I probably didn't mention here, but I am working on one of the most
interesting projects of my life, which is to develop an anthology based on
the magazine American Socialist, which was co-edited by Harry Braverman and
Bert Cochran. The magazine only lasted from 1954 to 1959 but without
exaggeration I can say that it is some of the most probing and
sophisticated Marxist analysis I have ever read anywhere. The thing to note
especially is that the group that put out the magazine was practically 100%
working class. I interviewed two of the old timers recently in California.
One was raised in an orphanage and became an auto worker at the age of 23,
shortly after leaving the Merchant Marines. His boat was torpedoed and he
spent 3 months in a Russian hospital. The other was a life-long auto worker
as well and helped to found New Directions, the UAW caucus that orients to
Labor Notes.
Reading through the 1954 volume, I was struck by the clarity of the
analysis around the fledgling civil rights movement. You have to remember
that this movement was born out of expectations that the colonial
revolution, which was nominally supported by the allies, would have
consequences for the US as well. Blacks demanded the right to vote, to use
integrated public facilities, etc. The northern Democratic Party liberals
said all these things would happen in due time. They were dubbed
"gradualists". Eventually a civil rights movement came along that demanded
"Freedom Now." I was reminded of how radical this demand seemed in 1957
when I first heard it. In my high school, it was explained in social
studies classes that things couldn't change overnight but progress was
being made every day.
Essentially, this is the same kind of argument being made by defenders of
capitalism in this discussion. They say that things are getting better in
the third world. Look at life expectancy figures. They are better than they
were 100 years ago. Isn't that progress? Why disrupt this march forward
with ill-advised attempts to alter the economic system, which might lead to
Pol Pot or Stalin. It's better to move ahead gradually. But this does not
take into account the mood of mothers who see their babies die of diahrrea
because clean drinking water is not available in their village. Or what an
18 year old feels like who understands that unless he becomes an
undocumented worker in the US, he just might starve to death. When these
extreme conditions are generalized as they are through much of Central and
Latin America, no wonder the cry is for Freedom Now!!! Or as Fidel Castro
put it, "Patria Libre o Muerte!!!"
Louis Proyect
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