A paper of Marxist polemic and Marxist unity

John Riddell: the background n Letters and debate n Brexit gamble to and enduring significance n Irish unity prospects of the united front tactic n Socialism polemic No 1316 September 24 2020 Towards a mass Communist Party £1/€1.10

Why the struggle to replace is so important weekly 2 September 24 2020 1316 worker LETTERS

the collapse of the Soviet Union in Letters may have been The only way to address that issue is, collapse of the Soviet Union, which revolution are irreconcilable opposites, shortened because of as Marx quite rightly said, by class led to the idea of socialism losing its and that we have to choose between 1992, the US has been encircling, space. Some names struggle on an international basis. appeal to many people - particularly them. expanding Nato and chopping away at  may have been changed And that project is not going too well! eastern Europeans, who experienced The vanguard question is related to Russia’s borderlands. For example, Bill Maren Clarke post-war communist control until the the main contradiction facing the left Clinton’s illegal war against Yugoslavia email 90s. between bureaucratic socialism, which was a US war crime against humanity. End to value The truth is that, from Lenin to Pol Lenin and Trotsky brought about, and The illegal US/Nato aggression was a In my view Chris Gray’s article on It’s us what pays Pot, the tragedies experienced by the left a democratic socialist society. Trotsky replay of the 1980s terrorist mujahideen Clive Ponting was first class and I just John Smithee is right to identify Rishi can be traced back to two individuals later pretended to be snow white and in Afghanistan against the USSR. The want to make a few comments that Sunak as Her Majesty’s Government’s in particular: Marx and Trotsky. The went on to criticise bureaucracy from purpose was to break up one of the last came to mind, as I read it (‘Arguing ‘star’ of the Covid crisis (Letters, former advocated dictatorship, which an ultra-left perspective, but he was socialist countries of the former Soviet against the wrong “Marxism”‘, September 17). was confused with the need for state one of its progenitors. Union, exploit it as capitalists wantonly September 17). Given the incompetence of coercion in the process of the socialist Tony Clark do and to carve out Kosovo as the Marx and Engels were certainly Johnson, his team at No10 and the transformation of society; and the Labour supporter largest US military base in Europe: products of their time, but we should highest ministerial positions being latter advocated the ultra-left theory of Camp Bondsteel. remember that their goal was to held by people unfit for their role, the permanent revolution, which seduced Last Stalinist The destruction of Yugoslavia was explain human development. Quite treasury effectively took charge. As Lenin in 1917 into trying to bring about In 2005 Belarus president Aleksandr finalised earlier this month. Serbia’s crudely the gun beats the spear. The a UK citizen I have to be grateful, I communism in a relatively backward Lukashenko was dubbed “the last president, Aleksandar Vučić, was north won the US civil war because it suppose. When the country’s in the country. This approach was later tried dictator in Europe” by President seated like a schoolchild at a tiny desk produced weaponry more efficiently mire it’s good to see some direction by Mao and in an even more extreme George W Bush’s secretary of state, next to his ‘teacher’ in Washington - than the south and it did this because and purpose from HMG. Mr Sunak form by Pol Pot, which led to disasters - and the name has towered over him at it had better technology. Similarly the and his treasury team delivered where for the left, further undermining the stuck in the west. his imperial desk in the Oval Office. Soviets devastated the environment the rest of the government failed. socialist idea. The US foreign policy Vučić was there to receive Serbia’s because they had to compete with a When Sunak becomes prime When the Russian Revolution broke establishments pretend that ‘dictator’ is documents of defeat and like a dunce system which paid no regard to nature minister he’ll take the brightest and out, Lenin was primed and ready to a dirty word to them, but the US has he signed it. or the damage to it. best of the treasury team with him to abandon the positive side of Marxism a long history of cosying up to and Everyone should also know about Marx could have said this was all No10. He’ll clear the cabinet of ‘place for Trotskyism, since before the backing dictators. It backed the fascist the US 2014 illegal coup in Ukraine. It morally wrong and written romantic persons’ who were only there due to outbreak of revolution in 1917 he was dictator, Francisco Franco, from the was behind a European Union ‘bait and books espousing the virtues of a their supposed ultra-commitment to pushing the ultra-left line of turning the 1936 Spanish Civil War until 1973. switch’ offer for eventual membership simple life, but unfortunately this is Brexit. Johnson will shuffle off into imperialist war into civil war, which he Prominent politicians and corporations in the EU. Ukraine was suffering not how human development unfolds. the dustbin of history - a short-term later dropped for the more appealing helped Hitler rise to power in 1933 under economic hardships, and the And, given Marx set himself the task PM mired in failure, leaving office Bolshevik slogan, ‘Peace, bread, land’. and rebuild Germany’s military. The US and EU put stars in the eyes of the of uncovering in human development with his country in a far worse place It was the counterrevolution which US supported the corrupt Ferdinand Ukrainian people. The psy-op had them what Darwin had uncovered in nature, than