Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AMERIC A
,'vIJ',Y-JUNE# 1968 V,olume II Number 3
'. SO,
I
. \
"
CONTENTS
,
,
','/i th this issue, RADICAL AMERICA takes on cer
tain new dimensions, oarticularly in neo-Marxj�t
theory and the arts. ':Iithout re I i nqu ishi ng our f unc
tion of studying American radicalism (p�st and pre_
sentlin its irr.mediately oolitical forms, � intend
to pursue these directions further, and encourage es
pecially radical artists to pl a y a larger role in the
\ I
mag�zjne.
. ,
We look forward to a press run of 3,000 or mbre
for the coming (July_A�gustl Bleck Liberation number.
The contributions, by C.L.R. James, Eissen-Udorn, Gevrge
Rqwick, Junes Hcok.?r, {hark D. Noison and others wi II,
we believe, odd 0 great- deal to the interpretation of
this phenomenon ot a cri tical time for the Iwbvemenf.
,
1
James P. O'Brien
'
t i re ly to the l atter two grou�)s ( New f i e ld ',las once an
act ive member SDS ) . The problem vl ith this b ook i s
Newf ield's tendency t o romant ici z e , t o tele s c ope the
c omplex event s of 1960-65 and to write glow ingly about
the " spirit" of the movement w ithout trying t o tal\.e
seriou s ly it s changing ide as. newf ie ld i s attracte d ,
above all , t o style: that i s why i t has been pos s ible
for him t o write enthus iast i c a l ly ab out � oth the New
Left and Robert Ke nnedy . Mit chell C ohen and Denni s
Hale edited a useful book of re adings) The New Student
Left ( New ,�me rican Library ) Ivhich c on s i s t s mainly of
SDS w orking papers and art i cles from The Act ivi st, a
quarte rly magaz ine of wh i ch b oth C ohen and Hale had
been edit ors . Like the magaz ine , th i s anthology may
e rr on the s i de of dullne s s . The re i s no re al sense
of the dynami c s of the New Left , and thus the b ook was
s ome-r.yhat dated even at the t ime it appeare d . Furthe r ,
the select i on s are far le s s ant i - l ibe ral and more ant i
c ommun i st than the movement had b e c ome by 1966. F inally ,
The New Radi c al s , edited by Paul J ac ob s and Saul
Landau, in Vint age paperback , offers a c olle ct i on of
re adings that supplement s those in the C ohen-Hale b ook .
Unl iKe the othe r , The New R ad i c al s has many of i t s
document s in ab ridged form , whi ch i s unfortunate . The
83 -p age i ntroduc t i on , wh ich i s writte n from out s i de
the st ruggle , s omehovi doe s n ot ring t rue .
THE 1950's
THE BEGINHINGS
PEAC E I SSUES
Barbara Deming, "The Orde al of SANE, " The Nat ion , March
1 1 , 1961, and Donald M. Blue st one, "Un ity in the Peace
Moveme nt)" San ity) Spr ing 1962 . ) The St udent Peace
Un ion had been formed by student s at a number of mid
western c ollege s, at which t ime campus pe ace act ivity
was at a very low level . In the early spurt of stu
dent pol it i cal intere st follow ing the s it -ins) SPU
had c ollected 10)000 student s ignature s for a pet i
t i on t o the world leade rs gathe red at the 1960 summit
conference . By the summer of 1961 , SPU ' s nat ional
off i ce had COlile unde r the control of members of the
Young People ' s Soc ial i st League ( YPSL ) ) the youth
aff i l i ate of the Soc i al i st Part y . Under this le ade r
ship) SPU adopted a "third-camp" pos it i on) to the left
of SANE but st ill attempt ing t o as se s s equal b lame for
the cold war to the U . S . and the Soviet Uni on .
