A MARXIST QUARTERLY

FALL 1954 Police-State Liberals by Art Preis

They TALK about civ/~ liberties - But how do they VOTE? • To establish concentration camps • To outlaw a political party • To make dissenting opinion a crime.

95 OAK F A MARXIST QUARTERLY

FALL 1954 Police-State Liberals by Art Preis They TALK (Jbout civil liberties - But how do they VOTE? • TfJ estfllJ/isn CfJncentrfltifJn cflmps • TfJ fJut/flW fI pfJ/iticfI/ pflrty • TfJ mfl/(e dissenting fJpinifJn fI crime. Literature Agent Carol Houston re­ ports an excellent response to the F I on the Chicago campus. She com­ ments: "Incidentally, the Summer is­ sue is really wonderful, both in ap­ pearance and content. Everyone here is very impressed." A MARX I ST QUARTERLY * * * Comrade Al Winters reports Vol. 15-No. 4. Fall 1954 Whole No. 129 good sales on the campus in Detroit. "We placed. a bundle of the Winter FI in a bookstore near Contents \Vayne University. They sold them out in about two weeks - So the Police-State Liberals 111 students seem to go for it. We put by Art Preis a bundle of the Spring issue there also." Does "Co-Existence" Mean Peace? 115 by Milton Alvin * * * San Francisco Literature Agent The F.arm Crisis in the Soviet Union 118 Gordon Bailey writes: "We have by John G. W-right put Fourth International on an­ The Degeneration of the Communist Party other newsstand and are planning to get it placed on more. The new And the New Beginning 121 by James P. Gannon format makes it far more saleable." Perspectives of American Marxism 128 * * * by Leon Trotsky An agent for the magazine in England writes: "The new format The Role of Statism in the Colonial World 131 is much appreciated here." by David Miller * * * Bernstein's Challenge to Marx 139 Rev. H. W. of Boston, Mass., by Joseph Hansen writes, "Your material helps me keep abreast of socialist trends and has helped me very much in FROM OUR READERS "In addition, we think Laura Gray's presenting liberal ideas." Evelyn Reed's articles on woman's cartoon of McCarthy on the cover of the Summer issue is priceless! The role in society in the Spring and McCa-rthy sneer and the shrugged Summer issues of Fourth Internatiol1- FOURTH INTERNATIONAL is shoulder are characteristic and won­ published quarterly by the Fourth al continue to attract much interest. derfully drawn-and the color scheme Internati(;nal Publishing Associa­ St. Paul Literature Agent Winifred of the whole is very attractive." tion. Nelson writes: "We have very much Managing Editor: William F . Warde appreciated the articles on the woman * * * Business Mngr: Dorothy Johnson question. We had a discussion on the Oakland Literature Agent Dolores first article last Wednesday night, and Seville writes: "We expect to increase ADDRESS communications and Thursday when the new F I came, I our F I bundle order substantially. subscriptIOns to 116 Ulniversity The last issue sold so well at a news­ Place,New York 3, New York. sat down and read her article right Telephone: ALgonquin 5-7460. away! stand on the Berkeley campus that "Discussion stimulates reading, you we plan on doubling the amount when ISUBSGRIPTION RATES: U.S.A. the fall term starts." and Latin America, $11.25 a year know, and vice versa. And these ar­ ( 4 issues) ; single copies, 35-c.; ticles on the woman question are * * * bundles, 25c. a copy for 5 copies new, although dealing with an old, Seattle Literature Agent Helen and up. Foreign and Canada, $1.50 old subject, and different from any­ Baker reports: "The last issue of the a year (4 issues); single copies, 35c.; bundles, 26c. a -copy for 5 thing we have had on the subject F I is attracting a lot of interest here." copies and up. before. In fact some of the questions * * * Reentered as second class matter raised in last Wednesday's discussion Jean Simon writes from Cleveland: April 20, 1954, at th~ Post Office at are answered in her new article. We "Please send us extra copies of the New York, N. Y., under the Act say 'Fine!' to see these documents in Summer issue. We have sold our of Mar-ch 3, 1879. the Fl. whole bundle." . A Case of "Midsummer Madness"?

the contest between the liberal Dem­ ocrats, the Eisenhower Republicans Police·State Liberals and the lVlcCarthyites tooffe'r the most repressive, anti-:-democratic mea- sure was "one of the most amazing acts of demagogy any Congress has put on display . . . a sorry spectacle by Art Preis ... Frankly, we are at a loss to un- dersta11:d how the bill travelled so far NCE MORE the intellectual, make simple membership in the Com- without defeat. Many of the Senators journalistic and labor sup­ munist Party a felony • • • Real and Represent.atives voting for it O-" porters of the liberal politi­ politik has all but killed the liberals have long stood out as champions of cians in Congress are drenching the in this ,country, and we might as civil liberties. If, as some observers wailing wall with their tears. They well drink the death brew at the have suggested, liberty and great name in the pantheon of liber­ ter's complaints. The Sept. I Ad- free trade unions. aiism in the United States Senate was vance, organ of the CIO Amalga- As for the AFL tops, their AFL7' on the list of those who voted to mated Clothing Workers, found that N~ws-Reporter not only found noth-

Falll954 .... 267 111 ing wrong with the law ,as· a whole, We might then have to ask what it. They were not trying to give ·the but emphasized in a front-page head­ there is in liberalism, that attracts as "kiss of death" 10 the Butler bill by line on Aug. 27: "AFL Units Not its best elements-the persons we having it combined with a section on Affected By New Anti-Red Law.:' were urged to elect to gDvernment the Communist Party which would They based this deluding notion on office-a bunch of neurDtic weak:lings make it unpalatable to Eisenhower the amendment, by Sen. Ives (R-N. who were nothing but idiots to begin and therefDre cause its veto. Hum­ Y.), whereby affiliates "of a national with. phrey himself has testified that he federation . . . whose policies and The supporters and apDlogists for did everything to meet Eisenhower's activities have been directed to op­ the political liberals feel that any­ ob jectionsand to make the whole posing Communist organizatiDns" are thing is better than the truth, even to anti-union, police-state bill palatable "presumed" not to' ·be "Communist- pleading "temporary insanity." The to the President and thereby ensure . infiltrated organizatiDns." However, truth is, of course, that the Hberals against a vetO'. At no time was the I ves himself admitted his amendment in CDngress are seasoned, shrewd, question of civil liberties involved. would nDt .prevent the Attorney Gen­ coolly calculating m,achine politicians. Consider the following dialogue in eral or the Subversive Activity Con­ They didn't just "run wild," on im­ the Senate Dn Aug. 19 between Sen. trol Board making an "inquiry" and pulse, due to' unendurable Republican . Humphrey and Sen. Butler, author of "determination" against the AFL or prDvocations. They did what they did the bill Humphrey said he opposed its affiliates as "Communist-infil­ because they wanted to and they be­ and a m.an whqm McCarthy person­ trated." "That is definitely the intent ha ved true to +their political lights. ally had helped elect in Maryland. of the amendment. Nothing stands in The beer-addled schoolboys t h ,a t The MinnesDta senatDr is calling Dn the way of such action by the Attor­ Schlesinger depicts is a lie. The So­ Butler to' affirm that Humphrey had ney General or the Board," said I ves cial-Democratic N'ew Leader of Aug. dDne everything to faciHta'te passage (CongressiDnal Rlecord, Aug. 12, 1954, 23 describes the real picture-the or­ Df the whole bill. . p-. 13 551 ) . ganized, well - prepared, disciplined "Mr. HUMPHREY..•. First of all, HDW do publications like the N.Y. character Df the liberal DemDcrats in let me say that those who were mem­ Post, the Nation, the New Republic Congress: bers of the conference committee [joint Senate-House group] knew that they and the Advance explain the fact that "The most articulate group in the must at least take into consideration ·the liberals in Congress strove to Senate has been the baird of a score the views of the attorneys of our Gov­ "Dut-McCarthy McCarthy"? They at­ or so who have carried the New Deall­ ernment, who have some responsibility, tribute the "heinous" conduct of Sen- Fair Deal standard. They have met and in fact the responsibility, for the prosecution of subversive activities. ators Humphrey, Herbert Lehman regularly every fortnight to' cODrdi­ ",Mr. IBUTLER. That is t:r;ue. (D-N.Y.), Estes Kefauver, (D-Tenn.), nate their tactics and Db jectives, and "Mr. HUM!PHREY. I think it is fair Wayne Morse (Ind. R-Ore.) and on alternate weeks their administra­ to say, and it should be said, that the their !liberal associates in CDngress tive ·assistants have gathered for the changes which were made in the con­ ference report were made because we 'largely to personal physiological and same purpDse.," did "not want in any way to jeopardize psychological factors-to everything Senator Humphrey, a vice president proceedings now under way to fulfill but the inherent nature of political of Americans for Democratic ActiDn, the requirements of the internal-secur­ liberalism itself. SenatDr Humphrey, had originally introduced a Com,mu­ ity law. and presumably his confreres, were nist Party outlawry bill four years agO' "Mr. BUTLER. r wholeheartedly at­ test to that. "tired" and alsO' "weak in judgment during the discussion Df the McCar­ "Mr. HUMPHREY. Let me say, as ' ... weak in spirit" (New Republic). 'ran Subversive RegistratiDn BiB. His one who wants to cooperate with his A case of "neurotic, election-year August 1954 cDntributiDn, therefore, Government, and at the same time anxiety" opined the NatiDn. "Mid­ w.as nothing he drew up at the spur strike a blow against those who would subvert the Government, that I felt a summer mad n e s s ," said Arthur of the moment while his brain was responsibility as one of those who had Schlesinger (N. Y. Post), whO' even dulled by fatigue and inflamed with participated in formulating this pro­ fDund an element of juvenile delin­ ,the heat. \Vhen the Republicans read­ posed legislation, to give the utmost quency - "a collection of hDtheads ily accepted his proposal and attach­ cooperation to the Department of Jus­ tice. running wild like kids after their first ed it to' the BinNer bill dealing with "Mr. BUTLER. I believe the Senator glass of beer at a picnic." The Ad­ "Communist-infiltrated" unions - a has. vance protested simple ignorance of bill which Humphrey ostensibly op­ "Mr. HUMPHREY. If ,J have a choice any reason for the liberals' conduct­ posed-the' MinnesDta senator and between giving cooperation to the De­ partment of Justice and legislating re­ are at a loss to understand ... " the rest Df the liber,als unanimously "We gardless of their will or views or of From this we might conclude that voted for ,the combined bill in its their sincere observations, then my the liberals in Congress are either final versiDn. choice must be to recognize the super­ physical wrecks, or crazy from the In dDing .so, the :liberals were not ior knowledge and the responsibilities of the Department of Justice. heat, or mentally deficient, Dr mora,l attempting some "naive tactic in the "Mr. BUTLER. I think the Senator weaklings, or inexperienced youth fight against communism,'" as the So­ has been very amenable to the wishes 'fallen victims to their environment. cial Democratic New Leader explains of the Department of Justice."

'112 What a priceless commentary on think that when we let them t.alk, and the same -liberal Democrats who, in liberalism this dialogue is. The Ileader talk and talk we are aiding them to Arthur Schlesinger's words, "organiz­ . of the liberals boastfully states a se­ a certain extent, and that this am,end­ ed ,a runaway stampede" in the 83rd ries of facts regarding his cooperation ment would put them out of exist­ Congress to trample on the Bill of with the government political police ence?" Rights. The Nation recalls: in enacting the exact type of legisla­ Humphrey !replied succinctly: "I "When the McCarran Act, which be­ tion the police-staters want. The Mc­ think so/' came the Jnternal Security Act, was Ca'rthyite affirms, like an amen, each This disdain for' democratic rights, before the Senate in 1950, Senator Paul . claim of the Eberal that his political Douglas argued that the bill was 'in­ this rude brushing aside-of elem,entary effective' because it did not 'go far policies conform to the line laid down civil liberties is not something new enough' in attempting to curb commu­ by the Department of Justice and the with the political liberals. It is, as a nism. A g,roup of seven Senate 'liber­ FBI. m,atter of fact, their characteristic als,' all Democrats, then offered the At another point in the debate, on detention-camp proposal as an amend­ mode of behavior under pressure from ment, thinking it would discredit the." Aug. 19, Sen. Kefauver, who origi­ the extreme right. I ndeed, the Ifecord bill itself - or so they said. But, as nally opposed the Humphrey proposi­ shows they have systematically spon­ now, they were caught in their own tion, expressed his fear "that the sored some of the most repressive trap, and the amendment was eagerly accepted by the Republicans." application of this provision is not measures enacted by Congress to de­ limited to the Communist Pa'rty. It stroy the political liberty of the Amer­ The irrefutable fact is that the New may apply to the Republican Party, ican people. Deal-Fair Deal liberals have been the the Democratic Party or the Farm chief authors ;and sponsors of the The pre v i 0 us I y cited Murray Labor Party. I assume the Senator Kempton, who proclaimed the death first laws (I) to make mere opinion from Minnesota would agree that this of liberalism, summed up in a half­ a crime, (2) to establish concentra­ provision is not limited to the Com­ correct way the characteristic conduct tion camps in America where political munist Party." To which Humphrey of the liberal politicians: ". . . Lib­ dissenters can be sent without trial replied: "Of course not. It is not lim­ er,al politicians have generally had a in a "national emergency" and (3) to ited to the Communist Party ... " sorry record on civil liberties. Wood­ outlaw a political party. In short, In the end, Kefauver, too, swal,low­ row Wilson stuffed our jails ... (in) they have been chiefly responsible for ed his trepidations and scruples, vot­ the first Wor:lu War; he whooped up setting up the legal machinery which ing for the bill in its final form be­ the Palmer raids; he sent Eugene the McCarthyite fascists can use, if cause "I have now been assured that Debs to prison . . . Franklin D. they come to power, to suppress all this will not adversely affect prosecu­ Roosevelt was much more tolerant; other political tendencies, including tions under the Smith Act or ad­ yet many of his retainers would have the liberal Democrats themselves. versely affect the Internal Security sent Col. McCormick to jail in World The complaints of the liberal writ­ Act." That is, he was assured the bill War II if they had had thei!r way ..." ers and publications about the latest would not- interfere with the opera­ Roosevelt's tolerance was limited anti-democratic acts of the liberal tions of previous police-state mea­ to fascist-m.inded multi-millionaires politicians sound like an echo of the sures, including the Internal Security like Col. McCormick. What Kemp­ lamentations these writers and publi.,. Act of 1950, which Kefauver had ac­ ton carefully covers up is that the cations have voiced time and again tually voted against. But by 1954, first police-state law - the savage over the past 15 years. In the Fourth Kefauver told the Senate, "while I Smith "Gag" Act of 1940 which International of July 1942, We de­ did not vote for the internal security makes mere expression of opinion scribed the E~ral mouthpieces then bill, I now feel it may do some without any overt act a felony - as "beginning to beat their breasts" good ... " was rushed through by a Democratic over the reaction.ary conduct of In case anyone believes that Hum~ Congress and signed by Roosevelt Roosevelt's New Deal government in phrey - who continued to describe himself. And it was Roosevelt per­ the war presumed to be against fas­ himself during the debate as "one sonally who' in 1941 ordered the cism (The W,ailing Liberals, by Art who is deeply interested in the preser­ Smith Act prosecution of 18 members Preis). Then, too, it was a case of the vation of our basic liberties"-worked of the Socialist Workers Palrty and liberal 'regime's witch-hunt against under some misconception as to the Minneapolis Truckdrivers Local 544 political dissenters and radicals in the anti-civil liberties character of his pro­ and had them sent to prison for their labor movement and government, of posal, the verbatim record makes anti-war views. I t was Roosevelt who alliances with dictatorships abroad, everything clear. On Aug. 12, Sen. ordered scores of thousands of Amer­ of dollar-a-year men in control of the Johnston (D-S. C. ) asked: ican citizens of Japanese descent ar­ war machine in Washington. "Is it not also true that there are rested, held without trial and incar­ Similarly, as reported in the Aug. two types of Communists? One is the cerated in concentration cam p s 14., 1950, Militant (Liberals at Wail- _ soap box orator. This amendment throughout World Waif II. ing Wall Over Kore·a, by Joseph would certainly do away with him. The Aug. 21 Nation rem:inds us of . Keller), the sUfPorters of the Fair Does not the Senator from Minnesota the role played in 1950 by some of Deal Democratic regime of Truman

