Socialist Party weekly in crisis

here are few things more stom- the existence of a timeless, transcen- ach-churning than watching dental, ahistorical evil which pos- T bourgeois society going sesses certain individuals - and not through one of its moralistic spasms. others. This is the force responsible Over the last week we have been bom- for producing Mary Bell - and Syd- barded by sensationalist stories about ney Cooke, Fred West, Thomas Ham- the “child killer” Mary Bell. The bigot- ilton, Peter Sutcliffe, etc. fuelled tabloids, of course, have had Naturally, anyone who challenges a field day, stoking up prejudice and orthodox reactionary assumptions is all manner of backward ideas. immediately suspect - and risks being Unsurprisingly, tabloid editors stifled. (For example, look at the at- have been working overtime evoking tempts to ban the ‘offensive’ film lurid images which could come from Crash.) The Omen or The Exorcist - watch out The real facts about the grim and for ‘children of Satan’ or armies of tragic life of the young Mary Bell do zombie-like killer-children roaming not fit into the neat and easy catego- your street. As Emma Forest wrote in ries conjured up the salivating tab- The Guardian: “In reporting on mur- loids. Sentenced to life imprisonment der, there is an unspoken tabloid rule: in 1968 at the age of 11 for the man- when men kill it’s bad. When women slaughter of two boys aged four and kill it’s evil. And when children kill it’s three, Mary Bell had suffered appall- satanic” (May 4). ing maltreatment - sexual abuse and Thus, naturally, Mary Bell is sup- general deprivation - at the hands of posed to become a hate figure - so her mother and her ‘male visitors’. But runs the script. This means that the the torture did not end there. At the 41 year-old Mary Bell has to be Red Bank Special Unit, we are just demonised and scapegoated as a learning, she was subjected to sexual “child killer” rather than someone who attacks at the hands of staff and in- killed as a child - for whatever reason. mates. According to one former in- The fact that Mary Bell’s specific case mate, she was “petrified” the whole is being subsumed under a general time as unit workers and residents tabloid-driven hysteria about ‘paedo- “made it plain to her that was the way had to be “a reason”. And therefore - mother and daughter - had to go into Campari. The sound of moral outrage philes’ lurking outside your back door it would be” (quoted in The Guard- that the judicial system has to changed hiding to escape media harrassment. was conspicuous by its absence. But makes the current mood even more ian May 2). so that children can never again be The tabloids claimed the moral high it is very unlikely that Fraser will feel alarming. This obsession with ‘evil’ Still hate her? tried in adult courts or sent to adult ground to the bitter end, piling on the the censor’s hand - he does not pose killers and perverts led to a near-riot The general climate of censorship prisons. It appears that these are ‘bad pressure to suppress Sereny’s book. a threat to establishment values - in Yeovil, when a rumour got out - tab- in Britain can be seen by the reaction ideas’. Perhaps they should not be Yet, with astounding hypocrisy, Mary Bell’s life does. loids again? - that Sydney Cooke was to Gitta Sereny’s book, Cries unheard, said at all. Perhaps it would be better these very same newspapers have As for murderers and killers ‘profit- being held in the local police station. which she ‘co-authored’ with Mary if Cries unheard was not published. been offering far larger sums than ing from crime’, the local bookshop or And, of course, after reading about Bell. Sereny has written a much Thus, when it was discovered that £50,000 to Bell for her ‘exclusive library is full of the memoirs of assorted the ‘evil’ misdeeds of Mary Bell, peo- praised biography of Albert Speer Sereny had given Mary Bell some of story’. Indeed, according to Sereny, wartime politicians, generals, ex-mem- ple are inclined to look to the police which attempted to penetrate the po- the money advanced to her by the £50,000 is “infinitesimal” in compari- bers of the SAS, etc. They will con- and the bourgeois courts for protec- litical psyche of those who master- publishers, all hell broke lose. The tab- son to these offers, which “are still tinue to be published - with impunity. tion. Not to mention censorship. This minded the Third Reich. She has also loids scream about “child killers” prof- continuing to come in”. Who is prof- This should send a clear signal to is the hidden agenda that lies behind written a study of Franz Stangel, com- iting from their crimes, conjuring up iting from crime now? the workers’ movement. Censorship the Mary Bell ‘scandal’. You can be mandant of the Treblinka concentra- the figure of £50,000. Jack Straw in- In other words, to profit or not is and suppression of free speech is a sure that tabloid editors, self-ap- tion/extermination camp. stantly said the payment by Sereny not the real issue at stake here. It is weapon that can be directed against pointed moral guardians and other Sereny was motivated by the con- had “compromised” Mary Bell’s ano- clearly what is being said rather than anyone who one way or the other forces in society do not want us to viction that Mary Bell had been the nymity. He was followed by his mas- who is saying it that is the target. goes against the ruling order. We get a glimpse of the real truth behind victim of an “enormous relative injus- ter, Tony Blair, who sanctimoniously If you want more proof, it was an- must be vigilant and fight all attempts the Mary Bell story. tice”. She is also “absolutely con- pontificated that it was “wrong that nounced last week that the brutal Lon- to deny our democratic right to Instead, though with no logic what- vinced that children do not commit people make money out of crimes they don gangster, ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser, think l soever, we are supposed to believe in crimes because they are evil”. There have committed”. In the end the Bells will be doing a TV advertisement for Page etters Party notes L

I must take issue with one assertion made by comrade Peter Manson in his other- wise most informative article, ‘Capital are organising that campaign. They are backs Mandela’ (Weekly Worker April 30). not trying to do so in a united front way Describing the African National Congress with other left groups. government’s ‘growth, employment and The Colombian Refugee Association redistribution programme’ (Gear), the com- (Coras), one of the most militant organi- rade states: “Based on the overriding de- sations from the exile communities in Lon- mand to limit government borrowing to don with tens of activists, is the main pillar On Thursday May 8, the Social- The internal bulletin cited three percent of the gross domestic prod- of the campaign. WP provides its mail box ist Party is organising a London above features contributions uct, [Gear] necessitates slashing public and its English public leaders. Neverthe- aggregate to discuss the devel- Socialist Party from CWI sections in Germany spending, axing thousands of jobs less, WP does not usually attend the im- oping crisis in its relations with and Sweden expressing through state sector redundancies (re- portant mobilisations that are organised Scottish Militant Labour. A rep- “shock” and counselling trenchments), the introduction of compul- by Coras. resentative of the executive in crisis against “quick decisions” (Ger- sory arbitration in industrial disputes, and On Thursday April 23 around 50 Co- committee of SML will present many, pp24-25); “great con- extensive privatisations” (my emphasis). lombians held a very militant picket the case for the dissolution of cern” and “upset” at the “mix- This argument reminded me of the line against ‘their’ embassy in London. They the organisation into a Scottish ing up” of the strategic need to taken by left groups such as the Socialist assembled in protest at the assassination Socialist Party, explicitly com- build “a revolutionary party” Party, Socialist Outlook and of course of Eduardo Umaña, probably the most mitted to the break-up of the UK with “the need for electoral alli- Arthur Scargill and the Socialist Labour important human rights lawyer in Bogotá. state along national lines. ances” (Sweden pp25-26. A Party leadership on European monetary If WP is so keen on denouncing the However, if the debate so far lone dissident International Ex- union and - in particular - on the paramilitaries in Colombia (and the way in between the SML executive ecutive Committee member of Maastricht treaty. One of the central which BP is financing them), they should committee and the leadership of the CWI, Farooq Tariq of Paki- planks of Maastricht is also a stipulation have supported their Colombian refugee SP is anything to go by, the ex- stan offers “full support to Scot- that budgetary deficits must not exceed partners. Nevertheless, there was not one change could be an extended ex- tish comrades in their tactics” three percent of each European Union single member, supporter or friend of WP ercise in avoiding the issue. (p29). member state’s gross domestic product. at that picket. The same happened some And the issue is the fight Positive or negative, all this The groups mentioned, and others, have months ago when another 50-strong against the infection of nationalism in the workers’ is pretty irrelevant really. SML is quite clearly on a argued that Maastricht necessitates picket targeted the Colombian embassy movement. This infection must be rooted out and nationalist course. Therefore, the comments of the swingeing cuts in social and welfare in support of the Colombian general strike. destroyed by genuine partisans of our class. international sections of CWI will be only be of spending. They have even portrayed the On Wednesday April 29 there was a Yet the SP EC seems determined to keep any dis- passing interest. More telling is the profoundly lame 1995 strike movement in France as being lobby of parliament in defence of the refu- cussion of substantive principle out of its discus- intervention of Peter Taaffe in his ‘Short thesis on a fight “against Maastricht”. gees and later a picket at the Bolivian sions. Indeed, despite the fact that it recognises the revolutionary party’. Clearly, unless comrades The argument that capping of current embassy in support of the strikers - no that what is being posed is “the dissolution of our break from the dim, formal and abstract method of account budget deficits inevitably means sign of WP. They are absent from the organisation”, it is pained by the suggestion that it this leading comrade, SP faces oblivion. cuts is wholly spurious. If there were to struggles of the refugees and they have has “declared war” on SML’s proposals. This is an Characteristically, in the midst of a life-and-death be concurrent substantial tax increases, deserted the Bolivian Union Solidarity unnecessary “attempt to polarise the debate”, it struggle for the very survival of his organisation, then deficit reductions could quite well