.. The New--- INTERNATIONAL

A New Stage in The Russian Crisis by Max Shachtman Unions, Rlltkeleers lind SeDlltors by H. W. lenloa An Amlllg_ 01 Mllrx IBId Keynes by T. N. Vance

• Magazine Chronicle

• Books in Review

What Is Orthodox Marxism? by George Lukacs

(SOc

I THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Boob 'n Rey'ew: A Man'd Rey'.w THE AGE OF ROOSEVELT: THE NEW INTERNATIONAL THE CRISIS OF THE OLD ORDER .. 20 1 A Marxist Review Vol. XXIII. No.3 Whole No. 176 Reviewed by George Rawick SUMMER 1957 Volume XXIII, No.3 SUMMER 1957 Whole No. 176 THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL 1919-1943, DOCUMENTS. TABLE O' CONTINn VOLUME I 1919-1922 ...... 204 • Revie10ed by J. F. A New Stage Artlcl.s: A NEW STAGE IN THE The RUSSIAN CRISIS ...... 139 MAX SHACHTMAN, Editor by Max Shachtman New Trends and Weaknesses Revealed in Purge JULIUS FALlt, Managing EditOf' BUREAUCRATIC COLLECTIVISM: The eruption of the of final decision has been made which Two ERAS ...... 156 Acly'sory Sta* latest purge in the Russian leadership clearly indicates the course of devel­ has precipitated a new discussion in opment for a whole period. The dis­ by Max Shachtman Michael Harrington George Post the political world. What is the mean­ turbances and rearrangements at the UNIONS, RACKETEERS AND Cy Jackson Max Martin ing of the expulsion of Malenkov, summits of Russian society have their SENATORS ...... 161 Molotov, Kaganovich and Shepilov greatest importance in signaling the by H. W. Benson from the Central Committee of the turbulence that is warming up at the Russian Communist Party and from foundations. The ruling class is sit­ AN AMALGAM OF MARX AND its Presidium? Does it presage a po­ ting nervously on a vast accumulation KEYNES ...... 170 Published quarterly by The New International Publish­ litical reform, a democratization, of of powder kegs. That much is abso­ by T. N. Vance ing Co., at IH west Hth Street, New Yori 11, N. Y. the regime in the country to be carried lutely certain. The only important Be-entered as second class matter March 8, 1950, at the WHAT Is ORTHODOX MARXISM? ...... 179 oost olllee at New York, N. Y., udner tbe Aet ot March S, out by the new leadership? Is it a step element of uncertainty is how long is'I9. back ward to the kind of personal dic­ it will take for the attached fuses to by George Lukacs with an intro­ Subscription rates: in the U. 8., Canada and Australia $2.00 per year; bundles 35 cents eaeb for ftfe copies and tatorship represented by the now of­ burn to the kegs. It should not sur­ duction by Michael Harrington up. Britain, Ireland and Europe, 10/-Britlsh, or tl.«O ficially abjured rule of Stalin? Is it prise even the most optimistic if it U. S. per year; Asia 'I/-British, 01 $1.00 per year. Address all editorial and business communications to a step toward a new kind of regime in takes less time than anyone expects. MAGAZINE CHRONICLE ...... 197 The New International, 114 West Hth Street, New York Russia, a military dictatorship, under Two Reviews by 11,N. Y. which the army officers replace the THE QUICKENING OF THE tempo of Michael Harrington Party officials? Or is it an unmeant events is indicated in the first place, prologue to a revolutionary interven­ as is usually the case in despotic so­ tion in the affairs of state by the mil­ cieties, by the rapidity of the changes lions who have till now been throttled made in the composition of the rul­ Subser;!Je Now to and shackled by their rulers? ing personnel. If we do not forget that

.. It is not a single one of these alone. stability and instability are relative THE NEW INTERNATIONAL But it is all four of them, combined terms it can be said that the Bolshevik in an interplay of conflicting < forces 114 West 14th St•• New York 11. N. Y. revolution, in the course of its victory and trends unleashed since the death and its establishment of order in the Rates: $2.00 per year of Stalin. Not one of the forces is country, produced a stable leadership. reconcilable with any of the others. It took no less than fifteen years for If one seems to be dominant for a the Stalinist counterrevolution to ex­ Name ...... ···· .. ······· .. ·· .... ··· ...... moment, it would be well to bear in haust and annihilate this leadership, mind that the situation in Russia is politically and physically, leaving only Address ...... · .. ·.. ··· .. · .. · ...... now exceptionally fluid and unstable. a tiny handful to give a simulacrum, ...... Zo ••...... State...... I t would be hard to make a bigger utterly illusionary, of continuity from City...... mistake than to assume that the kind the past. At the time of Stalin's death

