.-Feb. 1956, p. 86. Bulletin of Marxist Studies, No. I, August 1951. pp. 15-16. 28. New York Times, January 15, 1958. Mao? Toward peasant resistance to responsibility for the purest socialists 2. cr. Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao by Ben­ 29. New York Times, January 11, 1958. jamin Schwartz, Harvard, 1952. p. 91. forced collectivization? Do not such state in the world which employed I 30. New York Times, September 12, 1957. 3. Jack Belden, China Shakes the World (French ed. 31. New York Times, March 30, 1958. acts "retard" the raising of productiv­ nuclear holocaust as the means of I 1951). p. 454. 32. New York Times, December 5, 1957. ity? Of course they do. And if the "socialist" policy. 4. Harold Isaacs, The Tragedy of the Chinese RevolUtion 33. Ibid. (rev. ed.) p. 312. 34. New York Times, March 30, 1958. figures of increased heavy industry But what then should our attitude 5. d. "The Stalinist State in China," by M. Y. Wang. 35. New York Times, January 28, 1958, quoting the Chi- New International, March-April 1951, p. 101. nese Communist press. are enough to guarantee the progres­ be toward China? Clearly, it must rest, 6. New York Times, February 25, 1958. 36. Quoted, ibid. sive character of a regime and a social basically and primarily, upon our so­ 1. Quoted in an article by Tilman Durdin, New York 31. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 1951. Times, Janu~ry 5, 1958. system, then the "socialist" is honor lidarity with the Chinese people. As 38. La Revolution Qui Vient, by Yvan Craipeau (1951). bound to take his side with the police this article has demonstrated, even if power and against the (unfortunately) in sketchy fashion, these workers and wrongheaded people. peasants are currently being victim­ But then, the traditional Trotskyist ized by the Chinese bureaucracy. That analysis avoided this dilema. It con­ means that we cannot spread the myth, ceived the bureaucracy as reactionary, the illusion of abstract progressivism, as a fetter upon production; and the that Mao is to be supported. Even as ANVIL mere existence of nationalized prop­ we subject the reactionary impotence erty as progressive. Consequently, this of Chiang and his Kuomintang to point of view was able to defend the analysis, even as we record the in­ The ONLY Student Socialist resistance of the people against the crease in production statistics, we can­ bureaucrats though it led to support not let our attention wander from the Magazine in America for the imperialist imposition of bu­ central problem: that of the people. reaucratic collectivisim in Poland). Our aim, then, is to achieve the social From an internal point of view, then, transformation which China so ur­ 25 cents per copy Bundles of 5 or more at 20 cents 5 issues for $1.00 there was to be opposition; but with gently needs, in a progressive way, and regard to the menace of capitalist not through the support of Mao's imperialism, support of the social totalitarian exploitation. Write to: ANVIL. 36 East 10th Street. New York 11. N. Y. system, as it is, in the name of the Concretely, this means that Ameri­ defense of its progressive core. can socialists should make their crit- 102 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 103 poverty would be ended by govern­ telized industry as the three-pronged A New Look at the New Deal mental planning. Power was to go to me~ns to. solve the problems of capi­ a powerful executive and a permanent tahst SOCIety and both limit democ­ Reform and Rhetoric Joined to Trustification administrative group. A powerful cen­ racy by removing the crucial decisions tral government able to plan and ex­ of society from popular control. There is at present a most Hofstadter, without fully recogniz­ periment and control was to be cre­ This liberal ideology is a curious justified trend among liberals and so­ ing it himself, offers a key to the ated. mixture of old and new. The base is cialists to take a new look at the New understanding of the New Deal. In This image of the welfare state was the ideology of the old, agrarian, mid­ Deal. This is necessary in order to de­ the chapter on the period in The Age combined with acceptance of eco­ dle class democracy based upon wide­ velop a more serious, time-endowed of Reform there are two themes. Of nomic concentration under capitalist I y-owned property and a minimal approach to the problems and politics the major one he writes, "The de­ property relations. Some industries state. The ideology is then combined of the society which emerged from the mands of a large and powerful labor such as power and transport might be with a program based upon the cartel­ social upheavals of the nineteen-thir­ movement, coupled with the interests nationalized, but the economy would ization of society in which the number ties. This article is a tentative effort of the unemployed, gave the later ~e~ain private-property corporate cap­ of property owners is drastically re­ to chart a course through the policies New Deal a social-democratic tinge ItalIsm. du~ed and the power of the state great­ of the New Deal administration, to that had never before been present in The New Republic liberals in aban­ I y Increased. In short, a Jeffersonian look for a general tendency in the American reform movements." As a doning the attempt of the old liberal­ ideal is combined with a Hamiltonian multiplicity of historical data. secondary theme he writes, "The New ism to stop concentration aimed for program I The greatest disservice to those who Deal began not with a flourish of social harmony. All labor must be or­ The New Republic liberalism was seek an understanding of the New trust-busting but rather, in the NRA, ganized into unions for only then developed by a group of economists Deal is the repeated emphasis on the with an attempt to solve the prob­ could it be "responsible." Business, the in the nineteen-twenties who gave it pragmatic and multi-sided quality of lems of the business order through a farmer, labor, and government would a more specific program, complete its program. The usually brilliant his­ gigantic system of governmentally all cooperate with one another. Every with technocratic overtones. Led by torian, Richard Hofstadter, for ex­ underwritten codes that would ratify class and social element would have Wesley Clair Mitchell, they built on ample, in The Age of Reform com­ the trustification of society." I shall its place in society, its assigned share Thorstein Veblen's emphasis on ra­ mented about Franklin Roosevelt: take these two themes as central but and its consequent responsibility. ~ional~ty and technology, while ignor­ "Unlike Hoover, he had few hard I shall reverse the order of their im­ Only then could American democracy Ing hIS radical social criticism. They and fast notions about economic prin­ portance and interpret the social-dem­ go fort~ and take responsible leader­ looked to the engineers, the techni­ ciples, but he knew that it would be ocratic tinge in the light of the pri­ ship in the world. "Prophets of prog­ cians, the professional classes, those in necessary to experiment and impro­ macy of the trustification of society. ress who were sure the dice of history whom the Veblenesque instinct of vise." From this, Hofstadter goes on were loaded in their favor" the New workmanship pulsated most insistent­ to discuss the pragmatic nature of the ONE MUST GO BACK to the years imme­ Republic editors welcomed Wilson's ly, as the carriers of social change. New Deal. diately preceding 'Vodd War I in declaration of a crusade to make the They were concerned with the ration­ As an item in the biography of order to understand the development world safe for democracy.'" ality of production; they were not particularly concerned with the redis­ Roosevelt this idea has some truth. of the New Deal program. The group This ideology is one of the variants tribution of income and major social But this does not tell much about that created and wrote for the liberal of modern corporatism: the harmony structural change. Their basic interest the objective direction of the New journal, the New Republic, formulat­ of social classes enforced by a state was with "industrial government," Deal. One cannot understand the New ed a liberal creed which finally was standing above and separate from so­ government regulation of industry; Deal as nothing but an item in the realized under the New Deal. cial conflict. The liberal version might they opposed the anti-trust laws as biography of one man for the result is The New Republic ideologists were be called democratic corporatism in intellectual chaos. being unworkable and as leading to opposed to the rapaciousness of mo­ order to distinguish it from the totali­ inefficiency. All historical periods are in fact nopoly capitalism. They looked to­ tarian corporatism of fascism. While Even though some of these men, such multiplicity, diversity, experimenta­ ward a pragmatic, experimental, mid­ one must very carefully separate the as Rexford Tugwell and Professor tion. All periods present a motley dle class democracy, based on science former from the latter, they both uti­ (now Senator) Paul Douglas, were in­ array of facts. It is the task of the his­ and industry. Class division would be lize the growth of the power of the ex­ volved in the activities of the social­ torian to arrange and interpret them healed by social cooperation, irrespon­ ecutive, the centralized state and car- democratic League for Industrial De­ in some useful fashion, to find the sible power would be socialized and • See David Noble "The New Republic and the Idea mocracy, they were not socialists, but main drift in an inchoate sea of facts. made responsible, economic crisis and or .Progres~, 1914-1920" in the MissiSSippi Valley His. tOrlCal ReVIew, pp. 395-6, December, 1951. planners. They had elitist concep- 104 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL SprinCJ-Summer 1958 105 tions; they had no sense of commit­ special tax arrangements that would decided on by these forums. Govern­ it is only in organization of all the ment to socialism as the political work to the disadvantage of non-mem­ men t price con troIs were to be workers in this country that we can movement of the working-class. bers. avoided. hope for balance in our economic Several of these figures, most notab­ Adolph Berle also had developed a Hugh Johnson prepared a report structure." It is clear that by "balance" ly Rexford Tugwell and Adolph similar program, the major develop­ for a committee created by a group of he meant the system of cartelization. In Berle, became the heart of the "Brain ment of which stemmed from his clas­ bank and insurance companies which this he was not alone among the cor­ Trust" which Franklin Roosevelt as­ sic study (with Gardner Means) of were heavy investors in railroad and porate leadership. sembled in 1932 and 1933 to be the The Modern Corporation and Private other transport securities which gives These leaders of American capital­ idea men for the new administration. Property. Berle recognized and accept­ a clear picture of what he and his col­ ism had a similar program for the ed the tremendous social power that leagues were aiming at, shorn of con­ agricultural sector of the economy, de­ IN EARLY 1933 TUGWELL ISSUED a call concentration had placed in the hands fusing liberalistic phraseology. The signed to solve the long-term agricul­ for a government-administered econ­ of the corporate leadership. He looked report, signed by Baruch, former presi­ tural depression. American farming omy in a volume, The Industrial Dis­ for a government sponsored program dent Calvin Coolidge and former New had been steadily mechanized and con­ cipline and the Governmental Arts, of self-government in industry which York State governor Alfred Smith, centered, the number of farm owners which was a codification of what he would prevent social chaos, the large called for the end of government ef­ declining sharply in the nineteen­ had been saying throughout the nine­ Huctuations in the business cycle, and forts to "create and foster competition twenties while the number of share­ teen-twenties. dishonesty. Ultimately, he caIled for a with or among railroads as a defense croppers and tenant farmers rose. But Tugwell did not advocate the na­ socially-responsible and moral cor­ against monopoly." Parallel and com­ despite the concentration, the per cap­ tionalization or socialization of indus­ pOl-ate leadership. peting lines were to be eliminated, the ita income available for farmers was try; he did advocate placing power to These ideas of Tugwell and Berle railroads were to be consolidated into much lower than that available to the control the overall functioning of the were in accord in major respects with a single National System. In those non-farm population. The develop­ economy in the hands of the state. The those being developed at the same cases where waterways or truck routes ment of a highly integrated industrial state would provide a full security pro­ time by the economic titans of Ameri­ could provide cheaper and more effi­ capitalist economy left a non-rational­ gram. It would carefully regulate pro­ can capitalism. Gerard Swope, Presi­ cient service, no attempt should be ized agricultural industry lacking ade­ duction in order to guarantee "fair dent of General Electric, and the made to· support railroads artificially. quate marketing and price-fixing in­ service at fair prices." The Federal United States Chamber of Commerce, This was a program for finance capi­ stitutions and faced with the special government would control and super­ had similar proposals. Business maga­ talism, which, standing at the peak of tariff-supported privileges of manu­ vise through the taxing power the zines and corporate leaders seconded capitalist society, can identify its own facture. How and investment of capital; it their ideas. Above all, Bernard Ba­ welfare with that of all society. It is To meet this problem, George Peek would control prices; it would protect ruch and those around him, most par­ interested in all possible areas of in­ and the leaders of the Farm Bureau certain weaker sectors of the economy, ticularly General Hugh Johnson and vestment, against the concern of mo­ Federation, representing the large such as small business, consumers, farm-implement maker, George Peek, nopoly capitalism for specific sectors staple-crop producers and the food farmers, and technicians. were the most influential in develop­ of the economy. Finance capitalism processors and farm equipment manu­ Above all, the state would encour­ ing these ideas. The basic conception has as its interest the functioning of facturers, agitated for a government­ age corporate integration rather than was the one that Herbert Hoover, the entire capitalist social system for, supported program of removing sur­ attempting to prevent or limit it. Such when Secretary of Commerce in the after all, what is important for it is pluses from the domestic market and integration would be controlled by a Harding Administration, had ad­ a return on the total capital invested, maintaining agriculural prices on a central industrial integration board vanced: self-government in industry, whether it be in railroads, waterways, level with that of the boom years 1909- which would represent the peak trade i.e., responsible cartelization. truck lines, or in industries other than 1914. They presented this program associations in each industry, and the Baruch, as Tugwell, relied upon transport. with lack of success to the Republican government. The central integration common integration forums, repre­ The advocates of a program of car­ Convention of 1928; they then went board would have power of review of sentative of the trade associations in telization encouraged within limits across the street and ,sold it in prin­ trade association policies with respect each industry, and sponsored by the the creation of mass industrial unions, ciple to AI Smith and the Democrats. to security issues, prices, adequate state. The channeling of investment single industry-wide bargaining agents In the form of the McNary-Haugen wages, production levels and stand­ and the control over the level of pro­ which could help impose upon an en­ Bill it reached Congress but was not ards, and working conditions. It would duction, the wages of labor, the condi­ tire industry wage rates high enough passed. encourage patent-pooling and other tions of sales and marketing, particu­ to drive ou t all marginal producers. carte1izing devices. AIl corporations larly specifications as to quality and Hugh Johnson in this respect declared THE PROGRAM OF THE FIRST YEARS of would be induced to join the plan by some agreemen t on prices were to be in his autobiography, "In my opinion the Roosevelt Administration follow- 106 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. Spring-Summer 1958 107 ed closely along the lines of these Federal Reserve credit for speculative tural commodities" in a base period the major cause of the flood of Okies plans that I have been discussing: the purposes by requiring that each Fed­ of 1909-1914. The government paid and Arkies who were pushed off the end of trust busting, the rationaliza­ eral Reserve Bank continually investi­ farmers to destroy crops and livestock land to wander the country looking tion of industry and agriculture, self­ gate bank loan procedures, and pro­ already in production, and to remove for work. government in industry, government­ vided that an offending bank might be from production a percentage of the sponsored cartelization. refused accommodations or be formal­ farm land, and made commodity loans THE TOUCHSTONE of the New Deal The heart of the New Deal program ly suspended from use of Federal Re­ to permit producers to hold certain program for American capitalism was was a series of acts, passed in the first serve facilities. In other ways, it acted commodities off the market until the National Recovery Administration Roosevelt administration, designed to to tighten up the banking system and prices improved. This last provision which was taken directly from the create permanent changes in the or­ to limit speculative loans. The Federal left the government holding millions plans of Baruch, Tugwell, and Berle. ganization of soicety along the lines Reserve Board was strengthened so of dollars worth of farm commodities While the NRA was to be declared of the ratification of the trustification that it could provide some of the ra­ which had been the collateral to unconstitutional, its results were last­ of society. The first area for recon­ tionalizing and stabilizing functions secure these loans. ing. struction was banking and finance. of a central bank. Individual deposits In line with the general support of The National Recovery Administra­ The banking system had been show­ were insured through the Federal De­ the New Deal for the ratification of tion convened meetings of the peak ing signs of trouble throughout the posit Insurance Corporation in order the trustification of society, the gov­ trade associations in each industry for prosperity of the nineteen-twenties. to protect the depositors and restore ernment encouraged and at times re­ the purpose of formulating a code cov­ N early seven thousand banks had be­ confidence in the banking system. In quired, marketing agreements be­ ering all conditions of production and come insolvent and dosed their doors 1935, the Congress under the direction tween producers' cooperatives, proces­ distribution. These codes were to be during the decade; the great bulk of of the administration and the Federal sors, and distributors, for the purpose enforced by the abandonment of the these were in agricultural areas. With Reserve Board, went further in of raising or maintaining prices. anti-trust legislation and by moral co­ the 1929 Stock ~arket Crash the en­ strengthening the powers of the Fed­ The fir~t Agricultural Adjustment ercion. Required trade practices that tire American banking system began eral Reserve Board, giving it wide con­ Act was declared unconstitutional by were most important in the codes were to fall a part. Bank failures became trol over credit extension. The chair­ the Supreme Court in 1936 because its minimum price maintenance, uniform wholesale. On the eve of the 1933 in­ man of the Board, ~ariner S. Eccles, operations had been financed by a methods of cost finding, price filing, auguration the banking system had to­ declared in this connection, ((laissez tax levied on the processors of agricul­ specified discount and credit terms, tally collapsed and state g-overnors had faire in banking and the attainment tural goods. In subsequent acts of 1936 standard contracts, specified standards declared "bank holidays" in most of of business stability are incompatible." and 1938, the basic outlines of the of bids and quotations, classification the states. The first act of the new ad­ In the Securi ties