The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 14, 1934, Page 5

eee es CHANGE pert) eee “WORLD! By MICHAEL GOLD IHERE have been quite a few letters in reply to the criticism that recently appeared here on the influence of T. S. Eliot on our young revolutionary poets, and the necessity for texts for working class songs. I am sorry to be unable to follow through on this discussion, since I am taking leave for three months of the column at the end of this week, in order to do some writing. It could be a fruitful and worth-while discussion however; and one that is sorely needed Leonard Spier writes: “Eliot's poetry, essentially trivial, pedantic and snobbish, reeking of the library and parlor, is certainly the worst example for radical poets to follow. The proof is: ask any ten work- ers what they think of the poems in the Partisan Review and else- where in which Eliot's influence is conspicuous, and the majority will tell you they don’t know what ‘he is talking about.’ And what’s the good of writing ‘for’ the workers if they don’t understand you? No, these poems are written by intellectuals for intellectuals, and this is certainly not enough.” And another young talented writer of poetry, R. G., bitterly calls the T. S. Eliot school, only “another group of Greenwich Village poets who happen to write of Communism instead of Free Love, but in the same manner—an incestuous circle, scratching each other's back—shouting into a mirror!” But Alfred Hayes makes a long and impassioned defense of the revolutionary poets who go to T. S. Eliot to learn “his ability to make life vivid and concrete, his dramatic power, his diction stripped to the concentration of prose. “Our own poetry has lacked this—it is pictureless, unhuman, dramatic. It is poster poetry, holiday poetry, epic poetry with the heroes left out and only the chorus, “Hayes continues. I hope to be able to print his letter in full, if there is space left at the end of this column. An Audience for Poets UT now I should like to add a few words to my previous remarks. I want to ask some of our poets: Why are there scores of really talented writers of poetry in the revolutionary movement to- day, but not one, not ONE poet who has made any impression out- Bide of some small circles in New York? One of the reasons, of course, is that American workers don't tead and love poetry as do German, or Jewish, or Russian, or Latin- American workers. Even the best of the bourgeois American poets have had to fight in a hostile environment. At the height of his fame, Carl Sandburg could never sell more than two thousand copies of his books. Mr. Babbitt has been taught to suspect poetry, and the workers have been affected by his prejudice. This is true, but it is also true that there have actually been revolutionary poets in the recent past who enjoyed a wide working class audience. Joe Hill always will lead on such a roll of honor, but there have also been Ralph Chaplin, Arturo Glovannitti, Jim Waters and others. Many workers know these names, and, to use the over-familiar phrase, “it is no accident.” It is because such writers came out of the working class life, and had NOT been influenced by T. S. Eliot, but by Karl Marx, Bill Hay- wood and the picket lines. Yet, just as a machine is a different social force in America than in the U.S. 8. R., just so the proletarian poet must find a dif- ferent conception of the function of poetry from that entertained by T. 8. Eliot. He cannot be an individualist and ignore his audience. This doesn’t mean writing down to the workers, or surrendering the smallest fraction of skill, subtlety or art. But it does mean that one must become rooted in the revolu- tionary world. It is something that Joe Hill- had in the crudest of his jingles, and that most of our young intellectual New Yorkers haven't got, in the most strained, and overwrought of their composi- tions, The Dance of Death ATTENDED, recently, an evening devoted to the proletarian dance. Some ten different groups participated, and at the end of the evening, you forgot which had been which. The dances had many fine titles: Scottsboro Dance, Anti-Imperialist Dance, Dance cf the Red Army, etc., but over them all hung the same gray twilight, the same incredible monotony of death. If T. S. Eliot has influenced the proletarian poets, it is Martha Graham and Mary Wigman who have almost ruined the dancers. Graham is a very gifted bourgeois dancer whose work expresses the despair and death of the present system. Her mood is that of the psychiatric ward and the graveyard. Sometimes, like T. S. Eliot she tries to escape from her torture chamber into a primitive mysticism, but