Campaign, which the LRCI initially led. wheedles (‘In reply to Scottish Executive Commit- he produces a thesis - that actually compounds the be accompanied by increased public In 1995 this committee organised tee letter of March 27 1998’ Members Bulletin April problem. Thus, the man writes - clearly with no no- spending. The working class agenda around 150-200 people for the biggest pro- 2, p35). tion of the nature of the processes that have pro- should not be to argue for opposition to test picket at a Latin American embassy Will the SP leadership never learn? Clearly the duced the present dire situation in his organisation Gear, Maastricht, or any other fiscal poli- for years and a there was a big rally with organisation is subject to increasingly powerful - that “SML is an autonomous part of the SP … cies of individual capitalist states or eco- Tony Benn. However, since the LRCI had centrifugal pressures, only one of which is exerted based upon a clear revolutionary programme, per- nomic blocs. Neither, in the case of Europe, just expelled their Bolivian section, they in the direction of Scotland. It is significant for ex- spectives, strategy and tactics, and a separate revo- should it be to get involved in expressing decided to ignore solidarity with that coun- ample that the whole issue of the “Scottish turn, lutionary organisation” (ibid p22). preferences over where the power to de- try’s working class. part two” was “injected into a debate on finance by To be candid, if the SP or SML actually had a termine interest rates resides, or whether WP is only interested in organising cam- Mike Morris from Merseyside”. He did this “in or- “clear revolutionary programme”, then the ques- national currencies should be retained. paigns which they can lead and through der to reinforce his argument that the financial pro- tion of “separate … organisation” would never have Rather, we should be arguing that the capi- which they can show their members that posals put forward by the EC” to counteract the arisen. This was a concession to nationalism and talist class must pay for the universal they are involved in internationalist ac- organisation’s looming crisis “were going too far should have been killed when it raised its head in working class demands for what we need tions. They use the Colombian refugees towards ‘a highly centralised structure’” (ibid p36). the first place. in order to live anything like a decent life when they want to demonstrate that they Also ominous in this context is the contribution Yet - despite himself - Taaffe cannot avoid the - benefits, pensions and student grants can organise an action and make new re- to the same Members Bulletin by Roy Davies of truth entirely. He writes of what he coyly calls at the level of the minimum wage of £285 cruits. But WP abandons their refugee Swansea branch. He more or less gives advance “moods” within the class that have “undoubtedly per week, free and comprehensive educa- allies when they organise something by warning to the leadership that the crisis they face spilled over at certain stages into the ranks of our tion and healthcare, 24-hour nurseries, etc. themselves. If tomorrow some problem in Scotland is poised to repeat itself in Wales. organisation”. How the fundamental division in the The way in which the capitalist class arose with them WP would withdraw its Criticising a recent contribution to the internal workers’ movement between reform and revolution must pay of course, is, as the 1998 Com- participation and would suddenly create document from Hannah Sell - the national activities has become “blurred in the minds of some com- munist Manifesto published with the another ‘solidarity committee’. organiser - comrade Davies outlines the key issues rades”. The political philistine Taaffe may think it a Weekly Worker (April 30) correctly states, The WP turn towards ‘building the “not addressed” by comrade Sell. Concretely, the “paradox” that the “flexible approach” of SP to- through increased corporate taxation and party’ is a shift à la SWP or RCP. They comrade from Wales suggests that “the notion of wards a “new mass workers’ party” has had a “nega- a heavily progressive income tax, together dismiss the rest of the left and concen- an all-British workers’ party being formed simulta- tive effect” in the ranks of his organisation, with the abolition of indirect taxes such trate on small-issue campaigns completely neously in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern “blurring” the distinction between “mass reform- as VAT, and an end to the right of the rich under the control of their supreme leader- Ireland, given the developments in Scotland and ist, left reformist or centrist parties and a Marxist to pass on their wealth. ship. Wales, is questionable to say the least” (p43). The party” (p23). However, for Marxists this is quite “most likely” scenario for the development of the explicable. SP has a reformist programme that adapts Manchester London British political scene apparently is “the emergence opportunistically to the political milieu it works in - of politically dominant nationalist parties in Scot- be that Labourism, feminism, black separatism or land and Wales that will grow at the expense of Scottish/Welsh nationalism. New Labour” (ibid). This poses “the question of Without the means to fight, Taaffe - pathetically the break-up of the British state” along national - is reduced to equatinging mundane organisational lines, a fracture that is apparently “integral to the questions with the “revolutionary party”. Quite In Workers Power (February) Richard Lew Adams, general secretary of the train development of the British revolution” (ibid). frankly, it is sad to have this aparatchik write of the Brenner, replying to the Weekly Worker, drivers union Aslef has been defeatedin Comrade Davies carries on - happily oblivious of need “at all times [to maintain] a separate revolu- said that WP is a fighting organisation a ballot organised to comply with the To- the full opportunist import of the words he writes - tionary organisation … [which would] meet sepa- and the best proof of that was its involve- ries’ anti-union laws. that “these national developments mitigate against rately and regularly, preferably on a weekly basis, ment in the Campaign Against BP in Co- The victorious candidate is Dave Rix. the traditional concept we have long held of an all- to discuss the way forward, to collect dues and to lombia. Comrade Rix is a leading member of the British road to socialism” (p44). The comrade - quite recruit to our party” (p24). John Stone (LCMRCI) pointed out that, Socialist Labour Party who was on the correctly in my view - points out that “the national This is the world view of a tired, rather apolitical “however worthy this might be, it only NEC during its first year and stood dur- question in Wales could be advanced at a much bureaucrat. Genuine revolutionaries in SP must fight involved a handful of activists and went ing the general election in Leeds Central. faster rate than in Scotland over the next five to 10 the “Scottish turn, part two” at a far more funda- unnoticed as far as British or Colombian He has also been the leader of the unoffi- years” (p43). Clearly though, his appetite is to adapt mental level - at that of programme and revolution- workers were concerned” (Weekly Worker cial rank and file within Aslef and stood to it, to tail the growth of the same poisonous na- ary principle. An important section of our workers’ February 26). Don Preston (Weekly Worker for the general secretary’s job on a radical tionalism that is now rotting SML. He ends his piece movement is embroiled in a battle against the ef- April 23) wrote that at the May 1997 gen- left platform. with a flurry of sentences that the leadership of SP fects of petty nationalism. This section - politically eral election, in Labour Party conference Aslef members will be expecting him to should take as a threat … if it had the gumption to personified in the inept figure of Taaffe - simply debates, at Reclaim Our Rights, at the SLP deliver on these promises when he takes recognise it. does not have the theoretical or programmatic ar- congress there was “no sign of WP”. In over from Adams next year. As to the left, He assures readers that “these issues that I have senal to fight and win. fact, it is becoming more and more diffi- surely the Weekly Worker has proved cor- raised have been the subject of some discussion in Yet win we must. The historical precedents show cult to find WP and they themselves have rect when it warned that far from being Wales over the past period. They are not some- us what happens if we lose. Roy Davies of Swan- not put on any public event recently. finished, the SLP can provide a focus for thing that have arisen from a clear blue sky … the sea is correct in one sense: there is no ‘British road Stone and Preston correctly focused mass discontent under conditions of New Scottish Socialist Alliance offers the answer” (p44). to socialism’. But then, the comrade should be ad- their critique on the fact that WP uses Labour. The election of Dave Rix points It should be blindingly obvious to any political vised - there certainly is no Welsh or Scottish road those anti-BP actions to cover its general to the future. Scargillism lives. Away with leadership worth its salt that SP faces a challenge to ‘socialism’ either. abstentionism from the most important premature obituaries. to its very existence as an organisation. Most grimly, Whatever the intentions of these comrades, at points of the class struggle. However, it accommodation to nationalism threatens to split the the end of that road lies hell, not socialism or any- is worth mentioning the way in which they Halifax organisation, to fatally divide Welsh, Scottish and thing like it l English comrades. How do the SP and its interna- tional affiliates - organised in the Committee for a l l Workers International - respond? l l May 7 1998 Page

Germany action

