I am a junior at Davidson College, and have just completed a semester of study on the Holocaust. I visited your site to read David North’s review of “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”.

Being a browser by nature, I clicked on a couple of pages within your site, and was pleasantly surprised when I found two letters from readers, discussing the recent article on Aesthetics quite passionately.

I suppose I have been tainted by the mainstream American stereotyping of socialist parties as being unemotional and dispassionate about anything except skewering the bourgeoisie. I am reminded of the time one of my friends commented, “Huh, so left wing families can have family values”. I must tell my Grandfather (who recently provided me with a “gift” subscription to National Review!) that I am coming round to the notion that socialists might be human after all.

On a more serious note, I would like to know more about basic socialist theory and how intellectuals and students can play a role in the Fourth International.

Yours sincerely,

DF
18 May 1998

—

Note: A special section on the International Committee of the Fourth International is being prepared for the World Socialist Web Site.