James wrote:
I wonder if this last paragraph of Sebastian's does not explain the differences between us: "For me the story of post-second-world-war antisemitism inm eastern europe is not a story about "the others" - it is the story about some of the crimes and mistakes commited sometimes by full hearted and minded communists - Gomulka in 1968! - commited in the name of communism. That's why it is a story dealing with me too. Like the defeat of the german labor movement in 1933 and the complete failure of the german resistance to stop Hitler. I do not belong to that kind of people, inventing themselve anew every morning." I guess if you consider yourself a part of that movement that ruled in eastern Europe, then you have indeed got a lot to feel guilty about. But I am not sure if it is fair to assume that the anti-Semitism that the official 'Communist' governments dealt in was a fair reflection of the attitudes of the people. Indeed, some might say that it was a continuation of that patrician Stalinist attitude that sees the people as irredeemably weak, as a justification of the need for top-down tutelage. If by the "kind of people inventing themselves anew every morning" you mean those honorable Trotskyists and New Leftists that fought against the anti-Semitism of the official Communist movement, then yes, I plead guilty to being one of those, though not since this morning, but for the last thirty years.
---- Your premise is false: Without identifyi ng with the old leadership in the east - and I did not, but in contrary was active in leftist opposition before the end of east germany - I have to accept, that they were coming out of the same tradition, and that there is no clear line between the good and the bad guys in this case, and that a lot of mistakes they made are deeply rooted in the tradition of labor movement in west and east.
But you have no such problems: Your socialism would be interesting, beautiful, with no harm to the people because everytime you would try to do it best. Wladislaw Gomulka was thinking in the same way. Of course you would be more demcratic then Gomulka and so everything for ever would become good.
This corresponds to the assumption, that the - bad - leadership was antisemitic, but the - good - masses were not: This is some of the oldest jokes in leftist historical idealism. Every time I wondered, what such lovers of the masses will do, when theses masses want something different from their good, democratic, ecological, morally grounded, with one word: nice socialism.
Sometimes "the" (= in this case active) masses were antisemitic -and the leadership not - like in the case of the Kielce pogrom. Sometimes the leadership was antisemitic and the masses not so much - in the case of the 1968 antisemitic campaign in Poland. History is full of counterexamples. Everybody who ever worked in real big movement knows it to be a hard job to develop forms of collective selfdetermination - es pecially in a social crisis, when not you - ore "the people"- will decide, what are the problems on the order of the day.
My last remark was about the history, we bear with us, if we want to ore not. But I see, you have no such problems. You only take the good things out of the past - and about all the ugly things made by leftist movements other people should feel "guilty" about. You take the good soviet tanks liberating eastern europe - for the GULAG somebody else should care.
I don't feel guilty.But I know, that I have to learn out of this broken leftist east european history. That's why it is my story too. Not your's, I learned it.
Sebastian
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