THE AGONY OF THE AMERI-
CAN LEFT, by Christopher
Lasch, Alfred A. Knopf, $5.95.
The ‘agony’ in the title of this

book derives from the sense of

acute frustration that has
caught the intellectual commun-
ity by the throat.

The times urgently demand
that they go Left— but how,
with whom, toward where?
“Why do we find ourselves...
without a program for change?”
Lasch asks, or laments.

And why, he asks further, has
the Left never managed in
American politics to maintain
itself as a distinct force with
power to influence events in a
significant way? Why has the
Left always been absorbed and
finally digested by the Estab-
lishment?

It’s Lasch’s contention that all
hitherto existing Left, socialist,
Populist, radical movements: of
the past doomed themselves to
futility because they failed to
evolve a functional ideology
rooted in American history,
American conditions, reflecting
the actual needs and aims of
the American people.

This is a serious accusation.
If true, it’s high time we know
it. :

But it’s important that we
agree on what the past .really
was, because if we can’t agree
about that we’re doomed to re-
peat the same mistakes—grant-
ed that all that’s involved here
is a question of “mistakes.”

Lasch apparently thinks so.
He accuses the past radical
movement among other things,
of committing the cardinal sin
of bedding down with European
political theories, among which
he includes Marxism, out of
which he feels issued, and could
not help but issue, the misshap-
en, unrecognizable political
bastard child which was spurn-
ed, and rightly spurned, by the
American people. “By the mid-
dle twenties,” he -writes: as a
result, “American radicalism
had acquired the characteristics
it has retained until the present
day: sectarianism, marginality,
and alienation from American
life.”

e

The question here is, then,
assuming the description of the
illness is. correct, whether the
cause for it is also correct?

This is important if your aim
is to build something new by re-
pudiating the old. But here,
Lasch, though he severely criti-
‘cizes the New Left for its ro-
mantic infantilism, its lack of
functional ideology, for its theo-
retical innocence, repeats their
basic error, it seems to me,
when he implies so obviously
that the “failure of the Left in
the past was due primarily to
subjective factors” —or worse,
to allowing themselves to be
misled by a foreign ideology,
j.e., Marxism.

The duty of the revolutionist,
he also seems to preach, is to
make revolution. That is, he
seems to believe in a large mea-
sure of voluntarism; of lifting
the Left by its own bootstraps,
of improvising as events trans-
pire, though it is exactly of this
he accuses the’ present New
Left. For though he promises a
program he comes through with
none, unless it’s a resurrection
of an updated Keynesism.

: e

The fatal flaw in his new
ideology, if it can be said to be
new at all, lies in at least two
factors. One is the almost total

-from the “professions, in sec-

‘ge gaat Ll j|__|_|_ i 1)_8 |

With whom? _
Toward where ?

innocence of objective analysis
—of any significant conscious-
ness that the action of any poli-
tical party, and certainly of any
Left—certainly Socialist—party
must be based upon an objective
reality which has been scientifi-
cally estalished and is not sole-
ly a response to a given and
perhaps temporary, develop-
ment. :

A political party, like the
Church, must be founded on a
Rock. Not on sand. And, it
seems to me it’s germane to ask
whether it’s really a rock Lasch
is hoping to establish a new
party on in the coalition of lib-
erals and radicals, drawn mainly

tions of suburbia, in the ghetto,
and above all in the university,
which more than any other in-
stitution has become the center
of radicalism”?

©

Lasch sees no significant role
for the working class, and none
whatsoever for the Communist
Party or any political move-
ment which comes under the
stigma of the “Old Left.” And
that certainly is his second
major flaw.

For though he states boldly
that the goal of the new class
will be to establish. socialism,
he mentions the word gingerly

‘and quickly adds that there are

so many different brands of so-
cialism around these days it’s
impossible to settle on any one.
The effect of his daring com-
mitment to socialism as a result
falls almost unfelt on the read-
er. In any case, in the absence
of a working class foundation,
how can any socialist party ex-
pect to exist as anything but a
political ghost?

Nevertheless in the course of
his arguments, Lasch disposes
not only of the “good” old Left,
but also of the old “anti-Com-
munist” Left, which held sway
during the McCarthy period,
and many- of -whose_ dragon-
slayers turned out to be on the
payroll of the CIA.

This is all to the good —
though one can’t avoid the sus-
picion that but for the grace of
a later birthday, Mr. Lasch him-

~_ self might have been one of the
_old “bad” Left. But he’s not.

He’s one of the new-new Left.

And why not? It’s obvious
that the liberal-radical forces
now at loose ends need some
sort of organizing force. But
though Mr. Lasch indulges in
some bold rhetoric about social-
ism, it seems to me what he’s
really calling for is a new New
Deal. And in his anguish over
the sense of the loss of leader-
ship in the death of Bobby Ken-
nedy, Rev. Martin Luther King
and silence of Sen. Eugene Mc-

. Carthy, he is re-living the death

of FDR whose passing left such

a vacuum in American liberal
life.

—Phillip Bonosky

Daily World

this summer . . .

TRAVEL TO U.S.S.R.

