File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9706, message 501


Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 20:18:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: M-I: The Cultural Front


On Sat, 28 Jun 1997, James Farmelant wrote:

> One question that Lou might wish to address in a future post
> is why so many of the political and cultural figures of the 1930's
> that he writes about moved to the right later on.  Partisan Review
> which started out as  a Communist then Trotskyist journal became
> after WW II an anticommunist cold warrior publication.  The writer

The reason that so many intellectuals shifted to the right should be
pretty obvious but I'll state it anyhow. A major factor of the 1930s
radicalization was identification with the Soviet Union. Even when
intellectuals had no formal connections with the Communist Party, it was a
shattering experience to be told that sympathy for the USSR was now
tantamount to treason. People were being thrown in prison left and right.
It was a terrifying ordeal for an entire generation. I have been trying to
track down people who owned "Red" resort hotels in the Catskill mountains
where I grew up. It has been exceedingly difficult because after all these
years there is still fear.

The other side of the coin was that Stalin began to be uncloaked as a
truly monstrous figure. The Krushchev revelations caused thousands of
Communists to leave the party in the mid 1950s, including many top-flight
intellectual figures. Some, like Annette Rubinstein, have retained their
ties to the left but most either became quiescent or anticommunist.

The final factor was the phenomenal rise in the standard of living after
WWII. Marxism began to lose its explanatory power as working people bought
homes, automobiles and put their children into college. A new generation
of radical thinkers like C. Wright Mills tried to develop a critique of
capitalism but put the question of revolutionary agency aside.

On the other hand, it should be understood that many leftists from the
1930s who did not have the reputation of a Sidney Hook or Max Eastman
started to come out of the woodwork during the 1960s. The civil rights
movement was sparked by activists who had CIO organizing experience. The
Vietnam antiwar movement included many figures who had roots in the 1930s
radicalization. One of the most notable was Dr. Spock who used to write a
column for the radical tabloid PM. Leonard Bernstein, who lent his name to
many causes in the 1960s, was part of the CP milieu in the 1940s and never
sold out.

This is an important question to me because I am writing a book focused on
"1950s radicals", namely people who were shaped by the Depression Era
struggles but who never stopped fighting for social change. Fred Baker,
whose story I have related to the list, was a nine-year old singer in Earl
Robinson's choruses in the late 1930s and later went on to become an
independent film-maker in the 1960s. He made socially conscious films and
was also involved in the distribution of revolutionary films that he
discovered at Cuban film festivals. My interviews with him are finished
and I am about to embark on a new series with David McReynolds, a peace
activist and socialist who has been at it since the 1950s.

Louis Proyect




     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005