Latin America: New left

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Latin America and the new left the topic for the eleven hundred
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thousand seventy first consecutive broadcast of the Georgetown University radio
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forum. Another in a series of educational and informative programs
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from Washington D.C. The Georgetown forum was founded in
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1946. This is Wallace Manning speaking to you
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by transcription from the Raymond Rice studio on the campus of Georgetown
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University historic Jesuit seat of learning in the nation's capital.
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Today's discussion will be Latin America. Then you will laugh.
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Participating are Dr. Louis C. i get our associate professor of history at
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Georgetown University and author of Marxism in Latin America
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and Dr. Brady Tyson associate professor of Latin American Studies School of
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International Service the American University. Words
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often change meaning in the passage of time and from region to region. Here
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in the United States the term New Left is rapidly becoming
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familiar. It's said that Latin America our neighbor to the south
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also has a new laptop but is it the same. The
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term New Left in Latin America includes several different groups of radicals.
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These range from groups of students a lecture promoting on Rast to guerrilla groups in the
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mountains. What do they stand for. In order to understand the
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principles of the new laughed we must consider the old laugh in Latin America
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in whose history of crisis the New Left emerged. For such
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examination we have invited two professors who have made an extensive study of Marxism and
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communism in Latin America. We're going to begin by asking Dr. i get our
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what we mean by crisis of the old laughed.
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Well these so-called crisis is a long process and it's very
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difficult to give a short answer to it. But if I have to reduce the point
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to one I should say that what they call the crisis of the old left
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it was basically a crisis of leadership in Latin America
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in mainly in the end of the 40s and the 50s.
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There was a growing sensation in many groups yon intellectuals and writers and
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students that the communist parties in Latin America who usually form the
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own left had in the revolutionary
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leadership and they had failing in guiding the masses to a revolutionary stand they had
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become bureaucratic wise or anything they called them.
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And this is this dissolution with the members of the
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parties of the own left was in my opinion even if I would be it is a
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very complex phenomenon in my opinion was the begin in the opening of
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a new article that could be considered the emergence of the New Left.
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Dr. Tyson How would you characterize your life.
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Mr. Fanning The problem with us is that the term new left already has a
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meaning in this country. Now there is a new left in Latin America but it's
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distinctly different in my opinion from the New Left in the United States.
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The new left in Latin America is a reaction to the particular problems of
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Latin America and our reaction is not ocular has said to the failure of leadership of the
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old left in Latin America. You might also note in passing that there is a difference
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between the old left in the United States and the old laugh in Latin America.
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But the modern new left in Latin America is one that is more radical than the
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old left tired of the caution tired of the theory of
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gathering strength of the old left tired of the bureaucrat
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ization of the old af tired of the dogmatism of the old left. In some senses even
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tired of the conspiratorial politics of the old left they distrust these
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democratic socialist. They want revolution now. They are
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really more Marxist Maoist perhaps than they are Marxist Leninist and they
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see in some senses violence as a catharsis and some ways like France
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manone saw violence. There is a new left. It's not limited to students
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but I would suspect myself that the majority of people who we would call the new left in Latin America
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are young intellectuals.
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How would you characterize it.
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Well I agree partially with Professor Tyson but in one sense I would
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say the real problem is that the new left is the final lesson that in
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America by exclusion those who refuse to belong to the over
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left are members of the new left and then you have or you could
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find they're Trotskyites socialist New Radicals all
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writers like Columbia but simply refuse to be classified.
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They they want a change in revolution and violence but
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they are usually all posed to many things and they refuse precisely
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to have a definite program a concrete objective a classification. And
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that's why the phenomenon of the new leftist saw
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complicated and so difficult to place really.
