and militantly protested America's ruth­ less oppression of Negroes. The U.S. Monroe, N. C. Government seeks my arrest at the re­ quest of Union County Klansmen be­ The American people have been who witnessed the incident say Wil­ cause my newsletter, The Crusader, was shocked and horrified, time and again, liams accorded the white couple protec­ in opposition to Kennedy's censorship at the blatant injustice of the courts, tion which the Stegalls had sought. plan. the police and the legislatures of the Racist Monroe officials, who collab­ "In conjunction with the KKK, the South. Their rabid racism has not only orate openly with known KKK leaders, U.S. Government is seeking to lynch mocked the most elementary sense of after six years of struggle with the me for political reasons. The U.S. Gov­ human decency in this country, and in­ militant Monroe anti-segregation lead­ ernment's interest is based solely upon ternationally, but has violated both the er, are undoubtedly quite capable of the fact that I refuse to be an Uncle spirit and the letter of the law of this concocting a frame-up against Robert Tom apologist for the State Department land. Williams. It would seem that this was and because I have openly supported Time and again, the majority of the the case. Even after consultation with Revolutionary Cuba. the police, Mrs. Stegall told North American people have voiced their in­ "The U.S. Government knows that I Carolina newspapers that Williams had dignation by demanding federal enforce­ am innocent of any crime. It seeks to "chided" the crowd. "They [the crowd ment of every man's right to freedom take over where the Ku Klux Klan of Negroes] were expecting somebody to and justice (witness the election cam­ failed. It intends to lynch me to silence come after them, and they were all paign programs of both major parties my international newsletter which rep­ ready. I've never seen so many guns in on the question of civil rights). The resents unbridled opposition to imperial­ my life," she told the Charlotte Ob­ Federal government has been chided for ism and racism." inaction; the Justice Department has server, Aug. 29. "Williams, he made The Committee to Aid the Monroe been accu~ed of inaction. But until now, out like he wanted to let us go. He neither has been charged with conspir­ acted like he wanted to be nice to us. Defendants, headed by Dr. A. E. Perry ing with the Southern racists, the Ku But he said if he let us go the mob out­ of Monroe, N. C., has asked everyone Klux Klan to persecute those who are side would kill us. Somebody kept yell­ to send protests to the Department of fighting for freedom in the South. ing, 'Let me kill them. Let me kill Justice and to Attorney General Rob­ ' That is what is unique in the current them.'" ert Kennedy against the FBI's le<:fa _ struggle in Monroe, North Carolina. The Robert F. Williams, in a letter made lynch campaign of Robert Williams. De­ Federal government, has joined hands public by The MiLitant and the Na­ mand that the circulars be retracted at with the Ku Klux Klan and the racists tional Guardian, declared, "I had saved once and that all who received the cir­ who run the local government in Monroe the lives of people who were now ac­ culars be notified immediately that the to persecute those who have fought cusing me of kidnaping. I am not guilty." information on them is false. bravely for human dignity and justice. Williams wrote that during the night In addition, the Negro people of Mon­ The facts are these: for an entire of this rioting, Aug. 27, "I received a roe need help. They have been living week young Freedom Riders and mem­ telephone call from a voice I identified under con:iitions of terror. One Freedom bers of the Monroe Non-Violent Action as that of the Chief of Police. He said Fighter was forced by a fully garbed Committee had been harassed by racist that I had caused a lot of race trouble KKK gang to leave the state under attacks on their peaceful demonstrations and that state troopers were coming and threat of violence against his family. against segregation. On Aug. 27 the that in 30 minutes I would be hanging Another is still in jail. Many others suf­ Freedom Fighters demonstrated in front on the courthouse square. I saw police fered economic reprisals. Some have of the Union County Courthouse in pro­ cars blocking off the block in which we been cut off relief. They need the help test against police collusion with the lived ... I told my wife that we had of all Americans who believe in equality racists. Thousands of racists, organized to leave with the children right away and justice. by the Ku Klux Klan, threatened the and that we didn't have time to get any The Committee to Aid the Monroe demonstration with violence and the clothing or anything ..." Defendents has called for a thousand pickets were compelled to seek refuge Williams and his family slipped past people to join as members and work for inside the Courthouse. Instead of pro­ the police cars through an alley. With the defense of the Monroe victims of tection, many of them were arrested and the help of friends they escaped to racist terror. Carlton Beals, W. E. B. jailed. One was badly beaten in his cell. Greensboro, N. C., where they took a bus DuBois, Maxwe~l Geismar, Horace Kal­ Robert F. Williams, President of the for New York. They thought they would len, the Monroe Freedom Riders are Union County NAACP was at home find safety out of the reach of Southern among the first to submit their names with his family when the mobs began racists. to the honor role of CAMD. their campaign of terror. The Negro But alas! The FBI joined hands with The Editors of the International So­ residents of New Town, the Negro dis­ the Monroe racists and the Ku Klux cialist Review join in this appeal. We trict of Monroe, gathered together to Klan. The FBI issued a warrant for urge you to join and to send financial defend themselves against a mob inva­ Williams' arrest on charges of kidnap­ aid immediately to: The Committee to sion and armed caravans of the KKK. ing. FBI Wanted Circular Number 290 Aid the Monroe Defendents, Suite 1117, The Negroes returned the fire of the was posted throughout the country. In 741 Broadway, New York 6, N. Y. Klan. this circular Williams was vilely de­ A white couple drove into New Town. scribed as "extremely dangerous," They were stopped and disarmed. They "heavily armed," and "schizophrenic." were taken to Williams' house and at This is nothing less than a call for NEXT ISSUE Williams' suggestion they were released. legally lynching Robert Williams. It is They sought refuge in Williams' house an invitation to shoot him on sight in The Myth for several hours while fighting con­ the Southern traditi0n of legal lynch­ of "People's Capitalism" tinued outside. Then they departed un­ ings. Through the FBI, the hand of the harmed. KKK has reached across the entire na­ by Art Preis There are conflicting stories about tion. this incident. Monroe police claim that How to explain this barbarous, mur­ One Year derous action of the FBI? Robert F. Williams held the white couple as "hos­ of the Kennedy Administration tages," demanding the release of the Williams, in his letter to The Militant, Freedom Fighters in exchange for the explained it this way: "My only crime by Myra Tanner Weiss white couple, the Stegalls. The Negroes is that I am a Negro who has loudly

102 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW INTERNATIONAL Fall 1961 SOCIALIST Volume 22 • No.4 REVIEW

William Z. Foster An Approisal of the Man anti His Career

by James P. Cannon

May 27, 1954 ment. Even Browder, who had been a pre-war Fosterite NOTE from your numerous questions about Foster that syndicalist, did not come to the CP by way of Foster. He I you are reaching for the heart of the mystery in his jumped over the head of the Foster group - if it is proper case. I knew Foster - close up - precisely in that period even to speak of such a formation as a definite ideological when he decided to make the transformation from a trade­ tendency - and came in as an individual three years ahead union leader to a party politician, and to pay whatever of Foster. It was Browder who was commissioned by the price it might entail in formal subservience to Moscow. party to invite Foster to attend the Congress of the Profin­ I thought I knew Foster in his bones thirty years ago, tern in 1921 and thus started him on the road to the party. and still think so. His later evolution, sickening as it be­ In his History of the Communist Party of the United came to those who had known and respected him as a rebel, States Foster makes an elaborate attempt to backwrite his­ never surprised me at any stage. The basic decision he tory by blowing up the minuscule Foster group of practical made at that time conditioned him for his step-by-step trade unionists in the AFL, and representing it as a serious degeneration. He could not have made the decision, how­ ideological tendency and a contributing current to the move­ ever, unless the tendency was inherent in his character. ment of American communism. Here Foster really outwits himself. He actually does himself an injustice, although I May 28, 1954 would not accuse him of such an intention. If no more Foster's original design, I think, had been to play the were involved than that, one could well afford to let the part of the outstanding mass leader, not publicly identified matter rest. But since history is no good, and is even worse with the party, operating with a wide area of independence than useless, if it is not true, I feel obliged to defend him and getting the full support of the party on his own terms. against himself in order to set the record straight. He had once remarked to me: "Debs never wasted any Foster's astounding success in organizing the packing­ time on caucuses. He built up his prestige among the house workers (1917-1918) in an AFL set-up almost de­ masses. Then, after the party politicians had made their signed and guaranteed to make such a thing impossible, and decisions in caucus, they first had to inquire what Debs his repeat performance in the steel strike (1919) under thought about them before they could carry them out." still more difficult conditions, were extraordinary personal Things weren't working out that way in our party in accomplishments. 1923. Foster saw that when the showdown came, the party In the late Thirties the unionization of the steel industry controlled everything; and that if he really wanted to con­ was a pushover; the official leaders simply rode the tide trol the trade-union work and keep it within the bounds of of a universal labor upsurge generated by the long depres­ realism, he would have to have a big hand in the control sion, and Lewis got U.S. Steel's signature to a contract of the party itself. I don't know whether he had already without a strike. But in the year 1919 - before the depres­ made up his mind, then, to shift the main axis of his ac­ sion and before the rise of the CIO - no one but Foster, tivity from the TUEL [Trade Union Educational League] with his executive and organizing skill, his craftiness, his work to the party; but that's what it came to in a very patience and his driving energy, could have organized the short time. steelworkers on such a scale and led them in a great strike, through the road-blocks and booby-traps of craft unionism, Foster and Browder under the official sponsorship of the Gompers AFL. August 4, 1954 Foster's steel campaign was unique. It was all the more Foster himself, in a big way, and Johnstone and Manley remarkable precisely because he did it all by himself to a far lesser extent, made personal. contributions to the against all kinds of official sabotage, and with the assist­ CPo But it would be historically false to represent the Fos­ ance of only a small handful of people of secondary talents ter AFL group as a contributing current in the new move- who were personally attached to him and worked under his direction. His ex post facto attempt to represent him­ [This appraisal of William Z. Foster, who died September 1, 1961 self in this grandiose action as the instrument of an in Moscow, is extracted from the author's Letters to a Hi.rtorian which ideological tendency tributary to the communist movement, constitute a section of a book now ready for publication under the not only falsifies the historical facts, but by indirection, title The Fint Ten Years of American Communism-Report of a detracts from the magnitude of his personal achievement. Participant. Part of this material has been previously published in past The Foster group in the AFL began with a revolutionary issues of this magazine.] program outlined in a pamphlet based on French syndi-

FALL 1961 103 calism (1913). But this first programmatic declaration was he and Gompers proved to be correct. Foster's later adapta­ soon withdrawn, re-written and watered down to nothing tion to the Communist Party worked out the same way. but a tongue-in-cheek affirmation that mere trade-union Foster's work and achievement in the early days of the organization would automatically solve all problems of Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) under the Com­ workers' emancipation. Thereafter, Fosterism was simply a munist Party, were no less remarkable than his stock­ method of working in the AFL by adaptation to the official yard and steel campaigns. His rapid-fire organization of a leadership. network of effective left-progressive groups in a dozen or By adaptation individuals can get a chance to work. more different unions demonstrated most convincingly that Foster demonstrated that to the hilt in practice. But adapta­ his previous successes in the AFL were no fluke. It proved, tion is not a movement and cannot create a movement, for for the second time, under different auspices, that given the question of who is serving whom always arises. the forces and the machinery to work with, Foster was a Gompers, who knew Foster's past and was no fool, thought trade-union organizer without a peer. In each case, how­ that Foster's work and adaptation could serve Gompers' ever, his work was permitted and controlled by other aims. He permitted Foster to work under AFL auspices forces which Foster had to serve. For that reason there for that reason, as he testified with brutal frankness be­ never was and never could be such a thing as a Foster fore the Senate Committee Hearings on the Steel Trust "movement" or, strictly speaking, even a Foster group. Strike. Fitzpatrick was evidently of the same opinion. Both Foster has been condemned throughout his career, ever since he left the IWW, to serve the aims of others whom he sought to outwit by adaptation. Foster was the leader of his own faction in the CP only within this framework. In the very first showdown in INTERNATIONAL Published quarterly by the International the original Foster group in 1925, when political issues of Socialist Review Publishing Association, 116 party interest were posed point-blank, he found himself SOCIALIST University Pl., New York 3, N. Y. Second in the minority and discovered that the policy of the Foster REVIEW class postage paid at New York, N. Y. group was not his to determine at will. In the second show-down of the group, by then reduced to a smaller composition of ostensibly pure Fosterites - in 1928, at the Sixth Congress caucus meeting of the opposi­ tion delegates in Moscow - the leader found himself com­ Contents pletely isolated. Bittelman, seconded by Browder and John­ stone, attacked him most brutally and disdainfully on that occasion and took complete charge of the "Foster group." He was left without a single friend or supporter in the caucus. (The rest of us, members of the opposition bloc MONROE, N. C ...... 102 but not Fosterites, simply stood aside and let the Fosterites fight it out.) All Foster had left at the time of the Sixth Congress in WILLIAM Z. FOSTER by James P. Cannon ...... 103 1928, was his name and the manifest intention of Stalin to Use it for his own purposes. His name represented not a political tendency, however sman, which had to be rec- FROM LENIN TO KHRUSHCHEV STATEMENT REQUIRED BY THE ACT OF AUGUST 24, 1912, AS by William F. Warde 107 AMENDED BY THE ACTS OF MARCH 3, 1933, JULY 2, 1946 AND JUNE 11 1960 (74 STAT. 208) SHOWING THE OWNERSHIP, MAN­ AGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION OF International Socialist Review, published quarterly at New York, N. Y., for Oct. 1, 1961. THE 1919 LENIN PROGRAM ...... 115 1. The names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor, and business managers are: Publisher, International Socialist Review, 116 University Place, N. Y. 3, N. Y. Editor Murry Weiss, 116 University Place, New York 3, N. Y. LIFE IN YUGOSLAVIA by Theo Schultz ...... 125 Managing editor, Bert Deck, 116 University Pl., New York 3, N. Y. Business manager, Karolyn Kerry, 116 University Pl., New York 3, N. Y. 2. The owner is: (If owned by a corporation, its name and address must be stated and also immediately thereunder the names and addresses of stockholders ownipg or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of THE MOST ANGRY by Trent Hutter ...... 130 stock. If not owned by a corporation, the names and addresses of the individual owners must be given. If owned by a partnership or other unincorporated firm, its name and address, as well as that of each in­ dividual member, must be given.) International Socialist Review Publishing Assn., 116 University Place, New York 3, N. Y. James P. Cannon, Partner, 116 University Place, New York 3, N. Y. Vincent R. Dunne, Partner, 116 University Place, New York 3, N Y. Joseph Hansen, Partner, 116 University Place, New York 3, N. Y. Vol. 22 - No.4 - Whole No. 157 3. The known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or l'lolding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mort­ gages, or other securities are: (If there are none, so state.) None. 4. Paragraphs 2 and 3 include, in cases where the stockholder or secur­ ity holder appears upon the books of the company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting; also the statements in the two paragraphs show Editor, Murry Weiss; Managing Editor, Bert Deck; the affiant's full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and con­ ditions under which stockholders and security holders who do not ap­ Business Manager, Karolyn Kerry; Editorial pear upon the books of the company as trustees, hold stock and securi­ ties in a capacity other than that of a bona fide owner. Board: Joseph Hansen, Shane Mage, Tim Wohlforth 5. The average number of copies of each issue of this publication sold or distributed, through the mails or otherwise, to paid subscribers dur­ Myra Tanner Weiss ing the 12 months preceding the date shown above was 3125. KAROLYN KERRY Sworn to and subscribed before me this 18th day of September, 1961 CONSTANCE F. WEISSMAN SUBSCRIPTION RATES: U.S.A. and Latin America, $1.25 a year (four Nootary Public, State of New York issues); single copies, 35 cents; bundles, 25 cents a copy for five copies No. 31-9598925 or moore. Foreign and Canada, $1.50 a year (four issues); single copies, Qualified in New York COUtlty 35 cents; bundles, 26 cents a copy for five copies or more. Commission Expires March 30, 1962

