The real foundation of this homogenous, writers of the contrary persuasion. Amis cannot have heard of Paul Johnson. The evolution of this egregious publicist illustrates, with the extravagance of caricature, the new political bearings of the intelligentsia, An opponent of Castle's In Place of Strife in the late Sixties, Johnson now specialises in crazed polemics agunst the labour movement and all who, by word or deed, imperii civilisation" and historic guardians, the middle class. Only one circumstance muffles his reactionary clamourings: the decline of the journal which, disgracefully, continues to tolerate him as a director and contributor. The circulation of the NS has plummelted in recent years, giving the strongest evideno of all that Labour's traditional intellectual periphery is now in crisis.
Fighting Back The new situation is both dangerous and fertile. Dangerous, because despite the organisational gains of recent years, the new Marxist tendencies are not yet firmly established in the labour movement; a co-ordinated ideological assuult by the Right could set them back ten years. And since the decomposition of Fabian culture is much further advanced than the decline of Labour polities, the balance of forces is likely to remain disadvantageous for some time. Fertile, because the possibilities for a Marxist intervention in the national culture are wider now than at any time since the Thirties.
Given its present composition, however, the Left is ill-prepared for defence and counter-atlack. Factional divisions form one obvious hindrance; more serious in this context, however, is the curious division of labour that structures the three distingwishable formations of the Left intelligentsia today. 1. One is overwhelmingly theoretical in focus; versatile and productive in their own fields, its representatives incline towards acadenticism and show definite list to Stalinism in one or other of its current forms. 2. Political militancy is the hallmark of the revolutionary Left; but this is too often accompanied by dogmatism, and leads too many militants to a "hyper-activist distrust - mounting to anti-intellectualism -of theoretical work whose implications for action' are not immediately obvious. 3. The third — and largest — is best represented by London's Time Out: generically anti-capitalist, but with no coherent perspective to order the discrete 'issues" that concern it, this formation is most consistent in its support for radical currents in the arts.
These formations overlap in important ways, but by and large they lead seperate existencies, communicating infrequently and none too fluently.
The implication of this (admittedly) crude schema is this: before the Left can mobilise its full cultural fighting strength, it must find a means of organising it, for the first time. Ultimately, what is needed is a new, non-denominational organ capable of cen tralising our resources for a sustained struggle against cultural reaction. Meanwhile, certain intermediute forms must be devised, to provide the revolurionary Left with a means of combat and of selfpreparation. The question of its relevance to 'action* has already been posed and answered — by the Right. China Readingsedited by Shurmann, Schell, Milton and Milton.
Vol. I: Imperial China 80p Vol. II: Republican China 95p Vol. III: Communist China E1.35 Vol. IV: People's China E1.95 Penguin Books The first three volumes of the China Reader were first published in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War. They aimed at providing a comprehensive survey Chinese politics, ideology and society in popular and readable form, drawing on both Chinese and foreign sources. Typically, they are dedicated to the Faculty Peace Committee? and plead for US imperialist commitment to reform. For if reform fails, the polarisation forces may come into being, with the US fighting on the side of the reactionarics: They also stress that students of Chinese affairs should not only analyse material and act as a technical advisor for those who make the decisions. (but also take a rational and moral posicion oo issues. These volumes provide a well chosen and highly readable introduction to the social and political crises which led to China's three revolutions of 191l, 1925-27 and 1949. They present alternative views on Chinese history from the Ch'ing dynasty 10 the People's Republic, connected by a general commentary . The fourth volume, first published in 1974, deals with China from 1966 to 1972. It gives overwhelming prominence to the views of the Chinese bureaucrats and their publicists. In this sense it is a product of the Nixon ere and the beginning of Sino-American rapprochement. But Mao and the Chinese leaders — including the recently toppled gang of four', all of whom managed to muscle their way into this volume as prominent repres entatives of the 'Chinese people hardly the best commentators on this recent period of Chinese history, Rather than fork out £1.95 for it, readers would do better to borrow Livio Maitan's brilliant Army, Party and Masses in China (published by New Left Books at £8) from their local library.
GREGOR BENTON BOOKS RECEIVED ¡Wention In this poturin does noi abruce apossibilllyof areview insolare asue Underground Notes by Mihajis Mitajon, ES 20 AK.P:
Kert Mars, Selected Writings, cited Dr The Spiral Asaeed by Edward Upward 05.50 Hainemann!
An Intantile Disorder by Nigel Young The Tamarisk Tree ty Done Ruasell, E1.35 An Exe to india by David Sepourne, £1.50 Chilean Volcas br Down Henley an Bemaco Bori(Eas! t2.05 Harvester Women's Liberation in Chine ly Claudie Antonio Granisel Dy Alastair Davidson МаРІнкя. india: A Wounded Chilisalion by V.S S3CDU Love of Worker Sees by Alexanars