.... in 1953, he had succeeded in establish­ latter position and the lesser-known shilov replaced him in the presidency oblivion or worse. Voroshilov, already ing an entirely new leadership which figure of Khnl:shchev was named in of the republic, informed the public an official nonentity, from whom appeared to have far greater power his place. The solemn specialists all in passing that the same Malenkov, Khrushchev last year openly demand­ and solidity than the Lenin leadership over the world nodded wisely at this among others, haq been active in ed a denunciation of Stalin for which had in the five years of its rule. Out­ move as an indication of the dispersal framing the notorious "Leningrad "even his grandsons will thank him," wardly, for the first five minutes, so to of power among the new "collective affair" ten years earlier and was guilty, shares Bulganin's precarious position. speak, the succession seemed to estab­ leadership" as against the reconcentra­ in general, of "breaches of revolution­ In sum, the bulk of the first post­ lish itself as pre-arranged and foreseen. tion of power into the hands of a new ary legality committed ... during the Stalin leader-team has been wiped out Malenkov, ostentatiously groomed as Stalin. Malenkov rapidly became period of mass repressions." In a in four years. In any country, a heir apparent by Stalin at the last Par­ touted as the leader of the "reform­ word, Malenkov now seems to have change of this kind would be regard­ ty congress he allowed to take place, ers," of the "peace party," of the just enough time in which to count ed as clear manifestation of a crisis became Prime Minister. He was as­ "consumer public," of the relaxation the remaining number of his days. of the regime. Russia is no exception. Molotov, the best-known party sociated with four deputies: Molotov and the thaw. There was no end to What has happened in the past four leader next to Stalin, and his unwaver­ as minister of foreign affairs, Bulgan­ the blessings, according to the special­ years, culminating in the June purge, ing faction lieutenant for thirty years, in as minister of defense, Beria as ists, that the condescending but af­ marks the opening of a new stage in head of all the police, and Kaganovich fable savior would vouchsafe to the was eliminated from the post of for­ a crisis of much longer duration whose eign minister in May, 1955, about the roots reach deep into the soil of Stal­ as chief of industry. The pre-arrange­ masses without their having to lift a ment was even fortified by lifting finger of their own to achieve them. time the treaty with Austria, which inist society. Khrushchev seems to he is now accused of having opposed, have triumphed over all possible or Voroshilov, who had for a time been His gallant presentation of a flower was signed by the Kremlin. He is now in the light shadows, to the position to a gentlelady at a British garden visible rivals. Some take this to dem­ named as the chief of the "secret anti­ onstrate that the new stage will be of President of the republic. party removed all doubts as to his In four short years, there is nothing, character. party factional group" and as the only dominated by him, that he will be one who was impertinent enough to or next to nothing, left of this team. All doubts as to his future were also able to determine the course of its vote against his expulsion from the Its stability, its "collectiveness" as soon removed. He lost his post as development, that his rise to power Central Committee (more exactly, distinguished from Stalin's personal party secretary less than two weeks will be similar to Stalin's. A compari­ who abstained from the voting-did son will be instructive. rule, proved to have only an external after assuming pre-eminent power in the regime. Less than two years after­ his co-factionalists therefore vote du­ character. tifully for their own ouster?) at its Beria was the first to go, executed ward, he lost his power as head of the STALIN STARTED HIS REAL rise to dic­ June, 1957, meeting. Thrown out with in secret, without a trial worthy of the government, accompanied by an ex­ tatorial power with advantages that, him was his successor as foreign min­ name, without the public knowing torted confession that he knew noth­ especially now that we are able to ister two years earlier, Shepilov. Ka· how he defended himself against what ing about the problems he was as­ look backward upon them, were ex­ ganovich suffered the same punish­ were undoubtedly the justified but signed to resolve, as if to underline the traordinarily great. He had the task ment. after all long-known charges against insight and foresight of the colleagues of destroying the achievements of a him, or how he in turn accused his so long associated with him. Bulganin Of the ruling quintet installed in revolution. The fact that it could no accusers. He is now officially known, took his place. That was in February, 1953, only one remains-Bulganin. longer maintain itself .by its isolated in the words of Khrushchev's sensa­ 1955. Twelve months later, at the But he failed to jump to Khrushchev's efforts alone, that it could not solve tional speech last year, as "the provo­ party congress, Khrushchev drove a defense as instantaneously as Mikoyan its fundamental economic problems cateur and vile enemy, Beria, who broader blade into Malenkov by his did at the meeting of the Presidium on socialist foundations and in a had murdered thousands of Commu­ dark description of him as the very (the former Political Bureau) where, socialist way, was his greatest advan­ nists and loyal Soviet people," in right bower of Stalin in the days of according to all the obviously author­ tage. The revolution's utter destruc­ other words, as a man perfectly suited his ugliest capriciousness. At the June, ized reports, the "anti-party" faction tion of a native bourgeoisie that might for a part in the collective leadership 1957, Central Committee Plenum, all but succeeded in crushing the new have been able to solve the economic party secretary. Bulganin is, at this problems on capitalist foundations of his compeers. Malenkov was expelled from the body Even before Beria was disposed of as an anti-Leninist, an enemy of world writing, plainly in disgrace. A con­ and in a capitalist way, and the in­ totally, Malenkov was launched on a peace, relaxation and welfare of the servative insurance company would ability of the foreign bourgeoisie to O'reased slide. Less than a fortnight people, and a plotter against the par­ be ill-advised to take his account. Be­ undertake such a solution, was an ;fter being named Prime Minister ty, its leadership and its integrity. A low the uppermost ledge of party accompanying advantage. Where basic and secretary of the party, he resigned month later, Shvernik, now returning leadership to which he now clings social problems are not solved in a from (i.e., he was jerked out of) the to the prominence he lost when Voro- with only one hand is the familiar progressive way, they are solved (ex- THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. Summer 1957 141 140 is, basically and literally, nonsense); their rule, with an unparalled police cept where society lapses into utter the bourgeois social order, and there­ and along with the destruction of the machine to smash all resistance to moribundity) in a reactionary way. fore exploitive class rule, was the 1 party went the destruction of the their rule. He fashioned a shameless In Russia they were solved-by which then historical and necessary bearer remnants of the Soviets, the entire but Marxistically couched theory to of social progress, or the "progress" is simply meant that the country was trade-union movement, the factory give ideological justification for their achieved under Stalinism was corre­ completely modernized and brought councils, as well as any and every form class privileges over the working class­ spondingly the work that could be one step from the very top of the of free and independent organization es, namely, that Marxism rejects performed only by a historically nec­ world ladder economically-in a reac­ and expression. equalitarianism. No ruling class ever essary exploitive class and its class tionary, unique and never foreseen Back in 1928 Trotsky wrote that owed so much to one man. Stalin was rule. The indicated answer in either way. All the hugger-mugger about "the socialist character of industry is strategist and tactician, theorist and case leaves little to be said for the the progressive role of Stalinism "in determined and secured in a decisive political leader, ideologist and hang­ progressive, let alone the socialist, the economic field" overlooks the measure by the role of the party, the man for the collectivist bureaucracy. character of Stalinism. fundamental and overwhelmingly de­ voluntary internal cohesion of the In the obscene welter of extollment Stalin was able to lead to power cisive fact that in order to play this proletarian vanguard, the conscious to "the greatest genius of all ages," this new exploitive class, the bu­ role Stalinism established over the discipline of the administrators, trade­ so revolting to any civilized ear and reaucracy, which, it is well to add, we nation the rule of a new and more union functionaries, members of the eye, the bureaucracy, at least, expres­ for our part do not regard as a his­ ruthlesslp exploitive class than any shop nuclei, etc. If we allow that this sed at bottom a sincere, heartfelt grati­ torically progressive social formation, known in history. The establishment web is weakening, disintegrating and tude to a man who lavishly deserved it or "historically necessary" in any of the social power of a new exploit­ ripping, then it becomes absolutely from them. In outlawing socialism, sense comparable to the role played ing class in the epoch of the decay of self-evident that within a brief period its principles, ideals and aims from in its time by the bourgeoisie. To the capitalist society and its overripeness nothing will remain of the socialist Russia, he gained not merely an ob­ advantages mentioned, was added the for socialist reorganization is a phe­ character of state industry, transport, ligatory but a genuine and veritably nomenon of reactionary significance fact that Stalin was, from the begin­ I 101 etc." In this he proved to be funda­ immense authority from the benefici­ ning of his new career, an outstand: and consequences. Its reactionary mentally correct, even though the aries of his leadership. ing and established leader. He was character is confirmed by the fact that subsequent development took a his­ not, to be sure, known to the masses the only serious resistance offered to torically unexpected turn. The "web" THERE IS.. HOWEVER .. A fatal and ever in 1923-1924, but then again, it was the rise of Stalinism came from the was weakened, ripped and destroyed; exasperating flaw in the rule of the not to the masses that he directed his working classes and the revolutionary with it went the socialist character of bureaucracy. Every step required for appeal. He was known to the party socialists of Russia, and that this re­ the statified economy. the consolidation of its power over bureaucracy and was already well en­ sistance had to be· curbed, cheated and That is what Stalin was called upon society led inexorably to a greater trenched in its midst. His ability was crushed before the new rulers could to achieve. An apparent paradox: the centralization of state power until it widely underrated, but not by Lenin achieve a real measure of consolida­ rule of the working class is absolutely reached its peak in the establishment who named him, along with Trotsky, tion, economic and political. The di­ indispensable to the development of of the personal despotism of Stalin. as the "two most able leaders of the lemma of the more earnest apologists a socialist economy, but in isolated present Central Committee"-which No other way was possible, and no of Stalinism, especially those who try Russia the rule of the working class other way is possible now. The bu­ was itself not made up of nobodies. to think or write in Marxian terms was an obstacle to the solution of the In the course of ten-twelve years of reaucracy was enabled to exercise is two-fold: one, either the social rol~ economic problem by an exploiting bitter, dogged, merciless struggles, he every liberty over the working classes, played by those who resisted Stalin­ class. Stalinism eliminated the obsta­ ruling them with an arbitrariness un­ ism was reactionarv or the social role disposed of all the able and articulate representatives of the socialist revolu­ cle. In doing so, he attracted the en­ known in any other modern country. played by those who crushed this re­ thusiastic support of the elements re­ But it was not and is not able to rule sistance in the course of establishing, tion of 1917 and its ideals; in the course of another five years, he wiped quired to make up the new bureau­ itself. Self-rule is possible for the rul­ expanding and consolidating the cratic class. It was not that they were ing class in capitalist society, has long "progressive economy" was reaction­ them out physically. In the course of the same period, he destroyed com­ indifferent to Stalin's crushing of all been exercised there, and it still is. ary; or two, either the struggle against opponents-they were ardently satis­ For the ruling class in Stalinist society, the Stalinist regime carried on by the pletely the revolutionary party with­ out permitting any other to take its fied with it. It was not simply that he self-rule is impossible. To whom shall proletarian elements in Russia was provided them with the mantle of the it submit the differences of opinions utopian, similar to the workers' strug­ place-he supplanted it with a com­ pliant apparatus, which is something authority of a revolution in whose which reflect the conflict of interests, gles against capitalism in the days name he always spoke-he provided economic, political and even person­ before modern socialist theory and else again (all talk of a Communist them with an apparatus to maintain al? To the objective decision of the movement were established because party) under Stalin or since his death Summer 1957 143 142 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL market, that "blind regulator" to entire social structure into jeopardy? as an owner of a share in the total maniacal supreme arbiter who was which all capitalist producers of com­ By its very nature this class, which capital is wiped out. The bureaucrat their authentic creation. modities are fundamentally subjevted? is unique in the long history of rul­ is after all interested in the "social The Stalinist economy knows no mar­ ing classes, must abandon all thought rule of the bureaucracy" only ab­ THE TOTALITARIAN REGIME IS not the ket and it is not based upon the pro­ of self-rule and, however reluctantly, stractly, but is most intensely con­ absolute monarchy, although it has duction of commodities. To the dem­ raise up above itself, as well as above cerned with his own position in the many features in common with it. The ocratic decision of the people? But the the nation as a whole, a supreme bureaucracy. If, overnight, he finds succession in the former is not so moment it invites the people to make arbiter to whose decisions the rulers he has been cast out of the job of re­ simply indicated and effected as in any decisions that are binding on the bow by common consent. In turn, it gional party secretary or of director the latter. With the death of Stalin, economic or political regime, is can justify his omnipotence only by of a trust, without recourse, and lucky a new situation was created. It was the moment when the rule of ascribing to him omniscience. The to be alive for the moment, he may obviously impossible merely to put the bureaucracy comes, as it is megalomania which Khrushchev at­ very well find little consolation in the forward another Stalin who would perfectly aware, to an end. To tributed to Stalin may have been a assurance that the incumbents still continue where the other left off. Stal­ its own ruling ranks? But that is a psychic disturbance. But the power rule society "as a class." He wants in acquired his enormous power and practical impossibility from a dozen of this megalomania was systematical­ security in his position and, better authority only after many years of standpoints. Even if it were possible ly stimulated and nurtured by the still, sure prospects of advancement. bitter and arduous struggle for it, in to organize its ranks for such a pur­ bureaucracy itself in its own interests. Stalin offered the bureaucracy every­ which he not only wiped out all op­ pose, the open discussion of its dis­ Stalin presents a problem in social thing, but not security. ponents and rivals but reduced his own supporters to the position of su­ putes would be tantamount to an in­ analysis, not in psychoanalysis. The regime was coiled around the bordinates with so little power and vitation to the masses to intervene in In concentrating all power into his whole nation like hoops of iron riv­ authority of their own that they lived, the decision. It is not for nothing that hands, Stalin was able to assure order eted at every point by the At G.P.U. toward the end, in daily trepidation. Khrushchev closed his speech at the in the country. Translated, this the height of his power and the adu­ The bureaucracy, in March, 1953, pre­ 20th Congress with the warning that means: to defend the rule of the bu­ lation he was bathed in, Stalin was sented any number of alternatives "we should know the limits; we should reaucracy from the masses at home universally detested and feared, even for the succession, but not one of not give ammunition to the enemy; and from enemies abroad. But if the by his closest coadjutors. There is no them with Stalin's authority or any­ we should not wash our dirty linen power to make all decisions on dif­ reason whatever to doubt the descrip­ thing comparable to it. In fact, the before their eyes." (Who "the enemy" ferences and conflicts of interests in tion that Khrushchev gives in this one who had been implicitly nomi­ really is, is sufficiently indicated by the bureaucracy was transferred to regard of the feelings that filled the nated by Stalin as his candidate, the fact that the speech has not been him, it does not mean that the differ­ manly breasts of himself and the speedily found out that the recom­ published inside Russia to this day; ences no longer existed, that the con­ other intimates of Stalin. He still mendation did not guarantee him and by the fact that the Russian flicts were eliminated, or that his de­ praises Stalin for having crushed the the sword of power in the hand but people are always informed only of cisions were accepted with equal sat­ Trotskyists, Bukharinists and all the the stab of the dagger in the back. the conclusions reached by the victors isfaction by all. The further the coun­ others who in one way or another Indeed, the race for the succession in any dispute that arises in the ranks try advanced toward modernization represen ted the ideas of the socialist started with the candidates vying for of the bureaucracy.) In actual fact, and the more critical the international revolution-CIa stubborn and a dif­ prominence, first in the implicit dis­ disputes of any kind, even if not open­ situation became, the more complex, ficult fight but a necessary one." By avowal of Stalin's regime and then in I y conducted, are a menace to the diversified and multitudinous became that fight, Stalin made it possible for disavowing and even violently de­ bureaucracy, and there is an excellent the problems they posed. Stalin's the bureaucracy to live. He con­ nouncing the man to whom they owed reason why it forbids factions ("par­ purely personal decisions on the vast demns Stalin for having crushed his whatever position they had. This ties") in its midst. What ground is and complicated problems could not own supporters and threatened the there for the belief among the bu­ but arouse increasing hatred and in­ proves not merely that there is no political, if not the physical existence, gratitude in politics, but that the reaucracy, whose rule is a perpetual creasing fear in all sections of Russian of all of them. By that fight, Stalin defiance of the majority, that a de­ process of recreating the kind of society, the bureaucracy itself not ex­ made it all but impossible for the feated minority will abide by the cluded. He could assure order, but despotism that Stalin ultimately rep­ bureaucracy to live. But it is equally "democratic decisions" of the whole he could not assure security. The cap­ resented is unfolding under radically important to note that while the bu­ and resist the temptation to seek sup­ italist who is interested in a general different conditions than those preva­ port for its interests and views outside or an abstract way in the "social rule reaucrats hated Stalin, they were not lent in the days of Stalin's own rise the ranks of the ruling class, that is, of the capitalist class," rapidly loses in opposition to him. They had no to power. among the ruled, thus throwing the this interest if his personal position political alternative to the megalo- All of Stalin's work, all of his Su ....er 1957 144 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 145 achievements, have combined in IJ continued rule among the working ly-controlled and independent G.P.U. little more than a year the "Malenkov complex way to make the continua­ classes. The demonstration of this troops-Stalin's own combination of government" was kicked out. The tion of his regime, if not downright fact is given by the words and deeds S.S. divisions and Gestapo. over-eager observers consoled them­ impossible~ then extraordinarily dif­ of every candidate for the succession The rivalry among the would-be selves with the thought that Malen­ ficult~ and in any case to burden every to Stalin. dictators was given pause for a mo­ kov, after all, had not been, or had attempt to stabilize the regime with Beria, immediately after the death ment by the first big manifestation of not yet been executed by the now convulsing crises. of Stalin, was the first to present him­ open struggle of the masses against rising Khrushchev, forgetting that Stalin did not appeal to the people self as a reformer of the regime, the Stalinist regime, the June 17 ris­ Stalin, too, did not begin by exe­ against his opponents or his rivals. seeking to enlist popular support by ing of the workers of East Germany. cuting the opponents he removed or lie scarcely pretended to appeal to promising the national minorities and But only for a moment. Malenkov, expelled. them. On the contrary, the masses the minority nations a change for who had begun with an announce­ were, generally speaking, disinherited, the better from the chauvinistic and ment that the hypertrophied horde KHRUSHCHEV BECAME THE MOST spec­ disfranchized and driven into silent oppressive policy pursued so brutally of bureaucrats and bureaucratic in­ tacular and in his conduct, at least, drudgery like' oxen. Stalin appealed by Stalin. He followed the promise stitutions would be reduced, pro­ the most self-assured of the candidates. to the bureaucracy, led them to power by announcing that the "doctor's claimed the doctrine, unknown under He best reflects-not represents, but for which, in exchange, they surren­ plot" invented by Stalin (surely with Stalin, that the successes in heavy in­ reflects-the conflicting forces whose dered to him all authority. With Stal­ the complicity of Beria himselfl) had dustry had now produced all the interplay is the outstanding charac­ in dead, the bureaucracy is left with proved to be a frame-up. He was given conditions "for organizing a rapid teristic of the new stage. little or no authority of its own and no chance by his rivals to expand on rise in the production of consumers' He appeals for support to the mass­ ~ith a t.J.~mel'"~.dous uncertainty about his role as reformer and friend of the goods" and that "it is indispensable es more outspokenly, one might al­ its own position. One of the accomp­ people. His position as head of the to increase substantially the invest­ most say more recklessly, than Beria lishments over which Stalin presidec1 detested G.P.U. not only made such ments devoted to the light and food or Malenkov did, or than any of the was the establishment of a tremendous a role incongruous," but made it industries." In that sentence he un­ others who are now in the official working class which hardly existed at easier for his rivals to appear as re­ questionably voiced the deepest con­ leadership. Even though his 20th all at the beginning of his rise. An­ formers themselves by arrest, defama­ viction of the overwhelming majority Congress speech has not yet been other accomplishment was the estab­ tion, secret trial and execution of of the Russian people. On Malenkov's published in Russia, it is safe to be­ lishment of a huge industry now cap­ Beria as the man who "murdered lips, this pledge was anxious dema­ lieve that virtually everybody knows able of satisfying the still unfulfilled thousands of Communists and loyal goguery, not unknown on both sides of its substance. In effect, he has told needs and aspirations of the working Soviet people." of the Iron Curtain, and calculated the Russian people: "This is what class. The bureaucracy can now ac­ In their own eagerness to win the above all other things to promote his the mad tvrant was in reality and in quire authority, and confidence in it­ people, the remainder of the post­ own political interests. That did not detail, and I feared and hated him self, only by:=aPllealing for the sup­ Stalin leadership placed Serov, a sec­ prevent the rise of the most excited no less than vou did. The thorough­ port of the people. It will not confer ondary figure, at the head of the predictions about the worthy inten­ ness and veh~mence with which I ex­ full power, that is, place all reliance G.P.U. and rigorously reduced the tions of the new regime and its ap­ posed and denounced his evils are upon any leader or leadership who powers of the G.P.U. itself without, parent spokesman. One observer (he the best proof I can give that under cannot assure the position of the bu­ of course, abolishing the secret police turned out to be Isaac Deutscher), my leadership the dread regime of reaucracy among the people. It does completely. At one stroke, the lead­ reminded his readers that Trotsky terror and caprice will come to an not dare to make a definitive choice ership made a concession to three had once advocated a "limited politi­ end." It is hard to overrate the im­ among the candidates for leadership forces: to the masses who hated the cal revolution" against Stalinism, and portance of the fact that Stalin started until one of them has demonstrated G.P. U. even more than they feared that although he was tragically ahead his rise to power with the oath that by his policy that he can assure this it; to the bureaucracy which had been of his time, "he could not imagine he would be nothing but a faithful position. The whole past regime in perpetually subjected to the insuffer­ that Stalin's closest associates would disciple of Lenin, the leader of the which the bureaucracy was"< the basic able intervention of the till then act in accordance with his scheme. preceding regime; whereas Khrush­ social force is so discredited in the omnipresent and omnipotent secret What J\falenkov's government is car­ chev starts with a bitter denunciation eyes of the people, and the bureauc­ police; and to the regular army of­ rying out now is precisely the 'lim­ and renunciation of the leadership racy itself is so disoriented, that it ficer corps which suffered not only ited revolution' envisaged by Trot­ and regime of his predecessor. feels it is risking its very existence from the same intervention but also sky." That did not turn out to be pre­ Khrushchev must know that the unless it finds a broad base of sup­ from the existence of an army-within­ cisely the case. The "limited revolu­ successor regime cannot even think port or at least acquiescence for its the-army constituted by the external- tion" was not carried out, but in of maintaining itself without popular 146 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. Summer 1957 147 support. To gain it, not even the But the whole point of all the re­ yielded to the will of the people with­ ing a finger to protect him. Stalin, we curbing of the G.P.U. was enough. forms, the real as well as the sham out offering armed resistance. But recall again, had to fight tough and The monstrous slave camps had to and apparent, those already vouch­ there is no recorcJed case of a ruling numerous battles before the bureauc­ be largely liquidated. The release of safed and those that will in all prob­ class committing suicide in deference racy entrusted him with full power, millions of only half or one-third ability be granted in addition, is that to the popular will. There is no indi­ and even then it was only after he had productive workers from the camps they must be safe reforms. They can­ cation that the Stalinist bureaucracy succeeded in reorganizing and replac­ served to satisfy the increasingly des­ not and will not go beyond what is will offer itself as the first case in ing the bureaucracy literally from top perate need for industrial manpower, required to restore that adequate history. to bottom. He won out with them and that was not the least of the measure of stability to the founda­ and over them only after having dem­ reasons for the grand gesture. But it tions of the regime which it has lost BUT IF KHRUSHCHEV, or a restored Mal­ onstrated over a long period of time was skillfully made to invest the lead­ since Stalin's death, or more exactly, enkov (he is after all still alive and and in a whole series of vital ques­ ership with the mantle of reformers. which it has lost to such an extent therefore still available if the bureau­ tions, that his policies and his lead­ Nobody has been heartier than Khru­ that the regime is in a state of crisis. cratic wheel should turn) or any other ership sufficed to satisfy their basic shchev in promising that, now at last The foundations of the regime are the candidate at present not visible, can­ requirement, the stability of their (or at any rate in the not distant fu­ totalitarian powers of the bureauc­ not rule through the machinery of rule. Why should the present bureauc­ turer) the people, and not merely the racy, guaranteed by the abolition of representative government, what ma­ racy, overnight, as it were, tum over bureaucrats, will eat their fill, as all representative institutions of the chinery is left? It is not possible to full power to Khrushchev, place itself much as the Americans eat and may­ people, without which democracy, rule without a machinery of rule to completely at his disposal? He has re­ be even more. above all workers' democracy, exists enforce sovereignty and authori.,., lieved them of the unendurable ter­ He gives whatever bond he deems only in the imagination. And while to see to the execution of decisions, ror of Stalin's days, and that is wel­ it safe to give in order to show that Khrushchev appeals and must appeal or if it is preferred, an apparatus. Can come. But it is far from enough. Sta­ his promises are being implemented. for the support of the people, he can­ Khrushchev rule through the rule of bility, order-that is enough, or at any It is not only Stalin who is disavowed not, and he will not under any cir­ the bureaucracy, the party bureauc­ rate, it is adequate. The bureaucracy and at least as a cadaver, dethroned. cumstances, allow that support to be racy in the first place? Stalin ruled is in its nature obsessed with the fear It is the whole despised gang around asserted and tested in the only mean­ through the rule of the party appara­ of self-rule. It has no way of discussing him who are being repudiated, ex­ ingful way, namely, by enfranchising tus, indispensably supplemented by and deciding freely the policies it re­ cept for a few worthy exceptions the disfranchised masses, by universal the G.P.U. The G.P.U. is not present­ quires for its preservation. Indeed, it among whom Khrushchev nominates suffrage and with it, necessarily. all ly available to Khrushchev, and with does not want any such way, for in­ himself as the worthiest. With the ex­ the other elementary democratic its former powers, at least, it is not herent in it are the open divisions in pulsion of his three opponents from rights without which voting ceases to likely to be available for some time. its ranks, the cracks in the monolithic the Central Committee, he not only be voting and becomes nothing more Is the party apparatus, the party bu­ structure through which the masses strengthens his own position but as­ than a classical Bonapartist plebiscite. reaucracy, available to him? It is not. can so easily pour and wash away all sures the people that it is now rid of Unless you live in the dream-world And therein lies another decisive the obstacles to popular sovereignty. practically the last of the outstanding where one luminous day the bureauc­ change from the days of Stalin's de­ The inexorable trend toward extrud­ members of Stalin's immediate circle: racy announces to the masses, "Ekh, spotic power. ing a supreme arbiter, even though it Malenkov the heir apparent and for you are now old or bold enough to There are two important reasons has slowed down in the present crisis, that reason alone the most personal be granted all the power to determine why it is not simply at his disposal, at is still in operation. The bureaucracy, embodiment of Stalin's regime; Molo­ our own fate," the inherent limita­ least not yet. without a clear course of its own, dis­ tov, reputed the "hardest" of the Stal­ tions upon reforms are plainly indi­ The bureaucracy is not to be had oriented by events, can tolerate a inists, the most unyielding in seeking cated. Anything and everything is pos­ in a day by the first one to come along Khrushchev while he demonstrates to maintain the old regime, and now, sible from the bureaucracy now, in with the demand that it surrender its what his capacities are and what they above all, the opponent of relaxation its days of indecision and apprehen­ favors. Malenkov, has learned this, can yield, but it is far from ready to of international tension that might sion, but not the freedom of the despite the advantage of having been give him full confidence and blind break out into a war which the Rus­ people expressed in the self-main­ for years at the central control point obedience. It does not, or does not sian people (and not they alone) tained machinery of representative of the party bureaucracy under Stalin yet, oppose Khrushchev; but neither dread more than anything else; and government. Ruling classes in the and of having been designated by Stal­ is it committed to him. In the crucial Kaganovich, the very incarnation of past have fought like tigers against in as his successor. He was discarded hours when-as all the reports agree­ the Simon Legrees of Stalin's harshest the attempt to deprive them of their by machinations and intrigue at the the "anti-party faction" of Molotov, exploitation of the toilers. power, and in some cases they have v~ry top without the bureaucracy lift- Malenkov and Kaganovich tried a 148 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 149 coup de palais against Khrushchev, among the masses and the attempt to picture of the waste, inefficiency and ponding "withering away" of the they seemed to manage wi thou t too rule through the bureaucratic appara­ downright parasitism spawned by bu­ omnipotence of the central state pow­ much difficulty to get a majority in tus as before. The bureaucracy is enor­ reaucratic collectivism, the vertical er. This is now the claim of over-en­ the uppermost circle of the bureauc­ mously discredited among the people. super-centralization of industry has thusiastic observers who expect the racy, the Presidium, to favor the ous­ When Khrushchev delivered his mas­ multiplied the waste and inefficiency early flowering of socialist democracy ter of the apparent party boss, and sive blows at Stalin, the bureaucracy of the economy in grotesque ways. In in Russia as an organic outgrowth of even Bulganin was won to their side as a whole was morally shattered. It a situation where the still enormous a benevolent bureaucracy. But it is for a moment. The coup did not, to is inconceivable that the people would bureaucracy must be maintained, the contrary that is indicated. Despot­ be sure, succeed; and on that point, thereafter retain any respect for the where the wretched conditions of the ism and decentralization are not mu­ more later. But it is preposterous to representatives of a regime guilty not workers and peasants must be allevi­ tually exclusive. On the contrary, assume that the bureaucracy as a merely of failing to resist the frightful ated to some degree at least, where atomization is often the essential pre­ whole has attached itself slavishly and abominations of Stalin but of defend­ yesterday'S exploitation of the econo­ condition for the preservation of des­ irretraceably to Khrushchev's claim ing and participating in them with my of the satellite countries for the potism. It is worth noting a relevant to supremacy when its most author­ enthusiasm and praise. The Russian benefit of the Russian economy is no passage in the well-known official Rus­ itative representatives at the top were people are not cattle. There is not a longer so easy to pursue, and where sian government organ, Economic read y to challenge the claim so rude­ country in the world whose govern­ the international situation demands Problems (April, 1957): "It is obvious ly. ment would last five minutes after strenuous efforts to achieve industrial that the division of the territory not On his side, in turn, Khrushchev it was shown that its entire officialdom and military equality and even superi­ only does not diminish the centrali­ has little reason to submit his claim had been the active or passive accomp­ ority over the United States-a change zation of the economy by the state for endorsement by the bureaucracy. lices of such monstrous crimes as in the economic structure is an un­ throughout the country as a whole, In the very first place, he has no guar­ Khrushchev catalogued at the 20th postponable elementary necessity. but on the contrary, requires its rein­ antee of the outcome, since he cannot Congress, provided the people were Khrushchev is trying to undertake the forcement. The economic role of the but know the position and the state free to act. The only difference here change. The central Moscow minis­ state is not only not relaxed under of mind of the bureaucracy. He was is that the Russian people are not yet tries of most industries (but not of present conditions [the conditions able, two years ago, to oust Malenkov free to act. But they are free to think war industry!) have been eliminated, created by the establishment of the 92 from the position of Prime Minister, to themselves. Their thoughts cannot and Russia has been divided into 92 regional Economic Councils.-M. S.], but Malenkov remained in the Pres­ be consoling to the bureaucracy which regions with 92 Economic Councils to but acquires a greater reality, becomes idium. Even at the June, 1957, meet­ was stripped to revolting nakedness manage the industrial establishments more effective." So that, apart from ing of the Central Committee where by Khrushchev himself. And he of their respective areas, with restric­ the objective conditions that dictate he succeeded in having Malenkov­ would have to be the biggest dolt of ted rights of local planning and of the "horizontal reform" of the econo­ M olotov-Kaganovich-Shepilov expell­ all to entertain illusions on this score. local inter-industrial and inter-factory my, the change has the effect of dis­ ed from the Central Committee, they And, in the third place, Khrushchev transactions. persing the bureaucracy, of reducing were not expelled from the party even finds himself compelled to undertake This is not the place to evaluate the its possibilities for cohesion and mu­ though the resolution makes a signifi~ such actions against the bureaucracy economic prospects of the new eco­ tual contact to a local level, and of cant allusion to the threat of such ex­ as are guaranteed to achieve anything nomic arrangement, except, perhaps, concentrating the power to make un­ pulsion. To attribute such restraint but its enthusiastic support. to note tnat in general, in capitalist obstructed decisions on the most vital to Khrushchev's oath to avoid Stal­ The pores of the Russian economry economy, too, wnere industrial and and fundamental questions in the in's road or to a passion for the prin­ are choking with bureaucracy. There technological rationalization is not hands of the uppermost ranks of the ciple of collective leadership, is ab­ is no regime possible in Russia today unknown, observers tend to abstract centralized state bureaucracy. surd. The all-but-successful attempt or tomorrow that could any longer their evaluations from what turns out of the Presidium members, who in­ tolerate such a condi tion. Since Stal­ to be decisive in the long run, the in­ WHAT IS LEFT? THE ARMY, or to be pre­ carnated the "collective leadership," in's death, almost a million bureau­ fluence of the social relations which cise, the army apparatus, the officer to vote Khrushchev out of his post, crats have had to be sacked from their develop out of the structural changes, corps. Khrushchev may inveigh just as Malenkov was voted out of his pos ts, according to Khrushchev's own and the political consequences that against bureaucrats twice as much as post two years earlier, is sure to have report earlier this year. Almost half follow. But it is in place to point out he does in order to elicit the sympa­ cooled any passion he may have had a million other superfluous bureau­ that the "horizontal" reorganization thy of the masses. But he needs some­ for the famous principle. In the sec­ crats, he added, should be up of industry, the "decentralization," thing stronger than their sympathy to ond place, there is a sharp conflict be­ for discharge. These two figures will not result in greater power for assure the continued domination of tween the attempt to gain popularity alone are enough to give the appalling the local bureaucracy and a corres- the regime over them. The army ma- 150 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 151 chine is stronger. Its rise is entirely provinces the most popular of the or as it is now called the Presidium. army stood by Khrushchev. It is true picture of the waste, inefficiency and Marshals, Zhukov (under "socialism" At the 20th Congress, the advance of that Khrushchev called an emergency downright parasitism spawned by bu­ there are, of course, Marshals). the new element in the situation was meeting of the Central Committee t~ reaucratic collectivism, the main re­ Since Stalin's death, a radical further and more clearly manifested. call the Presidium to account. By this spect in which it has caught up with, change has been in process. There is The more violently Khrushchev deni­ act, he violated a fundamental pre­ if it has not outstripped, the vices of a crisis of the regime-the rulers can grated Stalin, the more lyrically did cept of Stalinist rule which had al­ capitalism. In addition, the vertical no longer rule in the old way, the he sing the praises of the army chiefs, ways been not to appeal to a lower super-centralization of industry has ruled do not want to be ruled in the of Zhukov in particular. He ridiculed body against the decision of a higher multiplied the waste and inefficiency old way. The bureaucracy is no longer and riddled Stalin's reputation as a one, and no body is higher in the ~u­ of the economy in grotesque ways. In intact, no longer solid, no longer self­ military strategist, laughed at him be­ reaucratil;: hierarchy than the PreSId­ a situation where the still enormous confident, and order is in jeopardy. cause he "planned operations on a ium. In the unwritten rules of the bureaucracy must be maintained, The military machine now has to globe," cited case after case of his totalitarian hierarchy, this is an un­ new in the history of the Stalinist re­ play, dares to play, and is even called "nervousness and hysteria" during precedented, inadmissible and danger­ gime, and it constitutes an important to play an increasingly active and di­ the war, and topped it all by claiming ous procedure, which can lead. to new element of the latest stage in the rect political role. that Stalin's orders caused numerous appealing to a party congress agatnst crisis of the regime. Immediately after Stalin's death, defeats at the hands of the Germans, the Central Committee and God alone Throughout Stalin's career, he em­ Zhukov was brought back to Moscow untold and unnecessary deaths of k.nows how much further from there. ployed political means against his op­ from his banishment to resume lead­ troops, and all but utter disaster in But Khrushchev was able to venture ponents and to solve political prob­ ership of the army, although still the war. For the military, he had only on this procedure not so much be­ lems; he employed bureaucratic means under the civilian control of the min­ the most lavish praise. Everything cause he was sure that the wider group of all sorts toward the same ends; ister of defense, "Marshal" Bulganin went calamitously in the first period of the bureaucracy had confidence in from 1927 onward, he supplemented (Bulganin is as much a military man of the war "until our generals, on him, but because of the crucial and these increasingly with the employ­ as Zhukov is a party man). A few whose shoulders rested the whole decisive support he had from Zhukov ment of the G.P.D. But the military months later the Beria crisis super­ weight of conducting the war, suc­ as the authentic representative of the machine was kept apart. Even when vened. The reports then current that ceeded in changing the situation." To officer corps. He was saved not by the it was decimated in the Tukhachev­ Zhukov mobilized regular army troops Stalin's contemptuous remarks about party bureaucracy but by the military. sky purge, it did not lift a finger to to invest Moscow in order to prevent Zhukov, Khrushchev reported in 1956 In return, Zhukov was elevated by intervene in the situation. Politically, a possible coup d'etat by Beria at the that he had answered stoutly: "I have the Central Committee from alternate it was inert, except to the extent that head of his G.P.D. divisions, ring with known Zhukov for a long time; he is member to full member of the Pre­ the party bureaucracy kept it under verisimilitude. In any case, Beria was a good general and a good military sidiudt. It has never happened before. rigorous surveillance and control executed after a secret trial presided man." At the Congress Zhukov was For the first time the military occupy through political commissars and over by Marshal Koniev, in whose elected an alternate member of the not merely· decorative positions at G.P.D. spies. There is little doubt person the officer corps took revenge party Presidium, again an act without Congresses or in government posts, that the officer corps, in its own way, upon its rival and tormentor, the precedent in the history of the Sta­ but a' full position in the real rul­ shared the growing general apprehen­ G.P.D. From that moment on, the linist regime, let alone of Lenin's. ing body of the party and the country sions and discontent over Stalin's pol­ exceptional power and prerogatives of Early in 1957, the "anti-party fac­ as a whole. icies and despotism, and that is cer­ the G.P.D. were drastically reduced. tion" tried its coup against Khrush­ Is the road now opening up to a tainly all that Tukhachevsky and his Less than two years later, in the chev, and in his absence, in the meet­ Bonapartist dictatorship of the classi­ colleagues were guilty of. But so Malenkov crisis, Bulganin replaced ing of the Presidium. Only Mikoyan cal military type? It is. It does not long as the party bm, e~ucracy was in­ Stalin's heir, and his own position as stood by Khrushchev; Bulganin wav­ follow that the road will be travelled tact and capable of ruling the coun­ war minister was given to Zhukov. It ered. Krushchev returned precipitate­ to the end, but it has opened up. The try and maintaining order, the officer was the first time~ under Lenin or ly to Moscow; so did Zhukov. All the officer corps, too, wants order and corps remained in its own field and under Stalin, that this post (or for unofficial newspaper reports agree, stability in the country. Professional obeyed orders. Even at the end of the that matter any other post of cabinet and it should be obvious that the soldiers, officers in particular, are no­ war, after the army, and with it its rank) was given to a military man, or account was deliberately "leaked" torious for their contempt of "poli­ leadership, had acquired a tremen­ to anyone but a party leader. How­ from an authoritative source, that it ticians," that is, of the civilian author­ dous moral prestige among the people, ever, it was still only a government was Zhukov who turned the momen­ ities and even of the civilian popula­ Stalin was able to keep it in its al­ post, whereas the real governing body tary Presidium majority into a minor­ tion as a whole. When all goes well lotted place and even to banish to the of the country is the Political Bureau ity with the ominous warning that the "at home," the contempt is in check; 152 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 153 side of the re-consolidation of the when there is trouble, difficulty, in­ but still only a hypothesis. It has not is therefore sound. It is certain that dictatorship over the masses in the competence and bungling in the civil­ yet given sufficient proof in action of I the Russian regime itself does not 'I old form or in a new one, and the ian government, the contempt be­ the necessary qualities. It cannot be have confidence in such a diagnosis. comes more active, outspoken and equated, for example, with the Prus­ smashing of the dictatorship by a It is not at all excluded that one of revolutionary people, that is not a even defiant; and when the social sian Junkers, who had a long the considerations of the bureaucrats a~? real possibility. order itself seems imperilled without practiced tradition not only of mIlI­ in bringing or allowing the army into anyone being able to stabilize it, the tary but also of political leadership And the people, the Russian work­ such unprecedented prominence and contempt is idealized into the call and on top of that a long and strong ers and peasants-and students? Is it association with the regime is to ward they feel to intervene to save society class bond. The Russian army corps really possible for them to undertake off a revolutionary intervention from with a strong and firm hand. is appearing on the political scene for a revolution? After the series of dem­ below which they take with far great­ The party apparatus is not in a the first time. This is a phenomenon onstrations, strikes, local uprisings er seriousness than do the gullible position to end the crisis of the re­ of first-rate importance, but as yet and in one case a national revolution visitors from abroad. The Russian gime by stabilizing it. It does not have its importance is more symptomatic that have marked the post-Stalin pe­ people is a revolutionary people with a consolidated leadership or a clearly­ than effective. In its first appearance, riod in East Germany, Czechoslova­ living revolutionary traditions and set policy, it has lost heavily in cohe­ it is likely to proceed with the great­ kia, Poland and Hungary, not to men­ very recent revolutionary examples on sion, and even more heavily in pres­ est caution, feeling its way gradually tion isolated outbreaks in Russia their borders to remind them of these tige among the people. Can the army and resorting only to minor tests of itself, the skepticism implied in the traditions. The working class in par­ apparatus substitute for it? Unlike strenghth and acceptability - unless question should at least be modified. ticular is a new, vastly more numerous the party bureaucracy, the officer the crisis suddenly sharpens and com­ It is not a matter of whether or not and compact, more self-confident and corps unquestionably enjoys immense pels it, in the absence of any other the Russian masses want a revolution. more demanding mass than any work­ popularity, not only because of its force for "law and order" to make They did not want one in 1916 or ing class known in Stalin's days. So successful defense of the country in precipitate decisions. even in the first month of 1917. It is are the peasants and the students, the war but also because it is not a question of what they are being each in their own way. It was Ches­ driven to in order to solve the crisis regarded as sharing in complicity and THE COMPLEXITY and fluidity of the terton who is supposed to have said responsibility for the Stalin regime. situation permits of no certain answer of the regime and establish their own long ago: "We don't know what the law and their own order. The fact Indeed, it bears the aura of heroically for the next period. To forestall the British working classes think because that the uprisings against Stalinism silent victims and even martyrs of Sta­ inevitable, the regime, while it is they haven't spoken yet." Neither started at the ends of jhe new Russian linism, as well as the laurels of heros wrestling with the crisis, may allevi­ have the Russian working classes. Not empire should not disorient the con­ in the war victory. The huge popular ate it bv more and more concessions yet. When they do, they will speak clusions about the possibilities of an demonstration reported for Zhukov to the ~asses. To master the bureauc­ with the voice of the revolution whose uprising in Russia. Because a decay­ in Leningrad after the June Plenum racy, Khrushchev (this one or an­ aim it is, in the forgotten but ever­ ing: organism so often shows the first bears the marks of authentic spon­ other one) may invoke the prestige timely words of Marx, to establish manifestations of weakness and even taneity, in contrast to the dreary, man­ and power of the military as the only democracy. paralysis at its extremities does not ufactured, enforced "ovations" exact­ means of cowing the party apparatus, warrant the diagnosis that the heart Max Shachtman ed from the people by the bureauc­ an initial indication of which was racy. The military has that advantage, given by the Tune crisis. The officer and Khrushchev's exceptional efforts corps may m'ove to the seizure of to associate himself with it shows that political power as the savior of the it is not a trifle. On the other hand, country as a whole and the benevo­ 'THE NEW INTERNATIONAL' however, that the military has a lent protector of the people from the '. the leading Marxist magazine in the United States. internationally greater cohesiveness than the disori­ rule and vices of the quarrelsome and recognized as among the foremost orCJans of Marxist thouCJht and ented party machine, a greater capa­ incompetent "politicians"; or it may political analysis in the world. city for decisive political action and smash the party bureaucracy and try the resolve to take the risks of as­ to administer the economy of the SEND 50¢ FOR THE CURRENT ISSUE suming power or trying to-and they country through the medium of a sub­ OR SUBSCRIBE AT $2.00 A YEAR would certainly prove to be great ordinated industrial bureaucracy. risks-is still only a hypothesis, a These are all real possibilities, and New International, 114 West 14 Street, New York City strongly-indicated hypothesis without unexpected combinations are not ex­ which' any analysis would be faulty, cluded. But anything between or out- Summer 1957 155 154 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ,