104 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW ognized. It was the symbol, rather, of his personal achieve­ out rivalry, at least as far as I was concerned. Each made ments as an organizer, of his public renown which was not independent contributions to the combination and each yet seriously tarnished by his internal party defeats. carried his own weight. But, ironically, even his name and fame, which had been Foster's knowledge and feel of the trade union move­ well earned by real performance, and which gave him a ment surpassed that of all the other party leaders in the scrap of a special position in the party, was an' obstacle to early days, but his experience in that field was not all the realization of his ambition to be the official leader of profit. He had learned too much in the school of the labor the party, be it only by the grace of Stalin. For his own fakers, who got what they wanted one way or another, purposes Stalin needed in the U.S., as elsewhere, leaders without regard to any governing theory or principle, and without independent strength, leaders made by him and he mistakenly thought such methods could be efficacious completely dependent on his favor. Browder filled the bill. in the communist political movement. Crude American He was the perfect example of the candidate distinguished pragmatism, which "gets things done" in simple situations, not by the defect of his qualities, but by the quality of is a poor tool in the complexities of revolutionary politics. his defects. Foster was somewhat mechanical and eclectic in his * * * thinking, and this frequently led him to summary judg­ Browder was an intelligent, industrious and dependable ments in complex questions which called for G, ~ilified chief clerk by nature, but in no case an executive leader of answers. His one-sided, almost fetishistic concentration on independent capacity and resource. He was capable of fill­ "boring from within" the AFL, as the sole means of ing the office of formal leader of the party by the permis­ radicalizing and expanding the labor movement - a con­ sion of Stalin for 15 years without having, in his wildest cept which had to be thrown overboard in 1928, and which imagination, previously entertained such an ambition and was brutally refuted in life by the rise of the CIO - is an without having the slightest idea of how it came about or outstanding example of his limitations as a thinker. how his regime was brought to an end so precipitately But in the frame of comparison with the other leading and so easily. I don't doubt that Browder began to think figures of the pioneer communist movement in this coun­ he was ten feet tall in the long period where he walked try, which in my opinion is the proper way to judge him on stilts above the party multitude. But I doubt very much historica~ly, Foster was outstanding in many ways. Attempts whether he could explain to himself or others how he got to represent him as some kind of babe in the woods, led up so high in the first place, or why the stilts so suddenly astray by craftier men, which have been recurrently made gave way under him. throughout the history of the party, beginning with his alliance with me in the formation of the Foster-Cannon * * * group, never had any foundation in fact. The original relationship between Foster and Browder, Foster was a shrewd and competent man, far more con­ and the proper one, considering the personal qualities of scious and deliberate in all his actions than he appeared each, had been the relation between executive and first and pretended to be. Everything that Foster did, from first assistant. The appointment of Browder to the first position to last, was done deliberately. In fact, he was too shrewd, in the party, with Foster subordinated to the role of honor­ too deliberate in his decisions, and too free from the ary public figure without authority, really rubbed Foster's restraint of scruple; and by that he wrought his own nose in the dirt. It was not pleasant to see how he accepted the gross humiliation and pretended to submit to it. catastrophe. The actions which, in a tragic progression, made such a disgraceful shambles of his career, derived not from When Browder was finally deposed 15 years later, Foster faulty intelligence or weakness of will but from defects was permitted to officiate at the ceremonies. was pitiful It of character. to see how he gratified his long-standing grudge and gloated Foster was a slave to ambition, to his career. That was over the victim in celebration of his hollow victory. In his infirmity. But this judgment, which in my book is rea'ity the great organizer, who accepted the office of formal definitive, must be qualified by the recognition that he leadership without the power, was celebrating his own sought to serve his ambition and to advance his career in utter defeat as an independent political figure. the labor movement and not elsewhere. Within that field Foster's Infirmity he worshipped the "Bitch-Goddess" of Success as much March 17, 1955 as any business man, careerist on the make, or politician in the bourgeois world. You ask how I look at my own role in the formation of Foster was a man of such outstanding talent, energy the Foster-Cannon group. I think that is indicated in the and driving will that - in the conditions of the country in account I have written in those letters [May 19, 27 and 28, his time - he could easily have made his way in any num­ 1954-Ed.]. I had the highest regard for Foster's ability ber of other occupations. But the labor movement was his in general, and for his feel and skill as a mass worker in own milieu, deJiberately chosen in his youth and doggedly particular - a most essential quality which the leaders of maintained to the exclusion of virtually all other interests. the other faction seemed to lack - but I never belonged Within that limit - that he had no life outside the labor to Foster's staff of personal assistants and was never in movement - Foster subordinated everything to his mad any sense a personal follower. Relations between me and ambition and his almost pathological love of fame, of his Foster, from start to finish, always had the same basis. Co­ career. To that, with a consistency that was truly appall­ operation in internal party affairs depended on agreement ing, he sacrificed his pride and self-respect, and all con­ on policy, arrived at beforehand. That was no trouble in siderations of loyalty to persons and to principles and, 1923; our thinking ran along the same lines. eventually, to the interests of the movement which he had Foster was the party's outstanding mass leader and most originally set out to serve. popular figure, and he carried himself well in that role. Shakespeare's Gratiano said they lose the world "that But he was not a political infant as he has often been rep­ do buy it with much care." Foster's too-great consistency resented; he knew what he was driving at. He symbolized in his single-minded pursuit of fame and career at any the proletarian-American orientation, which the party price became a self-defeating game. His willingness to needed and wanted, and I thought he was justly entitled humiliate himself and surrender his opinions to gain favor to first place as party leader and public spokesman. with the Stalinist "power" only disarmed him before re­ He was rather new to the party at that time, however, peated exactions in this respect, until he was stripped of and was still feeling his way carefully. As one of the the last shred of independence. His disloyalty to people original communists, I knew the party better. I had closer robbed him of any claim on the loyalty of others and left connections with many of the decisive cadres and probably him without support at the most critical turning points. had more influence with some of them. Our combination­ His readiness to profess opinions he didn't hold, for the while it lasted - was an effective division of labor, with- sake of expediency, to lie and cheat to gain a point, lost

FALL 1961 105 him the respect of his colleagues and eventually destroyed point I couldn't see any sense whatever in encouraging his mora1 authority in the party cadres. He ended up a split with a view to realignment in the form of a bloc friend:ess and alone as early as 1928, incapable of contend­ between our faction and the Fosterites, minus Foster. ing for leadership in his own name, and fit only for the Fo£ter's name and prestige, and his dogged persistence role of figurehead leader. and outstanding ability as a mass worker, were always the But even for that shabby substitute for fame and career, bigger half of the assets of the Foster groups, and remained Foster has had to grovel in the dust, and to contribute his so even after he had been defeated and isolated within bit systematically, year after year for more than a quarter the group. This was shown quite conclusively a short time of a century, to the gross betrayal of the workers' cause later. When Stalin wanted to convey a message - with which he had proclaimed as his own. "Success" in the more than a hint of future support - to the American op­ world of Stalinism is dearly bought indeQd - if by some position, he sent for Foster and gave it to him personally. horrible misunderstanding one should call Foster's pursuit It is quite possible that Browder and Johnstone could of fame and career successful. have had illusions of going on without Foster as if noth­ ing had happened, for they were notorious for their political A Revolt of the Fosterites unrealism and ineptitude. But I could not imagine Bittel­ February 1, 1956 man entertaining such illusions. He had always been pretty The Fosterites had never talked to us about their own realistic in his estimate of the forces in the party and of family affairs. Consequently, the big explosion at the his own impediments. He knew that he had to be allied with joint caucus of the delegates of the two groups in Moscow others who had what he lacked, and he relied on combina­ [at the Sixth Congress of the Comintern, 1928] came as tions in which he could playa strategic part. The original somewhat of a surprise to us. To judge from the intensity Foster-Bittelman-Cannon combination was made to order of the feelings expressed, the revolt against Foster must for him to play a role in the party that he never could have have been brewing for a long time; it could hardly have played by himself. His importance declined when one-third been caused by the difference on trade-union tactics alone. of the combination broke off. And he cannot have failed It is more likely that the trade-union dispute, in which to understand that it would decline still more if he came Bittelman and Browder could draw courage from being on to an open break with Foster. Losovsky's side, triggered an explosion built up out of many I had known Bittelman as a man of reserve, who kept accumulated grievances. his personal feelings under control far better than most­ One of Foster's traits which I especially detested, after a quality which I admired; and to this day I can't under­ I got to know him well, was his different manner and at­ stand what drove him to such violence in the attack on titude in dealing with different people. To those whom Foster as to risk the danger of an irreparable split. That he thought he needed, such as Bittelman and myself, he he had any idea of fighting for the leadership of the party was always careful and at times even a bit deferential. To in his own name, is in my opinion the one hypothesis that those who needed him, such as Browder and Johnstone, he has to be excluded. was brusque and dictatorial. They must have stored up * * * many resentments against that. There is one small postscript to my recollections of this I remember one rather dramatic incident during the dis­ family fight among the Fosterites, which was soon swal­ cussion. Foster stood over Johnstone threateningly, with his lowed up in my preoccupation with the immeasurably fist clenched, and tried his old trick of intimidation with larger subject of Trotsky's Criticism of the Draft Program, the snarling remark: "You're getting pretty bold!" John­ and all that it implied for my own future course. stone, almost hysterical, answered: "You have been After the meeting, in a personal conversation with Bill trampling on me for years, but you're not going to trample Dunne and me, Foster complained of the treatment he had on me any more." Johnstone and Browder gave the im­ received and intimated - without saying so directly - that pression at this meeting of people who had broken out of he would like to have better personal relations with us for long confinement and were running wild. collaboration in the future. But my own mind was already Bittelman's conduct was more difficult for me to un­ turning to far bigger things than the old factions and fac­ derstand. During all the time that we had been together tion squabbles in the American party, and I couldn't get in one group, and I had known everything that was going up any interest in them any more. on with respect to personal relations, Foster had never pre­ sumed to bulldoze Bittelman. Yet at this meeting Bittel­ Foster's Last Stand man's tone and language seemed to be that of a man who January 22, 1958 was out to settle personal scores long overdue. He was Foster's evolution in his twilight hours is strictly in ac­ absolutely ruthless in his attack on Foster, and even con­ cord with the evaluation of him which I have made in temptuous of his arguments. previous letters to you. Foster is fighting to the last twitch * * * to justify himself, to protect his prestige, his place in his­ It was remarkable that not a single person in the meet­ tory, which, as he sees it, long ago became completely de­ ing spoke up in defense of Foster. The whole faction was pendent on the historical vindication of Stalinism. in revolt against him, with Bittelman in the lead and But in the true sense of the word, Foster is not a Browder and Johnstone close behind him. The funny thing "Stalinist Mohican" and still less a "Bourbon." Foster is a about the whole business was that this fight, of almost Fosterite - a fame fetishist - who adapted himself to the unprecedented violence, which ordinarily would signify a Stalinist power as he had previously adapted himself to complete break of personal and political relations between Fitzpatrick, and even to Gompers, with the calculation that the participants, was apparently carried on with no thought in doing so he could serve his own ends and his own career. of such consequences. The big difference is that when his adaptation to Gompers, The Fosterites in revolt were still dependent on Foster's in order to serve his own purposes, ran up against the dif­ name and prestige whether they liked it or not. At that ficulty which always arises in such cases - that Gompers time they had no prospect of playIng a big role in the insisted on using the adaptation for his purposes - Foster party without him. Foster, for his part, had nowhere else could find an alternative field of operations, still within to go except to become a captive of the Lovestoneites, and the labor movement, by adapting himself to Moscow, which that was impossible for him. So the whole stew blew up eventually became an adaptation to Stalinism. But after violently and then receded and continued to simmer and that there was no third road open to him. sizzle in the same pot. We, the "Cannonites," stood aside Foster was stuck with Stalinism. He could not hope to and let the Fosterites fight it out among themselves. From go back to Gompers and Fitzpatrick and find the neces­ a personal standpoint I felt a certain sympathy for the sary e~bow room to advance his own fame and prestige. slaves in hysterical rebellion. But from a political stand- (Continued on page 114)

106 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW From Lenin to Khrushchev The Draft Program to be submitted to the forthcoming Congress of the Soviet Communist party discloses the social pressures operating on the men in the Kremlin

by William F. Warde

NEW program has been proposed for submission their most reliable source of material aid and by assur­ A to the Twenty-second Congress of the Soviet Com­ ing the national bourgeoisies of Asia, Africa, the Mid­ munist party this October. It will replace the Leninist dle East and Latin America that the Kremlin will sup­ program adopted by the Eighth Congress in March port them, not simply against the imperialists, but 1919. The two documents can serve as guages to meas­ against their own insurgent masses. ure the great material advances and the no less weighty Like so many things in Soviet life, this political political retrogression the Soviet Union has undergone treatise is extremely contradictory. Its exposure of the in the 42-year interval. decay of capitalism and its recital of the world-shak­ Khrushchev's draft of 50,000 words is much longer ing achievements of the Soviet Union since the 1917 than Lenin's. Lenin limited the program he wrote October Revolution are as convincing as its restatement largely to national tasks since the founding documents of the aims of socialism and its vistas of social, eco­ of the Third International, adopted the same month, nomic, educational, scientific advancement are inspir­ took up broader questions. ing. Facts and arguments pile up to prove how the The present document encompasses both domestic socialist revolution of the twentieth century, despite and world problems. Despite its wider scope, this new its limitations and distortions to date, has inevocably program, presented at the crest of Soviet world in­ lifted mankind onto a new historical plateau which fluence, is incomparably less internationalist in essen­ opens illimitable prospects. tial content than Lenin's, written when the young The projected goals are all the more plausible be­ Soviet Republic was fighting against counterrevolution cause they are linked with the impressive progress and foreign intervention for its survival. registered by the Soviet Union and with the potential Nevertheless, this document is a major political land­ of its planned economy. Dramatized by the flight of mark. Superseding Lenin's program as the guide for the cosmonaut Titov in Vostok II a week later, the the almighty organization heading the dominant coun­ new program, backed by the mounting power of the try of the Soviet bloc, it sums up the outlook on na­ Soviet Union, should have deep impact upon the masses tional and world affairs empirically arrived at by and leaders of the colonial world and even upon ad­ Stalin's heirs in the fast-changing eight years since the vanced workers in the West. dictator's death. The editors of the New York Post took care to warn Today's representatives of the Soviet oligarchy wield the men in high places at Washington that the chal­ much more economic power, military might and diplo­ lenge of this "Communist Manifesto" cannot be coun­ matic prestige than Stalin. These advantages give them tered by voting for Kennedy's augmented military greater assurance, flexibility and room for maneuver budget while slashing appropriations for education, at home and abroad. However, while their strength has social services and economic growth. grown at the expense of imperialism, the Soviet lead­ ers are more hard-pressed by their own masses, the s AN expression of the accomplishments and aims East European satellites, China and the onrushing tide A of the most powerful workers state, the program of colonial revolutions. The revised program reflects, stands upon qualitatively higher ground than all the among other things, the adjustments in their positions pronouncements of the capitalist statesmen. But much exacted by these changed conditions. more is to be demanded of the political charter of the The unwieldy draft tries to serve conflicting pur­ foremost Communist party than a manifest superiority poses. It is directly addressed to the pride of achieve­ over the ideological defenses of the old order. ment among the Soviet people, beseeching them to be To what extent does this revised program carry for­ patient a while longer for realization of their expecta­ ward the scientific methods and proletarian principles tions for more freedom and a better life. It stresses, of Marxism and Bolshevism? Does it meet the desires not ease and enjoyment, but "the need to work" harder and demands of the Soviet people? Does it correctly and more efficiently for those ends. express the interests of the world struggle for socialism? The program contains many arguments to justify How useful is it as an aid to the socialist vanguard in perpetuation of the ruling caste. It carries on a scarcely America? disguised polemic against the dissenting opinions of In all these respects the document is grossly de­ Peking on some of the key questions of world politics. ficient and misleading. It is framed to win over the "neutralist" countries by Khrushchev makes two claims for the program in showing the colonial peoples that the Soviet Union is connection with the traditions of Marxism-Leninism.

FALL 1961 107 He explicitly asserts that the new program is the logical UR discussion of this extensive and highly incon­ extension and faithful continuation of Lenin's which, O sistent document must be confined to such basic we are told, has been fully completed in the Soviet matters as the problems of the national economy, the Union. It is "a major contribution to the development status of Soviet democracy, the role of the state, the of Marxist-Leninist theory." Khrushchev implicitly af­ nature of Soviet society and the prospects of Soviet firms that it abandons Stalin's policies and practices. internal development. Both claims are equally unfounded. Despite its obei­ The program sets forth at length the tasks of the sance to Lenin's effigy, Khrushchev's program slides party in the field of economic development. Even in­ away from Bolshevik positions on the most crucial formed opponents of the Soviet system admit that its questions of socialist doctrine and the class struggle. achievements since the Second World War, especially And despite the silence on Stalin, it reaffirms and in science, technology and heavy industry, have been formally sanctions the cardinal points where Stalinism massive and spectacular. Thus a study made by the broke with Bolshevism. Indeed, Khrushchev copies U.S. Air Force's "Rand Corp." shows that Russia's gross Stalin in his fraudulent claim to be Lenin's heir. national product doubled in the last decade and says this same rate of growth can be indefinitely sustained. Stalin Missing Apart from allusions to an anonymous and unex­ Uneven Development plained cult of the individual, the document makes no Communist leaders from East Germany to China are mention of Khrushchev's predecessor. Stalin has be­ addicted to making high-flown claims and setting far­ come an "unperson." This impudent refusal to deal fetched goals in their plans which require substantial honestly with the 25-year record of the Stalin era correction. Khrushchev is no exception. But even if demonstrates how alien the authors are to the spirit many of the magnified objectives listed in the program and methods of scientific socialism. fall far short of realization within the time fixed, the Historical materialists are obliged, if opportunist solid foundations of the planned economy built since statesmen are not, to examine history with open eyes, the 1920's guarantee remarkable expansion in the next analyze its course critically, and with full regard for two decades. the facts. This draft does not. It lowers the curtain on While outlining the steps required for this expan­ Soviet developments and disregards Khrushchev's sion, the program skirts around the excruciating dis­ Twentieth Congress speech as though it was never proportions in production and consumption that impede delivered. * the progress of Soviet economy. Heavy industry has As the newly published revised version of the His­ moved ahead much faster and farther than light in­ tory of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union like­ dustry and farming. wise demonstrates, for all their bravado Khrushchev Another of the Rand reports states that the average and his colleagues fear to face up to the real history Soviet citizen today enjoys more than twice the goods of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1953. An honest ac­ and services of 1928 and lives on a "level almost two­ counting would raise more questions than it would set­ thirds higher than in 1950." Despite this welcome pro­ tle for them. The rulers cannot explain their own origin, nounced improvement, the population suffers from evolution, rmisdeeds and special status because they shortages of consumer goods and foodstuffs. deny their existence as a distinct group with separate Supply lags behind demand in almost every essential interests. To believe them, only workers, peasants and item. There are endless time-wasting queues at the intellectuals - but not bureaucratic locusts - exist in state stores for everything from dried fish to bread. their homeland. The staple diet for most urban families remains tea, The different factions of the bureaucracy have ob­ cabbage soup and black bread. Meat, milk, eggs and viously been unable to agree upon a common attitude other farm products are scarce and expensive. toward their Stalinist legacy (forced collectivization, The more favored can buy washing machines, refrig­ the fights against the Right and Left Oppositions, the erators vacuum cleaners, TV's, even autos. But the Moscow Trials, the purges, terror and idolatry of quantities of most household conveniences are so re­ Stalin, etc.) So, instead of a candid explanation to the stricted that even party members have to put their Soviet people, they say nothing, hoping that time will names on waiting lists. The majority lack adequate efface embarrassing memories. living space and yearn for a tiny apartment of their This awkward, unsuccessful effort to cover up the own. Although Soviet wage-earners spend less on rents, still painful past is mingled with a falsification and utilities and medical care, wages are low and wide embellishment of existing conditions in the Soviet Un­ inequalities of income are found among the various ion which further violates the first commandment of categories of workers. socialism: "Tell the truth, no matter how hard it may The prevalence of these low-standard living condi­ be to hear at the moment." tions is negatively certified by the affirmations in the program that the next twenty years will bring im­ * Although its substance has been imparted to Communist party mem­ bers, this speech has not yet been published by the Soviet press. The mense gains in the available means of consumption. Soviet people, who are most concerned, remain the least well informed about this historic exposure of the crimes of Stalin. Honest delegates Bread and rent will be made free as well as medicine, to the Twenty-second Congress may have difficulty squaring this sup­ pression with the assertion in the draft that "the party considers that education and vacation resort facilities. These will not the paramount task in the ideological field in the present period is to educate all working people in a spirit of ideological integrity .. " only be plentiful but more fairly distributed.

