‘Yrecords,

Ce ee es

rom Minnesota two years ago
decamped a roughneck rebel
poet and dreamer named Bob
Dylan, then 20, packing his guitar
and songs, bound-for-glory to
New York where he settled un-
quietly on the Lower East Side
and set about to dismember the
Establishment, limb by limb.
“Slush in my boots all winter
long wandering around the Vil-
lage. Cold winter — snow that
high,” he gestured during an in-

iterview, arms describing the big-

8est snowbank since the blizzard
of ’88. “Worked all day in a
Greenwich Village coffee house
blowing harmonica behind some
Suy for one or two dollars a day
—had to éat.”

* * *

Bob Dylan has come a _ long
Way in two years. Known today
as the “most prolific young song-
writer in America,” his topical
Protest songs are heard at inte-
Sration and peace rallies, on
radio; and in concert
across the nation. His particular
Concerns are war, discrimination,
Capital punishment and exploita-
tion, and his poems and songs
reflect implacable anger at war-
Mongers, racists, brutal police
and the wealthy—all of whom, he
Says in a recent song, ‘‘ain’t a-
Sonna run my world.”

Motivated by a strong desire
to run his own world, Dylan util-
es the most trenchant weapons
at his command—a poetic imagin-

ation and contempt for injustice
—to dereunce those who want to
run ities him, whether they hide
behind a Ki#&K hood or a stock

market ticker.
* * *

Clad in worn boots, rough

black trousers and a rumpled
work shirt, Dylan’s slight frame
presents itself as a challenge to
all that is comfortable and com-
placent in American life.

His singing is uncontrived and
forceful. His language is a comb-
ination of working class .Minne-
sota, uncompromised by rules of
grammar, and the hip jargon of
Harlem and the Village.

“J don’t think when I write,”

he said. “I just react and put it
down on paper. I’m serious about

everything I write. For instance, ~

I get mad when I see friends of
mine sitting in Southern jails,
getting their heads beat in. What
comes out in my music is a call

A whole new gen-
ation of folk singers
are coming on to the
scene in North Am-
erica. Some of them
are opportunists —
quick to cash in on
the popularity of
folk songs, while
they can. Others,
like Bob Dylan, re-
gard a folk song in
its true perspective
—a chance to say
something wort h-
while.

for action.”’

Dylan has often been compared
with Woody Guthrie, whom he
reveres, and with Bertolt Brecht,
his favorite poet. There are ele-
ments of both in his songs and
even in his general conversation.

Describing the misery brought
on the workers of his native state
by Eastern mining interests —
personalizing the latter with the
pronoun “‘he,’’ Dylan “‘talked’’ a

song of exploitation and rebellion:

“You should’a seen what he did
to the town I was raised in —
seen how he left it. He sucked
up my town. It’s too late now
for the people — they’re lost.
When will it be too late for him?

“The same guy who sucked up
my town wants to bomb Cuba, but
he don’t want to do it himself—
send the kids. He made all this
money, but what does he do to
earn it? Take away his money
and he’d die. Punch him in the
gut enough times and he’d die.
He’s a criminal, a crook, a’ murd-
erer.”’

Daylan’s songs are attempts
to punch “‘him’’ in the gut. Be-
yond this he does not profess any
social or political philosophy other
than the desire for a world in
which ‘everybody can just walk

around without anybody bother- °

”

ing them.” His rebellion is per-:
sonal, directed against repressive
anti-life forces in general, rather
than to specifics such as econom-
ics and politics. ;

Capitalism?—‘‘Well I object to
somebody riding around in a
Cadillac when somebody else is
lying in the gutter.”’

Socialism?—‘“‘I’d like to visit
Russia someday; see what it’s
like, maybe meet a Russian girl.”

United States?—‘‘Ain’t nobody
can say anything honest in the
United States. Every place you
look is cluttered with phoneys and
lies.”

Bob Dylan-a rising young rebel :

Kennedy?—‘‘He’s all right, but
he’s a phoney, pretending all the
time.”

