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Title: Views & Comments #23 Author: Libertarian League Date: August, 1957 Language: en Topics: USA, publication Source: Scanned from original
Views & Comments: A monthly publication of the Libertarian League,
Address all mail to:
Views and Comments
P.O. Box 261
New York 3, N.Y,
Subscriptions: 12 issues for $1, single copies 10 cents.
Two great power blocs struggle for world domination. Neither of these
represents the true interests and welfare of humanity. Their conflict
threatens mankind with atomic destruction. Underlying both of these
blocs are institutions that breed exploitation, inequality and
oppression.
Without trying to legislate for the future we feel that we can indicate
the general lines along which a solution to these problems can be found.
The exploitative societies of today must be replaced by a new
libertarian world which will proclaim—Equal freedom for all in a free
socialist society. "Freedom" without socialism leads to privilege and
injustice; "Socialism" without freedom Is totalitarian.
The monopoly of power which is the state must be replaced by a
world-wide federation of free communities, labor councils and/or
cooperatives operating according to the principles of free agreement.
The government of men must be replaced by a functional society based on
the administration of things.
Centralism, which means regimentation from the top down, must be
replaced by federalism, which means cooperation from the bottom up.
The Libertarian League will not accept the old socio-political clichés,
but will boldly explore new roads while examining anew the old
movements, drawing from them all that which time and experience has
proven to be valid.
If you are interested in the League and its program and would like more
information see the coupon on page 23.
With this, our twenty-third issue of Views and Comments, we of the
Libertarian League have been able to carry out one of our most important
immediate objectives: the publication of our organ in a more attractive,
readable form.
This is being done on the Multilith press which we have just bought and
for which we are considerably in debt. Paying for it will involve
sacrifices in the months ahead for ourselves and for those of our
readers who feel the need to spread Libertarian ideas in this country.
But there is no doubt that the acquisition of the press is worth much
more than any temporary sacrifices on our part. Views and Comments, as
the League's main propaganda organ, is the voice of our organization. It
is absolutely necessary to publish it in as attractive form as possible,
in order to insure a constant increase of readers and,
consequently—ultimately, of League members.
The advantages of the press are not limited to Views and Comments,
however. It is now possible for us to begin a badly needed series of
pamphlets dealing with both the current economic, social and political
life of the United States and also the classic works of Libertarian
thinkers.
There has been a deep need for publication of our literature in the
English language for a long time FREEDOM PRESS in London has done a fine
job trying to fill the gap, but our English comrades cannot
single-handedly propagandize the entire English-speaking world. There is
a particular need for works dealing specifically with this country and
its internal problems. We shall now be able to begin to satisfy this
need.
But what does the purchase of the press mean in the larger picture of
the League's activities as a whole? Simply this: it is tangible proof of
the ever-growing vitality of our nascent organization. The League is not
a splinter from a splinter of an already-dead political sect. Our
organization was founded three years ago by a handful of people in New
York City who felt the time was ripe for spreading Libertarian ideas in
the United States. Judging by our progress to date, they were completely
right. And with the continuance of the present upswing in our organizing
activities the Libertarian League, which at present is hardly more than
an organizational committee, will be an actual force in the U.S. and
Canada.
It was stated above that the League is new. That is true. We represent
the first real attempt to create a well-organized Libertarian movement
in North America. However, our ideas did not spring from a vacuum. They
are a continuance of a body of thought which was first systematically
formulated by Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin and many others. However, we
have never allowed this body of thought to crystallize into a block of
dogma. We have no infallible thinkers; even the ideas of our most
highly-esteemed theoreticians are constantly being reexamined and
re-evaluated. Ideas which have been invalidated by experience are
discarded, and new ideas are examined, tested and rejected or accepted
on the basis of the results obtained. Thus our ideas and our
organizations throughout the world contain an inner vitality of their
own.
The League does not intend to rest on its laurels, such as they are, now
that we have a small press, a new varityper and other odd bits of
equipment. We do not aim to become merely a more or less successful
publishing venture.
Our efforts are aimed at the building of an organized integrated
movement. Those who feel as we do, will join with us in this effort,
Those who are young in years and in spirit and who agree fundamentally
with our principles, are invited to help us in our efforts, as members
of the Libertarian League. This will entail hard work and sacrifice, but
has ever-increasing rewards in the knowledge that one is actually
contributing toward tomorrow's better world.
(See coupon on page 23.)
"Do you remember the Roman philosophers in the first centuries of
Christianity? The one blessing that remained for these people who were
strangers to their own times, was a quiet conscience, the consoling
knowledge that they had not been afraid of the truth, that, having once
grasped it, they had found strength to endure it and to remain faithful
to it.
"Another blessing: their personal relations, the certainty that there
were others who understood, who sympathised with them, the certainty of
a profound rapport that was independent of events."
