MacDonald versus Eastman
MacDonald versus Eastman Something Busts Loose— And It Ain't Cerebral! From DWIGHT MacDONALD To the Editor: AX EASTMAN'S sketch of me M S Marxist sectarian is pure fantasy. For I almost ton...
...4) the issue ia not "armed rebellion" or "constitutional government," not Communist dictatorship or democracy, but simply king or no king...
...I hope they also graspea the meaning of the word infantile in "In- .. fantile Right of the Trotsky movement...
...That M** donsld denounces my support of s a* sgsinst Hitler In the same article which he reduces sll my political thinking to an 'anti-Stalin reflex"shows thathe cares as little about logic as he doea about responsible criticism...
...it does ' not mean "blind sectarian faith...
...There are many examplee of critiea who drew on sources deeper than some doctrinaire Ideology for their fire: Swift, Tom Paine, Voltaire, Diderot, Hereon, for that matter Marx himself (not Eastman's caricature...
...I think there ie a chance ef a democratic socialist order emerging In the future, though God knows (if Eastman doesn't) I hsve never proclaimed it "about to be established" or "due Just after the war...
...Doesn't he -talis* that: "If you lack the guts and clarity of mind to do that, It makes no difference whether you carry In your head a bucket of mush or a private proletarian revolution...
...He calls me "a man convinced that a comparative millenium is about to be established...
...Eastman has solved the problem by giving up the point of view...
...These hard and spsrkling wisdoms havs never been revoked, so fsr ss I know, and I think they justify me in asserting thst Macdonalds "thinks there is a revolution coming," and thinks it is coming soon...
...In quoting Eden's estimate, and that of the London Timet, as to the member - > ship of RAM, and quoting it at though the situation, were etatie, Macdonald •haws that he ha* lew of th* old Marxian BMtsl in hi* literary reveltism than I thought Th* membership in this antifascist movement before its control by Communist* became complete, snd before its totalitarian insurrectionary purpose aad its mass murders of selected trade union leaders snd democrats became known, is but the beginning of the truth...
...I only regret Eastman didn't hold his firs until hs could havs read my six page documentary survey of the Greek situation In ths January number of Politic...
...government st such sre "infantilities," is additional evidence of his irresponsibility...
...Thus- the Macdonald type of "workingclass government," besides being non- proletarian and sneering at constitut- | ionality, ia committed to a "democratic socialism" which doea not believe in elections...
...Eastman thinks I mutt hsve the kind of blind sectarian faith he attributes to me, or else I couldn't "flay the vanity and crooked bsseness of this real world with the ruthless logic it deserves...
...Further evidence is contained in the November issue of Politic*, where we lesrn thst he does not believe in the validity o? elections snywsy—and this, not on the old ground of money influence, but because of psychological differences in the voter*1 "Th* trouble with elections 1* thst they do not measure the intensity with which people hold their views...
...and se would have stimulated his reflexes even more rudely...
...The Greek situation has been truthfully and judiciously treated in The Sew Leader...
...New orgsnlsstional forms must snd will be found...
...It -meant playing irresponsibly with ' 'revolutionary moods snd dispositions'*) ajto us* Lenin's phrase—unsobered by a sense of fact on the one hand and of practical consequences on the other.' Macdonald discovered the revolution juet at the moment when mature revolutionary socialists, apppraising the significance of fascism, were turning from it...
...mentum ad hominem so well-loved by Eastman...
...In reply he says: "Max Eaatman's sketch of me aa a Marteitt teetarian is pure fantasy I" What can you say to a man whose mind works like that...
...I first stated in si srticle in Harper'* in 1938 thst we muaf regard Stalin "not Ss sn enemy, but »» s result" All my subsequent thinkj-* shout social problems, particularly tbt renunciation of...
...Macdonald's statement that I have written nothing hard or spsrlajjng far many years is important as another evidence of his irresponsibility...
...Politic* has criticized snd exposed Stalinism as persistently ss The New Leader itself...
...As in the French snd Russisn revolutions, the ancien regime will surprise everybody with the suddenness snd completeness of its collapse...
...The British and American bourgeoisie, tied to a system of private property hopelessly archaic vit-avi* the economic demands of modern wsrfsre, are unable to organize production* sufficiently to win their own imperialist wsr...
...He ehould remember Nietzsche's warning: "Gaze not too deep into the abyss, lest the sbyss gate into you...
...Listen M. Oak's weekly survey has been a proof of that...
...Whether they will * i- Am hud at not...
...Partitan Review, July-August, 1941...
...This is odd coming from one who constantly prsises individualism and denounces collectivism as the Devil's work...
...I don't want to seem unapprecistirt, but I etill think it^would be better if Macdonald would take thi* literary revolution back into his own heed and keep it there, at least until things quiet down so we csn enjoy it...
...Could it be that here again Eastman is painting himeelft Likewise, what is the point of all the sneers at my political ideas because they express my own thinking and not the program of some group ("enlarging his own head sufficiently to contain a fullarmed proletarian revolution...