Politics?—‘‘No, I’m not gonna
vote because there’s nobody to —
vote for; nobody that looks like
me, the way I feel . . . I'd like
to see a government made up of
people like Bertrand Russell, Jim
Forman (of SNCC), Marlon
Brando and people like that.’’

Dylan returned recently from
the South where he sang during
a Negro voter registration drive.
He plans to go back soon.

MUSIC

In Mississippi, he says, ‘‘there’s
a feeling in the air. More people ~
are willing to say. “To hell with
my security, I want my rights.’
1 want to help them if I can.
‘They really dig my music down
‘there, too.” =

One of Dylan’s most popular
songs, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’’ re-
flects the ‘“‘feeling’’ in Mississippi
and, indeed, throughout the na-
tion: ‘‘How many roads must a’
man walk down before he’s call-
a man/How many seas must a:
white dove sail before she sleeps:
in the sand/How many times’
must the cannon ball fly before
they’re forever banned?/The an-
swer, my friend is blowin’ in the
wind = 2:

Jack A. Smith
(National Guardian)

Portrait of Sweden

The Social - Democrats have
been in ‘power in Sweden for 30

_ years now, and the international
_ Social-Democrat leaders always

hold up Sweden as a land of

“ec . . ’
_ democratic socialism.’

But has there been any signifi-
Cant change in the economic and
Social structure? Have monopoly
and capitalistic ownership disap-
Peared? Has the financial oligar-
chy been eliminated?

* * *

A terse but very definite ans-

Wer to all these questions has

€en given by Tore Browaldh, one
Of Sweden’s leading bankers. He
told a business meeting in New
York that Sweden was the ‘least
Socialized’? country in Western
Europe. And in pfoof of that he
Cited the fact that 92 percent of
industry is privately owned. In

Short, we have the testimony of

One of Sweden’s biggest bankers
that after 30 years of Social-
€mocratic government the
Country remains as safe as ever
for the capitalists.
Dr. Hermansson describes the

°Mnipotence of monopoly in a

land of “democratic socialism”
and the part played by the 15
big financial families, who  be-
Ween them coritrol most of the
Countries industries, banks and

WORTH
_ READING

Economic Growth and Un-
derdeveloped Countries, by
Maurice Dobb. Price 75c.

This booklet is an attempt
to discuss some of the essen-
MEIS oF sconomit develop-
Ment in the colonial and
Semi-colonial countries. .

At Present they are handi-

Capped by widespread pover-

ty and economic backward-
Ness and are tied to the
Wheels of imperialism, from
Which they are striving for
Political independence. Un-
J8ss this can be overcome,
v&Y are destined to remain
led: to neo-colonialism.

insurance companies.

They are the real rulers of
Sweden. And five of them are, in
the author’s words, the ‘“‘five
fingers of the iron hand of fi

been eliminated?

garchy.”

8o8oeetetetetetetels

ance capital,” exercizing their
control of the nation’s economy.

At present, 2.8 percent of the
population, some 200,000 persons,
are shareholders in various firms.
But two-thirds of all this capital
stock is concentrated in the hands

‘of 17,700 persons, or 0.2 percent

of the population. And within this
group there are 835 millionaires,
who together acount for nearly

- one-fourth of all the capital stock.

A curious kind of socialism this,
considering that the bulk of the
national wealth has been monop-
olized by some 17,000 persons out
of a population of 7,500,000. What
is more, this monopoly elite came

into being largely during the

“Paper Work

Who ‘owns the means of production in
Sweden? Have monopoly and capitalist owner-
ship disappeared? Has the financial oligarchy

im Some revealing answers to these pertin-
= ent questions were supplied recently by A. An-
= tonov, writing in the Journal “New Times.”
Antonov based his comments upon a book by
Swedish Commuist leader C. H. Hermansson,
entitled: “Monopoly and Financial Oli-

The PT is pleased to print a condensed
version of Antonov’s remarks.

