SNCC-Its Radicalism Is Necessary in South Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. RIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL BADAMO By ANDREW KOPKIND The New Republic GOVERNOR WALLACE has un- expected allies in his efforts to discredit the civil rights move- ment. They are not racists or segregationists or even Southern- ers, but white Northern moder- ates, who have decided that the movement is being infiltrated by Communists and is heading to- ward left-wing extremism. From Wallace, the accusations have little impact. There are scores of billboards on Southern highways showing Martin Luther King at a "Communist training school" and few take them, ser- iously. But from Northerners, the charges suddenly are real, and they hurt. "THE RED issue is the one thing that could break up the movement," a white director of the Mississippi Summer Project said last month. Since then a Pittsburgh rabbi has made headlines in every Southern paper by denouncing civil rights extremists, columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak are howling that the Student Non - Violent Coordinating Com- mittee (SNCC) is "substantially infiltrated" by Communists, and the New York Post's James Wechsler, a perennial poet of lib- eralism, is convinced that mili- tants are "staging an uprising againstthe major civil rights blocs .. . encouraged by a fragment of Communists (Chinese rather than Russian in orientation) ." WHY IT has taken them all so long to discover that the move- ment is extreme in both its con- cept and execution is not clear. Civil rights leaders, and par- ticularly those in the South, have been proclaiming their radical in- tentions for five years or more. Before the marchers left Selma for Montgomery, King's most cau- tious and conservative adviser, the Reverend Andrew J. Young, told them: "Actually, we're at war. We're trying to revolutionize the political structure of America." Perhaps it is only as the move- ment is increasingly successful in the South-as it has been during the last year-that its meaning becomes obvious. When the first sit-ins began in Greensboro, N.C., and then in Nashville, Tenn., in the spring of 1960 they were denounced by old- er leaders of the movement (which was hardly a movement at all in those days) as tactically too dangerous. DR. KING himself withdrew support from the Freedom Rides in 1961, and it was not until a month or so ago that Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo- ple got around to agreeing that demonstrations were a valid tactic in the civil rights war. Recent critics dosnot misread the signs: The history of the movement has been arecord of its evolution f r o m Tomism through tokenism and gradualism to militancy and radicalism. However, the critics do misun- derstand what is happening and for two reasons: generation and geography. STUDIES OF the battles in left- wing politics of the thirties and forties, or factionalism within the International L a d i e s Garment Workers Union do not shed much light on the current conflicts within the civil rights movement. Terms of the thirties simply do not apply today. SNCC, which is rightly consider- ed the most radical civil rights group, bears little resemblance to the popular-front organizations of a generation ago. SNCC is part of the "new rad- icalism," or the "student left," and is closer to Mario Savio than to Marx. It is anarchic rather than monolithic, social more than eco- nomic, downward-pointing rather than pyramidical in organization It is supremely undisciplined. There is no plan, no program. SNCC'S MAJOR effort in the South this summer is "Let the People Speak" conferences, held in several states and then, per- haps, regionwide. "We want the people to tell us what we can do. We'll do anything they tell us," said John Lewis, SNCC chairman. SNCC's leaders avoid rather than command the publicity spot- light. Bob Moses, the brilliant young Negro who directed the Mississippi Summer Project is, so anti-leader that he has changed his name and has slipped out of the state. SNCC despises the "cult of per- sonality" which has surrounded King, and the leader-worship within his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SNCC kids mock his Baptist rhetoric; they dislike the way SCLC "tells people what to do." MOSES'S IDEA is to keep SNCC workers in a Southern town only until they can help the local Ne- groes organize their own protest movement, and then leave. Now, SNCC field workers are clearing out of Mississippi, having spawned dozens of indigenous ac- tion groups and a statewide anti- establishment political party. There are no doubt those in SNCC who have read Marx, and some socialist theory may inform their political ideas, as it does for almost everybody these days. IT IS A far cry from interpret- ing that vague longing for social and economic equality and the rather pervasive anti-establish- ment behavior as evidence of a Communist plot, or imminent Soviet or Maoist takeover. Since Russia is now so firmly part of the establishment, Maoism or Castroism probably are closer to the romantic yearnings of the SNCC kids who bother to