...I don't know—and I have no surety they will be "superbe nipped in the mm or no*, * ¦ democratic.'' (I have always objected strongly to the "inevitability" business In orthodox Marxism...
...it does not mean "inevitability business...
...The socialist alternative . . . can be realized only by revolutionary mass action...
...In fact, he has enthusiastically linsd up on the same side ss the Kremlin in aa infinitely bigger and more significant struggle than the one in Greece: namely, World War II...
...and the horrors of unauthorised throat-cutting (at against the legalized kind going on in World War II, of which Eastman heartily, approves)—sll of this is quits beside .the point * • • It ' T occurs to me, finally, thst Eastman himself is not pure on this Stalinist business...
...Macdonald's Intra-Cranial Revolution Reply by hi AX EASTMAN T DESCRIBED Macdonald's political I philosophy ss a "peculiarly elastic -*V contraption, pieced together out of literary revoltism snd certain loose scraps of the eld Msrxian metal...
...I must, I suppose, regretfully accept the fact that my style is too flabby for Macdonald's comprehension...
...The exodus Comprised not only democrat* and Socialists, but even the Agrarian Partjr, which had joined the Communists in the old United Front...
...But it is cjear that after the Communists grabbed the organisation, they war* deserted by the democratic mattr* with astonishing .rapidity, seeing that these masses had to accept the authority of a foreign military power...
...Its recent columns make plain that Macdonald't "six page documentary survey" was six pages of confusion, produced by muing information with dialnformation/If Macdonald spent a week "digging" for what he has in those pagea, I suggest a leaa purely physical operation at th* mutt crisis of opinion...
...If "workingclass governments" are not proletarian, and "democratic socialism" is ndf>super-democracy, that of course is ' Macdonald's business, so long as the whole operation is taking plsce inside his head...
...2) the British Government deliberately provoked the fighting by insisting on disarmament of ELAS while refusing to allow the disarmament of various proroyalist regiments, snd then on two occasions (dates and details specified) intervened to prevent a settlement arrived at by the Greeks themselves...
...An exodus of members of the Major Greek parties from EAM tookplace as soon as they realized that it was being used by the Communists to overthrow the government by violence and establish a dictatorship...
...Perhaps the best way to explain the phraee further is to quote a few pronouncements from his own platform called "Ten Propositions on the Wsr": "The only real solution is to deflect the current of history from fascism to socialism...
...For the apostle of "tough-mindedness," he ie a flabby specimen...
...Social revolution in England or Amer' ica would . . . probably be short and relatively peaceful . . . neither a piotraafied nor an especially violent atruggle...
...Perhaps I may be •i!r,uT«.H ea trr mv hand at the argu-MUU ' '"' ¦ v...
...it is duo Just after the war...
...Eastman's drink is anti-Stalinism...
...They spoiled hie fun, and there is in consequence an element of tantrum in his Infantile Rightism...
...Since he diimissed me from those worth resding at the time I renounced the socialist hypothesis—plscing me st "the low-water msrk for vulgarity and just plsin silliness"—the probability of his hsving done sll thst resding to approximately zero...
...my notion of modern revolution is something much broader in class terms—and we are already seeing in Europe, I am glad to say, ths first tender shoots of such revolutions...
...Its chief opposition Will be a ruling class so discredited by it* military incapacity and* so demoralized by its own mistakes as to be unsble to offer serious resistance for some time to come...
...All this, however, count* for nothing...
...I also suggest that he pay some attention to where he digs...
...The exact numbers involved are still undetermined...
...b) the issues st stake in this war sre'much broader than Russia's own aims and than her gains or losses...
...In spite of hysteria and two-tided ballyhoo, it was not impossible for a person a wars of th* forces in play, and really interested in facta, to read in th* contemporary pro** th* outline of events in Greece aa they happened...
...It is not merely bad manner* eitherIt it participation in the brutal pen-dogging which the Communists employ ¦ plsce of debate...
...3) EAM is supported by from 76% (Anthony Eden) to 90% {London Timet) of the Greek population...
...The criticism has been made before—by Troteky? ? • So much for defense, s dulllbusiness when the attack is on this, level...
...I quote from memory...
...There exists today no organized leadership for such s revolutionary policy St we advocate...
...They form too natural a transition to a "people's rebellion" against a government pledged to hold a popular election...
...The main point however, it that Eastman, and The New Leader, frightened by the growing strength of Soviet Bus sis (ss all of us must indeed be), snd lscking the courage and intellectual clarity to conceive of any way of fighting Stalinism except lining up with British and American imperialism, sre now developing s new kind of sectarian orthodoxy, even worse then the old kinds in that it has no general theory, no prin- - - . Macdonald versus Eastman eiplee, snd no hopes or aspirations but is based wholly on simple anti-Stalinism...
...socialism which Mst-f donsld found so vulgsr snd silly, bsthat ss its stsrtjjg point...
...I spent a week digging up the facts, so I havs a great advantage over Eastman in this argument: I know what I'm talking about) It would be interesting to know what difference it would have made., On the one hand, it comee out even more strongly than the preceding month's paragraph In favor of EAM...