Fall 1954 113 •

were pouring out their woes over the sought to win the lower-middle class gariized workers, who had' previous~y reactionary moves of the liberal gov­ masses and the workers with prom­ looked for salvation in the promises ernment. Then, the big gripe was the ises of social r:eforms and civil liber­ of the New Deal and Fair Deal, by crudely aggressive character of the ties and to use these classes as a more and more asserting and dem­ U.S. invasion of Korea, conducted counter-weight to the big bourgeoisie, onstrating that they are the "best" without any real attempt to put for­ the monopolists. fighters against "communism." They ward a "progressive" program to dis­ I n England, liberalism had its spe­ try to maintain "class harmony" by guise the pro-capitalist, anti-land re­ cial party called the Liberal Party. supporting, increasing government in­ form aims that Welle discrediting But class politics has long since sup­ tervention in unions and restrictions American imperialism throughout the ervened over the "non-class" concepts on organized labor. They may still colonial 'world. Then, too, the liberal of libera·l politics. The Liberal Party try to preserve the sheH of the oid apologists tried to make the conduct has been reduced almost to a relic, forms of demooratic capitalist rule of the liberal Democrats appear as a while the basic class forces are polar­ but tliey give it apotice-state con­ mere temporary aberration. ized in the Conservative Party and tent. The reactionary acts of the political the Labor Party. I n the United This, of course, will not halt the liberals are "shocking," "amazing," States, however, this pohir'ization, as basic class struggle. Police-state lib­ "inexplicable," "neurotic" only if we expressed in terms of class parties, eralism:. will not stem the tide of consider liberalism as a fixed set of has been delayed, primarily because l\1cCarthyism but help to create con­ principles. Chiefly, the liberals would the -labor union leaders have accepted ditions for its stronger flow. It will have us believe that they constitute the political ,lead of the middle-class not even 'save the liberals from an­ a movement to preserve, defend and liberals. nihilation should McCarthyism come extend civil liberties and to promote Whatever the programmatic oscil­ to power. social reforms· and improvements. It lations of the liberals, they have one \Vhen Sen. Humphrey introduced is true that the liberals do a great cons.ta,nt: they are unshakably for the his political outlawrybiH because 1'1 deal of talking and writing about private-profit system which has en­ <;lm tired of, reading headlines about these things, but their record in gov­ abled the middle-class to enjoy a being' 'soft' toward communism," it ernment, as we have cited it, belies privileged status, economically and won the liberals no respite firom, the their claim. Concern for civil liber­ socially, over the great productive class McCarthyite attack. McCarthy rose ties .and social betterment is not a of moder'n society, the workers. In the on Aug. 16 in the Senate and men­ fixed attribute of liberalism, except final analysi~" the middle-class lib­ acingly replied: "I am not much im­ for electioneering purposes. For a erals are wedded by class interests to pressed by some of our friends who long time now, it has been more pre­ capitalism and are loyal to it above oppose the activities and the methods, cise to speak of the police-state lib­ all else. if you please, of those who dig out erals. But capitalism in decay leaves no the individual Communists-I refer , The schizophrenic, or "split person­ room, for liberalism to continue in its to members who in their whole :Jives ality," trait of liberalism is explain­ earlier manifestations. Capitalism is have never dug out a single Com­ able only in terms of a class phen­ torn asunder by insoluble contradic­ munist-but who wish to make an omenon. Liberalism is a tendency re­ tions which it seeks to resolve by anti-Com.munist record by sponsoring flecting the interests of that class in wars bet\veen nations for economic a 'law outlawing the Communist modern society which has the least advantages and by intensified exploi­ Party." firm foundation apd the most in­ tation of labor. The lower-middle McCarthy only demands more evi­ stability, the middle class. This class, class, on which the :liberals lean most dence of their "anti-Communism," caught in the midst of' the basic heavily, are driven into frenzy by the more proof that they are ·not "trait­ struggle between big monopoly capi­ instability and ever-threatening crises ors." They will have 10 back his tal and organized labor, oscillates of capitalism and seek some way to witch-hunt, his methods, his move­ back and forth between the two, with retain their status as a class. Offered ment. Nothing less win satisfy him. no"cle,ar, precis'e .program of its own. no program of social betterment by In the end, they will' have to jump Historically, liberalism arose in the the labor leaders, who themselves look on the fascist bandwagon and work struggle of the rIsmg capi talists to the middle-class for guidance, the for the total destruction of organized against feudalism and the landed no­ lower-middle class in greater and :Jabor or find them,selves in the con­ bility and was epitomized in the slo­ greater numbers turns toward dema­ centration camps, torture chambers gan of the French Revolution, "Lib­ gogic solutions-above all, to fascism and death cells. erty, equality, fraternity." It continu­ and its thesis of "'treason" by the Liberalism is no bulwark of our ed as a tendency in the conflict be- traditional capitalist parties and the liberties. Nothing can save America . tween small and big capital, between "menace of communism." from the iron heel but a class party heavy industrial and financial capital The liberals seek to keep their' hold of the working people in mortal com­ and . light indust,riil and mercantile on the lower-middle class and the bat against the fascist pa'rty of cap­ capital. The latter at a certain stage more backward sectors of the unor- italism.

FOURTH LNTlERiNATIONAL . . Eisenhower Favors Modus Vivendi B'ut Continues on Road to New Wat

and keep them in subjugation. But those days are gone forever. British Does ~~Co-Exislence" imperialism must 'seek time, in hope /' that internal developments in the c9- lonial areas wiU eventually turn to its advantage. Mean Peace? The case of I ran is instructive in this respect. Churchill did not' send troops when the Iranians, under Mos­ sadegh, kicked the British out of' the by Milton Alvin oil fields and took over the refineries. The imperialists waited and plotted"; and when Mossadegh did not go fUf­ HE GENEVA cease-fire· agree­ the capitalists, especial'ly the Ameri­ ther, and the Stalinists with their ment, bringing to a dose the cans, will take the hint. decisive following also halted the T• long war in Indochina,· seems to But this is essentially the same movement half way, the counter-rev­ ha ve left us with no major war in kind of betrayal we have seen time olution, formed around the Shah, the world for the first time in some and again in the past 20 years, the· struck back successfuUy. Churchill 22' years. At l@ast we are so informed surrender of the basic interests of the did not have to fi'rea shot to rein­ by the. Stalinist press, and the opinion exploited masses in favor 'of a tem­ state the oil companies. is echoed by part of the capitalist por

111 That is, if you are willing to over­ our time it has become the key ques­ which is strictly limited to getting an look the fighting in North Africa, tion of world politics. alliance. where the Tunisians and Moroccans The great struggle between Trotsky Experience has taught that the Stal­ ·are trying to win independence from and Stalin over this question has inist policy of supporting capitaHst France; the fighting in Burma and been repeated at every critical stage governments in exchange for alliances Ma.Jaya and Kenya, where the people of world history since then. I t now with the Soviet government results in are trying to win independence from appears once more, forcing us again the betrayal of the workers' move­ British imperialism; the civil wa'r in to re-examine and re-appraise it in ment. But does it bring peace? The the Philippine Islands. That is quite the light of new events. experience of the period preceding a bit to pass over. Boiled down to its essence, the World War II says it dres not. However, the Stalinists - who question is this: Can two qualitative­ The Stalinists promised in those thought up the idea of co-existence­ ly different forms of property rela­ days that "collective security" would believe that this state of affairs, which tions co-exist peacefully? maintain peace. In the name of this they term Hpeaceful," can be made Depending on the answer given to policy, they derailed the Spanish rev­ permanent by establishing trade re­ this question hinge the answers to all olution and the French revolutionary lations and by "good will." questions of strategy and tactics. movement of 1936. I n the name of Is it possible to have good trade. The Stalinist answer, that peaceful this policy in the U.S., they herded co-existence is possible, implies main­ relations, to say nothing of good will, the w 0 r k e r s into the Democratic when countries are divided arbitrarHy tenance of the status quo, keeping the Party, insofar as the Stalinists had world as it is today. This answer re­ .after' generations of development as influence among the workers in those economic' and cultural entities? Ger­ quires that the workers in capitalist days, and they had a lot then. But many, Korea and Indochina are di­ countries give up the class struggle in despite collective security, the war favor of supporting capitalism and vided down the middle. This kind of came anyway. And it turned out that solution solves nothing. Instead it that the workers in the Soviet bloc the least secure was the Soviet Union uncritically support the counter-revo­ plants a time-bomb in each of these itself, deprived as it was of the sup­ lutionary Stalinist bureaucracy. In areas that is bound to explode with port of the revolutions the Stalinists short, the Stalinist position advocates terrible force. had betrayed in the Thirties. After permanent division of the world as the wa'r, the alliances with England These divisions formalize a latent it is and opposes revolution or any civil war which in the end must be and the U.S. blew up in the faces of other major change. the Stalinists and the "cold war" was carried through to victory by one For example, where. the capitalist upon us. I n the light of this expe­ side or the other. People who believe rulers have a friendly agreement with rience, one must take a dim view 'Of this state of affairs can be made to the Kremlin, in that country the last any Ilength of time are living in the lasting quality of alliances with Stalinists, in order not to disrupt the capitalist countries. a political dream world. agreement, must not even seek for Forty years ago Lenin characterized reforms. This was the case in France We do not rule out all temporary the era then opening up as one of in the post-World War I I days when agreements between the Soviet Union wars and revolutions, the end result the Stalinists, as members of the and capitalist countries. What is im­ of which would see the replacement government, were against wage in­ permissible is the subordination of of world capitalism by world social­ creases and strikes and voted money the workers' struggles in the capitalist ism. This idea, which dominated the to conduct the war in Indochina. countries to the aHiance. What we early· Third International, was also .The fact is that where a capitalist condemn is the Stalinist policy of be­ held by Leon Trotsky, who saw the government is in alliance with the traying the fundamental aims of the revolution as "permanent," or con­ Kremlin-this is the aim of co-exis­ workers in favor of agreements with tinuous, until the goal of world so­ tence-the Stalinists play the role of the bosses. cialism was reached. capitalist agents within the working class openly and without m.uch sub­ Why They Plan War ~'Socialism in One Country" terfuge. We had a good dose of this I t is not the good will or bad will About 30 years ago, after Lenin's in America during. World Walr II of Big Business that determines the death in 1924, Stalin challenged this when the Communist Party acted as instability of agreements with the So­ basic idea of the world communist strike-breakers, stool pigeons for the viet Union. I t is the requirements of movement and advanced in its place bosses and generally opposed every capitalist economy. For example, it is the theory ·of building "socialism in forward movement the workers tried admitted everywhere that the Ameri­ one country." . to make. can economy would be plunged into Outside of the communist· move­ Where such an alliance does not a terrible depression if government ment itself, Stalin's theory and Trot­ exist, the Stalinists play the role of spending for war should be stopped sky's struggle against it attracted lit­ militants to put pressure on the cap­ or sharply curtailed. Even with the ~le or no attention at the time. But in italists. This masks their reall role present huge expenditures, the begin-

Jl' FOURrmI JiNTIElRNATIOOIAL nings of a serious economic crisis are an ess~ntial change. It would be un­ As long as capitalism. and socialism with us. dertaken for tactical reasons with the remain side by side we cannot live In addition there is the problem aim of utilizing if to further the long­ peacefully-one or the other wiH be of investments. American capitalism range aim of war. Hitler even signed the ~ictor in the end. An obituary has accumulated unprecedented ag­ a pact with Stalin as 'a preliminary will be sung either over the death of gregates of new capital in the past 1-5 step toward launching an invasion of world capitalism or the death of the years. Much of this cannot find profit­ the Soviet Union. American Big Busi­ Soviet Republic. At present we have able investment at home. But abroad ness would agree to a temporary deal only a respite in the war." even countries like India and Indo­ with the Kremlin without the slight­ Like dozens of similar statements nesia are today considered too risky est illusion about its real character. made by both Lenin and Trotsky to suit the tastes of Wall Street. The Stalinists on the other hand after World War I, this shows that The world tendency of revolution­ take "peaceful co-existence" as their the founders of the first workers state ary upsurge, reducing the area of guiding line, the real line that de­ had no illusions about peace enduring safe investment on the one hand, and termines fundamentat" policy. Trotsky between capitalism and socialism. the piling up of idle capital in Amer­ pointed out 30 years ago what illu­ As in those days, this problem is ica on the other, are contradictory sions the theory of "socialism in one the key to world politics today. If movements of far greater explosive country" would sow and what be­ you believe that co-existence is pos­ force than the hydrogen bomb. trayals it would lead to. He warned sible, then you must logically give The need to make the world safe that Stalin's theory, which is the up any perspective of the workers for investments imp e 1s capitalist premise' of "peaceful' co-existence," taking power in America and organ­ America toward war and makes any would'disarm the workers of the cap­ izingsocialismi here. You must help d,eals or agreements with the Soviet italist countries as well as those of achieve an alliance between Wall bloc- highly temporary. the Soviet Union. And we have seen Street and the Kremlin. That means The resumption of trade, advanced how tragically his warnings were giving up any struggle in the inter­ by the Stalinists as a panacea, would verified. ests of the workers. That is the per­ not alter this. It is not tirade that The present theory of co-existence spective of the Stalinists. American economy requi~es so much will fare no differently. With Moscow If, on the other hand, you believe as fields of investment. 'But this is concentrating on winning an alliance as we of the Socialist Workers Party ruled out in the Soviet bloc for two with France, for example, the French do, that co-existence is an illusion, reasons: (I) American capit

Fa:1l1954 Two-Year Food Shortage Heightens Tensions in USSR,

farms; overdue taxes were remitted and prices raised on state deliveries and state purchases of crops; bonuses The Farm Crisis for "over-fulfillment" of crop quotas were raised, etc. Among the more important admin­ istrative measures were the following: In the Soviet Union The structure of the government­ owned Machine and Tractor Stations was overhauled. The MTS personnel was made permanent and separated John Wright completely f·rom the collective farm by G. personnel, with each MTS member provided by :law with a private land:" EPTEMBER 1954 marked the most acute and gravest problem, has strip, privately owned cow, plus first anniversary of a farm crisis thus been solved successfully, solved grants of long-term loans to build S- that was formally admitted by once and for all. (Tumultuous, pro­ privately owned dwellings. the Malenkov regime on September longed applause.)" More than 100,000 specialists, 3, 1953. At that time Khruschev, the -When it no longer became possible agronom,ists, zootechnicians, engineers, first Secretary of the Russian pa'rty, to deny the farm crisis, the Malenkov etc., were sent into the countryside, publicly acknowledged in his report regime took the road of trying to with one or more being attached to that the "level of agricultural produc­ explain it away as simply a "orisis of each collective farm and each MTS. tion as a whole" was Hinadequate"; growth." Khruschev in his report con­ Many at these specialists have taken that there was a f'lag in a number of tinued flatly to deny that there was over the post of chairman of the col- , important branches of agriculture" any shortage of grain. "Generally lective farm. No official statistics with the worst shortages existing "in speaking," he said, "we meet the have been issued in this connection, animal husbandry, the growing of country's grain requirements in the but from aU indications in the Soviet feed and fodder crops, potatoes and sense that our country is provided press, the administrations of the over­ vegetables"; and, finally, that this lag with grain, that we have the neces­ whelming majority of 94,000 collec­ in agriculture was already so serious sary state teserves and export defi­ tive farms and almost 9,000 MTS as to act as a brake upon industrial nite quantities of grain." There was, have been changed from top to bot­ . ,growth, in particular, said Khruschev, he explained, a shift in ,the demand tom, many of them several times it "retards the further development of the Soviet population "more and since September 1953. of the light and food industries." more from bread to meat and milk These and other admissions came products, vegetables, fruit, etc.," ow­ Sweeping ·Changes as a stunning surprise to the Soviet ing to "the rise in the material well­ An equally drastic change has been people. In the entire post-war period being of the working people.-" The carried out in the structure of the , the Kremlin had claimed nothing but campaign for "abundance" was the party apparatus in the rural areas, successes, admitting only min 0 r cover chosen by the Kremlin in its with the local and district secretar­ "shortcomings" in' agriculture. This, struggle to overcome the farm crisis. iats transferred to the MTS as their in fact, was the keynote of Malen­ There followed a whole series of center of operations, and with only kov's report to the 19th party Con­ agricultural reforms coupled, as usual, a skeletal structure retained of the gress in October 1952. Malenkov then with administrative measures. The former local and district bodies. boasted: "Our agriculture is becoming ,regime made sweeping concessions to I t is no exaggeration to say that more and more perfected, more pro­ the individualist tendencies in agricul­ since the early Thirties, when Stalin ductive and is turning' out more and ture. Private ownership of cattle and launched wholesale collectivizatIon, more produce for the m,arket."· The cultivation of individually - owned the Soviet countryside has not wit­ chronic problem of assuring -grain to strips of land were spurred; taxes on nessed such sweeping changes, such the country had been forever solved. crops were reduced and so were de­ shifts of administrative personnel and "The grain problem," announced livery quotas, benefiting primarily other "innovations" as have taken -Malenkov, "formerly con~idered the the rich peasants and rich collective place in the recent period.