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Dr. Tyson the fragmentation of the Old Left has given rise to many groups as
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Dr. Aguilar has said it is difficult to distinguish which groups are
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still in the Marxist tradition are the author Dr. Marcus tradition. And which groups
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though heavily indebted to Marxism could be called New Left. In
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fact I think that we've gone along long enough now to be able to say that some groups that
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passed beyond Orthodox Marxism into what we might call new leftism are coming
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back into the doc's Marxism. We see some of the same phenomenon in the
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American left today where a group like the society the STDs
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first was anti dogmatic Marxism and later became just in
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the past year or so reverted to a type of orthodox Marxism. So when
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we're dealing with the new left in Latin America I myself am a little
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uneasy by characterizing those whom the communist parties would characterize as ultra
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leftist are radical leftist or extreme leftists are in a good Marxist term
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adventurist as characterizing them as new leftists because to me
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the term you leftists has a rejection of some of the political aspects of
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orthodox Marxism and as more of an emphasis upon the humanistic
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content in Marxism. To me the group that is most similar to the American
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new left in Latin America is the is some elements of the
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Catholic left groups that emphasize the existential rather than the
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dogmatic nature of the struggle that emphasize the importance of
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achieving participation of people in society rather than
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relying upon the traditional belief in democratic centralism those who
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emphasize the necessity for dialogue and for a cultural revolution. The change is the
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values of a whole society rather than just a political revolution.
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These groups in the Catholic left also share power however with the old
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left and other groups of The New Left. A sense of betrayal is not argue Lars pointed out
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they feel betrayed not only by the old left but by the traditional democratic institutions.
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I think that the sensation of betrayal in our times and perhaps is
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why I and I think that Dr. Tyson mentioned something very important in
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some of these groups become then with the passing of time more
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orthodox sometimes and then they are accused of betraying the left but this is
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because I think the accusation to the so-call there had been
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many times exaggerate the communist parties in Latin America that are being
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dismissed by the New Left as useless and
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all instrument of bureaucracy and that is sold out.
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Is is that an exaggeration and they don't take into account the usual or the history of those
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parties. They forget that this part is worth fighting for.
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Social causes must be for these members of the new live were born under precisely
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some of the lessons that they had learned are still good enough for the new
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left to learn and for example I should mention one point in
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the all left and I I don't like either the terminology of all
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left the left. This all is a very difficult concept but they all left
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when the new wave of guerrilla instrument appear in Latin America when there
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was the idea at least in certain groups that it was enough to go to the mountains and fight to
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promote the revolution. Following what I I think it was in some
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cases the marriage of the Cuban phenomenon. They all left the communist
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parts kept saying this is not so. There are many circumstances that change you
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have to take into account social factors historical factors. Many groups
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of radicals refuse to fall or to leave and listen to them. They went to
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the mountains and in many cases they all left for the ride the conditions were not ripe
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were not favorable and the result was a series of the Sasser or as
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in the case of certain nations. The lesson was also
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forgotten when the conditions are not ready for a revolution. A
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revolutionary attend could produce precisely the a strengthening
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of the right a military coupe or return over dictatorship. What
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I mean is that this attitude of the New Left all worthy of all left
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at least in Latin America which is where I know a little bit more has been in many cases
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exaggerated and distorted the image of these parties.
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You have a good point Luis. One of the characteristics of the new left in Latin
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America and the new left in the United States have in common is a certain
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contempt for history.
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They're tired of reasoning and they're tired of studying. They want action and action
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has become almost an end in itself. You have heard as I have often the
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criticism leveled at the American New Left that they seek agitation for its own
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sake and also of course the charge leveled leveled against the new left in Latin America that
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it seeks revolution as an engine itself. This of course comes from a certain
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frustration a certain disillusionment a certain impatience
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certain loss of the traditional methods of studying in achieving
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revolution. This I historicism as it has been called leads of
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course to the inevitable result of those who do not know history
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repeating the errors of past history and of course the New Left pretending to have
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freed itself from history has only succeeded sometimes in imitating the errors of
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previous groups in the left and trying to measure the
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dimension of the neighbor laughed and they all laughed.
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Could you. Are you able to bring We talk so far you've talk so far and in terms of
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Latin America are you able to bring it down into
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certain countries and give us an idea of relative strengths now.
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Dr. Tyson is very difficult because Dr. ocular has
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pointed out in his book all over Latin America we have a
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rather general situation of repression of the left.
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Not in every country but in most countries. And therefore for those who are not
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immediately on the field in one particular area and who don't have very good personal
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contact it's rather difficult to know what's going on.
