Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR SACCO-VANZETTI I regret my inexact quotation of Upton Sinclair's views on the Sacco-Vanzetti case ("Dear Editor," NL, October 31). Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the case is the...
...It is supposed to be an organization where all men can express their philosophies and their interests...
...Indefensible...
...I think that this discussion of the case has been very much in line with the policy and tradition of THE NEW LEADER, as well as profitable to its readers...
...Columbia, N. J. JAMES RORTY FAMILY OF MAN In a recent issue (NL, October 17), I found myself confronted with Sal Tas' "Power Blocs and the Congo," an article which will go down in history as one of the best misinterpretations of current affairs in Africa...
...In the body of this paragraph from which I have quoted part of the last sentence, Tas sweetly tells us that colonialism is no longer a real issue (maybe not to white colonialists, but the Africans in British East Africa and Portuguese Africa aren't living the life of Riley...
...a forum for discussion of vital issues and the determination of what is best for the world: a world that includes East, West and Afro-Asia...
...I made it plain in my review (NL, September 26) that I do not think now and have never thought that the two anarchists were proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt...
...Los Angeles LYNNE C. SHIFFLETT...
...The concept of the family of man totally forgotten...
...and it has one thing in common—it has been a victim of white supremacy and prejudices of one form or another...
...If Tas wants to say that the Afro-Asian bloc is a racialist bloc, I will agree with him with the following qualifications: It represents the colored peoples of the world, two-thirds of the entire earth's population (except for poor old China, who hasn't made the grade yet...
...That unhappy doubt is their unfortunate legacy...
...The Afro-Asian bloc has in reality become increasingly a racialist bloc...
...Of course I have heard of the partnership between the colonialist and the African, but as many an African has said before me, it is the same relationship that one finds in the partnership of a rider and a horse, and need I tell you who's who...
...Yes, you may call them racialist, if you define a racialist as one who is tired of the white man's yoke around his neck and throws it off, one who seeks and gains independence, one who seeks to help others in gaining this same self-determination and one who is not intimidated by either East or West but one who stands up for what is justly due to all peoples as members of the family of man...
...Somehow the fact slipped by me that the UN was formed to promulgate Western philosophy and interests solely...
...Actually, the word "possibly" comes closer than "probably" to defining my own feeling about the case...
...The point is that after an examination of all the testimony, including that of Upton Sinclair, Fred Moore and Carlo Tresca, the only thing that remains clear is that Sacco and Vanzetti were neither guilty nor innocent beyond a reasonable doubt...
...Colonialism...
...Who has been more devious in world affairs than the East and the West in dealing with the Afro-Asian countries of the world...
...Tas gets off to a "swinging" start in his first paragraph, when he implies that all negotiation and liaison between Africans and Asians and the rest of the world are done "in various devious ways...
...hence their conviction and execution was a miscarriage of justice...
...Arriving with the Bible, they left with the land...
...In the second paragraph Tas says: "During Henry Cabot Lodge's tenure at the UN Afro-Asian demands were put through even if they had nothing to do with Western interest...
...Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the case is the narrow margin between "possibly guilty," and "probably guilty," of which the law, the courts and the jury cannot take account...
Vol. 43 • December 1960 • No. 48
