How the CIA Infiltrated the World's Literature

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Toyin Falola

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Aug 26, 2021, 10:13:02 PM8/26/21
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https://www.vice.com/en/article/pgp53z/how-the-cia-infiltrated-the-worlds-literature


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Harrow, Kenneth

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Aug 26, 2021, 11:37:58 PM8/26/21
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yeah yeah yeah.
my favorite scholar on this topic is monica propescu, who recently published a book on it. i did my dissertation in the 1960s on three authors, one of whom was Silone, who worked with the journal that was revealed to be funded by the cia. there is an assumption, i don't share, that when lefties discovered they were being published by presses supported by the cia that automatically made them good anti-communists.
in fact the socialists were largely fighting the communist parties by the 1950s when stalin's gulag had become notorious.
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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Harrow, Kenneth

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Aug 27, 2021, 6:21:01 PM8/27/21
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sorry, her name is popescu. her book is At Penpoint,

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Aug 27, 2021, 7:00:59 PM8/27/21
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Ken. 

Many cannot distinguish between socialists and communists. 

Perhaps a clarification is in order here along the lines similar to Oga Cornelius's marvellous clinical differentiation between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims and their origins.


OAA

Let those who believe in majority rule clamor for its practice at the centre in Nigeria come 2023.



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Harrow, Kenneth

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Aug 27, 2021, 8:10:20 PM8/27/21
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dear oaa
i was thinking about the difference in the first half of the 20th century.
when marx began the communist party in mid-19th c, there was a whole complicated history, and it morphed in russia into Bolsheviks, i.e. communists, who believed in revolution, and mensheviks who believe in evolutionary change.
the leftists of today no longer espouse a real revolution. communism was based on belief in a higher stage, according to marx, than capitalism, and to move from the one to the other was like an electron jumping stages in a quantum leap. the leap for marx meant someone stuck in the thinking of the bourgeoisie, the class that owned the means of production, had to shift into being able to see the world like the proletariat, the working class.

we don't have classes like those any more, in the days of industrial capitalism. you might say our ultrawealthy are in a class by themselves. we no longer have industrial working classes and owners like those of the past for most people.
i think, to cut to the chase, the communists were a group, who became a political movement, who sought to represent the interests of the working class, and believed only revolution could serve their interests. that party and movement became joined to the russian communist party after the revolution in russia.

the socialists broke off from the communist movement, did not seek revolution, attempted to represent working class people within a democratic state with parties that could come to power via elections. by the 1950s the communists had become political parties, too, within nation states, but retained their link to the international movement and to the russian, or chinese, dominant communist parties. the socialists were nationalist parties that competed with the communists for workers' support.

the 1950s saw the cold war, but also the discrediting of the stalinist gulag. the 50s really killed western communism as an inspiring workingclass movement; and the socialists became increasingly rose colored, i.e., democratic leftist social-democrats interested in greens and human rights and more social justice, but nothing like communism that abolished the bourgeoisie and substituted a dictatorship of the proletariat. the communists in europe hardly exist., the marxist notion of a state that would wither away with the end of the bourgeoisie instead became in russia and china state dictatorships, the opposite of withering away; and in both cases are enormous supporters of capitalist industries working under the direction of state capitalist autocracies.

the only really decent marxist locations, i would say, are what derrida identifies as the spirit of marxism, which should be animating socialists. bernie's socialism is social-democracy, nothing really like socialism or communism.

there are many versions of leftism today that seek to retain the ideals of early communism or socialism, but animated by liberation movements in africa or latin america or asia. others animated by leclau and mouffe (socialist ideology and hegemony), or hardt and negri's empire seek to modernize the ideals of communism.
i have to quit since i feel less sure of myself with this, but hope others like gloria might take up the banner and give ideas. my own thoughts on this extend over to edward said, frantz fanon, cesaire, cabral, etc, the revolutionary thinkers of the independence movements, but since then i feel less informed in thought animated by marx.
ken

x

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Aug 28, 2021, 9:23:45 AM8/28/21
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Lord Agbetuyi,

Trust me to take off on another ramble...

Whereas ill-informed Americans think that Sweden is in Switzerland and that Sweden is a communist country, that Sweden is or was part of the Soviet Union, the average Swede knows all about Chicago, 419 and what's been going down in Sudan....

You talk about “clinical differentiation“ and I'm oddly reminded of the “no clinical differentiation” in which from some ignorant American points of view, one is as bad as the other or even worse.

