Peekskill, USA - Fast
indicts American fascism
HOWARD FAST, famous American
writer who went to gaol
in the cause of peace, has powerfully
recorded one of the most
significant events in American
history in his fine literary work
—Peekskill USA.
It is a simply told "personal experience,"
but under the pen of this
giant of modern novelists the story
stirs and inspires heights of thought
and feeling seldom reached in the
reading of any novel.
At Peekskill, the suburb of New
York, from August 27 to September
4, 1949, Fast says ". . . the
whole struggle in America was crystallised
in the actions of a few
days. In that brief time, the fascist
forces rallied to their plans all
the rotten and lumpen elements
they could command. In the same
time, the working class rallied and
organised itself to halt fascism, to
defend the Negro people and to join
with the Negro people in common
defence. The fact that this was
done in terms of a cultural event
built around one man who stood
for the peace movement in America
and for progressive culture in
America, deepened the whole significance
of the action."
That "one man" was Paul Robeson
and the "cultural event" was
to have been a concert where this
great artist was to sing his songs
of peace and freedom. But the
concert that took place was not a
recital of Robeson's warm songs, but
"a special music that had played
its melody out in Germany and
Italy."
Fast was to have been chairman
of the concert—instead he became
the courageous and able leader oi
the concert-goers' struggle against
the unexpected fascist attack.
Of particular interest to the Australian
reader is Fast's description
of the American police and their
"neutrality" which enabled the fascists
to attempt this "mass lynching".
On the other hand, when so
many thousands attend a protest
meeting in Harlem, and the police
are completely outnumbered, Past
brilliantly ridicules this "change of
nature." „
"There were the police," he writes,
"almost a hundred of them, caught
between the crowd inside and the
crowd outside, the guns
and stayed—there the they were.
'Oh. that was something to see,
almost a hundred New York City
cops in a spot like that—indeed,
that was something to see. I have
never seen the like oi it before in
New York, nor since, such quiet
cops, such genteel cops, such silent
cops, each one of them standing
quietly and politely right in his place,
eyes on the ground, nightstick
clasped unostentatiously, their whole
attitude being, 'Just don't you dare
notice us at all, because we're just
here because we have to be here,
dtoty and all that, you know; but
after all. New York's finest, and
who else takes children across the
street or finds them when they're
lost?' Yes, that was something;
and I could only think of the French
police when the working class of
Prance comes out in all its mighty
power—and at such times the
French police assigned to cover the
demonstration stand very still, eyes
on the ground, neutral in the best
tradition.
Yes, there are many things about
this book which is of special interest
not only to the Australan
working people but to all who believe
in peace and freedom.
It can't happen here", Fast and
his friends said on the eve of Peekskill—but
happen it did.
The book is not a "complete factual
itemisation" of the event, but
only, as Fast says, "What I saw with
my own eyes . . . and my own conclusions."
None the less it is surprising
that in his observations and
conclusions, Mr. Fast fails to draw
the clear connections between the
fascist tendencies in his country
and the Truman's Government's foreign
policy of expansion and conquest
through war. And more surprising
still, when one considers the author's
courageous participation in the
American people's struggle for peace
and freedorfi, is his failure to show
the growing strength of the people's
movement since Peekskill, not just
in America but more particularly on
a world scale.
Because of this
there is a faint note of despair
which just doesn't belong to such
a brave book. For instance when
Fast writes: "I know well enough
how exceedingly late it is for the
voices of logic and reason to be
raised. Yet I think that they must
be raised, even if those who raise
them go down to defeat."
Today millions of voices are crying
"Peace" and peace they will
win—not "go down to defeat."
However, * books like "Peekskill,
USA" strengthen such voices and
peacelovers everywhere say "Thank
you, Howard Fast."—Joan Clarke.
indicts American fascism
HOWARD FAST, famous American
writer who went to gaol
in the cause of peace, has powerfully
recorded one of the most
significant events in American
history in his fine literary work
—Peekskill USA.
It is a simply told "personal experience,"
but under the pen of this
giant of modern novelists the story
stirs and inspires heights of thought
and feeling seldom reached in the
reading of any novel.
At Peekskill, the suburb of New
York, from August 27 to September
4, 1949, Fast says ". . . the
whole struggle in America was crystallised
in the actions of a few
days. In that brief time, the fascist
forces rallied to their plans all
the rotten and lumpen elements
they could command. In the same
time, the working class rallied and
organised itself to halt fascism, to
defend the Negro people and to join
with the Negro people in common
defence. The fact that this was
done in terms of a cultural event
built around one man who stood
for the peace movement in America
and for progressive culture in
America, deepened the whole significance
of the action."
That "one man" was Paul Robeson
and the "cultural event" was
to have been a concert where this
great artist was to sing his songs
of peace and freedom. But the
concert that took place was not a
recital of Robeson's warm songs, but
"a special music that had played
its melody out in Germany and
Italy."
Fast was to have been chairman
of the concert—instead he became
the courageous and able leader oi
the concert-goers' struggle against
the unexpected fascist attack.
Of particular interest to the Australian
reader is Fast's description
of the American police and their
"neutrality" which enabled the fascists
to attempt this "mass lynching".
On the other hand, when so
many thousands attend a protest
meeting in Harlem, and the police
are completely outnumbered, Past
brilliantly ridicules this "change of
nature." „
"There were the police," he writes,
"almost a hundred of them, caught
between the crowd inside and the
crowd outside, the guns
and stayed—there the they were.
'Oh. that was something to see,
almost a hundred New York City
cops in a spot like that—indeed,
that was something to see. I have
never seen the like oi it before in
New York, nor since, such quiet
cops, such genteel cops, such silent
cops, each one of them standing
quietly and politely right in his place,
eyes on the ground, nightstick
clasped unostentatiously, their whole
attitude being, 'Just don't you dare
notice us at all, because we're just
here because we have to be here,
dtoty and all that, you know; but
after all. New York's finest, and
who else takes children across the
street or finds them when they're
lost?' Yes, that was something;
and I could only think of the French
police when the working class of
Prance comes out in all its mighty
power—and at such times the
French police assigned to cover the
demonstration stand very still, eyes
on the ground, neutral in the best
tradition.
Yes, there are many things about
this book which is of special interest
not only to the Australan
working people but to all who believe
in peace and freedom.
It can't happen here", Fast and
his friends said on the eve of Peekskill—but
happen it did.
The book is not a "complete factual
itemisation" of the event, but
only, as Fast says, "What I saw with
my own eyes . . . and my own conclusions."
None the less it is surprising
that in his observations and
conclusions, Mr. Fast fails to draw
the clear connections between the
fascist tendencies in his country
and the Truman's Government's foreign
policy of expansion and conquest
through war. And more surprising
still, when one considers the author's
courageous participation in the
American people's struggle for peace
and freedorfi, is his failure to show
the growing strength of the people's
movement since Peekskill, not just
in America but more particularly on
a world scale.
Because of this
there is a faint note of despair
which just doesn't belong to such
a brave book. For instance when
Fast writes: "I know well enough
how exceedingly late it is for the
voices of logic and reason to be
raised. Yet I think that they must
be raised, even if those who raise
them go down to defeat."
Today millions of voices are crying
"Peace" and peace they will
win—not "go down to defeat."
However, * books like "Peekskill,
USA" strengthen such voices and
peacelovers everywhere say "Thank
you, Howard Fast."—Joan Clarke.
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