Engaging Norma Rae: A Journal  

Roanoke Rapids, N.C. July 18, 1977 Dear Ann: No matter how long I stay here I’m sure to go on feeling like Rip Van Winkle. Twelve years after Mississippi I’m back in a South I still can’t believe. It’s not …



Thoughts on the Next War  

Supporters of detente use arguments that fall into two overlapping categories: economic and military. The economic justification of detente usually begins with a vision of fabulous profits purportedly awaiting Western business once detente progresses to the point of allowing expanded …





Civil Rights, 30 Years Later  

The current phase of the black struggle for freedom and equality is approaching its 30th year. No one would deny that a great deal of positive change has taken place during this period, producing many gains for black Americans. Still, …



Meltdowns and Ideologies  

The Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred a bare two weeks after The China Syndrome opened at first-run theaters—as always, life imitating bad art. Since the dramatic center of the movie was the possibility of a meltdown, it was taken …





Troubles of the Welfare State  

Such as it is in the United States, the welfare state, a term for which exegesis will soon be supplied, came under intense fire even before the OPEC coup slowed economic growth, upset a precarious political detente over the size …



Organizing at the Grassroots  

The grass-roots organizing of the 1970s is an ambitious and at least partially successful effort to bring working-class women and men into the political arena as organized, self-conscious actors. The organizations that provide structure and direction to this “movement” are …







The Crucifixion of Cambodia  

The question nags, gruesomely: is the fate of the Cambodian people as dreadful as that of the Jews and gypsies in Europe? It isn’t a question one need finally answer; a modest distinction will hold us. The Jews and gypsies …



Joan Baez and Jane Fonda  

Both Joan Baez and Jane Fonda are to some extent public figures in their art because they are public figures outside it: Ms. Baez for her marches against the H-bomb and the war, her marriage to a draft resister, and …



A View of the West Bank  

The following is taken from a quite remarkable article by Abba Eban that appeared in the American Jewish magazine, Moment. It’s reprinted here with permission. — Eds. Let us look at the mechanism of the agreement. Within a month of …



French Socialism Entangled in Factions  

The fortunes of political movements change rapidly these days. Consider the French Socialist party, which could boast at the beginning of this year that it was France’s “largest party”: it had a membership of 200,000, the highest percentage of the …