THE COMING WRITERS CONGRESS
A
CALL TO PARTICIPATE
in a \Vriters Congress, to be held May 1,
1935, in New York City, is being sent to a number of American authors
and will be published in various revolutionary and liberal publications.
This call, which has been endorsed by Theodore Dreiser, Waldo Frank,
Josephine Herbst, Michael Gold, Joseph Freeman, Robert Cantwell,
Erskine Caldwell, Malcolm Cowley, Horace Gregory, and many others,
is printed below.
This congress will represent a synthesis of the experiences of revolu–
tionary literature in this country, and will clear the way for a wider and
more systematic application of our problems.
It
will attempt to unite all
writers who are against capitalism and who are endeavoring to create
a new literature rooted in the dynamics of social development.
One of the richest sources of such experience is the activity of the
John Reed Clubs which, during the past five years, have helped to build
the foundation of a proletarian culture in America. At their last national
Convention, the John Reed Clubs instructed their National Committee
to work for such a broad, united \Vriters' Congress.
The editors at
Partisan Review
not only endorse this Congress but
also offer the pages of this organ for a thorough discussion of the problems
which will be analyzed at this gathering of proletarian and sympathetic
authors. Essays dealing with the problems of style and theme, articles
dealing with the general questions of the relationship of literature to
society, as well as a discussion of the economic status of the artist under
capitalism, will be among the subjects treated and should help to prepare
the basis for sound discussion at the Congress. The very next issue of
Partisan Review
will contain a number of articles on the subjects enu–
merated. The call follows:
"The capitalist system crumbles so rapidly before our eyes that, where·
as ten years ago scarcely more than a handful of writers were sufficiently
far-sighted and courageous to take a stand for proletarian revolution,
today hundreds of poets, novelists, dramatists, critics, short story writers
and journalists recognize the necessity of personally helping to accelerate
the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of a workers' govern·
ment.
"We are faced by two kinds of problems.
effective political action. The dangers of war and
94
First, the problems of
Fascism are everywhere