when he assumed it ... forced civil war on Lenin, although Marcos of the Philippines from 1965 dreaming of a future prosperity, being he could hardly bring morality into Poor Mr Johnson - he wanted to be he had foolishly been previously until 1986; Suharto in Indonesia from Europeanised and eventually becoming the equation. a combination of his heroes, Winston advocating civil war. The left should 1968 until 1998; Hosni Mubarak Nato members. So Marx’s statements on man’s Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, in never advocate civil war like Lenin in Egypt from 1981 until 2011; and The terms that the EU ended up mastery over nature were not an his role as PM. But ... he ain’t even did, but rather promote the peaceful the US continues to support dozens offering to Ukraine were so deceitful endorsement of the degradation of the close, is he? He lacks both their transformation of capitalism into of rightwing and fascistic criminal that no Ukrainian president, no matter environment, but simply a description political nous and their work ethic ... socialism. If the counterrevolution dictators and archaic evil monarchies how corrupt, could accept them. The of human development from an hence the failure. forces civil war on the left, we should today, such as Saudi Arabia. result was the US-choreographed objective viewpoint. And that mastery Schadenfreude is there in spades, then defend the revolution by force. US presidents from Franklin Delano Euromaidan colour revolution. US is not just a technical point. If man can as we witness the unravelling of By the way, I am not arguing that the Roosevelt to were said meddling has resulted in thousands of use mechanical devices to build dams, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Bolsheviks should have held back from to think about Nicaragua’s fascistic deaths, chaos, and the lives of ordinary it does not mean man has mastery but remember it’s us what does the taking power in the revolution, and dictator, Anastasio Somoza, ‘He’s a son Ukrainians have been the worse for it. over nature if most are wage-slaves or suffering and it’s us what pays the simply clear the path to power for the of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch’. The corruption has just changed hands subservient. price ... liberal bourgeoisie, as the Mensheviks The only problem that the US has with to US profiteers. Alienation will still exist. Only Robbie Leslie and other rightwing socialists wanted to Belarus’s Lukashenko is that he is not The eastern Ukrainian people when the products of labour are not email do. But the Bolsheviks should not have the US’s. wanted no part in the coup. The alienated will man have mastery over taken power on the basis of Trotskyism: Lukashenko is a tough Stalinist. A US backed a fascist and corrupt nature in the full sense of the term. Nationalism that is, with the intent of bringing about better nom de plume for Lukashenko coup government, which wanted to And at that point, nature, among other Oliver Healey writes in flowery terms an immediate socialist revolution, would be ‘the Last Stalinist of the ethnically cleanse eastern Ukraine things, will be very much factored (Letters, September 10). which theoretically is responsible for Soviet Union’. Even his secret service of its Russian ethnicity. It is another into consideration, where economic Capitalism is not the product of the subsequent disasters that plagued is still called the KGB (Komitet shameful episode in US history, which value is concerned - in a way that a financial conspiracy, and workers the communist movement. The New Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). Most western propaganda frames as ‘Russian capitalism simply is unable to do. have always supported and voted for Economic Policy was an attempt to Belarusians support him, as was shown aggression’. When Marx argues that all value the continuation of capitalism. By correct this Trotskyist mistake, with the by the majority vote he received in the Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have under capitalism is derived from contrast, communists such as Karl preceding period being retrospectively August 9 2020 elections. He clearly a common history that goes back socially necessary labour time, this Marx sought capitalism’s overthrow, labelled ‘war communism’. Strangely, won - many in the alternative media thousands of years and they have is meant as a criticism of capitalism. and also rejected the reformist half- Trotsky and his followers never have written about it. His opponent, had a sibling rivalry for centuries. Many attempts have been made measures of his contemporary, Eduard abandoned his permanent revolution Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, is no Joan Today, Russia is the unquestioned by the more enlightened bourgeois Bernstein. So much so, the Communist theory, regardless of the disasters it of Arc, as portrayed by western ‘big brother’, but not necessarily economists to redefine value, to bring manifesto concluded - in what brought on the Russian Revolution - propaganda. loved, often resented and even hated in ecological factors - even things like Healey might consider oppositional and subsequent revolutions in colonial- Lukashenko was first elected by its brothers. Still, brothers they are. happiness. But these never get beyond and confrontational terms - that the type countries with belated industrial president of Belarus in 1994, before There is nothing the US foreign policy the textbooks, because a capitalist proletarians have nothing to lose but development. Putin was elected president of Russia neocons love more than a family feud, system cannot operate or function their chains; they have a world to win. In my view the critique of the in 1999. Lukashenko has been a thorn