Act and the Ex­ AAA were kept intact, indeed of customers, and limitation of ma­ ministration was to declare a four-day change Act and the organization of strengthened, utilizing means more ac­ chine and plant hours or of industry bank holiday for the entire nation. the Securities and Exchange Commis­ ceptable to the court. capacity. A host of usual competitive A long-term strengthening of the sion to regulate the stock-market, the The result of the AAA in immediate practices were prohibited such as com­ banking structure was attempted in New Deal created another element of and long-run terms was the further mercial bribery, spying on competi­ the Banking Act of 1933, which grew enforcing "self-government" in indus­ i mechanization, industrialization, and tors, imitation of trade-marks or de­ out of Congressional investigations in try. It was designed to police the prac­ economic concentration of the farm­ signs, price discrimination, "tie-in" 1930 and 1931. The Federal Reserve tices of corporations in the offering of ing land. Hundreds of thousands of sales, "style piracy," and the entice­ System needed tightening and more securities on the market. farmers were pushed off the land by ment of employees from rival firms. power in order to provide a central The agricultural plan adopted by the combination of the AAA and the The National Industrial Relations control over the banking system, to the New Deal was that worked out by dust storms of the mid-thirties. The Act included a section 7(a) which provide a m~chanism which would George Peek and the Farm Bureau benefi ts paid to farm owners for acre­ guaranteed the right of collective bar­ keep the entire banking s.ystem in op­ Federation with some modifications. age reduction were only rarely given gaining to labor. There is little doubt eration by regulating its individual The Agricultural Adjustment Act of to the sharetenants and croppers. In­ that it gave a tremendous impetus to parts. The interests of individual 1933 passed in the midst of widespread deed, the tenants and croppers were the organization of mass industrial un­ bankers in uncontrolled speculation misery was based upon the drastic re­ reduced to the status 'of farm laborers ionism. It had been introduced as la­ had to be sacrificed in order to protect triction of agricultural productionI as land was removed from production, bor's price for support of codes the entire system. The act undertook to "re-establish tenants were expelled from the land, drawn-up for the most part without The Banking Act of 1933 divorced prices to farmers at a level that will and holdings thrown together. The its participation. Furthermore, it had investment banks from commercial give purchasing power ... equivalent tractor, often bought with govern­ been introduced to stem-off the A.F. of banks. It undertook to curb the use of to the purchasing power of agricul- ment acreage reduction checks, was L.'s drive for the Black-Connery 108 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 109 thirty-hour maximum work-week hill. ary methods. This is almost pure the left of the President, which is not fers in addition to the relief program Industry was willing to grant the right myth. The New Deal fought hard to surprising, for it is more sensitive to to four major acts of legislation: the of labor to organize in return for gov­ follow a conservative program, to popular moods. creation of the Tennessee Valley Au­ ernment sanction of cartelization. maintain a balanced budget, to reduce The drive to cut relief appropria­ thority, the Wagner Labor Relations Within limits, the peaks of capitalist government expenditures, to borrow tions continued throughout 1936 and Act, the Social Security Act, and the industry did not oppose unionization rather than tax, to follow a moderate­ 1937. It was momentarily stopped by Fair Labor Standards Act of 1937. for it would raise wage rates and thus ly deflationist policy. an economic downswing in the late While all of these measures did repre­ further the cartelization process by It is true that the New Deal's left­ fall of 1937, which economists have sent major progressive steps, they did driving-out marginal producers. wing, led by Harry Hopkins, Aubrey attributed directly to the devastating not represent a revolutionary change The NRA was declared unconstitu­ Williams, Harold Ickes, and Tugwell, impact of the budget-balancing activi­ in American society, they were most tional by a conservative Supreme fought for increased government ties of the New Dealers! A temporary modest in their aims, they were an in­ -Court in 1935 and, unlike the first spending, particularly for the relief rise in relief funds was voted in early tegral part of a program designed to AAA, was not replaced. Big business program. But what the liberal his­ 1938, but the slightest sign of recovery protect the over-all interests of the had become leery of the government's torians fail to recognize is that the later in the year, led to further admin­ capitalist social system as against the cartelization. role and felt that now left-wing almost consistently lost its istration-sponsored relief cuts. Even special interests of its individual parts. that the anti-trust laws had been al­ battle to such right-wing New Dealers before the effect of defense spending In the conservation program, the most destroyed, they could continue as Johnson, Jesse Jones, Henry Mor­ was felt in late 1939 and early 1940, Rural Electrification Administration, the process without government-spon­ genthau, Jr., Lewis Douglas et al. the relief budget had been slashed and the Tennessee Valley Authority, sorship. However, certain provisions Franklin Roosevelt acted almost con­ from two and a half billion dollars for the New Deal sacrificed the interest were made into special acts of legisla­ sistently in the direction of a moder­ the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938 to of specific capitalist combinations, e.g., tion, the most important of which was ately deflationary program. one and three-quarter billion dollars certain lumber corporations and pri­ the Miller-Tydings Act of 1937 legal­ The history of the New Deal's relief for the year. ending June 30, 1939! vate power corporations, to the over­ izing retail price maintenance and ad­ program demonstrates this fact most all needs of a capitalist economy. Con­ ministered prices for advertised prod­ clearly. Throughout 1933, 1934 and WITH THIS DISCUSSION of the New servation enabled a wide range of ucts in interstate commerce. The car­ 1935, the relief budget kept rising. But Deal's relief program we are into the lumbermen, farmers, and mine owners telization drives of the New Deal con­ as soon as it was felt that total social heart of the "social-democratic tinge" to exploit the natural resources of the tinued into the late nineteen-thirties collapse had been stoped, the New of the Roosevelt program. It is difficult country over a long period; it stood with the legislation creating the Civil Deal attempted to cut-back the relief to understand why there has been this for the national capitalist interests as Aeronautics Administration guaran­ appropriations. insistence upon giving primacy to the against parochial ones. Rural Electri­ teeing a carefully-cartelized structure At the end of 1935, the President "social-democratic tinge" when ana­ fication represented part of the farm for the entire new aviation industry. announced that he was going dras­ lyzing the New Deal for most of it was program of the New Deal and it was While the New Deal did make a mo­ tically to reduce the relief program in of the nature of the relief program­ one of the steps in effectively integrat­ tion in the direction of breaking-up order "to restore business confidence." certain measures grudgingly extracted ing the South into a national econ­ the trusts in the late nineteen-thirties In early 1936, he submitted a budget by mass pressure. The labor movement omy. TVA in providing cheap electric with the strengthening of the anti­ to Congress which called for cutting­ was not directly involved in the direc­ power brought an entire region back trust division of the Department of in-half the total expenditures for relief tion of the New Deal until the war to life and brought industry into that Justice, this was largely a sham. The so as to provide a virtually balanced period; before the 1936 election it region which had not previously been man placed in charge of the division budget. Only Congressional action stood outside the New Deal. It was there. Indeed, in the long run the pri­ was Thurman Arnold who, in his The prevented some of the more drastic only with the initiation of the defense­ vate power companies benefited by the Folklore of Capitalism, ridiculed the cuts. Congress, for example, limited production program that the labor increased demand for electricity attempts to destroy or regulate the the cut in the number to be employed movement was involved with making brought by TVA. While TVA was a trusts! by the Civilian Conservation Corps.. government decisions. Before that, publicly-owned development corpora­ Only 250,000 men were to be dropped. with the exception of one ultra-con­ tion, a public sector of the economy, THE HOARIEST AND MOST commonly The President had proposed dropping servative AFL official who was the it, no more than European govern­ repeated of all stories about the New 300,000. It is often argued that Roose­ figurehead director of the Civilian ment-owned railroads, was a socialized Deal is that it somehow consciously velt could have gone further if Con­ Conservative Corps, no one from la­ sector of the economy. Not only did adopted Keynesian economics with its gress had allowed him. This is almost bor's ranks was even nominally impor­ TVA not alter the basic capitalist so­ emphasis on the unbalanced budget, pure fiction. It is more accurate to re­ tant in the New Deal. cial relations, it helped strengthen deficit financing, and other inflation- port that Congress was most often to The "social-democratic tinge" re- them by bringing an entire area of the

110 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 111 .-::ountry into the orbit of industrial of the bill that guaranteed the right to act represented the payment of politi­ ident Mordecai Johnson and Mary capitalism. TVA must be counted a collective bargaining, has written that cal debts to the CIO and was designed McLeod Bethune secured money for progressive gain just as historically, the Wagner Act "was not a part of the to keep the CIO within the ranks of Negro education from the New Deal capitalism was progressive. Progres­ President's program. It did not par­ the Democratic Party. in exchange for their support. Mrs. sive, yes; social democratic, no. ticularly appeal to him.... " The New Deal politically represent­ Bethune became the head of the Na­ The Social Security program came The major support for the bill came ed a national coalition which for a tional Youth Administration's Divi­ as a result of the depression and wide­ from the labor movement and from few years, 1936 to 1938, could claim sion of Negro Affairs which became spread unemployment. The states certain big-city Democratic leaders, to represent almost all classes. The the center for propaganda among Ne­ which had traditionally been respon­ most notably Senator Robert Wagner agricultural and conservation pro­ groes in the New Deal. sible for the relief of the unemployed of New York. While it was true that grams wedded, if only temporarily, the Despite this, there was radical senti­ had been unable to meet this obliga­ Wagner's long-standing relationship old Populist radicalism, as represented ment among Negroes. The National tion. The Federal government had to with the AFL, his conviction that in­ by Senators Norris, Borah, Wheeler, Negro Congress had been originally a step in to underwrite state aid. Special dustrial peace would be promoted by LaFollette, Nye, et al~ to the New radical-center of protest. Captured by aid had to be available for old people the act, and that unionization would Deal. The Wagner Act and the Fair the Communist Party in its Popular for they represented a large percentage insure high purchasing power, were Labor Standards Act joined the la­ Front period, it was turned into an­ of those on relief rolls. From the point J!lotivating factors in his support, the bor movement to the New Deal. The other center of pro-New Deal senti­ of view of the large taxpayers, social crucial concern was more llirect. Wag­ AAA linked the large and medium ment. The tragic success of the Com­ security made both sound social and ner came from the ranks of Tammany sized farmers to the Democratic Party. munist Party in giving a radical cover economic sense. Would it not be bet­ Hall which could control the city with The Negro vote largely swung into to the New Deal was nowhere more ter to have an insurance scheme in the support of the urban, immigrant the ranks of the Democratic Party in apparent or successful than in the Ne­ which at least half of the money for working class. And in N ew York the the nineteen-thirties, although it is not gro struggle. unemployment relief would come radical mood of the working class was immediately apparent why this was so. While it is true that the New Deal from the potential unemployed them­ daily in evidence. The traditional link The New Deal, except in its aid to Ne­ made concessions to the labor move­ selves rather than placing the entire of the northern working class to the gro education, did not have a program ment, that was not its main drift or burden on the taxpayer? And would Democratic Party had to be strength­ designed to improve the status of Ne­ significance. The New Deal was cer­ not an insurance scheme which would ened if it were to last. Wagner and his gro life in the United States. The New tainly not the creator of a "laboristic" spread out the risk over all the poten­ colleagues slowly impressed this upon Deal did not enter into any fight society in the United States. The main tial unemployed further cut down the their fellow party members, including ~ga~nst Jim Crow in any of its forms, direction of the New Deal was toward cost to the taxpayer? The New Deal Franklin Roosevelt. It dId not encourage opposition to the the trustification of American society, social security legislation was neither The support for the Fair Labor segregationists. Then why the supp­ a process further accelerated by the radical nor particularly liberal. It was Standards Act of 1937 which provided ort? In the first place, the switch of the War Production Board and other gov­ only an example of the fact that a maximum wage and a forty-hour Negro votes into the ranks of the Dem­ ernment agencies during World War United States capitalism had finally week was more complex. The act had ocratic Party had a class rather than II. reached the level of German and Brit­ been opposed by the AFL as cutting race basis; the Negro worker backed Perhaps the most important pro­ ish capitalism which had supported in to the collective bargaining process. the New Deal for the same reasons gressive advance of Roosevelt and the social security insurance schemes for The AFL had long believed that gov­ that white workers did. Secondly, as New Deal was the successful fight for decades. ernment-set maximum hours and min­ Negroes were the first to be fired and the liberalization of the Supreme imum wage laws would set standards the last hired they sought relief-monies Court. The Court had long been THE WAGNER ACT represented a ma­ for industry which would accomplish and work-relief jobs in large numbers dominated by men who adhered to jor concession to the labor movement less than could be achieved through -despite the fact that a number of an older ideology designed to advance as part of the efforts of some Demo­ collective bargaining: the maximum relief agencies, such as the CCC, strug­ capitalist interests in a period in cratic Party leaders to tie the labor hour would become the minimum gled to exclude Negroes from their which the task had been that of fur­ fair share in the program. Third, the movement to their party. It was not, hour, the minimum wage the maxi­ , I the~in~ the advance of monopoly however, an administration measure. mum wage. The new CIO industrial New Deal made a conscious effort to capItahsm. It had to be reconstituted It did not~ indeed~ receive the support unions, however, supported the act; win t~e ~egro vote by a massive prop­ in order to stem its drive toward the of the President until after it had bargaining conditions for unskilled agandIstIC effort. To do this, the sup­ destruction of the New Deal program, passed the lower house of Congress. and semi-skilled workers were quite port of the Negro middle-class leader­ a drive which had been given its most New Deal Secretary of Labor, Frances different than those prevalent in nego­ ship of educators and clergymen was concrete form in the Court's decisions Perkins, herself not a major proponent tiating contracts for skilled crafts. The required. Such Negro leaders as Pres- concerning the unconstitutionality of Spring.Summer 1958 112 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. 113 the NRA and the first AAA. comforts and sense of security. Th.e him can be understood, though not the pre-depression leve1. Reform there As a result of the most important alienated intellectual of the early shared. It is very significant that hostil­ has been, but it is slight in comparison constitutional crisis in American his­ thirties was all too often transformed ity to the President is many times with the reformers' blueprints. The great tory since the Civil War, the Court into an unthinking New Deal enthusi­ stronger than opposition to his policies. problems of the country are still hardly capitulated. Roosevelt was then able ast. The Economist went on to point touched. to appoint a number of liberal justices Added to this combination of the out the crucial fact about the election The problem is really simple if one to create a liberal majority on the intellectuals-search-for-a home and the of 1936: is willing to lay aside chiliastic and Court. While this new court pro­ sanction for the New Deal given by Under Mr. Landon, the RepUblicans had romantic notions based upon the ex­ tected the New Deal program, the the Communist Party, there was the a policy distinguishable only in minor perience of other countries and their most important long range conse­ quite real belief that the collective se­ shades of emphasis from that of the working class movements. The Ameri­ Democrats. The RepUblicans in this quences have been in the advance of curity foreign policy of the New Deal year's campaign paid Mr. Roosevelt the can working class had not yet reached the rights of Negroes and the defense represented the only method of suc­ tribute of borrowing his policies while a level of consciousness that enabled it of civil liberties against Congressional cessfully struggling against the horrors denouncing his philosophy. to do anything but accept the conces­ attack. of Hitlerism. Because the New Deal, Of course, it is true that not all the sions it was able to forc~ out of the at least after 1937, took the leadership opponents of Franklin Roosevelt sup­ pro-capitalist parties. The task in the WHY THE NOTION advanced by most in developing a foreign policy based ported his policies while opposing his New Deal period for the labor move­ left-liberals and the labor movement on the idea of collective security, no anti-capitalist demagogic rhetoric. In ment was the mass organization of the that the New Deal represented a pro­ matter what power realities this con­ the 1936 campaign, those elements in industrial workers. Prior to the nine­ gressive, pro-labor, moderately anti­ cept masked, large sections of the lib­ American society still wedded to an teen-thirties the American working capitalist movement? eral and even radical public gave their ideology of laissez-faire capitalism, class had been divided and at a lower There are a number of related an­ support to the New Deal. And their and containing that anti-Semitic, na­ level of development than European swers to this question, answers which su pport for the foreign policies of the tivistic outcropping of Populism­ workers. One could not reasonably ex­ touch upon the nature of intellectual New Deal led to their support of all turned-sour, supported William Lem­ pect the American working class to life in the United States, the line of the policies on the New Deal. It was a ke for the presidency on a program leap so far ahead as to reject a New the Communist Party, the collective case of virtue by association. which was an hysterical rant against Deal, with its undeniable benefits, in security foreign policy of the New But more important than the intel­ the twentieth century. And it was this the in terests of a more class conscious Deal, the nature of the opposition to lectuals' drive