FOUiRW IN'DERNATIONIAL Literally a-rmies of Soviet bureau­ to "improve" cattle feeding; third,' to Only sometime in Februa1ry was' the crats armed with "'plenipotentiary" create "sufficient" seed and insurance decision suddenly made to plunge powers are now swarming over the reserves; fourth, to provide enough headlong into this vast venture. The countryside. Among the recent emer­ grain for industrial purposes; fifth, Plenum which formally adopted this gency measures it is instructive to to raise the state reserves; and sixth, new emergency plan was held only note that tens of thousands of "or­ to raise the grain exports (Pravda, a few weeks before the actual opening ganizers" were ordered sent into the July 2, 1954). Thus, the grain prob­ of the spring sowing season. fields during this year's harvest sea­ lem, which Malenkov had boasted Let us further recall that the areas son, with a 'team of "organizers for ·Iess than two years before had been for this projected huge-scale grain every 3-5 combines in order to as­ forever solved, has emerged once production· have .lagged . notoriously, sure the uninterrupted and highly again as the primary and most acute having for years produced the lowest productive operation of the com­ problem confronting the regime. yields in the Soviet Union. In his bines." (Decision of the Party Plen­ September 1953 report Khru.schev um, June 24, 1954.) Emergency Program singled out "the Volga area, West Si­ Developments, entirely unforeseen, Less than six months after the beria and Kazakhstan" as "lagging" aggravated the Soviet farm crisis. The promulgation of the September 1953 and poorest in "yields of grain and ink had hardly 'dried on the emer­ agricultural reforms and new pro­ especially grain-leguminous crops." gency decrees that emanated from gram, the Malenkov regime was com­ These same areas have likewise the 'September 1953 Plenum when the pell€d to promulgate an entirely dif­ been' among the -least efficient in the Soviet countryside was hit by early ferent program designed to overcome utilization, maintenance and repair and severe frosts and blizzards. The the Jag in grain production. This em­ of agricultural machinery and in the very measures of "material interest­ ergency program was adopted at the operation of their Machine and T rac­ edness" by' which the Kremlin had February-March 1954 Plenum. It call­ tor Stations. The June 1954 Plenum hoped to overcome existing shortages, ed for the cultivation of grain on has once again singled out for criti­ boomeranged against the regime. The the sem.i-arid steppes of Kazakhstan, cism "many MTS and state .farms" mass of the peasants neglected the the Urals and Western Siberia, with of Kazakhstan, the Urals and West­ collective-farm crops in order to save some 32 million acres to be cleared ern Siberia' for their "failures and their own midget economies from. the and cultivated in 1954 and 1955. short comings" in the 1954 sowing unexpected blows of early winter, the season. As -late as January of this year severest in recent years. The full ex­ Meanwhi.Je the operations have there was no talk in the press of tent of the losses incurred last year proceeded on a scale hitherto un­ remains unknown. known even in the Soviet Union. Into But the columns of the Russian the "virgin lands" a whole army of press did report heavy losses of cattle, technicians, mechanics, tractor and sheep and horses, feed and fodder combine drivers, primarily members crops. Even the grain crop was ad­ of the Russian Communist Youth, has mittedly affected. The 1953 grain har­ been sent. The, June 1954 Plenum vest was apparently the poorest in boasted that "more than 14D,000 in­ post-war years, at all events, by of­ dividuals have already aHived in the ficial admission, it fell below the MTS and the state farms and are 1952 levels. actively involved in the work" on the In this new situation, the Kremlin virgin lands. This is evidently only made another abrupt shift. The slo­ the first installment of a projected. gan of "abundance within the next large-scale migration. The lead edi­ two-three years" was modified to torial of July 2 Pravda makes this read "a sufficiency and tben an quite clear. abundance." And more significantly, "As the scale of operations in ac­ the Kremlin for the first time admit­ quiring the virgin and fallow lands ted that the production of grain was expands, it will demand," says "inadequate" for the country's needs. Pravda, "a new influx of working By July of this year the official press MALENKOV forces into the Eastern 'regions from was citing six basic reasons why So­ other cities and industrial centers ... viet grain production had to be such a vast project. The most that It is necessary to bear in mind that sharply increased "in the course of was originally contemplated was the the popu1ation of these regio~s wiU 1954 and 1955." possible opening up of .one, . perhaps grow rapidly in nllmhers in the next First, there is the need "to increase two million acres. of this "virgin few. years.". the annual per capita consumption of land'~ for agricultural production, and I t is. noteworthy that Pra,vda fore­ flour and grain products" ; second, this, over ,a period of several years. sees not only a. rapid 'growth, of these

Fall 1954 U9

t regions but underscores the soun;e of to the virgin lands. Some of this ma­ High Risk this growth, namely, "other cities and chinery proved inadequate to the It industrial centers." This means that needs and new types were found nec­ is an adventure because Soviet agriculture still depends overwhelm­ administrative pressure will be ~xert-. essary. Under the new and far bigger ingly for its production on the work ed to an increasing extent to force plan the Soviet agricultural machine and skill of the mass of the peasantry. workers from factories to migrate in­ industry will have to be reorganized The existing state farms, some 4,700 to the West Siberian countryside, the to produce primarily for the projected in number, account for only a small Urals and Kazakhstan. stupendous operations, to the obvious fraction of the total agricultural pro­ On July 1 the Chelyabinsk tractor detriment of the rest of Soviet agri­ culture. duction. Their yields have run as a factory "initiated" a move that was rule lower than those of collective The labor shortage which already given nationwide publicity. "The fac­ f arms and their operations have been tory," reported Pravda, "sent into the adm.ittedly exists on Soviet farms will not be ameliorated but aggravat­ far more costly. In October 1952 Mal­ villages more thana thousand pro­ enkov admitted that "one of the duction workers ... The workers who ed in the next period by the need to divert greater ,Jabor forces into the major shortcomings in the work of a remained behind in the production large number of state farms is the. departments undertook the obligation Asian steppes and former mountain pastures. Again, the rest of the So­ high production cost of grain, meat, to fulfiH the plan (of production) milk and other produce.,'" In Septem- . for' themselves and for the comrades viet agriculture will not be aided but hampered thereby. Why then has .the ber 1953 Khruschev repeated: "The who departed to the collective farms." high cost of producing grain, meat, Ostensibly this movemrent of pro­ Kremlin finally decided upon this course? Obviously for one reason and mi'lk and other items still constitutes duction workers into the countryside a big shortcoming in the work of the' is "voluntary" and temporary, only one reason only. The Malenkov re­ gime sees no other way out of the state farms," and he added: "Many for the period of the 1954 harvest state farms are headed by inade­ season. But f,rom many indications current fa1rm crisis. There is a tell-tale clause in the quately trained workers." A large per­ the regime envisages a more per'ma­ centage of the existing state farms June 1954 Plenum decision that high­ nent shift of at least a part of the have operated only thanks to state existing labor force. lights the bankruptcy of the Krem­ lin's entire agricultural policy. It is subsidies. Under the most favorable circum­ ~'Only a Beginning" this, that the projected expansion of Soviet agriculture must take place stances, a major expansion of state; The June 1954 Plenum suddenly "chiefly by way of organizing new farm operations in these conditions, announced that the plan adopted in. state farms." (Pravda, June 27, 1954. could not be considered other than a. March to bring under grain cultiva­ Our em:phasis.) calculated risk. The bureaucratic ad­ tion 32 million acres of virgin lands The June 1954 Plenum boasts that venture into which the Malenkov was "only a beginning." Far more ex­ in the course of the spring months bureaucracy has plunged is nothing tensive areas are to be opened up and alone there have been created 124 short of a desperate gamble. The lands cultivated. new state farms averaging in size they have brought and propose to The Plenum ordered the Ministry over 5 1,000 acres each. These are bring under cultivation are marginal of Agriculture, the Ministry of State giant grain factories. And the 'current lands; that is, it is a gamble whether Farms and the Council of Ministers plan obviously aims to increase their good crops can be grown there under of the Russian Federated Republic number tenfold and more, with the favorable dim,atic conditions. Inclem­ and that of Kazakhstan to submit view toward m.aking the state-owned ent weather, periods of drought could new plans by October 15, 1954. With­ and state-operated sector the domi­ prove insuperable obstacles. out waiting for the submission of nant one in Soviet agriculture. State As if to warn the bureaucratic ad­ these new plans Pravda on July 2, ownership and state operation turns venturers, on the heels of early win­ 1954 declared that the area of virgin out to be the only way out of the ter there came this year a belated lands to be placed under cultivation blind alley created by more than a spring over virtually the whole Soviet "in the next few years can be in­ quarter of a century of Stalinist "col­ Union. The June 1954 Plenum listed creased twofold and threefold." In lectivization." To put it in different ten major provinces that failed to other words, the March 1954 plan for words, the Malenkov regime, unable fulfiH the plan for spring sowing of cultivating "only" 32 million acres to cope with the opposition and' re­ grain, plus two Republics (Estonia in 1954-55 was scrapped withjn nine­ sistance of the Soviet peasantry, in­ and Latvia), and seven more major ty days in favor of a plan to culti­ capable of supplying the village with provinces that failed to fulfill the vate from 75 mi:lIion to 100 million enough manufactured goods and ne­ plan for potato sowing. The opening acres "in the next few years." cessities to spur the peasants to pro­ up of' the first virginal lands took Under the original March 1954 duce more for the market voIuntar'ily, place under admittedly unexpected plan, it was necessary to divert the has plunged into another bureaucratic and unfavorable conditions. But all bulk of new agricultural ID\achinery adventure in agriculture. this did not deter the' bureaucracy, it made it only the more determined to A.n A.nalysis of Basic Causes take the plunge. The year 1954, when both the sow­ ing campaign and the harvesting took place under the sign of emergency, was originally intended by the Krem­ lin to mark the breaking point in the The Degeneration of the farm crisis. The bureaucracy has been disappointed in its expectations; None of the previously existing major shortages has been alleviated. And in Communist Party contrast to 1953, the grain problem has once again emerged to the fore- front., I

Impose New Strains And the New Beginning The new plan, which on paper ap­ pears to solve everything, has imposed new and tremendous strains on both by James P. Cannon the Soviet countryside and Soviet in­ dustry. I. from that. The revolutionist who The June 1954 P.lenum adopted HE COMMUNIST PARiTY, as would deny it, is simply renouncing special measures, as yet not made it stands today, is undoubtedly his own ancestry. That's where he public, "to strengthen labor disci­ Tthe most friendless p.arty in the came from, and without it he would pline" on the farms and Hto assure history of American ,radicalism, and not be. the active participation of all collec­ this unpopularity is by no means The Communist Party did not tive farmers in the social production confined to reactionary ruling circles change its nature .and its color over­ of the collectives." The peasants find which are fiercely persecuting the night. Between its ea·rly years of it more profitable to work on their party incident to the cold war. The integrity and its later corruption there own midget enterprises and no amount party is despised and rejected by the was a transition period of the trans­ of administrative pressure will sub­ workers too, and not only by the formation of the once revolutionary stantially alter their attitude. But the ignorant and the backward. For the organization into its opposite. This first time, a party faces persecution transition period, which began in the collision between the bureaucracy and without the moral support and sym- last half of the Twenties,ls the sub­ the peasants will be intensified: pathy of even the more progressive ject of this inquiry. The Soviet workers find themselves workers who have traditionally ex- The degeneration of the Commu­ also under mounting pressures. In tended their solidarity to any party nist Party of the United States in this 1953 they were called upon to pro­ or group hounded by the ruling fateful period did not happen by ac­ duce more "within the same produc­ powers. cident. I t had profound causes which tive areas and with the same equip­ In its later evolution the Communist must be considered in their entirety. ment"; . the June 1954 Plenum has Party has written such a consistent The same can be said of the struggle summoned them to "aid" the collec­ record of cynical treachery .and lying for the regeneration of American com .. tives and· the state farms "without deception that few can believe it was munism which began in 1928. detriment to the work of the state ever any different. A quarter of a A complex of external factors, upon enterprises and constructions." As in century of Stalinism has worked which the party tr'ied to operate, also the case of the Chelyabinsk tractor mightily to obliterate the honorable operated upon the party and eventu­ plant, this means that an increasing record ·of American communism in its ally determined its course. Different number of workers wiH be drafted for pioneer days. problems-posed by national and in- work in the countryside, temporarily Yet the party wrote such a chapter ternational developments-confronted or permanently,. while the remaining too, and the young militants of the the party in the different stages of its workers are speeded up to fulfill the new generation ought to know about evolution. Different influences - na­ quotas Hfor themselves and for the it and claim it for :their own. It be- tional and international - predomi­ departed comrades." longs to them. The first six years of nated at different times. The actions The second year of the still unre­ AmerScan comm.unismf-1918-1923- of the party .leaders must be related solved Soviet farm crisis will there­ represent a heroic period from which to their context of time and circum.. fore unfold under much greater social all future revolutionary movements st,ance. Only from this point of view tensions and conflict than the year in this country will be the lineal can one approach an understanding that has just elapsed. descendants. There is no getting away· of the party's retrogressive transfor-

Falll9Ji.C flilation. The rest is only m·a'licious tions dominated the life of the young real differences between the factions gossip or special pleading, which pre­ communist movement at this time. over national policy actually narrow­ sents a mystery without a clue. The big question of this period­ ed down, and they were usually able Americanization, legalization, trade to agree on common resolutions, but II. union work, labor party, leadership­ the faction fight raged fiercer than The history of the first ten years of were specific.all y A merican questions.' ever. American communism. properly falls The issues of internal controversy Something went wrong, and the into three distinct periods. These were not matters of principle-since party began to gyrate crazily like a three periods may be summarized as all factions supported the program of mechanism out of control. The pur­ follows: Bolshevism and aU acknowledged poseful and self-explanaltory internal From 1917 to 1919 the Hfe of the allegiance to the Comintern-but of st·ruggles of temporary factions in left wing of the Socialist PaI'lty-out tactics. theear1ier periods, by which the of which the first troops of American Nevertheless, the political nature of party was propelled forward in spite communism were assembled - was the differences in that period stands of all mistakes and inadeq:uacies of governed primarily by international out very clearly above all secondary the participants, gave place to. a events and influences. Two "outside" questions of personal antagonisms, "power fight" of permanent factions factors, namely, the First World War rivalries, etc. The international factor struggling blindly for suprem.acyor and the Russian Revolution, created -the Comintern-appears in this pe­ survival in a form of political gang the issues which deepened the division riod as a helpful advisor in the settle­ warfare. between the left ,and the right in the ment of national questions. The People who. had started out to fight American SP; and the theoretical for­ American party was throwing up its fQrcommunism began to. lo.se sight mulation of these issues by the Rus­ own indigenous Ileadership -and figh~ of their goal. Factionalism;, which in sian Bolsheviks a.nd the Comintern ing out its own battles with the help earlier times had been a means to an gave the left wing its program. of the Comintem, rather than, as in end, became an end in itself. Alle­ The factional struggle of this pe­ the preceding period, simply reflect­ g;ance to communism and to the party riod occurred along clearly defined ing and re-enacting the international gave way, gradually and impercep­ lines of political principle. The Jeft fight on American grounds. tibly, to. allegiance to the faction-gang. wing, which had previously fought There could be no winners in this as a .theoretically uncertain and some­ IV. crazy game, which-unknown to the what heterogeneous minority, was The years 1924 to 1928 stand out as participants at the time-was destined armed with the great ideas of the the great dividing line between prog­ to find its eventual solution in a Bolsheviks and unified on a new ress and regression in the evo.lution three-way split and a new beginning. foundation. The left wing as a whole of the Communist Party of the clashed with the traditional leader­ United States. V. ship of the SP over the most basic Prior to that time national condi­ What threw the m)achine out of issues of doctrine, as they had been tions, on the whole, had favored the control? That is the question. Stories put !to the test in the war and the consolidation of a revolutionary told about the unsightly squabbles Russian Revolution. party, even though a small one, and and scandals of that time of troubles, l:eaving aside all the mistakes and the process was greatly aided by the whether. true or false, 'which leave ~xcesses of the 'left wing Ieaders,per­ powerful inspiration of the Russian unanswered the question of basic sonaiantagonisms engendered in the Revolution ·and the friendly interven­ causes, are mere descriptions which fight, etc., the lines of principle which 'tion of the Comintern in matters of explain nothing .and properly come sepal'ared them from the old leader­ doctrine and polky. The party, like under the heading of gossip. ship of the Socialist Party were clear- all other parties, had developed in the Such gossip represents the individ­ 11y drawn. The split of '1919, resulting course of internal struggles. The is­ ual participants in the events of that in the formal conSftitution of the com­ sues of these struggles, as written in period as masters of their own fate. munist mbvement as an independent the record, stand out in retrospect This gives them too much credit-or party, was a split over international sharp and c1ea·f. Everything that hap­ too much blame. The party leaders issues of principle in the broadest and pened in those earlier periods mrakes did not operate in circumstances of clea.. est sense of the terni. political sense and is easily compre­ their own making. Their actions were hensible. The reco·rd explains itself. far less significant than the forces III. The evoluttion of the party in the th.at acted upon them. To be sure, ,The period from 1920 to 1923 pre­ Ilast half of the Twenties must appear they were communists, committed to sents a different picture. After the as a puz~le to the student who t1ries the service of a great cause. By that split with the right socialists, the Ileft to decipher the formal record of this fact, they were superior to others of w;ngwas pre-occupied with differ­ period; for the record was in part their generation who limited them­ ences' and divisions in its own ranks, falsified even while it was being selves to small aims. But they were .and the issues of factional struggle made, and has been even more falsi­ neither gods nor devils, and they wer.e d,ifferent. Natimutl considera- fied in later aC-C01.H1ts. In these yean were not able to mak-e history acoord-

