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From Fourth International, Vol.6 No.12, December 1945, p.354.
Transcribed, marked up & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL.
Robert Birchman’s article Class Struggles in Nigeria, which appeared in the October Fourth International, was reprinted in full in the November 3rd issue of The Greater Omaha Guide, a Negro weekly with a circulation of 14,000. To our knowledge, Birchman’s article is the only full account published in the American press of the important anti-imperialist struggle in Nigeria.
Another FI article on colonial struggles, which has been in great demand because of interest in the Indonesian struggles for independence, is The Dutch East Indies by P. Van Vliet, which appeared in the May 1943 issue. Sylvia Stein, New York Educational Director of the Socialist Workers Party, reports that educationals on Indonesia have been given in three of their branches. The speaker obtained background material on the economic conditions, the rise of the Nationalist Movement, and the trade unions in Indonesia from this article.
As a result of recent reviews of FI articles in The Militant, we are receiving more and more requests for our magazine. From Solway, Minnesota, comes a request from a reader for the October FI, containing the article on the Situation in the Far East by E.R. Frank. R.E.W., Milwaukee, also sent us 25c for this same issue, mentioning Frank’s article. Two other readers of The Militant, one from New York, another from Hamilton, Ohio, ordered the November issue.
We now have an agent in Baltimore, Dorothy Lessing. In requesting a regular bundle order, she says
“I am hoping that by December we can raise the order, but for the present do not want to take more than we can use and pay for.”
Patrick O’Connor, our agent in Akron, sent us an analysis of newsstand sales for the first nine months of 1945. Sales reached their peak with the July issue. This issue was so much in demand that we have not one copy left in our files. We would like our agents and readers to send us any copies of the July issue they can obtain. They will be very much appreciated.
From Chicago comes a request from Hildegarde Smith for additional copies of the October issue. In this city too, newsstand sales are on the increase.
* * * *
Many readers have enquired about the illustration on the cover of the November FI. The painting reproduced is by Diego Rivera. It depicts the Red Army passing in review before Lenin and Trotsky. It commemorates the annual parade in Red Square which is held in honor of the October 1917 Revolution.
We have received favorable comments on the brightening up of the magazine with Laura Gray’s drawings. Her cartoons are already familiar to readers of The Militant.
Letters from our readers at home and abroad:
D.S., New York, writes at length about Trotsky’s article in the September FI, Nationalism and Economic Life:
“It contains a lucid Marxist analysis of such basic problems as the meaning of nationalism fascism and imperialism. The bourgeoisie is breaking its neck on the basic problem of our epoch – the profound conflict between the ever growing forces of production and the national economy which is too small for these productive forces. Trotsky points out the only real solution – the organization of the world under the leadership of the world proletariat, which liberates the forces of production in a Socialist United States of the world.
“Trotsky’s prediction, made in 1934 when this article was written, that if this was not done in time, mankind is bound to go through another world war, has horribly come true.
“The FI is to be commended for reprinting this invaluable document.”
From Britain:
“I write to you on behalf of a small group of Fourth Internationalists in South Wales. We send our greetings and best wishes.
“It is with great interest we read of your activities in the stronghold of capitalism, and feel sure you have a tremendous part to play, and will play it in the class struggles which are already shaking thefabric of that capitalism.
“America has become the leader of world capital superseding Great Britain, but we in this country have an equally great part to play particularly when one remembers that it is the workers here who must lead the European workers in the coming period; the Social Revolution in Europe will need the fullest possible support from us.
“We have been fortunate in getting a few copies at various times of your fine magazine Fourth International and odd copies of The Militant which have been of great help to us. The material in the FI in particular is very valuable in view of the shortage of theoretical material available here, and we look with envy at the lists of books you have published, above all those of Comrade Trotsky.”
An Argentine subscriber writes:
“Everyday we are more active in the unions. The work of two years is now showing results. The contact with the workers is closer everyday. Some new leaders, genuine representatives of the working class, are arising.”
J.W., in India, requests a subscription to the FI:
“I have been in India for a few months now,” he continues, “and would have written sooner but this is the first regular address I have had. The Socialist Appeal and other Revolutionary Communist Party publications arrive here safely and I receive regular news from comrades of activities in England. The FI will fill in the gap in theoretical discussion.”
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Last updated on 11.9.2008