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Transcribed from tape recording. Source: Fourth International, Vol.12 No.3, May-June 1951, pp.72-76. Transcription/Mark-up: Einde O’Callaghan. The subject of our discussion today, the foreign policy of the United States, is now recognized on every side as the burning question of the day. It monopolizes the attention of the statesmen, the generals and the diplomats. It is a sign of the times that the specialists in the art of propaganda, true and false – mostly false – concentrate on this subject nowadays, each from his own point of view and special interest. Through this poisonous fog of slanted propaganda the truth has a hard time making its way. The people of America, as distinguished from their rulers and misleaders, in their great majority have been traditionally peace-loving, nationally exclusive and self-sufficient, even isolationist, in their sentiments. But they have long since been convinced by the course of events that foreign policy is their greatest concern today and the source of their greatest fears. For they know in their bones, no matter what the statesmen and the propagandists say, that US foreign policy is driving not toward peace but toward war. And I believe that of all the elements and age-brackets in the population of the country, those who are most acutely sensitive to this relationship of foreign policy and war are the youth; that is, those who will have to do the fighting and the dying in the ultimate execution of our foreign policy as it is directed today. For the young people foreign policy is no academic disquisition, but a question of life and death. Therefore, I am glad of the opportunity you have given me to speak to an audience of young university people on this subject today. First of all, I wish to express my appreciation of the spirit of fair play and free speech which has been manifested on so many sides, especially in the student body, and I assume also in the administrative staff, which has made my discussion with you possible. I believe in free speech. I have fought for it a long time, for others as well as for myself. Free speech is a necessary instrumentality for the dissemination of full information and the clarification of ideas which can lead to correct decisions. In the early days of the pioneer socialist movement in this country and the IWW, with which I was affiliated, we put up many battles, not without hazards and penalties for some of us, for the right of free speech. I first came into collision, and eventually to an irrevocable break, with the Communist Party over this question – over the attempt.to suppress the rights of a minority faction to which I belonged to present their views and defend them in fair debate. For forty years 1 have been mixed up one way or another in the fight for free speech, either as a defendant under prosecution defending my own rights, or as an active participant in organizations and committees defending the rights of others. I know all about free speech. I speak here today on the subject of foreign policy from the viewpoint of Marxist socialism, the socialism of the class struggle. 1 have lived to see the United States take part in two world wars. As a socialist I opposed them both, and I am opposed now to the American intervention in Korea and the program of spreading it into a Third World War. As a socialist I know that capitalist wars are waged not for high moral principles as the lying propagandists say, but for profits and plunder, for territories, for markets and fields of investment. I cannot conceive of a more disgraceful act of self-repudiation for a socialist than to support a capitalist war. The great debate, so-called, which is proceeding with feverish intensity today in the halls of Congress and in the press, on radio and television, in forums, on platforms and in pulpits, does not in my opinion touch the real problem of war and peace. The differences of Truman and MacArthur, the two protagonists in the debate as it is presently unfolding, are only tactical and strategic, not fundamental. They differ on where to begin, and when to begin, to drop the atom bomb and start the Third World War. But both policies, the policies of Truman and the policies of MacArthur, are imperialistic. They both aim at war and hope to solve the economic problems of the United States by means of war. Hoover is rather on the side-lines, a third party in the discussion whose influence is declining. The Hoover policy is imperialistic also, but in too limited a way to serve the economic requirements of American capitalism. His conception of a western hemisphere fortress is too small for the present-day world. The New York Times, in my opinion, correctly disposed of the Hoover thesis from the point of view of big finance, with the editorial observation that his program would signify “economic strangulation” for the United States – as a capitalist nation, that is. In the last analysis, the same thing holds true for the programs of Truman and MacArthur and ultimately condemns them both to bankruptcy. The dilemma of United States capitalism arises from the fact that it has come to the apex of its riches and its power, as the heir of bankrupt Europe, in a world that has no room for expanding capitalism, as it still had half a century ago. It is not only the western hemisphere that is too small. Europe and Asia are also too small. In fact, the whole world is too small to meet the demands and needs of American capitalism with its ever-accumulating surpluses of capital and manufactured goods, which cannot be absorbed at home on a capitalist basis. The Soviet Union, one-sixth of the world’s surface, is closed off to the capitalist world as a market and field of profitable investment. Eastern Europe in the recent period has been closed off. And now China, the great object of the war in the Pacific, the prize for which the war against Japan was waged, has not only been wrested from the control of Japanese imperialism. In the process of war and revolution China has torn itself out of the orbit of capitalist exploitation. And the colonial revolutions have just begun. The world open to capitalist exploitation is narrowing down, while the demands of American imperialism for markets and fields of investment grow ever more rapacious and insatiable. That is the dilemma of a bankrupt social system which “foreign policy” cannot conjure out of existence. The bankruptcy of capitalism is registered in terms of human poverty and misery for which it is the primary cause. As we here today discuss the question of American foreign policy and the dilemma of American imperialism, just let one simple fact have the floor. There are two billion people in the world which capitalism has ruled so long, and more than one-half of these people never get enough to eat all their lives. This is an established fact, undisputed by anybody. It is a matter of common knowledge. These hungry people don’t want propaganda. It is the biggest illusion and delusion to imagine that hungry people who number more than a billion are just waiting for somebody to give them the low-down in learned professorial essays. They know what they want. They want bread, and land, and national independence. Capitalism cannot supply them, and has not supplied them. That is the nub of the problem of the world today. Neither Truman nor MacArthur can bomb it out of existence, although that is what their “foreign policy”stupidly aims to accomplish. The terrible contradictions of American capitalism forbid and exclude a humane and peaceful foreign policy. The narrowing fields for capitalist exploitation on the one hand, and the constantly growing surpluses of capital and goods produced in the United States – this is the economic circumstance determining the imperialist foreign policy of the United States. It is not a matter of bad will or ignorance on the part of one statesman or another, although God knows there is plenty of that. It is an ineluctable contradiction of an economic nature. That is what determines the imperialist foreign policy of the United States and drives it to militarization and to war. These facts are well-known to the decisive ruling circles of this country, those circles who represent the great accumulations of capital for whom the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune speak most authoritatively. They know these facts and that is why they will not listen to any talk of isolationism; or of limitation to the western hemisphere; or of making peace with China and Russia. Not at all. Such proposals do not fit into their policy in any way whatever, except as propaganda to deceive the people. To be sure, they all blandly deny any imperialist aims. They all talk for peace. But talk is cheap. That is the first lesson in politics 1 would recommend to you young men and women, if by any chance you are studying political science in some class or other. Talk is cheap, but facts speak louder. All this talk of peace and denial of imperialist aims is just routine propaganda, belied by deeds everywhere. The “theoretical justification” for this phony “non-imperialist” and “peace” propaganda of the masters of America has been undertaken by some people, including your professor of philosophy, Sidney Hook, who call themselves “democratic socialists.” They correspond in my opinion – you will forgive me if I unintentionally offend your religious sensibilities – they correspond to the missionaries who were sent out to soften up the native peoples in the colonies for subjugation and exploitation by the great powers in the past. I have here a few quotations as samples of this theoretical missionary work, this shoddy attempt to prove on a theoretical basis, the non-imperialist and peace-loving character of the most rapacious imperialist power that ever existed in the world. Here is a quotation from a published document entitled To Our Friends In Europe and Asia: “The development of American capitalism has not led to imperialism; it does not fulfill Lenin’s theory of imperialism as the inevitable last stage of capitalism.” Another quotation from the same document, a denial, “that American capitalism depends on imperialist expansion for its very life.” And a third quotation: “The US had a great internal free trade market and such enormous, natural resources that today she is an exporter of raw materials as well as of manufactured goods. The economic facts of life in America were and are very different from the facts in Europe which led Lenin to formulate his theory of imperialism.” The signers of this document – among them Lewis Corey, James T. Farrell, Sidney Hook, Upton Sinclair and Norman Thomas – attempt to convince the people of Europe and Asia that the economic laws determining the imperialist character of the old Europe, about which Lenin wrote, do not apply to its successor to the domination of the world, the beneficent United States of America. The best I can say for this “theoretical” exercise is that it must have been written on the assumption that nobody will read it who ever read Lenin. While it is true that there were certain differences between the line of development of American capitalism into imperialism and a similar development in Europe, the differences all accentuate the imperialist drive of the United States. It is true that American capitalism had, and still has, a great internal market. It had a whole continent to exploit in contra-distinction to the hemmed-in countries of Europe. The development and exploitation of this vast territory provided an expanding internal market for a long time. It also opened up a. widening field for the continuous investment and re-investment not only of the profits of American capitalism itself, but also of billions and billions of dollars imported from Europe in the development of this country. That was the case up to the time of the First World War. Then the situation and the relationship of Europe and America began to change fundamentally. America, which was a debtor nation at the beginning of the First World War has become the richest capitalist nation in the world, and the creditor of the whole world. Meanwhile, the internal market, great as it was and still is, proved in the crisis of the 30’s that it could no longer absorb the products of American industry on a capitalist basis. A slight decline in exports was sufficient to plunge American economy into the most devastating crisis the world ever saw, a crisis which lasted ten years and even then was only temporarily and artificially overcome by war expenditures. Our theoretical justifiers say that America exports raw materials in contra-distinction to some of the older European countries analyzed by Lenin, and therefore cannot be imperialist by Lenin’s law. That argument wouldn’t even convince Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Did you read Dewey’s speech in answer to Hoover? Dewey’s speech lists, one after another, the strategic raw materials which America needs from foreign sources for its industries and for its armament, including uranium. He points out the various spots around the world where they are located and cannot be had and incorporated into the American industrial process without the Sources being controlled by the United States or its allies. America exports wheat and cotton, but a great number of strategic raw materials, absolutely necessary for its industry and its war machine, have to be imported at any cost, even at the cost of war. And so great is the power of America over this supply of raw materials, it caused an explosion in the British cabinet just the other day. One of the main reasons for the resignation of Bevan from the cabinet of the Labor Government was that America is cornering the raw material supplies of the world, stimulating inflation in Europe and endangering British economy. Lenin said the epoch of capitalist imperialism, as distinguished from the epoch of free competition, is characterized mainly by the export of capital. The development of home industry reaches the point where it can no longer absorb the accumulations of profits piled up by the capitalist investors. In addition to the export of manufactured goods they have to find foreign fields where this surplus capital can be invested at a high rate of profit under conditions of political security for the investment. How does that apply to America? Why, I think it applies a hundred times more than it ever did to England, France and Germany, which were the great imperialist powers before the First World War. All you have to do is look at the figures of the accumulation of capital and the rate and volume of its exportation by America since the beginning of the First World War. These figures do not lie and cannot be lied away. To bring forward the “non-imperialist” argument at the present time, when the bulk of the surplus capital of the entire world is held here in the United States; to say that this country, which has the virtual monopoly of world capital, is not confronted by the imperialistic problem of investing outside its own borders – that is to make a mockery of facts as well as of theory. Our theoretical missionaries mention the gifts dispensed by the American Santa Claus, the loans and the donations for military purposes to foreign governments, including Chiang Kai-shek, Syngman Rhee, Franco and all the other representatives of “freedom and democracy.” What is all this largesse designed for? It is represented in the document I have quoted here as a sign of the beneficence and peace-loving character of the American capitalist government. Cutting out the buncombe and getting down to brass tacks, permit me to give you another interpretation. These loans and donations are primarily designed to prop up the shaky capitalist structures and create the political conditions for profitable investments. Not even the free-spending United States capitalists want to pour out billions of dollars in investments for the development of backward foreign countries without guarantees that their investments will be secured and pay off. What is necessary for the security of their investments? “Stable political conditions.” And these stable political conditions, as they are understood in Washington and Wall Street, require puppet governments which can suppress revolutions and colonial uprisings and guarantee at all costs that the profits of the investors will be secured regardless of the interests of the exploited people. There is a second reason why they dole out money so freely. The Marshall Plan, etc. came at a convenient time, when America was threatened With an economic crisis which was due to the overproduction of goods that the domestic market could not absorb. The huge expenditures, creating an artificial market, alleviated and postponed the crisis. Benevolence here was happily married to expediency. We Marxists interpret the foreign policy of the United States government from economic facts. The capitalists who own the government need foreign markets for their surplus goods. They need secure political conditions for profitable investment in foreign lands. Their demands are insatiable and cannot be restrained. Loans and investments in Russia, Eastern Europe, and now China, are considered unsafe. The policy is not to “contain” the Soviet Union in Russia and Eastern Europe. No, that is only a temporizing tactic. The ultimate aim and imperious necessity is to overthrow the governments in these countries; to open them up as markets and fields of investment under secure political conditions. This is the real goal of American foreign policy, which spells in the final analysis the drive to dominate the entire world. They select their allies to serve that end; “benevolence” and “democracy” have nothing to do with it. Just ask yourselves a question, friends. How does it happen that the United States government, implementing its foreign policy, which the priests of spurious theory tell us is so peaceful and so beneficent and concerned so purely with the welfare of the human race – which includes, we presume, the half billion people who never get enough to eat – how does it happen that everywhere American foreign policy, backed up by American military force, supports the capitalists, the landlords, the usurers, the kings and the fascist gangs against the people? In China they support Chiang Kai-shek whose regime was so corrupt and reactionary that the people rose up en masse to drive him out. America takes sides against the people everywhere: In Spain with its fascist butcher, Franco; in Greece with its monarcho-fascist regime; in Korea with its Syngman Rhee; in Indo-China where the people are struggling for independence against French imperialism and have to fight against the overwhelming might of American financial help and military supplies; in Malaya and the Philippines; in Portugal, Turkey and South America. All over the world, wherever the hungry people are rising in a struggle for land, and bread, and national independence, they confront the United States of America with its money and its bombs. The people everywhere know these facts because they bring down upon them death and destruction all the time. And because they know these facts, they are not apt to be taken in by the theory of Professor Hook, elucidated in an article in the New York Times Magazine, that the real need of America is a “propaganda offensive.” When people know the facts, it is pretty hard to deceive them by words, especially when they feel the facts on their bodies and bones, in blows and bloody attacks. The more practical artificers of American foreign policy, as distinguished from their professorial advisors, know that it is a waste of money to try to convince these half-billion people throughout the world by propaganda that America is their friend. The hard-headed statesmen gave an ironic answer to Sidney Hook and his propaganda theory the other day in Congress when they voted to cut the appropriations for the “Voice of America” by 90%. It was a big surprise to many people. But these realistic politicians in Washington have more faith in their guns and their bombs to make the people of the world love them, than in propaganda which belies all facts. Now a question we should ask ourselves is this: Can our life purpose be committed to the fate of this American imperialist power? Disregarding all moral considerations and all concern for the human race except ourselves and our families, our little circle, can we say, well, America is bound to dominate the world anyway and we might as well go along and serve it and save ourselves? I would say, even from that narrow and morally impermissible standpoint the question does not have an easy and facile answer. Is the United States of America as it is now constituted on a capitalist basis all-powerful? Can she lick the world with guns and atom bombs and impose her will by force everywhere, as some ignorant braggarts and narrow-minded militarists like to say? Can she enslave and exploit the whole world and make good conditions for us, the favored few, within her borders? In my opinion, an objective examination of the real facts of the world situation can only raise the gravest doubts of the capacity of American capitalism to carry out even a small part of the global designs implied in its foreign policy. Capitalism is an outworn social system. The First World War was the sign of its bankruptcy as a world order. Prior to that, for half a century capitalism had grown and expanded. It had maintained an uneasy peace in the world, except for numerous local wars and colonial expeditions, by which the great powers divided up the world. But things have changed since then. Just consider for a moment how much they have changed, in thirty-seven years since the first shots were fired in 1914. Two world wars, devouring the lives of tens of millions of people, and wounding nobody knows how many more, and destroying so much of the material culture of the world. Two destructive world wars and a terrible world-wide depression with its unmeasured toll of misery and death. And now the mad armaments race toward another world war, the end of which no one can see or prophesy. These are the achievements of capitalism in the last third of a century. This system, I say, is bankrupt. This system is in the twilight period of its decline and its decay. The peoples of the world are rising up against it, and especially against its chief representative, the United States of America. The rest of the capitalist world would fall of its own weight without American money and American arms. There isn’t a country in Europe where a capitalist government could stand up for many months without American power and support. That applies to all of them from Greece to Franco’s Spain, to Italy, to France and all the others, except possibly England, and England too would soon follow the others. The peoples of the Orient, who have thrown off the shackles of the old colonialism, show no disposition to wear new ones. They are not asking to be taken into America’s sphere of influence and exploitation. On the contrary, they are fighting against it with all of their strength and passion. The victims of Stalinism in Russia and Eastern Europe badly need a political revolution; but they don’t want any “liberation” by the arms and bombs of the United States, and the consequent restoration of the capitalists and landlords, and the splitting up of their countries into colonies for American exploitation. The workers of Europe, and particularly the workers of Germany, have made it perfectly clear in this last year that they don’t intend to fight the battles of United States imperialism in another war. An expression of that attitude has come like a lightning flash from England this week. The resignation of Bevan from the cabinet throws the Labor government into a crisis and raises the question of the Atlantic Pact, and all the other war plans of the United States. This is a direct expression of the unwillingness of the people of England to be tied, as Bevan said, to the chariot of America. A dispatch from Paris in the Times this morning says that the sentiments of Bevan are echoed in socialist and labor circles all over Europe. And finally, the workers of the United States haven’t said their last word yet by a long shot. The foreign policy of American capitalism is united with its domestic policy. The war program carries with it the program of militarizing and regimenting the country, already under way; of stamping out liberties, which is in the design; and of driving down the living standards of the workers, which is in progress with the wage freeze on the one side and skyrocketing inflation on the other. All this in my opinion will meet resistance in the United States. The crisis in the Labor Mobilization Board may already be a sign of the coming storm. So I wouldn’t advise young people to bet their heads on the victory of American imperialism. There is an alternative. In my opinion this alternative is to recognize the social reality of our time, to see capitalism as a world system in its death agony, completely reactionary, and beyond salvation by any means. The alternative to support of this doomed social system is to ally oneself with the future; with the socialist and labor movement, and with the great colonial revolutions in process and still growing. The alternative is to work for a union of the world’s workers and the colonial peoples, to put an end to imperialism and open the way for the socialist society of the free and equal. That is the way to secure peace and progress and a good life for all. Friends, I recommend this alternative program to you. It is better. For it offers you something worth fighting for, with the prospect of victory at the end, a victory for all humanity in which you and your generation will share. Back to the James P. Cannon Internet Archive Back to the Marxists Internet Archive Last updated on: 17.6.2006 | left | transcribe tape recording source fourth international mayjune transcriptionmarkup einde subject discussion today foreign policy united states recognize burning question day monopolize attention statesman general diplomat sign time specialist art propaganda true false false concentrate subject nowadays point view special interest poisonous fog slanted propaganda truth hard time make way people america distinguish ruler misleader great majority traditionally peacelove nationally exclusive selfsufficient isolationist sentiment long convince course event foreign policy great concern today source great fear know bone matter statesman propagandist foreign policy drive peace war believe element agebracket population country acutely sensitive relationship foreign policy war youth fighting dying ultimate execution foreign policy direct today young people foreign policy academic disquisition question life death glad opportunity give speak audience young university people subject today wish express appreciation spirit fair play free speech manifest side especially student body assume administrative staff discussion possible believe free speech fight long time free speech necessary instrumentality dissemination information clarification idea lead correct decision early day pioneer socialist movement country iww affiliate battle hazard penalty right free speech come collision eventually irrevocable break communist party question attemptto suppress right minority faction belong present view defend fair debate year mix way fight free speech defendant prosecution defend right active participant organization committee defend right know free speech speak today subject foreign policy viewpoint marxist socialism socialism class struggle live united states world war socialist oppose oppose american intervention korea program spread world war socialist know capitalist war wage high moral principle lie propagandist profit plunder territory market field investment conceive disgraceful act selfrepudiation socialist support capitalist war great debate socalle proceed feverish intensity today hall congress press radio television forum platform pulpit opinion touch real problem war peace difference truman macarthur protagonist debate presently unfold tactical strategic fundamental differ begin begin drop atom bomb start world war policy policy truman policy macarthur imperialistic aim war hope solve economic problem united states mean war hoover sideline party discussion influence decline hoover policy imperialistic limit way serve economic requirement american capitalism conception western hemisphere fortress small presentday world new york times opinion correctly dispose hoover thesis point view big finance editorial observation program signify economic strangulation united states capitalist nation analysis thing hold true program truman macarthur ultimately condemn bankruptcy dilemma united states capitalism arise fact come apex rich power heir bankrupt europe world room expand capitalism half century ago western hemisphere small europe asia small fact world small meet demand need american capitalism everaccumulate surplus capital manufacture good absorb home capitalist basis soviet union onesixth world surface close capitalist world market field profitable investment eastern europe recent period close china great object war pacific prize war japan wage wrest control japanese imperialism process war revolution china tear orbit capitalist exploitation colonial revolution begin world open capitalist exploitation narrow demand american imperialism market field investment grow rapacious insatiable dilemma bankrupt social system foreign policy conjure existence bankruptcy capitalism register term human poverty misery primary cause today discuss question american foreign policy dilemma american imperialism let simple fact floor billion people world capitalism rule long onehalf people eat life establish fact undisputed anybody matter common knowledge hungry people want propaganda big illusion delusion imagine hungry people number billion wait somebody lowdown learned professorial essay know want want bread land national independence capitalism supply supply nub problem world today truman macarthur bomb existence foreign aim accomplish terrible contradiction american capitalism forbid exclude humane peaceful foreign policy narrow field capitalist exploitation hand constantly grow surplus capital good produce united states economic circumstance determine imperialist foreign policy united states matter bad ignorance statesman god know plenty ineluctable contradiction economic nature determine imperialist foreign policy united states drive militarization war fact wellknown decisive rule circle country circle represent great accumulation capital new york times new york herald tribune speak authoritatively know fact listen talk isolationism limitation western hemisphere make peace china russia proposal fit policy way propaganda deceive people sure blandly deny imperialist aim talk peace talk cheap lesson politics recommend young man woman chance study political science class talk cheap fact speak louder talk peace denial imperialist aim routine propaganda belie deed theoretical justification phony nonimperialist peace propaganda master america undertake people include professor philosophy sidney hook democratic socialist correspond opinion forgive unintentionally offend religious sensibility correspond missionary send soften native people colony subjugation exploitation great power past quotation sample theoretical missionary work shoddy attempt prove theoretical basis nonimperialist peacelove character rapacious imperialist power exist world quotation publish document entitle friend europe asia development american capitalism lead imperialism fulfill lenin theory imperialism inevitable stage capitalism quotation document denial american capitalism depend imperialist expansion life quotation great internal free trade market enormous natural resource today exporter raw material manufacture good economic fact life america different fact europe lead lenin formulate theory imperialism signer document lewis corey james t farrell sidney hook upton sinclair norman thomas attempt convince people europe asia economic law determine imperialist character old europe lenin write apply successor domination world beneficent united states america good theoretical exercise write assumption read read lenin true certain difference line development american capitalism imperialism similar development europe difference accentuate imperialist drive united states true american capitalism great internal market continent exploit contradistinction hemmedin country europe development exploitation vast territory provide expand internal market long time open widen field continuous investment reinvestment profit american capitalism billion billion dollar import europe development country case time world war situation relationship europe america begin change fundamentally america debtor nation beginning world war rich capitalist nation world creditor world internal market great prove crisis long absorb product american industry capitalist basis slight decline export sufficient plunge american economy devastating crisis world see crisis last year temporarily artificially overcome war expenditure theoretical justifier america export raw material contradistinction old european country analyze lenin imperialist lenin law argument convince governor thomas e dewey read dewey speech answer hoover dewey speech list strategic raw material america need foreign source industry armament include uranium point spot world locate incorporate american industrial process source control united states ally america export wheat cotton great number strategic raw material absolutely necessary industry war machine import cost cost war great power america supply raw material cause explosion british cabinet day main reason resignation bevan cabinet labor government america corner raw material supply world stimulate inflation europe endanger british economy lenin say epoch capitalist imperialism distinguish epoch free competition characterize mainly export capital development home industry reach point long absorb accumulation profit pile capitalist investor addition export manufacture good find foreign field surplus capital invest high rate profit condition political security investment apply america think apply time england france germany great imperialist power world war look figure accumulation capital rate volume exportation america beginning world war figure lie lie away bring forward nonimperialist argument present time bulk surplus capital entire world hold united states country virtual monopoly world capital confront imperialistic problem invest outside border mockery fact theory theoretical missionary mention gift dispense american santa claus loan donation military purpose foreign government include chiang kaishek syngman rhee franco representative freedom democracy largesse design represent document quote sign beneficence peacelove character american capitalist government cut buncombe get brass tack permit interpretation loan donation primarily design prop shaky capitalist structure create political condition profitable investment freespende united states capitalist want pour billion dollar investment development backward foreign country guarantee investment secure pay necessary security investment stable political condition stable political condition understand washington wall street require puppet government suppress revolution colonial uprising guarantee cost profit investor secure regardless interest exploit people second reason dole money freely marshall plan etc come convenient time america threaten economic crisis overproduction good domestic market absorb huge expenditure create artificial market alleviate postpone crisis benevolence happily marry expediency marxist interpret foreign policy united states government economic fact capitalist government need foreign market surplus good need secure political condition profitable investment foreign land demand insatiable restrain loan investment russia eastern europe china consider unsafe policy contain soviet union russia eastern europe temporize tactic ultimate aim imperious necessity overthrow government country open market field investment secure political condition real goal american foreign policy spell final analysis drive dominate entire world select ally serve end benevolence democracy ask question friend happen united states government implement foreign policy priest spurious theory tell peaceful beneficent concerned purely welfare human race include presume half billion people eat happen american foreign policy back american military force support capitalist landlord usurer king fascist gang people china support chiang kaishek regime corrupt reactionary people rise en masse drive america take side people spain fascist butcher franco greece monarchofascist regime korea syngman rhee indochina people struggle independence french imperialism fight overwhelming american financial help military supply malaya philippine portugal turkey south america world hungry people rise struggle land bread national independence confront united states america money bomb people know fact bring death destruction time know fact apt take theory professor hook elucidate article new york times magazine real need america propaganda offensive people know fact pretty hard deceive word especially feel fact body bone blow bloody attack practical artificer american foreign policy distinguish professorial advisor know waste money try convince halfbillion people world propaganda america friend hardheade statesman give ironic answer sidney hook propaganda theory day congress vote cut appropriation voice america big surprise people realistic politician washington faith gun bomb people world love propaganda belie fact question ask life purpose commit fate american imperialist power disregard moral consideration concern human race family little circle america bind dominate world serve save narrow morally impermissible standpoint question easy facile answer united states america constitute capitalist basis allpowerful lick world gun atom bomb impose force ignorant braggart narrowminded militarist like enslave exploit world good condition favor border opinion objective examination real fact world situation raise grave doubt capacity american capitalism carry small global design imply foreign policy capitalism outworn social system world war sign bankruptcy world order prior half century capitalism grow expand maintain uneasy peace world numerous local war colonial expedition great power divide world thing change consider moment change thirtyseven year shot fire world war devour life ten million people wound know destroy material culture world destructive world war terrible worldwide depression unmeasured toll misery death mad armament race world war end prophesy achievement capitalism century system bankrupt system twilight period decline decay people world rise especially chief representative united states america rest capitalist world fall weight american money american arm country europe capitalist government stand month american power support apply greece franco spain italy france possibly england england soon follow people orient throw shackle old colonialism disposition wear new one ask take america sphere influence exploitation contrary fight strength passion victim stalinism russia eastern europe badly need political revolution want liberation arm bomb united states consequent restoration capitalist landlord splitting country colony american exploitation worker europe particularly worker germany perfectly clear year intend fight battle united states imperialism war expression attitude come like lightning flash england week resignation bevan cabinet throw labor government crisis raise question atlantic pact war plan united states direct expression unwillingness people england tie bevan say chariot america dispatch paris time morning say sentiment bevan echo socialist labor circle europe finally worker united states say word long shot foreign policy american capitalism unite domestic policy war program carry program militarize regiment country way stamp liberty design drive live standard worker progress wage freeze skyrocket inflation opinion meet resistance united states crisis labor mobilization board sign come storm advise young people bet head victory american imperialism alternative opinion alternative recognize social reality time capitalism world system death agony completely reactionary salvation mean alternative support doom social system ally oneself future socialist labor movement great colonial revolution process grow alternative work union world worker colonial people end imperialism open way socialist society free equal way secure peace progress good life friend recommend alternative program well offer worth fight prospect victory end victory humanity generation share james p cannon internet archive marxist internet archive update | 0 |
LOREN GOLDNER'S "POSTMODERNITY Versus World History" Only-August 1993) is surely one of the most provocative theoretical pieces published in ATC, and the subjects it raises deserve continued discussion. I have only a single point to raise, although I consider it a serious one for Marxist theory and for our entire vision of socialism. In hoisting a banner against the alltoo-frequent reductivism of the multiculturalist perspective, Goldner insists properly that the 'West' was shaped by the "East' (one should perhaps say the "non-West") as much as the other way around, from historical era to era. He goes too far, or rather off in the wrong direction, when he argues that some cultures are, in the context of world history, at certain moments more dynamic, in fact superior to others," and the "West" the most dynamic and superior in the modern period. "Dynamic" here is merged in "superior," when it would be truer to say that conquest or domination requires only superior force. Sometimes it brings greater learning, but just as often in history—and increasingly in recent history—it brings a one-way catastrophe disguised as the advance of particular classes within societies that hardly knew of their existence previously, and gain little from their presence compared to the losses endured. History is littered by such examples as V. Gregorian offers for the victims od the Mongol invasions, including mass executions of indigenous populations, devastation of food supplies and dwellings. It could be little consolation to the descendants of the survivors that the conquerors imbibed some of the existing cut. ture.(1) And so we might say of many Amer. ican Indian populations, such as the cliff-dwellers of the west, who had achieved an admirable balance of scarce natural resources utterly unlike the increasingly destructive economies to follow. Indeed, it would be difficult to point to examples of Europeans in North America Ieamin much of anything worthwhile (beyond the use, and later abuse through heavy pesticide dosing, of a few specific crops) from their geographical predecessors. The "advance" of monocrop economies throughout much of Latin America, to take a single recent example, has created precious little wealth or learning for the mass of populations, but rathei the reverse. Knowledge of historical sub. sistence crops and forest goods is lost precious land cover is stripped and pesti. cides create notorious pockets of poison in which the hitherto timeless passage ol Migrating animals becomes impossible.(2) Goldner may wish to untangle "more dynamic" from "superior," and that would be a useful discussion. But as an elderly Marx had himself begun to doubt the "progressive" nature of imperialism and many Marxists have since regarded it as something more nearly approaching parasitism, so 1 think we have more and more reasons to be skeptical.(3) Judged from the viewpoint of human, let alone natural, history, a few centuries of industrialization and intensive agriculture are no more than the blink of an eye. Environmentalists tell us that three-quarters of the bird species in the world - are now in sharp decline, and New Englanders such as Goldner and I can easily see that more than three-quarters of our native songbirds have vanished in a few decades. Worse lies dead ahead unless this "superior" civilization is stopped in its tracks. If multiculturalism is indeed an inadequate perspective, total cultural relativism and "identity politics" no more than the inverse version of traditional Marxist (the mirror of Western) hubris, then by all means let us move onward, ever further from the received ideas of the socialist past—not backward toward them again. September-October 1993, ATC 46 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | loren goldner postmodernity versus world history onlyaugust surely provocative theoretical piece publish atc subject raise deserve continued discussion single point raise consider marxist theory entire vision socialism hoist banner alltoofrequent reductivism multiculturalist perspective goldner insist properly west shape east nonw way historical era era go far wrong direction argue culture context world history certain moment dynamic fact superior west dynamic superior modern period dynamic merge superior true conquest domination require superior force bring great learning history increasingly recent history bring oneway catastrophe disguise advance particular class society hardly know existence previously gain little presence compare loss endure history litter example v gregorian offer victim od mongol invasion include mass execution indigenous population devastation food supply dwelling little consolation descendant survivor conqueror imbibe exist cut amer ican indian population cliffdweller west achieve admirable balance scarce natural resource utterly unlike increasingly destructive economy follow difficult point example europeans north america ieamin worthwhile use later abuse heavy pesticide dosing specific crop geographical predecessor advance monocrop economy latin america single recent example create precious little wealth learn mass population rathei reverse knowledge historical sub sistence crop forest good lose precious land cover strip pesti cide create notorious pocket poison hitherto timeless passage ol migrating animal goldner wish untangle dynamic superior useful discussion elderly marx begin doubt progressive nature imperialism marxist regard nearly approach parasitism think reason judge viewpoint human let natural history century industrialization intensive agriculture blink eye environmentalist tell threequarter bird specie world sharp decline new englander goldner easily threequarter native songbird vanish decade bad lie dead ahead superior civilization stop track multiculturalism inadequate perspective total cultural relativism identity politic inverse version traditional marxist mirror western hubris mean let onward receive idea socialist past backward septemberoctober atc current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 1 |
IT’S HARD TO imagine that only a year ago the privatization of a public university would emerge as a major political issue in Bloomington, Indiana. That is not to say the topic took the community by surprise. As early as 1994, the Indiana University’s Board of Trustees formed various tasks forces to evaluate the university’s potential for privatization. In the following years the list of departments ballooned from the modest goal of privatizing printing services (since abandoned) to compromising 12 other services, most of which remain unnamed. This news is particularly frightening to the 5,400 (1) workers around Indiana who stand to lose not just their jobs, but a benefit package that included health care and significant reductions on tuition rates at the university. In response, workers at the university — including members of the CWA Local 4730 and AFSME Local 832 — Jobs with Justice members, and student activists organized protests with zest and circulated petitions opposing this initiative. Media were receptive too. The local radio stations, WFHB and WFIU, along with both the Indiana Daily Student and the Bloomington Herald Times tracked developments and offered sympathetic coverage of the workers. The opposition to Indiana University’s attempts to outsource the IU Motor Pool and Bookstore was well coordinated, and to those involved in the campaign, including myself, victory seemed within reach. However, to the bewilderment of its participants and in spite of a well-run campaign, activists made little impression on the Board of Trustees or then President Adam Herbert. Lacking opposition from either party, the issue would be approved without a vote, only requiring the president’s final authorization. The decision to outsource the bookstore was announced at a meeting of the Board of Trustees on May 5, 2007. Care was taken to provide activists and community members with ample time to talk, but the decision seemed to be already made and the board members read their announcement without pausing to deliberate on the comments of outsourcing opponents. The outsourcing of IU’s bookstore was not the harbinger of the university’s fall into the corporate world but a result of it. The campaign to stop outsourcing had failed to identify the origins of outsourcing at the university and its agents. The travesty was not the eventual privatization of the bookstore, but the slow dismantling of the public university that left IU’s students, staff and faculty as well as the citizens of Bloomington without a voice in university affairs. Instead of directing the campaign to the renewal of the public academic institution, we shouted at an institution that had long ago grown deaf to democracy. On January 27, 2007, over 200 protestors, including union members, students and community supporters, stood confined on a grassy median in the parking lot of Assembly Hall. The more eager demonstrators canvassed the parking lot, soliciting the many sports fans eager to enter the warm stadium. Among the demonstrators, an elderly woman, bundled up in woolen winter wear, held a sign that read “What would Herman Do?” Her sign refers to the beloved, late president of Indiana University, Herman B. Wells, who has the distinction of being the longest acting president of the institution, guiding it intermittently from 1939 to 1968. During his administration, Wells quadrupled the size of the campus, desegregated the university, and established the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction among other achievements. In his honor, various statues and busts pepper the grounds. While Wells passed away in 2000, he functions as the symbol of a wise patriarch — a hybrid of Dumbledore and FDR — who operated in the best interests of the university. For faculty, staff, and Bloomington residents, Wells has become a powerful figure to invoke as a moral authority. Protesters rallied behind his half-century-old speeches, instead of focusing on the current realities of the advisory committees that brought forth the privatization proposal, or the lack of state and federal funding that forces universities to rely on “marketplace solutions.” Understanding Wells’ iconic value, the local chapter of the Communications Workers of America, tapped into the legacy of Wells to legitimize their cause. The CWA’s executive board begins their official statement regarding outsourcing with a recollection of Wells’ first inaugural address in which he stated, “Never was the university’s responsibilities for the development of character of greater significance than at the present hour.” In fact, Wells’ advice could be about anything, but the CWA’s call to arms and invocation of Wells subsequently circulated among staff and faculty on campus. In an editorial in the Herald Times, highly respected Professor James Capshew began his October 2006 editorial on outsourcing by quoting Wells: “The effectiveness of Indiana University depends upon its people; particularly those who make the university’s work a career. Such persons render a public service of the highest order. It is appropriate, therefore, that special recognition be given to members of the staff as they give increasing proportions of their lifework to the noble and inspiring purposes of Indiana University.” Though Wells certainly wasn’t speaking directly to the issue of outsourcing in this passage, his support for university workers in general was helpful in couching the anti- outsourcing argument within IU’s traditional values. Unfortunately, understanding outsourcing through a narrative that reduces the issue to larger than life heroic figures such as the late Wells, versus agents with malevolent intentions such as Governor Mitch Daniels, effaces the gradual processes by which the university has been transformed from a public institution to a quasi-private corporation. The final decision to privatize, in the context of an academic environment where 45.7% (2) of universities have outsourced their bookstore, becomes less of a workers’ rights issue than one of a university system that has been brought to its knees. The use of Wells’ image by the current administration demonstrates that he can be equally appropriated by other forces. Wells had a reputation among students of Bloomington of being an extraordinary personable president, who always maintained public office hours without appointment. (3) Modeling himself after Wells, newly appointed President Michael McRobbie cultivated an image of compassion and communication in the months before his inauguration. His rhetoric seems to suggest that McRobbie is committed to continuing Wells’ style of administration. Yet what appears as a return to Wells’ open leadership is little more than a reaction to the negative responses to IU’s previous president Adam Herbert, who was infamous for his invisibility on campus (or for being off campus), and his push to spend more on athletics. In the fall of 2005, Herbert angered faculty by canceling the current search for a new IU Bloomington chancellor. After a mass meeting, Bloomington faculty called for the Trustees’ review of the president’s performance. But before the review could take place, Herbert announced his resignation as soon as a successor was identified. (4) Though Herbert’s relations with students and faculty were poor, McRobbie’s administration shows troubling signs of being inaccessible to these groups as well. Before his appointment, McRobbie stated in a press release that “students will be able to meet one-on-one with President Michael McRobbie during regularly scheduled ‘Open Office Hours’ at the university’s Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses.” (5) Since trumpeting his availability, McRobbie has held office hours infrequently and sporadically. He held them for the first three weeks of the school year, sometimes announcing their times less than a day in advance, and has ceased since then. CWA President Peter Kaczmarczyk has run into similar troubles while trying to schedule a meeting between the local chapter of Jobs with Justice and McRobbie. Kaczmarczyk sent several requests for a meeting to McRobbie in September, but each time the university deferred him to Associate Vice President Dan Rives, who handles union affairs. President McRobbie’s invocation of Wells appears to be a cynical attempt to associate himself with a popular leader without formulating the humane and enlightened policies advocated by Wells. When a hero like Wells can be symbolically commandeered by the current administration, one wonders whether the campaign against outsourcing should also rely on this iconic figure to give moral weight to their concerns. Part of the difficulty of the campaign against outsourcing has been to determine both the source of the university’s drive to outsource departments and the decision-making chain. According to Kaczmarczyk, former President Herbert shrugged his shoulders and deferred blame for the initiative to outsource to the board of trustees; they, in turn, claim that the impetus originated with Herbert and Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. Though there is no consensus on where the orders are coming from, the program to outsource the IU Motor Pool and Bookstore moved forward. Public outcry at the final board meeting did little to sway the board from its decision to proceed with outsourcing, a decision that seems to have been predetermined. At this same blustery January 2007 protest, local demonstrators also carried signs reading “Ditch Mitch! [Referring to Governor Mitch Daniels].” Daniels, after resigning from the Bush administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget, successfully ran for governor in Indiana. Local media and activists have placed the blame for outsourcing squarely on his shoulders. Since his election, Governor Daniels has stacked the university’s Board of Trustees with businessmen such as Thomas Reilly who seem bent on repeating Reagan’s economic mantra that “government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.” Dallas Murphy worked as a custodian at the university for 27 years and currently heads the local American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. When I spoke to him last year at the height of the campaign, a frustrated Murphy told me that these problems are a result of a change at the state level. Murphy said, “There has been a change of attitude, and the reason there has been a change is because it’s coming from the top, it’s coming from Mitch Daniels, his election has resulted in a complete change of attitude.” The perception that the election of Mitch Daniels triggered a dramatic change in the University’s attitude toward outsourcing departments is unfortunately ill founded. During an Indiana University Board of Trustees’ meeting in June of 1994 (nine years before Daniels would be elected Governor), Vice President Emeritus Ed Williams reported the findings of a “Competitiveness Task Force.” Williams and his task force had developed a system for evaluating the university and increasing efficiency. The board voted unanimously to continue research in the possibilities of outsourcing services and staff. Williams explained the motives of the task force this way: “The thrust behind this task force is to determine if the University is rendering quality service at the best price possible; therefore, [the committee has] designed a methodology to examine that issue. If areas exist which are not doing this, then the solution might be that someone else could provide the same or better service for a better price. In that case, there might be need to reassign or reduce staff.” The task force examined IU as a business with no particular attention given to its status as public institution with responsibilities to its workers or the Bloomington community. Vice President Terry Clapacs emphasizes that IU will have to adjust to a changing marketplace, adding that the external environment “compels management to consider alternate means of doing business, including mergers, consolidations, and outsourcing.” Clapacs’ “alternative means of doing business” is an explicit example of the corporate thinking that many universities have donned in the wake of funding cuts at the state level. The university’s drive to privatize is further complicated by the peculiar status of the corporation. The corporation has the legal status of personhood in the United States, and therefore the managers of the corporation act for the incorporeal force. The Canadian lawyer and writer Joel Bakan describes the formation of the corporation this way: “through a bizarre legal alchemy, courts had fully transformed the corporation into a ‘person,’ with its own identity, separate from the flesh-and blood people who were its owners and managers.” Bakan concludes that: “Corporations now govern society, perhaps more than governments themselves do; yet ironically, it is their very power, much of which they have gained through economic globalization, that makes them vulnerable. As true of any ruling institution, the corporation now attracts mistrust, fear, and demands for accountability from an increasingly anxious public.” (6) Since the corporation assumes the most easily assailed form, that of a single “person,” the discourse of heroes and villains is compelling for anti-outsourcing campaigns. During the IU campaign, every speech or forum organized around drumming up anti-outsourcing support focused on the dangers of the corporation (in this case, Barnes and Noble and Enterprise Rent-A-Car). The fervor of these attacks, in tandem with the magnitude of popular protest, made possible the sizeable demands that Barnes and Noble had to comply with in order to gain access to the university. However, activists generally spared IU from being portrayed in the same light as these corporations, constructing their beloved institution as a virgin structure besieged by private interests. This understanding prevented a sober evaluation of the university itself as a corporate entity, instead displacing the blame for the outsourcing initiative on to a few IU trustees and eventually Governor Daniels. Despite the problems with a campaign that focuses on curing the symptoms and not the disease, it’s clear, from the concessions made by the university, that the attempt to stop outsourcing at IU was not in vain. What the campaign to stop outsourcing at IU lacked was a way to critique the institution that was moving to privatize the various departments of the university in terms other than a narrative of good vs. evil and us vs. them. Ideally a progressive moment would work to break down these oppositions to expose the greater structures that lie beneath. The limitations of social activism today owe in part to an oversimplification of the structures that create the robber barons of the world, and, by extension, an inability to calculate their movements. That being said, there is still some merit in engaging in the binary narrative, as long as it is understood as being strategically simplistic. By acting as a counterforce and using symbolic icons such as Herman B. Wells, one can work to make very measurable success. But in order to effect a longstanding social change, we need to confront the underlying corporate structure of the university and its efforts to privatize and abdicate its public role. ATC 135, July–August 2008 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | hard imagine year ago privatization public university emerge major political issue bloomington indiana topic take community surprise early indiana university board trustee form task force evaluate university potential privatization following year list department balloon modest goal privatize printing service abandon compromise service remain unnamed news particularly frightening worker indiana stand lose job benefit package include health care significant reduction tuition rate university response worker university include member cwa local afsme local job justice member student activist organize protest zest circulate petition oppose initiative medium receptive local radio station wfhb wfiu indiana daily student bloomington herald times track development offer sympathetic coverage worker opposition indiana university attempt outsource iu motor pool bookstore coordinated involve campaign include victory reach bewilderment participant spite wellrun campaign activist little impression board trustee president adam herbert lack opposition party issue approve vote require president final authorization decision outsource bookstore announce meeting board trustee care take provide activist community member ample time talk decision board member read announcement pause deliberate comment outsourcing opponent outsourcing iu bookstore harbinger university fall corporate world result campaign stop outsourcing fail identify origin outsourcing university agent travesty eventual privatization bookstore slow dismantling public university leave iu student staff faculty citizen bloomington voice university affair instead direct campaign renewal public academic institution shout institution long ago grow deaf democracy january protestor include union member student community supporter stand confine grassy median parking lot assembly hall eager demonstrator canvass parking lot solicit sport fan eager enter warm stadium demonstrator elderly woman bundle woolen winter wear hold sign read herman sign refer beloved late president indiana university herman b well distinction long act president institution guide intermittently administration well quadruple size campus desegregate university establish kinsey institute research sex gender reproduction achievement honor statue bust pepper ground well pass away function symbol wise patriarch hybrid dumbledore fdr operate good interest university faculty staff bloomington residents wells powerful figure invoke moral authority protester rally halfcenturyold speech instead focus current reality advisory committee bring forth privatization proposal lack state federal funding force university rely marketplace solution understand well iconic value local chapter communication worker america tap legacy well legitimize cause cwa executive board begin official statement outsourcing recollection well inaugural address state university responsibility development character great significance present hour fact well advice cwa arm invocation wells subsequently circulate staff faculty campus editorial herald times highly respected professor james capshew begin october editorial outsourcing quote well effectiveness indiana university depend people particularly university work career person render public service high order appropriate special recognition give member staff increase proportion lifework noble inspiring purpose indiana university wells certainly speak directly issue outsourcing passage support university worker general helpful couch anti outsourcing argument iu traditional value unfortunately understand outsourcing narrative reduce issue large life heroic figure late well versus agent malevolent intention governor mitch daniels efface gradual process university transform public institution quasiprivate corporation final decision privatize context academic environment university outsource bookstore worker right issue university system bring knee use well image current administration demonstrate equally appropriate force well reputation student bloomington extraordinary personable president maintain public office hour appointment model wells newly appoint president michael mcrobbie cultivate image compassion communication month inauguration rhetoric suggest mcrobbie committed continue well style administration appear return well open leadership little reaction negative response iu previous president adam herbert infamous invisibility campus campus push spend athletic fall herbert anger faculty cancel current search new iu bloomington chancellor mass meeting bloomington faculty call trustee review president performance review place herbert announce resignation soon successor identify herbert relation student faculty poor mcrobbie administration show troubling sign inaccessible group appointment mcrobbie state press release student able meet oneonone president michael mcrobbie regularly schedule open office hour university bloomington indianapolis campus trumpet availability mcrobbie hold office hour infrequently sporadically hold week school year announce time day advance cease cwa president peter kaczmarczyk run similar trouble try schedule meeting local chapter job justice mcrobbie kaczmarczyk send request meeting mcrobbie september time university defer associate vice president dan rive handle union affairs president mcrobbie invocation well appear cynical attempt associate popular leader formulate humane enlightened policy advocate well hero like well symbolically commandeer current administration wonder campaign outsourcing rely iconic figure moral weight concern difficulty campaign outsourcing determine source university drive outsource department decisionmake chain accord kaczmarczyk president herbert shrug shoulder deferred blame initiative outsource board trustee turn claim impetus originate herbert indiana governor mitch daniels consensus order come program outsource iu motor pool bookstore move forward public outcry final board meeting little sway board decision proceed outsource decision predetermine blustery january protest local demonstrator carry sign read ditch mitch refer governor mitch daniels daniel resign bush administration director office management budget successfully run governor indiana local medium activist place blame outsourcing squarely shoulder election governor daniel stack university board trustee businessman thomas reilly bent repeat reagan economic mantra government economically private sector dallas murphy work custodian university year currently head local american federation state county municipal employee speak year height campaign frustrated murphy tell problem result change state level murphy say change attitude reason change come come mitch daniel election result complete change attitude perception election mitch daniels trigger dramatic change university attitude outsourcing department unfortunately ill found indiana university board trustee meeting june year daniel elect governor vice president emeritus ed williams report finding competitiveness task force williams task force develop system evaluate university increase efficiency board vote unanimously continue research possibility outsourcing service staff williams explain motive task force way thrust task force determine university render quality service good price possible committee design methodology examine issue area exist solution provide well service well price case need reassign reduce staff task force examine iu business particular attention give status public institution responsibility worker bloomington community vice president terry clapac emphasize iu adjust change marketplace add external environment compel management consider alternate mean business include merger consolidation outsourcing clapac alternative mean business explicit example corporate thinking university don wake funding cut state level university drive privatize complicate peculiar status corporation corporation legal status personhood united states manager corporation act incorporeal force canadian lawyer writer joel bakan describe formation corporation way bizarre legal alchemy court fully transform corporation person identity separate fleshand blood people owner manager bakan conclude corporation govern society government ironically power gain economic globalization make vulnerable true rule institution corporation attract mistrust fear demand accountability increasingly anxious public corporation assume easily assailed form single person discourse hero villain compelling antioutsource campaign iu campaign speech forum organize drum antioutsource support focus danger corporation case barne noble enterprise rentacar fervor attack tandem magnitude popular protest possible sizeable demand barne noble comply order gain access university activist generally spare iu portray light corporation construct beloved institution virgin structure besiege private interest understanding prevent sober evaluation university corporate entity instead displace blame outsourcing initiative iu trustee eventually governor daniel despite problem campaign focus cure symptom disease clear concession university attempt stop outsource iu vain campaign stop outsource iu lacked way critique institution move privatize department university term narrative good vs evil vs ideally progressive moment work break opposition expose great structure lie beneath limitation social activism today owe oversimplification structure create robber baron world extension inability calculate movement say merit engage binary narrative long understand strategically simplistic act counterforce symbolic icon herman b wells work measurable success order effect longstanding social change need confront underlying corporate structure university effort privatize abdicate public role atc july august current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 2 |
Ravachol 1892 Source: Jean Maitron, Ravachol et les Anarchistes. Paris, Julliard, 1964; Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor; CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2006. On the morning of July 11, 1892 Ravachol was executed. The following telegram was sent announcing his death. Justice was done this morning at 4:05 without incident or demonstration of any kind. He was awakened at 3:40. The condemned man refused the intervention of a chaplain and declared that he had no revelations to make. At first pale and trembling he soon demonstrated an affected cynicism and exasperation at the foot of the scaffold at the moment preceding the execution. In a hoarse voice he sang a few blasphemous and revoltingly obscene lyrics. He didn’t pronounce the word anarchy, and as his head was put in place he gave out a last cry of “Long Live the Re...” Complete calm reigned in the city. Report to follow. The authorities assumed that the word cut short by the blade was “Republic,” but it is clear that the word was actually “Revolution.” Ravachol Archive | left | ravachol source jean maitron ravachol et les anarchistes paris julliard translate marxistsorg mitch abidor copyleft creative commons attribute sharealike marxistsorg morning july ravachol execute follow telegram send announce death justice morning incident demonstration kind awaken condemn man refuse intervention chaplain declare revelation pale tremble soon demonstrate affected cynicism exasperation foot scaffold moment precede execution hoarse voice sing blasphemous revoltingly obscene lyric pronounce word anarchy head place give cry long live complete calm reign city report follow authority assume word cut short blade republic clear word actually revolution ravachol archive | 3 |
Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Irish Marxist Review Editor: JOHN MOLYNEUX Deputy Editor: DAVE O’FARRELL Website Editor: MEMET ULUDAG Editorial Board: MARNIE HOLBOROW SINÉAD KENNEDY TINA McVEIGH PAUL O’BRIEN PEADAR O’GRADY Cover Design: DARYL SOUTHERN Editorial, by John Molyneux [ PDF ] Articles The Politics of Sinn Fein: Rhetoric and Reality, by Kieran Allen [ PDF ] Where We Are Now, by Michael Taft [ PDF ] The Struggle for LGBT rights in Ireland, interview with Ailbhe Smyth [ PDF ] Stop Making Sense: Alienation and Mental Health, by Peadar O’Grady [ PDF ] A Visit to the Museum – Notes on Culture and Barbarism, by John Molyneux [ PDF ] John Redmond: A Footnote in History, by Paul O’Brien [ PDF ] Book Reviews Contributors, by John Molyneux [ PDF ] All articles copyright © Irish Marxist Review unless otherwise stated. Top of page IMR Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 21 September 2020 | left | main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive irish marxist review editor john molyneux deputy editor dave website editor memet uludag editorial board marnie holborow sinéad kennedy tina mcveigh paul peadar cover design daryl southern editorial john molyneux pdf article politic sinn fein rhetoric reality kieran allen pdf michael taft pdf struggle lgbt right ireland interview ailbhe smyth pdf stop make sense alienation mental health peadar pdf visit museum note culture barbarism john molyneux pdf john redmond footnote history paul pdf book review contributor john molyneux pdf article copyright irish marxist review state page imr index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update september | 4 |
Labour Monthly Source : Labour Monthly December, 1939, No.12. Publisher : The Labour Publishing Company Ltd., London. Transcription/HTML : Salil Sen Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2010). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. [The following account of the Bombay Strike of October 2 is reprinted from "The National Front" of October 8, 1939.] From the day the second imperialist world war began, we were all very concerned. Not to say that the machinations of Chamberlain and his gang had enmeshed us in their glib talk about "defence of democracy." What worried the Communists, leaders and rank and file, was how to effectively harness the opportunity and create confidence in the Indian National Congress that the working class would not fall behind in the fight against imperialism and for independence. It was increasingly evident that the top leadership in the Congress was hesitant and wavering. It was adopting dilatory tactics, and going in for negotiations with the Viceroy. The country was seething with discontent. The Defence of India Ordinance was demoralising quite a lot of political workers in the Congress fold through its ruthless provisions. "It is no more a question of going to jail as in the Civil Disobedience days; this time you face the gallows! Let us not be rash, let us move with circumspection" -- this was the advice freely given by responsible "leaders." The Communists were faced with the task of breaking the spell of the Ordinance, and creating confidence in the masses. We, in Bombay, determined to give the lead, and naturally our first task was to organise a one-day political strike with the dominant section of the local working class, the textile workers, shouldering the burden. We were faced with tremendous obstacles. The local nationalist newspapers were crowing the imperialist tune under the direct gaze of the Press Censor. They refused to give us even a few odd lines in a remote corner of their journals for the purpose of giving the call. Legal leaflets and handbills could not be issued, as the owners of printing presses refused to risk "confiscation" by publishing our manifesto or appeal. Even the Kranti, our Marathi-weekly, and the National Front had been forced to close down because no press was prepared to print "Communist" newspapers. The police made bando-bast to prevent processions by enforcing the requisite of a "pass" to be previously obtained from the local police station. Our most popular comrades on the textile front, the office bearers of the Girni Kamgar Union, were bound down by "bail-conditions." They were prohibited from addressing meetings, or otherwise taking part, directly or indirectly, in the furtherance of any strike. Thus, Comrades Dange, Mirajkar, Mrs. Dange, Patkar, Bhise and Bhogle were not available to us. The Congress Socialist Party was not ready to co-operate. The Trade Unions would have to be left out of count in order not to deprive the workers of their legal organisations in these days of economic hardship entailed by the War. Besides all this, the issue would be a straight political one, not permitting the use of economic grievances for rallying support. A clear anti-war call would be given, the Ordinance would be defied in action and not in mere words, and we were to be ready for the full consequences of the action. A meeting of all Communists unanimously decided for the strike to be called on October 2. The die was cast. Our campaign immediately started with barely three weeks in hand. With hurricane speed meetings of contacts were convened, areas divided up, and details chalked out. From the first day, the street-corner meetings were organised. All our speakers, good, bad and indifferent, were posted in different localities. Under the Red Flag gathered toiling men and women to listen to the clear analysis of the war, the repudiation of any and every compromise, the exposure of "neutrality," the reasons why the working class was forced to take the lead and point the way to the rest of the nation, a call to immediate action. From all corners came the demand for handbills and leaflets. With great difficulty the Manifesto was printed anyhow and circulated. The Congress Ministry had distributed 1,300,000 handbills, and the Bombay Provincial Trades Union Congress had printed 120,000 before the general strike on November 7. Only ten thousand copies of the Manifesto could be printed for the strike on October 2. Further handbills were not possible to get. Every day, after the mills closed, the working-class area hummed with activity. Cyclists with red flags went shouting by. In the night men with burning torches appeared at strategic corners and harangued the crowd. A new cadre, which had not touched the textile workers before, took street-corner and chawl meetings and gave convincing proof of the ramifications of Communists in the city. They argued and carried conviction, patiently explaining the difficulties that loomed large before the workers. In the morning as the workers went to their mills and factories, they were greeted by hand-written posters in their chawls, on the walls of buildings, on the stairs they mounted, at the gates they entered, even on the road on which they walked. Group meetings of "contacts," the gatherings of promising workers selected for their mettle in previous local strike struggles, were organised by the hundred. Everywhere the effort was to clearly understand the political implications of the strike. These contacts emerging from these "study circles" widened the net of organisation, and proved to be the pivot of the strike. They brought home the lesson that effective Trade Union work is indispensable for a party professing Marxism because that alone can supply the necessary links with the working masses and permit you to test and choose the right men. The patient work of our comrades for the last so many years in the Girni Karngai Union was yielding its result. Four days previous to the strike the first blow was received as com. Sawant was arrested with a bundle of anti-war posters and taken to the lock-up. The comrades resolved, "We shall be more careful. We cannot afford to lose comrades like this." The campaign was further intensified on the last days but no arrest of a similar kind could be effected by the police. The rally of workers at Delisle Road mustered only ten thousand men and a sprinkling of women workers. "This means that the strike to-morrow will be a flop" said an interested press reporter in the hearing of our comrades. "I beg your pardon," came the prompt reply, "what you do not see is the character of the gathering. We are working on a different basis this time. We are not relying on agitation and mass enthusiasm so much as on effective organisation. Here in this meeting there are representatives from every centre and area. The picked men, the contacts, are here. And we are confident about success to-morrow." But the press representative went away unconvinced. He had witnessed the rally that preceded the November 7 general strike. It had reached the colossal figure of nearly a lac. This rally could not impress him. Com. Joglekar presided at the rally. In his characteristic style, he brought the grimness of the occasion to bear on the workers since Parulekar, Joint Secretary of the All-India Trade Union Congress and a member of the Servants of India Society, spoke next. In burning words, he tore the veil that covers the propaganda by the Government. "Why should you offer your lives at the altar of this British Empire? This is a war between two dacoits. Let them fight between themselves, Why should we, the toilers, their victims, help them?" Comrade Ranadive made the best speech of the day. In quiet argumentative style, he posed one problem after another and demolished the bogey held up before the workers against the strike on October 2. "We are told we shall lose a week's wages by going on a day's strike. But who can deny that if we do not strike on this political issue, if we do not give the call for action so that national independence may be achieved, we shall lose not a week's wages but the wages of a whole life-time, the wages of freedom from slavery, the wages of happiness from misery, the wages of relief from stark exploitation that is our misfortune to-day, and harder chains to-morrow? … We are not stealing the initiative from anybody. Through the strike, we assure the Congress, the Indian nation, that the working class will be solidly behind every struggle for attaining freedom, whatever the cost, however big the sacrifice demanded … We give our assurance by deeds and not only by words To-day the British lion has fallen into a pit which he dug himself. He had meant it for Soviet Russia, the land where Workers and Peasants rule. It is not our good fortune to claim that we have pushed him into the pit. But it is certainly our good fortune that he is in it. We are not going to help him to come out. The lion is telling us: "Pull me out by my tail, dear lamb, and we shall be eternal friends." But we know full well that the lion will eat us up if he is once extricated. So all we are ready to do is to push him deeper down, to cover the pit, along with him, with dust and sand, and give this vicious exploiting Empire a decent burial ...." There was loud and long applause. "Victory to the Red Flag," "Down with Imperialist War," "Long Live Indian Independence," burst forth from every corner. The meeting transformed itself into a procession, headed by the women with torchlights. Till late in the night, these men and women marched through streets and by-lanes carrying the message for the next day. All night there was feverish activity. The finishing touches to the arrangements were completed by 2 a.m. And by 4 a.m. the pickets with Red Flags had already reached every mill-gate. Over and above these there were pickets posted at strategic corners and chawl-gates. Then with baited breath we waited. I turned to Comrade Bukhari and asked: "What is your estimate of success?" A mysterious jumble of lines gathered on his forehead and with the left eye half-closed, he haltingly said: "Success -- I am certain about. But numbers -- I fear it may not reach even 50 per cent. of November 7. You see, the odds are too great." I asked Comrade Vaidya the same question. He said: "The Bombay working class has never failed us. But I agree the odds are very great. No press, no handbills, no effective opposition to give momentum, no effective aid from others. They are trying to kill us by isolation, by putting us in cold storage .... Yes, yes, I believe we can draw easily about thirty thousand or so -- because the issue is a straight political general strike, and the terror of the Defence of India Act is so wide¬spread in the city." I asked a young worker lad: "What are the workers feeling? Will there be a strike?" He was visibly annoyed. "Have you doubts about it? Come to my chawl and speak to the workers themselves. The worker is quite confident about the strike. We have done it before, we shall do it again." And then the momentous day arrived. All our sober calculations were smashed up by the militant working class. The Bombay textile proletariat rose to the occasion and gave a bigger and a better demonstration than November 7. We had only one motor-lorry to give the call on the day of the strike. The loud-speaker was not available. Nor were Comrades Dange or Mirajkar available. Police arrangements were thorough. In front of every mill-gate, at every street-corner, the police with their lathis strutted about under the direct supervision of a sergeant or a sub-inspector. In three or four places, armed policemen with rifles were present in batches of twelve and more. Four loaded police vans continuously patrolled the labour areas, going round and round, stopping before each mill-gate, exchanging greetings and going ahead. But where were the workers? The slogan given was: "You need not stir out of your houses. Do not throng near mill-gates, or the police may take the excuse for a lathi-charge or more." And the order was being obeyed. The streets remained empty, especially in front of mill-gates. Picketing was hardly needed. At the Morarjee Mills I got mixed up with some Bhaya workers. One of them was saying: "Bhaiya, this time we must not be disgraced like last time. We are not going in at all -- nowhere near the gates. They blamed us as strike-breakers. Don't you remember the rebuke of Swamiji when he came here the other day?" And the others -- to a man -- concurred. In Madanpura, the Muslim workers seemed equally determined. "This is our strike, too. The Britisher is no friend of Islam. And we know the Red Flag stands equally for everybody." I asked: "What is the position in your area?" The prompt reply came: "More than fifty per cent. of Muslim workers have obeyed the Red Flag consciously." At Worli, a dozen women workers were arguing strenuously. I overheard: "Who is going to stop me? Come, I shall lead you in." "No, no, you are foolish -- what will you gain by going in?" "Are you going to lose wages for these good-for-nothings?" "Don't say that -- I am not coming. I am a follower of these Red Flaggers. Have you never heard Usha-tai speaking at a meeting?" In the end all went home. They said the children at home were better company than the inhuman machines. We almost ran into two volunteers with Red Flags being pursued by a dozen lathi-wielding policemen under the valiant lead of an Anglo-Indian Sergeant at Foras Road. The volunteers complained that they had been assaulted, the flag torn up and now they were being bodily hustled from the area. We asked the sergeant why he was behaving in this fashion. "I don't want anybody lurking about here. They tried to hold a meeting in the garden next door to the Mill. Supposing they throw stones from there. I shall not permit it." We had to sternly tell him that he was over-stepping the bounds of his duties, that he could not stop meetings like this in anticipation of stone-throwing. "I do not care. I am the master here." And he started strutting about the place, brandishing his "stick." A crowd had collected. We decided to report him to higher authori¬ties. We got our volunteers to resume their meeting as well as picket-posts with the flags. As we were moving away to the police station, the sergeant walked up. "Look here, mister, I did not mean any harm. The flag was accidentally torn. Honest truth. Let us treat the whole incident as closed." And when we told him that his explanation was unsatisfactory, he said: "But I am an Indian, I was born in India, I wish to live in India. We are all brothers." This was something new from an Anglo-Indian sergeant. But the police tried to keep a neutral attitude in most cases. They did not take sides as on November 7. At Worli the manager and higher staff of a mill came out and started using undue pressure on their men to get in, actually hustling some of them inside. The volunteer at the gate gave an extempore speech. In order to silence him a stone was pelted at him from inside the mill gate. It caught him in the back. The result was at once visible. Even the dozen or so who had weakened and were about to be dragged in walked away disgusted with the mill authorities. The manager made a piteous appeal, saying he was a "labour-wallah," but to no avail. In half an hour, the fifty who had previously gone in also came out and joined the strike. The mill completely closed down for the day by 9 a.m. At Kohinoor Mills men were brought into the mills from 3 a.m. Nearly one thousand five hundred -- nearly half the complement -- were in by 8 a.m. But by 11.30 a.m. the whole mill came out en masse and joined the strike. Nearly 40 mills remained completely closed from the beginning, not a single worker crossing the gate. Another 15 tried to work with depleted complements, but most of them had to give up the ghost by noon. In the north of Bombay, where the labour areas are situated, all the colleges and the most important schools also closed down. Nearly ten thousand students came on the streets. Three meetings of students took place, and fiery speeches against War and declaring solidarity with the workers were made. It is interesting to note in this connection that these students attended the evening Kamgar Maidan meeting and the workers greeted them with "Vidyarthi-Kamgaranchi Jai." At Girgaon, a group of hotel workers went from restaurant to restaurant with two demands: (1) one hotel-worker to join the group in propaganda; (2) the restaurant to shut down in sympathy with the strike. The Dharavi leather workers had joined the strike. So also a majority of the Ambarnath match factory workers. The seamen held a demonstration and meeting in sympathy. Sections of building workers laid down their tools. Comrade Taher was first arrested for "obstruction to traffic" and released. Once again he was arrested for "stone-throwing" and bailed out for Rs.10. Two volunteers were also arrested for "obstruction," and bailed out for varying amounts. But the whole day passed without a single affray or "incident." The workers behaved with great restraint and earned the unstinted unanimous compliment even from the hostile local press that the strike was absolutely peaceful and no force was used at any stage. By 9 a.m. the strike was practically complete. It totalled 89,000 workers when we approached the desk of Comrades Deshpande and Bhandarkar at the Kranti office for reports from the various centres The comrades had worked with iron discipline. The organisation functioned through the new contacts and had worked wonderfully The Phoenix Mills workers, men and women, on strike for the last six months, had done yeomen service. After the success of November 7 interested parties had maintained that the success of the general strike was due to the unholy alliance made by the Communists with Ambedkar. Ambedkar and his party have now declared for co-operation with Britain. And yet the call of the Communists had found a bigger response from workers than November 7, and in a sober and quieter mood. The strike had made a record in numbers and in the peaceful way in which it was accomplished. As we went along to the historic Kamgar Maidan, Comrade Ranadive remarked: "For the next strike, we need only one public rally, on meetings of contacts and one handbill, and the task would be accomplished." Nobody contradicted him, so well was everybody impressed by the cool, silent and yet effective strength displayed by the workers There was no fuss, no excitement, but with quiet, determined, grim faces they had forged a huge political weapon for themselves and evolved the technique of its use. We reached the Kamgar Maidan and a sea of heads greeted us The maidan was decked in huge Red Flags. Comrade Shahid, with his stentorian voice and wide, sweeping gestures, was casting a spell on the audience. Comrade Guran retailed in song, in a beautifully-worded Marathi povada, the history of the Russian worker before, during and after the Revolution. Every phrase was eagerly taken in, and as he stretched the pitch of the last words, thundering applause greeted him. Comrade Tambitkar sang, and the huge multitude, transformed into a militant mood, sang with him, rocking to the tune. Comrade Joglekar once again presided at the meeting and gave a stirring call to action. "We, the workers of Bombay, have proved to-day that we shall never be found wanting in the struggle for inde¬pendence .... English statesmen shall no more fix who is our friend..... This Hitler whom they called a friend yesterday is now the worst criminal on earth .... We have nothing to do with their quarrels. We stand for a free India and are determined to achieve our indepen¬dence." Comrade Ranadive moved the main resolution of the day. In a speech which went directly to the heart of the workers he explained how the war had come about, who was involved in it and why. He said: "If Gandhiji stands pledged to non-violence, it is not understandable why he wants India to support Britain which has resorted to violence We have had a peaceful exhibition of our strength to-day, and we pledge that till the last worker is alive, we shall fight for the cause so dear to the Indian nation." He gave the history of the workers' struggle in Bombay and India, and asked, "With what face can imperialists and foreign capitalists ask us to-day to help them? Have they for¬gotten their own misdeeds? And what is the guarantee that the shoot¬ings on workers, the Jallian-wallas, will not be repeated in the future? We are not likely to give milk to the serpent who has bitten us before and whose teeth have not been drawn by us .... If the Russian worker could effect a revolution during the last World War, the Indian worker can also rise to the same heights now." He ended up amidst cheers when he declared: "They say the war will last for three years. We have sworn to-day to resist imperialism and within the three years, we are sure of bringing it down to dust." The resolution was read out: "This meeting declares its solidarity with the international working class and the peoples of the world, who are being dragged into the most destructive war by the Imperialist Powers. The meeting regards the present war as a challenge to the international solidarity of the working-class, and declares that it is the common task of the workers and people of different countries to defeat this imperialist conspiracy against humanity, so that peace and goodwill is restored among the nations of the world. "This meeting condemns the Nazi aggression against Poland, and expresses its deep sympathy with the Polish people, who have been the victims of barbarous atrocities. "This meeting is further of opinion that the war between Nazi Germany and British Imperialism is born out of Imperialist rivalry and that British Imperialism is neither defending democracy nor the independence of nations. "This meeting, therefore, is of opinion that loyalty to Indian freedom demands resistance to war on the part of the Indian people. "This meeting strongly protests against the attempts of the Govern¬ment to exploit Indian resources and man-power and impose the war on India in spite of India's declared opposition to it. "This meeting strongly condemns the Viceregal Ordinances which virtually place the country under martial law regime and demands their immediate repeal. "This meeting is of opinion that the full resources of the country should be utilised at this critical stage for forcing the pace of Indian democracy. This meeting, therefore, requests the coming meeting of the All-India Congress Committee to give a bold lead to the country, by throwing overboard all compromise proposals and starting a nation-¬wide war-resistance movement. This meeting pledges itself to war resistance and declares that any other path at this critical juncture would be a crime against Indian freedom and independence." Comrade Bukhari in his simple and forceful Urdu, seconded the resolution. He explained the task of the working class in the present epoch, dilated on the foreign policy of Soviet Russia, and appealed to the Congress to launch a country-wide struggle from which we must emerge victorious. Comrade Parulekar was greeted by the workers as he advanced to the microphone. He said: "To-day your success has created a stir in the Assembly Chambers. Prime Minister Kher acknowledged to me that the strike has been a phenomenal success. I greet you on your strength and unity." Comrade Indulal Yagnik, Joint Secretary of the All-India Kisan Sabha, then rose to give fraternal greetings on behalf of the A.I.K.S. and the Forward Bloc. "I am returning from my tour of Gujerat and I bring you the admira¬tion and affection of the peasants. You know how to do things in a big way. We, the poor peasants, live in small isolated villages, but we too are copying your example. We have also started resistance against war." The resolution was adopted amidst loud slogans of "Down with Imperialist War," "Long Live Indian Freedom." The meeting adopted a resolution supporting the demand of workers for wage adjustment to prices. "This meeting is firmly of opinion that the rise in prices, permitted under Government authority, is extortionate and excessive. It has entailed severe hardship on poor and middle sections of the population. "This meeting therefore demands immediate legislation guaranteeing increase in wages with the rise in prices. This meeting further calls upon the workers of Bombay to organise a conference to create sanctions behind the above demand." The meeting then adopted a resolution demanding from the Congress Government a fair settlement to the Phoenix Mills Strike. Comrade Laljee Pendse explained in detail the need of building up the Girni Kamgar Union into a mass union and how a sound trade union can be the basis of a sound political party. Comrade Tambitkar made an impassioned appeal for the redress of the grievances of the Phoenix Mills workers, retailed their miseries and showed how firmly they had borne the brunt of a long strike to save the Bombay working class from retrenchment and unemployment. The Marathi version of the International was cheered to an echo and the meeting dispersed. We were all tired out after a strenuous day. But the Kranti office carried on discussions for another two hours, evaluating the gains, measuring the next advance, wondering what the morrow would bring us. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in India | Subject Archive | left | labour monthly source labour monthly december publisher labour publishing company ltd london transcriptionhtml salil sen public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source follow account bombay strike october reprint national october day second imperialist world war begin concerned machination chamberlain gang enmesh glib talk defence democracy worry communist leader rank file effectively harness opportunity create confidence indian national congress work class fall fight imperialism independence increasingly evident leadership congress hesitant waver adopt dilatory tactic go negotiation viceroy country seethe discontent defence india ordinance demoralise lot political worker congress fold ruthless provision question go jail civil disobedience day time face gallow let rash let circumspection advice freely give responsible leader communist face task break spell ordinance create confidence masse bombay determine lead naturally task organise oneday political strike dominant section local work class textile worker shoulder burden face tremendous obstacle local nationalist newspaper crow imperialist tune direct gaze press censor refuse odd line remote corner journal purpose give legal leaflet handbill issue owner print press refuse risk confiscation publish manifesto appeal kranti marathiweekly national force close press prepared print communist newspaper police bandobast prevent procession enforce requisite pass previously obtain local police station popular comrade textile office bearer girni kamgar union bind bailcondition prohibit address meeting take directly indirectly furtherance strike comrade dange mirajkar mrs dange patkar bhise bhogle available congress socialist party ready cooperate trade union leave count order deprive worker legal organisation day economic hardship entail war issue straight political permit use economic grievance rally support clear antiwar give ordinance defy action mere word ready consequence action meeting communist unanimously decide strike call october die cast campaign immediately start barely week hand hurricane speed meeting contact convene area divide detail chalk day streetcorner meeting organise speaker good bad indifferent post different locality red flag gather toil man woman listen clear analysis war repudiation compromise exposure neutrality reason work class force lead point way rest nation immediate action corner come demand handbill leaflet great difficulty manifesto print circulate congress ministry distribute handbill bombay provincial trade union congress print general strike november thousand copy manifesto print strike october handbill possible day mill close workingclass area hum activity cyclist red flag went shout night man burning torch appear strategic corner harangue crowd new cadre touch textile worker take streetcorner chawl meeting give convincing proof ramification communist city argue carry conviction patiently explain difficulty loom large worker morning worker go mill factory greet handwritten poster chawl wall building stair mount gate enter road walk group meeting contact gathering promise worker select mettle previous local strike struggle organise effort clearly understand political implication strike contact emerge study circle widen net organisation prove pivot strike bring home lesson effective trade union work indispensable party profess marxism supply necessary link work masse permit test choose right man patient work comrade year girni karngai union yield result day previous strike blow receive com sawant arrest bundle antiwar poster take lockup comrade resolve shall careful afford lose comrade like campaign intensify day arrest similar kind effect police rally worker delisle road muster thousand man sprinkling woman worker mean strike tomorrow flop say interested press reporter hearing comrade beg pardon come prompt reply character gathering work different basis time rely agitation mass enthusiasm effective organisation meeting representative centre area pick man contact confident success tomorrow press representative go away unconvinced witness rally precede november general strike reach colossal figure nearly lac rally impress com joglekar preside rally characteristic style bring grimness occasion bear worker parulekar joint secretary allindia trade union congress member servant india society speak burn word tear veil cover propaganda government offer life altar british empire war dacoit let fight toiler victim help comrade ranadive good speech day quiet argumentative style pose problem demolish bogey hold worker strike october tell shall lose week wage go day strike deny strike political issue action national independence achieve shall lose week wage wage lifetime wage freedom slavery wage happiness misery wage relief stark exploitation misfortune today hard chain tomorrow steal initiative anybody strike assure congress indian nation work class solidly struggle attain freedom cost big sacrifice demand assurance deed word today british lion fall pit dig mean soviet russia land worker peasant rule good fortune claim push pit certainly good fortune go help come lion tell pull tail dear lamb shall eternal friend know lion eat extricate ready push deeply cover pit dust sand vicious exploit empire decent burial loud long applause victory red flag imperialist war long live indian independence burst forth corner meeting transform procession head woman torchlight till late night man woman march street bylane carry message day night feverish activity finish touch arrangement complete picket red flag reach millgate picket post strategic corner chawlgate bait breath wait turn comrade bukhari ask estimate success mysterious jumble line gather forehead left eye halfclose haltingly say success certain number fear reach cent november odd great ask comrade vaidya question say bombay work class fail agree odd great press handbill effective opposition momentum effective aid try kill isolation put cold storage yes yes believe draw easily thirty thousand issue straight political general strike terror defence india act city ask young worker lad worker feeling strike visibly annoyed doubt come chawl speak worker worker confident strike shall momentous day arrive sober calculation smash militant work class bombay textile proletariat rise occasion give big well demonstration november motorlorry day strike loudspeaker available comrade dange mirajkar available police arrangement thorough millgate streetcorner police lathis strut direct supervision sergeant subinspector place armed policeman rifle present batch loaded police van continuously patrol labour area go round round stop millgate exchange greeting go ahead worker slogan give need stir house throng near millgate police excuse lathicharge order obey street remain especially millgate picket hardly need morarjee mill get mix bhaya worker say bhaiya time disgrace like time go near gate blame strikebreaker not remember rebuke swamiji come day man concur madanpura muslim worker equally determined strike britisher friend islam know red flag stand equally everybody ask position area prompt reply come cent muslim worker obey red flag consciously worli dozen woman worker argue strenuously overheard go stop come shall lead foolish gain go go lose wage goodfornothing not come follower red flagger hear ushatai speak meeting end go home say child home well company inhuman machine run volunteer red flag pursue dozen lathiwielding policeman valiant lead angloindian sergeant foras road volunteer complain assault flag tear bodily hustle area ask sergeant behave fashion not want anybody lurk try hold meeting garden door mill supposing throw stone shall permit sternly tell overstep bound duty stop meeting like anticipation stonethrowe care master start strut place brandish stick crowd collect decide report high get volunteer resume meeting picketpost flag move away police station sergeant walk look mister mean harm flag accidentally tear honest truth let treat incident closed tell explanation unsatisfactory say indian bear india wish live india brother new angloindian sergeant police try neutral attitude case side november worli manager high staff mill come start undue pressure man actually hustle inside volunteer gate give extempore speech order silence stone pelt inside mill gate catch result visible dozen weaken drag walk away disgust mill authority manager piteous appeal say labourwallah avail half hour previously go come join strike mill completely close day kohinoor mill man bring mill nearly thousand nearly half complement mill come en masse join strike nearly mill remain completely closed beginning single worker cross gate try work deplete complement ghost noon north bombay labour area situate college important school close nearly thousand student come street meeting student take place fiery speech war declare solidarity worker interesting note connection student attend evening kamgar maidan meeting worker greet vidyarthikamgaranchi jai girgaon group hotel worker go restaurant restaurant demand hotelworker join group propaganda restaurant shut sympathy strike dharavi leather worker join strike majority ambarnath match factory worker seaman hold demonstration meeting sympathy section build worker lay tool comrade taher arrest obstruction traffic release arrest stonethrowe bail volunteer arrest obstruction bail vary amount day pass single affray incident worker behave great restraint earn unstinted unanimous compliment hostile local press strike absolutely peaceful force stage strike practically complete total worker approach desk comrade deshpande bhandarkar kranti office report centre comrade work iron discipline organisation function new contact work wonderfully phoenix mill worker man woman strike month yeoman service success november interested party maintain success general strike unholy alliance communist ambedkar ambedkar party declare cooperation britain communist find big response worker november sober quieter mood strike record number peaceful way accomplish go historic kamgar maidan comrade ranadive remark strike need public rally meeting contact handbill task accomplish contradict everybody impress cool silent effective strength display worker fuss excitement quiet determined grim face forge huge political weapon evolve technique use reach kamgar maidan sea head greet maidan deck huge red flag comrade shahid stentorian voice wide sweeping gesture cast spell audience comrade guran retail song beautifullyworded marathi povada history russian worker revolution phrase eagerly take stretch pitch word thunder applause greet comrade tambitkar sing huge multitude transform militant mood sing rock tune comrade joglekar preside meeting give stirring action worker bombay prove today shall find want struggle english statesman shall fix friend hitler call friend yesterday bad criminal earth quarrel stand free india determined achieve comrade ranadive move main resolution day speech go directly heart worker explain war come involve say gandhiji stand pledge nonviolence understandable want india support britain resort violence peaceful exhibition strength today pledge till worker alive shall fight cause dear indian nation give history worker struggle bombay india ask face imperialist foreign capitalist ask today help misdeed guarantee worker jallianwalla repeat future likely milk serpent bite tooth draw russian worker effect revolution world war indian worker rise height end amidst cheer declare war year swear today resist imperialism year sure bring dust resolution read meeting declare solidarity international working class people world drag destructive war imperialist power meeting regard present war challenge international solidarity workingclass declare common task worker people different country defeat imperialist conspiracy humanity peace goodwill restore nation world meeting condemn nazi aggression poland express deep sympathy polish people victim barbarous atrocity meeting opinion war nazi germany british imperialism bear imperialist rivalry british imperialism defend democracy independence nation meeting opinion loyalty indian freedom demand resistance war indian people meeting strongly protest attempt exploit indian resource manpower impose war india spite indias declare opposition meeting strongly condemn viceregal ordinance virtually place country martial law regime demand immediate repeal meeting opinion resource country utilise critical stage force pace indian democracy meeting request come meeting allindia congress committee bold lead country throw overboard compromise proposal start warresistance movement meeting pledge war resistance declare path critical juncture crime indian freedom independence comrade bukhari simple forceful urdu second resolution explain task work class present epoch dilate foreign policy soviet russia appeal congress launch countrywide struggle emerge victorious comrade parulekar greet worker advance microphone say today success create stir assembly chambers prime minister kher acknowledge strike phenomenal success greet strength unity comrade indulal yagnik joint secretary allindia kisan sabha rise fraternal greeting behalf aik forward bloc return tour gujerat bring affection peasant know thing big way poor peasant live small isolated village copy example start resistance war resolution adopt amidst loud slogan imperialist war long live indian freedom meeting adopt resolution support demand worker wage adjustment price meeting firmly opinion rise price permit government authority extortionate excessive entail severe hardship poor middle section population meeting demand immediate legislation guarantee increase wage rise price meeting call worker bombay organise conference create sanction demand meeting adopt resolution demand congress government fair settlement phoenix mill strike comrade laljee pendse explain detail need build girni kamgar union mass union sound trade union basis sound political party comrade tambitkar impassioned appeal redress grievance phoenix mill worker retail misery show firmly bear brunt long strike save bombay work class retrenchment unemployment marathi version international cheer echo meeting disperse tired strenuous day kranti office carry discussion hour evaluate gain measure advance wonder morrow bring marxism antiimperialism india subject archive | 5 |
THE OFFICE OF the Movement for Gay and Lesbian Liberation, near downtown Santiago, is inviting. Although always busy, staff take time out to chat with whoever comes in. Meeting rooms, where mainly young people come to hang out, are in the back of the building. The atmosphere is supportive and comfortable. The violet walls are covered with information on upcoming workshops and events, AIDS prevention, art work and posters about being homosexual: “Be what you want to be, but be yourself,” says one. The Movement for Gay and Lesbian Liberation (MOVILH), founded after the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship, is the largest and most visible organization of gays and lesbians in Chile. Its growth and programs are impressive. “Today homosexuals know MOVILH exists and will stand up for them,” says Victor Hugo Robles, one of seven coordinators. “But we are also known outside of the gay and lesbian community. For example, the governmental commission on AIDS prevention asked us to make a brochure for homosexuals. We are known as a group that does valuable work.” Although MOVILH founders conceived their organization as one of both gays and lesbians, women didn’t start coming to MOVILH until almost two years later. “For women, it is very difficult to think of themselves as lesbians, the term hurts them a lot,” says Marlore Moran, a spokeswoman for MOVILH, and codirector of MOVILH’s radio program “Open Triangle,” aired on the feminist station Radio Tierra. “For example, since I am on the radio, many women call me, married women and even nuns. I also have gone through the experience of marrying and having a child thinking I could change.” Beginning in June 1993, lesbians shared their experiences at weekly meetings in the MOVILH office. “The attitude of MOVILH was liberating,” says Marlore Moran. “They provided the space for us to do what ever we wanted. We talked and organized until we were ready to work for both gay rights and lesbian rights, realizing that these rights should be equal. Then we started joining MOVILH.” Nevertheless, lesbians remain a small minority within MOVILH. Only two of the seven coordinators are women. Marlore’s response to this situation is to raise the consciousness of the women. “Women need to use the right they have to speak up. For example, I entered MOVILH in June and in August I was already a coordinator, but that’s because I decided I wanted to be.” MOVILH offers a variety of workshops, peer counseling, legal and psychological services, and AIDS testing in cooperation with a wide network of organizations. Fathers can work on accepting their gay sons in a special father-son workshop which has been very successful. About 280 members participate in events on a regular basis, and 2000 to 3000 people can be mobilized for a special event. Leaders’ backgrounds and experiences shape MOVILH’s style and tone. Marco Ruiz spent four years in exile in Argentina where he was exposed to a more open attitude towards homosexuality. “This experience led to personal growth, which in turn flowed into the movement when we got back to Chile,” he says. Many of MOVILH’s activists opposed military rule, although they did not organize as homosexuals. They were leaders of student organizations, political parties, unions and other groups. MOVILH retains this unmistakably political tone today. Leaders link the issue of being gay to the fundamental nature of society. “We assumed gay rights would come with democracy. Now we realize that democracy won’t really be achieved until we have organized, fought for and won the rights that we need, that are ours,” says Victor Hugo Robles. “We are a radically anti-system movement. For us, being homosexual means questioning the social order and the political system. We are not interested in, for example, joining the armed forces that tortured and killed people.” In April 1994, MOVILH brought together a coalition of youth organizations to resist the obligatory military service. This coalition supports several young MOVILH members who plan to refuse going to military service. Currently, Chile has no mechanism for conscientious objection and completion of military service is routinely required for employment. The political tone may be an explanation for the type of people MOVILH draws in: mainly young, lower middle class and poor people who identify with the type of social criticism made. Victor Hugo admitted that most likely some gays and lesbians don’t come to MOVILH because of the political philosophy underlying the organization. MOVILH also reaches out beyond the homosexual community. With the support of the Institute for Sexual Studies, an academic center, it rents the comfortable brick building. Together both organizations held a conference on “Sexuality and Homosexuality – For the Right to Be Different,” the first time in Chile that homosexuality was publicly discussed in a professional forum. MOVILH links the issues of gay rights and human rights by participating in commemorating human rights violations under military rule. In three years, the MOVILH section of Santiago’s annual human rights rally has grown from 12 to 350 participants. MOVILH is organizing a campaign to abolish the anti-sodomy law. The campaign will involve pointing out famous Chileans who were believed to have been gay or lesbian, among them former president Alessandri and other politicians. MOVILH will also run the first openly gay candidate in local elections. But the most important thing MOVILH achieved is to create a family for those who are often rejected by their own. ATC 53, November-December 1994 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | office movement gay lesbian liberation near downtown santiago invite busy staff time chat come meet room mainly young people come hang building atmosphere supportive comfortable violet wall cover information upcoming workshop event aid prevention art work poster homosexual want say movement gay lesbian liberation movilh found end pinochet dictatorship large visible organization gay lesbian chile growth program impressive today homosexual know movilh exist stand say victor hugo roble seven coordinator know outside gay lesbian community example governmental commission aids prevention ask brochure homosexual know group valuable work movilh founder conceive organization gay lesbian woman start come movilh year later woman difficult think lesbian term hurt lot say marlore moran spokeswoman movilh codirector movilh radio program open triangle air feminist station radio tierra example radio woman married woman nun go experience marry have child think change begin june lesbian share experience weekly meeting movilh office attitude movilh liberate say marlore moran provide space want talk organize ready work gay right lesbian right realize right equal start join movilh lesbian remain small minority movilh seven coordinator woman marlore response situation raise consciousness woman woman need use right speak example enter movilh june august coordinator decide want movilh offer variety workshop peer counsel legal psychological service aid testing cooperation wide network organization father work accept gay son special fatherson workshop successful member participate event regular basis people mobilize special event leader background experiences shape movilh style tone marco ruiz spend year exile argentina expose open attitude homosexuality experience lead personal growth turn flow movement get chile say movilh activist oppose military rule organize homosexual leader student organization political party union group movilh retain unmistakably political tone today leader link issue gay fundamental nature society assume gay right come democracy realize democracy will achieve organize fight win right need say victor hugo roble radically antisystem movement homosexual mean question social order political system interested example join armed force torture kill people april movilh bring coalition youth organization resist obligatory military service coalition support young movilh member plan refuse go military service currently chile mechanism conscientious objection completion military service routinely require employment political tone explanation type people movilh draw mainly young low middle class poor people identify type social criticism victor hugo admit likely gay lesbian come movilh political philosophy underlie organization movilh reach homosexual community support institute sexual study academic center rent comfortable brick building organization hold conference sexuality homosexuality right different time chile homosexuality publicly discuss professional forum movilh link issue gay right human right participate commemorate human right violation military rule year movilh section santiago annual human right rally grow participant movilh organize campaign abolish antisodomy law campaign involve point famous chilean believe gay lesbian president alessandri politician movilh run openly gay candidate local election important thing movilh achieve create family reject atc novemberdecember current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 6 |
Amadeo Bordiga 1951 First Published: “Dittatura proletaria e partito di classe”, Battaglia Comunista nos 3, 4 and 5. 1951; Translation: Communist Program, No. 2, March 1976; Source: Antagonism's Bordiga archive; HTML Mark-up: Andy Blunden 2003. Every class struggle is a political struggle (Marx). A struggle which limits itself to obtaining a new distribution of economic gains is not yet a political struggle because it is not directed against the social structure of the production relations. The disruption of the relations of production peculiar to a particular social epoch and the overthrow of the rule of a certain social class is the result of a long and often fluctuating political struggle. The key to this struggle is the question of the state: the problem of "who has power?" (Lenin). The struggle of the modern proletariat manifests and extends itself as a political struggle with the formation and the action of the class party. The specific features of this party are to be found in the following thesis: the complete development of the industrial capitalist system and of bourgeois power which issued from the liberal and democratic revolutions, not only does not historically exclude but prepares and sharpens more and more the conflict of class interests and its development into civil war, into armed struggle. The communist party, as defined by this historical foresight and by this program, accomplishes the following tasks as long as the bourgeoisie maintains power: a) it elaborates and propagates the theory of social development, of the economic laws which characterise the present social system of production relations, of class conflicts which arise from it, of the state and of the revolution; b) it assures the unity and historical persistence of the proletarian organisation. Unity does not mean the material grouping of the working class and seeming working class strata which, due to the very fact of the dominance of the exploiting class, are tinder for the influence of discordant political leaderships and methods of action. It means instead the close international linking-up of the vanguard elements who are fully orientated on the integral revolutionary line. Persistence means the continuous claim of the unbroken dialectical line which binds together the positions of critique and struggle successively adopted by the movement during the course of changing conditions; c) it prepares well in advance for the class mobilisation and offensive by appropriately employing every possible means of propaganda, agitation and action, in all particular struggles triggered off by immediate interests. This action culminates in the organisation of the illegal and insurrectional apparatus for the conquest of power. When general conditions and the degree of organisational, political and tactical solidity of the class party reach a point where the general struggle for power is unleashed, the party which has led the revolutionary class to victory through the social war, leads it likewise in the fundamental task of breaking and demolishing all the military and administrative organs which compose the capitalist state. This demolition also strikes at the network of organs, whatever they may be, which pretend to represent the various opinions or interests through the intermediary of bodies of delegates. The bourgeois class state must be destroyed whether it presents itself as the mendacious interclassist expression of the majority of citizens or as the more or less open dictatorship wielded by a government apparatus which pretends to fulfil a national, racial or social-popular mission; if this does not take place, the revolution will be crushed. In the phase which follows the dismantling of the apparatus of capitalist domination, the task of the political party of the working class is as vital as ever because the class struggle — though dialectically inverted — continues. Communist theory in regard to the state and the revolution is characterised above all by the fact that it excludes all possibility of adapting the legislative and executive mechanism of the bourgeois state to the socialist transformation of the economy (the social-democratic position). But it equally excludes the possibility of achieving by means of a brief violent crisis a destruction of the state and a transformation of the traditional economic relationships which the state defended up to the last moment (the anarchist position). It also denies that the constitution of a new productive organisation can be left to the spontaneous and scattered activity of groups of producers shop by shop or trade by trade (the syndicalist position). Any social class whose power has been overthrown, even if it is by means of terror, survives for a long time within the texture of the social organism. Far from abandoning its hopes of revenge, it seeks to politically reorganise itself and to re-establish its domination either in a violent or disguised way. It has turned from a ruling class into a defeated and dominated one, but it has not instantly disappeared. The proletariat — which in its turn will disappear as a class alongside all other classes with the realisation of communism — organises itself as a ruling class (the Manifesto) in the first stage of the post-capitalist epoch. And after the destruction of the old state, the new proletarian state is the dictatorship of the proletariat. The precondition for going beyond the capitalist system is the overthrow of bourgeois power and the destruction of its state. The condition for bringing about the deep and radical social transformation which has to take place is a new proletarian state apparatus, capable of using force and coercion just as all other historical states. The presence of such an apparatus does not characterise communist society but instead it characterises the stage of its construction. Once this construction is secured, classes and class rule will no longer exist. But the essential organ of class rule is the state — and the state can be nothing else. Therefore communists do not advocate the proletarian state as a mystical creed, an absolute or an ideal but as a dialectical tool, a class weapon that will slowly wither away (Engels) through the very realisation of its functions; this will take place gradually, through a long process, as the social organisation is transformed from a system of coercion of men (as it has always been since the dawn of history) into a comprehensive, scientifically built network for the management of things and natural forces. After the victory of the proletariat, the role of the state in relationship to social classes and collective organisations exhibits many fundamental differences as compared with its role in the history of the regimes that spring from the bourgeois revolution. a) Revolutionary bourgeois ideology, prior to its struggle and final victory, presented its future post-feudal state not as a class state but as a peoples state based on the abolition of every inequality before the law, which it presented to be sufficient to assure freedom and equality for all members of society. Proletarian theory openly asserts that its future state will be a class state, i.e. a tool wielded by one class as long as classes exist. The other classes will be excluded from the state and outlawed in fact as well as in principle. The working class having achieved power "will share it with no one" (Lenin). b) After the bourgeois political victory and in keeping with a tenacious ideological campaign, constitutional charters or declarations of principles were solemnly proclaimed in the different countries as a basis and foundation of the state. They were considered as being immutable in time, a definitive expression of the at last discovered immanent rules of social life. From then on, the entire interplay of political forces was supposed to take place within the insuperable framework of these statutes. During the struggle against the existing regime, the proletarian state is not presented as a stable and fixed realisation of a set of rules governing the social relationships inferred from an idealistic research into the nature of man and society. During its lifetime the working class state will continually evolve up to the point that it finally withers away: the nature of social organisation, of human association, will radically change according to the development of technology and the forces of production, and man's nature will be equally subject to deep alterations always moving away more and more from the beast of burden and slave which he was. Anything such as a codified and permanent constitution to be proclaimed after the workers revolution is nonsense, it has no place in the communist program. Technically, it will be convenient to adopt written rules which however will in no way be intangible and will retain an "instrumental" and temporary character, putting aside the facetiousnesses about social ethics and natural law. c) Having conquered and even crushed the feudal apparatus of power, the victorious capitalist class did not hesitate to use the force of the state to repress the attempts of counterrevolution and restoration. However the most resolute terroristic measures were justified as being directed not against the class enemies of capitalism but against the betrayers of the people, of the nation, of the country, and of civil society, all these hollow concepts being identified with the state itself and, as a matter of fact, with the government and the party in power. The victorious proletariat, by using its state in order to "crush the unavoidable and desperate resistance of the bourgeoisie" (Lenin) will strike at the old rulers and their last supporters every time they oppose, in a logical defence of their class interests, the measures intended to uproot economic privilege. These social elements will keep an estranged and passive position vis-à-vis the apparatus of power: whenever they try to free themselves from the passivity imposed upon them, material force will subdue them. They will share no "social contract", they will have no "legal or patriotic duty". As veritable social prisoners of war (as in fact were the former aristocrats and clergymen for the Jacobean bourgeoisie) they will have nothing to betray because they will not be requested to take any ridiculous oath of allegiance. d) The historical glitter of the popular assemblies and democratic gatherings hardly disguised the fact that, at its birth, the bourgeois state formed armed bodies and a police force for the internal and external struggle against the old regime and quickly substituted the guillotine for the gallows. This executive apparatus was charged with the task of administering legal force both on the great historical level and against isolated violations of the rules of appropriation and exchange characteristic of the economy founded on private property. It acted in a perfectly natural manner against the first proletarian movements which threatened, even if only instinctively, the bourgeois form of production. The imposing reality of the new social dualism was hidden by the game of the "legislative" apparatus which claimed to be able to bring about the participation of all citizens and all the opinions of the various parties in the state and in the management of the state with a perfect equilibrium and within an atmosphere of social peace. The proletarian state, as an open class dictatorship, will dispose of all distinctions between the executive and legislative levels of power, both of which will be united in the same organs. The distinction between the legislative and executive is, in effect, characteristic of a regime which conceals and protects the dictatorship of one class under an external cloak which is multi-class and multi-party. "The Commune was a working, not a parliamentary body" (Marx). e) The bourgeois state in its classical form — in coherence with an individualist ideology which the theoretical fiction universally extends to all citizens and which is the mental reflection of the reality of an economy founded on the monopoly of private property by one class — refused to allow any intermediate body other than elective constitutional assemblies to exist between the isolated individual subject and the legal state centre. Political clubs and parties that had been necessary during the instructional stage were tolerated by it by virtue of the demagogic assertion of free thought and on the condition that they exist as simple confessional groupings and electoral bureaux. In a later stage the reality of class repression forced the state to tolerate the association of economic interests, the labour unions, which it distrusted as a "state within the state". Finally, unions became a form of class solidarity adopted by the capitalists themselves for their own class interests and aims. Moreover, under the pretext of legally recognising the labour unions, the state undertook the task of absorbing and sterilising them, thus depriving them of any autonomy so as to prevent the revolutionary party from taking their leadership. Labour unions will still be present in the proletarian state in so far as there still remains employers or at least impersonal enterprises where the workers remain wage earners paid in money. Their function will be to protect the standard of living of the working class, their action being parallel on this point to that of the party and the state. Non-working class unions will be forbidden. Actually, on the question of distribution of income between the working class and the non-proletarian or semi-proletarian classes, the worker's situation could be threatened by considerations other than the superior needs of the general revolutionary struggle against international capitalism. But this possibility, which will long subsist, justifies the unions' secondary role in relation to the political communist party, the international revolutionary vanguard, which forms a unitary whole with the parties struggling in the still capitalist countries and as such leads the proletarian state. The proletarian state can only be "animated" by a single party and it would be senseless to require that this party organise in its ranks a statistical majority and be supported by such a majority in "popular elections" — that old bourgeois trap. One of the historical possibilities is the existence of political parties composed in appearance by proletarians, but in reality influenced by counterrevolutionary traditions or by foreign capitalisms. This contradiction, the most dangerous of all, cannot be resolved through the recognition of formal rights nor through the process of voting within the framework of an abstract "class democracy". This too will be a crisis to be liquidated in terms of relationships of force. There is no statistical contrivance which can ensure a satisfactory revolutionary solution; this will depend solely upon the degree of solidity and clarity reached by the revolutionary communist movement throughout the world. A century ago in the West, and fifty years ago in the Czarist Empire, Marxists rightly argued against the simple-minded democrats that the capitalists and proprietors are a minority, and therefore the only true government of the majority is the government of the working class. If the word democracy means power of the majority, the democrats should stand on our class side. But this word both in its literal sense ("power of the people") as well as in the dirty use that is more and more being made of it, means "power belonging not to one but to all classes". For this historical reason, just as we reject "bourgeois democracy" and "democracy in general" (as Lenin also did), we must politically and theoretically exclude, as a contradiction in terms, "class democracy" and "workers' democracy". The dictatorship advocated by marxism is necessary because it cannot be unanimously accepted and furthermore it will not have the naiveté to abdicate for lack of having a majority of votes, if such a thing were ascertainable. Precisely because it declares this it will not run the risk of being confused with a dictatorship of men or groups of men who take control of the government and substitute themselves for the working class. The revolution requires a dictatorship, because it would be ridiculous to subordinate the revolution to a 100% acceptance or a 51% majority. Wherever these figures are displayed, it means that the revolution has been betrayed. In conclusion the communist party will rule alone, and will never give up power without a physical struggle. This bold declaration of not yielding to the deception of figures and of not making use of them will aid the struggle against revolutionary degeneration. In the higher stage of communism — a stage which does not know commodity production, money nor nations and which will also witness the death of the state — labour unions will be deprived of their "reason to be". The party as an organisation for combat will be necessary as long as the remnants of capitalism survive in the world. Moreover, it may always have the task of being the depository and propagator of social doctrine, which gives a general vision of the development of relationships between human society and material nature. The marxist conception, that of substituting parliamentary assemblies with working bodies, does not lead us back into "economic democracy" either, i.e. into a system which would adapt the state organs to the workplaces, to the productive or commercial units, etc., while excluding from any representative function the remaining employers and the individuals still owning property. The elimination of the employer and the proprietor only defines half of socialism; the other half, the most significant one, consists of the elimination of capitalist economic anarchy (Marx). As the new socialist organisation emerges and develops with the party and the revolutionary state in the foreground, it will not limit itself to striking only the former employers and their flunkies but above all it will redistribute the social tasks and responsibilities of individuals in quite a new and original way. Therefore the network of enterprises and services such as they have been inherited from capitalism will not be taken as the basis of an apparatus of so-called "sovereignty", that is of the delegation of powers within the state and up to the level of its central bodies. It is precisely the presence of the single-class state and of the solidly and qualitatively unitary and homogeneous party which offers the maximum of favourable conditions for a reshaping of social machinery that be driven as little as possible by the pressures of the limited interests of small groups and as much as possible by general data and by their scientific study in the interests of the collective welfare. The changes in the productive mechanism will be enormous; let us only think of the program for reversing the relationships between town and country, on which Marx and Engels insisted so much and which is the exact antithesis to present trends in all countries. Therefore, the network modelled after the work place is an inadequate expression which repeats the old Proudhonist and Lassalian positions that Marxism long ago rejected and surpassed. The definition of the type of links between the organs of the class state and its base depends first of all upon the results of historical dialectics and cannot be deduced from "eternal principles", from "natural law", or from a sacred and inviolable constitutional charter. Any further details in this regard would be mere utopia. There is not a grain of utopianism in Marx, Engels stated. The very idea of the famous delegation of power by the isolated individual (elector) thanks to a platonic act emanating from his freedom of opinion must be left to the foggy realms of metaphysics; opinions in actuality are but a reflection of material conditions and social forms, and power consists of the intervention of physical force. The negative characterisation of the proletarian dictatorship is clearly defined: the bourgeois and semi-bourgeois will no longer have political rights, they will be prevented by force from gathering in groups of common interests or in associations for political agitation; they will never be allowed to vote, elect, or delegate others to any post or function whatsoever. But even the relationship between the worker — a recognised and active member of the class in power — and the state apparatus will no longer retain that fictitious and deceitful characteristic of a delegation of power, of a representation through the intermediary of a deputy, an election ticket, or by a party. Delegation means in effect the renunciation to the possibility of direct action. The pretended "sovereignty" of the democratic right is but an abdication, and in most cases it is an abdication in favour of a scoundrel. The working members of society will be grouped into local territorial organs according to their place of residence, and in certain cases according to the displacements imposed by their participation in a productive mechanism in full transformation. Thanks to their uninterrupted and continuous action, the participation of all active social elements in the mechanism of the state apparatus, and therefore in the management and exercise of class power, will be assured. To sketch these mechanisms is impossible before the class relationships from which they will spring have been concretely realised. The Paris Commune established as most important principles (see Marx, Engels, Lenin) that its members and officials would be subject to recall at any time, and that their salary would not exceed the wage of an average worker. Any separation between the producers on the periphery and the bureaucrats at the centre is thus eliminated by means of systematic rotations. Civil service will cease being a career and even a profession. No doubt, when put into practice, these controls will create tremendous difficulties, but it was long ago that Lenin expressed his contempt for all plans of revolutions to be carried out without difficulties! The inevitable conflicts will not be completely resolved by drawing up piles of rules and regulations: they will constitute a historical and political problem and will express a real relationship of forces. The Bolshevik revolution did not stop in front of the Constituent Assembly but dispersed it. The workers', peasants' and soldiers' councils had risen. This new type of state organs which burst forth in the blaze of the social war (and were already present in the revolution of 1905) extended from the village to the entire country through a network of territorial units; their formation did not answer to any of the prejudices about the "rights of man" or the "universal, free, direct and secret" suffrage! The communist party unleashes and wins the civil war, it occupies the key positions in a military and social sense, it multiplies its means of propaganda and agitation a thousand-fold through seizing buildings and public establishments. And without losing time and without procedural whims, it establishes the "armed bodies of workers" of which Lenin spoke, the red guard, the revolutionary police. At the meetings of the Soviets, it wins over a majority to the slogan: "All power to the Soviets!". Is this majority a merely legal, or a coldly and plainly numerical fact? Not at all! Should anyone — be he a spy or a well-intentioned but misled worker — vote for the Soviet to renounce or compromise the power conquered thanks to the blood of the proletarian fighters, he will be kicked out by his comrades' rifle butts. And no one will waste time with counting him in the "legal minority", that criminal hypocrisy which the revolution can do without and which the counterrevolution can only feed upon. Historical facts different from those of Russia in 1917 (i.e. the recent collapse of feudal despotism, a disastrous war, the role played by opportunist leaders) could create, while remaining on the same fundamental line, different practical forms of the basic network of the state. From the time the proletarian movement left utopianism behind, it has found its way and assured its success thanks not only to the real experience of the present mode of production and the structure of the present state, but also to the experience of the strategic mistakes of the proletarian revolution, both on the battlefield of the "hot" civil war where the Communards of 1871 gloriously fell and on the "cold" one which was lost between 1917 and 1926 — this last was the great battle of Russia between Lenin's International and world capitalism supported in the front lines by the miserable complicity of all the opportunists. Communists have no codified constitutions to propose. They have a world of lies and constitutions — crystallised in the law and in the force of the dominant class — to crush. They know that only a revolutionary and totalitarian apparatus of force and power, which excludes no means, will be able to prevent the infamous relics of a barbarous epoch from rising again — only it will be able to prevent the monster of social privilege, craving for revenge and servitude, from raising its head again and hurling for the thousandth time its deceitful cry of Freedom! Bordiga Archive | left | amadeo bordiga publish dittatura proletaria e partito di classe battaglia comunista nos translation communist program march source antagonism bordiga archive html markup andy blunden class struggle political struggle marx struggle limit obtain new distribution economic gain political struggle direct social structure production relation disruption relation production peculiar particular social epoch overthrow rule certain social class result long fluctuate political struggle key struggle question state problem power lenin struggle modern proletariat manifest extend political struggle formation action class party specific feature party find following thesis complete development industrial capitalist system bourgeois power issue liberal democratic revolution historically exclude prepare sharpen conflict class interest development civil war armed struggle communist party define historical foresight program accomplish follow task long bourgeoisie maintain power elaborate propagate theory social development economic law characterise present social system production relation class conflict arise state revolution b assure unity historical persistence proletarian organisation unity mean material grouping work class work class strata fact dominance exploit class tinder influence discordant political leadership method action mean instead close international linkingup vanguard element fully orientate integral revolutionary line persistence mean continuous claim unbroken dialectical line bind position critique struggle successively adopt movement course change condition c prepare advance class mobilisation offensive appropriately employ possible mean propaganda agitation action particular struggle trigger immediate interest action culminate organisation illegal insurrectional apparatus conquest power general condition degree organisational political tactical solidity class party reach point general struggle power unleash party lead revolutionary class victory social war lead likewise fundamental task break demolish military administrative organ compose capitalist state demolition strike network organ pretend represent opinion interest intermediary body delegate bourgeois class state destroy present mendacious interclassist expression majority citizen open dictatorship wield government apparatus pretend fulfil national racial socialpopular mission place revolution crush phase follow dismantling apparatus capitalist domination task political party work class vital class struggle dialectically invert continue communist theory regard state revolution characterise fact exclude possibility adapt legislative executive mechanism bourgeois state socialist transformation economy socialdemocratic position equally exclude possibility achieve mean brief violent crisis destruction state transformation traditional economic relationship state defend moment anarchist position deny constitution new productive organisation leave spontaneous scattered activity group producer shop shop trade trade syndicalist position social class power overthrow mean terror survive long time texture social organism far abandon hope revenge seek politically reorganise reestablish domination violent disguised way turn rule class defeat dominate instantly disappear proletariat turn disappear class alongside class realisation communism organise rule class manifesto stage postcapitalist epoch destruction old state new proletarian state dictatorship proletariat precondition go capitalist system overthrow bourgeois power destruction state condition bring deep radical social transformation place new proletarian state apparatus capable force coercion historical state presence apparatus characterise communist society instead characterise stage construction construction secure class class rule long exist essential organ class rule state state communist advocate proletarian state mystical creed absolute ideal dialectical tool class weapon slowly wither away engel realisation function place gradually long process social organisation transform system coercion man dawn history comprehensive scientifically build network management thing natural force victory proletariat role state relationship social class collective organisation exhibit fundamental difference compare role history regime spring bourgeois revolution revolutionary bourgeois ideology prior struggle final victory present future postfeudal state class state people state base abolition inequality law present sufficient assure freedom equality member society proletarian theory openly assert future state class state ie tool wield class long class exist class exclude state outlaw fact principle work class having achieve power share lenin b bourgeois political victory keep tenacious ideological campaign constitutional charter declaration principle solemnly proclaim different country basis foundation state consider immutable time definitive expression discover immanent rule social life entire interplay political force suppose place insuperable framework statute struggle exist regime proletarian state present stable fixed realisation set rule govern social relationship infer idealistic research nature man society lifetime work class state continually evolve point finally wither away nature social organisation human association radically change accord development technology force production man nature equally subject deep alteration move away beast burden slave codified permanent constitution proclaim worker revolution nonsense place communist program technically convenient adopt write rule way intangible retain instrumental temporary character put aside facetiousness social ethic natural law c having conquer crush feudal apparatus power victorious capitalist class hesitate use force state repress attempt counterrevolution restoration resolute terroristic measure justify direct class enemy capitalism betrayer people nation country civil society hollow concept identify state matter fact government party power victorious proletariat state order crush unavoidable desperate resistance bourgeoisie lenin strike old ruler supporter time oppose logical defence class interest measure intend uproot economic privilege social element estranged passive position visàvis apparatus power try free passivity impose material force subdue share social contract legal patriotic duty veritable social prisoner war fact aristocrat clergyman jacobean bourgeoisie betray request ridiculous oath allegiance d historical glitter popular assembly democratic gathering hardly disguise fact birth bourgeois state form armed body police force internal external struggle old regime quickly substitute guillotine gallow executive apparatus charge task administer legal force great historical level isolated violation rule appropriation exchange characteristic economy found private property act perfectly natural manner proletarian movement threaten instinctively bourgeois form production impose reality new social dualism hide game legislative apparatus claim able bring participation citizen opinion party state management state perfect equilibrium atmosphere social peace proletarian state open class dictatorship dispose distinction executive legislative level power unite organ distinction legislative executive effect characteristic regime conceal protect dictatorship class external cloak multiclass multiparty commune work parliamentary body marx e bourgeois state classical form coherence individualist ideology theoretical fiction universally extend citizen mental reflection reality economy found monopoly private property class refuse allow intermediate body elective constitutional assembly exist isolated individual subject legal state centre political club party necessary instructional stage tolerate virtue demagogic assertion free thought condition exist simple confessional grouping electoral bureaux later stage reality class repression force state tolerate association economic interest labour union distrust state state finally union form class solidarity adopt capitalist class interest aim pretext legally recognise labour union state undertake task absorb sterilise deprive autonomy prevent revolutionary party take leadership labour union present proletarian state far remain employer impersonal enterprise worker remain wage earner pay money function protect standard living working class action parallel point party state nonworking class union forbid actually question distribution income work class nonproletarian semiproletarian class worker situation threaten consideration superior need general revolutionary struggle international capitalism possibility long subsist justify union secondary role relation political communist party international revolutionary vanguard form unitary party struggle capitalist country lead proletarian state proletarian state animate single party senseless require party organise rank statistical majority support majority popular election old bourgeois trap historical possibility existence political party compose appearance proletarian reality influence counterrevolutionary tradition foreign capitalism contradiction dangerous resolve recognition formal right process vote framework abstract class democracy crisis liquidate term relationship force statistical contrivance ensure satisfactory revolutionary solution depend solely degree solidity clarity reach revolutionary communist movement world century ago west year ago czarist empire marxist rightly argue simpleminded democrat capitalist proprietor minority true government majority government work class word democracy mean power majority democrats stand class word literal sense power people dirty use mean power belong class historical reason reject bourgeois democracy democracy general lenin politically theoretically exclude contradiction term class democracy worker democracy dictatorship advocate marxism necessary unanimously accept furthermore naiveté abdicate lack have majority vote thing ascertainable precisely declare run risk confuse dictatorship man group man control government substitute work class revolution require dictatorship ridiculous subordinate revolution acceptance majority figure display mean revolution betray conclusion communist party rule power physical struggle bold declaration yield deception figure make use aid struggle revolutionary degeneration high stage communism stage know commodity production money nation witness death state labour union deprive reason party organisation combat necessary long remnant capitalism survive world task depository propagator social doctrine give general vision development relationship human society material nature marxist conception substitute parliamentary assembly work body lead economic democracy ie system adapt state organ workplace productive commercial unit etc exclude representative function remain employer individual own property elimination employer proprietor define half socialism half significant consist elimination capitalist economic anarchy marx new socialist organisation emerge develop party revolutionary state foreground limit strike employer flunky redistribute social task responsibility individual new original way network enterprise service inherit capitalism take basis apparatus socalled sovereignty delegation power state level central body precisely presence singleclass state solidly qualitatively unitary homogeneous party offer maximum favourable condition reshaping social machinery drive little possible pressure limited interest small group possible general datum scientific study interest collective welfare change productive mechanism enormous let think program reverse relationship town country marx engel insist exact antithesis present trend country network model work place inadequate expression repeat old proudhonist lassalian position marxism long ago reject surpass definition type link organ class state base depend result historical dialectic deduce eternal principle natural law sacred inviolable constitutional charter detail regard mere utopia grain utopianism marx engel state idea famous delegation power isolated individual elector thank platonic act emanate freedom opinion leave foggy realm metaphysics opinion actuality reflection material condition social form power consist intervention physical force negative characterisation proletarian dictatorship clearly define bourgeois semibourgeois long political right prevent force gather group common interest association political agitation allow vote elect delegate post function whatsoever relationship worker recognise active member class power state apparatus long retain fictitious deceitful characteristic delegation power representation intermediary deputy election ticket party delegation mean effect renunciation possibility direct action pretend sovereignty democratic right abdication case abdication favour scoundrel work member society group local territorial organ accord place residence certain case accord displacement impose participation productive mechanism transformation thank uninterrupted continuous action participation active social element mechanism state apparatus management exercise class power assure sketch mechanism impossible class relationship spring concretely realise paris commune establish important principle marx engel lenin member official subject recall time salary exceed wage average worker separation producer periphery bureaucrat centre eliminate mean systematic rotation civil service cease career profession doubt practice control create tremendous difficulty long ago lenin express contempt plan revolution carry difficulty inevitable conflict completely resolve draw pile rule regulation constitute historical political problem express real relationship force bolshevik revolution stop constituent assembly disperse worker peasant soldier council rise new type state organ burst forth blaze social war present revolution extend village entire country network territorial unit formation answer prejudice right man universal free direct secret suffrage communist party unleash win civil war occupy key position military social sense multiply mean propaganda agitation thousandfold seize building public establishment lose time procedural whim establish armed body worker lenin speak red guard revolutionary police meeting soviet win majority slogan power soviet majority merely legal coldly plainly numerical fact spy wellintentione mislead worker vote soviet renounce compromise power conquer thank blood proletarian fighter kick comrade rifle butts waste time count legal minority criminal hypocrisy revolution counterrevolution feed historical fact different russia ie recent collapse feudal despotism disastrous war role play opportunist leader create remain fundamental line different practical form basic network state time proletarian movement leave utopianism find way assure success thank real experience present mode production structure present state experience strategic mistake proletarian revolution battlefield hot civil war communard gloriously fall cold lose great battle russia lenins international world capitalism support line miserable complicity opportunist communist codify constitution propose world lie constitution crystallise law force dominant class crush know revolutionary totalitarian apparatus force power exclude means able prevent infamous relic barbarous epoch rise able prevent monster social privilege craving revenge servitude raise head hurl thousandth time deceitful cry freedom bordiga archive | 7 |
IMR Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From Irish Marxists Review, Vol. 2 No. 6, June 2013, p. iii. Copyright © Irish Marxist Review. The links have been slightly modified and checked (May 2020). A PDF of this article is available here. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the ETOL. Michael Taft is Research Officer with UNITE the Union and is author of Notes on the Front, a blog on political economy. He writes in his personal capacity. Kieran Allen is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at UCD and author of numerous books including The Politics of James Connolly, Ireland’s Economic Crash and Marx and the Alternative to Capitalism. John Molyneux is editor of Irish Marxist Review and author of a number of books including The Point is to Change It! An Introduction to Marxist Philosophy and The Case for Socialism in Ireland, with a blog John Molyneux Blogspot. Raymond Deane is a leading composer of classical music and a socialist political activist, particularly with the Irish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign. He has a blog, The Deanery. Sean Moraghan is a folklore researcher, writer and local historian. He works with the Cork Folklore Project. Colm Stephens is a physicist and School Administrator in the School of Physics, Trinity College. When active in research he carried out his experimental work at particle accelerators designed not for nuclear research but to produce intense beams of photons for probing materials. One of his current interests is physics outreach to younger people including a simulation of proton-proton collisions that produce a Higgs boson using a half-dozen fresh eggs! Stewart Smyth lectures at Queen’s University Management School, Belfast. He writes on the neoliberalisation of public services, including housing and grass-roots tenants’ campaigns. Peadar O’Grady is a Consultant Child Psychiatrist with the HSE and actively engaged with Doctors for Choice Ireland. Top of page IMR Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 18 June 2020 | left | imr index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive irish marxist review vol june p iii copyright irish marxist review link slightly modify check pdf article available transcribe mark einde etol michael taft research officer unite union author note blog political economy write personal capacity kieran allen senior lecturer sociology ucd author numerous book include politic james connolly ireland economic crash marx alternative capitalism john molyneux editor irish marxist review author number book include point change introduction marxist philosophy case socialism ireland blog john molyneux blogspot raymond deane lead composer classical music socialist political activist particularly irishpalestine solidarity campaign blog deanery sean moraghan folklore researcher writer local historian work cork folklore project colm stephen physicist school administrator school physics trinity college active research carry experimental work particle accelerator design nuclear research produce intense beam photon probe material current interest physics outreach young people include simulation protonproton collision produce higgs boson halfdozen fresh egg stewart smyth lecture queen university management school belfast write neoliberalisation public service include housing grassroot tenant campaign peadar consultant child psychiatrist hse actively engage doctor choice ireland page imr index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update june | 8 |
DESPITE RECENT CNBC and MSNBC media hosts suggesting we may be at the ‘bottom’ of the housing market crisis, and Market Watch June 3rd commentary headlines like “Housing market may turn more quickly than you expect,” statistics continue to say otherwise, in sobering fashion. The first quarter of 2008 revealed another round of record drops in housing prices, and foreclosures seem unstoppable. The Fed has tried to alleviate the crisis by lowering rates, while battling oil and food price inflation and a weak dollar, and buying $30 billion of risky subprime assets from the now-defunct, but once top-of-the-subprime-game investment bank, Bear Stearns. That will only serve to prolong the problem under the guise of its solution. As we march toward the post-primary presidential election, campaign rhetoric will settle on how to “fix the economy” — without analyzing the cause of the housing credit crunch that weakened it. The one, albeit dim, light at the end of the tunnel, is that Congress is attempting to send some life-boat legislation to sinking homeowners and borrowers, despite a veto promise by President Bush who feels that helping homeowners is a bad use of taxpayer money, as compared to say, helping banks. But, the legislative ‘why’ of our housing fiasco remains largely uninspected. As politically advantageous as it might be to project otherwise, nothing happens by sheer chance when Washington legislation and banking deregulation collide. No matter how much blame is placed on abstractions like: “the economy” or “falling house prices” the roots of this crisis can be traced to Congressional decisions made and erased over the past four decades. The year 1968 will forever hold a mystique of pronounced public intensity laced with despair and hope. It was the year of the Civil Rights Act, the Beatles’ Grammy, title-topic of Tom Brokaw’s recent bestseller and highlighted on the History Channel’s epic, One Year Changed the World Forever. The number of soldiers on the ground in Vietnam peaked, as did antiwar protests. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot. What stability existed came from an economic place. Companies enjoying a period of expansion bestowed benefits on their staff, unemployment was at a 15-year low of 3.3%, wages were increasing, and fluctuations in interest rates resembled a coma patient’s heart-monitor. In that spirit of public advocacy, Senator Paul Douglas passed the 1968 Truth in Lending Act (TILA), requiring creditors to accurately and uniformly disclose terms to borrowers, protecting consumers from dishonest or abusive lending practices. This harmonious time changed rapidly as interest rates nearly tripled between the late 1970s and early 1980s. Bank prime loan rates leapt from 8% in January 1978 to a high of 21.5% in December 1980 and stayed there through 1981. Commercial banks got nervous. Their funding costs were rising well above what they could charge borrowers for their capital; something had to be done. Sighs of relief proliferated in the industry when the 1978 Supreme Court Marquette decision (Marquette National Bank vs. First of Omaha Corp.) released national banks from state-imposed usury rate restrictions, meaning they could re-locate lending operations to states where the interest rate sky was the limit. Citibank, among others, high-tailed operations to South Dakota. Other states, like Delaware and Utah, also deregulated rates to garner banks’ business with limited consumer protections. But federal focus was elsewhere: in fire-fighting, not long term planning mode. In 1979, the Carter administration was issuing gasoline price controls to thwart a second wave of spiking gas prices. The nation was careening towards a broader credit crunch. Congress had to react. The solution? Give the Fed more power, and take down some more banking system barriers. So Congress passed the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA.) It eliminated usury caps for first mortgage loans and put state chartered banks and federal savings associations (S&L’s) on the same footing as national banks, unleashing a race to the lending bottom. Meanwhile the banking industry was fending off various litigation proceedings for violations of the Truth in Lending Act that transpired as rates were rising. They lobbied and got a “simplification” of that act which had the effect of making murky loans appear more legally compliant, and opened doors for further violations. But that wasn’t enough deregulation; lenders wanted to create less traditional mortgages, to be competitive, flexible, and profitable. In 1982, Senator Fernand St. Germaine (D-RI) obliged, passing the Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act (AMPTA). The act allowed lenders to construct complicated products, not just on first mortgages, but any mortgage. This immediately introduced another risk element to the market. When lenders were limited on rates and terms, so was their profit so they had to ensure borrowers could pay back their loans. Without limits, lender and borrower risk grew. With fewer constraints on their lending activity, commercial banks began consuming traditional Savings and Loan (S&L) territory, especially mortgages. S&L’s resorted to shady practices to stay in the game, but high rates, stripped-away business, and fraud pushed the industry to crisis in the late 1980s. The government stepped in to bail out the institutions that were left, but the damage was done, and the fractious, deregulated nature of lending grew. In the early 1990s wake of the S&L crisis, lower interest rates spurred a new class of finance companies who based their lending on refinancing and home improvement loans (a larger repeat of which occurred at the start of the new millennium). They set about enticing borrowers into multiple refinancing and home equity loans, which appeared on their books like newly originated mortgages, increasing their market share, and targeting the elderly, low-income families and minorities, with egregious abusive loan terms. Increasing public unrest about this matter forced the House Committee on Financial Services to pass The Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994 (HOEPA) to cap the most outrageous loans. It was not perfect, but was still the last piece of legislation in the 1990s (or since) to regulate appalling lending practice. But, there was an unintended consequence. Lenders didn’t want to be subject to HOEPA loan restrictions, so they began making loans just below HOEPA triggers. This shift from very high-interest to subprime loans (just below the triggers), marked the start of subprime lending. Concurrently in 1994, securitization of subprime loans began its dramatic ascent, with a volume of $11 billion in 1994, ultimately skyrocketing to $508 billion in 2005. In retaliation to HOEPA, the banking industry successfully lobbied for less restrictive acts including, in 1996, more Truth in Lending Act Amendments shepherded by Wall Street and Real Estate industry favorites, Senator Connie Mack (R-FL) and representative Bill McCollum (R-FL). No one in Congress paid attention to the possible ramifications of less accountable lenders. During the late 1990s and into the new millennium, dot com fever raged, the federal budget stood at a surplus, and the stock market raged. Merger mania engulfed Wall Street, ignited by the 1999 repeal of the 1933 Glass Steagal Act that had once kept commercial and investment banks from merging. Those newly larger supermarket banks, like Citigroup, had to find ways to stay at the top of their league tables (the Billboard charts for finance) in terms of originating deals, so they started merging corporations in record volumes, piling them on with cheap debt to finance these marriages. At first, this had the effect of making the new companies stock prices soar, and citizen market investments, on paper, created enticing illusions of wealth, which did not go unnoticed by the same lenders and banks. Home prices escalated. Home equity and second mortgage loans flourishing as homeowners were encouraged to tap into the equity of their rising home values to fund other aspects of their lives. At the same time, investment banks were securitizing, repacking and reselling loans, without caring about the standards of any one loan. They bought and sold in bulk. Nor were the investment banks legally responsible for whether any borrower at the bottom of their food chain couldn’t afford mortgage payments, or lost their home. Unregulated mortgage brokers took advantage of the deregulated environment to offer esoteric products, and banks were happy to keep collecting and trading the loans for profit. The end of Clinton’s last term was rife with failed attempts at regulation and deregulation intensified into Bush “ownership society” years. But it was initially camouflaged by the dramatic interest rate cuts of Alan Greenspan’s Fed. Between January 2001 and July 2003, the Fed cut rates 13 times, bringing them to their lowest levels since 1958, and making cheap debt even easier for banks to extend.* And as debt-laden corporations started going bankrupt (a.k.a. Enron), banks turned from corporate to home-based lending with that cheap money, trading the securities collateralized by these home related loans, with no regulations on that trading. Foreseeing the coming calamity that this new demand for loans could spur more abusive loans, including what became the subprime catastrophe, Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and Rep. LaFalce (D-NY) tried to push several versions of the Predatory Lending Consumer Protection Act through, including stronger HOEPA legislation. Each attempt died in committee. Sarbanes’ legislation would have brought HOEPA triggers down so they would cover more loans, and cut the origination fees that lenders could charge. That way profit would have had to come from payments instead of points and fees and oddities. But neither political party wanted to constrain the free markets. Nor did the finance community and their media mouthpieces. After that, the sector really took off; particularly the subprime affiliates of banks operating under the umbrella of a bank holding company. Consumers had the impression they were regulated like a bank since they shared the bank’s name. They considered their lenders to be requisitely safe. Unabated by regulation and feeding Wall Street appetite du jour, subprime loan volumes tripled from $500 billion 2001 to $1.5 billion in 2006, or from 5% of the overall mortgage market to 15%. Home equity loans ballooned simultaneously. By the spring of 2005, interest rates were rising and borrowers were nearing the end of their home equity faucets as equity was tapped out, home values starting leveling off, and the first wave of adjusting upward in mortgage loans was coming through But those adjustable rates ultimately kicked in. Borrowers payments suddenly increased by 25% to 30% just as housing values were faltering. If that weren’t bad enough, on that brink of crisis, commercial banks and credit card companies were lobbying hard to make it more difficult for consumers to declare bankruptcy (unlike corporations who often benefit from the process.) In a major coup to the industry, Senator Charles Grassley’s (R-IA) passed the Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. Prior to that act, if a borrower’s asset was valued at less than the amount owed on it, a borrower would only have to pay the current market value on that asset. That caveat for primary homes had been the only way to force all interested parties — borrowers, lenders and secondary securitization and trading institutions — to the table to negotiate reasonable solutions and terms for ailing borrowers before bankruptcy. Three years later, on April 11, 2008 Senator Durbin tried to pass an amendment to reinstate this consumer protection on one’s home. It failed on the floor. A month later, the House Relief Bill of Barney Frank (D-MA) passed, which would provide $300 billion in additional funding (or half an Iraq war) to struggling homeowners for new Federal Housing Administration loans. Separately, it would ask lenders to accept certain losses on original mortgage loans, enabling homeowners to refinance into an affordable mortgage to avoid foreclosure. Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd’s proposed fix was similar, where lenders could chose to take part in a voluntary program in which they would receive 85% of the current assessed value of the house, while the borrower would receive a refinanced loan equal to 90% of that new assessed value. The plan would be financed with a fee imposed on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac portfolios. Neither bill was perfect, though both attempted to help struggling borrowers. They didn’t eradicate the source of the subprime problem: the lack of enforceable regulation to deter lenders from extending non-transparent loans to those least able to afford their hidden time bombs. That would entail strengthening a very weakened Truth in Lending Act. They didn’t install legislation to ensure every Wall Street speculator along the subprime chain has legal accountability for their role in perpetuating the creation and trading of these loans. And, they both faced a presidential veto. The uphill battle to fix the housing crisis should minimally understand its legislative roots, and that serious regulation is needed. Yes, it’s imperative to help those in immediate foreclosure danger, to force (not ask nicely for volunteers) lenders to negotiate loan terms before foreclosure, to assign full responsibility for loan integrity and suitability to every single actor in the loan creation and trading chain. It is a must to tighten capital requirements, suitability and transparency standards through real enforcement, not merely oversight power. These remedies would help solve a problem that has festered for three decades, and ensure that reincarnations don’t keep occurring. ATC 135, July–August 2008 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | despite recent cnbc msnbc medium host suggest housing market crisis market watch june commentary headline like housing market turn quickly expect statistic continue sober fashion quarter reveal round record drop housing price foreclosure unstoppable fed try alleviate crisis lower rate battle oil food price inflation weak dollar buy billion risky subprime asset nowdefunct topofthesubprimegame investment bank bear stearns serve prolong problem guise solution march postprimary presidential election campaign rhetoric settle fix economy analyze cause housing credit crunch weaken albeit dim light end tunnel congress attempt send lifeboat legislation sink homeowner borrower despite veto promise president bush feel help homeowner bad use taxpayer money compare help bank legislative housing fiasco remain largely uninspected politically advantageous project happen sheer chance washington legislation banking deregulation collide matter blame place abstraction like economy fall house price root crisis trace congressional decision erase past decade year forever hold mystique pronounced public intensity lace despair hope year civil right act beatle grammy titletopic tom brokaw recent bestseller highlight history channel epic year change world forever number soldier ground vietnam peak antiwar protest bobby kennedy martin luther king shoot stability exist come economic place company enjoy period expansion bestow benefit staff unemployment low wage increase fluctuation interest rate resemble coma patient heartmonitor spirit public advocacy senator paul douglas pass truth lending act tila require creditor accurately uniformly disclose term borrower protect consumer dishonest abusive lending practice harmonious time change rapidly interest rate nearly triple late early bank prime loan rate leapt january high december stay commercial bank get nervous funding cost rise charge borrower capital sigh relief proliferate industry supreme court marquette decision marquette national bank vs omaha corp release national bank stateimposed usury rate restriction mean relocate lending operation state interest rate sky limit citibank hightail operation south dakota state like delaware utah deregulate rate garner bank business limited consumer protection federal focus firefighting long term planning mode carter administration issue gasoline price control thwart second wave spike gas price nation careen broad credit crunch congress react solution fed power banking system barrier congress pass depository institution deregulation monetary control act didmca eliminate usury cap mortgage loan state charter bank federal saving association sl footing national bank unleash race lending banking industry fend litigation proceeding violation truth lending act transpire rate rise lobby get simplification act effect make murky loan appear legally compliant open door violation deregulation lender want create traditional mortgage competitive flexible profitable senator fernand st germaine dri oblige pass alternative mortgage transaction parity act ampta act allow lender construct complicated product mortgage mortgage immediately introduce risk element market lender limit rate term profit ensure borrower pay loan limit lender borrower risk grow few constraint lending activity commercial bank begin consume traditional saving loan sl territory especially mortgage sl resort shady practice stay game high rate strippedaway business fraud push industry crisis late government step bail institution leave damage fractious deregulated nature lending grow early wake sl crisis low interest rate spur new class finance company base lending refinance home improvement loan large repeat occur start new millennium set entice borrower multiple refinancing home equity loan appear book like newly originate mortgage increase market share target elderly lowincome family minority egregious abusive loan term increase public unrest matter force house committee financial service pass home ownership equity protection act hoepa cap outrageous loan perfect piece legislation regulate appalling lending practice unintended consequence lender want subject hoepa loan restriction begin make loan hoepa trigger shift highinter subprime loan trigger mark start subprime lending concurrently securitization subprime loan begin dramatic ascent volume billion ultimately skyrocket billion retaliation hoepa banking industry successfully lobby restrictive act include truth lending act amendment shepherd wall street real estate industry favorite senator connie mack rfl representative bill mccollum rfl congress pay attention possible ramification accountable lender late new millennium dot com fever rage federal budget stand surplus stock market rage merger mania engulf wall street ignite repeal glass steagal act keep commercial investment bank merge newly large supermarket bank like citigroup find way stay league table billboard chart finance term originate deal start merge corporation record volume pile cheap debt finance marriage effect make new company stock price soar citizen market investment paper create entice illusion wealth unnoticed lender bank home price escalate home equity second mortgage loan flourish homeowner encourage tap equity rise home value fund aspect life time investment bank securitize repacke resell loan care standard loan buy sell bulk investment bank legally responsible borrower food chain afford mortgage payment lose home unregulated mortgage broker take advantage deregulated environment offer esoteric product bank happy collect trade loan profit end clinton term rife fail attempt regulation deregulation intensify bush ownership society year initially camouflage dramatic interest rate cut alan greenspan feed january july fed cut rate time bring low level make cheap debt easy bank extend debtladen corporation start go bankrupt aka enron bank turn corporate homebased lending cheap money trade security collateralize home relate loan regulation trading foresee come calamity new demand loan spur abusive loan include subprime catastrophe senator paul sarbanes dmd rep lafalce dny try push version predatory lending consumer protection act include strong hoepa legislation attempt die committee sarbane legislation bring hoepa trigger cover loan cut origination fee lender charge way profit come payment instead point fee oddity political party want constrain free market finance community medium mouthpiece sector take particularly subprime affiliate bank operate umbrella bank hold company consumer impression regulate like bank share bank consider lender requisitely safe unabated regulation feed wall street appetite du jour subprime loan volume triple billion billion overall mortgage market home equity loan balloon simultaneously spring interest rate rise borrower near end home equity faucet equity tap home value start level wave adjust upward mortgage loan come adjustable rate ultimately kick borrower payment suddenly increase housing value falter bad brink crisis commercial bank credit card company lobby hard difficult consumer declare bankruptcy unlike corporation benefit process major coup industry senator charles grassley ria pass bankruptcy abuse consumer protection act prior act borrower asset value owe borrower pay current market value asset caveat primary home way force interested party borrower lender secondary securitization trading institution table negotiate reasonable solution term ail borrower bankruptcy year later april senator durbin try pass amendment reinstate consumer protection home fail floor month later house relief bill barney frank dma pass provide billion additional funding half iraq war struggle homeowner new federal housing administration loan separately ask lender accept certain loss original mortgage loan enable homeowner refinance affordable mortgage avoid foreclosure senate banking chairman chris dodd propose fix similar lender choose voluntary program receive current assessed value house borrower receive refinance loan equal new assessed value plan finance fee impose fannie mae freddie mac portfolio bill perfect attempt help struggle borrower eradicate source subprime problem lack enforceable regulation deter lender extend nontransparent loan able afford hidden time bomb entail strengthen weaken truth lending act install legislation ensure wall street speculator subprime chain legal accountability role perpetuate creation trading loan face presidential veto uphill battle fix housing crisis minimally understand legislative root regulation need yes imperative help immediate foreclosure danger force ask nicely volunteer lender negotiate loan term foreclosure assign responsibility loan integrity suitability single actor loan creation trading chain tighten capital requirement suitability transparency standard real enforcement merely oversight power remedy help solve problem fester decade ensure reincarnation occur atc july august current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 9 |
Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of European Studies University of Bradford 1999 Dissident Communism: Trotskyism in Cuba (1932-65) Index Page Trotskyism and the Cuban Revolution Table of Contents | left | submit degree doctor philosophy department european studies university bradford dissident communism trotskyism cuba index page trotskyism cuban revolution table content | 10 |
MIA: History: ETOL: Newspapers & Periodicals: International Socialist Review: Issue 25 From International Socialist Review, Issue 25, September–October 2002. Downloaded with thanks from the ISR Archive. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the ETOL. David Barsamian: You’re a critic of the U.S. attack on Afghanistan. I’d like you to consider the following comments, all of which were made in late August. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour said, “There is no doubt that U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has had a net positive effect for the Afghan people.” Then Ahmed Rashid, the Pakistani journalist and author of Taliban, told me in an interview, that there’s been “an enormous improvement in the status of women in Afghanistan with the advent of the new government. Several million children are back in school and 50,000 women teachers are back on the job.” Finally, in another interview, Pervez Hoodboy, who teaches in Islamabad, Pakistan, told me that the ouster of the Taliban “was a good thing for Pakistan” because that country was in danger of being Talibanized, that is, taken over by Islamic fundamentalists. Would you concede that the war produced benefits for the average Afghan? Noam Chomsky: I don’t know if the word “concede” is correct, and I’m not sure about the “average Afghan.” There certainly were improvements that resulted from the overthrow of the Taliban. That’s why everyone was in favor of the overthrow of the Taliban, except the U.S. government. Let’s keep in mind that the overthrow of the Taliban regime was not a war aim. The war aim announced on October 12, five days after the bombing began, was that the Taliban leadership should hand over to the United States people who the U.S. suspected of participating in terrorist actions–the U.S. refused to provide evidence–and warned the Afghan people that unless this was done, they would be bombed. Over two weeks later, when the war was pretty much coming to an end, the war aim of overthrowing the Taliban regime was added. In fact, the British commander announced that the Afghan people would continue to be bombed until they changed their regime. So, if regime change wasn’t a war aim, we can’t even really raise that question. However, it’s a good thing that the U.S. finally came around to joining others in opposing the Taliban regime toward the end of the war. Then the question arises of how you should do it. Well, Afghans had opinions about this. Toward the end of October, there was a major meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan, of a thousand tribal and political leaders, some from inside Pakistan, some exiles, and some from elsewhere. These were all people strongly supported by the U.S. There were some reports about this meeting in the press. They said it was a very impressive meeting of usually contentious tribal leaders who were dedicated to overthrowing the hated Taliban. They disagreed on a lot of things. One thing they agreed on: they pleaded with the U.S. to stop the bombing because it was harming and destroying the country and was undermining their efforts to overthrow the Taliban regime from within. They called on the international media to plead with the U.S. to stop harming their efforts to overthrow the Taliban by bombing. Just the week before that meeting, one of the most well known and highly regarded Afghan leaders, Abdul Haq–who is also highly regarded by the U.S. and the current Afghan government of Hamid Karzai–entered Afghanistan from Pakistan, apparently without U.S. support. He was captured and killed. Haq was regarded as one of the great martyrs of the war against the Taliban. Just before he entered Afghanistan, Haq had an extensive interview with Anatol Lieven of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In the interview, he again condemns the U.S. bombing, pleads for the U.S. to stop it, says that by bombing it is undermining the efforts he and others are carrying out to overthrow the Taliban regime, which he regarded as fragile and hated. He then said the only reason the U.S. was bombing is because it wants to “show its muscle.” It doesn’t care anything about the Afghans. The leading women’s group in Afghanistan, RAWA (the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), which got some belated recognition after many years, also came out with similar statements, calling for the overthrow of the Taliban and urging that this could be done from within, without devastating attacks on the country, which were driving millions of people to the edge of starvation. The concept of overthrowing the Taliban regime was certainly there. The U.S. joined in about three weeks after the bombing began, rejecting the call of Afghans to help them overthrow the government by funding and offering political support for their actions from within, and insisting on showing its muscle without caring for the Afghans. Certainly, overthrowing the Taliban was a very reasonable approach and we should have listened to the substantial and credible part of Afghan opinion that was talking about how to go about doing this. Now, let’s talk about the consequences. Let’s suppose that it’s true that the consequences for Afghans were beneficial. Do we celebrate Pearl Harbor Day every year? It’s well understood that the Japanese attack on the colonial outposts of the United States, England, and Holland was in some respects highly beneficial to the people of Asia. It was a major factor in driving the British out of India, which saved maybe tens of millions of lives. It drove the Dutch out of Indonesia. That’s why there was applause for the Japanese invasion. In fact, major nationalists, like Sukarno in Indonesia, joined the Japanese and even fought with them because they wanted to get the hated white man out of Asia. If there had been no resistance to the Japanese attack, they might not have turned to the horrifying atrocities that did ultimately turn many Asians against them. So would we be celebrating Pearl Harbor? I don’t think so. I certainly wouldn’t. Let’s talk about the role of the media in manufacturing consent for war. Hermann Goering at Nuremberg had this to say: “[T]he people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and then denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” Does it work that way in the United States? SURE, LOOK around us, though it’s not to the extent you describe. Let’s take a case from the past, so we can look at it a little more dispassionately. In the mid-1980s, during the first “war on terror,” called by the Reagan administration in much the same terms as today–with the same rhetoric, the same people in charge even–even the administration moderates, like George Shultz, the counterpart of Colin Powell, condemned the “cancer” right here in our own land mass–meaning Nicaragua–which is following the plans of Mein Kampf and is planning to conquer the hemisphere. President Reagan declared a “national emergency” in 1985, which was renewed annually, because of the dangers to the security of the U.S. from the government of Nicaragua. When the U.S. bombed Libya in 1986, Reagan justified the attack on the grounds that the “mad dog” Qaddafi was bringing his war home to the United States as part of the campaign to expel America from the world. Qaddafi was doing this by sending arms to the Sandinistas, who were rampaging around the hemisphere. There was a huge effort made to arouse the American population to fear the Nicaraguan army, which was only a two-day march from Texas. This rhetoric had some effect, but it certainly didn’t have the effect Goering described. Opposition to U.S. attacks on Nicaragua remained fairly high, despite the hysteria and despite the fact that there was virtual 100 percent media support for the attack. It’s a fact worth remembering. At the peak period of the hysteria about defending ourselves against Nicaragua, the opinion pieces–editorials and op-eds in the Washington Post and New York Times, for example–were close to 100 percent in favor of overthrowing the Nicaraguan government. They were split on how to do it. So the hawks said the U.S. should use more violence. The doves, like Tom Wicker of the Times and the editors of the Washington Post, said that the U.S. terrorist attack wasn’t working too well and therefore we should find other means to fit Nicaragua back into “a Central American mode” and impose “regional standards” on Nicaragua. The “Central American mode” was the mode of El Salvador and Guatemala. The regional standards in those countries were U.S.-backed state-terrorist forces that had just killed tens of thousands of people, engaged in torture and huge atrocities, and destroyed the countries. That’s the “Central American mode” to which we had to restore Nicaragua, but by other means. That was the doves. The hawks were for wiping them out. Despite the virtual 100 percent media support and the hysteria coming out of the government propaganda agencies, the public did not fully go along. There was a very large committed mass solidarity movement, rooted right in the mainstream of the United States. I think Goering underestimates the resiliency of democracies. Let me ask about another Nazi figure, Goebbels, the minister of propaganda. He said the purpose of Nazi propaganda is “to present an ostensible diversity behind which lies an actual uniformity.” He’s speaking of an organized coordinated propaganda agency. In the West it doesn’t work like that. How does it work here? Here the press is essentially free to do what it wants. There are efforts on the part of the government to influence the press outcome, but they’re free to disregard it. Nevertheless, the outcomes are not unlike what Goebbels describes. Without central authority and without any serious compulsion to follow the party line, the end result comes out pretty much the way he described it–that is, an appearance of diversity, but with “actual uniformity.” The example I just mentioned, Nicaragua, is a fine illustration of what was called a hawk-dove controversy, which was mainly: How do we achieve the shared objective of overthrowing the “cancer right here in our landmass” and “restoring it to the regional standards” of the U.S. murderous terrorist states? On that, there was consensus. There was very little disagreement within the mainstream. You have to go to the edges to find any difference, and in the major media there is essentially no variation. It is an appearance of diversity with uniformity of goal. It’s pretty much the same now. The main question today is how and when to attack Iraq. In the mainstream media, you find an occasional voice saying there might be some problem about committing the crime for which people were hanged at Nuremberg, by attacking another country with who knows what effect without even a pretext. You have to go out as far as House Majority Leader Dick Armey to say we shouldn’t be the kind of country that carries out premeditated attacks against others in violation of international law and treaties. Almost no one else says that. Let’s continue on this issue of propaganda. Eduardo Galeano, the great Uruguayan journalist and novelist, wrote in the June Progressive magazine, “Propaganda, the Pentagon confesses, is part of the war budget. The White House has brought [in] ... advertising expert Charlotte Beers ... [H]er mission is to advance the terrorist crusade against terrorism on the world market. ‘We’re selling a product,’ explains Colin Powell.” Governments are going to do anything they can to try to whip up support for the policies they pursue. Governments are power systems. They follow the interests of the concentration of domestic power to which they’re committed. That’s not a surprise. What Galeano describes is particularly crass, but it doesn’t change anything. It just brings out publicly what we expect the government to be doing. It’s illegal. The government’s not supposed to be propagandizing the population, but it’s minor in the scheme of things. A much more important issue is how the free institutions, which are not bound to follow government orders, behave. This is not Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia. There’s no penalty for being independent and honest. The question is how they respond. On their own, do they voluntarily adopt the same stance? To the extent that they do, that is much more serious than the fact that a government is openly trying to propagandize the population. If the government has a propaganda ministry, it’s a bad thing. A free society shouldn’t tolerate that, but it’s minor compared to the voluntary subordination, not just of the media, but of the articulate intellectual community generally. Let’s go back to the past. In the First World War, the British and the Americans had very effective state propaganda agencies. The Germans didn’t. Nevertheless, the German intellectuals overwhelmingly supported the war. As the war began in 1914, a group of very distinguished German intellectuals from across the political spectrum issued an appeal to the intellectuals of the world to join in support of Germany and its noble efforts to defend civilization against barbarism. That was basically a free choice, and that’s much more severe than the government agencies trying to get people to do things, as they did in the U.S. and Britain, with a good deal of effect. Most of the subordination to the propaganda was completely voluntary in the U.S. and Britain. If you look through history, that’s pretty much the way it works. There are totalitarian states where if you don’t follow the official line, you’re going to be punished severely. Take U.S. dependencies in Central America, some of the worst. In El Salvador, intellectuals who continued to call for peace negotiations and democracy weren’t treated nicely. The conservative archbishop, Oscar Romero, who had become “a voice for the voiceless,” was assassinated to begin the decade of the 1980s. This decade ended with the murder of six leading intellectuals at the Jesuit University in San Salvador. Their brains were blown out by U.S.-armed and trained members of an elite battalion, which by then had killed tens of thousands of people. Well, that’s what it takes to try and be free and honest in a client state of the U.S. If you did a poll of educated Americans and asked them to name the leading Latin American intellectuals whose brains were blow out by our elite forces, essentially no one will have heard of them or remember the incident. If it had been six intellectuals in Czechoslovakia or Poland at the same time, you’d know their names. THAT ILLUSTRATES the “worthy and unworthy victims’ thesis” you and Edward S. Herman develop in your book Manufacturing Consent. There was an interesting comment made recently by CBS news anchor, Dan Rather. He didn’t say it on his nightly news show but to the BBC. He said American reporting on the war on terrorism is far less critical than most other places in the world. He was disturbed by the lack of questioning among journalists and then he said reporters were intimidated, and he included himself in this, about reporting the facts, for fear of being labeled unpatriotic. If Dan Rather is so cowardly about being labeled unpatriotic, he shouldn’t be a newsman. Is that as bad as having your brains blown out? It’s not nice to be subjected to vilification and defamation and lies, but anyone in the business has to take this as a fact of life. Are you intimidated by it? No. If you want to be intimidated by it, you can say, “I’m a coward.” If people are intimidated, they shouldn’t be in the business. Let me blend Shakespeare with Rudyard Kipling, the poet laureate of the British Empire, “Take up the white man’s burden, (unleash) the dogs of war (to fight) the savage wars of peace.” What is driving the dogs of war in the Bush administration’s Iraq policy? THIS IS something we can only speculate about. We don’t have the internal documentary evidence yet. Let’s just label this as speculation. The claim is that Saddam Hussein is such a threat to the security of the U.S. and other countries that we can’t let him survive. We have to destroy him by a preemptive strike. This raises obvious questions: When did he become such a threat? Notice this comes after September 11. There wasn’t a call to invade Iraq two years ago. Something must have happened that made him a terrible threat. Is he more dangerous than two years ago? No. He’s less dangerous than two years ago. Even with all the effort, nothing has been found to link Hussein to September 11. This is not surprising because Saddam Hussein and bin Laden have been enemies for years. There is no reason to believe that has changed. However, if there are any links, they’re going to be much harder to maintain after September 11 than before, for the simple reason of mass surveillance. That’s only the beginning. In 1990, Saddam Hussein was a far greater threat than today. Remember all his major crimes were behind him. The gassing of the Kurds, the Iran-Iraq war, torture, and other crimes. He was a first-class world gangster and far more powerful than he is now. Furthermore, he was developing weapons of mass destruction at a time when his reach was far greater than it is now. Since that time, Iraq was bombed and devastated and it has been subjected to more than a decade of severe sanctions. These have reduced its capacity to carry out aggression. It’s subject to overflights. Regular bombing controls a good part of the country. What was he doing when he was really dangerous? Bob Dole, the former presidential candidate, now calls for Congressional support for an attack. What was Dole doing when he was really dangerous? He visited Saddam Hussein. In the spring of 1990, he led a delegation sent by George Bush I to convey greetings to him and inform him that the person who had criticized him over the Voice of America was being removed because he was stepping out of line. Senator Alan Simpson told Saddam his problem wasn’t with the U.S. government but with the U.S. media, who are haughty and pampered and go off on their own. Even Congressional criticism should be disregarded. The White House was strongly with him. This wasn’t just talk. Right through his worst atrocities, the U.S. and Britain were providing Iraq with lavish aid. Iraq was a major trading partner. They were providing him with the means to develop weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons, and missile systems. There was no secret about who he was. There was a time when Saddam Hussein was dangerous, had committed major crimes, and was capable of committing much worse ones, and those who are now saying he is too dangerous to exist were supporting him and helping him become more of a danger. All of this was happening right before his act of disobedience in 1990, after which he shifted overnight from great friend and ally to the reincarnation of Attila the Hun. It’s hard to believe that the war is taking place because of the threat that he poses. That’s not to deny that he does pose a threat. The Iraqi people would be better off without him, but that was much more true 12 years ago than it is today. The crimes that are correctly charged to him–like using chemical weapons against his own people–can’t be the reason for war now, because when he was doing it, the U.S. was supporting him, knowingly. So what are the reasons for war now? Here we have to speculate. There are two plausible answers. First, the U.S. is trying to show its muscle, and it doesn’t care much what happens to the people of the region. It’s called establishing credibility. We have to show we’re going to run the world, and if anyone gets out of line, we’ll smash them. We have the power to do it, and we’ll do it. Second, there are also domestic reasons. It’s not much of a secret that the Bush administration is carrying out a substantial assault against the general population here, particularly future generations. The huge tax cuts for the rich, which mainly come on line after the next election, could be a very serious blow to the American people. The huge deficit is replaying pretty much what happened in the 1980s. The goal is to make it impossible to provide services for the general population like medical care, Social Security, infrastructure development, or protection of the environment. This ensures that the government will direct its massive resources to the narrow power centers that the Bush administration serves even more intensively than the norm. That’s happening all across the board, and the last thing they want people to do is pay attention to it. How do you do that? Here a variant of what Goering said is more accurate. The way to keep people from paying attention is to frighten them. If people are in fear, huddling under the protection of the savior, maybe they won’t pay too much attention to what’s being done to them. That means constant war. The president has made it clear. His speechwriters have made it very clear. A couple weeks ago, he said that the war is on terror, but we’re fighting endless wars. We can’t say how many countries we’re going to have to attack in this war on terror because there are potential threats everywhere. That’s true. There are serious potential threats right here in the U.S., for example. Take the anthrax attack. In November and December, that was considered a much more serious threat than September 11. The first major book after September 11–The Age of Terror, written mostly by a group of well-known university professors–points out that the anthrax attacks were more serious than September 11. The anthrax attack was later localized to a federal lab in the U.S., and the commentary declined. So, by their reasoning, we should bomb the U.S. If you want to rid the world of potential threats, you’ll have to destroy the world. If you want to be serious about reducing potential threats, not just working for power interests, what you’ll do is look into the causes and reasons for terrorism, and try and deal with those. The correct response to a terrorist attack is not to lash out and murder people, but try to learn what lies behind it, and deal with the causes. Gore Vidal used the analogy of bombing Palermo to kill the Mafia. Or if the British had bombed Boston at the time of major IRA attacks on London. That’s where the financing was coming from. But the British finally figured out they had to deal with the grievances. It doesn’t justify terrorism, but there are usually reasons for it. Unless you deal with them, you aren’t going to get anywhere. The head of the Israeli secret service recently said that if you declare a war on Palestinian terror, you’re declaring a war that will go on forever. It’s a war without end. If you want to deal with Palestinian terror, you have to deal with the legitimate grievances of the Palestinians, namely the fact we are denying them self-determination. Twenty years earlier, during an earlier period of Israeli atrocities in the territories, at a time when Israel still retained immunity from retaliation from within the territories, the former head of military intelligence made essentially the same comment. He said, “We’ll never kill the mosquitoes. We have to drain the swamp.” The swamp is the failure to deal with the legitimate aspirations of a people under military occupation. In your description of the various reasons that lay behind driving the dogs of war in Iraq, you did not include oil. <7>The Times of London ran the following headline in mid-July: “West Sees Glittering Prizes Ahead in Giant Oilfields.” As the article put it, “The removal of President Saddam Hussein would open Iraq’s rich new oilfields to Western bidders and bring the prospect of lessening dependence on Saudi oil. No other country offers such untapped oilfields whose exploitation could lessen tensions over the Western presence in Saudi Arabia.” In fact, Iraq has the second largest oil fields, exceeded only by Saudi Arabia. One industry expert told the Times, “There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. It’s the big prize.” That’s all correct, and I’ve written about this topic in the past. The reason I didn’t mention it is because we were talking about the specific reasons at this moment. Those reasons are background ones, which persist. It’s always been obvious that, one way or another, the U.S. would try to do something to ensure that this enormous prize would be back under U.S. control. This is as true today as it has always been. The torrent of war talk, not just around Iraq, but as you said, other countries, seems to serve as a weapon of mass distraction, diverting people’s attention from the corporate crime wave, from the Enron scandal and Bush’s connection with Ken Lay, Bush’s financial dealings while he was a director of Harken Energy, from Cheney’s involvement with Halliburton, which now has a contract with the Bush administration to do work at Guantanamo Bay, or from the fact that Iraqi oil is still being imported by Halliburton into the United States. Yes, they would like to distract attention away from that, but my feeling remains that they would primarily like to distract people’s attention from the assault they are carrying against the general population. They’re undermining the basis for a decently functioning society for most of the population, except for the very rich. That’s not a small thing. George Orwell’s most famous novel, 1984, introduced such expressions as the “memory hole” and “Big Brother.” Orwell wrote, “The Ministry of Truth was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete and on its white face in elegant lettering the three slogans of the party War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.” Do you see any parallels today with secret tribunals, secret evidence, permanent war, and government surveillance with the kind of picture Orwell was describing? Orwell was describing and satirizing an extreme totalitarian state. Yes, you find bits and pieces in the freer societies and he intended that. The book was meant as a kind of allegory that was broader than the Soviet Union. One of the immediate effects of September 11 in most countries was to provide the government with the pretext to clamp down on its own population. Governments never like free societies. They try to impose discipline in various ways, and here they did it in rather extreme fashion. Still, I don’t think those are the major issues. I would turn to a less known article of Orwell’s, the unpublished preface to Animal Farm. It addressed what he called “literary censorship” in England. He asked, how is it that in free England the outcomes in the media are not all that different to what I’m satirizing in this account of a totalitarian monster? He mentioned two reasons. One reason the outcomes are similar is that the press is owned by wealthy men who have every reason not to want certain ideas to be expressed, so you get self-censorship. The second reason is just a good education. If you’re properly educated at the elite schools, you internalize the understanding that there are certain things it wouldn’t do to say. That’s the effect of a “proper education.” This doesn’t mean just schools, but the whole system. The higher the education you receive, the more internalized the values are, and this leads to voluntary censorship. What was the reaction in the media to the attitudes of leading Afghan dissidents backed by the U.S. to the bombing? These dissidents opposed the bombing, but how much of this made the press? Very little. After September 11, there was tremendous sympathy for the victims, but there was a question of how to react. Gallup carried out an international poll in late September 2001, asking how the U.S. should react. The main question was: If the identity of the perpetrators is known and the places they came from, should the U.S. resort to force or to judicial proceedings? Almost the whole world opposed bombing overwhelmingly. In Europe, it was three or four to one. In Latin America, the region with the most experience of U.S. intervention, support for bombing was tiny. In Panama, where support for bombing was highest, 16 percent, 80 percent called for judicial proceedings. There were only two exceptions of the countries polled: India and Israel. Here there was a small majority in favor of bombing, but that’s because Afghanistan has become the surrogate for their own problems–Kashmir and Palestine. How much of this appeared in the U.S. press? Every editor knew this. A media study found one report of 150 words in an Omaha journal, which misstated the results. The government didn’t tell them not to publish it. Every editor knows this is the kind of poll it wouldn’t do to print at a time when there are headlines saying “the world is with us.” It’s easy to give examples over and over. That’s much more serious than a ministry of truth. Last updated on 15 August 2022 | left | mia history etol newspaper periodical international socialist review issue international socialist review issue september october download thank isr archive mark einde etol david barsamian critic attack afghanistan like consider follow comment late august cnn christiane amanpour say doubt intervention afghanistan net positive effect afghan people ahmed rashid pakistani journalist author taliban tell interview enormous improvement status woman afghanistan advent new government million child school woman teacher job finally interview pervez hoodboy teach islamabad pakistan tell ouster taliban good thing pakistan country danger talibanize take islamic fundamentalist concede war produce benefit average afghan noam chomsky know word concede correct sure average afghan certainly improvement result overthrow taliban favor overthrow taliban government let mind overthrow taliban regime war aim war aim announce october day bombing begin taliban leadership hand united states people suspect participate terrorist action refuse provide evidence warn afghan people bomb week later war pretty come end war aim overthrow taliban regime add fact british commander announce afghan people continue bomb change regime regime change war aim raise question good thing finally come join oppose taliban regime end war question arise afghans opinion end october major meeting peshawar pakistan thousand tribal political leader inside pakistan exile people strongly support report meeting press say impressive meeting usually contentious tribal leader dedicate overthrow hate taliban disagree lot thing thing agree plead stop bombing harm destroy country undermine effort overthrow taliban regime call international medium plead stop harm effort overthrow taliban bomb week meet known highly regard afghan leader abdul haq highly regard current afghan government hamid karzai enter afghanistan pakistan apparently support capture kill haq regard great martyr war taliban enter afghanistan haq extensive interview anatol lieven carnegie endowment international peace interview condemn bombing plead stop say bomb undermine effort carry overthrow taliban regime regard fragile hate say reason bomb want muscle care afghans lead woman group afghanistan rawa revolutionary association woman afghanistan get belate recognition year come similar statement call overthrow taliban urge devastating attack country drive million people edge starvation concept overthrow taliban regime certainly join week bombing begin reject afghans help overthrow government funding offer political support action insist show muscle care afghans certainly overthrow taliban reasonable approach listen substantial credible afghan opinion talk let talk consequence let suppose true consequence afghans beneficial celebrate pearl harbor day year understand japanese attack colonial outpost united states england holland respect highly beneficial people asia major factor drive british india save maybe ten million life drive dutch indonesia applause japanese invasion fact major nationalist like sukarno indonesia join japanese fight want hate white man asia resistance japanese attack turn horrify atrocity ultimately turn asian celebrate pearl harbor think certainly let talk role medium manufacturing consent war hermann goere nuremberg people bring bidding leader easy tell attack denounce peacemaker lack patriotism expose country danger work country work way united states sure look extent describe let case past look little dispassionately war terror call reagan administration term today rhetoric people charge administration moderate like george shultz counterpart colin powell condemn cancer right land mass mean nicaragua follow plan mein kampf plan conquer hemisphere president reagan declare national emergency renew annually danger security government nicaragua bomb libya reagan justify attack ground mad dog qaddafi bring war home united states campaign expel america world qaddafi send arm sandinista rampage hemisphere huge effort arouse american population fear nicaraguan army twoday march texas rhetoric effect certainly effect goere describe opposition attack nicaragua remain fairly high despite hysteria despite fact virtual percent medium support attack fact worth remember peak period hysteria defend nicaragua opinion piece editorial oped washington post new york times example close percent favor overthrow nicaraguan government split hawk say use violence dove like tom wicker time editor washington post say terrorist attack work find mean fit nicaragua central american mode impose regional standard nicaragua central american mode mode el salvador guatemala regional standard country usbacked stateterrorist force kill ten thousand people engage torture huge atrocity destroy country central american mode restore nicaragua mean dove hawk wipe despite virtual percent medium support hysteria come government propaganda agency public fully large committed mass solidarity movement root right mainstream united states think goere underestimate resiliency democracy let ask nazi figure goebbel minister propaganda say purpose nazi propaganda present ostensible diversity lie actual uniformity speak organize coordinate propaganda agency west work like work press essentially free want effort government influence press outcome free disregard outcome unlike goebbel describe central authority compulsion follow party line end result come pretty way describe appearance diversity actual uniformity example mention nicaragua fine illustration call hawkdove controversy mainly achieve share objective overthrow cancer right landmass restore regional standard murderous terrorist state consensus little disagreement mainstream edge find difference major medium essentially variation appearance diversity uniformity goal pretty main question today attack iraq mainstream medium find occasional voice say problem commit crime people hang nuremberg attack country know effect pretext far house majority leader dick armey kind country carry premeditate attack violation international law treaty say let continue issue propaganda eduardo galeano great uruguayan journalist novelist write june progressive magazine propaganda pentagon confesse war budget white house bring advertising expert charlotte beer mission advance terrorist crusade terrorism world market sell product explain colin powell government go try whip support policy pursue government power system follow interest concentration domestic power commit surprise galeano describe particularly crass change bring publicly expect government illegal government suppose propagandize population minor scheme thing important issue free institution bind follow government order behave nazi germany stalinist russia penalty independent honest question respond voluntarily adopt stance extent fact government openly try propagandize population government propaganda ministry bad thing free society tolerate minor compare voluntary subordination medium articulate intellectual community generally let past world war british americans effective state propaganda agency germans german intellectual overwhelmingly support war war begin group distinguished german intellectual political spectrum issue appeal intellectual world join support germany noble effort defend civilization barbarism basically free choice severe government agency try people thing britain good deal effect subordination propaganda completely voluntary britain look history pretty way work totalitarian state follow official line go punish severely dependency central america bad el salvador intellectual continue peace negotiation democracy treat nicely conservative archbishop oscar romero voice voiceless assassinate begin decade decade end murder lead intellectual jesuit university san salvador brain blow usarmed train member elite battalion kill ten thousand people take try free honest client state poll educate americans ask lead latin american intellectual brain blow elite force essentially hear remember incident intellectual czechoslovakia poland time know name illustrate worthy unworthy victim thesis edward s herman develop book manufacturing consent interesting comment recently cbs news anchor dan nightly news bbc say american report war terrorism far critical place world disturb lack questioning journalist say reporter intimidate include report fact fear label unpatriotic dan cowardly label unpatriotic newsman bad have brain blow nice subject vilification defamation lie business fact life intimidate want intimidate coward people intimidate business let blend shakespeare rudyard kiple poet laureate british empire white man burden unleash dog war fight savage war peace drive dog war bush administration iraq policy speculate internal documentary evidence let label speculation claim saddam hussein threat security country let survive destroy preemptive strike raise obvious question threat notice come september invade iraq year ago happen terrible threat dangerous year ago dangerous year ago effort find link hussein september surprising saddam hussein bin laden enemy year reason believe change link go hard maintain september simple reason mass surveillance beginning saddam hussein far great threat today remember major crime gassing kurd iraniraq war torture crime firstclass world gangster far powerful furthermore develop weapon mass destruction time reach far great time iraq bomb devastate subject decade severe sanction reduce capacity carry aggression subject overflights regular bombing control good country dangerous bob dole presidential candidate call congressional support attack dole dangerous visit saddam hussein spring lead delegation send george bush convey greeting inform person criticize voice america remove step line senator alan simpson tell saddam problem government medium haughty pamper congressional criticism disregard white house strongly talk right bad atrocity britain provide iraq lavish aid iraq major trading partner provide mean develop weapon mass destruction include chemical nuclear weapon missile system secret time saddam hussein dangerous commit major crime capable commit bad one say dangerous exist support help danger happen right act disobedience shift overnight great friend ally reincarnation attila hun hard believe war take place threat pose deny pose threat iraqi people well true year ago today crime correctly charge like chemical weapon people reason war support knowingly reason war speculate plausible answer try muscle care happen people region call establish credibility go run world get line smash power second domestic reason secret bush administration carry substantial assault general population particularly future generation huge tax cut rich mainly come line election blow american people huge deficit replay pretty happen goal impossible provide service general population like medical care social security infrastructure development protection environment ensure government direct massive resource narrow power center bush administration serve intensively norm happen board thing want people pay attention variant goering say accurate way people pay attention frighten people fear huddle protection savior maybe will pay attention mean constant war president clear speechwriter clear couple week ago say war terror fight endless war country go attack war terror potential threat true potential threat right example anthrax attack november december consider threat september major book september age terror write group wellknown university professor point anthrax attack september anthrax attack later localize federal lab commentary decline reasoning bomb want rid world potential threat destroy world want reduce potential threat work power interest look cause reason terrorism try deal correct response terrorist attack lash murder people try learn lie deal cause gore vidal analogy bomb palermo kill mafia british bomb boston time major ira attack london financing come british finally figure deal grievance justify terrorism usually reason deal go head israeli secret service recently say declare war palestinian terror declare war forever war end want deal palestinian terror deal legitimate grievance palestinians fact deny selfdetermination year early early period israeli atrocity territory time israel retain immunity retaliation territory head military intelligence essentially comment say kill mosquito drain swamp swamp failure deal legitimate aspiration people military occupation description reason lay drive dog war iraq include oil time london run following headline midjuly west see glitter prize ahead giant oilfield article removal president saddam hussein open iraq rich new oilfield western bidder bring prospect lessen dependence saudi oil country offer untapped oilfield exploitation lessen tension western presence saudi arabia fact iraq second large oil field exceed saudi arabia industry expert tell time like world big prize correct write topic past reason mention talk specific reason moment reason background one persist obvious way try ensure enormous prize control true today torrent war talk iraq say country serve weapon mass distraction divert people attention corporate crime wave enron scandal bush connection ken lay bush financial dealing director harken energy cheney involvement halliburton contract bush administration work guantanamo bay fact iraqi oil import halliburton united states yes like distract attention away feeling remain primarily like distract people attention assault carry general population undermine basis decently function society population rich small thing george orwell famous novel introduce expression memory hole big brother orwell write ministry truth enormous pyramidal structure glitter white concrete white face elegant letter slogan party war peace freedom slavery ignorance strength parallel today secret tribunal secret evidence permanent war government surveillance kind picture orwell describe orwell describe satirize extreme totalitarian state yes find bit piece free society intend book mean kind allegory broad soviet union immediate effect september country provide government pretext clamp population government like free society try impose discipline way extreme fashion think major issue turn know article orwell unpublished preface animal farm address call literary censorship england ask free england outcome medium different satirize account totalitarian monster mention reason reason outcome similar press own wealthy man reason want certain idea express selfcensorship second reason good education properly educate elite school internalize understanding certain thing effect proper education mean school system high education receive internalized value lead voluntary censorship reaction medium attitude lead afghan dissident back bombing dissident oppose bombing press little september tremendous sympathy victim question react gallup carry international poll late september ask react main question identity perpetrator know place come resort force judicial proceeding world oppose bombing overwhelmingly europe latin america region experience intervention support bombing tiny panama support bombing high percent percent call judicial proceeding exception country poll india israel small majority favor bombing afghanistan surrogate problem kashmir palestine appear press editor know media study find report word omaha journal misstate result government tell publish editor know kind poll print time headline say world easy example ministry truth update august | 11 |
“CROSS THAT LINE!! Cross that Line!!” the crowd of 5,000 roared as they marched to the West gate of the A. E. Staley corn-processing plant in Decatur, Illinois where 760 workers, members of the United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU/AIW) have been locked-out of their jobs since June 1993. In an act of non-violent civil disobedience, over 400 people crossed over the Staley yellow property line, shouting “Scabs out! Union in!” The demonstrators, trade unionists and supporters from across the country as well as striking UAW Caterpillar and United Rubber Workers Firestone/Bridgestone workers, were met by a wall of police. Within three minutes and without provocation, the police sprayed pepper gas onto the crowd, some spraying indiscriminately, others spraying directly into workers’ eyes. The use of the pepper gas has been outlawed in several states because of its long-lasting, harmful blinding and burning effects. The police violence injured dozens of people, including children, an infant and several journalists. J. Patrick Mohan, Staley vice-president, commented that “the police did an outstanding job.” Rather than sending the workers away in a demoralizing defeat as they had hoped, the police stood shocked when the workers remained on the line, blocking scabs from entering or leaving through Staley’s gates, while receiving first-aid assistance from their supporters. Waiting nearby on a bus, state and county police reinforced the Decatur police squads, marching off the bus in full riot-gear, wearing gas masks, and carrying four-foot batons. Thirty minutes later, the police pepper-gassed the crowd a second time. Again, the workers’ determination remained strong as they stayed on the line. The police assault on the workers has led to intense discussions amongst Decatur unionists and the town as a whole. Suddenly, the emperor has no clothes. “This is a town where we’ve always been friendly with the police. They were the good guys! They’re our neighbors, cousins, fellow church-goers. Heck, we even went to high school with some of those guys,” commented Gary Lamb, UPIU/AIW Local 7837 executive board member who was gassed on the front line. “And now, they gas us and our children. Seems like this company owns more of this city than I thought.” “The police have become the tools of corporate greed,” stated Dan Lane, also a 7837 executive board member who was gassed on the front line. “Without provocation, we were viciously attacked, many of us while sitting down with our back to the cops. We were non-violent. We stayed that way despite their brutal actions. Solidarity was in the air and the cops were determined to undermine it. They failed.” Three weeks prior to the pepper gassing, 50 demonstrators were arrested while blocking the west gate of the A.E. Staley plant, keeping scabs and supply trucks from entering or exiting for over three hours. Leading the first wave of protesters who sat down under the hot June sun was Father Mangan, pastor of St. James Roman Catholic church in Decatur. “This is a moral issue,” said Fr. Mangan, “and I am compelled by God’s word to take a stand for these workers and say `No more injustice!’ It’s a part of raising the community’s consciousness.” Mangan was joined in blocking A.E. Staley’s gate for three hours by UAW Caterpillar workers and UAW Local 751 President Larry Solomon; five other clergy; spouses of Staley workers; and unionists from eleven unions and supporters from six cities. UPIU 7837 President Dave Watts and union advisor Ray Rogers were later also charged. The charges filed against the Decatur 50, who engaged in the first act of non-violent civil disobedience in the history of Decatur, are criminal trespassing, obstructing a peace officer, and mob action. The local state’s attorney hoped to thwart the solidarity of the group by separating them into four different trials. The determination of the group remains strong, however, and their strategy to make political trials out of these charges by putting Staley’s parent company, Tate and Lyle, on trial remains intact. The first trial is scheduled for October. In another trial in late September, a dozen 7837 members were found guilty of “residential picketing.” “Residential picnicking” more closely captures the nature of the April action as twenty-five people held a picnic in a Decatur park which is, coincidentally, next to the home of Staley Vice-President J. Patrick Mohan. The next day the Park Board declared the area a “nursery” and posted “no trespassing” signs. Only the members of 7837 were charged, charges that were filed a month after the picnic. To express their disdain at the ludicrousness of the charges, over 200 supporters held a picnic outside the courtroom during the unionists’ trial. One 7837 picnicker had the charges dropped since he was not wearing a red T-shirt, a signature of the local’s solidarity. “Solidarity is clearly what the workers were really guilty of,” said UPIU 7837 President Dave Watts. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for October. The City of Decatur also sued 7837 over the union’s refusal to remove portable picket shelters outside the Staley plant gates. The union was found guilty and faces thousands of dollars in fines, as well another very cold and bitter winter of picketing. Even the anti-union Decatur daily Herald and Review couldn’t stomach this violation of rights and attacked the city in an editorial. In May, one executive board member was participating with hundreds of workers in a plant gate protest. When police ordered him to cease peacefully picketing, he refused to abandon his constitutional right to picket and was arrested and charged with “disobeying police orders.” That case is scheduled to be heard in October. One very active member of the union has been visited by FBI agents and called before a grand jury. This fishing expedition is allegedly in response to threatening letters sent by an anonymous source to Staley executive Mohan. The FBI was called because use of the U.S. mail is a felony violation of federal law. The 7837 member has now been ordered to provide handwriting samples. The concerted effort by the police and the courts has forced the local to direct some of its resources into lawyers, court costs, fines, etc. It is an unsuccessful attempt to break the fighting spirit of the locked-out Staley workers. Each time one of their members appears in court, the local sends in a sea of red T-shirts to demonstrate their unbreakable solidarity. The Staley workers have been locked out since June 1993, and the long battle is taking its toll. The workers’ protests in Springfield, the Illinois state capital, combined with protests initiated in Chicago by the Staley Workers Solidarity Committee, led to the workers gaining unemployment benefits a year ago. But benefits ran out months ago, and most workers haven’t been able to get extensions. Many families are without health care, losing their cars and homes, having electricity and phones cut off, and eating simple foods purchased by the union from dwindling funds. Yet the workers remain steadfast. “Road Warriors” continue to travel the country, telling fellow unionists that they’ve drawn the line in Decatur for all workers and asking for assistance. On a road warrior tour, for example, where Staley workers spoke before recent national conventions of the postal workers and electrical workers’ unions, $25,000 was raised for the Staley workers and their families. “Whenever we show the video of the June demonstrations and police gassing to unionists and workers, we get a great response,” says road warrior Barrie Williams. “People know it’s not just about us, it could be them next.” The Staley workers received reinforcements in what they call the Illinois “War Zone” when the UAW Caterpillar workers went on strike in June and the URW Firestone workers went out in July. None of the three companies have budged from their union-busting final contract “offers.” Firestone and A.E. Staley have demanded twelve-hour rotating shifts without overtime, and gutted seniority and health and safety protections. Additionally, Staley demands that the union workforce be cut 75%. Caterpillar workers have labored without a contract for three years. Both Caterpillar and Firestone demand big concessions from the standard, pattern agreement in the industry, including demands for a two-tier system where new workers would earn around $7 an hour. “Basically, we’re all out for the same thing – to make a living for our families and ourselves,” said Don Martin, a striking Firestone worker. Nearly 4,000 workers are walking picket lines in a town of 84,000 – roughly a quarter of the town’s working class now has a family member, friend, or neighbor on strike or locked out. All three factories are on the East side of town, where demonstrations have become an even more common occurrence. On two August mornings the rubber workers, following the UPIU example, blocked the plant gates. Staley and Cat workers joined the rally. The police videotaped the action, but recoiling from the local and national publicity from their June 25th gassing attack on the workers, took no action to stop the unionists. Instead, the police later made arrests of individuals at their homes, away from their supporters. This method – videotape now and arrest later – is another attempt by the Decatur police to further isolate and intimidate the workers. Not only is it commonplace, but the police also emphasize that they are legally allowed to make arrests eighteen months after an event. The three unions’ executive boards meet weekly to plan strategy, and rank-and-file workers attend Monday evening sessions of the citywide Workers Education and Solidarity Coalition. A twice-monthly city-wide labor paper is in preparation. Workers have gone door-to-door over the past year to handbill working-class neighborhoods, and unionists are reaching out to tell their story to high school students, church congregations, and the town’s citizenry. No one can travel to Decatur and talk with the Staley workers without being touched. They’re up against incredible odds – a wealthy multinational corporation that has mobilized the city government and police against them; a company that seems determined to temporarily lose profits in order to crush the union; an anti-union daily newspaper; and a national media that until recently has spurned the story. UPIU 7837 is a small local within a small international. Workers receive only $60 a week in picket pay from the UPIU and even that is now being cut off for anyone who has found some temporary work. And Lane Kirkland and the AFL-CIO Executive Board have not exactly rushed to their aid. By all logic, the Staley workers should have thrown in the towel long ago. And yet, most of the workers’ spirits and resolve are stronger than the majority of workers and progressives. The Staley workers’ spirit, their will to win, and their hope for all workers are contagious. Solidarity Committees are active across the Midwest, simultaneously aiding the workers and reinvigorating their own labor movements. In Chicago, for example, fourteen supporters were among the Decatur 50 who blocked the plant gates on June 4th, and are using their upcoming trial to raise consciousness about the struggle and to solicit legal defense funds. The Chicago-area Staley Workers Solidarity Committee includes unionists from the SEIU, IBT, IBEW, IAM, AFSCME, and numerous other unions, along with non-union progressives, socialists, and young people. Members have leafleted summer festivals with 7837 flyers asking people to pressure Miller Beer, one of Staley’s main purchasers of scab product, to switch from Staley to a company that isn’t trying to bust its union. SWSCers have distributed 800 copies of the powerful video, produced by Rose Feurer of St. Louis-based Labor Vision, on the June demonstrations and police assault. Thousands of dollars will be raised in the Committee’s sixth fundraiser, a benefit concert by nine members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who are also proud members of the Musicians Union. Firestone has won a temporary restraining order outlawing rallies at its plant gates, and A.E. Staley is seeking an injunction. Yet plans are underway to escalate civil resistance actions at the plant gates. The UAW, URW and UPIU have called on sympathizers to return to Decatur on October 15th, to show Caterpillar, Firestone, and Staley/Tate & Lyle that American labor and workers have drawn the line in Decatur against corporate aggression. “The companies have declared war on us,” says the UPIU’s Dan Lane. “They may have the money, but we’ve got the people. There’s more of us than there are of them.” “As our solidarity grows, so does our power,” adds Gary Lamb. To join the solidarity campaign call UPIU/AIW Local 7837’s Campaign for Justice office at (217) 872-2205, or write them at 2882 Dineen, Decatur, Illinois, 62526. ATC 53, November-December 1994 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | cross line cross line crowd roar march west gate e staley cornprocesse plant decatur illinois worker member united paperworkers international union upiuaiw lockedout job june act nonviolent civil disobedience people cross staley yellow property line shout scab union demonstrator trade unionist supporter country strike uaw caterpillar united rubber worker firestonebridgestone worker meet wall police minute provocation police spray pepper gas crowd spray indiscriminately spray directly worker eye use pepper gas outlaw state longlaste harmful blinding burning effect police violence injure dozen people include child infant journalist j patrick mohan staley vicepresident comment police outstanding job send worker away demoralizing defeat hope police stand shocked worker remain line block scab enter leave staley gate receive firstaid assistance supporter wait nearby bus state county police reinforce decatur police squad march bus riotgear wear gas mask carry fourfoot baton thirty minute later police peppergasse crowd second time worker determination remain strong stay line police assault worker lead intense discussion decatur unionist town suddenly emperor clothe town friendly police good guy neighbor cousin fellow churchgoer heck go high school guy comment gary lamb upiuaiw local executive board member gas line gas child like company own city think police tool corporate greed state dan lane executive board member gas line provocation viciously attack sit cop nonviolent stay way despite brutal action solidarity air cop determined undermine fail week prior pepper gas demonstrator arrest block west gate ae staley plant keep scab supply truck enter exit hour lead wave protester sit hot june sun father mangan pastor st james roman catholic church decatur moral issue say fr mangan compel god word stand worker injustice raise community consciousness mangan join block ae staley gate hour uaw caterpillar worker uaw local president larry solomon clergy spouse staley worker unionist union supporter city upiu president dave watts union advisor ray roger later charge charge file decatur engage act nonviolent civil disobedience history decatur criminal trespassing obstruct peace officer mob action local state attorney hope thwart solidarity group separate different trial determination group remain strong strategy political trial charge put staley parent company tate lyle trial remain intact trial schedule october trial late september dozen member find guilty residential picketing residential picnicking closely capture nature april action twentyfive people hold picnic decatur park coincidentally home staley vicepresident j patrick mohan day park board declare area nursery post trespassing sign member charge charge file month picnic express disdain ludicrousness charge supporter hold picnic outside courtroom unionist trial picnicker charge drop wear red tshirt signature local solidarity solidarity clearly worker guilty say upiu president dave watts sentencing hearing schedule october city decatur sue union refusal remove portable picket shelter outside staley plant gate union find guilty face thousand dollar fine cold bitter winter picket antiunion decatur daily herald review stomach violation right attack city editorial executive board member participate hundred worker plant gate protest police order cease peacefully picket refuse abandon constitutional right picket arrest charge disobey police order case schedule hear october active member union visit fbi agent call grand jury fishing expedition allegedly response threaten letter send anonymous source staley executive mohan fbi call use mail felony violation federal law member order provide handwriting sample concert effort police court force local direct resource lawyer court cost fine etc unsuccessful attempt break fighting spirit lockedout staley worker time member appear court local send sea red tshirt demonstrate unbreakable solidarity staley worker lock june long battle take toll worker protest springfield illinois state capital combine protest initiate chicago staley workers solidarity committee lead worker gain unemployment benefit year ago benefit run month ago worker able extension family health care lose car home have electricity phone cut eat simple food purchase union dwindle fund worker remain steadfast road warrior continue travel country tell fellow unionist draw line decatur worker ask assistance road warrior tour example staley worker speak recent national convention postal worker electrical worker union raise staley worker family video june demonstration police gas unionist worker great response say road warrior barrie williams people know staley worker receive reinforcement illinois war zone uaw caterpillar worker go strike june urw firestone worker go july company budge unionbusting final contract offer firestone ae staley demand twelvehour rotate shift overtime gutted seniority health safety protection additionally staley demand union workforce cut caterpillar worker labor contract year caterpillar firestone demand big concession standard pattern agreement industry include demand twoti system new worker earn hour basically thing living family say don martin striking firestone worker nearly worker walk picket line town roughly quarter town work class family member friend neighbor strike lock factory east town demonstration common occurrence august morning rubber worker follow upiu example block plant gate staley cat worker join rally police videotape action recoil local national publicity june gas attack worker take action stop unionist instead police later arrest individual home away supporter method videotape arrest later attempt decatur police isolate intimidate worker commonplace police emphasize legally allow arrest eighteen month event union executive board meet weekly plan strategy rankandfile worker attend monday evening session citywide worker education solidarity coalition twicemonthly citywide labor paper preparation worker go doortodoor past year handbill workingclass neighborhood unionist reach tell story high school student church congregation town citizenry travel decatur talk staley worker touch incredible odd wealthy multinational corporation mobilize city government police company determined temporarily lose profit order crush union antiunion daily newspaper national medium recently spurn story upiu small local small international worker receive week picket pay upiu cut find temporary work lane kirkland aflcio executive board exactly rush aid logic staley worker throw towel long ago worker spirit resolve strong majority worker progressive staley worker spirit win hope worker contagious solidarity committee active midwest simultaneously aid worker reinvigorate labor movement chicago example fourteen supporter decatur block plant gate june upcoming trial raise consciousness struggle solicit legal defense fund chicagoarea staley workers solidarity committee include unionist seiu ibt ibew iam afscme numerous union nonunion progressive socialist young people member leaflete summer festival flyer ask people pressure miller beer staley main purchaser scab product switch staley company try bust union swscer distribute copy powerful video produce rose feurer st louisbased labor vision june demonstration police assault thousand dollar raise committee sixth fundraiser benefit concert member chicago symphony orchestra proud member musicians union firestone win temporary restraining order outlaw rally plant gate ae staley seek injunction plan underway escalate civil resistance action plant gate uaw urw upiu call sympathizer return decatur october caterpillar firestone staleytate lyle american labor worker draw line decatur corporate aggression company declare war say upiu dan lane money get people solidarity grow power add gary lamb join solidarity campaign upiuaiw local campaign justice office write dineen decatur illinois atc novemberdecember current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 12 |
MIA > Archive > Shachtman Unsigned Editorial in the Socialist Appeal, Vol. II No. 30, 23 July 1938, p. 4. Editor of the Socialist Appeal was Max Shachtman, who almost certainly wrote this piece. Transcribed by Tim Davenport. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. The case of Joseph Zack demands the active attention of every worker, every labor organization, every progressive in the country. Joseph Zack is threatened with an order issued by the Immigration authorities for his deportation to Czechoslovakia. The order was issued despite the fact that Zack was born in Scranton, Pa., and is therefore an American citizen. The circumstances of Zack’s planned deportation are what lifts the case far above the ordinary. A Socialist Party member before the war, Zack became one of the founders of the Communist Party in 1919 and one of its leaders. For years he was a member of the Central [Executive] Committee of the CP, more than once a delegate to Moscow, and before his separation from the party, he was in charge of its trade union work. In 1935, Zack broke with the Stalinist party, joined the Workers Party for a short time, and has since been active in small left wing movements. In 1936, Zack wrote to the State Department in Washington, asking it to intervene in an attempt to get his wife and son, held in Russia as virtual hostages, to the United States. The State Department, far more interested in maintaining friendship with the Stalin bureaucracy than in “helping an American citizen,” showed no interest in Zack’s request. They did show a great interest in getting rid of Zack. And in their efforts, Zack now charges, the Communist Party gave signal assistance. In a word – and those who know the present Stalinist line will not be astonished – the Browderites turned coppers and deportation-agents at the same time. That’s what is called service to America’s “democratic institutions.” The claims of the State Department in backing up the deportation warrant are that Zack is not an American citizen, because there is a record of his baptism in Czechoslovakia. In reply, Zack is able to prove that his baptism took place in Czechoslovakia, on his mother’s initiative, two years after his birth in Scranton, Pa., from which he and his mother left for her native land. Furthermore, Zack has not only been given regular USA passports in the past, but the validity of his claim to American nationality was recognized by the Immigration Division of the Labor Department when it cancelled the deportation proceedings in 1934 which had originated with the Michigan Criminal Syndicalism cases in 1923 – in which he was involved together with Foster, Browder, and Amter, that is, the same gentlemen who have now testified against him before the Department of Labor! The deportation warrant against Zack is in every possible respect a shame and a disgrace. The Browder gang keeps silent in its press, because it does not yet have the brass to avow and urge in public the perfectly infamous thing they did in the closed chambers of the government’s deportation experts. As for the latter, they are, we believe, part of President Roosevelt’s political and administrative machine. Roosevelt today poses as the great friend of the political refugees. He has just arranged an elaborate farce in Evian, to discuss the question of allowing the politically persecuted to find refuge in the “democratic countries.” At the same time, his Department of Labor deports, each year, more people than are admitted under all the immigration quotas! That is a statistical fact. More than that, it now proposes to deport a US citizen, solely because he is a revolutionary worker and does not suit the Stalinist machine in Moscow and on 13th Street. This revolting plan of Browder and the Labor Department must be scotched in the bud – right now. Every voice must be raised against it immediately, and out loud, for everyone to hear. Silence or indifference to this unique case is not only a crime, but means that the case will cease to be unique and turned into just another American Custom! 1. Joseph Zack Kornfeder (a.k.a. “Joseph Zack,” “A.C. Griffith,” “J.P. Collins”) was born March 20, 1897, in Trencsen, Slovakia. Zack (he used his mother’s maiden name) was an ethnic Austrian from Catholic family and first came to US in 1916, where he worked as a garment worker. Zack was a member of the Communist movement from 1919, although not as a top-ranked leader in that year. In 1920 he was elected as a member of Central Executive Committee of the United Communist Party. He was a fraternal delegate to May 1921 Woodstock Convention due to his status on the CEC of the UCP. Early in 1922, he was elected as a member CEC of unified CPA. He voluntarily resigned on April 17, 1922, to help make way for Earl Browder, Robert Minor, and Alfred Wagenknecht, who were coopted to the CEC at that time. He was a delegate to the ill-fated Bridgman Convention of August 1922. Zack served as Secretary of National Committee of the Needle Trades Section (TUEL), organized November 22, 1922. Zack was an adherent of the Foster faction in 1920s party fight. He married a Russian woman in 1926, with whom he had one son. Zack was in Moscow at disposal of the Communist International from 1928 to 1930. He attended Lenin Institute and was Foster faction’s man in Moscow and also sat on the Anglo-American Secretariat of ECCI. Zack left his family in Moscow to serve as a Comintern Rep to South America from 1930 until Fall 1931. At that time he was jailed in Venezuela, returned to the United States and released at behest of US State Dept. Zack was the Eastern District Secretary of the Trade Union Unity League in Fall 1931 and actually lived with Earl Browder for 4 months. Deportation proceedings dating back to the time of the Bridgman convention were dropped 1934. Zack quit CPUSA in fall of 1934, ostensibly over the party’s Right turn. He joined Workers Party of the United States and was a member for short time thereafter. Zack sought State Department help in getting wife and child out of USSR in 1936, but was unsuccessful. He was threatened with deportation to Czechoslovakia, summer 1938. His wife was apparently arrested in the Ezhovshchina as the relative of an “enemy of the people.” Zack thereafter moved to a position of venomous anti-communism and was friendly witness before the Dies Committee on September 30, 1939. Extreme Right Winger after WWII. Zack died on May Day, 1963. (– Tim Davenport) Top of the page Last updated on 11 September 2015 | left | mia archive shachtman unsigned editorial socialist appeal vol ii july p editor socialist appeal max shachtman certainly write piece transcribe tim davenport mark einde marxist internet archive case joseph zack demand active attention worker labor organization progressive country joseph zack threaten order issue immigration authority deportation czechoslovakia order issue despite fact zack bear scranton pa american citizen circumstance zack plan deportation lift case far ordinary socialist party member war zack founder communist party leader year member central executive committee cp delegate moscow separation party charge trade union work zack break stalinist party join worker party short time active small left wing movement zack write state department washington ask intervene attempt wife son hold russia virtual hostage united states state department far interested maintain friendship stalin bureaucracy help american citizen show interest zack request great interest getting rid zack effort zack charge communist party give signal assistance word know present stalinist line astonish browderite turn copper deportationagent time call service america democratic institution claim state department back deportation warrant zack american citizen record baptism czechoslovakia reply zack able prove baptism take place czechoslovakia mother initiative year birth scranton pa mother leave native land furthermore zack give regular usa passport past validity claim american nationality recognize immigration division labor department cancel deportation proceeding originate michigan criminal syndicalism case involve foster browder amter gentleman testify department labor deportation warrant zack possible respect shame disgrace browder gang keep silent press brass avow urge public perfectly infamous thing closed chamber government deportation expert believe president roosevelt political administrative machine roosevelt today pose great friend political refugee arrange elaborate farce evian discuss question allow politically persecute find refuge democratic country time department labor deport year people admit immigration quota statistical fact propose deport citizen solely revolutionary worker suit stalinist machine moscow street revolting plan browder labor department scotch bud right voice raise immediately loud hear silence indifference unique case crime mean case cease unique turn american custom joseph zack kornfeder aka joseph zack ac griffith jp collins bear march trencsen slovakia zack mother maiden ethnic austrian catholic family come work garment worker zack member communist movement topranked leader year elect member central executive committee united communist party fraternal delegate woodstock convention status cec ucp early elect member cec unified cpa voluntarily resign april help way earl browder robert minor alfred wagenknecht coopte cec time delegate illfated bridgman convention august zack serve secretary national committee needle trade section tuel organize november zack adherent foster faction party fight marry russian woman son zack moscow disposal communist international attend lenin institute foster faction man moscow sit angloamerican secretariat ecci zack leave family moscow serve comintern rep south america fall time jail venezuela return united states release behest state dept zack eastern district secretary trade union unity league fall actually live earl browder month deportation proceeding date time bridgman convention drop zack quit cpusa fall ostensibly party right turn join worker party united states member short time zack seek state department help get wife child ussr unsuccessful threaten deportation czechoslovakia summer wife apparently arrest ezhovshchina relative enemy people zack move position venomous anticommunism friendly witness dies committee september extreme right winger wwii zack die day tim davenport page update september | 13 |
ISJ 2 Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From International Socialism 2 : 108, Autumn 2005. Copyright © International Socialism. Copied with thanks from the International Socialism Website. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. The result of the French referendum on 29 May 2005 was immediately greeted in France, but also internationally, as a major political turning point rather than just another election result. The full impact of the shockwave from the event has not yet been felt, which makes it difficult, but also very important, to put forward some hypotheses concerning how to interpret the situation, and how to intervene over the coming period. Along with the British and German elections, the French ‘No’ affects every aspect of the European left. It can also be seen as part of a broader cycle of popular remobilisation and counter-offensive on a world scale (essentially in Latin America, but also in the form of the ongoing dynamic driving the movements for ‘another globalisation’). The first hypothesis is that on 29 May the ‘popular anti-neoliberal bloc’ struck at the heart of the mechanism known as ‘alternance’ (‘alternation’) whereby governmental office has alternated between the traditional right and the social-liberal left. For more than two decades this pendular movement has facilitated French capital’s attempts to restructure society. It is too early to say whether this mechanism (as a system of relatively differentiated and interdependent politico-social forces) will be able to regain its coherence and effectiveness. That will of course depend above all on the actions and political capacities of the ‘popular bloc’. What seems certain however, is that the mechanism will only be revived through a profound reorganisation – which will involve paying the price of a now inevitable crisis – and not by tactical manoeuvres or by superficially papering over the cracks, as has been the case until now. To measure the extent of the crisis affecting neo-liberal ‘alternation’ we must keep in mind that, in France and elsewhere, by its very nature neo-liberalism is based on challenging the ‘Keynesian’ social compromises which allowed the dominated classes to participate in the ‘general interest’. It has thus only been able to produce ‘weak’, passive forms of consent, essentially ‘by default’, since it relied above all on the defeat and the weaknesses of its adversaries. Its own social base has hardly gone beyond entrepreneurial layers and certain groups of high earners, for the most part senior managers and a few limited sectors (the media, the ‘new technologies’, finance, those who have benefited from property and stock market investment, etc.). In the course of the radicalization of capitalist restructuring over the past few years, this limited base has seen its coherence and solidity fragment both within and beyond the workplace. We can here think of phenomena like rising ‘harassment’ and ‘stress’ at work, the unemployment of even highly qualified graduates, or the perceived devaluation of educational qualifications – all of this against the background of a falling social trajectory for the majority of the French population, and in particular for those generations to have entered the job market since the mid-1970s. Together these processes have fed the crisis and the chronic fragility of the dominant bloc in France since the early 1980s. There is widening divide separating the young and the popular classes from the political parties of left and right supposed to represent them. For their part these parties are turning themselves into narrowly professional machines, deprived of organic links with popular layers, and almost entirely absorbed by the local and central state apparatus. The consequence of this, the notorious instability of the French political system, has translated into the defeat over the past 20 years of every governmental majority at the end of its first term of office. Having emerged victorious from the major social confrontations to have punctuated French society since the crisis of the 1970s (industrial restructuring, the managerial revolution in the workplace, partial dismantling of the welfare state, etc.), the dominant class has succeeded in countering the erosion of the basis of its domination in three ways: During this period the ‘European project’ has acted as cement binding together all these mechanisms of systemic adaptation and stabilisation, and forging the relative unity of the leading fraction of the bloc in power. It therefore represented the strong point of the ‘weak’ consent to neo-liberalism. This is why the 29 May result dealt such a blow to the very foundation of that form of consent. It has done so negatively, first of all, by bringing to light the fragility, or indeed the absence, of any kind of widespread popular identification with the neo-liberal bulldozer. The very nature of the poll (a referendum on the strategic issue uniting the dominant bloc) left no such leeway for the result to be deflected into a substitution of one neo-liberal government by another. The internal coherence of the whole system of neo-liberal ‘alternation’ has therefore been thrown out of kilter. Splits among the dominant bloc have broken out, and their potentially devastating effects go beyond the particular logic of the actors concerned-the classic symptom of crisis situations. The possibility of a regime crisis can therefore now be envisaged. This would signal the beginning of an irreversible crisis of the dominant bloc. The right wing parties and the Socialist Party are struggling in this crisis. There is the long-term division between a Gaullist right attempting to preserve what remains of the social compromise and a hardline neo-liberal right determined to face down all social resistance. And there are divisions between an openly social-liberal centre-left (a ‘Blairised’ Socialist Party possibly allied to elements of the centrist right) and sections of the mainstream left which have either joined the anti-neoliberal bloc, or seek changes in the reconfiguration of the ‘alternation’ system. The state media and the trade unions seem almost as shaken up as the party system (this is particularly so with regard to the CGT trade union confederation, whose leader Bernard Thibault’s position has been severely weakened). In a positive sense, then, the political and social sequence which led to 29 May has put an end to the mood of retreat, of passivity and of resignation among popular classes which has until now allowed the dominant bloc to keep a lid on things. In this way the referendum is the continuation of pre-existing tendencies, all the experience of struggles of the past decade-as well as, on the electoral front, the dynamic signalled by the results of the far left between 1995 and 2002 or the votes against the right wing government in 2004. This process has now been extended and is sufficiently structured and anchored to dictate the terms of the central confrontation (‘a social versus a neo-liberal Europe’), and to establish a dynamic which relegates the far right to a subordinate role. The real significance of the referendum process was the popular mobilisation which took hold of political questions on a scale not seen since the early 1970s. The ‘No’ campaign involved mobilisation from below within the framework of unity ‘at the top’, drawing into its ranks activists from trade unions, political parties and grassroots associations from different backgrounds, many without any organisational affiliation. In this way the left’s campaign went beyond the objectives of those who set it up (which is not to underestimate their role) and built a genuine anti-neoliberal front, capable of bringing the key demands of ordinary people to the centre of political life. A major repoliticisation of French society, symptomatic of its deep divisions, has taken place over the past few months. It is only in this way that the victory of the popular ‘No’ can be understood, in spite of the bombardment coming from the media and the political establishment, in spite of the absence of any real support from the major trade union confederations, and in spite of the millstone represented by the long-standing ability of the extreme right around Le Pen to divert an element of working class revolt and despair. This is also the reason why only the victory of the ‘No’ vote was able to breach the political wall which had withstood the impact of all the struggles of the past few decades, in particular the momentum developed during the strikes of December 1995. In this sense the ‘anti-political’ aspect of the preceding cycle may be considered over, once and for all-already undermined by the effects of the presidential election of 21 April 2002, the defeat of the mobilisations of spring 2003 and the massive electoral rejection of the right in the 2004 regional poll. The question of ‘European integration’ has effectively crystallised all the contradictions of the period, throwing into question the entire strategy of the dominant bloc. The outcome of the crisis which has now opened up will depend on the continuation and deepening of the popular dynamic. And the force – or the coalition of forces – which, at the heart of the anti-neoliberal bloc, are able to affirm their hegemony will be those that appear able both to carry this dynamic forward and transform it into a genuine political alternative, putting to one side both sectarian divisions and compromise with the faltering and discredited system of alternance. The campaign and the victory of 29 May were built on the basis of clear and resolute opposition to the two alternating variants of neo-liberalism. It is precisely the stabilisation and the deepening of an anti-neoliberal orientation, equipped with the aim and the means of breaking with the existing state of affairs, which raises the question of an anti-capitalist perspective. This requires a perspective flowing from the logic of things rather than as a programme stuck on from the outside, an abstract radical rhetoric, incapable of acting on the actual faultlines of the given situation. Today, after decades of capitalist offensive, the development of effective anti-neoliberal politics is the principal dividing line for all social, intellectual and political forces. Its implementation by a popular majority bloc at the level of existing institutions (including governmental) can only lead in the short term to class conflicts on a huge scale. Such conflicts will inevitably raise the question of the ownership of the principal means of production, exchange and communication, as well as those of the power structure and the state apparatus. It is also this movement that will build a European space for struggles which could lead, over time, to the establishment of ‘constituent’ democratic spaces going beyond the framework of existing nation-states. In this context we should emphasise that every cycle of rising popular struggle on a European scale has been marked by constituent aims of this kind, from the ‘Red Republics’ of the 1848 revolutions to the project of a Europe of workers’ councils which caught the imagination of millions of workers in the aftermath of the slaughter of the First World War, from Turin to Petrograd and from Berlin to Budapest. It is therefore on the terrain of a consistent anti-neoliberal orientation that the question of hegemony within the anti-neoliberal bloc will be played out. The political strength of revolutionaries will be judged on their capacity to give impetus, at every stage of the situation, to the deepening of this orientation without breaking the unitary framework of the popular movement. This is an undoubtedly difficult task, but one whose success would doom any attempt to reconstitute the system of neo-liberal ‘alternation’ with its dual role of marginalising radical forces and popular classes. There is clearly a class dimension in what we have until now referred to as the popular anti-neoliberal bloc. It reflects the majority view of all layers of wage earners and young people up to the level of ‘upper management and intellectual professions’. It is characterised by a clear class polarisation, with a ‘hard core’ around ‘blue collar’ workers, nearly 80 percent of whom voted no (and who turned out to vote in much greater numbers than usual), and ‘white collar’ workers (more than 60 percent of them voting no), with a slightly lower majority in the intermediary layers of wage earners and young people. Given the absence of a ‘standard’ social democratic pole in France (organically linked to the labour and trade union movement) it falls to the anti-capitalist forces of the anti-neoliberal bloc to take on the task of giving a class structure to the popular bloc. The rebuilding of working class hegemony is today the condition for overcoming the internal divisions created or widened by capitalist restructuring (young/old, public/private, ‘French’/‘immigrant’) and for undermining in the long term the Front National’s influence among the popular electorate. It is the structuring of a class front which can also shift, in a more productive way, the demarcation lines between those ‘classist’ forces (notably in the PCF and the CGT), which are anti-capitalist but often reluctant to act in unity with others and limited to ‘workerist’ horizons, and the forces of the far left (essentially around the LCR), very at ease in the context of united fronts and the dynamic of mobilisations from below, but with weak roots among workers. The establishment of an anti-capitalist pole going beyond existing organisational fragmentation and the building of a hegemonic class politics are therefore the dual conditions for the success of an anti-neoliberal front capable of leading the popular movement onto the counter-offensive and to victory. The time to take the initiative has come. Top of page ISJ 2 Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 29 December 2016 | left | isj index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive international socialism autumn copyright international socialism copy thank international socialism website mark einde etol result french referendum immediately greet france internationally major political turning point election result impact shockwave event feel make difficult important forward hypothesis concern interpret situation intervene come period british german election french affect aspect european leave see broad cycle popular remobilisation counteroffensive world scale essentially latin america form ongoing dynamic drive movement globalisation hypothesis popular antineoliberal bloc strike heart mechanism know alternance alternation governmental office alternate traditional right socialliberal leave decade pendular movement facilitate french capital attempt restructure society early mechanism system relatively differentiated interdependent politicosocial force able regain coherence effectiveness course depend action political capacity popular bloc certain mechanism revive profound reorganisation involve pay price inevitable crisis tactical manoeuvre superficially paper crack case measure extent crisis affect neoliberal alternation mind france nature neoliberalism base challenge keynesian social compromise allow dominate class participate general interest able produce weak passive form consent essentially default rely defeat weakness adversary social base hardly go entrepreneurial layer certain group high earner senior manager limited sector medium new technology finance benefit property stock market investment etc course radicalization capitalist restructuring past year limited base see coherence solidity fragment workplace think phenomenon like rise harassment stress work unemployment highly qualified graduate perceive devaluation educational qualification background fall social trajectory majority french population particular generation enter job market process feed crisis chronic fragility dominant bloc france early widen divide separate young popular class political party left right suppose represent party turn narrowly professional machine deprive organic link popular layer entirely absorb local central state apparatus consequence notorious instability french political system translate defeat past year governmental majority end term office having emerge victorious major social confrontation punctuate french society crisis industrial restructuring managerial revolution workplace partial dismantle welfare state etc dominant class succeed counter erosion basis domination way period european project act cement bind mechanism systemic adaptation stabilisation forge relative unity lead fraction bloc power represent strong point weak consent neoliberalism result deal blow foundation form consent negatively bring light fragility absence kind widespread popular identification neoliberal bulldozer nature poll referendum strategic issue unite dominant bloc leave leeway result deflect substitution neoliberal government internal coherence system neoliberal alternation throw kilter split dominant bloc break potentially devastating effect particular logic actor concernedthe classic symptom crisis situation possibility regime crisis envisage signal beginning irreversible crisis dominant bloc right wing party socialist party struggle crisis longterm division gaullist right attempt preserve remain social compromise hardline neoliberal right determined face social resistance division openly socialliberal centreleft blairised socialist party possibly ally element centrist right section mainstream leave join antineoliberal bloc seek change reconfiguration alternation system state medium trade union shake party system particularly regard cgt trade union confederation leader bernard thibault position severely weaken positive sense political social sequence lead end mood retreat passivity resignation popular class allow dominant bloc lid thing way referendum continuation preexist tendency experience struggle past decadea electoral dynamic signal result far leave vote right wing government process extend sufficiently structure anchor dictate term central confrontation social versus neoliberal europe establish dynamic relegate far right subordinate role real significance referendum process popular mobilisation take hold political question scale see early campaign involve mobilisation framework unity draw rank activist trade union political party grassroots association different background organisational affiliation way left campaign go objective set underestimate role build genuine antineoliberal capable bring key demand ordinary people centre political life major repoliticisation french society symptomatic deep division take place past month way victory popular understand spite bombardment come medium political establishment spite absence real support major trade union confederation spite millstone represent longstanding ability extreme right le pen divert element work class revolt despair reason victory vote able breach political wall withstand impact struggle past decade particular momentum develop strike december sense antipolitical aspect precede cycle consider allalready undermine effect presidential election april defeat mobilisation spring massive electoral rejection right regional poll question european integration effectively crystallise contradiction period throw question entire strategy dominant bloc outcome crisis open depend continuation deepening popular dynamic force coalition force heart antineoliberal bloc able affirm hegemony appear able carry dynamic forward transform genuine political alternative put sectarian division compromise faltering discredited system alternance campaign victory build basis clear resolute opposition alternate variant neoliberalism precisely stabilisation deepening antineoliberal orientation equip aim mean break exist state affair raise question anticapitalist perspective require perspective flow logic thing programme stick outside abstract radical rhetoric incapable act actual faultline give situation today decade capitalist offensive development effective antineoliberal politic principal divide line social intellectual political force implementation popular majority bloc level exist institution include governmental lead short term class conflict huge scale conflict inevitably raise question ownership principal mean production exchange communication power structure state apparatus movement build european space struggle lead time establishment constituent democratic space go framework exist nationstate context emphasise cycle rise popular struggle european scale mark constituent aim kind red republic revolution project europe worker council catch imagination million worker aftermath slaughter world war turin petrograd berlin budapest terrain consistent antineoliberal orientation question hegemony antineoliberal bloc play political strength revolutionary judge capacity impetus stage situation deepening orientation break unitary framework popular movement undoubtedly difficult task success doom attempt reconstitute system neoliberal alternation dual role marginalise radical force popular class clearly class dimension refer popular antineoliberal bloc reflect majority view layer wage earner young people level upper management intellectual profession characterise clear class polarisation hard core blue collar worker nearly percent vote turn vote great number usual white collar worker percent vote slightly low majority intermediary layer wage earner young people give absence standard social democratic pole france organically link labour trade union movement fall anticapitalist force antineoliberal bloc task give class structure popular bloc rebuilding work class hegemony today condition overcome internal division create widen capitalist restructuring youngold publicprivate undermine long term national influence popular electorate structuring class shift productive way demarcation line classist force notably pcf cgt anticapitalist reluctant act unity limit workerist horizon force far leave essentially lcr ease context united front dynamic mobilisation weak root worker establishment anticapitalist pole go exist organisational fragmentation building hegemonic class politic dual condition success antineoliberal capable lead popular movement counteroffensive victory time initiative come page isj index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update december | 14 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From The New International, Vol. IX No. 5, May 1943, pp. 146–148. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. In 1888, Frederick Engels wrote in a letter to a leader of the German Social-Democratic Party: From eight to ten millions of soldiers will choke one another and at the same time so thoroughly devour the whole of Europe as swarms of locusts never could devour it. The ravage wrought by the Thirty Years War compressed into the space of three or four years and spread over the whole continent – famine, epidemics, a general lapse into savagery, not only of the soldiery but also of the people, caused by bitter need, the hopeless confusion of our artificial mechanism in commerce, industry and credit, all this will end in general bankruptcy. The collapse of the old states and their routine political wisdom, such a collapse as will bring crowns by the dozens into the roadway and no one will be found to pick them up; the absolute impossibility of seeing how it will all end and who will emerge victor from the struggle, with only one result absolutely beyond doubt, general exhaustion and the creation of the conditions for the final victory of the working class ... Such a war would be the greatest misfortune for us, it might put the movement back for twenty years. But the new party which in the end would have to be created as the result of all this in every European country would be free of all the hesitations and trivialities which are now everywhere holding back the movement ... Among many possible consequences which war holds out for us and which it is hard to foretell, once can be foreseen with certainty. After the war we should have to begin again from the beginning, though on an infinitely more favorable ground than even today. A new stage is beginning for the international labor movement. Its new forms cannot yet be clearly defined. We can, however, already recognize a fundamental change of the historical position of the post-war labor movement as compared with the traditional labor movement of pre-war times. One of its main characteristics was its national limitedness. This also applied to the labor movement destroyed in countries where fascism and totalitarian dictatorships came to power. The mass organizations which had been destroyed in these countries were firmly rooted in national traditions. They were more or less international in theory but nationally limited in action. This contradiction, from which even the communist parties of pre-fascist Europe could hot escape, was the fundamental root of the failure of the pre-war labor movement. For the first time in history, conditions have now arisen which make it possible and necessary for the labor movement to overcome its national limitations. An understanding of the national limitations of the labor movements of the past will facilitate an understanding of the new historical conditions for the labor movement of the future. The national character of the old labor movement had two causes: a) the national character of the bourgeois revolution, and b) the rise of imperialist capitalist states. The beginning of the labor movement was closely related to the successes and failures of bourgeois revolutions. The proletarian class which rose together with the rise of modern capitalism was able to fight effectively for the improvement of its social conditions under capitalism and for political or class aims by fighting for and making use of democratic rights and liberties. They even seemed to guarantee a relatively peaceful “Western” road to the goal of socialism. Therefore, radical or politically-conscious workers were the most ardent fighters for the democratic bourgeois revolution, even when the capitalist upper class was already betraying it by accepting the political leadership or supremacy of former feudal and state-bureaucratic castes. The bourgeois revolution succeeded under the leadership of the bourgeois class, with the latter as an active democratic revolutionary factor only in few countries – America, England, France and Holland. But in America, nineteenth century capitalism could expand in the wide spaces of the West largely as an agrarian economy where the individual could easily become an independent producers or owner of means of production. Therefore “free workers” were relatively scarce on the newly-discovered continent. Political labor organizations could exist only as a sectarian movement of immigrants, as remnants of the class struggles in Europe. The early labor movements in England and France were able to take advantage of successful bourgeois revolutions. Feudal forms of ownership and of personal relations had more or less disappeared. It was now the turn of the bourgeois class to become anti-democratic by suppressing the working class, which tried to utilize democratic rights and liberties for its own class purposes, thus threatening the new capitalist property rights. Therefore, Karl Marx came to the conclusion that the successful bourgeois revolution in advanced capitalist countries would be the prelude to a second, a socialist or proletarian, revolution. History took, however, a different course. The advanced capitalist countries where the bourgeois revolution had succeeded, became centers of the expanding world economy on an imperialist basis, with privileged world positions (based on international monopolies). This transformation also changed the social structure of the new imperialist mother country, and especially the social conditions of labor. Labor was able to take advantage of democratic rights and liberties, especially the right to form trade unions, in order to improve its economic situation. This had become possible on a national scale without provoking a conflict with capitalist society as such because their privileged world position enabled the capitalists to make concessions to labor. The labor movement became more “peaceful” and unpolitical. This transformation of the labor movement was considered one of the “natural laws” of the “progress of capitalism.” Labor leaders became provincial-minded. Unpolitical trade unionists became patriots and, as defenders of the world position of their national capitalism, common chauvinists. The result of this development was that the labor movements of the past were international only in theory, but nationally limited in action. The labor movement could not overcome this limitation. Even in countries where labor was relatively radical and where the revolutionary wing of the labor movement was predominant, labor action was handicapped by national limitations. In these countries, the bourgeois revolutions had never been “completed,” thus also limiting the immediate goal of labor action to issues which could be realized only on a national scale. This contradiction between international programs sustained by the existence of the working class on an international scale, and nationally-limited action, was the fundamental root of the failures of the old labor movements. Although the international monopolies of imperialism-control of raw material resources, of trading centers, of industrial processes of production, etc., on which world economy was dependent – intensified the international ties of world economy, these ties did not create an effective international solidarity among the exploited classes. On the contrary, the working classes of imperialist countries raised their standard of living, and many of them reached the status of labor aristocracies, precisely because the imperialist owners of international monopolies exploited other countries than their own. The national state became a protector of privileged world positions for the ruling class, mitigating the internal social conflicts at the expense of the rest of the world. As a result, vast strata of the workers in the imperialist countries became nationally-minded and adopted the spirit of the rentier-minded middle and upper classes. In short, international monopolies intensified the national rather than the international character of labor as a social class. The economic internationalism created by modern imperialism thus weakened the political or social consciousness of the majority of the producers in the imperialist countries. They became subservient to a national economy which drew huge “super-profits” from the rest of the world through international monopolies. The middle classes were relatively prosperous and could extend their economic spheres because of the expanding basis of consumption of high-priced luxury products of an upper class whose investments were spread over the entire world. This change of the social structure in capitalist society also changed the character of the labor movement. The workers were somehow fooled by the “facts” which they could perceive as their own personal experiences. During the era of bourgeois revolutions, the struggle of labor for democratic rights and liberties necessarily also was a struggle for the success or “completion” of the bourgeois revolution. This struggle of labor was a national affair, though of great international importance. The workers had to adopt a national consciousness as part of their rise as a new social class. This national consciousness was a factor which helped to make the bourgeois revolution a success. A crisis in this national consciousness would have arisen had the capitalists acted as a single international class, or if internal social conditions had worsened until they became unbearable. Such a crisis was avoided “because of the rise of imperialism. It created a new kind of national consciousness, not only reflecting the existence of a social community but also as a chauvinistic spirit o£ superiority over other peoples. Thus bourgeois national consciousness was modified when the national state became the successful protagonist of imperialism and national capitalists were able greatly to enlarge their sources of income through the acquisition of international monopolies – with huge investments abroad, control of international transportation lines, trade centers, shipping and other “services,” of important raw materials resources, etc. Even in countries which participated only to a small extent in the world privileges of capitalism, the spirit of the national bourgeoisies, of the middle classes and in part also of labor was molded by the factor of gaining a certain degree of economic security and prosperity on an international parasitic basis, profiting from colonial and other privileged world positions. We can thus discover another apparently paradoxical historical development. During the struggle for the completion or the success of the bourgeois revolution, a national consciousness arose that was a weapon in the struggle against the old feudal elements and for democratic rights and liberties that the suppressed classes were fighting for all over the world. During this period the labor movement was pervaded by a spirit of international brotherhood which complemented the struggle for the completion of the bourgeois revolution. This international spirit was to a great extent lost during the rise of national capitalism on an imperialist basis when the national consciousness was corrupted by the spirit of chauvinism. The European labor movement, more than any other social movement, seems to have been internationalist in spirit. International brotherhood and solidarity with the suppressed and exploited toilers all over the world were affirmed in speech after speech before the First World War scattered the hopes and illusions of the pre-igi4 labor movements. Their immediate tasks were nothing more than the completion of the bourgeois revolution in the political field, and the accomplishment of mere reforms in the economic field in countries where national capitalism had “progressed” on an imperialist basis. International socialism was an abstract idea and a distant goal. In those countries where capitalism was fully developed and labor had the right to express and organize itself, national capitalism possessed international or colonial monopolies which operated at the expense of the rest of the world. The conditions which enabled labor to improve its economic situation in such imperialist countries were not recognized as such by those who took advantage of them. A short review of the aims and failures of former labor movements will sustain the point that they were unable to achieve positive results beyond the task of the “completion” of the bourgeois revolution. They declined and perished because they were subject to social conditions of their national capitalism, which created national limitations for the proletarian class struggle. Let us consider the first political movement of the working class, the struggle of the Chartists in England during the Twenties and Thirties of the nineteenth century. This movement could strike for nothing more than the completion of the bourgeois revolution and for social reforms eliminating the worst features of early capitalism. The immediate goal of this struggle at its peak was the right of vote, political representation of labor in Parliament, and social legislation which would limit the working day. At the end of the Thirties, the Chartist movement, after its violent suppression, was dead. Attempts to revive it failed. The new English trade union movement which arose during the Fifties and Sixties, twenty years after the Chartists’ defeat, was already possessed by a spirit of unpolitical trade unionism. It became a respectable movement which was able to win a number of economic struggles for a limited number of workers, especially in skilled trades. They took advantage of the privileged position of British capitalism, which had become the financial center of the world during the second half of the nineteenth century. The historical conditions for the Chartist movement had passed at the middle of the nineteenth century. There was no chance for a revival of the first revolutionary movement of the working class. Its defeat during the Thirties was final, not primarily because the police terror had destroyed the political organizations, but because historical conditions had changed. Britain’s national capitalism expanded on an imperialist basis. The newly-arising trade unions took little interest in political struggles or social reforms which would conflict with the capitalist system. They were only concerned about wages and working conditions for their particular trade group, and they were able to improve the economic situation for the organized workers largely due to the rise of England’s international monopolies. The growing “incomes from abroad” raised the parasitic luxury consumption of the “island state.” During the Forties, Karl Marx placed great hopes on a revival of the Chartist movement in England. He finally recognized the “corruption” of some sections of the British working class, and of the British labor movement, as the result of imperialist expansion of British capitalism. Then Karl Marx placed his hopes on the labor movement in Germany, where, unlike Britain, the bourgeois revolution had not yet been achieved. The democratic rights which the German workers were still deprived of could not be won without a revolutionary struggle. But the young capitalist class in Germany – after 1848 – was already afraid of a bourgeois revolution. Under the Kaiser, it renounced its struggle for political supremacy out of fear that the continuance of such a struggle would unleash forces neither feudalism nor capitalism would be able to control. The German bourgeoisie needed a strong national state to suppress the new menace of organized labor and to enable it to compete successfully against foreign countries which were industrially more advanced. Therefore they were inclined to appease the militarist-feudal elements, which were in firm control of the state. They finally gave up all thought of bourgeois democratic revolution. Marx was well aware of these difficulties for the success of bourgeois democracy in Germany. They led him to believe that the bourgeois revolution in Germany would succeed only as a result of working class action, and that the bourgeois revolution would be the prelude to a second, a proletarian, revolution against capitalism and for socialism. The working class would be able to utilize democratic rights and liberties to strengthen its class position and improve its social conditions. The result of such a bourgeois revolution, achieved against the “will of the bourgeoisie,” would have been an intensified class struggle between the capitalists and the workers. Then the working class would be compelled to fight against the capitalist system in order to safeguard immediate economic interests as well as democratic rights and liberties. But German capitalism too had become part of a world system, and social conditions at home were molded by the relationship between national and international capitalism. Therefore, even a successful proletarian struggle against the ruling classes had to fail if it remained a mere national affair, with (nationally-limited) forms typical of the bourgeois revolution. The notion of a bourgeois revolution succeeding against the will of the capitalist class and becoming the prelude to a proletarian revolution proved fallacious in the case of Germany; for German capitalism after 1848, and especially after 1870, succeeded in becoming an imperialist world power. Yet the German labor movement continued to strive for the completion of the bourgeois revolution, still believing that it would be the preliminary to a socialist or proletarian revolution. The goal of the general strike which Rosa Luxemburg, the heroic leader of the German left-wing opposition and the martyr of the November revolution (1918), propagated on the eve of the First World War, was the equal right to vote for Parliament. At the same time, like the British, German labor, in its effort to liberalize society, succumbed to the influence of comparatively unpolitical trade unionism, and trade union bureaucracies became the decisive element in the German Social-Democratic Party. Finally we can refer to the Russian experience. It is a still more striking example of the fact that the political struggle of the proletarian class was subject to national limitations so long as it was only a struggle for the completion of the bourgeois revolution. Lenin was fully aware of the task of the Russian proletarian revolution to “complete the bourgeois revolutions.” However, in 1917, under quickly changing world conditions, Lenin recognized the danger that the leaders of the Russian revolution would not go beyond the goal of the completion of the bourgeois revolution, thus making the struggle in Russia a mere national affair. His hope was that the acceleration of the proletarian class struggle in Western capitalist countries – largely due to the World War – would make the Russian revolution coincide with proletarian revolutions in Western countries. During this period, revolutionary crises arose in Germany and in a number of other countries of Central and Western Europe. But the traditional organizations and ideas of labor had been molded either by the struggle for the completion of bourgeois revolutions, or by unpolitical trade unionism, related to the rise of national capitalist states as imperialist world powers. The Russian revolution started as a “completion of the bourgeois democratic revolution” in that country; but by that time, completion of the bourgeois revolution was opposed by all other capitalist states. The historical task seemed to be to look forward toward the opportunity to transform the Russian revolution into the beginning of a socialist world revolution. Thus the Russian revolution may be considered as the end of the epoch of working-class struggle for the completion of the bourgeois revolution and as the beginning of a new epoch for international labor. (Continued in next issue) Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 26 May 2015 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international vol ix pp transcribe mark einde etol frederick engel write letter leader german socialdemocratic party million soldier choke time thoroughly devour europe swarm locust devour ravage work thirty year war compress space year spread continent famine epidemic general lapse savagery soldiery people cause bitter need hopeless confusion artificial mechanism commerce industry credit end general bankruptcy collapse old state routine political wisdom collapse bring crown dozen roadway find pick absolute impossibility see end emerge victor struggle result absolutely doubt general exhaustion creation condition final victory work class war great misfortune movement year new party end create result european country free hesitation triviality hold movement possible consequence war hold hard foretell foresee certainty war begin beginning infinitely favorable ground today new stage begin international labor movement new form clearly define recognize fundamental change historical position postwar labor movement compare traditional labor movement prewar times main characteristic national limitedness apply labor movement destroy country fascism totalitarian dictatorship come power mass organization destroy country firmly rooted national tradition international theory nationally limit action contradiction communist party prefascist europe hot escape fundamental root failure prewar labor movement time history condition arise possible necessary labor movement overcome national limitation understanding national limitation labor movement past facilitate understanding new historical condition labor movement future national character old labor movement cause national character bourgeois revolution b rise imperialist capitalist state beginning labor movement closely relate success failure bourgeois revolution proletarian class rise rise modern capitalism able fight effectively improvement social condition capitalism political class aim fight make use democratic right liberty guarantee relatively peaceful western road goal socialism radical politicallyconscious worker ardent fighter democratic bourgeois revolution capitalist upper class betray accept political leadership supremacy feudal statebureaucratic cast bourgeois revolution succeed leadership bourgeois class active democratic revolutionary factor country america england france holland america nineteenth century capitalism expand wide space west largely agrarian economy individual easily independent producer owner mean production free worker relatively scarce newlydiscovered continent political labor organization exist sectarian movement immigrant remnant class struggle europe early labor movement england france able advantage successful bourgeois revolution feudal form ownership personal relation disappear turn bourgeois class antidemocratic suppress work class try utilize democratic right liberty class purpose threaten new capitalist property right karl marx come conclusion successful bourgeois revolution advanced capitalist country prelude second socialist proletarian revolution history take different course advanced capitalist country bourgeois revolution succeed center expand world economy imperialist basis privileged world position base international monopoly transformation change social structure new imperialist mother country especially social condition labor labor able advantage democratic right liberty especially right form trade union order improve economic situation possible national scale provoke conflict capitalist society privileged world position enable capitalist concession labor labor movement peaceful unpolitical transformation labor movement consider natural law progress capitalism labor leader provincialminde unpolitical trade unionist patriot defender world position national capitalism common chauvinist result development labor movement past international theory nationally limit action labor movement overcome limitation country labor relatively radical revolutionary wing labor movement predominant labor action handicap national limitation country bourgeois revolution complete limit immediate goal labor action issue realize national scale contradiction international program sustain existence work class international scale nationallylimite action fundamental root failure old labor movement international monopoly imperialismcontrol raw material resource trading center industrial process production etc world economy dependent intensify international tie world economy tie create effective international solidarity exploit class contrary work class imperialist country raise standard living reach status labor aristocracy precisely imperialist owner international monopoly exploit country national state protector privileged world position rule class mitigate internal social conflict expense rest world result vast strata worker imperialist country nationallyminde adopt spirit rentierminde middle upper class short international monopoly intensify national international character labor social class economic internationalism create modern imperialism weaken political social consciousness majority producer imperialist country subservient national economy draw huge superprofit rest world international monopoly middle class relatively prosperous extend economic sphere expand basis consumption highpriced luxury product upper class investment spread entire world change social structure capitalist society change character labor movement worker fool fact perceive personal experience era bourgeois revolution struggle labor democratic right liberty necessarily struggle success completion bourgeois revolution struggle labor national affair great international importance worker adopt national consciousness rise new social class national consciousness factor help bourgeois revolution success crisis national consciousness arise capitalist act single international class internal social condition worsen unbearable crisis avoid rise imperialism create new kind national consciousness reflect existence social community chauvinistic spirit superiority people bourgeois national consciousness modify national state successful protagonist imperialism national capitalist able greatly enlarge source income acquisition international monopoly huge investment abroad control international transportation line trade center shipping service important raw material resource etc country participate small extent world privilege capitalism spirit national bourgeoisie middle class labor mold factor gain certain degree economic security prosperity international parasitic basis profiting colonial privileged world position discover apparently paradoxical historical development struggle completion success bourgeois revolution national consciousness arise weapon struggle old feudal element democratic right liberty suppress class fight world period labor movement pervade spirit international brotherhood complement struggle completion bourgeois revolution international spirit great extent lose rise national capitalism imperialist basis national consciousness corrupt spirit chauvinism european labor movement social movement internationalist spirit international brotherhood solidarity suppress exploit toiler world affirm speech speech world war scatter hope illusion labor movement immediate task completion bourgeois revolution political field accomplishment mere reform economic field country national capitalism progress imperialist basis international socialism abstract idea distant goal country capitalism fully develop labor right express organize national capitalism possess international colonial monopoly operate expense rest world condition enable labor improve economic situation imperialist country recognize take advantage short review aim failure labor movement sustain point unable achieve positive result task completion bourgeois revolution decline perish subject social condition national capitalism create national limitation proletarian class struggle let consider political movement work class struggle chartist england twenty thirty nineteenth century movement strike completion bourgeois revolution social reform eliminate bad feature early capitalism immediate goal struggle peak right vote political representation labor parliament social legislation limit work day end thirty chartist movement violent suppression dead attempt revive fail new english trade union movement arise fifty sixty year chartist defeat possess spirit unpolitical trade unionism respectable movement able win number economic struggle limited number worker especially skilled trade take advantage privileged position british capitalism financial center world second half nineteenth century historical condition chartist movement pass middle nineteenth century chance revival revolutionary movement work class defeat thirty final primarily police terror destroy political organization historical condition change britain national capitalism expand imperialist basis newlyarise trade union take little interest political struggle social reform conflict capitalist system concerned wage working condition particular trade group able improve economic situation organized worker largely rise england international monopoly grow income abroad raise parasitic luxury consumption island state forty karl marx place great hope revival chartist movement england finally recognize corruption section british working class british labor movement result imperialist expansion british capitalism karl marx place hope labor movement germany unlike britain bourgeois revolution achieve democratic right german worker deprive win revolutionary struggle young capitalist class germany afraid bourgeois revolution kaiser renounce struggle political supremacy fear continuance struggle unleash force feudalism capitalism able control german bourgeoisie need strong national state suppress new menace organized labor enable compete successfully foreign country industrially advanced inclined appease militaristfeudal element firm control state finally give thought bourgeois democratic revolution marx aware difficulty success bourgeois democracy germany lead believe bourgeois revolution germany succeed result work class action bourgeois revolution prelude second proletarian revolution capitalism socialism work class able utilize democratic right liberty strengthen class position improve social condition result bourgeois revolution achieve bourgeoisie intensify class struggle capitalist worker work class compel fight capitalist system order safeguard immediate economic interest democratic right liberty german capitalism world system social condition home mold relationship national international capitalism successful proletarian struggle rule class fail remain mere national affair nationallylimite form typical bourgeois revolution notion bourgeois revolution succeed capitalist class prelude proletarian revolution prove fallacious case germany german capitalism especially succeed imperialist world power german labor movement continue strive completion bourgeois revolution believe preliminary socialist proletarian revolution goal general strike rosa luxemburg heroic leader german leftwe opposition martyr november revolution propagate eve world war equal right vote parliament time like british german labor effort liberalize society succumb influence comparatively unpolitical trade unionism trade union bureaucracy decisive element german socialdemocratic party finally refer russian experience striking example fact political struggle proletarian class subject national limitation long struggle completion bourgeois revolution lenin fully aware task russian proletarian revolution complete bourgeois revolution quickly change world condition lenin recognize danger leader russian revolution goal completion bourgeois revolution make struggle russia mere national affair hope acceleration proletarian class struggle western capitalist country largely world war russian revolution coincide proletarian revolution western country period revolutionary crisis arise germany number country central western europe traditional organization idea labor mold struggle completion bourgeois revolution unpolitical trade unionism relate rise national capitalist state imperialist world power russian revolution start completion bourgeois democratic revolution country time completion bourgeois revolution oppose capitalist state historical task look forward opportunity transform russian revolution beginning socialist world revolution russian revolution consider end epoch workingclass struggle completion bourgeois revolution beginning new epoch international labor continue issue page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update | 15 |
MARTY ROSENBLUTH IS Amnesty International’s country specialist for Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian Authority. He previously lived for seven years as a human rights activist based in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He participated in AI’s fact-finding mission to northern Israel and southern Lebanon during the war. He was interviewed on October 1 by David Finkel from the ATC editorial board. Against the Current: Can we begin with what your delegation saw in general, and then your own observations on the ground? I understand you were in northern Israel. Marty Rosenbluth: Right. We were one delegation that divided into two parts. When I left my home in North Carolina I was headed for Beirut. I was actually in Washington DC when I was told I was reassigned to the Israel segment. We went into southern Lebanon and northern Israel to see the civilian toll on both sides. In the broadest sense, what we saw was very clear: both Hezbollah and Israel were violating international humanitarian law from the earliest days of the conflict. Clearly both were deliberately targeting civilians; were using indiscriminate force in a way that targeted civilian infrastructure; both at the very least showed callous disregard for civilian casualties. ATC: Do I understand correctly that AI does not make comparative judgments about such matters? So if on one side there are 1,500 civilian deaths and 50 on the other, Amnesty doesn’t judge them in relation to one another, or which side was the aggressor or the stronger power? MR: We don’t. In fact we intentionally and deliberately avoid doing so. We measure the actions not against each other, but against the standards of international law. We say, these are the acts that are taking place and whether they conform to international law. The rest is for politicians and pundits. ATC: Tell us what you observed on the Israeli side. MR: The first thing was how empty the north was. You could have sat down on a main road in Haifa and played chess without having to get out of the way for a car. Anyone who could leave had fled. Those who remained stayed in their shelters or “safe rooms,” and not surprisingly they were the people without the means to flee — the elderly, the poor or the ill. The further north you went, the more true this was — in Nahariya near the border, the only people were those without the means to leave. One person in the hospital in Haifa had in fact evacuated to Eilat, and just ran out of money. The day after he got back to Acre, he was injured by a Katyusha (rocket fired by Hezbollah — ed.). About half of the total population of the north had gone south. We saw how afraid the remaining people were — the Katyushas could fall anywhere. Even with the infrastructure of their shelters and safe rooms, unless they stayed there 24/7 they were at risk. Many times you had less than 30 seconds after the sirens sounded before the Kastyushas hit. ATC: What were people saying about the war and the government? MR: It was mixed. Many people in the shelters just wanted to get out. The shelters weren’t set up to be occupied 24/7 for 35 days. They were overcrowded, didn’t have cooking facilities. No stores were open, so anything that was needed had to be brought in by the government. We heard the same thing when we met with government officials, volunteers and NGOs. They were all pushed to their limits, and of course they weren’t coping with hospitals and bridges and roads being destroyed. Seeing this was instructive — we could just imagine how things must be in southern Lebanon, where most everything was demolished. ATC: Did you visit the Arab citizen population in Israel as well? MR: Yes, we met people both at the official level of municipal governments and the unofficial and NGO (non-governmental organization) level. That picture is pretty complex. I know there was a lot of news coming out that the Arabs in Israel were disproportionately killed by the Katyushas, that there were no air raid shelters or warning sirens in the Arab areas. In fact it wasn’t quite that simple. The best description we got, from an Arab NGO, was that there wasn’t government discrimination in dealing with the war itself, but rather that the crisis revealed the discrimination that already existed. For example, it would be factually true to say there weren’t public shelters in the Arab sector, but you have to analyze why. The shelters are the responsibility of the local municipalities. The Arab municipalities never made it a priority, not only thinking they’d never be attacked but also because they’re desperately underfunded and have other priorities. Since 1991 the Israeli government hasn’t built new public shelters, but required that “safe rooms” be built in new construction. Well, most construction in the Arab sector is done without permits. Why? It’s because in general, permits are unobtainable for them ... ATC: So it’s a window into the deeper social situation — in the way New Orleans was in this country? MR: Very much so. The municipality in Nazareth told us they had raised the issue of public shelters once. But anyway, you can’t build shelters for a city’s population to live in for 35 days. We went up with the assumption that we’d see blatant discrimination in the allocation of resources, but it turned out to be more complicated. Amnesty International has never published a report on discrimination in the Arab Israeli sector. To do that we’d have to get to structural discrimination against national minorities everywhere — the United States and Europe included. In any case, we didn’t hear anything dramatically different from Israeli Jews and Arabs — both were complaining that the government wasn’t doing enough. The issue of language, however, was a big deal — the government didn’t get information out in Arabic until very late. I want to add something about what happened in northern Israel. It was really clear to us, based on the pattern of Hezbollah attacks and the number of rockets, and also from Hezbollah’s own statements, that they were deliberately targeting civilians. We don’t think that’s in doubt, and it isn’t denied. One thing that’s been covered is that some of the rockets were packed with ball bearings that burst on contact and shred people within dozens of yards. ATC: You could call them low-tech cluster bombs? MR: Yes, you could say that. Even though only about 10% of the rockets fired into northern Israel were packed with these ball bearings, almost all those killed in Israel were due to them. ATC: Now let’s go to the Lebanese side. What were you hearing from the part of your delegation that went there? MR: We were in constant communication. In southern Lebanon, the first thing the delegation noted, as we published in our report, it was clear that Israel was targeting civilian infrastructure — the electrical system, roads and bridges, etc. The Israelis made it very clear that destroying infrastructure was their objective. We actually discussed this in our meetings with the top legal advisor to the Israeli military. They just said that if any object contributed in any way to Hezbollah’s military operations then it was a legitimate target. So Hezbollah used electricity. And I guess Hezbollah flushed toilets. So Israel hit the electrical and sewage infrastructure. It’s clear that civilians would suffer disproportionately — you can bet that Hezbollah had generators – from the loss of electricity for hospitals and all the rest. The Israeli claim was absurd from the international human rights law standpoint. They made two arguments. First, they said the roads were bombed to prevent Hezbollah from moving their soldiers north or reinforcements south. But roads and bridges are essential for civilians. They also said they warned the population to leave, so the civilian casualties weren’t their fault — but they were bombing the roads and bridges that the civilians needed in order to flee! People ask me, weren’t Hezbollah using the roads and bridges for military purposes? I answer by asking how many people in the room have been to Washington DC. Then I ask how many people have taken the DC Metro into town from the airport. When they raise their hands, I point out that the Pentagon is the third Metro stop from the airport. Is the Metro a legitimate military target, then? ATC: What about the massive cluster bombing right before the cease-fire? That can’t have been for strategic military purposes. It had to be to stop civilians from returning. MR: Again, we try not to ascribe motives. Regardless of the motive, the effect is obvious. The cluster bombs are in effect land mines that will have an impact for months and years. Our document and others show that every day people are killed and seriously injured by the cluster bombs dropped in the final two or three days of the war. Farmers are faced with the tragic dilemma of either not harvesting their crops, not rebuilding their houses, or else risk getting killed. The Israelis are refusing to cooperate with the UN by not revealing where they dropped them. ATC: Patrick Cockburn reported in the London newspaper The Independent that some of the cluster bombs on the grounds had U.S. markings from before 1974, the Vietnam war era. MR: Yes, we heard that many of these bombs were from old U.S. stocks. That’s partly why so many were duds that didn’t explode on impact. But Israel also manufactures its own. We should say that basically we’ve only scratched the surface in the reports we’ve published so far. We had a team on the ground as recently as a week or two ago [middle to late September — ed.], so new reports will probably be out by the time this interview in in print. We haven’t really reported yet on the war’s effects on civilians in Lebanon in the broader sense (see AI’s website http://www.AmnestyUSA.org for reports as they appear). ATC: I want to go to the question of the brand new George W. Bush Indefinite Detention and Torture Enabling Act of 2006, which Congress just passed. What’s your first response? MR: There are several problems, the first of which is that it basically lets the President decide what is or isn’t torture. Second, it retroactively creates impunity for any U.S. official who practiced torture — for example, at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or the CIA’s secret prisons — and allows introduction of “evidence” obtained from torture. Further, it eliminates habeas corpus — that is, the right to legally challenge the grounds for detention — for non-citizens who can be held forever without charge or trial. ATC: Have you seen the report that the U.S. practice of rewards for reporting “suspected terrorists” in Pakistan has created a bounty-hunting market there? MR: Yes, we’ve said it for a long time. This is a big part of the prisoners at Guantanamo. Someone who doesn’t like you can make money by reporting you as a terrorist, you get snatched – and by getting rid of habeas corpus you can be locked in prison forever, and you can be tortured to get a false confession. Of course it’s torture even if they don’t call it that. Where have we seen a government that permits torture “under exceptional circumstances” that got out of control? Look at the example of Israel. After twelve years of legalizing what they called “moderate physical pressure,” it became routine and out of control. Finally their Supreme Court was forced to rule it was illegal — and it doesn’t work either. How many people will be tortured under this new U.S. law before it’s ruled unacceptable? ATC: What do you see as the international implications? MR: There are different levels. One is that it opens the door for other countries to do the same things. If you think it “necessary” then you can ignore or rewrite the Geneva Conventions to suit your purposes, and a number of countries have done exactly that. If we can do it, what prevents Pakistan or Thailand or any country with a “security problem” from saying they can do so too? Second, among our allies and more democratic regimes, there will be a sense that this is just unacceptable. Third, wherever U.S. soldiers are captured they’ll be told, “you’re doing this to us and we’ll do it to you.” There’s also the argument that this makes it harder and more dangerous to capture people; if they’re likely to be tortured they’ll be less likely to allow themselves to be captured. I don’t know how true that will turn out to be, but in any case it certainly weakens us all from a human rights standpoint, including the retroactive impunity for the crimes at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. I’ve just begun to see reports about this “enemy combatants” thing, that it might be interpreted that even American citizens can be designated enemy combatants and denied habeas corpus — by implication, U.S. citizens who give money to a charity that is later declared to be “linked to terrorism.” I don’t know how long this will last. We’ll see how long it takes to get to the Supreme Court. The only thing to be added is that there’s definitely a linkage between these two topics — the violations of human rights law in the Lebanon war and here at home. We have to find a way to hold governments and countries responsible for the international treaties and conventions they sign. It’s absurd that they can just ignore international law with impunity. Unless parties in conflict can be held accountable, there won’t be any change. ATC 125, November–December 2006 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | marty rosenbluth amnesty international country specialist israel occupy territory palestinian authority previously live seven year human right activist base ramallah israelioccupied west bank participate ai factfinde mission northern israel southern lebanon war interview october david finkel atc editorial board current begin delegation see general observation ground understand northern israel marty rosenbluth right delegation divide part leave home north carolina head beirut actually washington dc tell reassign israel segment go southern lebanon northern israel civilian toll side broad sense see clear hezbollah israel violate international humanitarian law early day conflict clearly deliberately target civilian indiscriminate force way target civilian infrastructure show callous disregard civilian casualty atc understand correctly ai comparative judgment matter civilian death amnesty judge relation aggressor strong power mr fact intentionally deliberately avoid measure action standard international law act take place conform international law rest politician pundit atc tell observe israeli mr thing north sit main road haifa play chess have way car leave flee remain stay shelter safe room surprisingly people mean flee elderly poor ill north go true nahariya near border people mean leave person hospital haifa fact evacuate eilat run money day get acre injure katyusha rocket fire hezbollah ed half total population north go south see afraid remain people katyushas fall infrastructure shelter safe room stay risk time second siren sound kastyusha hit atc people say war government mr mix people shelter want shelter set occupy day overcrowded cooking facility store open need bring government hear thing meet government official volunteer ngo push limit course cope hospital bridge road destroy see instructive imagine thing southern lebanon demolish atc visit arab citizen population israel mr yes meet people official level municipal government unofficial ngo nongovernmental organization level picture pretty complex know lot news come arab israel disproportionately kill katyushas air raid shelter warn siren arab area fact simple good description get arab ngo government discrimination deal war crisis reveal discrimination exist example factually true public shelter arab sector analyze shelter responsibility local municipality arab municipality priority think attack desperately underfunded priority israeli government build new public shelter require safe room build new construction construction arab sector permit general permit unobtainable atc window deep social situation way new orleans country mr municipality nazareth tell raise issue public shelter build shelter city population live day go assumption blatant discrimination allocation resource turn complicated amnesty international publish report discrimination arab israeli sector structural discrimination national minority united states europe include case hear dramatically different israeli jews arab complain government issue language big deal government information arabic late want add happen northern israel clear base pattern hezbollah attack number rocket hezbollah statement deliberately target civilian think doubt deny thing cover rocket pack ball bearing burst contact shre people dozen yard atc lowtech cluster bomb mr yes rocket fire northern israel pack ball bearing kill israel atc let lebanese hear delegation go mr constant communication southern lebanon thing delegation note publish report clear israel target civilian infrastructure electrical system road bridge etc israelis clear destroy infrastructure objective actually discuss meeting legal advisor israeli military say object contribute way hezbollah military operation legitimate target hezbollah electricity guess hezbollah flushed toilet israel hit electrical sewage infrastructure clear civilian suffer disproportionately bet hezbollah generator loss electricity hospital rest israeli claim absurd international human right law standpoint argument say road bomb prevent hezbollah move soldier north reinforcement south road bridge essential civilian say warn population leave civilian casualty fault bomb road bridge civilian need order flee people ask hezbollah road bridge military purpose answer ask people room washington dc ask people take dc metro town airport raise hand point pentagon metro stop airport metro legitimate military target atc massive cluster bombing right ceasefire strategic military purpose stop civilian return mr try ascribe motive regardless motive effect obvious cluster bomb effect land mine impact month year document day people kill seriously injure cluster bomb drop final day war farmer face tragic dilemma harvest crop rebuild house risk getting kill israelis refuse cooperate un reveal drop atc patrick cockburn report london newspaper independent cluster bomb ground marking vietnam war era mr yes hear bomb old stock partly dud explode impact israel manufacture basically scratch surface report publish far team ground recently week ago middle late september ed new report probably time interview print report war effect civilian lebanon broad sense ai website httpwwwamnestyusaorg report appear atc want question brand new george w bush indefinite detention torture enable act congress pass response mr problem basically let president decide torture second retroactively create impunity official practice torture example abu ghraib guantanamo cia secret prison allow introduction evidence obtain torture eliminate habeas corpus right legally challenge ground detention noncitizen hold forever charge trial atc see report practice reward report suspect terrorist pakistan create bountyhunting market mr yes say long time big prisoner guantanamo like money report terrorist snatch getting rid habeas corpus lock prison forever torture false confession course torture see government permit torture exceptional circumstance get control look example israel year legalize call moderate physical pressure routine control finally supreme court force rule illegal work people torture new law rule unacceptable atc international implication mr different level open door country thing think necessary ignore rewrite geneva convention suit purpose number country exactly prevent pakistan thailand country security problem say second ally democratic regime sense unacceptable soldier capture tell argument make hard dangerous capture people likely torture likely allow capture know true turn case certainly weaken human right standpoint include retroactive impunity crime guantanamo abu ghraib begin report enemy combatant thing interpret american citizen designate enemy combatant deny habeas corpus implication citizen money charity later declare link terrorism know long long take supreme court thing add definitely linkage topic violation human right law lebanon war home find way hold government country responsible international treaty convention sign absurd ignore international law impunity party conflict hold accountable will change atc november december current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 16 |