During the 1961-62 s chool year) SPU chapters
organized demonst rat ions and educ at i onal c ampaigns
against nuc lear t e st ing and agai nst fallout shelters
( which it s aid made nuc lear war more l i kely by
fo stering the illus i on that casualt ies could be s igni
f i c ant ly cut ) . In the fall of 1961 student s from
Grinnell) Carlet on) and a few othe r college s fasted
and picketed at the White House against the re sumpt ion
of above -ground nuc le ar testing) and in February 1962
more than 5)000 student s went to Washington to picket
the White House ; and Soviet embas sy: and t o attempt t o
pe rsuade gove rnment off i c i al s to the ir point of view .
They were met by conde s cens ion and s ke pt i c i sm) as when
Chet Hol l i f ie ld) a leader of the libe ral c ongre s s i onal
bloc) c alled the ir pos it i on pape r a "bunch of baloney . "
Atmospher i c t e st i ng was re sumed w ithin a few weeks .
Th i s march) though support ed by SPU) was init iated by
the Harvard-Radcliffe peace group) TCCSIN . It i s
de s c ribed in Steven V . Robert s) "I Something Had to be
Done ) I" The Nat ion , March 3, 1962 .
By the end of the 1961-52 s chool year) SPU ' s
membership had t r ipled to more than 3)000) whi ch me ant
a far large r number of student s involved i n l oc al
chapter act ivit i e s . St i ll) it I-lOuld be e asy to over
est imate the extent t o Hhi ch the pe ace movement
actually pe rme ated the campuse s . More oft en than not)
the pe ace act iv i s t s Here regarded Hith indifference or
dist ast e by the majority of st udent s . More ove r, Hh ile
9
ENTER SDS
the pre sent , " and p ledged SDS t o work for the crea
t ion of a "new left . 'I Wh i le spe akin", hopefully of
the growth of the c ivil r i ght s and peace moveme nt s ,
and c aut iously of organi ze d labor, the Port Huron
St atement put spe c ial emphas i s on the potent ial of
the un ive "' s ity as a rad ic al center . " Social relev
anc e , the ac ce s s ib i l ity of knolwedge , and inte rnal
openne s s - -the se together make the .mive r s it y a
potential b ase and aGency in a movement for soc i al
change . "
-� J
12
ERAP
j
IS
September 5 , 1 964 .
RETURN TO C AMPUS
The re ' s a t ime whe n the ope rat ion of the machine
b e c oLe s s o odious , make s you s o sick at he art ,
that you c an ' t t ake part , you c an ' t even t ac itly
t ake part. And you ' ve got t o put your bod i e s
upon the ge ars and upon t h e wheels , upon the
lever s , upon all the apparatus , and you ' ve got
to make it st op. And you ' ve got to ind i c at e to
the pe ople vlho run it , to the people who own it ,
t hat unle s s you ' re free, the machine w i ll be
prevented from vlOrk inij at all .
VIETNAM
/
/
24
SillIlMARY
j.
26
Andre Schiffr i n
1 . �he more I ' ve cons idered this art icle , t he more per
s�aded I ' ve be come of t he value of serious histori
C Al re search in this field . T he existence of a
j O'lrnal such as Radi cal Ame r i c a j s already an en
cotraging indi c at i on . I t hink it might make sense,
how�ver, for student groups to cons ider t he t hought
cf �0ing beyond individual research and con s ide r ing
the ll o s s ib i lity of attempt ing some serious oral
history proj e ct s in this f ield . It might prove i n
tere s ; � n6 and fruit ful t o try interview pro j e c t s on
given c ampuse s in whi c h people are asked about
the i r J c l it i cal act ivit i e s i n the ' thirt ie s ,
'iorti� s and ' f ift i e s, to d i s cove r who w a s act ive
and pa,sive , what mot ivate d and threatened people,
1ilhy 'c he ideal i sm of t he 1930 ' s van i s hed so sua
denly 2 'ter the war, et c .
27
PARALLELS
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T H E BALANCE SH E ET
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32 pages $ 1.00
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14131 Woodward Avenue,
Detroit, Michigan 48203.
potent i al Trotskyists had seve ral groups t o choose from .
