KULTURFEST AT THE WALDORF: SOAPBOX FOR RED PROPAGANDA
Courts, George S.
Kulturfest at the Waldorf: Soapbox for Red Propaganda By George S. Counts FOR SOME DAYS the newspapers have carried dispatches announcing a "Cultural and Scientific Conference for...
...The Congress was neither representative of the intellectuals of the countries involved nor devoted to th" cause of peace, except on purely Soviet terms In fact, it was Communist-inspired and dedicated to a bitter attack on tinUnited States and the glorification ol everything Soviet...
...Each camp has its own program, its own aims and tasks...
...Professor Wolfers strives generously •it every point to view the issues from the Russian standpoint...
...but it hasn't...
...The thirty-two American "delegates," except for a few sublimely courageous souls, applauded the speech and subsequently played an active role in organizing the conference to be held in New York...
...This session might be chaired very fittingly by Preside...
...AFTER THE Russian Revolution...
...THE GENERAL Secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers endeavors ingratiatingly to identify two distinguished American writers with Soviet aims and methods without their consent...
...These beast-like creatures fill the pages of novels, volumes of poetry, casts of moving pictures...
...Whan given an opportunity to read the Fadeev address, Mr...
...Professor »t .Teachers College, Coumbia University, has been a close student of Russia for over thirty years...
...argues that the first line "con.-,i»ta ~in propel- efforts on our part to settle our disputes with the Soviet Union peacefully and to avoid adding new ones,' He believes that "wise statesmanship will have to seek a mode of conduct which will neither tempt the Soviet government to overstep the limits vw can in safety and decency concede, nor provoke it to undertake actions out of sheer resentment or suspicion of our intentions...
...Th» present article is based in part on materials contained In a manuscript recently tent to the press to be published under the title of "The Country of the Blind...
...Vitus dance is all, absolutely all, wa get now from America...
...and after two years of savage propapaganda unequalled as yet in any other country of the world, the American intelligentsia finds itself facing the threat of 'cold terror.' . . . Henceforth in the United States the expression of any thought which might be regarded as 'dangerous' will be punished with ten years in prison, a fine of ten thousand dollars, and deprivation of American citizenship...
...He was elevated to this post in 1()4(> as a result of a savage attack on Soviet literature and literary writers by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party in a resolution issued on August 14 of that year...
...I defended the right of the Russian people to choose their own form of government, but that was when I believed that they would 'be given the right to choose...
...I assume this thought occurred to Fadeev because he cannot believe that in a democracy like ours, there can be no single governmental defined policy...
...Undoubtedly the handful of nonCommunist liberals who are helping to sponsor the Cultural and Scientilic Conference for World Peace won't be happy, a few years from now...
...Lewis acknowledged the substantial correctness of the quotation and then added: "But, of course, it places me not as standing for the Soviet Union and its hysterical crusade but aqainst it and its "tyranny and mechanical obedience.' " Mr...
...He even defends the veto on the ground that the "Soviet Union has good reasons for believing that the veto constitutes an essential element of her security...
...I don't know how to answer the statement that a writer who writes 'anything dissenting from the official policy of the government' is threatened with ten years in jail...
...Reactionary writers, scientists, philosophers, and artists are ready to serve their masters...
...Fadeev quotes approvingly, and with the suggestion that it supports Soviet practices, the following statement from Mr...
...Harlow Shap ley was appointed to the committci 4ii absentia, but declined to serve In his closing remarks as chairman Mr...
...Sinclair in a list of the "finest writers, artists, and scientists of the capitalist world" who "invariably have become friends of the USSR" the "whole (lower of world culture...
...That quotation neatly sums up the attitude ol intellectuals the world over who, at one time or another, were hooked into any of the Communists various Culture Congresses, including the most recent Vroslav Con grass oi Intellectuals last August...
...following professional opinion on this .statement...
...Poland, last August was dominated by the Communist parties of the world, and was addressed on the first day by this same Alexander Fadeev, who spoke on the subject "Science and Culture for Peace, Progress, and Democracy...
...But if one looks beneath the surface, one sees much more than meets the eye at first glance...
...to recall their connection with an obvious mechanism for pro-Stalinist and anti-American propaganda...
...Lewis: "An artist or a scientist must know and loudly declare whether he stands on the side of tyranny, cruelty, and mechanical obedience, or on the side of the people, of all the people...
...These two men, Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair, have devoted their lives to the exposure of stupidity, injustice, and cruelty in their own country, something that no Russian writer would dare to do for the Soviet Union...
...MORRIS ERNST, a distinguished American lawyer who has given much of his life to the defense of the civil liberties in the United States, gives tin...
...Fadeev has not read my books, or they have been incorrectly translated in their Russian editions...
...Fadeev, amid "tumultuous applause," pins the fascist label on the government of the United StateB: "And now, only three years ufter the defeat of Hitler's Germany, we scientists, writers, and artists are obliged to gather again, troubled by the activity of war-mongers...
...I accepted Lenin's promise that the state would wither away...
...After reading the entire address, the American writer asked that the following response be "published without deletion": "Either Mr...
...For they certainly cannot realise now that in their seal for peace, they further only the cause of war...
