THE HOME FRONT
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front 0y WILLIAM E BOHN ADA in the "Liberal Press" MOST person*, when they speak of the liberal press, have in mind PM, The New Republic, The Nation and Th* Progressive. Today 1 want...
...it needs farm affiliates...
...of Communist sympathizers like Vito Marcantonio and Fascist sympathizers like Gerald L. K. Smith...
...Today the "left" is silent about the crimes of Stalinist totalitarianism, silent by dint of its moral lassitude, because of its false allegiance...
...It needs infinitely wider regional representatives...
...But it would never do to rive people the fscts and leave them to make up their minds...
...The enthusinsm of the '•leftiata" for the USSR ia generally inversely proportionate to their knowledge of the fact...
...A.: I shall reply indirectly with i historical parallel...
...The implication is that 'principles don't matter...
...Question: They say that yoa hale the I'SSK Is this tree...
...The first is essential for independence, the second can become olisessive and destructive...
...i ailed liberal journal*, while they are judging ADA, ate also judging themselves...
...Pritchard of Kentucky), is high...
...It was accepted as a premise of the discussions...
...And it waa, we are told, a mistake not to invite Henry Wallace fo the ADA meeting...
...The*' si...
...A.: In the days of Sacco and Van* zetti and of the great rebellion at consciences against Nazism, "we" «ia the "left...
...the sense in which electricity represents progress over the oil lamp...
...KOESTLER: Stalinism and Socialism In an interview with tbe French weekly, "Le Litteraire, Artfcor Koestler expressed tno following opinions on Soviet policy end on Rnropesn Socialism...
...PM and New Republic am against the American* for Democratic Action...
...We must not succumb to "red-baiting...
...Tbe fact is that the decision* to bar* Communists did not provoke any debate...
...They recognize flatly that the PCA "clearly accepts the tactical principle of the Popular Front" and go on to express their belief that those "who believe that this principle is an illusion will be immensely heartened by the creation of an organization without Communists...
...In ltef, the Soviets hav< deported about 1,500,0** men, women, and children from the Crimean and Chechen Republics, and almost nobody has ipened his mouth ts protest...
...The result: the Hearsts and Tsaldaris pose as spokesmen of human freedoms »bile the Socialist ParW commit suicide and lass their ,„ (he masses becsase they do not have the courage to raise their voire against the rvnical usurpation of the name of "socialism" by the GPU...
...Werhsler sums up the prospect* of Americans for Democratic Action in these words: "The weaknesses of the new movement are fairly clear...
...They are "sturdy opponents of reaction and often its victims...
...The temporary cochairmen—Wilson Wyatt and I.e*a Henderson—are aggressive, lively, colorful citizens who have an instinctive sense of the breadth and complexity of America...
...The "left" is the prisoner of its own past...
...To be against those who "believe neither in democracy nor in freedom" is to be destructive...
...Q.: B«t whs is this "we," on whose behslf yon speak...
...WilUrd Shclton, of its Washington Bureau, gave a lair and lively account of ADA's personnel and purposes...
...It needs large-scale promotion...
...Today 1 want to' amuse myself by considering the way in which these so-called liberal papers reported the conference out of which crew the organization which ia to be called Americans for Democratic Action...
...The suave editor is disappointed...
...And he is, above all, impartial...
...To be sure they "believe neither in democrary nor in freedom," but still they are U. K. He can understand the hesitation of I'CA leaders like co-chairman Davidson and Kingdon on this issue, "for to rut the progressive movement off completely from the Communists and their sympathizers is...
...The assemblage wa* remarkable in many respects...
...Jt is a nicer, cosici arrangement...
...He cannot find in the reports of ADA or in its public statements "a clear distinction between being non-Communist and being anti-Communist...
...Or is that asking too much...
...Didn't the Communists fight FascistsT It is, according to PM's philosopher, "impossible to believe thst American liberals...
...The word "progressive" has here a purely technical meaning, i.e...
...They have no congenital affection for hopelessly lost eauaes and the feel strongly and deeply about the j*b they are undertaking...
...A.: No...
...And he did it in a piece of lernerism which is one for the book...
...Such fine fellows will "in the end only destroy the whole progressive movement...
...In hia next chapter the Warning Voice is dismayed to And that the Americana for Democratic Action lump together Communists and Fascists...
...After giving the Union for Democratic Action full credit for ita long struggle to place the basic issue*, of our time before tbe liberal public, W<< h»lci goes into a description of the Washington meeting...