MANY HAVE DESCRIBED the visceral experience of viewing “12 Years as a Slave,” Steve McQueen’#8221;s film, as harrowing. But as a longtime teacher of 19th century U.S. slave narratives, I think the best term that describes the film is “uncanny.” Resisting an impulse to leave the theater during the scene of Solomon Northup’#8221;s violent initiation into slavery, I was taken aback by its on-the-nail dramatization of tropes that 19th century abolitionists — white and Black alike — employed in their anti-slavery pitches to national, racist audiences. Even as critics of the film — many in the Black media — chastise McQueen for aestheticizing Black suffering with its graphic violence, it’#8221;s worth recognizing that this sophisticated 21st century film owes much of its raw power to the language and images of one of the most popular literary genres of the 19th century, the slave narrative. The source of the film’#8221;s realism is something of a paradox, emerging from an uncanny recreation of the sentimental tropes in 19th century American slave narratives rather than from any modern, sophisticated discourse of trauma. In this respect, McQueen could be described as Northup’#8221;s 21st century amanuensis and/or dramatizer, a present-day contributor to the long tradition of slave narratives. Historians describe McQueen’#8221;s adaptation as closely following the original narrative, the meticulous details of which — including names of persons, places, local flora and fauna — suggest that Northup, who retold his experience to an amanuensis, had something of a photographic memory. As such, Northup’#8221;s descriptions were most likely the main inspiration for the 1853 narrative’#8221;s visual lexicon and original seven illustrations. This makes McQueen’#8221;s film adaptation all the more interesting; the filmmaker clearly borrowed, and in some cases reenacted, the original illustrations in all their glorious sentimental iconicity. Northup’#8221;s bestselling narrative probably owed much of its popularity to these illustrations for the same reasons we are hypnotized by some of the film’#8221;s central images: for example, the slaves standing, arrested, in the cane field during the film’#8221;s opening scene; the slave mother Eliza on her knees, imploring a prospective buyer to let her daughter remain with her; the moment Solomon recognizes his rescue is at hand. The film’#8221;s novelty derives, not from a 21st century screen imaginary that innovates ways of seeing slavery, but in the explosive emotional potential it recovers from the 1853 illustrations — illustrations that today appear to us as highly stylized, conventional and sentimentally iconic. McQueen’#8221;s staging of these tableaux infuses life and blood into the narrative’#8221;s sentimental frame, overwhelming unsuspecting film viewers with the surprising, graphic, and nauseating power of 19th century sentimentality. Some scenes from the film reproduce the narrative’#8221;s image bank almost to the last detail, for example, the narrative’#8221;s frontispiece, captioned “Solomon in his plantation suit,” is evoked in the film’#8221;s opening scene when newly arrived slaves are standing in rows in a cane field, silent and tense as they are initiated into the brutal work of cutting cane. One of the film’#8221;s most gruesome scenes — the vicious paddling and symbolic rape that takes place after Northup is kidnapped — is meticulously restaged inside the stone walls of a slave pen cell, depicting the almost naked Northup cowering on the ground, a broken paddle lying beside him and the slaver’#8221;s whip in mid-air. Solomon’#8221;s rescue by a northern friend was filmed on a set — the planting field outside the house and featuring the friend, Mr. Barker, and Epps, Solomon’#8221;s depraved owner — that restages the narrative’#8221;s illustration in every detail. Remarkably, McQueen’#8221;s (and Chiwetel Ejiofor’#8221;s) enactment of the poses and props from this particular illustration reveals how the seemingly paternalistic image of a slave’#8221;s deference to his white rescuer evokes something much more powerful — Solomon’#8221;s surreal, dream-like disbelief at being redeemed from a nightmare. McQueen’#8221;s indebtedness to the narrative’#8221;s sentimental aesthetic is clear, even in one scene that appears to diverge from its matching illustration, Patsy’#8221;s brutal whipping. This is the slave woman many viewers have identified as the film’#8221;s central character. While in both narrative and film the slave woman appears naked, bloodied and tethered to stakes, the film compels us to witness the intensity of the slave woman’#8221;s pain in closeup face shots that are truly overwhelming. With this artistic choice, McQueen may appear to violate the narrative’#8221;s adherence to sentimental representation, but the fact is he is being faithful to another of the narrative’#8221;s important features, an uncommon one in its day: Solomon’#8221;s insistent, proto-feminist spotlighting of slave women’#8221;s subjectivity. Patsy’#8221;s centrality, unanticipated in the dramatic story of a man enslaved for 12 years, conveys perhaps the film’#8221;s most powerful message: if “12 Years a Slave” represents the tragedy and abjection of a free man precipitated into slavery, that amount of suffering does not begin to compare to the pain to which slave women are condemned from birth. If the narrative’#8221;s dramatic power originates in Solomon’#8221;s sudden fall into what Harriet Jacobs, a slave woman, described in 1861 as a “cage of obscene birds,” Northup’#8221;s narrative ethos and McQueen’#8221;s film aesthetic converge in the irrefutable recognition that slavery for women was a national tragedy, on a scale unimaginable then and now. When Solomon climbs onto the coach that will take him from slavery, his look back — in the narrative as in the film — takes in Patsy’#8221;s stare of wonder and despair just before she falls down into the dirt. In this poignant moment, Northup and McQueen have fully realized the pathos of what Jacobs experienced at her daughter’#8221;s birth: “When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.” That viewers 150 years later can finally comprehend this sentiment is perhaps the film’#8221;s most meaningful and significant achievement. January/February 2014, ATC 168 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | describe visceral experience view year slave steve film harrowing longtime teacher century slave narrative think good term describe film uncanny resist impulse leave theater scene solomon violent initiation slavery take aback onthenail dramatization trope century abolitionist white black alike employ antislavery pitch national racist audience critic film black medium chastise mcqueen aestheticize black suffering graphic violence worth recognize sophisticated century film owe raw power language image popular literary genre century slave narrative source realism paradox emerge uncanny recreation sentimental trope century american slave narrative modern sophisticated discourse trauma respect mcqueen describe century amanuensis andor dramatizer presentday contributor long tradition slave narrative historian describe adaptation closely follow original narrative meticulous detail include name person place local flora fauna suggest northup retell experience amanuensis photographic memory description likely main inspiration visual lexicon original seven illustration make film adaptation interesting filmmaker clearly borrow case reenact original illustration glorious sentimental iconicity bestselling narrative probably owe popularity illustration reason hypnotize central image example slave stand arrest cane field opening scene slave mother eliza knee implore prospective buyer let daughter remain moment solomon recognize rescue hand novelty derive century screen imaginary innovate way see slavery explosive emotional potential recover illustration illustration today appear highly stylize conventional sentimentally iconic staging tableaux infuse life blood sentimental frame overwhelming unsuspecting film viewer surprising graphic nauseating power century sentimentality scene film reproduce image bank detail example frontispiece caption solomon plantation suit evoke opening scene newly arrive slave stand row cane field silent tense initiate brutal work cut cane gruesome scene vicious paddling symbolic rape take place northup kidnap meticulously restage inside stone wall slave pen cell depict naked northup cower ground break paddle lie whip midair rescue northern friend film set planting field outside house feature friend mr barker epps deprave owner restage illustration detail remarkably chiwetel enactment pose prop particular illustration reveal seemingly paternalistic image deference white rescuer evoke powerful surreal dreamlike disbelief redeem nightmare indebtedness sentimental aesthetic clear scene appear diverge matching illustration brutal whip slave woman viewer identify central character narrative film slave woman appear naked bloody tether stake film compel witness intensity slave pain closeup face shot truly overwhelming artistic choice mcqueen appear violate adherence sentimental representation fact faithful important feature uncommon day insistent protofeminist spotlighting slave subjectivity centrality unanticipated dramatic story man enslave year convey powerful message year slave represent tragedy abjection free man precipitate slavery suffering begin compare pain slave woman condemn birth dramatic power originate sudden fall harriet jacob slave woman describe cage obscene bird narrative ethos film aesthetic converge irrefutable recognition slavery woman national tragedy scale unimaginable solomon climb coach slavery look narrative film take stare wonder despair fall dirt poignant moment northup mcqueen fully realize pathos jacob experience birth tell newborn babe girl heart heavy slavery terrible man far terrible woman superadded burden common wrong suffering mortification peculiarly viewer year later finally comprehend sentiment meaningful significant achievement januaryfebruary atc current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 17 |
J. V. Stalin Source : Works, Vol. 15 Publisher : Red Star Press Ltd., London, 1984 Transcription/HTML Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, 2009 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, going over to the offensive from the area north of Kirovograd in a westerly direction, and troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front from the area southeast of Belaya Tserkov in an easterly direction having pierced the strongly fortified German defence, advanced in five days' offensive fighting from 50 to 75 kilometres in each direction to meet each other, and widened the breach of the offensive to 160-175 kilometres along the front. As a result of these operations the troops of the 2nd and 1st Ukrainian fronts joined up in the area of Zvenigorodka-Shpola, and thus closed the ring of encirclement around the enemy .grouping operating north of this line, numbering nine infantry divisions and one tank division. In the course of their offensive our troops captured more than 300 populated places. These included the towns of Zvenigorodka, Shpo-la, Srnyela, Boguslav and Kanev, and the large railway junctions of Bobrinskaya, Tsvetkovo and Mironovka. In the fighting distinction was won by troops commanded by Lieut.-General Galanin, Maj.-General Ryzhov, Lieut.-General Zhmachenko, Lieut.-General Trofimenko, Lieut.-General Koro-teyev, Maj.-General Biryukov, Maj.-General Akimenko, Maj.-General Fomenko, Maj.-General Shmygo and Maj.-General Puzikov, cavalrymen commanded by Maj.-General Selivanov, tankmen under Col.-General of Tank Troops Rotmistrov, Lieut.-General of Tank Troops Kravchenko, Maj.-General of Tank Troops Kirichenko, Maj.-General of Tank Troops Polezkov, Lieut.-General of Tank Troops Alexeyev and Lieut.-General of Tank Troops Volkov, artillerymen under Col.-General of Artillery Varentsov, Lieut.-General of Artillery Fomin, Maj.-General of Artillery Gusarov, Maj.-General of Artillery Faustov, Maj.-General of Artillery Glebov, Maj.-General of Artillery Lebedev and Col.Zykov, and airmen under Lieut.-General of Aviation Krassovsky and Lieut.-General of Aviation Goryunov. To commemorate the victory, the units and formations which particularly distinguished themselves in the fighting on both fronts are recommended to bear the name of Zvenigorodka, and to be decorated with orders. To-day, February 3, at 20.00 hours, the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, in the name of the Motherland, will salute with 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns our gallant troops of the 2nd and 1st Ukrainian Fronts which broke through the German defences and effected the encirclement of the large enemy grouping. For the excellent military operations I express my thanks to all the troops under your command which effected the breakthrough and took part in the fighting for Zvenigorodka, Shpola, Srnyela, Boguslav and Kanev. Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle for the freedom and independence of our Motherland! Death to the German invaders! J. V. STALIN Marshal of the Soviet Union Supreme Commander-in-Chief Collected Works Index | Volume 15 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol publisher red star press ltd london transcriptionhtml markup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source troop ukrainian go offensive area north kirovograd westerly direction troop ukrainian area southeast belaya tserkov easterly direction having pierce strongly fortified german defence advance day offensive fighting kilometre direction meet widen breach offensive kilometre result operation troop ukrainian front join area zvenigorodkashpola close ring encirclement enemy group operate north line number infantry division tank division course offensive troop capture populate place include town zvenigorodka shpola srnyela boguslav kanev large railway junction bobrinskaya tsvetkovo mironovka fight distinction win troop command lieutgeneral galanin majgeneral ryzhov lieutgeneral zhmachenko lieutgeneral trofimenko lieutgeneral koroteyev majgeneral biryukov majgeneral akimenko majgeneral fomenko majgeneral shmygo majgeneral puzikov cavalryman command majgeneral selivanov tankman colgeneral tank troop rotmistrov lieutgeneral tank troop kravchenko majgeneral tank troop kirichenko majgeneral tank troop polezkov lieutgeneral tank troop alexeyev lieutgeneral tank troop volkov artilleryman colgeneral artillery varentsov lieutgeneral artillery fomin majgeneral artillery gusarov majgeneral artillery faustov majgeneral artillery glebov majgeneral artillery lebedev colzykov airman lieutgeneral aviation krassovsky lieutgeneral aviation goryunov commemorate victory unit formation particularly distinguish fighting front recommend bear zvenigorodka decorate order today february hour capital motherland moscow motherland salute artillery salvo gun gallant troop ukrainian front break german defence effect encirclement large enemy group excellent military operation express thank troop command effect breakthrough take fighting zvenigorodka shpola srnyela boguslav kanev eternal glory hero fall struggle freedom independence motherland death german invader j v stalin marshal soviet union supreme commanderinchief collect works index volume index work decade j v stalin archive | 18 |
Plastrik (Judd/Stanley) Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page From Labor Action, Vol. 6 No. 8, 23 February 1942, pp. 1 & 4. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL). In two months the troops of the Japanese Empire drove their way through the “impassable swamps” and “tiger-infested jungles” of Malaya. In two days these same troops tore to bits the mighty defenses of “impregnable Singapore Island” and swarmed all over the Gibraltar of the Far East. It couldn’t happen, but it did! Gone are the airfields, the naval guns (all pointing the wrong way!), the $400,000,000 naval base – never used except for ONE week – and built by 20 years of labor. Japan now controls the South China seas and the water exits and inlets into the Indian Ocean. Japan now runs the rubber plantations, the rice fields and the tin mines that formerly belonged to the British. Japan now is immeasurably strengthened to strike deeper into the Dutch East Indies and at Burma and India. Every military authority admits the harshness of the blow; government spokesmen talk about “the worst is yet to come.” Churchill faces the crisis of his career – smooth – voiced words will not satisfy the critics. Everyone asks: Why did it happen? From all sides the answers come; British bungling, stupidity, shortsightedness; inefficiency. Failure to apply “scorched earth” is cited; failure to organize a proper air defense is pointed to. All this is true. British militarism – run by an aristocratic caste – was never notorious for brains! But it’s all superficial and secondary. There is a reason a thousand times more important in explaining the Singapore fiasco. Malaya and Singapore fell because the people, the 12,000,000 Malayans, Chinese and Indians – didn’t give a damn which side won. Labor Action has published, articles explaining the attitude of these colonial peoples – explaining how, after 100 years of British exploitation in the mines and on the plantations – they felt neither side had anything to offer them in the way of democracy, independence or improved living standards, When the war began they fled to the hills and stayed there. Nor did the British make the slightest effort to win over the people, even when the going became toughest. They wouldn’t arm them; they wouldn’t even build air raid shelters for them (those were for whites only!) Cecil Brown said on the radio; “At Panang the British military authorities ordered the evacuation without consulting the government. They refused to evacuate anyone except Europeans. All Chinese, Malayans and Indians were left to their fate. That was the beginning of considerable difficulties with the natives in Malaya.” (You bet! That was the beginning of the end for the British, too!) All of this this is a deliberate policy of the British. It proves the imperialist character of the war they are conducting. Yes, they want to win – and keep their precious colonies at the same time. Sure, they want to lick the Japs – and bold on to their colonial possessions and money bags at the same time. Yes, they want the Japs out of Malaya – and themselves back in possession of the mines and plantations so they can take up again where they left off. They want to win the war for their Empire – but not for the people and democratic freedom. So the result is that the colonial people whom they’ve exploited for centuries won’t lift a finger to help them on such terms. Why should a Malayan, an Indian, or a Burmese lay down his life for his master who tells him in advance that he’ll get neither freedom nor independence for it. Churchill already has informed the Empire people, that “the Atlantic Charter doesn’t hold for them.” And that’s why Singapore fell so easily to the Japanese who had only to lick the relatively small handful of white defenders. Lord Moyne, Colonial Secretary of the Empire, in a message delivered to the people of Malaya said: “In spite of grievous reverses we shall break the enemy’s power and restore to you your freedom of life.” What colossal gall and impudence! How can the British “restore” what the people, NEVER HAD? Exploitation and slave labor they had plenty; freedom, and independence, they had plenty of nothing. The people of Malaya will interpret this statement – and correctly so – to mean that the British want to restore their slave rule. Hardly likely to induce them to resist the Japanese. If all this was simply a matter of the handful of British plantation owners; merchants, capitalists and “whiskey and soda” club snobs, we would not get greatly worked up over it. But a lot more is at stake than the useless existence of the British imperialists. We are greatly concerned with what happens to the tens and hundreds of millions of people (workers and farmers) of these colonial countries. The victory of Japanese imperialism represents a great catastrophe to them. Japanese rule is as brutal and savage (witness China) as any that ever existed. The Japanese militarists, after all, had much opportunity to learn from watching the British in action. They will keep the colonials down with a hand every bit as iron-fisted and murderous as that of the English and Dutch. The colonials, far from being aided or “liberated” by Japanese victories, are crushed down more mercilessly than ever. So they have an interest in defending themselves. These people have something to lose; something more than the moneybags and property, which is about all the English lose. They have at stake that future which they have always dreamed of and worked for: a future in which ALL imperialists will have been vanquished and in which they will have gained freedom and self-government. So they want to defend themselves. They want to keep the Japanese or Germans out of their land. But the British offer them nothing but continuation of the sarne old imperialist racket. They can’t turn to their rulers. But they can turn to themselves! They can defend their country in the manner urged by the revolutionary socialists who live and work among them: Defend their country by their own independent initiative and action! Defend themselves by organizing their own People’s Army and demanding the arming of the population (a.mass arming, not giving pistols to a few thousand Chinese boys, as the British did in Singapore). Defend themselves by running out the British – or any other imperialist who attacks them. Defend themselves by bringing out the flag of national liberation and independence; by organizing their own government of the native people, by the native people and for the native people; by organizing their own workers’ and peasants’ government. Top of page Plastrik (Judd/Stanley) Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page Last updated: 27.4.2013 | left | plastrik juddstanley archive trotskyist writer index etol main page labor action vol february pp transcribe mark einde encyclopaedia trotskyism online etol month troop japanese empire drive way impassable swamp tigerinfeste jungle malaya day troop tear bit mighty defense impregnable singapore island swarm gibraltar far east happen go airfield naval gun point wrong way naval base week build year labor japan control south china seas water exit inlet indian ocean japan run rubber plantation rice field tin mine belong british japan immeasurably strengthen strike deeply dutch east indie burma india military authority admit harshness blow government spokesman talk bad come churchill face crisis career smooth voice word satisfy critic ask happen side answer come british bungle stupidity shortsightedness inefficiency failure apply scorch earth cite failure organize proper air defense point true british militarism run aristocratic caste notorious brain superficial secondary reason thousand time important explain singapore fiasco malaya singapore fall people malayans chinese indians damn win labor action publish article explain attitude colonial people explain year british exploitation mine plantation feel offer way democracy independence improve living standard war begin flee hill stay british slight effort win people going tough arm build air raid shelter white cecil brown say radio panang british military authority order evacuation consult government refuse evacuate europeans chinese malayan indians leave fate beginning considerable difficulty native malaya bet beginning end british deliberate policy british prove imperialist character war conduct yes want win precious colony time sure want lick jap bold colonial possession money bag time yes want jap malaya possession mine plantation leave want win war empire people democratic freedom result colonial people exploit century will lift finger help term malayan indian burmese lie life master tell advance freedom independence churchill inform empire people atlantic charter hold singapore fall easily japanese lick relatively small handful white defender lord moyne colonial secretary empire message deliver people malaya say spite grievous reverse shall break enemy power restore freedom life colossal gall impudence british restore people exploitation slave labor plenty freedom independence plenty people malaya interpret statement correctly mean british want restore slave rule hardly likely induce resist japanese simply matter handful british plantation owner merchant capitalist whiskey soda club snob greatly work lot stake useless existence british imperialist greatly concerned happen ten hundred million people worker farmer colonial country victory japanese imperialism represent great catastrophe japanese rule brutal savage witness china exist japanese militarist opportunity learn watch british action colonial hand bit ironfiste murderous english dutch colonial far aid liberate japanese victory crush mercilessly interest defend people lose moneybag property english lose stake future dream work future imperialist vanquish gain freedom selfgovernment want defend want japanese germans land british offer continuation sarne old imperialist racket turn ruler turn defend country manner urge revolutionary socialist live work defend country independent initiative action defend organize people army demand arming population amass arm give pistol thousand chinese boy british singapore defend run british imperialist attack defend bring flag national liberation independence organize government native people native people native people organize worker peasant government page plastrik juddstanley archive trotskyist writer index etol main page update | 19 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From New International, Vol.4 No.10, October 1938, p.316. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. A New Anthology of Modern Poetry edited with an Introduction by Selden Rodman Random House. New York. 1938. $3. Much more important, certainly, than the reprinting of any of the poems in this anthology is the editor’s theoretical approach to the task of selection, an approach which suggests vividly that Mr. Edmund Wilson’s essay, Is Verse a Dying Technique?, seems, with its recent publication in book form, to have brought to a sentient head the growing suspicion of the American poetic profession that poetry needs an advertising campaign, that the poets must acquire, for the health of poetry, a new professional, distinct from a new political or economic, consciousness of himself. Toward this end, poets would begin graciously by an inflection of their accustomed extra-verse oratory, with the grand-manner cliches subtly diverted. Yet two sophisticated individuals, Archibald MacLeish and the present editor Selden Rodman, have not hesitated in the first flush of enthusiasm to utter the most pretentiously inflated of bromides in behalf of their profession. In his long introduction Mr. Rodman is discovered swimming the English Channel of this heavy proposition before we arrive at the actual goods: “Does Science Conflict With It?” He breasts and passes the villainous wave of Max Eastman who “maintains that science has withdrawn intellect from literature,” by this type of stroke: “... Science does not and cannot make men feel, much less act. Nor does science as such, any more than sociology as such, give modern man that confidence in his own dignity and essential nobility which is necessary for the translation of mere animal energy into aspirations, aspirations into deeds. A great scientist must be a poet also. He must have vision to go beyond precepts and conceive what never was. But a great poet need not be a scientist, though his mind must have equal dignity, daring and orderliness.” Here Mr. Rodman focuses upon the exigent element of his critical enterprise, which would have fared much better if he had refrained in his professional heat from adopting the grandiose approach. Solemnly enough, the whole question of the scientific method and the machine in relation to poetry is raised in this section of the introduction, and confronts us as a moronic sort of ghost. Examination of Mr. Rodman’s statements will lead us to the kernel of a widespread modern attitude, no less traditional in its latest guise. One cannot be aware of but-so-much of the introduction as given above without perceiving that Mr. Rodman is at the old saw of sawing poetry into magic and science before the credulous and amazed eyes of poets and laymen. We are to believe, as we shall see, that it is no more than an illusion, and that the subject emerges whole. “A great scientist or a great prophet or a great revolutionary,” Mr. Rodman tells us, “must have a one-track mind ... but a poet must be a whole man ...” It is rude to examine the mechanism of Mr. Rodman’s trick, but has he not just said that “a great scientist must be a poet also”? So a great scientist who must have a one-track mind must also be a poet who is a whole man all by himself. But if we are up on our reading, we can aptly produce a source for Mr. Rodman’s authority, the words of Mr. MacLeish in his salvo in behalf of the magical profession of poetry in Poetry for July 1938: “The failure of the spirit is a failure from which only poetry can deliver us.” Mr. MacLeish makes it clear that he refers to the present world-crisis of the human spirit; therefore, if poetry can prevent fascism, as seems categorically implied, and lead us to the perfect world democracy, it can certainly turn the relatively trivial trick of sawing itself in half and remaining whole. Somehow I for one do not believe in this trick, if only for the reason that Mr. Rodman is an inept performer. If, as he says, “a great poet need not be a scientist,” we are obliged to assume that the statement is equipped with the latest devices for this type of magic, and if they do not work, something must be wrong with the magician; in brief, his science must be inadequate. How can we believe, bearing in mind that the great poet need not be a scientist, that the scientist, in order to be great in the field of exact knowledge, is required to be something or partake of something, the mastery of which has nothing to do with exact knowledge? However, Mr. Rodman has dazzled us by declaring this something to be a whole (“The poet must be a whole man”). We are disillusioned when we learn that by adding a whole to something less than a whole but more than nothing, we still do not get a whole, but only a great scientist. Only the poet is whole, for that is the necessary denouement of the trick. We could have warned ourselves that it is foolish to mess around magic with logic, but perhaps it is permissible to assume that Mr. Rodman, obviously not conceiving science in the sense of scientific method, conceives of it as a professional classification, a collection of professions other than poetry. In a time when the sun seems to reserve its best brightness for the sciences, we can understand Mr. Rodman’s anxiety to expose the traditional place in the sun of one of the most eloquent of the arts, poetry: “... art, along with science, is one of the valid ways of communicating knowledge.” This section of the introduction ends with the suggestion that “after materialistic conceptions have proven inadequate in the very fields where they achieved their greatest triumphs, ‘values will be regarded as inherent in reality’.” As though scientific thinking were confined to “materialistic conceptions”, or as though Mr. Rodman had waited for science’s “greatest triumphs” to wither away before operating on the body of “values”. I think we may be allowed now to substitute for Mr. Rodman’s deceptive symbol of the poet as a Whole Man, the more illuminating and verifiable symbol of the poet as a Medicine Man, for it is only with this value in mind that we can identify with any surety the type meant by Mr. Rodman. At least, the Medicine Man is much nearer to the wholeness of mankind than the modern poet is, for it is only in far primitive times that art could be identified with the whole of the community life, when “poetry” was merely the dance, and the dance was identical with worship and prayer. We know only too well the dangerously platonic line of thinking which leads to such desperately positivistic assertions of the poet’s value as Mr. Rodman’s. For hundreds of years the category of poetry has received the punishment of those wishing to appropriate meanings and functions to it often purely hypothetical, or at any rate idealistic in essence. For how long has the “magic” of poetry been supposed to make the poor man rich, the degraded envision heaven, and the stay-at-home superior to the participant in Cook’s Tours? The palliative, the consoling, effect of poetry is beyond question, but equally beyond question is the fact that the “palliative” is the most vulgar of poetry’s practical functions, as, in relation to its creative functions, thin romantic dreaming is the most vulgar of its genres. As entrepreneur of a fat and eclectic anthology of poets, Mr. Rodman is no mere vague and inutile theorizer on the wholeness of the poet. Just as the Medicine Man was one who found the claim of supernatural power necessary to his profession, the poet, by Mr. Rodman’s authority, must claim as his the realm of the absolute social type, the true leader in the search for values. Thus it is impossible to conceive of such men as Mr. MacLeish and Mr. Rodman as reasonable human beings without attaching to them in their current exercises of rhetoric the pre-eminent interest of a distinct profession, whether wisely or unwisely, consciously or subconsciously, formulated. It would seem that they obviously represent a current state of mind, the result of a more immediate economic tension and less immediate political tension, which they characteristically interpret in a socially reactionary mode of retreating into a professional refuge and girding for combined offensive and defensive manoeuvres toward “the enemy”. In the case of opposing “the enemy”, all kindred interests, according to this social psychology, must be integrated into one big camp. I do not think it is mere routine absolutizing for Mr. Rodman to say: “Poetry is the greatest of the arts because everyone can – and does – practise it. The ad-man, the gag-man, the housewife and the corner grocer are latent poets.” It may well be an instance of wishful thinking, hypostatizing the crude element of wit, as it invests the minor and folk arts, into the grand art of serious poetry. One will notice that here again Mr. Rodman has cut something into inept halves. The ad-man and the gag-man are professional literary practitioners, the housewife and the corner grocer are not, but form a large part of their audience. By using what is primarily an analogy to the case of serious poetry, Mr. Rodman makes a slightly more rational effort to make the body of poetry seem whole by placing the audience on the stage with the magician, and thus making it an accomplice to the action, and so binding its poetic morality to the poetic morality of the performer. But the effort is useless, for it is impossible to cram the whole of poetry into the half that is its ancient magical inheritance. After all, one must not fail to point out that it is not primarily in the interest of poetry that the housewife responds to the art of the ad-man by buying, or that the corner grocer, being crushed by a chain-store competitor, is momentarily released from his dilemma by the art of the movie gag-man. I think Mr. Rodman’s point about the inevitable, absolute and universal subservience of science to poetry may be finally inundated with a corrective light by quoting some lines of J.G. Fraser’s: “From the earliest times man has engaged in a search for the general rules whereby to turn the order of natural phenomena to his advantage, and in the long search he has scraped together a hoard of such maxims, some of them golden and some of them mere dross. The true or golden rules constitute the body of applied science which we call the arts; the false are magic.” By this definition of the arts, poetry, modern poetry, is an applied science, and therefore a poem is a hypothetical machine, not a destined product of illusion or the preordained result of a supernatural spell. It is true that as a product its field of values is not that of what we know as the sciences, but this is merely because of differences of interest, not because the sciences and the arts obey a hierarchy of values. The placing of poetry at the top of a hierarchy of values, as Mr. Rodman has placed it in his time of need, is the rarely exceptible psychological habit of the poet. But when the poet hallucinates himself at the head of the community in this sense, today, when he reverts to the psychological state of the Medicine Man, he is guilty at the best of moral idealism and at the worst of professional advertising. A more intelligent critical precursor, because a more sensitive poet, than Mr. Rodman, is Hart Crane, who may be said, according to a quotation Mr. Rodman includes in his introduction, to represent by his individual symbol a stage halfway between the critical realization of Mr. Rodman and the critical realization of Frazer. It is with a virginal intuition of pleasure if also with a virginal sense of trepidation that Mr. Crane mentions the Machine and its marriage to the poet: “... Unless poetry can absorb the machine, i.e., acclimatize it as naturally and casually as trees, cattle, galleons, castles and all the other human associations of the past, then poetry has failed of its full contemporary function. This process does not infer any program nor does it essentially involve even the specific mention of a single mechanical contrivance. It demands, however, along with the traditional qualifications of the poet, an extraordinary capacity for surrender, at least temporarily to the sensations of urban life ...” Evidently, Mr. Crane could not readily recognize the Machine for what it is, the concrete emergence of the principle of scientific procedure as a development of man’s historical efforts to control natural phenomena, but merely advises the poet to “surrender to the sensations” provided by the Machine so that he will not think of it as foreign or hostile – namely, as a supernatural element to be propitiated as once nature was propitiated by savages. Crane’s program, as usual, was too ambitious, and his own practise revealed that it was part of the operative magical inheritance of poetry to surround machines with the aura of supernatural force, because in society and religion the magical vestiges of thought still remain. Crane in The Bridge made superstitious, almost religious symbols of Brooklyn Bridge and the Subway. Something like this result was inevitable as the rule, seeing that” poetry, as well as other arts and sciences, have not alone or together arrived at the final conquest of knowledge. Poetry has arrived only at a certain method, limited, by its nature, in application, and there are of course moral problems today which poetry cannot solve as a method. As yet neither the techniques of politics nor economics nor sociology are perfectly fitted to their own spheres of application; each is yet to be extended in its own set of formulas; likewise with poetry. Everyone, Mr. Rodman included, is aware of the moral and emotional atmosphere of modernity, and every poet worth his salt is to some extent aware of the place of poetry in this atmosphere. But Mr. Rodman and his poets are apt to make the one fundamental error of tending to conceive the Machine as another appurtenance in poetry’s magical “bag of tricks”. I need only mention in passing the climactic lines of a poem by Horace Gregory: The facts were these: She died in Lesbian serenity neither hot nor cold until the chaste limbs stiffened. Disconnect the telephone; cut the wires. It is my idea that relating a mechanical contrivance to an elegiac emotion in this way is really magical, not poetical, and as such cheapens both symbol and emotion. The problem I indicate takes its form in bringing the Machine somehow into poetry. This action is to be thought of in two fundamental senses: 1) Bringing in the science of the Machine as a modified technique, derived from some specific iiranch of scientific knowledge; as Masters brings the subjective psychological document into his Spoon River Anthology; as Vachel Lindsay brings objective research in anthropology into The Congo; as Auden brings the vocabulary of airmanship into verse; and as Rukeyser and others bring the data of social and economic surveys, peculiar to recent times, into verse. Here the new method emerges with the new subject-matter, while in the other sense: 2) The method stands alone, and depends on a rarefied conception of the technique of verse, as in Paul Valery’s verse, with its highly precise verbal style and its mechanical discipline of composition; a poetry which, excluding the concept of the machine, as a form within the form of poetry, strives to be the machine, regardless of the grist. It seems to me that in the first case poetry, far from feeling whole in itself, is self-consciously borrowing, striving to expand itself by annexing literary techniques hitherto considered alien to poetic statement. All that is now psychology’s, sociology’s, economics’, politics’, once was poetry’s, in the primitive sense of poetry, and now poetry may wish to reclaim its own. But the last clause is imprecise, and the statement should be reformed to say: Poetry, or the art of verse, has come to be one of the social techniques, along with the other arts and sciences, by which man expresses, in a much more complex manner than formerly, the sum of his relations with reality. It may be prophetic to say that man wishes by the means of verse-technique rather than by any other means to reclaim a certain primitive social unity, wherein religion, art and soicety were practically identical; but it is one prophecy among many expressed with equal, sometimes, greater vehemence, and involving varieties of motives. On the other hand, by taking the road of awareness of the Machine as a principle, as the poet Valery has done, without relating it to social values, or the social uses of the machine – by conceiving of the poetic technique as a sort of external expression of this inner principle – poetry is much more concretely identified as a part of a solid modern pattern, in which a traditional form of expression, the art of verse, has, in the truest concrete sense, “kept up with the times”. Poetical science consists in ascertaining the limits of the control of verse over its subject-matter, over mental, emotional, moral concerns. But how can modern poets borrowing the verbal and psychological means of other techniques not themselves perfected, hope for scientific certainty, a perfect form in their own medium, by following such a method? The great poet must also be a scientist ... now. Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 7.8.2006 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international october transcribe mark einde etol new anthology modern poetry edit introduction selden rodman random house new york important certainly reprinting poem anthology editor theoretical approach task selection approach suggest vividly mr edmund wilson essay verse die technique recent publication book form bring sentient head grow suspicion american poetic profession poetry need advertising campaign poet acquire health poetry new professional distinct new political economic consciousness end poet begin graciously inflection accustomed extraverse oratory grandmanner cliche subtly divert sophisticated individual archibald macleish present editor selden rodman hesitate flush enthusiasm utter pretentiously inflate bromide behalf profession long introduction mr rodman discover swim english channel heavy proposition arrive actual good science conflict breast pass villainous wave max eastman maintain science withdraw intellect literature type stroke science man feel act science sociology modern man confidence dignity essential nobility necessary translation mere animal energy aspiration aspiration deed great scientist poet vision precept conceive great poet need scientist mind equal dignity dare orderliness mr rodman focus exigent element critical enterprise fare well refrain professional heat adopt grandiose approach solemnly question scientific method machine relation poetry raise section introduction confront moronic sort ghost examination mr rodman statement lead kernel widespread modern attitude traditional late guise aware butsomuch introduction give perceive mr rodman old saw saw poetry magic science credulous amazed eye poet layman believe shall illusion subject emerge great scientist great prophet great revolutionary mr rodman tell onetrack mind poet man rude examine mechanism mr rodman trick say great scientist poet great scientist onetrack mind poet man reading aptly produce source mr rodman authority word mr macleish salvo behalf magical profession poetry poetry july failure spirit failure poetry deliver mr macleish make clear refer present worldcrisis human spirit poetry prevent fascism categorically imply lead perfect world democracy certainly turn relatively trivial trick saw half remain believe trick reason mr rodman inept performer say great poet need scientist oblige assume statement equip late device type magic work wrong magician brief science inadequate believe bear mind great poet need scientist scientist order great field exact knowledge require partake mastery exact knowledge mr rodman dazzle declare poet man disillusion learn add great scientist poet necessary denouement trick warn foolish mess magic logic permissible assume mr rodman obviously conceive science sense scientific method conceive professional classification collection profession poetry time sun reserve good brightness science understand mr rodman anxiety expose traditional place sun eloquent art poetry art science valid way communicate knowledge section introduction end suggestion materialistic conception prove inadequate field achieve great triumph value regard inherent reality scientific thinking confine materialistic conception mr rodman wait science great triumph wither away operate body value think allow substitute mr rodman deceptive symbol poet man illuminating verifiable symbol poet medicine man value mind identify surety type mean mr rodman medicine man near wholeness mankind modern poet far primitive time art identify community life poetry merely dance dance identical worship prayer know dangerously platonic line thinking lead desperately positivistic assertion poet value mr rodman hundred year category poetry receive punishment wish appropriate meaning function purely hypothetical rate idealistic essence long magic poetry suppose poor man rich degraded envision heaven stayathome superior participant cook tour palliative console effect poetry question equally question fact palliative vulgar poetry practical function relation creative function thin romantic dreaming vulgar genre entrepreneur fat eclectic anthology poet mr rodman mere vague inutile theorizer wholeness poet medicine man find claim supernatural power necessary profession poet mr rodman authority claim realm absolute social type true leader search value impossible conceive man mr macleish mr rodman reasonable human being attach current exercise rhetoric preeminent interest distinct profession wisely unwisely consciously subconsciously formulate obviously represent current state mind result immediate economic tension immediate political tension characteristically interpret socially reactionary mode retreat professional refuge gird combined offensive defensive manoeuvre enemy case oppose enemy kindre interest accord social psychology integrate big camp think mere routine absolutizing mr rodman poetry great art practise adman gagman housewife corner grocer latent poet instance wishful thinking hypostatize crude element wit invest minor folk art grand art poetry notice mr rodman cut inept half adman gagman professional literary practitioner housewife corner grocer form large audience primarily analogy case poetry mr rodman make slightly rational effort body poetry place audience stage magician make accomplice action bind poetic morality poetic morality performer effort useless impossible cram poetry half ancient magical inheritance fail point primarily interest poetry housewife respond art adman buy corner grocer crush chainstore competitor momentarily release dilemma art movie gagman think mr rodman point inevitable absolute universal subservience science poetry finally inundate corrective light quote line jg fraser early time man engage search general rule turn order natural phenomena advantage long search scrape hoard maxim golden mere dross true golden rule constitute body apply science art false magic definition art poetry modern poetry apply science poem hypothetical machine destine product illusion preordain result supernatural spell true product field value know science merely difference interest science art obey hierarchy value placing poetry hierarchy value mr rodman place time need rarely exceptible psychological habit poet poet hallucinate head community sense today revert psychological state medicine man guilty good moral idealism bad professional advertising intelligent critical precursor sensitive poet mr rodman hart crane say accord quotation mr rodman include introduction represent individual symbol stage halfway critical realization mr rodman critical realization frazer virginal intuition pleasure virginal sense trepidation mr crane mention machine marriage poet poetry absorb machine ie acclimatize naturally casually tree cattle galleon castle human association past poetry fail contemporary function process infer program essentially involve specific mention single mechanical contrivance demand traditional qualification poet extraordinary capacity surrender temporarily sensation urban life evidently mr crane readily recognize machine concrete emergence principle scientific procedure development man historical effort control natural phenomenon merely advise poet surrender sensation provide machine think foreign hostile supernatural element propitiate nature propitiate savages crane program usual ambitious practise reveal operative magical inheritance poetry surround machine aura supernatural force society religion magical vestige thought remain crane bridge superstitious religious symbol brooklyn bridge subway like result inevitable rule see poetry art science arrive final conquest knowledge poetry arrive certain method limit nature application course moral problem today poetry solve method technique politic economic sociology perfectly fit sphere application extend set formula likewise poetry mr rodman include aware moral emotional atmosphere modernity poet worth salt extent aware place poetry atmosphere mr rodman poet apt fundamental error tend conceive machine appurtenance poetry magical bag trick need mention pass climactic line poem horace gregory fact die lesbian serenity hot cold chaste limb stiffen disconnect telephone cut wire idea relate mechanical contrivance elegiac emotion way magical poetical cheapen symbol emotion problem indicate take form bring machine poetry action think fundamental sense bring science machine modify technique derive specific iiranch scientific knowledge master bring subjective psychological document spoon river anthology vachel lindsay bring objective research anthropology congo auden bring vocabulary airmanship verse rukeyser bring datum social economic survey peculiar recent time verse new method emerge new subjectmatter sense method stand depend rarefy conception technique verse paul valery verse highly precise verbal style mechanical discipline composition poetry exclude concept machine form form poetry strive machine regardless grist case poetry far feel selfconsciously borrow strive expand annex literary technique hitherto consider alien poetic statement psychology sociology economic politic poetry primitive sense poetry poetry wish reclaim clause imprecise statement reform poetry art verse come social technique art science man express complex manner sum relation reality prophetic man wish mean versetechnique mean reclaim certain primitive social unity religion art soicety practically identical prophecy express equal great vehemence involve variety motive hand take road awareness machine principle poet valery relate social value social use machine conceiving poetic technique sort external expression inner principle poetry concretely identify solid modern pattern traditional form expression art verse true concrete sense keep time poetical science consist ascertain limit control verse subjectmatter mental emotional moral concern modern poet borrow verbal psychological mean technique perfect hope scientific certainty perfect form medium follow method great poet scientist page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update | 20 |
Written: April 24, 1954 Source: Struggle in the Fourth International, International Committee Documents 1951-1954, Volume 4 of 4, pages 222-231, from the collection Toward A History of the Fourth International, Part 3. Education for Socialists bulletin; issued by the National Education Department of the Socialist Workers Party (US). Transcription\HTML Markup: David Walters Editing and Proofreading: Andrew Pollack Pubic Domain: This work is in the Public Domain. Please cite the James P. Cannon Internet Archive, a sub-archive of the Marxists Internet Archive for credit. Los Angeles, Calif. April 24, 1954 New York THE APRIL 9 MEETING OF THE PABLOITE I. S. Dear Farrell: I received your letters of April 20 and 21 with the enclosed material from Ceylon and the Pabloite IS. It is quite clear now that relations between the Trotskyists and the Pabloites are entering a new and final stage. The announced refusal of the Pabloite IS to postpone their Congress signifies their determination to formalize the split on an international scale. That is their affair; there is nothing for us to do about it, but to recognize the fact and proceed from there. Our position on the Congress has been stated in the letter to Ceylon and made known to the international movement by its publication in the Internal Bulletin. We have nothing to add or detract from that. The postponement of the Congress was stated there as the prerequisite to arrest the trend toward a definitive international split and, possibly, to set a counter process into motion. The Pabloite IS circular of April 9 flatly rejects the postponement. This bars further negotiation, since there is no agreed upon common ground to begin with. Any discussion or negotiation over the composition of a commission to decide representation, or any other organizational and technical details of the Pabloite Congress, are a family affair of the Pabloite faction. We have nothing to say and nothing to offer in this respect. It is not our business. For us to become involved in any way in negotiations about these technical matters of the Pabloite Congress would not be simply a stupid organizational mistake, but a political crime. Such procedure would debase the great struggle for political principle into a petty game of organizational maneuver, at the moment when the Pabloites are adapting themselves to Stalinism more grossly and more treacherously than ever. This is shown most clearly in the program for a proposed International Workers Conference set forth in the appeal of the Pabloite IS under date of April 9. This is a program not of workers’ internationalism but of Kremlin diplomacy. I fully agree with your characterization of this program and cannot improve on your formulations: “They call for an armistice and free elections in Indo China, instead of the Trotskyist demand that the imperialists get out of Indo China and let the people there settle their own affairs. They call for admission of China to the UN, causing illusions about the UN. They call for prohibition of atomic weapons, a pacifist disarmament slogan.” Your comment, however, that “these shifts in line mark new adaptations to Stalinist policy,” appears to me as not entirely adequate. What struck me in the eye, on reading this Pabloite declaration, is that here for the first time they have openly thrown aside the Trotskyist program of revolutionary internationalism in favor of the pacifist diplomatic formulas of the Stalinists. This is not a mistake or an oversight but a calculated betrayal of our program, published in the name of the Fourth International. Here Pabloism takes off the mask and shows its real face. And all those who want to see, can see the reason why they chose this occasion for self revelation. The same April 9 session of the Pabloite IS, which issued this infamous declaration, made the decision to formalize the split with the Trotskyists who remain faithful to the program of revolutionary internationalism. The two actions fit together. The Pabloites had to cut the last thread connecting them with the Trotskyists before they felt free to dispense with diplomatic formulations and openly reveal their real program. We will see more of this from now on, and everything will become clear to everybody. Our interest on the international field henceforth is not to haggle over organizational formalities and technicalities with the Pabloite scoundrels, but to consolidate the forces of international Trotskyism in the struggle to defend the program of the Fourth International and to cleanse its banner of the Stalinist filth splotched upon it by the Pabloite gang. I fully agree with the party Secretariat that this Pabloite-Stalinist programmatic declaration must be publicly blasted in our press. However, I would like to make two suggestions. First, hold your fire a little while to see if the Cochranites dare to publish this appeal in their magazine. If the Cochranites don’t publish it, wait until you get a copy of the text as published in some other Pabloite paper. That will provide the best occasion for a suitable public answer on our part The readers of our press will be less interested if we appear to be answering some internal circular of the Fourth International. Second, along the same line, I don’t think our answer to this Pabloite program for an International Workers Conference should be connected with any comment about their decision to hold a Congress. As an internal affair of our international movement, that question was not of much interest to the general reader in the first place. And now, with the decision of the Pabloites to go ahead with a Congress of their own, the question has become narrowed down to an internal affair of the Pabloite faction. We should center our fire on their political program, not on their internal organizational affairs. It is above all necessary to recognize and to emphasize that, beginning with the April 9 session of the Pabloite IS, which closed the door on negotiations for a common Congress and simultaneously came out openly as a subsidiary supporter of Stalinist politics, we have entered a new stage in the struggle for the program of international Trotskyism and the reconstruction of its international organization. All questions of organizational formalities and technicalities, whether right or wrong in any given instance, which previously may have been a fit subject for discussion among the forces of orthodox Trotskyism, are washed out and worthless now. Nothing counts from now on but the lines of political principle which divide the Trotskyists from Stalinist agents and apologists. The realignment of the international movement can only take place on that basis. This is the real state of affairs and we must proceed from it. Nothing else matters now. Yours fraternally, James P. Cannon Back to the James P. Cannon Internet Archive Back to the History of the Fourth International page Back to the Marxists Internet Archive | left | write april source struggle fourth international international committee document volume page collection history fourth international education socialist bulletin issue national education department socialist worker party transcriptionhtml markup david walter edit proofread andrew pollack pubic domain work public domain cite james p cannon internet archive subarchive marxist internet archive credit los angeles calif april new york april meeting pabloite s dear farrell receive letter april enclose material ceylon pabloite clear relation trotskyist pabloite enter new final stage announce refusal pabloite postpone congress signify determination formalize split international scale affair recognize fact proceed position congress state letter ceylon known international movement publication internal bulletin add detract postponement congress state prerequisite arrest trend definitive international split possibly set counter process motion pabloite circular april flatly reject postponement bar negotiation agree common ground begin discussion negotiation composition commission decide representation organizational technical detail pabloite congress family affair pabloite faction offer respect business involved way negotiation technical matter pabloite congress simply stupid organizational mistake political crime procedure debase great struggle political principle petty game organizational maneuver moment pabloite adapt stalinism grossly treacherously show clearly program propose international worker conference set forth appeal pabloite date april program worker internationalism kremlin diplomacy fully agree characterization program improve formulation armistice free election indo china instead trotskyist demand imperialist indo china let people settle affair admission china un cause illusion un prohibition atomic weapon pacifist disarmament slogan comment shift line mark new adaptation stalinist policy appear entirely adequate strike eye read pabloite declaration time openly throw aside trotskyist program revolutionary internationalism favor pacifist diplomatic formula stalinist mistake oversight calculate betrayal program publish fourth international pabloism take mask show real face want reason choose occasion self revelation april session pabloite issue infamous declaration decision formalize split trotskyist remain faithful program revolutionary internationalism action fit pabloite cut thread connect trotskyist feel free dispense diplomatic formulation openly reveal real program clear everybody interest international field henceforth haggle organizational formality technicality pabloite scoundrel consolidate force international trotskyism struggle defend program fourth international cleanse banner stalinist filth splotch pabloite gang fully agree party secretariat pabloitestalinist programmatic declaration publicly blast press like suggestion hold fire little cochranite dare publish appeal magazine cochranite publish wait copy text publish pabloite paper provide good occasion suitable public answer reader press interested appear answer internal circular fourth international second line think answer pabloite program international worker conference connect comment decision hold congress internal affair international movement question interest general reader place decision pabloite ahead congress question narrow internal affair pabloite faction center fire political program internal organizational affair necessary recognize emphasize begin april session pabloite close door negotiation common congress simultaneously come openly subsidiary supporter stalinist politic enter new stage struggle program international trotskyism reconstruction international organization question organizational formality technicality right wrong give instance previously fit subject discussion force orthodox trotskyism wash worthless count line political principle divide trotskyist stalinist agent apologist realignment international movement place basis real state affair proceed matter fraternally jam p cannon james p cannon internet archive history fourth international page marxist internet archive | 21 |
Charlotte Wilson Archive Written: 1888. Source: Text from RevoltLib.com. Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021 The discussion on May 10th was very well attended. It was opened by Comrade Merlino. Communist Anarchism, he pointed out, is the logical outcome of the tendencies of the thought of our century, especially of the theory of evolution as applied to social development. As illustrations, he alluded to the growth of the new scientific attitude towards crime, and the practical modifications in an Anarchist direction which it is slowly beginning to introduce in the treatment of criminals; also to the growing tendency to criticize and distrust the system of representative government. The main objections generally raised to Socialism are based on the opposition of these obvious anti-authoritative tendencies of our time to the idea of time extension of the functions of government involved in State Socialism, and supposed to be an essential part of Socialism itself. The ordinary answer of the State Socialist is to criticize the abominations of existing society, and say, Can anything be worse? Comrade Merlino then reviewed the progress of the Socialist idea from its earlier shape at the time of the French Revolution, through the schools of Cabet, Fourier, etc., down to the International, showing that the principle of Anarchism, the hatred of domination, was part of the essential spirit of the whole movement, and that the development of Socialism, and the attempt to reduce it to practice , gradually brought this essential principle into clear and definite prominence as the avowed faith of the Anarchist section of the International. In reply, Comrade Blackwell, S.D.F., put forward the idea of Socialism, as understood by English Social Democrats. The labor, he said, of one man or woman us equal to the labor of another man or woman. A citizen is doing quite as useful a work in driving a tram-car as in setting type or writing a book: therefore, it is just that all should be equally remunerated, either in money or the free use of institutions, such as museums, reading rooms, etc. Also that those not able to work should, equally with the workers, have their needs supplied by money and the free use of public institutions. The able-bodied who refuse to work should be unpaid and excluded. This is Communism as Social Democrats understand it, and in this sense the great majority are Communists. As to economic and political organization, they propose the election for each commune (town, village, or country district) of an administrative council by universal suffrage, for a short term of office, to be dismissed at the pleasure of the majority of the commune, and to exercise strictly limited functions in public matters of local convenience, such as lighting, paving, tramways, housing, feeding, elementary and technical education, laboratories for experiments and the trial of inventions, medical service, organization of production and exchange, public amusements, libraries, coffee shops, etc. All details of administration in workshops and factories should be left to the workers: they would have to do their work, but the fashion of their doing it should be heft to themselves. They should elect their own foreman, and introduce improvements at their will. The Communal council should not prohibit individual competition with the public services (as the present Government does in the post office), but should allow anyone or any group to compete with the community on individualist lines if they chose, as long as the workers were voluntary workers. All details of general administration should be settled by I the referendum, e.g., what time the trains should be started in the morning. But just as there are matters to which the individual would have to be subordinated to the commune, so there are matters in which the commune (locality) should be subordinated to the nation. A body of administrators, appointed, or elected, by all the communes, would deal with great industries, agriculture, coal mining, metal working, weaving, etc., in such matters as affect the whole community; also with railways, canals, etc., and international exchanges. In conclusion, Comrade Blackwell demanded how such a decentralized social democracy as this contravened the desire for liberty and hatred of domination which Comrade Merlino had pointed out as the very essence of the Socialist movement? Such a method of organization, he contended, would serve but to maintain the greatest freedom for all, so long as that freedom was secured by time enlightenment of the whole community. As stepping-stones towards the Social Revolution, he defended the advocacy of palliative measures, such as the Eight Hours' Bill extension of the Factory Acts, etc., which would give the workers greater leisure to think and study. Comrade Blackwell's speech was exceedingly useful in bringing into clear relief the real differences of opinion between Social Democrats and Communist Anarchists. After an animated discussion, it was agreed to deal separately at a series of meetings with the various points raised. The first of these, and a question of the most fundamental importance, is, On what principle is wealth to be shared in a Socialistic Community---or in other words, What do we mean by Communism? This is to be the subject for the next meeting, when C. M. Wilson will read a paper on, Work and the Distribution of Wealth. The meeting will be held at 13, Farringdon Road, E.C., on Thursday, June 14, at 8.30 p.m. Charlotte Wilson Archive | left | charlotte wilson archive write source text revoltlibcom transcriptionmarkup andy carloff online source revoltlibcom discussion attend open comrade merlino communist anarchism point logical outcome tendency thought century especially theory evolution apply social development illustration allude growth new scientific attitude crime practical modification anarchist direction slowly begin introduce treatment criminal grow tendency criticize distrust system representative government main objection generally raise socialism base opposition obvious antiauthoritative tendency time idea time extension function government involve state socialism suppose essential socialism ordinary answer state socialist criticize abomination exist society bad comrade merlino review progress socialist idea early shape time french revolution school cabet fouri etc international showing principle anarchism hatred domination essential spirit movement development socialism attempt reduce practice gradually bring essential principle clear definite prominence avow faith anarchist section international reply comrade blackwell sdf forward idea socialism understand english social democrats labor say man woman equal labor man woman citizen useful work drive tramcar set type write book equally remunerate money free use institution museum read room etc able work equally worker need supply money free use public institution ablebodie refuse work unpaid exclude communism social democrats understand sense great majority communist economic political organization propose election commune town village country district administrative council universal suffrage short term office dismiss pleasure majority commune exercise strictly limit function public matter local convenience lighting pave tramway housing feeding elementary technical education laboratory experiment trial invention medical service organization production exchange public amusement librarie coffee shop etc detail administration workshop factory leave worker work fashion heft elect foreman introduce improvement communal council prohibit individual competition public service present government post office allow group compete community individualist line choose long worker voluntary worker detail general administration settle referendum eg time train start morning matter individual subordinate commune matter commune locality subordinate nation body administrator appoint elect commune deal great industry agriculture coal mining metal work weaving etc matter affect community railway canal etc international exchange conclusion comrade blackwell demand decentralized social democracy contravene desire liberty hatred domination comrade merlino point essence socialist movement method organization contend serve maintain great freedom long freedom secure time enlightenment community steppingstone social revolution defend advocacy palliative measure hour bill extension factory act etc worker great leisure think study comrade blackwell speech exceedingly useful bring clear relief real difference opinion social democrats communist anarchist animate discussion agree deal separately series meeting point raise question fundamental importance principle wealth share socialistic communityor word mean communism subject meeting c m wilson read paper work distribution wealth meeting hold farringdon road ec thursday june pm charlotte wilson archive | 22 |
J. V. Stalin Source : Works, Vol. 5, 1921 - 1923 Publisher : Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954 Transcription/Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, 2008 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2008). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. Comrades, the committee of your organisation has instructed me to deliver a report to you on the immediate tasks of communism in Georgia. The immediate tasks of communism are questions of tactics. But to be able to determine a party's tactics, particularly the tactics of a government party, it is first of all necessary to weigh up the general situation in which the party finds itself, which it must not ignore. What, then, is this situation? It scarcely needs proof that with the outbreak of the Civil War the world split up into two opposite camps, the imperialist camp headed by the Entente, and the socialist camp headed by Soviet Russia; that in the first camp are all kinds of capitalist, "democratic" and Men-shevik states, and in the second are the Soviet states, including Georgia. The principal feature of the situation in which the Soviet countries find themselves today is that the period of armed struggle between the two above-mentioned camps ended with a more or less prolonged armistice between them; that the period of war has been superseded by a period of peaceful economic construction of the Soviet republics. Before, in the war period, so to speak, the Soviet republics operated under the general slogan "All for the war," for the Soviet republics were a beleaguered camp, blockaded by the imperialist states. In that period, the Communist Party devoted all its energy to throwing all active forces into the work of building the Red Army, into strengthening the front of the armed struggle against imperialism. Needless to say, in that period the Party was unable to concentrate its attention on economic construction. It may be said without exaggeration that in that period the economics of the Soviet countries were confined to the development of war industry and to the maintenance, as best they could, of certain branches of the national economy, also connected with the war. This, indeed, explains the economic ruin that we inherited from the war period of the Soviet states. Now that we have entered the new period of economic construction, now that we have passed from war to peaceful labour, the old slogan "All for the war" is naturally replaced by a new slogan "All for the national economy." This new period imposes on the Communists the duty of throwing all forces on to the economic front, into industry, agriculture, food supply, the co-operatives, transport, etc. For if we fail to do this we shall be unable to overcome economic ruin. Whereas the war period produced Communists of the military type — supply officers, mobilisation officers, operations officers, and so forth, in the new period, the period of economic construction, the Communist Party must, in drawing the broad masses into the task of economic revival, train a new type of Communist, a communist business-manager — managers of industry, agriculture, transport, the co-operatives, and so forth. But, while developing the work of economic construction, Communists must not ignore two very important circumstances that we have inherited from the past. These circumstances are: firstly, the existence of highly industrialised bourgeois states surrounding the Soviet countries; secondly, the existence of a numerous peasant petty bourgeoisie within the Soviet states. The point is that by the will of history the Soviet power has triumphed, not in the more highly developed countries, but in those relatively less developed in a capitalist respect. History has shown that it is much easier to overthrow the bourgeoisie in countries like Russia, where capitalism is relatively young, where the proletariat is strong and concentrated and the national bourgeoisie is weak, than in the classical countries of capitalism like Germany, Britain and France, where capitalism has existed for several centuries, and where the bourgeoisie has succeeded in becoming a powerful force that controls the whole of social life. When the proletarian dictatorship is established in countries like Germany and Britain, it will, no doubt, be easier there to develop and complete the socialist revolution, i.e., it will be easier to organise socialist economy there, for industry is more developed there, it is more highly equipped technically, and the proletariat is relatively more numerous than in the present Soviet countries. For the time being, however, we are faced with the fact that, on the one hand, the proletarian dictatorship has been established in countries that are less developed industrially and have a numerous class of small commodity producers (peasants) and, on the other hand, that the bourgeois dictatorship exists in the countries that are more highly developed industrially and have a numerous proletariat. It would be unwise, thoughtless, to ignore this fact. Since the Soviet countries have abundant sources of raw materials and fuel, while the industrially developed bourgeois countries are suffering from a shortage of these, individual capitalist groups in bourgeois states are undoubtedly interested in concluding agreements with the Soviet states with a view to exploiting these sources of raw materials and fuel on definite terms. On the other hand, since the small producer class in the Soviet states (the peasantry) needs manufactured goods (textiles, agricultural machines), it is also undoubtedly interested in concluding an agreement with its proletarian government with a view to receiving such goods on a barter basis (in exchange for agricultural produce). The Soviet Government, in its turn, is also interested in concluding temporary agreements both with individual capitalist groups in foreign countries, and with the class of small commodity producers in its own country, for such agreements will undoubtedly accelerate and facilitate the restoration of the productive forces that were destroyed by the war, and the development of electrification, the technical-industrial basis of the future socialist economy. These circumstances dictate to the Communists of the Soviet states a policy of concluding temporary agreements both with individual capitalist groups in the West (with a view to exploiting their capital and technical forces), and with the petty bourgeoisie at home (with a view to obtaining the necessary raw materials and food products). Some people may say that these tactics of concluding agreements with the bourgeoisie smack of Menshevism, for the Mensheviks in their activities employ the tactics of agreements with the bourgeoisie. But that is not correct. There is a wide gulf between the tactics of concluding agreements with individual bourgeois groups, now proposed by the Communists, and the Menshevik tactics of concluding agreements with the bourgeoisie. The Men-sheviks usually propose the conclusion of agreements with the bourgeoisie when the capitalists are in power, when, in order to strengthen their power and to corrupt the proletariat, the capitalists in power are not averse from handing down from above some "reforms," small concessions to individual groups of the proletariat. Such agreements are harmful to the proletariat and profitable to the bourgeoisie, for they do not weaken but strengthen the power of the bourgeoisie, cause dissension among the proletariat and split its ranks. That is precisely why the Bolsheviks always opposed, and always will oppose, the Menshevik tactics of concluding agreements with the bourgeoisie when the latter is in power. That is precisely why the Bolsheviks regard the Mensheviks as vehicles of bourgeois influence on the proletariat. In contrast to the Menshevik tactics, however, the tactics of concluding agreements proposed by the Bolsheviks are of an altogether different character, for they presuppose an entirely different situation, one in which the proletariat and not the bourgeoisie is in power; and the inevitable result of the conclusion of agreements between individual bourgeois groups and the proletarian government must be the strengthening of proletarian power, on the one hand, and the disintegration of the bourgeoisie, the taming of some of its groups, on the other. It is only necessary that the proletariat should keep a tight hold on the power it has won and make skilful use of the resources and knowledge of these bourgeois groups for the economic revival of the country. You see that these tactics and the Menshevik tactics are as far apart as heaven and earth. Thus, to throw all active forces on to the economic front and, by means of agreements with individual bourgeois groups, to make use of the latter's resources, knowledge and organising skill in the interests of the economic revival of the country — such is the first immediate task dictated by the general situation to the Communists in Soviet countries, including the Communists in Georgia. It is not, however, sufficient to weigh up the general situation in order to be able to determine the tactics of individual Soviet countries, in this case, the tactics of Soviet Georgia. To be able to determine the tactics the Communists in each Soviet country must pursue, it is also necessary to take into account the particular, concrete conditions of existence of each country. What are the particular, concrete conditions of existence of Soviet Georgia, in which the Communist Party of Georgia has to operate? A number of facts that characterise these conditions can be established beyond doubt. First, it is beyond doubt that in view of the utter hostility of the capitalist states towards the Soviet countries, the totally isolated existence of Soviet Georgia, or of any other Soviet country, is inconceivable both from the military and from the economic point of view. The mutual economic and military support of the Soviet states is a condition without which the development of these states is inconceivable. Secondly, it is obvious that Georgia, which is suffering from a shortage of food products, needs Russian grain and cannot do without it. Thirdly, Georgia, having no liquid fuel, obviously needs the oil products of Azerbaijan, and cannot do without them, in order to maintain her transport and industry. Fourthly, it is also beyond doubt that, suffering from a shortage of goods for export, Georgia needs assistance from Russia in the form of gold for covering the deficit in the balance of trade. Lastly, it is impossible to ignore the distinctive conditions created by the national composition of the population of Georgia: a large percentage of this population consists of Armenians, and in Tiflis, the capital of Georgia, they constitute as much as half the population. This, undoubtedly, under any form of government and in particular under the Soviet regime, makes it the duty of Georgia to maintain absolute peace and fraternal cooperation both with the Armenians in Georgia and with Armenia. It scarcely needs proof that these, and many other concrete conditions of a similar kind, impose on Soviet Georgia, as well as upon Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan, the duty of in some way uniting their economic activities, of uniting their economic efforts, in order, say, to improve transport, for joint action in foreign markets, organisation of land reclamation schemes (irrigation, drainage), etc. I shall not dwell on the necessity of mutual support and contact between the Transcaucasian independent Soviet republics, and between them and Soviet Russia, in the event of our having to defend ourselves against attacks from outside. All this is obvious and indisputable. And if I mention these commonplace truths it is only because certain circumstances have arisen during the past two or three years which hinder such union, which threaten to frustrate attempts at such union. I am referring to nationalism — Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijanian — which has shockingly increased in the Transcaucasian republics during the past few years and is an obstacle to joint effort. I remember the years 1905-17, when complete fraternal solidarity was to be observed among the workers and among the labouring population of the Transcau-casian nationalities in general, when fraternal ties bound the Armenian, Georgian, Azerbaijanian and Russian workers into one socialist family. Now, upon my arrival in Tiflis, I have been astounded by the absence of the former solidarity between the workers of the nationalities of Transcaucasia. Nationalism has developed among the workers and peasants, a feeling of distrust of their comrades of other nationalities has grown strong: anti-Armenian, anti-Tatar, anti-Georgian, anti-Russian and every other sort of nationalism is now rife. The old ties of fraternal confidence are severed, or at least greatly weakened. Evidently, the three years of existence of nationalist governments in Georgia (Mensheviks), in Azerbaijan (Mus-savatists 2) and in Armenia (Dashnaks 3) have left their mark. By pursuing their nationalist policy, by working among the toilers in a spirit of aggressive nationalism, these nationalist governments finally brought matters to the point where each of these small countries found itself surrounded by a hostile nationalist atmosphere, which deprived Georgia and Armenia of Russian grain and Azerbaijanian oil, and Azerbaijan and Russia of goods passing through Batum — not to speak of armed clashes (Georgian-Armenian war) and massacres (Armenian-Tatar), as the natural results of the nationalist policy. No wonder that in this poisonous nationalist atmosphere the old international ties have been severed and the minds of the workers poisoned by nationalism. And since the survivals of this nationalism have not yet been eliminated among the workers, this circumstance (nationalism) is the greatest obstacle to uniting the economic (and military) efforts of the Transcaucasian Soviet Republics. Well, I have said already that without such union, the economic progress of the Transcaucasian Soviet Republics, and especially of Soviet Georgia, is inconceivable. Hence the immediate task of the Communists of Georgia is to wage a ruthless struggle against nationalism, to restore the old fraternal international bonds that existed before the nationalist Menshevik government came on the scene, and thus to create that healthy atmosphere of mutual confidence which is necessary for uniting the economic efforts of the Transcau-casian Soviet Republics and for the economic revival of Georgia. This does not mean, of course, that there ought no longer to be an independent Georgia, or an independent Azerbaijan, and so forth. In my opinion, the draft scheme that is circulating among some comrades for restoring the old gubernias (Tiflis, Baku, Erivan), to be headed by a single Transcaucasian government, is a utopia, and a reactionary utopia at that; for this scheme is undoubtedly prompted by the desire to turn back the wheel of history. To restore the old gubernias and to dissolve the national governments in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia would be tantamount to restoring landlordism and liquidating the gains of the revolution. This has nothing in common with communism. It is precisely in order to dispel the atmosphere of mutual distrust, and to restore the bonds of fraternity between the workers of the nationalities of Transcaucasia and Russia, that the independence both of Georgia and of Azerbaijan and Armenia must be preserved. This does not preclude, but, on the contrary, presupposes the necessity of mutual economic and other support, and also the necessity of uniting the economic efforts of the independent Soviet republics on the basis of voluntary agreement, on the basis of a convention. According to information I have received, it was recently decided in Moscow to render Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan some small assistance in the shape of a loan of 6,500,000 rubles in gold. Furthermore, I have learned that Georgia and Armenia are receiving oil products from Azerbaijan free of charge, something that is inconceivable in the life of bourgeois states, even such as are united by the notorious "Entente Cordiale." 4 It scarcely needs proof that these and similar acts do not weaken, but strengthen the independence of these states. Thus, to eliminate nationalist survivals, to cauterise them with red-hot irons, and to create a healthy atmosphere of mutual confidence among the toilers of the Transcaucasian nationalities in order to facilitate and hasten the uniting of the economic efforts of the Transcaucasian Soviet Republics (without which the economic revival of Soviet Georgia is inconceivable), while preserving the independence of Soviet Georgia—such is the second immediate task dictated to the Communists of Georgia by the concrete conditions of existence of that country. Lastly, the third immediate task, equally important and equally necessary, is to preserve the purity, staunchness and flexibility of the Communist Party of Georgia. Comrades, you must remember that our Party is the government party, that often whole groups of unreliable careerist elements, alien to the proletarian spirit, get into or try to get into, the Party and carry into it the spirit of disintegration and conservatism. It is the vital task of the Communists to guard the Party against such elements. We must remember once and for all that the strength and weight of a party, and especially of the Communist Party, do not depend so much on the quantity of members as on their quality, on their staunchness and devotion to the cause of the proletariat. The Russian Communist Party has all-in-all 700,000 members. I can assure you, comrades, that it could raise its membership to 7,000,000 if it wished to do so, and if it did not know that 700,000 staunch Communists constitute a much stronger force than 7,000,000 unwanted and good-for-nothing fellow-travellers. If Russia has withstood the onslaught of world imperialism, if she has achieved a number of most important successes on the external fronts, and if in the course of two or three years she has developed into a force that is shaking the foundations of world imperialism, this is due, among other things, to the existence of the united Communist Party, forged out of hard steel and tempered in battle, which has never gone out for quantity of members, but which has made its first concern the improvement of their quality. Las-salle was right when he said that the party becomes strong by purging itself of dross. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the reason why the German Social-Democratic Party, for example, the biggest Social-Democratic Party in the world, proved to be a plaything in the hands of imperialism during the imperialist war and collapsed like a colossus with feet of clay after the war was that for years it had devoted itself to enlarging its organisations by admitting all sorts of petty-bourgeois trash, which killed its living spirit. Thus, to preserve the staunchness and purity of its ranks, not to go out for quantity of Party members, systematically to improve the quality of the Party membership, to guard itself against an influx of intellectual, petty-bourgeois nationalist elements — such is the third and last immediate task of the Communist Party of Georgia. I am finishing my report, comrades. I pass now to the conclusions: 1) Develop all-round economic construction work, concentrating all your forces on this work and utilising in it the forces and resources both of capitalist groups in the West and of petty-bourgeois groups at home. 2) Crush the hydra of nationalism and create a healthy atmosphere of internationalism in order to facilitate the union of the economic efforts of the Trans-caucasian Soviet Republics, while preserving their independence. 3) Guard the Party against an influx of petty-bourgeois elements and preserve its staunchness and flexibility, systematically improving the quality of its membership. Such are the three principal immediate tasks of the Communist Party of Georgia. Only by carrying out these tasks will the Communist Party of Georgia be able to keep a tight hold on the helm and defeat economic ruin.(Applause.) Pravda Gruzii (Tiflis), No. 108, July 13, 1921 1. J. V. Stalin arrived in Tiflis at the end of June 1921 from Nalchik (where he had been taking a cure) to attend a plenary session of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the R.C.P.(B.) held jointly with representatives of the local Party and trade-union organisations. The session, which lasted from July 2 to July 7, discussed important questions of political and economic affairs in the Transcaucasian Soviet Republics. In the resolution it adopted on the report on the political situation, drafted under J. V. Stalin's direction, the Plenum defined the tasks of the Transcaucasian Communists and struck a decisive blow at the nationalist deviators. The Plenum adopted a decision to set up a commission to unite the economic activities of the Transcaucasian Soviet Republics. It also discussed the following questions: the condition of the Transcaucasian railway; currency circulation in the Transcaucasian Soviet Republics; the autonomy of Na-gorny Karabakh; Ajaria; the situation in Abkhazia, etc. At a general meeting of the Tiflis Party organisation held on July 6, J. V. Stalin delivered a report on "The Immediate Tasks of Communism in Georgia and Transcaucasia." This report was published in the newspaper Pravda Gruzii, No. 108 of July 13, 1921, and in the same year was also published in pamphlet form by the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the R.C.P.(B.). 2. Mussavatists—the members of the "Mussavat" Party, a nationalist party of the bourgeoisie and landlords in Azerbaijan, formed in 1912. In the period of the October Revolution and the Civil War it was the chief counter-revolutionary force in Azerbaijan. Supported by the Turkish, and later, by the British interventionists, the Mussavatists were in power in Azerbaijan from September 1918 to April 1920, when the Mussavat government was overthrown by the joint efforts of the Baku workers and the Azerbaijanian peasants, and of the Red Army, which came to their assistance. 3. Dashnaks — the members of the "Dashnaktsutyun" Party, an Armenian bourgeois-nationalist party, formed in the 1890's. In 1918-20, the Dashnaks headed the bourgeois-nationalist government of Armenia and transformed that country into a British interventionist base for fighting Soviet Russia. The Dashnak government was overthrown in November 1920 as a result of the struggle waged against it by the working people of Armenia, who were assisted by the Red Army. 4. This refers to the military and political agreement concluded between Great Britain and France in 1904. It marked the beginning of the formation of the Entente, the imperialist alliance of Great Britain, France and tsarist Russia. Collected Works Index | Volume 5 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive Marxists Internet Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol publisher foreign language publish house moscow transcriptionmarkup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source comrade committee organisation instruct deliver report immediate task communism georgia immediate task communism question tactic able determine partys tactic particularly tactic government party necessary weigh general situation party find ignore situation scarcely need proof outbreak civil war world split opposite camp imperialist camp head entente socialist camp head soviet russia camp kind capitalist democratic menshevik state second soviet state include georgia principal feature situation soviet country find today period armed struggle abovementione camp end prolong armistice period war supersede period peaceful economic construction soviet republic war period speak soviet republic operate general slogan war soviet republic beleaguered camp blockade imperialist state period communist party devote energy throw active force work build red army strengthen armed struggle imperialism needless period party unable concentrate attention economic construction say exaggeration period economic soviet country confine development war industry maintenance well certain branch national economy connect war explain economic ruin inherit war period soviet state enter new period economic construction pass war peaceful labour old slogan war naturally replace new slogan national economy new period impose communist duty throw force economic industry agriculture food supply cooperative transport etc fail shall unable overcome economic ruin war period produce communist military type supply officer mobilisation officer operation officer forth new period period economic construction communist party draw broad masse task economic revival train new type communist communist businessmanager manager industry agriculture transport cooperative forth develop work economic construction communist ignore important circumstance inherit past circumstance firstly existence highly industrialised bourgeois state surround soviet country secondly existence numerous peasant petty bourgeoisie soviet state point history soviet power triumph highly develop country relatively develop capitalist respect history show easy overthrow bourgeoisie country like russia capitalism relatively young proletariat strong concentrated national bourgeoisie weak classical country capitalism like germany britain france capitalism exist century bourgeoisie succeed powerful force control social life proletarian dictatorship establish country like germany britain doubt easy develop complete socialist revolution ie easy organise socialist economy industry develop highly equipped technically proletariat relatively numerous present soviet country time face fact hand proletarian dictatorship establish country develop industrially numerous class small commodity producer peasant hand bourgeois dictatorship exist country highly develop industrially numerous proletariat unwise thoughtless ignore fact soviet country abundant source raw material fuel industrially develop bourgeois country suffer shortage individual capitalist group bourgeois state undoubtedly interested conclude agreement soviet state view exploit source raw material fuel definite term hand small producer class soviet state peasantry need manufacture good textile agricultural machine undoubtedly interested conclude agreement proletarian government view receive good barter basis exchange agricultural produce soviet government turn interested conclude temporary agreement individual capitalist group foreign country class small commodity producer country agreement undoubtedly accelerate facilitate restoration productive force destroy war development electrification technicalindustrial basis future socialist economy circumstance dictate communist soviet state policy conclude temporary agreement individual capitalist group west view exploit capital technical force petty bourgeoisie home view obtain necessary raw material food product people tactic conclude agreement bourgeoisie smack menshevism menshevik activity employ tactic agreement bourgeoisie correct wide gulf tactic conclude agreement individual bourgeois group propose communist menshevik tactic conclude agreement bourgeoisie menshevik usually propose conclusion agreement bourgeoisie capitalist power order strengthen power corrupt proletariat capitalist power averse hand reform small concession individual group proletariat agreement harmful proletariat profitable bourgeoisie weaken strengthen power bourgeoisie cause dissension proletariat split rank precisely bolshevik oppose oppose menshevik tactic conclude agreement bourgeoisie power precisely bolsheviks regard menshevik vehicle bourgeois influence proletariat contrast menshevik tactic tactic conclude agreement propose bolsheviks altogether different character presuppose entirely different situation proletariat bourgeoisie power inevitable result conclusion agreement individual bourgeois group proletarian government strengthening proletarian power hand disintegration bourgeoisie taming group necessary proletariat tight hold power win skilful use resource knowledge bourgeois group economic revival country tactic menshevik tactic far apart heaven earth throw active force economic mean agreement individual bourgeois group use latter resource knowledge organise skill interest economic revival country immediate task dictate general situation communist soviet country include communist georgia sufficient weigh general situation order able determine tactic individual soviet country case tactic soviet georgia able determine tactic communist soviet country pursue necessary account particular concrete condition existence country particular concrete condition existence soviet georgia communist party georgia operate number fact characterise condition establish doubt doubt view utter hostility capitalist state soviet country totally isolated existence soviet georgia soviet country inconceivable military economic point view mutual economic military support soviet state condition development state inconceivable secondly obvious georgia suffer shortage food product need russian grain thirdly georgia have liquid fuel obviously need oil product azerbaijan order maintain transport industry fourthly doubt suffer shortage good export georgia need assistance russia form gold cover deficit balance trade lastly impossible ignore distinctive condition create national composition population georgia large percentage population consist armenian tiflis capital georgia constitute half population undoubtedly form government particular soviet regime make duty georgia maintain absolute peace fraternal cooperation armenian georgia armenia scarcely need proof concrete condition similar kind impose soviet georgia soviet armenia azerbaijan duty way unite economic activity unite economic effort order improve transport joint action foreign market organisation land reclamation scheme irrigation drainage etc shall dwell necessity mutual support contact transcaucasian independent soviet republic soviet russia event have defend attack outside obvious indisputable mention commonplace truth certain circumstance arise past year hinder union threaten frustrate attempt union refer nationalism georgian armenian azerbaijanian shockingly increase transcaucasian republic past year obstacle joint effort remember year complete fraternal solidarity observe worker labour population transcaucasian nationality general fraternal tie bind armenian georgian azerbaijanian russian worker socialist family arrival tiflis astound absence solidarity worker nationality transcaucasia nationalism develop worker peasant feeling distrust comrade nationality grow strong antiarmenian antitatar antigeorgian antirussian sort nationalism rife old tie fraternal confidence sever greatly weaken evidently year existence nationalist government georgia menshevik azerbaijan mussavatist armenia dashnak leave mark pursue nationalist policy work toiler spirit aggressive nationalism nationalist government finally bring matter point small country find surround hostile nationalist atmosphere deprive georgia armenia russian grain azerbaijanian oil azerbaijan russia good pass batum speak armed clash georgianarmenian war massacre armeniantatar natural result nationalist policy wonder poisonous nationalist atmosphere old international tie sever mind worker poison nationalism survival nationalism eliminate worker circumstance nationalism great obstacle unite economic military effort transcaucasian soviet republic say union economic progress transcaucasian soviet republic especially soviet georgia inconceivable immediate task communists georgia wage ruthless struggle nationalism restore old fraternal international bond exist nationalist menshevik government come scene create healthy atmosphere mutual confidence necessary unite economic effort transcaucasian soviet republic economic revival georgia mean course ought long independent georgia independent azerbaijan forth opinion draft scheme circulate comrade restore old gubernias tiflis baku erivan head single transcaucasian government utopia reactionary utopia scheme undoubtedly prompt desire turn wheel history restore old gubernia dissolve national government georgia azerbaijan armenia tantamount restore landlordism liquidate gain revolution common communism precisely order dispel atmosphere mutual distrust restore bond fraternity worker nationality transcaucasia russia independence georgia azerbaijan armenia preserve preclude contrary presuppose necessity mutual economic support necessity unite economic effort independent soviet republic basis voluntary agreement basis convention accord information receive recently decide moscow render georgia armenia azerbaijan small assistance shape loan ruble gold furthermore learn georgia armenia receive oil product azerbaijan free charge inconceivable life bourgeois state unite notorious entente cordiale scarcely need proof similar act weaken strengthen independence state eliminate nationalist survival cauterise redhot iron create healthy atmosphere mutual confidence toiler transcaucasian nationality order facilitate hasten uniting economic effort transcaucasian soviet republic economic revival soviet georgia inconceivable preserve independence soviet georgia second immediate task dictate communist georgia concrete condition existence country lastly immediate task equally important equally necessary preserve purity staunchness flexibility communist party georgia comrade remember party government party group unreliable careerist element alien proletarian spirit try party carry spirit disintegration conservatism vital task communist guard party element remember strength weight party especially communist party depend quantity member quality staunchness devotion cause proletariat russian communist party allinall member assure comrade raise membership wish know staunch communist constitute strong force unwanted goodfornothe fellowtraveller russia withstand onslaught world imperialism achieve number important success external front course year develop force shake foundation world imperialism thing existence united communist party forge hard steel temper battle go quantity member concern improvement quality lassalle right say party strong purge dross hand doubt reason german socialdemocratic party example big socialdemocratic party world prove plaything hand imperialism imperialist war collapse like colossus foot clay war year devote enlarge organisation admit sort pettybourgeois trash kill live spirit preserve staunchness purity rank quantity party member systematically improve quality party membership guard influx intellectual pettybourgeois nationalist element immediate task communist party georgia finish report comrade pass conclusion develop allround economic construction work concentrate force work utilise force resource capitalist group west pettybourgeois group home crush hydra nationalism create healthy atmosphere internationalism order facilitate union economic effort transcaucasian soviet republic preserve independence guard party influx pettybourgeois element preserve staunchness flexibility systematically improve quality membership principal immediate task communist party georgia carry task communist party georgia able tight hold helm defeat economic ruinapplause pravda gruzii tiflis july j v stalin arrive tiflis end june nalchik take cure attend plenary session caucasian bureau central committee rcpb hold jointly representative local party tradeunion organisation session last july july discuss important question political economic affair transcaucasian soviet republic resolution adopt report political situation draft j v stalin direction plenum define task transcaucasian communist strike decisive blow nationalist deviator plenum adopt decision set commission unite economic activity transcaucasian soviet republic discuss following question condition transcaucasian railway currency circulation transcaucasian soviet republic autonomy nagorny karabakh ajaria situation abkhazia etc general meeting tiflis party organisation hold july j v stalin deliver report immediate task communism georgia transcaucasia report publish newspaper pravda gruzii july year publish pamphlet form caucasian bureau central committee rcpb mussavatist member mussavat party nationalist party bourgeoisie landlord azerbaijan form period october revolution civil war chief counterrevolutionary force azerbaijan support turkish later british interventionist mussavatist power azerbaijan september april mussavat government overthrow joint effort baku worker azerbaijanian peasant red army come assistance dashnak member dashnaktsutyun party armenian bourgeoisnationalist party form dashnak head bourgeoisnationalist government armenia transform country british interventionist base fight soviet russia dashnak government overthrow november result struggle wage work people armenia assist red army refer military political agreement conclude great britain france mark beginning formation entente imperialist alliance great britain france tsarist russia collect works index volume index work decade j v stalin archive marxist internet archive | 23 |
In an attempt to discredit the progressive candidates, the Richmond Police Officers Association (RPOA) put out a flyer which claimed the Latino community and particularly undocumented immigrants were the source of Richmond’s drug and violence problem and that the progressive candidates opposed police efforts to control it. In a city which is about 35% African-American, 30% Latino (many undocumented), 20% white, and 15% Asian and others and suffers from large unemployment, homelessness and crime, the leaflet was an attempt to exacerbate racial divides, promote “#8220;tough-on-crime” politics, to discredit the progressives and support the “#8220;Chevron 3.” When the RPOA’s racist and xenophobic flyer came out, instead of trying to ignore or hide the attacks, a network in the Latino community, the progressive campaigns, and other progressives mobilized to publicize the flyer and fight back. They demanded that city officials, candidates and everyone else denounce it. An important boost to the counterattack was the support of Chief of Police, who quickly denounced the flyer as racist and harmful to ongoing efforts to build genuine alliances of the police department and the community. The Mayor put the issue on the city council agenda and led the official criticism of the hit-piece. As a result, the city council passed a resolution denouncing the flyer and the RPOA-endorsed candidates had to dissociate themselves from the flyer which was intended to support their campaigns. The racist flyer became the symbol for the difference between the candidates’ campaigns. The progressives were for a Richmond that united the large African-American, Latino, Asian and white communities while the incumbents represented the politics of pitting them against each other. This great community response by no means solves the great race divide in Richmond, and racism still played a big role in the election. We believe that a key reason for Beckles’ defeat was a last-minute flyer in support of the African-American Chevron 3 candidate and given wide distribution in the African-American community that took the position that Jovanka (a Black Latina) should not be counted as Black — because, after all, she speaks fluent Spanish and is an immigrant. ATC 139, March-April 2009 | left | attempt discredit progressive candidate richmond police officer association rpoa flyer claim latino community particularly undocumented immigrant source richmond drug violence problem progressive candidate oppose police effort control city africanamerican latino undocumented white asian suffer large unemployment homelessness crime leaflet attempt exacerbate racial divide promote politic discredit progressive support rpoa racist xenophobic flyer come instead try ignore hide attack network latino community progressive campaign progressive mobilize publicize flyer fight demand city official candidate denounce important boost counterattack support chief police quickly denounce flyer racist harmful ongoing effort build genuine alliance police department community mayor issue city council agenda lead official criticism hitpiece result city council pass resolution denounce flyer rpoaendorse candidate dissociate flyer intend support campaign racist flyer symbol difference candidate campaign progressive richmond unite large africanamerican latino asian white community incumbent represent politic pit great community response means solve great race divide richmond racism play big role election believe key reason beckle defeat lastminute flyer support africanamerican chevron candidate give wide distribution africanamerican community take position jovanka black latina count black speak fluent spanish immigrant atc marchapril | 24 |
Marie Louise Berneri Archive Written: 1944. Source: Text from RevoltLib.com. Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021 Books about Spain have been written either by learned professors who write history ignoring completely working class movements and the existence of the class struggle and who therefore put fanciful interpreta- tions on events they are unable to understand, or by journalists who feel qualified to write about Spain after spending only a few days or a few weeks in the country and without having acquired any previous knowledge of the historical background of the people. Such books sometimes contain brilliant passages, like Borkenau’s Spanish Cockpit or George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, but are also full of inexacti- tudes and hasty generalizations. They are also often written with a bias to suit the political fashion of the moment Several books were written about the Spanish revolution which did not mention the work of the Anarchist movement or even its existence. On the other hand, because it is popular to boost the Communists, most of the work done during the revolution was attributed to them. The Spanish Labyrinth* stands apart from all these books, both for the erudition which the author displays and for his objective approach to the subject. Gerald Brenan did not use any expedient method to write this book. He has taken great pains to find the truth and to be fair to all the parties he deals with, and if sometimes the book contains inaccuracies one feels that they are due to misinformation rather than to political prejudice. Brenan’s book is made interesting and penetrating by his sympathy for the subject he has treated. He loves Spain and the Spaniards and has a particular understanding of the Spanish peasants among whom he lived so long, not as a tourist but as one of them, sharing their houses* their food, their talk, their songs and dances. An historian should attempt to experience in imagination the feelings and reactions of the people he describes, and he is able to do this only if he can, so to speak, put himself in their place. Brenan is extremely gifted in that respect. He has dealt with his subject not only as a scholar but also as an artist and a psychologist. This has enabled him to understand actions which* not being a revolutionary himself, he cannot approve, such as the burning of churches, the throwing of bombs, the killing of priests, the expropriation of landlords and many other acts of revolt of the Spanish workers. He sees these facts in their right perspective and makes fun of the reactionaries who, at the slightest movement of revolt among the masses, are prepared to see the whole working class as a mob of criminals. He effectively debunks atrocity stories, a task which, unfor- tunately, historians are not often willing to undertake, particularly when these stories are used to discredit national or class enemies. Brenan says that already in 1873 the most infamous stories were circu- lated against the Anarchists. The Carlists, who were the equivalent of the Fascists of to-day, issued two pseudo-anarchist papers to give more weight to their atrocity stories. The front page of one of them, Los Descamisados (The Shirtless), bore the following battle cry : 900,000 heads! Let us tear the vault of heaven as though it were a paper roof! Property is theft! Complete, utter social equality! Free Love! After the Asturian rising of October 1934 accusations of atrocities were again circulated on a big scale against the revolutionary workers. Brenan says : The most incredible tales were solemnly told and vouched for. The nuns at Oyiedo were said to have been raped: the eyes of twenty children of the police at Trubia were said to have been put out: priests, monks and children had been burnt alive: whilst the priest of Suma de Lagreo was declared to have been murdered and his body hung on a hook with the notice “Pig’s meat sold here” suspended over it. Although the mose careful search by independent journalists and Radical deputies — members that is, of the party then in power — revealed no trace of any of these horrors, and although the considerable sums raised for the twenty blinded children had to be devoted to other purposes because none of these children could be found, these and other stories continued to be repeated in the Right-wing press for months afterwards. Of the terrorist methods used by the Anarchists at the end of the last century Brenan gives a very penetrating explanation particularly important as these acts are almost universally condemned and are still held against Anarchism : The nineties were everywhere the period of anarchist terrorism. We have seen how the loss of its working-class adherents and the stupidity of the police repression led to this. But there were other causes as well. The reign of the bourgeoisie was now at its height. The meanness, their Philis- tinism, their insufferable self-righteousness weighed upon everything. They had created a world that was both dull and ugly and they were so firmly established in it that it seemed hopeless even to dream of revolution. The desire to shake by some violent action the complacency of this huge, inert and stagnant mass of middle-class opinion became irresistible. Artists and writers shared this feeling. Onei must put such books as Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pecuchet and Huysman’s A Rebours, Butler’s and Wilde’s epigrams and Nietzsche’s savage outbursts in the same category as the bombs of the Anarchists. To shock, to infuriate, to register one’s protest became the only thing that any decent or sensitive man could do. One could make many more quotations to show that Brenan’s attitude is not hampered by prejudices and that his judgments are not delivered according to a fixed code of bourgeois morality. * * * The Spanish Labyrinth is divided into three parts. The first part describes the history of the old regime, and that is to say the political regimes in Spain from 1874 to 1931. This part is mostly a chronicle of events. The second part which, from a social point of view, is the most interesting, deals in detail with the conditions of the working classes and contains a careful analysis of : the agrarian question, the Anarchists, the Anarcho-syndicalists, the Carlists, the Socialists. The third part deals with the events in Spain after 1931, after the fall of the monarchy and the institution of the Republic. It contains a chapter on the history of the Popular Front and a short sketch on the history of the Civil War from 1936–39. It will be seen that the number of subjects treated justifies the sub- title of the book: “An account of the social and political background of the Civil War.” All the forces which came to clash during the revolution are analyzed here from their birth and the study of this book is indispensable if one is to understand properly the Civil War itself. Parts of the Spanish Labyrinth are of particular interest to Anar- chists and I should like to deal with them at length at the risk of giving them a prominence which they do not attain in the book itself. The first point of interest to Anarchists is the relation between Anarchism and the communalist movement in Spain. Spain resembles Europe of the Middle Ages, when communes had a great deal of auto- nomy and when each member played an active role in the running of the communities. Unlike the communes in Medieval Germany, France and Italy, which flourished mostly in the towns and were composed of artisans and merchants, the communes in Spain existed mostly in the countryside and were composed of peasants, herdsmen, shepherds. There were also communes of fishermen on the coast. Provincial and municipal feeling was therefore very strong and every town was the center of an intense social life. This autonomy of the towns and villages allowed the full development of the people’s initiative and rendered them for more individualistic than other nations, though at the same time developing the instinct of mutual aid which has elsewhere been atrophied by the growth of the state. It is difficult to understand Spain if one has not read Mutual Aid, and, indeed, some of the pages of the Spanish Labyrinth would form a valuable supplement to Kropotkin’s work. Spanish communalist insti- tutions would have offered Kropotkin a tremendous amount of material to illustrate his theory of Mutual Aid, but it is probable that the material was not available to him at the time. Brenan’s book has filled the gap to a great extent by giving examples of agricultural and fisherman’s communities which have survived through centuries, independent of the central authority of the government. While communes in the rest of Europe were gradually absorbed by the state and had lost most of their liberties and privileges by the middle of the XHIth century they survived much longer in Spain. There is of course nothing very remarkable about this communal system of cultivating the land. It was once general— in Rusfeia (the mir\ in Germany (the flurzwang), in England (the open-field system). What is, remarkable is that in Spain the villiage communities spontaneously developed on this basis an extensive system of municipal services, to the point of their sometimes reaching an advanced stage of communism ... One may ask what there is in the Spanish character or in the economic circum- stances of the country that has led to this surprising development. It is clear that the peculiar agrarian conditions of the Peninsula, the great isolation of the many villages and the delay in the growth of even an elementary capitalist system have all played their part. But they have not been the only factors at work. When one considers the number of guilds or confraternities that till recently owned land and worked it in common to provide old age and sickness insurance for their members: or such popular institutions as the Cort de la Seo at Valencia which regulated on a purely voluntary basis a complicated system of irrigation: or else the surprising development in recent years of productive cooperative societies in which peasants and fishermen acquired the instruments of their labor, the land they needed, the necessary installations and began to produce and sell in common: one has to recognize that the Spanish working-classes show a spontaneous talent for cooperation that exceeds anything that can be found to-day in other European countries. When one takes into account the fertile growth of communistic institutions, the mutual aid displayed among peasants, fishermen and artisans, the spirit of independence in the towns and villages, it is not difficult to understand why anarchist ideas found such a propitious soil in Spain. The theories of the Anarchists, and of Bakunin and Kropotkin in particular, are based on the belief that men are bound together by the instinct of mutual aid, that they can live happily and peacefully in a free society. Bakunin through his natural sympathy for the peasants, Kropotkin through his study of the life of animals, of the primitive societies and the Middle-Ages, had both reached the conclusion that men are able to live happily and show their social and creative abilities in a society free from any central and authaoritarian government. These anarchist theories correspond to the experiences of the Spanish people. Wherever they were free to organize themselves inde- pendntly they had improved their lot, but when the central government of Madrid through the landlords, the petty bureaucrats, the police and the army, interfered with their lives, it always brought them oppression and poverty. The Socialist party with its distrust of the social instincts of men, with its belief in a central, all-wise authority, went against the age-long experience of the Spanish workers and peasants. It demanded from them the surrender of the liberties they had fought hard to preserve through centuries and for that reason never acquired the influence which the Anarchist Movement attained. Another cause for the rapid and extensive growth of the Anarchist Movement in Spain was, according to Brenan, the intense religious feelings of the people, particularly the peasants. This may at first seem paradoxical. The Anarchists in Spain, perhaps more than in any other country, bitterly attacked religion and the Church. They issued hundreds of books and pamphlets denouncing the fallacy of religion and the corruption of the Church; they even went as far as burning churches and killing priests. Brenan does not ignore this, but he distinguishes between the Christian beliefs of the Spanish masses and their intense dislike of the Church, and one must admit that his interpretation of the relation between religion and Anarchism is very convincing. He describes the Spaniards, and in particular the peasants, as a very religious people. By religion he does not mean, of course, belief in and submission to the Church but a faith in spiritual values, in the need for men to reform themselves, in the fraternity which should exist among all men. At the beginning of the XIXth century a general decay of religious faith took place, but religion had meant so much to the poor that they were left with the hunger for something to replace it and this could only be one of the political doctrines, Anarchism or Socialism. Anarchism by its insistence on brotherhood between men, on the necessity for a moral regeneration of mankind, on the need for faith, came nearer to the Christian ideas of the .Spanish peasant than the dry, soulless, mater- ialistic theories of the Marxists. The Spanish peasants took literally the frequent allusions in the Scriptures to the wickedness of the rich; the Church of course could not admit this. The Spanish people in their turn could not forgive the Church for having abandoned the teach- ings of Christ nor could the Church forgive them for interpreting to the letter the teachings of the gospels. Brenan suggests that the anger of the Spanish Anarchists against the Church is the anger of an intensely religious people who feel that they have been deserted and deceived. Brenan forsaw that his interpretation would give rise to many criticisms (from the Anarchists and even more from religious people), and he says : It may be thought that I have stressed too much the religious element because Spanish Anarchism is after all a political doctrine. But the aims of the Anarchists were always much wider and their teachings more personal than anything which can be included under the word politics. To individuals they offered a way of life: Anarchism had to be lived as well as worked for. This is a very important point. The Anarchists do not aim only at changing the government or the system; they aim also at changing the people’s mode of thinking and living, which has been warped by years of oppression. Whatever the cause of this attitude, whether religious or otherwise, it is important to stress it. Anarchists are always accused of having a negative creed, but critics overlook that Anarchism through its attempts to render men better even under the present system is in fact doing some positive and very useful work. Brenan has seen this very clearly and he refuses to judge the Anar- chists through their material achievements alone. He does not consider merely the number of strikes they have carried out, the rises in wages they have obtained or the part they have played in the administration of the country. Their role, he says, should be judged not in political terms but in moral ones, a fact which is almost universally ignored. For example, the role of Anarchists in educating the Spanish masses is often overlooked. While the Socialists thought that education was a matter for the state to deal with, the Anarchists believed in starting work immediately. As early as the middle of the last century Anarchists formed small circules in towns and villages which started night schools where many learned to read. At the beginning of this century Anarchist propaganda spread rapidly through the country-side and it was always accompanied with efforts to educate the masses. The Anarchist press not only published books by Kropotkin, Bakunin and the Spanish Anarchist newspapers were avidly read. The Anarchist movement had several dailies, but more important perhaps was the great number of provincial papers. In a relatively small province like Andalusia by the end of 1918 more than 50 towns had libertarian newspapers of their own. The work of editing these newspapers must have provided the members of the movement with a good deal of education and experience. The work of F. Ferrer in setting up free schools, the first outside the control of the Church, is well known. This education was not limited to book knowledge alone. Anar- chists were expected to give a good example by their private lives. Solidaridad Obrera, the Anarchist daily, in an article published in 1922, says that the Anarchist should set out to have a moral ascendancy over others. He should obtain prestige in the eyes of the workers by his conduct in the street, in the workshop, in his home and during strikes. They were equally anxious to bring honesty in the matter of sex. Brenan says; Anarchists, it is true, believe in free love — everything, even love, must be free — but they do not believe in libertinage. So in Malaga they sent missions to the prostitutes. In Barcelona they cleaned up the cabarets and brothels with a thoroughness that the Spanish Church (which frowns on open vice, such as wearing a bathing dress without a skirt and sleeves, but shuts its eyes to ‘safety valves’) would never approve of. The Anarchists tried to live up to their ideals within the movement itself. They had no paid bureaucracy like the other parties. In a country like Spain, where there is the greatest distrust for money and those who seek it, the attitude of the Anarchists brought them the sympathy of the masses. Brenan points out several times that the Anarchist leaders were never paid and that in 1918, when their trade union, the C.N.T., contained over a million members, it had only one paid secretary. Brenan’s book carries an encouraging message for the Anarchists. Though he himself considers Anarchism impracticable, he gives abun- dant proofs that it is deeply rooted in Spain. Unlike Fascism and Com- munism, it would not have to rely on foreign influences to come into being. The practice of mutual aid which maintained itself in the village and town communes, the aspiration of the Spanish people towards liberty, justice and the brotherhood of all men, their love of indepen- dence which gave rise to federalist aspirations, all point to the conclusion that only an anarchist system of society will be possible in Spain. Here I must say, however, a few words of disagreement with Brenan’s conclusions. Though he admits that the arbiters of Spain’s destiny must be the worker and the peasant, he believes that a govern- ment (of the right kind of course) must control Spain. He does not say where a good government can be found. He declares that a govern- ment in Spain should not depend on the church, the army or the land- lords; as on the other hand he does not seem to believe in the dictator- ship of the proletariat (which he rightly condemns in Russia) it is diffi- cult to see why he rejects so firmly the Anarchist solution. He also advocates strongly the collectivization of the land, but seems to expect that a “sensible government” could carry it out, when history shows that no government in Spain was ever prepared to go against the interests of the landlords. I think that Brenan has emphasized too much the agrarian nature of Anarchism. This is probably due to the fact that he lived in Andalusia, a completely agricultural region. Incidentally, he was criti- cised on this point by H. N. Brainsford who reviewed his book in the New Statesman, and who said : I witnessed their (the Anarchists’) astonishing success during the civil war in running factories with high principles as their chief equipment, and I was deeply moved by the schools they established for the sorely tried children of Madrid. Brenan also attaches, in my opinion, too much importance to the rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona. In his opinion all Castilians are authoritarians and all Catalans are independent and lovers of freedom. To maintain his thesis he makes certain errors of facts which it is not worth while to discuss here. He is again far from the truth when he attributes practically all the burning of churches to Anarchists; in fact the burning of churches occurred everywhere spontaneously, and took place sometimes in villages and towns where there were no Anarchists. However, these are mostly details, and do not prevent the book from being a very serious contribution to the history of revolutionary movements. Brenan, who lived so long in Spain, seems to have been influenced by its communal institutions, and has written his book in the spirit of the craftsman of the Middle Ages. Like them he has produced his chef-d’oeuvre which is the test of his love for his art and his respect for his fellow men for whom the book is written. The Sapnish Labyrinth has been created with that painstaking and disinter- ested love which characterizes all lasting works. (Source: MARIE LOUISE BERNERI was an editor of War Commentary and later Freedom, until her death at the age of 31 in 1949. She was the author of Journey Through Utopia (Routledge) and Neither East Nor West (Freedom Press). Her article was originally written for Now in 1944 as a review of the original edition of Brenan’s book. Published in Anarchy #005.) Marie Louise Berneri Archive | left | marie louise berneri archive write source text revoltlibcom transcriptionmarkup andy carloff online source revoltlibcom book spain write learn professor write history ignore completely work class movement existence class struggle fanciful interpreta tion event unable understand journalist feel qualified write spain spend day week country having acquire previous knowledge historical background people book contain brilliant passage like borkenau spanish cockpit george orwell homage catalonia inexacti tude hasty generalization write bias suit political fashion moment book write spanish revolution mention work anarchist movement existence hand popular boost communist work revolution attribute spanish labyrinth stand apart book erudition author display objective approach subject gerald brenan use expedient method write book take great pain find truth fair party deal book contain inaccuracy feel misinformation political prejudice brenan book interesting penetrate sympathy subject treat love spain spaniard particular understanding spanish peasant live long tourist share house food talk song dance historian attempt experience imagination feeling reaction people describe able speak place brenan extremely gifted respect deal subject scholar artist psychologist enable understand action revolutionary approve burning church throwing bomb killing priest expropriation landlord act revolt spanish worker see fact right perspective make fun reactionary slight movement revolt masse prepared work class mob criminal effectively debunk atrocity story task unfor tunately historian willing undertake particularly story discredit national class enemy brenan say infamous story circu late anarchist carlist equivalent fascist today issue pseudoanarchist paper weight atrocity story page los descamisado shirtless bear follow battle cry head let tear vault heaven paper roof property theft complete utter social equality free love asturian rise october accusation atrocity circulate big scale revolutionary worker brenan say incredible tale solemnly tell vouch nun oyiedo say rape eye child police trubia say priest monk child burn alive whilst priest suma de lagreo declare murder body hang hook notice pig meat sell suspend mose careful search independent journalist radical deputy member party power reveal trace horror considerable sum raise blind child devote purpose child find story continue repeat rightwe press month terrorist method anarchist end century brenan give penetrate explanation particularly important act universally condemn hold anarchism ninety period anarchist terrorism see loss workingclass adherent stupidity police repression lead cause reign bourgeoisie height meanness philis tinism insufferable selfrighteousness weigh create world dull ugly firmly establish hopeless dream revolution desire shake violent action complacency huge inert stagnant mass middleclass opinion irresistible artist writer share feeling onei book flaubert bouvard et pecuchet huysman rebour butler wilde epigram nietzsche savage outburst category bomb anarchist shock infuriate register protest thing decent sensitive man quotation brenan attitude hamper prejudice judgment deliver accord fix code bourgeois morality spanish labyrinth divide part describe history old regime political regime spain chronicle event second social point view interesting deal detail condition working class contain careful analysis agrarian question anarchist anarchosyndicalist carlist socialist deal event spain fall monarchy institution republic contain chapter history popular short sketch history civil war see number subject treat justifie sub title book account social political background civil war force come clash revolution analyze birth study book indispensable understand properly civil war part spanish labyrinth particular interest anar chist like deal length risk give prominence attain book point interest anarchist relation anarchism communalist movement spain spain resemble europe middle age commune great deal auto nomy member play active role running community unlike commune medieval germany france italy flourish town compose artisan merchant commune spain exist countryside compose peasant herdsmen shepherd commune fisherman coast provincial municipal feeling strong town center intense social life autonomy town village allow development people initiative render individualistic nation time develop instinct mutual aid atrophy growth state difficult understand spain read mutual aid page spanish labyrinth form valuable supplement kropotkin work spanish communalist insti tution offer kropotkin tremendous material illustrate theory mutual aid probable material available time brenan book fill gap great extent give example agricultural fisherman community survive century independent central authority government commune rest europe gradually absorb state lose liberty privilege middle xhith century survive long spain course remarkable communal system cultivate land general rusfeia mir germany flurzwang england openfield system remarkable spain villiage community spontaneously develop basis extensive system municipal service point reach advanced stage communism ask spanish character economic circum stance country lead surprising development clear peculiar agrarian condition peninsula great isolation village delay growth elementary capitalist system play factor work consider number guild confraternitie till recently own land work common provide old age sickness insurance member popular institution cort de la seo valencia regulate purely voluntary basis complicated system irrigation surprising development recent year productive cooperative society peasant fisherman acquire instrument labor land need necessary installation begin produce sell common recognize spanish workingclasse spontaneous talent cooperation exceed find today european country take account fertile growth communistic institution mutual aid display peasant fisherman artisan spirit independence town village difficult understand anarchist idea find propitious soil spain theory anarchist bakunin kropotkin particular base belief man bind instinct mutual aid live happily peacefully free society bakunin natural sympathy peasant kropotkin study life animal primitive society middleage reach conclusion man able live happily social creative ability society free central authaoritarian government anarchist theory correspond experience spanish people free organize inde pendntly improve lot central government madrid landlord petty bureaucrat police army interfere life bring oppression poverty socialist party distrust social instinct man belief central allwise authority go agelong experience spanish worker peasant demand surrender liberty fight hard preserve century reason acquire influence anarchist movement attain cause rapid extensive growth anarchist movement spain accord brenan intense religious feeling people particularly peasant paradoxical anarchist spain country bitterly attack religion church issue hundred book pamphlet denounce fallacy religion corruption church go far burn church kill priest brenan ignore distinguish christian belief spanish masse intense dislike church admit interpretation relation religion anarchism convincing describe spaniard particular peasant religious people religion mean course belief submission church faith spiritual value need man reform fraternity exist man beginning xixth century general decay religious faith take place religion mean poor leave hunger replace political doctrine anarchism socialism anarchism insistence brotherhood man necessity moral regeneration mankind need faith come near christian idea spanish peasant dry soulless mater ialistic theory marxist spanish peasant take literally frequent allusion scripture wickedness rich church course admit spanish people turn forgive church having abandon teach ing christ church forgive interpret letter teaching gospel brenan suggest anger spanish anarchist church anger intensely religious people feel desert deceive brenan forsaw interpretation rise criticism anarchist religious people say think stress religious element spanish anarchism political doctrine aim anarchist wide teaching personal include word politic individual offer way life anarchism live work important point anarchist aim change government system aim change people mode thinking living warp year oppression cause attitude religious important stress anarchist accuse have negative creed critic overlook anarchism attempt render man well present system fact positive useful work brenan see clearly refuse judge anar chist material achievement consider merely number strike carry rise wage obtain play administration country role say judge political term moral one fact universally ignore example role anarchist educate spanish masse overlook socialist think education matter state deal anarchist believe start work immediately early middle century anarchist form small circule town village start night school learn read beginning century anarchist propaganda spread rapidly countryside accompany effort educate masse anarchist press publish book kropotkin bakunin spanish anarchist newspaper avidly read anarchist movement daily important great number provincial paper relatively small province like andalusia end town libertarian newspaper work edit newspaper provide member movement good deal education experience work f ferrer set free school outside control church know education limit book knowledge anar chist expect good example private life solidaridad obrera anarchist daily article publish say anarchist set moral ascendancy obtain prestige eye worker conduct street workshop home strike equally anxious bring honesty matter sex brenan say anarchist true believe free love love free believe libertinage malaga send mission prostitute barcelona clean cabaret brothel thoroughness spanish church frown open vice wear bathing dress skirt sleeve shut eye safety valve approve anarchist try live ideal movement pay bureaucracy like party country like spain great distrust money seek attitude anarchist bring sympathy masse brenan point time anarchist leader pay trade union cnt contain million member pay secretary brenan book carry encouraging message anarchist consider anarchism impracticable give abun dant proof deeply root spain unlike fascism com munism rely foreign influence come practice mutual aid maintain village town commune aspiration spanish people liberty justice brotherhood man love indepen dence give rise federalist aspiration point conclusion anarchist system society possible spain word disagreement brenan conclusion admit arbiter spain destiny worker peasant believe govern ment right kind course control spain good government find declare govern ment spain depend church army land lord hand believe dictator ship proletariat rightly condemn russia diffi cult reject firmly anarchist solution advocate strongly collectivization land expect sensible government carry history show government spain prepare interest landlord think brenan emphasize agrarian nature anarchism probably fact live andalusia completely agricultural region incidentally criti cise point h n brainsford review book new statesman say witness anarchist astonishing success civil war run factory high principle chief equipment deeply move school establish sorely try child madrid brenan attach opinion importance rivalry madrid barcelona opinion castilian authoritarian catalan independent lover freedom maintain thesis make certain error fact worth discuss far truth attribute practically burning church anarchist fact burning church occur spontaneously take place village town anarchist detail prevent book contribution history revolutionary movement brenan live long spain influence communal institution write book spirit craftsman middle age like produce test love art respect fellow man book write sapnish labyrinth create painstaking disinter este love characterize last work source marie louise berneri editor war commentary later freedom death age author journey utopia routledge east west freedom press article originally write review original edition brenan book publish anarchy marie louise berneri archive | 25 |
AS THE MAN appointed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to manage the secret files housed in the KGB, Communist Party and government offices, the late former General Dmitri Volkogonov utilized his privileged access by publishing a number of works, notably the lavishly acclaimed Lenin. A New Biography (New York: The Free Press, 1994). Throwing elementary good sense and fairness to the winds and devoid of any subtlety, the author, publishers and mainstream reviewers joined in a chorus proclaiming that this biography shows a heretofore unknown and truly diabolical Lenin. The old and complicated controversy about the relationship of "Leninism" to Stalinism practically disappears since, in this new view, there is a seamless continuity from Lenin to a Stalin who is hardly different from his predecessor. In quantitative terms, there is new material here. But the overwhelming bulk of this new material constitutes no more than additional evidence and further details on what are essentially very old issues and accusations against Lenin. The only qualitatively new discovery that I found in Volkogonov is that it may not have been Socialist Revolutionary activist Fanny Kaplan who shot Lenin in August of 1918, even though she was present at the scene and was summarily executed after taking responsibility for the assassination attempt. (Since the book was published, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Republic formally reopened Fanny Kaplan’s case on June 9, 1995.) In addition, Volkogonov confirms that Lenin’s maternal grandfather, Dr. Alexander Blank, was Jewish. The book also contains photographs of a barely recognizable Lenin taken shortly before his death. Collectors of socialist trivia will be reminded that the headmaster of Lenin’s high school was Alexander Kerensky’s father who, according to Volkogonov, often expressed his admiration for the ability and intelligence shown by Volodya Ulyanov. The additional evidence in Volkogonov’s book, bearing on many of the old accusations against Lenin do point to a truly horrible record of atrocities. Most Trotskyists, and people influenced by historians E. H. Carr, Isaac Deutscher and contemporary "revisionists" such as Stephen Cohen and Ronald Grigor Suny have tended to ignore, downplay or explain away this awful record. Some of the arguments that have been used in this effort are based on a convenient relativism which has since become especially fashionable in the Postmodernist era. A little more persuasive are those who argue that the atrocities were a situationally justifiable response to enemy ruthlessness, or understandable excesses born of the desperation caused by famine and war. Yet even the best of these arguments are ultimately unconvincing, as I discussed at length in Before Stalinism (Verso, 1990). For one thing, they fail to take into account how for "Leninism in power" repression became not only a necessary means to political survival but also a set of action emblematic of revolutionary commitment as such. Thus, toughness and brutal callousness came to be seen as intrinsic revolutionary virtues independent of whatever instrumental value they may have had in any given situation. This was evident in the widespread use of collective punishment directed against people belonging to certain classes or groups, as in the case of peasants during the "Green" rebellions (so named to distinguish them from the "White" inspired Civil War), knowing full well that these particular individuals had not engaged in any actions against the Bolshevik government. The same political posture of toughness and brutal callousness for its own sake can be detected in the regime’s strong proclivity to arbitrariness and contemptuous attitude to legality, including the laws adopted by the revolutionary government itself. "There are many aspects of this [Stalinist] mentality still inside me, and I lose them only slowly." General Dmitri Volkogonov as told to David Remnick, Lenin’s Tomb, 409. Having acquired Volkogonov’s book on Lenin after reading some very favorable reviews, I was not prepared to find how much the intellectual methods and tools of Stalinism thoroughly permeate this volume. One cannot help but be struck by Volkogonov’s vulgarity as expressed in an ad hominem "below the belt" gossipy tone, political crudity, and a tone-deafness and obtuseness concerning serious moral issues that he unproblematically deals with – all the while displaying a great deal of moral outrage, smugness and self-satisfaction. In fact, this book is an excellent example of how certain people dramatically change their substantive political positions without altering a certain method or approach to intellectual and political life. Here are some of the areas where Volkogonov displays his Stalinist-type approach: Demagogic, ad-hominem attacks. As Volkogonov tells it, Lenin and other "professional revolutionaries" (his quotation marks) lived quite well before as well as after coming to power. Thus, in describing Lenin’s life before the Revolution, Volkogonov writes that for seventeen years Lenin lived in the capital cities of Europe and stayed in some of the most congenial resorts (49). He then adds "neither in Russia nor abroad did Lenin suffer deprivation" (51) and "the fact is, Lenin, whether in Russia or abroad, was never short of money. He could decide whether to live in Bern or Zurich, he could travel to London, Berlin or Paris, visit Gorky on Capri...doss-houses and attics were not for him" (62). Volkogonov concludes by asking how could Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, having nothing in common with the working class, "had the right to determine the fate of a great nation, and to carry out their bloody, monstrous experiment." (63) Here, the former General has reached a low point even by the standards of Cold War historiography. Perhaps one could have found this sort of drivel in hard right-winger Stefan Possony, but not, for example, in Leonard Shapiro’s work. Political crudity. In writing a biography of Lenin, Volkogonov could not avoid dealing with the political theories of the Bolshevik leader, nor with the numerous political controversies in which he was involved. It is very clear that quite independent of Volkogonov’s retrospective political attitudes and identification with the period he covers (I would place him closest to the Kadets or Constitutional Democrats, pre-revolutionary Russia’s main bourgeois party), his understanding of the issues verges on political illiteracy. I suspect that many years ago the former General learned by heart the lessons and homilies contained in the Stalinist party manuals, but the passage of time and his newfound political ideas made him forget even that comic book version of the history of Russian Communism. Thus, for example, Volkogonov grossly underestimates the differences between the Marxist and populist/terrorist view of political violence (17), doesn’t have a clue about Lenin’s positions concerning participation in Duma elections (84), and does not at all understand Lenin’s views, whether before or after the "April Theses," on the nature of the future workers’ revolution in Russia and its relation to socialism (68-9). Moral Smugness and Obtuseness. One of the more striking features of Volkogonov’s biography of Lenin is that his numerous expressions of moral outrage are combined with a very shallow treatment of moral issues. At least one of Volkogonov’s moral accusations against the Bolsheviks demonstrates a great ignorance of elementary economics. Thus he is outraged to find that in December 1922, Lenin’s Politburo decided to export almost a million tons of grain while the country was starving and foreign countries were sending food aid to Russia. (345) Apparently,it did not occur to the author that countries need hard foreign currency to pay for a wide variety of essential articles other than food. To earn hard currency, a country has to export and it can only export goods that are both desired and competitive in the eyes of foreign buyers. What else could the newly founded Soviet Union have exported in 1922 after years of civil war and economic collapse? Volkogonov is if anything more outraged about the fact that the new Soviet government sent millions of gold roubles to support revolutionary political activities abroad, while their own people were dying in the hundreds and thousands from famine and disease. (400) With this, Volkogonov has stumbled onto a real moral dilemma, but is so blinded and self-satisfied with his own nationalism and opposition to revolution that he sees no dilemma at all. So, because he cannot see a dilemma, he attacks the Bolshevik government as immoral pure and simple. Volkogonov ignores that the Bolshevik government was, unlike himself, revolutionary and internationalist and saw its political survival as entirely dependent on the success of the world revolution. In light of this, the answer to the real problem the Bolsheviks confronted was far from simple as the former General claims. Volkogonov’s own moral obtuseness prevents him even from using his privileged access to the government and party files to find out whether the Bolshevik government, in their single-minded pursuit of world revolution, may have been in fact indifferent to famine and disease at home. But in order to raise the question in this manner you need at least a degree of empathy with revolutionary political goals – a task well beyond Volkogonov’s nationalist and anti-revolutionary philistinism. Evidence uncovered by a number of historians seems to indicate that Lenin, in addition to the famous means of transportation that allowed him and Martov among others to return to Russia, may have accepted money from the German government. This issue is still not fully settled; for example, it is far from clear as to how much money was actually transferred. Again, for Volkogonov this was a simple moral issue: treason to Mother Russia. Was there an issue of revolutionary morality involved here, even if it wasn’t the one Volkogonov imagines? This isn’t hard to test. Had Lenin softened his political critique of German imperialism or, even worse, advised the German revolutionaries to "go soft" on their own government and ruling classes because of the financial support he was obtaining from the German rulers, this would have been a violation of revolutionary morality. Nothing of the sort occurred as Leon Trotsky, among others, clearly demonstrated with his exemplary behavior at Brest Litovsk. Consequently, there was no moral issue here – except, of course, for a Russian nationalist or for a supporter of the Allied war effort. In this context, it is again worth noting Volkogonov’s obtuseness. He cannot understand why Lenin would not allow Parvus to return to Russia as a self-proclaimed supporter of the Bolshevik revolution, even though Parvus had apparently been instrumental in obtaining the German money for Lenin. Lenin rejected Parvus’ request, in mid-November of 1917, by stating that "the cause of the revolution must not be sullied by dirty hands." Volkogonov then comments: "Parvus was deeply disappointed. Were the Bolshevik hands that had taken his money any cleaner? His name, however, could only compromise Lenin. His appearance in Petrograd would only confirm the accusation of treason against the Bolsheviks."(125) Volkogonov is unable to see the critical moral and political distinctions involved here; namely, that Parvus, besides being a businessman, had politically supported Germany’s side on the war! Thus, politically and morally, Lenin could and should not have allowed Parvus to join the revolution as he had requested. Volkogonov’s explanation – that Parvus’ return would have confirmed that the Bolsheviks were German agents – is quite silly, inasmuch as it would have been easier for Parvus to "spill the beans" about German aid outside of Russia than in Petrograd. In fact, Volkogonov writes that once the German government cut off Parvus’ access to credit for new commercial ventures, he threatened to publish incriminating documents unless he was given one million marks. So much for Parvus’ newly found revolutionary faith. It is not known whether he was given the money or not, but there was no scandal at the time. While I believe that there were no moral issues involved in taking German money, there was a very real political problem at stake. The Bolsheviks were heavily attacked as German agents during a good part of the period immediately preceding and following the October revolution. A large part of the working class and especially the peasantry were at least "soft" on Russian nationalism. Thus, the Bolsheviks took a serious risk of grave political damage and isolation when they took money from the Germans. Obviously, they must have thought it was a political risk worth taking. In this context, I cannot help but again note Volkogonov’s vulgarity. Thus, he tells us that "when they came to power, however, the Bolsheviks had debts to repay, and this could only be done by way of national defeat." (189) Volkogonov also explores in great detail the execution of Tsar Nicholas Romanov and the entire royal family in July of 1918. There is little doubt that these executions were carried out in a devious manner. The government also justified its actions in a disingenuous and far less than straightforward fashion. Moreover, it seems that the government did not seriously consider the important distinction between the adult, presumably politically and morally responsible members of the Romanov family and their children. Granting all of the above considerations, there was still a very strong case to be made for bringing the Tsar and several of his adult relatives to trial, in order to publicly expose the Romanov’s crimes against the Russian and other peoples, and then shooting them instead of doing it all in secret behind the peoples’ back. Such a trial conducted by Russian revolutionaries would have been far superior to the Nuremberg Trials where the victorious imperialist powers executed leading Nazi war criminals. Hadn’t the Bolshevik leadership, as Volkogonov himself admits, earlier decided to go in precisely the direction of a public trial? (207) Was there any merit to the Bolsheviks’ claim that Civil War conditions in the location where the royal family was being held prevented the holding of a trial? How should the government have handled the Romanov children, who would have certainly become a symbolic rallying cry for the counterrevolution? These are the sort of questions required by a serious political and moral discussion. Volkogonov doesn’t even remotely approximate such a treatment of the event. Instead, he regales us with a second-hand report and highly dubious speculation about Lenin’s presumed admiration for the terrorist Nechaev (208) and, more tellingly, with the General’s own softness towards the Tsar. Thus, Volkogonov favorably contrasts the Tsar’s willingness to abdicate "in the name of the country’s good and tranquility" with the Bolshevik revolutionary drive that made them want to turn the imperialist war into a civil war, and concludes with the statement that "perhaps Nicholas was not an outstanding personality, but he was at least noble and brave." (217) What explains the welcome and for the most part uncritical mainstream reception to a book that just a few years ago would have been criticized, if not dismissed, as a cranky outburst of the then marginal Right? Robert Conquest, one of Volkogonov’s favorable reviewers ("The Somber Monster," New York Review of Books, v. xlii, no. 10, June 8, 1995, 8-12), had the intellectual honesty to suggest that it is our times and authors that have changed, rather than the available evidence about Lenin. Conquest reports that he himself had written a short biography of Lenin in the 1970s which "though thoroughly critical...reads very mildly today." Yet having stated that, Conquest joins, a few paragraphs later, in Volkogonov’s primitivism. He then tells us that, "reading Lenin’s Collected Works (or most of them, and at least skimming all), this reviewer found himself more depressed even than in studying Stalin. The obsessions with sheer destructiveness struck me as even more dominant, even more humorless than those of Stalin, to say nothing of the extreme virulence of his polemics against other radicals, noted by Martov as early as 1904." (8) Twenty years ago, a group of rightward moving French ex-Maoists "discovered" the slave-labor camps and many other monstrous atrocities committed by Stalin. Stalin’s crimes had for several decades been denounced by a wide variety of people ranging from Trotskyists, Anarchists and Social Democrats to liberals, democrats and Cold Warriors of every political shading. Besides, this very question had embroiled the French left in intense controversies during the forties and fifties. None of that prevented these so-called "New Philosophers" from adopting an air of fresh discovery and injured innocence, thus easing their drift with a right©wing wind. Nobody should be fooled by the mainstream reviewers’ portrayal of Volkogonov as a conscience-stricken or disinterested historian, bravely pursuing the truth and clearing the historical record. While this book is ostensibly dedicated to unearthing the real antecedents of Stalinism, it is even more dedicated to discrediting revolutionary ideas in the eyes of the former Soviet peoples and foreign readers. Volkogonov leaves no doubt, throughout this volume, that he thinks that the evils committed by Lenin were the inevitable consequence of the Bolshevik leader having followed a revolutionary, rather than an evolutionary, route in transforming Russia. Volkogonov tried to do for history what his boss Boris Yeltsin is attempting to do in the realm of politics and economics. Little surprise that in carrying out his task, Volkogonov turned out to be remarkably similar to Yeltsin, in his political ideas as well as in his fundamental lack of moral and human sensibility. This review essay was completed prior to the posthumous publication of Dmitri Volkogonov’s work on Trotsky. ATC 63, July-August 1996 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | man appoint russian president boris yeltsin manage secret file house kgb communist party government office late general dmitri volkogonov utilize privileged access publish number work notably lavishly acclaim lenin new biography new york free press throw elementary good sense fairness wind devoid subtlety author publisher mainstream reviewer join chorus proclaim biography show heretofore unknown truly diabolical lenin old complicated controversy relationship leninism stalinism practically disappear new view seamless continuity lenin stalin hardly different predecessor quantitative term new material overwhelming bulk new material constitute additional evidence detail essentially old issue accusation lenin qualitatively new discovery find volkogonov socialist revolutionary activist fanny kaplan shoot lenin august present scene summarily execute take responsibility assassination attempt book publish prosecutor general russian republic formally reopen fanny kaplan case june addition volkogonov confirm lenin maternal grandfather dr alexander blank jewish book contain photograph barely recognizable lenin take shortly death collector socialist trivium remind headmaster lenin high school alexander kerensky father accord volkogonov express admiration ability intelligence show volodya ulyanov additional evidence volkogonov book bear old accusation lenin point truly horrible record atrocity trotskyist people influence historian e h carr isaac deutscher contemporary revisionist stephen cohen ronald grigor suny tend ignore downplay explain away awful record argument effort base convenient relativism especially fashionable postmodernist era little persuasive argue atrocity situationally justifiable response enemy ruthlessness understandable excess bear desperation cause famine war good argument ultimately unconvincing discuss length stalinism verso thing fail account leninism power repression necessary mean political survival set action emblematic revolutionary commitment toughness brutal callousness come see intrinsic revolutionary virtue independent instrumental value give situation evident widespread use collective punishment direct people belong certain class group case peasant green rebellion name distinguish white inspire civil war know particular individual engage action bolshevik government political posture toughness brutal callousness sake detect regime strong proclivity arbitrariness contemptuous attitude legality include law adopt revolutionary government aspect stalinist mentality inside lose slowly general dmitri volkogonov tell david remnick lenin tomb having acquire volkogonov book lenin read favorable review prepared find intellectual method tool stalinism thoroughly permeate volume help strike volkogonov vulgarity express ad hominem belt gossipy tone political crudity tonedeafness obtuseness concern moral issue unproblematically deal display great deal moral outrage smugness selfsatisfaction fact book excellent example certain people dramatically change substantive political position alter certain method approach intellectual political life area volkogonov display stalinisttype approach demagogic adhominem attack volkogonov tell lenin professional revolutionary quotation mark live come power describe lenin life revolution volkogonov write seventeen year lenin live capital city europe stay congenial resort add russia abroad lenin suffer deprivation fact lenin russia abroad short money decide live bern zurich travel london berlin paris visit gorky capridosshouse attic volkogonov conclude ask lenin trotsky stalin have common work class right determine fate great nation carry bloody monstrous experiment general reach low point standard cold war historiography find sort drivel hard rightwinger stefan possony example leonard shapiro work political crudity write biography lenin volkogonov avoid deal political theory bolshevik leader numerous political controversy involve clear independent volkogonov retrospective political attitude identification period cover place close kadet constitutional democrats prerevolutionary russia main bourgeois party understanding issue verge political illiteracy suspect year ago general learn heart lesson homily contain stalinist party manual passage time newfound political idea forget comic book version history russian communism example volkogonov grossly underestimate difference marxist populistterrorist view political violence clue lenin position concern participation duma election understand lenin view april thesis nature future worker revolution russia relation socialism moral smugness obtuseness striking feature volkogonov biography lenin numerous expression moral outrage combine shallow treatment moral issue volkogonov moral accusation bolsheviks demonstrate great ignorance elementary economic outraged find december lenin politburo decide export million ton grain country starve foreign country send food aid russia apparentlyit occur author country need hard foreign currency pay wide variety essential article food earn hard currency country export export good desire competitive eye foreign buyer newly found soviet union export year civil war economic collapse volkogonov outraged fact new soviet government send million gold rouble support revolutionary political activity abroad people die hundred thousand famine disease volkogonov stumble real moral dilemma blind selfsatisfie nationalism opposition revolution see dilemma dilemma attack bolshevik government immoral pure simple volkogonov ignore bolshevik government unlike revolutionary internationalist see political survival entirely dependent success world revolution light answer real problem bolsheviks confront far simple general claim volkogonov moral obtuseness prevent privileged access government party file find bolshevik government singleminde pursuit world revolution fact indifferent famine disease home order raise question manner need degree empathy revolutionary political goal task volkogonov nationalist antirevolutionary philistinism evidence uncover number historian indicate lenin addition famous mean transportation allow martov return russia accept money german government issue fully settle example far clear money actually transfer volkogonov simple moral issue treason mother russia issue revolutionary morality involve volkogonov imagine hard test lenin soften political critique german imperialism worse advise german revolutionary soft government ruling class financial support obtain german ruler violation revolutionary morality sort occur leon trotsky clearly demonstrate exemplary behavior brest litovsk consequently moral issue course russian nationalist supporter ally war effort context worth note volkogonov obtuseness understand lenin allow parvus return russia selfproclaime supporter bolshevik revolution parvus apparently instrumental obtain german money lenin lenin reject parvus request midnovember state cause revolution sully dirty hand volkogonov comment parvus deeply disappointed bolshevik hand take money clean compromise lenin appearance petrograd confirm accusation treason volkogonov unable critical moral political distinction involve parvus businessman politically support germany war politically morally lenin allow parvus join revolution request volkogonov explanation parvus return confirm bolsheviks german agent silly inasmuch easy parvus spill bean german aid outside russia petrograd fact volkogonov write german government cut parvus access credit new commercial venture threaten publish incriminate document give million mark parvus newly find revolutionary faith know give money scandal time believe moral issue involve take german money real political problem stake bolshevik heavily attack german agent good period immediately precede follow october revolution large work class especially peasantry soft russian nationalism bolsheviks take risk grave political damage isolation take money germans obviously think political risk worth take context help note volkogonov vulgarity tell come power bolsheviks debt repay way national defeat volkogonov explore great detail execution tsar nicholas romanov entire royal family july little doubt execution carry devious manner government justify action disingenuous far straightforward fashion government seriously consider important distinction adult presumably politically morally responsible member romanov family child grant consideration strong case bring tsar adult relative trial order publicly expose romanov crime russian people shoot instead secret people trial conduct russian revolutionary far superior nuremberg trial victorious imperialist power execute lead nazi war criminal bolshevik leadership volkogonov admit early decide precisely direction public trial merit bolsheviks claim civil war condition location royal family hold prevent holding trial government handle romanov child certainly symbolic rallying cry counterrevolution sort question require political moral discussion volkogonov remotely approximate treatment event instead regale secondhand report highly dubious speculation lenin presume admiration terrorist nechaev tellingly general softness tsar volkogonov favorably contrast tsar willingness abdicate country good tranquility bolshevik revolutionary drive want turn imperialist war civil war conclude statement nicholas outstanding personality noble brave explain welcome uncritical mainstream reception book year ago criticize dismiss cranky outburst marginal right robert conquest volkogonov favorable reviewer somber monster new york review book v xlii june intellectual honesty suggest time author change available evidence lenin conquest report write short biography lenin thoroughly criticalread mildly today having state conquest join paragraph later volkogonov primitivism tell read lenin collect work skim reviewer find depressed study stalin obsession sheer destructiveness strike dominant humorless stalin extreme virulence polemic radical note martov early year ago group rightward move french exmaoist discover slavelabor camp monstrous atrocity commit stalin stalin crime decade denounce wide variety people range trotskyist anarchist social democrats liberal democrats cold warrior political shading question embroil french leave intense controversy forty fifty prevent socalled new philosopher adopt air fresh discovery injure innocence ease drift right wing wind fool mainstream reviewer portrayal volkogonov consciencestricken disintereste historian bravely pursue truth clear historical record book ostensibly dedicated unearth real antecedent stalinism dedicated discredit revolutionary idea eye soviet people foreign reader volkogonov leave doubt volume think evil commit lenin inevitable consequence bolshevik leader having follow revolutionary evolutionary route transform russia volkogonov try history boss boris yeltsin attempt realm politic economic little surprise carry task volkogonov turn remarkably similar yeltsin political idea fundamental lack moral human sensibility review essay complete prior posthumous publication dmitri volkogonov work trotsky atc julyaugust current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 26 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From The New International, Vol. IX No. 7, July 1943, pp. 197–199. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. After three unanimous responses to as many strike calls by half a million coal miners in the country, it should now be unnecessary to argue whether or not the American workers, even in wartime, are able and ready to act unitedly and decisively in behalf of their just demands. The fact that the great majority of the miners refused or were reluctant to call off their third strike, even after being urged to do so by their union officials, only emphasizes the genuineness of their action, and is enough in itself to explode the preposterous theory that the strike was an action of unwilling but dumb sheep set into motion for some obscure personal political purpose by John L. Lewis. Perhaps of greater significance is the fact that the sentiments o£ the miners were not confined to their own ranks. Anyone who is seriously in contact with the American working class knows that the overwhelming majority, especially of the organized workers in the country, were as solidly on the side of the miners as the official labor leadership was against them. The mood of the miners was and remains pretty much the mood of the working class as a whole. By their action they showed how precarious is the situation established by the “no-strike” pledges of virtually the entire official labor leadership. The “accident” of the miners’ union leadership being in the hands of men who have their own particular bureaucratic reasons for challenging Roosevelt and the War Labor Board (a matter which requires analysis and treatment on another occasion), was enough to break through the film of restraint that covers the labor movement today. There is no reason to believe, however, that the action of the miners as a whole was an “accident,” some sort of unique and inexplicably exceptional phenomenon in the working class. The whole labor movement is seething with discontent, discontent especially with the cowardly “no-strike” pledge by which the labor leaders delivered the unions, bound hand and foot, to the employers and the government; discontent with the disgraceful capitulation of the same labor leaders to the abominable Connally-Smith bill. It will not take much more heat for the pot of boil over. With profits continuing their rich flow, with prices not rolled back but even rising, with the whole rationing system in a state of collapse, with the new taxes digging deeper into the standard of living of the workers, the new anti-strike bill will not prove more effective than the old no-strike pledges. Louis Stark, the New York Times’ labor editor, who is close to the union bureaucracy, especially the AFL’s, acknowledges (June 20) that an analysis of the bill “tends to support the views of organized labor’s spokesmen who believe that the measure will foment strikes rather than prevent them ... The bill does not bring the top leaders of labor into the picture by further pressure to carry out their commitments – a pressure which has prevented a great many strikes. Indeed, it takes from them much of their authority by transferring the seat of power in a labor dispute from the national to the local leadership level ... It is the impression of many impartial observers that the new labor measure would probably be more harmful than helpful.” We do not know yet if the miners’ strikes had any effect upon the analysis of the labor movement’s prospects and perspectives and upon the policy of the Cannonites. Since the outbreak of the war, their trade union policy, never far from conservatism, took a sharp turn to the right. Their militants were educated and instructed to be preoccupied exclusively with “preserving” themselves in the trade union movement (forgetting Trotsky’s warning to the eminent theoretician at the head of the SWP that if the main concern of revolutionists during the war was with “preserving” themselves, the awakening workers would probably treat them like “preserves,” to be put on a shelf). Why? Because the masses were not in motion and there was no early prospect of working class action in the country. “Strike control,” wrote their trade union expert last year in a polemic against an “impatient” militant, and obviously on the inspiration of The Leader himself, “continues to remain quite firmly in the hands of Roosevelt and his lackeys in the union hierarchy ... Right now we ask the comrades to just be patient. When the time comes that the masses are ready to move, the leadership of the party won’t be in their way.” The last sentence deserves to be distributed far and wide for the consolation of the American working class and to reassure them that any time they decide to act they will not really meet the opposition of the Socialist Workers Party leadership. On the West Coast, and under the personal supervision of the same expert, the local Cannonites accepted a thesis which proved to the very hilt that the miners could not, should not and would not strike. A few days later, the miners, not having had the benefit of this thesis, nevertheless did strike, and then a second and a third time. On the trade union leadership as a whole, however, we do know that the miners’ strikes had no effect, so far as its policy is concerned. William Green attacked the Connally-Smith bill as a “fascist measure pointed like a revolver at the heart of labor ... It reflects a fascist state of mind in Congress – there can be no question about that. It is definitely totalitarian in character, contradictory of the democratic principles for which America has always stood and for which this war is being fought.” If that is how the Milquetoast of the labor movement spoke of the bill, it is not hard to imagine what the other labor leaders said in attacking the bill and demanding a presidential veto. The veto came, accompanied by Roosevelt’s own notorious counter-proposal on how to break strikes, and then Congress overrode the veto by the joint efforts of the two capitalist parties. Thereupon? What did the labor leaders propose to do? We consider the bill a vicious assault upon labor’s elementary rights. We do not regard it as quite fascist, because we believe this is an inaccurate use of the term; but it suffices that it is bad enough, and everyone in the labor movement knows it. In any case, so mild-mannered and soft-spoken a man as Green described it as a fascist measure. What is to be done when a fascist measure is incorporated into the law of the land? What do our stout-hearted heroes at the head of the labor movement propose to do to combat this first installment on fascism? Thus far, we know only of their first, bold and fearless step: No sooner had the bill become law than Green and Murray rushed to the White House as fast as their automobiles could carry them and ... renewed their no-strike pledge. There you have as courageous and defiant a pair of generals as the labor movement was ever lucky enough to have at its head! They will die in battle before allowing anyone to take from the labor movement its right to strike. Or, more accurately, they will give up this right themselves rather than have it taken from them. As can be seen, the old ladies at the head of the union movement are Virtue Incarnate. They will under no circumstances allow themselves to be ravished. If part they must from their charms, they prefer to give them away freely. Only, in this case, it is someone else’s rights they are so lightly preferring, and it remains to be seen if the workers will be traded off so easily. Meanwhile, the immediate effect of the Connally-Smith bill, carried, let us remember, by an overwhelming bi-partisan vote, has been to stimulate interest in a Labor Party and the movement toward its formation. In recent months and especially in recent weeks, resolutions have been adopted in favor of a Labor Party and even some organizational steps taken toward forming one, in decisive industrial states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. So far as the official sponsors of the movement are concerned, the parties in these states are to be a replica of the caricature of an Independent Labor Party that has existed for several years in New York. Its aim, in the view of Messrs. Rose, Alfange, Counts and Antonini, is to be confined essentially to assuring their Messiah a fourth term in the White House. A miserable, paltry, reactionary ambition for a movement as important and significant as a distinct party of labor. Our reformist labor politicians have not’even risen to the low estate of their European brethren. As for the outright bourgeois labor politicians of the Green-AFL kidney, they have not risen at all. Their conception of labor’s rôle in politics is that of running around on all fours looking for a “friendly” boot to reward with a kiss in the hope that when it reaches a congressional desk it will not be too violently or too often directed at their prostrated rump. Labor in this country must and will enter politics – and politics is in the end the struggle for power – in its own name. The only question is: in what form? Under what program and leadership? There are already important, tangible signs that the movement for a national Labor Party is taking shape, first of all, as mentioned above, in some of the decisive industrial centers. Its present official sponsors naturally want to keep the movement under the closest bureaucratic control in order to guarantee that its program and activity will not be composed of anything stronger than milk and water. In other words, they want a replica in this country of the flabby, ineffectual, conservative, ever-whining, supine reformist workers’ parties that contributed so criminally to the crushing of the working class in Europe. It is possible that, in the first period, they will succeed in establishing just that kind of party. But only possible, and by no means dead certain. However, it should be considered that these reformist labor politicians still constitute a minority of the labor bureaucracy. The big majority of this officialdom – the Greens, Tobins, Bateses, Lewises, Murrays, Careys, Hillmans and the rest – are bourgeois labor politicians. They do not even favor the organization of such a caricature of a Labor Party as Rose and Antonini have in New York, and want to continue the policy of supporting this or that capitalist politician and capitalist party, year-in and year-out. They have now acquired a fairly powerful ally in support of their Gompersist politics, the Frank Hague-Stalinists. Inasmuch as the class struggle, and the decay of capitalist society, will not wait another hundred years for these gentlemen of the labor movement to assimilate a mildly progressive idea, it is possible that, given the combination of their bureaucratic control of the labor movement and their utter political blindness, they may successfully stand in the way of the formation or even a reformist, “official” Labor Party, out of sheer terror at the thought of being obliged to make a sharp break with out-and-out capitalist politics. This is speculation, to be sure, but it is not without its importance. There are powerful forces at work to awaken the political consciousness of the American working class, but there is no law of god or man that guarantees that our primitive-minded labor bureaucracy will adapt itself to this awakening to the extent of organizing labor into a reformist political party. That is possible, it is even most probable, but it is not absolutely assured. Sad experience has shown that the stupidity, provincialism, and subservience to the bourgeoisie of our official labor leadership, know few limits, if any. If, then, the weight of the labor bureaucracy is thrown against even a reformist political labor movement, does it follow that the working class is doomed for the next period to remain in tow of bourgeois politics? We do not think so. It does follow that the inevitable development of political consciousness, of class consciousness, among the American workers may express itself in the formation and speedy, powerful growth of a revolutionary political movement uncontrolled by the official labor leadership. There is no theoretical consideration that excludes such a possibility, and there is nothing in the objective situation or in the revolutionary world perspectives of tomorrow that automatically prohibits such a development. Should it take place, those who are today already organized and educated in the consistent, revolutionary Marxian movement have a right to look upon themselves, few in number though they are now, as the central, guiding core of the bigger movement to come. Their presence in it will be additional assurance of its sound and triumphant progress. Such a hypothesis does not, of course, in any way invalidate the need for continuing, today and tomorrow, the struggle of the revolutionists and the militants in the labor movement for the formation of an Independent Labor Party. On the contrary, the extension and intensification of this struggle, its prosecution in a militant, class-conscious spirit, is one of the indispensable premises for the revolutionary political development of the working class. If the labor bureaucracy takes a step forward and leads in the establishment of a reformist Labor Party, that will mark a new stage for the working class and a new stage for the revolutionary vanguard. It will proceed from there and seek to move the working class to a higher plane. If the labor bureaucrats remain serf-minded and stupidly adamantine against any kind of independent political action, the revolutionary struggle for a mass working class party in this country may leap over their heads successfully and thus leap over an important stage in American labor history. There are no dull days ahead! Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 16 June 2015 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international vol ix july pp transcribe mark einde etol unanimous response strike call half million coal miner country unnecessary argue american worker wartime able ready act unitedly decisively behalf demand fact great majority miner refuse reluctant strike urge union official emphasize genuineness action explode preposterous theory strike action unwilling dumb sheep set motion obscure personal political purpose john l lewis great significance fact sentiment miner confine rank seriously contact american work class know overwhelming majority especially organize worker country solidly miner official labor leadership mood miner remain pretty mood work class action show precarious situation establish nostrike pledge virtually entire official labor leadership accident miner union leadership hand man particular bureaucratic reason challenging roosevelt war labor board matter require analysis treatment occasion break film restraint cover labor movement today reason believe action miner accident sort unique inexplicably exceptional phenomenon work class labor movement seethe discontent discontent especially cowardly nostrike pledge labor leader deliver union bind hand foot employer government discontent disgraceful capitulation labor leader abominable connallysmith bill heat pot boil profit continue rich flow price roll rise rationing system state collapse new taxis dig deeply standard living worker new antistrike bill prove effective old nostrike pledge louis stark new york times labor editor close union bureaucracy especially afl acknowledge june analysis bill tend support view organize labor spokesman believe measure foment strike prevent bill bring leader labor picture pressure carry commitment pressure prevent great strike take authority transfer seat power labor dispute national local leadership level impression impartial observer new labor measure probably harmful helpful know miner strike effect analysis labor movement prospect perspective policy cannonite outbreak war trade union policy far conservatism take sharp turn right militant educate instruct preoccupy exclusively preserve trade union movement forget trotsky warning eminent theoretician head swp main concern revolutionist war preserve awaken worker probably treat like preserve shelf masse motion early prospect work class action country strike control write trade union expert year polemic impatient militant obviously inspiration leader continue remain firmly hand roosevelt lackey union hierarchy right ask comrade patient time come masse ready leadership party will way sentence deserve distribute far wide consolation american work class reassure time decide act meet opposition socialist worker party leadership west coast personal supervision expert local cannonite accept thesis prove hilt miner strike day later miner having benefit thesis strike second time trade union leadership know miner strike effect far policy concern william green attack connallysmith bill fascist measure point like revolver heart labor reflect fascist state mind congress question definitely totalitarian character contradictory democratic principle america stand war fight milquetoast labor movement speak bill hard imagine labor leader say attack bill demand presidential veto veto came accompany roosevelt notorious counterproposal break strike congress override veto joint effort capitalist party labor leader propose consider bill vicious assault labor elementary right regard fascist believe inaccurate use term suffice bad labor movement know case mildmannered softspoken man green describe fascist measure fascist measure incorporate law land stouthearted hero head labor movement propose combat installment fascism far know bold fearless step soon bill law green murray rush white house fast automobile carry renew nostrike pledge courageous defiant pair general labor movement lucky head die battle allow labor movement right strike accurately right take see old lady head union movement virtue incarnate circumstance allow ravish charm prefer away freely case right lightly prefer remain see worker trade easily immediate effect connallysmith bill carry let remember overwhelming bipartisan vote stimulate interest labor party movement formation recent month especially recent week resolution adopt favor labor party organizational step take form decisive industrial state like new jersey pennsylvania michigan far official sponsor movement concern party state replica caricature independent labor party exist year new york aim view messrs rise alfange count antonini confine essentially assure messiah fourth term white house miserable paltry reactionary ambition movement important significant distinct party labor reformist labor politician rise low estate european brother outright bourgeois labor politician greenafl kidney rise conception labor rôle politic run four look friendly boot reward kiss hope reach congressional desk violently direct prostrate rump labor country enter politic politic end struggle power question form program leadership important tangible sign movement national labor party take shape mention decisive industrial center present official sponsor naturally want movement close bureaucratic control order guarantee program activity compose strong milk water word want replica country flabby ineffectual conservative everwhine supine reformist worker party contribute criminally crushing work class europe possible period succeed establish kind party possible means dead certain consider reformist labor politician constitute minority labor bureaucracy big majority officialdom green tobin batese lewise murray carey hillman rest bourgeois labor politician favor organization caricature labor party rise antonini new york want continue policy support capitalist politician capitalist party yearin yearout acquire fairly powerful ally support gompersist politic frank haguestalinist inasmuch class struggle decay capitalist society wait year gentleman labor movement assimilate mildly progressive idea possible give combination bureaucratic control labor movement utter political blindness successfully stand way formation reformist official labor party sheer terror thought oblige sharp break outandout capitalist politic speculation sure importance powerful force work awaken political consciousness american work class law god man guarantee primitiveminded labor bureaucracy adapt awakening extent organize labor reformist political party possible probable absolutely assured sad experience show stupidity provincialism subservience bourgeoisie official labor leadership know limit weight labor bureaucracy throw reformist political labor movement follow work class doom period remain tow bourgeois politic think follow inevitable development political consciousness class consciousness american worker express formation speedy powerful growth revolutionary political movement uncontrolle official labor leadership theoretical consideration exclude possibility objective situation revolutionary world perspective tomorrow automatically prohibit development place today organize educate consistent revolutionary marxian movement right look number central guide core big movement come presence additional assurance sound triumphant progress hypothesis course way invalidate need continue today tomorrow struggle revolutionist militant labor movement formation independent labor party contrary extension intensification struggle prosecution militant classconscious spirit indispensable premise revolutionary political development work class labor bureaucracy take step forward lead establishment reformist labor party mark new stage work class new stage revolutionary vanguard proceed seek work class high plane labor bureaucrat remain serfminded stupidly adamantine kind independent political action revolutionary struggle mass work class party country leap head successfully leap important stage american labor history dull day ahead page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update june | 27 |
Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From Fourth International, Vol.10 No.4, April 1949, pp.113-116. Transcription & mark-up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. In the year 1798, the Reverend Thomas Malthus looked about him to discover starvation on the British Isles. Not discovering any additional source of food in the same glance he assumed that he had hit upon a natural law. The pessimistic parson held that population tended to outstrip food supply and would be held in check only by starvation, pestilence and war. The pressure of population against food would resolve itself into endless conflict between nations. A century and a half later, another man with his eyes to the heavens – this time a bird-watcher, or ornithologist – resurrected substantially the same theory from the same unsubstantial type of evidence. William Vogt looked about him to discover starvation over the entire globe. Not discovering any additional sources of food himself, and not crediting the discoveries of others, he hastened to restate the Malthusian theory in his book The Road to Survival (William Sloan Associates, N.Y.C.). Vogt is merely one of several neo-Malthusian authors sharing the rather substantial sale of his literary efforts with Fairfield Osborn’s Our Plundered Planet, and lesser works. Not the least reason for Vogt’s current popularity in bourgeois circles is his pretentious efforts to substitute “natural” causes of world chaos for the contradictions and crises of capitalism in its death agony. Both Vogt and Osborn call themselves ecologists, which Webster defines as “biologists dealing with the mutual relations between organisms and their environment.” The falsity of their argument: may be traced to their disregard of the mutual relations between individuals and groups of the greatest organism – man. It will be the recognition and development of advanced relationships among men that will forever scotch the Malthusian delusion. Mr. Vogt, presently the most notorious of the neo-Malthusians, is undoubtedly a man of certain scientific ability and standing. He is now chief of the conservation section of the Pan-American Union. His technical understanding of problems in soil and water conservation is, however, not matched by the acute sociological comprehension demanded by a subject as dialectical as ecology. As an example of his over-all inconsistency, we can compare statements made in different sections of the same book. First, he shows a good measure of sense by saying with regard to soil depletion: “One of the most ruinous factors is the capitalistic system,” “Free competition and the profit motive have been disastrous to the land.” But later on he contradicts himself: “We must ... stop blaming economic systems.” Vogt takes a decidedly non-semantic view of the food and population problem. The fact that over half of the world’s 2.2 billion population is now ill-fed, and that several million are dying of starvation every year, seems to blind him to both facts and prospects that promise to alleviate the present situation. Vogt ignores the special circumstances that have led to the current state of affairs as well as the new scientific developments in food production and the dynamics of human society itself. In addition to all this, he divides the food and population problem as if it were two separate and unrelated questions. His evaluation of world food resources is both pessimistic and myopic. The press of past and present population has resulted in serious and permanent depletion of our soil, water, plant and animal reserves. The predicted future increase in population will not only further deplete our resources but.at an accelerated rate. Soil conservation and restoration in the US has not caught up with the present rate of depletion, and in most of the world, little or nothing is being done to check the ravages caused by man’s disruption of the hydrologic cycle (erosion, floods, etc.) and his mining of the “biotic potential” of the soil. Present conservation practices are limited to treating the effect rather than the cause of depletion. Irreplaceable topsoil has been and is being washed away, water tables lowered, and the very weather changed. It is practically impossible to rebuild lost top soil, yet we have lost a good portion of this precious asset already. It is almost impossible to farm new tropical soils, for as soon as the forest is cut away, the sun oxidizes the already poor soil and the tropical rains leach away the soil nutrients. There is not enough arable land in the world today to properly feed the present population, and there is little or no new land fit for exploitation. We are now getting near-optimum yields of food. Greater yields merely deplete the soil factor, and fertilization is limited by dwindling fertilizer supplies. Scientific advances in crop and animal breeding, hormone treatments, fertilization, pest and weed control, mechanical equipment, hydroponics and artificial photosynthesis, as well as the possibility of now unpredictable discoveries, are all discounted as either impractical or visionary. Responsible scientists refute these main arguments advanced by Vogt. They maintain that we now have both the soil and the scientific knowledge necessary to feed twice the present world population, and by the time the population has doubled, if it does – and that is debatable – there would undoubtedly be new discoveries. Land is not the only factor in food production, just as food is not the only factor limiting population growth. The US Soil Conservation Service now maintains that we have reversed the trend of soil erosion and depletion here, and are now building up our food potential. Although the situation still is serious in other parts of the world, the conservation pattern has been set and is certainly attainable. Robert M. Satter of the Agricultural Research Administration of the US Department of Agriculture lists two methods of increasing food production: the more intensive and efficient use of land now being farmed, and the use of now undeveloped soil resources. He gives a conservative estimate of 1.3 billion additional acres of arable land that could be brought under cultivation. Limiting factors would be mainly lack of eduction and capital – both certainly not insurmountable. Cultivation of this new land would require development of new techniques, as well as greatly increased use of fertilizers. The three principal fertilizer elements are nitrogen, phosphate and potash. Nitrogen can be manufactured by fixation from the atmosphere, and this source is unlimited. The known reserves of phosphate will last 5,000 years, and potash 500 years. These figures do not allow for undiscovered reserves or for technical improvements in extractive methods. A more universal use of “night soil” would not only furnish much additional fertilizer, but also stop a great deal of unnecessary water pollution. The additional production from this new land, plus the readily obtainable increase from our old soils, would provide an adequate diet for the estimated world population in 1960. As an example of what can be done, the US during the war years increased agricultural production by one-third, while agricultural manpower decreased by one-seventh. The output of food per man is ten times greater in the advanced than in the backward nations. On a comparable acre of soil, China produces twice the crop of India; and Japan, twice the crop of China. Thus, there is no ascertainable “biotic potential.” Man can greatly increase the carrying capacity of the land through the wise choice of plants to be grown and the proper use of those plants. If national and tariff barriers were removed, the land could always be used for the crops most adaptable or necessary. Shortages of calories, proteins, fats, minerals or vitamins; or agricultural labor; or a combination of any of these could be ironed out through a scientific selection of crops. Some plants produce more calories per acre than others, some produce less calories but more proteins, some produce less units per acre but more units per man. For example, an average acre of soil will produce 6,250,000 calories when planted to sugar beets, 1,545,000 calories in soybeans, and only 350,000 when feed is raised and fed to dairy cattle. If the emphasis is on protein, soybeans will yield 340 pounds per acre; milk cows, 39 pounds and sugar beets, none. Again, if labor is scarce, soybeans will produce the most calories per day of man labor – 1,030,000; sugar beats – 545,000; and milk cows – 65,000. Of course, the protein from milk is worth more nutritionally than the protein from soybeans, due to the relative content of essential amino acids. Animal by-products, such as manure and hides, are also important factors for consideration. The world diet is now made up of 73 percent grain, 12 percent vegetables and fruit, 6 percent sugar and 9 percent animal products. Animal products make up 3 percent of the Asiatic diet, 25 percent of the American diet and 36 percent of the New Zealand-Australian diet. On Asiatic standards, the present world food-supply would support 2,800 million people; and on the American standard, 900 million. Adequate reserves of food in storage would increase still further our population capacity. The problem is, therefore, a complicated one, calling for intense planning on a scale not possible under present world or even national economic organization. However, economic organization is anything but static. The possibilities of hydroponics – the growing of plants in “fertilized water” – are already proved and need only commercial adaptation. The dream of artificial photosynthesis – the process by which plants store up energy from the sun – is a distinct possibility now, and almost a certainty if research in this field is given the same measure of financial support as was research in nuclear fission. In fact, it is a by-product of’ atomic energy – carbon 14 – that now offers the most promising key to the secret of plant life. Progress has already been made to the point where scientists now consider it perfectly feasible to “farm the sea.” Under the sensational title, News of Revolutionary Food Discovery Means That We Can Now Banish Hunger from the Earth, Nat S. Finney reports Dr. Richard Meier’s analysis of world problems. (Look, Feb. 1, 1949.) Dr. Meier will publish his findings in a technical report to be released later this year. The gist of the report is that food can now be produced in factories without using soil, and, in fact, is already being produced and utilized. Reference is made to a project in Jamaica in the West Indies, where crude molasses is being turned into a high-protein food yeast at the rate of five tons a day. One element of the new food-production team is chlorella, a green alga or single-celled plant, such as is found in the scum on ponds; the other element is the yeast cell. Like chlorella, it is independent of the soil. The question concerning food supplies now posed is: Can and will all these steps be taken in time to obviate the Malthusian predictions of increasing starvation and world conflict? Historical analysis demonstrates that we must predicate our hopes for a world of plenty on a new social and economic order that does not pause to compute dollar profits before proceeding with essential action. The dislocations, delays and anarchy of capitalist organization give aid and comfort to the prophets of doom. There is the story of the careless farmer who was urged to attend a meeting on soil conservation. “There’s no use my going to that meeting about farming better,” he replied. “I don’t farm as good as I know how to now.” It is no joke, however, that most farmers today cannot afford, under our present economic system, “to farm as good as they know how.” In the past year, the prices of farm products dropped 20 percent while the cost of operating the farms dropped only 1 percent. Under capitalism, this complicates, to say the least, the problem of soil conservation. Friedrich Engels gave a crushing answer to the Vogts as far back as 1865: Too little is produced, that is the cause of the whole thing. But why is too little produced? Not because the limits of production – even today and with present day means – are exhausted. No, but because the limits of production are determined not by the number of hungry bellies but by the number of purges able to buy and to pay. Bourgeois society does not and cannot wish to produce any more. The moneyless bellies, the labor which cannot be utilized for profit and therefore cannot buy, is left to the death-rate. Let a sudden industrial boom, such as is constantly occurring, make it possible for this labor to be employed with profit, then it will get money to spend, and the means of subsistence have never hitherto been lacking. This is the vicious circle in which the whole economic system revolves. One presupposes bourgeois conditions as a whole, and then proves that every part of them is a necessary part – and therefore an “eternal law.” (Letter to F.A. Lange, Selected Correspondence of Marx and Engels, page 199.) The nub of the question for the neo-Malthusians is how to reduce the world’s population. Here they have advanced little beyond the “fruit fly” theory of their mentor. Against such population-limiting measures as famine, pestilence and war, they offer the alternative of voluntary “population control” – a variant of the “continence” suggested by Malthus. A seeming improvement on the clergyman’s rather sour advice, “population control” involves birth control through use of chemical or mechanical devices or through sterilization. The latter, our ornithologist crows, “does not interfere with sexual pleasure nor with physical satisfaction.” Neo-Malthusian “science” now makes it possible for man to eat his cake and have it too. Vogt and his co-thinkers do not explain exactly how they hope to evangelize almost two billion people, many of whom do not want to be thus altered or inconvenienced, and most of whom live in an environment too backward to allow a proper understanding of what is expected of them. The proposal reflects only a complete lack of understanding of the whole science of population, and is the point of departure for dangerous and reactionary conclusions. Vogt, for instance, has resurrected the old “yellow peril” falsification. With typical imperialist insolence, he advises against feeding starving millions in Asia and Europe, lest they use the additional food to support a larger population which in turn would eventually “overrun the West.” He would rather divert human food to sustain “wildlife.” War and pestilence he views in a favorable light because they reduce population and are more humane than famine. He looks back with envy on ancient Greece, which avoided overpopulation by employing prostitution, infanticide, emigration and colonization. He admires Eire, which in the last hundred years has halved her population at the expense of leaving half of her adult population unmarried. He opposes higher living standards for farmers, as they are obtained, he maintains, through more intense exploitation of the land. Agricultural mechanization is to be opposed as it is more attractive than a horse economy, and will not act as a buffer to absorb the city unemployed as will a more primitive system of organization! War, famine, pestilence and birth control missionaries – such are the nostrums of the voices of doom to save a doomed system. But we do not have to guess at the answer to unlimited population increase, for history has already provided it. Only economic progress – industrialization, urbanization, and higher living standards – will slow down and stabilize the birth rate. Only in the most backward countries does increased food supply result in increasing fecundity. No advanced country has yet attained a better standard of living by consciously restricting its birth rate. A declining birth rate is an effect, not a cause of ecenomic progress. In the backward deep South, we have the same high birth and death rates as do the backward countries of Asia. In fear of the consequences of the agrarian revolution and of the socialist aspirations of the young proletariat, world imperialism has deliberately perpetuated this backwardness in the Far East. To expect capitalism to reverse this trend in a period of immense social conflicts and global wars is both utopian and reactionary. Just as Utopian is the program of “agrarian reform” of the Chinese Stalinists. Giving the peasants back their diminutive parcels of land merely perpetuates the inefficiencies of a long outmoded social organization. To cure its population problem, China needs fewer farmers on larger mechanized farms, urbanization and industrialization. Urban families simply have fewer children than do rural families. It is only a seeming contradiction that a reduction in the world’s farming population is a condition for increasing the food supply. However, the initial impetus must come from the city, and with the urban bourgeoisie decadent and impotent, the task reverts to the urban proletariat. The Chinese “Communists,” distrusting and fearful of the workers as are the Stalinists everywhere, are left holding their own bootstraps. An examination of the population curves of the advanced countries will give the lie to the Malthusian forebodings. In its incipient stages, industrialization is accompanied by an initial sharp rise in the curve, followed by a gradual leveling-off and stabilization. Only a suicidal rejection of the socialist future of mankind can lead to the conclusion that this classic curve will not continue to characterize continued human progress. But Vogt and the rest of today’s Malthusians, who see starvation ahead unless the American imperialists impose rigid controls on what they like to call the “backward peoples,” do not stand for continued human progress – on a world-wide scale. These are not the prophets who will lead the peoples of the world into lands “flowing with milk and honey.” Only in a Socialist United States of the World will the benefits of scientific agriculture be given to all of the peoples of the world, because only a socialist economy can permit the rationalization of food production. Top of page Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on: 4 March 2009 | left | main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive fourth international april transcription markup einde etol year reverend thomas malthus look discover starvation british isle discover additional source food glance assume hit natural law pessimistic parson hold population tend outstrip food supply hold check starvation pestilence war pressure population food resolve endless conflict nation century half later man eye heavens time birdwatcher ornithologist resurrect substantially theory unsubstantial type evidence william vogt look discover starvation entire globe discover additional source food credit discovery hasten restate malthusian theory book road survival william sloan associates nyc vogt merely neomalthusian author share substantial sale literary effort fairfield osborn plunder planet less work reason vogt current popularity bourgeois circle pretentious effort substitute natural cause world chaos contradiction crisis capitalism death agony vogt osborn ecologist webster define biologist deal mutual relation organism environment falsity argument trace disregard mutual relation individual group great organism man recognition development advanced relationship man forever scotch malthusian delusion mr vogt presently notorious neomalthusians undoubtedly man certain scientific ability stand chief conservation section panamerican union technical understanding problem soil water conservation match acute sociological comprehension demand subject dialectical ecology example overall inconsistency compare statement different section book show good measure sense say regard soil depletion ruinous factor capitalistic system free competition profit motive disastrous land later contradict stop blame economic system vogt take decidedly nonsemantic view food population problem fact half world billion population illfe million die starvation year blind fact prospect promise alleviate present situation vogt ignore special circumstance lead current state affair new scientific development food production dynamic human society addition divide food population problem separate unrelated question evaluation world food resource pessimistic myopic press past present population result permanent depletion soil water plant animal reserve predict future increase population deplete resource butat accelerated rate soil conservation restoration catch present rate depletion world little check ravage cause man disruption hydrologic cycle erosion flood etc mining biotic potential soil present conservation practice limit treat effect cause depletion irreplaceable topsoil wash away water table lower weather change practically impossible rebuild lose soil lose good portion precious asset impossible farm new tropical soil soon forest cut away sun oxidize poor soil tropical rain leach away soil nutrient arable land world today properly feed present population little new land fit exploitation get nearoptimum yield food great yield merely deplete soil factor fertilization limit dwindle fertilizer supply scientific advance crop animal breeding hormone treatment fertilization pest weed control mechanical equipment hydroponic artificial photosynthesis possibility unpredictable discovery discount impractical visionary responsible scientist refute main argument advance vogt maintain soil scientific knowledge necessary feed twice present world population time population double debatable undoubtedly new discovery land factor food production food factor limit population growth soil conservation service maintain reverse trend soil erosion depletion build food potential situation part world conservation pattern set certainly attainable robert m satter agricultural research administration department agriculture list method increase food production intensive efficient use land farm use undeveloped soil resource give conservative estimate billion additional acre arable land bring cultivation limit factor mainly lack eduction capital certainly insurmountable cultivation new land require development new technique greatly increase use fertilizer principal fertilizer element nitrogen phosphate potash nitrogen manufacture fixation atmosphere source unlimited know reserve phosphate year potash year figure allow undiscovered reserve technical improvement extractive method universal use night soil furnish additional fertilizer stop great deal unnecessary water pollution additional production new land plus readily obtainable increase old soil provide adequate diet estimate world population example war year increase agricultural production onethird agricultural manpower decrease oneseventh output food man time great advanced backward nation comparable acre soil china produce twice crop india japan twice crop china ascertainable biotic potential man greatly increase carrying capacity land wise choice plant grow proper use plant national tariff barrier remove land crop adaptable necessary shortage calorie protein fat mineral vitamin agricultural labor combination iron scientific selection crop plant produce calorie acre produce calorie protein produce unit acre unit man example average acre soil produce calorie plant sugar beet calorie soybean feed raise feed dairy cattle emphasis protein soybean yield pound acre milk cow pound sugar beet labor scarce soybean produce calorie day man labor sugar beat milk cow course protein milk worth nutritionally protein soybean relative content essential amino acid animal byproduct manure hide important factor consideration world diet percent grain percent vegetable fruit percent sugar percent animal product animal product percent asiatic diet percent american diet percent new zealandaustralian diet asiatic standard present world foodsupply support million people american standard million adequate reserve food storage increase population capacity problem complicated call intense planning scale possible present world national economic organization economic organization static possibility hydroponic growing plant fertilize water prove need commercial adaptation dream artificial photosynthesis process plant store energy sun distinct possibility certainty research field give measure financial support research nuclear fission fact byproduct atomic energy carbon offer promising key secret plant life progress point scientist consider perfectly feasible farm sea sensational title news revolutionary food discovery mean banish hunger earth nat s finney report dr richard meier analysis world problem look feb dr meier publish finding technical report release later year gist report food produce factory soil fact produce utilize reference project jamaica west indie crude molasse turn highprotein food yeast rate ton day element new foodproduction team chlorella green alga singlecelled plant find scum pond element yeast cell like chlorella independent soil question concern food supply pose step take time obviate malthusian prediction increase starvation world conflict historical analysis demonstrate predicate hope world plenty new social economic order pause compute dollar profit proceed essential action dislocation delay anarchy capitalist organization aid comfort prophet doom story careless farmer urge attend meeting soil conservation use go meeting farming well reply farm good know joke farmer today afford present economic system farm good know past year price farm product drop percent cost operate farm drop percent capitalism complicate problem soil conservation friedrich engel give crush answer vogts far little produce cause thing little produce limit production today present day mean exhaust limit production determine number hungry belly number purge able buy pay bourgeois society wish produce moneyless belly labor utilize profit buy leave deathrate let sudden industrial boom constantly occur possible labor employ profit money spend mean subsistence hitherto lack vicious circle economic system revolve presuppose bourgeois condition prove necessary eternal law letter fa lange select correspondence marx engel page nub question neomalthusians reduce world population advance little fruit fly theory mentor populationlimite measure famine pestilence war offer alternative voluntary population control variant continence suggest malthus improvement clergyman sour advice population control involve birth control use chemical mechanical device sterilization ornithologist crow interfere sexual pleasure physical satisfaction neomalthusian science make possible man eat cake vogt cothinker explain exactly hope evangelize billion people want alter inconvenience live environment backward allow proper understanding expect proposal reflect complete lack understanding science population point departure dangerous reactionary conclusion vogt instance resurrect old yellow peril falsification typical imperialist insolence advise feed starve million asia europe lest use additional food support large population turn eventually overrun west divert human food sustain wildlife war pestilence view favorable light reduce population humane famine look envy ancient greece avoid overpopulation employ prostitution infanticide emigration colonization admire eire year halve population expense leave half adult population unmarrie oppose high living standard farmer obtain maintain intense exploitation land agricultural mechanization oppose attractive horse economy act buffer absorb city unemployed primitive system organization war famine pestilence birth control missionary nostrum voice doom save doomed system guess answer unlimited population increase history provide economic progress industrialization urbanization high living standard slow stabilize birth rate backward country increase food supply result increase fecundity advanced country attain well standard live consciously restrict birth rate decline birth rate effect cause ecenomic progress backward deep south high birth death rate backward country asia fear consequence agrarian revolution socialist aspiration young proletariat world imperialism deliberately perpetuate backwardness far east expect capitalism reverse trend period immense social conflict global war utopian reactionary utopian program agrarian reform chinese stalinist give peasant diminutive parcel land merely perpetuate inefficiency long outmoded social organization cure population problem china need few farmer large mechanized farm urbanization industrialization urban family simply few child rural family contradiction reduction world farming population condition increase food supply initial impetus come city urban bourgeoisie decadent impotent task revert urban proletariat chinese communist distrusting fearful worker stalinist leave hold bootstrap examination population curve advanced country lie malthusian foreboding incipient stage industrialization accompany initial sharp rise curve follow gradual levelingoff stabilization suicidal rejection socialist future mankind lead conclusion classic curve continue characterize continue human progress vogt rest today malthusian starvation ahead american imperialist impose rigid control like backward people stand continued human progress worldwide scale prophet lead people world land flow milk honey socialist united state world benefit scientific agriculture give people world socialist economy permit rationalization food production page main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update march | 28 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From New International, Vol. I No. 3, September–October 1934, pp. 87–88. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. UNDER this title, the September number of Neue Front, the Paris organ of the Socialist Workers Party of Germany, prints an article of more than casual significance. It marks the beginning of the end of a whole policy. Unsigned, the article is announced as sent in by a member of the Norwegian Labor Party; the editorial board signifies its intention to “return to the question of our attitude towards the entire national and international policy of the NAP” in a coming issue. With or without comment by the editors, the appearance of the article is already a revealing symptom which can be understood with half a political eye. After the German debacle of the two old Internationals, the leaders of the Socialist Workers Party, like their co-thinkers of the Dutch Independent Socialist Party, came to a fork in the road. To the Left was the path of the Fourth International in alliance with the Communist Internationalists. To the Right was the path of Fenner Brockway and Martin Tranmael. For a brief period of time, they took some mincing steps to the Left. The Bloc of Four was established at last year’s Paris Conference and the first stone laid at the foundation of the new International in the form of a joint declaration. But one foot was even then pointed to the Right, and without any political explanation for disrupting the Bloc of Four, the other foot was soon withdrawn and a resolute march undertaken to the camp of Tranmael. The policy of the SWP was explained on the grounds that it was necessary “to stay with the masses” of the NAP and foster their evolution to the Left. The Communist Internationalists warned that the SWP was adopting a course which could only reproduce, on a smaller scale, the sorry experiences of the Stalinists in the Anglo-Russian Committee of 1926. Tranmael needed the revolutionary reputation of the SWP (as did Purcell the Russians’ in his time) to cover himself from attacks by the confused Left wing of his own party, to stunt its growth. Behind the screen of the cordial alliance with the SWP, Tranmael could lay his plans: emasculate the Left wing and pull the whole party back into a reformist swamp. When his position was sufficiently consolidated, he would appear in the open, unscathed because of lack of previous criticism, and fling to the scrap-heap the shield which had served him so well in his hour of need. These warnings were irritatedly dismissed with a reproachful reference to “Trotskyist sectarianism”. The article below, appearing as it did in the press of the SWP, only facilitates a summary and a judgment of the latter’s policy. Its pathetically belated last words – “A Tragic Evolution. Now the Opposition Must Be Organized” – could, by themselves, be called Sufficient self-condemnation not to require additional comment. It has finally been discovered that Tranmael has been preparing his step “for some time now”, that it was “launched a few months ago”. Here, as so often in the past, the “error of Trotskyism” apparently consisted in having pointed out “for some time now” that which should and could have been foreseen. An error uncorrected leads to new errors. An error ignored leads to its repetition. The grave errors of the Anglo-Russian Committee policy were either ignored by the SWP or dismissed as a “Russian question”. They would not imbibe the rich lessons, of international significance. Now Tranmael is able to speed away to the Right with “the masses” about whom the SWP expressed such deep concern, while the latter is left standing on the spot, taken by surprise, stupefied and mouth agape. From this experience, too, a valuable political lesson can be learned. We print below an unabridged translation of the Neue Front article. – Ed. On August 17–18, the so-called “Northern Workers Conference” took place in Stockholm. It was convened by the Northern Collaboration Committee, composed of the social democratic parties and trade unions in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. According to the Swedish social democratic press, however, the convention occurred at the express wish of the Norwegian trade union center. The Norwegians appeared at the conference with the strongest delegation – consisting of representatives from the Norwegian Labor Party [Norske Arbejder-parti: NAP] and the trade unions – headed by Torp, Tranmael, Nygaardsvold, Madsen and Halvard Olsen. The result of the Stockholm conference is summarized in a joint resolution, from which we take the following excerpts: “... It was clear from the reports, in the unanimous opinion of the conference, that the labor parties and the trade union organizations in all the countries concerned, are pursuing a completely parallel line: in so far as the most important internal political questions are concerned, such as the methods for the struggle against unemployment, the measures for assisting agriculture in the crisis, the endeavors to regulate social conditions so as to afford the working masses and their standard of living a greater security – and that the labor organizations are conducting a policy which is uniform in all its principal aspects. It was further made clear that all the parties stand on the same fighting lines for the safeguarding and preservation of democracy, popular sovereignty and popular freedom ...” (Arbejderbladet, August 28, 1934) It is further emphasized in the resolution that the positive agreement which found expression in the political resolution, indicates that there exists a foundation for afar-reaching collaboration. A joint Northern Committee cannot, however, be formed as yet because the NAP and the Norwegian trade unions do not belong to the same international organizations as the other Scandinavian parties and trade unions. Nevertheless, “conferences for dealing with social, economic and political questions of common interest for the northern countries” are to be held in the future. Stauning and Per Albin Hansson, the prime ministers and chairmen, respectively of the Danish and Swedish social democracy, very clearly expressed their satisfaction after the Stockholm conference. Stauning in particular gave voice to the joy he felt because the wicked Norwegian children, after fifteen years of disobedient behavior, have nevertheless found their way back to the hearth of their ancestors. More significant, however, is an interview granted by the chairman of the NAP, Torp, printed by the Oslo Arbejderbladet under the heading: “Oscar Torp Looks Hopefully for a Development of the Collaboration and Believes in a Rapproachment with the Second International.” (Since then, Torp – under pressure of the already discernible resistance of the members, to be sure – has denied having spoken of a “rapproachment with the Second International”.) Tranmael has very speedily grasped the fact that the line set down at the Stockholm conference is not the line of the members of the party. He is therefore seeking to pass off the significance of the affair as harmless. But the facts are plain enough. By the joint resolution, the heads of the Norwegian party and trade unions voted their complete agreement with the policy of the Danish and Swedish social democrats. That is the real essence of the Stockholm conference and the organizational consequences resulting from it are, in the last analysis, only a matter of form. It may be thought that what is involved in the inaugurated collaboration is a sort of Scandinavian united front. We revolutionary socialists would be the very ones to greet vigorously such a united front of all the Scandinavian labor organizations, the establishment of a genuine Scandinavian front against Fascism. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The resolution cited above shows plainly that it is a question of an agreement on the political basis of the Danish and Swedish social democrats and not of a united class front. Were it a question of a united front for definite joint actions, it would also be incomprehensible why the other tendencies in the Scandinavian labor movement – especially the Socialist Party of Sweden – remained excluded. The Stockholm conference is much rather an alliance against the Socialist Party of Sweden [formerly the Communist Party, led by Kilbom] and the other revolutionary factors in the Scandinavian labor movement. This course was, after all, launched a few months ago, when Tranmael took an open position against Strom’s socialist opposition in Göteborg and a position in favor of the Swedish party leadership. At the congress of the Norwegian Youth League in May, the party leadership also bent all its efforts against a collaboration with the Socialist Youth League. Light is thrown on the fundamental attitude of the party leadership to the united front, however, in an article by Ole Colbjörnsen (the “theoretician” of the party leadership and the author of the Norwegian Three-Year Plan) in Arbejderbladet of August 20. There Colbjornsen baits the revolutionary labor movement in such a shameless manner, as would be a credit to the extremest Right winger in the Second International. The article bears the following characteristic heading: A Sharper Front Against the Siamese Twins, Communism and Fascism. How can this attitude be made to tally with the long-standing previous agitation for the unification of the Second and Third Internationals? The agitation in favor of it was heretofore the standing answer to all the demands for international activity. Indeed, it is with this slogan that the party also came forward in the Working Community of Independent Left Socialist Parties. In November, the next congress of the trade unions is to take place. It is the intention not to have the question of affiliation with the International Federation of Trade Unions [Amsterdam International] be decided there, but to propose it first for a vote by the membership. The NAP, at its convention in 1919, broke with the Second International and affiliated with the Comintern. In 1923, the break with the CI was consummated by a majority decision. The party then participated in the formation of the so-called Paris Bureau. When it once more united with the social democrats in 1927, it withdrew from the Paris Bureau and the Socialist Party withdrew from the Second International. The guiding line for the international policy of the party, underscored by several conventions, was: “assemble all forces on an international scale on the foundation of the class struggle.” Proceeding from this view, it inaugurated the collaboration with the ILP, the then German and Dutch Left wings, etc., which led to the founding of the International Working Community in Berlin in 1932. However, for quite some time now the party leadership has been preparing the rapproachment with the international social democracy. A trial balloon was launched at the Youth congress in May. The overwhelming majority, however, rejected the collaboration with the Danish and Swedish social democrats. Now the party leadership it obviously and consistently travelling the road to Canossa. Regardless of how fast is the pace towards the Labor and Socialist International, regardless as to whether new incidents will slow it down on this road – the party leadership, by its conduct at the Stockholm conference, has challenged the revolutionary section of the membership and showed the necessity of rallying the Left wing forces in the party. The Stockholm agreement signifies the solidarization of the Norwegian party leadership with the Danish and Swedish social democracy, the Right wing in the Second International. It signifies at the same time a rejection of further collaboration with the international revolutionary forces who are working for the formation of a new labor movement. A substantial part of the NAP membership – probably the largest – and primarily the Youth, are rejecting the course of the Stockholm conference revealed so plainly. Rjukan Arbejderblad of August 20 gives voice to this attitude in a lengthy article under the heading: A Tragic Evolution. Now the Opposition Must Be Organized. Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 25 February 2016 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international vol september october pp transcribe mark einde etol title september number neue paris organ socialist worker party germany print article casual significance mark beginning end policy unsigne article announce send member norwegian labor party editorial board signify intention return question attitude entire national international policy nap come issue comment editor appearance article reveal symptom understand half political eye german debacle old international leader socialist worker party like cothinker dutch independent socialist party come fork road left path fourth international alliance communist internationalist right path fenner brockway martin tranmael brief period time take mince step left bloc establish year paris conference stone lay foundation new international form joint declaration foot point right political explanation disrupt bloc foot soon withdraw resolute march undertake camp tranmael policy swp explain ground necessary stay masse nap foster evolution left communist internationalist warn swp adopt course reproduce small scale sorry experience stalinist anglorussian committee tranmael need revolutionary reputation swp purcell russians time cover attack confused left wing party stunt growth screen cordial alliance swp tranmael lay plan emasculate left wing pull party reformist swamp position sufficiently consolidated appear open unscathed lack previous criticism fle scrapheap shield serve hour need warning irritatedly dismiss reproachful reference trotskyist sectarianism article appear press swp facilitate summary judgment policy pathetically belate word tragic evolution opposition organize call sufficient selfcondemnation require additional comment finally discover tranmael prepare step time launch month ago past error trotskyism apparently consist having point time foresee error uncorrecte lead new error error ignore lead repetition grave error anglorussian committee policy ignore swp dismiss russian question imbibe rich lesson international significance tranmael able speed away right masse swp express deep concern leave stand spot take surprise stupefied mouth agape experience valuable political lesson learn print unabridged translation neue article ed august socalled northern worker conference take place stockholm convene northern collaboration committee compose social democratic party trade union denmark sweden finland iceland accord swedish social democratic press convention occur express wish norwegian trade union center norwegian appear conference strong delegation consist representative norwegian labor party norske arbejderparti nap trade union head torp tranmael nygaardsvold madsen halvard olsen result stockholm conference summarize joint resolution follow excerpt clear report unanimous opinion conference labor party trade union organization country concern pursue completely parallel line far important internal political question concern method struggle unemployment measure assist agriculture crisis endeavor regulate social condition afford work masse standard live great security labor organization conduct policy uniform principal aspect clear party stand fighting line safeguarding preservation democracy popular sovereignty popular freedom arbejderbladet august emphasize resolution positive agreement find expression political resolution indicate exist foundation afarreache collaboration joint northern committee form nap norwegian trade union belong international organization scandinavian party trade union conference deal social economic political question common interest northern country hold future staune albin hansson prime minister chairman respectively danish swedish social democracy clearly express satisfaction stockholm conference staune particular give voice joy feel wicked norwegian child year disobedient behavior find way hearth ancestor significant interview grant chairman nap torp print oslo arbejderbladet heading oscar torp look hopefully development collaboration believe rapproachment second international torp pressure discernible resistance member sure deny having speak rapproachment second international tranmael speedily grasp fact line set stockholm conference line member party seek pass significance affair harmless fact plain joint resolution head norwegian party trade union vote complete agreement policy danish swedish social democrats real essence stockholm conference organizational consequence result analysis matter form think involve inaugurate collaboration sort scandinavian united revolutionary socialist one greet vigorously united scandinavian labor organization establishment genuine scandinavian fascism unfortunately case resolution cite show plainly question agreement political basis danish swedish social democrats united class question united definite joint action incomprehensible tendency scandinavian labor movement especially socialist party sweden remained exclude stockholm conference alliance socialist party sweden communist party lead kilbom revolutionary factor scandinavian labor movement course launch month ago tranmael take open position strom socialist opposition göteborg position favor swedish party leadership congress norwegian youth league party leadership bend effort collaboration socialist youth league light throw fundamental attitude party leadership united article ole colbjörnsen theoretician party leadership author norwegian threeyear plan arbejderbladet august colbjornsen bait revolutionary labor movement shameless manner credit extreme right winger second international article bear follow characteristic head sharp siamese twin communism fascism attitude tally longstanding previous agitation unification second international agitation favor heretofore stand answer demand international activity slogan party come forward work community independent left socialist party november congress trade union place intention question affiliation international federation trade union amsterdam international decide propose vote membership nap convention break second international affiliate comintern break ci consummate majority decision party participate formation socalled paris bureau united social democrats withdraw paris bureau socialist party withdraw second international guide line international policy party underscore convention assemble force international scale foundation class struggle proceed view inaugurate collaboration ilp german dutch leave wing etc lead founding international work community berlin time party leadership prepare rapproachment international social democracy trial balloon launch youth congress overwhelming majority reject collaboration danish swedish social democrats party leadership obviously consistently travel road canossa regardless fast pace labor socialist international regardless new incident slow road party leadership conduct stockholm conference challenge revolutionary section membership show necessity rally left wing force party stockholm agreement signify solidarization norwegian party leadership danish swedish social democracy right wing second international signify time rejection collaboration international revolutionary force work formation new labor movement substantial nap membership probably large primarily youth reject course stockholm conference reveal plainly rjukan arbejderblad august give voice attitude lengthy article head tragic evolution opposition organize page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update february | 29 |
Charlotte Wilson Archive Written: 1884. Source: Text from RevoltLib.com. Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021 Democracy is the political theory that assumes that all members of a community meet as equals on equal terms, but that nevertheless the majority have an absolute right to over-rule the minority. And it is worthwhile to look closely into the real significance of this curious non sequitur, which starting with the formula of free association ends with the formula of authority. Where does the majority get its absolute right from? Right is a dubious word that one gets in the way of using without explanation; but I suppose that we mean by it in a general way, a claim put forward by members of a society and allowed by the rest, either because they feel it to be just or because they are afraid or unwilling to contest it - a socially recognized claim in fact. It is often said that men have no rights as against one another individually and collectively but such as they are able to maintain by superior force. And I think that though this barbarous and inhuman theory is perfectly untrue of many social rights, it is the universal explanation of the acceptance of a claim to rule. But can majority rule claim its right on these grounds? Is it not a plain and obvious truth that supremacy in brute force by no means rests with the majority. History and daily life show us examples thick as blackberries of an energetic and resolute minority utterly defeating the majority in the most desperate trials of actual physical strength, ever since the days when a handful of Greeks defeated the mighty hosts of Persia on the plain of Marathon and Horatius and his two comrades held the Tiber bridge against the army of Lars Porsena. Providence fights on the side of the strongest battalion, but not by any means on those of the largest. And this is even more obviously true when the contest is transferred to the intellectual field. No; the history of authority has consisted of a series of minority rules, each one of which has existed in virtue of the superior possession of the real strength of vital energy in one form or another. And where is the evidence that the dominating force is about to become or is becoming the portion of the majority? The majority today retains the relation it has always retained to the energetic minority of the population. It represents the dead blight of a blind adherence to habit and custom, of insensibility, dullness and apathy, of lazy inclination to avoid all responsibility, all reform, all enlightenment, in fact all departure from the beaten track, all need for unwonted exertion even in thought. If it is to exercise authority it will exercise it only by the dead weight of inertia, the blind force of unreasoning and irresponsible stupidity - in the sense, in fact, in which it exercises it now and always has exercised it. No doubt "the public collectively", as Mill says, "is abundantly ready to impose not only its generally narrow views of its own interests, but its abstract opinion and even its tastes upon individuals.” And if it has machinery at command for doing this without trouble it will oppress without mercy. Do you think that the majority of American citizens were any more unwilling that the Chicago men or John Brown should be hanged than the majority of Jews that Christ should be crucified? Do you think that a plebiscite of London citizens, or the inhabitants of England would maintain the right of meeting in Trafalgar Square? In the name of human progress and the spontaneous individual initiative on which it depends, we may thank our stars that the majority as yet show no sign of acquiring that right to rule founded on superior force. But if the theory of democracy or the rule of the majority cannot be based on the appeal to force which has been the basis of all other over-ruling, what, then is its basis? Shall we say expediency? It is a first approximation - a blundering attempt to return to the principle of free association, still hampered by the ideas of authority yet current in society. On all occasions for common action, or where a general understanding is desirable, one must have some principle of decision and the recent development of social feeling has rendered an appeal to the old species of authority as morally odious, as it is intellectually contemptible. It is a matter of common experience that men, like sheep and all other gregarious and social animals, have a pretty general tendency to go in masses and act together unless they are prevented by some abnormal division of interests. Each one of us is inclined by our social feeling to like in a general way to do what the rest like. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred where a number of people are met together to decide upon some common course of conduct, they will all in the end come to some definite decision in favor of one thing; because those who were at one time inclined to dissent, prefer in the end to act with the majority, if the matter is of practical importance; not because they are forced to do so by the majority over-ruling, but because the largest body of opinion has so much weight with them that they choose not to act contrary to it. We all admit this general fact. It would be quite impossible to take any common action at all if it were not so. But the special theory of democracy is that the general tendency of humanity which becomes so apparent whenever men associate on anything like terms of economic equality, should be made by men into an arbitrary law of human conduct to be enforced not only in the ninety-nine cases where nature enforces it, but by the arbitrary methods of coercion in the hundredth where she doesn't. And for the sake of the hundredth case, for the sake of enforcing this general natural tendency where nature does not enforce it, democrats would have us retain in our political relation that fatal principle of the authority of man over man which has been the cause of confusion and disorder, of wrong and misery in human societies since the dawn of history. "Men are not social enough to do without it," it has been said. For our part we do not know when they will be social enough to do with it. Experience has not yet revealed the man who could be safely trusted with power over his fellows; and majority rule is nothing else in practice than putting into the hands of ambitious individuals the opportunity to crush their fellows by the dead weight of the blind mass of which we have spoken. Charlotte Wilson Archive | left | charlotte wilson archive write source text revoltlibcom transcriptionmarkup andy carloff online source revoltlibcom democracy political theory assume member community meet equal equal term majority absolute right overrule minority worthwhile look closely real significance curious non sequitur start formula free association end formula authority majority absolute right right dubious word get way explanation suppose mean general way claim forward member society allow rest feel afraid unwilling contest socially recognize claim fact say man right individually collectively able maintain superior force think barbarous inhuman theory perfectly untrue social right universal explanation acceptance claim rule majority rule claim right ground plain obvious truth supremacy brute force means rest majority history daily life example thick blackberry energetic resolute minority utterly defeat majority desperate trial actual physical strength day handful greek defeat mighty host persia plain marathon horatius comrade hold tiber bridge army lar porsena providence fight strong battalion mean large obviously true contest transfer intellectual field history authority consist series minority rule exist virtue superior possession real strength vital energy form evidence dominate force portion majority majority today retain relation retain energetic minority population represent dead blight blind adherence habit custom insensibility dullness apathy lazy inclination avoid responsibility reform enlightenment fact departure beat track need unwonted exertion thought exercise authority exercise dead weight inertia blind force unreasone irresponsible stupidity sense fact exercise exercise doubt public collectively mill say abundantly ready impose generally narrow view interest abstract opinion taste individual machinery command trouble oppress mercy think majority american citizen unwilling chicago man john brown hang majority jews christ crucify think plebiscite london citizen inhabitant england maintain right meeting trafalgar square human progress spontaneous individual initiative depend thank star majority sign acquire right rule found superior force theory democracy rule majority base appeal force basis overrule basis shall expediency approximation blunder attempt return principle free association hamper idea authority current society occasion common action general understanding desirable principle decision recent development social feeling render appeal old specie authority morally odious intellectually contemptible matter common experience man like sheep gregarious social animal pretty general tendency masse act prevent abnormal division interest incline social feeling like general way rest like ninetynine case number people meet decide common course conduct end come definite decision favor thing time incline dissent prefer end act majority matter practical importance force majority overrule large body opinion weight choose act contrary admit general fact impossible common action special theory democracy general tendency humanity apparent man associate like term economic equality man arbitrary law human conduct enforce ninetynine case nature enforce arbitrary method coercion hundredth not sake hundredth case sake enforce general natural tendency nature enforce democrats retain political relation fatal principle authority man man cause confusion disorder wrong misery human society dawn history man social say know social experience reveal man safely trust power fellow majority rule practice put hand ambitious individual opportunity crush fellow dead weight blind mass speak charlotte wilson archive | 30 |
The Daily People July 30, 1900 A flood of ignorance is pouring out of the papers regarding the slaughter of the Negroes in New Orleans by the mob. Various explanations are given, all silly, and many “remedies” are suggested, each one vying with the other in craziness. The war in New Orleans is not between black and white. It is a war between workingmen, and the prize they battle for is a “job"; and that job means the same to them as the carcass of the animal, over which two savages fight, means to the savage: life or death. When the vulgar editors prate about “racial hate” and ascribe the riots to that, they merely display their crass ignorance. We are living in a time when the comforts of life, and all the material wealth needed to bring happiness to every human being, can be produced in abundance. There is no need whatever for one human being to go hungry, homeless or naked. Man’s inventive genius has developed the tool to that point, and guided the natural forces to that degree, that abundance is possible to all. But between that abundance and its enjoyment by the children of men an obstacle is interposed. That obstacle is the modern social system, capitalism, and its defenders and beneficiaries are the capitalist class. Balked and baffled by this obstacle, eyeing wistfully that abundance of wealth which the capitalist class forbids them to touch, the ignorant workingmen, black and white, instead of fighting the capitalist, with wealth and freedom as the prize at stake, fall to fighting each other; and the stakes in that conflict are: death to the loser; poverty, misery and wage-slavery to the winner. More horrible than the battle of the savages who fought for the meat, is this fight between workingmen. This has for a result the survival of the slave. A more brutal and demoralizing spectacle cannot be conceived. How strong becomes the desire to forever end a system and a class responsible for this manifestation of social atavism! What bitter hate must fill the breast of the class-conscious proletarian for the real authors: the capitalist class! To the work, then, of organizing and educating the proletariat, to fight for wealth and freedom, and not for poverty and slavery; to fight their masters and not their fellow slaves, and to win that victory in the class war which will forever put an end to race riots. Back the Daniel De Leon Internet Archive Back the Marxists Internet Archive | left | daily people july flood ignorance pour paper slaughter negro new orleans mob explanation give silly remedy suggest vie craziness war new orleans black white war workingman prize battle job job mean carcass animal savage fight mean savage life death vulgar editor prate racial hate ascribe riot merely display crass ignorance live time comfort life material wealth need bring happiness human produce abundance need human hungry homeless naked man inventive genius develop tool point guide natural force degree abundance possible abundance enjoyment child man obstacle interpose obstacle modern social system capitalism defender beneficiary capitalist class balk baffle obstacle eye wistfully abundance wealth capitalist class forbid touch ignorant workingman black white instead fight capitalist wealth freedom prize stake fall fight stake conflict death loser poverty misery wageslavery winner horrible battle savage fight meat fight workingman result survival slave brutal demoralize spectacle conceive strong desire forever end system class responsible manifestation social atavism bitter hate fill breast classconscious proletarian real author capitalist class work organize educate proletariat fight wealth freedom poverty slavery fight master fellow slave win victory class war forever end race riot daniel de leon internet archive marxist internet archive | 31 |
NEW YORK CITY and Los Angeles have become the model for life under capitalism in general, and in late-twentieth century urban America in particular. For the affluent are the booming stock and real estate markets; for the poor, a vista of injustice piled on injustice, atrocity on atrocity, serial police murder with impunity. After Amadou Diallo, Malcolm Ferguson; then Patrick Dorismond: If you are Black in New York you can be shot dead if you stand still, run away, or refuse an offer to sell drugs to undercover cops. The acquittal of the police who murdered Amadou Diallo was most obscene, perhaps, in its predictability. With the trial moved to Albany and held a year after the killing; with the prosecution failing even to cross-examine a defense “expert witness” and offering no rebuttal; with instructions from the judge that the jury interpreted as virtually a directed acquittal – with all this, the fix was in on this case almost from the outset. It’s not our intent at this relatively late date to review the circumstances of this outrage, which have already been detailed and eloquently analyzed in numerous venues. (Elsewhere in this issue we present the perspective of a Brooklyn community activist on the Diallo murder, as well as several other reflections on the low-intensity war on the young.) Rather, we offer some observations on the deep roots of murderous police brutality in a class-ridden society. What official society generally ignores – although communities on the receiving end understand it perfectly – is that police brutality never begins with the rape of Abner Louima or killing of Amadou Diallo, Malcolm Ferguson and Patrick Dorismond in New York, Malice Green in Detroit, Tyisha Miller in Riverside or Johnny Gammage and Maneia Bey in Pittsburgh. It begins instead in daily acts of petty humiliation, arbitrary stops and searches of young people, motorists pulled over for DWB, mundane drug busts and a hundred other routine expressions of police power. The reason this daily level of police abuse falls below the official radar screen is not simply that the media don’t notice and the white middle classes don’t generally experience it – although these facts are relevant – but that it is accepted as the modus operandi for controlling “high crime” communities. Rudolph Giuliani’s “safe streets” are popular among the same socially liberal New York elites who booed him on opening night at the opera over his vendetta against the Brooklyn Museum. While the tolerance (indeed the enthusiasm) for tough policing and even tougher sentencing of youth works its way upward through the media, the courts and the affluent sectors of society, the response among youth at street level is one of constant hostility toward the police, expressed occasionally in violent acts of resistance, but also in adaptive strategies for survival. Amadou Diallo, a recent African immigrant, died reaching for his wallet with ID, not understanding what African Americans in that neighborhood know: If confronted by the cops, never go into your pocket. What passes for effective policing is in fact a state of ever-present low-level terror. Needless to say, the potential for escalation is present in every such poisoned encounter. How surprising is it that people often run away, or even, being human, sometimes even fight back (as Patrick Dorismond is alleged to have done)? And when cops perceive resistance being offered, real or imagined, and when the beating starts or the guns are drawn – well, the thrill of power makes it feel just too good to stop. That explains why Rodney King was beaten after he was down and cuffed, why arrestees die in chokeholds, why Malice Green was clubbed not into submission but to death, why Amadou Diallo was the target of forty-one police bullets. But it is perhaps in Los Angeles, where the scandal in the Ramparts division is spreading through the entire LAPD and the county, where the how and why of police abuse is most clearly revealed. Let’s be clear: The systematic fabrication of evidence, the complicity of the prosecutors’ office in railroading defendants to prison, the whole rotten mess has never been a “secret” to communities of people of color. (That suspicion of police evidence-tampering is why a majority African-American Los Angeles jury acquitted O.J. Simpson.) The scandal came to light when Ramparts cop Rafael Perez, bargaining for a lighter sentence when caught dealing cocaine he stole in the line of duty, started to reveal the story. The costs threaten to bankrupt the city, and Mayor Riordan has suggested using tobacco settlement money to pay, enraging Angelenos who thought the money might go into public health programs. LA’s anti-gang unit CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) was the cops’ own gang, fighting its own brands of turf war, recruiting as gangs do with their own initiation rites and operating as a state-sponsored paramilitary goon squad. CRASH targeted people based on race, planted evidence and framed suspects, beat and even shot them, and turned immigrants over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for deportation. Perez and his partner shot an alleged teenage gang member in the head, but he survived, so they arrested him for threatening to kill them. This was the first case to be thrown out, and the victim was released to live out his life in a wheelchair. Fifty more cases have been thrown out and hundreds more are pending, involving people now in prison. Even worse, if that’s possible, CRASH units actively targeted individuals who were trying to broker community peace: Dewayne Holmes, trying to make peace between Crips and Bloods, and Alex Sanchez of Homies Unidos, targeted for deportation to El Salvador because of his efforts at peacemaking and job training to former gang members. It is essential to understand, first, that police abuse against the poor, the oppressed and exploited is inevitable in a system where the formation of wealth depends on the existence of poverty, oppression and exploitation; but second, that this fact must never be an excuse for accepting abuse. In fact, police brutality in a racist capitalist system cannot be eliminated but it can be reduced by struggles to confront it on the daily level where it begins. There are certain programs which are truly worthless, in the nature of police-initiated “community relations” exercises or attempts to train young people how to surrender without making some trigger-happy cop feeling “threatened.” A particularly grotesque example is the ordinance in Queens under which it is illegal to sell a “realistic-looking” toy gun (real ones are OK), after a young child was shot holding one the cop thought “looked real” (it was orange). On the other hand, everyone should support the democratic demands of the “People Justice 2000” Coalition in New York: eliminating the forty-eight hour “police silence” provision, under which police involved in shootings cannot be questioned, allowing plenty of time for cover stories to be constructed and refined; independent prosecutors for cases of homicide by police; and special prosecutors for racial crimes. There are also meaningful structural reforms around which to build struggle: notably, the fight for independent civilian review boards and genuine police accountability. In recent issues of Against the Current we have interviewed activists engaged in the struggle for such accountability in Riverside and Pittsburgh (ATC 83 and 84 respectively). The key to achieving some measure of success lies in translating outrage into the kind of sustained community organization that will remain persistent in the face of bureaucratic delays, coverups and attempts at cosmetic reform without content. In some cases federal intervention may be a hope, but a slim one. A federal civil-rights indictment of the officers who murdered Amadou Diallo is vanishingly unlikely as a practical matter, if only because of this year’s candidacy of one H.R. Clinton for Senator. For the Clintons, why risk a backlash over federal “intrusion,” when all that really matters is that Giuliani has already lost political support by his open indifference to police brutality? The principle for reducing police brutality is a two-fold one of accountability and democracy. Ultimately, this would imply that communities should be “served and protected” by people who live there, and who answer to grassroots community councils. Only in this fashion can the poor and the oppressed free themselves from the life sentence imposed by capitalism: to live in communities where they feel forced to accept either rampant crime or police brutality, and usually in fact have both. There are no conceivable means of achieving such a solution under capitalism, a society in which concentrations of corporate wealth must be protected by heavily “armed bodies of men” (Engels) from the disinherited. In that sense police brutality and murder with impunity are symptoms of a diseased system, and will disappear only with the emergence of a completely different society. That is true of every capitalist society, although it must be acknowledged that the United States of America is particularly diseased, with its policies on capital punishment, incarceration and criminalization of youth that are considered barbaric by ruling parties (and even right-of-center opposition parties) in Europe, and with our prison population now exceeding in absolute numbers (let alone relative terms) that of China. The symptoms can be resisted, however, with ruthless critical exposure and mass organizing for meaningful reform, most notably oversight bodies with transparent processes and maximum grassroots control, open to the public and completely independent of police influence and manipulation. ATC 86, May–June 2000 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | new york city los angeles model life capitalism general latetwentieth century urban america particular affluent boom stock real estate market poor vista injustice pile injustice atrocity atrocity serial police murder impunity amadou diallo malcolm ferguson patrick dorismond black new york shoot dead stand run away refuse offer sell drug undercover cop acquittal police murder amadou diallo obscene predictability trial move albany hold year killing prosecution fail crossexamine defense expert witness offer rebuttal instruction judge jury interpret virtually directed acquittal fix case outset intent relatively late date review circumstance outrage detail eloquently analyze numerous venue issue present perspective brooklyn community activist diallo murder reflection lowintensity war young offer observation deep root murderous police brutality classridden society official society generally ignore community receiving end understand perfectly police brutality begin rape abner louima killing amadou diallo malcolm ferguson patrick dorismond new york malice green detroit tyisha miller riverside johnny gammage maneia bey pittsburgh begin instead daily act petty humiliation arbitrary stop search young people motorist pull dwb mundane drug bust routine expression police power reason daily level police abuse fall official radar screen simply medium notice white middle class generally experience fact relevant accept modus operandi control high crime community rudolph giuliani safe street popular socially liberal new york elite boo open night opera vendetta brooklyn museum tolerance enthusiasm tough policing tough sentencing youth work way upward medium court affluent sector society response youth street level constant hostility police express occasionally violent act resistance adaptive strategy survival amadou diallo recent african immigrant die reach wallet d understand african americans neighborhood know confront cop pocket pass effective policing fact state everpresent lowlevel terror needless potential escalation present poisoned encounter surprising people run away human fight patrick dorismond allege cop perceive resistance offer real imagine beating start gun draw thrill power make feel good stop explain rodney king beat cuff arrestee die chokehold malice green club submission death amadou diallo target fortyone police bullet los angeles scandal rampart division spread entire lapd county police abuse clearly reveal let clear systematic fabrication evidence complicity prosecutor office railroad defendant prison rotten mess secret community people color suspicion police evidencetampering majority africanamerican los angeles jury acquit oj simpson scandal come light rampart cop rafael perez bargaining light sentence catch deal cocaine steal line duty start reveal story cost threaten bankrupt city mayor riordan suggest tobacco settlement money pay enrage angeleno think money public health program la antigang unit crash community resource street hoodlum cop gang fight brand turf war recruit gang initiation rite operate statesponsored paramilitary goon squad crash target people base race plant evidence framed suspect beat shoot turn immigrant immigration naturalization service deportation perez partner shoot allege teenage gang member head survive arrest threaten kill case throw victim release live life wheelchair case throw hundred pende involve people prison bad possible crash unit actively target individual try broker community peace dewayne holme try peace crip blood alex sanchez homie unido target deportation el salvador effort peacemaking job training gang member essential understand police abuse poor oppress exploit inevitable system formation wealth depend existence poverty oppression exploitation second fact excuse accept abuse fact police brutality racist capitalist system eliminate reduce struggle confront daily level begin certain program truly worthless nature policeinitiated community relation exercise attempt train young people surrender make triggerhappy cop feel threaten particularly grotesque example ordinance queen illegal sell realisticlooke toy gun real one ok young child shoot hold cop think look real orange hand support democratic demand people justice coalition new york eliminate fortyeight hour police silence provision police involve shooting question allow plenty time cover story construct refined independent prosecutor case homicide police special prosecutor racial crime meaningful structural reform build struggle notably fight independent civilian review board genuine police accountability recent issue current interview activist engage struggle accountability riverside pittsburgh atc respectively key achieve measure success lie translate outrage kind sustained community organization remain persistent face bureaucratic delay coverup attempt cosmetic reform content case federal intervention hope slim federal civilright indictment officer murder amadou diallo vanishingly unlikely practical matter year candidacy hr clinton senator clinton risk backlash federal intrusion matter giuliani lose political support open indifference police brutality principle reduce police brutality twofold accountability democracy ultimately imply community serve protect people live answer grassroots community council fashion poor oppress free life sentence impose capitalism live community feel force accept rampant crime police brutality usually fact conceivable mean achieve solution capitalism society concentration corporate wealth protect heavily armed body man engel disinherit sense police brutality murder impunity symptom diseased system disappear emergence completely different society true capitalist society acknowledge united states america particularly diseased policy capital punishment incarceration criminalization youth consider barbaric rule party rightofcenter opposition party europe prison population exceed absolute number let relative term china symptom resist ruthless critical exposure mass organizing meaningful reform notably oversight body transparent process maximum grassroots control open public completely independent police influence manipulation atc june current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 32 |
My own education in the Communist movement led me for many years to concentrate my attention, in the study of Hegel's writing, exclusively upon The Logic. Recently, I have been reading the Philosophy of Right, the work that Marx's earliest writings were directed at. I have found this experience enormously liberating. At last, I feel, I can see what Hegel was driving at with his Logic. In the 25 minutes available, I just want to make 8 specific points about what is dead or alive in the logic on the basis of my reading of the Philosophy of Right. In the concluding lines of the Philosophy of Right Hegel says of the State: These two realms [the mundane realm of feelings, needs, etc., and the intellectual realm] stand distinguished from one another though at the same time they are rooted in a single unity and Idea. Here [in the history of modern states] their distinction is intensified to absolute opposition and a stern struggle ensues in the course of which the realm of mind lowers the place of its heaven to an earthly here and now, to a common worldliness of fact and idea. The mundane realm, on the other hand, builds up its abstract independence into thought and the principle of rational being and knowing, i.e. into the rationality of right and law. In this way their opposition implicitly loses its marrow and disappears. The realm of fact has discarded its barbarity and unrighteous caprice, while the realm of truth has abandoned the world of beyond and its arbitrary force, so that the true reconciliation which discloses the state as the image and actuality of reason has become objective. [Philosophy of Right § 360] Cyril Smith - Ute Bublitz - Geoff Boucher - More on this ... Hegel-by-HyperText Home Page -at- marxists.org | left | education communist movement lead year concentrate attention study hegel write exclusively logic recently read philosophy right work marx early writing direct find experience enormously liberate feel hegel drive logic minute available want specific point dead alive logic basis reading philosophy right conclude line philosophy right hegel say state realm mundane realm feeling need etc intellectual realm stand distinguish time root single unity idea history modern state distinction intensify absolute opposition stern struggle ensue course realm mind lower place heaven earthly common worldliness fact idea mundane realm hand build abstract independence thought principle rational know ie rationality right law way opposition implicitly lose marrow disappear realm fact discard barbarity unrighteous caprice realm truth abandon world arbitrary force true reconciliation disclose state image actuality reason objective philosophy right cyril smith ute bublitz geoff boucher hegelbyhypertext home page marxistsorg | 33 |
C.L.R. James 1941 Source: New International, Vol. VII No. 3, April 1941, pp. 54–58, C.L.R. James under the name of J.R. Johnson. Transcribed and Marked up: by Damon Maxwell. Online Editor’s Note: There is no third footnote in the original. Numbering is as in original. – D.M MANY COMRADES ACCEPT “in the main” Trotsky’s method of analyzing the U.S.S.R. but wish to change his conclusions. They are pursuing a false path. Trotsky’s basis was the state property form. If he was wrong, it is there, at the start. To break with that will not be as easy as might appear at first. The whole method of political economy is involved. Every generation inherits productive forces at a certain stage of development, hand-plows, spinning-wheels. Ford assembly plants. Each level of productive forces demands a corresponding method of exchange and consumption. Within these given conditions men form social relations, relations with each other, fundamentally, classes. The class which rules production forms its own state and its own property forms or property relations. Property is the right to appropriate, which has sprung from the duty of organizing production or, in simpler ages, of regulating society. Production determines property, property does not determine production. The property relations are but the legal expression of the social relations of production. They have no validity apart from the social relations. Suppose you had asked a Southern slave-owner to analyze slave production. He would say that the first necessity was to own some property in slaves, and if he were a man of books, he would say that slave society rested on the juridical detail, the title which he had obtained when he handed over his money. It was Marx who exploded this bubble. The legal tide, the juridical detail, was transferred from one owner to another by the sale, but not created by it; “it was created in the first place by the conditions of production. As soon as these have arrived at a point where they must shed their skin, the material source of the title, justified economically and historically and arising from the process which creates the material requirements of life, falls to the ground, and with it all transactions based upon it”. [1] “As soon as” in this connection does not mean the morning after. Particularly, though by no means always, in periods of revolution and counter-revolution, there is often a discrepancy or re-shuffling between the juridical or legal relations (property) and the actual productive relations. The greatest example of this is capitalism itself, which transformed the productive relations in which a laborer appropriated his own product into productive relations in which his labor was appropriated by others. But while accomplishing this, the greatest economic transformation in history, capitalism prudently maintained the old juridical relation, the form of private property. Marx therefore always insisted on the distinction between “self-earned property” and “capitalistic private property” and in a famous passage he demonstrated how “the separation of property from labor has become the necessary consequence of a law that originated in their identity.” [2] A very important conclusion can be drawn from this. The same property relations can be the legal expression of a revolutionary (or counter-revolutionary) transformation in the social relations of production. This is not the same as the process of one class substituting itself for another class in the same type of society. It is the substitution of one method of production for another method of production within the same formal juridical relations. So fundamental to Marx’s method was this distinction between property relations and the social relations of production that he refused to recognize property forms or property relations at all, unless they included the total relations of production; “outside of these relations bourgeois property is nothing but a metaphysical or juristic illusion.” [4] For Marx, “to define bourgeois property is nothing other than to explain all the social relations of bourgeois production”. [5] He wrote of the “various forms of private property, as, for example, wages, trade value, price, money, etc.” [6] Bourgeois property relations could only be denned “by a critical analysis of political economy, embracing the whole of the relations of property, not in their juridical expression as relations of will, but in their real form as relations of material production. As Proudhon subordinated the whole of these economic relations to the juridical notion of property, he could not go beyond the response which had been already given by Brissot before 1789 and in the same terms ‘Property is Robbery.’” [7] Trotsky committed a similar error. With irrevocable emphasis he declared that his basis was the property form. His initial and overwhelming mistake was to identify state property indivisibly with the proletariat as ruling class. As late as October 1933 he declared that a “real civil war” between the proletariat and the bureaucracy was impossible. [8] The history of his theory is the record of his retreat step by step from his initial position until in the U.S.S.R. in War he abandoned it. Thus Trotsky and we who followed him failed to distinguish between first, means of production in the hands of the state where the state is merely an economic form like a trust, a bank, or a cartel; second, state ownership as a purely juridical relation, which tells us no more than that it is the duty of the state to organize production and distribute the product; and third, a workers’ state, i.e., a state transitional to socialism; this last is not a juridical question at all but a question of the economic conditions and social relations of production, which can be summed up in one phrase: is the working class master or not? The third category includes the other two. But neither singly nor together do the first two necessarily include the third. We have made a colossal error here in the past. We must recognize it frankly, abandon the method decisively, trace its historical and theoretical roots and consequences, and start afresh. Lucky for us that we have not to do it in the heat of action as the Bolsheviks in 1917. Within the state property form the working class can be master as in 1921 or enslaved as in 1941. Two such antithetical social relationships alter the entire character and movement of production, that is to say, the very type of economy. We must begin with productive relations, and not in Russia, but with the productive relations of the capitalist epoch as analyzed by Marx. Implicit with many is the idea that Marx did not “foresee” fascism or Stalinist Russia. Certainly Marx did not “foresee” anything. He was an economist, not a rabbi. (How these primitive habits of thought persist!) But he certainly thought he had discovered the essential characteristics of all modern society. Let us see what he meant. For Marx, means of production and laborers are the basis of all societies, and the special way these are united distinguish the various economic epochs from each other. In earlier epochs, means of production were united with the slave or the serf. Though owned, they were not capital. Wage-labor is the specific condition of the means of production assuming the form of capital. And this one historical condition, says Marx, comprises a world’s history. The wage-laborer sells his labor-power for a fixed time. The wage-laborer is entirely divorced from the means of production. In these respects capitalist society is unique. Neither the communal laborer, the ancient slave, nor the serf were divorced from the means of production. All produced mainly their own subsistence and the subsistence of their masters. They did not predominantly produce commodities for exchange. Hence the stagnant character of their production. Marx saw that society, after four hundred years of capitalist development and the creation of the world market, could never again go back to subsistence production. Therefore the future in its broad outline was plain. The mass of humanity would increasingly be wage-laborers and for this reason the means of production would continue to be monopolized by a few. The result of this would be increasing misery [9] and degradation of the wage-laborers. To prevent themselves from perishing the laborers would be compelled to seize the means of production and thereby abolish wage-labor and the capital relationship. Otherwise, barbarism. That is all he said and it is plenty. In that sense there is no possible economic structure of society, i.e., combination of means of production and laborers, which Marx’s analysis did not embrace. A fascist “class” may arise, in the narrow sense that Bukharin speaks of rentiers in the Economic Theory of the Leisure Class. The fascists may even supersede the bourgeoisie entirely (though I see no sign of it). How would that affect the economic structure of society? They would produce for all, (as they said they would)? But this could be done only by abolition of the system of wage-labor and monopoly of the means of production. To a Marxist the idea that a minority ruling class would continue to monopolize the means of production but distribute the product equally, is an intolerable stupidity. Or the fascists would bluff, mediate and maneuver, Bonapartist fashion, leaving the mass of producers as wage-laborers (which is what they have actually done). State ownership, private property, bureaucratic collectivism, managerial society, all these have to be seen within the frame work of the fundamental relationship of capital and wage-labor and the inevitable consequences. That knowledge is the greatest strength of our movement. With it we have a basis for all our analysis, whatever problems we face. Without it? Look at the mass of confusion and groping, patch-work and adventurism now proliferating in the movement. If we want to break with Marx’s foundation we must do so consciously and deliberately. The belief that Marx did not “analyze” Stalinist Russia springs from a complete imperviousness to Marx’s finest work – his abstract definitions. Let me give one example. Surplus value, we know, is generated not by the constant capital, the capital invested in means of production, but by the variable capital, the capital invested in wages. Now observe the elasticity of Marx’s method: “It does not alter this essential fact that the capitalist may pay the laborer either in money or in means of subsistence. This alters merely the mode of existence of the value advanced by the capitalist, seeing that in one case it has the form of money for which the laborer himself buys his means of subsistence on the market, in the other case that of means of subsistence which he consumes directly.” Marx is now trimming his definition to the bone. “A developed capitalist production rests indeed on the assumption that the laborer is paid in money and more generally on the assumption that the process of production is promoted by the process of circulation, in other words, by the monetary system.” The monetary system promotes but it is not absolutely necessary, so Marx throws it out. “But the production of surplus value – and consequently the capitalization of the advanced sum of values – has its source neither in the money form, nor in the natural form of wages, or of the capital invested in the purchase of labor power. It arises out of the exchange of value for a power treating value, the conversion of a constant into a variable magnitude.” Yet you can quote Marx on money interminably and drug yourself into the belief that a society which does not use money in the process of production is not capitalist. But it is precisely in the superb simplicity of these definitions, that we can grasp the insight which led him to say: “I have discovered the economic law of motion of modern society.” Trotsky on the other hand says that the bureaucracy is not a capitalist class because it has neither stocks nor bonds! The far-reaching character of this error shows how deeply Trotsky was entangled in the most superficial aspects of property relations. Marx almost always makes jokes at stocks and bonds. They are merely titles to surplus-value. They do not determine capitalist production. We shall soon see this misconception coming up again. If Hitler wiped away stocks and bonds tomorrow, and paid wages in subsistence, how the typewriters would tick with new societies. In Russia the proletariat is a class of wage-laborers. The peasantry, despite all the fictions of the property forms, are wage-laborers, some of them receiving part of their wages in subsistence and all receiving a strictly controlled bonus on the year’s work. This predominance of wage-labor makes the means of production capital. The means of production, monopolized by a section of society, in their role of capital, have an independent life and movement of their own. The bureaucracy then becomes what Marx always insisted the capitalist class is, merely the representative, the agent, the personification, the incarnation of capital. The agents or representatives of the means of production as capital can call it state property or common property or private property or Peruvian property or bureaucratic state socialist property if they have good enough reason for doing so. They may have monopolized the means of production for five generations or for five years. They may organize and appropriate in open competition with each other or through their state. They may plan the economy and lead it to chaos or they may have simple old-fashioned chaos without plan. But from the juridical and metaphysical fiction of the abstract property relations to Stalin’s new 15 year plan, all are to be analyzed and appraised only in the light of the primary social relation, the class struggle. Here you have two alternatives. You can say with the Cannonites that the proletariat is still the ruling class and Russia transitional to socialism by way of chaotic economy, the G.P.U., prisons as factories, factories as prisons, corruption of the international proletariat. That is criminal nonsense but it is logical and consistent crime. But you cannot like Shachtman call the bureaucracy a class whose state control “guarantees economic and political supremacy” [10] and at the same time call Russia “a transitional and therefore unstable social order.” [11] American capitalism is an unstable but not a transitional social order. You can have a social order transitional to socialism or back to capitalism, with the proletariat as ruling class or struggling to maintain its position as ruling class. Or you can have another type of society with defined social relations. But both together? No. If you say with Shachtman that the bureaucracy is a class and “owns the state and therewith the state property” [12] you are saying that the ruling class in Russia “owns” the means of production. What you are saying in reality is that the ruling class is in such a productive relation to the working class that the means of production thereby become capital. That is what Marx meant by saying that capital was conditioned on wage-labor. If you don’t want that, then back to the old degenerated workers’ state conception. The relationship of capital and wage-labor has certain consequences. It constantly increases the misery, oppression and degradation of the workers. I can show, not only from the testimony of Victor Serge and Yvon, but from independent investigation of Stalinist sources, that the average income of the Russian workers which in 1936 was already less than it was in 1913, is today somewhere between 50 and 75 percent of the 1913 level, despite the manifold increase in production. The workers’ oppressions, slavery and degradation are the worse in the world. Never before has there been a regime in which the gap has been so wide between what is preached and what is practised. The degradation of human personality has reached unbelievable depths. Socialism will be built by free men, not by driven slaves. Stalinist society can build only capitalist barbarism. And it is and will become more barbarous not in spite of but because of the immense centralisation of capital, this time in the hands of the state. That is precisely Marx’s theory of increasing misery. In 1936, Trotsky admitted that 15% of the population in Russia received roughly as much of the national income as the remaining 85. Today that disproportion is infinitely wider, and approaches the distribution in capitalist states. Here we have, exemplified, Marx’s theory of capitalist distribution. Distribution is merely the reverse or reflex of the social relations of production. Accumulation of wealth at one end of society and misery at the other is a law of all societies. But this process in slave society is entirely different to the process in capitalist society. In capitalist society, misery and wealth accumulate directly because of the increasing productivity of labor. Hence the dynamism of capitalist development and the long centuries of ancient and medieval stagnation. For historical reasons this movement has been tremendously accelerated in Russia. But the movement itself is strictly economic. It is illusory to hope that if given a chance, Stalin will change and raise the standard of living of the masses. That is Christianity, not Marxism. “The level of wages is not fixed by legislation but by economic factors.” Stalin remains where he is because he knows better than to attempt any fundamental change in distribution without a fundamental change in class relations. Only when production is ruled by the producers themselves and, without too much delay, on an international scale, can the permanent crisis be resolved. When the crisis is suppressed economically it breaks out politically. It is suppressed politically by a gigantic apparatus of repression and wholesale massacre. Planned terror cements the planned economy. (Strange that the professional dialecticians cannot recognize the unity of these opposites!) Accumulation combined with misery are intertwined aspects of a unity – the process of capitalist production. On this rock Trotsky foundered. All who follow his path will suffer a similar fate with greater speed and less excuse. In one of his last articles Trotsky exposed his dilemma. “The October revolution pursued two intimately related tasks: first the socialization of the means of production, and the raising through planned economy, of the country’s economic level; second, the building on this foundation of ... a socialist society administered by its members as a whole. The first task in its basic outlines has been realized; despite the influence of bureaucratism, the superiority of planned economy has revealed itself with indisputable force.” Now for what he says is intimately related. “It is otherwise with the social regime. In place of approaching socialism it moves further away.” So that, though intimately related, they grow further part. Why? “Owing to historical causes, which cannot properly be dealt with here, there has developed on the foundation of the October revolution a new privileged caste which concentrates in its hands all power and which devours an ever greater portion of the national income”. Why? That is the question of questions. Trotsky could never give a satisfactory answer. And yet the solution is simple. What economics hath joined together not even history can put asunder. Make the verbally intimate relation really intimate by changing two words in the last sentence: “... a new privileged caste which concentrates in its hands all power and therefore devours an ever greater portion of the national income.” Trotsky says that there isn’t enough to go round. But why do the workers get the short end? Why does it grow worse every year? Will it ever stop? The growing misery of the Russian workers is not due to preparations for the war. It is between 1935 and 1941 that the income of the bureaucracy in relation to the workers has reached the most fantastic heights. Like Brissot and Proudhon who made property an “independent relation,” Trotsky is compelled to explain all by super-theft, by declaring that Stalin’s state is organized nine-tenths for stealing and Stalin’s supporters are thieves. [13] That is useful as agitation. It is not analysis. The only explanation is that the predominance of wage-labor compels inevitable results. Was there wage-labor in Leninist Russia? In form only; or yes and no, as is inevitable in a transitional state, but much more no than yes. The rule of the proletariat created a new economy. Whereas in a capitalist society the basic relationship is on the one hand wage-labor and on the other hand means of production in the hands of the capitalist class, in Leninist Russia the relation-ship was: the form of wage-labor only on the one hand because on the other were the means of production in the hands of the laborer who owned the property through the -state. This made the class relations so different from those of capitalism as to alter the whole character and movement of wages and make Russia socialist “in principle.” To lump this together with wage-labor in the Marxian sense is to believe that the way from New York to Montreal is the same as the way from New York to Miami. It is to miss completely the role of the Russian proletarian state in the transition period. The aim was to increase well-being instead of misery. Without world revolution workers’ ownership was doomed. During the first Five Year Plan Stalin tried to abolish transition. It cost the lives of some ten million men. It is impossible here to trace the complicated economic development. But first the workers lost direct control; then the Stalinist constitution marked the end of even the pretense that the workers owned anything, and wage-labor therefore takes its unchecked course of increasing the misery of the Russian workers except for Stakhanovites and others whom Stalin bribes to support his regime. This is exactly what Marx “foresaw”. Before this discussion is ended, it will be seen that far from being outside Marx’s analysis, Stalinist Russia is the greatest affirmation of his analysis of capital hitherto seen. Is Russian economy “progressive”? What is an economy abstracted from the class relations? As Stalinist chaos revealed itself, Trotsky could maintain the doubtful contention of a progressive economy only by the uncontested fiction of the proletariat as ruling class. By 1939 all he could say was: “Wait at least until after the war and then, if there is no revolution, we shall have to admit that nationalized economy can support an exploiting class.” In plain words, Trotsky’s theory came to a complete impasse. In reality, the economy was progressive, not because of state-ownership in general and planned economy in general, but because the state which owned was a working-class state and the economy was therefore directed in the interests of society as a whole. When, by 1936, all power was definitely lost, then the economy might grow absolutely – there is nothing to prevent world capitalism doing that – but the total social relations increasingly became such as to destroy even such planning as was possible, and keep the economy and the whole of society in a state of permanent crisis. Stalinist Russia, like American capitalism, is transitional to crisis and collapse and transitional to nothing else. How can that be progressive? Shachtman, by making the bureaucracy into a class and yet half-employing Trotsky’s method, has pushed Trotsky’s is initial error, excusable when it was originally made, to an impossible extreme. In Germany and Russia the ruling class possesses, uses as its own, and for its own interests the means of production? Yes, says Shachtman. The German bourgeoisie and the Stalinist bureaucracy are both fetters on the productive forces? Yes, again. Both in Germany and Russia these rulers monopolize all advantages of the socialization of labor and increased productivity while among the workers grow the mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation. Yes. In each country the state plans the economy to increase class power, prestige and revenues. Yes. In each country only a proletarian, social revolution can change this. Yes. Then why may we not call the bureaucracy a capitalist class of the same economic type as the German bourgeoisie? Says Shachtman: “the juridical detail” of ownership is of the “pro-foundest importance.” This is indeed the magnification of a juridical relation into the basis of society. Shachtman does not see that his article proves the economic identity of Germany and Russia. The intellectual reason for his failure to recognize this is that he has not made the break with Trotsky’s approach. What is worse, he carries it over from Russia to Germany. For example: “[Hitler’s] boldness and ‘radicalism’ in all spheres is directed toward maintaining that ‘juridical detail’, that is, capitalist society, to the extent to which it is at all possible to maintain it in the period of its decay.” So capitalist society depends on Hitler’s not changing that juridical detail, in fact for Shachtman, capitalist society is that juridical detail, ownership. This is our old friend the slave-owner again, who believes that slave production rests on his ownership of the slave. Marx worked for forty years to prove not that but the opposite. “The level of wages is not fixed by legislation but by economic factors. The phenomenon of capitalist exploitation does not rest on a legal disposition but on the purely economic fact that labor-power plays in this exploitation the role of a merchandise possessing among other characteristics, the agreeable quality of producing value – more than it the value it consumes in the form of the laborer’s means of subsistence.” [14] That is German society and Russia, both capitalist. This is no incidental mistake. Shachtman’s whole article is built on it. But note that it is Trotsky’s methodology on Russia applied to capitalism. Russia was a worker’s state because the is state owned. So now, according to Shachtman, Germany is a capitalist state because the capitalists own. Social relations? The workers? The movement of production? All subordinated to the metaphysical and juristic fiction of an abstract property relation, ownership. We must get rid of this method of thinking. It is bourgeois, and will lead us straight into the camp of the bourgeoisie. However calmly and educationally we wish to discuss the Russian question we must bear this tremendous fact always in mind. After nearly twenty-five years of work and thought on the Russian question, the successor of Marx, Engels and Lenin, pursuing a consistent line, invited us to enter one of the war-camps and we refused. But for the accident of circumstance we would have been on one side of the barricades and the leader of the October revolution on the other. It is to do Trotsky ; and ourselves a great injustice not to realize that fundamental concepts of thought, bourgeois on the one hand and Marxist on the other (there are no others), are here involved. Of that, more later. Today the bureaucracy, like any other capitalist class, in proportion to its political solidarity, plans in order to get as much surplus value as possible from the workers, it plans to preserve itself against other capitalist classes. An individual capitalist who is unable to extract surplus value goes bankrupt, gets a government subsidy, or allows his capital to lie fallow. The state, as national capitalist, produces in certain branches at a loss, which is atoned tor by gain in others. Why is the total national capital any the less capital because it exploits the workers under unified control instead of in separate conflicting parts? The proof of this will be long in coming. It will involve a new Capital. The competition between capitalist and capitalist is a distinctly subordinate relation, a conflict over the distribution of the surplus value. Marx said so often. The decisive social relation is the antagonism between workers and capitalists over the production of the surplus value – the class struggle. It is not merely a more important relation than the rest. It determines the rest. Why else do we lay all our stress on the class struggle? Profit is only a “peculiar form” of surplus value. Surplus value can take the form of capitalist wages, “for quantity and quality of work performed” (in Russia today its distribution takes very unusual forms). But it can be produced in only one way. All analysis, research and theorizing, however “profound,” are useless unless they deal with these apparently very elementary but in reality decisive questions. The Russian question is no isolated question but is the question of our economic epoch today. Marx and Engels taught that without the proletarian revolution the state would be compelled to take over capitalist property and make it state-owned (Shachtman will never to able to accept this. He cannot, without ripping his position on Russia to pieces or by confusing still further capital as property with capital as function.) The German capitalist, with every social relation of production, wages, trade, profit, all controlled by the state, is little more than a state-functionary. This was accomplished by one agency in one way. How it will be done elsewhere, and by what stages, we do not and cannot know. There will be advances and retreats, even in Germany, but the whole moves inevitably towards state-ownership. Stalin, contrary to Trotsky’s persistent premonitions, strengthens state property, but if private property were restored in Russia tomorrow, it would inevitably be statified again. Socialization of the labor process proceeds apace in every country, with consequent socialization of exchange, and rigid regulation of every commodity, of which labor power is the chief. Today these conditions, or sheer chaos, demand statification, and they will have it. If the proletariat does not statify, – the bourgeoisie will. But by so doing, it intensifies every contradiction of capitalism and drives society on the road to ruin. Of capitalist barbarism Stalinist Russia is a fore-runner. Under no circumstances is it to be defended. The above is the bare but basic outline. That is all there is space for. Specific differences in economic and social conditions, and the historical origin of Hitlerite and Stalinist society are very great, and will later be the subject of careful differentiation. But it was necessary first to establish the fundamental identity of a wage-laboring working class and a state controlling all aspects of economic, political and social life. This is the general fo8221 of capitalist decline and determines the steady progress to greater and greater barbarism and nothing else, until the socialist revolution. The future of society can therefore be clearly posed, fascist barbarism or socialism. 1. Capital, I, p. 886. 2. Capital, I, p. 640. 4. Correspondence, p. 11., I, p. 640. 5. Poverty of Philosophy, Kerr, p. 108. 6. Selected Essays, p. 172. 7. Poverty of Philosophy, p. 105. 8. The Soviet Union and the Fourth International. 9. Not necessarily increasing poverty. A worker on relief today may have more at his disposal than his grandfather did when working. Yet the modern worker Is more miserable, more frustrated and more resentful. For wages too are a social relation. 10. New International, Dec. 1940. 11. Bulletin W.P., No. 7. 12. [missing] 13. [missing] 14. Rosa Luxemburg, Reform and Revolution. Those who think that this and similar definitions apply not only to capitalism but to slavery and some other “new” societies should be given plenty of rope. C.L.R. James Archive Last updated on: 15.12.2012 | left | clr james source new international vol vii april pp clr jame jr johnson transcribed mark damon maxwell online editor note footnote original numbering original dm comrade accept main trotsky method analyze ussr wish change conclusion pursue false path trotsky basis state property form wrong start break easy appear method political economy involve generation inherit productive force certain stage development handplow spinningwheel ford assembly plant level productive force demand corresponding method exchange consumption give condition man form social relation relation fundamentally class class rule production form state property form property relation property right appropriate spring duty organize production simple age regulate society production determine property property determine production property relation legal expression social relation production validity apart social relation suppose ask southern slaveowner analyze slave production necessity property slave man book slave society rest juridical detail title obtain hand money marx explode bubble legal tide juridical detail transfer owner sale create create place condition production soon arrive point shed skin material source title justify economically historically arise process create material requirement life fall ground transaction base soon connection mean morning particularly means period revolution counterrevolution discrepancy reshuffling juridical legal relation property actual productive relation great example capitalism transform productive relation laborer appropriate product productive relation labor appropriate accomplish great economic transformation history capitalism prudently maintain old juridical relation form private property marx insist distinction selfearned property capitalistic private property famous passage demonstrate separation property labor necessary consequence law originate identity important conclusion draw property relation legal expression revolutionary counterrevolutionary transformation social relation production process class substitute class type society substitution method production method production formal juridical relation fundamental marx method distinction property relation social relation production refuse recognize property form property relation include total relation production outside relation bourgeois property metaphysical juristic illusion marx define bourgeois property explain social relation bourgeois production write form private property example wage trade value price money etc bourgeois property relation den critical analysis political economy embrace relation property juridical expression relation real form relation material production proudhon subordinate economic relation juridical notion property response give brissot term property robbery trotsky commit similar error irrevocable emphasis declare basis property form initial overwhelming mistake identify state property indivisibly proletariat rule class late october declare real civil war proletariat bureaucracy impossible history theory record retreat step step initial position ussr war abandon trotsky follow fail distinguish mean production hand state state merely economic form like trust bank cartel second state ownership purely juridical relation tell duty state organize production distribute product worker state ie state transitional socialism juridical question question economic condition social relation production sum phrase work class master category include singly necessarily include colossal error past recognize frankly abandon method decisively trace historical theoretical root consequence start afresh lucky heat action bolsheviks state property form work class master enslave antithetical social relationship alter entire character movement production type economy begin productive relation russia productive relation capitalist epoch analyze marx implicit idea marx foresee fascism stalinist russia certainly marx foresee economist rabbi primitive habit thought persist certainly think discover essential characteristic modern society let mean marx mean production laborer basis society special way united distinguish economic epoch early epoch mean production unite slave serf own capital wagelabor specific condition mean production assume form capital historical condition say marx comprise world history wagelaborer sell laborpower fix time wagelaborer entirely divorce mean production respect capitalist society unique communal laborer ancient slave serf divorce mean production produce mainly subsistence subsistence master predominantly produce commodity exchange stagnant character production marx see society year capitalist development creation world market subsistence production future broad outline plain mass humanity increasingly wagelaborer reason mean production continue monopolize result increase misery degradation wagelaborer prevent perish laborer compel seize mean production abolish wagelabor capital relationship barbarism say plenty sense possible economic structure society ie combination mean production laborer marx analysis embrace fascist class arise narrow sense bukharin speak rentier economic theory leisure class fascist supersede bourgeoisie entirely sign affect economic structure society produce say abolition system wagelabor monopoly mean production marxist idea minority rule class continue monopolize mean production distribute product equally intolerable stupidity fascist bluff mediate maneuver bonapartist fashion leave mass producer wagelaborer actually state ownership private property bureaucratic collectivism managerial society see frame work fundamental relationship capital wagelabor inevitable consequence knowledge great strength movement basis analysis problem face look mass confusion groping patchwork adventurism proliferate movement want break marx foundation consciously deliberately belief marx analyze stalinist russia spring complete imperviousness marx fine work abstract definition let example surplus value know generate constant capital capital invest mean production variable capital capital invest wage observe elasticity marx method alter essential fact capitalist pay laborer money mean subsistence alter merely mode existence value advance capitalist see case form money laborer buy mean subsistence market case mean subsistence consume directly marx trim definition bone develop capitalist production rest assumption laborer pay money generally assumption process production promote process circulation word monetary system monetary system promote absolutely necessary marx throw production surplus value consequently capitalization advanced sum value source money form natural form wage capital invest purchase labor power arise exchange value power treating value conversion constant variable magnitude quote marx money interminably drug belief society use money process production capitalist precisely superb simplicity definition grasp insight lead discover economic law motion modern society trotsky hand say bureaucracy capitalist class stock bond farreache character error show deeply trotsky entangle superficial aspect property relation marx make joke stock bond merely title surplusvalue determine capitalist production shall soon misconception come hitler wipe away stock bond tomorrow pay wage subsistence typewriter tick new society russia proletariat class wagelaborer peasantry despite fiction property form wagelaborer receive wage subsistence receive strictly control bonus year work predominance wagelabor make mean production capital mean production monopolize section society role capital independent life movement bureaucracy marx insist capitalist class merely representative agent personification incarnation capital agent representative mean production capital state property common property private property peruvian property bureaucratic state socialist property good reason monopolize mean production generation year organize appropriate open competition state plan economy lead chaos simple oldfashioned chaos plan juridical metaphysical fiction abstract property relation stalin new year plan analyze appraise light primary social relation class struggle alternative cannonite proletariat rule class russia transitional socialism way chaotic economy gpu prison factory factory prison corruption international proletariat criminal nonsense logical consistent crime like shachtman bureaucracy class state control guarantee economic political supremacy time russia transitional unstable social order american capitalism unstable transitional social order social order transitional socialism capitalism proletariat rule class struggle maintain position rule class type society define social relation shachtman bureaucracy class own state therewith state property say rule class russia own mean production say reality rule class productive relation work class mean production capital marx mean say capital condition wagelabor want old degenerated worker state conception relationship capital wagelabor certain consequence constantly increase misery oppression degradation worker testimony victor serge yvon independent investigation stalinist source average income russian worker today percent level despite manifold increase production worker oppression slavery degradation bad world regime gap wide preach practise degradation human personality reach unbelievable depth socialism build free man drive slave stalinist society build capitalist barbarism barbarous spite immense centralisation capital time hand state precisely marx theory increase misery trotsky admit population russia receive roughly national income remain today disproportion infinitely wide approach distribution capitalist state exemplify marx theory capitalist distribution distribution merely reverse reflex social relation production accumulation wealth end society misery law society process slave society entirely different process capitalist society capitalist society misery wealth accumulate directly increase productivity labor dynamism capitalist development long century ancient medieval stagnation historical reason movement tremendously accelerate russia movement strictly economic illusory hope give chance stalin change raise standard living masse christianity marxism level wage fix legislation economic factor stalin remain know well attempt fundamental change distribution fundamental change class relation production rule producer delay international scale permanent crisis resolve crisis suppress economically break politically suppress politically gigantic apparatus repression wholesale massacre plan terror cement plan economy strange professional dialectician recognize unity opposite accumulation combine misery intertwine aspect unity process capitalist production rock trotsky founder follow path suffer similar fate great speed excuse article trotsky expose dilemma october revolution pursue intimately relate task socialization mean production raising plan economy country economic level second building foundation socialist society administer member task basic outline realize despite influence bureaucratism superiority plan economy reveal indisputable force say intimately related social regime place approach socialism move away intimately relate grow owe historical cause properly deal develop foundation october revolution new privileged caste concentrate hand power devour great portion national income question question trotsky satisfactory answer solution simple economic hath join history asunder verbally intimate relation intimate change word sentence new privileged caste concentrate hand power devour great portion national income trotsky say round worker short end grow bad year stop grow misery russian worker preparation war income bureaucracy relation worker reach fantastic height like brissot proudhon property independent relation trotsky compel explain supertheft declare stalin state organize ninetenth stealing stalin supporter thief useful agitation analysis explanation predominance wagelabor compel inevitable result wagelabor leninist russia form yes inevitable transitional state yes rule proletariat create new economy capitalist society basic relationship hand wagelabor hand mean production hand capitalist class leninist russia relationship form wagelabor hand means production hand laborer own property state class relation different capitalism alter character movement wage russia socialist principle lump wagelabor marxian sense believe way new york montreal way new york miami miss completely role russian proletarian state transition period aim increase wellbee instead misery world revolution worker ownership doom year plan stalin try abolish transition cost life million man impossible trace complicated economic development worker lose direct control stalinist constitution mark end pretense worker own wagelabor take unchecked course increase misery russian worker stakhanovite stalin bribe support regime exactly marx foresaw discussion end see far outside marx analysis stalinist russia great affirmation analysis capital hitherto see russian economy progressive economy abstract class relation stalinist chaos reveal trotsky maintain doubtful contention progressive economy uncontested fiction proletariat rule class wait war revolution shall admit nationalize economy support exploit class plain word trotsky theory come complete impasse reality economy progressive stateownership general plan economy general state own workingclass state economy direct interest society power definitely lose economy grow absolutely prevent world capitalism total social relation increasingly destroy planning possible economy society state permanent crisis stalinist russia like american capitalism transitional crisis collapse transitional progressive shachtman make bureaucracy class halfemploye trotsky method push trotsky initial error excusable originally impossible extreme germany russia rule class possess use interest mean production yes say shachtman german bourgeoisie stalinist bureaucracy fetter productive force yes germany russia ruler monopolize advantage socialization labor increase productivity worker grow mass misery oppression slavery degradation exploitation yes country state plan economy increase class power prestige revenue yes country proletarian social revolution change yes bureaucracy capitalist class economic type german bourgeoisie say shachtman juridical detail ownership profound importance magnification juridical relation basis society shachtman article prove economic identity germany russia intellectual reason failure recognize break trotsky approach bad carry russia germany example hitler boldness radicalism sphere direct maintain juridical detail capitalist society extent possible maintain period decay capitalist society depend hitler change juridical detail fact shachtman capitalist society juridical detail ownership old friend slaveowner believe slave production rest ownership slave marx work year prove opposite level wage fix legislation economic factor phenomenon capitalist exploitation rest legal disposition purely economic fact laborpower play exploitation role merchandise possess characteristic agreeable quality produce value value consume form laborer mean subsistence german society russia capitalist incidental mistake shachtman article build note trotsky methodology russia apply capitalism russia worker state state own accord shachtman germany capitalist state capitalist social relation worker movement production subordinate metaphysical juristic fiction abstract property relation ownership rid method think bourgeois lead straight camp bourgeoisie calmly educationally wish discuss russian question bear tremendous fact mind nearly twentyfive year work think russian question successor marx engel lenin pursue consistent line invite enter warcamp refuse accident circumstance barricade leader october revolution trotsky great injustice realize fundamental concept thought bourgeois hand marxist involve later today bureaucracy like capitalist class proportion political solidarity plan order surplus value possible worker plan preserve capitalist class individual capitalist unable extract surplus value go bankrupt get government subsidy allow capital lie fallow state national capitalist produce certain branch loss atone tor gain total national capital capital exploit worker unified control instead separate conflict part proof long come involve new capital competition capitalist capitalist distinctly subordinate relation conflict distribution surplus value marx say decisive social relation antagonism worker capitalist production surplus value class struggle merely important relation rest determine rest lay stress class struggle profit peculiar form surplus value surplus value form capitalist wage quantity quality work perform russia today distribution take unusual form produce way analysis research theorize profound useless deal apparently elementary reality decisive question russian question isolated question question economic epoch today marx engel teach proletarian revolution state compel capitalist property stateowne shachtman able accept rip position russia piece confuse capital property capital function german capitalist social relation production wage trade profit control state little statefunctionary accomplish agency way stage know advance retreat germany move inevitably stateownership stalin contrary trotsky persistent premonition strengthen state property private property restore russia tomorrow inevitably statifie socialization labor process proceed apace country consequent socialization exchange rigid regulation commodity labor power chief today condition sheer chaos demand statification proletariat statify bourgeoisie intensify contradiction capitalism drive society road ruin capitalist barbarism stalinist russia forerunner circumstance defend bare basic outline space specific difference economic social condition historical origin hitlerite stalinist society great later subject careful differentiation necessary establish fundamental identity wagelaboring work class state control aspect economic political social life general capitalist decline determine steady progress great great barbarism socialist revolution future society clearly pose fascist barbarism socialism capital p capital p correspondence p p poverty philosophy kerr p select essay p poverty philosophy p soviet union fourth international necessarily increase poverty worker relief today disposal grandfather work modern worker miserable frustrated resentful wage social relation new international dec bulletin wp miss miss rosa luxemburg reform revolution think similar definition apply capitalism slavery new society give plenty rope clr james archive update | 34 |
J. V. Stalin Source : Works, Vol. 16 Publisher : Red Star Press Ltd., London, 1986 Transcription/HTML Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, 2009 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. Please accept, Comrade Minister President, on the occasion of the national day of celebration of the Polish Republic, my friendly greetings to the Polish people, to the government of the Republic of Poland and to you personally, and also my wishes for new success in the further development of the democratic people's Poland. J. STALIN ("Daily Review," Vol. 2, No. 169, 24 July, 1951) Collected Works Index | Volume 16 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol publisher red star press ltd london transcriptionhtml markup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source accept comrade minister president occasion national day celebration polish republic friendly greeting polish people government republic poland personally wish new success development democratic people poland j stalin daily review vol july collect works index volume index work decade j v stalin archive | 35 |
Marxists Internet Archive/Leon Trotsky Internet Archive: RESTRICTED DIRECTORY! You can probably find what you are looking for at one of the following indexes: Marxists Internet Archive | left | marxist internet archiveleon trotsky internet archive restrict directory probably find look follow index marxist internet archive | 36 |
