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appeal to “nationalist residents to be calm and not respond to this vicious hatred” (An Phoblacht July 22). On the facing page the paper car- ries the long-awaited IRA statement, which led to such mixed reactions in the bourgeois press: “Those who de- he impasse over the implemen- mand the decommissioning of IRA tation of the Good Friday agree- weapons lend themselves, in the cur- T ment hangs like a sword of rent political context, inadvertently or Damocles over British and Irish bour- “Adams sees otherwise, to the failed agenda which geois politics and threatens Blair’s seeks the defeat of the IRA,” the entire strategy for a constitutional himself as statement read. While the Irish Inde- revolution from above. pendent interpreted the statement The Tories face defeat at the next with a front page which read, “Provos: general election and perhaps perma- Ireland’s we’re still on board for peace”, the nent marginalisation as a result of a Telegraph’s reply was a headline Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition Nelson which screamed, “IRA threat to end under proportional representation, ceasefire” (July 22). Two Guardian together with the wiping out of their writers - apparently in all seriousness 350 in-built majority in the House of Mandela - - speculated that the IRA might re- Lords. They have broken the tradi- turn to the offensive with a Canary tional bipartisanship over Ireland and a world Wharf-type bomb (July 23). sided with the Ulster Unionists in The Democratic Unionist Party pre- thwarting the setting in motion of the tended to believe this too: “The state- Northern Ireland executive. Hague statesman and ment indicates very clearly that the may well be prepared to take his back- IRA is prepared to go back to bomb- ing of the unionists to the point of an maybe the first ing just as they did in the past when ‘ermine rebellion’ and thus provoke a people in the past didn’t meet their constitutional crisis in a bid to wreck demands,” said the DUP’s deputy the New Labour strategy. 32-county leader, Peter Robinson. Northern Ireland is the weak link. The truth is that SF is likely to be Blair’s plans to establish a new con- taoiseach” the main beneficiary of the present sensus through the imperialist-spon- impasse. Relying on continuing un- party in the Six Counties, and it is win- presses a genuine desire to transform sored peace process depends on a ionist intransigence, Gerry Adams and ning steady support in the south. the republican movement from a revo- radical rearticulation of the protestant Martin McGuinness are prepared to Far from advocating a return to lutionary anti-imperialist formation ascendancy in the Six Counties, show sweetness and light, and to tol- armed struggle, SF unceasingly calls into a respectable mainstream politi- through a balanced institutionalisa- loyalism, can be expected to go be- erate a great deal, so long as they see upon Blair to force through the provi- cal force. No doubt McGuinness is tion of sectarianism: ie, a power-shar- yond mere vocal protests against the a long-term advantage for the repub- sions of the agreement, steamrollering right when he says that there is not “a ing executive. Demographic trends Patten proposals. Apart from the lican movement. Earlier this month SF the unionists where necessary. It snowball’s chance in hell” of IRA de- point to a catholic-nationalist major- weaponry at the disposal of the offi- representatives in Newry informed points out that the executive should commissioning by May 2000, as laid ity by 2015. Moreover every conces- cial state in the Six Counties, the loy- supporters that one of the organisa- have been up and running a year ago, down by the agreement. But that does sion to the nationalist-republican alist population is of course armed to tion’s main objectives in the Stormont the all-Ireland ministerial council not mean that this weaponry will be population sparks a stubborn reaction the teeth - there are 100,000 legally talks was to “create confusion and should have been conducting its busi- brought back into use. from loyalism, threatening to cohere a held guns. With the Tory right The disunity among their political en- ness and London should have pub- Nevertheless, the failure of the state ‘no’ majority amongst the unionists. Daily Telegraph and The Times con- emies” (The Daily Telegraph July 5). lished its ‘overall strategy’ on to defeat the IRA’s heroic resistance This September will see not only the tinuing to egg on the unionists, there Blair virtually rewrote the Good Fri- demilitarisation. An Phoblacht called has left hardline unionists and the start of the review of the British-Irish could also be rumblings in the army. day deal by rushing through legal on the British government to “end its Conservative right in a fury. If Adams Agreement under the chairmanship of It is therefore hardly surprising that powers to eject SF from the Northern capitulation to unionist wrecking tac- and co were to be allowed to enter the former US senator George Mitchell, the undefeated IRA refuses to Ireland executive if the IRA did not tics”, and to “acknowledge its over- Northern Ireland executive without but also the publication of Chris decommission its weapons. An decommission. In another sop to the riding responsibility and assert its IRA decommissioning, fumed The Patten’s recommendations for the re- Phoblacht, Sinn Féin’s weekly paper, unionists, Downing Street even sug- authority” (July 22). The review of the Daily Telegraph, “the power of terror form of the Royal Ulster Constabu- is packed full of reports of daily loyal- gested that the release of IRA prison- agreement’s implementation must be will, for the first time in our history as lary. A root-and-branch restructuring ist assassination attempts, death ers might be halted. Yet SF continued “focused and time-limited”, Adams a free country, be given official sanc- of Northern Ireland’s police is central threats and intimidation of catholics. to engage. Adams sees himself as Ire- insisted last week, while Mitchell’s tion” (July 3). Its editorial demanded to winning the minority to at a least a Some of these have managed to find land’s Nelson Mandela - a world return to oversee it was to be “warmly to know, “How could unionists accept passive acceptance of the continua- their way into the British press re- statesman and maybe the first 32- welcomed”. such a thing? Come to that, how could tion of the Six County statelet. Hated cently. The Guardian quoted a north county taoiseach. When the SF leader writes that he Conservatives?” by the nationalist-republican commu- Belfast community worker as saying: The SF leaders have played a canny is “totally committed to doing every- Such language is a warning: the nity, the RUC is rightly regarded as a “If Sinn Féin tried to persuade people game, usually employing conciliatory thing in my power to maintain the threat to Blair’s strategy comes not tool of unionism whose prime aim is here the IRA should give up arms, language with occasional controlled peace process and to removing the from an end to the IRA ceasefire, but to keep the ‘croppies’ in their place. they’d be hounded out.” In response outbursts of frustrated anger. Sinn guns forever from the politics of our from loyalism, and its opportunist ally, At the same time elements in the to numerous provocations an SF rep- Féin could well soon overhaul the country” (The Guardian July 14), William Hague l RUC, supported by a large section of resentative in South Antrim issued an SDLP as the main catholic-nationalist there can be little doubt that this ex- Jim Blackstock Page July 29 1999 etters

Party notes upset Peter particularly - because: a) Tony’s a nice bloke; b) for a laugh; or c) L In the Weekly Worker (July 15) comrade because the working class made them do Phil Sharpe raised the question of the re- it? lationship between Trotsky’s revolution- 2. Would the movement that forced this ary politics and bourgeois democracy. concession be: a) “slightly more radical One of his points was that Trotsky did than the Liberal Democrats” (to quote been misled in this way. not simply defend bourgeois democracy Peter), and have persuaded New Labour Lenin had been badly advised, and We print below the full timetable for this year’s Communist or the democratic republic. In his writings to put people before profit by being very Sylvia Pankhurst of the Communist Party University. Of course, this may still be subject to changes. If on the struggle against fascism in Ger- polite; b) have sneaked funding the wel- admonished those who took Lenin’s line comrades plan to attend particular sessions, up to date infor- many, Trotsky asked the question, what fare state in as part of the whole 70s re- (and who in many cases had no excuse) mation on the sessions can be had on 07930 129909 during does the Communist Party defend? He vival thing, perhaps disguising it in an that a policy of entry into the Labour Party the week. answered that it should not defend the Afro wig; or c) a working class movement would result in British workers being di- This year’s school reflects some of the main areas of Party Weimar constitution. that had moved from the defensive to the verted from revolutionary politics and work and intervention over the past period - the politics of This was because he believed the pro- offensive on principles - people before being hegemonised by bureaucratic trade the Balkan war, the fight against nationalism, the USSR and found crisis of capitalism in the inter-war profit, an equal right to life and so on - union reformism. This is what happened the struggle for genuinely communist method, for example. If years in Germany was undermining par- that are basic building blocks of social- in the period up to 1926. previous years are anything to go by however, a dominating liamentary institutions or becoming in- ism, and advanced as a political, ideologi- Thus the position of orthodox Trotsky- theme will emerge during the course of the week. compatible with bourgeois democracy. cal and industrial force? ists such as Workers Power, the United Last year, we continually returned to the pivotal question One form of Bonapartism succeeded an- Revolutionaries raising reform demands Secretariat of the Fourth International and of the USSR with sharp disagreements between a Party ma- other, as the bourgeois republic degener- and reformism are clearly not the same the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty is a now jority and a minority. Assessing the school last year, I com- ated into fascism. The parliament became thing. As the 3rd Congress of the Commu- archaic continuation of a line that fails to mented that further study and thought on the question by a screen for counterrevolution. nist International (1921) put it, “The alter- recognise the fundamentally undemo- both sides might lead to convergence or a further divergence. What Trotsky defended was not the native offered by the Communist cratic nature of the Labour Party’s inter- However, in contrast to the characteristic fears expressed by bourgeois democratic framework of the International in place of the minimum pro- nal regime, something that was also a Trotskyist guest, this process did not signify some ‘pre- Weimar republic, but workers’ democracy gramme of the reformists and centrists is: wrongly ignored by Trotsky himself (with split’ scenario. The debate on this thorny question - sharp built up within it, so that the workers could the struggle for the concrete needs of the more excuse, since Labour had not been and discourteous as it was on occasion - actually helped to go on from defence of their gains to the proletariat, for demands which in their ap- in power umpteen times). The orthodox bond our ranks. Whatever side comrades took, they are aware socialist offensive. In Trotsky’s own plication undermine the power of the bour- Trotskyists are still convinced that it is that there is only one organisation on the British left that words: “The Communist Party must call geoisies, which organise the proletariat, possible to split off a portion of the La- could conduct such a fundamental discussion openly, in front for the defence of those material and moral and which form the transition to the