...And our misguided intellectuals will not have a chance to laugh as Lenin did...
...An examination of the volume illuminates the ethical standards of this Soviet "leader of culture" and of "Party literature" generally...
...IN THIS LAST paragraph the speakei was undoubtedly uttering the literal truth...
...The rape of Czechoslovak democracy destroyed the last trace of hope I had of any good to come from the Soviet Union...
...There is absolutely no truth in the statement that 'expression of any thought which might be regarded as 'dangerous' will be punished with ten years in prison, a line of ten thousand dollars, and deprivation of citizenship.' "I am quite clear that there has never been any sanction imposed such as indicated in the quote...
...This rude violence, this mad effort to impose fascism on America by legal means is the answer of reaction to the growing strength of the people's movement in our country...
...Professor Arnold Wolfers, author o] the chapter, writes that "the idea ol a preventive war is so abhorrent tn American feeling that no government in this country, to judge from the state of public opinion today, could hope to gam popular support for nub a venture...
...Further on he says that "the whole idea of an offensive use of the .bomb durnig the period of our monopoly can safely be laid aside as utterly impracticable...
...First, one sees that the conference is sponsored by the National Committee of the Arts, Science;, and Professions, an organization having a long record of following the Communist Party line and of springing to the defense of Soviet foreign policy on every occasion...
...If they know nothing about these events, they are innocent far short of the cull of the duty of an intellectual who mixes in world affairs...
...At any rate, wherever a cell of the Communist Party exists, the Soviet Union has loyal citizens...
...At this point, one is reminded (rf the "World Congress of Leaders of Culture in Defense of Peace" which met in Vroslav...
...After the Second World War, the entile world was divided into two ramps the democratic, anti-fascist, anti-imperialist camp led by the Soviet Union, and the anti-democratic, reactionary, impel talis...
...Who but the most benighted could object to a meeting of the representatives of "culture" and "science" from many countries dedicated to "world peace'"' And a great scientist could not 1,0 wrong in any field, however remot" from his sphere of professional competence...
...The world's choice today is clear: 4* is Western democracy, with all its 'bulls, versus Soviet "new democracy...
...Thc woids are well-chosen...
...The Congress itself constituted an effort to create the most gigantic "Communist front" in the history of the Party...
...The imperialists of that country, whose facade by the irony of fate is adorned by the THE PHONY CULTURE CONFERENCE Statue of Liberty, have taken upon themselves in great haste the role Of eonspit atol s and 01 gammers of a new war...
...It would seem that political rather than "cultural" and "scientific" qualifications might have governed the selection of speakers...
...According to the account in Pravitu, the speaker "was frequently interrupted by the tumultuous applause of the delegates...
...GEORGE S. COUNTS...
...Soviet intellectuals who dared approve modern art or Dosloyevsky or the Mendel heredity theory bear mule witness to the fate of culture and science in Stalin's totalitarian state...
...ff jackals could learn to use the typewriter and hyenas could master the fountain pen, they no doubt would write just like Henry Miller, Eliot, Malraux, and other Sartrists...
...to know whether the "Conference" i: in any sense a continuation of thi "Congress," Then in the spirit of demo eratie freedom the meeting should bi permitted to lake place...
...Furthermore there never has been a law permitting the deprivation of American citizenship except on the ground thai the citizenship was obtained through fraud...
...FADEEV places Eugene O'Ncil, Henry Miller, John Dos Passos and other American and European writers in the "motley literary crew of reaction" of the war-mongers...
...If a sober and temperate treatment of the issue is to be found anywhere in the*languagc, it is to be found here...
...Kulturfest at the Waldorf: Soapbox for Red Propaganda By George S. Counts FOR SOME DAYS the newspapers have carried dispatches announcing a "Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace" to be held at the WaldorfAstoria Hotel in New York City March 25-27...
...The only solid work among his references is The Absolute Weapon prepared by the staff of the Institute of International Studies of Yale University and published in 1946...
...If the latter prevails, we shall never hsve what we know as culture, science, or peace...
...Obviously the General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers should read this book...
...Fadeev said that the "vvoi k u the Congress is only beginning...
...The discussion of the question is found in the third chapter of the volume under the title of "The Atomic Bomb in Soviet-American Relations...
...The geographic map gives no semblance of a collect conception of these two camps, because the line of division passes through the interior of each of the capitalist countries, through every city and village—through New York as well as London, through Paris as well as Home, through Brussels as well as Rio de Janeiro...
...What fools -we were then...
...He state categorically that the authors "advocate the launching of nn atomic war against the USSR" and are "a disgrace to science...
...The following judgment attributed to a "Swedish journalist," he says, "can be acknowledged as entirely just": "Patented religions, standardized literary ideals, theatre, and moving pictures, sport jargon, endless novels, and street songs all beginning with Christian doctrine and ending with shivering American swing this modern St...
...4 TOWARD THE END of its sessioi tlie "World Congress of Leaders (T Culture in Defense of Peace" adoptee ,i strongly worded resolution endors :ng the Soviet position and "t rcatec .in International Committee with head quarters in Paris.'" Three Americans renowned for their support of Sovie policy, were appointed to the com mittee: Howard Fast, Albert Kahr and Paul Robeson...
