Madam, - Paul Gillespie does well to remind us of Sinclair Lewis's unjustly neglected novel It Can't Happen Here(World View, November 1st). Like J.K. Galbraith's The Great Crash, it has as much to say about today's crisis as about the 1930s.
In particular, Lewis's scornful portrayal of the ineffective socialists, too obsessed with their internal quarrels to be able to interpret the world (never mind change it) has sad resonance, at least as much in Europe as in the US.
Indeed, in many respect the situation is worse here. At least Barack Obama is being attacked for being a socialist (however unjustly). Nobody could seriously accuse the established left parties in Ireland or Britain of such a crime, while the various groups to their left resemble ever more barren husks.
At no time in the past half-century has clear-headed socialist analysis and organisation been more needed, but it is hard to see where it is going to come from. None of which means the attempt should not be made. - Yours, etc,