kept the ambassador and his staff asnhostages. Walls were heightened at thenAmerican chancery and embassy residence,niron gates were reinforced, thenwalls were topped with barbed wire, andnheavier gates were installed. “We werenall a little nervous,” is the rare admissionnof the otherwise unflappable ambassador.nThe occupation of embassies wasnonly one facet of an increasing lawlessness,nand every law-enforcement effortnby the government was promptly labeledn”repression” by the opposition and itsnadherents abroad.nWhile on a short visit to Washington,nDevine met a colleague who exclaimed,n”Ambassador Devine! The last person Inthought to see alive!” Well, securitynmeasures which only a financial worldnpower could afford had frustrated thendesigns of both ultraleft and ultraright.nDialectics and DelusionsnJames R. Green: The World of thenWorker: Labor in Twentieth-CenturynAmerica; Hill and Wang; New York.nElizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.nAnthony: Correspondence, Writings,nSpeeches; Edited by Ellen CarolnDuBois; Schocken Books; New York.nby Edward J. LynchnWhen he developed dialectical analysis,nHegel provided thinkers of the calibernof Marx and Lenin with historicalnrationale for the political courses thatnthey would advocate. Coincidentally, henprovided a vehicle through which thirdratenminds of succeeding periods couldnwrite formula history.nIn the hands of a competent analyst,ndialectical reasoning looks to the competingnparties, considers the rationale offerednby the opponents for their posi-nDr. Lynch is a special assistant in the Officenof Policy and Resource Managementnof the EPA.n14nChronicles of CulturenBut his embassy was shot at. On one occasionn200 marchers tried to scale its gatenand picket fence with ladders, and as thenMarines launched tear gas against them,nthe mob opened fire on the Marines. Anbomb was detonated outside the gate ofnthe embassy residence, and the buildingnwas strafed with automatic weapons.nWhen, as they were finally retorningnto the United States, the door of thenplane closed behind them, Devine says:n” Suddenly I felt as though a great weightnhad been lifted from my shoulders…. Inrealized that I had always wondered hownit would end, whether Barbara and Inwould emerge alive.” This is the only admissionnthat Frank Devine was, after all,nhuman and worried. But there is not ansingle hint of self-pity in the book.nSoldiers get an occasional medal. Oldndiplomats are allowed to fade away. Dntions, then deliberates the tension underlyingnthat opposition. The skillednhand points to a logical synthesis of thenconflict, usually a result that neithernadversary planned or favored. In thenhands of hacks, or those who have notncoherendy thought through their analyses,ndialectics results in an account ofnone side of the stmggle; it identifies thenplayers while ignoring the reasons (afternall, conscious reasons are epiphenomenal,nand tme motivation is always material),nand predicts the eventual victory ofnone of the combatants. Following thenconquest of those who are now dominated,nall shall live in some form of bliss.nJames R. Green offers his readers angenerous serving of labor-movement historynthat provides a textbook example ofnthe tmncations possible in hack dialectics.nGreen is a half-conscious student ofnMarx whose work reflects a belief thatnone need never be more than half-informed.nHe is writing the history ofnworkers, so he need not learn anythingnabout economics or historical contexts.nThe only animating principle of humannnnexperience involves material urges. Accordingly,nmanagers and business classesnhave the existing material resources, thenworking class wants those resources, andnlabor history consists of a recollection ofnthe successes and failures of organizednlabor in its efforts to transfer “society’s”nwealth from the party of current ownershipnto the party that will mle after thenrevolution.nIn short, Mr. Green tells half of thenstory of American economic history. Ancomplete rendition would have requirednhim to set his figures in context, remindingnpeople that wages that would notnreach poverty levels today sufficed tonbuild the middle class a generation ago,nas Mr. Green’s parents probably couldnhave told him. A complete renditionnwould have included some explanationnfor the expansion of the labor forcenthroughout American history, so thatnthe economy could accommodate the influxnof immigrants and provide jobs fornour own expanding population. Abovenall, he might have considered some othernsocieties for examples of those uponnwhom workers come to depend whenngovernments prevent entrepreneursnfrom performing capitalist activities.nGreen bears the marks of indoctrinationnin contemporary universities, so we mustnassign him credit for some awareness ofnhis intellectual roots. His book is thencaliber of work expected for tenure undernthe publish-or-perish mle and few othernthan his students will ever read it. Hisntome richly merits such puny influence.nMs . DuBois has rendered a service,nhowever, by collecting the writings,nspeeches and correspondence of ElizabethnCady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.nBoth of these women have influencednthe course of American history,nand their words deserve serious examination.nToo many people believe that today’snantifeminists are fabricating thencharges that have been voiced againstnwomen’s self-proclaimed liberators.nStanton and Anthony had no idea ofnthe dialectical tone of their writings, butnthe formula comes through. Wheren
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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