.\ ) 1 ing ,to their wilt They were not even of this school of thOlight~if you want These were provided by the native able to stick to their original design. to call it. that-ferv,enNy recommend movement of American revolutionists The story of the Communist Party a "One World" policy of internation­ which had grown up before the Rus­ in the different stages of its evolution alism to American imperialism, whose sian Revolution out of the class strug­ is a story of different people, even virtues they have belatedly discovered gle in the United States. though some of the names are the and' which some of them serve as un­ sam.e-a story of people who changed. official advisors, and even, in some VII. In examining the record of [he ea,rly cases, as direct agents .. These two combined national and days one must try to see the people There is no doubt that the Russian international factors likewise operated as they were then, and not as they Communist Party, itself corrupted interactively on the American Com­ became after the passage of time and into conservatism under Stalin, trans­ munist Party in the later transition many pressures had wrought their mitted its own corruption to the other period of its gradual degeneration, changes. The period of party history parties of the Comiintern which looked which began in the middle of the under yeview was a time of change­ to it for leadership. But that's only Twenties and was virtually completed in the' party :and in the people who part of the story. There were other by the end of the decade. At that headed it. influences working to sap the revolu­ conjuncture the deadening conserva­ In order to understand what hap­ tionary integrity of the party-right tism of American life, induced by the pened to them it is necessary to rec­ here ,at home. I t took more than out­ unprecedented boom of p 0 s twa r ognize what was happening in the side influences-trom Russia or any­ American capitalism, coinciding with wor1d at la'rge and how they were where else-to ruin the Communist the reactionary swing in Russia, affected by it. Like many before them Party of the United States. caught the infant movement of and after them, they who had set out As a matter of fact, in the modern American communism from two sides, to change the world were impercep­ world, internationalism is not an out­ as in a vise from which it could not tibly changed by it. They meant well side influence at all. The whole is not escape. -with a possible exception here and foreign to its pa1rts. America, espe­ I n this period the reactionary Rus­ there. Their fault, which was their cially since 1914, has been a part of sian inHuence, transmitted through undoing, was that they did not fully the "One World" and a very big part the Comintern, wrought unmitigated recognize the forces operating upon indeed. I n reacting to events in other evil in the American party. There is them. countries, America also reacts upon plenty of evidence of that. But here, This made it all the easier for ob­ them. There is no such thing as "the again it is false to ,ascribe all respon­ jective fa~tors in the na'tional and in­ international situation" outside and sibility to the Russians, as an outside ternational situation of the time, apart from this country. And the and uncontrolled force, for they, in which proved to be weightier than American communist movement, in turn, were powerfully influenced by their will, to ,convert most of" them ail its reactions to international in­ the evolution of American capitalism. into instruments-at first uncon­ fluences, was never free from the The American boom of that period, sciously - of a course which contra­ simultaneous influence of its national carrying European capitalism with it dicted their original design and which environment. to a new stabilization after the post­ eventually brought the majority of . The causal factors which brought \-var crisis and revolutionary upsurge, them, by different routes, into the the Communist Party into being in was the 'prime influence generating camp of renegacy. the first place were both national and the mood of retreat to national re.;. international. The same holds true formism, and therewith the rise of VI. for its later evolution at every stage. Stalinism in Russia. It has long since become fashion­ American communism, at the mo­ At the same time, the astounding able for ex-communists, repenting of ment of its. birth, represented a fusion vitality of expanding American cap­ the idealistic follies and courageous of -the Russ-ian Revolution with a italism seem.ed to close off all per­ excesses of !their youth - along with native movement of American radi­ spectives for a revolutionary move­ others who lack this distinction-to calism. It is not correct to say that ment in this country. As the wave of attribute all the evils and misfor­ "everything came from Russia." The labor radicalism was pushed back by tunes which befell the native left­ ideas of the Russian Revolution need­ the ascending prosperity, the party wing movement to "Moscow domina­ ed a given social environment to take began to run into difficulties on all tion" exerted through the Communist root in, and receptive people to cul­ fronts. International. From: this' it is' implied tivate them; as far as we know, the All the get-rich-quick schemes of that everything would have been all Russian ~volution did not create a Pepperite adventurism, all the "high ,right with American radicalism if it Communist Party on the moon. politics" of bluff and make-believe, had fonowed a policy. of isolationism I nternational events and ide,as were had blown up in disaster. Even the and rejected the "outside influences" the predominating influence in bring­ previous achievements of solid work of the outside world. ing the American Communist Party began to crumble away. The trade At the same time, without noticing into existence, but these events and union successes, which had piled up the contradiction, the representatives icleas needed human instruments. so imipressively. in the preceding pe-

Falt 1~54 riod, were turned., into a ser!es of de­ The dimming of international revo- at this time working for conserv,atiza­ feats which .became a virtual rout, 1utionary perspectives, and the loss tion, bore down with crushing weight while the Gompers. "red hunt" rode of confidence in the capacity of the on the still infant Communist Party triumphantly from one end of the working class to transform society in of the United States. labor movement to the other. The the advanced countries, had motiva­ I t was difficult to be a working poar showing of the party in the ted the ret-reat to national reformism revolutionist in America in those presidential election of 1924 testified in the Soviet Union and the wish to days, to sustain the agitation that most convincingly to the party's iso- come to terms with world capitalism, brought no response, to repeat the lation. . to "coexist" with it, and to settle for slogans which found no echo. The All the bright prospects which had "Socialism in One Country," which party leaders were not cJ'ludely cor- fired the ambition of the party lead­ implicit:ly signified a renunciation of 'rupted by personal benefits of the ers to build a mass party of American the program of international revolu­ general prosperity; but they were af­ communism in a short. time, by a tion. fected indirectly by the sea of indif- series of determined forced marches,. The acceptance of this theory by ference around them. r had gone glimmering by the time the the other Communist parties in the "Moscow domination" did indeed party picked up the pieces after the capitalist countries, prepared by their play an evi1 role in this unhappy election campaign of 1924. And the own weariness land .loss of historical time, but it did not operate in a worst was ,yet to come. perspective, implicitly signified their vacuum. All the conditions of Ameri­ It was a time for the party to re­ ·renunciation of the revolutionary can life in the late Twenties, pressing ex,amine its prospects in the light of program in their own countries. At in on the unprepared infant party, basic doctrine and to settle down for the same time, it gave them-for con­ sapped the fighting faith of the party a siege; to recognize the new, un­ solation - an ersatz program which cadres, including the central ,leaders, favorable situation in the country, enabled them to save face in making and set them up for the Russi,an but not to mistake it for permanence. ' the transition to reformism and to blows. The party became receptive to The party needed then a serious theo­ pretend to then1.ielves and others that the ideas of Stalinism, which were retical schooling, and a historical they were still fighting for "socialism" saturated with conservatism, because perspective upon which to base a -in another country. ' the party cadres themselves were un­ confident and patient work of prep­ A more' efficient way of cutting consciously yielding to their own con­ ar,ation for the future. But that was the revolution~ry guts out of the servative environment. precisely what was lacking. Communist parties in the capitalist Some of the original leaders became The great crisis of the Thirties, count'ries could not have been devised. Stalinists, and as such, have made an with its limitless possibilities for the This anti-Leninist theory of "Social­ occupation of betraying the American revolutionary party, was just around ism in One Country" and "coexist­ workers' in the interests of the K·rem­ the corner, but the party leaders ence" with capitalism" transformed lin bureaucracy. Others made their could not see it. They spoke about the Soviet bureaucracy into the most way in stages, over the bridge of it, from old habit, but they began to conservative, anti-revolutionary force' Stalinism, into the direct service of doubt it. The degeneration of the ~ in the world, and debased the Com­ American imperialism. Others fell by party as a revolutiona,ry organization munist parties in the capitalist coun­ the wayside. That did not happen all definitely began already then, and tries from agencies of revolution into at once. It was a long, complicated partly for' this reason. When the crisis border guards of the Sovet Union and and involved process. It took time. finally arrived - pretty much on pressure groups in the service of its But once the process got fairly start­ schedule according t~ :the Marxist foreign policy. ed, time worked inexorably to demor­ prognosis - it was no longer the Com intern intervention in the af­ alize its victims and turn them into same party. fairs of the American party, under ~ traitors. this new and revised program, only ag­ I believe the corruption of the VIII. gravated the difficulties of its na­ pioneer cadres of American commu­ The party needed then such ideo­ tional situation and confounded the nism-by its wholesale scope, by the logical .and political help from the confusion. extremes it called forth of self-repu­ Comintern as it had previously re­ diation and of treachery to a noble ceived in the time of Lenin and Trot­ IX. cause once espoused-is the most dis­ sky - when the purpose of its inter­ The party was influenced from graceful and the most terrible chapter vention had been, in truth and in two sides - nationally and interna­ in American history. Never has a fact, to help the young American tionally-and this tim~ ,adversely in movement of social idealism suffered communists to build the party of the each case. I ts decline and degenera­ such a moral catastrophe, such a rot­ American revolution.- But that was tion in this period, no ,less than its ting .away of its human materiral. lacking too. The Com intern itself, earlier rise, must be accounted for Still, it must be recognized that­ following the Russian party, wa5 primarily, not by national or inter­ apart from its depth and scope­ sliding down into national reformism, national factors alone, but by the two there is nothing really new or strange dragging aU the other parties· with it. together. These combined influences, in this ugly spectacle of men and

FOURrmI IN'l1EIRlNATIONAL

'I \

\ ideals devoured by time and circum- plicably - have held consistently to in 1928 and the reasons for it. These \stance. that position in 25 years of struggle. reasons seemed to me to be correct . By and large, that is the story of These noble commentators on rthe and lDgical at the time as the simple the gradual evolution of aM back­ doings and motivations of others duty of a communist-which I was, sliders in the history of the labor never fail to point out that I was and am-and 25 years of reflection" movement, frDm

Fall 1954 explain why 1he initiators and or­ occurred in the Communist Party of parties' and the new· International. ganizers of the revolt and' the new Russia, whose leaders had been 1:aught Some socialists remained socialists; beginning came-and had to come­ by Lenin. It happened again-with a not everybody capitulated ,and be­ from the same party which, in its big push and pull from the Russi'ans trayed. From the R.ussian party, in majority, had succumbed to externa.l -in the Comm;unist Party of the the first place, from the German pressures; and why, therefore, the United States, whose ,leaders lacked party, and from every other Socialist revolutionary movement of the pres­ the benefit of systematic theoretical Party in the entire world, uncorrupt­ ent and the future must recognize its instruction and who had, in addition, ed :socialists, who simply remained ancestral origin in this party. to work in 1:he most unfavorable so­ true to them~elves, stood up against Objective circumiStances are power­ cial environment in the richest and the degeneration of the old organiza­ ful, but not all-powerful. The status most conservative country in the tions and began to build the new. quo in normal times works to compel world. Even the Socialist Party of the conformity, but this bw is not auto­ United States, that ugly duckling of matic and does not work universally. XII. the Second International, which really wasn't much of a party, furnished Otherwise, there would never' be any But the same historioal experience rebels and dissenters, no' human also shows that there are exceptions cadres not undeserving of mention in this honorable company. agencies preparing social changes, and to this law too. The exceptions are The same thing happened in almost the world would never move forwa'rd. the Marxists who remain Marxists, exactly the same way-according to There are exceptions, and the ex­ the revolutionists who remain faithful the same laws and the same excep­ ceptions become revolutionists long to the banner. The basic ideas of tions to the laws-in the case of the before the great majority recognize Marxism, upon which alone a revolu­ Communist International. The degen­ the necessity 'and the certainty of so­ tionary party can be constructed, are er.ation of the leading cadres of the cial change. These exceptions are the continuous in their application and Russian party, and of all the other historically conscious elements, the have been for a hundred years. The parties of the O>mintem, including vanguard of the class who make up ideas of Marxism, which create revo­ the American party, followed the the vanguard party. The' act of be­ lutionary parties, ar~ stronger than coming a revolutionist and joining the same general pattern and was induced the parties they create, and never fail by the same basic causes as the de­ revolutionary party is a conscious act to survive their downfall. They never of revolt against objective ci

Fall-19.54 From the 'Arsenal 01 Marxism

over the dam since that time! The mere necessity of posing the question Perspectives of as you do in your p~mphlet throws a glaring light on the political back­ wardness of the United States, tech­ nologically the most advanced coun­ American Marxism try in the world. To the extent that you neither ,can nor have the right to tear yourself out of the' American by LIon Trotsky conditions, to that extent there i,s no reproach' in my words. Yet at the same tim¢ there is a Dear Comrade Calverton: This open letter was written to reproach. For, side by side with . I received your pamphlet, "For V. IF. Calverton when he was editor pamphlets and clubs where academic Revolution," and read it with in­ of the magazine Modern Monthly (formerly Modern Quarterly). Cal­ debates for and against revolution are terest as well as profit to myself. verton considered himself a Marxist carried on, in the ranks of the Ameri­ Your arguments against the American and an intellectual fighter for so­ can proletariat, with aU the back­ ":knights of pure reform" are very cialism; and in t h as e. depression wardness of its movemerit, there are convincing, certain of them are reaHy years, when the system of American different politica~l groupings, and splendid. But, so far ,as I understand capitalism was tottering, he grouped around himself and his magazine a among them, revolutionary ones. You your request, what you wanted from considerable n u m b e r of leftward­ say nothing at all about them. Your me was not literary compliments but moving w rite r s and intellectuals. pamphlet does not mention the so­ a political evaluation. I am all the Among the contributors to Modern called Socialist party, nor the Com­ more willing to grant your' request Monthly were such names as' Sidney munist party, nor any of the transi­ since the problems of American Marx­ Hook, Lewis Corey, Bertram Wolfe and others, virtually all of whom - tional formations, in particular the ism have ,acquired at the present time including Calverton himself - were contending factions within the Com­ an exceptional import/ance. sooner <>r later to abandon. their so­ munist movement. This means tha~ By its' character and structure, your cialist ideals and capitulate to the you are not calling anybody in par­ pamphlet is most appropriate for the pressures of American imperialism. ticular to go ,anywhere in pa/rticular. thinking representatives of the student The letter was first published, in You explain the inevitabi1lity of the Russian, in the Bulletin of the Rus­ youth. To ignore this youth would, in sian Opposition, No. 32, Dec. 1932, revolution. However, the intellectual any case, be out of the question; on and appeared in English in Modern who is convinred by you can quietly the contrary, it is necessary to know Monthly, Vol. 7, No.2, Mar. 1933. It finish smoking his cigarette and pass how to talk to these students in their is published here in a new transla­ on to the next item on· his daily own language. However, you yourself tion by John G. Wright. agenda. To this extent there is in my repeatedly emphasize in your study words an element of reproach. the thought which is elementary to a Very good! But not otherwise than I would not have put this circum,­ Marxist; nam:eiy, that the abolition by way of reforms. Transform society, stance at the top of the list if it did of capitalism can be achieved only by morality, the family from top to bot­ not seem to me that your political the working class. The revolutionary tom'? Splendid! But. (lbsolutely with position, as I judge by your ,articles, education of the proletarian van­ the permission of the White House is typical of a rather numerous and guard, you correctly proclaim as the and Tammany. theoreticatly ski,ued stratum of left chief task. But in your pamphlet, I Against these pretentious and sterile inteMigentsia in the United States. do not find the bridge to that task, tendencies you present, as I have There is, of course, no need to talk nor any' indication of the direction in said before, a very successful line of of the H illquit-Thomas party as an which it must be sought. argumentation. But this controversy instrument of the proletarian revolu­ . Is this a reproach on my part? Yes itself' thereby inevitably takes on the tion. Without having achieved in the and no. In its essence your little book character of a domestic dispute in an slightest degree the power of Euro­ represents an answer to that special intellectual club with its own reform­ pean reformism, American Social variety of petty bourgeois radicals (in ist and its own Marxist wing. I twas Democracy has acquired all of its America they seem to be wearing out in this way that thirty and forty vices, and, barely past childhood, has the threadbare name of "lliberals") ~ars ago in Petersburg 'and Moscow already faBen into what the Russians who are ready to accept the boldest the academic MarxistS disputed with caM "senility of dogs." I trust that social conclusions provided they incur the academic Populists: must Russia you agree with this evaluation and no political obligations whatever. So­ pass through the stage of capitalism have perhaps, more than once even, cialism? Communism? Anarchism? or not? How muc1t-waterhas f40wed expressed similar views. But in the pamphlet "For Revolu­ of theory, ;strategy, t,actics and or­ the creative effort in working out an tio~"you did not say a word about g~nization have already succeeded in independent opinion, 'and renuncia­ Social Democracy. Why? It seems to becoming the object of deep diver­ tion of the courageous struggle in its me because, had you spoken of Social gences within Comm.unism. Three fun­ defense wihch is precisely where the Democracy, you would have also had damental factions have been formed, revolutionist begins. On both sides we to give an evaluation of the Com­ which have' succeeded in demonstrat­ have the fellow-traveler type and not m.unist party. And this is not only a ing their character in the course of an active builder of the proletari,an touchy but also an extremely impor­ party. Certainly, a fellow-traveler is tant question, which imposes obliga­ better than an enemy. But a Matxist tions and leads to consequences. I cannot ',be a fellow-traveler of the may perhaps be mistaken with respect revolution. Moreover, as historical to you persona My, but many Amteri­ experience bears out, at the most Gan Marxists obviously and stub­ critical 'moments the storm of the bornly avoid fixing their position with struggle tosses th~ m,ajority of the respect to party. They enroll them­ intellectual fellow-travelers into the selv€s among the "friends" of, the enemy's camp. If they do return, it Soviet Union, they "sympathize" with is only after the victory has been Comlmunism, write articles about consolidated. Maxim. Gorky is the Hegel and the inevitability of the dearest but not the only example. In revolution and - nothing more. But the present Soviet apparatus, inciden­ this is not enough. For the instrument tally, clear up to the top a very im­ of the revolution is the party, don't portant percentage of people stood you agree? fifteen years ago openly on the other I would not like to be misunder­ side of the October 1917 barricades. stood. Under the tendency to avoid Is it necessary to recall that Marx- , the practical consequences of a clear ism not only interprets the world but position, I do not ,at alII mean the also teaches how to change it? The concern for personal welfare. Admit­ will is the motor force in the domain tedly, there are some quasi-II Marx­ of knowledge, too. The moment Marx­ ists" whom the Communist party ism loses its will to transform in a scares off by its aim of bringing the LEON TROTSKY revolutionary way political reality, at revolution out of the discussion club that moment it loses the ability to a'1d into the street. But to dispute the great events ,and problems of re­ correctly underStand political 'reality. about a revolutionary party with cent year's. The struggle among them A Marxist who, for one secondary such snobs is generally a waste of has taken on all the sharper character consideration or another, does not time. We are talking about other, since in the Soviet Union every dif­ draw his conclusions to the end, be­ more serious M,arxists, who are in no ference with the current ruling group trays Marxism. To pretend to ignore way inclined to be scared by revolu­ Jeads to immediate expulsion from the the different Communist factions, so tionary action, but whom the present­ party and to state repressions. The as not to become involved and com­ day Communist party disquiets by its Ma·rxist intelligentsia in the United promise oneself, signifies to ignore low theoretical level, by its bureau­ States, as in other countries, is placed that activity which, 'through all the cratism and ,lack of genuine revolu­ before an alternative: either tacitly contradictions, consolidates the v,an­ tionary initiative. At the same time, and obediently 'to support the Com-, guard of the olass; it signifies to they say to themiselves, that is the munist International as it is, or to cover oneself with the abstraction of party which stands furthest to the be included in the camp of the coun­ the revolution, as with a shield, from' Left, which is bound up with the ter-revolution and "social fascism." the blows and bruises of the .real rev-' Soviet Union and which "represents" One group of intelligentsia has chosen 01 utionary process. the USSR in ,a certain sense. Is it the first way; with eyes, blinded or When the left bourgeois journalists right to attack it, is it permissible to half-blinded, it follows the official summarily defend the Soviet Repub-, criticize it? party. Another gro~p wanders without lie as it is, they accomplish a progres­ The opportunist and adventurist a party home, defends, where it can, sive and praiseworthy work. For ~. ·vices of the present leadership of the the Soviet Union from slander, and M,arxist revolutionist, it isabsol'Ute1y Communist International and of its occupies itself wi~h abst·ract sermons insufficient The problem of the O{:­ American section are too evident to in favor of the revolution without in­ tober Revolution-let us not forget! require emphasis. In any case, it is dicating through which gate one m'Ust -has not yet been solved. Onily par­ impossible and useless to repeat with­ pass to meet it. rots can find satisfaction in repeating in the framework of this letter' what The difference between these two the words, "Victory is assured." No, I have said on the subject in a series groups, however, is not so great. On it is not assured! Victory poses the of independent works. All questions both sides there is renunciation of. problem of strategy. There is no book

