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Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration on CD-ROM Featuring: Doug Dowd (host), Ossie Davis, Cornel
West, Michael Tigar, Adrienne Rich, Harry Magdoff, Paul M. Sweezy, Ellen
Meiksins Wood, and Phillip Officer with David Lewis on piano performing the
songs of E.Y. “Yip” Harburg |
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©1999 Monthly Review |
The compact disc of Monthly Review’s historic fiftieth anniversary celebration contains reminiscences by Ossie Davis, Cornel West, Michael Tigar, Adrienne Rich, and a delightful performance by cabaret artist Phillip Officer of Yip Harburg songs “Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and the “Monthly Review Love Song.” Doug Dowd is your host, and Paul M. Sweezy, Harry Magdoff, and Ellen Meiksins Wood round out the evening, culminating in a tutti performance of the “Internationale” to organ accompaniment. Liner Notes These qualities were much in evidence on the misty spring evening of May 7, 1999. In a packed hall on Manhattan's Upper West Side, five-hundred faithful—inspirited by the support of thousands worldwide—found strength in a rich, courageous past, and reasoned hope for the future. Our celebration in the present moment was but a tick in time's continuum. We had made it. · 1 · From the chance gift of F.O. Mathiessen, to Paul M. Sweezy, one-time Harvard colleagues, in the Autumn of 1948, Monthly Review took fragile root with, as Paul remembers, “a life expectancy of three or four years at best.” From the beginning Paul and co-editor Leo Huberman staked out MR's position, one that was opposed to class exploitation and the organization of production for private profit rather than social need. Its editors and writers maintained that poverty, inequality in wealth and income, racial oppression, imperialism, and waste were permanent and endemic not atavistic or peripheral, features of capitalist society. The task of intellectuals was to demystify the current order as thoroughly as possible, to practice, in contributing editor Paul Baran's words, “the continuous, systematic, and comprehensive confrontation of reality with reason.” It was a grave time for dissent. The reactionary, brutal, and vulgar American variation upon fascism—McCarthyism—had begun to take shape. The sweeping character of redbaiting and its symbolic rites were felt in every corner of society—labor unions, government, publishing, film, television, education—and made the existence of the fledgling MR enterprise all the more surprising. · 2 · But survive it did, indeed strengthened by the addition of Harry Magdoff, after Huby's death in 1968. Magdoff contributed to the already-impressive economic coverage and, still more, to the analysis of imperialism. It may be worthwhile asking what caused MR to win such respect on the broad left and in wider circles. At least five characteristics come to mind: First its plain, no-nonsense Marxism. Sophisticated in thought but simple and modest in style, the magazine strove for clarity and probity. Second, its exemplary courage. The editors stand in the front ranks of American dissenters in the second half of the twentieth century. It has steadily and without fear championed the interests of the hungry, the dispossessed, and the great majority of humankind against capitalism, racism, and other forms of oppression. Third, its astute practicing of political economy. Monthly Review's economic writing sets a commendable example simply in its general sensibility, which has avoided the economic profession's descent into model building, technicality, and mathematical abstraction. Fourth, its ability to put the present into perspective. Assessment of contemporary events is an extremely challenging type of Marxist writing, perhaps the most challenging, and Monthly Review'seditors have been extremely adept at it. Fifth, its proven internationalism. MR not only opposed U.S. military, economic, and political domination over other peoples, but was highly attentive to developments in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East on their own terms. · 3 · These qualities find their echo in the evening's speakers. In his familiar, velvet baritone, Ossie Davis portrays the real-life drama played by him and his wife, Ruby Dee, as actors and civil rights activists in a time of tyranny, whose protagonists were the dangerously real McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover. Harvard educator and theologian, Cornel West, pays tribute to “Paul Marlor Sweezy and Harry Magdoff, two long-distance runners in the struggle for freedom in America.” Trial lawyer Michael Tigar views MR through the prism of law, from De Letelier v. the Republic of Chile—Pinochet's—through his work in South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, memorably quoting Albie Sachs, “All revolutions are impossible until they happen, then they become inevitable.” Poet Adrienne Rich speaks movingly of F.O. Matthiessen as “a great teacher of poetry [who] never let us forget that poetry lives in a social world. He reminded us that there was a world outside of Cambridge and Harvard and Radcliffe . . . and that these matters might be of concern to us,” sentiments exemplified in the poems she reads. The lyrics of one of American musical theater's titans, E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, take center stage next, vividly portrayed by Phillip Officer. His poignant rendition of Yipper's anthems include Brother Can You Spare a Dime and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. He finishes the set with the Monthly Review Love Song, a cheeky tribute to “That wise and effectively / Spoken objectively / Let's love collectively Monthly Review.” Finally, Harry, Paul, and Ellen Meiksins Wood take their turns at the microphone, each with modesty and charm solidly ground Monthly Review in the present. The evening culminates in a tutti performance of The Internationale to the organ accompaniment of maestro Eric Canepa. Throughout the evening, economist and academic Doug Dowd provides a judicious blend of pacing, enthusiasm, wit and humor. · 4 · Paul has often said that Monthly Review is a community, and has been from the start. The list of beloved colleagues and supporters who carried the baton forward includes several who merit a mention. Harry Braverman succeeded Huberman as editor of MR Press in 1968 and brought to it a kind of intellectual sheen that further burnished its prestige. Gertrude Heller Huberman, Sybil Huntington May, and Olga Fields assisted in crucial administrative—and social—roles in the early years. Bobbye Ortiz was associate editor at the magazine for fifteen years and helped to connect MR to Latin America and to socialist-feminist currents. The contribution of Judy Ruben, a person of exceptional warmth and integrity, is signal. Her friendship with MR principals predated the magazine's existence, and her memory—and our affection for her—extend immeasurably. We will add, finally, Aleine Austin, Max Blatt, Harriet Chi, Harold Posner, Rose Rubin. And Linda Mason Briggs. To these and to the many unmentioned heros of our community, this recording is dedicated. · 5 · An event of the size this CD commemorates invariably assumes the scale of a small military campaign. Thanks are in order to many people who lent their talents and simple hard work to magnify its success: Steve Rowland recorded, produced, and edited this recording. His many hours of meticulous effort—enduring the kibbitzing of one well-meaning amateur—cannot be overvalued. Warm thanks, too, to Esther Rowland. She is that rare sterling volunteer and wonderful human being. Special thanks are also in order to Robin Romano, and to Sean Casey for their work recording the event on videotape. The anniversary committee consisted of several dedicated individuals, each of whom contributed time and expertise: chair Kira Brunner, Abigail Anzalone, Wesley Aten, Beth Kling, Vicki Larson, Martin Paddio, Renee Pendergrass, Marta Petrusewicz, Esther Rowland, John J. Simon, and Judith Socolov. We would like to single out for their generosity Carol Bernstein Ferry, John Mage, Joseph Roberts, Lybess Sweezy and Ken Miller. Thanks are in order to the speakers themselves: Doug, Ossie, Cornel, Michael, Adrienne, Phillip, Paul, Harry, and Ellen. You made it a grand and memorable evening. · 6 · Monthly Review magazine together with its book publishing arm, MR Press, form Monthly Review Foundation, a not-for-profit charity organized under section 501(c)3. Contributions are welcome. We may be contacted at MRF, 122 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001. Telephone (212) 691-2555, Facsimile (212) 727-3676, or e-mail mrmag@monthlyreview.org . · 7 · Large thanks to Christopher Phelps whose introduction to Monthly Review Volume 51, No. 1 formed the basis of these notes. — Martin Paddio |
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