UTO

eeesAY ON LIBERATION, by

are two opposite ways
the “‘New Left.” One is
it as a sharp turn of youth
Ww militant opposition to
the bloody and dictatorial oper-
om of capitalism today, varied
id skeptical in its thinking but
to develop its knowledge
= theory, and as part of this,
increasingly studying Marxism.
The other is to stress its op-
position to the “Old Left,” so
that antagonism to Marxism, to
@ Soviet Union and other so-
countries, and to Commu-
parties, becomes equal to
‘and even supersedes its antagon-
i to capitalism.
first view is in accordance
| reality. The second has en-
COlraged a number of would-be
leaders and theoreticians of
“revolution” to appear offering
ideas as “improvements”
Among these are Her-
Marcuse, whose 91-page
on Liberation is offered as
tical guide for the New

| Developments of Marxism are
= to Marxism itself, a guar-
of its scientific character,
ing it to combat the chang-
forms taken by exploitation
'drives toward war. “Im-
ments” however, like those
use, are quite different.
consist of hidden borrrow-
from Marxism, announced
new ideas,” on which are
ited ideologies long ago ex-
B€d as bankrupt, but now re-
vived in highly deceptive lan-
Buage.

Thus Marc:ise revives Utopian-
He advances it deceptively:
P to now, it has become one
the principal tenets of .. .
an theory, to refrain from
Might be reasonably called
ation.” This, he says, is
‘ictive,” and “must be re-

wever, far from neglecting
thought, Marx and En-
attacked it as an outmoded
ve form of social critic-
y wrote in the Commu-
Manifesto: ‘In proportion
= modern class struggle de-
and takes definite shape,
intastic standing apart from
Contest, these fantastic at-
On it, lose all practical
‘and all theoretical justifi-

ingly, this gives a clue

MARCUSE REVIVES

PIAN VIEWS

to why Marcuse revives Utopian
views. For him, the working
class has been won to a munifi-
cent capitalism, and has become
“a conservative, even counterre-
volutionary force.” Consequent-
ly to Marcuse, the class struggle
no longer exists. A revolution
can take place only by convinc-
ing people who are well off that
their capitalist “affluence” is
really “cruel,” and offering them
a picture of a truly “free” so-
ciety.
e

Ironically, Marcuse’s “Uto-
pian” picture, which allegedly
“improves” on Marx, is nothing
other than a garbled version of
statements made by Marx and
Engels themselves, of what life
would be like some generations
after all class exploitation would
be removed from the world. Thus
Engels projects an existence
guaranteeing to all “the free de-
velopment and exercise of their
physical and mental faculties”

and the emergence of “really hu-

man” conditions of life.

But Marcuse must deny such
ideas to Marx and Engels, and
advance them as his own, be-
cause he uses them in an anar-
chist way. That is, he must use
this picture of a future “free so-
ciety” to berate present-day so-
cialism, which happens to be
growing in a world where impe-
rialism also exists, and is now
staunchly and militantly holding
back the hand of imperialist nuc-
lear war.

Marcuse would like all forms
of social organization in the so-
cialist countries to wither away,
now. Only thus can socialism
appeal to the “new radicalism,”
which has “aversion,” he says,
“against preestablished leaders,
apparatchiks of all sorts, politi-
cians no matter how leftist.”
The initiative, he says, now
“shifts to small groups, widely
diffused, with a high degree of
autonomy, mobility, flexibility.”

@

The result of this kind of arm-
chair ‘theorizing is that the real
imperialist threat of nuclear war
—manifest at this writing, for
example, in President Nixon’s
attempt to escalate nuclear wea-
ponry — disappears from Mar-
cuse’s world picture. Yet this
real threat of war is one of the
most glaring forms in which the
class struggle shows itself. And
the Soviet Union’s policy of
peaceful coexistence has both
marshalled the peace forces of

the world and put imperialism
on the defensive.

But to Marcuse, the policy of
peaceful coexistence is a sign
only that socialism has been “‘de-
flected from its original goals,”
and has yielded to capitalism.
The Soviet Union, to him, has
become wholly “‘a repressive bu-
reaucracy,” and “the competitive
coexistence with the West gen-
erates values and aspirations for
whith the American standard of
living serves as a model.” He
“proves” this by citing a Soviet
policy “to catch up with and
overtake the productivity level of
the advanced capitalist coun-
tries.” This, Marcuse says, is
“false policy” because it uses
capitalism as a “model.” It is to
him one of many examples of
how Communist policies have
turned away from revolution.

