The Treason of the Intellectuals
James P. Cannon
Drafted: 1947
Source: Fighting for Socialism in the “American Century”; Reprinted from The Militant, New York, 1947 (c) Resistance Books 2001 Published by Resistance Books 23 Abercrombie St, Chippendale NSW 2008, Permission for on-line publication provided by Resistance Books for use by the James P. Cannon Internet Archive in 2003.
Transcription\HTML Markup: David Walters
The following article appeared in the Militant, May 24, 1947. In it Cannon indicts those leftist intellectuals of the 1930s who had made their peace with capitalism, often becoming rabid right-wingers. But he stresses that those committed intellectuals who throw in their lot with the revolutionary workers’ movement can play a key role. Marx, Engels, Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky are outstanding examples.
[ "Whatever became of the revolutionary intellectuals—and why? What happened to the numerically formidable aggregation of cogitators and problem-solvers who challenged capitalism to a showdown fight in the unforgotten ’30s and appeared to be all set to mount the barricades with fountain pens unsheathed?
Time was when it seemed that a section of the American intelligentsia, quartered in New York, was at long last preparing to emulate that renowned band of educated people in Western Europe and old Russia who so bravely revolted against the spiritual stagnation and decay of bourgeois society, abandoned their own class in disgust and contempt, formulated and popularised the socialist doctrines of the proletariat, and placed themselves at the head of its emancipation.
Alas, the hopes aroused by the vociferously uttered challenges of the American intellectuals proved to be immeasurably greater than their capacity to fulfil them. The contrast between their showing and that of the revolutionary intellectuals of Europe and tsarist Russia is appalling to contemplate. The latter went ahead of the workers’ movement, organised it, supplied it with ideological weapons and inspired it to strive for great goals.
But here in America the radical intellectuals—with only a very few exceptions—abandoned the mission they had undertaken just at the time when the workers, rising out of nothingness, moved under their own power to create gigantic organisations which boldly engaged in head-on struggle against the most powerful monopolists. Great class battles have taken place, and more momentous ones are in preparation. The workers are on the march. But all is quiet on the intellectual front. The imperialists “pacified” that sector without a fight.
The American intellectuals didn’t simply step out for a rest, like tired warriors nursing their wounds after a hard campaign. They quit before the fight got really started. They took it on the lam. They deserted and betrayed. Their well-advertised revolt against capitalism ended 'not with a bang but a whimper'. " ]