it came only from a small but silent pressing minority against the op­ Bureaucratic Collectivism: Two Eras and passive working class and a much pressed majority. Why then should tinier minority of intransigent revo­ any minority within the bureaucracy The Limitations of Reform in Post-Stalin Russia lutionists. It took years of unremitting automatically resign itself to the vot­ struggle, of crude advances and fright­ ing victory of a majority? ened retreats, before it could look Under such conditions, a powerful The following article was written by Comrade Shachtman shortly after Stalin's down upon a population subjected at tendency makes its way and is even­ death in 1953, as an introduction to a second edition of his debate with Earl last to totalitarian disfranchisement, tually realized, namely to elevate out Browder in 1950 published in pamphlet form. Although written four years ago, and during those years its own fate it is nonetheless excellent as a concise analysis of bureaucratic collectivism of the ranks of the bureaucracy itself and interesting for its accurate predictions of concessions--and their limita­ quivered more than once on the edge a supreme arbiter who is granted un­ tions-that would be made by the post-Stalin Kremlin bureaucracy.--J". F. of the knife. limited political power. We are inclined to ignore that in If it is borne in mind that complete order to subject this population and political power in the Russian state The publishers, in their notifi­ sense of the term. In the absence, fur­ keep it subjected, the bureaucracy had is equal to complete power in all fields cation that a second edition of this ther, of the relieving revolution in to transform itself and its own form of life, it is plain that the unlimited booklet is being prepared, have in­ the advanced countries, the resistance of rule. The mass even when under power of the supreme arbiter becomes vited me to write a foreword. offered by the Trotskyist and other despotic political leash, is a perma­ greater than that enjoyed by any ruler The theme of our debate can be oppositions, however heroic, justified nent nightmare to the bureaucracy. of any land at any time in history. even more clearly considered in the and necessary it was, was doomed to The same mass, politically unleashed, Corresponding to such unprecedented light of the many important events succumb to the relentless drive of the would end the bureaucracy's night­ power, and in order to give it justi­ that have occurred since it took place. new bureaucracy. mare only by ending the bureaucracy fication, the supreme arbiter is sur­ Outstanding among them is unques­ This bureaucracy was not, however, itself. To deprive the working mass rounded with the massively cultivated tionably the death of Stalin. It marks a neutral reflector of the stagnation of all the means by which it can as­ myth of his unparalleled intellectual the point of separation between two and distortion of the class or the rem­ sert itself politically by word and and spiritual capacities, in most of eras in the evolution of Stalinism. nants of the class that had led the deed, is therefore an absolute pre­ which he soon rivals the better known Both eras have, and will have, so great Russian revolution. It became condition for the total rule of the of the world's deities and in all of much in common that a quick glance an active and effective agency for bureacracy. which he easily surpasses all mortals. can easily overlook the difference be­ maintaining the working classes, in­ But it is only one of the essential It is in the course of the unfoldment tween them. Yet the difference be­ cluding the new one it was compelled preconditions for this rule. The other of this inexorable process that Stalin, tween the two is most important. One to bring into existence, in a state of requires that the bureaucracy deprive renegade from socialism but by far the was broadly the era of the rise to confusion, demoralization and paraly­ itself of all the means by which any ablest incarnator of the bureaucratic power and the consolidation of the sis. Under no other condition could one part of it can, in the course of an counterrevolution, was transformed Stalinist regime; the other will be the it have consolidated its position as the internal disagreement, appeal to the first into the Greatest Genius of Our era of crises, decomposition and death. new ruling class in Russia and com­ mass to Intervene for it against any Time and then into the Greatest The difference lies least of all in pleted the work of expropriating the other part of it, the bureaucracy. To Genius of All Time. the fact that the unique personal workers of all political power. In a submit such a disagreement to the But above all things, he was the qualities of Stalin are no longer in society where the state owns all the arbitrament of the enchained mass omnipitent ruler of the rulers as well operation; it lies in the nature of the means of production and distribution, would be even more dangerus than to as of the ruled. regime and above all of the conditions those who are in absolute control of submit a theological disputation in That too took more than a day and in which it rises and falls. the political power are thereby and the College of Cardinals to the deci­ more than a year. It took more than The distinctive birthmark of the therewith likewise in absolute control sion of scientists. a generation-a good three dacades of Stalinist bureaucracy in Russia is this: of all economic and social, that is, all A democratic vote in the ranks of bitter struggle, including struggle in it made its first appearance when the class power. This should be perfectly the ruling bureaucracy cannot be ex­ the bureaucracy itself. Large sections revolutionary working class of that clear to all minds save those insulated pected to settle a given dispute, either. of the bureaucracy resisted the work­ country was making its last appear­ by a dense coating of fuzz. The rule of the bureaucracy became ing out of the process and in the ance. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to We are inclined to forget that the possible only because it usurped the course of this resistance it more than say that Stalinism could begin its rise new Stalinist bureaucracy had a long democratic rights of the vast majority; once imperiled the very existence of to power only because there no longer and arduous time in reaching power indeed, its existence is the organized its own regime. But it found that it existed a proletariat in the classic even though the socialist resistance to and successful rebellion of the op- could not reverse the process; it could 156 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL. Summer 1957 157

/ not escape it; paradoxically enough, try has ever known. It is not only far bination of class exploitation and na­ most precious factor of all is at stake: it owed its very position of power to more numerous than ever before but tional oppression generates a popular time. the unhampered unfolding of the pro­ it represents a far more important resistance of irrepressible explosive All the concessions made so precipi­ cess. For it turned out that the only social force than any of its forebears. power. The Stalinists are discovering tously and desperately by the new re­ way it could assure its rule over the The hatred of the bureaucracy the same thing in the foreign lands gime have one objective: to gain time, masses was to abandon rule over itself. which this working class feels is un­ they rule today. The very expansion to throw dust in the opening eyes of It had to accord supreme power to the limited; it cannot be overrated. No­ of Stalinism has brought it face to the people, to sow illusion and con­ supreme arbiter. body knows this better than the bu-­ face with the greatest menace not only found confusion in order to gain more The apparent unshakability of the reaucracy itself. It remembers only too to its growth but to its very existence. and more time. The silent but unre­ political structure thus created for a 'vividly the hatred of the Stalinist des­ It is astonishing, after all, how little lenting and ubiquitous pressure of the long time paralyzed the will not only potism which was displayed by the each new exploiting class learns from Russian masses has already extracted of a legion of the opponents of Stalin­ people in general and by those of the the disasters of its forerunners. The from the bureaucracy all sorts of con­ ism but of no smaller a legion of its super-subjected nations (like the Stalinist overlords cannot get it into cessions, all of them of far less sub­ supporters. The result was such a Ukraine) during the Second World their heads that this is the epoch of stance than appears on the surface, large-scale flight from the struggle f?r War. The hatred was of such extra­ the destruction of all the old empires; yet all of them revealing far more socialism as had not been known In ordinary violence that no other coun­ that the old imperialist rule faces the about the reactionary, oppressive and the worst depressions of the modern try could match it. It went to such most active and conscious resistance precarious nature of the regime than proletarian movement. The first group lengths that the enemy, the German of hundreds of millions who have ever before in its history. (The re­ looked upon Stalinism as the insur­ Nazis, could benefit from it in the out­ risen from a historic slumber; and that lease of the condemned Moscow doc­ mountable obstacle on the road to right military support on a scale that the idea of replacing the old empires tors, and the acknowledgment that socialism; the other regarded it as the no other people gave it and which with the new, even if in the guise of a their "voluntary confessions" were only practical, even if unattractive ve­ only the incredible outrages and brute "liberation of the peoples" by Stalin­ fantastic falsehoods concocted and im­ hicle that could ever traverse the road. stupidity of the Nazis themselves could ism, is an anachronistic absurdity. posed by the police, tells us everything transform again into reluctant coop­ In actuality, the structure was ex,;, BOTH THE MASSES AND THE bureauc­ we ever needed to know about the ceedingly fragile. Stalin's death is.l~y­ eration with the bureaucracy. racy understand, each in its own way, "purges" and "confessions" of the ing bare this truth about the Stal~nlst In the second place, the bureaucracy the new situation created by the death past, that is about the frame-ups and regime. The bureaucracy has, as If at faces a new situation in the vast new of Stalin. The mass senses the role that mass murders perpetrated by the re­ one stroke, been hurled back into a empire which it conquered in the Stalin played in maintaining an iron­ gime against its opponents. What a position of the gravest peril: it faces course of the war and afterward. clad front of the bureaucracy which self-revelation by this "socialist" re­ the danger of self-rule. In the countries dominated by the the people could not think of breach­ gime!) Again, as in the first beginnings .of Kremlin, the Russian regime faces a ing. It senses that the now automatic­ Outside of Russia, however, the its rise, it has the problem of depnv­ three-fold threat. One is from the ally divided, mutually suspicious and pressure is no longer silent. The veri­ ing itself of the normal means of self­ workers who hate the regime as only antagonistic sectors of the bureaucracy table unarmed uprising of the East rule as the only way of assuring itself the working class can hate a class that need time, a good deal of time, before Berlin proletariat against the rule of that it can rule over the masses to any exploits it with such inhuman cruelty. they can again face the population Stalinism is a landmark of history, degree at all, in any way at all. Only, The other is from these same workers like a (more or less) self-confident and heralding the beginning of the end this time the process -of creating and and all other toilers in their capacity a (more or less) single-headed and of the great iniquity. Its spread to elevating out of its ranks a supreme as sons and daughters of the nation single-armed force. cities outside of Berlin, and countries arbiter begins under conditions that that feels the yoke of a foreign oppres­ The problem of the bureaucracy is outside of Germany, only underlines makes its unfoldment a hundred times sor who has stolen their national inde­ to determine which sector will impose the fact that the uprising was neither more difficult than it was thirty years pendence. The third is from the na­ its specific interests on the'ruling ma­ an isolated nor accidental phenom­ ago. tive Stalinist bureaucracies of the sat­ chine as a whole, and which of the enon. It is a product and a producer First of all and most of all, the bu­ ellites who dream of nothing so much many equally ambitious and equally of the crisis of the regime. The regime reaucracy stands before a different as their freedom to tyrannize over intolerant candidates for the supreme needs time and more time and still working class in Russia. It created this their own nation without having the arbitership will succeed in suppressing more time; the masses, with increas­ class as a by-product in order to ex­ main fruits of their rule taken from and eliminating all the other candi­ ing consciousness, are determined that pand, consolidate and protect its own them by their patrons of the Kremlin. dates. Both sides in the revived class it should get less time and still less The Hitlerites discovered during power. The new Russian working struggle in Russia-the rulers as well time in which to reorganize and re­ class is the most formidable the coun- the Second World War that the com- as the ruled-know that right now the constitute itself over their backs. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 158 Summer 1957 159 ,