even here she cannot shake off the disease that is destroying her. Martha Graham may be a great artist. Morbid subject matter doesn’t preclude that. But why should our proletarian dancers, who have something new and different to say, follow her technique so slavishly? Where is the elan, the courage and passionate warmth of the revolution? Is this rattling dance of corpses on Walpurgis Night ground the coffin of a corrupt world OUR revolution? Can you in- spite the workers to struggle with such a dismal message? Comrade Dancers, have you really nothing of your own to say? Has the revolution meant so little to you? Do you think you can keep this up forever—this labelling a gray standardized sterile dance by Martha Graham by a hundred different titles—Scottsboro, Anti- Fascism, etc., and make us accept the*product as revolutionary? . * * A Crisis in Proletarian Art I BELIEVE the dancing groups have reached the point where they must overhaul all their work. They are going through a minor crisis in their development, just as are the proletarian poets and musicians. For to make the catalogue complete, I would inclwde much of the sterile, cerebral music I have heard at some of the concerts of the Workers’ Music League. Many of these newly recruited musicians, coming from the ultra- advanced bourgeois circles where music has reached its final sophisti- cation and decay, have recently been criticising the work of Jacob Schaefer, leader of the Freiheit Chorus. They treat him with a kind of snobbery that to me reveals how distant they stlil are from the revolution. Here is the man who is the real father of proletarian music in America—the first to train great mass choruses of workers, choruses that have achieved a standard of art as high as the best in the bour- geois world, He has done this by a decade of devoted, self-secrificing work. The Jewish workers sing, they love music, because Schaefer has been their leader, Some of his more ambitious compositions can be criticized, they often wander along the cerebral path. T. 8. Eliot has also frightened Comrade Schaefer. But he has written scores of revolutionary songs, _ Satirical, elegia, heroic, that are now part of the mass-conscious- ness of the Jewish proletariat all over the world. And T will confess it, to me they are worth infinitely more than all the splintered and tortuous things evolved by the celebralists. BAN ear Give Us Our Own 10, ALL the esthetic pedants in the world cannot put lifeblood into this corpse of art that has been draped in red, and passed off on us as revolutionary. In the first days of the Russian Revolution these same influences entered from the bourgeois world, with their Cubism, Acemism, Im- Ppressionism, ete., ete.—each group asking for the hegemony of pro- letarian art. But Lenin and the Communist Party denied it to them. There was no real proletarian art as yet, but it was better to wait until it had developed, than to accept these mouldy crumbs from the bour- geoisie. Such artists may have the finest intentions in the world, but they bring confusion and sterility to the young proletariat. Let them make themselves over first. They have much to learn from the workers. Simplicity, laughter, tears, joy, courage, humanity, they have forgotten these—they have lived too long in bourgeois studios. Let them come out into the revolutionary streets, Foster Praises “Our Lenin” by Ruth Shaw and Harry Potamkin| “At once a great political lesson and an inspiration to the youth,” William Z, Foster, outstanding working class leader, writes of Our Lenin, by Ruth Shaw, Harry Alan | | Potamkin and William Siegel. Foster expressed his views in a letter to International Publishers congratulating the company on its release of Our Lenin. “The education of the proletarian |children and youth is a central task confronting the revolutionary movement, which must be accom- Plished before we can muster the mass forces necessary to overthrow | capitalism and begin building Soci- alist society,” Foster writes. ‘It is one of greatest weaknesses that we have very little literature |adapted to this great task. The | book Our Lenin, by Ruth Shaw and Harry Alan Potamkin and illus- appears most appropriately. The life of Lenin, which is here told simply and effectively, is at once a great political lesson and an in- spiration to the youth. Every pro- letarian child should read this valuable book and every working class parent should make it pos- sible for them to obtain it.” Our Lenin can be obtained from the Publishers, 381 Fourth Ave., New York, or branches of the work- ers’ bookshops. World Problems Found |In the June Issue of “Soviet Russia Today” 'HE June issue of “Soviet Russia Today” reflects the continued improvements in contents and ap- pearance of the magazine, which has been noticeable for the past few months. “What is Hindering Soviet-Amer- ican Trade?” Under this title, A. A. Heller gives a comprehensive sur- vey of the present status of Soviet- American trade relations. In an article entitled, “Jews With- out Zionism,” Joseph Brainin, prom- inent writer, head of the World Wide News Service, who has studied Jewish conditions in the U. 8. 