so that they can worm into the middle on this basis. It can only operate via This means defending tariffs and high vanguard should not become one of in Putin’s side for years, because of of it to divide, conquer and pillage the a market, itself based on the value wages are protecting the crumbs when the vanguard in general, but rather his constant nagging for ever more family jewels. It is the classic playbook system outlined by Marx. Marxists want to capture the whole of the Leninist approach to the subsidies and lower prices for natural of colonialism. The only time this value system is bakery. vanguard in particular. What needs to gas from Russia. Putin complains that The US attempt at a colour subverted is when the state intervenes In the here and now, collective be established is the right to criticise Lukashenko has had his butt in two revolution in Belarus has failed. and under capitalism that can create organising can achieve better the party leadership openly when in chairs for decades. He has half his butt Lukashenko is a strong leader, and more problems than it solves. This conditions, but it will be workers power, and not hide differences within in Europe and uses Belarus’s strategic a popular one. His publicity stunt of is why Marx saw communism as organising for themselves, not tariffs the party from the general public. The location for Nato as a bargaining chip confronting protestors marching on the a system which put an end to the (or even particularly Marxists), majority line should be upheld, but the to squeeze Putin for subsidies and other presidential palace in Minsk with his capitalist value system and, along let alone the coercing of foreign right to criticise it openly and in public concessions. AK-47 in his hands and dressed to the with it, demand and money. I rarely states. Ruling classes of imagined should also be upheld. A genuine The US has become tired of playing hilt in full combat gear played well to see Marxists make this point: that communities of ‘nations’ (all existing democratic tradition on the left would footsie with Lukashenko. It wants his audience in Belarus, and in Russia. under communism demand simply states, which are sort of a monopoly make it easier to remove those who Belarus as another puppet vassal to Nor did Lukashenko close down can’t exist. I would argue this is themselves) are part of the problem. end up undermining the socialist idea encircle Russia, just as it has done Belarus for Covid-19, regardless of the because Marxism has been hijacked Jon D White when in power. When free speech with the former Yugoslavia, Poland, tremendous international pressure to do by bourgeois liberalism, which was email is not maintained, this makes it easy the Baltic states, Ukraine, Georgia and so. Lukashenko rejected a $940 million surely inevitable in hindsight. for a bureaucratic caste to come to elsewhere. The US has ham-handedly International Monetary Fund loan, The pandemic really illustrates Blame Marx power immune from public criticism, overplayed its hand with Lukashenko saying: “The IMF continues to demand this point: namely demand has Comrade Ted Hankin agrees with under the pretence of upholding the by using the 2020 election to try to stir from us quarantine measures, isolation, to disappear, though the climate John Masters that the question of ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’. up a colour revolution. a curfew. This is nonsense. We will not emergency should have forced that the vanguard is the “elephant in the Whatever the view anyone has The American people have no dance to anyone’s tune.” Belarus, like point home long ago. room”, and that to critique it properly about Stalin - or the ultra-left fanatic, national interests in Belarus, but for Sweden, is probably the better for not The real problem with Marxism requires a massive reassessment of Pol Pot - what led to them was Russia it could be a Nato dagger locking down the economy. is that it tried to explain the past and conventional wisdom. But, since the Marx’s dictatorship theory, Trotsky’s pointing at its heart. For that reason, Lukashenko is the Last Stalinist of present and hoped to infer from that left is not too good at this, we shouldn’t permanent revolution theory and Putin has let Lukashenko swing for the the Soviet Union. He has bent for ‘big the future, and inevitably got it half hold our breath, Ted says (Letters, Lenin’s version of the vanguard. last month in order to teach him that brother’ Putin in the past, but he is not correct. What modern communists September 17). The radical left must maintain playing footsie with Nato could end up going to become a vassal to the US need to do is to map out that future, However, I don’t think he goes far ‘vanguardism’, while defending with him hanging from a street lamp, because of Nato tanks on his border. and stating that communism as a enough. It is not only the vanguard the right to criticise leaders and with a US noose around his neck. Putin Nor will Lukashenko wilt because system will have no demand is a great which needs to be critiqued, but the bureaucrats, in and out of power. We has played his hand well, and now he of US-backed colour revolutionary place to start! ideological and theoretical tradition need not descend into anarchism, has Lukashenko’s full attention and ‘pussy-rioters‘. But still it doesn’t get round the of the radical left. For instance, the which bases itself on formal logic, loyalty. David William Pear problem that the gun beats the spear! British left has learnt nothing from the leading to the view that the state and Everyone should know that since Florida BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX l 07903 054393 l www.weeklyworker.co.uk l [email protected] weekly worker 1316 September 24 2020 3 EUROPE Accidents do