The struggle for socialist Gorbachev, nor those around Yeltsin

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There of the National Coordinators of the movements of Soviet working people, created-not only mass nationalist move- democracy and socialism in the USSR.

oppressed nationalities, etc., we believe ments and the powerful independent Miners This is "the bottom line," and we are that these elementary civil liberties have Union, but also incipient socialist van- pleased to see that the comrades of SocialWe appreciate the invitation from Social- been extremely imposant in enabling those guard formations, attempts at organizing ist Action stand shoulder-to-shoulder with ist Action to correct a misunderstanding of organizing independent political activity to other independent unions, as well as us on this fundamental question. regarding recent events in the USSR, pre-struggle in which, democracy increasingly These vanguards are now challenged to It is important that all socialists and radisented in the October issue of your will become counterposed to efforts to quickly find a way to win genuine mass complex and momentous events in the influence." ("Defend and Renew the Gains USSR, critically discussing their ditterent by the FIT leadership scheduled for the statement that glasnost did not create the Defense of Marxism, October 1991, p. 36.) perceptions of what is unfolding, listening Your introduction notes, A statement This view agrees substantially with your of the Russian Revolution," Bulletin in Marxism was furnished to Socialist this, utilizing the greater political freedom tion shares the view of Leon Trotsky— held just as open to learning from each other as October issue of Bulletin in Defense of independent groups but that "the people did As this passage indicates, our organizaAction. " wrested from the bureaucracy." The actual in common today by the international revo- to teaching each other, and being prepared Coordinators does not contain the sentence "The outcome of this struggle is yet to found, the Fourth International-that no there is agreement. The actual theses of the FIT National published passage in our theses states: lutionary socialist movement he helped to to acknowledge common ground when you emphatically criticized: "Glasnost has be determined. While the fighting capacity wing of the Soviet bureaucracy represents Socialist Action readers are urged to send created important incipient groupings— of the Soviet masses cannot be doubted, the interests of genuine democracy, that for our $l pamphlet that includes the resosocialist vanguard formations, attempts at they so far lack mass organizations, such only the masses of the workers and lution referred to above, Where Is the organizing independent unions, nationalist, as socialist workers' parties and effective oppressed will fight consistently for that. Soviet Union Heading? and also to read the women's and environmental movements." unions, needed to organize a successful Contrary to the characterization of our extensive coverage in our magazine, BulFar from believing that glasnost (i.e., defense against the counterrevolution. position in Socialist Action, we feel no letin in Defense of Marxism ($3 per copy), political openness—freedom of speech and "In the more open conditions of glas- confusion over any current in the bureau- which can be obtained from F.I.T., P.O. press) "created" the independent groups and nost, important groupings have been cracy-neither the so-called hardliners who Box 1947, New York, NY 10009.

and EVELYN SELL This is a response to Barry Sheppard's article, "How the American Left analyzed lished in October 1991 issue of Socialist Action. The authors represent the views Fourth International Tendency (FIT).

the FIT National Coordinators position newspaper. make their voices heard and to build a impose capitalism. women's and environmental movements.

[Socialist Action] analysis, we insist—as that only the independent struggles of the workers and the oppressed can establish cal activists give serious attention to the to each other without distortion-being means of organizing society. In order to build a new socialist society, they said, traditional art (which represents the old ruling class) must be smashed and replaced by "proletarian art."

But they were hard pressed to define what "proletarian art" was—if it existed at all. Some in the group pondered whether it simply meant works done by untrained artists and actors from the working class. Others opted for vast crowd spectacles that countered the notion of "bourgeois individualism."

After the Bolshevik Revolution, the earlier movements (such as cubism, futurism, and Proletkult) were synthesized into a movement and style known generally as constructivism.

The more extreme point of view among the constructivists argued that the artist should be supplanted by the "engineer/artist." As one constructivist, Alexander Gan, Are dead Tre is no room for it in a k apparatus."

The prevailing wing among the constructivists proposed instead that artists act as a bridge between art and industry. Most of their designs, however, did not progress beyond scale models. "Art" was often too expensive for a Soviet Union struggling on the edge of famine.

The San Francisco exhibit points out that political repression, rather than natural artistic development, was primarily responsible for ending the Soviet avant garde movement. By the last half of the 1920s, many of the artists had become disillusioned by the continued erosion of civil liberties and the growth of bureaucratism and privileges.

But the exhibit curators fail to mention the existence of a strong opposition movement-led by Leon Trotsky and others from within the Communist Party-to Stalin's bureaucratic policies. Instead, suppression of the arts (and of freedom in general) is treated as a natural extension of "communist ideology."

Despite these gaps in the commentary, and a somewhat cluttered gallery space, the power of the art shines through. On the day I visited, quite a few Russian-speaking people were in the museum. Many of them, like the American-born visitors there, seemed astonished that "communism" could produce art of such vigor and imagination. If you are in the Bay Area, I'd highly recommend a visit to the exhibit.