The que st ion at the t ime was primari ly one of c iv i l
l ibe rt ie s and though the problem w a s hotly deb ate d
w ithin SLID , the off i c ial pos it ion w a s s imi lar t o that
held by all those taking the " libe ral " l ine on c ivil
l ibert ie s : opp o s it ion t o all a spe cts of McC arthy i sm
and the persecut i on of communi st s all ied w ith a re
fusal t o actually collaborate w ith c ommuni st organ i z a
t ions . This quest ion , needle s s t o s ay , was l arge ly
theoret i c al . There were no commun i st groups w ith
which t o collaborat e ( though had the re been, we w ould
have undoubtedly refused) . Indivi dual c ommun i st stu
dent s may have j o ine d SLID ; the re were cert ainly a
number of Marx i st s or Trot sky i st s who did j oin b ut , in
all cases that I can remember , they kept to the s ame
agreement that was felt by those t o the r i ght in SLID ,
namely that i s sue s were deb at e d w ithin a gene rally
ac cepted framewo rk . The only are a whe re w orking w ith
c ommun i st s vIas seri ously deb at e d was i n the inter
nat i onal f ie ld . There as I ' ve ment i oned before , SLID
tenaed to agree w ith the p o s it i on t aken at var i ous
t ime s by Aneurin Bevin and Hugh 3ait ske l l , i . e . ,
detente and d i sengagement and the restorat i on of
neut ral n at i onal e nt it i e s rathe r than the advocacy of
internat i onal un �ted front s .
I think it import ant t o real i z e f i rst how much
Rus s ia has changed s ince that t ime and how much we
i dent i f i e d w ith those on the left who had been per
se cuted by the C ommun i s t s . We felt vie w ould be be
t r aying those who had opposed Stalin ' s d i ct at orship
f rom the left if \ve collab orat e d he re , or abroad , w ith
tho se who defende d it . Obvi ous ly , the ove rwhe lming
propaganda of the t ime twist e d all of t h i s t o c ompletely
underplay the degree to whi ch the We st was als o at
f ault and the ,-l ays in whi ch our own att it ude s w ould be
39
4
used by t he CIA or others .
Where would SLID members of the 1950 ' s st and
were t hey student s t oday? It ' s a quest ion that it
would be fasc inat ing to answer but I doubt an ans
wer i s pos s ib l e . Many have c hanged ,v ith the years,
becoming more rad i c al rather than les s , w ith age
and experi ence . But that has b een t rue of people
who belonged to no student groups as well . Volun
t eering as a lawyer, go ing Sout h or i n a ghetto;
act ing as an int ern i n a big c ity ho spital; los ing
t enure for one ' s oppos it i on to t he war - -t hi s kind
of experi ence has rad i c al i z ed many a member of my
generat ion who had never heard of SLID or any other
of t hat s mall rainbow of the left . Yet t hose who
b el onged were, I think, a representat i ve cros s
sect i on of a potent i al const it uency, as SLID growth
from the early t o l ate ' f ift ies show s . On the whole,
were we ever ab l e to have the kind of face to face
dis cus s ion that happens s o rarely ac ros s genera
t i onal l i nes , I t hink we would see a gradual shift
from the f ift ies i nto the s ixt ies, c arryi ng s imilar
b el i efs and c ommitment s from the postwar Korean
years int o the present .
T i m \)o h l f o r- t h , T h e S t r- u q q l e f o r- Ma r- x i sm in the
Un i t e d S t f1 t e s . -N e w Y o r- k : B u-
I-I ;H n P u b l i �t i o n s , 1 968 .
7 5 rt .
42
Dave Wagner
44
you hon'.;.ie s .
move
your slow asse s .
get out now
no s e c onds
on l iving .
split
now .
man . I ' m c oming
for u
now w ith my
b lood f illed
s ax . calling
all b loods .
beep .
be ep .
mary
had
a
l ittle
lamb .
unt i l
she
got
her throat
c ut.
see what I me an ?