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London: May 10 - Marx The wish 1848 - Dictatorship of the democracy. For more details call 0181- 459 7146. father to Manchester: May 18 - The reserve army of labour. For more details 0161-798 the 6417. he result of the April 26 local elec- n tions in Sachsen-Anhalt tells The CPGB has forms avail- much about the political situation T able for you to include the thought in Germany as a whole. The fascists gained over 10% and the Social Demo- Party and the struggle for communism in your will. crats (SPD) were the nominal winners Write for details. The past week or two has wit- with just 35% of the votes. It is very likely nessed the circulation of per- that the general elections in September n sistent rumours of a will see a similar outcome, with a very To get involved contact counterrevolution in Petro- weak showing for the conservative Chris- Brent SA, Galaxy News Box grad. These stories went into tian Democratic Union and the Green 100, 37 Walm Lane, NW2 detailed description of what Party. 4QU. Tel: 0181-451 0616. was supposed to have hap- There will be no landslide victory for pened and, in view of the ab- the SPD’s Gerhard Schroeder in Septem- n sence of any denials from ber. People are not enthusiastic about this Russia, many friends were be- Blairite candidate for chancellor. They will coming alarmed. vote for him reluctantly in the absence of These stories however are any credible alternatives. The PDS (Party To get involved, contact PO complete fabrications. Recent of Democratic Socialism) has retreated Box 980, Glasgow G14 9QQ messages from Russia give a from all-German politics and decided at or ring 0141-552 6773. complete denial of anything in its last congress to concentrate on what the nature of a is terms ‘east German’ questions. The n counterrevolution taking Green Party has shed its radical image place. The rumours were cir- and advanced explicitly anti-working dent of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) The working class of course can ex- culated for some obscure po- class demands: for example raising the he has always been keen to attract in- pect nothing from Schroeder. Following Discussion - Lessons from litical reasons and, although price of petrol to £2 a litre. dustry to his federal state and has paid Blair’s lead, the SPD election programme the struggles of the Liver- they are presumed to have In 1994 Helmut Kohl won the elections out millions of marks in subsidies to busi- restricts itself to a few modest promises, pool dockers. originated in Germany, they no despite a drop in support for the Chris- ness - taxes raised overwhelmingly from such as a marginal rise in child benefit Wednesday May 20, doubt express the ardent tian Democrats. This result is very un- the working class, of course. With the and increased statutory sick pay. But 7.30pm, Patrick Burgh Hall wishes of the reactionaries in likely for 1998, however, given the demand to reduce the highest tax rate even these two points - the central pil- all quarters. It is a clear case ‘repackaging’ of the social democrats. from 53% to 49% the SPD has openly lars of the whole election campaign - are n of the wish being father to the Following the lead of its British counter- addressed its preferred audience - the subject to Finanzierungsvorbehalt: that thought. part, the SPD has totally remade itself in bourgeoisie. And the fat cats are grate- is, if the SPD discovers the coffers are As a matter of fact all the evi- recent years. Like Labour it was an or- ful. Almost all bourgeois papers are en- bare, it will abandon even these ‘commit- dences go to show that the so- ganisation with close union links that at thusiastically supporting Gerhard ments’. viet government is increasing least made noises about improving the Schroeder, even the arch-conservative Just as in Britain, much of the German The Hillingdon strikers in its influence and power in situation of the working class. Now it has tabloid Bild. left has convinced itself that a social west London, deserted by Russia. Internally the Revolu- changed into a ‘new’, ‘modern’ party, German industry is quite keen to get a democratic government will automatically Unison, still need your sup- tion has nothing to fear. There concerned mainly to improve the social democratic chancellor. It knows full produce favourable conditions for work- port. Send donations ur- is not a force that can seri- Standort Deutschland - the economic well that nothing will really change, but a ing class struggles to develop. They gently, payable to ously threaten it. This is ad- performance of German industry. fresh face might produce a more dynamic should take a look at Britain after one Hillingdon Strikers Support mitted by friends and enemies Gerhard Schroeder in particular is image capable of restoring social con- year of ‘New Labour’ l Campaign, c/o 27 alike. But the danger from with- known as a friend of the bosses. As presi- sensus and reinvigorating investment. Townsend Way, North- out is a very real one. There is wood, Middlesex UB8 1JD. nothing so galling to the capi- talist class as the existence of n a socialist republic. They rent boroughs, the assembly will be in- would prefer anything else sulated from democratic pressure. The rather than that. Around the left assembly will need a two thirds majority In the Ukraine the bourgeoi- to challenge the mayor. The mayor will Downing Street picket - first sie have placed themselves simply appoint people to the fire author- Sunday of every month, 12 under the protection of the ity and economic development boards. noon to 1.30pm. Release the Germans, under whose wing a The government will prevent the GLA Referendum silence prisoners! For more details Cadet government has been from redistributing wealth in Britain’s contact: Fuascailt, PO Box set up, whose business it will most class-divided city by taxing the rich. 3923, London NW5 1RA. be to give back the land to the “New Labour’s plan for London is a Tel: 0181-985 8250 or 0956- landlords and protect private thin democratic veneer on a system 919 871. property generally. We shall Thursday saw the London referendum. up a directly elected mayor for the capi- which will leave most power in the hands see how far they can succeed. The campaign for a puppet London tal and a 25-member assembly. The ma- of unelected quangos”. n In Finland too the bourgeoi- mayor and an emasculated Greater Lon- jority of Londoners want to see a return So, why did the SWP vote ‘yes’ to Second march for social sie, with the help of the Ger- don Authority forms an important part of the Greater London Council which “unelected quangos” and Blair’s anti- justice, called by the Mer- mans, have temporarily of the Blairite project. It will provide an Margaret Thatcher abolished in 1986. But democratic “veneer”? seyside Port Shop Stewards defeated the forces of the elected dictator under the guise of ‘reno- the proposed mayor and assembly fall The Socialist Party, in even more cow- Committee. Revolution. vating’ local democracy. If Blair gets short of even the limited democracy of ardly fashion, choose to ignore the ref- Saturday May 30. Assem- Both cases have been vic- what he wants, New Labour’s hegemony the GLC” (May 2). erendum issue altogether, so deep has ble 12 noon, Thames Em- tories for German armies, but, over society will be further advanced. The SWP comrades seem unable to its internal crisis become. It simply bankment, Temple tube. in so far as they have been at The referendum confronted the left grasp that the May 7 referendum - and wished it away. The front page of The For more information, con- the expense of the workers, with a very real, all too concrete politi- the May 22 joint referendums in Ireland Socialist proclaimed: “Vote Socialist tact Liverpool Dockers Lon- they have been victories for cal issue. Was it correct to boycott the - are all part of Blair’s wider plans for where you live, join the Socialist Party don Support Group: 31b the bourgeoisie of all coun- whole charade - or should we have voted constitutional reform from above. Blair and fight for a real alternative to Blair’s Muswell Hill Place, London tries. Thus is vindicated the in- ‘yes’ or ‘no’? There were no other op- wants his ‘democracy’ to smother real Tory policies” (May 1). But what if there N10. Tel: 0181-442 0090. ternational interest of the tions - even in the imagination. Anyone democracy and usher in - in theory - the was no “Socialist” standing “where you capitalist class. It is high time eagerly turning to the left press for guid- victory of ‘third way’ capitalism. How- live”? Should you have voted SLP or n the workers looked at events ance will find ... nothing. Or to be more ever, for opportunist ideological reasons Socialist Alliance? Or was it OK to have from the same viewpoint l exact, they will find fudge, evasion and the SWP wilfully refuses to understand voted New Labour? And what about the Delphic utterances. Clarity and leader- or recognise this basic fact of British referendum itself? The assembly details for the ship are two qualities they will not find. political life. Then again, how can it? It The only possible way to fathom the National Front march In reality of course, the ‘mute left’ were enthusiastically said ‘yes, yes’ to the SP’s position on the referendum was by against the Northern Ireland sending out the subliminal message - September 11 Scottish referendum and actually attending a meeting - and then peace agreement are as fol- ‘Vote yes, vote yes, vote yes ...’ This it will - albeit perhaps slightly less en- forcefully dragging an answer out of a lows: 1918 certainly seems the case with Socialist thusiastically - say ‘yes’ on May 22 to tongue-tied SP spokesperson. However, Saturday May 23, 2.15pm. Worker. Under the headline, ‘Proposals the imperialist peace process. the determined interrogator will discover Little Sanctuary, London for London mayor offers less than the Socialist Worker complained: “The that our fearless SP comrade would have SW1 (just off Parliament Russian Revolution GLC’, we are told: “But the proposals city will be divided into 14 voting dis- said - cough, cough; eyes down; shuffle Square). this week 80 years ago for a new set-up in London will bring tricts, each of which will elect just one the feet aimlessly - ‘yes’ to Blair and his All anti-fascists are urged to hardly any change. The five million Lon- assembly member ... With only one mem- anti-working class project l mobilise against this dem- don voters will be asked ... to vote to set ber covering more than two of the cur- onstration. Page May 7 1998