Fall 1954 129

( \ which sets 'in ,advance the correct or­ Marxists on the character of the fu­ monplaces which invariably nourished bit f'Or the first workers' state. The tu~e' Russi,an revolution; a study, American political thought in all its head does nat: and cannot exist which natulially, from the original sources ramifications are completely spent. can contain the ready-made formul,a and not from the ignorant and un­ All ,dasses need a new orientation; A fer'socialist !Society. The toads of· conscionable compillations of the drastic renovation not only of the econom,y and politics must still be epigones. But far more important is circulating but also of the fixed cap­ determined only through experience it to elaborate for oneself a clear ital of political ideology, -is imminent. and, worked out collective1y, that is, understanding of the theory and prac­ If the Americans have so stubbornly through a constant conflict of ideas. tice of the Anglo-Russian Committee, lagged behnd in the domain of so­ A Marxist who limits himself to a of the "third period," of "social fas­ cialist theory, it does not mean that summ,ary ~ "sympathy" without taking cism," of the "democratic dictator­ they will remain backward always. It p-art in the struggle 'Over the questions ship" in Spain, and the policy of the is possible to venture without much of ind~stria1iz,atlon, coUectivization, , united front. The study of the past is risk a contrary prediction: the longer the party regime, etc., rises to a :level in the tlast anailysis justified by this, the Yankees are satisfied with the not higher than the "progressive" that it helps one to orient himself in ideological castoff clothes of the past, bourgeois reporters of· the' . type of the present. the more powerful will be the sweep Diuranty, Louis. Fischer and others, I t IS impermissible for q Marxist. of ,revolutionary thought, in America but on the ,'conharystands lower" be­ theoretician to pass by the Congresses when its hour finally strikes. And it cal1se he abuses the calling of revolu­ of the First International. But a is near. The elevation of revolution­ tiOnist. thousand times more urgent is the ary th€ory to new heights can be ~ To ·avoid direct answers, to play study of the living differences over looked for in the next few decades btind-man's-huff with great problems, the Amsterdam "anti-war" Congress from two 'SOurces: from the Asian to remain diplomatically silent and of 1932. Indeed, how m:uch is the sin­ East and from America. wait, or still worse, to console oneself cerest and warmest sympathy for the I n the course of the last hundred­ with the 1hought that the present Soviet Union worth, if it is accom­ odd years the proletarian movement struggle within Bolshevism, is a mat­ panied by indifference to the methods has displaced its national center of ter' bf "person all ambitions"-all this of its defense? gravity several times. From England means to indulge in mental laziness, Is there today a subject more im­ to F'fance to Germany to Russia­ to yield to the worst Philistine pre­ portant for a revolutionist, more grip­ this was the historical sequence of judice, and to doom oneself to demor­ ping, more burning, than the struggle the residency of socialism and Marx­ aHzation. On this score, I hope we and the fate of the German proleta­ ism. The present revolutionary hege­ IshaU' not have any differences with riat? Is it possible, on the other hand, mony of Russia can least of all by you. to define one.'s attitude to the prob­ claim to durability. The fact itseU Proletarian poilitics has a great lems of the German revolution while of the existence ofa Soviet Union, theoretical tradition, and that is one passing by the differences in the especially before the proletarian vic­ of the sources of its power. A trained camp of German and international tory . in one of the advanced states, Marxist studies the differences be­ Communism? A revolutionist who has has naturally an .immeasurable im­ tween Engels and Lassalle w,ith regard no opinion on the policies of Stalin­ portance for the labor movement of to the European war of 1859. This is Thaelmann is not a Marxist. A Marx­ all countries. But the direct influence necessary. But if he is not a pedant ist who has an opinion but remains of the Moscow ruling faction upon of Marxist historiogr,aphy, not a sillent is not a revolutionist. the Communist Internationa~ has 'al­ bookworm but a proletarian revolu­ I t is not enough to preach the ready become a hrake on the develop­ tionist, it is a thousand times more benefits of technology; it is necessary ment of the world proletariat. The important and urgent for him to to build bridges. How would a young fertilizing, ideological hegemony of elaborate for himself an· independent doctor be judged who, inste·ad of Bolshevism has been replaced in re­ judgment about the revolutionary practising as an interne would sati~sfy cent years by the stifling oppression strategy in China from 1925 to 1932. himself with reading biographies of of the apparatus. I t is not necessary It was precisely on that question that great surgeons of the past? What to prove the disastrous consequences the struggle within Bolshevism sharp­ would Marx have ~id about a theory of this regime: it suffices to point to ened for the first time to the point of which, instead of deepening revolu­ the leadership of the American Com­ sp,lit~ It is impossihle to be 'a Marxist tionary practice, serves to separate munist party. The Iliberation from without taking ,a position on ,a ques­ one from it? Most prohably he would the unprincipled' b.ureauoratic com­ tion on which depends the fate of repeat his sarcastic statement, "No, I mand has become a question of life the Chinese Irevolution . and at the am nota Marxist." and death for the revolution and for same time that of the Indian, too, From all indications the current Marxism. d14t is, the future of almost hailf of crisis will be a great milestone on the You are perfectly right in saying humanity! historical road of the United States. that ·the vanguard of the American It .ls very useful to study, let us Smug American provincia1lism is in proletariat must learn to base itself S'ay, the old differences among Russian any case nearing its end. Those com- on the revolutionary traditions of its

IS6 FOURTH INTERNATIONAL own country~ too. In a certain sense for we can accept the Sllogan, "American­ A.Studyof-WhaftheNeed ize Marxism!" This does not mean, of course, to submit its principle and Planning Does to Capitalism method to revision. The attempt of Max Eastman to throw overboard the materialist dialectic in the interests ·In Backward Areas of the "engineering art of revolution" represents an obviously hopeless and in its possible consequences retrograde adventure. The system of Marxism has completely passed the test of his- • tory. Especially now, in the epoch of capitalist decline-the epoch of wars The,. -'- '"Role of Statism and revolutions, storms and shocks­ the materialist dialectic ful·ly re­ veals its inexorable force. To Ameri­ canize Marxism signifies to root it in In the Colonial World American soil, to verify it against the events of American history, to elaborate by its methods the prob­ 'by David Miller lems of American economy and politics, to assimilate the world rev,:, olutionary experience from the st~nd­ 'I. point of Ithe tasks of the A~en~an T WOULO·.be.a stale.truism:to.~ay Indii "I" " ..., revolution. A giant labor! It IS tIme . that the events, in the' cOlonial world to start it with shirtsleeves roBed up. I . The-Indian nationalist movement In connection with strikes in the of. the' ,past :;~~t~e ~h~ve, n';t,b~n h~~: ~~rig:r~qgnized the indispens~­ integrated by um~edc~n~pt~~~; United States, where the shavtered any. hility,'of;~. measure of economIc into the framework of center of the First Internationall was genWi'r~ M~r.x~ their scheme for a ist wOfld perspectIves p1~~n in! ~n n~w transferred, Marx wrote, on July 2? 'le~~1Jtionary bOuigoois,-rrrdi~L" Ill- ~ccQrdance WIth and theory .. Tb~~e- major problems 1877, to Engels: "The porridge IS this view the famous Bom,bay Plan arising from' the'past revolutionary beginning to boil, and the transfer of was issued in 1942. I t is ·a,lso known decade of cdlOfli~} wars ate : (J) The the center of the International to the as the' ata Plan, because the main nature .oftlie state in China; (2) the t United States will yet be justified figures ih its creation were a group finally." Several days later, Engels relation between permanent revolu­ . of industrialists headed by Tata, the answered him: "Only twelve years tion and the emergence of new. b~ur­ most important 'I ndian industria!l fig­ after the abolition of chattell slavery, geois states in Asia; (3) th~ sIgmfic­ ure. The plan was essentiaUy a de­ and the movement has already achiev­ ance of the ~jstorjcally umque, de­ tailed outline of a $33 billion invest­ velGping economic structures· Qf. these ed such acuteness!" They, both Marx ment pregram spread out ov~r a ~e­ new states a$· \Wll .as of other Indus­ and Engels, were mistaken. But as in 'riad of three five-year plans, 10 whIch trially bae~ward ~reas. It is as. a other cases, they were wrong as to the government was to play ~n un­ conttiblltipn toward the form.ulation tempo, but not as to direction. The defined, but central role. 1 ThIS gen­ of a comprehensive l\1arxist concep­ great Trans-fuanic. "porrid~" is eral orientation wa.s confirmed in the tion of th~ colonial revo­ unquestionably beginnmg to bOl.I, the 'worW-wide government Resolution on In~ustrial, lution-various . in -its forms, but all breaking point in the deveIopm~nt of Policy of April 6, 1948, whIch re­ American capitalism will unaVOIdably of them as~t~ of. onesocio... eco~omic served for government investment the whole~that' .tllis presentation alms. provoke a blossom.ing of c~itical and fol1owing industries: coal, iro~, s~ed, Basic to OUt· conception 'is the ac­ generalizing thought, and It may be aircraft, shipbuilding, commumc~tt,?ns that we are not very far away from ceptanre of~n' over-aliI picture ~f the equipment, railroads, oil. EXIShIl.g the time when the theoretical center of economy which. except as a senes of p.roperties in these fields were ultt- the international revolution is trans­ isdlated facts, luis not been sufficiently mately . to be nationalized. . ferred to New York. appreciated' in .the .movell1ent's .a~al­ But the vast problems of orgalllz­ yses of therolonial wor1d:-speclfi~­ Before the American· Marxists open ilJg the new state compeUed delay in ally, the roltt of tpe .bourgeOIs .stat~ m ttre projection of a full-sca,le polan ~nd truly colossal, breathtaking perspec­ the economic process. A hlstoncal tives! the. first five .. year plan did hot go mto summ~lry of t~'7 situati

Fall 1954 vestment. Of this s;um~ 'foiIghly 10% at the termination of the plan, is lowed at regBlar intervals by more was to take tlJe form of industrial difficult to estimate, but plainly it is modest plans in 1930 and 1932.4 None equipment, the .remainder for power a rapidly growing proportion. And of these were more than moderately units,· dams, irrigation", training, and its future is equally plain ffom the successful. Several provinces, in the agriculturaJ . reorganization. 2 (The knowledge· that government invest­ flush of national resurgence, produced seeming slight emphasis on factory ment in India wilt continue to be of their own plans. K wangtung province construction and equipment is· due to the order of 75% of all capital in­ had a three-year plan for "a $[00 mil­ the immensely pressing and 'immedi­ vestment, .with the concomitant con­ lion investment in basic industry ate crisis in agriculture.) sequences of planning and state own­ (more than the tota:l existing inqus­ Of the new industrial plants, ap­ ership. trial capital in the province at the proximately half are expected to be As a result of the plan, it is esti­ time) which was partially fulfilled. built by private entrepreneurs. How­ mated that output will increase as .But continued internal instability, ever the prospects of realizing these follows: coal 30% (35 million tons), gross inexperience and vacillation industrial goals cannot be discussed steel 40% (1.5 million tons) and conspired to reduce the plans to a without consideration of the signifi­ other industrial commodities an av­ level of secondary importance in terms cant course of investment history in erage of 100%. Despite this, no seri­ of capital growth. Nevertheless, on a the postwar period. In the numerous ous r: se in consumption is to be ex-· small scale, the state investment was previous partial efforts at govern­ pecteJ, with the possible exception never fully interrupted, and remained ment planning in investment, the of food. The inflation of the past 12 an indication of a hope and a policy, share allocated to and expected of years has driven real· wages to below or, at the very :least, a symptom of a private capital has always fallen their pre-war level. Average per-cap­ struggle of policies. Doubtless one short of realization. Indeed, in the ita cloth consumption has faBen from strong factor in this irresolution was provisional projection of the most 16 yards to 13 yards; food consump­ the pressure of the comiprador wing recent plan, on two occasions, revi­ tion is only 92% of pre-war stand­ of the bourgeoisie, agents of western sions were made necessary, increasing ards. 3 At the same time industrial imperialism. the government share of projected in­ production has risen considerabll y, In 1935 the government role of in­ vestment at the expense of anticipated particularly in producer goods. (Fuel­ dustrial development was reorganized private. The growing lag in textile energy 180, cement 195, steel 170; in its final form under the Natural and other cOnsumer goods allocated 1939 equals 100.) Resources Commission, and was set to the private sector supports the like­ EXpectations for the futu're as a off on a neW three-year plan fora iihood of unfulfil~ment of private re­ result of the plan ar'e for more of diversified industrial development in­ sponsibilities, and the consequent the same. Textile mills, for which a cluding an additional steel capacity further disproportionality between the 40% rise over the plan had been pro­ of 300,000 tons. 5 The outbreak of war public and private sectors. jected, are in a slump in response to with Japan in 1937· forced a reorgan­ The entire history of investment "necessary" continued low wages, ization of the Commission's plans but and of the plan demonstrates incon­ while producer goods output has held from this time on it played the deci­ up fairly welt The state intervention testably that the Indian bourgeoisie sive role in China's industrial growth. in capital accumulation seems there­ "prefers" increasingly to restrict it­ The pressing need for industry dur­ fore to be leading to nothing but a self to light industry and commercial ing the war was met mainly by gov­ repetition of old bourgeois norms, ventures. As a consequence, irrespec­ ernment funds and management. Be­ i.e., the development of the means of tive of formal policy decisions, the tween 1939-44, new investment ingov­ produ~tion at the expense of the pro­ actual course of Indian economic de­ ernment ·industrial enterprises tota,led letariat. velopment follows more and more 142 billion Chinese dollars. In the same that of a government-dominated econ­ China Before the 1948 Revolution period, private investment totalled 117 omy. In attempting to fulfiH the ur­ bmion Chinese dollars, with much of gent needs of the economy, constant The new phase of modern industrial this capital a government loan.6 encroachments have brought govern­ history in China begins with the ap­ In a policy statement of 1944, the m,ent plans and realized investment proximate unification· of China by government preempted for itself (the into the following areas: fertilizers, Chiang Kai-shek in the late 1920's. fir'st halting gesture of its kind) all From the start, "peculiar" economic chemicals, machine-tools, ~ocomotive development in munitions (a vast all­ fadory, instrument, cement, paper policies were projected. In 1928, Sun­ inclusive segment of industry in a and pharmaceuticals. These are in Fo, the son of the 'founder . of th~ backward economy), power, mining, addition to those industries already Chinese Republic, was responsible for railroads, iron and steel, leaving the . preernpted by law for the govern­ the projection ofa long- and short­ term plan for a $30 billion industrial 4 ment. H. D. Fong, Toward Economic Con­ development by state industry. The trol in China. Precisely what proportion of in­ plan was quite utopian, but was fol- s C. Y. W. Meng, "Survey of 'China's dustry will be in government hands Industrial Development," China Month­ 3 "Report on the Indian Economy," ly, June-July, 1946. .2 Eastern Economist, Mar., 6, 1953. Pacific Affairs, 1949 . 6 Ibid.

