Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index

Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive


Fourth International, December 1943

 

Manager’s Column

 

From Fourth International, vol.4 No.11, December 1943, p.322.
Transcribed, marked up & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL.

 

We have received a number of letters during the past period which pay the highest tribute to Fourth International.

New York:

“The October issue of Fourth International continues to meet the function of a Marxist theoretical magazine – to equip revolutionary cadre and the working class vanguard with an understanding of each new turn in world affairs and the class struggle at home.

“With the outcome of the war decided by the preponderance of the Allies, the question of ‘What kind of a post-war world?’ comes to the fore.

“John Adamson in his Post-War Preview competently submits the program of the Allied ‘democracies’ to analysis. The trend toward totalitarian government at home, the unrelieved continuation of imperialism abroad – this is the program of the American and British ruling classes. Against this program of stark reaction on a world scale, Adamson counter-poses the liberating program of the working-class – world socialism.

“In reviewing The Machiavellian (James Burnham’s latest book), Joseph Hansen draws a profitable and interesting comparison between Burnham’s ideas and the ideas of Lawrence Dennis, America’s self-styled fascist theoretician. Burnham proves what Marxists have always asserted – that the intellectual and the middle class must serve either the interests of capitalist reaction or follow the program of the working class. Since Burnham has rejected the ideas of Marxism, the arrows of his ‘intellectual progress’ all point, as Hansen demonstrates, to the extreme right.”

****

Chicago:

“Enclosed is 25c for which please send me a copy of the February 1938 issue containing Trotsky’s article, 90 Years of the Communist Manifesto.

“Your September and October issues contains ome very illuminating information which is quite a relief from all the canned news one gets in the daily press, etc.”

***

Scotland:

“... You can have no conception of the tremendous assistance the journal Fourth International gives us in our work. When the few copies that are sent do arrive, there is an immediate scramble for them and sometimes it is unavoidable that we miss the occasion to read them thoroughly and have them by us for reference.

“Most of us in Glasgow are young and inexperienced, especially politically, and since funds and time do not permit the more advanced comrades at the center to come up here often, it means that we ourselves have got to and mean to undertake the task of building the Fourth International. But it is precisely here that we come up against the snag of our lack of knowledge. We are doing all the reading we can but especially for lectures, which we take in turn to give once a week, we find that there is nothing to touch Fourth International to give us in concentrated form the material we require.

“We feel that if we had at our disposal bound copies of the old numbers of Fourth International or files that we ourselves could get bound that our tasks would be much easier. Can you possibly do anything for us in this connection?”

****

Canada:

“Enclosed is money order for five bucks for support of Fourth International and The Militant. I received two copies of the September issue of Fourth International and put them to good use.

Post-War Preview by Adamson in the October FI cuts the fog like a light. Wright’s article on Soviet Life in War Time is good ammunition against the renegade labor progressive party here.”

***

We again want to call to the attention of our readers the fact that our stock of bound volumes is rapidly dwindling. As the volumes for earlier years become scarce, the prices will go up accordingly.

 
Top of page


Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index

Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive

This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Trotskism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.

Last updated on 27.8.2008