tionalism. (His ally, Pete Brown, na- workers’ government, for instance. numbers present at the LSA meeting. ively maintained that the “SSA com- A South American comrade also Like so many on the left, comrade rades do not have a narrow nationalist felt the urge to criticise the CPGB. He Packer believes that the only possi- project” and insisted that SML’s Scot- ticked us off for not explicitly men- bility is a “process of recomposition tish Socialist Voice “decries Scots tioning ‘socialism’ in election ad- within the existing workers’ move- his meeting was characterised New Labour, continued comrade nationalism”). dresses - ignoring our manifesto. The ment”. A left reformist party “will by serious debate and, on oc- Kerr, is desperate to get a ‘yes’ vote Comrade Kerr pointed out that comrade also objected to the CPGB’s emerge”, said the comrade with iron T casions, sharp disagreements. in the May 7 referendum - just as it what goes for the Scottish elections demand to “nationalise unprofitable certainty. Like comrade Thornett, he The fact that we can have such open was during the September 1997 Scot- also goes for the European ones. The industries faced with closure”. The thought the ‘English’ SAs should not and lively discussions should be tish referendum (for all of the con- left needs eight to nine percent of the CPGB, in the view of the comrade stand in the way of the SSP, describ- viewed as “emancipatory”, said the spiracy theories of some on the left vote to get a seat in the European should be demanding the nationali- ing it as a “broad reformist-type chair of the meeting, Anne Murphy, to the effect that Blair really wanted parliament. This was a far from impos- sation of profitable industries. This party” - which must mean it is a ‘good London Socialist Alliance ad-hoc to lose). sible task in London - if the left pools is of course to misunderstand com- thing’. However, until an all-Britain coordinator. Therefore the Blair honeymoon its collective weight. pletely the nature of the demand. centrist party emerges from the The LSA election meeting brought would not last much longer, accord- “There is more that unites us than Communists fight for what workers depths of Labourism and the trade together members and supporters of ing to comrade Kerr. There are over divides us,” concluded comrade Kerr. need in the here and now - ie, the union bureaucracy, we presumably the Communist Party of Great Britain, 700 policy changes in the pipeline. Therefore, what is required is “a coa- bourgeoisie must pay for the failings have to keep on loyally voting La- Socialist Outlook, the Socialist De- Inevitably people will be angered by lition of the left”. Quite correctly, of capital. We do not call on the rul- bour. mocracy Group, the Socialist Labour Hugh Kerr thinks there are grounds ing class to introduce state capital- There is a certain paradox in the Party, the Socialist Party and the for optimism: “Prospects are not as ism. words of Socialist Outlook comrades. Marxist Bulletin - along with the ex- bleak as some imagine” - a useful an- The comrade thought it was impor- Thirty years ago the antecedents of Labour MEP Hugh Kerr and his po- tidote to the instinctive ‘vote Labour’ tant that the SAs have “consistent SO in the International Marxist Group litical organiser, Pete Brown. pessimism which pervades the left. tactics” towards New Labour, which were organising pro-Viet Cong/NLF The first speaker, Julia Leonard of Marcus Larsen commented upon he described as the “biggest party of demonstrations and demanding a stu- the Socialist Party, began by apolo- the all too evident fact that one year the workers’ movement”. The impli- dent-led revolution. In those halcyon gising for the absence of SP members. into the Blair government and there cation was that standing SA candi- days the proto-SO comrades were They were all busy campaigning, has been ‘no crisis of expectation’ - dates was all well and good, but really bowing to spontaneous leftist radi- leafleting, canvassing, etc. All per- for all of the predictions and hopes of the left should be still voting for calism. Now SO is bowing to sponta- fectly true, no doubt, but it has been groups like the SWP. Instead we have Blair’s party. neity again - but this time to mundane noted that the SP is hardly ‘pro-ac- had New Labour’s seemingly perma- Alan Thornett of Socialist Outlook rightist reformism. tive’ these days in its approach to- nent PR campaign and an “almost sin- boldly stated that it was “mad sec- Mark Fischer of the CPGB admon- wards the Socialist Alliances - it ister depoliticisation of politics”. tarianism” to stand against ished the SO comrades. They were sends only token representation to Comrade Larsen implored the SAs Livingstone - as had SLP candidate repeating the same mistakes as the every event. For example, at the April not to drift aimlessly along - they Stan Keable in May 1997 (on the po- CPGB when it was under opportunist 7 meeting of the LSA only one mem- “must not be passive”. The LSA, for litical basis of supporting the CPGB leadership - ie, relying on the Labour ber of the SP turned up. This despite one, must start asking hard political manifesto). The implication of this, lefts to … do something - anything. the fact the meeting was debating a questions - what sort of opposition estimated comrade Thornett (incor- “We must take ourselves seri- resolution to boycott the May 7 Lon- do we need? What is our goal, etc? ously,” comrade Fischer declared. It don referendum - a course of action The comrade criticised the almost is not predetermined that any future which ran contrary to the SP’s belief unspoken assumption amongst many movement or party will be left reform- that Blair’s puppet mayor and weak that the Greens are our “natural al- ist. History is made by people, not Greater London Authority represents lies”. The Greens are not a progres- by ‘iron’ laws which rule out in ad- “some sort of advance”, to use the sive or pro-working class vance other possible developments words of comrade Julie Donovan at organisation. As typical examples of for example a reforged Communist the April 7 meeting. their essentially reactionary nature, Party. In essence, the SO comrades Comrade Leonard claimed that SP the Blairite administration. As for the Green election literature in Stoke are accepting defeat before we even members in Hillingdon were having a ‘third way’ we have been hearing so Newington promises to work with the start. “really good response” from those much about recently, that will rapidly local police - one of the most notori- “Ken Livingstone does not deserve they canvassed and talked to. A new lose its sheen. ously corrupt, brutal and racist police our vote,” emphasised comrade workers’ party is needed, she con- He thought that attempts by Blair forces in Britain. The Greens also en- Fischer. He represents nothing posi- cluded - or, to use her formulation, “a and the CBI to seduce and incorpo- courage workers to buy from small tive in the here and now. Communists party of representation” for the rate the TUC bureaucracy would corner shops as opposed to super- test Labour lefts in practice. We do class. As comrade Marcus Larsen of “come unstuck”. Public sector cuts, markets - ie, workers should buy infe- not give them automatic blank the CPGB later said, this SP soundbite pay restraint, job losses, etc, would rior goods at higher prices. cheques. For organisations like SO is suspiciously Labourite and reform- further disillusion all those who Comrade Larsen was also worried its programme - and socialism - has ist. Is that not what the Labour Party voted New Labour. After all, sug- that elements within the SA could ‘do become an ossified abstraction. always claimed to be? gested comrade Kerr, “the middle an SSP’ and fall into nationalism. “I Even worse, said comrade Fischer, The next speaker was Nick Long of classes and the rich are more happy am not an English communist, I am when it comes to Scotland comrades Lewisham SA, a former member of the than Labour Party activists”. To back not a member of the English Social- Kerr, Packer and Thornett seem to SLP and now a supporter of the soft up his case, he quoted a poll from ist Alliance,” he said. Rather he was have forgotten even their ABC - ie, Trotskyist SDG group. The comrade The Observer in which 53% said they an internationalist committed to the to oppose and attack nationalism, not talked about the “tactical arrange- voted New Labour last May - even overthrow of the British state. accommodate to it. We are interna- ment” some of the London SAs had though it only got 44% of the vote. Ian Dudley - having just resigned rectly), is that the SAs should stand tionalists or we are nothing. In real- made with the Greens, as part of the This demonstrates that many people from the International Bolshevik Ten- against all Labour lefts. “This would ity, according to comrade Fischer, the effort to build a “red-green” or “rain- are keen to be associated with the dency partly over its attitude towards be incredibly divisive,” said the com- SSP is a prime example of a “negative bow” alliance. (For all his commitment winning team, not that New Labour the SAs themselves - thought it was rade. He was also strongly in favour party formation”. It is imperative that to this enterprise, comrade Long went has a deep wellspring of support in correct for the SAs to form “electoral of a red-green alliance - there are “sec- revolutionaries move against the on to describe the Greens who at- society as a whole. Comrade Kerr united fronts”. But there has to be an tions of the Greens we must unite “poison” of nationalism” that is grip- tended the national SA meeting in claimed that 10% of Labour Party explicit commitment to debate out with”. ping the SSA. Objectively, an SSP Coventry as an “obnoxious bunch”.) members have “consciously re- programmatic issues. In practice, this As for Scotland, if certain com- splits and divides our forces - we We start from our “modest begin- signed” over the last year. “A bit of means “full freedom to struggle rades want to liquidate the SSA into should oppose its formation. nings”, comrade Long emphasised. cynicism, a bit of alienation and a bit against reformism”: the SAs “must the SSP, who are we to say they Comrade Fischer’s contribution However, Lewisham New Labour ap- of disappointment” was how comrade have room for political struggle”. should not? After all, said comrade appeared to sting comrade Julia peared “worried” by the challenge of Kerr judged the current mood. Comrade Dudley also poured cold Thornett, having the right to self- Leonard. In response, the comrade the three SA candidates - so much so As for Scotland, comrade Kerr had water on the idea that we should en- determination is meaningless unless maintained that the Scottish com- that, in effect, it tried to ban the first high hopes. In his opinion, the SNP ter into any formal blocs with the you can opt for the road of independ- rades were “far further advanced”. public meeting of the Alliance. is “very likely” to form the single larg- Greens which would dilute working ence. Comrade Thornett seemed to be Yes, comrade Leonard, but in which Comrade Stan Keable of Brent SLP/ est party in the Edinburgh parliament. class independence. As for support- suggesting that if you correctly call direction? Cryptically, she added: SA commented that, whether we like Under the ‘alternative member’ sys- ing ‘Red’ Ken for London’s mayor, for the right to self-determination, “What is the best way to get your it or not, Blair is “extraordinarily popu- tem of PR to be introduced in Scot- as comrades from Socialist Outlook you therefore adopt a laissez-faire message across?” Presumably, in the lar” - still. The left has to start cam- land, the Scottish Socialist Alliance/ had suggested, he pointed out that attitude towards nationalism/separa- context of Scotland, this means go- paigning for the alternative we need, Scottish Socialist Party only needs the Evening Standard is backing tism: ie, how it is exercised. ing along with the nationalist tide. and the “sooner the better”, as the around five to six percent of the vote Livingstone as the safe ‘left of cen- Fellow SO member, comrade Dave Comrade Leonard announced that comrade put it. We should not get de- to get a seat - Tommy Sheridan MSP? tre’ candidate. That fact alone should Packer, also condemned “sectarian- the Scottish question would be dis- spondent about our forces. The local On Scottish Militant Labour’s pro- ensure that socialists steer clear. ism”. Sure, we do not like Livingstone cussed at a London-wide meeting of elections have proved that the Labour posed liquidation of the SSA into the Marxist Bulletin supporter Barbara - we know he is an opportunist. But, SP members this week. Peter Taaffe Party does not really have any activ- separatist SSP, comrade Kerr implied Duke complained that it was “hard to for comrade Packer, Livingstone can and the SP leadership oppose the ists on the ground. Put up a New La- that it was some sort of natural pro- work out” what the Alliances stood “mobilise left reformism” - ie, forces SML/SSP breakaway, albeit on purely bour dog and it will get elected - at gression. Slightly circumspectly, he for. There were candidates standing to the left of New Labour. “Those are technical grounds. Perhaps in the the moment. said the Scottish people “feel they on “different programmes” in the elec- the forces we want to connect to,” he light of Taaffe’s opposition comrade Hugh Kerr argued that London mir- want self-determination” and it was tions. Comrade Duke singled out the said. Continuing on this theme, com- Leonard enthusiastically backed the rored the entire country - ie, the phe- “probably right” to form an SSP. In discussion draft produced by the rade Packer said he was out to gain proposal from comrade Keable that nomenon of “mass apathy”. This other words, comrade Kerr effectively CPGB as “lowest common denomina- “something substantial” - ie, tens of the LSA organise a meeting to debate represents a problem for the Blairites. welcomes the growth of Scottish na- tor” stuff. There was no call for a thousands of workers - not the small this crucial question l May 7 1998 Page