prole- bour Party and win it to revolutionary of friend and opponent alike. positions which the working class has tarian dictatorship, even if certain groups politics. But their understanding of their In other words, the open expression of this sharp differ- managed to win in the German state. This of the masses have not yet grasped the beloved label for the Labour Party - ‘bour- ence was a living manifestation of the spirit of Partyism. No most directly concerns the fate of the meaning of such proletarian dictatorship.” geois workers’ party’ - is purely socio- comrade left the school with the view that our organisation workers’ political organisations - trade Enter, in Britain in 1999, transitional de- logical, with an appeal made that we should be cleaved apart along theoretical lines. unions, newspapers, printing plants, mands such as defending and extending should note the trade union and worker Our school’s programme is thus organised to highlight dif- clubs, etc” (L Trotsky The struggle the welfare state and the fight for free trade base of the party. This ignores the key ferences, to allow for controversy and the sharp clash of against fascism in Germany New York unions. Or, in Russia in 1917, bread, peace philosophico-political points that need to opinion. This is not to satisfy some mindless belligerence on 1987, p72). and land. Or, in 30s America, the sliding be grasped, such as, following Lenin, the the part of the organisers. We know that this is the best way Trotsky’s call for a united front was scale of wages and hours. idea that you assess the class nature of a for all comrades to learn. based on preventing the physical de- Clearly, the reform demands we seek to party by looking at its policies and its More details of this year’s school are on the Party website. struction of the of the above workers’ or- organise the working class around need a leadership, not by conducting a sociologi- We look forward to meeting and debating with comrades l ganisations and workers’ democracy political perspective, summed up now in cal analysis of its base. Mark Fischer within the Weimar republic. Trotsky ridi- the fight for a workers’ government (an- On these lines Lenin would have con- national organiser culed the combination programme of other transitional demand) - but the idea cluded, if he had not been misled, that the Hilferding. Since Hilferding had beaten up that an obsession with Britain’s constitu- Labour Party was a straight bourgeois his brain in 1918 to find ways of combin- tion is the only “political” approach and party and indeed always had been since ing soviets with the Weimar constitution all else is “economism” is ridiculous. The its inception. Jack does a disservice to without damaging the republic, Trotsky democratic demands Anne and Peter list the rest of his argument by endorsing the now imagined Hilferding working his are all very reasonable, but they are hardly view of a bamboozled Lenin and ignoring brain to find ways of combining fascist the cutting edge of reviving the British the view of the most dedicated fighters barracks with the Weimar constitution. working class. for the fledgling CPGB. Trotsky’s metaphor for fascism and Peter says I “did not dispute [his] re- bourgeois democracy was that the elec- mark that any Labour politician, left or Oxford tricity wires of bourgeois democracy right,” would have agreed with the de- could not take the voltage of the tensions mands raised on AWL election material in of capitalist crisis and decay. He had ar- the recent Churchdown by-election “20 gued the same point against Kautsky in years ago”. I didn’t “dispute” it as it With regards to the article, ‘Learning from Terrorism and communism to justify the misses the point somewhat. Bread, peace the fascists’ (Weekly Worker July 1), in an dissolution of the constituent assembly: and land wouldn’t be exactly revolution- otherwise accurate review of Anti-Fascist “In reality only two forces existed: the ary demands in 1990s Britain: in 1917 Rus- Action’s Fighting Talk Mark Fischer revolutionary proletariat, led by commu- sia, however, I’m sure you’ll agree, they makes one important error of judgement. nists, and counterrevolutionary democ- were pretty sharp. You can’t just trans- Mark states that Afa’s journal “lacks an racy, headed by generals and admirals” pose a set of demands made in one set of understanding that rightwing popularism- (L Trotsky Terrorism and communism circumstances to a totally different set of fascism need not come in a specifically London 1975, p64). For Trotsky, parlia- circumstances. racist form” and may adopt “anti-racist mentarianism, however radical or demo- The idea that advocating a Labour vote robes”. cratic, had lost its capacity to follow the in Britain would “logically” “oblige” one As a reader of Fighting Talk for some course of revolutionary consciousness. to have advocated voting for the Falang- years now, I can only conclude that Afa Trotsky was clear that Marx did not put ists in Franco’s Spain would be insulting have been well aware that British fascism the principle of democracy above the dy- if weren’t so absurd. could adopt this particular ‘respectable’ namics of class struggle: “Kautsky’s ship The answer to both the above ques- path, converting from the ‘bootboy’ im- was built for lakes and quiet harbours, not tions is c), by the way. age to the ‘Euro-nationalism’ of the at all for the open sea, and not for periods French and Austrian varieties, where the of storms” (ibid p104). In the fight against Alliance for Workers’ Liberty issue of race has been put on the back fascism in Germany, Trotsky said the work- burner. ers would only succeed if they did not In addition the fact that Afa have picked settle for a democratic republic, because up on the BNP’s support around the “the formulas of democracy, freedom of In his otherwise good critique of Labour- Countryside Alliance, lorry drivers and the press, the right to unionise mean for ism (Weekly Worker July 15) Jack Conrad cleaning up churchyards in the West Mid- us only incidental or episodic slogans in makes the mistake of saying that Lenin lands suggests that they are on the ball the independent movement of the prole- was right to define the Labour Party as a regarding the danger of the growth of tariat, and not a democratic noose fas- bourgeois workers’ party. I have raised ‘non-racial’ fascism. tened to the neck of the proletariat” (L the reasons why this was a mistake be- Trotsky The transitional programme fore with Jack, but he must have forgot- London New York 1983, p141). ten, so this is a reminder. Lenin was misled by a member of the South London British Socialist Party who visited the Soviet Union and falsely told Lenin that Some of the new thinking exposed in the the British Labour Party permitted organ- controversy at the CPGB aggregate over ised tendencies and factions within its visions of a revolutionary Ireland have Anne Murphy’s letter and Peter Manson’s ranks. On the strength of this Lenin - who some scary implications as well as false rant against the AWL/myself in the Weekly had no first-hand experience of the La- perceptions (Weekly Worker July 15). Worker (July 22) suggest that they bour Party - assumed that such an inter- Firstly Jack Conrad seems to have stum- haven’t quite got their heads round the nally democratic organisation must have bled on the old English misunderstand- question of how revolutionaries use re- a revolutionary element within it, even if ing of the Irish war. ‘The protestants’ in form demands and the concept of transi- the politics of its leadership and most of Ireland do not constitute a nation - they tional demands. its membership were bourgeois. There is are a religious choice. There are almost as 1. Would Tony Blair’s government tax the no question that Lenin would not have many protestants in the 26 Counties as rich to make a massive cash injection into given the epithet ‘bourgeois workers’ the occupied Six, so, if we are to talk about the NHS - to use an example that seems to party’ to the Labour Party if he had not “self-government autonomy up to and

l l l l July 29 1999 Page including the right of separation”, rity, for whatever that is worth, and viet Union) and consciousness. Nei- then logically it must include the because in polemics it is the ideas that ther myself nor anyone else to my protestants of the 26 Counties. Sud- are being tackled, not the person nec- knowledge seriously proposes such denly this starts to take on tragic di- essarily. The EPSR has no problem an absurdity. On the contrary Marx- action visions of Pakistan vis-à-vis India, with internal conflict - just the oppo- Phil Watson took nine months to re- ists seek to accurately reflect - ie, then Bangladesh, now Kashmir. site. The EPSR has a 20-year record ply to me (Weekly Worker July 22). grasp - objective reality in the mind It strikes me Jack Conrad is being a of relishing conflict as the highest The original dispute has thereby through painstaking work on theory. bit coy - “the right of separation”? level of the struggle for Marxism-Len- rather faded. Nevertheless there re- The Soviet Union was, and still is, Surely, if you are going to make such inism. Arguments are never hushed mains what comrade Watson calls largely untheorised. The result - illu- a demand, it is the “right to self-de- up; instead, all comrades are encour- “modest differences”. Apparently my sions of one sort or another. Com- termination” - which includes unity aged to give their opinions on all insistence that “matter is primary in rade Watson’s “conundrum” n with the British imperialist state: ie, matters at any time. the last analysis” means I am “theo- vanishes into a philosophical fog. London: Sunday August 15, 5pm - loyalism. So in effect you are now ar- This struggle for the best possible retically incapable of grasping” the Finally am I right to infer that com- ‘Lenin on the dictatorship of the guing for the ‘right’ of some objective understanding of all politi- “conundrum” whereby workers rade Watson believes that conscious- proletariat’, using Lenin’s Two tac- protestants to support imperialism cal developments is the life-blood of thought of the Soviet Union “as some- ness is primary in the last analysis? If tics of social democracy and Hal and oppose republican anti-imperial- Leninism - and its primacy in the bat- thing other than a giant prison camp”. so our differences are far from “mod- Draper’s The dictatorship of the ism. Did not Zionism start as a politi- tle to end monopoly capitalism’s rule Prison camp hyperbole aside, there est”. proletariat from Marx to Lenin as cal viewpoint that ‘the Jews’ not only is, of course, the very issue at the is no automatic correspondence be- study guides. constituted a ‘nation’, but that the heart of the internal EPSR dispute over tween the object (in this case the So- North West London Call 0181-459 7146 for details. nation had a land (originally any old relations with the SLP. Or to put it an- piece of land, but then Palestine be- other way, the question is: is the SLP Manchester: Monday August 23, cause it was god’s gift to the chosen now a degenerating lash-up of mu- 7.30pm - ‘Imperialism’. E-mail: people), which, despite its occupa- seum-Stalinism and class-collaborat- [email protected]. tion by others, would now be taken ing ‘left’ trade unionism which the over as theirs. working class need warning off, be- n If we are now to call for self-deter- cause it will utterly stifle the fight for The CPGB has forms available for mination for the protestants, then we theory? - or is the SLP still a useful you to include the Party and the have to support the same for the Jews vehicle for developing socialist ideas struggle for communism in your - ie, their ‘right’ to seize Palestine. This in the working class capable of taking will. Write for details. is an ill worked out and utterly reac- the working class forwards? tionary formulation. Reading the latest issues of the However, religions do not consti- Weekly Worker, it is striking that every n tute a nationality: these are choices ‘left’ group is rife with disillusionment within a single nationality. The and disaffection over the way the To get involved, contact Box 22, protestants of the Six Counties are membership are treated by