Jumping the Line: The Adventures and Misadventures of an American Radical

by William Herrick, Paul Berman (Introduction)

A vivid first-hand account of Left culture in America in the heady days of the 20s through the 40s. Herrick grew up in New York with pictures of Lenin over his crib and provides colorful stories of riding the rails during the Depression, organizing Black sharecroppers, working on the collective Sunrise Farm and as Orson Welles' secretary. Like many of his generation, he fought in Spain with the Lincoln Brigades, and his experiences there shattered his political world, as he recounts horror stories of the Stalinist purges of anarchist fighters. His depictions of the Spanish Civil War have made him "our American Orwell."—Paul Berman William Herrick is the author of 10 novels, including Hermanos! and Shadows and Wolves . He lives in upstate New York.

Genres: Spain, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, History

280 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1998

Reviews

[Zak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je suis un Anarcho-social démocrate. J'éprouve une méfiance profonde et instinctive du pouvoir, d'où qu'il vienne. Quand un groupe de personnes commence à vous dire qu'il peut sauver l'humanité, fuyez à toute vitesse. Car avant même de vous en rendre compte, les cadavres s'empileront, et le vôtre pourrait bien se trouver parmi eux.

Voilà qui synthétise assez justement ce que la vie mouvementée de William Herrick lui a donné comme enseignement.

Né en 1915, de parents juifs biélorusses immigrés, il a grandi dans le New Jersey et à New York au sein d'une famille et d'un milieu juif immigré, ouvrier où le communisme comme projet politique était considéré comme la norme. Il a alors considéré que le communisme était la solution évidente à tous les problèmes, il est dans ses mémoires très critique de cette croyance (il donne un exemple assez ridicule où il pensait qu'il n'y aurait plus de conflit routier sous le communisme car personne ne serait puni pour un retard au travail et donc les conducteurs ne seraient jamais pressés ni stressés).
Il s'est engagé dans le bataillon Abraham Lincoln pour lutter contre les troupes de Franco pendant la guerre civile espagnole. Durant cet épisode il a pu constater les dérives stalinistes: la violence politique, la répression, la violence contre les autres forces de gauche, la priorité donnée au contrôle politique interne plutôt qu'à la lutte anti-fasciste constamment prônée par la propagande soviétique (réprimer les trostkystes et les anarchistes était apparemment bien plus important et prioritaire que lutter contre Franco). Cet épisode a marque le début d'un désenchantement qui finira par une rupture nette avec le parti communiste quelques années plus tard avec le pacte Molotov-Ribentrov.
De retour aux USA après une balle reçue à la nuque, il a continué son engagement politique en travaillant pour des syndicats.
Il aussi été sténographe judiciaire, et a écrit des romans.
Il a souffert un temps du McCarthysme en raison de ses engagements politiques.
Il y a aussi un passage dans son livre où il parle du temps où il a travaillé avec Orson Welles.

Voilà beaucoup d'éléments de sa vie décrits ici entre autres choses, une vie très remplie et assez inhabituelle d'un homme dans une période historique très particulière. Le style est un peu trop chaotique et rend la lecture pas toujours très agréable malgré les éléments très intéressants présentés. On découvre ce que c'était que de vivre comme il a vécu aux USA dans l’entre deux guerres, et comment c'était à cette période à New York pour les ouvriers, les juifs, les communistes et les immigrés. On découvre aussi à quel point les mouvements communistes de cette époque pouvaient être riches en ramassis de nuls, d'incompétents, d'idiots, de pervers et de traîtres ; foutant ainsi en l'air les efforts et les espoirs de beaucoup d'ouvriers prêts à sacrifier leur santé et leur argent pour aider une cause en laquelle ils croyaient.

[Aonarán · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book eventually one me over.

The quickest summary I can give it is if forest gump had lived in the 1910s-1930s and done all the quintessential socialist things: been raised by communist family in new york, been a tramp, picket lines, communist party usa, anarchist commune, spanish civil war, disillusionment, etc. And if he'd had a halfie the whole time. (this dude definitely has an old-fashioned sense of who/ what women are. in some ways it was incredibly insightful, though, to be able to hear a radical from this time period candidly talk about sex, men/women, etc.)

Most interesting for me were his dispelling of the more romantic aspects of those days. Tramping for example, he says was awful. Half starved, exhausted and facing the physical and sexual violence of police, bulls and other tramps most of the time.

Or the spanish civil war. He reminds us that it was an actual war, something i embarrassing must admit I never fully considered. He talks about being shot in the neck, the excruciatingly painful and slow ambulance ride from the front during which the person above him died, bleeding and releasing their bowels on him below, the painful recovery and how half the americans that faught died. they were also mainly fighting north african mercenaries, not even necessarily fascists.

his exposure of the abraham lincoln brigades was much appreciated, as well as his take on the american Communist Party and the Popular Front - something Roosevelt was apparently even into.

An added treat for me which I did not expect was his 30-40 page section on Orson Welles, whose assistant he was. I fucking loved this part of the book.

You know which part I didn't like? SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When in the last few pages of the book he casual mentions how he testified against the communist party at grand juries, which wasn't a big deal for him since he worked in the courts as a stenographer. uncomfortable, don't entirely know what to make of that.

i look forward to reading his novel about the spanish civil war, hermanos!

3.5

[Thomas Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Jumping the Line" is a hobo phrase for "riding the rails," or hitching a ride on a freight car. It also brings to mind crossing boundaries, maybe even switching sides. Herrick has done both. Beginning life as a rail-riding hobo, Herrick developed an awareness of the plight of the downtrodden and eventually became not a member but employee of the American Communist Party. Herrick was hard-working element of the Party and an able union organizer and cell initiator. Willing to put his life on the line in backing his beliefs, Herrick traveled to Spain with the Abraham Lincoln brigade to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Comintern, the International Communist Party, hoped this effort would lead to a home for Communism in Spain. While Herrick's soldiering was brief (he quickly took a bulled to the neck, nearly crippling him), the Communist atrocities and double-dealing there made him see the Party in an entirely different light. Returning to the States an anarchist at heart, Herrick had a wife to support and was tied to the Party for a paycheck. His outspokenness about the Stalin-Hitler pact led to his dismissal and his full emergence as an anarcho-social democrat. Appearing in these pages as Herrick formalizes his distrust of all power is such figures as Emma Goldman, Cole Porter and Herrick's former employer Orson Welles. This fascinating work is historically enlightening and a textbook in the formation of practical anarchism from an adventurer-author struck from the same mold as George Orwell.