Who will prevail? For our part, we cessions it has granted up to now. But who never had any doubt of the final one concession it will never grant: the Unions, Racketeers and Senators outcome, have, if anything, less reason power to determine by itself whether than ever to feel doubt today. The or not to grant concessions, whether Background. Mofives and Effecfs of Labor Hearings days-or for the more literal-minded, to grant one and not another, the the years-of Stalinism are numbered. power-in a word-to rule, exploit and There has been no sudden investigations of the sordid machina­ Even though capitalist imperialism oppress the people. eruption of racketeering in the labor tions of big business finally destroyed and capitalist reaction, organized and We shall yet see with our own eyes movement. The tale, dripping with the dream of a "business government" led by Washington, would seem to be the frenzied savagery and bloodthirst­ crime, deceit and betrayal, and re­ and implanted in the American doing everything in their power to iness with which the bureaucracy will hearsed at the Senate hearing was people a permanent distrust not of prolong the rule of Stalinism, its doom fight to keep this power from being known in outline and sometimes in capitalism as a system but of the is sealed-and with it is doomed world wrested by the people. And yet, the detail for a long time. It reaches back capitalists as a governing class. Busi­ capitalism as well. very concessions it is obliged to grant many years in a long uninterrupted ness man's rule was repudiated. But We do not for a moment entertain will only increase the appetite of the line, sometimes new names, less often there can be no corresponding repu­ the preposterous notion, now so sedu­ people, will only fortify their deter­ new methods. Yet, the discovery of diation of unionism now. For union­ lously disseminated by ignoramuses mination to wrest all power from the what everyone knew becomes the oc­ ism today enjoys the fierce loyalty and all sorts of volunteer as well as totalitarian despots and enhance their casion for the first big national, pub­ of millions. Union consciousness is professional apologists for Stalinism, confidence that it can be done. lic investigation of unions; the first deep and ineradicable, instilled in that somehow, sometime, the bureau­ And when it is done, the masses will attempt at an "expose" of organized America's working class after 25 years cracy will organically and peaceable truly come into their own. Progress labor. of organization and strikes. In the transmogrify itself into the democratic can triumph over the Stalinist reac­ Every period in our country's re­ end it will be reinforced by getting servant of an all-powerful people. Not tion not in the name of capitalism, cent history has had its own cele­ rid of crooks and grafters-something for a moment! It will have to be over­ but only in the name of socialist free­ brated investigations, each correspond­ that has just begun. turned, crushed and extirpated by the dom, and with its real substance. The ing to some strong current of public But is is the very strength and in­ revolutionary democratic upheaval idea that Stalinist states are "socialist opinion: investigations of monopoly, fluence of unions which now brings which genuinely establishes the politi­ communities" or are socialist in any recording widespread resentment them under public scrutiny. With the cal and economic supremacy of the sense at all, is grotesque. But the idea against domination of economic life ability to affect the lives of the whole masses. that the Stalinist tyrannies will be by big business; of munitions makers, population comes a new responsibil­ Before that happens, the bureau­ transformed into socialist regimes by reflecting disillusionment with the ity: to use this power to further peace, cracy, in Russia as well as in the sat­ the revolutionary assaults of the newly first World War and a distrust of the democracy, rising living standards for ellite states, will give and will have rising proletariat-that will material­ pious slogans that were used to justify all. Is labor using its mighty power to give more than one concession to ize, it is already materializing, into it; of violence against labor and the for good or for evil? That is the ques­ appease the growing fury of the peo­ the outstanding political phenomenon denial of the right to organize, reveal­ tion that arises in the minds of all. ple, concessions that are real and valu­ of the whole era we are now entering. ing sympathy with labor's underdog One answer, or at least the shadowy able as well as the trivial kind of con- Max Shachtman struggle against a ruthless enemy; and outlines of a mood, can be sum­ most recently, of Communism, How­ marized this way: NEW BOOKI OFFERS ing from a hysterical fear of Russian "Big capital has its evils and they power and a feeling of utter helpless­ had to be curbed. Now Big Labor has Tile New Clllss ness before its social appeal. And now, its evils and we must curb them too." "An Analysis of the Communist System" the Senate labor hearings. Such is the mood which makes the By Milovan Diilas There is no doubt that the revela­ hearings possible, a mood which List $3.95 our price $3.50 tions of widespread corruption pro­ ranges all the way from outright hos­ vided a setback to unionism; every tility to labor, to resentment and mis­ union reports the same thing: resis­ givings, down to friendly criticism Tile Roots 01 Ameritlln Communism tance to organization has risen; it is from its friends. Mixed together are By Theodore Draper almost impossible to join new shops. Lilt $6.75 our price $5.75 opposition to the legitimate labor ac­ Orders must be accompanied by check to Yet, in the end the union movement tivities by its enemies, pique at la­ Labor Action Book Service will regain all that was lost, and bor's ability to shut down industry, 114 West 14th Street, NYC 11, N.Y. more. The 1929 crisis and with it the fear that high wages have something S••• er 1957 160 THE NEW INTEIlNATlONAL 161 to do with prices, resentment of the must win by merit and merit alone. The only threatens an individual while the ing standards of its membership but unions political power, suspicion of its sooner we face that fact, the better. , I honest labor leader, a dangerous radi­ claims the right to influence all social I cal, threatens our whole way of life. policies, domestic and international. "communistic" purpose, hostility to Here then is the liberal-Iaborite closed shops. It is not a question of Even Senator Ives of New York, a Such a force cannot claim exemption calling labor to account. What he does "modern" Republican, declared 'that from public scru'tiny and to do so the justice or validity of any of these in his way, millions do in theirs. In reactions; the fact is that they exist. the way to deal with irresponsible la­ would play into the hands of those politics, the unions come forward as bor leaders would be to put unions who are in ambush against labor. To Joseph Loftus, comments in the a force that speaks for social justice under the anti-trust law ... echoing the Committee, the official labor move­ New York Times~ "Labor's decline in bu't acts with prudent expediency, as the opinions of his fellow Committee ment has, in effect, replied: if you un­ the public esteem is traceable to more it ties in with suspect elements. In member Mundt who is a not-so-mod­ cover criminal activities or even un­ than criminal acts. There are contrib­ civil rights they call for equality but ern Republican. ethical practices within the labor uting factors, from unethical (though act with gingerly caution. Despite all But it' would be misleading to in­ movement we will act against them; legal) practices to bad manners; a dis­ defects, however, it is plain that their terpret the hearings simply as the bu't we warn against trying to smear regard of the fact that 'the labor move­ motives, at least, are the best. But in product of a plot by reactionaries to labor and we will fight all laws against ment received public support as a the sphere of racketeering, their ar­ knife labor. After all, the crude rant­ our legitimate rights. With this in force for social justice not as a busi­ rant neglect has been especially dam­ ings of political scissorbills are no mind, Reuther has challenged the ness. This view happens to be held aging and it is for this that they are more of a novelty than the labor rack­ Committee to call representatives of quite widely among the friends of la­ first called before the bar of public ets they choose to discover. At other the UAW before it, but so far in vain. bor, even those on the inside." opinion. times, 'they might have been laughed There are some who argue that He goes on to quote The Practice to death; at least, ignored; or de­ Dave Beck and his similars who re­ of Unionism a recent book by Jack THOSE WHO PRESSED MOST insistently nounced in chorus by liberals, labor­ fuse 'to testify, pleading the Fifth Barbash, staff member of the AFL­ for the investigations were the ex­ ites and plain realistic politicians with Amendment, are standing up to the CIO Industrial Union Department treme right-wing elements who want a feel for what is expedient. If they witchhunt against labor. From this who says, "I find it more difficult to to undermine the prestige of the un­ can have their way now, at least to the curious premise, it follows that union defend what may well be an inevitable ion movement at the very least and at extent of getting their show on the militants should busy themselves with outcome of 'bigness'-a bigness per­ best, to curb its political and social road, it is because everyone senses a public campaign to defend Beck haps made necessary to cope with the rights. Unionism is basically a progres­ somehow that the issues raised cannot against his Senate inquisitors: mean­ bigness of the problems. I miss most sive, democratic social force; in their be swept under the rug; that public while, they reserve some of 'their most of all the kind of personal humility­ distorting mirrors, the rock-ribbed· opinion, that elusive guide to aspiring thunderous blasts of reverberating a consciousness of doing God's work, conservatives see i't as nothing short of politicians, is ready for a thorough air­ wind against Reuther and Meany for as it were-on the part of many un­ subversive, an unpredictable assem­ ing of the inner life of union leader­ "capitulating" to the employers by ion leaders, that, for me, is a necessary blage of rabble that must be quelled ship. acting against Beck! This is a novel q~ality of human movemen't, whether and controlled. For them, the look at I t is upon this background 'that the twist. For decades, union progressives it is a labor movement or any other racketeering is merely a convenient unions confront the Senate hearings. have demanded action by the labor kind." The Carpenter paraphrases a start ... but not as a dirty maneuver The motives of the bourgeois right­ movement against crooks and have speech by Andy Beimiller, AFL-CIO or dishonest trick. All unionism, to wing conservatives are transparent been withering in 'their criticism of legislative representative: them, has the aspects of a "racket" enough: to prepare public opinion for the complacent labor officials who pas­ which merely takes on different forms, restraints on unionism. Knowing that, sively tolerated the rackets. At last, Labor is no longer the underdog. The some legal and some illegal. In every however, what are the unions to do? day when we could automatically expect with labor unity it has become pos­ some sympathy from liberal jurists or strike, in every big wage boost they They might denounce 'the committee sible to push for a real campaign to politicians or public figures is long since see the workings of "labor monopoly" as anti-labor and refuse to appear be­ clean out the grafters. At this junc­ gone. The general public no longer sees forcing its will upon helpless employ­ fore it. That might have sufficed when lure, it is suggested, we must rise to those of us who work in the labor move­ ers. Morally, it is hardly more legiti­ the labor movement appeared weak, defend Beck's right to conceal his sor­ ment as champions of the oppressed and mate in their eyes for labor to "extort" on the defensive, and fighting for ele­ did record. It is the incredible con­ exploited. The union members of today enjoy working conditions as good or bet­ higher pay from their employers than mentary rights; then, it might have clusion of a contorted policy. ter than most white collar workers and it is for a thug to ex'tort "protection" aroused sympathy by a refusal to sub­ But what of the Fifth Amendment? even some professional people. Under the money from his victim. In fact, they mit to investiga'tion. Perhaps. But now In the Daily Worker Sept 8, George circumstances, the climate of sympathy would admit that in some ways the the labor movement is powerful; it Morris writes, "progressives would far for labor that existed even 15 years ago proposes not merely to defend the liv- sooner accept the position of the is gone. What we win from now on we thug is less dangerous to them; he 162 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 163 Teamsters on 'the Fifth Amendment crimes, he must be removed. It is a corruptionists, bosses' agents and plain racketeering in labor undoubtedly has than Reuther's although not overlook­ policy that is designed to protect the bureaucrats and had 'to triumph over its deep sociological causes and expla­ 1I ing the fact the former's leaders use union against the racketeer as a union them. In many ways, the idealism and nations, like everything else. Con­ I the Fifth to conceal corruption." He official while conceding his right to political consciousness of the CIa de­ cretely, however, it is linked to the appears to draw a parallel between take the Fifth as an individual. clined as its influence rose and its fight of the right wing in the labor the use of the Fifth by those charged We are dealing not with labor offi­ scope widened to include new mil­ movement against progressives and with "communism" and by those who cials who are being hounded for their lions. But one achievement was per­ radicals. refuse to answer charges of racket­ defense of 'the workingman but with manent. It brought into existence a But the same historic factors that in eering. But it is the difference, not the grafters who use the labor movement new socially conscious type of union­ one burst had created the CIa slowly similarity, which is decisive. The com­ as a base of operations for private ism free of corruption and so it re­ made their impact on the AFL. As munist or former communist appeals rackets. Let that fact be clear to all. mained. But once the boundaries of unionism expanded it was thrust into to the Fifth for protection against per­ its domain were staked in its early politics. Its arena was no longer some secution and prosecution, against jail­ RACKETEERING IS NOT SPREADING inside victories, it remained constrained ou't of the way crossroads but the stage ing or blacklisting for his political the union movement. The clatter and within its borders. The AFL crafts re­ of national life. During the war, laws opinions and activi'ties. He truly faces clainor comes from the crash of the mained dominant in their own were proposed, some passed, to curb a wi tchhunt. But the racketeer, not racket principalities. I't will take a spheres and grew more so as the labor union freedom; after the war, unions i.l theory but in plain simple fact, uses long time to eradicate them complete­ movement as a whole rose. Where fought to solidify the gains of the past the Constitution in general and the ly. But they are on the way out. rackets were entrenched they remain­ decade. But big business campaigned Fifth Amendment in particular to ane reason why the Senate Com­ ed, spreading into some of the more to illegalize some traditional union ward off legal punishmen't for ordi­ mittee can proceed with ease against powerful AFL unions; 'the indepen­ practices winning their greatest suc­ nary crime. That is his right; it is nec­ crooks in the labor officialdom is be­ dent CIa was unable to carry the fight cess in the Taft-Hartley Law. The essary to protect that right in order to cause they had already been isola'ted into the old established unions and AFL had to be transformed. The protect innocent men. That is one in the labor movement. The Hoffas, was impotent before entrenched rack­ propaganda of anti-unionism was thing. It is quite andther to portray and their lesser known imitators, still ets within them. feeding upon its defects. It was easy him as the innocent victim of a witch­ have influential, if silent, allies but The AFL remained basically united enough to make the plunge into na­ hunt. Beck uses the Fifth Amendment they can no longer find refuge behind in its battle to contain the CIa. Ex­ tional politics by endorisng Adlai Ste­ to dodge an investigation of his un­ the banner of legitimate unionism. cept for the Ladies Garment Workers venson. But did the Federation come usual practices as union president. Yesterday, they might count upon the Union, the racket-ridden outfits were into court with clean hands? Millions Shall the labor movement itself de­ official AFL speaking upon 'their be­ left in peace by the AFL majority. In of Negroes knew 'that it tolerated Jim mand an accounting from him or shall half but today they stand alone. That fact, in the struggle against the radi­ Crow; millions knew that it tolerated it demand that the Senate Committee was one of the first achievements of cal CIa, racketeers infiltrated the racketeers. Something had to be done. cease its "persecution" of him. That labor unity. In the September issue of AFL. In the ILA, Joe Ryan built a But little was possible given a balance is what the whole argument boils The International Teamster Dave machine of thugs under the cover of of power where racketeers controlled down to. Beck appeals to the spirit of Samuel defending the AFL against "Commu­ big unions and could count on the It has been widely stated that AFL­ Gompers. "In effect, Samuel Gompers nism." an the West Coast, the Beck moral aid of conservatives against in­ CIa policy demands the automatic re­ was enunciating a't EI Paso a doctrine machine became respectable in the terference in their corrupt affairs. moval of any union official who re­ of freedom for the individual union fight against Harry Bridges. In the It was the impulse for change inside sorts to the Fifth Amendment. Bu't member. He was telling that conven­ Teamsters Union, the entry of thugs the AFL which made unity with the this is simply not so. By now the pol­ tion that democracy must reign in the was facilita'ted by the prosecutions of CIa possible. Merger was a victory icy is clear: the right to take the Fifth labor movement to make it effective; Trotskyist Teamster leaders in Min­ for the CIa; we see it now far more is recognized; but any union official that autonomy and home rule are the neapolis under the Smith Act: with clearly than a year ago. In one year, charged with personal corruption who cornerstones of its strength and the the help of the government, the Mid­ the powerful Teamsters Union which refuses to testify on 'the basis of the hallmark of its endurability." Not west teamsters were turned over to the had treated its fellow AFL affiliates Fifth Amendment must explain his ac­ long ago, Beck's appeal to "auton­ mercies of a rotten machine which was wi'th scorn, which raided and broke tion to his union. The union must in­ omy" would have won him nods of ins'talled firmly in power. When Min­ strikes with utter contempt for labor vestigate why he took the Fifth. If he sympathy. But no one list~ns any neapolis teamsters tried to join the opinion . . . this officialdom was re­ did so for legitimate reasons, it takes more. CIa in an effort to save union democ­ duced instantly, at the merger conven­ no action; if, however, it concludes The CIa was launched in the strug­ racy, they were blocked, again by gov­ tion, to a position of cautious defense. that he did so merely to cover up for gle against grafters, thugs, racketeers, ernment intervention. The rise of With unity the balance of power shift- 164 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 165 ed; the racketeer elements were re­ How have racketeers managed to duced to a hopelessly minority posi­ hold on? A favorite explanation of leaders. When Reuther, even as presi­ against the corruptionists. It was not 1 dent of the UAW, led a rank and file tion. The stage was set to move those who are cynical about the capa­ only the crooked elements who felt against them. cities of union members is that the struggl~ against the majority of his uneasy but that whole layer of con­ Before merger, Meany quizzed ranks take no interest in decent union­ ExecutIve Board he had to do it servative officials who view any stirring United Textile Workers leaders on ism so long as their ordinary human agai~st t~e opposition of Phil Murray. and change as suspect. corrupt practices. It came to nothing and animal needs are satisfied. But in ~t IS thIS. lack of a democratic spirit; Walter Reuther is rising more and and he was ignored. Later, he succeed­ every racket-ridden union, men have thIS e~se~tIalIy. bureaucratic approach more as the ideological leader and ed in expelling the racket-ridden In­ been fired, terrorized, expelled, killed that IS IndubItably the worst single symbol of the modern American labor ternational Longshoremen's Associa­ for fighting against crooked union dic­ feature of American unionism and it movement whose union, the progres­ tion but couldn't give it the coup de tators. Usually, they and their rank is t~is that has permitted racketeering sive-minded UAW, gives him a promi­ grace. The ILA, he discovered, was and file supporters were alone; ig­ ~o r~se. The labor movement is paying nent public platform. He has strayed aided secretly and publicly by power­ nored, like Peter Panto, ILA rank and for It today in a giant public spectacle. away from the socialism of his youth ful forces inside the AFL, above all by file leader whose scarred body was dug But so far this is only one side of the and compared to his own views of yes­ New York State AFL leaders and out of a New Jersey ditch-no big cam­ story. The unions are on the defen­ terday, his outlook has become moder­ Teamster local officials. (And in the paign, no fanfare, no inner union in­ sive. Yet, the racket exposures will cre­ ate and liberal. But measured against end by John L. Lewis and Joe Curran vestigations. To fight the rackets from ate a vexing problem for those who his contemporaries in public life he of the National Maritime Union.) below, when they may be tied in with are dancing with delight at labor's appears radical indeed and speaks for Ironically, it was Dave Beck, none government officials or police, without discomfiture. For, in the end, labor a radical kind of union. True, he pro­ other, as a member of the top AFL whose collusion they could not con­ will emerge free of crooks. What then? fesses his admiration for the virtues of longshore committee, who was assign­ tinue, requires more than good citi­ capitalism; and periodically, he and ed to help clean up the, New York zenship. It calls for real personal cour­ HENRY FORD IS NOT HAPPY over the his adversaries engage in lofty disqui­ waterfront for the AFL. That was ju~t age; for facing death to self and loved type of labor leader he confronts at sitions on the mutual interests of la­ a few years ago but it seems longer. ones. The CIa found thousands with the bargaining table. In this, he speaks bor and management, social engineer­ However, it came too late; it was such courage; everywhere and always f?r big business whom he aptly symbo­ ing, and mutual cooperation. Regret­ too slow. Even now, with everything there are others like them. But men IIze~ .a~d for those ultra-right wing tably, 'these philosophic discourses that is being done by the Execntive are not heroes without inspiration. To polItICIans who represent it; precisely break down in fits of vituperation and Council it is belated. take such risks they must feel deeply for those who are eager to use the invective. Trust in a permanent state The official leadership deserves re­ that it is really worthwhile; that they hearings against unions. In a recent of fraternity between labor and capital buke, not because it refuses to defend are not alone; that their actions are exchange with Reuther, Mr. Ford ob­ is as vain as a hope for 'the end, under 'I served, "True labor leadership today crooks at the hearings; not because it respected and spurred on by those + capitalism, of the class conflicts which demands an accounting by those who whom they in turn respect. But that would consist, it seems to us, in labor have produced a Reuther. As the rep­ refuse to answer questions about cor­ is what they do not find. leaders resisting pressures from what­ resentative of modern unionism, he rup'tion; not because it uses every pub­ Our union movement, our labor ever source, for excessive and inflation­ agitates and presses continually for lic revelation as a club to smash the leadership, since the CIa, have never ary wage increases. It would consist in new social gains. His confidence in our rackets; not because of what it is try­ called upon the ranks to rise, never union leaders acting for the common social system is displayed by insistent ing to do now; but for what it has not given moral aid or encouragement to good and refraining from the use of demands upon it: steadily rising done and for what it refuses to do them, never urged ordinary unionists the extraordinary leverage and mono­ wages, lower prices, guaranteed wages, even now. to organize inside their own unions polistic power of today's big industrial full employment, shorter hours. And The top leadership employs the against bureaucratic officials; never labor union. We commend this course he wants a larger role for labor in slow, tedious official action from above defended them against terror and ex­ of action to you." But where to find politics. He presumes to speak out for to clear labor's good name. That is in pulsions. Never. Even when the CIa such leaders when the choice is so very a democratic foreign policy, for peace. order. But it is not enough. It is not expelled the CP-controlled unions, limited. Mr. Ford and his friends have He expects so much from capitalism enough to expel the Teamsters' union Phil Murray would not call upon the to pick their lesser of two evils. that its authentic representatives, the -it is necessary to rescue more than a ranks of these unions to organize The big line of division in the labor capitalists, become uneasy. Latest of million Teamster unionists from the against their leaders. No. Quite the movement at this juncture is between all, he demands an immediate reduc­ control of 'the crooked leaders. And opposite. The mood, the code has been Reuther-Meany, on the one hand and tion of car prices and when the auto that cannot be done so easily, if at all, that there is something illicit in any Beck, Hoffa et al. on the other. It was companies reject this simple formula merely from above. movement of the ranks against their Reuther and Meany who made labor to cut inflation, he denounces them as unity possible and with it a drive 166 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL conscienceless, selfish, irresponsible Summer 1957 167 monopolies. Worse: he criticizes their betore it was discovered tnat his pe­ later, his "philosophy" was examined to turn to other things; but it is not profits. His lectures on the glories of culiar talent lay in borrowing union in sordid detail. Exit Hoffa as a great easy. They are interested not so much free enterprise scarcely make up for all "noney without notice or interest amJ new labor leader! The difficulty for in exposing the Becks as in reaching this. It is very vexing and we can un­ in profiteering from a trust fund he Goldwater and his friends lies in this: the Reuthers. They want to know derstand Mr. Ford's desire to meet a handled for his pal's widow. And, as­ the very elements in the labor leader­ whether workers are coerced into join­ labor leader with a somewhat different sorted rackets, too. Even then, one ship to whom they look with respect ing unions; they want to know wheth­ approach. But, increasingly, labor's Senator would not give up the attempt turn out to be allies, at least, of racket­ er unions violate the Taft-Hartley progressive wing galhers around Reu­ to manufacture a rival to Reuther. In eers. Beck boasted of voting for Eisen­ laws by boycotts, as at Kohler; they ther as it did when he won the presi­ a Chamber of Commerce speech, Gold­ hower. Hutcheson of the Carpenters, want to know if it is illegal for unions dency of the CIO. water said that Reuther and the UAW now in difficulties over land deals in to support candidates for office; they If business would like an alternative "have done more damage to freedom Indiana, is a well known Republican. want to know if labor causes violence to Reutherism, they are not alone. In than the peculiar financial transac­ On a lower level, Hoffa's New York as at Perfect Circle (where strikers a few years, there have been several tions of Dave Besk." But his transgres­ aide, John O'Rourke, served as labor were shot by scabs from within the attempts to mobilize and organize a sions were too crass. adviser to Thomas E. Dewey when he plant). They want to know? Not ex­ more conservative section as a counter­ When Beck fell there was Hoffa. For ran for president and for governor of actly. For they are already convinced weight to growing influence of labor's one strange moment it seemed as if New York. Hoffa started out as a that labor is responsible for these progressive wing. Dave Beck, Dave even he was being groomed to sup­ Democrat but the exigencies of poli­ "crimes" but they have to try to con­ McDonald, and John L. Lewis went plant Reuther. When he appeared for tics drove him toward the Republican vince others. Let them try! They will through mysterious motions of setting the first session of his hearing before Party. In Michigan, he supported Re­ be amazed by what follows. up some new outfit. They promptly the Senate committee, he was treated publican Homer Ferguson for Senate; Meanwhile, they make their start forgot when the AFL and CIO united. with proper deference. He was encour­ Republicans nominated a Hoffa lieu­ by exposing not the labor movement tenant for membership on the state The Hod Carriers, Carpenters, Team­ aged to expound his broad philosophy but its rotten elements, the crooks and sters and Operating Engineers formed of labor relations and when he had Board of Education in 1957 and a Re­ grafters. The racketeers are on the publican appointed Hoffa himself to a joint committee to protect their com­ finished lecturing, Senator Goldwater run; the unions will get rid of them in mon interests but without noticeahle was inspired. For the full flavor, we membership on the Wayne County one way or another and will be [Detroi't area] board of supervisors. effect on the balance of power. Build­ quote from the New York Times ac­ strengthened by it. Perhaps some new And in November 1953, a Congres­ ing Trades Councils work to~cther count: "Senator Goldwater asked some laws will make organizing more diffi­ with Teamster locals to s:tbotage the questions too and got along fine with sional investigation of Hoffa ended cult but no one can wipe out the mysteriously when pressure came from merger of AFL and CIO local coun­ the witness. 'We have labor leaders in power of modern unionism. In the cils. But every effort to organize labor's the country-labor leaders who would high sources in the Republican Party end, labor's antagonists will hit up to end the probe. right wing into an effective force has like to get control of the teamsters', against that force which makes union­ foundered. lVIost dismal was the fiasco the Arizonian said. The colloquy ism invulnerable and which guaran­ FOR ITS PRIME MOVERS, one unhappy of the invention of Dave Beck. veered to unionism and politics as tees the end of racketeering: the union by-product of the hearings has been It sounds farcical now but not long Hoffa said he was not going into a conscious millions who constitute the the public exposure and weakening of ago a new star was rising. It was !l room and be told what to do 'without organized working class. man of social vision, a new type; a real consulting my members.' In a related labor's ultra-right wing. Soon Mr. American who was elbowing Reuther context a moment later, Senator Gold­ Goldwater and his friends would like H. W. BENSON aside; he was a labor leader's business­ water remarked, 'riding in the clouds man and a businessman's labor leader is an individual who would like to combining in his own person the com­ see that happen. I am very hopeful NEW EDITION mon interests of labor and capital; a your philosophy prevails:" It was millionaire in his own right; a mall Reuther whom the Senator disliked. Three Volumes in One who could parlay a few thousand dol­ Later, Hoffa met Senator Ives at lars into a huge personal fortune. His lunch. Ives told him "You're a good HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION exploits were recorded in admiring wi tness. I may disagree with you on a by Leon Trotsky detail in the leading periodicals. It lot of things but I think you're hon­ List: $12.50 Our Price: $10.00 was a full scale effort to invent a new est." It was a remarkable testimonial conservative labor leader as a buffer for a man whose fame was to be far Order from: LABOR ACTION BOOK SERVICE, 114 West 14 St., New York, N. Y. against Reuther. That was Dave Beck more ephemeral than Beck's. A day Summer 1957 168 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. 16. An Amalgam of Marx and Keynes tion of big capital's control of the description of these structural altera­ media of expression becoming abso­ tions, important though they may be. John Strachey's View of Contemporary Capitalism lute. And upon the continuance of He wants to know "why." He wants effective democracy in two or three to be able to predict. In short, he key societies of the world everything seeks a theory of the latest stage of If capitalism (i.e. advanced Contemporary capitalism, according else will be found to depend." capitalism that will serve as a guide capitalisms such as Britain and Amer­ to Strachey, has succeeded in raising It is interesting to note Paul Ho­ to action. Again, the fact that Stra­ ica) can through the exercise of non­ the average standard of living be­ man's evaluation of Strachey in a chey has exchanged his prewar Stalin­ economic democratic political pres­ cause of trade union and leftist (dem­ review article in the June, 1957 issue ist theories for his current amalgama­ sures be reformed or so controlled in ocratic) pressures. Now, however, of The American Economic Review~ tion of Marx and Keynes, is hardly its operations that progressively the with the stage of oligopoly having entitled "Socialist Thought in Great justification for rejecting him out of average standard of living is raised, been reached, there is a conflict be­ Britain": hand. In fact, how immeasurably su­ the capacity of the productive forces tween capitalism and democracy. perior is Strachey's crude analysis of Strachey has now taken time out for increased, and some type of peace "Capitalism in its latest stage, when contemporary capitalism to the apolo­ maintained, then what is the need for it is progressively outgrowing the reflective thought; his book is a restate­ ment of his philosophical position and a getics of bourgeois professors! any type of socialist movement? This forms of ownership which were once reinterpretation of the process of social Strachey's beginning is most en­ question insistently intrudes itself appropriate to it, threatens to turn change. The title is somewhat misleading, couraging, for he realizes that the after a reading of John Strachey's upon what was once its own political since the book contains very little on the wholesale modifications of the market Contemporary CaPitalism~:I< despite the counterpart, namely, democracy." institutional characteristics of contem­ porary economic organization-in fact, that have occurred in recent years fact that at the end of his Acknowl­ (p. 344). It is the fact that capitalism, hardly more than a stereotype of oli­ have led capitalism into a new stage. edgments, the author states: "Contem­ through ever-increasing centralization, gopoly. What he does, essentially, is to As he says, "The first and decisive porary Capitalism is the first volume constantly undermines the founda­ set up two abstract creatures, capitalism reason why an economy of large and and democracy, put them in the prize of a projected series of studies on the tions of democracy that necessitates few units exhibits new characteristics principles of democratic socialism." the struggle for socialism, according ring, and let them fight it out, while he cheers in the corner of democracy. Cap­ is because at a certain point in the In fact, so many projected studies to Strachey It is his belief that only italism is a sort of brutal monstrosity­ increase of their size and decrease of are indicated in the course of this one democratic socialists are the true the apotheosis of every inhumane, anti­ their number, the managers of the re­ volume, that one must wish Strachey fighters for democracy. The struggle social pursuit of private self-interest. maining units begin to be able to af­ an exceptionally long life in order for socialism is in reality the struggle Democracy is the champion of all gener­ ous-hearted efforts to attain general well­ fect prices instead of being exclusively that he may set forth in writing his for democracy. And, despite Strachey's being and communal interest. The com­ affected by them. It is impossible to magnum opus. For, despite numerous failure to distinguish clearly between plete victory of democracy would usher exaggerate the importance of this disagreements that this writer has democracy and democratic rights, and in socialism. transjormation/' (p. 22, italics mine­ with many ideas expressed by Stra­ between bourgeois and socialist de­ The professor's sarcasm is not well T.N. V.) mocracy, it must be admitted that chey, he is discussing questions of taken, for Strachey does have an vVhile he uses different terms, Stra­ there is much truth in this dichotomy. fundamental importance in a serious analysis of the laws of motion of con­ chey is aware of the development of manner. Moreover, Strachey is aware If all classes in modern society, both temporary capitalism. Even if one state monopoly capitalism and the era that capitalism through a process of capitalist and Stalinist, were prepared disagrees with Strachey, which this of administered prices that it has mutation, as he calls it, has changed to accept indefinitely the absence of reviewer does in certain fundamental ushered in, and to a certain extent of fundamentally. In addition, while re­ democratic rights, then it is theoret­ respects that will be set forth below, its consequences. For example (p. 31): jecting many of Marx's principles, ically conceivable that a precarious the fact of the matter is that Strachey "Accordingly, the State has come, in others are accepted. There are far too international equilibrium could be is thinking about important problems, the advanced industrial nations, to few analyses of contemporary society maintained indefinitely. The apposi­ which is more than most professors feel that it must, and can, control such from the standpoint of democratic tion between capitalism and democra­ of economics permit themselves to do basic things as the pattern of the dis­ socialism to ignore Strachey because cy is, in reality, the basic constructive these days. tribution of income between social his economics are based on a curious theme of Strachey's work. Among Strachey is also to be commended classes and individual citizens, instead amalgam of Marx and Keynes or be­ many quotable sentences of the au­ for realizing the importance of theory. of leaving that pattern to the conse­ cause his politics appear to be accept­ thor's thesis is the following (p. 323): He knows that capitalism has altered quences of the play of the market." able to Bevan. "Thus the continuance of effective in certain of its basic characteristics To examine each and every argu­ *Contemporary Capitalism by John Stracbey, 1956, pub­ democracy depends upon the preven- and in certain aspects of its function­ ment presented by Strachey, both lished by Random House, Inc., 374 pp., $5.00. ing. He is not content with superficial those with which we concur as well 170 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 171 as those with which we disagree, as necessary labor but also a reward of capital, while the actual cost of the com­ then, determines the level of invest­ well as to indicate significant areas of some sort for capital entered into the modity is measured by the expenditure of ment? Mrs. Joan Robinson, in a strik­ labor. The capitalist cost-price of the omission, would require a book rather determination of the points round commodity, then, is a quantity different ing passage (from her The Accumula­ than a review article. Suffice it to say which prices fluctuated." (Italics in from its value, or its actual cost-price. It tion of Capital), declares simply that that we believe Strachey to be funda­ original) is smaller than the valu~ of the commod­ we do not knowl She writes: ' ...as to mentally correct in his emphasis on Why Strachey is under the mistaken ity. For since C=k+s, it is evident that what governs the level at which it' the importance of prices now being notion that Marx ignored the role of k=C-s. On the other hand, the cost­ (investment) 'gets itself established price of a commodity is by no means a administered in large measure, rather constant capital in the determination mere heading in capitalist bookkeeping. we know very little... .' M: ... s. Robin­ than determined competitively in the of the price of production and hence­ The actual existence of this portion of son is here feeling the need of some market. The "essence of the muta­ forth of market price is a complete value continually exerts its practical in­ kind of summa} transcending, al­ tion," as the author describes it, is mystery, since he merely makes the fluence in the actual production of the though including, economics and (p. 39): "the ability of the producers assertion, whereas Marx devoted a commodity, because it m~t be ever re­ laying the basis of an inclusive science converted from its commodity-form, by in some, but not in all, of the spheres large part of Volume III of Capital to way of the process of circulation, into the of human society, a summa at which of production to affect prices, instead an explanation of these interrelation­ form of productive capital, so the cost­ Marxism is at present the sole at­ of merely being affected by them.... ships in connection with capitalist price of the commodity must always buy tempt. She is confronted with the Thus the ability to influence prices production as a whole. The skeptics anew the elements of production con­ fact that her analysis has led her to will inevitably sap the automatic, are referred merely to Chapter I of sumed in its creation. (Italics in last conclude that the true prime mover sentence only mine.-T. N. V.) self-regulating character of the econo­ Volume III, although Kautsky will of a capitalist economy-the decision my. It will consequently provoke and serve as a good introduction. Consider How could the originator of the to invest-is determined by causes require more and more State inter­ just the following two paragraphs theory of the increasing organic com­ which are largely outside the scope vention, and will lead to an intensi­ from the first chapter on Cost Price posi tion of ca pi tal ignore the role of of economic analysis. fied struggle for the now all-important and Profit (Capital, Kerr edition, Vol­ capital in the determination of price? The absence of a theory, even a levers of economic power which will ume III. pp 38-39) : Strachey ought to acquire his eco­ much-abused Marxist theory, leads to be in the hands of the State.... Thus nomics first-hand rather than through if However, the cost of this commodity all kinds of difficul ties. Above all, the characteristics of the latest stage to the capitalist, and the actual cost of the courtesy of Joan Robinson. Implic­ the government, through fear of the of capitalism both make possible a this commodity, are two vastly different itly, Strachey has fallen into the com­ electorate or whatever motivation one much higher degree of social control amounts. That portion of the value of the mon bourgeois fallacy of "productiv­ wants, decides that slumps must be and at the same time make such con­ commodity which consists of surplus­ ity of capital" as distinct from "pro­ avoided at all costs, and that conse­ value does not cost the capitalist any­ ductivity of labor." And, if he thinks trol imperative." This is insight and thing for the reason that it costs the quently the decisions to invest (i.e. the understanding of a high order. laborer unpaid labor. But on the basis he can explain the origin of profit determination of the rate and mass of capitalist production, the laborer plays without recourse to the labor theory of capital accumulation) cannot be STRACHEY DEVOTES AN IMPORTANT sec­ the role of an ingredient of productive of value, the bourgeoisie have been left in the hands of profit-seeking pri­ capital as soon as he has been incorpor­ trying unsuccessfully for a hundred tion of his book to value theory in ated in the process of production. Under vate capitalists, and if further this can economics. While he accepts Marx's these circumstances the capitalist poses years to develop a theory that would be achieved under bourgeois democra­ analysis of the centralization of capi­ as the actual producer of the commod­ both explain the origin of and justify cy or under a "labor" government, tal, accepting as he does the term ity. For this reason the cost price of the profit, and at the same time corres­ then why is there a need for socialism? "oligopoly" from modern bourgeois commodity to the capitalist producer ne­ pond to reality. It might be added Intuitively, Strachey feels that he cessarily appears to him as the actual that the absence of a theory of profit economists, he rejects the labor theory cost of the commodity. If we designate must reject the labor theory of value, of value as faulty and the theory of the cost-price by k, we can transcribe creates numerous difficulties for Stra­ not because he (Strachey) does not ever-increasing misery as Marx's card­ the formula C=c+v+s into the formula chey, of which he seems to be totally understand it, but because he wishes inal error. Strachey notes that from C=k+s, that is to say, the value of a unaware. He does understand that the to attribute to Marx an "iron law" or Ricardo on increasing disparities oc­ commodity is equal to the cost price accumulation of capital is the main­ plus the surplus-value. subsistence theory of wages as an out­ curred between the price and value In this way the classification of the spring of capitalism (d. Chapter 10), growth of the labor theory of value, of many commodities. He feels that various values making good the value of but why capital is accumulated or and hence a failure to allow for in­ the labor theory of value has neglected the capital consumed in the production the laws governing its accumulation creasing productivity of labor and to take into account the role of capital of the commodity under the term of cost he doesn't know because Mrs. Joan price expresses, on the one hand, the consequently to deny the possibility in the determination of prices. He specific character of capitalist produc­ Robinson, his mentor, does not know. and the actuality of increasing the states (p. 67): "In other words} in real tion. The capitalist cost of the commod­ It is sufficient to quote the following national product and the average life not only man-hours of socially ity is measured by the expenditure of (from p. 247): "What in the world, standard of living. The original sin THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 172 Summer 1957 173 of the labor theory of value thus be­ so-called necessary wants, as also the have not remained at subsistence. the same time destroying capitalism. comes the source of the disastrous modes of satisfying them, are therrt;­ Therefore one vitally important com­ To assert that Marx ignored the theory of ever-increasing misery. selves the product of historical develop­ modity, namely, labor power, has not possibility that the productivity of ment, and depend therefore to a great even tended to sell at its value. This Strachey puts it this way (p. 70): extent on the degree of civilization of a labor could alter or increase is enough {(Reckoning in terms of man-hours of country, more particularly on the condi­ formidable fact has driven a great to make Marx turn over in his grave. socially necessary labor, the total na­ tions under which, and consequently on hole not only in the labor theory of Marx even devotes an entire chapter tional product is a given figure: all the habits and degree of comfort in value, but also in the associated Ri­ of Volume I of Capital to Changes of that can really be considered is its di­ which, the class of free laborers has been cardian-Marxian diagram of what the Magnitude in the Price of Labor­ formed. In contraditstinction therefore to d~stribution of the national product vision between the social classes." the case of other commodities, there en­ Power and in Surplus-Value (Chap­ (Italics in original). Why this should ters into the determination of the value wIll .b~ among the classes. It is the fact ter XVII), wherein he considers as be so when the amount of socially of labor-power a historical and moral of rzsmg real wages which has above the three decisive forces in determin­ necessary labor required to produce element. (Italics mine-To N. V.) all done the damage to the whole ing these changes: "(1) the length of the means of sustenance of labor or In other words, since, by way of il­ schema." (Italics mine-T.N.V.) the working day, or the extensive for labor to reproduce itself, i.e. the lustration, England is more civilized It would be pretty difficult to crowd magnitude of labor; (2) the normal value of labor-power, is clearly de­ than, let us say, South Africa, and more errors into one short paragraph intensity of labor, its intensive magni­ pendent on the general historical and Strachey is accustomed to a greater than Strachey does in the above. To tude, whereby a given quantity of specific geographic environment, is degree of comfort than the South Afri­ be sure, the very next two sentences labor is expended in a given time; not explained by Strachey. He merely can miner, presumably the value of read (p. 7 I ): UN evertheless we shall (3) the productiveness of labor, where- asserts it. It is as if he never bothered Strachey's means of subsistence (or of ?nd. that it has by no means destroyed by the same quantum of labor yields, to read Marx, for just reading the the British miner) exceeds that of the Its Importance as an elucidation of in a given time, a greater or less first few hundred pages of Volume I South African. And the value of the what would happen unless tireless quantum of product, dependent on of Capital would have destroyed his means of subsistence required for Mr. and ~rastic steps were taken to pre­ the degree of development in the con­ entire fallacious attack on Marx's de­ John Strachey today, or the British vent It. That, I repeat, is one of the ditions of production." (p. 569). velopment of the labor theory of value miner today, clearly is far greater than reasons why it is still indispensable to WHILE STRACHEY PAYS HOMAGE to and surplus value. the value of the means of subsistence master the labor theory of value." Marx for being the first to throw light Let Marx speak for himself (Volume required for, say, Mr. Lytton Strachey (sic!) It is a pity that Strachey has not on the business cycle, with his theory I, pp. 189-190): some decades ago or that of a British followed his own advice, for one thing of crisis, Marx's basic achievement miner a generation or more ago. he cannot be accused of is having was to analyze the conditions that led The value of labor-power is deter­ mastered the labor theory of value. mined, as in the case of every other com­ Marx was certainly guilty of many to, and to predict, the centralization modity, by the labor-time necessary for mistakes. He certainly didn't forsee In passing, it should be obvious of capital. His basic error was to as­ the production, and consequently also the that capitalism would survive decades that Strachey's attributing to Marx sert the labor theory of value as a reproduction, of this special article. So beyond the point where it clearly out­ an "iron law" of wages requires him law rath~r than as a tendency. And the far as it has value, it represents no more lived its social usefulness. He also also to ignore the fact that Marx de­ thing which destroys Marxism as a than a definite quantity of the average veloped the theory of the class strug­ labor of society incorporated in it. Labor­ could not have been expected to have valid social theory is that from this power exists only as a capacity, or power forseen the Bolshevik revolution and gle. To summarize Marx's central labor theory of value, instead of mere­ of the living individual. Its production the Stalinist counter-revolution. But ~ess~g~, as does Strachey (p. 102): ly asserting a tendency toward a polar­ consequently presupposes his existence. surely before his basic thoughts are . ThIS IS the statement that wages will ization of classes, Marx predicted Given the individual,· the production of twisted and distorted, he has the right In all capitalist societies tend towards "ever-increasing misery" for the mass labor-power consists in his reproduction what is for that time and phase a sub­ of himself or his maintenance. For his to assume that his critics (friendly as of the population. And it was this maintenance he requires a given quantity they may be in the case of Strachey) sistence level"-which implies the in­ "ever-increasing misery" that would of the means of subsistence . . . the value will at least have made an effort to fluence of historical fotces upon the lead the masses to the revolutionary of labor-power is the value of the means read and understand his works! determination of wages-and to deny overthrow of capitalism. of subsistence necessary for the mainte­ Strachey, however, is not concerned the influence of the class struggle Since, according to Strachey, in the nance of the laborer. . . . His means of upon the level of wages, is to perpe­ subsistence must therefore be sufficient with what Marx wrote. He has a point advanced capitalist nations, the aver­ to maintain him in his normal state as a to make: "Therefore a subsistence trate an absurdity. To be sure, the age standard of living has increased, laboring individual. His natural wants, theory of wages has always been, im­ forces of the class struggle cannot there is no ever-increasing misery and, such as food, clothing, fuel, and housing, plicitly for Ricardo, explicitly for drive wages up to the point where for consequently, Marxism is outmoded vary according to the climatic and other Marx, an essential part of the any length of time the profits of the as a scientific basis for socialism. physical conditions of his country. On the capitalist class disappear without at other hand, the number and extent of his labor theory of value. But wages There is, says Strachey, to be perfectly Summer 1957 174 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 175 fair to Marx, a tendency under capi­ admit that the average standard of New York Times of August II, 1957 any concept of the Permanent War talism for the entire increase in pro­ living of the employed working class poses the question: "Can the national Economy. He states (p. 295 et sequi­ duction to accrue to the benefit of is higher today than, let us say, it was economy be controlled? It would ap­ tur): the capitalist class, "But this tendency two, three or four decades ago, we pear that Government officials are There is another and less palatable has been overruled, in the advanced might try to include in this total eval­ experimenting with this problem in reason why it would be a great mistake capitalist societies, but not elsewhere, uation, for surely it is part of total ways, perhaps, that appear to be baf­ to dismiss the Keynesian techniques as illusory. As we noted, those Marxians by essentially non-economic forces, the misery, the casualties of wartime, both fling to the average business man." Apparently, even The New York [Stalinists?] who are unable any longer existence of which Marx overlooked." in war and peace, and the psychologi­ to deny, that capitalism in the nineteen­ (Strachey's emphasis, p. 129.) cal impact on want satisfactions of a Times is not aware of the fact that fifties is behaving very differently from What Marx meant by the increasing world that lives under the constant the economy has been controlled for what it did in the nineteen-thirties, ex­ threat of total annihilation. More­ the past decade and more. The nature plain that this is simply due to vast ex­ pauperization of labor (a thought penditures upon armaments .... which cannot be found in Capital, but over, as Strachey stresses, the major of the controls, their success and their impact on capitalism are necessarily The case of these-mainly communist only in The Communist Manifesto egalitarian trends that are truly signi­ -critics is, briefly, as follows: "No doubt and certain propagandistic works) is ficant occurred mainly during World the subject of a future article. Suffice it is true that if a capitalist government not quite as simple as Strachey thinks. War II. it to say, that we are of the opinion supplements the activities of its profit­ that under the Permanent War Econ­ seeking entrepreneurs by itself spending The evidence would seem to indicate or investing sufficiently massive sums, it As WE STATED AT THE OUTSET, if capi­ omy the capitalist state must control tha t Marx based this prediction on can sustain the economy at a level of full his basic law of capital accumulation; talism can progressively raise average the economy. How long-lasting and employment. But a capitalist government namely, that an increase in capital standards of living, and at the same successful this type of state interven­ will be intensely unwilling to do this for accumulation leads to an increase in time maintain a relatively peaceful tion will be is a separate question. peaceful purp08e8• ••• Such (military) government expenditure fits into the gen­ the industrial reserve army (unem­ international equilibrium, then it is The permanent peace-and-prosperity still a viable historical system. We school ought to wait a few years be­ erally aggressive policies of capitalist ployment). That this tendency still governments of the latest stage. It is this exists, even under the Permanent War then need neither Marx nor Strachey, fore they declare the present precari­ kind of government expenditure and this Economy, we have shown in our orig­ but it is suggested that before every­ ous equilibrium to be permanent. kind alone which the capitalist govern­ inal series of articles on the Perma­ one joins the capitalist band-wagon, After all, capitalist planning is not ments have undertaken on a scale suffi­ cient to be economically significant since nent Ware Economy (cf. The New we wait another decade, or even less, quite the same thing as socialist plan­ ning. Moreover, the capitalist world 1945."... International., Vol XVII). Neverthe­ to see if capitalism has really solved Such an explanation is a crude carica­ less, as we have already demonstrated, the problems of economic and politi­ is in a curious dilemma with respect ture of the complex realities of the con­ the development of the Permanent cal stability and progress. to the Stalinist sector of the world. temporary situation.... The American War Economy stage of capitalism has The real significance of Strachey's Capitalism needs Stalinism to help economy had, it is true, suffered a very shallow depression in 1948-49. But the altered Marx's fundamental law of present volume is that he recognizes maintain the existing international equilibrium and to provide a socially figures show incontrovertibly (they will capitalist accumulation. To this ex­ that we have entered a new stage of be given in a later part of this study) tent, the doctrine of ever-increasing capitalism, that capitalism no longer acceptable raison d' etre for the huge that this depression was over and the misery is in need of revision. Marx, so is self-regulating, that it is (and must, war outlays that alone provide the progress of full employment had been far as we can determine, never stated in order to survive) be controlled. current decisive underpinnings of the resumed before the outbreak of the He gives Keynes great credit for rec­ entire economic system. Yet, the main­ Korean war and long before the Ameri­ that the standards of living of the em­ can rearmament program began. ployed working class would deterior­ ognizing that capitalism was no longer tenance of Stalinism can lead to its ate. He expected that the weight of self-regulating. What he fails to see is strengthening, and the further whit­ It is a pity that Strachey does not the lazarus-layers of the working class that Keynes was the great bourgeois tling away of the capitalist market, submit his figures on the American (the unemployed) would carry down economist of the depression. His views not to mention the ever-present dan­ situation in the current volume, for the average standard of living 'of the on state intervention were acceptable ger that Stalinist political-military the future of capitalism depends on entire working class. Only in this only so long as the Great Depression maneuvers will be successful and that, the United States, not on Britain. sense is it proper to speak of ever­ prevailed. Once World War II and as a consequence, the physical dimen­ This provides us with an opportunity, increasing misery. the ensuing Permanent War Economy sions of the capitalist world will be without any elaborate explanation, to And until the last decade, or until developed, Keynes went into consider­ reduced still further. present our latest figures on the rela­ the development of the Permanent able decline, especially within Ameri­ Strachey would like to believe that tionship of war outlays to total out­ War Economy, it looked, as Strachey can governmental circles. a marriage of Keynesianism and social put in the United States during the tacitly admits, that Marx was more It is interesting to note that "The democracy can solve the problems of past ten years of the Permanent War or less correct. If, however, we are to Merchant's View" column in The the world. In any event, he rejects Economy. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 177 176 cutbacks in competing missile pro­ DIRECT AND INDIRECT WAR OUTLAYS. 1947·1956 Strachey presumably would side with AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO TOTAL OUTPUT grams and in military aircraft pro­ the optimists. In any case, it should 1 duction. The resulting unemploy­ already be clear (and, if not, it will (Dollar Figures in Billions) ment~ when it is put together with become increasingly so) that contem­ Ratio of War other pockets of joblessness, has raised porary capitalism, while a new stage Net Outlays to Total National WAR OUTLAYS Production; Col. (4.) the fear in the administration that (the Permanent War Economy), has Product Direct Indirect Total As % of Col. (1) the rising spiral of prices .may eventu­ achieved only the most precarious of Year (1) (2) (3) (.~) (5) ally-and sooner rather than later­ equilibria, both domestically and in­ 1947 $218.1 $12.3 $13.1 $25.4 11.6% bring deflation. As a result, Sherman ternationally. The continual produc­ 1948 240.8 11.6 12.9 24.5 10.2 Adams~ the assistant to the President, tion of ever-increasing amounts of 1949 238.9 13.6 13.7 27.3 11.4 1950 264.6 14.3 11.7 26.0 9.8 has instructed Clarence Randall, the means of consumption depends 1951 304.8 33.9 9.3 43.2 14.2 White House adviser on trade and not only on constantly increasing pro­ 1952 321.6 46.4 8.0 54.4 16.9 economic affairs, to review every gov­ duction of the means of production, 1953 336.7 49.3 7.2 56.5 16.8 ernment cutback that might adversely but on maintenance of the high level 1954 331.9 41.2 6.9 48.1 14.5 1955 359.5 39.1 7.6 46.7 13.0 affect a plant having more than 5,000 of production of the means of destruc­ 1956 378.4 40.4 7.6 48.0 12.7 employees. tion. The impossibility of continuing Source: July, 1957 Survey of Current Business for net national product and "Randall is confident the economy to expand in all three departments of direct war outlays. Indirect war outlays calculated as explained in Part I of can absorb this unemployment and production will lead to a deteriorat­ The Permanent War Economy (Jan.-Feb. 1951 issue of The New International) continue at the present high level. ing economic situation and in the and the March-April 1953 issue of The New International, pp. 94-95. But there are others not so optimis­ relatively near future to the begin­ tic." (Italics mine-T.N.V.) nings of a first-rate political crisis. While many of our prior actuals are period has brought about a decline in We belong in the latter group. August, 1957 T. N. Vance herewith revised, the only important the ratio of war outlays to total pro­ change is for the year 1947 where our duction. Attrition begins to set in. present figures are considerably lower The big bourgeoisie demand a halt to and the ratio of war outlays to total inflation, or rather they use the con­ What Is Orthodox Marxism? production is revised downwards £rom cern of the working classes to prevent The First English Translation of a Marxist Classic the previous 13.7% to the present inflation as a device for getting the 11.6%. It will be seen that in the year government to raise interest rates and INTRODUCTION the source of Mann's portrait of N aphta, 1950, in the middle of which the Ko­ to place a squeeze on small and me­ George Lukacs, the author of "What is the strange theological communist, in rean war broke out, the ratio declined dium-size business. The "battle of Orthodox Marxism," is one of the the M agic Mountain. below 10% to 9.8%. It should be re­ the budget" has all kinds of political strangest figures of twentieth century During the first War, Lukacs personal socialism. For he is simultaneously one world fell to pieces under the strain of membered that at that point official motivations and overtones, but it is of the few really creative Marxist minds the social carnage. His work of this unemployment statistics in the United already clear that to the extent the of his time and a man who has betrayed period, such as the Theory of the Novel, States reached a total of 4,700,000. It government succeeds in halting infla­ the ideals of the revolution to the Stalin­ is marked by a sort of expressionist des­ was only the rapid increase in the tion, the ratio of war outlays will ist regime. The many paradoxes of his pair, and is filled with descriptions of the "unbridgeable abyss" between the ratio of war outlays to total produc­ continue to inch downward and un­ life were brought to a fitting climax in October 1956, when, after thirty one "I" and the world. And yet, in 1919, tion that prevented a serious unem­ employment will continue to creep years of faithful service to totalitarian­ Lukacs participated in the Soviet Hun­ ployment situation from having far­ upwards. ism, he emerged as one of the central garian Government of Bela Kun. In this reaching political effects; and, of That the government is not entirely intellectual leaders of the Hungarian period, he was decisively drawn to Marx­ course, it was the sharp rise in the Revolution. ism, and though he submitted his convic­ unaware of the economic implications tions to the terrible distortions of Stal­ war outlays ratio to a peak of almost Lukacs was born in Hungary in 1885 of reductions in military outlays is of a well-to-do family. As a young man, inist ideology, this commitment persisted 17% in 1952 and 1953 that reduced graphically revealed by Marquis he was drawn to Kantian philosophy, up to the present. the level of unemployment to politi­ Childs in his widely syndicated col­ and a little later to the sociology of Max "What is Orthodox Marxism" is an cally tolerable and relatively minor umn of August 20, 1957, wherein he Weber. Lukacs' reputation developed essay taken from the collection, "Ge­ levels. comments on "Jobs and Defense" by early. A book of his published when he schichte und KlassenbeW'usstsein" (His was in his mid-twenties caught the eye tory and Class Consciousness). These es­ The gradual reduction and leveling stating, in part: "The aviation indus­ of Thomas Mann and the two developed says, written during the period of the off in war outlays in the post-Korean try is beginning to feel the effects of a personal relationship. Later, according revolutionary wave after World War I, to Jean Duvignaud, this friendship was were condemned at the Fifth Congress 178 THE HEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 179 1 of the Communist International by Zin­ Lukacs was one of the central leaders "sacred book" or "faith" in this or Marx, in the passage quoted from, oviev as "idealistic." At that time, Luk­ of the intellectual ferment. Indeed, his that thesis. In Marxism, orthodoxy clearly expressed the conditions under acs made a complete and total submis­ influence was not confined to Hungary. refers solely and exclusively to the which a relation between theory and sion to the Party. He lived in Moscow for Wolfgang Hairich, the young German years, and when called upon made sharp academician who was recently sentenced question of ,method. It implies the practice is possible. "self-criticisms" of himself in the most to jail for his oppositional activities was scientific conviction that the Marxist "It is not enough that the thought classic Stalinist fashion (the most re­ a "Lukacsian," and his authority is dialectic is the right method of in­ tends toward reality," he wrote, "the cent was only some seven or eight years great in Communist circles in var~ous vestigation, and that this method can­ reality itself must move in the direc­ ago; the confession of not having been Communist Parties. Lukacs went mto not be developed, perfected, or made tion of the thought." Or, in another sufficiently aware of contemporary Rus­ exile along with Imre Nagy. Since then, sian literature). there have been reports that he was go­ more profound except in the tradi­ context, "it will be demonstrated that And yet, even during the period of ing to support the Kadar regime (main­ tion of its founders. Further, Marxist the world has had for a long time the Lukacs' most abject submission to the ly in France-Observateur), or that he orthodoxy understands that all at­ dream of a thing which it has failed Party line, he continued to write bril­ was going to be tried, but there has been tempts to go beyond this method, or to possess in reality solely because it no substantiation. liant Marxist literary criticism. This was to "improve" it, necessarily trivialize lacks the consciousness." Only such smuggled in past the required state­ This is not the place to go into an ex­ ments that Stalin was the most brilliant tended 'criticism of Lukacs' work. Suffice it and end up in eclecticism. a relation between consciousness and aesthetician of the epoch, the continua­ it to say that the ideas in "What is 1 reality makes possible the unity of tor of the work of Marx, Engels and Marxism" represent a brilliant study of THE MATERIALIST DIALECTIC is a rev­ theory and "praxis." It is only when Lenin. He was, of course, most affected the Marxian dialectic, though modified olutionary dialectic. This is so crucial consciousness coincides with the de­ by his Stalinist commitment in his dis­ by a certain tendency toward the more for its understanding that, if we want cisive course which the historical cussion of current writers-he denounced Hegelian aspects of Marxist thought. Franz Mehring, for example, as a "lit­ This latter point raises various difficul­ to pose the issue sharply, we must process must take toward its proper erary Trotskyist," and found the histori­ ties for a translator. Where there is a confront this essential point even be­ end (an end which is constituted by cal novels of the German popular front real ambiguity, I have placed the German fore we can treat of the dialectic meth­ human freedom but which does not to be a major turning point in the history word in parenthesis after the English od itself. The problem is that of depend upon arbitrary human free­ of that country's literature. translation of it. Then a change took place. In the theory and practice. But we cannot dom, an end which is not an invention period before the Hungarian Revolution, MICHAEL HARRINGTON limit it to the sense of Marx' first of the human spirit), that theory can critique of Hegel that "the theory be­ serve its historic role and make this comes a material force when it takes course actually possible. When one hold among the masses." More than confronts a situation where the exact Up until now the philosophers seek in these texts, and only there, that, we must study each element, knowledge of society becomes, for a have merely interpreted the the source of truth. The tendency is each determination of the theory class, the immediate condition of its world in various fashions; to­ to turn toward the study of the day, the point is to change it. which makes it a vehicle for revolu­ self-affirmation in struggle; when, for "facts," and this "without any preju­ tion; we cannot concern ourselves this class, self consciousness means This question, actually a simple one, dices." only with the way in which it pene­ simultaneously the accurate conscious­ has become the object of wide discus­ If these two approaches were the trates the masses. In short,' we must ness of all society; when this class is, sion, in the bourgeois as well as in the real alternatives, then the best re­ develop the practical essence from the by its consciousness, both the subject worker's milieu. It has become the sponse would be a simple smile of point of view of the theory and the and object of consciousness; then the scientific fashion to ridicule all pre­ pity. But the question isn't as easy as relation which it establishes with its theory is in an immediate, direct an4 tensions of faith in a :Marxist ortho­ all that, and never has been. Admit object. Otherwise, this "taking hold adequate relation with the process of doxy. For there is little agreement in for the sake of argument that all of of the masses" would be an empty the social revolution, then the unity the "socialist" camp as to what con­ the particular affirmations of Marx idea. It could then be that the masses of theory and practice, that pre-con­ stitutes the quintessence of Marxism, have been shown to be factually in­ are moved by a range of motives and dition of the revolutionary function and what theses one can attack, or accurate by modern scholarship. A are impelled toward various ends­ of the theory, becomes possible. even reject, without surrendering the serious Marxist can recognize all this and that the theory has only an acci­ Such a situation has emerged with title to "orthodox Marxism." As a new evidence, reject all of the partic­ dental relation to the movement, that the appearance of the proletariat in result, it has come to seem more and ular theses of Marx, and yet not be it is only the form under which the history. "When the proletariat," more non-scientific to make scholastic forced for an instant to renounce his consciousness of the socially necessary writes :Marx, "announces the dissolu­ exegeses of old books as in the tradi­ Marxist orthodoxy. For orthodox or contingent action develops, and tion of the existing social order, it tion of Biblical scholarship, books Marxism does not mean an uncritical that without the theory the action reveals the secret of its proper exist­ which the modern criticism has "gone acceptance of the results of Marx' would be essentially and actually re­ ence, which itself constitutes the ef­ beyond." It is considered wrong to research, it is not the exegeses of a lated to the consciousness. fective dissolution of this social or- THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 180 Summer 1957 181 l