8. R., answers the slanders of certain janti-Soviet Zionists and White Guards about Soviet Jewry. Dr. Hanna M. Stone, medical di- rector of the New York Birth Con- trol Clinical Research Bureau writes on “Birth Control in the So- viet Union.” Liston _M. Oak, in an article en- titled “Red China Grows,” records the great material and cultural ad- vance of the Chinese Soviets as compared with the misery and star- vation of the rest of China. A stirring record of the gigantic strides in Socialist construction in the Soviet Union is given in col- umns entitled “Soviet Scene,” and “Socialist Progress.” Letter from worker delegates in the Soviet Union, American workers in Soviet factories, Soviet shock bri- gaders, etc., give a vivid picture of life in the country which has. be- come the focal point of the world’s interest. Letters from worker delegates in the Soviet Union, American work- ers in Soviet factories, Soviet shock brigaders, etc., give a vivid picture of life in the country which has become the focal point of the world’s interest. In addition, there are over 50 photos, illustrating various phases of industrial and cultural progress jin the land of the Soviets; Soviet cartoons; and book reviews by Catherine Lawson and _ Bonchi Freedman. LEON RUTMAN. | Stage and Screen “Life of Vergie Winters” At Radio City Musie Hall; Poe Film at 55th Street “The Life of Vergie Winters,” a new RKO-Radio Picture, based on Louis Bromfield’s novel, will have its New York premiere today at the Radio City Music Hall. Ann Hard- ing, John Boles, Helen Vinson and Betty Furness play the leading roles, The stage show includes “The Romance of Giselle,” a spectacle staged by Russell Market and feat- uring Nina Whitney and Moore and Ravel. “The Tell-Tale Heart,” a screen story, produced and directed by Desmond Hurst, will have its Ameri- can premiere today at the 55th Street Playhouse. The leading roles are played by Norman Dryden, Yolande Terrell, John Kelt, and James Fleck. The Rivoli Theatre is now show- ing “Are We Civilized’, directed by Edwin Carewe from a story by Har- old Sherman. William Farnum, Anita Louise, Frank McGlynn and Stuart Holmes head the cast. “Little Man, What Now?” Frank Borzage’s film drama, is now play- ing at the Palace Theatre. Mar- garet Sullavan and Douglas Mont- gomery have the leading roles. The vaudeville is headed by Jack Whit- ing and the Slate Brothers. Paar Tae Hippodrome Opera to Revive Puccini's “Manon” Tonight “Manon Lescaut,” Puccini’s opera, which has not been heard in New York for some years, will be revived by the Hippodrome Opera Company this evening. Santa Biondo, Giu-, seppe Raedaelli and Alfredo Conti will sing the principal roles. Other operas for the week-end include “The Masked Ball,” on Friday eve- ning; “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci,’ Saturday night and “Lohengrin,” on Sunday evening, The New York College of Music will give a concert in Town Hall on Friday evening, June 22. : The Daily Worker is America’s only workingsclass daily news- paper. It fights for the interests of the working class. A subscrip- tion for one month daily or six months of the Saturday edition costs only 75 cents. Send your sub today. Address, Daily Worker, 50 FE. 13th St. New York City. trated by ‘William Siegel, therefore | version of Edgar Allen Poe's famous| The following is from a collec- tive report by the Association of Proletarian Revolutionary Writers of Germany (Bund _proietarisch- revolutionaerer Schriftsteller Deutschlands). It was translated from the German, with introduc- tion and notes by Herbert A. Klein and is published by Uni- versum-Basel, 38 Union Square, New York City—Editor’s Note, . . . AMONG those who recognized A most clearly that the road fol- lowed by the German Republic led to the bitter end of Fascism were many German _ writers These were persecuted by the venal reactionary majority of their fellow writers, no less than by the state officials. They were criti- cized with condescending patron- age or arrogantly neglected by the professional literary critics. They were slandered and threat ened by the Nazis as “traitors to Germanic Culture.” Yet