—Alexander Herzen in From The Other Shore
by C.W.
(Reprinted from FREEDOM of March 10, 1957.)
"The Prime Minister advanced to the microphone.
"'We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquillity!'
'Freedooom! Free-dooom!'
"The crowd chanted as their dark and emotion-spent faces left the
meeting: wistfully I watched their toga-draped bodies wander off in the
fading light of the setting sun...I sat brooding. How had he conquered
them? He had held them in the palms of his hands; he had poured scorn on
the claims of' the opposition; he had allowed no mercy for a contrary
opinion; and it seemed that that was all his followers wanted. Prolonged
British evasion and aloofness had made them ready to embrace certainty,
definiteness...
"The greed of British business-men and the fumbling efforts of
missionaries had made an unwitting contribution to this mass movement by
shattering the traditional tribal culture that had once given meaning to
these people's lives, and now there burned in their black hearts a
hunger to regain control over their lives and create a new sense of
their destinies...
"What I had seen was not politics proper; it was politics PLUS: It
bordered upon religion; what I had seen was a smattering of Marxism plus
the will to be, a thirst for self-redemption! And I suspected that
Nkrumah himself was but an agent provocateur in the emotions of
millions—emotions which even he did not quite grasp or understand in all
of their ramifications."
—Richard Wright: Black Power
There is an inevitable paradox in the attitude of the anarchists—those
who seek a non-governmental form of society—towards the struggles of
colonial peoples for political independence. We are bound to support
their aspirations and to play our part in changing opinion about them in
this country. The activities of the Colonial Office are conducted in our
name, and whether or not we feel responsible for them, the colonial
people will certainly hold us responsible. But when a colonial territory
has gained its freedom from imperial control, and anew state comes into
being, with the usual panoply of armies, law courts, prisons,
parliaments and ambitious politicians, we are bound to recognise that
from the point of view of human freedom, one struggle is over only to
give birth to a new one. And often those leaders who have been most
worthy of support in the first one, become the adversaries in the
second. For as a FREEDOM editorial put it last week, even the new
nations born of persecution or through struggle, for liberation, "face
anew life with hardened arteries, they have learned nothing from the
past, they think and act along the lines of their persecutors and
oppressors."
If we were to say to a citizen of Ghana, the former British colony of
the Gold Coast, that from an anarchist point of view, he had merely
changed masters, he would reply "So much the worse for anarchism if it
elevates theories above observable fact." Because he knows that to have
squeezed out the British without bloodshed, by continually forcing their
hand: in the 'Africanization' of the government, at a pace which ten
years ago would have seemed impossible, is a remarkable achievement;
because he has seen during the regime of the Congress People's Party, a
"tremendous release of creative energy" in the development of the
country, because he knows the simple truth of Kwame Nkrumah's remark
that "it is better to be able to manage your own affairs, or mismanage
them, than not to be free to manage or mismanage your own affairs"; and
because he is well aware of the important repercussions which Ghana's
independence will have on the whole of Africa.
Kwame Nkrumah has succeeded where the older generation of nationalist
leaders in the Gold Coast failed, because, learning from his student
days in America and Britain, he has built up a centralised streamlined
political machine, with loudspeakers, great rallies, flags and songs and
an atmosphere of religious revivalism. Where the opponents of the CCP
have had scruples, he has none. When the American Negro writer Richard
Wright interviewed the opposition leaders he found them baffled and
resentful. He discussed Nkrumah with Dr. Danquah:
"'Do you think he'll keep power for long?' I asked.
"'Yes; until the illiterate masses wake up,' he said.
"'Why don't you try to win the masses to your side?'
"I watched a grimace come over his face; he looked at me and smiled
ruefully.
"'Masses?' he echoed the word. 'I don't like this thing of masses. There
are only individuals for me.'
"'But masses form the basis of political power in the modern world
today,' I told him...
"And suddenly it flashed through me that this man was not a politician
and would never be one."
It was the same when he interviewed Professor Busia, the leader of the
National Liberation Movement, and asked him the significance of the
oath-taking and libation-pouring at the rallies of the CCP.
"'It's to bind masses to the party,' he said.
"'Tribal life is religious through and through. Now these things, when
employed at a political meeting, insure, with rough authority, that the
masses will follow and accept the leadership. That is what so-called
mass parties need... The leaders of the CCP use tribal methods to
enforce their ends.'
"I had the feeling that he was speaking sincerely, that he could not
conceivably touch such methods, that he regarded them with loathing and
that he did not even relish thinking that anybody else would. My
personal impression was that Dr. Busia has not the force and drive that
makes a mass leader. He was too analytical, too reflective to even want
to get down into the muck of life and organise men. I sensed, too, that
maybe certain moral scruples would inhibit him in acting..."