108 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW HE Soviet masses have heard similar promises be­ results. But the projected modernization and improved T fore. But now they feel that a system capable of technology in production will undoubtedly increase in­ hurling astronauts into space and bringing them back dustrial efficiency considerably. More abundant con­ can and should take better care of the most pressing sumer goods and greater equalization of wage rates material needs of the people. Their demands are not would also help. only impressed upon the document but give it a double Productivity and Workers Democracy edge. For the tremendous expectations it arouses can rebound against its sponsors if they cannot deliver the The principal means for enhancing the productive goods fast and fully enough. powers of the economy and unleashing the untapped Since Stalin's death in 1953, his successors have been potential of its working force would be to give the wrestling with the difficulties arising from the top workers the democratic control over its operations pro­ priority given heavy industry over other departments jected in Lenin's 1919 program. This would involve of economic life. The official planners have kept twist­ reducing the arbitrary powers of the factory directors ing and turning, now pledging a larger share of na­ along with the wastefulness and maladministration of tional investment to light industry and then insisting the party bureaucracy. Delegates elected by the work­ upon the subordination of everything else to the re­ ers would have to supervise and check all stages of the quirements of basic industry. The document leaves un­ planning and productive process. resolved this central question of priorities in capital investment, signifying division and indecision in top N HIS May 1 speech on economic planning, Che Gue­ circles on this point. I vara explained the shortcomings of Cuba's produc­ However, the attitude of the Soviet masses, and the tion plan last year as follows : "We did not go to the workers in particular, on this matter is unmistakable. masses. We made a laboratory plan. We estimated the Wherever they could find ways to make their wishes capacity of the plants already installed, we estimated known, they have called for more consumer goods and the production, and this was our working plan. Today less emphasis upon heavy industry. we can see clearly that the masses did not participate For example, in December 1959 Khrushchev an­ in this plan, and a plan which lacks the participation nouced that the Soviet Union had already outstripped of the masses is a plan which is always threatened with the United States in the production of butter per per­ defeat." son. This spring longshoremen in Odessa, where there This indispensability of conscious participation and appears to be a shortage of fats, went on strike in over-all control by the masses, impressed upon the protest against shipments of butter to Cuba. They Cuban revolutionists at the start of their national plan­ shouted: "Cuba si, butter no." This slogan expressed ning, is alien to the Soviet officialdom. A regime basing both their solidarity with the needs of revolutionary itself upon the omnipotence and infallibility of a Cuba, embargoed by U.S. imperialism, and their de­ chosen few on top cannot adopt this road of solution mands for more performance and less propaganda from to the problem of productivity. the regime. This one incident tells more about the con­ How can workers who have no control over their flicts within Soviet society and its economic realities government expect it to grant them control over plan­ than all the exaggerated assertions in the program. ning or production? They do not even have the right Despite Khrushchev's announcement of good har­ to strike in protest against the consequences of mis­ vests this year and the many measures taken to extend planning. This absence of industrial democracy is the and improve cultivation, agriculture remains the weak­ main brake upon the progress of Soviet economy. It est sector of Soviet economy and the hardest to devel­ goes hand in hand with gross inequities in the distribu­ op. There are many reasons for the relative stagnation tion of the national product. and inadequate growth of the countryside. Not least The program pledges to eliminate the most glaring among them are the effects of the grave disproportions injustices. But so long as scarcities endure the posses­ noted in the economic structure. The workers in the sors of supreme power are not likely to give up their cities do not receive enough products from the country priorities and privileges in amassing and enjoying the because the neglect of light industry cannot provide good things of life. La Dolce Vita, "the sweet life" at enough goods for the peasants to sustain and stimulate the expense of the masses, exists in different forms and their output. on a different basis in the Soviet Union than in Italy ... If it is realistic to anticipate that the Soviet Union but it is there. can approach, and even move ahead of advanced cap­ These evils exist - and persist - primarily because italist lands in certain branches of basic industry, the of underproduction and the lack of democracy. The pace will be much slower and the problems far more draft proclaims, to be sure, that "the entire life of difficult in these other sectors of the economy closer Soviet society is based on the principle of broad de­ to the consumer. mocracy ... and makes it really possible for the people Everything else depends upon raIsmg per capita to exercise them. Soviet society ensures the real liberty productivity in industry and agriculture. The program of the individual." contains numerous provisions for effecting this: further These are fine words. But who, apart from the most rationalization, mechanization, automation of industry, credulous, will take them as an accurate designation of decentralization and other administrative measures. Soviet life? Many have been tried without achieving the desired The 1919 program asserted that the "deprivation of

FALL 1961- political rights and restriction of liberty are necessary If there was no widespread opposition to their pol­ only as temporary measures to fight any attempts of icies or rule, the neo-Stalinists could easily maintain the exploiters to maintain or restore their privileges. their leading role thanks to the correctness of their To the extent that the objective possibility of exploita­ proposals, the persuasiveness of their ideas, the prestige tion of man by man disappears, the necessity for such of their deeds. The fact that the document reasserts the temporary measures will disappear, and the Party will totalitarian primacy of the single party - and up­ strive to diminish these measures." holds that dogma by government coercion - in itself Now, 42 years later, Khrushchev assures us that betrays the underlying presence of social and political all exploitation has ceased and socialism has been in­ conflicts that require suppression. stituted. Has Lenin's program of proletarian democracy, then, been carried out? Far from it. The terror of Sta­ The "Classless" State lin's time has been lifted. The ordinary Soviet citizen These same considerations apply to the draft's treat­ nowadays does not dread sudden arrest, trials on false ment of the role of the Soviet state. Lenin taught that charges, long-term imprisonment at hard labor in proletarian democracy would be expanded and the concentration camps. compulsive and bureaucratic features of the state pro­ Yet the workers do not even have those rights and gressively reduced as the powers of production mul­ liberties they won in 1917 and exercised until the ad­ tiplied to provide abundance for everyone, class an­ vent of Stalinism. Democracy has been stamped out in tagonisms were eliminated, and the socialist revolution the Soviets and the party. Functionaries are not made conquered in other countries. responsible or accountable for their actions. The entire Khrushchev claims that all these happy conditions toiling population has not been drawn into the work of have been realized. The government of this thoroughly state administration. Judges are not elected by the harmonious society is so democr~tic it no longer has workers. The "ruling cadres" dominate and decide ev­ a proletarian class character. It is a "state of the whole erything for the people. people." The new program boasts that the Soviet people have full freedom of speech, press and assembly, the right If this be so, why did the rulers of the Soviet state to elect and be elected. What is the actual state of af­ this year reinstate the death penalty for economic fairs? Soviet citizens are forbidden to read unauthorized crimes which Stalin abolished in 1947? Several people publications, listen to foreign broadcasts, possess books have already been executed under this law. Capital and magazines from outside the Soviet Union. They punishment has been illegalized in a number of cap­ cannot travel freely at home or leave the country with­ italist countries. Clearly there must be overwhelming out official permission. Dissenting opinions are not en­ economic forces impelling citizens to commit offences couraged or allowed and their public expression is against state property - and no less powerful reasons severely punished. Government functionaries and party for the bosses of this allegedly "socialist" country to censors keep culture and the arts under careful super­ impose such savage retaliations. vision lest too "dangerous thoughts" circulate through Khrushchev himself has recently divulged large-scale them. embezzlements, frauds and double-dealings by top par­ ty administrators. Thefts of state property occur at all Khrushchev Boasts grades of the social pyramid. Last year half the grain In his August 17 speech on the Berlin CriSIS the So­ crop of the Ukraine remained unaccounted for! These viet Premier said: "It can already now be said with anti-socialist practices, these vestiges of "bourgeois complete confidence that the entire Soviet people mentality" have both economic and political causes. unanimously approve the draft program of our party." They are engendered by continuing poverty, misery and This pompous pronouncement shows how much en­ inequality, by the uncontrolled rule of the bureaucrats, forced conformity and how little democracy accom­ and by the helplessness of the masses to bridle them. panies the birth of this very program. Contrary t6 The new program holds out the prospect of far­ Khrushchev, dissenters to it very likely exist not sim­ ranging political and economic reforms to correct these ply among the masses but in high places, even though abuses: secret ballots for choosing, removing, retiring, their voices cannot be heard in public. and replacing central political committees. But it like­ The democratic pretentions of the document are wise makes clear that the present commanders-in-chief further belied by its retention of the dogma of the do not intend to surrender any essential positions, pow­ monolithic, monopolistic party together with the cult ' ers or privileges. of the bureaucratic state. If such total harmony of in­ The document proclaims that "Socialism [has} tri­ terests and unanimity of views prevail as Khrushchev umphed in the Soviet Union completely and finally." contends, what makes it imperative for the party to Socialism, according to all Marxists before Stalin and maintain its political monopoly and complete control his heirs, was not a nationally limited but an interna­ over all domains of public life not only now but into tional system involving the majority of the human race the projected Communist stage? A system with unal­ and its most highly developed sectors. For socialism to loyed solidarity would need no permanent master-di­ acquire genuine economic substance, it must not simply rectors nor would the Communist party fear organized have nationalized means of production and a planned activities by its loyal members so much that it categor­ economy but provide higher living standards than the ically forbids any manifestations of "factionalism." richest capitalist countries.

110 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW HRUSHCHEV himself acknowledges that the Soviet reformist regime have prepared the way for indepen­ K Union of today, let alone the other members of the dent mass actions and radical changes in the political Soviet bloc, does not better satisfy the material needs situation and setup. Precisely this happened in East­ of the people. The program only promises that in the ern Europe from 1953 to 1956. next twenty years Soviet living conditions will rise After Stalin's totalitarian terror, the Soviet people rapidly, approach and then surpass those in the West are going through their experiment with the reforms - provided world peace is secured and the arms race of his more "liberal" successors. It cannot be foreseen slackens. how long it will take for them to grasp the intrinsic Such a pauper's "socialism" in relation to capitalism limitations of Khrushchev's rulership. But the experi­ is a contradiction in terms. This is only one of the many ence, and above all the exhaustion, of this period of contradictions between Marxist theory and Soviet reali­ the disintegration of the supports of Stalinism can ty in this document. With an economy rapidly gaining become one of the major preconditions, not for the con­ on capitalism in science, technology and heavy industry solidation and perpetuation of bureaucratic domination~ but less productive and poorer in most fields catering but for its undermining and eventual replacement by to the consumer, with an ultrabureaucratic regime proletarian democracy. The Soviet people, we firmly denying elementary rights to its citizens, the Soviet believe, will sooner or later dislodge the bureaucracy Union today is still far from the socialist order pro­ and take full charge of their own house. jected by the creators and continuators of Marxism - or desired by the workers. Lenin's Internationalism It would be more accurate and honest to admit these The Bolsheviks under Lenin did not assign a per­ shortcomings and see Soviet society as a workers state manent paramount place in the march toward socialism directed toward socialism but held back economically to any country or its working class, including the So­ by its insufficient productivity, politically by its priv­ viet Republic they established. Such national arrogance ileged commanding caste, and internationally by the was repugnant to them, as Marxists. Lenin viewed the failure of the workers to take power in the fortresses leading role of the Russian revolutionists as temporary of imperialism. in the world-wide historic process of overcoming cap­ But the Soviet leaders need fictions to glamorize their italism and building socialism. He integrally linked the regime, bolster their rule, and inject false hopes into fate of the Soviet regime with the development of the their followers. That is why they misrepresent the na­ international socialist revolution. ture of Soviet society, among so many other things. In Despite their disclaimers, the current heads of the their hands Marxism loses its scientific character and Soviet oligarchy talk and act as though they had been is converted into an instrument of apologetics for their awarded a perpetual ascendancy, not only within the costly stewardship. Soviet sphere, but in the world labor and socialist The draft presents a highly simplified and sedative movement. Intoxicated and unbalanced by the powers prospectus of Soviet evolution. There exists, we are they wield, they believe that all the necessary means informed, indestructible unity among the workers, peas­ for maintaining supremacy forever is in their hands. ants and intellectuals alongside a firm fusion of the constituent nationalities. There is no ground for serious When, in connection with the Berlin crisis, Khru­ social antagonisms or political divisions. Economic, sci­ shchev alluded to "our fight for the recognition of our grandeur," this phrase reveals the chauvinism in entific, social and cultural progress will quicken all the outlook of the caste he represents. The draft is along the line as the USSR moves on from socialism to communism. Whatever inequalities remain will be permeated with this spirit of "national grandeur." erased together with the backwardnesses inherited Where Stalin merely proclaimed the building of so­ cialism in one country, regardless of conditions and from the past. All this is guaranteed provided direction of affairs events elsewhere in this world, his disciples, increas­ ing the boast, are heralding the creation of communism remains exclusively in the hands of the Communist party. The benevolent bureaucracy will shepherd the in the same fatherland. masses toward the bright Communist future. The program says: "In the Socialist camp, or, which In view of the relaxation of tensions and the bettered is the same thing, in the world community of Socialist living conditions since Stalin's death and in light of countries, none have, nor can have, any special right~ the achievements and potential of their work, the So­ or privileges." Yet the authors reserve for their own viet people may very likely be inclined to extend credit regime the privilege of being the first to reach social­ to the program's promises and see whether the regime ism and enter communism while the less fortunate can deliver the goods. contingents of mankind bring up the rear. Khrushchev has given another gigantic promissory This perspective is not only illusory for the Soviet note to his people. They will insist that more and more people; it is viciously reactionary and anti-Socialist payments be made upon it. To the extent that the in relation to the other states within the Soviet bloc. administration does not make good within the pre­ While the Soviet Union is on the way to communism, scribed time, disenchantment and discontent will grow. what is to happen in the other anticapitalist countries This would not be the first time in either modern from Albania to China? Are they to rest content trot­ or Soviet history that, by stirring up expectations with­ ting humbly behind - and so far behind - Soviet out satisfying them, the promises and concessions of a Big Brother?

FALL 1961 III OMPARED with 200 million people in the Soviet be no objection, but the maintenance of existing rela­ C Union, there are 700 million living in China, most tions between classes with antagonistic interests. As of them literally on rations. Are they supposed to creep implemented by the Communist parties, it does far more forward on their terribly lower economic level as the to hold back the working masses from struggling for Soviet Union bounds toward communist abundance? their own demands and power than to check the war­ China needs increasing amounts of equipment to build mongers. its heavy industry. How can these demands be met by It is proper for Moscow to negotiate at any level with Moscow if, as projected, it will have to allot more of Washington for agreements which can help preserve its own annual budget to light industry and farming? peace and safeguard the interests of the workers states. The coexistence of have and have-not nations within But in pursuit of such objectives it is misleading and the so-called "Socialist community" is as pregnant with disastrous to depict the representatives of the rich as national antagonisms as the presence of rich and poor partisans of peace, as Eisenhower was depicted when in a single capitalist country is with class conflict. This "the spirit of Camp David" was at its height. is one of the major, if unspoken, sources of friction at The document fails to put the formula of peaceful co­ work behind the scenes in Sino-Soviet relations. existence to the test of living experience. Khrushchev's The draft, believe it or not, devotes merely sixteen reasoning and conclusions haven't yet won over the words in all to China and its Revolution, the most White House, the Pentagon or Congress. Kennedy re­ momentous event of the past fifteen years. But the fuses to recognize the People's Rep'ublic of China, sup­ difficulties and dissensions flowing from the perspec­ ports Chiang, maintains the Seventh Fleet blockade. tives of "communism in one country" will not be settled He and the CIA continue to conspire against Cuba. by hushing them up. Peking has not concealed its dis­ The new draft, however, does not mention Cuba at all pleasure with the draft and will doubtless have more or list it among the socialist countries. to say about the deepening divergences it is bound to Why this inexplicable inattention to Cuba and China, stimulate. the countries most vulnerable to imperialist assault? Is * * * it because the positions of these workers states upset the If the lines of development projected for the Soviet assumptions of peaceful coexistence and expose the fal­ Union and its bloc are not so simple or roseate as lacy in Khrushchev's line? Even if Peking and Havana they are depicted in this document, neither are the wished to believe in Washington's peaceful intentions, perspectives of world events. Here we can deal only the hostility of Kennedy's administration would speedily with two decisive problems: the danger of war and dispel such illusions. The fact is, neither capital sees the fight for peace and the strategy of struggle for eye to eye with Moscow on this point. workers power. The General Secretary of the Communist party has o CREDIT the new revelation, the capitalist states stated that his appraisal of the war-making powers of T can be made to disarm and their war-waging cap­ imperialism differs from Lenin's. Lenin taught that war, acities nullified, not through the capture of power by like exploitation, was an irremovable feature of cap­ the workers, but through the shift in the world rela­ italism. "So long as both capitalism and socialism tion of forces pivoted around the overwhelming strength remain, we cannot live in peace," he wrote, not once of the Soviet Union and its allies. War is therefore but many times. The only way to eradicate war and avoidable even though capitalist militarism continues get world peace was through the abolition of imperial­ to exist with enough H-bombs to annihilate humanity ism in its main strongholds by the revolutionary work­ fifty times over. ing class. Lenin supported antimilitarist mass struggles calling In accord with Khrushchev's innovations at the for the reduction and end to armaments in capitalist Twentieth Congress, which made official doctrine of countries. But he always took care to point out that Stalin's revisionist practices, the new program discards the monopolists and militarists could quickly rearm so the Leninist conception of imperialism and its corre­ long as they controlled the economy and government. sponding revolutionary class struggle policies. Purely military disarmament would not be effective The draft correctly attributes prime responsibility without the economic expropriation and political dis­ for the war danger to imperialism. The collectivized, placement of the capitalist rulers. planned Soviet economy, unlike the system of the mo­ Khrushchev, however, implies that the attainment nopolist profiteers, does not benefit from military con­ of total disarmament would in itself assure world peace. tracts or breed foreign wars to protect and promote He further contends that the military superiority of private business interests. Insofar as the slogan of the Soviet Union on one side and the superdestructive peaceful coexistence exposes the belligerence of the im­ capacity of nuclear weapons on the other make it im­ perialist powers and underscores the peaceful aims of possible, unthinkable, for any but madmen to initiate Soviet diplomacy, it not only accords with the facts war or attack any socialist country. but serves useful propaganda purposes. The program insinuates that World War III has been But the policy pursued by the Kremlin and its fol­ prevented up to now by Soviet might and its policy of lowers under cover of peaceful coexistence has another peaceful coexistence. In reality, the results of the meaning. It is stretched to cover, not only the mainten­ Chinese and the other colonial revolutions in altering ance of friendly relations between states with different the balance of world forces have done more to restrain social and political systems, to which there certainly can the imperialist warmakers than any other single factor.