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But I would think that the new left in the sense of
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the humanist Catholic left is strongest in perhaps
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Brazil and Venezuela and Chile and that the new left of
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disaffected and university students is strongest
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perhaps in Mexico other than this I am not able to
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make a calculation as to the relative strengths are potentiality of
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the gorilla left of the romantic left those who want. Instant
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revolution and who believe that it can only be achieved through the purifying process of a violent
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revolution. These are the adventure. Remember these words would be the people whom the traditional
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communist parties would characterize as adventurous. We I think it passed
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really out of this phase I would be interested to see a doctor ocular agreed that the
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phase of guerrilla romanticism ended roughly with the death of Shaikh Givati
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before the time before the death of shape. There was the belief that a
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romantic determined group of guerrillas could repeat the experience of a I think
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said turning the Andes into the mystery of the South American continent.
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Do you agree Luis that the phase of brutal romanticism is about over and they were probably in an
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interim period a transition period looking for a new new forms of expression of the left
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in Latin America.
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I don't know if it is over because it's difficult if circumstances change and
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suddenly a guerilla when some subset improve and you'll find a new way of
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guerrilla. But there is no doubt that there is a declining trend in
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America a more realistic approach in many circles to realize what I was
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saying before that the struggle is long. The enemy is not so weak that only 12
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men in the mountains are not enough to defeat a government that even
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today something that not openly bought it was said by the all left
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all the way that the Cuban example is not quite the
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example of a victorious guerilla war. You have to consider the role of the middle class
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the role of the peasants on the labor etc. etc.. But to
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measure what you. Ask about Mr.
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Fanning to measure the force of the New Left. We have to consider this also
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this difficult in and we are sorry we are only having difficulty here.
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There is what I call the pass in support for the New Left which could
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give a wrong impression of its force. The New Left a still or
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what we call new level. These had been gathered from what we are saying have no program
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no programme no cohesion really is more an attitude than a party.
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Now suppose I do take the case of Mexico in a minor group
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provoke a rebellion in the university and because of many of the things they are saying are
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just they haven't mediately vast support of many students and
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then they could give the impression for a let's say a superficial observer the New Left is
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powerful in Mexico. But then the governor to make certain reforms.
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And then suddenly the group remains isolated because the mass of the students
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were just willing to support them. As far as those reforms went.
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And that's what makes so difficult. There are I have seen the same thing in the University of
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San Marcos in total cry again the government a cry again in favor of the president a
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mass meeting. But when it comes a time of action
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then you will suddenly realize that the New Left is still a very
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small group and that is not united by a common program or I even
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there it is a very common objective.
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Aside from the splashing support and right to the matter of the common objective.
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Is there any evidence of an international structure a skeletal
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structure that that is at work whether it might be
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communism or or whatever.
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Well I think that this something that is close to it is what
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Cuba tried to organize with the all of us but one of the
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problem at least for for what I have read even in the Cuban press is that
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precisely there are many radical groups that refuse to join an
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organization and to follow directive because then they consider that they are
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abandoning the traditional or let's say the span of the
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new left I don't know if Dr. Tyson is going to agree with me what
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I say but I think that in certain aspects certain characteristic
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of the left could be are simulated or at least it reminds me
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of the movement the Arcus movement of the beginning of the 20th century was this
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type of reaction let's fight let's obtain this objective let's let's
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make violence for violence but when they were asking labor movement or a political group
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let's organize something and had a common a common party an
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instrument to fight they refused to do that.
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Dr. TYSON I think that there is probably not a serious are effective
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international organization at work but there certainly is a
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transmission a rapid transmission of new ideas and insights and in some ways
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there is a similarity between the problems against which the New Left and
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France Great Britain and Germany protest and the problems against which the
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new left in this country protest and the problems with which the new left in Latin America
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deal. And so there is certainly a good deal of common reading of men like
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Marcous and of the German French student leaders also and of the
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Americans to the New Left leaders. But I would be
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hesitant to characterize it as a as a really conscious movement. I would agree with
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Dr. argue lar that there we have here an attitude. And what
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interests me is the legitimacy of the attitude and the
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legitimacy of the protest. But I get I mentioned the various roles in making a
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revolution. I think that he would agree with me that the
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characteristic and the basic integrity to the degree that there is any are there. What there is
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of it in the New Left is that it is a protest movement based in the
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humanist reaction against the things in society that tend to be thought tend to be
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through acting are impeding the realization of the humanist goals of Western
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civilization. And that the new left in Latin America is
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terribly frustrated group of people longing for answers and who when they are
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able to achieve. Dr. ocular has mentioned some momentary popularity.