Mr. Wright questioned Mr. John Tsiboe, the editor of an opposition
newspaper in Ashanti, and asked him what he thought of Political parties
as instruments of the popular will. He replied:
"'Now, it's not widely known, but the British offered us the party
system before Nkrumah came along. We refused it. It clashes with our
deepest traditions. We rejected it because it divides us. Our outlook
upon life is based upon social cohesion. Until recently, I didn't know
what politics was. We Africans still don't know. In its election
campaign, the CCP painted everybody black and white: all who were for
the Convention People's Party were white, those who were against it were
black bribe-takers, agents of imperialism... Our simple tribal people
believed it. Do you realise that, for six weeks during the positive
action period, my home and office had to be protected by the police?'"
It is precisely this messianic and demagogic character of Dr. Nkrumah
and the party which he wields so firmly, that has enabled them to
achieve so much in the six years since his release from prison to become
first' 'Leader of Government Business' and then Prime Minister. And it
is this too which makes the future so perilous, In his laudatory
biography of Nkrumah, Mr. Bankole Timothy remarks:
"As a politician, Nkrumah's strength lies in his popular appeal, his
powerful oratory, and his methods of rendering his political opponents
unpopular, which are both direct and, mostly, indirect. Nkrumah's hold
on the masses is strong; he can switch their emotions, like a radio set,
to whatever pitch he desires at any given time. He also has made
profitable use of the gullibility of the masses and never relaxes his
intensive propaganda campaign for his party. As Elspeth Huxley puts it,
'as yet, Africa has no technique for curbing people like Nkrumah; he has
the ball at his feet..."
Will he, now that the struggle for political independence has been won,
change his methods? Or will his opponents adopt then too? Their
apprehensiveness over the future has been clear in the last-minute
negotiations to write into the Constitution regional assemblies in
addition to the National Assembly, and other safeguards for Ashanti and
the Northern Territories, where the CCP has by no means the almost
universal support which it has won in the coastal regions. It would be
tragic if the first fruits of Ghana's independence are to be found in an
acrimonious and possibly bloody struggle between centralist and
regionalist politicians, with a revival of Ashanti tribal militarism and
the people as pawns. Tragic, not only for the Gold Coast because it will
divert so much energy from the urgent task of conquering illiteracy and
disease, but also for the whole hopes of African freedom. For while the
world's eyes are turned on Ghana's independence celebration this week,
not all of them are friendly. The French Government, and the other
imperial powers like Belgium and Portugal, the governments of the East
African colonies, Mr. Strydom and his party in South Africa, as well as
the Tory imperialists and the Beaverbrook press here in Britain will be
watching with glee to see if Ghana becomes another Liberia.
The whole tragedy of the new nations struggling into independence is
that their leaders, the educated and articulate minority upon whom so
much depends, are shaped in their thinking by the same assumptions which
lie behind the political Systems of their former masters. There is not
even that degree of fundamental political thinking that accompanied the
break-away from the British empire, the American Declaration of
Independence in 1776. Whether the aim is socialism or 'free enterprise',
the means involve the centralised state, the party system, and all the
second-hand regalia of political power. In Accra, they even have Mr.
Speaker with his wig and mace. The worst remaining aspects of indigenous
social systems are exploited because they are useful politically, and
the best aspects of tribalism are destroyed:
"In the Gold Coast...under the old system Village Councils usually
comprised all the male inhabitants of the Village concerned, normally
summoned to meetings by beatings of gongs, ringing of bells or other
traditional methods announcement, Under the modern systems only a few
people, selected by election, constitute the Village Councils."
—Ntieyong Akpan, Epitaph of Indirect Rule
"You may never get rich, but you'll never starve, not as long as someone
who is akin to you has something to eat. It's Communism, but without any
of the ideas of Marx or Lenin.
"The men with whom he had shared life were his brothers; men of the same
generation were brothers... He had brothers, not the sons of his mother,
but men to whom he felt a blood relationship, brothers who fed him when
he was hungry, let him sleep when he was tired, consoled him when he was
sad... He had a large 'family' that stretched for miles and miles... I
tried to visualise it and I could not."
— Richard Wright, Black Power
Here are two facets of the old tribal culture which could be built into
a new social order, the first into a network of village communes, and
the second into a system of mutual aid, more genuine and comprehensive
than any 'welfare state.' But, instead, the CCP has made use of the most
primitive and irrational features of tribalism, while the opposition has
been bargaining for the support of the backward-looking local chiefs. An
article in the journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs
notes that:
"The 180 local councils set up in the last five years, with powers
similar to those of rural and urban districts in Britain, have been
mainly remarkable for party struggle and a complete executive apathy.