I'm oddly reminded of this speech by Imam Khomeini, in which he said,

“Are we to be trampled underfoot by the boots of the Americans simply because we are a weak nation? Because we have no dollars? America is worse than Britain, Britain is worse than America and the Soviet Union is worse than both of them. Each one is worse than the other, each one is more abominable than the other. But today we are concerned with this malicious entity which is America. Let the American President know that in the eyes of the Iranian nation, he is the most repulsive member of the human race today because of the injustice he has imposed on our Muslim nation. Today, the Qur'an has become his enemy, the Iranian nation has become his enemy. Let the American government know that its name has been ruined and disgraced in Iran.”

Indeed, Judaism is very, very different from Christianity. Moses talks about God, whereas with Jesus's followers it's all about Lord Jesus who said to that mitzvah-observant, rich capitalist fellow Jew, “If it's perfection that you seek then sell all you have and come follow me”.

Monotheistic Islam is very different from both Judaism and Christianity.

It's funny that you should mention the Shia-Sunni divide. I was mad when I read the note appended to Michael Winiarski's DN article “Iran's honeymoon with the Taliban could be short-lived”, that

“When the Prophet Muhammad died in 632, a phalanx — those who became Sunnis — considered the most competent person to be the new religious head. The other phalanx, the Shiites, considered the rightful heir to be Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali.”

All we have to know is the machinations that took place at the Saqifah Bani Saedah in Ali's absence. Ali was busy mourning and actually playing his decisive role at the funeral - actually burying his most Beloved Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alaihi wa salaam while some of the tribal chiefs were busy “electing” their new leader of the Islamic nation headquartered in Medina – and of course the very first thing that their “ the most competent person” Abu Bakr did after that was to start forcibly, collecting taxes..

As to the difference between Socialism and communism, for me, the most dramatic difference was brought to light by my wife's father Karl Kilbom : He went to see Stalin, in Moscow ( at the meeting, Stalin had his revolver on the table) - and when dear Karl returned to Sweden he became a Social Democrat ( was a member of the Swedish Parliament for seventeen ( 17) years...

Today, even after the cold war, the Left Party in Sweden still has the shadow of its communist past hanging over it. The walking encyclopedia known as Baba Salimonu Kadiri can tell us more about this.

Isn't socialism supposed to be the last phase of Communism? Or is communism, the last stage of socialism?

I suppose that Professor Harrow the Americano knows best. With all the holiness that comes/accrues with private property, the average American can't think of a more harrowing experience than - God forbid – the United States turning communist. I remember John McCain more or less accusing Barack Obama of a communist agenda because the Brother talked about “ spreading the wealth” And then we had uncle tom jokesters like Alan Keyes joining the fray...

The communist scare, communism as the boogeyman is strongest in the US, followed by the rest of the West and I suppose that the scare is strong in capitalist Nigeria too. This only goes to show how successful the British colonial type education was with most of us. It's not a coincidence that Animal Farm figured prominently in the upper Secondary School curriculum - by the time we were in the fourth form, we had all been so nicely indoctrinated against communism, so that in 1962, I represented John F. Kennedy against Muctarr Mustapha, who's father Mohammed Sanusi Mustapha was then Sierra Leone's Minister of Finance, but Muctarr the orator did a fairly good job representing Fidel Castro's Cuba, at our mock session of the United Nations. Needless to say, JKF's representative carried the day and after the session the US Ambassador came over to shake my hand...

And yet back then the Russians were able to recruit many agents from British student sympathisers who were studying at Cambridge

In my experience, it's worse with African -Americans - with notable exceptions like Angela Davis, African Americans are generally really scared when they hear the word communist. Al Hicks, an African-American photographer in Sweden used to visit me in the mid 70's of the last century, in Stockholm, and he would go on and on and on with his rant about the wicked, evil empire behind the iron curtain. I'd tell him that buddy x was a commie and he'd say, “ That nigger is crazy!” Sometimes he would fall asleep on my rocking chair, his voice would just trail off and shortly after,m would start snoring. Mentally exhausted....

For exile Black Americans/ conscientious objectors/draft dodgers in Sweden in the 1970s their reaction to the idea of “ communism” was similar to whispering “Tonton Macoute” in the ear of a holy, church-going Haitian during the reign of Papa Doc. In addition to that was the general paranoia that this and that brother was “ working for the CIA “.

I also have my private thoughts on the topic being discussed in this thread, socialism in Tanzania, the liberation movements during the cold war years etc and they will all remain private....

Harrow, Kenneth

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Aug 28, 2021, 9:32:36 AM8/28/21
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funny but true, cornelius. the average american knows very very little outside the country. i once was leading a study abroad program in london, and one of the kids who said he was geographically challenged wanted to know if we flew over afghanistan to get there....
true true...

what do you think any american knows about africa, outside the movies?
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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