LETTERS
On "Africa: War and Revolution" Editors: Was the article "Africa: War and Revolution" in the spring issue of Dissent submitted to any member of the editorial board with some knowledge of Africa?...
...q One-Issue Politics Editors In response to the debate about Skokie, I would express general agreement with Irving Howe on the dangers of "one-issue" politics, but also some reservations...
...Is Somalia still new...
...Although my purpose was somewhat different, I found there was some political content in these critiques, at least an object for debate...
...True social revolutions are usually destroyed by so-called revolutionary regimes, either through patriotic wars or by the emergence of a centralized bureaucracy as a substitute for the genuine local forces...
...Yes, we should avoid falling into the trap of habitually demanding 100 percent "toe-the-party-line" perfection...
...On the other hand, we must allow for those who deeply feel that some issues are literally a matter of self-defense...
...In my view, the social movement of the Ethiopian peasantry is the only one, in the areas considered, that might be characterized as revolutionary...
...But more seriously the title and to a degree the article itself implies that the New Africa is characterized by war and revolution...
...The attempt to deal with three almost totally disparate parts of the continent resulted in very incomplete pictures of each, yet one still falling far short of the promise of the title, under which one would surely expect to read something about the wars in Zimbabwe and Rhodesia, if not Chad, Uganda, and elsewhere...
...LORRAINE P. LEVINE Pittsburgh, Pa...
...It is certainly understandable that many Jewish people cannot, even in the most indirect manner, aid a group that regards them as subhuman and advocates their mass murder, even though the group is now miniscule and poses no real threat...
...His only political point is whether I "characterize" New Africa by war and revolution...
...He mentions misprints that should be corrected (the original text writes "Frelimo" and "EPLF") and says both at the same time that I cover too much ground and that I should extend my field to other areas...
...Significantly, the Addis regime took a recent step in trying to suppress it by ordering complete collectivization, Soviet style (Le Monde, July 29 and 30...
...Hawley's disappointment is disappointing...
...If so, I find it hard to understand how such obvious anomalies as "Fremlino" and the French "metis" for "coloured" were not corrected, as well as the identification of the ELF rather than EPLF as the major group in Eritrea...
...I do not know what precisely New Africa is...
...The movement against the right to choose abortion directly threatens that woman's right to control her own future and make firm plans for her education, career, family timing and size...
...Maybe we can work together toward a political era in which there is less violent rhetoric and are fewer polarizing issues, thus reducing the levels of fear and personal threat from which some of us suffer...
...496...
...Does it point to "socialist" regimes...
...I understand equally keenly how a pro-choice woman may feel it necessary to refuse support to an otherwise liberal candidate who votes against the right to abortion...
...Is it just a journalistic device or a political category...
...I can see that some wars are going on in some places in Africa and I try to assess their relation with the idea of social revolution...
...The way is thus paved for a complete social and economic breakdown...
...That Mozambique and Ethiopia suffer from both evils is just sad and banal...
...Is the Central African Empire not new...
...EWARD A. HAWLEY, Executive Editor Africa Today [The article's author is the French scholar and journalist Serge Thion -Eds.] SERGE THION REPLIES: It is always a pleasure for a writer to have a piece attacked...
...As for Mr...
...I cannot categorically condemn people who, on one or two issues, have such a strong gut reaction or feeling of threat that they are unable to overlook a candidate's or organization's stand on that issue...
...the threat frequently arises from theological concerns she does not share...
...Hawley's last sentence, I always bow to more competent analysts as soon as they display that competence...
...Referring to this text, some activists in France called me "an imperialist stooge" because I did not sufficiently admire the Mozambican revolution, while others labeled me a "Stalinist" because I did not condemn strongly enough Mengistu's Red Terror...
...But Mr...
...I hope you will find more competent analysts to deal with African matters in the future...
Vol. 26 • September 1979 • No. 4