in the face of all this they fought their fight for freedom for artistic work. The stupid auto da fe, which was carried out May 10, 1933, in all the cities of Germany, this destruction of hundreds of books labeled “un-German” by the Nazis, was the conclusion of a develop- ment for years past clearly visible to the eyes of those who would see. Many, very many, of the mid- die class authors whose works were burned had fought for years against those who contended there was no choice but socialism or decline into barbarity. And when, not only Communists, but also | ivory towered estetes and moder- | ate, middle of the road, democrats were banned or consigned to the fire—this constituted a bitter jus- tification for those writers who had recognized the social func- tion of all art and had decided for themselves to carry out, re- gardiess, the social tasks which the awakening working class de- manded of art. No fewer than 132 writers were removed from public libraries as “un-German.” Many of these authors emigrated to foreign countries, and even today cannot understand what has happened to them. Others, however, carry on the fight for the workers, side by side with the workers. Many are incarcerated in prisons and concentration camps. Carl von Ossietzki When complaints were made that the calibre of German poli- tical publicists was low as com- pared wit the journalistic cul- ture of other countries, when their superficiality and prejudice was criticized—there was always one name excepted from such re- proaches—Carl von Ossietzki. In the person of this man the last eminent publicist of German bourgeois culture is exposed to the cruelties of his jailors in the no- torious Sonneburg concentration camp. In twenty years of political ac- tivity Carl von Ossietzki remained steadfastly true to himself. In the Welt om Montag, in the Berliner Volkszeitung, in the 'Tagebuch, | and finally in the Weltbuehne, Carl von Ossietzki was always the one who made the publication worthy of being read, the one whose uncompromising selection, whose discipline of language and clean cut thought became example and standard. The political jour- nalism of the German Republic is unthinkable without Carl von Os- sietzki. It was he who devoted himself and his reputation to exposing the fearful “Feme” murders carried on by the reactionaries in Ger- many. It was he, first of all, who dared to trace out and tear the devilish threads of underground German military policy. He was the head of the independent jury of referees which investigated the events of May 1, 1929.* In the battle against the political par- tiality of German justice, he fought in the front rank. The criminal, secret armaments for the war which was to be forced on the German people by their generals, had in him an adversary who did not fear to drag them into the light and seek to destroy them. On hardly any other Ger- man citizen was vented such a flood of slander and abuse. Courts of the Republic handed down sentences against him be- cause he called murder by its right name even when it was tol- erated and approved by members of the General Staff of the Reichswehr (German Army). He wanted—and this should be, must be, said in connection with the German tragedy—a clean, just, peace-loving and _ socially constructive middle class demo- cracy. These are demands which cannot be realized on this earth, because one excludes the other. He was a man who raised his *Zoergiebel's “Bloody May Ist. Living flesh— 'W YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1934 Brains Behind Barbed Wire!|A Fantastic “History _ of Bolshevism” by a LUDWIG RENN Noted German proletarian author imprisoned by the Nazis, great voice to warn: “Republic, be strong!”, who summoned the republicans to be courageous in their own house, a man who in the last analysis could not un- derstand why the republicans could not summon this courage. He did not understand it because he saw events apart from the great, extraordinary, essential struggle which was going on for 15 years within the boundaries of —the struggle of social- ism with capitalism for power in Germany. And so we see him for 15 years fighting a lost cause against the right (reaction) and against the “ultra-left” (ultra- according to his opinion)—fighting for a social Republic which should advance peacefully toward humanity and happiness for all. History itself has proved that this line of ad- vance is impossible—and Carl von Ossietzki himself has become a victim of this proof. At the end of 1931, Carl von Os- sietzki was finally sentenced to p year and a half imprisonment for betrayal of military secrets. In his magazine, Die