up around his policies. If it occurred Khayelitsha, the star SACP speaker under present conditions, it would was Tony Yengeni, former Western almost certainly meet with near unani- Cape commander of Umkhonto mous condemnation and concerted weSizwe, the ANC’s armed wing, and action by international capital in or- now chairman of the parliamentary der to defeat it. portfolio committee on defence. Five On the other hand, a genuine “na- years ago comrade Yengeni was one uring the revolutionary up- ing Gear, the SACP prevailed upon tional democratic revolution” would of the bourgeois press’s favourite heavals of the 1980s when the them to delay publication of the South rely on the mobilisation of millions to bogeymen, pushing for direct action DAfrican National Congress African version of the ‘alternative finally defeat reactionary apartheid by the masses to achieve their goals. strove to make the country “ungov- economic policy’ - a study which the forces and ensure that the people’s At the rally he likened the NDR to ernable”, the South African Commu- union leaders had commissioned. will prevailed everywhere, including the World War II alliance between the nist Party was unquestionably the Many Cosatu tops hold party cards in countryside backwaters. It would western bourgeois powers and the ANC’s most important component. themselves of course. be impelled by its own momentum to Soviet Union: “The only way Hitler Primarily as a result of the SACP’s Occasional mild rebukes notwith- create new organs of state power and could be defeated was through a influence, the language of class strug- standing, the SACP and Cosatu re- would incur the hatred of the bour- united democratic front,” he said. “We gle dominated the anti-apartheid main loyal members of the ANC-led geoisie. It could only advance in con- must defend our revolutionary and movement. There was talk of an “un- alliance. The two junior partners re- cert with the forces of international democratic gains. The alliance must interrupted revolution” that would cently agreed in a joint meeting to working class revolution. In contrast do everything to strengthen the gov- proceed immediately to socialist “work to strengthen the ANC’s elec- the SACP’s NDR now has the back- ernment. We must do nothing, say tasks, and the Party actively pro- tion campaign in 1999”, according to After ing of the international bourgeoisie. nothing, to weaken the alliance.” moted the idea that it was necessary the latest issue of Umsebenzi. How- Nevertheless the defence of the Quite a contrast to comrade to prepare for insurrection. ever, that does not prevent them from NDR is the SACP’s excuse for refus- Yengeni’s views expressed to the A decade on, such language is con- simultaneously considering “initia- ing to promote working class inde- Weekly Worker in an interview with demned as “ultra-left”, and those tives around socialising the apartheid pendence. Instead, comrade Umhlana me in December 1993. At that time he who criticise the ANC administration economy”: namely, “practical work stressed at the Langa meeting, it was was clear that the SACP could not and call for an independent working around the cooperative movement”, necessary to emphasise, in accord- continue in alliance with the ANC class agenda risk being smeared as and “the more strategic use of worker- the events that followed. The local ance with the ANC’s Freedom Char- once it began to adopt unambiguous belonging to the same camp as the investment initiatives” (Umsebenzi Afrikaner police chief, still living in ter, “the unity of all the people, capitalist policies in government: “old ruling class”. While the govern- March 1998). Needless to say, such the apartheid past, did not see any especially the Africans”. This formula “The people will see that the ANC is ment implements its blatantly “socialising” measures do not con- need to arrest Steyn. National Party is actually a call for class peace and not delivering. Then they will rebel - Thatcherite economic policy (the mi- flict in any way with the government’s spokesperson Daryll Swanepoel de- an apology for black ‘economic em- and the Party will have no option but snamed ‘growth, employment and re- capitalist policies; indeed they meet fended the actions of the local police. powerment’ (ie, the creation of a black to oppose the ANC” (Weekly Worker distribution’ programme - Gear), the with the full approval of the ruling “After I talked to the investigating bourgeoisie). January 13 1994). SACP continues to give the ANC its class. officer, he assured me that the ac- In answer to those who now call At that time he warned against “our full support. Party members Ronnie In effect the SACP delivers uncon- cused had cooperated with the po- for a break with the ANC, Umhlana superior morality ... being polluted ..., Casrils, Alec Erwin, Dullah Omar, ditional support to the ANC govern- lice in the investigation and had taken said that the alliance could be ended leading to the empowerment of an Geraldine Fraser-Molekedi and na- ment. This is by no means a negligible the children to the fire station,” said “maybe in 10 or 20 years”. Besides, elite who are not interested in the role tional chairman Blade Nzimande are factor in its attempt to create a new Swanepoel. “He told me that he did he added, the constitution prescribed of the masses”. Today Tony’s slightly prominent members of the govern- capitalist stability. The SACP is a mass not deem it fit for the farmer to be a ‘government of national unity’ un- portly image adorns the window of ment, and the SACP’s Gwede party, holding key positions in the arrested. It appears to me that he used til 1999 and it was therefore impossi- an expensive men’s boutique, Fabiani, Mantashe is general secretary of the ANC. In many townships and work- the discretion he felt fit and was con- ble to exclude any forces before then. in St George’s Mall, Cape Town. A ANC itself. ing class areas the SACP is the ANC. vinced the accused would not escape He told the rally that he had recently full-size photograph shows comrade When the government released There are around 75,000 SACP card- justice” (Cape Times April 15). been privileged to go to “socialist Yengeni modelling an Italian suit. details of Gear in June 1996, its anti- holders although only an estimated After direct intervention from pro- Cuba”, where he maintained that the “He’s a regular customer here,” said working class nature - underwritten 12,000-15,000 pay party dues. The vincial police headquarters, Steyn people there were defending “their Fabiani’s manager. “He represents the by the International Monetary Fund SACP’s influence within the Cosatu was arrested and held in custody. The own national democratic revolution”. powerful politician in our window and World Bank - was manifestly leadership, as well as over its 1.7 mil- mass media descended on the farm in He added that he hoped to see so- synergy ... Mr Yengeni was not paid clear. With its central aim of slashing lion affiliates, is considerable. At the droves, as local ANC officials, Winnie cialism “one day” in South Africa too. for the modelling - we gave him the the budget deficit to three percent of September 1997 Cosatu congress a Madikizela Mandela and even the As Umhlana was speaking, a mem- suit” (Cape Argus April 18 1998). the gross domestic product, it fore- resolution proposed by the National president himself appeared on the ber of the audience began heckling. Also speaking in Khayelitsha was saw widespread privatisation, thou- Union of Mineworkers, encouraging scene. Most of the English-speaking “What has the ANC done for us?” Randy Pieterse, who addressed the sands of redundancies, cuts in every trade union to support the press expressed dismay. Neverthe- he demanded. The comrade next to audience on behalf of Cosatu. Him- services, a clampdown on wage rises SACP financially, was passed over- less the incident demonstrated how me whispered that the heckler was self an SACP member, comrade and compulsory arbitration for indus- whelmingly. A further call to “build apartheid ‘custom and practice’ still clearly a supporter of the newly Pieterse appeared to have a difference trial disputes. Alongside these at- the party” (the SACP not the ANC) holds sway over large areas of the formed United Democratic Movement of nuance with Yengeni, claiming that tacks were reductions in corporate was passed by acclaim without a countryside, particularly within the who had been sent in “to disrupt the mass action by workers in defence of taxation and tax ‘holidays’ for certain vote. police. The army too undoubtedly meeting”. The UDM is jointly led by their rights was “not in opposition” investments. It is little wonder that So how do SACP leaders theorise still contains senior personnel loyal Bantu Holomisa, a charismatic figure to political support for the govern- the ANC administration has won wide their support for a bourgeois reform- to an Afrikaner ideology. who was expelled from the ANC for ment. acclaim, both from South African capi- ist government? Indeed how are they In other words, despite the wide exposing corruption within the organi- However, Pieterse reserved his most tal and the international bourgeoisie are able to sell this support to their backing the ANC has won from capi- sation, and Roelf Meyer, a former controversial comments for the sec- (see ‘Capital backs Mandela’ Weekly own members, and to the revolution- tal and the bourgeois establishment, ‘leftwing’ National Party minister. It tion of his speech dealing with crime. Worker April 30). ary masses themselves? it may still be possible for die-hard has managed to build up a certain “Are we ready to hand over our child Yet, far