( Soni a San che z )
Stuart Ewen
I. A MARXIAN BACKGROUND
be c ome s c louded :
14 . Gorz , p . 89 .
1 5 . lb i d . , p . 5 7 .
52
situationist internaticnale
55
un ions , i s not analyzed . If , a s Gorz seems t o
as sume , the problem w ith mode rn i ndust r i al un i on s
i s strat e gi c , then his proposed alterat ion of
st rate gy c ould be argue d w ithin the se union s . But
often, as in the c ase of the American AFL-CIO, the
difference between Gorz and the un ion movement i s
r ar more t han strategic . ( �orz himself must re cog
nize thi s , for in his attempt t o pre sent a grounds
for such strategic approache s , he ( a Frenchman ) i s
f orced t o offer example s f rom the workinG class
organ i z at ions of Northe rn It aly . ) Surely �orz ' s
as sert ion that struct ural re J'orms are s ign i f i c ant
only if e ach step i s t aken in const ant c ognit i on
of ult imate goals ( Soc ialism ) w ould be zeal ously
re s i sted by the Amer i c an un ion le adership and much
of the membership . But even amonG cert ain se gment s
of the Commun i st left of Europe , the qualit at ive
aspe ct of Gorz ' s analys i s and its re voluti onary
imp l i c at i ons would not be pract ic ally ac cept able .
The Marxi an concept ion of self - determinat i on me ans
far more than it i s commonly t aken for ; it me ans
aut onomy w ithin a c ontext whi ch accept s human in
dividual value s as the priority and purpose of
s o c i al product ion .
�orz fails t o deal with the "h OVI " of wor;�er ' s
power i n t erms o f divert ing the un ions from the ir
current strategie s , and as in the case of the
Un ited St ate s , from the i r current , and s el f - de
clared ideology . � orz has all the in�redient s f or
a st rategy of true counter- st ruct ure ; by the
cre at i on of " structure s " whi ch not only ve rbal ly
oppose , but formally and ph i losophi c ally ( act ive ly )
oppo se the �� i vens of c ontemporary soc iety; struc
ture s vlhi c h bring men at irre ve rsable odds "l ith
the ir alienat ion . Yet perhaps in conce s s i on to old
left tendenc ie s , he choose s to re dire ct what may
not be re d ire ct able . When � orz s ays , " Never lose
s ight of ult imate goal s , " he i s not spe aking of
revolut i on in romant i c , coll oquial terms , and yet
his adherance to certain ' f ields of play ' i s ( or
appe ars to be ) a romant i c and colloquial att achment
to the St alinist ( and othe r reformi st ) age n c i e s of
He stern Europe and the United St ate s .
�orz views s o c i al product ion as a life
t ot al it y , yet h i s organ i z at i on or st rat egy i s an
atte mpt to con c ret i z e it in t radit i onal areas of organ
i z at i o n . If one i s ne ve r t o l o se s i ght of the re volu
t i onary goal s , then one must ne ve r lose s i ght of
revolut i onary dime n s i on s ; Vlhen one doe s , then the re is
no s ay i ng how t h e st ructural re f orms " on the j ob "
m i ght b e con:pe n s at e d for , o r c o opt e d " off the j ob " .
As �orz impl i e s , one is -
on the j ob Vlhether he is " on "
or off " .