happen Eddie Ford suspects that Boris Johnson’s attempt to undermine the Brexit withdrawal agreement means he is gambling on a second-term Trump presidency t was only to be expected that goods - requiring as a necessity border Boris Johnson’s Internal Market checks. Under those conditions, IBill would create a storm of frictionless trade is impossible - controversy, given that it was surely. designed to override key parts of the painstakingly negotiated Brexit National question withdrawal agreement. Of course, at If that does transpire, it would the time the prime minister declared it certainly intensify the national and the now despised Northern question in Ireland - which has never protocol to be a “wonderful” triumph gone away, of course. Paradoxically for British diplomacy - making many though, when it comes to Scotland, people wonder if he had ever read the things might go in the opposite agreement, or fully understood its direction. Nicola Sturgeon has tied the implications. cause of independence to the ‘remain’ Under the withdrawal agreement, position, which has obviously Northern Ireland essentially stays benefited her electorally. Most people within the European Union’s single expect the Scottish National Party to market, including its state aid rules get a majority in next year’s Holyrood on domestic subsidies, and the bloc’s elections - perhaps a landslide. customs code will be enforced on If and when that happens, this is goods crossing from Britain. In tied in turn to the pledge to agitate turn, this would require refundable and demand a second referendum - tariffs to be paid on goods that are which is in the gift of Westminster, designated to be “at risk” of moving not a democratic right. But what is a through the Six Counties statelet and referendum anyway? It is something on to the Republic of Ireland. In other both sides have to agree to and abide words, you end up with a regulatory by, as it has no legal status, at least border down the Irish Sea, with the according to the UK . Six Counties left half inside the EU If the referendum goes ahead and and half inside the UK - something ‘leave’ wins, whilst there is also a no- that Theresa May famously said in deal Brexit, it will have to mean a hard parliament that no British prime border with the rest of the UK - most minister could ever sign up to. notably England, by far Scotland’s The Internal Market Bill and an biggest trading partner. Yet the UK upcoming finance bill, however, give has a single economy after 300 years ministers the power to limit the reach America first, but does that mean Britain second? of capitalist development. To split of the EU’s state aid laws, where they that apart with WTO rules will not might go beyond Northern Ireland and by two-thirds of Congress. A major days, there is no longer a cohesive Johnson and the Tory government have economically benefit Scotland. In impact on businesses in the rest of the pro-Irish lobby group, the Ad Hoc ‘Irish vote’ in the US. In fact, many made a monumental miscalculation fact, following independence, it could UK (‘reach back’). Ministers would Committee to Protect the Good Friday claiming Irish descent have deserted in believing that is the new suffer a similar fate to Ireland, which also be given the power to decide Agreement, has vowed to build “a the Democrats - since 2000 their votes normal and therefore requires some fought a crippling tariff war with unilaterally what goods going from green wall” to defend the agreement, have tended to go more to Republican distancing from the EU. On the other Britain in 1932. Ever since, Ireland’s Britain to Northern Ireland would citing the arguments put forward by candidates. However, by and large, hand, Poland, Hungary and the Czech major export has been people and the be judged to be “at risk” of moving John Major and Tony Blair. Irish-Americans are that much prized Republic - with maybe others to come same could happen to Scotland, given into EU territory. Furthermore, the The US administration itself has and fought over species: the floating - are basically putting two fingers up to a hard-Brexit Britain and a second- bill would additionally ensure that expressed some unease at the prime voter. Brussels. Hence under the weight of its term Trump. no export declarations were required minister’s proposals. In a Financial All this means that Joe Biden’s own bureaucratic inertia, the EU could Under those circumstances, for goods entering Britain from Times interview, Mick Mulvaney rhetoric over Brexit and the Good start to disintegrate. Either way, these all things being equal, you would Northern Ireland - though exactly - Donald’s Trump special envoy Friday agreement might purely be are the sort of questions that have to be expect Scottish independence to how that would be done is unclear. to Northern Ireland since March - for electoral reasons. On the other asked. lose the attraction it currently has. Not exactly clarifying the situation, worried about a “border by accident” hand, you should take several steps Clearly, it does not particularly But things are not always equal, or Downing Street said it would only on the island of Ireland. He went on to back. After all, what is sensible and matter from the US strategic point of rational. The inherently irrational ask parliament to override parts of the say that he had discussed the Internal rational about Boris Johnson going view whether the UK has a customs side of nationalism could come Brexit agreement if the EU undermined Market Bill with the Irish government hell for leather for Brexit? Once barrier down the Irish Sea or not. But to the forefront, with a stoking of the “fundamental purpose” of the and was “closely monitoring” the again, you could say it is simply in terms of the UK state itself, and English