Many have been replaced by management committees, often of nominees
picked out by the Accra Ministry but unknown in the area. It seems
significant that in the last three years there have been no local
council elections."
and it goes on to express that:
"It is probable that the greatest reproach of Nkrumah, whose will is
really the only unifying factor in the Gold Coast today, is that he has
been so caught up in the whirl of development—the creation of modern
amenities, a stadium, a library, a state house, a national museum, a
national bank, in short a capital which could stand comparison among the
nations of the world—that he has had little time to consider with any
care the basic characteristics of the old tribal culture of the Gold
Coast."
All friends of African freedom will rejoice in the independence of
Ghana, but they must hope for something more than an imported imitation
of a European state, trapped in the web of politics. If the hunger for
education and the pathetic 'thirst for self-redemption' of the people
who swept Nkrumah into power, are left unsatisfied, Ghana, which could
be a beacon to the whole of Africa, will merely be a warning of the
folly and sterility of nationalism.
When the motor ship 'Ciudad Toledo' arrived in Veracruz, Mexico, the
public was invited aboard to visit the exhibition depicting the glories
of Franco's Spain. The 'Young Libertarians of Mexico' took advantage of
the occasion to distribute thousands of leaflets that were read avidly.
They then addressed the crowd from a truck equipped with loud-speakers
that drowned out all other sounds with the tune of the Spanish
Revolution, "To the Barricades," and a recorded speech that Federica
Montseny of the Spanish CNT had delivered on her recent trip to Mexico.
One of the leaflets distributed read as follows:
"WHAT IS NOT EXHIBITED ON THE MOTORSHIP 'CIUDAD TOLEDO':
"200,000 lovers of liberty in jails and concentration camps.
"150,000 cases of tuberculosis caused by the inhuman exploitation in
factories and workshops.
"100,000 people executed after the victory of the 'Glorious National
Movement.'
"One million people killed in Franco's 'National' Uprising.
Young Libertarians, Vera Cruz, 1956"
Our discussion of the Opus Dei (Work of God), that sinister new
instrument of the Vatican's foreign policy, can perhaps begin best with
a translation of the editorial from the latest issue of Solidaridad
Obrera, clandestine organ of the Spanish National Confederation of Labor
(C.N.T.). The following article appeared in the issue for the first
fortnight of April, 1957:
"We respect all ideas and beliefs within the limits of each individual's
conscience, just as we detest institutions which tend to smother freedom
of thought, which are impelled by a spirit of absolutism, aimed at
making man submit to their dogmatic canons.
"A mysterious or, rather, deceptive institution has appeared recently in
Spain. It is a thoroughly totalitarian organization and is called the
Opus Dei.
"This is one of the most dangerous and terrifying laboratories of the
Black International. And it desires to throw its tentacles over Spain
with a much more ambitious end in mind...
"All areas and spheres of life which interest its leaders are being
inundated with its specialized robots. Everywhere it is carrying on a
stubborn, ferocious fight for absolute control.
"There are people who have never given up the idea of erecting a
scaffold or a stake on every corner for providing public autos da fe.
But since this would scandalize too many people in our century and an
indignant public opinion would rebel against them, these people, who
lack sufficient temporal power to carry out their plans but do have
enough personnel, are uniting and forming their Ku Klux Klans. They are
preparing their poisonous weapons and laboring in their mission, that of
halting any real progress and seeing to it that true freedom never
reigns in the world.
"Ignacio de Loyola and the Company of Jesus also came out of Spain. The
Jesuits were feared by even the most powerful, including their own
Popes, even though the Order had been accepted and blessed by the
Church.
"Now the Opus Dei is coming out of Spain, supremely ambitious, desiring
an absolute spiritual empire ab majorem Dei Gloriam.
"The blessing of the Vatican is not lacking. And its direct promotion to
the Government has already begun. Ullastre, one of its representatives,
has been given a ministry. It is evident, therefore, that its pressure
is beginning to make itself felt.
"Attention, Spaniards, to the Opus Dei, another of the many dark
institutions which are secretly working to continue Spain's
misfortunes."
This organization, so aptly described above, is designed to train laymen
to guard the Church's interests in all walks of life. The following
quotes from Camino (Road), Ediciones Rialp, Madrid, 1953, the handbook
of the organization written by its founder, the Jesuit Father Jose Maria
Escriva, will give the reader an idea of the type of mentality which the
Opus Dei seeks to create:
"To serve as mouthpiece for the enemy is a crowning idiocy; and, if the
enemy is an enemy of God, it is a great sin. Therefore, in the
professional terrain, I will never praise the science of anyone who uses
it as a position from which to attack the church." (page 259)
"Have you bothered to consider how absurd it is to stop being a Catholic
when one enters a university or a professional association or a learned
assembly or a parliament, as one would leave his hat at the door?" (page
116)
"The priest, whoever he may be—is always another Christ." (page 34)
"To obey the sure road. To obey the superior blindly, saintly road. To
obey in your apostolate the only road: because, in a work of God, the
spirit must either be obedient or leave." (page 292)
"'Minutes of silence.' Leave that for atheists, Masons and Protestants,
who have dry hearts. We Catholics, sons of God, speak with Our Father
who is in Heaven." (page 44)
"Will. Energy. Example. What must be done, is done...without
hesitating...Without considerations... without this, Cisneros would not
have been Cisneros; nor Teresa de Ahumada, Saint Teresa...; Nor Inigo de
Loyola, Saint Ignatius...God and audacity! 'Regnare Christum Volumus!'"
