The Marxist-Leninist Movement in Britain-Origins and Perspectives Page 5
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The Marxist-Leninist Movement in Britain-origins and perspectives page 5 Ireland page 11 Twenty years of People's China page 15 The National question and the struggle for... socialism page 21 SOCIALIST STABILITY EYEWITNESS IN PRAGUE NUMBER TWELVE AUTUMN 1969 Price 2s THE MARXIST Contributions to the next issue of the Marxist which will be published in January 1970, should reach the editorial office (see address below) not later than lOth December, 1969. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Tom Hill Ron Peterson Frank Huscroft Jack Tapsell JimKean Reg Wagland Colin Penn CORRESPONDENCE All correspondence s'boul~ be addressed to Tom Hill, 11 Barratt Avenue, Wood Green, London N22 SUBSCRIPTIONS A remittance for 14 shillings will bring you six issues of the Marxist, post free. Single copies 2s 6d post paid. Overseas rates: Europe 25 shillings post paid; rest of the world 30 shillings post paid. Comment by lvor Evans and Tom Hill AS THE CENTENARY of the birth of Lenin and political situation in all the civilised countries of approaches it will undoubtedly be the occasion for the world'. further attempts to conceal or distort the revolution In Differences in the European Labour Movement ary essence of his contribution to Marxist theory. published in 1910, he wrote; When one looks at some of his statements in the 'Not infrequently, the bourgeoisie for a certain controversy with the revisionists of his day it is time achieves its object by a "liberal" policy, which, amazing how a·ppropriate they still are some fifty as Pennekoek justly remarks, is a "more crafty" years later. policy. A section of the workers, of their represent atives, at times allow themselves to be deceived by In Reformism in the Russian Social Democratic sham concessions. The revisionists declare the doc Movement published in 1911, he wrote; trine of the class struggle to be "antiquated", or 'Now Socialism has grown into a force and through begin to conduct a policy which in fact amounts to out the civilised world has already upheld its right a renunciation of the class struggle. The zigzags of to existence; it is now fighting for power; and the bourgeois tactics intensify revisionism within the bourgeoisie, disintegrating as it is, and seeing the labour movement and not infrequently exacerbate inevitability of its doom, is exerting every effort to the differences within the labour movement to the defer the day of doom and to maintain its rule under point of a direct split'. the new conditions ;lt the cost of partial and spurious Lenin gives an example of this in State and Revo concessions. lution in which he quotes Kautsky as saying; 'The intensification of the struggle of reformism 'The aim of our political struggle remains as hith against revolutionary Social-Democracy within the erto, the conquest of state power by winning a ma working-class movement is an absolutely inevitable jority in parliament and by converting parliament result of the mentioned changes in entire economic into the master of government'. Ho Chi Minh 1890-1969 'It is not only his genius, but also his rejection of luxury, his love for work, the purity of his private life, his unassuming ways; in short, the master's greatness ;md beauty exert a magnificent influence on the peoples of Asia and draw their hearts to him in an unsurpassable manner ... Not only are they grateful to him, but they also love him deeply. Their veneration of him borders on filial devotion. One needed to have seen the tear-filled eyes of university students in the nations of the Orient; one needed to have seen those carefree young people burst into sobs . .. to understand their love for him. His death caused universal mourning. A MILESTONE The above words were written by Ho Chi Neither high, nor very far, Minh about Lenin when he died in 1924. We Neither emperor, nor king, quote them because we think they apply so You are only a little milestone, aptly to Ho himself. We do not wish to add to Which stands at the edge of the them. To people passing by [highway. The poem on the right is taken from Ho Chi You point the right direction, Minh's 'Prison Diary'. The collection of poems And stop them from getting lost. from which it is taken were written between You tell them of the distance August 29, 1942, and September 10, 1943, For which they still must journey. during a journey which Ho described in these words: 'I have travelled the thirteen districts Your service is not a small one. of Kwangsi Province, and tasted the pleasures And people will always remember of eighteen different prisons'. you. ialism. Practice has shown that the active people in Comment (continued) the working-class movement who adhere to the op Lenin remarks; 'This is nothing but the purest portunist trend are better defenders of the bourg and most vulgar opportunism; repudiating revolution eoisie, that the bourgeoisie itself. Without their lead in deeds, while accepting it in word . But we shall ership of the workers, the bourgeoisie could not have break with the opportunists; and the entire class remained in power . This is where our principle conscious proletariat will be with us in the fight - enemy is; and we must conquer this enemy'. not to shift the relation of forces, but to overthrow The CPGB has not only ceased to fight the oppor the bourgeoisie, to destroy bourgeois parliamentar tunists, it has joined them. ism, for a democratic republic after the type of the There appears to be a generally held view that the Commune, or a republic of Soviets of Workers and role of the reformists is simply one of trying to con Soldiers Deputies, for the revolutionary dictatorship tain demands within limits acceptable to the capitalist of the proletariat'. class. This does not seem to be .an adequate definition In The British Road to Socialism the CPGB make when we consider that at times they support demands it quite clear that they follow the line of Kautsky - which appear to be at variance with the interests of not of Lenin. the capitalist class. 'In this way, using our traditional institutions and rights, we can transform Parliament into the effective Two examples may serve to illustrate the point. instrument of the peoples will, through which the major legislative measures of the change to socialism Nationalisation will be carried through'. Marxists are aware that the development of capit Lenin, in his Report to the Second Congress of alism leads to the concentration of capital into fewer the Communist International in 1920, said: hands, and that state involvement in the running of 'Opportunism is our principle enemy. Opportun industry and commerce becomes inevitable. Nation ism in the upper ranks of the working class move alisation of some basic industries and services is one ment is not proletarian socialism, but bourgeois soc- aspect of this. 1 Those elements among the capitalist class who socialism by means of gradual changes of the existing realise the inevitability of this development are for system is paraded in a different form. a time, in a minority, therefore allies are needed. The obvious point is ignored, namely, that with What better way than to utilise the stre1,1gth of the such things as commercial credit, the supply of raw organised workers by substituting these demands for materials, and the State, in the hands of the capitalist the genuine socialist demands for the socialisation of class, 'workers control' could only be exercised with the means of production. This is made all the more in the limits determined by that class. easy by the prevalence of reformist ideas among the It is no accident that those leaders of the Confed workers that socialism can be achieved by means of eration of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions who more and more reforms being pushed through par support The Institute for Workers Control are also liament. The logical extension of this idea being that in favour of long term agreements designed to pre socialism can be achieved by gradually extending the vent wages drift and assist the employers to 'plan' area of nationalisation. wage costs. The reformists and revisionist agents of the capi It can be seen that whenever the question of politi talist class within the movement deliberately direct cal power is ignored, any movement will inevitably attention to the question of the form of capitalist drift into a means of giving support to the existing ownership, i.e. state or private, and divert attention system. away from the really crucial question of which class The events in the Liverpool factories of English wields political power. The consequence of this is that the need for the Electric are a case in point. capitalist class to create a state monopoly in some A .struggle against redundancy is generally diffi basic industries becomes more generally accepted by cult, particularly so since the introduction of the that class, the nationalisation of the mines, railways Redundancy Payments Act whereby some workers etc. are presented as a victory for the working class with many years of employment with the same firm and a step on the gradual road to socialism. stand to receive several hundred pounds if they are Because of the acceptance of this distorted view content to be sitting ducks and wait for the employer of nationalisation the workers in these industries are to declare them redundant. It is also true to say that all the more easily persuaded to agree to a worsen some employers have · shown themselves willing to ing of their conditions in the belief that they are make additional payments in order to avoid trouble making "their" industry more efficient.