406
MARSHALL BERMAN
Marcuse himself, in 'his-next work,
An' Essay on Liberation (1968),
tacitly abandoned this dualistic scheme; but other men, with flatter
minds, have kept it alive.
If
we move forward ir6m1964 t6 1969, and examine the
first
Weatherman manifesto, which came out of the great split in SDS, we
will find some of the same words; but 'in what seems like a different
world. Marcuse's language 'and general scheme are retained: a peo–
ple that is internally monolithic is opposed by radical forces from
"outside." But the Marcusean sociology has been transformed into a
Manichaean cosmology. The Weathermen take the idea of "outside"
force with a crude, grini:'literalism: the basic opposition is one of
geography. "America" is condemned, root and branch, as an "op–
pressor nation" whose sole source of-support is the life and labor of
"the peoples of the world." The American oppressors include not
only the rich, .the owners 6f w.ealth · and property, the bourgeoisie,
but "virtually all
.of
the white working class," blue- and white-collar
alike, who enjoy "privileges; but very real ones, which give them an
edge of vested interests and tie them to the imperialists...." The
Weathermen judge
all
white Americans
~nd
find them wanting,
totally lacking in human potential.
It
is wrong, they say, for radicals
to concentrate on the "internal ·.development of class struggle in
this
country," wrong to work for: better conditions in shops and factories
and hospitals, wrong to fight to "reform [the schools] so that they
can serve the people," for this
kind
of action diverts Americans from
the central issue: "Imperialism is always the issue." The role Ameri–
can radicalism can play is thus radically restricted:
... the vanguard of the "American Revolution" - that is, the section
of the people who are in the forefront of the struggle, and whose class
interests and needs define the terms' and tasks' of the revolution - is the
workers and oppressed peoples of the 'colonies of Asia, Africa and Latin
America.... The Vietnam!!se (and ...the Uruguayans and the Rho–
desians) and the blacks and the Third World peoples in this country
will continue to set the terms for class struggle
in
America.
The only Americans for whom there is. any hope tum out not really
to be Americans at all: "black ' people," the statement says, "are
part of the Third WorId and part of the international revolutionary
vanguard."
Although the Weatherpeoplewrite off all white Americans
with