(page 19)
"To love God and not venerate the Priest, is not possible. Like good
sons of Noah, cover with the cape of charity the defects which you see
in your father, the Priest." (page 36)
"Be thankful, as for a special favor, for that holy disgust, which you
feel for your own person." (page 68)
"Immovable: thus you must be. If the miseries of others or of your own
shake your perseverance, then I have a poor idea of your ideal. Decide,
once and for always." (page 308).
The ideal militant for this organization is clear: a mindless,
disciplined automaton. A person who will do whatever is asked of him,
without hesitation, completely convinced that the end justifies the end
[sic]. The comparison between a militant of the Opus Dei and a militant
of the Communist Party immediately comes to mind.
However, it must not be believed that the Opus Dei is something
completely new. The organization itself is new, but its concepts and
tactics are common to the entire Roman Catholic church and especially to
the Jesuit order, which is the very essence of totalitarianism. Nor is
it the only lay organization of its kind. We are all familiar with the
Knights of Columbus and Catholic Action, whose Spanish section drew up
with the Falange long lists of enemies whom it methodically murdered
after the fascist uprising of 1936. Among the most prominent of its
victims was Federico Garcia Lorca, one of the greatest Spanish poets of
all time.
But the Opus Dei is the newest of these groups, and one from which the
church apparently expects a great deal. As was mentioned in the
above-quoted editorial, the Opus Dei does not intend to limit its sphere
of action to Spain alone. It is destined to become international in
scope, and we will undoubtedly see a section created in this country in
the near future, if it has not been created already.
This is but one more proof that the church lies when it tries to claim
that its activities are only limited to the spiritual field. It is also
a grim warning for the future, for just as the church drew up its lists
of the doomed during the Spanish Revolution, so will it here when its
long-desired day of reckoning finally dawns.
Two new political murders committed by the P.I.D.E. (International
Police for the Defense of the State) in Portugal are described in a
letter from our comrades in Portugal forwarded to the Libertarian League
by the Intercontinental Commission of the Anarchist Federation of
Iberia.
The first murder was that of the Anarchist militant Joaquin Lemos
Oliveira on Feb. 14 in the P.I.D.E. headquarters in Oporto, Portugal, on
Herossmo Street. The crime is described by a manifesto issued by the
Portuguese comrades and distributed throughout that country, extracts
from which read as follows:
"Joaquin Lemos Oliveira has been imprisoned since Jan. 29...The P.I.D.E.
(whose local inspector is Costa Pereira and whose chiefs are Pinto
Soares and Patacho) submitted him to the "Statue" torture, during which
he was kept without sleep for seven days, always on his feet in a room
brilliantly illuminated by a strong electric lamp, by guards who were
relieved every two hours. On Feb. 8 he was able to smuggle a note to his
wife telling her not to worry if something happened to him. On the 14th
he was dead.
"The funeral, which was scheduled for the 18th, was suspended at the
last minute by the civil governor, Dr. Braga da Cruz, on the orders of
the P.I.D.E. Many workers and well-known liberals had gathered in the
cemetery to lay flowers on the grave, and pay their last respects to the
victim. On the 19th, an hour before the funeral procession was due to
start, the flunkies of the P.I.D.E. took the corpse, leaving the family
waiting in the cemetery. Nevertheless, more than 10 automobiles went to
Fafe, a town which is now living under a reign of police terror, where
the burial took place in a cemetery surrounded by police, some of them
armed with machine guns. This did not stop the four orphans and the
widow from crying "criminals, murderers" at them.
"Joaquin Lemos, who had previously been imprisoned in 1936 and 1949, was
highly esteemed for his integrity and libertarian activities. His family
and the workers of Fafe have lost an excellent comrade under the most
horrible circumstances.
"For 30 long years the people of Portugal have been slowly dying, and
the men who struggle most for liberation are condemned to death by the
flunkies of dictator Salazar and the criminal agents of the P.I.D.E.
"But they will have to answer for these crimes to a justly aroused
people..."
