But What About the Underdeveloped Countries?

In his review of Milovan Djilas’ New Class, [DISSENT, Fall 1957] Norman Thomas necessarily had to stress the general and very powerful job of debunking which this book has performed. But there is one problem touched upon by Djilas which merits further discussion for the simple reason that it is fast becoming a central problem for the new nations of Asia and Africa: the problem of industrialization in undeveloped countries. It has not yet received enough attention, perhaps because it does not lie in the natural path of Western radical thought.

These brief notes can no more than hint at some aspects of the problem, with Djilas, whose own experience was shaped in an underdeveloped country, serving as a useful witness.

Fallacy No. 1: “Communism is the socialism of the underdeveloped countries.” If Socialism today can be loosely defined as a movement in an advanced industrial society toward a more just distribution of riches combined wi...