-after 30 years of ‘socialism’

thirty years of Social-Democratic
government, which has done
practically nothing in the way of
nationalization.

a useful purpose—they make it
easy for a big holder to exercise
virtually total control of an enter-
prise with as little as 10 percent
of the capital stock.

Hermansson shows that over
three - quarters of aluminum;
electrolytic copper, aircraft eng-
ines, planes, tractors, typewriters,
refrigerators, telephones electric
generators, electric motors,
cement, bottles, sugar and a long
list of other goods are produced
by one firm.

The usual capitalist process of
financial concentration in ever-
fewer hands is continuing. Fifty
leading firms account for about
half of employment and produc-

Lan Chien-an

Cartoon. by

uon. By cartel agreements, inter-
locking directorships, organic ties
with leading banks, etc., they are
able to amass super profits which
any capitalist in the world would
envy.

In fact, the picture painted by
Hermansson of the coalescence
of industrial and financial capital
differs very little from that of
the Parks’ portrait of Canada:
“Anatomy of Big Business.”

The banks, sitting at the top of
this monopoly edifice (and con-
trolled by the 15 leading families)
are a typical example of concen-
tration of finance. In 1909 the
country had 84 banks; by 1959, a
bare 50 years later, these had
been swallowed and dwindled to
16.

In 1959 the four biggest banks
accounted for three-quarters of
all banking assets and for an
equal share of all banking busi-
ness. Even Wall Street can prob-
ably not match that level of fin-

* ancial concentration. :

The banks have used their po-
sition to make deep inroads into
the economy. In 1933, the Big
Four mentioned above were rep-
resented on the boards of 394
companies; in 1941 the figure was
417, and in 1955 it was 548.

Of the 50 leading companies,
only nine are owned by the state
or co-operatives. Three of the
biggest banks have their men on
the boards of 38 of- these leading
companies. The rest, including
several state-owned firms, are
indirectly connected with one or
another of the leading banks,
often through subsidiaries.

* * *

Carried further, this coalescence
of industrial and financial capi-
tal led to the rise of a financial
oligarchy—the Wallenberg, Weh-
tje, Johnson, Bonnier, Brostom,
Soderberg, Kempe,  Klingspor,
Jeansson, ‘Dunker,
Hahmmarskjold Jacobsson, Ase-
lius and Throne-Holst families.
They are closely. associated with
big banks, insurance companies,
industrial and commercial firms.

Writing about just one of these
families, ‘Time’ magazine (Jane
7) remarked: ‘In no other in-

Schwartz,’

dustrialized nation in the world
does one family exert such en-
ormous economic power.” The
allusion was to the Wallenberg
dynasty. which, ‘Time’ says,
controls half of all Swedish in-
dustry.

It is hard to say how accurate:
that estimate is, but that the:
Wallenbergs are Sweden’s big-
gest Big Business family is be-
yond question.

oy a *

There is a Wallenberg on the
board of directors of at least
97 firms, banks and insurance
companies, employing a total of
200,000 workers in Sweden and
several thousand in other count-
ries.

Marcus Wallenberg, the banker
member of the family, is a di-

rector of 63 concerns, and in 45
of them he is either president,
vice-president, or managing di-
rector. Another Wallenberg —
Jacob—sits on the board of 31
firms, in 27 of which he is either
president or vice-president.

The Wallenberg bank, now the
country’s third-largest, held 258
directorships in industry and had
financial ties with 176 firms. In:
1955, the respective figures were
175 and 139. This one example
shows the growth of monopoly
capital under favorable condi-
tions.

* * -

The wealth of factual material
gathered and ably organized by
Dr. Hermansson is conclusive
proof that in the 30 years of
Social - Democratic government
concentration of capital and mon-
opoly power has continued to
grow. :

Seen at closer range, the much-
vaunted ‘‘democratic soci7tism"
is just another name for capital-
ism in a country ruled by 15 Big
Business families.

Dr. Hermansson has made: a
valuable contribution to the Marx-
ist-Leninist understanding — of
modern capitalism.

September 13, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5 _