The second murder was that of Manuel Finza Junior, an old Anarchist
militant who was arrested in the city of Viana del Cactelo for
distributing the above-quoted manifesto. Finza, who was 70 years old and
who had been editor of the Anarchist newspaper A Voz do Faminto,
published in the days of more democratic government, was submitted to
all of the P.I.D.E.'s tortures, dying during the fourth day of the
"Statue." In order to hide the crime, the P.I.D.E. forbade the
publication of his obituary. Nevertheless, the news soon traveled over
the entire country, infuriating all those who still conserve some sense
of humanity.
The letter of the Portuguese comrades to the organization in France
ended with this appeal:
"We ask you, libertarian friends in exile in a country where freedom of
expression is still respected, with all the force of our outraged
consciences, to denounce in the press and to public opinion these two
new crimes of Salazar's Clerical-Fascist government."
And we ask the readers of Views and Comments to speak up to their
friends and acquaintances about these events in a country about which
unfortunately so little is known by the general public.
"The only guarantee of the Bill of Rights which continues to have any
force and effect is the one prohibiting quartering troops on citizens in
time of peace. All the rest have been disposed of by judicial
interpretation and legislative whittling."
—- H.L. Mencken in Minority Report
After the article on the latest atrocities of Salazar, the Portuguese
dictator, which appears elsewhere in this issue, was written, an article
on both Portugal and Spain, written by Arthur Krock, was published in
the New York Times of May 21st.
The story contains such statements as the following:
"In Spain the Government, and the apparently large majority that
supports it, are pleased with the fairly new discovery that they are now
popular in (the U.S.) Congress...
"A Week in the peninsula does not entitle a foreigner to form positive
political impressions, but this is the substance of opinions sought from
many others: the large Spanish majority envisages no Government at this
time that would suit it better than Franco's. The overwhelming mass of
the Portuguese has merely to hear that Dr. Salazar, wearied of his
tasks, might even contemplate returning to teach economics at Coimbra to
bombard all the saints with prayers that the Premier may live forever."
That these statements are simply barefaced lies is apparent to anyone
who reads even the New York Times regularly, not to speak of the radical
press. The recent strikes, student demonstrations and boycotts which
took place throughout Spain were a clear indication of how the
overwhelming majority of the Spanish people feel about Franco's regime.
They may not be in agreement as to what should be done when Franco
falls, but they are almost unanimous for his fall as soon as possible.
As for Portugal, our readers will have formed their own opinions after
they read our article on the subject.
The interesting thing about the Times article is that such lies should
be published at all, in the face of the enormous mass of evidence to the
contrary. It can only be explained by a deep desire on the part of those
who control the paper that those things should be true, or at least
should be believed in the U.S. Government, and especially, in the State
Department. What more clearly than this indicates the totalitarian
trends in the thinking of those trying to orient American public opinion
and U.S. foreign policy?
The Biosocial Nature of Man by Ashley Montagu (Grove Press, N.Y., 1956.)
In this book Ashley Montagu, eminent psychiatrist, anthropologist and
sociologist, refutes the doctrine of man's fall from grace and his
innate wickedness and sinfulness, which has been repeatedly taught
throughout the generations, and permeates man's thinking to this day.
The social evils were ascribed to the sinful nature of man. Montagu, on
the contrary, proves that this doctrine has no scientific foundation.
Every child is born with the mechanism of love. It is the result of the
cooperation of the parents. From the moment of conception the child and
the mother are dependent on each other. This biological relationship
determines the nature of man. Love and cooperation are not only
biologically, but also socially necessary if man is to live and develop.
Competition and hate are a violation of man's nature. They are acquired
and distort his personality. People who claim that these negative
qualities are inherited misunderstand the meaning of heredity.
Montagu says:
"Man is human by virtue of the potentialities that he possesses for
being a functioning member of human society. It is the extent to which
these potentialities are culturalized in society which turns him into a
functioning human being, and the kind of functioning human being he
becomes will depend upon the interaction between his genotypically
influenced potentialities and the cultural influences to which they have
been exposed. The culture into which an individual is born and which
acts upon him for any durable period of time constitutes his SOCIAL
heredity, and his uterine environment his UTERINE heredity and his
genotype constitutes his GENETIC heredity. Together these three
heredities constitute the HEREDITY of a person."
What makes the human being unique is his independence of a particular
environment. With his great adaptability and creativeness he is able to
change his environment and his society to suit himself. Aggressive,
antisocial, and destructive behavior are not inherited, but are learned
by man. They indicate an unhealthy condition in the individual and the
social system which can only be corrected by a return to our natural
endowment which is love and cooperation. What man learns which is bad he
can unlearn. He is not the victim of a predetermined fate but can enrich
and expand his life along constructive lines. Montagu finds that the
scientists who are politically conservative and reactionary tend to
become hereditarians while those who are progressive are
environmentalists.
