Student Liberalism Revived

Built on the ruins of collegiate liberalism, the proposed National Student Merger offers some hope of becoming what the ASU might have been. Consisting largely of the fragments which deserted the Student Union over foreign policy, the Merger seeks to take over the old position of its predecessor--minus extreme leftist influence and minus excessive central-office control. Although the split which gave birth last year to the HLU has been paralleled in one way or another throughout the country, the dissenters have made no attempt until now to organize a successor to the potent front they broke.

The HLU, which with Swarthmore, Vassar, and Mt. Holyoke organizations forms the Student League for Progressive Action, will become the local chapter. The Student Defenders of Democracy and the Committee to Defend America will bring 90 chapters into the fold. All three groups have platforms which exactly parallel that of the HLU, so that the national program that will be decided upon next December 27 at the University of Michigan is easily predictable. It will be prolabor but anti-defense-strike, strongly outspoken for domestic democracy, but definitely interventionist and bitterly anti-Hitler. Non-interventionist liberals will not be excluded, however, for the Merger aims to be primarily a liberal pressure group, with more far-reaching aims than winning the war.

The liberal front, accustomed to a certain amount of inspiration from fellow-travelers, naturally disintegrated after the policies that emanated from the Kremlin between August 1939 and June 1941. However, this confusion must be as brief as possible; liberal pressure requires coordination whether at a peace conference, or in the matter of democracy at home. It is with this realization that the National Student Merger Committee has begun the task of putting organized liberalism back on its feet.