...the loft" ia silent about the unparalleled persecution of some 2t,****?• persons at forced Isbsr in Rossis, while the western opposition to Stalinism has lined np on tbe level of power politics...
...The Notion h»* ««" "J"'t given any extended comment on the two new organizations...
...The Progressive is for it...
...Answer: I detest the Stalinist system of today as much as I detested the Hitlerian system, and for the same reasons...
...He is practically God explaining things to his dim-witted children...
...e e e M« Leroor Leoros—Kit Slowly Pm started in well...
...whst we are psssionately concerned with ia the isMiirn lion of the mind against tot a IItarian neo-Machiavellianism...
...But in a preliminary paragraph about them published in the number for January 11 the editors exhibit none of the usual liberal obfuscation and shyness about facing fact...
...There is still a chance for cooperation...
...to weaken the forces of Uii left...
...Max begins in his usual pontifical style...
...A.: I am a Socialist and I hate tyranny...
...In IM...
...Max Lerner must tell them what to think...
...feel an equal horror...
...I'nity is still desperately needed...
...the "left," by Ih'e sin of omission, becomes an accomplice of this eastern neo-Nazism...
...a\i away with: liberties, whereas the "right" tried to get along with hia...
...But—here we have the acme of confusion—"if the leaders of both groups show themselves flexible enough, they can find a common ground on which to unite all the progressive forces of the nation...
...In 1925 the Sacci and Vannetti case provoked such wave of indignation in Europe that barricades wore put np in Pari* ant) elsewhere...
...Q.: And how do you use the ward "reactionary ?" A.: In this sense: politically and culturally, the USSR has regressed to a slate prior to the rapture of the Bastille...
...But Max is still very sorry not to be able to give the new aetup his unlimited approbation...
...The Progressive Dots Better In The Progressive of January 13 James Wechsler did a really brilliant job of reporting on the two organizations which are now bidding for liberal support...
...There are signs of freshness and strength...
...One is left to imagine what debates are going one within the editorial staff...
...It has ltumbled into pitfalls...
...Torn Max, the heavy thinker, comes to the ADA...
...Notion and New Republic In The Sew Republic Helen Fuller does a fair and informative piece about Ihe New York and Washington meetings and the two organizations which stemmed from them...
...After going through such a piece of printed contusion, any reader will agree that fresh thinking, clear thinking or just thinking is something which is eminently desirable...
...Power politics does not interest us...
...Now consider thia essay as a piece of "liberal" thinking...
...But toward the end of it I h* old liberal pinky softness shows up again...
...To demonstrate his fairness he finds a fleck or two on the countenance of the progressive Citizens of America...
...Q.: Which are...
...Q.: In the absence of what you call a (rally socialist international, what policy da yam advocate for the inde< pendente socialist...
...There, good friends, we have the reaftions of PM, Sew Republic, Nation and Progressive...
...In the spirit of live-andlet live, everyone ought to be let in...
...Either the "left" »ill rediscover the moral and spiritual climate of the days of Socialist idealism, or else by losing itself, it sill lone Socialism, our only hope...
...Nor was it a revival-meeting of anti-Cominuiiist orators...
...Roosevelt, I^eon Henderson, Chester Bowles, Wilson Wyatt...
...If thia sort of thing goes far enough some of our pundits will finally come up with the conclusion that two and two make four and just possibly—that democrats can do better it they keep clear of people who are opposed to democrary...
...Kiii still it is dangerous to have these sturdy opponents of reaction on the inside...
...So it is beftei to let them do their fighting on the outside whil« we vuiV a .ng with them in umr iwpsi«i.' liberal •» tfir...
...From 19SS to Hit, the "left" fought against Nazism because Hitler established concentration camps...
...And then Max suggests that we have some clear and fresh thinking...
...The Communists "believe neither in democrary nor in freedom...
...people like Mrs...
...It brought into the arena "large and still untapped energies of American liberalism...
...The proportion of young men who know their way -around in politics (like Mayor Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis, George Edwards, President of the Detroit Common Council, Ed...
...I consider the USSR an economically progressive, but in all other domain* aa the most reactionary power of Kin time...
...They are grand fellows, but, you see, they destroy...
...The Communists are all right—as Communist...
...But we must distinguish between nonCommunist and anti-Communist...
...The roster of participant* was not just a replica of the photographs of all liberal alumni associations...
...Whether people are for freedom and democracy is of no importance...
...But ita assets are formidable...
...Q.: One nnnoi say that thia spinis very widespread anion* the •left...
...Then they, too, call for hard thinking...
...T*n Nation is making up it* mind...
Vol. 30 • January 1947 • No. 3