This noble book supplements Kropotkin's main thesis in his book MUTUAL
AID. By a mass of new material from many fields Montagu demonstrates the
validity and timeliness of the libertarian concept of the biosocial
nature of man.
The following item appeared in a recent issue of the Bergen Evening
Record of Hackensack, N.J. It refers to the conduct of the convicts at
New York's Riker's Island Penitentiary, when a Miami-bound airliner
crashed on the island.
TO FEEL LIKE A MAN, WONDERFUL
In the background bulked the blank grey prison buildings on Riker's
Island. In the foreground lay the crumpled wreck of the air liner that
crashed in the sleet and fog February 1. Between that and the camera
were 11 prisoners. They were some of the 81 inmates being released with
shortened terms for good behavior which was their incredible heroism the
night 20 persons died in that flaming crash but 81 were saved. Some of
the prisoners went into the holocaust as many as seven times to lead out
passengers—the only trouble Warden Harrison had with the trustees
released to help in the rescue was, he said, to keep them from getting
killed themselves.
That day they were criminals. That night they were all that humanity
aspires to be in selflessness and courage. Next morning they were
criminals again. They have been restored to their selfhood. Said one of
them:
'It's wonderful to forget you are in prison, wonderful to be of help, to
feel like a man again."
To be of help, to feel like a man: if society went as far out of its way
to afford people this feeling as it does to punish them after their
manhood has given way to temptation or passion, wouldn't we have our
crime problem pretty well in hand?
Vancouver, B.C.
In an election conducted by the Canada Labour Relations Board this
spring to determine bargaining rights on the Imperial Oil fleet, the
Seafarers International Union managed to scrape by with a bare 51%
majority. The choice in this election was between having the S.I.U. or
no representation at all, and the large vote cast against the union is a
good indication of the general dislike felt toward the S.I.U. For quite
some time now it has had members working aboard these boats, actually
close to 100%, so the results of this vote was a case of union members
voting against their own organization—a reluctance to work under an
S.I.U. contract, but willing to maintain union membership as a necessary
evil for the purpose of getting jobs elsewhere thru the union hiring
hall.
The motives for distrust felt by the membership in the S.I.U. are the
usual ones in these days of job-brokerage unionism—high dues, frequent
assessments that no one ever gets to vote on, the amassment of huge
funds that are unaccounted for to the membership, and most of all, the
infamous "Do Not Ship" list, that is the mainspring of the S.I.U.'s grip
on the membership.
This "DNS" is a black-list, maintained by the union leadership, that
keeps several thousand seamen on the beach, and is the most potent
weapon the S.I.U. bosses have against the membership. Originally
supposed to bar known "performers" from shipping thru union
hiring-halls, it had been extended to include just about anyone who has
ever criticized the leadership, or who has ever shown any independence
in dealing with them. Most of the militants who participated in the 1948
strike called by the old Canadian Seamen's Union are on the D.N.S. list.
Previous to 1948, the Canadian Seamens Union was the dominant
organization in the marine field, having the then-considerable deep-sea
fleet on both coasts well organized, and most of the Great Lakes and
coastal shipping under contract. The C.S.U. was a Stalinist owned and
operated outfit, but there is no doubt that it had the support of most
Canadian Seamen.
The S.I.U. at this time had only a few hundred members around Vancouver,
principally on a couple of coastal ferry companies, and was not
recognized by the Trades and Labour Council, which condemned it as an
imported dual union.
When the C.S.U. called a general strike in shipping in 1948, the
government went all out to smash the C.S.U. in a strikebreaking,
red-hunting orgy that was a spectacle for men and Gods. Strikers were
thrown in jail under provisions of the archaic Canada Shipping Act,
ships were transferred to foreign registry and scabs were mobilized to
man the Great Lakes fleet, protected by troops and the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police.
It was in this situation that the S.I.U. hit the jackpot. Sponsored and
protected by the government, the S.I.U. moved in and organized the
scabs, signed contracts violating previous C.S.U. contracts, and
proceeded in general to take over everywhere as the C.S.U. collapsed.
A remnant of the old C.S.U. persisted on the West Coast until last year,
when it merged with the S.I.U. They maintained a hall on Wino Row in
Vancouver, and administered a contract with the Tow-Boat Association,
the employers' outfit, that featured a 56 hour week, no pay for overtime
and of course the check-off. It existed principally as a meal ticket for
a few Stalinist pie-cards and as a source of revenue for the Labour
Progressive Party. The passing of this outfit is not mourned, and the
same old commie pie-cards are now lined up at the bigger trough spread
by the S.I.U.
So there you have the picture of the Canadian S.I.U.—an organization
that had its origins in scabbery, and is now a fusion of the two worst
features of big business unionism—the Dave Beck influence and Stalinism.