from condemning such Earlier this month I attended two reactionaries to launch an armed populist support and points to the to the police when they commit a measures, the SACP preferred to high- SACP rallies around Cape Town, both coup against the new order. Of course kind of safe opposition party the rul- crime?” he asked. “If not, we are not light Gear’s wishful phrases in favour called to commemorate the sixth an- such an event would be extremely ing class would like to see. serious about fighting crime.” of job creation and greater equity. It niversary of the assassination of unlikely, in view of the consensus that At the second rally, held in the This disgraceful remark is actually commended the “consistent endeav- Chris Hani, the now lionised SACP Mandela has succeeded in building sprawling shack township of in full accord with SACP policy. At our to integrate different elements of leader. A remarkable feature of such present the only campaign the Party policy” and Gear’s “clear framework events is the spontaneous singing of appears to be organising in the town- within which monetary and interest militant revolutionary songs by the ships is known as the Triple H - ‘hun- rate policy must work” (quoted in SA audience, in stark contrast to the flac- ger, homes, health’. As comrade Labour Bulletin August 1996). Its cid content of the speeches. Vusikaya Mvuyisi, chair of the 700- strongest complaints were reserved Speaking at the Langa township strong Khayelitsha SACP district for the ANC’s refusal to consult with rally, Shepherd Umhlanga MP com- with its 14 branches, later explained its ‘equal’ alliance partners - the main mented that if comrade Hani had still Which to me, defeating crime was linked to trade union centre, Cosatu, and the been alive, South Africa would not the fight against hunger. SACP itself. According to Umsebenzi, now be facing so many difficulties. Around 80% of Khayelitsha’s the SACP’s increasingly infrequent The main thrust of his speech, how- 300,000, mainly unemployed, resi- single-sheet ‘newspaper’, the party ever, was to stress that for the SACP dents inhabit self-built shacks, most had been “especially unhappy with the main task was the “strengthen- road? of which are now supplied with elec- the declaration that the policy was ing and consolidation” of the ‘na- tricity via overhead cables, and have ‘non-negotiable’” (Umsebenzi July tional democratic revolution’ (NDR). access to standpipes and basic sani- 1997). The SACP contends that the defeat tation. For these services residents The paper reported that, a year af- of the old apartheid system is by no are charged a rent by the council. Not ter the introduction of Gear, the cen- means complete. surprisingly very few can afford to tral committee had called for “a Last month’s widely publicised kill- pay and do not do so. The SACP has thoroughgoing review of macroeco- ing of a black baby is used to support not yet condemned this ‘crime’. nomic policy” and “greater emphasis this argument. Nicholas Steyn, a white Nevertheless an electrified shack is on progressive taxation”, in view of farmer, shot at children who were regarded by many as an advance. The the fact that “there are signs that Gear ‘trespassing’ across ‘his’ land, using SACP relies on such meagre ‘im- is failing to deliver”. a well worn footpath. It was not just provements’ and a fear of a return to While Cosatu leaders were in gen- the murderous actions of a drunken the apartheid past to keep the masses eral much more forthright in attack- farmer that caused such outrage, but tied to the ANC l Page May 7 1998

Review

t is no exaggeration to state that the CPB or NCP, the contested his- the practice of CPGB history has tory of the CPGB was branded into Ireached an impasse. The recent the heart of their political being. This generation of CP historians (Kevin resulted in recollections that were Morgan, Nina Fishman et al) have alive with passion and controversy - rightly rejected the outworn dogma priceless material for any researcher. of the Trotskyites, intent on pictur- Children of the revolution on the ing the Party as the mere reflex of the other hand too often restricts Party CPSU - all in all, a very useful po- activity to a set of frozen, and at times lemic. However; the distinct under- rather nostalgic, cameos: “We went theorisation of both schools has on the Daily Worker May Day march meant that there has been little ad- every year; my parents have recol- vance in addressing the epistemo- lections of me in a pushchair on logical questions inherent in the marches with a Daily Worker keep- subject. ing the rain off my hat ... On the Mon- Utilising the recently opened day morning after the May Day march Comintern archives, contemporary I used to come to school with the researchers have largely followed an Daily Worker May Day badge, and I agenda whereby the CPGB is seen as remember when I was about nine I having ‘relative autonomy’ from the came to school with it and Mr Baggs, diktats of Moscow. None of this has the deputy head of my primary been allowed to disturb the morbid school, said: ‘Oh, we’re communists, functioning of Trotskyist orthodoxy. are we?’ ” (p53). In a review of a conference on the Obviously, these fractured pieces subject of the British Party and the of empiricism need to be bonded to- Comintern, Bruce Robinson writes gether in order to produce an outlook that the “new material ... does not pro- in which the meaning of the Party’s vide the basis for any major changes past can be constructed. The idea of in the picture of the CPGB as the will- communism as a religion (or semi-reli- ing servant of Moscow from the mid- gion) is a consistent theme of the nar- 1920s onwards” (Revolutionary rative: “I think faith in communism was History Volume 6, No2-3, p260). Tell- a kind of religion ... in terms of inten- ing a Trotskyist that the CPGB was sity of belief, and now, with the break- not a puppet of Moscow is obviously up of the Communist Party, the terrible a bit like telling Rod Hull that Emu loss and the lack of faith, it is like los- does not exist anymore. Robinson ing your god, and people are all over asks the question of whether a promi- the place” (pp41-42). nent communist like Arthur Horner Of course religion and faith in this would have returned from Moscow if great deal of potential. Familial com- context are ultimately dependent Despite these fundamental criti- Possibly the worst section in this he had been summoned during the munism was, and still is, an important upon invoking a ritualised other. In cisms it should be allowed that Cohen book is the interview with Nina Tem- period of the purges, suggesting an arbiter of identity and Party culture. this context Cohen refers to CPGB has assembled some useful and at ple, seemingly intent on presenting answer in the negative (ibid p258). In The text of the book represents a set members as having a “quasi-religious times thought-provoking material. her rise through the CP bureaucracy fact Horner would have had a good of transcribed interviews, with some faith” in the USSR: “an obsessive in- Harry Pollitt’s son, Brian, talks about as a series of unwanted accidents. chance of arriving back in Britain, in minor editing in the interests of gram- terest - encompassing everything his life alongside the Communist Par- Temple’s narrative is however the that the disappearance of this organic mar and style. This has a tendency to from its films and books to its tractor ty’s best known general secretary. source of some (no doubt unin- proletarian leader would have led to make the narrative seem a little gar- design” (p16). Two points can be Pollitt’s prominence in the Party’s tended) humour. Nina recalls all the awkward and compromising ques- bled at times. In choosing such a pres- made here. Firstly, the CPGB’s loy- history makes this chapter interest- glitz and excitement of a 1960s YCL tions in the South Wales workers’ entation the author’s aim is clearly alty towards the Soviet Union was ing in and of itself. Hywel Francis of- disco on her estate. Alas, for one movement. that of empathy. However, one does (in general) certainly based on emo- fers himself as the most eloquent in young man these vicarious thrills This is not to suggest that award- wonder whether a commissioned tional considerations. However, this exploring the various facets of CP were not enough: “... suddenly the ing the CPGB with a good dose of choice of more considered recollec- should not be judged apart from the identity in a discussion of his father, music went off and Fergus Nicholson ‘relative autonomy’ vis-à-vis the tions may have been of more aid in party’s rationalism, as Hywel Francis Dai Francis, one-time general secre- gave a speech about why Russia was USSR is any more helpful. The Brit- engaging the reader. recognises in his interview (p129). tary of the South Wales area NUM. right to invade Czechoslovakia. I was ish road to socialism or not, ‘official Cohen has assembled a reasonably Secondly, this train of argument has For anyone considering the history mortified and embarrassed, so that communism’ was an international interesting set of interviewees, in- a certain residue of the of the CPGB in South Wales this is was the end of the YCL disco” (p95). movement, in which it is ultimately cluding Alexei Sayle, Brian Pollitt, instrumentalism so beloved of the always a pertinent question. Francis There is always someone to spoil impossible to dissect what was ‘do- Hywel Francis and Nina Temple. Trotskyists. Merely having “faith” in argues that the “trade union and the it for everyone. Actually this extract mestic’ and what was ‘external’. The Cohen elaborates the conceptual the CPSU seems rather more suited miners’ union and the Communist just about sums up Temple’s career BRS is a classic case, a much trum- framework behind this selection in to the rationale of a ‘fellow-traveller’ Party were synonymous ... For my in the CPGB - recoiling in horror from peted totem of the CPGB’s independ- the introduction: “One of the reasons than to a militant activist in the ranks father they were indivisible, he was a everything you are meant to repre- ence, closely supervised by none for writing this book is that with the of the CPGB. These points can be il- communist miners’ leader” (p124). In sent. Another chuckle can be gleaned other than Joseph Stalin. demise of communist parties in Eu- lustrated by making reference to one fact Dai Francis followed his com- from Nina’s father, Landon, who tact- Animated though this debate may rope ... our generation will be the last of my own interviews with Charlie rades, Arthur Horner, Dai Dan Evans fully informed her that the Democratic be, the fact is that both schools rely to have this unique kind of upbring- Swain: “I was one of those who used and Will Paynter - all CPGB members Left constitution she had been help- on similar theoretical preconceptions. ing. Growing up in the late 20th and to love Joe Stalin, I must admit, and - in approaching their union tasks in ing to draft was “crap” (p96). Next Karl Marx writes in The German ide- early 21st centuries, our children