for a home, or the poli­ that characterized the opposition to and politically mature radical objec­ the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt, cies of the Communist Party, or the the New Deal for most liberals and tive. and, above all, to the state of develop­ appeal of Roosevelt's foreign policy, progressives. The New Deal gained Thus, the New Deal: a program for men t of the American working-class was the development of class relations support by the vices of its opponents. trustification of American capitalism, at the time. in the United States. Pitted against the What is more to the point, the New brought into being by reformers with The great bulk of American intel­ New Deal were the most reactionary Deal represented the furthest left that an anti-capitalist rhetoric and with the lectua1s and professionals 'supported elements in the United States. This was available as a mass phenomenon support of the working class. One is the New Deal; only a small intellectu­ was true despite the fact of the New in the United States. While one can reminded of the aphorism of that al minority could resist New Deal Deal program for the trustification of blame, with some justification, the great defender of capitalism, Joseph blandishments - it was unusual and American society. Why? wholesale support of the New Deal by 'Schumpeter, who bitterly comlained, disarming for intellectuals to be the labor movement on the machina­ A distinction has to be drawn be­ "Without protection by some non- wooed by a national administration. tions of Stalinists, social-democrats, tween opposition to the specific poli­ bourgeois group, the bourgeoisie is po­ But the New Deal's attraction for the cies of the New Deal and opposition business unionism, or just plain cow-­ litically helpless and unable not only intellectual was not only in the politi­ ardice, that is not enough to account to Franklin Roosevelt. The editOl:s of to lead its nation but even to take care cal-psychological realm. After all, posi­ for the fact that the American labor the voice of stable British capital, The of its particular class interest." These tions of some meaning were made movement did give its wholehearted tasks were left to the son of the old EconomistJ commented in 1936 that, available to young writers, artists, support to the New Deal in return for landed gentry, Franklin Roosevelt, in economists, social workers and teach­ though his [Franklin Roosevelt] enact­ what the editors of the Economist alliance with many anti-Big Business ers within the many temporary and ments are those of very moderate Liber­ summed up as the accomplishments of elements and with the working class. permanent New Deal agencies. But if alism, his statements, particularly in de­ the New Deal: Only those who expect history to move nunciation of the rich, are often extreme. intellectuals no longer suffered from Relief there has been, but little more If the fluctuations of his course and the in some single linear direction should than enough to keep the population fed, the same feeling of alienation, they violence of his language be borne in be surprised by this paradox. clothed and warmed. Recovery there has had to pay a price for their new found mind, the bitterness of the opposition to been, but only to a point still well below GEORGE RAWICK 114 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 115 The following three articles by Michael Harrington. Andre Giacomettl and Max Shachtman are presented as part of a discussion that should co~tinue to has indicated some hope that De has never been so divided, misled occupy the attenticn of all socialists. The problems r~ised. by de Gaulle.s ~cces­ Gaulle might turn in their direction. and demoralized. A recent article in sion to power pose interesting theoretical and practical Issues for s~clahs~s in I Ferhat Abbas told a correspondent of the British journal Universities and France and the world over. Is the de Gaulle goverr.ment a Bonapartlst regime. does it carry with it the imminent threat of fascism. can it stabilize French capi­ France-Obseroateur that his organi­ Left Review) vividly portrayed the in­ talism. etc.? What of the French Socialist Party? Does the policy. of su.pport zation "continues to hope that De difference of workers at the Renault to de Gaulle eliminate the Party as an arena in which democratic soclalish Gaulle will make a new beginning... should function or is it the responsibility of socialists to work wit~in the party plant toward the events of May and and try to activate it as a socialist force that can offer a democratic alternative We are always ready ... to negotiate June, an attitude based on their un­ to either de Gaullism or Communism. with him." In the first article. by Michael Harrington. the social character of the derstanding that no real alternative de Gaullist regime is discussed along with a personal view of the French Socialist How DOES THIS RELATE to the threat of was being offered to them. Indeed, Party. The debate between Giacometti and Shachtman is more exclusively con­ fascism in France? As has been the onl y union in France which cerned with the character of the French labor and socialist movements and the pointed out by almost every observer, oblic;ations of militant socialists toward them. adopted a militant and effective posi­ All three articles were submitted for pUblication before the September there is no mass fascist movement in tion toward DeGaulle was that of the congress of the SFIO which produced a split and before the French Codstitutional that country. For one thing, the in­ teachers. The rest issued the proper referendum which produced a landslide victory for de Gaulle.-The Editors. tensification of the Algerian struggle manifestoes, often without much po­ and the consequent crisis of the re­ litical content (as in the case of those gime occurred within the context of sections of the CGT controlled by the The SFIO and the Fifth Republic a growing prosperity. There are some Communists), and were unable to reports which even go so far as to rally any sustained enthusiasm on the The Burning Need for an Effective Socialist Movement predict that France is the country part of those they claim to lead. which will be least effected by the The weight of all this leads toward The rise of De Gaulle is tradictions-the announcement of a current European economic down­ the conclusion that even now, some a clear indication that time has run vaguely liberal Algerian solution on turn. At any rate, the extreme social months after the events, we must de­ out on the Fourth Republic. For one day, a promotion for an insur­ dislocation which has been historical­ scribe the situation as fluid, the crisis vears now, the constant coming and rectionary General and a cabinet post ly associated with the rise of fascism­ as unresolved. De Gaulle has moved going of cabinets has produced com­ for Soustelle on the next. As Giles a desperate petty-bourgeoisie, a funda­ in opposite directions, making some motion but not change, the facade Martinet noted in his report to the mental breakdown of the society as a extravagant offers to the natives of of politics and the reality of immo­ National Council of the Union de whole, the polarization of political the French colonies, but trying to bilisme. The dramatic focus has been, La Gauche Socialiste (UGS), " ... De life-were not present. keep his ties with the insurrectionary of course, the question of French co­ Gaulle is not the ultra's man, nor the On the other hand, some French right wing at the same time. For that lonialism: the expenditure of blood Army's, nor that of the technocratic writers have gone so far as to argue matter, one could record the strange and money in defense of the remnants bourgeoisie-he is the man who at­ that fascism has "already arrived" in course of this drama by contrasting of empire. But France's malaise goes tempts to harmonize the partly contra­ Algeria. But even in Algeria the the frenzied enthusiasm which La­ deeper than this one problem. North dictory interests of these three social "classic" features of fascism are not coste called forth in Algiers when he Africa is symptomatic of a bourgeoisie groups upon which his government present. At the same time, it is clear first proposed power for De Gaulle, that is paralyzed, unable to control depends." that the insurrectionarv colonists and the somewhat restrained reception De its own colonial wing; while the work­ But, then, how long can the situa­ their military accomplices are bent Gaulle himself received there a little ing class is split, a section of it com­ tion be compromised in this way? The upon a reactionary dictatorship, war later, and the open hostility which mitted to a Communist Party whose French colonists in Algeria are com­ against the liberation movement to developed around his most recent policies are determined by the needs mitted to a policy of "integration," the bitter end, and an assault upon visit. of Russia, another section led by "so­ that is, of the continuing denial of all democratic institutions in the The one thing that we can say is cialists" who have betrayed their most the rights of the Algerian majority. metropoli tan cen ter. that the crisis is not over, and that a fundamental principles. On the other hand, a section of the While there is no immediate fascist further assault from the right is al­ Thus, for all of the talk about a bourgeoisie is willing to accept a threat in France, it is nevertheless most inevitable. Either that, or De strong executive and action, De "federalist" policy which will guaran­ clear that the problem of defending Gaulle will be completely captured Gaulle is the creature of a political tee the rule of French capital in Al­ democracy is complicated by the ap­ by the right. And such a prognosis is vacuum and his policy has been tenta­ geria. Indeed, a section of the Algeri­ parent apathy of considerable sections hardly an optimistic one, for there tive, not decisive. As a result, his re­ an revolutionary movement itself, the of French society. Far from there be­ seems to be little chance of the left gime has exhibited all kinds of con- National Liberation Front (FLN), ing a threat of working class revolu­ coming forth with a dynamic alterna­ tion in France, the socialist movement 116 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL tive. In this context, the "classic" Spring-Summer 1958 117 marks of fascism are certainly lacking level, the slogan of the Popular Front carrying on the repression in Algeria, from a distance, it seems that Philip in France today, and even in Algeria, was doomed. This is how Martinet and this within the last two years. Al­ has a more constructive position. But but fascism cannot be ruled out as a put it at the Union Gauche Socialiste though it has won the electoral alle­ if the fight within the SFIO goes real possibility in the future. (UGS) National Council meeting: giance of a majority of the French against democratic socialism, that is, For the overwhelming majority of work­ workers, and has enrolled a signifi­ if Mollet wins, then it means that the THUS IF DE GAULLE IS an element in ers who reason in terms of actual ex­ cant section of the working class in French left must look to the arduous the continuing crisis of French bour· perience and not in those of hypothetical its ranks, it is not a Party of the left, task of both regrouping and creating geois democracy, his rise to power was theories, the Popular Front has two but of the East, of Moscow. a new tradition. At such a point, no also a dramatic demonstration of the different meanings: their betrayal However, excluding electoral pacts through a policy of working class sup­ other alternative will remain open. crisis of the French working class port to a section of the bourgeoisie (a and formal cooperation does not mean Given this view, it is most discour­ movement. support which is payed for by some re­ that the French left can simply ig­ aging to note that some reports from During the crisis, the French Social­ forms but which leads to political defeat) ; nore the Communists. Where there France indicate that Mollet will be ist Party's leadership, and Guy Mollet or, it is the prelude to a Communist con­ is a strong democratic socialist leader­ able to maintain his leadership. The quest of power and the institution of a ship it may well be extremely impor­ in particular, were directly accessory totalitarian regime. In short, the PopUlar July 10th issue of L'Express, a Mende­ to De Gaulle's rise to power. This Front means to them either France of tant to involve the Communist ranks siste paper, found that his strength action was rightly characterized by 1936 or of 1945, or else Czechoslovakia in joint, limited action. And in the among the Provincial leadership and Marceau Pivert just before his death in 1948. event of a democratic socialist elec­ in Force Ouvriere, the pro-SFIO trade as "treason" to the principles of so­ toral bloc, it may be possible to force union federation, is considerable. cialism. Because of it, the anti-Mollet I T IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR an American to Communist support in the Assembly These elements have apparently been tendencies within the SFIO have been advocate a detailed policy for the re­ while rejecting completely any pro­ won over by the sterile formula, either strengthened. But though Mollet was groupment of French socialism. That posal for Communist inclusion in th~ De Gaulle or a Popular Front. Since forced to postpone a Party meeting would necessitate a familiarity with Government. Both of these policies, they correctly oppose a Popular Front, for fear of defeat he now seems to be the internal life of the various parties for that matter, have an element in and wrongly are incapable of con­ regaining control. Andre Philip ac­ which distance denies us. At the same common: they might make it possible ceiving of an independent socialist curately stated the situation when he time, however, it is clear that we can to win hundreds of thousands, even policy, they have been reconciled to said that the outcome of this fight comment upon the type of party that millions, away from the Communists De Gaulle. Indeed, two members of within the SFIO is of great moment is required and the forces which must through providing a real and demo­ the SFIO, Alduy and Juskiewenski, for the future of socialism in France. compose it. cratic socialist alternative. have helped in the formation of a A victory for the anti-Mollet forces To begin with specific and focal The problem of the SFIO is some­ center of "left" Gaullistes. The con­ could be a point of departure for a problems facing this regroupment what more complex. The events of clusion of the L'Express analysis is revitalization of French socialism. should be noted; the two traditional the last two decades have proved that that "The Socialist Party has entered Their defeat threatens the Party with parties of the French left, the CP and it is extremely difficult to create a into .hiber?a~ion." This is certainly ineffectiveness at best and to neo­ the SFIO. It should be obvious to al­ new political tradition in France-the true If theIr Judgment is an accurate Gaullism at worst (Mollet, of course, most anyone that organic unity with PSOP of Pivert and the RDR are one. At this point, we can only con­ is in De Gaulle's cabinet). the French Communists, or even for­ cases in point. The Mollet leadership tinue to hope for a development from The Communists did not fare much mal, negotiated cooperation is out of of the SFIO has, of course, become the SFIO minority. better. For once, they were apparently the question. The party of Thorez is intolerable, anti-socialist. But, as without a clear directive from Mos­ one of the most Stalinized in the in­ Andre Philip wisely pointed out in THUS, TIME HAS RUN out on the Fourth cow. In the absence of it, they com­ ternational Communist movement. In the New Leader, the struggle within Republic and the question is, what mitted themselves to a double policy: the past, it was willing to vote "spe­ that Party is of extreme importance. form will succeed it. In the absence support of the PHimlin Government cial powers" to the Government for If the SFIO could be won back to a of the emergence of a democratic so­ and the call for a Popular Front. On another direction. To press a Popular program of democratic socialism, it cialist alternative, the "solution" will the first count, they were unable to Front, there had to be the danger of could provide a rallying point for move from the center to the right. It mobilize any significant section of the fascism. This the Party produced in the regroupment of the left. Some might be a continuation of immobil­ working class in defense of bourgeois some of its appeals, and they substitu­ socialists, for exam pIe those of the isme in an authoritarian, Gaullist immobilisme (presuming that they ted rhetorical anti-fascism (culminat­ UGS, reject this view and feel that manner; it might be the development had any intention of attempting to ing in the failure of the strike on May the SFIO must be abandoned to its of an authoritarian liberalism; it bring the masses into play). On the 19) for any real action. prese?t di~grace. With all of the qual­ could even mean a more radical second count, they had to move in But, on an even more important IficatIOns Imposed upon one speaking change in France and the appearance

118 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 119 of a mass fascist movement. Clearly, For it is only when the French people perfectly prepared deliberately to There is probably not a single betray­ any of these variants threatens the are offered a real chance to vote for smash their own movement along with al of socialism by the S.F.I.O. that the French people and the Algerians as Algerian independence and internal the rest of the labor movement if it leadership of the Dutch Labor Party well. French social change that we can hope serves the interests of Russian state would not commit if given the oppor­ All this adds up to the fact that for a real solution to the crisis of the policy. tunity. Nevertheless, we continue to the most important task of socialists :Fourth Republic. In this sense, after I have always been in general agree­ advocate· membership and work in in .France today is the creation of a all the betrayals of a decade, socialism ment with this position. I also believe these parties because all the negative truly democratic socialist party. The remains the one real hope. that it is essential for revolutionary factors mentioned above do not cancel first, hesitant steps have already been socialists anywhere to remain an in­ out the cardinal advantage of remain­ taken, and they must be intensified. MICHAEL HARRINGTON tegral part of the mass movement of ing an integral part of the mass move­ the working class, and that building ment. RejectiDn DllSl Anlllysis separate organizations in countries It should be quite clear by now that where a political mass-movement ex­ in our appraisal of the S.F.I.O. we ists leads to isolation. I also agree that have not applied different standards: A New Movement Is Needed the main positive function of social­ we oppose work and membership in democracy in post-war Europe has the S.F.I.O. because it does not repre­ Discussion of Preconditions for a Socialist Revival been to preserve the existence of an sent in any meaningful sense a mass­ independent labor movement and movement of the working class, and FOR SOME TIME now it has been ISL foundations for future revolutionary that, for this reason, the place of inde­ because it does not fulfill any of the policy to advocate the entry of Euro­ socialist parties. pendent socialists is within it, where­ functions which we consider sufficient pean revolutionary socialists into the At the same time we explained that ever it represents the major working reason for entering a social-democrat­ social-democratic mass parties of their these objectives could not be achieved class organization. ic party. countries. This position was most by working within the Stalinist par­ Today this applies in a general way As we have seen from the data of forcefully stated by comrade Shacht­ ties, even when the latter represented to the Scandinavian countries, to Brit­ Rimbert, the S.F.I.O. represents a very man in his discussion with Hermann the mass movement of the working ain, to Germany, to Austria, to Switz­ small minority of the industrial work­ Mohring of Pro und Contra in Fall class as in France and, to a lesser ex­ erland, to Belgium and to the Nether­ ing class (about 25,000 out of 6.5 mil­ 1951. In his final rejoinder to Mohr­ tent, in Italy. Why? Not primarily be­ lands. It does not apply, however, to lion, or approximately 0.4%). More ing's article' Shachtman wrote: cause of the moral and political cor­ Greece, where the conditions for a important, these workers are among ruption of these parties, but because A Marxist [should be able to see] that social-democratic mass movement do the most conservative sections of the of their sociological nature: the total unless the Marxists succeed in restoring not exist, nor to Italy, where the French working class and not in any an inseparable contact with the working dependence of their controlling ap­ social-democracy is a small and cor­ sense a vanguard. Further, they are class vanguard, in imbuing this vanguard paratus on the Russian State. We said: rupt coalition of petty-bourgeois not organized, either geographically with revolutionary principles, and in re­ even though the social-democratic organizing the political ranks of this cliques, while the left-socialist PSI is or professionally, in such a manner as leaders might be a reprehensible type vanguard into a revolutionary socialist unquestionably an independent mass to represent a specific influence in the of people, and even though they will party, the Marxists are doomed-and, movement with a strong working class party. what is more important, r' is the pros­ lead the labor movement to defeat if base. I believe that it does not apply It will not do either to point out pect of socialism. left to their own devices, they are at to France either. that the party represented an even Shachtman then advised the Marx­ least vitally interested in maintaining I am 110t basing my objections to smaller percentage of the working a free labor movement-if for no other ists in Europe: "living and working" in the S.F.I.O. class in 1905 (perhaps it did, I did not reason than that you cannot sell out The road to the reconstruction of the on the quality of its leadership, or its check): there is a qualitative differ­ something that doesn't exist. The situ­ revolutionary socialist party lies through policy, or the difficulty of working ence between the situation of a new your entrance and patient, systematic ation of the Stalinist leadership, we within the party. There is no signifi­ organization that sets out to organize work in the social-democratic parties of added, is different: their power base the indicated countries. cant difference between the intelli­ the working class at an early stage of being located outside the labor m~ve­ gence of Lacoste or Ollenhauer, or the its political history, and an organiza­ ment they control, the preservatIOn In short, the ISL advocated the en­ integrity of Guy Mollet and of Paul­ tion that has crumbled to a iimilar of the latter is a secondary considera­ try of the revolutionary socialist mi­ Henri Spaak. There is probably no size as a result of a process of degen­ norities into the social-democratic tion for them. Numerous examples more bureaucratized and monolithic eration and decay. Again: this process mass movements in order to escape (Po]and and Spain among others) have party in existence, outside the Stalin­ is not primarily the r~sult of the mis­ isolation and in order to prepare the shown that the Stalinist leaders are ist parties, than the Austrian SPO. takes and betrayals of the leadership: THE NEW INTER.NATIONAL 120 Spring-Summer 1958 121

