LEON WIESELTIER
The na ture of the Easte rn Eu ropean rebe llions is prec isely wha t
has illumina ted a crucial diHe re nce betwee n Communi sm a nd
fascism . The neo fascist regimes tha t J eane Kirkpa trick is so fond
of have bee n much less successful tha n Communi st regimes a t
produ cing revolts of an organi zed , democra tic working class
a imed a t the creation of economi c democracy. These regimes
(e.g ., Chile's a nd Arge ntin a's) are built a round the viole nt
suppress ion of organi zed labo r. In Communist Eastern Europe,
on the other ha nd , the hypocriti cal M a rxism of the ruling elites is
a n unremitting provocation , in consta nt da nger of being ta ken
seri ously by th e people. Thus, those regimes have genera ted
three exhilira tingly promi sing revolts in twenty- five years, none
of which was a nti-sociali t a nd a ll of which a ttempted a welding
of M arxism a nd liberal democracy .
. It often produ ces demo–
cra ti c soc ialist rebels.
427
This is political theodi cy . There is no ev il tha t cannot be justified in
this way. Racism may be forgiven, because it produced the civil
rights movement ; coloni alism may be forgive n , because it produced
the movements of na ti onal libe ra ti on ; and so on. This is a lso a doc–
trine of salva tion through sufferin g. The societies of the communist
world are told tha t they need the ir long da rk ni ght to be delive red ,
that they must die unto thi s world to live in a better one to come .
The viola ti on o f huma n ri ghts, the regimenta ti on of culture, the
torture a nd murde r of millions - all a re somehow vitia ted by the
"exhilira tin g" epipha ni es of Buda pes t, Prague, a nd Wa rsaw. The
epipha ni es ended, of course, a nd the evil was res tored ; but they will ,
for that ve ry reason , ha ppen again . Is so little reall y worth so much?
Kirkpatrick's excu se for fasc ism is, in thi s res pec t, less troubling tha n
Green's excu se for communism . In Spa in , Portugal , and Greece,
there we re no epipha ni es; there was a re turn , a ra ther durable
return , to democracy. But it is not exac tl y democracy tha t will
sati sfy Gree n . H e wa nts "economic democracy" a nd "d emocra tic
socialism" and "a welding of M a rxi sm a nd liberal democracy," all of
which are ra ther more. These a re noble ideal s. Given the present
condition of life under communism , however , couldn't he se ttl e , if
onl y tempora rily , for something a little less than T awney?
The bes t I leave for las t. It is the
Nation .
It
published thi s whole
deba te alongs ide an advertisement , a halfpage in length , which offers
more instruction about the Left's attitude to communisin , a bout