IN 1962 A socialist writer, Michael Harrington, came out with a book called The Other America.(1) It was about poverty in the United States, a subject getting little attention in the media, in the academic world or in social policy circles at that time. True, a handful of sociologists and social workers had been concerned with poor neighborhoods at least since the 1920s. They were primarily interested in such “deviant behaviors” as hoboes, prostitutes, taxi dancers, juvenile gangs and the like, although some also described how slums develop. But their studies did not address the wider social system. Harrington’#8221;s book, reviewed in advance in The New Yorker by Dwight Macdonald, produced a sensation. It can be compared to “Occupy Wall Street” in that it put the notion of two nations on the map, one rich or relatively well off, the other poor. It was an oversimplification, as is the idea of the 99% versus the 1%, but it caught the attention of president Kennedy and his advisers, and of social policy wonks. Half a century ago 40-50 million people lived in poverty, 20-25% of a much smaller U.S. population than today. In the context of the Cold War, such levels of poverty were embarrassing. A series of reforms were slowly initiated, culminating in president Johnson’#8221;s “War on Poverty.” Ten years later the poverty rate was 11.1%, the lowest on record. But that “war” foundered on the aftermath of the war in Vietnam, which led to inflation, and soon to the backlash that began in 1968 with the election of Richard Nixon. Today the poverty rate is 15%, or about 46 million people, of whom nearly half earn below 50% of the poverty line ($19,500 for a family of three). Try making a budget based on that: Here in Pennsylvania, the minimum wage (same as the federal) is $7.25 an hour. This comes to about $15,000 a year, below the poverty line. It’#8221;s $1250 a month, or $42 a day for the family. A person (usually a woman) on TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families), commonly called welfare, gets about $3500 a year for a family of three, plus “food stamps” worth $6300. This makes $9800, or half the poverty line — $26.50 a day. But more than six million people in the United States have no income other than food stamps. Some additional points: (1) Most of the poor work at least part time, but half the jobs in the U.S. economy pay less than $34,000 a year, and a quarter pay below the poverty line. (2) About a third of the poor are children: 16 million (22% of all children), putting the United States second from the bottom among 35 “wealthy” countries. Of these children, 2.8 million live in households with incomes of less than $6 a day ($2,184 per year). (3) But these rates differ by “race:” 16% of white children are poor, 35% of African-American, and 46% of Latino/a. (4) Although the majority of the poor (and the unemployed as well) are white, rates vary widely: The official poverty rate for whites is 10.6%, for Blacks 25.9%, for Latino/as 23.9%. These figures correlate to their respective unemployment rates: 6.8% for whites, 13.8% for Blacks, 9.6% for Latino/as, with the important caveat that we know that real unemployment rates are considerably higher if we include those who have given up looking for work, and those working part-time who would like more work but can’#8221;t find it.(2) This leads me to my first proposition: that civil rights, which we associate with Martin Luther King Jr., and economic justice are inseparable. Why? As Dr. King understood, the majority of the African-American population is middle to lower-income working class with much of that class poor or near poor (including the often overlooked segment of sharecroppers and tenant farmers that continue to populate areas of the South, especially the Deep South). Civil rights become issues of economic justice when civil rights demands move to the areas of job discrimination (calling for equal opportunity) and access to decent paying, union-level jobs. Hence access to unions (including leadership positions), becomes part of the demand for civil rights and therefore for economic justice. As King also understood, for civil rights to win, mass support was needed, so that the movement had to address more than access to public accommodations. It had to address basic economic issues. We are familiar with the Greensboro, North Carolina sit-ins that triggered sit-ins for public accommodations throughout most of the South (and even some Northern communities) in 1960-61. But many are not aware that at the same time (late 1960) in Fayette and Haywood Counties, Tennessee, white property owners expelled Black tenant farmers and sharecroppers, most of them poor, in order to block them from voting. The farmers, with support from sympathizers all over the country, erected a tent city and lived there throughout the winter. They won after a court fight, breaking the monopoly of political and economic power in the area. It wasn’#8221;t a revolution, but it was a significant step in creating a wider awareness of the prevalence of poverty in the country. Dr. King continued to press on this issue. Many have forgotten that the famous 1963 March on Washington was for “Jobs and Freedom.” Later he promoted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’#8221;s Poor People’#8221;s Campaign. The Campaign organized a tent city of some 3,000 people on the Mall in Washington in the spring of 1968 in order to make poverty more visible to the public. Another example was his support for the Memphis Sanitation Strike in February, 1968. It was called to protest discriminatory placement in dangerous jobs, disrespect, and for the right to join a union. After his assassination, a silent march led by his widow, Coretta King, resulted in victory. King also saw that the war in Vietnam was draining resources from Johnson’#8221;s “war on poverty.” The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the first civil rights organization to oppose the war, but King soon followed. Neither King nor SNCC opposed the war only on the pragmatic reason that it diverted attention from poverty, of course; SNCC saw the war’#8221;s official rationale, to defend democracy in Southeast Asia, as hypocritical given the government’#8221;s failure to protect Blacks’#8221; voting rights in the South. SNCC even supported draft resistance. King opposed the war more through the lens of his pacifism. Now to my second proposition: Once economic issues are raised, this necessarily forces us to examine the way the overall economic system, capitalism, functions. Civil rights demands (especially voting) threaten existing white-dominated political institutions (government), and elite social institutions because they challenge the white ruling class’#8221;s political domination and its monopoly of decision-making circles, such as exclusionary private clubs. But these demands do not inherently question capitalism as such. Economic demands on the other hand, such as access to decent-paying jobs, nondiscriminatory working conditions (including for women), and the right to collective bargaining, do challenge corporate priorities and private property “rights” because they threaten to shift the balance of decision-making power from a monopoly by property owners to a bargaining situation in which others also, unions for example, have a say. These demands challenge the profits of the corporation, and for some lead to questioning an economic system in which profits come before justice. Whether civil rights or economic demands, they are resisted by the power structure with every means at its disposal. In the South civil rights were reisted by force for a long time, and today voting rights are still in danger. On the economic front unions were attacked by paid thugs and the National Guard and later by legalisms, obstruction, and well-organized attempts, often successful to destroy them. Yet resistance to change by the power structure only goes so far in explaining why there has been so little improvement in basic living standards for large numbers of Americans, especially Blacks and Latino/as. The historic fact is that the civil rights movement (as well as other protest movements of the 1960s) died down. Many local leaders, facing police and FBI repression, took jobs in the “war on poverty.” Others quit, simply exhausted from the struggle. Still others, after winning access to the Democratic Party structure beginning in 1968, were elected to public office where they continue to promote, to one degree or another, the civil rights and economic justice agendas as best they can given the control of the Congress and court system by white conservatives, not to mention state legislatures, especially in the South. The rule, stated by sociologists Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward long ago, is that when the pressure goes off, we enter a period of reversal or backlash.3 The 1970s not only ushered in a backlash, and a general attack on unions by the corporate sector, but also major changes in the economy that put downward pressure on the living standards of many American workers, especially people of color. These changes are rooted in what is called “deindustrialization”: the movement of manufacturing to lower-wage areas (to the fiercely anti-union South, and offshore), and technological innovations that eliminated jobs. Corporations, pressing to lower costs and side-step unions, increasingly hired part-time workers and outsourced work to non-union sub-contractors. Moreover, from 1970 to 2012 the share of manufacturing jobs, many of which were middle-income and unionized, declined from 25.1% to a paltry 8.9%, and the percent of private-sector workers in unions skidded correspondingly.(4) These trends led to what is called the decline of the so-called middle class, meaning folks in the middle of the income and wealth distribution (most of whom are working class). By one measure the share of income and wealth of the middle 60% has declined from 53% in 1970 to 46.6% in 2011.(5) More importantly, by another measure the number of those in the income range around the median of $60,000 has also declined — with these folks moving either upward or downward on the scale — creating what’#8221;s called a bi-modal, rather than the former normal (“bell curve”) income distribution. This is called the “hollowing out” of the so-called middle class.(6) However, concentrating on this segment misses an important point. What most observers fail to note is that although, to paraphrase George Orwell, most people are unequal (to the top 20%) some are “more unequal than others.” According to one study, since 1995 the bottom fifth of the population has lost 7% of its income; the next lowest fifth lost 1%, while all others gained at least a little, with the top fifth gaining the most and the top 10%, 5%, and the famous 1% gaining more as you go farther up.(7) Given that Black and Latino/a workers find themselves disproportionately in the lower income sectors, it follows that as jobs in manufacturing disappear and as jobs in the lower-paying services sector (fast food, etc.) grow, the disproportionate number of people of color, women, and minority women who are forced to shift to these jobs will find themselves with below average and poverty-level wages. On average, the incomes of Blacks and Latino/as are half of white incomes; but the wealth (assets) of Blacks and Latino/as are only one-sixth that of whites.(8) The stable Black and Latino/a working class today is located increasingly in public sector jobs (teaching, clerical, the post office, etc.). And right now these jobs (often unionized) are being cut by government at all levels due to so-called austerity programs, therefore disproportionately affecting minorities, Blacks in particular. One point should be emphasized: the inequality that has provoked so much discussion in the last several years (the notion of the 99% against the 1%) is not due to the impersonal rules of the economy, about which, it is said, we can do nothing. What inequality is really about is that the gains of the top 1%, 10%, even many of the top 20% are at the expense of the rest — that is, those gains are based on exploiting the large mass of the working population, extracting from them as much as possible. In a nutshell, the profits of the top (including the outrageous incomes of corporate heads) can be sustained or increased only by suppressing the wages and benefits of the rest, and, of course, dodging taxes. That is why the corporate sector is so keen on suppressing labor unions, why the tax structure is so unfair, why “deregulation” is pushed by economists on the corporate payroll. It follows, therefore, that although every struggle on the part of working people to get more of the pie, or at minimum to prevent the slice going to the mass of the population from getting smaller, is necessary, this does not change the basic dynamic of a system that is based on exploitation. In order to achieve a society in which everyone’#8221;s needs are met and poverty is eliminated, a new kind of system must be created. By the end of the 1960s many of the most active fighters for civil rights had come to realize this, and had begun to advocate some form of socialism, some even to the point of advocating a revolution. SNCC, the Black Panther Party, the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit, and numerous other small groups had come to believe that racism and capitalism were linked, and that the overthrow of both was necessary. Malcolm X was also moving in this direction when he was assassinated in 1965. Although Martin Luther King Jr. was hardly in a position openly to advocate revolution, he accepted the idea that some form of democratic socialism might be necessary to achieve a more just society. The dismal state of the current economy with its scary unemployment rate was not suddenly triggered by the financial meltdown of 2008. It has been building since the 1970s; indeed one could argue that it was almost planned by corporate leaders. Deindustrialization is a deliberate policy decision. The attempted destruction of labor unions is another, and the imposition of austerity, deregulation, and the privatization of government functions, the same. All in the interest of sustaining and increasing profit. The choice is clear: profit, or economic justice. We can’#8221;t have both. January/February 2014, ATC 168 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | socialist writer michael come book call poverty united states subject get little attention medium academic world social policy circle time true handful sociologist social worker concern poor neighborhood primarily interested deviant behavior hoboe prostitute taxi dancer juvenile gang like describe slum develop study address wide social system book review advance new yorker dwight macdonald produce sensation compare occupy wall street notion nation map rich relatively poor oversimplification idea versus catch attention president kennedy adviser social policy wonk half century ago million people live poverty small population today context cold war level poverty embarrass series reform slowly initiate culminate president war poverty year later poverty rate low record war founder aftermath war vietnam lead inflation soon backlash begin election richard nixon today poverty rate million people nearly half earn poverty line family try make budget base pennsylvania minimum wage federal hour come year poverty line month day family person usually woman tanf temporary aid needy family commonly call welfare get year family plus food stamp worth make half poverty line day million people united states income food stamp additional point poor work time half job economy pay year quarter pay poverty line poor child million child put united states second wealthy country child million live household income day year rate differ race white child poor africanamerican latinoa majority poor unemployed white rate vary widely official poverty rate white black latinoas figure correlate respective unemployment rate white black latinoas important caveat know real unemployment rate considerably high include give look work work parttime like work t find lead proposition civil right associate martin luther king jr economic justice inseparable dr king understand majority africanamerican population middle lowerincome work class class poor near poor include overlook segment sharecropper tenant farmer continue populate area south especially deep south civil right issue economic justice civil right demand area job discrimination call equal opportunity access decent pay unionlevel job access union include leadership position demand civil right economic justice king understand civil right win mass support need movement address access public accommodation address basic economic issue familiar greensboro north carolina sitin trigger sitin public accommodation south northern community aware time late fayette haywood county tennessee white property owner expel black tenant farmer sharecropper poor order block vote farmer support sympathizer country erect tent city live winter win court fight break monopoly political economic power area t revolution significant step create wide awareness prevalence poverty country dr king continue press issue forget famous march washington job freedom later promote southern christian leadership poor campaign campaign organize tent city people mall washington spring order poverty visible public example support memphis sanitation strike february call protest discriminatory placement dangerous job disrespect right join union assassination silent march lead widow coretta king result victory king see war vietnam drain resource war poverty student nonviolent coordinate committee civil right organization oppose war king soon follow king sncc oppose war pragmatic reason divert attention poverty course sncc see official rationale defend democracy southeast asia hypocritical give failure protect voting right south sncc support draft resistance king oppose war lens pacifism second proposition economic issue raise necessarily force examine way overall economic system capitalism function civil right demand especially vote threaten exist whitedominate political institution government elite social institution challenge white rule political domination monopoly decisionmake circle exclusionary private club demand inherently question capitalism economic demand hand access decentpaye job nondiscriminatory working condition include woman right collective bargaining challenge corporate priority private property right threaten shift balance decisionmake power monopoly property owner bargaining situation union example demand challenge profit corporation lead question economic system profit come justice civil right economic demand resist power structure mean disposal south civil right reiste force long time today voting right danger economic union attack pay thug national guard later legalism obstruction wellorganize attempt successful destroy resistance change power structure go far explain little improvement basic living standard large number americans especially black latinoas historic fact civil right movement protest movement die local leader face police fbi repression take job war poverty quit simply exhausted struggle win access democratic party structure begin elect public office continue promote degree civil right economic justice agenda well give control congress court system white conservative mention state legislature especially south rule state sociologist france fox piven richard cloward long ago pressure go enter period reversal usher backlash general attack union corporate sector major change economy downward pressure living standard american worker especially people color change root call deindustrialization movement manufacturing lowerwage area fiercely antiunion south offshore technological innovation eliminate job corporation press low cost sidestep union increasingly hire parttime worker outsource work nonunion subcontractor share manufacturing job middleincome unionize decline paltry percent privatesector worker union skid trend lead call decline socalled middle class mean folk middle income wealth distribution work class measure share income wealth middle decline importantly measure number income range median decline folk move upward downward scale create call bimodal normal bell curve income distribution call hollow socalled middle concentrate segment miss important point observer fail note paraphrase george orwell people unequal unequal accord study fifth population lose income low fifth lose gain little fifth gain famous gain far give black latinoa worker find disproportionately low income sector follow job manufacture disappear job lowerpaye service sector fast food etc grow disproportionate number people color woman minority woman force shift job find average povertylevel wage average income black latinoa half white income wealth asset black latinoa onesixth stable black latinoa work class today locate increasingly public sector job teach clerical post office etc right job unionized cut government level socalled austerity program disproportionately affect minority black particular point emphasize inequality provoke discussion year notion impersonal rule economy say inequality gain expense rest gain base exploit large mass work population extract possible nutshell profit include outrageous income corporate head sustain increase suppress wage benefit rest course dodge taxis corporate sector keen suppress labor union tax structure unfair deregulation push economist corporate payroll follow struggle work people pie minimum prevent slice go mass population get small necessary change basic dynamic system base exploitation order achieve society need meet poverty eliminate new kind system create end active fighter civil right come realize begin advocate form socialism point advocate revolution sncc black panther party league revolutionary black worker detroit numerous small group come believe racism capitalism link overthrow necessary malcolm x move direction assassinate martin luther king jr hardly position openly advocate revolution accept idea form democratic socialism necessary achieve society dismal state current economy scary unemployment rate suddenly trigger financial meltdown build argue plan corporate leader deindustrialization deliberate policy decision attempt destruction labor union imposition austerity deregulation privatization government function interest sustain increase profit choice clear profit economic justice t januaryfebruary atc current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 37 |
J. V. Stalin Source : Works, Vol. 15 Publisher : Red Star Press Ltd., London, 1984 Transcription/HTML Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, 2009 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. Troops of the Leningrad Front, developing their offensive, as a result of a skilful outflanking manoeuvre and a subsequent assault yesterday, February 12, captured the town of Luga, an important communication centre and powerful strongpoint in the German defences. In the fighting to capture the town of Luga, distinction was won by troops under the command of Lieut.-General Sviridev, Maj.-General Trubachev, Maj.-General Khazov, Maj.-Gen-; eral Kazachek, Maj.-General Ivanov, Maj.-General. Yakutovich, Maj.-General Yastrebov, Maj.-General Bunkov, Colonel Batluk, Colonel Yelshinov and Colonel Borshchev; artillerymen commanded by Maj.-General of Artillery Korobchenko, Lieut.-Colonel Gorsky, Lieut.-Colonel Lyash-chenko, Major Vyshkov and Major Goodetsky; airmen commanded by Lieut.-General of Aviation Rybalchenko and Maj.-General of Aviation Andreyev; and sappers commanded by Majors Kulvinsky and Yerastov. To commemorate the victory, the units and formations which particularly distinguished themselves are to be recommended to bear the name of Luga and to receive orders and awards. To-day, February 13, at 20.00 (Moscow time), the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, in the name of the Motherland, will salute with 12 artillery salvoes from 124 guns our gallant troops which took part in the capture of the town of Luga. For excellent military operations I express my thanks to all the troops under your command which took part in the fighting for the liberation of the town of Luga. Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle for the freedom and independence of our Motherland! Death to the German invaders! J. V. STALIN Marshal of the Soviet Union Supreme Commander-in-Chief Collected Works Index | Volume 15 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol publisher red star press ltd london transcriptionhtml markup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source troop leningrad develop offensive result skilful outflanking manoeuvre subsequent assault yesterday february capture town luga important communication centre powerful strongpoint german defence fighting capture town luga distinction win troop command lieutgeneral sviridev majgeneral trubachev majgeneral khazov majgen eral kazachek majgeneral ivanov majgeneral yakutovich majgeneral yastrebov majgeneral bunkov colonel batluk colonel yelshinov colonel borshchev artilleryman command majgeneral artillery korobchenko lieutcolonel gorsky lieutcolonel lyashchenko major vyshkov major goodetsky airman command lieutgeneral aviation rybalchenko majgeneral aviation andreyev sapper command major kulvinsky yerastov commemorate victory unit formation particularly distinguish recommend bear luga receive order award today february moscow time capital motherland moscow motherland salute artillery salvo gun gallant troop take capture town luga excellent military operation express thank troop command take fighting liberation town luga eternal glory hero fall struggle freedom independence motherland death german invader j v stalin marshal soviet union supreme commanderinchief collect works index volume index work decade j v stalin archive | 38 |
BEFORE DECIDING TO quit the U.S. Senate in May, Republican leader Bob Dole thrust an obscure labor bill into the forefront of political discourse. President Clinton called it a "poison pill" in the budget package and promised a veto. It’s called the "Team Bill." What’s it all about? The Teamwork for Employees and Managers Act of 1995 (H.R.743/S.295) passed the House last fall, and passed the Senate labor committee on a party-line vote in April. It would amend the National Labor Relations Act (NLRB) so that a company may set up and dominate employee "teams." The authors claim the bill would give workers a collective voice on the shop floor and encourage ideas about productivity and working conditions. Labor law already allows this: workers have to decide democratically whether they want a team or not. If they say "yes," the employer cannot dominate it. The common name for such a team is "union." And if workers s companies can still deal with workers individually. The bill’s preamble claims that their are at least 30,000 teams already operating. If so, workers can easily get rid of them by filing a cost-free charge at the National Labor Relations Board because they are illegally constituted. The NLRB legislation was enacted in the 1930s to outlaw phony "company" unions. These enjoyed a heyday in the decade of the 1920s, attempting to pre-empt the possibilities of militant unionism. The law worked so effectively that after the first few years, companies stopped trying. The Supreme Court has ruled on Sections 2(5) and 8(a)(2) of the NLRB fourteen times. Amazingly, it found the companies guilty every time – unanimously. Today companies say foreign competition is pressing American business and management needs help from the workforce. Besides, they say, cooperation is really more democratic because it gives workers a voice in management. In 1992, employers tried to overturn the prohibition against company unions in the celebrated Electromation test case. They filed 403 pages of briefs and exhibits, claiming the law hinders cooperation and productivity. Ten right-wing congresspeople asked the NLRB to overrule its precedents in light of "shifts with the fortunes of the political parties." But the NLRB ruled against the company, whose "action committees" had been set up to deflect worker discontent. After the committees’ were disbanded, the workers successfully organized themselves into a Teamsters local and signed a three-year contract with the company. So the story has a happy ending. The teams in Electromation had nothing to do with productivity. They dealt with classical bargaining subjects like attendance bonuses. So why would employers choose that case to make their pitch? The answer: They think they can get away with anything. President Clinton’s Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations, known as the Dunlop Commission for its chairman John Dunlop, was set up in 1993 to recommend new labor legislation in the light of current labor-management practices. The focus was on cooperation, teamwork, quality circles in order to increase productivity. But the commission had difficulty linking productivity to the existence of employee participation plans. It downplayed in many of the Kelley’s and Bennett Harris’ monumental study of 1,015 metalworking plants where joint committees are in place. Why? Because it found in nonunion plants, operations with joint committees are one-third less efficient than those without. In searching high and low, the Dunlop Commission found productivity linked to employee participation programs in only three objective studies. All showed positive productivity, but they occurred in unionized plants or where employment security existed. * In a unionized Xerox plant where the workers had a no-layoffs guarantee. * A survey of auto plants in seventeen countries concluded that a commitment to employment security or an absolute "no-layoff" policy is probably essential for lean production to take hold. * A survey of fifteen human resource practices in the steel industry found that firms with the highest performances all operate at suburban or small-town sites and are unionized. But a number of abhorrent practices were noted in plants and industries. First, the commission took an in-depth look at Toyota’s non-union plant in Tennessee. Testimony showed production relied on circles of youth, healthy, well-educated, male, white, eager and enthusiastic workers. Here workers joined in job elimination. Even managers admitted there was a difference between a democratic, unionized workplace culture and Toyota’s culture. They also looked at the cooperative NUMMI plant in Fremont, California. Here the workers are represented by the UAW. But when the UAW called a strike in 1994, management called on workers to resign from the union and cross the picket line. Cooperation seemed to fly out the window. In order to produce positive peer pressure, one study cited by the Dunlop Commission promoted "shame" and "guilt." It also recommended "weeding out" or "converting" workers who do not respond to the pressure. The Commission did propose weakening workers’ existing protection against company-dominated worker organizations by "clarifying" Section 8(a)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act. The Commission would allow employers to form teams that discuss conditions of work or pay, if those discussions are "incidental to the broad purposes" of the group. The Commission, attempting to mediate disputed issues in a consensus mode, hoped to sell a compromise: some minor tinkering of labor law to make it easier for workers to join unions and win contracts in exchange for employer-dominated quality circles in which pay and work rules come up "incidentally." Neither labor nor management was happy. The corporations wanted company-run employer groups endorsed straight out while the lone labor representative on the commission, retired UAW President Doug Fraser, wrote a dissenting opinion. He stated that labor-management cooperation had to take place where workers have "an independent voice" – presumably a union. But the Dunlop Commission was only proposing to weaken 8(a)(2) in relation to unionized workplaces, it would still be illegal to set up a company union in a non-union facility. However the Team bill takes the employer-dominated ball and runs with it. If employer/worker teams are good enough for union plants, then under the team act they are good enough for every worksite. The posturing about competitiveness and world-wide markets has a downside. It leads workers to think in terms of their company, not their class. But workers have interests and allies far beyond their own plant. Last summer the court of appeals in Washington held that in a labor dispute a U.S. union could not be liable for the acts of a Japanese union acting solely out of solidarity with the Americans. It is not just management that wants to change the law. Liberals have jumped on board too. In the name of productivity and cooperation, NLRB chair William Gould, Professor Charles Morris, Representative Tom Sawyer (Ohio-D), and even some unions have made proposals. The proposals do preserve specified democratic elements. But they lengthen and bureaucratize the law with a barrage of exceptions and counter-exceptions impossible for ordinary people – not to mention judges – to understand. If workers aren’t filing NLRB charges, one wonders why management is so worried. Historically management has tried only for incremental incursions on labor protections. But it has never challenged ideologically labor’s right to exist independently. Since the passage of the NLRB action management has not legally challenged labor’s basic rights. The Team Bill is a dagger pointed at the heart of workplace democracy. Employer-dominated teams give employees the same voice a ventriloquist does. Dummies may be cute – but they are not of flesh and blood and they have no brains. ATC 63, July-August 1996 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | decide quit senate republican leader bob dole thrust obscure labor bill forefront political discourse president clinton call poison pill budget package promise veto call team bill teamwork employee manager act pass house fall pass senate labor committee partyline vote april amend national labor relation act nlrb company set dominate employee team author claim bill worker collective voice shop floor encourage idea productivity working condition labor law allow worker decide democratically want team yes employer dominate common team union worker s company deal worker individually bill preamble claim team operate worker easily rid file costfree charge national labor relation board illegally constitute nlrb legislation enact outlaw phony company union enjoy heyday decade attempt preempt possibility militant unionism law work effectively year company stop try supreme court rule section nlrb fourteen time amazingly find company guilty time unanimously today company foreign competition press american business management need help workforce cooperation democratic give worker voice management employer try overturn prohibition company union celebrate electromation test case file page brief exhibit claim law hinder cooperation productivity rightwe congresspeople ask nlrb overrule precedent light shift fortune political party nlrb rule company action committee set deflect worker discontent committee disband worker successfully organize teamster local sign threeyear contract company story happy end team electromation productivity deal classical bargaining subject like attendance bonus employer choose case pitch answer think away president clinton commission future workermanagement relation know dunlop commission chairman john dunlop set recommend new labor legislation light current labormanagement practice focus cooperation teamwork quality circle order increase productivity commission difficulty link productivity existence employee participation plan downplay kelley bennett harris monumental study metalworking plant joint committee place find nonunion plant operation joint committee onethird efficient search high low dunlop commission find productivity link employee participation program objective study show positive productivity occur unionized plant employment security exist unionized xerox plant worker nolayoff guarantee survey auto plant seventeen country conclude commitment employment security absolute nolayoff policy probably essential lean production hold survey human resource practice steel industry find firm high performance operate suburban smalltown site unionize number abhorrent practice note plant industry commission take indepth look toyota nonunion plant tennessee testimony show production rely circle youth healthy welleducate male white eager enthusiastic worker worker join job elimination manager admit difference democratic unionized workplace culture toyota culture look cooperative nummi plant fremont california worker represent uaw uaw call strike management call worker resign union cross picket line cooperation fly window order produce positive peer pressure study cite dunlop commission promote shame guilt recommend weed convert worker respond pressure commission propose weakening worker exist protection companydominated worker organization clarify section national labor relation act commission allow employer form team discuss condition work pay discussion incidental broad purpose group commission attempt mediate dispute issue consensus mode hope sell compromise minor tinkering labor law easy worker join union win contract exchange employerdominate quality circle pay work rule come incidentally labor management happy corporation want companyrun employer group endorse straight lone labor representative commission retire uaw president doug fraser write dissent opinion state labormanagement cooperation place worker independent voice presumably union dunlop commission propose weaken relation unionized workplace illegal set company union nonunion facility team bill take employerdominate ball run employerworker team good union plant team act good worksite posturing competitiveness worldwide market downside lead worker think term company class worker interest ally far plant summer court appeals washington hold labor dispute union liable act japanese union act solely solidarity americans management want change law liberal jump board productivity cooperation nlrb chair william gould professor charles morris representative tom sawyer ohiod union proposal proposal preserve specify democratic element lengthen bureaucratize law barrage exception counterexception impossible ordinary people mention judge understand worker file nlrb charge wonder management worried historically management try incremental incursion labor protection challenge ideologically labor right exist independently passage nlrb action management legally challenge labor basic right team bill dagger point heart workplace democracy employerdominate team employee voice ventriloquist dummy cute flesh blood brain atc julyaugust current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 39 |
Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From Fourth International, Vol.11 No.6, November-December 1950, pp.163-165. Transcription & mark-up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. In the following pages our readers will find portraits of four prominent union leaders: John L. Lewis, chief of the United Mine Workers and founder of the CIO; Philip Murray, head of the steelworkers and his successor as leader of the CIO; Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers and a likely candidate as next head of the CIO; and Dave Beck, a typical representative of the AFL craft union hierarchy. Although for from complete, this group strikingly illustrates the kind of leadership holding sway over organized labor in the United States today. The last two decades have witnessed two remarkable developments in this country. One is the explosive growth of monopoly capitalism with its swift rise to world supremacy. The other is the equally explosive expansion of trade unionism. These processes are intimately interlinked and the unfolding relations between them are bound up not only with the future of the United States but also with the destiny of all mankind. The upsurge of the CIO marked the greatest advance in the history of American labor. It overturned the open-shop regime in basic industry, compelled the corporations to recognize unions in their strongholds and to deal with them. Thanks to the victories of the past fifteen years and their present membership of sixteen millions, the unions today possess colossal powers for mobilization in any contest with employers. Assured of the allegiance of the ranks, the leaders can summon hundreds of thousands onto the field of action. This power is exhibited in every big test of strength such as the battles of the miners during the Second World War and the postwar strikes in steel, auto and other industries. Thus the key unions have at their command more than enough forces and resources to make great gains for their members and promote their interests in every sphere of social life. As the record of the miners indicates, wherever this latent power is released and relied upon, even on the most elementary economic level, it can achieve imposing results. Big Business is well aware of the threat to its power, profits and positions contained in this formidable strength of organized labor. The hostility and hatred of the monopolists toward the labor organization has not abated one bit and they use every available device to whittle down union strength. But, having been unable to keep the unions out of their plants, the corporations have been compelled to utilize new means of curbing the onward movements of the workers. The chief agency invoked for this purpose is the government. The confrontation of such gigantic forces as monopolist capital and organized labor and the far-reaching economic and political effects of their collisions have impelled the government and its apparatus to intervene to an ever-increasing extent as arbitrator and regulator in their disputes, In the craft union era the union leaders collaborated directly with the employers while the federal government interfered only in extreme cases where the conflict of the classes erupted in violent form and then it acted as an open strikebreaking arm of the industrialists. In the new relationships established by industrial unionism through the upheaval of the Thirties, the administration has time and again entered as a “friend of labor” and in the office of “impartial umpire” to shield the corporations from the full force of labor’s onslaughts and pressures. The success of this new and more complex mechanism for effecting class collaboration depended upon acquiescence and cooperation from the union leaders. Where this could not be secured, as Roosevelt discovered in his dealings with the striking miners during the war, the mechanism stalled and failed. But the bulk of the labor bureaucrats have proved only too ready to participate in this game of class collaboration. They have no taste for combat against the monopolies. Accustomed to hold back and suppress the militancy of the ranks, they succumb quickly and easily to the inevitable pressures from the capitalist magnates and the government at their service. This habit of subservience flows from their corruption by American imperialism. The labor bureaucrats are lesser stockholders in the global enterprises of Big Business, feasting on the revenues derived from the exploitation of the workers at home and abroad by the bankers and the industrialists. Their personal privileges are princely. They enjoy huge salaries and expense accounts, hobnob with the rich and the powerful, dispose of thousands of well-paying jobs. Like Dave Beck, they live and think like big business men, feeling far more kinship with them than with the members who sustain them in office. With personal stakes of this magnitude it is not surprising that even the most “liberal” of the top labor leaders today take it for granted that the interests of US imperialism and the movement they direct are identical. That is why most of them have become such compliant promoters of Washington’s foreign policy and militarization measures not only in their own organizations but on an international scale. The Economic Cooperation Agency commissions of the State Department are heavily staffed with these labor representatives. Thus through their support of the policies of the capitalist-controlled government and participation in their execution, the labor officialdom is drawn into line with the monopolists and converted into defenders of their system of rule. By supporting the administration, or one or another of the two major parties, the bureaucrats seek to extend their privileges and power by soliciting favors and winning assistance from the administration, either in their controversies with the industrialists or in most instances in clashes with their own rank and file. Having no confidence in a program of independent action, they look for a higher power to win their battles. Because of the vast forces set into motion by every large-scale conflict between labor and capital and because of the attitude of the bureaucracy, the White House has more and more become a prime factor in contract disputes through fact-finding boards, mediators and behind-the-scenes negotiations. The federal government has become the chief intermediary in effecting the alliance between the monopolies and the union officialdom; the officialdom, the main intermediary in fettering the labor movement to the chariot of imperialism. These are the gears in the mechanism by which the capitalists maintain their supremacy over the labor movement and prevent it from exercising its rightful role in American life and politics. The labor bureaucrats are not simply passive supporters of the major policies of imperialism; they actively apply them in the unions. In their acquiescence in the purges of militants, the red-hunts, and restrictions on internal democracy, they function as a special type of police for the capitalist regime inside the labor organizations and are the greatest internal obstacle to the progress of the American labor movement. The union leaders believe that they can maintain indefinitely their present coalition with imperialist Washington and their policies of collaboration with the corporations. They expect to travel hand-in-hand with Washington and Wall Street on the supposition that they can serve two masters equally well at the same time: labor and its worst enemies. But these rosy expectations of enduring harmony are bound to run up against hard realities. US imperialism and its bureaucratic appendages prosper together. But whatever unsettles the one, upsets the other. The instability of US capitalism on the one hand and the irrepressible vitality of the unions on the other periodically disrupt the relations between the industrialists and the workers, throw-out of gear the complex machinery of class collaboration and frustrate the schemes of the corporations, government and union officials for maintaining passivity. Despite all efforts to yoke them together, capital and labor keep heading in different directions and their interests clash at every vital point. Every important contract negotiation drives this lesson home. The anti-labor legislation and reduced living standards caused by inflation and higher taxes accentuate the antagonism between the workers and the capitalist rulers. A similar divergence of interests manifests itself in foreign affairs. While the working people ardently desire peace, Wall Street plunges into colonial wars and speeds preparations for global atomic war. While the workers are democratic-minded, Washington and the Pentagon embrace Franco, Chiang Kai-shek and half-a-dozen other dictators and butchers of labor. Today, amidst encircling reaction, widespread repression and the artificial arms-boom prosperity, the union bureaucracy appears extremely powerful and the prospects of triumphant resistance to its regime quite dim. But during the Twenties the AFL moguls seemed no less strongly entrenched. The ensuing social crisis which shook American capitalism from top to bottom likewise weakened the old-line bureaucrats and created conditions for the emergence and victory of the new industrial unionism. After 15 years, the development of their union movement has confronted the industrial workers with new tasks. The most urgent is to bring forward a new leadership from the ranks to replace the capitalist-minded bureaucracies on top of the CIO and AFL. This new type of leadership will resemble in many respects the heroic militants and radicals who besieged the open shops, defeated the industrialists, and built the foundations of the present power of American labor during the Thirties. But it must be as different from the present bureaucracy as the CIO was from the old AFL. The new leadership must proceed on different premises and be guided by different ideas and aims. To fight effectively against the evils of monopoly capitalism or even to fight at all to safeguard their interests against the capitalist class, the ranks of labor will find themselves thrown into increasing opposition to the policies and domination of the officialdom. Any new forward movement of the industrial workers, arousing and radicalizing them, will necessarily be accompanied by a growing struggle against the conservative bureaucracy. The progress of this struggle is the key to a new and higher stage in the labor movement of America. Top of page Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on: 18 March 2009 | left | main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive fourth international novemberdecember transcription markup einde etol follow page reader find portrait prominent union leader john l lewis chief united worker founder cio philip murray head steelworker successor leader cio walter reuther president united auto worker likely candidate head cio dave beck typical representative afl craft union hierarchy complete group strikingly illustrate kind leadership hold sway organize labor united states today decade witness remarkable development country explosive growth monopoly capitalism swift rise world supremacy equally explosive expansion trade unionism process intimately interlinked unfold relation bind future united states destiny mankind upsurge cio mark great advance history american labor overturn openshop regime basic industry compel corporation recognize union stronghold deal thank victory past year present membership sixteen million union today possess colossal power mobilization contest employer assure allegiance rank leader summon hundred thousand field action power exhibit big test strength battle miner second world war postwar strike steel auto industry key union command force resource great gain member promote interest sphere social life record miner indicate latent power release rely elementary economic level achieve impose result big business aware threat power profit position contain formidable strength organize labor hostility hatred monopolist labor organization abate bit use available device whittle union strength having unable union plant corporation compel utilize new mean curb onward movement worker chief agency invoke purpose government confrontation gigantic force monopolist capital organize labor farreache economic political effect collision impel government apparatus intervene everincreasing extent arbitrator regulator dispute craft union era union leader collaborate directly employer federal government interfere extreme case conflict class erupt violent form act open strikebreaking arm industrialist new relationship establish industrial unionism upheaval thirty administration time enter friend labor office impartial umpire shield corporation force labor onslaught pressure success new complex mechanism effect class collaboration depend acquiescence cooperation union leader secure roosevelt discover dealing strike miner war mechanism stall fail bulk labor bureaucrat prove ready participate game class collaboration taste combat monopoly accustom hold suppress militancy rank succumb quickly easily inevitable pressure capitalist magnate government service habit subservience flow corruption american imperialism labor bureaucrat less stockholder global enterprise big business feasting revenue derive exploitation worker home abroad banker industrialist personal privilege princely enjoy huge salary expense account hobnob rich powerful dispose thousand wellpaye job like dave beck live think like big business man feel far kinship member sustain office personal stake magnitude surprising liberal labor leader today grant interest imperialism movement direct identical compliant promoter washington foreign policy militarization measure organization international scale economic cooperation agency commission state department heavily staff labor representative support policy capitalistcontrolle government participation execution labor officialdom draw line monopolist convert defender system rule support administration major party bureaucrat seek extend privilege power solicit favor win assistance administration controversy industrialist instance clash rank file have confidence program independent action look high power win battle vast force set motion largescale conflict labor capital attitude bureaucracy white house prime factor contract dispute factfinde board mediator behindthescene negotiation federal government chief intermediary effect alliance monopoly union officialdom officialdom main intermediary fetter labor movement chariot imperialism gear mechanism capitalist maintain supremacy labor movement prevent exercise rightful role american life politic labor bureaucrat simply passive supporter major policy imperialism actively apply union acquiescence purge militant redhunt restriction internal democracy function special type police capitalist regime inside labor organization great internal obstacle progress american labor movement union leader believe maintain indefinitely present coalition imperialist washington policy collaboration corporation expect travel handinhand washington wall street supposition serve master equally time labor bad enemy rosy expectation endure harmony bind run hard reality imperialism bureaucratic appendage prosper unsettle upset instability capitalism hand irrepressible vitality union periodically disrupt relation industrialist worker throwout gear complex machinery class collaboration frustrate scheme corporation government union official maintain passivity despite effort yoke capital labor head different direction interest clash vital point important contract negotiation drive lesson home antilabor legislation reduce living standard cause inflation high taxis accentuate antagonism worker capitalist ruler similar divergence interest manifest foreign affair work people ardently desire peace wall street plunge colonial war speed preparation global atomic war worker democraticminde washington pentagon embrace franco chiang kaishek halfadozen dictator butcher labor today amidst encircle reaction widespread repression artificial armsboom prosperity union bureaucracy appear extremely powerful prospect triumphant resistance regime dim twenty afl moguls strongly entrench ensue social crisis shake american capitalism likewise weaken oldline bureaucrat create condition emergence victory new industrial unionism year development union movement confront industrial worker new task urgent bring forward new leadership rank replace capitalistminde bureaucracy cio afl new type leadership resemble respect heroic militant radical besiege open shop defeat industrialist build foundation present power american labor thirty different present bureaucracy cio old afl new leadership proceed different premise guide different idea aim fight effectively evil monopoly capitalism fight safeguard interest capitalist class rank labor find throw increase opposition policy domination officialdom new forward movement industrial worker arouse radicalize necessarily accompany grow struggle conservative bureaucracy progress struggle key new high stage labor movement america page main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update march | 40 |
I' RevO'Iutio -n in Chile Pages ·s~s Tory economic crisis- Page 2 "'-The Marxist Paper for Labour and Youth ISSUE734 A 1 February 1985 V · Miners' message to Thatcher: . ·· MINERS WILL not be humiliated by That cher. The mood of the activists dramatically hardened after Thatcher's intervention last week. Now it should be clear to everyone that she and MacGregor are out for blood. They will not have the blood of the NUM. Our union will never sign a piece of paper agreeing to close pits that are classed as uneconomic according to their distorted accounting methods . At every level of the union that attitude is absolutely emphatic. Miners who have never been on the picket line are agreeing that the NUM must never sign away jobs. Total amnesty The NCB and Thatcher imagine they are playing with us like a cat with a frightened mouse. We are not frightened and we are not mice. Yes, miners and their By lan lsaac (St John's NUM and South Wales NUM EC, personal capacity) families would like this strike to be over. But they are not prepared to sign away the future of their communities and the rights of those sack ed during this dispute. We will not bargain over the jobs of those who have been sacked. Any return to work must be on the basis of a general amnesty. Already the board have taken back sacked workers who are now prepared to cross picket lines. The NCB ·£ 1 0,000 in one week IN THE last seven days £9,994 has poured into Militant's office. £6,729 in the last three days alone. With all the activi ty facing the working class there has never been a greater need for cash to finance Militant's work. But our readers are show ing the determination to provide it. Readers in every area have been chasing every possibili ty to raise money. The result is a deluge of cash with the last week still not over. One reader in Drax 8 power sta tion showed the power of the collecting tin. He raised £22 from one shift! Other readers have donated a week's income or a day's in come to help us. must not be allowed to pick and choese. There must be no victimisation of those whose only crime has been to fight for jobs alongside their fellow miners. If talks break down becau3e of the attitude of Thatcher and MacGregor, there wili be ··no massive surge back to work. The vast bulk of miners, despite all the hardship will remain as loyal and steadfast as they All out on 11 February THE NUM executive com mittee has re-iterated that it will not sign away jobs. Once again the miners have turn ed to the TUC. The TUC must live up to its respon sibilities. The strength of support for the miners among trade unionists must be demonstrated in action. The Day of Action on 11 February called by the Yorkshire and Humberside To those who attack us we say 'look at the support we have'. What better answer to those who try to expel us from the Labour Party than to give a donation to the best fighting fund in the world. New target Many LPYS branches are aiming to send us £10, £20 or more. They know what policies offer youth a future, and are prepared to help us fight for them. have been during the last eleven months. Our union must now ap peal directly to NACODS . The guarantees they imagin ed they had secured on pit closures will be worthless if Thatcher and MacGregor have their way. Maximum strength must be built behind the NUM. Our fate will be the fate of NACODS . The Continued on page two region, now backed by the South East region of the TUC, must be turned by the General Council into a one day general strike. But the matter must not be left there. Throughout in dustry, stewards and union activists should organise and prepare for a one-day general strike. The NUM itself should issue the call to workers everywhere to strike in solidarity with the miners on 11 February . We still need your sup port. If you were trying to raise £50 for example, and didn't quite make it, don't stop! We did well this quarter but we have to con tinue building our paper. The new quarter starts im mediately with a new target. So keep up the campaign to finance Militant and the work that only Militant can do. By Clare Doyle BY A crushing majority of 233,030 to 19,793, the members of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW) have voted to accept Tory government money for carrying out postal ballots. This is in open defiance of the TUC, and a setback in the fight against the Tories' e,mployment laws. John Tocher, candidate for the Presidency of the AUEW gave Militant his reaction:- " I'm disappointed by the result, but not surprised . As I said on a number of occas sions, during the ballot, with all the barrage from the media, and the explanations and recommendation from the Executive Committee, this was being put to the membership as just a straight forward choice of whether to take £1 million or not. Hav ing posed it in that over simple way, not referring to the inherent dangers, they were bound to get that response. "Already , we've witness ed state intervention in a most brutal way in the NUM with the courts and the se questrators etc. "No Tory government is going to give £lm to our union to make it a more for midable organisation to fight for jobs, wages and condi tions on behalf of its members. "The purpose of this money is as a spring-board for state intervention into the election processes and the af fairs of the union. Whoever pays the piper call the tune. "These points not having been put to the members , they don't necessarily see the risks involved .· As someone who is striving to ensure democracy in this union, I have to recognise the out come of the ballot. But I blame the leaders not the members , for the result. Democratic rights "I don't think that members fully appreciate that the EC have ignored two National Committee decisions in conducting this ballot. "I am campaigning in defence of the constitution, and democratic rights of the members and to restore the pride of the membership in the union. Now that we are committed by the ballot result, the best way that we can extricate ourselves from this and resurrect ourselves in the eyes of the other trade unions is to take the money and give the £1 million to the NUM". ,. '., ', . ~ ., . • '• I I . . 2 MILITANT 1 February 1985 Tory strategy in ruins THE TORY government's economic strategy lies in ruins. The latest rise in interest rates has shattered any illusions that there will be a "recovery". With inflation at only 50Jo a year, the cost of borrowing money at the new rate of 140Jo is higher in real terms than for at least 150 years! Home-owners, farmers and small businessmen will be hit hard. British companies are expected to lose £1 billion in extra interest, causing profits to fall by 70Jo. The pro spect of budget tax cuts is disappearing into the mist. As always, however, it will be the workers and their families who will suffer most, with an inevitable rise in unemployment as firms go bust or abandon plans for ex pansion, and dearer imports push up prices. The immediate cause of the crisis is the very thing that was supposed to be the salvation of British capitalism North Sea oil. Whatever decision is reached by the OPEC ministers in Geneva, the worldwide surplus of oil will tend to force down the unofficial "spot" price. This will force Britain either to reduce its prices further or sell at a loss. It is this fear which lies behind the pound's collapse. One factor which has delayed this fall slightly has been the oil used in British power stations because of the miners' strike. This has added 1 million barrels a day to world oil demand. An end to the strike could be the trig ger for a further oil and sterling crisis. The cost of the strike, now estimated at around £5 billion, is another reason for the selling of sterl ing. It cut industrial production last year by 2 V2 OJo and worsened the balance of payments by £2.5 billion. Oil has saved the economy from total collapse, but at the price of making the pound, and the rest of -the economy, dependent on the fluctuations of th<;; market. As the Financial Times (29 January) remarked: "The markets took control" . All oil did was mask the long-term degeneration of the British capitalist economy. "Britain's performance", declares the Daily Telegraph, in an "in-depth ex amination of the problems of unemployment", "with one or two minor exceptions, has been uniquely bad" ... "Although unemployment had risen in every ma jor industrialised country during the 1970s, it had risen faster in Britain than anywhere el'se and had been com bined with the worst inflation and producti vity performance"(29 January) . Decades of low investment by British capitalists, frit tering away profits on speculation in property, banking or service industries, have created an economy with some similarities to those of the "third world". It is a net im porter of manufactured goods and heavily dependent on the export of one raw material. The benefits of North Sea oil have been wasted just like the profits of other sectors of the British economy. Rather than invest them in new technology to create new jobs, they have been used to finance record unemploy ment of four million. Now that oil itself is in crisis, that figure is bound to rise. The full extent of Britain's in dustrial collapse is revealed. For millions of unemployed, any hope of ever getting a secure job has been dashed by this latest crisis. For the employed the prospects are no brighter. The Daily Telegraph survey considers the "alternative" solutions offered bv the "neo-classical" economists (the monetarist s) and the "Keynesians": "The conclusion of the neo-classical economists is that the cure for unemployment lies in reducing trade union power and easing the disincenti ves to accepting low-paid work." The Keynesians, on the other hand are "extremely concerned to prevent inflationary wage increases dissipating the benefits of increased demand into the price level rather into output and jobs. Consequently they would seek to secure some form of incomes policy to hold down the growth of real wages." That is the choice· capitalism offers workers-wage restraint or lower wages! There is no real difference bet ween the remedies of these rival sets of capitalist witch doctors. They are both trying to revive a patient who is beyond any treatment- the capitalist system. If all it can offer is unemployment and low wages, then it is only fit for the scrap-heap. Instead of making irrelevant criticism of the go\·ern ment's "mismanagement", the Labour leaders should be seizing the oppon~ni ty to expose the whole rotten system. Now is the ideal time to hammer home the relevance of. Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution, which demands the common ownership of the means of pro duction, distribution and exchange. The nationalisation of the top 200 industrial combines, including the oil com panies, the banks and insurance companies, with com pensation on the basis of need and workers' control and management , is the only way out of the nightmare . Then it would be possible to exploit the oil, the workers' skills and the enormous wealth which lies untapped, plan production of all those goods which are so desperately needed and provide jobs and nsmg wages for all. That is the only real alternati ve. Editor: Peter Taaffe Militant, 3/13 Hepscott Road, London £9 5HB Phone: 0 1-533 3311 Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Militant; printed by Cambridge Heath Press (TU) Ltd., 3113 Hepscott Road, London £9 5HB. JSSN 0144-927 5 Dirty tricks at Sizewell enquiry THE MINERS' strike has given far more urgency to the govern ment's push on nuclear energy. They have put their foot down on the nuclear accelerator. Apart from the possible military spin-offs, the Tories welcome anything which reduces dependence on coal. Opponents of nuclear power are smeared and por trayed as merely out of touch with the 20th century, or as "subversives". This week's Observer reveals that a private detec tive agency has been in vestigating objectors to the new Sizewell B nuclear reac tor in Suffolk. The agency, Zeus Securi-. ty Consultants, run by former military intelligence officer Peter Hamilton was asked to gather names, ad- The first anniversary of the GCHQ trade union ban was marked by over 5000 trade unionists marching through Cheltenham on Saturday 26 January (picture right). Over 1 00 rallies were held nationwide around the anniversary. The level of support for those GCHQ workers who still refuse to renounce union membership shows the potential for action to defend workers ' rights.' dresses and political sym pathies of protesters in what a CND official called an "in spector Clouseau type of operation .'' Zeus exists "to provide security services to govern ment and other agencies." Hamilton himself is a right winger who has warned of "domestic subversion" in the unions. He passed the work on to another agency, Contingen cy Services, who specialise in infliltration . "We have a couple of very good imita tion lefties", the owner Vie Norris reportedly told another client. Norris claims to have started three dummy peace groups to get informa tion to "discredit CND". He claimed that Friends of the Earth shared an office with a number of "extreme left organisations", ordered searches into FoE and Greenpeace finances and labelled another anti-nuclear campaign as a "professional protester''. All the names could have been obtained from the Sizewell enquiry office itself and it may seem just a sideswipe by the pro-nuclear lobby at people who have very reasonable fears about the safety and the cost of the nuclear power programme. The Guardian believes that a foreign company building fast breeder reactors may have commissioned the investigation. The govern ment deny any involvement but they openly regard spy ing and dirty tricks as justifiable against 'subver sion' which could include anti-nuclear protests and ef fective trade unionism. Home secretary Leon Brit tan has defended the right of the Special Branch to spy on Lanes miners back SA comrades ROY JONES from North Staffs NUM is successfully touring the Lancashire coalfield to report on his visit 10 the black South African NUM. As reported previously, Roy is the first white man to have been.,made a member of the South African NUM. There was particular in terest, from rank and file miners up to branch of ficials, in the rapid growth of the NUM in South Africa from zero to 200,000 in just two years. The reports of the battles waged by the black workers in South Africa against their oppression raised the morale of the British miners. The workers' democracy that ex ists in the South African NUM was seen as a model by many workers and lessons of the two struggles un doubtedly will be drawn. Roy spoke to miners in Coppull, a mining village near Chorley in Lancashire; at Golborne; to pickets at Bold, and everywhere there has been enthusiasm for the creation of direct links bet ween the rank and file of the British NUM and the South African NUM; in particular support for the recognition of the new South African union by their British brothers. By Gerry Lerner Power workers' jobs threat POWER STATION workers could be next in line for Tory cuts of "uneconomic capac ity". Current generating capaci ty in Britain is 66,000 Megawatts (MW). When the current expansion at Drax is completed another I ,300 MW will be added. The new nuclear stations at Dungeness, Hartlepool and Haysham will soon be fully operational, adding a further 5,000 MW to generating capacity, making a tOtal of 72,000 MW. But peak demand, even in arctic conditions, is about 50,000 MW, an overcapaci ty of nearly 35 per cent. The Tories deliberately created this situation in preparation for taking on the miners. Before the strike, big oil fired stations like Grain in Kent were mothballed and the workers there were ex pected to be laid off, but since the strike began sta tions like this have been the Tories' lifeline. Without them they could not have provoked the strike as they did. Since 1979, over 6,000 MW's of non-coal generating capacity has been commissioned in power sta tions in England and Wales, at unit fuel cost of between two and ten rimes that of coal-fired plant. Some workers in non-coal fired stations think they are safeguarding their jobs by working "normally" through the strike. But if Thatcher thinks she has broken the NUM there will be no reason for the ruling class to keep oil-fired power stations open-they will represent "uneconomic capacity". The Tories plan to switch over to 5007o of electricity generated by nuclear power, which, with prospects of no growth in demand, will mean many of the non-coal fired stations will also face closure. An integrated planning of energy resources would secure the future of workers in the electricity, oil, gas and coal industrie s. In a capitalist society no workers are safe. • Reports reaching Militanr show that the Tories' public confidence on power supply masks severe strains on the National Grid. Significantly the Board has used voltage reductions for months-thi s is not im mediatel y noticeable but shows in electronic timing devices running slow, and dimmer lighting. A enormously costly and complex logistical operation has been deployed to avoid major power cuts. The media has co-operated in not reporting the many localised power cuts. Throughout the dispute the T0ries have refused to answer questions on power supply and cuts, most recently from Jeremy Corbyn MP who listed widespread cuts and breakdowns. By Pete Dickinson strikers, and on pickets who ''may pose a threat to public order". He claimed he wasn't against "peaceful campaign ing" to bring about changes in government policy but against subversive acts threatening the state's safe ty or "intended to overthrow parliamentary democracy by political, industrial or violent means" -a suitably vague definition . This meant not just · criminal acts but activities of those who want to "harm our democracy" and "who for tactical or other reasons choose to keep within the let ter of the law". For the Tories justice is a lot less im portant than defence of their interests. By Roger Shrives DENNIS SKINNER MP has extracted some revealing figures from the Prime Minister, which illustrates the Tories' priorities when they are spending tax-payers' money. In answer to Parliamen tary questions on 17 January, she disclosed that since May 1979, the follow ing amounts have been spent: £123,611 on entertainment at Chequers and 10 Downing Street. £1,992,092 by the Prime Minister's office on main taining her Private Office. Miners From page one best way to secure a quick dignified victory is for NACODS to join in the fight. The government, already deep in economic crisis, would have to back down, in the face of the total shut down of the coalfields through a NACODS strike. In the main, NACODS members have respected picket lines. They realise their future lies with our strike's success. In a frater nal way, miners in every area should now urgently call upon their fellow mineworkers in NACODS to mount immediate pressure on their EC to act on the mandate of the last ballot. The NACODS EC should ignore any iegal niceties. They should organise an immediate strike to ensure that the negotiations with the NCB end soon with the future of the pits and the mining communities saved from the butchery of That cher and MacGregor. 1 ·-- ,_ -, 1 _Fe_Qruary 1985 M I LIT ANT 3 t , , • : ~, • • I .•. -~ • _ •• f f _ •' . - Miners' dispute Welsh miners defiant on closures ·Talks-'remember the lads who died' AT A very well attend ed general meeting of 350 St Johris Lodge members, a report of the South Wales con ference was given by the lodge secretary, Ian lsaac. He explained why the con fernce was adjourned until negotiations had gone through this week and the men accepted that we will again have a general meeting as soon as the conference reconvenes after the talks with the NCB. What was expressed by South Wales members was that we did not want a sell out; we did not want our leadership to go ahead and agree to the closure of uneconomic pits when the government has quite clear ly stated that is what their in tentions are. What a lot of men felt was that we would go back with our. heads up high rather than accept any settlement or negotiation which meant that our pits have got to close. We will not put our signatures down on any pieces of paper where we ourselves will be blamed for closing down our pits. Agreement The opinion was express ed that NACODS, even at this very late stage, should join the strike because they had an agreemen! with the National Coal Board and with ACAS that an indepen dent body would be present when pit closures have to be reviewed. That now has gone straight out of the window with the statement of the prime minister that all unec onomic pits must close. And when we mean all uneconomic pits must close, that means at least 22 in Tragedy miners won't forget THE MINERS' eleven months of struggle have involved heroism and hardship. Bur there have also been tragedies, largely ignored by the press, which bring home the human cost of this historic battle. The Times (28 January) reported how: "On New Year's day, John Green, a 23 year -old fitter at Bet teshanger Colliery, Kent, said goodbye to his wife Be\'erly and their 18 month old son Barry and drove in to the countryside. There he killed himself by inhaling the car's exhaust fumes. "'My son couldn't see an end' his mother said. 'He was without hope'." Two other miners, J ames Clay of Sroke-on-Trent and !an Turner of Peterlee killed themselves shortly after returning to work because of the hardship they were suffering. Another such tragedy is reported by Mike Burke, a striking miner from the Tower Colliery, South Wales, one of 103 miners facing trial in connection with the Port Talbot crane occupation last summer: "It was a very sad day on 20 December , as when we came out of the court we had a two-minute silence for David Hughes, a 20 year old miner who had taken his life a few days before_ our ap pearance in court. We all (I 02 of us) went to his funeral immediately after the court appearance as David was with us up the crane. "Words cannot describe how we felt on that bitterly cold wet afternoon in Gelligaer cem~tery. "The natioml propagan da machine against the miners (since day one of the strike) did nor mention this young brave miner. Bur the newspapers and TV made sure that the death of a taxi driver (which was unfor tunate) was known throughout the whole of Britain. ''I hope people will learn of this and that when she sleeps each night, Thatcher 's conscience will get to her for all the suffering she has caus ed us, our families and our children and every person that has died during the miners' strike. "We in South Wales remember when Winston Churchill sent the troops and armed police into the Rhondda valleys; we will never forget it". Cash flows in from American workers FOLLOWING A trip to North America in October last year by Jim Robinson ,a member of South Notts Strike Committee, a miners' relief fund was established. "This has raised between £9,000 and £10,000 so far", said Jim, "but there are two miners over there now and they raised £11,000 in one day. We have had donations from New York to Califor .nkl, and from Quebec and Montreal in Canada. "They come from many individuals and union locals (branches)". These are a few examples: John S Henning, secretary /treasurer of AFL CIO California $500 and he has also put an a" in the local paper; Marine firemen's union $500: Painters' union California local/4 $500. "This morning we receiv ed a cheque for $950 for miners' lamps, we have had very good support from the longshoremen and the com munications workers. They all have the same message 'Reagan and Thatcher are like eggs in a basket; they want to destroy any opposi tion whether it's grand mothers in CND, Gr~nham women or striking miners'. Here you have the real spirit of internationalism. We also had a donation from ex soldiers who served in South Wales during the war." South Wales. That is the devastation that could hap pen to our coalfield, and we appeal now to NACODS to see sense even at this late stage and to join the strike and the heroic battle put up by the Welsh and the British miners in their fight against pit closures. e ON WEDNESDAY last week at St John's colliery, Maesteg, 400 police manag ed to race'17 scabs into work after pickets had left. The operation had been organis ed by the management at a meeting in the Pied Piper pub, at which the men were bought drinks and promised a ton of free coal. By Thursday, after the lodge officers and committee men had talked to the strike breakers and given them the full facts about the strike, we had reduced the number to 12. On Friday the number had gone up again to 17, in-chiding five new people, four of whom were canteen wom en. They had only retumed because of a misunderstand ing; they tried to walk out again but couldn't get thr ough the police ranks. With the lodge again working very hard over the weekend, reasoning with the women and the men who had gone into work, the numbers were reduced to eight on Monday and seven on Tuesday and Wednesday . The lodge operated not through intimidation or any aggravation towards these strike-breakers, but through reasoning with them and giv ing them the full facts. That is how we have been suc cessful in getting down to seven strike-breakers from a total of 23. By Phillip White (Compensation Secretary, St John's NUM) MINERS' UNION Gen eral Secretary Peter Heathfield heard rank and-file reaction to possi ble settlement talks at a Coventry miners' support rally on Friday 26 January. Robin Wilson, speak ing on behalf of the Coventry colliery strike committee said: "We all want to see a settlement, but a settlement on our terms-not a sell out There should be no return to work till the jobs of all the miners who've been sacked have been secured-we 've got six at Coventry.'' Striker's wife Kath Chaplin also addressed the General Secretary: "I hope, Peter, that in the next talks you'll remember the lads who died ... " Commenting on the proposed talks, Peter Heathfield said: "I'm hoping that in the next· three or four days there will be light at the end of the tunnel, that will enable the miners to go back as the came out, altogether and not in dribs and drabs. If the labour movement in dicates it can't help us anymore, then miners have got to decide themselves how they con tinue. It won't be Heathfield, Scargill and McGahey who will decide but those who've been fighting the strike." By Tony Cross Kent miners on the lobby of the TUC General Council last week. If the TUC leaders had used the power and resources at their disposal, the strike would have been won long ago. Photo: Stefano Cagnoni (Report) Tax allowance transfers will help strikers' WORKING WIVES of striking miners are en titled to substantial tax rebates, providing the husband transfers his unused tax allowances to his wife. Wives earning over £99.23 a week gross could be entitl ed to a· tax rebate of around £900 immediarelv. No striker's wife need be paying any income tax on the first £99.23 of weekly earnings. Striking husbands should transfer all or part of their tax allowances to their wives to boost her tax free earn ings. Tax is based on annual income recieved from April to April. Therefore the cur rent tax year is ten months old. It is pointless for a hus band to retain his theoretical 'lax free allowance if he will not be earning that amount in this tax year. The husband has to in struct his tax office to transfer his tax allowances to his wife. Only on instruc tions from the husband's tax office will the wife's tax of fice increase her allowance and pay the rebates due. Discussions with Inland Revenue workers indicate that once the husband has given his consent, the Inland Revenue has no power to obstruct the transfer of allowances. If there are any problems then the husband should appeal in writing within 28 days to the tax commissioners or contact his MP. Points to remember: I. Transferr ing allowances will only -be of use if the wife earns over £38.55 gross per week income up to this level should already be tax free because of the wife's own allowance. 2. The transfer should take effect within a few weeks and the backdated rebate will be paid to the wife via the wife's employer. 3. Increasing the tax allowance to the wife should not affect the family's en titlement to rent and rate rebates, or Family Income Supplement. 4. If there is a return to work before April and the striker had transferred all allowances then the hus band's earnings till April • WIVeS would be taxed in full. A striker whose wife earns less than £99.23 gross may wish ~o transfer only part of his tax allowance sufficient for his wife to recover her tax. For example a wife earning £80.00 gross per week will earn about £4,000 a year. If £2005 of her husband's tax allowance is transferred and added to her own tax allowance of £2005 she will have a total allowance of £4010 tax free. She would pay little or no tax. The husband would retain the remainder of his tax free allowance to set against any future earnings or overdue holiday pay in this tax year to April. If the wife earns more than £99.23 a week gross then the couple cannot lose in transferring all the husband's allowance. 5. A wife who is no longer working because of redun dai1CY, sickness etc. may still be able to reclaim any tax paid since April 1984 by transferring sufficient allowance from her husband. By Nigel Wheatley (ASTMS 959 Walsall) Town hall super scab THE BOLTON labour movement is furious after a super-scab was chosen as the town's next mayor. NUM member and Labour coun cillor Bill Hardman has con tinued working throughout the dispute at the NCB's repair shops in Walkden. Cllr Hardman told the Worsley Journal (January 24): "I' m fighting for democracy when I cross the picket line ... I have always respected the mayor, no matter who it has been and I would hope other people will do tfie same." Bolton Trades Council have already attacked the decision. Health support AT THE Southern Area COHSE Annual General Meeting on 21 January Dave Newell, a striking miner from Betteshanger colliery in Kent addressed the meeting. A collection raised over £160. This follows a public meeting in Redhill, Surrey organised by the local COHSE branch which rais ed £288, plus £46 coUected during workplace visits. ' .. -~ I ~ I , I t I '1\ ) • • ; ' • • r • • • .-~ r 4"MILITANT l"February 1985' Gordon Bennet writes- I HAD intended to write something about the first day of televised debate in the House of Lords. Unfor tunately after half an hour I fell asleep. The-human mogadon responsible for this was a particularly bar my bishop whose speech was ·incomprehensible un til he eventual ly revealed he thought that the Government were a bunch of pretty good eggs. I understand that their Lord ships had earlier discussed the issue of euthanasia, a subject clearly of more than passing interest to many of them. The advocates of televis ing the House of Fossils see it as the first stage in the campaign to televise the Commons . Apart from the 'tact that Austin Mit chell is one of the sup porters of the campaign, I can't see anything wrong with the idea (perhaps Austin is just hedging his bets for a future career as a commentator .) On the other hand if we are going to be scrupulously fair to the Tories you'd have to televise the bars as well. In all the fuss about this 'important democratic breakthrough ,' I've hardly heard a voice raised about the credibility of the Lords. The media in this country are so servile that they never question the fact that two thirds of the legislature in Britain is com posed of the monarchy and a second chamber stuffed full of the bootlickers of various Prime Ministers (past and present ), bishops(!) and the descen dants of a motley crew of robber barons, murderers , land grabbers and petty tyrants of every descrip tion. We are bombarded from every angle with propagan da about how the second chamber acts as a "bul wark against an elected dictatorship ". This· must be code for a landslide Labour government , for the Thatcher Government has not been noticeably "moderated " by the Lords. Even if you accept the argument about the impor tance of a second chamber (which I don't). it hardly follows that the way to preserve democracy is to ask superannuated aristoc rats to look after it ! One of the few argu ments I've heard in defence of the Lords is that it contains a 'wealth of ex perience'. So does Parkhurst, and I wouldn't want that lot making the laws of the land either. The democratic case against this unelected feudal ragbag is hardly helped when some left wingers seem to think that lobbying the Lords is as im portant as gaining support among the rank and file of the movement. There's no place for Ruritanian fairy tales in the Labour Party. Spen~er's company coal union THE THREAT by Nottinghamshire working miners' leaders to form a breakaway union has been eagerly welcomed by all the miners' worst enemies. Two rival unions within the industry would be a massive step backwards for every miner. This can be confirmed by the experience of an earlier such breakaway movement in the same coalfield, when George Spencer MP form ed the Nottinghamshire and District Miners' Industrial Union. The damage do·ne by this "company union" lasted for more than a decade. AFTER THE defeat of the general strike in 1926, the miners gallantly fought on until November when they were starved back to work. The coal owners took their revenge. They had the upper hand; many of the activists never returned to work. The districts were isolated and the owners decid ed the conditions and wages. · In Nottinghamshire , which was the first area to crack, the employers had the opportunity to smash the in fluence of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and its district organisation , the Nottinghamshire Miners' Association (NMA). George Spencer a right-wing Labour Party MP and witch-hunter of his day was a Nottingham miners' official. He supported the banning of communists at the 1924 party con ference at which he declared: "If there was one outstand ing fact in world history, it was that nothing substantial had ever been ac complished by revolution". Local settlement He vehemently opposed the com munists, though the union that sponsored him as MP had elected Arthur J Cook, a declared 'Leninist' as general secretary SpertC:er opposed the continuation of the strike in his area, which was one of the more prosperou s, and the local owners were willing to settle on favourable terms. He began to make local set tlements and was eventually suspend ed from the MFGB. The owners, understandin g that Spencer would be safe, agreed to give him sole negotiating rights. So the Not tinghamshire and District Miners' Industrial Union was born with the blessing of the coal owners. Attempts were made to spread the idea to other coalfields, notably South Wales, Northumberland, Durham and Scotland. In the wake of the General Strike's defeat, the Tories passed the Trades Disputes and Trade Union Act 1927. Sympathy strikes were made illegal, the pld offence of intimidation was revived from Victorian days, restric tions were placed on picketing and Labour Party funds from the unions were blocked. Spencer's union reflected the Tories' concept of how a union should act; it was non political-in other words anti Labour and had no political fund. Spencer's Industrial Union often reported collections for the NMA to management. In one dispute at Wellbeck colliery, the management forced all the miners to have con tributions to the Industrial Union stopped out of their pay or face the sack. While the dispute was on, Spencer had agreed a reduced price list (amount paid to miners for coal produced). Similarly at Annesley, 200 men were sacked and were only taken back if they joined Spencer's union. For a company union the In dustrial Union's membership was low-bet ween 4,000 to 5,000 in 1927. In the following years it grew, but real support for Spencer's union was shown in the ballot organised by the TUC in May 1928·. Despite intimida tion, 32,277 voted to support the NMA and only 2,533. voted for Spencer. The owners payed little notice to this ballot resuit. The battle lasted 10 years. NMA membership declined from 15,740 in 1928 to 8,500 by 1935. But with the upturn in the economy the NMA began to grow; by the end of 1935 it had increased to 10,000. The greater demand for coal meant that the MFGB influence began to increase. The national owners agreed to form a "Joint Standing Consultati ve Committee " which settled many of the outstan ding disputes in the industry. The Nottinghamshire owners, because they never recognised the Federation, stood outside such a body. The conflict between the two unions grew, with Spencer siding more and more with the ownersj and came to a head at Harworth. In early 1935 the NMA had only seven members at Harworth out of a total workforce of 2,285. It began to in crease. The year ended with 157 members and six later it doubled to 302. There was much discontent at the pit, especially on dirt deductions . After a number of small disputes, the NMA conducted a ballot asking which union the men wanted to represent them. Despite intimidati on they won I, 175 votes against 145 for Spencer's union. The management refused to negotiate with them. One owner, Captain Muschamp , voiced his view: "We want to adopt the German idea-if the government is to check future trouble it must put its foot down and put its foot down strongly ... We carried on peaceably with the Industrial Union for ten years." Spencer's terms Spencer was forced to negotiate with the MFGB. He would fuse but it had to be on his terms. These included: i) That Nottinghamshire should be immune from strikes during the current agreement. ii) That all local officials and col lectors of the NMA who were not employed in the industry should be Harworth lodge miners on NUM march in London last summer. Harworth pit was at the centre of the dispute in which Spencers' union was quashed by the Not tingham Miners' Association, in a ballot, a result ignored by the bosses. excluded from membership. iii) That the Industrial Union should be allowed to nominate three full-time officials to the NMA's two. iv) That the rules of the amalgamated body should provide that political business could only be discussed at specially convened political meetings. Surprisingly the MFGB accepted this formula as a basis for negotia tion. An agreement was signed, but a Special Conference rejected the fu sion on the above terms. A national ballot was taken and by an over whelming majority a call for a national strike was supported. Even tually a formula was found that diverted the strike and the fusion \vas accepted substantially on Spencer's terms. He was made permanent President until he retired in 1945. Many men never returned to work at Harworth and many of Spencer's ex-officials supported victimisation of militants. Did Spencerism die in Not tinghamshire? The answer to that qu;stion is no. Certainly it cannot die while we have in our movement men and women who put the interests of their careers before that of the workers. Class collaborators like Spencer, can be clearly seen in our movement today, calling for witch-hunts and wanting to do deals with the Tories and the bosses and, for the lucky ones, being rewarded by their friends with a peerage. Until they are under the control of the membership and their wages are no more than that of skilled workers, this will continue. The chief lesson of Spencerism to day is that although ultimately the miners in Nons were won back to the national union, enormous damage was done to the conditions ·of miners, not only in that coalfield but nationally, because of the division within the heart of the industry. It is vital that the NUM leaders to day do everythir.g in their power to. persuade the Notts miners, not by threats of expulsion, but by debate and explanation, that their interests are tied up with those of their fellow workers in the other coalfields. A breakaway will be disastrous for all miners, but for none more so than the Notts miners themselves. By Peter Jarvis Campaign to defeat split 'Poison Ivy' isn't spreading CURlS BUTCHER -the so-called 'Silver Birch' came to Bates colliery in Northumb erland last Friday. told he had come to talk to them about a new· union. The majority walked out bur not before he was shouted down. Only one scab spoke up for Butcher. And this was on a da:, when the scabs had been delayed getting into the pit for an hour because police had been pre-occupied with a big picket at nearby Ellington colliery. STRIKING MINERS in Nottinghamshire have been quick to respond to the threat to form a breakaway union. Militant spoke to Jim Robinson, South Notts Strike Committee : "We've distributed leaflets at every pit and had a good response, particular ly in the North, but also at pits like Cotgrave, one of the bastions of Lynk and Prendergast. The response has been suprisingly favourab le. When lads go out, they are approached by working miners about stay ing in the NUM. Retired miners in Cotgrave, say a breakaway union is doomed to failure. I don't think we will avoid the split but we have to recruit and keep as many as we can. l think if we got !O!lfo to start with, which is easily attainable, that would be a firm foundation . The indication s are we will get more, SO!lfo in some branches. Recruitment Lynk and Prendergast are worried by the response. The majority of the strikers see the main thing is to defeat the breakawa~~ it's amazing how they got down to the task of recruiting new members to the NUM, after fighting on their own for so long. I don't know why the ex pulsions were brought for ward when they were; per sonally I think it was ill timed. A resolution from Northumberland calling for expulsion s was on the books six months or more. While we are on strike and the rest are working there's a pro blem of communication. We'd get a far more favourab le response after wards. And how can you have elections? I think we'll need a transitional period of a couple of months or so when we go back." His visit was intercepted by striking miners, and NUM chairman Ronnie Camp bell and the secretary, confronte d Butcher (duubeu locally 'Poison Ivy') in one of the surface buildings. They asked him where his funds came from. He couldn't answer and his visit ended when an under manager came up from the pit and had the police escort him away. Earlier the manager had called all the scabs to the canteen without telling them why. He then put Butcher in front of them and they were These events were reported at a rally of all sec tions of the union on Satur day, where more men volunteered for picket duty and there was a revitalised mood of confidence and . determination. By a Militant reporter I 'Warning' -for debating ideas ANYONE thinking of taking up the Labour NEC's suggestion that there should be a 'debate on ideas' in the Labour Party should beware. The leadership intends to make this a very one sid ed debate. If you defend the ideas of the Militant you may end up getting a letter from David Hughes, Labour Party Na tional Agent. Letter Margaret Creear was recently elected to Labour's National Women's Commit tee and agreed to participate in a debate in Preston entitl ed 'Marxism against Refor mism', As a result David Hughes has written a letter to her pointing out that ''The Militant tendency is a political organisation declared ineligible for af filiation to the Labour Par ty by the NEC and therefore membership of the Militant tendency is incompatible to membership of the Labour Party". He goes on to say that it may cause confusion that Margaret's name is linked with the Militant and with the National Women's Com mittee. (The fact that it clearly says on a leaflet advertising the event that she was speaking in a personal capacity was, claims David Hughes, "meaningless".) There is surely no confu sion in anyone's mind except his about the ideas on which Margaret Creear stood for 'the National Women's Com mittee? No one who is in volved in the Women's Organisation really needs their attention drawn to this as Margaret's political views are well known in the North West and nationally . He goes on to say that speaking in defence of Mili tant's ideas " ... raises ques tions about your own in volvement with, and the ex-tent of, your support for the Militant tendency.'' The Labour Women's Organisation-who over whelmingly passed a resolu tion condemning witch hunts and calling for the reinstatement of the Blackburn Six at their na tional conference-will be astounded at the effrontery of this attack. Miners Whilst the ranks of the labour movement fights alongside the miners, and debates what policies will take Labour towards socialism, it seems some of ficers at Walworth Road still manage to find time to write offensive letters to long standing party members, in order to continue the right wing's witch-hunt of Marx ist ideas. By Sheila Woodhead (Secretary, Rochdale Women's Council) Reinstate Brychan Davies THE LABOUR leader ship came to last week's National Executive Com mittee with the Parliamentar y demon stration by left-wing Labour MPs fresh in their minds. However, the meeting itself was a low key affair. Neil Kinnock agreed to Dennis Skinner's suggestion to hold a party political broadcast in support of the miners. The auempt by the right-wing to open up a wider investigation into Mili tant was defeated at the committee stage and went through the NEC without a mention. For some on the right the light has finally dawned that witch-hunts and expulsion s don't win elections . However, in an attempt to save face the expulsion of Brychan Davies was bulldoz ed through. It had taken Neil Kinnock three days to forget the ' comments made on ITV's Weekend World, that to carry out expubions they needed proof. The 11rice for breaking this rule \V<'S legal action against the NEC. In Brychan's case the 'im plicating' letter which _vas before the meeting could not be classed as 'proof of membership of an organisa- Co-op witch-hunt? THE RIGHT- wing of the Co-operative movement are preparing to conduct a general witch-hunt against Militant supporters in the Co-op Party. Until now, action against Militant supporters has been confined to a small number of cases when local Co-op Parties have refused to allow individuals to either join or to renew their existing membership . But a motion to the move ment's national conference in Brighton at Easter from the North Eastern Co-op Party will, if passed, give carte-blanche to local parties to expel Militant supporters. It would also allow sup-porters to be excluded from policy-making bodies such as the annual conference if local parties refuse to imple ment expulsions. The choice facing Militant supporter s will thus be between second class membership or no membership at all. Carbon-copy Socialists in the Co-op movement will be outraged by this attempt to stage a 'carbon copy' of the Labour Party right-wing's own witch-hunt, without even the pretence of 'investigations ' or 'registers'. Undoubtedly this opposition will be made Suspension threat lifted IN A set-back for the right wing, the suspension threat against two Militant sup porters in Gillingham (rep orted in last week's issue) was thrown out by the local Labour Party at its General Committee last week. It is hoped this will mark the end of a long running campaign by the right-wing against Militant supporters in Gillingbam. The paper was originally banned from party premises in August 1983. At the end of 1984 the party's executive committee decided to initiate discip linary proceedings against three party members- Tony Baker, Mary Turner and myself-for having sold the paper on party premises after the November GC. At its January meeting the EC decided to recommend myself and Tony Baker be suspended from party membership for three months, with action to be taken against Mary Turner in February. / tion'. BUt, moreover the let ter was not written by Brychan. It was a forgery! Despite protests to this ef fect by Frances Curran, and that she could prove it, the vote was taken. By 15 votes to 13 Brychan was expelled. The labour movement mu.st fight for his reinstate ment. Even so, attacks by the right-wing will not stop the growth of social;:t ideas within the labour movement. The 400 young miners who have joined the Labour Par ty since the beginning of the strike, and who openly sup port the ideas of Marxism, are just the beginning . clear at party meetings up af!d down the counrry, and particularl y within the North Eastern society itself. In all other respects, the prelimina>y agenda for the 1985 conference i~ the most radical for ye<Jrs, -reflecting the determination of or dinary party members to resist and reverse the Tory government's attacks on working people. Whatever the outcome of the Militant issue at conference , the growth of genuine socialis.t ideas in the Co-operati ve movement will not be stemmed by petty organisa tional measures. By lain Forbes (South Suburban CWS party committee) When the GMC met on Wednesday 23 January, the EC's recommendation was thrown out by 25 votes to 22, and action against Mary Turner was also dropped. Also, an emergency motion from the LPYS permitting the sale of Militant in the car-park outside the Labour Hall, was carried by 25 votes to 20. Some of our best support came from the trade union delegations, including the NUR, ASLEF, EETPU and A UEW delegates. By David Turner (Gillingham LPYSI . Labour Party reports Dave Nellist addresses the Portsmouth student rally on 23 January. Students defend Poly ON WEDNESDAY 23 Jan uary over three and a half thousand students demon strated through the streets of Portsmouth. They marched in defence of Portsmouth Poly's student union after attacks from -the Polytechnic's governors. The students have been fin ed £16,500, following an oc cupation by the students after their negotiating rights were unilaterally withdrawn. The march demonstrated the determination of students to defend educa tion. The students were backed up by a coach load of striking miners from St Johns NUM lodge in South Wales. Students' disappointment with the poor leadership of the National Union of Students on this issue was il lustrated when NUS presi dent Phil Woolas was booed and heckled as be rose to speak. There was anger that many colleges only received notification of the demonstration on the day of the march itself, even though the NUS leadership have bad since the December NUS conference to prepare for it. Unite The best applause of the day went to Dave Nellist MP who urged students to unite with public sector workers in defence of services and fight for socialism in the ranks of the Labour Party and LPYS. Similar support was given to Brian Jenkins, chairman of the Poly's Joint Trade Union Committee, who called on all colleges to form similar committees in the fight against privatisation and cuts in jobs. Lesleigb Woodburn of the NUS's }'urtber Educa tion National Committee bad a good reception when she outlined the fight of the FE college students. The campaign by Port smouth Poly students con tinues with a lobby of the Poly's Finance and General Purposes Committee on February 7. By John Holt (Portsmouth Poly Labour Club) Youth in the mining communities have been politicised by the 6trike-above a 13 year-old is arrested by riot police in Grimethorpe. Photo: John Harris (IFL) Miners take leading LPVS role THE INFLUX of the young miners into the Labour Par ty Young Socialists was il lustrated at the Yorkshire regional conference last week, when two striking miners were elected to leading positions in the LPYS. Miners Gary Ironmonger and Nigel Pearce joined the LPYS 10 months ago after the strike began. Gary Iron monger, of Cortonwood NUM, was elected as the new LPYS National Com mittee member for the area, while Nigel Pearce was voted onto the Regional Commit tee. The conference itself, at tended by nearly 200 Young Socialists at the Spa Hall in Bridlington, not only took up the miners' struggle, but discussed how other in dustries had been decimated by the Tories. A science graduate described working for British Steel: "The first thing that strikes you when you enter a steelworks is the emp tiness." He said that because of the Tories' crazy policies of running the industry down, they were now losing orders because too many foremen had been made redundant. Health Service A similar story was to be found in the health service. Ad~ian O'Mally, a porter at Pindcrfields Hospital in Wakefidd , described what happened last summer when there was an outbreak of Salmonella disease at the nearby Stanley Royd hospital. After the conference many delegates returned to the theme of the miners, when a Militant readers meeting heard striking miner Roy Jones describe his recent solidarit y visit to South Africa. By Sally Johnson (Wakefield West LPYS) • AT 24-hours notice a hundred anti-fascists, inclu ding Labour Party and YS members , turned_ out in Wakefield on Saturday after it was discovered the fascist British National Party was to hold a street meeting, sup posedly in support of the NUM. They got a clear rep ly from the NUM-nearly 50 miners waited in the nearby shopping centre ready to move against the BNP. As it was, only five or so fascists turned up and were too scared w try and meet. By Mick Richardson (Wakefield LPYS) , l I I I •• i ~ • 6 MILIT A~T 1. FebruMy '1'9'85 With Liverpool's crisis "vorse this year ... Shop stewards back united • campa1gn THE FIGHT for Liverpool's future is on. The Labour council now face a financial crisis worse than last year. The Tory government has · reneged on promised they made to Liverpool Labour Council in July. They are determined to get revenge on the Labour council which forced them into their big gest U-turn. Jobs threatened They are now cutting back on cash allocation for the ci ty which means thousands of council workers will be made redundant. To balance the books according to Tory figures would require 6,000 job losses or a 2200Jo rate in-. crease. The only alternative therefore is to fight to secure money back taken by the Tories in Rate Support Grant and penalties since 1979. Over 500 local authority shop stewards representing 30,000 local authorit y workers recently attended a special meeting to launch the campaign. Derek Hatton, deputy leader of the Coun cil, pointed out the success of last years' campaign: over 2,000 workers in new jobs; apprentices taken on; over 2,000 council houses have been built or planned. "We demand the return of the money the Tories have stolen from Liverpool Labour Council-£96 mill ion from the Housing Invest ment Programme; £96 mill-By Josie Aitman ion from loss of housing subsidies; and £18 million in education.'' Many stewards then came in from the floor. At the beginning · one or two con tributions attacked the coun cil, particularly one promi nent Communist Party member, who tried to argue that local authority trade unions should campaign in dependentl y from the coun cil and that the stewards should not discuss the coun cil's campaign until every trade union had discussed it separately. A member of the Socialist Workers Party also tried to discredit the Labour Coun cil's victory and aske9 how could it be a victory if we are back again this year with another campaign? This in dividual obviously is not aware that as long as the Tories are in office the fight will always continue . These comments were followed by several excellent contributions , in particular from Peter Lennard and Bernie Hogan, GMBATU convenors, who stated that they would support the stand of the City Council to the hilt. There was also sharp criticism aimed at leaders of some local authority unions who had appeared to deliberately attack the Labour Council and they said it was time to unite against the common enemy- Thatcher. Common enemy Ian Lowes, convenor of GMBA TU No 5 branch, won enthusiastic applause when he explained how last year's victory was achieved due to the campaign, and that any talk of an indepen dent battle was absolute nonsense. "If we went into a battle this year with two separate campaigns , one by the council and one by the local authority unions we would be doomed to failure. If we don't stand together we will have to face up to the fact that 6,000 redundancies will occur." He called for unity behind the council and unity behind the socialist policies of Liver pool Labour Council. The resolution called for support for the Labour council and campaign, buila.'1g on the excellent campaign and vic tory of last year. CP member Jack Kay moved that the resolution be not taken but he only receiv ed 5 votes. The vote was then put tO the meeting and Out 0 f 500 stewards, only 2 voted against including Jack Kay. Liverpool proved last year that a mobilised working class with a Marxist leader ship at its head took on the Tories and won a major vic tory. The battle this year is - even more crucial. With a national battle and with the support of local authority unions nationall y an even greater defeat can be in flicted on this Tory government. Local paper smears unions . . . . . 1)""-.s!IJ.il@: .. ~~ "': ... ~-.. =., . IN A deliberate attempt to divert pubhc attentiOn away from --__ ~ i ·• ~-~-~ .-~~~~ the Council campaign to get more money from the govern- . ROW OVER, 1"9", 11' 11 · -·· .. ment, the local paper the Liverpool Echo, has launched an 'HATTON'S 1> ":' ~ S a X, Say raC attack upon the trade unions and the way the Council fills . _P_RIVATE . ~~~ PAhAI~ job vacancies. Last week they devoted four pages to attack- . }~~!' ~ .ury grows ~ ing "Hatton's prh·ate army", hinting it was all a Militant _:_:...-=:-::=. > If Sec · rlgofmy iob ;9 ood plot. A key figure accused was Ian Lowes, GMBATU convenor. He handed a letter of protest into the Echo, part of which we reprint below: It was suggested that I, as the convenor of GMBA TU branch 5, am in a position to hand-pick those people who will be employed in a securi ty force. This ridiculous sug gestion clearly demonstrates Mr Phelps' total lack of understanding of how our nomination procedure is ap plied, or indeed how a trade union operates. Unemployed register The GMBA TU in com mon with many other trade unions operates an unem ployed register. Unlike most unions however, we do not confine our register for GMBA TU members only ... Any unemplo yed people who write to us have the op portunity of applying to be included on the unemplo yed register. There are three main criteria that we lay lan Lowes. down: 1) Firstly people who app ly must be unemployed. 2) People who apply must not have sold previous jobs through acceptance of vol untary redundanc y. 3) people who apply must be willing to join the union if they are successful in Liverpool Echo attack last week. securing employment with the council. Application forms are sent out and the completed ap plication form is considered by a committee of 11 people. All those applications which are successful are placed on an unemployed register. When vacancies arrive vacancies are taken fro_m that register. All trade union nomina tions are interviewed by Last year's victory meant 2,000 council houses have been built or planned. IN THE traditions of Liver pool District Labour Party, an aggregate meeting open to all local Labour Party members was held to explain and discuss the Budget; over 200 attended. As John Hamilton, leader of the Labour council stated: "We are at the beginning of this year's campaign. We are determined to win. Last year showed it could be done''. Last year Liverpool was on its own-but this year, other authorities are on the Tories' hit list. A joint cam paign nationally by other local authorities and the sup port of the local authority trade unions puts the cam paign in a stronger position. No rate tactic Liverpool DLP believes that a deficit budget (no cuts, no job losses and no massive rate rise to pay for Tory cuts) would be the best tactic for the City. But most of the other local authorities under attack have chosen not to fix a rate at all on 7 March. In the interests of unity, Liverpool have decid ed, at this stage, to go along with this tactic, without giv ing up our basic demands. We believe that there should be maximum unity. With the support of the local authority workforce both in Liverpool and nationall y management. The decision as to who is ultimately ap pointed lies with manage ment and not with the union. !VIv im·olvement therefore is extremely limited simply as one person on a committee of 11. To suggest otherwise is a complet~- distortion of the truth. Ending discrimination My union along with most others within the city coun cil believes that nominating rights are essential if the discrimination that took pla cein the past is to be er radicated. Historical evi dence clearly shows that in the days of the last ad ministration of the Liberals and Tories far less oppor tunities existed for ethnic minorities , women, disabled, trade unionists etc than now exist due to the trade union nomination rights. In fact far less job opportunities for together with the labour and trade union movement and working class in Liverpool, we believe that we will win. Workers nationally are look ing to Liverpool's campaign for a lead. Already there is a programme of public meetings, rallies, depot meetings planned. Enthusiasm There was an enthusiastic response from Labour Par ty members and activists from the floor. Peter Ferguson, city councillor, mentioned the effect of the campaign and victory last year-with hundreds of young people in Liverpool taken off the dole and given jobs with the council. Terry Fields MP, Broadgreen, received an ex cellent response when he castigated the attitude of · some of the Labour leader ship in condeming Liver pool's campaign and reminded them of the Labour Party's national con ference decision to back those Labour councils who are forced to break the law by the effect of Tory policies. The response from Liver pool's LP membership was proved when the statement putting Liverpool's case and the basis of campaign was passed unanimously. anyone existed under the last administration who got rid of 5,000 jobs. We aim through our nomination rights to ensure that equal ;pportun ities prevail and we will not be deflected from that task by smears, innuendo , or un substantiated allegations in articles like that written by Peter Phelps. Your newspaper (the Liverpool Echo) which claims to speak out for the people of Liverpool could serve the people better by joining in with the city coun cil campaign to secure more resources for Liverpool from Thatcher's government rather than attack the people who are campaigning for all our people. Yours faithfully, Ian Lowes Convenor GMBATU branch 5 Rate-capping threatens jobs and services TONY RIT CHIE (right) was elected leader of Southwark Council in May 1984. He has been on the Council for seven years. In this inter view with Mili tant Tony Rit chie explains the crisis facing Southwark and the councils response. Q. Wbat is tbe effect of rate-, capping going to be on Southwark? A. We are not going to allow any effect because we are not going to comply. If we were to comply it would be quite devastating. You would have to make cuts in the region of 20-250Jo in our services. We are not prepared to close old people's homes, stop meals on wheels services, reduce our housing maintenence programme to a level that is virtually non-existent. The discrepancy between what the government says and what we need is in actual fact £22 million but we have some balances and we have · · now gone through all the creative accountancy that we can and the discrepancy is £12 million out of a required budget of £130 million. Of that £ 130m, £40m will be debt charges. £130m is what we want to spend next year; the cap is £108.5m. Q. What is Southwark going to do? A. We are not going to com ply, that's the first thing. The second thing is that we believe in maintaining the unity of the hitlist authoritie s. We believe that the only way you can tackle this government is by all the local authorities not comply ing with the government's legislation. I take the vie\\, that if we get to the stage where coun cillors are being disqualified or surcharged or put in prison, the battle is lost. Our strategy is to force the government into recognising that there will be a crisis in local goverment that is en tirely their responsibilit y and that they will have to absolve that responsibility by restor ing the money that's been taken away from Southwark and the other hit-list authorities and also the heavily penalised authorities of course. Q. Is the scenario that Sout wark will not set a rate on 7 March? A. Yes. In line with the other authorities, ';Ye. won't make ~ Q. And then concerted negotiation? A. We will not negotiate alone or come to any in dependent agreement, leav ing other authorities to sink. We will be demanding that we negotiate with the government, not on the basis of increasing rates, but on the basis of returning the money that has been taken away from us. Q. How realistic is it to ex pect the government to come up with the cash? A. I think that a Tory government, the same as anyone else is responsive to pressure. I think, that in all probability i~ that if it's just the 16 authoriti es on their own then perhaps that's unrealistic. I think if that c<::n be built up into a major carrpaign so that the government can see that the people of the ~it-li st authoritie s and the lai:Jour movement is determinec to back the hit-list authoritie s then I believe we can put pressure on them. Q. You say that there is go ing to be mass pressure which will cause some kind of change by the govern ment; how has the campaign gone so far in Southwark? A. I think it's going well. We have worked very closely with the other three hit-list authorities in South London (Lewisham, Greenwich and Lambeth) . We have a joint campaign ; we are reaching a much wider area, a million people in one campaign , rather than four fragmented campaigns that reaches just 'Southwarl< will not Comply'-intervi~w with council leader •: '(;; "! ; ~' ;1 .. · ,,(}=·~.:'(:·:~ c :i.(. ;\::-·:)>:; (Top) Last week's occupation at threatened Post Office in Southwark; (story p.14). Photo: Paul Traynor (Below)A Tory election poster, suitably amended to make it accurate. a quarter million people each. We have total support from the trade union move ment in this town hall. I think some of them are scep tical, -and in Southwark's case they are entitled to be sceptical, because the history of the old right-wing ad ministration has been one of compromise ancl sell-out over the years. So I ~mders tand that scepticism . But nevertheless they have said, you do what you say you are doing and you have our total support in doing it. We have got total support of the voluntary sector; we are talking·to wide sections this month, the tenants' movement, the pensioners, etc. We have support from the church, particularly the non-conformist and black churches . My one concern at the moment is that the parties themselves don't seem to rea~ise the importance of ac tually campaigning. I think rhat they think if the coun cil's throwing money into a campaign, that absolves them of any responsibilty of participating. we should talk to Jenkin from a position of strength after the 7 March when we have shown him that we are determined and we are not going to back down and we will be fixing the timetable, and the demands . Joint statement by Southwark Unions The Southwark Trade Union Joint Co-ordinating Committee representing all Council unions, declares its absolute determination to resist and defy the government's rate-capping plans, and to fight all at tempts to cut Council jobs and services. The TUJCC demands that Southwark Council commits itself publicly and unequivocally to: · 1. A policy of non compliance with the rate capping legislation and; 2. Not reach any agree ment with the Secretary of State on expenditure levels lower than those necessary to maintain all jobs and services. We will give full sup port to any Councillor s who are penalised for following this policy. No Council union will co-operate with any at tempts, whether by Southwark Council or by the government, to cut jobs and services. If the government tries to impose Commissioners, we will resist their introduction, withdraw all co-operat ion, and make it impossible for them to run the Borough. In addition, we will defy any government legislation intended to compel Chief Officers to introduce cuts, produce a balanced I Letter to Councillors You can spend all the money you like on putting posters up and press adver tising. It gets the message across but it doesn't confirm the message and I think that the thing we are going to have to do in the weeks ahead is actually get out in to the community to explain to the people what is hap pening and arrange that per so'1al contact. Time is short. Q. How do you see the future? I think the Tories are on the run. If we look back at what has taken place since July, not one of the Labour hit-list authorities went for derogation-back-door ef forts were made, a number of feelers and carrots were put out to them, but none of them bit because they realis ed at the time that if they reached a deal that would hurt the rest. I think Jenkin is desperate for a local authority to break ranks and go to him. I believe that if one authority was to do that they'd get a marvellous deal, but the other 15 would be absolute ly left up the river without an oar. They are not prepared to do that. budget, or set ·a rate in the face of non compliance by Southwark Council. We will not co-operate with any Chief Officer who complies with such legisla tion, and expect the Coun cil to take firm action against any Chief Officer who acts in this fashion. I 10 January, 1985 l To All Labour Councillors Dear Councillor, Rate-capping, the Coun- cil and the unions. We are writing to urge you to give full supporc for a policy of non compliance with the Gqyernment's rate-capping legislation. The Town Hall trade union believe that rate-capping poses the most serious threat ever to jobs and services in Southwark, and are united in our determination to resist and defy it. We are not campaigning to allow the Council to raise its rates throuKh the roof. We believe that the people of Southwark already pay too much for inadequate services ... We recognise, however, that some Councillors will not feel able to-face the risk of surcharge and dis qualification. We ask them to resign now in order to make room for someone who is prepared to face up to that possibility . Such a resignation at this stage would not be regarded on our part as dishonourable. We pledge full support to Councillors who refuse to comply with the legislation ... We believe that a united stand by the Council and the trade unions will in flict a defeat on a Tory Government hell-bent on destroying local democracy and wrecking services which the people of Southwark elected you to provide. Yours sincerely, J.D Bryant (ACTTS) R. Smart (GMBA TU) J.A. Mulrenar. (NALGO) F. Coombes (NUPE Bermondsey General) C. Cowan (EETPU) M. Bryant (NUPE Camberwell General) M. Bennett (NUPE Southwark General) G. Taylor (NUPE, Officers) A. Legge (TGWU) A. O'Brien (UCATT) A. Firstly, we will not reach any agreement or any settle ment, other than a settle ment that preserves the pre sent budget that we have and there will be no loss of jobs or services. We are commit ted to the unity of the hit-list authorities. If we went now and talk ed to Jenkin, we would be offered crumbs because we would be responding to his timetable and that's why I am not in favour of talking to Jenkin now. I believe that That is something very new for Labour local authorities because they have always tended to be little Southwarkers, or little Le·.vishamers, or little Lamhethers, etc before now-parochial, not stan ding outside their own patch and very often corrupt within their own patch I might say. But that has not happened on this occasion and that is a.marvellous ad vancement for the labour movement in local government. The TUJCC is strongly recommending to all Southwark Council unions to commit themselves, through their normal democratic procedures, to the following joint undertaking: That if any member of any of our unions is made redundant, or threatened with redundancy, or is penalised for complying with our jointly agreed policy on rate-capping , then all unions represented on the TUJCC will res pond collectively in a united and forceful man ner, if necessary by all-out industrial action, using our joint industrial strength to resist such attacks. 8 MILITANT 1 February _ 1985 Pinochet regime in crisis · 1984 SAW the struggle against the Pinochet dic tatorship taken to a new level. The heroism especial ly of the youth, is a brilliant illustration of Marx's saying that nothing can break the determination of the working class to change society. Facing brutal repression and a collapse in living standards , the Chilean workers have returned again and again to the struggle, taking up the gauntlet thrown down by the state apparatus . 1984 saw the largest May Day demonstration under the dictator ship and the first general strike against the regime. Monthly protests involved hun dreds of thousands, mainly youth, who came onto the streets, building barricades, facing police and arm ed with tear gas, water cannon and machine guns, with little more than stones, Molotovs and frequently only their bare hands. For many these struggles have resulted in the ultimate sacrifice the workers' movement can ask for, often in the mo t horrific circumstances. Some youth cap tured during battles are stripped and forced t'C'J lie over burning bar ricades. In the Septemb er protests youth in one poblacion (shanty town) were scalped by the sadistic squads which make up sections of the hated riot police. However, faced with this ruthless repression the determina tion to overthrow the hated dic tatorship has grown. The regime has carried through a ruthless repression of the working class movement, which is horrendous even by the standards of the Latin American generals, who turned the entire continent into one enormou s concentration camp in the 1970's. The Pinochet dictatorship has murdered over 50,000 out of a population of 11 million. It com pares with "only" 30,000 in Argen tina with a population of approx. imately 30 million. However heroism and willingness to struggle, although crucial, do not in themselves make a revolution . A programme, analysis and above all perspective are essential, if the working class of Chile are to gain a decisive victory resulting in the abolition of capitalism and exploitation. Regime with no support Despite an apparent show of strength in the last three or four months, 1984 signified an un precedented crisis and the underly ing weakness of the dictatorship which all point to its likely collapse. The regime's state apparatus lacks any social basis whatsoever, steam ing full speed towards a social ex plosion of insurrectionar y proportions. Every section of Chilean society now stands opposed to the dic tatorship, including those sections of the middle class such as the small truck owners who initially welcom ed it, imagining that it would solve their problems. Even the bourgeois who brought the dictator to power have gained nothing but a worsen ing crisis. Whenever the dictatorship final ly departs it will have totally failed in its declared intentions of "obliterating Marxism from the country.". ---------------------- By a correspondent in Chile Still a larger force than the in dustrial proletariat in Russia prior to the revolution, the working class is the decisive force for the socialist revolution. Social misery and despair have reached un precedented proportions for the Chilean working class. After the slump of 1981/2 unemployment soared to 350Jo, ac cording to the United Nations. ( 160Jo according to the Govern ment's official figures). In the shanty towns it reaches anything up to 900Jo. One estimate put youth unemplo yment at around 700Jo. The unemplo yed receive no income whatsoever . Large sections of the middle class ~ have been affected. Unemplo yed teachers are frequent ly seen on the buses singing to ob tain some income. In the capital, 350Jo of doctors are estimated unemployed . Poor diet has resulted in a massive rise in health pro blems. The bourgeois Christian Democrats estimated that 5 million people, or nearly 500Jo of the population are undernourished. Milk is virtually unknown in the workers' districts and shanty towns. Mothers speak of children who don't start talking until the age of six, due to the effect of poor diet. These conditions, coupled with the repression are giving rise to an explosive situation . The three ob jective conditions Lenin described for revolution now exist in Chile. The ruling class is split. The middle class is active in opposi!ion to the dictatorship, and a willingness to struggle reaching heroic propor tions exists among the working class. The bourgeois look to the future with trepidation. Without doubt the majority now favour ending the dictatorship and the transition to a form of bourgeois democracy, as in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. By reform from the top they hope to prevent a revolution from below. They have however a fundamen tal problem, which didn't confront the other bourgeois where such transitions have been carried through. Chile has powerful par- ties of the working class, in the Socialist and Communist parties. A fear of them taking over in elec tions and unleashing a movement which they would not be able to control has held back the bourgeois from acting decisively. As a result a massive polarisation is taking place. In addition to this they face a dictator determined to hang onto power until the very end unlike other regimes throughout the continent (or in Spain where Franco conveniently died.) Under the pressure o( the masses, therefore, the bourgeois has split with no clear strategy as to how to resolve the crisis. The most right wing of the bourgeois represented in the National Party is divided into at least three dif ferent factions. All favour a tran-11 11 Pinochet : clinging to his power. • ' 1 1 1 Heroic struggle against the Chicago economists and Santiago generals b nl THE INSANE lurch to monetarism, under the "Chicago boys" in the early years of the dictatorship, intensified the ef fects of the wor~crisis on the Chilean economy ashing state expenditure to r duce inflation, cut-throat competition to weed out the weak. would leave the most efficient sections of the economy tq_,flourish. That was the theory. 7 With a military dictatorship to keep the working class in check, it was to be a. laboratory test for the monetariSPtheul'ettenrns;" but a massive cut in purchasing power of the workers and middle class, and a massive rise in unemployment, slashed the market sending the economy in to a massive slump which wiped sition but only with the agreement of Pinochet. The Other major force of the Chilean bourgeois, the Christian Democracy, is also divided. One wing led by Valdes favour a pro gramme of social mobilisation to put pressure on the regime to stand aside, and more recently if this fails to look to the armed forces to remove Pinochet. The other wing rriore cautiously want to keep the Communist Party and one wing of the Socialist Party out of the main capitalist opposition alliance, the Democratic Alliance (DA). With every attempt at a transi tion collapsing, the divided Chilean bourgeois show every sign of demoralisation . As Jarpa, a right wing NP member taken into the government in September 1983 to carry through a transition said :n .• his recent resignation which was re jected by Pinochet, " ... I have tried everything and everything I have tried has failed". Every attempt at dialogue has collapsed. Most recently, in . out whole sections of manufac turing industry. lt has plummeted to a depth from which it will never recover. The state itself faced a massive fall in revenue but an enormous expenditure on the repressive apparatus. With 105 soldiers for every 10,000 peo ple, the Chilean army is the largest per head of population in the continent. The repressive ap paratus accounts for a stagger ing 10% of GNP. ' For Chilean capitalism the con tinuation of the Pinochet dic tatorship is not merely causing enormous political problems, but has become a financial burden, a parasitical monster producing nothing except a busy trade for the undertakers. Oecember the letter from the DA asking for a fresh attempt at dialogue, was in the words of one member " ... simply thrown into the waste bin". The Chilean bourgeoi s have completel y lost control of the state apparatus . A military bonapartist regime, it has risen above society, defending private property but without direct control by the bourgeois themselves. The process began immediately after the coup in 1973. For the main wing of Chilean capitalism the original in tention was to have a golpe blan co, a "white coup" a military regime for about a year to "clear up the mess" and afterwards fresh elections. However Pinochet had very dif ferent ideas. Having seized power he had no intention of surrender ing it. Proclaiming himself to be ''appointed by God to fight Marx ism", comparing himself with a "Roman emperor" he intends to stay in power until his constitu tional term expires in 1989, "at Together with the massive loans for private firms the net result was a gigantic foreign debt, with incredible rates of in terest, and the entire economy in the hands of the world banks. Thus when the Junta seized: power in 1973, the foreign debt stood at US$4,048m and 15% of the GNP. lt now stands at US$19,C~Om accounting for 80% of GNP, or approximately $US 1,500 for every Chilean. Pinochet, the stalwart of free enterprise presided over the greatest number of recorded bankruptcies in Chilean history. Under the Christian Democrat President Frei \t reached 1,350, under Allende 340 and under Pinochet 3, 31 0. As the oppo nent of state intervention he least". That is to say, revolution: permitting. Thus the Chilean capitalist clas: squats on the horns of a dilemm; they have been incapable of resolv ing. What was an advantage ha! become a disadvantage, havirr! brought the dictatorship to power to defend their interests, it has no11 become one of the major obstacle: that they face. Pinochet sticks in 1 power The divisions within th< bourgeois have also re-enforced thi deter~mination of the regime tt cling to power. Even madmen car speak wise words sometime s. A! Pinochet said, "with the oppo s~ tion divided into at least 60 dif ferent groupings what is tht alternative?" If the bourgeois at the !as minute take action against the die tatorship, the removal of Pinoche would simply unleash an enormou 1 torship's well armed police. 1 t Chile ~ads a regime which has 70% the assets from the 50 larges ·_ i"IS in its hands! The decline had its most amatic reflection in the reduc >n of the manufacturing orkforce from 30% in 1973 to little below 19%. Any society tti~h is unable to develop the oductive forces is historically 10med. Chilean capitalism in e respects has taken socie- back to the beginning of the !fltury. lt is over ripe for revolu tn. In 1890, there were iO,OOO industrial workers. By tOO this had risen to 250,000. : the present time in Santiago are are only 250,000 industrial CH1ters and not much more than tO,OOO throughout the whole runtry. movement of the working class. Failure to do so will lead to an ex plosion from below reaching insur rectionary proportions. Whatever they do will be a mistake under such conditions . Possibly the armed forces, or sections of it under pressure of the movement might move to oust Pinochet; even an intervention from the CIA who assisted in bringing the regime to power could 1110t be excluded . However such a move would be fraught with danger and resolve nothing, least of all lhe advance of the revolution. However a crucial question lies before the workers' movement (mainly organised in the MOP and the CP and the dominant wing of the SP) in Chile and internatio~al ly. Why is the regime still in power with such a weak social base and "·ith the movement of the Chilean masses so determined? The answer lies not in the objective situation but in the thoroughl y mistaken policies adopted by the leadership of the Chilean workers' parties, especially the Communist Party. All the objective condition~ for the socialist revoiution now exist in Chile. However the leaders of the workers' movement, rather than launch a struggle for revolu tion raise the neces5ity of an alliance with the so-called pro gressive wing of Chilean capitalism, the leadership of the Christian Democrats. Their idea is that the Chilean capitalist class is a progressive force, and that the tasks of the revolution are bourgeois. Therefore they conclude the dic tatorship can only be overthrown in alliance with the progressive wing of chilean capitalism. This has meant that workers' leaders have a policy of waiting for the Christian Democrats before undertaking a struggle. These ideas of the leader ship are false from beginning to end. Bourgeois fears Chilean capitalism is tied hand and foot to the interests of im perialism through the banks. They can play no role to end exploita tion of the country by the world banks and multinationals . More than anything else the Chilean bourgeois fear a movement of the working class, especially after the experience of the Popular Unity governm~nt of 1970-73. In the struggle against the dic tatorship the leadership of the Christian Democracy (DC) has been a brake on the movement, always opposing the call for a ~ general str!ke. Even in the recent strike on 30 October, called by Se quel (leader of the union CNT and a DC member) the DC leadership denounced the call. In September when the Democratic Alliance, of which they are the driving force, called a day protest, its "excesses" and the "violence" were denounced by one Protests against the Pinochet regime have not been stopped by repression . of the DC leaders. Most specifically how can the working class place trust in the leadership of this party of the "progressive" wing of Chilean capitalism, when it threw its wieght behind the 1973 coup Alwyn, one of the DC leaders to day, declared then that the junta deserved "the support of the peo ple". Together with the NP the very day after the coup on 12 September, they presented a declaration of congratulations to Pinochet. It is true that the DC has the sup port of sections of the middle class and even of workers, in opposition to the regime-( or rather was given it by the workers' leaders)_ However the point for the workers' parties is to win these sections away from the influence of the CD through a determined struggle, a clear alternati ve taking up the day to-day problems of these people. Not a strategy to win the political exploiters of the middle layers of Chilean society, but a programme to win the exploited middle layers themselves. Mass movement of workers Much of the support they have won has been due to proclaiming their support for "democracy". Enormous illusions exist in the struggle for bourgeois democracy. After !I years of ruthless dic tatorship, tremendous support for elementary democratic rights eiusts -the right to hold elections, to strike, to have demonstrations, freedom of the press. The workers' parties must always place themselves at the forefront of such demands . Never must the bourgeois hypocrites of the CD be allowed to parade as defenders of democrac)'. The workers' parties must come out in favour vf election to a Con stituent Assembiy, but a Revolu tionary Constituent Assembly, one summoned by a national Congress of Cordones (Chilean Soviets) and charged with transforming society qnd implementing a revolutionary programme to elminate the plight of the masses. Its base must be the organisation of a socialist planned economy. Unless accompanied with a pro gramme for socialist revolution, a struggle for such rights will not on ly fail to solve the fundamental problems facing Chile's workers and middle class, but those very rights will themselves be threaten ed. After the fall of the Pinochet dictatorship , a failure by the working class to take power will open the way in five or severi years to yet anoths:r dictatorship, even more brutal than the current regime if that is imaginabl e. Faced with the continuation of the dictatorship, large sections of the youth have become impatient and have turned their attention to the idea of the armed struggle, more-specifically support for the ideas of individual terrorism. Drawing upon the lessons of 1973, the majority of the youth have con cluded that the reason for defeat lay in the absence of arms. Especiall y after the developments in Nicaragua, the vast majority of the youth are now demanding arms. It has found its reflection in the Communist Party where a limited campaign of a guerrilla character is being cot'--lucted. un'aer the conditions in Chile the instincts of the youth are entirely correct. The necessity to arm the movement, and defend the revolu tion is clear. The organisation of a workers' militia is the most effec tive way of undertaking such a struggle. Together with the organisation of an insurrectionary general strike, it would lead to the collapse of the dictatorship. However what is entirely mistaken is the idea of individual terrorism fostered by the leadership of the CP and other groups such as the MIR, that it will be possible for a small group of heroic armed youth to overthrow the regime with a campaign of bombs, guns and bullets. A mass movement, under the leadership of the working class drawing behind it the youth, unemployed and peasants, armed through its militia, is the way to overthrow the dictatorship. There . I Feqruary 1985 MILITANT 9 can be no substitute for a mass movement of the proletariat. However to raise such a pro gramme also poses more questions. Where is the movement to arm itself and what will be the result of a confrontation with the troops? It is a question faced by every revolution. Only by winning the ranks of the armed forces to the side of the working class can the movement arm itself and ensure victory. A tremendously positive feature in the Chilean revolution is the constant attempts at fraternisa tion between the troops and the youth. In the recent clamp-down, (in vol\'ing on occasions the use of 5007o of the army), attempts by the youth to discuss with the soldiers were reported. It is a conscript ar my, 30,600 out of 50,000 soldiers are conscripts, drawn from the wokers' districts. Youth will be fighting in the days of protest one month and conscripted into the ar my the next. Under the condition s of insurrec tion, when the soldiers know that tomorrow they wouldn't have to face the same officers, repression, insults and humiliation, they un doubtedly would be drawn into a movemen _t of the proletariat. Such a prospect is increasing the longer the regime holds onto power. For the Chilean workers' move ment 1985 could prove to be a decisive year. The lessons of 1970-73 must be fully absorbed . The overthrow of the dictatorship will be an enormous relief for the Chilean masses. Unless however it is bound up with the carrying through of the socialist revolution and if capitalism is allowed to con tinue, the problems of misery, poverty and despair will remain. The Chilean revolution has begun. The death of 50,000 will not have been in vain if the lessons are learnt by the workers' movement. A socialist Chile would open the way to the achievement of the historic objectives of the Socialist Party-the organisation_ of a Federation of Latin American states. It would mean the ending of dictatorship and the beginning of genuine human society throughout the continent. THE Militant Editorial Board has received a re quest from Marxists in Chile for financial sup port in their ·struggle against the Pinochet die- -tatorship. As interna tionalists we appeal to all workers to make a donation to those work ing in the Chilean under ground. We therefore urge sellers of the Mili tant to organise collec tions for this work on the weekend of the 2 and 3 February. All money col lected should be sent to: 'Militant for Chile', 3/13 Hepscott Road, London .E9 3HB. 10 MILITANT· l Februar¥ .. 1985 Philippines The last days of a dictator 1 DURING THE past year the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines has been in deep trouble. Economic crisis, massive anti-government demonstrations and the assassination of a major opposition leader have put a question mark over the regime's survival. PAULINE WARDLE WORTH looks at the current situation: THE UNITED States has the greatest interest in the Philippines, not only in in vestments but in military bases. These command an im portant strategic position in SE Asia and have been laun ching pads for intervention in Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia. Today they could be used as springboards for interven tion in Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Middle East and NE Asia. Some store nuclear weapons which, according to the new Military Bases Agreement , America can deploy without the consent of either the Philippine government or the people. Marcos has had full US backing including massive aid to maintain his army, but the regime is becoming em barrassing to the Americans. The assassination of op position leader, Benigno Aquino, in August 1983 caused perhaps the greatest outrage for years against Marcos and his US backers. Aquino, who had been ex iled by Marcos, was return ing to the Philippines under military escort. As he prepared to leave his plane at Manila airport he was shot dead. Marcos blamed com munist "subversives" but was eventually forced to set up an enquiry. The recent official report has confirm ed that Aquino was murdered by his military escorts. Certain generals have been named, probably as scapegoats, but Marcos remains, officially , stainless. Over two million people mourned Aquino in the streets but the anger was deeper than grief over the death of one politician. Since the beginning of the Marcos dictatorship over 70,000 peo ple have been detained as political prisoners. Two-thirds have been tor tured and some 'disap peared' while in custody. Government troops have killed over 100,000 people and more than a million have been forcibly evacuated from their homes. No sec tion has escaped the terror, peasants, workers, even priests have been brutally treated. Added to this is the appalling standard of living for some 801l7o of the population. (See below) Because of its debts and reliance on further borow ing, the government has been at the mercy of the Interna tional Monetary Fund who insisted on the devaluation of the currency and steep tax rises which caused yet more suffering for the poorest people. Demonstrations In Manila, protests spark ed off by Aquino's death are still continuing, over a year later, at the rate of two or three a week. Demonstrators, who include workers, students , businessmen and clergy have met increasin g police brutali ty which has progressed from teargas to water can non and now live ammunition . While demonstration s continue, more organised resistance is gaining strength. The undergrqund National Democratic Front, (NDF), whose organisations have a quarter of a million in dustrial workers, have struck for economic demands and the release of detained workers. In Mindanao, the New People's Army (NP A), founded by the Communist Party in 1969 has been caus ing enormous problems. An estimated one million peasants and farm workers are now organised and arm ed by the NPA while a fur ther ten million come under their influence and protec tion. The NPA have outwit ted government troops and taken reprisals against Mar- As in Chile, the women of the poorest districts of Manila show their anger at the dictatorship's economic policies by banging pots and pans: The British connection: a little terror and torture THE ECONOMY is dominated by US, Japanese and European companies among them familiar British names like Unilever, I Cl, Tootal and Dunlop. The multinationals rely Ol). government terror to stop those who press for basic union rights. Workers' hours are long, conditions are overcrowded, production quotas are impossibly high. Safety standards are abysmal. Many garment firms' machines are repaired while still running and ac cidents are commonplace. Many of the clothes they make end up in British shops like C&A and Debenhams . The British government through the Commonwealth Development Corporation, recently provided a £6.4 million loan to finance an oil palm plantation jointly con trolled by the Philippines National Development Cor poration and Guthries, a Malaysian owned company. Evictions and curfews Guthries employed the Lost Command to evict 3,000 peasants to clear the site. Farmers and peasants were driven off, without pro ·per compensation . Their homes were destroyed and they were rounded up and taken to live in guarded huts in the town ·centre; subject to a dusk to dawn curfew. Condition s are often worse than the most squalid slums, with three or four families in one small hut. Many get sick, especially the children, due to lack of food and safe drinking water. Any people who resisted moving to these concentration camps were beaten, or shot. The landless peasants had to re ly on the company to pro vide them with jobs. Guthrie' s manager, British-born Bruce Clew, ad mitted that acquiring land and recruiting labour would have been impossible without the Lost Command, adding, "If profits flow what does it matter if the local population has to put up with a little terror and torture?'' Company officials are now reportedl y putting pressure on the workers to leave their union, deducting union dues from wage packets but not handing them to the unions for weeks and, without permission, deducting money for fiestas and beauty contests! Crop sprayers are not given gas masks; two died last year, probably from pesticide poisoning, and workers who dispense fer tilisers are not given gloves results in blisters, rashes and infected wounds. The British government still gave the taxpayers' money to Guthries. cos' thug forces, the Lost Command. Building international links with trade unions is a major task for the Kilusang Mayo Uno, (KMU), the organisation of the free trade unions. This is particularly important for the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos forced to work overseas. Workers are the· Philip pines' greatest export and dollar earner. Ironically in a country where only about I 0% of the population have access to medical facilities, the Philippines is the world's largest exporter of nurses and second largest of doctors. As the crisis in the Philip pines deepens, both Marcos .and the US government will be looking for ways to quell the growing opposition and return some stability. Mar cos, an aging sick man, wams his wife, Imelda, to succeed him. lmelda Mar-cos, reputedly one of the world's ten richest women, already holds a number of powerful positions, but she is probably more hated than Marcos himself. Her contempt for the Filipinos was shown in her comments on one of the re cent demonstrations in Manila; "these rallies cannot go on without money. Don't kid me that you will have two million people who are not paid to attend. I have given them movie stars, sandwiches, everything, and still they will not rally for us''. The US government however, would like to replace Marcos with a more reliable puppet, preferably one with some popularit y. With Aquino eliminated, one candidate is Salvador Laurel, who last year visited America for talks with the government and who is known to be in favour of keeping US bases . in the Philippines . US businessmen and politicians who con gratulated Marcos for pro viding "heaven sent relief" when he declared martial law now want a possible let-out, a smooth transition to a very limited form of democrac y. But whoever becomes president, the people of the Philippines , who have a brave record of struggle will carry on fighting against the economic and political · system which sacrifices them to profit. The working class are the only force with the potential power to lead the struggle to gain real control over their own destinies. Marcos and the Lost Con·•mand ALTHOUGH nominally in dependent from first Spanish then American rule since 1946, US imperialism still controls the Philippines. The American style political structure was quickly seized by the 200 wealthy families who previously ran the coun try on feudal lines. Ferdinand Marcos came from such a background , becoming President in 1965. In 1972, realising how unlikely was his re-election for a third time, he declared martial law, arrested 30,000 people and began a nightmare for Philippines workers and peasants. US aided repressiOn Marcos has tried to com pete with other third world countries in cheap labour.He succeeded in making it about the cheapest in the world by brutal represssion. With US aid he increased his army to 60,000 using ,...fl President Marcos. their arms to silence opposi tion to his plans and boosted them with paramilitary death squads like the "Lost Com mand" who drive defenceless peasants from land needed by multinationals. The Command, set up ten years ago to suppress Muslims fighting for in dependence and to hunt out Communists, recruits deserters and ex-convicts and works by torture rape and murder. Poverty amidst wealth THE 7000 islands of the Philippines have vast forests, fertile valleys, huge mineral resources of iron gold copper coal and nickel and ample rivers to provide electricity for far more than the current 50 million inhabitants. But there is 50% unemployment, a foreign debt of over $25 billion, high inflation, half the families live below the minimum needed nutrition and 70% below the poverty threshold unable to meet clothing and shelter needs. TB and polio are rife, most families suffer the loss of at least one child. Begging and child prostitu tion are increasing. -- .... FELS-builds LabourS support THE SUCCESS of Further Education Labour Students was seen recently when FELS candidate Lesleigh Woodbum, was elected onto the student union's Further Education National Committee at the NUS national conference. She received the second pose NOLS? highest number of first No. It was set up to draw preference votes. FE students into NOLS. On- Yet instead of welcoming ly 4.40Jo of FE colleges have this increase in support for Labour clubs. There were Labour, the NOLS leader- more NOLS members at Ox- ship have attacked FELS. ford and Cambridge Univer- The Times Educational Sup-sity Labour clubs in 1984, plement (18 January) report- than at all the FE colleges ed that some of the NOLS put together. 'Democratic Left' leadership At the November con- wanted people such as ference the FELS constitu- Louise J ames, FELS organ- tion was passed, which clear- iser, to be expelled from the lv stated: "The aim of FELS Labour Party. i~ to set up and affiliate FE Militant put the NOLS Labour Clubs to NOLS." leadership's accusations to Since the FELS conference, Louise James: the number of FE clubs af- Has FELS got a proper filiated to NOLS has base amongst FE college doubled. students? Did FELS split the Labour At the founding con- vote at the recent NUS ference of FELS, 178 ·FE conference? students, who were LP or No. A letter was sent from Labour Club members were FELS to NOLS chairperson present, with another 60 John Mann, asking that a visitors. Over 44 FE colleges joint FELS/NOLS slate were represented. This is the should be elected at NUS largest event of this kind ever confer.ence. John Mann organised for FE students. refused every offer to unite Unfortunately NOLS has the Labour vote amongst FE never organised a similar students. He told a FELS event; there were only 17 FE delegation at NUS con- colleges affiliated to NOLS ference that the NOLS can- before· FELS conference . dictates had been selected at Was FELS set up to op-a previous NOLS student FE students demonstrate for decent grants, 1983. council. Contradictions On the same day, Pauline McNeil, NOLS candidate for FENC, said at a FELS fringe meeting that the can didates were selected at a NOLS fringe meeting on the previous night. Students who attended that meeting said no such elections took place. Did FELS prevent a Labour majority on the FENC? The other NOLS candid ate other Malcolm Pratt received only six first preference votes and ended up coming seventh so would not have been elected anyway. The fact is because of the setting up of FELS, NOLS leaders have been exposed for their failure to take up FE issues seriously. FELS forced NOLS to stand a ma jority slate for the first time and win the first ever Labour majority . Livingston CLP: Militant replies miners' collecrions are raking place and explaining ro rhem the difficulries and problems they are causing. MILITANT HAS received a letter from the secretary of Liv ingston Constituency Labour Party, Mr Graeme Morrice, com plaining about Mili tant's reports on events within the CLP. The letter is about 1,500 words long and because of space has been edited. Mr Morrice writes: "We are accused of 'witch-hunts' and, by implication, of not working for a miners' vic tory." The first part of the letter then outlines the work done by Livingston CLP in support of the miners. The articles in Militant did not dispute this-the CLP is to be congratulated on this support. However, the first part of the letter raises an important point, that DHSS 'snooper squads' are using reports of cash raised to attack miners' benefits. Mr Morrice writes: "Be warned ... the snoopers are attempting to cut benefits yet again by valuing parcels on the basis of the informa tion you are so kindly furnishing ." We shall certainly take note. We hope that Mr Mar rice has also forwarded this important information ro Labour Weekly, Tribune, the Morning Star and other labour movement journals in cluding the Miner which like Militant have carried such in formation for the past ll months. On the question of the events in Livingsron CLP, the letter continues: As to the 'witch-hunt', would our derracrors please specify what they are on about? lnfacr, at our October GC meeting, our MP, Robin Cook, informed the meeting that his name was being link ed with an attempt to 'wiich hunt' the LPYS. Yet when he asked if anyone present could tell him what this was all · about, no one spoke up, not even •he rwo LPYS delegares from one of our LPYS bran ches, both of whom are sup porters of rhe Militant rendency. We are also told thar our plans have received a set back in our attempt to iniiiate a 'wiich-hunt '. Whai plans? Ye1 no one is, or has ever been, 1hrea1ened wiih expulsion . No one is under charge, nor are any charges pending againsi anyone, for anything. We are biuerly resentful of the crude 'catch 22' type criiicism. On Ihe conrrary, we have gone our of our way 10 help the LPYS in our CLP. For instance, our GC recently agreed 10 a requesr by LPYS delegates for £63 10 cover rhe cosrs of running a disco dur ing a recruirmenr drive. (This was nor rhe firsr rime rhe LPYS had requesred and had been given funds). Alrhough our funds were too low to make an ourrighi gift on rhis occasion, Ihe GC unanimous ly agreed ro loan rhem the amount. Unfonunatel y, although Ihe disco was a social and political success, ii was no/ a financial one and, faced with this, the GC ac cepted a reques1 for an exien Iion of rhe lime for the LPYS to repay the loan. Again, this decision was unanimous. Wilh regards to our miners support activities, we have always provided the necessary facilities for any individual or groups of individuals who have been prepared to assist in our collections etc-LPYS and non-LPYS members. In fact, we pay special tribute to Ihe sacrifices rhat have been made by some of our LPYS members. However, over the last cou ple of months there has been an ongoing situation which has been exploiled, disrorted and down-right lied abour by one or rwo individuals , who, some of us believe, are laking adv'lntage of in order to creare a 'martyr-type' situa lion which, they hope, will find favour wiih I heir leader ship. No1 only is rhis bringing our CLP inro disrepUie bUI also Ihe Militant lendency. Over the last couple of months our collecti_ot:s have been impaired by a number of comrades selling Militant ar rhe same rime, in direcr compe1i1ion wirh our collec10rs. These comrades only ap pear for approximalel y 1wo hours per week ar rhe local shopping cenrre where we col lect. They choose usually only one ou1 ~f the five emrances-rhe mosr pro fitable ar a peak period; seldom less than four in numbers, some1imes seven, in an entry 22 feet wide. Because of Iheir shore leng1h of stay, they are never there ro deal wirh the aggro rhey cause wirh rheir aggressive selling methods when our col- lec!Ors are moved on and harassed by the police or the centre security guards follow ing complaints by rhe public. The consequences of a (police) ban ever occuring would be ca/astrophic for rhe miners' families we feed. Faced with lhis kind of siwarion, our GC and, in panicular, our miners support group, whilsr not opposed to the general selling of Militant, have requested and sometimes pleaded with the Militant sup poners 10 refrain from selling their newspapers whilst the Yet the situarjon would not have arisen at all had rhe comrades shown some com mon sense insread of crowding out our collectors. The conrest is of their making in that they appear to try to sell papers rather than recognise rhe collecrions. They have been offered co operation, and have rejecred it. They have been invited ro join us and help rhe miners' cause and have ignored rhis. The confrontation is of their own choosing, not ours. In finaliry, we asked those behind these attacks on us: If you have the time and people in your organisation ro devote to these scurrilous and un founded attacks on our CLP, wouldn 'r you be better employed working for a miners' vicrory, than sowing dissention and acting on behalf of the right-win g attacks? Yours fraremally Graeme Morrice Secrerary, Livingsron CLP Phillip Scott of livingston North LPYS replies to Mr Morrice: FIRST OF all, I would refe~ readers to the report on tbt: situation in Livingston CLP in Militant, issue 729. It is not the wish of Mili tant supporters or YS mem bers to be embroiled in inter party squabbling. Our wish is to continue to support the miners' struggle and build the ideas of socialism amongst youth. Our record on that speaks for itself. and ther-e are now over 70 1-'Febrmiry ·1985 MILit ANi• 1l Loaded dice at NOLS council THE LA TEST tactics by the 'Democratic Left' leadership of the National Organisation of Labour Students shows they con tinue to operate with the most undemocratic methods possible, in order to ensure that political defeats can be avoided. Following the 1984 NOLS Conference, rather than answer serious allegations of ballot rigging, the NOLS leaders have attempted a systematic campaign to guarantee a 'safe' conference this year. · A further indication of this came at the NOLS Stu dent Council at Bradford University on January 19-20. This meeting decides how many candidates and who should stand for positions in the National Union of Students' elections at its con ference in March. However, this Council is unrepresentati ve of Labour students. Delegates are one per Labour Club, but also any NOLS members who are NUS area convenors or on the NUS executive. This means Student Union of ficers vastly outnumber the more representative and ac countable Labour Club delegates. This way the 'Democratic Left' ensure a majority on the Council. Following anomalies in the reglstr<rtion procedure, and the issuing of delegate credentials, Militant sup porters demanded that a list of accredited delegates be made available for inspec tion. This democratic safeguard was refused by the Student Organiser Sally Morgan . members in Livingston North LPYS branch due to our campaigning activities. What Mr Morrice is resentful of is the fact that the CLP h_as received letters and resolutions of protest from labour movement bodies over the action taken against a young female member of the party, Wen dy Milne of the LPYS. As Militant reported, the CLP chairman-after LPYS members said they would not stop selling Militant on the streets of Livingston after protests from some sec tions of the party-stated quite clearly to the young member: "I'll leave the chair at the next meeting and per sonally move your expulsion." When the local labour movement heard of this, they duly responded. The CLP received many protests, including those from half a dozen or so NUM strike committees, 16 Labour councillors and a petition signed by many striking miners. These are not gulli ble people being 'exploited' by "one or two individuals", but the response of concern ed, experienced labour activists. Mr Morrice says "no-one is under charge". But the CLP set up a disciplinary committee to investigate the actions of Wendy Milne, after unfounded allegations of 'misappropriation of funds'. Wendy Milne was also sent a letter of repri mand which stated: "We resolved to send you a le.tter of reprimand hence the reason for this letter." And Mr Morrice complains to Militant about "Catch 22 type criticism"! It has still not been e~plained _to Ms Ian Wright, a delegate from Liverpool University Labour Club, called on the council to have a roll call of all delegates present to en sure that only bona-fide representatives were voting in the elections. Council voted against this procedure. . In effect the NOLS rank and file were denied the right to know who participated in elections to select Labour candidates for the leading positions in the student movement. Meeting delay On the Sunday the Coun cil had a major delay when the main lecture theatre was closed by the building super visor, following complaints -from cleaners as to the disgusting mess in which it was left (it had been used the previous evening to hold a 'Democratic Left' caucus). The NOLS leaders used the delay to push through the rest of the business at an in credible speed. The agenda was completely revised with no indication to the Council as to the procedure to be adopted, until this was demanded from the floor. In the elections there were no questions to the candidates! On the recommendation of the NOLS leadership Council again voted to stand a minority slate at the NUS elections (standing only eight candidates out of a possible 12). NOLS Conference tak<·s place in five weeks time. The rank and file of NOLS are entitled to ask will the NOLS Conference be conducted along the same undemocratic lines as the Student Council? Milne what rules she is meant to have broken. As for the situation at the shopping centre, Militant supporters have been selling the paper there since before the strike began, and from the very outset of the strike. Far from. being 'pleaded' with by certain CLP members, we have unfor tunately been personally abused. Some of these fraternal 'requests' took the form of us· being called 'liars', 'cheats', 'thieves', 'scum' and 'morons'. We do not think selling Militant impairs collections for the miners. We believe that raising cash and putting the miners' case and socialist policies through tile news paper go _hand in hand. Many striking miners agree with us on this and indeed, striking miners have been amongst those selling the paper. Striking miners would not have responded in the way they did over the attacks on Wendy Milne had they seriously thought Militant supporters were jeopardising the collections. Furthermore, it is nonsense to suggest Militant supporters want a 'martyr type situation'. Over the past years Militant has been fighting the expulsion of its supporters and witch-hunt threats tooth and nail. We understand that if the right wing succeed expelling Marxists from the Labour Party, left wing constituen cies such as Livingston CLP ~ill be next for the chop. We hope that this sorry af fair will come to an end and in future any political dif ferences can be discussed in the proper manner of the movement, through frater nal debate. 12· :MHxt AN'P'f February · 1 ~f85 r-os j Militant welcomes letters from readers. Send us your views, comments or criticism ~::.~ Write to Militant, 3/13 Hepscott Road. London. E9 5HB Saturday job Dear Comrades, I am a student. On Satur days for a bit of extra money I work in a shoe shop. I get £9.50 for eight hours work. Since I have been there the manager has sacked the following people for the reasons stated: Tracey-She couldn't do her job. Jessica-he didn't like the way she spoke to customers Danny-He had a broken leg and wouldn't be able to work over Xmas.(He work ed there under different managers for 2 years) ·Gail-She couldn't do her job (full time deputy) Dawn-He didn't like the way she spoke to him. Avril-He didn't like her. He thought she was a bit ec centric. Liz left because she was having asthma trouble and he still gave her jobs with the boxes and this ag gravated her condition . Pat and J osie left because they couldn't stand him. Next July another Satur day worker and I plan to go to Poland. When we told him he said that he would have to sack us because he couldn't afford to lose two Saturdays for two weeks as it is in Sale time.He employed two extra Satur day staff, and now he has decided that he is overstaff-ed and wants to get rid of two, as we are the only ones that stand up for ourselves in any way I am almost sure that it will be us that he will add to his long list of cast off workers. On my 16th birthday last month I asked for a rise. He said I could have a rise of SOp if I promised not to do any overtime for the next year! On 10 December I work ed an extra day for some more money to spend on presents. That extra money will not come through until 12 January. Would you consider this exploitation? Sarah Tracey Tooting Questioning role Dear Comrades , We have seen tremendous struggles through the miners strike. Recently we held a sale outside our second division football ground, wheFe we sold 17 papers, plus two to coppers, which just goes to show that coppers are asking themselves questions about their role in the miners strike. Yours Comradel y, Pat McEwan Grimsby British soldiers making an arrest in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein's contradictions Dear comrade s, The miners' rally, hosted by Ken Livingstone, at Lon don County Hall, on Decembe r 7, with Sinn Fein, PLO and other nationalist groups, provoked the usual hysterical reaction in the capitalist press, but hardly any report of the meeting itself. Amongst the speakers was Gerry McLoughlin for Sinn Fein, who got a standing ovation when he assured the meeting that the miners had the full support of Sinn Fein. I was at the meeting and was astonished to hear this. They are the one organisation claiming to stand on the left in the south of Ireland who are doing lit tle to help the miners, in the key area of financial support. In Cork where five dif ferent groups have collected for the miners, SF have not collected any money or played any role in solidarity meetings. Jn Letterkenn y at a Trades Council collection for the miners, the only delegate who did not con ~ribute was from Sinn Fein. In Limerick and Galway where broad labour move ment support groups have functioned for months SF have played no role, and the same is true all over the South, including Dublin. Because of the disastrous role of the right wing Labour Party leaders, in coalition with Fine Gael, a party of big business, bankers and ranchers, some young people look in desperation to SF, especially when it makes claims to be socialist and represent the working class. The contradictiuns bet ween Sinn Fein's 'socialist rhetoric' and the sec tarianism of its approach to the majority of workers in the North are great. In the South this new champion of the oppressed wor kers had a a conference in November at which a motion to expel from Sinn Fein any member crossing a picket line was defeated , with the whole of the executive and half the conference voting against. Ken Livingstone is easily led. Malcolm Pitt, President of the Kent NUM, who also spoke in County Hall, should perhaps look more closely at Sinn Fein. Fraternally, Emmett Farrell Cork Thatcher's plans Dear Comrades, Thatcher has made it quite clear that she cannot ac cept Arthur Scargill as leader of the NUM. She wants someone more moderate . Of course, the reason being that the union would then be more flexi ble. But I'm 1 00% behind my union. The vicious media cam paign is building momen tum, they seem to think the end is in sight. But the miners will not go back un til our executive tells us to do so. The Tories' plans to destroy the miners' union has been under wraps for years. it's bad. to think that Shoot to kill Dear Comrade s, The Northern Ireland Unionists and the Tories are forever telling us that there has been no shift in policy concerning "rules of engage ment in Northern Ireland" i.e. a shift towards "shoot to kill, ask questions later" I take it that point 14 of the "orders of operation N .I." is still viable today as it was in 1977 when I was in the army. If this is the case, then how were four young lads shot, one fatally, at .a UDR checkpoint on the out skirts of Belfast recently? Point 14, clearly states that soldiers are not allowed to open fire unless "theirs or the lives of their comrades are seriously threatened" This car had all its win dows wound up. There is no way that any type of weapon could be fired or bomb thrown at the soldiers and yet still the car was riddled with rifle fire. The Unionists and the government will try to justify. 'Obscene' income Dear Editor, Michael Edwardes is to get yet another fortune in his new job at Dunlop. He will get £130,000 a year guaranteed until October 1988, plus an additional £26,000. Even the Financial Editor of the Daily Express said the deal was "bordering on the obscene. " Yet, it wasn't this wage packet that shocked him. What really turned his stomach was the option to buy nearly 21 million shares in the com pany at 14p each. Michael Edwarde s only got this job because he was out of work after ICL had been taken over. On leaving here, he took £500,000 as a golden handshake. the shooting by claiming that three UDR men were knock ed down in the incident. However this, nor the crime of joy riding, warrants the sentence of an on-the-spot execution. The 'minimum ' amount of force necessary to obtain an arrest' should have been used and with the equipment that the security forces have at their disposal i.e. radio communication, vehicle patrols etc, a simple arrest could have been made. In re cent years there have been at least 12 lives lost through this type of action. The labour movement here in Britain must rake up the call by the non-sectarian Labour and Trade Union Group for the setting up of a working class party of Labour in Northern Ireland which would be a tremendous step towards unity and the ending of rep presion and sectarianism. Yours Fraternall y, Bob Harker Gateshead East CLP As Edwardes moved in, 11 of the previous 13 directors left, with £878,000 in their pockets from golden hand shakes. To top it all, Ed wardes had the audacity to say that the banks had wanted him to do a good job and to be highly motivated. Presumably, that is what the riches were for. Contrast this obscenity with the desperation and poverty of the millions of unemplo yed, the low paid, etc. and we see what Tory freedom means. Can we af ford to have vultures like these picking the flesh off society? The plain answer is no. Yours fraternall y, David Louch York a government democratic ally elected is trying to smash the trade union movement.The miners' fight would be seen as a test case for the abolition of the trade union move ment as we know it. We have seen incidents in this country reminiscent of Poland. This govern ment is totally committed to disgracing Arthur Scargill. People must be made to see how corrupt this government really is. They are making up nJies to suit themselves. The sooner people realise this, the sooner we can kick the Tories out. Despite what the media says, the miners can win a victory. Let nothing deter us. Yours fraternally, A Pullen, Cwm Colliery NUM & Pontypridd LPYS A hard life This month the Duke of Devonshire celebrate d his 65th birthday. Asked if he had plans to retire he replied (Daily Star, 14 January): "I have nenr worked a day in my life, so how can I retire?" Quite. Peasants revolt in Cornwall Meanwhile down the road in Cornwall , the coun ty's duke, otherwise known as Prince Charles, is having trouble with the peasants. Two years ago Charlie boy magnanimousl y made a donation of 400 acres of his land on Bodmin Moor to the ~ pie of Cornwall. However, the County Council told him to stick it, and have still refused to accept it to this day. They realised that it would cost tbem £12,000 every year for its keep. They were also a bit miffed to discover that while Charlie wanted to give them the land, he would retain all mineral rights. Just in case. Room(s) at the top Just think, there can't be anything worse than having so much money you don't know what to do with it. Take the Sultan of Brunei (who has just pur chased the Dorchester Hotel). He owns tbe largest palace in the world. It cost him £500 million to b and has 1, 788 rooms. The thing is the Sultan's ly only uses 20 of them. You can't blame them. H they used a different room every day it would takr them just under five years before they got right around the building. Besides, that would be o - ing off. Switzerland sneezes The old saying goes that when the US cak:lles a cold, Europe gets pneumonia (and these days • tain gets hypothermia). Well, even the Gno Zurich got the sniffles last year. The unem: ukl•~.lllflD rate reached 1.1 OJo in Switzerland in 1984. Tlat's very low by comparison to other capitalist tries of course, but it's the highest unem, ... w. • ...-.-n Switzerland has had since the 1930's. J -I I 1 l ¥11~TIIIG fUND Target 2900 3550 1850 3200 2150 1950 1650 1950 2200 6100 4400 2950 3650 5100 2150 2550 2050 4300 5350 5000 Hard work pays dividends BY THE time you read this the Fighting Fund quarter will have already finished. You will have to wait in suspense to see bow we have done. No doubt the right-wing and the bosses will be anx ious to know as well. We will not be able to give the final figures until next week but the reports from around the country show a week of hard work to get the money so urgently needed. The chart shows Humber side and Eastern neck and neck out in front but the London areas are not far behind and expecting to see a last minute surge. Militant Dear Comrades, I enclose SOp for the fighting fund-not much maybe, but one of the most heartwarming dona tions I've received for the fund. It came from Bryn Jones, a retired miner who used to work at Marine Colliery, Cwm near Ebbw Vale, and who has only recently seen the Militanr for the first time. Not bad when you realise his son, Mostyn-another new Mili tanr supporter-is a single strik Ing miner who has obviously received no money for the last 10 months, lives at home and is therefore supported by his parents A tremendous example of both the sacrifice and com J!litlment working people (SOp is a hell of lot when your livelihood depends on the whims of the DHSS "moguls"!) and of the appeal of the ideas of Marxism. supporters have a reputation for being exceptional fund raisers. Well, we'll see this week exactly what can be done. Appeal sheets, door-to door visits, donations from LPYS branches, last minute parties-a ll show the deter mination of our readers to meet the targets. All our readers, from the newest to longest standing, should have been approached. If any have been missed out the don?t stop just because the By Nick Wrack quarter is over. Go and see them now and get off to a good start for the new quarter. Rob Bishop from Acton writes: "I have been saving up my loose change for the past couple of months which amounted to £6.50. I have As a footnote, the lodge at Marine-in ,~ommon with other lodges-had no money to ar range transport to take the members to an important lodge meeting last Fri<iay at which there were to be rumoured moves of a return to work by a sizeable number. On the picket line on the Tuesday :norning , Mili~ant supporters gave a pledge to the lodge chllirman that we would raise the money to pay for the coaches. By Friday (three days later) we'd raised £428!! The result? A big meeting, a good mood and the "fainthear ts" in the lodge left even fainter and-although 20-odd scabs have been going in this week-things are still solid. Fraternally, A Welsh supporter made it up to £1 0". Shirley Smith from Coventry South East CLP writes: "Having just read the recent article on finance I felt compelled to write this letter. I am not an active Militant supporter but I would not like to see the production of the Militant hindered by the bosses' system, hence I enclose a cheque for £10 which may pay off half a day's interest to the big banks". Eppleton NUM, Co Durham, has donated £10. £80 was sent bv CPSA NEC members. Matthew Stick land in Southampton is sell ing his brand new leather jacket and cashing in a £100 premium bond. We may be collecting in a day what we used to get in a week or even a fortnight but the hard work and self sacrifice of our readers remains as unequall ed as ever. Bob Law in Bermondse y has given up drink and has sent £100 thereby saved! Helping to change his own shape as well as the shape of society! Bryn Jones, a retired miner who also has to sup port a son who is also a strik ing miner, has given 50p, a marvellous donation (see let ter left). A jumble sale in Lambeth organised at four days notice, raised £115. Nearly £1,000 was raised at a meeting in Merseyside. The last two weeks show what can be done with a lit tle thought and preparation so keep it going in the new quarter. We will need at least £6,000 a week but that is en tire:y possible. Our op ponents keep pointing out how good we are at raising money. Let's show them how right they are! THIS WEEK'S donations include: ·. , T Corrali, Leicester NALGO £25; Kit Ray, President, West Midlands NUPE £25; D Mehmet, London POEU £20; J Cooze, London £20; Rose Twydale, South London £6; C&B Rice, Fife £ 1 0; Lindsay Studd, Cleethorpes LPYS £10; Jim Arnell, POEU £10: Bill Lowe POEU £5; OAP, Dorset £1 0; Stan Russell, Lanes NUM £1.1 0; K Picker in g. Birmingham £5; P Lievens, Oxford NUS £5; F Wawrick, Plaistow ACCTS £5; R Hopkins, Bristol NUR £1 0; G Huckley, Bristol NUR £1 0; Lee Copestick, Rochdale LPYS £6. ~ . Get your branch to donate to Militant BRANCH 5/909 TGWU, Rover Solihull have sent -us a donation of £10 for the Building Fund. Car workers have been involv ed in a whole series of disputes and no doubt recognise the enormous assistance they would get from a daily Marxist paper which reported their side of the story. How many more bran ches are there which could help us to provide this essential weapon for the labour movement? The sooner your branch can contribute, the sooner we'll be able to do just that. Week's wages If a general strike were called then all our work ing readers would lose at least one week's wages. Unfortunately, due to the craven nature of the TUC leadership, a general strike in support of the miners has not been call ed. However, many readers have given a week's wages or even a week's dole or pocket money to the Building Fund. In this way they are building for a paper which could take the ideas of socialism and the need for effective action into every section of the labour movement. This week we have had money from readers in Newham, Peckham, Dagenham, Lambeth and West Lon don. What about readers 1· Febr\lary -1985 M I UT. ANT· 13 · ads .CLASSIFIED : 1 Op per word, minimum 1 0 words. SEMI-DISPLAY : £2 per 2 col umn centimetres . All advertisement copy should reach this office by ,SATURDAY . BADGES- 1 " button badges with 20th anniversary slogan 20p each 11 Op each for orders over 20)-1" button badge-'Militant' on col· oured background (white/yellow/green /blue) 20p each. Enamel stud badges-"Mili· tant for Labour and Youth" 75p each. All orders for badges must be accompanied with minimum 25p for p&p. Cash with order. Cheques made payable to 'Militant' send to 3-1 3 Hepscott Road, London, E9 5HB. INQABA YA BASEBENZI the jour· nal of the Marxist Workers ' Tendency of the African National Congress . Issue number 1 5 con· tains a supplement: "South Africa. how close to revolution? " and the second part of "Southern Africa after the Nkomati accord" plus ar· ticles on Zimbabwe , Botswana and Malawi. Send payment with orders (75p including postage and packing) to BM Box 1719, London WC1 3XX. NORTHERN IRELAND-a Marxist analysis. A 32 page analysis published by Militant Irish Monthly. 75p (plus 1 5p postage) 5 or more post free. Order from World Socialist Books, 3/1 3 Hepscott Rd, London E9. CASSETTE TAPES with two issues of Militant (one each side). Available fortnightly. £3.50 per quarter, E 13 for year. Now available on cassette : alt centre page articles from issue 693-721 . Send either seven blank C-90 cassettes or £6.30 payable to Militant Tapes, 1 8 81andford Grove, Woodhouse, Leeds 2. Phone: (0532) 455936 . SEE THE Militant 20th Anniversary rally! VHS Video-1 hour highlights, plus all the main speeches in full! -3hours totaL Only £10-buy so meone a present! (post included). Please send cheques to Militant 3/13 Hepscott Road, London E9 5HB. , Militant Student Society & Chile Socialist Defence Campaign Latin American 'Fiesta' * Food * Disco * Live Music Saturday February 2nd 7.00 pm. Polytechnic of Central London 32-38 Wells Street W1 Ground floor, off Oxford Street Nearest tube Oxford Circus or Tottenham Court Road Working £1:50 Unwaged £1:00 All proceeds to Chilean Workers. OUT NOW! £1.50 + 25p post and packing from: 3-13 Hepscott road, London E9 5HB. Meetings SOUTHAMPTON: Marxist Discus sion Group meets every Friday 7 .45, 206 Honeysuckle Road, Bassett, Southampton. Tel: 551420 for details of subjects or any further information. HULL Militant public meeting. Vic tory to the Miners, socialist policies for Labour. Hear: Pat Wall (President Bradford Trades Coun cil) On: Friday 8 February 7 .30pm. At: Trades and Labour Club, Bever ly Road. UPPER RHONDDA Marxist Discus sion Group. Meeting every Sunday at 7.00 pm in the Red Cow, High Street, Treorchy. Phone Steve Brown on Treorchy 773455 for more details. EL THAM Militant supporters : 7 Feb: Northern Ireland. 14 Feb: Victory to the miners. All at 8 pm, Lionel Road Communi ty Centre, Westhorne Avenue, Eltham. ADDRESS BOOKS 60p, plastic paper sleeves 20p, bookmarks 40p, sew on badges 50p. 1 0 plus half price for resale. FF cheques to M King, 10 Rodney Ct, Anson Drive, Sholing, Seton S02 8RU LIVEN UP your benefit disco; it's 'The Miners Strike Rap' by Michael Rosen. A record for the miners 'aint no such thing as a pit that loses money while the bees do the work and the boss gets the honey.' Buy this record now, all profits to the miners families. Cost E 1.50 each plus p&p 25p per record. Cheques payable to MIS address : 22 Madeira Grove, Woodford, Essex 1GB MILITANT supporter wants bed-sit accommodation within travelling distance of Central London. Ring Jimmy between 9-5 on 01-388 - 6609. HOLIDAYS : Large three bedroomed house in Paris available during the month of August. Nor mal rent (£75/week) to be shared amongst number of occupants . Comrades interested write to: . Chez Mathey, 67· Boulevard Voltaire, 75011 Paris, France. WALTHAM MINERS' Support Group: Public Meeting: Monday 11 February, 7.30 pm. Speakers : Roy Jones (Staffs NUM), Dennis Skinner IMP), and a South Wales Miner. At Walthamstowe Assembly Halls, Forest Road, Lon donE17 . New Militant International Review Out now Price 90p (inc p + p) from World Socialist Books, 3-13 Hepscott Road, London E9 5HB. Solidarity Conference of Mineworkers Defence Committee. (Sec K Livingstone) on Saturday 9 February, Octagon Cen tre, Sheffield. Speakers include: Peter Heathfield NUM, Betty Heathfield WAPC, Tony Benn MP, Johnie Tocher AUEW Presidential candidate, Phil Holt BLOC. Each TU body can send 2 delegates, each Labour Party/other organisation 1. £3 per delegate. Send to Mineworkers Defence Committee, 31 Cranwich Road, London N 16. Name .. Address TU/Organisation No. Delegates .. from outside the capital·? So, if you can make an individual donation or can raise a donation ;}t your trade union or Labour Party branch meeting don't forget to send us the money as soon as possible. With the current high rate of in terest the loans from the bank are even more dif ficult to bear. Let's get shot of the loans and go forward to a daily paper with a Marxist message. Train sale no strain ON RETURNING to Ha vant on the train from Lon don, I plucked up courage to do a train sale. It took only about ten minutes, five papers were sold. Trains are :m obvious target for sales as people want to read something and you haYe a chance to talk to them and they can't get away! If you travel regularly by train, coach or bus, use this opportunity to sell the paper. People want to read the Mili tant so it's our duty to com bat the lies and distortions of the millionaire-owned press. P.S. I also try to sell the paper to the gas man, etc ... and the bloke who put my 'phone in. A few weeks ago a paper was sold to a little lad of about nine years old. The seller explained there was no telly page, but he had hand ed over his 25p because he "liked the miners" this in Havant, an area· at least 100 miles to the nearest pit! By Delia Hazrah (Havant LPYS) ·-• 1:4 MUJTAN:J' ·1· February -1985 INDUSTRIAL REPORTS Post office closures opposed LAST WEDNESDAY, 23 January, from 2 pm onwards Post Office counter workers struck throughout London, to protest at Post Office and government plans to close many_ Crown Offices. Between 800 and 1,000 workers showed their anger at these plans and their will ingness to fight to defend their jobs, attending a rally at Central Hall, Westminster and a lobby of MPs. Last year the Post Office, backed by the government, ignoring both the hardships that closures would impose on ordinary people, and the threat to jobs and living standards of postal workers, proposed to close 80 Crown Offices nationally, 50 of these being in London. By Chris Whale (London Northern District, UCW) Whilst certain individual Tory MPs may have been pressurised by last Wednes day's lobby (although many refused to even talk about closures) , government and Post Office plans for the future of the communication industry have in the main, already been mapped out. Privatisation This blatant attack was answered by industrial ac tion from rank and file UCW members, forcing the Post Office to back down. However, this retreat was only a temporary one. Already we are threat~ned again with closures-with some offices in London . under immediate thre at. With the privatisation of British Telecom and the in troduction of counter automation, the government already indicated in reports that they would b~ prepared to sell off the counter net work to their rich business friends . Threatened Bermondsey office occupied Whilst UCW members may have welcomed the in itiative taken by the union leadership to lobby MPs, many members are question ing the full effectiveness of half or one-day stoppages on a regional basis. Leadership Our leadership must be fully prepared for these at tacks and must respond with the same tenacity and will ingness to fight that rank and file members haYe already shown. There should be no national deals that allow for the closure of any office. Instead we must build on the success so far by preparing a massive cam paign to oppose all future closures planned by the PO. If any are announced there must be a call for immediate national action. Linked to these plans is the Post Office's proposals to push through new technolog y and 'new methods of working' on the postal side, without union agreement if necessary. These proposals represent the biggest threat to postal workers yet, with the possibility of thousands of jobs going, the very existence of the union is threatened. The Communication \Vorkers' Broad Left in Lon don has already begun to organise a campaign of leaflets and meetings in preparation for the coming battles. With all these threats looming, the leadership of the UCW must face up to the tasks before us. A fighting union is needed more than ever before. ANGRY demonstrat ors occupied Borough Post Office in Ber mondsey, South Lon don as part of a cam paign to keep two local Crown Offices open. About 200 pensioners, tenants, trade unionists and young mothers with children filled the counter area for two hours on Wednesday 24 January demanding to put their case to the District Postmaster. They were join ed by local Labour coun cillors and the Liberal MP. The threatened closure of the Borough and Bricklayers offices would mean hardship and danger for the elderly, the disabled and young mothers. They'd be forced to collect their pensions a nd allowances from Post Of fices much further afield, either at London Bridge Main civil service union wants· £ 1 5 THE CPSA will shortly be sub mitting its 1985 Civil Service Pay Claim. The claim is for £15 per week and a minimum wage of £100 per week from ·1 April. For CPSA's low-paid members these increases are vital to halt the decline in living standards, they will do no more than restore the real value of 1980 pay rates. December that the task of securing decent wage levels would stand a better chance if there was a united pay claim covering all civil service unions and workers. Rhetoric from the union's leadership for the CPSA to go it alone won support at our conference. In the face of the Tories' attacks such a policy was a mistake. which involves crossing busy, dangerous roads, or at the Elephant and Castle which has a subway system notorious for robberies. The small sub-post office nearby couldn't begin to cope with the 11,000 customer s who use the two Crown Offices each week. Pensioner Mrs Florence · Perry said: "Old people can't get along to these other post offices. I know a bloke who's blind, hm\· is he sup posed to make th~ journey? 1 think it's appalling. Thev'\·e ignored loads of petiiions. \vhy are they do ing these things to us?" Convenient Another demonstrator, Mrs Schwarz, said: "The of fice is central and conve nient. They don't seem to care about us. This sort of action is the only way to get anywhere ." The occupation was part of a South-East London campaign started in April la5t year when closure of a number of Crown Offices was announce d. Wide support Moss Haley, a spokesman for the Union of Com _munication Workers' branch, represenring counrer and clerical staff, told Mili tant: "\\'e'\-e involved a -.vide range of communit y groups. This is the second rally. \\'e've had public meetings, been to every Labour Party branch in the area, .spoken to trades coun cils and pensioners' groups. We've had a great response from the public. Now there are just two Crown Offices under threat in our area, but they're both in the poorest part of the borough. There are 33 counters in our district and we intend to keep them all." Post Office management were clearly frightened . by the strength of feeling and had to be coaxed by telephone to meet a deputa tion. Management said that no final decision had been made. But the protester s made it clear that they don't trust the management and another demonstration is planned for Wednesday 7 February. One of the deputation, Labour coun cillor John Bryan told Mili tant: "Like rate-capping this is an attack on vital services in a poor borough. Our class hasn't got much to lose any more. Today shows that people have been pushed too far. The fightback starts now.'' By Paul Traynor Over the last five years civil servants have experienced a 200Jo cut in living standards. Since the Tories came to power in 1979 the government has scrapped the Civil Service Pay Comparability Agreement, an nounced in advance of pay negotiations, fixed cash limits for increases, and cut well over I 00,000 jobs. The immediate need is to bring civil servants together and build their confidence and determination to fight to secure the claim. Civil service workers are angry at the way the Tories have dealt with them but in the case of CPSA members the failure of the union ex ecutive,led by Alistair Graham and the so-called Broad Left '84, to back the DHSS Newcas tle shift workers and lead a fight in support of workers in struggle undermined morale. Pickets during the 1981 pay campaign. Led (and let down) by a right wing leadership under pressure from the membership the campaign was wholly based on selective action. The lesson of the last five years is that a na tional strike with a determined leadership and massive campaign is the only way to win. Civil servants have faced savage attacks on both pay and jobs. The wage claim is totally justified and vitally necessary . The question is how can it be secured? Militant supporters in the CPSA argued at the union's Special Pay Conference in Activists at all levels of the union must work hard in the next few weeks to build the uni ty and confidence of the membership. Composite resolution 23 of the 1984 TUC Congress (sponsored by the CPSA) specifically called for a conference of the executives of public sector unions to plan co ordinated action. The con ference of the NECs called by the TUC is welcome, if late. Now local councils, civil service unions and the CPSA Area Committees must set up local public sector co-ordinating committees to plan and organise leafletting and rallies of all public sector workers in . every town aml city. Speakers at such pay rallies must demonstrate the breadth of support and the determination to end the attacks on the living standards of public sector workers. The failure of the TUC General Council and .leader ships like CPSA can be set aside by workers' action and the creation of links between the rank and file and local activists. By Kevin Roddy . (CPSA, National Executive, personal capacity) . .. Irish shop workers'· internationalism YOUNG SHOP work ers at Dunnes store in Dublin, Ireland are in the seventh month of a magnificent display of internationalism. The strike at Dunnes' Henry Street branch started when a worker refused to handle South African goods, in line with policy of their union, Irish Distribitve and Allied Trade Union (IDATU) . The strike has received support from many sections of the labour move! ment. A great boost for the strike has been the sympathy action taken by dockers in Dublin Port. They have blacked all imports destined for Dunnes. The workers are now appealing to Belfast dockers not to handle goods diverted from Dublin. Other workers have given generously to collections in workplaces and at union meetings. After Karen Gearon, IDA TU shop steward, spoke to a rally of post office workers a collec tion of £230 was taken. Good collections have come from many CIE amd cor poration depots. Labour Youth members have found that estate and pub collec tions even better receiv ed than those for the miners. Many people have independ ently approached the strikers with small personal dona tions. A street collection just before Xmas brought in £250. If this strike is to be sue- News and New Tech SEVENTY-FOUR members of the National Union of Journalists have been sack ed from the Portsmouth Evening News over new technology. They refused to edit_ on visual display units. The dispute arose because of the transfer agreement allo\\ing National Graphical Association members to retrain as editors using the new technolog y. The NUJ fears that this will undermine their strength as sole negotiators for journalists. NUJ members at !he com pany's three other sites in Croydon, Hartlepool and Sunderland have come out on strike in sympath~ · with the sacked Portsmouth jour nalists. Management may take legal action under the secondary action laws. In a separate dispute 300 jobs are threatened on the Birmingham Post and Mail. 120 jobs went last year when the company transfer red production from Walsall to Birmingham. Manage ment says fewer jobs would be lost if there were reduc tions in labour costs. At the Reading Evening Post, NGA compositors were given a day's notice for training on new equipment linked to the tele-ads depart ment, designed eventually to by-pass the composing room. The disptite, also in volving SOGA I, came about when a verbal agree ment between the unions to cessful, this support needs to be translated into sym pathetic action. Workers should discuss this strike. Send messages of suport and money to ~he strikers. The strike has received publicity in South Africa. Non-racial trade unions have sent letters supporting the strike. Dun nes Store management are prepared to ride out the bad publicity and financial losses to try to break this dispute. The international solidarity shown by these workers must be. built on in Ireland and Britain. Send donations to: Karen Gearon, c/o IDATU, 9 Cavendish Row, Dublin 1. share the new work 50/50 broke down. New equipment is plann ed to start working on 1 February. NGA chapels stopped working to discuss the situation and one day's paper was lost. The latest news is that management have been changing the bolts and locks in preparation for a confrontation. Similar, stronger, prepara tions are being made in Wolverhampton at another of the Thomson Regional's publications. It is vital that the print unions develop a united strategy on the in troduction of new techno logy in defence of jobs on regional newspapers and in Fleet Street. By an NGA member Pay claims pressure MAJOR PAY claims and local authority resistance to rate-capping are all worrying items on the government 's industrial relations agenda in the next few months. The Tories may well find themselves under fire on all sides of the local authority spectrum . The employers' pay offer of £3.70 a week for all grades of the country's 900,000 council manual workers, worth about 4.750fo on the wages bill, up from an original 4.5% was rejected earlier this week. The TGWU leadership has backed the union side's rejection of the claim. Jack Dromey, T &G Public Ser vices national secretary, con centrated his criticisms on the size of the offer. The big gest obstacle appears to have been the employers' refusal to change the settlement date of 4 November, which puts this claim at the head of the pay queue and therefore like ly to meet strongest govern ment resistance. Ne!l:otiation s are over for the ~oment and the ex ecutives of the various unions involved, mainly NUPE, TGWU and GMBATU wiH be discussing their response and possible industrial action during the next three weeks. The teachers' unions have rejected a 4% offer to their 440,000 members in England and Wales, Scottish teachers having already begun a cam paign of industrial action over their demand for an in dependent pay revie\\•. The England and Welsh claim is for £1,200 across the board from April, worth about 12.5%. The employer s, acting as Keith Joseph's puppets, have tried to split the unions with a Tax union-£ 15 too THE INLAND Revenue staff federation special pay conference on 22 January decided upon a flat rate claim of £15.00 per week for all grades in 1985. This was a major victory for the IRSF Broad Left and brings it into line with the CPSA, the major civil ser vice union which has also tabled a flat rate claim of £15.00. The IRSF also agreed, by a large majority,to put claims forward for a 35 hour working week and a 5 day in crease in annual leave, ''without compensating reductions in pay." As a result of this decision it looks likely that the Socie ty of Civil and Public Ser vants will join a "consor tium" with CPSA and IRSF leauing the other unions to submit pay claims of a slight ly differing nature. The promise of 7fJ!o (based on new guvernment money) for ac:eptance of changes in salary structure and service cond i~ions . These have already been rejected by NUT and talks· were broken off. The other unions may be more easily • ·mpted but industrial act.Oil in the schools looks on the cards. NALGO' s 39,000 \vhite collar electricit y workers have voted for industrial ac tion to win the 35-week claim they've had since 1974. Sanc tions on overtime, covering vacant posts and co operation with new technolog y (which will hit show rooms hard) start in February. Things won't be helped by the Electricity Board's threat to take legal action because the ballot paper did not comply with the new Tory legislation. By lan llett IPCS, CSU, and FDA fall into this category. Although the differing claims may pre sent difficulties all nine unions are planning joint campaigns though the Coun cil of Civil Service Unions. CPSA, SCPS and IRSF have also drawn the lessons from the miners strike-that an all out strike will be need ed to defeat the Tories in 1985. Already the unions are preparing. CPSA has organised rallies in all major towns in Britain between 4 and 14 March. I· February· f985 MIUT ANT '15 OONNfS AND UNDER NDTIC£ OF 'DISMISSAL . FOR REF#JSIN' TO HANDLE STJf RFRIC AN Picket at Ounnes store, Dublin in support of South African workers. Leaked plans show POEU job threat A POST Office strategy document leaked to the POEU reveals plans to cut 50% of PO engineering and motor transport jobs over the next three years. .This document and others show the Post Office's real intentions. They have not even identified where these ~o-called redundant jobs lie. They say: "It will take 12 months to identify where all the surplusses are likely to occur." Yet I OfJ!o of these cuts are "envisaged for 1985-86." Mr KN Young, Post Of fice Board member, in a let ter to Brian Stanley, POEU General Secretary, states that the leaked document is: "An internal management minute which merely postulats opi nions for giving effect to a range of magnitude sav ings". He then goes on to say that Regional engineers should identify by mid Feburary: "10% of jobs that will be left vacant". Brian Roberts, director of In dustrial Relations has said that: "compulsory redun dancies will be unavoida ble," despite the PO job security agreement , which also covers the bulk of POEU members in British Telecom. Wider attack The Post Office intends fixing the job security agree ment, doing away with our traditional system of star-ting, introducu'lg riew grading structures, local pro ductivity and standard times and extensive use of contrac tors. The time is now ripe for the POEU to take action in support of it's demand for a 32 hour 4 day week in defence of jobs. A short in tensified campaign amongst the membership must be an urgent priority. We cannot afford to see individual sec tions and branches pick ed off. Many POEU members now see that we have two alternatives; we fight for our jobs or we join the dole queue. By a POEU member, East London Blind workers want • un1on A THREATENED strike by GMBAT U members work ing for the Tyne Pilotage Authority could paralyse shipping on the river. The workers, cutter crew members and maintenance workers, held a ballot after negotiations with manage ment over a 12 Yz% pay claim broke down. they voted to strike· from 4 February in support of their claim. This could bring all move ment on the river to a halt, including the daily ferrying of oil from Jarrow oil ter minal to Blyth power station. By Dave Bruce (Jarrow LPYS) OVER 60 blind and sighted workers on strike at Braile House in Lon don over their claim for recognition of their unions, NUJ and SOGAT. They are employed by the National Institute for the Blind who claim good will to the unions but insist that though Braile House has over 50% union membership the union must get the same at the RNIB's Wembley and Reigate branches. L !Ill_ JQf ]LJ r ] ocBlc~Q JcCJCJ ~L_j L.Jl )l__jL J Broad Left Organising Committee 1985 BLOC Conference 23rd March Manchester Free Trade Hall The conference will discuss primarily two issues, the strategies needed to defeat all the Tory anti-union laws and the building of a national campaign to defend local government jobs, services and democracy. Applications for delegates' credentials-each Na tional Broad Left/Trade Union organisation can send up to four delegates (please include names and ad dresses of delegates on separate pieces of paper). £3 per delegate-cheques made payable to 'BLOC'. All cheques and forms to be sent to: BLOC, c/o George Williamson, 11 Sutton Place, London E9 6E8. --·· ·"i;;J_ 16 MILITANT 1 February 1985 THE YOUTH Trade Union Rights Campaign (YTURC) fight against Tory plans to force yo_!!ng people onto YTS through refusing them benefit is on its way. It was formally launched at a Press Conference in the House of Commons on 24 January. Paul Weller, with other members of Style Council and Brian Hibbitt of the Flying Pickets joined us to help our campaign against the creation of a teenage workhouse. Tony Cox, YTURC . sec retary, explained what would be done to build support for the March and Lobby of Parliament on 28 Febuary. YTURC are launching a na tional petition against the Tories' plans with an aim of -getting 234,000 signatures . A special "celebrity petition" was started with the -sJgnatures of the .pop stars ,~md MPs. This will be used to get more signatures from other public figures. Concerts Paul Weller and Brian Hibbitt told the press con ference they would aim to help by getting signatures for the celebrity petition, playing concerts in support of the campaign and trying to get widespread support through their being in the public eye. Other speakers included Dave Nellist MP (Joint President of YTURC), By John Hird (LPYS National Chairman) Michael Meacher MP, Joan Maynard MP, Barry Sher man MP (Front Bench spokesman on Employ ment), Eric Heffer MP, Lesleigh Woodburn (NUS FE National Committee) and Marie Blake (a former trainee). Also present were Margaret Beckett MP and Chris Smith MP, with messages of support coming from Tony Benn, Dennis Skinner MP, Arthur Scargill, Terry Fields MP and John Prescott MP. The response we will receive was obvious when a group of school students from Manchester on a trip to Parliament came in on the press conference. They said they were interested in help ing in the campaign after listenining to all the speakers . One school student summed up the determina tion of all present to defeat the Tories. When a jour nalist from New Musical Ex press asked whether the cam paign would work. She said "It will work because young people want a choice . " No to slave conditions. Fight for a real choice with us. Priced out of market? IN ANSWER to ques tions from Dave Nellist MP, the government has revealed the truth about their claim that youth people are "pricing themselves out of jobs". Already , between 23 November 1983 and 20 November 1984, 1,163 young people have had their benefit cut because they refused to go on a YTS scheme and 10,701 because they prematurel y left a YTS scheme. The truth is that the "in centive" to go on a scheme is non-existent; the govern ment's figures prove that YOP and YTS allowances have been held down. If they had been increased by the same amount as either prices or average earnings since 1979, YTS trainees would be on £40 a week. The present YTS allowance is 350Jo below that. Similarly grants to students at college are 39% below what they would be if they had been increased at the same rate as average ear ninings over the last 20 years. But most damning of all is the revelation that the same trend is evident in wages for real jobs. Since the Tories came to power in 1979, average wages for boys, in real terms, have fallen by 8% and for girls by 12%, yet youth unemployment has trebled. Liverpool -council stewards fight for jobs Page 6 Southwark council At the press conference, Brian Hibbitt of the Flying Pickets signs the petition. joined by members of Style Council. Stop Tory rate-capping THE MOST devastating attack ever is being laun ched against local authorities. Rate-capping and the abolition of the GLC and Metropolitan counties will mean the devastation of alrady depleted services. Thousands of council workers would join the dole queue. If the jargon is strip ped away, rate-capping amounts to nothing more than the legalised butchery of local authority jobs and services. Local authority workers have no choice. We fight or go to the wall. A Girocheque leaves little room for creative financing. The only means of defending jobs and ser vices is a massive national campaign of industrial and political action. So on 23 February a conference of local authority shop stewards has been organised. 23 February conference It is backed by the Liverpool City Council Joint Shop Stewards' Committee and Appeal from Chile WE HAVE received an appeal from Chilean workers for help in developing opposition to the Pinocbet regime. "Our work is aimed primarily toward youth who suffer most from this criminal regime that tries to stop us organising and represses us day after day. "We have set ourselves the task of educating ourselve s and providing a means to solve the economic and social problem s the regime has caused. We have laid down particular topics like unemployment, which now affects up to 70% of the youth in the working class areas, the problems of hous ing, health, drug addiction and lack of leisure facilities. Pamphlets "Of course to do this we need to produce posters, pamphlets , leaflets and the London Bridge Commit tee which links the Joint Shop Stewards' Committee s of the London Boroughs, the GLC and ILEA. Delegations will be welcome from any local authorit y union branch, shop stewards' committee, but especiall y from those hit by rate-capping or heavy financial penalties . The aim . is to form a national joint stewards' body. We hope that this con ference will discuss all the tactics for the struggle and prepare the way for a larger literature . Although our per sonal risk is great, we will sacrifice our lives for the sake of our future and rhar of future generation s. "We need your solidarity given that our resources are severely limited by the economic situation. We bid you farewell counting on your solidarity. " From AUCAN? Taller de analisis problematica juvenil in Chile. See pages 8-9 conference in late March/early April to launch a National Local Authorit y Stewards ' Combine . This would be able to organise, prepare , and where necessary call national in dustrial action in defence of jobs and services. For the first time in history, a na tional linkage of local authorit y stewards is in the air, a powerful weapon in the armoury of the working class. We call on all local authorit y shop stewards to send representatives to the 23 February conference. For further information contact lan Lowes, c/o Grove Mount, Penny Lane, Liverpool 8. Miners and the LPYS A YOUNG striking miner has been elected onto the LPYS National Committee. Gary Ironmonger of Corton wood NUM will represent the Yorkshire region. Gary ~aid after his election: "! joined the LPYS at the beginning of the strike. Young workers like myself learn the need for a political direction through struggle." By Sue Ayton (Wakefield LPYS) BECOME A· Send to 3/13. Hepscott Road. London E9 5HB. SUBSCRIBE! SUPPORTER! Name Address BRITAIN & IRELAND EUROPE REST OF WORLD 13 issues ... £5.00 (by air) (by air) 26 issues .. £10.00 26 issues .. £11.00 26 issues .. [1600 52 issues .. £20.00 52 issues .. £22.00 52 issues. -£32 00 Name Address Make cheques payable to Militant. and return to the Circulation Department. Militant. 3/13 Hepscott Road. London E9 5HB. I would like to donate £ · p each week /month to the fighting fund. I would like to sell __ papers per week (minimum 5) on a sale or return basis. / : -.· J 0 -" ... 0 ..c ·" c.. .. • ] ' 1 ~ . i ,.,1. , ,j ' I .~ ) .<! J T ~ 1 ~ 1 -;1 '>! i¥ :1 _, --? ~ ~~ i ~ | left | revoiutio n page ss tory economic crisis page marxist paper labour youth february v miner message thatcher miner humiliate cher mood activist dramatically harden thatcher intervention week clear macgregor blood blood num union sign piece paper agree close pit class uneconomic accord distorted accounting method level union attitude absolutely emphatic miner picket line agree num sign away job total amnesty ncb thatcher imagine play like cat frightened mouse frightened mouse yes miner lan lsaac st johns num south wale num ec personal capacity family like strike prepared sign away future community right ed dispute bargain job sack return work basis general amnesty board take sack worker prepared cross picket line ncb week seven day pour militant office day ty face work class great need cash finance militant work reader e determination provide reader area chase ty raise money result deluge cash week reader drax power tion show power collect tin raise shift reader donate week income day come help allow pick choese victimisation crime fight job alongside fellow miner talk break attitude thatcher macgregor wili massive surge work vast bulk miner despite hardship remain loyal steadfast february num executive mittee reiterate sign away job miner ed tuc tuc live sibilitie strength support miner trade unionist demonstrate action day action february call yorkshire humberside attack look support well answer try expel labour party donation good fighting fund world new target lpys branch aim send know policy offer youth future prepared help fight month union peal directly nacod guarantee ed secure pit closure worthless thatcher macgregor way maximum strength build num fate fate nacod continue page region back south east region tuc turn general council day general strike matter leave dustry steward union activist organise prepare oneday general strike num issue worker strike solidarity miner february need port try raise example not not stop quarter tinue build paper new quarter start mediately new target campaign finance militant work militant clare doyle crush majority member amalgamate union engineering worker auew vote accept tory government money carry postal ballot open defiance tuc setback fight tory employment law john tocher candidate presidency auew give militant reaction m disappoint result surprised say number sion ballot barrage medium explanation recommendation executive committee membership straight forward choice million ing pose simple way refer inherent danger bind response ve ed state intervention brutal way num court questrator etc tory government go lm union midable organisation fight job wage tion behalf member purpose money springboard state intervention election process fair union pay piper tune point having member not necessarily risk involve strive ensure democracy union recognise come ballot blame leader member result democratic right not think member fully appreciate ec ignore national committee decision conduct ballot campaign defence constitution democratic right member restore pride membership union commit ballot result good way extricate resurrect eye trade union money million num militant february tory strategy ruin tory government economic strategy lie ruin late rise interest rate shatter illusion recovery inflation year cost borrow money new rate high real term year homeowner farmer small businessman hit hard british company expect lose billion extra interest cause profit fall spect budget tax cut disappear mist worker family suffer inevitable rise unemployment firm bust abandon plan pansion dearer import push price immediate cause crisis thing suppose salvation british north sea oil decision reach opec minister geneva worldwide surplus oil tend force unofficial spot price force britain reduce price sell loss fear lie pound collapse factor delay fall slightly oil british power station miner strike add million barrel day world oil demand end strike ger oil sterling crisis cost strike estimate billion reason selling ing cut industrial production year ojo worsen balance payment billion oil save economy total collapse price make pound rest economy dependent fluctuation th market financial times january remark market take control oil mask longterm degeneration british capitalist economy britain performance declare daily telegraph indepth amination problem unemployment minor exception uniquely bad unemployment rise jor industrialise country rise fast britain bin bad inflation producti vity january decade low investment british capitalist tere away profit speculation property banking service industry create economy similarity world net porter manufacture good heavily dependent export raw material benefit north sea oil waste like profit sector british economy invest new technology create new job finance record ment million oil crisis figure bind rise extent britain dustrial collapse reveal million unemployed hope get secure job dash late crisis employ prospect bright daily telegraph survey consider alternative solution offer bv neoclassical economist monetarist s keynesian conclusion neoclassical economist cure unemployment lie reduce trade union power ease disincenti f accept lowpaid work keynesian hand extremely concerned prevent inflationary wage increase dissipate benefit increase demand price level output job consequently seek secure form income policy hold growth real wage choice capitalism offer workerswage restraint low wage real difference ween remedy rival set capitalist doctor try revive patient treatment capitalist system offer unemployment low wage fit scrapheap instead make irrelevant criticism ment mismanagement labour leader seize opponni ty expose rotten system ideal time hammer home relevance clause iv labour party constitution demand common ownership mean duction distribution exchange nationalisation industrial combine include oil panie bank insurance company pensation basis need worker control management way nightmare possible exploit oil worker skill enormous wealth lie untapped plan production good desperately need provide job nsmg wage real alternati ve editor peter taaffe militant hepscott road london phone register newspaper post office publish militant print cambridge heath press tu ltd hepscott road london jssn dirty trick sizewell enquiry miner strike give far urgency ment push nuclear energy foot nuclear accelerator apart possible military spinoff tory welcome reduce dependence coal opponent nuclear power smear traye merely touch century subversive week observer reveal private tive agency vestigate objector new sizewell b nuclear tor suffolk agency zeus securi ty consultant run military intelligence officer peter hamilton ask gather name ad anniversary gchq trade union ban mark trade unionist march cheltenham saturday january picture right rally hold nationwide anniversary level support gchq worker refuse renounce union membership show potential action defend worker right dress political pathie protester cnd official call spector clouseau type operation zeus exist provide security service ment agency hamilton right winger warn domestic subversion union pass work agency cy service specialise infliltration couple good tion leftie owner vie norris reportedly tell client norris claim start dummy peace group tion discredit cnd claim friend earth share office number extreme left organisation order search foe greenpeace finance label antinuclear campaign professional protester name obtain sizewell enquiry office sideswipe pronuclear lobby people reasonable fear safety cost nuclear power programme guardian believe foreign company build fast breeder reactor commission investigation ment deny involvement openly regard ing dirty trick justifiable sion include antinuclear protest fective trade unionism home secretary leon tan defend right special branch spy lane miner sa comrade roy jones north staff num successfully tour lancashire coalfield report visit black south african num report previously roy white man beenmade member south african num particular terest rank file miner branch ficial rapid growth num south africa zero year report battle wage black worker south africa oppression raise morale british miner worker democracy ist south african num see model worker lesson struggle doubtedly draw roy speak miner coppull mining village near chorley lancashire golborne picket bold enthusiasm creation direct link ween rank file british num south african num particular support recognition new south african union british brother gerry lerner power worker job threat power station worker line tory cut uneconomic ity current generating ty britain megawatt mw current expansion drax complete mw add new nuclear station dungeness hartlepool haysham soon fully operational add mw generate capacity make total mw peak demand arctic condition mw ty nearly cent tory deliberately create situation preparation take miner strike big fire station like grain kent mothball worker pecte lay strike begin tion like tory lifeline provoke strike mws noncoal generating capacity commission power tion england wale unit fuel cost rime coalfire plant worker noncoal fire station think safeguard job work normally strike thatcher think break num reason rule class oilfire power station openthey represent uneconomic capacity tory plan switch electricity generate nuclear power prospect growth demand mean noncoal fire station face closure integrate planning energy resource secure future worker electricity oil gas coal industrie s capitalist society worker safe report reach militanr tory public confidence power supply mask severe strain national grid significantly board voltage reduction monthsthi s mediatel y noticeable show electronic timing device run slow dimmer light enormously costly complex logistical operation deploy avoid major power cut medium cooperate report localise power cut dispute refuse answer question power supply cut recently jeremy corbyn mp list widespread cut breakdown pete dickinson striker picket pose threat public order claim not peaceful ing bring change government policy subversive act threaten state ty intend overthrow parliamentary democracy political industrial violent mean suitably vague definition mean criminal act activity want harm democracy tactical reason choose ter law tory justice lot portant defence interest roger shrive dennis skinner mp extract revealing figure prime minister illustrate tory priority spend taxpayer money answer tary question january disclose ing amount spend entertainment chequer downing street prime minister office taine private office miner page good way secure quick dignified victory nacod join fight government deep economic crisis face total coalfield nacod strike main nacod member respect picket line realise future lie strike success nal way miner area urgently fellow mineworker nacod mount immediate pressure ec act mandate ballot nacod ec ignore iegal nicety organise immediate strike ensure negotiation ncb end soon future pit mining community save butchery cher macgregor feqruary m light ant t f f miner dispute welsh miner defiant closure talksremember lad die ed general meeting st johris lodge member report south wale ference give lodge secretary ian lsaac explain fernce adjourn negotiation go week man accept general meeting soon conference reconvene talk ncb express south wale member want want leadership ahead agree closure uneconomic pit government ly state tention lot man feel head high accept settlement negotiation mean pit get close signature piece paper blame close pit agreement opinion ed nacod late stage join strike agreemen national coal board acas dent body present pit closure review go straight window statement prime minister onomic pit close mean uneconomic pit close mean tragedy miner will not forget miner month struggle involve heroism hardship bur tragedy largely ignore press bring home human cost historic battle time january report new year day john green year old fitter teshanger colliery kent say goodbye wife beerly old son barry drive countryside kill inhale car exhaust fume son not end mother say hope miner j ame clay srokeontrent turner peterlee kill shortly return work hardship suffer tragedy report mike burke striking miner tower colliery south wale miner face trial connection port talbot crane occupation summer sad day december come court twominute silence david hughe year old miner take life day pearance court go funeral immediately court appearance david crane word describe feel bitterly cold wet afternoon gelligaer cemtery natioml da machine miner day strike mention young brave miner bur newspaper tv sure death taxi driver tunate know britain hope people learn sleep night thatcher s conscience suffering ed family child person die miner strike south wale remember winston churchill send troop armed police rhondda valley forget cash flow american worker follow trip north america october year jim robinson member south notts strike committee miner relief fund establish raise far say jim miner raise day donation new york nkl quebec montreal canada come individual union local branch example john s henning secretary treasurer cio california local paper marine firemen union painters union california morning ed cheque miner lamp good support longshoreman munication worker reagan thatcher like egg basket want destroy tion mother cnd grnham woman strike miner real spirit internationalism donation soldier serve south wale war south wale devastation pen coalfield appeal nacod sense late stage join strike heroic battle welsh british miner fight pit closure e wednesday week st johns colliery maesteg police ed scab work picket leave operation ed management meeting pied piper pub man buy drink promise ton free coal thursday lodge officer committee man talk breaker give fact strike reduce number friday number go inchide new people canteen en retume ing try walk not ough police rank lodge work hard weekend reasoning woman man go work number reduce monday seven tuesday wednesday lodge operate intimidation aggravation strikebreaker reasoning ing fact cessful get seven strikebreaker total phillip white compensation secretary st johns num miners union eral secretary peter heathfield hear andfile reaction ble settlement talk coventry miner support rally friday january robin wilson ing behalf coventry colliery strike committee say want settlement settlement termsnot sell return work till job miner ve sack securedwe ve get coventry striker wife kath chaplin address general secretary hope peter talk ll remember lad die comment propose talk peter heathfield say m hope day light end tunnel enable miner come altogether drib drab labour movement dicate not help anymore miner get decide tinue will not heathfield scargill mcgahey decide ve fight strike tony cross kent miner lobby tuc general council week tuc leader power resource disposal strike win long ago photo stefano cagnoni report tax allowance transfer help striker work wife strike miner title substantial tax rebate provide husband transfer unused tax allowance wife wife earn week gross ed tax rebate immediarelv striker wife need pay income tax weekly earning strike husband transfer tax allowance wife boost tax free ing tax base annual income recieve april april rent tax year month old pointless band retain theoretical lax free allowance earn tax year husband struct tax office transfer tax allowance wife tion husband tax office wife tax fice increase allowance pay rebate discussion inland revenue worker indicate husband give consent inland revenue power obstruct transfer allowance problem husband appeal writing day tax commissioner contact mp point remember transferr ing allowance use wife earn gross income level tax free wife allowance transfer effect week backdate rebate pay wife wife employer increase tax allowance wife affect family titlement rent rate rebate family income supplement return work april striker transfer allowance band earning till april wife tax striker wife earn gross wish o transfer tax allowance sufficient wife recover tax example wife earn gross week earn year husband tax allowance transfer add tax allowance total allowance tax free pay little tax husband retain remainder tax free allowance set future earning overdue holiday pay tax year april wife earn week gross couple lose transfer husband allowance wife long work sickness etc able reclaim tax pay april transfer sufficient allowance husband nigel wheatley astms walsall town hall super scab bolton labour movement furious superscab choose town mayor num member labour cillor bill hardman tinue work dispute ncbs repair shop walkden cllr hardman tell worsley journal january m fight democracy cross picket line respect mayor matter hope people tfie bolton trades council attack decision health support southern area cohse annual general meeting january dave newell striking miner betteshanger colliery kent address meeting collection raise follow public meeting redhill surrey organise local cohse branch ed plus couecte workplace visit t r r lfebruary gordon bennet write intend write day televise debate house lords tunately half hour fall asleep thehuman mogadon responsible particularly bishop speech incomprehensible til eventual ly reveal think government bunch pretty good egg understand ship early discuss issue euthanasia subject clearly pass interest advocate e house fossil stage campaign televise common apart tact austin chell porter campaign not wrong idea austin hedge bet future career commentator hand go scrupulously fair tory d televise bar fuss important democratic breakthrough ve hardly hear voice raise credibility lord medium country servile question fact third legislature britain pose monarchy second chamber stuff bootlicker prime minister past present bishop dant motley crew robber baron murderer land grabber petty tyrant tion bombard angle propagan da second chamber act wark elect dictatorship code landslide labour government thatcher government noticeably moderate lord accept argument tance second chamber not hardly follow way preserve democracy ask superannuated rat look ment ve hear defence lord contain wealth perience parkhurst not want lot make law land democratic case unelecte feudal ragbag hardly help leave winger think lobby lord portant gain support rank file movement s place ruritanian fairy tale labour party spener company coal union threat nottinghamshire work miner leader form breakaway union eagerly welcome miner bad enemy rival union industry massive step backwards miner confirm experience early breakaway movement coalfield george spencer mp ed nottinghamshire district miner industrial union damage company union last decade defeat general strike miner gallantly fight november starve work coal owner take revenge upper hand activist return work district isolate owner ed condition wage nottinghamshire area crack employer opportunity smash fluence miner federation great britain mfgb district organisation nottinghamshire miner association nma george spencer rightwe labour party mp witchhunter day nottingham miner official support banning communist party ference declare outstand ing fact world history substantial complishe revolution local settlement vehemently oppose munist union sponsor mp elect arthur j cook declare leninist general secretary spertcer oppose continuation strike area prosperou s local owner willing settle favourable term begin local tlement eventually ed mfgb owner understandin g spencer safe agree sole negotiating right tinghamshire district miner industrial union bear blessing coal owner attempt spread idea coalfield notably south wale northumberland durham scotland wake general strike defeat tory pass trade dispute trade union act sympathy strike illegal pld offence intimidation revive victorian day tion place picketing labour party fund union block spencers union reflect tory concept union act politicalin word labour political fund spencer industrial union report collection nma management dispute wellbeck colliery management force miner tribution industrial union stop pay face sack dispute spencer agree reduce price list pay miner coal produce similarly annesley man sack take join spencer union company union dustrial union membership lowbet ween following year grow real support spencer union show ballot organise tuc despite tion vote support nma vote spencer owner pay little notice ballot resuit battle last year nma membership decline upturn economy nma begin grow end increase great demand coal mean mfgb influence begin increase national owner agree form joint standing consultati ve committee settle de dispute industry nottinghamshire owner recognise federation stand outside body conflict union grow spencer side ownersj come head harworth early nma seven member harworth total workforce begin crease year end member later double discontent pit especially dirt deduction number small dispute nma conduct ballot ask union man want represent despite intimidati win vote spencer union management refuse negotiate owner captain muschamp voice view want adopt german ideaif government check future trouble foot foot strongly carry peaceably industrial union year spencer term spencer force negotiate mfgb fuse term include nottinghamshire immune strike current agreement ii local official lector nma employ industry harworth lodge miner num march london summer harworth pit centre dispute spencer union quash tingham miner association ballot result ignore boss exclude membership iii industrial union allow nominate fulltime official nmas iv rule amalgamate body provide political business discuss specially convene political meeting surprisingly mfgb accept formula basis tion agreement sign special conference reject sion term national ballot take whelm majority national strike support tually formula find divert strike fusion vas accept substantially spencer term permanent president retire man return work harworth spencer exofficial support victimisation militant spencerism die tinghamshire answer qustion certainly die movement man woman interest career worker class collaborator like spencer clearly see movement today call witchhunt want deal tory boss lucky one reward friend peerage control membership wage skilled worker continue chief lesson spencerism day ultimately miner non win national union enormous damage condition miner coalfield nationally division heart industry vital num leader day everythirg power persuade notts miner threat expulsion debate explanation interest tie fellow worker coalfield breakaway disastrous miner nott miner peter jarvis campaign defeat split poison ivy not spread curl butcher socalled silver birch come bate colliery northumb erland friday tell come talk new union majority walk bur shout scab speak butcher da scab delay get pit hour police preoccupy big picket nearby ellington colliery strike miner nottinghamshire quick respond threat form breakaway union militant speak jim robinson south notts strike committee ve distribute leaflet pit good response ly north pit like cotgrave bastion lynk prendergast response suprisingly favourab le lad approach work miner ing num retire miner cotgrave breakaway union doom failure not think avoid split recruit l think get olfo start easily attainable firm foundation indication s solfo branch recruitment lynk prendergast worry response majority striker main thing defeat breakawa amazing get task recruit new member num fight long not know pulsion bring ward sonally think time resolution northumberland call expulsion s book month strike rest work s blem communication d far favourab le response ward election think need transitional period couple month visit intercept strike miner num chairman ronnie camp bell secretary confronte d butcher duubeu locally poison ivy surface building ask fund come not answer visit end manager come pit police escort away early manager call scab canteen tell butcher event report rally tion union day man volunteer picket duty revitalise mood confidence determination militant reporter warn debate idea think take labour nec suggestion debate idea labour party beware leadership intend ed debate defend idea militant end get letter david hughes labour party tional agent letter margaret creear recently elect labours national women tee agree participate debate preston ed marxism mism result david hughe write letter point militant tendency political organisation declare ineligible filiation labour ty nec membership militant tendency incompatible membership labour party go cause confusion margaret link militant national women mittee fact clearly say leaflet advertising event speak personal capacity claim david hughes meaningless surely sion anyone mind idea margaret creear stand national women mittee volve women organisation need attention draw margaret political view know north west nationally go speak defence tant idea raise tion volvement extent support militant tendency labour women organisationwho whelmingly pass tion condemn hunt call reinstatement blackburn tional conferencewill astounded effrontery attack miner whilst rank labour movement fight alongside miner debate policy labour socialism ficer walworth road manage find time write offensive letter stand party member order continue right wing witchhunt ist idea sheila woodhead secretary rochdale womens council reinstate brychan davy labour ship come week national executive mittee parliamentar y stration leftwe labour mp fresh mind meeting low key affair neil kinnock agree dennis skinner suggestion hold party political broadcast support miner auempt rightwe open wide investigation tant defeat committee stage go nec mention right light finally dawn witchhunt expulsion s not win election attempt save face expulsion brychan davy ed take neil kinnock day forget comment itv weekend world carry expubion need proof break rule vs legal action nec brychans case plicating letter vas meeting class proof membership organisa coop witchhunt right wing cooperative movement prepare conduct general witchhunt militant supporter coop party action militant supporter confine small number case local coop party refuse allow individual join renew exist membership motion ment national conference brighton easter north eastern coop party pass carteblanche local party expel militant supporter allow supporter exclude policymake body annual conference local party refuse ment expulsion choice face militant supporter s class membership membership carboncopy socialist coop movement outrage attempt stage carbon copy labour party rightwing witchhunt pretence investigation register undoubtedly opposition suspension threat lift setback we suspension threat militant porter gillingham orted week issue throw local labour party general committee week hope mark end long run campaign rightwing militant supporter gillingbam paper originally ban party premise august end partys executive committee decide initiate linary proceeding party member tony baker mary turner myselffor having sell paper party premise november gc january meeting ec decide recommend tony baker suspend party membership month action take mary turner february tion ter write brychan forgery despite protest fect france curran prove vote take vote brychan expel labour movement fight ment attack rightwing stop growth socialt idea labour movement young miner join labour ty beginning strike openly port idea marxism beginning clear party meeting afd counrry particularl y north eastern society respect preliminay agenda conference radical yejr reflect determination dinary party member resist reverse tory government attack work people outcome militant issue conference growth genuine socialist idea cooperati ve movement stem petty tional measure lain forbe south suburban cws party committee gmc meet wednesday january ecs recommendation throw vote action mary turner drop emergency motion lpys permit sale militant carpark outside labour hall carry vote good support come trade union delegation include nur aslef eetpu uew delegate david turner gillingham lpysi labour party report dave nellist address portsmouth student rally january student defend poly wednesday uary half thousand student strate street portsmouth march defence portsmouth polys student union attack polytechnic governor student ed follow cupation student negotiating right unilaterally withdraw march demonstrate determination student defend tion student back coach load strike miner st johns num lodge south wale student disappointment poor leadership national union student issue lustrate nus dent phil woola boo heckle rise speak anger college receive notification demonstration day march nus leadership bad december nus conference prepare unite good applause day go dave nellist mp urge student unite public sector worker defence service fight socialism rank labour party lpys similar support give brian jenkins chairman polys joint trade union committee call college form similar committee fight privatisation cut job lesleigb woodburn nuss urtber tion national committee bad good reception outline fight fe college student campaign smouth poly student tinue lobby polys finance general purpose committee february john holt portsmouth poly labour club youth mining community politicise yearold arrest riot police grimethorpe photo john harris ifl miner lead lpvs role influx young miner labour ty young socialist lustrate yorkshire regional conference week strike miner elect lead position lpys miner gary ironmonger nigel pearce join lpys month ago strike begin gary monger cortonwood num elect new lpys national mittee member area nigel pearce vote regional tee conference tend nearly young socialist spa hall bridlington take miner struggle discuss dustrie decimate tory science graduate describe work british steel thing strike enter steelwork tiness say tory crazy policy run industry lose order foreman redundant health service similar story find health service adian omally porter pindcrfield hospital wakefidd describe happen summer outbreak salmonella disease nearby stanley royd hospital conference delegate return theme miner militant reader meet hear strike miner roy jones describe recent solidarit y visit south africa sally johnson wakefield west lpys notice antifascist de labour party ys member turn wakefield saturday discover fascist british national party hold street meeting posedly support num get clear ly numnearly miner wait nearby shopping centre ready bnp fascist turn scared w try meet mick richardson wakefield lpys l milit februmy liverpool crisis vorse year shop steward united fight liverpool future labour council face financial crisis worse year tory government renege promise liverpool labour council july determined revenge labour council force gest uturn job threaten cut cash allocation ty mean thousand council worker redundant balance book accord tory figure require job loss rate crease alternative fight secure money take tory rate support grant penalty local authority shop steward represent local authorit y worker recently attend special meeting launch campaign derek hatton deputy leader cil point success year campaign worker new job apprentice take council house build plan demand return money tory steal liverpool labour ion housing ment programme millby josie aitman ion loss housing subsidy million education steward come floor beginning tribution attack cil particularly nent communist party member try argue local authority trade union campaign dependentl y cil steward discuss cil campaign trade union discuss separately member socialist worker party try discredit labour cil victory victory year campaign dividual obviously aware long tory office fight continue comment follow excellent contribution particular peter lennard bernie hogan gmbatu convenor state support stand city council hilt sharp criticism aim leader local authority union appear deliberately attack labour council say time unite common enemy thatcher common enemy ian lowes convenor gmba tu branch win enthusiastic applause explain year victory achieve campaign talk dent battle absolute nonsense go battle year separate campaign council local authority union doom failure not stand face fact redundancy occur call unity council unity socialist policy pool labour council resolution call support labour council campaign g excellent campaign tory year cp member jack kay move resolution take ed vote vote meeting f steward vote include jack kay liverpool prove year mobilise working class marxist ship head take tory win major tory battle year crucial national battle support local authority union nationall y great defeat flicte tory government local paper smear union deliberate attempt divert pubhc attention away council campaign money govern row ment local paper liverpool echo launch hatton s x rac attack trade union way council fill private pahai job vacancy week devote page attack ury grow ing hatton army hint militant sec rlgofmy iob ood plot key figure accuse ian lowes gmbatu convenor hand letter protest echo reprint suggest convenor gmba tu branch position handpick people employ ty force ridiculous gestion clearly demonstrate mr phelp total lack understanding nomination procedure ply trade union operate unemployed register gmba tu mon trade union operate ploye register unlike union confine register gmba tu member unemplo ye people write portunity apply include unemplo ye register main criterion lie lan lowe firstly people ly unemployed people apply sell previous job acceptance untary redundanc y people apply willing join union successful liverpool echo attack week secure employment council application form send complete plication form consider committee people application successful place unemployed register vacancy arrive vacancy take register trade union tion interview year victory mean council house build plan tradition pool district labour party aggregate meeting open local labour party member hold explain discuss budget attend john hamilton leader labour council state beginning year campaign determined win year show year liverpool ownbut year authority tory hit list joint paign nationally local authority port local authority trade union put paign strong position rate tactic liverpool dlp believe deficit budget cut job loss massive rate rise pay tory cut good tactic city local authority attack choose fix rate march interest unity liverpool ed stage tactic ing basic demand believe maximum unity support local authority workforce liverpool nationall y management decision ultimately point lie ment union viv extremely limited simply person committee suggest complet distortion truth end discrimination union city cil believe nominate right essential discrimination take cein past radicate historical dence clearly show day ministration liberal torie far tunitie exist ethnic minority woman disable trade unionist etc exist trade union nomination right fact far job opportunity labour trade union movement work class liverpool believe win worker nationally ing liverpool campaign lead programme public meeting rally depot meeting plan enthusiasm enthusiastic response labour ty member activist floor peter ferguson city councillor mention effect campaign victory yearwith hundred young people liverpool take dole give job council terry field mp broadgreen receive cellent response castigate attitude labour ship condeme pool campaign remind labour party national ference decision labour council force break law effect tory policy response pool lp membership prove statement put liverpool case basis campaign pass unanimously exist administration get rid job aim nomination right ensure equal pportun itie prevail deflect task smears innuendo substantiate allegation article like write peter phelp newspaper liverpool echo claim speak people liverpool serve people well join city cil campaign secure resource liverpool thatcher government attack people campaign people faithfully ian lowe convenor gmbatu branch ratecapping threaten job service tony chie right elect leader southwark council council seven year view tant tony chie explain crisis face southwark council response q wbat tbe effect rate capping go southwark go allow effect go comply comply devastating cut region service prepared close old people home stop meal wheel service reduce housing maintenence programme level virtually nonexistent discrepancy government say need actual fact million balance go creative accountancy discrepancy million require budget million m m debt charge m want spend year cap m q southwark go go ply s thing second thing believe maintain unity hitlist authoritie s believe way tackle government local authority ing government legislation vie stage cillor disqualify surcharge prison battle lose strategy force government recognise crisis local goverment tirely responsibilit y absolve responsibility e money s take away southwark hitlist authority heavily penalise authority course q scenario wark set rate march yes line authority ye will not q concert negotiation negotiate come dependent agreement e authority sink demand negotiate government basis increase rate basis return money take away q realistic pect government come cash think tory government responsive pressure think probability authoriti es s unrealistic think cn build major carrpaign government people itli st authoritie s laijour movement determinec hitlist authoritie s believe pressure q ing mass pressure cause kind change ment campaign go far southwark think go work closely hitlist authority south london lewisham greenwich lambeth joint campaign reach wide area million people campaign fragment campaign reach southwarl complyinterviw council leader c week occupation threaten post office southwark story photo paul traynor belowa tory election poster suitably amend accurate quarter million people total support trade union ment town hall think tical southwark case entitle sceptical history old rightwe ministration compromise ancl sellout year tand scepticism say total support get total support voluntary sector wide section month tenant movement pensioner etc support church particularly nonconformist black church concern moment party not reaise importance tually campaign think rhat think cil throw money campaign absolve responsibilty participate talk jenkin position strength march show determined go fix timetable demand joint statement southwark union southwark trade union joint coordinate committee represent council union declare absolute determination resist defy government ratecappe plan fight tempt cut council job service tujcc demand southwark council commit publicly unequivocally policy compliance capping legislation reach ment secretary state expenditure level lower necessary maintain job service port councillor s penalise follow policy council union cooperate tempt southwark council government cut job service government try impose commissioner resist introduction withdraw cooperat ion impossible run borough addition defy government legislation intend compel chief officer introduce cut produce balanced letter councillor spend money like put poster press tise get message not confirm message think thing go week ahead actually community explain people pening arrange contact time short q future think tory run look take place july labour hitlist authority go derogationbackdoor fort number feeler carrot bit ed time reach deal hurt rest think jenkin desperate local authority break rank believe authority d marvellous deal ly leave river oar prepare budget set rate face non compliance southwark council cooperate chief officer comply tion expect cil firm action chief officer act fashion january l labour councillor dear councillor ratecappe coun cil union write urge supporc policy compliance gqyernment ratecappe legislation town hall trade union believe ratecapping pose threat job service southwark unite determination resist defy campaign allow council raise rate throukh roof believe people southwark pay inadequate service recognise councillor feel able toface risk surcharge qualification ask resign order room prepared face possibility resignation stage regard dishonourable pledge support councillor refuse comply legislation believe united stand council trade union flict defeat tory government hellbent destroy local democracy wreck service people southwark elect provide sincerely jd bryant actts r smart gmba tu ja mulrenar nalgo f coombe nupe bermondsey general c cowan eetpu m bryant nupe camberwell general m bennett nupe southwark general g taylor nupe officer legge tgwu obrien ucatt firstly reach agreement ment ment preserve send budget loss job service te unity hitlist authority go ed jenkin offer crumb respond timetable s favour talk jenkin believe new labour local authority tend southwarker lamhether etc nowparochial de outside patch corrupt patch happen occasion amarvellous vancement labour movement local government tujcc strongly recommend southwark council union commit normal democratic procedure follow joint undertaking member union redundant threaten redundancy penalise comply jointly agree policy ratecappe union represent tujcc pond collectively united forceful ner necessary allout industrial action joint industrial strength resist attack militant february pinochet regime crisis see struggle pinochet tatorship take new level heroism ly youth brilliant illustration marx say break determination work class change society face brutal repression collapse living standard chilean worker return struggle take gauntlet throw state apparatus see large day demonstration ship general strike regime monthly protest involve dred thousand mainly youth come street build barricade face police ed tear gas water cannon machine gun little stone molotovs frequently bare hand struggle result ultimate sacrifice worker movement ask mo t horrific circumstance youth ture battle strip force tcj lie burn ricade septemb er protest youth poblacion shanty town scalp sadistic squad section hate riot police face ruthless repression tion overthrow hate tatorship grow regime carry ruthless repression work class movement horrendous standard latin american general turn entire continent enormou s concentration camp pinochet dictatorship murder population million pare tina population imately million heroism willingness struggle crucial revolution programme analysis perspective essential working class chile gain decisive victory result abolition capitalism exploitation regime support despite apparent strength month signify precedented crisis ing weakness dictatorship point likely collapse regime state apparatus lack social basis whatsoever ing speed social plosion insurrectionar y proportion section chilean society stand oppose tatorship include section middle class small truck owner initially ed imagine solve problem bourgeois bring dictator power gain ing crisis dictatorship ly depart totally fail declare intention obliterate marxism country correspondent chile large force dustrial proletariat russia prior revolution work class decisive force socialist revolution social misery despair reach precedented proportion chilean working class slump unemployment soar cord united nations accord ment official figure shanty town reach estimate youth unemplo yment unemplo yed receive income whatsoever large section middle class affect unemplo yed teacher ly see bus singe tain income capital doctor estimate unemployed poor diet result massive rise health blem bourgeois christian democrats estimate million people nearly population undernourished milk virtually unknown worker district shanty town mother speak child not start talk age effect poor diet condition couple repression give rise explosive situation jective condition lenin describe revolution exist chile rule class split middle class active opposiion dictatorship willingness struggle reach heroic tion exist work class bourgeois look future trepidation doubt majority favour end dictatorship transition form bourgeois democracy argentina brazil uruguay reform hope prevent revolution tal problem not confront bourgeois transition carry chile powerful par tie work class socialist communist party fear take tion unleash movement able control hold bourgeois act decisively result massive polarisation take place addition face dictator determine hang power end unlike regime continent spain franco conveniently die pressure o masse bourgeois split clear strategy resolve crisis right wing bourgeois represent national party divide ferent faction favour pinochet cling power heroic struggle chicago economist santiago general b nl insane lurch monetarism chicago boy early year dictatorship intensify fect worcrisis chilean economy ash state expenditure r duce inflation cutthroat competition weed weak leave efficient section economy tqflourish theory military dictatorship work class check laboratory test monetarisptheulettenrn massive cut purchase power worker middle class massive rise unemployment slash market send economy massive slump wipe sition agreement pinochet major force chilean bourgeois christian democracy divide wing lead valde favour gramme social mobilisation pressure regime stand aside recently fail look armed force remove pinochet wing rriore cautiously want communist party wing socialist party main capitalist opposition alliance democratic alliance da attempt tion collapse divide chilean bourgeois sign demoralisation jarpa right wing np member take government september carry transition say n recent resignation jecte pinochet try try fail attempt dialogue collapse recently section ture industry lt plummet depth recover state face massive fall revenue enormous expenditure repressive apparatus soldier ple chilean army large head population continent repressive paratus account ing gnp chilean capitalism tinuation pinochet tatorship merely cause enormous political problem financial burden parasitical monster produce busy trade undertaker oecember letter da ask fresh attempt dialogue word member simply throw waste bin chilean bourgeoi s completel y lose control state apparatus military bonapartist regime rise society defend private property direct control bourgeois process begin immediately coup main wing chilean capitalism original tention golpe co white coup military regime year clear mess fresh election pinochet ferent idea having seize power intention ing proclaim appoint god fight ism compare roman emperor intend stay power tional term expire massive loan private firm net result gigantic foreign debt incredible rate terest entire economy hand world bank junta seize power foreign debt stand m gnp lt stand accounting gnp approximately chilean pinochet stalwart free enterprise preside great number record bankruptcy chilean history christian democrat president frei t reach allende pinochet nent state intervention revolution permit chilean capitalist clas squat horn dilemm incapable resolv ing advantage ha disadvantage havirr bring dictatorship power defend interest major obstacle face pinochet stick power division th bourgeois reenforce thi determination regime tt cle power madmen car speak wise word s pinochet say oppo s tion divide dif ferent grouping tht alternative bourgeois minute action die tatorship removal pinoche simply unleash enormou torship armed police t chile ad regime asset large ii hand decline amatic reflection n manufacturing orkforce little society ttih unable develop oductive force historically chilean capitalism e respect take socie beginning fltury lt ripe tn ioooo industrial worker rise present time santiago industrial toooo runtry movement work class failure lead plosion reach rectionary proportion mistake condition possibly armed force section pressure movement oust pinochet intervention cia assist bring regime power t exclude fraught danger resolve lhe advance revolution crucial question lie worker movement mainly organise mop cp dominant wing sp chile ly regime power weak social base ith movement chilean masse determine answer lie objective situation thoroughl y mistake policy adopt leadership chilean worker party especially communist party objective condition socialist revoiution exist chile leader worker movement launch struggle tion raise alliance socalled gressive wing chilean capitalism leadership christian democrats idea chilean capitalist class progressive force task revolution bourgeois conclude tatorship overthrow alliance progressive wing chilean capitalism mean worker leader policy wait christian democrat undertake struggle idea ship false begin end bourgeois fear chilean capitalism tie hand foot interest perialism bank play role end tion country world bank multinational chilean bourgeois fear movement work class especially experience popular unity governmnt struggle tatorship leadership christian democracy dc brake movement oppose general strke recent strike october call quel leader union cnt dc member dc leadership denounce september democratic alliance drive force call day protest excess violence denounce protest pinochet regime stop repression dc leader specifically work class place trust leadership party progressive wing chilean capitalism throw wieght coup alwyn dc leader day declare junta deserve support ple np day coup september present declaration congratulation pinochet true dc port section middle class worker opposition regime give worker leader point worker party win section away influence cd determined struggle clear alternati ve take today problem people strategy win political exploiter middle layer chilean society programme win exploit middle layer mass movement worker support win proclaim support democracy enormous illusion exist struggle bourgeois democracy year ruthless tatorship tremendous support elementary democratic right eiust right hold election strike demonstration freedom press worker party place forefront demand bourgeois hypocrite cd allow parade defender democrac worker party come favour vf election stituent assembiy tionary constituent assembly summon national congress cordone chilean soviet charge transform society qnd implement revolutionary programme elminate plight masse base organisation socialist plan economy accompany gramme socialist revolution struggle right ly fail solve fundamental problem face chile worker middle class right ed fall pinochet dictatorship failure work class power open way severi year anothsr dictatorship brutal current regime imaginabl e face continuation dictatorship large section youth impatient turn attention idea armed struggle morespecifically support idea individual terrorism draw lesson majority youth clude reason defeat lie absence arm especiall y development nicaragua vast majority youth demand arm find reflection communist party limit campaign guerrilla character cotlucte unaer condition chile instinct youth entirely correct necessity arm movement defend tion clear organisation worker militia tive way undertake struggle organisation insurrectionary general strike lead collapse dictatorship entirely mistaken idea individual terrorism foster leadership cp group mir possible small group heroic armed youth overthrow regime campaign bomb gun bullet mass movement leadership work class draw youth unemployed peasant arm militia way overthrow dictatorship feqruary militant substitute mass movement proletariat raise gramme pose question movement arm result confrontation troop question face revolution win rank armed force work class movement arm ensure victory tremendously positive feature chilean revolution constant attempt tion troop youth recent clampdown voling occasion use army attempt youth discuss soldier report conscript soldier conscript draw woker district youth fight day protest month conscript condition s tion soldier know tomorrow not face officer repression insult humiliation doubtedly draw moveman t proletariat prospect increase long regime hold power chilean worker ment prove decisive year lesson fully absorb overthrow dictatorship enormous relief chilean masse bind carrying socialist revolution capitalism allow tinue problem misery poverty despair remain chilean revolution begin death vain lesson learn worker movement socialist chile open way achievement historic objective socialist partythe organisation federation latin american state mean ending dictatorship beginning genuine human society continent militant editorial board receive quest marxist chile financial port struggle pinochet die tatorship tionalist appeal worker donation ing chilean ground urge seller tant organise tion work weekend february money lecte send militant chile hepscott road london militant l philippine dictator past year marcos dictatorship philippine deep trouble economic crisis massive antigovernment demonstration assassination major opposition leader question mark regime survival pauline worth look current situation united states great interest philippine vestment military basis command portant strategic position se asia ching pad intervention korea vietnam cambodia today springboard tion africa persian gulf middle east ne asia store nuclear weapon accord new military basis agreement america deploy consent philippine government people marcos backing include massive aid maintain army regime barrasse americans assassination position leader benigno aquino august cause great outrage year marcos backer aquino ile marcos ing philippine military escort prepare leave plane manila airport shoot dead marcos blame munist subversive eventually force set enquiry recent official report ed aquino murder military escort certain general name probably scapegoat marcos remain officially stainless million people mourn aquino street anger deep grief death politician beginning marcos dictatorship ple detain political prisoner twothird ture peared custody government troop kill people million forcibly evacuate home tion escape terror peasant worker priest brutally treat add appalling standard living population debt reliance e government mercy tional monetary fund insist devaluation currency steep tax rise cause suffering poor people demonstration manila protest ed aquinos death continue year later rate week demonstrator include worker student businessman clergy meet increasin g police ty progress tearga water non live ammunition demonstration s continue organised resistance gain strength undergrqund national democratic ndf organisation quarter million dustrial worker strike economic demand release detain worker mindanao new people army np found communist party ing enormous problem estimate million peasant farm worker organise ed npa ther million come influence tion npa ted government troop take reprisal mar chile woman poor district manila anger dictatorship economic policy bang pot pan british connection little terror torture economy dominate japanese european company familiar british name like unilever cl tootal dunlop multinational rely ol government terror stop press basic union right worker hour long condition overcrowded production quota impossibly high safety standard abysmal garment firm machine repair run cident commonplace clothe end british shop like debenham british government commonwealth development corporation recently provide million loan finance oil palm plantation jointly troll philippines national development poration guthrie malaysian own company eviction curfew guthrie employ lose command evict peasant clear site farmer peasant drive compensation home destroy round take live guard hut town centre subject dusk dawn curfew condition s bad squalid slum family small hut sick especially child lack food safe drinking water people resist move concentration camp beat shoot landless peasant ly company vide job guthrie s manager britishborn bruce clew mitte acquire land recruit labour impossible lose command add profit matter local population little terror torture company official reportedl y put pressure worker leave union deduct union due wage packet hand union week permission deduct money fiesta beauty contest crop sprayer give gas mask die year probably pesticide poisoning worker dispense tiliser give glove result blister rashe infect wound british government give taxpayer money guthrie cos thug force lose command build international link trade union major task kilusang mayo uno kmu organisation free trade union particularly important hundred thousand filipinos force work overseas worker pine great export dollar earner ironically country population access medical facility philippine world large exporter nurse second large doctor crisis pine deepen marcos government look way quell grow opposition return stability cos age sick man wam wife imelda succeed lmelda marcos reputedly world rich woman hold number powerful position probably hate marco contempt filipinos show comment cent demonstration manila rally money not kid million people pay attend give movie star sandwich rally government like replace marcos reliable puppet preferably popularit y aquino eliminate candidate salvador laurel year visit america talk government know favour keep basis philippine businessman politician gratulate marcos vide heaven send relief declare martial law want possible letout smooth transition limited form democrac y president people philippine brave record struggle carry fighting economic political system sacrifice profit work class force potential power lead struggle gain real control destiny marcos lose nominally dependent spanish american rule imperialism control philippine american style political structure quickly seize wealthy family previously run try feudal line ferdinand marcos come background president realise unlikely reelection time declare martial law arrest people begin nightmare philippine worker peasant aid repression marcos try pete world country cheap labourhe succeed make cheap world brutal represssion aid increase army fl president marcos arm silence tion plan boost paramilitary death squad like lose mand drive defenceless peasant land need multinational command set year ago suppress muslim fight dependence hunt communist recruit deserter exconvict work torture rape murder poverty amidst wealth island philippine vast forest fertile valley huge mineral resource iron gold copper coal nickel ample river provide electricity far current million inhabitant unemployment foreign debt billion high inflation half family live need nutrition poverty threshold unable meet clothing shelter need tb polio rife family suffer loss child begging child tion increase felsbuild labour support success education labour student see recently fel candidate lesleigh woodbum elect student union education national committee nus national conference receive second pose nol high number set draw preference vote fe student nol instead welcome ly fe college increase support labour club labour nol leader nol member ox ship attack fels ford cambridge univer time educational supsity labour club plement january report fe college ed nol democratic left leadership november con want people ference fel constitu louise j ame fel organ tion pass clear iser expel lv state aim fel labour party set affiliate fe militant nol labour club nol leadership accusation fels conference louise james number fe club af fel get proper filiate nol base fe college double student fel split labour found con vote recent nus ference fel fe conference student lp letter send labour club member fel nols chairperson present john mann ask visitor fe college joint felsnol slate represent elect nus large event kind conference john mann organise fe student refuse offer unite unfortunately nol labour vote fe organise similar student tell fels event fe delegation nus con college affiliate nol ference nol fel conference dictate select fel set opa previous nol student fe student demonstrate decent grant council contradiction day pauline mcneil nols candidate fenc say fels fringe meeting didate select nol fringe meeting previous night student attend meeting say election take place fel prevent labour majority fenc nol eat malcolm pratt receive preference vote end come seventh elect fact setting fel nol leader expose failure fe issue seriously fels force nol stand jority slate time win labour majority livingston clp militant reply miner collecrion rake place explain ro rhem difficulrie problem cause militant receive letter secretary ingston constituency labour party mr graeme morrice plain tant report event clp letter word long space edit mr morrice write accuse witchhunt implication work miner tory letter outline work livingston clp support miner article militant dispute thisthe clp congratulate support letter raise important point dhss snooper squad report cash raise attack miner benefit mr morrice write warn snooper attempt cut benefit value parcel basis tion kindly furnish shall certainly note hope mr rice forward important information ro labour weekly tribune morning star labour movement journal clude miner like militant carry formation past ll month question event livingsron clp letter continue witchhunt derracror specify lnfacr october gc meet mp robin cook inform meeting ed attempt hunt lpys ask present tell speak rwo lpys delegare lpys che porter rhe militant rendency tell thar plan receive set attempt iniiiate wiichhunt whai plan wiih expulsion charge charge pende againsi biuerly resentful crude catch type criiicism ihe conrrary go way help lpys clp instance gc recently agree requesr lpys delegate cover rhe cosrs run disco e recruirmenr drive rhe firsr rime rhe lpys requesre give fund alrhough fund low ourrighi gift rhis occasion ihe gc ly agree ro loan rhem unfonunatel y ihe disco social political success ii financial face gc cepte iion rhe lime lpys repay loan decision unanimous wilh regard miner support activity provide necessary facility individual group individual prepare assist collection etclpys nonlpys member fact pay special tribute ihe sacrifice rhat lpys member ple month ongoing situation exploile disrorte downright lie abour rwo individual believe lake advlntage order creare martyrtype lion hope find favour wiih heir ship rhis bring clp inro disrepuie bui ihe militant lendency couple month collectiot impair number comrade sell militant ar rhe rime direcr wirh comrade pear approximalel y hour week ar rhe local shopping cenrre lect choose usually f emrancesrhe mosr fitable ar peak period seldom number seven entry foot wide iheir shore stay ro deal wirh aggro rhey cause wirh rheir aggressive selling method lecor move harass police centre security guard ing complaint rhe public consequence police ban occur caastrophic rhe miner family feed face lhis kind siwarion gc panicular miner support group whilsr oppose general selling militant request plead militant poner refrain sell newspaper whilst situarjon arise rhe comrade show mon sense insread crowd collector conrest making appear try sell paper recognise rhe collecrion offer operation rejecre invite ro join help rhe miner cause ignore rhis confrontation choose finaliry ask attack time people organisation ro devote scurrilous found attack clp wouldn r well employ work miner vicrory sow dissention act behalf rightwin g attack fraremally graeme morrice secrerary livingsron clp phillip scott livingston north lpys reply mr morrice refe reader report tbt situation livingston clp militant issue wish tant supporter ys ber embroil party squabble wish continue support miner struggle build idea socialism youth record speak milit load dice nols council la test tactic democratic left leadership national organisation labour student show tinue operate undemocratic method possible order ensure political defeat avoid follow nol conference answer allegation ballot rig nol leader attempt systematic campaign guarantee safe conference year indication come nols dent council bradford university january meeting decide candidate stand position national union student election ference march council unrepresentati ve labour student delegate labour club nol member nus area convenor nus executive mean student union ficer vastly outnumber representative countable labour club delegate way democratic left ensure majority council follow anomaly reglstrrtion procedure issuing delegate credential militant porter demand list accredited delegate available tion democratic safeguard refuse student organiser sally morgan member livingston north lpys branch campaigning activity mr morrice resentful fact clp receive letter resolution protest labour movement body action take young female member party dy milne lpys militant report clp chairmanafter lpys member say stop sell militant street livingston protest tion partystated clearly young member ill leave chair meeting sonally expulsion local labour movement hear duly respond clp receive protest include half dozen num strike committee labour councillor petition sign striking miner ble people exploit individual response ed experience labour activist mr morrice say charge clp set disciplinary committee investigate action wendy milne unfounded allegation misappropriation fund wendy milne send letter mand state resolve send letter reprimand reason letter mr morrice complain militant catch type criticism eplaine ms ian wright delegate liverpool university labour club call council roll delegate present sure bonafide representative vote election council vote procedure effect nol rank file deny right know participate election select labour candidate lead position student movement meeting delay sunday cil major delay main lecture theatre close building visor follow complaint cleaner disgusting mess leave previous evening hold democratic left caucus nol leader delay push rest business credible speed agenda completely revise indication council procedure adopt demand floor election question candidate recommendation nols leadership council vote stand minority slate nus election stand candidate possible nol conference place week time rank file nol entitle ask nol conference conduct undemocratic line student council milne rule mean break situation shopping centre militant supporter sell paper strike begin outset strike far plead certain clp member tunately personally abuse fraternal request take form call liar cheat thief scum moron think sell militant impair collection miner believe raise cash put miner case socialist policy tile paper hand hand striking miner agree strike miner sell paper strike miner respond way attack wendy milne seriously think militant supporter jeopardise collection furthermore nonsense suggest militant supporter want type situation past year militant fight expulsion supporter witchhunt threat tooth nail understand right wing succeed expel marxist labour party leave wing cie livingston clp ill chop hope sorry fair come end future political ference discuss proper manner movement nal debate mhxt anpf february ro j militant welcome letter reader send view comment criticism write militant hepscott road london saturday job dear comrade student day bit extra money work shoe shop hour work manager sack follow people reason state traceyshe not job jessicahe not like way speak customer dannyhe broken leg not able work xmashe ed different manager year gailshe not job time deputy dawnhe not like way speak avrilhe not like think bit centric liz leave have asthma trouble give job box gravate condition pat j osie leave not stand july day worker plan poland tell say sack not afford lose saturday week sale timehe employ extra day staff decide overstaffed want rid one stand way sure add long list worker birthday month ask rise say rise sop promise overtime year december ed extra day money spend present extra money come january consider exploitation sarah tracey toot questioning role dear comrade see tremendous struggle miner strike recently hold sale outside second division football ground whefe sell paper plus copper go copper ask question role miner strike comradel y pat mcewan grimsby british soldier make arrest northern ireland sinn fein contradiction dear comrade s miner rally host ken livingstone don county hall decembe r sinn fein plo nationalist group provoke usual hysterical reaction capitalist press hardly report meeting speaker gerry mcloughlin sinn fein get stand ovation assure meeting miner support sinn fein meeting astonish hear organisation claim stand left south ireland tle help miner key area financial support cork ferent group collect miner sf collect money play role solidarity meeting jn letterkenn y trade council collection miner delegate ribute sinn fein limerick galway broad labour ment support group function month sf play role true south include dublin disastrous role right wing labour party leader coalition fine gael party big business banker rancher young people look desperation sf especially make claim socialist represent work class contradictiun ween sinn fein socialist rhetoric tarianism approach majority worker north great south new champion oppress wor ker conference november motion expel sinn fein member cross picket line defeat executive half conference voting ken livingstone easily lead malcolm pitt president kent num speak county hall look closely sinn fein fraternally emmett farrell cork thatcher plan dear comrade thatcher clear cept arthur scargill leader num want moderate course reason union ble m union vicious media paign build tum think end sight miner til executive tell tory plan destroy miner union wrap year bad think shoot kill dear comrade s northern ireland unionist tory forever tell shift policy concern rule ment northern ireland ie shift shoot kill ask question later point order operation n viable today army case young lad shoot fatally udr checkpoint skirt belfast recently point clearly state soldier allow open fire theirs life comrade seriously threaten car dow wound way type weapon fire bomb throw soldier car riddle rifle fire unionist government try justify obscene income dear editor michael edwarde fortune new job dunlop year guarantee october plus additional financial editor daily express say deal border obscene not wage packet shock turn stomach option buy nearly million share pany michael edwarde s get job work icl take leave take golden handshake shooting claim udr man ed incident crime joy ride warrant sentence onthespot execution minimum force necessary obtain arrest equipment security force disposal ie radio communication vehicle patrol etc simple arrest cent year life lose type action labour movement britain rake nonsectarian labour trade union group setting work class party labour northern ireland tremendous step unity ending presion sectarianism fraternall y bob harker gateshead east clp edwarde move previous director leave pocket golden shake warde audacity bank want good job highly motivated presumably rich contrast obscenity desperation poverty million unemplo ye low pay etc tory freedom mean ford vulture like pick flesh society plain answer fraternall y david louch york government ally elect try smash trade union movementthe miner fight see test case abolition trade union ment know see incident country reminiscent poland ment totally commit disgrace arthur scargill people corrupt government make njie suit soon people realise soon kick tory despite medium say miner win victory let deter fraternally pullen cwm colliery num pontypridd lpys hard life month duke devonshire celebrate d birthday ask plan retire reply daily star january nenr work day life retire peasant revolt cornwall road cornwall tys duke know prince charles have trouble peasant year ago charlie boy magnanimousl y donation acre land bodmin moor pie cornwall county council tell stick refuse accept day realise cost tbem year bit miff discover charlie want land retain mineral right case room think not bad have money not know sultan brunei chase dorchester hotel own tbe large palace world cost million b room thing sultans ly use not blame h different room day takr year get right building o ing switzerland sneeze old saying go caklle cold europe get pneumonia day tain get hypothermia gno zurich get sniffle year unem rate reach ojo switzerland tlat low comparison capitalist try course high unem w n switzerland j l fund target hard work pay dividend time read fighting fund quarter finish wait suspense bow doubt rightwing boss ious know able final figure week report country week hard work money urgently need chart show eastern neck neck london area far expect minute surge militant dear comrade enclose sop fighting fundnot maybe heartwarming tion ve receive fund come bryn jones retire miner work marine colliery cwm near ebbw vale recently see militanr time bad realise son mostynanother new tanr supporteris single ing miner obviously receive money month live home support parent tremendous example sacrifice jlitlment work people sop hell lot livelihood depend whim dhss moguls appeal idea marxism supporter reputation exceptional fund raiser week exactly appeal sheet door visit donation lpys branch minute partiesa ll mination reader meet target reader new long standing approach miss not stop nick wrack quarter good start new quarter rob bishop acton write save loose change past couple month amount footnote lodge marinein ommon lodgeshad money range transport member important lodge meeting friiay rumour move return work sizeable number picket line tuesday norning miliant supporter give pledge lodge chllirman raise money pay coach friday day later d raise result big meeting good mood fainthear ts lodge leave fainter andalthough scab go weekthing solid fraternally welsh supporter shirley smith coventry south east clp write having read recent article finance felt compel write letter active militant supporter like production militant hinder boss system enclose cheque pay half day interest big bank eppleton num co durham donate send bv cpsa nec member matthew land southampton ing brand new leather jacket cash premium bond collect day week fortnight hard work self sacrifice reader remain ed bob law bermondse y give drink send save help change shape shape society bryn jones retire miner port son ing miner give marvellous donation ter leave jumble sale lambeth organise day notice raise nearly raise meeting merseyside week tle thought preparation go new quarter need week tirey possible ponent point good raise money let right week donation include t corrali leicester nalgo kit ray president west midland nupe d mehmet london poeu j cooze london rise twydale south london cb rice fife lindsay studd cleethorpe lpys jim arnell poeu bill lowe poeu oap dorset stan russell lane num k g birmingham p lieven oxford nus f wawrick plaistow acct r hopkin bristol nur g huckley bristol nur lee copestick rochdale lpys branch donate militant branch tgwu rover solihull send donation building fund car worker ed series dispute doubt recognise enormous assistance daily marxist paper report story che help provide essential weapon labour movement soon branch contribute soon able week wage general strike call ing reader lose week wage unfortunately craven nature tuc leadership general strike support miner ed reader give week wage week dole pocket money building fund way build paper idea socialism need effective action section labour movement week money reader newham peckham dagenham lambeth west don reader febrlary m ut ant ad classify op word minimum word semidisplay umn centimetre advertisement copy reach office saturday badge button badge anniversary slogan op order button badgemilitant col oured background whiteyellowgreen blue enamel stud badgesmili tant labour youth order badge accompany minimum pp cash order cheque payable militant send hepscott road london inqaba ya basebenzi jour nal marxist worker tendency african national congress issue number con tain supplement south africa close revolution second southern africa nkomati accord plus ar ticle zimbabwe botswana malawi send payment order include postage pack bm box london northern irelanda marxist analysis page analysis publish militant irish monthly plus postage post free order world socialist book hepscott rd london cassette tape issue militant available fortnightly quarter e year available cassette alt centre page article issue send seven blank cassette payable militant tape grove woodhouse leed phone militant anniversary rally vhs hour highlight plus main speech total meone present post include send cheque militant hepscott road london militant student society chile socialist defence campaign latin american fiesta food disco live music saturday february pm polytechnic central london wells street ground floor oxford street near tube oxford circus tottenham court road work unwaged proceed chilean worker post pack hepscott road london meeting southampton marxist sion group meet friday honeysuckle road bassett southampton tel detail subject information hull militant public meeting tory miner socialist policy labour hear pat wall president bradford trade cil friday february trade labour club ly road upper rhondda marxist sion group meeting sunday pm red cow high street treorchy phone steve brown treorchy detail el tham militant supporter feb northern ireland feb victory miner pm lionel road ty centre westhorne avenue eltham address book plastic paper sleeve bookmark sew badge plus half price resale ff cheque m king rodney ct anson drive shole seton liven benefit disco miner strike rap michael rosen record miner be not thing pit lose money bee work boss get honey buy record profit miner family cost e plus pp record cheque payable mis address madeira grove woodford essex gb militant supporter want bedsit accommodation travel distance central london ring jimmy holiday large bedroomed house paris available month august mal rent share number occupant comrade interested write chez mathey boulevard voltaire paris france waltham miner support group public meeting monday february pm speaker roy jones staff num dennis skinner imp south wale miner walthamstowe assembly hall forest road new militant international review price inc p p world socialist book hepscott road london solidarity conference mineworker defence committee sec k livingstone saturday february octagon tre sheffield speaker include peter heathfield num betty heathfield wapc tony benn mp johnie tocher auew presidential candidate phil holt bloc tu body send delegate labour partyother organisation delegate send mineworker defence committee cranwich road london n address tuorganisation delegate outside capital individual donation raise donation t trade union labour party branch meeting not forget send money soon possible current high rate terest loan bank ficult bear let shoot loan forward daily paper marxist message train sale strain return vant train don pluck courage train sale take minute paper sell train m obvious target sale people want read haye chance talk not away travel regularly train coach bus use opportunity sell paper people want read tant duty bat lie distortion millionaireowned press ps try sell paper gas man etc bloke phone week ago paper sell little lad year old seller explain telly page ed like miner havant area mile near pit delia hazrah havant lpys mujtanj february industrial report post office closure oppose wednesday january pm onwards post office counter worker strike london protest post office government plan close crown office worker show anger plan ingness fight defend job attend rally central hall westminster lobby mp year post office back government ignore hardship closure impose ordinary people threat job living standard postal worker propose close crown office nationally london chris whale london northern district ucw whilst certain individual tory mp pressurise day lobby refuse talk closure government post office plan future communication industry main map privatisation blatant attack answer industrial tion rank file ucw member force post office retreat temporary threatne closureswith office london immediate thre privatisation british telecom troduction counter automation government indicate report b prepare sell counter work rich business friend threaten bermondsey office occupy whilst ucw member welcome itiative take union leadership lobby mp member ing effectiveness half oneday stoppage regional basis leadership leadership fully prepared tack respond tenacity ingness fight rank file member haye show national deal allow closure office instead build success far prepare massive paign oppose future closure plan po announce immediate national action link plan post office proposal push new technolog y new method work postal union agreement necessary proposal represent big threat postal worker possibility thousand job go existence union threaten communication vorker broad leave don begin organise campaign leaflet meeting preparation come battle threat loom leadership ucw face task fight union need angry or occupy borough post office mondsey south don paign local crown office open pensioner tenant trade unionist young mother child fill counter area hour wednesday january demand case district postmaster ed local labour cillor liberal mp threaten closure borough bricklayer office mean hardship danger elderly disabled young mother d force collect pension nd allowance post fice afield london bridge main civil service union want cpsa shortly mitte civil service pay claim claim week minimum wage week april cpsas lowpaid member increase vital halt decline living standard restore real value pay rate december task secure decent wage level stand well chance united pay claim cover civil service union worker rhetoric union leadership cpsa win support conference face tory attack policy mistake involve cross busy dangerous road elephant castle subway system notorious robbery small subpost office nearby not begin cope customer s use crown office week pensioner mrs florence perry say old people not post office know bloke s blind hm pose th journey think appalling ignore load petiiion vhy e thing convenient demonstrator mrs schwarz say fice central nient not care sort action way occupation southeast london campaign start april t year closure number crown office announce d wide support moss haley spokesman union munication worker branch represenring counrer clerical staff tell tant ee involve vide range communit y group second rally eve public meeting labour party branch area speak trade cil pensioner group ve great response public crown office threat area poor borough counter district intend post office management clearly frightened strength feeling coax telephone meet tion management say final decision protester s clear not trust management demonstration plan wednesday february deputation labour cillor john bryan tell tant like ratecappe attack vital service poor borough class not get lose today show people push far fightback start paul traynor year civil servant experience cut living standard tory come power government scrap civil service pay comparability agreement nounce advance pay negotiation fix cash limit increase cut job immediate need bring civil servant build confidence determination fight secure claim civil service worker angry way tory deal case cpsa member failure union ecutivele alistair graham socalled broad left dhss tle shift worker lead fight support worker struggle undermine morale picket pay campaign lead let right wing leadership pressure membership campaign wholly base selective action lesson year tional strike determined leadership massive campaign way win civil servant face savage attack pay job wage claim totally justified vitally necessary question secure militant supporter cpsa argue union special pay conference activist level union work hard week build ty confidence membership composite resolution tuc congress sponsor cpsa specifically call conference executive public sector union plan ordinate action ference nec call tuc welcome late local council civil service union cpsa area committee set local public sector coordinate committee plan organise leafletting rally public sector worker town aml city speaker pay rally demonstrate breadth support determination end attack live standard public sector worker failure tuc general council ship like cpsa set aside worker action creation link rank file local activist kevin roddy cpsa national executive personal capacity irish shop worker internationalism young shop er dunne store dublin ireland seventh month magnificent display internationalism strike dunne henry street branch start worker refuse handle south african good line policy union irish distribitve ally trade union idatu strike receive support section labour ment great boost strike sympathy action take docker dublin port black import destine dunne worker appeal belfast docker handle good divert dublin worker give generously collection workplace union meeting karen gearon ida tu shop steward speak rally post office worker tion take good collection come cie amd poration depot labour youth member find estate pub tion well ed miner people ently approach striker small personal tion street collection xmas bring strike sue news new tech seventyfour member national union journalist ed portsmouth evening news new technology refuse edit visual display unit dispute arise transfer agreement alloe national graphical association member retrain editor new technolog y nuj fear undermine strength sole negotiator journalist nuj member pany site croydon hartlepool sunderland come strike sympath sack portsmouth nalists management legal action secondary action law separate dispute job threaten birmingham post mail job go year company red production walsall birmingham ment say few job lose tion labour cost reading evening post nga compositor give day notice training new equipment link telead ment design eventually bypass compose room disptite volve soga come verbal ment union cessful support need translate pathetic action worker discuss strike send message suport money striker strike receive publicity south africa nonracial trade union send letter support strike nes store management prepared ride bad publicity financial loss try break dispute international solidarity show worker build ireland britain send donation karen gearon co idatu cavendish row dublin share new work break new equipment ed start work february nga chapel stop work discuss situation day paper lose late news management change bolt lock preparation confrontation similar strong tion wolverhampton thomson regional publication vital print union develop united strategy troduction new logy defence job regional newspaper fleet street nga member pay claim pressure major pay claim local authority resistance ratecapping worrying item government s industrial relation agenda month tory find fire side local authority spectrum employer pay offer week grade countrys council manual worker worth wage bill original reject early week tgwu leadership back union side rejection claim jack dromey t g public vices national secretary centrate criticism size offer gest obstacle appear employer refusal change settlement date november put claim head pay queue ly meet strong ment resistance nelotiation s oment ecutive union involve mainly nupe tgwu gmbatu wih discuss response possible industrial action week teacher union reject offer member england wale scottish teacher having begin paign industrial action demand dependent pay england welsh claim board april worth employer s act keith josephs puppet try split union tax inland revenue staff federation special pay conference january decide flat rate claim week grade major victory irsf broad leave bring line cpsa major civil vice union table flat rate claim irsf agree large majorityto claim forward hour working week day crease annual leave compensate reduction pay result decision look likely ty civil public vant join tium cpsa irsf leaue union submit pay claim ly differ nature promise base new guvernment money aceptance change salary structure service cond iion reject nut talk break union easily mpte industrial actoil school look card nalgo s collar electricit y worker vote industrial tion win claim ve tion overtime cover vacant post operation new technolog y hit room hard start february thing will not help electricity board threat legal action ballot paper comply new tory legislation lan llett ipcs csu fda fall category differ claim send difficulty union plan joint campaign cil civil service union cpsa scp irsf draw lesson miner strikethat strike ed defeat tory union prepare cpsa organise rally major town britain march february miut ant oonnfs dismissal refjsin handle stjf rfric picket ounne store dublin support south african worker leak plan poeu job threat post office strategy document leak poeu reveal plan cut po engineering motor transport job year document post office real intention identify ocalle redundant job lie month identify surplusse likely occur ofjo cut envisage mr kn young post fice board member ter brian stanley poeu general secretary state leak document internal management minute merely postulat nion give effect range magnitude ing go regional engineer identify feburary job leave vacant brian roberts director dustrial relation say compulsory dancie ble despite po job security agreement cover bulk poeu member british telecom wide attack post office intend fix job security ment away traditional system start introduculg riew grade structure local ductivity standard time extensive use tor time ripe poeu action support demand hour day week defence job short tensified campaign membership urgent priority afford individual tion branch ed poeu member alternative fight job join dole queue poeu member east london blind worker want threaten strike gmbat u member ing tyne pilotage authority paralyse shipping river worker cutter crew member maintenance worker hold ballot negotiation ment yz pay claim break vote strike february support claim bring ment river halt include daily ferrying oil jarrow oil minal blyth power station dave bruce jarrow lpys blind sighted worker strike braile house don claim recognition union nuj sogat employ national institute blind claim good union insist braile house union membership union rnibs wembley reigate branch l ill jqf lj r ocblcq jccjcj lj ljl ljl j broad left organising committee bloc conference march manchester free trade hall conference discuss primarily issue strategy need defeat tory antiunion law building national campaign defend local government job service democracy application delegate credentialseach tional broad lefttrade union organisation send delegate include name dress delegate separate piece paper delegatecheque payable bloc cheque form send bloc co george williamson sutton place london ij militant february youth trade union right campaign yturc fight tory plan force yong people yts refuse benefit way formally launch press conference house common january paul weller member style council brian hibbitt fly picket join help campaign creation teenage workhouse tony cox yturc retary explain build support march lobby parliament febuary yturc launch tional petition tory plan aim get signature special celebrity petition start sjgnature pop star md mp signature public figure concert paul weller brian hibbitt tell press ference aim help get signature celebrity petition play concert support campaign try widespread support public eye speaker include dave nellist mp joint president yturc john hird lpys national chairman michael meacher mp joan maynard mp barry man mp bench spokesman ment eric heffer mp lesleigh woodburn nus fe national committee marie blake trainee present margaret beckett mp chris smith mp message support come tony benn dennis skinner mp arthur scargill terry fields mp john prescott mp response receive obvious group school student manchester trip parliament come press conference say interested ing campaign listenine speaker school student sum tion present defeat tory nalist new musical press ask paign work say work young people want choice slave condition fight real choice price market answer tion dave nellist mp government reveal truth claim youth people price job november november young people benefit cut refuse yts scheme prematurel y leave yts scheme truth centive scheme nonexistent ment figure prove yop yts allowance hold increase price average earning yts trainee week present yts allowance similarly grant student college increase rate average nining year damning revelation trend evident wage real job tory come power average wage boy real term fall girl youth unemployment treble liverpool steward fight job page southwark council press conference brian hibbitt fly picket sign petition join member style council stop tory ratecappe devastating attack che local authority ratecappe abolition glc metropolitan county mean devastation alrady deplete service thousand council worker join dole queue jargon pe away ratecappe amount legalise butchery local authority job service local authority worker choice fight wall girocheque leave little room creative financing mean defend job vice massive national campaign industrial political action february conference local authority shop steward organise february conference back liverpool city council joint shop steward committee appeal chile receive appeal chilean worker help develop opposition pinocbet regime work aim primarily youth suffer criminal regime try stop organise repress day day set task educate ourselve s provide mean solve economic social problem s regime cause lay particular topic like unemployment affect youth work class area problem ing health drug addiction lack leisure facility pamphlet course need produce poster pamphlet leaflet london bridge tee link joint shop stewards committee s london borough glc ilea delegation welcome local authorit y union branch shop stewards committee especiall y hit ratecapping heavy financial penalty aim form national joint steward body hope ference discuss tactic struggle prepare way large literature sonal risk great sacrifice life sake future rhar future generation s need solidarity give resource severely limit economic situation bid farewell count solidarity aucan tall de analisis problematica juvenil chile page conference late marchearly april launch national local authorit y steward combine able organise prepare necessary national dustrial action defence job service time history tional linkage local authorit y steward air powerful weapon armoury work class local authorit y shop steward send representative february conference information contact lan lowes co grove mount penny lane liverpool miner lpys young striking miner elect lpys national committee gary ironmonger wood num represent yorkshire region gary aid election join lpys beginning strike young worker like learn need political direction struggle sue ayton wakefield lpys send hepscott road london subscribe supporter address britain ireland europe rest world issue air air issue issue issue issue issue issue address cheque payable militant return circulation department militant hepscott road london like donate p week month fighting fund like sell paper week minimum sale return basis j c c j j t | 41 |
J. V. Stalin Source : Works, Vol. 4, November, 1917 - 1920 Publisher : Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1953 Transcription/Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, 2009 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. The Ukraine with its natural wealth has long been an object of imperialist exploitation. Before the revolution the Ukraine was exploited by the Western imperialists quietly, so to speak, without "military operations." French, Belgian and British imperialists organized huge enterprises in the Ukraine (coal, metal, etc.), acquired the majority of the shares and proceeded to suck the blood out of the Ukrainian people in the usual, "lawful" and unobtrusive way. After the October Revolution the picture changed. The October Revolution snapped the threads of imperialism and proclaimed the land and the factories the property of the Ukrainian people, making it impossible for the imperialists to exploit in the "ordinary," "unobtrusive" way. Imperialism was thus expelled from the Ukraine. But imperialism had no desire to yield and positively refused to reconcile itself to the new situation. Hence the "necessity" for the forcible enslavement of the Ukraine, the "necessity" for its occupation. The Austro-German imperialists were the first to undertake the occupation of the Ukraine. The "Rada" and the "Hetmanship," with their "independence," were only playthings and a convenient screen for this occupation, giving outward "sanction" to the exploitation of the Ukraine by the Austro-German imperialists. Who is not familiar with the endless humiliations and tribulations undergone by the Ukraine during the Austro-German occupation, the destruction of workers' and peasants' organizations, the complete disruption of industry and railway transport, the hangings and shootings, which were such commonplace features of Ukrainian "independence" under the aegis of the Austro-German imperialists? But the defeat of Austro-German imperialism and the victory of the German revolution have fundamentally changed the situation in the Ukraine. The road is now open for the liberation of labouring Ukraine from the imperialist yoke. The ruination and enslavement of the Ukraine are coming to an end. The fires of revolution now spreading in the Ukraine will consume the last remnants of imperialism and its "national" hangers-on. The "Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government" 2 which has risen on the tide of revolution will build a new life based on the rule of the Ukrainian workers and peasants. The "Manifesto" of the Ukrainian Soviet Government, which restores the landlords' land to the peasants, the mills and factories to the workers, and full liberty to the labouring and exploit-ed—this historic "Manifesto" will reverberate like thunder through the Ukraine, striking fear into the hearts of its enemies, and ring out like a joyful peal of bells, gladdening and consoling the oppressed sons of the Ukraine. But the struggle is not yet over, the victory is not yet secure. The real struggle in the Ukraine has only just begun. At a time when German imperialism is at its last gasp and the "Hetmanship" in its death agony, British and French imperialism is massing forces and preparing to land troops in the Crimea for the occupation of the Ukraine. They, the Anglo-French imperialists, want to fill the place left vacant by the German invaders of the Ukraine. At the same time, a "Ukrainian Directory" 3 is appearing on the scene, headed by the adventurer Petlura, with the slogan of the old "independence" in a "new" form—as a new screen, one more convenient than the "Hetmanship," for the new, Anglo-French, occupation of the Ukraine! The real struggle in the Ukraine is still to come. We have no doubt that the Ukrainian Soviet Government will be able to administer a fitting rebuff to the new uninvited guests—the would-be enslavers from Britain and France. We have no doubt that the Ukrainian Soviet Government will be able to expose the reactionary role of the adventure-seekers of the Vinnichenko-Petlura camp who, willingly or unwillingly, are paving the way for the incursion of the Anglo-French enslavers. We have no doubt that the Ukrainian Soviet Government will be able to rally around itself the workers and peasants of the Ukraine and lead them with credit to battle and victory. We call upon all loyal sons of the Soviet Ukraine to come to the aid of the young Ukrainian Soviet Government and help it in its glorious fight against the stranglers of the Ukraine. The Ukraine is liberating itself. Hasten to its aid! Zhizn Natsionalnostei, No. 4 December 1, 1918 1.This article, with certain alterations, was also published as an editorial in Pravda, No. 261, December 1, 1918. 2. The Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of the Ukraine was set up in the latter part of November 1918, its seat being first Kursk, and then Sudja. K. E. Voroshilov and F. A. Sergeyev (Artyom) were among its members. On November 29, 1918, the Ukrainian Soviet Government issued a manifesto announcing the overthrow of the Hetman and the establishment of Soviet power in the Ukraine. 3.The Ukrainian Directory—a counter-revolutionary nationalist government formed in Kiev at the close of 1918 by Ukrainian nationalists headed by Petlura and Vinnichenko. It was overthrown by an insurrection of the Ukrainian workers and peasants in February 1919. Collected Works Index | Volume 4 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive Marxists Internet Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol november publisher foreign language publish house moscow transcriptionmarkup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source ukraine natural wealth long object imperialist exploitation revolution ukraine exploit western imperialist quietly speak military operation french belgian british imperialist organize huge enterprise ukraine coal metal etc acquire majority share proceed suck blood ukrainian people usual lawful unobtrusive way october revolution picture change october revolution snap thread imperialism proclaim land factory property ukrainian people make impossible imperialist exploit ordinary unobtrusive way imperialism expel ukraine imperialism desire yield positively refuse reconcile new situation necessity forcible enslavement ukraine necessity occupation austrogerman imperialist undertake occupation ukraine rada hetmanship independence plaything convenient screen occupation give outward sanction exploitation ukraine austrogerman imperialist familiar endless humiliation tribulation undergo ukraine austrogerman occupation destruction worker peasant organization complete disruption industry railway transport hanging shooting commonplace feature ukrainian independence aegis austrogerman imperialist defeat austrogerman imperialism victory german revolution fundamentally change situation ukraine road open liberation labour ukraine imperialist yoke ruination enslavement ukraine come end fire revolution spread ukraine consume remnant imperialism national hangerson provisional worker peasant government rise tide revolution build new life base rule ukrainian worker peasant manifesto ukrainian soviet government restore landlords land peasant mill factory worker liberty labouring exploit historic manifesto reverberate like thunder ukraine strike fear heart enemy ring like joyful peal bell gladden console oppress son ukraine struggle victory secure real struggle ukraine begin time german imperialism gasp hetmanship death agony british french imperialism mass force prepare land troop crimea occupation ukraine anglofrench imperialist want fill place leave vacant german invader ukraine time ukrainian directory appear scene head adventurer petlura slogan old independence new form new screen convenient hetmanship new anglofrench occupation ukraine real struggle ukraine come doubt ukrainian soviet government able administer fitting rebuff new uninvited guest wouldbe enslaver britain france doubt ukrainian soviet government able expose reactionary role adventureseeker vinnichenkopetlura camp willingly unwillingly pave way incursion anglofrench enslaver doubt ukrainian soviet government able rally worker peasant ukraine lead credit battle victory loyal son soviet ukraine come aid young ukrainian soviet government help glorious fight strangler ukraine ukraine liberate hasten aid zhizn natsionalnostei december article certain alteration publish editorial pravda december provisional worker peasant government ukraine set november seat kursk sudja k e voroshilov f sergeyev artyom member november ukrainian soviet government issue manifesto announce overthrow hetman establishment soviet power ukraine ukrainian directory counterrevolutionary nationalist government form kiev close ukrainian nationalist head petlura vinnichenko overthrow insurrection ukrainian worker peasant february collect works index volume index work decade j v stalin archive marxist internet archive | 42 |
The following appeal was issued by the Editorial board of the anti-fascist newspaper Chelovechnost in Moscow. We present it here both for the information of our readers and to salute the courage of Russian internationalists who dare to speak out against the destruction of a people. – eds.] As we enter the 21st century, Russian society is confronted with the shameful fact of the bloody colonial war in the north Caucasus. The whole might of the “democratic” Russian state has been thrown into subjugating a small people that volunteered to join neither the tsarist or Stalinist empires nor Yeltsin’s “federation.” Tens of thousands killed or physically or spiritually maimed; masses impoverished or turned into refugees with no rights; towns and villages reduced to ruins – this is the price paid to satisfy the political ambitions of a Russian ruling class bent on reinforcing and redoubling its dominance. This war, cynically presented as an “anti-terrorist operation,” is in fact an act of state terror on a grand scale by Russia’s rulers, which, in its turn, will lead to armed revenge by desperate Chechen people who have been deprived of everything they had and lost relatives and friends. The federal armed forces, ravaging and burning everything in their way, are not “rooting out fundamentalism” but plunging Chechnya socially and economically into the middle ages – and thus creating the conditions for reactionary radical-Islamic political forces to gain influence. The aggression mounted against Chechnya, the genocide against its people, brings to the people of Russia itself the threat of military-police regime, the repression of civil rights and the prospect of living in something like Lukashenko’s Byelarus or a Latin American dictatorship. “A people that suppresses another people can never itself be free” – these words of Friedrich Engels take on real meaning today. This war is fraught with no less catastrophic consequences socially and economically. Waging war and installing a regime of occupation requires vast resources – and these can only be taken from the working people, who even without this have been condemned to crushing poverty. While many millions live in want, tens of billions of rubles are spent on murder and destruction. Truly the cynicism of the ruling class and its political representatives – all the Putins, Chubaises and Ziuganovs, competing with each other to play the hangman – knows no bounds! The crimes of Russian imperialism against all the peoples who have been drawn into its military adventure must be stopped, before it is too late. We call for: We cannot count on Russian politicians’ good will. And it would be equally naíve to rely on the ruling circles in the west – who condemn the Russian military machine’s actions in words only, and have never upset their own plans or their partnership with the Russian establishment for the sake of defending the lives, and rights, of those who are suffering. Military barbarism can be stopped only by the growth of a social movement of protest in Russia itself. A democratic solution to the conflict in north Caucasus will be achieved only by means of popular action from below. To start such action, and do everything to help it develop, is the duty of all democratic and antitotalitarian left-wingers, who take a principled stand – in pursuit of the ideals of freedom, social equality and respect for every human being – against the exploitative and great power interests who are running this war. We call on all people of progressive convictions, good will and common sense to do all that they can to give help, including material help, to the victims of the imperialist adventure in the Caucasus, and to take part in a campaign of practical solidarity with the Chechen people – a campaign against the war. The alternatives for our future are simple: Either humanitarian civil society declares itself in Russia, or we will be left with a great-power police state, ready to make new wars and capable of the most monstrous crimes. It’s time to make a choice! Those who wish to join our campaign are asked to write to us. Fax (011 7095) 292 6511, Box 385. Postal address: The Praxis Centre, Box 32, 127434 Moscow. ATC 86, May–June 2000 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | follow appeal issue editorial board antifascist newspaper chelovechnost moscow present information reader salute courage russian internationalist dare speak destruction people ed enter century russian society confront shameful fact bloody colonial war north caucasus democratic russian state throw subjugate small people volunteer join tsarist stalinist empire yeltsin federation ten thousand kill physically spiritually maim masse impoverished turn refugee right town village reduce ruin price pay satisfy political ambition russian rule class bend reinforce redouble dominance war cynically present antiterrorist operation fact act state terror grand scale russia ruler turn lead armed revenge desperate chechen people deprive lose relative friend federal armed force ravage burn way root fundamentalism plunge chechnya socially economically middle age create condition reactionary radicalislamic political force gain influence aggression mount chechnya genocide people bring people russia threat militarypolice regime repression civil right prospect live like lukashenko byelarus latin american dictatorship people suppress people free word friedrich engel real meaning today war fraught catastrophic consequence socially economically wage war instal regime occupation require vast resource take work people condemn crush poverty million live want ten billion ruble spend murder destruction truly cynicism rule class political representative putin chubaise ziuganovs compete play hangman know bound crime russian imperialism people draw military adventure stop late count russian politician good equally naíve rely rule circle west condemn russian military machine action word upset plan partnership russian establishment sake defend life right suffer military barbarism stop growth social movement protest russia democratic solution conflict north caucasus achieve mean popular action start action help develop duty democratic antitotalitarian leftwinger principled stand pursuit ideal freedom social equality respect human exploitative great power interest run war people progressive conviction good common sense help include material help victim imperialist adventure caucasus campaign practical solidarity chechen people campaign war alternative future simple humanitarian civil society declare russia leave greatpower police state ready new war capable monstrous crime time choice wish join campaign ask write fax box postal address praxis centre box moscow atc june current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 43 |