Weltbuehne, an aviator wrote an article dealing with preparations for war in the German aviation industry. In the face of threatened punishment, the writer fled out of Germany. Ossietzki stood trial. Months in succession attempts were made to induce the responsible authorities to grant amnesty to Ossietzki. All the great organizations of writers addressed themselves to President von Hindenburg begging him at least to grant a pardon which would change the penitentiary sentence to an honorable deten- tion in a fortress. But Hindenburg who had just been re-elected president with the help of the So- cial-Democrats, didn’t even con- sider worthy of an answer these petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of people, It was not until the end of 1932 that Ossietzki was released from the remainder of the sen- tence, on the basis of a general amnesty, Only a few months later the Nazis arrested him again, and fairly outdid themselves in malicious triumph because the « “traitor to his country,” Carl von Ossietzki, was incarcerated in the concentration camp of the peni- tentiary Sonnenburg. Courage, honor, uprightness, and whole- hearted participation of the in- dividual in struggle—qualities which the Nazis habitually, and wordily, praise as highest virtues of the German man—these count for less than nothing in Germany today. Foreign journalists who tried to speak to Ossietzki, found in Son- nenburg a broken man who silently stood “in military posture” before their questions. The re- porters could only learn that, in the concentration camp Carl von Ossietzki had no time for mental work. Military drill and rigorous gymnastic exercises under the command of the guards of his prison, make up the existence of the last great republican journa- list of Germany. Ludwig Renn In 1929 appeared in the feature page of the famous Frankfurter Zeitung a novel which excited ex- traordinary attention, and there- after was translated into the languages of all civilized nations. War! was its name. It is well known what power and what ef- fect this book had in all countries. So straightforward was the achievement of this author, and so clearly did his work stand by itself and speak for itself, that. there was little question as to what kind of a man carried the name, Ludwig Renn. Finally it was dis- covered that this assumed name hid a former Imperial officer, ex- Captain Arnold Vieth von Golsse- nau, and that he, son of an old German noble family, was a Com- munist! This created a stir among the reactionaries, for the manly CAREFULLY By MARTHA MILLET Finger carefully the teacups— Over them your social deathhead smirks And a fiendish gash of mouth Laves convention's tainted feet. Not the arid guilt of porcelain Glitters with heavy flowers Nor drips its red and gold across Your lacquered fingernails. It is flesh you are handling; You drink from the guts of a communard Shot on the Chinese wall And the breasts of women, revolutionists Torn in the market place And the searce-new eyes of little ones With hair that coughed to death Take your hands from the teacups— THEY will not bear your touch, The bleeding Chinese mouth Laughs from the porcelain. A Collective Report on Persecution in Nazi Germany attitude, the unsentimental and un-melodramatic heroism of this book was being contrasted with the novel of Remarque, “All Quiet on the Western Front;” and the Nazis in particular valued the qualities of the Renn novel, A long and difficult way had led Ludwig Renn—born in Dres- den, 1888—to Communism. In 1911 the young officer entered the War Academy, went to the front in 1914 as head of a company, be- came regimental adjutant, bat- talion leader, and finally teacher of the Field War College (Feld- kriegsschule). He was a superb soldier, a model. Disciplined as leader, as confident of his com- rades and disciplined even down to the very least of his gestures. After the war he was selected as leader by the Safety Troops (Sicherheitstruppe) of Dresden. In 1920 he quit this position. His existence was restless, tor- mented, burdened with impres- sions of the war which he could not absorb and assimilate. Ludwig Renn studied all branches of knowledge. He wandered through Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt —an uprooted feudal aristocrat, a soldier who could not find him- self in the complications and in- justices of the everyday world The events of July 15, 1927, the dignation in Austria, the burning of the Palace of Justice in Vienna—which Renn experienced at first hand—wrought the de- cision in him. He returned to Germany and became a Commu- nist. The same penetration, the same power of literary creation which