think about it, but there is no evidence that Mao or Castro are taking ad- vantage of their young fans. There is no Manchurian can- didate in Mississippi. THERE IS, however, the be- loved Fannie Lou Hamer and her fellow zealots of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The MFDP got 80,000 votes in the mock Freedom Election of 1963, and 60,000 in the mock Congressional Election last year, surely more than other radical political party would pick up in any election in the U.S. The MFDP originally had the participation of most of Missis- sippi's older and most respected Negro leaders. Its chairman is still Aaron Henry, the president of the state NCAAP. But in the past two years, the bigger names and oldersleadershhaveifallen away, and the new leadership has little respect for the traditions of political compromise. THE CRUCIAL moment was the Democratic National Conven- tion in Atlantic City, when most of the other civil rights leaders and the Democratic Party opera- tives tried to convince the MFDP to accept the very large political concession which it had won. Acceptance meant giving up the claim to be the lawful Mississippi delegation in exchange for two national MFDP delegates-at-large, and a promise by the convention to exclude discriminatry delega- tions in future years. SNCC alone was against the compromise; the MFDP delegates refused. - Their point was that they had no interest in, or hope of assimi- lating into the Democratic estab- lishment. They wanted to de- molish it. It was rotten to the core, not just eroded here and there. They believed in their rights to political power, and they wanted them in 1964, not at some unnamed future date. Despite a masterful plea for compromise by Bayard Rustin (who ironically is head man on Wallace's personal list of unre- constructed civil rights Commun- ists) the MFDP decided that rights delayed were rights denied. SNCC'S RADICALISM is its own, not of another society's or another generation's making. To understand the Southern Negro's radicalism from Washing- ton or New York is impossible. The current crop of critics are not only too old-fashioned to make sense out of the movement, they are also too far away. In their March 28 broadside at SNCC, Evans and Novak quot- ed "an aggressive young Snic worker" at a civil rights strate- gy meeting: "You people just don't know what it's like down South." The worker's impertinence was compounded, they said, because he spoke not just to any old North- erner, but to "respected liberals who were crusading for civil rights before he was born." WHAT the "respected liberals" do not know is that in the South a Negro rarely sees a friendly white face. Worse, he never meets a white Southerner who will treat him as an equal. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an inevitable development because the Negroes are not allowed to assimilate into the white world. It is a mercy that the revolt of the outcasts is not more viol- ent. It is a civil rights truism that wherever the movement goes, the community is polarized. Mod- erates evaporate, because their role has been built on the foun- dation of white paternalism and black Tomism which the Negroes must destroy to achieve equality. SNCC is a Southern organiza- tion working in the South. The "respected liberals" of the North never see the conditions in which they work, or what they are do- ing. They see King in Stockholm or San Francisco but they do not see a SNCC worker in Amite County, Miss. Evans and Novak think that "SNCC and its leaders are really not interested in the right to vote or any attainable goal." They are dead wrong. Only SNCC, in fact, working through its Mississippi alter ego, the Council of Federat- ed Organizations, has bothered about voter registration, county by county, with the threat of white violence always in the air. SNCC has organized the Negroes in Mississippi and has helped them form a political movement as King has never done, and as the NAACP has never even considered. In terms of local action, SNCC (with help from the Congress of Racial Equality, which is only spottily in the South) is the only successful organization. THERE MAY COME a day when radicalism in the movement pass- es white liberals by, and there are some who are working to keep it far hence . But there is a danger in the growing gap between Negro expec- tations and achievements. Legisla- tion will in itself do much to change the lives of Southern Ne- groes. As frustrations grow, so will the demands for radical ac- tion. Many civil rights leaders think that the problem in the North has only begun to be un- derstood. If the ghettoes explode, the white liberal critics will look back at SNCC radicalism as the mildest of manners. IT EMBARRASSES some lib- erals to have extremists working for the same causes they support. And the presence of politically suspect characters in the move- ment gives sincere but uncommit- ted Northern whites an oppor- tunity to damn the whole civil rights effort. But there is a good way to make the movement moderate and "re- spectable." The Confederate flag still flies above the capitol at Montgomery, andethere