their ‘lead- 136-138 Kingsland High Street, Lon- not “British-Irish”: they are Celtic ers’; people are fed up with the con- don E8 2NS, or ring Anne Murphy people of identical ethnic origins to tempt for proper inner-party discus- on 0973-231 620. the rest of Ireland. Certainly they sion at a time when the members are came as planters via Scotland, but the more puzzled by political develop- Scots, as all but the most ignorant ments than ever (due to imperialist n will know, are from Ireland. The found- warmongering, Ireland’s peace deal, ers of the modern Irish republican the wretchedness of the SLP, but most Support group meets every Mon- movement were protestants from Ul- of all the liquidation of the USSR by day, 7pm, at the Station pub, ster. The divisions on the island of the fag-end of revisionism). Warrington Street, Ashton under Ireland are political differences in The only starting point for getting Lyne. Donations and solidarity to relation to the British state’s occupa- any of this right - and to keep the fight Tameside Strike Support (Hardship) tion - loyalist versus anti-imperialist; permanently going for the anti-impe- Fund, 15 Springvale Close, Ashton- they are not ethnic or national. rialist interests of the working class, under-Lyne, Lancs. But the idea is even worse, looked all the way to fully rational commu- at closer: if you are to support the nist society - is to struggle for objec- right to self-determination up to and tive truth, and draw people into that n including separation from the rest of struggle by honest and open discus- Ireland, won’t you then have to sup- sion. Public meeting and discussion: port those who fight for it, like you Disputes are bound to arise with Trotskyist deputies in the European did with the KLA in Kosovo? This practically every major political de- parliament. What lessons for the means support for the UFF and UDA! velopment, but a bureaucratic stifling British left? Speaker from Lutte The last group to come to this crazy of debate (as opposed to the some- Ouvrière. Thursday August 12, conclusion was the British and Irish times unfortunate necessity of curb- 7.30pm, Partick Burgh Hall (near Communist Organisation, who be- ing aggressive factionalism) is what Partick tube and rail station). All came the promoters of the two-nation killed the CPSU, and will always kill welcome. theory and the ‘left’, ‘Marxist’ wing off the fight for Leninist science. of the loyalist military. Where the hell are you going? London Doncaster Fighting fund Where to get your Weekly Worker What “reading between the lines” My letter of July 15 was concerned was forced on Steve Edwards by the with questioning the EPSR’s infer- articles in the Economic and Philo- ence that the SLP has undergone sophic Science Review which show qualitative degeneration as a result n there is a “spot of bother in EPSR of Scargill’s ultimatum to Roy Bull, in land” (Weekly Worker July 15)? conjunction with the SLP’s social My article polemicised against chauvinistic Euro election campaign. With just two days to go to reach for the next two weeks. Might I “former EPSR supporters” and Roy (Letters July 22). our £400 monthly target, we are still suggest to those comrades who Bull’s articles on SLP degeneracy In the EPSR of July 7, Chris Barratt £57 short. This week’s fund, in- honour us with an occasional, but have said : “A fully conscious stab- stated that the SLP campaign should cluding JR’s quarterly standing large, gift, now might be as good a in-the-back hostility to EPSR theo- be seen as “a deliberate break with order of £25, amounted to £95, leav- time as any? Let’s hope I can re- retical pummelling emerged almost any previous inclination to take on ing our total at £343. To ensure we port a bumper post in three weeks painlessly from the entire SLP coali- capitalist crisis”, and is thus a retreat receive the full £400, please ensure time. tion of Trots, Scargillites, museum- from the SLP’s founding aim of the Special thanks this week go also you put your donation in the post n Stalinists, and the single-issue “abolition of capitalism”. Aside from immediately. to SK (£20) and to TD, AS and BB fanatics of every description - plus, the fact that the SLP leaders would A reminder: the last two months (£10 each) l n sadly, a few EPSR supporters as well” no doubt still express this intention, have seen a deficit which we ur- Robbie Rix (EPSR June 23). is the EPSR suggesting that the Euro gently need to make up. In addi- “How long-standing EPSR sup- broadcast and leaflet was signifi- tion, we are now in the peak of the n porters can supportively watch the cantly different from that of its gen- holiday period and the Weekly SLP’s Scargillist backwardness stage eral election campaign? Worker itself will not be published a Mickey Mouse repeat of laughably I am not saying that the political n discredited Stalinist censorship, and evolution of the SLP was preordained, expulsion of ideas and theoretical but surely its ‘little Englander’ social- n analysis, is a slightly surprising phe- ism was implicit early on, and certainly n nomenon, to say the least” (EPSR well before the rise and fall of Roy June 30). Bull’s involvement. Furthermore, the Which should be clear enough that method of effectively ‘voiding’ Bull’s n no one has had to “read between the membership was hardly a new devel- lines” to know that there is a dispute opment for the SLP, as countless ex- within EPSR circles. Indeed, articles amples elsewhere reveal - including n have been invited from the few com- the Stockport branch, which I believe rades who stand by the SLP as a Roy was involved in. I do not wish to n worthwhile socialist vehicle as it is, seem cruel to animals or gurus, but but not a word has been submitted sometimes the sound of cages being for publication. rattled is quite amusing. n Names have not been mentioned only for two reasons: personal secu- Ludlow Page July 29 1999

he nationwide protests and close to the person of the supreme demonstrations by students in religious ruler. T the Islamic Republic of Iran A tactical retreat was called for. A were not just a flash in the pan. They conspiracy by rogue elements from signalled a turning point in the mass the ministry of information was ‘un- struggle against the islamic regime. paign against the writers - the first covered’ and an unspecified number For the first time the students and their group who had declared their resolve of people arrested. Student organi- supporters voiced slogans that tar- to create an association independent sations asked for the resignation of geted the Islamic Republic in its total- of the state. At least six died under the minister of information. They got ity, and not one or other of its factions. mysterious circumstances. One re- it after a fight. They went on to insist “Guns, tanks, basijis don’t scare us formist newspaper after another was that the committee set up by the presi- anymore!” (referring to the basij se- closed. dent to investigate the murders re- curity forces), they shouted. It was in such a climate that the elec- port its findings. It dragged its feet. “Khamenei, Khamenei, shame on you. tions to the Assembly of Experts, The rulers hoped that time would Pack up and leave your throne”; “Free- which chooses the religious ruler, was blunt memories and demands for the dom or death!”; “People join us: 20 held last year. The caliphate used its truth. Then suddenly in June the re- years of silence is over”; “Free politi- control of the organ that vets candi- gime announced that the chief sus- cal prisoners” - and many more slo- dates to exclude virtually all the can- pect in the killings, Said Emami, had gans that directly targeted the didates of the May coalition. It then committed suicide in prison - or, as religious ruler, Ali Khamenei, or the launched a desperate campaign to one opposition commentator put it, despotic rule in its totality. It was this, draw the people to the polls. It was to “was suicided”. Clearly he knew too as much as the burning down of banks be an endorsement of the regime as a much. And he could point to those and shops, that brought all the re- whole. It even roped in Khatami, who gave the orders - ayatollah gime’s factions together - reformist whose candidates had been barred, Khamenei, the caliph himself. and ultra-conservative. to plea for the electorate to vote. They This episode, followed soon by the Over the next six days the slogans stayed away in their millions. Khatami passage of a law designed to stran- became increasingly more radical. The had weakened under pressure when gle the relatively free press, was the regime, seeing its very roots threat- the system as a whole was under ques- trigger for the student demonstra- ened, united. President Khatami left tion. He was to repeat this again last tions. Prior to this the authorities shut his smiles at home: “These people month. a number of pro-presidential papers. have evil aims. They intend to foster By ignoring the president’s call the The closure of Salam, which immedi- violence in society and we shall stand people showed their political matu- ately followed the new press law, was in their way,” he said. All those who rity. It was clear that a year before the final straw. Several hundreds had nailed their flag to his strategy of they had not voted for the person of staged a sit-in at the university stu- ‘legally’ and peacefully transforming Khatami. They had only voted for his dent quarters. They were savagely the islamic regime joined in the cho- It is important to understand that in the hands of the religious ruler. A slogans of more freedom and a gov- attacked by armed thugs supported rus condemning the ‘excesses’. These the differences between the two main united voice had to be imposed by ernment of law. The boycott showed by the police. At least 14 were killed, “unruly elements” were not students. factions - those around the religious diktat. This concentration of power that the people were looking beyond some thrown out of windows, hun- They were “deviants” directed from ruler Khamenei and the May coalition started with ayatollah Khomeini him- the Islamic Republic, though most dreds injured and many arrested. abroad. They had to be crushed. around the president - are not so much self, when it became apparent that observers abroad chose to ignore Eight hundred dorms were burnt. De- Death is the only punishment for the over economic policy as politics. For even his authority could not paper this. Khamenei did not. His allies did spite a ban on demonstrations the mohareb (fighting against god) and example within both factions there are over the factional squabbles, and everything to stop the first municipal students took to the streets in a na- mofsed (corrupt). If we had not pre- those who subscribe to the IMF struc- became more urgent with his succes- council elections from taking place tionwide movement. Armed thugs at- vented them, “our brave revolution- tural adjustment programme, and sor, Khamenei - a lightweight lacking and, when thwarted by pressure from tacked Tabriz university, killing at ary muslim youth would have cut those who propose some form of state Khomeini’s religious and political below, to stop ‘reformists’ from get- least five. these rabble into little pieces,” capitalism. clout. The leadership therefore be- ting in. In the event they failed in that Students were joined by bystand- screamed the cleric, Hassan Rowhani. This has been a Bonapartist regime, came the focus of every crisis the re- too and the Khatami faction won an ers sympathetic to their cause. In the The most serious threat to the re- crawling out of the cobwebs of his- gime went through in the last 18 years. overwhelming majority. capital at least two other, separate, gime’s existence since 1981 was tory, trying to manage a capitalist The coalition that centred around But in Tehran Khatami’s compro- demonstrations took place: one in the crushed in blood. economy, but unable to rescue it from president Khatami two years ago was mises over the candidates caused the square housing the old parliament At least 15 students died in Tehran its deep economic and social malaise. no exception. That was, in one re- people to stay away in large numbers. building, the scene of many previous on the first day