made his novel “War” a world- wide success, are also to be found in Renn’s second work “Post- War" (Nachkrieg), in which Renn pictures the progress of his sergeant through the con- fusion of the post-war time, to socialism. This “deserter,” who had examined passionately the foundation of his social class and found it wanting and pronounced it ready for destruction, was a thorn in the side of the ruling powers of Germany. The first opportunity was seized to take vengeance on him: In October, 1932, Ludwig Renn was arrested in one of the lecture rooms of the Berlin Marxist Workers’ School, in the midst of a lecture he was giving on the history of military science. The outline for his lec- ture, a cool, scientific summary which he carried in a pocket, was seized upon as an excuse for a charge of high treason. For months Ludwig Renn was impris- oned awaiting trial. After a few days of freedom, he was once | again arrested on the day after the burning of the Reichstag. (To be continued) | Partisan Review No. 3 On Newsstands Today The third issue of Partisan Re- | view, literary organ of the John | Reed Club of New York, will be on sale at bookshops and news stands today. The issue contains a brilliant article by Boris Pilnyak, world fa- mous Soviet author, in which he as- sails Marx Eastman for his slanders of Soviet literature, dealing espe- cially with Eastman’s stories con- cerning Pilnyak’s own role as a revolutionary writer. In another article, “Bunk by a Bohemian,” Leon Dennen refutes in more de- tailed form the charges gathered by Eastman in his recent book. Among the other features in this | issue is a story, “Southern High- way 51,” by John Wexley, author of | “They Shall Not Die.” This is the | first short story by John Wexley | ever published in the revolutionary press. The other stories in the is- sue are by Edward Newhouse, Ben Field, Barney Conal and Arthur Pense. There are poems by Joseph Freeman, Alfred Hayes, Herman | Spector, Lloyd Collins and Gen- evieve Taggard; an article on the present state of revolutionary lit- erature by Wallace Phelps and Philip Rahv, and reviews by Jack Conroy, Isidor Schneider, Edwin Berry Burgum, David Ramsey and Jerre Mangione. TUNING IN 7:00 P, M,-WEAF—Baseball Results WOR-Sports Resume—Ford Frick WIJZ—Amos 'n’_Andy—Sketch WABC—Sylvia Froos, Songs 1:18-WEAF—Gene and Glenn—Sketch WOR-—Comedy; Music WJZ—Ed Lowry, omedian WABC—Just Plain Bill—Sketch 7:30-WEAF—Shirley Howard, Songs; Trio WOR—Ray Perkins, Comedian; Noy- elty Orch. WJZ—Loper Orch. WABC—Serenaders Orch 7:45-WEAF—The Goldbergs—Sketch WABC-—Boake Carter, Commentator 8:00-WEAF—Vallee Orch.; Soloists WOR-Little Symphony Orch, Philip James, Conductor; Edward Nell, Jr., Baritone WIZ—Grits and Gravyy—Sketch WABC—Rich Orch, 8:15-WABC—Easy Aces—Sketch 8:30-WJZ—Grace Hayes, Songs WABC—Raffles—Sketch 8:43-WJZ—Igor Gorin, Baritone 3.00-WEAF—Captain Henry's Show Boat WOR—Rod and Gun Club WJZ-—Death Valley Days—Sketch WABC—Warnow Orch.; Claude Reis, Tenor; Evelyn MacGregor, Con- tralto: John Corigliano, Violin 9:30-WOR—Philharmonic Stadium Con- certs—Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, President 0.C.N.¥. WJZ—Duchin Oreh.; Edward Davies, Baritone WABC—Waring Orch. 9:45-WOR—The Witch's Tale—Sketch 10:00-WEAF—Heevyweight Champtonship Boxing Bout, Carnera vs, Baer (subject to postponement) WJZ—Same as WEAF WABC—Conflict—Dramatic Sketch 10:15-WOR—Current Events-—-H. BE. Read WABC—Fray and Braggiott!, Piane 10:30-WOR—Varlety Musicale WABC—Wheeler Orch.; raine, Songs 10:45-WABC—Henry L. Roosevelt, Assist ant Secretary of the Navy, Speak- ing at National Convention, Sons of the American Revolution, Wash- rs ington, D. ©. 11:00-WEAF—Your Lover, Songs WOR—Weather; Moonbeams Trio Ws%—Comedian Harmonists, Songs WABO—Vera Van, Contralto tremendous explosion of mass in— | Doris Lor-| . | | Communist Renegade A History of Bolshevism, by Ar- thur Rosenburg. Oxford Uni- versity Presss. $3.75. Reviewed by | DAVID RAMSEY |"PHIS book will appeal to those | 4 cockroach intellectuals who are still wet from the palpitations of witnessing Max Eastman give per- | sonal demonstrations of the rape of | Soviet literature. It is part of the current counter-reyolutionary and | anti-Soviet campaign that has been forced to resort to “theoretical” at- tacks, since lies about the “failure” of the Five Year Plan are more dif- | ficult to market than they were two or three years ago. The anti- Soviet market this summer is spe- |cializing in revelations about the |shaved armpits of Russian girls, |literary pogroms, the soul of the | Soviet intellectual, etc. Rosenbureg’s book marks the high- est level of the present