I was a faithful reader of the Guardian from way back in the 1950s .... I read it through all the turmoil of the 1960s and beyond --
I had also been a reader of SING OUT --- and do remember Silber's "Open Letter to Bob Dylan" -=-= which was of a piece with Israel Young's "disillusionment" with Dylan when he allegedly turned his back on his friends from the Village days --- (leading to Dylan's rather nasty Positively Fourth Street) --- Irwin wanted Dylan to keep in touch with his political roots and his open letter was unfortunately (this is all from memory) somewhat heavy handed --- (it wasn't terrible by the way --- Irwin wanted to continue to dialogue about Dylan's work by printing one of Dylan's most recent pieces --- Dylan of course cut Sing Out out of any future publication of his work.) It was clear that despite Irwin's fears, Dylan never lost his political focus === see HIURRICANE, for example --- When Irwin got to the Guardian, he threw himself into cultural criticism but also became very invested in the various sectarian struggles that ultimately led to the Guardian's demise and the fragmentation of the "New Left' into various New Communist Groupuscules (sorry for the snarkiness there) --- he and Barbara ultimately opted for a "new Communist movement" called the Line of March --- A lot of his movie reviews were actually quite stimulating and interesting but I think in the end, he wanted to make a bigger splash and reached too high --- in 1970s America there was no possiblilty for a "new Karl Marx" to emerge --- but many tried .... My $.02 based solely on memory --- (there probably are some good memoir type writings about the various internecine struggles in the Guardian during the 1970s!! -- Louis probably has read them all!!) (Mike Meeropol) > _._,_._,_ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#2284): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/2284 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77325238/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