From Eugene V. Debs, Labor & Freedom, St.Louis 1916, pp.107-132. Speech Before State Convention of American Federation of Labor, Pittsburg, Kansas, August 12, 1908. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. Gentlemen of the Convention: I assure you it is a great privilege on my part to present to you at this time a gentleman who needs no introduction at my hands; a gentleman who is known to you and who is known to the workingmen throughout the length and breadth of this country as a true and tried trade unionist and the candidate of the Socialist party for President of the United States. I, therefore, take great pleasure in presenting to you Brother Eugene V. Debs. Mr. Chairman, Delegates and Fellow Workers: It is with pleasure, I assure you, that I embrace this opportunity to exchange greetings with you in the councils of labor. I have prepared no formal address, nor is any necessary at this time. You have met here as the representatives of organized labor and if I can do anything to assist you in the work you have been delegated to do I shall render that assistance with great pleasure. To serve the working class is to me always a duty of love. Thirty-three years ago I first became a member of a trade union. I can remember quite well under what difficulties meetings were held and with what contempt organized labor was treated at that time. There has been a decided change. The small and insignificant trade union has expanded to the proportions of a great national organization. The few hundreds now number millions and organized labor has become a recognized factor in the economics and politics of the nation. There has been a great evolution during that time and while the power of the organized workers has increased there has been an industrial development which makes that power more necessary than ever before in all the history of the working class movement. This is an age of organization. The small employer of a quarter of a century ago has practically disappeared. The workingman of today is confronted by the great corporation which has its ironclad rules and regulations, and if they don’t suit he can quit. In the presence of this great power, workingmen are compelled to organize or be ground to atoms. They have organized. They have the numbers. They have had some bitter experience. They have suffered beyond the power of language to describe, but they have not yet developed their latent power to a degree that they can cope successfully with the great power that exploits and oppresses them. Upon this question of organization, my brothers, you and I may differ widely, but as we are reasonable men, we can discuss these differences candidly until we find common ground upon which we can stand side by side in the true spirit of solidarity – and work together for the emancipation of our class. Until quite recently the average trade unionist was opposed to having politics even mentioned in the meeting of his union. The reason for this is self-evident. Workingmen have not until now keenly felt the necessity for independent working class political action. They have been divided between the two capitalist parties and the very suggestion that the union was to be used in the interest of the one or the other was in itself sufficient to sow the seed of disruption. So it isn’t strange that the average trade unionist guarded carefully against the introduction of political questions in his union. But within the past two or three years there have been such changes that workingmen have been compelled to take notice of the fact that the labor question is essentially a political question, and that if they would protect themselves against the greed and rapacity of the capitalist class they must develop their political power as well as their economic power, and use both in their own interest. Workingmen have developed sufficient intelligence to understand the necessity for unity upon the economic field. All now recognize the need for thorough organization. But organization of numbers of itself is not sufficient. You might have all the workers of the country embraced in some vast organization and yet they would be very weak if they were not organized upon correct principles; if they did not understand, and understand clearly, what they were organized for, and what their organization expected to accomplish. I am of those who believe that an organization of workingmen, to be efficient, to meet the demands of this hour, must be organized upon a revolutionary basis; must have for its definite object not only the betterment of the condition of workingmen in the wage system, but the absolute overthrow of wage slavery that the workingman may be emancipated and stand forth clothed with the dignity and all other attributes of true manhood. Now let me briefly discuss the existing condition. We have been organizing all these years, and there are now approximately three millions of American workingmen who wear union badges, who keep step to union progress. At this very time, and in spite of all that organized labor can do to the contrary, there is a condition that prevails all over this country that is well calculated to challenge the serious consideration of every workingman. To begin with, according to the reports furnished us, twenty per cent of the workingmen of this country are now out of employment. I have here a copy of the New York World containing a report of the labor commissioner of the State of New York who shows that during the quarter ending June 30 there were in that state an army of union men out of employment approximating thirty-five per cent of the entire number; that is to say, in the State of New York today, out of every one hundred union men (these reports are received from the unions themselves, verified by their own officers, so there can be no question in regard to them), out of every 100 union men in New York, 35 are out of employment. The percentage may not he so large in these western states where the industrial development has not reached the same point, but go where you may, east or west, north or south, you will find men, union men, who are begging for the opportunity to work for just enough to keep their suffering souls within their famished bodies. A system in which such a condition as this is possible has fulfilled its mission, stands condemned, and ought to be abolished. According to the Declaration of Independence, man has the inalienable right to life. If that be true it follows that he has also the inalienable right to work. If you have no right to work you have no right to life because you can only live by work. And if you live in a system that deprives you of the right to work, that system denies you the right to live. Now man has a right to life because he is here. That is sufficient proof, and if he has the right to life, it follows that he has the right to all the means that sustain life. But how is it in this outgrown capitalist system? A workingman can only work on condition that he finds somebody who will give him permission to work for just enough of what his labor produces to keep him in working order. No matter whether you have studied this economic question or not, you cannot have failed to observe that during the past half century society has been sharply divided into classes – into a capitalist class upon the one hand, into a working class upon the other hand. I shall not take the time to trace this evolution. I shall imply call your attention to the fact that half a century ago all a man needed was a trade and having this he could supply himself with the simple tools then used, produce what he needed and enjoy the fruit of his labor. But this has been completely changed. The simple tool has disappeared and the great machine has taken its place. The little shop is gone and the great factory has come in its stead. The worker can no longer work by and for himself. He has been recruited into regiments, battalions and armies and work has been subdivided and specialized; and now hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of workingmen work together co-operatively and produce in great abundance, not for themselves, however, for they no longer own the tools they work with. What they produce belongs to the capitalist class who own the tools with which they work. A man fifty years ago who made a shoe owned it. Today it is possible for that same worker, if still alive, to make a hundred times as many shoes, but he doesn’t own them now. He works today with modern machinery which is the property of some capitalist who lives perhaps a thousand miles from where the factory is located and who owns all the product because he owns the machinery. I have stated that society has been divided into two warring classes. The capitalist owns the tool in modern industry, but he has nothing to do with its operation. By virtue of such ownership he has the economic power to appropriate to himself the wealth produced by the use of that tool. This accounts for the fact that the capitalist becomes rich. But how about the working class? In the first place they have to compete with each other for the privilege of operating the capitalist’s tool of production. The bigger the tool and the more generally it is applied, the more it produces, the sharper competition grows between the workers for the privilege of using it and the more are thrown out of employment. Every few years,, no matter what party is in power, no matter what our domestic policy is, how high the tariff or what the money standard, every few years the cry goes up about “overproduction” and the working class is discharged by the thousands and thousands, and are idle, just as the miners have been in this field for many weary months. No work, no food, and after a while, no credit, and all this in the shadow of the abundance these very workers have created. Don’t you agree with me, my brothers, that this condition is an intolerable and indefensible one, and that whatever may be said of the past, this system no longer answers the demands of this time? Why should any workingman need to beg for work? Why forced to surrender to anybody any part of what his labor produces? Now, I ask this question, and it applies to the whole field of industry: If a hundred men work in a mine and produce a hundred tons of coal, how much of that coal are they entitled to? Are they not entitled to all of it? And if not, who is entitled to any part of it? If the man who produces wealth is not entitled to it, who is? You say the capitalist is necessary and I deny it. The capitalist has become a profit-taking parasite. Industry is now concentrated and operated on a very large scale; it is co-operative and therefore self-operative. The capitalists hire superintendents, managers and workingmen to operate their plants and produce wealth. The capitalists are absolutely unnecessary; they have no part in the process of production – not the slightest. Now I insist that it is the workingman’s duty to so organize economically and politically as to put an end to this system; as to take possession in his collective capacity of the machinery of production and operate it, not to create millionaires and multi-millionaires, but to produce wealth in plenty for all. That is why the labor question is also a political question. It makes no difference what you do on the economic field to better your condition, so long as the tools of production are privately owned, so long as they are operated for the private profit of the capitalist, the working class will be exploited, they will be in enforced idleness, thousands of them will be reduced to want, some of them to vagabonds and criminals, and this condition will prevail in spite of anything that organized labor can do to the contrary. The most important thing for the workingman to recognize is the class struggle. Every capitalist, every capitalist newspaper, every capitalist attorney and retainer will insist that we have no classes in this country and that there is no class struggle. President Roosevelt himself has declared that class-consciousness is a foul and evil thing. Now, what is class-consciousness? It is simply a recognition of the fact on the part of the workingman that his interest is identical with the interest of every other workingman. Class-consciousness points out the necessity for working-class action, economic and political. What is it that keeps the working class in subjection? What is it that is responsible for their exploitation and for all of the ills they suffer? Just one thing; it can be stated in a single word. It is Ignorance. The working class have not yet learned how to unite and act together. There are relatively but few capitalists in this country; there are perhaps twenty millions of wage workers, but the capitalists and their retainers have contrived during all these years to keep the working class divided, and as long as the working class is divided it will be helpless. It is only when the working class learn – and they are learning daily and by very bitter experience – to unite and to act together, especially on election day, that there is any hope for emancipation. The workingmen you represent, my brothers, are in an overwhelming majority in every township, county and state of this nation. You declare you are in favor of united action, but still you don’t unite. You unite under certain conditions within your union, you get together upon the economic field to a limited extent, but you have yet to learn that before you can really accomplish anything you have got to unite in fact as well as in name. The time is coming when workingmen will be forced into one general organization. The time is coming when they will be compelled to organize on the basis of industrial unionism. At this very hour there is a strike on the Canadian Pacific. Eight thousand workingmen who are more or less organized and who have been wronged in many ways, have finally gone out on strike. There are other thousands remaining at their posts and non-union men flowing in there will be hauled to their destination by union men, and union men will continue to work until their eight thousand brothers have lost their jobs and many of them have become tramps. That is called organization, but it is not so in fact. It is at best organization of a very weak and defective character. Now, the right kind of organization on the Canadian Pacific would embrace all the workers. They should all be included within the same organization and then have one general working agreement with the company so that if there was a violation of it, it would concern every man in the service. But how is it at present? The engineers, conductors, trainmen and switchmen are in separate unions and after they have been signed up, the company can treat the rest just as they please, for they know that if they strike and the others remain in their service, as they are bound to do under their agreement, they can very easily supplant them and remain in perfect control of the system. We have had enough of that kind of experience and we ought to profit by it. We ought to realize that there is but one form of organization that answers completely, one in which all subscribe to the same rules and act together in all things, and you will have to organize upon that basis or see your unions become practically worthless. Now let us consider another line briefly for the benefit of those who have opposed political action. We are all aware of the trend of the decisions recently rendered by the United States supreme court. Three decisions have been rendered in rapid succession which strike down the rights of labor and virtually strip organized labor of its power. Under these decisions organized labor has been outlawed, and while upon this question I want to suggest that this body at the proper time in its deliberations put the following questions to the candidates for the United States senate and house of representatives in the State of Kansas and request them to answer: In view of the fact that the United States supreme court has rendered a number of decisions placing the working class at a tremendous disadvantage in its struggle with the employing class for better conditions, we respectfully submit to the candidates for the United States senate and house of representatives the following questions: Here are these candidates in the State of Kansas for the United States senate and house of representatives and if they are elected they will have the power to control legislation, and it is perfectly proper that you, as the representatives of the workers, should put these questions squarely to these candidates and demand that they answer them. They are very simple questions. The United States court has rendered a decision to the effect that a trade union is a trust and that if it exercises its legitimate powers it is a criminal conspiracy in restraint of trade. That decision of the court congress has the power to set aside, and if a man stands as a candidate for congress, in the upper or lower branch, and appeals to you for your vote – and bear in mind he can only be elected by your vote – it is right and proper that you should know if he is in favor of the decision or opposed to it. And if he is in favor of this decision he is your enemy. Now, these candidates are trying to carry water on both shoulders. They declare they will give both labor and capital a square deal, and I want to say that is impossible. No man can be for labor without being against capital. No man can be for capital without being against labor. Here is the capitalist; here are the workers. Here is the capitalist who owns the mines; here are the miners who work in the mines. There is so much coal produced. There is a quarrel between them over a division of the product. Each wants all he can get. Here we have the class struggle. Now, is it possible to be for the capitalist without being against the worker. Are their interest not diametrically opposite? If you increase the share of the capitalist don’t you decrease the share of the workers? Can a door be both open and shut at the same time? Can you increase both the workers’ and the capitalist’s share at the same time? There is just so much produced, and in the present system it has to be divided between the capitalists and the workers, and both sides are fighting for all they can get, and this is the historic class struggle. We have now no revolutionary organization of the workers along the lines of this class struggle, and that is the demand of this time. The pure and simple trade union will no longer answer. I would not take from it the least credit that belongs to it. I have fought under its banner for thirty years. I have followed it through victory and defeat, generally defeat. I realize today more than ever before in my life the necessity for thorough economic organization. It must be made complete. Organization, like everything else, is subject to the laws of evolution. Everything changes, my brothers. The tool you worked with twenty-five years ago will no longer do. It would do then; it will not do now. The capitalists are combined against you. They are reducing wages. They have control of the courts. They are doing everything they can to destroy your power. You have got to follow their example. You have got to unify your forces. You have got to stand together shoulder to shoulder on the economic and political fields and then you will make substantial progress toward emancipation. I am not here, my brothers, to ask you, as an economic organization, to go into politics. Not at all. If I could have you pass a resolution to go into politics I would not do it. If you were inclined to go into active politics as an organization I would prevent such action if I could. You repre sent the economic organization of the working class and this organization has its own clearly defined functions. Your economic organization can never become a political machine, but your economic organization must recognize and proclaim the necessity for a united political party. You ought to pass a resolution recognizing the class struggle, declaring your opposition to the capitalist system of private ownership of the means of production, and urging upon the working class the necessity for working class political action. That is as far as the economic organization need to go. If you were to use your economic organization for political purposes you would disrupt it, you would wreck it. But I would not have you renounce politics, nor be afraid to discuss anything. Who is it that is so fearful you will discuss politics? It is the ward-heeling politician, and isn’t it because he knows very well that if you ever get into politics in the right way he will be out of a job? He is afraid you will get your eyes open. Why should a union man be afraid to discuss politics? He belongs to a certain party; his father belonged to that party and his grandfather belonged to that party, and perhaps his great-grandfather belonged to the same party, and that is probably the only reason he can give for belonging to that party. He don’t want anybody to suggest to him the possibility of being lifted out of that party and into some other. Parties change. The party that was good forty years ago is completely outgrown and corrupt and has now no purpose but the promotion of graft and other vicious practices. Workingmen in their organized capacity must recognize the necessity for both economic and political action. I would not have you declare in favor of any particular political party. That would be another mistake which would have disastrous results. If I could have you pass a resolution to support the Socialist party I would not do it. You can’t make Socialists by passing resolutions. Men have to become Socialists by study and experience, and they are getting the experience every day. There is one fact, and a very important one, that I would impress upon you, and that is the necessity for revolutionary working class political action. No one will attempt to dispute the fact that our interests as workers are identical. If our interests are identical, then we ought to unite. We ought to unite within the same organization, and if there is a strike we should all strike, and if there is a boycott all of us ought to engage in it. If our interests are identical, it follows that we ought to belong to the same party as well as to the same economic organization. What is politics? It is simply the reflex of economics. What is a party? It is the expression politically of certain material class interests. You belong to that party that you believe will promote your material welfare. Is not that a fact? If you find yourself in a party that attacks your pocket do you not quit that party? Now, if you are in a party that opposes your interests it is because you don’t have intelligence enough to understand your interests. That is where the capitalists have the better of you. As a rule, they are intelligent, and shrewd. They understand their material interests and how to protect them. You find the capitalists as a rule belonging only to capitalist parties. They don’t; join a working-class party and they don’t vote the Socialist ticket. They know enough to know that Socialism is opposed to their economic interests. Now, both republican and democratic parties are capitalist parties. There is not the slightest doubt about it. It can be proved in a hundred different ways. You know how the republican party treated the demands of labor in its recent national convention. You know, or ought to know, what has taken place under the present administration. You know, or ought to know, something about the democratic party, national, state and municipal. If there are those who say that the democratic party is more favorable to labor than the republican party it is only necessary to point to the southern states where it has ruled for a century. In no other part of the nation are workingmen in so wretched a condition. In no other part are working people so miserably housed, so wretchedly treated as they are in the southern states where the democratic party rules supreme. At this very hour miners in Alabama are on strike under a democratic administration. I know the condition there, for I have been in the mines. I know many of those men personally. I know under what conditions they have had to work. I have been in the shacks in which they live and have seen their unhappy wives and ill-fed children. I know whereof I speak. Only in the last extremity have those men gone out on strike. They bore all these cruel wrongs for years and were finally forced out on strike. And then what happened? The very first thing the democratic governor did was to send the soldiers to scab the mines. It doesn’t make any difference to you, if workingmen are starved and shot down, which party is in power. It occurs under both republican and democratic administration. There will be no change as long as you continue to support the prevailing capitalist system, based upon the private ownership of the tools with which workingmen work and without which they are doomed to slavery and starvation. Now, I repeat that this body should declare against this system of private ownership and in favor of the collective ownership by the workers of the tools of production. This will give you a clear aim and definite object. This will make your movement revolutionary in its ultimate purpose, as it ought to be, and as for immediate concessions in the way of legislation by capitalist representatives and more favorable working conditions, you workingmen have only to poll two million Socialist votes this fall, and you will get those concessions freely and you will not get them in any other way. You will not frighten, you will not move the great corporations by dividing your votes between the republican and democratic parties. It doesn’t make any difference which of these two parties wins, you lose! They are both capitalist parties and I don’t ask you to take my mere word for it. I simply ask, my brothers, that you read and study the platforms for yourself. I beg of you not to have an ignorant, superstitious reverence for any political party. It is your misfortune if you are the blind follower of any political leader, or any other leader. It is your duty as a workingman, your duty to yourself, your family, to quit a party the very instant you find that that party no longer serves you; and if you continue to adhere to a party that antagonizes your interests, if you continue to support a system in which you are degraded, then you have no right to complain. You must submit to what comes, for you yourself are responsible. Let me impress this fact upon your minds: the labor question, which is really the question of all humanity, will never be solved until it is solved by the working class. It will never be solved for you by the capitalists. It will never be solved for you by the politicians. It will remain unsolved until you yourselves solve it. As long as you can stand and are willing to stand these conditions, these conditions will remain; but when you unite all over the land, when you present a solid class-conscious phalanx, economically and politically, there is no power on this earth that can stand between you and complete emancipation. As individuals you are helpless, but united you represent an irresistible power. Is there any doubt in the mind of any thinking workingman that we are in the midst of a class struggle? Is there any doubt that the workingman ought to own the tool he works with? You will never own the tool you work with under the present system. This whole system is based upon the private ownership by the capitalist of the tools and the wage-slavery of the working class, and as long as the tools are privately owned by the capitalists the great mass of workers will be wage-slaves. You may, at times, temporarily better your condition within certain limitations, but you will still remain wage-slaves, and why wage-slaves? For just one reason and no other – you have got to work. To work you have got to have tools, and if you have no tools you have to beg for work, and if you have got to beg for work the man who owns the tools you use will determine the conditions under which you shall work. As long as he owns your tools he owns your job, and if he owns your job he is the master of your fate. You are in no sense a free man. You are subject to his interest and to his will. He decides whether you shall work or not. Therefore, he decides whether you shall live or die. And in that humiliating position any one who tries to persuade you that you are a free man is guilty of insulting your intelligence. You will never be free, you will never stand erect in your own manly self-reliance until you are the master of the tools you work with, and when you are you can freely work without the consent of any master, and when you do work you will get all your labor produces. As it is now the lion’s share goes to the capitalist for which he does nothing, while you get a small fraction to feed, clothe and shelter yourself, and reproduce yourself in the form of labor power. That is all you get out of it and all you ever will get in the capitalist system. Oh, my brothers, can you be satisfied with your lot? Will you insist that life shall continue a mere struggle for existence and one prolonged misery to which death comes as a blessed relief? How is it with the average workingman today? I am not referring to the few who have been favored and who have fared better than the great mass, but I am asking how it is with the average workingman in this system? Admit that he has a job. What assurance has he that it is his in twenty-four hours? I have a letter from an expert glass worker saying that the new glass machine which has recently been tested, has proven conclusively that bottles can be made without a glass blower. Five or six boys with these machines can make as many bottles as ten expert blowers could make. Machinery is conquering every department of activity. It is displacing more and more workingmen and making the lot of those who have employment more and more insecure. Admit that a man has a job. What assurance has he that he is going to keep it? A machine may be invented. He may offend the boss. He may engage in a little agitation in the interest of his class. He is marked as an agitator, he is discharged, and then what is his status? The minute he is discharged he has to hunt for a new buyer for his labor power. He owns no tools; the tools are great machines. He can’t compete against them with his bare hands. He has got to work. There is only one condition under which he can work and that is when he sells his labor power, his energy, his very life currents, and thus disposes of himself in daily installments. He is not sold from the block, as was the chattel slave. He sells ten hours of himself every day in exchange for just enough to keep himself in that same slavish condition. The machine he works with has to be oiled, and he has to be fed, and the oil sustains the same relation to the machine that food does to him. If he could work without food his wage would be reduced to the vanishing point. That is the status of the workingman today. What can the present economic organization do to improve the condition of the workingman? Very little, if anything. If you have a wife and two or three children, and you take the possibilities into consideration, this question ought to give you grave concern. You know that it is the sons of workingmen who become vagabonds and tramps, and who are sent to jail, and it is the daughters of workingmen who are forced into houses of shame. You are a workingman, you live in capitalism, and you have nothing but your labor power, and you don’t know whether you are going to find a buyer or not. But even if you do find a master, if you have a job, can you boast of being a man among men? No man can rightly claim to be a man unless he is free. There is something godlike about manhood. Manhood doesn’t admit of ownership. Manhood scorns to be regarded as property. Do you know whether you have a job or not? Do you know how long you are going to have one? And when you are out of a job what can your union do for you? I was down at Coalgate, Oklahoma, on the Fourth of July last, where six hundred miners have been out of work for four long months. They are all organized. There are the mines and machinery, and the miners are eager to work. But not;i tap of work is being done, and the miners and their families are suffering, and most of them live in houses that are unfit for habitation. This awful condition is never going to be changed in capitalism. There is one way only and that is to wipe out capitalism, and to do that we have to get together, and when we do that we will find the way to emancipation. You may not agree with me now, but make note of what I am saying. The time is near when you will be forced into economic and political solidarity. The republican and democratic parties are alike capitalist parties. Some of you may think that Mr. Bryan, if elected, will do great things for the workers. Conditions will remain substantially the same. We will still be under capitalism. It will not matter how you many tinker with the tariff or the currency. The tools are still the property of the capitalists and you are still at their mercy. Now let me show you that Mr. Bryan is no more your friend than is Mr. Taft. You remember when the officials of the Western Federation of Miners were kidnaped in Colorado, and when it was said they should never leave Idaho alive. It was the determination of the Mine Owners’ Association that these brave and loyal union leaders should be foully murdered. When these brothers of ours were brutally kidnaped by the collusion of the capitalist governors of two states, every true friend of the working class cried out in protest. Did Mr. Bryan utter a word? Mr. Bryan was the recognized champion of the working class. He was in a position to be heard. A protest from him would have tremendous weight with the American people. But his labor friends could not unlock his lips. Not one word would he speak. Not one. Organized labor, however, throughout the length and breadth of the land, took the matter in hand promptly and registered its protest in a way that made the nation quake. The Mine Owners’ Association took to the tall timber. Our brother unionists were acquitted, vindicated, and stood forth without a blemish upon their honor, and after they were free once more, Mr. Bryan said, “I felt all the time that they were not guilty.” Now if your faithful leaders are kidnaped and threatened to be hanged, and you call upon a man who claims to be your friend, to come to the rescue and he refuses to say a word, to give the least help, do you still think he is your friend? Mr. Bryan had his chance to prove his friendship at a time when labor sorely needed friends, when organized labor cried out in agony and distress. But not a word escaped his lips. Why did not Mr. Byran speak? He did not dare. Mr. Bryan knew very well that the kidnapers of those men were his personal friends., the association of rich mine owners, who had largely furnished his campaign funds. For Mr. Bryan personally I have always had a high regard. I am not attacking him in any personal sense at all. But the extremity to which a man is driven who tries to serve both capital and labor! It can’t be done. Mr. Bryan did not dare to speak for labor because if he had he would have turned the mine owning capitalists against him. He is afraid to speak out very loudly for capitalists for fear the workers will get after him. He has compromised all around for the sake of being president. You have heard him denounce Roger Sullivan. Mr. Bryan, four years ago, in denouncing this corruptionist, at the time of the nomination of Alton B. Parker, said he was totally destitute of honor and compared him to a train robber. Notwithstanding this fact, Mr. Bryan recently invited Sullivan to his home in Lincoln, took him by the hand and introduced him to his family. Mr. Bryan also invited Charley Murphy, the inexpressibly rotten Tammany heeler of New York. Mr. Bryan had him come to Lincoln so as to conciliate Tammany, and they were photographed together shaking hands. No man can serve both capital and labor at the same time. You don’t admit the capitalists to your union. They organize their union to fight you. You organize your union to fight them. Their union consists wholly of capitalists; your union consists wholly of workingmen. It is along the same line that you have got to organize politically. You don’t unite with capitalists on the economic field; why should you politically? You have got to extend your class line. You can declare yourselves in this convention and make your position clear to the world. You can give hope and inspire confidence throughout the state. And now in closing, I wish to thank you, each of you, from my heart, for your kindness. I appreciate the opportunity you have given me to address you and whether you agree with me or not, I leave you wishing you success in your deliberations and hoping for the early triumph of the labor movement. The convention passed a unanimous rising vote of thanks at the close of the address. Back to the Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive | left | eugene v debs labor freedom stlouis speech state convention american federation labor pittsburg kansas august transcribed mark einde marxist internet archive gentleman convention assure great privilege present time gentleman need introduction hand gentleman know know workingman length breadth country true try trade unionist candidate socialist party president united states great pleasure present brother eugene v debs mr chairman delegate fellow worker pleasure assure embrace opportunity exchange greeting council labor prepare formal address necessary time meet representative organize labor assist work delegate shall render assistance great pleasure serve work class duty love thirtythree year ago member trade union remember difficulty meeting hold contempt organize labor treat time decide change small insignificant trade union expand proportion great national organization hundred number million organize labor recognize factor economic politic nation great evolution time power organize worker increase industrial development make power necessary history work class movement age organization small employer quarter century ago practically disappear workingman today confront great corporation ironclad rule regulation suit quit presence great power workingman compel organize grind atom organize number bitter experience suffer power language describe develop latent power degree cope successfully great power exploit oppress question organization brother differ widely reasonable man discuss difference candidly find common ground stand true spirit solidarity work emancipation class recently average trade unionist oppose have politic mention meeting union reason selfevident workingman keenly feel necessity independent work class political action divide capitalist party suggestion union interest sufficient sow seed disruption strange average trade unionist guard carefully introduction political question union past year change workingman compel notice fact labor question essentially political question protect greed rapacity capitalist class develop political power economic power use interest workingman develop sufficient intelligence understand necessity unity economic field recognize need thorough organization organization number sufficient worker country embrace vast organization weak organize correct principle understand understand clearly organize organization expect accomplish believe organization workingman efficient meet demand hour organize revolutionary basis definite object betterment condition workingman wage system absolute overthrow wage slavery workingman emancipate stand forth clothe dignity attribute true manhood let briefly discuss exist condition organize year approximately million american workingman wear union badge step union progress time spite organize labor contrary condition prevail country calculated challenge consideration workingman begin accord report furnish cent workingman country employment copy new york world contain report labor commissioner state new york show quarter end june state army union man employment approximate thirtyfive cent entire number state new york today union man report receive union verify officer question regard union man new york employment percentage large western state industrial development reach point east west north south find man union man beg opportunity work suffering soul famish body system condition possible fulfil mission stands condemn ought abolish accord declaration independence man inalienable right life true follow inalienable right work right work right life live work live system deprive right work system deny right live man right life sufficient proof right life follow right mean sustain life outgrow capitalist system workingman work condition find somebody permission work labor produce work order matter study economic question fail observe past half century society sharply divide class capitalist class hand work class hand shall time trace evolution shall imply attention fact half century ago man need trade have supply simple tool produce need enjoy fruit labor completely change simple tool disappear great machine take place little shop go great factory come stead worker long work recruit regiment battalion army work subdivide specialized hundred thousand ten thousand workingman work cooperatively produce great abundance long tool work produce belong capitalist class tool work man year ago shoe own today possible worker alive time shoe work today modern machinery property capitalist live thousand mile factory locate own product own machinery state society divide war class capitalist own tool modern industry operation virtue ownership economic power appropriate wealth produce use tool account fact capitalist rich work class place compete privilege operate capitalist tool production big tool generally apply produce sharp competition grow worker privilege throw employment year matter party power matter domestic policy high tariff money standard year cry go overproduction work class discharge thousand thousand idle miner field weary month work food credit shadow abundance worker create agree brother condition intolerable indefensible say past system long answer demand time workingman need beg work force surrender anybody labor produce ask question apply field industry man work produce ton coal coal entitle entitle entitle man produce wealth entitle capitalist necessary deny capitalist profittake parasite industry concentrate operate large scale cooperative selfoperative capitalist hire superintendent manager workingman operate plant produce wealth capitalist absolutely unnecessary process production slight insist workingman duty organize economically politically end system possession collective capacity machinery production operate create millionaire multimillionaire produce wealth plenty labor question political question make difference economic field better condition long tool production privately own long operate private profit capitalist work class exploit enforce idleness thousand reduce want vagabond criminal condition prevail spite organized labor contrary important thing workingman recognize class struggle capitalist capitalist newspaper capitalist attorney retainer insist class country class struggle president roosevelt declare classconsciousness foul evil thing classconsciousness simply recognition fact workingman interest identical interest workingman classconsciousness point necessity workingclass action economic political keep work class subjection responsible exploitation ill suffer thing state single word ignorance work class learn unite act relatively capitalist country million wage worker capitalist retainer contrive year work class divide long work class divide helpless work class learn learn daily bitter experience unite act especially election day hope emancipation workingman represent brother overwhelming majority township county state nation declare favor united action unite unite certain condition union economic field limited extent learn accomplish get unite fact time come workingman force general organization time come compel organize basis industrial unionism hour strike canadian pacific thousand workingman organized wrong way finally go strike thousand remain post nonunion man flow haul destination union man union man continue work thousand brother lose job tramp call organization fact good organization weak defective character right kind organization canadian pacific embrace worker include organization general working agreement company violation concern man service present engineer conductors trainmen switchman separate union sign company treat rest know strike remain service bind agreement easily supplant remain perfect control system kind experience ought profit ought realize form organization answer completely subscribe rule act thing organize basis union practically worthless let consider line briefly benefit oppose political action aware trend decision recently render united states supreme court decision render rapid succession strike right labor virtually strip organize labor power decision organize labor outlaw question want suggest body proper time deliberation follow question candidate united states senate house representative state kansas request answer view fact united states supreme court render number decision place work class tremendous disadvantage struggle employing class well condition respectfully submit candidate united states senate house representative follow question candidate state kansas united states senate house representative elect power control legislation perfectly proper representative worker question squarely candidate demand answer simple question united states court render decision effect trade union trust exercise legitimate power criminal conspiracy restraint trade decision court congress power set aside man stand candidate congress upper low branch appeal vote bear mind elect vote right proper know favor decision oppose favor decision enemy candidate try carry water shoulder declare labor capital square deal want impossible man labor capital man capital labor capitalist worker capitalist own mine miner work mine coal produce quarrel division product want class struggle possible capitalist worker interest diametrically opposite increase share capitalist decrease share worker door open shut time increase worker capitalist share time produce present system divide capitalist worker side fight historic class struggle revolutionary organization worker line class struggle demand time pure simple trade union long answer credit belong fight banner thirty year follow victory defeat generally defeat realize today life necessity thorough economic organization complete organization like subject law evolution change brother tool work twentyfive year ago long capitalist combine reduce wage control court destroy power get follow example get unify force get stand shoulder shoulder economic political field substantial progress emancipation brother ask economic organization politic pass resolution politic inclined active politic organization prevent action repre send economic organization work class organization clearly define function economic organization political machine economic organization recognize proclaim necessity united political party ought pass resolution recognize class struggle declare opposition capitalist system private ownership mean production urge work class necessity work class political action far economic organization need use economic organization political purpose disrupt wreck renounce politic afraid discuss fearful discuss politic wardheeling politician know politic right way job afraid eye open union man afraid discuss politic belong certain party father belong party grandfather belong party greatgrandfather belong party probably reason belong party want anybody suggest possibility lift party party change party good year ago completely outgrow corrupt purpose promotion graft vicious practice workingman organize capacity recognize necessity economic political action declare favor particular political party mistake disastrous result pass resolution support socialist party socialist pass resolution man socialist study experience get experience day fact important impress necessity revolutionary work class political action attempt dispute fact interest worker identical interest identical ought unite ought unite organization strike strike boycott ought engage interest identical follow ought belong party economic organization politic simply reflex economic party expression politically certain material class interest belong party believe promote material welfare fact find party attack pocket quit party party oppose interest intelligence understand interest capitalist well rule intelligent shrewd understand material interest protect find capitalist rule belong capitalist party join workingclass party vote socialist ticket know know socialism oppose economic interest republican democratic party capitalist party slight doubt prove different way know republican party treat demand labor recent national convention know ought know take place present administration know ought know democratic party national state municipal democratic party favorable labor republican party necessary point southern state rule century nation workingman wretched condition work people miserably house wretchedly treat southern state democratic party rule supreme hour miner alabama strike democratic administration know condition mine know man personally know condition work shack live see unhappy wife illfed child know whereof speak extremity man go strike bear cruel wrong year finally force strike happen thing democratic governor send soldier scab mine difference workingman starve shoot party power occur republican democratic administration change long continue support prevail capitalist system base private ownership tool workingman work doom slavery starvation repeat body declare system private ownership favor collective ownership worker tool production clear aim definite object movement revolutionary ultimate purpose ought immediate concession way legislation capitalist representative favorable work condition workingman poll million socialist vote fall concession freely way frighten great corporation divide vote republican democratic party difference party win lose capitalist party ask mere word simply ask brother read study platform beg ignorant superstitious reverence political party misfortune blind follower political leader leader duty workingman duty family quit party instant find party long serve continue adhere party antagonize interest continue support system degrade right complain submit come responsible let impress fact mind labor question question humanity solve solve working class solve capitalist solve politician remain unsolved solve long stand willing stand condition condition remain unite land present solid classconscious phalanx economically politically power earth stand complete emancipation individual helpless unite represent irresistible power doubt mind think workingman midst class struggle doubt workingman ought tool work tool work present system system base private ownership capitalist tool wageslavery work class long tool privately own capitalist great mass worker wageslave time temporarily well condition certain limitation remain wageslave wageslave reason get work work get tool tool beg work get beg work man own tool use determine condition shall work long own tool own job own job master fate sense free man subject interest decide shall work decide shall live die humiliating position try persuade free man guilty insult intelligence free stand erect manly selfreliance master tool work freely work consent master work labor produce lion share go capitalist small fraction feed clothe shelter reproduce form labor power capitalist system oh brother satisfied lot insist life shall continue mere struggle existence prolonged misery death come bless relief average workingman today refer favor fare well great mass ask average workingman system admit job assurance twentyfour hour letter expert glass worker say new glass machine recently test prove conclusively bottle glass blower boy machine bottle expert blower machinery conquer department activity displace workingman make lot employment insecure admit man job assurance go machine invent offend boss engage little agitation interest class mark agitator discharge status minute discharge hunt new buyer labor power own tool tool great machine compete bare hand get work condition work sell labor power energy life current dispose daily installment sell block chattel slave sell hour day exchange slavish condition machine work oil feed oil sustain relation machine food work food wage reduce vanish point status workingman today present economic organization improve condition workingman little wife child possibility consideration question ought grave concern know son workingman vagabond tramp send jail daughter workingman force house shame workingman live capitalism labor power know go find buyer find master job boast man man man rightly claim man free godlike manhood manhood admit ownership manhood scorn regard property know job know long go job union coalgate oklahoma fourth july miner work long month organize mine machinery miner eager work noti tap work miner family suffer live house unfit habitation awful condition go change capitalism way wipe capitalism find way emancipation agree note say time near force economic political solidarity republican democratic party alike capitalist party think mr bryan elect great thing worker condition remain substantially capitalism matter tinker tariff currency tool property capitalist mercy let mr bryan friend mr taft remember official western federation miner kidnap colorado say leave idaho alive determination owner association brave loyal union leader foully murder brother brutally kidnap collusion capitalist governor state true friend work class cry protest mr bryan utter word mr bryan recognize champion work class position hear protest tremendous weight american people labor friend unlock lip word speak organize labor length breadth land take matter hand promptly register protest way nation quake owner association take tall timber brother unionist acquit vindicate stand forth blemish honor free mr bryan say feel time guilty faithful leader kidnap threaten hang man claim friend come rescue refuse word help think friend mr bryan chance prove friendship time labor sorely need friend organized labor cry agony distress word escape lip mr byran speak dare mr bryan know kidnaper man personal friend association rich owner largely furnish campaign fund mr bryan personally high regard attack personal sense extremity man drive try serve capital labor mr bryan dare speak labor turn own capitalist afraid speak loudly capitalist fear worker compromise sake president hear denounce roger sullivan mr bryan year ago denounce corruptionist time nomination alton b parker say totally destitute honor compare train robber notwithstanding fact mr bryan recently invite sullivan home lincoln take hand introduce family mr bryan invite charley murphy inexpressibly rotten tammany heeler new york mr bryan come lincoln conciliate tammany photograph shake hand man serve capital labor time admit capitalist union organize union fight organize union fight union consist wholly capitalist union consist wholly workingman line get organize politically unite capitalist economic field politically get extend class line declare convention position clear world hope inspire confidence state closing wish thank heart kindness appreciate opportunity give address agree leave wish success deliberation hope early triumph labor movement convention pass unanimous rise vote thank close address eugene v debs internet archive marxist internet archive | 44 |
Reference Archives: Marxism and Ethics: Classics Marx and Engels on Ethics —— Marxists on Ethics —— M.I.A. Glossary on Ethics The Magna Carta, 1215 Duty and Man and Citizen, Samuel von Pufendorf, 1673 Ethics, Baruch Spinoza, 1677 The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith, 1759 The Origin of Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1759 The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762 The Metaphysics of Morals, Kant, 1785 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789 On Subsistence Goods, Robespierre 1792 Justification of the Use of Terror, Robespierre 1794 Principles of Political Morality, Robespierre 1794 Philosophy of Right, Hegel, 1821 Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau, 1849 Ethics: The Morality of the State, Bakunin, c. 1870 Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill, 1863 Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche, 1886 Fragments on Ethics, George Herbert Mead, 1908/1934 The Social Self, George Herbert Mead, 1913 Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre, 1946 The Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir, 1947 Subjugation of Women Under Capitalism: The Bourgeois Morality, Marlene Dixon, 1977 Beyond Justice, Agnes Heller, 1987 Needs Talk, Nancy Fraser, 1989 Communicative Ethics, Jürgen Habermas, 1998 The discussion on Communitarianism, Axel Honneth, 1999 Crime and Ethical Life, Axel Honneth, 1992 Love, Rights and Solidarity, Axel Honneth, 1995 From Redistribution to Recognition?, Nancy Fraser, 1997 Immanuel Kant Archive | Simone de Beauvoir Archive Philosophy | Ethics | M.I.A. Home Page | Ethical Values To volunteer for the MIA, Email our Admin Committee | left | reference archive marxism ethic classic marx engel ethic marxist ethic mia glossary ethic magna carta duty man citizen samuel von pufendorf ethic baruch spinoza theory moral sentiment adam smith origin inequality jeanjacque rousseau social contract jeanjacque rousseau metaphysic moral kant declaration right man citizen subsistence good robespierre justification use terror robespierre principle political morality robespierre philosophy right hegel civil disobedience henry david thoreau ethic morality state bakunin c utilitarianism john stuart mill good evil friedrich nietzsche fragment ethic george herbert mead social self george herbert mead existentialism humanism jeanpaul sartre ethic ambiguity simone de beauvoir subjugation woman capitalism bourgeois morality marlene dixon justice agnes heller need talk nancy fraser communicative ethic jürgen habermas discussion communitarianism axel honneth crime ethical life axel honneth love right solidarity axel honneth redistribution recognition nancy fraser immanuel kant archive simone de beauvoir archive philosophy ethic mia home page ethical value volunteer mia email admin committee | 45 |
MIA > Archive > Cliff From Socialist Review, Vol. 3 No. 8, April 1954. Transcribed by Mike Pearn. Copied with thanks from Tendance Coatesy. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. The shooting of the five members of the American House of representatives by Puerto Rican terrorists a few weeks ago drew attention to the plight of the small American colony of Puerto Rico. The shooting was an expression of the revolt against United States imperialism, that rules over this downtrodden country. The United States conquered Puerto Rico in 1898, and it thus became one of its direct colonies. After more than 50 years of rule, American imperialism has shown clearly what disservice it can do to the people under its iron heel. The country is on the whole agricultural, producing in the main sugar, coffee and tobacco. The overwhelming majority of the agriculturalists are wage earners who own nothing. They live in one – and sometimes two-roomed cabins which have no beds, but only pallets, folding cots or hammocks a chair or two and a rough table. Their monotonous diet consist of rice and beans and some dried cod fish and coffee. The position is so bad that the American nutritionist N.C. Shermann, assigned to study the island’s dietary situation in 1930, could state that he had never seen any place in the world “where the profits of a rich land go into so few pockets (largely those of absentees) and the people who work for the land are not kept so poor in money, but also as inadequately fed and housed..” (J. de Castro, Geography of Hunger, 1952, p. 110). The agricultural workers do not own a cow or even a goat, but usually have a few fowls or a pig. The working day is twelve to fifteen hours a day. Besides agricultural workers there are peasants with tiny plots. Of 53,315 farms in the country, 51,157 have an area of between ¼ and 3 cuerdas (a cuerda = 0.97 of an acre). Such midget farms are certainly not enough to make a living out of. The large majority of the land is owned by big United States companies which own an average of 40,000 to 50,000 cuerdas. In 1931 absentee companies produced 59 per cent of all the sugar, whole sugar represented 67 per cent of the agricultural wealth of the country. Thus “they control, in sugar alone, 40 per cent of the agricultural wealth.” (B.W. and J.W. Diffie, Porto Rico: A Broken Pledge, New York 1931, p. 53) American capital controls not only agriculture, but the rest of the economy too. The Porto Rican Telephone Company is controlled by the American International telephone and Telegraph corporation. The Porto Rico gas and Coke Company is controlled by the United Utilities and Service Corporation of the United States. The Porto Rico Power Company controls the railways and is itself controlled by the International Power company, Limited, incorporated in Canada. Electricity is supplied by United States companies. (Diffe, op. cit., p. 107) The labour conditions of the industrial workers are shockingly bad. In 1934 it was stated that the average week’s earnings of women in the United States owned canneries was 2.58 dollars at that time less than 13/-), while the working day was up to 13 hours or even more a day. (Caroline Manning, The Employment of Women in Puerto Rico, Washington 1934, p. 25) The picture presented is thus on the one hand a handful of American millionaires – on the other, the masses of starving Puerto Rican workers. One writer stated that “85 per cent of the population are now dependent on uncertain labour and wage conditions.” (R.J. and E.K. Van Deusen, Porto Rico, New York 1931, p. 169) Another writer said that Puerto Rico is a country “where a whole population constitutes a veritable experimental laboratory of starvation.” Hand in hand with starvation wages goes ignorance. In 1937 41.4 per cent of the population were completely illiterate. In 1951–52 the Government announced that it regretted it could not find room in its schools for 27 per cent of the children in the country. Aggravating the bad economic conditions of the people is the trade populace of the United States, which compels them, by customs restrictions to import most of the food they require from the United States, where prices are very high. Actually 60 per cent of the food imports of Puerto Rico are from the United States. As time goes on, the conditions, instead of improving, become worse. In 1944 they were so bad that some 40 per cent of the inhabitants were registered for relief (De Castro, p. 111). The overriding necessity for Puerto Rico is to overthrow United states control over the economy. In 1930 the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico declared: “We condemn the regime of exploitation to which Puerto Rico is subject by great absentee interests, individual an corporate … We denounce the latitudinal and we believe … that the ownership of the land by individuals or social or corporate interests in excess of 500 acres is an evil which requires immediate remedy … We are decided partisans of the nationalisation of all public service enterprises …” (Diffe, op. cit., pp. 192–3) The terrorist act in Washington is only one expression, probably not leading to any beneficial results, of the national and social revolt of the people of Puerto Rico against American imperialism. Top of the page Last updated on 16 February 2017 | left | mia archive cliff socialist review vol april transcribe mike pearn copy thank tendance coatesy mark einde marxist internet archive shooting member american house representative puerto rican terrorist week ago draw attention plight small american colony puerto rico shooting expression revolt united states imperialism rule downtrodden country united states conquer puerto rico direct colony year rule american imperialism show clearly disservice people iron heel country agricultural producing main sugar coffee tobacco overwhelming majority agriculturalist wage earner live tworoome cabin bed pallet fold cot hammock chair rough table monotonous diet consist rice bean dry cod fish coffee position bad american nutritionist nc shermann assign study island dietary situation state see place world profit rich land pocket largely absentee people work land keep poor money inadequately feed house j de castro geography hunger p agricultural worker cow goat usually fowl pig work day hour day agricultural worker peasant tiny plot farm country area cuerda cuerda acre midget farm certainly living large majority land own big united states company average cuerda absentee company produce cent sugar sugar represent cent agricultural wealth country control sugar cent agricultural wealth bw jw diffie porto rico break pledge new york p american capital control agriculture rest economy porto rican telephone company control american international telephone telegraph corporation porto rico gas coke company control united utilities service corporation united states porto rico power company control railway control international power company limit incorporate canada electricity supply united states companies diffe op cit p labour condition industrial worker shockingly bad state average week earning woman united states own cannery dollar time work day hour day caroline man employment woman puerto rico washington p picture present hand handful american millionaire masse starve puerto rican worker writer state cent population dependent uncertain labour wage condition rj ek van deusen porto rico new york p writer say puerto rico country population constitute veritable experimental laboratory starvation hand hand starvation wage go ignorance cent population completely illiterate government announce regret find room school cent child country aggravate bad economic condition people trade populace united states compel custom restriction import food require united states price high actually cent food import puerto rico united states time go condition instead improve bad bad cent inhabitant register relief de castro p override necessity puerto rico overthrow united states control economy nationalist party puerto rico declare condemn regime exploitation puerto rico subject great absentee interest individual corporate denounce latitudinal believe ownership land individual social corporate interest excess acre evil require immediate remedy decide partisan nationalisation public service enterprise diffe op cit pp terrorist act washington expression probably lead beneficial result national social revolt people puerto rico american imperialism page update february | 46 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From New International, Vol. I No. 2, August 1934, p. 58. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. ENCLOSED in a letter from the Department of National Revenue of Canada, addressed to the publishers of The New International to inform them that our periodical has been banned in that country, is the following Memorandum of the Customs Division of the department, dated Ottawa, August 7, 1934, and addressed to “Collectors of Customs and Excise” throughout the Dominion: Referring to Memorandum No. 1515-B, you are advised that the following publications are prohibited importation into Canada under the provisions of Section 13 and Item 1201, Schedule ‘C’ of the Customs Tariff, viz:– The New International, Published monthly by the New International Publishing Association, New York, USA. The Ukrainian Daily News, A newspaper published in the Ukrainian language by the Robitnyk Publishing and Printing Co. Inc., 17 East 3rd St., New York, USA Chas. P. Blair Ass’t. Commissioner of Customs The publishers of The New International are determined to make every effort to obtain a revocation of the order of the Canadian Customs authorities, so that the review, which to our knowledge, is now being permitted legal entry into every other part of the British Empire, may be available to Canadian readers. A Canadian attorney has been advised of the prohibition order and the next necessary measures are now being taken. Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 25 February 2016 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international vol august p transcribe mark einde etol enclose letter department national revenue canada address publisher new international inform periodical ban country follow memorandum custom division department date ottawa august address collector custom excise dominion refer memorandum advise follow publication prohibit importation canada provision section item schedule c customs tariff viz new international publish monthly new international publishing association new york usa ukrainian daily news newspaper publish ukrainian language robitnyk publishing print co inc east st new york usa cha p blair commissioner custom publisher new international determined effort obtain revocation order canadian custom authority review knowledge permit legal entry british empire available canadian reader canadian attorney advise prohibition order necessary measure take page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update february | 47 |
THE SERVICE EMPLOYEES International Union (SEIU) and its former section United Health Care Workers-West (UHW) are at war after SEIU’s leadership ordered the seizure of UHW’s headquarters. UHW’s elected officers, deposed in the SEIU takeover, are forming a new union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The longstanding dispute between SEIU and UHW leadership began with differences over how contracts would be negotiated. In particular, UHW President Sal Rosselli disagreed with SEIU President Andy Stern over whether UHW should give up the right to strike or to publicly criticize employers in order to obtain an employer’s acceptance of union organizing. The health care union fight escalated over the past year. At the April, 2008 Labor Notes conference. Instead of taking the opportunity to debate their differences with the California Nurses Association, SEIU agents attempted to smash their way into the banquet hall to “#8220;protest” the presence of CNA leaders. Last summer, the SEIU convened trusteeship hearings against UHW, presided over by one-time U.S. Labor Secretary Ray Marshall. In a bizarre ruling, Marshall rejected the SEIU’s stated reason for the trusteeship — that UHW had set up a nonprofit organization to finance its conflicts with the International — but nonetheless recommended trusteeship for the UHW’s refusal to accept the splitting off of 65,000 long-term health care workers from UHW jurisdiction. Ultimately the SEIU engineered a mail referendum among the union’s 300,000 California health care workers — in which fewer than 24,000 actually voted – following which, on January 9, the SEIU International Executive Board voted to create the statewide “#8220;long-term care” local. UHW was placed under formal trusteeship after it refused to accept this carveup without a membership vote. Meanwhile the Change to Win coalition, launched with great fanfare by the SEIU leadership as a breakaway from the AFL-CIO, is getting ready to fold its tent. | left | service employee international union seiu section united health care workerswest uhw war seiu leadership order seizure uhw headquarters uhw elect officer depose seiu takeover form new union national union healthcare worker nuhw longstanding dispute seiu uhw leadership begin difference contract negotiate particular uhw president sal rosselli disagree seiu president andy stern uhw right strike publicly criticize employer order obtain employer acceptance union organize health care union fight escalate past year april labor note conference instead take opportunity debate difference california nurses association seiu agent attempt smash way banquet hall presence cna leader summer seiu convene trusteeship hearing uhw preside onetime labor secretary ray marshall bizarre rule marshall reject seiu state reason trusteeship uhw set nonprofit organization finance conflict international nonetheless recommend trusteeship uhw refusal accept splitting longterm health care worker uhw jurisdiction ultimately seiu engineer mail referendum union california health care worker few actually vote follow january seiu international executive board vote create statewide care local uhw place formal trusteeship refuse accept carveup membership vote change win coalition launch great fanfare seiu leadership breakaway aflcio get ready fold tent | 48 |
Charlotte Wilson Archive Written: 1888. Source: Text from RevoltLib.com. Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021 The meeting on September 14 was opened by Comrade Marsh with a paper on "Work and Social Utility," the substance of which will be found in another column. There was no direct opposition to the opener's contention that a share in work of social utility, such as providing food, clothing, shelter, etc, ought to be taken by every able-bodied person, and that such work, if fairly shared by all members of the community, would not fall so heavily on any individual as to prevent him or her from exercising special artistic or intellectual capacities at least as fully and as beneficially as they are exercised to-day, when brain and hand labor are almost entirely divided and brain workers are considered as a superior class. Comrade Kropotkin said that whilst several collectivist schools consider it necessary to make a distinction between different kinds of work, according to the skill required, length of apprenticeship, agreeableness or disagreeableness, and so on, Communist Anarchists are all agreed that no such distinction must be made. We deny the necessity for a special class of brain workers and refuse to recognize an aristocracy in this or any other direction. We have heard something from Comrade Marsh, he continued, as to the disadvantage to art of class legislation. The same is true with regard to science. Take Medicine. The functions of the doctor and the nurse are now separated. The doctor only comes and looks at the patient once or twice a day and then goes away again; whereas the nurse is continually with the sick person, watching his symptoms, attending to his food and all his needs. It is evident that if each nurse had received a high medical education and each doctor had to perform the functions of the nurse, progress in Medicine would not have been so slow as it has been. In fact, we are now learning more and more that the science of medicine is the science of hygiene, and the art of healing is the art of sanitation. And as nurses have become better educated, it is in their province that the greatest improvements have been initiated. The President of the British Association spoke of industry helping science, and science industry ; but the help cannot be really effectual as long as brain and hand work are isolated from one another. Formerly scientists were themselves handicraftsmen and themselves inventors. The great astronomer Galileo made his own telescopes, and now we see that the great inventions of to-day, telegraphs, sewing machines telephones, electric lighting, and so on, spring not from the professional scientists, but from practical men like Morse or Edison and the many unknown handicraftsmen who work with them. In fact the numberless inventions of uneducated working people show that work with one's own hand is the great stimulus to inventive genius. For instance, one of the most marvelous machines in existence, that used at Nottingham in lace-making, was originally invented by a drunkard to get money for more gin after he had broken the bottle over his wife's head ; and it has been perfected by the ingenuity of three generations of workmen. In the interest of science itself it is desirable that scientist and hand worker be one and the same person ; and this is no unattainable state of things even in our present society. At Moscow there is a great college where the students learn pure mathematics and practical mechanics side by side, and the experience there shows that at twenty years of age the young man who can construct a steam-engine with his own hands is able to pass a stiff examination in the higher branches of mathematics as successfully as the youth who has done nothing but brain work all his life. But granted that this is true for average men and women, -hall we under such a system of mixed brain and band work have great geniuses like Darwin? Darwin's whole life was spent in laborious experiment arid research. Yes; but why was this necessary? Thirty years before Darwin's great book on the "Origin of Species" was published, when he as a young man returned from his voyage in the Beagle, be had already framed the hypothesis which has cast such a flood of light on modern thought. What was needed, was to collect facts to prove or disprove it. To verify his hypothesis he had to spend thirty years in collecting materials, because he was forced to work almost single-handed. But suppose we had all received a good scientific education and Darwin had been able to make appeal to a wide circle of intelligent and accurately trained minds to help him, then all that information could have been collected in five years. You see how much to the advantage of scientific progress it would be that the immediately necessary work of the world should be shared by all, so that all should use both hands and brains, and all enjoy a certain amount of leisure. Is it practical, to spend our time in discussing the best lines for the organization of labor after the Social Revolution? We are nearly all agreed that the time is approaching when there will be again wide-spread popular movements, such as those which have occurred in the past. In the past these movements have usually ended in a change of rulers, and in the people expressing their desires to the new government with more or less earnestness and intelligence, proportionate to those desires having been thought out with more or less clearness beforehand. The people have never yet been so thoroughly convinced of what they needed as to venture to act directly for themselves for any length of time. Now we are, trying to prepare for the next great popular movement by leading as many men and women as possible to think out clearly what they want and make their minds ready to do it for themselves as soon as the chance occurs. Past revolutions have done so little because the workers were prepared to change so little. In the Commune of Paris there was nothing to prevent the workmen from taking possession of the houses and factories, if they had wished it; but before the outbreak occurred their leaders had always told them that it was not practical to think about expropriation and Socialism. The practical thing was to discuss the separation of church and state, the reduction of rents, the evils of night work in bakeries, and such like comparatively trivial matters; so when the chance to act came, it was these small palliatives and no radical changes that the working people of Paris sought and obtained. The practical people are those who try intelligently to understand what is likely to happen and who prepare for it. The next meeting will take place at 13 Farringdon Road, on Friday October 12, at 8.30 p.m. The discussion will be opened by Dr. Merlino in a paper on "The Organization of Work." Charlotte Wilson Archive | left | charlotte wilson archive write source text revoltlibcom transcriptionmarkup andy carloff online source revoltlibcom meeting september open comrade marsh paper work social utility substance find column direct opposition opener contention share work social utility provide food clothing shelter etc ought take ablebodie person work fairly share member community fall heavily individual prevent exercise special artistic intellectual capacity fully beneficially exercise today brain hand labor entirely divide brain worker consider superior class comrade kropotkin say whilst collectivist school consider necessary distinction different kind work accord skill require length apprenticeship agreeableness disagreeableness communist anarchist agree distinction deny necessity special class brain worker refuse recognize aristocracy direction hear comrade marsh continue disadvantage art class legislation true regard science medicine function doctor nurse separate doctor come look patient twice day go away nurse continually sick person watch symptom attend food need evident nurse receive high medical education doctor perform function nurse progress medicine slow fact learn science medicine science hygiene art healing art sanitation nurse well educate province great improvement initiate president british association speak industry help science science industry help effectual long brain hand work isolate scientist handicraftsman inventor great astronomer galileo telescope great invention today telegraph sewing machine telephone electric lighting spring professional scientist practical man like morse edison unknown handicraftsman work fact numberless invention uneducated work people work one hand great stimulus inventive genius instance marvelous machine existence nottingham lacemake originally invent drunkard money gin break bottle wife head perfect ingenuity generation workman interest science desirable scientist hand worker person unattainable state thing present society moscow great college student learn pure mathematic practical mechanic experience show year age young man construct steamengine hand able pass stiff examination high branch mathematic successfully youth brain work life grant true average man woman hall system mixed brain band work great genius like darwin darwin life spend laborious experiment arid research yes necessary thirty year darwin great book origin specie publish young man return voyage beagle frame hypothesis cast flood light modern thought need collect fact prove disprove verify hypothesis spend thirty year collect material force work singlehande suppose receive good scientific education darwin able appeal wide circle intelligent accurately train mind help information collect year advantage scientific progress immediately necessary work world share use hand brain enjoy certain leisure practical spend time discuss good line organization labor social revolution nearly agree time approach widespread popular movement occur past past movement usually end change ruler people express desire new government earnestness intelligence proportionate desire having think clearness people thoroughly convinced need venture act directly length time try prepare great popular movement lead man woman possible think clearly want mind ready soon chance occur past revolution little worker prepared change little commune paris prevent workman take possession house factory wish outbreak occur leader tell practical think expropriation socialism practical thing discuss separation church state reduction rent evil night work bakery like comparatively trivial matter chance act come small palliative radical change work people paris seek obtain practical people try intelligently understand likely happen prepare meeting place farringdon road friday october pm discussion open dr merlino paper organization work charlotte wilson archive | 49 |
MIA > Archive > Shachtman From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 1, 7 January 1933, p. 1. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. The danger that we may be compelled to suspend the publication of the Militant as a weekly must arouse the deepest concern of every friend of the Left Opposition in the country and impel him to prompt action. We have thus far been able to maintain the Militant by means of the most strenuous sacrifices. And that was the only way, because while the world crisis has laid bare the bankruptcy of the present social order and given a great impulsion to the revolutionary progress of the working class, it has also deprived it of the financial means with which to sustain it. We are not threatened with this retreat because the Left Opposition is losing ground in the United States. Quite the contrary. Our influence and prestige are greater at the present time than ever before; our views, stubbornly advocated for years in the face of countless obstacles, are verified by the events of every new day. The threat comes from the fact that the ravages of unemployment have so drastically affected our own comrades that those upon whom we could once rely for substantial and systematic contributions are far less, or not at all, able to make them today. This does not mean for one moment that the situation is hopeless. It only means that the task of preserving the weekly Militant must be shouldered by a much greater number of comrades and friends. When we make the appeal for speedy assistance, it should be borne in mind that the Militant is our principal mouthpiece on a national scale, and not merely on a national scale, for it has been of signal aid to the young and sturdy Bolshevik-Leninist movements in Canada, in England, in South Africa and China. It is our main organizer, for where the weakness of our movement prevents us from sending a suitable comrade for work, we know that the Militant can be relied upon to present the Opposition standpoint to the most distant localities. It is our main educational center, for its columns teach those great historical principles of revolutionary Marxism which have been so dramatically verified by the history of the last two decades, and it teaches them not only in the light of the past, but in connection with the living unfoldment of events week by week. Moreover, the Militant constitutes that hub from which radiate the spokes of our other activities and enterprises: the organ of the Opposition youth, Young Spartacus; the organ of the Yiddish-speaking Oppositionists, Unser Kamf; the organ of our Greek-speaking comrades, Kommunistis. Should the hub be smashed, the spokes would be left hanging limply in the air just as surely as the hub would fail to turn the wheel without well-connected spokes. We have not been derelict in our efforts to maintain the weekly at all costs, because we are aware of the heavy blow that our movement would be struck by its collapse. We are confident that the same knowledge and spirit will animate all our friends to exert themselves to the utmost, to contribute generously in our present drive to save the Militant. The drive is Point One on the order of the day until the danger to the Militant is overcome. An early contribution is a double contribution, and we are anxious not to protract the campaign. The work that demands doing well will not permit it. Therefore, every shoulder to the wheel, every comrade to his post. We are counting on our friends to carry us over the hump, to save the weekly Militant from collapse! Last updated on 5 February 2015 | left | mia archive shachtman militant vol vi january p transcribe mark einde marxist internet archive danger compel suspend publication militant weekly arouse deep concern friend left opposition country impel prompt action far able maintain militant mean strenuous sacrifice way world crisis lay bare bankruptcy present social order give great impulsion revolutionary progress work class deprive financial mean sustain threaten retreat left opposition lose ground united states contrary influence prestige great present time view stubbornly advocate year face countless obstacle verify event new day threat come fact ravage unemployment drastically affect comrade rely substantial systematic contribution far able today mean moment situation hopeless mean task preserve weekly militant shoulder great number comrade friend appeal speedy assistance bear mind militant principal mouthpiece national scale merely national scale signal aid young sturdy bolshevikleninist movement canada england south africa china main organizer weakness movement prevent send suitable comrade work know militant rely present opposition standpoint distant locality main educational center column teach great historical principle revolutionary marxism dramatically verify history decade teach light past connection live unfoldment event week week militant constitute hub radiate spoke activity enterprise organ opposition youth young spartacus organ yiddishspeaking oppositionist unser kamf organ greekspeake comrade kommunistis hub smash spoke leave hang limply air surely hub fail turn wheel wellconnecte spoke derelict effort maintain weekly cost aware heavy blow movement strike collapse confident knowledge spirit animate friend exert utmost contribute generously present drive save militant drive point order day danger militant overcome early contribution double contribution anxious protract campaign work demand permit shoulder wheel comrade post count friend carry hump save weekly militant collapse update february | 50 |
CPI Leaders Continue Their Slanders Against CPC Of late the leaders of CPI and CPI(M) are presenting themselves as a united force having difl-erences on some issues. Now that the leaders of the CPI(M) have established party-to-pafly relations with CPC (Communist Party of China), those of the CPI have something to say by way of expressing their ditl-ering point of view. Instead of commenting on what the leaders of CPI(M) said in this regard, they are atlacking CPC by way of continuing the slander which they indulged in all these years. Since all this is going on in the name of Marxism-Leninism, it is necessary to clarity what is correc[ and what is wrong and slanderous. 1. A baseless. attack against CPC Indradeep Sinha, a top leader of CPI , writes it New Age ot June 5, 1983: ".....the omission of Marxisnt-Leninism and proletarian internalictnal.ism frorn the list ctf principles governing the restoration of fraternat retatktnship between the CPC and lhe CPI(M) must certainly be due to the fact that one of lhese parties does not accept thern as its governing ideology. Il is well-k.r:ottn that the CPI(M) do e s acc ept M arxism-Lenini snt and pro let arian int ernationa:li sm' as its governing ideology, Hence it must be the CPC which does not do so". We do not know what the leaders of CPI(M) have to say on this point. It is a fact that the basis of the relations between CPC and CPI(M) is tbur principles ( independence, equality, mutal respecq and non-interfbrence). There is no mention of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism as the basis, either in the joint communique or the statement issued by the leaders of CPI(M) . But the conclusion he draws about CPC has no basis whatsoever. We do not know the source trom which the author has come to know that CPC does not accept Marxism-Leninism. Time and again the leaders of CPC have asserted, and are asserting, that theyll5 are Marxist-Leninists. Their practice proves that it is so. There is no reason why one should accept the author's contention which is slander, pure and simple. CPC maintains relations with Communist Party of Romania on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian intematiotalism. Hu Yaobang, General Secretary of CPC, has alfirmed it by saying, "No force on earth could break or disrupt Sino-Romanian friendship based on Marxism and proletarian internationalsrn." (Bejing Review. May l6) This is a conclusive evidence that tlrere ale parties with whom CPC has relations on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Of course, they observe the four principles as well in their relations. Theretbre the CPI leader has no ground to say that CPC is not guided by Marxism-Leninism. It is another matter that the CPI leader certiires the leaders of CPI(M) that they are guided by Marxism-Leninism etc.. For a long time, they were at logger-heads. It is ouly recently that they are united while keeping their separate identities as parties. Before their unitication, CPI(M) leaders were branding CPI as revisionist. Now that they are united, it has ceased to be revisionist so far as CPI (M) is concerned. The CPI, irr turn, treats it as being guided by Marxism-Leninism etc. The opposition of CPI to Mrs. Gandhi,s government is more symbolic than real. This is the only change,if any, in the policy of CPI, which does not warrant a change in its characterisation of being revisionist. The fact of the matter is that both the CpI and CpI(M) have embraced their respective varieties of revisionism. That is why they could unite while maintaining dift-erences on this or that issue. That they certify each other as being Marxist-Leninist makes no difference because no party of revisionism admits that it is so. Parliamentary path, social chauvinism, class-collaboration etc. are common to both the parties which transfbrmed them as revisionist. Their role is simil:r to the pafiies of Second International which were the embodiment of all these departures fiom Marxism-Leninism. 2. Mao Zedong Thought Accords with Marxism-Leninism: The author says; "Neeedless to add that a comunist party that has substituted. Marxism-Leninism by 'Mao Zedong,s Thoughts', as its guidingI l6 itleolo,E, i.s botmtl. ttt relapse into bourgeois nutionalisnt which Jintls repearer) expressittn in great power chaut;inism elc". (The same article). It is wr:]I kncrwn that both the CPI and CPI(M) leaders are opposed to Mao Zetlong's-thought. fhat is no reasoll why the author should stoop to tell a hlatalt lie. Chinese communists never renounced Marxisrn-I-eninisrn and substituted Mao Zedong's Thought lbr it' 1'hey treat it as an application to the practioe of Chinese revolution. Such an application is quite in accordance with Marxism-Leninism. This is what it means according to Lenin. "We do not regard Marx's theory as something completed and irrl,iolable; oll the contrary wc are convinced that it has only laid the tbundation stone of the science which the socialists mus[ tlcvelop in all directions if thev wish to keep pace with lit-e. We tlrink that an independent elaboration of Marx's theory is especially essential tbr Russian socialists; tbr, this theory provides only general guiding principles, which in particular are applicd in England clitl'erently than in lrrauce. in France dill'erently than in Germany and irr (iormany dittbrently than in Russia......(Lenin. Collected Works. Vol.4. pp.21 l-212). We have to mcrtion those lines again and again so tlat Indian communist revolutiouary movemerrt rnay ernancipate itself tiom tlogrnatic approach to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedotg Thought' What l,enin said ahout Marxism applies to Leninism as well as Mao Zedcxtg Thought. The very tact that the Chinese communists led by Mao coulcl lead Chinese Revolution to success' provides sufficient ground tbr coming into existence of Mao Zedong's Thought' Mao's application of Miuxism-Leninism was independent as was the casc with Lenin, who applied Mdrxism independently as is stated in the above quotation. Thus Mao tbllowed Lenin's teachings in developing the theory ancl practice of New Democratic Revolution, whose correctness is proved beyond doubt by the successtul revolution iu that country. It is undoubtedly a new contribution to the arsenal of Marxisrn-Lenilism. obviously the CPI leadership does not accept this position. If it thinks that the success of the revolution is due to some accirjent or some deviation (chauvinism), if is due to its ignorance of Marxism-Lcninism and nothing else. Both the leaders ol CPI and CPI (M) were er-pecting, iust as the scctious of the ruling circles in many countries, including ours,tt7 that Chinese communists (CPC--) would renounce Mao Ze<long Thought and lall in line with Russiirn hegemonists. But to their disappointment, they tbund that the CPC adhered to Mao Zedong Thought as usual, while at the same time it corrected the mistakes committed by Mao, in his later part of the lit'e (Cultural Revolution). What. lvas done by the CPC in this rcspect was also quite in accordance with Minxism-Leninism. Mao Zedong Thought was not a product either of nationalism or national chauvinism, as the CPI leaders wan[ our people to believe. Contrary is the tact. The leadership of CPC alone and others need not accept it. It should be known that CPC accepted it as its guiding ideology long back in 19,15, in its 7th C'ongress. Neither CpI of that tirne nor anyone else raised au objection to it. How then cau the leadership be charged as chauvinists'/ It is slanderous to levy such a eharge against it. It is well-known that the present-day ruling classes ilre opposed to the irlluence of Clhinese rcvolution on the people ot our counlry. Counter-revolutionary as thcy arc, Lheir attitude can not be otherwise. Ilut the leaders of CPI and CPI (M) clairn to be Muxist-Leninists while at the same time oppose CPC's continued aclherence to Mao Zedong Thought. 'Ihey oppose CPC and Chinese governrnent's policies, and support those of the ruling classes ls represented by Mrs.Gandhi. Thus there is a common ground between the two, i.e., Mrs. Gandhi on oue side, aud the leaders of CPI and CpI(M) on the other, in opposing Chinese lovefltment anrl its policies so far as India is ooncenred. They extendcd the opposition into thg realm of ideology. This is a characteristic of revisionism and social chauvinisrn. Had Mao and Chinese cornrnulists contented themselves with claimirrg to be Mzrxist-l.eninists, without further developing it into Mao Zedong Thought, there woukl have been no successtll Chinese revolution and no new China as we see it today. But the leaders of CPI and CPI(M) did quite the opposite. We, communist revolutionaries tltink that to make Indian Revolution a success, we Irave to develop Mirxism-Leninisrn-Mao Zedong Thou-ght 1-urther so that we can integrate it with our revolutionary practice. What we are doing is the sane. 3. Unity zrnd Split in the Indian Communist lVlovement It is wrong [o say, as the author of the il_rticle says, t]rat it is the leaders of CPC who were responsible tbr splits in the Lrdianlr8 communist movement. It is not a tact. The split had come into the open during 'felangana A section of leadeiship set up a rival cen journal OPEN FORUM, cyclostyled copies through length and breadth of Intlia. The contents of the maior palt of the journal were open conrlemnation of Telangana armed struggle. Besides OPEN FORUM, they published pamphlets slandering it. All the anti-armed struggle tbrces wefe mobilised behind it. Most of these tbrces are, or were, in the present-day CPI. The leaders who came into the top in 195 1, and were at the helm of the aftairs everSince, never cared to condemn this treachery. Instead, they were allowed to hotd iinportant leading positions at all levels. It is this section who acted as storm-ffoopers fbr class- collaborationst policies as long as the pafly was fbrmally united tlll 1964. Thus there was a defacto split in the united CPI eversince 1950, which was fbrmaliseri in 1964. Everyone who krows something about international comrnunist movement can understand that the CPI leadership had nothing to do with either Telangana armed struggle or rhe defacto split which developed inside the CPI eversince 1950' Late Aioy Ghosh, who was thesecretary of CPI liom 1951 till his death, had his own role in tbrcing a break with CPC long betbre India's war with China in 1962. Dange was hand in glove with him while he was alive and continued his role as a disruptor, aller Ajoy Ghosh's death. These leaders, together with some more' were in close contact with the leaders of the Nehru Government at top- most level, brieting them about the developments inside the Central Committee. This is how the split was engineered by the class- collaborati<_lnist tbrces inside the united CPI. They constitute the present-day CPI leadership at almost all levels. This does not mean that the leaders of the CPI(M) had nothing to do with the split. They had their own role. While dealing with the phenomenon of splits, the CPI leaders are throwing stones liom their glass houses. In spite of their untlinching loyrrlty to the CPSU, CPI has been a divided-house althrough. Recently there was split leading to t-ormation of another communist pafiy led by Mr. Dange. The CPI(M) is in no better position. It has been splitting horizontally at various levels down below. All this goes to show that it is a slander to say that the leadersl19 <lf the CPC engineered a split in the Indian communist movement or the united CPI. It is rhe class collaborarionist policies of CpI leaders and their subservience to CPSU which were responsible for the split so tar as united CPI was concerned. There was some interl'erence fiom the side of the leaders of CPC so iar as CPI(M) was concerned lbr a brief period between 1967-70, during the period of Cultural Revolution in China, which had a.decisive impact on the split thar took place in CpI(M). It was the revolutionary movement which suffered heavily rlue to these splits. The CPI(M) also did sutl'er in rhe sense that it eoukl not retain considerable number of the revolutionary ranks behind it to serve its parliamentary path. It had become another variety of CpI. , Communist reyolutionaries are getting united inspite ol the obstacles they are tacing. This unity is on the basis of indepenrJent appligation of Marxism-Leninism to the practice of Indian revolution. Such.a unity is developing tbr the first time in the communist movement, though there were attempts earlier. 4. The Documents of 1956 and 1960 are not Sacrosanct. The author quotes from the statement of 12 communist parties (1956), and the declaration of 8l communist and workers' parties (1960) and from Togliatti (193-5) to prove his conrenrion. There was,an attempt [o assess the post-Second World War situation ia the first two documents, by the concerned parties. They were highly def'ective and compromised with tunditmentals in many respects, inspite of the aftirmation of many Marxist-Leninist principles in words. They showed a green signal to parliamentary path to communist parties, more so of the parties of the Third Wodd countries, when the need of the hour was to follow a revolutionary path. They alfirrned the "leading" role of CPSU while the need of the hour was the struggle against subservience to it and an independent. application of Marxism-Leninism. The very lact that they taile<l to unite the international communist, movement as well as the movement of our country clearly shows that the tbrmulations they contained were far away tiom the reality obtaining in the movement. There was no common understanding on these documents among the CPI leaders themselves. Every section had interpreted them in its own way resulting in consolidation of groups and factions inside the pafly. While a section (present CpI) advocated the path of class collaboration openly, the other [present CPI(M)] deceived120 tJie revoluliona.ry ranks and mohilised U1em in the name of opposing_ ii and fi!!htin!! its n:visionism. Both advocated two van_et1es ot a single path �f class collaboration, the difference being skrn-deep. Thtretore Lht two documents mtntioned in tJ1t artick are neither basic nor authentic. Thty could not sland the test of revolutionary practice of international communist movement. The class collaborationist policy pursutd by CPI during the_ anti fascist war or I <J4 l --t.'i clearly shows t11at the kadersh1? ot CPI_ol thusl'. davs did not understand the revolutionary s1grnticance_ ol united front, tactics, aud faiicll to apply them indq :iet�drntly kel'.p:ng Lht specific situation obtaining in our country_. f oday, Jor CPI, · tl ntercsts ol Russian prnktarian internationalism tlll'.ans snvmg lt 1 • • . . he!!cmonism and rl'.nouncing the interests ol the revolution m our co�ntrv in toto. and once for all. This understandmg and practtee has 11;1thin!! 10 do with Marxism-Leninism, whose independent application ,and interpretation should mean that_ revolut:l:n m India is advanced. Anything which goes cuunln to tt 1s wron6 ,md sho�ld be repuJiatc:J . Snving U1e Rus-<;ian interests means renouncmg revolution itself, hecause Russia is opposed to lndtall revoluLton. Conclusion To conclude: Tht leaders of both CPI and CPl(M) arc united and slopped cal ling tach otl1cr revisionists. sphtters etc. 1 hey ,uc parading this as the unity ol Indian conunumst_ movernen L _l l�e differences. if any. are not so serious as thelf umty-111-act1onmd1c�tes. (iivcn tJfr; hackground. lrnw is it that the CPSI I has rclramed lrom establishinn relations with equally loyal CPl(M), and created a situation it� which it was forced to gn to CPC wit�1 whom CPl(M) doc;s not sec tyc to eyt'' Everyone knows that CYI(M) was alter " ·1· " t·rlJtll ('l)Sll ••ff' prderrcd to he in tile wmtmg-list reco!!rn ton , , " u . . all th�.se years. Instl:ad or explaining this asptct of th: ;"�tu.''.tion, tile author or the article tried in vam to prove; that C IC. 1s not a party of Marxism-l .eninism. l'his clearly shows that the le�ders ol ( '!'I art in the lorc-lrnnt or anti-Ch ma band-wagon only to serve Russian hc!!ernonic interests as against thuse of lnJian revolu LL1on, which th<.:y, have disctrdnl long back. (14-6-1983) Renouncing The �evolution At Home And Demanding Unity Of International Communist Movement Can Not Go Together Now-a-days there is some talk about international communist movement and its unification, more so from CPI quarters. Unless certain wrong understandings about the international communist movement and its relations with the communist movement of our country are removed, people are likely to be misled and get satisfied with what is going on, instead of concentrating their attention on the revolution, the revolutionary movement and relaced problems. Normally, international communist movement includes the movement in a given country. In the present context, our own country. Therefore we can not think of one to the exclusion of other. In the same way, one should not over-state it and underplay the other. A genuine communist movement is a revolutionary movement whose immediate objective is people's democratic revolution in a country like ours, and -socialist revolution in a capitalist country like England, France, USA etc. Let us know significance of the two movements when viewed with a correct perspective. Present state of affairs in the international communist movement. It is obvious that the International Communist Movement is not homogeneous not only at present but it was so for the last three decades and more. After the dissolution of Comintern, communist parties in each country have become independent replaced by a new set of relations which were different from those laid down by Comintem. This situation puts new demands on the parties to think and act more independently though it was a must even when they were affiliated to Comintem. The revolution in China could succeed because CPC, headed by Mao, could interpret Marxism Leninism independently and apply it to the practice of Chinese revolution. Most of the communist parties could not orient to changed | left | cpi leader continue slander cpc late leader cpi cpim present united force have diflerence issue leader cpim establish partytopafly relation cpc communist party china cpi way express ditlering point view instead comment leader cpim say regard atlacke cpc way continue slander indulge year go marxismleninism necessary clarity correc wrong slanderous baseless attack cpc indradeep sinha leader cpi write new age ot june omission marxisntleninism proletarian internalictnalism frorn list ctf principle govern restoration fraternat retatktnship cpc lhe cpim certainly fact lhese party accept thern govern ideology il wellkrottn cpim e s acc ept m arxismlenini snt pro let arian int ernationali sm govern ideology cpc know leader cpim point fact basis relation cpc cpim tbur principle independence equality mutal respecq noninterfbrence mention marxismleninism proletarian internationalism basis joint communique statement issue leader cpim conclusion draw cpc basis whatsoever know source trom author come know cpc accept marxismleninism time leader cpc assert assert marxistleninist practice prove reason accept author contention sland pure simple cpc maintain relation communist party romania basis marxismleninism proletarian intematiotalism hu yaobang general secretary cpc alfirme say force earth break disrupt sinoromanian friendship base marxism proletarian internationalsrn bejing review conclusive evidence tlrere ale party cpc relation basis marxismleninism proletarian internationalism course observe principle relation theretbre cpi leader ground cpc guide marxismleninism matter cpi leader certiire leader cpim guide marxismleninism etc long time loggerhead ouly recently united keep separate identity party unitication cpim leader brand cpi revisionist unite cease revisionist far cpi m concern cpi irr turn treat guide marxismleninism etc opposition cpi mrs gandhis government symbolic real changeif policy cpi warrant change characterisation revisionist fact matter cpi cpim embrace respective variety revisionism unite maintain difterence issue certify marxistleninist make difference party revisionism admit parliamentary path social chauvinism classcollaboration etc common party transfbrme revisionist role similr pafiie second international embodiment departure fiom marxismleninism mao zedong think accord marxismleninism author say neeedless add comunist party substitute marxismleninism mao zedong thought guidingi itleoloe botmtl ttt relapse bourgeois nutionalisnt jintls repearer expressittn great power chautinism elc article wri kncrwn cpi cpim leader oppose mao zetlongsthought fhat reasoll author stoop tell hlatalt lie chinese communist renounce marxisrnieninisrn substitute mao zedong think lbr treat application practioe chinese revolution application accordance marxismleninism mean accord lenin regard marxs theory complete irrliolable oll contrary wc convinced lay tbundation stone science socialist mus tlcvelop direction thev wish pace lite tlrink independent elaboration marxs theory especially essential tbr russian socialist tbr theory provide general guide principle particular applicd england clitlerently lrrauce france dillerently germany irr iormany dittbrently russialenin collect work mcrtion line tlat indian communist revolutiouary movemerrt rnay ernancipate tiom tlogrnatic approach marxismleninismmao zedotg think lenin say ahout marxism apply leninism mao zedcxtg think tact chinese communist lead mao coulcl lead chinese revolution success provide sufficient ground tbr come existence mao zedong think maos application miuxismleninism independent casc lenin apply mdrxism independently state quotation mao tbllowe lenin teaching develop theory ancl practice new democratic revolution correctness prove doubt successtul revolution iu country undoubtedly new contribution arsenal marxisrnlenilism obviously cpi leadership accept position think success revolution accirjent deviation chauvinism ignorance marxismlcninism leader ol cpi cpi m erpecte iust scctious rule circle country include chinese communists cpc renounce mao zelong think lall line russiirn hegemonist disappointment tbund cpc adhere mao zedong think usual time correct mistake commit mao later lite cultural revolution lvas cpc rcspect accordance minxismleninism mao zedong think product nationalism national chauvinism cpi leader wan people believe contrary tact leadership cpc need accept know cpc accept guide ideology long congress cpi tirne raise au objection cau leadership charge chauvinist slanderous levy eharge wellknown presentday ruling class ilre oppose irlluence clhinese rcvolution people ot counlry counterrevolutionary thcy arc lheir attitude ilut leader cpi cpi m clairn muxistleninist time oppose cpc continue aclherence mao zedong think ihey oppose cpc chinese governrnent policy support rule class ls represent mrsgandhi common ground ie mrs gandhi oue aud leader cpi cpim oppose chinese lovefltment anrl policy far india ooncenre extendcd opposition thg realm ideology characteristic revisionism social chauvinisrn mao chinese cornrnulist content claimirrg mzrxistleninist develop mao zedong think woukl successtll chinese revolution new china today leader cpi cpim opposite communist revolutionary tltink indian revolution success irave develop mirxismleninisrnmao zedong think integrate revolutionary practice sane unity zrnd split indian communist lvlovement wrong o author ilrticle say trat leader cpc responsible tbr split communist movement tact split come open felangana section leadeiship set rival cen journal open forum cyclostyle copy length breadth intlia content maior palt journal open conrlemnation telangana armed struggle open forum publish pamphlet slander antiarme struggle tbrce wefe mobilise tbrce presentday cpi leader come helm aftairs eversince care condemn treachery instead allow hotd iinportant lead position level section act stormffooper fbr class collaborationst policy long pafly fbrmally united tlll defacto split united cpi eversince fbrmaliseri krow international comrnunist movement understand cpi leadership telangana armed struggle rhe defacto split develop inside cpi eversince late aioy ghosh thesecretary cpi liom till death role tbrce break cpc long betbre indias war china dange hand glove alive continue role disruptor aller ajoy ghoshs death leader close contact leader nehru government level briete development inside central committee split engineer class collaboratilnist tbrce inside united cpi constitute presentday cpi leadership level mean leader cpim split role deal phenomenon split cpi leader throw stone liom glass house spite untlinching loyrrlty cpsu cpi dividedhouse althrough recently split lead tormation communist pafiy lead mr dange cpim well position split horizontally level go slander lf cpc engineer split indian communist movement united cpi rhe class collaborarionist policy cpi leader subservience cpsu responsible split tar united cpi concern interlerence fiom leader cpc iar cpim concern lbr brief period period cultural revolution china adecisive impact split thar take place cpim revolutionary movement suffer heavily rlue split cpim sutler rhe sense eoukl retain considerable number revolutionary rank serve parliamentary path variety cpi communist reyolutionarie get united inspite ol obstacle tace unity basis indepenrjent appligation marxismleninism practice indian revolution sucha unity develop tbr time communist movement attempt early document sacrosanct author quote statement communist party declaration communist worker party togliatti prove conrenrion wasan attempt o assess postsecond world war situation ia document concerned party highly defective compromise tunditmental respect inspite aftirmation marxistleninist principle word show green signal parliamentary path communist party party wodd country need hour follow revolutionary path alfirrne lead role cpsu need hour struggle subservience independent application marxismleninism lact tailel unite international communist movement movement country clearly show tbrmulation contain far away tiom reality obtain movement common understanding document cpi leader section interpret way result consolidation group faction inside pafly section present cpi advocate path class collaboration openly present cpim tjie revolulionary rank mohilise oppose ii fihtin nvisionism advocate ot single path f class collaboration difference skrndeep thtretore lht document mtntione t artick basic authentic thty sland test revolutionary practice international communist movement class collaborationist policy pursutd cpi fascist war l ti clearly show ot cpiol thusl davs understand revolutionary ol united tactic aud faiicll apply indq iet drntly kelpng lht specific situation obtain country f oday jor cpi tl ntercst ol russian prnktarian internationalism tlllan snvmg lt hecmonism rlnounce interest ol revolution m co ntrv toto understandmg practtee marxismleninism independent application interpretation mean revolutln m india advanced go cuunln tt md sho ld repujiatcj snve rusian interest mean renouncmg revolution hecause russia oppose lndtall revolulton conclusion conclude tht leader cpi cplm arc united slop cal le tach revisionist sphtter etc hey uc parade unity ol indian conunumst movernen l l l e difference thelf tes iivcn tjfr hackground lrnw cpsi rclrame lrom establishinn relation equally loyal cplm create situation force gn cpc wit cplm doc sec tyc eyt know cyim alter lsll prderrcd tile wmtmglist recorn ton u th se year instlad explain asptct th tution tile author article try vam prove c ic party marxisml eninism lhis clearly show le der ol art lorclrnnt antich ma bandwagon serve russian hcernonic interest thuse lnjian revolu thy disctrdnl long renounce evolution home demand unity international communist movement nowadays talk international communist movement unification cpi quarter certain wrong understanding international communist movement relation communist movement country remove people likely mislead satisfied go instead concentrate attention revolution revolutionary movement relace problem normally international communist movement include movement give country present context country think exclusion way overstate underplay genuine communist movement revolutionary movement immediate objective people democratic revolution country like socialist revolution capitalist country like england france usa etc let know significance movement view correct perspective present state affair international communist movement obvious international communist movement homogeneous present decade dissolution comintern communist party country independent replace new set relation different lay comintem situation put new demand party think act independently affiliate comintem revolution china succeed cpc head mao interpret leninism independently apply practice chinese revolution communist party orient change | 51 |
Delivered: August 2, 1935 Source: Source: Georgi Dimitrov, Selected Works Sofia Press, Sofia, Volume 2, 1972; Transcription: Zodiac HTML Markup: Mathias Bismo I. FASCISM AND THE WORKING CLASS The class character of fascism What does fascist victory bring to the masses? Is the victory of fascism inevitable? Fascism -- A ferocious but unstable power II. UNITED FRONT OF THE WORKING CLASS AGAINST FASCISM Significance of the United Front The chief arguments of the opponents of the United Front Content and forms of the united front The anti-fascist people's front Key questions of the United Front in individual countries The United Front and the fascist mass organizations The United Front in countries where the social democrats are in office The struggle for trade union unity The United Front and the youth The United Front and women The anti-imperialist United Front A United Front government The ideological struggle against fascism III. CONSOLIDATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTIES AND THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL UNITY OF THE PROLETARIAT Consolidation of the Communist parties Political unity of the working class Conclusion Notes Comrades, as early as the Sixth Congress [1928], the Communist International warned the world proletariat that a new fascist offensive was under way and called for a struggle against it. The Congress pointed out that 'in a more or less developed form, fascist tendencies and the germs of a fascist movement are to be found almost everywhere.' With the development of the very deep economic crisis, with the general crisis of capitalism becoming sharply accentuated and the mass of working people becoming revolutionized, fascism has embarked upon a wide offensive. The ruling bourgeoisie more and more seeks salvation in fascism, with the object of taking exceptional predatory measures against the working people, preparing for an imperialist war of plunder, attacking the Soviet Union, enslaving and partitioning China, and by all these means preventing revolution. The imperialist circles are trying to shift the whole burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working people. That is why they need fascism. They are trying to solve the problem of markets by enslaving the weak nations, by intensifying colonial oppression and repartitioning the world anew by means of war. That is why they need fascism. They are striving to forestall the growth of the forces of revolution by smashing the revolutionary movement of the workers and peasants and by undertaking a military attack against the Soviet Union -- the bulwark of the world proletariat. That is why they need fascism. In a number of countries, Germany in particular, these imperialist circles have succeeded, before the masses had decisively turned towards revolution, in inflicting defeat on the proletariat, and establishing a fascist dictatorship. But it is characteristic of the victory of fascism that this victory, on the one hand, bears witness to the weakness of the proletariat, disorganized and paralyzed by the disruptive Social-Democratic policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie, and, on the other, expresses the weakness of the bourgeoisie itself, afraid of the realization of a united struggle of the working class, afraid of revolution, and no longer in a position to maintain its dictatorship over the masses by the old methods of bourgeois democracy and parliamentarism. Comrades, fascism in power was correctly described by the Thirteenth Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International as the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital. The most reactionary variety of fascism is the German type of fascism. It has the effrontery to call itself National Socialism, though it has nothing in common with socialism. German fascism is not only bourgeois nationalism, it is fiendish chauvinism. It is a government system of political gangsterism, a system of provocation and torture practised upon the working class and the revolutionary elements of the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia. It is medieval barbarity and bestiality, it is unbridled aggression in relation to other nations. German fascism is acting as the spearhead of international counter-revolution, as the chief instigator of imperialist war, as the initiator of a crusade against the Soviet Union, the great fatherland of the working people of the whole world. Fascism is not a form of state power "standing above both classes -- the proletariat and the bourgeoisie," as Otto Bauer, for instance, has asserted. It is not "the revolt of the petty bourgeoisie which has captured the machinery of the state," as the British Socialist Brailsford declares. No, fascism is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power of finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against the working class and the revolutionary section of the peasantry and intelligentsia. In foreign policy, fascism is jingoism in its most brutal form, fomenting bestial hatred of other nations. This, the true character of fascism, must be particularly stressed because in a number of countries, under cover of social demagogy, fascism has managed to gain the following of the mass of the petty bourgeoisie that has been dislocated by the crisis, and even of certain sections of the most backward strata of the proletariat. These would never have supported fascism if they had understood its real character and its true nature. The development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship itself, assume different forms in different countries, according to historical, social and economic conditions and to the national peculiarities, and the international position of the given country. In certain countries, principally those in which fascism has no broad mass basis and in which the struggle of the various groups within the camp of the fascist bourgeoisie itself is rather acute, fascism does not immediately venture to abolish parliament, but allows the other bourgeois parties, as well as the Social-Democratic Parties, to retain a modicum of legality. In other countries, where the ruling bourgeoisie fears an early outbreak of revolution, fascism establishes its unrestricted political monopoly, either immediately or by intensifying its reign of terror against and persecution of all rival parties and groups. This does not prevent fascism, when its position becomes particularly acute, from trying to extend its basis and, without altering its class nature, trying to combine open terrorist dictatorship with a crude sham of parliamentarism. The accession to power of fascism is not an ordinary succession of one bourgeois government by another, but a substitution of one state form of class domination of the bourgeoisie -- bourgeois democracy -- by another form -- open terrorist dictatorship. It would be a serious mistake to ignore this distinction, a mistake liable to prevent the revolutionary proletariat from mobilizing the widest strata of the working people of town and country for the struggle against the menace of the seizure of power by the fascists, and from taking advantage of the contradictions which exist in the camp of the bourgeoisie itself. But it is a mistake, no less serious and dangerous, to underrate the importance, for the establishment of fascist dictatorship, of the reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie at present increasingly developing in bourgeois-democratic countries -- measures which suppress the democratic liberties of the working people, falsify and curtail the rights of parliament and intensify the repression of the revolutionary movement. Comrades, the accession to power of fascism must not be conceived of in so simplified and smooth a form, as though some committee or other of finance capital decided on a certain date to set up a fascist dictatorship. In reality, fascism usually comes to power in the course of a mutual, and at times severe, struggle against the old bourgeois parties, or a definite section of these parties, in the course of a struggle even within the fascist camp itself -- a struggle which at times leads to armed clashes, as we have witnessed in the case of Germany, Austria and other countries. All this, however, does not make less important the fact that, before the establishment of a fascist dictatorship, bourgeois governments usually pass through a number of preliminary stages and adopt a number of reactionary measures which directly facilitate the accession to power of fascism. Whoever does not fight the reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie and the growth of fascism at these preparatory stages is not in a position to prevent the victory of fascism, but, on the contrary, facilitates that victory. The Social-Democratic leaders glossed over and concealed from the masses the true class nature of fascism, and did not call them to the struggle against the increasingly reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie. They bear great historical responsibility for the fact that, at the decisive moment of the fascist offensive, a large section of the working people of Germany and of a number of other fascist countries failed to recognize in fascism the most bloodthirsty monster of finance capital, their most vicious enemy, and that these masses were not prepared to resist it. What is the source of the influence of fascism over the masses? Fascism is able to attract the masses because it demagogically appeals to their most urgent needs and demands. Fascism not only inflames prejudices that are deeply ingrained in the masses, but also plays on the better sentiments of the masses, on their sense of justice and sometimes even on their revolutionary traditions. Why do the German fascists, those lackeys of the bourgeoisie and mortal enemies of socialism, represent themselves to the masses as "Socialists," and depict their accession to power as a "revolution"? Because they try to exploit the faith in revolution and the urge towards socialism that lives in the hearts of the mass of working people in Germany. Fascism acts in the interests of the extreme imperialists, but it presents itself to the masses in the guise of champion of an ill-treated nation, and appeals to outraged national sentiments, as German fascism did, for instance, when it won the support of the masses of the petty bourgeoisie by the slogan "Down with the Versailles Treaty." Fascism aims at the most unbridled exploitation of the masses but it approaches them with the most artful anti-capitalist demagogy, taking advantage of the deep hatred of the working people against the plundering bourgeoisie, the banks, trusts and financial magnates, and advancing those slogans which at the given moment are most alluring to the politically immature masses. In Germany -- "The general welfare is higher than the welfare of the individual," in Italy -- "Our state is not a capitalist, but a corporate state," in Japan -- "For Japan without exploitation," in the United States -- "Share the wealth," and so forth. Fascism delivers up the people to be devoured by the most corrupt and venal elements, but comes before them with the demand for "an honest and incorruptible government." Speculating on the profound disillusionment of the masses in bourgeois-democratic governments, fascism hypocritically denounces corruption. It is in the interests of the most reactionary circles of the bourgeoisie that fascism intercepts the disappointed masses who desert the old bourgeois parties. But it impresses these masses by the vehemence of its attacks on the bourgeois governments and its irreconcilable attitude to the old bourgeois parties. Surpassing in its cynicism and hypocrisy all other varieties of bourgeois reaction, fascism adapts its demagogy to the national peculiarities of each country, and even to the peculiarities of the various social strata in one and the same country. And the mass of the petty bourgeoisie and even a section of the workers, reduced to despair by want, unemployment and the insecurity of their existence, fall victim to the social and chauvinist demagogy of fascism. Fascism comes to power as a party of attack on the revolutionary movement of the proletariat, on the mass of the people who are in a state of unrest; yet it stages its accession to power as a "revolutionary" movement against the bourgeoisie on behalf of "the whole nation" and for the "salvation" of the nation. One recalls Mussolini's "march" on Rome, Pilsudski's "march" on Warsaw, Hitler's National-Socialist "revolution" in Germany, and so forth. But whatever the masks that fascism adopts, whatever the forms in which it presents itself, whatever the ways by which it comes to power Fascism promised the workers "a fair wage," but actually it has brought them an even lower, a pauper, standard of living. It promised work for the unemployed, but actually it has brought them even more painful torments of starvation and forced servile labor. In practice it converts the workers and unemployed into pariahs of capitalist society stripped of rights; destroys their trade unions; deprives them of the right to strike and to have their working-class press, forces them into fascist organizations, plunders their social insurance funds and transforms the mills and factories into barracks where the unbridled arbitrary rule of the capitalist reigns. Fascism promised the working youth a broad highway to a brilliant future. But actually it has brought wholesale dismissals of young workers, labor camps and incessant military drilling for a war of conquest. Fascism promised to guarantee office workers, petty officials and intellectuals security of existence, to destroy the omnipotence of the trusts and wipe out profiteering by bank capital. But actually it has brought them an ever greater degree of despair and uncertainty as to the morrow; it is subjecting them to a new bureaucracy made up of the most submissive of its followers, it is setting up an intolerable dictatorship of the trusts and spreading corruption and degeneration to an unprecedented extent. Fascism promised the ruined and impoverished peasants to put an end to debt bondage, to abolish rent and even to expropriate the landed estates without compensation, in the interests of the landless and ruined peasants. But actually it is placing the laboring peasants in a state of unprecedented servitude to the trusts and the fascist state apparatus, and pushes to the utmost limit the exploitation of the great mass of the peasantry by the big landowners, the banks and the usurers. "Germany will be a peasant country, or will not be at all," Hitler solemnly declared. And what did the peasants of Germany get under Hitler? The moratorium, 1) which has already been cancelled? Or the law on the inheritance of peasant property, which leads to millions of sons and daughters of peasants being squeezed out of the villages and reduced to paupers? Farm laborers have been transformed into semi-serfs, deprived even of the elementary right of free movement. The working peasants have been deprived of the opportunity of selling the produce of their farms in the market. And in Poland? The Polish peasant, says the Polish newspaper Czas, employs methods and means Which were used perhaps only in the Middle Ages; he nurses the fire in his stove and lends it to his neighbor; he splits matches into several parts; he lends dirty soapwater to others; he boils herring barrels in order to obtain salt water. This is not a fable, but the actual state of affairs in the countryside, of the truth of which anybody may convince himself. And it is not Communists who write this, Comrades, but a Polish reactionary newspaper. But this is by no means all. Every day, in the concentration camps of fascist Germany, in the cellars of the Gestapo (German secret police), in the torture chambers of Poland, in the cells of the Bulgarian and Finnish secret police, in the Glavnyacha in Belgrade, in the Rumanian Siguranza and on the Italian islands, the best sons of the working class, revolutionary peasants, fighters for the splendid future of mankind, are being subjected to revolting tortures and indignities, before which pale the most abominable acts of the tsarist Okhranka2). The blackguardly German fascists beat husbands to a bloody pulp in the presence of their wives, and send the ashes of murdered sons by parcel post to their mothers. Sterilization has been made a method of political warfare. In the torture chambers, imprisoned anti-fascists are given injections of poison, their arms are broken, their eyes gouged out; they are strung up and have water pumped into them; the fascist swastika is carved in their living flesh. I have before me a statistical summary drawn up by the International Red Aid [international organization of that time for aid to revolutionary fighters] regarding the number of killed, wounded, arrested, maimed and tortured to death in Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. In Germany alone, since the National-Socialists came to power, over 4,200 anti-fascist workers, peasants, employees, intellectuals -- Communists, Social Democrats and members of opposition Christian organizations -- have been murdered, 317,800 arrested, 218,600 injured and subjected to torture. In Austria, since the battles of February last year the "Christian" fascist government has murdered 1,900 revolutionary workers, maimed and injured 10,000 and arrested 40,000. And this summary, comrades is far from complete. Words fail me in describing the indignation which seizes us at the thought of the torments which the working people are now undergoing in a number of fascist countries. The facts and figures we quote do not reflect one hundredth part of the true picture of the exploitation and tortures inflicted by the White terror and forming part of the daily life of the working class in many capitalist countries. Volumes cannot give a just picture of the countless brutalities inflicted by fascism on the working people. With feelings of profound emotion and hatred for the fascist butchers, we dip the banners of the Communist International before the unforgettable memory of John Scheer, Fiete Schulze and Luttgens in Germany, Koloman Wallisch and Munichreiter in Austria, Sallai and Furst in Hungary, Kofardjiev, Lyutibrodski and Voykov in Bulgaria -- before the memory of thousands and thousands of Communists, Social-Democrats and non-party workers, peasants and representatives of the progressive intelligentsia who have laid down their lives in the struggle against fascism. From this platform we greet the leader of the German proletariat and the honorary chairman of our Congress -- Comrade Thaelmann. We greet Comrades Rakosi, Gramsci, Antikainen. We greet Tom Mooney, who has been languishing in prison for eighteen years, and the thousands of other prisoners of capitalism and fascism, and we say to them: "Brothers in the fight, brothers in arms, you are not forgotten. We are with you. We shall give every hour of our lives, every drop of our blood, for your liberation, and for the liberation of all working people from the shameful regime of fascism." Comrades, it was Lenin who warned us that the bourgeoisie may succeed in overwhelming the working people by savage terror, in checking the growing forces of revolution for brief periods of time, but that, nevertheless, this would not save it from its doom. Life will assert itself -- Lenin wrote -- Let the bourgeoisie rave, work itself into a frenzy, overdo things, commit stupidities, take vengeance on the Bolsheviks in advance and endeavour to kill off (in India, Hungary, Germany, etc.) hundreds, thousands and hundreds of thousands more of yesterday's and tomorrow's Bolsheviks. Acting thus, the bourgeoisie acts as all classes doomed by history have acted. Communists should know that the future, at any rate, belongs to them; therefore we can and must combine the most intense passion in the great revolutionary struggle with the coolest and most sober evaluation of the mad ravings of the bourgeoisie. [V. I. Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder, New York (1949), pp. 81-82; Collected Works 31:101] Ay, if we and the proletariat of the whole world firmly follow the path indicated by Lenin, the bourgeoisie will perish in spite of everything. Why was it that fascism could triumph, and how? Fascism is the most vicious enemy of the working class and working people, who constitute nine-tenths of the German people, nine-tenths of the Austrian people, nine-tenths of the people in other fascist countries. How, in what way, could this vicious enemy triumph? Fascism was able to come to power primarily because the working class, owing to the policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie pursued by the Social-Democratic leaders, proved to be split, politically and organizationally disarmed, in face of the onslaught of the bourgeoisie. And the Communist Parties, on the other hand, apart from and in opposition to the Social-Democrats, were not strong enough to rouse the masses and to lead them in a decisive struggle against fascism. And, indeed, let the millions of Social-Democratic workers, who together with their Communist brothers are now experiencing the horrors of fascist barbarism, seriously reflect on the following: If, in 1918, when revolution broke out in Germany and Austria, the Austrian and German proletariat had not followed the Social Democratic leadership of Otto Bauer, Friedrich Adler and Karl Renner in Austria and Ebert and Scheidemann in Germany, but had followed the road of the Russian Bolsheviks, the road of Lenin, there would now be no fascism in Austria or Germany, in Italy or Hungary, in Poland or in the Balkans. Not the bourgeoisie, but the working class would long ago have been the master of the situation in Europe. Take, for example, the Austrian Social-Democratic Party. The revolution of 1918 raised it to a tremendous height. It held the power in its hands, it held strong j positions in the army and in the state apparatus. Relying on these positions, it could have nipped fascism in the bud. But it surrendered one position of the working class after another without resistance. It allowed the bourgeoisie to strengthen its power, annul the constitution, purge the state apparatus, army and police force of Social-Democratic functionaries, and take the arsenals away from the workers. It allowed the fascist bandits to murder Social-Democratic workers with impunity and accepted the terms of the Hüttenberg Pact 3), which gave the fascist elements entry to the factories. At the same time the Social-Democratic leaders fooled the workers with the Linz program 4), which contained the alternative possibility of using armed force against the bourgeoisie and establishing the proletarian dictatorship, assuring them that in the event of the ruling class using force against the working class, the Party would reply by a call for general strike and for armed struggle. As though the whole policy of preparation for a fascist attack on the working class were not one chain of acts of violence against the working class masked by constitutional forms. Even on the eve and in the course of the February battles the Austrian Social Democratic leaders left the heroically fighting Schutzbund 5) isolated from the broad masses, and doomed the Austrian proletariat to defeat. Was the victory of fascism inevitable in Germany? No, the German working class could have prevented it. But in order to do so, it should have achieved a united anti-fascist proletarian front, and forced the Social-Democratic leaders to discontinue their campaign against the Communists and to accept the repeated proposals of the Communist Party for united action against fascism. When fascism was on the offensive and the bourgeois-democratic liberties were being progressively abolished by the bourgeoisie, it should not have contented itself with the verbal resolutions of the Social-Democrats, but should have replied by a genuine mass struggle, which would have made the fulfilment of the fascist plans of the German bourgeoisie more difficult. It should not have allowed the prohibition of the League of Red Front Fighters by the government of Braun and Severing 6), and should have established fighting contact between the League and the Reichsbanner 7), with its nearly one million members, and should have compelled Braun and Severing to arm both these organizations in order to resist and smash the fascist bands. It should have compelled the Social-Democratic leaders who headed the Prussian government to adopt measures of defence against fascism, arrest the fascist leaders, close down their press, confiscate their material resources and the resources of the capitalists who were financing the fascist movement, dissolve the fascist organizations, deprive them of their weapons, and so forth. Furthermore, it should have secured the re-establishment and extension of all forms of social assistance and the introduction of a moratorium and crisis benefits for the peasants -- who were being ruined under the impact of crisis -- by taxing the banks and the trusts, in this way winning the support of the working peasants. It was the fault of the Social-Democrats of Germany that this was not done, and that is why fascism was able to triumph. Was it inevitable that the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy should have triumphed in Spain, a country where the forces of proletarian revolt are so advantageously combined with a peasant war? The Spanish Socialists were in the government from the first days of the revolution. Did they establish fighting contact between the working class organizations of every political opinion, including the Communists and the Anarchists, and did they weld the working class into a united trade union organization? Did they demand the confiscation of all lands of the landlords, the church and the monasteries in favor of the peasants in order to win over the latter to the side of the revolution? Did they attempt to fight for national self-determination for the Catalonians and the Basques, and for the liberation of Morocco? Did they purge the army of monarchist and fascist elements and prepare it for passing over to the side of the workers and peasants? Did they dissolve the Civil Guard, so detested by the people, the executioner of every movement of the people? Did they strike at the fascist party of Gil Robles and at the might of the Catholic church? No, they did none of these things. They rejected the frequent proposals of the Communists for united action against the offensive of the bourgeois-landlord reaction and fascism; they passed election laws which enabled the reactionaries to gain a majority in the Cortes (parliament), laws which penalized the popular movement, laws under which the heroic miners of Asturias are now being tried. They had peasants who were fighting for land shot by the Civil Guard, and so on. This is the way in which the Social-Democrats, by disorganizing and splitting the ranks of the working class, cleared the path to power for fascism in Germany, Austria and Spain. Comrades, fascism also attained power for the reason that the proletariat found itself isolated from its natural allies. Fascism attained power because it was able to win over large masses of the peasantry, owing to the fact that the Social-Democrats in the name of the working class pursued what was in fact an anti-peasant policy. The peasant saw in power a number of Social-Democratic governments, which in his eyes were an embodiment of the power of the working class; but not one of them put an end to peasant want, none of them gave land to the peasantry. In Germany, the Social-Democrats did not touch the landlords; they combated the strikes of the farm laborers, with the result that long before Hitler came to power the farm laborers of Germany were deserting the reformist trade unions and in the majority of cases were going over to the Stahlhelm and to the National Socialists. Fascism also attained power for the reason that it was able to penetrate into the ranks of the youth, whereas the Social-Democrats diverted the working class youth from the class struggle, while the revolutionary proletariat did not develop the necessary educational work among the youth and did not pay enough attention to the struggle for its specific interests and demands. Fascism grasped the very acute need of the youth for militant activity, and enticed a considerable section of the youth into its fighting detachments. The new generation of young men and women has not experienced the horrors of war. They have felt the full weight of the economic crisis, unemployment and the disintegration of bourgeois democracy. But, seeing no prospects for the future, large sections of the youth proved to be particularly receptive to fascist demagogy, which depicted for them an alluring future should fascism succeed. In this connection, we cannot avoid referring also to a number of mistakes made by the Communist Parties, mistakes that hampered our struggle against fascism. In our ranks there was an impermissible underestimation of the fascist danger, a tendency which to this day has not everywhere been overcome. A case in point is the opinion formerly to be met with in our Parties that "Germany is not Italy," meaning that fascism may have succeeded in Italy, but that its success in Germany was out of the question, because the latter is an industrially and culturally highly developed country, with forty years of traditions of the working-class movement, in which fascism was impossible. Or the kind of opinion which is to be met with nowadays, to the effect that in countries of "classical" bourgeois democracy the soil for fascism does not exist. Such opinions have served and may serve to relax vigilance towards the fascist danger, and to render the mobilization of the proletariat in the struggle against fascism more difficult. One might also cite quite a few instances where Communists were taken unawares by the fascist coup. Remember Bulgaria, where the leadership of our Party, took up a "neutral," but in fact opportunist, position with regard to the coup d'état of June 9, 1923; Poland, where in May 1926 the leadership of the Communist Party, making a wrong estimate of the motive forces of the Polish revolution, did not realize the fascist nature of Pilsudski's coup, and trailed in the rear of events; Finland, where our Party based itself on a false conception of slow and gradual fascization and overlooked the fascist coup which was being prepared by the leading group of the bourgeoisie and which took the Party and the working class unawares. When National Socialism had already become a menacing mass movement in Germany, there were comrades who regarded the Bruening government as already a government of fascist dictatorship, and who boastfully declared: "If Hitler's Third Reich ever comes about, it will be six feet underground, and above it will be the victorious power of the workers." Our comrades in Germany for a long time failed to fully reckon with the wounded national sentiments and the indignation of the masses against the Versailles Treaty; they treated as of little account the waverings of the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie; they were late in drawing up their program of social and national emancipation, and when they did put it forward they were unable to adapt it to the concrete demands and to the level of the masses. They were even unable to popularize it widely among the masses. In a number of countries, the necessary development of a mass fight against fascism was replaced by barren debates on the nature of fascism "in general" and by a narrow sectarian attitude in formulating and solving the immediate political tasks of the Party. Comrades, it is not simply because we want to dig up the past that we speak of the causes of the victory of fascism, that we point to the historical responsibility of the Social Democrats for the defeat of the working class, and that we also point out our own mistakes in the fight against fascism. We are not historians divorced from living reality; we, active fighters of the working class, are obliged to answer the question that is tormenting millions of workers: Can the victory of fascism be prevented, and how? And we reply to these millions of workers: Yes, comrades, the road to fascism can be blocked. It is quite possible. It depends on ourselves-on the workers, the peasants and all working people. Whether the victory of fascism can be prevented depends first and foremost on the militant activity of the working class itself, on whether its forces are welded into a single militant army combating the offensive of capitalism and fascism. By establishing its fighting unity, the proletariat would paralyze the influence of fascism over the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, the youth and the intelligentsia, and would be able to neutralize one section of them and win over the other section. Second, it depends on the existence of a strong revolutionary party, correctly leading the struggle of the working people against fascism. A party which systematically calls on the workers to retreat in the face of fascism and permits the fascist bourgeoisie to strengthen its positions is doomed to lead the workers to defeat. Third, it depends on a correct policy of the working class towards the peasantry and the petty-bourgeois masses of the towns. These masses must be taken as they are, and not as we should like to have them. It is in the process of the struggle that they will overcome their doubts and waverings. It is only by a patient attitude towards their inevitable waverings, it is only by the political help of the proletariat, that they will be able to rise to a higher level of revolutionary consciousness and activity. Fourth, it depends on the vigilance and timely action of the revolutionary proletariat. The latter must not allow fascism to take it unawares, it must not surrender the initiative to fascism, but must inflict decisive blows on it before it can gather its forces, it must not allow fascism to consolidate its position, it must repel fascism wherever and whenever it rears its head, it must not allow fascism to gain new positions. This is what the French proletariat is so successfully trying to do. These are the main conditions for preventing the growth of fascism and its accession to power. The fascist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is a ferocious power, but an unstable one. What are the chief causes of the instability of fascist dictatorship? Fascism undertakes to overcome the differences and antagonisms within the bourgeois camp, but it makes these antagonisms even more acute. Fascism tries to establish its political monopoly by violently destroying other political parties. But the existence of the capitalist system, the existence of various classes and the accentuation of class contradictions inevitably tend to undermine and explode the political monopoly of fascism. In a fascist country the party of the fascists cannot set itself the aim of abolishing classes and class contradictions. It puts an end to the legal existence of bourgeois parties. But a number of them continue to maintain an illegal existence, while the Communist Party even in conditions of illegality continues to make progress, becomes steeled and tempered and leads the struggle of the proletariat against the fascist dictatorship. Hence, under the blows of class contradictions, the political monopoly of fascism is bound to explode. Another reason for the instability of the fascist dictatorship is that the contrast between the anti-capitalist demagogy of fascism and its policy of enriching the monopolist bourgeoisie in the most piratical fashion makes it easier to expose the class nature of fascism and tends to shake and narrow its mass basis. Furthermore, the victory of fascism arouses the deep hatred and indignation of the masses, helps to revolutionize them, and provides a powerful stimulus for a united front of the proletariat against fascism. By conducting a policy of economic nationalism (autarchy) and by seizing the greater part of the national income for the purpose of preparing for war, fascism undermines the whole economic life of the country and accentuates the economic war between the capitalist states. To the conflicts that arise among the bourgeoisie it lends the character of sharp and at times bloody collisions that undermine the stability of the fascist state power in the eyes of the people. A government which murders its own followers, as happened in Germany on June 30 8) of last year, a fascist government against which another section of the fascist bourgeoisie is conducting an armed fight (the National-Socialist putsch in Austria and the violent attacks of individual fascist groups on the fascist government in Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and other countries) -- a government of this character cannot for long maintain its authority in the eyes of the broad mass of the petty bourgeoisie. The working class must be able to take advantage of the antagonisms and conflicts within the bourgeois camp, but it must not cherish the illusion that fascism will exhaust itself of its own accord. Fascism will not collapse automatically. Only the revolutionary activity of the working class can help to take advantage of the conflicts which inevitably arise within the bourgeois camp in order to undermine the fascist dictatorship and to overthrow it. By destroying the relics of bourgeois democracy, by elevating open violence to a system of government, fascism shakes democratic illusions and undermines the authority of the law in the eyes of the working people. This is particularly true in countries such as Austria and Spain, where the workers have taken up arms against fascism. In Austria, the heroic struggle of the Schutzbund and the Communists in spite of its defeat, shook the stability of the fascist dictatorship from the very outset. In Spain, the bourgeoisie did not succeed in putting the fascist muzzle on the working people. The armed struggles in Austria and Spain have resulted in ever wider masses of the working class coming to realize the necessity for a revolutionary class struggle. Only such monstrous philistines, such lackeys of the bourgeoisie, as the superannuated theoretician of the Second International, Karl Kautsky, are capable of casting reproaches at the workers, to the effect that they should not have taken up arms in Austria and Spain. What would the working class movement in Austria and Spain look like today if the working class of these countries were guided by the treacherous counsels of the Kautskys? The working class would be experiencing profound demoralization in its ranks. The school of civil war -- Lenin says -- does not leave the people unaffected. It is a harsh school, and its complete curriculum inevitably includes the victories of the counterrevolution, the debaucheries of enraged reactionaries, savage punishments meted out by the old governments to the rebels, etc. But only downright pedants and mentally decrepit mummies can grieve over the fact that nations are entering this painful school; this school teaches the oppressed classes how to conduct civil war; it teaches how to bring about a victorious revolution; it concentrates in the masses of present-day slaves that hatred which is always harboured by the downtrodden, dull, ignorant slaves, and which leads those slaves who have become conscious of the shame of their slavery to the greatest historic exploits. [V. I. Lenin, Collected Works 15:183] The triumph of fascism in Germany has, as we know, been followed by a new wave of the fascist offensive, which in Austria led to the provocation by Dollfuss, in Spain to the new onslaughts of counter-revolution on the revolutionary conquests of the masses, in Poland to the fascist reform of the constitution, while in France it spurred the armed detachments of the fascists to attempt a coup d'état in February 1934. But this victory, and the frenzy of the fascist dictatorship, called forth a countermovement for a united proletarian front against fascism on an international scale. The burning of the Reichstag, which served as a signal for the general attack of fascism on the working class, the seizure and spoliation of the trade unions and the other working class organizations, the groans of the tortured anti-fascists rising from the vaults of the fascist barracks and concentration camps, are making clear to the masses what has been the outcome of the reactionary, disruptive role played by the German Social-Democratic leaders, who rejected the proposal made by the Communists for a joint struggle against advancing fascism. These things are convincing the masses of the necessity of uniting all forces of the working class for the overthrow of fascism. Hitler's victory also provided a decisive stimulus for the creation of a united front of the working class against fascism in France. Hitler's victory not only aroused in the workers a fear of the fate that befell the German workers, not only kindled hatred for the executioners of their German class brothers, but also strengthened in them the determination never in any circumstances to allow in their country what happened to the working class in Germany. The powerful urge towards a united front in all the capitalist countries shows that the lessons of defeat have not been in vain. The working class is beginning to act in a new way. The initiative shown by the Communist Parties in the organization of a united front and the supreme self-sacrifice displayed by the Communists, by the revolutionary workers in the struggle against fascism, have resulted in an unprecedented increase in the prestige of the Communist International. At the same time, the Second International is undergoing a profound crisis, a crisis which is particularly noticeable and has particularly accentuated since the bankruptcy of German Social-Democracy. With ever greater ease the Social-Democratic workers are able to convince themselves that fascist Germany, with all its horrors and barbarities, is in the final analysis the result of the Social-Democratic policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie. These masses are coming ever more clearly to realize that the path along which the German Social-Democratic leaders led the proletariat must not be traversed again. Never has there been such ideological dissension in the camp of the Second International as at the present time. A process of differentiation is taking place in all Social-Democratic Parties. Within their ranks two principal camps are forming: side by side with the existing camp of reactionary elements, who are trying in every way to preserve the bloc between the Social-Democrats and the bourgeoisie, and who rabidly reject a united front with the Communists, there is beginning to emerge a camp of revolutionary elements who entertain doubts as to the correctness of the policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie, who are in favor of the creation of a united front with the Communists, and who are increasingly coming to adopt the position of the revolutionary class struggle. Thus fascism, which appeared as the result of the decline of the capitalist system, in the long run acts as a factor in its further disintegration. Thus fascism, which has undertaken to bury Marxism, the revolutionary movement of the working class, is, as a result of the dialectics of life and the class struggle, itself leading to the further development of the forces that are bound to serve as its grave-diggers, the grave-diggers of capitalism. Comrades, millions of workers and working people of the capitalist countries are asking the question: How can fascism be prevented from coming to power and how can fascism be overthrown after it has attained power? To this the Communist International replies: The first thing that must be done, the thing with which to begin, is to form a united front, to establish unity of action of the workers in every factory, in every district, in every region, in every country, all over the world. Unity of action of the proletariat on a national and international scale is the mighty weapon which renders the working class capable not only of successful defense but also of successful counterattack against fascism, against the class enemy. Is it not clear that joint action by the supporters of the parties and organizations of the two Internationals, the Communist and the Second International, would make it easier for the masses to repulse the fascist onslaught, and would heighten the political importance of the working class? Joint action by the parties of both internationals against fascism, however, would not be confined in its effects to influencing their present adherents, the Communists and Social-Democrats; it would also exert a powerful impact on the ranks of the Catholic, Anarchist and unorganized workers, even upon those who have temporarily become the victims of fascist demagogy. Moreover, a powerful united front of the proletariat would exert tremendous influence on all other strata of the working people, on the peasantry, on the urban petty bourgeoisie, on the intelligentsia. A united front would inspire the wavering groups with faith in the strength of the working class. But even this is not all. The proletariat of the imperialist countries has possible allies not only in the working people of its own countries, but also in the oppressed nations of the colonies and semi-colonies. Inasmuch as the proletariat is split both nationally and internationally, inasmuch as one of its parts supports the policy of collaboration with the bourgeoisie, in particular its system of oppression in the colonies and semi-colonies, a barrier is put between the working class and the oppressed peoples of the colonies and semi-colonies, and the world anti-imperialist front is weakened. Every step by the proletariat of the imperialist countries on the road to unity of action in the direction of supporting the struggle for the liberation of the colonial peoples means transforming the colonies and semi-colonies into one of the most important reserves of the world proletariat. If, finally, we bear in mind that international unity of action by the proletariat relies on the steadily growing strength of the proletarian state, the land of socialism, the Soviet Union, we see what broad perspectives are revealed by the realization of proletarian unity of action on a national and international scale. The establishment of unity of action by all sections of the working class, irrespective of the party or organization to which they belong, is necessary even before the majority of the working class is united in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the victory of the proletarian revolution. Is it possible to realize this unity of action of the proletariat in the individual countries and throughout the whole world? Yes, it is. And it is possible at this very moment. The Communist International puts no conditions for unity of action except one, and at that an elementary condition acceptable to all workers, viz., that the unity of action be directed against fascism, against the offensive of capital, against the threat of war, against the class enemy. This is our condition. What objections can the opponents of the united front have, and what objections do they voice? Some say: "The Communists use the slogan of the united front merely as a maneuver." But if this is the case, we reply, why don't you expose this "Communist maneuver" by your honest participation in the united front? We declare frankly: We want unity of action by the working class so that the proletariat may grow strong in its struggle against the bourgeoisie, in order that while defending today its current interests against attacking capital, against fascism, the proletariat may reach a position tomorrow to create the preliminary conditions for its final emancipation. "The Communists attack us," say others. But listen, we have repeatedly declared: We shall not attack anyone, whether persons, organizations or parties, standing for the united front of the working class against the class enemy. But at the same time it is our duty, in the interests of the proletariat and its cause, to criticize those persons, organizations and parties that hinder unity of action by the workers. "We cannot form a united front with the Communists, since they have a different program," says a third group. But you yourselves say that your program differs from the program of the bourgeois parties, and yet this did not and does not prevent you from entering into coalitions with these parties. "The bourgeois-democratic parties are better allies against fascism that the Communists," say the opponents of the united front and the advocates of coalition with the bourgeoisie. But what does Germany's experience teach? Did not the Social-Democrats form a bloc with those "better" allies? And what were the results? "If we establish a united front with the Communists, the petty bourgeoisie will take fright at the 'Red danger' and will desert to the fascists," we hear it said quite frequently. But does the united front represent a threat to the peasants, small traders, artisans, working intellectuals? No, the united front is a threat to the big bourgeoisie, the financial magnates, the junkers and other exploiters, whose regime brings complete ruin to all these strata. "Social-Democracy is for democracy, the Communists are for dictatorship; therefore we cannot form a united front with the Communists," say some of the Social-Democratic leaders. But are we offering you now a united front for the purpose of proclaiming the dictatorship of the proletariat? We make no such proposal now. "Let the Communists recognize democracy, let them come out in its defense; then we shall be ready for a united front." To this we reply: We are the adherents of Soviet democracy, the democracy of the working people, the most consistent democracy in the world. But in the capitalist countries we defend and shall continue to defend every inch of bourgeois-democratic liberties, which are being attacked by fascism and bourgeois reaction, because the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat so dictate. "But can the tiny Communist Parties contribute anything by participating in the united front brought about by the Labour Party," say, for instance, the Labour leaders of Great Britain. Remember how the Austrian Social-Democratic leaders said the same thing with reference to the small Austrian Communist Party. And what have events shown? It was not the Austrian Social-Democratic Party headed by Otto Bauer and Renner that proved right, but the small Austrian Communist Party which signalled the fascist danger in Austria at the right moment and called upon the workers to struggle. The whole experience of the labor movement has shown that the Communists with all their relative insignificance in numbers, are the motive power of the militant activity of the proletariat. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the Communist Parties of Austria or Great Britain are not only the tens of thousands of workers who are adherents of the Party, but are parts of the world Communist movement, are Sections of the Communist International, whose leading Party is the Party of a proletariat which has already achieved victory and rules over one-sixth of the globe. "But the united front did not prevent fascism from being victorious in the Saar," is another objection advanced by the opponents of the united front. Strange is the logic of these gentlemen. First they leave no stone unturned to ensure the victory of fascism and then they rejoice with malicious glee because the united front which they entered into only at the last moment did not lead to the victory of the workers. "If we were to form a united front with the Communists, we should have to withdraw from the coalition, and reactionary and fascist parties would enter the government," say the Social-Democratic leaders holding cabinet posts in various countries. Very well. Was not the German Social-Democratic Party in a coalition government? It was. Was not the Austrian Social-Democratic Party in office? Were not the Spanish Socialists in the same government as the bourgeoisie? They were. Did the participation of the Social-Democratic Parties in the bourgeois coalition governments in these countries prevent fascism from attacking the proletariat? It did not. Consequently it is as clear as daylight that participation of Social-Democratic ministers in bourgeois governments is not a barrier to fascism. "The Communists act like dictators, they want to prescribe and dictate everything to us." No. We prescribe nothing and dictate nothing. We only put forward our proposals, being convinced that if realized they will meet the interests of the working people. This is not only the right but the duty of all those acting in the name of the workers. You are afraid of the 'dictatorship' of the Cornmunists? Let us jointly submit to the workers all proposals, both yours and ours, jointly discuss them together with all the workers, and choose those proposals which are most useful to the cause of the working class. Thus all these arguments against a united front will not stand the slightest criticism. They are rather the flimsy excuses of the reactionary leaders of Social-Democracy, who prefer their united front with the bourgeoisie to the united front of the proletariat. No. These excuses will not hold water. The international proletariat has experienced the suffering caused by the split in the working class, and becomes more and more convinced that the united front, the unity of action of the proletariat on a national and international scale, is at once necessary and perfectly possible. What is and ought to be the basic content of the united front at the present stage? The defense of the immediate economic and political interests of the working class, the defense of the working class against fascism, must form the starting point and main content of the united front in all capitalist countries. We must not confine ourselves to bare appeals to struggle for the proletarian dictatorship. We must find and advance those slogans and forms of struggle which arise from the vital needs of the masses, from the level of their fighting capacity at the present stage of development. We must point out to the masses what they must do today to defend themselves against capitalist spoliation and fascist barbarity. We must strive to establish the widest united front with the aid of joint action by workers' organizations of different trends for the defense of the vital interests of the laboring masses. This means: We must tirelessly prepare the working class for a rapid change in forms and methods of struggle when there is a change in the situation. As the movement grows and the unity of the working class strengthens, we must go further, and prepare the transition from the defensive to the offensive against capital, steering towards the organization of a mass political strike. It must be an absolute condition of such a strike to draw into it the main trade unions of the countries concerned. Communists, of course, cannot and must not for a moment abandon their own independent work of Communist education, organization and mobilization of the masses. However, to ensure that the workers find the road of unity of action, it is necessary to strive at the same time both for short-term and for long-term agreements that provide for joint action with Social Democratic Parties, reformist trade unions and other organizations of the working people against the class enemies of the proletariat. The chief stress in all this must be laid on developing mass action, locally, to be carried out by the local organizations through local agreements. While loyally carrying out the conditions of all agreements made with them, we shall mercilessly expose all sabotage of joint action on the part of persons and organizations participating in the united front. To any attempt to wreck the agreements -- and such attempts may possibly be made -- we shall reply by appealing to the masses while continuing untiringly to struggle for restoration of the broken unity of action. It goes without saying that the practical realization of a united front will take various forms in various countries, depending upon the condition and character of the workers' organizations and their political level, upon the situation in the particular country, upon the changes in progress in the international labor movement, etc. These forms may include, for instance: coordinated joint action of the workers to be agreed upon from case to case on definite occasions, on individual demands or on the basis of a common platform; coordinated actions in individual enterprises or by whole industries; coordinated actions on a local, regional, national or international scale, coordinated actions for the organization of the economic struggle of the workers, for carrying out mass political actions, for the organization of joint self-defense against fascist attacks, coordinated actions in rendering aid to political prisoners and their families, in the field of struggle against social reaction; joint actions in the defense of the interests of the youth and women, in the field of the cooperative movement, cultural activity, sport, etc. It would be insufficient to rest content with the conclusion of a pact providing for joint action and the formation of contact committees from the parties and organizations participating in the united front, like those we have in France, for instance. That is only the first step. The pact is an auxiliary means for obtaining joint action, but by itself it does not constitute a united front. A contact commission between the leaders of the Communist and Socialist Parties is necessary to facilitate the carrying out of joint action, but by itself it is far from adequate for a real development of the united front, for drawing the widest masses into the struggle against fascism. The Communists and all revolutionary workers must strive for the formation of elected (and in the countries of fascist dictatorship -- selected from among the most authoritative participants in the united front movement) nonparty class bodies of the united front, at the factories, among the unemployed, in the working class districts, among the small towns-folk and in the villages. Only such bodies will be able to include also the vast masses of unorganized working people in the united front movement, and will be able to assist in developing mass initiative in the struggle against the capitalist offensive, against fascism and reaction, and on this basis create the necessary broad active rank-and-file of the united front and train hundreds and thousands of non-Party Bolsheviks in the capitalist countries. Joint action of the organized workers is the beginning, the foundation. But we must not lose sight of the fact that the unorganized masses constitute the vast majority of workers. Thus, in France the number of organized workers -- Communists, Socialists, trade union members of various trends-is altogether about one million, while the total number of workers is eleven million. In Great Britain there are approximately five million members of trade unions and parties of various trends. At the same time the total number of workers is fourteen million. In the United States of America about five million workers are organized, while altogether there are thirty-eight million workers in that country. About the same ratio holds good for a number of other countries. In "normal" times this mass in the main does not participate in political life. But now this gigantic mass is getting into motion more and more, is being brought into political life, comes out onto the political arena. The creation of nonpartisan class bodies is the best form for carrying out, extending and strengthening a united front among the rank-and-file of the masses. These bodies will likewise be the best bulwark against any attempt of the opponents of the united front to disrupt the growing unity of action of the working class. In mobilizing the mass of working people for the struggle against fascism, the formation of a wide anti-fascist People's Front on the basis of the proletarian united front is a particularly important task. The success of the whole struggle of the proletariat is closely bound up with the establishment of a fighting alliance between the proletariat, on the one hand, and the laboring peasantry and basic mass of the urban petty bourgeoisie who together form the majority of the population even in industrially developed countries, on the other. In its agitation, fascism, desirous of winning these masses to its own side, tries to set the mass of the working people in town and countryside against the revolutionary proletariat, frightening the petty bourgeoisie with the bogey of the "Red peril." We must turn this weapon against those who wield it and show the working peasants, artisans and intellectuals whence the real danger threatens. We must show concretely who it is that piles the burden of taxes and imposts onto the peasant and squeezes usurious interest out of him; who it is that, while owning the best land and every form of wealth, drives the peasant and his family from their plot of land and dooms them to unemployment and poverty. We must explain concretely, patiently and persistently who it is that ruins the artisans and handicraftsmen with taxes, imposts, high rents and competition impossible for them to withstand; who it is that throws into the street and deprives of employment the wide masses of the working intelligentsia. But this is not enough. The fundamental, the most decisive thing in establishing an anti-fascist People's Front is resolute action of the revolutionary proletariat in defense of the demands of these sections of the people, particularly the working peasantry -- demands in line with the basic interests of the proletariat -- and in the process of struggle combining the demands of the working class with these demands. In forming an anti-fascist People's Front, a correct approach to those organizations and parties whose membership comprises a considerable number of the working peasantry and the mass of the urban petty bourgeoisie is of great importance. In the capitalist countries the majority of these parties and organizations, political as well as economic, are still under the influence of the bourgeoisie and follow it. The social composition of these parties and organizations is heterogeneous. They include rich peasants side by side with landless peasants, big businessmen alongside petty shopkeepers; but control is in the hands of the former, the agents of big capital. This obliges us to approach the different organizations in different ways, remembering that often the bulk of the membership ignores the real political character of its leadership. Under certain conditions we can and must try to draw these parties and organizations or certain sections of them to the side of the anti-fascist People's Front, despite their bourgeois leadership. Such, for instance, is today the situation in France with the Radical party, in the United States with various farmers' organizations, in Poland with the "Stronnictwo Ludowe," 9) in Yugoslavia with the Croatian Peasants' Party, in Bulgaria with the Agrarian Union, in Greece with the Agrarians, etc. But regardless of whether or not there is any chance of attracting these parties and organizations as a whole to the People's Front, our tactics must under all circumstances be directed towards drawing the small peasants, artisans, handicraftsmen, etc., among their members into an anti-fascist People's Front. Hence, you see that in this field we must all along the line put an end to what has not infrequently occurred in our work-neglect or contempt of the various organizations and parties of the peasants, artisans and the mass of petty bourgeoisie in the towns. In every country there are certain key questions, which at the present stage are agitating vast masses of the population and around which the struggle for the establishment of a united front must be developed. If these key points, or key questions, are properly grasped it will ensure and accelerate the establishment of a united front. The United States of America Let us take, for example, so important a country in the capitalist world as the United States of America. There millions of people have been set into motion by the crisis. The program for the recovery of capitalism has collapsed. Vast masses are beginning to abandon the bourgeois parties and are at present at the crossroads. Embryo American fascism is trying to direct the disillusionment and discontent of these masses into reactionary fascist channels. It is a peculiarity of the development of American fascism that at the present stage it comes forward principally in the guise of an opposition to fascism, which it accuses of being an "un-American" trend imported from abroad. In contradistinction to German fascism, which acts under anti-constitutional slogans, American fascism tries to portray itself as the custodian of the Constitution and "American democracy." It does not as yet represent a directly menacing force. But if it succeeds in penetrating the wide masses who have become disillusioned with the old bourgeois parties, it may become a serious menace in the very near future. And what would the victory of fascism in the United States involve? For the mass of working people it would of course, involve the unprecedented strengthening of the regime of exploitation and the destruction of the working-class movement. And what would be the international significance of this victory of fascism? As we known, the United States is not Hungary, nor Finland, nor Bulgaria, nor Latvia. The victory of fascism in the United States would vitally change the whole international situation. Under these circumstances, can the American proletariat content itself with organizing only its class conscious vanguard, which is prepared to follow the revolutionary path? No. It is perfectly obvious that the interests of the American proletariat demand that all its forces dissociate themselves from the capitalist parties without delay. It must find in good time ways and suitable forms to prevent fascism from winning over the wide mass of discontented working people. And here it must be said that under American conditions the creation of a mass party of the working people, a Workers' and Farmers' Party, might serve as such a suitable form. Such a party would be a specific form of the mass People's Front in America and should be put in opposition to the parties of the trusts and the banks, and likewise to growing fascism. Such a party, of course, will be neither Socialist nor Communist. But it must be an anti-fascist party and must not be an anti-Communist party. The program of this party must be directed against the banks, trusts and monopolies, against the principal enemies of the people, who are gambling on the woes of the latter. Such a party will justify its name only if it defends the urgent demands of the working class; only if it fights for genuine social legislation, for unemployment insurance; only if it fights for land for the white and Black sharecroppers and for their liberation from debt burdens; only if it tries to secure the cancellation of the farmers' indebtedness; only if it fights for an equal status for Negroes; only if it defends the demands of the war veterans and the interests of members of the liberal professions, small businessmen and artisans. And so on. It goes without saying that such a party will fight for the election of its own candidates to local government, to the state legislatures, to the House of Representatives and the Senate. Our comrades in the United States acted rightly in taking the initiative in the setting up of such a party. But they still have to take effective measures in order to make the creation of such a party the cause of the masses themselves. The questions of forming a Workers' and Farmers' Party, and its program should be discussed at mass meetings of the people. We should develop the most widespread movement for the creation of such a party, and take the lead in it. In no case must the initiative of organizing the party be allowed to pass to elements desirous of utilizing the discontent of the millions who have become disillusioned in both the bourgeois parties, Democratic and Republican, in order to create a "third party" in the United States as an anti-Communist party, a party directed against the revolutionary movement. Great Britain In Great Britain, as a result of the mass action of the British workers, Mosley's fascist organization has for the time being been pushed into the background. But we must not close our eyes to the fact that the so-called "National Government" is passing a number of reactionary measures directed against the working class, as a result of which conditions are being created in Great Britain, too, which will make it easier for the bourgeoisie, if necessary, to pass to a fascist regime. At the present stage, fighting the fascist danger in Great Britain means primarily fighting the "National Government" and its reactionary measures, fighting the offensive of capital, fighting for the demands of the unemployed, fighting against wage cuts and for the repeal of all those laws with the help of which the British bourgeoisie is lowering the standard of living of the masses. But the growing hatred of the working class for the "National Government" is uniting increasingly large numbers under the slogan of the formation of a new Labor Government in Great Britain. Can the Communists ignore this frame of mind of the masses, who still retain faith in a Labor Government? No, Comrades. We must find a way of approaching these masses. We tell them openly, as did the Thirteenth Congress of the British Communist Party, that we Communists are in favor of a soviet government ["soviet" meant a workers' and peasants' council, or people's council, in a system that nationalized the major resources and means of production] as the only form of government capable of emancipating the workers from the yoke of the capital. But you want a Labor Government? Very well. We have been and are fighting hand in hand with you for the defeat of the "National Government." We are prepared to support your fight for the formation of a new Labor government, in spite of the fact that both the previous Labor governments failed to fulfil the promises made to the working class by the Labour Party. We do not expect this government to carry out socialist measures. But we shall present it with the demand, in the name of millions of workers, that it defend the most essential economic and political interests of the working class and of all working people. Let us jointly discuss a common program of such demands, and let us achieve that unity of action which the proletariat requires in order to repel the reactionary offensive of the "National Government," the attack of capital and fascism and the preparations for a new war. On this basis, the British comrades are prepared at the forthcoming parliamentary elections to cooperate with branches of the Labour Party against the "National Government," and also against Lloyd George who is trying in his own way in the interests of the British bourgeoisie to lure the masses into following him against the cause of the working class. The position of the British Communists is a correct one. It will help them to set up a militant united front with the millions of members of the British trade unions and Labour Party. While always remaining in the front ranks of the fighting proletariat, and pointing out to the masses the only right path -- the path of struggle for the revolutionary overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of a soviet government -- the Communists, in defining their immediate political aims, must not attempt to leap over those necessary stages of the mass movement in the course of which the working class by its own experience outlives its illusions and passes over to Communism. France France, as we know, is a country in which the working class is setting an example to the whole international proletariat of how to fight fascism. The French Communist Party is setting an example to all the sections of the Comintern of how the tactics of the united front should be applied; the Socialist workers are setting an example of what the Social-Democratic workers of other capitalist countries should now be doing in the fight against fascism. The significance of the anti-fascist demonstration attended by half a million people in Paris on July 14 of this year, and of the numerous demonstrations in other French cities, is tremendous. This is not merely a United Front movement of the workers; it is the beginning of a wide general front of the people against fascism in France. This united front movement enhances the confidence of the working class in its own forces; it strengthens its consciousness of the leading role it is playing in relation to the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, and the intelligentsia; it extends the influence of the Communist Party among the mass of the working class and therefore makes the proletariat stronger in the fight against fascism. It is arousing in good time the vigilance of the masses in regard to the fascist danger. And it will serve as a contagious example for the development of the anti-fascist struggle in other capitalist countries, and will exercise a heartening influence on the proletarians of Germany, oppressed by the fascist dictatorship. The victory, needless to say, is a big one; but still it does not decide the issue of the anti-fascist struggle. The overwhelming majority of the French people are undoubtedly opposed to fascism. But the bourgeoisie is able by armed force to violate the popular will. The fascist movement is continuing to develop absolutely freely, with the active support of monopoly capital, the state apparatus of the bourgeoisie, the general staff of the French army, and the reactionary leaders of the Catholic Church -- that stronghold of all reaction. The most powerful fascist organization, the Croix de Feu, now commands 300,000 armed men, the backbone of which consists of 60,000 officers of the reserve. It holds strong positions in the police, the gendarmerie, the army, the air force and in all government offices. The recent municipal elections have shown that in France it is not only the revolutionary forces that are growing, but also the forces of fascism. If fascism succeeds in penetrating widely among the peasantry and in securing the support of one section of the army, while the other section remains neutral, the masses of the French working people will not be able to prevent the fascists from coming to power. Comrades, do not forget the organizational weakness of the French labor movement which facilitates a fascist offensive. The working class and all anti-fascists in France have no grounds for resting content with the results achieved so far. What are the tasks facing the working class in France? First, to establish a united front not only in the political sphere, but also in the economic sphere, in order to organize the struggle against the capitalist offensive, and by its pressure to smash the resistance offered to the united front by the leaders of the reformist Confederation of Labor. Second, to achieve trade union unity in France -- united trade unions based on the class struggle. Third, to enlist the broad mass of the peasants and petty bourgeoisie in the anti-fascist movement, devoting special attention to their urgent demands in the program of the anti-fascist People's Front. Fourth, to strengthen organizationally and extend further the anti-fascist movement which has already developed, by the widespread creation of nonpartisan elected bodies of the anti-fascist People's Front, whose influence will extend to wider masses than those in the present parties and organizations of the working people in France. Fifth, to force the disbanding and disarming of the fascist organizations, as being organizations of conspirators against the republic and agents of Hitler in France. Sixth, to secure that the state apparatus, army and police shall be purged of the conspirators who are preparing a fascist coup. Seventh, to develop the struggle against the leaders of the reactionary cliques of the Catholic Church, one of the most important strongholds of French fascism. Eighth, to link up the army with the anti-fascist movement by creating in its ranks committees for the defense of the republic and the constitution, directed against those who want to utilize the army for an anti-constitutional coup d'état; to prevent the reactionary forces in France from wrecking the Franco-Soviet pact, which defends the cause of peace against the aggression of German fascism. And if in France the anti-fascist movement leads to the formation of a government which will carry on a real struggle against French fascism -- not in words but in deeds -- and which will carry out the program of demands of the antifascist People's Front, the Communists, while remaining the irreconcilable foes of every bourgeois government and supporters of a soviet government, will nevertheless, in face of the growing fascist danger, be prepared to support such a government. Comrades, the fight for the establishment of a united front in countries where the fascists are in power is perhaps the most important problem facing us. In such countries, of course, the fight is carried on under far more difficult conditions than in countries with a legal labor movement. Nevertheless, all the conditions exist in fascist countries for the development of a real anti-fascist People's Front in the struggle against the fascist dictatorship since the Social-Democratic, Catholic and other workers, in Germany for instance, are able to realize more directly the need for a joint struggle with the Communists against the fascist dictatorship. Wide strata of the petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry, having already tasted the bitter fruits of fascist rule, are growing increasingly discontented and disillusioned which makes it easier to enlist them in the antifascist People's Front. The principal task in fascist countries, particularly in Germany and Italy, where fascism has managed to gain a mass basis and has forced the workers and other working people into its organizations, consists in skilfully combining the fight against the fascist dictatorship from without with the undermining of it from within, inside the fascist mass organizations and bodies. Special methods and means of approach, suited to the concrete conditions prevailing in these countries, must be learned, mastered and applied, so as to facilitate the rapid disintegration of the mass base of fascism and to prepare the way for the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship. We must learn, master and apply this, and not only shout "Down with Hitler" and "Down with Mussolini." Yes, learn, master and apply. This is a difficult and complex task. It is all the more difficult in that our experience in successfully combating a fascist dictatorship is extremely limited. Our Italian comrades, for instance, have already been fighting under the conditions of a fascist dictatorship for about thirteen --years. Nevertheless, they have not yet succeeded in developing a real mass struggle against fascism, and therefore they have unfortunately been little able in this respect to help the Communist Parties in other fascist countries by their positive experience. The Germany and Italian Communists, and the Communists in other fascist countries, as well as the Communist youth, have displayed prodigious valor; they have made and are daily making tremendous sacrifices. We all bow our heads in honor of such heroism and sacrifices. But heroism alone is not enough. Heroism must be combined with day-to-day work among the masses, with concrete struggle against fascism, so as to achieve the most tangible results in this sphere. In our struggle against fascist dictatorship it is particularly dangerous to confuse the wish with fact. We must base ourselves on the facts, on the actual concrete situation. What is now the actual situation in Germany, for instance? The masses are becoming increasingly restless and disillusioned with the policy of the fascist dictatorship, and this even assumes the form of partial strikes and other actions. In spite of all its efforts, fascism has failed to win over politically the basic masses of the workers; it is losing even its former supporters, and will lose them more and more in the future. Nevertheless, we must realize that the workers who are convinced of the possibility of overthrowing the fascist dictatorship, and who are already prepared to fight for it actively, are still in the minority -- they consist of us, the Communists, and the revolutionary section of the Social-Democratic workers. But the majority of the working people have not yet become aware of the real, concrete possibilities and methods of overthrowing this dictatorship, and still adopt a waiting attitude. This we must bear in mind when we outline our tasks in the struggle against fascism in Germany, and when we seek, study and apply special methods of approach for the undermining and overthrow of the fascist dictatorship in Germany. In order to be able to strike a telling blow at the fascist dictatorship, we must first find out what is its most vulnerable point. What is the Achilles' heel of the fascist dictatorship? Its social basis. The latter is extremely heterogeneous. It is made up of various strata of society. Fascism has proclaimed itself the sole representative of all classes and strata of the population: the manufacturer and the worker, the millionaire and the unemployed, the Junker and the small peasant, the big businessman and the artisan. It pretends to defend the interests of all these strata, the interests of the nation. But since it is a dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie, fascism must inevitably come into conflict with its mass social basis, all the more since, under the fascist dictatorship, the class contradictions between the pack of financial magnates and the overwhelming majority of the people are brought out in greatest relief. We can lead the masses to a decisive struggle for the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship only by getting the workers who have been forced into the fascist organizations, or have joined them through ignorance, to take part in the most elementary movements for the defense of their economic, political and cultural interests. It is for this reason that the Communists must work in these organizations, as the best champions of the day-to-day interests of the mass of members, bearing in mind that as the workers belonging to these organizations begin more and more frequently to demand their rights and defend their interests, they inevitably come into conflict with the fascist dictatorship. In defending the urgent and at first the most elementary interests of the working people in town and countryside it is comparatively easier to find a common language not only with the conscious anti-fascists, but also with those of the working people who are still supporters of fascism, but are disillusioned and dissatisfied with its policy and are grumbling and seeking an occasion for expressing their discontent. In general, we must realize that all our tactics in countries with a fascist dictatorship must be of such a character as not to repulse the rank-and-file followers of fascism drawn from the working sections of society. We need not be dismayed, comrades, if the people mobilized around these day-to-day interests consider themselves either indifferent to politics or even followers of fascism. The important thing for us is to draw them into the movement, which, although it may not at first proceed openly under the slogans of the struggle against fascism, is already objectively an anti-fascist movement putting these masses into opposition to the fascist dictatorship. Experience teaches us that the view that it is generally impossible, in countries with a fascist dictatorship, to come out legally or semi-legally, is harmful and incorrect. To insist on this point of view means to fall into passivity, and to renounce real mass work altogether. True, under the conditions of a fascist dictatorship, to find forms and methods of legal or semi-legal action is a difficult and complex problem. But, as in many other questions, the path is indicated by life itself and by the initiative of the masses themselves, who have already provided us with a number of examples that must be generalized and applied in an organized and effective manner. We must very resolutely put an end to the tendency to underestimate work in the fascist mass organizations. In Italy, in Germany and in a number of other fascist countries, our comrades tried to conceal their passivity, and frequently even their direct refusal to work in the fascist mass organizations, by putting forward work in the factories as against work in the fascist mass organizations. In reality however, it was just this mechanical distinction which led to work being conducted very feebly, and sometimes not at all, both in the fascist mass organizations and in the factories. Yet it is particularly important that Communists in the fascist countries should be wherever the masses are to be found. Fascism has deprived the workers of their own legal organizations. It has forced the fascist organizations upon them, and it is there that the masses are -- by compulsion, or to some extent voluntarily. These mass fascist organizations can and must be made our legal or semi-legal field of action where we can meet the masses. They can and must be made our legal or semi-legal starting point for the defense of the day-to-day interests of the masses. To utilize these possibilities, Communists must win elected positions in the fascist mass organizations, for contact with the masses, and must rid themselves once and for all of the prejudice that such activity is unseemly and unworthy of a revolutionary worker. In Germany, for instance, there is a system of so-called "shop stewards." But where is it stated that we must leave the fascists a monopoly in these organizations? Cannot we try to unite the Communist, Social-Democratic, Catholic and other anti-fascist workers in the factories so that when the list of "shop stewards" is voted upon, the known agents of the employers may be struck off and other candidates, enjoying the confidence of the workers, inserted in their stead? Practice has already shown that this is possible. And does not practice also go to show that it is possible jointly with the Social-Democratic and other discontented workers, to demand that the "shop stewards" really defend the interests of the workers? Take the "Labor Front" in Germany, or the fascist trade unions in Italy. Is it not possible to demand that the functionaries of the Labor Front be elected, and not appointed, to insist that the leading bodies of the local groups report to meetings of the members of the organizations; to address these demands, following a decision by the group, to the employer, to the "labor trustee," to higher bodies of the Labor Front? This is possible, provided the revolutionary workers actually work within the Labor Front and try to obtain posts in it. Similar methods of work are possible and essential in other mass fascist organizations also -- in the Hitler Youth Leagues, in the sports organizations, in the Kraft durch Freude 10) organizations, in the Dopo lavoro 11) in Italy, in the cooperatives and so forth. Comrades, you recall the ancient legend about the capture of Troy. Troy was inaccessible to the armies attacking her, thanks to her impregnable walls. And the attacking army, after suffering heavy casualties, was unable to achieve victory until with the aid of the famous Trojan horse it managed to penetrate to the very heart of the enemy's Camp. We revolutionary workers, it appears to me, should not be shy about using the same tactics with regard to our fascist foe, who is defending himself against the people with the help of a living wall of his cutthroats. He who fails to understand the necessity of using such tactics in the case of fascism, he who regards such an approach as "humiliating," may be a most excellent comrade, but if you will allow me to say so, he is a windbag and not a revolutionary, he will be unable to lead the masses to the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship. The mass movement for a united front, starting with the defense of the most elementary needs, and changing its forms and watchwords of struggle as the latter extends and grows, is growing up outside and inside the fascist organizations in Germany, Italy, and the other countries in which fascism has a mass basis. It will be the battering ram which will shatter the fortress of the fascist dictatorship that at present seems impregnable to many. The struggle for the establishment of a united front raises another very important problem, the problem of a united front in Countries where Social-Democratic governments, or coalition governments in which Socialists participate, are in power, as, for instance, in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Belgium. Our attitude of absolute opposition to Social-Democratic governments, which are governments of compromise with the bourgeoisie, is well known. But this notwithstanding, we do not regard the existence of a Social-Democratic government or of a government coalition with bourgeois parties as an insurmountable obstacle to establishing a united front with the Social-Democrats on certain issues. We believe that in such a case, too, a united front in defense of the vital interests of the working people and in the struggle against fascism is quite possible and necessary. It stands to reason that in countries where representatives of Social-Democratic parties take part in the government the Social-Democratic leadership offers the strongest resistance to the proletarian united front. This is quite comprehensible. After all, they want to show the bourgeoisie that they, better and more skilfully than anyone else, can keep the discontented working masses under control and prevent them from falling under the influence of Communism. The fact, however, that Social-Democratic ministers are opposed to the proletarian united front can by no means justify a situation in which the Communists do nothing to establish a united front of the proletariat. Our comrades in the Scandinavian countries often follow the line of least resistance, confining themselves to propaganda exposing the Social-Democratic governments. This is a mistake. In Denmark, for example, the Social-Democratic leaders have been in the government for the past ten years, and for ten years, day in and day out, the Communists have been reiterating that it is a bourgeois capitalist government. We have to assume that the Danish workers are acquainted with this propaganda. The fact that a considerable majority nevertheless vote for the Social-Democratic government party only goes to show that the Communists' exposure of the government by means of propaganda is insufficient. It does not prove, however, that these hundreds of thousands of workers are satisfied with all the government measures of the Social-Democratic ministers. No, they are not satisfied with the fact that by its so-called crisis 'agreement' the Social-Democratic government assists the big capitalists and landlords and not the workers and poor peasants. They are not satisfied with the decree issued by the government in January 1933, which deprived the workers of the right to strike. They are not satisfied with the project of the Social Democratic leadership for a dangerous anti-democratic electoral reform (which would considerably reduce the number of deputies). I shall hardly be in error, comrades, if I state that 99 per cent of the Danish workers do not approve of these political steps taken by the Social-Democratic leaders and ministers. Is it not possible for the Communists to call upon the trade unions and Social-Democratic organizations of Denmark to discuss some of these burning issues, to express their opinions on them and come out jointly for a proletarian united front with the object of obtaining the workers' demands? In October of last year, when our Danish comrades appealed to the trade unions to act against the reduction of unemployment relief and for the democratic rights of the trade unions, about 100 local trade union organizations joined the united front. In Sweden a Social-Democratic government is in power for the third time, but the Swedish Communists have for a long time abstained from applying the united front tactics in practice. Why? Was it because they were opposed to the united front? Of course not; they were in principle for a united front, for a united front in general, but they failed to understand in what circumstances, on what questions, in defense of what demands a proletarian united front could be successfully established, where and how to "hook on." A few months before the formation of the Social democratic government, the Social Democratic Party advanced during the elections a platform containing a number of demands which would have been the very thing to include in the platform of the proletarian united front. For example, the slogans Against custom duties, Against militarization, Put an end to the policy of delay in the question of unemployment insurance, Grant adequate old age pensions, Prohibit organizations like the "Munch" corps (a fascist organization), Down with class legislation against the unions demanded by the bourgeois parties. Over a million of the working people of Sweden voted in 1932 for these demands advanced by the Social-Democrats, and welcomed in 1933 the formation of a Social-Democratic government in the hope that now these demands would be realized. What could have been more natural in such a situation and what would have been better suited the mass of the workers than an appeal of the Communist Party to all Social-Democratic and trade union organizations to take joint action to secure these demands advanced by the Social-Democratic Party? If we had succeeded in really mobilizing wide masses and in welding the Social-Democratic and Communist workers' organizations into a united front to secure these demands of the Social-Democrats themselves, there is no doubt that the working class of Sweden would have gained thereby. The Social-Democratic ministers of Sweden, of course, would not have been very happy over it, for in that case the government would have been compelled to meet at least some of these demands. At any rate, what has happened now, when the government instead of abolishing has raised some of the duties, instead of restricting militarism has enlarged the military budget, and instead of rejecting all legislation directed against the trade unions has itself introduced such a bill in Parliament, would not have happened. True, on the last issue the Communist party of Sweden carried through a good mass campaign in the spirit of the proletarian united front, with the result that in the end even the Social-Democratic parliamentary faction felt constrained to vote against the government bill, and for the time being it has been voted down. The Norwegian Communists were right in calling upon the organizations of the Labor Party to organize joint May Day demonstrations and in putting forward a number of demands which in the main coincided with the demands contained in the election platform of the Norwegian Labor Party. Although this step in favor of a united front was poorly prepared and the leadership of the Norwegian Labor Party opposed it, united front demonstrations took place in thirty localities. Formerly many Communists used to be afraid it would be opportunism on their part if they did not counter every partial demand of the Social-Democrats by demands of their own which were twice as radical. That was a naive mistake. If Social-Democrats, for instance, demanded the dissolution of the fascist organizations, there was no reason why we should add: "and the disbanding of the state police" (a demand which would be expedient under different circumstances). We should rather tell the Social-Democratic workers: We are ready to accept these demands of your Party as demands of the proletarian united front and are ready to fight to the end for their realization. Let us join hands for the battle. In Czechoslovakia also certain demands advanced by the Czech and German Social-Democrats, and by the reformist trade unions, can and should be utilized for establishing a united front of the working class. When the Social-Democrats, for instance, demand work for the unemployed or the abolition of the laws restricting municipal self-government, as they have done ever since 1927, these demands should be made concrete in each locality, in each district, and a fight should be carried on hand in hand with the Social-Democratic organizations for their actual realization. Or, when the Social-Democratic Parties thunder "in general terms" against the agents of fascism in the state apparatus, the proper thing to do is in each particular district to drag into the light of day the particular local fascist spokesmen, and together with the Social Democratic workers demand their removal from government employ. In Belgium the leaders of the Social-Democratic Party, with Emile Vandervelde at their head, have entered a coalition government. This "success" they achieved thanks to their lengthy and extensive campaigns for two main demands: 1) abolition of the emergency decrees, and 2) realization of the de Man 12) Plan. The first issue is very important. The preceding government issued 150 reactionary emergency decrees, which are an extremely heavy burden on the working people. They were expected to be repealed at once. This was the demand of the Socialist Party. But have many of these emergency decrees been repealed by the new government? It has not repealed a single one. It has only mollified somewhat a few of the emergency decrees in order to make a sort of "token payment" in settlement of the generous promises of the Belgian Socialist leaders (like that "token dollar" which some European powers proffered the USA in payment of the millions due as war debts). As regards the realization of the widely advertized de Man Plan, the matter has taken a turn quite unexpected by the Social Democratic masses. The Socialist ministers announced that the economic crisis must be overcome first and only those provisions of the de Man Plan should be carried into effect which improve the position of the industrial capitalists and the banks; only afterwards would it be possible to adopt measures to improve the condition of the workers. But how long must the workers wait for their share in the "benefits" promised them in the de Man Plan? The Belgian bankers have already had their veritable shower of gold. The Belgian franc has been devalued 28 per cent; by this manipulation the bankers were able to pocket 4,500 million francs as their spoils at the expense of the wage earners and the savings of the small depositors. But how does this tally with the contents of the de Man Plan? Why, if we are to believe the letter of the plan, it promises to "prosecute monopolist abuses and speculative manipulations." On the basis of the de Man Plan, the government has appointed a commission to supervise the banks. But the commission consists of bankers who can now gaily and lightheartedly supervise themselves. The de Man Plan also promises a number of other good things, such as a shorter working day, standardization of wages, a minimum wage, organization of an all-embracing system of social insurance, "greater convenience in living conditions through new housing construction," and so forth. These are all demands which we Communists can support. We should go to the labor organizations of Belgium and say to them: The capitalists have already received enough and even too much. Let us demand that the Social-Democratic ministers now carry out the promises they made to the workers. Let us get together in a united front for the successful defense of our interests. Minister Vandervelde, we support the demands on behalf of the workers contained in your platform; but we tell you frankly that we take these demands seriously, that we want action and not empty words, and therefore are rallying hundreds of thousands of workers to struggle for these demands. Thus, in countries having Social-Democratic governments, the Communists, by utilizing appropriate individual demands taken from the platforms of the Social-Democratic ministers as a starting point for achieving joint action with the Social-Democratic Parties and organizations, can afterwards more easily develop a campaign for the establishment of a united front on the basis of other mass demands in the struggle against the capitalist offensive, against fascism and the threat of war. It must further be borne in mind that, in general, joint action with the Social-Democratic Parties and organizations requires from Communists serious and substantiated criticism of Social Democracy as the ideology and practice of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie, and untiring, comradely explanation to the Social-Democratic workers of the program and slogans of Communism. In countries having Social-Democratic governments this task is of particular importance in the struggle for a united front. Comrades, a most important stage in the consolidation of the united front must be the establishment of national and international trade union unity. As you know, the splitting tactics of the reformist leaders were applied most virulently in the trade unions. The reason for this is clear. Here their policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie found its practical culmination directly in the factories, to the detriment of the vital interests of the working class. This, of course, gave rise to sharp criticism and resistance on the part of the revolutionary workers under the leadership of the Communists. That is why the struggle between communism and reformism raged most fiercely in the trade unions. The more difficult and complicated the situation became for capitalism, the more reactionary was the policy of the leaders of the Amsterdam trade unions, [The International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), based in Amsterdam] and the more aggressive their measures against all opposition elements within the trade unions. Even the establishment of the fascist dictatorship in Germany and the intensified capitalist offensive in all capitalist countries failed to diminish this aggressiveness. Is it not a characteristic fact that in 1933 alone, most disgraceful circulars were issued for the expulsion of Communists and revolutionary workers from the trade unions in Great Britain, Holland, Belgium and Sweden? In Great Britain a circular was issued in 1933 prohibiting the local branches of the trade unions from joining anti-war or other revolutionary organizations. That was a prelude to the notorious "Black Circular" of the Trade Union Congress General Council, which outlawed any trade councils admitting delegates "directly or indirectly associated with Communist organizations." What is there left to be said of the leadership of the German trade unions, which applied unprecedented repressive measures against the revolutionary elements in the trade unions? Yet we must base our tactics, not on the behavior of individual leaders of the Amsterdam unions, no matter what difficulties their behavior may cause the class struggle, but primarily on the question of where the masses of workers are to be found. And here we must openly declare that work in the trade unions is the most vital question in the work of all the Communist Parties. We must bring about a real change for the better in trade union work and make the question of struggle for trade union unity the central issue. Ignoring the urge of the workers to join the trade unions, and faced with the difficulties of working within the Amsterdam unions, many of our comrades decided to pass by this complicated task. They invariably spoke of an organizational crisis in the Amsterdam unions, of the workers deserting the unions, but failed to notice that after some decline at the beginning of the world economic crisis, these unions later began to grow again. A peculiarity of the trade union movement has been precisely the fact that the attacks of the bourgeoisie on trade union rights, the attempts in a number of countries to "coordinate" the trade unions (Poland, Hungary, etc.), the curtailment of social insurance, and the cutting of wages forced the workers, notwithstanding the lack of resistance on the part of the reformist trade union leaders, to rally still more closely around these unions, because the workers wanted and still want to see in the trade unions the militant champions of their vital class interests. This explains the fact that most of the Amsterdam unions -- in France, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, etc. -- have grown in membership during the last few years. The American Federation of Labor has also considerably increased its membership in the past two years. Had the German comrades better understood the problem of trade union work of which Comrade Thaelmann spoke on many occasions, there would undoubtedly have been a better situation in the trade unions than was the case at the time the fascist dictatorship was established. At the end of 1932 only about ten percent of the Party members belonged to the free trade unions. This in spite of the fact that after the Sixth Congress of the Comintern the Communists took the lead in quite a number of strikes. Our comrades used to write in the press of the need to assign 90 per cent of our forces to work in the trade unions, but in reality activity was concentrated exclusively around the revolutionary trade union opposition, which actually sought to replace the trade unions. And how about the period after Hitler's seizure of power? For two years many of our comrades stubbornly and systematically opposed the correct slogan of fighting for the re-establishment of the free unions. I could cite similar examples about almost every other capitalist country. But we already have the first serious achievements to our credit in the struggle for trade union unity in European countries. I have in mind little Austria, where on the initiative of the Communist Party a basis has been created for an illegal trade union movement. After the February battles the Social-Democrats, with Otto Bauer at their head, issued the watchword: "The free unions can be re-established only after the downfall of fascism." The Communists applied themselves to the task of reestablishing the trade unions. Every phase of that work was a bit of the living united front of the Austrian proletariat. The successful re-establishment of the free trade unions in underground conditions was a serious blow to fascism. The Social-Democrats were at the parting of the ways. Some of them tried to negotiate with the government. Others, seeing our successes, created their own parallel illegal trade unions. But there could be only one road: either capitulation to fascism, or towards trade union unity through joint struggle against fascism. Under mass pressure, the wavering leadership of the parallel unions created by the former trade union leaders decided to agree to amalgamation. The basis of this amalgamation is irreconcilable struggle against the offensive of capitalism and fascism and the guarantee of trade union democracy. We welcome this fact of the amalgamation of the trade unions, which is the first of its kind since the formal split of the trade unions after the war and which is therefore of international importance. In France the united front has unquestionably served as a mighty impetus for achieving trade union unity. The leaders of the General Confederation of Labor have hampered and still hamper in every way the realization of unity, countering the main issue of the class policy of the trade unions by raising issues of a subordinate and secondary or formal character. An unquestionable success in the struggle for trade union unity has been the establishment of single unions on a local scale embracing, in the case of the railroad workers, for instance, approximately three-quarters of the membership of both trade unions. We are definitely for the re-establishment of trade union unity in every country and on an international scale. We are for one union in every industry. We are for one federation of trade unions in every country We are for single international federations of trade unions organized by industries. We stand for one international of trade unions based on the class struggle. We are for united class trade unions as one of the major bulwarks of the working class against the offensive of capital and fascism. Our only condition for uniting the trade unions is: Struggle against capital, against fascism and for internal trade union democracy. Time does not wait. To us the question of trade union unity on a national as well as international scale is a question of the great task of uniting our class in mighty single trade union organizations against the class enemy. We welcome the fact that on the eve of May Day of this year the Red International of Labor Unions approached the Amsterdam International with the proposal to consider jointly the question of the terms, methods and forms of uniting the world trade union movement. The leaders of the Amsterdam International rejected that proposal, using the outworn pretext that unity in the trade union movement is possible only within the Amsterdam International, which, by the way, includes trade unions in only a part of the European countries. But the communists working in the trade unions must continue to struggle tirelessly for the unity of the trade union movement. The task of the Red Trade Unions and the R.I.L.U. is to do all in their power to hasten the achievement of a joint struggle of all trade unions against the offensive of capital and fascism, and to bring about unity in the trade union movement, despite the stubborn resistance of the reactionary leaders of the Amsterdam International. The Red Trade Unions and the R.I.L.U must receive our unstinted support along this line. In countries where small Red trade unions exist, we recommend working for their inclusion in the big reformist unions, but demanding the right to defend their views and the reinstatement of expelled members. But in countries where big Red trade unions exist parallel with big reformist trade unions, we must work for the convening of unity congresses on the basis of a platform of struggle against the capitalist offensive and the guarantee of trade union democracy. It should be stated categorically that any Communist worker, any revolutionary worker who does not belong to the mass trade union of his industry, who does not fight to transform the reformist trade union into a real class trade union organization, who does not fight for trade union unity on the basis of the class struggle, such a Communist worker, such a revolutionary worker, does not discharge his elementary proletarian duty. Comrades, I have already pointed out the role played in the victory of fascism by the enlistment of the youth in the fascist organizations. In speaking of the youth, we must state frankly that we have neglected our task of drawing the masses of the working youth into the struggle against the offensive of capital, against fascism and the danger of war; we have neglected this task in a number of countries. We have underestimated the enormous importance of the youth in the fight against fascism. We have not always taken into account the special economic, political and cultural interests of the youth. We have likewise not paid proper attention to the revolutionary education of the youth. All this has been utilized very cleverly by fascism, which in some countries, particularly in Germany, has inveigled large sections of the youth onto the anti-proletarian road. It should be borne in mind that it is not only by the glamor of militarism that fascism entices the youth. It feeds and clothes some of them in its detachments, gives work to others, and even sets up so-called cultural institutions for the youth, trying in this way to imbue them with the idea that it really can and wants to feed, clothe, teach and provide work for the mass of the working youth. In a number of capitalist countries our Young Communist Leagues are still mainly sectarian organizations divorced from the masses. Their fundamental weakness is that they still try to copy the Communist Parties, to copy their forms and methods of work, forgetting that the YCL is not a Communist party of the youth. They do not take sufficient account of the fact that it is an organization with its own special tasks. Its methods and forms of work, education and struggle must be adapted to the actual level and needs of the youth. Our Young Communists have shown memorable examples of heroism in the fight against fascist violence and bourgeois reaction. But they still lack the ability to win the masses of the youth away from hostile influences by dint of stubborn concrete work, as is evident from the fact that they have not yet overcome their opposition to work in the fascist mass organizations, and that their approach to the Socialist youth and other non-Communist youth is not always correct. A great part of the responsibility for all this must be borne, of course, by the Communist parties as well, for they ought to lead and support the YCL in its work. For the problem of the youth is not only a YCL problem. It is a problem for the whole Communist movement. In the struggle for the youth, the Communist Parties and the YCL organizations must effect a genuine decisive change. The main task of the Communist youth movement in capitalist countries is to advance boldly in the direction of bringing about a united front along the path of organizing and rallying the young generation of working people. The tremendous influence that even the first steps taken in this direction exert on the revolutionary movement of the youth is shown by the examples of France and the United States during the recent past. It was sufficient in these countries to proceed to apply the united front for considerable successes to be immediately achieved. In the sphere of the international united front, the successful initiative of the committee against war and fascism in Paris in bringing about the international cooperation of all non-fascist youth organizations is also worthy of note in this connection. These recent successful steps in the united front movement of the youth also show that the forms which the united front of the youth should assume must not be stereotyped, nor necessarily be the same as those met with in the practice of the Communist parties. The Young Communist Leagues must strive in every way to unite the forces of all non-fascist mass organizations of the youth, including the formation of various kinds of common organizations for the struggle against fascism, against the unprecedented manner in which the youth is being stripped of every right, against the militarization of the youth and for the economic and cultural rights of the young generation, in order to draw these young workers over to the side of the anti-fascist front, no matter where they may be -- in the factories, the forced labor camps, the labor exchanges, the army barracks and the fleet, the schools, or in the various sports, cultural or other organizations. In developing and strengthening the YCL, our YCL members must work for the formation of anti-fascist associations of the Communist and Socialist Youth Leagues on a platform of class struggle. Comrades, work among working women -- among women workers, unemployed women, peasant women and housewives -- has been underestimated no less than work among the youth. While fascism exacts most of all from youth, it enslaves women with particular ruthlessness and cynicism, playing on the innermost feelings of the mother, housewife, the single working woman, uncertain of the morrow. Fascism, posing as a benefactor, throws the starving family a few beggarly scarps, trying in this way to stifle the bitterness aroused, particularly among the working women by the unprecedented slavery which fascism brings them. It drives working women out of industry, forcibly sends needy girls into the country, dooming them to the position of unpaid servants of rich farmers and landlords. While promising women a happy home and family life, it drives women to prostitution more than any other capitalist regime. Communists, above all our women Communists, must remember that there cannot be a successful fight against fascism and war unless the wide masses of women are drawn into the struggle. Agitation alone will not accomplish this. Taking into account the concrete situation in each instance, we must find a way of mobilizing the mass of women by work around their vital interests and demands-in a fight for their demands against high prices, for higher wages on the basis of the principle of equal pay for equal work, against mass dismissals, against every manifestation of inequality in the status of women and against fascist enslavement. In endeavoring to draw women who work into the revolutionary movement, we must not be afraid of forming separate women's organizations for this purpose, wherever necessary. The preconceived notion that the women's organizations under Communist party leadership in the capitalist countries should be abolished as part of the struggle against 'women's separatism' in the labor movement, has often done great harm. The simplest and most flexible forms should be sought to establish contact and a joint struggle between the revolutionary, Social-Democratic and progressive antiwar and anti-fascist women's organizations. We must spare no pains to see that the women workers and working women in general fight shoulder to shoulder with their class brothers in the ranks of the united working-class front and the anti-fascist People's Front. The changed international and internal situation lends exceptional importance to the question of the anti-imperialist united front in all colonial and semi-colonial countries. In forming a broad anti-imperialist united front of struggle in the colonies and semi-colonies it is necessary above all to recognize the variety of conditions in which the anti-imperialist struggle of the masses is proceeding, the varying degree of maturity of the national liberation movement, the role of the proletariat within it and the influence of the Communist party over the masses. In Brazil the problem differs from that in India, China and other countries. In Brazil the Communist Party, having laid a correct foundation for the development of the united anti-imperialist front by the establishment of the National Liberation Alliance, 13) must make every effort to extend this front by drawing into it first and foremost the many millions of the peasantry, leading up to the formation of units of a people's revolutionary army, completely devoted to the revolution and to the establishment of a government of the National Liberation Alliance. In India the Communists must support, extend and participate in all anti-imperialist mass activities, not excluding those which are under national reformist leadership. While maintaining their political organizational independence, they must carry on active work inside the organizations which take part in the Indian National Congress, facilitating the process of crystallization of a national revolutionary wing among them, for the purpose of further developing the national liberation movement of the Indian peoples against British imperialism. In China, where the people's movement has already led to the formation of soviet districts over a considerable territory of the country and to the organization of a powerful Red Army, the predatory offensive of Japanese imperialism and the treason of the Nanking government have brought into jeopardy the national existence of the great Chinese people. The Chinese soviets act as a unifying center in the struggle against the enslavement and partition of China by the imperialists, as a unifying center which will rally all anti-imperialist forces for the national defense of the Chinese people. We therefore approve the initiative taken by our courageous brother Party of China in the creation of a most extensive anti-imperialist united front against Japanese imperialism and its Chinese agents, jointly with all those organized forces existing on the territory of China which are ready to wage a real struggle for the salvation of their country and their people. I am sure that I express the sentiments and thoughts of our entire Congress in saying that we send our warmest fraternal greetings, in the name of the revolutionary proletariat of the whole world, to all the soviets in China, to the Chinese revolutionary people. We send our ardent fraternal greetings to the heroic Red Army of China, tried in a thousand battles. And we assure the Chinese people of our firm resolve to support its struggle for its complete liberation from all imperialist robbers and their Chinese henchmen. Comrades, we have taken a bold, resolute course towards the united front of the working class, and are ready to carry it out with full consistency. If we Communists are asked whether we advocate the united front only in the fight for partial demands, or whether we are prepared to share the responsibility even when it will be a question of forming a government on the basis of the united front, then we say with a full sense of our responsibility: Yes, we recognize that a situation may arise in which the formation of a government of the proletarian united front, or of an anti-fascist People's Front, will become not only possible but necessary. And in that case we shall advocate for the formation of such a government without the slightest hesitation. I am not speaking here of a government which may be formed after the victory of the proletarian revolution. It is not impossible, of course, that in some country, immediately after the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie, there may be formed a government on the basis of a government bloc of the Communist party with a certain party (or its Left wing) participating in the revolution. After the October Revolution the victorious party of the Russian Bolsheviks, as we know, included representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in the Soviet Government. This was a specific feature of the first Soviet government after the victory of the October Revolution. I am not speaking of such a case, but of the possible formation of a united front government on the eve of and before the victory of the revolution. What kind of government is this? And in what situation could there be any question of such a government? It is primarily a government of struggle against fascism and reaction. It must be a government arising as the result of the united front movement and in no way restricting the activity of the Communist party and the mass organizations of the working class, but on the contrary, taking resolute measures against the counterrevolutionary financial magnates and their fascist agents. At a suitable moment, relying on the growing united front movement, the Communist Party of a given country will advocate the formation of such a government on the basis of a definite anti-fascist platform. Under what objective conditions will it be possible to form such a government? In the most general terms, one can reply to this question as follows: under conditions of a political crisis, when the ruling classes are no longer able to cope with the powerful rise of the mass anti-fascist movement. But this is only a general perspective, without which it will scarcely be possible in practice to form a united front government. Only the existence of certain special prerequisites can put on the agenda the question of forming such government as a politically essential task. It seems to me that the following prerequisites deserve the greatest attention in this connection: First, the state apparatus of the bourgeoisie must already be sufficiently disorganized and paralyzed, so that the bourgeoisie cannot prevent the formation of a government of struggle against reaction and fascism. Second, the widest masses of working people, particularly the mass trade unions, must be in a state of vehement revolt against fascism and reaction, though not ready to rise in insurrection so as to fight under Communist Party leadership for the establishment of a fully socialist government. Third, the differentiation and radicalization in the ranks of Social-Democracy and other parties participating in the united front must already have reached the point where a considerable proportion of them demand ruthless measures against the fascists and other reactionaries, fight together with the Communists against fascism and openly oppose the reactionary section of their own party which is hostile to Communism. When and in what countries a situation will actually arise in which these prerequisites will be present in a sufficient degree, it is impossible to state in advance. But as such a possibility is not to be ruled out in any of the capitalist countries, we must reckon with it, and not only so orient and prepare ourselves, but also orient the working class accordingly. The fact that we are bringing up this question for discussion at all today is, of course, connected with our estimate of the situation and immediate prospects, as well as with the actual growth of the united front movement in a number of countries during the recent past. For more than ten years the situation in the capitalist countries was such that it was not necessary for the Communist International to discuss a question of this kind. You remember, Comrades, that at our Fourth Congress in 1922, and again at the Fifth Congress in 1924, the question of the slogan of a workers', or a workers' and peasants' government was under discussion. Originally the issue turned essentially upon a question was almost comparable to the one we are discussing today. The debates that took place at that time in the Communist International around this question, and in particular the political errors which were committed in connection with it, have to this day retained their importance for sharpening our vigilance against the danger of deviations to the "Right" or "Left" from the Bolshevik line on this question. Therefore I shall briefly point out a few of these errors, in order to draw from them the lessons necessary for the present policy of our Parties. The first series of mistakes arose from the fact that the question of a workers' government was not clearly and firmly bound up with the existence of a political crisis. Owing to this, the Right opportunists were able to interpret matters as though we should strive for the formation of a workers' government, supported by the Communist party, in any, so to speak, "normal" situation. The ultra-Lefts, on the other hand, recognized only a workers' government formed by an armed insurrection after the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. Both views were wrong. In order, therefore, to avoid a repetition of such mistakes, we now lay great stress on the exact consideration of the specific, concrete circumstances of the political crisis and the upsurge of the mass movement, in which the formation of a united front government may prove possible and politically necessary. The second series of errors arose from the fact that the question of a workers' government was not bound up with the development of a militant mass united front movement of the proletariat. Thus the Right opportunists were able to distort the question, reducing it to the unprincipled tactics of forming blocs with Social-Democratic Parties on the basis of purely parliamentary combinations. The ultra-Lefts, on the contrary, shrieked: "No coalitions with counter-revolutionary Social-Democrats!" -- considering all Social-Democrats as essentially counterrevolutionary. Both were wrong, and we now emphasize, on the one hand, that we are not in the least anxious for a workers government" that would be nothing more nor less than an enlarged Social-Democratic government. We even prefer not to use the term "workers' government," and speak of a united front government, which in political character is something absolutely different, different in principle, from all the Social-Democratic governments which usually call themselves "workers' (or labor) government." While the Social-Democratic government is an instrument of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie in the interests of the preservation of the capitalist order, a united front government is an instrument of the collaboration of the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat with other anti-fascist parties, in the interests of the entire working population, a government of struggle against fascism and reaction. Obviously there is a radical difference between these two things. On the other hand, we stress the need to see the difference between the two different camps of Social-Democracy. As I have already pointed out, there is a reactionary camp of Social-Democracy, but alongside with it there exists and is growing the camp of the Left Social-Democrats (without quotation marks), of workers who are becoming revolutionary. In practice the decisive difference between them consists in their attitude towards the united front of the working class. The reactionary Social-Democrats are against the united front; they slander the united front movement, they sabotage and disintegrate it, as it undermines their policy of compromise with the bourgeoisie. The Left Social-Democrats are for the united front; they defend, develop and strengthen the united front movement. Inasmuch as this united front movement is a militant movement against fascism and reaction, it will be a constant driving force, impelling the united front government to struggle against the reactionary bourgeoisie. The more powerful this mass movement, the greater the force with which it can back the government in combating the reactionaries. And the better this mass movement will be organized from below, the wider the network of non-party class organs of the united front in the factories, among the unemployed, in the workers' districts, among the people of town and country, the greater will be the guarantee against a possible degeneration of the policy of the united front government. The third series of mistaken views which came to light during our former debates touched precisely on the practical policy of the "workers' government." The right opportunists considered that a "workers' government" ought to keep "within the framework of bourgeois democracy," and consequently ought not to take any steps going beyond this framework. The ultra-Lefts, on the other hand, in practice refused to make any attempt to form a united front government. In 1923 Saxony and Thuringia presented a clear picture of a Right opportunist "workers' government" in action. The entry of the Communists into the Workers' Government of Saxony jointly with the Left Social-Democrats (Ziegner group) was no mistake in itself; on the contrary, the revolutionary situation in Germany fully justified this step. But in taking part in the government, the Communists should have used their positions primarily for the purpose of arming the proletariat. This they did not do. They did not even requisition a single apartment of the rich, although the housing shortage among the workers was so great that many of them with their wives and children were still without a roof over their heads. They also did nothing to organize the revolutionary mass movement of the workers. They behaved in general like ordinary parliamentary ministers "within the framework of bourgeois democracy." As you know, this was the result of the opportunist policy of Brandler and his adherents. The result was such bankruptcy that to this day we have to refer to the government of Saxony as the classical example of how revolutionaries should not behave when in office. Comrades, we demand an entirely different policy from a united front government. We demand that it should carry out definite and fundamental revolutionary demands required by the situation. For instance, control of production, control of the banks, disbanding of the police and its replacement by an armed workers' militia, etc. Fifteen years ago Lenin called upon us to focus all our attention on "searching out forms of transition or approach to the proletariat revolution." It may be that in a number of countries the united front government will prove to be one of the most important transitional forms. "Left" doctrinaires have always avoided this precept of Lenin's. Like the narrow-minded propagandists that they were, they spoke only of aims, without ever worrying about "forms of transition." The Right Opportunists, on the other hand, have tried to establish a special democratic intermediate stage lying between the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the purpose of instilling into the workers the illusion of a peaceful parliamentary passage from the one dictatorship to the other. This fictitious "intermediate stage" they have also called "transitional form," and even quoted Lenin's words. But this piece of swindling was not difficult to expose: for Lenin spoke of the form of transition and approach to the proletarian revolution, that is, to the overthrow of the bourgeois dictatorship, and not of some transitional form between the bourgeois and the proletarian dictatorship. Why did Lenin attach such exceptionally great importance to the form of transition to the proletarian revolution? Because he had in mind the fundamental law of all great revolutions, the law that for the masses propaganda and agitation alone cannot take the place of their own political experience, when it is a question of attracting really broad masses of the working people to the side of the revolutionary vanguard, without which a victorious struggle for power is impossible. It is a common mistake of a Leftist character to imagine that as soon as a political (or revolutionary) crisis arises, it is enough for the Communist leaders to put forth the slogan of revolutionary insurrection, and the broad masses will follow them. No, even in such a crisis the masses are by no means always ready to do so. We saw this in the case of Spain. To help the millions to master as rapidly as possible, through their own experience, what they have to do, where to find a radical solution, and what Party is worthy of their confidence -- these among others are the purposes for which both transitional slogans and special "forms of transition or approach to the proletarian revolution" are necessary. Otherwise the great mass of the people, who are under the influence of petty bourgeois democratic illusions and traditions, may waver even when there is a revolutionary situation, may procrastinate and stray, without finding the road to revolution -- and then come under the ax of the fascist executioners. That is why we indicate the possibility of forming an anti-fascist united front government in the conditions of a political crisis. In so far as such a government will really prosecute the struggle against the enemies of the people, and give a free hand to the working class and the Communist party, we Communists shall accord it our unstinted support, and as soldiers of the revolution shall take our place in the first line of fire. But we state frankly to the masses: Final salvation this government cannot bring. It is not in a position to overthrow the class rule of the exploiters, and for this reason cannot finally remove the danger of fascist counter-revolution. Consequently it is necessary to prepare for the socialist revolution. In estimating the present development of the world situation, we see that a political crisis is maturing in quite a number of countries. This makes a firm decision by our Congress on the question of a united front government a matter of great urgency and importance. If our parties are able to utilize in a Bolshevik fashion the opportunity of forming a united front government and of waging the struggle for the formation and maintenance in power of such a government, for the revolutionary training of the masses, this will be the best political justification in our policy in favor of the formation of united front governments. One of the weakest aspects of the anti-fascist struggle of our Parties is that they react inadequately and too slowly to the demagogy of fascism, and to this day continue to neglect the problems of the struggle against fascist ideology. Many comrades did not believe that so reactionary a brand of bourgeois ideology as the ideology of fascism, which in its stupidity frequently reaches the point of lunacy, would be able to gain any mass influence. This was a serious mistake. The putrefaction of capitalism penetrates to the innermost core of its ideology and culture, while the desperate situation of wide masses of the people renders certain sections of them susceptible to infection from the ideological refuse of this putrefaction. Under no circumstances must we underrate fascism's power of ideological infection. On the contrary, we for our part must develop an extensive ideological struggle based on clear, popular arguments and a correct, well thought out approach to the peculiarities of the national psychology of the masses of the people. The fascists are rummaging through the entire history of every nation so as to be able to pose as the heirs and continuators of all that was exalted and heroic in its past, while all that was degrading or offensive to the national sentiments of the people they make use of as weapons against the enemies of fascism. Hundreds of books are being published in Germany with only one aim -- to falsify the history of the German people and give it a fascist complexion. The new-baked National Socialist historians try to depict the history of Germany as if for the past two thousand years, by virtue of some historical law, a certain line of development had run through it like a red thread, leading to the appearance on the historical scene of a national 'savior', a 'Messiah' of the German people, a certain 'Corporal' of Austrian extraction. In these books the greatest figures of the German people of the past are represented as having been fascists, while the great peasant movements are set down as the direct precursors of the fascist movement. Mussolini does his utmost to make capital for himself out of the heroic figure of Garibaldi. The French fascists bring to the fore as their heroine Joan of Arc. The American fascists appeal to the traditions of the American War of Independence, the traditions of Washington and Lincoln. The Bulgarian fascists make use of the national-liberation movement of the seventies and its heroes beloved by the people, Vassil Levsky, Stephan Karaj and others. Communists who suppose that all this has nothing to do with the cause of the working class, who do nothing to enlighten the masses on the past of their people in a historically correct fashion, in a genuinely Marxist-Leninist spirit, who do nothing to link up the present struggle with the people's revolutionary traditions and past -- voluntarily hand over to the fascist falsifiers all that is valuable in the historical past of the nation, so that the fascists may fool the masses. No, Comrades, we are concerned with every important question, not only of the present and the future, but also of the past of our own peoples. We Communists do not pursue a narrow policy based on the craft interests of the workers. We are not narrow-minded trade union functionaries, or leaders of medieval guilds of handicraftsmen and journeymen. We are the representatives of the class interests of the most important, the greatest class of modern society-the working class, to whose destiny it falls to free mankind from the sufferings of the capitalist system, the class which in one-sixth of the world has already cast off the yoke of capitalism and constitutes the ruling class. We defend the vital interests of all the exploited, toiling strata, that is, of the overwhelming majority in any capitalist country. We Communists are the irreconcilable opponents, in principle, of bourgeois nationalism in all its forms. But we are not supporters of national nihilism, and should never act as such. The task of educating the workers and all working people in the spirit of proletarian internationalism is one of the fundamental tasks of every Communist Party. But anyone who thinks that this permits him, or even compels him, to sneer at all the national sentiments of the broad masses of working people is far from being a genuine Bolshevik, and has understood nothing of the teaching of Lenin on the national question. Lenin, who always fought bourgeois nationalism resolutely and consistently, gave us an example of the correct approach to the problem of national sentiments in his article "On the National Pride of the Great Russians" written in 1914. He wrote: Are we class-conscious Great-Russian proletarians impervious to the feeling of national pride? Certainly not. We love our language and our motherland; we, more than any other group, are working to raise its laboring masses (i.e., nine-tenths of its population) to the level of intelligent democrats and socialists. We, more than anybody are grieved to see and feel to what violence, oppression and mockery our beautiful motherland is being subjected by the tsarist hangmen, the nobles and the capitalists. We are proud of the fact that those acts of violence met with resistance in our midst, in the midst of the Great Russians; that this midst brought forth Radischev, the Decembrists, the intellectual revolutionaries of the seventies; that in 1905 the Great-Russian working class created a powerful revolutionary party of the masses. . We are filled with national pride because of the knowledge that the Great-Russian nation, too, has created a revolutionary class, that it, too, has proved capable of giving humanity great examples of struggle for freedom and for socialism; that its contribution is not confined solely to great pogroms, numerous scaffolds, torture chambers, severe famines and abject servility before the priests, the tsars, the landowners and the capitalists. We are filled with national pride, and therefore we particularly hate our slavish past... and our slavish present, in which the same landowners, aided by the capitalists, lead us into war to stifle Poland and the Ukraine, to throttle the democratic movement in Persia and in China, to strengthen the gang of Romanovs, Bobrinskis, Puriskeviches that cover with shame our Great-Russian national dignity. [V. I. Lenin, Collected Works 21:103-4] This is what Lenin wrote on national pride. I think, comrades, that when at the Reichstag Fire Trial the fascists tried to slander the Bulgarians as a barbarous people, I was not wrong in taking up the defense of the national honor of the working masses of the Bulgarian people, who are struggling heroically against the fascist usurpers, the real barbarians and savages, nor was I wrong in declaring that I had no cause to be ashamed of being a Bulgarian, but that, on the contrary, I was proud of being a son of the heroic Bulgarian working class. Comrades, proletarian internationalism must, so to speak, "acclimatize itself" in each country in order to strike deep roots in its native land. National forms of the proletarian class struggle and of the labor movement in the individual countries are in no contradiction to proletarian internationalism; on the contrary, it is precisely in these forms that the international interests of the proletariat can be successfully defended. It goes without saying that it is necessary everywhere and on all occasions to expose before the masses and prove to them concretely that the fascist bourgeoisie, on the pretext of defending general national interests, is conducting its selfish policy of oppressing and exploiting its own people, as well as robbing and enslaving other nations. But we must not confine ourselves to this. We must at the same time prove by the very struggle of the working class and the actions of the Communist Parties that the proletariat, in rising against every manner of bondage and national oppression, is the only true fighter for national freedom and the independence of the people. The interests of the class struggle of the proletariat against its native exploiters and oppressors are not in contradiction to the interests of a free and happy future of the nation. On the contrary, the socialist revolution will signify the salvation of the nation and will open up to it the road to loftier heights. By the very fact of building at the present time its class organizations and consolidating its positions, by the very fact of defending democratic rights and liberties against fascism, by the very fact of fighting for the overthrow of capitalism, the working class is fighting for the future of the nation. The revolutionary proletariat is fighting to save the culture of the people, to liberate it from the shackles of decaying monopoly capitalism, from barbarous fascism, which is laying violent hands on it. Only the proletarian revolution can avert the destruction of culture and raise it to its highest flowering as a truly national culture -- national in form and socialist in content -- which is being realized in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics before our very eyes. Proletarian internationalism not only is not in contradiction to this struggle of the working people of the individual countries for national, social and cultural freedom, but, thanks to international proletarian solidarity and fighting unity, assures the support that is necessary for victory in this struggle. The working class in the capitalist countries can triumph only in the closest alliance with the victorious proletariat of the great Soviet Union. Only by struggling hand in hand with the proletariat of the imperialist countries can the colonial peoples and oppressed national minorities achieve their freedom. The sole road to victory for the proletarian revolution in the imperialist countries lies through the revolutionary alliance of the working class of the imperialist countries with the national-liberation movement in the colonies and dependent countries, because, as Marx taught us, "no nation can be free if it oppresses other nations." Communists belonging to an oppressed, dependent nation cannot combat chauvinism successfully among the people of their own nation if they do not at the same time show in practice, in the mass movement, that they actually struggle for the liberation of their nation from the alien yoke. And again, on the other hand, the Communists of an oppressing nation cannot do what is necessary to educate the working masses of their nation in the spirit of internationalism without waging a resolute struggle against the oppressor policy of their "own" bourgeoisie, for the right of complete self-determination for the nations kept in bondage by it. If they do not do this, they likewise do not make it easier for the working people of the oppressed nation to overcome their nationalist prejudices. If we act in this spirit, if in all our mass work we prove convincingly that we are free of both national nihilism and bourgeois nationalism, then and only then shall we be able to wage a really successful struggle against the jingo demagogy of the fascists. That is the reason why a correct and practical application of the Leninist national policy is of such paramount importance. It is unquestionably an essential preliminary condition for a successful struggle against chauvinism -- this main instrument of ideological influence of the fascists upon the masses. Comrades, in the struggle to establish a united front the importance of the leading role of the Communist Party increases extraordinarily. Only the Communist Party is at bottom the initiator, the organizer and the driving force of the united front of the working class. The Communist Parties can ensure the mobilization of the broadest masses of working people for a united struggle against fascism and the offensive of capital only if they strengthen their own ranks in every respect, if they develop their initiative, pursue a Marxist-Leninist policy and apply correct, flexible tactics which take into account the actual situation and alignment of class forces. In the period between the Sixth and Seventh Congress, our Parties in the capitalist countries have undoubtedly grown in stature and have been considerably steeled. But it would be a most dangerous mistake to rest content with this achievement. The more the united front of the working class extends, the more will new, complex problems arise before us and the more will it be necessary for us to work on the political and organizational consolidation of our Parties. The united front of the proletariat brings to the fore an army of workers who will be able to carry out their mission if this army is headed by a leading force that will point out its aims and paths. This leading force can only be a strong proletarian, revolutionary party. If we Communists exert every effort to establish a united front, we do this not for the narrow purpose of recruiting new members for the Communist Parties. But we must strengthen the Communist Parties in every way and increase their membership for the very reason that we seriously want to strengthen the united front. The strengthening of the Communist Parties is not a narrow Party concern but the concern of the entire working class. The unity, revolutionary solidarity and fighting preparedness of the Communist Parties constitute a most valuable capital which belongs not only to us but to the whole working class. We have combined and shall continue to combine our readiness to march jointly with the Social-Democratic Parties and organizations to the struggle against fascism with an irreconcilable struggle against Social-Democracy as the ideology and practice of compromise with the bourgeoisie, and consequently also against any penetration of this ideology into our own ranks. In boldly and resolutely carrying out the policy of the united front, we meet in our own ranks with obstacles which we must remove at all costs in the shortest possible time. After the Sixth Congress of the Communist International, a successful struggle was waged in all Communist Parties of the capitalist countries against any tendency towards an opportunist adaptation to the conditions of capitalist stabilization and against any infection with reformist and legalist illusions. Our Parties purged their ranks of various kinds of Right opportunists, thus strengthening their Bolshevik unity and fighting capacity. Less successful, and frequently entirely lacking, was the fight against sectarianism. Sectarianism no longer manifested itself in primitive, open forms, as in the first years of the existence of the Communist International, but, under cover of a formal recognition of the Bolshevik theses, hindered the development of a Bolshevik mass policy. In our day this is often no longer an "infantile disorder," as Lenin wrote, but a deeply rooted vice, which must be shaken off or it will be impossible to solve the problem of establishing the united front of the proletariat and of leading the masses from the positions of reformism to the side of revolution. In the present situation sectarianism, self-satisfied sectarianism, as we designate it in the draft resolution, more than anything else impedes our struggle for the realization of the united front: sectarianism, satisfied with its doctrinaire narrowness, its divorce from the real life of the masses, satisfied with its simplified methods of solving the most complex problems of the working class movement on the basis of stereotyped schemes; sectarianism which professes to know all and considers it superfluous to learn from the masses, from the lessons of the labor movement; in short, sectarianism, to which as they say, mountains are mere stepping-stones. Self-satisfied sectarianism will not and cannot understand that the leadership of the working class by the Communist Party does not come of itself. The leading role of the Communist Party in the struggles of the working class must be won. For this purpose it is necessary, not to rant about the leading role of the Communists, but to earn and win the confidence of the working masses by everyday mass work and a correct policy. This will be possible only if in our political work we Communists seriously take into account the actual level of the class consciousness of the masses, the degree to which they have become revolutionized, if we soberly appraise the actual situation, not on the basis of our wishes but on the basis of the actual state of affairs. Patiently, step by step, we must make it easier for the broad masses to come over to the Communist position. We ought never to forget the words of Lenin, who warns us as strongly as possible: ... This is the whole point -- we must not regard that which is obsolete for us, as obsolete for the class, as obsolete for the masses. [V. I. Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism, an Infantile Disorder, New York (1940), pp. 42; Collected Works 31:58] Is it not a fact, comrades, that in our ranks there are still quite a few such doctrinaire elements, who at all times and places sense nothing but danger in the policy of the united front? For such comrades the whole united front is one unrelieved peril. But this sectarian "sticking to principle" is nothing but political helplessness in face of the difficulties of directly leading the struggle of the masses. Sectarianism finds expression particularly in overestimating the revolutionization of the masses, in overestimating the speed at which they are abandoning the positions of reformism, and in attempting to leap over difficult stages and the complicated tasks of the movement. In practice, methods of leading the masses have frequently been replaced by the methods of leading a narrow party group. The strength of the traditional tie-up between the masses and their organizations and leaders was underestimated, and when the masses did not break off these connections, immediately the attitude taken toward them was just as harsh as that adopted toward their reactionary leaders. Tactics and slogans have tended to become stereotyped for all countries, the special features of the actual situation in each individual country being left out of account. The necessity of stubborn struggle in the very midst of the masses themselves to win their confidence has been ignored, the struggle for the partial demands of the workers and work in the reformist trade unions and fascist mass organizations have been neglected. The policy of the united front has frequently been replaced by bare appeals and abstract propaganda. In no less a degree have sectarian views hindered the correct selection of people, the training and developing of cadres connected with the masses, enjoying the confidence of the masses, cadres whose revolutionary mettle has been tried and tested in class battles, cadres capable of combining the practical experience of mass work with a Bolshevik staunchness of principle. Thus sectarianism has to a considerable extent retarded the growth of the Communist Parties, made it difficult to carry out a real mass policy, prevented our taking advantage of the difficulties of the class enemy to strengthen the positions of the revolutionary movement, and hindered the winning over of the broad masses of the proletariat to the side of the Communist Parties. While fighting most resolutely to overcome and exterminate the last remnants of self-satisfied sectarianism, we must increase in every way our vigilance toward Right opportunism and the struggle against it and against every one of its concrete manifestations, bearing in mind that the danger of Right opportunism will increase in proportion as the broad united front develops. Already there are tendencies to reduce the role of the Communist Party in the ranks of the united front and to effect a reconciliation with Social-Democratic ideology. Nor must we lose sight of the fact that the tactics of the united front are a method of clearly convincing the Social-Democratic workers of the correctness of the Communist policy and the incorrectness of the reformist policy, and that they are not a reconciliation with Social-Democratic ideology and practice. A successful struggle to establish the united front imperatively demands constant struggle in our ranks against tendencies to depreciate the role of the Party, against legalist illusions, against reliance on spontaneity and automatism, both in liquidating fascism and in implementing the united front against the slightest vacillation at the moment of decisive action. Comrades, the development of the united front of joint struggle of the Communist and Social-Democratic workers against fascism and the offensive of capital also brings to the fore the question of political unity, of a single political mass party of the working class. The Social Democratic workers are becoming more and more convinced by experience that the struggle against the class enemy demands unity of political leadership, inasmuch as duality in leadership impedes the further development and reinforcement of the joint struggle of the working class. The interests of the class struggle of the proletariat and the success of the proletarian revolution make it imperative that there be a single party of the proletariat in each country. Of course, it is not so easy or simple to achieve this. It requires stubborn work and struggle and is bound to be a more or less lengthy process. The Communist Parties, basing themselves on the growing urge of the workers for a unification of the Social-Democratic Parties or of individual organizations with the Communist Parties, must firmly and confidently take the initiative in this unification. The cause of amalgamating the forces of the working class in a single revolutionary proletarian party at the time when the international labor movement is entering the period of closing the split in its ranks, is our cause. But while it is sufficient for the establishment of the united front of the Communist and Social-Democratic Parties to have an agreement to fight against fascism, the offensive of capital and war, the achievement of political unity is possible only on the basis of a number of certain conditions involving principles. This unification is possible only on the following conditions: We must explain to the Social-Democratic workers, patiently and in comradely fashion, why political unity of the working class is impossible without these conditions. We must discuss together with them the sense and significance of these conditions. Why is it necessary for the realization of the political unity of the proletariat that there be complete independence from the bourgeoisie and a rupture of the bloc of Social-Democrats with the bourgeoisie? Because the whole experience of the labor movement, particularly the experience of the fifteen years of coalition policy in Germany, has shown that the policy of class collaboration, the policy of dependence on the bourgeoisie, leads to the defeat of the working class and to the victory of fascism. And the only true road to victory is the road of irreconcilable class struggle against the bourgeoisie, the road of the Bolsheviks. Why must unity of action be first established as a preliminary condition of political unity? Because unity of action to repel the offensive of capital and of fascism is possible and necessary even before the majority of the workers are united on a common political platform for the overthrow of capitalism, while the working out of unity of views on the main lines and aims of the struggle of the proletariat, without which a unification of the parties is impossible, requires a more or less extended period of time. And unity of views is worked out best of all in joint struggle against the class enemy already today. To propose to unite at once instead of forming a united front means to place the cart before the horse and to imagine that the cart will then move ahead. Precisely for the reason that for us the question of political unity is not a maneuver, as it is for many Social-Democratic leaders, we insist on the realization of unity of action as one of the most important stages in the struggle for political unity. Why is it necessary to recognize the necessity of the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the setting up of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the form of soviet power? Because the experience of the victory of the great October Revolution, on the one hand and, on the other, the bitter lessons learned in Germany, Austria and Spain during the entire postwar period have confirmed once more that the victory of the proletariat is possible only by means of the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie, and that the bourgeoisie would rather drown the labor movement in a sea of blood than allow the proletariat to establish socialism by peaceful means. The experience of the October Revolution has demonstrated patently that the basic content of the proletarian revolution is the question of the proletarian dictatorship, which is called upon to crush the resistance of the overthrown exploiters, to arm the revolution for the struggle against imperialism and to lead the revolution to the complete victory of socialism. To achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat as the dictatorship of the vast majority over an insignificant minority, over the exploiters -- and only as such can it be brought about -- for this soviets are needed embracing all sections of the working class, the basic masses of the peasantry and the rest of the working people, without whose awakening, without whose inclusion in the front of the revolutionary struggle, the victory of the proletariat cannot be consolidated. Why is the refusal of support to the bourgeoisie in an imperialist war a condition of political unity? Because the bourgeoisie wages imperialist wars for its predatory purposes, against the interests of the vast majority of the peoples, under whatever guise this war may be waged. Because all imperialists combine their feverish preparations for war with extremely intensified exploitation and oppression of the working people in their own country. Support of the bourgeoisie in such a war means treason to the country and the international working class. Why, finally, is the building of the Party on the basis of democratic centralism a condition of unity? Because only a party built on the basis of democratic centralism can ensure unity of purpose and action, can lead the proletariat to victory over the bourgeoisie, which has at its disposal so powerful a weapon as the centralized state apparatus. The application of the principle of democratic centralism has stood the splendid historical test of the experience of the Russian Bolshevik Party, the Party of Lenin. This explains why it is necessary to strive for political unity on the basis of the conditions indicated. We are for the political unity of the working class. Therefore, we are ready to collaborate most closely with all Social-Democrats who are for the united front and sincerely support unity on the above-mentioned principles. But precisely because we are for unity, we shall struggle resolutely against all "Left" demagogues who try to make use of the disillusionment of the Social Democratic workers to create new Socialist Parties or Internationals directed against the Communist movement, and thus keep deepening the split in the working class. We welcome the growing efforts among Social-Democratic workers for a united front with the Communists. In this fact we see a growth of their revolutionary consciousness and a beginning of the healing of the split in the working class. Being of the opinion that unity of action is a pressing necessity and the truest road to the establishment of the political unity of the proletariat as well, we declare that the Communist International and its sections are ready to enter into negotiations with the Second International and its sections for the establishment of the unity of the working class in the struggle against the offensive of capital, against fascism and the menace of an imperialist war. Comrades, I am concluding my report. As you see, taking into account the change in the situation since the Sixth Congress and the lessons of our struggle, and relying on the degree of consolidation already achieved, we are raising a number of questions today in a new way, primarily the question of the united front and of the approach to Social-Democracy, the reformist trade unions and other mass organizations. There are wiseacres who will sense in all this a digression from our basic positions, some sort of turn to the Right from the straight line of Bolshevism. Well, in my country, Bulgaria, they say that a hungry hen always dreams of millet. Let those political chickens think so. This interests us little. For it is important that our own Parties and the broad masses throughout the world should correctly understand what we are striving for. We would not be revolutionary Marxists, Leninists, worthy pupils of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, if we did not suitably reconstruct our policies and tactics in accordance with the changing situation and the changes occurring in the world labor movement. We would not be real revolutionaries if we did not learn from our own experience and the experience of the masses. We want our Parties in the capitalist countries to come out and act as real political parties of the working class, to become in actual fact a political factor in the life of their countries, to pursue at all times an active Bolshevik mass policy and not confine themselves to propaganda and criticism, and bare appeals to struggle for a proletarian dictatorship. We are enemies of all cut-and-dried schemes. We want to take into account the concrete situation at each moment, in each place, and not act according to a fixed, stereotyped form anywhere and everywhere, not to forget that in varying circumstances the position of the Communists cannot be identical. We want soberly to take into account all stages in the development of the class struggle and in the growth of the class consciousness of the masses themselves, to be able to locate and solve at each stage the concrete problems of the revolutionary movement corresponding to this stage. We want to find a common language with the broadest masses for the purpose of struggling against the class enemy, to find ways of finally overcoming the isolation of the revolutionary vanguard from the masses of the proletariat and all other working people, as well as of overcoming the fatal isolation of the working class itself from its natural allies in the struggle against the bourgeoisie, against fascism. We want to draw increasingly wide masses into the revolutionary class struggle and lead them to the proletarian revolution proceeding from their vital interests and needs as the starting point, and their own experience as the basis. Following the example of our glorious Russian Bolsheviks, the example of the leading party of the Communist International, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, we want to combine the revolutionary heroism of the German, the Spanish, the Austrian and other Communists with genuine revolutionary realism, and put an end to the last remnants of scholastic tinkering with serious political questions. We want to equip our Parties from every angle for the solution of the highly complex political problems confronting them. For this purpose we want to raise ever higher their theoretical level, to train them in the spirit of living Marxism-Leninism and not fossilized doctrinairism. We want to eradicate from our ranks all self-satisfied sectarianism, which above all blocks our road to the masses and impedes the carrying out of a truly Bolshevik mass policy. We want to intensify in every way the struggle against concrete manifestations of Right opportunism, bearing in mind that the danger from this side will arise precisely in the course of carrying out our mass policy and struggle. We want the Communists of every country promptly to draw and apply all the lessons that can be drawn from their own experience as the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat. We want them as quickly as possible to learn how to sail on the turbulent waters of the class struggle, and not to remain on the shore as observers and registrars of the surging waves in the expectation of fine weather. This is what we want. And we want all this because only in this way will the working class at the head of all the working people, welded into a million-strong revolutionary army, led by the Communist International, be able to fulfil its historical mission with certainty -- to sweep fascism off the face of the earth and, together with it, capitalism! (At the close of the report all delegates joined in a lengthy ovation, cheering enthusiastically and singing the revolutionary songs of their countries.) 1) Moratorium -- A deferment, or suspension of payment, usually under extraordinary circumstances, such as war pestilence, natural calamities, etc. Hitler, to win over the middle and small peasant masses, proclaimed a moratorium of their debts to the state at the very beginning of his rule, but failed to fulfil his promise. 2) Tsarist Okhrana -- Gendarme institution in Tsarist Russia, set up at the Police Department in 1881 to combat the revolutionary movement, dissolved during the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution in 1917. 3) In the autumn of 1922, the reactionary government of Seipel, President of the Christian-Social Party and agent of big business, the landowners and the Vatican, concluded a pact with the German National Party for the establishment of a government of the so-called anti-Marxist front, which would comprise all the reactionary forces in the struggle against the workers' movement. 4) Referring to the program adopted by the Congress of the Social-Democratic Party in Linz. 5) Schutzbund -- Social-Democratic para-military organization in Austria. 6) The Social-Democratic Government of Braun and Severing ruled Prussia from 1920 to 1932, pursuing a policy inimical to the Communist Party and the working masses, suppressing the Red Front mass organization, using police force to smash every action of the proletariat and forming an armed force of the bourgeoisie. When von Papen organized a coup d'état in Prussia in July 1932, overthrowing the Social-Democratic Government, Braun and Severing, although they had armed forces at their disposal, ignominiously capitulated together with the other leaders of the German Social-Democratic party. 7) Reichsbanner -- 'Union of the Imperial Banner', para-military Social-Democratic mass organization in Germany. 8) On the pretext that a 'second revolution' for the overthrow of Hitler was being prepared, on the eve of June 30, 1934, the entire leadership of the SA organization of storm troops was arrested and its chief commanders, including Minister Röhm, who headed the SA, were shot on the spot. The operation was conducted under the personal direction of Hitler in Münich and of Göring in Berlin. Several thousand commanders were arrested, and the SA was temporarily dissolved, to be radically purged and reorganized. Hitler was forced to this measure under the direct pressure of big business, so as to put an end to the demagogic propaganda of a 'second revolution' and to destroy its petty bourgeois advocates among the SA. 9) Stronnictwo Ludowe (People's Party) -- A democratic agrarian party in Poland, defending the interests mainly of the well-to-do peasants, headed the general strike of the peasant masses in August 1937 under the pressure of the local peasants' organizations. 10) Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) -- A mass fascist organization in Nazi Germany, aimed at the fascization of workers and their training for future soldiers. 11) Dopo lavoro -- 'After work' -- organization in Italy similar to Kraft durch Freude. 12) De Man -- One of the leaders of the Social-Democratic Party in Belgium, on whose orders he drafted in 1933 the so-called 'Plan of de Man', envisaging a 'peaceful transition to socialism', which was adopted as the official party program at the end of 1933. 13)The National-Liberation Alliance -- A mass antifascist organization formed at the beginning of 1935 in Brazil by progressive political parties and organizations headed by the Communist Party, defeated in an armed struggle against reaction in November 1935. Dimitrov Works Archive | left | deliver august source source georgi dimitrov select work sofia press sofia volume transcription zodiac html markup mathia bismo fascism work class class character fascism fascist victory bring masse victory fascism inevitable fascism ferocious unstable power ii united work class fascism significance united chief argument opponent united content form united antifascist people key question united individual country united fascist mass organization united country social democrats office struggle trade union unity united youth united woman antiimperialist unite united government ideological struggle fascism iii consolidation communist party struggle political unity proletariat consolidation communist party political unity work class conclusion note comrade early sixth congress communist international warn world proletariat new fascist offensive way call struggle congress point develop form fascist tendency germ fascist movement find development deep economic crisis general crisis capitalism sharply accentuate mass work people revolutionize fascism embark wide offensive rule bourgeoisie seek salvation fascism object take exceptional predatory measure work people prepare imperialist war plunder attack soviet union enslave partition china mean prevent revolution imperialist circle try shift burden crisis shoulder work people need fascism try solve problem market enslave weak nation intensify colonial oppression repartitione world anew mean war need fascism strive forestall growth force revolution smash revolutionary movement worker peasant undertake military attack soviet union bulwark world proletariat need fascism number country germany particular imperialist circle succeed masse decisively turn revolution inflict defeat proletariat establish fascist dictatorship characteristic victory fascism victory hand bear witness weakness proletariat disorganize paralyze disruptive socialdemocratic policy class collaboration bourgeoisie express weakness bourgeoisie afraid realization united struggle work class afraid revolution long position maintain dictatorship masse old method bourgeois democracy parliamentarism comrade fascism power correctly describe thirteenth plenum executive committee communist international open terrorist dictatorship reactionary chauvinistic imperialist element finance capital reactionary variety fascism german type fascism effrontery national socialism common socialism german fascism bourgeois nationalism fiendish chauvinism government system political gangsterism system provocation torture practise work class revolutionary element peasantry petty bourgeoisie intelligentsia medieval barbarity bestiality unbridled aggression relation nation german fascism act spearhead international counterrevolution chief instigator imperialist war initiator crusade soviet union great fatherland work people world fascism form state power stand class proletariat bourgeoisie otto bauer instance assert revolt petty bourgeoisie capture machinery state british socialist brailsford declare fascism power stand class government petty bourgeoisie lumpenproletariat finance capital fascism power finance capital organization terrorist vengeance work class revolutionary section peasantry intelligentsia foreign policy fascism jingoism brutal form foment bestial hatred nation true character fascism particularly stress number country cover social demagogy fascism manage gain following mass petty bourgeoisie dislocate crisis certain section backward strata proletariat support fascism understand real character true nature development fascism fascist dictatorship assume different form different country accord historical social economic condition national peculiarity international position give country certain country principally fascism broad mass basis struggle group camp fascist bourgeoisie acute fascism immediately venture abolish parliament allow bourgeois party socialdemocratic party retain modicum legality country rule bourgeoisie fear early outbreak revolution fascism establish unrestricted political monopoly immediately intensify reign terror persecution rival party group prevent fascism position particularly acute try extend basis alter class nature try combine open terrorist dictatorship crude sham parliamentarism accession power fascism ordinary succession bourgeois government substitution state form class domination bourgeoisie bourgeois democracy form open terrorist dictatorship mistake ignore distinction mistake liable prevent revolutionary proletariat mobilize wide strata work people town country struggle menace seizure power fascist take advantage contradiction exist camp bourgeoisie mistake dangerous underrate importance establishment fascist dictatorship reactionary measure bourgeoisie present increasingly develop bourgeoisdemocratic country measure suppress democratic liberty work people falsify curtail right parliament intensify repression revolutionary movement comrade accession power fascism conceive simplified smooth form committee finance capital decide certain date set fascist dictatorship reality fascism usually come power course mutual time severe struggle old bourgeois party definite section party course struggle fascist camp struggle time lead armed clash witness case germany austria country important fact establishment fascist dictatorship bourgeois government usually pass number preliminary stage adopt number reactionary measure directly facilitate accession power fascism fight reactionary measure bourgeoisie growth fascism preparatory stage position prevent victory fascism contrary facilitate victory socialdemocratic leader gloss conceal masse true class nature fascism struggle increasingly reactionary measure bourgeoisie bear great historical responsibility fact decisive moment fascist offensive large section work people germany number fascist country fail recognize fascism bloodthirsty monster finance capital vicious enemy masse prepared resist source influence fascism masse fascism able attract masse demagogically appeal urgent need demand fascism inflame prejudice deeply ingrain masse play well sentiment masse sense justice revolutionary tradition german fascist lackey bourgeoisie mortal enemy socialism represent masse socialist depict accession power revolution try exploit faith revolution urge socialism live heart mass work people germany fascism act interest extreme imperialist present masse guise champion illtreate nation appeal outraged national sentiment german fascism instance win support masse petty bourgeoisie slogan versaille treaty fascism aim unbridled exploitation masse approach artful anticapitalist demagogy take advantage deep hatred work people plundering bourgeoisie bank trust financial magnate advance slogan give moment alluring politically immature masse germany general welfare high welfare individual italy state capitalist corporate state japan japan exploitation united states share wealth forth fascism deliver people devour corrupt venal element come demand honest incorruptible government speculate profound disillusionment masse bourgeoisdemocratic government fascism hypocritically denounce corruption interest reactionary circle bourgeoisie fascism intercept disappointed masse desert old bourgeois party impress masse vehemence attack bourgeois government irreconcilable attitude old bourgeois party surpass cynicism hypocrisy variety bourgeois reaction fascism adapt demagogy national peculiarity country peculiarity social strata country mass petty bourgeoisie section worker reduce despair want unemployment insecurity existence fall victim social chauvinist demagogy fascism fascism come power party attack revolutionary movement proletariat mass people state unrest stage accession power revolutionary movement bourgeoisie behalf nation salvation nation recall mussolinis march rome pilsudskis march warsaw hitler nationalsocialist revolution germany forth mask fascism adopt form present way come power fascism promise worker fair wage actually bring low pauper standard living promise work unemployed actually bring painful torment starvation force servile labor practice convert worker unemployed pariah capitalist society strip right destroy trade union deprive right strike workingclass press force fascist organization plunder social insurance fund transform mill factory barrack unbridled arbitrary rule capitalist reign fascism promise work youth broad highway brilliant future actually bring wholesale dismissal young worker labor camp incessant military drilling war conqu fascism promise guarantee office worker petty official intellectual security existence destroy omnipotence trust wipe profiteering bank capital actually bring great degree despair uncertainty morrow subject new bureaucracy submissive follower set intolerable dictatorship trust spread corruption degeneration unprecedented extent fascism promise ruin impoverished peasant end debt bondage abolish rent expropriate land estate compensation interest landless ruin peasant actually place labor peasant state unprecedented servitude trust fascist state apparatus push utmost limit exploitation great mass peasantry big landowner bank usurer germany peasant country hitler solemnly declare peasant germany hitler moratorium cancel law inheritance peasant property lead million son daughter peasant squeeze village reduce pauper farm laborer transform semiserfs deprive elementary right free movement work peasant deprive opportunity sell produce farm market poland polish peasant say polish newspaper czas employ method mean middle age nurse fire stove lend neighbor split match part lend dirty soapwater boil herre barrel order obtain salt water fable actual state affair countryside truth anybody convince communist write comrade polish reactionary newspaper mean day concentration camp fascist germany cellar gestapo german secret police torture chamber poland cell bulgarian finnish secret police glavnyacha belgrade rumanian siguranza italian island good son work class revolutionary peasant fighter splendid future mankind subject revolt torture indignity pale abominable act tsarist blackguardly german fascist beat husband bloody pulp presence wife send ashe murder son parcel post mother sterilization method political warfare torture chamber imprison antifascist give injection poison arm break eye gouge string water pump fascist swastika carve live flesh statistical summary draw international red aid international organization time aid revolutionary fighter number kill wound arrest maim torture death germany poland italy austria bulgaria yugoslavia germany nationalsocialist come power antifascist worker peasant employee intellectual communists social democrat member opposition christian organization murder arrest injure subject torture austria battle february year christian fascist government murder revolutionary worker maim injure arrest summary comrade far complete word fail describe indignation seize thought torment work people undergo number fascist country fact figure quote reflect hundredth true picture exploitation torture inflict white terror form daily life work class capitalist country volume picture countless brutality inflict fascism work people feeling profound emotion hatred fascist butcher dip banner communist international unforgettable memory john scheer fiete schulze luttgen germany koloman wallisch munichreiter austria sallai furst hungary kofardjiev lyutibrodski voykov bulgaria memory thousand thousand communist socialdemocrat nonparty worker peasant representative progressive intelligentsia lay life struggle fascism platform greet leader german proletariat honorary chairman congress comrade thaelmann greet comrade rakosi gramsci antikainen greet tom mooney languish prison eighteen year thousand prisoner capitalism fascism brother fight brother arm forget shall hour life drop blood liberation liberation work people shameful regime fascism comrade lenin warn bourgeoisie succeed overwhelm work people savage terror check grow force revolution brief period time save doom life assert lenin write let bourgeoisie rave work frenzy overdo thing commit stupidity vengeance bolsheviks advance endeavour kill india hungary germany etc hundred thousand hundred thousand yesterday tomorrow bolshevik act bourgeoisie act class doom history act communist know future rate belong combine intense passion great revolutionary struggle coolest sober evaluation mad raving bourgeoisie v lenin leftwe communism infantile disorder new york pp collect work ay proletariat world firmly follow path indicate lenin bourgeoisie perish spite fascism triumph fascism vicious enemy work class work people constitute ninetenth german people ninetenth austrian people ninetenth people fascist country way vicious enemy triumph fascism able come power primarily work class owe policy class collaboration bourgeoisie pursue socialdemocratic leader prove split politically organizationally disarm face onslaught bourgeoisie communist party hand apart opposition socialdemocrat strong rouse masse lead decisive struggle fascism let million socialdemocratic worker communist brother experience horror fascist barbarism seriously reflect following revolution break germany austria austrian german proletariat follow social democratic leadership otto bauer friedrich adler karl renner austria ebert scheidemann germany follow road russian bolsheviks road lenin fascism austria germany italy hungary poland balkan bourgeoisie work class long ago master situation europe example austrian socialdemocratic party revolution raise tremendous height hold power hand hold strong j position army state apparatus rely position nip fascism bud surrender position work class resistance allow bourgeoisie strengthen power annul constitution purge state apparatus army police force socialdemocratic functionary arsenal away worker allow fascist bandit murder socialdemocratic worker impunity accept term hüttenberg pact give fascist element entry factory time socialdemocratic leader fool worker linz program contain alternative possibility armed force bourgeoisie establish proletarian dictatorship assure event rule class force work class party reply general strike armed struggle policy preparation fascist attack work class chain act violence work class mask constitutional form eve course february battle austrian social democratic leader leave heroically fighting schutzbund isolate broad masse doom austrian proletariat defeat victory fascism inevitable germany german work class prevent order achieve united antifascist proletarian force socialdemocratic leader discontinue campaign communist accept repeat proposal communist party united action fascism fascism offensive bourgeoisdemocratic liberty progressively abolish bourgeoisie content verbal resolution socialdemocrat reply genuine mass struggle fulfilment fascist plan german bourgeoisie difficult allow prohibition league red fighter government braun sever establish fight contact league reichsbanner nearly million member compel braun sever arm organization order resist smash fascist band compel socialdemocratic leader head prussian government adopt measure defence fascism arrest fascist leader close press confiscate material resource resource capitalist finance fascist movement dissolve fascist organization deprive weapon forth furthermore secure reestablishment extension form social assistance introduction moratorium crisis benefit peasant ruin impact crisis tax bank trust way win support work peasant fault socialdemocrat germany fascism able triumph inevitable bourgeoisie aristocracy triumph spain country force proletarian revolt advantageously combine peasant war spanish socialist government day revolution establish fight contact work class organization political opinion include communist anarchist weld work class united trade union organization demand confiscation land landlord church monastery favor peasant order win revolution attempt fight national selfdetermination catalonian basque liberation morocco purge army monarchist fascist element prepare pass worker peasant dissolve civil guard detest people executioner movement people strike fascist party gil roble catholic church thing reject frequent proposal communists united action offensive bourgeoislandlord reaction fascism pass election law enable reactionary gain majority corte parliament law penalize popular movement law heroic miner asturias try peasant fight land shoot civil guard way socialdemocrat disorganize split rank work class clear path power fascism germany austria spain comrade fascism attain power reason proletariat find isolate natural ally fascism attain power able win large masse peasantry owe fact socialdemocrat work class pursue fact antipeasant policy peasant see power number socialdemocratic government eye embodiment power work class end peasant want give land peasantry germany socialdemocrat touch landlord combat strike farm laborer result long hitler come power farm laborer germany desert reformist trade union majority case go stahlhelm national socialists fascism attain power reason able penetrate rank youth socialdemocrat divert work class youth class struggle revolutionary proletariat develop necessary educational work youth pay attention struggle specific interest demand fascism grasp acute need youth militant activity entice considerable section youth fighting detachment new generation young man woman experience horror war feel weight economic crisis unemployment disintegration bourgeois democracy see prospect future large section youth prove particularly receptive fascist demagogy depict alluring future fascism succeed connection avoid refer number mistake communist party mistake hamper struggle fascism rank impermissible underestimation fascist danger tendency day overcome case point opinion meet party germany italy mean fascism succeed italy success germany question industrially culturally highly develop country year tradition workingclass movement fascism impossible kind opinion meet nowadays effect country classical bourgeois democracy soil fascism exist opinion serve serve relax vigilance fascist danger render mobilization proletariat struggle fascism difficult cite instance communist take unawares fascist coup remember bulgaria leadership party take neutral fact opportunist position regard coup détat june poland leadership communist party make wrong estimate motive force polish revolution realize fascist nature pilsudski coup trail rear event finland party base false conception slow gradual fascization overlook fascist coup prepare lead group bourgeoisie take party work class unawares national socialism menacing mass movement germany comrade regard bruene government government fascist dictatorship boastfully declare hitler reich come foot underground victorious power worker comrade germany long time fail fully reckon wound national sentiment indignation masse versaille treaty treat little account wavering peasantry petty bourgeoisie late draw program social national emancipation forward unable adapt concrete demand level masse unable popularize widely masse number country necessary development mass fight fascism replace barren debate nature fascism general narrow sectarian attitude formulating solve immediate political task party comrade simply want dig past speak cause victory fascism point historical responsibility social democrats defeat work class point mistake fight fascism historian divorce live reality active fighter work class oblige answer question torment million worker victory fascism prevent reply million worker yes comrade road fascism block possible depend ourselveson worker peasant work people victory fascism prevent depend foremost militant activity work class force weld single militant army combat offensive capitalism fascism establish fighting unity proletariat paralyze influence fascism peasantry urban petty bourgeoisie youth intelligentsia able neutralize section win section second depend existence strong revolutionary party correctly lead struggle work people fascism party systematically call worker retreat face fascism permit fascist bourgeoisie strengthen position doom lead worker defeat depend correct policy work class peasantry pettybourgeois masse town masse take like process struggle overcome doubt wavering patient attitude inevitable wavering political help proletariat able rise high level revolutionary consciousness activity fourth depend vigilance timely action revolutionary proletariat allow fascism unawares surrender initiative fascism inflict decisive blow gather force allow fascism consolidate position repel fascism rear head allow fascism gain new position french proletariat successfully try main condition prevent growth fascism accession power fascist dictatorship bourgeoisie ferocious power unstable chief cause instability fascist dictatorship fascism undertake overcome difference antagonism bourgeois camp make antagonism acute fascism try establish political monopoly violently destroy political party existence capitalist system existence class accentuation class contradiction inevitably tend undermine explode political monopoly fascism fascist country party fascist set aim abolish class class contradiction put end legal existence bourgeois party number continue maintain illegal existence communist party condition illegality continue progress steel temper lead struggle proletariat fascist dictatorship blow class contradiction political monopoly fascism bind explode reason instability fascist dictatorship contrast anticapitalist demagogy fascism policy enrich monopolist bourgeoisie piratical fashion make easy expose class nature fascism tend shake narrow mass basis furthermore victory fascism arouse deep hatred indignation masse help revolutionize provide powerful stimulus united proletariat fascism conduct policy economic nationalism autarchy seize great national income purpose prepare war fascism undermine economic life country accentuate economic war capitalist state conflict arise bourgeoisie lend character sharp time bloody collision undermine stability fascist state power eye people government murder follower happen germany june year fascist government section fascist bourgeoisie conduct armed fight nationalsocialist putsch austria violent attack individual fascist group fascist government poland bulgaria finland country government character long maintain authority eye broad mass petty bourgeoisie work class able advantage antagonism conflict bourgeois camp cherish illusion fascism exhaust accord fascism collapse automatically revolutionary activity work class help advantage conflict inevitably arise bourgeois camp order undermine fascist dictatorship overthrow destroy relic bourgeois democracy elevate open violence system government fascism shake democratic illusion undermine authority law eye work people particularly true country austria spain worker take arm fascism austria heroic struggle schutzbund communist spite defeat shake stability fascist dictatorship outset spain bourgeoisie succeed put fascist muzzle work people armed struggle austria spain result wide masse work class come realize necessity revolutionary class struggle monstrous philistines lackey bourgeoisie superannuated theoretician second international karl kautsky capable cast reproach worker effect take arm austria spain working class movement austria spain look like today work class country guide treacherous counsel kautskys work class experience profound demoralization rank school civil war lenin say leave people unaffected harsh school complete curriculum inevitably include victory counterrevolution debauchery enraged reactionary savage punishment mete old government rebel etc downright pedant mentally decrepit mummy grieve fact nation enter painful school school teach oppress class conduct civil war teach bring victorious revolution concentrate masse presentday slave hatred harbour downtrodden dull ignorant slave lead slave conscious shame slavery great historic exploit v lenin collect work triumph fascism germany know follow new wave fascist offensive austria lead provocation dollfuss spain new onslaught counterrevolution revolutionary conquest masse poland fascist reform constitution france spur armed detachment fascist attempt coup détat february victory frenzy fascist dictatorship call forth countermovement united proletarian fascism international scale burning reichstag serve signal general attack fascism work class seizure spoliation trade union work class organization groan torture antifascist rise vault fascist barrack concentration camp make clear masse outcome reactionary disruptive role play german socialdemocratic leader reject proposal communist joint struggle advance fascism thing convince masse necessity unite force work class overthrow fascism hitler victory provide decisive stimulus creation united work class fascism france hitler victory arouse worker fear fate befell german worker kindle hatred executioner german class brother strengthen determination circumstance allow country happen work class germany powerful urge united capitalist country show lesson defeat vain work class begin act new way initiative show communist party organization united supreme selfsacrifice display communist revolutionary worker struggle fascism result unprecedented increase prestige communist international time second international undergo profound crisis crisis particularly noticeable particularly accentuate bankruptcy german socialdemocracy great ease socialdemocratic worker able convince fascist germany horror barbarity final analysis result socialdemocratic policy class collaboration bourgeoisie masse come clearly realize path german socialdemocratic leader lead proletariat traverse ideological dissension camp second international present time process differentiation take place socialdemocratic party rank principal camp form exist camp reactionary element try way preserve bloc socialdemocrat bourgeoisie rabidly reject united communist begin emerge camp revolutionary element entertain doubt correctness policy class collaboration bourgeoisie favor creation united communist increasingly come adopt position revolutionary class struggle fascism appear result decline capitalist system long run act factor disintegration fascism undertake bury marxism revolutionary movement work class result dialectic life class struggle lead development force bind serve gravedigger gravedigger capitalism comrade million worker work people capitalist country ask question fascism prevent come power fascism overthrow attain power communist international reply thing thing begin form united establish unity action worker factory district region country world unity action proletariat national international scale mighty weapon render work class capable successful defense successful counterattack fascism class enemy clear joint action supporter party organization international communist second international easy masse repulse fascist onslaught heighten political importance work class joint action party international fascism confine effect influence present adherent communist socialdemocrat exert powerful impact rank catholic anarchist unorganized worker temporarily victim fascist demagogy powerful united proletariat exert tremendous influence strata work people peasantry urban petty bourgeoisie intelligentsia united inspire waver group faith strength work class proletariat imperialist country possible ally work people country oppress nation colony semicolonie inasmuch proletariat split nationally internationally inasmuch part support policy collaboration bourgeoisie particular system oppression colony semicolonie barrier work class oppress people colony semicolonie world antiimperialist weaken step proletariat imperialist country road unity action direction support struggle liberation colonial people mean transform colony semicolonie important reserve world proletariat finally bear mind international unity action proletariat rely steadily grow strength proletarian state land socialism soviet union broad perspective reveal realization proletarian unity action national international scale establishment unity action section work class irrespective party organization belong necessary majority work class unite struggle overthrow capitalism victory proletarian revolution possible realize unity action proletariat individual country world yes possible moment communist international put condition unity action elementary condition acceptable worker viz unity action direct fascism offensive capital threat war class enemy condition objection opponent united objection voice communist use slogan united merely maneuver case reply not expose communist maneuver honest participation united declare frankly want unity action work class proletariat grow strong struggle bourgeoisie order defend today current interest attack capital fascism proletariat reach position tomorrow create preliminary condition final emancipation communists attack listen repeatedly declare shall attack person organization party stand united work class class enemy time duty interest proletariat cause criticize person organization party hinder unity action worker form united communist different program say group program differ program bourgeois party prevent enter coalition party bourgeoisdemocratic party well ally fascism communist opponent united advocate coalition bourgeoisie germanys experience teach socialdemocrat form bloc well ally result establish united communist petty bourgeoisie fright red danger desert fascist hear say frequently united represent threat peasant small trader artisan work intellectual united threat big bourgeoisie financial magnate junker exploiter regime bring complete ruin strata socialdemocracy democracy communist dictatorship form united communist socialdemocratic leader offer united purpose proclaim dictatorship proletariat proposal let communist recognize democracy let come defense shall ready united reply adherent soviet democracy democracy work people consistent democracy world capitalist country defend shall continue defend inch bourgeoisdemocratic liberty attack fascism bourgeois reaction interest class struggle proletariat dictate tiny communist party contribute participate united bring labour party instance labour leader great britain remember austrian socialdemocratic leader say thing reference small austrian communist party event show austrian socialdemocratic party head otto bauer renner prove right small austrian communist party signal fascist danger austria right moment call worker struggle experience labor movement show communist relative insignificance number motive power militant activity proletariat forget communist party austria great britain ten thousand worker adherent party part world communist movement section communist international lead party party proletariat achieve victory rule onesixth globe united prevent fascism victorious saar objection advance opponent united strange logic gentleman leave stone unturned ensure victory fascism rejoice malicious glee united enter moment lead victory worker form united communist withdraw coalition reactionary fascist party enter government socialdemocratic leader hold cabinet post country german socialdemocratic party coalition government austrian socialdemocratic party office spanish socialist government bourgeoisie participation socialdemocratic party bourgeois coalition government country prevent fascism attack proletariat consequently clear daylight participation socialdemocratic minister bourgeois government barrier fascism communists act like dictator want prescribe dictate prescribe dictate forward proposal convince realize meet interest work people right duty act worker afraid dictatorship cornmunist let jointly submit worker proposal jointly discuss worker choose proposal useful cause work class argument united stand slight criticism flimsy excuse reactionary leader socialdemocracy prefer united bourgeoisie united proletariat excuse hold water international proletariat experience suffering cause split work class convinced united unity action proletariat national international scale necessary perfectly possible ought basic content united present stage defense immediate economic political interest work class defense work class fascism form starting point main content united capitalist country confine bare appeal struggle proletarian dictatorship find advance slogan form struggle arise vital need masse level fighting capacity present stage development point masse today defend capitalist spoliation fascist barbarity strive establish wide united aid joint action worker organization different trend defense vital interest labor masse mean tirelessly prepare work class rapid change form method struggle change situation movement grow unity work class strengthen prepare transition defensive offensive capital steering organization mass political strike absolute condition strike draw main trade union country concern communist course moment abandon independent work communist education organization mobilization masse ensure worker find road unity action necessary strive time shortterm longterm agreement provide joint action social democratic party reformist trade union organization work people class enemy proletariat chief stress lay develop mass action locally carry local organization local agreement loyally carry condition agreement shall mercilessly expose sabotage joint action person organization participate united attempt wreck agreement attempt possibly shall reply appeal masse continue untiringly struggle restoration broken unity action go say practical realization united form country depend condition character worker organization political level situation particular country change progress international labor movement etc form include instance coordinate joint action worker agree case case definite occasion individual demand basis common platform coordinate action individual enterprise industry coordinate action local regional national international scale coordinate action organization economic struggle worker carry mass political action organization joint selfdefense fascist attack coordinate action render aid political prisoner family field struggle social reaction joint action defense interest youth woman field cooperative movement cultural activity sport etc insufficient rest content conclusion pact provide joint action formation contact committee party organization participate united like france instance step pact auxiliary mean obtain joint action constitute united contact commission leader communist socialist party necessary facilitate carrying joint action far adequate real development united draw wide masse struggle fascism communist revolutionary worker strive formation elect country fascist dictatorship select authoritative participant united movement nonparty class body united factory unemployed work class district small townsfolk village body able include vast masse unorganized work people united movement able assist develop mass initiative struggle capitalist offensive fascism reaction basis create necessary broad active rankandfile united train hundred thousand nonparty bolshevik capitalist country joint action organize worker beginning foundation lose sight fact unorganized masse constitute vast majority worker france number organize worker communists socialists trade union member trendsis altogether million total number worker million great britain approximately million member trade union party trend time total number worker fourteen million united states america million worker organize altogether thirtyeight million worker country ratio hold good number country normal time mass main participate political life gigantic mass get motion bring political life come political arena creation nonpartisan class body good form carry extend strengthen united rankandfile masse body likewise good bulwark attempt opponent united disrupt grow unity action work class mobilize mass work people struggle fascism formation wide antifascist people basis proletarian united particularly important task success struggle proletariat closely bind establishment fighting alliance proletariat hand labor peasantry basic mass urban petty bourgeoisie form majority population industrially develop country agitation fascism desirous win masse try set mass work people town countryside revolutionary proletariat frighten petty bourgeoisie bogey red peril turn weapon wield work peasant artisan intellectual real danger threaten concretely pile burden taxis impost peasant squeeze usurious interest own good land form wealth drive peasant family plot land doom unemployment poverty explain concretely patiently persistently ruin artisan handicraftsman taxis impost high rent competition impossible withstand throw street deprive employment wide masse work intelligentsia fundamental decisive thing establish antifascist people resolute action revolutionary proletariat defense demand section people particularly work peasantry demand line basic interest proletariat process struggle combine demand work class demand form antifascist people correct approach organization party membership comprise considerable number work peasantry mass urban petty bourgeoisie great importance capitalist country majority party organization political economic influence bourgeoisie follow social composition party organization heterogeneous include rich peasant landless peasant big businessman alongside petty shopkeeper control hand agent big capital oblige approach different organization different way remember bulk membership ignore real political character leadership certain condition try draw party organization certain section antifascist people despite bourgeois leadership instance today situation france radical party united states farmer organization poland stronnictwo ludowe yugoslavia croatian peasant party bulgaria agrarian union greece agrarian etc regardless chance attract party organization people tactic circumstance direct draw small peasant artisan handicraftsman etc member antifascist people field line end infrequently occur workneglect contempt organization party peasant artisan mass petty bourgeoisie town country certain key question present stage agitate vast masse population struggle establishment united develop key point key question properly grasp ensure accelerate establishment united united states america let example important country capitalist world united states america million people set motion crisis program recovery capitalism collapse vast masse begin abandon bourgeois party present crossroad embryo american fascism try direct disillusionment discontent masse reactionary fascist channel peculiarity development american fascism present stage come forward principally guise opposition fascism accuse unamerican trend import abroad contradistinction german fascism act anticonstitutional slogan american fascism try portray custodian constitution american democracy represent directly menacing force succeed penetrate wide masse disillusion old bourgeois party menace near future victory fascism united states involve mass work people course involve unprecedented strengthening regime exploitation destruction workingclass movement international significance victory fascism know united states hungary finland bulgaria latvia victory fascism united states vitally change international situation circumstance american proletariat content organize class conscious vanguard prepared follow revolutionary path perfectly obvious interest american proletariat demand force dissociate capitalist party delay find good time way suitable form prevent fascism win wide mass discontent work people say american condition creation mass party work people worker farmer party serve suitable form party specific form mass people america opposition party trust bank likewise grow fascism party course socialist communist antifascist party anticommunist party program party direct bank trust monopoly principal enemy people gamble woe party justify defend urgent demand work class fight genuine social legislation unemployment insurance fight land white black sharecropper liberation debt burden try secure cancellation farmer indebtedness fight equal status negro defend demand war veteran interest member liberal profession small businessman artisan go say party fight election candidate local government state legislature house representative senate comrade united states act rightly take initiative setting party effective measure order creation party cause masse question form worker farmer party program discuss mass meeting people develop widespread movement creation party lead case initiative organize party allow pass element desirous utilize discontent million disillusion bourgeois party democratic republican order create party united states anticommunist party party direct revolutionary movement great britain great britain result mass action british worker mosleys fascist organization time push background close eye fact socalled national government pass number reactionary measure direct work class result condition create great britain easy bourgeoisie necessary pass fascist regime present stage fight fascist danger great britain mean primarily fight national government reactionary measure fight offensive capital fighting demand unemployed fighting wage cut repeal law help british bourgeoisie lower standard living masse grow hatred work class national government unite increasingly large number slogan formation new labor government great britain communists ignore frame mind masse retain faith labor government comrade find way approach masse tell openly thirteenth congress british communist party communist favor soviet government soviet mean worker peasant council people council system nationalize major resource mean production form government capable emancipate worker yoke capital want labor government fight hand hand defeat national government prepared support fight formation new labor government spite fact previous labor government fail fulfil promise work class labour party expect government carry socialist measure shall present demand million worker defend essential economic political interest work class work people let jointly discuss common program demand let achieve unity action proletariat require order repel reactionary offensive national government attack capital fascism preparation new war basis british comrade prepare forthcoming parliamentary election cooperate branch labour party national government lloyd george try way interest british bourgeoisie lure masse follow cause working class position british communists correct help set militant united million member british trade union labour party remain rank fighting proletariat point masse right path path struggle revolutionary overthrow rule bourgeoisie establishment soviet government communist define immediate political aim attempt leap necessary stage mass movement course work class experience outlive illusion pass communism france france know country work class set example international proletariat fight fascism french communist party set example section comintern tactic united apply socialist worker set example socialdemocratic worker capitalist country fight fascism significance antifascist demonstration attend half million people paris july year numerous demonstration french city tremendous merely united movement worker beginning wide general people fascism france united movement enhance confidence work class force strengthen consciousness leading role play relation peasantry urban petty bourgeoisie intelligentsia extend influence communist party mass work class make proletariat strong fight fascism arouse good time vigilance masse regard fascist danger serve contagious example development antifascist struggle capitalist country exercise heartening influence proletarian germany oppress fascist dictatorship victory needless big decide issue antifascist struggle overwhelming majority french people undoubtedly oppose fascism bourgeoisie able armed force violate popular fascist movement continue develop absolutely freely active support monopoly capital state apparatus bourgeoisie general staff french army reactionary leader catholic church stronghold reaction powerful fascist organization croix de feu command armed man backbone consist officer reserve hold strong position police gendarmerie army air force government office recent municipal election show france revolutionary force grow force fascism fascism succeed penetrate widely peasantry secure support section army section remain neutral masse french work people able prevent fascist come power comrade forget organizational weakness french labor movement facilitate fascist offensive work class antifascist france ground rest content result achieve far task face work class france establish united political sphere economic sphere order organize struggle capitalist offensive pressure smash resistance offer united leader reformist confederation labor second achieve trade union unity france united trade union base class struggle enlist broad mass peasant petty bourgeoisie antifascist movement devote special attention urgent demand program antifascist people fourth strengthen organizationally extend antifascist movement develop widespread creation nonpartisan elect body antifascist people influence extend wide masse present party organization work people france fifth force disbanding disarming fascist organization organization conspirator republic agent hitler france sixth secure state apparatus army police shall purge conspirator prepare fascist coup seventh develop struggle leader reactionary clique catholic church important stronghold french fascism eighth link army antifascist movement create rank committee defense republic constitution direct want utilize army anticonstitutional coup détat prevent reactionary force france wreck francosoviet pact defend cause peace aggression german fascism france antifascist movement lead formation government carry real struggle french fascism word deed carry program demand antifascist people communist remain irreconcilable foe bourgeois government supporter soviet government face grow fascist danger prepare support government comrade fight establishment united country fascist power important problem face country course fight carry far difficult condition country legal labor movement condition exist fascist country development real antifascist people struggle fascist dictatorship socialdemocratic catholic worker germany instance able realize directly need joint struggle communist fascist dictatorship wide strata petty bourgeoisie peasantry having taste bitter fruit fascist rule growing increasingly discontent disillusion make easy enlist antifascist people principal task fascist country particularly germany italy fascism manage gain mass basis force worker work people organization consist skilfully combine fight fascist dictatorship undermining inside fascist mass organization body special method mean approach suit concrete condition prevail country learn master apply facilitate rapid disintegration mass base fascism prepare way overthrow fascist dictatorship learn master apply shout hitler mussolini yes learn master apply difficult complex task difficult experience successfully combat fascist dictatorship extremely limit italian comrade instance fight condition fascist dictatorship thirteen year succeed develop real mass struggle fascism unfortunately little able respect help communist party fascist country positive experience germany italian communist communist fascist country communist youth display prodigious valor daily make tremendous sacrifice bow head honor heroism sacrifice heroism heroism combine daytoday work masse concrete struggle fascism achieve tangible result sphere struggle fascist dictatorship particularly dangerous confuse wish fact base fact actual concrete situation actual situation germany instance masse increasingly restless disillusion policy fascist dictatorship assume form partial strike action spite effort fascism fail win politically basic masse worker lose supporter lose future realize worker convince possibility overthrow fascist dictatorship prepared fight actively minority consist communist revolutionary section socialdemocratic worker majority work people aware real concrete possibility method overthrow dictatorship adopt waiting attitude bear mind outline task struggle fascism germany seek study apply special method approach undermining overthrow fascist dictatorship germany order able strike telling blow fascist dictatorship find vulnerable point achille heel fascist dictatorship social basis extremely heterogeneous strata society fascism proclaim sole representative class strata population manufacturer worker millionaire unemployed junker small peasant big businessman artisan pretend defend interest strata interest nation dictatorship big bourgeoisie fascism inevitably come conflict mass social basis fascist dictatorship class contradiction pack financial magnate overwhelming majority people bring great relief lead masse decisive struggle overthrow fascist dictatorship get worker force fascist organization join ignorance elementary movement defense economic political cultural interest reason communist work organization good champion daytoday interest mass member bear mind worker belong organization begin frequently demand right defend interest inevitably come conflict fascist dictatorship defend urgent elementary interest work people town countryside comparatively easy find common language conscious antifascist work people supporter fascism disillusion dissatisfied policy grumble seek occasion express discontent general realize tactic country fascist dictatorship character repulse rankandfile follower fascism draw work section society need dismay comrade people mobilize daytoday interest consider indifferent politic follower fascism important thing draw movement proceed openly slogan struggle fascism objectively antifascist movement put masse opposition fascist dictatorship experience teach view generally impossible country fascist dictatorship come legally semilegally harmful incorrect insist point view mean fall passivity renounce real mass work altogether true condition fascist dictatorship find form method legal semilegal action difficult complex problem question path indicate life initiative masse provide number example generalize apply organized effective manner resolutely end tendency underestimate work fascist mass organization italy germany number fascist country comrade try conceal passivity frequently direct refusal work fascist mass organization put forward work factory work fascist mass organization reality mechanical distinction lead work conduct feebly fascist mass organization factory particularly important communist fascist country masse find fascism deprive worker legal organization force fascist organization masse compulsion extent voluntarily mass fascist organization legal semilegal field action meet masse legal semilegal starting point defense daytoday interest masse utilize possibility communist win elect position fascist mass organization contact masse rid prejudice activity unseemly unworthy revolutionary worker germany instance system socalled shop steward state leave fascist monopoly organization try unite communist socialdemocratic catholic antifascist worker factory list shop steward vote know agent employer strike candidate enjoy confidence worker insert stead practice show possible practice possible jointly socialdemocratic discontent worker demand shop steward defend interest worker labor germany fascist trade union italy possible demand functionary labor elect appoint insist lead body local group report meeting member organization address demand follow decision group employer labor trustee high body labor possible provide revolutionary worker actually work labor try obtain post similar method work possible essential mass fascist organization hitler youth league sport organization kraft durch freude organization dopo lavoro italy cooperative forth comrade recall ancient legend capture troy troy inaccessible army attack thank impregnable wall attack army suffer heavy casualty unable achieve victory aid famous trojan horse manage penetrate heart enemys camp revolutionary worker appear shy tactic regard fascist foe defend people help live wall cutthroat fail understand necessity tactic case fascism regard approach humiliating excellent comrade allow windbag revolutionary unable lead masse overthrow fascist dictatorship mass movement united start defense elementary need change form watchword struggle extend grow grow outside inside fascist organization germany italy country fascism mass basis battering ram shatter fortress fascist dictatorship present impregnable struggle establishment united raise important problem problem united country socialdemocratic government coalition government socialist participate power instance denmark norway sweden czechoslovakia belgium attitude absolute opposition socialdemocratic government government compromise bourgeoisie known notwithstanding regard existence socialdemocratic government government coalition bourgeois party insurmountable obstacle establish united socialdemocrat certain issue believe case united defense vital interest work people struggle fascism possible necessary stand reason country representative socialdemocratic party government socialdemocratic leadership offer strong resistance proletarian united comprehensible want bourgeoisie well skilfully discontent work masse control prevent fall influence communism fact socialdemocratic minister opposed proletarian united mean justify situation communist establish united proletariat comrade scandinavian country follow line resistance confine propaganda expose socialdemocratic government mistake denmark example socialdemocratic leader government past year year day day communist reiterate bourgeois capitalist government assume danish worker acquaint propaganda fact considerable majority vote socialdemocratic government party go communist exposure government mean propaganda insufficient prove hundred thousand worker satisfied government measure socialdemocratic minister satisfied fact socalled crisis agreement socialdemocratic government assist big capitalist landlord worker poor peasant satisfied decree issue government january deprive worker right strike satisfied project social democratic leadership dangerous antidemocratic electoral reform considerably reduce number deputy shall hardly error comrade state cent danish worker approve political step take socialdemocratic leader minister possible communist trade union socialdemocratic organization denmark discuss burn issue express opinion come jointly proletarian united object obtain worker demand october year danish comrade appeal trade union act reduction unemployment relief democratic right trade union local trade union organization join united sweden socialdemocratic government power time swedish communist long time abstain apply united tactic practice oppose united course principle united united general fail understand circumstance question defense demand proletarian united successfully establish hook month formation social democratic government social democratic party advance election platform contain number demand thing include platform proletarian united example slogan custom duty militarization end policy delay question unemployment insurance grant adequate old age pension prohibit organization like munch corp fascist organization class legislation union demand bourgeois party million work people sweden vote demand advance socialdemocrat welcome formation socialdemocratic government hope demand realize natural situation well suit mass worker appeal communist party socialdemocratic trade union organization joint action secure demand advance socialdemocratic party succeed mobilize wide masse weld socialdemocratic communist worker organization united secure demand socialdemocrat doubt work class sweden gain socialdemocratic minister sweden course happy case government compel meet demand rate happen government instead abolishing raise duty instead restrict militarism enlarge military budget instead reject legislation direct trade union introduce bill parliament happen true issue communist party sweden carry good mass campaign spirit proletarian united result end socialdemocratic parliamentary faction feel constrain vote government bill time vote norwegian communist right call organization labor party organize joint day demonstration put forward number demand main coincide demand contain election platform norwegian labor party step favor united poorly prepare leadership norwegian labor party oppose unite demonstration take place thirty locality communist afraid opportunism counter partial demand socialdemocrat demand twice radical naive mistake socialdemocrat instance demand dissolution fascist organization reason add disbanding state police demand expedient different circumstance tell socialdemocratic worker ready accept demand party demand proletarian united ready fight end realization let join hand battle czechoslovakia certain demand advance czech german socialdemocrat reformist trade union utilize establish united work class socialdemocrat instance demand work unemployed abolition law restrict municipal selfgovernment demand concrete locality district fight carry hand hand socialdemocratic organization actual realization socialdemocratic party thunder general term agent fascism state apparatus proper thing particular district drag light day particular local fascist spokesman social democratic worker demand removal government employ belgium leader socialdemocratic party emile vandervelde head enter coalition government success achieve thank lengthy extensive campaign main demand abolition emergency decree realization de man plan issue important precede government issue reactionary emergency decree extremely heavy burden work people expect repeal demand socialist party emergency decree repeal new government repeal single mollify somewhat emergency decree order sort token payment settlement generous promise belgian socialist leader like token dollar european power proffer usa payment million war debt regard realization widely advertized de man plan matter take turn unexpected social democratic masse socialist minister announce economic crisis overcome provision de man plan carry effect improve position industrial capitalist bank possible adopt measure improve condition worker long worker wait share benefit promise de man plan belgian banker veritable shower gold belgian franc devalue cent manipulation banker able pocket million franc spoil expense wage earner saving small depositor tally content de man plan believe letter plan promise prosecute monopolist abuse speculative manipulation basis de man plan government appoint commission supervise bank commission consist banker gaily lightheartedly supervise de man plan promise number good thing short working day standardization wage minimum wage organization allembracing system social insurance great convenience living condition new housing construction forth demand communist support labor organization belgium capitalist receive let demand socialdemocratic minister carry promise worker let united successful defense interest minister vandervelde support demand behalf worker contain platform tell frankly demand seriously want action word rally hundred thousand worker struggle demand country have socialdemocratic government communist utilize appropriate individual demand take platform socialdemocratic minister starting point achieve joint action socialdemocratic party organization easily develop campaign establishment united basis mass demand struggle capitalist offensive fascism threat war bear mind general joint action socialdemocratic party organization require communist substantiate criticism social democracy ideology practice class collaboration bourgeoisie untiring comradely explanation socialdemocratic worker program slogan communism country have socialdemocratic government task particular importance struggle united comrade important stage consolidation united establishment national international trade union unity know splitting tactic reformist leader apply virulently trade union reason clear policy class collaboration bourgeoisie find practical culmination directly factory detriment vital interest work class course give rise sharp criticism resistance revolutionary worker leadership communist struggle communism reformism rage fiercely trade union difficult complicated situation capitalism reactionary policy leader amsterdam trade union international federation trade union iftu base amsterdam aggressive measure opposition element trade union establishment fascist dictatorship germany intensify capitalist offensive capitalist country fail diminish aggressiveness characteristic fact disgraceful circular issue expulsion communist revolutionary worker trade union great britain holland belgium sweden great britain circular issue prohibit local branch trade union join antiwar revolutionary organization prelude notorious black circular trade union congress general council outlaw trade council admit delegate directly indirectly associate communist organization leave say leadership german trade union apply unprecedented repressive measure revolutionary element trade union base tactic behavior individual leader amsterdam union matter difficultie behavior cause class struggle primarily question masse worker find openly declare work trade union vital question work communist party bring real change well trade union work question struggle trade union unity central issue ignore urge worker join trade union face difficulty work amsterdam union comrade decide pass complicated task invariably speak organizational crisis amsterdam union worker desert union fail notice decline beginning world economic crisis union later begin grow peculiarity trade union movement precisely fact attack bourgeoisie trade union right attempt number country coordinate trade union poland hungary etc curtailment social insurance cutting wage force worker notwithstanding lack resistance reformist trade union leader rally closely union worker want want trade union militant champion vital class interest explain fact amsterdam union france czechoslovakia belgium holland switzerland sweden etc grow membership year american federation labor considerably increase membership past year german comrade well understand problem trade union work comrade thaelmann speak occasion undoubtedly well situation trade union case time fascist dictatorship establish end percent party member belong free trade union spite fact sixth congress comintern communists take lead number strike comrade write press need assign cent force work trade union reality activity concentrate exclusively revolutionary trade union opposition actually seek replace trade union period hitler seizure power year comrade stubbornly systematically oppose correct slogan fighting reestablishment free union cite similar example capitalist country achievement credit struggle trade union unity european country mind little austria initiative communist party basis create illegal trade union movement february battle socialdemocrat otto bauer head issue watchword free union reestablish downfall fascism communist apply task reestablish trade union phase work bit live united austrian proletariat successful reestablishment free trade union underground condition blow fascism socialdemocrat parting way try negotiate government see success create parallel illegal trade union road capitulation fascism trade union unity joint struggle fascism mass pressure waver leadership parallel union create trade union leader decide agree amalgamation basis amalgamation irreconcilable struggle offensive capitalism fascism guarantee trade union democracy welcome fact amalgamation trade union kind formal split trade union war international importance france united unquestionably serve mighty impetus achieve trade union unity leader general confederation labor hamper hamper way realization unity counter main issue class policy trade union raise issue subordinate secondary formal character unquestionable success struggle trade union unity establishment single union local scale embrace case railroad worker instance approximately threequarter membership trade union definitely reestablishment trade union unity country international scale union industry federation trade union country single international federation trade union organize industry stand international trade union base class struggle united class trade union major bulwark work class offensive capital fascism condition unite trade union struggle capital fascism internal trade union democracy time wait question trade union unity national international scale question great task unite class mighty single trade union organization class enemy welcome fact eve day year red international labor union approach amsterdam international proposal consider jointly question term method form unite world trade union movement leader amsterdam international reject proposal outworn pretext unity trade union movement possible amsterdam international way include trade union european country communist work trade union continue struggle tirelessly unity trade union movement task red trade union rilu power hasten achievement joint struggle trade union offensive capital fascism bring unity trade union movement despite stubborn resistance reactionary leader amsterdam international red trade union rilu receive unstinted support line country small red trade union exist recommend work inclusion big reformist union demand right defend view reinstatement expel member country big red trade union exist parallel big reformist trade union work convening unity congress basis platform struggle capitalist offensive guarantee trade union democracy state categorically communist worker revolutionary worker belong mass trade union industry fight transform reformist trade union real class trade union organization fight trade union unity basis class struggle communist worker revolutionary worker discharge elementary proletarian duty comrade point role play victory fascism enlistment youth fascist organization speak youth state frankly neglect task draw masse work youth struggle offensive capital fascism danger war neglect task number country underestimate enormous importance youth fight fascism take account special economic political cultural interest youth likewise pay proper attention revolutionary education youth utilize cleverly fascism country particularly germany inveigle large section youth antiproletarian road bear mind glamor militarism fascism entice youth feed clothe detachment give work set socalle cultural institution youth try way imbue idea want feed clothe teach provide work mass work youth number capitalist country young communist league mainly sectarian organization divorce masse fundamental weakness try copy communist party copy form method work forget ycl communist party youth sufficient account fact organization special task method form work education struggle adapt actual level need youth young communist show memorable example heroism fight fascist violence bourgeois reaction lack ability win masse youth away hostile influence dint stubborn concrete work evident fact overcome opposition work fascist mass organization approach socialist youth noncommunist youth correct great responsibility bear course communist party ought lead support ycl work problem youth ycl problem problem communist movement struggle youth communist party ycl organization effect genuine decisive change main task communist youth movement capitalist country advance boldly direction bring united path organize rally young generation work people tremendous influence step take direction exert revolutionary movement youth show example france united states recent past sufficient country proceed apply united considerable success immediately achieve sphere international united successful initiative committee war fascism paris bring international cooperation nonfascist youth organization worthy note connection recent successful step united movement youth form united youth assume stereotype necessarily meet practice communist party young communist league strive way unite force nonfascist mass organization youth include formation kind common organization struggle fascism unprecedented manner youth strip right militarization youth economic cultural right young generation order draw young worker antifascist matter factory force labor camp labor exchange army barrack fleet school sport cultural organization develop strengthen ycl ycl member work formation antifascist association communist socialist youth league platform class struggle comrade work work woman woman worker unemployed woman peasant woman housewife underestimate work youth fascism exact youth enslave woman particular ruthlessness cynicism play innermost feeling mother housewife single work woman uncertain morrow fascism pose benefactor throw starve family beggarly scarps try way stifle bitterness arouse particularly work woman unprecedented slavery fascism bring drive work woman industry forcibly send needy girl country doom position unpaid servant rich farmer landlord promise woman happy home family life drive woman prostitution capitalist regime communist woman communist remember successful fight fascism war wide masse woman draw struggle agitation accomplish taking account concrete situation instance find way mobilize mass woman work vital interest demandsin fight demand high price high wage basis principle equal pay equal work mass dismissal manifestation inequality status woman fascist enslavement endeavor draw woman work revolutionary movement afraid form separate women organization purpose necessary preconceived notion women organization communist party leadership capitalist country abolish struggle women separatism labor movement great harm simple flexible form seek establish contact joint struggle revolutionary socialdemocratic progressive antiwar antifascist women organization spare pain woman worker work woman general fight shoulder shoulder class brother rank united workingclass antifascist people change international internal situation lend exceptional importance question antiimperialist unite colonial semicolonial country form broad antiimperialist united struggle colony semicolonie necessary recognize variety condition antiimperialist struggle masse proceed vary degree maturity national liberation movement role proletariat influence communist party masse brazil problem differ india china country brazil communist party having lay correct foundation development united antiimperialist establishment national liberation alliance effort extend draw foremost million peasantry lead formation unit people revolutionary army completely devote revolution establishment government national liberation alliance india communists support extend participate antiimperialist mass activity exclude national reformist leadership maintain political organizational independence carry active work inside organization indian national congress facilitate process crystallization national revolutionary wing purpose develop national liberation movement indian people british imperialism china people movement lead formation soviet district considerable territory country organization powerful red army predatory offensive japanese imperialism treason nanking government bring jeopardy national existence great chinese people chinese soviets act unifying center struggle enslavement partition china imperialist unifying center rally antiimperialist force national defense chinese people approve initiative take courageous brother party china creation extensive antiimperialist united japanese imperialism chinese agent jointly organize force exist territory china ready wage real struggle salvation country people sure express sentiment thought entire congress say send warm fraternal greeting revolutionary proletariat world soviet china chinese revolutionary people send ardent fraternal greeting heroic red army china try thousand battle assure chinese people firm resolve support struggle complete liberation imperialist robber chinese henchman comrade take bold resolute course united work class ready carry consistency communist ask advocate united fight partial demand prepared share responsibility question form government basis united sense responsibility yes recognize situation arise formation government proletarian united antifascist people possible necessary case shall advocate formation government slight hesitation speak government form victory proletarian revolution impossible course country immediately revolutionary overthrow bourgeoisie form government basis government bloc communist party certain party left wing participate revolution october revolution victorious party russian bolsheviks know include representative left socialistrevolutionarie soviet government specific feature soviet government victory october revolution speak case possible formation united government eve victory revolution kind government situation question government primarily government struggle fascism reaction government arise result united movement way restrict activity communist party mass organization work class contrary take resolute measure counterrevolutionary financial magnate fascist agent suitable moment rely grow united movement communist party give country advocate formation government basis definite antifascist platform objective condition possible form government general term reply question follow condition political crisis rule class long able cope powerful rise mass antifascist movement general perspective scarcely possible practice form united government existence certain special prerequisite agenda question form government politically essential task follow prerequisite deserve great attention connection state apparatus bourgeoisie sufficiently disorganize paralyze bourgeoisie prevent formation government struggle reaction fascism second wide masse work people particularly mass trade union state vehement revolt fascism reaction ready rise insurrection fight communist party leadership establishment fully socialist government differentiation radicalization rank socialdemocracy party participate united reach point considerable proportion demand ruthless measure fascist reactionary fight communist fascism openly oppose reactionary section party hostile communism country situation actually arise prerequisite present sufficient degree impossible state advance possibility rule capitalist country reckon orient prepare orient work class accordingly fact bring question discussion today course connect estimate situation immediate prospect actual growth united movement number country recent past year situation capitalist country necessary communist international discuss question kind remember comrade fourth congress fifth congress question slogan worker worker peasant government discussion originally issue turn essentially question comparable discuss today debate take place time communist international question particular political error commit connection day retain importance sharpen vigilance danger deviation right leave bolshevik line question shall briefly point error order draw lesson necessary present policy party series mistake arise fact question worker government clearly firmly bind existence political crisis owe right opportunist able interpret matter strive formation worker government support communist party speak normal situation ultraleft hand recognize worker government form armed insurrection overthrow bourgeoisie view wrong order avoid repetition mistake lie great stress exact consideration specific concrete circumstance political crisis upsurge mass movement formation united government prove possible politically necessary second series error arise fact question worker government bind development militant mass united movement proletariat right opportunist able distort question reduce unprincipled tactic form bloc socialdemocratic party basis purely parliamentary combination ultraleft contrary shriek coalition counterrevolutionary socialdemocrat consider socialdemocrat essentially counterrevolutionary wrong emphasize hand anxious worker government enlarged socialdemocratic government prefer use term worker government speak united government political character absolutely different different principle socialdemocratic government usually worker labor government socialdemocratic government instrument class collaboration bourgeoisie interest preservation capitalist order united government instrument collaboration revolutionary vanguard proletariat antifascist party interest entire work population government struggle fascism reaction obviously radical difference thing hand stress need difference different camp socialdemocracy point reactionary camp socialdemocracy alongside exist grow camp left socialdemocrat quotation mark worker revolutionary practice decisive difference consist attitude united work class reactionary socialdemocrat united slander united movement sabotage disintegrate undermine policy compromise bourgeoisie left socialdemocrat united defend develop strengthen united movement inasmuch united movement militant movement fascism reaction constant driving force impel united government struggle reactionary bourgeoisie powerful mass movement great force government combat reactionary well mass movement organize wide network nonparty class organ united factory unemployed worker district people town country great guarantee possible degeneration policy united government series mistaken view come light debate touch precisely practical policy worker government right opportunist consider worker government ought framework bourgeois democracy consequently ought step go framework ultraleft hand practice refuse attempt form united government saxony thuringia present clear picture right opportunist worker government action entry communist worker government saxony jointly left socialdemocrat ziegner group mistake contrary revolutionary situation germany fully justify step take government communist position primarily purpose arm proletariat requisition single apartment rich housing shortage worker great wife child roof head organize revolutionary mass movement worker behave general like ordinary parliamentary minister framework bourgeois democracy know result opportunist policy brandler adherent result bankruptcy day refer government saxony classical example revolutionary behave office comrade demand entirely different policy united government demand carry definite fundamental revolutionary demand require situation instance control production control bank disband police replacement armed worker militia etc year ago lenin call focus attention search form transition approach proletariat revolution number country united government prove important transitional form leave doctrinaire avoid precept lenin like narrowminded propagandist speak aim worry form transition right opportunist hand try establish special democratic intermediate stage lie dictatorship bourgeoisie dictatorship proletariat purpose instill worker illusion peaceful parliamentary passage dictatorship fictitious intermediate stage call transitional form quote lenin word piece swindling difficult expose lenin speak form transition approach proletarian revolution overthrow bourgeois dictatorship transitional form bourgeois proletarian dictatorship lenin attach exceptionally great importance form transition proletarian revolution mind fundamental law great revolution law masse propaganda agitation place political experience question attract broad masse work people revolutionary vanguard victorious struggle power impossible common mistake leftist character imagine soon political revolutionary crisis arise communist leader forth slogan revolutionary insurrection broad masse follow crisis masse mean ready see case spain help million master rapidly possible experience find radical solution party worthy confidence purpose transitional slogan special form transition approach proletarian revolution necessary great mass people influence petty bourgeois democratic illusion tradition waver revolutionary situation procrastinate stray find road revolution come ax fascist executioner indicate possibility form antifascist united government condition political crisis far government prosecute struggle enemy people free hand work class communist party communist shall accord unstinted support soldier revolution shall place line fire state frankly masse final salvation government bring position overthrow class rule exploiter reason finally remove danger fascist counterrevolution consequently necessary prepare socialist revolution estimate present development world situation political crisis mature number country make firm decision congress question united government matter great urgency importance party able utilize bolshevik fashion opportunity form united government wage struggle formation maintenance power government revolutionary training masse good political justification policy favor formation united government weak aspect antifascist struggle party react inadequately slowly demagogy fascism day continue neglect problem struggle fascist ideology comrade believe reactionary brand bourgeois ideology ideology fascism stupidity frequently reach point lunacy able gain mass influence mistake putrefaction capitalism penetrate innermost core ideology culture desperate situation wide masse people render certain section susceptible infection ideological refuse putrefaction circumstance underrate fascism power ideological infection contrary develop extensive ideological struggle base clear popular argument correct think approach peculiarity national psychology masse people fascist rummage entire history nation able pose heir continuator exalt heroic past degrading offensive national sentiment people use weapon enemy fascism hundred book publish germany aim falsify history german people fascist complexion newbake national socialist historian try depict history germany past thousand year virtue historical law certain line development run like red thread lead appearance historical scene national savior messiah german people certain corporal austrian extraction book great figure german people past represent having fascist great peasant movement set direct precursor fascist movement mussolini utmost capital heroic figure garibaldi french fascist bring fore heroine joan arc american fascist appeal tradition american war independence tradition washington lincoln bulgarian fascist use nationalliberation movement seventy hero belove people vassil levsky stephan karaj communist suppose cause work class enlighten masse past people historically correct fashion genuinely marxistleninist spirit link present struggle people revolutionary tradition past voluntarily hand fascist falsifier valuable historical past nation fascist fool masse comrade concerned important question present future past people communist pursue narrow policy base craft interest worker narrowminded trade union functionary leader medieval guild handicraftsman journeyman representative class interest important great class modern societythe work class destiny fall free mankind suffering capitalist system class onesixth world cast yoke capitalism constitute rule class defend vital interest exploit toil strata overwhelming majority capitalist country communist irreconcilable opponent principle bourgeois nationalism form supporter national nihilism act task educate worker work people spirit proletarian internationalism fundamental task communist party think permit compel sneer national sentiment broad masse work people far genuine bolshevik understand teaching lenin national question lenin fight bourgeois nationalism resolutely consistently give example correct approach problem national sentiment article national pride great russians write write classconscious greatrussian proletarian impervious feeling national pride certainly love language motherland group work raise labor masse ie ninetenth population level intelligent democrat socialist anybody grieve feel violence oppression mockery beautiful motherland subject tsarist hangmen noble capitalist proud fact act violence meet resistance midst midst great russians midst bring forth radischev decembrist intellectual revolutionary seventy greatrussian work class create powerful revolutionary party masse fill national pride knowledge greatrussian nation create revolutionary class prove capable give humanity great example struggle freedom socialism contribution confine solely great pogrom numerous scaffold torture chamber severe famine abject servility priest tsar landowner capitalist fill national pride particularly hate slavish past slavish present landowner aid capitalist lead war stifle poland ukraine throttle democratic movement persia china strengthen gang romanovs bobrinskis puriskeviche cover shame greatrussian national dignity v lenin collect work lenin write national pride think comrade reichstag fire trial fascist try slander bulgarian barbarous people wrong take defense national honor work masse bulgarian people struggle heroically fascist usurper real barbarian savage wrong declare cause ashamed bulgarian contrary proud son heroic bulgarian work class comrade proletarian internationalism speak acclimatize country order strike deep root native land national form proletarian class struggle labor movement individual country contradiction proletarian internationalism contrary precisely form international interest proletariat successfully defend go say necessary occasion expose masse prove concretely fascist bourgeoisie pretext defend general national interest conduct selfish policy oppress exploit people rob enslave nation confine time prove struggle work class action communist party proletariat rise manner bondage national oppression true fighter national freedom independence people interest class struggle proletariat native exploiter oppressor contradiction interest free happy future nation contrary socialist revolution signify salvation nation open road lofty height fact build present time class organization consolidate position fact defend democratic right liberty fascism fact fight overthrow capitalism work class fight future nation revolutionary proletariat fight save culture people liberate shackle decay monopoly capitalism barbarous fascism lay violent hand proletarian revolution avert destruction culture raise high flowering truly national culture national form socialist content realize union soviet socialist republic eye proletarian internationalism contradiction struggle work people individual country national social cultural freedom thank international proletarian solidarity fight unity assure support necessary victory struggle work class capitalist country triumph close alliance victorious proletariat great soviet union struggle hand hand proletariat imperialist country colonial people oppress national minority achieve freedom sole road victory proletarian revolution imperialist country lie revolutionary alliance work class imperialist country nationalliberation movement colony dependent country marx teach nation free oppress nation communist belong oppressed dependent nation combat chauvinism successfully people nation time practice mass movement actually struggle liberation nation alien yoke hand communist oppress nation necessary educate work masse nation spirit internationalism wage resolute struggle oppressor policy bourgeoisie right complete selfdetermination nation keep bondage likewise easy work people oppress nation overcome nationalist prejudice act spirit mass work prove convincingly free national nihilism bourgeois nationalism shall able wage successful struggle jingo demagogy fascist reason correct practical application leninist national policy paramount importance unquestionably essential preliminary condition successful struggle chauvinism main instrument ideological influence fascist masse comrade struggle establish united importance leading role communist party increase extraordinarily communist party initiator organizer drive force united work class communist party ensure mobilization broad masse work people united struggle fascism offensive capital strengthen rank respect develop initiative pursue marxistleninist policy apply correct flexible tactic account actual situation alignment class force period sixth seventh congress party capitalist country undoubtedly grow stature considerably steel dangerous mistake rest content achievement united work class extend new complex problem arise necessary work political organizational consolidation party united proletariat bring fore army worker able carry mission army head lead force point aim path lead force strong proletarian revolutionary party communist exert effort establish united narrow purpose recruit new member communist party strengthen communist party way increase membership reason seriously want strengthen united strengthening communist party narrow party concern concern entire work class unity revolutionary solidarity fight preparedness communist party constitute valuable capital belong work class combine shall continue combine readiness march jointly socialdemocratic party organization struggle fascism irreconcilable struggle socialdemocracy ideology practice compromise bourgeoisie consequently penetration ideology rank boldly resolutely carry policy united meet rank obstacle remove cost short possible time sixth congress communist international successful struggle wage communist party capitalist country tendency opportunist adaptation condition capitalist stabilization infection reformist legalist illusion party purge rank kind right opportunist strengthen bolshevik unity fighting capacity successful frequently entirely lacking fight sectarianism sectarianism long manifest primitive open form year existence communist international cover formal recognition bolshevik thesis hinder development bolshevik mass policy day long infantile disorder lenin write deeply rooted vice shake impossible solve problem establish united proletariat lead masse position reformism revolution present situation sectarianism selfsatisfie sectarianism designate draft resolution impede struggle realization united sectarianism satisfy doctrinaire narrowness divorce real life masse satisfied simplify method solve complex problem work class movement basis stereotype scheme sectarianism profess know consider superfluous learn masse lesson labor movement short sectarianism mountain mere steppingstone selfsatisfie sectarianism understand leadership work class communist party come lead role communist party struggle work class win purpose necessary rant lead role communist earn win confidence work masse everyday mass work correct policy possible political work communist seriously account actual level class consciousness masse degree revolutionize soberly appraise actual situation basis wish basis actual state affair patiently step step easy broad masse come communist position ought forget word lenin warn strongly possible point regard obsolete obsolete class obsolete masse v lenin leftwe communism infantile disorder new york pp collect work fact comrade rank doctrinaire element time place sense danger policy united comrade united unrelieved peril sectarian sticking principle political helplessness face difficulty directly lead struggle masse sectarianism find expression particularly overestimate revolutionization masse overestimate speed abandon position reformism attempt leap difficult stage complicated task movement practice method lead masse frequently replace method lead narrow party group strength traditional tieup masse organization leader underestimate masse break connection immediately attitude take harsh adopt reactionary leader tactic slogan tend stereotype country special feature actual situation individual country leave account necessity stubborn struggle midst masse win confidence ignore struggle partial demand worker work reformist trade union fascist mass organization neglect policy united frequently replace bare appeal abstract propaganda degree sectarian view hinder correct selection people training developing cadre connect masse enjoy confidence masse cadre revolutionary mettle try test class battle cadre capable combine practical experience mass work bolshevik staunchness principle sectarianism considerable extent retard growth communist party difficult carry real mass policy prevent taking advantage difficulty class enemy strengthen position revolutionary movement hinder winning broad masse proletariat communist party fight resolutely overcome exterminate remnant selfsatisfied sectarianism increase way vigilance right opportunism struggle concrete manifestation bear mind danger right opportunism increase proportion broad united develop tendency reduce role communist party rank united effect reconciliation socialdemocratic ideology lose sight fact tactic united method clearly convince socialdemocratic worker correctness communist policy incorrectness reformist policy reconciliation socialdemocratic ideology practice successful struggle establish united imperatively demand constant struggle rank tendency depreciate role party legalist illusion reliance spontaneity automatism liquidate fascism implement united slight vacillation moment decisive action comrade development united joint struggle communist socialdemocratic worker fascism offensive capital bring fore question political unity single political mass party work class social democratic worker convinced experience struggle class enemy demand unity political leadership inasmuch duality leadership impede development reinforcement joint struggle work class interest class struggle proletariat success proletarian revolution imperative single party proletariat country course easy simple achieve require stubborn work struggle bind lengthy process communist party base grow urge worker unification socialdemocratic party individual organization communist party firmly confidently initiative unification cause amalgamate force work class single revolutionary proletarian party time international labor movement enter period close split rank cause sufficient establishment united communist socialdemocratic party agreement fight fascism offensive capital war achievement political unity possible basis number certain condition involve principle unification possible follow condition explain socialdemocratic worker patiently comradely fashion political unity work class impossible condition discuss sense significance condition necessary realization political unity proletariat complete independence bourgeoisie rupture bloc socialdemocrat bourgeoisie experience labor movement particularly experience year coalition policy germany show policy class collaboration policy dependence bourgeoisie lead defeat work class victory fascism true road victory road irreconcilable class struggle bourgeoisie road bolsheviks unity action establish preliminary condition political unity unity action repel offensive capital fascism possible necessary majority worker unite common political platform overthrow capitalism working unity view main line aim struggle proletariat unification party impossible require extended period time unity view work good joint struggle class enemy today propose unite instead form united mean place cart horse imagine cart ahead precisely reason question political unity maneuver socialdemocratic leader insist realization unity action important stage struggle political unity necessary recognize necessity revolutionary overthrow bourgeoisie setting dictatorship proletariat form soviet power experience victory great october revolution hand bitter lesson learn germany austria spain entire postwar period confirm victory proletariat possible mean revolutionary overthrow bourgeoisie bourgeoisie drown labor movement sea blood allow proletariat establish socialism peaceful mean experience october revolution demonstrate patently basic content proletarian revolution question proletarian dictatorship call crush resistance overthrown exploiter arm revolution struggle imperialism lead revolution complete victory socialism achieve dictatorship proletariat dictatorship vast majority insignificant minority exploiter bring soviet need embrace section work class basic masse peasantry rest work people awakening inclusion revolutionary struggle victory proletariat consolidate refusal support bourgeoisie imperialist war condition political unity bourgeoisie wage imperialist war predatory purpose interest vast majority people guise war wage imperialist combine feverish preparation war extremely intensify exploitation oppression work people country support bourgeoisie war mean treason country international working class finally building party basis democratic centralism condition unity party build basis democratic centralism ensure unity purpose action lead proletariat victory bourgeoisie disposal powerful weapon centralized state apparatus application principle democratic centralism stand splendid historical test experience russian bolshevik party party lenin explain necessary strive political unity basis condition indicate political unity work class ready collaborate closely socialdemocrat united sincerely support unity abovementione principle precisely unity shall struggle resolutely leave demagogue try use disillusionment social democratic worker create new socialist party international direct communist movement deepen split work class welcome grow effort socialdemocratic worker united communist fact growth revolutionary consciousness beginning healing split work class opinion unity action press necessity true road establishment political unity proletariat declare communist international section ready enter negotiation second international section establishment unity work class struggle offensive capital fascism menace imperialist war comrade conclude report take account change situation sixth congress lesson struggle rely degree consolidation achieve raise number question today new way primarily question united approach socialdemocracy reformist trade union mass organization wiseacre sense digression basic position sort turn right straight line bolshevism country bulgaria hungry hen dream millet let political chicken think interest little important party broad masse world correctly understand strive revolutionary marxist leninist worthy pupil marx engel lenin suitably reconstruct policy tactic accordance change situation change occur world labor movement real revolutionary learn experience experience masse want party capitalist country come act real political party work class actual fact political factor life country pursue time active bolshevik mass policy confine propaganda criticism bare appeal struggle proletarian dictatorship enemy cutanddrie scheme want account concrete situation moment place act accord fix stereotype form forget vary circumstance position communist identical want soberly account stage development class struggle growth class consciousness masse able locate solve stage concrete problem revolutionary movement correspond stage want find common language broad masse purpose struggle class enemy find way finally overcome isolation revolutionary vanguard masse proletariat work people overcome fatal isolation work class natural ally struggle bourgeoisie fascism want draw increasingly wide masse revolutionary class struggle lead proletarian revolution proceed vital interest need starting point experience basis follow example glorious russian bolsheviks example lead party communist international communist party soviet union want combine revolutionary heroism german spanish austrian communist genuine revolutionary realism end remnant scholastic tinkering political question want equip party angle solution highly complex political problem confront purpose want raise high theoretical level train spirit live marxismleninism fossilize doctrinairism want eradicate rank selfsatisfie sectarianism block road masse impede carrying truly bolshevik mass policy want intensify way struggle concrete manifestation right opportunism bear mind danger arise precisely course carry mass policy struggle want communist country promptly draw apply lesson draw experience revolutionary vanguard proletariat want quickly possible learn sail turbulent water class struggle remain shore observer registrar surge wave expectation fine weather want want way work class head work people weld millionstrong revolutionary army lead communist international able fulfil historical mission certainty sweep fascism face earth capitalism close report delegate join lengthy ovation cheer enthusiastically singe revolutionary song country moratorium deferment suspension payment usually extraordinary circumstance war pestilence natural calamity etc hitler win middle small peasant masse proclaim moratorium debt state beginning rule fail fulfil promise tsarist okhrana gendarme institution tsarist russia set police department combat revolutionary movement dissolve february bourgeois democratic revolution autumn reactionary government seipel president christiansocial party agent big business landowner vatican conclude pact german national party establishment government socalled antimarxist comprise reactionary force struggle worker movement refer program adopt congress socialdemocratic party linz schutzbund socialdemocratic paramilitary organization austria socialdemocratic government braun sever rule prussia pursue policy inimical communist party work masse suppress red mass organization police force smash action proletariat form armed force bourgeoisie von papen organize coup détat prussia july overthrow socialdemocratic government braun sever armed force disposal ignominiously capitulate leader german socialdemocratic party reichsbanner union imperial banner paramilitary socialdemocratic mass organization germany pretext second revolution overthrow hitler prepare eve june entire leadership sa organization storm troop arrest chief commander include minister röhm head sa shoot spot operation conduct personal direction hitler münich göre berlin thousand commander arrest sa temporarily dissolve radically purge reorganize hitler force measure direct pressure big business end demagogic propaganda second revolution destroy petty bourgeois advocate sa stronnictwo ludowe people party democratic agrarian party poland defend interest mainly welltodo peasant head general strike peasant masse august pressure local peasant organization kraft durch freude strength joy mass fascist organization nazi germany aim fascization worker training future soldier dopo lavoro work organization italy similar kraft durch freude de man leader socialdemocratic party belgium order draft socalled plan de man envisage peaceful transition socialism adopt official party program end nationalliberation alliance mass antifascist organization form beginning brazil progressive political party organization head communist party defeat armed struggle reaction november dimitrov work archive | 52 |
Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From Fourth International, Vol.12 No.1, January-February 1951, pp.13-14. Transcription & mark-up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. The following editorial translated from the current issue of Quatrième Internationale, the theoretical review of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International published in Paris, deals with the broad historical perspectives arising from the Korean crisis. We publish it as a timely contribution to the discussion of the Asian revolution and its relation to the USA-USSR conflict, to which this issue of our magazine is largely devoted. – Editor. * * * Human thought, even at its most profound, is able to follow reality all too tardily and can hardly grasp all at once the whole of the infinitely rich and complex development of life itself. When history steps up its tempo of evolution, when this evolution does not proceed along a straight line but is rather choppy, full of abrupt turns and constantly confronting us with new situations, even revolutionary Marxists find it difficult, in their generalizations and theoretical forecasts, to seize all the twists of the actual historic process and the full wealth and originality of its content. The times in which we live, the whole period opened up in the course of the Second World War and its aftermath, serve as a first-rate illustration of this. To be sure, we sensed the new and altogether unique character of this period compared with the whole past of capitalism. We were even the only ones to express and correctly define a series of fundamental characteristics of this period. But new events have constantly enlarged the historic scene, deepened its meaning and better illuminated its significance for us. Only superficial, ridiculously near-sighted and limited minds can reproach us for abruptly changing our orientation and our tactics, for dropping from our ideological equipment! outmoded concepts which no longer correspond to the new reality, for adjusting our line to new conditions. We have done so to the extent that events themselves demand from us a wider and deeper understanding of the period we are living through, which is marked by swift and abrupt developments. The Korean war was one of those events which suddenly reveal to the consciousness of revolutionists a whole series of changes that have entered into the situation but which were previously ignored by them or remained in the background of their minds. It was one of those events which can aid us to correct and render, more precise our revolutionary orientation. In this editorial we shall confine ourselves to bringing forward and stressing these fundamental modifications and their consequences. The war in Korea has clarified the question of the relationship of forces between imperialism and the forces opposed to it in a far more vivid light by demonstrating that this relationship of forces is at present evolving to the disadvantage of imperialism. This is caused by the weight of the colonial revolution in Asia which is proving more deep-going and more decisive than anyone anticipated. The effects of this revolution fundamentally alter the conditions of stability and survival for the capitalist system in the whole world. This colonial revolution has also had its impact on another and no less fundamental plane. By giving birth to a number of independent countries, and especially to the regime of Mao Tse-tung in China, it has introduced new factors in international politics, including the politics of that power bloc which has been led by the Kremlin. The same holds for the world labor movement. The future development of China, raised to the rank of a major world power by its revolutionary intervention in the Korean war, will have a considerable and perhaps decisive influence on the question of a new world war, on the time of its outbreak, as well as on its outcome. It will have a similar influence on the further evolution of Stalinism. The war in Korea has, furthermore, given a much more precise and clearer meaning to the Marxist concepts of peace, war and revolution and to their interrelationships, as well as to the strategy and tactics of the proletarian revolution. The Korean war which is at one and the same time a civil war and an anti-imperialist war, a revolutionary war, provides a striking illustration of the nature of wars and revolutions in the imperialist epoch as defined by Lenin. In our time wars and revolutions succeed one another and become more and more closely combined to the extent that the relationship of forces between imperialism and the opposing revolutionary elements changes in favor of the latter. The new idea particularly illuminated by the war in Korea is this: that the war, that every war waged at the present time by imperialism, is at bottom a war against the Revolution, and that a war launched, within the present relationship of forces becomes swiftly transformed into an international civil war, into a revolution. Does that mean that this kind of war is to be desired? That it should be called for? That we must ignore and override the profound fears of war anchored in the hearts of millions of people throughout the world? To pose the question in this manner would show a complete lack of understanding for a situation which is developing outside of us, independent of our desires and our fears; and confuse a Marxist analysis, aimed at enlightening the vanguard, with the program designed to arouse the masses to revolutionary action. The revolutionary vanguard must be alert to the concrete conditions in which the struggle for socialism is unfolding at present. These conditions are those of the entire epoch and of the present period of wars and revolutions which have become interlinked to so great a degree that “peace” is nothing but a brief interval, limited in space as well as in time, between two phases of a convulsive process that is fundamentally explosive and revolutionary. The peace for which the masses, who are terrified or tired of struggle, rightfully aspire, can come only after the culmination of the contradictions which impress their character upon this period. That kind of peace can come only through the victory of socialism on a world scale. Pacifism was never characteristic of revolutionary Marxists, not because Marxists have any fondness for warlike sentiments, but because pacifism constantly runs counter to the entire course of contemporary reality. The choice is not between “peace” and war. It is between revolution and war. And even this counterposing of alternatives is only relative. The colonial masses of Asia who wanted to throw off the imperialist yoke after the Second World War, could attain this aim only by means of civil and anti-imperialist war. That has been the price of “peace” in Asia. As for the European proletariat which is at present disoriented and hemmed in between “Atlantic” capitalism and the dreaded perspective of Russian occupation in case of war between the two blocs, “peace” for them can only mean a neutrality with one of the two following alternatives: But such an eventuality would not be possible without severe struggle and civil war, and would very likely involve war as such against interventions by American imperialism as well as by the Soviet bureaucracy, both of whom would be interested in seeing that experiment fail. Thus the most probable and the most realistic historic combination is counterposed to the concepts of “peace” and of “war,” each regarded separately or as one of two poles of an alternative. It is that of Revolution-War, that is, of revolution which is extended into war or of war which becomes transformed into revolution. These transformations are directly related to the extreme sharpness that the contradictions and the large-scale collapse of the capitalist regime have resulted in. Revolution, either before or along with a war, is on the order of the day, and nothing else. This revolution is more permanent than ever before in history. Permanent in the sense that the struggle begun by the colonial masses against their ruling classes and against imperialism, by the proletariat against capitalism, by imperialism against the USSR, can no longer be halted. It will become deeper and wider, increasing its pace, embracing ever new forces, breaking down all equilibria, carrying off in its torrential sweep the foundation stones of all the decayed institutions and regimes, up to the moment of the final victory of world socialism. Stalinism, in its turn, in spite of episodic successes here and there, will likewise disintegrate during this whole period, which will be the most revolutionary known to history. These perspectives do not settle all our tactical problems. They are nevertheless necessary. For the revolutionary vanguard, in order to orient itself correctly and to hold firm, has to raise itself to a certain historical level which brings adequate theoretical understanding. This is needed as an antidote to the lamentations of those petty-bourgeois preachers who predict the end of the universe resulting either from the war itself, as some view it, or, according to others, from the Stalinist domination of the world. Top of page Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on: 23 March 2009 | left | main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive fourth international januaryfebruary transcription markup einde etol follow editorial translate current issue quatrième internationale theoretical review international executive committee fourth international publish paris deal broad historical perspective arise korean crisis publish timely contribution discussion asian revolution relation usaussr conflict issue magazine largely devoted editor human thought profound able follow reality tardily hardly grasp infinitely rich complex development life history step tempo evolution evolution proceed straight line choppy abrupt turn constantly confront new situation revolutionary marxist find difficult generalization theoretical forecast seize twist actual historic process wealth originality content time live period open course second world war aftermath serve firstrate illustration sure sense new altogether unique character period compare past capitalism one express correctly define series fundamental characteristic period new event constantly enlarge historic scene deepen meaning well illuminate significance superficial ridiculously nearsighte limited mind reproach abruptly change orientation tactic drop ideological equipment outmoded concept long correspond new reality adjust line new condition extent event demand wide deep understanding period live mark swift abrupt development korean war event suddenly reveal consciousness revolutionist series change enter situation previously ignore remain background mind event aid correct render precise revolutionary orientation editorial shall confine bring forward stress fundamental modification consequence war korea clarify question relationship force imperialism force oppose far vivid light demonstrate relationship force present evolve disadvantage imperialism cause weight colonial revolution asia prove deepgoing decisive anticipate effect revolution fundamentally alter condition stability survival capitalist system world colonial revolution impact fundamental plane give birth number independent country especially regime mao tsetung china introduce new factor international politic include politic power bloc lead kremlin hold world labor movement future development china raise rank major world power revolutionary intervention korean war considerable decisive influence question new world war time outbreak outcome similar influence evolution stalinism war korea furthermore give precise clear meaning marxist concept peace war revolution interrelationship strategy tactic proletarian revolution korean war time civil war antiimperialist war revolutionary war provide striking illustration nature war revolution imperialist epoch define lenin time war revolution succeed closely combine extent relationship force imperialism opposing revolutionary element change favor new idea particularly illuminate war korea war war wage present time imperialism war revolution war launch present relationship force swiftly transform international civil war revolution mean kind war desire call ignore override profound fear war anchor heart million people world pose question manner complete lack understanding situation develop outside independent desire fear confuse marxist analysis aim enlighten vanguard program design arouse masse revolutionary action revolutionary vanguard alert concrete condition struggle socialism unfold present condition entire epoch present period war revolution interlinked great degree peace brief interval limit space time phase convulsive process fundamentally explosive revolutionary peace masse terrified tired struggle rightfully aspire come culmination contradiction impress character period kind peace come victory socialism world scale pacifism characteristic revolutionary marxist marxist fondness warlike sentiment pacifism constantly run counter entire course contemporary reality choice peace war revolution war counterposing alternative relative colonial masse asia want throw imperialist yoke second world war attain aim mean civil antiimperialist war price peace asia european proletariat present disorient hem atlantic capitalism dread perspective russian occupation case war blocs peace mean neutrality follow alternative eventuality possible severe struggle civil war likely involve war intervention american imperialism soviet bureaucracy interested see experiment fail probable realistic historic combination counterpose concept peace war regard separately pole alternative revolutionwar revolution extend war war transform revolution transformation directly relate extreme sharpness contradiction largescale collapse capitalist regime result revolution war order day revolution permanent history permanent sense struggle begin colonial masse rule class imperialism proletariat capitalism imperialism ussr long halt deep wide increase pace embrace new force break equilibrium carry torrential sweep foundation stone decayed institution regime moment final victory world socialism stalinism turn spite episodic success likewise disintegrate period revolutionary know history perspective settle tactical problem necessary revolutionary vanguard order orient correctly hold firm raise certain historical level bring adequate theoretical understanding need antidote lamentation pettybourgeois preacher predict end universe result war view accord stalinist domination world page main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update march | 53 |
IMR Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From Irish Marxists Review, Vol. 2 No. 6, June 2013, pp. 70–78. Copyright © Irish Marxist Review. A PDF of this article is available here. The links have been slightly modified and checked (May 2020). Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the ETOL. By now the Large Hadron Collider or LHC and the Higgs boson have become big news. Countless newspaper articles over the past year or so have tried to keep their readers up to date on the progress towards finding the so-called ‘God particle’. Despite the acres of newsprint [1] and millions of web pages [2] how many of us actually have a real grasp of what is going on in the tunnels below the Swiss-French border close to Geneva? Perhaps that is not surprising as the newspaper articles and webpages have attempted to explain the significance of the most advanced physics experiments that are being done with the most elaborate and complex machine ever built by humankind in a few short paragraphs. A couple of columns inches squeezed between the quarter page advertisements in a weekend supplement isn’t perhaps sufficient to give the non-physicist enough information to get more than a superficial grasp of what is being attempted and achieved scientifically or, more importantly, form an opinion as to the usefulness and worth of the biggest scientific experiment ever. Nevertheless the LHC and the Higgs Boson have become part of our culture and might also be described as household terms. Authors of popular fiction like Dan Browne have embraced the perceived weirdness of the physics being done at the LHC to create science fiction. In the novel Angels & Demons antimatter supposedly created in the LHC is used as a weapon against the Vatican. [3] The Irish crime novelist, John Connolly, has published two children’s novels [4] [5] in which the hero, a boy called Samuel Johnson and his dachshund, fight the forces of evil when the (not very bright) scientists running the LHC manage to unwittingly open the gates of Hell and release a horde of devils and demons to roam the Earth and create mayhem and havoc. On top of this, a YouTube video that shows a simulation of the earth being ‘swallowed’ into a black hole that some alarmists had predicted would be created when the LHC is running has had over nearly 5 million hits since it was posted in February 2008. [6] The video is a graphic illustration of the claim (made before the LHC went operational) that it would destroy the Earth and all humanity. The claims were widely reported in the period 2008–2010 and even led to legal challenges in USA and Europe attempting to prevent the operation of the LHC. [7] Meanwhile, less fanciful criticism has raised more serious questions about the benefit of the science being done at the LHC. The experiments carried out there have been criticised by some scientists who have argued that the huge sums of money that the LHC has cost could have been better spent on other projects. For example David King, former chief scientist in Britain, argued in 2008 that Britain should cease its contribution to CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research, the international organisation that operates the LHC and divert the resources to combating climate change instead. [8] In this article we will therefore attempt to explain in terms that everyone can understand both the technology involved at the LHC and the scientific significance of some of the experiments carried out there. The prime motive is to put before the reader some of the detail of how and why research like that done at the LHC has come about in order that they may make a more informed opinion as to its worth. We will also briefly discuss the costs and one or two arguments relating to the benefits of such research. It seems to the author that this is the bare minimum of information required for any democratic debate on such a subject. First and foremost it needs to be understood that the LHC is the largest and most complex machine ever built by humans. At its heart is a pair of vacuum tubes or pipes that are located in a ring-shaped tunnel that measure 27 km (more than 17 miles) in circumference. Subatomic particles are accelerated to almost the speed of light and travel around the rings guided by 1,600 huge superconducting electromagnets each weighing 27 tonnes. These magnets are cooled with liquid helium to a temperature of −271.3°C – colder than outer space – almost at absolute zero, the lowest theoretically possible temperature. The tunnel runs between 50 and 175 metres below ground level and crosses the border between Switzerland and France near Geneva where CERN is located. [9] The particles that are accelerated in the ring-shaped vacuum tubes reach speeds approaching the speed of light (99.99999%c – where c is the speed of light) and travel in one direction in one ring and in the other direction in the other one. The two rings cross at four places and so the particles going in opposite directions are made to collide at these four points where the rings intersect. These intersections are located in four huge underground caverns that house the detectors that are trying to record the outcomes of collisions of the particles. [10] The LHC is the latest and most power in a series of so-called particle accelerators that have been the workhorses of nuclear physics since the 1930s. In order to in vestigate the structure of the atom and probe the newly discovered atomic nucleus, scientists first accelerated charged particles at solid targets. In 1932, a British and an Irish scientist (John Cockroft and Ernest Walton) accelerated protons at a solid lithium target and observed that the protons caused the lithium nucleus to disintegrate and together with the proton form two helium nuclei. [11] They used high voltages to accelerate the protons and give them the necessary energy to break into the lithium nucleus and ultimately cause it to disintegrate. This experiment was hailed at the time by popular culture as the first ‘splitting of the atom’. [12] Perhaps more importantly Albert Einstein regarded the Cockroft and Walton experiment as the first experimental demonstration of his famous equation E = mc². [13] The apparatus they designed was the first particle accelerator and was of a type now known as a ‘linear accelerator’ because the particles are made to travel in a straight line by the application of a very high electrical voltage – up to 700,000 V in their case. It was largely built by the Irishman, Walton [14] and the technology they developed, the Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier, continues to be used today, not only in particle colliders such as the LHC, but also in many every day electronic devices that use very high voltages, such as X-ray machines and photocopiers. [15] Other physicists at the same time began to experiment with radio waves rather than high voltage as a means to accelerate charged particles and they also used magnets to bend the beams of particles so that they travelled in spirals. [16] In the 1940s others managed to construct a machine in which the particles were accelerated around a ring-shaped vacuum tube – a so-called ‘synchrotron’. [17] The synchrotron has two advantages for nuclear research. Firstly, the energy of the particles could be increased at every revolution around the ring by pumping in more energy by means of radio waves and secondly, two ‘beams’ of particles could be made to circle in opposite directions in two rings that intersected at one or more points. The particles could then be made to collide with enormous energy. Accelerators designed to make the particles collide are often referred to as ‘particle colliders’. Depending on the particles and the energy of the collision, the colliding particles were either caused to split apart into smaller particles or to combine to form new larger ones. By detecting and observing these collisions and their by-products scientists working over the intervening decades since Cockroft and Walton have used particle accelerators to discover the physics of the sub-atomic world. The LHC is the latest and most advanced of these particle accelerators and is, in fact, connected to a series of accelerators beginning with a linear accelerator (like Cockcroft and Walton’s) followed by a number of synchrotrons culminating with the largest ring of 27 km in circumference. What makes it so special is the huge energy that the particles attain in the final and largest of the rings. It currently accelerates protons to an energy of 3.5T eV (‘tera electron-volt’) which is equivalent to using a voltage of 3.5 thousand million volts. When two protons travelling in opposite directions in the two rings collide at one of the intersection points, the collision has an energy of 7T eV (3.5T eV from each proton). This energy is far larger than any achieved in previous colliders built anywhere in the world. [18] However, it is not yet running at full energy and it is planned to double the energy and achieve the design specification energy of 14T eV in 2014. [19] In any ring shaped accelerator the practical limit to the energy of the particles that can be attained is the magnetic field of the ‘bending magnets’. If the energy becomes too great or the magnet field is not strong enough, the particles fly too fast as they approach the corners and crash into the wall of the vacuum tube – just like a car travelling too fast fails to take a corner at high speed. So the designers of the LHC faced a huge engineering challenge in accelerating the particles to the design energies and still managing to keep them in the ring. They faced a choice to either make the ring of a really enormous diameter and use the magnet technology that was available at the end of the 20th century or to try to fit the ring into a pre-existing 27 km circumference tunnel that had been built for a previous accelerator – the LEP collider. To do this they had to develop suitable superconducting electromagnet technology to produce the enormous magnetic fields required to bend particles in a tight enough curve to fit inside the existing ring. Given the probable difficulties in building a ring of diameter of 60 km or 90 km circumference in a populous part of central Europe, they chose to use the existing 27 km long tunnel and develop a new generation of superconducting magnets that could produce high enough magnetic fields. [20] For comparison, it is interesting to note that a similar American project to build a collider near Dallas Texas – the ‘Superconducting Super Collider’ (SSC) – would have had even three times the energy of the LHC and would have required a ring that was also approximately three times larger diameter (approximately 80 km in circumference). The SSC project was cancelled in 1993 by the US Congress. [21] When we try to understand the research that is done at places like the LHC it is useful to first recall the state of our knowledge in the early part of the twentieth century when nuclear research began. The ideas about what makes up the universe were pretty much those which we all have since learnt in school. All matter seemed to be made from the so-called ‘elements’ [22] – over a hundred or so substances; mostly solids, a few liquid and some gasses that combine to form all other substances. The elements can be arranged according to their properties and are represented in the periodic table. The smallest unit of an element, a tiny particle far too small even to be seen with the best microscopes, the atom, was of course well known and was the limit of our knowledge up to about a hundred years ago. In 1932 with the discovery of the neutron [23] the internal structure of the atom itself was becoming clearer – at its centre is the positively charged nucleus which contained by far the lion’s share of the mass of the atom squeezed into a very small space. Together with the much tinier (negatively charged) electrons that orbit around the nucleus at relatively large distances it emerged that every atom – and therefore it was assumed all matter in the universe – was made up of a combination of just three sub-atomic particles: protons, neutrons and electrons. In addition to matter it was known that light and energy also exist and the picture seemed to be complete. The first question that the nuclear physicists turned their attention to was whether they could modify the nucleus in any way – in fact the first such successful experiment to do that had been carried out by Rutherford in Manchester in 1917 when he converted or ‘transmuted’ nitrogen into oxygen using alpha particles. However, a full explanation of the experiment was not then possible. So what are the results of over 80 years of intensive scientific research using particle accelerators to collide protons and other particles together? It is no exaggeration to say that the physics that has been discovered is incredible and beyond the fantasies of a thousand Dan Browns. Nuclear scientists have gone far beyond the goal of splitting a nucleus into its constituent parts or seeing if they can combine them into new arrangements to form new elements. All of this has of course been done and the world has learnt the consequences of splitting some nuclei and combining others and the release of energy that can go along with it in some cases. Nuclear weapons and nuclear power are not the subject of this article and deserve separate consideration. Instead we will concentrate on the revolutionary ideas that have been discovered by studying the results of colliding particles like the proton in accelerators with very high energy. Firstly, the most obvious question to address is: what makes up protons, neutrons and electrons? If the atom – once considered indivisible and the fundamental particle – is made up of the three subatomic particles, are they themselves made up of even smaller particles? And indeed it has been discovered that protons and neutrons are made up each of three smaller particles – so-called ‘quarks’. So far the much smaller electron has not been divided and it remains in that sense a ‘fundamental’ particle. Another question that wasn’t explained until the 1970s is how protons remain so close to one another in the tiny confines of the nucleus. We all learnt in school that ‘like charges repel’. Since the protons all have the same positive charge, they ‘repel’ each other. Within the nucleus they are so close together that they are all subject to huge forces that try to push them apart. There must therefore be an equal force between them that balances this repulsion and holds them together in the nucleus – and this was named very mundanely the ‘strong’ force. The strong force is also responsible for holding together the quarks that make up the protons and the neutrons. (Two of the quarks in each proton or neutron have the same electrical charge which would otherwise repel each other). These discoveries in high-energy physics have led to the development of what is now called the ‘Standard Model’ of elementary particles – a theory that attempts to explain the nature of sub-atomic particles and the forces that act upon them. It is best summarized by the diagram shown in the figure below. It shows the six quarks (including the up and down quarks (u and d) that form the protons and neutrons) along with the other lighter particles (the ‘leptons’) including the electron. In the fourth column are the gauge bosons or particle associated with the fundamental forces that act on the quarks and leptons. These include the photon that is the basic unit of light and the gluon that is associated with the strong force that holds the up and down quarks together in the proton and neutron. The three particles in the model (up quark, down quark and the electron) that make up the atoms of the stuff we see around us are stable – that is they don’t disintegrate or change, But the module incorporates a number of other particles, that are not building blocks of atoms (the other four quarks and the leptons other than the electron). These particles mostly only exist for very, very short times after their production by a particle collision (in an accelerator like the LHS or, for example, in natural processes involving cosmic rays). Within the tiniest fractions of a second after they have been produced or created they ‘decay’ or change into one or more of the others in complex processes eventually leading to one of the stable particles. And so alongside the up and down quark there are another four quarks given the somewhat bizarre names of ‘top’ ‘bottom’, ‘charm’ and ‘strange’ (t, b, c and s). The word ‘quark’ was coined by Murray Gell-Mann, one of the scientists that first proposed their existence 1964. This initial theory was that there were three quarks and when he found a passage in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he has not got much of a bark And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark [24] he settled on the spelling of the word. The pronunciation (rhyming with ‘cork’ rather than ‘bark’) he had chosen before he found the literary reference. [25] The top, bottom strange and charm quarks are produced in high energy collisions (such as those involving cosmic rays and in particle accelerators) but are short lived and decay to other quarks. [26] Shown in the third row in the Standard Model are the neutrinos (Italian: little neutral one. The symbol is the Greek letter nu, ν) and were so named because they are electrically neutral and are the lightest of any of the particles that have any mass at all. They originate in nuclear reactions, radioactive decay and in the interactions between cosmic rays and matter, For this reason they are all around all the time. However, primarily because of the lack of electric charge and the tiny mass neutrinos do only interact with matter very weakly and can therefore pass through solid objects like ourselves and even the earth practically unimpeded. In fact, billions of neutrinos that have originated in the sun pass through our bodies every second with any noticeable effect on us! [27] Alongside the electron there are two other similar particles, the mu or muon and the tau (again named after Greek letters μ, τ) that like the electron carry negative electric charge. Muons also exist all around us as they are generated when cosmic rays (e.g. protons originating in deep space) interact with the Earth’s atmosphere. Because they can last for a relatively long time (their mean lifetime is 2.2 microseconds) before decaying to an electron and because they are travelling at almost the speed of light they can reach and penetrate the surface of the Earth. [28] And finally the newly added Higgs boson completes the diagram. The existence of the Higgs boson is a long-standing prediction of the Standard Model. In 1964 three physicists proposed the existence of a force ‘field’ and an associated particle that would help to explain why some particles are heavier than others and some have no mass at all. The particle became known as the Higgs boson and because of the huge energy needed to create it artificially it remained undiscovered until last year. [29] On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass range expected for the Higgs boson. Since then further experiments have measured some of its other characteristics and found them to be consistent with the theory. However, it remains possible that there may be more than one different types of Higgs boson. [30] It acquired the nickname, disliked by most physicists, ‘God Particle’ from the title of a popular science book in 1993. One of the authors, Nobel prize winner, Leon M. Lederman, explained that the nickname does not derive from any idea that it is the most fundamental particle in any divine plan but that publisher would not allow the authors call it the ‘Goddamn Particle’ although that may have been more appropriate given the Higgs boson’s elusive nature and the difficulty in discovering it! [31] As well as the search for the Higgs boson and the verification of the Standard Model, numerous other experiments investigating the fundamental nature of the physical universe we live in are being carried out at the LHC at CERN. The topics include the nature of ‘anti-matter’ [32], the search for ‘dark matter’ and processes shortly after the big bang. There are also experiments are aimed at more down-to-earth areas such as the effect of cosmic rays on cloud formation or biological effects. [33] One of the issues that concerns anyone with even a passing interest in the LHC, particle physics or even science itself is the cost. The costs of construction and the development of the technology at the LHC are indeed high and are estimated to have run to approx. €3.1 billion. [34] The annual budget to support a staff of 2,400 and 10,000 visiting scientists ran to just under €1 billion in 2012. [35] While these figures might have seemed to have been really gigantic before the onset of the global economic crisis in 2008 they might not seem to be so enormous when put beside the sums involved in the bail-out of banks – even the banks in a country as small as Ireland. Incidentally, Ireland is not one of the 20 ‘member’ states that fund CERN. Nor is it one of 36 countries with ‘co-operation agreements’. It is in the third rank of 18 other states that have ‘scientific contact’ with CERN. [36] It is instructive to also compare the amounts of money spent on the LHC with military expenditure. For example, the annual military budget of the Czech Republic, a CERN member state and nowadays also a member of NATO (but nonetheless hardly a global military force), is estimated to be over twice the annual budget of CERN. [37] The capital cost of the LHC does not seem quite so gigantic either when put against the cost of the latest addition to the US Navy, the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, due to be launched in 2013. This single ship has an estimated price tag of US$12.8 billion – over three times the cost of building the LHC. [38] What then of David King’s argument, mentioned earlier, that countries like Britain should divert funds from the LHC and use them to fund climate change research? Is he not falling into the trap that the establishment, of which he is of course a part, always set for us? Why should we have to settle for one or the other? Can we not have research into the fundamental nature of our universe and research into offsetting the impending disaster that global warming may cause? King’s thinking embodies the same kind of argument that revolutionary socialists reject when we fight against hospital cuts and simultaneously defend the funding of the arts. These are Hobson’s choices that we would not need to make in a society where there was real democratic control of resources. It also seems strange that a scientist like King would argue against carrying out fundamental research. He must surely acknowledge that all science is actually interconnected. The fundamental research that was carried over a decade or even a hundred years ago can become the basis for the technologies today. For example the then esoteric theory of electromagnetism developed by James Maxwell in 1865 is the basis for all generation of electricity – including the clean energy produced in wind farms today. The world would be a different place today if scientists like Maxwell had been halted in their research because there was no obvious application for electromagnetism in the age of the gas light and steam engine. Implicit too in King’s argument is the idea that the problems caused by climate change can be met with the current knowledge of the fundamental sciences. There seems too to be an assumption that diverting the scientific budget for a year or two or maybe even a decade will crack the nut. As Owen McCormack argued in the first edition of this journal the fight against climate change is much bigger than that and will necessitate ‘stopping capitalism from consuming the planet, and ending the inequalities at its heart.’ [39] Furthermore, the new science and technological advances that may come from research such as done in the LHC may well play a crucial role in the technological challenges, including climate change, facing humanity in the future. It is not always predictable where new breakthroughs in science will have their application. For example, the discovery by the German physicist von Laue in 1912 of x-ray diffraction [40], a technique for investigating the properties of solid crystals, was used to determine the crystal structure of DNA forty years later. [41] All the advances in medicine and biology that have since flowed from that discovery could surely not have been predicted by von Laue when he first discussed the idea of scattering x-rays by a crystal with a colleague on a stroll in the English Garden in Munich in 1912! Finally, fundamental research in particle physics and cosmology, in particular, have informed our ideas on the nature of matter, energy, the universe and therefore ourselves and our place in nature. As materialists it would seem very odd if socialists were to argue that such an understanding was not required as we fight to sweep away the old superstition and struggle to end the age of cant! [42] [1] For example Scientific breakthrough – Discovery thought to be the elusive “God particle”, Irish Times, 5 July 2012. [2] A Google search on ‘Large Hadron Collider’ returned 4.96 million results on 7 January 2013. [3] Angels & Demons, Dan Browne, Pocket Books, USA 2000. [4] The Gates, John Connolly, Hodder & Stoughton, GB and Ireland, October 2009. [5] Hells Bells, John Connolly, Hodder & Stoughton, GB and Ireland, May 2011. [6] The CERN black hole on YouTube (accessed 7 January 2013). [7] A summary of the safety concern claims and their rebuttals can be found at Wikipedia: Safety of particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (accessed on 8 January 2013). [8] Martin O’Neill, Politics of proton smashing, New Statesman, 17 September 2008 (accessed 6 May 2013). [9] LHC Machine Outreach Website (accessed on 8 January 2013). [10] See footnote 9. [11] Ernest T.S. Walton – Biographical on the Nobel Prize Website (accessed on 8 January 2013). [12] Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (1903–1995): The Irish Scientist, Vincent J. McBrierty, Trinity College Dublin Press, 2003. [13] The YouTube video E = mc2 Albert Einstein explains his Famous Formula (accessed on 8 January 2013) is an evocative recording of Einstein explaining the significance of his equation and saying the that it was ‘demonstrated experimentally by Cockroft and Walton in 1932’. [14] See footnote 11. [15] Wikipedia: Cockcroft Walton generator (accessed on 8 January 2013). [16] Wikipedia: Cyclotron (accessed on 8 January 2013). [17] Wikipedia: Synchrotron (accessed on 8 January 2013). [18] Wikipedia: List of accelerators in particle physics (accessed on 9 January 2013). [19] See footnote 9. [20] See footnote 16. [21] LHC Design Report, Volume II (accessed on 9 January 2009). [22] The elements are chemically immutable but they combine in myriad of different ways to form all the matter that we can see, feel and touch around us. By combining atoms of different elements ‘molecules’ could be formed that formed the basic units of an almost infinite number of new substances with properties than can be wildly different from the elements from which they are made. It was also learnt that that billions upon billions of atoms or one or more elements of can arrange themselves in ordered ‘crystals’ that again had different properties – for example some conducted electricity (like copper or iron) and some were insulators (like iron oxide). [23] The numbers of positively charged protons and negative electrons are always the same in an atom and so the atom is neutral. The elements can be understood then as a series of atoms with one proton and one electron (hydrogen), two protons and two electrons (helium), etc. In addition there are a number of neutrons in every nucleus (except for hydrogen). It was later discovered that the number of neutrons can vary between two atoms with the same number of protons and electron but as the neutron is electrically neutral it means that that atom has the same chemical properties and so it is not a different element. [24] James Joyce [1939], Finnegans Wake, Penguin Books. p. 383 (1982 Edition). [25] Murray Gell-Mann (1995), The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex, Henry Holt and Co., p. 180. [26] Wikipedia: Quark (accessed on 1 May 2013). [27] Wikipedia: Neutrino (accessed on 1 May 2013). [28] Wikipedia: Muon (accessed on 1 May 2013). [29] The Search for the Higgs Boson on the CERN Website (accessed 6 May 2013). [30] Wikipedia: Higgs Boson (accessed on 6 May 2013). [31] Leon M. Lederman and Dick Teresi (1993, reprint in 2006), The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. [32] In the Standard Model all charged particles have an ‘anti-particle’ which have the opposite electric charge to the normal particle. For example the anti-particle of the electron (charge = −1) is the ‘positron’ or ‘anti-electron’ with a charge of +1). [33] A list of the experiments at the CERN can be found at Experiments on the CERN Website (accessed on 6 May 2012). [34] Wikipedia: Large Hadron Collider (accessed on 6 May 2013). [35] Budget Overview on the CERN Website (accessed on 6 May 2013). [36] Member States on the CERN Website (accessed on 6 May 2013). [37] The World Factbook on the CIA Website (accessed on 6 May 2013). [38] Ronald O’Rourke, Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service, 7-5700, RS20643, April 2013. [39] Owen McCormack, The age of extremes: new developments in climate change, Irish Marxist Review, Issue 1, p. 50. [40] Wikipedia: X-ray Diffraction (accessed 6 May 2013). [41] Wikipedia: DNA (accessed 6 May 2013). [42] Wikipedia: The Internationale (accessed 6 May 2013). Top of page IMR Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 30 May 2020 | left | imr index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive irish marxist review vol june pp copyright irish marxist review pdf article available link slightly modify check transcribe mark einde etol large hadron collider lhc higgs boson big news countless newspaper article past year try reader date progress find socalled god particle despite acre newsprint million web page actually real grasp go tunnel swissfrench border close geneva surprising newspaper article webpage attempt explain significance advanced physics experiment elaborate complex machine build humankind short paragraph couple column inch squeeze quarter page advertisement weekend supplement sufficient nonphysicist information superficial grasp attempt achieve scientifically importantly form opinion usefulness worth big scientific experiment lhc higgs boson culture describe household term author popular fiction like dan browne embrace perceive weirdness physics lhc create science fiction novel angel demon antimatter supposedly create lhc weapon vatican irish crime novelist john connolly publish child novel hero boy call samuel johnson dachshund fight force evil bright scientist run lhc manage unwittingly open gate hell release horde devil demon roam earth create mayhem havoc youtube video show simulation earth swallow black hole alarmist predict create lhc run nearly million hit post february video graphic illustration claim lhc go operational destroy earth humanity claim widely report period lead legal challenge usa europe attempt prevent operation lhc fanciful criticism raise question benefit science lhc experiment carry criticise scientist argue huge sum money lhc cost well spend project example david king chief scientist britain argue britain cease contribution cern european centre nuclear research international organisation operate lhc divert resource combat climate change instead article attempt explain term understand technology involve lhc scientific significance experiment carry prime motive reader detail research like lhc come order informed opinion worth briefly discuss cost argument relate benefit research author bare minimum information require democratic debate subject foremost need understand lhc large complex machine build human heart pair vacuum tube pipe locate ringshape tunnel measure km mile circumference subatomic particle accelerate speed light travel ring guide huge superconducte electromagnet weigh tonne magnet cool liquid helium temperature c cold outer space absolute zero low theoretically possible temperature tunnel run metre ground level cross border switzerland france near geneva cern locate particle accelerate ringshape vacuum tube reach speed approach speed light c speed light travel direction ring direction ring cross place particle go opposite direction collide point ring intersect intersection locate huge underground cavern house detector try record outcome collision particle lhc late power series socalled particle accelerator workhorse nuclear physics order vestigate structure atom probe newly discover atomic nucleus scientist accelerate charge particle solid target british irish scientist john cockroft ernest walton accelerate proton solid lithium target observe proton cause lithium nucleus disintegrate proton form helium nucleus high voltage accelerate proton necessary energy break lithium nucleus ultimately cause disintegrate experiment hail time popular culture splitting atom importantly albert einstein regard cockroft walton experiment experimental demonstration famous equation e apparatus design particle accelerator type know linear accelerator particle travel straight line application high electrical voltage v case largely build irishman walton technology develop cockroftwalton voltage multiplier continue today particle collider lhc day electronic device use high voltage xray machine photocopier physicist time begin experiment radio wave high voltage means accelerate charge particle magnet bend beam particle travel spiral manage construct machine particle accelerate ringshape vacuum tube socalled synchrotron synchrotron advantage nuclear research firstly energy particle increase revolution ring pump energy mean radio wave secondly beam particle circle opposite direction ring intersect point particle collide enormous energy accelerator design particle collide refer particle collider depend particle energy collision collide particle cause split apart small particle combine form new large one detect observe collision byproduct scientist work intervene decade cockroft walton particle accelerator discover physics subatomic world lhc late advanced particle accelerator fact connect series accelerator begin linear accelerator like cockcroft walton follow number synchrotron culminate large ring km circumference make special huge energy particle attain final large ring currently accelerate proton energy t ev tera electronvolt equivalent voltage thousand million volt proton travel opposite direction ring collide intersection point collision energy t ev t ev proton energy far large achieve previous collider build world run energy plan double energy achieve design specification energy t ev ring shape accelerator practical limit energy particle attain magnetic field bend magnet energy great magnet field strong particle fly fast approach corner crash wall vacuum tube like car travel fast fail corner high speed designer lhc face huge engineering challenge accelerate particle design energy manage ring face choice ring enormous diameter use magnet technology available end century try fit ring preexist km circumference tunnel build previous accelerator lep collider develop suitable superconducte electromagnet technology produce enormous magnetic field require bend particle tight curve fit inside exist ring give probable difficulty build ring diameter km km circumference populous central europe choose use exist km long tunnel develop new generation superconducte magnet produce high magnetic field comparison interesting note similar american project build collider near dallas texas superconducte super collider ssc time energy lhc require ring approximately time large diameter approximately km circumference ssc project cancel congress try understand research place like lhc useful recall state knowledge early twentieth century nuclear research begin idea make universe pretty learn school matter socalled element substance solid liquid gas combine form substance element arrange accord property represent periodic table small unit element tiny particle far small see good microscope atom course known limit knowledge year ago discovery neutron internal structure atom clear centre positively charge nucleus contain far lion share mass atom squeeze small space tinier negatively charge electron orbit nucleus relatively large distance emerge atom assume matter universe combination subatomic particle proton neutron electron addition matter know light energy exist picture complete question nuclear physicist turn attention modify nucleus way fact successful experiment carry rutherford manchester convert transmute nitrogen oxygen alpha particle explanation experiment possible result year intensive scientific research particle accelerator collide proton particle exaggeration physics discover incredible fantasy thousand dan browns nuclear scientist go far goal split nucleus constituent part see combine new arrangement form new element course world learn consequence split nucleus combine release energy case nuclear weapon nuclear power subject article deserve separate consideration instead concentrate revolutionary idea discover study result collide particle like proton accelerator high energy firstly obvious question address make proton neutron electron atom consider indivisible fundamental particle subatomic particle small particle discover proton neutron small particle socalle quark far small electron divide remain sense fundamental particle question explain proton remain close tiny confine nucleus learn school like charge repel proton positive charge repel nucleus close subject huge force try push apart equal force balance repulsion hold nucleus name mundanely strong force strong force responsible hold quark proton neutron quark proton neutron electrical charge repel discovery highenergy physics lead development call standard model elementary particle theory attempt explain nature subatomic particle force act well summarize diagram show figure show quark include quark u d form proton neutron light particle lepton include electron fourth column gauge boson particle associate fundamental force act quark lepton include photon basic unit light gluon associate strong force hold quark proton neutron particle model quark quark electron atom stuff stable disintegrate change module incorporate number particle build block atom quark lepton electron particle exist short time production particle collision accelerator like lhs example natural process involve cosmic ray tiny fraction second produce create decay change complex process eventually lead stable particle alongside quark quark give somewhat bizarre name charm strange t b c s word quark coin murray gellmann scientist propose existence initial theory quark find passage james joyce finnegan wake quark muster mark sure get bark sure mark settle spelling word pronunciation rhyme cork bark choose find literary reference strange charm quark produce high energy collision involve cosmic ray particle accelerator short live decay quark show row standard model neutrino italian little neutral symbol greek letter nu ν name electrically neutral light particle mass originate nuclear reaction radioactive decay interaction cosmic ray matter reason time primarily lack electric charge tiny mass neutrino interact matter weakly pass solid object like earth practically unimpede fact billion neutrino originate sun pass body second noticeable effect alongside electron similar particle mu muon tau name greek letter μ τ like electron carry negative electric charge muon exist generate cosmic ray eg proton originate deep space interact earth atmosphere relatively long time mean lifetime microsecond decay electron travel speed light reach penetrate surface earth finally newly add higgs boson complete diagram existence higgs boson longstanding prediction standard model physicist propose existence force field associate particle help explain particle heavy mass particle know higgs boson huge energy need create artificially remain undiscovered year july atlas cms experiment large hadron collider announce observe new particle mass range expect higgs boson experiment measure characteristic find consistent theory remain possible different type higgs boson acquire nickname dislike physicist god particle title popular science book author nobel prize winner leon m lederman explain nickname derive idea fundamental particle divine plan publisher allow author goddamn particle appropriate give higgs boson elusive nature difficulty discover search higgs boson verification standard model numerous experiment investigate fundamental nature physical universe live carry lhc cern topic include nature antimatter search dark matter process shortly big bang experiment aim downtoearth area effect cosmic ray cloud formation biological effect issue concern pass interest lhc particle physics science cost cost construction development technology lhc high estimate run approx billion annual budget support staff visit scientist run billion figure gigantic onset global economic crisis enormous sum involve bailout bank bank country small ireland incidentally ireland member state fund cern country cooperation agreement rank state scientific contact cern instructive compare amount money spend lhc military expenditure example annual military budget czech republic cern member state nowadays member nato nonetheless hardly global military force estimate twice annual budget cern capital cost lhc gigantic cost late addition navy aircraft carrier gerald r ford launch single ship estimate price tag billion time cost build lhc david king argument mention early country like britain divert fund lhc use fund climate change research fall trap establishment course set settle research fundamental nature universe research offset impending disaster global warming cause king thinking embody kind argument revolutionary socialist reject fight hospital cut simultaneously defend funding art hobson choice need society real democratic control resource strange scientist like king argue carry fundamental research surely acknowledge science actually interconnect fundamental research carry decade year ago basis technology today example esoteric theory electromagnetism develop james maxwell basis generation electricity include clean energy produce wind farm today world different place today scientist like maxwell halt research obvious application electromagnetism age gas light steam engine implicit king argument idea problem cause climate change meet current knowledge fundamental science assumption divert scientific budget year maybe decade crack nut owen mccormack argue edition journal fight climate change big necessitate stop capitalism consume planet end inequality heart furthermore new science technological advance come research lhc play crucial role technological challenge include climate change face humanity future predictable new breakthrough science application example discovery german physicist von laue xray diffraction technique investigate property solid crystal determine crystal structure dna year later advance medicine biology flow discovery surely predict von laue discuss idea scatter xray crystal colleague stroll english garden munich finally fundamental research particle physics cosmology particular inform idea nature matter energy universe place nature materialist odd socialist argue understanding require fight sweep away old superstition struggle end age not example scientific breakthrough discovery think elusive god particle irish time july google search large hadron collider return million result january angel demon dan browne pocket book usa gate john connolly hodder stoughton gb ireland october hell bell john connolly hodder stoughton gb ireland cern black hole youtube access january summary safety concern claim rebuttal find wikipedia safety particle collision large hadron collider access january martin politic proton smash new statesman september access lhc machine outreach website access january footnote ern ts walton biographical nobel prize website access january ernest thomas sinton walton irish scientist vincent j mcbrierty trinity college dublin press youtube video e albert einstein explain famous formula access january evocative recording einstein explain significance equation say demonstrate experimentally cockroft walton footnote wikipedia cockcroft walton generator access january wikipedia cyclotron access january wikipedia synchrotron access january wikipedia list accelerator particle physics access january footnote footnote lhc design report volume ii access january element chemically immutable combine myriad different way form matter feel touch combine atom different element molecule form form basic unit infinite number new substance property wildly different element learn billion billion atom element arrange order crystal different property example conduct electricity like copper iron insulator like iron oxide number positively charge proton negative electron atom atom neutral element understand series atom proton electron hydrogen proton electron helium etc addition number neutron nucleus hydrogen later discover number neutron vary atom number proton electron neutron electrically neutral mean atom chemical property different element james joyce finnegans wake penguin book p edition murray gellmann quark jaguar adventure simple complex henry holt co p wikipedia quark access wikipedia neutrino access wikipedia muon access search higgs boson cern website access wikipedia higgs boson access leon m lederman dick teresi reprint god particle universe answer question boston houghton mifflin company standard model charge particle antiparticle opposite electric charge normal particle example antiparticle electron charge positron antielectron charge list experiment cern find experiment cern website access wikipedia large hadron collider access budget overview cern website access member state cern website access world factbook cia website access ronald navy ford class aircraft carrier program background issue congress congressional research service april owen mccormack age extreme new development climate change irish marxist review issue p wikipedia xray diffraction access wikipedia dna access wikipedia internationale access page imr index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update | 54 |
HAVING FAILED TO pass the balanced budget and term limits as constitutional amendments, Newt Gingrich will try to have them made the Eleventh and Twelfth Commandments. What’s the message from Congress this year? "Stop us before we spend more. We would much rather pay higher taxes to support public radio than endure the excruciating boredom of an NPR fund drive. REGARDING THE DEBATE among Marxist theoreticians on the "long waves" of economic crisis, Jim Devine of Loyola Marymount University has discovered the solution: "People are forgetting the 3000-year Evined cycle, which has been well-documented even though there is as yet only one data point. The Evined theory incorporates 10 Braudel `duree’’ cycles, each of which incorporates six Kondratieff waves, each of which incorporates five 10-year cycles. Most scholars of the Evined cycle have concluded that we’ve just finished a 1500-year `up phase’ (a.k.a. `the rise of the Western World’) and are about to commence a 1500-year `down phase.’ One of the clearest signs of this reversal is the widespread popularity of the TV shows `Barney’ and `Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ as replacements for previous world religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. However, it should be noticed that the ubiquitous phenomenon of overdetermination again plays a role: on the political level, the rising popularity of the `Phil Donahue’ haircut among politicians seems a harbinger of the beginning of the end." JACK LONDON DESCRIBED one South Pacific island where men drank between drinks, and another where "between drinks" was an unknown concept. The United States is approaching this condition in regard to election campaigns. Abstinence is to sex as anorexia is to weight control. The Food Police suggest substituting yogurt in recipes that call for sour cream. If all they care about is what it looks like, why not use mayonnaise? "That’s the low-fat stuff. You have to use twice as much." —Roseanne IN RESPONSE TO the current upsurge of interest in religion, next month’s Playboy will feature Women of the New Testament. The O.J. Simpson case is the result of a conspiracy by Siskel and Ebert to prevent the production of any more "Naked Gun" movies. About "Maverick:" Instead of having Jodie Foster imitate Goldie Hawn for two hours, why not just cast Goldie Hawn in the first place? "Tank Girl" may set the fashion in clothing for the kids this summer, but real tanks aren’t that much fun. They are cramped and noisy and everything tastes like diesel fuel. Of course, you could say the same thing about many of the clubs. ONE OF THE milder forms of Trial by Ordeal during the Middle Ages called for the accused to stuff a whole bread roll into his mouth and swallow it without choking to death. Navajo wives who aren’t getting along with their husbands can publicly disgrace them by refusing to braid the husband’s hair. "Dollars to doughnuts" is getting to be a pretty even bet. ATC 57, July-August 1995 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | having fail pass balanced budget term limit constitutional amendment newt gingrich try eleventh twelfth commandment message congress year stop spend pay high taxis support public radio endure excruciating boredom npr fund drive debate marxist theoretician long wave economic crisis jim devine loyola marymount university discover solution people forget evine cycle welldocumente datum point evine theory incorporate braudel duree cycle incorporate kondratieff wave incorporate cycle scholar evine cycle conclude finish phase aka rise western world commence phase clear sign reversal widespread popularity tv show barney mighty morphin power ranger replacement previous world religion christianity judaism islam notice ubiquitous phenomenon overdetermination play role political level rise popularity phil donahue haircut politician harbinger beginning end jack london describe south pacific island man drink drink drink unknown concept united states approach condition regard election campaign abstinence sex anorexia weight control food police suggest substitute yogurt recipe sour cream care look like use mayonnaise lowfat stuff use twice roseanne response current upsurge interest religion month playboy feature woman new testament oj simpson case result conspiracy siskel ebert prevent production naked gun movie maverick instead have jodie foster imitate goldie hawn hour cast goldie hawn place tank girl set fashion clothing kid summer real tank fun cramp noisy taste like diesel fuel course thing club milder form trial ordeal middle age call accuse stuff bread roll mouth swallow choke death navajo wife get husband publicly disgrace refuse braid husband hair dollar doughnut get pretty bet atc julyaugust current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 55 |
Young Socialist Index | Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Digitization of the Young Socialist was the project of the Riazanov Library Digitization Project organized by Dr. Martin Goodman and Robin Palmer and the bound volumes of the Young Socialist provided by the Holt Labor Library in San Francisco, D. Walters, Director. This effort is part of the Encylodpedia of Trotskyism On-Line’s Left Opposition Publications Digitization Project on the Marxists Internet Archive Editorial Board: Tim Wohlforth Shane Mage Harold Kattom Bert Beck Corresponding Editors: Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Marion Syrek, Jr. Chicago: John Worth Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Conservative Mood Triumphs: Congress Hits 1 U. S. Students For Trip to China by Bob Himmel Students Tour China; Defy U. S. Travel Ban Negro Youth Defy Rocks, Bottles and Epithets; Face Faubus 'Private Army' in Integration Fight by George Fennel Let Us Build a Movement For All Socialist Youth —Editorial Discussion Flares In Moscow by Maurice Pelter Belfrage Sees Ferment Among Moscow Youth by Cedric Belfrage (National Guardian 5 LA Young Socialists Issue Call for Broad Club Five Anti-Fascist Sailors Fight Return to Spain by Peter Allan New Yorkers Hit Speech Curb Young Socialists Build Forum Ex-LYLers Build Twain ClubBay Area Youth Are Active Denver Youth Plan Club Berkeley Club Plans San Francisco Group Expands Back Negro Candidate For Detroit City Council 93% of Teen-Agers Support Trade Unions Philly Socialists Unite in Broad Youth Club Business Interests Use Senate Probe To Spearhead Anti-Union Legislation by Shane Mage U. S. Court Faces Challenge On Army 'Security' Program By Martha Wells Worker Is 'Subsidiary' To Union Leaders By Harvey Swados from The Nation Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Bert Deck: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, Harold Kanim, Shane Mage, Gil Turner. Tim Wohlforth. Corresponding Editors: Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Marion Syrek, Jr. Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn YS REPORTER DISCOVERS: Migrant Workers Live Barbed Wire Camps by Gil Turner Philly 'Solves' Delinquency By Sending Boy, 15, to Chair by Arthur Phelps Gomulka Turns On The Youth; Suppresses Paper, Meetings by Tim Wohlforth Youth Speaks Out! Support Ghina Visitors —Editorial Do We Have Real Integration in the North? A report to our readers: New York Parents Protest Segregation in 250 Schools by Ann Zukoff 100,000 Chicago Negroes Are Forced Into Crowded Segregated Schools by John Worth Youth Notes: LA Socialists Form Youth Group Young Socialist Alliance Starts in NYC Chicago Youth Form Committee Young People Unite in Twin Cities Detroit Citizens Favor Integration in Schools by Evelyn Sell Djilas Presents Old Theory About New Class by Shane Mage Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Bert Deck: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, Harold Kanim, Shane Mage, Gil Turner. Tim Wohlforth. Corresponding Editors: New York: Richeard Dehann Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Marion Syrek, Jr. Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn YS Survey Reveals: Pressure Mounts in Opposition To Campus Witchhunt Student Gives Eyewitness Account Of 'Forbidden' Trip Through China Interview by Tim Wohlforth with Nina Landau Court Dismisses Case Against YS Salesman UCLA Students Protest McCarthyite Attack On YS by Peter Allan A Look Beneath The Oily Surface Of The Middleast by Shane Mage Youth Speaks Out! [Letters to YS] Youth Panel Planned at New York Forum Meaning Of Two Revolutions —Editorial Book Backs As 'Scientific' Witchhunters by Richard DeHaan A Probe Info Its Past: Has The NSA A future? by Harold Kamm Reflections On Mutnik: Science, Technology And The USSR by A Young: Scientist Large Student Protest Dooms Membership Lists At CCNY by Earl Owens Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Bert Deck: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, Harold Kanim, Shane Mage, Gil Turner. Tim Wohlforth. Corresponding Editors: New York: Richeard Dehann Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Marion Syrek, Jr. Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn Recession Gains; Economic Squeeze Hits Young Worker by Bert Deck Teenagers Are Wiser Than You Think NYC Schools Spearhead Witchhunt of Teachers by Martha Wells Young Socialist Tours Deep South; Reports on Montgomery, Koinonia by Ann-Mari Buitrago YOUTH SPEAKS OUT!: Two Views: Chinllllnd the Rightists The Power of the Witchhunt —Editorial Youth Notes: Berkeley, New York, Japan, Raleigh, Chicago Mrs. Bates Thanks Young Supporters by Jean Carter U.S. Student Talks to Young People During Youth Festival in Moscow by John Link Youth Says Russians Want, Peace, Friendship by Evelyn Sell LONDON LETTER: Report on British Youth Scene ACLU, Colorado Daily Protest Ban On YS Distribution at Colorado U. by Leonard Hodgett American Forum Panel Attracts Many Youth by George Fennel Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Virginia Halsted: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, Shane Mage, Gil Turner, Tim Wohlforth. Corresponding Editors: New York: Richeard Dehann Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Richard Kenny Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn Canada: Ernest Strong Britain: Janet Downs Visitors to China Demand U.S. Govt. 'Return Passports' Girl, 17, Dies of Bungled Abortion; Where Does the Guilt Really Lie? by Judy Mage Opposition Fights Fraternity's Grip Over Berkeley by James Robertson Young Organizer Describes Racism, Unionism in South by George Payne Will the 'Recession of 1958' Lead To the Depression of 195849?? by Shane Mage ACLU REPORT REVEALS: Civil Liberties Gains in 1957 by Dennis DeHaan STUDENT ANSWERS QUESTION: Is Puerto Rico Really Free? by Jose Lopez Youth Notes: Miami Beach, Little Rock, Russia, New York City The American Road to Socialism—A Discussion by Steve Martin and tim Wohlforth Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Virginia Halsted: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, Harold Kanim, Shane Mage, Gil Turner, Tim Wohlforth, Steve Max, Richard De Hann, James Lamb Corresponding Editors: Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Richard Kenny Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn Canada: Ernest Strong Britain: Janet Downs 150 Radical Youth Meet in Midwest; Hit U.S. Witchhunt by Bert Deck ACLU Hits Colorado University Ban an YS; Affirms Right to Distribute an Any Campus Spector of Hungry Thirties. Haunts Youth in Canada by Ernest Strong Youth Speaks Out! Letter from Japan For a New Youth Movement—Editorial CONTROVERSY OVER CHINA: Are Some 'Rightists' Leftists? Letter How Remote Is Marx? Letter Readers Present Differing Views Socialism And Soviet Union Letters Panic Crips NYC Bd Of Education by Virginia Halstead Resolutions Passed At the Midwest Conference Of Young Socialists Canadian Students Protest U.S. Bar on Communist Youth by Michele Erin Reuther Backs Profit Sharing Gimick; Deserts Shorter Work Week Fight Art Ross Youth Notes: Los Angeles, Caracas Venezuela, Winchester, Va, Newark, NJ, Scottland Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Virginia Halsted: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, Harold Kanim, Shane Mage, Gil Turner, Tim Wohlforth, Steve Max, Richard De Hann, James Lamb Corresponding Editors: Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Richard Kenny Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn Canada: Ernest Strong Britain: Janet Downs US Back French Rape of Algeria; Block’s Real Peace The Editors Minnijean Brown Hits Expulsion From Little Rock in YS Interview by Martha Wells A Fascist?—Keep Left (UK) BERKELEY CAMPUS CONTRAST: Nazi Uniform Appears as Liberal Opposition Meets Colorado Regents Open Campus to Literature JAPANESE STUDENTS WRITE: Discussion: USSR and H-Tests Darrow: 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat - Well Why Not?' by Gil Turner Unemployment Hits Young Workers; Is War Capitalism's Only Solution? by Mary Anne Holmes VIEW FROM THE BENCH: 'Just a Cockroach Shop' by Mike Torres Youth Notes: Nw York City, Soul, Korea, Seattle, Wash, Ann Arbor, Mi. Army Discharge System Crumbles; Pre-induction Screening Continues by Richard DeHaan We Must Identify With Democracy by Leo Adler Army Discharge System Crumbles; Pre-induction Screening Continues by Richard DeHaan YS Supporters Raise $2330 in Fund Drive Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Virginia Halsted: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, Harold Kanim, Shane Mage, Gil Turner, Tim Wohlforth, Steve Max, Richard De Hann, James Lamb Corresponding Editors: Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Richard Kenny Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn Canada: Ernest Strong Britain: Janet Downs Youth Fight Tests Of Nuclear Bombs In Britain, U.S. by Janet Downs Michigan Students Rout 'Red Squad', College: Defend Young Socialist’s Right to Distribute by Bob Himmel 18,000 Students Strike in Canada; Ask Federal Aid by Charles Wright ROBERTS RUNS IN CALIFORNIA: Educator Two Parties; They Offer Depression, Death by James Robertson YOUTH SPEAKS OUT: More Discussion on Nuclear Tests Letters German Youth: I Oppose Capitalism, Communism; I Believe in SocialismLetter Reader Differs on USSR Letter ‘Let’s All Unite Now On a Socialist Ticket’Letter Young Socialist Broadsheet No. 1: Socialism And The American Student: • A SCHOLAR ANSWERS: Was Marx Wrong? by Dr. Otto Nathan • BEHIND THE STUDENT STRUGGLES IN OTHER LANDS: Cuan, Polish Youth Demand Freedom, Socialism by Tim Wohlforth • Soviet Youth Opposition Program —“Junge Gemeinschaft”, November, 1957 (paper of the West German Socialist Youth) • WHY WE SUPPORT CIVIL LIBERTIES: Socialism Is the Fulfillment of the Liberal Freedoms by Richard DeHaan • Should Students Support the Workers? by Evelyn Sell • Our Task Today Is to Fight for Peace! by Steve Max and Gil Turner A PERSONAL CASE HISTORY: How They Made a ‘ Delinquent’ Out of a Promising Boy by Vincent Rodriguez 2,000,000 Grads Face Glutted Labor Market by James Lambrecht As Others See Us . . . Anti- Pro-Communists Americans Hit Tests On Easter Day-demonstrations Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Virginia Halsted: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, George Payne, Tim Wohlforth, James Robertson, Richard De Hann, James Lambrecht Corresponding Editors: Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Richard Kenny Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn Canada: Ernest Strong Britain: Janet Downs Roving Correspondent: Shane Mage COPS, ROTTEN EGGS AND FINAL VICTORY NYC Socialists Conduct Battle for Free Speech by a Bronx Science Student Student Action Mounts Against U. S. Nuclear Tests by Ellen Strong YS Calls for National Conference Mrs. Sobell Brings Husbands Case to Students by Martha Curti YS CALLS A CONFERENCE For a New Youth Movement France: Democracy Falls—Editorial Communications Letters Wayne U. Case History: Fight Witchhunt i COVER REGROUPMENT Cop Gets Lesson in Radical Tendencies by William Martin Youth Notes From: Denver; New York City; Philadelphia; Detroit; London, San Francicso YSL WAITS AT GATE SP-SDF Backs Capitalist Parties by Barbara Doritty Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Virginia Halsted: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, George Payne, Tim Wohlforth, Richard De Hann, James Lambrecht, Ellen Strong, Michael Kovacs Corresponding Editors: Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Richard Kenny Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn New York: Daniel Freeman Baltimore: A. Robert Kaufman Canada: Ernest Strong Britain: Janet Downs Roving Correspondent: Shane Mage Western Representative: James Robertson NO MORE WAR! Youth Cries Out: Send Gl's Home From Middle East Recession Hits Youth Hardest; No Summer Jobs by Tom Leonard AFTERMATH OF LITTLE ROCK INTEGRATION REVERSAL: Embattled Negroes Look for Militant Road Out by Martha Curti Mexico: A One-Party Country by Jerry Lang Reader - Marx Was Wrong! Letter to the Editor Socialist Unity Gains Editorial Editorial Board Expands Editorial Nagy Speaks Out for Socialist Democracy by Michael Kovacs NEW YORKERS WIN COURT TEST AS: Philadelphia Cops Bully Young Socialist Distributors by Arlene Bernstein NADIR OF SOCIALIST MORALITY: SP-SDF Backs McCarthyite Against YS Correspondence with Norman Thomas Youth Notes: From Panama, Detroit, Malta VIEW FROM THE DITCH: Under the Texas Sun for $.70 an Hour by Mike Torres Editors: Tim Wohlforth: Managing Editor Virginia Halsted: Business Manager Editorial Board: Bert Deck, George Payne, Tim Wohlforth, Richard De Hann, James Lambrecht, Ellen Strong, Michael Kovacs Corresponding Editors: Philadelphia: Arthur Phelps Detroit: Evelyn Sell Bay Area: Richard Kenny Chicago: John Worth Minneapolis: Tom Leanord Denvar: Leonard Hodgett Los Angeles: Peter Allan Seattle: John Severn New York: Daniel Freeman Baltimore: A. Robert Kaufman Canada: Ernest Strong Britain: Janet Downs Roving Correspondent: Shane Mage Western Representative: James Robertson StudentOpposition To Gl's in Lebanon Flares on Campus by Barbara. Doritty The Sun Never Sets On American Empire Just previous to World War Young Socialists Win Sixth Battle For Free Speech by Daniel Freeman Youth, Socialist Forces Rally To New Party in New York State by James Lambrecht EDITOR TO SPEAK AT 45 CAMPUSES: YS Plans Nationwide Barnstorming Tour Youth Speaks Out! Letters to the Editor BOOKS AND IDEAS: Big Bill Hay wood: Miner, Cowboy, Farmer, Radical by Tim Wohlforth KAMPF DEM ATOMTOD; 4 German Youth March in Silence Against Atomic Weapons by Wolfang Kaiser (German correspondent for the YOUNG SOCIALIST THE ISIS AFFAIR: Britain Jails Two Students for Telling the Truth by Janet Downs (Special to the Young Socialist) Toronto Students Demand Jobs by Cliff Cotton A SOCIAL NOTE: Dinner in an Early American Slum by A. Robert Kaufman Letter to James Lambrecht from ACLU Publications Index | Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 19 August 2011 | left | young socialist index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive digitization young socialist project riazanov library digitization project organize dr martin goodman robin palmer bind volume young socialist provide holt labor library san francisco d walter director effort encylodpedia trotskyism online leave opposition publication digitization project marxist internet archive editorial board tim wohlforth shane mage harold kattom bert beck corresponding editor detroit evelyn sell bay area marion syrek jr chicago john worth philadelphia arthur phelps conservative mood triumph congress hit u s student trip china bob himmel student tour china defy u s travel ban negro youth defy rock bottle epithet face faubus private army integration fight george fennel let build movement socialist youth editorial discussion flare moscow maurice pelter belfrage see ferment moscow youth cedric belfrage national guardian la young socialist issue broad club antifascist sailor fight return spain peter allan new yorkers hit speech curb young socialist build forum exlyler build twain clubbay area youth active denver youth plan club berkeley club plan san francisco group expand negro candidate detroit city council teenager support trade union philly socialist unite broad youth club business interest use senate probe spearhead antiunion legislation shane mage u s court face challenge army security program martha wells worker subsidiary union leader harvey swado nation editor tim wohlforth manage editor bert deck business manager editorial board bert deck harold kanim shane mage gil turner tim wohlforth correspond editor detroit evelyn sell bay area marion syrek jr chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord los angeles peter allan seattle john severn ys reporter discover migrant worker live barbed wire camp gil turner philly solve delinquency send boy chair arthur phelps gomulka turn youth suppresse paper meeting tim wohlforth youth speak support ghina visitor editorial real integration north report reader new york parents protest segregation school ann zukoff chicago negro force crowded segregated school john worth youth note la socialist form youth group young socialist alliance start nyc chicago youth form committee young people unite twin city detroit citizen favor integration school evelyn sell djila present old theory new class shane mage editor tim wohlforth manage editor bert deck business manager editorial board bert deck harold kanim shane mage gil turner tim wohlforth correspond editor new york richeard dehann philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area marion syrek jr chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn ys survey reveal pressure mount opposition campus witchhunt student give eyewitness account forbid trip china interview tim wohlforth nina landau court dismiss case ys salesman ucla student protest mccarthyite attack ys peter allan look beneath oily surface middleast shane mage youth speak letter ys youth panel plan new york forum meaning revolution editorial book back scientific witchhunter richard dehaan probe info past nsa future harold kamm reflection mutnik science technology ussr young scientist large student protest doom membership list ccny earl owens editor tim wohlforth manage editor bert deck business manager editorial board bert deck harold kanim shane mage gil turner tim wohlforth correspond editor new york richeard dehann philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area marion syrek jr chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn recession gain economic squeeze hit young worker bert deck teenager wise think nyc schools spearhead witchhunt teacher martha wells young socialist tour deep south report montgomery koinonia annmari buitrago youth speak view chinllllnd rightist power witchhunt editorial youth note berkeley new york japan raleigh chicago mrs bates thanks young supporter jean carter student talk young people youth festival moscow john link youth say russians want peace friendship evelyn sell london letter report british youth scene aclu colorado daily protest ban ys distribution colorado u leonard hodgett american forum panel attract youth george fennel editor tim wohlforth manage editor virginia halsted business manager editorial board bert deck shane mage gil turner tim wohlforth correspond editor new york richeard dehann philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area richard kenny chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn canada ernest strong britain janet down visitor china demand govt return passport girl die bungle abortion guilt lie judy mage opposition fight fraternitys grip berkeley james robertson young organizer describe racism unionism south george payne recession lead depression shane mage aclu report reveal civil liberty gain dennis dehaan student answer question puerto rico free jose lopez youth notes miami beach little rock russia new york city american road socialism discussion steve martin tim wohlforth editor tim wohlforth manage editor virginia halsted business manager editorial board bert deck harold kanim shane mage gil turner tim wohlforth steve max richard de hann james lamb corresponding editor philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area richard kenny chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn canada ernest strong britain janet down radical youth meet midwest hit witchhunt bert deck aclu hit colorado university ban ys affirm right distribute campus spector hungry thirty haunt youth canada ernest strong youth speak letter japan new youth movement editorial controversy china rightist leftist letter remote marx letter reader present differ view socialism soviet union letter panic crip nyc bd education virginia halstead resolution pass midwest conference young socialist canadian student protest bar communist youth michele erin reuther back profit share gimick desert short work week fight art ross youth note los angeles caracas venezuela winchester va newark nj scottland editor tim wohlforth manage editor virginia halsted business manager editorial board bert deck harold kanim shane mage gil turner tim wohlforth steve max richard de hann james lamb corresponding editor philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area richard kenny chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn canada ernest strong britain janet down french rape algeria block real peace editor minnijean brown hit expulsion little rock ys interview martha wells fascist leave uk berkeley campus contrast nazi uniform appear liberal opposition meet colorado regent open campus literature japanese student write discussion ussr htest darrow dictatorship proletariat gil turner unemployment hit young worker war capitalism solution mary anne holmes view bench cockroach shop mike torres youth note nw york city soul korea seattle wash ann arbor mi army discharge system crumble preinduction screening continue richard dehaan identify democracy leo adler army discharge system crumble preinduction screening continue richard dehaan ys supporter raise fund drive editor tim wohlforth manage editor virginia halsted business manager editorial board bert deck harold kanim shane mage gil turner tim wohlforth steve max richard de hann james lamb corresponding editor philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area richard kenny chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn canada ernest strong britain janet downs youth fight test nuclear bomb britain janet downs michigan student rout red squad college defend young socialist right distribute bob himmel student strike canada ask federal aid charles wright roberts run california educator party offer depression death james robertson youth speak discussion nuclear test letter german youth oppose capitalism communism believe socialismletter reader differ ussr letter let unite socialist young socialist broadsheet socialism american student scholar answer marx wrong dr otto nathan student struggle land cuan polish youth demand freedom socialism tim wohlforth soviet youth opposition program junge gemeinschaft november paper west german socialist youth support civil liberty socialism fulfillment liberal freedom richard dehaan student support worker evelyn sell task today fight peace steve max gil turner personal case history delinquent promising boy vincent rodriguez grad face glut labor market james lambrecht anti procommunist americans hit test easter daydemonstration editor tim wohlforth manage editor virginia halsted business manager editorial board bert deck george payne tim wohlforth james robertson richard de hann james lambrecht correspond editor philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area richard kenny chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn canada ernest strong britain janet down rove correspondent shane mage cop rotten egg final victory nyc socialist conduct battle free speech bronx science student student action mount u s nuclear test ellen strong ys call national conference mrs sobell bring husband case student martha curti ys call conference new youth movement france democracy fall editorial communication letter wayne u case history fight witchhunt cover regroupment cop get lesson radical tendency william martin youth note denver new york city philadelphia detroit london san francicso ysl wait gate spsdf back capitalist party barbara doritty editor tim wohlforth manage editor virginia halsted business manager editorial board bert deck george payne tim wohlforth richard de hann james lambrecht ellen strong michael kovacs correspond editor philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area richard kenny chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn new york daniel freeman baltimore robert kaufman canada ernest strong britain janet down rove correspondent shane mage western representative james robertson war youth cry send gls home middle east recession hit youth hard summer job tom leonard aftermath little rock integration reversal embattle negro look militant road martha curti mexico oneparty country jerry lang reader marx wrong letter editor socialist unity gain editorial editorial board expand editorial nagy speak socialist democracy michael kovacs new yorkers win court test philadelphia cop bully young socialist distributor arlene bernstein nadir socialist morality spsdf back mccarthyite ys correspondence norman thomas youth note panama detroit malta view ditch texas sun hour mike torre editor tim wohlforth manage editor virginia halsted business manager editorial board bert deck george payne tim wohlforth richard de hann james lambrecht ellen strong michael kovacs correspond editor philadelphia arthur phelps detroit evelyn sell bay area richard kenny chicago john worth minneapolis tom leanord denvar leonard hodgett los angeles peter allan seattle john severn new york daniel freeman baltimore robert kaufman canada ernest strong britain janet down rove correspondent shane mage western representative james robertson studentopposition gls lebanon flare campus barbara doritty sun set american empire previous world war young socialist win sixth battle free speech daniel freeman youth socialist force rally new party new york state james lambrecht editor speak campus ys plan nationwide barnstorm tour youth speak letter editor book idea big bill hay wood miner cowboy farmer radical tim wohlforth kampf dem atomtod german youth march silence atomic weapon wolfang kaiser german correspondent young socialist isis affair britain jail student tell truth janet down special young socialist toronto student demand job cliff cotton social note dinner early american slum robert kaufman letter james lambrecht aclu publication index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update august | 56 |
Published : 1974 Publisher : Peare Bachhawat on behalf of RSP (reprinted with permission) Transcription/HTML : Mike B. for MIA, 2009 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. Statement on International Situation Statement on National Situation Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in India | Subject Archive | left | publish publisher peare bachhawat behalf rsp reprint permission transcriptionhtml mike b mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source statement international situation statement national situation marxism antiimperialism india subject archive | 57 |
No. tO Intemational Press-Correspondence 79 their advance came to a stop. At present the Moroccan leaders a:e organizing a counter-offensive on the whole front. Side by stde wtth the old chief of the Riff-pirates, Raissuli, there is a talented younger leader Abd el Krim who commands the rebeL~. The S_P~niards are main_taining their _positions with great effort and difftculty. The freemg of the pnsoners or the regaining of the lost o-uns are not to be thought of. In the meanwhile the Spanish military organization suffered a complete breakdown. Only 15 per cent. of the soldiers have barracks at their disposal. The other must sleen in the .open. It is true that the English, french, German and American capitalists have offered to furnish barracks to the Spanish authorities on a large scale. But Spanish industry has protested against this attempt to deprive it of such fat profits; and it succeeded in getting the contracts. The Spanish factory owners secured enormous prices from the Government. Moreover Spain itself has not the wood for building these barracks, and th~ Spanish firms must first order the necessary wood from Norway. One can faintly imagine when that wood will reach Spain, when the backward Spanish industry will have the barracks ready, a~d w~en the Spanish bureaucracy which is still more incapable wtll shtp the barracks to Morocco. furthermore, the question of shelter is a life-and death question for the whole Spanish expedition in Morocco. The rain season occurs in the near fut~re, ~nd if the unfortunate Spanish soldiers should spend this penn? m the open they will be decimated by epidemics. The Spamsh adventure in Morocco thus will achieve a frightful consummation. The Spanish Moroccan war is a typical example of the methods used by rapacious Capitalism. The peasants' and workers' sons of Spain are driven to the shambles, in order that a few corporations may exercise their mining privileges. But on the other hand the existence of the whole army is staked in order that barrack-speculators may pocket their millions of pesetas. It is announced that 70,000 more soldiers are to be sent to Morocco. The indignation of the Spanish class-conscious prole tariat over the Moroccan adventure is barely conceivable. After the first great Spanish defeat, the Communist party of that country ma~e an attempt to C?verthrow the g?vernment by means of a revolutiOnary general-stnke. But the stnke was only effectire in the district of Bilbao. Madrid did not join, and the workers of Barcelona were incapacitated by the frightful white terror which has been raging there for months. Thus the first revolutionary advance was broken. But when the breakdown of the second big Spanish offensive will be realized at home, and when new masses of recruits and reserves will have been thrown into the Moroccan witches' caldron, then will not only the proletarian vanguard, but also the great masses of peasants and petty-bour geois rise against the system of Alfonso XIII and his capitalist subordinates. At first glance it may seem strange that france does not offer aid to the needy Spaniards in Morocco. Were the frent:h to attack the rebels from the South, the uprising would at once be at an end. But the french have no interest in turning the adventure of the Anglo-Spanish capitalist clique into an easy !riumph. .Fra'!ce looks on calmly, while the SJ?anish ruling class ~s exhaustmg tts stren~th .. france s~es that Its neutrality pays m other ways-$ee for mstance, the attitude of the Spanish delega tes at the League of Nations council in the Upper. Silesian decision. france is only waiting until the Spaniards become completely bankrupt in Morocco; then it will become heir to Spain's legacy. The Spanish system of government, domestically one of murdering workers, and in foreign affairs one of bloody Im perialism, was personified by Dato. The Spanish revolutionists who cleared Dato out of the way have thereby expressed the bitter indignation of the Spanish proletariat. The Berlin agents of Herr Weissmann, who want to deliver two of the supposed murderers of Dato to the Spanish rack and to the hangman's slaves, will be prevented by the German proletariat from getting the million pesetas blood-money that they expect. India. by 0. Safarov. "Pravda", Nov. 3, 1921. The Nationalist movement has recently made great pro gress in India. It is beginning to play an increasingly important part as an independent factor in world-diplomacy, in the cal culations of imperialistic diplomacy. Only the incurable stupidity of the bourgeoisie and those elements which profit by it seek the roots of this movement in Bolshevik propaganda. During the war, India which was freed from the guardianship of the mother country developed its home industries considerably. 1918 was a year of misfortune for India. According to official statistics 6,000,GOO people died of Spanish Influenza. 30,000,000 people died of hunger and epidemics which in India are the inevitable historical consequences of colonial exploitation. Before the C?nqu~st of India, famine had only a local character. After the VIctonous conquest of. European "Culture", famine became a general occurrence which recurs much more often than before. The war, which ·cut India's economic relation with the capital showed the native capitalistic and nationalistic elements, as wed as the intellectuals and the masses, that the cause of the misery and poverty of the richest peninsula in Asia lay in the colonial regime, and in the appropriation of the total production of untold millions of people by foreign capital. The war has prepared the gr~und for t_he national movement. The awakening of the other Onental natwns has pushed the masses into the fight for their liberation. The most noteworthy feature of this new national movement is its general spread and the uniting of various strata of the Indian population such as the Mohammedans and the native Indians. In Mohammedan India, the movement is spreading under the flag of the Khalifate and under the watchword of "the restoration of Turkey"· The Mohammedans and the Indians unanmously demand, however, the "Svaradj " the independence of India. . The National movement assumes peculiar forms, which at f1rst glance cannot be understood. for instance, such an occurrence as the burning of foreign clothing on the squares; the boycotting of foreign textiles; the undertaking of collections for the National fund. In many places, organs of national self government are created in a revolutionary way. The fight against foreign imperialism is first of all carried on for the economic and political independence of India. However, the more the grat masses are drawn into the movement the more of a revolutionary agrarian character their demand~ assume. So for instance, the recent uprising of Turkish Moplahs on the ~alaba~ coast, whic~ is being cruelly suppressed, was at the same bme directed agamst foreign outrages and against the Zemindars, the former tax-collectors, who were made large property owners by the English government. · State. counter-r~volutionary leagues are being founded for !he combattmg of th1s movement. Of course the public is not m favor of these leagues. Apart from the movement are the tame native "moderate" liberals, most of whom are government officials. These confine their d~mands to autonomy for the individual provinces. The position taken by the official leader of the movement, Ghandi, is ambigous. The representatives of the Turkish wing the brothers Ali, are more radical. In December the Nationai Congress, which will be of great importance, will take place. _The attitude of English circles can best be judged by the followmg excerpt from the " Civil and Military Gazette" of the 27th of August: " The Moplahs' uprising should be a timely warning to Ghandi, " Do not play with fire. The match which set fire to the small pile of foreign clothing, may cause a conflagration which the tears of a whole nation may not be able to extinguish". This is the way a " strong" government speaks; but it is not strong. Together with the Indian National movement grows the labor-movement in the industrial centers of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras. 1 his labor movement is now beginning to act in the economic field. But India has millions of proletarians, 11nd the national movement is its preparatory-school. _.....,""""-'<,....,,..,.._. ~ I __ ---,-~.~,~~~~-~ c s "--~,·-·"1 Economic Strn~\lles in Germany by Paul Frohlich. The bourgeois press in Germany is specul~ting on ruin. It is full of complaints about the country's bankruptcy. It lays more stress on the financial collapse than communist agitation could ever do. It may be supposed that it is hardly conscious of !he soundness of its arguments and prophecies. for it is obvwus what are the motives behind this exaggeration of the bourgeoisie. It wishes to avoid the payment of reparations to the Allies and desires to influence the Reparations Commission at present in Berlin. The Commission, however, has given no ground for the realization of this hope but on the contrary has somewhat disappointed. They hope by their threats of state bankruptcy to strengthen those voices in England which are in favor of a lenient policy toward Germany. At the same time this howling is intended to support the demands of the industrials for denationalization of the railways, increased ex ploitation of labour, etc. No. tO Intemational Press-Correspondence 79 their advance came to a stop. At present the Moroccan leaders a:e organizing a counter-offensive on the whole front. Side by stde wtth the old chief of the Riff-pirates, Raissuli, there is a talented younger leader Abd el Krim who commands the rebeL~. The S_P~niards are main_taining their _positions with great effort and difftculty. The freemg of the pnsoners or the regaining of the lost o-uns are not to be thought of. In the meanwhile the Spanish military organization suffered a complete breakdown. Only 15 per cent. of the soldiers have barracks at their disposal. The other must sleen in the .open. It is true that the English, french, German and American capitalists have offered to furnish barracks to the Spanish authorities on a large scale. But Spanish industry has protested against this attempt to deprive it of such fat profits; and it succeeded in getting the contracts. The Spanish factory owners secured enormous prices from the Government. Moreover Spain itself has not the wood for building these barracks, and th~ Spanish firms must first order the necessary wood from Norway. One can faintly imagine when that wood will reach Spain, when the backward Spanish industry will have the barracks ready, a~d w~en the Spanish bureaucracy which is still more incapable wtll shtp the barracks to Morocco. furthermore, the question of shelter is a life-and death question for the whole Spanish expedition in Morocco. The rain season occurs in the near fut~re, ~nd if the unfortunate Spanish soldiers should spend this penn? m the open they will be decimated by epidemics. The Spamsh adventure in Morocco thus will achieve a frightful consummation. The Spanish Moroccan war is a typical example of the methods used by rapacious Capitalism. The peasants' and workers' sons of Spain are driven to the shambles, in order that a few corporations may exercise their mining privileges. But on the other hand the existence of the whole army is staked in order that barrack-speculators may pocket their millions of pesetas. It is announced that 70,000 more soldiers are to be sent to Morocco. The indignation of the Spanish class-conscious prole tariat over the Moroccan adventure is barely conceivable. After the first great Spanish defeat, the Communist party of that country ma~e an attempt to C?verthrow the g?vernment by means of a revolutiOnary general-stnke. But the stnke was only effectire in the district of Bilbao. Madrid did not join, and the workers of Barcelona were incapacitated by the frightful white terror which has been raging there for months. Thus the first revolutionary advance was broken. But when the breakdown of the second big Spanish offensive will be realized at home, and when new masses of recruits and reserves will have been thrown into the Moroccan witches' caldron, then will not only the proletarian vanguard, but also the great masses of peasants and petty-bour geois rise against the system of Alfonso XIII and his capitalist subordinates. At first glance it may seem strange that france does not offer aid to the needy Spaniards in Morocco. Were the frent:h to attack the rebels from the South, the uprising would at once be at an end. But the french have no interest in turning the adventure of the Anglo-Spanish capitalist clique into an easy !riumph. .Fra'!ce looks on calmly, while the SJ?anish ruling class ~s exhaustmg tts stren~th .. france s~es that Its neutrality pays m other ways-$ee for mstance, the attitude of the Spanish delega tes at the League of Nations council in the Upper. Silesian decision. france is only waiting until the Spaniards become completely bankrupt in Morocco; then it will become heir to Spain's legacy. The Spanish system of government, domestically one of murdering workers, and in foreign affairs one of bloody Im perialism, was personified by Dato. The Spanish revolutionists who cleared Dato out of the way have thereby expressed the bitter indignation of the Spanish proletariat. The Berlin agents of Herr Weissmann, who want to deliver two of the supposed murderers of Dato to the Spanish rack and to the hangman's slaves, will be prevented by the German proletariat from getting the million pesetas blood-money that they expect. India. by 0. Safarov. "Pravda", Nov. 3, 1921. The Nationalist movement has recently made great pro gress in India. It is beginning to play an increasingly important part as an independent factor in world-diplomacy, in the cal culations of imperialistic diplomacy. Only the incurable stupidity of the bourgeoisie and those elements which profit by it seek the roots of this movement in Bolshevik propaganda. During the war, India which was freed from the guardianship of the mother country developed its home industries considerably. 1918 was a year of misfortune for India. According to official statistics 6,000,GOO people died of Spanish Influenza. 30,000,000 people died of hunger and epidemics which in India are the inevitable historical consequences of colonial exploitation. Before the C?nqu~st of India, famine had only a local character. After the VIctonous conquest of. European "Culture", famine became a general occurrence which recurs much more often than before. The war, which ·cut India's economic relation with the capital showed the native capitalistic and nationalistic elements, as wed as the intellectuals and the masses, that the cause of the misery and poverty of the richest peninsula in Asia lay in the colonial regime, and in the appropriation of the total production of untold millions of people by foreign capital. The war has prepared the gr~und for t_he national movement. The awakening of the other Onental natwns has pushed the masses into the fight for their liberation. The most noteworthy feature of this new national movement is its general spread and the uniting of various strata of the Indian population such as the Mohammedans and the native Indians. In Mohammedan India, the movement is spreading under the flag of the Khalifate and under the watchword of "the restoration of Turkey"· The Mohammedans and the Indians unanmously demand, however, the "Svaradj " the independence of India. . The National movement assumes peculiar forms, which at f1rst glance cannot be understood. for instance, such an occurrence as the burning of foreign clothing on the squares; the boycotting of foreign textiles; the undertaking of collections for the National fund. In many places, organs of national self government are created in a revolutionary way. The fight against foreign imperialism is first of all carried on for the economic and political independence of India. However, the more the grat masses are drawn into the movement the more of a revolutionary agrarian character their demand~ assume. So for instance, the recent uprising of Turkish Moplahs on the ~alaba~ coast, whic~ is being cruelly suppressed, was at the same bme directed agamst foreign outrages and against the Zemindars, the former tax-collectors, who were made large property owners by the English government. · State. counter-r~volutionary leagues are being founded for !he combattmg of th1s movement. Of course the public is not m favor of these leagues. Apart from the movement are the tame native "moderate" liberals, most of whom are government officials. These confine their d~mands to autonomy for the individual provinces. The position taken by the official leader of the movement, Ghandi, is ambigous. The representatives of the Turkish wing the brothers Ali, are more radical. In December the Nationai Congress, which will be of great importance, will take place. _The attitude of English circles can best be judged by the followmg excerpt from the " Civil and Military Gazette" of the 27th of August: " The Moplahs' uprising should be a timely warning to Ghandi, " Do not play with fire. The match which set fire to the small pile of foreign clothing, may cause a conflagration which the tears of a whole nation may not be able to extinguish". This is the way a " strong" government speaks; but it is not strong. Together with the Indian National movement grows the labor-movement in the industrial centers of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras. 1 his labor movement is now beginning to act in the economic field. But India has millions of proletarians, 11nd the national movement is its preparatory-school. _.....,""""-'<,....,,..,.._. ~ I __ ---,-~.~,~~~~-~ c s "--~,·-·"1 Economic Strn~\lles in Germany by Paul Frohlich. The bourgeois press in Germany is specul~ting on ruin. It is full of complaints about the country's bankruptcy. It lays more stress on the financial collapse than communist agitation could ever do. It may be supposed that it is hardly conscious of !he soundness of its arguments and prophecies. for it is obvwus what are the motives behind this exaggeration of the bourgeoisie. It wishes to avoid the payment of reparations to the Allies and desires to influence the Reparations Commission at present in Berlin. The Commission, however, has given no ground for the realization of this hope but on the contrary has somewhat disappointed. They hope by their threats of state bankruptcy to strengthen those voices in England which are in favor of a lenient policy toward Germany. At the same time this howling is intended to support the demands of the industrials for denationalization of the railways, increased ex ploitation of labour, etc. | left | intemational presscorrespondence advance come stop present moroccan leader ae organize counteroffensive stde wtth old chief riffpirate raissuli talented young leader abd el krim command rebel spniard maintain position great effort difftculty freemg pnsoner regaining lose oun think spanish military organization suffer complete breakdown cent soldier barrack disposal sleen open true english french german american capitalist offer furnish barrack spanish authority large scale spanish industry protest attempt deprive fat profit succeed get contract spanish factory owner secure enormous price government spain wood build barrack th spanish firm order necessary wood norway faintly imagine wood reach spain backward spanish industry barrack ready ad wen spanish bureaucracy incapable wtll shtp barrack morocco furthermore question shelter lifeand death question spanish expedition morocco rain season occur near futre nd unfortunate spanish soldier spend penn m open decimate epidemic spamsh adventure morocco achieve frightful consummation spanish moroccan war typical example method rapacious capitalism peasant worker son spain drive shamble order corporation exercise mining privilege hand existence army stake order barrackspeculator pocket million peseta announce soldier send morocco indignation spanish classconscious tariat moroccan adventure barely conceivable great spanish defeat communist party country mae attempt cverthrow gvernment mean revolutionary generalstnke stnke effectire district bilbao madrid join worker barcelona incapacitate frightful white terror rage month revolutionary advance break breakdown second big spanish offensive realize home new masse recruit reserve throw moroccan witches caldron proletarian vanguard great masse peasant geois rise system alfonso xiii capitalist subordinate glance strange france offer aid needy spaniard morocco frenth attack rebel south uprising end french interest turn adventure anglospanish capitalist clique easy riumph frace look calmly sjanish rule class s exhaustmg tts strenth france ses neutrality pay m waysee mstance attitude spanish te league nations council upper silesian decision france wait spaniard completely bankrupt morocco heir spain legacy spanish system government domestically murder worker foreign affair bloody perialism personify dato spanish revolutionist clear dato way express bitter indignation spanish proletariat berlin agent herr weissmann want deliver suppose murderer dato spanish rack hangmans slave prevent german proletariat get million peseta bloodmoney expect india safarov pravda nov nationalist movement recently great gress india begin play increasingly important independent factor worlddiplomacy culation imperialistic diplomacy incurable stupidity bourgeoisie element profit seek root movement bolshevik propaganda war india free guardianship mother country develop home industry considerably year misfortune india accord official statistic people die spanish influenza people die hunger epidemic india inevitable historical consequence colonial exploitation cnqust india famine local character victonous conquest european culture famine general occurrence recur war cut indias economic relation capital show native capitalistic nationalistic element d intellectual masse cause misery poverty rich peninsula asia lie colonial regime appropriation total production untold million people foreign capital war prepare grund national movement awakening onental natwn push masse fight liberation noteworthy feature new national movement general spread uniting strata indian population mohammedan native indians mohammedan india movement spread flag khalifate watchword restoration turkey mohammedan indians unanmously demand svaradj independence india national movement assume peculiar form glance understand instance occurrence burning foreign clothing square boycotting foreign textile undertaking collection national fund place organ national government create revolutionary way fight foreign imperialism carry economic political independence india grat masse draw movement revolutionary agrarian character demand assume instance recent uprising turkish moplah alaba coast whic cruelly suppress bme direct agamst foreign outrage zemindar taxcollector large property owner english government state counterrvolutionary league found combattmg movement course public m favor league apart movement tame native moderate liberal government official confine dmand autonomy individual province position take official leader movement ghandi ambigous representative turkish wing brother ali radical december nationai congress great importance place attitude english circle well judge followmg excerpt civil military gazette august moplah uprising timely warning ghandi play fire match set fire small pile foreign clothing cause conflagration tear nation able extinguish way strong government speak strong indian national movement grow labormovement industrial center calcutta bombay madra labor movement begin act economic field india million proletarian national movement preparatoryschool c s economic strnlle germany paul frohlich bourgeois press germany speculte ruin complaint countrys bankruptcy lay stress financial collapse communist agitation suppose hardly conscious soundness argument prophecy obvwus motive exaggeration bourgeoisie wish avoid payment reparation ally desire influence reparation commission present berlin commission give ground realization hope contrary somewhat disappoint hope threat state bankruptcy strengthen voice england favor lenient policy germany time howling intend support demand industrial denationalization railway increase ploitation labour etc intemational presscorrespondence advance come stop present moroccan leader ae organize counteroffensive stde wtth old chief riffpirate raissuli talented young leader abd el krim command rebel spniard maintain position great effort difftculty freemg pnsoner regaining lose oun think spanish military organization suffer complete breakdown cent soldier barrack disposal sleen open true english french german american capitalist offer furnish barrack spanish authority large scale spanish industry protest attempt deprive fat profit succeed get contract spanish factory owner secure enormous price government spain wood build barrack th spanish firm order necessary wood norway faintly imagine wood reach spain backward spanish industry barrack ready ad wen spanish bureaucracy incapable wtll shtp barrack morocco furthermore question shelter lifeand death question spanish expedition morocco rain season occur near futre nd unfortunate spanish soldier spend penn m open decimate epidemic spamsh adventure morocco achieve frightful consummation spanish moroccan war typical example method rapacious capitalism peasant worker son spain drive shamble order corporation exercise mining privilege hand existence army stake order barrackspeculator pocket million peseta announce soldier send morocco indignation spanish classconscious tariat moroccan adventure barely conceivable great spanish defeat communist party country mae attempt cverthrow gvernment mean revolutionary generalstnke stnke effectire district bilbao madrid join worker barcelona incapacitate frightful white terror rage month revolutionary advance break breakdown second big spanish offensive realize home new masse recruit reserve throw moroccan witches caldron proletarian vanguard great masse peasant geois rise system alfonso xiii capitalist subordinate glance strange france offer aid needy spaniard morocco frenth attack rebel south uprising end french interest turn adventure anglospanish capitalist clique easy riumph frace look calmly sjanish rule class s exhaustmg tts strenth france ses neutrality pay m waysee mstance attitude spanish te league nations council upper silesian decision france wait spaniard completely bankrupt morocco heir spain legacy spanish system government domestically murder worker foreign affair bloody perialism personify dato spanish revolutionist clear dato way express bitter indignation spanish proletariat berlin agent herr weissmann want deliver suppose murderer dato spanish rack hangmans slave prevent german proletariat get million peseta bloodmoney expect india safarov pravda nov nationalist movement recently great gress india begin play increasingly important independent factor worlddiplomacy culation imperialistic diplomacy incurable stupidity bourgeoisie element profit seek root movement bolshevik propaganda war india free guardianship mother country develop home industry considerably year misfortune india accord official statistic people die spanish influenza people die hunger epidemic india inevitable historical consequence colonial exploitation cnqust india famine local character victonous conquest european culture famine general occurrence recur war cut indias economic relation capital show native capitalistic nationalistic element d intellectual masse cause misery poverty rich peninsula asia lie colonial regime appropriation total production untold million people foreign capital war prepare grund national movement awakening onental natwn push masse fight liberation noteworthy feature new national movement general spread uniting strata indian population mohammedan native indians mohammedan india movement spread flag khalifate watchword restoration turkey mohammedan indians unanmously demand svaradj independence india national movement assume peculiar form glance understand instance occurrence burning foreign clothing square boycotting foreign textile undertaking collection national fund place organ national government create revolutionary way fight foreign imperialism carry economic political independence india grat masse draw movement revolutionary agrarian character demand assume instance recent uprising turkish moplah alaba coast whic cruelly suppress bme direct agamst foreign outrage zemindar taxcollector large property owner english government state counterrvolutionary league found combattmg movement course public m favor league apart movement tame native moderate liberal government official confine dmand autonomy individual province position take official leader movement ghandi ambigous representative turkish wing brother ali radical december nationai congress great importance place attitude english circle well judge followmg excerpt civil military gazette august moplah uprising timely warning ghandi play fire match set fire small pile foreign clothing cause conflagration tear nation able extinguish way strong government speak strong indian national movement grow labormovement industrial center calcutta bombay madra labor movement begin act economic field india million proletarian national movement preparatoryschool c s economic strnlle germany paul frohlich bourgeois press germany speculte ruin complaint countrys bankruptcy lay stress financial collapse communist agitation suppose hardly conscious soundness argument prophecy obvwus motive exaggeration bourgeoisie wish avoid payment reparation ally desire influence reparation commission present berlin commission give ground realization hope contrary somewhat disappoint hope threat state bankruptcy strengthen voice england favor lenient policy germany time howling intend support demand industrial denationalization railway increase ploitation labour etc | 58 |
J. V. Stalin Source: Works, Vol. 11, January, 1928 to March, 1929 Publisher: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954 Transcription/Markup: Salil Sen for MIA, 2008 Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2008). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. I have been sent to you here in Siberia for a short visit. I have been instructed to help you to fulfil the plan for grain procurements. I have also been instructed to discuss with you the prospects for the development of agriculture, the plan for developing the formation of collective farms and state farms in your territory. You are no doubt aware that this year our country's grain accounts show a shortage, a deficit, of more than 100,000,000 poods. Because of this the Government and the Central Committee have had to tighten up grain procurements in all regions and territories so as to cover this deficit in our grain accounts. The deficit will have to be met primarily by the regions and territories with good harvests, which will have not only to fulfil, but to over fulfil the plan for grain procurements. You know, of course, what the effect of the deficit may be if it is not made good. The effect will be that our towns and industrial centres, as well as our Red Army, will be in grave difficulties; they will be poorly supplied and will be threatened with hunger. Obviously, we cannot allow that. What do you think about it? What measures are you thinking of taking in order to perform your duty to the country? I have made a tour of the districts of your territory and have had the opportunity to see for myself that your people are not seriously concerned to help our country to emerge from the grain crisis. You have had a bumper harvest, one might say a record one. Your grain surpluses this year are bigger than ever before. Yet the plan for grain procurements is not being fulfilled. Why? What is the reason? You say that the plan for grain procurements is a heavy one, and that it cannot be fulfilled. Why cannot it be fulfilled? Where did you get that idea from? Is it not a fact that your harvest this year really is a record one? Is it not a fact that Siberia's grain procurement plan this year is almost the same as it was last year? Why, then, do you consider that the plan cannot be fulfilled? Look at the kulak farms: their barns and sheds are crammed with grain; grain is lying in the open under pent roofs for lack of storage space; the kulaks have 50,000-60,000 poods of surplus grain per farm, not counting seed, food and fodder stocks. Yet you say that the grain procurement plan cannot be fulfilled. Why are you so pessimistic? You say that the kulaks are unwilling to deliver grain, that they are waiting for prices to rise, and prefer to engage in unbridled speculation. That is true. But the kulaks are not simply waiting for prices to rise; they are demanding an increase in prices to three times those fixed by the government. Do you think it permissible to satisfy the kulaks? The poor peasants and a considerable section of the middle peasants have already delivered their grain to the state at government prices. Is it permissible for the government to pay the kulaks three times as much for grain as it pays the poor and middle peasants? One has only to ask this question to realise how impermissible it would be to satisfy the kulaks' demands. If the kulaks are engaging in unbridled speculation on grain prices, why do you not prosecute them for speculation? Don't you know that there is a law against speculation—Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R., under which persons guilty of speculation are liable to prosecution, and their goods to confiscation in favour of the state? Why don't you enforce this law against the grain speculators? Can it be that you are afraid to disturb the tranquility of the kulak gentry?! You say that enforcement of Article 107 against the kulaks would be an emergency measure, that it would not be productive of good results, that it would worsen the situation in the countryside. Comrade Zagumenny is especially insistent about this. Supposing it would be an emergency measure—what of it? Why is it that in other territories and regions enforcement of Article 107 has yielded splendid results, has rallied the labouring peasantry around the Soviet Government and improved the situation in the countryside, while among you, in Siberia, it is held that it is bound to produce bad results and worsen the situation? Why, on what grounds? You say that your prosecuting and judicial authorities are not prepared for such a step. But why is it that in other territories and regions the prosecuting and judicial authorities were prepared for it and are acting quite effectively, yet here they are not prepared to enforce Article 107 against speculators? Who is to blame for that? Obviously, it is your Party organisations that are to blame; they are evidently working badly and are not seeing to it that the laws of our country are conscientiously observed. I have seen several dozen of your prosecuting and judicial officials. Nearly all of them live in the homes of kulaks, board and lodge with them, and, of course, they are anxious to live in peace with the kulaks. In reply to my question, they said that the kulaks' homes are cleaner, and the food there is better. Clearly, nothing effective or useful for the Soviet state is to be expected from such prosecuting and judicial officials. The only thing that is not clear is why these gentry have not yet been cleared out and replaced by other, honest officials. I propose: that the kulaks be ordered to deliver all their grain surpluses immediately at government prices; that if the kulaks refuse to obey the law they should be prosecuted under Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R., and their grain surpluses confiscated in favour of the state, 25 per cent of the confiscated grain to be distributed among the poor peasants and economically weaker middle peasants at low government prices or in the form of long-term loans. As for your prosecuting and judicial officials, all who are unfit for their posts should be dismissed and replaced by honest, conscientious Soviet-minded people. You will soon see that these measures yield splendid results, and you will be able not only to fulfil, but even over fulfil the plan for grain procurements. But this does not exhaust the problem. These measures will be sufficient to correct the situation this year. But there is no guarantee that the kulaks will not again sabotage the grain procurements next year. More, it may be said with certainty that so long as there are kulaks, so long will there be sabotage of the grain procurements. In order to put the grain procurements on a more or less satisfactory basis, other measures are required. What measures exactly? I have in mind developing the formation of collective farms and state farms. Collective and state farms are, as you know, large-scale farms capable of employing tractors and machines. They produce larger marketable surpluses than the landlord or kulak farms. It should be borne in mind that our towns and our industry are growing and will continue to grow from year to year. That is necessary for the industrialisation of the country. Consequently, the demand for grain will increase from year to year, and this means that the grain procurement plans will also increase. We cannot allow our industry to be dependent on the caprice of the kulaks. We must therefore see to it that in the course of the next three or four years the collective farms and state farms, as deliverers of grain, are in a position to supply the state with at least one-third of the grain required. This would relegate the kulaks to the background and lay the foundation for the more or less proper supply of grain to the workers and the Red Army. But in order to achieve this, we must develop the formation of collective and state farms to the utmost, sparing neither energy nor resources. It can be done, and we must do it. But even that is not all. Our country cannot live with an eye only to today's needs. We must also give thought to the morrow, to the prospects for the development of our agriculture and, lastly, to the fate of socialism in our country. The grain problem is part of the agricultural problem, and the agricultural problem is an integral part of the problem of building socialism in our country. The partial collectivisation of agriculture of which I have just spoken will be sufficient to keep the working class and the Red Army more or less tolerably supplied with grain, but it will be altogether insufficient for: providing a firm basis for a fully adequate supply of food to the whole country while ensuring the necessary food reserves in the hands of the state, and securing the victory of socialist construction in the countryside, in agriculture. Today the Soviet system rests upon two heterogeneous foundations: upon united socialised industry and upon individual small-peasant economy based on private ownership of the means of production. Can the Soviet system persist for long on these heterogeneous foundations? No, it cannot. Lenin says that so long as individual peasant economy, which engenders capitalists and capitalism, predominates in the country, the danger of a restoration of capitalism will exist. Clearly, so long as this danger exists there can be no serious talk of the victory of socialist construction in our country. Hence, for the consolidation of the Soviet system and for the victory of socialist construction in our country, the socialisation of industry alone is quite insufficient. What is required for that is to pass from the socialisation of industry to the socialisation of the whole of agriculture. And what does that imply? It implies, firstly, that we must gradually, but unswervingly, unite the individual peasant farms, which produce the smallest marketable surpluses, into collective farms, kolkhozes, which produce the largest marketable surpluses. It implies, secondly, that all areas of our country, without exception, must be covered with collective farms (and state farms) capable of replacing not only the kulaks, but the individual peasants as well, as suppliers of grain to the state. It implies, thirdly, doing away with all sources that engender capitalists and capitalism, and putting an end to the possibility of the restoration of capitalism. It implies, fourthly, creating a firm basis for the systematic and abundant supply of the whole country not only with grain, but also with other foodstuffs, while ensuring the necessary reserves for the state. It implies, fifthly, creating a single and firm socialist basis for the Soviet system, for Soviet power. It implies, lastly, ensuring the victory of socialist construction in our country. Such are the prospects for the development of our agriculture. Such is the task of victoriously building socialism in our country. It is a complex and difficult task, but one that is quite possible to fulfil; for difficulties exist in order to be surmounted and vanquished. We must realise that we can no longer make progress on the basis of small individual peasant economy, that what we need in agriculture is large farms capable of employing machines and producing the maximum marketable surpluses. There are two ways of creating large farms in agriculture: the capitalist way—through the wholesale ruin of the peasants and the organisation of big capitalist estates exploiting labour; and the socialist way—through the union of the small peasant farms into large collective farms, without ruining the peasants and without exploitation of labour. Our Party has chosen the socialist way of creating large farms in agriculture. Even before the victory of the October Revolution, and then, immediately after that victory, Lenin set the Party the task of uniting the small peasant farms into large collective farms as the prospect for the development of our agriculture, and as the decisive means of securing the victory of socialism in the countryside, in agriculture. Lenin pointed out that: "The small-farming system under commodity production cannot save mankind from the poverty and oppression of the masses" (Vol. XX, p. 1222); "If we continue as of old on our small farms, even as free citizens on free land, we shall still be faced with inevitable ruin" (Vol. XX, p. 4173); c)"Only with the help of common, artel, co-operative labour can we escape from the impasse into which the imperialist war has landed us" (Vol. XXIV, p. 537). Lenin further points out: "Only if we succeed in practice in showing the peasants the advantages of common, collective, co-operative, artel cultivation of the soil, only if we succeed in helping the peasant by means of co-operative, artel farming, will the working class, which holds state power in its hands, actually prove to the peasant the correctness of its policy and actually secure the real and durable following of the vast masses of the peasantry. Hence the importance of every kind of measure to promote co-operative, artel agriculture can hardly be overestimated. We have millions of individual farms in our country, scattered and dispersed in the depths of the countryside. . . . Only when it is proved in practice, by experience easily understood by the peasants, that the transition to the co-operative, artel form of agriculture is essential and possible, only then shall we be entitled to say that in this vast peasant country, Russia, an important step towards socialist agriculture has been taken" * (Vol. XXIV, pp. 579-80). Such are Lenin's directives. In pursuance of these directives, the Fifteenth Congress of our Party 4 stated in its resolution on "Work in the Countryside": "In the present period, the task of uniting and transforming the small individual peasant farms into large collective farms must be made the Party's principal task in the countryside."5 That, comrades, is how matters stand in regard to the socialisation of agriculture in our country. Our duty is to carry out these directives. * My italics.— J. Stalin 1. During his journey in Siberia, lasting from January 15 to February 6. 1928, J. V. Stalin visited the principal grain-growing regions. He attended a meeting of the Bureau of the Siberian Territorial Committee of the C.P.S.U.(B.) in Novosibirsk, meetings of the bureaux of okrug committees of the C.P.S.U.(B.), and conferences of the actives of the Barnaul, Biisk. Rubtsovsk and Omsk okrug Party organisations, together with representatives of the Soviets and the procurement bodies. Thanks to the political and organisational measures carried out by J. V. Stalin, the Siberian Party organisations were able to ensure fulfilment of the grain procurement plan. 2. See V. I. Lenin, Works, 4th Russ. ed., Vol. 24, p. 51. 3. See V. I. Lenin, Works, 4th Russ. ed., Vol. 24, p. 465. 4.. The Fifteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.) took place in Moscow, December 2-19, 1927. The congress discussed the political and organisational reports of the Central Committee, the reports of the Central Auditing Commission of the Central Control Commission and Workers' and Peasants' Inspection, and of the C.P.S.U.(B.) delegation in the Executive Committee of the Comintern; it also discussed the directives for the drawing up of a five-year plan for the development of the national economy and a report on work in the countryside; it heard the report of the congress commission on the question of the opposition and elected the central bodies of the Party. On December 3, J. V. Stalin delivered the political report of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.(B.) and on December 7 he replied to the discussion. On December 12, the congress elected J. V. Stalin a member of the commission for drafting the resolution on the report about the work of the C.P.S.U.(B.) delegation in the Executive Committee of the Comintern. The congress approved the political and organisational line of the Party's Central Committee and instructed it to continue to pursue a policy of peace and of strengthening the defence capacity of the U.S.S.R., to continue with unrelaxing tempo the socialist industrialisation of the country, to extend and strengthen the socialist sector in town and countryside and to steer a course towards eliminating the capitalist elements from the national economy. The congress gave instructions for the drawing up of the First Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the U.S.S.R. The congress passed a resolution calling for the fullest development of the collectivisation of agriculture, outlined a plan for the extension of collective farms and state farms and indicated the methods of fighting for the collectivisation of agriculture. The Fifteenth Congress has gone into the history of the Party as the Collectivisation of Agriculture Congress. In its decisions on the opposition, directed towards the liquidation of the Trotsky-Zinoviev bloc, the congress noted that the disagreements between the Party and the opposition had developed into programmatic disagreements, that the Trotskyist opposition had taken the path of anti-Soviet struggle, and declared that adherence to the Trotskyist opposition and the propagation of its views were incompatible with membership of the Bolshevik Party. The congress approved the decision of the joint meeting of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission of the C.P.S.U.(B.) of November 1927 to expel Trotsky and Zinoviev from the Party and decided to expel from the Party all active members of the Trotsky-Zinoviev bloc. (On the Fifteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.), see History of the C.P.S.U.(B.), Short Course, Moscow 1954, pp. 447-49. For the resolutions and decisions of the congress, see Resolutions and Decisions of C.P.S.U. Congresses, Conferences and Central Committee Plenums, Part II, 1953, pp. 313-71.) 5. See Resolutions and Decisions of C.P.S.U. Congresses, Conferences and Central Committee Plenums, Part II, 1953, p. 355. Collected Works Index | Volume 11 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol january march publisher foreign language publish house moscow transcriptionmarkup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source send siberia short visit instruct help fulfil plan grain procurement instruct discuss prospect development agriculture plan develop formation collective farm state farm territory doubt aware year country grain account shortage deficit pood government central committee tighten grain procurement region territory cover deficit grain account deficit meet primarily region territory good harvest fulfil fulfil plan grain procurement know course effect deficit good effect town industrial centre red army grave difficulty poorly supply threaten hunger obviously allow think measure think take order perform duty country tour district territory opportunity people seriously concerned help country emerge grain crisis bumper harvest record grain surplus year big plan grain procurement fulfil reason plan grain procurement heavy fulfil fulfil idea fact harvest year record fact siberias grain procurement plan year year consider plan fulfil look kulak farm barn shed cram grain grain lie open pen roof lack storage space kulak pood surplus grain farm count seed food fodder stock grain procurement plan fulfil pessimistic kulak unwilling deliver grain wait price rise prefer engage unbridled speculation true kulak simply wait price rise demand increase price time fix government think permissible satisfy kulak poor peasant considerable section middle peasant deliver grain state government price permissible government pay kulak time grain pay poor middle peasant ask question realise impermissible satisfy kulak demand kulak engage unbridled speculation grain price prosecute speculation not know law speculation article criminal code rsfsr person guilty speculation liable prosecution good confiscation favour state not enforce law grain speculator afraid disturb tranquility kulak gentry enforcement article kulak emergency measure productive good result worsen situation countryside comrade zagumenny especially insistent supposing emergency measure territory region enforcement article yield splendid result rally labour peasantry soviet government improve situation countryside siberia hold bind produce bad result worsen situation ground prosecuting judicial authority prepared step territory region prosecute judicial authority prepare act effectively prepared enforce article speculator blame obviously party organisation blame evidently work badly see law country conscientiously observe see dozen prosecute judicial official nearly live home kulaks board lodge course anxious live peace kulak reply question say kulak home clean food well clearly effective useful soviet state expect prosecute judicial official thing clear gentry clear replace honest official propose kulak order deliver grain surplus immediately government price kulak refuse obey law prosecute article criminal code rsfsr grain surplus confiscate favour state cent confiscate grain distribute poor peasant economically weak middle peasant low government price form longterm loan prosecuting judicial official unfit post dismiss replace honest conscientious sovietminde people soon measure yield splendid result able fulfil fulfil plan grain procurement exhaust problem measure sufficient correct situation year guarantee kulak sabotage grain procurement year say certainty long kulak long sabotage grain procurement order grain procurement satisfactory basis measure require measure exactly mind develop formation collective farm state farm collective state farm know largescale farm capable employ tractor machine produce large marketable surplus landlord kulak farm bear mind town industry grow continue grow year year necessary industrialisation country consequently demand grain increase year year mean grain procurement plan increase allow industry dependent caprice kulak course year collective farm state farm deliverer grain position supply state onethird grain require relegate kulak background lie foundation proper supply grain worker red army order achieve develop formation collective state farm utmost spare energy resource country live eye today need thought morrow prospect development agriculture lastly fate socialism country grain problem agricultural problem agricultural problem integral problem build socialism country partial collectivisation agriculture speak sufficient work class red army tolerably supply grain altogether insufficient provide firm basis fully adequate supply food country ensure necessary food reserve hand state secure victory socialist construction countryside agriculture today soviet system rest heterogeneous foundation united socialised industry individual smallpeasant economy base private ownership mean production soviet system persist long heterogeneous foundation lenin say long individual peasant economy engender capitalist capitalism predominate country danger restoration capitalism exist clearly long danger exist talk victory socialist construction country consolidation soviet system victory socialist construction country socialisation industry insufficient require pass socialisation industry socialisation agriculture imply imply firstly gradually unswervingly unite individual peasant farm produce small marketable surplus collective farm kolkhoze produce large marketable surplus imply secondly area country exception cover collective farm state farm capable replace kulak individual peasant supplier grain state imply thirdly away source engender capitalist capitalism put end possibility restoration capitalism imply fourthly create firm basis systematic abundant supply country grain foodstuff ensure necessary reserve state imply fifthly create single firm socialist basis soviet system soviet power imply lastly ensure victory socialist construction country prospect development agriculture task victoriously build socialism country complex difficult task possible fulfil difficulty exist order surmount vanquish realise long progress basis small individual peasant economy need agriculture large farm capable employ machine produce maximum marketable surplus way create large farm agriculture capitalist way wholesale ruin peasant organisation big capitalist estate exploit labour socialist way union small peasant farm large collective farm ruin peasant exploitation labour party choose socialist way create large farm agriculture victory october revolution immediately victory lenin set party task unite small peasant farm large collective farm prospect development agriculture decisive mean secure victory socialism countryside agriculture lenin point smallfarme system commodity production save mankind poverty oppression masse vol xx p continue old small farm free citizen free land shall face inevitable ruin vol xx p conly help common artel cooperative labour escape impasse imperialist war land vol xxiv p lenin point succeed practice show peasant advantage common collective cooperative artel cultivation soil succeed help peasant mean cooperative artel farming work class hold state power hand actually prove peasant correctness policy actually secure real durable following vast masse peasantry importance kind measure promote cooperative artel agriculture hardly overestimate million individual farm country scatter disperse depth countryside prove practice experience easily understand peasant transition cooperative artel form agriculture essential possible shall entitle vast peasant country russia important step socialist agriculture take vol xxiv pp lenin directive pursuance directive fifteenth congress party state resolution work countryside present period task unite transform small individual peasant farm large collective farm partys principal task comrade matter stand regard socialisation agriculture country duty carry directive italic j stalin journey siberia last january february j v stalin visit principal graingrowing region attend meeting bureau siberian territorial committee cpsub novosibirsk meeting bureaux okrug committee cpsub conference active barnaul biisk rubtsovsk omsk okrug party organisation representative soviet procurement body thank political organisational measure carry j v stalin siberian party organisation able ensure fulfilment grain procurement plan v lenin work russ ed vol p v lenin work russ ed vol p fifteenth congress cpsub take place moscow december congress discuss political organisational report central committee report central auditing commission central control commission worker peasant inspection cpsub delegation executive committee comintern discuss directive drawing fiveyear plan development national economy report work countryside hear report congress commission question opposition elect central body party december j v stalin deliver political report central committee cpsub december reply discussion december congress elect j v stalin member commission draft resolution report work cpsub delegation executive committee comintern congress approve political organisational line partys central committee instruct continue pursue policy peace strengthen defence capacity ussr continue unrelaxing tempo socialist industrialisation country extend strengthen socialist sector town countryside steer course eliminate capitalist element national economy congress give instruction drawing fiveyear plan development national economy ussr congress pass resolution call full development collectivisation agriculture outline plan extension collective farm state farm indicate method fight collectivisation agriculture fifteenth congress go history party collectivisation agriculture congress decision opposition direct liquidation trotskyzinoviev bloc congress note disagreement party opposition develop programmatic disagreement trotskyist opposition take path antisoviet struggle declare adherence trotskyist opposition propagation view incompatible membership bolshevik party congress approve decision joint meeting central committee central control commission cpsub november expel trotsky zinoviev party decide expel party active member trotskyzinoviev bloc fifteenth congress cpsub history cpsub short course moscow pp resolution decision congress resolution decision cpsu congress conference central committee plenum ii pp resolution decision cpsu congress conference central committee plenum ii p collect work index volume index work decade j v stalin archive | 59 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From New International, Vol.4 No.7, July 1938, pp.198-202. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. We are glad to present the following picture of the situation in Spain to our readers because of the frank and dramatic manner in which it gives eye-witness details about the treacherous role of the Popular Front in the struggle against the fascists. The article is written by a syndicalist militant who has participated in the Spanish civil war and whose integrity is vouched for by the editors of La Révolution Prolétarienne, the organ of the French syndicalists in which it first appeared (May 10 and 25, 1938). Although the editors of The New International do not agree entirely with the point of view of the author or with all his conclusions, the more than ordinary importance of the article warrants its translation for our readers. With the exception of a few minor passages, whose deletion is indicated by asterisks, the article is given here in full. – Ed. THE SUDDEN WORSENING of the military situation for anti-fascist Spain is not something unexpected: the debacle is no surprise for anybody in the governmental circles, either in Barcelona or in London and Paris. I could quote passages from extreme left wing Spanish journals which, a month in advance, announced “hours of terrible tests”. The Barcelona government, playing its role of scapegoat, takes the responsibility for the defeats desired by London and tolerated by Paris, which does not dare to lift its little finger against The City. Has the “Prietist” government of Barcelona, in England’s service, ditched by France and the USSR, accepted the shameful mission of buying peace in Spain by its own defeat? Numerous indications tend to affirm this. The first indication is the ministerial shake-up to permit the eviction of Prieto. One major reason, it is known, deprives bourgeois governments of the Prieto type of the desire to win the war in a revolutionary way: the fear – well-founded, moreover – of being unable to dam the revolutionary drive that would follow. The wearing down of the revolutionary cadres in the war has been in vain, the social aspirations remain. The fear of their weakness which makes the rulers prefer organized and conditional defeat to victory, is precisely the reason that impelled the CNT and the FAI, to pursue a policy of governmental collaboration. Mussolini and Hitler also dread the consequences of this weakness, from the ideological viewpoint; English imperialism, which possesses the greatest part of Spain’s riches, dreads it from the standpoint of its own interests. Hence, the Spanish Republican government does not desire victory and international imperialism demands defeat of it. How have the Republicans organized the defeat? First of all there is the story of the provision of armaments. Nobody can be made to believe that, with money and gold, the necessary materials could not be procured. The impossibility, which was real for a Caballero cabinet, no longer existed for a Negrin-Prieto cabinet. But can one really speak of a Negrin-Prieto government as a Spanish government? Can a Negrin-Prieto government want anything different than The City wants? Added to the lack of material are certain things unforeseen in the conduct of the war: the Aragon front had but one line of defense in March 1938, just as at the end of the autumn of 1936. At the same time that they are powerless to stem the Italo-German advance in Aragon, they divert forces into useless attacks in the province of Jaen in Andalusia and in Guadalajara. Teruel is taken, the possession of which can have no value except to exterminate the International and the CNT brigades – the latter constituting 70 percent of the troops engaged – which will thus no longer threaten to return from the front in case of disturbances at the rear, as in May 1937. On the sea, the Baleares is sunk and the Canarias is damaged. On the day of the engagement, to hear the technicians who took part in it, the Canarias could also have been sunk. But the firing was stopped. As if by chance, units of the English fleet were on the scene and gave aid and comfort to the rebels, impeding the action of the government fleet and aircraft. * * * * The army is rotten with spies. In February, young trained recruits are concentrated, one afternoon, in a barrack – Park of the Citadel – in order to leave for the front in the evening. A few hours after the concentration, enemy airplanes arrive and bombard the barrack in shifts, with fury and precision. There are thousands of victims. The communist party demands the arrest and execution of those responsible for this criminal “negligence”. The police seems to be no more dependable than the army: early in March, the trade union and political organizations, expecting an attack by the “Fifth Column”, mounted guard in their headquarters, ready for all eventualities. The bombardments have revealed strange things. The bombers have always attacked almost exclusively the popular quarters. After having pounded away at the immediate suburbs of Barcelonetta, where an humble population of 70,000 souls was concentrated, the massacrers attacked the old workers’ quarters of Barcelona, when there was nobody left to kill in the above-mentioned suburb, now in ruins and completely evacuated. There are, however, the ministries which are almost all centralized in two great’ arteries, the Paseo de Gracia and the Diagonal. The foot of the Paseo de Gracia was bombed on March 16 and 18, but only up to the line where the first ministries are located. The only time that the Italo-German pilots aimed at the official buildings was on January 30, in reply to a raid of reprisal on Salamanca, where official German centers were hit; they aimed at the palace of the Generality without succeeding in hitting it. But the Republican government immediately declared its renunciation of all reprisals, leaving it to the judgment of the civilized world and to the action of the chancelleries ... On the morrow of the collapse of the front which, towards the middle of March, brought the Italo-Germans at a single leap to 50 kilometers from the sea, along an 80 kilometer front, Prieto is supposed to have threatened to surrender if he continued to receive no foreign aid. There is no smoke without fire; for that, the government endeavored to drive the communists out of its midst. This threat was not new. Feeling the ground slipping from under them – the incarceration of the communist head of the international brigades of the army of Madrid, on the order of Crecencio Bilbao, republican and supreme commissar of the armies; the ditching of Brueno Alonso, commissar of the fleet; the serious threat of being chased out of the censorship services; their brutal eviction from certain positions in the Public Order and in the police, etc. – the communists are holding on with their teeth and do not want to lose their last two positions. For weeks, communist delegations have been coming to the National Committee of the CNT, urging – rather, beseeching – the Confederation to make a pact with the CP These delegations are invariably shown the door. No matter: the communist organs, having changed their tone in time, continue to shower us with kind attentions. The fish doesn’t bite, but the threat that hangs over them of being kicked out of the government, is becoming plainer; the whole party apparatus is set in motion and it decides to undertake a public agitation. The evening of March 15 a popular demonstration takes place beneath the ministries, demanding the conduct of the war to the bitter end. Their propagandists, unlimited means behind them, muster up crowds from the queer quarters; publicity autos at their disposal bawl through their loud-speaker’s and toss out manifestoes. Knowing all about agitation, the communists create a dreary atmosphere of a state of alarm. The government does not dare to prohibit the tempestuous demonstration which, seemingly, supports its position of a will to fight. But it is on its guard and it bars the demonstrators from the approaches to certain ministries. Starting about 8 o’clock, the crowd reaches its height at 10, when the terrible bombardment begins which is to last three days. Threat of surrender, communist demonstration, bombardment: pure coincidences? If the rumors about surrender are founded, and there are numerous indications to prove them, the timely launching of a long and horrible bombardment could only accentuate the popular discouragement and ruin the communist agitation. For the first time people are expressing themselves openly and publicly against the war. For three days running, Barcelona was visited by bombers without a single pursuit plane taking the air for its defense. Pursuit planes began to fly in the night of Friday-Saturday. The bombardment was finished Friday afternoon at 3. To show the public that the government had a hand in the cessation of the bombardment, it told the story that the defense had brought down airplanes, on Sunday, which were presumably heading for Barcelona. But as usual in such cases, they had fallen into the sea ... which must now have swallowed up more lies than pirates! And yet, two pursuit planes always in the air would have been enough for effective protection, because the rebels, coming from Palma, can leave only in planes having a large cruising radius, that is, without protecting pursuit planes. The anti-aircraft defense is disorganized; you would believe, at night, that the guns and projectors are amusing themselves with disturbing or washing the sky. The public takes all this into account: it murmurs and it flees. * * * * The demoralization by grapeshot is followed by the demoralization by writing, which dispenses with the former. Is it a manoeuvre, a compact agreed upon? It would be impossible to say. At all events, there is something disquieting about it. Up to the time of the terrible three-day bombardment – which, in spite of everything, remains a simple bombardment to “frighten” people, when you think of the means that might have been employed: a larger number of airplanes, asphyxiating gases, bacteria bombs, etc. – the official war communiqués minimized the defeats or shaded them off with reports of small local successes a hundred leagues away from the nerve-centers of operation, successes which are, moreover, won by surprise and annulled the day afterward. After the three tragic days, the government decides to sacrifice itself on the altar of Truth. One would think that the cessation of the bombardments is conditioned by the obligation for it to tell the truth about the war – a truth which it has never avowed. No further need of bombs – the official communiqués replace them in the work of demoralization. The government organs show the routs and retreats in headlines, crudely disclose the losses and the disasters, while the non-government papers continue to shade off the setbacks by the usual and insignificant and useless local successes. This peculiarity cannot escape even the mildly attentive observer. All these factors: deficiency in the military organization on the fronts, in the defense of the cities in the rear, certain zones of which are doomed to extermination, the demoralization by writing replacing that of the bombs – have made the government prudent. It camps at Montserrat, in a convent, a veritable eagle’s eerie, 60 kilometers from Barcelona. At the same time, arms depots are distributed throughout Barcelona. For what eventuality? * * * * To win the victory, all sorts of restrictions were preached. Today there is nothing more to restrict because there is nothing more to be bought. War prices, astronomical prices. For a modest meal – the equivalent of a 10 francs repast in Paris [40-50 cents in New York] – you spend more than you earn in a day. Here are a few samples: plain wine, 2½ pesetas a pint; better-grade wine, plain Bordeaux, 4 to 7 pesetas a pint; a plate of Valencian rice, 5 to 7 pesetas; a beefsteak, 8 to 14; dessert, 2½ pesetas; soup, 1½ to 3 pesetas. These prices are for normal and edible portions. The pot-houses are cheaper; but they are lousy and the portions are reduced; so that quantity and price taken into account, you eat worse there. To sum up, by taking soup at 1½, rice at 5, a beefsteak at 8, a dessert at 2½; a quarter of a bottle of wine at 1½; bread at 0.30, you dine for 21.40 pesetas, including the 15% for service and taxes. Now the average daily wage is 20 pesetas. It is impossible, at these rates, to dine every day, to have more than one meal a day, sleep in a bed and have some amusement. And I have given reasonable prices: I do not speak of the finer dishes at 18 pesetas, like leg of chicken from 18 to 25, and lobster at 30 pesetas. What a problem it is to eat when there is neither sugar, milk, chocolate, coffee, beans, lentils, potatoes, bread nor butter! These foods exist but they are rationed and only the insiders, the speculators or the privileged get them. In the open market, they are unknown. The humble population, as usual, is, for the most part, deprived of them. For every food you must stand in line for hours, regardless of the weather, getting into scraps and elbowing your way along. Getting provisions is one thing and getting them cooked is another. There is no coal; the gas functions only weakly and at certain hours; and most of the workers’ houses haven’t any because the gas rates were high even before the war. It was replaced by charcoal; but there is no more wood or else it costs more than 2 pesetas a pound, dearer than gas! As for gasolene, alcohol or oil heaters, they are out of the question: all these fuels are lacking. Electricity remains: stoves come to 60 to 150 pesetas, consuming from 0.35-0.60 to 1-2 pesetas per hour. The purchase of the apparatus is thus prohibitive and its use a burden. Yet there must be cooking. Hence the wiping out of trees and of nature. Parks and woods have been entirely denuded. The natural park of Barcelona was one of the first victims. This magnificent property, where the lovers of nature came every Sunday for a whiff of air, is now a denuded plain, desolated, where you hear only the axe-strokes of the spoilers biting into the last stumps. Numerous trees along the roads approaching Barcelona, for the police is on guard in the interior of the city, have had their bark torn off. Those who cannot buy wood, nor get an axe to hunt it with, burn everything that will burn: they begin with the old furniture and end with the window-blinds and shutters, the proprietor being no longer there to protest! Anything of wood is used for fire. But what fires! For numerous houses have no chimneys: the house gets all smoked up and the doors and windows are opened up for ventilation! This only brings the desolation to its worst. After the bombardments, the people try to trick the police guard. They do not come to see or to pillage, but just to gather up any wood in the debris. The heating systems have been asleep for two winters, even in the ministries. The temperature is mild. But there are also cold days which paralyze everything. Over-population aggravates the problem: every setback on the fronts brings with it an overflow. Added to the difficulties of provisioning, is that of lodgings. In the cities more spared by the bombardments, like Gerona, it is difficult if not impossible for a traveler to find food or quarters. Barcelona is suffocating from over-population, but speculation is well organized and it is possible, by payment of good prices, to find almost anything you desire. There the refugees are unfortunate: the inhabitant who is trafficking in his house, doesn’t want them; they have no money. By municipalizing property, the government reduced rentals by half: which does not prevent the main tenant from renting one or two rooms which pay him two or three times his own rental! People who pay 50 pesetas for a whole house now demand 100 to 200 pesetas for a single room. The vulture is no longer the proprietor but the tenant who, only yesterday, spared no curses for his vulture. Over-population is the great cause, but in Barcelona, speculation arises above all from the fact that the crew of functionaries and the armed forces who followed the government, receive good salaries, and thus have a higher purchasing power than the Catalans. Moreover, they get food, a very important thing in times of dearth. You see advertizements by people asking for tenants who are functionaries and can bring food, or functionaries asking for housing with promises of good prices and contributions of food. In these conditions, the Catalans are being displaced at home. It is a supplementary cause for contempt and rancor against the Castilians and the central government. A fatal, insurmountable dearth? Not at all. In his speech at the last session of the Cortes, Negrin stated explicitly that the problem of provisioning Spain was of a purely commercial nature. But Spain, capitalist Spain, cannot – he said literally – “compromise its future in order to assuage certain passing sufferings” (sic). It is clear: the missing products could be imported but they prefer to preserve the gold. To hell with the health of the citizens! provided the financial situation remains healthy. In reality, they do better: not only do they refuse to import necessities, loading down even humble private packages with exorbitant taxes, but certain products are still exported in order to discredit the collectivizations and to procure foreign exchange, like Goring: cannon is worth more than butter! There are thus no oranges, no olives, or else those left behind are unsalable; rotten oranges, bitter and blighted olives. And in cases where constraint does not suffice in this deliberate and organized dearth, there are sermons on the grandeur and necessity of voluntary restrictions. A sinister irony, for the government requisitions the provisions for its own cooperatives, destined for the feeding of a goodly number of its watchdogs: functionaries and policemen who benefit, moreover, from special prices in the restaurants. They are the vermin who will be set against tomorrow’s starving throngs in revolt. This dark picture could be added to further. First on the causes of the large number of victims, compared with the number of bombs that “hit the bull’s eye”. The government was lacking in initiative in the construction of refuges. The Generality voted belated credits. But the real refuge constructors were the ward committees appealing for volunteers: the Pueblo Seco quarter, greatly experienced with bombardments, unfolded the greatest activity in this field. These refuges are marvels, when you think of the meager means employed. In the center of Barcelona, there are no refuges. Those being built were started months ago. The one in the Plaza de Tetuan was begun a year ago! The subway is not safe. Only two or three stations can be considered as refuges: Ferrer-Guardia (formerly Urquinaona), Leseps, and Gracia. The others are wasp’s nests, coffins. The townspeople know this and they resign themselves to staying at home, trusting to fate. All the houses are from 6 to 9 storeys high, built of brick, and they crumple under the bombs like houses of cards. Every house that falls is full of these fatalistic tenants; hence the great number of victims. The trade unions raise a row for speeding up the work on the refuges. But they have no credits: unemployed and loungers continue to promenade and get themselves killed. Add to the fatalistic immobility of the population the fact that the bombs are always heard before the sirens. Barcelona is difficult to protect against ærial attack because of the sea: the apparatus for sounding warnings records all airplane movements from Palma, but it cannot follow them. Hence the irremediable surprise. The lack of refuges, due to the lack of initiative, is only a manifestation of the general lack of foresight. Others are also tragic. Thus, automobile convoys of munitions cross the city instead of avoiding it. During the last bombardments, this negligence produced a horrible catastrophe: in the Gran Via, almost opposite the Coliseum, bombs struck the trucks transporting trilite which, when it exploded, pulverized everything in the neighborhood. The city, in certain localities, is plunged into complete darkness. But elsewhere, powerful white lamps illuminate the road and the automobiles drive around all night with full lights on! At Pueblo Nuevo there are enormous gasometers. Opposite them is a foundry which, when it is tapped, lights up the gasometers as few projectors could! You ask yourself why the bombers have left them standing. * * * * The wide public, and in it may be included certain political leaders, lives in Spain in complete ignorance and incomprehension of international politics. As much in order not to discourage the public as to win – in vain, moreover – the sympathy of the democracies, the anti-fascist organs, including those of the CNT, have always presented the war in Spain as a struggle between democracy and fascism. The public has been seriously entertained with the opposition between these two systems. Content with appearances, they have spoken of the Italo-German invasion and of poor France and England as the future victims. I have heard Confederal propagandists tell me seriously that the choice must be made between Italian and French imperialism, in conflict in Spain! I thought, at first, that these interpretations of the struggle were deliberate opportunism and dupery. I observed subsequently that such theses were, or else finished by being, taken for the reality. The public does not understand the real sense of the struggle, but those who educate it penetrate no deeper into its meaning. Domesticated by England, the Negrin government could not permit a thoroughgoing explanation. It could not permit a public denunciation of England for having organized the uprising and subsidized Franco, Hitler, Mussolini and Salazar to crush the nascent revolution. It could not permit the statement that it is London that invented the non-intervention in order to neutralize France and the Nyon agreements in order to block the republican fleet and the Soviet fleet in Odessa. It could not permit the denunciation of the sinking ordered by London of some old English ships in order to discourage certain companies which, tempted by the premiums offered by the republican government, were ready to risk providing anti-fascist Spain with provisions. They continue to speak of the Anglo-Italian antagonism in the Mediterranean. They do not say that Mussolini is “working” not only for the recognition of his East African empire – which he does iiot need or which has been granted long ago – but above all for the granting of capital without which his colonial conquest is of no use to him. The English blackmail Mussolini with Ethiopia and Mussolini blackmails them in turn with Palestine and Egypt. The dickerings of brigands. Between them, Spain is nothing but a simple stake. The censorship prevents an explanation of why the English have sent no troops in place of the false Italo-German invaders as well as the exact reason why they sent their fleet into the Mediterranean; it prevents a denunciation of the real authors of the blackmail in the war, the real inspirers of the words and deeds of Hitler and Mussolini. It has never been possible to denounce those who made the Italian “volunteers” come to Spain, nor to explain why the Germans sent technicians rather than soldiers. It has never been possible to explain what Salazar and Portugal were, and that the English would have invented them if they had not existed. Opinion is lulled in Republican Spain when it is told that there are two Englands: the Conservatives who are strangling the republic and the left wing ... which watches them strangle it with an affectation of protest. England paralyzes France in Spain, as she paralyzes her – with reason, this time – in Central Europe. To keep the colonies torn from the Germans and to embroil Hitler and Mussolini between themselves, to break the Franco-Soviet pact, the English want to reconstitute the Germanic empire and bring the Germans to Trieste. The English, in practise, govern the world. It is not by chance that the government seat is 60 kilometers from Barcelona and that Catalonia is destined to be crushed. There is a conflict between the Generality, whose eyes are turned to France, and the central government which is under orders from England, who hates the Catalans and their government. The central government, aided by the USSR and by Mexico, watched, in 1936-1937, over the defense of Madrid but it remains disinterested in that of Catalonia. In men and material, the Catalans have done most for the war. But the central government, disposing of the credits, has made Catalonia work for it and not for herself. Materially, the Catalans are the providers of all of loyal Spain. But they dream of independence and possess the most powerful organizations of the extreme left: a victorious, independent Catalonia would continue the revolution and would soon be a century ahead of the present world. The Catalan conservatives fear this independence: they applauded the intervention of the central power on the morrow of the May days of 1937. But the Madrid politicians, right as well as left – communists included – dread this independence still more, for it would be a firebrand placed at the door of old Spain which each of them dreams of domesticating according to his views. Secretly, therefore, the politicians of the central government must be satisfied with the reverses of the Catalans, reverses which may put the latter into different moods, that is, either crush them completely or oblige them to renounce their fancy for independence, which means here renouncing the social revolution. When the CNT and the FAI, carry on “Catalanism”, when they pursue a republicanism on the national scale, these are only spring-boards: they are betting on the impotence of both governments to stem a revolutionary drive. It is because they are conscious of this impotence that the republican politicians do not want a victory and that the English demand defeat. The anarchist critics abroad are wrong when they imagine that we did not foresee this: the big problem was not to see it but to be able to say it, not abroad, but in Spain itself. The general obligation to remain silent about all these fundamental questions has disoriented the minds and now turns them to the worst blunders. The various anti-fascist sectors throw the responsibility for the defeats and the general aggravation of the situation upon each other, for they continue to speak of the fascism-democracy antagonism, of the big bad Italian wolf, and of those “Boche barbarians” who destroyed Guernica. The Young Communists, branches of the USSR, smear the walls with inscriptions urging resistance to the bitter end, “dying to the last man”. But what is Moscow doing, which inspires these slogans? Nothing. Yielding to the injunctions of England, whose fleet, in concert with the Italians, has halted its vessels, Moscow has renounced the provisioning of arms to governmental Spain. Moscow does not dare to convoy its ships with its war fleet; Moscow does not want to risk a war, but it exhorts its disarmed admirers and partisans to succumb for her to the last man; a useless sacrifice in a struggle which is also unequal. The Spanish communists, whose masters do not dare to brave England, accuse of cowardice and treason the France of Blum, who only imitates, apparently – because in reality France furnishes arms – the Russia of Stalin. The Catalans have been left in the lurch by everybody, and they nurse themselves on illusions when they hope in France, which cannot move openly in opposition to England. The Catalans have always nourished the secret hope that France would guard their independence: the 17,000 Catalan volunteers who fell in the war of 1914-1918 for “Justice and Civilization”, imply, in their eyes, a certain recognition ... The unfortunates! * * * * The confusion in internal social policy and in international policy creates an unbelievable atmosphere of distrust. If the military situation worsens – as is unfortunately probable – the antifascists will decimate each other before being crushed by the fascists. The government wants nothing better: it will thus be able to shift the responsibility for the defeat to the divisions among the brother-enemies. Already, it has turned over to the organizations not the share of power they are entitled to, but a share of the governmental responsibilities; the reactionaries of Spain have further made the workers’ organizations take bonds in the future bankruptcy ... The support of the CNT had to be obtained at the price of liberating thousands of gubernativos, languishing in the prisons, some of them for more than 10 months. It appears that prisoners were to be liberated on the condition of going to the front or of leaving the country. It is brutal. But when you know what sort of element is mixed with the mass of the prisoners, this measure in itself is rational and prohibits all facile demagogy in connection with it ... The Spanish revolution has drawn to it a band of adventurers and served as a field of experience for certain light-fingered gentry who, covering themselves naturally with revolutionary principles, engaged in the worst excesses, compromising without their knowledge comrades who were upright, but too impulsive and itching for action ... I have seen those things ... I hare approached the prisoners at close range, as have the comrades occupied with their defense, extremely delicate and complicated, by virtue of the involuntary discreditment mentioned ... Finally, among the comrades with integrity, a great number are opposed to the line adopted by the CNT. And these “ultras” have created grave incidents, putting the CNT and the FAI, in an impossible situation. They bear a large part of the formal responsibility in the unleashing of the bloody May days. The hangers-on interest nobody; the “ultras” are annoying and the only way of distinguishing the two is to offer them the chance of deserting or making them fight. When all this is known, there is no doubt that the CNT subscribed without hesitation to the conditions concerning the liberation of the prisoners. The puritans abroad, who do not know the bloody behind-the-scenes facts of the Spanish drama, will say that it would have been better to free these prisoners by force. But where is force at the moment when, under cover of the mobilization, all the comrades are progressively expedited to the fronts? At the moment when the Confederal brigades are dissolved or annihiliated? At the moment when the public is tired and attributes the cause of its misery to the new economy – and this is unfortunately true to a certain extent: the trade union economy is full of initiative but devoid of discipline and system, and the struggle among collectives (especially in food and the gastronomic industry) has replaced the traditional competitions. To speak of force when the police constitutes an imposing percentage of the population in Barcelona, when the personnel of the prisons is fiercely hostile to us and perfectly capable, as experience has shown, of massacring the imprisoned at the first sign of revolt? Resort to the insurrection when the common enemy is at the gate? It is practically impossible. Only the amicable solution remains, the blind alley of concessions. At the point things have reached and as they stand, you can only gain time, organize the rescue and the retreat as best as possible. * * * * The Spain of tomorrow will not be of military use to anybody. The Carlists will continue to detest France and the Catalans to love her; the USSR will retain its sympathies and its hates; England will remain hated by the Catalans and suspect to all the others, even the nationalists. As to the Italians, supremely detested in the rebel zone where they behave like blackguards – like every soldatesque – their very name will continue to arouse only hatred in republican Spain. The Germans alone, more discreet even if just as unadapted, will pass away least perceived. The future Spain is unknown, but she will not belong to those who invade her militarily today: the tutors of Spain will remain the obscure financiers of The City. That is why England is not disturbed by the presence of the Italo-German gendarmes in Spain – and France asks only to believe their assurances, even though she takes certain precautions ... Most disturbing is not so much the nature of the future Spain. It is whether the invaders will first let it be born. They would indeed like to leave, but on the condition that the map of Europe be recast: that’s the price of their service as gendarmes. Is it too dear? That’s what France and England will soon be saying. Before the settlement of the bill – England and Italy have already started discussions on the amount of the bill which was settled in part with Germany by the annexation of Austria yesterday and of Czechoslovakia tomorrow – it cannot be said that Spain fatally includes the risks of the international war. Germans and Italians introduced arms into Spain, but it is really for themselves and at their expense? It does not seem so. That is why the Spanish problem stands differently at bottom from the way in which it is put publicly in order to curb the agitation of the left in France and in England, an agitation which might oblige the rulers to bet on the red horse, whereas they have put their fortune on the white ... All pessimism is warranted in connection with Spain, but it is in the revolutionary and not purely pacifist sense: there are more risks of social extermination than of international extermination; Europe still has before it several years of peace – if Spain is the only cause of war. PARIS, May 1938 Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 6.8.2006 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international july transcribed mark einde etol glad present follow picture situation spain reader frank dramatic manner give eyewitness detail treacherous role popular struggle fascist article write syndicalist militant participate spanish civil war integrity vouch editor la révolution prolétarienne organ french syndicalist appear editor new international agree entirely point view author conclusion ordinary importance article warrant translation reader exception minor passage deletion indicate asterisk article give ed sudden worsening military situation antifascist spain unexpected debacle surprise anybody governmental circle barcelona london paris quote passage extreme left wing spanish journal month advance announce hour terrible test barcelona government play role scapegoat take responsibility defeat desire london tolerate paris dare lift little finger city prietist government barcelona england service ditch france ussr accept shameful mission buy peace spain defeat numerous indication tend affirm indication ministerial shakeup permit eviction prieto major reason know deprive bourgeois government prieto type desire win war revolutionary way fear wellfounde unable dam revolutionary drive follow wearing revolutionary cadre war vain social aspiration remain fear weakness make ruler prefer organized conditional defeat victory precisely reason impel cnt fai pursue policy governmental collaboration mussolini hitler dread consequence weakness ideological viewpoint english imperialism possess great spain riches dread standpoint interest spanish republican government desire victory international imperialism demand defeat republicans organize defeat story provision armament believe money gold necessary material procure impossibility real caballero cabinet long exist negrinprieto cabinet speak negrinprieto government spanish government negrinprieto government want different city wants add lack material certain thing unforeseen conduct war aragon line defense march end autumn time powerless stem italogerman advance aragon divert force useless attack province jaen andalusia guadalajara teruel take possession value exterminate international cnt brigade constitute percent troop engage long threaten return case disturbance rear sea baleare sink canarias damage day engagement hear technician take canarias sink firing stop chance unit english fleet scene give aid comfort rebel impede action government fleet aircraft army rotten spy february young train recruit concentrate afternoon barrack park citadel order leave evening hour concentration enemy airplane arrive bombard barrack shift fury precision thousand victim communist party demand arrest execution responsible criminal negligence police dependable army early march trade union political organization expect attack fifth column mount guard headquarters ready eventuality bombardment reveal strange thing bomber attack exclusively popular quarter having pound away immediate suburb barcelonetta humble population soul concentrate massacrer attack old worker quarter barcelona leave kill abovementioned suburb ruin completely evacuate ministry centralize great artery paseo de gracia diagonal foot paseo de gracia bomb march line ministry locate time italogerman pilot aim official building january reply raid reprisal salamanca official german center hit aim palace generality succeed hit republican government immediately declare renunciation reprisal leave judgment civilized world action chancellery morrow collapse middle march bring italogerman single leap kilometer sea kilometer prieto suppose threaten surrender continue receive foreign aid smoke fire government endeavor drive communist midst threat new feel ground slip incarceration communist head international brigade army madrid order crecencio bilbao republican supreme commissar army ditching brueno alonso commissar fleet threat chase censorship service brutal eviction certain position public order police etc communist hold tooth want lose position week communist delegation come national committee cnt urge beseech confederation pact cp delegation invariably show door matter communist organ having change tone time continue shower kind attention fish bite threat hang kick government plainer party apparatus set motion decide undertake public agitation evening march popular demonstration take place beneath ministry demand conduct war bitter end propagandist unlimited mean muster crowd queer quarter publicity auto disposal bawl loudspeaker toss manifesto know agitation communist create dreary atmosphere state alarm government dare prohibit tempestuous demonstration seemingly support position fight guard bar demonstrator approach certain ministry start crowd reach height terrible bombardment begin day threat surrender communist demonstration bombardment pure coincidence rumor surrender found numerous indication prove timely launching long horrible bombardment accentuate popular discouragement ruin communist agitation time people express openly publicly war day run barcelona visit bomber single pursuit plane take air defense pursuit plane begin fly night fridaysaturday bombardment finish friday afternoon public government hand cessation bombardment tell story defense bring airplane sunday presumably head barcelona usual case fall sea swallow lie pirate pursuit plane air effective protection rebel come palma leave plane have large cruise radius protect pursuit plane antiaircraft defense disorganize believe night gun projector amuse disturb wash sky public take account murmur flee demoralization grapeshot follow demoralization write dispense manoeuvre compact agree impossible event disquiet time terrible threeday bombardment spite remain simple bombardment frighten people think mean employ large number airplane asphyxiate gas bacteria bomb etc official war communiqué minimize defeat shade report small local success league away nervecenter operation success win surprise annul day afterward tragic day government decide sacrifice altar truth think cessation bombardment condition obligation tell truth war truth avow need bomb official communiqué replace work demoralization government organ rout retreat headline crudely disclose loss disaster nongovernment paper continue shade setback usual insignificant useless local success peculiarity escape mildly attentive observer factor deficiency military organization front defense city rear certain zone doom extermination demoralization write replace bomb government prudent camp montserrat convent veritable eagle eerie kilometer barcelona time arm depot distribute barcelona eventuality win victory sort restriction preach today restrict buy war price astronomical price modest meal equivalent franc repast paris cent new york spend earn day sample plain wine peseta pint bettergrade wine plain bordeaux peseta pint plate valencian rice peseta beefsteak dessert peseta soup peseta price normal edible portion pothouse cheap lousy portion reduce quantity price take account eat bad sum take soup rice beefsteak dessert quarter bottle wine bread dine peseta include service taxis average daily wage peseta impossible rate dine day meal day sleep bed amusement give reasonable price speak fine dish peseta like leg chicken lobster peseta problem eat sugar milk chocolate coffee bean lentil potato bread butter food exist ration insider speculator privileged open market unknown humble population usual deprive food stand line hour regardless weather get scrap elbow way get provision thing get cook coal gas function weakly certain hour worker house gas rate high war replace charcoal wood cost peseta pound dearer gas gasolene alcohol oil heater question fuel lack electricity remain stove come peseta consume peseta hour purchase apparatus prohibitive use burden cook wiping tree nature park wood entirely denude natural park barcelona victim magnificent property lover nature come sunday whiff air denude plain desolate hear axestroke spoiler bite stump numerous tree road approach barcelona police guard interior city bark tear buy wood axe hunt burn burn begin old furniture end windowblind shutter proprietor long protest wood fire fire numerous house chimney house get smoke door window open ventilation bring desolation bad bombardment people try trick police guard come pillage gather wood debris heating system asleep winter ministry temperature mild cold day paralyze overpopulation aggravate problem setback front bring overflow add difficulty provisioning lodging city spare bombardment like gerona difficult impossible traveler find food quarter barcelona suffocate overpopulation speculation organize possible payment good price find desire refugee unfortunate inhabitant traffic house want money municipalize property government reduce rental half prevent main tenant rent room pay time rental people pay peseta house demand peseta single room vulture long proprietor tenant yesterday spare curse vulture overpopulation great cause barcelona speculation arise fact crew functionary armed force follow government receive good salary high purchasing power catalan food important thing time dearth advertizement people ask tenant functionary bring food functionary ask housing promise good price contribution food condition catalan displace home supplementary cause contempt rancor castilian central government fatal insurmountable dearth speech session corte negrin state explicitly problem provision spain purely commercial nature spain capitalist spain say literally compromise future order assuage certain pass suffering sic clear miss product import prefer preserve gold hell health citizen provide financial situation remain healthy reality well refuse import necessity load humble private package exorbitant taxis certain product export order discredit collectivization procure foreign exchange like gore cannon worth butter orange olive leave unsalable rotten orange bitter blighted olive case constraint suffice deliberate organized dearth sermon grandeur necessity voluntary restriction sinister irony government requisition provision cooperative destine feeding goodly number watchdog functionary policeman benefit special price restaurant vermin set tomorrow starve throng revolt dark picture add cause large number victim compare number bomb hit bull eye government lack initiative construction refuge generality vote belate credit real refuge constructor ward committee appeal volunteer pueblo seco quarter greatly experience bombardment unfold great activity field refuge marvel think meager mean employ center barcelona refuge build start month ago plaza de tetuan begin year ago subway safe station consider refuge ferrerguardia urquinaona lesep gracia wasp nest coffin townspeople know resign stay home trusting fate house storey high build brick crumple bomb like house card house fall fatalistic tenant great number victim trade union raise row speed work refuge credit unemployed lounger continue promenade kill add fatalistic immobility population fact bomb hear siren barcelona difficult protect ærial attack sea apparatus sound warning record airplane movement palma follow irremediable surprise lack refuge lack initiative manifestation general lack foresight tragic automobile convoy munition cross city instead avoid bombardment negligence produce horrible catastrophe gran opposite coliseum bomb strike truck transport trilite explode pulverize neighborhood city certain locality plunge complete darkness powerful white lamp illuminate road automobile drive night light pueblo nuevo enormous gasometer opposite foundry tap light gasometer projector ask bomber leave stand wide public include certain political leader live spain complete ignorance incomprehension international politic order discourage public win vain sympathy democracy antifascist organ include cnt present war spain struggle democracy fascism public seriously entertain opposition system content appearance speak italogerman invasion poor france england future victim hear confederal propagandist tell seriously choice italian french imperialism conflict spain think interpretation struggle deliberate opportunism dupery observe subsequently thesis finish take reality public understand real sense struggle educate penetrate deeply meaning domesticate england negrin government permit thoroughgoing explanation permit public denunciation england having organize uprising subsidize franco hitler mussolini salazar crush nascent revolution permit statement london invent nonintervention order neutralize france nyon agreement order block republican fleet soviet fleet odessa permit denunciation sinking order london old english ship order discourage certain company tempt premium offer republican government ready risk provide antifascist spain provision continue speak angloitalian antagonism mediterranean mussolini work recognition east african empire iiot need grant long ago granting capital colonial conquest use english blackmail mussolini ethiopia mussolini blackmail turn palestine egypt dickering brigand spain simple stake censorship prevent explanation english send troop place false italogerman invader exact reason send fleet mediterranean prevent denunciation real author blackmail war real inspirer word deed hitler mussolini possible denounce italian volunteer come spain explain germans send technician soldier possible explain salazar portugal english invent exist opinion lull republican spain tell england conservative strangle republic left wing watch strangle affectation protest england paralyzes france spain paralyze reason time central europe colony tear germans embroil hitler mussolini break francosoviet pact english want reconstitute germanic empire bring germans trieste english practise govern world chance government seat kilometer barcelona catalonia destine crush conflict generality eye turn france central government order england hate catalan government central government aid ussr mexico watch defense madrid remain disintereste catalonia man material catalan war central government dispose credit catalonia work materially catalan provider loyal spain dream independence possess powerful organization extreme leave victorious independent catalonia continue revolution soon century ahead present world catalan conservative fear independence applaud intervention central power morrow day madrid politician right leave communist include dread independence firebrand place door old spain dream domesticate accord view secretly politician central government satisfied reverse catalan reverse different mood crush completely oblige renounce fancy independence mean renounce social revolution cnt fai carry catalanism pursue republicanism national scale springboard bet impotence government stem revolutionary drive conscious impotence republican politician want victory english demand defeat anarchist critic abroad wrong imagine foresee big problem able abroad spain general obligation remain silent fundamental question disorient mind turn bad blunder antifascist sector throw responsibility defeat general aggravation situation continue speak fascismdemocracy antagonism big bad italian wolf boche barbarian destroy guernica young communist branch ussr smear wall inscription urge resistance bitter end die man moscow inspire slogan yield injunction england fleet concert italians halt vessel moscow renounce provisioning arm governmental spain moscow dare convoy ship war fleet moscow want risk war exhort disarm admirer partisan succumb man useless sacrifice struggle unequal spanish communist master dare brave england accuse cowardice treason france blum imitate apparently reality france furnish arm russia stalin catalan leave lurch everybody nurse illusion hope france openly opposition england catalan nourish secret hope france guard independence catalan volunteer fall war justice civilization imply eye certain recognition unfortunate confusion internal social policy international policy create unbelievable atmosphere distrust military situation worsen unfortunately probable antifascist decimate crush fascist government want well able shift responsibility defeat division brotherenemie turn organization share power entitle share governmental responsibility reactionary spain worker organization bond future bankruptcy support cnt obtain price liberate thousand gubernativos languish prison month appear prisoner liberate condition go leave country brutal know sort element mix mass prisoner measure rational prohibit facile demagogy connection spanish revolution draw band adventurer serve field experience certain lightfingered gentry cover naturally revolutionary principle engage bad excess compromise knowledge comrade upright impulsive itch action see thing hare approach prisoner close range comrade occupy defense extremely delicate complicated virtue involuntary discreditment mention finally comrade integrity great number oppose line adopt cnt ultra create grave incident put cnt fai impossible situation bear large formal responsibility unleashing bloody day hangerson interest ultra annoying way distinguish offer chance desert make fight know doubt cnt subscribe hesitation condition concern liberation prisoner puritan abroad know bloody behindthescene fact spanish drama well free prisoner force force moment cover mobilization comrade progressively expedite front moment confederal brigade dissolve annihiliate moment public tired attribute cause misery new economy unfortunately true certain extent trade union economy initiative devoid discipline system struggle collective especially food gastronomic industry replace traditional competition speak force police constitute impose percentage population barcelona personnel prison fiercely hostile perfectly capable experience show massacre imprisoned sign revolt resort insurrection common enemy gate practically impossible amicable solution remain blind alley concession point thing reach stand gain time organize rescue retreat well possible spain tomorrow military use anybody carlist continue detest france catalan love ussr retain sympathy hate england remain hate catalan suspect nationalist italian supremely detest rebel zone behave like blackguard like soldatesque continue arouse hatred republican spain germans discreet unadapted pass away perceive future spain unknown belong invade militarily today tutor spain remain obscure financier city england disturb presence italogerman gendarme spain france ask believe assurance take certain precaution disturbing nature future spain invader let bear like leave condition map europe recast price service gendarme dear france england soon say settlement bill england italy start discussion bill settle germany annexation austria yesterday czechoslovakia tomorrow say spain fatally include risk international war germans italian introduce arm spain expense spanish problem stand differently way publicly order curb agitation left france england agitation oblige ruler bet red horse fortune white pessimism warrant connection spain revolutionary purely pacifist sense risk social extermination international extermination europe year peace spain cause war paris page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update | 60 |
Jean-Paul Marat 1793 Source: Journal de la République Francaise, No 105. January 23, 1793; Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor; CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2004. The head of the tyrant has just fallen under the sword of the law; the same blow has overturned the foundations of monarchy among us. I finally believe in the republic. In order to wrest him from his execution, the despot’s henchmen sought to inspire fear in us of the affects of his death. How vain these fears were. The precautions taken to maintain tranquility were imposing, without a doubt; they were dictated by prudence, but they nevertheless proved to be superfluous: one could have confidence in public indignation from the Temple to the scaffold; not one voice cried out for grace during the execution, not one voice was raised in favor of the man who once decided the destiny of France. A profound silence reigned all around him, and when his head was shown to the people, from all around there arose the cries of Vive la nation! Vive la république! The rest of the day was perfectly calm; for the first time since the federation the people seemed animated by a serene joy: one would have thought they had just participated in a religious celebration, delivered from the weight of oppression that had weighed on them for so long; and, penetrated by the sentiment of fraternity, all hearts gave themselves over to the hope for a happier future. This sweet satisfaction was only troubled by the sorrow caused by the horrible attack on the person of a representative of the nation[1], for having voted for the death of the tyrant. The execution of Louis XVI is one of those memorable events that mark an epoch in the history of nations. It will have a prodigious influence on the fate of the despots of Europe, and on those peoples who have not yet broken their chains. In pronouncing the death penalty on the tyrant of the French, the National Convention no doubt showed itself to be great, but it was the wish of the nation, and the manner in which the people watched the punishment of its former master, that raised them far beyond their representatives for, have no doubt, the same sentiments that animated the citizens of Paris and the federés animate the citizens of all departments. The execution of Louis XVI, far from troubling the peace of the state, will only serve to strengthen it, not only by containing the internal enemies through terror, but also the external enemies. It will also give the nation new strength to push back the ferocious hordes of foreign henchmen who would dare bear arms against it. For there is no way of going back, and this is the position in which we find ourselves today: we must win or perish, a palpable truth that Cambon rendered in a sublime image when he said at the tribune the day before yesterday: “We have finally docked on the isle of freedom, and we have burned the vessel that brought us there.” 1. The assassin is that Paris who last year insulted patriots in cafes, and who had some affair with Boyer in which he came out badly. Last Sunday he was with five thugs at the home of a caterer at the palace of d’Egalité, where Pelletier usually took his meals. Exiting from a neighboring room at the moment Pelletier was paying his bill he asked him if he had voted in favor of death [for the king]. Upon hearing the affirmative he plunged his saber in his belly, a wound from which the virtuous deputy died during the night. Marat Archive | left | jeanpaul marat source journal de la république francaise january translate marxistsorg mitchell abidor copyleft creative commons attribute sharealike marxistsorg head tyrant fall sword law blow overturn foundation monarchy finally believe republic order wrest execution despot henchman seek inspire fear affect death vain fear precaution take maintain tranquility impose doubt dictate prudence prove superfluous confidence public indignation temple scaffold voice cry grace execution voice raise favor man decide destiny france profound silence reign head show people arise cry vive la nation vive la république rest day perfectly calm time federation people animate serene joy think participate religious celebration deliver weight oppression weigh long penetrate sentiment fraternity heart give hope happy future sweet satisfaction trouble sorrow cause horrible attack person representative having vote death tyrant execution louis xvi memorable event mark epoch history nation prodigious influence fate despot europe people break chain pronounce death penalty tyrant french national convention doubt show great wish nation manner people watch punishment master raise far representative doubt sentiment animate citizen paris federés animate citizen department execution louis xvi far trouble peace state serve strengthen contain internal enemy terror external enemy nation new strength push ferocious horde foreign henchman dare bear arm way go position find today win perish palpable truth cambon render sublime image say tribune day yesterday finally dock isle freedom burn vessel bring assassin paris year insult patriot cafe affair boyer come badly sunday thug home caterer palace pelletier usually take meal exit neighboring room moment pelletier pay bill ask vote favor death king hear affirmative plunge saber belly wound virtuous deputy die night marat archive | 61 |
Karl Marx in the New York Tribune 1852 Source: Marx Engels On Britain, Progress Publishers 1953; Written: by Marx, London, August 20, 1852; First Published: in the New York Daily Tribune of September 4, 1852 and republished in the newspaper People’s Paper of October 16, 1852; Transcribed: by Andy Blunden. Just before the late House of Commons separated, it resolved to heap up as many difficulties as possible for its successors in their way to Parliament. It voted a Draconian law against bribery, corruption, intimidation, and electioneering sharp practices in general. A long list of questions is drawn up, which, by this enactment, may be put to petitioners or sitting members, the most searching and stringent that can be conceived. They may be required o n oath to state who were their agents, and what communications they held with them. They may be asked and compelled to state,: not only what they know, but what they “believe, conjecture, and suspect,” as to money expended either by themselves or any one else acting — authorized or not authorized — on their behalf. In a word, no member can go through the strange ordeal without risk of perjury, if he have the slightest idea that it is possible or likely that any one has been led to overstep on his behalf the limits of the law. Now, even supposing this law to take it for granted that the. new legislators will use the same liberty as the clergy, who only believe some of the Thirty Nine Articles, yet contrive to sign. them all, yet there remain, nevertheless, clauses sufficient to make the new Parliament the most virginal assembly that ever made speeches and passed laws for the three kingdoms. And in juxtaposition with the general election immediately following, this law secures to the Tories the glory, that under their administration the greatest purity of election has been theoretically proclaimed, and the greatest amount of electoral corruption has been practically carried out. “A fresh election is proceeded with, and here a scene of bribery, corruption, violence, drunkenness and murder ensues, unparalleled since the times of the old Tory monopoly reigned supreme before. We actually hear of soldiers with loaded guns, and bayonets fixed, taking Liberal electors by force, dragging them under the landlord’s eyes to vote against their own consciences, and these soldiers, shooting with deliberate aim the people who dared to sympathize with the captive electors. and committing wholesale murder on the unresisting, people! .[Allusion to the event at Six Mile Bridge, Limerick, County Clare.] It may be said: That was in Ireland! Ay, and in England they have employed their police to break the stalls of those opposed to them; they have sent their organized gangs of midnight ruffians prowling through the streets to intercept and intimidate the Liberal electors; they have opened the cesspools of drunkenness; they have showered the gold of corruption, as at :Derby, and in almost every contested place they have exercised systematic intimidation.” Thus far Ernest Jones’s People’s Paper. Now, after this Chartist weekly paper, hear the weekly paper of the opposite patty, the most sober, the most rational, the most moderate organ ‘Of the industrial Bourgeoisie, the London Economist: “We believe we may affirm, at this general election, there has been more truckling, more corruption, more intimidation, more fanaticism and more debauchery than on any previous occasion. It is reported that bribery has been more extensively resorted to at this election than for many previous years.... Of the amount of intimidation and undue influence of every sort which has been practised at the late election, it is probably impossible to form an exaggerated estimate. . ... And when we sum up’ all these things — the brutal drunkenness, the low intrigues, the wholesale corruption, the barbarous intimidation, the integrity of candidates warped and stained, the honest electors who are ruined, the feeble ones who are suborned and dishonored; the lies, the stratagems, the slanders, which stalk abroad in the daylight, naked and not ashamed — the desecration of holy words, the soiling of noble names — we stand aghast at the holocaust of victims, of destroyed bodies and lost souls, on whose funeral pile a new Parliament is reared.” The means of corruption and intimidation were the usual ones: direct Government influence. Thus on an electioneering agent at Derby, arrested in the flagrant act of bribing, a letter was found from Major Beresford, the Secretary at War,[1] wherein that same Beresford opens a credit upon a commercial firm for electioneering, monies. The Poole Herald publishes a circular from the Admiralty-House to the half-pay officers, signed by the commander-in-chief of a naval station, requesting their votes for the ministerial candidates. — Direct force of arms has also been employed, as at Cork, Belfast, Limerick (at which latter place eight persons were killed). — Threats of ejectment by landlords against their farmers, unless they voted with them. The Land Agents of Lord Derby herein gave the example to their colleagues. — Threats of exclusive dealing against shop-keepers, of dismissal against workmen, intoxication, etc., etc. — To these profane means of corruption spiritual ones were added by the Tories; the royal proclamation against Roman Catholic Processions was issued in order to inflame bigotry and religious hatred; the No-Popery cry was raised everywhere. One of the results of this proclamation were the Stockport Riots. The Irish priests, of course, retorted with similar weapons. The election is hardly over, and already a single Queen’s Counsel has received from twenty-five places instructions to invalidate the returns to Parliament on account of bribery and intimidation. Such petitions against elected members have been signed, and the expenses of the proceedings raised at Derby, Cockermouth, Barnstaple, Harwich, Canterbury, Yarmouth, Wakefield, Boston, Huddersfield, Windsor, and a great number of other places. Of eight to ten Derbyite members it is proved that, even under the most favorable circumstances, they will be rejected on petition. The principal scenes of this bribery, corruption and intimidation were, of course, the agricultural counties and the Peers’ Boroughs, for the conservation of the greatest possible number of which latter, the Whigs had expended all their acumen in the Reform Bill of 1831. The constituencies of large towns and of densely populated manufacturing counties were, by their peculiar circumstances, very unfavorable ground for such manoeuvres. Days of general election are in Britain traditionally the bacchanalia of drunken debauchery, conventional stock-jobbing terms for the discounting of political consciences, the richest harvest times of the publicans. As an English paper says, “these recurring saturnalia never fail to leave enduring traces of their pestilential presence.” Quite naturally so. They are saturnalia in the ancient Roman sense of the word. The master then turned servant, the servant turned master. If the servant be master for one day, on that day brutality will reign supreme. The masters were the grand dignitaries of the ruling classes, or sections of classes, the servants formed the mass of these same classes, the privileged electors encircled by the mass of the non-electors, of those thousands that had no other calling than to be mere hangers on, and whose support, vocal or manual, always appeared desirable, were it only on account of the theatrical effect.[2] If you follow up the history of British elections for a century past or longer, you are tempted to ask, not why British Parliaments were so bad, but on the contrary, how they managed to be even as good as they were, and to represent as much as they did, though in a dim refraction, the actual movement of British society. Just as opponents of the representative system must feel surprised on finding that legislative bodies in which the abstract majority, the accident of the mere number is decisive, yet decide and resolve according to the necessities of the situation — at least during the period of their full vitality. It will always be impossible, even by the utmost straining of logical deductions, to derive from the relations of mere numbers the necessity of a vote in accordance with the actual state of things; but from a given state of things the necessity of certain relations of members will always follow as of itself. The traditional bribery of British elections, what else was it, but another form, as brutal as it was popular, in which the relative strength of the contending parties showed itself? Their respective means of influence and of dominion, which on other occasions they used in a normal way, were here enacted for a few days in an abnormal and more or less burlesque manner. But the premise remained, that the candidates of the rivalling parties represented the interests of the mass of the electors, and that the privileged electors again represented the interests of the non-voting mass, or rather, that this voteless mass had, as yet, no specific interest of its own. The Delphic Priestesses had to become intoxicated by vapors to enable them to find oracles; the British people must intoxicate itself with gin and porter to enable it to find its oracle-finders, the legislators. And where these oracle-finders were to be looked for, that was a matter of course. This relative position of classes and parties underwent a radical change from the moment the industrial and commercial middle classes, the Bourgeoisie, took up its stand as an official party at the side of the Whigs and Tories, and especially from the passing of the Reform Bill in 1831. These Bourgeois were in no wise fond of costly electioneering manoeuvres, of faux frais[3] of general elections. They considered it cheaper to compete with the landed aristocracy by general moral, than by personal pecuniary means. On the other hand they were conscious of representing a universally predominant interest of modern society. They were, therefore, in a position to demand that electors should be ruled by their common national interests, not by personal and local motives, and the more they recurred to this postulate, the more the latter species of electoral influence was, by the very composition of constituencies, centered in the landed aristocracy, but withheld from the middle classes. Thus the Bourgeoisie contended for the principle of moral elections and forced the enactment of laws in that sense, intended, each of them, as safeguards against the local influence of the landed aristocracy; and indeed, from 1831 down, bribery adopted a more civilized, more hidden form, and general elections went off in a more sober way than before. When at last the mass of the people ceased to be a mere chorus, taking a more or less impassioned part in the struggle of the official heroes, drawing the lots among them, rioting, in bacchantic carouse, at the creation of parliamentary divinities, like the Cretan Centaurs at the birth of Jupiter, and taking pay and treat for such participation in their glory — when the Chartists surrounded in threatening masses the whole circle within which the official election struggle must come off, and watched with scrutinizing mistrust every movement taking place within it — then an election like that of 1852 could not but call for universal indignation, and elicit even from the conservative Times, for the first time, some words in favor of general suffrage, and make the whole mass of the British Proletariat shout as with one voice. The foes of Reform, they have given Reformers the best arguments; such is an election under the class system; such is a House of Commons with such a system of election! In order to comprehend the character of bribery, corruption and intimidation, such as they have been practised in the late election, it is necessary to call attention to a fact which operated in a parallel direction. If you refer to the general elections since 1831, you will find that, in the same measure as the pressure of the voteless majority of the country upon the privileged body of electors was increasing, as the demand was heard louder, from the middle classes, for an extension of the circle of constituencies, from the working class, to extinguish every trace of a similar privileged circle — that in the same measure the number of electors who actually voted grew less and less, and the constituencies thus more and more contracted themselves. Never was this fact more striking than in the late election. Let us take, for instance, London. In the City the constituency numbers 26,728; only 10,000 voted. The Tower Hamlets number 23,534 registered electors; only 12,000 voted. In Finsbury, of 20,025 electors, not one-half voted. In Liverpool, the scene of one of the most animated contests, of 17,433 registered electors, only 13,000 came to the polls. These examples will suffice. What do they prove? The apathy of the privileged constituencies. And this apathy, what proves it? That they have outlived themselves — that they have lost every interest in their own political existence. This is in no wise apathy against politics in general, but against a species of politics, the result of which, for the most part, can only consist in helping the Tories to oust the Whigs, or the Whigs to conquer the Tories. The constituencies feel instinctively that the decision lies no longer either with Parliament, or with the making of Parliament. Who repealed the Corn Laws? Assuredly not the voters who had elected a Protectionist Parliament, still less the Protectionist Parliament itself, but only and exclusively the pressure from without. In this pressure from without, in other means of influencing Parliament than by voting, a great portion even of electors now believe. They consider the hitherto lawful mode of voting as an antiquated formality, but from the moment Parliament should make front against the pressure from without, and dictate laws to the nation in the sense of its narrow constituencies, they would join the general assault against the whole antiquated system of machinery. The bribery and intimidation practised by the Tories were, then, merely violent experiments for bringing back to life dying electoral bodies which have become incapable of production, and which can no longer create decisive electoral results and really national Parliaments. And the result? The old Parliament was dissolved, because at the end of its career it had dissolved into sections which brought each other to a complete stand-still. The new Parliament begins where the old one ended; it is paralytic from the hour of its birth. 1. Secretary at War: An office which existed parallel with the office of Secretary for Military Affairs and Colonial Affairs. The incumbent of this post was in charge of military finances. As Engels pointed out, this was “not the war minister proper, but rather the representative of the ministry of war in the House of Commons. It was, however, an absolutely independent authority.” In 1855 this office was abolished and the Ministry for Military and Colonial Affairs was divided into two departments. 2. Under the election system then in effect in Great Britain the vote at nominations of candidates was by a show of hands and anyone present could take part. But on election day the right to vote was restricted to a narrow circle of electors by high property, long residential and other qualifications. “The first election, by show of hands,” Marx wrote, “is a show satisfaction allowed, for a moment, to public opinion, in order to convince it, the next moment, the more strikingly of its impotency.” 3. Faux frais: unproductive expenditures. Marx-Engels Archive | Marx-Engels on England | New York Tribune | left | karl marx new york tribune source marx engel britain progress publisher write marx london august publish new york daily tribune september republish newspaper people paper october transcribe andy blunden late house common separate resolve heap difficulty possible successor way parliament vote draconian law bribery corruption intimidation electioneer sharp practice general long list question draw enactment petitioner sit member searching stringent conceive require o n oath state agent communication hold ask compel state know believe conjecture suspect money expend acting authorize authorize behalf word member strange ordeal risk perjury slight idea possible likely lead overstep behalf limit law suppose law grant new legislator use liberty clergy believe thirty article contrive sign remain clause sufficient new parliament virginal assembly speech pass law kingdom juxtaposition general election immediately follow law secure tory glory administration great purity election theoretically proclaim great electoral corruption practically carry fresh election proceed scene bribery corruption violence drunkenness murder ensue unparalleled time old tory monopoly reign supreme actually hear soldier load gun bayonet fix take liberal elector force drag landlord eye vote conscience soldier shoot deliberate aim people dare sympathize captive elector commit wholesale murder unresiste people allusion event mile bridge limerick county clare say ireland ay england employ police break stall oppose send organize gang midnight ruffian prowl street intercept intimidate liberal elector open cesspool drunkenness shower gold corruption derby contest place exercise systematic intimidation far ernest jones people paper chartist weekly paper hear weekly paper opposite patty sober rational moderate organ industrial bourgeoisie london economist believe affirm general election truckle corruption intimidation fanaticism debauchery previous occasion report bribery extensively resort election previous year intimidation undue influence sort practise late election probably impossible form exaggerated estimate sum thing brutal drunkenness low intrigue wholesale corruption barbarous intimidation integrity candidate warp stain honest elector ruin feeble one suborn dishonor lie stratagem slander stalk abroad daylight naked ashamed desecration holy word soiling noble name stand aghast holocaust victim destroy body lose soul funeral pile new parliament rear mean corruption intimidation usual one direct government influence electioneering agent derby arrest flagrant act bribe letter find major beresford secretary beresford open credit commercial firm electioneer monie poole herald publish circular admiraltyhouse halfpay officer sign commanderinchief naval station request vote ministerial candidate direct force arm employ cork belfast limerick place person kill threat ejectment landlord farmer vote land agent lord derby give example colleague threat exclusive dealing shopkeeper dismissal workman intoxication etc etc profane mean corruption spiritual one add tory royal proclamation roman catholic procession issue order inflame bigotry religious hatred nopopery cry raise result proclamation stockport riot irish priest course retort similar weapon election hardly single queen counsel receive twentyfive place instruction invalidate return parliament account bribery intimidation petition elect member sign expense proceeding raise derby cockermouth barnstaple harwich canterbury yarmouth wakefield boston huddersfield windsor great number place derbyite member prove favorable circumstance reject petition principal scene bribery corruption intimidation course agricultural county peer borough conservation great possible number whig expend acuman reform bill constituency large town densely populate manufacturing county peculiar circumstance unfavorable ground manoeuvre day general election britain traditionally bacchanalia drunken debauchery conventional stockjobbe term discounting political conscience rich harvest time publican english paper say recur saturnalia fail leave enduring trace pestilential presence naturally saturnalia ancient roman sense word master turn servant servant turn master servant master day day brutality reign supreme master grand dignitary rule class section class servant form mass class privileged elector encircle mass nonelector thousand call mere hanger support vocal manual appear desirable account theatrical follow history british election century past long tempt ask british parliament bad contrary manage good represent dim refraction actual movement british society opponent representative system feel surprised find legislative body abstract majority accident mere number decisive decide resolve accord necessity situation period vitality impossible utmost straining logical deduction derive relation mere number necessity vote accordance actual state thing give state thing necessity certain relation member follow traditional bribery british election form brutal popular relative strength contending party show respective mean influence dominion occasion normal way enact day abnormal burlesque manner premise remain candidate rival party represent interest mass elector privileged elector represent interest nonvoting mass voteless mass specific interest delphic priestess intoxicate vapor enable find oracle british people intoxicate gin porter enable find oraclefinder legislator oraclefinder look matter course relative position class party undergo radical change moment industrial commercial middle class bourgeoisie take stand official party whig tory especially passing reform bill bourgeois wise fond costly electioneering manoeuvre faux general election consider cheap compete land aristocracy general moral personal pecuniary mean hand conscious represent universally predominant interest modern society position demand elector rule common national interest personal local motive recur postulate specie electoral influence composition constituency center land aristocracy withhold middle class bourgeoisie contend principle moral election force enactment law sense intend safeguard local influence land aristocracy bribery adopt civilized hidden form general election go sober way mass people cease mere chorus take impassioned struggle official hero draw lot rioting bacchantic carouse creation parliamentary divinity like cretan centaur birth jupiter take pay treat participation glory chartist surround threaten masse circle official election struggle come watch scrutinize mistrust movement take place election like universal indignation elicit conservative time time word favor general suffrage mass british proletariat shout voice foe reform give reformer good argument election class system house common system election order comprehend character bribery corruption intimidation practise late election necessary attention fact operate parallel direction refer general election find measure pressure voteless majority country privileged body elector increase demand hear louder middle class extension circle constituency work class extinguish trace similar privileged circle measure number elector actually vote grow constituency contract fact striking late election let instance london city constituency number vote tower hamlet number register elector vote finsbury elector onehalf vote liverpool scene animate contest register elector come poll example suffice prove apathy privileged constituency apathy prove outlive lose interest political existence wise apathy politic general specie politic result consist help tory oust whig whig conquer tory constituency feel instinctively decision lie long parliament making parliament repeal corn law assuredly voter elect protectionist parliament protectionist parliament exclusively pressure pressure mean influence parliament vote great portion elector believe consider hitherto lawful mode voting antiquated formality moment parliament pressure dictate law nation sense narrow constituency join general assault antiquated system machinery bribery intimidation practise tory merely violent experiment bring life die electoral body incapable production long create decisive electoral result national parliament result old parliament dissolve end career dissolve section bring complete standstill new parliament begin old end paralytic hour birth secretary war office exist parallel office secretary military affair colonial affair incumbent post charge military finance engel point war minister proper representative ministry war house common absolutely independent authority office abolish ministry military colonial affair divide department election system effect great britain vote nomination candidate hand present election day right vote restrict narrow circle elector high property long residential qualification election hand marx write satisfaction allow moment public opinion order convince moment strikingly impotency faux frais unproductive expenditure marxengel archive marxengel england new york tribune | 62 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From New International, Vol. VII No. 8 (Whole No. 57), September 1941, pp. 195–7. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. From the military point of view, the involvement of the Soviet Union in the war was a great boon to Great Britain. The main strength of Nazi arms is completely involved on the Eastern Front, and while the German armies have made great headway they have so far failed in this essential aim of crushing the Red Armies. The break-up of the Russo-German alliance bringing about a new turn in the war, had, naturally, to bring about a complete change in the diplomatic front. As a junior member of the Axis camp, the Soviet Union was regarded as a non-belligerent enemy. Diplomatic reasons forestalled a complete break between the Allies and the Soviet Union. Now, everything has changed. On the theory that anyone who fights Hitler is a “friend of democracy,” Great Britain and the United States proceeded to work out plans for joint action with Stalin. In the beginning it was the opinion of the general staffs in England and the United States that the Red Armies would be smashed in a few weeks. Their hopes were otherwise, but they had no great faith in the ability of the Red Armies to fight the kind of battles that would, despite losses, withdrawals and retreats, and the surrender of important areas of Greater Russia and the Ukraine, keep intact the armies as fighting organizations. The Red Armies, however, have fought beyond all expectations. In spite of enormous losses, they are taking a heavy toll of the Germans and making Hitler pay dearly for every advance. The struggle of the Red Army brought about an immediate change in the attitude of the Allied camp, and from a faithless attitude toward the Eastern Front has now grown up the determination to establish such a front in permanence. The Red Army has demonstrated fighting ability and considerable strategical resources. But they have lost great numbers and, more important than that, they have lost enormous quantities of war machines and materials which they cannot easily replace. The loss of important industrial centers and the immobilization of others has created the grave danger that the Red Armies will be unable to wage the kind of war they have carried on heretofore. Roosevelt and Churchill were and are keenly aware of this fact. That is why, shortly after their meeting, immediate and effective aid to the Soviet Union became one of the principal occupations of the two governments. The problem is not one of means by which such aid can be transported to Russia; it is rather one of producing sufficient war goods to supply both the Soviet Union and Great Britain on their widespread and multiple fronts. The situation is somewhat desperate but very clear. Great Britain cannot and does not produce sufficient materials for its own armies and navy. It cannot therefore produce anything for the Red Armies. If it does send materials to Russia, it must be at the expense of the British armed forces. So acute is Britain’s industrial position that without American aid, it cannot prosecute the war. It would seem, after all that has transpired in the past two years, that anyone would understand this simple situation. But apparently this isn’t so. The very eminent, but amateur, war strategist of The Militant of September 27 (Cannon group), Felix Morrow, has discovered the essential reason why no real material aid is given the Soviet Union and why Great Britain does not open up a new Western Front and thus compel the German armies to really carry on a war on two separated sectors. Says Morrow: “Churchill and Roosevelt will not do for the Soviet Union what they would have done tor the Czarist Empire. They accept the Soviet Union as an ally – but only on their own terms. They look upon the Soviet Union not as an ordinary imperialist ally, but as a WORKERS STATE, and they would not dream of doing for that worker’s state what they would do for the Czarist Empire. Renegades from the revolutionary movement may call the Soviet Union imperialist or fascist; Churchill and Roosevelt know better.” (Emphasis in original – Ed.) This is a specious argumentation in the main idea it professes. The theory behind this thought is the following: England and America desire that the German and Russian armies tear themselves apart, waste each other’s reserves and thus bring about a military collapse for both camps. What is contained in Morrow’s theory is a resurrection of one part of the pre-war Stalinist analysis of the war. Morrow’s view is false because it does not conform to what is the real situation. Such an opinion is possible because it springs from the false and outlived theory that Russia is a workers’ state. Adhering to this theory, neither Morrow nor his comrades have been able to understand the war from the very beginning. They have hopped from one analytical error to another. While there are small elements of truth in Morrow’s article, the main line of thought is preposterous. In its larger aspects, it does not truly see the line-ups in the war, that is to say, it does not see the situation in its dynamic aspects. Under any circumstances, no matter the degree of aid given to the Soviet Union from the very start, no matter how many fronts were opened up by British-American action, the Soviet Union could not extricate itself from the situation it was propelled into by the Stalin-Hitler pact. Hitler’s purpose in attacking Russia was governed by larger aims in the war: preparation for American entrance into the war by the occupation of the Ukrainian granary and the Russian oil territory, and the destruction of a possible threat from a mass army on his eastern front. Action by Hitler on other fronts would be purely subordinate and defensive actions to mark time until his armies inflict a final and decisive defeat upon the Red Armies. His main military strategy may be reduced to nothing by failure, but this in no way affects his daily conduct of the war. It does not appear likely, no matter how exhaustive the Russian campaign may be, that Germany will thus be pitched into a condition where it will be unable to wage large-scale warfare on any other front. At least the military staffs of Britain and the United States are not of the opinion that Hitler is destroying himself in the Russian campaign. Quite the contrary, it is their expressed feeling that a victory for Hitler in Russia would be calamitous in many ways. Why, then, doesn’t Britain establish a Western Front? We do not know what plans are being developed by the Allied staffs, but it seems apparent that a Western Front is not established because the British are unable to do so. The British Army is notoriously lacking in the necessary over-all training and arms to establish such a front. This was clearly evident in the Libyan and Middle East campaigns. American production has not yet reached the state where supplies are available for grandiose military actions by the Allies. The attempt to establish a Western Front by Britain now would undoubtedly end disastrously for them. Nothing would better suit the “democratic” camp than the establishment not only of a Western Front, but of an African front as well, in the midst of the Russian campaign. This winter may well see the beginnings of such skirmishes. But to say that Britain and America do not want to establish such fronts because Russia is a workers’ state is the height of idiocy. The United States and Great Britain do not fear the Soviet Union because it is a workers’ state, or for any other reasons. Unlike Morrow, they really do not believe that Russia is great shakes as a workers’ state. They have nothing to fear from Russia militarily. And above all, they have nothing to fear in the way of a Stalinist world revolutionary resurgence. Whatever fears they may have entertained prior to the outbreak of the Russo-German war have been quickly dissipated by the conduct of the Soviet Union, the moribund Communist International and the Stalinist parties throughout the world. Their policies are determined entirely by Russia’s war needs and not those of the international proletariat and the world socialist revolution. Moreover, Russia’s diplomatic and political conduct since the Roosevelt-Churchill sea conference has been such as to cause no worry to the ideological-military front of the Allies. The pragmatic Stalinist regime, in the interests of its bureaucratic survival, has fitted in completely With the larger endeavors of the Anglo-American front. More than that, it has become an integral part of this front and exerts its own measure of influence, simply because it is at war with Germany. For these reasons the United States and Great Britain have already agreed that, in the coming period, the British will have to do with less war supplies than hitherto in the interest of keeping up the Russian front. This was one result of the sea conference. If no great amount of supplies has as yet been sent, it is because there are none in large quantities to send. But war materials are going to Russia and they will be increased, for, even if Stalin should lose the Ukraine and western Russia, the war will continue in the East. Britain and America want it continued until the final victory over Hitler. Not only are American supplies beginning to go to Russia, but the British themselves are sending materials. One week’s production of tanks has already been sent to the Soviet Union. One British air squadron is fighting on the Russian front. The British are prepared to aid in the defense of the Caucasus. And now that the early difficulties in Allied-Soviet relations, arising from the Hitler-Stalin pact, are overcome a new cementing of relations follows. Trade commissions from England and America are already in Moscow; Russian commissions are in Washington and London, and there is a constant interchange of military information and plans. The war, in addition, goes beyond mere military conflict. The Allies are developing an all-around strategy which concerns itself with the ideological and diplomatic struggle against the Axis. This is no less important than the war fronts. Here, too, the Soviet Union has become an integral part of the Allied camp. Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 25 October 2014 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international vol vii september pp transcribe mark einde etol military point view involvement soviet union war great boon great britain main strength nazi arm completely involve eastern german army great headway far fail essential aim crush red army breakup russogerman alliance bring new turn war naturally bring complete change diplomatic junior member axis camp soviet union regard nonbelligerent enemy diplomatic reason forestall complete break ally soviet union change theory fight hitler friend democracy great britain united states proceed work plan joint action stalin beginning opinion general staff england united states red army smash week hope great faith ability red army fight kind battle despite loss withdrawal retreat surrender important area great russia ukraine intact army fight organization red army fight expectation spite enormous loss take heavy toll germans make hitler pay dearly advance struggle red army bring immediate change attitude ally camp faithless attitude eastern grow determination establish permanence red army demonstrate fighting ability considerable strategical resource lose great number important lose enormous quantity war machine material easily replace loss important industrial center immobilization create grave danger red army unable wage kind war carry heretofore roosevelt churchill keenly aware fact shortly meeting immediate effective aid soviet union principal occupation government problem mean aid transport russia produce sufficient war good supply soviet union great britain widespread multiple front situation somewhat desperate clear great britain produce sufficient material army navy produce red army send material russia expense british armed force acute britain industrial position american aid prosecute war transpire past year understand simple situation apparently eminent amateur war strategist militant september cannon group felix morrow discover essential reason real material aid give soviet union great britain open new western compel german army carry war separated sector say morrow churchill roosevelt soviet union tor czarist empire accept soviet union ally term look soviet union ordinary imperialist ally worker state dream worker state czarist empire renegade revolutionary movement soviet union imperialist fascist churchill roosevelt know well emphasis original ed specious argumentation main idea profess theory thought follow england america desire german russian army tear apart waste reserve bring military collapse camp contain morrow theory resurrection prewar stalinist analysis war morrow view false conform real situation opinion possible spring false outlived theory russia worker state adhere theory morrow comrade able understand war beginning hop analytical error small element truth morrow article main line thought preposterous large aspect truly lineup war situation dynamic aspect circumstance matter degree aid give soviet union start matter front open britishamerican action soviet union extricate situation propel stalinhitler pact hitler purpose attack russia govern large aim war preparation american entrance war occupation ukrainian granary russian oil territory destruction possible threat mass army eastern action hitler front purely subordinate defensive action mark time army inflict final decisive defeat red army main military strategy reduce failure way affect daily conduct war appear likely matter exhaustive russian campaign germany pitch condition unable wage largescale warfare military staff britain united states opinion hitler destroy russian campaign contrary express feeling victory hitler russia calamitous way britain establish western know plan develop ally staff apparent western establish british unable british army notoriously lack necessary overall training arm establish clearly evident libyan middle east campaign american production reach state supply available grandiose military action ally attempt establish western britain undoubtedly end disastrously well suit democratic camp establishment western african midst russian campaign winter beginning skirmish britain america want establish front russia worker state height idiocy united states great britain fear soviet union worker state reason unlike morrow believe russia great shake worker state fear russia militarily fear way stalinist world revolutionary resurgence fear entertain prior outbreak russogerman war quickly dissipate conduct soviet union moribund communist international stalinist party world policy determine entirely russia war need international proletariat world socialist revolution russia diplomatic political conduct rooseveltchurchill sea conference cause worry ideologicalmilitary ally pragmatic stalinist regime interest bureaucratic survival fit completely large endeavor angloamerican integral exert measure influence simply war germany reason united states great britain agree come period british war supply hitherto interest keep russian result sea conference great supply send large quantity send war material go russia increase stalin lose ukraine western russia war continue east britain america want continue final victory hitler american supply begin russia british send material week production tank send soviet union british air squadron fight russian british prepared aid defense caucasus early difficulty alliedsoviet relation arise hitlerstalin pact overcome new cementing relation follow trade commission england america moscow russian commission washington london constant interchange military information plan war addition go mere military conflict ally develop allaround strategy concern ideological diplomatic struggle axis important war front soviet union integral ally camp page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update october | 63 |
All Railway MenNational Federation Will Embrace Every Branch: Unions to ConsolidatePublishedlinlChicago Tribune,lvol.l52,lno.l102luAprill12,l1893v,lpg.l9.TheT AmericanTRailwayTUnionTwasTpermanentlyTorganizedTyestergdayT [AprilT kkfT kstm]T atT aT meetingT heldTinT theT parlorsT ofT theT HotelTGreenefT NohT knpT EastT MadisonT StreetT [Chicago]hT ThisT isT theT newTcombinationTofTrailwayTemployeesfTofTwhichTaTtemporaryTorganizationTwasT hadTtwoT monthsT agohT Yesterday’sT meetingTwasT heldTinTpursuanceTofTaTcallTissuedTbyTtheTCommitteeTonTConstitutionTandTDeclarationTofTPurposeshT GeorgeT WhT HowardfT exgChiefT ofT theT Conductors’T orderfTpresidedhButT littleT businessT wasT doneT yesterdayfT andT severalT moreT railwayTmenT willT arriveT todayT toT participateT inT theT proceedingsfT whichT willTcontinueT forT threeT dayshTTheTreadingT ofTtheT reportTofT theT committeeTonTConstitutionTwasTdeferredTuntilTtodayhTTheTBoardTofTDirectorsTwillTbeT namedTandTtheTelectionTofT officersT 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Davenport1000lFlowerslPublishing,lCorvallis,lORl·lDecemberl2016l·lNon-commerciallreproductionlpermitted.FirstlEdition. | left | railway mennational federation embrace branch union consolidatepublishedlinlchicago americantrailwaytuniontwastpermanentlytorganizedtyestergdayt aprilt kkft kstmt att meetingt heldtint thet parlorst oft thet hoteltgreeneft noht knpt eastt madisont streett chicagoht thist ist thet newtcombinationtoftrailwaytemployeesftoftwhichtattemporarytorganizationtwast hadttwot monthst agoht meetingtwast heldtintpursuancetoftatcalltissuedtbytthetcommitteetontconstitutiontandtdeclarationtoftpurposesht georget wht howardft exgchieft oft thet orderftpresidedhbutt littlet businesst wast donet yesterdayft andt severalt moret railwaytment willt arrivet todayt tot participatet int thet proceedingsft whicht willtcontinuet fort threet dayshtthetreadingt oftthet reporttoft thet committeetontconstitutiontwastdeferredtuntilttodayhtthetboardtoftdirectorstwilltbet namedtandtthetelectiontoft officerst willttaketplacet todayht speakingtoft thet unionft eugenetvht debst oft thet brotherhoodft onet on trains trackss ins shopss officess anywherestheys willsbesorganizedsbysthesbranchsofs work they dosthereswillsbesascentralsbodyscomposesofsonesdelegatesfromseachsofsthosesbranchessand hen s will be president secretary and mutual protection and the promotion ofs the interestss of will openspermanent headquarterss here ass soonsass wesadjourn and send out from here organizerss over all will holdsasmasss meetingsatsansearlys day in chicagos fall weswillsholds grandsconvention in chicagos whichswillsformsthesbasis s att sessiont weret eugenet vht debsft terret hautevtlhwhtrogersftoshkoshtwiftshtkeliherftminneapolisvtwhshtmissemerftstht josephft mohvt whhht sebringft memphisvt jamest aht clarkft englegwoodtcovt georget wht howardft chicagovt henryt waltonft philadelgphiavt f hwht arnoldft chicagoht theset ment aret widelyt knownt ast grandtofficersft exggrandt officersft ort unofficialt leaderst amongt railwayt emgployeesht thet railwayt aget andt othert railwayt journalsft supposedt totrepresenttthet corporatetsidetoftthetissuest arisingtintthet railwaytworldftcalledtattentionttotthistmeetingtandtitstobjectstastonetoftthetmosttimgportanttmovestrecentlytmadettowardtatgeneraltclosetfederationtortunigficationt oft allt thet nowt scatteredft discordantft andt oftent belligerenttbrotherhoodstandtorderstoftrailwaytemployeesh tim | 64 |
ICONIC CHICAGO ALDERMAN Leon Despres died at the age of 101 on May 6, 2009 in the city he lived and loved. A little frail in stature, Len had a broad intellect that was fully intact to the very end. He fought much of his adult life for a progressive vision of Chicago that “Machine” politics was never ready to accept. After his 1955 election as alderman, and in the first decade of his two-decade term, many city council votes were recorded 49-1. Despres was the lone dissenter. Despres’ life is significant to readers of this magazine because of his relationship to the socialist movement and, in particular, his identification with the ideas of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Len had been in the Socialist Party and left with Trotskyists in 1937 but did not affiliate with their new organization, the Socialist Workers Party. I first became aware of Len at the 1946 SWP convention in Chicago where he was a guest. I left the SWP in 1953 and left organized socialist politics in 1959. But, unlike Len, who said only recently in a yet-to-be-released documentary on Trotsky “that I considered myself a Trotskyist but not a Trotskyite,” I considered myself both. Len, however, continued his involvement in several progressive campaigns. For example, I got to know Len personally after the formation of the James Hickman Defense Committee in 1947. Hickman was a Black steelworker whose apartment was set ablaze by his landlord after he complained about poor living conditions. Hickman’s four children died in the fire. Six months later, Hickman shot and killed the landlord after receiving no relief from the court system. We were in the Committee together, with Mike Myers and William Temple (attorney for Joe Louis) leading the defense team and me doing lots of “Jimmie Higgins” work. It may seem astonishing looking back today, but the first trial resulted in a failure to get a conviction, thereby facilitating the prosecution offer to free Hickman with two years probation. [For fuller explanation, see “A Previously Unknown Individual” by Joe Allen, International Socialist Review #66, July-August 2009 and “A Lifetime for Socialism,” by Karin Baker and Patrick Quinn, Against the Current #71 November-December 1997.] While Len had empathy for left ideas and ideals, he really had no special relationship with any socialist groups though he maintained warm personal relations with individuals like Albert Goldman, Mike Myers, Sid Lens and other figures of the non-Stalinist Chicago left. To me, this was an example of his integrity, which is why I had so much respect for him. He never pretended to be something he was not. For example, he was one of few people who would readily acknowledge in later years that he was playing tennis at his in-laws in Winnetka when he got news of the 1937 Memorial Day massacre during the Little Steel strike. He didn’t have to excuse himself or make something up to make himself look better. He was playing tennis in a wealthy suburb while others were participating in a strike rally. The reason this sticks in my mind is that as years went by, some of my friends seemed to get closer and closer to the site of the massacre. Not Len. He stuck to his story and it stuck in my mind as the mark of the man, especially since Len played a significant role in the aftermath of the massacre. He organized the Citizens’ Committee that investigated the role of the Chicago police who, at the service of Republic Steel, murdered 10 steelworkers. The investigation resulted in a large political rally at the Chicago Opera House where 3500 people heard compelling evidence exposing the role of the cops and the Chicago establishment. Through the years, Len and I continued to see each other politically as well as socially. I think Len believed in socialism and, in particular, the ideas of Trotsky himself. But he didn’t act on those beliefs alongside organized socialist revolutionaries. As he said decades later when referring to his 1937 visit with Trotsky in Coyoacan, Mexico, “I was not a Trotskyist except in my mind.” In that sense, his socialist ideas never quite made it off the shelf. It should be recognized, however, that he was a player on the political scene at a time when the radical movement was disintegrating and really wasn’t a platform to reach a wide audience. As a result, Len became best known for the reform politics he chose. Before being elected alderman, Len was chairman of the Chicago ACLU and the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI). He opposed segregation in schools and housing and always condemned the racist culture of his beloved city and stood up against hand-picked Uncle Tom officials of the Daley machine. And when the Black movement came into its own in the middle 1960s, and an independent Black alderman outside the Daley machine was elected for the first time in a number of Southside and Westside wards, Len did not try to be the leader of this broader political opposition. Nor did he try to substitute himself for the emerging Black leadership. Len stepped back but not out. Ultimately, these reformers inside the Democratic Party achieved great success with the election in 1983 of Harold Washington as the first African-American mayor of Chicago. After Len retired from the City Council in 1975, he continued to serve as City Council parliamentarian under both Mayors Jane Byrne and Harold Washington. During the latter’s reign, Len was considered more an insider and a major player in the administration. He maintained his labor law practice and won some very significant victories in the 1970s on behalf of steelworkers during the local area’s mill shutdowns and on behalf of reform steelworker union candidate Ed Sadlowski. Len was successful in overturning that “stolen” union election for head of the powerful midwest-based United Steel Workers of America (USWA) District 31. His labor law practice became marginalized as unions declined. However, Len continued to represent rebels who needed a lawyer with a leftist perspective. Len was much more than a political activist. He was active in a variety of civic and cultural affairs that complemented his interests in art, the symphony and, in particular, what was known as Chicago-style of architecture. You could truly say of Len that he was a Renaissance Man. I can only imagine how thrilled he was in 1937 when the famous artist, Diego Rivera, offered to paint his wife Marion. Rivera charged $200 with the money going to support Trotsky’s household. After lunching with Diego, Len recalled fondly later, “my claim to fame is that I took Frida [Kahlo] to the movies while Diego finished Marion’s painting.” After I left Chicago, my contact with Len was less frequent. So, I was a bit surprised in 1993 when Len sent me a copy of a letter he received from Al Glotzer, Trotsky’s secretary when the “Old Man” was in exile in Prinkipo, Turkey. Glotzer expressed the strong opinion that the Memorial for prominent social democratic literary figure Irving Howe was dishonest because it ignored Howe’s early training and education in the Trotskyist movement. I was surprised that Len sent this letter to me, and even more surprised that Glotzer was still alive and in contact with Despres. Len didn’t comment on the letter but by sending it, I assumed that he personally shared Glotzer’s view. Again, it showed there was some spark of recognition and appreciation for revolutionary ideas but still not necessarily enough to make an effort for Len to put them into practice. With the death of Harold Washington in 1987, Len withdrew from active political life. He celebrated his 100th birthday last year with scores of family and friends who walked the walk with him over those tough early years of isolation, some longer than others. Included among these friends was Studs Terkel, who passed six months later. Among other guests were former Alderman William Cousins, who was the first Black to successfully beat the Daley machine, and Carol Moseley Braun, the first Black woman U.S., Senator. The celebration was, in typical Despres fashion, held at a local restaurant in Chinatown, without the garish adornments some think necessary for such an occasion. Not Len. It was supposed to be a very short program, but not after Bill Cousins grabbed the microphone with the 1960 rebels from the Black wards insisting on taking the time to pay respect to their friend and mentor. The tributes ended with Carol Moseley Braun singing “a capella” to the man many credited with playing a significant role in tearing down segregationist Chicago politics and opening doors to participation by the Black community. When Len got his chance to speak, he observed that he lived through five wars and opposed each and every one of them — demonstrating that in his later years, it was important to him that he define more clearly parts of his radical past that had been pushed to the background. He left the speaker’s podium and joined Studs to eat, wryly commenting, “I’m hungry because there were only supposed to be four toasts.” As part of their forthcoming documentary on Leon Trotsky, Linda Laub and Suzi Weissman spoke with Despres in his Chicago apartment three months before he died. They asked Len what he thought of my remark that “Len had outed himself” based on comments he made several years ago in a New York Times interview. Despres repeated for the filmmakers what he had stated in the Times article. He said that his visit to Trotsky in Coyoacan, Mexico, “turned out to be one of the leading events of my life.” After some hesitation and more consideration, Len confirmed that he did not normally reveal his connections to Trotsky. “Nobody asked me about my visit to Trotsky. What was it, 71 years ago? I kept it under my hat for the aldermanic elections, so in that sense, Frank is right, I am outing myself. Once I crossed that obstacle [of the aldermanic elections], I have not worried about people knowing.” As you look back on Len’s life, it’s obvious to me that Len, at least in his mind, always knew there was another political option than the one he chose, even if he didn’t openly acknowledge it until a few years before his death. It’s not that he had a messianic vision of Trotsky. Instead, I think it was the fact that it was the only significant incident in his life, at a meeting with the co-leader of the Russian revolution, that validated revolutionary ideas and posed most sharply the alternative to reformism. The echo of that conversation remained forever imprinted in Len’s political consciousness as revealed by several references to it in his later years and the mention of it in his obituary. He chose not to take this alternative but he did, nonetheless, take it seriously. As the embers of past ideological disputes were banked, the broad left in Chicago embraced Len for his integrity, his commitment and, in particular, his struggle to desegregate Chicago on all levels. From this we can say, Len’s was a productive life well lived. Chicago is better off for having Len. For those of us who retain socialist views, we take heart that neither did Len, to the end, let go of its compelling vision. ATC 143, November-December 2009 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | iconic chicago alderman leon despre die age city live love little frail stature len broad intellect fully intact end fight adult life progressive vision chicago machine politic ready accept election alderman decade twodecade term city council vote record despre lone dissenter despre life significant reader magazine relationship socialist movement particular identification idea russian revolutionary leon trotsky len socialist party leave trotskyist affiliate new organization socialist worker party aware len swp convention chicago guest leave swp leave organize socialist politic unlike len say recently yettobereleased documentary trotsky consider trotskyist trotskyite consider len continue involvement progressive campaign example get know len personally formation james hickman defense committee hickman black steelworker apartment set ablaze landlord complain poor living condition hickman child die fire month later hickman shoot kill landlord receive relief court system committee mike myers william temple attorney joe louis lead defense team lot jimmie higgins work astonishing look today trial result failure conviction facilitate prosecution offer free hickman year probation full explanation previously unknown individual joe allen international socialist review julyaugust lifetime socialism karin baker patrick quinn current novemberdecember len empathy left idea ideal special relationship socialist group maintain warm personal relation individual like albert goldman mike myers sid lens figure nonstalinist chicago leave example integrity respect pretend example people readily acknowledge later year play tennis inlaw winnetka get news memorial day massacre little steel strike excuse look well play tennis wealthy suburb participate strike rally reason stick mind year go friend close close site massacre len stick story stick mind mark man especially len play significant role aftermath massacre organize citizen committee investigate role chicago police service republic steel murder steelworker investigation result large political rally chicago opera house people hear compelling evidence expose role cop chicago establishment year len continue politically socially think len believe socialism particular idea trotsky act belief alongside organize socialist revolutionary say decade later refer visit trotsky coyoacan mexico trotskyist mind sense socialist idea shelf recognize player political scene time radical movement disintegrate platform reach wide audience result len well know reform politic choose elect alderman len chairman chicago aclu independent voter illinois ivi oppose segregation school housing condemn racist culture beloved city stand handpicked uncle tom official daley machine black movement come middle independent black alderman outside daley machine elect time number southside westside ward len try leader broad political opposition try substitute emerge black leadership len step ultimately reformer inside democratic party achieve great success election harold washington africanamerican mayor chicago len retire city council continue serve city council parliamentarian mayor jane byrne harold washington reign len consider insider major player administration maintain labor law practice win significant victory behalf steelworker local area mill shutdown behalf reform steelworker union candidate ed sadlowski len successful overturn steal union election head powerful midwestbased united steel worker america uswa district labor law practice marginalize union decline len continue represent rebel need lawyer leftist perspective len political activist active variety civic cultural affair complement interest art symphony particular know chicagostyle architecture truly len renaissance man imagine thrilled famous artist diego rivera offer paint wife marion rivera charge money go support trotsky household lunch diego len recall fondly later claim fame take frida kahlo movie diego finish marion painting leave chicago contact len frequent bit surprised len send copy letter receive al glotzer trotsky secretary old man exile prinkipo turkey glotzer express strong opinion memorial prominent social democratic literary figure irving howe dishonest ignore howe early training education trotskyist movement surprised len send letter surprised glotzer alive contact despre len comment letter send assume personally share glotzer view show spark recognition appreciation revolutionary idea necessarily effort len practice death harold washington len withdraw active political life celebrate birthday year score family friend walk walk tough early year isolation long include friend stud terkel pass month later guest alderman william cousin black successfully beat daley machine carol moseley braun black woman senator celebration typical despre fashion hold local restaurant chinatown garish adornment think necessary occasion len suppose short program bill cousin grab microphone rebel black ward insist take time pay respect friend mentor tribute end carol moseley braun singing capella man credit play significant role tear segregationist chicago politic opening door participation black community len get chance speak observe live war oppose demonstrate later year important define clearly part radical past push background leave speaker podium join stud eat wryly comment hungry suppose toast forthcoming documentary leon trotsky linda laub suzi weissman speak despre chicago apartment month die ask len think remark len out base comment year ago new york times interview despre repeat filmmaker state time article say visit trotsky coyoacan mexico turn lead event life hesitation consideration len confirm normally reveal connection trotsky ask visit trotsky year ago keep hat aldermanic election sense frank right out cross obstacle aldermanic election worry people know look len life obvious len mind know political option choose openly acknowledge year death messianic vision trotsky instead think fact significant incident life meeting coleader russian revolution validate revolutionary idea pose sharply alternative reformism echo conversation remain forever imprint len political consciousness reveal reference later year mention obituary choose alternative nonetheless seriously ember past ideological dispute bank broad left chicago embrace len integrity commitment particular struggle desegregate chicago level len productive life live chicago well have len retain socialist view heart len end let compelling vision atc novemberdecember current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 65 |