FOURTH INTiBNATrONIAL , remaining sectors of the economy t() p1antatiqns· covering half· the total It is not, however, the strength of private enterprise. acreage in sugar and employing 200,- the classical bourgeoisie which is re­ However at the close of the war the 000 laborers.9 No, nationalist policy sponsible for this reservation about fo~ces of experience and necessity on planning of nationalization on the private enterprise. The -real limiting. compelled the government to a de mainland of China was not a f~ak, factors to fuUer nationalization lie, facto vio:Iation of its own policy in but an inevitable bourgeois response in the technical and administrative dealing with the industry of the re­ in an aU but impossible situation. backwardness of the bureaucratic ap­ store~ territories of Occupied China paratus, and in the poverty of the and Manchuria. This phase OOS been The New China economy, resulting in the enormous amply documented by Germain.7 In The participation in a real, not difficulty of integrating the public addition· to taking over all Japanese and private sectors of the economy; . merel y window-dressing role, of bour­ and collaborationist industry (the geois groups in the revolutionary gov­ and in government control and plan­ overwhelming part of Chinese modern ernment, the theoretical decla·rations ning in general. The recent five-anti's industry) the government also estab­ of the Chinese Communist Party on and three-anti's movements were a lished a monopoly in the merchant the relation between state and private reflection of this problem, as is also marine,. the sugar industry of For­ capital (and the numerous supporting the fact that these campaigns have mosa, and created a four billion Chin­ decrees), the actual protective course not been followed by any tendency ese dol:lars corporation for the further toward further expropriations among' 8 pursued by the CP during the agrarian industrial development of Manchuria. revolution toward all non-land capi­ the numerous investigated private The end result of this process of ap­ tal, have aU been previously and firms. propriation was that fuBy 60% of amply documented, particularly in As in the other Asiatic states, the . China's industrial capacity was na­ the work of Germain. A part from the policy of the Mao regime toward for­ tionalized: land question, the policy for indus­ eign capital is not a hostile one. Not One consequence of this lump-sum trial development of the CP is essen­ only is domestic capital protected, nationalization must not be ignored. tially a continuation of that of the but foreign as wel1. 12 An exception to Insofar as heavy industry was con­ previous regime! this policy may have been made in cerned~ cutting off the source of ex­ Catapulted to power, the new gov­ regard to American properties, as a perience and training for the classical ernment proceeded to nationalize the response to the refusal of the U.S. bourgeoisie as well as the source of property of bureaucratic capital, i.e., government to release Chinese funds. private capital accumulation, made those elements intimately tied to the in American banks to the new regime. it inevitable that the future develop­ Chiang regime who fled to Formosa. There is no reason to believe that ment of industry would a'lso proceed By 1952, 80% of aU heavy industry the government wou:ld not welcome in tfle channel of state enterprise or was in government hands, and 30% and encourage foreign investment, on not at alL I t is this historically unique of light industry.10 But apart from policy considerations. The $50 million political economy to which the Chinese these political expropriations, the annual capital loan from Russia is Communist Party fell heir upon com­ situation was not changed qua,litative­ an insignificant amount for China's ing to power. tly in comparison with the condition immediate needs and capacity to ·ab­ But before proceeding to the policy of state economy under Chiang. The sorb capital, and even runs a poor of the new regime, it will be of in­ state retains dominance in heavy in­ second to U.S. loans and grants to terest to glance at the economic struc­ dustry (and must extend this); ilight I ndia, which are approximate.ly double ture which the Kuomintang forces industry and commercial capital re­ this amount. . have created and maintained on their main largely in private hands.11 last retreat, Formosa. This island of As to current and future capital eight million inhabitants has today,. accumulation in China, its' distribu ... 9 Report()f tile National Resources tion between the public and private under Chiang Kai-shek, propor­ Commission, TaIwan, 1951. sectors, no significant data is yet. tionately more statified economy than 10 China Recon&~ructs, Jan-'Feb., 1953. availahle; consequently it has been. any area of the world outside the 11 lIn terms of employment and re­ impossible to determine the actual Soviet Union. The state has a prac­ sources used, the specific weight of source of the capital or to compare· ticing monopoly in the fol-lowing in­ aight industry is much greater in back­ ward areas than in developed econo­ the rate of development with that of dustties: aluminum, cement, coal, fer­ mies. Thus, for example, in one indus­ I ndia. However, if one is to be at all tilizer, gold and copper mines, ship­ try which remains in a semi-handicraft guided by government policy state~. building, petroleum;, electric power, stage, paper manufacture, in Chekiang ments, it seems likely that it is the . pulp-paper works, steel works, ma­ province alone in 1929, in 24,000 mills area of government heavy industry chine manufacture, sugar mms, chem­ employing 125,000 workers, capital in­ vestment· in each mill ranged from and development which wiH continue ica'ls. It also operates nine textile mills $1,415 to $14 and the number of work­ to absorb the predominant share of with half tbe output of the island. In ers varied from 17 to 2. Outside of new capital in China. addition the state operates 186 sugar textile goods, most mass consumption goods are produced under such condi­ 7 Fourth International, Nov.-Dec., 1950 tion& (pottery, bricks, flour, oil, wine" . 12 Open Letter of Peng Shu-tze, The 8 Far East Survey, 1946, p. 296. lanterns, etc.). Militant, Nov. 2, 1953.

Fall 1954

L Indonesia however, there was almost no counter­ Burma The 'Dutch government of pre-war part private investment to supple­ I n Burma we find a territory in . days pur::,ued a policy in Indonesia ment development. Private capitalism much the same position as Indonesia, somewhat distinct from that of the restricts itself to commerce despite yet meriting distinct treatment for other imperialists in Asia in several generous government offers of loans, the unusua1 political features of the significant aspects. An outstanding so that in industrialization the field is regime. Here too we find an insigni­ example was the fact that no non­ yielded almost entirely to the state. ficant native bourgeoisie, whose tole Indonesian could own agric.u:Jtural The only other source of growth has is usurped by British and even In­ land. The large estates for industrial lain in the field of industrial coopera­ dian capital. Butmese industrial cap­ agriculture could only be on leased tives, which, facHitated by strong ital is almost confined to the smaller bnd, and for the most part, land not communal ttadition· and government rice mills. previously cultivated (hence the con­ policy, now number 1,500. employing After independence was attained centration of estates in thinly popu­ 218,000 workersY These exist mainly under the leadership of the Socialist lated Sumatra). To this policy was in handicrafts. Party, a Constitution and policy were due the unusual degree of survival But it is not only native capital promulgated much more specifically in Indonesia of ancient communal that is not forthcoming. The huge "socialist" than in any other state in dand distribution and the relatively foreign - O\v:ned investments. while Asia. Under the Land NationaHzation low concentration of land ownership. guatanteed by the state, are no longer Act (Nov. 4, 1948), land was nation­ But paralleling this attempt to pre­ the viable economic units they once alized, and individual holdings lim­ serve some aspects of the pre-Dutch were. (The very obviously unfinished ited to a maximum of 50 acres, except :economy, was the failure of Indone­ state of the revolution in Indonesia for producers cooperatives. Also na­ sIa, perhaps more than any other in the city as well as on the land has tionalized were aU rice mills (an Asiatic colony, to develop its own resulted in paralysis and even some industry employing half the industrial bourgeoi~ class. The role of this class exodus of private foreign investment.) labor fotce of the country), as well -to supplement the western bour­ The major capita.} holdings, those as the distribution and sale of rice. geoisie in the exploitation and devel­ in industrial agriculture, are ha·rd hit Under Articles 44 and 219 of the opment of the country-fell to the by a dual problem, the genera.} hostil­ Constitution, state enterprises were Chinese immigrant (commercial in­ ity to foreign capital and the grow­ to have a monopoly in arms, rail­ vestment) and to the state. Conse­ ing food crisis. During the war, the roads, power, communication, chemi­ quently, even in the pre-war period Japanese, unable to use all the pro­ cals, iron-steel, extractive indust·ries. the government owned two-thirds of ducts of Indonesia's vast industrial As usual in these cases, the state in the railroads, all telephone and tele­ agriculture, acquiesced in the return· practice was forced beyond even these graph, 60% of electric power, 75% of industries into almost every ~eld. coal output, 60% of the tin mines of land to food production to meet the growing shortages. As a result Thus river transportation has been (and five-eighths interest in the rest). nationalized, and government plants many estates (particularly in Suma­ At the conclusion of the struggle were constructed in textile, glass, salt for independence a policy of indus­ tra) were divided by the peasants mines, cement, paper, fertilizer, jute trial development was accepted uni­ into smaU holdings. Thus far it has bags. versa1iy, and all major parties claim­ proved impossible to reconstruct these In 1950, a development plan was ed to aim at a socialist common­ estates, and the attempts to do so introduced covering 1951-59, and in­ wealth. The constitution (Article 38) are partly responsible for the Darul volving $1.5 billion. It is difficult to states, "The national economy shall Islam movement. Naturally this does determine to what degree this is being be organized on a cooperative basis." not serve to encourage further private realized. But it is quite plain' that But in the short run, the ruling investment, though the capital short­ private domestic capital is playing groups agreed that this would pre­ age· is very severe. One consequence practically no role, remaining restrict­ clude expropriation of foreign proper­ is . that even in estate agriculture the ed in practice to commerce. ties due to the great capita;} shortage state has been largely responsible for The pr'edominant role of the state and the need for foreign help. the necessary reconstruction. But to in investment and production is not In 1950, the first industrialization this day, the real a·nd incipient war altered qualitatively by the fact that plan was proposed, the Sumitro plan, in the countryside is such that even foreign capital still retains SOme hold oriented about the construction of at the peak prices and demand of in the country. The vast capita;l reo relatively smaH plants, complement­ 1951 (Korean war stockpiling) , the quirement for reconstruction of the ary to the basic agricultural products oi'l indust·ry has discouraged the gov­ production of raw material for export of the islands (wood-pulp and paper, ernment from nationalizing it to date was only 60-80% of 1938.14 rubber milling, tiles, plywood, spin­ on t!"te premise that only foreign cap­ ning and knitting mills, jute bag italists could supply the needed re­ 13 u.s. Information Office, RepUblic plants, cement, ·saw mlills, chemicals, .of Indonesia, "Report on [ndonesia," sources. The policy is, in fact, one of aluminum plants, fertilizer, glass, Oct. 1, 1952. encouraging more private foreign scrap ireduction plants. Unlike India, 14 Ibid. capitalism, but so far very little has

134 FOURTH INTERNATIONAL been forthcoming, due no doubt to regime and the persisting revolution- . ation in Europe from the feudal to the over-all industrial' policy of the ary situation. the bourgeois conception of wealth took centuries. II. Asia, an agrarian society, is to this I t is, and indeed should be, a South America). The significance of very day still essentially weahh and genuine source of theoretical concern, the analysis rests essentially upon the not capital oriented. Surpluses are to find this formation of similar ecO­ relationship it bears to that central not invested, but rather kept in nomic structures developing within a organizing principle, the problem of hoards of bullion, luxury goods, or group of countries encompassing the capital accumulation and investment. sent abroad. In the more "dynamic" widest range of seemingly divergent Within this framework we can recog­ sectors, wealth can be invested in political superstructures-the Formosa nize that there are other equally im­ trad~, speculation, but only rarely in and China of Chiang Kai-shek and portant problems on the road to genuine capital construction. Due to of Mao Tse-tung, so-called so­ capital accumulation, and that the the late arrival of capital accumula­ cialist Burma and overtly bourgeois traditional analysis is therefore in­ tion, the incipient bourgeoisie is faced India. It is possible, however, to dem­ complete. simultaneously with the historically onstrate ,that these superficially di­ The forced involvement of. the most mature impediment-revolution­ verse states are really but different Asiatic countries in the world market ary class struggle. manifestations of 'a common social imposed upon them for the first time Capital scarcity is, of course, a necessity in much the same sense that the revolutionizing tasks of capital relative conception. Asia has been it' was possible to understand Hitler creation. We a·re accustomed to speak sufficiently shaken by the impact of Germany, Social Dernpcratic Sweden, summarily of the 'backwardness of industrialism to make it :likely that if and pre-war Japan aU as expressions pre-revolutionary Russia, and of the these nations could be isolated from of bourgeois society, despite their cer­ overriding significance of this condi­ the world market, capitalism would tainly non-cIassical character. The tion. How much more so this is true slowly but surely grow, much as it full c.oncrete reality, the diversity in of Asia is rendered graphically clear did in Europe in the late middle ages. appearance, can, of course~ be under­ by one simple index. In 1913, Russia But the concretely overwhelming links stood only by an analysis ot the gen­ had a steel capacity which, in per to the wor,ld market pose a problem eral socio-economic problems facing capita terms, was more than ten times· which Europe (outside Russia) never this group of countries, tbe manner that of I ndia or China in 1950-4.2 had to face regarding the rate of of attempted resolution of these prob­ million tons vs. approximately one capital accumulation. The nature of lems, and the specific historical cir .. million tons. capitalism., and of the market, demands cumstances in which the attempt was This imperative necessity to ac­ that as each country enters the made. cumulate is buttressed by the fact, sphere of capitalist production it must which history so amply demonstrates, do so at the highest level reached by The Economies of Statification that failure to do so yields not stag­ industrial civilization up to that nation, but relative and absolute de­ point. Nothing short of this level will There is an extensive Marxist lit­ cline! ThQ overwhelming necessity do if the economy entertains serious erature on the subject of the role of and the method by which it is attack­ perspectives; any lower le.vel can lead imperialism in impeding the indus­ ed, determine the character of all only to stagnation. This is, of course, trial development of the colonial policy; and it is this common situa­ "old hat." But to say that Asia enters areas. Three major factors seem to be tion and m~thod that impose their industrial society in the period of the responsible for this, and they need stamp upon seemingly diverse re­ emergence of atomic energy is to only be mentioned here. (I) Certain gimes. Above all stands the tremen­ dramatize, without departing one iota industries were not permitted for dow; contrast between the indispen­ from reality, the enormous leap that competitive reasons. (2) The most sable minimum capital requirements must be taken. The .Jaw of combined profitable industries (extractive)' were (determined by political as well as development takes the stage with a reserved for European capital, depriv­ economic pressures) and the quanti­ vengeance. ' ing the home economy of a great ties realizable under given social re­ Perhaps some explication of the source of ready capital accumulation. lations. meaning of catching up today may (3) The political necessity of preserv­ In advanced countries;' the problem not be superfluous. Industrialization ing power imposed a policy of en­ of capital accumulation is compa'ra­ involves more than the use of the couraging "feudal" social relations tively simple. Our whole economy, latest technical apparatus. The scale and repressing the dynamic potential­ way of life, is geared above an else of operations of modern industry is ities of urban-industrial development. to this one demand. So much so that such th'at the unit of capital expendi­ Valid as this ana:lysis is, it is cer­ we forget that to a feudal or agrarian ture in under-developed areas is not tainly inadequate, being incapable of society, capital accumulation is al­ the plant, but a coordinat'ed group explaining the failure of independent most incomprehensible. Such societies of industries. Thus setting up one semi-colonial countries to mature in­ are geared about W1ealth production, modern steel mill in I ndia would dustrially (pre-war Eastern Europe, not capital formation. The transform- mean a minimum increase of 25-50%

Fall 1954 136 in her steel capacity. A change in Where this development proved concrete instance of nationalization output of such scope could not be met impossible, or delayed, as in pre-war (and under trade union management!) by a mefle internal expansion of all the colonia,} areas under direct imperialist T1rotsky presents us with thepoliticaZ industries and services related to steel. domination, it is hardly surprising to necessity for the new role of the state.­ Instead one would simultaneously find that, historically, the emergence So perpetual; so all-embracing is the· have to open up new coal and iron of a bourgeoisie in the classical form crisis of the colonial areas of the mines, quite possibly new railroads, was of necessity an abortive one. The world, that the preservation of bour­ electric power units, schools for train­ best that these economies were able geois society demands that the state ing .tabor, perhaps new cities and cer­ to manage up to now was a bastard take direct charge, in one final deci­ tainly additional steel fabricating development, the comprador capital­ sive effort at disciplining the revolu­ plants to absorb the qualitatively new ist, so prominent throughout the co­ tion and the new additional revolu­ steel capacity.15 lonial world, the marginal entrepre­ tionary impulses which efforts at To all this, one must add the revo­ neur who lives in and thtbugh the industrialization must unleash. lution in culture involved in the over­ limited industrialization carried out The major source of the vast rev­ night creation of 'a labor force for by the imperialists. olutionary mass movement which has modern industry.· Students of the his- . The logic of the condition in which swept the entire colonial world is the . tory of the creation of the contempo- they find themselves has not been lost unchecked decay of Asiatic economy rary Soviet labor force will not be upon the more dynamic, non-feudal during the past hundred years,