- it is an irreversible sociological trend tha t effect. factor influencing the party's evolu­ considered as the date after which produced by the existence of the Com­ Thirdly, there is no way in which tion than a symptom. From the pres­ membership in the S.F.I.O. ceased to munist Party, which has deprived the membership in the S.F.I.O. furthers 1 ent point of view, the argument is fu­ be useful from the socialist point of reformist party of the most active and the contact of the socialist militant tile, for it offers no perspective: no­ view. It is clear, however, that if there devoted elements at the rank-and-file with the working class. In fact, it is bo~y,. absolutely nobody, is now going is an irreversible trend it existed for level and of any leeway for political no exaggeration to say that militants to JOIn the S.F.1.0. on its left, and it some time before that date. In a more maneuvering at the top-level. The of the S.F.l.O. of whatever tendency would make no difference if anyone fundamental sense-and armed with did. policy of the leaderhip, itself a prod­ are better off to hide or minimize their retrospective wisdom-one could say uct of that situation, has then com­ party affiliation if they want to make that the victory of the Mollet appara­ pounded the process. themselves heard at all. This, of IF THE HISTORY OF the S.F.l.O. teaches tus in 1947, coinciding with the begin­ Secondly, there is no meaningful course, may vary according to the local anything, it teaches that you cannot ning of the cold war, set into motion way in which it can be said that the situation, but it is certainly true in all use an institution for the purposes of the machinery of self-destruction S.F.I.O. is preserving the physical ex­ big industrial and urban centers, that the labor movement after it has be­ which nobody in the S.F.1.0. has been istence of an independent labor move­ is, wherever advanced workers are con­ come the channel for social forces hos­ in a position to resist since. ment. The Force Ouvrier never car­ cerned. If anything, membership in tile to the working class. Must we not What occurred from 1947 to 1956 ried much weight as a trade union the S.F.1.0. is a factor of isolation. allow for the possibility that this can was a process of bureaucratization and organization. Except for one or two Pivert, who always hoped to make happen to a social-democratic party? corruption preparing the party to be­ sectors (metal and certain public serv­ an honest woman out of the S.F.I.O., Politically and organizationally, the come a channel for social forces op­ ice unions) it is a completely discred­ often remarked that membership in S.F.1.0. has become the party of a posed to the labor movement; the ited organization (corrupt in the po­ the party represents membership in the certain kind of petty-bourgeois conser­ actual process of "reversal" took place litical and in the literal sense) which Socialist International, that is, a link vatism; this is not a passing aberation, from 1956 to 1957. all decent trade unionists are trying with healthier sectors of international but the result of an evolution within As the case may be, we are now to get out of. If there has been any social-democracy. This, unfortunately, a specific social and political situation faced with the situation that "Social­ doubt about it, this is no longer the is a purely formal argument, which over which independent socialists (or, democratic reformism" in France, as case after Lafond and Le Bourre have makes no sense in terms of the French for that matter, most other people) represented by the S.F.I.O., has ceased joined the "paratrooper wing" of the situation. Membership in the Socialist have no control. To wish for a power­ to resemble any set of facts that this neo-Gaullist bandwagon. The only International is a relationship on a ful left-wing in the S.F.I.O. is to wish definition calls to our minds. To con­ significant exception is the Metal­ very high level of abstraction, compar­ for a different social and political situ­ tinue considering it as the main area workers Federation which is under the able to being one's "brother in ation in France and in the world. It of activity for revolutionary (or any influence, not so much of the S.F.l.O. Christ." Insofar as actual work in the explains nothing and advances noth­ other kind) socialists at the present as of anarcho-syndicalist elements. French labor movement is concerned, ing. time is a triumph of abstract and for­ If it comes to the preservation of it has no meaning. This, incidentally, If the lesson is to be understood, we mal thinking. an independent labor movement, the does not apply to the trade union in­ must ask ourselves the question: at All this, however, does not answer Catholics have surely done better with ternationals; the difference is that the which point did the S.F.I.O. cease to the question of what is to be done. their C.F.T.C. trade union internationals actually become a party worth supporting? If Comrade Shachtman suggests that a N ow the existence of the party itself exist, and that certain aspects of their there was a qualitative change, when balance sheet of the numerous efforts is endangered by the Mollet leader­ work are actually relevant to the prob­ did it take place? Now this sort of to build a socialist movement outside ship: the complicity of Mollet in the lems of the French working class. question is as difficult as it is impor­ and against the S.F.I.O. would show Gaullist coup and the present sup­ Finally, it is particularly irrelevant tant, and can hardly ever be answered failure. He is right. Beside the con­ port of de Gaulle by the S.F.l.O. lead­ to argue that if all socialists who have except in retrospect: partly because it tinued existence of the Trotskyist ership has created a split in the party left the party had stayed in, they might is not easy to judge the trend of an PCI, which is neither a failure no~ a which is unlikely to be patched over have been able to stop the Mollet evolution when vou are in the midst success, there have been three at­ as was customary for earlier conflicts. gang. From the historical point of of it, partly bec~use an evolution of tempts: the PSOP, led by Marceau Pi­ This is all the more true since the view, the argument is beside the this kind is never completely predict­ t vert, which did not survive the war; right wing of Mollet's faction would point: it could have made absolutely able, and people hang on in spite of then the RDR, the most erratic of the not hesitate to integrate the party into no difference if any of the dissident 1 the evidence, in the hope of a change. three, which the ISL supported at the an authoritarian, right-wing "one groups-from the A.S.R. to the "Ac­ The date of the turning-point matters time, and today the PUGS. It is not party" movement sponsored by de tion Socialiste" -had stayed in the par­ little. Mollet's capitulation in Algiers too early to predict failure for the Gaulle: there are public statements to ty. Their departure was less an active on February 6, 1955 can probably be PUGS, even in its own frame of ref- 122 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. Spring-Summer 1958 123 erence, which is not exactly one of plit already, the C.P. could easily split What is the point of leverage for respect by elements scattered among "irreconcilable conflict" with the on the issue of de Gaulle, the P.U.G.S. socialist action in the present situa­ various groups and organizations. Un­ S.F.I.O. But we are not suggesting could split on the issue of Stalinism. tion? In my opinion all movements deniably some groups offer greater commitment to the Union Gauche The only reason why the M.R.P. is not that work toward a reconstruction of possibilities than others; part of my Socialistes (PUG). as an alternative to about to split is because the bulk of the French labor movement along argument is that the minority in the entering the existing mass parties. the Catholic workers have withdrawn the lines described above. At the pres­ S.F.I.O., although not altogether use­ Our problem is not merely one of from it at an earlier time, and nowoc­ ent time, the "Mouvement pour un less, is among those groups which building a "good" party to oppose to cupy an independent position. The syndicalisme uni et democratique," have the least to offer in that respect. the "bad" parties; it is, unfortunately, unstable and provisional character of led by Forestier of the Federation of It is unlikely that the present par­ far more difficult. the parties and of party commitments, Teachers Unions, Pastre of the CGT ties or trade unions will survive under The central fact of the present situ­ then, is another central fact. Most so­ and Lapeyre of FO is agitating for a the pressure of coming events. They ation is that there is no longer any cialists in France are agreed that a united trade union movement, inclu­ do not deserve to survive. Their dis­ such a thing as a French labor move­ new movement is in gesation, of which sive of all tendencies and independent appearance is a condition for the re­ ment. More precisely: there is no we know nothing except that it will of parties; the "Comite de liaison e construction of an effective labor longer any labor movement once you not be centered around any of the d'action pour la Democratie Ouvri­ movement in France. Engels wrote in leave the office buildings. There are existing parties, even though it will ere" (CLADO) stresses the need for 1858 that "one is really almost driven headquarters, office staffs, newspapers include elements from all. an independent class policy and for to believe that the English proletarian and electoral machines: there is no direct rank-and-file control. The func­ movement in its old traditional Chart­ movement, nothing in the plants, no THE PROBLEMS WHICH we are facing tion of revolutionary socialists is to ist form must perish completely be­ cells, no locals, no organization. This today cannot be solved by the parties initiate or support all movements of fore it can develop itself in a new is even true of the CP and the CGT, or through the parties, but by new or­ this type, from whatever vantage point viable form. And yet one cannot fore­ to a much greater extent than one ganizations cutting across party lines. seems most effective in the given situ­ see what this new form will look like:~ imagines. If this wasn't true, we would What is involved is re-building the ation. Today these words seem meant to not have de Gaulle and his paratroop­ labor movement in France from the What this vantage point is, depends describe the French situation. To ers on our hands. All considerations bottom up: create factory orga~iza­ largely on one's personal possibilities. cling today to organizations which are on the French Left have. to start from tions that work, connect them In a The object is to turn all movements organically involved in the process of this fact. It is clear that no top-level united, de-centralized trade-union for the reconstruction of the labor decay (both as a cause and as a by­ operations will lead to any positive movement solidly based on its local movement into rank-and-file move­ product) is to shut oneself off from all results as long as this situation exists: units, democratically controlled on ments, if they do not already originate possibilities of effective action. neither synthetic creations of new all levels, including many different at the base. In the present situation Andre Giacometd parties, nor Fronts, be they United, tendencies on equal terms. On the po­ valuable work is being done in this June 1958. Popular, Republican or what have litical level, the corresponding task is you, nor bureaucratic mergers be­ to reconstitute a united socialist labor tween staffs of organizations. party, including the majori~y of he A Reply To (omrll" Gil/tomett; The other important fact is that communist workers, such SOCIal-demo­ since the Algerian war and the crisis cratic workers as there are, the Catho­ of Stalinism there has been a growing lic workers, the revolutionary minori­ The Counsel of Despair tendency towards new poli tical align­ ties. ments in the working class. On all These are not abstract tasks and Defends ISL's Opposifion fo Spliffing Technique important issues, the tendencies have perspectives: events are forcing these cut across party lines. This is only tasks and perspectives on all of us: We are publishing the and does enjoy in a discussion is rea­ natural in a situation where the ma­ those who have been wanting to do article by Andre Giacometti on the son enough for its publication. In my jority of the working class stands out­ this very thing for years, and those situation and problems of socialism in opinion, however, there is an even side the parties, and where the parties who reluctantly tag along because France today not because it represents better reason for it. That does not lie are too weak to impose their discipline there is no other solution. If no prog­ our point of view but as a personal in the picture it paints of the state of on their followers. Today every single ress is made in this direction within contribution to the discussion by a the labor and socialist movements in party with a working class following the next few months, fascism is vir­ comrade who is actually on the scene France, for the lines and colors of that is threatened by a split in one degree tually certain, and the work will still of the tragic events in that country. picture are not unfamiliar to our read­ or another: the S.F.I.O. is practically have to be done under fascism. The right which the article should ers. It lies, rather, in the less familiar THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 124 Spring-Summer 1958 125 analysis and outlook of that variegated ysis, as close to absolute as it can get France and in the world" which it nect them in a united, de-centralized minority of French socialists who are (it represents only 0.4 per cent of the outside the French Socialist party workers, and less than half of one per would be mere "wish" to expect to trade-union movement solidly based reverse. (S.F.1.0.), who are, and have long cent is as good as zero; membership in on its local units, democratically con­ been, critical and hostile toward it. it is hidden by its own very few mili­ This being so, we have the good trolled on all levels, including many Comrade Giacometti's article is, on tants and is "a factor of isolation"; it tidings that the field of the socialist­ different tendencies on equal terms." minded workers of France is now the whole, a fair reflection of the offers "no perspective" -not little, but That takes care of the problem of the cleared of all political contestants for standpoint of these socialists or at least none; nobody, "absolutely nobody" is labor movement. We recommend it to of significant numbers among them. now going to join it)-if the decay is their leadership but two: the Stalin­ This standpoint I reject emphati­ "not a passing aberration, but the re­ ists, who have a large portion of the the attention of all socialists of good cally. I believe I understand the rea­ sult of an evolution" over which most working class, and revolutionary left­ will in France. We need not commend sons for it. But to understand is not to people, including independent social­ wing socialists, who have, to put it it to the sectarians, of whom there are agree and I disagree with it as sterile, ists, "have no control" -if the decay delicately, no more influence with the surely no fewer in France than we primitive, a danger to the possibilities results from an "irreversible sociologi­ working class than the S.F.I.O. with its have here, for they have been ener­ cal trend" (mind; sociological and for socialist reconstruction in France, absolutely vouched-for 0.4 per cent; getically engaged in this task for some and as the counsel of despair. If there irreversible), then one conclusion at is nothing in Comrade Giacometti's least follows with utter and undebat­ the Stalinists who have a movement, time. article to modify this harsh opinion, able inexorability. It is simply this: the and the left-wingers and independents In the political movement? " ... re­ he writes more than enough there to very foundation stones and all the pos­ who have none; the Stalinists who constitute a united socialist labor par­ confirm it. sibilities for social reformism, for a have, everyone must concede, some ty, including the majority of the com­ The process of degeneration and de­ labor reformist political movement, in prospects, and the left-wingers who, munist workers, such social-democratic cay of the S.F.I.O., he says, "is not France, alone of all modern capitalist it is clear from Giacometti's article, workers as there are, the Catholic primarily the result of the mistakes countries, have been altogether de­ and betrayals of the leadership: it i~ stroyed not only for today but for any have no prospect but despair. workers, the revolutionary minori­ an irreversible sociological trend pro­ time in the future (the trend, we un­ Despair? Yes, only despair, if we are ties." A new movement is "in gesta­ duced by the existence of the Commu­ derstand now, is not only sociological to follow the analysis and conclusions tion, of which we know nothing ex­ nist Party, which has deprived the re­ but also irreversible). of Giacometti. cept that it will not be centered formist party of the most active and Thii viewpoint has very little in "The central fact of the present sit­ around any of the existing parties, devoted elements at the rank-and-file common with a Marxian analysis, uation," he writes, "is that there is no even though it will include elements level and of any leeway for political even though it may excite the imagi­ maneuvering at the top level." I will nation and console the bruised hearts longer such