alone. Five died in the The root of the factional squabbles spect, the old battle between the Only 40% voted in the capital. While battles over the last century; and the attack on Tabriz University. The real is the fundamental structural fault line caliphate and the republic. The coali- Khamenei’s men did not win a single other by the railway station, where a toll is not known, as bodies were re- in the political structure of the Islamic tion formed under one banner: no to seat in Tehran, the president’s faction crowd of tens of thousands marched moved by the security forces. Republic: that between the ‘caliphate’ Khamenei’s despotic rule. Yet it was got in on a minority vote. Again the from the poorer quarters of south Whether or not this is the start of a - that is, the absolute rule of the reli- also the first salvo in a new battle, people had made it clear that it was Tehran. It was not just student dem- revolutionary movement to topple the gious jurisprudence (velayate one that looks beyond the Islamic not the singer they were interested in, onstrations. It was a popular upris- regime is too soon to tell. What is clear faghih), which gives a religious ruler Republic. but his song. For Khamenei the mu- ing. is that the movement which began (Khamenei) almost divine rights over The recent student riots were not nicipal election results were cata- The revolution that toppled the with the election of Khatami to the the whole of society - and the ‘re- the first. Riots had broken out in strophic. In the capital the number of monarchy to a great extent began in presidency in May 1997 on a platform public’ - that is, the right of the citi- Mashad, Arak, Ghazvin, Kermanshah, votes cast for his candidates were the universities. In the two previous of reforms within the system has zen to make laws. In simple terms it is and Shiraz in 1995, and more recently even less than the number of revolu- decades the universities had been the turned a corner. There will be no go- the duality between the sovereignty in Eslam Abad, a poor suburb of tionary guards stationed in Tehran. centre of opposition to the monarchy ing back. of god, embodied in his representa- Tehran. Anti-government slogans With the parliamentary elections due and supplied many of the cadres that It was the students, the young and tive on earth, and the sovereignty of had been shouted, banks and shops next spring there was no time to lose. erected the new revolutionary move- women who spearheaded the cam- the popular vote. The counterrevo- had been burnt and troops and heli- He used the tool he had an abun- ment on the ashes of the old. During paign to get Khatami elected in oppo- lution that rode astride a popular anti- copter gunships had been sent to dance of - terror. A wave of political the revolution they provided the or- sition to the candidate of the religious dictatorial and egalitarian revolution quell them. Last year saw an unprec- killings of dissident politicians and ganising force for the mass street ruler, Khamenei, on the slogan of the in 1979 could only give birth to this edented escalation of labour strikes, activists of the writers’ union took demonstrations and public gather- rule of law and the creation of the or- twin monster. The one represented the mostly in response to workers not be- place last winter - Dariush Foruhar and ings. They also formed an important gans of civil society. Khatami’s land- right of the clergy to rule in perpetu- ing paid for months. They took to the his wife Parvahneh Eskandari, the link between the popular revolution slide victory was notable not just for ity, and the other an echo of the revo- streets and blocked roads. Many writers Mohammad Mokhtari, and the working class - whose gen- the rout of the ultra-conservative can- lution the mullahs had ridden and strikes were suppressed by force. Mohammad-Jafar Pouyandeh and eral strike finally broke the back of didates, but for the fact that almost 10 destroyed. Like a pair of macabre Then there was the nationwide pro- Majid Sharif were murdered. Student the shah’s regime. million voters, who had stayed away Siamese twins the two have been in- test by the oilworkers, unique in its meetings were disrupted by knife- and After the revolution the universi- for almost two decades, went to the separably stuck together. organisation. For the first time on May club-wielding thugs under the sym- ties remained the centre of opposition polls. Some of us understood this as The twin pyramid of the caliphate Day, large number of workers organ- pathetic eyes of the security organs. to the new established clerical rule their way of using the opening pro- and the republic extends right ised their own marches - without per- Reformist politicians were beaten up until their forcible closure in 1980, with vided by the increasing factional through society from top to toe, cre- mit. In Sanandaj, Kurdistan, the whole and their papers closed down. Ru- many casualties. It was students who squabbles to say no to the entire sys- ating a totally unworkable dual struc- town erupted in riots and was placed mours of a coup circulated. bore the main brunt of the counter- tem, symbolised by the absolute ture. Throughout its 20 years the under martial law. However, the people were not revolution’s wrath in the massacres power of the religious ruler. The May faction-ridden regime has been pre- Smarting from the staggering defeat cowed. The Foruhars’ funeral was at- of 1981 and again 1988. On the side of coalition comprised a very broad sec- vented from making a single consist- at the presidential elections, the tended by tens of thousands. Slogans the regime, it was the universities tion of society, united by their desire ent policy because of this structure Khamenei faction turned the screw. It of “Taliban, have some shame, stop which formed the main arena where it to open up the political atmosphere. pulling it in two directions. And was well placed through its control of your rule” clearly pointed the finger was legitimised ideologically. Not for It included the so-called left ‘Imam throughout its 20 years it has been the judiciary, all the organs of repres- at Khamenei. The Khamenei faction nothing did the mullahs endlessly line’, their student organisation, the desperately trying to escape this by sion and the state-owned radio-televi- wavered. Some saw the writing on the praise the university-seminary axis and Office for Securing Unity, and their repeatedly purging one or other fac- sion. Khamenei used the victory of wall and the wave of murders was unity. paper Salam, various religious nation- tion, only to find itself split as soon the Taliban in Afghanistan and the stopped. Many more were on the list But what is special about the cur- alist groups and the technocrats sur- as it had to make the next decision. murder of a number of Iranian diplo- of those to be liquidated. People de- rent student movement is that the rounding ex-president Rafsanjani and In order to paper over these cracks mats to fan war hysteria. His faction manded to know who had ordered the majority are the children of this revo- his party, Executives of Construction. it concentrated more and more power unleashed an unprecedented cam- killings. Allegations were getting too lution. Over 60% of the population July 29 1999 Page

are under 25; more than half below Khatami’s ‘good behaviour’ another 20. This is the frustrated generation, paper supporting him was shut down with little to do in the stifling atmos- last week. phere of the Islamic Republic. The Can we do anything abroad? De- abysmal state of the Iranian economy spite the gloom of some commenta- and the high unemployment means tors there is no doubt that a properly iding on the back of recent cidentally, a good many of those that the future too is bleak. No lei- organised broad campaign of support high profile cases of ferocious “The premise who ought to be seeking psychiat- sure, no work and no prospects. As abroad can secure the release of pris- R attacks by deranged individu- ric help will then fail to do so for the women, who now outnumber oners and reduce the pressure on de- als, two weeks ago home secretary through fear of permanent impris- men in higher education, there are the tainees: a campaign calling for the Jack Straw introduced ‘solutions’ to suggested by onment. In fact, in this cash-starved added strictures of sexual apartheid. immediate release of detainees and yet another perceived threat to the area of psychiatry, it has yet to be This is an explosive mix. pressure on western governments to good order of Blair’s New Britain: Managing established whether certain types There are at present over 2.6 million suspend trade with the country pend- the danger (note: not ‘potential dan- of disorder are indeed treatable or students in higher education. Some ing the unconditional release of those ger’) posed by those with severe dangerous untreatable. This is a far from set- undoubtedly are children of the elite. arrested, alongside a campaign to personality disorder. Many are to be tled question. But increasingly the students come send representatives from Amnesty arbitrarily labelled ‘dangerous’ - and people is that a The leading mental health char- from lower class families. This devel- International, the Red Cross or any thus a new bugbear of ‘dangerous ity, Mind, stated when these pro- opment was helped by places being independent committee into Iran to severely personality-disordered’ significant posals were made public that the reserved for the family of ‘martyrs’, oversee the treatment of detainees. (DSPD) persons spring forth ready- “central plank of the government’s and by new universities springing up On a broader canvas there is an ur- made amongst us - a putative, im- proportion of proposal is the potential risk posed all over the place. The Open Univer- gent need for an international cam- mediate threat which accordingly by a small number of people. In or- sity alone has branches in 70 cities paign to support the struggles of the must be quickly dealt with. these der to provide all of the right safe- and over 600,000 students. For this Iranian people for their democratic Stripped of all decoration, Straw’s guards, to ensure that people are reason the student movement is not rights, including the right to inde- solutions mean imprisonment with- ‘untreatable’, not locked up inappropriately or for only significant in itself, but is poten- pendent association, trade unions, out trial or benefit of review, other- longer periods than necessary, the tially tied in with the working class equality of men and women, and the wise known as internment. severely way that risk is currently assessed movement, the neighbourhood asso- rights of nationalities. Crystallising current Blairite think- needs significant improvements.” It ciations and the uprisings in the poor The revolutionary movement in ing on this question, Straw launched personality- seems clear that the current risk as- quarters. This, in addition to the radi- Iran cannot succeed without the work- a joint publication of the home of- sessment procedures have severe cal demands of the students, places ing class being organised as a class. fice and the department of health, disordered limitations, so to base loss of lib- the student movement, alongside the An opening of the political atmos- Managing dangerous people with erty upon them is likely to produce women’s movement, at the centre of phere is the oxygen this movement severe personality disorder: pro- persons pose a serious injustices within the anti- democratic developments in Iran. needs. The fact that the establishment posals for policy development. This democratic set-up that is proposed. Currently there are four official stu- of a writers’ union has been imposed document states: “... for the rela- present, distinct Straw and the Blairites have re- dent organisations in the country. The on the regime, after the death of so tively small number of severely per- ceived brickbats from the conserva- largest, the Office for Securing Unity, many writers, is a valuable first step. sonality-disordered people who danger to the tive to the liberal bourgeois press is close to the so-called left faction This is the first independent associa- represent an unacceptable degree of over