Dan Cloak
Berkeley, California

Revolution in the Air is a must read for anyone who was associated with the New Communist Movement (NCM). Max Elbaum recounts the rise of that movement from the ferment of the '60s, its consolidation in the early '70s, and its splits, decline, and demise through the late '70s and '80s. The presentation is balanced and well-organized. The analysis is carefully considered and scrupulously fair. The storytelling lacks flair, but the style is straightforward and makes it easy to digest the alphabet soup of NCM organizations and parties.

In the book, Elbaum identifies attributes the NCM's failure to create a mass revolutionary movement (or even a sustainable Marxist-Leninist party) to three major causes. In the introduction, he notes that a rigid, simplistic, and ultraleft conception of radical politics afflicts communist and non-communist radicals alike, and notes that the NCM "...shunned the true broadmindedness and flexibility of successful revolutionaries in favor of a narrow and mechanical perspective...." Later, the author shares the insight that US politics were shifting sharply to the right during this same period, and states that the failure to accurately assess U.S. society and the changing political situation doomed the revolutionary project. Near the end of final chapter, Elbaum identifies democratic centralist party structure, Maoism, and orthodoxy as leading the NCM into sectarian dead ends.

I agree with the first two points, but don't accept the critique of the movement's "orthodoxy." NCM members shared the belief that Marxism-Leninism -- i.e., the methodology of dialectical materialism and the lessons accumulated from its application worldwide -- provides the best framework for planning class revolution in the U.S. The Marxist tradition encourages flexibility and broadmindedness precisely because it emphasizes rigorous critique of competing ideologies. Much of the Communist Manifesto is devoted to criticizing other forms of socialism; each advance since -- whether Engels' attack on utopianism, or Lenin's critique of imperialism, or Mao's analysis of classes in Chinese society -- was borne from heated battle against backward ideology within the workers' movement. (Indeed, as Lukacs argues in his 1922 essay "What Is Orthodox Marxism?" the value of Marxism is precisely its methodological orthodoxy.) At its best, the NCM brought together talented people who shared materialist precepts, were dedicated to class struggle, and realized that a disciplined organization was necessary, even as they argued the fine points.

As Elbaum documents, the abandonment of the Marxist-Leninist party-building project never lead to a flowering of new ideas nor a sustainable left unity. Instead, ideological eclecticism begat further disenchantment, disorientation, and dissolution. Today, the fractionalized movements for peace and social justice are pretty well purged of Marxism, but whether anarchist or Green, they are still prone to all-too-familiar ultraleftism, rigidity, and political naivete.

Elbaum is much closer to the mark when he notes how NCM organizations tended to substitute sloganeering and imported doctrine for rigorous analysis and debate. It was this crudeness and anti-intellectualism, not the emphasis on achieving a correct political line, that undermined the NCM's early promise.

The other, positive "lessons" Elbaum draws from the NCM -- such as the need to make the antiracist struggle central to organization-building -- are invaluable and deserve study by veterans and new activists alike.

Revolution in the Air is particularly timely as the antiwar movement is growing rapidly and trying to gain its ideological bearings. The NCM's story, which Elbaum has made so accessible, is certainly worth reviewing now.