Another such example he
points to is “the long-range Com-
munist policy of “popular
fronts’.” The fact that “popular
fronts” marshalled the forces of
humanity against fascism, and in
the end destroyed the armies of
fascism, means nothing to Mar-
cuse.

S

But the brave Marcuse is not
disheartened by the fact that, as
he sees it, both the working class
and the “socialist orbit” have
been absorbed by capitalism, and
are part of its “global domin-
ion.” There is, he says, a “grow-
ing opposition.” This consists of
a “Great Refusal.” He cites ex-
amples of those taking part in
this Great Refusal. “In Vietnam,
in Cuba, in China, a revolution
is being defended and driven for-
ward which struggles to eschew

the bureaucratic administration,

of socialism.”

Apparently to Marcuse, these
countries have no officialdom and
no organized production, because
that means “repressive bureauc-
racy.” He twists their struggle
into one not against capitalist
impeiralism, but against the “old
Left,” which in real life made
these revolutions possible.

Other elements in the Great
Refusal, or true revolution, to
Marcuse, are the surrealist paint-
ers with their deliberate courting
of the “unconscious” and the
dream symbol, as well as other
modern artists who are against
any kind of “form” in art. For to
Marcuse, any are which tries, as
in the great humanist tradition,
to combine “content” with
“form,” only helps add to the sta-

Data processing

growing in G.D.R.

By MARIANNE JAHN

As in all highly developed in-
dustrial countries, electronic data
processing is gaining increasing
significance in the G.D.R.
Research, development and
design can be enormously speed-
ed up by means of data proces-
sing. It was for instance possible
in the field of G.D.R. ship-build-
ing to reduce the time for cal-
culating tasks of design from
200 to three hours. This does not
only produce economic advan-
tages but allows innovations to
be introduced into practice more
quickly and with a higher ef-
ficiency. Production, control and
accounting can be electronically
controlled, too. According to
prognostic estimates of scient-
ists, for instance, 100,000 to
120,000 people will be assigned
alone to the preparation of the
employment and the operation
of data processing equipment.

That is why an _ increasing
number of enterprises and insti-
tutes set up computing centres.
Changed with their operation
originally were employees of the
enterprise who mostly only learn-
ed manual procedures and were
considered as semi-skilled staff.
This made it difficult to secure
the supply of competent junior
staff. According to a vocational
analysis it was therefore decid-
ed in the G.D.R. to train skilled
workers for data processing.
Training for this vocation in-
cludes not only manual’ opera-
tions, but also comprises intel-
lectual work ranging from pro-
gramming to the work with
lagre sequential computers.
This requires a high fun-
damental knowledge in mathe-
matics and physics; therefore

the successful completion of 10
years of school education is the
prerequisite for the conclusion
of an apprenticeship contract.
As the vocation facilitates a
qualification at universities and
technical colleges it became in-
teresting for gifted young peo-
ple. As a result the application
increase from year to year.

In this way junior staff is
provided for this important field
who, beside their good know-
ledge in mathematics and natu-
ral sciences, are willing to qual-
ify themselves constantly as de-
manded by the rapid develop-
ment of technology. Such skilled
workers can also rise to man-
agement positions. A good know-
ledge of their respective branch
of economy, which can be gain-
ed by studying economics is
necessary for this.

According to the principles of
the further development of vo-
cational training, which came up
for public discussion in the
G.D.R. a short time ago, the
“skilled worker for data proces-
sing” is a basic vocation. This
means that the training is car-
ried out in such a manner ¢hat
the skilled worker is available
for the most different tasks and
is able to further qualify him-
self. This corresponds to inter-
national demands on the train-
ing of young people who must
expect to change their vocation
several times in the course of
the coming decades. The skilled
worker for data processing is
well prepared for this require-
ment. The first apprentices,
among them many girls, have
successfully concluded _ their
training in the spring of 1968.

Panorama

Marianne Heimann was among the first young people to con-
clude their apprenticeship as skilled workers for data processing.

bilization of repressive society.
Life really, to him, has no form
or order.

Still another hopeful force tak-
ing part in the Great Refusal, he
says, is that.“‘the student oppo-
sition is spreading in the old so-
cialist as well as capitalist coun-
tries.” Apparently Marcuse hopes
that student revolution will over-

throw the present Soviet Union

government.

If the CIA paid a provocateur
to pose as a “true revolutionist”
and sow confusion, blindness to
reality and ignorance in the
ranks of the Left, it could do no
better than with Professor Mar-

cuse.
Sidney Finkelstein

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MA 969 Pane 9