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It is because they have seized upon an issue that has become real to thousands
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or even hundreds of thousands of people at a particular time and they have succeeded in articulating
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this need and in giving it some leadership.
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Are they for the most part young.
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Yes they are but of course we have to guard with y'all in the spirit also.
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People that are members of the New Left and you find writers that are old
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and I Mark Hughes himself as the leader are deluded theorists in
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the New Left and his not your own man. Place in chronological as picking but I
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would like to add a point that we usually forget when we speak of the New Left.
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This is not the only crisis of all the leadership of the parties and
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new a structure in society but it is also related at least I think so.
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With the weakening of the doctrinal centers of the Western world
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that is you will find a parallel in the weakening of Moscow and Rome.
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In Rome and the Catholic Church Moscow and the communist parties and this week and in the last
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20 years ago as we all know if you will stand for Marxism in Latin America or
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anywhere and you were against what Russia said in a matter of 24 hours you were
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out you were an outcast you have no right you were not a Marxist you were the scum of the earth.
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Even anyone inside of the Catholic Church with all due respect for the parallel
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had problems also Rome had a stern authority to control every movement.
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One of the characteristic of the last 10 years is the weakening of what I call this
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doctrine and centers Moscow is no longer capable of saying all the fine in
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Who's Who in the Marxist world. And so you'll find that the weakening of the center had
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promoted then the multiplication of individual who refused to be outcast
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who even goes as far as to condemn Moscow as the
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reactionaries and maintain that they are the true of Marxism.
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And this is what I had provoked in certain levels.
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Sondra processional between a rebel priest who is the final thought to be on his
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own zone and in mind says the new man is who is also the find the authority
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of the party or the authority of communism Rome that was Moscow.
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Well I think that we could care even father Dr Aguilar and point out that in our own society there's
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been certain a certain disintegration of the massive consensus of the center
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also. And those who feel themselves legitimate heirs of the
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dream of the United States often find themselves in the new left
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protesting in the name of the values they have inherited against the
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substitution of the dream by bureaucracy by a
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large impersonal system dominated by managers more interested in
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expediency and inefficiency than they are in Father pursuit of the dream.
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Here I think we have another interesting parallel between the new left in this country and the new left in Latin America
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and the new left in Europe also.
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I would like to add that just as a final comment I think
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oh well that one of the trial is at least from my own point of view want to have travel
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in Latin America and I have talked to many of these young radicals many
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times comes to my mind afraid of Ortega said which
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is I think close to the trial you see of this
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lack of objective of the New Left Ortega said the Spanish philosopher
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once looking at the riot in the University of Missouri said or
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wrote you is usually right in
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what it opposes and usually wrong in what it
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proposes. Which is partially I think the
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contradiction and the problem of the new left we all agree that in many cases if you travel not
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in America what do you oppose. They are rightly opposed to
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certain certain factors and circumstances that are evidently
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unjust but the problem is that the opposition sometimes is so
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violent so out of limb and so out of our or us Professor
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Tyson said so out of historical context that it could in danger
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not only the structure that they are opposing But all the value that had been
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acquired and accomplished in that society after a long period of a struggle and not be
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in danger by this opposition.
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You're pointing to the tragic consequences of what's commonly called the
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generational gap. Actually the generations need each other. The
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younger generation needs the older generation to point out errors that have been committed
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and to come up with possible answers. And the older generation needs the younger
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generation perhaps especially in Latin America today because such a great proportion of
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the population is young and such a great proportion of the population is disinherited and
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outside any significant participation in the economy in the social political life of the
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nations. Likewise I think we can also draw another parallel in
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the tragedy of the left. The rupture between the old left in the New Left they too
[24:28 - 24:33]
need each other. If the old left was characterized by an interest in political
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affairs the new left at least in this country and in Europe is
[24:38 - 24:43]
characterized by an interest in developing a new style of life. Actually the new style of
[24:43 - 24:47]
life and new politics are go together and they need each other. An
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interesting thing to me is along this line that in Latin America
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the New Left has tended to seek a leader a charismatic leader a friend of mine had just
[24:58 - 25:03]
returned from an extensive visit in Latin America and he has a new leftist himself
[25:03 - 25:08]
a pacifist an anti-war man and so forth. He comments that everywhere
[25:08 - 25:13]
that he went there were four heroes. Father Camille taught us said
[25:13 - 25:17]
you bottom if you del Castro and Martin Luther King.