radation. In effect, the methodological ality," a concept untroubled by any der." The theory which makes this center of the methodological consider­ point of departure for the "critical" philosophic comprehension. Still he statement is not related to the revolu­ ation where it belongs. Abstracted position consists precisely in separat­ shows us the very real political and tion in a more or less contingent way, from this determination the dialectic ing method and reality, thought and economic consequences which he de­ it is not bound loosely to it, or method, in spite of any affirmation in being. In this separation, this point duces from this desire to liberate through a "misunderstanding." Rath­ the last instance of "fluid" concepts, of view sees a valuable progress, the method from the "dialectic trap" of er, it is, in its very essence, nothing ceased to be a revolutionary method. attainment of an authentically scien­ Hegelianism; he indicates where his more than the thinking expression of The difference between the dialectic tific science which is opposed to the approach leads. For Bernstein demon­ the revolutionary process itself. Each and "metaphysics" should not then be gross and non-critical method of strates that one must separate the stage of this process is fixed deeply in sought in the fact that all metaphysi­ Marxism. These people are free, of dialectic from historical materialism theory so as to become, by its generali cal studies require the object of in­ course, to make their point. But then if one wishes to originate a serious zation, communicable, useful, suscep­ vestigation to be untouched and un­ it must be recognized that they are theory of the opportunities of "evo­ tible to development. And just as it changing, and that the conception not moving in the direction which lution" without revolution, of a trans­ is the consciousness of a necessary de­ consequently remains "contempla­ leads to the very essence of the dia­ ition to socialism without struggle. velopment, so it becomes at the ~ame tive'" (anschauende) and cannot be­ lectic method. time the necessary precondition of come practical, but in the fact that 2 Marx and Engels have expressed the development which must tollow. for the dialectic the central problem this unambiguously. Engels wrote, BUT THIS IMMEDIATELY raises a ques­ The clarification of this function of is the transformation of reality. "By this, the dialectic was reduced to tion: what is the meaning from the the theory opens up the way to a If one neglects this central function the science of general laws of move­ point of view of method of these facts knowledge of its very essence: that is, of the theory, then the advantage of a ment, laws of the exterior world as which are so adored in revisionist lit­ of the dialectic method. Ignoring this "fluid" conception becomes proble­ well as of human thought-to two erature? In what measure can one see simple and decisive point has intro­ matic, a purely "scientific" affair. The series of laws . . . identical in sub­ in them the factors for the orienta­ duced a tremendous confusion into method can be accepted or rejected stance." And Marx put it even more tion of the revolutionary proletariat? the discussion of the dialectic. For in accord with the state of science, precisely, "As in all social and his­ Obviously, all knowledge of reality whether one criticizes Engels' .formu­ but without changing one's attitude torical sciences, one must always real­ starts with facts. But then the prob­ lations in Anti-Diihring (crucial for toward the question of whether real­ ize when considering the movement of lem is: which data (and in which the further development of tpeory), ity is changeable or immutable. The economic categories, that the cate­ methodological context must it be or whether one conceives the book as inpenetrability of reality, its "fatal" gories express the forms and condi­ placed), should be considered rele­ incomplete, even as inadequate, or and unchanging character, its con­ tions of existence ..." 1 When this vant for our understanding? A nar­ considers it as a classic, it must be formity to law in the sense of bourge­ sense of the dialectic is obscured, then row empiricism denies that a fact generally recognized that it is defi­ ois, contemplative materialism and its it necessarily appears as a useless sup­ does not really become a fact except cient in precisely this aspect. In effect, classical economics, this can even be plement, an ornament to the "sociol­ in the course of an elaboration accord­ Engles conceptualizes the dialectic by reinforced as it was among those ogy" or the "economics" of Marxism. ing to a method. It finds in each bit opposing it to the "metaphysical" con­ Machians who were adepts at Marx­ It seems to be an obstacle to the of data, in each statistic, in each ceptulation. He emphasizes with ism. The fact that Mach's thought "sober and impartial" study of the "factum brutus" of the economic life, penetration the fact that, in the dia­ could produce voluntarism-equally "facts," as an empty construction by an important fact. It does not under­ lectic method, the rigidity of concepts bourgeois-does not con tradict this means of which Marxism does vio­ stand that the simplest enumeration (and of the objects which correspond point. Fatalism and voluntarism are lence to the facts. Bernstein has ex­ of "facts," an ordering of them com­ to them) is dissolved, that the dialec­ only contradictory in a non-dialectic, pressed this objection to the dialectic pletely devoid of commentary, is al­ tic is the continuous process of the non-historic perspective. In the dia­ method in the most precise and clear ready an interpretation, that at this continuous transformation of one de­ lectic conception of history, these are fashion, in the name of his "imparti- stage the facts are already examined termination into another, resolving polarities united by a single bond, from a point of view, a method, that contraries which pass into each other. they are the simple play of purely 1. K. Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. This limitation of the method to the historical they have been abstracted from the And he argues that, consequently, the intellectual reflections which express and social reality is extremely important. The misunder­ living context in which they were unilateral, rigid causality must be re­ standings which Engels' treatment of the matter hare the antagonism of the capitalist order produced developed because Engels-following Hegel-un­ found and introduced into a theory. placed by reciprocal action. But the and its inability of resolving its own derstood the dialectic as applying to the understanding of nature. But the decisive determinations of the dialectic­ The opportunists are more refined most essential interaction, the dialec­ problems on its own terms. the reciprocal action of object and subject, the unity of theory and "praxis," the historic modification of the despite their repugnance to theory. tical relation of subject and object in This is why all attempts to deepen substratum of categories as the foundation of modifica­ tions in thought, etc., are not found in the natural They do not deny all this, but rather the process of history, is not even men­ the dialectic method in a "critical" sciences. Unfortunately, this is not the place to discuss base themselves upon the method of tioned, not to say placed in the very manner necessarily end up as a deg- this question in detail. Summer 1957 183 182 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL , natural science, the manner in which forms, the re-ification of all human quite obvious." 2 But in the fact that To move from such "facts" to facts it investigates the "pure" fact through relations, the increasing extention -of capitalist society meets the natural in the true sense of the word, one observation, abstraction and experi­ a division of labor which, with an sciences halfway, that it is the social must penetrate behind the historic mentation, its ability to discover inter­ abstract rationality, atomizes the pro­ precondition of its exactitude, in this conditioning of the facts; one cannot relations. And they oppose this as an cess of production without regard for state of affairs, there is something accept them as given and immediate. ideal of knowledge to the violent con­ the human capacities and potentiali­ completely problematic. If, then, the In short, the facts must be submitted structions of the dialectic. ties of the actual producers, etc., this internal structure of "facts" and their to a historical dialectical treatment, The insidious character of such a process transforms the phenomena of relations is essentially known in a for as Marx has noted, "The finished method is that capitalism itself, in society and with them our perceptions historic manner, if they are seen as form which economic relations mani­ the course of its development, pro­ of them. Now "isolated" facts appear, implicated in a process of uninter­ fest upon their surface in their actual duces a social structure which meets there are groups of isolated facts and rupted revolution, we must ask existence, and consequently the rep­ it half-way. And here, we must have specific sectors which have their own where the greatest inexactitude lies. resentations of them out of which the recourse to the dialectic method so laws (economic theory, law, etc), and It is when the "facts" are perceived bearers and agents of these relations that we will not be taken in by this these seem to have paved the way, in under a form of objectivity wherein seek to develop a clear idea of them, social illusion, so that we will be able their very immediate reality, for this they are dominated by laws which I these are quite different from the in­ to go behind the facade and discover kind of scientific study. Thus, it ap­ know with a methodological certainty ner form which is essential but hid­ the real essence of the matter. The pears to be "scientific" to raise to the (or at least, probability) are not valid den, they are different from the con­ "pure" facts of the natural sciences level of science a tendency which is for these facts? Or is it when I con­ cept which really corresponds to the come into being in the following man­ inherent in the facts themselves. But sciously recognize the consequences of form." 3 If the facts are to be known ner: a phenomenon is transported the dialectic insists upon the concrete this situation and therefore adopt a accurately, we must understand the from life into a context which permits unity of the whole in opposition to critical attitude toward the certitude difference between their immediate us to study the laws which it obeys all of these isolated facts and partial which is achieved, concentrating up­ appearance and inner core (kern) without the disturbing intervention systems, it unmasks this illusion of on the moments in which this historic with clarity and precision; we must of other phenomenon (this is done appearances which is necessarily pro­ character, this decisive modification, distinguish between the representa­ either actually, or in the mind); this duced by capitalism. actually manifests itself? tion of the fact, and the concept of it. procedure is then reinforced by the The unscientific nature of this Thus, the historical character of the This distinction is the first pre-con­ fact that the phenomena are reduced dition of scientific study which, as to their quantative essence, to their seemingly scientific method resides in "facts" which science believes it per­ the fact that it does not perceive the ceives in their "purity" is fatal to this Marx pointed out, 'would be super­ numerical expression and relations. fluous if the phenomenal manifesta­ And what the opportunists do not historical character of the facts which illusion. As products of historical evo­ it uses as its basis, indeed that it ig­ lution, these facts are not only in­ tion and the essence of things were understand is that it is of the very immediately identical." Thus, we essence of capitalism to produce phe­ nores this historical character. But volved in continual change. More we do not have here simply that than that, they are-precisely in the must go behind the immediate ap­ nomena in such a way. Marx describ­ pearance of facts and discover the ed a "process of abstraction" from ex­ source of error which Engels called to structure of their obfectivity - the our attention. The essence of this product of a specific historic epoch: core, the essence. In doing so, we will istance in his treatment of labor, but understand their appearance as the he did not forget to insist vigorously source of error is located in the fact that of capitalism. Consequently, a that statistics, and the "exact" eco­ "science" which takes the immediacy necessary form which their inner core that in this case he was dealing with a takes-neccessary because of the his­ characteristic of capitalist society: nomic theory which are built upon of the facts as its basis, which sees them, lag behind actual develop­ this form of their objectivity as the toric character of facts, because they "Thus, the most general abstractions are posed on the terrain of capitalist do not commonly develop except in ments. "For contemporary history, point of departure for scientific con­ one will often be forced to treat the ceptualization, places itself simply society. This double determination the course of the richest, most con­ which simultaneously recognizes and crete evolution where one feature most decisive factor as constant, as­ and dogmatically upon the terrain of suming that the economic situation capitalist society. Essentially, it ac­ goes beyond the immediate fact, this seems to be jointly possessed by many is precisely the dialectical relation. things, and is common to all of them. which is found at the beginning of cepts uncritically the structure of the the period continues throughout the object as it is given, and it takes its The internal structure of Capital Then it ceases to be thought of thus causes precisely the greatest dif- uniquely, under its particular form." period without variation, or else take laws as the immutable fundament of This tendency of capitalist evolution notice of such changes in this situa­ "science." 3. Capital. III, 1. This distinction (which is analyzed into the dialectical moments of appearance, manifestation and has now developed considerably. The tion as arise out of patently manifest 2. Introduction to the Class Struggles in France. But one reality) comes from Hegel's Logic. Unfortunately. we should not forget that exactness in the natural sciences cannot develop here how basic this distinction is to the fetishistic character of economic events themselves and are, therefore, presupposes precisely this "constancy" of elements. This ideas of The Capital. The distinction between representa­ methodological exigency has already been posed by Galileo. tion and concept also comes from Hegel. 184 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 185 ,