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(includes travel costs,
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accomodation, 3 theatre
performances, reception)

August 25—September 15

QUEBEC - USSR ASSOCIATION
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| PACIFIC. TRIBUNE—JULY 18,,1969—Page 6.

Ukrainian singers, dancers and musicians displayed their talents
in many cities of the Russian Federation this spring. The opening took
place in Moscow’s House of Unions with a film Festival. Ukrainian
artists and writers met with Muscovites in the city’s best movie thea-
tres, palace of culture, clubs, in the factories and plants, at higher
educational establishments and at the astronaut’s town.

A literary evening took place in Moscow and the official closing
of the festival was at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.

Long before the opening of the Ukrainian Festival, a series of
television programs about life in the Soviet Ukraine was shown on
the U.S.S.R. network. Five concert performances were televised direct-
ly from the concert halls during the event. Millions of people from
all corners of the U.S.S.R. had an opportunity to acquaint themselves
with the arts of the Soviet Ukraine. Photo above shows members of
the Veriowka Folk Choir in Moscow.

a

Czechoslovak amnesty

The President of the Czecho-
slovak Socialist Republic Lud-
vik Svoboda, availing himself of
the prerogatives given to him
by the Constitution of the
Czechoslovak Republic on May
27, 1969 has granted an amnes-
ty in favor of all Czechoslovak
citizens who have, without per-
mission of the Czechoslovak
Authorities left the country
after May 9, 1968 or have stay-
ed abroad. The amnesty applies
also to those Czechoslovak ci-
tizens who have, in the ‘same
period, asked foreign author-
ities for asylum.

Czechoslovak citizens who
came to Canada in the period
after August 1968, are seeking
in increasing numbers various
information from the Czecho-
slovak Embassy in Ottawa and
the Czechoslovak Consulate
General in Montreal. For this
reason the above mentioned
Czechoslovak Authorities in
Canada give the following addi-
tional information on the sub-
ject:

Czechoslovak statesmen em-
phasized several times during
past months that-the observa-
tion of legality and the iegal
security of all Czechoslovak
citizens remains one of the basic
and inviolable principles of the
Republic. In this connection
those Czechoslovak citizens who
had left the Czechoslovak terri-
tory without permission after
August 1968 were advised to
the effect that they could return
home without fear and rejoin
the creative work in the country.
Many Czechoslovak citizens an-
swered these appeals. Already,

before the amnesty was _ proc-
laimed, about 12,000 of a total
of 40,000 Czechoslovak citizens
who had left the country after
August 1968 requested the res-
pective Czechoslovak Author-
ities to legalize their temporary
stay abroad, declaring at the
same time their intention to re-
turn to Czechoslovakia. In Can-
ada, of a total of about 9,000
Czechoslovak citizens, - 1,500
have already made requests to
bring their stay abroad into har-
mony with -the appropriate
Czechoslovak laws.

Many of these citizens have
already returned to Czecho-
slovakia and continue now in
their studies or work, in most
cases in the same positions as
before going abroad. Others
have not yet made the decision
to return, not only because they
are under the influence of false
information concerning the de-
velopment in the country but
also because they are afraid of
prosecution following their de-
parture from the country and
staying abroad without permis-
sion of the Czechoslovak Auth-
orities. As a matter of fact, no
single case of legal measures
have yet been taken in conse-
quence of the illegal travel
abroad or stay there. On the
other hand, the Czechoslovak
people and Government are not
indifferent to what happens to
these Czechoslovak citizens and
the amnesty granted by the Pre-
sident of the Czechoslovak So-
cialist Republic, Ludvik Svo-
boda, on May 27, 1969 is firm
evidence thereof.

The Preamble of the text of

Ss

the amnesty decision stir
as the principal goal © ie
humanitarian measure 0 tate
Head of the Czechoslovak ADs
to facilitate to the greate® ie
tent possible the return ene!
country of the above me? Me
Czechoslovak citizens. T9® je |
of the decision concerniNe,
amnesty declares very

that those citizens WAC ou!

Czechoslovak territory 8 of
permission after May 9, ray’
without such permission 5 itted
abroad and who comm 5 de’
thereby the criminal act “inde!
sertion of the country f the
paragraph 109, 1 and 2 “colt
Czechoslovak Criminal ‘ney

shall not be prosecuted
return to the territory oF 15
Republic before Septe™P™ vat
1969 or, in cases which 5° or
rant, bring their further 1” hay,
ary stay abroad into hea rhe
before the same date, W! jaws
appropriate Czechoslovak sion!
The two above men jp
Czechoslovak Authorities fo!
Canada are fully availa sjov™
assistance to the Czech? y cat
citizens in order that the? ot!
make their decision in thé ~ nity
est time possible in COM geo
with the respective ~
slovak laws and in spirit f th

decision of the President © ga
Republic concerning a
nesty. ech?

The attention of those i fal

jt?

-

slovak citizens, who W® 4
to bring their stay abron esl”
harmony with the vali ine fot
slovak laws is drawn tO i ght!
that the appropriate et re?
be then made fully appli@ i
them.