are no Negroes in the white waiting room at the bus station in Jackson, four years after the Freedom Ride. The successes of the past few years have been won by increas- ing militancy and more determin- ed radical action ,and there is much further to go. No one can make a security check on every SNCC worker who comes to the South this summer, and it would be difficult to enforce a uniform Chaplin's Last Movie: Comedy with a Purpose At the Cnema Guild "MONSIEUR VERDOUX" IS a fitting climax to the Cinema Guild's summer program. It was the last movie Charlie Chaplin ever made, released in the United States in 1947. What makes Chaplin's films so brilliant is that they cannot be categorized. Is "Verdoux" a comedy? But it's about a mass murderer. Then it's serious? The movie's too funny. It must be a propaganda film. But for what party, what creed? "Verdoux" is serious film that uses comedy to present Chaplin's creed. Monsieur Verdoux (who resembles The Tramp only in his use of the human body as an instrument of grace and comedy) is a mild- mannered ex-bank clerk. During the depression he lost the job he had held for 30 years. And so to support the wife and son he loves, he turns to a more lucrative and less monotonous occupation: he marries rich, middle-aged women, murders them, and plays the stock market with the money. THE BASIC IDIOM for conveyance of the theme is contrast of the ultimately uncontrastable. Verdoux, the suave, heartless murderer, is a vegetarian. Verdoux, who can woo the ugliest of women, passion- ately adores his beautiful but crippled wife. Verdoux severely re- primands his son for pulling the cat's tail-"You have a cruel streak in you, I don't know where you get it." As always, there are several great comic moments. One of Ver- doux's 14 wives is played by Martha Raye. They do marvelous comedy together. In one scene he tries desperately to drown her, only to be thwarted by a group of picnicking yodelers. This movie has received almost no distribution in the United States for many reasons. Chaplin had fallen into much disrepute for his po- litical statements during World War II; his paternity suit didn't encourage fan loyalty; the country was loathe to surrender The Tramp; Chaplin had intended to shock and indict everyone; and a boycott campaign was led by the Catholic War Veterans and columnist Westbrook Pegler. The theme of "Verdoux" is that both good and evil are produced by the same beliefs and creeds. Verdoux says that murder is only busi- ness carried to its logical conclusion. He defends himself in court by pleading that in terms of the modern world he is only an amateur at mass murder. THE FINAL SCENES are rife with philosophizing-artificial;An some instances. But Verdoux does turn away the priest, who tells h to repent of his sins, with a classic line-sin is everywhere, "what would you be doing without sin?" It is easy to see how Chaplin antagonized everyone with this movie. People must recognize themselves in it: their hypocrisy and adherence to a double ethical standard as well as the gap between what they are and what they appear to be. After all, nice people feed stray cats. Verdoux fed stray cats. Does that mean that perhaps I could ...? --MALINDA BERRY Racial Discrimination: TwO Approaches At the Campus Theatre DUFF ANDERSON (Ivan Dixon) is colored but he is also a man. His problem is his pride, which will not allow him to be a "yes- man" to his boss, or to let debasing remarks about his wife pass by. It is about the episode of his marriage that "Nothing But a Man" centers. Duff does not climb on a soap bo and plead for integration; rather the movie speaks in its own tone, neither a shout nor a whis per, but a narrative. Of course, the narrative is shocking in parts: Duff does not remember either his father or his son. And social commentaries about, whites ("they don't sound human, do they?" "They can reach in with their damn white hands and turn you on and off.") are abundant. Still an artistic judgment, the restraint of their suppressed passions and unspoken words, saves what some would make into a soap opera. Dixon 'and Abbey Lincoln, who plays his wife, exemplify this analysis with their love, one which develops not to violin accompani- ment but to the rock sounds of Motown. Not only the acting and.mu' sic, but the photography (using hand cameras which move the pie. ture with the action) emphasizes Duff's greatest achievement, when he admits. "I feel so free inside." "ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO" has a more controversial theme, that of mixed marriages. Julie Collins (Barbara Barrie) mar- ries Frank Richards (Bennie Hamilton); she is white, he is black, The treatment of this theme is so delicate that only the most ob- vious and perhaps naive points are communicated, i.e., colored people have a hard time, or love conquers all, even racial prejudice. The love between Julie an Frank is too sugary and as childish as the title of themovie. In fact, the whole treatment is based on chil- dren. The judge asks Julie's daughter about her colored brother. "Of course he's different. He's a boy." Out of the mouths of