these policy proposals: “Think within the May (president’s) coalition. tion, outside the state, since the danger to the public, detention on public” what a revolution we unleash once Some student organisations have ties clampdown of 1981. Last year we saw the basis of the risk they present, we accept potential wrongdoing as with the various religious-nationalist the nationwide move by the and for as long as that risk remains, a basis for incarceration. Almost groupings - such as the National As- oilworkers - again unique in its or- can be justified” (p6). Of course, as- every one of us might, in some cir- sociation of Students. Some have ganisational sophistication before it serting that those targeted are an im- tention of all DSPD people (whether cumstances, commit a violent crime. called for the supreme religious ruler was ferociously suppressed. mediate ‘danger’, and not merely a presently in prison, in hospital, or For most of us the likelihood is tiny. to be elected. An increasing number International support is also vital potential one, means this proposal in no institution) in facilities run But how large does it have to be- are voicing the need to separate reli- in the campaign to bring the perpe- has more chance of public accept- separately from prisons and the come to justify our arrest?” (edito- gion and state. Some have used words trators of the crimes against the peo- ance. health service, as a new branch of rial The Daily Telegraph July 20). such as ‘social democracy’ - anath- ple of Iran before an international At present, although the Mental the state. And the Blairite-inclined The ema in the Islamic Republic. They tribunal: a global movement from be- Health Act 1983 ensures that many Yet it is widely admitted, includ- Guardian was also appalled at the elected a council which directed the low, in the spirit of Russell’s Vietnam with severe personality disorder are ing within Managing dangerous proposals: “... a new indeterminate sit-ins and demonstrations. tribunal of the 60s (see Iran Bulletin compulsorily admitted to hospitals, people, that there is insufficient re- sentence ... would allow people The Khamenei faction used the winter 1998 and spring/summer 1999). this applies only to those who are search evidence on the incidence of deemed dangerous to be locked up, radicalisation of the demonstrations The left in Iran remains fragmented assessed as likely to benefit from anti-social personality disorder, its even if they had not committed any to browbeat Khatami into joining it in and weak. To the general global rea- treatment. Thus, especially since prevalence in populations, the fac- violent act. This must be resisted. a call for law and order. The repres- sons for the weakening of the left must clinicians are not always agreed on tors protecting against the disorder, Risk assessment is still far too im- sive machinery was set in motion. A be added the specific mistakes the Ira- likely outcomes, there are many effective interventions, or even the precise a science” (editorial, July counter-demonstration of Khamenei nian left made during and after the who fall outside the provisions of natural history of the disorder. De- 20). Where might it end? After all, if supporters was organised, mostly by 1979 revolution. Perhaps the most im- this act, since they are considered spite these crucial gaps of knowl- the potential for wrongdoing is the state employees and security person- portant was that the left ignored de- untreatable. The premise suggested edge, and without any concrete measure for taking precautionary nel. Martial law prevailed in the mocracy. Take away the democratic by Managing dangerous people, foundation for these assumptions action in the draconian manner sug- streets of the capital and many major core, and the egalitarian slogans of however, is that a significant pro- about the ‘danger’ posed by an gested by Straw’s ministry, then cities. In Tehran alone, over 1,400 stu- the left overlapped with those of the portion of these ‘untreatable’, se- unquantified number of individuals “almost every one of us” (the Tel- dents were arrested. According to the demagogic mullahs. Now the regime verely personality-disordered concerned, the Blairites intend to egraph’s words) could be under Council of Student Protesters, the is discredited, some of those slogans persons pose a present, distinct jump in with both feet and lock up suspicion by our rulers. That is the arrested students, many wounded, also appear to be discredited in the danger to the public and must be individuals willy-nilly, merely on the enormity of what is being proposed were forced to name other student minds of the public. The left has much dealt with in emergency fashion. say-so of a panel of experts deter- in Managing dangerous people. protesters. Before being released they work to do in order to make clear the This, it asserts, must be tackled by mining risk under present hazy pa- The government is not, after all, had to sign a prepared statement that difference between its slogans and changes in the law to allow execu- rameters, without benefit of legal proposing urgently to provide clini- they had acted at the instigation of those of the mullahs. They need to tive incarceration and provide con- safeguards or review procedures. cal resources to deal directly with foreign forces. emphasise a democratic core. tainment facilities for these Clearly, if Straw is perceived as personality disorders to help suffer- In time-honoured fashion a number Once the religious ogre is toppled, individuals. tackling recidivism and preventing ers integrate into society. On the of leaders have been brought before the left may well face a new-found Straw’s proposals include two op- violent crime in this way, then the contrary, it is setting up a punitive television cameras to read out con- nationalism. It needs to prepare for tions, both of which supposedly Blairites can garner plaudits. How- regime to clear the streets of poten- fessions. Manuchehr Mohammadi this. More than anything it needs to “rely on the development of new, ever, these proposals are danger- tial miscreants and wrongdoers, as and Malus Radnia (Maryam Shansi), organise the class to which it belongs. more rigorous, procedures for as- ous, anti-democratic sops to an beggars and the homeless have belonging to the National Associa- The future of Iran, and of the whole sessing risk ... [and] aim ... to en- engendered panic. In fact, if recidi- been targeted in the recent past. And tion of Students, have admitted meet- Middle East region, is closely tied to sure that the arrangements for vism were a concern, resources although government has helped es- ing opposition organisations during the fortunes of this class. detention and management focus on would flow in to rehabilitate offend- tablish the Institute for Severe Per- their (perfectly open and legal) trip For this to happen the success of reducing such risks” (p3). Option ers. But, as anyone who has re- sonality Disorder, this multidiscipli- abroad last year and “regularly giv- the student and the women’s move- one would change the law to pre- cently spent time in prison can tell nary body is a long way from ing false news to foreign media”. Their ment are crucial. And for these young vent the release of DSPD people you, there are few skill or educa- producing study results, by which lives, as well as those of many others shoots to grow we need international from prison or hospital while they tional facilities, medical and psychi- time so-called DSPD persons may - such as student leaders Ali-Reza support l continued to present a risk to the atric provision is very poor, and the well be suffering the effects of in- Mohajeri-Nejad and Heshmatollah public; those receiving a custodial over-stretched probation service carceration without benefit of either Tabarzadi, who was arrested before the sentence after being convicted of a can hardly cope. judicial process or the present Men- protests and his paper Self-Identity criminal offence would continue to In reality, Managing dangerous tal Health Act. Whatever their inad- closed - are in danger. Many leaders be held in prison while anyone else people proposes to misuse diagno- equacies, they do at least have in- of the Party of the Iranian Nation have (including those presently in no in- sis of personality disorder to claim built limits and review procedures. also been arrested. Arrests continue stitution) would be held in a health risk to the public, so that people who Managing dangerous people is as I write. Former political prisoners service facility. Option two would have committed no violent offence a paradigm for the way the state have been called for questioning. operate under a new legal frame- or may have served out their sen- wishes it could manage us all l Some have been detained. Thousands work to provide indeterminate de- tence may be kept behind bars. In- Jim Gilbert remain in custody. And despite Page July 29 1999

after October 1917. It is not a matter in the 1920s is not the same as Britain did it would surely be an example of of principle, but one of timing. I think in the 1920s or in the 1990s. The dif- the notorious Kautskyist “pure de- that Lenin was right and Phil was ferences would take too long to mocracy” in which democracy existed wrong about the timing of the clo- number. But we are applying the same without any class in power. This is sure of the Constituent Assembly. revolutionary democratic methods of the nonsense that Barry is led towards But Phil’s argument can be consid- class struggle to both distinct socie- in his opposition to the civil war re- ered on its merits. It is no bad thing ties. public. apitalism can no more solve the to question the received wisdom of Barry wants to apply different po- The point about the civil war re- question of democracy than it the past and force us to reconsider litical methods to so-called ‘ad- public of February-October 1917 is C can solve the problem of pov- “ ... the petty how the relationship between the two vanced’ and ‘backward’ societies. He that it was a bourgeois republic, al- erty and low pay. Democracy is a per- forms of democracy works out in real therefore concentrates on the nature beit a special type of bourgeois re- manently unresolved issue in which situations. of revolution and the question of dual public. There was a state and a the different social classes have dif- bourgeoisie are On the other hand Phil seemed to power. Trotsky says that the fact that government, which represented the ferent interests. The battle over de- reject the basic ideas of revolution- “the Chinese revolution at this stage dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. There mocracy is the political manifestation horrified by the ary democracy and adopt the posture is national-democratic - ie, bourgeois can be no messing about with anar- of the class struggle, just as the strug- of an ultra-left in which workers’ de- - is elementary to us all” (Trotsky on chist concepts. The dual power re- gles over wages and working condi- mocracy must be opposed to bour- China New York 1974, p156). The public is the dictatorship of the tions is its most obvious economic thought of a geois democratic demands. This problem is that this ‘elementary’ bourgeoisie constrained by powerful aspect. Whatever the level of demo- posturing as a leftist would be gross standard formulation, accepted and soviets. cratic rights, power and influence dual power hypocrisy. Indeed he would be a char- agreed by all, is ambiguous and The centrists and ultra-lefts will do achieved by past struggles, the work- latan of the worst kind. He would be wrong. My argument, not necessar- everything possible to hide the class ing class must defend this and extend calling us Kautskyists because we ily accepted by other revolutionary nature of the dual power republic. The it as far as possible. republic. This dare to suggest that radical bourgeois democrats, is that the Chinese revo- centrists will paint it in very radical Revolutionary democratic commu- democratic demands were legitimate lution in the 1920s was national- colours. They will call it a red repub- nism takes as its starting point the will mean civil in Russia, China, France, Spain and democratic, but not bourgeois. I need