is the key to the historica understand­ ficulty to the superficial reader who Th us, theories which seem to be in ception." On the other hand, vulgar ing of social relations. All isolated and contradiction are thought to have the uncritically accepts the categories of materialism-even, as in the case of partial categories can be conceived limits of their validity established by thought proper to capitalist develop­ Bernstein and others, it is most mod­ (in their isolation) as having always that fact, and they are modified and ment. On the one hand the exposition ern in form-is content to reproduce been present during the evolution of subsumed under more general theor­ pushes the capitalist character of the the most immediate and simple deter­ human society. (If one doesn't find ies in which these contradictions de­ economic forms to its extreme limit minations of social life. It feels that it them in a particular social form, then cisively disappear. But in the case of and constitutes a perspective in which is particularly "exact" in accepting that is the exception that proves the the social reality, these contradictions these categories are pure and describe these determinations without any se­ rule.) Thus, the real stages of social are not a result of insufficient scien­ a society which "corresponds to rious analysis, without relating them evolution are unclear and ambiguous tific comprehension. They belong~ ra­ theory," indeed, a society completely to the concrete totality, it takes the when they are viewed as changes ther to the very essence of reality~ to capitalist, composed only of prole­ facts in "an abstract isolation and at­ which take place among isolated, par­ the essence of capitalist society. And tarians and capitalists. But on the tempts to explain them by abstract tial elements. And they are most clear they will not be subsumed under the other hand, as soon as this conception scientific laws which are not a part of when seen in 'terms of the change in knowledge of the totality so as to sup­ is worked out, as soon as the world of the concrete totality. "The crudity function of the various elements in press the contradiction. On the con­ phenomena seems to be crystallized and shortcomings of this conception," the whole process of history, in the trary, they will be understood as a theoretically, this result itself dissolves wrote ~{arx, "lie in the tendency to alterations of their relations to the necessary development out of the an­ into a simple appearance, it is seen as see but an accidental, reflexive connec­ totality of society. tagonistic capitalist order of produc­ a simple inverted selection of a group tion in that which is real1y an organic 3 tion. of facts which are themselves inverted, union."4 This dialectical conception of re­ Thus, when theory, (taken as the a selection which is nothing but "the The conceptual grossness and emp­ ality seems to be far distant from the knowledge of the whole) opens up the conscious expression of the apparent tiness of such an approach is located, immediate reality, it appears to con­ way to a resolution of the contradic­ movement." above all, in the fact that it obscures struct its relations in a nonscientific tions, it does so by showing real ten­ Only in this context can one inte­ the historic and transitory character fashion. Yet it is, in fact, the only dencies of social development which grate the different facts of social life of capitalist society. In it, its determi­ method of conceptually knowing and must actually resolve these contradic­ (in as much as they are elements of a nations appear as timeless and eternal reproducing reality. tions which emerge in the course of historic becoming) into a totality, only categories common to all social orders. The concrete totality is thus the social evolution. in this way does the knowledge of This was apparent in its most obvious fundamental category of reality.S The In this perspective, the opposition facts become the knowledge of reality. form in bourgeois economics, but vul­ correctness of this perspective becomes between the "critical" method (or This knowledge begins with simple gar Marxism soon took the same path. apparent when we place the real, ma­ vulgar materialism, Machism, etc.) is determinations which are pure, imme­ The dialectic method, with its meth­ terial substratum of our method-cap­ a social problem. The method of the diate and natural (to the capitalist odological dominance of the totality italist society with its internal antag­ na tural sciences can only serve the world). It goes from them to a knowl­ over the patricular aspect was de­ onism between the forces and rela­ progress of science when it is applied edge of the concrete totality as the stroyed, the part no longer found its tions of production-at the very cen­ to nature. But used to understand the conceptual reproduction of reality. conception and reality in the whole ter of our study. The method of the evolution of society, it is an instru­ This concrete totali ty is, of course, but, on the contrary, the whole was natural sciences, the ideal method of ment of the ideological struggle of never immediately apparent. "The eliminated from investigation as an all reflexive science and of all revi­ the bourgeoisie. It is vital for the bour­ concrete is concrete," Marx writes, unscientific element (or was reduced sionism, does not recognize contradic­ geoisie to conceive of its own order "because it is the synthesis of many to a simple "idea," to a sum of the tion and antagonism in its object. If of production in terms of categories determinations, i.e, the unity of di­ parts) . And as soon as this was done, it nevertheless encounters a contra­ which have a timeless validity; it must verse elements" the reflexive relations of isolated ele­ diction between different theories, it see capitalism as destined to an eter­ But at this point, idealism falls into ments appeared to be the eternal law conceives this situation as a conse­ nal existence because of the laws of the error of confusing the conceptual of all human society. Marx' formula­ quence of the incompleteness of nature and reason. Conversely, it reproduction of reality with the struc­ tion that "the relations of production knowledge which has been achieved. judges the contradictions which are tural precess of reality itself. For "in of a given society form a whole" is, ). For those readers who are particularly interested In inevitably imposed upon its thought our thought, reality appears as a proc­ in opposition to this approach, the this methodological point, it should be noted that in as surface facts and not as phenomena /fe.;rl's logic the relation between the whole and the ess of syn thesis, as a resul t, and not as methodological point of departure, it parts constitutes the dialectic passage from exlstanee to which belong to the very essence of a starting point, although it is the real rpality. And it should be emphasized that the problem which we have discussed, that of the relation between the capitalism. starting point and, therefore, also the 4. Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. The interior and the exterior, is for Hegel also a problem of The method of classical economy is category of the reflexive connection also comes from totality. starting point of observation and con- Hegel's Logic:. Summer 1957 187 186 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL a product of this ideological function not understand the necessity of the methodological contradiction, it coun­ wrote Marx, "is not that we say that of bourgeois thought. And its limita­ emergence, internal problems and de­ terposes points of view. The problem production, exchange and consump­ tions as a scientific approach are a cline of capitalist society. The end re­ of the unitary understanding of the tion are identical, but rather that the} consequence of the social reality, of sult is, willy-nilly, a Kantian philoso­ historic process is necessarily posed are the members which form a total­ the antagonistic character of capital­ phy of history. And conversely, this at the very center of the study of each ity, the difference at the center of a ist production. If a thinker of the approach makes the structure of bour­ epoch, of each partial sector of his­ unity.... A certain form of produc­ stature of a Ricardo denied the "ne­ geois society universal, the form of so­ tory, etc. And it is here that the de­ tion thus determines certain forms of cessity of the expansion of the market ciety in general, because the central cisive importance of the dialectic con­ consumption, distribution and ex­ corresponding to the augmentation of problem which Max Adler attacks, ception of reality reveals itself for we change and certain mutual relations production and the increase of capi­ that of the "dialectic, or rather the see that it is possible to describe a between these different aspects . ... tal," he did so (unconsciously, to be antagonism," is none other than a historical event with essential accuracy There is a reciporcal influence be­ sure) in order to escape recognizing typical ideological form of the capital­ without being able to understand the tween these different aspects at the the necessity of crises. For tliese crises ist social order. Thus it matters little event as it actually happened, with­ same time as the problam is one of an reveal in the most obvious and funda­ in the final analysis whether the eter­ out comprehending its real function organic totality." mental fashion the basic antagonism milization of capitalism takes place in in the historic whole, in the unity of But then, we cannot stop at the of capitalist production and the fact terms of economics or of philosophy, the historic process. A typical exam­ category of reciprocal action. For one that "the bourgeois mode of produc­ whether it is done naively and with ple of such a development is that of can think of reciprocal action as the tion implies a limitation of the free innocence or with extreme critical re­ Sismondi's treatment of the problem simple, reciprocal causal action of two development of the productive forc­ finement. of crisis. He understands the imma­ objects which are otherwise unchange­ es." But then Ricardo's error in good In this perspective, 'the rejection or nent evolutionary tendencies of pro­ able, and not advance a single stop fai th became the consciously mislead­ destruction of the dialectic method duction as well as of distribution, he toward the understanding of social ing analysis of bourgeois society put means that history looses its intelli­ makes a penetrating critique of capi­ reality. This is the case with the uni­ forward by the vulgar economists. gebility. This doesn't imply, of course, talism. And yet, he is ultimately vocal causality of vulgar materialism Vulgar Marxism came to the very that an exact description of certain stranded. For he remains nevertheless (or the functional relations of Mach­ same pass-whether it was trying to personalities, or historic epochs, is im­ a prisoner of capitalist objectivity and ism, etc.). There is, for example, a re­ eliminate the dialectic method from possible outside of the dialectic meth­ must conceive of the two immanent ciprocal action when a billiard ball at proletarian science in a systematic od. It does mean that one cannot tendencies as independent of each rest is pushed by another ball into fashion, or was affirming the dialectic understand history as a unitary proc­ other. "He does not understand that movement. The first is placed in "critically." Thus, to cite a grotesque ess without the dialectic method. the relations of distribution are noth­ movement; the second modifies its di­ case, Max Adler attempted to sepa­ (This impossibility is expressed in ing but the rela'tions of production rection because of the contact, etc.... rate the dialectic as method, as the bourgeois science. On the one hand, sub alia specie." And thus, he is the But the reciprocal action of which we movement of thought, from the dia­ there are the abstract and sociological victim of the same fate which over­ speak goes far beyond such a case, be­ lectic of being, as a metaphysic. At constructions of historical develop­ took the false dialectic of Proudhon: yond that which takes place between the very summit of his "critique," he ment of the type of Spence or August "he transforms the different partial objects which are otherwise unchain­ comes up with the dialectic in so far Compte-whose internal contradic­ elements of society into so many so­ ing. And to do so, we must speak in as it is "a matter of positive science," tions have been exposed by modern cieties in themselves." terms of a relation to the whole. This which "one thinks of in the first place bourgeois historians, particularly by WE REPEAT: the category of totality relation to the whole becomes the de­ when one speaks of a real dialectic in Rickert. And on the other hand, there does not suppress the consituent ele­ termination which conditions the Marxism." Then he terms this dialec­ are the exigencies of a "philosophy of ments and dissolve them into an un­ form of objectivity of each object, and tic more accurately as an "antagonism history" whove very relation to his­ differentiated unity, into an identity. every relevant and essential change . . . which simply demonstrates that torical reality appears as a methodo­ The manifest form of their independ­ manifest itself in terms of a change in an opposition exists between the ego­ logically insoluble problem.) ence, of their autonomy (an auton­ relation to the whole and, through istic interest of the individual and the This opposition between a particu­ omy which they possess in the order this, as a change in the form of objec­ social forms in which he finds him­ lar aspect of history and history con­ of capitalist production) will seem to tivity itself.6 self." By this stroke, the objective eco­ ceived as a unitary process is not a be a pure appearance only if they are nomic antagonism which expresses it­ simple matter of differing scope, as 6. The particularly refined opportunism of Cunow re­ not conceived of dialectically, as the veals itself in that he changes the concept of the whole self in the class struggle is dissolved for example it is in the case of the dynamic moments of a whole which is, (of the ensemble, of the totality) into that of the sum, thus suppressing all dialectic relation, and that he does into a conflict between the individual difference between particular and uni­ itself, equally dialectic and dynamic. this despite his well-rounded knowledge of the Marxist and society. On such a basis, one can- versal history. Rather it involves texts. See his Marxist Theory of History. Society and the "The result which we move toward," State. 188 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 189 Marx made this point in many tween constant and variable capital, places. Let me cite only one of the best crucial for economics, became possible ifests itself as a knowledge of the re­ produces and reproduces the social known texts: "A Negro is a Negro, through the dialectic method. Classi­ ality of historic process. It might seem relation between capitalist and em­ but only under certain conditions does cal economics was unable to go be­ that this dialectic relation of part to ploye." he become a slave. A machine to weave yond the distinction between fixed whole is a simple reflexive determina­ cotton is a machine to weave cotton; and circulating capital. This was not tion in which the actual categories of To POSE ONE'S SELF, to produce and but only under certain conditions is it accidental. For "variable capital is social reality are no more present than reproduce one's self-this is, precisely, Capital. Separated from these condi­ nothing but a particular form of the in bourgeois economics. It might seem what reality consists of. Hegel recog­ tions, it is as little capital as gold is, historic appearance of the means of that the superiority of dialectics over nized this, expressing it almost as in itself, money or sugar is the price of subsistance, that is of the labor which bourgeois economics is only methodo­ Marx did, but abstractly, in a way that sugar." Consequently, the forms of the worker requires for his mainte­ logical. But the real difference is more could lead to misunderstanding. objectivity of all social phenomena nance and reproduction and which he profound, it is a matter of principle. "That which is real is necessary in it­ change constantly. The intelligibility must produce and reproduce in all Each economic category reveals a de­ self," he wrote in the Philosophy of of an object develops in terms of the systems of social production. This la­ termined relation between men at a Right. "Necessity here means that the object's function in the whole, and bor is only returned to the worker specific level of historic evolution, a totality is divided into the distinctions only the conception of totality makes under the form of payment for his relation which is made conscious and of concepts, and that this division re­ it possible for us to comprehend this work, while his own product is always developed as an idea. Consequently, veals a solid, resistant determination reality as a social process. It is only in alienated from him under the form of the movement of human society itself (bestimmtheit) and not a deadly solid- this context that the fetishistic forms capital. ... The commodity form of can be known in its inner meaning as ity; it reveals that which continually necessarily engendered by capitalism the product and the money form of the product of men themselves, as the reconstitutes itself in the midst of dis­ dissolve and become the more appear­ the sale hid this transaction." result of forces which emerge out of solution." But here, even as we remark ances which they are (even though Thus, the fetishistic forms hide re­ their relations and escape their con­ the closeness of historical materialism they are necessary appearances). Thus, lationships, they envelop all of capi­ trol. The categories of economics then and Hegel's philosophy-both conceiv­ the reflexive relation of fetishistic talist phenomena so as to mask their become dialectic and dynamic in a ing theory as the self-knowledge of re­ forms, their "conformity to law," de­ transitory, historic character. This is double sense. They are in a vital inter­ ality-we must be concerned with the velops necesssarily within capitalist possible because the forms of objectiv­ action with one another as "purely decisive difference between the two society and conceals the real relation ity under which capitalist society nec­ economic" categories and aid us to un­ theories. This is found in the treat­ between objects. These relations we essarily and immediately appears to derstand various sections of social evo­ ment of the problem of reality and of now understand as the necessary rep­ the man living in it to conceal eco­ lution. But also, since they have their the unity of the historic process. resentation of the object made by nomic categories, their own essence as origins in human relations, since they Marx reproached Hegel (and even those who participate in capitalist a form of objectivity, the fact that it function in the process of the transfor­ more his successors who turned back production. They are, then, an object is a category expressing relations be­ mation of human relations, they lay to Fichte and Kant) for not having of understanding, but known only un­ tween men. Consequently, the forms bare the process of evolution in the really surmounted the duality of der fetishistic forms; they reveal, not of objectivity appear as things and as reciprocal action which they them­ thought and being, of theory and prac­ the capitalist order itself, but the ide­ relations between thing. And at the selves have with the actual substratum tice, of subject and object. He argued ology of the dominant class. same time that the dialectic unmasks of their operation. that Hegel had not gone beyond Kant Only when this veil of fetishistic the eternal appearance of these cate­ This is to say that the production on this decisive point, that his dialec­ categories has been ripped aside can gories, it also reveals their "re-ified" and reproduction of a specific econo­ tic was a simple appearance and not one come to historical understand­ character in order to open up the way nomic totality which science must un­ the actual, interior dialectic of the his­ ing. For the function of these fetishis­ to a knowledge of reality. Economics, derstand necessarily transforms itself toric process. He held that Hegel's tic forms is to make capitalist society writes Engels in his Commentary on in the course of the production and re­ knowledge of matter was in the sub­ appear as super-historic, and a real the Critique of Political Economy, production of a given, whole society ject and not the self-acknowledgment knowledge of the objective character "does not treat of things, but of the (transcending "pure" economics, but of matter, as in society. "Already in of phenomenon, a knowledge of their relations between persons and, in the without invoking any transcendtal Hegel's case," the crucial section of historic character and actual function last instances, between classes; but force). Marx often insisted upon this his critique notes, "the absolute spirit in the totality of society, forms an un­ these relations are always bound to point. For example: "The capitalist has its content in the masses, but its divided act of the understanding. But things and appear as things." process of production considered in expression is restricted to philosophy. the psuedo-scientific method shatters It is in this context that the total its continuity, or as a process of repro­ This is why philosophy seems to be this unity. Thus, the distinction be- character of the dialectic method man- duction, does not only produce mer­ the organ through which the absolute chandise, or even surplus value; it spirit makes histGry, emerging into 190 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 191 , consciousness after the unfolding of and he found it wanting. Indeed, the thought and being, of form and mat­ complishment of this task. The abso­ the movement, after the fact. The par­ myth-making vestiges of "eternal val­ ter. Even though he was the discoverer lute spirit of Hegel was thus the last ticipation of philosophy in history is ues" which he eliminated from the of the significance of the concrete re­ of those grandiose mythological forms thus limited to a consciousness after dialectic were similar to the philo­ ality, even though he sought to go be­ in which the totality and its move­ the event, for the absolute spirit ac­ sophic elements which Hegel himself yond all abstractions, matter neverthe­ ment expressed itself in a way that complishes the real movement uncon­ fought ceaselessly throughout his life, less remained for him (and in this, he was unconscious of its true essence. sciously. Thus, philosophy comes and against which he had marshalled was quite Platonic) sullied by the Thus, that reason "which had always "post festum" Thus, Hegel does not his entire philosophic method, with "stain of being specific" (makel der existed, but not always under a rea­ allow the "absolute spirit," as abso­ its process and concrete reality, its bestimmtheit) sonable form" achieved its "reason­ lute spirit, to make history, except in dialectic and history. In this context, i Because of these contradictory tend­ able" form in historical materialism appearance For in effect, the absolute the Marxist critique of Hegel is thus encies, Hegel was unable to clarify through the discovery of its basic sub­ spirit does not become conscious of it­ the direct continuation of Hegel's own his own system. Often, he juxtaposes stratum. And the program of the self as creator of the world until after critique of Kant and Fichte.7 contraries without mediation, they Hegelian philosophy of history was the event, and its making of history Thus, the dialectic method of Marx are presented contradictorily and achieved through the destruction of only exists in the consciousness, in the is the continuation of that which without any possibility of internal Hegelianism. For in opposition to opinion and representation of the Hegel sought but did not attain. recirpocit}'. And consequently, his nature in which, as Hegel emphasizes, philosophers, in the speculative imag­ While, on the other hand, the dead system looks to the past as much as "change is circular, a repetition," ination" This conceptual mythology body of the Hegelian texts has become toward the future.8 It is thus hardly change in history is not simply pro­ was definitively eliminated by the the prey of the philologists and mak­ surprising that bourgeois science very duced "on the surface, but in the critical activity of the young Marx. ers of systems. early borrowed from Hegel. And were concept." And the concept itself is It is not accidental that Marx ar­ But the point of rupture between it not for the Marxists, the very core corrected by the change of history. rived at his own view in the course of Marx and Hegel is the question of of Hegel's thought, its revolutionary Only in this context can the view­ opposing a movement which was al­ reality. Hegel was unable to see the content, would have been obscured. point df dialectic materialism ("that ready recoiling from Hegel, which was real motor force of history. In part, it is not the consciousness of men going back to Kant. This movement this was the case because these forces CONCEPTUAL MYTHOLOGIES always sig­ which determines their being, but seized upon all of the obscurities and were not sufficiently visible during the nify that some fundamental fact of o nthe contrary, their social being internal ambiguities of Hegel in order period of the genesis of his philoso­ man's existance has eluded him, a which determines their consciousness) to eliminate all the revolutionary ele­ phy. Consequently, he did not recog­ fact so basic that is consequences can­ pass beyond the purely theoretical ments from his thought; it harmon­ nize that the people and their con­ not be repressed. This inability to and pose the problem of "praxis." ized the vestiges of the contemplative sciousness were the effective bearers penetrate the object then results in For its is only when the core (kern) duality of thought and being, the con­ of historic development; he did not an appeal to transcendental motor of being is revealed as social process ceptual mythology, with the complete­ see the real substratum, in all its vari­ ( forces which construct and structure that being appears as the product, in ly reactionary philosophy of Germany ousness, but instead put forward the reality, the relations between objects, the past unconscious, of human activ­ at that time. By becoming a partisan mythology of the "Spirit of the peo­ our relations with them and the modi­ ity, and this activity is seen as the de­ of the progressive in the Hegelian ple. " Yet Hegel failed for another rea­ fication of the historic process, in a cisive element in the transformation method, Marx not only separated him­ son: that, despite all his tremendous mythological fashion. The recognition of being. Purely natural relations, or self from these successors of Hegel-he efforts to the contrary, he remained that "the production and reproduc­ social forms mystified into natural re­ created a schism in the Hegelian phil­ caught in Platonic and Kantian forms tion of real life is, in the last instant, lations, oppose themselves to man. osophy itself. For Marx took the his­ of thought continuing the duality of t.he determining element in history," They seem to be fixed, achieved, un­ toric tendency which he found in meant that Marx and Engels had, for changeable and given, an essence 7. It is not surprising that Cunow attempts to correct which can be known but not trans­ Hegel to its limits. He transformed Marx by reference to a Kant-oriented Hegel on the very the first time, found the possibility of all social phenomena, all aspects of so­ point where Marx surpassed Hegel radically. He opposes liquidating all mythology, that they formed. And such a conception places the Hegelian state (as an eternal value) to the purely his­ cial man, into historic problems, he toric conception of the state in Marx, and claims that had reached solid ground for the ac- the possibility of "praxis" in the indi­ the "faults" of the Hegelian state-its function as an showed the real substratum of historic instrument of class oppression-are only "historic things" vidual consciousness. "Praxis" be­ and do not determine its essence and direction. 8. The position of Hegel vis-a-vis the national economy comes a form of activity of the isolated evolution and developed a fertile For eUDOW, Marx is here a retrogression from Hegel be­ is qiJite characteristic of this fact (cr. Philosophy of cause he considers the question "from a political, and not Right). He recognizes clearly that the fundamental method­ individual, an ethic. The attempt of method in the doing. a sociological, point of view." Thus, there is no such ological problem is that of contingency and necessity (as, Marx applied the measure which he thing as going beyond Hegel for the opportunists. If they in a way, Engels did), but he is unable to comprehend the Fuerbach to go beyond Hegel came do not go back to the vulgar materialism of Kant, then fundamental meaning of the material substratum of the had discovered and methodically de­ of the state in order to eliminate the revolutionary dia­ economy, the relation of men to each other. This remains to grief on this very point: he did not they use the reactionary content of the Hegelian philosophy ror him a "swarm of anarehcic wills," and laws resembles veloped to the Hegelian philosophy, lectic of Marxism and thus eternalize bourgeois society. -a "plantary system." go beyond the isolated individual of 192 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 193 of the proletariat; because in this ex­ tian sense where the subject is defined "bourgeois society" and in this he was its achievement. And this is because istance, man is not only lost but the­ as that which can never become an at one with German idealism and the point of view of the proletariat oretically conscious of this fact and object. The proletariat is not an im­ Hegel himself. is one from which the totality of so­ is impelled by the imperious, unavoid­ partial spectator of the historic proc­ Marx demanded that we under­ ciety becomes visible. Consequently ~ble and immediate misery-the prac­ ess. It is not merely a partisan, active stand "sensuousness," the object, the as the doctrine of historical material­ tical expression of this necessity-to and passive, part of the whole. The reality and the sensuous human ac­ ism emerged it was both the "condi­ revolt against this inhumanity; be­ increase and development of its knowl­ tivity. This implied that man had tion for the liberation of the prole­ cause of this the proletariat can and edge, on the one hand, and its increase reached a consciousness of himself as tariat," and the doctrine of the reality must necessarily liberate itself. But it and development as a class in the a social being, similtaneously con­ of the total process of historic develop­ cannot liberate itself without sur­ course of history on the other, are but ceived as the subject and object of the ment. This was true precisely because pressing its proper conditions of life. two sides of the same real process. This historic-social becoming. Feudal man it was a matter of vital need, a ques­ And it cannot end its proper condi­ is not simply because the class itself could not achieve a consciousness of tion of life or death, for the prole­ tions of life without ending all the in­ does not become "formed into a class" himself as a social being since his so­ tariat to attain a perfectly clear vision human conditions of the society except through incessant struggle be­ cial relations "themselves had a natur­ of its situation as a class. This knowl­ around it." ginning with the spontaneous despera­ al character-society itself was so little edge was only comprehensible in Thus, the methodological essence tion of immediate acts (the destruction organized, it was so little a unity of terms of the knowledge of the totality of historical materialism cannot be of machines is a simpl~ example of the totality of human relations, that of society, and the resultant conscious­ separated from the "practical-critical these beginnings). More than that, the it could not appear to consciousness ness was the inevitable precondition activity" of the proletariat. The two consciousness of social reality achieved as the human reality. (The question of proletarian action. The unity of are aspects of the same evolutionary by the proletariat, its understanding of of the structure and unity of feudal theory and "praxis" is, then, only the process of society. Consequently, the its proper position as a class and its society cannot be taken up here.) other face of the historic social situ­ knowledge of reality which is at the historic vocation-the method of the Bourgeois society accomplished the s0- ation of the proletariat, a situation center of the dialectic cannot be sep­ materialist conception of history-are cialization of society. Capitalism de­ which makes self - knowledge and arated from the point of view of the also the products of this same process stroyed all spatial and temporal bar­ knowledge of the totality co-incide. proletariat. To raise, as the "Austro­ of evolution which historical material­ riers between the different countries Thus, the proletariat is both the sub­ Marxists" do, the question of method­ ism comprehends adequately and in and places, as it shattered the juridical ject and object of its proper knowl­ ologically separating the pure science its reality for the first time in history. wall of separation which maintained edge. of Marxism from its socialism is to In this context, the revisionist sep­ the stability of "estates." In a universe For the vocation of leading human­ pose a false problem. For the Marxist aration of the movement from the fi­ of formal equality among men, the ity to a higher level of development method, the dialectical materialist nal goal represents a retrogression to economic relations which ruled the requires, as Hegel rightly remarked knowledge of reality is only possible a primitive level of the worker's move­ immediate material exchange between (though he applied his insight to from the class point of view, from ment. The final goal is not a state man and nature disappeared. Man "peoples"), the fact that "these stages the vantage point of class struggle. To which awaits the proletariat at the became-in the true sense of the of evolution present themselves as abandon this point of view is to leave end of a process, it is not independent world-a social being, society became immediate, natural principles," and just as 'to reach this point of view is of the process and of the path which it the reality for man. that "the people" (that is, the class) to enter directly into the struggle of takes, it is not a "state of the future." Thus, it is only on the terrain of "who receive such an element as a the proletariat. Consequently, one cannot forget the capitalism, of bourgeois society, that natural principle have the mission of Historical materialism thus emerges final goal during the course of daily it is possible to recognize society as applying it." Marx concretized this as a vital, "immediate, natural" prin­ struggle and remember it only as an reality. However the bourgeoisie, the idea with a clarity that extends to all ciple of the proletariat, and the total ideal which is stated in a Sunday ser­ class which was the historic agent of of social evolution: "when socialist knowledge of reality is made possible mon. It is not a "duty," not an idea this revolution, accomplished its func­ writers attribute a world.. historical by this class point of view. But this which plays a regulative role in the tion without consciousness. The very role to the proletariat, it is not be­ does not mean that this knowledge, "real" process. The final goal is pre­ social forces which it liberated, which cause they consider the proletarian and the methodology behind it, is cisely the relation to the totality (to it brought to power, seemed to the god-like. Far from it. Because the ab­ innate or natural to the proletariat the totality of society considered as bourgeoisie to be a second nature, straction of humanity from itself as a class (and even less so to the a historic process) through which, more soul-less and impenetrable than is achieved in the fully-formed proletarian individual). On the con­ and only through which, each mo­ that of feudalism. It is only with the proletariat; because the paroxysms of trary. Certainly the proletariat is the ment of struggle acquires its revolu­ appearance of the proletariat that the the most inhuman of all the condi­ knowing subject, but not in the Kan- tionary content. It takes the daily consciousness of the social reality finds tions of life are subsumed in the life Summer 1957 195 194 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL struggle from a level of facility, of is capable of orienting action. The guardian of tradition, but rather the hand, that in the various struggles of simpleness, to that of reality. There­ self-consciousness of the proletariat, 1 herald which must always proclaim the workers they place in the fore and fore, one must never forget that every both objective and subjective, at a the relation between the instant and defend the interests which are com­ effort to preserve the "final goal," given moment of its evolution is, at its tactics to the totality of the his mon to the proletariat and independ­ or the "essence of the proletariat, in the same time, an understanding of toric process. And thus, the words of ent of nationality; and on the other a state of purity while the sordid re­ the level which the epoch has attained the Communist Manifesto on the tasks hand, that in the various phases of ation with the existence takes place in social evolution. The facts are no of orthodoxy and of its partisans are the struggle between the proletariat ends up by making the comprehen­ longer "strange" when they are s:en not outdated, but always remain cru­ and the bourgeoisie, they constantly sion of reality more distant. And then, in the coherence of the real, in the cial: "The Communist differentiate represent the interest of the total the "critical-practical" activity falls rootedness of each particular moment themselves from other proletararian movement." back into a utopian duality of subject in the totality (a rootedness which is parties on two points: on the one GEORGE LUKACS and object, of theory and "praxis" immanent, and not simply revealed). just as surely as revisonism itself leads And thus the tendencies which drive to this pass. reality become visible-or, in other The practical danger of all dualis­ words, the final goal becomes visible. tic conceptions of this type is that they The final goal is not, therefore, MAGAZINE CHRONICLE spirit away the very element which counterposed to the process as an ab­ gives action its direction. For as soon stract ideal. It is, on the contrary, Confusion by Admission somehow repugnant. Since then, he as one goes to the "natural" terrain the very sense of the process which is has periodically announced that he of existance, to the pure, simple and immanent at a given stage, and the Dwight MacDonald's remi­ hankers after some form of conserva­ vulgar "empirical" -as soon as one comprehension of it is preciselp a niscences of his days in the socialist tivism, but he has never taken that abandons the terrain of reality where knowledge of the (unconscious) tend­ movement were published some time particular plunge. dialectical materialism conquers and encies which lead toward totality. As ago (In the March and April, 1957, N ow Macdonald looks back on his reconquers-then the subject of the a result, the orientation of a specific issues of Encounter), yet there is ~ radical past. He finds it simultane­ action is opposed to the milieu of action is made in terms of the inter­ certain fitness in taking them up in ously fascinating and other-worldly, "facts" in which the action must de­ est of the entire process, of the libera­ these pages, even if belatedly. For intellectual but insanely abstract, and velop. There is no mediation between tion of the proletariat. part of MacDonald's experience was in the doing he proves that he has not the subject and the fact, they are two Yet, the social evolution ceasely de­ as a writer for the New International. lost his own deft sense of irony. Yet separate principles. And it is as little velops a tensilon between the partial In his own way, MacDonald stands Macdonald's "Politics Past" is more possible to impose the will, the pro­ moment and the totality. Precisely for a generation. He moved toward than a memoir. For it also purports to duct of subjective decision, upon the because the immanent sense of reality socialism while a writer for Henry be an account of why American radi­ objective facts as it is to discover a radiates with increasing sharpness, Luce's Fortune~ flirted briefly with the calism failed. direction for action in the facts them­ the sense of process becomes ever more Stalinists, and then gravitated toward The older, more mature Macdonald selves. For a situation in which the immanent in the daily action, totality the Trotskyist movement in the late finds that radicalism in the United "facts" speak unamibuously for or permeates the momentary, spatial­ thirties. During the war, he founded States had its hey-day during the Deb­ against a specific action has never ex­ temporal character of phenomenon. Politics~ a magazine which began as sian period, and never again became isted, cannot exist, and will never But the way of consciousness does not more or less Marxist and developed a serious force. "The radical tradition exist. The more the facts are taken become easier in the course of the rapidly toward anarchism and paci­ never came back," he writes, "except in their isolation (that is, in their re­ historic process. On the contrary, it fism. By the time of the Berlin air-lift, among the intelligentsia. Not even at flexive relation), the less are they able always becomes more arduous and Macdonald found himself in a di­ the lowest point of the depression, in to point toward a specific orientation. demands greater and greater responsi­ lemma. Typically, he shared it with 1932-3, were the Communists or the And it is obvious that the power of bility. This is why the function of his readers in a burst of candor. Paci­ Socialists a serious political force. The unmastered facts which automatically orthodox Matxism, its going beyond fism, he felt, offered no hope for actu­ CIO in a few years subsided from act "according to plan" will shatter revisionism and utopia, is not a final ally dealing with Stalinist totalitarian­ youthful rebellion into bureaucratic the subjective decision. liquidation of these false tendencies, ism, but neither did militarism. The conservativism, a devolution that had Thus, the fashion in which the di­ but a ceaseless, ever-renewed struggle conclusion? In a revised reprint of his taken generations in the German and alectic method approaches reality re­ against the perverting influence of "Root Is Man," Macdonald decided British labour movements." veals itself precisely when one turns bourgeois ideology in proletarian to tend his own garden. No political By a curious inversion, such a res­ to the problem of action, for it alone thought. This orthodoxy is not the theory appealed to him; all were trospective view of the past is based 196 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 197 on the very ultimatistic kind of rea­ ny over American radicalism, was able soning which today's chastened Mac­ to attract members precisely beca.use vanced section of the bureaucracy. of the FLN. At the same time, he donald now rejects. There was no it was involved in the very real work Their position is not, to be sure, one points out that among the ranks the revolutionary transformation of Amer­ of organizing the American working of socialist principle; but then neither distinction between the FLN and ican society in the thirties, he seems class. can it be dismissed as that of the "ren­ MNA is not as marked as in the lead­ to be saying, and therefore nothing On the other hand, it would be egade." These, and many like them, ership: many who fight in units of the much really happened. The CIO? foolish to think that all was well with are capa ble of being attracted once FLN look to Messali as the great lead­ That was a summer storm. And the the radicals. The left socialist and more to the socialist movement. er of the Algerian revolutionary move­ real criterion is that the people did Trotskyist movements did not under­ And reading Macdonald's articles, ment. Still, Martinet feels that he can not buy the finished program; that is stand fully the enormous importance the striking thought is not how far speak of the "incontestable supremacy what proves that the thirties were un­ of the unionization of the working he and others like him have moved of the National Liberation Front." touched by radical politics. And yet, class. Their perspective was more from their earlier radicalism. It is the Yet Martinet nevertheless reports if one goes back to that period, the grounded in the idea that the world other way around. They have become, some of the facts about the Front amazing point remains how much of in general, and the United States in not so much hardened anti-socialists, which he finds disturbing. He notes, a leap forward the American work­ particular, was in a pre-revolutionary as confused by their own admission. for example, that the Front claims ing class took, and how much of a situation. Paradoxically, itwas through Their plight is part of the price our the exclusive right to negotiate with role the American radicals were able their betrayal of socialist principles society pays for its current period of the French on the question of inde­ to play. that the Communists were able to social peace, yet it is not an irrevoc­ pendence; also that a majority of make such great headway. By the able thing. If a socialist must have Frontists are cool to the plan put for­ Up UNTIL fHE THIRTIES, only a thin end of World War II, fully a third of sharp criticisms of Macdonald's re­ ward by Bourguiba of Tunisia which stratum of skilled workers in Ameri­ the CIO was under the heavy influ­ membrance of radicalism past, if one places a significant emphasis on hold­ ca were organized. The immense ence or control of those who acted in must differ with his retrospective so­ ing free elections as soon as possible. thrust of the CIO achieved an incred­ the name of Marxism, radicalism and ciology, that is not to engage in a The MNA, on the other hand, has ible and decisive accomplishment: it socialism. In this sense, there is no foolish and useless villification. Mac­ been more forthright in its willing­ laid the basis for the organization of doubt that the anti-Stalinist revolu­ donald lost his way, and rather spec­ ness to call for immediate free elec­ the most important sections of the tionary movement failed to make full t~cularly from a socialist point of tions, and to guarantee the political American working class. True enough, use of the tremendous opportunities VIew. So did many like him. rights of minorities within Algeria. this movement did not organize a of the period. Yet this is no basis for And many of them will return. But one recent fact is embarrassing mass political party of the working Macdonald's conception that radical to Martinet's estimation of the weak­ class. But the reasons for that are not ism was impotent. His exaggeration • ness of the MNA. In his discussion mysterious, they are not a function is as false as the ultra-left hopes of (published in early June), he wrote of some law of a radical wave inevit­ many of his generation. The Algerian Revolution that the influence of the Messalists ably spending itself. The new social Still, Macdonald stands for a gen­ had declined percipitously in France FOR SOME TIME NOW, the European conditions of World War 11 inter­ eration. And that raises an extremely itself, a traditional center of backing socialist press has been involved in a vened to forestall more significant important point. With a few excep­ for the MNA. Unfortunately for Mar­ sharp conflict over the various tenden­ changes. tions like James Burnham, the bulk of tinet's point of view, the first Congress cies in the Algerian resistance move­ But what of the radicals? Did they the intellectuals and workers who of the Algerian trade unionists took ment. The question is not so much influence these events? The answel were attracted to the socialist move­ place during the very month that his one of which program is better, that is both yes and no. The long tradition ment in the thirties and who have article was published. The USTA of the Front of National Liberation of working class militancy and agita­ left it in the period of reaction, have (Union Syndicale des Travailleurs tion for industrial unionism was an not moved over to some far-right po­ (FLN) or the Algerian National Algeriens) is not only pro-:Messali; it Movement of Messali Hadj (MNA); essential element in the creation of sition. The initial impulse which led is apparently a viable organization rather it turns on the facts themselves. the CIO and the surge of the Ameri­ them to socialism is still operative, with mass support among the Al­ can working class. In union after even if in a confused and distorted Which tendency is the strongest? gerian workers in France. union-the Auto workers, the Coal way. Many of them have found jobs The June 6th issue of France Ob­ Another view, which agrees with servateur carried a long article by Miners, the NMU, to name but a in the labor movement or in the Martinet's estimation of the actual re­ few-socialists played a significant various civil liberties and civil rights Giles Martinet on the relative strength lationship of forces in Algeria but role. The Communist Party, which organizations. And there, they usual­ of the two organizations. According works on different premises, is that of in the thirties established its hegemo- ly represent the best, the most ad- to Martinet, 80 per cent of the forces the International Confederation of in Algeria itself are under the control Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). Accord- 198 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 199 ing to Werner Plum, wntIng in the mit the MNA trade union, and its vious that the Front has rallied con­ yet, a policy of simply forgetting the German trade union publication, Ge­ siding with the Front, was a blow to siderable support and from the strang­ profound antagonisms based on very werkshactliche Monatshefte~ the Mess­ the Messalists. But he holds that it est and most antagonistic quarters: real differences-a policy which Mar­ alist tendency is "anarchist" and has was not a final or decisive one. from Nasser; from the Communists; tinet tends toward-is ruled out of the little or no importance in Algeria. More importantly, Dechezelles goes from the Algerian bourgeoisie; from question The Algerian revolution is This article makes it plain that the into the question of democracy and the ICFTU. Such a catch-all front can not simply a question of freeing the official support of the ICFTU is to the FLN at greater length than Mar­ onl.y unite. on the basis of supressing land from France; it also raises the the Front in Algeria. It is all the more tinet. For him, "The anti-colonialism senous dIfferences. The forthright issue of how this will be done, of what interesting when one considers that of the Messalists is based upon demo­ stand of the Messalists is far superior form the newly independent nation the French Communist Party, and the cratic principles. It is opposed to to such a situation. will take. And given this problem, the Communists in Algeria, are also parti­ racism and fascism. For the MNA, the The tragic part of this whole de­ position of the MNA, despite the arg­ sans of the Front as opposed to the Europeans of Algeria are Algerians velopment is, of course, the fact that uments of Martinet and the ICFTU, MNA. (Jay Lovestone, that ubiqui­ just as much as anyone else. The the internal struggle within the Al­ remains clearly superior to that of tous figure who stands on the far anti­ MNA is opposed to blind terrorism gerian movement has aided the cause the frontists Communist right of the American which attempts to create a general of French imperialism in Algeria. And Michael Harrington trade-union movement, is also pro­ sentiment of insecurity among the Front, a fact which stands in interest­ Europeans... " On the other hand, he ing relation to his super intransigence finds that the FLN has attracted all on the Communist issue.) kinds of elements, from the bourg­ BOOKS IN REVIEW On the other side, the strongest sup­ eoisie to the Communists, and that it port for the MNA in France has come is unwilling to come out and make Roosevelt as a Saint Professor Schlesinger now has given from the left socialists. The Trotsky­ an authoritative, principled statement up playing about the fringe of the THE AGE OF ROOSEVELT: THE ists of La Verite have been outspoken on the question of democracy. Roosevelt-myth and has penetrated CRISIS OF THE OLD ORDER, in their defense of the Messalist tend­ It is always difficult to determine to its very heart. He has openly de­ 1919-1933. By Arthur M. Schles­ ency. And in the June issue of La Com­ the complex inter-action of tenden­ clared himself-he has begun to pro­ inger~ Jr.~ Haughton Mifflin mune (organ of the newly formed cies at a distance. And the European duce a four volume history of the Company. $6.00, 557 pp. Liason and Action Committee for press, as can be seen from the above, period in American history from Worker's Democracy), there are two is literally a babel of voices on the Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. World War One to the election of articles which argue the case for the question of the relative merits and is the very model of a modern Steven­ DwigLt David Eisenhower-entitled strength of the MNA and the FLN. MNA. One of these, by Yves Deche­ sonian liberal-intellectual. He is intel­ The .1.ge of Roosevelt. The first vol­ zelles, includes a biting and incisive And yet, the information which is ligent, urbane, sophisticated-a man ume '"1f this mganum opus~ The Crisis attack upon Giles Martinet and his available has the general effect of con­ II of affairs. He combines an academic of the Old Order~ is now upon us. It reporting on France Observateur. firming the independent socialist sup­ post at Harvard with an active career is a~ interesting example of that genre According to Dechezelles, Martinet port of the MNA. It is not simply that as liberal publicist and speech-writer of lIterature in which biographies of and France 0 bservateur have been Messali, and his followers, have put for his alter-ego, Adlai Stevenson. He saints have an important place. involved in a sort of conspiracy of forward a social, and socialist, pro­ writes well and intelligently. silence on the subject of the MNA. gram, though that is significant. But It would seem that Schlesinger has They feel that the Front is the "wave the undeniable and controling fact Schlesinger, Jr. has one major pas­ studied the devices of melodrama and of the future" in Algeria, and as a re­ which is immediately present is the sion in life it would seem-Franklin of the old spell-binding orators with Delano Roosevelt. Thus, in his Pul­ considerable care. He sets the stage sult, they are prepared to ignore the difference between the two programs . t MNA altogether. In particular, the on the question of free elections. A itzer-Prize winning history, The Age for the appearance of The Hero with whole question of Melouza (the Al­ sympathizer of the Front, like Mar­ :I of Jackson~ the product of the specu­ appropriate thematic material and . I gerian town where a massacre took tinet, is forced to admit that the lative-frontier, Andrew Jackson, is musical background. Knowing full place; according to the MNA, it was Frontistsregard themselves as having seen as the spiritual ancestor of the well that Real Heroes are always an action of the Frontists against the some kind of exclusive right to nego­ product of Groton and Harvard, Pure Men in Shining Armour, marred Messalists) has been passed over with­ tiate, and that they are, at least, cool Franklin Roosevelt. Thus, Schlesing­ by no flaw, and that Real Villians are out any real concern being shown. At to the proposal for immediate free er's bible for liberals, The Vital always Evil Men with Scowling Faces, the same time, Dechezelles recognizes elections. Center~ is filled with Rooseve1t idola­ relieved by no venture Schlesinger try. that the refusal of the ICFTU to ad- At the same time, it should be ob- gives us his Hero, FDR, and his Vil- Summer 1957 200 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 201 lian, Herbert Hoover, in this simplis­ analysis has nothing new or interest­ tic manner. ing. He offers a very standard New growing radical mood of 1932-the from calamity to challenge. The only Schlesinger's literary devices are the Deal interpretation of events, based Unemployed Councils, the various thing Americans had to fear was fear standard stuff of a TV Soap-opera on no new research, no new materials. spontaneous cooperative associations itself. And so he serenely waited the mor­ row. The event was in the hand of God. script writer. The first chapter is a Utilizing easily available data, Schles­ that sprung up to meet the depression, description of the inauguration of inger tells us about the forerunners the march of the Bonus Marchers on This is the thesis. It will be inter­ Franklin Roosevelt. The second para­ to FDR in the liberal movement, Washington, D. C., the agricultural esting to see how Schlesinger devel­ graph begins, "Saturday, March 4 stringing together a few scattered revolt in which farmer's dumped milk ops it. The major point that James dawned gray and bleak. Heavy winter comments about the Populists, Theo­ on the roads in order to raise prices, MacGregor Burns in his volume clouds hung over the city. A chill dore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, and, with guns in hand, prevented Roosevelt: the L£on or the Fox makes northwest wind brought brief gusts William J. Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, local law officials from foreclosing on is th~t Roosevelt did not provide lead­ of rain. The darkness of the day in­ and the founding of the New Repub­ unpaid mortgages on farms and homes. ershIp at all, that this was his major tensified the mood of helplessness. "A lic magazine as an organ of the new It is in this context that Schels­ weakness. The picture of Roosevelt sense of depression had settled over liberalism, concerned with increased inger discusses the steps in the politi­ that has emerged from the serious the capital,' reported the New York government regulation of the economy cal struggle to win the Democratic studies of such as Burns, Frank Fried­ nomination for Franklin Roosevelt. TimesJ 'so that it could be felt.''' and social-welfare measures. He care­ del, and the many who have written Schlesinger immediately turns to a fully skirts or avoids discussion of And in this discussion, the reason for monogra phs on select aspects of the description of the ride of the outgoing American capitalism's entry into the the section of the radical mood of New Deal, is that Roosevelt was a and incoming presidents to the steps international imperialist struggles, he 1932 becomes clear: only Roosevelt great politician, able to wield together of the Capitol. The "motionless and ritualistically whips the monopolists. cou.ld have saved the country from a coalition in Congr€ss and in local unheeding" Hoover rode in uncomfor­ He is concerned only with sketching RUIn and Revolution! Roosevelt is Democratic Party machines precisely table silence with a Roosevelt who in the harbingers of the coming of j~st like Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., th~ because he did not lead, but found smiled and waved his top hat at the Roosevelt. lIberal-conservative or the conserva­ a consensus of Party opinion, and men and women along Washington's Schlesinger'S treatment of the nine­ tive-liberal. then adopted the least-common de­ Constitution Avenue. Then, briefly, teen-twenties is of the same nature. The book ends with a section nominator position as his own. Thus, Schlesinger takes us around the Uni­ The Bad Republicans were in office sketching in the early life of Franklin for example, Roosevelt refused to ted States, gripped in Depression, on during the Age of Normalcy, values Roosevelt. All this is in the way of take any initiative to end the Jim the verge of upheaval with "fear in were crude and bad, the intellectuals introduction to the three volumes Crow policies of the Civilian Conserv­ the country club" and "angry men were disaffected, and the liberals un­ that will follow in this ambitious pro­ ation Corps because of fear of up­ marching in the silent street." And able to make headway. All of this was ject. The last paragraph of the book setting Southern congressmen. Roose­ then back to the actual inauguration­ bad, of course I And then the Crash is worth quoting for it contains what velt ~as the mas.ter of winning today's the taking of the oath, the Inaugura­ came. Herbert Hoover was unable to must be the major thesis of the vol­ electIon-but thIS does not make him tion Address. And after this, the in­ do anything about it, although Schles­ umes to come. Schlesinger writes: the great democratic statesman of the liberal myth. augural parade. And it is on this that inger believes that a "small amount Many had d~serted freedom, many more Schlesinger ends the chapter: "The of spending" by the government in had lost theIr nerve. But Roosevelt ar­ In the last analysis, the work of high clear notes of the cavalry bugles the first days of the depression might mor~d in some inner faith, remained ~alm ~r~hur Schlesinger, Jr. on Roosevelt announced the inaugural parade. have saved the day. But, unfortunate­ and Inscrutable, confident that American IS Important neither for its contribu­ ~mprovisation could meet the future on Franklin Roosevelt, in the presiden­ ly, no one thought that the depres­ Its own terms. And so on March 4 as he tion to our knowledge, for it makes tial car, waved greetings to the crowd sion would last. However, there were took the silent ride in the presidential none, nor for its new analysis, for it along the way-men and women now many plans for change and reform in limousine down the packed streets to offers none. It is important, however curiously awakened from apathy and the air and Schlesinger talks about the Capitol, he was grim but unafraid. as part of the sociology of American Deep within, he seemed to know that the liberalism and of American intellectu­ daze. The horsemen wheeled into line, some of them, including a scattering nation had resources beyond its banks and the parade began. In Washington of comments about the revival-on-the­ and exchanges; that the collapse of the al life today. Schlesinger, like Roose­ the weather remained cold and gray. left and the like. older order meant catharsis rather than velt, does not "lead" liberal opinion. Across the land the fog began to lift." Schlesinger then offers what is per­ catastrophe; that the common disaster ~e merely finds a consequence of its And all this with Bugles! could make the people see themselves for VIew, and makes this least-common haps the only interesting section of a season as a community, as a family; his book-not interesting because of that catastrophe could provide the indis­ denominator view his own. He thus