112 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW But this fact confirms Lenin's line of intransigeant tries." Thus the line of peaceful coexistence is recom­ struggle against imperialist power, not the Stalinist mended on the grounds that it both promotes the class course of conciliation. struggle of the workers and fits in with the interests of To avert the threat of war, the program pins great their peace-loving class enemies! Who can distinguish hope upon the leaders of the "neutralist" bourgeosie in one side clearly amidst such deliberate confusion? the less developed nations as well as upon the "peace­ In reality, the summons to struggle is decorative and loving" elements among the Western capitalists. A in practice subordinated to the main line of seeking qualitative distinction is drawn between two opposite some kind of collaboration and compromise with the types of capitalists: the warmongering and the peace­ progressive, peace-loving bourgeoisie. Indeed, if the loving. The document declares: "Support for the prin­ successes of Soviet "socialism" can ensure peace and do ciple of peaceful coexistence is also in keeping with so much else, where is the life-and-death necessity for the interests of that section of the bourgeoisie which the workers under capitalist domination to get rid of realizes that a thermonuclear war would not spare the their oppressors and exploiters as soon as they can? ruling classes of capitalist society either." The tenor of the neo-Stalinist line is that the so­ lt does not say where Kennedy is to be placed - cialist forces can conquer all opposition even in the im­ among the peaceful coexisters or among the war fa­ perialist centers, not by the example of internal class natics. This calculated ambiguity on the role of the power, but by the external power of Soviet example. official head of U.S. militarism which so offends the Evolution, gradualism, take precedence over indepen­ Chinese Communists gives away the anti-Leninist dent class struggle and revolutionary mass action. This foundations of Moscow's peace policy. Khrushchev is expectation, which shaped the thinking of Utopian and extending Stalin's policy of "collective security" with reformist socialists, has become the cornerstone of the capitalist powers and Popular Front collaboration Moscow's strategy in world politics. with the progressive, peace-loving bourgeoisie which The trouble is that the class enemies of the workers disoriented the workers in the 1930's but failed to pre­ can learn equally well from the advances of the work­ vent the Second World War. ers states. Will the imperialists continue to retreat and Lenin's program hinged the struggle for peace, for stand inactive as the Soviet Union proceeds from "so­ socialism, for the defense of all revolutionary gains, not cialism" to "communism" and undermines their power upon the resources of the Soviet Union alone, but upon and prestige? Will they gracefully give up their rule the extension of the proletarian revolution on the world and privileges - or fight to the death to retain them? arena, and above all to the central strongholds of cap­ Cuba provides a fresh example of how intransigeant i talist power in Western Europe and North America. they can be. The solution of all problems depended upon the devel­ lt would be folly for serious socialists to bank on the opment of the class struggle culminating in the con­ most favorable development, and still worse to follow quest of power by the workers in one country after Moscow and make it the axis of practical political pol­ another. icy. The workers need less tranquillizers and more Khrushchev's program sets forth a different course. energizers to arouse them to the perils of the decadent The multiplying economic successes must prove so capitalist system and inspire them to end it through overwhelming that they will not only dispose of all their own conscious action. basic problems at home but demoralize all opposition Be realists, says Khrushchev to the Washington poli­ in the other parts of the globe. The preponderant power, cy-makers. Recognize the new balance of world power prestige, and pressures of the "socialist community" and come to agreement on Berlin. But the imperialists will impose peace, force the imperialists to disarm, are unyielding primarily because they fear the conse­ frustrate their schemes of reconquest. Moreover, by quences of further shifts to their disadvantage. They strengthening the position and morale of the workers, will hardly permit an indefinite erosion of their power the advances of the Soviet bloc will create the condi­ without taking drastic countermeasures. tions for easier transfer of power to the antimonopolist How then is peaceful coexistence between the forces coalitions and ensure the transition to socialism by of capitalism and socialism and their states to be main­ peaceful, gradual steps even in some capitalist coun­ tained for decades ahead in a world convulsed by co­ tries. lonial revolutions, mass movements of all kinds against the old order, and the stubborn refusal of Big Business HERE are many phrases about the need for strug­ to let such events attain their aims? This fundamental T gle in the document aimed at reconciling discordant question of world politics is barely raised, and certainly interests and opposing views by giving deceptive mean­ not answered, in this document. ings to words. The partisans of nationalism and inter­ nationalism, of class compromise and class struggle, of T APPEARS untimely, even unseemly, to advance Stalinism and Bolshevism can all find passages in the I peaceful coexistence as the panacea for peace while text to sanction their positions. Thus, immediately be­ tension tightens over Berlin. Let us assume that this fore the statement about the peacefully inclined sectOl' crisis, like others between the Soviet bloc and the West­ of the bourgeosie, we are told that the conception of ern powers, is overcome. What guarantees are there peaceful coexistence "constitutes a specific form of class that the ultimate showdown can forever be circum­ struggle" which "affords more favorable opportunities vented if the militarists and monopolists maintain their for the struggle of the working class in capitalist coun- sway in Washington, London, Paris, Bonn and Tokyo?

FALL 1961 113 The document gives no iron-clad guarantees; it is Here is the concrete application of the neo-Stalinist hedged with conditions. But it is precisely the efficacy program in the dominant capitalist country. Kennedy of the most important of these conditions, the restraints is not seen as the political leader of the monopolists against war present among the capitalist possessors of and militarists but as the victim and target of the reac­ power, that is the point at issue. So long as the master­ tionaries and fascists. The main task of the progressive minds in the Kremlin cannot stand bond for the triumph forces today is not to combat and expose his role as of the pro-peace elements in the imperialist camp - the principal executive of imperialist policy but to ex­ and even if they did - their advice to stake the fate ert counterpressure enough to redirect his administra­ of humanity upon this turn of events is, to say the least, tion into democratic and progressive channels. The prec­ questionable. edent, Hall tells us, is Franklin D. Roosevelt, signer of The program's preventives for war rest upon a hy­ the Smith Act, who, as we all know, ended his regime pothesis that remains to be tested and is ill-founded. It in the midst of peace and democracy. assumes that no circumstances will drive the imperial­ HIS is the real meaning of the Communist party's ists to nuclear war because it is contrary to their self­ line of peaceful coexistence in the political life of interest. Only madmen would take such a course. Yet T the United States today. As followers of Lenin even today in Washington there are voices urging the Ma~x, and Trotsky, we reject such opportunism. It has already risk of war over Berlin. Doomed classes are the most inflicted too much damage upon American and world prone to unreasonable actions to ward off their down­ socialism for us to accept it, even on the exalted author­ fall. ity of Khrushchev. At bottom the policy of peaceful coexistence relies, not upon the overwhelming strength of the Soviet Union and surely not upon the conquest of power by the workers, but rather upon the capitalists' fearful recog­ Foster nition of the consequences of nuclear war to them­ (Continued from page 106) selves. Sober calculation should convince them, even if He could not go over to the side of American capitalism; socialist opposition does not compel them, that peace is his role, his fame, and even more than that, his whole life, better than atomic holocaust. They will embrace retreat, were irrevocably tied to the working class movement. To defeat, dispossession rather than unloose the horrors of be sure, he might have considered the alternative of break­ ing with Stalinism and undertaking to create a new revolu­ nuclear destruction. tionary movement from scratch. But for that he would have This position shifts the basis of the struggle for peace had to sacrifice his popularity, his prestige, his position from one class force to its opposite. Lenin held that the and some kind of authority - or a simulacrum of it. It was thrust toward war was inherent in imperialism and not in Foster's character to do that. So there he is, as his the danger would not lessen but increase as its system last sands run out, still clinging to his illusion that in try­ ing to outwit history he is in some way or other making was more threatened. President Kennedy stated in a history. recent speech that the policy of this country is based ultimately on military power. The stepped-up arms race Foster and the Later Stalinists January 31, 1958 and attitude of the NATO allies over Berlin testify to I do think it rather important, if one is to probe the the truth of Lenin's approach which the document phenomenon of American Stalinism to the bottom, to rec­ dismisses as outdated. ognize the difference between Foster and that generation Khrushchev's program blunts the edges of class strug­ of young idealists who came into the party after it had be­ gle in favor of class collaboration. Just as it tells the come completely Stalinized and who never knew any other school. Soviet workers to place full confidence in the enlight­ Foster was past 40 when he came to the CP in 1921. His ened and reformed successors of Stalin, so it advises character, his general concepti€lns and his ambitions had the workers in the West to stake all upon changing been fully formed in the previous movements. There is no the character and course of the ruling bourgeosie. In­ doubt that he had learned something from the Russians stead of relying upon their own independent class or­ and. changed a little. But his primary strategy was to adapt himself to the new power in order to serve his original ganizations and actions for attaining their ends and ambition to rearrange things in the American trade-union defending their welfare, they are to look for alliances movement and advance his own career in the process. The with the most amenable segments of the capitalist savage irony in the whole affair is that the Stalinist power, rulers. which he had set out to use, used him instead and used What this means for American socialists can be seen him up and is still using him in his last hour. Who can feel sorry when the biter gets bit? Not me. in the following policy statement by Gus Hall, Gen­ You raise an interesting question when you say: "It's eral Secretary of the Communist party USA, published better that he should be a fake Stalinist than a real one." in the July 16 Worker. "The situation requires that the I personally find it easier at least to try to have a sym­ main direction of the attack should be at the war­ pathetic understanding of the young men who joined the party in the early Thirties with full conviction that they mongering and fascist forces, who are pressuring the were serving the cause of communism. Gates' articles in Kennedy Administration further to the Right. At the the New York Post, which I have just read, unknowingly same time, every policy or action of Kennedy that plays draw a poignant picture of this deceived and betrayed into the hands of the Right should be sharply opposed generation of young idealists. Their story remains to be and criticized, building up the pressures upon the Ad­ written, but I suppose it would take a deep-seeing artist to do justice to the theme. There is a profounder tragedy ministration for a change in policy in the direction of in their aspirations and defeat than in the career of Foster peaceful coexistence and defense of democracy." who came to Stalinism with tongue in cheek.

114 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW The 1919 Lenin Program Of the CPSU (Bolsheviks)

(Adopted March 22. 1919 at the Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party)

HE October Revolution (October provement in technology, by in­ and various hardships for ever in­ creasing the economic importance of creasing strata of the toiling masses. T 25 [November 7), 1917) in Rus­ big enterprises, leads to the squeez­ sia brought about the dictatorship of ing out of the petty independent But the more the contradictions in­ the proletariat, which with the sup­ producers, to the conversion of some herent in bourgeois society grow and develop, the more the dissatisfaction port of the poorest peasantry, or of them into proletarians and to the restriction of the part played by the of the toilers and of the exploited semi-proletariat, began to lay down remainder in the social and economic masses with the existing state of the foundation of communist society. life and at times subjecting them to affairs increases, their numerical The course of the revolution in Ger­ the more or less obvious, more or less strength and solidarity increases, and many and Austria-Hungary, the burdensome dependence on capital. their struggle against their exploiters becomes more intense. At the same growth of the revolutionary move­ However, technical progress ena­ time the improvement in technology ment of the proletariat in all the bles the capitalists to apply female by concentration of the means of progressive countries, the spread of and child labour to an ever greater production and exchange, and so­ the Soviet form of this movement, extent in the process of production cialisation of the process of labour and exchange of goods. And since, on in capitalist enterprises, more and i.e., a form which directly aims at the other hand, this progress brings more rapidly creat2s the material the establishment of the dictatorship about a relative decrease in the cap­ possibility of SUbstituting communist of the proletariat - nIl this showed italists' demand for human labour industrial relations for capitalist re­ that the era of world proletarian power, the demand for labour neces­ lations, i.e., the possibility of bring­ communist revolution had been inau­ sarily lags behind the supply and this ing about the social revolution which increases the dependence of wage is the final goal of the entire ac­ gurated. labour on capital and raises the level tivity of the international Communist The revolution was the inevitable of exploitation of labour. Party, the conscious exponent of the class movement. result of the development of cap­ This state of things in the bour­ italism, which is still dominant in geois countries and the growing com­ Having replaced private property most civilized countries. Our old petition among them in the world in the means of production and ex­ programme correctly (if the incor­ market make it more and more dif­ change by social property, and hav­ ing introduced a planned organisation rect title given to the Party - So­ ficult for them to sell the goods, which are produced in ever increas­ of the socially productive process in cial-Democratic - is left out of ac­ ing quantities. Overproduction, which order to secure the well being and count) characterised the nature of manifests itself in more or less acute many-sided development of all the capitalism and of bourgeois society industrial crises, followed by more members of society, the proletarian in the following postulates: or less lengthy periods of industrial social revolution will abolish the di­ stagnation, is an inevitable conse­ vision of society into classes and The chief feature of such a society quence of the development of the thereby free the whole of oppressed is commodity production on the basis productive forces in bourgeois so­ humanity, for it will put an end to of capitalist production relations, ciety. Crises and periods of industrial all forms of exploitation of one sec­ under which the most important and stagnation in their turn still further tion of society by another. considerable part of the means of ruin the small producers, still further production and exchange belongs to increase the dependence of wage The necessary prerequisite of this a numerically small class of persons, labour on capital, and lead still more social revolution is the dictatorship while the enormous majority of the rapidly to a relative and sometimes of the proletariat, i.e., the conquest population consists of proletarians to an absolute deterioration of the by the proletariat of political power and semi-proletarians, who owing to conditions of the working class. which will enable it to suppress all their economic position are compelled resistance on the part of the ex­ permanently or periodically to sell Thus the improvement in technol­ ploiters. Setting itself the task of their labour power, i.e., to hire them­ ogy, which implies an increase in the making the proletariat capable of selves to the capitalists and to create productivity of labour and an in­ performing its great historic mission, by their labour the income of the up­ crease of social wealth, brings about the international Communist Party per classes of society. in bourgeois society an increase in organises it into an independent po­ social inequality, a greater disparity litical party opposed to all the bour­ The sphere of dominion of capital­ between property owners and pro­ geois parties, guides all the manifes­ ist production relations is extending letarians, a greater precariousness of tations of its class struggle, reveals wider and wider as the constant im- existence, as well as unemployment to it the irreconcilable opposition

FALL 1961 115 between the interests of the exploit­ struggle of the proletariat, the hor­ achieved unless a determined rupture ers and those of the exploited masses, rors, calamities and ruin caused by is made on matters of principle, and and explains to the proletariat the historical importance and the nec­ the imperialist war - all make the a ruthless struggle is waged against essary prerequisites of the coming collapse of capitalism and the transi­ the bourgeois distortion of socialism social revolution. At the same time tion to a higher type of social eco­ which has gained the upper hand it reveals to all the other toiling and nomic system inevitable. among the leadership of the official exploited masses the hopelessness of its position in capitalist society and The imperialist war could not re­ Social-Democratic and Socialist the necessity of a social revolution sult in either a just peace or in the Parties. for the purpose of liberating itself capitalist governments' establishing Such a distortion is, on the one from the yoke of capital. The Com­ a more or less stable peace. At the hand, the opportunist and social­ munist Party, the party of the work­ ing class, calls on all strata of the present stage of capitalist develop­ chauvinist trend which professes to toiling and exploited population to ment such a war was bound and is be socialist in words, yet is chauvin­ join its ranks to the extent that bound to be transformed before our ist in practice, and covers up the these strata adopt the standpoint of very eyes into the civil war of the defence of the rapacious interests of the proletariat. exploited working masses, led by the the fatherland, both in general and The process of the concentration proletariat against the bourgeoisie. especially during the imperialist war and centralisation of capital by abol­ The growing proletarian offensive, of 1914-1918. This trend was creat­ ishing free competition led, at the especially when it is victorious in ed by the fact that in the progres­ beginning of the twentieth century, various countries, increases the re­ sive capitalist countries the bourgeoi­ to the creation of powerful monop­ sistance of the exploiters and induces sie by robbing the colonial and weak olistic ass 0 cia ti 0 n s of capitalists them to create new forms of interna­ nations were able, out of the surplus - syndicates, cartels, trusts, which tional associations of capitalists (the profits obtained by this robbery to acquired decisive importance in the League of Nations, etc.), which while place the upper strata of the prole­ whole of economic life. This process organising, on a world scale, the sys­ tariat in their countries in a privi­ led to the merging of banking cap­ tematic exploitation of all the na­ leged position, to bribe them, to se­ ital with industrial capital, to the tions of the world, at present direct cure for them in peace time tolerable, enormous concentration of capital their efforts towards the immediate petty-bourgeois conditions of life, and to an increase in the export of suppression of the revolutionary and to take into its service the lead­ capital to foreign countries. Trusts movements of the proletariat of all ers of that stratum. Opportunists covering entire groups of capitalist countries. and social-chauvinists, being the powers commenced the economic All this inevitably leads to the servants of the bourgeoisie, are ac­ partition of the world, which has combination of civil war within tually the direct class enemies of the already been di vided terri torially separate countries with revolution­ proletariat, specially now, when, in among the richest countries. This ary wars of self-defense on the part alliance with the capitalists, they are epoch of finance capital, which inevi­ of proletarian countries and of op­ suppressing by force of arms the rev­ tably intensifies the struggle be­ pressed nations against the yoke of olutionary movement of the prole­ tween the capitalist countries, is the the imperialist powers. tariat both in their own countries epoch of imperialism. In such conditions, the slogans of and in foreign countries. The inevitable corollary of all this pacifism, of international disarma­ On the other hand, the "centrist" is imperialist wars for markets, for ment under capitalism, of arbitra­ movement is also a bourgeois distor­ spheres of investment of capital, for tion, etc., are not only a reactionary tion of socialism. That movement is raw materials and labour, i.e., for Utopia but the down-right deception also found in all capitalist countries. world domination and for power over of the toilers, intended to disarm the It vacillates between the social­ small and weak nationalities. This proletariat and to divert it from the chauvinists and the Communists, ad­ was precisely the nature of the first task of disarming the exploiters. vocates union with the former, and great imperialist war of 1914-1918. Only a proletarian communist rev­ strives to revive the bankrupt Sec­ The extremely high degree of de­ olution can lead humanity out of the ond International. The only leader in velopment of world capitalism in deadlock created by imperialism and the proletarian struggle for emanci­ general and the replacement of free imperialist wars. No matter what dif­ pation is the new, Third, Communist competition by state monopoly cap­ ficulties the revolution may have to International, of which the Commu­ italism, the fact that the banks and encounter and in spite of temporary nist Party of the Soviet Union is a the capitalist corporations are creat­ failure of waves of counter-revolu­ detachment. This International was ing an apparatus for the social reg­ tion the final victory of the prole­ created by the formation in a num­ ulation of the process of production tariat is inevitable. ber of countries, particularly in Ger­ and distribution of products, the rise This victory of the world prole­ many, of Communist Parties which in prices and increased oppression tarian revolution calls for the great­ were made up of the genuinely prole­ of the working class by the syn­ est confidence, the closest fraternal tarian elements of former Socialist dicates due to the growth of capital­ union and the greatest possible unity Parties. It was formally established ist monopolies, the enslavement of of revolutionary action on the part in March, 1919, at its First Congress, the working class by the imperialist of the working class in progressive held in Moscow. The Communist state, the gigantic handicaps im­ countries. International, which is winning in­ posed on the economic and political These conditions cannot be creasing sympathy among the masses