...The American people therefore, should have this gathering recalled to their minds at the time...
...MR...
...Faded should be requested to repeat his ad dress in the shadow of the Statue u Liberty and a full discussion of tin proceedings of the "Congress" a VroslayJ_h>i'#tlf>peteri't scholars se lected by our learned societies shouk of course be placed on the agenda Also in the spirit of fair play and » the interest of good will belweei peoples John Dos Passos, Morris Ernst Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, anc Arnold Wolfers should certainly tx invited to speak...
...Fadeev employs the device of quoting from unnamed persons...
...The recent professions of such loyalty by Maurice Thorez, I'almiro Togliatti, Harry Pollitt, Otto Grotewohl, Eugene Dennis, and William Z. Foster should make this clear even to the members of the National Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions, and above all to Professor Shapley...
...It has become a reactionary nationalist imperialism, telling the Russian people even what music they shall listen to and what they shall believe about the inheritance of acquired characteristics...
...In its regard for truth, this address was a perfect specimen of "Party literature" and set the tone of the gathering from the first day to the last...
...Second, one sees that the most distinguished representatives of American art, letters, science, and philosophy have been overlooked in the organization of the program...
...Free intellectuals interested in culture, science, and peace, can only be revolted by those who mold culture and science to political fancy, and define "peace" as license for their own aggressions...
...MR...
...For forty-seven years I have been advocating free, democratic Socialism, to be obtained by the method of education and persuasion under our American system of government by popular consent...
...In his address in Poland he delivered an attack on America which in falsehood and invective surpasses the best efforts of Molotov and Vishhisky...
...Fadeev, known for his ruthless adherence to the "Party line," is' the symbol and the agent of this policy lie is undoubtedly an "anti-cosmopolitan" and "patriot" of the most extreme type...
...Fadeev included Mr...
...FADEEV "quotes" from a number of American journals and books to prove that the United Slates is in the grip of "war-mongers" and is planning an aggressive atomic war against tch Soviet Union...
...Alexander Fadeev is the General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers...
...ramp lid by the ruling curbs of the United States of America...
...with its total infallibility...
...An Editorial: What Fools...
...The conference is sponsored by the National Committee of the Arts, Science and Professions and is called in the name of Professor Harlow Shapley, .MniHenl Harvard astronomer...
...Bryn Hovde...
...The American people are entitle...
...They place on a pedestal schizophrenics and drug addicts, sadists and pimps, provocateurs and monsters, spies and gangsters...
...Lenin once taw Radek read" ing Vladimir Ilyich's 1903 ar . tide...
...In discussing 'lines of defense," )K...
...In his attack on America, Mr...
...Lenin laughed and said...
...Their names will be used by Stalin to show a divided America, where "the real leaders of American culture" support the Soviet program...
...This resolution was followed by others which purged the entire cultural life, from humor to science, of all "cosmopolitans and anti-patriots" and of the last vestige of friendly attitude toward the Went in general and the United States in particular...
...They are presented as 'heroes' to be emulated, as examples to be followed...
...He hii made three extended visits to th» Soviet Union, travelled over a large part of the country in his own car, written several books on Russia, and engaged in the translation of a number of Soviet textbooks, the last being "I Want to Be Like Stalin...
...On the surface it would seem thai this conference should be welcomed by all men and women of good will...
...Among those few who dissented and who expressed their dissent at the time, President IJryn J. Hovde of the New School for Social Research merits the plaudits of honest men everywhere THOSE WHO ARE organizing, sponsoring, and participating in the "Conference" at the end of March should be asked to reveal their stand without equivocation on the fipeech by Fadeev and the entire proceedings of the "Congress...
...FADEEV quotes approvingly an account of the condition of civil liberties in America by "one of the prominent leaders of American culture who is obliged to conceal his name'": "Men whom we call 'the staff of big business' have thrown all their forces against us...
...The names of thes men appear prominently in the callin • >f the Cultural and Scientific Con ference for World Peace" in Nev York City March ".r>-27...
...Hardly disturbed by his past naivete...
...Third one hears that a Soviet delegation of five, headed by Alexander Fadeev is to be invited...
...If I have any influence with the Russian people, I will use it to tell them that the present Party line is bound to lead to another WoJltL War, many times more dreadful than the last...
...A writer who writes anything dissenting from the official policy of the government of the United States is also threatened with ten years in prison...
...EXCEPT FOR window-dressing provided by a number of wholly innocent and eminently respectable American citizens, the projected conference in New York appears to be a continuation of the Vroslav Congress under superficially changed auspices...
...Needless to say, there has never been a statute m our history which places in a penal area anyone 'dissenting from the official policy of the government.' * * ;> MR...
...A few excerpts from the speech, as published in the August 29 issue of Pruvda, will make clear the propriety of such a request/ In the following passages Mr...
...Then in the language of "Party literature" he proceeds to summation: "German fascists needed b e a s 1 s. American monopilists find beasts indispensable for the realization of their plans for world domination...
Vol. 32 • March 1949 • No. 12