a thing as a French labor from all." Who? Well, the SP is "prac­ decline this open invitation to irony. of Cannonites and other primitive movement." If that is the central fact, tically split already"; the CP "could But these observations are indicated: pseudo-Marxist. It is disconcerting, and he says what he says and means easily split"; the P.U.G.S. "could -If it was the withdrawal by the however, to find it suffusing the view­ what he means, I am forced to say, this split"; the M.R.P. evidently no longer CP of good rank-and-file militants point of Comrade Giacometti. is fantsy, and fantasy is not a good needs to be split; and there must be from the SP that produced the degen­ I must emphasize, to preclude mis­ others, surely. eration of the latter, and therewith as­ understanding, that it is not possible guide in politics. This commonplace sured the present debacle, it would to claim that it is merely the S.F.I.O., needs no additional proof, but Giaco­ I will not say that this architectural seem pretty clear that those socialists as S.F.I.O., that is in question. It is metti provides it nonetheless in the wonder cannot possibly be construct­ who withdrew their good militants the S.F.I.O. only in so far as it is the "tasks and perspectives" he sets forth ed, for God has proved the possibility from the SP or failed to bring them French social-reformist political move­ with the notation that they "are not of even greater miracles. We will not into the SP contributed their corres­ ment that is involved-not just the abstract." even ask about who is to put it to­ ponding share to producing the degen­ "Mollet gang," and not a "passing eration and the debacle, and bear their aberration," but "an evolution within In the labor movement? Since none gether, or how, or when, or even why. corresponding responsibility for it, a specific social and political situation exists-which is already less than en­ We will simply say it has been done. without any compensating positive re­ over which independent socialists [or, couraging - "what is involved is re­ We will even assume that it will be a sults from their "independence." for that matter, most other people] building the labor movement in larger, more influential version of the -If the degeneration and decay of have no control," an evolution out of France from the bottom up: create P.U.G.S., with more attractive power the SP, which is, in Giacometti's anal- the "social and political situation in factory organizations that work, con- among the French workers - and it 126 THE HEW INTER.NATIONAl Spring-Summer 1958 127 would not be easy to have less. What despair implicit in G.'s analysis as a conceivable assurance is there that this whole for those deeply concerned with The Recession:A Keynesian View remarkable combination could adopt the disgrace and collapse of French a program superior to that of the, alas, socialism and intensely concerned Predicts a Downward Trend for the Economy ineffectual and, let us say, unoriented with its rehabilitation and reconstruc­ "Too many people are supplied follows that a reduced desire to invest P.U.G.S.? Or that it would be able to tion. That task is a long one, a hard with everything they need. There­ does not imply a reduced desire to meet the present crisis in France any and complicated one, to perform; and fore, they do not buy." Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. save; i.e., reduced investment does not more effectively than did the S.F.I.O.­ the capitulation of the S.F.I.O. has not imply increased consumption. Thus if except from the standpoint of socialist made it easier. It is not easy, either, to THE PURPOSE of this article is to anal­ investment falls, there is overproduc­ honor, which was so shamelessly vio­ give advice to comrades in other coun­ yze the causes and predict the future tion which leads to cuts in production and income. Production and income lated by Mollet, but which the inde­ tries, far more often than it is imperti­ course of the current recession. Since keep falling until the amount of pendent groups maintained separately nent, and worse, it ignores unfamiliar any empirical investigation must util­ ize some theory,. I will begin by dis­ saving, which is directly dependent on no less well than they could unitedly? conditions. But comradely internation­ cussing some of the underlying theo­ the level of income, falls enough to be A socialist is not worthy of the name if alism and what I consider tested and retical notions employed in this arti­ equal to the reduced level of invest­ he does not preserve at all times the retested convictions impel me to say cle. I hope thereby to present a ration­ ment, at which point there is no honor of socialism. But political peo­ this, at least: the independent social­ ale for my procedure as well as an longer overproduction but there may ple ought to have learned that this ists, the left-wing socialists, the unat­ explanation of it to the reader. be considerable unemployment. Thus investment is the crucial determinant essential is by itself not enough, and My analysis is primarily based on tached socialists and Marxists in of the level of production and income. that it acquires socialist effectiveness France, are not on the right road to­ Keynesian theory. For those who are only if it is linked with a political ward a revitalized socialist movement. unfamiliar with this theory, the fol­ Keynesian theory is a static theory; lowing highly simplified version of it it discusses only conditions of econ­ movement or a movement that has They once again appear t/) be, and may be helpful: total income is de­ omic equilibrium. (Note that accord­ real political possibilities. G.'s article confirms it so dismayingly, fined as equal to the total value of ing to Keynes, equilibrium does not ", .. there is no other solution" than following the course of improvising production and, also by definition, imply full employment; full employ­ net savings is equal to income less ment equilibrium is a special case, an the one indicated above, writes G. "If a movement from an unreal blueprint drawn from a false social and political consumption. If there is net saving, accident.) Other theorists have carried no progress is made in this direction not all goods produced are purchased this analysis a step forward by adding analysis. To try it again in the present within the next few months," he is by consumers. Thus there will be to it a theory of the determination of writing in June, "fascism is virtually critical situation, on the basis of the overproduction unless that portion of the level of investment. This greatly certain," conceptions indicated by G~'s article, production which is not bought by dynamized the theory. which require progress-we assume, se­ consumers is bought by investors, or As a first approximation, we can say I consider the ominous prediction rious progress-within a few months in some other class of buyer such as gov­ tha t an increase in the demand for ernment. (In line with this formula­ more absurd than the hope of "prog­ the rebuilding of both a labor and goods causes investment, because it ress ... in this direction within the tion is the definition of investment as creates pressure for the addition of new a socialist movement "from the bottom the purchase of newly produced pro­ next few months." I can understand productive capacity. The amount of up" that will stave off an impending ducers' goods.) the absurdity that fascism stands at investment depends, therefore, on the fascism, is to guarantee that the coun­ Since most pre-Keynesian theorists rate of increase of demand. This is the the gate in France as the justification, sel of despair will lead for sure to the (Marx is a glorious exception) as­ reason that a capitalist economy can­ by some people, for the monstrosity of real despair which it bears within it. sumed that no one saves except with not maintain itself on a high "plat­ Guy Mollet sitting in the same cabi­ French socialists can only suffer from intent to invest, they concluded that eau": once demand stops increasing, net with de Gaulle and the political it. We American socialists, likewise. overproduction was impossible, since investment must fall and thus income what was not spent on consumption and demand start decreasing. In order gunman Soustelle in order to "save the That alone, I hope, justifies me in Republic." I cannot understand such was automaticaly spent on investment. for full employment to be maintained, writing as bluntly as I have. Keynes, however, pointed out that it is necessary that consumer demand an analysis of French fascism by a saving and investment are distinct pro­ increase at an increasing rate. For if Marxist. I cannot share the counsel of MAX SHACHTMAN cesses, caused by different factors. It demand increases at a constant rate, 128 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 129 then investment will not increase at the next year they rise from $85 billion acter and the ensemble shows a pecu­ $99 billion in 1956, and that other all; and once investment stops increas­ to $88 billion. This is properly inter­ liar development. The boom of 1946- types of consumer debt rose in the ing, demand stops increasing and thus preted as indicating a decrease in de­ 48 was led by investment, housing, and same period from $8 billion to $42 investment must fall.· mand of $2 billion, a drop from $5 bil­ consumer durables. In 1949-53, the billion.2 Another striking fact is that Certain other sectors of the economy lion to $3 billion. Therefore, our in­ boom was led by government spend­ government spending, although at a have economic effects similar to invest­ terest must be centered not on the rate ing, and to a lesser degree by invest­ very high level and thus in a sense ment, although they are differently of incentory accumlatiqn, but on ment. The 1954-57 boom was led by sustaining the economy, has ceased to caused. Among these are government charges in the rate of inventory ac­ investment alone. The most striking expand rapidly, and that its tremen­ spending, exports, and the purchase cumulation. change in this period appears to be dous expansion in 1949-53 was easily of homes and consumer durables. Gov­ There are a variety of factors gov­ that the demand for consumer dur­ absorbed and adjusted to by the econ­ ernment and foreign demand are erning, inventory accumulation. abIes and housing has ceased to be a omy. (In a sense, the 1954-57 boom clearly additions to consumer demand, Three, I think, deserve mention in the highly dynamic force in the economy. was a minor postwar boom following but the demand for houses and con­ present context. First, there is invol­ Two complementary explanations a minor war.) Finally, we may note sumer durables might be considered untary accumulation, which o~curs may be given: first, that the demand that all through the postwar period as part of consumer demand and there­ when sales are below expectations. has been relatively "satiated," by investment has increased at a very fore not meriting separate treatment. Second, businessmen try to accumu­ which is meant that most of those who rapid rate; but only in the recent The main reason for treating them late inventories in periods of shortages could afford those goods now have period has it been the only sector separately is that purchases of homes or of rising prices. Third, inventories them; second, that home mortgage showing a major increase. and durables are not financed out of are adjusted to the actual or expected debt rose from $23 billion in 1946 to Now for a closer look at the most current income, but out of past saving volume of sales. They must be suffi­ or current borrowing which result in cient to assure a smooth flow of goods, TABLE ONE additions to purchasing power. Thus but yet no larger than necesary, for it Pei'centage Change from Trough to Peak an increase in the demand for these is costly to carry inventories. Economic Sector '46/48 '49/53 '54/57 goods does not imply a decrease in the Gross National Product ...... " ...... , .. ,...... 34 45 23 demand for other goods. Investment: IN ORDER TO GET SOME understanding Producers' Durables ...... , ...... 153 46 46 One final point should be discussed of the nature of the current lecession, Non-residential Const...... ,...... 90 52 60 here: the role of inventories in busin­ we must first examine the preceding Residential Construction ...... 177 27 7 ess cycles. Inventory accumulation has Consumption: prosperity and compare it with the Durables ...... ,...... 75 21 21 the same effect on total demand as two earlier postwar booms. Table I Non-durables ...... 22 24 18 does investment: if inventories are ris­ Services ...... 29 35 24 presents the nesessary data. It shows GOy't purchases of goods and seryices ...... 13 100 14 ing, this means that businesses are buy­ the percentage growth in the main sec­ Sources: Survey of Current Business, February, 1958; National Income, 1954; Busi­ ing up part of the product. Thus in­ tors of the economy from the begin­ ventory accumulation is part of total ness Statistics. 1955. U1.11 published. by the Commerce Department.) ning of each boom to its end ("trough­ The figures shown in i.h' tab1~ were computed from quarterly data seasonally adjusted demand. When inventories are increas­ to-peak"). Those sectors which have at annual rates. The periods date from trough to peak of G.N.P. "Government" includes federal, state and local. ing at a constant rate, this portion of higher rates of increase than the Gross demand is constant; only when they 'National Product (GNP) can be con­ rise at an increasing rate can we say recent boom of 1954-57. Table II a steady but slow rate which was not sidered the driving forces of the boom, that inventory demand is rising. To shows the year-ta-year percentage enough to sustain a high level of in­ while those with lower rates of growth take a numerical example, suppose changes of the main sectors of the vestment, let alone induce it to ad­ show a more passive reaction. While economy. The beginning of the boom vance rapidly. Without the spur of that in a given year inventories rise this view is necessarily superficial, it from $80 billion to $85 billion, and in was led by considerable gains in con­ rapidly increasing demand by consum­ is sufficient to bring out a few major sumer durables and housing, which in ers or government, the high level of • Ca) A more refined aceount of this theory of invest­ points. the latter portions of the boom actu­ investment could not be maintained. ment requires. as a necessary condition for investment. that producers be operating at "full capacity." On the basis of the data in Table I ally declined. In 1956, there was a Manufacturing firms which in 1955 (b) This does not purport to be a complete theory of we may briefly characterize each of the tremendous increase in investment were on the average operating at op­ investment, but only explains certain changes in the level of investment. Its significance lies in the fact that it makes booms. It appears that far from the which more than offset these declines. timum 92% of capacity, were, by Sep­ investment depend on changes in income, and changes in In 1957, investment was maintained at income on changes in investment. This casual "circularity" economy having enjoyed the even de­ tember, 1957, operating at 82% of can be used in constructing cycle theories which are for­ velopment praised by the liberal high levels but ceased to advance rap­ capacity. A huge amount of excess ca­ mally analogous to the oscillatory feedback systems of electronics. chorus, each boom had a unique char- idly. Consumer demand increased at pacity had been developed in a very 130 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 131

\ in turn responsible for the continued, brief period, and the investment boom not due to the impact of the recession lion, while the average decline has could not be maintained. though slower, rise in sales. But it was but in fact preceded it is shown by a been $2.5 billion. Table IV shows the Why did businessmen allow so much impossible to continue to increase in­ survey conducted by McGraw-Hill in rate of inventory growth, and the excess capacity to develop? I think vestment by 30% each year while October, 1957, which indicated a changes in the rate of inventory part of the answer may be found by sales were only rising by 5%. Thus in planned drop of 16%.4 (The Com­ growth, as compared with the changes referring to data on their expectations 1957, manufacturers considerably re­ merce figure on planned investment is in GNP in each of the past four years. of future sales.· (See Table III.) The duced the rate of increase of invest­ gotten from a survey conducted in In 1955 inventory accumulation was big increase in sales which occurred ment. Yet they expected sales to in· the first months of 1958.) Thus the an important source of increased de­ in 1955 caught manufacturers by sur­ cut in investment-first in its rate of crease at the same rate as previously. mand, but in 1956, although inven­ prise and was partly responsible for increase and then in actual amount tories kept rising, they did so at the In this period, however, when invest­ the upsurge in investment in 1956. -was not due to a reduction in sales, same rate as in 1955 and thus did not The increased investment in 1956 was ment was the sole factor leading the but merely to an insufficient increase. tend to increase demand over 1955. Thus far, we have neglected the TABLE TWO In 1957, partly because of the failure role of inven tories, which have played Percentage Change from Previous Year of demand to increase much, inven­ a very important, though hardly de­ tories increased very little; but the Eeonomic Sector 1955 1956 1957 cisive, part in postwar cycles. In years Gross National Product ...... 9 6 5 change in the rate of growth of in­ Investment ...... 7 22 5 of expansion, inventories have in­ ventories was negative, which meant Consumption: creased at an average rate of $4 bi!- an actual drop in demand for inven- Durables ...... 21 -5 3 Non-Durables ...... 4 6 5 Services ...... 7 7 6 TABLE FOUR Residential Construction ...... 11 --6 -5 Gov't purchases of goods and services ...... 1 4 8 Inventory Accumulation and Gross National Product Sources: Survey of Current Business, February, 1957, and February, 1958. (billions of dollars) "Investment" is husiness expenditures for new plant and equipment. Inventory Change in Inventory Change Year Accumulation Accumulation n GNP 1954 ...... --3.0 boom, a decline in its rate of expan­ back in investment plans. This began - 2.0 1955 ...... 6.0 9.0 30.5 sion had to mean a decline in the ratt! even in 1957; manufacturers had plan­ 1956 ...... 7.5 l.5 1957 23.0 of increase of sales. In 1957, sales were ned to increase investment in that ...... 1.9 -5.6 19.7 expected to rise by 7% but the actual year by 10%, but the sluggishness of Source: Survey of Current Business, February, 1958 increase was only 2%. This failure of demand caused them to cut back the sales to increase according to expec­ increase to only 7%. And for 1958, a tories. Thus the fact that inventories orders and sales reached their peaks tations meant the development of ex­ cut of 17% was planned. That this rose by $7.5 billion in 1956 and bv at about the same time. Soon new cess capacity and a consequent cut- planned reduction in investment was only $1.9 billion in 1957 meant tha't orders began to fall, and between the inventory demand of producers January and September unfilled or· TABLE THREE and merchants fell by $5.6 billion. ders were cut by $8 billion (12%). Percentagt Changes in Manuf~cturing Sales and Investment, 1955-58 Even before the actual reduction in By the fall, the decrease in unfilled Changes in Sales inveIitories began in the faU, the re­ orders and in new orders led to the re­ Year Expected Actual Changes in Investment duced rate of growth was having ill 1955 ...... 4 12 4 duction in inventories which, together 1956 ...... 6 5 30 effects on the economy. with a slight decline in investment, 1957 ...... 