MIA > Archive > Bensaïd Published under this title by International Viewpoint Online magazine : IV, No.386, February 2007. Previously published in English under the title The return of strategy, International Socialism, No.113, January 2007. Translation and explanatory notes by International Socialism. Downloaded with thanks from the Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières Website. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. This article takes up issues arising in a discussion on revolutionary strategy to be found in the LCR’s theoretical journal Critique Communiste in March 2006 [1] and continued at a seminar in Paris in June. [2] Other participants included the editor of Critique Communiste Antoine Artous, LCR members Cedric Durand and Francis Sitel, and Alex Callinicos of the British SWP. The issues involved ranged from the nature of socialist revolution today to the attitude taken to non-revolutionary but anti-neoliberal forces in France. There has been an ‘eclipse’ in the debate about strategy since the beginning of the 1980s, in contrast with the discussions prompted by the experiences in the 1970s of Chile and Portugal (and then Nicaragua and Central America). The neo-liberal offensive made the 1980s at best a decade of social resistance, characterised by a defensiveness in the class struggle, even in those cases when popular democratic pressure forced dictatorships to give way – notably in Latin America. The withdrawal from politics found expression in what could be called a ‘social illusion’, by analogy with the ‘political illusion’ of those criticised by the young Marx for thinking ‘political’ emancipation being fully realised through the achievement of civil rights as the last word in ‘human emancipation’. There was a symetrical illusion about the self-sufficiency of social movements reflected to a degree in the experiences after Seattle (1999) and the first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre (2001). Simplifying somewhat, I call this the ‘utopian moment’ of social movements, which took different forms: utopias based on the regulation of free markets; Keynesian utopias; and above all neo-libertarian utopias, in which the world can be changed without taking power or by making do with counter-powers (John Holloway, Toni Negri, Richard Day). The upturn in social struggles turned into political or electoral victories in Latin America, Venezuela and Bolivia. But in Europe the struggles ended in defeat, except with the movement against the CPE attacks on the rights of young workers. The push towards privatisation, reforms in social protection and the dismantling of social rights could not be prevented. This lack of social victories has caused expectations to turn once more towards political (mostly electoral) solutions, as the Italian elections showed. [3] This ‘return of politics’ has led to a revival in debates about strategy. Witness the polemics round the books of Holloway, Negri and Michael Albert, and the differing appraisals of the Venezuelan process and of Lula’s administration in Brazil. There has been the shift in the Zapatistas’ orientation with the sixth declaration of the Selva Lacandona and the ‘other campaign’ in Mexico. The discussions around the project for a new LCR manifesto or Alex Callinicos’s Anticapitalist Manifesto [4] belong in the same context. We are coming to the end of the phase of the big refusal and of stoical resistance – Holloway’s ‘scream’ in the face of ‘the mutilation of human lives by capitalism’, slogans like ‘the world is not a commodity’ or ‘our world is not for sale’. We need to be specific about what the “possible” world is and, above all, to explore how to get there. Notions of strategy and tactics are military terms that were imported into the workers’ movement – above all from the writings of Clausewitz or of Delbrück. However, their meaning has varied greatly. At one time strategy was the art of winning a battle, with tactics being no more than troop manoeuvres. Since then there has been no halt to the expansion of the field of strategy over time and space, from dynastic wars to national wars, from total war to global war. So we can today make a distinction between global strategy operating on a world scale and ‘limited strategy’ concerned with the struggle for the conquest of power within a particular area. In some ways, the theory of permanent revolution sketched out a global strategy. The revolution starts from the national arena (in one country) to expand to the continental and world level; it takes a decisive step with the conquest of political power but is prolonged and deepened by ‘a cultural revolution’. It thus combines act and process, event and history. This dimension of global strategy is even more important today than it was in the first half of the 20th century, faced as we are with powerful states whose economic and military strategies are world wide. The emergence of new strategic areas at the continental or world level shows this. The dialectic of the permanent revolution (as against the theory of socialism in one country), in other words the intertwining of national, continental and world levels, is tighter than ever. One can seize the levers of power in one country (like Venezuela or Bolivia), but the question of continental strategy (etc.) immediately becomes a matter of domestic policy – as in the Latin American discussions over Alba versus Alca [a], the relationship to Mercosur, to the Andes Pact. More prosaically, in Europe resistance to neo-liberal counter-reforms can be reinforced by the balance of forces at the national level and by legislative gains. But a transitional approach to public services, taxation, social protection, ecology has to be pitched at the European level from the outset. [5] I confine myself here to the question of what I have called ‘the limited strategy’ – the struggle for the conquest of political power at the national level. The framework of globalisation can weaken national states and some transfers of sovereignty take place. But the national rung, which structures class relationships and attaches a territory to a state, remains the decisive rung in the sliding scale of strategic spaces. Let us straightaway put aside the criticisms from those like John Holloway and Cédric Durand [6] that ascribe to us a ‘stagist’ vision of the revolutionary process, according to which we would make the seizure of power the ‘absolute precondition’ for any social transformation. The argument is either a caricature or it stems from ignorance. Vaulting from a standing start is not something we have ever been keen on. The concepts of the united front, of transitional demands and of the workers’ government – defended not just by Trotsky but by Thalheimer, Radek, and Clara Zetkin [7] – have a precise aim. This is to link the event to its preparatory conditions, revolution to reforms, the goal to the movement. The Gramscian notions of hegemony and ‘war of position’ operate along the same lines. [8] The opposition between the East (where power would be easier to conquer but more difficult to maintain) and the West arises from the same concern. [9] We have never been admirers of the theory of the mere collapse of the system. [10] We have insisted on the role of the ‘subjective factor’ as against both the spontaneist view of the revolutionary process and the structuralist immobilism of the 1960s. Our insistence is not on a ‘model’ but on what we have called ‘strategic hypotheses’. [11] Models are something to be copied; they are instructions for use. A hypothesis is a guide to action that starts from past experience but is open and can be modified in the light of new experience or unexpected circumstances. Our concern therefore is not to speculate but to see what we can take from past experience, the only material at our disposal. But we always have to recognise that it is necessarily poorer than the present and the future if revolutionaries are to avoid the risk of doing what the generals are said to do – always fight the last war (to be late of a war). Our starting point lies in the great revolutionary experiences of the 20th century – the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the German Revolution, the popular fronts, the Spanish Civil War, the Vietnamese war of liberation, May 1968, Portugal, Chile. We have used them to distinguish between two major hypotheses, or scenarios: that of the insurrectional general strike and that of the extended popular war. They encapsulate two types of crisis, two forms of dual power, two ways of resolving the crisis. As far as the insurrectional general strike is concerned, dual power takes a mainly urban form, of the Commune variety – not just the Paris Commune, but the Petrograd Soviet, the insurrections in Hamburg in 1923, Canton in 1927, Barcelona n 1936. Dual power cannot last long in a concentrated area. Confrontation therefore leads to a rapid resolution, although this may in turn lead to a prolonged confrontation: civil war in Russia, the liberation war in Vietnam after the 1945 insurrection. In this scenario the task of demoralising the army and organising the soldiers plays an important part. Among the more recent and meaningful experiences in this respect were the soldiers’ committees in France, the SUV “Soldiers united will win” movement in Portugal in 1995, and the conspiratorial work of the MIR [b] in the Chilean army in 1972-3. In the case of the extended popular war strategy, the issue is one of territorial dual power through liberated and self-administered zones, which can last much longer. Mao understood the conditions for this as early as his 1927 pamphlet Why is it that red political power can exist in China? and the experience of the Yenan Republic [c] shows how it operates. According to the insurrectionary general strike scenario the organs of alternative power are socially determined by urban conditions; according to the extended popular war scenario, they are centralised in the (predominantly peasant) ‘people’s army’. There are a whole range of variants and intermediary combinations between these two hypotheses in their ideal form. So, the Cuban revolution made the guerrilla foco (“focus”) the link between the kernel of the rebel army and attempts to organise and call urban general strikes in Havana and Santiago. [12] The relationship between the two was problematic, as shown in the correspondence of Frank Païs, [d] Daniel Ramos Latour, and Che himself about the tensions between “the sierra” and “the plain”. Retrospectively, the official narrative privileged the heroic epic of the Granma [e] and its survivors. This contributed to bolstering the legitimacy of that element in the 26 July movement and of the ruling Castro group, but was detrimental to a more complex understanding of the process. This simplified version of history was set up as a model for rural guerrilla war and inspired the experiences of the 1960s in Peru, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia, Bolivia. The deaths of De La Puente and Lobatòn in battle Peru (1965), Camillo Torres in Colombia (1966), Yon Sosa and Lucio Cabañas in Mexico, Carlos Marighela and Lamarca in Brazil, the tragic expedition of Che to Bolivia, the near annihilation of the Sandinistas in 1963 and 1969, the disaster of Teoponte in Bolivia in 1970, mark the end of that cycle. The strategic hypothesis of the Argentinian PRT [f] and the MIR in Chile made greater use, at the beginning of the 1970s, of the Vietnamese example of extended popular war (and, in the PRT’s case, of a mythic version of the Algerian war of liberation). The history of the Sandinista front up to its victory over the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 shows a mixture of different outlooks. The Prolonged People’s War tendency o9f Tomàs Borge stressed the development of a guerrilla presence in the mountains and the need for a long period of gradually accumulating forces. The Proletariat Tendency of Jaime Wheelock insisted on the social effects of capitalist development in Nicaragua and on the strengthening of the working class while retaining the perspective of a prolonged accumulation of forces with a view to an ‘insurrectional moment’. The ‘Tercerist’ Tendency of the Ortega brothers was a synthesis of the other two tendencies which allowed for coordination between the southern front and the uprising in Managua. Looking back, Humberto Ortega summed up the differences thus: ‘The politics which consists of not intervening in events, of accumulating forces from cold, is what I call the politics of passive accumulation of forces. This passivity was evident at the level of alliances. There was also passivity in the fact that we thought we could accumulate arms, organise ourselves, bring human resources together without fighting the enemy, without having the masses participate’. [13] He recognised that circumstances shook their various plans up: ‘We called for the insurrection. The pace of events quickened, objective conditions did not allow us greater preparation. In reality, we could not say no to the insurrection – such was the breadth of the mass movement that the vanguard was incapable of directing it. We could not oppose this torrent. All we could do was to put ourselves at its head in the hope of more or less leading it and giving it a sense of direction.’ He concluded, ‘Our insurrectional strategy always gravitated around the masses and not around some military plan. This must be clear.’ In reality, having a strategic option implies a sequencing of political priorities, of when to intervene, of what slogans to raise. It also determines the politics of alliances. Mario Payeras’ narrative of the Guatemala process [14] illustrates a return from the forest to the town and a change in relationships between the military and the political, the countryside and the town, and Régis Debray’s 1974 A Critique of Arms (or self-criticism) also provides an account of the start of this evolution in the 1960s. There were the disastrous adventures of the Red Army Fraction in Germany, of the Weathermen [g] in the US (to say nothing of the ephemeral tragi-comedy of the Gauche prolétarienne [h] in France and the theses of July/Geismar [i] in their unforgettable Vers la guerre civile (Towards Civil War) of 1969. All these and other attempts to translate the experience of rural guerrilla war into ‘urban guerrilla’ war came to a close in the 1970s. The only instances of armed movements to have lasted successfully were those whose organisations had their social base in struggles against national oppression (Ireland, the Basque country). [15] These strategic hypotheses and experiences were not simply reducible to militarism. They set political tasks in order. Thus, the PRT’s conception of the Argentinian revolution as a national war of liberation meant privileging the construction of an army (the ERP) at the cost of self-organisation in workplaces and neighbourhoods. Similarly, the MIR’s orientation of putting the stress, under Popular Unity, on accumulating forces (and rural bases) led to its downplaying the threat of a coup d’état and above all underestimating its long term consequences. Yet as MIR’s general secretary Miguel Enriquez clearly perceived, following the failure of the first, abortive, coup of 29 June there was a brief moment favourable to the creation of a combat government which could have prepared for a trial of strength. The Sandinista victory in 1979 no doubt marked a new turn. That at least is the view of Mario Payeras who stressed that in Guatemala (as in El Salvador) revolutionary movements were not confronted by clapped out puppet dictatorships but by Israeli, Taiwanese and US ‘advisors’ in ‘low intensity’ and ‘counter-revolutionary’ wars. This increasing asymmetry has since gone global with the new strategic doctrines of the Pentagon and the declaration of ‘unlimited’ war against ‘terrorism’. This is one reason (in addition to the tragic hyperviolence of the Cambodian experience, the bureaucratic counter-revolution in the USSR, and the Cultural Revolution in China) why the question of revolutionary violence has become a thorny, even taboo, subject, whereas in the past the epic sagas of the Granma and of Che, or the writings of Fanon, Giap or Cabral made violence appear innocent or liberatory. What we see is a groping towards some asymmetrical strategy of the weak and the strong, an attempt to synthesise Lenin and Gandhi [16] or orient towards non-violence. [17] Yet the world has not become less violent since the fall of the Berlin wall. It would be rash and otherworldly to bet on there being a ‘peaceful way’. Nothing from the century of extremes ratifies this scenario. The guideline for our strategic hypothesis in the 1970s was the insurrectional general strike, which, for the most part, bore no resemblance to the variants of acclimatised Maoism and its imaginary interpretations of the Cultural Revolution. It is this hypothesis of which we are now the ‘orphans’, according to Antoine Artous. [j] What yesterday might have had a certain ‘functionality’ is today lost. He does not deny, however, the continuing relevance of notions of revolutionary crisis and dual power. The hypothesis needs, he insists, serious reformulation – one that avoids wallowing in the term “rupture” and in verbal trickery. Two points crystallise his concern. On the one hand, Artous insists that dual power cannot be totally situated outside existing institutions and be made suddenly to spring from nothing in the form of a pyramid of soviets or councils. We may once upon a time have surrendered to this oversimplified vision of real revolutionary processes that we used to pore over in political study groups. But I doubt it. Be that as it may, other texts [18] swiftly corrected whatever vision we may have had. We may even, at the time, have been disturbed or shocked by Ernest Mandel coming round to the idea of ‘mixed democracy’ [k] after he had re-assessed the relationship between the soviets and Constituent Assembly in Russia. Yet clearly one cannot imagine a revolutionary process other than as a transfer of legitimacy which gives preponderance to ‘socialism from below’ but which interacts with forms of representation, particularly in countries with parliamentary traditions going back over more than a century and where the principle of universal suffrage is firmly established. In practice, our ideas have evolved – as they did, for example, during the Nicaraguan revolution. In the context of a civil war and a state of siege, organising ‘free’ elections in 1989 was open to question but we did not challenge the principle. Rather, we criticised the Sandinistas for suppressing the ‘council of state’ [l], which might have constituted a sort of second social chamber and have been a pole of alternative legitimacy to the elected Parliament. Similarly, though on a more modest scale, the example of the dialectic in Porto Alegre between the municipal institution (elected by universal suffrage) and participatory committees over the budget is worth consideration. The problem we face is not in reality that of the relationship between territorial democracy and workplace democracy (the Paris Commune, the Soviets and the Setubal popular assembly of Portugal in 1975 were territorial structures), nor even that of the relationship between direct and representative democracy (all democracy is partially representative). The real problem is how the general will is formed. Most criticism of soviet-style democracy by the eurocommunists [m] or by Norberto Bobbio [n] is targeted at its tendency to corporatism: a sum (or pyramid) of particular interests (parochial, workplace, office), linked by a system of mandation, could not allow for the creation of the general will. Democratic subsidiarity has its drawbacks too. If the inhabitants of a valley are opposed to a road passing through it or if a town is against having a waste collection centre (in order to palm both off on their neighbours), then there really has to be some form of centralised arbitration. [19] In our debates with the Eurocommunists we insisted on the necessary mediation (and plurality) of parties so that a synthesis of propositions could emerge and a general will arise out of particular viewpoints. Our programmatic documents have increasingly incorporated the general hypothesis of a dual chamber. But we have not ventured into speculation about institutional nuts and bolts – the practical details remain open to experience. Antoine Artous’ second concern, notably in his criticism of Alex Callinicos, bears on the assertion that Alex’s transitional approach halts at the threshold of the question of power. This would be left to be resolved by some unconvincing deus ex machina [o], supposedly by a spontaneous tidal wave of the masses and a generalised outburst of soviet democracy. Though defence of civil liberties figures prominently in Alex’s programme, he would appear to make no demands of an institutional nature (for example, the demand for proportional representation, a Constituent Assembly or single chamber, or radical democratisation). Cédric Durand, on the other hand, would seem to conceive of institutions as mere intermediaries for autonomous, protest strategies. This, in practice, might boil down to a compromise between ‘below’ and ‘above’ – in other words, crude lobbying by the former of the latter, which is left intact. In reality all sides in the controversy agree on the fundamental points inspired by The Coming Catastrophe (Lenin’s pamphlet of the summer of 1917) and the Transitional Programme of the Fourth International (inspired by Trotsky in 1937): the need for transitional demands, the politics of alliances (the united front [20]), the logic of hegemony and on the dialectic (not antinomy) between reform and revolution. We are therefore against the idea of separating an (‘anti-neoliberal’) minimum programme and an (anti-capitalist) ‘maximum’ programme. We remain convinced that a consistent anti-neoliberalism leads to anti-capitalism and that the two are interlinked by the dynamic of struggle. We can argue about exactly how the balance of forces and existing levels of consciousness should structure transitional demands. Agreement is easy, however, on targeting the privatisation of the means of production, communication and exchange — whether in relation to public sector education, humanity’s common goods or the increasingly important question of the socialisation of knowledge (as opposed to intellectual private property). Similarly, we can easily agree on exploring ways to socialise wages through systems of social protection as a step towards the withering away of the wages system altogether. Finally, in opposition to the generalisation of the market we open up the possibilities of extending the free provision of, not merely services, but basic items of consumption (thus of ‘de-marketisation’). The tricky question about the issue of transition is that of the ‘workers’ government’. The difficulty is not new. The debates at the time of the fifth congress of the Communist International (1924) on the record of the German revolution and the Social Democrat-Communist governments of Saxony and Thuringia in the late summer of 1923 before show this. They reveal the unresolved ambiguity of the formulae that came out of the early congresses of the Communist International and the range of interpretations which they could give rise to in practice. Treint [p] underlined in his report that ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat does not fall from the sky; it must have a beginning and the workers’ government is synonymous with the start of the dictatorship of the proletariat.’ Nevertheless he denounced the ‘saxonisation’ of the united front: ‘The entry of the communists into a coalition government with bourgeois pacifists to prevent an intervention against the revolution was not wrong in theory’ but governments of the Labour Party or Left Bloc type cause ‘bourgeois democracy to find an echo within our own parties’. The Czechoslovak Smeral declared in the debate on the activity of the International: ‘As far as the theses of our congress in February 1923 on the workers’ government are concerned, we were all convinced when we drew them up that they were in line with the decisions of the fourth congress. They were adopted unanimously.’ But ‘what are the masses thinking about when they speak of a workers’ government?’ ‘In England, they think of the Labour Party, in Germany and in other countries where capitalism is decomposing, the united front means that the communists and social democrats, instead of fighting one another when the strike breaks out, are marching shoulder to shoulder. For the masses the workers’ government has the same meaning and when we use this formula they imagine a united government of all the workers’ parties.’ And Smeral continued: ‘What deep lesson does the Saxon experiment teach us? Above all, this: that one cannot vault from a standing start – a run-up is needed.’ Ruth Fischer’s [q] answer was that as a coalition of workers’ parties the workers’ government would mean ‘the liquidation of our party’. In her report on the failure of the German revolution Clara Zetkin argued: ‘As far as the workers’ and peasants’ government is concerned I cannot accept Zinoviev’s declaration that it is simply a pseudonym, a synonym or god knows what homonym, for the dictatorship of the proletariat. That may be correct for Russia but it is not the same for countries where capitalism is flourishing. There the workers’ and peasants’ government is the political expression of a situation in which the bourgeoisie can no longer maintain itself in power but where the proletariat is not yet in a position to impose its dictatorship.’ In fact, what Zinoviev defined as the ‘elementary objective of the workers’ government’ was the arming of the proletariat, workers’ control over production, a tax revolution… One could go on and quote other contributions. The resulting impression would be of enormous confusion. This expresses a real contradiction and an inability to solve the problem, though it was raised was in a revolutionary or pre-revolutionary situation. It would be irresponsible to provide a solution that is universally valid; nevertheless, three criteria can be variously combined for assessing participation in a government coalition with a transition perspective: In this light participation in the Lula government in Brazil [r] appears to have been mistaken: The question of the workers’ government has inevitably brought us back to the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat. An LCR conference decided by a majority of more than two thirds to remove mention of it from its statutes. That was fair enough. Today the term dictatorship more readily invokes the military or bureaucratic dictatorships of the 20th century than the venerable Roman institution of temporary emergency powers duly mandated by the Senate. Since Marx saw the Paris Commune as ‘the political form at last discovered’ of this dictatorship of the proletariat, we would be better off understood as invoking the Commune, the Soviets, councils or self-management, rather than hanging on to a verbal fetish which history has rendered a source of confusion. For all that we haven’t done with the question raised by Marx’s formula and the importance he gave it in his celebrated letter to Kugelman. Generally speaking, the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ tends to carry the image of an authoritarian regime and to be seen as a synonym for bureaucratic dictatorships. But for Marx it was the democratic solution to an old problem – the exercise for the first time by the (proletarian) majority of emergency power, which till then had been the preserve of a virtuous elite as with the committee of public safety of the French revolution, even if the committee in question emanated from the Convention and could be recalled by it. The term ‘dictatorship’ in Marx’s time was often counterposed to ‘tyranny’, which was used to express despotism. The notion of the dictatorship of the proletariat also had a strategic significance, one often raised in the debates of the 1970s upon its abandonment by the majority of (euro)communist parties. Marx clearly grasped that the new legal power, as an expression of a new social relationship, could not be born if the old one remained: between two social legitimacies, ‘between two equal rights, it is force that decides’. Revolution implies therefore a transition enforced by a state of emergency. Carl Schmitt [t], who was an attentive reader of the polemic between Lenin and Kautsky, understood perfectly what was at issue when he distinguished between the ‘chief constable dictatorship’, whose function in a state of crisis is to preserve the established order, and the ‘sovereign dictatorship’, which inaugurates a new order by virtue of a constitutive power. [22] If this strategic perspective, whatever name we give it, remains valid then there necessarily follows a series of consequences about how power is organised, about legitimacy, about how parties function, etc. The notion of “the actuality of revolution” [u] has a double meaning: a broad sense (‘the epoch of wars and revolution’) and an immediate or conjectural sense. In the defensive situation the social movement finds itself in, having been thrown back for more than 20 years in Europe, no-one will claim that revolution has an actuality in an immediate sense. On the other hand, it would be a risky and not minor matter to eliminate it from the horizon of our epoch. Perhaps Francis Sitel intended to use this distinction in his contribution to the debate. If he wants to avoid ‘a wild-eyed vision of the actual balance of forces’ as ‘a current perspective’ ‘and prefers instead a ‘perspective for action which informs present struggles about the necessary outcomes of these same struggles’, then there is not much to quarrel about. But more debatable is the idea according to which we could maintain the objective of conquering power ‘as a sign of radicalism but admit that its realisation is currently beyond our horizon’. For him the question of government is not linked to the question of power, but to ‘a more modest demand’, that of ‘protection’ against the neo-liberal offensive. The debate about the conditions for participation in government does not go ‘through the monumental gate of strategic reflection’, but ‘through the narrow gate of broad parties’. Our fear here is that it may no longer be the need for a programme (or strategy) which dictates the construction of the party but the size of an algebraically broad party which determines what is seen as the best party policy. The issue of government would then be scalded down as a strategic question and recast it as a mere ‘question of orientation’ (which, to some extent, is what we did with Brazil). But, a ‘question of orientation’ is not disconnected from the strategic perspective unless we fall into the classic dissociation between minimum and maximum programme. And, if ‘broad’ is necessarily more generous and open than narrow and closed, there are different degrees of broadness: the Brazilian PT, the Linkspartei in Germany, the ODP in Turkey, the Left Bloc in Portugal, Rifondazione comunista, are not of the same nature. ‘The most erudite developments in matters of revolutionary strategy appear quite airy fairy,’ Francis Sitel concludes, ‘compared with the question of how to act in the here and now.’ Certainly, this worthy pragmatic maxim could have been uttered in 1905, in February 1917, in May 1936, in February 1968, thus reducing the sense of the possible to one of prosaic realism. Francis Sitel’s diagnosis, and his programmatic adjustment to this side of the horizon, is not without practical implications. Once our perspective is no longer limited to seizing power but is inscribed in a longer process of ‘subverting power’, we would have to recognise that ‘the traditional [23] party which concentrates on the conquest of power is led to adapt to the state itself’ and consequently ‘to transmit within itself mechanisms of domination which undermine the very dynamic of emancipation’. A new dialectic has therefore to be invented between the political and the social. Certainly; this is the practical and theoretical task we set ourselves, when we reject ‘the political illusion’ as much as ‘the social illusion’, or draw principled conclusions from past negative experiences (about the independence of social organisations towards the state and parties, about political pluralism, about democracy within parties). But the problem does not lie in the way a party ‘adapted to the state’ transmits the state’s mechanisms of domination so much as in the deeper and commoner phenomenon of bureaucratisation, rooted in the division of labour. Bureaucratisation is inherent in modern societies: it affects trade union and associative organisations as a whole. In fact, party democracy (as opposed to the media-driven, plebiscitary democracy of so-called ‘public opinion’) would be, if not an absolute remedy, at least one of the antidotes to the professionalisation of power and the ‘democracy of the market’. This is too easily forgotten by those who see in democratic centralism only a mask for bureaucratic centralism. Yet some degree of centralisation is the very condition for democracy, not its negation. The stress on the adaptation of the party to the state finds an echo in the isomorphism (picked up by Boltanski and Chiapello in Le Nouvel esprit du capitalisme) between the structure of Capital itself and the structures of the workers’ movement, which are subordinate to it. This question is a crucial one and cannot be evaded or resolved easily: the wage struggle and the right to a job (sometimes wrongly called the ‘right to work’) is indeed a struggle that is subordinate to (isomorphic with) the capital/labour relationship. Behind that is the whole problem of alienation, fetishism and reification. But to believe that ‘fluid’ forms – organising in networks and the logic of affinity groups (as opposed to the logic of hegemony) – escape this subordination is a grotesque illusion. Such forms are perfectly isomorphic with the modern organisation of computerised capital, flexible working, the ‘liquid society’, etc. That does not mean that the old forms of subordination were better or preferable to the emergent forms – only that there is no royal road of networking to lead us out of the vicious circle of exploitation and domination. Francis Sitel is fearful that talking of ‘the eclipse’ or ‘the return of strategic reason’ means simply bracketing things off, returning to the same old themes or taking up the question in the terms posed by the Third International. He insists on the need for ‘fundamental revisions’, for reinvention, for ‘constructing something new’, as fitting the requirements of the workers’ movement. Of course. But we are not speaking of a blank screen. The rhetoric of novelty is no guarantee against falling back into the oldest, and most hackneyed, ways of thinking. Some new ways of thinking (about ecology, feminism, war and rights) are genuine. But many of the ‘novelties’ our epoch indulges in are no more than fashionable effects (feeding like any fashion on quotations from the past), which recycle old utopian themes from the 19th century and the workers’ movement in its infancy. Having rightly recalled that reforms and revolution form a dialectical couple in our tradition and not an opposition of mutually exclusive terms, Francis Sitel hazards the prediction that a ‘broad party will be defined as a party of reforms’. That’s as maybe. But it’s an idea that is speculative and sets up a norm in advance. And that certainly is not our problem. We don’t have to put the cart before the horse and invent among ourselves a minimum programme (of reforms) for a hypothetical ‘broad party’. We have to define our project and our programme. It is from that starting point that, in concrete situations and with tangible allies, we shall weigh up what compromises are possible, even if it means accepting some loss in clarity, in exchange for greater social spread, experience and dynamism. This is not new. We participated in the creation of the PT. Our comrades are active as a current in Rifondazione. They play a decisive part in the Left Bloc in Portugal. But these are all specific configurations and should not be brought together under some all-inclusive category of ‘broad party’. The structural situation in which we find ourselves certainly opens up a space to the left of the major traditional formations of the workers’ movement (social-democrats, Stalinists, populists). There are many reasons for this. The neo-liberal counter-reform, the privatisation of the public arena, the dismantling of the welfare state, the market society, have sawn off the branch on which sat social-democracy and populist administrations in certain Latin American countries. The communist parties have suffered the after-effect of the implosion of the USSR at the same time as the erosion of the social bases they acquired in the pre-war years and Liberation periods, without gaining new roots. There really does exist what we often call a radical ‘space’, which has found diverse expression in the emergence of new social movements and electoral formations. This is the present day basis for reconstruction and regroupment. But this ‘space’ is not homogenous and empty so that all we have to do is fill it. It is a highly unstable force field, as shown spectacularly by the conversion in less than three years of Rifondazione from lyrical movementism, at the time of Genoa and Florence [24], to government coalition with Romano Prodi. This instability stems from the fact that the social mobilisations have suffered more defeats than they have won victories and that their link to the transformation of the political landscape remains overstretched. In the absence of meaningful social victories, the hope of the ‘lesser evil’ (‘anything but Berlusconi – or Sarkozy, or Le Pen!’) moves, for lack of real change, to the electoral terrain where the weight of institutional logic remains decisive (in France, that of plebiscitary presidentialism and a particularly anti-democratic electoral system). That’s why the symmetry of the happy medium, between an opportunist and a conservative danger is a false perspective: they don’t carry the same weight. We must know how to dare to take risky decisions (the most extreme example being that of the October insurrection) – but we must also know how to weigh up the risk and calculate the chances if we are to avoid pure adventurism. As the great dialectician Pascal said, we are already committed, we must wager. Yet racegoers know that a bet of two to one is small-time, and that a bet of a thousand to one, though it may hit the jackpot, is a desperate throw. The margin is between the two. Daring too has its reasons. The evolution from right to left of currents like Rifondazione or the Linkspartei remains fragile (even reversible) for the very reason that the effects of social struggle on the field of political representation remain limited. It depends in part on the presence and weight within them of revolutionary organisations or tendencies. There are very general common factors. But over and beyond these, conditions vary enormously, depending on the specific history of the workers’ movement (for instance, whether social democracy is totally hegemonic or whether there subsist important communist parties). It also depends on the balance of forces within the left. Apparatuses are determined not only by ideology but by social logics. They cannot be shifted by whispering in the ears of their leaders but only by modifying the real balance of forces. The perspective of a ‘new force’ remains an algebraic formula for now (this was true for us before 1989-91 and is even truer since). Translating it into practice cannot be mechanically deduced from formulae as vague and general as ‘the broad party’ or ‘regroupment’. We are only at the start of a process of reconstruction. What counts in the approach to this is our programmatic compass and strategic aim. This is one condition that will allow us to discover the organisational mediations we need and to take calculated risks. That way we avoid throwing ourselves headlong into some impatient adventure and dissolving ourselves into the first ephemeral combination that comes along. Organisational formulae are in reality very variable, depending on whether at issue is a new mass party (like the PT in Brazil in the 1980s, though this is an unlikely pattern in Europe), minority splits from a hegemonic social democracy, or yet again parties that we might previously have termed centrist (Rifondazione five years ago), or a coalition of revolutionary currents (as in Portugal). This last hypothesis remains, however, the most likely for countries such as France, where there is a long tradition of organisations like the CP or the far left and where, without a really powerful social movement, for them simply to merge in the short or medium term is difficult to imagine. But, in every case, reference to a common programmatic background, far from being something that obstructs future reconstruction, is on the contrary its precondition. Strategic and tactical questions can then be prioritised so that we are not torn apart because of this or that electoral outcome. We can distinguish the political base on which organising open theoretical debate makes sense. We can assess which compromises allow us to forge ahead and which to pull us back. We can adjust to forms of organisational existence (whether to be a tendency in a shared party, part of a front, etc.), depending on our allies and how their dynamic fluctuates (from right to left or left to right). 1. They are available on the website of the ESSF (Europe solidaire sans frontières). Texts by Artous and Alex Callinicos are translated in the International Discussion Bulletin of the International Socialist Tendency at www.istendency.net. 2. Organised by the network of Marxist journals ‘Project K’. 3. This was Stathis Kouvelakis’s emphasis in The triumph of the political, ISJ108, Autumn 2005. On ESSF website: Une rencontre de la gauche radicale à Mumbai. 4. Alex Callinicos, An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto, Polity Press, Cambridge 2003. 5. I shall go no further on this aspect of the question. It is simply a reminder (see in this respect the theses proposed in the debate organised by Das Argument). On ESSF website: Moment utopique et refondation stratégique. 6. Durand appears to attribute to us a ‘stagist view of social change’ and ‘a temporality of political action centred exclusively on the preparation of the revolution as a decisive moment’ (to which he opposes ‘an altermondialist and Zapatista historical time’ ??!!), see Critique communiste 179. On ESSF website: Pour un nouveau modèle stratégique. For a detailed critique of John Holloway’s approach, see the detailed critique Daniel Bensaïd: Un monde à changer Paris, Textuel 2003; Planète altermondialiste, Textuel, 2006, and in articles in Contretemps. [Many of these contributions are on ESSF website]. 7. In the debate about the programme in the Communist International up till its sixth congress. 8. See Perry Anderson, The Antinomies of Gramsci, New Left Review 100, 1977. 9. See the debates around the report on the German revolution at the fifth congress of the Communist International. 10. See Giacomo Marramao, Il Politico e le trasformazioni, and the pamphlet Stratégies et partis. 11. As Antoine Artous reminds us in his article in Critique communiste. On ESSF website: Orphelins d’une stratégie révolutionnaire?. 12. Despite the simplified myth of the foco, notably in Regis Debray, Revolution in the Revolution, London 1967. 13. The strategy for victory, interview by Martha Harnecker. Asked about the date on which the insurrection was called, Ortega replied: ‘Because a whole series of more and more favourable objective conditions arose: the economic crisis, the currency devaluation, the political crisis. And because after the September events we realised that it was necessary to combine simultaneously and within the same strategic space the rising of the masses at a national level, the offensive of the military forces at the front and the national strike in which the employers were involved or in practice acquiesced. If we had not combined these three strategic factors simultaneously and in the same strategic space, victory would not have been possible. On several occasions there had been a call for a national strike, but it had not been combined with the mass offensive. The masses had already risen, but the rising had not been combined with strike action and took place at a time when the military capacity of the vanguard was too weak. And the vanguard had already delivered several blows to the enemy but without the presence of the other two factors.’ 14. Mario Payeras Los días de la selva (Days of the Jungle, Monthly Review Press 1983) and El trueno en la cuidad (The Thunder in the city), 1987. 15. See Dissidence, Révolution, Lutte armée et Terrorisme, volume 1, L’Harmattan, 2006. 16. This is notably the theme of recent texts by Balibar. 17. The debate about non-violence in Rifondazione comunista’s theoretical review (Alternative) is certainly not without a bearing on its present course. 18. Notably Mandel’s, in his polemics against the eurocommunists’ theses. See his book in the Maspero little collection and above all his interview in Critique communiste. 19. The experience of the participatory budget at the Rio Grande do Sol state level offers many concrete examples in this respect: credit allocation, ranking of priorities, territorial sharing of collective supplies, etc. 20. It may be worth coming back to a discussion of this notion of a united front, or a fortiori the anti-imperialist united front which some revolutionaries in Latin America have made flavour of the month, in the light of the evolution of social formations, of the role and composition of political parties, etc. 21. At stake here, as far as the orientation in Brazil is concerned, was a conception of the Fourth International and its relationship to the national sections. But this question goes beyond the context of this text. 22. See Carl Schmitt, La Dictature, Seuil, Paris 1990. 23. By ‘traditional’ does Sitel mean communist parties or, more broadly, social-democratic parties whose aim is the conquest of governmental power through parliamentary means? 24. See the book by Fausto Bertinotti, Ces idées qui ne meurent jamais, Paris, Le temps des Cerises, 2001, and critical approach to it (which appeared at the time of the ESF in Florence) in Daniel Bensaïd, Un monde à changer, Paris, Textuel, 2003). a. Alba – the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean, proposed by Chavez. Alca – the Free Trade Area of the Americas, proposed by the US. b. MIR – Chilean Movement of the Revolutionary Left. c. The remote region of China run by the Chinese communists from the mid 1930s to their taking of Beijing in 1949. d. The leader of the urban resistance in Cuba, killed in 1958 shortly before the victory of the revolution. e. The boat from which the group of guerrillas led by Castro landed in Cuba at the end of 1956. f. PRT – Revolutionary Workers Party, an Argentine section of the Fourth International with a guerrilla group the ERP. g. A guerrilla group formed from a split in Students for a Democratic Society, led by Bernadine Dohn and Mark Rudd. h. A French Maoist organisation formed in 1969. i. Serge July was editor of the daily Liberation from 1974 to 2006, steering it from Maoism to the neoliberal “centre left”; Alain Geismar, secretary of the lecturers’ SNE-Sup union during the events of May 1968, then a Maoist, now Inspector General of Education. j. Antoine Artous – editor of the LCR’s theoretical journal Critique Communiste. Bensaïd is referring to Artous’ article in that journal, translated as The LCR and the Left: Some Strategic Questions in the International Socialist Tendency’s International Bulletin 7 (January 2006), www.istendency.net. k. i.e. of a combination of parliament and workers councils. l. A body or around 50 people made up of nominated from the political parties, the Sandinista defence committees, the unions, professional associations and private enterprise organisations. m. Those Communists who broke with Stalinism in the late 1960s and 1970s to embrace left wing parliamentarianism. n. Norberto Bobbio – a left of centre Italian political philosopher. o. Latin phrase – “A god from a machine”, ie sudden emergence from nowhere. p. Leader of the pro-Zinoviev wing of the French Communist Party in the mid-1920s. q. Ruth Fischer – leader of the ultra-left in the German Communist Party in the early and mid 1920s – she later became a fervent cold warrior. r. By members of the DS current which is part of the Fourth International. s. The position taken by a leading member of DS. t. Right wing German legal theorist of the interwar years, joined Nazi Party. u. Term used by the Hungarian Marxist philosopher Georg Lukacs in 1922. Top of the page Last updated on 19 January 2010 | left | mia archive bensaïd publish title international viewpoint online magazine iv february previously publish english title return strategy international socialism january translation explanatory note international socialism download thank europe solidaire sans frontière website mark einde marxist internet archive article take issue arise discussion revolutionary strategy find lcr theoretical journal critique communiste march continue seminar paris june participant include editor critique communiste antoine artous lcr member cedric durand francis sitel alex callinicos british swp issue involve range nature socialist revolution today attitude take nonrevolutionary antineoliberal force france eclipse debate strategy beginning contrast discussion prompt experience chile portugal nicaragua central america neoliberal offensive well decade social resistance characterise defensiveness class struggle case popular democratic pressure force dictatorship way notably latin america withdrawal politic find expression call social illusion analogy political illusion criticise young marx think political emancipation fully realise achievement civil right word human emancipation symetrical illusion selfsufficiency social movement reflect degree experience seattle world social forum porto alegre simplify somewhat utopian moment social movement take different form utopia base regulation free market keynesian utopias neolibertarian utopia world change take power make counterpower john holloway toni negri richard day upturn social struggle turn political electoral victory latin america venezuela bolivia europe struggle end defeat movement cpe attack right young worker push privatisation reform social protection dismantling social right prevent lack social victory cause expectation turn political electoral solution italian election show return politic lead revival debate strategy witness polemic round book holloway negri michael albert differ appraisal venezuelan process lula administration brazil shift zapatista orientation sixth declaration selva lacandona campaign mexico discussion project new lcr manifesto alex callinicos anticapitalist manifesto belong context come end phase big refusal stoical resistance holloway scream face mutilation human life capitalism slogan like world commodity world sale need specific possible world explore notion strategy tactic military term import worker movement writing clausewitz delbrück meaning vary greatly time strategy art win battle tactic troop manoeuvre halt expansion field strategy time space dynastic war national war total war global war today distinction global strategy operate world scale limited strategy concern struggle conquest power particular area way theory permanent revolution sketch global strategy revolution start national arena country expand continental world level take decisive step conquest political power prolong deepen cultural revolution combine act process event history dimension global strategy important today half century face powerful state economic military strategy world wide emergence new strategic area continental world level show dialectic permanent revolution theory socialism country word intertwining national continental world level tight seize lever power country like venezuela bolivia question continental strategy etc immediately matter domestic policy latin american discussion alba versus alca relationship mercosur ande pact prosaically europe resistance neoliberal counterreform reinforce balance force national level legislative gain transitional approach public service taxation social protection ecology pitch european level outset confine question call limited strategy struggle conquest political power national level framework globalisation weaken national state transfer sovereignty place national rung structure class relationship attach territory state remain decisive rung slide scale strategic space let straightaway aside criticism like john holloway cédric durand ascribe stagist vision revolutionary process accord seizure power absolute precondition social transformation argument caricature stem ignorance vault stand start keen concept united transitional demand worker government defend trotsky thalheimer radek clara zetkin precise aim link event preparatory condition revolution reform goal movement gramscian notion hegemony war position operate line opposition east power easy conquer difficult maintain west arise concern admirer theory mere collapse system insist role subjective factor spontaneist view revolutionary process structuralist immobilism insistence model call strategic hypothesis model copy instruction use hypothesis guide action start past experience open modify light new experience unexpected circumstance concern speculate past experience material disposal recognise necessarily poor present future revolutionary avoid risk general say fight war late war starting point lie great revolutionary experience century russian revolution chinese revolution german revolution popular front spanish civil war vietnamese war liberation portugal chile distinguish major hypothesis scenario insurrectional general strike extended popular war encapsulate type crisis form dual power way resolve crisis far insurrectional general strike concern dual power take mainly urban form commune variety paris commune petrograd soviet insurrection hamburg canton barcelona n dual power long concentrated area confrontation lead rapid resolution turn lead prolong confrontation civil war russia liberation war vietnam insurrection scenario task demoralise army organise soldier play important recent meaningful experience respect soldier committee france suv soldier united win movement portugal conspiratorial work mir b chilean army case extended popular war strategy issue territorial dual power liberated selfadministere zone long mao understand condition early pamphlet red political power exist china experience yenan republic c show operate accord insurrectionary general strike scenario organ alternative power socially determine urban condition accord extended popular war scenario centralise predominantly peasant people army range variant intermediary combination hypothesis ideal form cuban revolution guerrilla foco focus link kernel rebel army attempt organise urban general strike havana santiago relationship problematic show correspondence frank païs d daniel ramos latour che tension sierra plain retrospectively official narrative privilege heroic epic granma e survivor contribute bolster legitimacy element july movement rule castro group detrimental complex understanding process simplify version history set model rural guerrilla war inspire experience peru venezuela nicaragua colombia bolivia death de la puente lobatòn battle peru camillo torre colombia yon sosa lucio cabañas mexico carlos marighela lamarca brazil tragic expedition che bolivia near annihilation sandinista disaster teoponte bolivia mark end cycle strategic hypothesis argentinian prt f mir chile great use beginning vietnamese example extended popular war prt case mythic version algerian war liberation history sandinista victory somoza dictatorship show mixture different outlook prolong people war tendency tomàs borge stress development guerrilla presence mountain need long period gradually accumulate force proletariat tendency jaime wheelock insist social effect capitalist development nicaragua strengthening work class retain perspective prolong accumulation force view insurrectional moment tercerist tendency ortega brother synthesis tendency allow coordination southern uprising managua look humberto ortega sum difference politic consist intervene event accumulate force cold politic passive accumulation force passivity evident level alliance passivity fact think accumulate arm organise bring human resource fight enemy have masse participate recognise circumstance shake plan call insurrection pace event quicken objective condition allow great preparation reality insurrection breadth mass movement vanguard incapable direct oppose torrent head hope lead give sense direction conclude insurrectional strategy gravitate masse military plan clear reality have strategic option imply sequencing political priority intervene slogan raise determine politic alliances mario payera narrative guatemala process illustrate return forest town change relationship military political countryside town régis debray critique arm selfcriticism provide account start evolution disastrous adventure red army fraction germany weatherman g ephemeral tragicomedy gauche prolétarienne h france thesis julygeismar unforgettable ver la guerre civile civil war attempt translate experience rural guerrilla war urban guerrilla war come close instance armed movement last successfully organisation social base struggle national oppression ireland basque country strategic hypothesis experience simply reducible militarism set political task order prt conception argentinian revolution national war liberation mean privilege construction army erp cost selforganisation workplace neighbourhood similarly mir orientation put stress popular unity accumulate force rural basis lead downplay threat coup underestimate long term consequence mir general secretary miguel enriquez clearly perceive follow failure abortive coup june brief moment favourable creation combat government prepare trial strength sandinista victory doubt mark new turn view mario payera stress guatemala el salvador revolutionary movement confront clap puppet dictatorship israeli taiwanese advisor low intensity counterrevolutionary war increase asymmetry go global new strategic doctrine pentagon declaration unlimited war terrorism reason addition tragic hyperviolence cambodian experience bureaucratic counterrevolution ussr cultural revolution china question revolutionary violence thorny taboo subject past epic sagas granma che writing fanon giap cabral violence appear innocent liberatory groping asymmetrical strategy weak strong attempt synthesise lenin gandhi orient nonviolence world violent fall berlin wall rash otherworldly bet peaceful way century extreme ratify scenario guideline strategic hypothesis insurrectional general strike bear resemblance variant acclimatised maoism imaginary interpretation cultural revolution hypothesis orphan accord antoine artous j yesterday certain functionality today lose deny continue relevance notion revolutionary crisis dual power hypothesis need insist reformulation avoid wallow term rupture verbal trickery point crystallise concern hand artous insist dual power totally situate outside exist institution suddenly spring form pyramid soviet council time surrender oversimplified vision real revolutionary process pore political study group doubt text swiftly correct vision time disturb shock ernest mandel come round idea mixed democracy k reassess relationship soviet constituent assembly russia clearly imagine revolutionary process transfer legitimacy give preponderance socialism interact form representation particularly country parliamentary tradition go century principle universal suffrage firmly establish practice idea evolve example nicaraguan revolution context civil war state siege organise free election open question challenge principle criticise sandinista suppress council state l constitute sort second social chamber pole alternative legitimacy elect parliament similarly modest scale example dialectic porto alegre municipal institution elect universal suffrage participatory committee budget worth consideration problem face reality relationship territorial democracy workplace democracy paris commune soviet setubal popular assembly portugal territorial structure relationship direct representative democracy democracy partially representative real problem general form criticism sovietstyle democracy eurocommunist m norberto bobbio n target tendency corporatism sum pyramid particular interest parochial workplace office link system mandation allow creation general democratic subsidiarity drawback inhabitant valley oppose road pass town have waste collection centre order palm neighbour form centralised arbitration debate eurocommunist insist necessary mediation plurality party synthesis proposition emerge general arise particular viewpoint programmatic document increasingly incorporate general hypothesis dual chamber venture speculation institutional nut bolt practical detail remain open experience antoine artous second concern notably criticism alex callinicos bear assertion alex transitional approach halt threshold question power leave resolve unconvincing deus ex machina o supposedly spontaneous tidal wave masse generalised outburst soviet democracy defence civil liberty figure prominently alex programme appear demand institutional nature example demand proportional representation constituent assembly single chamber radical democratisation cédric durand hand conceive institution mere intermediary autonomous protest strategy practice boil compromise word crude lobbying leave intact reality side controversy agree fundamental point inspire come catastrophe lenin pamphlet summer transitional programme fourth international inspire trotsky need transitional demand politic alliance united logic hegemony dialectic antinomy reform revolution idea separate antineoliberal minimum programme anticapitalist maximum programme remain convinced consistent antineoliberalism lead anticapitalism interlink dynamic struggle argue exactly balance force exist level consciousness structure transitional demand agreement easy target privatisation mean production communication exchange relation public sector education humanity common good increasingly important question socialisation knowledge oppose intellectual private property similarly easily agree explore way socialise wage system social protection step withering away wage system altogether finally opposition generalisation market open possibility extend free provision merely service basic item consumption demarketisation tricky question issue transition worker government difficulty new debate time fifth congress communist international record german revolution social democratcommunist government saxony thuringia late summer reveal unresolved ambiguity formulae come early congress communist international range interpretation rise practice treint p underline report dictatorship proletariat fall sky beginning worker government synonymous start dictatorship proletariat denounce saxonisation united entry communist coalition government bourgeois pacifist prevent intervention revolution wrong theory government labour party leave bloc type cause bourgeois democracy find echo party czechoslovak smeral declare debate activity international far thesis congress february worker government concern convince draw line decision fourth congress adopt unanimously masse think speak worker government england think labour party germany country capitalism decompose united mean communist social democrats instead fight strike break march shoulder shoulder masse worker government meaning use formula imagine united government worker party smeral continue deep lesson saxon experiment teach vault stand start runup need ruth fischer q answer coalition worker party worker government mean liquidation party report failure german revolution clara zetkin argue far worker peasant government concern accept zinoviev declaration simply pseudonym synonym god know homonym dictatorship proletariat correct russia country capitalism flourish worker peasant government political expression situation bourgeoisie long maintain power proletariat position impose dictatorship fact zinoviev define elementary objective worker government arming proletariat worker control production tax revolution quote contribution result impression enormous confusion express real contradiction inability solve problem raise revolutionary prerevolutionary situation irresponsible provide solution universally valid criterion variously combine assess participation government coalition transition perspective light participation lula government brazil r appear mistake question worker government inevitably bring question dictatorship proletariat lcr conference decide majority third remove mention statute fair today term dictatorship readily invoke military bureaucratic dictatorship century venerable roman institution temporary emergency power duly mandate senate marx see paris commune political form discover dictatorship proletariat well understand invoke commune soviet council selfmanagement hang verbal fetish history render source confusion question raise marx formula importance give celebrated letter kugelman generally speak dictatorship proletariat tend carry image authoritarian regime see synonym bureaucratic dictatorship marx democratic solution old problem exercise time proletarian majority emergency power till preserve virtuous elite committee public safety french revolution committee question emanate convention recall term dictatorship marx time counterpose tyranny express despotism notion dictatorship proletariat strategic significance raise debate abandonment majority eurocommunist party marx clearly grasp new legal power expression new social relationship bear old remain social legitimacy equal right force decide revolution imply transition enforce state emergency carl schmitt t attentive reader polemic lenin kautsky understand perfectly issue distinguish chief constable dictatorship function state crisis preserve establish order sovereign dictatorship inaugurate new order virtue constitutive power strategic perspective remain valid necessarily follow series consequence power organise legitimacy party function etc notion actuality revolution u double meaning broad sense epoch war revolution immediate conjectural sense defensive situation social movement find having throw year europe claim revolution actuality immediate sense hand risky minor matter eliminate horizon epoch francis sitel intend use distinction contribution debate want avoid wildeye vision actual balance force current perspective prefer instead perspective action inform present struggle necessary outcome struggle quarrel debatable idea accord maintain objective conquer power sign radicalism admit realisation currently horizon question government link question power modest demand protection neoliberal offensive debate condition participation government monumental gate strategic reflection narrow gate broad party fear long need programme strategy dictate construction party size algebraically broad party determine see good party policy issue government scald strategic question recast mere question orientation extent brazil question orientation disconnect strategic perspective fall classic dissociation minimum maximum programme broad necessarily generous open narrow close different degree broadness brazilian pt linkspartei germany odp turkey left bloc portugal rifondazione comunista nature erudite development matter revolutionary strategy appear airy fairy francis sitel conclude compare question act certainly worthy pragmatic maxim utter february february reduce sense possible prosaic realism francis sitel diagnosis programmatic adjustment horizon practical implication perspective long limit seize power inscribe long process subverting power recognise traditional party concentrate conquest power lead adapt state consequently transmit mechanism domination undermine dynamic emancipation new dialectic invent political social certainly practical theoretical task set reject political illusion social illusion draw principled conclusion past negative experience independence social organisation state party political pluralism democracy party problem lie way party adapt state transmit state mechanism domination deep commoner phenomenon bureaucratisation root division labour bureaucratisation inherent modern society affect trade union associative organisation fact party democracy oppose mediadriven plebiscitary democracy socalled public opinion absolute remedy antidote professionalisation power democracy market easily forget democratic centralism mask bureaucratic centralism degree centralisation condition democracy negation stress adaptation party state find echo isomorphism pick boltanski chiapello le nouvel esprit du capitalisme structure capital structure worker movement subordinate question crucial evade resolve easily wage struggle right job wrongly call right work struggle subordinate isomorphic capitallabour relationship problem alienation fetishism reification believe fluid form organise network logic affinity group oppose logic hegemony escape subordination grotesque illusion form perfectly isomorphic modern organisation computerised capital flexible work liquid society etc mean old form subordination well preferable emergent form royal road networking lead vicious circle exploitation domination francis sitel fearful talk eclipse return strategic reason mean simply bracket thing return old theme take question term pose international insist need fundamental revision reinvention construct new fit requirement worker movement course speak blank screen rhetoric novelty guarantee fall old hackneyed way think new way think ecology feminism war right genuine novelty epoch indulge fashionable effect feed like fashion quotation past recycle old utopian theme century worker movement infancy having rightly recall reform revolution form dialectical couple tradition opposition mutually exclusive term francis sitel hazard prediction broad party define party reform maybe idea speculative set norm advance certainly problem cart horse invent minimum programme reform hypothetical broad party define project programme starting point concrete situation tangible ally shall weigh compromise possible mean accept loss clarity exchange great social spread experience dynamism new participate creation pt comrade active current rifondazione play decisive left bloc portugal specific configuration bring allinclusive category broad party structural situation find certainly open space left major traditional formation worker movement socialdemocrat stalinist populist reason neoliberal counterreform privatisation public arena dismantling welfare state market society sawn branch sit socialdemocracy populist administration certain latin american country communist party suffer aftereffect implosion ussr time erosion social basis acquire prewar year liberation period gain new root exist radical space find diverse expression emergence new social movement electoral formation present day basis reconstruction regroupment space homogenous fill highly unstable force field show spectacularly conversion year rifondazione lyrical movementism time genoa florence government coalition romano prodi instability stem fact social mobilisation suffer defeat win victory link transformation political landscape remain overstretched absence meaningful social victory hope less evil berlusconi sarkozy le pen move lack real change electoral terrain weight institutional logic remain decisive france plebiscitary presidentialism particularly antidemocratic electoral system symmetry happy medium opportunist conservative danger false perspective carry weight know dare risky decision extreme example october insurrection know weigh risk calculate chance avoid pure adventurism great dialectician pascal say commit wager racegoer know bet smalltime bet thousand hit jackpot desperate throw margin daring reason evolution right left current like rifondazione linkspartei remain fragile reversible reason effect social struggle field political representation remain limited depend presence weight revolutionary organisation tendency general common factor condition vary enormously depend specific history worker movement instance social democracy totally hegemonic subsist important communist party depend balance force left apparatus determine ideology social logic shift whisper ear leader modify real balance force perspective new force remain algebraic formula true true translate practice mechanically deduce formulae vague general broad party regroupment start process reconstruction count approach programmatic compass strategic aim condition allow discover organisational mediation need calculate risk way avoid throw headlong impatient adventure dissolve ephemeral combination come organisational formulae reality variable depend issue new mass party like pt brazil unlikely pattern europe minority split hegemonic social democracy party previously term centrist rifondazione year ago coalition revolutionary current portugal hypothesis remain likely country france long tradition organisation like cp far left powerful social movement simply merge short medium term difficult imagine case reference common programmatic background far obstruct future reconstruction contrary precondition strategic tactical question prioritise tear apart electoral outcome distinguish political base organise open theoretical debate make sense assess compromise allow forge ahead pull adjust form organisational existence tendency share party etc depend ally dynamic fluctuate right left leave right available website essf europe solidaire sans frontières text artous alex callinicos translate international discussion bulletin international socialist tendency wwwistendencynet organise network marxist journal project k stathis kouvelakis emphasis triumph political autumn essf website une rencontre de la gauche radicale à mumbai alex callinicos anticapitalist manifesto polity press cambridge shall aspect question simply reminder respect thesis propose debate organise das argument essf website moment utopique et refondation stratégique durand appear attribute stagist view social change temporality political action centre exclusively preparation revolution decisive moment oppose altermondialist zapatista historical time critique communiste essf website pour un nouveau modèle stratégique detailed critique john holloway approach detailed critique daniel bensaïd un monde à changer paris textuel planète altermondialiste textuel article contretemp contribution essf website debate programme communist international till sixth congress perry anderson antinomy gramsci new left review debate report german revolution fifth congress communist international giacomo marramao il politico e le trasformazioni pamphlet stratégie et partis antoine artous remind article critique communiste essf website orphelin stratégie révolutionnaire despite simplified myth foco notably regis debray revolution revolution london strategy victory interview martha harnecker ask date insurrection call ortega reply series favourable objective condition arise economic crisis currency devaluation political crisis september event realise necessary combine simultaneously strategic space rise masse national level offensive military force national strike employer involve practice acquiesce combine strategic factor simultaneously strategic space victory possible occasion national strike combine mass offensive masse rise rising combine strike action take place time military capacity vanguard weak vanguard deliver blow enemy presence factor mario payera los días de la selva day jungle monthly review press el trueno en la cuidad thunder city dissidence révolution lutte armée et terrorisme volume notably theme recent text balibar debate nonviolence rifondazione comunista theoretical review alternative certainly bearing present course notably mandel polemic eurocommunist thesis book maspero little collection interview critique communiste experience participatory budget rio grande sol state level offer concrete example respect credit allocation ranking priority territorial sharing collective supply etc worth come discussion notion united fortiori antiimperialist unite revolutionary latin america flavour month light evolution social formation role composition political party etc stake far orientation brazil concerned conception fourth international relationship national section question go context text carl schmitt la dictature seuil paris traditional sitel mean communist party broadly socialdemocratic party aim conquest governmental power parliamentary mean book fausto bertinotti ces idées qui ne meurent jamais paris le temps des cerise critical approach appear time esf florence daniel bensaïd un monde à changer paris textuel alba bolivarian alternative latin america caribbean propose chavez alca free trade area america propose b mir chilean movement revolutionary leave c remote region china run chinese communist mid taking beijing d leader urban resistance cuba kill shortly victory revolution e boat group guerrilla lead castro land cuba end f prt revolutionary worker party argentine section fourth international guerrilla group erp g guerrilla group form split student democratic society lead bernadine dohn mark rudd h french maoist organisation form serge july editor daily liberation steer maoism neoliberal centre leave alain geismar secretary lecturer snesup union event maoist inspector general education j antoine artous editor lcr theoretical journal critique communiste bensaïd refer artous article journal translate lcr leave strategic question international socialist tendency international bulletin january wwwistendencynet k ie combination parliament worker council l body people nominate political party sandinista defence committee union professional association private enterprise organisation m communist break stalinism late embrace left wing parliamentarianism n norberto bobbio left centre italian political philosopher o latin phrase god machine ie sudden emergence p leader prozinoviev wing french communist party q ruth fischer leader ultraleft german communist party early mid later fervent cold warrior r member ds current fourth international s position take lead member ds t right wing german legal theorist interwar year join nazi party u term hungarian marxist philosopher georg lukac page update january | 66 |
MIA: Eldred/Roth: Guide to Marx's Capital (1978) First published by CSE Books, London, 1978. © Michael Eldred and Mike Roth. Published with kind permission of the authors. The authors have corrected orthography and improved expression at some points for this online-edition. HTML Markup: J.L.W. in 2008. Thirty years ago (2008) Preface (1978) Introduction Paper 1 Introduction to the Analysis of the Capitalist Mode of Production Paper 2 The Analysis of Capitalist Production Paper 3 The Circulation Process of Capital Paper 4 The Forms of Appearance of Surplus-Value: Profit for Enterprise, Interest and Rent Paper 5 The Surface-Forms of Everyday Economic Life in Capitalist Society Appendix I Family in Capital Appendix II Science in Capital Appendix III With Marx against Marx? Histomat1 and Histomat2 - An Alternative to Jürgen Habermas' Theses Towards the Reconstruction of Historical Materialism Systematic Glossary Index to Systematic Glossary CI-III references follow the Progress edition, Moscow, 1974 reprinting for all three volumes. CI first published 1954 CII first published 1956 CIII first published 1959 Read the Introduction | Political Economy Main page | Marxists Internet Archive | left | mia eldredroth guide marxs capital publish cse book london michael eldred mike roth publish kind permission author author correct orthography improve expression point onlineedition html markup jlw thirty year ago preface introduction paper introduction analysis capitalist mode production paper analysis capitalist production paper circulation process capital paper form appearance surplusvalue profit enterprise interest rent paper surfaceform everyday economic life capitalist society appendix family capital appendix ii science capital appendix iii marx marx alternative jürgen habermas these reconstruction historical materialism systematic glossary index systematic glossary ciiii reference follow progress edition moscow reprint volume ci publish cii publish ciii publish read introduction political economy main page marxist internet archive | 67 |
Vigorous War on the Socialist Press Forthcoming (June 5, 1908) Washington, DC, June 5 [1908]. The active warfare against the socialist press by the capitalist authori-ties is to begin July 1. On that day the amendment to the postal law (some-what shorn of its teeth, as reported last week) takes effect, and it is believed here that strenuous efforts will be made to deny the stronger of the socialist papers the mails, or so handicap with restrictions as to practically prohibit their publication. All this is done under the pretense of combating the abuse of a free press and suppressing anarchists. When the Penrose bill in the Senate was exposed by the Appeal, a storm of indignation swept the country and the bill was hastily withdrawn. Now, however, the substance of the Penrose bill, which was aimed at the socialist press in general, and the Appeal in particular, has been surrepti-tiously put through Congress as a rider to the appropriation bill and is now a law, becoming effective July 1st. This is the smooth way capitalist con-gressmen have of slipping through special legislation offensive to the peo-ple; it is first introduced and “tried out” as a bill on its own merits and if it fails the substance of it is put in form of an amendment to the appropriation bill, and goes through slick as an eel without the people being wiser until the courts begin to tighten around the intended victims. The Penrose bill, in spite of the storm of opposition, is now a law under the head of “appropriation,” and is certainly in both object and method eminently appropriate capitalist legislation. To be properly classified it should be entitled the “Sneak Thief Act.” The original law provided against the admission of indecent matter to the mails. The amendment just passed reads as follows: “And the term ‘indecent’ within the intendment of this section shall include matter of a character tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination.” The postmaster general being empowered to interpret the law and de-cide what is indecent, that functionary is now a dictator, and may upon his own motive choke off the mail privilege and suppress any publication. It may as well be understood that these capitalist hounds are on the trail of the socialists. A committee clerk has given me the information that the socialist pa-pers, especially the Appeal, were the theme of heated discussion in the committee room. The fact that the Appeal has been sent to each senator, congressman, judge, cabinet minister, and other federal officials during the session just closed has had its effect. Speaking to a congressman this morning, he raised the lid of his desk, and taking out a copy of the Appeal said: “They all hate the damned sheet, but they read it just the same.” One of the bitterest enemies of the Appeal, I am told, is Senator Al-drich,1 the Standard Oil statesman, who declared with emphasis when the amendment was under discussion that some way must be found to put that “treasonable and anarchistic sheet” out of business. Let me warn all socialist papers to keep a sharp lookout between now and July 1st, when the amendment takes effect. I have it upon good au-thority that a corps of secret operatives has been employed to scan the columns of all socialist papers, translate the foreign ones, and make due report of everything that may be construed as “indecent” and warrant the revocation of the second class privilege. In addition to this an army of se-cret inspectors is to be employed to examine each issue of each socialist paper for the purpose of discovering anything that can be construed as a violation of the amended postal law. The friends of the Appeal here think the Appeal is in grave danger, and freely express their opinion that it will be crushed in the midst of the pres-idential campaign. The amendment, it will be noted, was made to take ef-fect about the time the campaign opens, allowing a few weeks for the gov-ernment detectives and spotters to furnish the evidence upon which to base the intended action. There is a conspiracy to destroy the socialist press at a time when it is most needed. The postmaster general now has the absolute power and it is only a question as to whether, when the time comes, he will dare to exer-cise it. My idea is to keep within the law as in the past, defy the conspira-tors, and if they attack the socialist press, fight to the last ditch. Published in Appeal to Reason, whole no. 654 (June 13, 1908), p. 1. 1 Nelson W. Aldrich (1841-1915) was a Republican politician from Rhode Island. First elected to the US Senate in 1881, Aldrich would serve continuously in that body for three decades, gaining considerable decision-making authority over time. | left | vigorous war socialist press forthcoming june washington dc june active warfare socialist press capitalist authority begin july day amendment postal law somewhat shorn tooth report week take effect believe strenuous effort deny strong socialist paper mail handicap restriction practically prohibit publication pretense combat abuse free press suppress anarchist penrose bill senate expose appeal storm indignation sweep country bill hastily withdraw substance penrose bill aim socialist press general appeal particular surreptitiously congress rider appropriation bill law effective july smooth way capitalist congressman slip special legislation offensive people introduce try bill merit fail substance form amendment appropriation bill go slick eel people wise court begin tighten intend victim penrose bill spite storm opposition law head appropriation certainly object method eminently appropriate capitalist legislation properly classify entitle sneak thief act original law provide admission indecent matter mail amendment pass read follow term indecent intendment section shall include matter character tend incite arson murder assassination postmaster general empower interpret law decide indecent functionary dictator motive choke mail privilege suppress publication understand capitalist hound trail socialist committee clerk give information socialist paper especially appeal theme heated discussion committee room fact appeal send senator congressman judge cabinet minister federal official session close effect speak congressman morning raise lid desk take copy appeal say hate damned sheet read bitter enemy appeal tell senator standard oil statesman declare emphasis amendment discussion way find treasonable anarchistic sheet business let warn socialist paper sharp lookout july amendment take effect good authority corps secret operative employ scan column socialist paper translate foreign one report construe indecent warrant revocation second class privilege addition army secret inspector employ examine issue socialist paper purpose discover construe violation amend postal law friend appeal think appeal grave danger freely express opinion crush midst presidential campaign amendment note effect time campaign open allow week government detective spotter furnish evidence base intend action conspiracy destroy socialist press time need postmaster general absolute power question time come dare exercise idea law past defy conspirator attack socialist press fight ditch publish appeal reason june p nelson w aldrich republican politician rhode island elect senate aldrich serve continuously body decade gain considerable decisionmake authority time | 68 |
Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From Fourth International, January 1946, Vol.7 No.1, p.9. Transcribed, edited & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL. Another such war, and the hope of Socialism will be buried under the ruins of imperialistic barbarism. That is more than the ruthless destruction of Liége and of the Rheims Cathedral. That is a blow, not against capitalist civilization of the past, but against Socialist civilization of the future, a deadly blow against the force that carries the future of mankind in its womb, that alone can rescue the Precious treasures of the past over into a better state of society. Here capitalism reveals its death’s head ... But here is proof also that the war is not only a grandiose murder, but the suicide of the European working class. The soldiers of socialism, the workers of England, of France, of Germany, of Italy, of Belgium are murdering each other at the bidding of capitalism, are thrusting cold, murderous irons into each others’ breasts, are tottering over their graves, grappling in each others’ death-bringing arms. “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,” “long live democracy,” “long live the czar and slavery,” “ten thousand tent cloths, guaranteed according to specifications,” “hundred thousand pounds of bacon,“ “coffee substitute, immediately delivery” … dividends are rising— proletarians falling; and with each one there sinks a fighter of the future, a soldier of the revolution, a savior of humanity from the yoke of capitalism, into the grave. This madness will not stop, and this bloody nightmare of hell will not cease until the workers of Germany, of France, of Russia and of England will wake up out of their drunken sleep; will clasp each other’s hands in brotherhood and will drown the bestial chorus of war agitators and the hoarse cry of capitalist hyenas with the mighty cry of labor, “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” — The conclusion of the famous “Junius” Pamphlet, written in 1915 by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and Franz Mehring against the “socialist” supporters of the first imperialist war. Top of page Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Trotskism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above. Last updated on 8.2.2009 | left | main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive fourth international january transcribe edit format ted crawford david walter etol war hope socialism bury ruin imperialistic barbarism ruthless destruction liége rheim cathedral blow capitalist civilization past socialist civilization future deadly blow force carry future mankind womb rescue precious treasure past well state society capitalism reveal death head proof war grandiose murder suicide european working class soldier socialism worker england france germany italy belgium murder bidding capitalism thrust cold murderous iron breast totter grave grapple deathbringe arm deutschland deutschland über alles long live democracy long live czar slavery thousand tent cloth guarantee accord specification thousand pound bacon coffee substitute immediately delivery dividend rise proletarian fall sink fighter future soldier revolution savior humanity yoke capitalism grave madness stop bloody nightmare hell cease worker germany france russia england wake drunken sleep clasp hand brotherhood drown bestial chorus war agitator hoarse cry capitalist hyena mighty cry labor proletarian country unite conclusion famous junius pamphlet write karl liebknecht rosa luxemburg franz mehre socialist supporter imperialist war page main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive work public domain creative common common deed freely copy distribute display work derivative commercial work credit encyclopedia trotskism online source include url work note transcriber editor proofreader update | 69 |
WHILE THE MOST violent stage of the Mexican Revolution was over by 1920, the country faced a series of new crises in the 1930s. The era opened in 1928 with the assassination of former President Álvaro Obregón, killed by a Catholic militant opposed to the secularizing Revolution in the formerly officially Catholic country. Óbregon, who had served as president from 1920-24, had thrown the country into political panic by announcing that he would run a second time for the presidency. Since the Revolution had been fought to end Profirio Díaz’s decades-long practice of presidential self-succession, that move had outraged many.While the Catholic assassin had been apprehended, some believed that Luis N. Morones, head of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) and one of the regime’s main backers, had been the intellectual murderer in order to advance his own ambitions. The Obregón assassination shook the new revolutionary regime to its foundations, threatening to throw the nation back into civil war. Outgoing President Plutarco Elías Calles, Obregón’s principal collaborator in the ruling Sonoran Dynasty, as the ruling group was known, moved decisively to prevent the political crisis from leading to a new period of conflict. In 1929, Calles summoned the country’s political elite from every state to create a new revolutionary party that would have the social support and the political legitimacy to rule the country. The National Revolutionary Party (PNR) brought all of the various revolutionary factions into one political organization, subordinating to a large degree their regional, social or personal interests to the goals of national stability and capitalist reconstruction. The PNR was, however, principally a fusion of factions and a party of political functionaries without a broad base of support. The re-organization of the ruling party sparked the last great rebellions of the period. In the northern state of Sonora, Gonzalo Escobar led a quickly defeated rebellion from within the Sonora Dynasty. Calles’ new government also soon entered into conflict with the Catholic Church and with its parishioners in the western states of Jalisco and Zacatecas. The Cristiada (or Cristero War) as the rebellion came to be called, which saw armies as large as 50,000 men in the field against the revolutionary government, lasted from 1926 until its final gasp in the early 1930s. Catholic peasants, some of whose very mixed goals included both the restoration of the Catholic Church and a Zapatista-style land reform, were put down by Calles and his leading General, Joaquín Amaro, using the most brutal methods.(1) Over one million Mexicans fled the violence, as many as had fled during the violent years of the Revolution itself, most to the former Mexican territory that had become the U.S. Southwest. During the period from 1920-28, Obregón and Calles had been the Bonapartist bicephalic strongman of the Mexican Revolution, the caudillo-in-duplicate who had been able to rise above and become relatively autonomous from all of the country’s social classes, as they created the new state. With the creation of the PNR, the individual Bonapartist leader gave way to something new: a Bonapartist party-state. Calles modeled the new regime in part after Benito Mussolini’s fascist government in Italy, trying to fit the Mexico Revolution into Italy’s counter-revolutionary institutions. While three men — Emilio Portes Gil, Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Abelardo L. Rodríguez — would serve as presidents between 1929 and 1934, Calles was the power behind the throne during this period, which came to be known as the Maximato. Although the United States and most foreign investors declined to invest in Mexico, the economy, initially devastated by the Revolution, had begun to grow again in 1916 and continued through 1926. The new revolutionary state of Obregón and Calles worked in the 1920s to rebuild the foundations of a capitalist economy: the banking system, state finances and taxation, customs and duties, as well as agricultural policy and industrial relations. The country’s bourgeoisie, however, resisted the state’s attempt to dominate the economy, just as workers resisted the capitalists and landlords. All of this made the re-establishment of the capitalist economic order extremely difficult. Progress was slow and the world economy’s vicissitudes only exacerbated the problems.(2) The U.S. stock market crash of 1929 detonated the Great Depression that spread around the world and also engulfed Mexico. Some sectors of the Mexican economy had already gone into crisis. The oil industry had taken a downturn in 1921, partly a result of conflicts between the state and the foreign oil companies, and partly a result of the exhaustion of existing wells. In 1927, even before the Crash, the Mexican economy in general began to stagnate; by 1929 it was in decline. With the crash, the prices of metals — among Mexico’s most important exports — also fell precipitously. Mexico’s Great Depression lasted roughly from 1927 to 1932. The fact that many Mexicans lived from subsistence agriculture meant that the world-wide economic depression affected them less. By 1933, the economy began to recuperate; this revival would form the basis for the social movements and political changes of the 1930s.(3) While the most violent stage of the Mexican Revolution had ended by 1920, the coming to power of the new revolutionary government under the leadership of the Sonoran Dynasty raised the hopes and aspirations of millions. Consequently, the 1920s saw the growth of widespread movements of peasants, workers and the urban poor, some attempting to push the revolutionary state to realize their dreams, others concluding that it was nothing more than a new capitalist state and working to overthrow it. The most powerful agrarian reform movements developed in the western state of Michoacan and in the Gulf State of Veracruz. The labor movement was most militant and radical among industrial and service workers in Mexico City, the railroad workers, and the petroleum workers on the Gulf Coast and docks of Veracruz and Tampico. The left also led an important rent strike by the urban poor in Veracruz. While the new state promoted its own labor union federation — the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) — and attempted to take control of the various peasant leagues, many of the most radical workers gravitated to the anarchist General Confederation of Workers (CGT) and some to the new Mexican Communist Party (PCM). The struggles between the state and its official unions and the radicals was brutal and bloody, and by 1924 President Obregón and CROM leader Luis N. Morones had succeeded in crushing the railroad unions, the anarchist street car workers in Mexico City, and marginalizing the CGT. Small groups of radical workers, however, survived in all of the important industries and urban centers. With the economic recovery, they began to organize and take action. Calles, the Jefe Máximo of the Revolution, continued to pull the strings of the three presidential puppets during the difficult and tumultuous 1928-33 period. Still seeking stability, his rubber stamp legislature lengthened the presidential term to six years; he then sought a candidate who would serve as his front man for the 1934-40 period. Various rival revolutionary generals jostled for the position, but in the end Calles chose General Lázaro Cárdenas. Cárdenas, originally from Michoacan, had come up through the Constitutionalist ranks and had served not only in the revolutionary, but also in the post-revolutionary conflicts. Calles had absolute confidence that Cárdenas would be his loyal minion. He was wrong. Though Calles’ backing and the PNR political machine would ensure his election, in the pre-election period Cárdenas traveled throughout Mexico meeting with peasant and Indian communities, talking with workers, and visiting towns and cities. Following his election, to Calles’ surprise, Cárdenas began to exert his presidential authority, constructing his own ruling group, reorganizing the commanders of the military districts into which the country was divided, and developing relations with labor unions and peasant leagues. Cárdenas took up the banner of social reform and even began to talk about a socialist Mexico. The new dynamism in the Mexican government and the change of direction toward the left brought responses from all sides. Nicolás Rodríguez, a former Villista and Escobarista, organized los Dorados, the Golden Ones, to fight against a feared Communist-Jewish takeover. The Communist Party, having, by the early 1930s, established a small but solid organization in Mexico, also denounced the Cárdenas government. Then in their radical “#8220;third period,” the Communists called for the government’s revolutionary overthrow. The Dorados and the Communists engaged in fights in the streets of Mexico City, but Cárdenas ignored both.(4) More importantly, however, Calles himself began to organize to remove Cárdenas from the presidency, as he had in the past imposed and deposed others. When the newspapers reported that Calles had accused Cárdenas of promoting “#8220;individual differences” among the revolutionaries and encouraging social chaos, the President called Calles an enemy of the revolutionary government and of the Mexican people; he encouraged a great popular mobilization in support of his administration. The labor movement rallied to his defense. One important supportive figure was Vicente Lombardo Toledano, formerly the house intellectual for Morones and the corrupt CROM unions. He had broken free, visited the Soviet Union and returned to Mexico a staunch ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Strangely enough, although serving as Stalin’s agent in Latin America and Mexico, Lombardo Toledano declined to join the Communist Party. The Communist Party, meanwhile, having left its “#8220;third period” and entered the Popular Front period, also rallied to support Cárdenas. They played an important role in several of the industrial unions. Fidel Velázquez, one of the principal leaders of the Mexico City unions, also brought those unions into the pro-Cárdenas column. Throughout the country peasant leagues rushed to support Cárdenas in his struggle with Calles. Most strategically, Cárdenas was able to maintain the support of most of the generals of the Mexican Army. During 1935 and 1936, the peasant leagues joined together in what would later become the National Confederation of Peasants (CNC) and the labor unions formed the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM). With the Army, the CTM and the CNC supporting him, Cárdenas ordered Calles arrested and deported to the United States in 1936, along with many of his supporters. The Mexican people by and large enthusiastically supported this destruction of the old political machine that had dominated the government for 16 years. They hoped Cárdenas would fulfill the Revolution’s promises. With the reins of power now firmly gathered in his hands, Cárdenas began to set a new direction. Through a series of dramatic actions taken between 1936 and 1940, Cárdenas would fulfill many of the goals of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, transforming Mexico into an altogether different country than it had been in the days of Porfirio Díaz. At the same time, he would broaden and deepen the structures of the state-party, through the “#8220;politics of masses,” drawing workers, peasants, the self-employed and public employees into the party. Cárdenas encouraged the organization of unions, but insisted that industrial workers, peasants, and other workers each have their own separate organizations. Thus industrial workers had the Mexican Confederation of Workers (CTM), peasants’ the National Confederation of Peasants (CNC), and the self-employed and the public employees’ the National Confederation of Popular Organizations (CNOP). Cárdenas then reorganized the ruling party, changing its name to the Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM), based on the four constituent groups: the CTM, CNC, CNOP and the Army and other armed services. The new party had deeper roots and a far broader reach than Calles’ PNR, providing the regime with greater strength, stability and flexibility. The organization of the party thus excluded the Mexican bourgeoisie, except for some of the generals who had in the course of the revolution used their positions to acquire land, create business partnerships, or in other ways enrich themselves. Still most of the capitalist class remained outside. Thus the state-party continued to have a Bonapartist character, rising above all the classes. The state itself, however, necessarily established relations and negotiated with capitalists as it developed the banking system, industry and agriculture. While Cárdenas proved to be a political genius, Mexico remained a fractious society. Conservatives feared the transformation of Jacobin nationalism into what seemed to be evolving into a kind of Mexican socialism. Many generals resented the incorporation of the Army into the ruling party. Various regional leaders resisted Cárdenas, and some contemplated revolt. Given the tenuous nature of his political superiority, Cárdenas’ political strategy required that he continue to push forward in order to keep the right off balance. From the left Cárdenas had nothing to fear. The Communist Party, with few exceptions, supported Cárdenas’ policies. They would have preferred that Cárdenas create an actual political front and parliamentary coalition in which they could participate as a party, but when that failed to happen, they were happy enough to simply endorse the president’s policies. Cárdenas established a kind of political partnership with Stalin’s man, Vicente Lombardo Toledano and let the Lombardistas and Comunistas play a leading role in the labor movement. The Secretariat of Education became peopled with Communist officials and PCM leaders held some few posts in some other government departments, all completely dependent on Cardenas’ good will. With much of popular society now organized into labor unions and peasant leagues, brought together in the Party of the Mexican Revolution with its slogan “#8220;For a Socialist Mexico,” Cárdenas now undertook to deal with the central issue of the Revolution: land reform. The worldwide depression and consequent failure of many haciendas made the elimination of that ancient economic institution easier than it might otherwise have been. Within just a few years Cárdenas distributed 45 million acres of land to peasants throughout Mexico, about a tenth of that land taken from U.S. or other foreign owners. Carrying out this great agrarian reform met resistance from local political leaders, landlords and their gunmen in many states. This required federal intervention on numerous occasions. Cárdenas encouraged the organization of agrarian defense leagues, distributing arms to those local militias that were sometimes incorporated into the Army. The agrarian reform thus provided the occasion for Cárdenas to remove resisting conservative opponents. The Cárdenas government distributed hundreds of times more land in the mid- to late-1930s than all of the previous revolutionary governments. Land was given to male members of peasant or indigenous communities in the form of ejidos, state-leased land to be held in perpetuity by them and their descendents, based on the principle of usufruct, Zapata’s old slogan: the land to those who work it. On the coasts land was distributed to villages of fishermen and their families. While thought of as being “#8220;collectively owned,” ejido land was held in the form of individual parcels belonging to the male heads of families. When family lines died out, left, or for some serious offense were removed from the communities, the land was to be redistributed among remaining members. The distribution of land to the peasantry who still made up the vast majority of Mexican society made Cárdenas a hero in his home state of Michoacan, in the La Laguna region in the north, and, for that matter, virtually throughout the country. The agrarian reform cemented the foundations of the new Party of the Mexican Revolution and of the state that it ruled, and established Cárdenas’ reputation for generations to come. He was referred to as “#8220;Tata” or father, and was seen as the new father of his country, or better, the father of a new country. With the labor unions and peasant leagues having been recognized, and the land having been distributed to the peasants, Cárdenas was now able to take on the greatest revolutionary challenge: the British- and U.S.-owned oil industry. Mexico’s oil industry, located on the Gulf Coast, was dominated by Royal Dutch Shell and Standard Oil, the two largest and most powerful petroleum corporations of the era. Both the United States and Great Britain were world powers looming on Mexico’s northern border and nearby in Central America and the Caribbean, their possessions protected by fleets of battleships and cruisers. Mexico’s concerns about foreign intervention were well founded. It had, of course, lost about half of its territory to the United States in a series of wars and concessionary treaties between 1836-54, and had been invaded and occupied by France with British complicity between 1862-66. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the United States had seized Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spain, taken Panama from Colombia, and been involved in long-term occupations in Haiti and Nicaragua. Just as the Romans had once called the Mediterranean “#8220;mare nostrum,” so too the Americans had come to consider the Caribbean to be “#8220;our lake.” The United States had invaded Mexico twice during the Mexican Revolution, once by sea in Veracruz on the Gulf Coast in 1914, landing 3,000 occupying troops, and a second time by land in Chihuahua in 1916 when General “#8220;Black Jack” Pershing led 4,000 Marines on a failed expedition to capture Francisco “#8220;Pancho” Villa. After the adoption of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 with its Article 27 proclaiming that the people owned the country’s subsoil, foreign powers became increasingly worried that the government would seize the foreign-owned oil industry. Throughout the 1920s U.S. fleets and troops had been mobilized on Mexico’s borders in order to intimidate its government. Cárdenas calculated, correctly as it turned out, that with Europe about to be embroiled in World War II and the United States likely to be drawn into the war, the great powers would not be prepared to undertake a new war in Mexico. The occasion for the nationalization of the oil industry was presented by a conflict between petroleum workers and the foreign companies. Mexican oil workers had been organizing since the 1910s, initially facing repression from the oil companies and the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, and later dealing with the vacillating support of the revolutionary federal and state governments. Radical labor activists from the Industrial Workers of the World, the anarchist General Confederation of Mexican Workers, and later the Mexican Communist Party had always been at the center of these efforts both in the oil fields and on the docks. Once Cárdenas came to power, the oil workers received more constant support from the government in their organizing efforts and by 1935 succeeded in bringing all of the regions workers together into the Mexican Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM). During the mid-1930s, oil worker strikes against the foreign-owned companies grew, leading to conflicts overseen by the Federal Labor Board (JFCA) and the Secretary of Labor. In 1936 the STPRM, now backed by the new Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), struck, its total economic demand amounting to 14 million pesos. The foreign-owned companies responded by saying that they could not afford to pay such a sum. The conflict then became a matter for the Labor Board and the Federal government, and the company was forced to open its books. The government found that the company could easily pay such a sum but the companies decided to take the matter to the courts. On March 1, 1938 the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that the companies could and must meet the workers’ demands. On March 18, 1938, with the companies still refusing to pay, President Lárazo Cárdenas went on the radio and nationalized them. He agreed to pay the companies what they had estimated to be the value of their property. Since this estimate was for tax-paying purposes, it was an amount far below their real value. To pay the compensation, Cárdenas called upon all Mexicans to go to their local government offices and contribute. Tens of thousands of Mexicans came, from little children with their pennies to wealthy women with their gold necklaces and earrings, each giving what they could in order to control their own oil and their own country.(5) Cárdenas had foreseen correctly: With Europe about to go to war and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt involved in assisting the Allies, the oil companies were left in the lurch. Cárdenas also dealt with the other major issue of the Mexican Revolution: education. Before the Revolution, the Catholic Church provided education for Mexico’s people. But the Catholic school system was largely confined to major cities, reached only a small percentage of the population, and its curriculum was intellectually wanting. In 1920 Álvaro Obregón named left-wing philosopher José Vasconcelos the first rector of the Autonomous University and then Secretary of Education, and the country’s educational transformation began.(6) Vasconcelos held the view that the Mexican government should educate and uplift Mexico’s masses through literacy campaigns to teach the Spanish language (at the time a large percentage of the Mexican population in rural areas still spoke only their indigenous languages) and should base the curriculum on European, especially Spanish, literature. Vasconcelos and his literacy brigades would throw cheap government editions of Cervantes, Dante and Homer into the trunks of their cars and head out to rural villages to teach Indian communities Spanish. School teachers in Mexico in the post-revolutionary period played a key role in Mexican urban and rural society. During the Revolution the school teacher was often the secretary and intellectual advisor of the railroad worker or peasant turned leader of a revolutionary band. Sometimes the teacher was the leader. After the Revolution teachers often served as shop stewards or lobbyists, so to speak, of the illiterate or monolingual indigenous-language speakers in the countryside. When peasants had a grievance, they often took it to the teacher to write up. Sometimes they asked the teacher to serve as their spokesperson. And when the landlord or governor sent his pistoleros to respond to the grievance, the teacher was often hanged alongside the leader of the village. In the cities, the school teachers’ unions and other organizations stood on the left wing of the labor movement, although generally under Communist tutelage. When Cárdenas came to power, he too wished to continue the program of uplift in the rural communities and to support those teachers who fought for agrarian reform alongside the peasants. Calling for “#8220;socialist education,” Cárdenas and the Communists whom he had put in charge of the Secretariat of Education shared the notion that Mexico’s teachers should challenge religion — what they called “#8220;obscurantism and fanaticism” — as well as teach the Spanish language and Mexico’s mestizo cultural values, increase the productivity of rural areas, and turn peasants and workers into stalwart defenders of the revolutionary government. The attempt to implant socialist education in rural Mexico failed for many reasons. The conservative right wing increased its attacks on teachers as atheists, Communists and libertines, killing many. Yaqui and Nahua indigenous groups rejected the education program out of hand in order to to protect their own language and culture. While some mestizo communities embraced the program to promote democracy and equality in their regions, by and large the “#8220;socialist” education project failed, although the power of the Secretary of Education bureaucracy and control over teachers and many communities increased. The Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 had by 1940 been completed and in many ways fulfilled. The great issues of the Revolution — distribution of land to the peasants, recognition of labor unions, nationalization of the oil industry, and creation of a national system of free, public, lay education — had all been realized, finally, under the Lázaro Cárdenas government. Cárdenas also rebuilt the Mexican state on a much broader basis. The Mexican state would prove to be both durable and resistant to the military dictatorships that swept over much of Latin America in the period from 1964 to 1984. Cárdenas created a paternalistic, benefactor state which he believed could and would provide land, jobs, and justice to the Mexican people. The state would stand as the arbiter between the new modernizing capitalist class that had come to power, and the workers and peasants who sought living wages and education. Workers and peasants now had unions (although those unions became increasingly dependent upon the party and the state) and peasants had land (but the land too was dependent on the Agrarian Bank and government officials). When workers got jobs in the state-owned oil company or railroad, they joined the unions affiliated with the state-party, and automatically became members of that party. Similarly, peasants on the ejido became members of the CNC and thus of the party, and so came to be citizens of a sort of state within the state. Adolfo Gilly has suggested that Cárdenas and the cardenistas believed that the revolutionary state served as a bridge between indigenous and peasant communalism and the socialist future toward which the world was evolving.(7) In reality, however, the reforms of the Cárdenas era laid the basis for an expansion of industrial capitalism, of the working class, and of the service sector and middle classes, that is to say, for the full flowering of a modern capitalist society, with all of its class contradictions. During subsequent decades, even as the paternalistic aspect of Mexican government continued to expand through the nationalization of other industries and the establishment of social programs such as the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), the national health plan, the capitalist class came to play a larger role within government, the economy, and society. Still the Mexican Bonapartist state continued to exist, evolving into what Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa called “#8220;the perfect dictatorship,” a government which, without military dictatorship, could exert control over every aspect of Mexican society. By 1968, when the Mexican military killed hundreds of students marching for democracy at Tlatelolco, it had become clear that the old Mexican Revolution was over, and that another Mexican Revolution loomed on the horizon. The Revolution Is Dead! Long Live the Revolution! ATC 148, September-October 2010 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | violent stage mexican revolution country face series new crisis era open assassination president álvaro obregón kill catholic militant oppose secularizing revolution officially catholic country óbregon serve president throw country political panic announce run second time presidency revolution fight end profirio díaz decadeslong practice presidential selfsuccession outraged manywhile catholic assassin apprehend believe luis n morone head regional confederation mexican worker crom regime main backer intellectual murderer order advance ambition obregón assassination shake new revolutionary regime foundation threaten throw nation civil war outgoing president plutarco elía calle obregón principal collaborator rule sonoran dynasty rule group know move decisively prevent political crisis lead new period conflict calle summon country political elite state create new revolutionary party social support political legitimacy rule country national revolutionary party pnr bring revolutionary faction political organization subordinate large degree regional social personal interest goal national stability capitalist reconstruction pnr principally fusion faction party political functionary broad base support reorganization rule party spark great rebellion period northern state sonora gonzalo escobar lead quickly defeat rebellion sonora dynasty calle new government soon enter conflict catholic church parishioner western state jalisco zacatecas cristiada cristero war rebellion come call see army large man field revolutionary government last final gasp early catholic peasant mixed goal include restoration catholic church zapatistastyle land reform calle lead general joaquín amaro brutal million mexicans flee violence flee violent year revolution mexican territory southwest period obregón calle bonapartist bicephalic strongman mexican revolution caudilloinduplicate able rise relatively autonomous country social class create new state creation pnr individual bonapartist leader give way new bonapartist partystate calle model new regime benito mussolini fascist government italy try fit mexico revolution italy counterrevolutionary institution man emilio port gil pascual ortiz rubio abelardo l rodríguez serve president calle power throne period come know maximato united states foreign investor decline invest mexico economy initially devastate revolution begin grow continue new revolutionary state obregón calle work rebuild foundation capitalist economy banking system state finance taxation custom duty agricultural policy industrial relation country bourgeoisie resist state attempt dominate economy worker resist capitalist landlord reestablishment capitalist economic order extremely difficult progress slow world economy vicissitude exacerbate stock market crash detonate great depression spread world engulf mexico sector mexican economy go crisis oil industry take downturn partly result conflict state foreign oil company partly result exhaustion exist well crash mexican economy general begin stagnate decline crash price metal mexico important export fall precipitously mexico great depression last roughly fact mexican live subsistence agriculture mean worldwide economic depression affect economy begin recuperate revival form basis social movement political change violent stage mexican revolution end come power new revolutionary government leadership sonoran dynasty raise hope aspiration million consequently see growth widespread movement peasant worker urban poor attempt push revolutionary state realize dream conclude new capitalist state work overthrow powerful agrarian reform movement develop western state michoacan gulf state veracruz labor movement militant radical industrial service worker mexico city railroad worker petroleum worker gulf coast dock veracruz tampico left lead important rent strike urban poor veracruz new state promote labor union federation regional confederation mexican worker crom attempt control peasant league radical worker gravitate anarchist general confederation worker cgt new mexican communist party pcm struggle state official union radical brutal bloody president obregón crom leader luis n morone succeed crush railroad union anarchist street car worker mexico city marginalize cgt small group radical worker survive important industry urban center economic recovery begin organize action calle jefe máximo revolution continue pull string presidential puppet difficult tumultuous period seek stability rubber stamp legislature lengthen presidential term year seek candidate serve man period rival revolutionary general jostle position end calle choose general lázaro cárdenas cárdenas originally michoacan come constitutionalist rank serve revolutionary postrevolutionary conflict calle absolute confidence cárdenas loyal minion wrong calle backing pnr political machine ensure election preelection period cárdenas travel mexico meeting peasant indian community talk worker visit town city follow election calle surprise cárdena begin exert presidential authority construct ruling group reorganize commander military district country divided develop relation labor union peasant league cárdenas take banner social reform begin talk socialist mexico new dynamism mexican government change direction left bring response side nicolás rodríguez villista escobarista organize los dorado golden one fight fear communistjewish takeover communist party have early establish small solid organization mexico denounce cárdenas government radical period communists call government revolutionary overthrow dorado communist engage fight street mexico city cárdenas ignore importantly calle begin organize remove cárdena presidency past impose depose newspaper report calle accuse cárdena promote difference revolutionary encourage social chaos president call calle enemy revolutionary government mexican people encourage great popular mobilization support administration labor movement rally defense important supportive figure vicente lombardo toledano house intellectual morone corrupt crom union break free visit soviet union return mexico staunch ally soviet leader joseph stalin strangely serve stalin agent latin america mexico lombardo toledano decline join communist party communist party having leave period enter popular period rally support cárdenas play important role industrial union fidel velázquez principal leader mexico city union bring union procárdenas column country peasant league rush support cárdena struggle calle strategically cárdenas able maintain support general mexican army peasant league join later national confederation peasants cnc labor union form confederation mexican worker ctm army ctm cnc support cárdenas order calle arrest deport united states supporter mexican people large enthusiastically support destruction old political machine dominate government year hope cárdenas fulfill revolution promise rein power firmly gather hand cárdena begin set new direction series dramatic action take cárdena fulfill goal mexican revolution transform mexico altogether different country day porfirio díaz time broaden deepen structure stateparty masse draw worker peasant selfemployed public employee party cárdenas encourage organization union insist industrial worker peasant worker separate organization industrial worker mexican confederation worker ctm peasant national confederation peasants cnc selfemployed public employee national confederation popular organization cnop cárdenas reorganize rule party change party mexican revolution prm base constituent group ctm cnc cnop army armed service new party deep root far broad reach calle pnr provide regime great strength stability flexibility organization party exclude mexican bourgeoisie general course revolution position acquire land create business partnership way enrich capitalist class remain outside stateparty continue bonapartist character rise class state necessarily establish relation negotiate capitalist develop banking system industry agriculture cárdenas prove political genius mexico remain fractious society conservative fear transformation jacobin nationalism evolve kind mexican socialism general resent incorporation army rule party regional leader resist cárdena contemplate revolt give tenuous nature political superiority cárdena political strategy require continue push forward order right balance left cárdenas fear communist party exception support cárdena policy prefer cárdena create actual political parliamentary coalition participate party fail happen happy simply endorse president policy cárdenas establish kind political partnership stalin man vicente lombardo toledano let lombardista comunista play lead role labor movement secretariat education people communist official pcm leader hold post government department completely dependent cardena good popular society organize labor union peasant league bring party mexican revolution slogan socialist mexico cárdenas undertake deal central issue revolution land reform worldwide depression consequent failure hacienda elimination ancient economic institution easy year cárdenas distribute million acre land peasant mexico tenth land take foreign owner carry great agrarian reform meet resistance local political leader landlord gunman state require federal intervention numerous occasion cárdenas encourage organization agrarian defense league distribute arm local militia incorporate army agrarian reform provide occasion cárdenas remove resist conservative opponent cárdenas government distribute hundred time land mid previous revolutionary government land give male member peasant indigenous community form ejido statelease land hold perpetuity descendent base principle usufruct zapata old slogan land work coast land distribute village fisherman family think own ejido land hold form individual parcel belong male head family family line die leave offense remove community land redistribute remain member distribution land peasantry vast majority mexican society cárdena hero home state michoacan la laguna region north matter virtually country agrarian reform cement foundation new party mexican revolution state rule establish cárdena reputation generation come refer father see new father country well father new country labor union peasant league having recognize land having distribute peasant cárdenas able great revolutionary challenge british usowned oil industry mexico oil industry locate gulf coast dominate royal dutch shell standard oil large powerful petroleum corporation era united states great britain world power loom mexico northern border nearby central america caribbean possession protect fleet battleship cruiser mexico concern foreign intervention found course lose half territory united states series war concessionary treaty invade occupy france british complicity late early century united states seize cuba puerto rico spain take panama colombia involve longterm occupation haiti nicaragua romans call mediterranean nostrum americans come consider caribbean lake united states invade mexico twice mexican revolution sea veracruz gulf coast land occupy troop second time land chihuahua general jack pershing lead marine fail expedition capture francisco villa adoption mexican constitution article proclaiming people own country subsoil foreign power increasingly worried government seize foreignowne oil industry fleet troop mobilize mexico border order intimidate government cárdena calculate correctly turn europe embroil world war ii united states likely draw war great power prepare undertake new war mexico occasion nationalization oil industry present conflict petroleum worker foreign company mexican oil worker organize initially face repression oil company dictatorship porfirio díaz later deal vacillate support revolutionary federal state government radical labor activist industrial worker world anarchist general confederation mexican worker later mexican communist party center effort oil field dock cárdenas come power oil worker receive constant support government organize effort succeed bring region worker mexican petroleum worker union stprm oil worker strike foreignowned company grow lead conflict oversee federal labor board jfca secretary labor stprm back new confederation mexican worker ctm strike total economic demand amount million peso foreignowne company respond say afford pay sum conflict matter labor board federal government company force open book government find company easily pay sum company decide matter court march mexican supreme court rule company meet worker demand march company refuse pay president lárazo cárdenas go radio nationalize agree pay company estimate value property estimate taxpaying purpose far real value pay compensation cárdena call mexican local government office contribute ten thousand mexican come little child penny wealthy woman gold necklace earring give order control oil cárdenas foresee correctly europe war president franklin d roosevelt involve assist ally oil company leave lurch cárdenas deal major issue mexican revolution education revolution catholic church provide education mexico people catholic school system largely confine major city reach small percentage population curriculum intellectually want álvaro obregón name leftwe philosopher josé vasconcelo rector autonomous university secretary education country educational transformation vasconcelos hold view mexican government educate uplift mexico masse literacy campaign teach spanish language time large percentage mexican population rural area speak indigenous language base curriculum european especially spanish literature vasconcelo literacy brigade throw cheap government edition cervante dante homer trunk car head rural village teach indian community spanish school teacher mexico postrevolutionary period play key role mexican urban rural society revolution school teacher secretary intellectual advisor railroad worker peasant turn leader revolutionary band teacher leader revolution teacher serve shop steward lobbyist speak illiterate monolingual indigenouslanguage speaker countryside peasant grievance take teacher write ask teacher serve spokesperson landlord governor send pistolero respond grievance teacher hang alongside leader village city school teacher union organization stand left wing labor movement generally communist tutelage cárdenas come power wish continue program uplift rural community support teacher fight agrarian reform alongside peasant call education cárdena communist charge secretariat education share notion mexico teacher challenge religion call fanaticism teach spanish language mexico mestizo cultural value increase productivity rural area turn peasant worker stalwart defender revolutionary government attempt implant socialist education rural mexico fail reason conservative right wing increase attack teacher atheist communist libertine kill yaqui nahua indigenous group reject education program hand order protect language culture mestizo community embrace program promote democracy equality region large education project fail power secretary education bureaucracy control teacher community increase mexican revolution begin complete way fulfil great issue revolution distribution land peasant recognition labor union nationalization oil industry creation national system free public lie education realize finally lázaro cárdenas government cárdenas rebuild mexican state broad basis mexican state prove durable resistant military dictatorship sweep latin america period cárdena create paternalistic benefactor state believe provide land job justice mexican people state stand arbiter new modernize capitalist class come power worker peasant seek living wage education worker peasant union union increasingly dependent party state peasant land land dependent agrarian bank government official worker get job stateowned oil company railroad join union affiliate stateparty automatically member party similarly peasant ejido member cnc party come citizen sort state state adolfo gilly suggest cárdenas cardenista believe revolutionary state serve bridge indigenous peasant communalism socialist future world reality reform cárdenas era lay basis expansion industrial capitalism work class service sector middle class flowering modern capitalist society class contradiction subsequent decade paternalistic aspect mexican government continue expand nationalization industry establishment social program mexican institute social security imss national health plan capitalist class come play large role government economy society mexican bonapartist state continue exist evolve peruvian novelist mario vargas llosa call perfect dictatorship government military dictatorship exert control aspect mexican society mexican military kill hundred student march democracy tlatelolco clear old mexican revolution mexican revolution loom horizon revolution dead long live revolution atc septemberoctober current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 70 |
Phil Marfleet Archive | ETOL Main Page From International Socialism 2 : 130, Autumn 2010. Copyright © International Socialism. Copied with thanks from the International Socialism Website. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL). Of all the startling scenes which made up Act One of the Egyptian Revolution, the events in Tahrir Square on 2 February were surely most astounding. When Mubarak sent gangs of plainclothes police to attack demonstrators, the protesters fought like demons. They first resisted, then drove back the baltagiyya (criminals/thugs). As news of the battle spread, people flooded in from every area of Cairo, racing to the front line to support the resistance. Even Robert Fisk of the Independent, who has seen conflicts worldwide, observed: “It was incredible, a risen people who would no longer take violence and brutality and prison as their lot”. [1] The episode revealed much about Egypt’s upheaval. It showed how readily Mubarak turned to intense violence. Fisk, who witnessed the events, comments that introduction of the baltagiyya “was vicious and ruthless and bloody and well planned”. [2] Mubarak and his inner circle of ministers, relatives and business associates expected that well-tried techniques would serve to break the protest movement. Their orders were to savage demonstrators – to break bones and to crush the will of the uprising. In the streets the people understood. It was a battle for their very lives: against poverty, hunger and joblessness; against fear, abuse and torture. Their numbers and their anger reached critical mass; nine days later Mubarak was gone. Unsure of the loyalties of a conscript army, Egypt’s generals finally pulled the plug on the dictator. As the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces they now formally hold power, guardians of a system rejected by millions who continue to agitate for radical change. At the time of writing the focus has moved from Tahrir Square to workplaces across the country, with strikes in many of Egypt’s key industries. Workers have raised a host of demands – on wages, bonuses, contracts, pensions, health insurance, union rights and recognition, and for removal of management and official trade union leaders who abused them throughout the Mubarak years. In Suez the army has seized managers accused of corruption. [3] At the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla Al Kubra, Egypt’s largest publicly owned company and the biggest textile mill in the Middle East, strikers have demanded prosecution of managers they charge with corruption and with victimisation of union activists. A process of purging has begun – what activists of the 1974 Revolution in Portugal called saneamiento (cleansing). Among the first indicted was steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz, a senior official of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and one of Mubarak’s billionaire friends, arrested by order of the Supreme Council. Others detained included interior minister Habib al-Adly, housing minister Ahmed Maghrabi and tourism minister Zuheir Garana. The speed of events has been extraordinary. On 25 January 2011 the interior minister had been hailed by regime supporters as “Egypt’s number one defender of human rights”. In a demonstration at the Supreme Court staged for the official media they chanted: “Habib al-Adly is the hero who protects Egypt from danger” and “Habib, hit with an iron fist!” [4] Adly responded to mass protests which began the same day by mobilising the hated riot police; when they failed to clear the streets he organised the baltagiyya. This approach was consistent with Mubarak’s attitude to popular protest throughout his presidency. On acceding to power in 1981 Mubarak imposed the Emergency Law. He suspended legal rights; banned strikes, demonstrations and public meetings of more than ten individuals; censored or closed newspapers; and introduced military courts in which there was no recourse to appeal. He massively expanded the security apparatus, encouraging police and intelligence agencies to act with impunity by seizing and incarcerating suspects at will. Modest concessions were offered in order to co-opt more pliable elements within the opposition; if these proved insufficient to contain dissent, the stick was readily available and Mubarak used it freely. The regime established a vast apparatus of repression. In addition to the civil police it mobilised the paramilitary riot force, Amn al-Markazi (Central Security), and multiple security/intelligence agencies. [5] These worked to suppress every form of independent political activity, pursuing even those who attempted to operate within the narrow range of activities notionally permitted by the regime. When in 2004 the mild liberal reformist Ayman Nour formed the Ghad (Tomorrow) Party and stood against Mubarak in a presidential election he was promptly framed and imprisoned. Numerous academic assessments credit the regime with subtle means of co-optation said to have played a key role in neutralising opposition. Maye Kassem, for example, comments that Mubarak has used “a mixture of fear and rewards” to co-opt opposition parties, trade unions and professional syndicates, with the effect that his long reign has been continuously extended without major political crises. [6] This was indeed the approach adopted in the 1950s and 1960s when Gamal Abdel Nasser’s radical nationalism seduced the Stalinist left – leading Communists abandoned their party to take senior positions in the bureaucracy while workers’ leaders were absorbed into state-backed unions. The regime of Anwar Sadat in the 1970s also practised co-optation, modifying Nasser’s monolithic single party, the Arab Socialist Union (ASU), to find space for “platforms” said to represent key opposition groups. By this means the bourgeois liberal Wafd and the remnants of communist and Nasserist organisations were given rights to organise as distinct political currents. But the changes were of limited value: the “platforms” ran offices and publications but were forbidden to organise publicly, with the result that they were in effect parties without members. Mubarak maintained these restrictions throughout his years in power. Rif’at al-Said, leader of the National Progressive Unionist Party (usually known as al-Tagammu’), [7] has commented that parties recognised by the regime “represent nothing in Egyptian politics and have no standing whatsoever with the Egyptian people”. [8] None are “parties in the true sense of the term”, he says: “All these are just groupings of individuals floating on the surface of society”. [9] In most authoritarian states returns from co-optation diminish greatly when it becomes clear that official bodies act as outliers of the regime or operate at its whim. In the case of Egypt, Mubarak’s determination to control every area of formal politics meant that even the tamest opposition activists were denied opportunities to develop meaningful agendas and failed to develop constituencies of support. At election time, polling stations were routinely surrounded by riot police who protected officials engaged in ballot-rigging and fraud, and whose job was to guarantee huge majorities for NDP candidates. At the November 2010 parliamentary elections, Ahram Weekly reported: Footage showed people stuffing ballot boxes, attacking voting stations, opening and destroying ballot boxes, in some cases by setting them on fire. Independent watchdogs say nine people were killed in connection with the violence that erupted in dozens of constituencies across the nation. [10] Results were often determined by Mubarak’s officials in advance: before the November 2010 election the speaker of the People’s Assembly (the lower house) told Muslim Brotherhood deputies they would not be returning after the poll; in the first round, as predicted, no Brotherhood candidates were elected and the organisation withdrew, furious but helpless. [11] Alone among established opposition currents the Brotherhood has maintained some independence from the state. Founded in the 1920s, it played a leading (if inconsistent) role in anti-colonial struggles and in support of the early Palestinian resistance. Repressed by Nasser, it returned to the scene under Sadat and in the absence of other viable political alternatives grew quickly to become a mass organisation. [12] Although illegal, it has been permitted to engage in electoral activity by standing “independent” candidates known to be Brotherhood supporters. At the same time it has played by Mubarak’s rules, instructing its many members not to organise collective public activity. This has not prevented successive waves of repression in which thousands of Brothers have been seized and imprisoned. In recent years Mubarak has humiliated the organisation by incarcerating its most esteemed elderly leaders: still the organisation did not respond with public initiatives. In the face of “zero tolerance” on the part of the state the organisation has retreated more and more rapidly from the political arena, [13] so that a recent analysis suggested that it was “beset by confusion and political decline ... gripped by a structural and ideological crisis which has erupted into unprecedented internal disputes”. [14] In 2009 a conservative group seized the leadership of the organisation: the position of the new general guide of the Brotherhood, Mohamed Badei, was described as “renunciation of violence, gradual reform, non-confrontation with the regime and other familiar stances”. [15] The cost of internal conflict and public retreat has been considerable: a younger generation of supporters has been alienated from the organisation, which was conspicuous by its absence from the streets when the mass movement began its confrontation with Mubarak. It was only after days of protest that rank and file members joined the demonstrations, eventually playing a key role in resistance to the police and the thugs. These tensions are evident in factional debates currently running strongly within the organisation. For the last 20 years Mubarak has offered few inducements to the opposition. The general crisis of political representation has become more acute; meanwhile the regime has intensified repression. In 1991 Human Rights Watch produced an extensive report on torture and detention. Behind Closed Doors noted that security dragnets had been cast so wide that all manner of people were detained, abused and tortured for information they did not possess. [16] The following year repression was stepped up when police and troops entered the Cairo district of Imbaba to assault radical Islamist currents which had built up large constituencies of support in the city’s poorest districts. [17] The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights recorded police sweeps followed by collective punishment of hundreds of local residents. [18] Similar assaults followed in cities of the south in which the Islamists had also made gains, and in rural areas in which police and troops razed fields and villages to locate activists. Torture became common in police stations across the country. Gasser Abdel-Razek of Human Rights Watch later observed that serious forms of abuse became standard techniques of interrogation. “It became a culture,” he says. “We have two generations of police who were brought up to use torture against Islamists. But if it’s allowed and seen as effective, it spreads”. [19] Since the 1990s torture has become an everyday practice of the police and security agencies in every area of Egypt. In 2003 lawyers and human rights activists formed the Egyptian Association Against Torture (EAAT). They maintained that abuse had become “an oppressive policy that is adopted by the ministry of the interior and security bodies and authorities, an organised, systematic and ongoing policy used against citizens to ensure complete submission of the people”. [20] Millions of Egyptians had been abused, or knew of family, friends or workmates who had been tortured: hence the success in recent years of campaigns launched by social networking sites to expose particularly notorious cases. This is the background to attacks by police and plainclothes gangs in and around downtown Cairo in early February 2011 – and part of the explanation for the fightback by demonstrators. The police and security agencies not only represented al-nizam (the order/the system) but a sinister and cruel presence in many people’s lives. The prospect of losing the Battle of Tahrir to police charged with a new campaign of revenge was unthinkable – hence the ferocious resistance and ultimately the crucial victory of Tahrir. This has been followed by numerous mass attacks on offices of state security across the country, in which demonstrators have seized police files and searched cells to find torture equipment and in the hope of releasing prisoners. The mass movement has called for Egypt’s rulers to be held to account for corruption and theft. Mubarak is widely rumoured to have seized scores of billions of dollars: even the American media notes estimates of an illicit fortune of $40 billion to $70 billion. [21] The former president is often seen as the architect of an Egyptian version of “crony capitalism” – a term favoured by neoliberal economists and global financial institutions which maintain that there are “clean” means of doing business which separate healthy private enterprise from the interests of the state. During the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Michel Camdessus used the term widely to suggest that illicit relations between business people and state officials amounted to corruption and brought local and eventually global economic instability. [22] In fact, as Noam Chomsky observes, the history of capitalism is one of intimate relations between entrepreneurs and the state. [23] He observes that, from the very earliest phases of modern commercial and industrial enterprise, “merchants and manufacturers are the principal architects of government policy and they make sure their own interests are well cared for, however grievous the effects on others”. [24] In the case of the independent Egyptian state, Nasser and the Free Officers Movement relegated private capital to a subordinate role throughout the 1950s and 1960s; business survived, however, and was able to use the state itself as means of advancing specific private interests. The 1952 coup, which brought Nasser to power, was an outcome of sustained struggles against British occupation and monarchical rule. In a period of revolutionary possibilities it was also an example of revolution “deflected” – of the intervention of a radical nationalist current which used the armed forces to implement specific reforms but which also sought to control and ultimately to demobilise the mass movement. [25] Nasser and his colleagues were petty bourgeois professionals hostile to colonialism and at the same time to the mass movement itself. Their first decisive action was to suppress strikes and to order the execution of worker militants. [26] They also inveighed against peasant activism and put down efforts by fellaheen (peasants) to seize the lands of the great estates; instead they introduced a closely managed reform, a significant development but one which disappointed those who had struggled for years for direct access to the land. [27] The officers were initially sympathetic to the West and strongly attracted by the possibility of alliances with Europe and the United States. It was only when rebuffed by the latter, and still under strong pressure from below, that they adopted strategies which brought conflict with Britain over the Suez Canal and ultimately a new alignment with the Soviet Union. The Suez episode of 1956 projected Nasser to leadership of the anti-colonial movement across the Middle East. He became the focus of radical sentiment in general and especially of pan-Arabism and of Palestinian hopes to confront Israel. Over the course of the next decade he nationalised most foreign capital and laid the basis for a welfare state in which education and health services were to be provided universally and food security was to be guaranteed. State control over the economy would, Nasser believed, build up a strong independent capitalism in Egypt. He did not suppress private capital, however. Many small businesses survived, together with powerful landed interests, which Nasser encouraged during the late 1960s as the economy became increasingly unstable. The new military elite and senior officials of the bureaucracy cohabited with private capital, so that Egypt’s state capitalism was a hybrid formation in which, Malak Zaalouk observes, private capital found a place within the “state bourgeoisie”. [28] This was the basis for developments under Sadat, who in 1974 set about dismantling the Nasser state. His infitah (opening) encouraged private investment, welcomed foreign capital and reoriented Egypt from Moscow towards Washington and the market model. Building on foundations provided by private landed and commercial interests, a new network of traders, commission agents and property speculators grew rapidly – the “fat cats” of the late 1970s whose greed and conspicuous consumption infuriated many Egyptians. When Mubarak took office in 1981 he embraced this strategy and gradually increased the pace of change. Egypt was now firmly aligned with the US and with neoliberal economists whose views dominated the World Bank and the IMF, to which Mubarak repeatedly applied for loans. Infitah was moving too slowly for these institutions, which demanded rapid reduction of food subsidies and tariff barriers, and wholesale privatisations of state enterprise. Mubarak soon adopted their agenda, implementing the Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programme (Ersap) of 1991. Like Mexico, in the grip of change dictated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), Egypt now became a laboratory for high-speed marketisation. The government prepared to sell state-owned industries and to “de-sequester” the land-to reverse Nasser’s reforms by returning to landowners of the colonial era (or their families) millions of hectares that for 50 years had been cultivated by fellaheen. In return Mubarak obtained new loans and the Paris Club of international creditors reduced Egypt’s debts by almost £30 billion. Clement Henry and Robert Springborg comment that by the mid-1990s Egypt was being governed by “a nexus of cronies, officers, bureaucrats and public sector managers”. [29] It was difficult to discriminate between these categories. Egyptian state capitalism had long been incubating a private sector that extended into many branches of public activity. Senior state officials were already active in property, commerce and agriculture; now they advanced into industry, striking deals with incoming foreign companies for whom their influence proved invaluable. The whole process was observed closely by US, World Bank and IMF officials committed to the twin principles of demolishing the remains of the developmental state inherited from Nasser and “opening” Egypt to the world market. If Mubarak’s associates were “cronies” they were at the very heart of the neoliberal project. At the same time Mubarak worked consistently to consolidate the central apparatus inherited from the Nasser state. He received huge sums of economic aid and foreign military assistance from the US: between 1977 and 2007 this averaged $2.1 billion a year – only Israel received more. [30] Much was spent on relatively advanced American weaponry for forces that did not engage in any actions initiated by the Egyptian state against foreign powers (Egyptian troops put in brief appearances in support of the US in the Gulf War of 1991). The uniformed establishment – the armed forces and paramilitary police – was increased to some one million men (not including civil police and security agencies). [31] Officers were indulged with all manner of special benefits: subsidised housing on modern estates, enhanced pensions, and access to dedicated social clubs and purpose-built seaside resorts. They were integral to the security of the regime, now also faced by contradictions that arose from Mubarak’s success in securing vast wealth for an inner network of supporters and in supervising a historic increase in general social inequality. Even the World Bank noted the changes: by 2005, it said, the proportion of Egyptians living in “moderate poverty” had increased significantly to a fifth of the population, some 15 million people. [32] Others who applauded the regime’s commitment to neoliberalism entered anxious reservations about the consequences: the Economist identified a sharp increase in inequality, describing the nouveaux riches as “new pharaohs” whose ostentation disturbed society at large. [33] From the late 1990s there was a huge property boom, “hot” money flooding into Egypt from the Gulf states to finance new estates for the wealthy, built largely on Cairo’s desert fringe, and including gated communities, shopping malls, hypermarkets, multiplex cinemas and new private universities. Gated reservations reflected the California-style aspirations of new money and its global connections: Lakeside, Dreamland, Utopia and the rest were zones of affluence guarded by private security companies and ultimately by peasants and urban poor conscripted into the Amn al–Markazi. Built on state land sold at knock-down prices to property tycoons like Ahmed Bahgat (builder of Dreamland), they were provided with expressway connections to country clubs and coastal resorts which allowed the rich to bypass the inner city and the sprawling outer areas of Cairo and Alexandria, teeming with people living precariously at the margins of survival and increasingly bitter at a regime that now flaunted privilege. From 2000 the civil police and riot police became increasingly active against new forms of collective protest. These began with widespread actions in support of the Palestinian intifada. Rabab El-Mahdi describes the development of “cycles of protest” which took those involved into new territory – more and more adventurous public activities which proved difficult for the state to contain. [34] In 2003 there was a massive mobilisation in Cairo against the US/British invasion of Iraq, demonstrators occupying the centre of the city in a “Tahrir intifada” that was to be a dress rehearsal for 2011. Gaining confidence, the following year activists initiated a series of campaigns for democratic change, organising rallies, lobbies, marches and “flash mob” protests facilitated by email networks and social networking sites. Caught unawares, the police were often absent, so that for the first time in almost 60 years extended anti-regime protests took place without harassment. Although numbers were small there was a steady growth of confidence, reflected in workplace struggles which also now emerged across all sectors of industry. In 2005 there were 202 collective labour actions; in 2006 the number rose to 222; and in 2007 to 614. [35] These included mass action at the Mahalla al-Kubra textile mill-the most important sustained strike for over 20 years, which won key concessions and acted as a green light for numerous other groups of workers. Anxious about generalising the movement, the regime hesitated to engage strikers frontally. Ministers made their usual threats but combined these with concessions and often stood off workplaces in dispute, hoping to exhaust those involved. Emboldened, other groups engaged in all manner of protests: for student rights on campus, over shortages of bread and water, against land seizures, in response to housing disasters (following numerous incidents of collapsed buildings) and against police brutality. There was an organic growth of confidence in self-activity across society. This came as the world economic crisis was having its inevitable impacts: unemployment in Egypt rose and the prices of food and fuel rocketed. For the first time since the 1970s there were acute shortages of flour and tragic scenes in which people fighting for access to bread died in conflicts at street bakeries. The regime continued as before: hesitating over industrial struggles it nonetheless attacked democracy activists, community protesters, journalists and bloggers with renewed savagery. In the parliamentary elections of November 2010 it hardly bothered to conceal the scale of fraud and ballot-rigging. In January 2011 the Tunisian Revolution expelled Ben Ali: the dam finally broke as diverse sectors of Egyptian society unified, a mass of struggles becoming one. The first phase of the revolution was made by a popular movement of youth, students, workers and the poor. For the first time in their lives the mass of the people experienced collective power and the means to use it for general betterment. This will not be surrendered lightly; at the same time it will need to be fought for. Egyptians removed a dictator; most now wish to remove the dictatorship. There are universal demands for an end to Emergency Law, for democratic reforms including rights to association and the creation of political parties, free elections and an end to abuse by the agencies of the state. Notionally the armed forces hold power. At the time of writing they have not confronted the movement that removed the president. Nor, however, have they acceded to mass demands, including abandonment of the Emergency Law. Numerous groups and individuals are positioning themselves for struggles to come. A cabinet of Mubarak’s men plus figures from the legal opposition, including the general secretary of the tame Wafd Party, is in formation. Among those hoping for preferment are members of a self-appointed Council of Wise Men – academics, lawyers and businessman who wish to establish a liberal capitalist alternative to the Mubarak model. This includes Ahmed Bahgat of Dreamland (also owner of the influential Dream television channel) and Naguib Sawiris, telecom billionaire and one of the wealthiest men in the Middle East, now claiming to have been appalled by the regime’s corruption all along. Capitalists with a conscience should have no fear of investigations over corruption, says Sawiris: “The only ones [sic] who have done wrong should worry ... Someone like me definitely has no grounds to worry ... If my country needs my help in any way, I provide it”. [36] His optimism may be misplaced. A process of purging and cleansing is under way across the country, already claiming senior figures such as Adly, Cairo police chiefs involved in the baltagiyya offensive, and local officials arrested by the army. Numerous workforces have demanded removal of oppressive managers and officials of the state trade unions, the investigation of owners who have profited from privatisation deals, and re-nationalisation of former state enterprises. In mid-February a group of 40 strike leaders from a range of industries met to coordinate demands and to launch an independent trade union movement. Under the slogan “Revolution, freedom, social justice”, they presented a “workers’ programme”: to unite the demands of striking workers that they may become an integral part of the goals of our revolution, which the people of Egypt made, and for which the martyrs shed their blood ... which brings together our just demands, in order to reaffirm the social aspect of this revolution and to prevent the revolution being taken away from those at its base who should be its beneficiaries. [37] The effectiveness of their campaign will be crucial to the revolutionary process. As Egypt’s Revolutionary Socialists argued in their own statement of 6 February 2011: “The demonstrations and protests have played a key role ... Now we need the workers”. [38] The organisation called for the formation of revolutionary councils which combine economic and political demands. Revolutions are invariably complex and lengthy processes. In the case of Iran, with which there are some striking similarities, protests which began in 1976 only took their full effect three years later with the fall of the Pahlavi regime. There were numerous episodes of advance and retreat of the students’ movement, the petty bourgeoisie of the bazaar, the clerical establishment, the national minorities and the peasantry, before sustained mass strikes expelled the shah. These struggles threw up a host of forms of social organisation including local committees and workplace groups, some taking on a proto-Soviet character before they were dispersed by the Ayatollah Khomeini’s offensive. There will be similar episodes in Egypt, as a movement initially animated by democratic demands addresses the possibility of further radical change – a generalisation of struggle that addresses the inequalities of the Mubarak era, the ownership of societal resources including industry and the land, and the problem of power wielded by the state itself. The entry of the workers gives cause to believe that the Egyptian Revolution is indeed “growing over” into a movement for wider and historic change – that a process of permanent revolution with global implications is under way. Statement of independent trade unionists meeting in Cairo, 19 February 2011 O heroes of the 25 January revolution! We, workers and trade unionists from different workplaces which have seen strikes, occupations and demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of workers across Egypt during the current period, feel it is right to unite the demands of striking workers that they may become an integral part of the goals of our revolution, which the people of Egypt made, and for which the martyrs shed their blood. We present to you a workers’ programme which brings together our just demands, in order to reaffirm the social aspect of this revolution and to prevent the revolution being taken away from those at its base who should be its beneficiaries. The workers’ demands which we raised before the 25 January revolution and were part of the prelude to this glorious revolution are: Translated from the Arabic by Anne Alexander Statement of the Revolutionary Socialists Egypt, Cairo, 6 February 2011 What is happening today is the largest popular revolution in the history of our country and of the entire Arab world. The sacrifice of our martyrs has built our revolution and we have broken through all the barriers of fear. We will not back down until the criminal “leaders” and their criminal system are destroyed. The handover of power to a dictatorship under Omar Suleiman, Ahmed Shafiq and other cronies of Mubarak is the continuation of the same system. Omar Suleiman is a friend of Israel and America, spends most of his time between Washington and Tel Aviv and is a servant who is faithful to their interests. Ahmed Shafik is a close friend of Mubarak and his colleague in the tyranny, oppression and plunder imposed on the Egyptian people. Over the past three decades this tyrannical regime corrupted [sic] the country’s largest estates to a small handful of business leaders and foreign companies. 100 families own more than 90 percent of the country’s wealth. They monopolise the wealth of the Egyptian people through policies of privatization, looting of power and the alliance with capital. They have turned the majority of the Egyptian people to the poor, landless and unemployed. We want the nationalisation of companies, land and property looted by this bunch. As long as our resources remain in their hands we will not be able to completely get rid of this system. Economic slavery is the other face of political tyranny. We will not be able to cope with unemployment and achieve a fair minimum wage for a decent living without restoring the wealth of the people from this gang. This system does not stand alone. Mubarak as a dictator was a servant and client directly acting for the sake of the interests of America and Israel. Egypt acted as a colony of America, participated directly in the siege of the Palestinian people, made the Suez Canal and Egyptian airspace free zones for warships and fighter jets that destroyed and killed the Iraqi people and sold gas to Israel, dirt cheap, while stifling the Egyptian people by soaring prices. Revolution must restore Egypt’s independence, dignity and leadership in the region. This is not a revolution of the elite, political parties or religious groups. Egypt’s youth, students, workers and the poor are the owners of this revolution. In recent days a lot of elites, parties and so-called symbols have begun trying to ride the wave of revolution and hijack it from their rightful owners. The only symbols are the martyrs of our revolution and our young people who have been steadfast in the field. We will not allow them to take control of our revolution and claim that they represent us. We will choose to represent ourselves and represent the martyrs who were killed and their blood paid the price for the salvation of the system. Everyone asks: “Is the army with the people or against them?” The army is not a single bloc. The interests of soldiers and junior officers are the same as the interests of the masses. But the senior officers are Mubarak’s men, chosen carefully to protect his regime of corruption, wealth and tyranny. It is an integral part of the system. This army is no longer the people’s army. This army is not the one which defeated the Zionist enemy in October 1973. This army is closely associated with America and Israel. Its role is to protect Israel, not the people. Yes, we want to win the soldiers for the revolution. But we must not be fooled by slogans that ‘the army is on our side’. The army will either suppress the demonstrations directly, or restructure the police to play this role. This revolution has surpassed our greatest expectations. Nobody expected to see these numbers. Nobody expected that Egyptians would be this brave in the face of the police. Nobody can say that we did not force the dictator to retreat. Nobody can say that a transformation did not happen in Middan el Tahrir. What we need right now is to push for the socio-economic demands as part of our demands, so that the person sitting in his home knows that we are fighting for their rights. We need to organise ourselves into popular committees which elect their higher councils democratically, and from below. These councils must form a higher council which includes delegates of all the tendencies. We must elect a higher council of people who represent us, and in whom we trust. We call for the formation of popular councils in Middan Tahrir, and in all the cities of Egypt. The demonstrations and protests have played a key role in igniting and continuing our revolution. Now we need the workers. They can seal the fate of the regime, not only by participating in the demonstrations, but by organising a general strike in all the vital industries and large corporations. The regime can afford to wait out the sit-ins and demonstrations for days and weeks, but it cannot last beyond a few hours if workers use strikes as a weapon. Strike on the railways, on public transport, the airports and large industrial companies! Egyptian workers! On behalf of the rebellious youth, and on behalf of the blood of our martyrs, join the ranks of the revolution, use your power and victory will be ours! 1. Fisk, 2011. 2. Fisk, 2011. 3. See Suez Strikes – report of 12 February on the Arabawy blog: #Jan25 Suez strikes. 4. Afify, 2011. 5. Mabahith Amn al-Dawla (General Directorate of State Security Investigations), Jihaz Amn al-Dawla (State Security Service), Mukhabarat al-Aama (General Intelligence and Security Service), Mukhabarat al-Harbeya (Military Intelligence Service) and Jihaz al-Amn al-Qawmi (National Security Service). 6. Kassem, 2004, p. 7. 7. Tagammu’ contains the rump of the old Communist Party, officially dissolved by its own members in 1964 on the basis that Nasser had accomplished revolution in Egypt. 8. In Hussein, Al-Said and Al-Sayyid, 1999, p. 77. 9. In Hussein, Al-Said and Al-Sayyid, 1999, p. 77. 10. Howeidy, 2010. 11. Conversation with a leading Brotherhood activist, Cairo, January 2011. 12. For an insightful analysis of the contradictory character of the Brotherhood, see Naguib, 2009. 13. Howeidy, 2010. 14. El-Enani, 2010. 15. El-Enani, 2010. 16. Human Rights Watch, 1992, p. 128. 17. The targets were members of the underground organisations Islamic Jihad and Gama’at Islamiyya (Islamic Associations) that rejected the Brotherhood’s accommodation with the regime. 18. Report of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights quoted by Lorenz 1993. 19. Murphy, 2007. 20. EAAT, 2003. 21. Raghavan, 2011; see also The Week, 2011. 22. See, for example, his address of 1998, describing “crony capitalism” as the outcome of situations in which “the structure of ownership is not transparent, when regulation is inadequate and unevenly applied, when too many ad hoc decisions are taken, and when market forces are prevented from playing their normal disciplining role [and] serious imbalances and deadly inefficiencies can build up” – Camdessus, 1998. 23. Chomsky, 2008. 24. Chomsky, 2008. 25. For a terse account of key developments during this period see Marfleet, 2009. 26. Mustafa Khamis and Muhammed Hassan al-Baqari were executed in August 1952 for allegedly inciting riots at the Misr Textile Company in Kafr Al-Dawwar. 27. See Bush, 2009; also Abdel-Fadil, 1975, 1980; Baker, 1978. 28. Zaalouk, 1989, p. 41. 29. Henry and Springborg, 2001, p. 155. 30. Sharp, 2009, pp. 27-29. 31. Combined figure for the Army, Air Force, Navy and Central Security – IISS, 2007, p. 223. 32. World Bank, 2007. This conservative figure fails to measure real levels of deprivation and the increasing pace of immiseration. See El-Naggar, 2009. 33. Economist, 2005. 34. El Mahdi, 2009. 35. Figures from the Land Centre for Human Rights, quoted in Beinin, 2009, p. 79. 36. Stier, 2011. 37. Full statement in Appendix 1. 38. Full statement in Appendix 2. Abdel-Fadil, Mahmoud, 1975, Development, Income Distribution and Social Change in Rural Egypt 1952–1970: A Study in the Political Economy of Agrarian Transition (Cambridge University Press) Abdel-Fadil, Mahmoud, 1980, The Political Economy of Nasserism (Cambridge University Press). Afify, H., 2011, Egyptian man attempts suicide amid pro-police gathering, AlMasry alYoum (24 January). Baker, Raymond William, 1978, Egypt’s Uncertain Revolution Under Nasser and Sadat (Harvard University Press). Beinin, Joel, 2009, Workers’ Struggles, in Rabab El Mahdi and Philip Marfleet (eds.), 2009, Egypt: the Moment of Change (Zed). Bush, Ray, 2009, The Land and the People, Rabab El Mahdi and Philip Marfleet (eds.), Egypt: the Moment of Change (Zed). Camdessus, Michel, 1998, Challenges Facing the Transition Economies of Central Asia (May 27). Chomsky, Noam, 2008, ‘Black Faces in Limousines’: A Conversation with Noam Chomsky. EAAT [Egyptian Association Against Torture], 2003, Foundation Statement. Economist, 2005, The New Pharaohs (10 March). El-Anani, Khalil, 2010, When the Alternative is Not So Different After All, Ahram Weekly (28 January). El-Mahdi, Rabab, 2009, The Democracy Movement, in Rabab El Mahdi and Philip Marfleet (eds.), Egypt: the Moment of Change (Zed). El-Naggar, A., 2009, Economic Policy: From State Control to Decay and Corruption, in Rabab El Mahdi and Philip Marfleet (eds.), Egypt: the Moment of Change (Zed). Fisk, Robert, 2011, Blood and Fear in Cairo’s Streets as Mubarak’s Men Crack Down on Protests, Independent (3 February) Henry, Clement, and Robert Springborg, 2001, Globalisation and the Politics of Development in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press). Howeidy, Amira, 2010, The Brotherhood’s Zero, Ahram Weekly (2–8 December). Human Rights Watch, 1992, Behind Closed Doors (Human Rights Watch). Hussein, A., R. al-Said and M. al-Sayyid, 1999, Twenty Years of Multipartyism in Egypt, in Mark Kennedy (ed.), Twenty Years of Development in Egypt (The American University in Cairo Press). International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), 2007, The Military Balance 2007 (IISS). Kassem, Maye, 2004, Egyptian Politics: the Dynamics of Authoritarian Rule (Lynne Reiner). Lorenz, Andrea, 1993, Egyptian Human Rights Organisation Documents Abuses, Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs (June). Marfleet, Philip, 2009, State and Society, in Rabab El Mahdi and Philip Marfleet (eds.), Egypt: the Moment of Change (Zed). Murphy, Dan, 2007, As Egypt Cracks Down, Charges of Wide Abuse, Christian Science Monitor (10 October). Naguib, Sameh, 2009, Islamisms Old and New, in Rabab El Mahdi and Philip Marfleet (eds.), Egypt: the Moment of Change (Zed). Raghavan, Sudarsan, 2011, Egyptians Focus Their Attention on Recovering the Nation’s Money, Washington Post (February 13). Seif El Dawla, Aida, 2009, Torture: a State Policy, in Rabab El Mahdi and Philip Marfleet (eds.), Egypt: the Moment of Change (Zed). Sharp, Jeremy, 2009, Egypt-US Relations, Brief for Congress (Congressional Research Service). Stier, Ken, 2011, What an Egyptian Billionaire Thinks of the New Order, Time (18 February). The Week, 2011, Hosni Mubarak’s ‘Stolen’ $70 billion Fortune (14 February). World Bank, 2007, (eds.), World Bank Country Brief: Egypt (October). Zaalouk, Malak, 1989, Power, Class and Foreign Capital in Egypt: the Rise of the New Bourgeoisie (Zed). Top of page Phil Marfleet Archive | ETOL Main Page Last updated: 22 July 2023 Top of page Phil Marfleet Archive | ETOL Main Page Last updated: 22 July 2023 | left | phil marfleet archive etol main page international socialism autumn copyright international socialism copy thank international socialism website mark einde encyclopaedia trotskyism online etol startling scene act egyptian revolution event tahrir square february surely astounding mubarak send gang plainclothe police attack demonstrator protester fight like demon resist drive baltagiyya criminalsthug news battle spread people flood area cairo race line support resistance robert fisk independent see conflict worldwide observe incredible rise people long violence brutality prison lot episode reveal egypt upheaval show readily mubarak turn intense violence fisk witness event comment introduction baltagiyya vicious ruthless bloody plan mubarak inner circle minister relative business associate expect welltried technique serve break protest movement order savage demonstrator break bone crush uprising street people understand battle life poverty hunger joblessness fear abuse torture number anger reach critical mass day later mubarak go unsure loyalty conscript army egypt general finally pull plug dictator supreme council armed force formally hold power guardian system reject million continue agitate radical change time write focus move tahrir square workplace country strike egypt key industry worker raise host demand wage bonus contract pension health insurance union right recognition removal management official trade union leader abuse mubarak year suez army seize manager accuse corruption misr spinning weave company mahalla al kubra egypt large publicly own company big textile mill middle east striker demand prosecution manager charge corruption victimisation union activist process purging begin activist revolution portugal call saneamiento cleanse indict steel tycoon ahme ezz senior official rule national democratic party ndp mubarak billionaire friend arrest order supreme council detain include interior minister habib aladly housing minister ahme maghrabi tourism minister zuheir garana speed event extraordinary january interior minister hail regime supporter egypt number defender human right demonstration supreme court stage official medium chant habib aladly hero protect egypt danger habib hit iron fist adly respond mass protest begin day mobilise hate riot police fail clear street organise baltagiyya approach consistent mubarak attitude popular protest presidency accede power mubarak impose emergency law suspend legal right ban strike demonstration public meeting individual censor close newspaper introduce military court recourse appeal massively expand security apparatus encourage police intelligence agency act impunity seize incarcerate suspect modest concession offer order coopt pliable element opposition prove insufficient contain dissent stick readily available mubarak freely regime establish vast apparatus repression addition civil police mobilise paramilitary riot force amn almarkazi central security multiple securityintelligence agency work suppress form independent political activity pursue attempt operate narrow range activity notionally permit regime mild liberal reformist ayman nour form ghad tomorrow party stand mubarak presidential election promptly frame imprison numerous academic assessment credit regime subtle mean cooptation say play key role neutralise opposition maye kassem example comment mubarak mixture fear reward coopt opposition party trade union professional syndicate effect long reign continuously extend major political crisis approach adopt gamal abdel nasser radical nationalism seduce stalinist left lead communist abandon party senior position bureaucracy worker leader absorb statebacked union regime anwar sadat practise cooptation modify nasser monolithic single party arab socialist union asu find space platform say represent key opposition group mean bourgeois liberal wafd remnant communist nasserist organisation give right organise distinct political current change limited value platform run office publication forbid organise publicly result effect party member mubarak maintain restriction year power alsaid leader national progressive unionist party usually know altagammu comment party recognise regime represent egyptian politic standing whatsoever egyptian people party true sense term say grouping individual float surface society authoritarian state return cooptation diminish greatly clear official body act outlier regime operate whim case egypt mubarak determination control area formal politic mean tamest opposition activist deny opportunity develop meaningful agenda fail develop constituency support election time polling station routinely surround riot police protect official engage ballotrigging fraud job guarantee huge majority ndp candidate november parliamentary election ahram weekly report footage show people stuff ballot box attack voting station open destroy ballot box case set fire independent watchdog people kill connection violence erupt dozen constituency nation result determine mubarak official advance november election speaker people assembly low house tell muslim brotherhood deputy return poll round predict brotherhood candidate elect organisation withdraw furious helpless establish opposition current brotherhood maintain independence state found play leading inconsistent role anticolonial struggle support early palestinian resistance repress nasser return scene sadat absence viable political alternative grow quickly mass organisation illegal permit engage electoral activity stand independent candidate know brotherhood supporter time play mubarak rule instruct member organise collective public activity prevent successive wave repression thousand brother seize imprison recent year mubarak humiliate organisation incarcerate esteemed elderly leader organisation respond public initiative face zero tolerance state organisation retreat rapidly political arena recent analysis suggest beset confusion political decline grip structural ideological crisis erupt unprecedented internal dispute conservative group seize leadership organisation position new general guide brotherhood mohame badei describe renunciation violence gradual reform nonconfrontation regime familiar stance cost internal conflict public retreat considerable young generation supporter alienate organisation conspicuous absence street mass movement begin confrontation mubarak day protest rank file member join demonstration eventually play key role resistance police thug tension evident factional debate currently run strongly organisation year mubarak offer inducement opposition general crisis political representation acute regime intensify repression human right watch produce extensive report torture detention closed door note security dragnet cast wide manner people detain abuse torture information possess follow year repression step police troop enter cairo district imbaba assault radical islamist current build large constituency support city poor district egyptian organisation human right record police sweep follow collective punishment hundred local resident similar assault follow city south islamist gain rural area police troop raze field village locate activist torture common police station country gasser abdelrazek human right watch later observe form abuse standard technique interrogation culture say generation police bring use torture islamist allow see effective spread torture everyday practice police security agency area egypt lawyer human right activist form egyptian association torture eaat maintain abuse oppressive policy adopt ministry interior security body authority organise systematic ongoing policy citizen ensure complete submission people million egyptians abuse know family friend workmate torture success recent year campaign launch social networking site expose particularly notorious case background attack police plainclothe gang downtown cairo early february explanation fightback demonstrator police security agency represent alnizam orderthe system sinister cruel presence people live prospect lose battle tahrir police charge new campaign revenge unthinkable ferocious resistance ultimately crucial victory tahrir follow numerous mass attack office state security country demonstrator seize police file search cell find torture equipment hope release prisoner mass movement call egypt ruler hold account corruption theft mubarak widely rumour seize score billion dollar american medium note estimate illicit fortune billion billion president see architect egyptian version crony capitalism term favour neoliberal economist global financial institution maintain clean mean business separate healthy private enterprise interest state asian financial crisis late international monetary fund imf manage director michel camdessus term widely suggest illicit relation business people state official amount corruption bring local eventually global economic instability fact noam chomsky observe history capitalism intimate relation entrepreneur state observe early phase modern commercial industrial enterprise merchant manufacturer principal architect government policy sure interest care grievous effect case independent egyptian state nasser free officer movement relegate private capital subordinate role business survive able use state mean advance specific private interest coup bring nasser power outcome sustained struggle british occupation monarchical rule period revolutionary possibility example revolution deflect intervention radical nationalist current armed force implement specific reform seek control ultimately demobilise mass movement nasser colleague petty bourgeois professional hostile colonialism time mass movement decisive action suppress strike order execution worker militant inveigh peasant activism effort fellaheen peasant seize land great estate instead introduce closely manage reform significant development disappoint struggle year direct access land officer initially sympathetic west strongly attract possibility alliance europe united states rebuff strong pressure adopt strategy bring conflict britain suez canal ultimately new alignment soviet union suez episode project nasser leadership anticolonial movement middle east focus radical sentiment general especially panarabism palestinian hope confront israel course decade nationalise foreign capital lay basis welfare state education health service provide universally food security guarantee state control economy nasser believe build strong independent capitalism egypt suppress private capital small business survive powerful land interest nasser encourage late economy increasingly unstable new military elite senior official bureaucracy cohabit private capital egypt state capitalism hybrid formation malak zaalouk observe private capital find place state bourgeoisie basis development sadat set dismantle nasser state infitah opening encourage private investment welcome foreign capital reorient egypt moscow washington market model building foundation provide private land commercial interest new network traders commission agent property speculator grow rapidly fat cat late greed conspicuous consumption infuriate egyptians mubarak take office embrace strategy gradually increase pace change egypt firmly align neoliberal economist view dominate world bank imf mubarak repeatedly apply loan infitah move slowly institution demand rapid reduction food subsidy tariff barrier wholesale privatisation state enterprise mubarak soon adopt agenda implement economic reform structural adjustment programme ersap like mexico grip change dictate north american free trade agreement nafta egypt laboratory highspeed marketisation government prepare sell stateowned industry desequester landto reverse nasser reform return landowner colonial era family million hectare year cultivate fellaheen return mubarak obtain new loan paris club international creditor reduce egypt debt billion clement henry robert springborg comment egypt govern nexus crony officer bureaucrat public sector manager difficult discriminate category egyptian state capitalism long incubate private sector extend branch public activity senior state official active property commerce agriculture advance industry strike deal incoming foreign company influence prove invaluable process observe closely world bank imf official commit twin principle demolish remain developmental state inherit nasser open egypt world market mubarak associate crony heart neoliberal project time mubarak work consistently consolidate central apparatus inherit nasser state receive huge sum economic aid foreign military assistance average billion year israel receive spend relatively advanced american weaponry force engage action initiate egyptian state foreign power egyptian troop brief appearance support gulf war uniformed establishment armed force paramilitary police increase million man include civil police security agency officer indulge manner special benefit subsidise housing modern estate enhance pension access dedicated social club purposebuilt seaside resort integral security regime face contradiction arise mubarak success secure vast wealth inner network supporter supervise historic increase general social inequality world bank note change say proportion egyptians live moderate poverty increase significantly fifth population million people applaud regime commitment neoliberalism enter anxious reservation consequence economist identify sharp increase inequality describe nouveaux rich new pharaohs ostentation disturb society large late huge property boom hot money flooding egypt gulf state finance new estate wealthy build largely cairo desert fringe include gate community shopping malls hypermarkets multiplex cinemas new private university gate reservation reflect californiastyle aspiration new money global connection lakeside dreamland utopia rest zone affluence guard private security company ultimately peasant urban poor conscript amn al markazi build state land sell knockdown price property tycoon like ahmed bahgat builder dreamland provide expressway connection country club coastal resort allow rich bypass inner city sprawl outer area cairo alexandria teem people live precariously margin survival increasingly bitter regime flaunt privilege civil police riot police increasingly active new form collective protest begin widespread action support palestinian intifada rabab elmahdi describe development cycle protest take involve new territory adventurous public activity prove difficult state contain massive mobilisation cairo usbritish invasion iraq demonstrator occupy centre city tahrir intifada dress rehearsal gain confidence follow year activist initiate series campaign democratic change organise rally lobby marche flash mob protest facilitate email network social networking site catch unawares police absent time year extend antiregime protest take place harassment number small steady growth confidence reflect workplace struggle emerge sector industry collective labour action number rise include mass action mahalla alkubra textile millthe important sustained strike year win key concession act green light numerous group worker anxious generalise movement regime hesitate engage striker frontally minister usual threat combine concession stand workplace dispute hope exhaust involve emboldened group engage manner protest student right campus shortage bread water land seizure response housing disaster follow numerous incident collapse building police brutality organic growth confidence selfactivity society come world economic crisis have inevitable impact unemployment egypt rise price food fuel rocket time acute shortage flour tragic scene people fight access bread die conflict street bakery regime continue hesitate industrial struggle nonetheless attack democracy activist community protester journalist blogger renew savagery parliamentary election november hardly bother conceal scale fraud ballotrigge january tunisian revolution expel ben ali dam finally break diverse sector egyptian society unify mass struggle phase revolution popular movement youth student worker poor time life mass people experience collective power mean use general betterment surrender lightly time need fight egyptians remove dictator wish remove dictatorship universal demand end emergency law democratic reform include right association creation political party free election end abuse agency state notionally armed force hold power time writing confront movement remove president accede mass demand include abandonment emergency law numerous group individual position struggle come cabinet mubarak man plus figure legal opposition include general secretary tame wafd party formation hope preferment member selfappointe council wise man academic lawyer businessman wish establish liberal capitalist alternative mubarak model include ahmed bahgat dreamland owner influential dream television channel naguib sawiris telecom billionaire wealthy man middle east claim appal regime corruption capitalist conscience fear investigation corruption say sawiris one sic wrong worry like definitely ground worry country need help way provide optimism misplace process purge cleansing way country claim senior figure adly cairo police chief involve baltagiyya offensive local official arrest army numerous workforce demand removal oppressive manager official state trade union investigation owner profit privatisation deal renationalisation state enterprise midfebruary group strike leader range industry meet coordinate demand launch independent trade union movement slogan revolution freedom social justice present worker programme unite demand strike worker integral goal revolution people egypt martyr shed blood bring demand order reaffirm social aspect revolution prevent revolution take away base beneficiary effectiveness campaign crucial revolutionary process egypt revolutionary socialist argue statement february demonstration protest play key role need worker organisation call formation revolutionary council combine economic political demand revolution invariably complex lengthy process case iran striking similarity protest begin take effect year later fall pahlavi regime numerous episode advance retreat student movement petty bourgeoisie bazaar clerical establishment national minority peasantry sustained mass strike expel shah struggle throw host form social organisation include local committee workplace group take protosoviet character disperse ayatollah khomeini offensive similar episode egypt movement initially animate democratic demand address possibility radical change generalisation struggle address inequality mubarak era ownership societal resource include industry land problem power wield state entry worker give cause believe egyptian revolution grow movement wide historic change process permanent revolution global implication way statement independent trade unionist meet cairo february o hero january revolution worker trade unionist different workplace see strike occupation demonstration hundred thousand worker egypt current period feel right unite demand strike worker integral goal revolution people egypt martyr shed blood present worker programme bring demand order reaffirm social aspect revolution prevent revolution take away base beneficiary worker demand raise january revolution prelude glorious revolution translate arabic anne alexander statement revolutionary socialists egypt cairo february happen today large popular revolution history country entire arab world sacrifice martyr build revolution break barrier fear criminal leader criminal system destroy handover power dictatorship omar suleiman ahmed shafiq crony mubarak continuation system omar suleiman friend israel america spend time washington tel aviv servant faithful interest ahmed shafik close friend mubarak colleague tyranny oppression plunder impose egyptian people past decade tyrannical regime corrupt sic country large estate small handful business leader foreign company family percent country wealth monopolise wealth egyptian people policy privatization looting power alliance capital turn majority egyptian people poor landless unemployed want nationalisation company land property loot bunch long resource remain hand able completely rid system economic slavery face political tyranny able cope unemployment achieve fair minimum wage decent live restore wealth people gang system stand mubarak dictator servant client directly act sake interest america israel egypt act colony america participate directly siege palestinian people suez canal egyptian airspace free zone warship fighter jet destroy kill iraqi people sell gas israel dirt cheap stifle egyptian people soar price revolution restore egypt independence dignity leadership region revolution elite political party religious group egypt youth student worker poor owner revolution recent day lot elite party socalle symbol begin try ride wave revolution hijack rightful owner symbol martyr revolution young people steadfast field allow control revolution claim represent choose represent represent martyr kill blood pay price salvation system ask army people army single bloc interest soldier junior officer interest masse senior officer mubarak man choose carefully protect regime corruption wealth tyranny integral system army long people army army defeat zionist enemy october army closely associate america israel role protect israel people yes want win soldier revolution fool slogan army army suppress demonstration directly restructure police play role revolution surpass great expectation expect number expect egyptians brave face police force dictator retreat transformation happen middan el tahrir need right push socioeconomic demand demand person sit home know fight right need organise popular committee elect high council democratically council form high council include delegate tendency elect high council people represent trust formation popular council middan tahrir city egypt demonstration protest play key role ignite continue revolution need worker seal fate regime participate demonstration organise general strike vital industry large corporation regime afford wait sitin demonstration day week hour worker use strike weapon strike railway public transport airport large industrial company egyptian worker behalf rebellious youth behalf blood martyr join rank revolution use power victory fisk fisk suez strike report february arabawy blog suez strike afify mabahith amn aldawla general directorate state security investigation jihaz amn aldawla state security service mukhabarat alaama general intelligence security service mukhabarat alharbeya military intelligence service jihaz alamn alqawmi national security service kassem p tagammu contain rump old communist party officially dissolve member basis nasser accomplish revolution egypt hussein alsaid alsayyid p hussein alsaid alsayyid p howeidy conversation lead brotherhood activist cairo january insightful analysis contradictory character brotherhood naguib howeidy elenani elenani human right watch p target member underground organisation islamic jihad islamiyya islamic association reject brotherhood accommodation regime report egyptian organisation human right quote lorenz murphy eaat raghavan week example address describe crony capitalism outcome situation structure ownership transparent regulation inadequate unevenly apply ad hoc decision take market force prevent play normal disciplining role imbalance deadly inefficiency build camdessus chomsky chomsky terse account key development period marfleet mustafa khamis muhammed hassan albaqari execute august allegedly incite riot misr textile company kafr aldawwar bush abdelfadil baker zaalouk p henry springborg p sharp pp combined figure army air force navy central security iiss p world bank conservative figure fail measure real level deprivation increase pace immiseration elnaggar economist el mahdi figure land centre human right quote beinin p sti statement appendix statement appendix abdelfadil mahmoud development income distribution social change rural egypt study political economy agrarian transition cambridge university press abdelfadil mahmoud political economy nasserism cambridge university press afify h egyptian man attempt suicide amid propolice gather almasry alyoum january baker raymond william egypt uncertain revolution nasser sadat harvard university press beinin joel worker struggle rabab el mahdi philip marfleet eds egypt moment change ze bush ray land people rabab el mahdi philip marfleet ed egypt moment change zed camdessus michel challenge face transition economy central asia chomsky noam black face limousine conversation noam chomsky eaat egyptian association torture foundation statement economist new pharaohs march elanani khalil alternative different ahram weekly january elmahdi rabab democracy movement rabab el mahdi philip marfleet ed egypt moment change ze elnaggar economic policy state control decay corruption rabab el mahdi philip marfleet ed egypt moment change ze fisk robert blood fear cairo street mubarak man crack protest independent february henry clement robert springborg globalisation politic development middle east cambridge university press howeidy amira brotherhood zero ahram weekly december human right watch closed door human right watch hussein r alsaid m alsayyid year multipartyism egypt mark kennedy ed year development egypt american university cairo press international institute strategic study iiss military balance iiss kassem maye egyptian politic dynamic authoritarian rule lynne reiner lorenz andrea egyptian human right organisation document abuse washington report middle eastern affairs june marfleet philip state society rabab el mahdi philip marfleet ed egypt moment change ze murphy dan egypt crack charge wide abuse christian science monitor october naguib sameh islamism old new rabab el mahdi philip marfleet ed egypt moment change ze raghavan sudarsan egyptians focus attention recover nation money washington post february seif el dawla aida torture state policy rabab el mahdi philip marfleet ed egypt moment change ze sharp jeremy egyptus relation brief congress congressional research service stier ken egyptian billionaire think new order time february week hosni mubarak steal billion fortune february world bank ed world bank country brief egypt october zaalouk malak power class foreign capital egypt rise new bourgeoisie ze page phil marfleet archive etol main page update july page phil marfleet archive etol main page update july | 71 |
M.I.A. Library: Gilbert Giles Roper Biography Works: 1937 What is happening in the Communist Party? 1937 The alternative to the Communist Party 1938 Concerning the Communist Party’s printery: A letter to Jean Devanny 1983 Labor’s titan: the story of Percy Brookfield, 1878-1921 Archive maintained by Steve Painter M.I.A. Library | left | mia library gilbert giles roper biography work happen communist party alternative communist party concern communist party printery letter jean devanny labor titan story percy brookfield archive maintain steve painter mia library | 72 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From New International, Vol.12 No.1, January 1946, p.24. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. THE FARMERS’ LAST FRONTIERS by Fred A. Shannon Farrar & Rinehart, $5 This book is the fifth volume of a nine volume series entitled The Economic History of the United States. It covers the Homestead period of 1860-1897. This is not the type of book one takes to bed (unless you want to encourage nightmares) or reads at one’s leisure. In the preface of the book Shannon states: “I have not written a history of the technical advances in agriculture ...” This is a direct sign of guilt, for what Shannon denies doing he accomplishes with eloquence. He goes into an elaborate description of soil types and characteristics and other natural forces in his section on Nature and the Farmer. This section, as all the others, is embellished with charts and graphs, and statistical data galore. Shannon runs the gauntlet with a section on Land and Labor in the New South, discussing the Civil War and its effects, changes in land ownership, rise of sharecropping, crop lien system, white and Negro farm labor, and Southern class structure. He devotes another section to Southern Crops and Special Problems, discussing primarily the staples, cotton and tobacco. The Progress of Farm Mechanization is also included in Shannon’s study and everything from the new seed planter and cultivator to the economic and social effects of mechanization is discussed. The section on The Expansion of Prairie Agriculture deals with bonanza (large) farms, the movement of cereal-crop production, corn-hog cycle, and care of the soil. Other sections dealt with in great detail are Special Problems of Prairie Farmers, The Livestock Frontier and the Great Plains Farmer, Finance and Marketing Problems of the Range Country, Specialized Agriculture and Eastern Adjustments, Government Activity in Agriculture, The Agrarian Uprising and the Farmers’ Cooperative Movements. The above listing of topics offers sufficient reason why it is essential that the main thesis of the book be dealt with rather than just a segmented analysis of each section. In the section entitled Agriculture Settlement in New Areas, Shannon states his thesis. It is as follows: “The movement of population to new lands after 1860 was largely along lines drawn before that time, and to a great degree was merely a further spreading out over already partially settled areas.” It is true one has to dip deeply and push aside a conglomeration of details to find his main trend of thought. Although it is clouded, it is worthy of examination. Shannon’s thesis of gradual settlement, of slow extension of frontiers, is offered in lieu of the hypothesis presented by Walter Prescott Webb in The Great Plains: Study in Institutions and Environment. Webb discusses the 100th Meridian as a major dividing line, creating the so-called “institutional fault.” Webb contends that the environmental factors caused a major break in the settlement of this country in that the Great Plains were settled last, i.e., settlers moved from the North Central States to the West Coast before the Great Plains were settled. The environmental factors that Webb stresses are such things as lack of water for grazing or homestead farming, absence of woodlands or forests – resulting in scarcity of lumber for building and wood for fuel – and adverse climatic conditions, such as strong winds and dust storms. Shannon counters with statistical data showing that a frontier was established first in Ohio, then settlers moved to the Midwest and then on to the Plains. He sees the process as one of gradual adjustment rather than one of sharp breaks and cleavages. This type of academic shadow boxing is interesting, but adds little to our understanding of the problematical situation and the adjustments of the people. Shannon does make a contribution in the section entitled Disposing of the Public Domain. The myth of homesteading is exploded by proving conclusively that of the eighty million acres of homesteads settled under sixty thousand patents, less than one-sixth of the acreage went to homesteaders who lived and kept their holdings. He proves that the homesteaders were pawns of the monopolists and the land speculators, with the bona fide homesteaders receiving the least desirable tracts, in poorer lands and far from transportation facilities. In the last section of the book Shannon invalidates the old “safety-valve” hypothesis. His data shows that from 1860 to 1900 the flow was from the farm to the city and not vice versa, as is usually thought. He contends that it is time that a new hypothesis were advanced: that the rise of the city was a safety valve for rural discontent. In this section on The Farmer and the Nation, Shannon depicts agriculture as declining in importance. He shows that from 1860 to 1900 agriculture’s share in the national income and national wealth was steadily decreasing. The book contains some very important factual material and also some major ideological contributions, but it falls short in analyzing the problems involved in the farmer’s last frontier. Shannon fails to grasp the problems involved in a maturing agriculture. He did not gear his analysis toward an examination of a problematical situation, and the shifts in the process which arc brought about by institutional changes. The instability of agriculture, the increasing rate of farm tenancy, and the loss of the owner-operator ideal, are all dealt with as fixtures. Not daring to suggest a new institutional setting to cope with the closing of the frontier, Shannon must manipulate his charts and graphs and elaborate in a matchbox. For if he were to poke his nose into the outer environs, things might be combustible. Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 24.9.2005 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international january transcribed mark einde etol farmer frontier fre shannon farrar rinehart book fifth volume volume series entitle economic history united states cover homestead period type book take bed want encourage nightmare read leisure preface book shannon states write history technical advance agriculture direct sign guilt shannon deny accomplish eloquence go elaborate description soil type characteristic natural force section nature farmer section embellish chart graph statistical datum galore shannon run gauntlet section land labor new south discuss civil war effect change land ownership rise sharecrop crop lien system white negro farm labor southern class structure devote section southern crop special problem discuss primarily staple cotton tobacco progress farm mechanization include shannon study new seed planter cultivator economic social effect mechanization discuss section expansion prairie agriculture deal bonanza large farm movement cerealcrop production cornhog cycle care soil section deal great detail special problem prairie farmer livestock frontier great plain farmer finance marketing problem range country specialized agriculture eastern adjustment government activity agriculture agrarian uprising farmer cooperative movement listing topic offer sufficient reason essential main thesis book deal segment analysis section section entitle agriculture settlement new area shannon state thesis follow movement population new land largely line draw time great degree merely spread partially settle area true dip deeply push aside conglomeration detail find main trend thought cloud worthy examination shannon thesis gradual settlement slow extension frontier offer lieu hypothesis present walter prescott webb great plain study institution environment webb discuss meridian major dividing line create socalled institutional fault webb contend environmental factor cause major break settlement country great plain settle ie settler move north central state west coast great plain settle environmental factor webb stress thing lack water grazing homestead farming absence woodland forest result scarcity lumber building wood fuel adverse climatic condition strong wind dust storm shannon counter statistical datum show frontier establish ohio settler move midwest plain see process gradual adjustment sharp break cleavage type academic shadow boxing interesting add little understanding problematical situation adjustment people shannon contribution section entitle dispose public domain myth homesteading explode prove conclusively eighty million acre homestead settle thousand patent onesixth acreage go homesteader live keep holding prove homesteader pawn monopolist land speculator bona fide homesteader receive desirable tract poor land far transportation facility section book shannon invalidate old safetyvalve hypothesis datum show flow farm city vice versa usually think contend time new hypothesis advance rise city safety valve rural discontent section farmer nation shannon depict agriculture decline importance show agriculture share national income national wealth steadily decrease book contain important factual material major ideological contribution fall short analyze problem involve farmer frontier shannon fail grasp problem involve mature agriculture gear analysis examination problematical situation shift process arc bring institutional change instability agriculture increase rate farm tenancy loss owneroperator ideal deal fixture dare suggest new institutional setting cope closing frontier shannon manipulate chart graph elaborate matchbox poke nose outer environ thing combustible page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update | 73 |
BY THE TIME I first met Archie Lieberman, in a small branch of the International Socialists in New Jersey in 1970, he was already a thirty-year veteran of revolutionary and union struggles. Archie was an authentic rank-and-file leader and, as he remained to the end, an unreconstructed Bolshevik in the Left Opposition and Third Camp traditions. When we spoke by phone in recent years, frequently right after Archie had finished reading the most recent Solidarity pamphlet or internal discussion bulletin, he always came back to the same message he delivered in our first meeting: A socialist organization with a middle-class or student membership had to get itself rooted in the working class, or it would never become relevant. Trotsky had insisted on this point – into the factories, to the workers – when Archie had just joined the movement, right out of City College of New York, and it always remained for him the central political question. “It used to be said that one worker-socialist was worth at least 100 (student) members,” Archie wrote in memory of his friend and comrade Rube Singer. “Today we would have to increase their worth.” (Rube Singer Remembered, Against the Current 25, March–April 1990) It was sad to learn that Archie had died this past April 30, 2002. Unlike some of our other wonderful departed comrades, such as Sol Dollinger or Stan Weir, Archie unfortunately never turned to the writing of history or memoirs. For Archie, “life was fighting for workers – period,” says his son Ernie. “You probably wouldn’t have the time or inclination to write large works unless you are exiled, and Archie wasn’t ever exiled.” While Archie did edit the insurgents’ newspaper at Singer Sewing Machine (see below), wrote leaflets and contributed to socialist internal bulletins, his own history was never properly chronicled, and I am aware only of parts of it. Archie was born Aharon (Aaron) Lieberman on October 4, 1916, becoming “Archie” when school officials couldn’t figure out how to pronounce the Hebrew name. Radicalized in the 1930s, in his teens he was drawn toward the Communist Party, until he concluded that the CP’s anti-imperialism was not genuine, and then joined the Trotskyist movement. When the Socialist Workers Party split in 1940, although Archie sympathized with the minority (“Shachtmanite”) view regarding the Soviet Union and the war, he remained with the SWP majority because of its stronger working-class membership. Subsequently he was a member of the “Goldman-Morrow tendency” that left the SWP and joined the Workers Party at the end of World War II. Remaining with the WP and its successor group, the Independent Socialist League, up to the ISL’s dissolution in 1958, Archie subsequently affiliated with socialist groupings as circumstances permitted – the Socialist Party, International Socialists, Democratic Socialists of America and in recent years a formal sympathizer of Solidarity. Archie was no slouch when it came to arguing theory or political analysis. His real genius, however, showed itself as an organizer and rank-and-file leader. He was passionate about the importance of the ability to lead masses of workers, whether in strikes or revolutions (which is why he remained a passionate supporter of the Bolshevik politics of Lenin and Trotsky) – although he cared nothing about formal union positions, and rarely held any. In 1941, then with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Archie co-led a wildcat strike at Maidenform in Bayonne, NJ, where he met his wife Betty, whom Archie described to me as “a real Genora Johnson” organizing women picketers in battles with cops. The strikers’ demands were won, with the price being that Archie had to leave. ILGWU President David Dubinsky was later quoted as saying it was the best job of organizing he had ever seen. For twenty years afterward the ILGWU tried to recruit Archie as an organizer – which he refused because he felt working for the bureaucracy would compromise the way he fought for workers. A shipworker during World War II, Archie in the postwar years was with the Independent Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) and a leading militant in a 20,000-worker strike at Singer Sewing Machine, an experience he recalled as a high point of WP-ISL union influence. In this struggle, the ISL was part of a group of workers embroiled in bitter inner-union factional warfare with the Communist Party, which at that time was the leadership of the United Electrical Workers (UE). If there was one dispute in the left that agitated Archie more than any other, it was any suggestion that “the Stalinists” (the leadership of the Communist Party) had ever, at any time, been the authentic “left wing” of the labor movement, the Black struggle or anything else. His position on this issue had no room for nuance – over and over he would insist that the CP had been “the worst strikebreakers” during the war, the most corrupt agents of imperialism, and had poisoned the reputation of socialism among workers by promoting the totalitarian USSR. The following summary is based on a letter from Ernie Lieberman, recalling Archie’s own account of those years. The UE’s strength was in the Northeast, especially at Singer, with its worldwide distribution of pedal-powered and electrical sewing machines. Singer’s heart was in the Elizabeth, NJ plant with 20,000 workers and dated back to the late 19th century. The CP controlled this plant, especially its foundry of 500 African-American workers, many of them recently from the South, whose votes enabled the CP to control the plant, Singer, and with it the UE. Archie later recalled those Black workers as having the same huge abilities as Martin Luther King, or later sports superstars like Reggie Jackson. It was in that foundry, where molten or white-metal was shaped into machine parts, that Archie got a job. “He often told me how he would ask to see a worker’s paycheck, go into the boss’s office, and come back with more money,” says Ernie Lieberman. “This was not ‘sweetheart’ payoff money, as the CP charged. The worker (oftentimes illiterate as a result of the South’s education system) had been paid less than the contract provided – cheated by the CP/UE in cahoots with Singer. Doing this many times and with his hard work alongside them, Archie won those workers’ respect and broke the CP’s hold on them.” At the same time, Archie participated in the strategy sessions of those union organizers opposing the CP, and wrote and edited their newspaper. This struggle culminated with a strike in the Elizabeth plant and a large split from the UE to join the rival IUE.* This struggle also broke Archie’s health, forcing him into the hospital with rheumatic fever in June 1952 and out of industrial work for many years. He was also blacklisted by employers. Having to leave the Singer struggle was something he would always regret. From the early 1960s till his retirement due to illness in 1976, Archie was able to return to industry as an ironworker in Elizabeth, NJ, where he negotiated contracts without holding a union office – and without having to strike. Archie and Betty weren’t through yet: In the 1970s, when in his sixties, Archie led a countywide tenants’ strike in Farmington, NJ. Meanwhile, before and after his disability retirement, Archie had kept occupied by volunteering as a high school track coach and organizing neighborhood excursions to baseball games. One of Archie’s prominent comrades during the WP-ISL years, Herman Benson, remembered Archie as “an absolutely wonderful guy and inveterate rank and filer. Where we had differences, or shadings of opinion, regarding our orientation toward the Reuther current in the labor movement – whether to be a part of it or more of an independent opposition – Archie was on the rank-and-file independent end of that spectrum.” Archie recounted to me that he had been dismayed as the Shachtman leadership moved toward the labor bureaucracy and away from a rank-and-file orientation. He was never sure that he had made the right choice in turning down an offer to become a director for the organization’s industrial fractions. Perhaps the only other group beside the Stalinists that I heard Archie describe with such venom was the medical profession. He fought his last battle virtually by himself, perhaps too much so, after Betty suffered an incapacitating stroke. When the doctors told him there was nothing to be done – and no insurance would pay for aggressive therapy – Archie deployed all his experience as a union steward, a political militant and track coach to confront the medical bureaucracy and personally take on Betty’s physical rehabilitation. He reported some victories, but in the final year his voice indicated that he was wearing down. Archie and Betty remained in their Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania home until two days before Archie’s own passing. For Archie, theory mattered but the point of the struggle was not all that complicated. Every victory, every wage increase or working condition won, gave working people a chance to live a little better with a little more dignity – a little bit more like the full human beings we could all be able to become with the ultimate revolutionary victory of socialism. Some of Archie Lieberman’s views on the history of U.S. labor and the left were presented in ATC 57, The Lessons of Working Class History (July–August 1995, 42–43), and a subsequent exchange with Michael Funke in ATC 59 (November–December 1995, 42–43). ATC 103, March–April 2003 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | time meet archie lieberman small branch international socialist new jersey thirtyyear veteran revolutionary union struggle archie authentic rankandfile leader remain end unreconstructed bolshevik left opposition camp tradition speak phone recent year frequently right archie finish read recent solidarity pamphlet internal discussion bulletin come message deliver meeting socialist organization middleclass student membership root work class relevant trotsky insist point factory worker archie join movement right city college new york remain central political question say workersocialist worth student member archie write memory friend comrade rube singer today increase worth rube singer remember current march april sad learn archie die past april unlike wonderful depart comrade sol dollinger stan weir archie unfortunately turn writing history memoir archie life fight worker period say son ernie probably time inclination write large work exile archie exile archie edit insurgent newspaper singer sewing machine write leaflet contribute socialist internal bulletin history properly chronicle aware part archie bear aharon aaron lieberman october archie school official figure pronounce hebrew radicalize teen draw communist party conclude cp antiimperialism genuine join trotskyist movement socialist worker party split archie sympathize minority shachtmanite view soviet union war remain swp majority strong workingclass membership subsequently member goldmanmorrow tendency leave swp join worker party end world war ii remain wp successor group independent socialist league isl dissolution archie subsequently affiliate socialist grouping circumstance permit socialist party international socialists democratic socialist america recent year formal sympathizer solidarity archie slouch come argue theory political analysis real genius show organizer rankandfile leader passionate importance ability lead masse worker strike revolution remain passionate supporter bolshevik politic lenin trotsky care formal union position rarely hold international lady garment workers union archie cole wildcat strike maidenform bayonne nj meet wife betty archie describe real genora johnson organize woman picketer battle cop striker demand win price archie leave ilgwu president david dubinsky later quote say good job organize see year afterward ilgwu try recruit archie organizer refuse felt work bureaucracy compromise way fight worker shipworker world war ii archie postwar year independent union electrical worker iue lead militant strike singer sewing machine experience recall high point wpisl union influence struggle isl group worker embroil bitter innerunion factional warfare communist party time leadership united electrical worker ue dispute left agitate archie suggestion stalinist leadership communist party time authentic left wing labor movement black struggle position issue room nuance insist cp bad strikebreaker war corrupt agent imperialism poison reputation socialism worker promote totalitarian ussr follow summary base letter ernie lieberman recall archie account year ue strength northeast especially singer worldwide distribution pedalpowered electrical sewing machine singer heart elizabeth nj plant worker date late century cp control plant especially foundry africanamerican worker recently south vote enable cp control plant singer ue archie later recall black worker have huge ability martin luther king late sport superstar like reggie jackson foundry molten whitemetal shape machine part archie get job tell ask worker paycheck boss office come money say ernie lieberman sweetheart payoff money cp charge worker oftentime illiterate result south education system pay contract provide cheat cpue cahoot singer time hard work alongside archie win worker respect break cp hold time archie participate strategy session union organizer oppose cp write edit newspaper struggle culminate strike elizabeth plant large split ue join rival iue struggle break archie health force hospital rheumatic fever june industrial work year blacklist employer have leave singer struggle regret early till retirement illness archie able return industry ironworker elizabeth nj negotiate contract hold union office have strike archie betty sixty archie lead countywide tenant strike farmington nj disability retirement archie kept occupy volunteer high school track coach organize neighborhood excursion baseball game archie prominent comrade wpisl year herman benson remember archie absolutely wonderful guy inveterate rank filer difference shading opinion orientation reuther current labor movement independent opposition archie rankandfile independent end spectrum archie recount dismay shachtman leadership move labor bureaucracy away rankandfile orientation sure right choice turn offer director organization industrial fraction group stalinist hear archie describe venom medical profession fight battle virtually betty suffer incapacitating stroke doctor tell insurance pay aggressive therapy archie deploy experience union steward political militant track coach confront medical bureaucracy personally betty physical rehabilitation report victory final year voice indicate wear archie betty remain lake ariel pennsylvania home day archie pass archie theory matter point struggle complicated victory wage increase working condition win give work people chance live little well little dignity little bit like human being able ultimate revolutionary victory socialism archie lieberman view history labor left present atc lesson work class history july august subsequent exchange michael funke atc november december atc march april current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 74 |
Labour Monthly, May 1943 Source: Labour Monthly, May 1943, pp. 153-158, Bill Bradley; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The Secretary of State for India, Mr. Amery, moved in Parliament on March 30, “That this House approves the continuance in force of the Proclamation issued under Section 93 of the Government of India Act, etc., etc. ...” Mr. Amery in this motion was asking Parliament to sanction, for a further period, complete dictatorial powers for the Viceroy and Governors in India. It is true that in the opening remarks of his speech he said that “This and other motions on the order paper are concerned with only six out of the eleven Provinces of British India.” Here, then, Mr. Amery asks Parliament to give complete dictatorial powers to these six Governors and he tells the House that it is because of the attitude of the Congress that the Government was forced to take this step in 1939. In the other five provinces we are told there is self-government and that self-government will be resumed in the six provinces as soon as Ministers can be found in a position to conduct affairs. What is this self-government in the five provinces with self-government? We had some insight into this “Self-Government” when the Premier of Sind was forced to resign some time ago. The latest example is Bengal. On March 27, the Premier of Bengal resigned. On the afternoon of his resignation the Premier, Mr. Fazlul Huq, disclosed that his resignation was prompted by the Governor of Bengal in a ninety-minute talk in which the formation of a National Cabinet and other proposals were discussed. The Governor made some proposals which, Mr. Huq said, he could not accept consistently with self-government. “Despite what has happened,” he said, “I maintain and am confident that I still enjoy the confidence of the majority of the House.” Nevertheless, he was forced to resign by the Governor of Bengal. There is therefore very little difference between rule through Emergency Powers and this type of “self-government.” It is strange, however, that Mr. Amery should, in his speech in the House, continue to talk of Congress Dictatorship. This comes ill from the lips of Amery while defending his types of dictatorship. India, for the past nine months, since August 8, 1942, has been racked by the deepest political crisis. On August 9 Congress Leaders were arrested and the deadlock made complete. It seems, from the events during the intervening period, and by the character and tone of Mr. Amery’s speech, that the Government are determined that the deadlock should remain. Yet, with the world locked in deadly combat, with the threat to India of Japanese invasion creating an urgent military situation, to allow the deadlock to continue is criminally suicidal. This disastrous political situation has already had serious repercussions upon the economic life of India and aggravated the food situation to the point of famine. In order to pave the way for the request to Parliament to sanction a further period of dictatorial powers in India, the Government published a White Paper. This document was to have condemned the Congress in the eyes of the world. Mr. Amery based his speech on this collection of extracts from statements and writings alleged to have been issued by the Congress and individuals. In order to make a case the Government have had to resort to the use of a number of spurious documents which were certainly not Congress, and which they, in any event, would have the utmost difficulty in proving authentic. The speeches of Mr. Amery and Mr. Attlee, on behalf of the Government in the House, can have no other effect than the further embittering of relations between this country and India. How we end this position and break through the barrage of lies and distortion? An examination of the correspondence between Mr. Gandhi and the Viceroy will help one to get a correct picture. This correspondence is very revealing. Within a few days after his arrest last August Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy. The first letter sharply criticises the Government action of precipitating a crisis without considering the Congress case. In refuting the charge that the Congress wished to dominate minorities, the following paragraph in Gandhi’s letter is important:- The Government of India have not condescended to consider the Congress offer that if simultaneously with the declaration of the Independence of India they could not trust the Congress to form a stable provisional Government, they should ask the Muslim League to do so, and that any National Government formed by the League would be loyally accepted by the Congress. Such an offer is hardly consistent with the charge of totalitarianism against the Congress. The letter was a plea to the Government to reconsider its policy in regard to India, to which the Viceroy replied that he could not accept the criticism or the request for the Government to reconsider its policy. Gandhi wrote again on September 21, to which he received a formal acknowledgement. There was no further correspondence until December 31, when Gandhi again took the initiative and wrote to the Viceroy. During this period the political situation had considerably deteriorated. With the continued imprisonment of the Congress Leaders bitter feeling ran high; the severest repression was met with sabotage and riots. The black tragedy of these last nine months is partly revealed in replies to questions in Parliament by the Secretary of State for India, Mr. Amery. 40,000 anti-Fascist fighters are behind prison bars, 15,000 without trial. To another question Mr. Amery replied:- My information relates to the period from August 9 to November 30, during which 1,028 persons lost their lives in connection with the disturbances, and 3,215 were more or less seriously injured. During the same period 958 sentences of whipping, or as it should be described, of caning, were imposed in British India, excluding the United Provinces for which figures have not been included. The Communist Party of India, along with the Trade Unions, Peasant Organisations and Student Movement, gave the lead against sabotage and to win the people for Unity in the fight against Fascism. In response to the call for National Unity, leaders of various sections held the important Conference in Allahabad in September last year. Mr. Rajagopalachari, former Premier of the Government of Madras Province, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, representing Liberal opinion; the representatives of the Trade Union Congress; the All-India Peasant Committee; and the Communist Party, all agreed to proposals which they believed would form the basis of agreement. The main question was: How to discuss these proposals with the Congress leaders? Permission was sought on the basis of a widely signed appeal to the Viceroy that Mr. Rajagopalachari should be allowed to visit Gandhi. This was refused. The Government were professing that the only thing that prevented a settlement in India was the question of Unity among the Indians themselves, but they were responsible for preventing the Indians getting together to formulate proposals that would overcome the impasse. In attempting to break this disastrous political deadlock, for which the Government were wholly responsible, Gandhi reopened correspondence with the Viceroy on December 31, 1942. Mr. Gandhi followed up the Viceroy’s short reply on January 19, saying that he could not remain “.... a helpless witness to what is going on in the country, including the privations of millions owing to universal scarcity stalking the land.” Here he is referring to the terrible economic conditions, famine and starvation at present the main feature of India. He concluded this letter as follows:- To sum up: (1) If you want me to act singly, convince me that I was wrong and I will make ample amends. (2) If you want me to make any proposal on behalf of Congress you should put me among the Congress Working Committee Members. I do plead with you to make up your mind to end the impasse. The Viceroy, in his reply to this letter, ignored Gandhi’s request to confer with other members of the Working Committee and said he was anxious to learn of “any specific propositions” from Gandhi. Further, if Gandhi repudiated and dissociated himself from the resolution of August 9, then he (the Viceroy) would consider the matter further. Gandhi sent a letter in reply on January 29:- You have not even said what part of the August resolution is bad or offensive in your opinion. That resolution is in no way a retraction by Congress of its policy of non-violence. It is definitely against Fascism in every shape or form. It tenders co-operation in the war effort under circumstances which alone can make effective and nation-wide co-operation possible. Is all this open to reproach? Objection may be raised to that clause of the resolution which contemplated civil disobedience. The manifesto by itself cannot constitute an objection since the principle of civil disobedience is implicitly conceded in what is known as the Gandhi-Irwin pact. Even that civil disobedience was not to be started before knowing the result of the meeting for which I was to seek from you an appointment. Referring to the tragic situation which had resulted in India, Gandhi said: – Add to this tale of woe the privations of the poor millions due to India-wide scarcity, which I cannot help thinking might, have been largely mitigated, if not altogether prevented, had there been a bona fide National Government responsible to a popularly elected Assembly. The Viceroy, in his replies, as the correspondence developed, was determined not to be in any way conciliatory. The last letter contained a sinister threat that charges were being prepared in respect of violence, and that Gandhi and other Congress leaders would have to clear themselves before world opinion. But Gandhi asks for evidence – which is not forthcoming – and turns to the Viceroy, saying: – You have condemned men and women before trying them and hearing their defence. This correspondence showed the intense desire of Gandhi to find a way out of the deadlock, while the attitude of the Viceroy was obdurate. It must be admitted, despite the fact that Gandhi was imprisoned, that he took the initiative towards conciliation. He backed this up with his fast. Here the Government courted catastrophe and disaster. Special instructions were issued to the press on how to handle news arising out of this situation, and with the radio every effort was made to belittle the ever-growing support for the cause which Gandhi symbolised. One of the most disturbing incidents, for the Government, in connection with this period under review, was the resignation of three members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council – the Minister of Supply, Sir H.P. Mody; The Minister of Education, Mr. N.R. Sarkar; and the Minister of Indians Overseas, Mr. H.S. Aney. So that, while the Viceroy in his letter to Gandhi made reference to the fact that the repression of the Congress was endorsed by the Viceroy’s Council, these three Indians wanted to end the deadlock, and were not prepared to follow the Viceroy in his disastrous policy. A meeting took place in Delhi of 200 prominent politicians of all parties, except the Congress (because they were unable to be present) calling for the release of Gandhi. Although their meeting did not secure this, it did take the question of Unity a big step forward. Insistent demands for the release of Gandhi and the reopening of negotiations poured in from working-class and peasant organisations right through to the Central Legislative Assembly, where they were voiced by Mr. N.M. Joshi, the Labour representative. The Communist Party of India issued a manifesto in which they declared that the “future of the Indian nation depends on whether we get Gandhi out or not.” This is as true to-day as it was when Gandhi was undertaking his fast. The manifesto went on to say that Gandhi’s stand was “a desperate summons to the entire nation to save itself from extinction,” and made a strong appeal to all patriots to unite, and in Gandhi’s name called for the stopping of sabotage and the smashing of fifth column elements. Prison bars, it stated, are now the main obstacle to Congress-League agreement, and the National Government which the League desires as much as the Congress. The Communist Party’s call for Congress-League Unity is not just a mere slogan. Readers will have studied the extremely capable and clear case put by G. Adhikari in the document “Pakistan and National Unity” which appeared in a previous issue. Our Indian comrades knew that their document and resolution presented the means of overcoming the barriers built up by the Government in order to prevent the fulfilment of the national demand. Throughout the world grave concern was aroused in respect of India, and although people like Lord Halifax, in New York, stressed the point that Britain would not tolerate intervention on this question, American Press and American opinion were greatly disturbed. In this country Mr. Amery had to admit that he had been inundated with resolutions and demands from influential bodies and working-class organisations, not only for the release of Gandhi and the Congress leaders, but for the reopening of negotiations. Members of Parliament were also lobbied on this question. Meetings were held all over the country, and particularly important was the meeting held in the House of Commons by Members of Parliament and others. Those present included Canon Holland, Miss Agatha Harrison; the Rev. H. Carter; Mr. H.H. Elvin (ex-Chairman of the Trade Union Congress); Mr. P. Sloan, M.P., Mr. Silverman, M.P., Miss Agnes Hardy, M.P., Mr. B. Riley, M.P., Mr. R. Richards, M.P., Mr. R.W. Dobbie, M.P., The Rev. Sorensen, M.P., Lord Strabolgi, etc. A deputation from this meeting waited on Mr. Amery, the Secretary of State for India, who gave no hope for a change of Government Policy, but hinted that with regard to the question of contact between Gandhi and, Congress Leaders, and Gandhi and other Indian leaders, this may be considered when Gandhi’s fast had terminated. This hope now seems as far off as ever. The Manchester Guardian, in a leading article on February 20, strongly criticised the way the Government is handling the situation in India. It says: – Does the public of this country realise that between August 8 and December 1 of last year, 60,229 Indians were arrested; that on December 39,498 were still under arrest; that the police opened fire on 470 occasions and the troops on 68? Whosever the original responsibility, these terrible figures certainly increase ours now. It refers to, and quotes from, the Gandhi-Viceroy correspondence, and draws attention to the fact that if the Viceroy had accepted Gandhi’s proposals that he be put among the working committee of the Congress, and that if other representative Indian Leaders like Mr. Rajagopalachari were allowed to visit them in prison, a way out may have been found. In any event no harm would result. This article goes on to say: “The truth is that, whether the Indian Government and any of the rest of us like it or not, Mr. Gandhi has opened a new phase.” It then suggests that the opportunity should now be taken for the reopening of negotiations. The main concern at the moment is to end the deadlock, and make it possible for the Indian people to tackle the serious problems confronting them: the defence of their country, the economic situation, and so on. On April 1 in Delhi, a deputation of Indian leaders submitted a Memorandum and asked the Viceroy to receive a deputation. The memorandum once again asked if the Viceroy would allow a few of the leaders to discuss with Gandhi to ascertain authoritatively his reactions to events, and to explore avenues of reconciliation. The memorandum stated: “We feel that though order might have been restored on the surface, every day that passes without a solution of the Indian problem intensifies the hostility between Britain and India, and renders any future solution more and more difficult to attain, until we apprehend it may become even impossible. We are convinced that Gandhi’s assistance is essential for restoration of good-will and for a solution of the problem even for an interim period, including an adjustment of Hindu-Moslem claims. On the other hand, unpleasant as it is, we cannot help feeling that refusing to permit us to have any contact with Gandhi now would be equivalent to a determination on the part of Great Britain that there should be no attempt at a settlement of the problem, and no reconciliation between nationalist India and Britain. The situation is growing more and more serious every day, and we feel that a Government commanding the loyal and affectionate co-operation of all the people can be constituted for the period of war only if we are permitted to talk with Gandhi, consult him and obtain his support. The request that we make is intended to achieve this object.” The actions of Mr. Amery completely contradict his words. He concluded his speech in the House by speaking about our good-will to India and our desire to help towards a settlement, Yet within twenty-four hours these Indian leaders received an unwarranted rebuke from the Viceroy and a blank refusal to their request to be allowed to consult Gandhi and the Congress leaders on this question. How is it possible to overcome the deadlock if the leaders of the most important political organisations are completely cut off from outside contact. The police guards are increased – the Congress leaders are hermetically sealed against the outside world. The reactions of the leaders who received the rebuke are serious. Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru characterises the Commons debate on India as the most fatuous for the last four years, and in respect of the reply of the Viceroy to their memorandum he observed that it was most unfair, and says: “A National Government is meaningless without the consent and support of all parties.” Mr. Rajagopalachari, commenting on the Viceroy’s action, said: “I must infer from the Viceroy’s reply that the Government not only do not desire reconciliation, but wish to humiliate the Congress.” Repression continues, bitterness grows and the deadlock remains – a completely indefensible situation. The Gandhi correspondence shows that the Congress is ready and willing to make their contribution to a solution of the deadlock. They must be allowed to do so. We must, as our contribution, bring pressure to bear upon the Government to end immediately the policy of repression; to release all anti-Fascist political prisoners, and reopen negotiations with Congress leaders and leaders of other political organisations on the question of the immediate establishment of a composite Provisional Government for India. Labour Monthly Archive | left | labour monthly source labour monthly pp bill bradley transcribe ted crawford secretary state india mr amery move parliament march house approve continuance force proclamation issue section government india act etc etc mr amery motion ask parliament sanction period complete dictatorial power viceroy governor india true opening remark speech say motion order paper concern province british india mr amery ask parliament complete dictatorial power governor tell house attitude congress government force step province tell selfgovernment selfgovernment resume province soon minister find position conduct affair selfgovernment province selfgovernment insight selfgovernment premier sind force resign time ago late example bengal march premier bengal resign afternoon resignation premier mr fazlul huq disclose resignation prompt governor bengal ninetyminute talk formation national cabinet proposal discuss governor proposal mr huq say accept consistently selfgovernment despite happen say maintain confident enjoy confidence majority house force resign governor bengal little difference rule emergency power type selfgovernment strange mr amery speech house continue talk congress dictatorship come ill lip amery defend type dictatorship india past month august rack deep political crisis august congress leader arrest deadlock complete event intervene period character tone mr amery speech government determined deadlock remain world lock deadly combat threat india japanese invasion create urgent military situation allow deadlock continue criminally suicidal disastrous political situation repercussion economic life india aggravate food situation point famine order pave way request parliament sanction period dictatorial power india government publish white paper document condemn congress eye world mr amery base speech collection extract statement writing allege issue congress individual order case government resort use number spurious document certainly congress event utmost difficulty prove authentic speech mr amery mr attlee behalf government house effect embittering relation country india end position break barrage lie distortion examination correspondence mr gandhi viceroy help correct picture correspondence revealing day arrest august gandhi write viceroy letter sharply criticise government action precipitate crisis consider congress case refute charge congress wish dominate minority follow paragraph gandhi letter important government india condescend consider congress offer simultaneously declaration independence india trust congress form stable provisional government ask muslim league national government form league loyally accept congress offer hardly consistent charge totalitarianism congress letter plea government reconsider policy regard india viceroy reply accept criticism request government reconsider policy gandhi write september receive formal acknowledgement correspondence december gandhi take initiative write viceroy period political situation considerably deteriorate continue imprisonment congress leader bitter feeling run high severe repression meet sabotage riot black tragedy month partly reveal reply question parliament secretary state india mr amery antifascist fighter prison bar trial question mr amery reply information relate period august november person lose life connection disturbance seriously injure period sentence whipping describe cane impose british india exclude united province figure include communist party india trade union peasant organisation student movement give lead sabotage win people unity fight fascism response national unity leader section hold important conference allahabad september year mr rajagopalachari premier government madras province sir tej bahadur sapru represent liberal opinion representative trade union congress allindia peasant committee communist party agree proposal believe form basis agreement main question discuss proposal congress leader permission seek basis widely sign appeal viceroy mr rajagopalachari allow visit gandhi refuse government profess thing prevent settlement india question unity indians responsible prevent indians get formulate proposal overcome impasse attempt break disastrous political deadlock government wholly responsible gandhi reopen correspondence viceroy december mr gandhi follow viceroy short reply january say remain helpless witness go country include privation million owe universal scarcity stalk land refer terrible economic condition famine starvation present main feature india conclude letter follow sum want act singly convince wrong ample amend want proposal behalf congress congress working committee member plead mind end impasse viceroy reply letter ignore gandhi request confer member working committee say anxious learn specific proposition gandhi gandhi repudiate dissociate resolution august viceroy consider matter gandhi send letter reply january say august resolution bad offensive opinion resolution way retraction congress policy nonviolence definitely fascism shape form tender cooperation war effort circumstance effective nationwide cooperation possible open reproach objection raise clause resolution contemplate civil disobedience manifesto constitute objection principle civil disobedience implicitly concede know gandhiirwin pact civil disobedience start know result meeting seek appointment refer tragic situation result india gandhi say add tale woe privation poor million indiawide scarcity help think largely mitigate altogether prevent bona fide national government responsible popularly elect assembly viceroy reply correspondence develop determine way conciliatory letter contain sinister threat charge prepare respect violence gandhi congress leader clear world opinion gandhi ask evidence forthcoming turn viceroy say condemn man woman try hear defence correspondence show intense desire gandhi find way deadlock attitude viceroy obdurate admit despite fact gandhi imprison take initiative conciliation back fast government court catastrophe disaster special instruction issue press handle news arise situation radio effort belittle evergrowing support cause gandhi symbolise disturbing incident government connection period review resignation member viceroy executive council minister supply sir hp mody minister education mr nr sarkar minister indians overseas mr hs aney viceroy letter gandhi reference fact repression congress endorse viceroy council indians want end deadlock prepared follow viceroy disastrous policy meeting take place delhi prominent politician party congress unable present call release gandhi meeting secure question unity big step forward insistent demand release gandhi reopening negotiation pour workingclass peasant organisation right central legislative assembly voice mr nm joshi labour representative communist party india issue manifesto declare future indian nation depend gandhi true today gandhi undertake fast manifesto go gandhi stand desperate summon entire nation save extinction strong appeal patriot unite gandhi call stopping sabotage smashing fifth column element prison bar state main obstacle congressleague agreement national government league desire congress communist party congressleague unity mere slogan reader study extremely capable clear case g adhikari document pakistan national unity appear previous issue indian comrade know document resolution present mean overcome barrier build government order prevent fulfilment national demand world grave concern arouse respect india people like lord halifax new york stress point britain tolerate intervention question american press american opinion greatly disturb country mr amery admit inundate resolution demand influential body workingclass organisation release gandhi congress leader reopening negotiation member parliament lobby question meeting hold country particularly important meeting hold house common member parliament present include canon holland miss agatha harrison rev h carter mr hh elvin exchairman trade union congress mr p sloan mp mr silverman mp miss agne hardy mp mr b riley mp mr r richard mp mr rw dobbie mp rev sorensen mp lord strabolgi etc deputation meeting wait mr amery secretary state india give hope change government policy hint regard question contact gandhi congress leader gandhi indian leader consider gandhi fast terminate hope far manchester guardian lead article february strongly criticise way government handle situation india say public country realise august december year indians arrest december arrest police open fire occasion troop whosever original responsibility terrible figure certainly increase refer quote gandhiviceroy correspondence draw attention fact viceroy accept gandhi proposal working committee congress representative indian leader like mr rajagopalachari allow visit prison way find event harm result article go truth indian government rest like mr gandhi open new phase suggest opportunity take reopening negotiation main concern moment end deadlock possible indian people tackle problem confront defence country economic situation april delhi deputation indian leader submit memorandum ask viceroy receive deputation memorandum ask viceroy allow leader discuss gandhi ascertain authoritatively reaction event explore avenue reconciliation memorandum state feel order restore surface day pass solution indian problem intensify hostility britain india render future solution difficult attain apprehend impossible convinced gandhi assistance essential restoration goodwill solution problem interim period include adjustment hindumoslem claim hand unpleasant help feel refuse permit contact gandhi equivalent determination great britain attempt settlement problem reconciliation nationalist india britain situation grow day feel government command loyal affectionate cooperation people constitute period war permit talk gandhi consult obtain support request intend achieve object action mr amery completely contradict word conclude speech house speak goodwill india desire help settlement twentyfour hour indian leader receive unwarranted rebuke viceroy blank refusal request allow consult gandhi congress leader question possible overcome deadlock leader important political organisation completely cut outside contact police guard increase congress leader hermetically seal outside world reaction leader receive rebuke sir tej bahadur sapru characterise commons debate india fatuous year respect reply viceroy memorandum observe unfair say national government meaningless consent support party mr rajagopalachari comment viceroy action say infer viceroy reply government desire reconciliation wish humiliate congress repression continue bitterness grow deadlock remain completely indefensible situation gandhi correspondence show congress ready willing contribution solution deadlock allow contribution bring pressure bear government end immediately policy repression release antifascist political prisoner reopen negotiation congress leader leader political organisation question immediate establishment composite provisional government india labour monthly archive | 75 |
Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive This work was translated by David Broder. Reprinted here with the permission from the Alliance for Workers Liberty website. 1ST MAY 1944: THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE REVOLUTION! A day of significance for the German workers The SPD leadership’s treachery in the First World War left the German working class disarmed. Talk of revolution was smothered by the state of emergency. Therefore it was a liberating act when on 1st May 1916 Karl Liebknecht organised a demonstration in Potsdamer Platz with the support of thousands of workers from Berlin, to remind the workers and particularly the German workers that: this war is not our war . It had to be transformed into a proletarian revolution. The enemy was in our own country. Of course, Liebknecht was thrown in jail by the capitalist state’s machinery of repression. But his liberatory ideas had already got out. Revolution came with the Kiel sailors’ uprising, putting an end to the war. All of Germany was covered with a network of workers’ and soldiers’ soviets. The bourgeois order was shaken to the core. German capital had to take action to hold on to power, most importantly using the help of the Social-Democrat bureaucracy. The soviets were dissolved or transformed into a shadow of their former selves as factory councils. In the place of peace, freedom and bread the German workers were given ballot papers, inflation and the Reichswehr. In the following period there were two 1st May celebrations in Germany: that of the reformists, who for all their treachery still had the confidence of thousands of workers, and that of the young Communist Party, the German section of the Third International, whose task was to win over the majority of the working class to the goal of socialist revolution and lead it to power. Of course, the Third International’s centre of gravity was in Russia, where the workers had taken power under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky’s Bolshevik Party. But the Russian workers’ and peasants’ victorious revolution was left isolated by the failure of the German revolution. In addition to the economic backwardness of the country, this situation inevitably led to the bureaucratisation of the workers’ state and the Bolshevik Party itself. There was sclerosis at the very heart of the Third International. The German CP, the strongest CP outside Russia, was itself transformed into a wing of the Stalinist bureaucracy without connection to the working masses. This was made clear on 1st May 1929. In the interests of its domestic policies, the centre in Moscow declared from its ivory tower upon high that a new revolutionary period had begun. This was far from being the case. But to justify its line it had to stage all sorts of ‘revolutionary demonstrations’. For this purpose it chose 1st May. The workers in Berlin and many other regions of Germany were called on to build barricades. The police chief Zoergiebel, a Social-Democrat, seized upon this excellent opportunity to send his troops against the isolated communist workers. Despite putting up heroic resistance they were crushed. The result of this senseless adventure was to demoralise activists and leave the Social-Democrat workers indignant and appalled. The bureaucrats never learned anything, even from the bloody defeat of their supporters. The errors of the Communist Party increased in number. Disoriented by the theory of social-fascism, its policy of splitting the unions and the tactic of united fronts from below, the revolutionary proletariat was led to defeat after defeat, up until the decisive one: the victory of the Nazi Party without a fight. The Nazis made 1st May 1933 a national holiday. One more time—and this would be the last—the Social Democrat leaders and the union bureaucrats showed themselves in all their crapulence. Attempting to curry favour with their new masters, these Judases called on their members to participate in the Nazi rally. It was totally in keeping with the methods of the Nazis to keep 1st May as a day of celebrations. They use such slogans as “German socialism”, “the dignity of work” and “the common interest comes above individual interests” to mask the most shameful of exploitation and the most absolute control. They place a shovel in the hands of the German worker so that he can dig—and lie in—his own grave. That is the meaning of their production of tanks, bombs and warships. War preparations were not enough for the capitalist state to breathe life into the economy, so war itself came. The period which saw a series of victories—which can be attributed to Germany’s weapons advances—is over. We can still not say exactly how many victims the second world imperialist war will have claimed among the German workers. They have been led into the abattoirs in the four corners of Europe, while their families and homes have been pulverised by bombs. If the war—which had already been lost in advance given the Americans’ technical superiority in several fields—does not last ten or fifteen years, as German, British and American capital would have liked, then for this workers across the world will be indebted to the Russian workers who, despite the enormous burden represented by the parasitic rule of the bureaucracy, have repulsed the capitalist aggression against the first workers’ state and have thus saved the great conquest of the October revolution, the planned economy. We must rebuild the class front! Today, in May 1944, the greater part of the people of Europe is still under the German jackboot. But the course of events, both at home and abroad, show that the final reckoning is imminent. It may arrive one day or the next. But that does not mean that it will just ‘happen’ . The Nazi clique and its capitalist backers are ready to fight down to the last German worker. Like in 1918 only the working class itself can bring an end to the reign of terror and the war. We can only achieve peace with revolution . But what kind of peace? And what revolution? The old parties, in particular the Stalinist parties, enter the scene hoping to put the brakes on the revolution as soon as possible. They have formed a so-called liberation committee in Moscow, mainly composed of captured Nazi generals. The main task set for this committee is to suffocate the revolution like in 1918, installing a bourgeois government and saving the capitalist system. If they succeed in doing so Anglo-American capital and the Russian bureaucracy will dictate a peace to Germany alongside which Versailles will look charitable. And German capital for its part would dump the entire burden on the workers. In this desperate situation the German proletariat does have an ally; but it will not be able to win it over unless it finally starts fighting for its own interests and fights for them until victory . The emergence of workers’ power and the establishment of a government of soviets, whose first task would be to expropriate big capital and wealthy landed interests without compensation, is the only solution to the growing barbarism of decaying capitalism . The pioneering struggle of the German working class will set the tone for the proletarian revolution across Europe. The revolutionary drive of the German revolution will everywhere overcome the chauvinist and counter-revolutionary influence of the Stalinist clique, first of all in Russia itself. It was the defeats of the German working class in 1923 which had dealt the last blow to the morale of the Russian proletariat and shored up the rule of the bureaucracy. The German and European workers’ struggle for the victory of socialism will give the Russian working masses the courage and strength to overthrow the bureaucracy with a fresh revolution, re-establishing soviet democracy and, in collaboration with the more advanced workers’ states, climbing out of their miserable situation. The union of soviet socialist republics of Europe and the Soviet Union, with its hundreds of millions of collective farms and its carefully planned industry, will be an impregnable communist bastion, a base from which communism will be able to spread across the world . The Nazi press, totally submitted to the régime’s gag, makes great play of mass strikes in Britain and in America. The German workers will not conclude from this—as the propaganda machine oh-so suddenly favourable to strikes would like them to—that the plans of their so-called enemies are bad ones, but rather that they are good. That is because they now see that Britain and America does not just mean Churchill and Roosevelt, the City and Wall Street, but also the striking workers in Yorkshire and Minnesota. Which of them emerges strongest depends on the actions of the German proletariat in the coming revolutionary period. In the struggle to lead the revolution to victory the construction of a revolutionary party is indispensable. The Fourth International was established before the dissolution of the Third International, and indeed in a long and unforgiving struggle against it. Its internationalist communist parties fight, whether openly in democratic countries or covertly in fascist countries and occupied territory, for the unity of the revolutionary proletariat. The struggle for the construction of a new internationalist communist party in Germany has also begun. Arbeiter und Soldat is one of the means of this struggle. 1st May 1944 must mark a turn in the fate of the German working class! It must start the development of the class front! Our gun barrels and bayonet points must be turned against the real enemy, capital and its agents in our country. In this vein, we must build secret four-comrade cells in every workplace and in every army unit! These should bring together the most active militants gifted with the strongest class consciousness. They must follow the latest political developments with the greatest diligence. Everywhere where workers act to resist the apparatus of repression, action groups must go straight to the site of struggle. They must also prepare for the establishment of soviets when the capitalist war front collapses. That day every unit and every factory must elect a soviet which will be the main organ of struggle as well as the basis for workers’ power! For a long time the German working class was at the heart of the world proletarian movement. After the defeat of the revolution it lost this central role. But it shall again be at the centre of struggle in the coming period. The eyes of the class-conscious workers of the world are fixed on Germany . Weakness and indecision for a long time kept the German working class in poverty and ignorance, but its confidence in its own strength and its courage driven to the limit will make it the vanguard of the world working class and the whole of humanity. Workers in overalls and in uniform! On 1st May there will be strikes in the occupied territories and perhaps also working-class demonstrations. The Nazi clique wants to use you as their executioners. Sabotage these actions! Refuse to do this dirty work! Every blow struck against a European worker is a blow struck against the German revolution! Fraternise with the workers in struggle! Their fight is your fight! On 1st May take up the old slogan of joint action: workers of all countries, unite! GERMAN TRAIN DRIVERS SHOW THE WAY! A train full of SS returning from Russia derailed. Terrorism, or an accident? That hardly mattered to the SS officer. He needed revenge, so put the French train drivers in charge up against the wall, sent troops to arrest all the men who could be found in the village, and had them shot. What did a few human lives matter to this professional killer, accustomed to mass graves of workers? But he had not counted on the fact that despite five years of war the German workers haven’t lost their good sense and still have some idea of solidarity. The German train drivers helped many Frenchmen to escape, thus saving their lives. When an inquest later found that the accident was not caused by sabotage but rather the poor condition of rolling stock, revolt took hold of the French and German train drivers. They declared a one hour strike to protest against the murder of innocent workers. The trains stopped for an hour on this line, with the German train crews supporting the French workers and their protest strike. With their courageous action the German train drivers showed that workers do not feel national hatred and that their sense of solidarity knows no national boundaries. When all the workers come to realise this and when they have the courage to act on their convictions, the officers can always shout “fire!”, but the workers, whether or not they are in uniform, will link arms and march together against the common enemy. THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL ON THE MARCH! There has already been a great deal of talk about the news of strikes in Britain, which are said to have broken out against the will of the union bureaucrats and on the instigation of ‘dubious’ elements. Indeed the minister Bevin, that worthy member of the Second International, has called these shadowy figures by their real name: the Trotskyists, our comrades on the other side of the Channel. At the same time the police were ordered to make the necessary arrests. Poor Interior Minister! Trying to wipe the coming revolution and the growing revolutionary party off the map with arrests sounds like trying to conjure up a tidal wave with a child’s rattle. The British workers are on strike today because they cannot bear their poverty, the other side of the coin of the capitalists’ billions in profits. It is easy to understand why the union bureaucrats are opposed to this. The same goes for the British Stalinist party. The Stalinist bureaucracy has for a long time been selling out workers across the world in the interests of its ally, Anglo-American capital. Only the Trotskyists, the British section of the Fourth International, have taken sides with the British workers’ struggle. They must make the British workers aware that their struggle is a rehearsal of the coming revolution, which they must prepare for by uniting their ranks. The Voelkische Beobachter makes fun of Mr Bevin. It has no right to. It has still not “observed” that the Trotskyists are playing an active role in workers’ struggles in countries occupied by the German Gestapo. It believes that police tyranny and Gestapo terror will succeed in crushing forever the class struggle in Germany and preventing the creation of a revolutionary party. These illusions will not last for long. THE FINANCE MINISTER’S SPEECH The German Finance Minister spoke on the radio on 9th April on the question of funding the war. He is called Schwerin-Krosigk, and is a count. Such types were saved by the Republic ruled by Noske and Scheidemann, those butchers of workers, and now occupy lucrative public offices, for example the Ministry of Finance. But let him speak for himself: “In the last world war the Secretary of State Helfferich had to fight against a divided Parliament afraid to take the responsibility of raising desperately needed taxes”. Thank you, Mr Minister! At the time the taxpayer’s voice could make itself heard—alas, all too weakly!—in a divided Parliament. But now we have the Gestapo, so... shut it! We now know what tasks, among others, the Nazi state has been set by big capital. Look at what followed: “Until now we were able to cover around 50% of total war costs through taxation”. So 50% remains not supplied by taxes: he must therefore have made recourse to the tried and tested means of credit. This is indeed the case. But how did he get credit? Let’s listen!: "Unlike in the First World War we have not made a public call for war bonds: we obtained most of the necessary credit from banks and financial institutions (read—savings banks!). We think this to be the means of financing the war with most discretion. It relies in its greatest part on the savings made by the German people.” So, the money the worker takes to the savings bank is taken by compulsion by the state in exchange for a “treasury bond” with no value (a bond on a treasury with no money). The state hands the money over to the armaments factory owners so that they can do their great work. All of this has a wonderful name: ‘the discreet financing of the war’. But the German worker calls it stealing, and he is right. Pickpockets work ‘discreetly’ too! But wait! When the war is over, surely everything will be reimbursed, mark for mark and pfennig for pfennig? Indeed: “The German saver who does not today spend his money on unnecessary items but takes it to the savings bank is not only helping the war effort but is also acting in the best-advised manner.” Thus following in the vein of the usual promises of paradise the Nazis make... to be fulfilled once they have won the final victory. The count tells us: have faith in the Nazi state and you can become its creditor! And don’t worry about that inflation, I already have the solution worked out in my ministerial head. Let us listen closely to the idea he has worked out up there. This is what will really make you laugh: “The Reich’s debts are at root a debt the German people owes itself. Consequently, it can and will be paid off at the end of the war, with part of it made up for by raising taxes on newly flourishing private incomes and the other part consolidated in the long term”. Listen carefully! The money you saved makes you your own creditor. My debts are your debts, jests this ingenious Finance Minister. In order that the state can pay you back its debt it will have to bleed it out of you after the end of the war. Since the birth of capitalism taxes on private incomes have always hit the poor guy hardest. So: this gentleman has taken something off you but in order to pay it back to you he will have to take it off you again. The rest of the debt will be ‘consolidated’, which means: the payment will be dragged out forever. Along with His Excellency we have had a brief glimpse of the paradise the Nazi clique and its capitalist backers are diligently preparing for us for after the war. This is reassuring, as we can see that capital will not win out after this final victory. But what does our dear Finance Minister see? Would he like to draw up, as the Berlin stock exchange papers suggest, fresh tax hikes for the distinguished public? Have they not had enough already with an increase of 30% or more? Or would he like to entice the workers with a new ‘savings supplement’? If so he is kidding himself. The workers will not swallow his April Fools, even on the 9th! He should have economised on his wind and used it to cool the burning hot revolutionary soup which the German proletariat will soon serve up for him, his colleagues and his capitalist masters. THE ENEMY IS IN OUR OWN COUNTRY! (Karl Liebknecht) Main Arbeiter Und Soldat Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 3 August 2008. This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Trotskism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above. | left | main fi index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive work translate david broder reprint permission alliance worker liberty website way forward revolution day significance german worker spd leadership treachery world war leave german work class disarm talk revolution smother state emergency liberating act karl liebknecht organise demonstration potsdamer platz support thousand worker berlin remind worker particularly german worker war war transform proletarian revolution enemy country course liebknecht throw jail capitalist state machinery repression liberatory idea get revolution come kiel sailor uprising put end war germany cover network worker soldier soviet bourgeois order shake core german capital action hold power importantly help socialdemocrat bureaucracy soviet dissolve transform shadow self factory council place peace freedom bread german worker give ballot paper inflation reichswehr following period celebration germany reformist treachery confidence thousand worker young communist party german section international task win majority work class goal socialist revolution lead power course international centre gravity russia worker take power leadership lenin trotsky bolshevik party russian worker peasant victorious revolution leave isolate failure german revolution addition economic backwardness country situation inevitably lead bureaucratisation worker state bolshevik party sclerosis heart international german cp strong cp outside russia transform wing stalinist bureaucracy connection work masse clear interest domestic policy centre moscow declare ivory tower high new revolutionary period begin far case justify line stage sort revolutionary demonstration purpose choose worker berlin region germany call build barricade police chief zoergiebel socialdemocrat seize excellent opportunity send troop isolated communist worker despite put heroic resistance crush result senseless adventure demoralise activist leave socialdemocrat worker indignant appal bureaucrat learn bloody defeat supporter error communist party increase number disorient theory socialfascism policy split union tactic united front revolutionary proletariat lead defeat defeat decisive victory nazi party fight nazi national holiday time social democrat leader union bureaucrat show crapulence attempt curry favour new master judas call member participate nazi rally totally keep method nazi day celebration use slogan german socialism dignity work common interest come individual interest mask shameful exploitation absolute control place shovel hand german worker dig lie grave meaning production tank bomb warship war preparation capitalist state breathe life economy war come period see series victory attribute germany weapon advance exactly victim second world imperialist war claim german worker lead abattoir corner europe family home pulverise bomb war lose advance give americans technical superiority field year german british american capital like worker world indebted russian worker despite enormous burden represent parasitic rule bureaucracy repulse capitalist aggression worker state save great conquest october revolution plan economy rebuild class today great people europe german jackboot course event home abroad final reckoning imminent arrive day mean happen nazi clique capitalist backer ready fight german worker like work class bring end reign terror war achieve peace revolution kind peace revolution old party particular stalinist party enter scene hope brake revolution soon possible form socalled liberation committee moscow mainly compose capture nazi general main task set committee suffocate revolution like instal bourgeois government save capitalist system succeed angloamerican capital russian bureaucracy dictate peace germany alongside versaille look charitable german capital dump entire burden worker desperate situation german proletariat ally able win finally start fight interest fight victory emergence worker power establishment government soviet task expropriate big capital wealthy land interest compensation solution grow barbarism decay capitalism pioneer struggle german work class set tone proletarian revolution europe revolutionary drive german revolution overcome chauvinist counterrevolutionary influence stalinist clique russia defeat german work class deal blow morale russian proletariat shore rule bureaucracy german european worker struggle victory socialism russian work masse courage strength overthrow bureaucracy fresh revolution reestablish soviet democracy collaboration advanced worker state climb miserable situation union soviet socialist republic europe soviet union hundred million collective farm carefully plan industry impregnable communist bastion base communism able spread world nazi press totally submit rã gime gag make great play mass strike britain america german worker conclude propaganda machine ohso suddenly favourable strike like plan socalled enemy bad one good britain america mean churchill roosevelt city wall street strike worker yorkshire minnesota emerge strong depend action german proletariat come revolutionary period struggle lead revolution victory construction revolutionary party indispensable fourth international establish dissolution international long unforgiving struggle internationalist communist party fight openly democratic country covertly fascist country occupy territory unity revolutionary proletariat struggle construction new internationalist communist party germany begin arbeiter und soldat mean struggle mark turn fate german work class start development class gun barrel bayonet point turn real enemy capital agent country vein build secret fourcomrade cell workplace army unit bring active militant gift strong class consciousness follow late political development great diligence worker act resist apparatus repression action group straight site struggle prepare establishment soviet capitalist war collapse day unit factory elect soviet main organ struggle basis worker power long time german work class heart world proletarian movement defeat revolution lose central role shall centre struggle come period eye classconscious worker world fix germany weakness indecision long time keep german work class poverty ignorance confidence strength courage drive limit vanguard world work class humanity worker overall uniform strike occupy territory workingclass demonstration nazi clique want use executioner sabotage action refuse dirty work blow strike european worker blow strike german revolution fraternise worker struggle fight fight old slogan joint action worker country unite german train driver way train ss return russia derail terrorism accident hardly matter ss officer need revenge french train driver charge wall send troop arrest man find village shoot human life matter professional killer accustom mass grave worker count fact despite year war german worker lose good sense idea solidarity german train driver help frenchman escape save life inquest later find accident cause sabotage poor condition rolling stock revolt take hold french german train driver declare hour strike protest murder innocent worker train stop hour line german train crew support french worker protest strike courageous action german train driver show worker feel national hatred sense solidarity know national boundary worker come realise courage act conviction officer shout fire worker uniform link arm march common enemy fourth international march great deal talk news strike britain say break union bureaucrat instigation dubious element minister bevin worthy member second international call shadowy figure real trotskyist comrade channel time police order necessary arrest poor interior minister try wipe come revolution grow revolutionary party map arrest sound like try conjure tidal wave child rattle british worker strike today bear poverty coin capitalist billion profit easy understand union bureaucrat oppose go british stalinist party stalinist bureaucracy long time sell worker world interest ally angloamerican capital trotskyist british section fourth international take side british worker struggle british worker aware struggle rehearsal come revolution prepare unite rank voelkische beobachter make fun mr bevin right observe trotskyist play active role worker struggle country occupy german gestapo believe police tyranny gestapo terror succeed crush forever class struggle germany prevent creation revolutionary party illusion long finance minister speech german finance minister speak radio april question fund war call schwerinkrosigk count type save republic rule noske scheidemann butcher worker occupy lucrative public office example ministry finance let speak world war secretary state helfferich fight divided parliament afraid responsibility raise desperately need taxis thank mr minister time taxpayer voice heard alas weakly divided parliament gestapo shut know task nazi state set big capital look follow able cover total war cost taxation remains supply taxis recourse tried test mean credit case credit let listen unlike world war public war bond obtain necessary credit bank financial institution read saving bank think mean finance war discretion rely great saving german people money worker take saving bank take compulsion state exchange treasury bond value bond treasury money state hand money armament factory owner great work wonderful discreet financing war german worker call steal right pickpocket work discreetly wait war surely reimburse mark mark pfennig pfennig german saver today spend money unnecessary item take saving bank help war effort act bestadvised manner follow vein usual promise paradise nazi fulfil win final victory count tell faith nazi state creditor worry inflation solution work ministerial head let listen closely idea work laugh reich debt root debt german people owe consequently pay end war raise taxis newly flourish private income consolidate long term listen carefully money save make creditor debt debt jest ingenious finance minister order state pay debt bleed end war birth capitalism taxis private income hit poor guy hard gentleman take order pay rest debt consolidate mean payment drag forever excellency brief glimpse paradise nazi clique capitalist backer diligently prepare war reassure capital win final victory dear finance minister like draw berlin stock exchange paper suggest fresh tax hike distinguished public increase like entice worker new saving supplement kid worker swallow april fool economise wind cool burn hot revolutionary soup german proletariat soon serve colleague capitalist master enemy country karl liebknecht main arbeiter und soldat index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update august work public domain creative common common deed freely copy distribute display work derivative commercial work credit encyclopedia trotskism online source include url work note transcriber editor proofreader | 76 |
CHRISTIAN PARENTI IS the author of Soft Cage: Surveillance in America from Slavery to the War on Terror (Basic Books) and the earlier Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis. He is currently reporting from Iraq for The Nation. Suzi Weissman, an editor of Against the Current, interviewed him on her program Beneath the Surface on radio station KPFK (Pacifica in Los Angeles), November 10, 2003. Many thanks to Walter Tanner for the transcript, which is abridged for publication here. Suzi Weissman: I just wanted to start out by telling the listeners, this book is about as contemporary as it gets. One of the best quotes, I thought, was on the back from Mike Davis who said: “The bad news is that a surveillance society of Orwellian menace is already here. The good news is that Christian Parenti has written a brilliant field guide to understanding and subverting it. “This is not a book in the bio-terror genre, whose purpose is to induce fear, but to understand how fearmongering is being used to keep us down ...” You go all the way back to public executions, looking at the function of instilling fear in a population and then going into the beginning of policing and ID cards. What made you want to do that, and how was that important in understanding the topic? Christian Parenti: Partly I just wanted to trace back one of the basic technologies of routine, everyday surveillance, because the book is about routine, everyday surveillance, not special police investigations – which, of course, depend on an infrastructure of identification and registration and record keeping even to function. So, I sort-of traced the origins of the ID card that everyone carries; and the first people to carry something like an ID card were slaves, who had to carry written passes every time they traveled. When they escaped there were wanted posters put out for them. These posters had what you might call basic biometric information: descriptions of the fugitive. Then, of course, there was also resistance – slaves were constantly rebelling and escaping, and in their resistance they were using the technologies that were applied against them. In other words, they were learning to read and write, and they were forging passes and documents that were intended to control them – but in the forgeries, the slaves used these documents and this information technology to subvert the system and to resist the system. Long story short, where does surveillance come from? It comes from the same place that all social control comes from, which is elite power and the challenge to it. I think sometimes there is this misperception that elites who dominate this or any society just invent this stuff because they want and like to have levels of control. But that’s not how it really works – elites are constantly being pressured from below and from the crises that their systems create. There is this dialectic of resistance and social control. Under capitalism, the crisis of the constant threat of overproduction and economic collapse, and of constant rebellion either formally or informally, is pressuring elites in both the government and the private sector to innovate ways of better intimidating, controlling and confusing people. S.W.: In every chapter of this book you show the method and then how the method itself led to the means to subvert the method. But the other part is to show again (you did this in your last book too) how class conscious the ruling group in this society is, much more so than the workers and everybody else in society. So they’re always looking for potential disorder and finding ways to control it. They are always two or more steps ahead. As I was reading your book I kept thinking about how sometimes people who consider themselves progressive make the facile statement that this is merely a fascist society. I have argued that fascism wasn’t really necessary here because the system had the consent of most people. Mike Davis used to argue, in a way, that the level of surveillance even made fascism unnecessary. C.P.: I think that consent and surveillance are very intimately connected. And I would agree with you that I don’t think it’s useful to call America a fascist country, primarily because there’s this question of demobilization. Fascism is a right-wing imitation of socialist social movements, and it’s based on mass mobilization, and a false theory of revolution. This system is based on mass demobilization, and it is very, very different; it may be politically orthodox, and have very violent, awful, racist elements to it, but it confuses things to call it fascist. But anyway, how does surveillance create dissent? I think one of the main ways it does that is by getting us to police ourselves to the point where we don’t even realize we’re policing ourselves. Also, the implication in accepting each new technology of surveillance is that the rules and laws of the society which are bolstered by surveillance are (made to seem) totally legitimate and infallible, and of course they are not. That’s what reading history is all about: One realizes how many laws have been in fact totally immoral, and thus hopefully we can see our current regime of laws and also workplace and school rules as absolutely always needing to be challenged, and questioned, and interrogated. A culture of total obedience, produced by a culture of near-total surveillance, would be an absolute disaster for traditions of disobedience, protest and social progress in the United States. S.W.: You start with the slaves and the revolt that was inherent in the system of slavery, but also in your book you point to areas where immigrants were used to divide the workforce, because the ruling class knew they could divide by creating an anti-immigrant hysteria. And you talk about the shameful role of the early labor movement in that too, with regard to the Chinese immigrant workers C.P.: By the time modern ideas we know, the photograph, some kind of biometric identification and identification numbers were in full effect, you have its first application at a nationwide level by the federal government against the Chinese. They’re the first people who had to submit to a really draconian surveillance regime of carrying ID’s and being interrogated. From 1882 to 1943 the Chinese were not allowed to enter the United States, with a few exceptions, but in fact what happened was a huge circumvention of this set of laws, and this was called the paper son’s industry. It was a trans-pacific, underground trade in false identities that involved breaking into government files, stealing dossiers, translating them into Chinese, switching photographs, and getting people back-and-forth across the Pacific from California to China. S.W.: So was this the beginning of forged documents and fake ID’s? C.P.: Well, it wasn’t the very beginning of forged documents because that always existed; but it was another instance of this kind of hacking, essentially, of breaking into the ruling class’s information technology and rewriting the code politically and resisting. S.W.: So you see fraud as organized resistance? C.P.: Well, it is ... I try not to romanticize it, I’m not saying that all criminal endeavor is really, underneath it all, rebellion; it’s not that simple at all. There was a lot in the paper son’s industry that was very exploitative and just criminal, and a lot of innocent people, a lot of innocent Chinese migrants, were hurt in this. There was also an element that was resistance, organized resistance. In the paper son’s industry, you had an interesting link between fraud and organized political resistance. There was a boycott in 1904 of U.S. goods in China, which prevented the government from instituting fingerprinting. They were going to start fingerprinting the Chinese, which would have really made the whole process of forging these documents much more difficult. It was through organizing on both sides of the Pacific that they finally intimidated Teddy Roosevelt himself into agreeing to drop that aspect of the identification regime against the Chinese. There was also a mass refusal to register in the late 1890s, so there was an interesting mix of the overtly political and, shall we say, inherently political but also problematically criminal. S.W.: But there’s also always been this kind of libertarian streak in the United States, including this hallowed right to privacy that people either imagine or want to enforce, and a resistance to having ID cards at all, or fingerprinting. Have they overcome that now because of 9-11? C.P.: It’s a good question. It almost seems like certain elements in this privacy debate take on a theatrical angle, and I think this national ID is one of those. A lot of members of the political class who don’t do anything for protecting privacy, speak out about the idea of a national ID card. Well, why is it that people are ready to get up on their hind legs about that? Partly because there already is a de facto national ID card, it doesn’t seem like it would be a real big breakthrough. In fact, the use of the social security number and the driver’s license number creates a national ID number. Interestingly, the social security number’s use in this fashion was legislated de facto by the private sector in the early 1960s after decades and decades of trying to create a national ID, efforts led by Hoover and the banking industry, which had been constantly defeated. S.W.: And I think you mention in the book, too, that the labor movement was frightened about a national ID. They liked the Social Security Act but they felt that the social security number would give the government a way to track labor organizers and militants and then do something about them. C.P.: Exactly. They had that fear because one of the earliest uses of photography and fingerprinting was to facilitate blacklisting. So what happened was that the banking industry just said, very publicly: Look, no one gets services unless they give us their social security number. And of course we are all free to not have bank accounts and to not participate — S.W.: We just can’t function, though, without them — C.P.: We’re politically free but materially bound. S.W.: In one of the themes of your book, you start out with this horrendous description of the public execution, which makes your blood crawl. Then you talk about torture in different ways, but I think the implication is that surveillance gets rid of the need for torture. Is that right? C.P.: Yes. That’s really a discussion of Foucault that I open with – a short, hopefully lucid discussion – because his ideas are very useful in understanding how surveillance works. Basically, it’s about getting us to police ourselves. He discusses this shift, in his book Discipline and Punish, from public execution which was about terrorizing the body, to this new regime of control that was about imprisoning people, observing them, and subjecting them to subtle forms of discipline that look more humane but are actually just more effective because what they do is they get the errants to control themselves and transform themselves. S.W.: Which is much more useful because as you say, even in those horrible public executions it carried the risk that the people watching them would advance onto the platform and save or kill the person being tortured, whichever was more humane at the moment. C.P.: The crowd was essential in the power mechanisms of public execution and they didn’t always play by the rules, they would rewrite the script and hijack the show. S.W.: As you know, I’m a student of the Soviet Union and the Stalin era which really perfected surveillance. The method of social control was to enmesh the average citizen in a series of documents that followed him everywhere and to keep that person standing in lines and going from one bureaucracy to another, and never to know exactly which file was following him where. He had to have it at work and at home, and for movement in and out of the cities, and even though it may not have originally been intended as a method of social control, that’s how it functioned. And I’m always amazed when I’m looking at what we’re doing. Since the end of the Cold War, we seem to be just making a switch with the Soviet Union. We’re adopting some of their worst bureaucratic excesses, and the difference between our bureaucracy and theirs is that ours is rigid and theirs was malleable – you could always find your way around it. But you can’t here. C.P.: And ours is increasingly computerized and therefore more effective. But there is still noise and there are blind spots – the problem of junk-in, junk-out. The more and more information that these systems take in, the greater and greater risk that they miss the information they really need. They miss the needle in the haystack. But what you’re describing is endemic to nation-states and modern jurisprudence at a certain level. I have a Kafka quote from The Trial which describes exactly this thing about the file that’s out there, tracking you somehow. It can drop away, you can think that you are free of it and then someone will take up the dossier again and you’re suddenly held accountable to these real or imagined deeds in the past. Another thing about our bureaucracy here is that a lot of it takes place in the private sector. What I focus on primarily is not government programs, but the way in which cheap computing has created an infrastructure of surveillance almost by mistake or by default. So when you use your credit card, you’re creating records of where you are in time and space, of what you’re doing. All those records are easily stored for a very long time, can be bought and sold, and are in fact bought and sold and aggregated and disaggregated in all sorts of ways. Increasingly, that’s where the government gets its information. It’s not from spies and special cameras, but by buying information on the open market. S.W.: With that, let’s move into the present and the fear and what’s probably going to be selling your book the most, which is this ubiquitous spying that is fragmented, as you say, and commercialized as you just mentioned. A lot of people go along with it because they think the bar codes really are just going to track the bargains that they want and/or alert them to these bargains. With online shopping, a lot of people are very worried about cookies, and you go into all of this, the bar codes, the magnetic, what do you call it, the magnetic strips? So talk about some of the methods today that give this overall picture of how we are being watched all the time. C.P.: The crucial thing, I think, is that so much of participating in this decentralized, digital form of routine surveillance is so convenient. That’s the main reason we do it. So we trade our privacy for convenience, and don’t often know where all these records end up. But what you have are firms like Axion, which keep records on 200 million Americans. Essentially what Axion does is try to buy all the information it can that’s linked to your driver’s license number, your social security number, your address. And it’s constantly in as real-time as possible, updating this information to then sell – to detective agencies which subscribe to these databases for really big money; to the federal government; to marketers that might not want to know so much about you, Suzi Weissman, but about college professors who buy lots of books, what else do they buy, how can we market to them. S.W.: Is it innocent like that? Is it just commercial or are they also selling their list back-and-forth, forming a total picture for someone to use? C.P.: It’s definitely the input for state projects of surveillance. The fantasy which was embodied in the Total Information Awareness system, this idea that Poindexter wanted, was to essentially get access to all this fragmented kinds of information in real time. That was shot down – but restructured along racist lines, so it’s now the Terrorist Information Awareness system which is only going to focus on people who weren’t born in the United States, primarily people of color and from south Asia and from the Arab world. But you have subtler – let’s not say subtler, but smaller – versions of this in the private sector. There are systems out there, one company and software called Rentsafe that keeps tabs on tenants and creates profiles of tenants that landlords can – I hesitate to say this over the air, lest landlords start doing this, but many landlords already blacklist. I have an example from Seattle of a tenant organizer who was blacklisted. You have the government program CAPS, too, “computer assisted passenger screening” for airlines that feeds off not government investigations so much as all of this informational detritus from routine commerce. S.W.: And you talk about even the EasyPass tolls, that in fact, again, is a convenience for people who are commuting. But? C.P.: But you pay for that convenience by handing over records of your comings and goings to any number of authorities. The problem is that, going back to the airline screening, this stuff gets used in highly political ways. We already have examples of peace activists being kept off of airplanes, not because the people at the gate are prejudiced against them, but because a computer has labeled them as dangerous, and they’ve been labeled as dangerous because they are political dissidents. That’s the way this kind of information can get used. You can read radical books, give money to radical radio stations on your credit card; this gets known, you fit a profile – not that people should not give money to radical radio stations ... S.W. (laughing): Right, right ... like this one. C.P.: But we need to be very, very aware of the fact that the government is not always beneficent, employers are not always beneficent, that there are such things as police criminality and politicization of government bureaucracy. Political dissidents will and are going to be targeted by this stuff. That needs to be made unacceptable. S.W.: You titled your book The Soft Cage. Just what is the soft cage? C.P.: I use it as a metaphor for the kind of control exercised by routine surveillance. It’s not the hard cage of imprisonment and policing and being jacked up against the wall or thrown in a cell, but it’s all a type of social control that feels very soft because you’re free. For example with the social security number, you’re free not to have a bank account, except that you actually have to, and so it feels comfortable but you are nonetheless enmeshed in helping to build a system of accountability and social control and intimidation. S.W.: Is the United States the most advanced at watching its citizens? I think you mentioned that there are features in Great Britain that are even worse. C.P.: I’m not really clear on the exact ranking of all industrialized countries, but in the United Kingdom. They definitely have as much of this as we do. In Europe you find a different attitude towards a lot of this surveillance, because it’s linked to some real benefits from the social welfare states, so the view of the state is as a helpful institution. And there are, in fact, real benefits that come to European citizens in exchange for some of this information. But I think all industrialized countries are moving in the same direction. S.W.: Well, I know you use a lot in discussing health care and health care delivery and sharing of information about health, but there is the underside of that as well because the state gets to know more about you. But I was thinking as I was reading about the ubiquitous cameras everywhere that are sold, as you said in your book, for your protection. So, you know, God forbid you might be accused of stealing, the camera can tell; but I was thinking as well, when you go through a red light now there’s a picture taken, I mean you can’t really fight the ticket, and the ticket’s really expensive. Some neighborhoods even wanted to use surveillance cameras to stop this so-called home invasion, and residents said well maybe that’s a bit much, to watch all of our comings and goings. C.P.: That’s good ... and the thing I argue in this book is not that this or that instance of surveillance is so problematic, but the whole picture is very problematic because this is a political society, as witnessed by the grocery strike going on right now. The nature of politics is that both sides play unfair. We’re all grown-ups here, we can talk about this: Workers who are not paid enough money by their employers steal from their employers to survive. Strikers, when they can, when things get rough, sometimes sabotage the equipment of their employer. Union activists won’t say this, and they often don’t want it to happen, but it happens. And employers do the same to workers and to union members, and so if there’s total transparency at the workplace and in society, what happens is that the powerful parties get a tremendous advantage over everyone else. Right? Landlords play dirty, tenants play dirty, and we don’t want all the power to go to the landlords so that they can blacklist us for organizing rent strikes and whatever else might go along with tenant activism. S.W.: You also mention the new Taylorism at work. Can you explain a little bit about how surveillance at work is used? C.P.: In two ways. Primarily it’s to create a culture of minute accountability where every worker constantly feels not productive enough and therefore works harder and harder. It’s also used to rout out individual workers who are leading struggles. In terms of the first form of surveillance, one example is on meat processing lines, this system of green light, yellow light, red light. The workers who are gutting chickens or whatever can put on the yellow light if they feel the line is going a little too fast, and they hit the red light if it needs to stop because there’s a problem, and they hit the green light if everything is going fine. So what happens? What do managers do when they’re looking at a line of these, do they want everyone on green? No, they want everyone on yellow, they want everybody basically working right to the point where they’re almost about to hit the red light and shut the line down because the line is moving too fast. That’s an example of how surveillance, making the work process transparent to managers, leads to a culture of intensified work to the point of injury, quite frequently, in meat processing. Then you have examples of union activists who are held accountable to technical violations of the rules that can be seen because of computers, but the real issue is that they are, in fact, union organizers – but it’s illegal, I would remind people, to fire someone for union activity. S.W.: Yet you point out that, I think like 25 or 50,000, I can’t remember the exact figure – are fired. C.P.: Fifty thousand is what the AFL-CIO says. How exactly they know that is another question, but that’s the number they give, and I think it’s credible. S.W.: Did the Patriot Act and its inducement of fear change the picture or just enhance it? C.P.: It didn’t change things technologically, but it radically lowered the thresholds, the efforts that the federal government has to go through to get access to all this information that’s out there. Previously investigators would have to show some sort of probable cause to get at some of these records, like your driving records from EasyPass. Now, under the Patriot Act, they can get essentially what are administrative warrants. They don’t have to prove anything to a judge, they automatically get the warrant and they automatically get access to this information. This applies to telephone records, to tapping the internet, also to searching people’s homes and not telling them, and all of the traditional methods of investigation. S.W.: What’s the resistance involved here and are we seeing it? C.P.: I think we’re beginning to see it. I think the resistance is not to accept surveillance as kitsch and funny, and to problematize it and demand that there be firewalls created around these types of information. It’s not that we don’t want these records – we do want health records, we want educational records – we just don’t want them bought and sold and used against us. ATC 109, March–April 2004 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | christian parenti author soft cage surveillance america slavery war terror basic book early lockdown america police prison age crisis currently report iraq nation suzi weissman editor current interview program beneath surface radio station kpfk pacifica los angeles november thank walter tanner transcript abridge publication suzi weissman want start tell listener book contemporary get good quote think mike davis say bad news surveillance society orwellian menace good news christian parenti write brilliant field guide understanding subvert book bioterror genre purpose induce fear understand fearmongere way public execution look function instill fear population go beginning police d card want important understand topic christian parenti partly want trace basic technology routine everyday surveillance book routine everyday surveillance special police investigation course depend infrastructure identification registration record keeping function sortof trace origin d card carry people carry like d card slave carry write pass time travel escape want poster poster basic biometric information description fugitive course resistance slave constantly rebel escape resistance technology apply word learn read write forge pass document intend control forgery slave document information technology subvert system resist system long story short surveillance come come place social control come elite power challenge think misperception elite dominate society invent stuff want like level control work elite constantly pressure crisis system create dialectic resistance social control capitalism crisis constant threat overproduction economic collapse constant rebellion formally informally pressure elite government private sector innovate way well intimidate control confusing people sw chapter book method method lead mean subvert method book class conscious rule group society worker everybody society look potential disorder find way control step ahead read book keep think people consider progressive facile statement merely fascist society argue fascism necessary system consent people mike davis argue way level surveillance fascism unnecessary cp think consent surveillance intimately connect agree think useful america fascist country primarily question demobilization fascism rightwe imitation socialist social movement base mass mobilization false theory revolution system base mass demobilization different politically orthodox violent awful racist element confuse thing fascist surveillance create dissent think main way get police point realize police implication accept new technology surveillance rule law society bolster surveillance totally legitimate infallible course read history realize law fact totally immoral hopefully current regime law workplace school rule absolutely need challenge question interrogate culture total obedience produce culture neartotal surveillance absolute disaster tradition disobedience protest social progress united states sw start slave revolt inherent system slavery book point area immigrant divide workforce rule class know divide create antiimmigrant hysteria talk shameful role early labor movement regard chinese immigrant worker cp time modern idea know photograph kind biometric identification identification number effect application nationwide level federal government chinese people submit draconian surveillance regime carry d interrogate chinese allow enter united states exception fact happen huge circumvention set law call paper son industry transpacific underground trade false identity involve break government file steal dossier translate chinese switch photograph get people backandforth pacific california china sw beginning forge document fake d cp beginning forge document exist instance kind hack essentially break rule class information technology rewrite code politically resist sw fraud organized resistance cp try romanticize say criminal endeavor underneath rebellion simple lot paper son industry exploitative criminal lot innocent people lot innocent chinese migrant hurt element resistance organize resistance paper son industry interesting link fraud organize political resistance boycott good china prevent government institute fingerprinting go start fingerprint chinese process forge document difficult organize side pacific finally intimidate teddy roosevelt agree drop aspect identification regime chinese mass refusal register late interesting mix overtly political shall inherently political problematically criminal sw kind libertarian streak united states include hallowed right privacy people imagine want enforce resistance have d card fingerprinting overcome cp good question like certain element privacy debate theatrical angle think national d lot member political class protect privacy speak idea national d card people ready hind leg partly de facto national d card like real big breakthrough fact use social security number driver license number create national d number interestingly social security number use fashion legislate de facto private sector early decade decade try create national d effort lead hoover banking industry constantly defeat sw think mention book labor movement frightened national d like social security act feel social security number government way track labor organizer militant cp exactly fear early use photography fingerprinting facilitate blacklist happen banking industry say publicly look get service social security number course free bank account participate sw function cp politically free materially bind sw theme book start horrendous description public execution make blood crawl talk torture different way think implication surveillance get rid need torture right cp yes discussion foucault open short hopefully lucid discussion idea useful understand surveillance work basically get police discuss shift book discipline punish public execution terrorize body new regime control imprison people observe subject subtle form discipline look humane actually effective errant control transform sw useful horrible public execution carry risk people watch advance platform save kill person torture whichever humane moment cp crowd essential power mechanism public execution play rule rewrite script hijack sw know student soviet union stalin era perfect surveillance method social control enmesh average citizen series document follow person stand line go bureaucracy know exactly file follow work home movement city originally intend method social control function amazed look end cold war make switch soviet union adopt bad bureaucratic excess difference bureaucracy theirs rigid theirs malleable find way cp increasingly computerized effective noise blind spot problem junkin junkout information system great great risk miss information need miss needle haystack describe endemic nationstate modern jurisprudence certain level kafka quote trial describe exactly thing file track drop away think free dossier suddenly hold accountable real imagine deed past thing bureaucracy lot take place private sector focus primarily government program way cheap computing create infrastructure surveillance mistake default use credit card create record time space record easily store long time buy sell fact buy sell aggregate disaggregate sort way increasingly government get information spy special camera buy information open market sw let present fear probably go sell book ubiquitous spying fragment commercialize mention lot people think bar code go track bargain want andor alert bargain online shopping lot people worried cookie bar code magnetic magnetic strip talk method today overall picture watch time cp crucial thing think participate decentralized digital form routine surveillance convenient main reason trade privacy convenience know record end firm like axion record million americans essentially axion try buy information link driver license number social security number address constantly realtime possible update information sell detective agency subscribe database big money federal government marketer want know suzi weissman college professor buy lot book buy market sw innocent like commercial sell list backandforth form total picture use cp definitely input state project surveillance fantasy embody total information awareness system idea poindexter want essentially access fragmented kind information real time shoot restructure racist line terrorist information awareness system go focus people bear united states primarily people color south asia arab world subtler let subtler small version private sector system company software call rentsafe keep tab tenant create profile tenant landlord hesitate air lest landlord start landlord blacklist example seattle tenant organizer blacklist government program cap computer assist passenger screening airline feed government investigation informational detritus routine commerce sw talk easypass toll fact convenience people commute cp pay convenience hand record coming going number authority problem go airline screen stuff get highly political way example peace activist keep airplane people gate prejudice computer label dangerous label dangerous political dissident way kind information read radical book money radical radio station credit card get know fit profile people money radical radio station sw laugh right right like cp need aware fact government beneficent employer beneficent thing police criminality politicization government bureaucracy political dissident go target stuff need unacceptable sw title book soft cage soft cage cp use metaphor kind control exercise routine surveillance hard cage imprisonment policing jack wall throw cell type social control feel soft free example social security number free bank account actually feel comfortable nonetheless enmesh help build system accountability social control intimidation sw united states advanced watch citizen think mention feature great britain bad cp clear exact ranking industrialize country united kingdom definitely europe find different attitude lot surveillance link real benefit social welfare state view state helpful institution fact real benefit come european citizen exchange information think industrialize country move direction sw know use lot discuss health care health care delivery sharing information health underside state get know think read ubiquitous camera sell say book protection know god forbid accuse steal camera tell think red light picture take mean fight ticket ticket expensive neighborhood want use surveillance camera stop socalled home invasion resident say maybe bit watch coming going cp good thing argue book instance surveillance problematic picture problematic political society witness grocery strike go right nature politic side play unfair grownup talk worker pay money employer steal employer survive striker thing rough sabotage equipment employer union activist will want happen happen employer worker union member total transparency workplace society happen powerful party tremendous advantage right landlord play dirty tenant play dirty want power landlord blacklist organize rent strike tenant activism sw mention new taylorism work explain little bit surveillance work cp way primarily create culture minute accountability worker constantly feel productive work hard hard rout individual worker lead struggle term form surveillance example meat processing line system green light yellow light red light worker gutte chicken yellow light feel line go little fast hit red light need stop problem hit green light go fine happen manager look line want green want yellow want everybody basically work right point hit red light shut line line move fast example surveillance make work process transparent manager lead culture intensify work point injury frequently meat processing example union activist hold accountable technical violation rule see computer real issue fact union organizer illegal remind people fire union activity sw point think like remember exact figure fire cp thousand aflcio say exactly know question number think credible sw patriot act inducement fear change picture enhance cp change thing technologically radically lower threshold effort federal government access information previously investigator sort probable cause record like drive record easypass patriot act essentially administrative warrant prove judge automatically warrant automatically access information apply telephone record tap internet search people home tell traditional method investigation sw resistance involve see cp think begin think resistance accept surveillance kitsch funny problematize demand firewall create type information want record want health record want educational record want buy sell atc march april current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 77 |
J. V. Stalin Source : Works, Vol. 3, March - October, 1917 Publisher : Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954 Transcription/Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, 2008 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2008). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. The elections to the Petrograd City Duma take place today. The outcome will depend on you, comrade workers, and on you, comrade soldiers. The elections are universal and equal. The vote of every soldier, of every working man and every working woman will be equal to the vote of any capitalist, houseowner, professor or government official. You, and you alone, comrades, will be to blame if you do not make full use of this right. You were capable of battling against the tsarist police in the streets—be capable now of battling for your interests by voting for our Party! You were capable of defending your rights against the counter-revolutionaries—be capable now of denying them your confidence in today's elections! You were capable of tearing the mask from the betrayers of the revolution—be capable now of crying to them: "Hands off!" You have before you, first of all, Milyukov's party, the Party of Popular Freedom. That party champions the interests of the landlords and capitalists. It is opposed to the workers, peasants and soldiers, for it is against workers' control of industry, against the transfer of the landed estates to the peasants, and in favour of the death penalty for soldiers at the front. It was that party, the Cadet Party, that already in the beginning of June demanded an immediate offensive at the front, which has cost the country hundreds of thousands of lives. It was that party, the Cadet Party, that worked for and at last achieved a triumph for the counter-revolution and the wreaking of reprisals on the workers, soldiers and sailors. To vote for Milyukov's party would be to betray yourselves, your wives and children, and your brothers in the rear and at the front. Comrades, not a single vote for the Party of Popular Freedom! You have before you, next, the defencists, the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary parties. These parties champion the interests of the well-to-do small proprietors of town and country. That is why every time the class struggle assumes a decisive character they are to be found in the same camp as the landlords and capitalists against the workers, peasants and soldiers. So it was in the July days, when the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary parties, in alliance with the bourgeoisie, disarmed and struck at the workers and soldiers. So it was at the time of the Moscow Conference, when these parties, in alliance with the bourgeoisie, endorsed repressive measures and the death penalty against the workers and the soldiers at the front. One of the reasons for the victory of the counter-revolutionaries is that the Socialist-Revolutionary and Men-shevik parties helped them to curb the revolution by concluding an agreement with the landlords and capitalists. One of the reasons why the counter-revolutionaries are now consolidating their positions is that the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties are shielding them from the wrath of the people and, under the guise of revolution, are carrying out their commands. To vote for these parties would be to vote for an alliance with the counter-revolutionaries against the workers and the poor peasants. To vote for these parties would be to vote in favour of endorsing the arrests in the rear and the death penalty at the front. Comrades, not a single vote for the defencists, the Men-sheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries! You have before you, lastly, the Novaya Zhizn group, List No. 12. This group expresses the sentiments of the intellectuals whose heads are in the clouds and who are divorced from realities and the movement. That is why it is eternally wavering between revolution and counter-revolution, between war and peace, between the workers and the capitalists, between the landlords and the peasants. On the one hand it is for the workers, on the other it does not want to break with the capitalists—and that is why it so shamefully repudiates the July demonstration of the workers and soldiers. On the one hand it is for the peasants, on the other it declines to break with the landlords—and that is why it is opposed to the immediate transfer of the landed estates to the peasants and suggests waiting for the Constituent Assembly, the convocation of which has been postponed, perhaps forever. In words, the Novaya Zhizn group is for peace; in deeds, it is against peace, for it calls for support of the "Liberty Loan," which is intended for the purpose of continuing the imperialist war. But whoever supports the "Liberty Loan" helps to prolong the war, helps imperialism, and in fact fights internationalism. In words, the Novaya Zhizn group is against repressions and jailings; in deeds, it is in favour of repressions and jailings, for it has entered into an alliance with the defencists, who support both repressions and jailings. But whoever enters into an alliance with the defenc-ists helps the counter-revolution, and in fact fights the revolution! Comrades, learn to judge people by their deeds, not by their words! Learn to appraise parties and groups by their actions, not by their promises! If the Novaya Zhizn group proposes a fight for peace and at the same time appeals for support of the "Liberty Loan," then you can be certain that it is bringing grist to the mill of the imperialists. If the Novaya Zhizn group sometimes flirts with the Bolsheviks and at the same time supports the defencists, then you can be certain that it is bringing grist to the mill of the counter-revolutionaries. To vote for this double-faced group, to vote for List No. 12, would be to enter the service of the defencists, who in their turn are serving the counter-revolutionaries. Comrades, not a single vote for the Novaya Zhizn group! Our Party is the party of the urban and rural workers, the party of the poor peasants, the party of the oppressed and exploited. All the bourgeois parties, all the bourgeois newspapers, all the vacillating, lukewarm groups detest and vituperate our Party. Why? Because : Our Party is the only one that stands for a revolutionary struggle against the landlords and capitalists; Our Party is the only one that stands for the immediate transfer of the landed estates to the Peasant Committees; Our Party is the only one that stands for workers' control of industry in opposition to all the capitalists; Our Party is the only one that stands for a democratic organization of commodity exchange between town and country in opposition to the profiteers and marauders; Our Party is the only one that stands for the complete liquidation of counter-revolution in the rear and at the front; Our Party is the only one that staunchly protects the revolutionary organizations of the workers, peasants and soldiers; Our Party is the only one that wages a resolute and revolutionary fight for peace and brotherhood among nations; Our Party is the only one that fights determinedly and steadfastly for the conquest of power by the workers and poor peasants; Our Party, and our Party alone, is free from the stigma of having supported the death penalty at the front. That is why the bourgeois and landlords detest our Party so heartily. That is why you must vote today for our Party. Workers, soldiers, working women, Vote for Our Party, for List No. 6 ! Proletary, No. 7, August 20, 1917 Collected Works Index | Volume 3 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive Marxists Internet Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol march october publisher foreign language publish house moscow transcriptionmarkup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source election petrograd city duma place today outcome depend comrade worker comrade soldier election universal equal vote soldier work man work woman equal vote capitalist houseowner professor government official comrade blame use right capable battle tsarist police street capable battle interest vote party capable defend right counterrevolutionary capable deny confidence today election capable tear mask betrayer revolution capable cry hand milyukovs party party popular freedom party champion interest landlord capitalist oppose worker peasant soldier worker control industry transfer land estate peasant favour death penalty soldier party cadet party beginning june demand immediate offensive cost country hundred thousand life party cadet party work achieve triumph counterrevolution wreaking reprisal worker soldier sailor vote milyukovs party betray wife child brother rear comrade single vote party popular freedom defencist menshevik socialistrevolutionary party party champion interest welltodo small proprietor town country time class struggle assume decisive character find camp landlord capitalist worker peasant soldier july day menshevik socialistrevolutionary party alliance bourgeoisie disarm strike worker soldier time moscow conference party alliance bourgeoisie endorse repressive measure death penalty worker soldier reason victory counterrevolutionary socialistrevolutionary menshevik party help curb revolution conclude agreement landlord capitalist reason counterrevolutionary consolidate position socialistrevolutionary menshevik party shield wrath people guise revolution carry command vote party vote alliance counterrevolutionary worker poor peasant vote party vote favour endorse arrest rear death penalty comrade single vote defencist menshevik socialistrevolutionarie lastly novaya zhizn group list group express sentiment intellectual head cloud divorce reality movement eternally waver revolution counterrevolution war peace worker capitalist landlord peasant hand worker want break capitalist shamefully repudiate july demonstration worker soldier hand peasant decline break landlord oppose immediate transfer land estate peasant suggest wait constituent assembly convocation postpone forever word novaya zhizn group peace deed peace call support liberty loan intend purpose continue imperialist war support liberty loan help prolong war help imperialism fact fight internationalism word novaya zhizn group repression jailing deed favour repression jailing enter alliance defencist support repression jailing enter alliance defencist help counterrevolution fact fight revolution comrade learn judge people deed word learn appraise party group action promise novaya zhizn group propose fight peace time appeal support liberty loan certain bring grist mill imperialist novaya zhizn group flirt bolsheviks time support defencist certain bring grist mill counterrevolutionary vote doublefaced group vote list enter service defencist turn serve counterrevolutionary comrade single vote novaya zhizn group party party urban rural worker party poor peasant party oppress exploit bourgeois party bourgeois newspaper vacillate lukewarm group detest vituperate party party stand revolutionary struggle landlord capitalist party stand immediate transfer land estate peasant committee party stand worker control industry opposition capitalist party stand democratic organization commodity exchange town country opposition profiteer marauder party stand complete liquidation counterrevolution rear party staunchly protect revolutionary organization worker peasant soldier party wage resolute revolutionary fight peace brotherhood nation party fight determinedly steadfastly conquest power worker poor peasant party party free stigma having support death penalty bourgeois landlords detest party heartily vote today party worker soldier work woman vote party list proletary august collect work index volume index work decade j v stalin archive marxist internet archive | 78 |