nationalism by the Tories Northern Ireland protocol - which debate over it. Tensions are riding about the ruthless pursuit of office. internal domestic politics, it matters - increasingly looking like a mere sounds like doublespeak. high everywhere. With Johnson, you had someone so a lot - as we are now seeing. No-one English nationalist party - and a Naturally, “distressed and determined to become leader of the knows how things are going to pan corresponding stoking of anti-English appalled”, the EU spat blood at Strategic Tory Party and prime minister that he out with the Brexit negotiations. But, nationalism in Scotland. Things the very idea of reneging on the When approaching this question, would say and do almost anything to as things stand right now, with the can develop their own logic. In that withdrawal agreement. There was you have to ask yourself a number get there. It is undoubtedly true that deadline only weeks away, a deal is scenario, there would no doubt be talk about taking the UK to the of questions, from the near trivial to he is a Brexiteer by calculated choice looking increasingly unlikely - though idiots on the left making out that European court of justice and the the strategic. On the more trivial side rather than conviction or ideology. we all know about the EU’s history of a resurgent Scottish nationalism EU has made plain that any new deal is the fact that in the US some 33 Everybody knows that when he was cobbling together arrangements at the was somehow progressive or ‘anti- was conditional upon ‘respecting’ the million (10.1%) self-identify as Irish, in David Cameron’s cabinet, it was very last minute. imperialist’. previous version. compared with a population of 6.9 only at the 11th hour that he declared If there is no deal, then it is not just But, returning to the original Perhaps most significantly of million in Ireland itself. But it is also himself to be a Brexiteer. a question of a customs border down question - the rationale for Boris all, Joe Biden, the Democratic true that if you look at many people born But if we look at things from a the middle of the Irish Sea - there will Johnson treating a no-deal Brexit as presidential candidate in the USA, in Britain, they too have Irish descent. different perspective - a declining have to be a hard border on the island a “good outcome” for the UK - the weighed into the controversy. Almost According to a 2001 study, one in four US hegemon and the role of Trump of Ireland itself. It is near impossible project begins to makes sense if linked Trump-like, he tweeted a week ago Britons claimed to have Irish heritage.1 - then you get a different picture. to envisage how there could be any to a USA wanting to do down the EU l that “we can’t allow the Good Friday You are forced to conclude that this is One that makes sense for the US to other alternative if there is a hard agreement that brought peace to more about expressing a desire to be increase the exploitation of its allies Brexit. The UK will be trading under [email protected] Northern Ireland to become a casualty Irish, especially among young people. and disorganise a potential rival World Trade Organisation rules, while of Brexit” and emphasised that any More soberly, the 2001 UK census in the form of the EU (not that it Ireland would still be bound by the Notes trade deal between the US and UK later that year found 869,093 people looks particularly threatening at the EU’s free movement of capital and 1. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1224611.stm. “must be contingent upon respect born in Ireland are living in Britain and moment). In which case, it makes a for the agreement and preventing the more than 10% of those born in the UK kind of sense for Johnson to think that return of a hard border - period”. have at least one grandparent born in Trump will win a second term and Biden was not alone in expressing Ireland. screw down on Germany, France and Winter Communist University American opposition to the Internal Anyway, for whatever reason, lots the project of ever closer union, and to January 8-10 2021, online Market Bill, needless to say. Nancy of people in the US like to think of position himself and global Britain as Pelosi, the house speaker and leading themselves as having Irish heritage the US’s strongest and staunchest ally. First session Friday evening. Democrat, declared that if the UK of some description. Biden himself is There again, is Joe Biden just talking Morning, afternoon and evening sessions on Saturday and Sunday. violates its international agreements fifth-generation Irish-American and about Ireland - or something bigger, and undermines the Good Friday he frequently peppers his speeches such as observance of international law Speakers, precise times and joining details will be available shortly. accord, there will be “absolutely with quotes from Irish poets. When and the post-World War II international To register your interest, email [email protected]. no chance” of a UK-US he was vice-president under Barack architecture? Unlike Donald Trump, agreement passing Congress. This is Obama, he hosted successive Irish perhaps Biden views the EU as more Organised by CPGB: www.cpgb.org.uk; and a meaningful threat, as no trade deal prime ministers during the St of an asset than a threat - the same Labour Party Marxists: www.labourpartymarxists.org.uk can be signed, unless it is supported Patrick’s day festivities. But, these going for Nato. If so, then maybe weekly 4 September 24 2020 1316 worker IRELAND Shared island or democratic republic? Sinn Féin is relying on demographics and opposition to Brexit. James Harvey gives his take on the reunification debate rexit and the possible abrogation by the British government of Bsections of the Northern Ireland Protocol has once again