...The really interesting, and possibly enlightening, Job ie to examine Max ejhatman's own ideas s little bit...
...That Macdonald's belief in "workiraar clsss governments committed to s program of democratic socialism" coexist* in his head with the opinion that serious allusions to constitutions...
...For I almost ton years now I have been conducting-, in print, a campaign against precisely the kind of "orthodox" optimism Eastman attributes to me when he writes: "He still thinks there is s proletarian revolution coming...
...Eastman's discussion of the beauties of constitutional government (to think of reading such infantilities in a left-of' center paper at this late date...
...There remains the hope that some resders were senile enough to know whst I mesnt by * ths above phrase, and by "withdrawing from all earthly groups and movements, and enlarging hie own head sufficiently to contain s full-armed proletarian revolution...
...I see no reason to let the Communists take over the popular movements of Europe, ss they assuredly will if ths socialist and liberal parties line up with Roosevelt-Churchill...
...At such times a "democratic socialism" which is not super-democratic, a "workingclata government" which it not proletarian, become a little worse than just loony...
...I prefer to solve it by supporting those popular movements abroad which are in healthy revolt against the rotten old order...
...Why not...
...I wish I could return the compliment Alas, not fog many years has Max Eastman written anything I could honestly call either hard or sparkling...
...His unsupported reiteration, after I , have juet twice denied -it, thst the motive to sll my thinking is pe'rsossl ' ahg-Stalinism i* not merely irresponsible...
...It doe* not mean "orthodox...
...The gist of Eastman's criticism of Politic* is thst it wss an attractive infant so long ss it played with its intellectual toys, but it must now be spsnked .for getting hold of matches (taking a stand, and the "wrong" stand, on s real issue: the Greek civil war...
...Ths Eastman-New Leader line of propping Bp with Allied bayonets unpopular reactionary regimes in Europe seems to me well calculated to enable the Communists to pose as the reel tribunes of the rebellious people...
...That is the major truth of th* Greek situation studied aa a historic process not pieced together out of building-blocks to match th* Dwight Macdonald intra-cranial revolution...
...He presents a pitiable spectacle similar to thst of persons in sn advanced state of alcoholism, in whi h . all emotional and cerebral responses have atrophied snd there remains only a reflex reaction to alcohol...
...I do confess to ''faith in the future" in the sense of having faith in common humanity's capacities and aspirations for a more decent way of life...
...Who is to ssy thst ten men snd women who will die for their beliefs are not at 'deserving' of realizing those belief* as a hundred who will not do more than mark a cross on a ballot...
...Of course the role of the Communists , in the resistance movements poses very ' difficult, problems to all who oppose Stalinism from a progressive point ef view...
...That this imminent revolution is going to be "proletarian" and "super-democratic," I inferred from Propotition 10, which read* as follows: "To win the war against fascism, ws *must work for the replacement of the present governments in England and the United States by workingclatt governments committed to s program of democratic tocudism...
...They prepare the mind too deftly to find the Communist Party in command of this mysterious revolt of the people against their own sovereignty...
...His political ideals and ideas have eroded awsy leaving only an anti-Stalinist reflex...
...It is only when the thing busts loose snd takes a stand in the real world that we have to take it seriously...
...stimulating snd cleansing," and he implies that my own stuff is "hard and sparkling" in a putrescent sort of way...
...and it is going to be super-democratic...
...Actually, I don't recall over having used the badly shopworn phrase, "proletarian revolution...
...But while this is a serious lsck, it is not a fatal one...
...Such plsnning as we have aoen has come from the working class...
...d) to support Germany would be to play into Stalin's hands, since it would enable him to pose as the savior of the world from Nazism...
...But on the other, the facts it amasses (mostly from parliamentary debates and official sources) sre overwhelmingly sgsinst Eastman's interpretation of the conflict I don't want to recapitulate that article here, but just to indicate that ita data show (1) Stalin observed his Teheran agreement on Greece, and the Greek CP did all in its power to avert fighting...
...He is kind enough to say that he finds Politic* "a remarkably able magazine...
...Doesn't he know that "the only way to fight totalitarians is to fight them at the start and all ths wsy down the line...
...We are not PURE I With the crudeneas of a party commissar, Eastmsn warns me that no deviations from the line wttl be tolerated, thst in any situation in which Communists take part one must embrace the opposite side with the automatism of s plant turning towards the sun...
...If bs took himself seriously as s critic, or ss sn editor, he could not make thst statement without having examined st leut a large part ef my writings, during those many years...
...This is what Eastman could'retort, were I foolish enough to make such charge*, and this is what I do retort (substituting "British imperialism" for "Nazism") since he has been foolish enough...
...This new orthodoxy turns out to be alarmingly like the very thing it fights...
...Why, then, doesn't he come oat for the Axis in this war snd stop taking battle-orders from Moscow T I don't ask these questions seriously, because Eastman could make the following devastating replies: (a) several other nations beside Russia are fighting sgsinst Germany...
...c) I continue to criticise Russia and expos* her misdeeds even though she is at the moment on the same aide as I am...
Vol. 28 • February 1945 • No. 7