barrage of anti-Soviet books. Here we find a German renegade from Communism who gives us the “history of the | graphs. | He is no ordinary liar like Eastman, nor does he write with |the stupid spite of a Malcolm Mug- |geridge. His fable is ingeniously | written. He is one of those his- torians whom bourgeois critics tag |as “lucid, informative and impar- tial.” In other words, book that will attract all the phony | intellectuals who seem to be almost predestined to fall for some form of fake “leftism.” ae RIEFLY, Rosenburg’s myth is |# thet Marx and Lenin and Stalin were members of “the radical middle class intelligentsia” who or- | ganized “workers for the purpose of | completing the bourgeois demo- cratic revolution.” The culmina- tion of the theories of these men has been the establishment of “State Capitalism in Russia.” The working class and the peasants are cratic clique” who have “abandoned all attempts to influence the inter- assist colonial and oppressed coun- tries in their struggles for national freedom.” Opposed to the ideas of the “middle-class” Lenin and Stalin is the “proletarian idealist”, Trotaky. It is he who is “the living presen- tation of its future to the present day proletariat.” Consequently, the international capitalist class has nothing to fear from Bolshevism. Its enemy is “the international Marxian” proletariat, which is the designation that Rosenburg applies to the Trotakyites and other “true proletarians.” Tt can be seen that Rosenburg has carried some of Trotzky’ counter-revolutionary notions to | the logical conclusion that. Trotzky himself for political reasons cannot lafford to state. Trotzkyism never | Was, and never can be part of the | body of Leninist doctrine. Rosen- | burg makes but one correct state- ment in his book, namely, that | while Trotzky in 1917 “became formally a member of the Bol- shevik Party,” his policies were al- ways anti-Bolshevik and that his jexpulsion from the Party was “in- | evitable.” | i ORDER to portray Trotzky as |* the forerunner of the future (and Trotzky's) world revolution, Rosen- burg has to stretch facts consider- ably. For example, he completely | distorts the truth about Trotzky’s | efforts to “militarizve’ the Russian trade unions which were defeated by Lenin and the Party. Rosen- burg puts the facts on their head and makes it an attempt by Trot- zky to put “an end to the dictator- ship of the higher officials of the Communist Party.” Rosenburg makes statements that must be embarrassing to his hero, Trotzky. The theory that Social- ism can be built in a single great country like the Soviet Union, he points out, “is to be found as early as 1923, in Lenin’s last writings and speeches.” He also makes the point that Lenin's theory that one of the prerequisites to socialism is that the peasants be organized into col- lectives was carried out by the Five Year Plan. Rosenburg then pro- ceeds to attack the principle of col- lective farming as being “irrecon- By way of contradicting himself he asserts that “Lenin had _ received absolution in. anticipation of - this sin against Marxism from the evolution of Bolshevism from its roots in Karl Marx through the individual stages traversed by Lenin, down to the theories and tactics of Stalin in 1932.” Ex-Communist Rosenburg fan- |tasizes so cleverly that to refute {him would literally require ten | Pages for each one of his para- | here is aj} under the heels of “a small bureau- | national labor moyement and to| cilable with Marxian economics.” | |hands of no less a person Marx himself.” | It must be obvious by now that | Rosenburg’s picture belongs to the realm of fantasy and not to the realm of truth. This is the only sane explanation of some of. his |more weird interpretations. | Rosenburg is hailed by the boure gecisie for his “ability to crystale lize in a sentence the strength of weakness of any movement,” it is because he can pervert facts so readily and so “scientifically.” An example of his ability to “crystale lize a movement in a sentence” is his unvarnished statement that “In truth the Labor movement in Eng- land from the World War to the present day has made ama: progress and has no need of Rus« sian teachers.” Shades of Ramsey MacDonald, Snowden and Come pany! than INCE Rosenburg is attempting to give a “scientific” solution to the problem that he has “studied,” he does not hesitate to slander and distort at any opportunity. He foresees “decisive class-warfare” in |the Soviet Union “in a distan6 |future.” (1) The course of events | in 1933 prove that “the Soviet Gove ernment has revealed itself power less to resolve the glaring contradice | tions (which he does not