126
PARTISAN REVIEW
In consequence the intellectual gains of recent decades are rapidly
being wiped out. The last war set moving in this country a profound cur·
rent of scepticism in respect to bourgeois values in art and life. Respon–
sible for the finest cultural achievements of the post-war period, this
tendency culminated after 1929 in the radicalisation of a significant part
of the intelligentsia. But now, in the name of a spurious "anti-fascist"
unity, numerous intellectuals are deserting their hard-won critical inde–
pendence. They are giving up their opposition to capitalist exploitation
and oppression, to imperialist domination of colonial lands. They no
longer protest repression and frame-up in this country, in the Soviet Union,
and in other "democracies." They have forsaken the struggle for the right
of asylum. In the name of a "democratic front" against tyranny abroad
they put ·up with increasing tyranny at horne. In short, they have sur–
rendered the right-and duty-to protest all injustice, to investigate all
formulre, to challenge all dogmas, to think through all problems. And
inspired by Stalinist and social-reformist propaganda they advocate a new
war for "democracy." Yet this war must give birth to military dictatorship
and to forms of intellectual repression far more violent than those evoked
by the last war.
Among advanced intellectual circles
in
the United States the most
active forces of reaction today are the so-called cultural organizations
under control of the Communist party. Pretending to represent progressive
opinion, these bodies are in effect but apologists for the Kremlin dictator–
ship. They outlaw all dissenting opinion from the Left. They poison the
intellectual atmosphere with slander. And they have succeeded in imposing
their views and methods on groups formerly independent of the Com–
munist party.
Against these forces we, the undersigned, believe that artists and
writers must unite to defend their independence as craftsmen, indeed, their
very right to work. It goes without saying that we do not subscribe to that
currently fashionable catchword: "Neither communism nor fascism."
On
the contrary, we recognize that the liberation of culture is inseparable
from the liberation of the working classes and of all humanity. Shall we
abandon the
ideal!~
of revolutionary socialism because one political group,
while clinging to its name, has so miserably betrayed its principles? Shall
we revert to a program of middle-class democracy because the Kremlin
government, in obedience to its own interests-which are no longer the
interests of the Soviet people or of the masses anywhere-directs us to do
so? On the contrary, we reject all such demands. Democracy under indus–
trial-capitalism can offer no permanent haven to the intellectual worker
and artist. In its instability, it becomes the breeding ground of dictator–
ship, and such liberties as it grants us today, it will violently revoke tomor–
row. The idea of democracy must come to flower in a socialist democracy.
In the revolutionary reconstruction of society lies the hope of the world,
the promise of a free humanity, a new art, an unrestricted science.
The defense of intellectual freedom requires, moreover, that we reject