babes., maybe. But the primary question of raising a child in a mixed house- hold is loudly proclaimed and then left unanswered. BOTH "NOTHING BUT A MAN" and "One Potato, Two Potato" have racial difference as their topic. The first ranks considerably above the second, yet seeing and comparing the two can be profit- able. But don't miss "Notling But a Man." -FRITZ MILLEIL This WayneWes tern Has Paunch, .Punch At the State Theatre WHEN ONE THINKS of America, one can't help but think of the Flag, Mother and John Wayne It's tradition. So put them all together and they spell Western. "The Sons of Katie Elder" is another in the long line that John Wayne has ridden along. You take the rough-tough but good-at-heart ALL AMERICAN boys and the over-zealous Government official carried away with the power of his job, add a lot of low down bad guys trying to take over the town (the outside agitators so to speak), and you've got the general plot to any one of several recent John Wayne films. THIS TIME IS IS the sons of poor Katie Elder. all good boys that sorta neglected their mother and return for her funeral to find "All is not Right." Wayne, slightly full of paunch rather than punch in this one, is ably assisted by Dean Martin and James Gregory. Martin, excellent in the classic Rio Bravo (also with Wayne), is a perfect counter for the Tall straight clean cut power of Wayne. He slouches, mumbles and runs, and is generally low down but lovable. Gregory is the perennial villain, slick, sly and ever too sharp. Martha Hyer is another in the series of wasted actresses that are 1 Twenty Years After: Knowledge and Wisdom TWENTY YEARS AGO today, the B-29 "Enola Gay" dropped an atomic bomb onto Hiroshima. A second bomb was drop- ped three days later on Nagasaki. 105,000 people were killed, about 110,- 006d seriously injured. In Hiroshima four square miles of homes were leveled. For years, those who were unlucky enough to be nearby have suffered from internal bleeding and other more grisly effects- sonie carried to the next generation, at least. What does it mean? What does it mean today, when countries are armed with weapons that can sear 800 square miles in one fraction of a second and which can probably destroy the human race? What does it mean to this generation, which came into the world about the same time as the reality of nuclear warfare? IT MEANS LITTLE in reality, though it should mean a lot. Despite the con- stant assertion in Sunday supplements and women's magazines that this genera- tion is deeply shaken by the imminence of immediate and useless death, this gen-. eration is as capable of shallowness as any other. Education, communication, increased leisure time, and political freedom have led to a new, more knowledgeable ignor- ance: "the bomb is there, but why do I have to think about it?" The reality of the bomb is "hanging over this generation's heads like a nu- clear axe," as one writer put it. Yet every- time this generation looks up, where the bomb should be instead are skyscrapers, new satellites and the traditional sky. Twice, when the United States and the Soviet Union stood chest-to-chest over Cuba in 1962 and this year, when loud and strange noises come over the sea from Southeast Asia, the reality became more real to most people. Yet even today, with 125,000 troops committed to Viet Nam, there is still a widespread reluctance ±rn 'svnif thal- ini Ppidpnt < Thhno '. dent political activities draw only one out of a thousand students. Good football games, in contrast, draw closer to two out of three students. But political awareness is not the an- swer. The basis' of the ostrich attitude is not political but intellectual and emo- tional. Has this generation faced the reality of the 100,000 dead Japanese of 20 years ago, or the more important reality that it is now training to make similarly fate- ful decisions? Have today's leaders pre- sented a rigorous, convincing and prac- tical manner of facing these decisions? Probably not. Wisdom has not caught up with knowledge, ethics has not caught up with science. Until a few years ago, for example, almost all research money- federal and private-went into the physi- cal sciences. Then money began to be spent on scientific studies o fthe humani- ties, as in the University's Institute for Social Research. Yet the big money still goes into the cyclotrons and Minutemen while things'like the physical, chemical and "other" complexities of the human brain are sadly under-researched. EVEN PHILOSOPHY is in a sad state to- day, leading to several different dead- ends or to a new traditionalism no less dogmatic than the old. The study of matter may have excelled in the last 100 years, but the study of mankind has lagged far behind. One reason the atomic bomb was, drop- ped on Hiroshima was the fanatical de- votion of some of the Japanese leaders -an admirable but outmoded attitude. The United States has been criticized be- cause, the critics say, the bomb was drop- ped due to some kind of "administrative inertia." The weapon may have been con- siderable but the wisdom of the society was not. VET THE LESSON of the fireball 20 I # _. _ .