lic, a socialist republic and even a class struggle and in particular the now in royalist UK. Meanwhile he is to repeat the words “not bourgeois” workers’ republic. We on the other struggle of the working class for de- war and attacking the Bolsheviks for closing because my opponents will com- hand will be telling the truth. It is a mocracy - that is, for its own con- the Constituent Assembly, as pletely ignore this. Their brains can- bourgeois republic. Barry’s theory of scious democratic power as a class. Kautsky had done. Make up your not believe it, cannot compute it, anarcho-dual power has the same re- In recent articles in the Weekly violence. There mind time, Phil - revolutionary demo- cannot understand it and therefore sult as the centrists. It denies that dual Worker (May 13 and July 1) I put for- crat or Kautskyite hypocrite and left- they block it out. power is a bourgeois republic. It is ward three basic propositions of revo- would be a ist charlatan? By “not bourgeois” I mean a demo- the class dictatorship of the bour- lutionary democratic communism. Phil’s answer is made easier by the cratic revolution that is not led by the geoisie or, in French terms, ‘1793 plus l Revolutionary mass struggle is the fact that he now accepts that Trotsky counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie soviets’. We will continue to call a best means to extend democracy. danger that the was a revolutionary democrat in rela- and not limited to establishing bour- spade a spade, and therefore make l The democratic revolution is the tion to China and France. Phil ac- geois democratic institutions or a clear that a dual power republic is a highest form of that struggle. working class knowledges that for France, Trotsky bourgeois republic. It can and should bourgeois republic and not anarchy l The revolutionary democratic dic- was in favour of extending bourgeois be ‘crowned’ by the dictatorship of without class rule. tatorship of the proletariat is the high- led by the democracy along the lines of “a radi- the proletariat. The next mystery is why Barry is est form of democratic revolution. cal bourgeois democracy that is Trotsky has a problem with his own so extremely hostile to the dual power I have explained these proposi- based on the radical traditions of formulation. He says: “Comrade republic. We have to consider this tions fully in those articles and pro- communists 1793” (Weekly Worker July 15). Martynov proceeds very clearly and from a class point of view. Revolu- vided concrete examples. So I will not Trotsky was not simply in favour of explicitly from the old Menshevik tionary workers are not frightened of repeat them. Any serious assault on may come to defending French bourgeois democ- conception that since the revolution a civil war republic. After all a low- revolutionary democratic communism racy against fascism. Neither did he is bourgeois, but anti-imperialist, the intensity civil war is taking place now must show how and why these po- crudely argue that the dictatorship section of the Chinese bourgeoisie under the constitutional monarchy. litical ideas do not represent the revo- power” of the proletariat was the only op- whose interest is to overthrow impe- Under a dual power republic, the civil lutionary interests of the working tion. Instead he proposed revolution- rialism cannot step aside from this war between the classes will be out class. ary action to extend French revolution. Chiang Kai-shek an- in the open and much more intense. Significantly all my opponents republican democracy. swered Martynov on this score by However, the working class will be in (Tom Delargy, Phil Sharpe and Barry Trotsky was also in favour of pro- making a deal with the imperialists and a much stronger position, organised Biddulph) have avoided any discus- moting and building soviets immedi- crushing the Shanghai proletariat. into soviets with the possibility of sion on where they stand on the ba- ately. He was therefore in favour of This is precisely where comrade Sta- taking power. sic propositions of revolutionary ‘1793 plus soviets’. Barry Biddulph lin goes astray, since his general defi- By contrast the petty bourgeoisie democracy. They have kept silent on will tell us that this equals a dual nition of the revolution as are horrified by the thought of a dual the three propositions. Not a com- a constituent assembly and his view power, transitional or civil war repub- non-proletarian and bourgeois leads power republic. This will mean civil ment. Not a word. Not once have any of building dual power in the Chinese lic. Every class conscious worker to the conclusion that, therefore, war and violence. There would be a them told us whether they agree with republic. Trotsky’s views on China knows that ‘1793 plus soviets’ is more soviets are not necessary. He wants danger that the working class led by any of these ideas or how they differ happen to coincide with mine: with radical than ‘1793 without soviets’. to replace the actual course of the the communists may come to power. from them. They will argue all day and one exception, and that concerns the You would have to be a complete ig- class struggle with a timetable for the This might destroy the petty privi- all night about whether Lenin was a character of the democratic revolu- noramus if you did not understand classes. But this timetable is derived leges that the middle classes enjoy. It Trotskyist or Trotsky was a Leninist tion (I will deal with this later). which was closer to the dictatorship from formalistically defining the revo- is no surprise that the petty bourgeoi- and about who was ignoring the peas- Tom Delargy has become more of the proletariat. lution as bourgeois. This totally in- sie are therefore are totally opposed antry. But on the basic propositions, conciliatory. He now asks whether he Phil has now paddled up the revo- correct position contradicts to a dual power republic. A normal they have simply avoided battle. might be able to play a role in investi- lutionary democratic river. But he everything Lenin taught” (ibid p156). bourgeois republic without civil war, Worse than this, they have in- gating the differences between revo- seems to have only one paddle left. Both Stalin and Trotsky agree that introduced from above by the bour- vented statements that I have never lutionary democrats and left He invents a difference between the revolution is bourgeois, but disa- geoisie, might be acceptable to them. made, in order to try to prove that I Trotskyists. Indeed he can. If he is Trotsky and myself. He accepts that gree as to what this means. The working class would be kept am a Kautskyist who opposes work- serious about this, he needs to start Trotsky and Craig want a ‘1793 re- The second question raised by firmly in their place. ers’ power and the dictatorship of the by telling us which of the three basic public with soviets’. Therefore he Barry is the dual power republic. I de- No wonder that the theorists of the proletariat. Any serious and honest propositions of revolutionary democ- says: “However, contrary to Dave scribed the situation in Russia from petty bourgeoisie express in theoreti- Marxist acquainted with my views, or racy he agrees with. If he could stop Craig, Trotsky is not content with this February 1917 to October 1917 as a cal terms the absolute class horror, who reads the Weekly Worker, knows his hate campaign against me and form of bourgeois republic.” This is dual power republic. This is a very fear and trepidation of a civil war re- that this is simply untrue. These com- concentrate on what he actually pathetic. There is no evidence that I significant period because it shows public. Down with the dual power re- rades cannot deal with the message, thinks about the three basic proposi- would be “content” with a radical the transition period between the old public! It doesn’t exist! It cannot exist! so they are trying to shoot the mes- tions, we might actually start to get ‘1793 republic with soviets’. On the regime and the workers’ state. Barry We don’t want it! If it does exist, we senger. somewhere. contrary I have specifically rejected says, “Dual power is not a republic.” oppose it absolutely! I have shown that the three basic It is tempting to describe all my op- this time after time after time. Phil’s Of course I accept, as Trotsky says, Either some lawyers or managers propositions are consistent with the ponents as left Trotskyists or ultra- tactic of inventing differences where you can have elements of dual power are paying Barry to oppose the dual theory and practice of Lenin and lefts. But, if we look at Phil Sharpe’s none exist means that he is up the even under a constitutional monar- power republic or his own ultra-left Trotsky. They were revolutionary apparently shifting position, such a creek without any paddles. How could chy or tsarism. But a dual power re- ideas (which are rejected by Trotsky) democratic communists who put characterisation is too crude. Phil any Marxist or indeed any worker be public is more than elements of dual have accidentally made him the theo- these politics into practice. I have might be a revolutionary democrat, “content” to live in a civil war repub- power. It is what develops in the retical spokesperson for the horrified shown that this was not peculiar to in which case his argument about the lic threatened directly with fascism? power vacuum after the overthrow of and frightened petty bourgeoisie. Russia and that Trotsky continued closure of the Constituent Assembly The so-called ‘theory of contentment an existing regime. It is the dual power Eventually everybody will see what with this revolutionary method in re- can be accepted as a debate amongst with dual power’ is the last bastion or civil war republic. class interests are behind Barry’s lation to the Chinese revolution 1926- our tendency. Revolutionary demo- of someone who is arguing like a Barry is desperate to oppose this continuous refrain: ‘Don’t listen to 30. His political line was, in his own crats want to replace bourgeois de- scoundrel and not like a Marxist. idea. So he invents his own theory of Craig - he only wants a civil war re- words, “revolutionary and consistent mocracy with soviet democracy. But Let us turn to Barry Biddulph. He anarcho-dual power. Under anarcho- public and nothing more.’ (100%) democracy”. He applied the we understand that the development also fails to say where he stands on dual power, there is no republic, no I agree with James Connolly’s sen- same method to Spain in 1930-31. In of working class consciousness may the three basic propositions of revo- state, no government. Therefore there timent for permanent revolution: when the Weekly Worker (July 22) I pro- mean that these different forms of lutionary democracy and which, if is no class dictatorship. Rival classes we achieve our republic, we will need vided the evidence of Trotsky’s ap- class democracy can coexist tempo- any, he agrees with and how he dif- simply contend for power in civil so- to hang on to our weapons and con- proach to the democratic demand for rarily. In Russia they coexisted even fers from them. For the record China ciety. This has never happened. If it tinue to victory l July 29 1999 Page What we Lukács, Brecht and bureaucratic socialism fight for l Our central aim is to reforge the Communist Party of Great Britain. Without this Party the working class is nothing; with it, it is everything. l The Communist Party serves the interests of the working class. We fight all forms of oppor- tunism and revisionism in the workers’ move- ment because they endanger those interests. We insist on open ideological struggle in order to sentially a positivistic aesthetics. The tion) at the expense of abstraction. fight out the correct way forward for our class. way I interpreted Stalin’s critique of Adorno is just one of many writers l Marxism-Leninism is powerful because it is the Plekhanov orthodoxy was to see unable to comprehend the manner in true. Communists relate theory to practice. We it as a view which rejected the idea which Lukács, rather than simply sub- are materialists; we hold that ideas are determined that Marxism was just one socio-eco- ordinating himself to the crass narra- by social reality and not the other way round. nomic theory