A Political Guide to the ABC of National Liberation Movements
n.p. [self-published], [1969]. Corner-stapled mimeograph (8-1/2 x 11 inches). 15pp. Political discussion guide printed and circulated for the Independent Socialist Club of Berkeley, authored by the noted Marxist critic and activist Hal Draper (1914-1990). Draper was a founder of the Socialist Workers Party before leaving in the 1960s to found the Independent Socialist Club of Berkeley after a disillusionment with its trajectory. In this period Draper became heavily involved with the Free Speech Movement, and is considered a forefather of the New Left of the late 1960s and 1970s.
A Political Guide to the ABC of National Liberation Movements is a highly scarce primary document from these pivotal years of Draper's influence on Socialist thought and action of the time -- as of March 2025, only one copy is located in OCLC (at University of Michigan). As Draper reflects in a later introduction: "This document – a political discussion guide – was written for the members of the Independent Socialist Club of Berkeley when the Vietnam War seemed to take a new turn, with the Tet offensive of 1968 launched by the National Liberation Front. For the Independent Socialists, the turn did not entail a different attitude toward the United States’ intervention as world overlord of the capitalist bloc. The club had long been in the forefront of the anti-Vietnamese war movement in Berkeley.
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This “political guide” was designed for study and discussion. It was written in the form of (to use socialist jargon), a “set of theses.” The point about “theses” is to state, in as clear and unambiguous a manner as possible, a position on a more or less complicated question. The aim of “theses” is not necessarily to prove a case, but primarily to state it in unmistakable terms. The young socialists of the Club had heard many things about socialist policy in national liberation situations: the idea was to try to put it all together." Very Good. Lightly toned and creased about edges; text clean. Item #3629
Price: $300.00