116 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW of the proletariat of all countries, ing the resistance of the exploiters, to be realised in practice anywhere reverts to Marxism, not only in and the Soviet constitution, proceed­ and during its imperialist stage name, but also in its entire ideo­ ing from the standpoint that freedom brought about the most intense op­ logical and political content, and in of any kind is a deception if it runs pression of races and nationalities. all its activities applies the revolu­ contrary to the liberation of labour Only because the Soviet government tionary teachings of Marx, purged from the yoke of capital, does not is the government of the toilers was of bourgeois opportunist distortions. hesitate to deprive the exploiters of it able for the first time in history to In developing the concrete tasks their political rights. The task of the introduce this equality of rights com­ of the proletarian dictatorship as Party of the proletariat, while per­ pletely and in all spheres of life, in­ applied to Russia, the principal fea­ sistently suppressing the resistance cluding the absolute elimination of ture of which is the numerical pre­ of the exploiters and combating the last traces of inequality of wom­ ponderance of the petty-bourgeois ideologically the deep-rooted prej­ en in the sphere of marriage and strata of the population, the Com­ udices concerning the absolute na­ general family rights. The task of the munist Party of the Soviet Union de­ ture of bourgeois rights and liberties, Party at the present moment is main­ fines these tasks in the following is at the same time to explain that ly to carryon ideological and edu­ manner: deprivation of political rights and cational work for the purpose of restriction of liberty are necessary finally stamping out all traces of the In the Sphere of General Politics only as temporary measures to fight former inequality and prejudices, es­ 1. The bourgeois republic, even the any attempts of the exploiters to pecially among the backward strata most democratic one, sanctified by maintain or restore their privileges. of the proletariat and the peasantry. the slogans of national or non-class To the extent that the objective pos­ Not satisfied with the formal will of the people, inevitably has sibility of exploitation of man by equality of women, the Party strives proved in fact to be - owing to man disappears, the necessity for to free women from the material the existence of private property in such temporary measures will disap­ burden of obsolete domestic econ­ land and in other means of produc­ pear, and the Party will strive to omy, by replacing this with the tion - a dictatorship of the bour­ diminish these measures. house-communes, pub Ii c dining­ geoisie, a machine for the exploita­ 3. Bourgeois democracy confined halls, central laundries, creches, etc. tion and suppression of the over­ itself to the formal extension of po­ 5. While affording the toiling whelming majority of the toilers by litical rights and liberties, such as masses incomparably greater op­ a handful of capitalists. Contrary to the right of assembly, right of as­ portunities than those enjoyed under this, proletarian or Soviet democracy sociation, and freedom of the press, bourgeois democracy and parlia­ has transformed the mass organisa­ to all citizens alike. But in reality, mentary government, to elect and tions of just those classes oppressed administrative practice, and above recall deputies in a manner easiest by capitalism, the proletarians and all the economic enslavement of the and most accessible to the workers the poorest peasants (semi-proleta­ toilers under bourgeois democracy, and peasants, the Soviet government rians), i.e., the enormous majority of has always rendered it impossible for at the same time abolishes the nega­ the population, into the sole and the toilers to make any wide use of tive aspect of parliamentary govern­ permanent basis of the entire state these rights and liberties. ment, especially the separation of the apparatus, local and central, from On the contrary, proletarian de­ legislature and the executive, the top to bottom. In this way, the Soviet mocracy, instead of formally claim­ isolation of the representative insti­ government introduced (and, inci­ ing rights and liberties, actually tutions from the masses, etc. dentally, in a much wider form than grants them primarily and mainly The Soviet government draws the anywhere else) local and regional to those classes of the population state apparatus closer to the masses self-government, without any official which have been oppressed by cap­ also by the fact that the electoral authorities appointed from above. italism, namely the proletariat and constituency and the basic unit for The task of the Party is to work un­ the peasantry. For this purpose the the state is no longer a territorial tiringly for the complete and actual Soviet government expropriates the district, but an industrial unit realisation of this highest type of bourgeoisie from buildings, printing (works, factory). democracy which, in order that it plants, paper stores, etc., and places The task of the Party is to con­ may function properly, requires a them at the complete disposal of the duct work in this direction in order steady improvement in the level of workers and of their organisations. to bring the organs of power still culture, organisation and activity of The task of the Communist Party closer to the masses of the toilers on the masses. of the Soviet Union is to draw ever the basis of an ever stricter and full­ 2. Contrary to bourgeois democra­ wider masses of the toiling popula­ er application of practical democracy cy, which conceals the class nature tion into the enjoyment of democratic by the masses, especially by making of its state, the Soviet power openly rights and liberties and to widen the functionaries responsible and ac­ recognises that every state must in­ material possibilities for this. countable for their actions. evitably be a class state until the di­ 4. For centuries bourgeois democ­ 6. Whereas bourgeois democracy, in vision of society into classes and racy has been proclaiming the equal­ spite of its declarations, has convert­ along with it all state power finally ity of men, irrespective of sex, reli­ ed its army into a weapon of the disappears. The Soviet state, by its gion, race and nationality, but cap­ propertied classes, separating it from very essence, has the object of crush- italism never allowed this equality the toiling masses and opposing it to

FALL 1961 117 them, and has rendered it difficult ers to military work brought about eration the stage of the historical de­ or even impossible for soldiers to ex­ a partial revival of bureaucracy velopment of the given nation: ercise their political rights, the So­ within the Soviet apparatus. whether it is evolving from medie­ viet state combines in its organs the The Communist Party of the Soviet valism to bourgeois democracy, or Soviets, workers and soldiers on a Union, while conducting a most de­ from bourgeois democracy to Soviet basis of complete equality of rights termined struggle against bureau­ or proletarian democracy, etc. and identity of interests. The task of cratic tendencie3, advocates the fol­ Inany case, the proletariat of the the Party is to maintain and develop lowing measures for the complete nation which has been the oppressing this solidarity of workers and soldiers elimination of this evil: nation must exercise special caution in the Soviets, to strengthen the in­ ( 1) The obligatory participation of and pay special attention to the sur­ dissoluble ties between the armed every member of the Soviet in def­ vivals of national sentiment among forces and the organisations of the inite work connected with the ad·­ the toiling masses of oppressed na­ proletariat and the semi-proletariat. ministration of the state. tions or those not possessing full 7. The industrial urban proletariat (2) Consecutive rotation in this rights. Only by following such a played a leading role throughout the work so that every member is able policy will it be possible to create revolution, because it was the most to acquire experience in all branches conditions for really durable, vol­ concentrated, united and enlightened of administration. untary unity among the nationally section of the toiling masses, and was (3) The entire toiling population heterogeneous elements of the inter­ most hardened in the struggle. It to be gradually drawn into the work national proletariat, as was shown assumed the leading role from the of state administration. by the experience of uniting a num­ very inception of the Soviets and The complete and all-sided appli­ ber of national Soviet republics throughout the whole course of their cation of all these measures, which around Soviet Russia. evolution into organs of power. Our represent further progress along the In the Military Sphere Soviet constitution reflects this cir­ path taken by the Paris Commune, cumstance by preserving certain and the simplification of the func­ 10. In the military sphere the tasks privileges for the industrial proleta­ tions of administration, with the rais­ of the Party are set out in the fol­ riat as compared with the more scat­ ing of the cultural level of the toilers, lowing fundamental postulates: tered petty-bourgeois masses in the will lead towards the abolition of (1) In the epoch of disintegration villages. the state power. of imperialism and growing civil war The Communist Party of the Soviet In the Sphere of National Relations it is impossible either to preserve the Union, while explaining the tempo­ 9. In the national question the old army or build up a new one on rary nature of these advantages which Communist Party of the Soviet Union the so-called non-class or national are historically bound up with the is guided by the following postulates: basis. The Red Army as a weapon of difficulties attending the organisa­ ( 1) The cornerstone of our policy the proletarian dictatorship must of tion of the countryside on socialistic is the policy of drawing together the necessity bear an openly class char­ lines, must strive to secure the per­ proletarians and the semi-proleta­ acter, i.e., it must be made up ex­ sistent and systematic utilisation of rians of the various nationalities for clusively of the proletariat and the this position by the industrial work­ the purpose of waging a joint rev­ semi-proletarian strata of peasantry ers in order, in contrast to the nar­ olutionary struggle for the over­ which are akin to it. Only when row craft and narrow trade union throw of the landowners and the classes are abolished will this class interests fostered by capitalism bourgeosie. army be transformed into a national among the workers, to unite more (2) In order to overcome the dis­ socialist militia. closely the progressive workers with trust felt by the working masses of ( 2) It is necessary widely to extend the most backward and scattered oppressed countries towards the military training to all proletarians masses of the rural proletarians, proletariat of states which used to and semi-proletarians, and to intro­ semi-proletarians and also the mid­ oppress those countries, it is nec­ duce the teaching of the correspond­ dle peasantry. essary to abolish all the privileges ing subjects in the schools. 8. Only the Soviet organisation of enjoyed by any national group, to es­ (3) The work of the military in­ the state enabled the proletarian rev­ tablish complete equality of rights struction and training of the Red olution to smash at once and radical­ for all nationalities, to recognise the Army is proceeding on the basis of ly destroy the old bourgeois bureau­ right of colonies and dependent na­ class solidarity and socialist educa­ cratic and juridical state apparatus. tions to separation. tion. Therefore, reliable and devoted However, the inadequate cultural (3) With the same aim in view the Communists must be appointed to level of the broad masses, the lack Party proposes, as a transitional form work with the military commanders, of necessary experience in adminis­ towards complete unity, a federation and communist nuclei must be es­ trative affairs among the workers, of states organised according to the tablished in each unit in order to appointed by the masses to occupy Soviet type. maintain internal contact of ideas responsible posts, the necessity to (4) As for the question as to who and class-conscious discipline. hurriedly and under difficult condi­ is to express the will of the nation to ( 4) Contrary to the regime of the tions appoint specialists of the old separate, the Communist Party of old army it is necessary to reduce school and the diversion of the most the Soviet Union adopts the historical the period of barrack training to the educated stratum of the urban work- class viewpoint, taking into consid- shortest possible time; to transform

118 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW has now lost its importance in princi­ sentences, they have introduced pub­ IIF ree dom II ple for the Red Army of workers lic censure as a form of punishment, and peasants, which is based on a they have substituted compulsory Through Starvation class principle. The possibility of labour without loss of liberty for combining the principles of election deprivation of liberty, replaced pris­ "Yet, we still allow many other Cuban im­ ports into this country in exchange for U.S. and appointment is dictated to the ons by educational institutions and dollars, foodstuffs, and many other items revolutionary class army exclusively introduced the practice of comrades' whose exportation can only bolster the Cas­ by practical considerations and de­ courts. tro regime. pends on the level reached in its The Communist Party of the Soviet "Surely this policy cannot continue if we formation, the degree of solidarity of Union, in advocating the further expect to advance freedom at full speed in army units, the existence of cadres of Cuba. Positive action is necessary to hasten development of the courts in the Castro's downfall. Mr. Speaker, I proudly commanders, etc. same direction, must strive to attract join my colleagues who are fighting for this the entire toiling population to the In the Sphere of objective and call upon the Congress to exercise of judicial functions and to enact a complete trade embargo which Administration of Justice have the system of punishment final­ would help end ihis tyranny." - From re­ marks of Representative Seymour Halpern 11. Having taken all power in its ly replaced by a system of educa­ of N. Y. in the U.S. House of Represen­ hands and having completely abol­ tional measures. tatives, Aug. 15, 1961. ished all the organs of bourgeois domination - the courts of the for­ In the Sphere of Education mer system - proletarian democra­ military barracks into military-po­ 12. In the sphere of education the cy substitutes for the bourgeois-dem­ litical schools, to establish the closest Communist Party of the Soviet ocratic formula: "Judges elected by possible contact between military Union has set itself the task of com­ the people," the class slogan: "Judges units and factories, works, trade pleting the work commenced with elected of the toilers and only by the unions and the organisations of the the Revolution of October, 1917, of toilers," applies this slogan through­ rural poor. transforming the school from a weap­ out the whole juridical system, and (5) The necessary organisational on of class domination of the bour­ at the same time levels the rights of geoisie into an instrument for the contacts and stability can be given both sexes in regard to electing the young revolutionary army only comp1ete abolition of the division of judges and the exercise of judicial society into classes, into an instru­ if the commanding personnel, al­ functions. though at first only the commanders ment for the communist regenera­ In order to draw the broadest tion of society. of the lower uni ts, are recrui ted masses of the proletariat and the During the period of proletarian from among class-conscious workers poorest peasantry into the adminis­ dictatorship, i.e., during the period and peasants. The training of the tration of justice, the system of con­ of preparation of the conditions for most capable and energetic soldiers stantly alternating temporary judge­ the complete realisation of commu­ devoted to the cause of socialism for assessors has been inaugurated. The nism, the school must not only be a the position of commanders is there­ mass labour organisations, the trade vehicle of communist principles in fore one of the most important tasks unions, etc., should take part in com­ general, but a vehicle of the ideo­ in creating an army. piling the lists of these judge-asses­ logical, organisational and educa­ (6) The widest utilisation and ap­ sors. tional influence of the proletariat plication of the operative and tech­ Having set up a uniform people's over the proletarian and non-prole­ nical experience of the last world court in place of the endless number tarian strata of the toiling masses, war is necessary. In this connection of former courts of divers structure for the purpose of educating a gen­ military specialists who have passed and numerous judicial instances, the eration capable of finally establish­ through the school of the old army Soviet government has simplified the ing communism. The immediate task must be attracted to the organisa.­ organisation of the court and has along that path is the further devel­ tion of the army and to its operative made it completely accessible to the opment of the following school and guidance. At the same time, the nec­ population and abolished all red tape educational principles which have al­ essary conditions for such utilisation in legal procedure. ready been applied by the Soviet of specialists is the concentration in After repealing the laws of the government: the hands of the working class of deposed governments the Soviet gov­ the po Ii tical guidance of the army ernment has charged the judges (1) The inauguration of free, com­ and all-embracing supervision over elected by the Soviets to carry out pulsory, general and poly technical the commanding personnel. the will of the proletariat and apply education (which in the theory ani (7) The demand that commanders its decree; and failing such, or if they practice acquaints the students with be elected, which was of enormous do not fully cover the case, to be all the main branches of industry) importance in point of principle in guided by socialist ideas of justice. for all children of both sexes up to regard to the bourgeois army, where In the sphere of punishment the the age of 17. the commanding personnel was se­ courts organised in this fashion have (2) The establishment of a net­ lected and trained as an apparatus of already brought about a radical work of pre-school institutions, class subjection of the soldiers and change in the character of penalties. creches, kindergartens, children's through them of the working masses, The courts widely apply conditional homes, etc., in order to improve so-