among others. Instead tives of ‘Marxism-Leninism’, exploited l We believe in the highest level of unity among his book is the perfect starting Stalinist art, as manifested in ‘so- Stalin saw it as a totalising world view. the ideological dynamic of Stalinism workers. We fight for the unity of the working point for those who wish to cialist realism’, exhibited a similar dis- This implied that it must also contain in a positive direction. Michael Löwy, class of all countries and subordinate the struggle comprehend the awesome con- respect for the ‘autonomy’ of the a Marxist aesthetics which did not in a problematical discussion, consid- in Britain to the world revolution itself. The T liberation of humanity can only be achieved tribution that 20th century Marxism artistic sphere, whose formal laws be- have to be borrowed from Kant or ers Lukács’s development of a ‘real- through world communism. has made to the exegesis of modern came violated by the incursion of an anyone else” ibid p86). ist’ trajectory in his essays of the l The working class in Britain needs to strike as culture. What we have here is a set of immediate political need. In both Lukács is here drawing attention to mid-1920s, linking this with Lukács’s a fist. This means all communists should be debates between Ernst Bloch, Georg Brechtian and Soviet art theories there the manner in which he exploited a apparent support for Stalin and ‘so- organised into a single Party. We oppose all Lukács, Bertolt Brecht, Walter is a difficulty in appreciating art as a specific juncture where Stalin was cialism in one country’. By thus stand- forms of separatism, which weakens our class. Benjamin and Theodor Adorno sensuous object - both blur the lines attempting to establish theoretical ing on the ground of a materially and l Socialism can never come through parliament. (alongside an endpiece by Fredric between distinct social practices. control over various ideological spiritually impoverished ‘socialism’, The capitalist class will never peacefully allow Jameson) that should dispel forever Eagleton’s dictum that Brecht’s vision spheres, something couched within Lukács tore the social base away from their system to be abolished. Socialism will only the contemporary notion that Marx- ran counter to that of Stalinism is little the “totalising world view” of Marx- a fully rounded critique of bureaucratic succeed through working class revolution and the ism is only a refuge for the dogmatist more than a conflict of appearance. ism. Thus Lukács was able to utilise rule. Nevertheless, Löwy makes the replacement of the dictatorship of the capitalists and the fool. Looked at in this light, Lukács’s pres- this space to develop his own idea of nonsensical claim that Lukács’s de- with the dictatorship of the working class. Social- ism lays the basis for the conscious planning of There are many rich seams to be ervation of reason as the property of a specifically Marxist aesthetic. velopment of realism (in essays such human affairs: ie, communism. mined here. This review will consider the formal artistic object (erroneously By accepting the doctrine of ‘so- as ‘Moses Hess and the problems of l We support the right of nations to self- one of the most fascinating. How was criticised by Eagleton in op cit pp85- cialism in one country’ and the lead- idealist dialectics’) provided the ba- determination. In Britain today this means the it that Georg Lukács and Bertolt 86) becomes a more effective coun- ership of Stalin in the mid-1920s, sis for his support for Stalin. In par- struggle for Irish freedom should be given full Brecht owed a considerable formal terpoint to Stalinism, in that artistic Lukács effectively provided himself ticular, Löwy argues that such writings support by the British working class. loyalty to a Stalinised international integrity is not seen as dependent on with a social and economic justifica- lack “the dialectical revolutionary har- l Communists are champions of the oppressed. communist movement? Adorno is political correctness. However, as tion for his accommodation to the re- mony of History and class conscious- We fight for the liberation of women, the ending particularly scathing of Lukács, claim- Terry Eagleton has perceptively ob- alities of bureaucratic deformation. ness”, the implication being that this of racism, bigotry and all other forms of chauvin- ing that the Hungarian writer adapted served, “Realism [as represented by However, the suspicion remains that earlier standpoint would be the more ism. Oppression is a direct result of class society “his obviously unimpaired talents to Lukács’s literary theory] and modern- Lukács identified himself more closely effective in saving Lukács’s revolu- and will only finally be eradicated by the ending the unrelieved sterility of Soviet clap- ism [related here to Brecht’s practice], with the ideological realities we have tionary blushes (M Löwy Georg of class society. trap” (p151). like signifier and signified, are the bi- sketched above. He referred to party Lukács - from romanticism to Bolshe- l War and peace, pollution and the environment Similarly we are confronted with nary terms of an imaginary opposition discipline as a “higher, abstract level vism London 1979, p196). are class questions. No solution to the world’s Brecht’s reaction to the 1953 work- ...” (T Eagleton op cit p89). Brechtian of loyalty. A public figure’s loyalty Löwy’s reasoning is highly dubi- problems can be found within capitalism. Its practice is an important facet of any involves a deep and ideological rela- ous. Lukács’s espousal of the prole- ceaseless drive for profit puts the world at risk. ers’ rising in the GDR where, “bewil- The future of humanity depends on the triumph dered and unnerved”, he “reacted to critical-dialectical complex, but in the tionship to one or other historically tariat as the ‘identical subject-object’ of communism. this revolt of the masses with a mix- context of Stalinism’s voluntaristic given tendency - and it remains loy- in History and class consciousness ture of truculent bluff and sentimen- abstraction, Lukács was the more dan- alty even if, on a particular issue, is in reality a Hegelian device that bor- tal pathos” (p142). Adorno’s barbed gerous theorist. there is not complete harmony” (ibid ders very closely on the psychologi- critique of Lukács makes it quite clear In the light of Brecht’s theoretical p13). Such reasoning is entirely com- cal structure of Stalinism. The that we are not dealing with cases of practice, his accommodation to Sta- prehensible within the structure of voluntarism practised by the bureauc- impaired intellect. Both Lukács and linism becomes relatively easy to un- Stalinism, a historical phenomenon racy in the ‘planned’ economy could Brecht were deeply cultured individu- derstand. But what of Lukács, that chose to practically negate the not know real, sensuous, objective als whose relationship with the vari- someone we have identified as a po- revolution while simultaneously - if practice, precisely because objectiv- ous bureaucratic leaderships was tentially more effective critic. In real- begrudgingly - affirming it. ity was filtered and understood noticeably fraught. ity, Lukács’s relationship to the ruling Eagleton states that under Stalin- through subjectivity. For all intents In Brecht’s case we can contrast bureaucracies of the Soviet Union ism, Lukács became “the Idea that en- and purposes, objectivity was an- his unwillingness to break from Sta- and Hungary was similarly fraught, tered upon real, alienated existence - nulled in favour of appearance. lin with conversations that Walter veering between relative acceptance, the heart of a heartless world, the soul Through a discussion of Marx’s Benjamin recorded in diary form be- humiliating self-criticism and ideologi- of soulless conditions, and indeed, at Economic and philosophical manu- tween 1934 and 1938 (pp86-99). Here cal banishment. Yet, as Lukács him- base, the opium of the people” (T scripts Lukács opposed this annul- we see an author who appears to be self observed, the practical outcome Eagleton op cit p84). What was true ment of objectivity in Hegel’s genuinely perturbed about events of such periods of potential excom- for Lukács was true for the liberatory Phenomenology (and hence the con- inside the USSR. In August 1938, munication was that the party lead- essence of Marxism inside the Stalin- cept of the ‘identical subject-object’), Benjamin quotes Brecht as saying: ers could not swallow him or spit him ist ideological system. Lukács turned counterposing instead an historical “In Russia there is a dictatorship over out: he had stuck in their collective out to be one of the major person- approach that sought to overcome the proletariat. We should avoid dis- throat (I Eörsi [ed] Georg Lukács: ifications of this contradiction. Here alienation in its particular capitalist sociating ourselves from this dicta- record of a life p10). The Hungarian we have a Marxist philosopher who form, rather than the externalisation torship for as long as it still does Socialist Workers Party even lacked incurred widespread enmity and dis- of all human activity (G Lukács The r useful work for the proletariat - ie, so the courage to formally expel Lukács pleasure, yet his services could not young Hegel London 1975, p540). long as it contributes towards a rec- after his involvement in the Hungar- entirely be dispensed with. Hegel’s proposed ‘annulment’ of ob- onciliation between the proletariat ian uprising of 1956 (ibid). It is Theodor Adorno who perhaps jectivity was the root of his spiritual- r and the peasantry ...” (original em- Such a bond can only be explained launches the most scathing attack on ism, and the subsequent deformation phasis, p99). This essentially con- by the particular ideological juncture Lukácsian doctrine in the pages of of his system into a history of appear- € fused statement exhibits perfectly in which Stalinism functioned. The Aesthetics and politics (pp151-176). ances. Lukács therefore retained an Brecht’s contradictory self-doubt in control of the bureaucracy inside the In particular, Adorno criticises objective emphasis in his philosophi- € relation to Stalin’s rule. Soviet Union and countries such as Lukács’s adherence to ‘reflection’ cal system (albeit one dialectically It is this side of Brecht that writers Hungary was premised on the practi- theory, claiming that such a category transcended and preserved), well often turn over into judgements on cal negation of the workers’ revolu- cannot conceptualise the specificity placed for a critique of puerile Stalin- his aesthetic practice. Terry Eagleton tion, hence the elaboration of a hybrid of aesthetic practice in relation to the ist subjectivism. If Lukács had re- contrasts Lukács, whose writings ‘Marxism-Leninism’ to complement “consciousness of the actual world” tained the idealist substrate of “rejoined at crucial points the coun- such practice. However, in terms of (p159). As we have seen from History and class consciousness, he € € € terrevolutionary betrayals of Stalin- legitimacy it was more helpful for this Adorno’s reply to Benjamin, he was would, in all probability, have become € € € ism”, with Brecht, whose “critical, ideology to be erected on the basis concerned to preserve the ‘autonomy’ a mere apologist for the bureaucracy. concrete, agnostic interrogating, ran of Marxism itself, even if this half of of the artistic object. The fact that Lukács developed his € € € counter to the whole weight of Stalin- the ideological contradiction became In fact a defence of ‘reflectionist’ critical standpoint after seeming to fall ist orthodoxy, but which, in its asso- dysfunctional in an everyday sense doctrine is in no way dependent on a in behind Stalin is utterly mystifying € ciated prudence, could find a certain and made its bureaucratic carriers dis- dogmatic, undialectical reading of this for the likes of Adorno and Löwy. nervous accommodation within it” (T tinctly uncomfortable. concept. In a discussion of this topic, Aesthetics and politics, as its title Eagleton Walter Benjamin London Lukács gives us a example of how Lukács asserted that the “objectivity implies, has the immense value of link- 1981, p86). Whilst Eagleton’s empha- this ideological