On 6 October auced InIs his Use Untonunate!.
images poems constantly Yevgeni Yevtushenko spoke to a packed audience at Manchesers rree race nar. he was acciaimer by the chair as one of the three greatest poets the workers movement has pro• century. alone win wetude and Brecht. Yevgeni's own recitations in Russian were startlingly dramatic. and of internal raymes Still nad powerful impact on an audience that did WOEN not for the most part speak Russian much of the work was marred by one particular facet: the use of -TO the CApel ience of a mother and depicted women in and giving role. . In one poem in which Yevtushenko lamen ter ine ate or america ane in banicula the death of Bobby Kennedy, this, image central pivot of extreme iberalism in wrica me concest or nation was very much to the fore.
Despite the weaknesses of this poem we were cenainy unmena ad or wha was to come. Yevtushenko then read in English a poem which he had more recent. called wnat i want. The poem attempts to criticise elitism and fence but is extreme romanticism. i woule tamer be a starving child in Bangladesh' than have any privileges. This is scarcely materialBut the most offensive part ot the poem was yet to come: I would not like to be a limp pansy, in either sense of the ' This attack on gays is more than a little ironical when one considers that expression of one's sexuality.
Worse was still to come. When challenged from floor, responded with what the Morning Star o 9 october chose to reler to as witt statement mar such tviar matters wert not oicussed in the soviet Union He told us that while he admired the Tennessee Williams W 81 suronise• inat ne was so oosessed with homosexuality. . He stated that although many writers, poets and artists HE KICW in the usor none or inem were nomo Thus he clearly implied his acceptance of the myth that homosex uality is a bourgeois deviation with wil drift into the mist in a pure socialist society. He consistently refused to dis cuss in any real way the repression in the Soviet Union The final insult came when he told us Inat ne die understane lesoianism a nite more. After all, we all had the same taste in liking women. This total trivialisation or Ine suoiect and msumine dooroach t all women was greeted with thunderous applause by large sections of the aud The education of the British CP and the audience general left much to be desired fact that SOmE sections of SnOw solidarity with those of us who were chucal of Yevtushenko Sexism and anti-gay sentiments cannot be rooted ou by paper resolutions but must be fought consistently every inch way. especially witnin organisations sucas
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