will I’ve still got a very big respect for a distinct syndicalist vein. On the time you are down at Progressive ology of the “apparent stupidity of inherit a very different world” (p16). him ... The idea of the people from the whole communist miners focused Tours booking your jaunt to Cuba, merging all the manifold relationships Cohen is clearly intent on the manu- lower ranks displacing the entrenched their activities on the strategically remind Landon of that one. It’s worth of people in the one relation of use- facture of an essentially teleological capitalists ... landlords and aristocrats placed miners’ lodge, rather than a pint or two. fulness” (K Marx Selected writings method. As Althusser argued, such seems to me so fantastic that any- through the structures of the Party. Although not short of practition- Oxford 1977, p185). Both the Trotsky- an epistemology runs the distinct risk body who was at all sympathetic to This created a marked sense of loss ers, Communist Party history is be- ite and the ‘revisionist’ standpoints of floundering into the realms of that I would support” (author’s inter- on the part of more Party-orientated ginning to suffer from a distinct employ essentially the same abstract reductionism. This has particular rami- view, Cardiff, March 7 1996). militants: “We have outstanding fig- methodological barrenness. Ulti- methodology in ordering the experi- fications for the structure of this text In Swain’s narrative, support for the ures in the Communist Party who had mately these difficulties can only be ence of communism in Britain. It is in that it is primarily concerned with USSR was fundamentally bound up become, as one of our comrades put surmounted by the resurrection of a imperative that new contributions to the ordering of memory. Communism with the recognition of the necessity it, little tin gods in the village, but the viable ideology of Partyism - a work- the history of the CPGB are judged and the CPGB feature very little in the for a British revolution, thus insert- people in the village didn’t see the ing class organisation that can ad- on their ability to disrupt the rather contemporary identity of the people ing a marked kernel of rationality into Communist Party at work” (Annie equately unify the varied and illusory sterile dualism that disfigures the featured here, disrupting any notion his respect for Stalin. There are no Powell CPGB 24th Congress World disciplines of contemporary society. contemporary debate, and upon their of the Party as a lived process. The doubt some critics who would just News April 28 1956). For the moment though you might willingness to countenance the Par- author of this review encountered look at Swain’s opening line and find This is not to site miners such as like to try and quench your thirst with ty’s past as the relation of a dynamic similar evidential difficulties whilst enough ammunition for a set of very Dai Francis at too distant a point from the quaint simplicities of Children of totality. With this in mind we can turn researching a thesis on the Commu- traditional preconceptions. Unfortu- their CP identity. As Hywel Francis the revolution. Blistered and parched to Children of the revolution. nist Party in South Wales. By far the nately for these people, engaging shows, Dai stood by the CPGB dur- by the end, you may begin to discern Cohen’s work focuses on the expe- best interviews were provided by with the mentality of British commu- ing the 1956 Hungarian crisis, al- the oasis. If Nina Temple’s standing rience of children from Communist those comrades who still considered nism is a sophisticated task and one though it is admitted that “he would there, you will know you took a wrong Party households growing up in themselves communists. Even for that fails to yield to one-sided formu- be suspicious of people who tried to turning l 1950s Britain - a problematic with a members of Party splinters such as lations. impose the Party line on him” (p134). May 7 1998 Page What we 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 fight out the correct way forward for our class. l Marxism-Leninism is powerful because it is true. Communists relate theory to practice. We are materialists; we hold that ideas are determined by social reality and not the other way round. l We believe in the highest level of unity among workers. We fight for the unity of the working class of all countries and subordinate the struggle in Britain to the world revolution itself. The liberation of humanity can only be achieved through world communism. l The working class in Britain needs to strike as a fist. This means all communists should be organised into a single Party. We oppose all forms of separatism, which weakens our class. l Socialism can never come through parliament. The capitalist class will never peacefully allow Labour on May 1, celebrate on May 2 their system to be abolished. Socialism will only and then go on to write a savage in- succeed through working class revolution and the W dictment of the New Labour govern- replacement of the dictatorship of the capitalists ment. The plays in our season do that with the dictatorship of the working class. Social- and more. For example Judy Upton’s ism lays the basis for the conscious planning of It depends on what kind of theatre you piece and Aidan Healy’s. Under the human affairs: ie, communism. are talking about. There are many Tories more often than not ‘political l We support the right of nations to self- strands - commercial, subsidised and theatre’ would appear to be no more determination. In Britain today this means the the fringe. In terms of radicalism there than a call for the election of a Labour struggle for Irish freedom should be given full has been almost a complete reversal government. Now social criticism can support by the British working class. of roles between subsidised theatre perhaps lead audiences to question l Communists are champions of the oppressed. and the fringe. The fringe is now the system of government and the We fight for the liberation of women, the ending mainly a middle class career ladder. system of society itself. Seeing red of racism, bigotry and all other forms of chauvin- ism. Oppression is a direct result of class society Subsidised theatre often has a more and will only finally be eradicated by the ending radical agenda. of class society. Twenty or thirty years ago the l War and peace, pollution and the environment fringe was at the cutting edge. It pres- are class questions. No solution to the world’s surised and in many ways gave a lead problems can be found within capitalism. Its to the subsidised theatre. Today There is no unified vision, that is for ceaseless drive for profit puts the world at risk. sights have been lowered. Subsidised sure. But neither is there a sentimen- The future of humanity depends on the triumph theatre now follows the lead of com- tal looking back. Any truthful artistic of communism. mercial theatre - transfers, film deals, critique of the present implies within etc. As to the oppositional response it the possibility of a different future. to the election of Blair and New La- We have joined together a range of bour, the Red Room’s present season critical voices - in all their individual- is probably the first. But that is hardly ity and uniqueness - to begin a cul- surprising, given the logistics of pro- ture of opposition. A common theme gramming, writing, etc. in the work is the alienation of people. An exploration of powerlessness has within it at some level implicit or ex- I can’t speak for theatre artists as a plicit an agenda for people to take whole. But in terms of those around power. me I think there are a number of trends. Many had no illusions whatsoever. For example, our piece by Roddy McDevitt gives a voice to the disen- franchised and the so-called ‘under- No. There is no mass progressive class’. They knew that Labour would movement in society. Theatre must do nothing for them. Others had high connect with where people are at. expectations or at least a gut, anti-Tory desire to ‘get the bastards out’. So for them on the night of May 1 there was either joy or relief. Many leading art- ists closely identified with New La- r bour - some still do. However, with the writers, directors and actors that I You could say the older generation of know there has undoubtedly been a writers were less forthcoming than the change of mood. There is a lot of an- young. But to be fair that is in no small r ger. part explained by the older writers having their own up-and-running projects, overdue commissions, etc. That there would be a turn away from Everyone I spoke to was tremen- the brutality of the Tories. That there dously supportive of the idea behind would more concern for poorer peo- the season. ple, the unemployed. That education and health would get a higher prior- ity. That somehow things would change. Whatever Blair said and told I think art can provoke. It can get peo- Make your pledge them, they did not expect student fees, ple thinking, feeling and imagining. attacks on single parents or workfare. One way or the other that shifts con- They were blinded by their desire to sciousness. Whether or not that trans- The first weekend of the CPGB’s tion of courage, boldness, initiative get rid of the Tories. lates into political action is a very 15th Summer Offensive fundraising and hard work, not on the careful complex question. There is no direct drive has brought individual rationing of commitment. relationship. In depends on the his- pledges totalling £11,500. This Caution to the wind, comrades - torical context. For example in 1968 leaves us a long way to go to reach targets must be stormed! A fight- there was a lot of revolutionary thea- the collective target of £20,000 by ing start to the Offensive is the way tre. Artists question the status quo June 29. Initial pledges must be met to put our initial pledges behind us through their work, but that means - and overfulfilled - and a wider cir- and break through the £20,000 tar- keying into what exists. That can le- cle of supporters and sympathis- get. Exemplary action and fighting Perhaps expectations is the wrong gitimately mean dealing with and ex- ers drawn into the campaign. spirit is the precondition for inspir- words. Perhaps hope is better. Either ploring personal issues, individual Experienced comrades with ing others to join in - and to sur- way the absence of a viable revolu- crises and isolation. That was charac- proven fundraising skills, it seems pass us. tionary left and the deep humanity of teristic of the years of the Tory gov- to me, are being a little too back- Reports of pledges, initiatives those involved in theatre created a ernment. Of course, there was a ward in coming forward with appro- and achievements - as well as situation on May 1 where there was a negative side. Political theatre became priately challenging pledges. The cheques, payable to the CPGB - real euphoria. They invented their own for some almost a dirty word. The per- legendary abilities of ‘Bolsheviks’ should reach me by phone, fax, e- Labour Party. They invented their own sonal became depoliticised. We have to conquer ‘fortresses’, I must re- mail or letter every Monday l programme for New Labour. The point taken a first step in reasserting, in re- mind you, depends on the applica- Printed by and published by: November Publications Ltd (0181-459 7146). Registered as a newspaper by Royal Mail. is however that someone could vote establishing political theatre l ISSN 1351-0150. © May 1998 weekly