brought the issue of Irish reunification to centre stage in political debate - on both sides of the Irish border, as well as in Britain.1 However, whilst the apparently destabilising impact of Brexit on the peace process and on the power-sharing institutions of the Good Friday agreement has been exhaustively rehearsed by all sides, the precise nature of that ‘unity’ and how it will be brought about still remain open and unanswered questions.2 What appears not to be on offer from either the Dublin government or nationalist politicians in Northern Ireland is a democratic resolution of the national question. Instead what they have offered in place of a democratic sovereign republic is the rather nebulous form of a ‘shared island’, in which all cultural traditions and identities are recognised as legitimate.3 Drawing on the discourse of the peace process and the ‘flexible constitutional geometry’ of the Good Friday agreement, these proposals use a language of transition, outreach and open-ended possibility rather than the much clearer political demands of self-determination and democratic rights, which are associated historically with Irish republicanism But Ireland will be hit very hard economically if there is a hard Brexit and its national project. Although Fine Gael leader Leo the main reasons why reunification has would result. The evidence that needs in place of a strategy - then the Irish Mary Lou McDonald, Fintan O’Toole Varadkar has spoken of Brexit “causing become such an important issue in both to be considered in making such left in general does little better in its and the rest of the Irish political and the tectonic plates of Irish politics to jurisdictions. Polls seem to suggest that an assessment is not defined in the approach to the national question and media establishment are correct when move” and suggested that “support Brexit has shifted even unionist opinion legislation, and clearly the power of the new possibilities opened up by they argue that Brexit has the potential for Irish unity is growing”, the current on the possibilities of reunification initiative remains firmly in the hands of Brexit. to destabilise Ireland.17 taoiseach, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin, and - combined with the emergence of a British government. As I discussed in my last article, As Marxists we can agree up to was much closer to the truth when he groups like Ireland’s Future, made up Even if opinion polls continued many on the Irish left sidestep a point with this interpretation, but, criticised such “grandstanding” and of middle class northern nationalists to point to growing support for Irish reunification as a political issue by as ever, understanding the world is argued that Dublin’s policy was to - much of the political and media unity and Sinn Féin became the largest counterposing demands for socialism only the beginning for our politics: focus on making Stormont work, not commentary plays up the idea that single party in the assembly, there is no and class politics to the national the point remains, as ever, how to destabilise the status quo by careless there is a growing momentum for Irish legislative imperative for the secretary question. The Socialist Party, for change it l talk about border polls or a united unity in the short term.9 of state to accede to demands to call example, makes “workers’ unity Ireland.4 All that Martin was doing, The party that has most benefitted a referendum. Given the Johnson between Protestants and Catholics Notes albeit in the contemporary language from these developments has been Sinn government’s hostility to another against sectarianism and capitalist 1. ‘Class struggle and reunification’ Weekly Worker of a ‘shared island’, was to restate the Féin: it has traded on its historical name referendum on Scottish independence exploitation” a precondition for September 17. 2. See ‘What sort of unity?’ Weekly Worker July 5 settled position of the Irish capitalists and identification with the republican and fears about the break-up of the UK, the ending of partition through the 2018. since the 1920s: in simple terms they struggle for self-determination to the possibilities for such a border poll common struggle for socialist change 3. irishtimes.com/news/politics/shared-island- accepted partition and wanted to get seemingly place itself at the head of look exceedingly remote. and a “socialist Ireland”.15 Similar united-ireland-question-edges-into-mainstream- on with building their own state and demands for Irish unity. Its electoral As well as relying on the good thinking can be found amongst the political-debate-1.4345768. 4. irishnews.com/news/ economy in the 26 Counties. success in February’s Irish general offices of the secretary of state, Sinn comrades from Solidarity and Rise, northernirelandnews/2020/07/13/news/new- In the hundred years since, partition election, its continuing lead in the Féin’s ‘strategy’ for reunification talks who variously argue for a “socialist taoiseach-micha-el-martin-out-unnecessarily- has sunk deep roots, as both parts opinion polls and its dominant position up the “historic, inevitable momentum” Ireland with no coercion and the divisive-border-poll-2003498. of Ireland have developed their own amongst the nationalist electorate north towards Irish unity, resulting from “the rights of minorities guaranteed” 5. irishtimes.com/news/politics/do-the-nordies- distinctively different societies and of the border reflect both the strength rapid changes wrought by Brexit”, on the basis that “there is no just or and-free-staters-even-like-each-other-and-what- 5 does-it-mean-for-irish-unity-1.4351834. politics. The cost of reunification - of these moods throughout Ireland and and the political implications of democratic solution to the national 