~. """",,","'--NUMBER 125 25 CENTS .:~;; X-523 MARCH 1985 010 e , nGle ami William F. Gentile Nicaraguans mobilize against Yankee threat-Defend, complete, extend the Nicaraguan revolution! Defend Nicaragua Crush the Contras! With his re-election out of the way, Reagan is eager to get "shake, rattle and rolling" on his anti-Soviet war drive through Central America. Step One is pushing through his war budget. starv ing the ghettos to bankroll $300 billion for the Pentagon. Step Two is smashing the Nicaraguan revolution. The Rea ganites have launched a campaign to convince Congress-which has regular ly dispatched hundreds of millions to the bloody Salvadoran butchers-of the "moral and practical necessity" of approving $14 million in frozen "covert" funding to the "contras," the murder ous Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries. "We've got two options," explained David Durenberger, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on I ntelli gencc. "We can do it openly or do it covertly. The only difference is that when we do it covertly, we lie a lot" (Nell' York Tillles, 2 February). And lie they wilL since, administration aides explain, "open" aid to the contras would be "close to a declaration of war" and could lead to a break in diplomatic relations that would cost the U.S. "an important intelligence platform," its Managua embassy (Nell' York Tillles, 25 February). Even by standards of imperialist hypocrisy, the Reagan team is piling it high and deep. According to George Shultz, the Reagan administration is worried that Nicaragua is falling behind the "Iron Curtain," Intervention may be in the works to prevent "consigning Nicaragua to the endless darkness of Communist tyranny." Reagan boasts his intention to "remove" the Sandinista regime, yet Bush denounces "Sandinista militarism and corruption" as "para noid." Reagan proclaimed the leprous contras "our brothers" and "the moral equal of our Founding Fathers and the brave men and women of the French Resistance." These CIA mercenaries and sadistic somocista torturers and killers certainly are R!~agan's brothers, but if he had wanted an accurate historical comparison he should have used Hitler's murderous henchmen. The Sandinistas have tricd to appease Reagan with an offcr to declare a moratorium on weapons purchases and to expel 100 Cuban military advisers. But Reagan means business and is determined to strangle the Nicaraguan revolution until the Sandinistas "say uncle." He has marked Central America as the front line in his war against Communism, against Cuba and the Soviet Union. N ow more than ever the Nicaraguans need the firepower to defend themselves and rout the contra scum. And a political fight must be waged against the Sandinistas' concilia tion to the imperialists. It's because the Sandinistas ha\'en't destroyed the capi talist "t:ifth column" inside the country, because the Kremlin hasn't extended military protection to Nicaragua that today the Sandinista government is tops on Reagan's hit list. Defend, Complete and Extend I.he Nicaraguan Revolution! Kill the Invaders! Reagan's "brothers," the contras, are typical of lJ .S. imperialism's "democrat ic revolutionary" allies, from the feudal ist reactionaries in Afghanistan to the remnants of the genocidal Pol Pot forces the Vietnamese are mopping up in Cambodia. The contra "freedom fighters" are mostly either mercenary trash who will fight anywhere the price is right and the cause is anti Communist, or ex-members of Somo za's National Guard. They are psycho pathic sadists who thrive on rape and mutilation, torture and murder. Just as there's no honor among thieves, there's not much unity among such killer filth and that's one of Reagan's problems. The CIA recently strong-armed them into a "coalition" to make them look more like a respectable political opposi tion, but as "EI Traidor" Eden Pastora put. it. they are nonetheless the CIA's "dobermans'~-unsavory, unstable mad dogs. Responsible for the deaths of nearly X,OOD civilians since 19X I, the contras continued on !JaKe 1 () ===~-==~~Lessonsof the Class Struggle, T919·1933~==-========== GerlDany:Revolutioll anciCounterrevolution see page 6 ----------------------------------------------------.r 2 YOUNG SPARTACUS EDITORIAL NOTE Guardian: The Ready-for-Teddy Club In our last issue we slammed the rad lih Guardian for its slimy cop-haiting of the Black Consciousness Azanian Peo ple's Organisation (AZAPO) which protested Teddy Kennedy during his reccnt visit to South Africa (see "U.S. Rad-Lihs Lie for Kennedy as Black South African Militants Protest Imperi alist Swine," YSp No. 124). AZAPO's just denunciation of Kennedy as a hypocritical impcrialist politician and its statcd intention to give Dcmocratic Party hustler Jcsse Jackson the same treatment discomfited not only the "Iihcral" capitalists hut the fake-lefts who tail them. After the AZAPO protests, which struck a chord of militant scntiment among black South Africans, most of the American refor mists found silence expedient or just fawncd over Teddy's new-found resolve to "fight apartheid." But the Guardian couldn't take this affront to Teddy lying down and proceeded to bare its yellow teeth in a "Big Lie" story which suggested that AZAPO was in an alliance with the apartheid regime and bantustan chief Buthelezi. We're pleased to report that some Guardian readers found this too much to swallow. We have as many differ ences with the Third Worldist Revolu tion in Africa Action Committee (RAAC) on program and strategy as we do with AZAPO, but the RAAC makes some sound points in its letter (Guardian, 13 February). The AZAPO protcsts, RAAC notes: ..... are a welcome relief to imperi alism's movements in Africa. Their placards and chants were on target about Sen. Edward Kennedy .... Obvi ously the racist South Africans and AZAPO memhers did not ohject to Kennedv lor the same reasons. 'Would \ ou sa~'· that the left has a political alliance with Posse Comitatus or right wing survivalists'! Both hate the FBI. but that doesn't mean a political alliance exists." The letter concludes with the pertinent l(ucstion: "Is the Guardian endorsing South African militants tell Kennedy where to go; Guardian covers for its Teddy with slanders against AZAPO. Kennedy for 19S5T' We wouldn't he surprised; it supported Mondate in 19S4. Another letter (Guardian, 6 March) points out that the African National Congress (ANC), whose support for Kennedy's visit the Guardian echoes, had talks with Buthelezi itself several years ago. The letter justly -condemns the Guardian's attack on AZAPO as "outrageous and flagrantly unethicaL" As to the Guardian's contention that AZAPO's anti-Kennedy protests discredited it among black South Africans--the opposite seems to be the case. According to the London Guardi an (22 February)-no relation to the rad-lib rag-black consciousness' "re emergence as a potentially powerful force owes much to the recent visit to South Africa of. .. Kennedy." Said a "prominent member" of the United Democratic Front. the ANC-backed popular frontist formation which host ed Kennedy, "Most of us are now wishing that he had never come" (Los Angeles Times, 16 January). So far the Guardian hasn't had the political forthrightness to answer the letters, nor our article. But we surmise that their printing these critical letters indicates they've received a decent amount of flak. The Guardian has printed, in lieu of an open response, a lawyer's letter for their shameful, cop baiting coverage by James Cason and Mike Fleshman of the (defunct) main stream rad-lib Southern Aji"ica maga zine. To RAAC's complaint that "News is news-but the Guardian wrote an editorial" they reply: "The Guardian wasn't editorializing about AZAPO\ politics, it was describing a widely held view among black South Africans that AZAPO\ decision to picket Kennedy , .. played into the hands of the racists." ,What disingenuous garbage! Cason and Fleshman alibi the Guardian's slander and Kennedy's junket to boot. inform ing us that the "intention of the invitation ... was to use Kennedy to heighten the emerging split within the imperialist camp on what to do about the South African revolution." Very SYL at Howard University.; Racist INS Thugs Off Campus! When the Spartaclls Youth League at Howard Unil'ersity discovered that the racist Iml11igration and Naturalization Sen'icc (INS) lI'as setting up a recruiting tahle in the studefll center, the comrades refused to let this pro\'ocation go IInatl.lll·ered. We are pleased to print the Ica/let distrihuted the day the INS came to Howard. which has OIW 2.000 j()rcign slUciellls and was the scenc of' last OClOher's outrageous INS arrest of' j()rlner Grenadian amhassador Dessima Williallls. O\'er 900 copies of'the lea/let were distrihuted. During the course of' our agitation agaifl.l't the INS, two nell' subscrihers joined the readership of' Young Spartacus. Howard students, beware: Reagan's hated Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) cops have slunk into Blackburn Center today setting up a "J ustice" Department recruiting table for their murderous Mexican border patrol! These are the same thugs who, as part of Reagan's sick anniversary "celebration" of the U.S. rape of black Grenada, invaded campus last October 25, seized and manhandled former Grenadian ambassador Dessima Wil liams outside Cramton Auditorium and are now threatening her with deporta-tion. These are the same racist cops who are working hand-in-hand with the bloody apartheid rulers of South Africa to deport Howard graduate student Twiggs Xiphu, leader of the U.S. branch of the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania, repeatedly denying him political asylum. This is an outrage! Racist INS thugs off campus! Every year millions of desperate, half starved Central American refugees make their pcrilous journey across the U.S.-Mexico border, braving the noto riously corrupt, sadistic INS border patrol to live in hellish "barrios" and slave away at minimum and sub minimum pay in the sweatshops, restau rants and factories, deprived of the most elementary democratic rights. When these so-called "illegal aliens" are no longer needed by the bosses, the INS launches Gestapo-style raids, rounding up tens of thousands of Latin workers each year for deportation. The Yankee imperialists, both Democrat and RepUblican, scream about hordes of brown-skinned "feet people" supposedly overrunning the U.S: southern border, which was seized through bloody expansionist wars last century. Not only does this provide a convenient scapegoat for the endemic unemployment of the capitalists' sick economy. It's also a great way to whip up racist, chauvinist hysteria behind the anti-Soviet war drive as Reagan steps up efforts to overthrow the Sandinistas and crush the left-wing insurgency in EI Salvador. That's why anti-communist Polish emigres get the red-carpet treat ment while Coast Guard ships ram boats full of Haitian refugees and thousands of Salvadorans are sent back each year to face possible imprison ment, torture and even death at the hands of U.S.-backed butchers, U.S. get your bloody hands off Central America! No deportations! Full citizenship rights for foreign workers and students! On November 27, 19S2 the race terrorist Ku Klux Klan threatened to, march through Washington, D.C. to demand the deportation offoreign-born workers. The Spartacist League and Spartacus Youth League(SYL) showed how to stop these fascist goons when we initiated a 5,OOO-strong demonstration of predominantly black workers and youth, backed by seventy trade unions and union leaders, and took over the KKK's planned parade route. I n the interests of revolutionary international ism we fight for organizing the millions of immigrant workers into trade unions c1cver. After somc soothing phrascs about their respect for AZAPO (this aftcr repcating the Guardian's lie about "a strange alliance with thc government of South Africa"!) thc "lawyers" ad monish the RAAC to "stop trying to imposc leadership on thc South African struggle and support all revolutionary forces"-likc Kennedy'? This is the talk of guilty liberals and unserious Third World cheerleaders. It's also an apt bloc with the Guardian, whose guiding principle has long been strident anti l.eninism and hostility to the construc tion of anl' revolutionary Icadership (which after all might disrupt the Guardian's cozy armchair enthusing for "struggle"-as long as it is far away and their smug, petty-bourgeois "radi cal" role as hOl11l11es de pIIlI11C). The Cape Action l.cague, which joined in AZAPO\ anti-Kennedy pro tests, touched the heart of the issue (London Guardian, 22 February): '''Imperialists throughout the so-called FITe World arc becoming worried that the working class will make good their demand lor a socialist South Africa where there will be no exploitation and oppression.' CAL did not want liberal ised capitalism. mere ci\ iI rights. or American-stvle democrae\,: 'We want real change':" . We suggest the Guardian embark on an in-depth self-criticism session, prefera bly one that lasts several years, and start "learning from the people." While they're at it. they can ponder their re volting capitulation to a very un"lib eral" bourgeois politician-Reagan when it took them a yeartoacknowledge (and only after the Natioll had printed the story) that KAL 007 was a U.S. Cold War spy provocation against Russia. For our part, we will continue to fight for international labor action against apartheid and for the building of a revolutionary Marxist (i.e., Trotskyist) party in South Africa to en~ure that the black proletariat realizes its demand for socialist revolution .• Time Haitian refugees locked up in'INS concentration camps. on both sides of the border. How dare the Klan's INS buddies come to Howard to recruit to their racist border patrols! The main enemy is at home: U.S. imperialism! Join the SYL and fight for a future under socialism, where national oppression will be a thing of the past and no one will be known as an "illegal alien," just com rade. Workers of the world, unite! Spartacus Youth League 7 March 19S5 .. .... ~ M~RCH'19'85 .' 3 Social Democrats on the Red Avengers --- Rl'printl'd from "XlIndrll. th(' R('d A nngl'r" R~ I)('nni, King, New America, .Jan.-h'b. 19115 (In the spirit of Saturday Night Live rather than Joe McCarthy, this new' column will report on the antics of the ultraleft fringe of American politics. Readers are invited to send in clippings from the newspapers of the various self proclaimed vanguards. Or send an account of your own experiences of harassment.) Remember the Spartacists? That redoubtable Trotskyist splinter group which, in the 1960s, with an estimated membership of 50, went forth to do battle against the evil empire of the Wohlforthites (est. membership 12)? Remember the dreary polemics of the "Sparts" and the "Woo lies" as they accused each other of Pabloism, hooli ganism and crypio-Stalinism? Well, a curious thing has happened to the Sparts during the 1980s. They are as obnoxious ;wd disruptive and self important as ever-witness their at tempt last year to prevent Eden Pastora from speaking at Columbia Universi ty-yet someone extremely intelligent has insinuated himself/herself into the Sparts' structure and is using their off the-wall ideology, consciously or not, to . conduct a subtly satiric running com mentary. I recall recent articles in the Spart newspaper-the so-called Work ers Vanguard-hailing .Iohn and Chris tine DeLorean as virtual martyrs of the people's struggle and urging Vanessa Williams to strike back against the imperialist Miss Amerika committee. Both articles, although wacky, scored some valid points. Someone in the Sparts even displays a deliberate sense of humor. For instance, there is the Sparts' reaction to the latest savage blow from the Class Enemy. On November 16, the student government at San Francisco State University passed a resolution censuring the campus Young Spartacist League (SYL) for "belligerently and violently disrupting the meetings and functions of other campus organizations." The resolution also stripped the Sparts of access to student activities funds and recommended that their charter be revoked. One of the incidents that triggered the wrath of the usually tolerant student government was the Spart's alleged disruption of a forum at the campus Women's Center, which had resulted in intervention by the campus cops. In a Nov. 20 article, Workers Van guard announced: "Young communists arc being hunted down, chased, beaten and arrested for distributing Marxist literature. No, this is not Chile or South Africa, but the supposedly liberal 'marketplace of ideas,' San Francisco State University .... " Of course, even the Sparts don't really compare the situa tion with South Africa. Instead, it's the "beansprou~ totalitarianism" of the "me generation. " In "willful mockery," the campus Sparts announced the launching of "undergroundism beansprout style." They became the "Red Avengers of the Underground SYL," promising "ap propriate tactics like communiques and guerrilla theater." The S Y L began to wear bandannas over their faces, Groucho Marx noses, and tee-shirts with the slogans "Go Underground with Xandra the Red Avenger!" Alas, underneath the fun and satire, the Sparts retain their totalitarian mentality. The Red Avengers de nounced the officials of the Women's Center as "rabid doberman pinschers of An Answer to the female persuasion crawling between the toes of the FBI" and vowed to "hold up for scorn the strutting little junior grade book-burners who arc replicating in the confines of their campus sandbox the panoply of sinister forces whose intent is to set up and destroy revolu tionary Marxists with lies and cops." At last word, the Red Avengers had announced a rally at the campus plaIa "for military defense of Nicaragua against Yankee imperialism." "We will be soliciting funds," the announcement said, "for the Nicara guan government to purchase the most advanced anti-aircraft missiles from the Soviet Union, especially the Soviet equivalent of the Stinger." According to Workers Vanguard, the funds would be used "for SA M-7s so Nicaraguan soldiers and Salvadoran leftist guerrillas can shoot down Yankee planes ... " The Sparts took note that other radical groups consider this a "provoca tion," but retorted: "What docs this make Daniel Ortega, who's trying like hell to buy every SAM that he can get his hands on'!" I n its own way, the retort tS irrefutable. Xandra the mysterious satirist strikes again. Views from Fortress Amerikkka Young Spartacus Comments In the movie Sleeper, Woody Allen awakes to another century; he asks how World War III started and someone says that all he knows is that someone named Albert Shanker got the bomb. When Shanker's "CIA socialist" outfit Social Democrats, USA-ran an article in their publication Nell' America (jan. Feb.) on the struggle of the Red Avengers of the Underground SYL, we were a bit surprised. After all, Nell' America is hardly a wacky, mad-cap outrageous sort of paper and yet, from the standpoint of these rabidly anti Communist social democrats, the cover age of Xandra's Underground at San Francisco State University was virtually laudatory. Dennis King introduces the column as being "in the spirit of Saturday Night Live rather than Joe McCarthy" and while most groups claiming even vague adherence to some brand of socialism would not feel compelled to disavow McCa~thf~ Young Sparlacus Young Spartacus (lSSN 0162-2692) is the newspaper of the Spartacus Youth League. The Spartacus Youth League, youth section of the Spartacist League, is a SOCIalist youth organization which intervenes In social struggles armed with a workmg-class program, based on the politics of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky. Editorial Board: Bonme Brodie (editor), Dorie Reed, Alison Spencer Production manager: Dorie Reed Circulation manager: Irene Gardner Nine Issues yearly; published monthly except December/January and JuneiJuly/ August, by the Spartacus Youth Publishing Co" 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: 732- 7867 (Editorial, Business). Address all corre spondence to: Box 3118, Church Street Station, , New York, NY 10008. Domestic subscriptions: $2.00 per year. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Young Spartacus, Box 3118, Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008. Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial VIewpOInt. No. 125 March 1985 spirit-in SOUSA's case, it's called for. Remember, SOUSA originated as the far right wing of a three-way split in American social democracy after Nix on's 1972 landslide election. While Michael Harrington's group (now Dem ocratic Socialists of America) wanted to Red Avengers say "sit on it" to San Francisco State University "ban" of campus Marxists. refurbish the "liberal" wing of the battered Democratic Party, Shanker & Co. took the hard Meanyite line (then AFL-CIO chief Meany supported Nix on). Even after Nixon gave up Vietnam as a lost imperialist cause, SDUSA was an unashamedly pro-war hawk. Today, Shanker joins fellow labor bureaucrat Lane Kirkland on the right-wing"Com mittee on thtl Present Danger." i.e., he's for nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union. For the Shankerites, if you don't have Jeane Kirkpatrick's line on Cen tral America, you're coddling "red totalitarianism. " SDUSA won the title "CIA socialists" the old-fashioned way-they earned it. When King refers to the public appear ance of Nicaraguan turncoat Eden Pastora at Columbia University, it should be understood that this event took place under SDUSA's auspices (we are proud to have protested along with other leftists against this blood drenched counterrevolutionary, but modestly refuse credit for shouting him down). And when other social demo crats contented themselves with flowery accolades to Lech Walesa and the CIA/ Vatican/Western bankers' "union" for capitalist rollback in Poland, Solidar nose, Shanker put his money where his mouth was. Shanker's United Federa-tion of Teachers (U FT) headq uarters was made horne base for Solidarnose in the U.S. and we are proud to have protested that prostitution of the U.S. labor movement as well. Indeed, our demonstration at U FT headquarters provoked the Wall Street journal (another lover of "freedom" in Poland) to print a threatening editorial against those who would cast aspersions on the pure motivations of the AFL-CIO; the Journal was particularly reactive to our and others' charges of the well-known collaboration between the CIA and AFL-CIO abroad. As we stated in our reply: "Simply put. the Wall SlrCCI .Ioumal's line is: CI;\" Sure, hut so what" Alhert Shanker. in his 'Where We Stand' column in the Octoher 4 [19X I] Sunday 'vCII' York Tilllc.I 'Weck in Review' section, takes the same tack. Shanker 4uotes Radio Moscow's charge that Shanker's union 'annuallv receives $100,000 from the CI;\ for iniernational contacts and activities.' 'Totallv false: says Shanker, wbo goes on to hoast of the money he gets from the ;\gency for Irtternat·:onal Development, fre4uently a conduit for CI;\ 'counterinsurgency' which bas financed operations from Guatemala to Thailand. For Shanker. there's nothing unholy about an alliance between tbe ;\merican lahor tops and the ;\merican government; it's a legiti mate anti-Communist united front stretching from the 1I FT office to Langley, Virginia and hlessed hy the Wall Slreel .Ioumal to hoot." -Worker.l I til/guard No, 290. 9 October 19XI For us, King's article is amusing and a damning indictment of the reformist "leftists" spearheading the witchhunt against us in San Francisco. It's proba bly in part due to a certain distance from the "progressive" Mondale-loving (you remember-Fritz Mondale, the Oemo crat'!) fake-left milieu that Nell' America is capable of seeing the humor in our mock underground tactics. Too, the conclusion of the article is obviously intended as a jibe at their larger opponents, like Harrington's DSA, who have not yet signed up for pro-contra PR duty. It has been rumored that other staid social dems (for instance, Socialist Action) have vicariously enjoyed our underground struggle against bean sprout totalitarianism, but in the main the reformists have reacted with horror and/or disapproving silence. The best example of this popular-front finger wagging at us for the "crime" of not laying down and dying, compounded by not being boring about it, is the so called "External Tendency" (a coterie of embittered white ex-members of the Spartacist League / Spartacus Youth League). To hear the ET tell it. the Red Avengers are politically incomprehen sible and represent our most extreme degeneration. They issued a ponderous warning to "those Spartacist comrades who still believe in the validity of Leninism that the 'Red Avengers' leaflet is something else. It is the road to .limstown." We replied: "Frankly we doubt the ET really believes that guerrilla theatre equals counterrevolu tion or even 'cultism,' it's iust that Xandra's Underground SYL 'docs not appear stodgy and sober and would not cOlltilllled Oil page 5 4 YOUNG SPARTACUS ~gnorance Never Did Anlbodl Any' Good" -Karl Marx Reagan Nukes Education "Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read .... These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumber ing, and called into existence an entirely new train of thouglit. ... I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty-to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man .... From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to free dom .... Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose. at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read." -Frederick Douglass, Narrative oj" the Lij"e oj" an American Slave Ignorance is always weakness. For that reason, one of the hallmarks of any struggle for social emancipation is the struggle of the oppressed against the internal, mental stripes left by the master's whip: the fight for knowledge and for access to the culture hoarded by the ruling class. The black slaves of the American South, the peasants of tsarist Russia, the veiled young women of Afghanistan-all these risked their lives to learn to read under conditions of extreme repression. Today in the United States, a bourgeois "democracy," one in every five Americans is functionally illiterate-according to the government. Educator Jonathan Komi puts the real figure at one in every three-16 percent of white, 44 percent of black and 56 percent of Hispanic adults are total, functional or marginal nonreaders. Indeed, the "land of opportunity" has succeeded in producing a generation of young "citizens" lacking the most clementary knowledge of history, cul ture and science. The inner-city schools are literally prisons patrolled by cops toting guns and metal detectors and the suhurban enclaves have "country cluh" schools that don't teach mueh either. The result, even taking into account the gross class and raee inequality. is roughly the same: ignorance is guaranteed. Ronald Reagan did not start the ealculated ahandonment of puhlic education. hut he's taking it further down the road with a \engeancc. The last half-serious effort to improvc edueation came aiter the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957- a wave of hysteria in the government produced, among other things. a con ccrted push to teach more math and science 111 the schools. Commitment to teaching the bulk of the popUlation started to decline when the American bourgeoisie realized that they were no longer the hegemonic power in the cap italist world. One could place the date in August 1971-when Nixon let the dol lar float free against gold (and continued to lose in a dirty colonial war against the Vietnamese people-a people, we will add, who wiped out adult illiteracy two years after they drove the U.S. imperial ists from their country). In a word, the people that rule this country just quit on education then. Under Reagan's administration, a full-scale mobilization is underway to dismantle what's left. Recalling the Organized by Nazi Goebbels, German students burn books by Freud, Zola, Proust, Upton Sinclair, among the 20,000 volumes destroyed. Will Moral Majorities repeat this scene to rid the schools of "secular humanism"? slogan of the Spanish fascists "Down With Intelligence, Long Live Death!" the budget ax is wielded, the Bible is to replace Darwin. the courts and cops are mobilized to keep "order" in the schools-holding pens for students stripped of elementary civil liberties. At a New Right conference held last November in that living testament to capitalist decay, Detroit, one Samuel L. Blumenfeld (author of NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education) put it bluntly: "Public education is a great experiment that has failed." Instead he advocated private academies, "Chris tian schools" and teaching children at home. Now, enter William Bennett, Rea gan's new education secretary. He's against education and made his debut by announcing that too many people go to college. It's right out of Orwell; what's next, Lieutenant Calley for human rights adviser'? Bennett has a nasty task. It has occurred to Reagan that he can't squeeze enough out of welfare mothers HErPAI\OTHhiH TOT· n (\EIHnl Ilf.lOA,Y WI lfi\YT HEYAA'IH it IIU'IUThJI' Bolshevik poster: "He who is illit erate is like a blind man. Failure and misfortune lie in wait for him on all sides." -Alexei Radakov, 1920 and kids' school lunches to pay for his insane "Star Wars" arms buildup, so he has to turn on the middle class as well as the desperately poor. The new budget submitted to Congress proposes to limit total federal aid to anyone student to $4,000 a year and to cut aid entirely to families with annual incomes over $32,500. Bennett's job is to justify and oversee these attacks on education. I n a statement which wins him the "Let Them Eat Cake" award for the month. he blithely declared that the cuts "may require from some students divestiture of certain sorts: stereo divestiture, automobile divestiture, three-weeks-at the-beach divestiture." In fact, the proposal is an outright denial of higher education to millions of U.S. youth: cxperts estimate that over 30 percent of students currently enrolled in college ~ill he affected. Bennett helied his own trivializing of the situation when he held up Great Britain and other European countries as some sort of model. This is particularly' insidious in the case of Britain-notorious for the extreme class bias of its school system. Students attending state-run schools are tracked from a very young age through the "II plus" examinations which keep all hut an infinitesimal percentage from getting into college. I n general, one is born and dies in the same rigidly enforced class divided "order" for which Britain monarchy and all-is famed. Perhaps dying empires have a procliv ity to emulate their predecessors. This country used to be notable for the relatively democratic nature of public education-largely a product of the Civil War and strpggles by an ethnically diverse working class for social reform. Reagan's proposal to slash college funding is an automatic rationing program designed to cut social expendi ture for higher education to the level capitalism needs. They are here thinking in market, not moral, categories. There are no Jobs for black and other minority youth, so why teach them anything'? Reagan doesn't need more physicists for "Star Wars"-so public education can continue to rot, producing a generation of ignoramuses. This is the solution of a moribund, reactionary ruling class to what it sees as the problem: it has to spend too much money to educate people it doesn't need. The Reaganites are mobilizing ideo logically as well: is the theory of the flat earth going to make a comehack, perhaps as a suhstitute for anti fluoridation? They are driving hard and not slowly to turn the clock back on one of the greatest scientific discoveries of human history-Charles Darwin's the ory of evolution. Congress has passed a law banning the teaching of "secular humanism" in schools receiving funds for desegregation. What's "secular humanism",? It's anything the Moral Majority and like-minded book-burners don't like: from "atheism to the United Nations, from sex education to the theory of evolution to the writings of Hemingway and Hawthorne" (.\'CII· Yorf.: Ti/l/('.\. 22 Fehruary). If Reagan & Co. want to revile Darwin. Frcud. Marx (naturally) and Einstein as "suhversive" then a lot of people in this country ought to he looking for the nearest suhversive. Comrade Leon Trotsky had the, following to say ahout the importance of Darwin, in remarks Trotsky made at SverdlO\ University In post revolutionary Soviet Russia. June 1923: ""I must sa\' that it was onl\ at Ihat , . moment. when considering th.: tail 01 the peacock from a theoretical perspec-ti\e in Darwin's interpretation. that I lelt that I should he an atheist. ... Sevcral months later. when I read Darwin's autohiography-all this is firmlv emheddecl in my memorv! where there is a phrase s'omething'like this: Although I. Darwin. have rejected the Hihle's theory of creation. I still preserve my hclidin God-I was deepl~' aflected. for Darwin's sake. not my own. And I still do not know whethe'r this was a conventional lie or a diplo- For Frederick Douglass, learning to read was a giant step in his road to liberation from slavery. matic trihute to the social opinions of the English hourgeoisie. the most hypocritical in the world: or \\as it reall\' that in the hrains of this old man-one 0\ the moq ingenious in the history of humanity-there remained little cells unallected hv Darwinism. where a religious faith was lodged during his childhood when he was studvinf! to hea priest" I decided not to rur~ue this psychological 4uestion. Comrades. Hut docs it matter"' Even i\ Charles Darwin. as he himself asserted. did not lose his helicl in God. Darwinism itself is nonetheless entirelv irreeoncilahle with this heliel. . ""In this, as in other respects. Darwinism is a forerunner 0\ Marxism. Taken in a hroadlv materialist and dialectical sense. 'Marxism is the application 0\ Darwinism to human society." Where would you rather go to school Sverdlov U. in 1923 or the puhlic equivalent of Bob Jones University where you learn the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" but never the history of the Protestant Reformation'? Schools are so bad now in this country that, according to the National Commission on Excellence in Educa tion, in a report issued in April 1983: "Business and military leaders complain that they arc re4uired to spend millions of dollars on cost Iv remedial education and training programs in such hasic skills as reading. writing. spelling and computation. The Department 0\ the Navy. lor example. reported to the Commission that one-4uarter of its recent recruits cannot read at the ninth grade \t:\ el. the minimum needed simply to understand \Hitten salety i nstruCl ions." Surveys testing the general knowledge Icvd of even college youth reveal the same story. In a statewidc college exam in 1'I<0rth Carolina last year. only 27 percent of the students knew the correct answer when they were asked to name the country drained hy the Ama/on R i\ er. Small wonder. Ihe priorities of the 'local gendarmes of capitalist rule were made clear hv New York Cit\ maYor , ., Koch when he announced that he'd rather huild more prisons than schoob. Koch has roughly the, rclation to the people of 'liew York City of a Zionist mayor to an Arah town-hut his stateincnt is hy no means uniljue. In Detroit. S2.670 is spent annually per student while Michigan spends S 1 ).000 -f -t. MARCH 1985 in that same time on each prison inmate. One needs a lot of prisons if proposing to throw an entire generation of poor and black youth onto the streets. Then there's always the army. The growth of private schools. espe-. cially fundamentalist Protestant ones. has soared in the period from 1970 to 19XO. It began with "white flight" from integration in the cities: now inner-city schools are increasingly black and the money is getting turned off. Thus the tuition tax credits. which historically were held to be in violation of the First Amendment guarantee of the separa tion of church and state (X5 percent of private schools are religious). Kozol writes that "Today. because most of those who can afford to have fled to the suburbs or removed their children from the public schools. we see an integrated underelass in Boston in the process of gestation. Poor whites. poor blacks and Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution transformed man's view of himself and nature. poor Hispanics now become illiterate together" (Nell' York Times Book Rel'iell'. J March). It should be obvious that there's a connection between the defeat of busing as a means to achieve integrated edu cation and the wholesale scratching of funds for public education. And here Fortress ... (colllillucdji'O/ll page J) find favor with the AFI.-CIO executive board" (Young Spanacl/.I No. 123. December 19X4/January 19X5). Now. bless our souls. the right-wing water boys of the AFL-CIO admit there's something humorous about the Red Avengers campaign. (H ow does it feel to be outdone in the humor department by those wild and crazy guys over at Nel\' America, ET!) However, our CIA socialist with a funny bone makes a revealing error. We do not refer here to the predictable counterposition he made between "the usually tolerant student government" and our allegedly "totalitarian mentali ty." It is standard fare for social dems to proclaim the "democracy" of the bour geois state (and itsjuniorconduits)even as young Marxists are beaten and hauled off to jail for distributing communist literature. But King tries to manufacture a discontinuity between a new-found sense of humor in our political work now and an ostensibly "dreary" political history. To make his case, King sneers at our polemics against the Wohlforthites. In fact, we had a sense of humor even then (in dealing with Tim Wohlforth. it was a useful attribute). First, let's de fine "Wohlforthite." The left opposition within the formerly Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (SWP) was principally lead by and composed of the leaders of the SWP's youth group-including Tim Wohlforth, Shane Mage and Jim Robertson. This opposition-the Revo lutionary Tendency-was split by Wohlforth right in the midst of the RT's fight against the rightward plunge of the SWP-a degeneration which finished the treacherous leadership of the labor movement bears no small responsibility. When the full-scale attacks on the minimal gains won during the civil rights movement came down. most \ioiently around busing. the labor movement had both the power and the immediate interest to mobilize a coun teroffensive. Those poor white Irish in South Boston who were mobili/ed by reactionary. racist demagogues not only deleated busing-they sealed the late for their own children. The Democrats and "Iiberab" who stood by while racist mobs rampaged against busing and who. of course. refused to extend integration to their own lily-white suburbs. killed busing in most cities. And as the cities further decay. it is the Democratic mayors who implement and enforce Reagan's "austerity" measures against the working class and minori ties. In the one city where desegregation efforts have not been defeated Norfolk . ., Virginia-the black trade unionists have been key. Historically. advances in education have been won through class struggle: universal education began in earnest after a fight was waged to protect children in industry. The child labor laws. a product of the struggles of the dawning union movement. freed chil d ren from the horrors of work ing in the mines and factories. enabling them to go to school. Today. the labor movement faces a capitalist assault on its very existence-from the smashing of PAT CO to union-busting attacks on the Pan Am workers. Teachers are being driven from the profession in droves: starting salaries for teachers in New York City are $14.500. Meanwhile. Reagan's proposed "merit pay" scheme is an attack on what's left of union protection. Only if the encrusted. do nothing bureaucrats who sit atop the unions are replaced with a militant. class-struggle leadership can a counter offensive be waged in defense of working-class people on all social fronts-including the right of their children to an education. Decaying capitalism wastes entire Norfolk, Virginia: Union contingent marches for busing, May 1983. generatio'ns throughout the world-and is doing it at home now. Education and knowledge is linked to social progress. the need to mobilize the entire gene pool of a society. Considerthe Scots nation, a small country, and the overwhelming contribution made by Scots in the fields of medicine. philosophy. engineering. Fundamentally, this is because the Scots .Presbyterians deeply believed that to understand the word of god all boys and girls should be taught to read and II'rile. So world culture benefited from a gleanillg of the b-est from a few million people. Contrast India (or the Newark ghetto)-how many Einsteins have died at the age of three due to malnutrition? Vietnam may be a poorer country than Haiti. but the people can read and there's no creationism crap in their classrooms. either. I ndeed. a basic education is provided for all in the Soviet Union. in Cuba. in Poland and in all the deformed and degenerated workers states where the profit system has been abolished. Literacy in these states is near 100 percent. The Red Army in Afghanistan is fighting against Muslim mullahs who routinely slaugh ter teachers for instructing women only 5 percent of Afghanistan was literate at the time of the Soviet intervention. As revolutionary Mtlrxists, we are profoundly committed to education and learning. The Bolsheviks understood, faced with vast backwardness in Russia. that as the "tribune of the people" a 5 revolutionary party must combat igno rance. I.enin's companion Krupskaya. for instance, was a teacher of newly urbanized young Russian pcasants when she first met Lenin. These young people thir~ted for knowledge: they had a purpose. They hated the landlords. the tsar, the bosses and wanted to be armcd with an understanding of the world in which they lived in order to change it. It is particularly crucial for those who would lead the workers and oppressed in a successful revolution to themselves have a basic understanding of history and human culture. We are faccd ourselves with the result of capitalism's retrograde educational system: massive ignoran<:e. particularly among the youth. To be effective. a revolutionary party must be a very conscious entity. com posed of informed cadre capable of understanding society and dedicated to liberating it from the chains of an irrational. dying ruling class. Will is not enough. As Trotsky concluded in his remarks on Darwin: "To comprehend the world from sllch a broad materialist point of \ iew signifies the emancipation of one's conscious ness for the first time from the legacy of mysticism. securing both ket firmly on the ground. It means knowing that for the future one has no inner subjective hindrances to the struggle. but that the only rc,istance and opposition is exter nal. and must be undermined in some cases. circumvented in others. smashed in still others-depending on the condi tions of the struggle.". y.Jorkers ~<:!:!guard Photo As we state in the preface to Marxisl Blillelin No.3, Part IV, "Conversations with Wohlforth," containing the unity negotiations minutes: "The negotiating sessions themselves have something of an abstract quality. To the Wohlforth ites they were just a game. as W ohl forth did not seriously intend to unify." Indeed. SOUSA now echoes the Wohl forthite charges that our insistence on political accountability and program matic clarity was just so much "book keeping" and "archaeology." Try this: at the time. the Wohlforthites were en tranced by the document of a certain Lyn Marcus-still then in the SWP who represented in their view a "con scious Trotskyist force." They an nounced that they were in "99 percent agreement" with him "on all questions." Comrade Robertson replied that "be fore long you will find out that the one percent is an extremely large one percent," and remarked of Marcus' ~, .h .... \ , : 'WARYHSKr: i;f, NOT NYC, 1981: Spartacists protest at Shanker'S headquarters, housing Solidarnosc, Polish company union for the CIA and Western bankers. the SWP off as a revolutionary organi zation. Wohlforth's split of a minority of RT comrades was actually engineered in Britain by one Gerry Healy. It had the effect of discrediting the opposition in its entirety as unserious among the SWP cadre. Then, in deliberate collusion with the SWP majority, Wohlforth & Co. helped frame up the RT leadership for expulsion. Not long thereafter. the Wohlforthites engineered their own expulsion. The original split had been unprinci pled, and the apparent political pro grams of the two groupings continued to be sufficiently close to demand fusion. Both groups looked to the leadership of the Healyites, a current with an incon sistent history which was currently trading on its parricipation in the International Committee, the ortho dox tendency which had in the 1950s combatted the Pabloist revisionism which the RT had opposed in the SWP. In 1965 the Spartacist group led by Jim Robertson undertook unity negotia tions with Wohlforth. But Healy, who was looking for an American satellite of W03TYLA! lackeys, and program be damned, broke with us again in 1966. Soon the Ie's zigzagging political motion veered sharply rightward as Healy embraced Mao's Red Guards and the myth of the "Arab Revolution"-prefiguring later descent into prostration before the despotic capitalist "People's .lamahiri yah" of oil-rich Muammarel-Qaddafi in Libya. document: - ..... I'm afraid I must conkss that I too have not understood a word of Marx. Engels. I.enin or Trotsky if this is the conlinued on paKe 10 --Subscribe Now to Young Spartacus! --r:e I I Address Phone 1 __ 1 I I City State Zip I YSp 125 0$2/9 Issues of Young Spartacu. Make payable/mail to' I Spartacus Youth Publishing Co. Box 3118. Church Street Station. New York. NY 10008 I 0$5/24 Issues of 0 $2/10 Introductory 0 $24 Issues of Worker. Vanguard Issues of Women and (Includes Spartaclst) Workers Vanguard Revolution I ~'New 0 Renewal (Includes Spartaclst) . I L-.::ke payable/mail to SpartaLisl Publishing Co. Box 1377 GPO. New York. NY 10116--.1 6 YOUNG SPARTACUS . Lessons of the Class Struggle, 1919 -1933 Germany: Revolution· and Counterrevolution ,.;,+.,.jIIL " Berlin, January 1919-Street fighting between Freikorps troops and radical workers. The article printed heloll'. the second oj' 11\'0 parts. is hased on presentations hy ~fJarta('ist LeaKue Central Commit tee memher GeorKe Foster at Spartacist educational Katheringl' held in late April and earll' May 1984 in Nell' York. ChicaKo and Berkeley, Entitled "Ger many 1919-1933: ReI'olwion and Coun terrevolution." comrade Foster's talk was one oj' three presentations de\'oted to the question oj' .. Wars and Revolu tions," Part One' was run in YSp No, 121. Octoher 1984. Part Two o.l Two The revolutionary wave that swept Germany in 191~-1919 ended with the bloody suppression of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in May. The acutely revolutionary situation had passed. lacking above all a Leninist party. The newborn Communist Party of Germany (K I'D) experienced rapid growth but emerged from the events of 191 ~-1919 still weak and politically immature. The problems confronting the young party werc compoundcd by the murderous deeds of the counterrevolution which deprived the K I'D of its most experi enced and capable leaders-Luxem burg. Liebknecht. Jogiehes and Levine. The K I'D held its Second Congress in October 1919, At the First Congress Luxemburg. Liebknecht. Jogiches and Levine had all correctly argued for K I'D participation in the first postwar parlia mentary elections. They were voted down by the overwhelming majority of the delegates (Levine. himself carried away by. the impUlsive revolutionary fervor of the delegates. ended up voting with the boycottists). At the Second Congress the question arose again in a KPD now led by Paul Levi and Klara Zetkin. This time the boycottists-ultralefts who rejected participation in bourgeois parliaments "on principle"-were in the minority. This minority nonetheless commanded the allegiance of tens of thousands of left-syndicalist workers. Winning the day against the boycotters. Levi made this a split issue expelling those who opposed his positions. Much of the expelled opposition went on to form the ultraleft Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD). As subsequent events confirmed. Levi's precipitous and hysterical action did little to cure the KPD of infantile leftist disorders. Its main effect was to cut the K PO's size in half. gutting it of much of its working-class base in Berlin and north Germany which was now left in the political clutches of its muddle headed "Left Communist" leadership. The Comintern, concerned that the split with the "lefts" not impede the amalgamation into one party of all in the workers movement who stood for Soviet government and the dictatorship of the proletariat. invited the KAPD to attend. with fraternal status, the Second Congress of the Communist Interna tional held in Petrograd and Moscow in the summer of 1920. A similar overture was made to the left wing of the much larger centrist I ndependent Socialist Party (USPD). also with the hope of facilitating a Leninist polarization and thereby forging a unified German Com munist Party. By the end of 1919 the struggles of the 'proletariat were at an ebb across Germany. The Freikorps and their Social Democratic henchmen had done their bloody work. Now the bourgeoi sies of the victorious Entente. who had looked with approval on the Freikorps' German social democracy, "stalking horse for bourgeois reaction": Ebert (at left) with Reichswehr generals and Berlin mayor. Demonstrator arrested in Berlin, 1929 (above). counterrevolutionary deeds in the Baltic and Germany in "stemming the tide of Bolshevism." demanded that these units be disbanded and the Reichswehr limited to the 100.000 troops set at Versailles. When Ebert attempted to comply. his erstwhile rightist allies ~ecided to dispense with his services and with the Weimar RepUblic. On 10 March 1920 the Nationale Vereinigung (National Association). an ultra right organization made up of the likes of the wartime general Ludendorff and the worst Freikorps scum. present ed Ebert with a series of ultimatums: Ebert's Social Democratic-dominated Weimar Coalition was to be replaced by a government of "neutral experts" (i.e .. the Prussian Civil Service); the Reichs tag was to be dissolved; and Ebert was to "retire" to be replaced by a new president elected by a plebiscite. An oller was made to make Noskedictator! When Ebert refused their conditions. a Prussian ci\ il servant named Kapp and a dimwitted general named Luttwitz marched Freikorps troops into Berlin on March 13 and declared a Nationale Vereinigung government. In desperation Ebert turned to the Reichswehr to defend the repUblic. only to find the Reichswehr would not lift a finger against the Freikorps. The gov ernment had to flee Berlin. Only then did the SPD leadership appeal to the proletariat. The German working c1as~ responded. staging a massive general strike that paraly/ed the country and spiked the rightist plot in four days. Disoriented. the KPD at first stood aside from the conflict claiming it had no interest in the outcome of a fight between two wings of the bourgeoisie. But confronted with the massive strike action they belatedly and somewhat in eptly corrected themselves. in the face -, MARCH 1985 of this Kornilov-like move hy the far right of the German hourgeoisie. In the Ruhr, mohilizationsagainst the Kapp putsch led to localized seizures of power hy the workers. By March 20 insurgent workers were in control of the entire region to the east of Dilsseldorf and Millheim. To suppress them Ehert now turned to the very man who had stood aside with folded arms during the putsch, General von Seeckt. Ehert appointed von Seeckt commander of the armed forces. Von Seeckt then proceeded to use the Freikorps to suppress the Ruhr workers with hloody efficiency! While Kapp failed in Berlin, in Bavaria the rightists and local Reichswehr commander von Mohl forced the Social Democrat Hoffmann out of office and installed a far-right government in power. Shortly after tht: tumultuous t:Vt:nts surrounding tht: ahortivt: Kapp putseh tht: attt:ntion of all Germany fixt:d upon tht: Polish-Sovit:t War of 1920. In May 1920 tht: right-wing Polish nationalist kadt:r PiisLidski, a creaturt: of Fntentt: impt:rialism. decidt:d to reali/e his aspirations for a greatt:r Poland and il1\adt:d the young Sovit:t Repuhlic \\ ht:n ht: thought it to ht: wt:akt:st-at the t:nd of the dt:sperately fought civil war. Initially Pilsudski's armit:s made rapid and det:p incursions into the Ukraine. st:i/ing Kiev. But Pilsudski's appetites for a Poland with shores on the Black Sea proved his undoing. In June the tide of hattie turned and the Poles were forced to e\'acuate Kiev. The Polish armies streamed hack to tht: horders of cthnographic Poland with the Red Army in hot pursuit. A decision had to he made whether to continue the offensive and carrv the war into Poland. Lenin urged tht: war he continucd, prcvailing over the opposi tion of Trotsky, D/er/hinsky. Radek and Rykm and initially Stalin. In carrying the war into Poland Lenin expected the Polish workt:rs would not follow their hourgeoisie. hut instead rist: up, linking hands with the Red Army as it marched on Warsaw. Trotsky. cor reetly it turned out, was skeptical of sueh a development hecause of the wide support of the Pilsudski regime in the newly independent Poland and the deep anti-Russian sentiments of Polish nationalism. Lenin's main eoncern however was not Poland hut Germany. He hoped to effect a juncture hetween the Russian and German revolutions. therehy giving enormous impetus to German commu nism and vastly facilitating the possihili ty of a successful outcome to the revo lutionary struggles of the German proletariat. The Red Army offensive into Poland took place during the sessions of the Second Com intern Congress whose delegates intently followed the hattles. As comrades know, Lenin's historic gamhle "to prohe Europe with the hayonets of the Red Army" failed. The Red Army was defeated at the gates of Warsaw. A major factor in this military defeat was Stalin. The Red Army advanced into Poland in two columns. The northern column under Tukha chevsky's command drove toward Warsa\v. The southern column under the ctlcctivt: control of Stalin was assigned to cover Tukhachevsky's flank. Stalin. ct:rtain Tukhachevsky would sei/e Warsaw and eagt:r to feather his own cap, disoheyed instructions to cover Tukhachevsky's ad\anct: and instead diverted his forces to capture 1.\0\. General Weygand, the Fn:nch ollict:r advising the Poles, and Pilsudski took advantage of the gap hetwt:t:n tht: two armit:s crt:att:d hy Stalin's grah for 1.\0\ and struck with dcvastating rt:sults. forcing tht: Rt:d Army into hurrit:d and disordt:rly lTtreat hack to tht: Sovit:t Union. Had Pilsudski heen defeated and the Red Army reached the Gt:rman hordt:rs world history since would likely havt: had a fardiffert:nt and ht:tter outcome. Tht: S PD's treacherous role in the aftermath of the Kapp putsch led to hig st:thacks for it in the Reichstag t:kctions of6Junt: 1920. Eightt:enmonthsearlier. in the first postwar elections, the SPl) had won 11,500,000 votes and 163 seats in tht: Reichstag. I n the June elections its vote dropped to 6.100,000 correspond ing to 102 st:ats. In contrast the USPD, which grew rapidly in 1919. increased its Reichstag representation from 22 to X4 seats, while the KPl) in its first time out won four. Along with the rapid growth of the lJSPl) went a deepening polari/ation ht:twet:n the right and left wings of that party as leftward moving workers. disgruntkd with the SPD. swelled its ranks. This proct:ss reached a culmina tion at the historic Halk Congress of the Ullstein USPD held in Octoher 1920. This congrt:ss met to consider the USPD's affiliation to the Communist Interna tional. Spt:aking on hehalf of tht: right wing were Hilfcrding and the Russian Menshevik Martov. Answering Hilfer ding was Zinoviev whose impassioned and hrilliant four-hour speech won the day. The majority of the delegates opted for tht: Com intern. The fusion hetween the KPD and USPD left. consummated in Dect:mher 1920, transformed the K I'D from a party of 50.000 to one of 350.000 with powerful roots in the unions. The K PD had hecome a mass party. The "Revolutionary Offensive" and the March Action With the successful fusion came a mood of revolutionary expectation and impatience. The memhers expected action. This mood found rdlcction in and was reinforct:d hy large sections of the KPD leadership who felt compelled to lead the vastly expanded party in mass action against the hosses. It was further reinforced hy the failure of the X January 1921 Radek/ Levi open letter, which sought t.o initiate a united front "We need first and foremost, comrades, to point to the map ... without it, your agitation will be, if you will pardon the I ~ expression, so \ much claptrap." . -Leon Trotsky, October 1923 with otht:r Idt and lahor organi/ations on a numher of key issues facing the workers-from wages to the necessity for organi/ations of proletarian self defense. In Fehruary 1921 Levi petulantly resigned from the KPD Central Com mittee following its rightful condemna tion of his deeply rotten role in hloeking with the centrist Serrati, who refused to split with the reformists at the just concluded PSI (Italian Socialist Party) Congress held in Livorno. Lt:vi was joined in his resignation hy Zetkin. Diiumig and two others. K PD leader ship was now centrally in the hands of Ernst Meyer. Heinrich Hrandler. Au gust Thalheimer and Paul Frohlich. French soldier guarding coal during Ruhr occupation (left). Profound economic crisis ravaged population with inflation and unemployment. In October 1923, a U.S. dollar was worth 75 billion marks; a postage stamp cost 200 million marks. Together with the K I'D left wing. ct:ntert:d in Bt:rlin, of Ruth I-ischt:r and Arkady Maslow. they all espoused in one or another variant the so-called "theory 'of the offensive." The new leadership had its prejUdices rt:inforced hy the arrival on the scene of Com intern rt:presentatives Bda Kun and Joseph Pogany (aka John Pepper of suhse4uent CPUSA infamy). Kun was the pre-eminent partisan of tht: "revolu tionary ollensivt:." Like the hankrupt officers of the French General Stall whose strategic and tactical wisdom hoiled down to the command "Attack!". Kun and his German co-thinkers, con vinccd that proletarian revolution was imminent, advocated arousing thc pro ktariat through a succession of upris ings. strikes and insurrt:ctions. The sit uation was still further exacerhated by the urgings of Zinoviev and Bukharin. Zinoviev and Bukharin had hoth veht:mently argued against the January open letter when Radek first proposed it at a meeting of the Executive Commit tee of the Communist International (ECCI). Lenin defended Radek and the tactic was approved. If Kun was the pre t:ll1inent partisan of tht: "l"Cvolutionary 7 ofknsivt:." Hukharin was its ideological impirt:r. ht:n at the Third Cong:ress 01 tht: Communist International aftt:r his views had ht:en put to a test in Germany ~Ind faikd. he was still spouting his "tht:ory"-"Since capitalism had t:x hausted itsdL (here/ore the victory must ht: gaint:d through an uninterrupted revolutionary offenSive." The tt:st of the "revolutionary offen sive" was of course the 1921 March Action. I .ahor militancy in Germany in t:arly 1921 centered in the Mansfeld coal lidds of ct:ntral Germany. Prt:\iously hackward and lacking in class con sciousnt:ss, the miners had, in helated lTsponse to tht: revolutionary wavt: that had S\\t:pt Gt:rmany and was now on the W.W. Norton t:bb, bt:cOIl1t: t:xtrell1cly militant. They had flockt:d to tht: hannt:rs oftht: KPD. Strikt:s. stop-\\ork mt:t:tings and plant occupations rolkd across the region. On March 16 the Social Dt:mocrats Hiirsing. governor of Saxony. and Snt:ring, Prussian minister of tht: interior, sent troops and police into the rt:gion to disarm and suppress the workers. The K I'D leadership replied to this provocation with a call for armed lTsistance. In areas of central Germany the workt:rs het:ded the call and fought heroically hut even in such places the fighting was sporadic and hy no means gt:nt:rali/t:d. In the rest of the country, with the exception of some clashes in Hamhurg. the KPD's call went unan swert:d. When, a wt:t:k later, it hecame ckar that the would-be insurrt:ction was ahorting, the KPD then issued a call for a general strike. But this too did not come ahout. What ensued instead were scattt:red strikes hy KPD supporters. Efforts to shut down factories whose workers were under the influence of the SPD or USPD right wing only resulted in hitter clashes hetween the workers. By March 31 the action had fil/led COfl(inued on {JaKe 8 Central Europe in 1923-8 Germany ... (continuedji'oll7 page 7) and was called off. The costs were high. Casualties were heavy and thousands were arrested including numbers of K I'D leaders. The bourgeoisie and its SPD running dogs launched a major anti-communist propaganda barrage. charging the action was "made in Moscow." Within three months KPD membership dropped by half. As Trotsky later pointed out. the events in central Germany in March 1921 did indeed demand a more active p61icy from the KPD. But he stressed the defensive nature of the situation: "The offensive was in reality launched by the Social-Democratic' policeman Hiirsing. This should have been utililed in order 10 unite all the workers for defense. for self-protection. even if. to begin with. a very modest resistance. Had the soil proved favorable. had the agitation met with a favorable response. it would then have been possible to pass over to the general strike. If the events continue to unfold further. if the masses rise. if the ties among the workers gnm stronger. if their temper lilts. while indecision and demorali/ation seile the camp of the foe·-then comes the time for issuing the slogan to pass over to the offensive. Hut should the soil prove unfavorable. should the conditions and the moods of the masses fail to corre spond with the more resolute slogans. then it is necessary to sound a retreat. and to fall back t(i previously prepared positions in as orderly a manner as possible." -Trotsky. 5jpccch at a (jcncral Partl' Mcmhership /v/ecting of the Jfo.\(O\\· Organi::ation, Jull' /921 I nstead of utilizing the moral element of defense the KPD led its followers in an action counterposed to the majority of the workers before the majority had a chance to grasp what was at stake in central Germany. In the immediate wake of the action the KPD leadership was unrepentant. defending its policies as an attempt to "seize the revolutionary initiative." Thus Thalheimer wrote: "The March action as an isolated action of the party would be-our opponents are right to this extent-a crime against the prole tariat. The March offensive as the introduction to a series of constantly rising actions. a redeeming act." The K P D's most vociferous critic was Paull.evi who. having resigned from the Central Committee at the end of February. now sanctimoniously washed his hands of any responsibility for the March events. Levi's fundamental political critiques of the "theory of the offensive" and the March Action as a putschist adventure were sound. How ever. panic in the face of outraged Social Democratic hysteria against "Moscow communism" led him to an act of renegacy. Falsely claiming that he was unable to present his views to the party rank and file, Levi went public with his criticisms. The March Action was a dimwitted response to a gross provocation against the militant workers of central Germany by the bourgeoisie. Yet it mobiJi/ed tens of thousands of workers who engaged in heroic and bloody struggles to defend their class against its oppressors. In these circumstances Levi's public criti cism of this action, a criticism which was moreover malicious, one-sided, exag gentted and showed no sense of solidari ty with the party or the Communist International, only accomplished, in Lenin's words. "a cruel mangling of the party." His critique was seized upon by the reformists to fuel the bourgeoisie's anti-communist propaganda offensive and campaign of persecution aimed at the KPD. In addition I.evi's cowardly and spiteful act of indiscipline so inflamed the party that his critique far from clarifying the issues succeeded only in mUddying the questions and further disorgani/ing the KPD. For his indiscipline Levi was quite correctly expelled from the party. The German March Action naturally occupied the central place of the Third Comintern Congress held in Moscow during the summer of 1921. Trotsky observed that the German July Days of January and April 1919 were followed not by an October revolution but by more July Days-March 1920 and March 1921. As he put it: "N 0, there are too many 'July Days' in Germany. what we want is-October." Using the March Action as an example of the fruit of the "theory of the offensive" Lenin and Trotsky were able to win the day both in the Russian party and the Comintern against the "left" partisans of Bukharin's version of "uninterrupted revolution." The Ger man March events were a painful lesson that determination of leadership and dissatisfaction of the masses are not sufficient conditions for victory. As Trotsky noted, "There must obtain a number of other conditions, above all, a close bond between the leadership and the masses and the confidence of the latter in the leadership. This condition was lacking at that time." Spartacus Youth League Directory SYL National Offioe: Box 3118, Church Street Station, New York,' NY 10008 Ann Arbor: SYL, P.O. Box 8364, Ann Arbor, MI 48107, or call (313) 961·1680 Atlanta: SYL, Box 4012, Atlanta, GA 30302 Boston: SYL, PO. Box 1644, Cam· bridge, MA 02238, or call (617) 492-3928 Chicago: SYL, Box 4667, Main po., Chicago, IL 60680, or call (312) 663·0715 . Cleveland: SYL, Box 6642, Cleve· land, OH 44101, or call (216) 621· 5138 Detroit: SYL, Box 32028, Detroit, MI 48232, or call (313) 961·1680 Los Angeles: SYL, Box 29115, Los Feliz Station, Los Angeles, CA 90029, or call (213) 384·9716 Madison: SYL, Box 2074, Madison, WI 53701, or call (608) 257·8625 New York: SYL, Box 444, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013, or call (212) 267·1025 Norfolk: SYL, c/o SL, P.o. Box 1972, Main P.O., Norfolk, V A 23501 Oakland: SYL, Box 273, Civic Center Station, Oakland, CA 94604, or call (415) 835·1535 . Oberlin: SYL, Box 58, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074, or call (216) 775·6067 San Francisco: SYL, Box 11685, San Francisco, CA 94101, or call (415) 863·6963 Washington, D.C.: SYL, P.O. Box 75073, Washington, D.G 20013, or call (202) 636·3537 Trotskyist League of Canada Toronto: Box 7198, Station A, Toron· to, Ontario M5W 1X6, or call (416) 593-4138 z (1) :;; -< Q '" 'U C ~ o· r 0' OJ -< Revolutionary internationalist and organizer of the Red Army, Leon Trotsky fought against capitulation of German Communists, for a workers united front against fascism. The central slogan of the Third Congress was: "To power through a previous conquest of the masses!" It marked a recognition that the political and organizational resources of the communist parties were not yet suffi cient for the conquest of power. The various parties were thus directed to carefully study the real situations in their respective countries and to turn their attention to agitation. propa ganda. organization and the conquest of the confidence of the workers in the day to-day struggles. These lessons were further refined and codified shortly afterwards in Comintern theses outlin ing the communist tactic of .the united front. The KPD leadership returned to Germany in an uneasy truce. The left wing, fully a third of the party concen trated in Berlin, Hamburg and the Ruhr, remained enamored with the "revolutionary offensive" and critical of united-front activity. Leadership of the party continued under Ernst Meyer, and the K PD under the slogan "To the masses!" tried to carry out the prepara tory work outlined by the Third Con gress. But stung by the experience of March 1921 the efforts to carry out this work led to a right deviation. Thus in 11)23 the K P D let pass by the prem ier revolutionary opportunity which pre sented itself to German communism. Germany 1923: Bourgeois "Order" in Crisis and ... In late 1922 Germany defaulted on the reparations imposed upon the country by the victorious Entente at Versailles. In response on II January 1923 French and Belgian troops occu pied the Ruhr. The German govern ment. with Ebert as president and the big industrialist Cuno as chancellor. in turn replied by ordering German offi cials, railway and factory workers to refuse to cooperate with the occupiers. Strikes swept the R uhr. French troops were mobilized against the strikers, German bank reserves and factory inventories were sei/ed and the flow of coal n~5 percent of German production), iron from the Ruhr and steel (lW pereent of German production) ceased. Fascistic and nationalistic ele ments moved in short order from the government's proclaimed policy of passive resistance to guerrilla warfare against the French troops. Yet by May during the massive Ruhr general strike fraternization developed between strik ers and French troops lead ing to troops joining demonstrations of German workers. The occupation of the Ruhr and the government's response to it touched off a profound economic crisis. U nemploy ment soared. In January 1923 unem p-Ioyment stood at 4.2 percent. By April it had risen to 7 percent. in September to 9.9 percent, October-19 percent. No vember-23 percent and December-2g percent. To these figures must be added those of the semi-employed, the percen tage of workers who worked only part time. In January the percentage of semi employed was 12.6 percent. By October it jumped to 47 percent. YOUNG SPARTACUS So in Germany in October 11)23 something like two thirds of the (ierman proletariat was either unemployed or working only a few hours a week! These figures should be contrasted with those of earlier years. In 1913 unemployment was 2.1) percent. In 11)21 it was 2.g percent. and in 1922 unemployment actually dropped to 1.5 percent. Along with this enormous rise in unemployment. inflation ran amok. By IX October 11)23 one dollar would buy four billion marks. That's in the morn ing. By evening the same dollar cost six billion marks. Two days later the rate was 15 billion marks for the dollar and by evening the rate had risen to 19 billion. I n two more days the rate was 46 billion and on October 23 a dol lar could buy 75 billion marks. This is what comrade Seymour would term hyperinflation. The effect of the economic crisis was massive impoverishment of the working elass and petty bourgeoisie. Conditions of life were not simply appalling. By the I~tll of 1923 they were impossible. By the end of June 1923 the Cuno government nearly ceased to function. A profound political crisis of the bourgeoisie paralleled the economic collapse. In May 1923 a general strike erupted in the Ruhr. growing into armed insurrection in the town of Bochllm. Between June and August an immense strike wave ripped across Germany culminating in a strike by Berlin typographical workers who ran the presses that printed the govern ment's worthless paper money. The strike became general and the Cuno government fell. Cuno was succeeded as chancellor by Stresemann who, as he entered office, opined that his would be the last bourgeois government in Ger many. Stresemann's abandonment of the tactic of passive resistance to the Ruhr occupation on September 26 was a desperate gamble and only an acknowl edgment of the "hopeless" situation of the German bourgeoisie. ... An Acutely Revolutionary Situation But as Trotsky pointed out, the Ger man bourgeoisie's position was "hope less" only if the KPD reali/cd in due ,ime that this was the case and took the requisite revolutionary' measures de manded by the situation. Unfortunately the KPD responded to the 1'C\Ollltion an nents of 11)23 in an irresolute and sluggish fashion. The party leadership. since January in the hands of Brandler and from May including two of the lefh (Ruth f-ischer and Thiilmann). burned by the March Action. plodded along as the revolutionary CriSIS developed around them. Thus both Brandler and Fischer con demned the spontaneous armed rising in Bochum denouncing it as "objectively a provocation to the German bourgeoi sie." Brandler's 1923 slogan was "In the framework of the Weimar constitution. towards the workers' government of all Germany!" It was Trotsky who, from afar, concluded probably in July 1923 that Germany had entered upon an acutely revolutionary situation that demanded the German party work out a clear plan of action culminating in the seilure of power through armed insur rection. Trotsky insisted that a date be set in advance in order to turn the K I'D to the political. organi/ational and military tasks necessary for the reali7<t tion or the German October. The main obstacle to prodding the Comintern and the K I'D to action was Stalin. who argued in an August 1923 letter to Zinoviev and Bukharin that "In my opinion the Germans should be restrained and not encouraged." Com menting on this letter Trotsky stated: "Stalin bears thc mainl'C\ponsibility lor kHing slip the 1'C\olution;lry situation in (icrmany. He supported and encour aged the \\eakling\. the ,"eptics and the telllpori/ers in (ierman\. lie did not accidentally assulllc an opportuni\t opposition on this 4uestion of world hiqoric importance: he was in essence T' r- MARCH 1985 onh continuing the polin that he had lollo\\ed in Rus,ia in March 1l.l17." -III!' j)ra/I Progral/l II/ Ihl' C ·1I1/1I1I1I1/i.11 IlIIl'I"l/alilll/a/- .·1 CriliCl.11/I II/ Flil/dal/Wl/liIll ( 1l.l2~) In August. following the Berlin strike that toppled the Cuno government. the COll1intern finally decided that (fer many was indeed in an acutely revolu tionary situation. Brandlerjourneyed to Moscow to consult on the preparations for the struggle for power. There Brandler was skeptical and only reluc tantly committed himself to prepare for the German Octobcr. In his own words. some thirty-six years later: "Thus I did not oppose the preparations for the uprising of 1923. I simply did not view the situation as acutely revolutionary vet. reckoning rather with a further ~harpening." Brandler. stating that he was not "a German Lenin," requested Trotsky be assigned to lead the insurrection. Trot sky's opponents on the Politburo. already maneuvering against him. in stead delegated Radek. who was skepti cal about thc revolutionary possibilities. and PyatakO\. When Brandler returned to Ciermany he proceeded to carry out preparations in the spirit 01 his abm e quoted 1959 statement. Like the French Bourbons he forgot nothing and learned nothing. thus despite considerable Smiet financial. tcchnical and political assis tance the preparations lor insurrection had an irresolute and olten unn:al ljuality. The KPD Ieadcrship \\as unable to make the necessary turn. The party had to shilt the center of gravity of it.'i work lrom practical agitation arou nd day-to-da\ issues toward immediate . . prcparations for insurrection. including when to give the masses such slogans as to set this in motion. Reyolutions have to be organi/ed. Intrinsically fa\orable situations do not suffice. But Brandler\ tcmpori/ing. shared by the way by the Maslow/Fischer/Thiilmann left wing. carried the day. The rising was to begin in Saxony and Thuringia where the K I'D had its strongest support. On October 10 the K I'D entered into a coalition govern ment with the SPD lefts in Saxony and. a day later. in Thuringia. The intent behind the formation 01 these "workers' govcrnments" w~s to usc them as a springboard for the arming of the proletariat and the launching 01 the insurrection. The target date was set for early November. The issuing ofa call lor a general strike was supposed to'be the signal to commence the uprising. The bourgeoisie was beginning to regain its head. Three days after the K I'D entered the Saxony government Ebert ordered the Reichswehr to occupy the region. To pave the way Cieneral Mueller. commandant of the district. ordered the dissolution of the Proletari an H und reds. The Saxony government defied this order and a week later Mueller. who expected still resistance. ordered troops to march on t he prov ince. In this period Brandler did nothing to accelerate the arming of the proletariat or to prepare to engage the Reichswehr. Brandler instead decided to put his faith in the K PIYs coalition partner. the Ielt Social Democrat Zeigner. The K PI> put a proposal lor a general strike. the sign to begin the insurrection (!l. to the vote 01 a conference of Saxon workers' organi/ations which met in the town of Chemnit; on October 23. The delegates to the conference were elected before the Ruhr occupation and were in no sense representative of the mood of the German proletariat in October 1923. Thus when Brandler put forward his call for a gen~ralstrike Zeigner balked ... and the KPD leadership. including the lefts, backed down. Only in Hamburg, through a pan icked and light-minded decision by the KPD Zentrale [the leadership center] and a cascading series of errors. did an attempt at insurrection take place. Here. with no serious preparation of the workers and only last minute planning some 600 fighters with a handful of pistols were initially successful in gainlllg control of the proletarian district of the city. This isolated pockct of revolution was subseljuently sup pressed. but not before the insurgents gave a good accounting of themselves and disengaged their forces in an ordcrly way. By'its shameful capitulation the KPD leadership let the revolutionary situa tion slip out of its hands. The bourgeoi sic regained the initiative. It was a defeat of world-historic proportion. The work ers of the SO\ iet lJ nion had followed the IT\ olut iona ry de\ elopments in Ger many in 1923 with keen interest. They knew victory for the revolution meant the beginning of the end of economic scarcity in the Soviet Union and a powerful extension of the international re\ olution. Thc aborting of the 1923 German October gave enormous impulse to the crystalli/ing Stalinist bureaucracy in the USSR. It marked a divide~in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and in the Comintern. As Trotsky noted in 7111' 7hird International Alier renin: .. Ihe /illldallll'l1Ia/ cause of the cri,i, oj the Octo her Revolution is the retarda tion olthe world revolution. caused h\ a whole ,cries oj cruel ddeats of the proletariat. lip to 1l.l2:1. these were the defeat<, of the post-war Il1mCll1ents and insurrections confronted with the non existence of the communist parties at the heginning. and their youth and weakness·suhse4uently. From 1l.l2:1 on. the ,ituation changed sharply. We no longer have hdore us simply ddeats of the proletariat. hut routs of the polin' oj the Cominterll." With the bourgeoisie recapturing the initiative in Germany in late '23 the way was pilved for the one period of stability in the Weimar Republic~the period from '24 through '2X. The ebbing of the revolutionary wave was reinforced by large infusions of American capital. mostly in the form of short-term loans. This is also the period of course in which the German Communist Party. along with the rest of the Comintern. was politicallv subordinated to the narrow October, 1931: Hitler and his stormtroopers gain following. Failure of proletarian leadership led to fascist victory and all of its death-camp horrors. Progress Publishers Street battle between communists and Nazis (above); confrontation between Reichsbanner (social democratic workers militia) and right-wing Young German Order (at right). A united front of workers organizations could have smashed fascists. national caste interests of the burgeon ing Stalinist bureaucracy. the KPIYs history in this period is chiell) of interest as an example of the Ielt-right fig/ags of the nascent Stalinist bureaucracy. Brandler was ousted at the end of '2:\ and at the Fifth World Congress. convened eight months after the German deleat. scapegoated for the shameful capitulation of the entire K I'D leadership. The entire matter of the German October was in any event passed oil as an "episode" and "mistake in tempo." The high point of the German crisis was claimed to be still ahead and the situation was held to be pregnant with revolution. KPD Enters the "Third Period" .In '26 the party swung sharply to the right in belated discovery of a purely objective "capitalist stabili/ation." Then in '2X-'29 the Comintern veered sharply to the \eft again, emerging from the .luly 1929 Tenth Plenum of the ECCI embracing the doctrines of the "Third Period" and "social fascism." U nited front agreements or activities with Socialist parties were banncd. The Third Period was to be the final period of capitalism throughout the world. that could and would end only in the victory of proletarian revolution which was the immediate task of the Comintern and its parties. In the Third Period Social Democracy became the Ielt wing of fascism, i.e .. "social fascism." and the main enemy. Embraced by the KPD. which operated in a country where fascism was becoming a deadly menace. these policies led to a frightful calamity. The doctrine of social fascism was scarcely new. It had been advanced by none other than Stalin in 1924: 'The social democracy is objecti\ ely a moder ate wing of Fascism." Indeed. in his infamous "the Germans should be restrained" letter of 1923 Stalin was also to write: "The Fascists of course are not napping. but it is to our advantage to let the lascists attack first: this will fuse the entire working class around the Com munists (Cicrmany is not Bulgaria)." Echoed nine ~ears later by Thiilmann as "Alter Hitler. us'" this \\as to become the cpitaph 01 the Cummu nist International. Ihe worldwide depreSSIon that hit Gcrmany in late 1929 slippcd it noose around the neck of thc Weimar Repub lIC. llnemployment rose to three million in 19JO and over tour million next year. German society \\as again thrown into 9 profound economic and political crisis posing anew the ljuestion~Which class will rule') The K PI),s doctrine of social fascism put a brick wall bet\\een it and the key revolutionary task 01 winning the proletariat away from the pro-capitaiist SPD. The SPD was still the largest party in the Reichstag. still the majority party of the German workers. still the dominant inlluence in the powerful trade-union movement and still there fore the largest objective obstacle to a successful proletarian revolution. The election of September 19JO revealed an ominous trend. The ;\1 ,17 is. who in I92X polled XOO.OOO votes. jumped to 6.4 million votes! I n the same election the SPl) vote dropped XOO.OOO from its I92X total of 9.2 million. The K I'D vote jumped I.J million to a total of 4.6 million. The Stalinists. blind to the meaning of the huge vote for the fascists, dismissed the Na7i surge and instead deluded themselves with their great electoral "success." It remained for Trotsky and the International Left Opposition to sound the alarm. For the big bourgeoisie the fascist surge posed one question. Should they try to continue to rule by the old methods of Weimar. relying on the Social Democrats'? Or was it necessary to use the fascist gangs to crush the proletariat. scattering its organi/ations to the winds'! The bourgeoisie for the time being vacillated. Meanwhile the petty bourgeoisie. increasingly desper ate in the face of capitalist crisis. were turning not to the proletariat but to the forces of violent counterre\olution and extreme imperialist reaction. This situation was conditioned bv an impotent bourgeois regime solidly sup ported by the conservative SPD (which still commanded the support of broad sections of the Working class). The weakness of the KPD vis-a-vis the SPD \\as above all a consequence of the accumulated powerlessness of the for mer. Thc working masses 01 (jermal1\ aller the nperiences o11Y21. 192:\ and thc intcrvcning years dId not belic\e in the ability of the Communist Party and ih leadership to gain a rC\ olutionarv \ Ictor~. II the K I'D \\as to break the pctty-bourgeois masses from fascism it had tll \\ In thc proletariat to its Danner~. to polItically conquer it. 10 do thi~ it \\as necessarv to facc rcalit~ squarely and to learn to think. the surge in votes tor the ]\afis \\as a cOlltinlled Oil page II 10 Nicaragua ... (continuedfrom page I) are despised by the Nicaraguan popula tion. Resistance has been so fierce that despite an original $80 million from Reagan's Murder, Inc. and an estimated $/ million a month from "private sources" the contra operation is becom ing a "slow-motion equivalent to the Bay of Pigs" (Los Angeles Times, 24 February). According to the Nell" York Times (25 February), "For many months the Administration has also urged the rebels to seize a Nicaraguan city, where they could set up a provi sional government the U.S. could then recognize. But the rebels have been unable to capture and hold any territory outside the jungles of eastern N icara gua .... The Sandinistas are now using heavy artillery against the rebels and 'it scares the hell out of them !'" The contra stalemate plus the escalat ing U.S. war preparations (in "new speak" called military "exercises" and naval "maneuvers") point to the contin uing threat of a Yankee invasion. But Reagan's got some stumbling blocks on his p<lth to war. Polls show that 70 percent of the American popUlation oppose aid of any kind to the contras, much less an invasion. The ghetto youth, a disproportionately large chunk of the U.S. military, are not eager to die for racist American capitalism. Corpo ral Griffin, the black Marine who refused to go to either Lebanon or Grenada, is indicative of the problems the imperial ists will have using their highly black and Hispanic army to put down a "colonial rebellion" in Central America. As with the Vietnam War, where black youth took 23 percent of the fatalities in the war and got nothing but race-terror and unemployment upon returning home, blacks have no interest in defending racist Yankee imperialism. Today as the U.S. imperialists plan their new adventures in Central Ameri ca and elsewhere, they are haunted by the "Vietnam syndrome." After two dec ades of being sold out through negoti ated settlements of the type that the anti interventionist "left" is pushing for in Central America today, the heroic Viet namese workers and peasants defeated U.S. imperialism on the hattle/ield! During that war the Spartacist League called for internationalist c1ass struggle action, such as labor strikes against the war. As opposed to the social-patriotic cries of the CP and SWP to "bring our boys home," we said "All Indochina Must Go Communist!" "Our boys" were the North Vietnamese troops who won the war and consolidat ed a workers government. This was a great victory for the world's working people, striking a vital blow to Ameri ca's ambitions for world imperialist domination. It stayed their hand in Angola in 1975, where the U.S. would have liked to send in the Marin~ to help South Africa smash the anti-colonialist revolt there. The Vietnamese heroic effort has given the working class some breathing space by forcing U.S. imperi alism to back up in its drive toward World War III against the Soviet Union. We say: "Vietnam was a victory! Two, three, many defeats for U.S. imperialism!" We would like to see the scene, where the U.S. personnel in Saigon grabbed desperately for helicop ters from the embassy roof in April 1975, repeated at the U.S. embassies in both Managua and San Salvador! The rest of the left, from the Workers World Party, the Communist Party to the Socialist Workers Party, to name a few, are afraid to say outright that only the victorious social revolution of Vietnam-breaking imperialism's stranglehold and collectivizing industry and agriculture into a centrally planned economy-brought peace to Indochina. In the reformists' ever more hopeless search for some imperialist "doves," their counterrevolutionary battle cry has been "no more Vietnams." On 3 May 1981 they mobilized one hun-dred thousand in a live "letter to your Congressman," crawling through Washington, D.C. begging Reagan to leave EI Salvador alone. In sharp contrast was the Spartacist League/ Spartacus Youth League, which organ ized a hundreds-strong Anti-Imperialist Contingent, marching with the flag of the FM LN and banners that read, "Military Victory to Salvadoran Left ists!" and "Defense of Cuba, USSR Begins in EI Salvador!" The Spartacus Youth League has consistently stood up to Reagan and the Democrats' anti-Soviet war drive. At Harvard, two SYL members successful ly fought an attempt by the school to expel them for their participation in a protest against War Secretary Caspar Weinberger; at UCLA we led a.demon stration of students to stop Rivas Gallont, the Salvadoran ambassador of death, from speaking; at UC Berkeley, we led a demonstration that sent Marine recruiters scurrying off campus. And Spartacist supporters in the trade unions fight for labor to "hot-cargo" military goods headed to the Salvado ran butchers and for political strikes against a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua. But since March 1982, the rest of the left has been in hiding. They argued that a vote for their loser Mondale would give some "breathing space" to Nicaragua and the Salvadoran left, but the only beneficiaries of the "left's" total prostration have been the U. S. imperial ists who have had a "breathing space" from protest of their murderous policies in Central America! Meanwhile, Mon dale campaigned for a quarantine of Nicaragua! While during the last days of the Vi~tnam War there was a defeatist wing of U.S. imperialism that wanted to cut the U.S. losses by pulling out, today the Democrats have lined up behind Rea gan's anti-Soviet war drive in Central America. Reagan says, "You can say w'e're trying to oust the Sandinistas." And where Reagan wants to smash the Nicaraguan revolution outright, the Democrats want to find a more palat able way to do it. Every major war drive expenditure during the Reagan admin stration has had hipartisan support. Since the gun-point "election" in EI Salvador last year he's been able to ram through millions more in aid for the Butcher Duarte, and for Nicaragua the Democrats want to offer "humanitari an" aid to the mass-murdering contras. Now that the elections are over, the pro-Democratic Party "left" has taken off its Mondale/Ferraro buttons and is calling an "emergency" mobilization for April 20. I n fact, the mobilization has its roots in an "emergency" conference of the "solidarity" swamp held in Cleve land last Septemher! The express purpose of the Cleveland conference was to delay any Central America actions that might embarrass Walter "Quarantine" Mondale until after the elections. They voted down a wimpy motion supporting the "just struggles of the Central American people" and didn't vote on a motion condemning the "AFL-CIA's" instrument for the disrup tion of Latin American trade unions the AIFLD-because it might "alien ate" labor! According to Cesar Chavez, April 20 represents a "springboard for the resurrection" of the "movement." What a resurrection! The Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party and their various split-offs and factions displayed their organic inability to lead revolu tionary struggle by herding the anti Vietnam War movement into the dead end of the Democratic Party. Older but no wiser, here they come again-"The League of Squeezed Lemons"-decked out with pre-appointed staffs, "advisory boards" and voting procedures that could teach General Zia a thing or two, united for quashing class struggle and elbowing out anyone they fear may be too red for Ted. What's' wrong with these c1ass collaborationist coalitions and their Foreign Languages Service "Vietnam was a victoryl Two, three, many defeats for U.S. imperialism!" politics is that they paralyze effective action by workers and youth by tying them to their class enemy. To make it explicit, this "emergency mobiliza tion" comes complete with a' field trip to Capitol H ill to lobby "anti intervention" Senators. The choice is between preaching faith in the Demo cratic wing of the capitalist warmongers or building a massive anti-imperialist movement in the struggle for workers revolution in Central America and at home. The reformist charlatans oppose the defeat of the blood-soaked Salva doran regime, oppose the completion and extension of the Nicaraguan revolu tion because it threatens their alliance with imperialist "doves" who above all fear the spectre of revolution. We say, "Remember Bay of Pigs, remember Vietnam, Democratic Party-We know which side you're on!" We stand in solidarity with youth who have given U.S. imperialism the finger by defying the U.S. government and Fortress ... (continued.fi"of11 page 5) ABC of Marxism. In fact, in rereading the document. I thought of a cartoon that is a favorite of mine. Several workmen have just unwrapped a very large canvas and the art dealers arc looking at it. In the middle of the large white canvas is a perfect hlack dot. And one of the art dealers is saying to the other one. 'I don't care if he is the world's greatest painter. I still think he's kidding'-this is the quality I carried away from reading the L. document." Marcus took his crackpot economic theories through several left organiza tions, including ours and SDS, until he emerged as Lyndon LaRouche-the name by which he is now known head of the National Caucus of La bor Committees. Today, LaRouche's NCLC is universally regarded as a group of pro-government provocateurs, "deprogrammers" and outright crazies whose conspiracy theories represent rather the perfect paranoid worldview. (At one point LaRouche was convinced that Kissinger was an agent of the Kremlin, then the NCLC called for jailing anti-nuke protesters and striking miners-both "agents" of some strange energy cabal that only LaRouche really understands, or ever will.) A very big one percent indeed-it encompasses a variant of psycho-fascism. Ask the Communist Party about LaRouche's gangsterist "Operation M op-U p." Everyone knows what became of Marcus/LaRouche-the truly horrible example of cult-degeneration leading straight out of the workers movement but Wohlforth's own fate is also worth recording. For over a decade, he was Healy's minion in the U.S. and his Workers League undertook in earnest several of the more bizarre Healyite schemes: I) a perverse and slanderous campaign against the SWP leadership as agents of the Russian secret police (and/or FBI) responsible for abetting and then covering up the murder of Leon Trotsky; 2) ,the total subordina-YOUNG SPARTACUS going to Nicaragua to help with the harvests. The Nicaraguans are mobi lized 'and have demonstrated their intention to defend every inch of their territory. They are determined to defend their revolution, remembering the 1979 insurrection, sparked by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, that toppled the hated Somoza dynasty, the popular uprising that shattered the National Guard. The problem now facing Nicara gua is that it sorely needs more material aid and support. Forty percent of the Nicaraguan budget of only $280 million must go into defense. We in the SYL have been pleased that we have been able to contribute, even if largely as a symbolic gesture, by raising money at San Francisco State and at Harvard University to send to Nicaragua's defense. For this act of internationalism and the "crime" of passing out Marxist literature, the S Y L has been "banned" at San Francisco State and our Red Avenger comrades now face legal prosecution. The Underground S Y L continues to defy SF State's "ban." Support for social revolution in other countries and the understanding that the main enemy is at home is the beginning of a class perspective for American youth. The SYL sees that anti-imperialism abroad means class struggle at home. The critical struggle today is to unchain the power of the working class from its enemies in the Democratic Party. We must build an integrated, revolutionary workers party to lead a class struggle against Yankee imperialism "in the belly of the beast." We want to win youth to the fight for a socialist future which means defending revolutionary gains already won, and fighting for a workers government here at home to remove from power the world's greatest enemy of workers and the oppressed once and for all. • tion of the Healyite organizations to the regime of Libyan strongman Qaddafi. In the former effort, they gave Marcus a run for his money on paranoid "conspir acy" theories. I n the latter, Healy alibied the Iraqi regime's murder of 21 members of the Iraqi Communist Party, Iraq being for Healy the very "bastion of the Arab Revolution." Wohlforth and his companion Nancy Field were terminat ed as leaders of the Healyite satellite in 1974. Following his purge, Wohlforth crawled back into the SWP for a brief interlude, leading us to ask what the SWP was going to do with a super cynical squeezed lemon and "Can Tim and Nancy Find True Happiness in the SWP?" It didn't last long-Tim and the SWP, that is. Wohlforth now hangs out in the Bay Area, where as of last reports he was giving classes for the DSA's "Socialist School." Given his friendly relations with the Harringtonites, the last laugh may be on the SDUSA Wohlforth seems to have become one of "yours." "Consciously or unconsciously," King touched upon a fundamental difference between revolutionists and all brands of reformists, i.e .. those who seek to reform this system from within its rotting corpse. What to him is an exercise in trivial, hair-splitting debate was for us a defense of the Marxist program against charlatans, fakers and far, far worse. For Albert Shanker in the board rooms of the capitalists, the basement of Langley, Virginia, or on the "Committee on the Present Danger," such a consideration is obviously moot. But just as Lenin's.early battles against Menshevism, which were often de nounced similarly as the worst sort of silly purism, created th~ Bolshevik organization capable of leading the Russian masses in the great October Revolution, so our early political battles have made us what we are today. As the only Leninist organization dedicated to workers revolution in this country, we are also capable of having a little fun ala Xandra's Red Avengers at the expense of this manifestly crazed ruling class .• MARCH 1985 Germany ... (continuedfrom paxe 9) defeat for tl)e working class and a warning. Trotsky and the International Left Opposition. which considered itself· a faction of the Communist Internation aL insisted upon the necessity of scrapping the idiotic doctrine of soci,al fascism. In its place they advocated a policy of closing ranks with t~e majority of the German working class. forming a united front with the Social Democratic and non-party workers against the fas cist danger. In particular Trotsky urged the K PO to struggle to mobilize the workers and unemployed around the slo gan of extensive planned economic col laboration with the Soviet Union to combat unemployment and lay the basis for reorganizing the German economy. This directly posed to the working masses the necessity of seizing power. Instead the KPD persisted in its Third Period orientation and deepened its errors. Thus Th~i1mann attempted to compete with the fascists by adopting their slogan of a "people's revolution." thereby erasing the demarcation bc tween Marxism and fascism and hclping reconcile part of the workers and petty bourgeoisie to fascist ideology. This error was capped by another. the so called "red referendum." Here thc KPD joined with the fascists in urging support for the Na/i-inspired recall of the Social Democratic/Center Party coalition government in Prussia. By raising this call when. given the relationship of forces. it could only mean the replace- Berkeley ... (continuedfrom paxe 12) streets. marching from the Berkeley BART station to the campus. with a cop car following, ramming them in the back of the legs. As the march turned into the campus, cops swarmed out of everywhere flailing nightsticks and clubbing dozens to the ground. Here. students fought back. some surrounding a cop car demanding the release of a "detained" student, others chasing away the thugs in blue. Protesters rallied the next day against the cop rampage and circulated a resolution calling for the formation of a police review commission with "demo cratically elected student representa tives," and demanding the release of all police surveillance materials on political demonstrators to those involved. This while a campus cop tried to videotape the rally! The Livermore Action Group ludicrously offered to train UC police in "nonviolence" in order to make them more "responsible professionals." We certainly solidarile with the sentiment of these students to end cop brutality, but their illusions in review boards. the courts, or teaching cops to be "nonviolent" range from futile to absurd. What should be clear to Berkeley students now is that the cops and the courts are not neutral. The cops are a body of armed men whose pur pose is to defend capitalist "law and order." From smashing union pickets to Spartacist League/ Spartacus Youth League Public Offices Bay Area Fn .. 5:00-8:00 p.m., Sal.. 3:00-6:00 p.m. 1634 Telegraph. 3rd Floor (near l7th Street) Oakland, California Phone: (415) 835-1535 Chicago Tues .. 5:00-9:00 p.m .. Sat.: 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. 161 W. Harrison St., 10th Floor Chicago, Illinois Phone: (312) 663-0715 New York City Tues.: 6:00-9:00 p.m., Sat.: 12:00-4:00 p.m. 41 Warren St. (one block·below Chambers St. near Church St.) New York, NY Phone: (212) 267-1025 ment of the Social Democratic coalition by one of Hitler and the German right. it made the K PO appear in the eyes of the masses as aiders of reaction. The referendum failed but the K PIYs will ingness to bloc with the fascists under these concrete circumstances was a measure of their failure to understand that fascism is a ra/or held to the throat of the workers. As comrades know. Hitler was able to come to power. defeating the most powerful and organi/ed proletariat of the European labor movement. without a shot being fired in resistance. The responsibility rests squarcly on the shoulders of the Social Democracy and the Stalinists. To the very end Social Democracy played the role of a parlia mentary stalking horse for bourgeois reaction. One of the la)t actsoftheSPD in the Reichstag. when the Na/is were in power and Hitler was chancellor. was to vote credits for Hitler's war budget! Immediately afterwards the Na/is cart ed them off to jail. Trotsky and the Left Opposition struggled might and main to break the KPO and Comintern from their suicidal course. a course which fore closed the possibility of proletarian revolution and paved the way for the victory of fascism. The K P IYs policies. inspired by Stalin & Co .. resulted in thc biggest defeat for the proletariat in history. There is no need to reappraise this statement in light of the wars. revolutions and counterrevolutions of the past 50 years. We would live in a very different world if the outcome in Germany in 1933 had turned out to be in Yankee Marines rape black Grenada. U.S. get your bloody hands off the world! terrorizing the ghetto poor to clubbing leftist students-that is the "responsibil ity" of these "professionals." And a look at the courts tells the same story. Nearly half of the 3X anti-apartheid protesters who were arrested last December for staging a sit-in at University Hall have been sentenced to three days in jail. Others who struck a "deal" have been effectively banned from participation in future demonstrations or they too will be sent to the slammer. Reagan's war against communism has come home to the Berkeley eamp\ls with a vengeance. What's necessary is to mobili/e students to the side of the working class to fight for a workers government that will break the rule of the bosses. their cops and courts. Berkeley Review: How Much Do Amerikkka's Fat Bosses Pay You? The ultraright-wing Berkeley Rl'I'ie\\' sought to whip up hysteria against the SYL by not very subtle insinuations that we torched Callaghan Hall, In an article on campus funding (Berkeley Rel'iell', 4 March) they describe the SYL with the following adjectives: "fiery. inflamma tory, incindiary [sic], burning. smolder ing, explosive." thereby proving their ability to wield a thesaurus. (As to the question of funding, we don't take one dime from the student government-a favor of the working class. Stalinism and Social Democracy served up the Gcrman workcrs. heads on the chopping block. for the fascists. The organi/ations of the proletariat were smashed and shattered. The Comintern blindly defended the policies that led to this debacle. echoing Thiil mann's reaction: "After Hitler. us!" The Comintern and KPD had committed a historic betrayal of the proletariat. and after the fact defended their actions before the masses. It was this that led Trotsky to declare the Third Interna tional politically bankrupt and dead as a revolutionary force. 1933: The Necessity for a New International With the death of the Third Interna tional Trotsky proclaimed the necessity to struggle for the creation of a new revolutionary international. the Fourth International. That struggle began in his lifetime: it's not yet complete. It is the banner which has been taken up by the international Spartacist tendency. The lessons of revolution and counterrevolution in Germany in the period from 1919 to 1933 must be 'studied in far more detail than is possible in a not-so-brief talk. They have a burning relevance for us today. We still live in the imperialist epoch and today as in 1923 the critical task remains-the forging of a revolutionary party with a leadership capable of recognizing a revolutionary situation and rapidly reorienting the party to take on the struggle for power. Tempori/ing at the wrong moment for even a few trall1ll1g bra for youth to suck on the mammary glands of the bourgeoisie. Of course the Berkele\' Rel'ie\\' is rolling in dough from the likes of Irving Kristol. long ago exposed as a beneficiary of CIA monies. whose pet project is funding these right-wing racist rags on campuses coast to coast.) Perhaps these right-wing wimps congregate at Berkeley because they see all the wheelchair ramps. You see. most of these ideological defenders of ROTC and the Marines have no intention of actually enlisting and fighting for U.S. imperialism. The bulk of them probably couldn't make it through basic training. Aside from the odd intersection with a .)'oldier 01 Fortlllll! type who really grooves on killing blacks in Angola. this crew is headed straight for the corporate board r()()ms or the CIA. Maybe if they're really lucky they'll marry ajuicy tomato like "moderate authoritarian" Jeane Kirkpatrick. In the meantime. these junior G-men are trying to cut their teeth on our necks. I n an article proving their access to good legal advice and the ability to cast nasty slurs just this side of libel. the Berkeley Rel'ie\\' ("The Shame of Callaghan Fire." 4 March) states. "But even if the S Y L is innocent of the arson itself. they are guilty of propagating the kind of oppressive beliefs and prejudice mentality that results in incidents like 11 days may lead to a missed revolutionary opportunity that will not recur for a generation. I n the present circumstances history may not present us with a second chance. -In closing I would like to make two points. The various contenders can't foresee at the outset of a social conflict \\ hat exactly the outcome will be. otherwise you wouldn't have to struggle. Hut as IT\olutionary Marxists it is both possible and necessary to make calcula tions and on that baSIS to fight. I think our \ictory in tearing down the racist Confederatc flag shows on a \ery small scale that such important questions for the proletariat are resolved through struggle. By engaging in such battles one becomes a part of the outcome rather than remaining a mere observer. Finally. if Stalin. Zinoviev and Kamenev had been in command of the Bolshevik Party in 19171 can assure you that a lot of learned bourgeois profes sors would be telling us that what hap pened in Russia was not a revolutionary opportunity for the proletariat but only a democratic revolution against tsarism. It's most gratifying that we havea Ger man section of the international Sparta cist tendency. the Trotskyist League of Germany. It is above all they who must grapple with these questions and in light of the experience of the 1917 Russian Revolution come to understand and apply the lessons they learn from that study to the class struggle in Germany. The German question was and remains one of the key questions of proletarian revolution in the modern world. On it may well hinge the fate of mankind .• the Callaghan fire." Will Guillermo Bermudez be the next Van der Lubbe'? We arc referring here to the infamous Reichstag fire of 1933. The Nalis found the ashes of parliament the necessary pretext for the wholesale roundup of communists. suppression of all civil liberties and consolidation of the Third Reich. There was no evidence against the communists. but it didn't matter. Hitler's intent was to create a climate of opinion where el'er\, com munist was responsible for the fire. a red scare to justify a social order unfet tered by the trappings of bourgeois democracy. :\ow. we have no proof that Martin Bormann, Goering, and Goebbels are paid ghostwriters for the Berkele\' Rel'in\,. Nor have we substantiated the rumor that the Rel'ic\\,'s editor was seen roaming the campus with a lit cigarette the night of February I X when Calla ghan Hall burned. You see. two can play this game. but one of us is going to win. Militant·. mass. united-front protests of students with support from labor and the black community would stop the cop rampage in its tracks. The cop assault and frame-up of Guillermo Hermudel is the most serious and violent incident on the Berkeley campm thus far. They went for him first because he's a red, in their eyes. a surrogate Russian to be shot on sight. But if they get away with putting Guillermo behind bars. a dangerous precedent will be set for persecution of any students who engage in political activity scorned by the Dr. Strangeloves runnll1g this country. Berkeley students who value their democratic rights had better defend Guillermo. What's at stake is the right to fight Reagan's anti-SO\iet war drive without being labeled a criminal or a "terrorist." If you stand with the workers and peasants of Central Ameri ca against imperialist aggression: if you stand with the black masses battling the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa: if you defend the Soviet Union against the U.S. drive for nuclear war: or if you simply stand against attempted assassi nation. of leftists by "Choke Hold" Johnson-then join us in fighting the administration/cop attacks! Drop the Charges Against Guillermo Bermllde/! Cops Off Campus!. 12 MARCH 1985 Young Sparlaeus - - - ,_n _ / Berkelel Students Demand: ops, The Sturm wui DranK of cops choking. clubbing and hauling away studcnts has become an almost routine occurrence at lJC Herkeley_ Thecampus Gestapo is out to crush all political protest~from seiling a divestment group's literature table. to brutally attacking SYLer Guillermo Hermudel for leading a militant protest against Marine recruiters. to drawing guns and rioting against a student march oppos ing U.S. war threats on Nicaragua. Herkelcy students are learning what evcryghettoiled black in America knows: cops are pigs. The LJC police take their cues from Reagan's new top cop. Ed Meese. A former Alameda County assistant D.A .. Meese openly stated during the old Free Speech Movement at Herkelcy that anyone attending a political demonstra tion deserves to be shot. :"Ii ow Meese and his underlings in the campus PD act as if Herkeley is their test run for Armaged don with the Soviet "Evil Empirc." Indeed. as far as Meesc is concerned. Herkcley has always been "enemy territory." and a haven for "subver sives." Hut if the campus cops' strings arc pulled from on high. they'vc -also recei\ cd vigorous assistance from the 10\\ Iy sewers of the Hucklcyite Berkel!!r Rel·in\,. a newspaper thaCs .J. Edgar H oover\ wet d ream come true (more on thcse rodents later). As the tcnsion mounts on the Hcrkclcy campus with leftist students battling cop attacks. the police have targeted a Hispanic communist. SYLer Guillermo Hermudez. On .January 29 BermlldCl led a spirited protest to drive recruiters for imperialism's strike force. the Marines, off campus. As students surrounded the recruiters' table. the cops moved in. One burly sadist. Officer Joe Johnson (6'3~) grabbed Hermudez (5'5~. 129 Ibs.) from behind in a deadly choke hold. As he was dangling in the air, Guillermo landed a swift kick to the Marines' table. COllapsing it and sending them packing. The cops then wrenched Guillermo's arm behind his back, dragged him off in a "hammer lock," hreaking his arm. On top of the potentially lethal physical assault on Guillermo by "Choke Hold" Johnson comes the cops' deadly lies. Guillermo faces lying charges of battery of the burly police officer, resisting arrest, vandalism and disturbing the peace. In this frame-up. a 22-year-old Berkeley student now faces • arlnes ampus! Jane Scherr ,~,"" " C;(ef',i \ ,,' U.C. COp "Choke Hold" Johnson mauls Guillermo Bermudez, SYL student leader of protest against bloody Marine recruiters. Drop the Charges Against Guillermo Bermudez! nearly three years in jail and a lifetime of jeopardy knowing that anytime. any where, some killer cop could blow him away because he's been framed as a "cop beater." As comrade Guillermo stated, "They're turning the victim into the assailant!" We consider Guilletmo a hero for his action in leading student antiwar protest against the bloody Marines. And we arc determined to fight this deadly frame-up with every legal, moral. political and financial resource at our disposal. On February 19. over 150 students turned (/) o o .t: 0.. (/) :J U '" KEEPTHE .... MAR.INES :h Jt~)( Q'FF Sproul Plaza,'~CAM PlL S! February 14- ~ t Berkeley a:~ L students at SYL-initiated rally against cop rampage. out for the rally. called around the demands: Drop the Charges Against Guillermo BermudCl! Drop the Charges Against the Anti-Apartheid 3X! Copsi Marines Off Campus! Callaghan Hall. home of Berkeley's Navy ROTC program. burned to the ground on the eve of the SYL rally and Guillermo's first court appearance. No tears were shed for Callaghan Hall at the rally. We don't know who did it. but the timing was suspicious--and convenient for those who seek to fan the flames of Reagan reaction. The Berkelc)' RCI'ie\\' bunch began cooking up inflammatory lies about us. As SYLer Stephan Arnold. a llC student who was recentlv carded b\ the . , cops for the "crime" of passing oui Marxist literature, told the crowd: "I his campus is ljuick" turning into a South Alric,ln hantmtan Ilith an enlorced pa" lal\ sl'slem. I hi, i, not 'democrac,,: this i,the dictatorship ot the capitalist class at lIork. So the ljue . .,lion i., '\Vhl' nO\\'" I he <[mllL'r is lhat the state machinen i., gearing up lor world I\ar. And lhis liar is ultimate h directed al!aimt the SOl iet l nion. I~L'agan and cthe Demoerah and the cops want a consensus hehiml this \Iar drill'. So they arc hcnt on hara"ing. in tim ida t i ng and rcpre\Sing anyonL' who opposes this consensus. I hat's II hI' Jeane Kirkpatrick got drilen oil cam pus lwo years ago. And all the crocodiic tears that were shed lor Kirkpatrick and 'Iree speech' were reall" shed hecause it showed that this campus, the studenh. the vout h. II CIT not rL'ad\ to 1!O to war.' ... Jeane Kirkpatrick iot wh:,t she deSCried and lhe Rea1!anites were embarrassed and the\' w~ant to make sure that no one gets the Kirkpatrick treatment again. They want the youth n:adl' tor war and thel' arc \I illinl! to break some arms and s(')me heads \(; do il." A Picture Worth A Thousand Words The photo splashed across the front page of the Daily Cali/imlian (reprinted above) showing Johnson choking Gui llermo prompted the Herkelcy City Council to at last ban the use of the choke hold in the city after yea rs of talking about it. In the ghettos and barrios across America the choke hold is synonymous with racist cop terror. Also known as the "carotid restraint." the cops attack their victim from behind. cut off the flow of blood to the brain by squeezing around the neck and use their elbow to pinch the carotid artery. If sustained for more than 15 seconds it can be fatal. The Herkeley cops' chilling reply to the City Council's ban was. "the only way to stop them without the choke hold is to shoot" (Daily Cal. 21 February)! Moreover. this ban has no effect whatsoever on the campus cops. They goose-step under the aegis of Governor Deukmejian. whose own views on democracy stem not from that well-known commie tract. the Hill of Rights. but from Some banana republic. To underscore their bonapartist intent and defiance at being placed under any public scrutiny. the campus cops staged a full-scale riot on February 27. In response to Reagan and Shulu's escar~lting war threats against Nicara gua. hundreds of students took to the continued on page 11 1 | left | number cent march e ngle ami william f gentile nicaraguan mobilize yankee threatdefend complete extend nicaraguan revolution defend nicaragua crush contra reelection way reagan eager shake rattle roll antisoviet war drive central america step push war budget e ghetto bankroll billion pentagon step smash nicaraguan revolution ganite launch campaign convince congresswhich ly dispatch hundred million bloody salvadoran butchersof moral practical necessity approve million frozen covert funding contra ous nicaraguan counterrevolutionary ve get option explain david durenberger chairman senate select committee gencc openly covertly difference covertly lie lot nell york tillle february lie administration aide explain open aid contras close declaration war lead break diplomatic relation cost important intelligence platform managua embassy nell york tillle february standard imperialist hypocrisy reagan team pile high deep accord george shultz reagan administration worried nicaragua fall iron curtain intervention work prevent consigning nicaragua endless darkness communist tyranny reagan boast intention remove sandinista regime bush denounce sandinista militarism corruption noid reagan proclaim leprous contra brother moral equal found father brave man woman french resistance cia mercenary sadistic somocista torturer killer certainly ragan brother want accurate historical comparison hitler murderous henchman sandinista tricd appease reagan offcr declare moratorium weapon purchase expel cuban military adviser reagan mean business determined strangle nicaraguan revolution sandinista uncle mark central america line war communism cuba soviet union n ow nicaraguan need firepower defend rout contra scum political fight wage sandinista tion imperialist sandinista haent destroy talist tifth column inside country kremlin not extend military protection nicaragua today sandinista government top reagan hit list defend complete extend ihe nicaraguan revolution kill invader reagan brother contra typical lj s imperialism ic revolutionary ally ist reactionary afghanistan remnant genocidal pol pot force vietnamese mop cambodia contra freedom fighter mercenary trash fight price right cause communist exmember zas national guard pathic sadist thrive rape mutilation torture murder s honor thief s unity killer filth s reagan problem cia recently strongarme coalition look like respectable political tion ei traidor eden pastora nonetheless cia dobermansunsavory unstable mad dog responsible death nearly xood civilian contras continue jake lessonsof class struggle gerldanyrevolutioll ancicounterrevolution page r young spartacus editorial note guardian readyforteddy club issue slam lih guardian slimy cophaiting black consciousness azanian ple organisation azapo protest teddy kennedy reccnt visit south africa radlihs lie kennedy black south african militant protest alist swine ysp azapos denunciation kennedy hypocritical impcrialist politician statcd intention dcmocratic party hustler jcsse jackson treatment discomfit iihcral capitalist hut fakeleft tail azapo protest strike chord militant scntiment black south african american mist find silence expedient fawncd teddys newfound resolve fight apartheid guardian not affront teddy lie proceed bare yellow tooth big lie story suggest azapo alliance apartheid regime bantustan chief buthelezi pleased report guardian reader find swallow ence worldist tion africa action committee raac program strategy azapo raac make sound point letter guardian february azapo protcst raac note welcome relief alisms movement africa placard chant target sen edward kennedy ously racist south africans azapo memher ohject kennedv lor reason ou sa left political alliance posse comitatus wing survivalist hate fbi not mean political alliance exist letter conclude pertinent lucstion guardian endorse south african militant tell kennedy guardian cover teddy slander azapo kennedy t not surprise support mondate letter guardian march point african national congress anc support kennedys visit guardian echo talk buthelezi year ago letter justly condemn guardians attack azapo outrageous flagrantly unethical guardians contention azapos antikennedy protest discredit black south africansthe opposite case accord london februaryno relation radlib ragblack consciousness emergence potentially powerful force owe recent visit south africa kennedy say prominent member united democratic ancbacked popular frontist formation ed kennedy wish come los angeles times january far guardian not political forthrightness answer letter article surmise printing critical letter indicate ve receive decent flak guardian print lieu open response lawyer letter shameful bait coverage james cason mike fleshman defunct stream radlib southern ajiica zine raacs complaint news newsbut guardian write editorial reply guardian not editorialize azapo politic describe widely hold view black south african azapo decision picket kennedy play hand racist disingenuous garbage cason fleshman alibi guardians slander kennedys junket boot ing intention invitation use kennedy heighten emerge split imperialist camp south african revolution syl howard university racist in thug campus spartacll youth league howard unilersity discover racist naturalization senicc in lia set recruiting tahle studefll center comrade refuse let proocation pleased print icalet distrihute day in come howard oiw jrcign slucielll scenc ocloher outrageous in arrest jrlner grenadian amhassador dessima willialll oer copy ofthe lealet distrihute course agitation agaifllt in nell subscriher join readership young spartacus howard student beware reagan hate immigration naturalization service in cop slink blackburn center today set j ustice department recruiting table murderous mexican border patrol thug reagan sick anniversary celebration rape black grenada invade campus october seize manhandle grenadian ambassador dessima liam outside cramton auditorium threaten deportation racist cop work handinhand bloody apartheid ruler south africa deport howard graduate student twigg xiphu leader branch black consciousness movement azania repeatedly deny political asylum outrage racist in thug campus year million desperate starve central american refugee pcrilous journey usmexico border brave riously corrupt sadistic in border patrol live hellish barrio slave away minimum minimum pay sweatshop rant factory deprive elementary democratic right socalle illegal alien long need boss in launch gestapostyle raid round ten thousand latin worker year deportation yankee imperialist democrat republican scream horde brownskinned foot people supposedly overrun southern border seize bloody expansionist war century provide convenient scapegoat endemic unemployment capitalist sick economy great way whip racist chauvinist hysteria antisoviet war drive reagan step effort overthrow sandinista crush leftwe insurgency ei salvador s anticommunist polish emigre redcarpet ment coast guard ships ram boat haitian refugee thousand salvadoran send year face possible ment torture death hand usbacked butcher bloody hand central america deportation citizenship right foreign worker student november terrorist ku klux klan threaten march washington dc demand deportation offoreignborn worker spartacist league spartacus youth leaguesyl show stop fascist goon initiate demonstration predominantly black worker youth back seventy trade union union leader take kkks plan parade route n interest revolutionary ism fight organize million immigrant worker trade union somc soothe phrasc respect azapo aftcr repcate guardians lie strange alliance thc government south africa thc lawyer monish raac stop try imposc leadership thc south african struggle support revolutionary forceslikc kennedy talk guilty liberal unserious world cheerleader apt bloc guardian guide principle long strident leninism hostility tion anl revolutionary icadership disrupt guardians cozy armchair enthuse struggleas long far smug pettybourgeois cal role de cape action lcague join azapo antikennedy test touch heart issue london guardian february imperialist socalled fite world arc worry work class good demand lor socialist south africa exploitation oppression cal want ise capitalism mere ci ii right americanstvle democrae want real change suggest guardian embark indepth selfcriticism session bly last year start learn people ponder volte capitulation eral bourgeois take yeartoacknowledge natioll print story kal cold war spy provocation russia continue fight international labor action apartheid building revolutionary marxist ie trotskyist party south africa enure black proletariat realize demand socialist revolution time haitian refugee lock inin concentration camp side border dare klans in buddy come howard recruit racist border patrol main enemy home imperialism join syl fight future socialism national oppression thing past know illegal alien rade worker world unite spartacus youth league march social democrat red avenger rlprintld xlindrll th rd nnglr r inni king new america janhb spirit saturday night live joe mccarthy new column report antic ultraleft fringe american politic reader invite send clipping newspaper proclaim vanguard send account experience harassment remember spartacist redoubtable trotskyist splinter group estimate membership go forth battle evil empire wohlforthite est membership remember dreary polemic spart woo lie accuse pabloism ganism crypiostalinism curious thing happen spart obnoxious wd disruptive important everwitness tempt year prevent eden pastora speak columbia tyyet extremely intelligent insinuate himselfherself spart structure thewall ideology consciously conduct subtly satiric run mentary recall recent article spart newspaperthe socalled er vanguardhaile iohn tine delorean virtual martyr people struggle urge vanessa williams strike imperialist miss amerika committee article wacky score valid point spart display deliberate sense humor instance spart reaction late savage blow class enemy november student government san francisco state university pass resolution censure campus young spartacist league syl belligerently violently disrupt meeting function campus organization resolution strip spart access student activity fund recommend charter revoke incident trigger wrath usually tolerant student government spart allege disruption forum campus women center result intervention campus cop nov article worker guard announce young communists arc hunt chase beat arrest distribute marxist literature chile south africa supposedly liberal marketplace idea san francisco state university course spart not compare tion south africa instead beansprou totalitarianism generation willful mockery campus spart announce launching undergroundism beansprout style red avenger underground syl promise propriate tactic like communique guerrilla theater s y l begin wear bandanna face groucho marx nose teeshirt slogan underground xandra red avenger alas underneath fun satire spart retain totalitarian mentality red avenger nounce official women center rabid doberman pinscher answer female persuasion crawl toe fbi vow hold scorn strut little grade bookburner arc replicate confine campus sandbox panoply sinister force intent set destroy tionary marxist lie cop word red avenger announce rally campus plaia military defense nicaragua yankee imperialism solicit fund announcement say guan government purchase advanced antiaircraft missile soviet union especially soviet equivalent stinger accord worker vanguard fund sa nicaraguan soldier salvadoran leftist guerrilla shoot yankee plane spart take note radical group consider tion retort doc daniel ortega s try like hell buy sam hand n way retort ts irrefutable xandra mysterious satirist strike view fortress amerikkka young spartacus comment movie sleeper woody allen awake century ask world war iii start say know name albert shanker get bomb shanker cia socialist social democrats usaran article publication nell america feb struggle red avenger underground syl bit surprised nell america hardly wacky madcap outrageous sort paper standpoint rabidly communist social democrats age xandra underground san francisco state university virtually laudatory dennis king introduce column spirit saturday night live joe mccarthy group claim vague adherence brand socialism feel compel disavow mccathf young sparlacus young spartacus lssn newspaper spartacus youth league spartacus youth league youth section spartacist league socialist youth organization intervene social struggle arm workmgclass program base politic marx lenin trotsky editorial board bonme brodie editor dorie reed alison spencer production manager dorie reed circulation manager irene gardner issue yearly publish monthly decemberjanuary juneijuly august spartacus youth publish co warren street new york ny telephone editorial business address spondence box church street station new york ny domestic subscription year secondclass postage pay new york ny postmaster send address change young spartacus box church street station new york ny opinion express sign article letter necessarily express editorial viewpoint march spiritin sousa case call remember sousa originate far right wing threeway split american social democracy ons landslide election michael harringtons group ocratic socialist america want red avenger sit san francisco state university ban campus marxist refurbish liberal wing batter democratic party shanker co take hard meanyite line aflcio chief meany support nixon give vietnam lose imperialist cause sdusa unashamedly prowar hawk today shanker join fellow labor bureaucrat lane kirkland mittee thtl present danger ie s nuclear strike soviet union shankerite not jeane kirkpatrick line tral america coddle red totalitarianism sdusa win title cia socialist oldfashioned waythey earn king refer public ance nicaraguan turncoat eden pastora columbia university understand event take place sdusas auspex proud protest leftist drench counterrevolutionary modestly refuse credit shout social crat content flowery accolade lech walesa cia vaticanwestern bankers union capitalist rollback poland nose shanker money mouth shanker united federation teachers u ft headq uarter horne base solidarnose proud protest prostitution labor movement demonstration u ft headquarters provoke wall street journal lover freedom poland print threatening editorial cast aspersion pure motivation aflcio journal particularly reactive charge wellknown collaboration cia aflcio abroad state reply simply wall slrcci ioumal line ci sure hut alhert shanker stand column octoher sunday vcii york tilllci weck review section take tack shanker radio moscow charge shanker union annuallv receive ci iniernational contact activity totallv false say shanker wbo go hoast money get gency development conduit ci counterinsurgency bas finance operation guatemala thailand shanker s unholy alliance tbe merican lahor top merican government mate anticommunist united stretch ft office langley virginia hlesse hy wall slreel ioumal hoot workerl tilguard october king article amusing damning indictment reformist leftist spearhead witchhunt san francisco bly certain distance progressive mondalelove rememberfritz mondale crat fakeleft milieu nell america capable see humor mock underground tactic conclusion article obviously intend jibe large opponent like harrington dsa sign procontra pr duty rumor staid social dem instance socialist action vicariously enjoy underground struggle sprout totalitarianism main reformist react horror andor disapprove silence good example popularfront finger wag crime lay die compound boring call external tendency coterie embitter white exmember spartacist league spartacus youth league hear et tell red avenger politically sible represent extreme degeneration issue ponderous warning spartacist comrade believe validity leninism red avenger leaflet road limstown reply frankly doubt et believe guerrilla theatre equal tion cultism iust xandras underground syl docs appear stodgy sober colltilllle oil page young spartacus gnorance anlbodl good karl marx reagan nuke education mr auld find go forbid mrs auld instruct tell thing unlawful unsafe teach slave read word sink deep heart stir sentiment lie ing call existence entirely new train thouglit understand perplexing difficultyto wit white mans power enslave black man moment understand pathway slavery dom conscious difficulty learn teacher set high hope fix purpose cost trouble learn read frederick douglass narrative oj lije oj american slave ignorance weakness reason hallmark struggle social emancipation struggle oppress internal mental stripe leave master whip fight knowledge access culture hoard rule class black slave american south peasant tsarist russia veiled young woman afghanistanall risk life learn read condition extreme repression today united state bourgeois democracy americans functionally illiterateaccorde government educator jonathan komi put real figure percent white percent black percent hispanic adult total functional marginal nonreader land opportunity succeed produce generation young citizen lack clementary knowledge history ture science innercity school literally prison patrol cop tote gun metal detector suhurban enclave country cluh school not teach mueh result take account gross class raee inequality roughly ignorance guarantee ronald reagan start ealculate ahandonment puhlic education hut s take road engeancc halfserious effort improvc edueation come aiter russians launch sputnik satellite wave hysteria government produce thing ccrte push teach math science school commitment teach bulk population start decline american bourgeoisie realize long hegemonic power italist world place date august nixon let lar float free gold continue lose dirty colonial war vietnamese peoplea people add wipe adult illiteracy year drive ist country word people rule country quit education reagans administration fullscale mobilization underway dismantle s leave recall organize nazi goebbel german student burn book freud zola proust upton sinclair volume destroy moral majority repeat scene rid school secular humanism slogan spanish fascist intelligence long live death budget ax wield bible replace darwin court cop mobilize order schoolsholde pen student strip elementary civil liberty new right conference hold november living testament capitalist decay detroit samuel l blumenfeld author nea trojan horse american education bluntly public education great experiment fail instead advocate private academy tian school teach child home enter william bennett gans new education secretary s education debut announce people college right orwell s lieutenant calley human right adviser bennett nasty task occur reagan not squeeze welfare mother herpaiothhih tot n eihnl ilfloay wi lfiyt heyaaih iiuiuthji bolshevik poster erate like blind man failure misfortune lie wait side alexei radakov kid school lunch pay insane star war arm buildup turn middle class desperately poor new budget submit congress propose limit total federal aid student year cut aid entirely family annual income bennetts job justify oversee attack education n statement win let eat cake award month blithely declare cut require student divestiture certain sort stereo divestiture automobile divestiture thebeach divestiture fact proposal outright denial high education million youth cxpert estimate percent student currently enrol college ill affect bennett helie trivializing situation hold great britain european country sort model particularly insidious case britainnotorious extreme class bias school system student attend staterun school track young age ii plus examination hut infinitesimal percentage get college n general bear die rigidly enforce divided order monarchy allis fame die empire ity emulate predecessor country notable relatively democratic nature public educationlargely product civil war strpggle ethnically diverse work class social reform reagan proposal slash college funding automatic rationing program design cut social ture high education level capitalism need think market moral category job black minority youth teach reagan not need physicist star warsso public education continue rot produce generation ignoramus solution moribund reactionary rule class see problem spend money educate people not need reaganite mobilize logically theory flat earth go comehack suhstitute fluoridation drive hard slowly turn clock great scientific discovery human historycharle darwin ory evolution congress pass law ban teaching secular humanism school receive fund desegregation s secular humanism moral majority likeminded bookburner not like atheism united nation sex education theory evolution writing hemingway hawthorne cii yorf til fehruary reagan co want revile darwin frcud marx naturally einstein suhversive lot people country ought look near suhversive comrade leon trotsky follow ahout importance darwin remark trotsky sverdlo university revolutionary soviet russia june sa onl ihat moment consider th tail peacock theoretical perspectie darwin interpretation lelt atheist sevcral month later read darwin autohiographyall firmlv emheddecl phrase somethinglike darwin reject hihle theory creation preserve hclidin godi deepl aflecte darwin sake know conventional lie diplo frederick douglass learn read giant step road liberation slavery matic trihute social opinion english hourgeoisie hypocritical world reall hrain old manone moq ingenious history humanitythere remain little cell unallecte hv darwinism religious faith lodge childhood studvinf hea priest decide rurue psychological comrade hut doc matter charle darwin assert lose helicl god darwinism nonetheless entirelv irreeoncilahle heliel respect darwinism forerunner marxism take hroadlv materialist dialectical sense marxism application darwinism human society sverdlov u puhlic equivalent bob jones university learn hymn onward christian soldier history protestant reformation school bad country accord national commission excellence tion report issue april business military leader complain arc spend million dollar cost iv remedial education training program hasic skill read write spelling computation department navy lor example report commission recent recruit read ninth grade t el minimum need simply understand hitten salety nstrucl ion survey test general knowledge icvd college youth reveal story statewidc college exam carolina year percent student know correct answer ask country drain hy amaon r er small wonder ihe priority local gendarme capitalist rule clear hv new york cit mayor koch announce d huild prison schoob koch roughly rclation people liew york city zionist mayor arah townhut stateincnt hy mean uniljue detroit spend annually student michigan spend s f t march time prison inmate need lot prison propose throw entire generation poor black youth street s army growth private school espe cially fundamentalist protestant one soar period begin white flight integration city innercity school increasingly black money getting turn tuition tax credit historically hold violation amendment guarantee tion church state percent private school religious kozol write today afford flee suburb remove child public school integrated underelass boston process gestation poor white poor black charles darwin theory evolution transform man view nature poor hispanic illiterate nell york times book reliell j march obvious s connection defeat bus means achieve integrate cation wholesale scratching fund public education fortress colllillucdjioll page j find favor aficio executive board young spanacli december bless soul rightwe boy aflcio admit s humorous red avenger campaign h ow feel outdo humor department wild crazy guy nel america et cia socialist funny bone make revealing error refer predictable counterposition usually tolerant student government allegedly totalitarian ty standard fare social dem proclaim democracy geois state itsjuniorconduitseven young marxist beat haul jail distribute communist literature king try manufacture discontinuity newfound sense humor political work ostensibly dreary political history case king sneer polemic wohlforthite fact sense humor deal tim wohlforth useful attribute let fine wohlforthite left opposition trotskyist socialist worker party swp principally lead compose leader swps youth groupinclude tim wohlforth shane mage jim robertson oppositionthe lutionary tendencywas split wohlforth right midst rt fight rightward plunge swpa degeneration finish treacherous leadership labor movement bear small responsibility fullscale attack minimal gain win civil right movement come ioiently bus labor movement power immediate interest mobilize teroffensive poor white irish south boston mobilie reactionary racist demagogue deleate busingthey seal late child democrats iiberab stand racist mob rampage busing course refuse extend integration lilywhite suburb kill bus city city decay democratic mayor implement enforce reagan austerity measure work class tie city desegregation effort norfolk virginiathe black trade unionist key historically advance education win class struggle universal education begin earnest fight wage protect child industry child labor law product struggle dawn union movement free d ren horror work ing mine factory enable school today labor movement face capitalist assault existencefrom smashing co unionbusting attack pan worker teacher drive profession drove start salary teacher new york city reagans propose merit pay scheme attack s leave union protection encrust bureaucrat sit atop union replace militant classstruggle leadership offensive wage defense workingclass people social frontsinclude right child education decay capitalism waste entire norfolk virginia union contingent marche bus generation worldand home education knowledge link social progress need mobilize entire gene pool society considerthe scot nation small country overwhelming contribution scot field medicine philosophy engineering fundamentally scot presbyterian deeply believe understand word god boy girl teach read iirile world culture benefit gleanillg good million people contrast india newark ghettohow einstein die age malnutrition vietnam poor country haiti people read s creationism crap classroom ndee basic education provide soviet union cuba poland deformed degenerated worker state profit system abolish literacy state near percent red army afghanistan fight muslim mullah routinely ter teacher instruct percent afghanistan literate time soviet intervention revolutionary mtlrxist profoundly committed education learn bolsheviks understand face vast backwardness russia tribune people revolutionary party combat rance ienin companion krupskaya instance teacher newly urbanized young russian pcasant meet lenin young people thirte knowledge purpose hate landlord tsar boss want armcd understanding world live order change particularly crucial lead worker oppress successful revolution basic understanding history human culture faccd result capitalism retrograde educational system massive ignorane particularly youth effective revolutionary party conscious entity pose informed cadre capable understand society dedicate liberate chain irrational die rule class trotsky conclude remark darwin comprehend world sllch broad materialist point iew signify emancipation one ness time legacy mysticism secure ket firmly ground mean know future inner subjective hindrance struggle rcistance opposition nal undermine case circumvent smash othersdepende tion struggle yjorker guard photo state preface marxisl blillelin iv conversation wohlforth contain unity negotiation minute negotiating session abstract quality ite game w forth seriously intend unify sousa echo forthite charge insistence political accountability matic clarity keeping archaeology try time wohlforthite trance document certain lyn marcusstill represent view scious trotskyist force nounce percent agreement question comrade robertson reply fore long find percent extremely large percent remark marcus h waryhskr nyc spartacist protest shanker headquarters housing solidarnosc polish company union cia western banker swp revolutionary zation wohlforth split minority rt comrade actually engineer britain gerry healy effect discredit opposition entirety unserious swp cadre deliberate collusion swp majority wohlforth co help frame rt leadership expulsion long wohlforthite engineer expulsion original split plead apparent political gram grouping continue sufficiently close demand fusion group look leadership healyite current sistent history currently trading parricipation international committee dox tendency combat pabloist revisionism rt oppose swp spartacist group lead jim robertson undertake unity tion wohlforth healy look american satellite lackey program damn break soon ies zigzag political motion veer sharply rightward healy embrace maos red guard myth arab revolutionprefiguring later descent prostration despotic capitalist people yah oilrich muammarelqaddafi libya document m afraid conkss understand word marx engel ienin trotsky conlinue pake subscribe young spartacus address phone city state zip ysp issue young spartacu payablemail spartacus youth publishing co box church street station new york ny issue introductory issue worker vanguard issue woman include spartaclst worker vanguard revolution new renewal include spartaclst lke payablemail spartalisl publishing co box gpo new york ny young spartacus lesson class struggle germany revolution counterrevolution jiil berlin january fighting freikorps troop radical worker article print heloll second oj part hase presentation hy fjartaist leakue central tee memher georke foster spartacist educational katheringl hold late april earll nell york chicako berkeley entitle reiolwion terrevolution comrade foster talk oj presentation deote question oj war tion run ysp octoher ol revolutionary wave sweep germany end bloody suppression bavarian soviet republic acutely revolutionary situation pass lack leninist party newborn communist party germany k d experience rapid growth emerge event weak politically immature problem confront young party werc compoundcd murderous deed counterrevolution deprive k d enced capable burg liebknecht jogiehe levine k d hold second congress october congress luxemburg liebknecht jogiche levine correctly argue k d participation postwar mentary election vote overwhelming majority delegate levine carry away impulsive revolutionary fervor delegate end voting boycottist second congress question arise kpd lead paul levi klara zetkin time boycottistsultraleft reject participation bourgeois parliament principlewere minority minority nonetheless command allegiance ten thousand leftsyndicalist worker win day boycotter levi split issue expel oppose position expel opposition go form ultraleft communist worker party germany kapd subsequent event confirm levis precipitous hysterical action little cure kpd infantile leftist disorder main effect cut k pos size half gutte workingclass base berlin north germany leave political clutch head leave communist leadership comintern concerned split left impede amalgamation party worker movement stand soviet government dictatorship proletariat invite kapd attend fraternal status second congress communist tional hold petrograd moscow summer similar overture left wing large centrist ndependent socialist party uspd hope facilitate leninist polarization forge unified german munist party end struggle proletariat ebb germany freikorp social democratic henchman bloody work sie victorious entente look approval freikorps german social democracy stalk horse bourgeois reaction ebert left reichswehr general berlin mayor demonstrator arrest berlin counterrevolutionary deed baltic germany stem tide bolshevism demand unit disband reichswehr limit troop set versaille ebert attempt comply erstwhile rightist ally ecide dispense service weimar republic march nationale vereinigung national association ultra right organization like wartime general ludendorff bad freikorps scum ed ebert series ultimatum ebert social democraticdominate weimar coalition replace government neutral expert ie prussian civil service tag dissolve ebert retire replace new president elect plebiscite oller noskedictator ebert refuse condition prussian ci il servant name kapp dimwitte general name luttwitz march freikorps troop berlin march declare nationale vereinigung government desperation ebert turn reichswehr defend republic find reichswehr lift finger freikorps ernment flee berlin spd leadership appeal proletariat german work respond stage massive general strike paralye country spike rightist plot day disorient kpd stand aside conflict claim interest outcome fight wing bourgeoisie confront massive strike action belatedly somewhat eptly correct face march kornilovlike hy far right german hourgeoisie ruhr mohilizationsagainst kapp putsch lead localize seizure power hy worker march insurgent worker control entire region east dilsseldorf millheim suppress ehert turn man stand aside fold arm putsch general von seeckt ehert appoint von seeckt commander armed force von seeckt proceed use freikorp suppress ruhr worker hloody efficiency kapp fail berlin bavaria rightist local reichswehr commander von mohl force social democrat hoffmann office instal farright government power shortly tht tumultuous tvtnt surround tht ahortivt kapp putseh tht atttntion germany fixtd tht polishsovitt war tht rightwe polish nationalist kadtr piislidski creaturt fntentt imptrialism decidtd realie aspiration greattr poland young sovitt repuhlic htn ht think ht wtaktstat tnd dtsperately fight civil war initially pilsudski armit rapid detp incursion ukraine stie kiev pilsudski appetite poland shore black sea prove undoing june tide hattie turn pole force eacuate kiev polish army stream hack tht horder cthnographic poland red army hot pursuit decision continue offensive carrv war poland lenin urge tht war continucd prcvailing tion trotsky derhinsky radek rykm initially stalin carry war poland lenin expect polish worktrs follow hourgeoisie hut instead rist link hand red army march warsaw trotsky reetly turn skeptical sueh development hecause wide support pilsudski regime newly independent poland deep antirussian sentiment polish nationalism lenin main eoncern poland hut germany hope effect juncture hetween russian german revolution therehy give enormous impetus german nism vastly facilitate ty successful outcome lutionary struggle german proletariat red army offensive poland take place session second com intern congress delegate intently follow hattle comrade know lenin historic gamhle prohe europe hayonet red army fail red army defeat gate warsaw major factor military defeat stalin red army advance poland column northern column chevskys command drive warsav southern column ctlcctivt control stalin assign cover tukhachevskys flank stalin ctrtain tukhachevsky seie warsaw eagtr feather cap disoheyed instruction cover tukhachevskys adanct instead divert force capture general weygand fnnch ollictr advise pole pilsudski take advantage gap hetwttn tht armit crtattd hy stalin grah strike dcvastate rtsult force tht rtd army hurritd disordtrly lttreat hack tht sovitt union pilsudski heen defeat red army reach gtrman hordtrs world history likely havt fardiffertnt httter outcome tht s pds treacherous role aftermath kapp putsch lead hig stthack reichstag tkction eighttenmonthsearli postwar election spl win vote seat tht reichstag n june elections vote drop ing stat contrast uspd grow rapidly increase reichstag representation seat kpl time win rapid growth ljspl go deepen polariation httwetn right leave wing party leftward move worker disgruntkd spd swell rank proctss reach tion historic halk congress ullstein uspd hold octoher congrtss meet consider uspds affiliation communist tional sptaking hehalf tht right wing hilfcrde russian menshevik martov answer ding zinoviev impassione hrilliant fourhour speech win day majority delegate opt tht com intern fusion hetween kpd uspd leave consummate dectmher transform k d party powerful root union k pd hecome mass party revolutionary offensive march action successful fusion come mood revolutionary expectation impatience memher expect action mood find rdlcction reinforctd hy large section kpd leadership felt compel lead vastly expand party mass action hosse reinforce hy failure x january radek levi open letter seek initiate united need foremost comrade point map agitation pardon expression claptrap leon trotsky october othtr idt lahor organiation numher key issue face workersfrom wage necessity organiation proletarian defense fehruary levi petulantly resign kpd central mittee follow rightful tion deeply rotten role hloeking centrist serrati refuse split reformist conclude psi italian socialist party congress hold livorno ltvi join resignation hy zetkin diiumig k pd ship centrally hand ernst meyer heinrich hrandler gust thalheimer paul frohlich french soldier guard coal ruhr occupation leave profound economic crisis ravage population inflation unemployment october dollar worth billion mark postage stamp cost million mark k d left wing ctntertd btrlin ruth iischtr arkady maslow espouse variant socalled theory offensive new leadership prejudice rtinforce hy arrival scene com intern rtpresentative bda kun joseph pogany aka john pepper cpusa infamy kun preeminent partisan tht tionary ollensivt like hankrupt officer french general stall strategic tactical wisdom hoile command attack kun german cothinker vinccd proletarian revolution imminent advocate arouse thc ktariat succession ing strike insurrtction uation exacerhate urging zinoviev bukharin zinoviev bukharin hoth vehtmently argue january open letter radek propose meeting executive tee communist international ecci lenin defend radek tactic approve kun partisan tht lcvolutionary ofknsivt hukharin ideological impirtr htn congress tht communist international afttr view hten test germany ind faikd spout thtorysince capitalism hauste itsdl hereore victory ht gaintd uninterrupted revolutionary offensive ttst revolutionary sive course march action ahor militancy germany tarly center mansfeld coal lidd ctntral germany prtiously hackward lack class sciousntss miner helate ltsponse tht revolutionary wavt stpt gtrmany ww norton tbb t militant flocktd tht hanntrs oftht kpd strikts stopork mttting plant occupation rolkd region march social dtmocrat hiirse governor saxony sntre prussian minister tht interior send troop police rtgion disarm suppress worker k d leadership reply provocation armed ltsistance area central germany worktrs hetde fight heroically hut place fighting sporadic hy mean gtntralitd rest country exception clash hamhurg kpds go swertd wttk later hecame ckar wouldbe insurrtction ahorte kpd issue general strike come ahout ensue instead scatttre strike hy kpd supporter effort shut factory worker influence spd uspd right wing result hitter clash hetween worker march action fill coflinue jake central europe germany page call cost high casualty heavy thousand arrest include number k d leader bourgeoisie spd run dog launch major anticommunist propaganda barrage charge action moscow month kpd membership drop half trotsky later point event central germany march demand active kpd stress defensive nature situation offensive reality launch socialdemocratic policeman hiirse utilile order unite worker defense selfprotection begin modest resistance soil prove favorable agitation meet favorable response possible pass general strike event continue unfold masse rise tie worker gnm strong temper lilt indecision demoraliation seile camp come time issue slogan pass offensive hut soil prove unfavorable condition mood masse fail spond resolute slogan necessary sound retreat fall ti previously prepared position orderly manner possible trotsky jcncral partl mcmhership vecting jfoo organiation jull nstead utilize moral element defense kpd lead follower action counterpose majority worker majority chance grasp stake central germany immediate wake action kpd leadership unrepentant defend policy attempt seize revolutionary initiative thalheimer write march action isolated action party beour opponent right extenta crime tariat march offensive introduction series constantly rise action redeem act k p ds vociferous critic paullevi having resign central committee end february sanctimoniously wash hand responsibility march event levis fundamental political critique theory offensive march action putschist adventure sound panic face outraged social democratic hysteria moscow communism lead act renegacy falsely claim unable present view party rank file levi go public criticism march action dimwitte response gross provocation militant worker central germany bourgeoisie mobijie ten thousand worker engage heroic bloody struggle defend class oppressor circumstance levis public cism action criticism malicious oneside gentte show sense ty party communist international accomplish lenin word cruel mangling party critique seize reformist fuel bourgeoisie anticommunist propaganda offensive campaign persecution aim kpd addition ievis cowardly spiteful act indiscipline inflame party critique far clarify issue succeed muddy question disorganie kpd indiscipline levi correctly expel party german march action naturally occupy central place comintern congress hold moscow summer trotsky observe german july day january april follow october revolution july daysmarch march n july day germany want isoctober march action example fruit theory offensive lenin trotsky able win day russian party comintern left partisan bukharin version uninterrupted revolution man march event painful lesson determination leadership dissatisfaction masse sufficient condition victory trotsky note obtain number condition close bond leadership masse confidence leadership condition lack time spartacus youth league directory syl national offioe box church street station new york ny ann arbor syl po box ann arbor mi atlanta syl box atlanta ga boston syl po box cam bridge ma chicago syl box main po chicago il cleveland syl box cleve land oh detroit syl box detroit mi los angeles syl box los feliz station los angeles madison syl box madison wi new york syl box canal street station new york ny norfolk syl co sl po box main po norfolk v oakland syl box civic center station oakland oberlin syl box oberlin college oberlin oh san francisco syl box san francisco washington dc syl po box washington dg trotskyist league canada toronto box station toron ontario z q u c o r oj revolutionary internationalist organizer red army leon trotsky fight capitulation german communist worker united fascism central slogan congress power previous conquest masse mark recognition political organizational resource communist party cient conquest power party direct carefully study real situation respective country turn attention agitation ganda organization conquest confidence worker today struggle lesson refine codify shortly comintern theses ing communist tactic united kpd leadership return germany uneasy truce left wing fully party trate berlin hamburg ruhr remain enamor revolutionary offensive critical unitedfront activity leadership party continue ernst meyer k pd slogan masse try carry tory work outline gress sting experience march effort carry work lead right deviation k p d let pass prem ier revolutionary opportunity sente german communism germany bourgeois order crisis late germany default reparation impose country victorious entente versaille response ii january french belgian troop pie ruhr german ment ebert president big industrialist cuno chancellor turn reply order german cial railway factory worker refuse cooperate occupier strike sweep r uhr french troop mobilize striker german bank reserve factory inventory seie flow coal percent german production iron ruhr steel lw pereent german production cease fascistic nationalistic ment move short order government proclaim policy passive resistance guerrilla warfare french troop massive ruhr general strike fraternization develop er french troop lead ing troop join demonstration german worker occupation ruhr government response touch profound economic crisis u ment soar january pioyment stand percent april rise percent september percent percent percent g percent figure add semiemployed tage worker work time january percentage employ percent october jump percent young spartacus germany october like third ierman proletariat unemployed work hour week figure contrast early year unemployment percent g percent unemployment actually drop percent enormous rise unemployment inflation run amok ix october dollar buy billion mark s ing evening dollar cost billion mark day later rate billion mark dollar evening rate rise billion n day rate billion october lar buy billion mark comrade seymour term hyperinflation effect economic crisis massive impoverishment working elass petty bourgeoisie condition life simply appalling ll impossible end june cuno government nearly cease function profound political crisis bourgeoisie parallel economic collapse general strike erupt ruhr grow armed insurrection town bochllm june august immense strike wave rip germany culminate strike berlin typographical worker run press print ment worthless paper money strike general cuno government fall cuno succeed chancellor stresemann enter office opine bourgeois government stresemanns abandonment tactic passive resistance ruhr occupation september desperate gamble edgment hopeless situation german bourgeoisie acutely revolutionary situation trotsky point man bourgeoisie position kpd realicd ime case take requisite revolutionary measure mande situation unfortunately kpd respond nent irresolute sluggish fashion party leadership january hand brandler include lefh ruth fischer thiilmann burn march action plod revolutionary crisis develop brandler fischer demne spontaneous armed rise bochum denounce objectively provocation german sie brandler slogan framework weimar constitution worker government germany trotsky afar conclude probably july germany enter acutely revolutionary situation demand german party work clear plan action culminate seilure power armed rection trotsky insist date set advance order turn k d political organiational military task necessary tion german october main obstacle prod comintern k d action stalin argue august letter zinoviev bukharin opinion germans restrained encourage menting letter trotsky state stalin bear thc mainlcponsibility lor khing slip situation icrmany support age eakling eptic telllporier ierman lie accidentally assulllc opportunit opposition hiqoric importance essence t r march onh continue polin lolloe rusia march iii jrai prograll ii ihl c iliililalillla ii flildalwlliill august follow berlin strike topple cuno government finally decide acutely tionary situation brandlerjourneye moscow consult preparation struggle power brandler skeptical tantly commit prepare german octobcr word thirtysix year later oppose preparation uprising simply view situation acutely revolutionary vet reckoning harpening brandler state german lenin request trotsky assign lead insurrection skys opponent politburo maneuver stead delegate radek cal thc revolutionary possibility pyatako brandler return ciermany proceed carry preparation spirit abm quote statement like french bourbon forget learn despite considerable smiet financial tcchnical political tance preparation lor insurrection irresolute olten unnal ljuality kpd ieadcrship unable necessary turn party shilt center gravity iti work lrom practical agitation arou nd daytoda issue immediate prcparation insurrection include masse slogan set motion reyolution organie intrinsically faorable situation suffice brandler tcmporie share way maslowfischerthiilmann left wing carry day rise begin saxony thuringia k d strong support october k d enter coalition ment spd left saxony day later thuringia intent formation worker govcrnment ws usc springboard arming proletariat launch insurrection target date set early november issue ofa lor general strike suppose tobe signal commence uprising bourgeoisie begin regain head day k d enter saxony government ebert order reichswehr occupy region pave way cieneral mueller commandant district order dissolution h und red saxony government defy order week later mueller expect resistance order troop march t ince period brandler accelerate arming proletariat prepare engage reichswehr brandler instead decide faith k piys coalition partner ielt social democrat zeigner k pi proposal lor general strike sign begin insurrection l vote conference saxon worker organiation meet town chemnit october delegate conference elect ruhr occupation sense representative mood german proletariat october brandler forward genralstrike zeigner balk kpd leadership include left back hamburg icked lightminded decision kpd zentrale leadership center cascade series error attempt insurrection place preparation worker minute plan fighter handful pistol initially successful gainlllg control proletarian district city isolate pockct revolution subseljuently press insurgent give good accounting disengage force ordcrly way byit shameful capitulation kpd leadership let revolutionary tion slip hand sic regain initiative defeat worldhistoric proportion er iet lj nion follow olut iona ry de elopment keen interest know victory revolution mean beginning end economic scarcity soviet union powerful extension international olution thc aborting german october give enormous impulse crystallie stalinist bureaucracy ussr mark dividein communist party soviet union comintern trotsky note international ali renin ihe cause crii oj octo revolution tion olthe world revolution cause h cry oj cruel ddeat proletariat lip defeat postwar insurrection confront existence communist party heginning youth ituation change sharply long hdore simply ddeat proletariat hut rout polin oj cominterll bourgeoisie recapture initiative germany late way pilve period stability weimar republicthe period ebbing revolutionary wave reinforce large infusion american capital form shortterm loan period course german communist party rest comintern politicallv subordinate narrow october hitler stormtrooper gain follow failure proletarian leadership lead fascist victory deathcamp horror progress publisher street battle communist nazi confrontation reichsbanner social democratic worker militia rightwe young german order right united worker organization smash fascist national caste interest ing stalinist bureaucracy kpiys history period chiell interest example ieltright figag nascent stalinist bureaucracy brandler oust end fifth world congress convene month german deleat scapegoate shameful capitulation entire k d leadership entire matter german october event pass oil episode mistake tempo high point german crisis claim ahead situation hold pregnant revolution kpd enter period party swing sharply right belate discovery purely objective capitalist stabiliation comintern veer sharply eft emerge luly tenth plenum ecci embrace doctrine period social fascism u agreement activity socialist party banncd period final period capitalism world end victory proletarian revolution immediate task comintern party period social democracy ielt wing fascism ie social fascism main enemy embrace kpd operate country fascism deadly menace policy lead frightful calamity doctrine social fascism scarcely new advance stalin social democracy objecti ely ate wing fascism infamous germans restrain letter stalin write fascist course nap advantage let lascist attack fuse entire work class munists cicrmany bulgaria echo ear later thiilmann alter hitler cpitaph nist international ihe worldwide depression hit gcrmany late slippcd noose neck thc weimar lic llnemployment rise million tour million year german society throw profound economic political crisis pose anew ljuestionwhich class rule k pis doctrine social fascism brick wall beteen key revolutionary task win proletariat away procapitaiist spd spd large party reichstag majority party german worker dominant inlluence powerful tradeunion movement fore large objective obstacle successful proletarian revolution election september reveal ominous trend poll xooooo vote jump million vote n election spl vote drop xooooo total million k d vote jump ij million total million stalinist blind meaning huge vote fascist dismiss surge instead delude great electoral success remain trotsky international left opposition sound alarm big bourgeoisie fascist surge pose question try continue rule old method weimar rely social democrat necessary use fascist gang crush proletariat scatter organiation wind bourgeoisie time vacillate petty bourgeoisie increasingly eat face capitalist crisis turn proletariat force violent counterreolution extreme imperialist reaction situation condition bv impotent bourgeois regime solidly port conservative spd command support broad section work class weakness kpd visavis spd consequence accumulate powerlessness mer thc work masse aller nperience thc intcrvcne year belice ability communist party ih leadership gain rc olutionarv ictor ii k d break pcttybourgeois masse fascism tll thc proletariat danner politically conquer thi necessarv facc rcalit squarely learn think surge vote tor afis colltinlle oil page ii nicaragua continuedfrom page despise nicaraguan tion resistance fierce despite original million reagans murder inc estimate million month private source contra operation ing slowmotion equivalent bay pig los angeles times february accord nell york times february month administration urge rebel seize nicaraguan city set sional government recognize rebel unable capture hold territory outside jungle eastern n gua sandinista heavy artillery rebel scare hell contra stalemate plus e war preparation speak call military exercise naval maneuver point uing threat yankee invasion reagan get stumble block plth war poll percent american population oppose aid kind contras invasion ghetto youth disproportionately large chunk military eager die racist american capitalism ral griffin black marine refuse lebanon grenada indicative problem ist highly black hispanic army colonial rebellion central america vietnam war black youth take percent fatality war get raceterror unemployment return home black interest defend racist yankee imperialism today imperialist plan new adventure central haunt vietnam syndrome ade sell ate settlement type interventionist left push central america today heroic namese worker peasant defeat imperialism hattleield war spartacist league call internationalist struggle action labor strike war oppose socialpatriotic cry cp swp bring boy home say indochina communist boy north vietnamese troop win war ed worker government great victory world work people strike vital blow cas ambition world imperialist domination stay hand angola like send marin help south africa smash anticolonialist revolt vietnamese heroic effort give working class breathing space force alism drive world war iii soviet union vietnam victory defeat imperialism like scene personnel saigon grab desperately ter embassy roof april repeat embassy managua san salvador rest left worker world party communist party socialist worker party afraid outright victorious social revolution vietnambreaking imperialism stranglehold collectivize industry agriculture centrally plan economybrought peace indochina reformist hopeless search imperialist dove counterrevolutionary battle cry vietnam mobilize thousand live letter congressman crawl washington dc beg reagan leave ei salvador sharp contrast spartacist league spartacus youth league ize hundredsstrong antiimperialist contingent marching flag fm ln banner read military victory salvadoran ist defense cuba ussr begin ei salvador spartacus youth league consistently stand reagan democrats antisoviet war drive harvard syl member ly fight attempt school expel participation protest war secretary caspar weinberger ucla lead stration student stop gallont salvadoran ambassador death speak uc berkeley lead demonstration send marine recruiter scurry campus spartacist supporter trade union fight labor hotcargo military good head run butcher political strike invasion nicaragua march rest left hiding argue vote loser mondale breathing space nicaragua salvadoran leave beneficiary lefts total prostration u s ist breathing space protest murderous policy central america dale campaign quarantine nicaragua day vitnam war defeatist wing imperialism want cut loss pull today democrats line gans antisoviet war drive central america reagan say try oust sandinista reagan want smash nicaraguan revolution outright democrats want find able way major war drive expenditure reagan stration hipartisan support gunpoint election ei salvador year s able ram million aid butcher duarte nicaragua democrats want offer aid massmurdere contras election prodemocratic party leave take mondaleferraro button call emergency mobilization april n fact mobilization root emergency conference solidarity swamp hold land septemher express purpose cleveland conference delay central america action embarrass walter quarantine mondale election vote wimpy motion support struggle central american people not vote motion condemn aflcia instrument tion latin american trade aifldbecause ate labor accord cesar chavez april represent springboard resurrection movement resurrection communist party socialist worker party splitoff faction display organic inability lead tionary struggle herd vietnam war movement dead end democratic party old wise come againthe league squeeze lemonsdecke preappointed staff advisory board voting procedure teach general zia thing unite quash class struggle elbow fear red ted s wrong collaborationist coalition foreign language service vietnam victoryl defeat imperialism politic paralyze effective action worker youth tie class enemy explicit emergency tion come complete field trip capitol h ill lobby intervention senator choice preach faith cratic wing capitalist warmonger build massive antiimperialist movement struggle worker revolution central america home reformist charlatan oppose defeat bloodsoake doran regime oppose completion extension nicaraguan tion threaten alliance imperialist dove fear spectre revolution remember bay pig remember vietnam democratic partywe know stand solidarity youth give imperialism finger defy government fortress page abc marxism fact reread document think cartoon favorite workman unwrapped large canvas art dealer arc look middle large white canvas perfect hlack dot art dealer say not care world great painter think s kiddingthis quality carry away read l document marcus take crackpot economic theory leave tion include sds emerge lyndon larouchethe head national caucus bor committee today larouche nclc universally regard group progovernment provocateur deprogrammer outright crazy conspiracy theory represent perfect paranoid worldview point larouche convince kissinger agent kremlin nclc call jail antinuke protester strike minersboth agent strange energy cabal larouche understand big percent indeedit encompass variant psychofascism ask communist party larouche gangsterist operation m opu p know marcuslarouchethe truly horrible example cultdegeneration lead straight worker wohlforth fate worth recording decade healy minion worker league undertake earnest bizarre healyite scheme perverse slanderous campaign swp leadership agent russian secret police andor fbi responsible abet cover murder leon trotsky total subordinayoung spartacus go nicaragua help harvest nicaraguan lize demonstrate intention defend inch territory determined defend revolution remember insurrection spark sandinista national liberation topple hate somoza dynasty popular uprising shatter national guard problem face gua sorely need material aid support percent nicaraguan budget million defense syl pleased able contribute largely symbolic gesture raise money san francisco state harvard university send nicaraguas defense act internationalism crime pass marxist literature s y l ban san francisco state red avenger comrade face legal prosecution underground s y l continue defy sf states ban support social revolution country understanding main enemy home beginning class perspective american youth syl see antiimperialism abroad mean class struggle home critical struggle today unchain power working class enemy democratic party build integrate revolutionary worker party lead class struggle yankee imperialism belly beast want win youth fight socialist future mean defend revolutionary gain win fight worker government home remove power world great enemy worker oppress tion healyite organization regime libyan strongman qaddafi effort give marcus run money paranoid acy theory n healy alibi iraqi regime murder member iraqi communist party iraq healy bastion arab revolution wohlforth companion nancy field ed leader healyite satellite follow purge wohlforth crawl swp brief interlude lead ask swp go cynical squeeze lemon tim nancy find true happiness swp not longtim swp wohlforth hang bay area report give class dsas socialist school give friendly relation harringtonite laugh wohlforth consciously unconsciously king touch fundamental difference revolutionist brand reformist ie seek reform system rot corpse exercise trivial hairsplitte debate defense marxist program charlatan faker far far bad albert shanker board room capitalist basement langley virginia committee present danger consideration obviously moot leninsearly battle menshevism nounce similarly bad sort silly purism create th bolshevik organization capable lead russian masse great october revolution early political battle today leninist organization dedicate worker revolution country capable have little fun ala xandras red avenger expense manifestly craze rule class march germany continuedfrom paxe defeat tle working class warning trotsky international leave opposition consider faction communist al insist necessity scrap idiotic doctrine social fascism place advocate policy closing rank te majority german work class form united social democratic nonparty worker cist danger particular trotsky urge k po struggle mobilize worker unemployed gan extensive plan economic laboration soviet union combat unemployment lie basis reorganize german economy directly pose working mass necessity seize power instead kpd persist period orientation deepen error attempt compete fascist adopt slogan people revolution erase demarcation tween marxism fascism hclpe reconcile worker petty bourgeoisie fascist ideology error cap call red referendum thc kpd join fascist urge support naiinspire recall social democraticcenter party coalition government prussia raise give relationship force mean replace berkeley continuedfrom paxe street march berkeley bart station campus cop car follow ram leg march turn campus cop swarm flail nightstick club dozen ground student fight surround cop car demand release detain student chase away thug blue protester rally day cop rampage circulate resolution call formation police review commission cratically elect student tive demand release police surveillance material political demonstrator involve campus cop try videotape rally livermore action group ludicrously offer train uc police nonviolence order responsible professional certainly solidarile sentiment student end cop brutality illusion review board court teach cop nonviolent range futile absurd clear berkeley student cop court neutral cop body armed man pose defend capitalist law order smash union picket spartacist league spartacus youth league public office bay area fn pm sal pm telegraph floor near street oakland california phone chicago tue pm sit pm w harrison st floor chicago illinois phone new york city tue pm sit pm warren st chamber st near church st new york ny phone ment social democratic coalition hitler german right k po appear eye masse aider reaction referendum fail k piys ingness bloc fascist concrete circumstance measure failure understand fascism raor hold throat worker comrade know hitler able come power defeat powerful organie proletariat european labor movement shot fire resistance responsibility rest squarcly shoulder social democracy stalinist end social democracy play role mentary stalk horse bourgeois reaction lat actsofthespd reichstag nais power hitler chancellor vote credit hitler war budget immediately nais ed jail trotsky left opposition struggle main break kpo comintern suicidal course course close possibility proletarian revolution pave way victory fascism k p iys policy inspire stalin co result thc big defeat proletariat history need reappraise statement light war revolution counterrevolution past year live different world outcome germany turn yankee marine rape black grenada bloody hand world terrorize ghetto poor club leftist studentsthat ity professional look court tell story nearly half antiapartheid protester arrest december stage sitin university hall sentence day jail strike deal effectively ban participation future demonstration send slammer reagans war communism come home berkeley eampls vengeance s necessary mobilie student work class fight worker government break rule boss cop court berkeley review amerikkkas fat boss pay ultrarightwe berkeley rliie seek whip hysteria syl subtle insinuation torch callaghan hall article campus funding berkeley reliell march describe syl follow adjective fiery tory incindiary sic burn ing explosive prove ability wield thesaurus question funding not dime student governmenta favor work class stalinism social democracy serve gcrman workcrs head chop block fascist organiation proletariat smash shatter comintern blindly defend policy lead debacle echo mann reaction hitler comintern kpd commit historic betrayal proletariat fact defend action masse lead trotsky declare tional politically bankrupt dead revolutionary force necessity new international death tional trotsky proclaim necessity struggle creation new revolutionary international fourth international struggle begin lifetime complete banner take international spartacist tendency lesson revolution counterrevolution germany period study far detail possible notsobrief talk burn relevance today live imperialist epoch today critical task remainsthe forging revolutionary party leadership capable recognize revolutionary situation rapidly reorient party struggle power temporiing wrong moment g bra youth suck mammary gland bourgeoisie course berkele relie roll dough like irving kristol long ago expose beneficiary cia monie pet project fund rightwe racist rag campus coast coast rightwe wimp congregate berkeley wheelchair ramp ideological defender rotc marine intention actually enlist fight imperialism bulk probably not basic training aside odd intersection oldi fortlllll type groove kill black angola crew head straight corporate board rm cia maybe lucky ll marry ajuicy tomato like moderate authoritarian jeane kirkpatrick meantime junior gman try cut tooth neck n article prove access good legal advice ability cast nasty slur libel berkeley relie shame callaghan fire march state s y l innocent arson guilty propagate kind oppressive belief prejudice mentality result incident like day lead miss revolutionary opportunity recur generation n present circumstance history present second chance close like point contender not foresee outset social conflict hat exactly outcome not struggle hut itolutionary marxist possible necessary tion basis fight think ictory tear racist confederatc flag show ery small scale important question proletariat resolve struggle engage battle outcome remain mere observer finally stalin zinoviev kamenev command bolshevik party assure lot learn bourgeois sor tell pen russia revolutionary opportunity proletariat democratic revolution tsarism gratifying havea man section international cist tendency trotskyist league germany grapple question light experience russian revolution come understand apply lesson learn study class struggle germany german question remain key question proletarian revolution modern world hinge fate mankind callaghan fire guillermo bermudez van der lubbe arc refer infamous reichstag fire nalis find ashe parliament necessary pretext wholesale roundup communist suppression civil liberty consolidation reich evidence communist not matter hitler intent create climate opinion eler munist responsible fire red scare justify social order tere trapping bourgeois democracy ow proof martin bormann goering goebbel pay ghostwriter berkele relin substantiate rumor relic editor see roam campus light cigarette night february x ghan hall burn play game go win militant mass unitedfront protest student support labor black community stop cop rampage track cop assault frameup guillermo hermudel violent incident berkeley campm far go s red eye surrogate russian shoot sight away put guillermo bar dangerous precedent set persecution student engage political activity scorn dr strangelove g country berkeley student value democratic right well defend guillermo s stake right fight reagans antisoiet war drive label criminal terrorist stand worker peasant central imperialist aggression stand black masse battle brutal apartheid regime south africa defend soviet union drive nuclear war simply stand attempt nation leftist choke hold johnsonthen join fight administrationcop attack drop charge guillermo bermllde cop campus march young sparlaeus n berkelel student demand op sturm wui drink cop choke club haul away studcnt routine occurrence ljc herkeley thecampus gestapo crush political protestfrom seile divestment group literature table brutally attack syl guillermo hermudel lead militant protest marine recruiter draw gun rioting student march e war threat nicaragua herkelcy student learn evcryghettoile black america know cop pig ljc police cue reagans new cop ed meese alameda county assistant da meese openly state old free speech movement herkelcy attend political tion deserve shoot ii ow meese underling campus pd act herkeley test run don soviet evil empirc far meesc concern herkcley enemy territory haven sif hut campus cop string arc pull high theyvc recei cd vigorous assistance iy sewer hucklcyite berkelr newspaper thac j edgar h oover wet d ream come true thcse rodent later tcnsion mount hcrkclcy campus leftist student battle cop attack police target hispanic communist syler guillermo hermudez january bermlldcl lead spirited protest drive recruiter imperialism strike force marine campus student surround recruiter table cop move burly sadist officer joe johnson grab hermudez ib deadly choke hold dangle air guillermo land swift kick marine table collapse send pack cop wrench guillermos arm drag hammer lock hreake arm potentially lethal physical assault guillermo choke hold johnson come cop deadly lies guillermo face lie charge battery burly police officer resist arrest vandalism disturb peace frameup berkeley student face arlne ampu jane scherr cefi uc cop choke hold johnson mauls guillermo bermudez syl student leader protest bloody marine recruiter drop charge guillermo bermudez nearly year jail lifetime jeopardy know anytime killer cop blow away s frame cop beater comrade guillermo state turn victim assailant consider guilletmo hero action lead student antiwar protest bloody marine arc determine fight deadly frameup legal moral political financial resource disposal february student turn o o t j u keepthe marine h jt qff sproul plazacam pll s february t berkeley l student sylinitiate rally cop rampage rally call demand drop charge guillermo bermudcl drop charge antiapartheid copsi marine campus callaghan hall home berkeley navy rotc program burn ground eve syl rally guillermos court appearance tear shed callaghan hall rally not know timing suspiciousand convenient seek fan flame reagan reaction berkelc rciie bunch begin cook inflammatory lie syler stephan arnold llc student recentlv card b cop crime pass oui marxist literature tell crowd campus ljuick turn south alricln hantmtan ilith enlorced pa lal slslem hi democrac ithe dictatorship ot capitalist class liork ljue lion vhl mlllr lhat state machinen gear lor world iar lhis liar h direct alaimt sol iet l nion ilagan cthe demoerah cop want consensus hehiml iar drill arc hcnt harae tim ida t ng rcprese anyonl oppose consensus hat ii hi jeane kirkpatrick get drilen oil pus lwo year ago crocodiic tear shed lor kirkpatrick iree speech reall shed hecause show campus studenh vout h ii cit rlad war jeane kirkpatrick iot wht descry lhe embarrassed want sure get kirkpatrick treatment want youth nadl tor war thel arc illinl break arm sme head il picture worth thousand word photo splash page daily caliimlian reprint show johnson choke llermo prompt herkelcy city council ban use choke hold city yea rs talk ghetto barrio america choke hold synonymous racist cop terror know carotid restraint cop attack victim cut flow blood brain squeeze neck use elbow pinch carotid artery sustain second fatal herkeley cop chill reply city council ban way stop hold shoot daily cal february ban effect whatsoever campus cop goosestep aegis governor deukmejian view democracy stem wellknown commie tract hill right banana republic underscore bonapartist intent defiance place public scrutiny campus cop stage fullscale riot february response reagan shulus escarlte war threat gua hundred student take continue page | 79 |
Documents 3 to 17 and 19 to 24 originally published in Internal Bulletins of the SWP and the International Bulletins of the International Committee Dear Jim: There is some information available that I regard as significant, which I’d like to pass on to you. (You may already have it, but I got it so tardily and accidentally that you may not; I am not sure if all the other comrades attach the same significance to it that I do. We discussed it for the first time last night, and I’m telling you about it on the chance that it may be lost in the rush of other news passing back and forth.) Some time ago (during the last month, I assume) a ‘naive’ rank and filer was holding a discussion with Sid Winn, a leading Cochranite (formerly on the City Committee). This comrade assumed that a majority of the International was with us, and said so. Winn’s reply was approximately as follows (and remember I have this fourth-or fifth-hand): Yes, it’s true you have a mechanical majority of the International, but we have a majority of the ideological leadership, and so on. He also said, in passing, that because of the peculiarities of the voting there, we (the majority) have the West German party with us. Dave Weiss got a report about this discussion. About two weeks ago, or maybe less, Monroe, the Flint Cochranite, came to town and Dave ran into him. In the discussion Dave decided to use the approach of the ’naive’ rank and filer and boldly told Monroe that of course we have a decisive majority of the International with us. Monroe’s reply was very much like that of Winn’s. Was Winn expressing ideas of his own? It’s hardly likely. Was Monroe’s reply like Winn’s merely because of coincidence? That’s even less likely. The minority is a very tight caucus. Its members would not have such ideas unless they had received them from their leaders, whom they surely have been asking questions about the international relation of forces. Also, the minority, I am sorry to say, is better informed about these matters than we are, if only because Pablo is in a better position to know where the different parties tend to stand. Thus, with what you call my customary restraint, I have come to certain conclusions: The minority does not think it has the support of a majority of the International. Its estimate must be supported by information that we do not have available (the news about West Germany certainly falls into that category). Perhaps some of us have been unduly pessimistic about the outcome of an international showdown -- with less cause than the minority has to be pessimistic. At the meeting last night it was also reported that Bartell, in his discussion with Steve Roberts, had spoken in a derogatory manner about the size and influence of the International (the same kind of thing he started doing about our own party after he saw they were in a hopeless minority here). This is not the way he would talk about the International if he thought they had the majority; on the contrary. Also, it was reported that at a social last week members of the minority were speaking in a belittling manner about the Ceylon party. Doesn’t this tend to explain the hysterical and almost desperate tone of Pablo’s recent letters and statements? Would he write that way unless there was a good psychological-political reason for it? Also: we have been talking about the behaviour of the Pabloists, which to some has seemed possibly motivated by a desire to force some kind of showdown before the Congress takes place. Can it be for the aforementioned reason? Why should they risk a possible split before the Congress if they thought they’d have a majority there? Then there is the argument about ‘why don’t you accept the same discipline in the International that you want the American minority to accept in the American party?’ It seemed for a time that this was going to be a big pitch on their part, but it has been muted for the most part; certainly not put forward full-scale. Myra observed that she noted Pablo’s answer to you on internationalism placed this argument within the framework of the past and present, rather than the future; there was no bold statement about letting the Congress decide. (I haven’t checked this point myself yet.) This too fits in with the premise that they don’t have a majority, and know it. And isn’t it possible also that this premise has something to do with Pablo’s repeated requests for a ‘face-to-face’ talk? I won’t go on further along this line. But it seems obvious to me that we ought to reflect on it carefully. It not only throws light on their tactics, I believe, but it must be weighed in formulating our own tactics. I will not enter into that myself, because I am not much of a tactician, but I believe it will have to condition our attitude to the Congress and our statements about the Congress. (Of course we can probe the thing further if that seems necessary.) Comradely, George Breitman P.S. Have you noticed that Pablo, in his article of Sept. 9, answering your speech on internationalism, finds it necessary for some reason to say in his opening line that he did not see the text of your speech until Sept. 5? What in the world is the reason for that, or the significance he places on it? The IS letter of Sept. 3 makes clear reference to the speech in its sixth paragraph, even using quotation marks around certain words. How could they quote from it without having seen it? Furthermore, what is he trying to say by pretending that he hadn’t seen the speech before Sept. 5’that Clarke didn’t show him the speech when he arrived in August, or mail it to him even earlier when he got it (in July, and possibly even in June)? Has he trapped himself through some over-use of duplicity? (These are rhetorical questions, and I don’t want any answers; I just call it to your attention as a 16th rate matter that may possibly be of interest to you.) Trotskyism Versus Revisionism Document Index | Toward a History of the Fourth International | Trotsky Encyclopedia Home Page Last updated 17.8.2003 | left | document originally publish internal bulletin swp international bulletin international committee dear jim information available regard significant like pass get tardily accidentally sure comrade attach significance discuss time night tell chance lose rush news pass forth time ago month assume naive rank filer hold discussion sid winn lead cochranite city committee comrade assume majority international say winn reply approximately follow remember fourthor fifthhand yes true mechanical majority international majority ideological leadership say pass peculiarity voting majority west german party dave weiss get report discussion week ago maybe monroe flint cochranite come town dave run discussion dave decide use approach naive rank filer boldly tell monroe course decisive majority international monroe reply like winn winn express idea hardly likely monroe reply like winn merely coincidence likely minority tight caucus member idea receive leader surely ask question international relation force minority sorry well inform matter pablo well position know different party tend stand customary restraint come certain conclusion minority think support majority international estimate support information available news west germany certainly fall category unduly pessimistic outcome international showdown cause minority pessimistic meeting night report bartell discussion steve roberts speak derogatory manner size influence international kind thing start party see hopeless minority way talk international think majority contrary report social week member minority speak belittling manner ceylon party tend explain hysterical desperate tone pablo recent letter statement write way good psychologicalpolitical reason talk behaviour pabloist possibly motivate desire force kind showdown congress take place aforementioned reason risk possible split congress think majority argument accept discipline international want american minority accept american party time go big pitch mute certainly forward fullscale myra observe note pablo answer internationalism place argument framework past present future bold statement let congress decide check point fit premise majority know possible premise pablo repeat request facetoface talk will line obvious ought reflect carefully throw light tactic believe weigh formulate tactic enter tactician believe condition attitude congress statement congress course probe thing necessary comradely george breitman ps notice pablo article sept answer speech internationalism find necessary reason opening line text speech sept world reason significance place letter sept make clear reference speech sixth paragraph quotation mark certain word quote having see furthermore try pretend see speech sept clarke speech arrive august mail early get july possibly june trap overuse duplicity rhetorical question want answer attention rate matter possibly interest trotskyism versus revisionism document index history fourth international trotsky encyclopedia home page update | 80 |
J. V. Stalin Source : Works, Vol. 15 Publisher : Red Star Press Ltd., London, 1984 Transcription/HTML Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, 2009 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. Order of the Day, addressed to Marshal Koniev, announces that troops of the First Ukrainian Front, developing their successful offensive, on July 20, captured by storm the towns . and large railway junctions of Vladimir Volynsky and Rava Russkaya, important strong-points of the German defences in the Western Ukraine. The Order mentions 26 commanders of troops, artillerymen, tankmen, airmen, sappers and signallers whose units and formations have distinguished themselves. A salute of 20 salvoes was fired by 224 Moscow guns. Collected Works Index | Volume 15 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol publisher red star press ltd london transcriptionhtml markup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source order day address marshal koniev announce troop ukrainian develop successful offensive july capture storm town large railway junction vladimir volynsky rava russkaya important strongpoint german defence western ukraine order mention commander troop artillerymen tankman airmen sapper signaller unit formation distinguish salute salvo fire moscow gun collect work index volume index work decade j v stalin archive | 81 |
Labour Monthly Source : Labour Monthly January, 1939, No.1. Publisher : The Labour Publishing Company Ltd., London. Transcription/HTML : Salil Sen Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2010). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. The most important event in India of recent times was the tremendous one-day strike against the Bombay Trades Dispute Bill. In Bombay alone, no less than two hundred thousand workers of all trades came out on the streets in strike action, in order to demonstrate their emphatic opposition to a measure which is calculated to severely curtail their liberty of action. The original text of the Bill as brought forward by the Bombay Congress Ministry early in March last, opened by stating that it was to aid in the "prevention of strikes and lock-outs and to promote amicable settlement of Trades Disputes in factories and other industrial establishments." Even a glance at the original text of the Bill shows that its main purpose and trend was to restrict the freedom of trade union movement, and render direct action of the workers almost impossible. The main title of the Bill disclosed its purpose, to prevent strikes and lock-outs. . As soon as the original text of the Bill was made public, the Trade Union leaders in India expressed their unanimous condemnation, and at a mass meeting of workers held on Kamgar Maidan, Bombay, on March 7, Subhas Chandra Bose, President of the Indian National Congress, also expressed his dissatisfaction with the measure. . It was recognised on all sides that the pressing through of such a measure could only have extremely serious repercussions in relation to the United National Front in India. The Ministries of the seven Provinces where there are Congress majorities, are bound by the pledges which outline the National Congress policy towards working-class legislation. The Election Manifesto of the Congress fully understood the democratic character of the economic struggle of the masses. It assured the workers the right to strike and organise, it promised freedom for the Trade Union Movement, and also declared that the Congress would establish conciliation machinery for settlement of industrial disputes. . The Legislative Assemblies with Congress Ministries had acquired an important significance for the working-class. The Congress Ministries are under mandate to pass measures extending democratic rights and liberties, to remove bureaucratic restrictions, thus enabling the workers and peasants to organise and struggle for better economic conditions. It is with these facts in mind that we consider the Bill which roused the opposition of the Indian working-class movement. One of the most objectionable features of the original text runs as follows: . III. Any Union may apply to the Registrar for registration as a recognised Union. On receipt of such application for registration, the Registrar shall forward a copy of the application to the employer or employers concerned, and on receipt of a communication from such employer or employers to the effect that the Union has received recog¬nition from them the Registrar shall proceed to register such union as a recognised Union. . This clause would mean that no union would be registered unless the said Union satisfied the employers. . We will not go into detail in connection with the original text, because when the Draft Bill was published in the Government Gazette and presented to the Bombay Provincial Legislative Assembly six months later, on July 30, it had been considerably amended. Presumably, the vigorous opposition created as a result of the publication of the original text caused the sponsors of the Bill to make these alterations. . For example, it is very significant that the opening statement was altered from "aid in the prevention of strikes, etc.," to "make provision for the promotion of peaceful and amicable settlement of industrial disputes by conciliation and arbitration and for certain other purposes." Further, the clause referred to earlier in connection with submitting an application for registration to the employers first, does not appear in the published Draft of the Bill. . Even with the drastic alterations made in the wording between the first and second drafts of the Bill, still the Bill as submitted remained most objectionable. Ignoring the protests of the Bombay Provincial Trade Union Congress, the new Draft embodied the same principles which had evoked the protests. The most vicious aspect of the Bill was that it would take away from the worker the only effective weapon he has -- the right to strike. . The Trades Disputes Act (1929) of the Government of India, which evoked so much protest, prevents lightning strikes by prescribing a month's notice in public utility service. The present Bill not only demands a notice of strike, but makes every strike which takes place before the conciliatory proceedings are over illegal, but the notice provision, together with the conciliatory proceedings, would make strikes impossible for a period of between three to five months -- thus strike action would be paralysed under this Bill. . The original draft blatantly announced its preference for arbitration and company Unions. The new proposals are intended to do the same with equal effectiveness. Militant unions, disfavoured by the owners, are effectively shut off from representing the workers, or entering into collective agreements before the Conciliation Court. Under Section 7 of the Bill any recognised Union with not less than five per cent. membership of the total number of employees will be declared a Registered Union under the Act. A Registered Union secures the right of representing the workers under certain conditions in the Conciliation Court. The Bill does not lay down any provision regarding recognition. There is no obligation on the owners to recognise a genuinely representa¬tive union. The question is left to the sweet will of the owners who are notorious for their hostility to any independent union. The provision, therefore, is a direct incitement to start company unions or recognise anti-working-class ones and secure them the right of representation before the Conciliation Court. . The same section provides that where a Union is not recognised it must show 50 per cent. membership of the total employed before it is registered, i.e., before it can claim to recognise the workers in a Court of Conciliation. Anyone conversant with the Trade Union Movement knows that very few Unions can boast of consistent 50 per cent. membership. This provision therefore threatens the existence of free Trade Unions. . The Bill provides for the establishment of a permanent tribunal for Arbitration - the Industrial Court -- and contemplates making arbitra¬tion more and more the dominant method of settling disputes. The Conciliation proceedings are to last for a period of three to five months -- no strikes can take place during this period. . The owners, however, have been allowed a number of exceptions. They can lock-out their employees in a period of industrial depression. No notice is necessary. The workers cannot take the dispute to the Conciliation Court. Notice is required only for lock-out arising out of a trade dispute. Schedule II. of the Bill allows the owners to reduce the number of employees on the plea "that the character or volume of production has changed." Thus under the plea of temporary depression the owner can dismiss any number without notice, without conciliation proceedings. The change will become operative immediately. The workers are not allowed to give an immediate reply to this sudden change. Section 62 (b) (a) (c) makes it illegal to strike before the conciliation proceedings are over, that is, for a period of three to five months. In the meanwhile the change will continue to be in operation. This is nothing but a legal provision to break the solidarity of the workers. The Bill makes conciliatory proceedings absolutely binding on the workers but not on the owners. . This same attempt to load the workers with heavy restrictions is seen in other provisions. Owners may lock-out their factories without notice by pleading industrial depression. But workers cannot strike for the whole period of conciliation, when prices are rising. World conditions exempt owners from the operation of the Act, but not the workers. . This partiality for the owners is notoriously seen in Section 28. That Section makes it incumbent on workers to give notice of every change that is desired. But the clause binding the owners to give notice conveniently omits the question of wages. One is apt to treat this as an oversight. But the precise way in which the workers' responsibilities are mentioned, makes one believe that the omission is deliberate Anyway the Bill as it stands does not require any notice or conciliation proceedings when the owners want to reduce wages. At the same time it compels workers to resort to conciliation whenever a change is desired. No comment is necessary on this provision which so shamelessly favours the owners. There are a number of such provisions which directly or indirectly allow the owners to make changes and simultaneously deprive the workers of the right to resist immediately. . Under Section 62, every strike, whether before or after conciliation proceedings, against the standing orders of the management, is rendered illegal for a period of one year. So far as the standing orders are con¬cerned the right to strike is abolished for a year. So far as other matters are concerned no strike can be declared or commenced till after the conciliation proceedings are over. Workers cannot declare a strike only for the reason that the employer has not carried out provisions of any standing order and has made an illegal change. The provision here is absolute. This is followed by another provision which restricts the right still further. After conciliation proceedings a strike to be legal must be commenced within two months after the expiry of the conciliation proceedings. Thus in various ways the right to direct action is so narrowed down that the freedom to strike is given only for two months after the expiry of conciliation proceedings. . The new Bill enhances the penalties for illegal strikes. The original draft prescribed a fine equal to one day's wage for every day of the illegal strike. The present proposals prescribe a penalty of six months' imprison¬ment or fine, or both. The same penalties are prescribed for instigation. The Trade Disputes Act of the Central Government prescribes three months' imprisonment for illegal strikes. The Bombay Ministry intends to outbid the Central Government in legislative tyranny.. Strike is the only effective weapon of struggle in the last resort. In the final stage it is the normal form of industrial unrest, the most common form of workers' resistance. On the other hand, the owners' counter¬offensive does not normally take the form of lock-out. It takes the form of strike-breaking. Lock-out, as a method of intimidating the workers, is rarely used. In the nature of things it cannot be used as a normal weapon of counter-offensive. By putting strikes and lock-outs in the same category the Bill penalises the only weapon of the workers. The Bombay Provincial Trade Union Congress made every effort to meet the Congress Ministers in order to discuss their objections to the Bill and to endeavour to get them to retrace their steps. The Bill was opposed in the Legislative Assembly by representatives of the Trade Union Movement, but the Congress Government persisted in pressing through this measure. . At huge workers rallies all over India, workers voiced their protests against this reactionary Bill. . On October 16 the Bombay workers, under the leadership of the Bombay Provincial Trade Union Congress, decided to organise a one-day Protest Strike to demonstrate against this unwanted Bill, and to demand its withdrawal. The Congress Socialist Party opposed this plan of the B.P.T.U.C. to rally the workers against this measure and in defence of their trade union rights. . As November 7 drew near the Maharashtra Provincial Congress Committee mobilised all its resources in an endeavour to counter the call of the B.P.T.U.C. for the one-day Protest Strike. Motor lorries fitted with loud speakers went around the working-class areas calling upon the workers not to strike; meetings were arranged for front-rank Congress leaders, but the poor attendances at these meetings showed, as the Bombay Sentinel, a Nationalist evening daily, stated on November 2, that even all this "has not cut much ice among the mill workers. The strike will come off as planned by the Labour leaders and the demonstration promises to be a very imposing one." . A last-minute effort was made by Labour leaders to prevail upon the Congress Ministry to postpone the further consideration of the Bill and discuss its provisions at a Joint Conference with Labour representatives. This was rejected. . November 7, 1938, came, and it will go down in the history of the Indian working-class movement as one of the greatest demonstrations of the working-class in defence of trade union rights. No less than 200,000 workers of all trades came out on the streets of Bombay alone. Only 6 out of a total of 69 textile mills of Bombay worked partially during the day shift. In not one Mill did the night shift workers turn up. The Municipal Workshops closed down. The scavengers joined the protest strike. At Kurla, a suburb of Bombay, 3,000 workers downed tools. Five thousand tannery workers of Dharavi joined up. The overwhelming majority of the building workers, 5,000 domestic servants, compositors and machine-men of many presses in Girgaum, including those employed at the press of Patil (the Secretary of the Bombay Congress Committee), all the gold, silver and brass workers in Bhulsh¬war and Mandvi participated in the strike. . "For the first time in the history of this great industrial city which has backed the Congress to its utmost power and strength in all its trials and vicissitudes, the word of the Congress failed in a most dismal manner." (Bombay Sentinel, November 7, 1938). . Never had Bombay seen such a complete and spontaneous strike. Never had the unity of the working-class been demonstrated in such a striking manner. It was the most important mass demonstration of workers since the great strike movements of 1928-29. . The rally at the Kamgar Maidan was attended by over one hundred thousand strikers. This vast gathering passed the resolution condemning the Labour Bill without a single dissentient voice. . It was not in Bombay alone that the proletariat struck. At Ahmedabad, the fortress of Mr. Gulzarilal Nanda, 10,000 workers of 12 mills came out on strike. This in spite of the utmost efforts made by the Majoor Mahajan (Ahmedabad Labour Association), in spite of the orders issued by the police practically prohibiting processions. . At Sholapur, the Juni Mill workers were the first to down tools. The workers came out en bloc and formed a procession of 8,000 led by Meenakshi Sardesai. This was the signal for the workers of other mills. By noon, 80 per cent. of the workers were out on the streets. All the women workers in Bidi factories joined the strike. . At Amalner, Dhulia and Chalisgaon, the strike was a complete success. Scores of presses had to close down at Poona. . The working-class, as far away as Calcutta, Cawnpore and Madras also demonstrated their solidarity and support to the magnificent stand the Bombay workers were making. . In Bombay City early in the morning of November 7, lorry loads of armed police invaded the working-class locality. Trade Union leaders toured the locality in a lorry with a loud speaker calling the workers to strike action. Despite all Congress efforts to frustrate the strike, it was a tremendous success. An eye witness, writing in National Front, describes a scene as follows: Deafening noise was coming through the window. I looked out of the window and found tram-cars packed with working class youth and children. They had hoisted up the red flag on the cars or waved them through the windows, lustily singing revolutionary songs and shouting slogans of triumph. We had only one lorry to do propaganda for the strike, but the boys managed to celebrate the victory from every tramcar or bus that passed through Parel. Not one passenger was hurt or molested. Tram conductors let them in without hindrance. The broad grin of the police constables showed that the thrill of a most successful struggle had seized them too. . I went round among the knots of elderly workers. The holiday mood of the morning was no more there. They looked grim and thoughtful. Uppermost in their mind was "A Black Bill ... the same lathis ... Bullets too ... all this under a Congress Ministry ... what to make of the Congress now...." . The police had opened fire on three occasions and there had been lathi charges. A number of workers were shot, two workers died as a result of the shooting -- Bhairoo Chavan and Bhagaji Waghmare add their names to the long list of workers who have made the greatest sacrifice in defence of working-class rights. Interested elements who were desirous of splitting the united front of the Indian people tried to utilise the strike to drive a wedge between the working-class and the Indian National Congress. The Times of India, the mouthpiece of the British Government, stated on the eve of the strike: "It is a trial of strength between the Congress and the labour leaders." This, however, was far from being the case, the working-class of Bombay have a long record of struggle under the leadership of the Indian National Congress, the strike was not under the leadership of anti-Congress elements. . In order to show that workers understood what they were struggling for, we will quote the most influential working-class paper in Bombay, National Front: The smashing victory of the strike is not a victory against the Congress. It is a victory for working class unity, a victory of the same principles fighting for which the Congress has grown, and therefore a victory for the Congress in the truest sense of the word. The fact that Dr. Ambedkar supported the strike, the fact that Sjt. Jamnadas Mehta is the President of the B.P.T.U.C. cannot detract from the essential character of the protest strike. It was a victory over those who in the interest of enemies of the people seek to divide the popular forces, who disrupt the unity of the Congress by their attacks on the working class. The 7th November strike was the greatest independent political action by the proletariat of this country. It shall prepare the proletariat for future actions on an even vaster scale. The unity of the working class movement achieved at Nagpur will be further cemented and strengthened by this first great united action under the leadership of the united T.U.C. for the defence of democratic rights of organisation and action. The strike is of national significance. The workers downed tools in protest against a measure initiated by the Congress Ministry. The blood of workers flowed on the streets of Bombay on November 7th because the Congress Ministry remained deaf to all appeals, refused to listen to the demand made by the A.I.T.U.C. representing over three hundred thousand organised workers. The strike must act as the unifier of the national forces. The suicidal ministerial policy of concessions to vested interests and upholding police firing in the name of non-violence must be reversed. Adherence to Truth demands admission of the overwhelming success of the strike. The Black Bill whose condemnation the working class has written with its blood must be withdrawn. The unity of the people which has been achieved under the banner of the Congress must not be allowed to be disrupted. Dr. Suresh Banerji, President of the A.I.T.U.C., has, according to latest information, been discussing the proposal for a Conference between the Bombay Provincial Trade Union Congress and the Con¬gress Ministries, with Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders of the Congress. The workers are concerned with the unity of the nation as a whole; they seek to rehabilitate the cordial relations that must exist between the Indian National Congress and the Trade Union Congress if India's battle for freedom is to succeed. Jawaharlal Nehru can play an important role in connection with this situation. While in England he was conscious of the growing rift between the Ministerial conciliators on the one hand and the growing force of the labour and kisan struggle on the other. He indicated this in an article he wrote in the LABOUR MONTHLY in August last year. All left Congressmen, labour and kisan workers, Socialists and Communists, will look to Jawaharlal Nehru to give a lead to stop the drift towards compromise. The most effective way to do this and to save unity would be first to consolidate all these forces in the form of a determined bloc as the basis for achieving the broader unity of the Indian people for the struggle against the Federation. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in India | Subject Archive | left | labour monthly source labour monthly january publisher labour publishing company ltd london transcriptionhtml salil sen public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source important event india recent time tremendous oneday strike bombay trade dispute bill bombay thousand worker trade come street strike action order demonstrate emphatic opposition measure calculate severely curtail liberty action original text bill bring forward bombay congress ministry early march open state aid prevention strike lockout promote amicable settlement trade dispute factory industrial establishment glance original text bill show main purpose trend restrict freedom trade union movement render direct action worker impossible main title bill disclose purpose prevent strike lockout soon original text bill public trade union leader india express unanimous condemnation mass meeting worker hold kamgar maidan bombay march subhas chandra bose president indian national congress express dissatisfaction measure recognise side press measure extremely repercussion relation united national india ministry seven province congress majority bind pledge outline national congress policy workingclass legislation election manifesto congress fully understand democratic character economic struggle masse assure worker right strike organise promise freedom trade union movement declare congress establish conciliation machinery settlement industrial dispute legislative assembly congress ministry acquire important significance workingclass congress ministry mandate pass measure extend democratic right liberty remove bureaucratic restriction enable worker peasant organise struggle well economic condition fact mind consider bill rouse opposition indian workingclass movement objectionable feature original text run follow iii union apply registrar registration recognise union receipt application registration registrar shall forward copy application employer employer concern receipt communication employer employer effect union receive registrar shall proceed register union recognise union clause mean union register say union satisfy employer detail connection original text draft bill publish government gazette present bombay provincial legislative assembly month later july considerably amend presumably vigorous opposition create result publication original text cause sponsor bill alteration example significant opening statement alter aid prevention strike etc provision promotion peaceful amicable settlement industrial dispute conciliation arbitration certain purpose clause refer early connection submit application registration employer appear publish draft bill drastic alteration wording second draft bill bill submit remain objectionable ignore protest bombay provincial trade union congress new draft embody principle evoke protest vicious aspect bill away worker effective weapon right strike trade dispute act government india evoke protest prevent lightning strike prescribe month notice public utility service present bill demand notice strike make strike take place conciliatory proceeding illegal notice provision conciliatory proceeding strike impossible period month strike action paralyse bill original draft blatantly announce preference arbitration company union new proposal intend equal effectiveness militant union disfavour owner effectively shut represent worker enter collective agreement conciliation court section bill recognise union cent membership total number employee declare register union act registered union secure right represent worker certain condition conciliation court bill lay provision recognition obligation owner recognise genuinely union question leave sweet owner notorious hostility independent union provision direct incitement start company union recognise antiworkingclass one secure right representation conciliation court section provide union recognise cent membership total employ register ie claim recognise worker court conciliation conversant trade union movement know union boast consistent cent membership provision threaten existence free trade union bill provide establishment permanent tribunal arbitration industrial court contemplate make dominant method settle dispute conciliation proceeding period month strike place period owner allow number exception lockout employee period industrial depression notice necessary worker dispute conciliation court notice require lockout arise trade dispute schedule ii bill allow owner reduce number employee plea character volume production change plea temporary depression owner dismiss number notice conciliation proceeding change operative immediately worker allow immediate reply sudden change section b c make illegal strike conciliation proceeding period month change continue operation legal provision break solidarity worker bill make conciliatory proceeding absolutely bind worker owner attempt load worker heavy restriction see provision owner lockout factory notice plead industrial depression worker strike period conciliation price rise world condition exempt owner operation act worker partiality owner notoriously see section section make incumbent worker notice change desire clause bind owner notice conveniently omit question wage apt treat oversight precise way worker responsibility mention make believe omission deliberate bill stand require notice conciliation proceeding owner want reduce wage time compel worker resort conciliation change desire comment necessary provision shamelessly favour owner number provision directly indirectly allow owner change simultaneously deprive worker right resist immediately section strike conciliation proceeding stand order management render illegal period year far standing order right strike abolish year far matter concern strike declare commence till conciliation proceeding worker declare strike reason employer carry provision stand order illegal change provision absolute follow provision restrict right conciliation proceeding strike legal commence month expiry conciliation proceeding way right direct action narrow freedom strike give month expiry conciliation proceeding new bill enhance penalty illegal strike original draft prescribe fine equal day wage day illegal strike present proposal prescribe penalty month fine penalty prescribe instigation trade dispute act central government prescribe month imprisonment illegal strike bombay ministry intend outbid central government legislative tyranny strike effective weapon struggle resort final stage normal form industrial unrest common form worker resistance hand owner normally form lockout take form strikebreake lockout method intimidate worker rarely nature thing normal weapon counteroffensive put strike lockout category bill penalise weapon worker bombay provincial trade union congress effort meet congress minister order discuss objection bill endeavour retrace step bill oppose legislative assembly representative trade union movement congress government persist press measure huge worker rally india worker voice protest reactionary bill october bombay worker leadership bombay provincial trade union congress decide organise oneday protest strike demonstrate unwanted bill demand withdrawal congress socialist party oppose plan bptuc rally worker measure defence trade union right november draw near maharashtra provincial congress committee mobilise resource endeavour counter bptuc oneday protest strike motor lorry fit loud speaker go workingclass area call worker strike meeting arrange frontrank congress leader poor attendance meeting show bombay sentinel nationalist evening daily state november cut ice mill worker strike come plan labour leader demonstration promise impose lastminute effort labour leader prevail congress ministry postpone consideration bill discuss provision joint conference labour representative reject november come history indian workingclass movement great demonstration workingclass defence trade union right worker trade come street bombay total textile mill bombay work partially day shift mill night shift worker turn municipal workshop close scavenger join protest strike kurla suburb bombay worker down tool thousand tannery worker dharavi join overwhelming majority building worker domestic servant compositor machineman press girgaum include employ press patil secretary bombay congress committee gold silver brass worker mandvi participate strike time history great industrial city back congress utmost power strength trial vicissitude word congress fail dismal manner bombay sentinel november bombay see complete spontaneous strike unity workingclass demonstrate striking manner important mass demonstration worker great strike movement rally kamgar maidan attend thousand striker vast gathering pass resolution condemn labour bill single dissentient voice bombay proletariat strike ahmedabad fortress mr gulzarilal nanda worker mill come strike spite utmost effort majoor mahajan ahmedabad labour association spite order issue police practically prohibit procession sholapur juni mill worker tool worker come en bloc form procession lead meenakshi sardesai signal worker mill noon cent worker street woman worker bidi factory join strike amalner dhulia chalisgaon strike complete success score press close poona workingclass far away calcutta cawnpore madra demonstrate solidarity support magnificent stand bombay worker make bombay city early morning november lorry load armed police invade workingclass locality trade union leader tour locality lorry loud speaker call worker strike action despite congress effort frustrate strike tremendous success eye witness write national describe scene follow deafen noise come window look window find tramcar pack work class youth child hoist red flag car wave window lustily singe revolutionary song shout slogan triumph lorry propaganda strike boy manage celebrate victory tramcar bus pass parel passenger hurt molest tram conductor let hindrance broad grin police constable show thrill successful struggle seize go round knot elderly worker holiday mood morning look grim thoughtful uppermost mind black bill lathis bullet congress ministry congress police open fire occasion lathi charge number worker shoot worker die result shooting bhairoo chavan bhagaji waghmare add name long list worker great sacrifice defence workingclass right interested element desirous split united indian people try utilise strike drive wedge workingclass indian national congress time india mouthpiece british government state eve strike trial strength congress labour leader far case workingclass bombay long record struggle leadership indian national congress strike leadership anticongress element order worker understand struggle quote influential workingclass paper bombay national smash victory strike victory congress victory work class unity victory principle fight congress grow victory congress true sense word fact dr ambedkar support strike fact sjt jamnadas mehta president bptuc detract essential character protest strike victory interest enemy people seek divide popular force disrupt unity congress attack work class november strike great independent political action proletariat country shall prepare proletariat future action vaster scale unity work class movement achieve nagpur cement strengthen great united action leadership united tuc defence democratic right organisation action strike national significance worker down tool protest measure initiate congress ministry blood worker flow street bombay november congress ministry remain deaf appeal refuse listen demand aituc represent thousand organise worker strike act unifier national force suicidal ministerial policy concession vested interest uphold police fire nonviolence reverse adherence truth demand admission overwhelming success strike black bill condemnation work class write blood withdraw unity people achieve banner congress allow disrupt dr suresh banerji president aituc accord late information discuss proposal conference bombay provincial trade union congress ministry jawaharlal nehru leader congress worker concern unity nation seek rehabilitate cordial relation exist indian national congress trade union congress indias battle freedom succeed jawaharlal nehru play important role connection situation england conscious grow rift ministerial conciliator hand grow force labour kisan struggle indicate article write labour monthly august year leave congressman labour kisan worker socialist communist look jawaharlal nehru lead stop drift compromise effective way save unity consolidate force form determined bloc basis achieve broad unity indian people struggle federation marxism antiimperialism india subject archive | 82 |
Adolfo Gilly is a longtime activist and prominent historian of the Mexican Revolution. This interview appeared in the Argentine magazine Sudestada (Buenos Aires, No. 88, May 1, 2010). According to the Larousse dictionary, a “#8220;sudestada” in Argentina is “#8220;wind with persistent rain that comes from the southeast and usually causes rivers to swell.” This was translated for Against the Current by Rene Rojas with the assistance of Micah Landau. WHAT FEATURES OF peasant culture in Mexico gave force to the revolutionary movement led by Zapata? Adolfo Gilly: During the last decades of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, the expansion of capitalist relations throughout the Mexican territory led to a new wave of expropriation of lands from indigenous communities in the central and southern regions of the country, and of settler peasants’ lands in the North. These land seizures were backed by Porfirio Diaz’s regime and were carried out by sugar haciendas in Morelos, livestock haciendas in the North, coffee haciendas in the South, and by others of all types throughout the country. This happened as railroads, money circulation, modern mining and foreign trade expanded. As with the whole history of capital, up to now, the expropriation of communal goods was one of the factors that sustained this expansion. The communities in the state of Morelos, south of Mexico City, organized their peasant war, under Emiliano Zapata’s leadership, on the basis of community relationships passed on from generation to generation from time immemorial. The peasants from northern Mexico, especially from the states of Chihuahua and Durango, organized their resistance based on their own traditions and forms of struggle in conquering and defending their lands against indigenous groups, the longstanding occupants of these same lands in northern Mexico and the western United States, and later against the expansion of the haciendas and the expropriation of communities. By various means and for different reasons the northern cultural heritage entailed municipal autonomy, armed defense and control of common goods — woods, pastures, rivers, water and mountains — by the communities. When, at the beginning of the 20th century, the division and power disputes within the ruling class afforded the right opportunity, the renewed assault by the owners of capital on these goods was resisted and confronted by the communities in the north and south, which resorted to the organizational forms relayed from generation to generation through the history of each region. This hereditary framework included the use of arms and horses. The southern peasants led by Emiliano Zapata and other local chiefs, and those from the North — very different in their customs — led by Francisco Villa and leaders from each community, created the two largest peasant armies, headed by peasants, in the history of the continent, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. At the beginning of December 1914, at the highest point of mobilization and of the peasant war, those armies — the Division of the North (la División del Norte) and the Liberating Army of the South (el Ejército Libertador del Sur) — occupied Mexico City, while the liberal-bourgeois wing of the revolution, headed by Venustiano Carranza, a landlord and former governor, withdrew to the port of Veracruz. This is one of the greatest feats by peasants and indigenous peoples in the entire continent, comparable — though in different times and under very different forms — to the insurrectionary occupation of La Paz, Bolivia in April 1952; and to the two occupations of La Paz in 2003 and 2005 by the native communities from the highlands (Altiplano) and by the urban settlers and workers from El Alto and the mines. What is the place of agrarian Zapatismo in the revolutionary process with respect to other movements? A.G.: Zapatismo was the movement that, in its Plan de Ayala drafted toward the end of 1911 and in subsequent documents, proposed the most advanced programs for radical redistribution of land and communal organization of government for communities and for the whole Republic, an anti-capitalist program in its content and dynamic. And between 1912 and 1918 it implemented the program and maintained its own government in the region which came to be known as the Morelos Commune. The Division of the North, with tens of thousands of well-armed men and women, was the most powerful peasant army ever organized in Mexico and all of Latin America. In a series of large battles, it destroyed the Federal Army and was decisive in the conquest of the capital and in the Revolution’s victory, even if subsequent governments ended up headed by its enemies within the Revolution, Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón. Yet this form of the masses in arms in the Revolution was decisive in determining the radical-democratic and agrarian character of the Constitution approved in February 1917, which became the basis for the radical reforms carried out by Cárdenas in the 1930s. How can we explain the discontinuous form that the Revolution took and how did this influence the consciousness of the masses? A.G.: It would take a book to answer this question, and even then… All the great revolutions, from the French Revolution of 1789 to the Russian Revolution of 1917, as well as the colonial revolutions that spanned the entire 20th century, experienced such vicissitudes, because a revolution is a turbulent process and not a magical instant in time. The best explanation I’ve seen of these reasons is found in the prologue to Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution, a classic text on the internal dynamic of revolutions. What factors allowed an “#8220;agrarian” revolution to acquire an “#8220;anti-capitalist” dimension? A.G.: The Mexican Revolution, if we can give it a definition without being overly schematic, would be in my judgment a peasant, agrarian, and radical-democratic revolution, composed of diverse social forces and changing alliances, in successive political and class conflicts during its very course. Every radical and armed mass struggle, against plunder, exploitation, humiliation and scorn, such as the Mexican Revolution, has an internal anti-capitalist dynamic, just as today’s struggle by indigenous communities in Chiapas and their Zapatista Army of National Liberation does. But that is not to say they are necessarily socialist, which implies a proposal and a specific program of reorganization of the entire social life, as in Russia in 1917 or in Cuba in 1959-1961. I don’t view this as a defect or a shortcoming, but instead as a result of the experience reached by every people in every moment of its history in which, once more, it rises against accumulated wrongs and injustice. The organizational forms of these insurgent peoples are, in each case, the result of an accumulation of their experiences, even programmatic ones, and of their history. Only thus can we explain the fantastic series of general strikes and of union and shop-floor organization in the Argentine workers’ history, while in Mexico that history is rooted in armed rebellions, communitarian organization with deep indigenous roots, autonomous municipalities, anarchist traditions and nationalist and agrarian mass movements. That’s what Cardenismo of the 1930s was: some 20 million hectares were distributed into communal ejidal property, the oil was nationalized, mass unions were organized, workers’ rights were affirmed and the Mexican government gave unlimited support, in the form of arms and money, to the Spanish Republic. None of this can be erased from the historical memory transmitted through generations in a specific country, just as in Argentina or Chile the deep experiences and traditions of union organization, of popular and workers’ strikes and of factory occupations cannot be erased. Every time a new rise in mobilizations and demands opens the way for new experiences, this ascent begins, in its organization, from what was lived and created by previous generations, not from emulating what was done in other countries. Something similar happened, incidentally, in the Cuban Revolution, one of whose antecedents in the 1930s was the anti-imperialist, socialist and insurrectionary movement of Antonio Guiteras. Paco Ignacio Taibo II has written about this in a recent and magnificent biography of Guiteras. It’s worth reading in order to go back to the Cuban genealogy of Fidel Castro, of the 26 of July Movement and the radicalism of the revolution, which did not come from Soviet communism but rather from the history of Cuba. How was Zapatista ideology preserved throughout the 20th Century? A.G.: Zapatismo has remained as the program, the attitude and the inspirational myth of every peasant and indigenous struggle all the way through to today’s Mexico. Even the PRI and the PRD, as established parties within the state apparatus, opportunistically invoke it. No one believes them, not even their voters; if they vote for them, it’s for other more immediate political reasons. I don’t think, by contrast, that the EZLN [present-day Zapatista National Liberation Army — ed.] are performing what some have called an “#8220;ideological appropriation.” The armed indigenous uprising of January 1994, headed by the EZLN, has won the right, through its actions, its organizational forms and its programmatic documents, to invoke the Zapatista heritage and tradition of the Revolution of 1910-1920. In each country and even in each region, revolts, rebellions and revolutions have their own genealogy. In most Latin American countries this genealogy has, among its various currents, anarchist and revolutionary syndicalist traditions originating in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th: from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, all the way to Mexico and Cuba. At the beginning of the 20th century, IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) syndicalists from the United States were influential in the North of Mexico through Ricardo Flores Magón’s Mexican Liberal Party. Governments have never been able to seal this fluid border. The institutional — or institutionalized — left parties have always sought to erase these rebel genealogies. It’s impossible. Workers, through their ways of being, of making and of conceiving of organization and struggle, have inherited, preserved and enriched them, including those who have never heard of or read about their predecessors. The question of the genealogy of uprisings is vital for understanding the motives and logic of each case. The Mexican Revolution for Independence in 1810, headed by the priests Hidalgo and Morelos, was a great agrarian and indigenous insurrection. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 was as well, following the content and organizational forms of its time. Every authentic Mexican revolutionary movement — and the EZLN is one — is heir to this double genealogy. Similarly, the genealogy of the great general strikes of 1969 in Argentina, which included factory occupations, has its roots in, among others, the “#8220;Tragic Week” [Semana Trágica, the brutal suppression of a general strike with hundreds of people killed in January, 1919] and Rebel Patagonia [military violence against agrarian workers in the far south of Argentina in 1920-21, with as many as 1500 killed — ed.]. And so the genealogy of the piqueteros and their methods of struggle — including the great urban rebellion of 2001 — comes from the organizational forms of their fathers and grandfathers in Argentina. Genealogy is not repetition. It is receiving, enriching and renewing the inheritance which they have left for us. ATC 148, September-October 2010 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | adolfo gilly longtime activist prominent historian mexican revolution interview appear argentine magazine sudestada bueno air accord larousse dictionary argentina persistent rain come southeast usually cause river swell translate current rene rojas assistance micah landau feature peasant culture mexico give force revolutionary movement lead zapata adolfo gilly decade century decade expansion capitalist relation mexican territory lead new wave expropriation land indigenous community central southern region country settler peasant land north land seizure back porfirio diaz regime carry sugar haciendas morelos livestock haciendas north coffee haciendas south type country happen railroad money circulation modern mining foreign trade expand history capital expropriation communal good factor sustain expansion community state morelos south mexico city organize peasant war emiliano zapata leadership basis community relationship pass generation generation time immemorial peasant northern mexico especially state chihuahua durango organize resistance base tradition form struggle conquer defend land indigenous group longstanding occupant land northern mexico western united states later expansion haciendas expropriation community mean different reason northern cultural heritage entail municipal autonomy armed defense control common good wood pasture river water mountain community beginning century division power dispute rule class afford right opportunity renew assault owner capital good resist confront community north south resort organizational form relay generation generation history region hereditary framework include use arm horse southern peasant lead emiliano zapata local chief north different custom lead francisco villa leader community create large peasant army head peasant history continent alaska tierra del fuego beginning december high point mobilization peasant war army division north la división del norte liberating army south el ejército libertador del sur occupy mexico city liberalbourgeois wing revolution head venustiano carranza landlord governor withdraw port veracruz great feat peasant indigenous people entire continent comparable different time different form insurrectionary occupation la paz bolivia april occupation la paz native community highland altiplano urban settler worker el alto mine place agrarian zapatismo revolutionary process respect movement ag zapatismo movement plan de ayala draft end subsequent document propose advanced program radical redistribution land communal organization government community republic anticapitalist program content dynamic implement program maintain government region come know morelos commune division north ten thousand wellarme man woman powerful peasant army organize mexico latin america series large battle destroy federal army decisive conquest capital revolution victory subsequent government end head enemy revolution venustiano carranza álvaro obregón form masse arm revolution decisive determine radicaldemocratic agrarian character constitution approve february basis radical reform carry cárdenas explain discontinuous form revolution take influence consciousness masse ag book answer question great revolution french revolution russian revolution colonial revolution span entire century experience vicissitude revolution turbulent process magical instant time good explanation see reason find prologue leon trotsky history russian revolution classic text internal dynamic revolution factor allow revolution acquire dimension ag mexican revolution definition overly schematic judgment peasant agrarian radicaldemocratic revolution compose diverse social force change alliance successive political class conflict course radical armed mass struggle plunder exploitation humiliation scorn mexican revolution internal anticapitalist dynamic today struggle indigenous community chiapas zapatista army national liberation necessarily socialist imply proposal specific program reorganization entire social life russia cuba view defect shortcoming instead result experience reach people moment history rise accumulate wrong injustice organizational form insurgent people case result accumulation experience programmatic one history explain fantastic series general strike union shopfloor organization argentine worker history mexico history root armed rebellion communitarian organization deep indigenous root autonomous municipality anarchist tradition nationalist agrarian mass movement cardenismo million hectare distribute communal ejidal property oil nationalize mass union organize worker right affirm mexican government give unlimited support form arm money spanish republic erase historical memory transmit generation specific country argentina chile deep experience tradition union organization popular worker strike factory occupation erase time new rise mobilization demand open way new experience ascent begin organization live create previous generation emulate country similar happen incidentally cuban revolution antecedent antiimperialist socialist insurrectionary movement antonio guiteras paco ignacio taibo ii write recent magnificent biography guitera worth read order cuban genealogy fidel castro july movement radicalism revolution come soviet communism history cuba zapatista ideology preserve century ag zapatismo remain program attitude inspirational myth peasant indigenous struggle way today mexico pri prd establish party state apparatus opportunistically invoke believe voter vote immediate political reason think contrast ezln presentday zapatista national liberation army ed perform call appropriation armed indigenous uprising january head ezln win right action organizational form programmatic document invoke zapatista heritage tradition revolution country region revolt rebellion revolution genealogy latin american country genealogy current anarchist revolutionary syndicalist tradition originate decade century decade argentina uruguay brazil bolivia chile peru way mexico cuba beginning century iww industrial worker world syndicalist united states influential north mexico ricardo flores magón mexican liberal party government able seal fluid border institutional institutionalize leave party seek erase rebel genealogy impossible worker way make conceiving organization struggle inherit preserve enrich include hear read predecessor question genealogy uprising vital understand motive logic case mexican revolution independence head priest hidalgo morelos great agrarian indigenous insurrection mexican revolution follow content organizational form time authentic mexican revolutionary movement ezln heir double genealogy similarly genealogy great general strike argentina include factory occupation root week semana trágica brutal suppression general strike hundred people kill january rebel patagonia military violence agrarian worker far south argentina kill ed genealogy piquetero method struggle include great urban rebellion come organizational form father grandfather argentina genealogy repetition receive enrich renew inheritance leave atc septemberoctober current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 83 |
Paul O’Brien Archive | ETOL Main Page From Irish Marxist Review, Vol. 1 No. 3, September 2012, pp. 73–80. Copyright © Irish Marxist Review. A PDF of this article is available here. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL). Sean O’Casey Sean O’Casey was born in Dublin in 1880 in an area that had seen better days. He was a man of immense contradictions, who refused to conform to the image created for him by the literary and political elites. In later life, he experienced rejection, exile, censorship, and a determination not to surrender any part of his literary soul to the small-minded bigots who patrolled the corridors of Irish life. We get a sense of a writer who rose above the naysayers and discredited critics who tried to pull him down and who managed to create a literature of lasting value. He was never the ‘guttersnipe playwright from the slums’ that some of his some of his critics dismissed him as. But he gave a voice to those who are rarely heard; the poor, the dispossessed, and the tenement-dweller, whose lives he shaped into a work of art. He was a socialist, a humanist and a great writer who put politics at the centre of his work. He sent his blasts and benedictions across the world and he asserted the role of the writer as a ’transformative force in society’. O’Casey was always a fighter, and never suffered from the ‘cruelty of low ambition’. He was an angry man capable of great rages long before John Osborne and his generation gave birth to the concept in the 1950s: ‘But his anger was based, not on his dislike for mankind, but on his love for it. When he scourges Ireland, it is because he feels it is betraying the ideals he cherishes for the native land he loves so fiercely’. [1] Perhaps this was the reason why Irish critics were always provisional or uncertain in their attitude to Sean O’Casey. Nevertheless, he lived to witness the birth of a new generation of scholars. In the late 1950s what can only be described as an O’Casey industry, based mainly in United States, came into being. Books, journals, and reviews all flowed at a furious rate. Robert Lowery writing in 1976 believed that O’Casey’s reputation was ‘alive and well’. Dr. David Krause, friend, biographer and editor of O’Casey’s Letters felt that the publication of the four volumes of letters ‘will open up an O’Casey industry in Ireland and among outside scholars, at least as great as the Joyce industry’. [2] Sean O’Casey died in 1984. The following year the O’Casey Annual, which had replaced the Sean O’Casey Review in 1982 ceased publication. Perhaps there was nothing more to say. The O’Casey ‘industry’ withered – a sickly relative of the Joyce ‘industry’. By the end of the 1980s O’Casey’s reputation was in decline, the Dublin plays fell-out of the repertoire and the later plays were almost never produced. But O’Casey is too good a writer to be left languishing in the second division for very long. The centenary of the Abbey Theatre in 2004 demanded an appraisal of his work and his place in the Irish theatre. Shivaun O’Casey’s documentary film, Sean O’Casey – Under a Coloured Cap (2004) showed a softer side of O’Casey, the family man, the artist at work. Christopher Murray’s 2004 book Sean O’Casey – Writer at Work [3] introduced O’Casey to a new generation of theatre goes and will surely stand as the definitive biography for years to come. If there were intellectual giants who recognised O’Casey’s genius, there were also pygmies who tried to impugn it. This had nothing to do with literary merit or historical accuracy, but rather a dislike of his politics and his critical comments on the role of Catholic Church in Ireland. O’Casey was assailed by the nationalists for his critique of nationalism, and by right-wing commentators for his atheistic communist politics. We do O’Casey no favours by softening or dismissing his political beliefs; they go to the heart of the man and writer. The emphasis that modern biography places on childhood, married life, and so forth, in most cases displaces, the work, ideas, and social context of the artist or writer. O’Casey was one of the most political writers of his generation, always exploring the frontiers between literature and politics. Like his mentor George Bernard Shaw he wrote for a purpose, he understood that ‘being in the world demands engagement’. His life is also the history of the early twentieth-century, a period in history that was shaped by two great ideas, nationalism and socialism. History and politics are woven into the fabric of his life. His daughter, Shivaun, described him as ‘a politician who couldn’t help being a writer’. O’Casey is best known for the three Dublin plays, but he was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth-century. He left us fourteen full-length plays, nine one-act plays, six volumes of autobiography, songs and poems, short stories, hundreds of critical essays, and many thousands of letters to friends and strangers across the world. The greater the work of art or literature the more political it is. But, literature can only gain importance and political meaning by being literary. Great drama or literature is political because it involves complexity, contradiction, difficulty, and beauty. But we must take heed of Walter Benjamin’s warning against ‘having a message in readiness’, and the danger of being over reductive in linking politics and literature. However, a sympathetic reading of O’Casey’s drama illustrates the way in which his concerns with political, social, and moral issues were animated by his own life experiences. James Larkin, the Irish labour leader, had a profound effect on O’Casey. Larkin who came to Dublin in 1907 on his ‘divine mission of discontent’ inspired O’Casey to use words as weapons in the fight against poverty and oppression. The Irish Worker, the weekly newspaper of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union aimed to be the ‘tribune of the people’ and that was the real strength of Larkin as an editor. He was always prepared to open the pages of the paper at great length to a worker like O’Casey, who wanted to tell his story. In many ways O’Casey learned his trade writing for the Irish Worker. His articles were sometimes over-long, but we get a glimpse a writer with a command of detail, allied to irony and humour that was sadly lacking in the socialist press of the time. However, it was his experience as a labourer, underfed and exploited that heightened his feelings for socialism. O’Casey himself believed that his participation in the Dublin lockout of 1913 ranked as his finest moment. The early decades of the twentieth-century were marked by war and revolution and O’Casey was an active participant in the 1913 lockout, the events leading up to the 1916 Rising, and the War of Independence. His pamphlet, The Story of the Irish Citizen Army and his heartfelt broadsheets on the death of his friend Thomas Ashe were not only concerned with the politics and direction of the Irish revolution but were also critical of the conduct of the Allied forces in the Great War. Out of this experience came the Dublin trilogy. He wrote of war and its horrors, of poverty and inequality that deforms human life and is as destructive as war itself. O’Casey probed the age-old ambivalence of humanity towards war and dramatises society’s love affair with violence even as he satirises this often fatal liaison. The World War I poets, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, created a ‘myth of war’ which O’Casey manages to subvert. The world at large continues to give currency to his prevailing themes. What O’Casey wrote about war and civil strife in Ireland in the 1920s could be extended to any field of war in the world today. The Dublin plays of Sean O’Casey and especially Juno and the Paycock have a universality that goes beyond the Dublin slums of the 1920s. O’Casey in his work went from a specific people or culture to a universal humanity. He wrote out of the experience of slum dwellers who lived on the Abbey’s doorstep but who rarely crossed the door of the theatre, and in the process, he spoke to the world of their possibilities. O’Casey rendered with brutal precision the savagery of war, particularly as it affected the civilian population and in the midst of oppression and rebellion he found nuggets hope and laughter to make the tragedy bearable, and in the process he made an original contribution to the presentation of war in art and literature. O’Casey’s drama is also relevant in Ireland today because it avoids the idea of Ireland as a special historical case whose history and fate is rooted in historical and political inevitability, or rooted in violence and irrationality. The upcoming hundredth anniversary of the Easter rising in 2016 has reopened the debate on the role of the physical force tradition in Irish history that has prompted fractures and disputes among historians and politicians over the last three decades. David Krause, O’Casey’s friend and biographer has argued for many years that O’Casey was the first revisionist – presenting the Dublin plays as studies in pacifism that counter the rhetoric and deeds of Irish nationalism. He stands square behind the view expressed by Seamus Shields in Shadow of a Gunman that it is innocent civilians who suffer most in the fighting. However, O’Casey’s position is more complex and dialectical than Krause allows; O’Casey criticises both sides though the British forces come in for the largest portion. O’Casey attempted to demythologise the Irish revolution in the light of the political reality that emerged after independence. The Plough and the Stars has been criticised for attacking republicanism and for being unsympathetic to the ideals of the 1916 revolutionaries. O’Casey’s point is: that it was the wrong war for the tenement dwellers of Dublin and indeed for the British soldiers on the other side of the barricades, a point that would not be lost on the combatants in the Middle East today. His proposal in The Plough and the Stars that they should put aside nationalism and religion and unite in the class war led to riots at the Abbey theatre when it was first produced in 1926. In Juno and the Paycock which is set in the midst of Ireland’s civil war, Captain Boyle says: ‘we’ve nothing to do with these things one way or the other’. [4] But the Boyle family cannot escape the war. The tension between the desires of ordinary people to live their lives in peace is subverted by the real world of war and strife intruding into the lives. Even his most left-wing critics often present a one-dimensional view of O’Casey’s politics. More often than not, he is presented as having little compassion for those fighting oppression. O’Casey was never a pacifist. He portrayed war and its effects from a variety of standpoints. Ronald Ayling suggests that there is no playwright comparable to Sean O’Casey ‘insofar as the complex dramatic interplay of history, warfare and memory is concerned’. [5] O’Casey’s portrayal of war was not confined to a exposé of the misery and suffering caused by war, but also, war as a precursor of radical social change. The reception of O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy internationally has always been problematic. French audiences rejected The Plough and the Stars in the late 1940s as they considered it openly derided the integrity of resistance fighters during World War II. On the other hand it gained acceptance in the 1960s during the Algerian War of Independence by that section of French society opposed to imperialism. In 1972 a Finnish production of The Plough and the Stars rewrote the ending to indicate the continuity of the struggle in the light of the Provisional IRA campaign in Northern Ireland. [6] O’Casey is asking us to judge the morality of war and revolution on the basis of the outcome. His criticism of the Irish War of Independence was not a simple pacifism or a denunciation of violence. Rather, it was a more complex analysis, which judged the legitimacy of the sacrifices made on the outcome of the revolution and the class forces involved. The poor suffered the most for the least reward, they sacrificed themselves in a struggle which was waged in their name but not in their interests – in Juno and the Paycock the middle-class solicitor squandered the Boyle family inheritance – a metaphor for post-independence Ireland that would not have been lost on the audience in 1925. Unlike Yeats, who wondered if ‘that play of mine sent out certain men the British shot’ [7], O’Casey never had such doubts. He was not a pacifist, but he forces us to look at the question from the point of view of those who do the dying and the suffering. O’Casey writes about those caught in the crossfire of civil war, about the millions around the world impoverished as a result of war and invasion. In his plays O’Casey shows us war and revolution, not as it physically was, but made manifest by language, intensified by poetry, song, and movement. Out of war and strife come the possibility of change. In the absence of debate theatre can become a force involved with history, because it contains within it the idea of a culture, which has not yet come to be in political terms. Theatre can become a political forum as much as a literary or intellectual form. However, documentary drama is no substitute for real drama, it merely substitutes for real journalism. Yeats had always intended that the Abbey should be a forum for public debate, which is the function of a national theatre. At an Abbey Theatre seminar in 2005 Richard Norton-Taylor, the author of the documentary drama Bloody Sunday, outlined the role of theatre as a medium for presenting current events, but was reminded by the theatre critic Helen Meaney that ‘remembrance is not art’, theatre must transform reality into something else – it must have a dramatic content. Political issues should not be confined to verbatim recreations but must also contain dramatic interpretations. [8] There has been a revival in the confidence and focus of political theatre that was damaged and disorientated by the defeats of the last twenty years. A critique of dramatic texts as a historically and politely contingent enterprise, in the past confined to the margins of Marxist literary theory, is now accepted as part of the mainstream in both theory and practice. In 1981, Frederic Jameson suggested a political interpretation of literary texts that has currently found acceptance as ‘the absolute horizon of all readings and all interpretations’ [9]. Today, the politics of literature is everywhere in drama. Writers and audiences have been stirred up at every level at the theatre. The Middle East wars have revitalised the history play. David Hare with Stuff Happens and The Vertical Hour, Henry Naylor’s Finding Bin Laden, Tim Robbins Embedded, and Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner’s My name is Rachel Corrie. The revival of plays from the period just before and after World War I is no accident and reminds us that the old wars are our wars, the old issues are our issues, even if they are decked out in hobble skirts and old uniforms. The recent performances of O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars, and The Silver Tassie are in this tradition. In modern times the most trenchant critique of O’Casey has come from Post-Colonial theorists. Both Terry Eagleton and Seamus Deane, amongst others, have criticised O’Casey’s work because any progressive outcome appears beyond the powers of humanity. They argue that in O’Casey’s drama his socialists’ are cardboard cut-out caricatures and his nationalists’ self-serving cowards or dreamers. That history in O’Casey’s work is just a series of recurring motifs and the spectator can do nothing, except watch passively the action on the stage, which serves to confirm the political action is futile. Dreams of progress seem always to be doomed to failure. The dialectics of O’Casey’s drama is complex; deeply held human aspirations for peace, brotherhood, and happiness are subverted by war. But, there is a restlessness that points to the possibilities of a new unity and a far-reaching resistance at the heart of his work. That is why O’Casey, like Brecht, set himself against ’Tragic Theatre’ because nothing human can possibly be outside the powers of humanity, and such tragedies have human causes. [10] A more sympathetic reading of O’Casey shows his plays are redolent with hope and humanity. In Red Roses for Me he was able to do justice to the humanity of his characters and present them in a more rounded way. He presents the alternative possibilities inherent in Irish history that can be recognised and developed in contemporary conditions. If his early work can be criticised for offering no alternative, here he points to the potential of a better life. O’Casey takes the religious festival and symbolism of Easter and transforms it into an earthy vision of sacrifice and hope for the future. In Red Roses for Me he implies that the real Easter sacrifice was not that of the Nationalists in 1916 but that of the working class in 1913. Jack Mitchell draws attention to the way that O’Casey transforms Yeats’ poem Easter 1916: ‘all changed, changed utterly: a terrible beauty is born’ into an interpretation of 1913 as: ‘A subtle change and a tentative beauty’, whose possibilities are still to be realised [11]. In his autobiography O’Casey qualifies Yeats’ iconic line on the 1916 Rising, ‘a terrible beauty is born’, by his remark that it was not born in Ireland, but in Russia in 1917. In Red Roses for Me, O’Casey paints a ‘vision of a city, of Dublin as it existed in the life of the people in its despair and in its moment of glory, its deep tragedy and the permanence of its heroic endeavour’. [12] This is the nearest that O’Casey comes to Bertolt Brecht, whose Days of the Commune shares that same festive spirit of a great city coming alive in a new millennium. Both writers paint a picture of a new age of learning and a bright future for mankind. Both plays are based on historical fact and reveal the process of history through the struggle of the masses. Red Roses is a portrait of the artist as a young socialist and although Ayamonn is not shown explicitly as a communist, he represents O’Casey’s own understanding of the communist ideal that is every much as heroic as the Communards in Brecht’s play. Ayamonn represents the reality and aspirations of a working-class person aspiring to a fuller life for himself and his class. O’Casey sets forth a vision of people changing under the impact of tragic events, where his characters have to confront the reality of capitalist society. Ayamonn is also the personification of the anonymous ‘mob’ who ‘make their own history’ and refuse to have their destinies determined by events happening somewhere else. Red Roses strikes a more collective note than is usual in O’Casey’s work. Typically, his protagonists are heroic figures who reveal rather than overthrow the laws of society and are destroyed in the process. O’Casey trusts his audience to draw their own conclusions, which is why his work speaks most forcefully and controversially in times of strife and war. His plays are open-ended, frustratingly so, yet they invite the audiences sympathy for the victims of war and oppression. The Silver Tassie, his darkest play with little humour to soften the tragedy ends with a call to take part in life: ‘As long as wars are waged, we shall be vexed by woe; strong legs shall be made useless and bright eyes made dark. But we, who have come through the fire unharmed, must go on living.’ [13] Despite Seamus Heaney’s warning that ‘no lyric ever stopped a tank’, O’Casey’s drama is revolutionary in that it forces us to confront and examine our relationship with the world. ‘Tragedy’ is not a definition that is unproblematic: ‘One who is hearing the events unfolding shudders in terror and feels pity at what happens’. ‘Tragedy’ is both a descriptive and the theatrical term that conveys an image of events as a mutually destructive process. Terry Eagleton said ‘Brecht always placed immense emphasis on the need for an audience to enjoy itself, to respond with sensuousness and humour.’ [14] O’Casey wanted to his plays ‘to be seen through bursts of laughter’. [15] He was as conscious as Brecht of the liberating social and political implications of laughter in times of barbarism. O’Casey uses comedy to leaven the tragedy, to make it bearable; and in the process he undermines the dramatic conventions of tragedy. His work has been consistently subjected to an insidious sentimental interpretation where the comic is privileged precisely because it makes nothing happen. [16] As early as 1925 the critic Andrew Malone, protested against productions that emphasised the comedy over the tragedy – he insisted the plays where ‘hideous tragedies’, and accused the Abbey actors of deliberately playing for laughs. The brilliance of Sara Allgood and Barry Fitzgerald – their light touch masked the tragedy and set a trend in O’Casey productions. Garry Hyne’s controversial expressionist production of The Plough and the Stars at the Abbey Theatre in 1991 on the 75th anniversary of the 1916 Rising was a bold savage presentation. It delivered a shock by reminding us that ‘this was always meant to be a shocking play’. [17] Franz Fanon suggested that a colonised person has ‘to manage his image, to resist any attempt to position him’. In the 1970s and 80s O’Casey’s work was either ignored or reduced to deny the Republican movement the possibility of inserting it into current political discourse. Terry Eagleton in a 1991 review of The Plough and the Stars at the Young Vic in London concluded that the play was a failure because its ‘knockabout naturalism conspires with the very colonialist standpoint it’s author so vehemently rejected’. [18] Eagleton, quite correctly, had reviewed the performance, not the play, but in the process he inadvertently colludes with the production in transforming the text into a ‘grisly and ironic reversal’ [19] of O’Casey’s overt intention. Plays are written as ‘localised strategies’ at particular instants in history, but the audience encounters the play at a particular historical moment and the realisation of the text will be coloured and experienced by the shifting interaction between playwright, play, and audience. Performance always takes place in the present; therefore it has a friction with the present – the past becomes alive in the present. In denying the present context of his work practitioners have denied the integrity of O’Casey’s attempt to give a voice to the culture and politics of those traditionally excluded in Ireland. O’Casey devoted his life to a critical assessment of social reality. Theatre, literature was a means to change the world. Like Brecht he was no crude determinist, he incorporated tactical changes to form and content according to historical circumstances. In today’s world radical interpretations of history are under sustained attack. If, as the postmodernists argue, society is ‘beyond critique and negative portrayal’ [20], then political theatre as envisaged by O’Casey, Shaw, Brecht, and its modern practitioners has become almost impossible. Political drama in the postmodern world has been reduced to ‘nothing more than an object for nostalgia’. [21] At a time when revisionist historians are rediscovering the virtues of empires and imperialist wars Sean O’Casey is worth revisiting. O’Casey presented war and civil strife in all its complexity, which as much concern for the victims as for the cause. His faith in the innate courage and endurance of ordinary people would surely find a resonance among the beleaguered people of the world today. I think O’Casey would have liked the fact that his plays could be a force for peace and progress. His work affirms that theatre matters, that it can speak to us as nothing else can. Always his own man, O’Casey was an active and deeply committed socialist. Though associated and supportive of the Communist Party in Britain during the last thirty years of his life, he was never a member of the party. I think he understood instinctively that his humanism and decency would never have survived the straitjacket of Stalinist dogma. Yet, his defence of Stalin and the Soviet Union in some of his post-war letters and essays appears naive and blinkered from the perspective of the early twenty-first century. His support for a corrupted form of socialism in the Soviet Union partially crippled his ability to set down what a political theatre could do. Despite this, his personal courage and passion survived an age which did not look kindly on his ideas and whose understanding of his political concepts was shallow enough to dilute O’Casey the political agitator into O’Casey the comic genius. In the past his critics have often been too rigorously academic or exclusive in accusing O’Casey of politicising art. Few acknowledge the contribution he made to bringing theatre and politics into a conscious connection. 1. Richard Watts Jr., New York Post, 7 August 1960. 2. Desmond Rushe, The New York Times, 13 July 1970. 3. Christopher Murray, Sean O’Casey: Writer at Work (Gill Macmillan, Dublin, 2004). 4. Sean O’Casey, Juno and the Paycock, Plays 1 (Faber Faber, London, 1998), p. 54. 5. Ronald Ayling. Sean O’Casey’s Theatre of War (Kalamalka Press, Vernon BC, 2004), p. 24. 6. Sirklau Aaltonen, Time Sharing on Stage, Topics in Translation: 17, (Multilingual Matters Ltd., 2002). 7. W.B. Yeats, The Man and His Echo, Collected Poems (Macmillan, London, 1950), p. 393. 8. Helen Meaney, Theatre and Politics, Abbey Theatre Seminar, 15 October 2005. 9. Frederic Jameson, The political Unconscious: Narrative as Socially Symbolic Act (Ithaca, New York, 1981), p. 17. 10. Bertolt Brecht, The Messingkauf Dialogues, trans. John Willett (London, 1965), p. 32. 11. See footnote 1. 12. Hörst Hohne, Brecht vs. O’Casey, or O’Casey & Brecht, O’Casey Annual, No. 1 (Macmillan, London, 1984), p. 28. 13. Sean O’Casey, The Silver Tassie, Plays 2 (Faber Faber, London, 1998), p. 262. 14. Terry Eagleton, quoted in David Krause, The Risen O’Casey, O’Casey Annual, No. 3, p. 153. 15. Sean O’Casey, Letters (Macmillan, New York, 1975), vol. 1, p. 882. 16. Bernice Shrank, The Politics of O’Casey’s War Plays, Ritual Remembering, Eds., C.C. Barfoot and Rias van den Doel (Rodopi, Amsterdam – Atlanta, GA, 1995), p. 76. 17. Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times, 22 November 2002. 18. Times Literary Supplement, 17 May 1991. 19. Jameson, p. 102. 20. Charles Grimes, Bernard Shaw’s Theory of Political Theatre, SHAW – The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies 22 (2001), p. 122. 21. ibid., p. 118. Top of page Paul O’Brien Archive | ETOL Main Page Last updated: 19 June 2020 | left | paul archive etol main page irish marxist review vol september pp copyright irish marxist review pdf article available transcribe mark einde encyclopaedia trotskyism online etol sean sean bear dublin area see well day man immense contradiction refuse conform image create literary political elite later life experience rejection exile censorship determination surrender literary soul smallminde bigot patrol corridor irish life sense writer rise naysayer discredited critic try pull manage create literature last value guttersnipe playwright slum critic dismiss give voice rarely hear poor dispossess tenementdweller life shape work art socialist humanist great writer politic centre work send blast benediction world assert role writer transformative force society fighter suffer cruelty low ambition angry man capable great rage long john osborne generation give birth concept anger base dislike mankind love scourge ireland feel betray ideal cherish native land love fiercely reason irish critic provisional uncertain attitude sean live witness birth new generation scholar late describe industry base mainly united states come book journal review flow furious rate robert lowery write believe reputation alive dr david krause friend biographer editor letter feel publication volume letter open industry ireland outside scholar great joyce industry sean die follow year annual replace sean review cease publication industry wither sickly relative joyce industry end reputation decline dublin play fellout repertoire later play produce good writer leave languish second division long centenary abbey theatre demand appraisal work place irish theatre shivaun documentary film sean coloured cap show soft family man artist work christopher murray book sean writer work introduce new generation theatre go surely stand definitive biography year come intellectual giant recognise genius pygmy try impugn literary merit historical accuracy dislike politic critical comment role catholic church ireland assail nationalist critique nationalism rightwe commentator atheistic communist politic favour soften dismiss political belief heart man writer emphasis modern biography place childhood married life forth case displace work idea social context artist writer political writer generation explore frontier literature politic like mentor george bernard shaw write purpose understand world demand engagement life history early twentiethcentury period history shape great idea nationalism socialism history politic weave fabric life daughter shivaun describe politician help writer well know dublin play prolific writer twentiethcentury leave fourteen fulllength play oneact play volume autobiography song poem short story hundred critical essay thousand letter friend stranger world great work art literature political literature gain importance political meaning literary great drama literature political involve complexity contradiction difficulty beauty heed walter benjamin warn have message readiness danger reductive link politic literature sympathetic reading drama illustrate way concern political social moral issue animate life experience james larkin irish labour leader profound effect larkin come dublin divine mission discontent inspire use word weapon fight poverty oppression irish worker weekly newspaper irish transport general worker union aim tribune people real strength larkin editor prepared open page paper great length worker like want tell story way learn trade write irish worker article overlong glimpse writer command detail ally irony humour sadly lack socialist press time experience labourer underfeed exploit heighten feeling socialism believe participation dublin lockout rank fine moment early decade twentiethcentury mark war revolution active participant lockout event lead rise war independence pamphlet story irish citizen army heartfelt broadsheet death friend thomas ashe concerned politic direction irish revolution critical conduct ally force great war experience come dublin trilogy write war horror poverty inequality deform human life destructive war probe ageold ambivalence humanity war dramatise society love affair violence satirise fatal liaison world war poet wilfre owen siegfrie sassoon create myth war manage subvert world large continue currency prevail theme write war civil strife ireland extend field war world today dublin play sean especially juno paycock universality go dublin slum work go specific people culture universal humanity write experience slum dweller live abbey doorstep rarely cross door theatre process speak world possibility render brutal precision savagery war particularly affect civilian population midst oppression rebellion find nugget hope laughter tragedy bearable process original contribution presentation war art literature drama relevant ireland today avoid idea ireland special historical case history fate root historical political inevitability root violence irrationality upcoming hundredth anniversary easter rise reopen debate role physical force tradition irish history prompt fracture dispute historian politician decade david krause friend biographer argue year revisionist present dublin play study pacifism counter rhetoric deed irish nationalism stand square view express seamus shield shadow gunman innocent civilian suffer fighting position complex dialectical krause allow criticise side british force come large portion attempt demythologise irish revolution light political reality emerge independence plough star criticise attack republicanism unsympathetic ideal revolutionary point wrong war tenement dweller dublin british soldier barricade point lose combatant middle east today proposal plough star aside nationalism religion unite class war lead riot abbey theatre produce juno paycock set midst ireland civil war captain boyle say thing way boyle family escape war tension desire ordinary people live life peace subvert real world war strife intrude life leftwing critic present onedimensional view politic present have little compassion fight oppression pacifist portray war effect variety standpoint ronald ayling suggest playwright comparable sean insofar complex dramatic interplay history warfare memory concern portrayal war confine exposé misery suffering cause war war precursor radical social change reception dublin trilogy internationally problematic french audience reject plough star late consider openly deride integrity resistance fighter world war ii hand gain acceptance algerian war independence section french society oppose imperialism finnish production plough star rewrote ending indicate continuity struggle light provisional ira campaign northern ireland ask judge morality war revolution basis outcome criticism irish war independence simple pacifism denunciation violence complex analysis judge legitimacy sacrifice outcome revolution class force involve poor suffer reward sacrifice struggle wage interest juno paycock middleclass solicitor squander boyle family inheritance metaphor postindependence ireland lose audience unlike yeat wonder play send certain man british shot doubt pacifist force look question point view dying suffering write catch crossfire civil war million world impoverish result war invasion play show war revolution physically manifest language intensify poetry song movement war strife come possibility change absence debate theatre force involve history contain idea culture come political term theatre political forum literary intellectual form documentary drama substitute real drama merely substitute real journalism yeat intend abbey forum public debate function national theatre abbey theatre seminar richard nortontaylor author documentary drama bloody sunday outline role theatre medium present current event remind theatre critic helen meaney remembrance art theatre transform reality dramatic content political issue confine verbatim recreation contain dramatic interpretation revival confidence focus political theatre damage disorientate defeat year critique dramatic text historically politely contingent enterprise past confine margin marxist literary theory accept mainstream theory practice frederic jameson suggest political interpretation literary text currently find acceptance absolute horizon reading interpretation today politic literature drama writer audience stir level theatre middle east war revitalise history play david hare stuff happen vertical hour henry naylor find bin laden tim robbin embed alan rickman katherine viner rachel corrie revival play period world war accident remind old war war old issue issue deck hobble skirt old uniform recent performance juno paycock plough star silver tassie tradition modern time trenchant critique come postcolonial theorist terry eagleton seamus deane criticise work progressive outcome appear power humanity argue drama socialist cardboard cutout caricature nationalist selfserve coward dreamer history work series recur motif spectator watch passively action stage serve confirm political action futile dream progress doom failure dialectic drama complex deeply hold human aspiration peace brotherhood happiness subvert war restlessness point possibility new unity farreache resistance heart work like brecht set tragic theatre human possibly outside power humanity tragedy human cause sympathetic reading show play redolent hope humanity red rose able justice humanity character present rounded way present alternative possibility inherent irish history recognise develop contemporary condition early work criticise offer alternative point potential well life take religious festival symbolism easter transform earthy vision sacrifice hope future red rose imply real easter sacrifice nationalist work class jack mitchell draw attention way transform yeat poem easter change change utterly terrible beauty bear interpretation subtle change tentative beauty possibility realise autobiography qualify yeat iconic line rise terrible beauty bear remark bear ireland russia red rose paint vision city dublin exist life people despair moment glory deep tragedy permanence heroic endeavour near come bertolt brecht day commune share festive spirit great city come alive new millennium writer paint picture new age learn bright future mankind play base historical fact reveal process history struggle masse red rose portrait artist young socialist ayamonn show explicitly communist represent understanding communist ideal heroic communard brecht play ayamonn represent reality aspiration workingclass person aspire full life class set forth vision people change impact tragic event character confront reality capitalist society ayamonn personification anonymous mob history refuse destiny determine event happen red rose strike collective note usual work typically protagonist heroic figure reveal overthrow law society destroy process trust audience draw conclusion work speak forcefully controversially time strife war play openende frustratingly invite audience sympathy victim war oppression silver tassie darkest play little humour soften tragedy end life long war wage shall vex woe strong leg shall useless bright eye dark come fire unharmed live despite seamus heaney warning lyric stop tank drama revolutionary force confront examine relationship world tragedy definition unproblematic hear event unfold shudder terror feel pity happen tragedy descriptive theatrical term convey image event mutually destructive process terry eagleton say brecht place immense emphasis need audience enjoy respond sensuousness humour want play see burst laughter conscious brecht liberating social political implication laughter time barbarism use comedy leaven tragedy bearable process undermine dramatic convention tragedy work consistently subject insidious sentimental interpretation comic privilege precisely make happen early critic andrew malone protest production emphasise comedy tragedy insist play hideous tragedy accuse abbey actor deliberately play laugh brilliance sara allgood barry fitzgerald light touch mask tragedy set trend production garry hyne controversial expressionist production plough star abbey theatre anniversary rise bold savage presentation deliver shock remind mean shocking play franz fanon suggest colonised person manage image resist attempt position work ignore reduce deny republican movement possibility insert current political discourse terry eagleton review plough star young vic london conclude play failure knockabout naturalism conspire colonialist standpoint author vehemently reject eagleton correctly review performance play process inadvertently collude production transform text grisly ironic reversal overt intention play write localise strategy particular instant history audience encounter play particular historical moment realisation text colour experience shift interaction playwright play audience performance take place present friction present past alive present deny present context work practitioner deny integrity attempt voice culture politic traditionally exclude ireland devote life critical assessment social reality theatre literature means change world like brecht crude determinist incorporate tactical change form content accord historical circumstance today world radical interpretation history sustained attack postmodernist argue society critique negative portrayal political theatre envisage shaw brecht modern practitioner impossible political drama postmodern world reduce object nostalgia time revisionist historian rediscover virtue empire imperialist war sean worth revisit present war civil strife complexity concern victim cause faith innate courage endurance ordinary people surely find resonance beleaguered people world today think like fact play force peace progress work affirm theatre matter speak man active deeply commit socialist associate supportive communist party britain thirty year life member party think understand instinctively humanism decency survive straitjacket stalinist dogma defence stalin soviet union postwar letter essay appear naive blinker perspective early twentyfirst century support corrupt form socialism soviet union partially cripple ability set political theatre despite personal courage passion survive age look kindly idea understanding political concept shallow dilute political agitator comic genius past critic rigorously academic exclusive accuse politicise art acknowledge contribution bring theatre politic conscious connection richard watts jr new york post august desmond rushe new york times july christopher murray sean writer work gill macmillan dublin sean juno paycock play faber faber london p ronald ayle sean theatre war kalamalka press vernon bc p sirklau aaltonen time share stage topic translation multilingual matter ltd wb yeat man echo collect poems macmillan london p helen meaney theatre politic abbey theatre seminar october frederic jameson political unconscious narrative socially symbolic act ithaca new york p bertolt brecht messingkauf dialogues trans john willett london p footnote hörst hohne brecht vs brecht annual macmillan london p sean silver tassie play faber faber london p terry eagleton quote david krause risen annual p sean letter macmillan new york vol p bernice shrink politic war play ritual remembering ed cc barfoot rias van den doel rodopi amsterdam atlanta ga p fintan irish times november time literary supplement jameson p charle grime bernard shaw theory political theatre shaw annual bernard shaw studies p ibid p page paul archive etol main page update june | 84 |
DESPITE HISTORIC TIES to the inmost nexus of cocaine trafficking and paramilitarism, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez is Washington’s leading exponent of the “war on drugs and terror” in the Western hemisphere. At the inauguration ceremony of President Nicanor Duarte in Paraguay on August 15, 2003, on Uribe’s initiative, and excepting Hugo Chavez, South American presidents signed the Declaration of Asuncion, a pledge of loyalty that placed “the war on drugs and terror” at the top of the region’s foreign policy priorities. During the brief stay of Donald Rumsfeld in Bogota four days later, 13,000 troops and intelligence agents, U.S. as well as Colombian, patrolled the airport, public buildings and roadways. The day before, on August 18, Uribe faced machine-gun fire from the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) when his helicopter approached Granada, Antioquia, a town destroyed by the FARC’s gas cylinder bombs on December 6–7, 2000. Since the FARC have sophisticated grenade launchers, and since Uribe returned to Granada to deliver his speech after leaving his wife in Medellin, one wonders if, like nearly everything else in Uribe’s presidency, the attack was not stage-managed to drive home the case for more resources to fight “drugs and terror” and eliminate the FARC, now held to be responsible for the country’s accumulated problems. Beginning with Plan Colombia in the late 1990s, in the name of “the war on drugs” – which, soon after September 11, 2001, became “the war on drugs and terror” – the U.S. government responded to the growing challenge to the Washington Consensus in South America. This meant eradicating coca along with legal crops in FARC strongholds, Putumayo and Caqueta; erecting a military base in Manta, Ecuador (a country in which two governments were overthrown by popular uprisings between 1997 and 2000); “Plan Dignity” to eradicate coca – and the coca growers’ movement – in the Bolivian Chapare and Yungas; a coup attempt in Venezuela; offhand comments from former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill that rocked Brazilian financial markets as elections neared. The cornerstone of U.S. policy in the hemisphere, though, is to be found in Colombia itself, which, measured in terms of “aid” money, is the world’s third most important U.S. client state after Israel and Egypt. This at a time when, as a consequence of its thorough implementation of neoliberal economic policies, the region’s peoples are living through the deepest crisis since the 1930s. Though the AUC paramilitaries [extreme right-wing landowner-financed Militias—ed.] have been on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist groups since September 10, 2001, Uribe officially began a “peace” process with them in July 2003. Violating U.S. laws, U.S. Embassy Political Officer Alexander Lee, and Stewart Tuttle, head of the Human Rights Section, met in secret with AUC representatives in early May 2003. The U.S. government then proposed to spend $3 million to “disarm and demobilize” the 13,000 AUC fighters under the control of Carlos Castano and Salvatore Mancuso. Mancuso – who, along with Castano, has been convicted in absentia for war crimes, and is wanted for extradition on charges of smuggling seventeen tons of cocaine into the United States – has said that since it is politically willing to try to eliminate the guerrillas, Uribe’s government has made the paramilitaries irrelevant. The first “phase” of paramilitary demobilization took place in Medellin on November 25, as 850 soldiers from Bloque Cacique Nutibara handed over a tiny portion (112) of the weapons they possess, to tremendous media fanfare – there were more journalists than onlookers in attendance. “Don Berna,” leader of Bloque Nutibara, helped found one of Medellin’s largest and most fearsome gangs, “La Terraza,” which boasts 6,000 foot soldiers, and has long waded neck-deep in cocaine trafficking. At the demobilization ceremony, Castano and Mancuso broadcast messages of “peace” from their not-so-secret hideouts. A proposed bill would allow paramilitaries to avoid prison by paying indemnities to families of people they massacred or murdered, or in some cases through public service. If sworn into law, the proposal would reinforce impunity in a country where 95% of homicides go unpunished. People like Castano and Mancuso would become political operators and advisors to ex-AUC congresspersons and senators, while their foot soldiers become government spies or “peasant militiamen and women.” Meanwhile, teachers and other trade unionists, community leaders, human rights workers, independent journalists and academics; petty drug dealers and consumers, the homeless, transvestites, homosexuals, addicts and street kids; all will continue to be murdered,though in much smaller numbers than peasants – like the six Afro-Colombians murdered outside Buenaventura by the AUC in early July 2003, for example. Or the four young Guajibo women, one of whose fetus was hacked out of her stomach and thrown into the nearby river, raped and killed in the Betoyes reserve in Arauca in May 2003. The perpetrators, according to Guajibo survivors, were soldiers from the 18th Brigade’s Navos Pardos Battalion, wearing AUC armbands and coordinating with the ACC, a “dissident” paramilitary block that has opted out of “peace negotiations” with Uribe. As for making peace with the FARC, “if they break the will of these rebel groups, that’s when negotiations will work,” a Colombian military official told Jim Garamone of the American Forces Press Service. Uribe’s imperial backing is nearly unlimited, demonstrated by Rumsfeld’s visit as well as visits from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in late September 2003, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, in early August. Powell saluted Uribe’s commitment to “human rights” in his fight against terrorism, while Myers declared that Uribe had achieved “significant victories,” compared Venezuela to Syria, and called Colombia a “staunch ally” in the “war on drugs and terror,” indicating very clearly the State Department-Pentagon vision of foreign policy for the region. For his part, Zoellick promised Uribe that Colombia was next in line for a bilateral trade agreement similar to the one the Bush administration recently reached with Chile. The message to the rest of South American rulers was simple: follow Uribe and you will be rewarded (although former president of Bolivia Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada did so, and was promptly overthrown). In April 2003 the U.S. Congress awarded Uribe an extra $104 million, on top of the $2.5 billion already been disbursed since 1999 under Plan Colombia. Under the Pastrana administration, activists from trade unions, feminist and human rights groups, families of the disappeared, organizations that work with the displaced, indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups began to try to stake out autonomous territory for a participatory, bottom-up peace process, which culminated with an antiwar march of 30,000 women in Bogota in August 2002. The earlier peace activism laid the groundwork for the current upsurge of opposition, exemplified by the antiwar gathering of 3,000 women in Putumayo in late November 2003, which denounced the effects of U.S.-led war and fumigation: the deterioration of “life, health, the destruction of the environment, and traditional as well as alternative crops.” (1) Led by the indigenous organization in Cauca, CRIC, a mass antiwar, anti-Uribe protest march took place in October 2002, which brought tens of thousands onto the highways and into the city streets in spite of government and paramilitary harassment. The nineteen-point referendum that Uribe put to the country in October 2003, delaying local elections, locking in IMF austerity measures and instituting a two-year public-spending freeze and cap on pensions, failed due to an abstention rate of 81%, thanks to trade union agitation, centered in the public sector, and Liberal Party dissidents like Afro-Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba. Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities in Cauca and the Choco continue to press collective land claims, and in mid-May 2003, efforts to forge an alliance led to a meeting of 2,000 of the former and 3,000 of the latter, which centered on strategies for land reclamation and cultural survival. (2) In June 2003 in Arauca, the Uwa and the Guajibos formed The Association of Cabildos and Traditional Indigenous Authorities (ASCATIDAR) to demand indigenous autonomy from armed conflict, self-determination and control of natural resources. There have been community-labor protests over the privatization of EMCALI, a utilities and telecoms company, and ECOPETROL, whose installations in Barrancabermeja were militarized in June with 1,500 troops in order to block strike activity. Over 600,000 trade unionists took to the streets in July 2003 to protest the cuts to the public sector work force proposed in October’s referendum. It was the referendum’s dramatic failure that constituted the first real domestic political setback for the Uribe administration, as the high abstention rate demonstrated that Uribe’s ostensible popularity in the opinion polls (over 70%) did not translate into political support on the ground. It also suggested that Uribe is not nearly as popular as the Colombian media insist. The election of Lucho Garzon, the first Left-Liberal mayor of Bogota since Gaitan, is a clear sign that a significant part of the middle lass has already decided to throw its weight behind organized labor and the electoral left. This occurred not only in Bogota. In Medellin, homicide capital of the world; in Barrancabermeja, where 120 activists were assassinated in 2003; and in two departments, opposition candidates won municipal and regional elections – crucially, in the south: Cauca and Valle de Cauca. Lucho Garzon, however, a former trade union leader whom some have billed as Colombia’s “Lula,” has already distanced himself from what he called “the ultra-left,” Carlos Gaviria and the Social and Political Front (FSP), and has decided to govern with the Liberal Party. (3) This can only lead to an independent municipal politics minus the independence, and cannot possibly present an alternative to the Uribe regime. Shortly after the defeat of the referendum, Uribe’s “superminister,” Fernando Londono Hoyos (Justice and Interior), as well as former model Marta Lucia Ramirez (Defense), were forced to resign, but their replacements (Sabas Pretelt and Jorge Uribe, respectively) leave little doubt that Uribe will continue on course as if nothing had happened. The entrepreneurs will handle both economic and military policy. The paramilitaries, meanwhile, despite the so-called “ceasefire” declared in late 2002, have stepped up threats, harassment, intimidation and killing, in order to punish those responsible for the defeat of the referendum. In November 2003, they killed four public sector trade unionists in two weeks, in accordance with the threats leveled at Domingo Tovar Arrieta, director of the CUT’s Human Rights Department, on October 30. (4) While Uribe has relaxed credit in an attempt to stimulate a consumption and construction boom, with import demand from the United States (and Venezuela) weakening, oil and coffee prices falling and a deteriorating world market, the economic outlook for his regime is far from sunny. The military statistics are as unlikely as those trotted out during Vietnam – in the field of combat, there have been no major defeats for the insurgencies, just a barrage of lies about army successes, and the capture of one or another comandante, such as Simon Trinidad. Ultimately, the fate of Uribe’s government will be decided by the success of its drive to terminate armed opposition to “capitalismo a la colombiana,” permanently. On December 6, 2003, Uribe declared that it was time to “exterminate the guerrillas ... by good means or bad – to calculate less and risk more.” The exceptional growth and longevity of the guerrillas in Colombia has been a product of four main factors: the closure of the political system; the extent of the country’s agrarian frontiers; its highly divided and corrugated topography; and the contingencies of the coca boom. High-tech weaponry and surveillance systems, of the kind tested out in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, will be called upon to overcome the last three. Aerial fumigation of wide swathes of the countryside, to destroy coca cultivation, is now in full swing, yet the cocaine business is booming. Washington and Bogota are already claiming unprecedented success in their campaign against coca, with no mention made of its impact on the volume of cocaine imports and interdiction. In December 2002 a UN study claimed that coca planting in Colombia had been cut by 30% in the past year, to 252,000 acres. (5) Currently over 35,000 acres are being destroyed every month – now, according to legislation approved by the U.S. Congress in early December, including National Parks, which contain seventy percent of Colombia’s water and ten million hectares of officially-protected forest. (6) In Putumayo, “Towns dedicated to the harvest and production of cocaine have been abandoned like ghost towns in the old American West, their stores empty, their people vanished,” reported the Los Angeles Times in early June 2003: “Of more than a dozen farmers interviewed in mid-May, not a single one planned to continue planting coca. Repeated visits by the crop dusters wiped out the coca as well as nearby food crops and convinced them to give up the business.” (7) In Bush-Uribe’s “war on drugs and terror,” the institutionalization of genocidal impunity and escalation of public-private repression appear to be the order of the day. Not since the dark night of Laureano Gomez’s reign (1950–53) have civil liberties and human rights been under such severe attack in Colombia. We may perhaps take hope from the fact that the radical-popular movement there has been nothing if not resilient; surviving wave upon wave of state and/or paramilitary terror since 1880, it has always resurfaced with vigor. ATC 109, March–April 2004 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | despite historic tie inmost nexus cocaine trafficking paramilitarism colombian president alvaro uribe velez washington lead exponent war drug terror western hemisphere inauguration ceremony president nicanor duarte paraguay august uribe initiative except hugo chavez south american president sign declaration asuncion pledge loyalty place war drug terror region foreign policy priority brief stay donald rumsfeld bogota day later troop intelligence agent colombian patrol airport public building roadway day august uribe face machinegun fire colombian revolutionary armed force farc helicopter approach granada antioquia town destroy farc gas cylinder bomb december farc sophisticated grenade launcher uribe return granada deliver speech leave wife medellin wonder like nearly uribe presidency attack stagemanage drive home case resource fight drug terror eliminate farc hold responsible country accumulate problem begin plan colombia late war drug soon september war drug terror government respond grow challenge washington consensus south america mean eradicate coca legal crop farc stronghold putumayo caqueta erect military base manta ecuador country government overthrow popular uprising plan dignity eradicate coca coca grower movement bolivian chapare yungas coup attempt venezuela offhand comment treasury secretary paul rock brazilian financial market election near cornerstone policy hemisphere find colombia measure term aid money world important client state israel egypt time consequence thorough implementation neoliberal economic policy region people live deep crisis auc paramilitary extreme rightwe landownerfinanced militia ed state department list terrorist group september uribe officially begin peace process july violate law embassy political officer alexander lee stewart tuttle head human right section meet secret auc representative early government propose spend million disarm demobilize auc fighter control carlos castano salvatore mancuso mancuso castano convict absentia war crime want extradition charge smuggle seventeen ton cocaine united states say politically willing try eliminate guerrilla uribe government paramilitary irrelevant phase paramilitary demobilization take place medellin november soldier bloque cacique nutibara hand tiny portion weapon possess tremendous medium fanfare journalist onlooker attendance don berna leader bloque nutibara helped find medellin large fearsome gang la terraza boast foot soldier long wade neckdeep cocaine traffic demobilization ceremony castano mancuso broadcast message peace notsosecret hideout propose bill allow paramilitary avoid prison pay indemnity family people massacre murder case public service swear law proposal reinforce impunity country homicide unpunished people like castano mancuso political operator advisor exauc congressperson senator foot soldier government spy peasant militiaman woman teacher trade unionist community leader human right worker independent journalist academic petty drug dealer consumer homeless transvestite homosexual addict street kid continue murderedthough small number peasant like afrocolombian murder outside buenaventura auc early july example young guajibo woman fetus hack stomach throw nearby river rape kill betoyes reserve arauca perpetrator accord guajibo survivor soldier brigade navos pardo battalion wear auc armband coordinate acc dissident paramilitary block opt peace negotiation uribe make peace farc break rebel group negotiation work colombian military official tell jim garamone american force press service uribe imperial backing nearly unlimited demonstrate rumsfeld visit visit secretary state colin powell late september chairman joint chief staff gen richard myers trade representative robert zoellick early august powell salute uribe commitment human right fight terrorism myers declare uribe achieve significant victory compare venezuela syria call colombia staunch ally war drug terror indicate clearly state departmentpentagon vision foreign policy region zoellick promise uribe colombia line bilateral trade agreement similar bush administration recently reach chile message rest south american ruler simple follow uribe reward president bolivia gonzalo sanchez de lozada promptly overthrow april congress award uribe extra million billion disburse plan colombia pastrana administration activist trade union feminist human right group family disappear organization work displace indigenous afrocolombian group begin try stake autonomous territory participatory bottomup peace process culminate antiwar march woman bogota august early peace activism lay groundwork current upsurge opposition exemplify antiwar gathering woman putumayo late november denounce effect usled war fumigation deterioration life health destruction environment traditional alternative crop lead indigenous organization cauca cric mass antiwar antiuribe protest march take place october bring ten thousand highway city street spite government paramilitary harassment nineteenpoint referendum uribe country october delay local election lock imf austerity measure institute twoyear publicspende freeze cap pension fail abstention rate thank trade union agitation center public sector liberal party dissident like afrocolombian senator piedad cordoba afrocolombian indigenous community cauca choco continue press collective land claim midmay effort forge alliance lead meeting center strategy land reclamation cultural survival june arauca uwa guajibo form association cabildo traditional indigenous authority ascatidar demand indigenous autonomy armed conflict selfdetermination control natural resource communitylabor protest privatization emcali utility telecom company ecopetrol installation barrancabermeja militarize june troop order block strike activity trade unionist take street july protest cut public sector work force propose october referendum referendum dramatic failure constitute real domestic political setback uribe administration high abstention rate demonstrate uribe ostensible popularity opinion poll translate political support ground suggest uribe nearly popular colombian medium insist election lucho garzon leftliberal mayor bogota gaitan clear sign significant middle lass decide throw weight organize labor electoral left occur bogota medellin homicide capital world barrancabermeja activist assassinate department opposition candidate win municipal regional election crucially south cauca valle de cauca lucho garzon trade union leader bill colombia lula distance call ultraleft carlos gaviria social political fsp decide govern liberal party lead independent municipal politic minus independence possibly present alternative uribe regime shortly defeat referendum uribe superminister fernando londono hoyos justice interior model marta lucia ramirez defense force resign replacement sabas pretelt jorge uribe respectively leave little doubt uribe continue course happen entrepreneur handle economic military policy paramilitary despite socalled ceasefire declare late step threat harassment intimidation kill order punish responsible defeat referendum november kill public sector trade unionist week accordance threat level domingo tovar arrieta director cut human right department october uribe relaxed credit attempt stimulate consumption construction boom import demand united states venezuela weaken oil coffee price fall deteriorate world market economic outlook regime far sunny military statistic unlikely trot vietnam field combat major defeat insurgency barrage lie army success capture comandante simon trinidad ultimately fate uribe government decide success drive terminate armed opposition capitalismo la colombiana permanently december uribe declare time exterminate guerrilla good mean bad calculate risk exceptional growth longevity guerrilla colombia product main factor closure political system extent country agrarian frontier highly divided corrugate topography contingency coca boom hightech weaponry surveillance system kind test balkans afghanistan iraq call overcome aerial fumigation wide swathe countryside destroy coca cultivation swing cocaine business boom washington bogota claim unprecedented success campaign coca mention impact volume cocaine import interdiction december un study claim coca planting colombia cut past year acre currently acre destroy month accord legislation approve congress early december include national park contain seventy percent colombia water million hectare officiallyprotecte forest putumayo town dedicate harvest production cocaine abandon like ghost town old american west store people vanish report los angeles time early june dozen farmer interview midmay single plan continue plant coca repeat visit crop duster wipe coca nearby food crop convince business bushuribe war drug terror institutionalization genocidal impunity escalation publicprivate repression appear order day dark night laureano gomez reign civil liberty human right severe attack colombia hope fact radicalpopular movement resilient survive wave wave state andor paramilitary terror resurface vigor atc march april current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 85 |
J. V. Stalin Source : Works, Vol. 2, 1907 - 1913 Publisher : Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954 Transcription/Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, 2008 Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2008). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source. Interest in political life is reviving in the country and, simultaneously with it, the crisis in our Party is coming to an end. The dead point is past, the torpor is beginning to pass off. The general Party conference which took place recently 2 is a clear symptom of the Party's regeneration. Our Party gained strength with the growth of the Russian revolution and was shattered with its fall; it was therefore inevitable that the Party should rise to its feet with the political awakening of the country. The revival in the principal branches of industry and the growth of the capitalists' profits, along with the drop in the real wages of the workers; the free development of the economic and political organisations of the bourgeoisie along with the forcible suppression of the legal and illegal organisations of the proletariat; the rise in the prices of the necessities of life and the rise in landlords' profits, along with the ruination of peasant farming; the famine which has affected over 25,000,000 of the population and has demonstrated the helplessness of the "renovated" counter-revolutionary regime—all this was bound to affect the toiling strata, and primarily the proletariat, by awakening their interest in political life. One of the striking expressions of this awakening is the conference of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party held last January. But the awakening of minds and hearts cannot be self-contained — under present political conditions it must inevitably develop into open mass action. The conditions of life of the workers must be improved, wages must be raised, the working day must be shortened, the conditions of the workers in the mills, factories and mines must be radically changed. But how can all this be done if not by means of still prohibited partial and general economic actions? We must win the right freely to wage a struggle against the employers, the right to strike, freedom of association, assembly, speech, press, etc.: otherwise the workers' struggle to improve their conditions of life will be hampered to the utmost degree. But how can all this be won if not by open political actions, by means of demonstrations, political strikes, etc.? We must bring about the recovery of the country, which is suffering from chronic starvation; we must put a stop to the present state of affairs under which tens of millions of tillers of the soil are compelled periodically to suffer famine with all its horrors; it is impossible to look on with folded arms and see starving fathers and mothers, with tears in their eyes, "selling for a mere song" their daughters and sons! We must uproot the present rapacious financial policy which is ruining the poverty-stricken peasant farms and which with every crop failure inevitably pushes millions of peasants on to the path of devastating famine! The country must be saved from pauperisation and demoralisation! But can all this be done without overthrowing the entire edifice of tsarism from top to bottom? And how can the tsarist government, with all its feudal survivals, be overthrown, if not by a wide, popular revolutionary movement, led by its historically recognised leader, the socialist proletariat? . . . But in order that the future actions shall not be isolated and sporadic, in order that the proletariat may honourably fulfil its lofty task of uniting and leading the future actions—for all this it is necessary to have— in addition to the revolutionary consciousness of broad strata of the people and the class consciousness of the proletariat—a strong and flexible proletarian party that will be able to unite the separate efforts of the local organisations in one common effort and thereby direct the mass revolutionary movement against the main fortifications of the enemy. To set to rights the party of the proletariat, the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party—that is what is particularly necessary in order that the proletariat may worthily meet the coming revolutionary actions. The imperative necessity of uniting the Party becomes still more strikingly evident in view of the approaching elections to the Fourth State Duma. But how can the Party be set to rights? First of all, the local party organisations must be strengthened. Broken up into small and tiny groups, surrounded by a slough of despondency and lack of confidence in the cause, destitute of intellectual forces and not infrequently disrupted by provocateurs—is not this dismal picture of the life of the local organisations familiar to all? This dispersion of forces can and must be brought to an end! The incipient awakening of the masses of the workers on the one hand, and the recent conference as an expression of this awakening on the other, greatly facilitate the task of putting an end to this dispersion. Let us, then, do all in our power to put an end to organisational dispersion! Let the Social-Democratic workers in every town and in every industrial centre, all those, irrespective of group, who believe that an illegal Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party is needed, join together in local Party organisations! Let the machines which unite the workers in a single army of exploited—let those very machines unite them in a single party of fighters against exploitation and violence! . . . There is no need to strive after a large membership: under present conditions of work this may even be dangerous. The whole point is the quality of the comrades, the whole point is that the influential comrades grouped in local organisations should appreciate the importance of the cause they are serving and steadfastly carry on their work on revolutionary Social-Democratic lines. And let the local organisations thus formed not shut themselves off in isolation, let them constantly intervene in all the affairs connected with the struggle of the proletariat, from the most "petty," ordinary affairs to the biggest and most "extraordinary"; let not a single clash between labour and capital, not a single protest of the masses of the workers against the brutalities of the tsarist government escape their influence. It must always be borne in mind that only in this way will it be possible to strengthen and bring about the recovery of the local organisations. That is why, among other things, they must maintain the most lively connections with the open mass organisations of the workers, with the unions and clubs, and facilitate their development in every way. Let our comrades the workers not be daunted by the difficulties and complexity of the tasks that fall exclusively on them owing to the absence of intellectual forces; totally unnecessary modesty and fear of "unaccustomed" work must be cast aside once and for all; one must have the courage to undertake complex Party tasks! It does not matter if a few mistakes are discovered in the course of this; you will stumble once or twice, and then you will get accustomed to stepping out freely. Bebels do not drop from the skies, they grow up from the ranks in the course of Party activity in all its spheres. . . . But the local organisations taken separately, even if they are strong and influential, do not constitute the Party. To constitute the Party they must be gathered together, linked up in a single whole that lives a common life. Scattered local organisations, not only isolated from one another, but not even aware of one another's existence, organisations left entirely to their own devices, acting entirely on their own initiative and not infrequently conducting their work on opposite lines— all this constitutes the familiar picture of amateurish methods in the Party. To link the local organisations together and rally them around the Central Committee of the Party means, precisely, putting an end to amateurish methods and preparing the ground for setting the proletarian party to rights. An influential Central Committee connected by living roots with the local organisations, systematically keeping the latter informed and linking them up together; a Central Committee which constantly intervenes in all matters concerning general proletarian actions; a Central Committee which possesses an illegal newspaper published in Russia for the purpose of conducting wide political agitation—such is the direction in which the renovation and consolidation of the Party must proceed. Needless to say, the Central Committee will be unable to cope with this difficult task unaided: the comrades in the local organisations must bear in mind that unless it receives their systematic support from the localities, the Central Committee will inevitably be converted into a cipher, and the Party will be reduced to a fiction. Hence, joint work of the Central Committee and the local organisations—such is the essential condition for renovating the Party, that is what we call upon the comrades to do. And so, for the Party, comrades, for a regenerated, underground, Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party! Long Live the United Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party! The Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. Published in leaflet form in March 1912 1. The leaflet headed "For the Party!" was written by J. V. Stalin at the beginning of March 1912 and was widely distributed all over the country together with the leaflet entitled "The Election Platform of the R.S.D.L.P." written by V. I. Lenin. No. 26 of Sotsial-Demokrat published a communication from the Bureau of the Central Committee stating: "The Central Committee has published in Russia the leaflets: 1) ‘For the Party!' (6,000); 2) ‘The Election Platform' (10,000). These leaflets have been delivered to 18 centres, including a number of the largest ones. . . . The Central Committee's leaflets were eagerly welcomed everywhere, the only complaint being that there were so few of them." On March 29, 1912, G. K. Ordjonikidze wrote from Kiev that both leaflets "created a very good impression, and readers went into raptures over them." Somewhat later N. K. Krupskaya wrote on V. I. Lenin's instructions: "We have received your two letters (about local affairs and the plans in view) and the two leaflets: ‘For the Party!' and the ‘Platform.' We heartily welcome them." 2. The leaflet referred to the Sixth All-Russian Party Conference that was held in Prague on January 5-17 (18-30), 1912. This conference united the Bolshevik organisations and registered the independent existence of the Bolshevik Party. By a decision of the conference the Mensheviks were expelled from the Party and the formal unity of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks within one party was ended forever. The Prague Conference inaugurated a Party of a new type (see History of the C.P.S.U.(B.), Short Course, Moscow 1952, pp. 217-25). Collected Works Index | Volume 2 Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive Marxists Internet Archive | left | j v stalin source work vol publisher foreign language publish house moscow transcriptionmarkup salil sen mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source interest political life revive country simultaneously crisis party come end dead point past torpor begin pass general party conference take place recently clear symptom partys regeneration party gain strength growth russian revolution shatter fall inevitable party rise foot political awakening country revival principal branch industry growth capitalist profit drop real wage worker free development economic political organisation bourgeoisie forcible suppression legal illegal organisation proletariat rise price necessity life rise landlord profit ruination peasant farm famine affect population demonstrate helplessness renovate counterrevolutionary regime bind affect toil strata primarily proletariat awaken interest political life strike expression awakening conference russian socialdemocratic labour party hold january awakening mind heart selfcontaine present political condition inevitably develop open mass action condition life worker improve wage raise work day shorten condition worker mill factory mine radically change mean prohibit partial general economic action win right freely wage struggle employer right strike freedom association assembly speech press etc worker struggle improve condition life hamper utmost degree win open political action mean demonstration political strike etc bring recovery country suffer chronic starvation stop present state affair ten million tiller soil compel periodically suffer famine horror impossible look fold arm starve father mother tear eye sell mere song daughter son uproot present rapacious financial policy ruin povertystricken peasant farm crop failure inevitably push million peasant path devastating famine country save pauperisation demoralisation overthrow entire edifice tsarism tsarist government feudal survival overthrow wide popular revolutionary movement lead historically recognise leader socialist proletariat order future action shall isolate sporadic order proletariat honourably fulfil lofty task unite lead future action necessary addition revolutionary consciousness broad strata people class consciousness proletariat strong flexible proletarian party able unite separate effort local organisation common effort direct mass revolutionary movement main fortification enemy set right party proletariat russian socialdemocratic labour party particularly necessary order proletariat worthily meet come revolutionary action imperative necessity unite party strikingly evident view approach election fourth state duma party set right local party organisation strengthen break small tiny group surround slough despondency lack confidence cause destitute intellectual force infrequently disrupt provocateur dismal picture life local organisation familiar dispersion force bring end incipient awakening masse worker hand recent conference expression awakening greatly facilitate task put end dispersion let power end organisational dispersion let socialdemocratic worker town industrial centre irrespective group believe illegal russian socialdemocratic labour party need join local party organisation let machine unite worker single army exploit let machine unite single party fighter exploitation violence need strive large membership present condition work dangerous point quality comrade point influential comrade group local organisation appreciate importance cause serve steadfastly carry work revolutionary socialdemocratic line let local organisation formed shut isolation let constantly intervene affair connect struggle proletariat petty ordinary affair big extraordinary let single clash labour capital single protest masse worker brutality tsarist government escape influence bear mind way possible strengthen bring recovery local organisation thing maintain lively connection open mass organisation worker union club facilitate development way let comrade worker daunt difficulty complexity task fall exclusively owe absence intellectual force totally unnecessary modesty fear unaccustomed work cast aside courage undertake complex party task matter mistake discover course stumble twice accustomed step freely bebel drop sky grow rank course party activity sphere local organisation take separately strong influential constitute party constitute party gather link single live common life scatter local organisation isolate aware another existence organisation leave entirely device act entirely initiative infrequently conduct work opposite line constitute familiar picture amateurish method party link local organisation rally central committee party mean precisely put end amateurish method prepare ground set proletarian party right influential central committee connect live root local organisation systematically keep informed link central committee constantly intervene matter concern general proletarian action central committee possess illegal newspaper publish russia purpose conduct wide political agitation direction renovation consolidation party proceed needless central committee unable cope difficult task unaide comrade local organisation bear mind receive systematic support locality central committee inevitably convert cipher party reduce fiction joint work central committee local organisation essential condition renovate party comrade party comrade regenerate underground russian socialdemocratic labour party long live united russian socialdemocratic labour party central committee rsdlp publish leaflet form march leaflet head party write j v stalin beginning march widely distribute country leaflet entitle election platform rsdlp write v lenin sotsialdemokrat publish communication bureau central committee state central committee publish russia leaflet party election platform leaflet deliver centre include number large one central committee leaflet eagerly welcome complaint march g k ordjonikidze write kiev leaflet create good impression reader go rapture somewhat later n k krupskaya write v lenin instruction receive letter local affair plan view leaflet party platform heartily welcome leaflet refer sixth allrussian party conference hold prague january conference unite bolshevik organisation register independent existence bolshevik party decision conference menshevik expel party formal unity bolsheviks menshevik party end forever prague conference inaugurate party new type history cpsub short course moscow pp collect work index volume index work decade j v stalin archive marxist internet archive | 86 |
J. V. Stalin Source: J. V. Stalin on Post-War International Relations Publisher: Soviet News, 1947 Transcription/Markup: Brian Reid for MIA, 2008 Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2008). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. The Associated Press correspondent Mr. Eddie Gilmore, addressed a number of questions to Generalissimo Stalin pertaining to the International situation. Below are Mr. Gilmore’s questions and Generalissimo Stalin’s replies, dated March 22, 1946:— Question: What importance do you ascribe to the United Nations Organisation as a means of safeguarding world peace? Answer: I ascribe great importance to the United Nations Organisation inasmuch as it is a serious instrument for maintaining peace and international security. The strength of this international organisation lies in the fact that it is based on the principle of the equality of States and not on the principle of the domination of some over others. If the United Nations Organisation succeeds in the future, too, in maintaining the principle of equality, then it will undoubtedly play a great positive role in guaranteeing universal peace and security. Question: What in your opinion is the reason for the present war scare which is felt by many people in many countries? Answer: I am convinced that neither nations nor their armies seek a new war. They want peace, and seek to secure the peace. That means that the present war scare does not come from that direction. I think that the present war scare is aroused by the actions of certain political groups who are engaged in propaganda for a new war and thus sowing the seeds of dissension and uncertainty. Question: What should the Governments of the freedom-loving countries do at the present time to safeguard peace and tranquillity throughout the world? Answer: It is necessary that the public and the ruling circles of the States organise widespread counter-propaganda against the propagandists for a new war, as well as for the maintenance of peace; that not a single utterance of the propagandists for a new war gets away without the rebuff it deserves on the part of public opinion and the press; that in this way the war-mongers be promptly exposed and given no opportunity to misuse freedom of speech against the interests of peace. On Post-War International Relations Index Works by Decade | J. V. Stalin Archive | left | j v stalin source j v stalin postwar international relation publisher soviet news transcriptionmarkup brian reid mia public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source associate press correspondent mr eddie gilmore address number question generalissimo stalin pertain international situation mr gilmore question generalissimo stalin reply date march question importance ascribe united nations organisation means safeguard world peace answer ascribe great importance united nations organisation inasmuch instrument maintain peace international security strength international organisation lie fact base principle equality state principle domination united nations organisation succeed future maintain principle equality undoubtedly play great positive role guarantee universal peace security question opinion reason present war scare feel people country answer convinced nation army seek new war want peace seek secure peace mean present war scare come direction think present war scare arouse action certain political group engage propaganda new war sow seed dissension uncertainty question government freedomlove country present time safeguard peace tranquillity world answer necessary public rule circle state organise widespread counterpropaganda propagandist new war maintenance peace single utterance propagandist new war get away rebuff deserve public opinion press way warmonger promptly expose give opportunity misuse freedom speech interest peace postwar international relation index work decade j v stalin archive | 87 |
