Intellectuals and Revolution
Intellectuals and Revolution
Intellectuals and Revolution
“It is elementary that ‘a superior capacity for material production is the necessary basis for a superior cultural superstructure,’” Cannon writes in this 1961 letter. “Even the Cuban leaders, who don...
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/41254053
Dec. 30, 2025
The following is a 1961 reply by James P. Cannon — national chairman of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) at the time, to a letter and postscript by SWP leaders George Novack and Evelyn Reed about their recent visit with sociologist C. Wright Mills — author of Listen Yankee: The Revolution in Cuba.
The letter by Novack and Reed, which we just published, centered on an exchange of views the two of them had with Mills on the Cuban revolution, as well as broader issues, including Marxism and Stalinism.
The 1959 revolutionary victory in Cuba had a transformational impact, inspiring greater collaboration among fighters for social change who came from different backgrounds and experiences all over the world.
What is striking in this correspondence is the open-mindedness of socialist leaders at the time, the interest in finding common ground with fighters committed to struggle for a world of social equality and human solidarity.