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL declining reaHty and rising expecta­ The traditional Iresponse of the co­ helped in ·the defeat of the British' in tions and demands, was given us by lonial . bourg~oisie to revolutionary Burma. a movement among New Guinea la­ anti-imperiaHsm was governed by fear Though hardly an independent re­ borers upon the final withdrawal of of the permanent revolution, the fear gime, the Japanese did institlJ,te a Am.erican troops in 1946. The lreturn that once the m.asses entered the scene government in Burma with far more of the Austr'alians, and their ·lower and expeUed imperialism,. they would power and participation for the Bur­ wage policy for natives, caused a move on to the .destruction of bour­ mese than the British had ever grant­ strike among these sons of headhunt­ geois society itself. The need of the ed. Burmese we~ appointed to all ers for a 4,800% increase in wages native bourgeoisie for national inde­ government positions, internal au­ and an American diet! pendence and the elimination of the thority was extensive, and the B IA The attempt to resolve these vital feudal elements in society was there­ was maintained as a sizable armed problems of the economy by intensi­ fore met by only half-hearted, com­ force. Plainly, these were the minimal fied industrialization requires statifi­ promisist attempts, with which the concessions consistent with maintain­ cation of production for reasons be­ history of the inter-war period is re­ ing order; i.e., preventing revolution. yond the economic indispensability of plete. The vast territory to be administered, planned integrated development. The And this remained the perspective the awakened, confident, militant unbelievable capital poverty of these of the native bourgeoisie until devious nationalist movement made a deal states imposes upon them a program history demonstrated that in condi­ with the native ruling class absolutely of capita:! accumulation· which, under tions of great revolutionary upsurge necessary-risky though ·it was. bourgeois conditions, can only be re­ and weakened imperialism, the revo- But these concessions were not suf­ alized by the most barbarous direct .lutionary masses could no longer be ficient to counterbalance the demand exploitation of the proletariat pre­ suppressed, contained, and that the for' full independence, or to compen­ cisely· at a time when its expectations only slight remaining chance for both sate for the enormous demands which and demlands for improved circum­ domestic and foreign capita:! lay in the Japanese began to make upon the stances are at a new i peak. the surrender of political power by conquered an:as. Interrupted rom­ Thus pressed by economic and po­ imperialism and its assumption. by munications, general industrial short­ litical necessity-the attempt to meet the native bourgeois classes, or in ages, the need for defe~se works, com­ the revolution, to master it, to develop most cases, by its "socialist" repre­ pelled the Japanese to forced, requi­ the economy and thus meet the urgent sentatives. sitioning of 1a~or and supplies which revolutiona,ry demand for production The revolutionary history of Asia were far beyond the capacity of the -the situation is approachable for a over the past decade is' actually not ec{}nomy~ The net 'result; 1 W3'S} rthat ..... a bourgeois Tesolution only through too well known. It is very sparsely raging inflation set in 'by 1943. ',,'" some variant of state-dominated econ­ documented. Our analysis is there- \Vhen indications arose that the omy. And now, in the fullest sense of . fore of necessity sketchy. But the the word, the state in all its functions war was turning against the Japanese, main out-lines of some of the processes the desperate occupying power could and Jullest potentialities is revea-led are reasOnably distinct. beyond disguise as the executive com­ only att~mpt to halt the rising tide of hostility by declaring Burma inde­ mittee of the ·capitalist class-the state Burma , as the "personification of capital." pendent in August, 1943. In what Even before World War II broke mU$t have been an astonishing re­ The Historical Circumstances out, sections of the nationalist move­ sponse, the declar'ation was the signal ment, including the Socia:list Thakin for the outbreak of a vast peasant . The abstract realization that a movement, had established close ties wa-r against the Indian :land-owning social system is at an impasse, and with the Japanese government, which class. Fleeing to Rtangoon, the land­ the' availability of a "solution" (in promised to supply funds, arms and lords received asylum, but neither this case statification of production), military training to the anti-British the Japanese nor the Burmese regime dres not guarantee that the society movement. These promises were only dared to intervene to protect their will be able to muster the resources partially fulfilled, but one of the Bur­ property rights.18 . for the requisite effort. For example, mese who received military training The growing economic crisis, the the urgent necessity of economic and in Japan was Aung San, the future growing certainty of Japan's defeat, politica-I unity of Europe is quite leader of Burma.17 Under such cir­ caused a split in the nationalist move­ clear to everyone in Europe, even to cumstances it is halrdly surprising ment, and, .Jed by a cabinet minister most sections of the bourgeoisie. De­ that the outbreak of war in 1941 was of the government, Aung San, the spite this, to all appearances the de­ greeted as the first step toward Bur~ anti-J apanese I11.bvernent was organ­ cay is so deep that bourgeois Europe mese independance (an illusion widely ized as the Anti-Fascist Peoples'Free­ seems quite unable to consummate shared throughout Asia) and led to dom League (AFPFL). Like the even this secondary effort. So in the the immediate formation of the Bur­ Chinese revolution, the mass base of colonial countries, understanding is mese Independence Army (BIA) which not invariably followed by action. 18 V. Thompson, Labor Problems in Here politics, history play their role. 17 Thein Pe, What Happened in Burma. South East Asia.

Fa111904 this movement, ,,'and: of" its' I £I rgest power' under:jt~ i~dttm#g'a ,'military iately after' the decJar'ation of inde­ component party, the Socialist Party. force. Under' irifluen~esW;ed·,'the· Japanese in­ Chinese bourgeois-feudal class, de­ . hand over the power to a native class v,asion, is difficult to determine in manded an end to the French union: of urban petty-bour~eois elements view of the compliete absence of any and recognized that without ind~pen­ linked with the new small-peasant detaj,led history 'of this period. Un­ dence, aU is lost for themselves' and landholders. doubtedly, the economic and political the French.) cnSlS~ the refleckd revolutionary I t is in this matrix of economic, Indonesia movement, assumed some independent political and historic events and con­ To a startling degree, events in In­ working class forms such as unions. ditions, that the colonal revolutions donesia followed closely the pattern Very possibly on the plantationS the of the past decade, and the economic of Burmese developments. Here too revolutionary. organizations and the statism which characterized them, be­ the nationalist movement accepted class organiz,ations were often synon­ come a comprehensive unity and re~ the Japanese, and held -considerable ymous; but, either duriflg"()r immed- ality.

FOU!Rfl'UI INTlEiRNAT.IDNAL BOOKS

Despite 'some persecution, the party scored sufficient successes to frigh~n Bernstein's Challenge Bismarck, chancell0'r of the Ger_n government. In 1878 he deliberately framed' up the Social Democra1dc Party after two attempted assassina­ To Marx tions of the aged emperor by psy· chotics who had nothirig t0' d0' with the party. The Reichstag passed the legislation he dema.nded, outlawing the Social Democr'atic Party, and Bis­ marck set in motion ·a nation-wide by Joseph Hansen witch hunt. Meetings of the party were banned, its newspapers confiSCfl­ ted, m£mbers arrested. Companies.aH HIS IS A POLITICAL biography over Germ,any joined in the· hysteria, THE DILEMMA OF DEMO"­ of Eduard Bernstein, an out­ compelling their employees to sign. a CRATIC SOCIALISM, by Peter Tstanding. member of that group "loyalty" ooth; i.e., that they. were of disciples whom Marx and Engels Gay. Columbia University Press, not members 'of the proscribed party knew personally and helped develop New York, 1952. 334 pp. $4.25. or would abandon membership im- as. leaders of the revolutionary social­ mediately .. ist movement. Bernstein had the un­ olutionary socialist. The depression Bernstein went to Switzerland where enviable. distinction of being the first of 1873 touched off an upsurge of he became editor a little . later' of after the death of Engels to break labor and the young enthusiast found SOtialdemokrat, the' party's official from the great founders of scientific his spare time occupied to the full. paper, which, was smugglfd into Ger- socialism. Faced with new, unantici­ The school of public speaking alld many. He proved ,to bean able. edi­ pated facts that seemed to vitiate the debating in the suburbs of Berlin. was tor,: >.f~~eiviQg,;;~ng~l:${yj:offlJm~a;i.qn prognoses of the masters, he revised rough. Besides evenings it m@ant and. encouragement 'when ~he; ;re~~· their basic views from top to bottom three debates or speeches each week- sibHity of the .assignment and the in­ so that 1V1arxist theory, as he saw it, end. This went on for six years. As adequacy of his education caused him would better correspond with what his activities brought him into prom- to think of resigning. he took to be the living reality. inrence in the party, he began his Those years of resisting the witch The causes of this spectacular theoretical studies. These consisted of hunt andaH its pressures became change, Bernstein's substitute theo­ a little of Marx and more of a P'ro- known as ~he "heroic years." Despite ries, and their impact on the Social fessor Duhring who was then in re- the persecution, which included the Democratic movement m,ake up thret: puteas a socialist with a university arrest and imprisonment of party parts in Peter Gay's book. Of these . education. Continually under attack Ileaders, the Social Democrats made the first two are the best. The third from his superiors, the blind profes- headway. Not even the death of suffers from the author's unfortunate sor attracted much sympathy. Actu- Marx dented their ranks. They con­ sympathy for his subject as a man any he turned out to be >an anti- centrated their defensive fight around and as a politician. Semitic mega,lomaniac. the ballot box and began to roll up Bernstein began his political life The educated Professor Duhring an impressive vote. like most other adolescent:s of the day made such an impression on the un- Bismarck's response to their elec­ as a patriot in the Franco-P,russian schooled Bernstein that he enthusi- toral gains was to grant concessions \var. However, late in 1871 his read­ astically pushed his pretentious writ- to the workers such as sickness, acci­ ing of radical newspapers convinced ings within the Social Demooratic dent and old-age insurance at govem­ him that the government's charge of movement. The fact that this was ment expense. This was coupled with treason against Bebel, Liebknecht and . well received even by the leaders in- intensification of the witch hunt. other socialist leaders was false. The dicates how low the -theoretical I'evel Through diplomatic bullying and war, he decided, was wrong. In Feb­ of the movement was in politically bribery, Bismarck even secured ex­ ruary of 1872 he joined the Social backward Germany. It took a long pulsion of the staff of SOtialdemokrat Democra tic movement. series of articles by Engels himse-lf, from Switzerland in 1888. Bernstein, The 22-year-old youth had left which were finally published 'as a under indictment in Germany for school six years before to begin his book, to finish off the Duhring fad. 'sedition' and now under attack from apprenticeship as a bank oIerk. Now A nti-Duhring, Bernstein admitted, was . the Swiss authorities, went to London. he began his apprenticeship as a rev- what really won him to Marxism. By 1890, twelve years after the

Fall 1954 139 witch hunt began, the Social Demo­ of Marxism that quickly became And, setting the example, he raised crats had become so powerful in known as the bible of Revisionism. the banner of what he considered to Germany that Bismarck's policy of The sensation of his attack on Marx­ be Kantian ethics. In place of Marx's repression was considered a fiasco. He ism made Bernstein famous through­ view that socialism is inevitable, the­ was dismissed by the young Kaiser out Europe, propeUing him overnight next .stage of society whose lineamel}ts and the party emerged into the public into leadership of a powerful current can be seen in capitalism itself as arena, seemingly well on the way to in' the Social Democratic movement. the present order prepares the eco­ becoming, Germany's most powerful Bernstein went to the heart of nomic, social and political ground­ political force. Marxism, the materialist dialectic. work for its replacement, Bernstein Bernstein was now working in close This method, which Engels described spoke of socialism as nothing more collaboration with Engels. He spent as "our best working tool and our than an ethical ideal, something that considerahle time in the ,reading room sharpest weapon," was denounced by "ought to be:" He was not even sur'e of the British Museum where Marx Bernstein as a "snare." He considered that socialism would necessarily fol­ had labored for decades. In 1895 he Marx and Engels to have been "se­ l<;>w capitalism. Why not something published an important contribution duced by the Hegelian dialectic, which different? Something completely un­ to Marxist ,literature, Socialism and after all is not iJ?tegra.uy connected foreseen? He decided that socialism Democracy in the Great English Rev­ with the theory." I n his opinion, "The is really "utopian," not scientific, be­ olution. (In the English translation great things which Marx and Engels cause it is "biased"; biased for the the title of the book is Cromwell and achieved they accomplished in spite working class against the capitalist Communism.) This marked the pin­ of, not because of, Hegel's dialectic." class. nacle of Bernstein's achievements. In I n place of the ilogic of contradiction Bernstein's :revisionism was just as Z5 years of revolutionary socialist ac­ he advocated "organic evolutionism"; sweeping in economics. He accepted tivity and study he had more than that is, a, concept of unilinea'r prog­ the views of the new bitterly anti­ made up for his lack of university ress thatconvenie'ntly leaves out the Marxist school of marginal economists training. He was now recognized role of such abrupt transitions as as compatible with Marxist eco­ everywhere as one of the leading in­ revolution among the motor powers nomics. He decided that capitalism teltlectuals of the Marxist movement. of history. was not heading toward worse de­ He felt, in accordance with this, pressions, but that instead the periods "Evolutionary Socialism" that Marx and Engels had too much of prosperity were widening. In place But all was not well with Bernstein. ~stressed the role of force in history of increasing concentration and cen­ tralization of wealth as forecast by IIA~ ~~rJy: i!S ''1892 'Engel'S had'indltated and had over1ooked the possibility of ,: ;his 'displeasure over Bernstein's en­ ,the gradual growth of capitalism into Marx, ownership, along with its bene­ thusiasm for the Fabians in England, socialism. No longer seeing deve.}op­ fits, was being spread more widely a grouping of socialists headed by ment through contradiction, the ~ogic among the people. such figures as George Bernard Shaw he substituted for dialectic gave As for the class struggle, "In no and Sidney and Beatrice Webb who him development through continuous, way do I deny that a class struggle thought the best way to get socialism ·small, mostly irreversible changes. is going on in mPdern society. But I was to talk the the capitalist class Thus as a practical result of his wish to argue against the stereotyped into it. Engels ,ascribed Bernstein's theory he visualized the "permeation" conception of this strUgglleas well as wavering to a "nervous iHness" which 'of capitalism with a socialist content· against the claim' that it must neces­ he had recently undergone. (the Fabian view). sarily assume ever harsher forms." Bernstein's friends noted a growing The principles which he had de­ The continuous increase of produc­ moodiness ,and irritability in the f~nded for ,a quarter of a century tivity signified not increasing polari­ usually affable writer as if he were now appeared to Bernstein as "dog­ zation of classes in S9ciety and the suffering from an unresolved con­ mas" that must be rooted out if eventual destruction of the middle flict. The reason for this cooling off Marxism was not to become ossified. class, but steady improvements for toward his friends began to be ap:" And so he leveled his guns at the the workers and the increase of the parent in 1896, a year after Engels' undue power of "tradition" in the middle class. Thus, the role of the death, when Bernstein started a series movement. The entire concept of the Social Democracy was not "to dis­ of articles on "Problems of Marxism." coming decline and overthrow of cap­ sOlve this society ·and to make pro­ By 1898 a storm was raging in the italism in any sense except its gradual letarians of all its members. Rather, ranks of the Social Democracy over assimilation of a socialist content now it 'labors incessantly at ilifting the these articles, for they revealed Bern­ seemed - to him so much "cant." worker firoml the social position of a stein's basic break from Marxism. Against this "cant" he put Kant, the proletarian to that of a 'bourgeois' Kautsky and Bebel pressed him to philosopher, advocating cultivation of and thus to make 'bourgeoisie' - Or develop his views. a "critical spirit" and a "Critical So­ citizenship - universal." He did this in a book published in cialism" in the traditon of the "Criti­ In that way the class struggle be­ 1899, EvolwlJionary Socialism, a sys­ cal Philosophy" of the Koenigsberg comes increasingly milder as the tematic attack on the fundamentals sage. workers become petty bourgeois and