7 2 7 All through 1957 there were indica­ touched off the recession. (It seems 1958 ...... -2 ? -17 (planned) tions that the prosperity had come to likely that the fall in new orders Source: Survey of Current Business, March, 1958. The figure for planned investment in 1958 is derived from the Commerce Depart­ a halt and that a recession was immi­ which seems to have precipitated the ment's survey of businessmen's plans and expectations which was conducted in the nent. The fact that the boom depend. decline was in large measure due to early months of 1958. All the data on expected sales are based on similar surveys ed so exclusively on investment, the the reduced rate of inventory accumu· conducted at the he ginning of each year. These surveys cover a very considerable portion of all corporations engaged in manufacturing. slowing- down of the rate of growth, lation and to a cutback in plans for guess wrong beeause their actions, based on these expecta­ the development of excess capacity­ future investment.) ·The following treatment of saLes expeetations is not at tions, have unforeseeable effects which are at variance with all these added up to an economic One further point requires discus­ all a subjectivist or psychologieal approach. Businessmen the original expectation. "Human actions in history pro­ downturn. The industrial production are not as moody and subject to the winds of opinion as duce additional results, beyond their immediate purpose and sion: the inflation of 1956-57. It is my some journalists. their eyes too much on Wall Street, seem ... beyond their immediate knowledge." (Hegel) This is, index had reached its peak in De­ opinion that this inflation was due to believe. On the contrary, their expectations are usualJ.v a concretel,y, what is meant by the Marxist phrase, "anarchy clear reflection of their most recent experience. They often of production." cember, 1956. Manufacturers' new to the efforts of businessmen to in- 132 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 133 crease their profit margins, which had stimulate high investment. According length of time rather than the steep­ certainly accentuate it and has done so been falling because of rising wages to Keynesian theory, it is possible for ness of the decline. already. and increased overhead (due to re­ the economy to reach an equilibrium Since the end of the war, the gov­ As we saw earlier, manufacturers cent high investment). Because of at any level of unemployment, de­ ernment has been conducting exten­ anticipate a sales drop of 2% in 1958. the monopolistic structure of most pending on the level of investment. sive annual surveys of industry to de­ If the drop which actually occurs is industries, it is easy for them to pass However, in so far as investment de­ termine how much investment is being much greater than this, then invest­ higher costs on to consumers. How­ pends on growing demand, a stagnant planned for the forthcoming year. ment may be cut even more than is ever, doing so restricts the demand economy will cause investment to fall These surveys have had a surprising planned. If past history is any guide, for their products. This was the first to quite low levels. This reasoning im­ record of success in making one-year this seems quite likely, for manufac­ important effect of the inflation. The plies that the economy must either ad­ predictions of investment. The results turing sales fell more than 4% in second effect was through government vance more or less continuously or for the survey predicting investment 1949 and more than 3% in 1954, and policy. The Administration and the face stagnation with very high levels expenditures in 1958 are presented in in the first six months of the currc'm: Federal Reserve Board, seeing prices of unemployment. The latter circum­ Table V. The data were collected be­ recession Ouly to January) seasonally rise, concluded that demand must be stance was exemplified by the Thir­ tween late January and early March adjusted manufacturing sales fell 9%. excessive. This as we have seen was ties when unemployment fluctuated of 1958. It is, of course, much more difficult hardly the case. They then proceeded between the bounds of (roughly) 10 to make predictions for 1958. First, For 1958 businessmen plan to re­ we may note that in the recoveries to tighten credit-incidentally, this is to 15 millions, and showed no sustain­ duce investment by $5 billion, or 13%. the charitable interpretation of their ed tendency either to increase or de­ of 1949-50 and 1954, investment con­ This is a very general trend appear­ tinued to decline for a full year after motives-which had the not unexpect­ crease beyond those bounds. (There ing in almost every industry. The re­ ed effect of still further restricting con­ is, of course, a third possibility-that the Gross National Product had start­ duction in investment spending ap­ ed to rise. Second, we may consider a sumer demand by reducing available government deficit spending maintains parently will continue all through the credit. Thus at the very time that con­ the economy at low or "moderate" new body of data collected by the year, since businessmen reported plans Commerce Department. In its last sur­ sumer demand was showing signs of levels of unemployment.)- Thus in to invest at a (seasonally adjusted) stagnation, the government was dis­ addition to asking what are the eco­ vey of investment plans, manufactur­ annual rate of $34.03 in the first quar­ ers were asked for information on the couraging consumers. nomic prospects for the next year or ter of 1958 and $32.55 billion in the so, we must also inquire into the some­ total value. when completed, of in­ second quarter-which implies a sec­ vestment projects begun in 1957 and THE MOST IMPORTANT ASP1!:CT of any what longer range prospects of the ond half rate of about $30.75 billion. economy. We may remark that the in 1958. Projects begun in 1957 had prediction at the present time is not If anything, these data understate whether and when there will be a "re­ crucial difference between a recession a total when-completed value of the reduction in investment. This has $14.05 billion, whereas projects plan­ covery," but whether any recovery that and a depression is, superficially, the been the experience of previous down­ may occur will generate a period of ned to be started in 1958 had a value turns. It can also be seen by compar­ of $9.85 billion. If these data are to be full-fledged prosperity. For only an *This diseussion of the future of the reeession will ignore ing these data with those from a sur­ expanding economy will be able to the possibility of major government action. I feel it 18 best relied upon-there is no earlier expe­ to consider the economic situation in abstrac'ion from vey of the same firms taken just a' rience with them-we must conclude absorb the growing labor force and policies aimed at that situation. few months earlier. This earlier sur­ that in 1959 the backlog of work will vey reported first quarter planned in­ be considerably smaller than in 1958. TARLE FIVE vestment of $35.52 billion; the later This conclusion is further supported Plant and Equipment Expenditures survey indicated $34.05 billion (seas­ by the fact that manufacturers expect Industry 1957 1958 (planned) 1957-58 onally adjusted at annual rates). Also, to spend $6.12 billion in 1958 on ($ Billions) Percentage Change if we compare the Commerce survey projects carried over from 1957 (thus Industry 1957 1958 (planned) 1957-58 with the very similar survey conduct­ Manufacturing ...... 15.96 13.20 -17 almost half of their investment spend­ Durables ...... 8.02 6.23 -22 ed by McGraw-HilI last October the ing will be on backlog projects), and Non-durables ...... 7.94 6.97 -12 same result emerges; the McGraw-Hill expect to complete, in 1958, $7.08 bil­ Mining ...... 1.24 1.06 -15 survey foresaw a drop in total 1958 Railroads ...... 1.40 0.87 -38 lion of the $9.85 billion started in Other Transportation ...... 1.77 1.44 -19 investment of about 6%, while the that year.- Thus the backlog of work Public Utilities ...... 6.20 6.41 +4 Commerce survey taken a few months Other ...... 10.40 9.10 -13 later indicated a drop of 13%.5 While *A survey conducted by the National Industrial Confer­ TOTAL ...... 36.96 32.07 -13 ence Board shows patterns in manufacturers' new appropri­ the recession itself is not responsible l'tions and appropriations backlogs which are similar in pat­ Source: Survey of Current Business, March, 1958. for the reduction in investment, it will tern to the plans reported by Commerce. See Newsweek, Percentage change March 17. 1958. pp. 69-74. Spring-Summer 1958 134 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 135 carried into 1959 will be quite small. The long term situation in the statistic: In the first months of 1958 shown: television sets: 1955, radios: Very likely the same will be true of housing market may be seen in the the marriage rate fell 8% or by 120,- 1947, refrigerators: 1950, freezers: non-manufacturing industries - some following data: between 1930 and 000 on an annual basisll. This seems 1952, washers: 1956, vacuum cleaners: of which have been having exception­ 1950 the number of non-farm house­ to indicate that in the face of the 1947, electric and gas ranges: 1950, ally high investment in the past few holds added to the population was ~ecession the public is showing an dishwashers: 1956, woven carpets: years and are now leveling off. In over 14,000,000 while only about 8,- Increased reluctance to enter into long 1948. 13 public utilities, for example, projects 500,000 new non-farm dwelling units term obligations. This discussion of the major con­ started in 1957 had a total value of were started; between 1950 and 1955, Quite frankly, the automobile mar­ sumer markets has necessarily been $5.94 billion, while the projects start­ however, the number of new house­ ket is too erratic from year to year to uncertain and hedging. Nevertheless, ed in 1958 will have a final value of holds rose by less than 5,000,000 while be able to make any confident predic­ one salient point seems inescapable: only $5.24 billion.6 Similarly, in the the number of new dwelling units was tions. Two facts, however, do seem to although some of these industries may railroad industry we find that unfilled over 7,250,0009• Thus the housing in­ be worth noting: first, that 1955 was register an advance in, say, 1959, none orders for freight cars were cut in dustry, which has been working off a an exceptionally good year for the of them are growth industries any half in 1957, and at the present rate "backlog," is faced with a decreasing automobile industry, and second, that longer and none of them can sustain of reduction the backlog will not last market at least until the 1960's, when 1958 has been an exceptionally bad a real boom. Thus we must conclude 7 a year. a new upsurge in family formation is year for the industry. I am inclined that the basic economic pressure~ for In view of the considerable over­ expected. to conclude from these facts that some­ the next few years will be downward. capacity which has been developed But in the short period it is possible time soon the automobile industry in a number of industries, it is un­ that the level of residential construc­ will have a good year. On the other Herman Roseman likely that any investment boom will tion may turn up for a year or two. hand, it is doubtful whether any such begin until there is a considerable in­ In 1956-57 the level of residential con­ revival will last more than one year, FOOTNOTES crease in either government or con­ struction was below the 1955 peak, for the industry has long since ceased 1. The pioneer in this direction was Roy Harrod, Kerne~' biographer. See his Towards A Dynamic Economics. sumer demand. Before considering and if we examine the data we find to be a "growth industry." This was 2. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1957, pp. these, however, let us turn our atten­ that the entire decline was concen­ conceded even by Fortune as long ago 460, 178. 2 3. Business Week, November 9, 1951. tion briefly to the probably course of tra ted in FHA/VA financed homes, as 1954.1 As for other consumer dura­ 4. Ibid. inventory fluctuations in the coming bles, most of them are closely tied to 5. Ibid. Survey of Current Business, Mareh, 1958. while the value of "conventionally" 6. Survey of CUrrent Business, Mareh, 1958. months and their significance for eco­ financed construction actually rose. the housing market and, except for a 7. Ibid., February, 1958 and Mareh, 1958. nomic developments. few of the newer appliances, reached 1:1. Ibid., Mareh, 1958; New York Times, Marcb 2. 1958. Between 1955 and 1957 the number of 9. U.S. Department of Labor, Economic Forces In the Between August and the end of housing starts with FHA/VA financ­ their growth peak a number of years U.S.A., Fifth Edition, 1957, p. 84. ago, some even before the Korean 10. Survey of Current BUSiness, February, 1958. February, manufacturers' inventories ing fell by about 250,000; the per­ 11. U.S. News " World Report, April 18. 1958. fell by close to $2 billion (using sea­ centage of total starts thus financed War. For example, the following in­ 12. The Editors of Fortune, The Changing American Mar­ ket, 1953, chapter 8. sonally adjusted data). The decline fell from 51 % to 30%.10 The reason dustries had their peaks in the years 13. Survey of Current Business, November, 195'1'. in recent months has been at an an­ for this decline appears to have been nual rate of $6 to $7 billion.8 How the tight money policy which made long can we expect this decline to con­ FHA/VA loans, fixed by statute, rela­ tinue? In view of past experience it tively unprofitable for lenders. The BOOKS IN seems most unlikely that the total de­ data suggest, therefore, that several REVIEW cline will be more than $4 to $5 bil­ hundred thousand would-be home An Excellent of an important political phenome­ lion. Thus the decline should be end­ buyers sought and were unable to get Theoretical Analysis non. Their study is not as exhaustive ed by summer. However, even a drop or were unwilling to take convention­ as Draper's brilliant Roots of Ameri­ in the rate at which inventories are al loans. Thus a backlog of unsatisfied THE AMERICAN COMMUNIST can Communism, and indeed it makes being reduced represents a rise in de­ demand was created. Given lowered PARTY, A CRITICAL HIS­ no attempt to be so. Rather, it is a mand. Thus far, the inventory con­ interest rates and not too unfavorable TORY (1919-1957), by Jroing more general survey, and one which traction has been contributing to the economic conditions, this backlog H owe and Lewis C oser, with the will become indispensable for the stu­ general economic decline, but soon it could lead to a mild and brief housing assistance of Julius Jacobson dent who wants a substantial intro­ should be counteracting the decline. boom. Such a boom is not ruled out IN THIS NEW BOOK on the American duction to the subject. This too must be a temporary effect by a recession, provided it is not too Communist Party, Irving Howe, Lewis There is not space here to take up which may give the appearance of eco­ ~evere. On the more pessimistic side, Coser and Julius Jacobson have pre­ the various interpretations of specific nomic recovery. we may note the following interesting sented us with an excellent summary points offered in The American Com- 136 THE NEW INTER.NATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 137 munist Party. Suffice it to note that record of this Party which, even in word for it-did and does exist in the difficult to match in the future). In the book is political in the good sense its early days, was suspended by wires form of an international espionage net­ the Roots of American Communism, of the word, that it relates the events from Moscow. work maintained by the Russians. This network functioned within the Commu­ there is also a thesis which is cen­ which it describes to the larger con­ Given this perspective, the authors nist parties, though it probably did its tral to understanding the Party in text of social change. The section reject the simplistic theory that Sta­ most secretive and dangerous work out­ this country: the peculiar susceptibil­ which demonstrates the relationship linism (and the Stalinist parties) side the parties; it recruited agents from ity of the American Communists to between the early days of the Party "flow" from Leninism. They attempt the parties, though it was capable of the process of Stalinization. This is and the developments in American to strike a balance between two po­ continuing to operate even when the parties were suddenly wiped out; but to both true and crucial, and Draper was society and in the American labor lemical exaggerations: the notion that identify the espionage system with the wise to make it a central axis of his movement is an excellent example of Lenin's Russia was totally unrelated Stalinist movement as such, or to assume entire discussion. this kind of treatment. to Stalin's, the rejection of the obvious that party membership almost automat­ On the whole, Draper's study is And yet, even though we cannot evidence of anti-democratic practices ically transformed people into conspira­ tors is an error as dangerous as it is "objective" in character-one could review the specific points of this study which were (honestly) adopted as tem­ facile. hardly tell that he is a former parti­ (which covers a period of nearly forty porary and later cited as precedents cipant in the movement he discusses, This understanding leads to an­ years), we can go to the chapter, "To­ for anti-democratic principles; the nor does he have an obvious political other important statement, this time wards a Theory of Stalinism," for a other extreme, the theory that there framework. In one or two places, in concerning the character of the rank generalzed statement of the political was a perfect continuity between Len­ some comments on Lenin in particu­ and file of the Communist parties. and methodological bent which in­ inism and Stalinism. As the authors lar, there is the hint of a world view, These people were often recruited to forms the work as a whole. Much of point out this latter conception must but Draper's main line of develop­ the Party on the basis of idealism, this recapitulation will be a repeti­ ignore ... a counter-revolution. ment is that of a judicious and care­ and they made great sacrifices be­ tion to the readers of the New Inter­ Further, The American Communist ful recording of the facts. cause of their choice. Some, to be national (the theory of Stalinism put Party also tries to define the social Such an approach is, obviously, not sure, were conspirators; some were forward by the authors of The Amer­ roots of Stalinism and the Stalinist that of the Marxist. And yet, it would drawn to the Party for psychological ican Communist Party is substantially parties in general. The authors are be foolish to think that it is in oppo­ reasons; but many were men and the same as the one developed by the right in referring this to the general sition to a Marxist analysis. Clearly, women of truly socialist and humanist independent socialists, often in the crisis and breakdown of capitalist so­ this kind of hard digging, of accurate consciousness-and they were betrayed. pages of this magazine), yet I think it ciety, yet I think they would have documentation, is absolutely essential This point is not an academic one; is important in order to give a sense gained by making the point a little to a study of any movement or section it becomes a practical issue for those of the book's basic perspective. more precise. For a third part of the of history. In this sense, we are all in who are not willing to see such peo­ To begin with, the authors relate equation-the failure of democratic interpretation on a solid foundation ple permanently "exiled" from demo­ the development of the American socialism-must be carefully discussed of fact and scholarly judgment. In the cratic movements. Communist Party to the course of if we are to develop an adequate the­ independent socialist tendency, The the Russian Revolution and the Sta­ ory of Stalinism. It is in tegral to the Roots of American Communism has linist counter-revolution. They view rise of Stalinism, it is decisive in terms GIVEN THIS SUMMARY, I think it is pos­ already stimulated Max Shachtman's modern Russian society as bureau­ of framing anti-Stalinist politics. It is sible to make a more extended com­ provocative article in the New Inter­ cratic collectivist (with a "new kind of obvous that the authors are aware of parison of The American Communist national, and it unquestionably will ruling class that neither owned nor this point (they indicate it specifical­ Party with Draper's Roots of A.meri­ figure in a continuing debate. could own property, but instead con­ ly, but one would wish that they had can Communism. In general, I think Howe, Coser and Jacobson's re­ troled the state in whose legal cus­ followed it out more rigorously. the two histories should be viewed as search is by no means as extensive or tody property resided"), and they see But given this conception of Sta­ complementary. profound as Draper's. Their study is the transformation of the parties of linism as a social movement, The Draper's study is an, excellent, me­ much more journalistic (and I do not the Communist Internaional into American Communist Party is able to ticulous account of the origins of the use the word in a derogatory sense as agencies of Russian policy as a func­ perform another service: to counter Communist Party. It spans but a few Arnold Beichman did in his waspish tion of the changes which took place the exaggeration, most typically found years, and its documentation for that review in