The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-10-11
W ar and Fascism Main
Topic of John Reed
Club Natl Conference

THE national meeting Of the John
Reed Clubs, held in Chicago last
week, opened with the reading Of a
radiogram which had just been re-
ceived from the Secretariat of the
International Union Of Revolu-
tionary Writers. Greeting the con-
ference in the name Of the world
revolutionary literary movement.
the Secretariat called upon the
members Of the clubs to give the
best Of their creative powers to the
task Of fighting fascism. war and
reaction and building a socialist
culture in America" All discus
sions and proposals at the John
Reed Club conference centered
around this major task.
Alfred Hayes, who presented the
opening address for the writer's,
commission, stressed the same prob
lem. Indicating that the conference
was essentially part of the wide
spread campaign led by the Amer
lean League Against War and Fas-
cism, he pointed to the neces-
sity of the cultural movement
breaking down its sectarian APP
proach, in order to win large sec
tons Of the American intelIectuals
in the fight against the twin mon
sters Of modern capitalism.
The other members of the writers
commissions unanimously denounced
the "leftist" character Of aspects
Of the revolutionary literary move
ment. They on d m n e d the
would-be critics who alienated SYM
pathetic writer's by demanding that
they become revolutionary role-
tartan authors overnight. They at
tackled the sectarian snobbism that
frequently prevents intellectuals
from joining our cultural move
ment. They directed a collective
diatTibe against the Ieftist charac-
ter Of some Of our creative writings,
which frequently consist of uncon-
Yincing, sloganized tracts disguised
as poetry and fiction. Together they
showed that living revolutionary
literature could grow only out of
genuine aesthetic recreation Of the
class struggle.
A B. MAGIL, who was one of the
n j. r. C. delegates at the Khar-
kov conference in $780, pointed to
the advances of our revolutionary
literature in the struggle against
leftism since that historic meeting;
at the same time he indicated the
danger of the opposite tendency,
which is expressed in the failure TO
differentiate between non-revolu-
tionary literature and the body of
revolutionary literature itself.
Jack S. Balch dramatized the
sectarian approach of the move
ment towards sympathetic writer's
by showing how several of them
had been frightened away by ex-
trenist tactics Meridel lie Sueur
presented a rich, moving analysis
Of some of the problems involved
in the creation of revolutionary
fiction. Wallace Phelps discussed
the role Of the J. R. c. magazines,
showing their effectiveness as lit
erary organs and demonstrating the
Importance of their creative re-
portage. Philip Rahv dealt with
the lessons of the Soviet Writers
Congress-
These opinions were endorsed by
the writer's commission. which in.
cluded Jack Conroy, Jack S. Balch.
Meridel lie Sueur, Mark Marvin.
Paul Romano, Maurice Leon, Bill
Jordan, Richard Wright. William
Pillin, Nelson Algren. A. B. Magil.
Philip Rahv, Wallace PHELPS. Al
fred Hayes and Orrick Johns. For
the first time, number of rev.
dictionary writer's from various
sections of the United States were
able to discuss collectively some of
the basic questions that confront
contemporary American revolution
airy literature.