The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-12-22
BY SOL AUERBACH

THERE have been journals and
magazines vaguely calling them
selves journals of proletarian litera-
ture, without taking the trouble to
formulate that initial Qualification
and definition of their function and
purpose. Some of these journals
take on nebulous and underlined
form, launching into their project
without first clearly stating their
conception of what pro!etarian art
is, what form such an art takes in
d bourgeois country. Such journals
more often take on general rebel
lious tone, rather than a constcuc-
tive revolutionary one.
| For some time Henri Barbusse
has been formulating his views of
proletarian literature, chiefly in the
Moscow journal, Culture and Rev
olution." Last June Monde" made
its appearance in Paris, under the
direction of Barbusse, and is an at
tempt to put the editors views into
practice. MONDE has an interna-
tional circulation and twenty-five of
its numbers have already crossed
the Atlantic, offering enough ma
terial for balancing of its pro-
fessed purpose with its actual ac-
cQmplishments.
MONDE was launched under a ia
vorable breeze which blew strongly
in one direction. In the first place
Barbussa had already charted the
direction in which the ship must go,
giving it plenty Of motive power in
a concise and uncompromising basis
for its work. In the second place
the writers of the Soviet Union had
already chartered a course and were
we'll on their way towards the con-
ssruction of proletarian literature
in the environment of a proletarian
society.
Barbusse's often expressed wish
had been to create a magazine that
is to present the whole movement
Of revolutionary proletarian litera-
ture, to interpret that new man
the worker-as part of an inter-
national revolutionary class struggle
to overthrow bourgeois society and
replace it by an international chain
Of Soviets. Such literature in its
broad aspects would include the rev.
dictionary struggles of the colonial
peoples, the struggle against imper-
ialism, the struggle of the working
class in capitalist countries, in fact
the whole many-sided and profoundly
deep mass movements shaking the
foundations of the present society
and directed to the construction o.
a new world.
One of the greatest illusions
about proletarian art is that it is
conceived by many people in the old
sense of literary school," with
one writer at its head and with one
technique and spirit. And it is
pointed out that outside of the
Soviet Union there is no. group of
writers which can be definitely
called proletarian, that there are
not many novels which can be
termed proletarian. This is almost
the same as saying that there is no
revolutionary struggle in the bour-
geois and colonial countries, that
there is no international working
class revolutionary movement. For
these movements have already found
their expression in literature and
It should be precisely the function
of such journal as MONDE. if it
: is to properly fulfill it's function as
proletarian journal, to present this
: literature of revolution against cap
italism.
Henri Barbusse very correctly
points out that besides this positive
work of laying the foundation for
the literature Of the future society
by presenting end ooordinating
proletarian literature during the
period of revolutionary struggle, such
journal as MONDE processes to
be must also carry on a relentless
fight against the bourgeoisie in the