midst a flurry of last-minute Monetary Institute. In a move which Communist Party questions Emu out horse trading over who is to caused outrage, particularly with of concern for French sovereignty. Ahead the European Central chancellor Kohl, last November presi- However, in Britain ‘official commu- Bank, the euro was born last weekend dent Chirac nominated Trichet for the nist’ relics, such as the so-called Com- at a European Union summit in Brus- job. munist Party of Britain, not only ‘say sels. The new currency will become Under the Maastricht treaty, the no to the euro’ but call for withdrawal legal tender in 11 member countries ECB is meant to be politically inde- from the EU. Arthur Scargill’s Social- on January 1 next year. In a deal be- pendent to encourage that most in- ist Labour Party shares almost exactly tween Germany, France and the Neth- tangible of capitalist necessities: the same ‘little England’ approach. erlands, the new head of the ECB, Wim confidence in the financial system. Unable to break free from the na- Duisenberg, will voluntarily stand The independence of the ECB is not tional socialist straitjacket of the Brit- down about halfway through his eight- only intended to signal prudent man- ish road to socialism, these forces year term. Duisenberg will probably agement of monetary supply and in- have no vision of a unified interna- remain until mid-2002, the final date terest rates, but secondarily it is also tional movement against capital and for the switch from national curren- meant to signpost and underpin po- its governmental form of domination. cies to euro notes and coins. The sum- litical union. The more honest CPB types admit that mit made an undertaking that the next From now on, even if the individual Emu and any political union would ECB president will be a French na- countries of the euro 11 wanted to wreck the BRS. However, rather than tional. This will be the current head of take an independent economic develop a programme able to deal with the French central bank, Jean-Claude course, it would be impossible. Presi- the real world, like King Canute they Trichet. dent Chirac’s display of national in- are trying to hold back the tide to make On the surface, the birth of a new transigence on an occasion which the world safe for their dogma. currency may seem a rather technical was meant to celebrate closer Euro- Quite clearly, economic union is matter, impacting on the world of capi- pean unity seems a final flourish of becoming a reality. The Economist is tal, but hardly one to grab the atten- Gaullist brinkmanship. Markets this wrong in its assessment of Blair’s first tion of partisans of the working class. week reacted favourably to the Brus- year when it argues: “Labour is as Yet this would be to miss the funda- sels summit. that Europe, as a capitalist enterprise, implicitly challenge the spending lim- confused as the Tories.” Despite over- mentals. European economic and mon- There are other clear indicators of would collapse under the weight of its deemed necessary for conver- tures from US House of Representa- etary union (Emu) is, above all, a the political nature of Emu. In order its own contradictions. A united Eu- gence. tives leader Newt Gingrich for the UK political endeavour. In bourgeois cir- to qualify for monetary union, EU rope was supposedly only possible The upsurge of mass activity in to join Nafta, the pound seems headed cles many see the outcome of this members were expected to maintain under working class rule. In the bi- France at the end of 1995 was an ex- the way of all mortals. Blair is playing summit as the most important event budget deficits below three percent polar world before 1991 this seemed plicit rejection of the economic meas- it cautious yet clever. While the euro in Europe since the fall of the Berlin of GDP and public debt below 60%. It more plausible. Though it was wrong ures needed to reach the Maastricht does not become the coin of the land wall. And they could well be right. is arguable that most of the euro 11 even then. In the uni-polar world of criteria which the previous Gaullist on new year’s day, neither will it be While everyone (apart from the odd nations only fell within these limits neo-liberal hegemony, it lacks any in- government attempted to enforce. Its barred. The new currency will begin rogue state) is meant to be friends due to a degree of creative account- tellectual weight. Life itself is proving impact rippled through French soci- to circulate, people will get used to it post-1991, the New World Order is ancy. Others were clearly outside. the point. ety, culminating in Jospin’s election and, alongside an increasing political forcing realignment and the consoli- Belgium, for instance, has a public The bourgeois triumphalism born in last year. In France at least, this sig- culture of passively accepted refer- dation of economic blocs. This brings debt of 122.2% of GDP, while Italy’s 1991 emerged alongside global stra- nalled that the euro could not be bull- enda, a ‘yes’ vote for the UK to join with it political change. Neo-liberal- is 121.6%. tegic defeats for our class which were dozed into place. Strategic battles in Emu should become easier. ism may be breaking down old barri- France’s intransigence over the fundamentally, though not exclu- Europe lie ahead. However, workers’ Unlike the TUC or the British ers, but it is slowly, at times ECB president point to longer-term sively, of an ideological nature. The actions have so far been defensive and roaders, the role of communists is not imperceptibly, creating them else- difficulties. How will sovereign na- current quiescence of the working restricted to economic issues. The to advise this or that section of capi- where. tions exist within a single economic class, as a political class, has allowed political call for a fully democratic tal. We should not be advocating ‘lib- At the heart of the ‘European zone? While economic union does not the European capitalists more room Europe shaped from below by the eration’ from Europe or championing project’, as currently framed by the automatically signal political fusion to manoeuvre. Just as Blair has so far working class has so far failed to con- the stability of the euro. On that level European capitalists and their politi- (Belgium and Luxembourg have been able to achieve constitutional nect with any mass movement. it matters not a jot who is ECB presi- cians, is their recognised need to cre- shared a currency for some time now), reform from above in the complete In fact, what is worrying about the dent. Yet to ignore such manoeuvring ate a large home market in order to it will be increasingly difficult to avoid. absence of any working class alterna- nature of resistance to the impact of as irrelevant to our struggle would be compete on the world stage against Alongside the fiercely monetarist tive, Europe is being remade from Emu up to now has been a tendency inept. Any schisms, trip-ups or disu- North American and Asian-based ECB is the euro-11 club - an informal above in the interests of capital. for the labour movements of European nity must be used to our advantage. capital. If the euro is successful, they grouping of the finance ministers of Yet it has not been all smooth sail- countries to politically trail their ‘own’ And their difficulties are not going to will have gone some way in achieving the euro zone - which many hope will ing. The election of Lionel Jospin’s rulers. In Britain, John Monks and the disappear, but more likely increase, as this. ‘Euroland’ - the combined econo- act as a counterbalance. In what was Socialist Party in France, the referen- TUC leadership are enthusiastic sup- the contradiction between unity and mies of Austria, Belgium, Finland, seen as Gordon Brown’s first major dum setback in Denmark and the slid- porters of economic union. With no national interest is exacerbated. France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lux- setback, Britain was excluded from ing fortunes of chancellor Kohl, independent political programme, they To the extent that European inte- embourg, the Netherlands, Portugal this committee after deciding not to alongside a worrying rise in xenopho- fall into line behind the sector of capi- gration becomes a reality, our interna- and Spain - is huge. This zone ac- join in the ‘first wave’. The more fed- bic parties in Germany and France, tal they judge will provide ‘more jobs’. tional political tasks becomes more counts for 19.4% of global GDP (com- eralist politicians such as chancellor point to ongoing difficulties. So does On the other hand the Eurosceptic solid: European-wide unions and a pared with 19.6% for the US and 7.7% Kohl hope that this group will be the current strike by half a million Dan- wing of the labour movement has Communist Party of the EU. The ex- for Japan) and 18.6% of external world strengthened, alongside an increas- ish workers. While not sparked by di- tended to take a narrow nationalist ample of the Renault strikers across trade (16.6% for the US, 8.2% for Ja- ing role for the European parliament. rect resistance to Emu, its demands line. In France, the chauvinist French Europe last year and the international pan). Add to that the likely entry of Whatever the fears of Eurosceptics impact of the Danish strikers at the UK, Denmark and Sweden in the pressures outside Europe may force present point to the direction in which ‘second wave’ and the stage is set for the pace. The Economist (May 2 1998) we need to organise. To act as cheer- the 21st century to comprise three big notes that “it is hard to believe that leaders for trade unionist resistance economic zones, dominated by two America will not soon seek a Euro- International demonstration to the effects of Emu is no job for revo- currencies: the greenback and the pean interlocutor who can speak with lutionaries. We must generalise that euro. more authority that the current presi- for jobs, services and democracy resistance through a political pro- But not everyone is happy. The dent of the European Union”. Either gramme for European revolution. enemy class exposed divisions at the way the direction is unmistakable. In this regard, the demonstration at summit, in what was regarded as an Many, from the left and right, in- the European summit in Cardiff on undignified squabble over the presi- sisted that European union was im- June 13 provides an opportunity to dency of the ECB. Most supported possible. Inter-imperialist rivalry and bring such an internationalist message Dutchman Wim Duisenberg, head of the political-economic interests of to a wider audience l the ECB’s forerunner, the European nation states would inevitably mean