AMONG OURSELVES
It is with gratification that we anaounce that in response to our appeal for $6,000 to assure DissENT's life for the next two years, $5,600 has been received in cash and pledges. To the...
...Emanuel Sherer also spoke.—Ed...
...Readers wrote in to praise it, and it quickly sold well on the newsstands in New York City...
...Note: One reason the fund drive went better this time than two years ago is that our friends engaged in organized activities...
...In New York City a DISSENT forum drew 100 people...
...in Boston, 75...
...Strewn through the audience were the deadwood representatives of official Socialist 'splinter groups' who rose to the day's occasion with the worn-out phraseology of their own particular sect, shaking their fists as of old, condemning the discussion for being only discussion, for being a 'wake,' a display of soul-searching and a harbor of heresy from their own splintered orthodoxy...
...got up to give the closing remarks and said that 'most of the people I wanted to talk to have already gone.' They were, he pointed out, driven away by the 'professionals' who hoped to use the occasion for singing their old tired tunes again...
...These discussion meetings not merely allowed for an exchange of ideas, they also helped raise funds...
...Irving Howe...
...a full mailing to libraries, but local requests are even more valuable...
...Howe speculated that 'even if we had come here to discuss the novels of Henry James and Edith Wharton,' the 'old pros' would have said the same lines that they did that afternoon...
...It was a discouraging experience to watch one of the few honest attempts at dissenting discussion dry up in the stale language of the splinter-off-of-splinter groups...
...Those of our friends who have not yet pledged are, of course, urged to do so—contributions are welcome, and needed, at any time...
...Library circulation is not as good as it should be...
...In other cities-Chicago, Washington, San Francisco— friends of the magazine have done systematic work to help the drive...
...Experience indicates that if you simply ask your local or main library—or your college library—it is likely to subscribe...
...recently sponsored a forum in New York City on the developments in eastern Europe...
...there were people who had felt the need for an honest, Socialist-oriented discussion of the world-shaking events in eastern Europe...
...A stimulating group of speakers, including A. J. Muste, Lewis Coser and Milton Sachs,* presented different aspects of the situation, and the floor was then open for discussion...
...Though written hurriedly, under the pressure of events, it has not become significantly dated...
...The hall had been filled...
...The DISSENT forum would plainly have filled a vital need—if only the splinters hadn't gotten here first to blr,ck, the way...
...We are planning The Dissent Forum The following item appeared in the editorial columns of The Nation, December 15, 1956: "The editors of DISSENT...
...Unfortunately, we couldn't get it placed in all our outlets in other cities...
...in Detroit about 35...
...Sadly enough, there was no discussion—only recitation and harangue...
...It is with gratification that we anaounce that in response to our appeal for $6,000 to assure DissENT's life for the next two years, $5,600 has been received in cash and pledges...
...To the several hundred people who made pledges we can only express our thanks, urge them to honor the pledges promptly, and promise to do all we can to improve the magazine...
...The special number we put out on the ease European revolutions met with an enthusiastic response...
...You can still get a copy by sending in 25c...
...As the fists waved and the afternoon wore on, most of the people who had come out of interest to hear—and not to harangue—had left the hall...
Vol. 4 • January 1957 • No. 1
