Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in New America, the newspaper of Social Democrats USA, in July 1985. It had been presented in January 1985 as a speech to the ‘Democratic Solidarity Conference’ organized by the Young Social Democrats (YSD) …
Editor’s Note: Max Shachtman (1904-72) was expelled from the Communist Party in 1928 for Trotskyism. He broke with Trotsky in 1939 to found the Workers Party- Independent Socialist League (1940-58). From 1958, he was a leading figure in the Socialist …
The following conversation was taped toward the end of August, 1968. In addition to BAYARD RUSTIN, the well-known civil rights leader and Executive Secretary of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the participants included IRVING HOWE, editor of Dissent; Tom KAHN, …
Within this issue we print some comments on the riots by Bayard Rustin, comments with which I agree. We shall also have before long the inevitable, and hopefully useful, studies by the sociologists. While awaiting their reports, however, we need …
The first year of the effort to reinvigorate the League for Industrial Democracy has been completed. It is time to take stock. When Michael Harrington was named LID Chairman in September, 1964, and a young staff took over the office, …
The following article is adapted from a speech delivered at a conference of “Turn Toward Peace.” I will be talking about direct action as a nonparliamentary, nonelectoral form of struggle for social change—that is, as a political act. I mean …
Now that he is dead, we must resist the temptation to idealize Malcolm X, to elevate charisma to greatness. His voice and words were cathartic, channeling into militant verbiage emotions that might otherwise have run a violently self-destructive course. But …
The civil rights movement has entered a critical period. Without new tactics and fresh approaches, its future success is by no means assured. The struggle for freedom may be eternal, but specific movements never are: they adapt and prosper, or …
The success of the March on Washington is now a part of American history. But its ramifying effects on the civil rights revolution will be long in unfolding. Certainly the moral impact of the March was incalculable. As one of …
The spontaneous movement that erupted out of Greensboro last year is laboring forth an ideology. This is a difficult period for so young a movement, especially one relatively lacking in politically sophisticated leadership. The students are further handicapped by an …