WITH THIS PROLOGUEJ Schlesinger can its originality or insight, but because pensible setting for democratic experi­ provides American liberals, looking begin his analysis. Unfortunately, his he includes it at all. He discusses the m:nt and for presidential leadership. If back on "the days of glory of the New thIS were so, then crisis could change Deal," with an "authoritative liberal 202 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Summer 1957 203 version of the Life of Franklin Roose­ solid rock upon which the liberal in­ velt." Indeed, the book is similar in tellectual can build his Church I In a import to an official Life of a Saint, world of uneasiness and confusion, which puts forward the accepted and in which Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in orthodox version of the cannonized an article for the Reporter asked, hero's career. without really offering an answer, Schlesinger gives the academic, pro­ "What next for American liberalism?" fessional seal of approval to the com­ the need for a Liberal Hero becomes monly held liberal notion- of Frank­ compulsive, for .those who cannot lin Roosevelt. stand the present, are uneasy about All of this would neither be the future, and are dimly aware of surprising nor worthy of comment the fact that they really have no al­ if Schlesinger's book had not found ternative to the path of Eisenhower widespread acceptance among histori­ and Dulles, Knowland and Wilson! ans and intellectuals. Almost all And if there is nothing in the present who have reviewed the book. with and nothing in the future, then there a notable exception here and there, has to have been something in the fell over themselves in their hasty pastl Thus Arthur Schlesinger's book praise. It became a Book-of-the-Month­ and the wide liberal acclaim it has Club offering. In the world of Eisen­ received I hower and Dulles, Knowland and Charlie Wilson, there must be some GEORGE RAWICK