FALL 1961 119 cial education and to emancipate In the Sphere of Religion udices and organises the widest pos­ women. 13. With regard to religion, the sible ~cientific educational and anti­ (3) The complete application of Communist Party of the Soviet Un­ religious propaganda. At the same the principles of the uniform labour ion does not confine itself to the al­ time it is necessary carefully to avoid schools with teaching in the native ready decreed separation of church giving offense to the religious senti­ language, co-education, absolutely and state and of school and church, ments of believers, which only leads secular education, i.e., free from any i.e., measures advocated in the pro­ to the strengthening of religious fa­ kind of religious influence, establish­ grammes of bourgeois democracy, naticism. ment of close connection between in­ which the latter has nowhere con­ In the Sphere of Economics struction and socially productive sistently carried out to the end owing 14. Persistently to continue and to work, in order to train fully edu­ complete the expropriation of the cated members of communist society. "50 Noble, So Kind" bourgeoisie, which has been started ( 4) Food, clothing, footwear and and which in the main has already school requirements to be supplied to "The turkey was brought grown up from been completed. The means of pro­ all school children and students at the U.S.; the pig was brought from the U.S.; duction and exchange to be made the expense of the state. the ham was bought. the bacon was bought. lard was bought. fats were bought; about the property of the Soviet Republic, (5) The training of new cadres of $50,000,000 were imported in fats. Then, the i.e., the common property of all the educationalists imbued with the ideas Revolutionary Government began, almost toilers. of communism. from the beginning, a policy of trying to produce these chickens here ... 15. The principal and basic object, which determines the entire economic (6) The attraction of the toiling "Then when they realize that we are im­ population to active participation in porting, that we are trying to develop a na­ policy of the Soviet Union is the ut­ the work of education (the develop­ tional policy, a policy tending to supply us most development of the productive ment of "education councils," mobil­ with all those products without depending forces. In view of the state of ruin in isation of literate persons). on foreign countries, they take another step the country, the immediate practical and place an embargo on the chickens, the line to be pursued and to which all ( 7 ) All-round state assistance to hens, the cows. They even embargoed the self-education and self-development cows •.• else must be subordinated is at any of workers and peasants (the estab­ "They with their ever-present pharisa ical cost to increase the output of com­ lishment of a network of institutions policy, declared that foods will not be em­ modities most needed by the people. bargoed. Of course 'they are so noble, so for out-of-school education, such as The success of the work performed kind.' The North American Government is 'so by each Soviet institution connected libraries, adult schools, people's pal­ generous, so respectful of our country,' so with national economy shall be in­ aces and universities, courses, lec­ anxious for 'a better standard of living for tures, cinematographs, studios, etc.). our people.' sured by the practical results achieved in this field. In this con­ (8) The extensive development of "How kind they are I They wanted to leave us without oil; they had left us without a nection it is necessary in the first in­ vocational education for persons of quota, they had left us without raw mate­ stance to draw attention to the fol­ the age of 17 and upwards in con­ rials; they left us without spare parts .... lowing: nection with general poly technical but they were 'very kind and did not want (1) The disintegration of the im­ knowledge. us to be hungry,' and that is why they de­ clare that they are not going to embargo perialist system of economics left as (9) Universities to be thrown wide their food exports. Of course pork is food, a legacy to the initial period of So­ open to all those wishing to study, cows are food, and the cow produces milk viet construction a somewhat chaotic but primarily the workers; all com­ which is food; poultry produces meat which is food. But all that mattered to them was state of production and management petent persons to be drawn to the that we should not develop that production of production. The more imperative, universities as teachers; the removal here .... It was a policy of the pharisaical therefore, is the fundamental task ()f of all artificial obstacles preventing type." - Fidel Castro's speech on the na­ uniting the entire economic activity young scientific workers from aspir­ tional economy, July 4, 1961 of the country in a uniform na­ ing to professional chairs, students tional plan: the maximum centrali­ to be materially provided for in order to the diverse and actual ties which sation of production, i.e., unification that workers and peasants may he bind capital with religious propa­ of separate branches and groups of able to attend the universities. ganda. branches of industry, its concentra­ ( 10) It is equally necessary to The Communist Party of the So­ tion in the best production units and open and make accessible to the viet Union is guided by the convic­ the rapid fulfillment of economic toilers all the art treasures that were tion that only conscious and deliber­ tasks; the maximum co-ordination of created on the basis of the exploita­ ate planning of all the social and the entire production machinery; the tion of their labour, treasures which economic activities of the masses will rational and economic utilisation of hitherto were exclusively at the dis­ cause religious prejudices to die out. all the material resources of the posal of the exploiters. The Party strives for the complete country. (11) The development of the most dissolution of the ties between the At the same time efforts must be far-reaching propaganda of commu­ exploiting classes and the organisa­ made to establish economic co-opera­ nist ideas, for which purpose the tions of religious propaganda, facil­ tion and political contact with other machinery and means of state power itates the real emancipation of the nations and simultaneously to strive must be utilised. working masses from religious prej- to establish a single economic plan

120 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW co-ordinated with those nations (4) The utmost utilisation of all stratum, caused by their organised which have already adopted the So­ the available labour in the state sabotage, is over, because this sabo­ viet system. which is essential for the planned tage has on the whole been broken (2) With regard to petty and development of national economy, its down. The Party, in close alliance handicraft industries, these must be proper distribution and redistribu­ with trade unions, must pursue its widely utilised by placing govern­ tion among the various territorial former policy: on the one hand, not ment orders with the handicrafts­ regions as well as branches of na­ to make the slightest political con­ men, by including the handicrafts tional economy must be the im­ cession to this bourgeois stratum, and petty industries in the general mediate task of the economic policy and ruthlessly suppress all its coun­ plan of supply of raw materials and of the Soviet government; it can be ter-revolutionary tendencies, and on fuel and by giving them financial as­ achieved only in close alliance with the other hand fight with equal ruth­ sistance, pro vi d e d the separate the trade unions. The complete mo­ lessness against the pseudo-radical handicraftsmen, handicraft artels, bilisation by the Soviet government and in reality ignorant conceit that producers' co-operatives and petty in conjunction with the trade unions the toilers can overcome capitalism enterprises combine in bigger pro­ of all persons capab1e of working, for and the bourgeois regime without duction and industrial units; such definite social work, must be carried learning from the bourgeois special­ associations must be encouraged by out much more widely and system­ ists, without making use of them, granting them economic privileges, atically than has been done hitherto. without going through a long school­ which along with other measures are (5) At a time when the capitalist ing alongside with them. directed towards paralysing the ten­ method of organising labour is fall­ While striving for equality of re­ dency of the handicraftsmen to be­ ing to pieces, the productive forces muneration for every kind of work come petty enterprisers and towards of the country can be restored and and for full realisation of commu­ effecting the painless transition of developed and the socialist method nism, the Soviet government cannot these backward methods of produc­ of production consolidated only on set itself the immediate task of real­ tion to the higher forms of big mech­ the basis of the comradely discipline ising this equality at the present time, anised industry. of the toilers, of a maximum degree when only the first steps are being (3) The organisational apparatus of initiative on their part, of their taken from capitalism to communism. of socialised industry must in the sense of responsibility and of the Therefore it is necessary for some first place rely on the trade unions. strictest mutual control over the time to come to pay a higher remu­ The latter must to an increasing de­ productivity of labour. neration to specialists, in order that gree free themselves from the nar­ The attainment of that object re­ they may work not worse, but better row craft spirit and become big in­ quires persistent, systematic work of than before, and for the same rea­ dustrial associations embracing the re-educating the masses, which work son it is impossible to dispense with majority and gradually all the work­ is now rendered easier precisely be­ the system of bonuses for the most ers in the given branch of produc­ cause the masses see that the cap­ successful speedy organisational tion. italists, landowners and merchants work. Since, according to the laws of the are really being eliminated and by It is equal1y necessary to place the Soviet Republic and by established their own practical experience ar­ bourgeois specialists in a comradely practice, the trade unions already rive at the conclusion that their wel­ environment, common work, hand in participate in all the local and cen­ fare depends exclusively on the dis­ hand with the masses of rank and tral organs of management of in­ cipline they display. file workers, led by class-conscious dustry, they must eventually con­ In this work of creating new so­ Communists, thereby contributing to centrate in their hands the entire cialist discipline, the principal part the mutual understanding and rap­ management of the whole of national falls to the share of the trade unions. prochement between the physical economy as a sing1e economic unit. The latter, abandoning the beaten workers and brain workers, whom Establishing in this way indissolu­ track, must, in order to realise this capitalism has divided. ble ties between the central state ad­ aim, apply and test in practice vari­ (7) The Soviet government has al­ ministration, national economy and ous measures, such as the fixing of ready passed a number of measures the broad masses of the workers, the methods of accounting and of rates for the development of science and trade unions must draw the latter as of output, the establishment of re­ for bringing it into closer connection much as possible into the immediate sponsibility before special workers' with production: the establishment work of business management. The (comrades') courts, etc. of a whole network of new applied participation of the trade unions in ( 6 ) The same task of developing science institutes, laboratories, ex­ business management, and their the productive forces requires the perimental stations, experimental drawing the broad masses into this immediate, wide and all-sided utili­ work of testing new technical meth­ work, represent at the same time the sation of specialists in science and ods, improvements and inventions, principal means of struggle against technology who are left as a legacy the registration and organisation of the bureaucratisation of the economic of capitalism, despite the fact that all scientific resources and means, apparatus of the Soviet government in most cases they are inevitably etc. The Communist Party of the So­ and render possible the establish­ imbued with bourgeois ideas and viet Union supports all these meas­ ment of genuine popular control over habits. The Party believes that the ures and strives for their further de­ the results of production. period of acute struggle with this velopment and the creation of most

FALL 1961 121 favourable conditions for scientific isers; (3) improvement of the breed winning them to the side of the work in connection with the raising of peasants' cattle; (4) spreading of working class by carefully attending of the productive forces of the agronomic knowledge; (5) agronomic to their needs, and of fighting their country. aid to the peasants; (6) repair of backwardness with ideological weap­ agricultural implements of the peas­ ons and not by measures of repres­ In the Sphere of Agriculture ants in the Soviet repair shop; (7) sion, of striving, in all cases where 16. The Soviet government, hav­ organisation of stations for hiring their vital interests are concerned, to ing completely abolished private implements, experimental stations, come to practical agreements with property in land, is proceeding to model fields, etc.; (8) reclamation of them making concessions to them in carry out a whole series of meas­ peasant lands. determining the methods of carrying ures towards the organisation of 17. In view of the fact that the out socialist reforms. large-scale socialist agriculture. The contrast between town and country In the Sphere of Distribution following are the most important of is one of the most far-reaching causes these measures: (1) the organisa­ of the economic and cultural back­ 19. In the sphere of distribution tion of state farms, i.e., big socialist wardness of the villages and that in the task of the Soviet government at farms; (2) support to societies and a period of great crisis like the pres­ the present time is persistently to co-operatives for the collective culti­ ent, both town and country are faced continue to replace trade by planned, vation of land; (3) the organisation with the immediate danger of degen­ organised distribution of products on of state sowing on all unsowed lands, eration and ruin, the Communist a national scale. The aim is to organ­ no matter to whom they belong; (4) Party of the Soviet Union regards ise the entire population into a single state mobilisation of all agronomists the abolition of this contrast as one system of consumers' communes, in order to carry out energetic meas­ of the fundamental tasks of commu­ capable of distributing all the nec­ ures for the raising of the level of nist construction and in addition to essary products with the maximum agriculture; ( 5 ) su pport to agri­ general measures regards the fol­ of speed, plan and economy with the cultural communes, the latter being lowing as necessary: far-reaching the minimum expenditure of labour, absolutely voluntary associations of and planned recruiting of industrial strictly centralising the entire ma­ farmers for the purpose of joint workers for communist construction chinery for distribution. farming on a big scale. in the field of agriculture, stimulat­ The consumers' communes and Regarding all these measures as ing the activity of the national the only road to the absolutely nec­ "workers' assistance committees" al­ their associations must be based on the existing general and workers' co­ essary raising of the productivity of ready organised by the Soviet gov­ agricultural labour, the Communist ernment for this purpose, and so on. operatives which are the largest or­ Party of the Soviet Union strives to ganisation of consumers and consti­ 18. In all its work in the villages, tute the best apparatus for mass secure the most complete realisation the Communist Party of the Soviet of these measures, for their exten­ distribution created by the history Union continues, as before, to rely of capitalism. sion to the more backward regions of on the proletarian and semi-prole­ Being of the opinion that, in prin­ the country and for still further steps tarian strata of the village; it organ­ ciple, the further communist devel­ in the same direction. ises, first of all, these strata into an opment of the co-operative apparatus The Communist Party of the So­ independent force in the villages, by and not its rejection is the only cor­ viet Union specially advocates the setting up Party nuclei, organisations rect line to pursue, the Communist following: of poor peasants, special types of Party of the Soviet Union must sys­ (1) All-sided state support to the trade unions of rural proletarians and tematically continue its policy and agricultural cooperatives, which are semi-proletarians, etc., brings them must impose on all Party members working up agricultural produce. into closer contact with the town pro­ the duty of working in the co-opera­ letariat and wrests them from the (2) An extensive system of land tives; they must guide them with influence of the village bourgeoisie improvement and reclamation. the help of the trade unions in a and the small property interests. (3) Wide and planned loaning of communist spirit, develop the initia­ implements to the poor and middle With respect to the kulak class - tive and discipline of the toiling pop­ peasants through hire-stations set up the village bourgeoisie - the policy ulation organised in co-operatives, for that purpose. of the Communist Party of the So­ strive to organise the entire popula­ Taking into consideration that viet Union is resolutely to combat tion in the co-operatives and to unite small peasant farming will exist for their exploiting tendencies, to sup­ all these co-operatives into a single a long time to come, the Communist press their resistance to the Soviet co-operative society embracing the Party of the Soviet Union strives for policy. entire Soviet Union. Finally, and the fulfilment of a number of meas­ With respect to the middle peas­ most important, the predominating ures directed towards the raising of ants the policy of the Communist influence of the proletariat over all the productivity of peasant farming. Party of the Soviet Union is gradual­ the other sections of the toilers must Such measures are: (1) rationalisa­ ly and systematically to draw them always be maintained, and various tion of the system of the peasant into the work of socialist construc­ measures facilitating and achieving land tenure; (2) supplying the peas­ tion. The Party sets itself the task the transition from petty-bourgeois ants with improved seeds and fertil- of separating them from the kulaks, co-operatives of the old capitalist

122 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW type to consumer communes led by proletarians and semi-proletarians ll must be tried in practice. liThe Soviet Yankees of the Future "Most Americans have been misled by the of these researches for individual profit, and In the Sphere of Money and fact that in the USSR we had to build whole will transform them into a scientific system Banking new basic industries from the ground up. of economic planning. In this your govern­ Such a thing could not happen in America, ment will be helped by the existence of a 20. The Soviet government avoided where you are already compelled to cut large class of cultured and critical con­ the mistakes made by the Paris Com­ down on your farm area and to reduce your sumers. By combining the nationalized key mune; it immediately seized the State industrial production. As a matter of fact industries, your private businesses and dem­ Bank and then proceeded to nation­ your tremendous technological equipment ocratic consumer co-operation, you will has been paralyzed by the crisis and already quickly develop a highly flexible system for alise the private commercial banks, clamors to be put to use. You will be able serving the needs of your population. to unite the nationalised banks, the to make a rapid step-up of consumption by "This system will be made to work, not by saving banks and treasuries with the your people the starting point of your eco­ bureaucracy ~nd not by policemen, but by State Bank, thus creating the basis nomic revival. hard cold cash. for a single national bank of the So­ "You are prepared to do this as is no "Your almighty dollar will playa principal viet republic and transforming the other country. Nowhere else has the study part in making your new Soviet system work. of the interna I market reached such intensity It is a great mistake to try to mix a 'planned bank from a centre of economic dom­ as in the United States. It has been done economy' with a 'managed currency.' Your ination of the exploiters into a weap­ by your banks, trusts, individual business on of the workers' government and men, merchants, traveling salesmen, and money must act as regulator with which to measure the success or failure of your plan­ a lever for economic revival. The farmers as part of their stock in trade. Your Soviet Government will simply abolish all ning." - Leon Trotsky, from a 1935 article, Communist Party of the Soviet Un­ trade secrets, will combine all the findings "If America Should Go Communist." ion, having set itself the aim of con­ sistently completing the work started by the Soviet government, brings to term notes entitling the possessor to In the Sphere of Housing the forefront the following principles: receive products, etc. 23. Striving to solve the housing ( 1 ) The monopolisation of the question, which became particularly whole banking system by the Soviet In the Sphere of Finance acute during the war period, the So­ state. 22. At the epoch when the means viet government completely took over (2) A radical change and simpli­ of production from which the capi­ all the houses owned by capitalist fication of banking operations by talists have been expropriated have householders and turned them over transforming the banking apparatus begun to be socialised, the state ceases to the town soviets; it transferred into an apparatus for uniform regis­ to be a parasitic apparatus standing masses of workers from the slum dis­ tration and general accounting in the above the production process; it be­ tricts in the suburbs to bourgeois Soviet republic, in proportion as gins to transform itself into an or­ houses; it turned the best of these planned national economy is organ­ ganisation directly performing the houses over to the workers' organi­ ised; this will lead to the abolition function of managing the economics sations and placed the cost of main­ of the bank and to its transformation of the country and to this extent the tenance of these houses upon the into the central bookkeeping depart­ state budget becomes the budget of state; it has started to provide work­ ment of communist society. national economy as a whole. ers' families with furniture, etc. 21. During the initial stages of the Under such conditions, the bal­ The task of the Communist Party transition period from capitalism to ancing of revenue and expenditure is of the Soviet Union is, while follow­ communism, pending the complete possible only if there are proper sys­ ing this path and in no way prejudic­ organisation of communist produc­ tems of planned state production and ing the interests of non-capitalist tion and distribution of products, it distribution of products. As regards house ownership, to do its utmost to is impossible to abolish money. Un­ the covering of immediate state ex­ improve the housing conditions of the der these circumstances the bourgeois penditure during the transition peri­ toiling masses, to abolish overcrowd­ elements of the popUlation continue od, the Communist Party of the So­ ing and the unsanitary state of the to make use of money still remain­ viet Union will advocate the transition old residential districts, to remove ing in private possession for the pur­ from the system of contributions im­ houses unfit for habitation, to recon­ pose of speculation, profiteering and posed upon the capitalists, which was struct old and construct new houses robbing the toilers. Basing its policy historically necessary and lawful dur­ which will correspond to the new on the nationalisation of the banks, ing the initial period of the socialist conditions of life of the working the Communist Party of the Soviet revolution, to a progressive income masses, and to distribute the working Union strives to carry out a number and property tax. And since this tax population in a rational manner. of measures which will widen the is exhausting itself, becoming out of In the Sphere of Protection of sphere of non-cash transactions, mea­ date, owing to the far-reaching ex­ Labour and Social Insurance sures preparatory to the abolition of propriation of the propertied classes, money: the compulsory depositing state expenditure must be covered by 24. With the establishment of the of money in the people's bank, the transferring part of the revenue de­ dictatorship of the proletariat it has introduction of budget books, the re­ rived from various state monopolies become possible for the first time to placement of money by cheques, short directly to the state treasury. realise in full the minimum pro-