Lance Selfa Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page From International Socialist Review, Issue 9, Fall 1999 pp. 14–21. Downloaded with thanks from the ISR Archive Website. Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL). NATO’s WRETCHED war against Yugoslavia will shape international politics long after figures like NATO flaks Jamie Shea and Supreme Commander Wesley Clark are forgotten. The war laid bare international fault lines that had been submerged since the end of the Cold War. It rehabilitated old-fashioned colonialism under the guise of “humanitarian intervention.” It gave NATO – the preferred vehicle of the U.S. – new centrality in world affairs. A more unstable – and more dangerous – world will result. The outlines of a new U.S. imperialism are appearing from the ashes of Kosovo. It remains to be seen whether all of the international tensions exhibited during the war will develop into full-fledged points of conflict in the next century. But the war in Kosovo called into question a decade’s worth of assumptions governing U.S. foreign policy since the fall of the Berlin Wall. U.S. and Western leaders promised that the Cold War’s end would usher in an era of peace and prosperity, in which institutions such as the United Nations (UN) would settle conflicts between nations peacefully. This “new world order,” as George Bush called it in 1990, would reward U.S. and Western populations with a “peace dividend.” Having spent trillions during the Cold War, the U.S. and its European allies would be able to scale back their military machines and concentrate their resources on long-ignored domestic priorities. No longer threatened with superpower nuclear annihilation, the world had only to protect itself from “rogue nations” – smaller regional powers such as North Korea or Iraq – that hadn’t yet accepted the necessity of joining the “world community.” With the Cold War blocs dissolved, the road would be open to Russia’s development as a “market democracy” and its full acceptance into the “community of nations.” China’s market re-forms – what some foolish commentators labeled “going capitalist” – would bring it more firmly into the Western camp. If no serious observers could say that China had both the market and democracy, at least the Chinese had the market. To most Western policymakers, the market counted more than democracy anyway. Hovering above all of these geopolitical assumptions was the key belief that expanded free trade and “free markets” would bring peace and stability to the post-Cold War world. Nations that traded with each other, it was said, wouldn’t go to war against each other. In fact, promoting free trade and “market reform” represent the only consistent aims of Clinton’s foreign policy since 1993. These post-Cold War assumptions, repeated ad nauseam in Washington and in the press, may have had little to do with the reality of Washington’s plans for the world after the Cold War. Bush’s “new world order” of peace and prosperity lasted only weeks, as the 1991 Gulf War laid Iraq to waste and recession gripped the West. Throughout the 1990s, U.S. forces engaged almost constantly in some kind of war or overseas deployment – including those in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Iraq and the Sudan. “Free trade” and “open markets” contributed to, and made worse, the world economic meltdown that began in Asia in 1997. Yet NATO’s war against Yugoslavia exposed just how far removed from reality Washington’s rhetoric really was. Needless to say, this interpretation of the lessons of Kosovo directly contradicts the picture that Clinton and the NATO spin machine tried to paint after the bombing ended in June 1999. Yet every development in NATO-occupied Kosovo – as well as many revelations about the war that have found their way into the press – vindicates everything the anti-war movement said about the war. NATO’s war to “stop ethnic cleansing” has turned into a NATO-abetted war of ethnic cleansing against Serbs and the Roma (i.e. ‘Gypsies’) in occupied Kosovo. A Spanish pilot exposed NATO’s repeated “accidental” bombings of civilians as a deliberate policy of state-sponsored terrorism. “If there is a Clinton Doctrine – an innovation by the present administration in the conduct of foreign policy – it is this: punishing the innocent in order to express indignation at the guilty,” wrote an establishment critic of Clinton’s war. [1] Pentagon and pro-military analysts concluded that NATO’s claims of high-tech destruction of Yugoslav forces and materiel were fiction. Even the much-touted unity between NATO allies unraveled as the war wound down. Greece, the one NATO country that opposed the war, denied U.S. forces landing rights on its territory during the rush to occupy Kosovo. When Russian troops moved to occupy the Pristina airport prior to NATO’s arrival, British officers refused to carry out Clark’s orders to stop the Russians. [2] Formally a UN protectorate, Kosovo is today a de facto colonial outpost. NATO and the Yugoslavian government insist that Yugoslavia retains sovereignty over Kosovo. In reality, NATO officers call the shots in Kosovo, as a Wall Street Journal report described: In recent weeks, the UN has moved to pay judges and other city workers, and to show the [Kosovo Liberation Army] that the UN is in charge of Kosovo. But UN officials admit the new government or police force won’t really be working at full strength before winter. Until then, the tough day-to-day job of running the cities and villages of Kosovo has been left largely to the soldiers. U.S. units are assuming responsibility for operating schools as a “feel-good mission,” one commander told the Journal. [3] But there is little to feel good about today in Kosovo. U.S. and NATO forces are likely to occupy the country for decades. And the longer they remain to rule Kosovo, the more they will become the focus of bitterness and anger for the mass of ordinary Kosovar Albanians. KLA extremists have already staged confrontations with NATO troops who found themselves trying to prevent an anti-Serb pogrom in the city of Kosovska-Mitrovica in August 1999. The Kosovska-Mitrovica confrontation won’t be the last. The geopolitical analysis service Stratfor, Inc. sarcastically acknowledged this: The first price that NATO must pay is the victory itself. It now controls Kosovo. That is a booby prize if there ever was one. Second, NATO is now responsible for stability of the whole Balkan peninsula. What the Austro-Hungarians and the Turks found indigestible NATO will now try to digest. The Balkans is a region whose very geography breeds insecure states without room for viable compromises. It can be done, but the mission is, in the long run, always exhausting. On the bright side, NATO now has a full-time mission to keep it occupied. [4] If the occupation of Kosovo is the “bright side” of NATO’s war, one might ask what the “dark side” is. Even though the U.S. emerged as the victor in the war, it now faces a more complicated world scene. Despite being the dominant power, the U.S. has stumbled into a new era in which its dictates will face greater opposition, even from its “allies.” The standard White House spin extolled the war in Kosovo as an example of what a united NATO alliance can achieve in the 21st century. Conceived as a purely “defensive” alliance that welded the U.S. and Western Europe against the Soviet Union for more than 40 years, NATO should have been consigned to history’s dustbin when the USSR dissolved in 1991. But NATO served an essential purpose as the main vehicle for U.S. penetration into Europe, still the most important focus for U.S. foreign policy. “The Western alliance will have to remain together and committed to safeguarding common interests in order to deflect the rise of an alternative centre of power,” wrote Alvin Bernstein, director of the Marshall Center (a think tank associated with the U.S. European Command of NATO) in 1995. “Any power or coalition of powers that dominates the area will possess the ability to extend that domination globally, if it so chooses.” [5] Rather than going out of business, NATO went “out of area,” enlarging its membership to include three former Warsaw Pact enemies – Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic – and expanding its mandate. Between black-tie parties at the NATO summit in Washington in April 1999, NATO leaders took time to initiate a new “strategic concept.” In this statement of NATO military aims, “the Clinton administration has a new tool to employ in Kosovo-style military operations,” wrote the liberal Center for Defense Information. The Strategic Concept specifically gives NATO the right of ‘deterring and defending’ against threats in the vaguely defined ‘Euroatlantic area,’ which is not necessarily identical with the territory of the NATO allies. Under this definition, Washington can claim that it is acting through NATO rather than unilaterally, thereby permitting the Administration to ignore criticism about imposing Pax Americana on the world. [6] In this respect, NATO’s war marked a major victory for U.S. imperialism. For the first time in its history, NATO ran an offensive “coalition war” against an “out of area” opponent. What’s more, the U.S. managed to lasso its main European allies into a full-scale war. Yet the actual conduct of the war may ensure that this will be the last NATO coalition war for a long time. If some of the postwar press leaks can be believed, NATO’s commanders squabbled throughout the bombardment of Yugoslavia. After complaining that the U.S. stampeded them into war, European leaders such as Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder took the opportunity to show that liberals could run a war. Surely, European leaders had their own interests for jumping into the war. These did not necessarily coincide with U.S. interests, as Le Monde Diplomatique writer Ignatio Ramonet commented: For a wealthy bloc like the EU, the strategic importance of a region lies in its potential to cause damage outside its boundaries by exporting phenomena such as political chaos, chronic insecurity, illegal immigration ... Could the EU afford to live for five to 10 years with a conflict of this kind [Kosovo] on its doorstep? For the U.S. ... the crisis provided an ideal opportunity to wrap up something of prime importance, the need to secure fresh legitimacy for NATO ... Washington is seeking to remain a European power and has done everything it can to strengthen NATO and extend its influence by bringing in three Eastern European countries – Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. [7] What’s more, the breakup of Yugoslavia provided richer Western European countries such as Germany with Eastern European hinterlands to extend their influence. As the war moved into its second month with no seeming end in sight, cracks emerged inside the NATO alliance. In Italy and Germany, the pressure of anti-war opposition threatened to bring down the national governments. Greece maintained an arm’s-length relationship to a war waged against its traditional ally in the Balkans. Almost the entire Greek population opposed the war, according to opinion polls. Strobe Talbott, Clinton’s lead negotiator in the deal that brought the war to a close, conceded that “there would have been increasing difficulty within the alliance in preserving the solidarity and the resolve of the alliance” if Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic hadn’t caved in early June. “I think it was a good thing that the conflict ended when it did.” [8] Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark More than simply reflecting anti-war opposition, splits in NATO reflected a divergence of interests among NATO’s ruling classes. The German ruling class, which maintains a much greater financial stake in Russia and Eastern Europe than does Britain or the U.S., spearheaded the effort to end the war under the G-7 formula. Germany’s participation in the war – the first operation of German troops outside of UN “peacekeeping” missions since the Second World War – fulfilled Germany’s key objective of beginning to exercise its military prerogatives as a great economic power. But Germany’s bosses worried that continued NATO bombing would further sour relations with Russia – where German capital had invested $77 billion since 1989, far more than any other NATO country. Auditioning for the part of German foreign minister five months before he won the post, Joschka Fischer characterized NATO’s eastward march as a step toward “partnership” between Russia and Germany. Russia will remain an important security partner for Germany, for a unified Europe, for the West in general. And Russia will not continue in its present state of weakness forever. Those who know Russian history know that there has always been an up and down, and that it will continue to be so. All these questions cannot be solved within the framework of the existing security structure. In my view, then, a Yes to the Eastern expansion of NATO also means a Yes to changes towards a pan-European security system, including Russia in the long run. I deliberately used the word security system and not military system. It will be decisive to see whether it is possible to develop, out of this military system, out of this military alliance, a pan-European security architecture in which the military components will play less and less of a role. If we succeed in this, then the NATO expansion towards the East will be successful. [9] Needless to say, Fischer’s conception of NATO expansion differs from that of the U.S., which sees expansion as a means to continue cordoning off Russia from the rest of Europe – and to block German/Russian dominion over Eastern Europe. France, which contributed the second largest number of bombers to the war, also clashed with U.S. commanders. French President Jacques Chirac reportedly impeded Clark’s choices of targets and decisions. Before the war, France had taken steps to return to NATO, from which it had withdrawn in 1966. After the war, French leaders touted France’s “independence” from the U.S., cutting short the country’s rapprochement with NATO. Remaining outside NATO during peacetime allows France leeway to pursue an independent foreign policy, which often conflicts with that of the U.S. For instance, France favors lifting sanctions against Iraq and opening more Western channels to Iran – both positions that encounter opposition from the U.S. and Britain. [10] Britain took the most hawkish line on the war. Prime Minister Tony Blair even badgered Clinton and the U.S. for refusing to commit fully to a ground invasion of Kosovo. More than simply engaging in cheap bluster, the British government was also addressing itself to the European side of the Atlantic. Britain used the war to catapult itself into the center of European politics. British forces constitute the largest contingent in the NATO occupying army in Kosovo (13,000 troops in August 1999, compared to 7,000 U.S. troops), suggesting that Britain will have a lot to say about what happens in Kosovo. These actions follow from an emerging reorientation of Britain towards Europe and a recalculation of its “special relationship” with the U.S. In late 1998, Britain lifted its longstanding opposition to a European military force that can operate independently of NATO. In the past, Britain had relied on its alliance with the U.S. to thwart moves toward a European military command distinct from U.S control under NATO. Now, it wants to leverage its “special relationship” with the U.S. to become a player in the European military arrangement proceeding from the June 1999 European Union (EU) decision to launch a Europe-wide military. [11] After the war, the British and Italian governments met to develop common criteria for military readiness among EU states. The war exposed the huge military and technical gap between U.S. and European armed forces. The U.S. supplied two-thirds of the aircraft used during the war, and it essentially called the shots militarily. Clark escalated the war on several occasions, ordering the bombing of targets that European governments had earlier ruled out of bounds. The European powers could only stand by and complain. [12] European powers will have to close the gap with the U.S., building up their own military and technical capacity, if they want to make a serious go at building a European military. Although the EU and U.S. economies account for roughly the same amount of output ($8 trillion annually), the U.S. annually spends $270 billion on the military, compared to $140 million in the EU. Any attempt merely to catch up with the U.S. means an arms buildup that will steal money from schools and social security. European workers can only lose in this arms race. The U.S. faces a contradiction in its foreign policy towards its closest allies. On the one hand, it constantly preaches that Europe must assume “its share” of the burden of maintaining European military power. On the other hand, a significant commitment of European resources to building a strong military presence could pose an eventual challenge to U.S. political leadership of Europe. As he assumed the role of NATO general secretary, former British Defense Minister George Robertson committed to this delicate balancing act. He sought to cajole Europe to spend more on arms to lessen its dependence on the U.S. Meanwhile, he aimed to maintain a strong NATO, which Britain has traditionally supported as a tool for Anglo-American hegemony over continental Europe. Robertson would never have gained the general secretary’s chair if he didn’t have the blessing of the U.S. Much of the foregoing analysis identifies tendencies and trends that have yet to develop into full-blown shifts in the relations of the main European powers to the U.S. But the U.S.-Europe relationship is far from the picture of unity that NATO leaders tried to portray. The war hasn’t slowed down the ongoing trade wars between Europe and the U.S. over bananas, meat, Coca-Cola and steel. And it may have accelerated a European desire to rein in U.S. military power. “Since the U.S. emerged from the Kosovo war with its status as the world’s superpower reinforced, other countries have been trying to tie Gulliver down,” wrote the Financial Times’ David Buchan. “Although Russia, China and the main European powers are Lilliputian by comparison with America’s military might, they are not diplomatically powerless. In various ways, they could succeed in shifting the balance of power within NATO, and constraining any further expansion of the alliance’s role.” Buchan suggested the European powers might insist that the UN bless future Kosovo-type operations, which the U.S. would view as “a concerted effort to hem it in.” [13] Hedging against that possibility, the U.S. military’s $112 billion buildup over the next six years is aimed at increasing its ability to act on its own, without allies, and without the fig leaf of UN or NATO cover. Although Clinton sold the military spending binge as an effort to increase troop pay and to improve “readiness,” the bulk of the money goes to weapons systems that enable the U.S. to deploy forces anywhere in the world. “As the only nation in the world able to conduct large-scale, effective joint [i.e. multi-service] operations far beyond its borders, the United States is in a unique position,” said the 1999 Department of Defense report. To sustain this position of leadership, the United States must maintain ready and versatile forces capable of conducting a wide range of military activities and operations. Being able to project power allows the United States to shape and respond [to overseas crises] even when it has no permanent presence or [but] limited infrastructure in the region. [14] This is not the language of “international peacekeeping,” but the language of war. In the midst of the Kosovo crisis, a potentially more explosive crisis developed between the U.S. and China. The U.S. bombing of China’s embassy, whether deliberate or not, plunged relations between the U.S. and China to a 30-year low. Almost immediately after the bombing, lurid congressional allegations of Chinese spying in U.S. nuclear labs hit the airwaves. The world’s most powerful military and the world’s most populous country seemed to be careening towards a dangerous collision. Madeleine “Mad Bomber” Albright in Kosovo China had a right to disbelieve U.S. explanations for the embassy bombing. After all, in late 1998, the U.S. announced its intention of deploying a “missile defense” system in Japan – an announcement that China perceived as a threat. China vehemently opposed the Kosovo war, even abstaining on the UN Security Council resolution that ratified the NATO occupation. Viewing the Kosovo war as a dangerous Western intervention into the internal affairs of a sovereign state, China saw parallels that hit too close to home (i.e. Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong). A 1998 Chinese military white paper described U.S. global policy as “hegemonism,” a term Chinese leaders used to reserve for the USSR. [15] Subsequent U.S. efforts to patch up relations won’t erase the likelihood of future U.S.-China tensions for two reasons. First, the ground on which the U.S.-China relationship was built has shifted. From President Nixon’s 1972 “opening to China” to the collapse of the Soviet Union, naked Cold War geopolitics governed U.S.-China relations. The U.S. created an alliance with China based on the two countries’ common interest in containing the USSR. After the USSR disappeared, U.S. interaction with China shifted mainly into the economic sphere. As China’s economy clocked annual growth rates of 8–10 percent, it sought to assert itself politically and militarily in Asia. The Clinton administration accelerated a policy of “engagement” with China, trying to use economic carrots of greater U.S. trade and investment to “contain” China’s regional ambitions. At the same time, Clinton has held China’s membership in the World Trade Organization hostage for Chinese concessions to greater U.S. penetration of its markets. Second, the U.S. ruling class is still trying to decide how far to push the conflict with China. For years, the Republican right has itched to find a new enemy on par with the USSR. For them, “communist” China fits the bill. Despite capturing lots of headlines for a few weeks, the Cox Commission’s allegations of a massive Chinese conspiracy to steal U.S. nuclear secrets fell flat. The Cox Commission forced some proponents of “engagement” with China to keep their heads down for a while. But it pushed others to speak out more forcefully. Veteran Cold Warrior Henry Kissinger expressed alarm at the deterioration of the U.S.-China relations he helped to construct: If, in the absence of a direct challenge, the emergence of China as a major power and its political system are turned into the occasion for American hostility, we will be embarked on a lonely course without support from any major nation in either Europe or Asia ... There is no more important task for American foreign policy than to design a strategy recognizing and managing adversarial elements in our relations with China, yet drawing Beijing further into the international system. We must not repeat in Asia the emotional and un-thought-out policies that brought us such grief in the Balkans. [16] July’s congressional vote on China’s trade status with the U.S. as a “most favored nation” – which passed with surprisingly little opposition – suggested that proponents of engagement with China still hold the upper hand. The festering conflict over Taiwan shows that fundamental issues divide the U.S. and China. In July 1999, Taiwanese President Lee attempted to capitalize on the U.S.-China divide to make what amounted to a declaration of Taiwan’s independence from Beijing. Lee miscalculated. The U.S. reaffirmed its official position of recognizing the Beijing regime as the government of China. But it also warned China that any move against Taiwan would invite a clash with the U.S. “We are there in numbers, we’re trained, we’re ready and we’re very powerful,” Rear Admiral Timothy J. Keating, commander of the USS Kitty Hawk battle group, told reporters in August. [17] Establishment China expert Bates Gill, a proponent of what he calls “limited engagement” with China, nevertheless warned that “Taiwan’s status holds the greatest potential for a U.S.-China war.” [18] Both the Clinton administration and its right-wing crit-ics – mirroring the divide in the U.S. ruling class – agree that China represents the biggest potential challenger to U.S. dominance in Asia. This represents quite a shift from the early 1990s, when most U.S. officials saw Japan as the main political and economic challenger to the U.S. in Asia. [19] China does not have the military might to challenge the U.S. yet, but it is making a bid to become a major player in Asia along with the U.S. and Japan. On almost every major political question in Asia (Tibet, North Korea, “missile defense,” Taiwan) the U.S. and China are at loggerheads. Thus, the debate in the ruling class is about how to contain China, not whether to contain China. Unlike the days when the U.S. and China allied against the USSR, the U.S. views China as a competitor, not as a “strategic partner.” NATO’s war against Russia’s Balkans ally, Yugoslavia, pushed the contradictions in the U.S. approach to Russia to a breaking point. On the one hand, the U.S. leaned on Russia to provide it with an end to the Kosovo quagmire. Russian envoy Victor Chernomyrdin negotiated Yugoslavia’s surrender to a NATO occupation of Kosovo. Chernomyrdin’s peace brokering helped NATO avoid what would have been a bloody and unpopular ground war to break Yugoslavia’s hold on Kosovo. On the other hand, the war itself proved to Russia that its worst fears about NATO expansion and U.S. intentions were true. In attacking a Russian ally after refusing the formality of a United Nations Security Council resolution (and a certain Russian veto), NATO once again asserted itself as an anti-Russian alliance. To Russia, NATO’s war against Yugoslavia gave the lie to 1990 Western assurances that Russia had nothing to fear from a post-Cold War NATO and a unified Germany. The farcical appearance of the standoff between Russian and NATO troops around the Pristina airport belied just how serious a confrontation it was. Russia was asserting its right to share in the carve-up of Kosovo, after having played the key role in winning Milosevic’s surrender. KFOR commander, British General Michael Jackson, refused to carry out Clark’s order to block – even attack – Russian forces. Jackson reportedly told Clark “I’m not going to start World War Three for you.” The White House and U.S. military officials opposed Clark (and dumped him a few weeks later). Publicly, U.S. officials insisted the Russian move into Kosovo was little more than a planning glitch. Behind the scenes, they pressured Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova to deny permission to Russian planes to fly over their territories. As a result, the Russian troops in Pristina were isolated and NATO continued its occupation without facing organized resistance from the Yugoslav army or its Russian allies. U.S. dealings with the Russians over Kosovo followed from the two-level approach to Russia the U.S. has used ever since the USSR collapsed in 1991. The first, “above-ground” level, stresses U.S. support for a “democratic, market-oriented Russia,” as the boilerplate statement from Clinton’s National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger described: U.S. troops on maneuvers in Puerto Rico We support reform because a democratic, market-oriented Russia is more likely to pursue goals that are compatible with our own; it is more likely to be a reliable partner and to respect the independence of its neighbors and to live in peace with them ... A Russia that chooses to stay on the course of reform is one that will be more likely to continue to reduce the nuclear threat, to work with us to promote peace around the world, and to create new markets for our products and jobs for American workers. [20] To cultivate a wing of the Russian ruling class dependent on American favor, the U.S. has lent support (and billions in IMF loans) to the repressive, mafia-ridden Yeltsin regime. However, at the second and more hidden level of U.S.-Russian relations, the U.S. has attempted to push back Russian influence in Europe and Central Asia. Enlarging NATO to include three former USSR satellites and forging alliances with oil-rich former Soviet republics, the U.S. has wanted to claim part of Russia’s lost empire for itself. [21] It also aimed to prevent German-Russian dominion over Central Europe and the Western states of the former USSR. [22] The U.S. accelerated the timetable for NATO enlargement to take advantage of Russian weakness. These aggressive actions produced a reaction in Russia. As the war wound down, Russia announced new ties with China. Then, Russia’s chief spymaster (now Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin said “in light of the rapidly changing situation in the world, relations between Russia and China assumed a strategic nature.” [23] Russian military officials later announced plans to form an informal bloc with China and India aimed to counter U.S. “hegemony.” Ten years after the Cold War’s end, the possibility of nuclear blocs re-emerging cannot be dismissed. f-14 jet fighter President Bush’s declared “new world order” – where conflicts between nations would recede and multinational organizations like the UN would police the status quo – apparently won’t live out the last decade of the 20th century. The breakup of the bipolar, postwar world may have left the U.S. as the world’s only remaining superpower, but it has also left behind a more fragmented world in which many smaller powers seek to pursue their interests outside of the East-West Cold War straightjacket. The 1991 Gulf War – when the U.S. marshaled a coalition of nearly every world power (including Russia and China) against one unfortunate “rogue nation” – remains a one-time event rather than a model for post-Cold War international relations. The arrogance of U.S. power, whether demonstrated in Clinton’s gratuitous bombings of Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 or in the continued prosecution of genocide against the Iraqi people, has made other powers wary of embracing Washington. Every U.S. military adventure, and every U.S.-backed IMF austerity plan imposed on a country, swells the ranks of the world’s people who believe the U.S. is a bully that must be opposed. NATO’s war against Yugoslavia killed as many as 10,000 civilians, left the country in ruins and caused an ecological catastrophe that will stalk future generations. Outside of Yugoslavia, it left a more dangerous world in which arms spending will be ratcheted upward and the likelihood of military conflicts will be escalated. Since the war in Yugoslavia ended, Russia has launched a war with Dagestani rebels that threatens to engulf the Caucasus. China and Taiwan rattle sabers – with the U.S. Seventh Fleet standing by. The U.S. stepped up its military intervention in Colombia, leading many analysts to draw comparisons to pre-Tonkin Gulf Vietnam. The 21st century looks set to begin the way the 20th century did, with the great powers preparing for war. It’s up to working people in the U.S., Europe, China and Russia – who have no interest in repeating the horrors of NATO’s war, or worse – to resist this descent into barbarism. 1. Michael Mandelbaum, A Perfect Failure: NATO’s War Against Yugoslavia, Foreign Affairs 78 (5), (September/October 1999), pp. 6–7. [Behind paywall] 2. Robert Fisk, Serb Army ‘Unscathed by NATO’, and How Fake Guns and Painting the Roads Fooled NATO, at http://www.lbbs.org/CrisesCurEvts/twofisk.htm (originally in the British Independent). 3. Matthew Kaminski, U.S. Troops Wear Many Hats in Kosovo, Wall Street Journal, August 13, 1999: p. A9. 4. Stratfor, NATO’s Victory, June 21, 1999. 5. Quoted in Mark Curtis, The Great Deception: Anglo-American Power and World Order (London: Stylus, 1998), pp. 36–37. 6. Tomas Valasek, Kosovo Body Language: Backslapping or Head Scratching? Weekly Defense Monitor, June 22, 1999. 7. Ignacio Ramonet, New World Order, Le Monde Diplomatique (online edition), June 1999. 8. Talbott interviewed on BBC Newsnight program, August 20, 1999. 9. Joschka Fischer, The Self-Restraint of Power Must be Maintained: Germany’s Role and Objective in the Globalized World of the 21st Century, Address to the German Society for Foreign Affairs, Berlin, June 8, 1998. Available on the Web site of the German Embassy to the U.S. (http://www.germany-info.org/f_gic/index_news_publications.html). [No longer available online] 10. David Buchan, A Tethered Superpower, Financial Times, July 27, 1999: p. 11. 11. Meeting in Cologne, Germany on June 3–4, 1999, the EU resolved to appoint Javier Solana, NATO’s general secretary during the war, to act as the coordinator of this effort. Just how independent of NATO and the U.S. a European foreign policy would be remains to be seen. 12. This revelation comes from the August 20, 1999 BBC special on the war. 13. Buchan, p. 11. 14. Quoted in Michael T. Klare, U.S. Aims to Win on All Fronts, Le Monde Diplomatique, May 1999, online edition. 15. Bates Gill, Limited Engagement, Foreign Affairs 78 (4), (July/August 1999), p. 70. 16. Henry Kissinger, New World Disorder, Newsweek, May 31, 1999 (online edition). 17. Keating quoted in Liz Sly, China Raises Stakes on Taiwan, Chicago Tribune, August 14, 1999: p. 1. 18. Gill, p. 72. 19. The bursting of the Japanese bubble economy and Japan’s decade-long economic stagnation deflated much of the Japanese clout U.S. rulers feared. 20. Samuel (Sandy) R. Berger, Challenges Approaching the Twenty-first Century, in Robert L. Hutchings, ed., At the End of the American Century: America’s Role in the Post-Cold War World (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), p. 188. 21. John Rees, NATO and the New Imperialism, Socialist Review, July 1999 [actually: June 1999 – ETOL]. 22. Peter Gowan, The Global Gamble (New York: Verso, 1999), p. 301. 23. Putin quoted in Stratfor, Kosovo Conflict Accelerates Formation of Russia-China Strategic Alliance, June 25, 1999. Top of page Lance Selfa Archive | Trotskyist Writers’ Index | ETOL Main Page Last updated: 27 August 2021 | left | lance selfa archive trotskyist writer index etol main page international socialist review issue fall pp download thank isr archive website mark einde encyclopaedia trotskyism online etol nato wretched war yugoslavia shape international politic long figure like nato flaks jamie shea supreme commander wesley clark forget war lay bare international fault line submerge end cold war rehabilitate oldfashioned colonialism guise humanitarian intervention give nato preferred vehicle new centrality world affair unstable dangerous world result outline new imperialism appear ashe kosovo remain see international tension exhibit war develop fullfledge point conflict century war kosovo call question decade worth assumption govern foreign policy fall berlin wall western leader promise cold war end usher era peace prosperity institution united nations un settle conflict nation peacefully new world order george bush call reward western population peace dividend having spend trillion cold war european ally able scale military machine concentrate resource longignored domestic priority long threaten superpower nuclear annihilation world protect rogue nation small regional power north korea iraq accept necessity join world community cold war blocs dissolve road open russia development market democracy acceptance community nation china market reform foolish commentator label go capitalist bring firmly western camp observer china market democracy chinese market western policymaker market count democracy hover geopolitical assumption key belief expand free trade free market bring peace stability postcold war world nation trade say war fact promote free trade market reform represent consistent aim clinton foreign policy postcold war assumption repeat ad nauseam washington press little reality washington plan world cold war bush new world order peace prosperity last week gulf war lay iraq waste recession grip west force engage constantly kind war overseas deployment include somalia haiti bosnia iraq sudan free trade open market contribute bad world economic meltdown begin asia nato war yugoslavia expose far remove reality washington rhetoric needless interpretation lesson kosovo directly contradict picture clinton nato spin machine try paint bombing end june development natooccupie kosovo revelation war find way press vindicate antiwar movement say war nato war stop ethnic cleansing turn natoabetted war ethnic cleansing serb roma ie gypsy occupy kosovo spanish pilot expose nato repeat accidental bombing civilian deliberate policy statesponsored terrorism clinton doctrine innovation present administration conduct foreign policy punish innocent order express indignation guilty write establishment critic clinton war pentagon promilitary analyst conclude nato claim hightech destruction yugoslav force materiel fiction muchtoute unity nato ally unravel war wind greece nato country oppose war deny force land right territory rush occupy kosovo russian troop move occupy pristina airport prior nato arrival british officer refuse carry clark order stop russians formally un protectorate kosovo today de facto colonial outpost nato yugoslavian government insist yugoslavia retain sovereignty kosovo reality nato officer shot kosovo wall street journal report describe recent week un move pay judge city worker kosovo liberation army un charge kosovo un official admit new government police force will work strength winter tough daytoday job run city village kosovo leave largely soldier unit assume responsibility operate school feelgood mission commander tell journal little feel good today kosovo nato force likely occupy country decade long remain rule kosovo focus bitterness anger mass ordinary kosovar albanians kla extremist stage confrontation nato troop find try prevent antiserb pogrom city kosovskamitrovica august kosovskamitrovica confrontation will geopolitical analysis service stratfor inc sarcastically acknowledge price nato pay victory control kosovo booby prize second nato responsible stability balkan peninsula austrohungarian turk find indigestible nato try digest balkan region geography breed insecure state room viable compromise mission long run exhaust bright nato fulltime mission occupy occupation kosovo bright nato war ask dark emerge victor war face complicated world scene despite dominant power stumble new era dictate face great opposition ally standard white house spin extoll war kosovo example united nato alliance achieve century conceive purely defensive alliance weld western europe soviet union year nato consign history dustbin ussr dissolve nato serve essential purpose main vehicle penetration europe important focus foreign policy western alliance remain commit safeguard common interest order deflect rise alternative centre power write alvin bernstein director marshall center think tank associate european command nato power coalition power dominate area possess ability extend domination globally choose go business nato go area enlarge membership include warsaw pact enemy poland hungary czech republic expand mandate blacktie party nato summit washington april nato leader take time initiate new strategic concept statement nato military aim clinton administration new tool employ kosovostyle military operation write liberal center defense information strategic concept specifically give nato right deter defend threat vaguely define euroatlantic area necessarily identical territory nato ally definition washington claim act nato unilaterally permit administration ignore criticism impose pax americana world respect nato war mark major victory imperialism time history nato run offensive coalition war area opponent manage lasso main european ally fullscale war actual conduct war ensure nato coalition war long time postwar press leak believe nato commander squabble bombardment yugoslavia complain stampede war european leader italian prime minister massimo german chancellor gerhard schroeder take opportunity liberal run war surely european leader interest jump war necessarily coincide interest le monde diplomatique writer ignatio ramonet comment wealthy bloc like eu strategic importance region lie potential cause damage outside boundary export phenomenon political chaos chronic insecurity illegal immigration eu afford live year conflict kind kosovo doorstep crisis provide ideal opportunity wrap prime importance need secure fresh legitimacy nato washington seek remain european power strengthen nato extend influence bring eastern european country poland czech republic hungary breakup yugoslavia provide rich western european country germany eastern european hinterland extend influence war move second month end sight crack emerge inside nato alliance italy germany pressure antiwar opposition threaten bring national government greece maintain relationship war wage traditional ally balkan entire greek population oppose war accord opinion poll strobe talbott clinton lead negotiator deal bring war close concede increase difficulty alliance preserve solidarity resolve alliance yugoslav president slobodan milosevic cave early june think good thing conflict end supreme commander gen wesley clark simply reflect antiwar opposition split nato reflect divergence interest nato ruling class german rule class maintain great financial stake russia eastern europe britain spearhead effort end war formula germany participation war operation german troop outside un peacekeeping mission second world war fulfil germany key objective begin exercise military prerogative great economic power germany boss worry continue nato bombing sour relation russia german capital invest billion far nato country audition german foreign minister month win post joschka fischer characterized nato eastward march step partnership russia germany russia remain important security partner germany unify europe west general russia continue present state weakness forever know russian history know continue question solve framework exist security structure view yes eastern expansion nato mean yes change paneuropean security system include russia long run deliberately word security system military system decisive possible develop military system military alliance paneuropean security architecture military component play role succeed nato expansion east successful needless fischer conception nato expansion differ see expansion means continue cordone russia rest europe block germanrussian dominion eastern europe france contribute second large number bomber war clash commander french president jacque chirac reportedly impede clark choice target decision war france take step return nato withdraw war french leader tout france independence cut short country rapprochement nato remain outside nato peacetime allow france leeway pursue independent foreign policy conflict instance france favor lift sanction iraq open western channel iran position encounter opposition britain britain take hawkish line war prime minister tony blair badger clinton refuse commit fully ground invasion kosovo simply engage cheap bluster british government address european atlantic britain war catapult center european politic british force constitute large contingent nato occupy army kosovo troop august compare troop suggest britain lot happen kosovo action follow emerge reorientation britain europe recalculation special relationship late britain lift longstanding opposition european military force operate independently nato past britain rely alliance thwart move european military command distinct control nato want leverage special relationship player european military arrangement proceed june european union eu decision launch europewide military war british italian government meet develop common criterion military readiness eu state war expose huge military technical gap european armed force supply twothird aircraft war essentially call shot militarily clark escalate war occasion order bombing target european government early rule bound european power stand complain european power close gap build military technical capacity want build european military eu economy account roughly output trillion annually annually spend billion military compare million eu attempt merely catch mean arm buildup steal money school social security european worker lose arm race face contradiction foreign policy close ally hand constantly preach europe assume share burden maintain european military power hand significant commitment european resource build strong military presence pose eventual challenge political leadership europe assume role nato general secretary british defense minister george robertson commit delicate balancing act seek cajole europe spend arm lessen dependence aim maintain strong nato britain traditionally support tool angloamerican hegemony continental europe robertson gain general secretary chair blessing forego analysis identify tendency trend develop fullblown shift relation main european power useurope relationship far picture unity nato leader try portray war slow ongoing trade war europe banana meat cocacola steel accelerate european desire rein military power emerge kosovo war status world superpower reinforce country try tie gulliver write financial times david buchan russia china main european power lilliputian comparison america military diplomatically powerless way succeed shift balance power nato constrain expansion alliance role buchan suggest european power insist un bless future kosovotype operation view concerted effort hem hedging possibility military billion buildup year aim increase ability act ally fig leaf un nato cover clinton sell military spending binge effort increase troop pay improve readiness bulk money go weapon system enable deploy force world nation world able conduct largescale effective joint ie multiservice operation far border united states unique position say department defense report sustain position leadership united states maintain ready versatile force capable conduct wide range military activity operation able project power allow united states shape respond overseas crisis permanent presence limited infrastructure region language international peacekeeping language war midst kosovo crisis potentially explosive crisis develop china bombing china embassy deliberate plunge relation china low immediately bombing lurid congressional allegation chinese spying nuclear labs hit airwave world powerful military world populous country careen dangerous collision madeleine mad bomber albright kosovo china right disbelieve explanation embassy bombing late announce intention deploy missile defense system japan announcement china perceive threat china vehemently oppose kosovo war abstain un security council resolution ratify nato occupation view kosovo war dangerous western intervention internal affair sovereign state china see parallel hit close home ie tibet taiwan hong kong chinese military white paper describe global policy hegemonism term chinese leader reserve ussr subsequent effort patch relation will erase likelihood future uschina tension reason ground uschina relationship build shift president nixon open china collapse soviet union naked cold war geopolitic govern uschina relation create alliance china base country common interest contain ussr ussr disappear interaction china shift mainly economic sphere china economy clock annual growth rate percent seek assert politically militarily asia clinton administration accelerate policy engagement china try use economic carrot great trade investment contain china regional ambition time clinton hold china membership world trade organization hostage chinese concession great penetration market second rule class try decide far push conflict china year republican right itch find new enemy par ussr communist china fit bill despite capture lot headline week cox commission allegation massive chinese conspiracy steal nuclear secret fall flat cox commission force proponent engagement china head push speak forcefully veteran cold warrior henry kissinger express alarm deterioration uschina relation help construct absence direct challenge emergence china major power political system turn occasion american hostility embark lonely course support major nation europe asia important task american foreign policy design strategy recognize manage adversarial element relation china draw beijing international system repeat asia emotional unthoughtout policy bring grief balkan july congressional vote china trade status favor nation pass surprisingly little opposition suggest proponent engagement china hold upper hand festering conflict taiwan show fundamental issue divide china july taiwanese president lee attempt capitalize uschina divide amount declaration taiwan independence beijing lee miscalculate reaffirm official position recognize beijing regime government china warn china taiwan invite clash number train ready powerful rear admiral timothy j keating commander uss kitty hawk battle group tell reporter august establishment china expert bate gill proponent call limited engagement china warn taiwan status hold great potential uschina war clinton administration rightwe critic mirror divide rule class agree china represent big potential challenger dominance asia represent shift early official see japan main political economic challenger asia china military challenge make bid major player asia japan major political question asia tibet north korea missile defense taiwan china loggerhead debate rule class contain china contain china unlike day china ally ussr view china competitor strategic partner nato war russia balkans ally yugoslavia push contradiction approach russia break point hand lean russia provide end kosovo quagmire russian envoy victor chernomyrdin negotiate yugoslavia surrender nato occupation kosovo chernomyrdin peace brokering help nato avoid bloody unpopular ground war break yugoslavia hold kosovo hand war prove russia bad fear nato expansion intention true attack russian ally refuse formality united nations security council resolution certain russian veto nato assert antirussian alliance russia nato war yugoslavia give lie western assurance russia fear postcold war nato unified germany farcical appearance standoff russian nato troop pristina airport belie confrontation russia assert right share carveup kosovo having play key role win milosevic surrender kfor commander british general michael jackson refuse carry clark order block attack russian force jackson reportedly tell clark go start world war white house military official oppose clark dump week later publicly official insist russian kosovo little planning glitch scene pressure romania bulgaria moldova deny permission russian plane fly territory result russian troop pristina isolate nato continue occupation face organized resistance yugoslav army russian ally dealing russians kosovo follow twolevel approach russia ussr collapse aboveground level stress support democratic marketoriented russia boilerplate statement clinton national security adviser sandy berger describe troop maneuver puerto rico support reform democratic marketoriente russia likely pursue goal compatible likely reliable partner respect independence neighbor live peace russia choose stay course reform likely continue reduce nuclear threat work promote peace world create new market product job american worker cultivate wing russian rule class dependent american favor lend support billion imf loan repressive mafiaridden yeltsin regime second hidden level usrussian relation attempt push russian influence europe central asia enlarge nato include ussr satellite forge alliance oilrich soviet republic want claim russia lose empire aim prevent germanrussian dominion central europe western state ussr accelerate timetable nato enlargement advantage russian weakness aggressive action produce reaction russia war wind russia announce new tie china russia chief spymaster prime minister vladimir putin say light rapidly change situation world relation russia china assume strategic nature russian military official later announce plan form informal bloc china india aim counter hegemony year cold war end possibility nuclear blocs reemerging dismiss jet fighter president bush declare new world order conflict nation recede multinational organization like un police status quo apparently will live decade century breakup bipolar postwar world leave world remain superpower leave fragmented world small power seek pursue interest outside eastw cold war straightjacket gulf war marshal coalition nearly world power include russia china unfortunate rogue nation remain onetime event model postcold war international relation arrogance power demonstrate clinton gratuitous bombing afghanistan sudan continue prosecution genocide iraqi people power wary embrace washington military adventure usbacked imf austerity plan impose country swell rank world people believe bully oppose nato war yugoslavia kill civilian leave country ruin cause ecological catastrophe stalk future generation outside yugoslavia leave dangerous world arm spending ratchet upward likelihood military conflict escalate war yugoslavia end russia launch war dagestani rebel threaten engulf caucasus china taiwan rattle saber seventh fleet stand step military intervention colombia lead analyst draw comparison pretonkin gulf vietnam century look set begin way century great power prepare war work people europe china russia interest repeat horror nato war bad resist descent barbarism michael mandelbaum perfect failure nato war yugoslavia foreign affair septemberoctober pp paywall robert fisk serb army unscathed nato fake gun paint road fool nato httpwwwlbbsorgcrisescurevtstwofiskhtm originally british independent matthew kaminski troop wear hat kosovo wall street journal august p stratfor nato victory june quote mark curtis great deception angloamerican power world order london stylus pp tomas valasek kosovo body language backslappe head scratch weekly defense monitor june ignacio ramonet new world order le monde diplomatique online edition june talbott interview bbc newsnight program august joschka fischer selfrestraint power maintain germany role objective globalized world century address german society foreign affair berlin june available web site german embassy httpwwwgermanyinfoorgfgicindexnewspublicationshtml long available online david buchan tethered superpower financial time july p meeting cologne germany june eu resolve appoint javier solana nato general secretary war act coordinator effort independent nato european foreign policy remain see revelation come august bbc special war buchan p quote michael t klare aim win front le monde diplomatique online edition bate gill limited engagement foreign affair julyaugust p henry kissinger new world disorder newsweek online edition keating quote liz sly china raise stake taiwan chicago tribune august p gill p bursting japanese bubble economy japan decadelong economic stagnation deflate japanese clout ruler fear samuel sandy r berger challenge approach twentyfirst century robert l hutching ed end american century america role postcold war world johns hopkins university press p john rees nato new imperialism socialist review july actually june etol peter gowan global gamble new york verso p putin quote stratfor kosovo conflict accelerate formation russiachina strategic alliance june page lance selfa archive trotskyist writer index etol main page update august | 88 |
Eugene Kamenka 1965 Source: Socialist Humanism, edited by Erich Fromm, Doubleday & Co., 1965; “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they."[1] It was for the sake of liberating men from these chains (chains which Rousseau thought could he made “legitimate”) that Marx became a radical critic of society; it was in the name of freedom, and not of security, that Marx turned to Communism. The vision before his eyes, from his youth onward, was that of the creative, self-determined man, master of his environment, of the universe, and of himself, co-operating, spontaneously and harmoniously, with all other men as “aspects” of the human spirit liberated within him. “Dignity,” the young Marx writes in a secondary school essay, “can be afforded only by that position in which we do not appear as servile instruments”; “the criticism of religion,” he writes in the Deutsch-französische Jahrbücher nine years later, “ends in the teaching that man is the highest being for man, it ends, i.e., with the categorical imperative to overthrow all conditions in which man is a debased, forsaken, contemptible being forced into servitude.” Communism, for Marx, meant neither the mere abolition of poverty nor that abstract application of fairness which he rejected so scathingly in his Critique of the Gotha Programme — the triumph of distributive justice in social affairs. Least of all did Marx see communism as a form of state socialism in which governmental or “representative” power and authority replaced individual power and authority over men. Ultimately more consistent than Rousseau, Marx implicitly rejected any possible justification for the “chains” that bind men together; in the belief that Rousseau’s general, universal will could and would flower in history, Marx confidently predicted that all social chains would wither away. Communism would be the society of freedom, in which man became the subject and ceased to be the object of power. No longer would man’s nature and actions be determined by something outside himself, either by the state, society, man’s social situation, his animal needs, or by other men. No longer would man’s fellow human beings confront him as competitors, enslaving him and themselves to the inexorable demands of competitive economic life. For the first time in human history, society, technology, and the whole range of human conduct and relations would become expressions of man’s true being and cease to be limitations upon that being. In his own life, man would find that true and ultimate freedom which is the necessary destiny of man; in other men he would find partners in that spontaneous but co-operative creativity that distinguishes man as a universal and social being from the animal as a limited and particular one. Man would become praxis — the subject and not the object of history. “The critique of society which forms the substance of Marx’s work,” Dr. Maximilien Rubel correctly reminds us[2], “has, essentially, two targets: the State and Money.” The State, for Marx, was the visible, institutionalized expression of political power over men; money, both the visible means and the secret but indispensable ground of the more fundamental and pervasive economic power over men. If Marx was concerned with the critique of politics and economics, it was because he saw in these critiques the key to understanding the human condition and grasping the necessary foundations for the elimination of power over men. In Marx’s earlier works, especially in his contributions to the Deutsch-französische Jahrbücher, in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, and in the German Ideology that he wrote with Engels in 1845-46, we are presented with an analysis of the nature and foundations of human dependence subtler and less dated than the crude class theory of human dependence which Marx’s vulgarizing disciples have drawn out of his popular political pamphlets. In these earlier works, Marx makes it clear that he does not see man enslaved simply by other men: the citizen by a dictatorial police state, the worker by a greedy and grasping capitalist. All past and present social systems may resolve themselves, from one point of view, into systems made up of masters and slaves — but the masters are no more free than the slaves, both live in a relationship of mutual hostility and of insurmountable mutual dependence, both are governed by the system that makes them play out their allotted roles, whether they will or not. Marx sees this dependence as arising “naturally” from the division of labor and the consequent introduction of private ownership. But the possibilities of intensifying dependence, of alienating man from his work, his products, and his fellow human beings, are vastly increased with the rise of money as a universal medium of exchange. Money — into which everything can be converted — makes everything saleable, and enables man to separate from himself not only his goods, the product of his work, but even from his work itself, which he can now sell to another. “Money lowers all the gods of mankind and transforms them into a commodity. Money is the universal, self-constituting value of all things. It has therefore robbed the whole world, both the human world and nature, of its own peculiar value. Money is the essence of man’s work and existence, alienated from man, and this alien essence dominates him and he prays to it."[3] Man’s alienation, for Marx, is expressed in the fact that man’s forces, products, and creations — all those things that are extensions of man’s personality and should serve directly to enrich it — are split off from man; they acquire independent status and power and turn back on man to dominate him as his master. It is he who becomes their servant. As the division of labor, the use of money, and the growth of private property increase, man’s alienation becomes more acute, reaching its highest point in modern capitalist society. Here the worker is alienated from his product, from the work that he sells on the labor market,” from other men who confront him as capitalists exploiting his labor or as workers competing for jobs, and from nature and society which confront him as limitations and not as fulfillments of his personality. It is this alienation — expressed in the intellectual field by the compartmentalization of the science of man and society into the “abstract” study of economic man, legal man, ethical man, etc. — which Marx portrays vividly in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts: The more riches the worker produces, the more his production increases in power and scope, the poorer he becomes. The more commodities a worker produces, the cheaper a commodity he becomes. The devaluation of the world of men proceeds in direct proportion to the exploitation of the values of the world of things. Labour not only produces commodities, but it turns itself and the worker into commodities ... [4] Not only the products of man’s work, but the very activity of this work are alienated from man. The alienation within the worker’s activity consists: First, in the fact that labour is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his essential being, in the fact that he therefore does not affirm himself in his work, but negates himself in it, that he does not feel content, but unhappy in it, that he develops no free physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. Therefore the worker feels himself only outside his work, while in his work he feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working and when he works he is not at home. His work, therefore, is not voluntary but coerced; it is forced labour. It is, therefore, not the satisfaction of a need, but only a means for satisfying needs external to it . . . The result therefore is that man (the worker) no longer feels himself acting freely except in his animal functions, eating, drinking, procreating, or at most in his dwelling, ornaments, etc., while in his human functions he feels more and more like an animal. What is animal becomes human and what is human becomes animal. Drinking, eating and procreating are admittedly also genuinely human functions. But in their abstraction, which separates them from the remaining range of human functions and turns them into sole and ultimate ends, they are animal.[5] The source of all the distinctions between the savage and the civilized man, Rousseau writes, “is that the savage lives within himself, while social man lives constantly outside himself, and only knows how to live in the opinion of others, so that he seems to receive the consciousness of his own existence from the judgment of others concerning him."[6] Marx, in his early (and, I should argue, in his later) work seeks to show the necessary foundation of this alienation in economic life, in a division of labor organized on the basis of private property, in the use of money that make it possible to convert all things, even labor and care and affection and love, into commodities that are bought and sold. For Marx the division of labor and private property is, of course, inevitable, even necessary, at a certain period of history — only through it can man develop his capacities and realize his limitless potentialities. The savage has not yet separated his labor from himself, has not yet learned to produce for any purpose but use; but in his desperate struggle to satisfy his basic (animal) needs, in his pitiful dependence on nature, he is also man in bondage. To master nature and to overcome human alienation — in these achievements lies the key to the freedom of man. Capitalism has done the former; socialism, Marx believed, would accomplish the latter. At the end of his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Marx painted a picture of the communist society, the society of true and ultimate human freedom. Sympathetic critics have called it the picture of a society of artists, creating freely and consciously, working together in spontaneous and perfect harmony. In such a society, Marx believed, there would be no state, no criminals, no conflicts, no need for punitive authority and coercive rules. Each man would be “caught up” in productive labor with other men, fulfilling himself in social, co-operative creation. The struggle would be a common struggle: in his work, and in other men, man would find not dependence and unpleasantness, but freedom and satisfaction, just as artists find inspiration and satisfaction in their own work and in the work of other artists. Truly free men rising above the very conception of property will thus need no rules imposed from above, no moral exhortations to do their duty, no “authorities” laying down what is to be done. Art cannot be created by plans imposed from outside; it knows no authorities and no discipline except the authority and the discipline of art itself. What is true of art, Marx believed, is true of all free, productive labor. just as true communism, for Marx, is not that crude “communism” which “is so much under the sway of material property, that it wants to destroy everything which cannot be owned by everybody as private property; it wants forcibly to cut away talent, etc.”;[7] so “free labor,” for Marx, is not “mere fun, mere amusement, as Fourier thinks with all the naivete of a grisette. Truly free labor, e.g., composition, is damned serious at the same time, it is the most intensive exertion."[8] The vision of communism outlined here, I believe, remained with Marx all his life. It comes out clearly in the German Ideology of 1845-46, in the notes and drafts he made between 185o and 1859, in his Critique of the Gotha Programme in 1875. It runs through all three volumes of Das Kapital. It is a vision of freedom, of spontaneous co-operation, of men’s conscious self-determination once they are freed from dependence and need. It is not merely a vision of economic plenty or social security. Engels may have seen communism that way; Marx did not. To the end of his life, through the “economic filth” that he waded through so conscientiously and unwillingly, Marx remained the philosopher, the apostle, and the predicter of freedom. The intellectual crisis in the democratic socialist movement today is a crisis in socialist ethics: a crisis that stems from the tension between Marx’s emphasis on economic rationalism and material sufficiency, his interest in what he saw as the economic preconditions of freedom and his emphasis on a truly human morality that would overcome the very conception of property and the divorce between means and ends. Georges Sorel dramatized this conflict in Marxian thinking in his picture of the historic conflict between the ethics of the consumer, interested in profits and returns, seeking security, seeing all things as means to a commercial end, and the ethics of the producer, based on the “heroic” values of disinterested creativity, co-operation, emulation, and indifference to reward. The German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, in part consciously influenced by Marx, strikingly developed Marx’s contrast between the commercial, divisive society of capitalism and the unalienated society of communism into a sociological category, the contrast between the commercial, divisive Gesellschaft and the organic fellowship of the Gemeinschaft. Gesellschaft is the bourgeois commercial society in which the cash nexus tends to drive out all other social ties and relationships, in which men become bound only by contract and commercial exchange, in which the city dominates the country and the trading class converts the whole land into a market, in which the “common, social sphere” is based on the fleeting moment when men meet in barter, when they have what the law of contract calls “a [transitory] meeting of minds.” The “common sphere” of the Gemeinschaft, on the other hand, rests on a natural harmony, on the ties of tradition, friendship, and the common acceptance of a religious order; production is primarily agricultural and for use, society is based on status relations that prevent any man from treating another “abstractly.” In the Gemeinschaft men are essentially united in spite of all separating factors; they act on each other’s behalf. In the Gesellschaft they are essentially separated in spite of all uniting factors; here every man is isolated and by himself, other men confront him as competitors and alien intruders. The distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, for Tönnies, is intimately associated with the distinction between two kinds of will, each of them characteristic of one of the two societies. The Gemeinschaft is based on the Wesenwille, the natural or integral will in which a man expresses his whole personality and in which there is no developed differentiation between means and ends. Against this stands the Kürwille, the rational but in a sense capricious will characteristic of Gesellschaft, the will in which means and ends have been sharply differentiated and in which what Max Weber calls zweckrationale (purposefully rational) behavior prevails. In his pamphlet on property, published in 1926, Tönnies illustrates the difference. Property which is the object of the natural will is so closely bound to the nature of the person that any separation from it necessarily produces unhappiness: the owner and his property fuse together, the property becomes part of the owner, loved and cherished as his own creation. This is the way that men are inclined to behave toward living things that they own, toward their house and yard, and, toward the “sod” which they and their forefathers have worked for generations. In the relationships that result from the natural will there is no sharp differentiation of pleasure and pain, satisfaction and dissatisfaction: the farmer finds in his land both sorrow and joy, duty and pleasure, obligation and privilege. The rational will, on the other hand, finds its paradigmatic expression in the relationship to money, to property that is expressed as credit or debit in a ledger, to “hands” who cost so and so much in wages. The ultimate consummation of the property of the rational will is the commercial share, held by an owner who has not even seen the property it confers on him. It is in these relationships that joy and sorrow, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, are sharply differentiated: profit is plus, joy, satisfaction; loss is minus, sorrow, dissatisfaction. Here is the consummation of utilitarian morality: everything is abstracted, tom out of its living context, subsumed under an alienated end. In the advanced Western society of industrialism, where social mobility and redistributions of wages, status, and opportunity have hopelessly blurred and diffused the simple cleavages of traditional class conflicts and where growing affluence has destroyed the plausibility of linking the concept of alienation with that of poverty, some of the ablest of socialist thinkers have returned to the young Marx read in the light of Tönnies. The contemporary socialist critique of capitalism, they say, cannot rest any longer on allegations of the worker’s impoverishment and material exploitation: it must focus instead on the failure of capitalism to provide a Gemeinschaft, a sense of community, and on the manipulation of human beings in the interests of commercial ends, on the way in which capitalism molds man into seeking transitory material satisfactions. In the societies claiming to march toward communism, on the other hand, the ablest of the social critics — such men as Ernst Bloch and Leszek Kolakowski, supported by a number of Yugoslav philosophers — have used Marx’s vision of communism as a true fraternity in which the opposition between individual and society would have been overcome as a way of criticizing the authoritarian concepts of Gemeinschaft and the emphasis on obedience and subservience preached by the Party theologues. It is in Marxian humanism, and not in the commercial morality of Fabianism and “advanced” trade unions, that non-bureaucratic socialists see the greatest chances of an ethical renewal. There are admittedly those, in Portugal, in large parts of Italy, and in the “underdeveloped” countries outside Europe, to whom classical Marxism still makes an appeal because the situation in their countries is not a “twentieth-century situation”; because, like the men to whom the Communist Manifesto was addressed, they are still waging the struggle for political democracy, the abolition of seigneurial privileges and the freeing of economic development from the restraints, not of capitalism, but of traditional society. The paradox is that to most of these people Marxism is only a way of destroying conditions that stand between them and the twentieth century. Instead of leading man from the Gesellschaft of capitalism into the free, fraternal Gemeinschaft of communism, the class struggle in their hands becomes at best a means for leading man from the oppressive Gemeinschaft of precapitalist society into the Gesellschaft of the modern industrial age. It is deeply significant that our most realistic hopes for genuine political liberalization in the Soviet Union and — ultimately — in Communist China, rest on the growth of specialization, the comparative overcoming of chronic shortages and the rise of a consumers’ market: in short, on the increasing permeation of some of the values that distinguish capitalist society from traditional, authoritarian society. Here, then, lies the fundamental problem for socialist humanists. Classical Marxism welded together, in one tremendous act of force and faith, the affirmation of industrial development and the longing for the brotherhood and community of the feudal-agrarian village. The machines that robbed man of his individuality, it taught, had a historic mission: while they seemed to support and extend the naked divisiveness of commercial society, they would end by overthrowing it and leading to the Kingdom of Man. The paths to political and economic democracy, to material satisfaction, and to freedom in the fullest possible sense, were all one and the same path. Today, the paths have divided, not in two or three, but in a hundred directions, and the world demands a new map from those who wish to erect a new signpost. From the work of Marx and Tönnies, from the concepts of alienation and Gemeinschaft, it is possible, I believe, to construct a radical ethic: an ethic linked with the acquisition of knowledge, with the traditions of spiritual and material production and of political enterprise and democracy. But it will be an ethic of struggle and criticism, which carries with it no guarantee of success. History is neither the story of the progressive unfolding of a spontaneously co-operative human essence nor is it the inevitable march toward a truly just and human society. History is the battleground of competing traditions, movements, and ways of life: it presents us with no total story and no final end. And what is true of history is equally true of society. The socialist humanist, like the exiled Trotsky, will have to recognize that “history” and “society” can confront us with one outrage after another; when they do, he will, like Trotsky, have to fight back with his fists. Even in the formulation of a critical program, there are problems that must be faced squarely. The work of Tönnies, in elaborating the concept of Gemeinschaft, runs together the brotherhood of a working team of equals and the paternalism of a feudal community in which everyone knows and accepts his place. The Promethean socialist vision of the non-commercial society is distinguished from the Romantic conservative vision by its rejection of hierarchy and by that alone; yet it is precisely on this point that socialist collectivist practice has failed when working on any scale but the infinitesimal. A great part of the heritage of democratic socialism, and of the socialist concept of freedom, rests on the “open” society created by capitalist development: the Gesellschaft that freed men from the bonds of religious and feudal authority, created the ideal of individualism, cut the oppression of the extended family, and vastly increased the area of the “private” as opposed to the “public.” The divorce of means and ends has multiplied to an incredible extent the scope and Power of human production; the capitalist market, as Hayek and von Mises have emphasized, has created a model by which men find it possible to agree to common means while feeling that they can maintain their diverse individual ends. This feeling is no doubt partly illusory. Capitalist means do shape the ends that people pursue and such ends acquire no special ethical “sanctity” simply because they are pursued. But in developing a theory of freedom we can no longer follow Marx in his tacit reliance on the essentially co-operative nature of the human spirit, freed from economic bonds. Neither can we simply rely on the factory as the school of revolution: if modern industrial development has taught new forms of co-operation, it has also raised new and mightier forms of bureaucratization. If the growth of science and technology increasingly liberates man from physically unpleasant work and increasingly tends to eliminate the direct use of power in allocating material resources, it also constantly increases the need for management and direction and the subtler economic and social dependence of man. If we have to revise, to some extent, Marx’s concept of man, we must revise, far more radically, Marx’s view of industrial society. To this task, I hope, some of my fellow contributors will be addressing themselves. 1 J.-J. Rousseau, The Social Contract, Book I, ch. 1. 2 Maximilien Rubel, “Le Concept de democratie chez Marx,” in Contrat Social, Vol. VI, no. 4. 3 Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Question”; my translation from Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA; Frankfurt am Main: Marx — Engels Lenin Institute, 1927 f.), Section I, Vol. I-i, p. 603. 4 MEGA, Section I, Vol. 3, p. 82. 5 Ibid., pp. 85 — 86. 6 A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, in J. — J. Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses (London: J. M. Dent & Sons [Everyman’s Library], 1913), p. 237. My colleague, Mr. S. I. Benn, kindly drew my attention to the passage. 7 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, MEGA, Section 1, Vol. 3, PP. 111-12. 8 From the draft notes (1857 — 58) that grew into the Critique of Political Economy and were first published in 1939; here cited from the German edition, Karl Marx, Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Oekonomie (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1953), p. 505. Eugene Kamenka | Value_of_Knowledge | Marxism & Ethics | M.I.A. | left | eugene kamenka source socialist humanism edit erich fromm doubleday co man bear free chain think master remain great slave sake liberate man chain chain rousseau think legitimate marx radical critic society freedom security marx turn communism vision eye youth onward creative selfdetermine man master environment universe cooperate spontaneously harmoniously man aspect human spirit liberate dignity young marx write secondary school essay afford position appear servile instrument criticism religion write deutschfranzösische jahrbücher year later end teaching man high man end ie categorical imperative overthrow condition man debased forsake contemptible force servitude communism marx mean mere abolition poverty abstract application fairness reject scathingly critique gotha programme triumph distributive justice social affair marx communism form state socialism governmental representative power authority replace individual power authority man ultimately consistent rousseau marx implicitly reject possible justification chain bind man belief rousseau general universal flower history marx confidently predict social chain wither away communism society freedom man subject cease object power long man nature action determine outside state society man social situation animal need man long man fellow human being confront competitor enslave inexorable demand competitive economic life time human history society technology range human conduct relation expression man true cease limitation life man find true ultimate freedom necessary destiny man man find partner spontaneous cooperative creativity distinguish man universal social animal limited particular man praxis subject object history critique society form substance marx work dr maximilien rubel correctly remind essentially target state money state marx visible institutionalized expression political power man money visible mean secret indispensable ground fundamental pervasive economic power man marx concern critique politic economic see critique key understand human condition grasp necessary foundation elimination power man marx early work especially contribution deutschfranzösische jahrbücher economic philosophical manuscript german ideology write engel present analysis nature foundation human dependence subtler date crude class theory human dependence marx vulgarize disciple draw popular political pamphlet early work marx make clear man enslave simply man citizen dictatorial police state worker greedy grasp capitalist past present social system resolve point view system master slave master free slave live relationship mutual hostility insurmountable mutual dependence govern system make play allot role marx see dependence arise naturally division labor consequent introduction private ownership possibility intensify dependence alienate man work product fellow human being vastly increase rise money universal medium exchange money convert make saleable enable man separate good product work work sell money lower god mankind transform commodity money universal selfconstituting value thing rob world human world nature peculiar value money essence man work existence alienate man alien essence dominate pray man alienation marx express fact man force product creation thing extension man personality serve directly enrich split man acquire independent status power turn man dominate master servant division labor use money growth private property increase man alienation acute reach high point modern capitalist society worker alienate product work sell labor market man confront capitalist exploit labor worker compete job nature society confront limitation fulfillment personality alienation express intellectual field compartmentalization science man society abstract study economic man legal man ethical man etc marx portray vividly economic philosophical manuscript rich worker produce production increase power scope poor commodity worker produce cheap commodity devaluation world man proceed direct proportion exploitation value world thing labour produce commodity turn worker commodity product man work activity work alienate man alienation worker activity consist fact labour external worker ie belong essential fact affirm work negate feel content unhappy develop free physical mental energy mortify body ruin mind worker feel outside work work feel outside home work work home work voluntary coerce force labour satisfaction need means satisfy need external result man worker long feel act freely animal function eat drinking procreating dwell ornament etc human function feel like animal animal human human animal drinking eat procreating admittedly genuinely human function abstraction separate remain range human function turn sole ultimate end source distinction savage civilized man rousseau write savage live social man live constantly outside know live opinion receive consciousness existence judgment concern marx early argue later work seek necessary foundation alienation economic life division labor organize basis private property use money possible convert thing labor care affection love commodity buy sell marx division labor private property course inevitable necessary certain period history man develop capacity realize limitless potentiality savage separate labor learn produce purpose use desperate struggle satisfy basic animal need pitiful dependence nature man bondage master nature overcome human alienation achievement lie key freedom man capitalism socialism marx believe accomplish end economic philosophical manuscript marx paint picture communist society society true ultimate human freedom sympathetic critic call picture society artist create freely consciously work spontaneous perfect harmony society marx believe state criminal conflict need punitive authority coercive rule man catch productive labor man fulfil social cooperative creation struggle common struggle work man man find dependence unpleasantness freedom satisfaction artist find inspiration satisfaction work work artist truly free man rise conception property need rule impose moral exhortation duty authority lay art create plan impose outside know authority discipline authority discipline art true art marx believe true free productive labor true communism marx crude communism sway material property want destroy own everybody private property want forcibly cut away talent free labor marx mere fun mere amusement fouri think naivete grisette truly free labor eg composition damn time intensive vision communism outline believe remain marx life come clearly german ideology note draft critique gotha programme run volume das kapital vision freedom spontaneous cooperation man conscious selfdetermination free dependence need merely vision economic plenty social security engel see communism way marx end life economic filth wade conscientiously unwillingly marx remain philosopher apostle predicter freedom intellectual crisis democratic socialist movement today crisis socialist ethic crisis stem tension marx emphasis economic rationalism material sufficiency interest see economic precondition freedom emphasis truly human morality overcome conception property divorce mean end georges sorel dramatize conflict marxian thinking picture historic conflict ethic consumer interest profit return seek security see thing mean commercial end ethic producer base heroic value disintereste creativity cooperation emulation indifference reward german sociologist ferdinand tönnie consciously influence marx strikingly develop marx contrast commercial divisive society capitalism unalienated society communism sociological category contrast commercial divisive gesellschaft organic fellowship gemeinschaft gesellschaft bourgeois commercial society cash nexus tend drive social tie relationship man bind contract commercial exchange city dominate country trading class convert land market common social sphere base fleeting moment man meet barter law contract call transitory meeting mind common sphere gemeinschaft hand rest natural harmony tie tradition friendship common acceptance religious order production primarily agricultural use society base status relation prevent man treat abstractly gemeinschaft man essentially unite spite separate factor act behalf gesellschaft essentially separate spite unite factor man isolate man confront competitor alien intruder distinction gemeinschaft gesellschaft tönnie intimately associate distinction kind characteristic society gemeinschaft base wesenwille natural integral man express personality developed differentiation mean end stand kürwille rational sense capricious characteristic gesellschaft mean end sharply differentiate max weber call zweckrationale purposefully rational behavior prevail pamphlet property publish tönnie illustrate difference property object natural closely bind nature person separation necessarily produce unhappiness owner property fuse property owner love cherish creation way man inclined behave live thing house yard sod forefather work generation relationship result natural sharp differentiation pleasure pain satisfaction dissatisfaction farmer find land sorrow joy duty pleasure obligation privilege rational hand find paradigmatic expression relationship money property express credit debit ledger hand cost wage ultimate consummation property rational commercial share hold owner see property confer relationship joy sorrow satisfaction dissatisfaction sharply differentiate profit plus joy satisfaction loss minus sorrow dissatisfaction consummation utilitarian morality abstract tom live context subsume alienated end advanced western society industrialism social mobility redistribution wage status opportunity hopelessly blur diffuse simple cleavage traditional class conflict grow affluence destroy plausibility link concept alienation poverty able socialist thinker return young marx read light tönnie contemporary socialist critique capitalism rest long allegation worker impoverishment material exploitation focus instead failure capitalism provide gemeinschaft sense community manipulation human being interest commercial end way capitalism mold man seek transitory material satisfaction society claim march communism hand able social critic man ernst bloch leszek kolakowski support number yugoslav philosopher marx vision communism true fraternity opposition individual society overcome way criticize authoritarian concept gemeinschaft emphasis obedience subservience preach party theologue marxian humanism commercial morality fabianism advanced trade union nonbureaucratic socialist great chance ethical renewal admittedly portugal large part italy underdeveloped country outside europe classical marxism make appeal situation country twentiethcentury situation like man communist manifesto address wage struggle political democracy abolition seigneurial privilege freeing economic development restraint capitalism traditional society paradox people marxism way destroy condition stand twentieth century instead lead man gesellschaft capitalism free fraternal gemeinschaft communism class struggle hand good mean lead man oppressive gemeinschaft precapitalist society gesellschaft modern industrial age deeply significant realistic hope genuine political liberalization soviet union ultimately communist china rest growth specialization comparative overcoming chronic shortage rise consumer market short increase permeation value distinguish capitalist society traditional authoritarian society lie fundamental problem socialist humanist classical marxism weld tremendous act force faith affirmation industrial development longing brotherhood community feudalagrarian village machine rob man individuality teach historic mission support extend naked divisiveness commercial society end overthrow lead kingdom man path political economic democracy material satisfaction freedom full possible sense path today path divide direction world demand new map wish erect new signpost work marx tönnie concept alienation gemeinschaft possible believe construct radical ethic ethic link acquisition knowledge tradition spiritual material production political enterprise democracy ethic struggle criticism carry guarantee success history story progressive unfolding spontaneously cooperative human essence inevitable march truly human society history battleground compete tradition movement way life present total story final end true history equally true society socialist humanist like exile trotsky recognize history society confront outrage like trotsky fight fist formulation critical program problem face squarely work tönnie elaborate concept gemeinschaft run brotherhood work team equal paternalism feudal community know accept place promethean socialist vision noncommercial society distinguish romantic conservative vision rejection hierarchy precisely point socialist collectivist practice fail work scale infinitesimal great heritage democratic socialism socialist concept freedom rest open society create capitalist development gesellschaft free man bond religious feudal authority create ideal individualism cut oppression extended family vastly increase area private oppose public divorce mean end multiply incredible extent scope power human production capitalist market hayek von mise emphasize create model man find possible agree common mean feel maintain diverse individual end feeling doubt partly illusory capitalist mean shape end people pursue end acquire special ethical sanctity simply pursue develop theory freedom long follow marx tacit reliance essentially cooperative nature human spirit free economic bond simply rely factory school revolution modern industrial development teach new form cooperation raise new mighty form bureaucratization growth science technology increasingly liberate man physically unpleasant work increasingly tend eliminate direct use power allocate material resource constantly increase need management direction subtler economic social dependence man revise extent marx concept man revise far radically marx view industrial society task hope fellow contributor address jj rousseau social contract book ch maximilien rubel le concept de democratie chez marx contrat social vol vi karl marx jewish question translation marxengel gesamtausgabe mega frankfurt main marx engels lenin institute f section vol ii p mega section vol p ibid pp discourse origin inequality j j rousseau social contract discourse london j m dent son everyman library p colleague mr s benn kindly draw attention passage economic philosophical manuscript mega section vol pp draft note grow critique political economy publish cite german edition karl marx grundrisse der kritik der politischen oekonomie berlin dietz verlag p eugene kamenka valueofknowledge marxism ethic mia | 89 |
AMIDST ALL THE turmoil of the Reform Party this summer, Pat Buchanan named Ezola Foster as his running mate for his third bid at the presidency. For a man who has openly questioned the holocaust, and battled to save white America, choosing a Black woman is a little puzzling. And for that matter, why does a Black woman from Watts want to associate with a white man who called for a “culture war” against her people? Strange bedfellows? Actually, Buchanan spent a good long time courting several Black women for the job. Plotting continuously for the current presidential election since his last bid, Buchanan first named the controversial Lenora Fulani as his campaign co-chair back in November ’99. The appointment of Fulani, a lefty wannabe New York politician and supporter of the Farrakhan camp, upset many of Buchanan’s loyal followers, including Ezola Foster who herself had been Buchanan’s co-chair in 1996. “It just makes no sense whatsoever! What is he thinking? I just do not understand it!” said Foster in a January interview during which she claimed she was forced to abandon him at that juncture. Foster had been a long-time follower of Buchanan. But little did Foster know that she soon would take Fulani’s place and end up joining hands with Buchanan in his bid for the White House. Why Fulani? At first glance Fulani seemed to reject everything Buchanan supported. Both, however, saw through the promises of free trade and globalization and the stronghold corporations have over the Democratic and Republican Parties. But that just wasn’t enough to solidify their unnatural bond. Fulani resigned a few months later, declaring Buchanan wasn’t as open to people (such as herself) as he claimed. Meanwhile, Buchanan forces found in Foster a new co-chair and subsequent running mate, and managed to wrest $12.6 million in federal matching funds from the Perot wing of the party. Who is Ezola Foster? She isn’t so mysterious in Los Angeles – more like notorious, particularly amongst her former students who she says make up “a school in which the enrollment was predominantly illegal alien students, or children of illegal aliens.” When Foster revealed her animosity towards Latinos on PBS News Hour in 1996, students joined with a few of her co-workers and various immigrant rights organizations in protest, successfully ousting her from her eleven-year term at Bell High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It seemed Foster’s days as a school teacher were numbered all along, given her political ambitions. Early on at Bell High School she formed “Black Americans for Family Values” (though she now is leaving out the “Black” part). Foster admitted: “we actually came together as ‘Black Americans for Family Values’ actually for two purposes. Number one, if you put the word ‘black’ in front of your name you have the media come out when you have press conferences. [Secondly] we ... from the Watts community formed ourselves at that time to challenge the State Board of Education’s inclusion of the teaching of homosexuality to children in grades Kindergarten through 12 ... [Subsequently] many of the parents living in Watts also began to recognize the influx of illegals into the community and so illegal immigration became a big issue for us also.” Foster is a networking queen. A leading advocate for the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in California in 1994, she allies herself with a bastion of like-minded conservatives in California who have carried California’s crusade against Latinos, immigrants and immigration. Foster minces no words about her feelings on immigration. “Mexico wants America, they want to annex America – certain states to their own country. So they don’t want America to control America’s borders ... I don’t know what we could do for Mexico except to get tough ... send them back and if they come over a second or third time, triple the fines and if that doesn’t work, put the troops on the borders. Let them shoot it out. We’re going to come to that; we really are,” she asserted in January. “I would say that we began to notice [illegal immigration] in the mid ’70s and it really became an issue in the ’80s because many of the people living in the housing projects in the area, wake up one morning and all of the sudden they have Spanish speaking neighbors ... and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that these people just came in overnight.” Indeed, global economic and structural shifts in the last thirty years have led to increased immigration. These shifts moved, down-sized or eliminated production sites (such as automobile plants, clothing manufacturers and the aerospace industry) hitting resident people of color disproportionately — especially in Los Angeles. Many of the employment opportunities were replaced by non-unionized, “flexible” and often sweatshop jobs. Consequently, the demand for immigrant labor increased leaving little for the already established communities. Foster exploits this loss by driving a wedge between Blacks in poor neighborhoods and the mostly middle class led mainstream Black organizations like the Urban League, the NAACP, and the SCLC. Foster (not to mention the rest of us) is certainly right to disown the Democratic and Republican parties which effectively guarantee the continued imprisonment of many people of color in our major cities. However, the answer does not lie in the nationalism and xenophobia sported by herself and Buchanan. The discrimination they promote effectively reproduces and maintains racial, national and international divisions which ail our nation and world. In the end, Foster and Buchanan are not strange, but rather appropriate bedfellows. As a running mate, she enables him to demonstrate his allegiance to a color blind America. It certainly doesn’t hurt that she agrees with most of his views either. She is anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-ma/paternity leave, anti-ebonics, anti-affirmative action, anti-multiculturalism, and anti-public schools. Foster even dismisses needle exchange programs, though AIDS hits her own community the hardest of all. She supports the flying of the Confederate flag, school prayer, the police officers who beat up Rodney King, and is a member of the John Birch Society. She has run for California State Assembly, losing twice to Democrat Maxine Waters in 1984 and 1986, and appeared on numerous television programs from Larry King Live, to the local evening news. The perfect puppet serving best those who gain most from racism and sexism, Foster has served for years as a conservative stalwart within the Los Angeles Black community, while the surrounding white right wing has used her at every turn. Needless to say, Pat Buchanan is more than happy to do the same. ATC 89, November–December 2000 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | amidst turmoil reform party summer pat buchanan name ezola foster running mate bid presidency man openly question holocaust battle save white america choose black woman little puzzling matter black woman watts want associate white man call culture war people strange bedfellow actually buchanan spend good long time court black woman job plot continuously current presidential election bid buchanan name controversial lenora fulani campaign cochair november appointment fulani lefty wannabe new york politician supporter farrakhan camp upset buchanan loyal follower include ezola foster buchanan cochair make sense whatsoever think understand say foster january interview claim force abandon juncture foster longtime follower buchanan little foster know soon fulani place end join hand buchanan bid white house fulani glance fulani reject buchanan support see promise free trade globalization stronghold corporation democratic republican party solidify unnatural bond fulani resign month later declare buchanan open people claim buchanan force find foster new cochair subsequent running mate manage wr million federal matching fund perot wing party ezola foster mysterious los angeles like notorious particularly student say school enrollment predominantly illegal alien student child illegal alien foster reveal animosity latinos pbs news hour student join coworker immigrant right organization protest successfully oust elevenyear term bell high school los angeles unified school district foster day school teacher number give political ambition early bell high school form black americans family value leave black foster admit actually come black americans family value actually purpose number word black medium come press conference secondly watts community form time challenge state board education inclusion teaching homosexuality child grade kindergarten subsequently parent live watts begin recognize influx illegal community illegal immigration big issue foster networking queen lead advocate antiimmigrant proposition california ally bastion likeminded conservative california carry california crusade latinos immigrant immigration foster mince word feeling immigration mexico want america want annex america certain state country want america control america border know mexico tough send come second time triple fine work troop border let shoot go come assert january begin notice illegal immigration mid issue people live housing project area wake morning sudden spanish speak neighbor rocket scientist know people come overnight global economic structural shift thirty year lead increase immigration shift move downsize eliminate production site automobile plant clothing manufacturer aerospace industry hit resident people color disproportionately especially los angeles employment opportunity replace nonunionized flexible sweatshop job consequently demand immigrant labor increase leave little establish community foster exploit loss drive wedge black poor neighborhood middle class lead mainstream black organization like urban league naacp sclc foster mention rest certainly right disown democratic republican party effectively guarantee continue imprisonment people color major city answer lie nationalism xenophobia sport buchanan discrimination promote effectively reproduce maintain racial national international division ail nation world end foster buchanan strange appropriate bedfellow running mate enable demonstrate allegiance color blind america certainly hurt agree view antiimmigrant antigay antiabortion antimapaternity leave antiebonic antiaffirmative action antimulticulturalism antipublic school foster dismisses needle exchange program aids hit community hard support flying confederate flag school prayer police officer beat rodney king member john birch society run california state assembly lose twice democrat maxine water appear numerous television program larry king live local evening news perfect puppet serve good gain racism sexism foster serve year conservative stalwart los angeles black community surround white right wing turn needless pat buchanan happy atc november december current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 90 |
Plastrik (Stanley/Judd) Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 3, 17 January 1949, p. 3. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL). Last week we pointed out a new series of steps by which the Allied occupation authorities have renewed their hold over Western Germany and have indicated a growing fear that nationalist trends are becoming too bold and must therefore be curbed. Not only did they indicate by these actions their intention to remain in Germany, in some form or other, for an indefinite period, but they forced upon all German political parties and groups the necessity of re-evaluating their attitudes toward the continuation of the occupation. This necessity, of course, is a good and necessary thing. The concrete issue over which this restatement of attitude toward Allied occupation takes place is the new decision on the Ruhr, referred to in our previous article. Contrary to expectations, protests and declaimers have been mild. No one expects the type of mass, passive resistance movement which the Ruhr workers developed in 1923 against the French occupation of that region. The Ruhr Stalinists naturally demand such actions, but considering that they have just been humiliatingly defeated in all trade union elections for this area, it is unlikely that their slogans will have any results. The attitude of the German capitalist parties (Christian Democrats and “Free” Democrats) can easily be explained. Since these two parties represent not so much big capitalists, industrialists and bankers as the badly-off German business man and small factory owner, together with the professional and middle class elements of the population, one could hardly expect a determined reaction from them. Their perspective is essentially a slow and tortuous one. implying years of revival and a gradual building up of the old German bourgeoisie. They are in ho condition, materially or politically, to lead a serious struggle against the occupation, nor is this their actual perspective. Instead, they rely upon the division between America and Russia as making it possible for them to reassert themselves, step by step, since they feel confident that American imperialism must permit such an economic reconstruction and revival in Germany that the day will come when it can no longer be controlled by the occupation authorities because the rebuilt economy will have become an independent factor in both European and world capitalist economy. This explains their patience and persistence, as well as the fact that the Constitution they are now writing at Bonn is so loosely and vaguely worded that it may be considered an “Algebraic” Constitution, full of unknowns whose real value will be determined in the future. The future of such parties and what is left of German capitalism is subordinated to the occupation authorities and the most they will do is to take advantage of any situation to strengthen their hand. But what of the German Social Democracy, that political party of the German working class which has made a truly astounding comeback since the end of the war and is now the mass party of Western Germany? Completely destroyed under Hitlerism, the Party now numbers close to 1,000,000 members and has a vast electoral and political influence which reached its height after the Berlin victory. According to the SPD-Jahrbuch 1947, which was presented at the Party’s annual convention in Duesseldorf in September, 1948, the Party has 9191 branches in the country, gained 200,000 new members in one year and has 1,000 youth groups (Jungsozialisten) with a membership of 100,000. In its traditional strongholds of the Ruhr, Westphalia, Hanover, etc., the Party dominates the local situation. The Party publishes no less than 15 papers, now has extensive contacts abroad and of 1,416 Landtag delegates throughout Western Germany, 563 belong to the Social Democracy. Organizationally and in terms of influence among workers and the population as a whole, the German Social Democratic Party leads all others. At the very least, it should obtain a plurality vote in the elections that will later be held under the Bonn Constitution, with a possibility of a majority not excluded. Here, one would think, is a party with sufficient support and strength to establish itself as a leader of the entire nation in a struggle both against Stalinism and for national independence. The reality is far from this, unfortunately, and politically the SPD is surely one of the weakest, most inept and leaderless movements ever inflicted upon the working class. In terms of leadership, with the exception of Kurt Schumacher, the Party is without any outstanding personality or authentic voice. For the most part, the leaders consist of ancient Social Democrats repeating their past, with all its former mistakes, under the new conditions of the occupation. Old professors, holders of doctorate degrees, union officials and minor bureaucrats operating in one or another capacity in the military government administration, form the bulk of the leadership. Uninspired and colorless, they retain their hold primarily because a new and dynamic leadership has not yet come forward, because there is insufficient political agreement and understanding among party members to develop such a challenge. As the report on the Duesseldorf convention puts it, “The Party is quite free of serious internal divisions.” And that’s precisely what is wrong with this loose and ill-formed mass. Politically, the “official” stands of the Party are a disgrace to itself and all its professions. Naturally, everything is loosely interpreted and much local autonomy exists because “hardly anybody wants to abandon coalitions in such states where the socialists are indispensable for forming a majority and where the Christian Democrats, looking for the Catholic workers vote, even support socialist legislation ...” (Convention Report) In his speech to the Convention, Schumacher declared that “Social democracy is still on the lookout for partners in an alliance,” and that the question of a coalition after the coming elections would depend on the attitude of the other parties, not his. In a formal resolution adopted as to the new tasks of the Party, the issue of Germany’s occupation is evaded although the attitude, in practice, is clear enough. A struggle over the occupation on any front or at any level is to be avoided, no matter at what cost. “A legal basis defining the relations between Western Germany and the occupying authorities” is the principal goal of the Social Democratic leaderhip, who support without criticism the ERP program and the Marshall Plan. Naturally, other and harsher words are reserved for Russia and Stalinism whose efforts at expansion “will be met by the decisive and uncompromising resistance of the Social Democratic Party.” Essentially, the political approach of Schumacher and his supporters does not differ substantially from that of the German bourgeoisie who likewise demand “more responsibility” for themselves within the occupation framework and a legal defining of the occupational powers. This latter request will shortly be fulfilled – and in a clearcut fashion, too – by the “Occupation Statute” now being drafted by the Big Three. On the Ruhr issue, the Social Democrats conceal themselves behind a “nationalization formula” and blame the present situation upon ... Nazism! The sad fact is that history has forced upon this shapeless party a task which is far too difficult and complex for it to handle – namely, organization of and leadership in the struggle for Germany’s rewinning of national freedom and independence. For lack of any other party, and in opposition to Stalinism, Germany’s working class has been obliged to rally behind this doddering and toothless image of the past. Yet this fact indicates the astounding possibilities in this situation. If ever a movement was thirsting for the organization of a militant left wing, based upon the youth groups and the party’s young elements, it is this Social Democratic Party. Will such a left-wing come into existence in the near future? At the moment, there is no real signs of this because opposition voices are still too weak and scattered, but surely this is the direction of the future. Then, behind a program of clear-cut opposition to any and all forms of opposition, and for a genuine Constituent Assembly representing all of Germany which shall be protected by its own national workers’ and people’s militia from Stalinism and the occupation forces, one can expect a favorable and revolutionary turn in the affairs of Germany. Top of page Plastrik (Stanley/Judd) Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page Last updated: 2 August 2019 | left | plastrik stanleyjudd archive trotskyist writer index etol main page labor action vol january p transcribe mark einde encyclopaedia trotskyism online etol week point new series step allied occupation authority renew hold western germany indicate grow fear nationalist trend bold curb indicate action intention remain germany form indefinite period force german political party group necessity reevaluate attitude continuation occupation necessity course good necessary thing concrete issue restatement attitude ally occupation take place new decision ruhr refer previous article contrary expectation protest declaimer mild expect type mass passive resistance movement ruhr worker develop french occupation region ruhr stalinist naturally demand action consider humiliatingly defeat trade union election area unlikely slogan result attitude german capitalist party christian democrats free democrats easily explain party represent big capitalist industrialist banker badlyoff german business man small factory owner professional middle class element population hardly expect determined reaction perspective essentially slow tortuous imply year revival gradual building old german bourgeoisie ho condition materially politically lead struggle occupation actual perspective instead rely division america russia make possible reassert step step feel confident american imperialism permit economic reconstruction revival germany day come long control occupation authority rebuilt economy independent factor european world capitalist economy explain patience persistence fact constitution write bonn loosely vaguely word consider algebraic constitution unknown real value determine future future party leave german capitalism subordinate occupation authority advantage situation strengthen hand german social democracy political party german working class truly astounding comeback end war mass party western germany completely destroy hitlerism party number close member vast electoral political influence reach height berlin victory accord spdjahrbuch present party annual convention duesseldorf september party branch country gain new member year youth group jungsozialisten membership traditional stronghold ruhr westphalia hanover etc party dominate local situation party publish paper extensive contact abroad landtag delegate western germany belong social democracy organizationally term influence worker population german social democratic party lead obtain plurality vote election later hold bonn constitution possibility majority exclude think party sufficient support strength establish leader entire nation struggle stalinism national independence reality far unfortunately politically spd surely weak inept leaderless movement inflict work class term leadership exception kurt schumacher party outstanding personality authentic voice leader consist ancient social democrat repeat past mistake new condition occupation old professor holder doctorate degree union official minor bureaucrat operate capacity military government administration form bulk leadership uninspired colorless retain hold primarily new dynamic leadership come forward insufficient political agreement understanding party member develop challenge report duesseldorf convention put party free internal division precisely wrong loose illforme mass politically official stand party disgrace profession naturally loosely interpret local autonomy exist hardly anybody want abandon coalition state socialist indispensable form majority christian democrats look catholic worker vote support socialist legislation convention report speech convention schumacher declare social democracy lookout partner alliance question coalition come election depend attitude party formal resolution adopt new task party issue germany occupation evade attitude practice clear struggle occupation level avoid matter cost legal basis define relation western germany occupy authority principal goal social democratic leaderhip support criticism erp program marshall plan naturally harsh word reserve russia stalinism effort expansion meet decisive uncompromise resistance social democratic party essentially political approach schumacher supporter differ substantially german bourgeoisie likewise demand responsibility occupation framework legal defining occupational power request shortly fulfil clearcut fashion occupation statute draft big ruhr issue social democrats conceal nationalization formula blame present situation nazism sad fact history force shapeless party task far difficult complex handle organization leadership struggle germany rewinning national freedom independence lack party opposition stalinism germany work class oblige rally doddering toothless image past fact indicate astounding possibility situation movement thirst organization militant left wing base youth group party young element social democratic party leftwe come existence near future moment real sign opposition voice weak scattered surely direction future program clearcut opposition form opposition genuine constituent assembly represent germany shall protect national worker people militia stalinism occupation force expect favorable revolutionary turn affair germany page plastrik stanleyjudd archive trotskyist writer index etol main page update august | 91 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From The New International, Vol.5 No.2, February 1939, pp.51-53. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. AFTER AUSTRIA’S annexation by Germany, the Stalinists issued a call to the “People of Austria” in which they said: ... Defend yourself, resist the foreign invaders ... Catholics and socialists ... join together ... into a front of all Austrians ... All party distinctions retreat into the background before the sacred task today confronting the Austrian people ... to drive Hitler’s soldateska out of Austria ... Make a reality out of the slogan: “Rot-weiss-rot bis in den Tod!” [1] The Austrian people has been ravished but ... by its own strength and with the aid of the world-front of peace, a free, independent Austria will rise again ... In August 1938, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Austria declared in a manifesto: The Austrian people has accomplished its state, economic and cultural evolution ... under other conditions than in the [German] Reich. By virtue of its independent history, of its will to independence, the Austrian people was and became ... an independent whole, a people – in the family of Central European peoples – capable of living by its own strength, no different than the German-speaking Swiss. At the beginning of August 1938, the Central Committee of the CPA adopted a resolution in which it regrets having “underestimated the possibility of a union of the labor movement with sections of the Schuschnigg camp and of the Fatherland Front.” Furthermore, the existence of the Austrian nation, violated by Germany and hence under nationally alien dominance, is again emphasized. It says literally: A special weakness of the [communist] party lay in the fact that it did not, punctually and decisively enough, put dearly before the popular masses the fact that the Austrians had developed historically into a nation of their own and are not a part of the German nation ... (All italics mine. – C.C.) These are only a few juicy examples from the flood of official and semi-official Stalinist enunciations of the same content: Long live the People’s Front with the Schuschnigg gangs, long live the independent Austrian nation! That is, back to Versailles! It is not easy to demonstrate exactly to a non-Austrian the unbelievable idiocy of the Stalinist discovery of the “Austrian nation”. Nations have arisen time and again through the fusion of different peoples but also through the splitting apart of originally identical peoples. Centrifugal and centripetal forces have always been at work at the same time. In the long run, the political-social processes culminate in psychological acts: in the formation of a new national consciousness. In principle, therefore, the rise of an Austrian nation would by no means be excluded. The Stalinist idiocy lies, however, in the most primitive confounding of the worst provincialism of the most retrograde strata with a new national culture, that is, with a new national consciousness – of the most advanced and representative strata and not backward or declassed cretins! But we leave it to the Austro-Marxists to refute the Stalinist nonsense with scientific thoroughness and therewith to expound some commonplaces. We refer below to an Austro-Marxian article devoted to this purpose on the question: Is there an Austrian nation? We consider a debate with this article to be far more fruitful. Some information on a few facts which are perhaps unknown to the reader appears, however, to be indicated. The Stalinists did indeed attempt to defile the labor movement by solicitations to the Schuschnigg gangs. [2] The absurd theory of an Austrian nation was propagated in the past only by a few monarchists, a few snobbish intellectuals and – the Christian Social party. The latter was founded towards the end of the last century by Dr. Luger as the party of the little man, of the decaying middle class, and was equipped with a Catholic-social-anti-Semitic, demagogic doctrine. It was a nest of corruption, survived the war, and continued to rot along with the petty bourgeoisie. Dollfuss-Schuschnigg took over from it a rather extremely narrow mass basis and something like an ideology – primarily “Austriandom”. It was this dictatorship that glorified the “Austrian nation”, something like a community interested in folk lore which carefully nurtures the barbaric dialect of a village idiot. The ideological level of this dictatorship and its “Austriandom” is positively unimaginable. It lost its scanty support almost entirely to the Nazis. Nobody ever took the “Austrian nation” seriously, hardly even Schuschnigg. That was reserved for the Stalinists. In Nos.9 and 10 of the Austro-Marxian Sozialistische Kampf, a spokesman named F. Valentin refutes the Stalinist standpoint with considerable diligence. He quotes Otto Bauer, who defined the “nation” as a community of character resulting from community of destiny, and Kautsky, who missed in this definition the community of language. Valentin takes delight in refuting the CPA by – Stalin, and quotes his work, Marxism and the National Question. [3] In it the criteria of the nation are enumerated as: community of language, territory and economy and a psychical singularity revealed in a community of culture. On one page after another, Valentin shows that none of these criteria is applicable to the so-called Austrian nation. The “different economic and political conditions of life” of the Austrians as compared with other Germans, as adduced by the Stalinists, are no argument: most nations and national states arose in the struggle against these “different conditions”, in wars and revolutions, as was especially the case with Italy or Poland. Austrians and the other Germans undoubtedly speak the same language; they have a common territory to the extent that it was divided only by political (dynastic and then Versailles) frontiers. Geography does not represent the slightest hindrance. Historically too there is a direct connection reaching from the Middle Ages to 1866, the Peace of Nikolsburg, in which Bismarck’s Prussia forced its rival, Habsburg-Austria, to quit the German League. The political-economic raggedness of the Austrian Germans was distinguished in no respect, until 1871, when the Hohenzollern empire was founded, from that of the other Germans. The progressive forces of the young German bourgeoisie rebelled in Austria, just as in the other countries populated by Germans, against the dynasties and the economic and political dismemberment: the revolution of 1848, despite the dilettante contrary contentions of the Stalinists, was not different in German-Austria than in the other German territories – an unsuccessful struggle for national unification against the political boundaries which the mediaeval dynastic powers had drawn across the body of the people. Even the peasant wars at the beginning of modern times, raised to an especially Austrian tradition by the Stalinists, were of course only a part of the German peasant wars. Valentin proves by Marx, Engels and Lenin that there was never any doubt about the Austrian Germans belonging to the German nation. He instructs the Stalinists that the development of the nations is a bourgeois-democratic affair and in no case that of a revolutionary proletarian party. He recalls that the German-Austrian “independence” since 1918 was in no way the product of will but rather of compulsion and that, moreover, even the Stalinists did not dare dispute the fact that the Sudeten-Germans, allotted to Czechoslovakia by the treaties of Versailles-St. Germain, belong to the German nation. He is against the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia because “in view of the fascist imperialism” of Germany, proletarian interests take precedence over the right of national self-determination of the fascist majority among the Sudeten-Germans. We cannot dwell here upon the individual distortions of the Marxian standpoint as Valentin counterposes it to the Stalinists, We develop below the standpoint of Marxism. But what policy does Valentin propose for Austria? The one formulated by the Austro-Marxists about six months ago at a conference in Brussels: “In view of the accomplished fact” they declared that the liberation of the Austrian people from Nazism is possible only “by an All-German revolution ...” Tearfully, Valentin records that first the Habsburgs and then the treaties of Versailles-St. Germain prohibited the Anschluss of the Austrian-Germans to Germany – which manifestly made it impossible. We know that history is not at all made by the ominous “historical process” alone, but to an appreciable degree by men (that is, not by Austro-Marxists). In the complaint about the “forbidden” Anschluss lies the whole Austro-Marxist soul. A fawning respect for the power of others – called “accomplished facts” – is the obverse side of the habitual impotence to accomplish any facts on one’s own, and the historical mission of always demonstrating scientifically how and why the proletariat can do nothing right now. But history does not brook being joked with. What must happen, happens. When it does not happen through the forces of progress – then it happens anyway, but through the forces of reaction with a reversed sign! Since the proletariat, hampered by its treacherous leadership, did not liberate the productive forces in time from the fetters of private property by means of planned socialist economy, there followed – their strangulation through fascist economy! Since the Soviet United States of Europe was not created by the proletarian revolution, there arose – the League of Nations! Instead of the liberation of the nations by the world revolution, there followed – “national unification” by fascism! An instructive glance backward at the theory and practise of the Austro-Marxists is in place here: Otto Bauer’s well-known book on the national question proposed a rigid fixation of the spiritual properties of the nations inside of Old-Austria and thus satisfied neither the “legitimate” claims of the bourgeois revolution nor the dynamically progressive character of the loosening, fusion and shifting of the historically national complex begun by the industrial proletariat. And so the Austro-Marxists fought “on the basis of facts” for fossilized Austria instead of propagating its destruction. Valentin emphasizes the former struggle of his party comrades against the nationalist degeneration of the Slavic socialists in Old-Austria. Against the same degeneration of his own part – which is grounded in accomplished facts – he has no objections. It was not the revolution that smashed Austria, but rather victorious imperialism of the West! But the latter immethately accomplished facts upon whose basis the Austro-Marxists promptly took their stand. These facts were the so-called national states of Central and Eastern Europe (torture chambers of the nations as well as of the productive forces), along with a crippled Austria condemned to independence and hunger. Although Renner, Bauer and Co. declared Austria to be a part of Germany in 1918 – the Entente forbade the Anschluss! Valentin is wrong on that score too! The Sudeten-Germans were turned over to the Czechs and then to the Nazis by no means “because of the fascist imperialism” of Germany but as a result of the recognition of the accomplished facts of Versailles on the part of Valentin’s party comrades in Vienna, Berlin and Prague. (The Sudeten-German branch of the Austro-Marxists hurried into the Prague government!) And what did the Austro-Marxists learn front their glorious history? The continued recognition of accomplished facts: the decision that the arena of the social revolution is fixed by the boundaries drawn by Hitler! That is the meaning of the slogan of the “All-German revolution”. The nation as an essential historical category exists approximately since the French Revolution. The productive forces of young capitalism revolted successfully at that time against the historic feudal districts. They found in the language communities that had arisen for the most part under the old régime the more or less adequate room for their most favorable unfolding. The process of the rise of the nations is as contradictory as the forces that created them. The existing degree of development, historical residues, geography and other factors constituted centripetal and centrifugal currents. Thus, by splitting off from their less progressive ancestral kin, nations arose out of the Hollanders and the Flemings. The Provençals became French, but the Catalans (and Portuguese) did not become Spaniards. Italians, Poles and others became nations despite the political-economic boundaries, while Czechs, Hungarians and Slovaks remained in common with other peoples. The inhabitants of the USA and of Latin America became independent nations despite their language community with the mother country. The attempt to fix within a definition the “nation” which is constantly in a process of change, does not appear to be very meaningful. Evolution is not even. The bourgeoisie – not even in Europe – did not everywhere resolve its national task! Thus, in particular, the result of the defeat of the democratic revolution of 1848 was the uneffected union of the Germans. History punished them for it by a half-union under – the Hohenzollerns, and therewith bestowed upon them all the burdens of capitalism and only a modest share of those cultural streams of young nationalism which at one time so richly fertilized the victorious democracies, especially France. It can be said – with exaggeration, to be sure, but for the purpose of bluntness: the Germans never became a nation! (For while the nation creates the national state, it creates and develops, in its turn, the nation.) Then couldn’t it be said that Hitler is progressive at least in a certain sense? Hasn’t he united the Germans, like a sort of belated Cavour, created the German nation, even if under the fascist knout, and thereby enforced what the Versailles victors had forbidden? Wasn’t the Anschluss legitimate in this sense? Our Austro-Marxist, with his “All-German revolution” would have to reply in the affirmative in order to be consistent! Yet the Anschluss was historically as illegitimate as could be! For the past 150 years the productive forces have developed enormously. The national boundaries are now the same straitjacket as were once the feudal. The “nation” is a category of the bourgeois-democratic epoch. In the youth of capitalism, it was progressive, which is not at all the case in the twentieth century. In Germany, a progressive postulate has become reactionary before it was fulfilled! The “nation” has long ago lost its rich economic and cultural functions and continues to appear only in a single – negative – function: as national oppression! National emancipation, the creation of the nation must nevertheless – apparently paradoxically – be carried through. But, so to say, only for a moment. The productive forces no longer permit the completion of the bourgeois revolution, for their field of operations is beyond the ethnographic frontiers. Hence, also, capitalism is inexorably imperialistic, and it can no longer carry out any democratic postulates. Only the victorious proletariat can. But by means of its victory it liberates precisely the productive forces from the national fetters and thus eliminates the very premise of the democratic postulate of national freedom at the moment when it is fulfilled. For lack of any need, the “nation” and with it national freedom proves to be as superfluous as religion under socialism. Hitler’s “Anschluss” is therefore historically just as illegitimate as the Austro-Marxist “All-German revolution”. Hitler freed a nation which continues to exist (if it does exist) only because the reaction and the Austro-Marxists have prevented the appearance of the truth – only latent because of the gruesome coercion – that it is long since the “nation” has ceased to be. The German nation was never born, it rotted inside the womb of history! Hitler did not bring a child into the world – but a stinking corpse. And the Austro-Marxists? They take the corpse as a “given fact” and think of settling down in it after the famous “All-German revolution”. But this will not prevent the proletariat from fulfilling victoriously its historic mission, the social revolution on a world scale, and from dropping the Austro-Marxists upon that particular dust-heap which history long ago prepared especially for them. Early November, 1938 1. Red-white-red to the very death! – the slogan of the Schuschnigg gangs (Heimwehr). 2. Without success. The Vienna workers, summoned for help by the creatures of the murderous Schuschnigg regime on the very eve of the Anschluss, demonstrated under the slogan: “Down with the Nazis – not for Schuschnigg!” 3. This is the theoretical work of Stalin before the war which is incessantly quoted as proof of his fertility. Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 9.8.2006 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international february transcribed mark einde etol austria annexation germany stalinist issue people austria say defend resist foreign invader catholic socialist join austrians party distinction retreat background sacred task today confront austrian people drive hitler soldateska austria reality slogan rotweissrot bis den tod austrian people ravish strength aid worldfront peace free independent austria rise august central committee communist party austria declare manifesto austrian people accomplish state economic cultural evolution condition german reich virtue independent history independence austrian people independent people family central european people capable live strength different germanspeake swiss beginning august central committee cpa adopt resolution regret having underestimate possibility union labor movement section schuschnigg camp fatherland furthermore existence austrian nation violate germany nationally alien dominance emphasize say literally special weakness communist party lie fact punctually decisively dearly popular masse fact austrians develop historically nation german nation italics cc juicy example flood official semiofficial stalinist enunciation content long live people schuschnigg gang long live independent austrian nation versaille easy demonstrate exactly nonaustrian unbelievable idiocy stalinist discovery austrian nation nation arise time fusion different people splitting apart originally identical people centrifugal centripetal force work time long run politicalsocial process culminate psychological act formation new national consciousness principle rise austrian nation means exclude stalinist idiocy lie primitive confounding bad provincialism retrograde strata new national culture new national consciousness advanced representative strata backward declasse cretin leave austromarxist refute stalinist nonsense scientific thoroughness therewith expound commonplace refer austromarxian article devote purpose question austrian nation consider debate article far fruitful information fact unknown reader appear indicate stalinist attempt defile labor movement solicitation schuschnigg gang absurd theory austrian nation propagate past monarchist snobbish intellectual christian social party found end century dr luger party little man decay middle class equip catholicsocialantisemitic demagogic doctrine nest corruption survive war continue rot petty bourgeoisie dollfussschuschnigg take extremely narrow mass basis like ideology primarily austriandom dictatorship glorify austrian nation like community interested folk lore carefully nurture barbaric dialect village idiot ideological level dictatorship austriandom positively unimaginable lose scanty support entirely nazi take austrian nation seriously hardly schuschnigg reserve stalinist austromarxian sozialistische kampf spokesman name f valentin refute stalinist standpoint considerable diligence quote otto bauer define nation community character result community destiny kautsky miss definition community language valentin take delight refute cpa stalin quote work marxism national question criterion nation enumerate community language territory economy psychical singularity reveal community culture page valentin show criterion applicable socalled austrian nation different economic political condition life austrians compare germans adduce stalinist argument nation national state arise struggle different condition war revolution especially case italy poland austrians german undoubtedly speak language common territory extent divide political dynastic versaille frontier geography represent slight hindrance historically direct connection reach middle age peace nikolsburg bismarck prussia force rival habsburgaustria quit german league politicaleconomic raggedness austrian germans distinguish respect hohenzollern empire found german progressive force young german bourgeoisie rebel austria country populate german dynasty economic political dismemberment revolution despite dilettante contrary contention stalinist different germanaustria german territory unsuccessful struggle national unification political boundary mediaeval dynastic power draw body people peasant war beginning modern time raise especially austrian tradition stalinist course german peasant war valentin prove marx engel lenin doubt austrian germans belong german nation instruct stalinist development nation bourgeoisdemocratic affair case revolutionary proletarian party recall germanaustrian independence way product compulsion stalinist dare dispute fact sudetengerman allot czechoslovakia treaty versaillesst germain belong german nation dismemberment czechoslovakia view fascist imperialism germany proletarian interest precedence right national selfdetermination fascist majority sudetengerman dwell individual distortion marxian standpoint valentin counterpose stalinist develop standpoint marxism policy valentin propose austria formulate austromarxist month ago conference brussels view accomplished fact declare liberation austrian people nazism possible allgerman revolution tearfully valentin record habsburgs treaty versaillesst germain prohibit anschluss austriangermans germany manifestly impossible know history ominous historical process appreciable degree man austromarxist complaint forbidden anschluss lie austromarxist soul fawn respect power call accomplished fact obverse habitual impotence accomplish fact historical mission demonstrate scientifically proletariat right history brook joke happen happen happen force progress happen force reaction reverse sign proletariat hamper treacherous leadership liberate productive force time fetter private property mean planned socialist economy follow strangulation fascist economy soviet united states europe create proletarian revolution arise league nation instead liberation nation world revolution follow national unification fascism instructive glance backward theory practise austromarxist place otto bauer wellknown book national question propose rigid fixation spiritual property nation inside oldaustria satisfy legitimate claim bourgeois revolution dynamically progressive character loosening fusion shifting historically national complex begin industrial proletariat austromarxist fight basis fact fossilized austria instead propagate destruction valentin emphasize struggle party comrade nationalist degeneration slavic socialist oldaustria degeneration ground accomplished fact objection revolution smash austria victorious imperialism west immethately accomplish fact basis austromarxist promptly take stand fact socalled national state central eastern europe torture chamber nation productive force crippled austria condemn independence hunger renner bauer co declare austria germany entente forbid anschluss valentin wrong score sudetengerman turn czech nazi means fascist imperialism germany result recognition accomplished fact versaille valentin party comrade vienna berlin prague sudetengerman branch austromarxist hurry prague government austromarxist learn glorious history continue recognition accomplished fact decision arena social revolution fix boundary draw hitler meaning slogan allgerman revolution nation essential historical category exist approximately french revolution productive force young capitalism revolt successfully time historic feudal district find language community arise old régime adequate room favorable unfold process rise nation contradictory force create exist degree development historical residue geography factor constitute centripetal centrifugal current split progressive ancestral kin nation arise hollander fleming provençal french catalan portuguese spaniard italians pole nation despite politicaleconomic boundary czech hungarian slovak remain common people inhabitant usa latin america independent nation despite language community mother country attempt fix definition nation constantly process change appear meaningful evolution bourgeoisie europe resolve national task particular result defeat democratic revolution uneffected union germans history punish halfunion hohenzollern therewith bestow burden capitalism modest share cultural stream young nationalism time richly fertilize victorious democracy especially france say exaggeration sure purpose bluntness germans nation nation create national state create develop turn nation say hitler progressive certain sense unite germans like sort belate cavour create german nation fascist knout enforce versaille victor forbid anschluss legitimate sense austromarxist allgerman revolution reply affirmative order consistent anschluss historically illegitimate past year productive force develop enormously national boundary straitjacket feudal nation category bourgeoisdemocratic epoch youth capitalism progressive case twentieth century germany progressive postulate reactionary fulfil nation long ago lose rich economic cultural function continue appear single negative function national oppression national emancipation creation nation apparently paradoxically carry moment productive force long permit completion bourgeois revolution field operation ethnographic frontier capitalism inexorably imperialistic long carry democratic postulate victorious proletariat mean victory liberate precisely productive force national fetter eliminate premise democratic postulate national freedom moment fulfil lack need nation national freedom prove superfluous religion socialism hitler anschluss historically illegitimate austromarxist allgerman revolution hitler free nation continue exist exist reaction austromarxist prevent appearance truth latent gruesome coercion long nation cease german nation bear rot inside womb history hitler bring child world stink corpse austromarxist corpse give fact think settle famous allgerman revolution prevent proletariat fulfil victoriously historic mission social revolution world scale drop austromarxist particular dustheap history long ago prepare especially early november redwhitere death slogan schuschnigg gang heimwehr success vienna worker summon help creature murderous schuschnigg regime eve anschluss demonstrate slogan nazi schuschnigg theoretical work stalin war incessantly quote proof fertility page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update | 92 |
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung February 27, 1957 [Speech at the Eleventh Session (Enlarged) of the Supreme State Conference. Comrade Mao Tsetung went over the verbatim record and made certain additions before its publication in the People's Daily on June 19, 1957.] Our general subject is the correct handling of contradictions among the people. For convenience, let us discuss it under twelve sub-headings. Although reference will be made to contradictions between ourselves and the enemy, this discussion will centre on contradictions among the people. I. TWO TYPES OF CONTRADICTIONS DIFFERING IN NATURE Never before has our country been as united as it is today. The victories of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and of the socialist revolution and our achievements in socialist construction have rapidly changed the face of the old China. A still brighter future lies ahead for our motherland. The days of national disunity and chaos which the people detested are gone, never to return. Led by the working class and the Communist Party, our 600 million people, united as one, are engaged in the great task of building socialism. The unification of our country, the unity of our people and the unity of our various nationalities -- these are the basic guarantees for the sure triumph of our cause. However, this does not mean that contradictions no longer exist in our society. To imagine that none exist is a naive idea which is at variance with objective reality. We are confronted with two types of social contradictions -- those between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people. The two are totally different in nature. To understand these two different types of contradictions correctly, we must first be clear on what is meant by "the people" and what is meant by "the enemy". The concept of "the people" varies in content in different countries and in different periods of history in a given country. Take our own country for example. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, all those classes, strata and social groups opposing Japanese aggression came within the category of the people, while the Japanese imperialists, their Chinese collaborators and the pro-Japanese elements were all enemies of the people. During the War of Liberation, the U.S. imperialists and their running dogs -- the bureaucrat-capitalists, the landlords and the Kuomintang reactionaries who represented these two classes -- were the enemies of the people, while the other classes, strata and social groups, which opposed them, all came within the category of the people. At the present stage, the period of building socialism, the classes, strata and social groups which favour, support and work for the cause of socialist construction all come within the category of the people, while the social forces and groups which resist the socialist revolution and are hostile to or sabotage socialist construction are all enemies of the people. The contradictions between ourselves and the enemy are antagonistic contradictions. Within the ranks of the people, the contradictions among the working people are non-antagonistic, while those between the exploited and the exploiting classes have a non-antagonistic as well as an antagonistic aspect. There have always been contradictions among the people, but they are different in content in each period of the revolution and in the period of building socialism. In the conditions prevailing in China today, the contradictions among the people comprise the contradictions within the working class, the contradictions within the peasantry, the contradictions within the intelligentsia, the contradictions between the working class and the peasantry, the contradictions between the workers and peasants on the one hand and the intellectuals on the other, the contradictions between the working class and other sections of the working people on the one hand and the national bourgeoisie on the other, the contradictions within the national bourgeoisie, and so on. Our People's Government is one that genuinely represents the people's interests, it is a government that serves the people. Nevertheless, there are still certain contradictions between this government and the people. These include the contradictions between the interests of the state and the interests of the collective on the one hand and the interests of the individual on the other, between democracy and centralism, between the leadership and the led, and the contradictions arising from the bureaucratic style of work of some of the state personnel in their relations with the masses. All these are also contradictions among the people. Generally speaking, the fundamental identity of the people's interests underlies the contradictions among the people. In our country, the contradiction between the working class and the national bourgeoisie comes under the category of contradictions among the people. By and large, the class struggle between the two is a class struggle within the ranks of the people, because the Chinese national bourgeoisie has a dual character. In the period of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, it had both a revolutionary and a conciliationist side to its character. In the period of the socialist revolution, exploitation of the working class for profit constitutes one side of the character of the national bourgeoisie, while its support of the Constitution and its willingness to accept socialist transformation constitute the other. The national bourgeoisie differs from the imperialists, the landlords and the bureaucrat-capitalists. The contradiction between the national bourgeoisie and the working class is one between exploiter and exploited, and is by nature antagonistic. But in the concrete conditions of China, this antagonistic contradiction between the two classes, if properly handled, can be transformed into a non-antagonistic one and be resolved by peaceful methods. However, the contradiction between the working class and the national bourgeoisie will change into a contradiction between ourselves and the enemy if we do not handle it properly and do not follow the policy of uniting with, criticizing and educating the national bourgeoisie, or if the national bourgeoisie does not accept this policy of ours. Since they are different in nature, the contradictions between ourselves and the enemy and the contradictions among the people must be resolved by different methods. To put it briefly, the former entail drawing a clear distinction between ourselves and the enemy, and the latter entail drawing a clear distinction between right and wrong. It is of course true that the distinction between ourselves and the enemy is also one of right and wrong. For example, the question of who is in the right, we or the domestic and foreign reactionaries, the imperialists, the feudalists and bureaucrat-capitalists, is also one of right and wrong, but it is in a different category from questions of right and wrong among the people. Our state is a people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance. What is this dictatorship for? Its first function is internal, namely, to suppress the reactionary classes and elements and those exploiters who resist the socialist revolution, to suppress those who try to wreck our socialist construction, or in other words, to resolve the contradictions between ourselves and the internal enemy. For instance, to arrest, try and sentence certain counter-revolutionaries, and to deprive landlords and bureaucrat-capitalists of their right to vote and their freedom of speech for a certain period of time -- all this comes within the scope of our dictatorship. To maintain public order and safeguard the interests of the people, it is necessary to exercise dictatorship as well over thieves, swindlers, murderers, arsonists, criminal gangs and other scoundrels who seriously disrupt public order. The second function of this dictatorship is to protect our country from subversion and possible aggression by external enemies. In such contingencies, it is the task of this dictatorship to resolve the contradiction between ourselves and the external enemy. The aim of this dictatorship is to protect all our people so that they can devote themselves to peaceful labour and make China a socialist country with modern industry, modern agriculture, and modern science and culture. Who is to exercise this dictatorship? Naturally, the working class and the entire people under its leadership. Dictatorship does not apply within the ranks of the people. The people cannot exercise dictatorship over themselves, nor must one section of the people oppress another. Law-breakers among the people will be punished according to law, but this is different in principle from the exercise of dictatorship to suppress enemies of the people. What applies among the people is democratic centralism. Our Constitution lays it down that citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, procession, demonstration, religious belief, and so on. Our Constitution also provides that the organs of state must practice democratic centralism, that they must rely on the masses and that their personnel must serve the people. Our socialist democracy is the broadest kind of democracy, such as is not to be found in any bourgeois state. Our dictatorship is the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance. That is to say, democracy operates within the ranks of the people, while the working class, uniting with all others enjoying civil rights, and in the first place with the peasantry, enforces dictatorship over the reactionary classes and elements and all those who resist socialist transformation and oppose socialist construction. By civil rights, we mean, politically, the rights of freedom and democracy. But this freedom is freedom with leadership and this democracy is democracy under centralized guidance, not anarchy. Anarchy does not accord with the interests or wishes of the people. Certain people in our country were delighted by the Hungarian incident. They hoped that something similar would happen in China, that thousands upon thousands of people would take to the streets to demonstrate against the People's Government. Their hopes ran counter to the interests of the masses and therefore could not possibly win their support. Deceived by domestic and foreign counter-revolutionaries, a section of the people in Hungary made the mistake of resorting to violence against the people's government, with the result that both the state and the people suffered. The damage done to the country's economy in a few weeks of rioting will take a long time to repair. In our country there were some others who wavered on the question of the Hungarian incident because they were ignorant of the real state of affairs in the world. They think that there is top little freedom under our people's democracy and that there is more, freedom under Western parliamentary democracy. They ask for a two-party system as in the West, with one party in office and the other in opposition. But this so-called two-party system is nothing but a device for maintaining the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie; it can never guarantee freedoms to the working people. As a matter of fact, freedom and democracy exist not in the abstract, but only in the concrete. In a society where class struggle exists, if there is freedom for the exploiting classes to exploit the working people, there is no freedom for the working people not to be exploited. If there is democracy for the bourgeoisie, there is no democracy for the proletariat and other working people. The legal existence of the Communist Party is tolerated in some capitalist countries, but only to the extent that it does not endanger the fundamental interests of the bourgeoisie; it is not tolerated beyond that. Those who demand freedom and democracy in the abstract regard democracy as an end and not as a means. Democracy as such sometimes seems to be an end, but it is in fact only a means. Marxism teaches us that democracy is part of the superstructure and belongs to the realm of politics. That is to say, in the last analysis, it serves the economic base. The same is true of freedom. Both democracy and freedom are relative, not absolute, and they come into being and develop in specific historical conditions. Within the ranks of the people, democracy is correlative with centralism and freedom with discipline. They are the two opposites of a single entity, contradictory as well as united, and we should not one-sidedly emphasize one to the exclusion of the other. Within the ranks of the people, we cannot do without freedom, nor can we do without discipline; we cannot do without democracy, nor can we do without centralism. This unity of democracy and centralism, of freedom and discipline, constitutes our democratic centralism. Under this system, the people enjoy broad democracy and freedom, but at the same time they have to keep within the bounds of socialist discipline. All this is well understood by the masses. In advocating freedom with leadership and democracy under centralized guidance, we in no way mean that coercive measures should be taken to settle ideological questions or questions involving the distinction between right and wrong among the people. All attempts to use administrative orders or coercive measures to settle ideological questions or questions of right and wrong are not only ineffective but harmful. We cannot abolish religion by administrative order or force people not to believe in it. We cannot compel people to give up idealism, any more than we can force them to embrace Marxism. The only way to settle questions of an ideological nature or controversial issues among the people is by the democratic method, the method of discussion, criticism, persuasion and education, and not by the method of coercion or repression. To be able to carry on their production and studies effectively and to lead their lives in peace and order, the people want their government and those in charge of production and of cultural and educational organizations to issue appropriate administrative regulations of an obligatory nature. It is common sense that without them the maintenance of public order would be impossible. Administrative regulations and the method of persuasion and education complement each other in resolving contradictions among the people. In fact, administrative regulations for the maintenance of public order must be accompanied by persuasion and education, for in many cases regulations alone will not work. This democratic method of resolving contradictions among the people was epitomized in 1942 in the formula "unity -- criticism -- unity". To elaborate, that means starting from the desire for unity, resolving contradictions through criticism or struggle, and arriving at a new unity on a new basis. In our experience this is the correct method of resolving contradictions among the people. In 1942 we used it to resolve contradictions inside the Communist Party, namely, the contradictions between the dogmatists and the great majority of the membership, and between dogmatism and Marxism. The "Left" dogmatists had resorted to the method of "ruthless struggle and merciless blows" in inner-Party struggle. It was the wrong method. In criticizing "Left" dogmatism, we did not use this old method but adopted a new one, that is, one of starting from the desire for unity, distinguishing between right and wrong through criticism or struggle, and arriving at a new unity on a new basis. This was the method used in the rectification movement of 1942. Within a few years, by the time the Chinese Communist Party held its Seventh National Congress in 1945, unity was achieved throughout the Party as anticipated, and consequently the people's revolution triumphed. Here, the essential thing is to start from the desire for unity. For without this desire for unity, the struggle, once begun, is certain to throw things into confusion and get out of hand. Wouldn't this be the same as "ruthless struggle and merciless blows"? And what Party unity would there be left? It was precisely this experience that led us to the formula "unity -- criticism -- unity". Or, in other words, "learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones and cure the sickness to save the patient". We extended this method beyond our Party. We applied it with great success in the anti-Japanese base areas in dealing with the relations between the leadership and the masses, between the army and the people, between officers and men, between the different units of the army, and between the different groups of cadres. The use of this method can be traced back to still earlier times in our Party's history. Ever since 1927 when we built our revolutionary armed forces and base areas in the south, this method had been used to deal with the relations between the Party and the masses, between the army and the people, between officers and men, and with other relations among the people. The only difference was that during the anti-Japanese war we employed this method much more consciously. And since the liberation of the whole country, we have employed this same method of "unity -- criticism -- unity" in our relations with the democratic parties and with industrial and commercial circles. Our task now is to continue to extend and make still better use of this method throughout the ranks of the people; we want all our factories, co-operatives, shops, schools, offices and people's organizations, in a word, all our 600 million people, to use it in resolving contradictions among themselves. In ordinary circumstances, contradictions among the people are not antagonistic. But if they are not handled properly, or if we relax our vigilance and lower our guard, antagonism may arise. In a socialist country, a development of this kind is usually only a localized and temporary phenomenon. The reason is that the system of exploitation of man by man has been abolished and the interests of the people are fundamentally identical. The antagonistic actions which took place on a fairly wide scale during the Hungarian incident were the result of the operations of both domestic and foreign counter-revolutionary elements. This was a particular as well as a temporary phenomenon. It was a case of the reactionaries inside a socialist country, in league with the imperialists, attempting to achieve their conspiratorial aims by taking advantage of contradictions among the people to foment dissension and stir up disorder. The lesson of the Hungarian incident merits attention. Many people seem to think that the use of the democratic method to resolve contradictions among the people is something new. Actually it is not. Marxists have always held that the cause of the proletariat must depend on the masses of the people and that Communists must use the democratic method of persuasion and education when working among the labouring people and must on no account resort to commandism or coercion. The Chinese Communist Party faithfully adheres to this Marxist-Leninist principle. It has been our consistent view that under the people's democratic dictatorship two different methods, one dictatorial and the other democratic, should be used to resolve the two types of contradictions which differ in nature -- those between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people. This idea has been explained again and again in many Party documents and in speeches by many leading comrades of our Party. In my article "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship", written in 1949, I said, "The combination of these two aspects, democracy for the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries, is the people's democratic dictatorship." I also pointed out that in order to settle problems within the ranks of the people "the method we employ is democratic, the method of persuasion, not of compulsion". Again, in addressing the Second Session of the First National Committee of the Political Consultative Conference in June two, I said: The people's democratic dictatorship uses two methods. Towards the enemy, it uses the method of dictatorship, that is, for as long a period of time as is necessary it does not permit them to take part in political activity and compels them to obey the law of the People's Government, to engage in labour and, through such labour, be transformed into new men. Towards the people; on the contrary, it uses the method of democracy and not of compulsion, that is, it must necessarily let them take part in political activity and does not compel them to do this or that but uses the method of democracy to educate and persuade. Such education is self-education for the people, and its basic method is criticism and self-criticism. Thus, on many occasions we have discussed the use of the democratic method for resolving contradictions among the people; furthermore, we have in the main applied it in our work, and many cadres and many other people are familiar with it in practice. Why then do some people now feel that it is a new issue? Because, in the past, the struggle between ourselves and the enemy, both internal and external, was most acute, and contradictions among the people therefore did not attract as much attention as they do today. Quite a few people fail to make a clear distinction between these two different types of contradictions--those between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people -- and are prone to confuse: the two. It must be admitted that it is sometimes quite easy to do so. We have had instances of such confusion in our work in the past; In the course of cleaning out counter-revolutionaries good people were sometimes mistaken for bad, and such things still happen today. We are able to keep mistakes within bounds because it has been our policy to draw a sharp line between ourselves and the enemy and to rectify mistakes whenever discovered. Marxist philosophy holds that the law of the unity of opposites is the fundamental law of the universe. This law operates universally, whether in the natural world, in human society, or in man's thinking. Between the opposites in a contradiction there is at once unity and struggle, and it is this that impels things to move and change. Contradictions exist everywhere, but their nature differs in accordance with the different nature of different things. In any given thing, the unity of opposites is conditional, temporary and transitory, and hence relative, whereas the struggle of opposites is absolute. Lenin gave a very clear exposition of this law. It has come to be understood by a growing number of people in our country. But for many people it is one thing to accept this law and quite another to apply it in examining and dealing with problems. Many dare not openly admit that contradictions still exist among the people of our country, while it is precisely these contradictions that are pushing our society forward. Many do not admit that contradictions still exist in socialist society, with the result that they become irresolute and passive when confronted with social contradictions; they do not understand that socialist society grows more united and consolidated through the ceaseless process of correctly handling and resolving contradictions. For this reason, we need to explain things to our people, and to our cadres in the first place, in order to help them understand the contradictions in socialist society and learn to use correct methods for handling them. Contradictions in socialist society are fundamentally different from those in the old societies, such as capitalist society. In capitalist society contradictions find expression in acute antagonisms and conflicts, in sharp class struggle; they cannot be resolved by the capitalist system itself and can only be resolved by socialist revolution. The case is quite different with contradictions in socialist society; on the contrary, they are not antagonistic and can be ceaselessly resolved by the socialist system itself. In socialist society the basic contradictions are still those between the relations of production and the productive forces and between the superstructure and the economic base. However, they are fundamentally different in character and have different features from the contradictions between the relations of production and the productive forces and between the superstructure and the economic base in the old societies. The present social system of our country is far superior to that of the old days. If it were not so, the old system would not have been overthrown and the new system could not have been established. In saying that the socialist relations of production correspond better to the character of the productive forces than did the old relations of production, we mean that they allow the productive forces to develop at a speed unattainable in the old society, so that production can expand steadily and increasingly meet the constantly growing needs of the people. Under the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, the productive forces of the old China grew very slowly. For more than fifty years before liberation, China produced only a few tens of thousands of tons of steel a year, not counting the output of the northeastern provinces. If these provinces are included, the peak annual steel output only amounted to a little over 900,000 tons. In 1949, the national steel output was a little over 100,000 tons. Yet now, a mere seven years after the liberation of our country, steel output already exceeds 4,000,000 tons. In the old China, there was hardly any machine-building industry, to say nothing of the automobile and aircraft industries; now we have all three. When the people overthrew the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, many were not clear as to which way China should head -- towards capitalism or towards socialism. Facts have now provided the answer: Only socialism can save China. The socialist system has promoted the rapid development of the productive forces of our country, a fact even our enemies abroad have had to acknowledge. But our socialist system has only just been set up; it is not yet fully established or fully consolidated. In joint state-private industrial and commercial enterprises, capitalists still get a fixed rate of interest on their capital, that is to say, exploitation still exists. So far as ownership is concerned, these enterprises are not yet completely socialist in nature. A number of our agricultural and handicraft producers' co-operatives are still semi-socialist, while even in the fully socialist co-operatives certain specific problems of ownership remain to be solved. Relations between production and exchange in accordance with socialist principles are being gradually established within and between all branches of our economy, and more and more appropriate forms are being sought. The problem of the proper relation of accumulation to consumption within each of the two sectors of the socialist economy -- the one where the means of production are owned by the whole people and the other where the means of production are. owned by the collective -- and the problem of the proper relation of accumulation to consumption between the two sectors themselves are complicated problems for which it is not easy to work out a perfectly rational solution all at once. To sum up, socialist relations of production have been established and are in correspondence with the growth of the productive forces, but these relations are still far from perfect, and this imperfection stands in contradiction to the growth of the productive forces. Apart from correspondence as well as contradiction between the relations of production and the growth: of the productive forces, there is correspondence as well as contradiction between the superstructure and the economic base. The superstructure, comprising the state system and laws of the people's democratic dictatorship and the socialist ideology guided by Marxism-Leninism, plays a positive role in facilitating the victory of socialist transformation and the socialist way of organizing labour; it is in correspondence with the socialist economic base, that is, with socialist relations of production. But the existence of bourgeois ideology, a certain bureaucratic style of work in our state organs and defects in some of the links in our state institutions are in contradiction with the socialist economic base. We must continue to resolve all such contradictions in the light of our specific conditions. Of course, new problems will emerge as these contradictions are resolved. And further efforts will be required to resolve the new contradictions. For instance, a constant process of readjustment through state planning is needed to deal with the contradiction between production and the needs of society, which will long remain an objective reality. Every year our country draws up an economic plan in order to establish a proper ratio between accumulation and consumption and achieve an equilibrium between production and needs. Equilibrium is nothing but a temporary, relative, unity of opposites. By the end of each year, this equilibrium, taken as a whole, is upset by the struggle of opposites; the unity undergoes a change, equilibrium becomes disequilibrium, unity becomes disunity, and once again it is necessary to work out an equilibrium and unity for the next year. Herein lies the superiority of our planned economy. As a matter of fact, this equilibrium, this unity, is partially upset every month or every quarter, and partial readjustments are called for. Sometimes, contradictions arise and the equilibrium is upset because our subjective arrangements do not conform to objective reality; this is what we call making a mistake. The ceaseless emergence and ceaseless resolution of contradictions constitute the dialectical law of the development of things. Today, matters stand as follows. The large-scale, turbulent class struggles of the masses characteristic of times of revolution have in the main come to an end, but class struggle is by no means entirely over. While welcoming the new system, the masses are not yet quite accustomed to it. Government personnel are not sufficiently experienced and have to undertake further study and investigation of specific policies. In other words, time is needed for our socialist system to become established and consolidated, for the masses to become accustomed to the new system, and for government personnel to learn and acquire experience. It is therefore imperative for us at this juncture to raise the question of distinguishing contradictions among the people from those between ourselves and the enemy, as well as the question of the correct handling of contradictions among the people, in order to unite the people of all nationalities in our country for the new battle, the battle against nature, develop our economy and culture, help the whole nation to traverse this period of transition relatively smoothly, consolidate our new system and build up our new state. II. THE QUESTION OF ELIMINATING COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES The elimination of counter-revolutionaries is a struggle of opposites as between ourselves and the enemy. Among the people, there are some who see this question in a somewhat different light. Two kinds of people hold views differing from ours. Those with a Right deviation in their thinking make no distinction between ourselves and the enemy and take the enemy for our own people. They regard as friends the very persons whom the masses regard as enemies. Those with a "Left" deviation in their thinking magnify contradictions between ourselves and the enemy to such an extent that they take certain contradictions among the people for contradictions with the enemy and regard as counter-revolutionaries persons who are actually not. Both these views are wrong. Neither makes possible the correctly handling of the problem of eliminating counter-revolutionaries or a correct assessment of this work. To form a correct evaluation of our work in eliminating counter-revolutionaries, let us see what repercussions the Hungarian incident has had in China. After its occurrence there was some unrest among a section of our intellectuals, but there were no squalls. Why? One reason, it must be said, was our success in eliminating counter-revolutionaries fairly thoroughly. Of course, the consolidation of our state is not due primarily to the elimination of counter-revolutionaries. It is due primarily to the fact that we have a Communist Party and a Liberation Army both tempered in decades of revolutionary struggle, and a working people likewise so tempered. Our Party and our armed forces are rooted in the masses, have been tempered in the flames of a protracted revolution and have the capacity to fight. Our People's Republic was not built overnight, but developed step by step out of the revolutionary base areas. A number of democratic personages have also been tempered in the struggle in varying degrees, and they have gone through troubled times together with us. Some intellectuals were tempered in the struggles against imperialism and reaction; since liberation many have gone through a process of ideological remoulding aimed at enabling them to distinguish clearly between ourselves and the enemy. In addition, the consolidation of our state is due to the fact that our economic measures are basically sound, that the people's life is secure and steadily improving, that our policies towards the national bourgeoisie and other classes are correct, and so on. Nevertheless, our success in eliminating counter-revolutionaries is undoubtedly an important reason for the consolidation of our state. For all these reasons, with few exceptions our college students are patriotic and support socialism and did not give way to unrest during the Hungarian incident, even though many of them come from families of non-working people. The same was true of the national bourgeoisie, to say nothing of the basic masses -- the workers and peasants. After liberation, we rooted out a number of counter-revolutionaries. Some were sentenced to death for major crimes. This was absolutely necessary, it was the demand of the masses, and it was done to free them from long years of oppression by the counter-revolutionaries and all kinds of local tyrants, in other words, to liberate the productive forces. If we had not done so, the masses would not have been able to lift their heads. Since 1956, however, there has been a radical change in the situation. In the country as a whole, the bulk of the counter-revolutionaries have been cleared out. Our basic task has changed from unfettering the productive forces to protecting and expanding them in the context of the new relations of production. Because of failure to understand that our present policy fits the present situation and our past policy fitted the past situation, some people want to make use of the present policy to reverse past decisions and to negate the tremendous success we achieved in eliminating counter-revolutionaries. This is completely wrong, and the masses will not permit it. In our work of eliminating counter-revolutionaries successes were the main thing, but there were also mistakes. In some cases there were excesses and in others counter-revolutionaries slipped through our net. Our policy is: "Counter-revolutionaries must be eliminated wherever found, mistakes must be corrected whenever discovered." Our line in the work of eliminating counter-revolutionaries is the mass line. Of course, even with the mass line mistakes may still occur, but they will be fewer and easier to correct. The masses gain experience through struggle. From the things done correctly they gain the experience of how things are done correctly. From the mistakes made they gain the experience of how mistakes are made. Wherever mistakes have been discovered in the work of eliminating counter-revolutionaries, steps have been or are being taken to correct them. Those not yet discovered will be corrected as soon as they come to light. Exoneration or rehabilitation should be made known as widely as were the original wrong decisions. I propose that a comprehensive review of the work of eliminating counter-revolutionaries be made this year or next to sum up experience, promote justice and counter unjust attacks. Nationally, this review should be in the charge of the Standing Committees of the National People's Congress and of the National Committee of the Political Consultative Conference and, locally, in the charge of the people's councils and the committees of the Political Consultative Conference in the provinces and municipalities. In this review, we must help the large numbers of cadres and activists involved in the work, and not pour cold water on them. It would not be right to dampen their spirits. Nonetheless, wrongs must be righted when discovered. This must be the attitude of all the public security organs, the procurators' offices and the judicial departments, prisons and agencies charged with the reform of criminals through labour. We hope that wherever possible members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, members of the National Committee of the Political Consultative Conference and people's deputies will take part in this review. This will be of help in perfecting our legal system and in dealing correctly with counter-revolutionaries and other criminals. The present situation with regard to counter-revolutionaries can be described in these words: There still are counter-revolutionaries, but not many. In the first place, there still are counter-revolutionaries. Some people say that there aren't any more left and all is well and that we can therefore lay our heads on our pillows and just drop off to sleep. But this is not the way things are. The fact is, there still are counter-revolutionaries (of course, that is not to say you'll find them everywhere and in every organization), and we must continue to fight them. It must be understood that the hidden counter-revolutionaries still at large will not take things lying down, but will certainly seize even opportunity to make trouble. The U.S. imperialists and the Chiang Kai-shek clique are constantly sending in secret agents to carry on disruptive activities. Even after all the existing counter-revolutionaries have been combed out, new ones are likely to emerge. If we drop our guard, we shall be badly fooled and shall suffer severely. Counter-revolutionaries must be rooted out with a firm hand wherever they are found making trouble. But, taking the country as a whole, there are certainly not many counter-revolutionaries. It would be wrong to say that there are still large numbers of counter-revolutionaries in China Acceptance of that view would likewise result in a mess. III. THE QUESTION OF THE CO-OPERATIVE TRANSFORMATION OF AGRICULTURE We have a rural population of over 500 million, so how our peasants fare has a most important bearing on the development of our economy and the consolidation of our state power. In my view, the situation is basically sound. The co-operative transformation of agriculture has been successfully accomplished, and this has resolved the great contradiction in our country between socialist industrialization and the individual peasant economy. As the co-operative transformation of agriculture was completed so rapidly, some people were worried and wondered whether something untoward might occur. There are indeed some faults, but fortunately they are not serious and on the whole the movement is healthy. The peasants are working with a will, and last year there was an increase in the country's grain output despite the worst floods, droughts and gales in years. Now there are people who are stirring up a miniature typhoon, they are saying that co-operation is no good, that there is nothing superior about it. Is co-operation superior or not? Among the documents distributed at today's meeting there is one about the Wang Kuo-fan Co-operative in Tsunhua County, Hopei Province, which I suggest you read. This co-operative is situated in a hilly region which was very poor in the past and which for a number of years depended on relief grain from the People's Government. When the co-operative was first set up in 1953, people called it the "paupers' co-op". But it has become better off year by year, and now, after four years of hard struggle, most of its households have reserves of grain. What was possible for this co-operative should also be possible for others to achieve under normal conditions in the same length of time or a little longer. Clearly there are no grounds for saying that something has gone wrong with agricultural co-operation. It is also clear that it takes hard struggle to build co-operatives. New things always have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow. It is sheer fantasy to imagine that the cause of socialism is al I plain sailing and easy success, with no difficulties and setbacks, or without the exertion of tremendous efforts. Who are the active supporters of the co-operatives? The overwhelming majority of the poor and lower-middle peasants who constitute more than 70 per cent of the rural population. Most of the other peasants are also placing their hopes on the co-operatives. Only a very small minority are really dissatisfied. Quite a number of persons have failed to analyse this situation and to make an over-all examination of the achievements and shortcomings of the co-operatives and the causes of these shortcomings; instead they have taken part of the picture or one side of the matter for the whole, and consequently a miniature typhoon has been stirred up among some people, who are saying that the co-operatives are not superior. How long will it take to consolidate the co-operatives and for this talk about their not being superior to wind up? Judging from the experience of the growth of many co-operatives, it will probably take five years or a little longer. As most of our co-operatives are only a little over a year old, it would be unreasonable to ask too much of them. In my view, we will be doing well enough if the co-operatives can be consolidated during the Second Five-Year Plan after being established in the First. The co-operatives are now in the process of gradual consolidation. There are certain contradictions that remain to be resolved, such as those between the state and the co-operatives and those in and between the co-operatives themselves. To resolve these contradictions we must pay constant attention to the problems of production and distribution. On the question of production, the co-operative economy must be subject to the unified economic planning of the state, while retaining a certain flexibility and independence that do not run counter to the state's unified plan or its policies, laws and regulations. At the same time, every household id a co-operative must comply with the over-all plan of the co-operative or production team to which it belongs, though it may make its own appropriate plans in regard to land allotted for personal needs and to other individually operated economic undertakings. On the question of distribution, we must take the interests of the state, the collective and the individual into account. We must properly handle the three-way relationship between the state agricultural tax, the co-operative's accumulation fund and the peasants' personal income, and take constant care to make readjustments so as to resolve contradictions between them. Accumulation is essential for both the state and the co-operative, but in neither case should it be excessive. We should do everything possible to enable the peasants in normal years to raise their personal incomes annually through increased production. Many people say that the peasants lead a hard life. Is this true? In one sense it is. That is to say, because the imperialists and their agents oppressed and exploited us for over a century, ours is an impoverished country and the standard of living not only of our peasants but of our workers and intellectuals is still low. We will need several decades of strenuous effort gradually to raise the standard of living of our people as a whole. In this context, it is right to say that the peasants lead a "hard life". But in another sense it is not true. We refer to the allegation that in the seven years since liberation it is only the life of the workers that has been improved and not that of the peasants. As a matter of fact, with very few exceptions, there has been some improvement in the life of both the peasants and the workers. Since liberation, the peasants have been free from landlord exploitation and their production has increased annually. Take grain crops. In 1949, the country's output was only something over 210,000 million catties. By 1956, it had risen to more than 360,000 million catties, an increase of nearly 150,000 million catties. The state agricultural tax is not heavy, only amounting to something over 30,000 million catties a year. State purchases of grain from the peasants at standard prices only amount to a little over 50,000 million catties a year. These two items together total over 80,000 million catties. Furthermore, more than half this grain is sold back to the villages and nearby towns. Obviously, no one can say that there has been no improvement in the life of the peasants. In order to help agriculture to develop and the co-operatives to become consolidated, we are planning to stabilize the total annual amount of the grain tax plus the grain purchased by the state at somewhat more than 80,000 million catties within a few years. In this way, the small number of grain-deficient households still found in the countryside will stop being short, all peasant households, except some raising industrial crops, will either have grain reserves or at least become self-sufficient, there will no longer be poor peasants in the countryside, and the standard of living of the entire peasantry will reach or surpass the middle peasants' level. It is not right simply to compare a peasant's average annual income with a worker's and jump to the conclusion that one is too low and the other too high. Since the labour productivity of the workers is much higher than that of the peasants and the latter's cost of living is much lower than that of workers in the cities, the workers cannot be said to have received special favours from the state. The wages of a small number of workers and some state personnel are in fact a little too high, the peasants have reason to be dissatisfied with this, and it is necessary to make certain appropriate adjustments according to specific circumstances. IV. THE QUESTION OF THE INDUSTRIALISTS AND BUSINESSMEN With regard to the transformation of our social system, the year 1956 saw the conversion of privately owned industrial and commercial enterprises into joint state-private enterprises as well as the co-operative transformation of agriculture and handicrafts. The speed and smoothness of this conversion were closely bound up with our treating the contradiction between the working class and the national bourgeoisie as a contradiction among the people. Has this class contradiction been completely resolved? No, not yet. That will take a considerable period of time. However, some people say the capitalists have been so remoulded that they are now not very different from the workers and that further remoulding is unnecessary. Others go so far as to say that the capitalists are even better than the workers. Still others ask, if remoulding is necessary, why isn't it necessary for the working class? Are these opinions correct? Of course not. In the building of a socialist society, everybody needs remoulding -- the exploiters and also the working people. Who says it isn't necessary for the working class? Of course, the remoulding of the exploiters is essentially different from that of the working people, and the two must not be confused. The working class remoulds the whole of society in class struggle and in the struggle against nature, and in the process it remoulds itself. It must ceaselessly learn in the course of work, gradually overcome its shortcomings and never stop doing so. Take for example those of us present here. Many of us make some progress each year, that is to say, we are remoulding ourselves each year. For myself, I used to have all sorts of non-Marxist ideas, and it was only later that I embraced Marxism. I learned a little Marxism from books and took the first steps in remoulding my ideology, but it was mainly through taking part in class struggle over the years that I came to be remoulded. And if I am to make further progress, I must continue to learn, otherwise I shall lag behind. Can the capitalists be so good that they need no more remoulding? Some people contend that the Chinese bourgeoisie no longer has two sides to its character, but only one side. Is this true? No. While members of the bourgeoisie have become administrative personnel in joint state-private enterprises and are being transformed from exploiters into working people living by their own labour, they still get a fixed rate of interest on their capital in the joint enterprises, that is, they have not yet cut themselves loose from the roots of exploitation. Between them and the working class there is still a considerable gap in ideology, sentiments and habits of life. How can it be said that they no longer have two sides to their character? Even when they stop receiving their fixed interest payments and the "bourgeois" label is removed, they will still need ideological remoulding for quite some time. If, as is alleged, the bourgeoisie no longer has a dual character, then the capitalists will no longer have the task of studying and of remoulding themselves. It must be said that this view does not tally either with the actual situation of our industrialists and businessmen or with what most of them want. During the past few years, most of them have been willing to study and have made marked progress. As their thorough remoulding can be achieved only in the course of work, they should engage in labour together with the staff and workers in the enterprises and regard these enterprises as the chief places in which to remould themselves. But it is also important for them to change some of their old views through study. Such study should be on a voluntary basis. When they return to the enterprises after being in study groups for some weeks, many industrialists and businessmen find that they have more of a common language with the workers and the representatives of state ownership, and so there are better possibilities for working together. They know from personal experience that it is good for them to keep on studying and remoulding themselves. The idea mentioned above that study and remoulding are not necessary reflects the views not of the majority of industrialists and businessmen but of only a small number. V. THE QUESTION OF THE INTELLECTUALS The contradictions within the ranks of the people in our country also find expression among the intellectuals. The several million intellectuals who worked for the old society have come to serve the new society, and the question that now arises is how they can fit in with the needs of the new society and how we can help them to do so. This, too, is a contradiction among the people. Most of our intellectuals have made marked progress during the last seven years. They have shown they are in favour of the socialist system. Many are diligently studying Marxism, and some have become communists. The latter, though at present small in number, are steadily increasing. Of course, there are still some intellectuals who are sceptical about socialism or do not approve of it, but they are a minority. China needs the services of as many intellectuals as possible for the colossal task of building socialism. We should trust those who are really willing to serve the cause of socialism and should radically improve our relations with them and help them solve the problems requiring solution, so that they can give full play to their talents. Many of our comrades are not good at uniting with intellectuals. They are stiff in their attitude towards them, lack respect for their work and interfere in certain scientific and cultural matters where interference is unwarranted. We must do away with all such shortcomings. Although large numbers of intellectuals have made progress, they should not be complacent. They must continue to remould themselves, gradually shed their bourgeois world outlook and acquire the proletarian, communist world outlook so that they can fully fit in with the needs of the new society and unite with the workers and peasants. The change in world outlook is fundamental, and up to now most of our intellectuals cannot be said to have accomplished it. We hope that they will continue to make progress and that in the course of work and study they will gradually acquire the communist world outlook, grasp Marxism-Leninism and become integrated with the workers and peasants. We hope they will not stop halfway, or, what is worse, slide back, for there will be no future for them in going backwards. Since our country's social system has changed and the economic base of bourgeois ideology has in the main been destroyed, not only is it imperative for large numbers of our intellectuals to change their world outlook, but it is also possible for them to do so. But a thorough change in world outlook takes a very long time, and we should spare no pains in helping them and must not be impatient. Actually, there are bound to be some who ideologically will always be reluctant to accept Marxism-Leninism and communism. We should not be too exacting in what we demand of them; as long as they comply with the requirements laid down by the state and engage in legitimate pursuits, we should let them have opportunities for suitable work. Among students and intellectuals there has recently been a falling off in ideological and political work, and some unhealthy tendencies have appeared. Some people seem to think that there is no longer any need to concern themselves with politics or with the future of the motherland and the ideals of mankind. It seems as if Marxism, once all the rage, is currently not so much in fashion. To counter these tendencies, we must strengthen our ideological and political work. Both students and intellectuals should study hard. In addition to the study of their specialized subjects, they must make progress ideologically and politically, which means they should study Marxism, current events and politics. Not to have a correct political orientation is like not having a soul. The ideological remoulding in the past was necessary and has yielded positive results. But it was carried on in a somewhat rough-and-ready fashion and the feelings of some people were hurt -- this was not good. We must avoid such shortcomings in future. All departments and organizations should shoulder their responsibilities for ideological and political work. This applies to the Communist Party, the Youth League, government departments in charge of this work, and especially to heads of educational institutions and teachers. Our educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture. We must spread the idea of building our country through diligence and thrift. We must help all our young people to understand that ours is still a very poor country, that we cannot change this situation radically in a short time, and that only through decades of united effort by our younger generation and all our people, working with their own hands, can China be made prosperous and strong. The establishment of our socialist system has opened the road leading to the ideal society of the future, but to translate this ideal into reality needs hard work. Some of our young people think that everything ought to be perfect once a socialist society is established and that they should be able to enjoy a happy life ready-made, without working for it. This is unrealistic. VI. THE QUESTION OF THE MINORITY NATIONALITIES The minority nationalities in our country number more than thirty million. Although they constitute only 6 per cent of the total population, they inhabit extensive regions which comprise 50 to 60 per cent of China's total area. It is thus imperative to foster good relation between the Han people and the minority nationalities. The key to this question lies in overcoming Han chauvinism. At the same time, efforts should also be made to overcome local-nationality chauvinism, wherever it exists among the minority nationalities. Both Hanchauvinism and local-nationality chauvinism are harmful to the unity of the nationalities; they represent one kind of contradiction among the people which should be resolved. We have already done some work to this end. In most of the areas inhabited by minority nationalities there has been considerable improvement in the relations between the nationalities, but a number of problems remain to be solved. In some areas, both Han chauvinism and local-nationality chauvinism still exit to a serious degree, and this demands full attention. As a result of the efforts of the people of all nationalities over the last few year democratic reforms and socialist transformation have in the main been completed in most of the minority nationality areas. Democrat reforms have not yet been carried out in Tibet because conditions are not ripe. According to the seventeen-article agreement reached between the Central People's Government and the local government of Tibet the reform of the social system must be carried out, but the timing can only be decided when the great majority of the people of Tibet and the local leading public figures consider it opportune, and one should not be impatient. It has now been decided not to proceed with democratic reforms in Tibet during the period of the Second Five-Year Plan. Whether to proceed with them in the period of the Third Five-Year Plan can only be decided in the light of the situation at the time. VII. OVER-ALL CONSIDERATION AND PROPER ARRANGEMENT By over-all consideration we mean consideration that embraces the 600 million people of our country. In drawing up plans, handling affairs or thinking over problems, we must proceed from the fact that China has a population of 600 million, and we must never forget this fact. Why do we make a point of this? Is it possible that there are people who are still unaware that we have a population of 600 million? Of course, everyone knows this, but when it comes to actual practice, some people forget all about it and act as though the fewer the people, the smaller the circle, the better. Those who have this "small circle" mentality abhor the idea of bringing every positive factor into play, of uniting with everyone who can be united with, and of doing everything possible to turn negative factors into positive ones so as to serve the great cause of building a socialist society. I hope these people will take a wider view and fully recognize that we have a population of 600 million, that this is an objective fact, and that it is an asset for us. Our large population is a good thing, but of course it also involves certain difficulties. Construction is going ahead vigorously on all fronts and very successfully too, but in the present transition period of tremendous social change there are still many difficult problems. Progress and at the same time difficulties -- this is a contradiction. However, not only should all such contradictions be resolved, but they definitely can be. Our guiding principle is over-all consideration and proper arrangement. Whatever the problem -- whether it concerns food, natural calamities, employment, education, the intellectuals, the united front of all patriotic forces, the minority nationalities, or anything else -- we must always proceed from the standpoint of over-all consideration, which embraces the whole people, and must make the proper arrangement, after consultation with all the circles concerned, in the light of what is feasible at a particular time and place. On no account should we complain that there are too many people, that others are backward, that things are troublesome and hard to handle, and close the door on them. Do I mean to say that the government alone must take care of everyone and everything? Of course not. In many cases, they can be left to the direct care of the public organizations or the masses -- both are quite capable of devising many good ways of handling them. This also comes within the scope of the principle of over-all consideration and pro' arrangement. We should give guidance on this to the public organizations and the people everywhere. VIII. ON "LET A HUNDRED FLOWERS BLOSSOM LET A HUNDRED SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT CONTEND" AND "LONG-TERM COEXISTENCE AND MUTUAL SUPERVISION" "Let a hundred flowers blossom, let a hundred schools of thought contend" and "long-term coexistence and mutual supervision"--how did these slogans come to be put forward? They were put forward in the light of China's specific conditions, in recognition of the continued existence of various kinds of contradictions in socialist society and in response to the country's urgent need to speed up its economic and cultural development. Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land. Different forms and styles in art should develop freely and different schools in science should contend freely. We think that it is harmful to the growth of art and science if administrative measures are used to impose one particular style of art or school of thought and to ban another. Questions of right and wrong in the arts and science should be settled through free discussion in artistic and scientific circles and through practical work in these fields. They should not be settled in an over-simple manner. A period of trial is often needed to determine whether something is right or wrong. Throughout history at the outset new and correct things often failed to win recognition from the majority of people and had to develop by twists and turns through struggle. Often, correct and good things were first regarded not as fragrant flowers but as poisonous weeds. Copernicus' theory of the solar system and Darwin's theory of evolution were once dismissed as erroneous and had to win out over bitter opposition. Chinese history offers many similar examples. In a socialist society, the conditions for the growth of the new are radically different from and far superior to those in the old society. Nevertheless, it often happens that new, rising forces are held back and sound ideas stifled. Besides even in the absence of their deliberate suppression, the growth of new things may be hindered simply through lack of discernment. It is therefore necessary to be careful about questions of right and wrong in the arts and sciences, to encourage free discussion and avoid hasty conclusions We believe that such an attitude will help ensure a relatively smooth development of the arts and sciences. Marxism, too, has developed through struggle. At the beginning, Marxism was subjected to all kinds of attack and regarded as a poisonous weed. This is still the case in many parts of the world. In the socialist countries, it enjoys a different position. But non-Marxist and, what is more, anti-Marxist ideologies exist even in these countries. In China, although socialist transformation has in the main been completed as regards the system of ownership, and although the large-scale, turbulent class struggles of the masses characteristic of times of revolution have in the main come to an end, there are still remnants of the overthrown landlord and comprador classes, there is still a bourgeoisie, and the remoulding of the petty bourgeoisie has only just started. Class struggle is by no means over. The class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the class struggle between the various political forces, and the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the ideological field will still be protracted and tortuous and at times even very sharp. The proletariat seeks to transform the world according to its own world outlook, and so does the bourgeoisie. In this respect, the question of which will win out, socialism or capitalism, is not really settled yet. Marxists remain a minority among the entire population as well as among the intellectuals. Therefore, Marxism must continue to develop through struggle. Marxism can develop only through struggle, and this is not only true of the past and the present, it is necessarily true of the future as well. What is correct invariably develops in the course of struggle with what is wrong. The true, the good and the beautiful always exist by contrast with the false, the evil and the ugly, and grow in struggle with them. As soon as something erroneous is rejected and a particular truth accepted by mankind, new truths begin to struggle with new errors. Such struggles will never end. This is the law of development of truth and, naturally, of Marxism. It will take a fairly long period of time to decide the issue in the ideological struggle between socialism and capitalism in our country. The reason is that the influence of the bourgeoisie and of the intellectuals who come from the old society, the very influence which constitutes their class ideology, will persist in our country for a long time. If this is not understood at all or is insufficiently understood, the gravest of mistakes will be made and the necessity of waging struggle in the ideological field will be ignored. Ideological struggle differs from other forms of struggle, since the only method used is painstaking reasoning, and not crude coercion. Today, socialism is in an advantageous position in the ideological struggle. The basic power of the state is in the hands of the working people led by the proletariat. The Communist Party is strong and its prestige high. Although there are defects and mistakes in our work, every fair-minded person can see that we are loyal to the people, that we are both determined and able to build up our motherland together with them, and that we have already achieved great successes and will achieve still greater ones. The vast majority of the bourgeoisie and the intellectuals who come from the old society are patriotic and are willing to serve their flourishing socialist motherland; they know they will have nothing to fall back on and their future cannot possibly be bright if they turn away from the socialist cause and from the working people led by the Communist Party. People may ask, since Marxism is accepted as the guiding ideology by the majority of the people in our country, can it be criticized? Certainly it can. Marxism is scientific truth and fears no criticism. If it did, and if it could be overthrown by criticism, it would be worthless. In fact, aren't the idealists criticizing Marxism every day and in every way? And those who harbour bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideas and do not wish to change -- aren't they also criticizing Marxism in every way? Marxists should not be afraid of criticism from any quarter. Quite the contrary, they need to temper and develop themselves and win new positions in the teeth of criticism and in the storm and stress of struggle. Fighting against wrong ideas is like being vaccinated -- a man develops greater immunity from disease as a result of vaccination. Plants raised in hothouses are unlikely to be hardy. Carrying out the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend will not weaken, but strengthen, the leading position of Marxism in the ideological field. What should our policy be towards non-Marxist ideas? As far as unmistakable counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs of the socialist cause are concerned, the matter is easy, we simply deprive them of their freedom of speech. But incorrect ideas among the people are quite a different matter. Will it do to ban such ideas and deny them any opportunity for expression? Certainly not. It is not only futile but very harmful to use crude methods in dealing with ideological questions among the people, with questions about man's mental world. You may ban the expression of wrong ideas, but the ideas will still be there. On the other hand, if correct ideas are pampered in hothouses and never exposed to the elements and immunized against disease, they will not win out against erroneous ones. Therefore, it is only by employing the method of discussion, criticism and reasoning that we can really foster correct ideas and overcome wrong ones, and that we can really settle issues. It is inevitable that the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie will give expression to their own ideologies. It is inevitable that they will stubbornly assert themselves on political and ideological questions by every possible means. You cannot expect them to do otherwise. We should not use the method of suppression and prevent them from expressing themselves, but should allow them to do so and at the same time argue with them and direct appropriate criticism at them. Undoubtedly, we must criticize wrong ideas of every description. It certainly would not be right to refrain from criticism, look on while wrong ideas spread unchecked and allow them to dominate the field. Mistakes must be criticized and poisonous weeds fought wherever they crop up. However, such criticism should not be dogmatic, and the metaphysical method should not be used, but instead the effort should be made to apply the dialectical method. What is needed is scientific analysis and convincing argument. Dogmatic criticism settles nothing. We are against poisonous weeds of whatever kind, but eve must carefully distinguish between what is really a poisonous weed and what is really a fragrant flower. Together with the masses of the people, we must learn to differentiate carefully between the two and use correct methods to fight the poisonous weeds. At the same time as we criticize dogmatism, we must direct our attention to criticizing revisionism. Revisionism, or Right opportunism, is a bourgeois trend of thought that is even more dangerous than dogmatism. The revisionists, the Right opportunists, pay lip-service to Marxism; they too attack "dogmatism". But what they are really attacking is the quintessence of Marxism. They oppose or distort materialism and dialectics, oppose or try to weaken the people's democratic dictatorship and the leading role of the Communist Party, and oppose or try to weaken socialist transformation and socialist construction. Even after the basic victory of our socialist revolution, there will still be a number of people in our society who vainly hope to restore the capitalist system and are sure to fight the working class on every front, including the ideological one. And their right-hand men in this struggle are the revisionists. Literally the two slogans -- let a hundred flowers blossom and let a hundred schools of thought contend -- have no class character; the proletariat can turn them to account, and so can the bourgeoisie or others. Different classes, strata and social groups each have their own views on what are fragrant flowers and what are poisonous weeds. Then, from the point of view of the masses, what should be the criteria today for distinguishing fragrant flowers from poisonous weeds? In their political activities, how should our people judge whether a person's words and deeds are right or wrong? On the basis of the principles of our Constitution, the will of the overwhelming majority of our people and the common political positions which have been proclaimed on various occasions by our political parties, we consider that, broadly speaking, the criteria should be as follows: (1) Words and deeds should help to unite, and not divide, the people of all our nationalities. (2) They should be beneficial, and not harmful, to socialist transformation and socialist construction. (3) They should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, the people's democratic dictatorship. (4) They should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, democratic centralism. (5) They should help to strengthen, and not shake off or weaken, the leadership of the Communist Party. (6) They should be beneficial, and not harmful, to international socialist unity and the unity of the peace-loving people of the world. Of these six criteria, the most important are the two about the socialist path and the leadership of the Party. These criteria are put forward not to hinder but to foster the free discussion of questions among the people. Those who disapprove these criteria can still state their own views and argue their case. However, so long as the majority of the people have clear-cut criteria to go by, criticism and self-criticism can be conducted along proper lines, and these criteria can be applied to people's words and deeds to determine whether they are right or wrong, whether they are fragrant flowers or poisonous weeds. These are political criteria. Naturally, to judge the validity of scientific theories or assess the aesthetic value of works of art, other relevant criteria are needed. But these six political criteria are applicable to all activities in the arts and sciences. In a socialist country like ours, can there possibly be any useful scientific or artistic activity which runs counter to these political criteria? The views set out above are based on China's specific historical conditions. Conditions vary in different socialist countries and with different Communist Parties. Therefore, we do not maintain that they should or must adopt the Chinese way. The slogan "long-term coexistence and mutual supervision" is also a product of China's specific historical conditions. It was not put forward all of a sudden, but had been in the making for several years. The idea of long-term coexistence had been there for a long time. When the socialist system was in the main established last year, the slogan was formulated in explicit terms. Why should the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois democratic parties be allowed to exist side by side with the party of the working class over a long period of time? Because we have no reason for not adopting the policy of long-term coexistence with all those political parties which are truly devoted to the task of uniting the people for the cause of socialism and which enjoy the trust of the people. As early as June 1950, at the Second Session of the First National Committee of the Political Consultative Conference, I put the matter in this way: The people and their government have no reason to reject anyone or deny him the opportunity of making a living and rendering service to the country, provided he is really willing to serve the people and provided he really helped and did a good turn when the people were faced with difficulties and keeps on doing good without giving up halfway. What I was discussing here was the political basis for the long-term coexistence of the various parties. It is the desire as well as the policy of the Communist Party to exist side by side with the democratic parties for a long time to come. But whether the democratic parties can long remain in existence depends not merely on the desire of the Communist Party but on how well they acquit themselves and on whether they enjoy the trust of the people. Mutual supervision among the various parties is also a long-established fact, in the sense that they have long been advising and criticizing each other. Mutual supervision is obviously not a one-sided matter; it means that the Communist Party can exercise supervision over the democratic parties, and vice versa. Why should the democratic parties be allowed to exercise supervision over the Communist Party? Because a party as much as an individual has great need to hear opinions different from its own. We all know that supervision over the Communist Party is mainly exercised by the working people and the Party membership. But it augments the benefit to us to have supervision by the democratic parties too. Of course, the advice and criticism exchanged by the Communist Party and the democratic parties will play a positive supervisory role only when they conform to the six political criteria given above. Thus, we hope that in order to fit in with the needs of the new society, all the democratic parties will pay attention to ideological remoulding and strive for long-term coexistence with the Communist Party and mutual supervision. IX. ON THE QUESTION OF DISTURBANCES CREATED BY SMALL NUMBERS OF PEOPLE In 1956, small numbers of workers or students in certain places went on strike. The immediate cause of these disturbances was the failure to satisfy some of their demands for material benefits, of which some should and could have been met, while others were out of place or excessive and therefore could not be met for the time being. But a more important cause was bureaucracy on the part of the leadership. In some cases, the responsibility for such bureaucratic mistakes fell on the higher authorities, and those at the lower levels were not to blame. Another cause of these disturbances was lack of ideological and political education among the workers and students. The same year, in some agricultural co-operatives there were also disturbances created by a few of their members, and here too the main causes were bureaucracy on the part of the leadership and lack of educational work among the masses. It should be admitted that among the masses some are prone to pay attention to immediate, partial and personal interests and do not understand, or do not sufficiently understand, long-range, national and collective interests. Because of lack of political and social experience, quite a number of young people cannot readily see the contrast between the old China and the new, and it is not easy for them thoroughly to comprehend the hardships our people went through in the struggle to free themselves from the oppression of the imperialists and Kuomintang reactionaries, or the long years of hard work needed before a fine socialist society can be established. That is why we must constantly carry on lively and effective political education among the masses and should always tell them the truth about the difficulties that crop up and discuss with them how to surmount these difficulties. We do not approve of disturbances, because contradictions among the people can be resolved through the method of "unity -- criticism -- unity", while disturbances are bound to cause some losses and are not conducive to the advance of socialism. We believe that the masses of the people support socialism, conscientiously observe discipline and are reasonable, and will certainly not take part in disturbances without cause. But this does not mean that the possibility of disturbances by the masses no longer exists in our country. On this question, we should pay attention to the following. (1) In order to root out the causes of disturbances, we must resolutely overcome bureaucracy, greatly improve ideological and political education, and deal with all contradictions properly. If this is done, generally speaking there will be no disturbances. (2) When disturbances do occur as a result of poor work on our part, then we should guide those involved onto the correct path, use the disturbances as a special means for improving our work and educating the cadres and the masses, and find solutions to those problems which were previously left unsolved. In handling any disturbance, we should take pains and not use over-simple methods, or hastily declare the matter closed. The ringleaders in disturbances should not be summarily expelled, except for those who have committed criminal offences or are active counter-revolutionaries and have to be punished by law. In a large country like ours, there is nothing to get alarmed about if small numbers of people create disturbances; on the contrary, such disturbances will help us get rid of bureaucracy. There are also a small number of individuals in our society who, flouting the public interest, wilfully break the law and commit crimes. They are apt to take advantage of our policies and distort them, and deliberately put forward unreasonable demands in order to incite the masses, or deliberately spread rumours to create trouble and disrupt public order. We do not propose to let these individuals have their way. On the contrary, proper legal action must be taken against them. Punishing them is the demand of the masses, and it would run counter to the popular will if they were not punished. X. CAN BAD THINGS BE TURNED INTO GOOD THINGS? In our society, as I have said, disturbances by the masses are bad, and we do not approve of them. But when disturbances do occur, they enable us to learn lessons, to overcome bureaucracy and to educate the cadres and the masses. In this sense, bad things can be turned into good things. Disturbances thus have a dual character. Every disturbance can be regarded in this way. Everybody knows that the Hungarian incident was not a good thing. But it too had a dual character. Because our Hungarian comrades took proper action in the course of the incident, what was a bad thing has eventually turned into a good one. Hungary is now more consolidated than ever, and all other countries in the socialist camp have also learned a lesson. Similarly, the world-wide campaign against communism and the people which took place in the latter half of 1956 was of course a bad thing. But it served to educate and temper the Communist Parties and the working class in all countries, and thus it has turned into a good thing. In the storm and stress of this period, a number of people in many countries withdrew from the Communist Party. Withdrawal from the Party reduces its membership and is, of course, a bad thing, But there is a good side to it, too. Vacillating elements who are unwilling to carry on have withdrawn, and the vast majority who are staunch Party members can be the better united for struggle. Why isn't this a good thing? To sum up, we must learn to look at problems from all sides, seeing the reverse as well as the obverse side of things. In given conditions, a bad thing can lead to good results and a good thing to bad results. More than two thousand years ago Lao Tzu said: "Good fortune lieth within bad, bad fortune lurketh within good."[1] When the Japanese shot their way into China, they called this a victory. Huge parts of China's territory were seized, and the Chinese called this a defeat. But victory was conceived in China's defeat, while defeat was conceived in Japan's victory. Hasn't history proved this true? People all over the world are now discussing whether or not a third world war will break out. On this question, too, we must be mentally prepared and do some analysis. We stand firmly for peace and against war. But if the imperialists insist on unleashing another war, we should not be afraid of it. Our attitude on this question is the same as our attitude towards any disturbance: first, we are against it; second, we are not afraid of it. The First World War was followed by the birth of the Soviet Union with a population of 200 million. The Second World War was followed by the emergence of the socialist camp with a combined population of 900 million. If the imperialists insist on launching a third world war, it is certain that several hundred million more will turn to socialism, and then there will not be much room left on earth for the imperialists; it is also likely that the whole structure of imperialism will completely collapse. In given conditions, each of the two opposing aspects of a contradiction invariably transforms itself into its opposite as a result of the struggle between them. Here, it is the conditions which are essential. Without the given conditions, neither of the two contradictory aspects can transform itself into its opposite. Of all the classes in the world the proletariat is the one which is most eager to change its position, and next comes the semi-proletariat, for the former possesses nothing at all while the latter is hardly any better off. The United States now controls a majority in the United Nations and dominates many parts of the world -- this state of affairs is temporary and will be changed one of these days. China's position as a poor country denied its rights in international affairs will also be changed -- the poor country will change into a rich one, the country denied its rights into one enjoying them -- a transformation of things into their opposites. Here, the decisive conditions are the socialist system and the concerted efforts of a united people. XI. ON PRACTISING ECONOMY Here I wish to speak briefly on practicing economy. We want to carry on large-scale construction, but our country is still very poor -- herein lies a contradiction. One way of resolving it is to make a sustained effort to practice strict economy in every field. During the movement against the "three evils" in 1952, we fought against corruption, waste and bureaucracy, with the emphasis on combating corruption. In 1955 we advocated the practice of economy with great success, our emphasis then being on combating the unduly high standards for non-productive projects in capital construction and economizing on raw materials in industrial production. But at that time economy was not yet applied in earnest as a guiding principle in all branches of the national economy, or in government offices, army units, schools and people's organizations in general. This year we are calling for economy and the elimination of waste in every sphere throughout the country. We still lack experience in the work of construction. During the last few years, great successes have been achieved, but there has also been waste. We must build up a number of large-scale modern enterprises step by step to form the mainstay of our industry, without which we shall not be able to turn China into a powerful modern industrial country within the coming decades. But the majority of our enterprises should not be built on such a scale; we should set up more small and medium enterprises and make full use of the industrial base inherited from the old society, so as to effect the greatest economy and do more with less money. Good results have begun to appear in the few months since the principle of practicing strict economy and combating waste was put forward, in more emphatic terms than before, by the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in November 1956. The present campaign for economy must be conducted in a thorough and sustained way. Like the criticism of any other fault or mistake, the fight against waste may be compared to washing one's face. Don't people wash their faces every day? The Chinese Communist Party, the democratic parties, the democrats with no party affiliation, the intellectuals, industrialists and businessmen, workers, peasants and handicraftsmen -- in short, all our 600 million people -- must strive for increased production and economy, and against extravagance and waste. This is of prime importance not only economically, but politically as well. A dangerous tendency has shown itself of late among many of our personnel -- an unwillingness to share weal and woe with the masses, a concern for personal fame and gain. This is very bad. One way of overcoming it is to streamline our organizations in the course of our campaign to increase production and practice economy, and to transfer cadres to lower levels so that a considerable number will return to productive work. We must see to it that all our cadres and all our people constantly bear in mind that ours is a large socialist country but an economically backward and poor one, and that this is a very big contradiction. To make China prosperous and strong needs several decades of hard struggle, which means, among other things, pursuing the policy of building up our country through diligence and thrift, that is, practicing strict economy and fighting waste. XII. CHINA'S PATH TO INDUSTRIALIZATION In discussing our path to industrialization, we are here concerned principally with the relationship between the growth of heavy industry, light industry and agriculture. It must be affirmed that heavy industry is the core of China's economic construction. At the same time, full attention must be paid to the development of agriculture and light industry. As China is a large agricultural country, with over 80 per cent of its population in the rural areas, agriculture must develop along with industry, for only thus can industry secure raw materials and a market, and only thus is it possible to accumulate more funds for building a powerful heavy industry. Everyone knows that light industry is closely tied up with agriculture. Without agriculture there can be no light industry. But it is not yet so clearly understood that agriculture provides heavy industry with an important market. This fact, however, will be more readily appreciated as gradual progress in the technical transformation and modernization of agriculture calls for more and more machinery, fertilizer, water conservancy and electric power projects and transport facilities for the farms, as well as fuel and building materials for the rural consumers. During the period of the Second and Third Five-Year Plans, the entire national economy will benefit if we can achieve an even greater growth in our agriculture and thus induce a correspondingly greater development of light industry. As agriculture and light industry develop, heavy industry, assured of its market and funds, will grow faster. Hence what may seem to be a slower pace of industrialization will actually not be so slow, and indeed may even be faster. In three five-year plans or perhaps a little longer, China's annual steel output can be raised to 20,000,000 tons or more, as compared with the peak pre-liberation output of something over 900,000 tons in 1943. This will gladden the people in both town and country. I do not propose to dwell on economic questions today. With barely seven years of economic construction behind us, we still lack experience and need to accumulate it. Neither had we any experience in revolution when we first started, and it was only after we had taken a number of tumbles and acquired experience that we won nation-wide victory. What we must now demand of ourselves is to gain experience in economic construction in a shorter period of time than it took us to gain experience in revolution, and not to pay as high a price for it. Some price we will have to pay, but we hope it will not be as high as that paid during the period of revolution. We must realize that there is a contradiction here -- the contradiction between the objective laws of economic development of a socialist society and our subjective cognition of them -- which needs to be resolved in the course of practice. This contradiction also manifests itself as a contradiction between different people, that is, a contradiction between those in whom the reflection of these objective laws is relatively accurate and those in whom the reflection is relatively inaccurate; this, too, is a contradiction among the people. Every contradiction is an objective reality, and it is our task to reflect it and resolve it in as nearly correct a fashion as we can. In order to turn China into an industrial country, we must learn conscientiously from the advanced experience of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union has been building socialism for forty years, and its experience is very valuable to us. Let us ask: Who designed and equipped so many important factories for us? Was it the United States? Or Britain? No, neither the one nor the other. Only the Soviet Union was willing to do so, because it is a socialist country and our ally. In addition to the Soviet Union, the fraternal countries in East Europe have also given us some assistance. It is perfectly true that we should learn from the good experience of all countries, socialist or capitalist, about this there is no argument. But the main thing is still to learn from the Soviet Union. Now there are two different attitudes towards learning from others. One is the dogmatic attitude of transplanting everything, whether or not it is suited to our conditions. This is no good. The other attitude is to use our heads and learn those things which suit our conditions, that is, to absorb whatever experience is useful to us. That is the attitude we should adopt. To strengthen our solidarity with the Soviet Union, to strengthen our solidarity with all the socialist countries--this is our fundamental policy, this is where our basic interests lie. Then there are the Asian and African countries and all the peace-loving countries and peoples --we must strengthen and develop our solidarity with them. United with these two forces, we shall not stand alone. As for the imperialist countries, we should unite with their people and strive to coexist peacefully with those countries, do business with them and prevent a possible war, but under no circumstances should we harbour any unrealistic notions about them. 1. Lao Tzu, Chapter LVIII. Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project. HTML revised 2004 by Marxists.org Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung | left | select work mao tsetung february speech eleventh session enlarge supreme state conference comrade mao tsetung go verbatim record certain addition publication people daily june general subject correct handling contradiction people convenience let discuss subheading reference contradiction enemy discussion centre contradiction people type contradiction differ nature country united today victory bourgeoisdemocratic revolution socialist revolution achievement socialist construction rapidly change face old china bright future lie ahead motherland day national disunity chaos people detest go return lead work class communist party million people unite engage great task build socialism unification country unity people unity nationality basic guarantee sure triumph cause mean contradiction long exist society imagine exist naive idea variance objective reality confront type social contradiction enemy people totally different nature understand different type contradiction correctly clear mean people mean enemy concept people vary content different country different period history give country country example war resistance japan class strata social group oppose japanese aggression come category people japanese imperialist chinese collaborator projapanese element enemy people war liberation imperialist run dog bureaucratcapitalist landlord kuomintang reactionary represent class enemy people class strata social group oppose come category people present stage period build socialism class strata social group favour support work cause socialist construction come category people social force group resist socialist revolution hostile sabotage socialist construction enemy people contradiction enemy antagonistic contradiction rank people contradiction work people nonantagonistic exploit exploit class nonantagonistic antagonistic aspect contradiction people different content period revolution period build socialism condition prevail china today contradiction people comprise contradiction work class contradiction peasantry contradiction intelligentsia contradiction work class peasantry contradiction worker peasant hand intellectual contradiction work class section work people hand national bourgeoisie contradiction national bourgeoisie people government genuinely represent people interest government serve people certain contradiction government people include contradiction interest state interest collective hand interest individual democracy centralism leadership lead contradiction arise bureaucratic style work state personnel relation masse contradiction people generally speak fundamental identity people interest underlie contradiction people country contradiction work class national bourgeoisie come category contradiction people large class struggle class struggle rank people chinese national bourgeoisie dual character period bourgeoisdemocratic revolution revolutionary conciliationist character period socialist revolution exploitation work class profit constitute character national bourgeoisie support constitution willingness accept socialist transformation constitute national bourgeoisie differ imperialist landlord bureaucratcapitalist contradiction national bourgeoisie work class exploiter exploit nature antagonistic concrete condition china antagonistic contradiction class properly handle transform nonantagonistic resolve peaceful method contradiction work class national bourgeoisie change contradiction enemy handle properly follow policy unite criticize educate national bourgeoisie national bourgeoisie accept policy different nature contradiction enemy contradiction people resolve different method briefly entail draw clear distinction enemy entail draw clear distinction right wrong course true distinction enemy right wrong example question right domestic foreign reactionary imperialist feudalist bureaucratcapitalist right wrong different category question right wrong people state people democratic dictatorship lead work class base workerpeasant alliance dictatorship function internal suppress reactionary class element exploiter resist socialist revolution suppress try wreck socialist construction word resolve contradiction internal enemy instance arrest try sentence certain counterrevolutionary deprive landlord bureaucratcapitalist right vote freedom speech certain period time come scope dictatorship maintain public order safeguard interest people necessary exercise dictatorship thief swindler murderer arsonists criminal gang scoundrel seriously disrupt public order second function dictatorship protect country subversion possible aggression external enemy contingency task dictatorship resolve contradiction external enemy aim dictatorship protect people devote peaceful labour china socialist country modern industry modern agriculture modern science culture exercise dictatorship naturally work class entire people leadership dictatorship apply rank people people exercise dictatorship section people oppress lawbreaker people punish accord law different principle exercise dictatorship suppress enemy people apply people democratic centralism constitution lay citizen people republic china enjoy freedom speech press assembly association procession demonstration religious belief constitution provide organ state practice democratic centralism rely masse personnel serve people socialist democracy broad kind democracy find bourgeois state dictatorship people democratic dictatorship lead work class base workerpeasant alliance democracy operate rank people work class unite enjoy civil right place peasantry enforce dictatorship reactionary class element resist socialist transformation oppose socialist construction civil right mean politically right freedom democracy freedom freedom leadership democracy democracy centralized guidance anarchy anarchy accord interest wish people certain people country delight hungarian incident hope similar happen china thousand thousand people street demonstrate people government hope run counter interest masse possibly win support deceive domestic foreign counterrevolutionary section people hungary mistake resort violence people government result state people suffer damage countrys economy week rioting long time repair country waver question hungarian incident ignorant real state affair world think little freedom people democracy freedom western parliamentary democracy ask twoparty system west party office opposition socalled twoparty system device maintain dictatorship bourgeoisie guarantee freedom work people matter fact freedom democracy exist abstract concrete society class struggle exist freedom exploit class exploit work people freedom work people exploit democracy bourgeoisie democracy proletariat work people legal existence communist party tolerate capitalist country extent endanger fundamental interest bourgeoisie tolerate demand freedom democracy abstract regard democracy end mean democracy end fact means marxism teach democracy superstructure belong realm politic analysis serve economic base true freedom democracy freedom relative absolute come develop specific historical condition rank people democracy correlative centralism freedom discipline opposite single entity contradictory united onesidedly emphasize exclusion rank people freedom discipline democracy centralism unity democracy centralism freedom discipline constitute democratic centralism system people enjoy broad democracy freedom time bound socialist discipline understand masse advocate freedom leadership democracy centralized guidance way mean coercive measure take settle ideological question question involve distinction right wrong people attempt use administrative order coercive measure settle ideological question question right wrong ineffective harmful abolish religion administrative order force people believe compel people idealism force embrace marxism way settle question ideological nature controversial issue people democratic method method discussion criticism persuasion education method coercion repression able carry production study effectively lead life peace order people want government charge production cultural educational organization issue appropriate administrative regulation obligatory nature common sense maintenance public order impossible administrative regulation method persuasion education complement resolve contradiction people fact administrative regulation maintenance public order accompany persuasion education case regulation work democratic method resolve contradiction people epitomize formula unity criticism unity elaborate mean start desire unity resolve contradiction criticism struggle arrive new unity new basis experience correct method resolve contradiction people resolve contradiction inside communist party contradiction dogmatist great majority membership dogmatism marxism left dogmatist resort method ruthless struggle merciless blow innerparty struggle wrong method criticize leave dogmatism use old method adopt new start desire unity distinguish right wrong criticism struggle arrive new unity new basis method rectification movement year time chinese communist party hold seventh national congress unity achieve party anticipate consequently people revolution triumph essential thing start desire unity desire unity struggle begin certain throw thing confusion hand not ruthless struggle merciless blow party unity leave precisely experience lead formula unity criticism unity word learn past mistake avoid future one cure sickness save patient extend method party apply great success antijapanese base area deal relation leadership masse army people officer man different unit army different group cadre use method trace early time partys history build revolutionary armed force base area south method deal relation party masse army people officer man relation people difference antijapanese war employ method consciously liberation country employ method unity criticism unity relation democratic party industrial commercial circle task continue extend well use method rank people want factory cooperative shop school office people organization word million people use resolve contradiction ordinary circumstance contradiction people antagonistic handle properly relax vigilance low guard antagonism arise socialist country development kind usually localized temporary phenomenon reason system exploitation man man abolish interest people fundamentally identical antagonistic action take place fairly wide scale hungarian incident result operation domestic foreign counterrevolutionary element particular temporary phenomenon case reactionary inside socialist country league imperialist attempt achieve conspiratorial aim take advantage contradiction people foment dissension stir disorder lesson hungarian incident merit attention people think use democratic method resolve contradiction people new actually marxist hold cause proletariat depend masse people communist use democratic method persuasion education work labour people account resort commandism coercion chinese communist party faithfully adhere marxistleninist principle consistent view people democratic dictatorship different method dictatorial democratic resolve type contradiction differ nature enemy people idea explain party document speech lead comrade party article people democratic dictatorship write say combination aspect democracy people dictatorship reactionary people democratic dictatorship point order settle problem rank people method employ democratic method persuasion compulsion address second session national committee political consultative conference june say people democratic dictatorship use method enemy use method dictatorship long period time necessary permit political activity compel obey law people government engage labour labour transform new man people contrary use method democracy compulsion necessarily let political activity compel use method democracy educate persuade education selfeducation people basic method criticism selfcriticism occasion discuss use democratic method resolve contradiction people furthermore main apply work cadre people familiar practice people feel new issue past struggle enemy internal external acute contradiction people attract attention today people fail clear distinction different type contradictionsthose enemy people prone confuse admit easy instance confusion work past course clean counterrevolutionary good people mistaken bad thing happen today able mistake bound policy draw sharp line enemy rectify mistake discover marxist philosophy hold law unity opposite fundamental law universe law operate universally natural world human society man think opposite contradiction unity struggle impel thing change contradiction exist nature differ accordance different nature different thing give thing unity opposite conditional temporary transitory relative struggle opposite absolute lenin give clear exposition law come understand grow number people country people thing accept law apply examine deal problem dare openly admit contradiction exist people country precisely contradiction push society forward admit contradiction exist socialist society result irresolute passive confront social contradiction understand socialist society grow united consolidate ceaseless process correctly handle resolve contradiction reason need explain thing people cadre place order help understand contradiction socialist society learn use correct method handle contradiction socialist society fundamentally different old society capitalist society capitalist society contradiction find expression acute antagonism conflict sharp class struggle resolve capitalist system resolve socialist revolution case different contradiction socialist society contrary antagonistic ceaselessly resolve socialist system socialist society basic contradiction relation production productive force superstructure economic base fundamentally different character different feature contradiction relation production productive force superstructure economic base old society present social system country far superior old day old system overthrow new system establish say socialist relation production correspond well character productive force old relation production mean allow productive force develop speed unattainable old society production expand steadily increasingly meet constantly grow need people rule imperialism feudalism bureaucratcapitalism productive force old china grow slowly year liberation china produce ten thousand ton steel year count output northeastern province province include peak annual steel output amount little ton national steel output little ton mere seven year liberation country steel output exceed ton old china hardly machinebuilde industry automobile aircraft industry people overthrow rule imperialism feudalism bureaucratcapitalism clear way china head capitalism socialism fact provide answer socialism save china socialist system promote rapid development productive force country fact enemy abroad acknowledge socialist system set fully establish fully consolidated joint stateprivate industrial commercial enterprise capitalist fix rate interest capital exploitation exist far ownership concern enterprise completely socialist nature number agricultural handicraft producer cooperative semisocialist fully socialist cooperative certain specific problem ownership remain solve relation production exchange accordance socialist principle gradually establish branch economy appropriate form seek problem proper relation accumulation consumption sector socialist economy mean production own people mean production own collective problem proper relation accumulation consumption sector complicated problem easy work perfectly rational solution sum socialist relation production establish correspondence growth productive force relation far perfect imperfection stand contradiction growth productive force apart correspondence contradiction relation production growth productive force correspondence contradiction superstructure economic base superstructure comprise state system law people democratic dictatorship socialist ideology guide marxismleninism play positive role facilitate victory socialist transformation socialist way organize labour correspondence socialist economic base socialist relation production existence bourgeois ideology certain bureaucratic style work state organ defect link state institution contradiction socialist economic base continue resolve contradiction light specific condition course new problem emerge contradiction resolve effort require resolve new contradiction instance constant process readjustment state planning need deal contradiction production need society long remain objective reality year country draw economic plan order establish proper ratio accumulation consumption achieve equilibrium production need equilibrium temporary relative unity opposite end year equilibrium take upset struggle opposite unity undergo change equilibrium disequilibrium unity disunity necessary work equilibrium unity year lie superiority plan economy matter fact equilibrium unity partially upset month quarter partial readjustment call contradiction arise equilibrium upset subjective arrangement conform objective reality make mistake ceaseless emergence ceaseless resolution contradiction constitute dialectical law development thing today matter stand follow largescale turbulent class struggle masse characteristic time revolution main come end class struggle mean entirely welcome new system masse accustomed government personnel sufficiently experienced undertake study investigation specific policy word time need socialist system establish consolidate masse accustomed new system government personnel learn acquire experience imperative juncture raise question distinguish contradiction people enemy question correct handling contradiction people order unite people nationality country new battle battle nature develop economy culture help nation traverse period transition relatively smoothly consolidate new system build new state ii question eliminate counterrevolutionary elimination counterrevolutionary struggle opposite enemy people question somewhat different light kind people hold view differ right deviation thinking distinction enemy enemy people regard friend person masse regard enemy left deviation thinking magnify contradiction enemy extent certain contradiction people contradiction enemy regard counterrevolutionary person actually view wrong make possible correctly handling problem eliminate counterrevolutionary correct assessment work form correct evaluation work eliminate counterrevolutionary let repercussion hungarian incident china occurrence unrest section intellectual squall reason say success eliminate counterrevolutionary fairly thoroughly course consolidation state primarily elimination counterrevolutionary primarily fact communist party liberation army temper decade revolutionary struggle work people likewise temper party armed force root masse temper flame protract revolution capacity fight people republic build overnight developed step step revolutionary base area number democratic personage temper struggle vary degree go troubled time intellectual temper struggle imperialism reaction liberation go process ideological remoulding aim enable distinguish clearly enemy addition consolidation state fact economic measure basically sound people life secure steadily improve policy national bourgeoisie class correct success eliminate counterrevolutionary undoubtedly important reason consolidation state reason exception college student patriotic support socialism way unrest hungarian incident come family nonworke people true national bourgeoisie basic masse worker peasant liberation root number counterrevolutionary sentence death major crime absolutely necessary demand masse free long year oppression counterrevolutionary kind local tyrant word liberate productive force masse able lift head radical change situation country bulk counterrevolutionary clear basic task change unfettere productive force protect expand context new relation production failure understand present policy fit present situation past policy fit past situation people want use present policy reverse past decision negate tremendous success achieve eliminate counterrevolutionary completely wrong masse permit work eliminate counterrevolutionary success main thing mistake case excess counterrevolutionary slip net policy counterrevolutionary eliminate find mistake correct discover line work eliminate counterrevolutionary mass line course mass line mistake occur few easy correct masse gain experience struggle thing correctly gain experience thing correctly mistake gain experience mistake mistake discover work eliminate counterrevolutionary step take correct discover correct soon come light exoneration rehabilitation know widely original wrong decision propose comprehensive review work eliminate counterrevolutionary year sum experience promote justice counter unjust attack nationally review charge stand committee national people congress national committee political consultative conference locally charge people council committee political consultative conference province municipality review help large number cadre activist involve work pour cold water right dampen spirit nonetheless wrong right discover attitude public security organ procurator office judicial department prison agency charge reform criminal labour hope possible member standing committee national people congress member national committee political consultative conference people deputy review help perfect legal system deal correctly counterrevolutionary criminal present situation regard counterrevolutionary describe word counterrevolutionary place counterrevolutionary people not left lay head pillow drop sleep way thing fact counterrevolutionary course ll find organization continue fight understand hidden counterrevolutionary large thing lie certainly seize opportunity trouble imperialist chiang kaishek clique constantly send secret agent carry disruptive activity exist counterrevolutionary comb new one likely emerge drop guard shall badly fool shall suffer severely counterrevolutionary root firm hand find make trouble take country certainly counterrevolutionary wrong large number counterrevolutionary china acceptance view likewise result mess iii question cooperative transformation agriculture rural population million peasant fare important bearing development economy consolidation state power view situation basically sound cooperative transformation agriculture successfully accomplish resolve great contradiction country socialist industrialization individual peasant economy cooperative transformation agriculture complete rapidly people worried wonder untoward occur fault fortunately movement healthy peasant work year increase countrys grain output despite bad flood drought gale year people stir miniature typhoon say cooperation good superior cooperation superior document distribute today meet wang kuofan cooperative tsunhua county hopei province suggest read cooperative situate hilly region poor past number year depend relief grain people government cooperative set people call pauper coop well year year year hard struggle household reserve grain possible cooperative possible achieve normal condition length time little long clearly ground say go wrong agricultural cooperation clear take hard struggle build cooperative new thing experience difficulty setback grow sheer fantasy imagine cause socialism al plain sailing easy success difficulty setback exertion tremendous effort active supporter cooperative overwhelming majority poor lowermiddle peasant constitute cent rural population peasant place hope cooperative small minority dissatisfied number person fail analyse situation overall examination achievement shortcoming cooperative cause shortcoming instead take picture matter consequently miniature typhoon stir people say cooperative superior long consolidate cooperative talk superior wind judge experience growth cooperative probably year little long cooperative little year old unreasonable ask view cooperative consolidate second fiveyear plan establish cooperative process gradual consolidation certain contradiction remain resolve state cooperative cooperative resolve contradiction pay constant attention problem production distribution question production cooperative economy subject unified economic planning state retain certain flexibility independence run counter state unified plan policy law regulation time household d cooperative comply overall plan cooperative production team belong appropriate plan regard land allot personal need individually operate economic undertaking question distribution interest state collective individual account properly handle threeway relationship state agricultural tax cooperative accumulation fund peasant personal income constant care readjustment resolve contradiction accumulation essential state cooperative case excessive possible enable peasant normal year raise personal income annually increase production people peasant lead hard life true sense imperialist agent oppress exploit century impoverished country standard live peasant worker intellectual low need decade strenuous effort gradually raise standard living people context right peasant lead hard life sense true refer allegation seven year liberation life worker improve peasant matter fact exception improvement life peasant worker liberation peasant free landlord exploitation production increase annually grain crop countrys output million cattie rise million cattie increase nearly million cattie state agricultural tax heavy amount million cattie year state purchase grain peasant standard price little million cattie year item total million cattie furthermore half grain sell village nearby town obviously improvement life peasant order help agriculture develop cooperative consolidated plan stabilize total annual grain tax plus grain purchase state somewhat million cattie year way small number graindeficient household find countryside stop short peasant household raise industrial crop grain reserve selfsufficient long poor peasant countryside standard living entire peasantry reach surpass middle peasant level right simply compare peasant average annual income worker jump conclusion low high labour productivity worker high peasant latter cost living low worker city worker say receive special favour state wage small number worker state personnel fact little high peasant reason dissatisfied necessary certain appropriate adjustment accord specific circumstance iv question industrialist businessman regard transformation social system year see conversion privately own industrial commercial enterprise joint stateprivate enterprise cooperative transformation agriculture handicraft speed smoothness conversion closely bind treat contradiction work class national bourgeoisie contradiction people class contradiction completely resolve considerable period time people capitalist remould different worker remould unnecessary far capitalist well worker ask remould necessary not necessary work class opinion correct course building socialist society everybody need remould exploiter work people say not necessary work class course remoulding exploiter essentially different work people confuse work class remould society class struggle struggle nature process remould ceaselessly learn course work gradually overcome shortcoming stop example present progress year remould year sort nonmarxist idea later embrace marxism learn little marxism book take step remould ideology mainly take class struggle year come remould progress continue learn shall lag capitalist good need remould people contend chinese bourgeoisie long side character true member bourgeoisie administrative personnel joint stateprivate enterprise transform exploiter work people live labour fix rate interest capital joint enterprise cut loose root exploitation work class considerable gap ideology sentiment habit life say long side character stop receive fix interest payment bourgeois label remove need ideological remoulding time allege bourgeoisie long dual character capitalist long task study remould say view tally actual situation industrialist businessman want past year willing study marked progress thorough remoulding achieve course work engage labour staff worker enterprise regard enterprise chief place remould important change old view study study voluntary basis return enterprise study group week industrialist businessman find common language worker representative state ownership well possibility work know personal experience good study remould idea mention study remould necessary reflect view majority industrialist businessman small number v question intellectual contradiction rank people country find expression intellectual million intellectual work old society come serve new society question arise fit need new society help contradiction people intellectual marked progress seven year show favour socialist system diligently study marxism communist present small number steadily increase course intellectual sceptical socialism approve minority china need service intellectual possible colossal task build socialism trust willing serve cause socialism radically improve relation help solve problem require solution play talent comrade good unite intellectual stiff attitude lack respect work interfere certain scientific cultural matter interference unwarranted away shortcoming large number intellectual progress complacent continue remould gradually shed bourgeois world outlook acquire proletarian communist world outlook fully fit need new society unite worker peasant change world outlook fundamental intellectual say accomplish hope continue progress course work study gradually acquire communist world outlook grasp marxismleninism integrate worker peasant hope stop halfway bad slide future go backwards countrys social system change economic base bourgeois ideology main destroy imperative large number intellectual change world outlook possible thorough change world outlook take long time spare pain help impatient actually bind ideologically reluctant accept marxismleninism communism exact demand long comply requirement lay state engage legitimate pursuit let opportunity suitable work student intellectual recently fall ideological political work unhealthy tendency appear people think long need concern politic future motherland ideal mankind marxism rage currently fashion counter tendency strengthen ideological political work student intellectual study hard addition study specialized subject progress ideologically politically mean study marxism current event politic correct political orientation like have soul ideological remoulding past necessary yield positive result carry somewhat roughandready fashion feeling people hurt good avoid shortcoming future department organization shoulder responsibility ideological political work apply communist party youth league government department charge work especially head educational institution teacher educational policy enable receive education develop morally intellectually physically worker socialist consciousness culture spread idea build country diligence thrift help young people understand poor country change situation radically short time decade united effort young generation people work hand china prosperous strong establishment socialist system open road lead ideal society future translate ideal reality need hard work young people think ought perfect socialist society establish able enjoy happy life readymade work unrealistic vi question minority nationalitie minority nationality country number thirty million constitute cent total population inhabit extensive region comprise cent chinas total area imperative foster good relation han people minority nationalitie key question lie overcome han chauvinism time effort overcome localnationality chauvinism exist minority nationality hanchauvinism localnationality chauvinism harmful unity nationality represent kind contradiction people resolve work end area inhabit minority nationality considerable improvement relation nationality number problem remain solve area han chauvinism localnationality chauvinism exit degree demand attention result effort people nationality year democratic reform socialist transformation main complete minority nationality area democrat reform carry tibet condition ripe accord seventeenarticle agreement reach central people government local government tibet reform social system carry timing decide great majority people tibet local lead public figure consider opportune impatient decide proceed democratic reform tibet period second fiveyear plan proceed period fiveyear plan decide light situation time vii overall consideration proper arrangement overall consideration mean consideration embrace million people country draw plan handle affair think problem proceed fact china population million forget fact point possible people unaware population million course know come actual practice people forget act few people small circle well small circle mentality abhor idea bring positive factor play unite unite possible turn negative factor positive one serve great cause build socialist society hope people wide view fully recognize population million objective fact asset large population good thing course involve certain difficulty construction go ahead vigorously front successfully present transition period tremendous social change difficult problem progress time difficulty contradiction contradiction resolve definitely guide principle overall consideration proper arrangement problem concern food natural calamity employment education intellectual united patriotic force minority nationality proceed standpoint overall consideration embrace people proper arrangement consultation circle concern light feasible particular time place account complain people backward thing troublesome hard handle close door mean government care course case leave direct care public organization masse capable devise good way handle come scope principle overall consideration pro arrangement guidance public organization people viii let flower blossom let school thought contend longterm coexistence mutual supervision let flower blossom let school thought contend longterm coexistence mutual supervisionhow slogan come forward forward light chinas specific condition recognition continued existence kind contradiction socialist society response countrys urgent need speed economic cultural development let flower blossom school thought contend policy promote progress art science flourish socialist culture land different form style art develop freely different school science contend freely think harmful growth art science administrative measure impose particular style art school thought ban question right wrong art science settle free discussion artistic scientific circle practical work field settle oversimple manner period trial need determine right wrong history outset new correct thing fail win recognition majority people develop twist turn struggle correct good thing regard fragrant flower poisonous weed copernicus theory solar system darwin theory evolution dismiss erroneous win bitter opposition chinese history offer similar example socialist society condition growth new radically different far superior old society happen new rise force hold sound idea stifle absence deliberate suppression growth new thing hinder simply lack discernment necessary careful question right wrong art science encourage free discussion avoid hasty conclusion believe attitude help ensure relatively smooth development art science marxism develop struggle beginning marxism subject kind attack regard poisonous weed case part world socialist country enjoy different position nonmarxist antimarxist ideology exist country china socialist transformation main complete regard system ownership largescale turbulent class struggle masse characteristic time revolution main come end remnant overthrow landlord comprador class bourgeoisie remoulding petty bourgeoisie start class struggle mean class struggle proletariat bourgeoisie class struggle political force class struggle proletariat bourgeoisie ideological field protract tortuous time sharp proletariat seek transform world accord world outlook bourgeoisie respect question win socialism capitalism settle marxist remain minority entire population intellectual marxism continue develop struggle marxism develop struggle true past present necessarily true future correct invariably develop course struggle wrong true good beautiful exist contrast false evil ugly grow struggle soon erroneous reject particular truth accept mankind new truth begin struggle new error struggle end law development truth naturally marxism fairly long period time decide issue ideological struggle socialism capitalism country reason influence bourgeoisie intellectual come old society influence constitute class ideology persist country long time understand insufficiently understand grave mistake necessity wage struggle ideological field ignore ideological struggle differ form struggle method painstaking reasoning crude coercion today socialism advantageous position ideological struggle basic power state hand work people lead proletariat communist party strong prestige high defect mistake work fairminded person loyal people determined able build motherland achieve great success achieve great one vast majority bourgeoisie intellectual come old society patriotic willing serve flourish socialist motherland know fall future possibly bright turn away socialist cause work people lead communist party people ask marxism accept guide ideology majority people country criticize certainly marxism scientific truth fear criticism overthrow criticism worthless fact not idealist criticize marxism day way harbour bourgeois pettybourgeois idea wish change not criticize marxism way marxist afraid criticism quarter contrary need temper develop win new position tooth criticism storm stress struggle fight wrong idea like vaccinate man develop great immunity disease result vaccination plant raise hothouse unlikely hardy carry policy let flower blossom school thought contend weaken strengthen lead position marxism ideological field policy nonmarxist idea far unmistakable counterrevolutionary saboteur socialist cause concern matter easy simply deprive freedom speech incorrect idea people different matter ban idea deny opportunity expression certainly futile harmful use crude method deal ideological question people question mans mental world ban expression wrong idea idea hand correct idea pamper hothouse expose element immunize disease win erroneous one employ method discussion criticism reason foster correct idea overcome wrong one settle issue inevitable bourgeoisie petty bourgeoisie expression ideology inevitable stubbornly assert political ideological question possible mean expect use method suppression prevent express allow time argue direct appropriate criticism undoubtedly criticize wrong idea description certainly right refrain criticism look wrong idea spread unchecked allow dominate field mistake criticize poisonous weed fight crop criticism dogmatic metaphysical method instead effort apply dialectical method need scientific analysis convincing argument dogmatic criticism settle poisonous weed kind eve carefully distinguish poisonous weed fragrant flower masse people learn differentiate carefully use correct method fight poisonous weed time criticize dogmatism direct attention criticize revisionism revisionism right opportunism bourgeois trend thought dangerous dogmatism revisionist right opportunist pay lipservice marxism attack dogmatism attack quintessence marxism oppose distort materialism dialectic oppose try weaken people democratic dictatorship leading role communist party oppose try weaken socialist transformation socialist construction basic victory socialist revolution number people society vainly hope restore capitalist system sure fight work class include ideological righthand man struggle revisionist literally slogan let flower blossom let school thought contend class character proletariat turn account bourgeoisie different class strata social group view fragrant flower poisonous weed point view masse criterion today distinguish fragrant flower poisonous weed political activity people judge person word deed right wrong basis principle constitution overwhelming majority people common political position proclaim occasion political party consider broadly speak criterion follow word deed help unite divide people nationality beneficial harmful socialist transformation socialist construction help consolidate undermine weaken people democratic dictatorship help consolidate undermine weaken democratic centralism help strengthen shake weaken leadership communist party beneficial harmful international socialist unity unity peacelove people world criterion important socialist path leadership party criterion forward hinder foster free discussion question people disapprove criterion state view argue case long majority people clearcut criterion criticism selfcriticism conduct proper line criterion apply people word deed determine right wrong fragrant flower poisonous weed political criterion naturally judge validity scientific theory assess aesthetic value work art relevant criterion need political criterion applicable activity art science socialist country like possibly useful scientific artistic activity run counter political criterion view set base chinas specific historical condition condition vary different socialist country different communist party maintain adopt chinese way slogan longterm coexistence mutual supervision product chinas specific historical condition forward sudden making year idea longterm coexistence long time socialist system main establish year slogan formulate explicit term bourgeois pettybourgeois democratic party allow exist party work class long period time reason adopt policy longterm coexistence political party truly devoted task unite people cause socialism enjoy trust people early june second session national committee political consultative conference matter way people government reason reject deny opportunity make living render service country provide willing serve people provide help good turn people face difficulty keep good give halfway discuss political basis longterm coexistence party desire policy communist party exist democratic party long time come democratic party long remain existence depend merely desire communist party acquit enjoy trust people mutual supervision party longestablished fact sense long advise criticize mutual supervision obviously oneside matter mean communist party exercise supervision democratic party vice versa democratic party allow exercise supervision communist party party individual great need hear opinion different know supervision communist party mainly exercise work people party membership augment benefit supervision democratic party course advice criticism exchange communist party democratic party play positive supervisory role conform political criterion give hope order fit need new society democratic party pay attention ideological remoulding strive longterm coexistence communist party mutual supervision ix question disturbance create small number people small number worker student certain place go strike immediate cause disturbance failure satisfy demand material benefit meet place excessive meet time important cause bureaucracy leadership case responsibility bureaucratic mistake fall high authority low level blame cause disturbance lack ideological political education worker student year agricultural cooperative disturbance create member main cause bureaucracy leadership lack educational work masse admit masse prone pay attention immediate partial personal interest understand sufficiently understand longrange national collective interest lack political social experience number young people readily contrast old china new easy thoroughly comprehend hardship people go struggle free oppression imperialist kuomintang reactionary long year hard work need fine socialist society establish constantly carry lively effective political education masse tell truth difficulty crop discuss surmount difficulty approve disturbance contradiction people resolve method unity criticism unity disturbance bind cause loss conducive advance socialism believe masse people support socialism conscientiously observe discipline reasonable certainly disturbance cause mean possibility disturbance masse long exist country question pay attention follow order root cause disturbance resolutely overcome bureaucracy greatly improve ideological political education deal contradiction properly generally speak disturbance disturbance occur result poor work guide involve correct path use disturbance special mean improve work educate cadre masse find solution problem previously leave unsolved handle disturbance pain use oversimple method hastily declare matter close ringleader disturbance summarily expel commit criminal offence active counterrevolutionary punish law large country like alarmed small number people create disturbance contrary disturbance help rid bureaucracy small number individual society flout public interest wilfully break law commit crime apt advantage policy distort deliberately forward unreasonable demand order incite masse deliberately spread rumour create trouble disrupt public order propose let individual way contrary proper legal action take punish demand masse run counter popular punish x bad thing turn good thing society say disturbance masse bad approve disturbance occur enable learn lesson overcome bureaucracy educate cadre masse sense bad thing turn good thing disturbance dual character disturbance regard way everybody know hungarian incident good thing dual character hungarian comrade take proper action course incident bad thing eventually turn good hungary consolidated country socialist camp learn lesson similarly worldwide campaign communism people take place half course bad thing serve educate temper communist party work class country turn good thing storm stress period number people country withdraw communist party withdrawal party reduce membership course bad thing good vacillate element unwilling carry withdraw vast majority staunch party member well unite struggle not good thing sum learn look problem side see reverse obverse thing give condition bad thing lead good result good thing bad result thousand year ago lao tzu say good fortune lieth bad bad fortune lurketh japanese shoot way china call victory huge part chinas territory seize chinese call defeat victory conceive chinas defeat defeat conceive japans victory not history prove true people world discuss world war break question mentally prepared analysis stand firmly peace war imperialist insist unleash war afraid attitude question attitude disturbance second afraid world war follow birth soviet union population million second world war follow emergence socialist camp combined population million imperialist insist launch world war certain million turn socialism room leave earth imperialist likely structure imperialism completely collapse give condition oppose aspect contradiction invariably transform opposite result struggle condition essential give condition contradictory aspect transform opposite class world proletariat eager change position come semiproletariat possess hardly well united states control majority united nations dominate part world state affair temporary change day china position poor country deny right international affair change poor country change rich country deny right enjoy transformation thing opposite decisive condition socialist system concert effort united people xi practise economy wish speak briefly practice economy want carry largescale construction country poor lie contradiction way resolve sustained effort practice strict economy field movement evil fight corruption waste bureaucracy emphasis combat corruption advocate practice economy great success emphasis combat unduly high standard nonproductive project capital construction economize raw material industrial production time economy apply earnest guide principle branch national economy government office army unit school people organization general year call economy elimination waste sphere country lack experience work construction year great success achieve waste build number largescale modern enterprise step step form mainstay industry shall able turn china powerful modern industrial country come decade majority enterprise build scale set small medium enterprise use industrial base inherit old society effect great economy money good result begin appear month principle practice strict economy combat waste forward emphatic term second plenary session eighth central committee communist party china november present campaign economy conduct thorough sustained way like criticism fault mistake fight waste compare washing one face not people wash face day chinese communist party democratic party democrats party affiliation intellectual industrialist businessman worker peasant handicraftsman short million people strive increase production economy extravagance waste prime importance economically politically dangerous tendency show late personnel unwillingness share weal woe masse concern personal fame gain bad way overcome streamline organization course campaign increase production practice economy transfer cadre low level considerable number return productive work cadre people constantly bear mind large socialist country economically backward poor big contradiction china prosperous strong need decade hard struggle mean thing pursue policy build country diligence thrift practice strict economy fight waste xii china path industrialization discuss path industrialization concerned principally relationship growth heavy industry light industry agriculture affirm heavy industry core chinas economic construction time attention pay development agriculture light industry china large agricultural country cent population rural area agriculture develop industry industry secure raw material market possible accumulate fund build powerful heavy industry know light industry closely tie agriculture agriculture light industry clearly understand agriculture provide heavy industry important market fact readily appreciate gradual progress technical transformation modernization agriculture call machinery fertilizer water conservancy electric power project transport facility farm fuel building material rural consumer period second fiveyear plan entire national economy benefit achieve great growth agriculture induce correspondingly great development light industry agriculture light industry develop heavy industry assure market fund grow fast slow pace industrialization actually slow fast fiveyear plan little long china annual steel output raise ton compare peak preliberation output ton gladden people town country propose dwell economic question today barely seven year economic construction lack experience need accumulate experience revolution start take number tumble acquire experience win nationwide victory demand gain experience economic construction short period time take gain experience revolution pay high price price pay hope high pay period revolution realize contradiction contradiction objective law economic development socialist society subjective cognition need resolve course practice contradiction manifest contradiction different people contradiction reflection objective law relatively accurate reflection relatively inaccurate contradiction people contradiction objective reality task reflect resolve nearly correct fashion order turn china industrial country learn conscientiously advanced experience soviet union soviet union build socialism year experience valuable let ask design equip important factory united states britain soviet union willing socialist country ally addition soviet union fraternal country east europe give assistance perfectly true learn good experience country socialist capitalist argument main thing learn soviet union different attitude learn dogmatic attitude transplant suit condition good attitude use head learn thing suit condition absorb experience useful attitude adopt strengthen solidarity soviet union strengthen solidarity socialist countriesthis fundamental policy basic interest lie asian african country peacelove country people strengthen develop solidarity unite force shall stand imperialist country unite people strive coexist peacefully country business prevent possible war circumstance harbour unrealistic notion lao tzu chapter lviii transcription maoist documentation project html revise marxistsorg select work mao tsetung | 93 |
Author: Harry Ratner. Source: New Interventions, Volume 13, no 4, Summer 2011. Prepared for the Marxist Internet Archive: by Paul Flewers & David Walters in 2017 & 2018 Copyright: New Interventions & Paul Flewers. Used here with permission. Alexander Baron, From the City From the Plough, Black Spring Press, 2010 When I fought in the British army in the Second World War in Sicily, I did not realise that one of my fellow soldiers, in 243 Company of the Pioneer Corps, a corporal Joe Bernstein, with whom I campaigned in Sicily, Italy and then on the Normandy beaches, would turn out to become a well-known author under the name of Alexander Baron! Nor that 67 years later, at the age of 91, I was to read for the first time his book about the fighting in Normandy, From the City From the Plough, first published in 1948 and reprinted in 2010. In his introduction to the 2010 edition, the military historian Sean Longden writes: In the commonly espoused version of literary history, working-class literature exploded in the 1950s with a new breed of writers, the so-called ‘angry young men’. But these were not the first authentic voices of a literate British working class. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s there had existed a stream of left-wing writers, many from the factories and mines of industrial Britain. Many were active in the Communist Party, the trade unions or the left wing of the Labour Party. Yet few of these writers ignited the literary world, mostly publishing one or two novels before returning to obscurity. They remain largely forgotten, in favour of their more successful literary descendants from the 1950s. Yet there is one writer who bridges the gap between the left-leaning writers of the interwar years and the new breed of ‘angry young men’ with their ‘kitchen-sink’ dramas: a novelist who was at his most powerful when writing about the war from the perspective of the ordinary soldier. An author whose work has been largely forgotten to all but a hard core of admirers, but who is increasingly being rediscovered by a new audience. That writer was Alexander Baron, and the book that launched his career was From the City From the Plough. Alexander Baron was born Joseph Alexander Bernstein on 4 December 1917, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant fur-cutter working in the ‘rag trade’ in London’s East End. In 1934 he joined the Labour League of Youth (the Labour Party’s youth wing). By 1936 the LLOY in London had become polarised into bitterly opposed Stalinist and Trotskyist factions with hardly any ordinary ‘Labourites’ in between. Any new members like myself were soon courted and recruited by the rival factions. The Trotskyists won me over, but Bernstein/Baron must have been recruited by Ted Willis’ ‘Advance’ faction which seceded and joined the Young Communist League. Although I don’t remember him at the time, we must have met either at conferences or in the street battles that the LLOY and the YCL conducted in the East End against Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts. Until the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the Communist Party’s policy had been an anti-war one based on the alliance between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and their joint rape of Poland. The CP had been advocating peace negotiations with Hitler. Baron had originally loyally accepted this CP line, but had been unhappy with it. As Longden explains in his introduction to the book: … already the course of the war had begun to change his understanding of politics. In the summer of 1940, when he saw the soldiers returning from Dunkirk, Baron found himself with new thoughts, later writing that he had been ‘obscurely stirred, with a touch of distress. I am sure that this was the other self in me awakened again… there was something going on around me that I did not want to be left out of anymore.’ When he was called up he felt what he described ‘as a drench of pleasure’. It was the start of what he called ‘a struggle for my soul’ between the Communist Party and his membership of an army that was actually fighting fascism. The Soviet Union’s entry into the war on the same side as the Allies must have been a relief to him — although by then his faith in the CP and Stalinism generally had been severely weakened. When we found ourselves together in 243 Coy RPC he never expressed his reservations to me and I assumed he was still a loyal Stalinist. I regret that I did not approach him more forcefully as I am sure we could have arrived at some sort of accommodation and worked together. He was aware of my Trotskyist views and attempts to argue for them among our fellow soldiers. Although From the City From the Plough is written as a novel, it is also a very true and accurate picture of the fighting in Normandy seen from the point of view of the ordinary soldier. The events and characters in the novel are based on his own experiences and those of his fellow soldiers. Many Pioneers were seconded from their own Pioneer companies to other formations for various tasks. For example I was, for a time, attached to 50th Division’s counter-intelligence section to search out and capture enemy agents; Baron was attached to an infantry battalion. In the novel the battalion is called the Fifth Wessex and the names of the officers and men are made up. The real battalion was the Fifth Wiltshires, part of the 43rd Wessex Division. The battle described by Barron in the novel for the capture of Mont Pincon actually took place and the incidents described in the novel have been vouched for as accurate by actual members of the battalion at the time. The novel is not about the actual fighting alone; the larger part of it paints a picture of what happens in between battles and before: the training, the discipline, the boredom; about how the military machine uproots individuals, throws them together in new environments and forces them to establish new personal relationships. The novel contains many living character sketches of seemingly quiet and timid individuals who grow in stature in the face of danger and hardships; of ‘tough’ individuals who break down under the strain. Baron is also very perceptive about relations between officers, non-commissioned officers and the ordinary soldiers and how the maintenance of discipline is more complex than the mere enforcement of rules and the punishment of misdemeanour and how officers and NCOs must win the respect of the men. The novel contains an account of a new ‘hard case’ joining the platoon, a repeat offender who has seen the inside of many civil and military prisons and of the battle of wills between him and the platoon sergeant. The sergeant must not lose face and the respect of the rest of the platoon by allowing the newcomer openly to flout his orders. But he also must not ‘pull rank’ and provoke permanent enmity and resentment — after all some officers and NCOs have received a bullet in the back in battle situations — and he must also retain the respect and support of the rest of the platoon. In the end, the sergeant wins the battle of wills and integrates the awkward soldier within the unit. Baron’s novel is not ‘political’ in the ordinary sense. His characters do not talk politics, have little to say on their attitude to the war. For them the war is one of the facts of life; like the weather, they can do nothing about it but endure it. Their loyalty is not to king or country but to their immediate mates, their platoon, their battalion. Of course they are frightened; who would not be? But they can’t afford to panic; each man has a job to do whether it is crouching in a slit trench firing at the enemy, clearing mines or bringing up the rations. There is an incident in the novel where a corporal cook and a soldier are bringing up a dixie of tea to the front-line soldiers and are fired on by a sniper. The corporal-cook and his mate unsling their rifles, shoot the sniper, pick up the dixie and deliver the still hot tea to their mates in the front line. But though not ‘political’ in one sense, the book is intensely political in so far as it paints a picture of what war was really like for thousands, nay millions, of soldiers on both sides. A very similar book could have been written about the German soldiers facing Baron’s characters. Of course Germany was Nazi and Britain was supposed to be fighting for ‘democracy’, but Baron’s soldiers and their German ‘enemies’ shared the same fears and the same experiences. Longden gives us a glimpse of Baron’s feelings in his introduction: The fighting in Normandy exposed Baron to vicious warfare, with all the horrors that came with it: almost constant noise, the loss of friends, the grip of fear, the sight of hideously bloated corpses and the all-pervading smell of death. It opened his eyes to the tremendous waste of life. One particular sight remained with Baron throughout his life. Looking back at his time in Normandy, Baron recalled being surrounded by the corpses of German soldiers. He was struck by the struggle between his belief in Communism and his feelings about the war. He was still a Communist in 1944, but later he looked back at the fate of the dead Germans and saw them as doomed youth who had been, he said, ‘misled like me by the same blind faith and poisoned by wicked lies’. Reading this book, and now reviewing it brings back many memories for me. Fare well comrade corporal Joe Bernstein! Back to Tables of Contents | Trotskyist Publications Index | Last updated on 11 January 2018 | left | author harry ratner source new intervention volume summer prepare marxist internet archive paul flewers david walter copyright new intervention paul flewer permission alexander baron city plough black spring press fight british army second world war sicily realise fellow soldier company pioneer corps corporal joe bernstein campaign sicily italy normandy beach turn wellknown author alexander baron year later age read time book fighting normandy city plough publish reprint introduction edition military historian sean longden write commonly espouse version literary history workingclass literature explode new breed writer socalled angry young man authentic voice literate british work class exist stream leftwe writer factory mine industrial britain active communist party trade union left wing labour party writer ignite literary world publish novel return obscurity remain largely forget favour successful literary descendant writer bridge gap leftleane writer interwar year new breed angry young man kitchensink drama novelist powerful write war perspective ordinary soldier author work largely forget hard core admirer increasingly rediscover new audience writer alexander baron book launch career city plough alexander baron bear joseph alexander bernstein december son russian jewish immigrant furcutter work rag trade london east end join labour league youth labour party youth wing lloy london polarise bitterly oppose stalinist trotskyist faction hardly ordinary labourite new member like soon court recruit rival faction trotskyist win bernsteinbaron recruit ted willis advance faction secede join young communist league remember time meet conference street battle lloy ycl conduct east end mosley fascist blackshirt german attack soviet union communist party policy antiwar base alliance soviet union nazi germany joint rape poland cp advocate peace negotiation hitler baron originally loyally accept cp line unhappy longden explain introduction book course war begin change understanding politic summer see soldier return dunkirk baron find new thought later write obscurely stir touch distress sure self awaken go want leave anymore call feel describe drench pleasure start call struggle soul communist party membership army actually fight fascism soviet union entry war ally relief faith cp stalinism generally severely weaken find coy rpc express reservation assume loyal stalinist regret approach forcefully sure arrive sort accommodation work aware trotskyist view attempt argue fellow soldier city plough write novel true accurate picture fighting normandy see point view ordinary soldier event character novel base experience fellow soldier pioneer second pioneer company formation task example time attach division counterintelligence section search capture enemy agent baron attach infantry battalion novel battalion call fifth wessex name officer man real battalion fifth wiltshire wessex division battle describe barron novel capture mont pincon actually take place incident describe novel vouch accurate actual member battalion time novel actual fighting large paint picture happen battle training discipline boredom military machine uproot individual throw new environment force establish new personal relationship novel contain live character sketch seemingly quiet timid individual grow stature face danger hardship tough individual break strain baron perceptive relation officer noncommissioned officer ordinary soldier maintenance discipline complex mere enforcement rule punishment misdemeanour officer ncos win respect man novel contain account new hard case join platoon repeat offender see inside civil military prison battle will platoon sergeant sergeant lose face respect rest platoon allow newcomer openly flout order pull rank provoke permanent enmity resentment officer ncos receive bullet battle situation retain respect support rest platoon end sergeant win battle will integrate awkward soldier unit baron novel political ordinary sense character talk politic little attitude war war fact life like weather endure loyalty king country immediate mate platoon battalion course frightened afford panic man job crouch slit trench fire enemy clearing mine bring ration incident novel corporal cook soldier bring dixie tea frontline soldier fire sniper corporalcook mate unsle rifle shoot sniper pick dixie deliver hot tea mate line political sense book intensely political far paint picture war like thousand nay million soldier side similar book write german soldier face baron character course germany nazi britain suppose fight democracy baron soldier german enemy share fear experience longden give glimpse baron feeling introduction fighting normandy expose baron vicious warfare horror come constant noise loss friend grip fear sight hideously bloated corpse allpervading smell death open eye tremendous waste life particular sight remain baron life look time normandy baron recall surround corpse german soldier strike struggle belief communism feeling war communist later look fate dead german see doom youth say mislead like blind faith poison wicked lie read book review bring memory fare comrade corporal joe bernstein table content trotskyist publication index update january | 94 |
Reprinted with permission from Index Books. Copyright by New Park Publications. Indexreach Ltd. Registered office: 4-5 King Street, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1ND. Transcribed by Martin Fahlgren in 2008 for the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line Foreword 1 Trotsky opens the attack From Trotsky’s letter 2 The Platform of the 46 To the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party 3 The Moscow—Party meeting December 11 1923 Sapronov’s speech Preobrazhensky’s speech 4 The Moscow Provincial Conference January 10-11 1924 Preobrazhensky’s speech 5 The Thirteenth Party Conference January 16-18 1924 Pyatakov’s speech Preobrazhensky’s speech Biographical Notes Foreword The conditions under which Trotsky began his fight against the growing dangers of bureaucracy in post-revolutionary Russia were ones of considerable difficulty. A proletarian party had led a successful revolution in a still backward and mainly peasant country. World War I had wreaked havoc on the Russian economy. Subsequent revolutions, the ravages of civil war and, more than anything, the temporary isolation of the Soviet Union set in motion conservative and reactionary forces in Russian society which found their expression within the Bolshevik Party. It was against these trends that Lenin (until his death in early 1924) and Trotsky took up their fight. In his last writings, such as ‘Better Less, But Better’ and ‘On the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection’. Lenin had drawn attention to the emergence of a bureaucratic layer within the Party and the state. He had described the regime as ‘a workers’ state with bureaucratic deformations’ and in a letter to Trotsky had proposed a bloc to fight them. These dangers had been considerably increased by the grave economic situation resulting from the war and the civil war and had made necessary a temporary retreat in the shape of the New Economic Policy (NEP). Under NEP a partial restoration of capitalism was allowed, although always within the limits of a planned economy. But the encouragement NEP gave to private trade and accumulation by the richer peasants (Kulaks) and a new class of petty capitalists (Nepmen) offered a social base for these trends and thus required an utmost vigilance and struggle in combating them. The workers’ state thus faced grave dangers and the Communist Party was necessarily plunged into a deep crisis, a crisis further aggravated by Lenin’s death. Effective power was increasingly concentrated in the hands of the Party secretary, Stalin, who, together with Zinoviev and Kamenev, constituted an informal ruling troika. Stalin was the dominant force, a position achieved through his control of the Party apparatus. He relied upon the support of a considerable layer of Party and state functionaries whose power and privileges increasingly cut them off not only from the masses but from the rank and file of the Party itself. This new ruling group was to find its ideological expression in the theory of ‘socialism in one country’, the complete revision of Marxism which Stalin first announced in 1924. In political terms this meant the abandonment of working-class internationalism. At the same time it also strengthened the conditions which enabled the growing bureaucracy to isolate, drive out and finally liquidate all those who stood fast by the traditions of Bolshevism. It would be wrong, of course, to think that when Trotsky and his supporters took up the fight and wrote the documents and made the speeches which we shall publish they could have seen the full extent of this development. What they did was to draw attention to the dangerous symptoms and signs which threatened the future of the revolution and the Party. Trotsky’s analysis of these developments is contained in his series of analysis of these developments is in his series of articles published as The New Course [New Park Publications. 1972]. Here Trotsky stressed that the ‘old guard’ of the party was by no means immune to degeneration, to the ‘gradual and imperceptible weakening of the revolutionary and proletarian spirit in its ranks’. Trotsky was acutely aware, throughout the early period of the fight, of the crucial importance of the question of Party generations. It was only by active collaboration with the new Party generations that the old guard would retain its revolutionary standing. He warned of the lessons of the German social democracy in the period before 1914. He depicted in considerable detail the dangers to the Party if it allowed itself to become separated from the masses. For Trotsky and his followers bureaucracy was a social phenomenon, not the product of ‘power hungry individuals’ or the ‘bad habits’ of office holders. Its roots were to be found in the situation confronting the Soviet regime in a backward peasant country isolated temporarily in a hostile capitalist world. Despite the growing bureaucratization of the Party, there was still some degree of democracy and freedom for discussion within its ranks and leadership in 1923. It was during Trotsky’s enforced absence through illness in 1923 and the still relatively free conditions that old Bolsheviks in support of Trotsky’s fight, such as Preobrazhensky and Pyatakov, had to carry forward the struggle. But like all political struggles, its outcome was not to be decided merely by the abstract correctness of the arguments in the fight. If this were the only consideration then Trotsky and the Opposition won the fight hands down. Not only were they proved completely correct about the dangers of a continuation of the NEP. They also anticipated the enormous dangers to the Soviet state that were present in the theory of socialism in one country which was to become the lode star of Stalinism from 1924 onwards. We must always remember that Trotsky and what later became the Left Opposition fought against the rise of Stalinism and the bureaucracy under extremely unfavourable circumstances. Starting with the 1923 defeat of the German revolution, followed by the defeat of the 1926 British General Strike and the crushing of the Chinese revolution, 1927, a series of defeats for the international revolution considerably strengthened the hand of Stalinism within the Communist International. These defeats were the first consequences of Stalin’s political line of ‘socialism in one country’ and its corollary ‘peaceful co-existence’ with imperialism. It was only as a result of these objective conditions that Stalin was able to defeat his opponents. Trotsky was first expelled from the Party and in 1929 forced into exile. But until 1933 Trotsky still held out the prospect for a defeat of the Stalin faction within the Communist International. He still hoped that experience would lead the Party back to the principles of Leninism. It was the defeat of the German working class at the hands of Hitler which was to change Trotsky’s attitude to Stalinism. This catastrophic defeat, the biggest and most decisive ever suffered by the European working class, was the direct result of Stalin’s ultra-left policies which had split the German working class and prepared f. r Hitler’s counter-revolution. Trotsky and his followers were now obliged to face up to the fact that Stalinism could no longer be reformed. Its actions in Germany had established that it had now gone over to the bourgeois order and become the most counter-revolutionary force within the working-class movement. Trotsky and his supporters had to prepare to found the Fourth International which they did in 1938. Peter Jeffries December 1 Encyclopedia of Trotskyism Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 16 April 2007 | left | reprint permission index book copyright new park publication indexreach ltd register office king street richmond surrey transcribe martin fahlgren encyclopedia trotskyism online foreword trotsky open attack trotsky letter platform politburo central committee russian communist party moscow party meeting december sapronov speech preobrazhensky speech moscow provincial conference january preobrazhensky speech thirteenth party conference january pyatakov speech preobrazhensky speech biographical note foreword condition trotsky begin fight grow danger bureaucracy postrevolutionary russia one considerable difficulty proletarian party lead successful revolution backward mainly peasant country world war wreak havoc russian economy subsequent revolution ravage civil war temporary isolation soviet union set motion conservative reactionary force russian society find expression bolshevik party trend lenin death early trotsky take fight writing well well worker peasant inspection lenin draw attention emergence bureaucratic layer party state describe regime worker state bureaucratic deformation letter trotsky propose bloc fight danger considerably increase grave economic situation result war civil war necessary temporary retreat shape new economic policy nep nep partial restoration capitalism allow limit plan economy encouragement nep give private trade accumulation rich peasant kulak new class petty capitalist nepman offer social base trend require utmost vigilance struggle combat worker state face grave danger communist party necessarily plunge deep crisis crisis aggravate lenin death effective power increasingly concentrate hand party secretary stalin zinoviev kamenev constitute informal rule troika stalin dominant force position achieve control party apparatus rely support considerable layer party state functionary power privilege increasingly cut masse rank file party new rule group find ideological expression theory socialism country complete revision marxism stalin announce political term mean abandonment workingclass internationalism time strengthen condition enable grow bureaucracy isolate drive finally liquidate stand fast tradition bolshevism wrong course think trotsky supporter take fight write document speech shall publish see extent development draw attention dangerous symptom sign threaten future revolution party trotsky analysis development contain series analysis development series article publish new course new park publication trotsky stress old guard party mean immune degeneration gradual imperceptible weakening revolutionary proletarian spirit rank trotsky acutely aware early period fight crucial importance question party generation active collaboration new party generation old guard retain revolutionary standing warn lesson german social democracy period depict considerable detail danger party allow separate masse trotsky follower bureaucracy social phenomenon product power hungry individual bad habit office holder root find situation confront soviet regime backward peasant country isolate temporarily hostile capitalist world despite grow bureaucratization party degree democracy freedom discussion rank leadership trotsky enforce absence illness relatively free condition old bolshevik support trotsky fight preobrazhensky pyatakov carry forward struggle like political struggle outcome decide merely abstract correctness argument fight consideration trotsky opposition win fight hand prove completely correct danger continuation nep anticipate enormous danger soviet state present theory socialism country lode star stalinism onwards remember trotsky later left opposition fight rise stalinism bureaucracy extremely unfavourable circumstance start defeat german revolution follow defeat british general strike crushing chinese revolution series defeat international revolution considerably strengthen hand stalinism communist international defeat consequence stalin political line socialism country corollary peaceful coexistence imperialism result objective condition stalin able defeat opponent trotsky expel party force exile trotsky hold prospect defeat stalin faction communist international hope experience lead party principle leninism defeat german work class hand hitler change trotsky attitude stalinism catastrophic defeat big decisive suffer european work class direct result stalin ultraleft policy split german work class prepare f r hitler counterrevolution trotsky follower oblige face fact stalinism long reform action germany establish go bourgeois order counterrevolutionary force workingclass movement trotsky supporter prepare find fourth international peter jeffrie december encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update april | 95 |
Paul Mattick 1974 Source: Class against Class. Contents Preface. Chapter 1. Bourgeois Economics Chapter 2. Marx’s Crisis Theory Chapter 3. The Epigones Chapter 4. Splendor and Misery of the Mixed Economy Chapter 5. Ernest Mandel’s Late Capitalism It was not so long ago that Keynesian economics seemed to offer instrumentalities not only to overcome depressions but to avoid them altogether. This is no longer true, as we find ourselves in a post-Keynesian world in which neither the equilibrium tendencies of supply and demand nor Keynesian interventions in the economic processes are able to prevent the steady deterioration of the economy through rising inflation and growing unemployment. Due to the long postwar prosperity in the leading capitalist nations, this has come to many people as an unpleasant surprise and has led to a new concern with the problem of the capitalist crisis. Although largely ignored by bourgeois economists before 1929, crises accompanied the whole of capitalistic development as the decisive “regulator” of the capital accumulation process. It is thus worthwhile to take an overall look at the crisis cycle both as it has asserted itself historically and with respect to the responses it evoked in economic theory. As regards bourgeois economics, however, there is very little to say, as its general equilibrium theory has no room for the dynamics of the dis-equilibrating process of capital expansion. Accumulation appears here as a matter of “saving,” or as a phenomenon of “growth,” for which an equilibrium path must be found in order to escape the persistent “business cycle.” That the problem is considered at all reflects the inescapable recognition that many, or all, of the categories of bourgeois economic theory have no more bearing on long-run capitalistic development than on the everyday production and exchange relations of the capitalist market. There is a strong tendency to look back to classical political economy, or even to Marx, in search for a more useful theoretical approach for solutions to the problems of capital production. In this connection it is interesting to note that the questions raised by present-day economists merely repeat, but in a shallower form, the discussions around the crisis problem carried on in the Marxist camp around the turn of the century. These controversies, too, concerned the possibility of an “equilibrium path” leading to a crisis-free, harmonious development. The different and contradictory interpretations of Marx’s crisis theory may provide some comfort to its opponents, but they indicate no more than the infiltration of bourgeois economic concepts into Marxian doctrine as the theoretical complement to the practical integration of the socialist movement into the capitalist system. There was, and is, a two-pronged endeavor to reconcile, at least to some extent, the historical antagonism between Marxism and bourgeois economic theory, which finds its reflection in an increasing eclecticism in both quarters. That the crisis of Marxism is still deepening may be surmised from the article on Ernest Mandel’s book on “late capitalism,” which brings the discussion, so to speak, up to date and confronts it with undiluted Marxist crisis theory. P.M. Paul Mattick Archive | left | paul mattick source class class content preface chapter bourgeois economic chapter marx crisis theory chapter epigone chapter splendor misery mixed economy chapter ern mandel late capitalism long ago keynesian economic offer instrumentality overcome depression avoid altogether long true find postkeynesian world equilibrium tendency supply demand keynesian intervention economic process able prevent steady deterioration economy rise inflation grow unemployment long postwar prosperity lead capitalist nation come people unpleasant surprise lead new concern problem capitalist crisis largely ignore bourgeois economist crisis accompany capitalistic development decisive regulator capital accumulation process worthwhile overall look crisis cycle assert historically respect response evoke economic theory regard bourgeois economic little general equilibrium theory room dynamic disequilibrating process capital expansion accumulation appear matter save phenomenon growth equilibrium path find order escape persistent business cycle problem consider reflect inescapable recognition category bourgeois economic theory bearing longrun capitalistic development everyday production exchange relation capitalist market strong tendency look classical political economy marx search useful theoretical approach solution problem capital production connection interesting note question raise presentday economist merely repeat shallower form discussion crisis problem carry marxist camp turn century controversy concern possibility equilibrium path lead crisisfree harmonious development different contradictory interpretation marx crisis theory provide comfort opponent indicate infiltration bourgeois economic concept marxian doctrine theoretical complement practical integration socialist movement capitalist system twopronged endeavor reconcile extent historical antagonism marxism bourgeois economic theory find reflection increase eclecticism quarter crisis marxism deepen surmise article ernest mandel book late capitalism bring discussion speak date confront undiluted marxist crisis theory pm paul mattick archive | 96 |
Date: 1984 Publisher: National Book Centre Transcription/HTML: Paul Saba Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive. You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. CONTENTS I. Anti-Communist ‘Research’ Vs. the Reality II. India in World History III. Pre-Feudal Kerala: Some Problems and Hypotheses IV. Towards Linguistic Cultural Integration V. From Militarist-Feudal to Colonial-Feudal Economy VI. Peasants in Anti-Imperialist Action VII. The Great National Upsurge and the Disgraceful Betrayal VIII. The Working class in the Anti-Imperialist Movement IX. Aikya Kerala: Realisation of a Dream X. The Fiasco of Anti-Communism XI. Congress Replaced by Coalition Governments XII. Anti-Communist Front XIII. Political Realignment | left | date publisher national book centre transcriptionhtml paul saba public domain marxist internet archive freely copy distribute display perform work derivative commercial work credit marxist internet archive source content anticommunist research vs reality ii india world history iii prefeudal kerala problem hypothesis iv linguistic cultural integration v militaristfeudal colonialfeudal economy vi peasant antiimperialist action vii great national upsurge disgraceful betrayal viii work class antiimperialist movement ix aikya kerala realisation dream x fiasco anticommunism xi congress replace coalition government xii anticommunist xiii political realignment | 97 |
I NOTE THREE small inaccuracies in the second installment (ATC 54) of Alan Wald’s piece on summing up Trotskyism: 1) The women who left the Chicago branch of the SWP were forced out by a kind of social pressure that reflected the prejudices of the time. They were not actually “expelled.” I think the difference, though not fundamental, is worth mentioning. 2) The year, as I remember it, was 1947, not 1946. 3) I was an active member of the Chicago branch during this time, but was never a “leader” of the branch or the party. ATC 55, March-April 1995 Against the Current list of Articles | List of Trotskyist Journals and Publications | left | note small inaccuracy second installment atc alan wald piece sum trotskyism woman leave chicago branch swp force kind social pressure reflect prejudice time actually expel think difference fundamental worth mention year remember active member chicago branch time leader branch party atc marchapril current list article list trotskyist journal publication | 98 |
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive From The New International, Vol. XI No. 4, May 1945, pp. 99–101. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. On May 8, 1945, the war in Europe was declared to have officially ended. It had taken five years, eight months and seven days for the Allied coalition to achieve a decisive victory over the once invincible armies of renascent German imperialism, the strongest single military power in the world. The defeat of Germany was certain after the Allied landings on the Normandy coast of France. The only question that remained was how soon the triumph would come. To say that the war is not yet over, that there is a great conflict going on in the Far East, is only to stress the global ramifications of a war which has engulfed, in one way or another, all the nations of the world. It is too early to draw up a balance sheet of the victory of the Allies, but enough material is at hand to illustrate the point that humanity cannot live through another war like this one. Modern wars, employing the highest achievements of science, embrace the total society and leave nothing unmarked. Casualties are now estimated at 40,000,000. These include soldiers and civilians. A year ago the Allies estimated their own dead at seven and a half million, which exceeded the total casualties for all countries incurred in the protracted trench warfare of the First World War. The Russians admit to almost six million dead. A year ago, too, various estimates placed the German dead at over two and a half million. American casualties have now passed the one million mark. But that is not all. Immense tanks with the fire power of artillery, a variety of big guns, fast bombers carrying heavy loads of block-busters and four-block-busters, incendiary and demolition bombs, rockets of every description – all that the modern science of destruction could produce and place at the service of imperialism – were used to destroy a continent. Cities centuries old, as well as the new, were reduced to rubble. The transportation and communications systems of Europe have been thoroughly disrupted. Vast industrial areas were totally destroyed. Perhaps as many ships have been sunk as now sail the seas of the world. Millions of people have been imprisoned and enslaved. Other millions have been taken from the lands of their birth and moved like cattle, in the most literal sense, to other lands to work the farms and factories of their enslavers, the first time in the name of the fascist reorganization of Europe and now in the name of democracy and the Atlantic Charter. To grasp the degree of the degeneration and decay of capitalism, remember that this social order once boasted of its progress. It was justified in its claim of having advanced society and humanity along the path of progress. It built the cities of the world, constructed gigantic factories of production, raised the level of production and the standard of living of hundreds of millions of people, and created a world-wide network of transportation and communication. It created the world market, the world division of labor; it linked the peoples of the world, and established the interdependence of all nations. All that was progressive in capitalism, however, was in the dim and distant past. It long ago lost its capacity for genuine and lasting progress. Capitalism is now capable only of destruction. Capitalism not only cannot provide for the needs of all the people (it did not do this even in its most progressive periods), but its path of development is toward a worsening of their condition. Capitalism is the guarantor of social retrogression, not progress. It is the guarantor of mass unemployment, mass starvation, mass misery and permanent war. This war in Europe, as well as in Asia, is not distinguished from the First World War by any difference in origins or purposes, but only in the magnitude of the struggle, in the power of its destruction of wealth, property and lives, in the manner in which it brought about the economic ruin of Europe and engulfed the whole world. The causes for this war were rooted in the imperialist organization of the world, in the domination and division of the globe by a handful of powers. To exist on a capitalist basis, i.e., to continue accumulation and the production of surplus value on an expanding scale, German economy had to win the domination of the European economy and to break the control of the Allied powers over the markets and colonies of the world .Hitler described the needs of German capitalism in five graphic words which summarized the position of that imperialist power: “We export, or we die!” To an equal or lesser degree there were the needs of Germany’s main allies, Japan and Italy. Germany, Japan and Italy attempted to reorganize the world in the classic capitalist way, even though the techniques used were in many respect startlingly new. The resort to arms, i.e., war, was the only path open for these “have not” powers to achieve their aims. The magnitude of the war merely expressed the contraction of the world, the inability of all the powers to have a share of the markets and resources of the world. This, then, is one of the outstanding features of the present period of decay capitalism: it no longer permits of expansion of all the powers. At best one power, or a small group of them, can survive at the expense of the rest of the nations. The word “survive” is used in the scientific sense for, from the point of view of economy, that is the-problem which confronts almost all the nations, Allied and Axis. How was it possible for Germany and Italy to prepare for war on such a scale as this one was fought? Germany had been utterly defeated in the First World War. Its economy had been completely disrupted and the country was rent with sharp class struggles. Italy, which had been “cheated” out of her share of the imperialist booty in the First World War, remained a second-class power, and there are many who doubted that she deserved that designation. Japan, which came out of the last war enriched by booty as a sort of silent partner of the Allies, had been preparing for this war for many years. But, characteristically enough, all three countries, on the basis of particular national developments and a peculiar conjuncture in w6rld relations which can .in one respect be summarized as an absence of riches and resources, had to first solve internal class relations to make it possible for them to prepare a total mobilization of the countries for the war. This the ruling classes did by adopting fascism, or quasi-facism, i.e., totalitarianism, in order to prepare for conquest and a redivision of the world. Italy, of course, merely followed in the wake of her real master, Germany. Hitler’s assumption of power in 1933 marked the beginning of the actual preparation for this war. So long as Hitler confined himself to “internal” tasks, to the liquidation of the class struggle, he had the support of the Allied ruling classes who had no difficulty understanding their kinship to Germany’s bourgeoisie. So long as they thought it was possible to turn Hitler’s attention to the East they aided him in the rearmament of the nation and bolstered his regime as they had Mussolini’s. Were they shortsighted? Only to a limited degree. The Allied rulers could not have failed to understand that even if Hitler directed his first blows to the east it was only a matter of time before he would demand his due from the western powers, especially such western powers as Holland, Belgium and France, with their obviously exaggerated share of colonial possessions. For them to keep Hitler occupied in the east was a way to gain for themselves the necessary time to prepare for war with this “upstart.” Their calculations were so wrong as to make any comment on them sound trite. In the midst of diplomatic intrigue worthy of a comic opera, but with tragic consequences for the masses of the world, Stalin signed his pact with Hitler. It was an act which stunned the world, not because Stalin seemed to step out of character, but because the whole preceding period had been spent in negotiations with the Anglo-French military missions for the establishments of a military alliance. This alliance between totalitarian Germany and totalitarian Russia was not a pact solely for the purpose of gaining time for Russian arms. It was, as Stalin described it, “sealed in blood.” The German-Russian pact was the signal which started the war. The German invasion of Poland and the swift collapse of the “colonels’ army” was followed by the partition of the country between Hitler and Stalin on the basis of arrangements made by them in their pact. Poland was not alone. Russia attacked Finland and annexed the Baltic States. German arms marched victoriously in the West. Holland, Belgium and France fell in rapid succession. German armies had reached the Atlantic Coast. Only the narrow English Channel stood between them and England. And here they hesitated. With so much of Europe in his hands, Hitler now turned to the East. Vast Russia with its enormous agricultural areas beckoned. Without warning, his tremendous armies marched against his partner of yesterday. The armies pushed deep into White Russia, Great Russia and the Ukraine. Hitler turned southward and here too the path to the Mediterranean and North Africa was without formidable obstacles. And soon he stood astride the Continent. Invincible German armies! Nothing like them had been seen before in history. Or, so it seemed. The invasion of Russia gave the Allies the breathing spell they needed, and another war partner with seemingly unlimited manpower which was poured into battle by the millions. Thus, from the end of August 1941 until the invasion of France, the Allies were able to prepare their vast forces and their enormous resources for the push that finally spelled the military defeat of Germany. Hitler had dragged Germany into a dreaded war on two fronts; of which the results were inevitable. The rise of Hitler and his conquest of Europe, the destruction of the national independence of nations which had achieved their freedom in the early decades of the rise oi capitalism pushed forward for solution “outlived tasks.” The issue of national independence became momentous for all countries. Every nation occupied and sacked by German arms gave birth to national resistance movements. Thus, the struggle for national independence through the resistance movements became the means for the reconstitution of workers’ organizations. Under conditions created by the victories of Hitler, the issue of democracy assumed a new importance. Freedom of speech, assembly, organization, and the right of the people to form their own governments, while appearing as a throwback to conditions long past, were once more essential as a channel through which the revolutionary struggle for socialism could begin again. The issue of democracy in Europe (first under Hitler and now under the Allies) is not merely a question of reform, but is integral to the development of the revolutionary struggle for power. Observe how Lenin estimated the place of democracy and the struggle for it in the general movement of the masses toward socialist emancipation. In March 1916, in the midst of the first imperialist world war, when similar situations existed, he wrote: Only those who are totally incapable of thinking, or those who are entirely unfamiliar with Marxism, will conclude that, therefore, a republic is of no use, that freedom of divorce is of no use, that democracy is of no use, that self-determination is of no use! Marxists know that democracy does not abolish class oppression, but only makes the class struggle clearer, broader, more open and sharper; and that is what we want ... the more democratic the system of government is, the clearer it will be to the workers that the root of the evil is not the lack of rights, but capitalism ... “Democracy” is nothing but the proclaiming and exercising of “rights” that are very little and very conventionally exercised under capitalism. But unless these rights are proclaimed, unless a struggle for immediate rights is waged, unless the masses are educated in the spirit of such a struggle, socialism is IMPOSSIBLE. (Emphasis in the original – AG) Revolutionary socialists, like Lenin, are not the only people who understand the indispensable nature of the struggle for democracy as an avenue for the conquest of socialism. The more intelligent bourgeois leaders (Churchill and Roosevelt), recognized in the national movement and the struggle for democracy a serious danger to the continued existence of capitalism. Their method of combating it was to subvert the existing mass movements for reactionary purposes. How? by acknowledging the legitimate nature of the struggle, placing themselves at the head of it and directing it in to channels that would bar an effective struggle for socialism. In addition to this general course pursued by sections of the world bourgeoisie, the war itself intervened to produce a curious situation. In the concrete circumstances of the German conquest of Europe and the admitted perilous position of Great Britain and the United States, which had not yet entered the conflict, Churchill and Roosevelt made a grand gesture to win the support of the unenthusiastic masses of the world to their cause in the imperialist war. Their historic ocean meeting in August of 1941 produced the Atlantic Charter, which, while it was not a socialist doctrine, was not inimical to socialist aims. The Charter, declared among its aims the following: The Charter seemed to mark a turning point in the bourgeois thinking and policies, for it promised a new era in world relations. The apologists for imperialism rejoiced. They jeered at the handful of revolutionary socialists who remained true to the banner of international socialism. “See,” they cried, “this is truly a war against fascism. This war is different. This is a war against tyranny, for lasting peace, freedom and security.” These cries did not last very long. For shortly after the turn in the military fortunes of the Allies, their real aims became clearer. Churchill announced that he had not become the King’s first minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. Then he announced that the provisions of the Charter did not apply to Germany. The U.S. declared its intention of retaining all islands seized during the war in the Pacific. Stalin annexed territories in Eastern Europe and planned the destruction of an independent Polish state. Within the short period of a few months, the mad scramble of the winning powers for imperialist aggrandizement, became a spectacle before the eyes of the people in Europe and America. Already before the victory was assured, the latent differences between the Big Three as the dominant core of the United Nations became open and sharp. The true political aims of the Allies were revealed as reactionary – different from Hitler’s, to be sure, but reactionary just the same. For Germany they advocated a “hard peace.” Translated into simple language it meant to compel the German people, and in the first place, the working class, to pay for the war. Of the real criminals in Germany, the industrial and financial ruling class whom Hitler and his gang of beasts served, there was not a word. The bourgeois rulers of the United Nations, this time joined by Stalin, hold the working class and all toilers responsible for the crimes of their rulers and their enslavers. This is in keeping with the needs of the ruling classes in the Allied countries and happens to serve the immediate interests of Stalin in Russia. The bourgeois rulers are blood brothers of the German ruling class; their greatest fear in Europe is a revolution of the masses. But this is Stalin’s great fear too. In that respect, the Big Three are firmly united as the most dangerous counter-revolutionary force in the world. This unity against the masses of Europe is shaken only by the extreme rivalry which exists between them on the subject of how Europe and the world shall be reorganized. San Francisco is merely the arena in which the Big Three are fighting out their differences on how the world shall be split among them. But one can readily see by the events of recent months that the Atlantic Charter was a fraud and farce from the very beginning. The liberation of the countries of Europe is still to be achieved. The democratic rights of the masses have still to be won. The main historical problem of the unification of Europe remains unsolved. Hitler came closest to establishing a unified continent. His attempt was based upon reactionary doctrine and practice. But the Big Three are incapable of bringing about any kind of unification of the Continent. On the contrary, their plan for Europe is to keep the Continent divided and its hundreds of millions of people separated by artificial and long-ago outlived boundaries, by the usurpation of the rule of the small countries, by chopping up Europe into spheres of influence, by the seizure of independent territories and the construction of puppet states, and by preventing any kind of social changes which would benefit the masses. Europe must be unified, but its unification can take place only as a Socialist United States of Europe. This is the great task of European socialism. But this force, the only progressive force in society today, is weak and disorganized. Its great need is to reconstitute the European economic and political movements of the workers and the development of the broad struggle for socialism. To achieve the goal of freeing Europe from the fetters of capitalist decay, a revolutionary party needs to be built in Europe. This is the immediate great task of the scattered revolutionaries on the Continent. There is no hope whatever in a new, peaceful, democratic, and secure world under the reactionary forces of “democratic” capitalism and Stalinism. The abolition of the profit system, the defeat of the capitalist ruling classes and the destruction of Stalinism will be an indispensable preliminary task before a free world, the socialist world of real peace, freedom and security can be achieved. The task of American labor is to assist the European workers in their struggle for freedom. The future of humanity lies only on this road. It must be achieved before the world is once again plunged into a third world war which can end civilization. Top of page Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive Last updated on 22 August 2016 | left | main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive new international vol xi pp transcribe mark einde etol war europe declare officially end take year month seven day ally coalition achieve decisive victory invincible army renascent german imperialism strong single military power world defeat germany certain ally landing normandy coast france question remain soon triumph come war great conflict go far east stress global ramification war engulf way nation world early draw balance sheet victory ally material hand illustrate point humanity live war like modern war employ high achievement science embrace total society leave unmarked casualty estimate include soldier civilian year ago ally estimate dead seven half million exceed total casualty country incur protract trench warfare world war russians admit million dead year ago estimate place german dead half million american casualty pass million mark immense tank fire power artillery variety big gun fast bomber carry heavy load blockbuster fourblockbuster incendiary demolition bomb rocket description modern science destruction produce place service imperialism destroy continent city century old new reduce rubble transportation communication system europe thoroughly disrupt vast industrial area totally destroy ship sink sail sea world million people imprison enslave million take land birth move like cattle literal sense land work farm factory enslaver time fascist reorganization europe democracy atlantic charter grasp degree degeneration decay capitalism remember social order boast progress justify claim have advanced society humanity path progress build city world construct gigantic factory production raise level production standard living hundred million people create worldwide network transportation communication create world market world division labor link people world establish interdependence nation progressive capitalism dim distant past long ago lose capacity genuine lasting progress capitalism capable destruction capitalism provide need people progressive period path development worsening condition capitalism guarantor social retrogression progress guarantor mass unemployment mass starvation mass misery permanent war war europe asia distinguish world war difference origin purpose magnitude struggle power destruction wealth property live manner bring economic ruin europe engulf world cause war root imperialist organization world domination division globe handful power exist capitalist basis ie continue accumulation production surplus value expand scale german economy win domination european economy break control ally power market colony world hitler describe need german capitalism graphic word summarize position imperialist power export die equal less degree need germany main ally japan italy germany japan italy attempt reorganize world classic capitalist way technique respect startlingly new resort arm ie war path open power achieve aim magnitude war merely express contraction world inability power share market resource world outstanding feature present period decay capitalism long permit expansion power well power small group survive expense rest nation word survive scientific sense point view economy theproblem confront nation ally axis possible germany italy prepare war scale fight germany utterly defeat world war economy completely disrupt country rent sharp class struggle italy cheat share imperialist booty world war remain secondclass power doubt deserve designation japan come war enrich booty sort silent partner ally prepare war year characteristically country basis particular national development peculiar conjuncture relation respect summarize absence rich resource solve internal class relation possible prepare total mobilization country war rule class adopt fascism quasifacism ie totalitarianism order prepare conquest redivision world italy course merely follow wake real master germany hitler assumption power mark beginning actual preparation war long hitler confine internal task liquidation class struggle support ally ruling class difficulty understand kinship germany bourgeoisie long think possible turn hitler attention east aid rearmament nation bolster regime mussolini shortsighted limited degree ally ruler fail understand hitler direct blow east matter time demand western power especially western power holland belgium france obviously exaggerated share colonial possession hitler occupy east way gain necessary time prepare war upstart calculation wrong comment sound trite midst diplomatic intrigue worthy comic opera tragic consequence masse world stalin sign pact hitler act stun world stalin step character precede period spend negotiation anglofrench military mission establishment military alliance alliance totalitarian germany totalitarian russia pact solely purpose gain time russian arm stalin describe seal blood germanrussian pact signal start war german invasion poland swift collapse colonel army follow partition country hitler stalin basis arrangement pact poland russia attack finland annex baltic state german arm march victoriously west holland belgium france fall rapid succession german army reach atlantic coast narrow english channel stand england hesitate europe hand hitler turn east vast russia enormous agricultural area beckon warn tremendous army march partner yesterday army push deep white russia great russia ukraine hitler turn southward path mediterranean north africa formidable obstacle soon stand astride continent invincible german army like see history invasion russia give ally breathing spell need war partner seemingly unlimited manpower pour battle million end august invasion france ally able prepare vast force enormous resource push finally spell military defeat germany hitler drag germany dread war front result inevitable rise hitler conquest europe destruction national independence nation achieve freedom early decade rise oi capitalism push forward solution outlive task issue national independence momentous country nation occupy sack german arm give birth national resistance movement struggle national independence resistance movement mean reconstitution worker organization condition create victory hitler issue democracy assume new importance freedom speech assembly organization right people form government appear throwback condition long past essential channel revolutionary struggle socialism begin issue democracy europe hitler ally merely question reform integral development revolutionary struggle power observe lenin estimate place democracy struggle general movement masse socialist emancipation march midst imperialist world war similar situation exist write totally incapable thinking entirely unfamiliar marxism conclude republic use freedom divorce use democracy use selfdetermination use marxist know democracy abolish class oppression make class struggle clear broad open sharp want democratic system government clear worker root evil lack right capitalism democracy proclaiming exercise right little conventionally exercise capitalism right proclaim struggle immediate right wage masse educate spirit struggle socialism impossible emphasis original ag revolutionary socialist like lenin people understand indispensable nature struggle democracy avenue conquest socialism intelligent bourgeois leader churchill roosevelt recognize national movement struggle democracy danger continued existence capitalism method combat subvert exist mass movement reactionary purpose acknowledge legitimate nature struggle place head direct channel bar effective struggle socialism addition general course pursue section world bourgeoisie war intervene produce curious situation concrete circumstance german conquest europe admit perilous position great britain united states enter conflict churchill roosevelt grand gesture win support unenthusiastic masse world cause imperialist war historic ocean meeting august produce atlantic charter socialist doctrine inimical socialist aim charter declare aim follow charter mark turning point bourgeois thinking policy promise new era world relation apologist imperialism rejoice jeer handful revolutionary socialist remain true banner international socialism cry truly war fascism war different war tyranny last peace freedom security cry long shortly turn military fortune ally real aim clear churchill announce king minister preside liquidation british empire announce provision charter apply germany declare intention retain island seize war pacific stalin annex territory eastern europe plan destruction independent polish state short period month mad scramble win power imperialist aggrandizement spectacle eye people europe america victory assure latent difference big dominant core united nations open sharp true political aim ally reveal reactionary different hitler sure reactionary germany advocate hard peace translate simple language mean compel german people place work class pay war real criminal germany industrial financial ruling class hitler gang beast serve word bourgeois ruler united nations time join stalin hold work class toiler responsible crime ruler enslaver keep need rule class allied country happen serve immediate interest stalin russia bourgeois ruler blood brother german rule class great fear europe revolution masse stalin great fear respect big firmly united dangerous counterrevolutionary force world unity masse europe shake extreme rivalry exist subject europe world shall reorganize san francisco merely arena big fight difference world shall split readily event recent month atlantic charter fraud farce beginning liberation country europe achieve democratic right masse win main historical problem unification europe remain unsolved hitler come close establish unified continent attempt base reactionary doctrine practice big incapable bring kind unification continent contrary plan europe continent divide hundred million people separate artificial longago outlive boundary usurpation rule small country chop europe sphere influence seizure independent territory construction puppet state prevent kind social change benefit masse europe unify unification place socialist united states europe great task european socialism force progressive force society today weak disorganize great need reconstitute european economic political movement worker development broad struggle socialism achieve goal free europe fetter capitalist decay revolutionary party need build europe immediate great task scatter revolutionary continent hope new peaceful democratic secure world reactionary force democratic capitalism stalinism abolition profit system defeat capitalist ruling class destruction stalinism indispensable preliminary task free world socialist world real peace freedom security achieve task american labor assist european worker struggle freedom future humanity lie road achieve world plunge world war end civilization page main ni index main newspaper index encyclopedia trotskyism marxist internet archive update august | 99 |
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