—Seaman
"The man who enjoys marching in line and file to the strains of martial
music falls below my contempt; he received his great brain by
mistake—the spinal cord would have been amply sufficient. This heroism
at command, this senseless violence, this accursed bombast of
patriotism, how intensely I despise them!"
— Albert Einstein
The Chinese and Japanese, being ingenious people, discovered centuries
ago that they could make cormorants catch fish for them. It is a simple
trick—PAY THEM WAGES. It is as simple as the tricks used for exploiting
men.
They catch the young birds and feed them by hand, But that is not all.
They slip a ring over their young heads and, as they grow, they cannot
get the ring off. It remains around their neck like a collar. They are
fed very small minnows or bits of fish small enough to pass through that
ring.
Then they are carefully trained to be good EMPLOYEES. Their natural
instinct is to catch fish, but they cannot swallow the fish they catch
without the help of the "middle man" to "process" it. They look upon
their boss as a helper. He "rewards" them with very small pieces and
they are grateful, but the EMPLOYER takes the whole fish that they
cannot swallow and puts it in his basket.
Travelers in Japan and China are attracted to Cormorant fishing as a
tourist attraction. Eunice Tietjens has written a book about the strange
things she saw It is called Profiles From China. Here are her own words:
"Cormorants:
"The boats of your masters are black, filthy with the slimy filth of
ages. Like the canals on which they float, they give forth an evil
smell.
"On soiled perches you sit, swung out on either side over the scummy
water—you who should be savage and untamed, who should rise on the clean
breath of the sea and beat your pinions in the strong storms. Yet you
are not held. Tamely you sit and willingly, ten wretches to a boat,
lurching and half asleep.
"Around each throat is a ring of straw, a small ring, so that you may
swallow only small things, as your masters desire. Frequently, when you
reach the lake, you will dive. At the word of your masters, the parted
waters will close over you. Hungrily you will search in the darkened
void. Swiftly you will pounce on the silver shadow. Then you will rise
again, bearing in your beak the struggling prey.
"And your lousy lords, whose rings are around your throats, will take
from you the catch, giving in its place a puny wriggler which can pass
the gate of straw.
"Such is your servitude. Yet willingly you sit, lurching and half
asleep. The boatmen shout one to another in nasal discords. Lazily you
preen your great wings, eagle wings, built for the sky, and you yawn.
"Faugh! The sight of you sickens me, divers in land filth! You grow
lousy like your lords, for you have forgotten the sea.
"Wages:
"Wages are always a fraction of the product of the worker. Frequently a
very small fraction. If you accept wages, or pensions, or social
security, you, too, are a Cormorant. To you belongs 'the earth and the
sea and all that in them is,' yet willingly you sit lurching and half
asleep."
Libertarian League
P.O. Box 261
New York 3, N.Y.
Libertarian League
[Name, Street, City, State or Province]
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BOOKS
MUTUAL AID by Peter Kropotkin (paper cover) $2.00
CONSTRUCTIVE ANARCHISM by G.P. Maximoff, 1.50
THE GUILLOTINE AT WORK by G.P. Maximoff, 2.00
ANARCHO-SYNDICALISM by Rudolph Rocker, 1.00:
NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN and THE UNKNOWN REVOLUTION by Voline (two volumes)
per volume, 3.50
LESSONS OF THE SPANISH REVOLUTION by V. Richards, $3.50
PAMPHLETS
GOD AND THE STATE by Michael Bakunin, .40
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN SPAIN by M. Dasher, .10
ANARCHISM & AMERICAN TRADITIONS by Voltarine de Cleyre, .10
WHO WILL DO THE DIRTY WORK? by Tony Gibson, .05
PLACE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN SOCIETY by Emma Goldman, .05
ORGANIZED VENGEANCE CALLED JUSTICE by Peter Kropotkin, .05
REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT by Peter Kropotkin, .10:
THE STATE, ITS HISTORIC ROLE by Peter Kropotkin, .25
THE WAGE-SYSTEM by Peter Kropotkin, .10
COLLECTIVES IN SPAIN by Gaston Leval, .05
VOTE—WHAT FOR? by Errico Malatesta, .05
ANARCHY by Errico Malatesta, .15
PRINCIPLES OF ANARCHISM by Dr. J.A. Maryson, .10
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH & THE MODERN AGE by F.A. Ridkey, .05
THE TRUTH ABOUT SPAIN by Rudolph Rocker, .05
THE TRAGEDY OF SPAIN by Rudolph Rocker, .15
SYNDICALISM, THE WORKERS' NEXT STEP by Phillip Sansom, .15
SPAIN by Augustine Souchy, .05
THE TRAGIC WEEK IN MAY by Augustine Souchy, .10
ANARCHY OR CHAOS. by George Woodcock, .35
IWW LITTLE RED SONGBOOK, .25
HUNGARIAN WORKERS' REVOLUTION, .10