FALL 1961 123 gramme of the socialist party in the However, owing to the extreme labour all those who have been sphere of the protection of labour. ruin caused by the war and the at­ dropped out of it. The Soviet government has passed tacks of world imperialism, the So­ legislation which has been embodied viet government was obliged to make In the Sphere of Public Health in the Code of Labour Laws provid­ the following exception: to allow 25. The Communist Party of the ing for the following measures: an overtime in exceptional cases, which, Soviet Union takes as the basis for eight-hour day for all the toilers as however, must not exceed 50 days a its activity in the sphere of the pro­ the maximum working day; for per­ year; to allow the labour of young tection of people's health, primarily, sons under 18, workers in especially persons between the ages of 14 and the carrying out of far-reaching dangerous trades and miners working 16, limiting the work to 4 hours per health and sanitary measures, for the underground, the working day must day; to reduce temporarily the purpose of preventing the spread of not exceed 6 hours, 42 hours uninter­ month's leave to two weeks; to pro­ disease. The dictatorship of the pro­ rupted rest per week for all toilers; long the hours of night work to seven. letariat has already rendered possi­ prohibition of overtime, as a general The Communist Party of the Soviet ble the introduction of a number of rule; prohibition of child labour and Union must conduct wide propagan­ measures in the domain of public the labour of juveniles under 16; pro­ da to secure the active participation health and medical service which hibition of night work and of work of the toilers themselves in the ener­ were impossible under capitalism, in especially dangerous trades as well such as nationalisation of drug stores, getic fulfilment of all measures in as of overtime for all women and big privately owned hospitals and the sphere of labour protection, for young persons under 18; eight weeks' health resorts, the introduction of which purpose it is necessary: leave for expectant mothers and eight obligatory labour for doctors, etc. weeks after childbirth with full pay ( 1) To intensify the work of or­ Accordingly, the Communist Party and free medical treatment and med­ ganising and extending the system of of the Soviet Union sets itself the icines; a nursing mother to be al­ factory inspection by selecting and following immediate tasks: lowed not less than half an hour training for that purpose active work­ (1) The determined application of every three hours for feeding her ers from the ranks of the workers wide measures of sanitation in the baby; mothers breast-feeding their themselves, and to extend factory in­ interests of the toilers, such as: babies are entitled to additional al­ spection to the small and home in­ (a) Improvement of sanitary lowance, factory inspections and san­ dustries. conditions of inhabited areas (pro­ itary inspectors to be elected by the (2) To extend labour protection tection of soil, water and air). councils of trade unions. regulations to all kinds of labour The Soviet government has passed (b) Organisation of public cater­ .~ (building workers, land and water legislation extending complete social ing on scientific and hygenic lines. transport, domestic servants and farm insurance to all toilers who do not ( c) Adoption of measures to pre­ labourers) . exploit the labour of others. This pro­ vent the outbreak and spread of vides insurance against an cases of (3) Finally, to prohibit all juvenile infectious diseases. loss of earning capacity and for the labour and further to reduce the (d) Introduction of sanitary leg­ first time in the world introduces un­ working hours of young persons. islation. employment insurance at the expense Moreover, the Communist Party (2) To combat social diseases (tu­ of the employers and the state. In­ of the Soviet Union must set itself berculosis, venereal diseases, alcohol­ surance affairs are managed by the the following tasks: ism, etc.). insured with the active co-operation (1) When the productivity of la­ (3) Free and skilled medical treat­ of the trade unions. bour has generally increased, to es­ ment and medicines to be accessible Moreover, the Soviet government tablish a six-hour day without reduc­ to all. in some respects has gone further tion of wages, on the condition that than the minimum programme and the workers devote two hours per day has provided, in the said Code of La­ to the study of the theory of their bour Laws, for the participation of Special Offer craft or trade. the workers' organisations in deciding To New Reade'rs questions appertaining to the engage­ (2) The introduction of a bonus ment and dismissal of workers. This system in order to encourage the in­ A four-month trial subscription to .,;. code provides also for one month's crease of productivity of labour. The Militant for only 50 cents. Send vacation with full pay for all toilers In the sphere of social insurance this coupon with payment to: The who have worked uninterruptedly the Communist Party of the Soviet Militant, 116 University Place, New for not less than one year, and the Union strives to organise far-reach­ York 3, N.Y. state regulation of wages on the ba­ ing state assistance not only to the sis of rates worked out by the trade victims of war and natural calamities, Name ...... unions; definite organisations, name­ but also to the victims of abnormal ly, the distribution and registration social relations; it is waging a deter­ Street ...... of labour departments of the Soviets mined struggle against all parasites and trade unions are charged with and idlers and has set itself the task City ...... Zone ...... State ...... finding work for the unemployed. of restoring to the sphere of useful

124 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW Life in Yugoslavia Today

In 1945 the Prol'atarian Brigades expelled the Nazis by m'eans of revolution. What is it like, sixteen years later, to be a citizen under the "Titoist experiment"?

by Theo Schultz

HE rugged country of Yugoslavia, rather to present a picture of today's class nature of the leadership for­ T whose name alone invokes im­ Yugoslavia as I have known it in bade this, in spite of the fact that it mediate images of fierce, bearded order to provide further clues for our did delve into some foreign policy partisans and of a fiery spirit of inde­ evaluation of the contribution of exploits to the benefit of the West. pendence, arouses something more Yugoslavia's experience to the world But these remained incidental and than curiosity. Certainly, from a so­ working-class movement. In this pic­ what happened was that the Yugo­ cialist standpoint, one should feel ture I will indicate what life is like slav Communists went to the masses inspired by the determination with in relation to the basic economic and themselves to gain support in their which the Yugoslavs carried out political situation and how the lead­ struggle with Stalin and in their their revolution against foreign and ership envisages the future: that is, struggle to remain upright in a cap­ domestic fascism and against the what Yugoslav ideology is at present. italist world. They did so by making treachery of Stalin to overcome their sharp concessions to the disgruntled anarchic, Balkan backwardness. Out The Historical Development of the working class and peasantry. These of a geographic expression of small, Yugoslav System concessions were the reforms that quarrelsome and corrupt states, the The framework of this picture of made up the "Law on Self-Manage­ Yugoslav revolution has fashioned a everyday life is its economic system. ment of Enterprises Through Work­ modern, federated workers state. But Such a discussion, in order to be ers Councils" passed in 1950, and are for socialists, Yugoslavia is most in­ clear, must be approached historical­ the basis of the Yugoslav system teresting for the questions its ex­ ly. For Yugoslavia's present eco­ today. istence poses: how was the war of nomic system, the "Titoist experi­ The theory behind these reforms, liberation from German fascism ment," was the result of the 1949 formulated subsequently to justify turned into a social revolution? How split with the Cominform. what seemed at the time a desperate was the worker-peasant leadership After the Yugoslav Communists adventure, was that bureaucracy had of this revolution able to sustain it­ were thrown out of the Cominform, to be eliminated. Bureaucracy, the self in the face of counter-revolu­ they were left to fend for them­ party theoreticians concluded, is the tionary pressure from both East and selves in a hostile capitalist world. result of a highly centralized state West? What is Yugoslavia's relation Weak and threatened, they were not and economy, and leads to the di­ to the breaking-up of the Soviet bloc, sure of support from the masses, vorce of the state apparatus from so­ which process began with its expul­ particularly after four years of ruth­ ciety. This had happened in the So­ sion from the Cominform? How will less Stalinist-type rule; they had no viet Union, because it had been a further changes in the bloc affect army large enough to engage the backward country attempting to Yugoslavia? Soviet troops that were being massed build socialism, and the process had Some of these questions have al­ on their borders. Yet this was a many disasterous consequences, cul­ ready been answered by revolution­ working-class party, determined to minating in the personal rule of ary socialists; some answers are still carry out a working-class program Stalin, whose dogmatism caused the to be formulated. It is not my pur­ of socialist industrialization, as well split between the Soviet Union and pose to offer any new answers, but as maintain its own power. Contrary Yugoslavia. They believed economic to the hope of both Stalin and West­ and administrative power should be Theo Schultz is an Austrian, who for ern capitalism, Yugoslavia did not decentralized, delegated to represen­ the past two years, has been an ex­ chcmge student at the University of become a petty bourgeois state, a tative organs closer to the people: Belgrade. pawn of Western imperialism. The the workers councils elected in firms

FALL 1961 125 and factories, the communal and proves itself necessary to the econ­ rather uneven within the country it­ district People's Assemblies and other omy by being efficient and success­ self, the more industrialized north "self-management" units. As a con­ ful in competition. The laws of the having a substantially higher rate cession to the working class, this was market are for the most part the than the backward south, but the the most important reform the main determination of the Yugoslav country as a whole has maintained Yugoslav government made. The economy. an annual increase of 11 % in eco­ other important reform was a con­ The over-all effect has been ad­ nomic growth. cession to the peasantry, ending justment, by means of concessions, Everyday Life - High and Low forced collectivization. After this, to a capitalist environment. This has the peasants flowed back on to 27- had two aspects: To fill out this picture we have to acre private holdings, where they Because the Yugoslav state was no translate the proportions of this ap­ still are, for the most part, today. longer able to attempt accumulating parently successful construction into (Only 8.8% of arabIc land is socially capital primitively, that is, out of the what life is like for the average owned in Yugoslavia, but it is this backs of the workers, the dearth of Yugoslav. A steady contact with this sector which is most responsible for capital was all the more conspicuous. life makes the observer aware of two the steady increase in agricultural The Yugoslav Communists began conditions: productivity.) With the idea that taking first military and then eco­ 1. The system has meant a con­ more decentralization would mean nomic aid from the West. This eco­ tinuous rise in the standard of liv­ less bureaucracy, hence, more social­ nomic aid has been continuous and at ing, but this rise has not been equal ism, the workers councils, managing present adds up to over two billion for everyone. enterprises that compete with one dollars, mostly coming from the 2. There are signs that the rise is another, have taken over almost all United States. no longer as steady for the worker as phases of production and distribu­ In addition, because of the auton­ it once was. His life is no longer that tion. omy of the worker-controlled enter­ much better than that of all workers HERE were two immediate ef­ prises, there has been an increasing in East Europe; it is even worse than T fects of the new course. First, financial involvement on the part of some. Constantly climbing prices there was the abandonment of any individual Yugoslav concerns with with incomes lagging behind imply policy for a rapid, heavy industrial­ Western capitalism. Recently, the that the rate at which his standard ization along the irrational lines of regime has undertaken various of living has been rising, may be the other Peoples Democracies of measures to facilitate this process declining. the time. There was increasingly and trade with the West in general. Aside from these a.spects, there more emphasis on consumer goods The most important of these meas­ are a· number of others which puzzle and light industry, since the councils, ures has been the conversion of the and disturb the observer. The most representing broader and broader dinar to put it on a par with West­ one can do is shake one's head at the sections of the working class, were ern currency, and the granting of discrepancy between known statistics now determining production. The more financial jurisdiction to the and the way people manage to live. second immediate effect was that de­ Workers' Councils. The Councils will Life in Yugoslavia, as in any East centralization transformed the role now have fewer financial obligations European state, is more than hard of state planning as it had hitherto to the State and more access to for­ when compared to Western well­ existed under other planned econ­ eign currency. These most recent being; it may be bleak. The average omies. Yugoslavia has no "plan" of reforms are designed, according to wage for unskilled labor is from ten the sort to be found in the other the government, to stimulate pro­ thousand to twelve thousand dinars a workers states. The annual or five­ ductivity by hehing to adiust Yugo­ month; for skilled labor, depending year plan is a prediction based on slav firms to competition on the on the level of skill, from twelve to previous productive capacity, an out­ world market. twenty thousand. The professional line of general economic aims, and a The system thus far has prospered. gets from twenty to thirty thousand. statement of methods by which the For a long time after it went into A man earning twenty thousand, state can influence the market in effect, the average Yugoslav en­ however, supporting a family of four, order to attain these aims. These joyed a higher standard of living can scarcely break even at the end methods differ from those used by than his counterpart in the Soviet of the month once the average food the state in capitalist countries main­ bloc. He was also not working under bill is paid. His rent, which was ly in the degree and frequency with any draconic discipline to make up raised in 1960 along with electricity which they are used. The plan may for bad planning and waste, as was and water rates, but for which he determine the rate nt which inter­ the case in the other "PeonIes De­ obtained a compensating 6.5% raise est is paid to the community on the mocracies;" nor was he subject to in pay, now takes up about 20% of fixed capital of an enterprise, rates any undue police terror. At the same his income, whereas it once took up of turn-over tax on specific com­ time, the country advanced steadily. only 8 %. A suit of clothes means a modities, maximum and minimum In 1959, a United Nations report month's salary, a good pair of shoes prices for certain goods, and so on. found Yugoslavia to have, next to at least one fifth of it. He has n·;) No industry is given a plan to fulfill; China, the highest rate of industrial medical expenses, and financial cov­ and an enterprise or, for that matter, expansion in the world. There is erage in sickness and retirement is even an administrative agency, reason to believe that this has been as adequate, in relation to the cost

126 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW of living, as his wages are. He even This man is much more typical of has a reduced train-ticket to take Yugoslavia than the skilled worker The Key Difference him to the coast on his annual vaca­ or professional, yet his habits of life On Internationa lism tion, but most workers in Belgrade, are not dominant in this picture of if they go anywhere at all, visit rel­ city life. In the big city, there is "The new doctrine proclaims that social­ atives on the farm, for any other ism can be built on ihe basis of a national more of a sheen of well-being, glim­ state if only there is no intervention. From kind of vacation would be too ex­ mers of extravagance, and the daz­ this there can a nd must follow (notwith­ pensive. zling, puzzling sight of people spend­ standing all pompous declarations in the ing money. draft program) a collaborationist policy F THIS man was one of the lucky towards the foreign bourgeoisie with the I few skilled workers from before HO and how? Who are these object of averting intervention, as this will the war, or from a family of the people who can afford the guarantee the construction of socialism, that W is to say, will solve the main historical ques­ same, he might think his lot is not goods in the shop windows? Who fill, tion. The task of the parties in the Comin­ that much better today. If he is an any night of the week, the lively but tern assumes, therefore, an auxiliary char­ unskilled newcomer to trade and expensive Belgrade C2.fE~s? Who are acter; their mission is to protect the USSR city, he will probably consider him­ the owners of Belgrade's thousands from intervention and not to fight for the self better off, but will worry, along conquest of power. It is, of course, not a of private cars, the builders of one­ question of the subjective intentions but of with others, about one ominous fact: family houses? And who are these the objective logic of political thought. the steady increase in prices of food, corpulent types who can offer at a '''The difference in views lies in the fact,' clothing, services and utilities. He moment's notice hundreds of thou­ says Stalin, 'that the party considers that will be quite aware that the plethora sands of dinars for black market dol­ these [internal] contradictions and possible of goods in shopwindows, some of lars, with which they take annual conflicts can be entirely overcome on the them imported, are there to look at basis of the inner forces of our revolution, trips to Italy and Germany to buy whereas comrade Trotsky and the Opposition and nothing more. He may, perhaps, high-level, West European consumer think that these contradictions and conflicts unwisely splurge, as some Yugoslavs goods? can be overcome only on an international are wont to do, but bad budgeting Bureaucrats? Perhaps, but state scale, on the arena of the world-wide prole­ alone is not the reason that families tarian revolution.' (Pravda, No. 262, Nov. functionaries have learned to be more of my acquaintance have taken out 12, 1926) graciously discreet through their large bank loans in order to buy fur­ "Yes, this is precisely the difference." - many contacts with the West. There Leon Trotsky, The Criticism of the Draft niture and clothing. It is also not are some minor functionaries, some Program of the Communist International, reason enough that they find it dif­ reprinted in The Third International After general directors, who are indeed ficult to buy books. One way of over­ Lenin. coming such difficulty, beside going members of the Party. But they may also be highly traine~l professionals into debt, is renting the "spare" married to other highly trained pro­ ing on an evening's spree as much room. The room, however, is never as they would in three days or more. really "spare;" if the family of four fessionals, husband and wife both working for top salaries. Because of But for the most poxt the best cus­ is lucky enough to have a three-room tomers are these other varied groups apartment, the family simply moves the dearth of cadre people, their services are much in demand and the - minority groups - which make into two rooms in order to rent the up the level of the privileged. Some third. usual procedure is to work minimally at one's regular job and. a lot of extra of them are operators, others per­ If this unskilled newcomer is a rank hours for another enterprise at a fectly sincere people who believe and file member of the nine hundred higher salary rate. Among those who their task in life to be earning their thousand strong League of Yugoslav sustain this atmosphere of high life own "good piece of bread" - with Communists, he might think back to in Belgrade are forw_er bourgeois as plenty of sausage on it, to be eaten the time immediately after the war well, those who have property they in one's own well-furnished home or when there was very little in the are renting favorably, particularly to in one's own car. Although some of stores but everyone was equally foreigners. Near the top of the high­ these types will complain about the poor. Or, he might just brush aside living list are those in comfortably atheistic, property-stealing Commu­ this incongruous thought, be thank­ strategic positions such as sales rep­ nists, others will be with the regime ful that he is not living in what he resentatives of firms dealing with for­ in so far as it does not encroach on thinks is the desolate world of the eign companies, from which per­ their prosperity. From all appear­ Soviet Union and be convinced that sonally profitable deals can be ances, the Yugoslav government does the more profits his firm makes, the made. Other highlivers may be the not do that; on the contrary, it seems more he will have in his pocket privatnici, some six thousand private to justify this mode of existence on someday. Until then, of course, he entrepreneurs in Belgrade, such as the principles inherent in a market will supplement the family food hairdressers, carpenters, jewelers, system, where nothing succeeds like prOVISIOns through periodic trips furriers, and so on. Al1d among those success. back home to the farm, where most more favored may even be a highly Political Life of his relatives live. Perhaps he will skilled worker from some efficiently This ideal of self-enrichment is go back just to see his wife and chil­ run combine in the north. Of course, widespread among workers as well dren whom he has had to leave while those sitting in the cafes very often as professionals and employees. It is finding a job and a home in the city. are of average means, Serbs, spend- this low level of consciousness that is