name) in its governmental system.” (!) And he does not even hesitate to use that oldest of counter-reyolutionary |gags: “Stalin is no longer interes ested in the so-called world revoe lution.” (Cf. Dimitroff, Soviet China, the German Communist Party, and the work of the Comin« |tern all over the world!) No amount of sound refutatii which is a prime necessity, wif completely stop anti-working class and anti-Soviet campaigns, to |Which Rosenburg has contributed his bit. Any fool or scoundrel will always find his wares eagerly ace cepted by a willing publisher, ane |thusiastic critics and “one-man |Communist Parties.” who will use his worthless stuff to grind their | Political axes. | It ts for this reason that so much | Space has been given to Rosen- | burg’s song and dance which he |calls a History of Bolshevism. His ridiculous theories, his misstate= | ments of fact, his anti-Communist bias have been cited, not because |it is important to knock Rosenburg Gndividually) into’ a cocked hat. It is because he fits so usefully into the present wave of anti-working class attacks that Communists must expose this book to students and intellectuals who are as yet une aware of the malicious untruth that characterizes counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet propaganda, | 7 9 r | WHAT'S ON Thursday ‘ORISIS IN EDUCATION discussed be Dr. F. E. Williams; “Education in @ 0. Dr. J. E, Mendenhall; “Progressive Edue | cation in U.S.A." ©. A. Hathaway; “Role | of the Teachers in the Orisis."" Thursda’ | June 14, 8 p.m. Man. Industrial Trad@ School. 22nd St. & Lexington Ave | OPEN FORUM “War and Fascism ip the Current Movi ‘No Greater Glory, | “World in Revolt,” “S.A. Mann-Brand” Pilm & Photo League, 12 %. 17th Bt. No admission charge. SYMPOSIUM, Pen 4 Hammer, 114 WR 21st St., 8:30 p.m. “Revolutionary Poetry in America." Speakers: Veteh, Maddow Wood, Thomas. Adm. 15¢ OPEN FORUM, Isidore Begun on “Crisis | in Education.” “Boro Park Cultural Cene | ter, 1280 S6th St., Brooklgn, 8:30 P.M, | Auspices Harry Sims Br. LL.D. SOVIET CHINA—The relations between | the U.SS.R. and China—lecture by John | Phillips at Friends of the Chinese Peopl 168 W. 29rd St, Room 12, 830 pm Adm. 15¢ FRANCIS GOHAM speaks on the "J. By MacNamara Case." Auspices Wesley Evere est Br. LL.D. Maries, 97 Henry St, Bklyny Adm. free. MEMBERSHIP MEETING, Office Works ers Union, 114 W. 14th 8t, ® p.m | MASS. MEETING Against ar and j clsm. Ocean Pakwary Hall, 3084 Oceai Parkway. Auspices Women's Councils No, | 49. 17 and 5 | _ SHORT MEMBERSHIP MEETING of Mty Eden Br. F.S.U.. and. discussion. 14g | Jerome Ave. cor. 170th St., Bronx, & P.M. sharp. All members ere urged | attend. | Friday | | HARLEM SECTION 4—Spring Pestiv: | Mnnish Hall, 15 W. 126th St. Celebratin the growth of the ©. P. in Harlem HOUSEWARMING PARTY and Dedi ton of the Potamkin Childrep’s Cent 311 E. 12th St. & pm. Carl Brods! | Master of Caermonies; Pioneer Plap W.L.T. > . * . | OUTING TO UNITY Sundar, June 24+ | by Harlem Prog. Youth Club, from thei new headquarters, 1888 Srd Ave. Rezistaw to assure yourself of = seat. Round trip $1.00. SUMMER MUSIC Festive! and Daneq Irving Plaza, Irving Pi, & 18th St. Suns day, June 17th, 8 p.m. Auspices Workers Music League. JUNE 28rd—Ambassador’ Hall, 3875 Third Ave. Banquet. celebrating the Ninth An= | niversary of the LL.D. Leon Blum, guest | of honor. Speakers: “R. B. Moore, Alieg Taub and others. Varied entertainment» hot supper. Adm. 50¢, Auspices Bron® Section LL.D, | JUNE SALE ON SPECIALS NOW ON A’ WORKERS BOOK SHOP & CIRCULATING LIBRARY, 50 E, 13th Bt. AMUSEMENTS. MAXIM GORKI’S —— “GORKT'S WORK A MASTERPIFCE!” MORNING FREIREIT, “MOTHER” Directed by PUDOVKIN with BATALOV (6f ‘Road to Life’) ACME THEATRE 14th ST. and RD BIG | UNTON §qQ. WEEE | the ——RADIO CITY MUSIC HAL 50th St. & 6th Ave.—Show Place of the Nation—Opens 11:30 A. M. ANN HARDING JOHN BOLES in LOUIS BROMFIELD'S “LIFE OF VERGIE WINTERS” AND A GREAT STAGE SHOW —— THE THEATRE UNION Presents — The Season's Outstanding Dramatic Hit stevedore CIVIC REPERTORY THEA. 105 W 14 St. Eves. 8:45. Mats. Tues. & Sat. 2:48 300-400-600-75e-$1.00 a $1.50, No Tax ——THE THEATRE GUILD presents— MAXWELL ANDERSON’S New Play “MARY OF SCOTLAND” with MARGALO STANLAY HELEN GILLUMORE RIDGES MENKEN GUILD grass metetiorsescttse Ri Ra AMRTSR SHAE MN ARNT TT 7 A DRAMATIC THUNDERBOLT! ARE WE CIVILIZED * With WM. F, pocket abe er aes. eee FILM AND PHOTO LEAGUE Open Forum on “WAR AND FASCISM IN CURRENT MOVIE” “& A. MANN-BRAND” “NO GREATER GLORY” “WORLD IN REVOLT’ TONITE. © P.M. at 12 East 11th &t, NO_ ADMISSION CHARGE The Daily Worker gives you news about the struggle for t Ployment insurance. _ ‘