Ult imat e ly , Gorz t r i e s to make it e as y for
t rad it i onal left i st s to ac c e pt the i d i om of Marx i sm
( or what is commonly known as " Ne o -Marx i s m " ) . Yet one
f e e l s he i s making it too e asy . F o r in the tran s l a
t i on o f Marx ' s concept i on o f s o c i a l product ion into
t e rms a c cept able to Gorz ' s p o l i t i c a l a s s o c i ate s , the
f onne r seems s ub s umed by the l r:tt e r . The me s s age of
his c r it i que of c ontemporary s i e t y is a c al l �' o r a
t ot al re e v aluat i on of the l im i � Cc.t ions , strat e � i e s
and i d e o l ogy o f re formi sm and ::c ' un i o n i s m i t s e l f ; yet
h i s oVin ree valuat i on i s f ar :c' ru!! t ot al as he de l i ne at e s
his st rat e gy f o r lab o r . Part i c ll arly not able by it s
ab s e n c e is an attempt to ext e c ' or revlOrk the de=' in i
t i on o f the " working c l as s " w L :,: in te chnolog i c al
s oc i ety . Sure ly , as h i st or i c a� n e e d s turn man ' s
value s t oward commodi t i z at i o n ) a pove rty w ithout
m i se ry , and furthe r away from him s e lf , the se n e e d s
do n o t le ave a n i ne t e e nt h - c e ntury c l a s s analy s i s whol ly
int act .
This c r it i c i sm of Jorz is a fri endly one , a
re c o gn i t i on of a t e n s i on w ithin h i s t h i nk i ng . There
are c e rt ai n a s p e c t s of the t e n s i on wh ich are i nde e d
impre s s i ve and c ruc ial t o t h e unde r s t anding of rad i
c al s i n Ame r i c a and e l s ewhere . But a s a veh i c le of
t h at t e n s i o n , the b ook as a vlhole l e ave s much t o be
de s i re d . St rat e gy for Lab or betrays l i t t l e unde r
s t an d i ng o f the c on s c i ousne s s o r even the imme diat e
d e s i re s o f the mode rn c orporat e un i ons o r the ir
memb e r s hip , at a t ime vlhe n a b re ak fr om the p r i or it i e s
o f t rad it i onal left - w i ng organ i z at i ons and a furt her
explorat ion of the b road impl i c at i on s of Gorz ' s
s o c i e t al c r it i que i s in orde r .
G orz ' s strat e gy , the n , is not c omprehens i ve .
In unde r st and ing the s imult ane ity of " on t he j ob "
and " oi' f t he j ob " the rad i c al the o r i s t must de ve l op
57
T H E COMRADE
The Rad ica l s ' Use of H istory, I I
59
1
of S o c i a l i st opp o s i t i on to World lrlar I b y i nvoking
60
I s th i s e l it i st h i stori ography?
The prob lem of de c i s ion-mak ing leads dire ct ly
t o the problem of writing the h i story of one I s mIn
t irre a s over against 1,l r it i ng the hi story of the
d i s t ant pa st . The c onne ct ion between the t w o que s
t i ons i s a s follow s : S o l ong a s rad i c al s a s s ume that
h i story i s dete rmine d , that the role of c on s c i ous
vJ i l l is ( i n the sen se that Earx and Enge ls used t he
term ) " ac c ident al , " then study of the p a st i s j ust i
f ie d be c ause i t more and more c le arly reve als the
l are:e pattern of det e rmined event s on the b a s i s of
which future h i st ory c an be predi cted .
But S UP1JOse that h i st ory i s determine d only i n
t h e macrosense that one c an s peak , l o r examp le , of a
l ong -run tende ncy tmmrd cent ral i ze d pub l i c e c onom i c
p l anning . Suppose that the p attern of determined
events has s o large a me sh that , g iven all pos s ib le
dat a c onc erning Ame r i c a n h i story , it 1V Quld st i l l be
imp o s s ible to predict whether the United St a t e s w i ll
be c ome f a s c i st or s o c i a l i st , or ne ithe r dur ing our
l L'et ime s . Hh at t:ten vlould be the relevance of
h i st ory ?
One pos s ible re sponse i s that p re d i c t i on i s not
the cnly purpose of hi story . H i st ory can a l s o
r':ini ster t o t he sub j e ct ive r:: �m : i t c cm provide le s s ons ,
61
C�MPAIGNER
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66
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A MAGA Z I NE OF THE ADULT NEW LE FT
p ro fe s s i on s * po l i t i c a l a n a l y s i s *
* rad i c a l s in
moveme n t s tr a t e gy * p rob l ems o f organi z in g *
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