constellation worked of the external world is no inert, rigid ing in Marxist theories of art with the sis on “nervous accommodation” is in his autobiography. He recalls how objectivity fatalistically determining key political problems of the 20th undoubtedly correct, such a compro- Stalin launched an attack on human activity; because of its very century. Aesthetic theory needs to mise was aided, and not impeded, by Plekhanov in 1930: “If you only con- independence of consciousness it be understood within its own prob- Brecht’s artistic theory and practice. sider Stalin’s chief purpose in this stands in the most intimate indissolu- lematic. However, this increases our The radical shift that marked both argument [bureaucratic control], then ble interaction with practice” (G need for an understanding of its his- has made Brecht generally more ac- obviously you have a Stalinist way Lukács Writer and critic, and other torical context. Never has this been ceptable figure on the revolutionary of thinking, but for me it still had one essays London 1970, p29). There is more true than in the careers of Brecht left than the much maligned Lukács. extremely important consequence: thus the dialectical space for the art- and Lukács. In this sense we can Certainly on the surface his contri- Stalin’s criticism of Plekhanov gave ist to work out the concretisation of quote the Brechtian maxim, “Don’t bution may appear as if it is at odds me the idea of making a similar cri- reality on the basis of particular aes- start from the good old things, but with Stalinism or any sort of dogma- tique of Mehring ... [who] introduced thetic laws. Lukács is simply uninter- the bad new ones” (p99), with a very tism. However, this is nothing but an Kantian aesthetics into Marx ... ested in exaggerating surface heavy heart indeed l Printed by and published by: November Publications Ltd (0181-459 7146). Registered as a newspaper by Royal Mail. illusion. Plekhanov introduced what was es- appearance (ie, an unmediated reflec- Phil Watson ISSN 1351-0150. © July 1999 weekly

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ere we are at the close of a cen- showed that Trotsky advocated a workers’ power” (Letters, July 8). Tom ous inference is that communists tury where life itself has shown democratic republic under capitalism somehow thinks that by declaring this should not take the lead in overthrow- Hus that the only path to prole- “It is incorrect to (as did Marx, Engels and Lenin be- I am “endorsing the struggle for the ing the constitutional monarchy. It is tarian socialism is through democratic fore him). Tom would rather we ig- workers’ republic that all Trotskyists no business of the workers how they revolution. A century scarred by vari- counterpose nored this and retreated with him into support” (July 15). are ruled. If you just hate ‘the bosses’, ous socialisms from above - Labour- the crude certainties of left econo- This is not a fertile approach to poli- that is enough. And the more you ite state socialism, Mao’s maximalist mism, where ‘Leninism’ is com- tics. In actual fact the truth is more hate ‘the bosses’, the more revolu- voluntaristic-peasant communism, pressed into the time-frame between complex. News though it may be to tionary you are. Enver Hoxha’s xenophobic commu- demands (ie, for a the April thesis and The proletarian Tom, people do not join the CPGB Communists have a fundamentally nism, JV Stalin’s socialism in one coun- revolution and the renegade because they are inspired by a vision different approach. In countries like try, Pol Pot’s genocidal barrack-room Kautsky, and robbed of its revolu- of a bourgeois republic with Richard the USA, Germany, Australia, etc, our communism, North Korea’s dynastic socialist/workers’ tionary democratic content. Branson or Lord Archer as president. revolutionary democratic demands communism, etc. The only successful The supreme irony is that in the Nor are bourgeois modernisers bang- would be different. Is that so hard to workers’ revolution was carried out republic) to shape of comrade Delargy these con- ing at the door of the CPGB, desper- understand, comrade Delargy? In by a mass-based party (ie, the Bol- demnations of “Kautskyism” come ate for membership. Why join the such countries the immediate slogan sheviks) which emphasised above minimum or from someone who cheerfully con- CPGB if you do not want communism? ought to be ‘For a centralised repub- everything else the necessity for in- fesses that he does not know the dif- Wishing or yearning for something lic’. The federal-type structures in ternationalism and the struggle for immediate ference between “democracy in is one thing - making it happen is an- these countries actually impede the revolutionary or consistent democ- general” and “bourgeois democracy other. To get from where we are now struggle for the extension of democ- racy. A perspective VI Lenin had demands. in particular” - which should really to where we want to be requires the racy - by giving (reactionary) minori- struggled for since at least 1902, when be ABC. It almost goes without say- art of politics. ties the legal-constitutional right to he penned What is to be done? Employing such a ing that by implication the comrade It is incorrect to counterpose frustrate the democratic will of the Despite that, recent correspond- rejects the politics of What is to be maximalist demands (ie, for a social- majority. ents to the Weekly Worker allege that methodology is done? This leads to a situation rich ist/workers’ republic) to minimum or As for the UK, the monarchy pro- we communists make “a cult of for- in comic innuendo. All available evi- immediate demands. Employing such vides modern British capitalism with mal structures” under capitalism - ie, not to scale the dence suggests that comrade Craig a methodology is not to scale the its constitutional mainstay. Heredi- the revolutionary democratic demand takes seriously Lenin’s warning heights of revolution. Leftist slogans tary privilege is the very antithesis of for a federal republic of England, Scot- heights of about “why all worship of the spon- will not make the socialist dawn edge democracy. Communists think we land and Wales. Some will never learn. taneity of the mass movement and a few days closer. They never have. should exploit this for everything it For example, an examination of Tom revolution” any degrading of [communist] poli- And they never will. is worth. Economist-communists Delargy’s recent letters (Weekly tics to trade unionist politics [by the We live under a (thoroughly think we should ignore or belittle it. Worker July 8, July 15) reveals a rigid Russian economists of Rabochoye bourgeoisified) constitutional mon- The struggle for revolutionary de- mind-set which downplays or dis- Dyelo] mean precisely preparing the archy. There is a living national ques- mocracy - and a totally different type misses the necessity for the working ground for converting the workers’ tion in Scotland, Wales and Ireland of republic - is just as relevant for the class taking the lead in the battle for presumably explains why comrade movement into an instrument of bour- (and in England with Hague’s fanning USA as it is for the UK, or Indonesia democracy. The workers need to know Delargy’s theoretical colleague, Barry geois democracy” (VI Lenin What is of the nationalist flames). The work- and Iran … if you reject the only one thing - socialism. That seems Biddulph, throws the baby out with to be done? Peking 1976, p118). Tom ers exist as a slave class. In these cir- Menshevik-Stalinist theory of the to be Tom’s motto. the bathwater when he rightly dispar- Delargy, unlike comrade Craig, can- cumstances, how do we advance, not bourgeois democratic revolution as It should be painfully obvious re- ages the Communist Party of China not see what Lenin is making a fuss stay still? The CPGB’s slogan of a a necessary stage in history. ally. History presents us with a choice of the 1920s which engaged in the about. Yet it is comrade Craig, not ‘federal republic’ is not some static, In other words, the role of commu- between revolutionary democratic “utopian struggle for revolutionary Delargy, who is denounced for “blur- isolated demand - nor is it part of some nists is to “conquer democracy”, not communism from below and state so- democracy” in alliance with the na- ring” the lines between bourgeois ‘left’ Huttonite reform package. Less to wait for the “thousand times more cialism from above. It is sad, there- tional bourgeoisie, and the Spanish democracy and proletarian democ- still is the federal republic viewed as democratic socialism”. Fatal conse- fore, that comrades like Delargy Stalinists of the 1930s who “limited racy … and for being a “Kautskyist”. the fulfilment of Britain’s supposed quences follow otherwise. crudely counterpose democracy un- themselves to democracy and repub- Topsy-turvy politics or what? unfinished bourgeois revolution. It is As a good Marxist, comrade der capitalism and socialism. Commu- licanism” (Weekly Worker July 15). To compound this political dys- a demand that the mass of workers Delargy thinks that Britain, Germany, nists recognise that socialism is an Democracy and republicanism must lexia, which needs urgent treatment, must be won to support in order for Australia, etc have already had their historical break, or leap. But we also therefore be Very Bad Things, if we comrade Delargy suggests that in my them to become a political class. Here ‘bourgeois revolution’. Democracy is emphasise that without the struggle concur with Barry Biddulph’s method. last letter I was making overtures to is the real political answer to comrade deemed superfluous. In which case for the fullest possible democracy, Tom’s ‘anti-Kautskyism’ means he the left Trotskyism camp. Dream on, Delargy’s morbid obsession with de- we might as well stick with the con- proletarian revolution will be nothing is doomed to oscillate wildly between comrade. My feet are firmly planted fining the federal republic “in class stitutional monarchy until the red but a lifeless abstraction. But not for anti-political anarchism on the one in democratic communism, not the terms”. Class struggle itself will de- dawn comes along. Tom. In his jumbled-up account de- hand, and routine trade union poli- cold barren steppes of ultra-leftism. termine the outcome, not the ritualis- Now we are left with the archetypal mocracy becomes a danger to be tics on the other. So, comrade Dave Where does comrade Delargy get the tic formulas of left economism. - and reductionist - left Trotskyist guarded against. Revolutionary de- Craig writes a defence of revolution- evidence? From the following state- The comrade admonishes me for scenario. In the blue corner there is mocracy equals Kautskyism, intone ary democracy contra Kautsky ment of mine: “The Huttonites want not realising that “workers there [in high bourgeois politics. In the red our left Trotskyists. A democratic re- (Weekly Worker July 1). This of a controlled removal from above of the US or Germany] have long since corner there is low ‘prole’ politics. All public is and must be a counterrevo- course is a red rag for our comrade the constitutional-monarchical sys- been liberated from a constitutional- that is left now is the ‘pure’ struggle lutionary demand. If necessary, Delargy. All he can see is an article tem, which (they hope) will usher in a monarchical system, but wage slaves between workers and bosses. The fi- phantom ‘revolutionary democrats’ “plunging the depths of Kautskyite bourgeois-presidential-type system. they remain” (July 15). This is such a nal countdown unencumbered by the will be invented - so that pre-1917 apologetics”. It is hard not to con- The CPGB wants the revolutionary pure expression of the economistic need for real stages - as opposed to Bolshevism can then be knocked clude that comrade Craig must be democratic removal from below of the credo, it deserves to be framed and artificial theory - or a Communist down like a straw man in the name of some sort of class traitor for even constitutional-monarchical system then prominently displayed in the Party l their pseudo-Trotsky orthodoxy. This daring to write the piece, which and its replacement by organs of home of every communist. The obvi- Danny Hamill