FOURTH INTERN~~IONAL eventuaBy'baurgeois .. This view strik­ 'viSed to-learn from ,the experiences of ,antiphilosophica:1 attitude of the Fa­ ingly revealed Ithe limitations of Bern­ history, "what experience and history bians, whom he condemned for reduc­ stein's concepts. The class struggle teach is that peoples and governments ing Socialism to 'a series of sociopoli­ within a few years was to reach have never yet learned from history, tical measures, without any connect- . pitches of unheard of ferocity as the .Jet alone acted according to its les­ ing element that could express the workers instinctively sought to trans­ sons.") unity of their fundamentail thought cend capitaHst society. Bernstein, how­ and action.' But his kinship to the ever, was incapable of transcending Bernstein's Empiricism Fabians was closer than he cared to capitalist society even iri thought. To Gay's study of what lay behind admit." his mind, the socialist goal for a Bernstein's revisionist views is the An empiricist such as Bernstein worker is to become bourgeois. His best feature of the book. "Bernstein lacks a powerful network of thought incapacity to pass beyond' the limits cam'e to technical philosophy late and that can sift and· assess fads on a big of capitalist ethics and outlook show­ without expert guidance," he points scale, gathering them together in cor­ ed that he had never really grasped out. "This is not to say, by any rect historic proportion. H is thought capitalism as a whole in theory. This means, that anyone trained in phil­ therefore becomes entangled in the prevented him:' from seeing its rise osophy would automaticaUy become network of facts and their immediate and deCline ina qualitative sense. He an addict of the Hegelian logic. Nor relationships which are often super­ could only see it quantitatively-as is ittoa'ccuse Bernstein of ignorance ficial or even contradictory to the less or more of what is. That is a in philosophy;' But his lack of a main trend. The em.pi'ricist is con­ typical limitation' of non-dialectical really thorough philosophical educa­ vinced to the marrow of his bones thought. tion drove him to Irely on common that he is viewing reality as it is. He On the political level, Bernstein sense and to give free play to his al­ sees it right in front of his eyes and was just as thorough in sweeping out ready powerful skeptical and em­ no one is going to convince him other­ what he considered to be cobwebs. He piricist sympathies." wise. Hence the arrogance and con­ 'declared Marx and Engels to be Again, "Bernstein ... did not fully tempt for theory that is so often seen 'wrong about the withering ,away of grasp the significance of the dialectic in' a vulgar empiricist. Don't try to the state. I n his' opinion the capita,list to Marxism • • • . Bernstein's em­ 'tell him the earth is round or .revolves state could be reformed into socialism piric.ism is apparent everywhere. His around the sun. He can see otherwise and would 'continue to play a useful philosophical case against Marxism and besides it's just as easy to plow role. The talk about revolution was was really an afterthought; it was ap­ a straight rrow if yqu ~onsider: t~e therefore so much nonsense. He de­ pended to his attempt to refute Marx­ field flat;~d ,,crops ..g~:wju~l~ ).y)e:U manded that the Social Democrats ist conclusions on empirical grounds. if you figure that it is the~ su~ lhat free the movement of such "outworn He distrusted metaphysical structures ris~s in the' east and sets in the we'st slogans." The influen<;e of the party as Utopian constructions and suspect­ instlead of the earth revolving under would increase, he declared, if' "it ed abstract thought of leading to un­ its rays. So what can the theory do ,found the ,courage to emancipate it­ warranted results. The world to him for you that common sense won't do self from a phraseology which is ac­ was 'a complex of ready-made objects just as good? tually obsolete, and if it were willing and processes,:* lrue, his empiricism Bernstein was impressed by the to appea'r what it really is today; a was not identical with the extreme prosperity of England, the damping democratic-Socia1ist reform party." of the class struggle there,and then Bernstein was spedficabout where the * Gay quotes this from Bernstein. Evi­ the unparalleled prosperity that swept influence of the party would increase: dently a reference to the following Germany in the Nineties. Lacking the among the bourgeoisie, who would statement by Engels, it shows Bern­ diale.ctic method of Marxism, he was stein's confusion in a most striking way: lose their fear of sociailism once they "The great basic thought that the world unab.le to fit these unexpected facts were assured it had no revolutionary is not to be comprehended as a com­ into the general theoretica,l structure intentions. In bri'ef he demanded that plex of ,ready-made tltings, but as a of Marxism. Hadn't Marx and Engels the Social Democrats should rearm complex of processes, in which the predicted worsening crisis, growing themselves by junking the old Marx­ things apparently stable no less than misery of the workers, disappearance their mind-images in our heads, the ism. concepts, go through an uninterrupted of the middle class, even world war? (An instructive present-day parallel change of coming into being and pass­ And precisely the opposite was hap .. to this revisionist view is the Coch­ ing away, in which, in spite of all pening. A theory that led to such seeming accidents and of all temporary wrong results must be worthless. ranite contention that the influence retrogression, a progressive develop­ of Trotskyism would increase among ment asserts itself in the end - this The unhappy man, who did not the Stalinists if it would only "junk great fundamental thought has, espec­ have any insight into his own limita­ the old Trotskyism" and give up iaHy since the time of Hegel, so thor­ tions, took what to him was the only calling for the revolutionary over­ oughly permeated ordinary consciqus­ course. Since the facts before his eyes ness that in this generality it is scarce­ could not be denied, he denied the throw of the reactionary Soviet ruling ly ever contradicted." (Engels, Ludwig caste. One is reminded of Hegel's ob­ Feuerbach, p. 54, [nternational Pub­ . theory. Seeking for the causes of the servation that while we are often, ad- lishers, 1935 edition.) errors, he made the blunder of ascrib..

Fall 1954 , ,. lSi- j irig them to what seemed to him: to be . conceding ·to this demand meant the m,ent to the legislature, an act long mystical hangovers from Hegel that surrender of political leadership to held by the Social Democrats to be had always proved a bit too hard for the trade union bureaucrats and thei·r wrong in principle since it indicated him to either crack or enjoy. Con oA ascendancy at the expense of the rev­ confidence in the capitalist· govern­ scientious.ly, he set out to purge them olutionary wing of the party. ment. from a movement whichobvious1y A fight to the finish was clearly The failure of Bebel and Kautsky needed re-arming With a "new" called for. I nstead the centrist leader­ to open all-out faction war on the theory. He was forceful about it be­ ship headed by Bebel and Kautsky Revisionists and their trade-union cause he was completely convinced chose to temporize, to obscure the dif­ supporters in defense of orthodox and sincere. He knew what he saw. ferences. They put party unity above Marxism meant the ruin of the party. But that was Bernstein's blind side. principles. They sought compromises It paved ,the way for its colossal be­ Despite all his honesty, he was in­ that meant verbal concessions to the trayal in i914 when the party Jeader­ capable of putting together more than left and power concessions to the ship supported the imperialist war, rags and patches from various sources, right, an arrangement quite satisfac­ and later for its impotence in the many direct:ly from bourgeois cur­ tory to the "practical" trade union­ face of Hitler's drive to power. rents, others indirectly. ists who didn't give a damn about The debate over Revisionism raged Bernstein was not expelled from the official declarations so long as they for years; it was condemned in reso­ party, nor did he resign as some were permitted to continue their anti­ Jutions, and the party continued to pressed him to. Instead, to his own revolutionary course. As a matter of preach revolution, but actually the surprise as much as anyone else's he fact such declarations provided a Social Democracy had become a lib­ found himself at the head of a ready­ convenient left cover for their poli­ eral bourgeois party in a shell of, so­ made, powerful, and fanatic faction, tics. When the honest Bernstein at cialist declarations .. Of those who who a·cclaimed his gross betrayal of one time demanded that the party fought Bernstein most vigorously, Marxist principles. Moreover, in so­ openly confess its reformist character, Gay deals only with Rosa Luxem­ cia·. composition they included not Auer wrote him in a cynical letter, burg whom he regards as "undoubt­ only middle class elements, including "My dear Ede you don't pass such edly the most effective and pro­ trade union bureaucrats, but a heavy resolutions. You don't talk about it, found." But she, too, did not under­ section of workers. How' did this you just do it." stand the need for building a com­ seemingly strange turn occur ? Gay sums up the relationship of bat party--'Lenin alone in those· years the conservatized union section to advanced 'this concept-and so the The Effect of Prosperity Bernstein as fonows: "First' of all, great Social Democratic Party drift­ The Social Democrats had proved the trade unions never evinced the ed toward disaster. their capacity to survive and grow in slightest interest in the theoretical the years of fierce persecution. What side of Revisionism. Bernstein's re­ Party of Counter-Revolution they couldn't stand was prosperity. writing of Marxism without dialectics, Gay follows Bernstein's career uA sudden short depression in 1890," his demonstration that the middle sympathetically through World War Gay explains, "was soon followed by class was not disappearing, his at­ I-first his support of German im­ moderately good times. But the boom tempts to combine the Marxist theory perialism along with the other social that broke the Marxists' back began of value with the new marginal util­ imperialists of the party, then his ~ in 1895 and lasted, with brief inter­ ity approach, left the trade unionists doubts and finally regret over the ruptions, until the outbreak of the completely cold. These matters, to monstrous betrayal Bernstein eventu­ World War. With such a bright eco­ them, were intellectual pastimes of no ally split forom the party because of nomic picture, who can wonder at the value for practical affairs. They felt its German chauvinism, but his shift­ emergence of Revisionism?" that they knew, empirically, that the ing to the side of British and French "The effect of the prosperity upon lot of the working oIass could be bet­ imperialism was no better, coinciding German Social Democracy," Gay tered by reformist activity within the as it did with their' victory. notes, "was twofold: it sapped the existing order. After all, were not the When the Social Democrats were proletariat's will to revolt by making unions doing it every day?" thrust into power ,at the end of the nonsense of the Erfurt Program, arid They were as contemptuous of the war, Bernstein took a post in the it gave grounds for theoretical skep­ intellectual leaders whom they follow­ government. To him· the Weimar ticism regarding several of Marx's ed as they were of the revolutionary Repuhlic was living proof of the cor­ basic tenets." wing they opposed. "I have the feel­ rectness of his views. In his theory, The social source of revlsIOnism ing," cried one, of them. at a Congress Social Democrats in power equaled was theskiHed workers of Germany in 1908, "that our party comrades ,a Germany fast approaching social­ organired in trade unions headed by have too ·little contact with the masses ism. He thought it would· be absurd Social Democrats. These bureaucrats, . . " When science is remote from to call post-war Germany a "capital­ as they gathered wind in their sails practice, it must lead to one-sided re­ istic republic," since organized' labor from the prosperity, insisted on equal sults." He was arguing for voting for had forced acceptance of higher wages partnership in guiding the party. But the budget submitted by the govern- and social ,legislation and was bring-

1~: ing the dictatorship of the capitalists chancellor of the Reich. Thus Bern­ itself would surely have gone social­ to an end. stein did not see the full consequences ist under those conditions when the In Gay's words, the Social Demo­ to the German working class of the great depression of the Thirties gave crats "mistook form for substance." R'evisionism that destroyed their van­ fresh warning that capitalism in the They were really consolidating the guard party. long run means only increasing mis­ old bourgeois centers of power in the I n his own eulogy to Bernstein, ery for the working people. army, the government bureaucracy Gay counts him as "one of the most But Gay does not appear to have and the judiciary. To do this they attractive personalities produced by considered such possibilities. Like waged civil war against the revolu­ German Social Democracy." He lauds Bernstein, he lacks imagination, is at tionary currents headed by Karl him for submitting "Marxist dogma heart only an empiricist. It is true Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, to searching examination while not that he is not as gross an empiricist who were murdered in cold blood. surrendering the Socialist stand­ as Bernstein, just as Bernstein was The Social Democracy had turned point," and considers his position on not as gross as the Fabians who at­ into its opposite-from a party of tactics "of great value," serving "as tracted him. He is nevertheless an revolution to a party of counter.... rev­ an antidote against the Leninists on empiricist; moreover, one ,limited in olution. the one hand and the Syndica:lists on a peculiar way. Bernstein rejoined the Social Dem­ the other." He seems completely unaware of ocrats in 1919. The extreme right the fact that orthodox Marxism has wmg now openly dominated the Gay's "Dilemma" gi ven profound consideration to the problem of the inter-relation of means party. Bernstein served them no long­ Gay ends somewhat unexpectedly and ends, the "dilemma" that appears er as theoretical cover but simply as with the old chestnut about means so tragic, so troublesome and so in­ a hack polemicist. "His favorite tar­ and ends, as if this were the main soluble to Gay despite the "expert gets," Gay deolares, "were those So­ lesson history has to teach about the guidance" he seems to have received cialists who advocated immediate degeneration of Bernstein and the in "technical philosophy." One won­ wholesale nationalization, and the Social Democratic Party. "From the ders, for example, if he is really Bolsheviks. In true Revisionist fash­ outset, Revisionism faced a dilemma ignorant of Trotsky's final contribu­ ion, Bernstein inveighed against haste that confronts all democratic move­ tion on this subject, "Their Morals which, he felt, was the besetting vice ments intent on radical social change: of many German radicals. He saved \Vhat methods shall be used to gain and Ours," or if he is silent about it his heavy ammunition, however, for the desired end? The use of violence out of desire to strike the fitting the Bolsheviks, who stood for all the may overthrow the ruling class that "'tragic" note in closing his book on Bernstein. things he abhorred." bars the way - but is it not Ekely The fear and hatred of the right­ that the exigencies of the revolution Similarly he seems unaware of the wing Social Democrats for the Bol­ will transform the movement into a fact that orthodox Marxism long ago sheviks was quite natural. First of repressi\'e tyranny? Can the rule of solved the problem of fascism in all, the capitalist class, with whom terror not be established in the sacred theory; for, in excusing Bernstein for they had made it a principle to col­ name of the general will? On the his role in disarming the German laborate, was engaged in a civil war other hand, if the parliamentary path workers before Nazism, he claims that and a vast armed intervention under is follmved and the use of force "Marxism" has not been able to "of­ Churchill's guidance against the in­ eschewed, will the reformers ever gain fer more than a crudely mechanistic fant workers' state, trying to put it the power they must have to put their explanation" of its rise. Is he really down by force and violence. Secondly, theories into practice?" ignorant of Trotsky's writings on the subject? the Bolsheviks represented the ortho­ Such questions would seem to have dox Marxism which they had long been pretty well answered by what Much as one can learn from Gay's ago rejected as outmoded dogma. The happened in Germany itself. Had the study about how Revisionism arose in catastrophe of \Vorld War I, the Rus­ Social Democrats not succumbed to Germany and how it helped paralyze sian revolution, and the revolutionary Revisionism, Germany would have the working class when the threaten­ upsurge of the working class through­ been socialist for some 36 years now. ing figure of Hitler' appeared on the out Europe now offered the most ~ot only that, if Germany had gone political horizon, the lessons-so far crushing verification of the basic out­ socialist when it should have, Stalin­ as the book itself is concerned-re­ look of orthodox Marxism. Bernstein, ism could never have risen in the So­ main negative ones. To work out the however, did not undertake to revise \'iet Union. Can there be any doubt implications you need a course in his Revisionism. He simply sputtered that all of Europe would long ago Trotskyism as a prerequisite. at the stunning new facts and tried have been united in one planned econ­ However, as background material to sweep them back with rhetoric. omy, that we could have avoided for the writings of Lenin and Trotsky The former disciple of Marx and the horrors of fascism and of World on the lessons of Soci

First Five Years of the Communist International Vol. 1 ...... 390 pp. $2.50 Vol. 2 available soon - advance orders now taken ...... 384 pp. 3.00 The Revolution Betrayed ...... cloth 2.50 paper 1.50 In Defense of Marxism ...... cloth 2.50 paper 1.50 Fascism - What It Is - How to Fight It ...... 48 pp. .15 Their Morals and Ours* ...... 64 pp. .25 Permanent Revolution* (limited quantity) ...... 184 pp. 3.50 Stalin's Frame-Up System and the Moscow Trials ...... 168 pp. 1.00 I Stake My Life* (Speech on the Moscow Trials) ...... 22 pp. .15 The De.ath Agony of Capitalism (Transitional Program) ...... 64 pp. .25 Stalinism and Bolshevism ...... 32 pp. .15 Living Thoughts of Karl Marx* (presented by Leon Trotsky) ...... 188 pp. 1.50 Marxism in the U.S.* (introduction to "Living Thoughts") ...... 44 pp. .35 Stalin - A Biography* ...... 534 pp. special price 3.50 The October Revolution* ("From October to Brest-Litovsk") ...... 118 pp. 1.00 The Suppressed Testament of Lenin ...... 48 pp. .25 1905 - Before and After* (from "Our Revolution") ...... 38 pp. .35 1905 -Results and Perspectives* (from "Our Revolution") ...... 50 pp. .35 The Russian Revolution* (Copenhagen speech) ...... 16 pp. .15 Lenin* (an article and two speeches) ...... 20 pp. .15 The Revolution in Spain* ...... 26 pp. .25 World Unemployment and the Five Year Plan* ...... 26 pp. .25 Europe and Ameriea* (includes "Perspectives of World Development" and "Whither Europe") ...... 74 pp. .50 The Class Nature of the Soviet State* ...... 24 pp. .25 The New Course* ...... 226 pp. 1.50 Marxism and Science* (Mendeleyev Memorial Address) ...... 22 pp. .15 • The Assassination of Leon Trotsky, by Albert Goldman ...... 74 pp. .25 The Last Words of Adolf Joffe* (a letter to Leon Trotsky) ...... 10 pp. .10 The Prophet Armed*, by Isaac Deutscher ...... 540 pp. 0.00

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First Five Years of the Communist International Vol. 1 ...... 390 pp. $2.50 Vol. 2 available soon - advance orders now taken ...... 384 pp. 3.00 The Revolution Betrayed ...... cloth 2.50 paper 1.50 In Defense of Marxism ...... cloth 2.50 paper 1.50 Fascism - What It Is - How to Fight It ...... 48 pp. .15 Their Morals and Ours* ...... 64 pp. .25 Permanent Revolution* (limited quantity) ...... 184 pp. 3.50 Stalin's Frame-Up System and the Moscow Trials ...... 168 pp. 1.00 I Stake My Life* (Speech on the Moscow Trials) ...... 22 pp. .15 The De,ath Agony of Capitalism (Transitional Program) ...... 64 pp. .25 Stalinism and Bolshevism ...... 32 pp. .15 Living Thoughts of Karl Marx* (presented by Leon Trotsky) ...... 188 pp. 1.50 Marxism in the U.S.* (introduction to "Living Thoughts") ...... 44 pp. .35 Stalin - A Biography* ...... 534 pp. special price 3.50 The October Revolution* ("From October to Brest-Litovsk") ...... 118 pp. 1.00 The Suppressed Testament of Lenin ...... 48 pp. .25 1905 - Before and After* (from "Our Revolution") ...... 38 pp. .35 1905 - Results and Perspectives* (from "Our Revolution") ...... 50 pp. .35 The Russian Revolution* (Copenhagen speech) ...... 16 pp. .15 Lenin* (an article and two speeches) ...... 20 pp. .15 The RevCJiution in Spain* ...... 26 pp. .25 World Unemployment and the Five Year Plan* ...... 26 pp. .25 Europe and Ameriea* (includes "Perspectives of World Development" and "Whither E'urope") ...... 74 pp. .50 The Class Nature of the Soviet State* ...... 24 pp. .25 The New Course* ...... 226 pp. 1.50 Marxism and Science* (Mendeleyev Memorial Address) 22 pp. .15 • The Assassination of Leon Trotsky, by Albert Goldman ...... 74 pp. .25 'The Last Words of Adolf Joffe* (a letter to Leon Trotsky) ...... 10 pp. .10 The Prophet Armed*, by Isaac Deutscher ...... 540 pp. tJ.OO

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