An Important Book much to be desired in the way of her own contribution to the book. But THE COMMUNIST INTERNA­ her notes, which do have some value, TIONAL 1919-1943, DOCU­ are only of incidental importance. MENTS. VOLUME 1-1919-1922. There are more than four hundred Selected and edited by Jane De­ large pages of some of the most sig­ gras. Oxford University Press, nificant documents in Communist 1956. 463 pp. history. What is more, the translation, This volume, the first in a made from the German, is excellent. promised series, is a valuable collec­ Although the volume is a massive tion of documents issued by the Com­ collection of documents it suffers, munist International during its "he­ nevertheless, from incompleteness. roic period"-as Jane Degras describes Many of the most important docu­ it-from its founding call in January ments are extracts. The most impor­ 1919 through the Fourth Congress in tant theses of the CI have been edited December 1922. Included are pro­ in varying degrees; in many of them grammatic statements of the Commu­ truly major deletions have been made. nist International, analyses of inter­ It would have been more useful to national events, instructions and ad­ have fewer selections without any vice to national Communist parties. editing than to ask the reader to as­ The letters, resolutions, theses, etc., sume that the many deletions made are preceded with background and are either of no importance or are explanatory material written by Jane well provided for in Jane Degras' in­ Degras. Her own anti-Leninist bias, re­ troductory remarks to each major se- vealed in many of these notes, leaves lection. J. F. 204 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL