Socialist and Liberal Describe Government Crisis

Michael Harrington, national chairman of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, said last night that socialism in its present form has failed in America.

"Since Eugene Debs founded the Socialist Party in 1901, it has been 73 years straight downhill," he said.

Speaking to an audience of over 400 in Lowell Lecture Hall, Harrington said the only mass forces for social change that exist in this country are within the Democratic Party.

"Like the British Labour Party, socialists will have to go through the experience of moving liberalism to the left," he said.

Harrington cited the current energy crisis as evidence of a more serious crisis in government. "The United States government has observed the priorities of the oil companies to the disadvantage of the American people and the people of the world," he said.

Harrington then called for the "socialization" of the energy industry on both a national and worldwide level.