[25:17 - 25:23]
Comparing these form in their grading consistencies and as Dr Oculus pointed out this
[25:23 - 25:28]
is another characteristic of the New Left. There is no consistency. There is no
[25:28 - 25:33]
single program there is an ambiguous approach. But there is a desire and a hope and a
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yearning. And if there is a real contribution and I certainly believe there is
[25:37 - 25:43]
the new left house for Latin America it is in this yearning this desire to keep
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searching for an answer for the problems of Latin America.
[25:47 - 25:52]
I should add that in many cases I have
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I think reached the conclusion that in those societies
[25:56 - 26:02]
where the government or the political structure given
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as open Shon also hope that it is the masses of the nation
[26:07 - 26:11]
see that there is the intention to change some of the structure to
[26:11 - 26:16]
accept the necessity of transforming Social Injustice is
[26:16 - 26:21]
the force of the new left is reduced to less isolated groups that
[26:21 - 26:26]
keep on the pressure but are not and that society is not receptive to them.
[26:26 - 26:31]
But in those societies where the forces of change had been
[26:31 - 26:36]
interrupted and there is no hope or there is a thing there is no hope of saying you know.
[26:36 - 26:40]
Then they sort of radicalism this this are the truth of let's let's
[26:40 - 26:45]
go and change and make a revolution no matter what happens then gains
[26:45 - 26:50]
restraint and becomes a real problem for that society. I to say that there are
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parties in Latin America and we don't have time to analyze them but there are groups and part of that are
[26:55 - 27:00]
in the middle that could attract many of the radicals. And I did same time are defending the
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necessity of change without utter destruction of this
[27:05 - 27:06]
society.
[27:06 - 27:11]
On the other hand Luis seems to me that the new left in the old left too has
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been one of the chief purveyors of this very hope that you're talking about because
[27:16 - 27:20]
it's not just open government it's hope for people and if there is any one
[27:20 - 27:25]
characteristic I think that by and the new and old left together it is a
[27:25 - 27:29]
basic long range dream that there is a dignity in mankind
[27:29 - 27:35]
that should not be repressed nor reduced. My hope is not in the moderate party so
[27:35 - 27:39]
much as it is Protestant that I am in the Catholic left and
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especially the extreme Catholic left if you will in Latin America.
[27:43 - 27:50]
Gentleman thank you very much for your discussion of Latin America and
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the new laughed. I thanks to Dr. Luis Aguilar
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associate professor of history at Georgetown University and author of
[27:59 - 28:04]
Marxism in Latin America. And to Dr. Brady Tyson
[28:04 - 28:09]
associate professor of Latin American Studies at the School of International Service
[28:09 - 28:14]
at the American University in Washington. You have attended the
[28:14 - 28:19]
weekly discussion program at Georgetown University radio forum.
[28:19 - 28:24]
The broadcast of which was transcribed in the Raymond Rice studio on the campus of
[28:24 - 28:29]
historic Georgetown University in Washington D.C. next
[28:29 - 28:34]
week you will hear discussed the law the individual and
[28:34 - 28:39]
the common good. The first in a series of four programs dealing with
[28:39 - 28:43]
crime in our cities. Our panel at that time will consist of four
[28:43 - 28:48]
Georgetown University law students. Mr. Barry Portman Society of
[28:48 - 28:53]
Jesus from Texas. Mr. Willie Cooke from the District of Columbia.
[28:53 - 28:58]
Miss Barbara Cohn from New Jersey. And Mr. Barry Drees
[28:58 - 29:02]
from Alabama. We welcome your comments and suggestions
[29:02 - 29:08]
address them to the station to which you are listening. This program
[29:08 - 29:13]
has been presented in the interest of public education by Georgetown University.
[29:13 - 29:14]
Your moderator.
[29:14 - 29:18]
WALLACE banning this program was distributed by the national
[29:18 - 29:20]
educational radio network.