FALL 1961 127 the most disturbing aspect of political increasing. Since the most recent fi­ nomic problems" but are mainly life. Before we speak of this how­ nancial reforms went into effect, absorbed in flattering the General ever, a review of the political struc­ almost all prices have once again Dozer. His entrance and exits are ture in which this morality exists is soared: food, building materials, al ways accompanied by the rolling necessary. postal rates, train fares, newspapers, out of a red carpet, and the throw­ To take the historical approach some textiles, and so on. There is ing of flowers before his feet, which again, the concessions made by the even talk that rents will go up again. is the usual welcome accorded Tito Yugoslav Communist Party leader­ Even before this recent wave of when he appears on visits anywhere ship were ostensibly designed to price-hikes, there were rumors')f in the country. combat bureaucracy - but actually disturbances in two factory towns. In A little rabbit appears at the meet­ only in so far as it left the Yugoslav one of these, in Serbia, workers had ing and asks for a job - he's unem­ Party bureaucracy itself in power. drawn up a list of grievances re­ ployed. "Unemployed?" the council's That is why these concessions re­ volving around their poor living members ask with astonishment. "But mained purely economic. Economic standards. The protest was sup­ there is no more unemployment power was distributed among the pressed, the leaders arrested, but the here!" The rabbit nods quickly and Workers' Councils, but the question sentences were light, in the hope of then explains how hard up he is, and of politioal power was never touched. preventing further outbreaks. If the that he is willing to take any work Working-class leaders though they promised "adjustment" in the eco­ at all, even for low wages. "Low had been, and working-class program nomic situation does not come soon, wages? But there are no low wages to the contrary, these former par­ such "rumors" are likely to become here!" tisans, through the safety valve of more frequent. When a cute little rain-worm the reforms, maintained their own shows up for a job, one of the mem­ hegemony, becoming a privileged TUDENTS are more prone to en­ bers takes a shine to her, and hires caste in the process. S ter into an analysis of what her as a knife-thrower, although she All the earmarks of a political should constitute socialism and what admits she has no qualifications for bureaucracy are evident. The old does not in Yugoslavia. Serious, the job. They then begin searching politically aware students, and there guard lives extravagantly, the new for someone to fill the job of target. generation of Party activists and are all too few of these, will voice Finally a moronical sheep comes in functionaries numbers among it criticism of the elite, of favoritism and demands to be given a job be­ many careerists and opportunists. for members of the Party, and of the cause his uncle "has smelled a rat" The Party is adamant about its practice of "VIP," the connections in the Circus. Without anyone know­ power position, and there is a police game that permeates every aspect of ing exactly what the rat is, he is apparatus to back it up. There are life here, and can be translated to hired immediately. The play ended mean something between nepotism political prisoners, although the most with the song: "While you sleep, VIP and string-pulling. The students tend famous, Milovan Djilas, who criti­ keeps right on working." to be generally apathetic, most con­ cized the existence of a privileged The critic in Borba called the play cerned with getting lucrative jobs. caste from a right-wing standpoint, amateur, but an amusing satire on The more aware are disillusioned, has been released. the conditions in some business en­ having witnessed the progress of Criticism, corresponding to the low terprises, conveniently ignoring the bureaucratic careers, or hearing their level of consciousness, is vague and fact that the satire went far beyond politically active colleagues affably confused. From members of the the structure in an enterprise. The parroting slogans. ancien regime, of course, one cannot Zagreb students were supposed to expect more than laments for today An interesting and hopeful excep­ participate a few days later in a and odes to yesterday. The workers, tion to the student "apathy" was a festival of small dramatic presenta­ however, small in number and with recent performance in Belgrade of a tions, but they never did go. power limited and dispersed among satirical play put on by the "Zagreb the W orkers' Councils throughou t Student Cabaret Theatre." Entitled The Artists the country, sense only their grow­ "Circus," the play dealt with a Yugo­ Since the Party leadership had to ing discontent with the rising cost slav "Self-Managed" enterprise, in make certain concessions to intel­ of living and lagging wages, and the which the characters were all an­ lectuals as well, in its quest to main­ fact that some Yugoslavs are not imals: the General Dozer was a lion, tain power at the time of the split, having as hard a time of it. Most and his main function was sleeping; there are groups of intellectuals who that I have met exhibit varied illu­ his subordinate managers were 3. enjoy much more freedom than those sions about Western capitalism, con­ parrot, a snake, a peacock, a jackass, in the other workers states. These sidering it some unlucky blow that etc. They all represented the various are particularly artists, painters and Yugoslavia is not as rich as the Unit­ politicking personalities that have sculptors. They do not have to sub­ ed States, and rarely link the back­ the main say in a business enterprise ordinate themselves to any doctrine, wardness of old Yugoslavia with and who worry about how to become certainly not to tha t of "socialist Western imperialism. Some of the top man on the totem. The parrot is realism," which has disappeared. more aware are resigned and disil­ a centrist, the snake a factionalist, Constant contact with the West, hav­ lusioned. the jackass an interventionist. They ing become so much a part of Yugo­ But the pressure of rising costs is meet and try to debate various "eco- slav policy, has aided in fostering

128 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW experimentation. Magazines, news­ tionalized industries rather than to­ is assumed to be so weak that it can papers, exhibitions, the relative ease ward violent revolution. no longer wage war against the "so­ with which Yugoslavs may travel, all 5. The menace of total annihila­ cialist camp;" on the other, it is has helped in broadening the styles tion inherent in modern military regarded as so strong that world so­ of Yugoslav artists. In literature and technology. cialist revolution is not a realistic films, however, freedom is more re­ This line is generally consistent perspective. This contradiction points stricted, and in these fields there is with the Khrushchev thesis on up the extent to which the coexist­ much less creativity and originality. "peaceful coexistence." The main ence line is based on a deliberately Films are often annoyingly bad, difference is that the Yugoslavs false analysis of the relationship of sGmetimes fair, but always deal with speak of "active coexistence," im­ forces in the world today, giving a the war and the liberation struggle. plying an independent and critical misleadingly optimistic picture of the The dominant themes in these films attitude toward both the USA and capitalist system and its imperialist are personal heroism, pathos, and the USSR and opposition to "the policy. The Titoist ideology thus sentimentali ty; rarely social conflict. policy of blocs" on both sides. emerges as very close to the ideology There have been one or two novels Moreover the Program is critical of the Soviet bureaucracy. dealing with present-day Yugoslavia of such "negative aspects of social­ F WE were to contrast this picture and its problems; but one famous ism" as centralization, bureaucrat­ I of Yugoslavia today with the one writer, a former partisan, was thrown ism, and "hegemonic tendencies in from the times of the fierce and out of the Party because of his criti­ foreign policy." The Yugoslavs offer fighting partisans, we would see that cism of modern Yugoslavia in some their own system of economic de­ the dominant theme is one of a quest of his works and remarks. centralization and "active coexist­ for well-being, but not of militancy. Through the trade and cultural ence" as an alternative to these "neg­ The broader themes are apathy and doors open to the West, other cul­ ative aspects." uneasiness in some circles, unjus­ tural phenomena have swept in that Nevertheless these criticisms are tified self-satisfaction in others. Yet are perhaps not so beneficial: Amer­ rather abstract and indirect: in ac­ there is probably no one in Yugo­ ican westerns, fads like hula hoops, tuality, the League of Yugoslav slavia today who does not identify the latest Italian fashions. It is prob­ Communists and the CPSU have himself with the policy of coexist­ ably for this reason that the Yugoslav more in common politically than at ence. Having lost every tenth Yugo­ bureaucracy sometimes seems more any previous time. The attacks on slav during the war, they are fer­ extravagant than those of the other Yugoslav "revisionism" from the vent supporters of this aspect of Tito­ "Peoples Democracies." Soviet Union and most other coun­ ist ideology. But there is a link be­ tries of its bloc have been rather NE wonders whether it is not tween this and the other aspects of perfunctory. The really violent at­ O just such advantages that give "Titoism," or modern Yugoslavia, tacks have come from the Chinese this bureaucracy the perspective of which do not incur such support. It and the Albanians. coexistence with Western capitalism. is very significant that people are It wants to continue and extend its OTH the Yugoslavs and the Rus­ confused by the many trips the Presi­ adjustment to capitalist encircle­ B sians are aware that Belgrade is dent of the Republic takes to each ment; and this desire has found bearing the brunt of an attack ac­ new odd-sounding statelet in Africa strong ideological expression, most tually aimed at the Kremlin. Unlike or Asia. It is even more significant notably in the Program adopted by the Russians the Yugoslavs are free that they get annoyed at the luxuri­ the Seventh Congress of the League to answer these attacks, and have ous proportions of these voyages, of Yugoslav Communists in 1958. done so quite forthrightly, in the which run into incredible expense, In this respect the central doctrine form of Vice-President Edward Kar­ and the like of which no Western of the Program is that, despite the delj's "Socialism and War." statesman would undertake. Large­ continued fundamental antagonism In this polemical book Kardelj scale convoys contrast starkly with between capitalism and "socialism," develops the thesis, outlined above, reality at home: the incredibly war is in no sense the inevitable out­ of the Program 011 peaceful coexist­ crowded trains and buses, the poor come of this rivalry. This view is ence and attempts to show that the housing, subsisting peasants, the al­ advanced on the basis of the follow­ Khrushchev-Tito line is "really" most Asiatic poverty of the south. ing arguments: orthodox Leninism. He also intro­ These sources of discontent, ine­ 1. The growth and strength of the duces a caricature of the Trotskyist quality and a soaring cost of living, "socialist camp." position on coexistence which he are sources of danger for the Yugo­ 2. The spread of the colonial rev­ equates with the views of Mao Tse­ slav leadership. Depending on how olution and the emergence of new, tung in a highly dishonest way. they try to eradicate them, the vague, independent, neutral states. The basic contradiction in the posi­ dispersed, and mumbled criticism of 3. The strength of the working tion of Kardelj and the other Yugo­ today can become clear and articu­ class and other "progressive" social slav proponents of coexistence is late tomorrow. In such a case, the groups in the western countries. manifested when they link the Chi­ Yugoslav workers would be follow­ 4. The gradual emergence of "state nese view of the inevitability of war ing the inspiring tradition of the capitalism" in the West, leading the - capitalism's aggressive nature - Proletarian Brigades, set long ago workers toward a struggJe for con­ with the concept of world revolu­ by many of the leaders of present­ trol over the state apparatus and na- tion. On the one hand, imperialism day Yugoslavia.

FALL 1961 129 BOOKS

The Most Angry

by Trent Hutter

THE ENTERTAINER. A play by John different man, a third-rate comedian pear on the stage again. Apparently, Osborne. Paperback edition pub­ moving in a decaying music hall in Archie does not repent his guilt very lished by Bantam Books, New an England beset by grave problems much. But now only his wealthy York, by arrangement with Cri­ and facing the chilly winds of disap­ brother can save him, and as he does terion Books, Inc., June 1960, 35 pointment. The time is during and not want to go to jail, he has to ac­ Cents. - 1957-58 stage perform­ after Anthony Eden's unfortunate cept his brother's conditions: Broth­ ances starring Laurence Olivier and Suez campaign. er Bill will pay his debts; Archie co-starring Dorothy Tutin, Brenda Archie is rather vulgar but can be and his family will emigrate to Can­ de Banzie, George Relph. Motion quite charming. He is eternally im­ ada and work for a relative who picture version starring Laurence mature and irresponsible, somewhat has a job as a hotel manager waiting Olivier and co-starring Joan Plow­ for Archie. cynical but not evil, born to be a right, Brenda de Banzie, Roger showman but forever unable to be a A ware of his many shortcomings, Livesey. very good one, and he knows it. He Archie Rice, despite his pose of he­ donic bravado, keenly feels he has Among the serious plays I have is perceptive, far from stupid, a pro­ not accomplished anything worth­ seen on Broadway in the last five fessional though an undistinguished while. He would have loved to be a years, The Entertainer by John Os­ one, and a witty storyteller in pri­ real artist, at least once to be able borne, who is considered the leader vate. He does not feel very deeply to sing like some poor Negro woman of England's "angry young men," re­ and knows that too. This applies to he once heard in an obscure bar in mains one of the two or three that his feelings about people and about America: " ... the most moving thing stand out in my mind. Meanwhile I his country. Of course, he likes Eng­ I ever heard ... But if ever I saw have seen the excellent motion pic­ land and hates to leave it because he any hope or strength in the human ture version, too. (I do not recom­ is used to English surroundings and race, it was in the face of that old fat mend it to those whose idea of seri­ customs, but the awful chauvinistic Negress getting up to sing about Jesus ous dramatic fare is an Elizabeth song he sings on stage does not really or something like that. She was poor Tay lor movie . . . ) mean anything to him, while his and lonely and oppressed like no­ In The Eintertainer which also father's patriotism is sincere. Archie body you've ever known. Or me, for makes fine reading, John Osborne, simply does not care. "I'm dead be­ that matter ... you knew somehow author of Look Back in Anger, shows hind these eyes. I'm dead, just like in your heart that it didn't matter us the world of the British music the whole inert, shoddy lot out there how much you kick people, the real hall, embodied mainly by two gen­ ..." - "Why should I care, why people, how much you despise them, erations of entertainers - Billy Rice, should I let it touch me?" is his if they can stand up and make a pure, the father, and Archie Rice, the son. theme song. just natural noise like that, there's Billy was a star of the music hall. He is bankrupt and has avoided the nothing wrong with them, only with He was one of its most lovable, most income tax for twenty years. He lives everybody else . . . I wish to God I capable artists in the time of its in a world of make-believe, but this could feel like that old black bitch glory, which coincided with the time is his only reality. To him the out­ with her fat cheeks, and sing. If I'd of Britain's greatest power, the Brit­ side world is but a disturbing dream. done one thing as good as that in my ish bourgeoisie's zenith. Now retired, He is forever trying to produce whole life, I'd have been all right." old and impoverished, Billy still shows, and this does mean a lot to Archie's drinking, his perennial maintains his self-respect and his him more than the feelings of indi­ chasing after women, his "not caring" ideals and standards of pre-World vid~als with whom he is in touch. are above all a running away from War I days. In order to save him from a financial While the father represents the catastrophe, his father offers to make his artistic frustration, the realization "classic" British music hall- where, a come-back, since his name is still that "I'll never do it." His daughter incidentally, a Charles Chaplin served a big attraction. Archie's egoism Jean wants to "do it," to accomplish his apprenticeship and won his first agrees to this, and the old man dies of something, be someone. She is the plaudits - his son Archie is a very a heart attack when he is about to ap- strongest member of the family, an

130 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW art teacher in the youth center of a And she asks herself, " ... why do become difficult to do so and that London slum section, where she has boys die, or stoke boilers . . . what the question "What is to be com­ to deal with the toughest kind of are we hoping to get out of it, what's municated?" has to be answered first. teenagers. Although she never used it all in aid of - is it really just for Jean pictures one of the countless to be interested in politics, she "man­ the sake of a gloved hand waving at women in the workers' sections of aged to get myself steamed up about you from a golden coach?" Britain's drab industrial towns, the way things were going," partici­ Social and psychological realism "What can you say to her? What pated in an anti-war meeting in Traf­ are among the main characteristics real piece of information, what mes­ algar Square and broke with her of The Enterbainer. All the persons sage can you give to her? ..." Re­ bourgeois fiance: "I hadn't realized in it are highly significant, and so jecting the concept of a supernatural - it just hadn't occurred to me that is the story. This makes us feel the order of the universe, Jean concludes you could love somebody . . . and play is important, whereas so many that the human person is our own then suddenly find that you're nei­ others are merely clever, or reason­ center and standard. "We've only ther of you even living in the same ably well-written, or momentarily got ourselves. Somehow, we've just world." enthralling, but not important. got to make a go of it." Jean's Archie Rice had a good deal of Old Billy Rice remarks, "A real answer may not be complete. But love and admiration for Jean's moth­ pro is a real man . . . He's like the her searching is thoroughly honest, er who walked out on him because general run of the people, only he and she is on her way. of his unfaithfulness. She was "a per­ is a lot more like them than they This honest searching of the son of principle ... She felt every­ are themselves, if you understand younger generation, a searching thing very deeply." Jean seems to be me." And just as the successful pop­ without cheap consolations or self­ like her in some respects, we might ular comedian is somehow a concen­ delusion, prevents The Entertainer add. Archie's second wife, Phoebe, trated image of the masses where he from being a play without hope. But the one with whom Jean's mother originated and to which he is ad­ John Osborne wisely abstains from found him in bed, is about sixty­ dressing himself, the music hall in a superficial, artificial, contrived sort he is about fifty - and it is pity that The Enterbainer, the dying of a folk of hope. Nor is The Entertainer a has prevented him from leaving her. art as Osborne calls it, reflects a cynical play, although Archie Rice is His two sons Mick and Frank are larger sociocultural phenomenon - frequently cynical. It is written with from her. the increasing decay of a society. deep feeling. Archie's three children are all de­ The great realistic drama always Unfortunately, I cannot deal here termined to face social reality in­ contains a good deal of symbolism, with the ingenious form of the play stead of living in a make-believe as it shows even the most individual, or with the modifications of the film world. Each of the three faces this original figures in their social con­ version, adapted to the requirements reality in his own way. Frank is a text and, through the individuals of that medium. But let me finally rebel. He has spent six months in and their story, lets us glance at mention Laurence Olivier's marvel­ prison for refusing military service. some fundamental human emotions ous performance as Archie Rice, He is bitter about the way things are. as well as some aspects of a given a truly memorable achievement. "They're all so busy, speeding down society. This undoubtedly applies to Olivier, the star of a cast that is the middle of the road together, not The Entertainer. absolutely first-rate, is one of the giving a damn where they are going, It is not a thesis in dramatic form. very few actors who really deserve as long as they are in the bloody If it were, it would not be the mas­ to be called great. Not just good or middle!" Frank can't see any hope for terwork it is. It is first and foremost brilliant, but great. And it will as­ himself in England. He had the cour­ a superb play, a work of art. To ac­ tonish no one that The Entertainer age to go to prison for his convictions, cuse the author of merely being bit­ has become identified so much with but he is no revolutionist who would ter and angry without offering a solu­ Laurence Olivier who made it a hit. enter upon a systematic and patient tion for the social ills of England }s struggle for his ideas. Therefore, emi­ foolish. The anger, the bitterness and gration to Canada where he has a the searching of Britain's "angry future is his personal solution, and generation" - represented in The his mother is all for it. Elntertainer by Jean and Frank, in­ Subscribe While Jean and Frank are dis­ deed by Jean even more than by International Socialist Review gusted with the British situation and Frank - are a big step in the direc­ 116 University Place, with society, Mick, the youngest, is tion of a solution, whether Osborne New York 3, N. Y. "a boy without problems," a con­ is aware of the solution or not. The Enclosed is $2.50 for my subscrip­ formist. He does not protest or com­ "angry young men" are no beatniks tion for the next eight issues. plain when he is drafted. And he who simply turn from the "squares" gets killed in Egypt. The shock of in contempt and prefer to live in a Name ...... his death prompts Jean, who feels world of their own where there ac­ Street ...... Apt. No ...... much closer to her family than to her tually is little belief in the possibility unimaginative and unemotional ex­ of communication even among them­ City ...... Zone ...... fiance, to sharply criticize her fa­ selves. The "angry generation" wants State ...... ther's egoism and flight from reality. to communicate but finds that it has

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