the Christian Science Moni­ in Russia. They note, of course, the in the writings of Sidney Hook, that period is more extensive han any tor) and also more political. There is peculiar characteristics of the Amer­ the Communist Parties were simple other study (or, since there are few no question that the authors are so­ ican Communist Party which made it "conspiracies." They write with a other books on the subject, it would cialist, and that they write of the so susceptible to this process of Sta­ good feel for the complexities: be better to say that Draper achieves Communist movement in terms of linization. And they cite the pitiful A conspiracy-if that is the exact a comprehensiveness which it will be their own commitment to democratiL 138 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 139 radicalism. (How and Coser, the main Party itself is now shattered. Does tempts "an appraisal [of the labor upon democracy in many unions. In movement] by the conscience of the authors, are editors of Dissent~· Ja­ that mean that with this obstacle to this, he finds supporters inside the la­ cobson, their principal assistant, is American radicalism elimina ted community in accord with the re­ bor movement. editor of the New International). there is now the possibility of creat­ quirements of social justice." The au­ He deplores the use of force on The difference in approach can be ing a real and democratic socialist thor, John A. Fitch, who wrote The picket lines as undemocratic although seen in almost every incident which is movement? This is not a plea for Steel Worker in 1910, was a sympathi­ he understands that strikers are sub­ treated in the two books. For the historians to enter into the "regroup­ zer of early steel unionism, a rare jected to terrible provocations. He writers of The American Communist ment" discussion; but rather, a con­ thing in those days. He begins by de­ thinks, too, that in the interest of de­ fining social responsibility from the Party~ social conditions in America cern tha t socialist historians should mocracy labor ought voluntarily to during the Party's formative years are deal with the pet intellectual anti­ standpoint of religion; consequently, discard the union shop and other an important element. For Draper, socialist theory now current-the view this work illustrates the state of mind forms of compulsory union member­ the same events are much more of a advanced by Bell that America, given of the liberal pro-labor churchman, ship. But he opposes any restrictions backdrop, the inner workings of the its unique history and strength, leaves revealing his attitude toward union­ by law on the union shop and has no Party more central. no room for a mass socialist move­ ism at a time when it is no longer a sympathy for the motives of those who ment. feeble force fighting defensively for campaign for "right to work" laws, un­ As I noted before, I do not think it a precariously held position but a derstanding their anti-union bias. Per­ necessary to "choose" between two BUT NO REVIEW OF this new study permanently established social power. haps, he says too, it is time for the such methods. Both elements-the ex­ should end on a tone of criticism. As the text indicates, it is an attitude "community" to be represented at the tremely accurate account of events There are deficiencies in The A meri­ based in part upon an exaggeration bargaining table not, however, "in its and personalities within the Party, can Communist Party~ to be sure. But of this power: "it is ... patent," writes political role, i.e., as the state" but "in the relation of these facts to social there is no question that this work Mr. Johnson, "that the strength of their economic capacity as consum­ conditions and broader questions - will immediately become the standard organized labor in many key indus­ ers." These opinions are inseparably are necessary. Ideally, they might be short history on the subject (even as tries has now reached approximate linked to another; he is convinced that the stuff of a final and definitive study Draper's volume has taken a similar equality with management in terms we live now in an era of labor-manage­ as a syn thesis. As it is, they are pres­ pre-eminence in its own sphere of of bargaining power." ment harmony in which the fears that ent in two books which complement more detailed and scholarly treat­ Mr. Fitch has set himself a two-fold motivate the unions (as in their insist­ each other. ment), and that it belongs on the li­ task, to present organized labor to the ence upon the union shop) are an ob­ brary shelf of every socialist. And par­ And yet, the very making of this churchgoer and to confront labor with solete relic of the outlived past when ticularly for the independent social­ point requires comment on what must its social responsibilities. He portrays unions were broken by government ist, it is heartening to see that such be regarded as the major flaw of The labor's goals, its activities, its program intervention and employers violence. an excellent theoretical analysis of the American Communist Party. The au­ in a light of unvarying sympathy, ever In these respects, Mr. Fitch's advice thors, as noted before, are socialists, nature of the Communist Party, and careful to prevent criticism from im­ of Stalinism, is now being made avail­ misses the point. The antagonisms be­ they are concerned to a considerable plying hostility or from stimulating able to the general public. tween capital and labor have beenre­ extent with political interpretation. it in his readers. Where he feels strained but not eliminated. Yet his And yet, there is no adequate discus­ Michael Harrington obliged to criticize, he goes out of his book is evidence of the challenge to sion of a major theoretical question: way to dissociate his views from la­ labor. By its friends and by its ene­ what are the basic reasons for the bor's enemies. mies unionism is viewed as a vast so­ absence of a mass socialist movement Evidence of the But now that unions are established cial power in national life. How does in the United States today and what Challenge to Labor and influential, he feels free to ad­ it intend to apply that power? Mr. does the history of American Commu­ SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF monish them to face up to their re­ Fitch is eager to underline that ques­ nism indicate about the future of rad­ ORGANIZED LABOR, by James sponsibilities, as he sees them. And tion. At one time the labor movement icalism in America. I am not, of A. Fitch, 1957. Harper. 237 pp. he is ready, in mild fashion, even to was content to pass from one minor course, suggesting that this question $3.50 question some of tJaeir hotly held task to the next oblivious of the great should have been the heart of the opinions. issues of the day. With power comes book. But I do think, given the au­ This volume is part of a responsibilities; not those that Mr. thors' political views, that their study series published by the Federal Coun­ He describes the extent of racketeer­ ing in some detail and is happy to Fitch would enumerate but great re­ would have been enormously en­ cil of Churches, a project headed by sponsibili ties nevertheless. hanced if they faced up to the ques­ F. Ernest Johnson who writes the in­ record the labor movement's drive to tion. As they indicate, the Communist troduction. As he sees it, the book at- eradicate it; he criticizes restrictions BEN HALL SprinC)-Summer 1958 141 140 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL

14 ing with files and pencils may not be twenty members of the Communist Personal and Moral A Deep. Concern for any more intellectually enriching for Labor Party of Chicago in 1920 for Problems of the Worker white collar workers than for those Man and Mankind conspiracy to advocate the overthrow ON THE LINE, by Harvey Swados. who work with wrenches and ham­ of the government by force, the trial ATTORNEY FOR THE DAMNED Little, Brown and Company. 1957 mers; but by and large it entails less Edited by Arthur Weinberg, Si­ of Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone drudgery, less discipline and is re­ mon & Schuster, New York, 552 for the murder of ex-Governor Steun­ In the years following World War II garded more respectfully by the com­ pp., $6.50. enberg of Idaho, and others. the book market has been flooded by munity, and often by the workers It has become eminently Although Darrow never joined the a torrent of third and fourth rate no­ themselves. If this were not so, Swados fashionable and intellectually chic to Socialist Party ("they're so damned vels whose setting is the business observes, then why the dismay on the world and whose protagonists range have a jaundiced and, even worse, a cocksure of everything") he was always part of his intellectual friends who from the ambitious Madison Avenue patronizing attitude toward many friendly and it was his radicalism and heard that he was returning to work ad man and the grasping, social climb­ turn-of-the centlifY American radicals utter non-conformism-a mixture of in a factory? ing executive from exurbia to the man and socialists. It is therefore all the anarchism, socialism, pacifism and And it is at these liberal intellectuals on top of the heap-the millionaire more refreshing and inspiring in this pure cussedness which led him to who foresee the onslaught of the mass tycoon, sometimes brutal, sometimes age of mediocrity and conformity to espouse every progressive cause and man engulfed and stupified by a mass tender, usually misunderstood and al­ read a collection of speeches and defend the weak, the victimized, the culture, that Swados seems to wave an most always tragic. It has become a pleas by Clarence Darrow recently unpopular. Only once did he with­ indicting finger. Not that they have rare event for a novel to concern it­ published under the title Attorney draw from a case despite his convic­ created the situation, but what are self with the personal and moral prob­ For The Damned which gives the lie tion of an outrageous injustice. He they doing to rectify it. lems of the worker who is, after all, to such unwarranted and misplaced said about the Scottsboro defense "the Rather than writing a "proletarian" the man behind the man who sits be­ cynicism. case was controlled by the Communist novel, and ending with the prescribed Party, who cared far less for the safety hind the desk. Yet it is difficult to be­ radical solution, Swados seems to have Editor Arthur Weinberg who at lieve that the Madison Avenue sharpie present teaches a course at the Uni­ and well-being of those poor Negro a more modest, and yet more impor­ boys than the exploitation of their lends himself more naturally than the tant goal in mind-to rekindle the versity of Chicago entitled "Clarence man on the assembly line to fictional Darrow, His Cases and Causes" offers own cause." interest of the intellectuals in the forms and to an artistic presentation working class and its problems. If that a collection of Darrow's summations, of human problems. It is this which A READING OF DARROW's speeches turns can be done, then solutions may be each prefaced by a full account of the makes Harvey Swados' latest novel, up little that is simple or vulgar; ra­ forthcoming; but without it, all the case, the setting and the emotional On the Line, a rare event. Here, too, ther it reveals much that is as complex worked out solutions may come to atmosphere in which the trial took the novel has a "business situation." as man's motives always are and one nothing. place. He has divided the material However, the main characters are not can only wish that many of the cru­ under the four headings which best men in gray flannel suits but in grease sades he led in his day were as com­ THE MOST INTERESTING SECTION of the express Darrow's radicalism, his deep stained overalls. "On the Line" has a pelling and alive today when we are book deals with the relationship be­ concern for man and mankind­ deceptive simplicity of style and con­ sadly in need of them to combat the tween Joe, the vanishing American, a Against Vengeance, Against Prejudice, tent. It almost appears to be a series of same evils: crime, bigotry, intolerance, Wobbly-type who has had long ex­ Against Privilege, For Justice. sociological case studies in which the stupidity and lethargy. perience working, and Walter a young The speeches range from an address author uses the fiction form to com­ boy out of high school, working on to the inmates of the County Jail in In a foreword to the book Justice press and understand the life of nine William O. Douglas writes of Darrow: the line to save money in order to go Chicago offering his revolutionary workers. to engineering school. Walter feels theories of crime ("Too radical" was "His words were the simple discourse of ordinary conversation. They had Swados is interested in dispelling that Joe has given him a perspective the comment of one prisoner when a the myth that the working class has of what it means to be working in the guard later asked him what he the power of deep conviction, the strength of any plea for fair play, the been a full-fledged participant in the body shop of the auto plant, the thought of the speech.) to his plea to Great American Celebration and at meaning of the assembly line. But the jury in his own defense in 1912 pull of every protest against grinding down the faces of the poor, the appeal the same time avoiding the crude Joe, the radical, is inarticulate on this when he was indicted and tried for isolating of the worker so often found score. attempting to 'bribe a juror in the of humanity against forces of greed and exploitation." Such words are well in the proletarian novel of the Thir­ His words of advice to the engin­ McNamara case. Also included are eers, the intellectuals, to Walter is worth reading. ties. He emphasizes the harshness of the Scopes evolution case, the Leo­ dull, monotonous work. True, work- "never mind the machinery. Remem- pold-Loeb trial, his defense of the P.H. Spring-Summer 1958 143 142 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ber the men. The men make the ma­ THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL: thing that could properly be called edge which is apparently denied to chines, and they make their own MINUTES OF THE HAGUE brainwashing... "; the break-down American statesmen and generals to­ tragedies too. Once your own life gets CONGRESS OF 1872 WITH RE­ of Army discipline-in the early days day. easier, you'll take it for granted not LATED DOCUMENTS. Edited of the war involving attacks by en­ The Korean War was the first time only that theirs must be easier too, but and translated by Hans Gerth. listed men upon officers-resulted in in history that an Oriental army met that they deserve what they get any­ University of Wisconsin Press. 315 an extraordinary high death-rate a first-class Occidental army and way, that some law of natural selection pp. $6.00. among Americans. Where the Turks, gained a stalemate. True, there were has put you up where you are and I t was a t the Hague Congress, its for example, maintained a morale, all kinds of mitigating factors. Mac­ them down where they are." Fifth, that the Bakuninists were ex­ espirit de corps and group solidarity Arthur was not allowed to bomb pelled from the First International and made the tending of the wounded China itself; there were political limi­ And that is the theme: never mind a collective responsibility, there was tations placed upon the conflict, etc. the machinery; remember the men. and it was here that the decision was taken to transfer headquarters to the a tremendous tendency on the part of But when all the proper qualifications But is this the meaning of the assem­ the Americans to become isolated, are made, an enormous fact remains: bly line? Though it may not be the United States where the International languished and finally dissolved. anti-social individuals. The conse­ the myth of "white superiority," of answer, it has to be the starting point, quence was, often enough, death. the Chinese as the slightly comic if we are to find a human answer. These minutes are printed now for first time. The German manuscript How explain all of this? corner laundryman was shattered. Strangely absent in these nine por­ of the minutes and of a lengthy re­ The Army's conclusion is that the That this was done by a Chinese Army traits of different types of workers is port by F. A. Sorge to the North American soldier was not "prepared" which fought in the interests of a one of a union militant. Throughout American Federation of the Interna­ to become a prisoner. For one thing, totalitarian and imperialist world­ the book roams Lou, the commi ttee­ tional are reproduced photostatically the sudden transition from Western system does not alter the reality. In man. But he is the tenth portrait. And and translated into English. Appended to Oriental living standards was a World War II, there was never a de­ so we never get Swados' insight into is a detailed series of articles written profound shock. For another, the featist mood in America-it was al­ the man who stayed in the shop for the public press by a delegate, Americans were not prepared to deal ways known that the power of the through the great organizing strikes, Maltman Barry. Students and special­ with the carefully worked-out cam­ United States would prevail over the was a militant, if not a radical, and ists now have access to invaluable paign of demoralization and indoctri­ "Japs." But the Korean War was dif­ now has settled down into a minor source material; but the general read­ nation employed by the Communists. ferent. bureaucratic job. But he is the cru­ er, will find reports on the debates This does not mean that the disinte­ It would seem quite difficult to cial figure, the symbol of the schism too fragmentary and skimpy to get a gration of American morale was a under-estimate the psychological im­ that concerns Swados, the symbol of feeling for the issues in dispute and consequence of "brainwashing," i.e., pact of this change. One point from the crisis that has separated the intel­ the arguments advanced on each side. of the use of drugs, hypnotic tech­ the New Yorker is illuminating in this lectuals and the working class. It is In some detail, although by partisans nique, torture, so as to change the regard. In the first stage of the War strange that he wanders through the of only one side, is the description of personality of the subject in a funda­ (from June to late November), the book undefined. a faction fight within the American mental way. On the contrary, the battle was primarily between the SAM BOTroNE section of the International. A. L. Chinese did not normally employ North Koreans and the Americans. these techniques. Rather, they relied MacArthur's insane policy of pursuit upon more simple techniques of the across the Thirty-Eighth Parallel (a stick and carrot, of humilitation and policy blessed by Washington and favors, of atomizing the American revelatory of the more basic aims of MAGAZINE CHRON ICLE units and setting soldier against sold­ American participation in the war) Going through some back issues and well documented, and it would ier. resulted in the sudden appearance of of the N ew Yorker I came across one be impossible to detail all the evidence But then, the Army, as least as its the Chinese Army late in 1950. The of the most fascinating studies to here. But take a few of the major views are reported in the New Yorker North Koreans had often shot pris­ have appeared in recent American points: piece, could not (publicly) face up oners, and the rumour among the magazines. Appearing in the October "One ou t of very three American to more underlying causes of the American soldiers was that this was 26, 1957 issue, "The Study of Some­ prisoners in Korea was guilty of some crack-up in the Korean war camps. the expected fate of the captured. But thing New In History," is a report on sort of collaboration with the ene­ For these involve a recognition of the Chinese changed that policy. the U.S. Army analysis of the experi­ my... "; " ... the prisoners, as far as the massive, world-historical trans­ Sometimes, they even shook hands ences of prisoners of war in North Army psychiatrists have been able to formation that is taking place in Asia with the man they had just taken Korean camps. The piece is lengthy discover, were not subjected to any- and throughout the globe-a knowl- prisoner. The North Korean practice

144 THE NEW INTER.NATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 145

