A VIEW FROM AMERICA ALTHOUGH the university protests did not really go beyond the confines of the university; and the wildcats, etc., have not, for the most part, gone beyond the confines of the workplace; and the ghetto and prison uprisings have been isolated from the rest - each provided moments of insight into potential for life. Those of us who experienced a few of those moments have had the opportunity of coming face to face, on a concrete level, with our own desires, and the possibility of recognizing the relationship between their realization and individually motivated collective action. We glimpsed, if only momentarily, the joy of real radical participation, the disillusion of isolation, the excitement of self-activity, and the exhilaration of real collective activity. We experienced in ·our own way (albeit on a minor scale) the advances and defeats which have been experienced in an all-encompassing, intense manner by the revolutionary proletariat in its moments of struggle over the past se,venty years. Each occupation, strike, street fight, etc .. in its own way, challenged existing authority, brought about the spontaneous development of organs of selfmanagement and self-directed activity, and in some cases tended toward the overcoming of previous ethnie, racial, sexual and other divisions and the development of real solidarity. (In this respect the Attica prison uprising and the Lordstown, Ohio, auto workers' strike, among others, are noteworthy.) Every confrontation, in its revealing of naked power, has tended to dispel the illusion of isolation and the created illusion of solidarity. In victories and in defeats, it becomes possible to recognize the global meaning of deception and self-deception, the lies of the status quo and the lies of the traditional opposition. Although we wanted to have nothing to do with the arguments of the past, s!nce we considered them irrelevant, we saw and are still seeing in our midst (in all of the struggles and confrontations) the reemergence of the old anarchistcommunist debate. This is because ·the issues are real, although -neither side has been able to demonstrate a full understanding. of the underlying aspirations, much less a full judgment as to what is to be done. The preconditions for revolution, as defined by the various ideological sects ~ in terms of former failed revolutions - never exist. The ideologists, like the proverbial •generals, always prepare for the last war. No wonder they are always taken by surprise. According to the «professional» Ieftists, 23
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