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From Labor Action, Vol. 14 No. 24, 12 June 1950, p. 5.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the ETOL.
To the Editor:
We come bearing glad tidings: Gustav Eckstein is loose again!
Readers of Labor Action familiar with his revolutionary rhapsodies will not want to miss his latest revelations in the March–April issue of the Fourth International.
They deal with Moby Dick, which Eckstein solemnly assures us is a parable of the decline of capitalism, written in 1851 by Herman Melville, who “penetrated so deeply below the surface of capitalist society that it took nearly 75 years before the crisis of world capitalism could make people begin to see what he was driving at.”
It’s a pleasant delusion, and since we are ones for encouraging minor manias as adding a needed diversity in a rather prosy world we would like to suggest a series of articles on Melville’s writings. Something like the following should prove satisfactory:
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Typee: Melville on the Problems of the Colonial Revolution. Omoo: Melville, the Utopian Socialist. The Confidence Man: Melville bn Primitive Accumulation. White Jacket: Melville’s Theory of the Self-Mobilization of the Masses. Billy Budd: Melville on the Material Basis of Bourgeois Law. I and My Chimney: Melville on the Housing Question. Israel Potter: Melville, Theorist of the General Strike. Thar she blows, Gustav! Lower away! |
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