- conformed to stereotypes of "Orient­ gy, i.e. against a vicious system which, being a transitional stage in a rather news that Draper continues to defend al" cruelty; but the Chinese shattered however, masks itself in the rhetori.: precipitous transformation of politi­ the Russian Revol u tion of 1917 this conception. The result was that of socialist humanism. And on the cal thinking; for example, Shachtman's which, he presumably insists, Schacht­ many a captive was thrown off bal­ American side, there was no consen­ strange argument that Leninism "in­ man proposes to "repudiate." Nothing ance at the instant of his capture. Or sus as to what it all meant, no rheto­ vites" putschism needs only easy to it. He must have read someone so the Army reports. rician to dress imperialism up in the adaptatIOn to become the argument else's article; or perhaps he is think­ But secondly, there is the whole armor of a crusade. It is impossible that Leninism "invites" Stalinism. I ing of the article that Draper might question of the role of politics in an to read the New Yorker discussion regret that circumstances make im­ have written if he were Schachtman Army. From the French Revolution­ without realizing that this factor-so possible an article; such as I would and has contrived to fit the article to ary Army, through the Red Army of pervasive in all of our national life otherwise write, discussing the his­ Draper's letter. It is all a product of Trotsky and in the streets of Buda­ today-was one of the elements in the torical questions raised; hence this his own political imagination. note. pest in 1956, it has been demonstrated incredible break-down of the Army Lastly, there is the once-familiar time and again that a conscious, in the camps. ..It is true that I have myself crit­ aware army-an armed movement of ICIzed and rejected some views of charge that Schachtman's article is a And what is the Army's answer? the people-has tremendous qualities ~e~!n's (SUc? as "revolutionary defeat­ "transitional stage," in "the reaction­ of resourcefulness, bravery and the In part, it is Eisenhower's grim little Ism ), for In my opinion he made ary climate" toward the evil theory statement, "I am an American fight­ like. In a sense, the American Army in quite a number of mistakes; but I do that "Leninism 'invites' Stalinism." ing man" which is based on the as­ Korea in 1950-53 was the exact re­ not thin.k that this is any reason to go This little bugaboo deserves a short verse of this image of the revolution­ sumption that what the Army knows ~long WIt? the overwhelming pressure comment before it is mercifully for­ ary Army. More than at any time in happened did not happen, i.e. busi­ In.herent In the reactionary American his tory there was a fuzziness as to pre­ ness at normal. In part, it will be, clImate to "repudiate" Lenin, his role gotten. As he himself reminds us, Dra­ cisely what the war was about; there according to the New Yorker, a cam­ as a great revolutionary leader, or the per wrote a long three-part article was the frustrating fact that it could paign to better acquaint soldiers with essentially liberating character of the over almost a whole year of the New the conditions they will face upon cap­ not be decisively ended; and there Russian Revolution, which was de­ International criticizing Lenin; (were ture. And, in part, it will be a pro­ was the general lack of a political stroyed by Stalinism. they "strictures"?). Draper has com­ consciousness of participation, on the gram of political indoctrination. The part of soldiers, on the part of people only problem with the last point is HAL DRAPER plete confidence in his own socialist back home. that America today doesn't even pos­ integrity and is not disturbed. But if sess a good bogus political rationale World War II had the minimal vir­ some outsider wanted to be nasty; or for its policy. Once the platitudes A Reply to Draper if he was determined to examine tue of being fought under a progres­ about the "Free World" are over, sive mythology~' the Whitmanesque Facts are facts and logic is there is nothing there. And so long every word wi th a microscope so fine nothings of a Henry Wallace could logic; but there is still such difference as this persists, the terrible results of and so powerful that it picked up provide it with the sound, if not the of opinion on what they really are the Korean PW camps will be a very what was not even there, he could substance, of a liberal crusade against and, alas! so little time with this last real possibility. fascism. But the Korean War was issue of the New International for qHickly discover a Draper "transition­ fought against a progressive mytholo- M.H. ~om~ade Draper or anyone else to go al stage" under the pressure of reac­ Into It all. But Draper is determined tion and exult in heralding it to the to place himself on record and that world. is his right. Comrade Schachtman is away on vacation and so I would like That method of argumentation was CORRESPONDENCE to keep part of the record clear, too. once common practice and it once ef­ fectively stultified thought. Even then, A Dissent from were put forward by Max Shacht­ Draper meticulously places the man in his article "A Re-Evaluation word "repudiate" in quotation marks; I recall, Draper was never one to be Shachtman's View of the Past." His newly discovered an unwary reader might get the im­ impressed by it. Now it has lost all To the Editor: strictures against Lenin appear to pression that this is a quotation from power to frighten people. A fine time Schachtman's article, or even a para­ MAY I briefly state for the me to be based on factual inaccura­ to decide to turn it against others! record my disagreement with the cy, historical misrepresentation, and phrase of it. Nothing of the sort. There follows, similarly, the welcome views on Lenin and Leninism which curious logic. They also strike me as H. W. BENSON Spring-Summer 1958 146 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 147 ISL Statement that we continue our activity in the ranks of our party, the SP-SDF, and in THE NEW INTERNATIONAL (continued from page 75) which we call upon all other socialists A Marxist Review Trotskyism or defined as such. Our to do likewise. We have every confi­ own experience with movements pro­ dence that in the days ahead we will fessing such creeds has only served to find an ever-widening sphere for our confirm us in our view that socialism activity, that socialism will once again 1958 -1959 cannot be built as a durable and ef­ become a militant, effective and re­ Index of Volumes XXIII and XXIV fective movement if they are imposed spected political movement in the upon it, nor can its desirable unity be United States, that its influence will (NOTE: The final issue of the New Inter­ FALK. JULIUS maintained under that condition. We spread throughout the broad popular national was Spring-Summer, 1958, Vol. A merican Radicals, Some Problems and are strongly in favor of a broad party movements and circles of the country, XXIV, No. 2-3, Whole Number 179, after Personalities (BR), W 58, 58. which the magazine was discontinUed.) with full party democracy for all, above all the mighty trade-union U.S. Mideast Policy (QN), Sp 58, 80. FENWICK. JAMES M. which does not demand creedal con­ movement, the inspiring movement SYMBOLS de Beauvoir's The Mandarins (BR), W formity on all questions, whether they for Negro equality, the reawakening BR: Book Review 57,62. be of a theoretical character, or of an movement of the young students. 9N: 9uarterly Notes GATES. ALBERT historical character. Such conformity Our energies and determination are W: Winter Case for Socialist Regroupment, Sp 67, typifies the sect; it is alien to a living, not dimmed but renewed. Our enthu­ Sp: Spring 71. Su: Summer Djilas' Indictment of Stalinism (BR), democratic, socialist political move­ siasm for the work ahead, the hard F: Fall W 58, 30. ment in which differences of opinion :work which is its own reward, burns The first figure in each listing represenh GIACOMETTI. A. may be freely held and set forth. brighter than ever. We know the vast the year. the second the page number. Labor Movement in Tropical Africa-II, We subscribe to the declaration on dimensions of the task that lies before W 57,46. ALPHABETICAL INDEX Labor Movement in Tropical Africa-III, the Aims and Tasks of Democratic us before democratic socialism be­ BY AUTHORS comes a political power in the land. Sp 57,94. Socialism, adopted by the Socialist In­ The Decline of French Socialism, W 58, 9. ternational with which the SP-SDF is But we are confident that in fraternal A. G. SFIO-New Movement Ne€ded, Sp 58, affiliated, as the acceptable basis fot cooperation with the other comrades The Eisenhower Doctrine (QN), W 57, 3. 120. reuniting and reconstructing a worthy of the SP-SDF and with all socialists Trotsky's Ecrits 1928-1940, Vol. I (BR), GREY. STAN we here summon to join the ranks we Sp 57, 115. Memoirs of Michael Karolye (BR), Sp socialist movement in this country. It 57,105. will help to build up the movement Bibliographies Des Oeuvres de Karl is on this basis that the ISL first pro­ Marx (BR), Sp 57, 117. H. W. B. again, make it the proud champion of posed union with the SP-SDF and on BECKER. MEL Black Bourgeoisie (BR), Sp 57, 129. this basis it now enters its ranks. We the cause of all who suffer social op­ Continuity and Change in Russian (1M HALL. BEN take note of the prefatory statement pression and indignity, and bring Soviet Thoughts (BR), Sp 57, 112. What Do You Know About Labor? (BR), with which the American SP pub­ closer the time of freedom for all man­ BENSON. H. W. F 57,272. Unions, Racketeers and Senators, Su 57, Social Responsibilities of Organized La­ lished the Aims and Tasks of Demo­ kind. bor (BR), Sp 58, 140. POLITICAL COMMITIEE OF THE 16l. cratic Socialism in this country: Rejoinder to Hal Draper, Sp 58, 147. HARRINGTON. MICHAEL INDEPENDENT SOCIALIST LEAGUE "Some will be disappointed that the BOTTONE. SAM Functions of Social Conflict (BR), Sp 57, statements are so general. Others will Max Shachtman, nat'l chairman U. S. Foreign Policy in the Clouds (QN), 120. recall that Socialists themselves differ Albert Gates, nat'l secretary F 57, 245. American Class Struggle (BR), Sp 57, On the Line (BR), Sp 58, 143. 127. widely on important immediate issues. Magazine Chronicle, Su 57, 197. A few will look in vain for a complete CLIFF. TONY Hook Goes Soft on Gomulka, F 57, 269. MANKIND Economic Roots of Opportunism, W 58, Is There A Political Novel?, W 58, 23. blueprint of a socialist society. The 41. American Socialist Party, too, has international socialist monthly Chinese Stalinism, Sp 58, 90. DRAPER. HAL SFIO and the Fifth Republic, Sp 58, 117. some differences with the sentiments non-sectarian Israel's Arab Minority: The Great Land The American Communist Party, A expressed, and this is doubtless true of speculative Robbery, W 57, 7. Critical History (BR), Sp 58, 137. sl1b.3crjption rates: Letter on Ehachtman's "Re-Examina- American Troops in Korea, Sp 58, 144. every party affiliated or otherwise con­ tion of the Past," Sp 58, 146. nected with the International. In the $4JJO per ye·a'r (by seamail from HARRIS. DON India). Sample copies on request. DRAPER, THEODORE Red Scare (BR), Sp 57, 125. Socialist International, there is room Writg American Committee for A Reply to Max Shachtman, W 58, 49. HASKELL. GORDON for constructive dissent." Mankind, Box 55, Ansonia Station, THE EDITORS Let the Formosans Decide (QN), Sp 58, It is in this spirit of socialist unity New York 23. Last Issue of the NI, Sp 58, 7l. 76. 148 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Spring-Summer 1958 149 HOFFMAN. PHYLLIS Black Bourgeoisie (BR), H. W. B., Sp What Do You Know About Labor? (BR), ALPHABETICAL INDEX Ben Hall, F 57, 272. Howard Fast's Naked God (BR), W 58, BY COUNTRIES 57,129. 63. Unions, Racketeers and Senators, H. W. The Eisenhower Recession (QN), T. N. Benson, Su 57, 161. Vance, W 58, 3. Darrow: Attorney for the Damned (BR), AFRICA Sp 58, 142. Labor Movement in Tropical 9frica-II, Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Look at the New Deal, George Rawick, Order 1919-1933 (BR), George Ra­ Sp 58, 104. INDEPENDENT SOCIALIST LEAGUE A. Giacometti, W 57, 46. ISL Statement of Dissolution, Sp 58, 72. Labor Movement in Tropical Africa-III, wick, Su 57, 201. The Recession: Keynsian View, Her- A. Giacometti, Sp 57, 94. American Communism: A Re-Examina­ man Roseman, Sp 58, 129. LANDY. SY tion of the Past, Max Shachtman, F Social Responsibilitie8 of Organized La­ History of Sino-Russian Relations (BR), BRITAIN 57,207. bor (BR), Ben Hall, Sp 58, 140. W 58, 61. Prospects for British Labor Party, Owen A Reply to Max Shachtman, Theodore Roberts, Sp 57, 81. AMERICAN POLITICS LlBERTINI. LUCIO Draper, W 58,49. The Eisenhower Doctrine (QN), A. G. Post War Evolution of the Italian Labor CHINA A Rejoinder to Theodore Draper, Max W 57,3. Movement, W 57, 30. Chinese Stalinism, Michael Harrington, Shachtman, W 58, 53. The Case for Socialist Regroupment, LUKACS. GEORGE Sp 58, 90. Letter on Shachtman's "Re-Examina­ Albert Gates, Sp 57, 71. What is Orthodox Marxism? Su 57, 179. FRANCE tion of the Past," Hal Draper, Sp 58, American Communism: A Re-Examina­ MARTIN. MAX The Mandarins (BR), James Fenwick, 146. tion of the Past, Max Shachtman, F Two Books on Academic Freedom (BR), W 57, 62. Rejoinder to Hal Draper, H. W. Benson, 57, 207. Sp 57, 111. France Against Herself (BR), Francis Sp 58, 147. A Reply to Max Shachtman, Theodore Wright, Sp 57, 102. Foeign Policy in the Clouds (QN), Sam Draper, W 58, 49. PARAO. JUAN The Decline of French Socialism, A. Bottone, F 57, 245. A Rejoinder to Theodore Draper W 58 Origins of the Venezuelan Revolt, F 57, Giacometti, W 58, 9. Crisis in American Education (QN), 53. ' , 254. SFIO and the Fifth Republic, Michael Francis Wright, F 57, 251. Letter on Shachtman's "Re-Examina­ RAWICK. GEORGE Harrington, Sp 58, 117. What Do You Know About Labor? (BR), tion of the Past," Hal Draper, Sp 58 Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old SFIO-New Movement Needed, Andre Ben Hall, F 57, 272. 146. ' Order 1919-1933 (BR), Su 57, 201. r'iacometti, Sp 58, 120. Eisenhower ·Recession (QN), T. N. Rejoinder to Hal Draper, H. W. Benson, Look At the New Deal, Sp 58, 104. SFIO-Counselof Despair, Max Shacht­ Vance, W 58, 3. Sp 58, 147. ROBERTS. OWEN man, Sp 58, 125. A merican Radicals: Some Problems and U. S. Foreign Policy in the Clouds (QN), Prospects for British Labor Party, Sp 57, HUNGARY Personalities (BR), Julius Falk W 58 Sam Bottone, F 57, 245. 81. Memoirs of Michael Karolye (BR), Stan 5& ' , Critical History of American CP (BR) ROSEMAN. HERMAN Gey, Sp 57, 105. Howard Fast's Naked God (BR), Phyllis Michael Harrington, Sp 58, 137. ' The Recession: Keynsian View, Sp 58, Hoffman, W 58, 63. ISRAEL BOOK REVIEWS 129. Israel's Arab Minority: The Great Land ISL Statement of Dissolution, Sp 58, 72. Let the Formosans Decide (QN), Gordon Camus, Albert, The Fall, reviewed by SHACHTMAN.MAX Robbery, Hal Draper, W 57, 7. Mel Stack, Sp 57, 131. New Stage in the Russian Crisis, Su 57, Haskell, Sp 58, 76. ITALY U.S. Mideast Policy (QN), Julius Falk, Cheng, Tien-fong, A History Of Sino­ 139. Post War Evolution of the Italian Labor Russian Relations, reviewed by Sy Bureaucratic Collectivism, Two Eras, Su Sp 58, 80. Movement, Lucio Libertini, W 57, 30. Look at the New Deal, George Rawick Landy, W 58, 6l. 57, 156. RUSSIA Sp 58, 104. ' Coser, Lewis, Function8 of Social Con­ American Communism: A Re-Examina­ Continuity and Change in Russian and The Recession: Keynsian View, Her­ flict, reviewed by Michael Harrington, tion of the Past, F 57, 207. Soviet Thought (BR), Mel Beeker, W Sp 57, 120. A Rejoinder to Theodore Draper, W 57, man Roseman, Sp 58, 129. 57, 122. Critical History of American CP (BR), de Beauvoir, Simone, The Mandarins re­ 53. New Stage in Russian Crisis, Max SFIO-Counsel of Despair, Sp 58, 125. Michael Harrington, Sp 58, 137. viewed by James M. Fenwick, W 57, 62. Shachtman, Su 57, 139. Social Responsibilities of Organized La­ Djilas, Milovan, The New Cla88 re­ SOREL. JULES Bureaucratic Collectivism ~ Two Eras, viewed by Albert Gates, W 58, 30. Fromm Views the Sane Society (BR), Max Shachtman, Su 57, 156. bor (BR), Ben Hall, Sp 58, 140. On the Line (BR), Sam Bottone Sp 58 Fast, Howard, The Naked God, reviewed W 58,36. History of Sino-Russian Relations (BR), I 143. ' , by Phyllis Hoffman, W 58, 63. STACK. MEL Sy Landy, W 58, 61. Fitch, James A., Social Responsibilities Study of Russian Radical Thought (BR), American Troops in Korea, M.H., Sp 58 The Fall (BR), Sp 57, 131. 144. ' of Organized Labor, reveiwed by Ben Study of Russian Radical Thought (BR), Mel Stack, W 58, 66. Hall, Sp 58, 140. W 58,66. UNITED STATES VENEZUELA Fraizer, E. Franklin, Black Bourgeoisie The Eisenhower Doctrine (QN), A. G., Origins of the Venezuelan Revolt, Juan I reviewed by H. W. B., Sp 57, 129. ' VANCE. T. N. Parao, F 57, 254. Amalgam of Marx and Keynes (BR), W 57,3. Fromm, Erich, The Sane Society re­ Su 57, 170. The Case for Socialist Regroupment, Al- viewed by Jules Sorel, W 58, 36. ' Eisenhower Recession (QN), W 58, 3. bert Gates, Sp 57, 71. ALPHABETICAL INDEX Two Books on Academic Freedom (BR), I BY TOPICS Goldberg, Harvey, American Radicals: WRIGHT. FRANCIS Max Martin, Sp 57, 111. Some Problems and Personalities re­ France Against Herself (BR), Sp 57, Red Scare (BR), Don Harris, Sp 57, 125. AMERICAN ECONOMICS AND viewed by Julius Falk, W 58, 58. ' 102. LABOR MOVEMENT Hofstadter and Metzger, Development Crisis in American Education (QN), F The American Class Struggle (BR), Michael Harrington, Sp 57, 127. Unions, Racketeers and Senators, H. W. of Academic Freedom in the U. S., re­ 57, 251. Benson, Su 57, 161. viewed by Max Martin, Sp 57, 111. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 150 Spring-Summer 1958 151 Howe, Coser, The American Communist Is There a Political Novel? Michael Har­ Party, a Critical History, reviewed by rington, W 58, 23. Michael Harrington, Sp 58, 137. Economic Roots of Opportunism, Tony Kahl, Joseph A., The American Class Cliff, W 58, 41. Struggle, reviewed by Michael Har­ ISL Statement of Dissolution, Sp 68, 72. rington, Sp 57, 127. Last Issue of NI, The Editors, Sp 58, 71. Karolye, Michael, Memoirs of Michael American Troops in Korea, M.H., Sp 58, Karolye, reviewed by Stan Grey, Sp 57, 144. 105. STALINISM Laidler and Myers, What Do You Know The Mandarins (BR), James M. Fen­ About Labor?, reviewed by Ben Hall, wick, W 57, 62. F 57,272. Trotsky's Ecrits 1928-19J,.0, Vol. I (BR), A. G., Sp 57, 115. Lampert, E., Studies in Rebellion, re­ New Stage in the Russian Crisis, Max viewed by Mel Stack, W 58, 66. Shachtman, Su 57, 139. Leuthy, Herbert, France Against Her­ Bureaucratic Collectivism: Two Eras, Ilelf, reviewed by Francis Wright, Sp Max Shachtman, Su 67, 156. 57,102. American Communism: A Re-Examina­ MacIver, Robert H., Academic Freedom tion of the Past, Max Shachtman, F in Our Time, reviewed by Max Martin, 57, 207. Sp 57, 111. . A Reply to Ma£ Shachtman, Theodore Marx, Karl, Bibliographie deB Oeuvres Draper, W 58, 49. de Karl Marx, reviewed by A. G., Sp A Rejoinder to Theodore Draper, Max 57, 117. Shachtman, W 58, 53. Murray, Robert K., Red Scare, reviewed Letter on Shachtman's "Re-Examina­ by Don Harris, Sp 57, 125. tion of the Past," Hal Draper, Sp 58, 146. Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., The Age of Rejoinder to Hal Draper, H. W. Benson, Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Order Sp 58, 147. 1919-1983, reviewed by George Rawick, Hook Goes Soft on Gomulka, Michael Su 57, 201. Harrington, F 57, 269. Simons, E. J., Continuity and Change in Djilas' Indictment of Stalinism (BR), Russian and Soviet Thought, reviewed Albert Gates, W 58, 30. by Mel Becker, Sp 57, 122. Howard Fast's Naked God (BR), Phyllis Strachey, John, Contemporary Capital­ Hoffman, W 58, 63. ism, reviewed by T. N. Vance, Su 57, Chinese Stalinism, Michael Harrington, 170. Sp 58, 90. Swados, Harvey, On the Line, reviewed Critical History of American CP \BR), by Sam Bottone, Sp 68, 143. Michael Harrington, Sp 58, 137. Trotsky, Leon, Ecrits 1928-1940, Vol. I, WORLD POLITICS reviewed by A. G., Sp 67, 116. IsraePs Arab Minority: The Great Land Weinberg, Arthur (Ed), Attorney for Robbery, Hal Draper, W 57, 7. the Damned, reviewed by Phyllis Hoff­ Post-War Evolution of the Italian Labor man, Sp 68, 142. Movement, Lucio Libertini, W 57, 30. The Labor Movement in Tropical Africa IRITISH POLITICS II, A. Giacometti, W 57, 46. Prospects for the British Labor Party, Owen Roberts, Sp 57, 81. Origins of the Venezuelan Revolt, Juan Parao, F 57, 254. CI'IL LIBERTIES The Decline of French Socialism, A. Two Books on Academic Freedom (BR), Giacometti, W. 58,9. Max Martin, Sp 57, 111. Attorney for the Damned (BR), Phyllis Let the Formosans Decide (QN), Gordon Hoitman, Sp 68, 142. Haskell, Sp 58, 76. U.S. Mideast Policy (QN), Julius Falk, MISCE"LANEOUS Sp 58, 80. Amalgam of Marx and Keynes (BR), T. N. Vance, Su 57, 170. SFIO and the Fifth Republic, Michael What is Orthodox Marxism? George Harrington, Sp 58, 117. Lukacs (Translation and introduction SFIO-New Movement Needed, Andre by Michael Harrington), Su 67, 179. Giacometti, Sp 58, 120. Crisis in American Education (QN), SFIO-Counsel of Despair, Max Shacht­ Francis Wright, F 57, 251. man, Sp 58, 125.