Socialist Register 1970 Preface

Abstract

Like its predecessors, this seventh issue of The Socialist Register covers a wide range of problems and concerns. The first three essays have their origin in Basil Davidson's Liberation of Guini, which marked for many people the discovery of a peasant revolutionary movement in Africa of very great importance. We felt that Davidson's account of the movement led by Amilcar Cabral had added a new dimension to the analysis of African revolutionary movements, and that it was necessary to carry the discussion further. We therefore invited Victor Kiernan, whose work is well known to readers of the Register, to contribute an appraisal of peasant movements, yesterday and today; and we asked Basil Davidson and Eric Hobsbawm to add commentaries from their own specialist points of view. We should like to draw the attention of our readers to the remarks by Davidson concerning the practical ways in which the revolutionary struggles in Portuguese Africa may be assisted and encouraged; and we hope that 1970 may mark the beginning of a new movement of support by socialists to those who are struggling - - against Portuguese oppression.