6. ft.com/content/86cc29f6-05a5-11ea-9afa- could the southern economy sustain the the ability of Sinn Féin to capitalise on the shifting demographic balance question on the basis of capitalism”. d9e2401fa7ca. For a pessimistic account levels of British subvention that support them.10 between Catholics and Protestants in Rounding off these demands with an on the economic impact of a possible 12 reunification, see irishnews.com/news/ the benefits system and welfare state in the Six Counties. These assumptions internationalist flavour, they call for northernirelandnews/2019/09/17/news/united- Northern Ireland? - and the recognition Orderly transition about how the growth of the Catholic a “free, equal and voluntary socialist ireland-would-cost-up-to-30-billion-a-year-and- of strong unionist hostility to any form However, Sinn Féin does not lead, nor population will translate ‘automatically’ confederation of Ireland, Scotland, collapse-north-s-economy--1714127. Typical of Irish unity have been objections does it seek to build, a militant mass into votes for reunification have been England and Wales as part of a assessments of unionist reaction and opposition 16 to Irish unity can be found in these two recent to reunification widely voiced by movement campaigning for Irish unity. rightly questioned in the light of recent democratic, socialist Europe”. articles: irishtimes.com/news/politics/can-the- Dublin politicians and commentators, Despite positioning itself as an anti- assembly and Westminster election A critique of these positions is republic-afford-a-united-ireland-these-unionists- especially during ‘the Troubles’.6 establishment party on the left south results, and evidence that many necessary if we are to understand the don-t-think-so-1.4348744; and irishtimes.com/ This commitment to the status of the border, its role in the Stormont middle class Catholics have come to national question and campaign for news/politics/unionists-are-not-deluded-irishmen- loyalist-says-1.4348780. quo was evident from the late 1960s, executive shows its real commitment is terms with their secure position as a a Marxist party in Ireland. It is clear 7. L Ó Ruairc Peace or pacification? Northern when Dublin governments cooperated to both the constitutional and economic recognised part of Northern Ireland’s that Brexit, whether in hard or soft Ireland after the defeat of the IRA Winchester closely with London to suppress the status quo. Thus, Sinn Féin’s president, ‘new dispensation’.13 form, will have a serious economic 2019. IRA’s armed struggle and maintain Mary Lou McDonald, argues: Such demographic determinism and and political impact on Ireland, north 8. irishnews.com/news/ northernirelandnews/2020/07/21/news/colum- British rule in the Six Counties. This reliance on blind economic forces is far and south, but, at this stage, the exact eastwood-says-border-poll-should-be-called-when- close working partnership was also Our immediate task is preparation removed from the political subjectivity pattern of events and future outcome it-s-winnable-2011135. a key factor in the defeat of militant for constitutional change. That needs and agency of the militant Irish remains uncertain. Our central 9. thejournal.ie/lord-ashcroft-irish-unification-poll- republicanism and the incorporation to commence. In my view it would republican tradition or the promise of democratic demand must remain the 4804372-Sep2019/ For some examples of these views see https://irelandsfuture.com/about-us. of the Provisionals into the new be reckless not to begin planning revolutionary transformation contained reunification of Ireland as a republic, 10. irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/politics/sinn- dispensation, the culminating political now. We want a referendum on in the demand for self-determination but the nature of the republic, federal fein-most-popular-party-22714406. success of the peace process.7 Given unity, and we want to carry the day and the democratic resolution of or otherwise, and the basis on which 11. irishtimes.com/news/politics/mary-lou- this record, if there is any pressure and we want to win it well. We want the national question. So too are the rights would be accorded to the mcdonald-irish-unity-is-everyone-s-business-it-s- for Irish reunification it certainly is it to be orderly and peaceful and Sinn Féin leadership’s ideas of the ‘British-Irish’ population still need to not-a-sinn-f%C3%A9in-thing-1.4350770. 11 12. Ibid. not coming from Dublin’s political successful. gradual evolution of the structures be defined. 13. community-relations.org.uk/publications/ establishment. Nor is it coming from its of the Good Friday agreement Marxists need to understand northern-ireland-peace-monitoring-report. political clients north of the border, the These demands on ‘Irish unity’ focus towards reunification, with the British the political, economic and social 14. irishtimes.com/news/politics/mary-lou- Social Democratic and Labour Party, on a border poll in Northern Ireland government acting as persuaders for changes that have occurred across mcdonald-irish-unity-is-everyone-s-business-it-s- 14 not-a-sinn-f%C3%A9in-thing-1.4350770. which likewise has rejected a border as stipulated in the Good Friday peaceful orderly change. the island following the defeat of the 15. socialistparty.ie/category/news-a-analysis/ poll and remains committed to making agreement. The mechanism for calling Provisionals and the reconfiguration northern-ireland. the Good Friday agreement work.8 such a referendum is in the hands of the Avoiding of the British state in the Six Counties, 16. solidarity.ie/principles and letusrise.ie/what- we-stand-for. The economic and political British secretary of state for Northern However, if Sinn Féin’s line on alongside similarly fundamental 17. irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/fintan-o-toole- uncertainties caused by Brexit for both Ireland, who must decide whether it is reunification is a triumph of hope political and economic changes in the johnson-s-breaking-of-brexit-pledge-is-smart-arse- Belfast and Dublin have been some of ‘likely’ that a majority for reunification over experience - a utopian wish list south. Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar, duplicity-1.4351880. weekly worker 1316 September 24 2020 5 USA Royal high court Why the commotion over the death of justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Daniel Lazare gives his answers hen law is king, its official vanity. Feminists were outraged when inception. The result is more paralysis themselves by their loyalty to nine known as . The group interpreters become royal a chorus of liberals seized on her 80th and more anger, as the democratic unelected justices, who are appointed requires members to swear loyalty Walter egos. These are the birthday in 2013 to call on her to step majority finds itself frustrated at every for life. Instead of championing mass to one another and to submit to people charged with explaining the down while still had turn. democracy, they allied themselves with direction by a personal advisor known law, resolving its contradictions, time to appoint a younger liberal to angry black militants, while sneering as a “head” in the case of men and a and updating it in view of changing take her place. “All the ‘Ruth, haven’t Reactionary at working class whites as incorrigible “handmaid” if they are a woman. The circumstance. Other officials - you had enough?’ talk starts to seem For much of its history, the Supreme racists. advisors teach that husbands must rule presidents, generals, and whatnot - a wee sexist,” one declared.1 Another Court fuelled the fires by interpreting As the academy drifted leftward and provide instruction about whom wind up taking a second seat, because insisted that she was “irreplaceable”.2 the constitution in the most reactionary as well, the upshot was a growing underlings should marry or date, their job is merely to execute the law Ginsburg encouraged the outcry, way possible. ‘Brahmanization’, in which college- where they should live, what jobs they rather than determine what it means. vowing to soldier on, “as long as I can In 1859, it precipitated the Civil educated liberals embraced affirmative should take or whether they can buy a If you can wrap your head around do the job full steam.” After all, “There War by declaring in the famous Dred action, feminism and gay rights, while home, and how they should raise their this very American concept of legal will be a president after this one,” she Scott case that even free blacks “had black ghettoes exploded in violence children.3 It could not be spookier, yet supremacy, then you can understand observed, “and I’m hopeful that that no rights which the white man was and disillusioned whites fled to the Democrats will undoubtedly run into why the death of Supreme Court justice president will be a fine president.” bound to respect”. Beginning in the suburbs. Deindustrialisation and the a buzzsaw if they dare criticise the Ruth Bader Ginsburg is generating Considering that the next president 1870s, it rolled back whatever rights collapse of organised labour added to nominee’s religious views. such an outpouring of grief among US turned out to be Donald Trump, the African-Americans had left to them the growth of an amorphous populism Barrett also supports expanded liberals, as well as triggering a first- result was a massive miscalculation by virtue of Reconstruction. It slashed that was increasingly rightwing. gun rights and, in a particularly cruel class constitutional crisis. that shows how detached from political labour rights nearly to zero, while Which brings us to RBG. Female, decision, upheld the right of US Ginsburg, who succumbed to reality the liberal elite had become. expanding managerial power to the a brilliant student (she graduated at consular officials to deny an entry cancer on September 18 at the age of But there is a third problem as point where corporations became the the top of her class at Columbia law visa to the wife of a Yemeni-born US 87, was a feminist icon who became a well: the court itself. Nothing like part that swallowed virtually the whole school) and affluent (her husband citizen. Barrett is on record as stating hero of the anti-Trump ‘resistance’ by it exists in the so-called democratic of US politics. served as a tax attorney for billionaire that Roe v Wade “will probably stand”.4 speaking out against the high court’s world, because nothing like the US But a funny thing happened on the H , who returned the But, since she has refused to oppose growing drift to the right. With her constitution exists either. One is a way to the fascist inferno. After years favour by endowing a chair for him efforts to restrict access or funding, frilly lace collar, oversized glasses, 230-year-old plan of government that of blocking Franklin D Roosevelt’s at Georgetown University law school she will likely allow states to nibble pulled-back hair and bird-like stature, is so unchangeable that it is all but New Deal reforms - and just months in Washington), she was straight out to death rather than voting to the ‘Notorious RBG’ - so called after written in stone, while the other is a after FDR floated a court-packing of central casting, as far as affluent overturn it outright. the rapper, Notorious BIG - became council of constitutional high priests, scheme that would have allowed anti-Trumpsters were concerned. Assuming she proves as durable as instantly recognisable as Trump whose job is to move the immovable him to stack the court with liberal When not drumming up Russophobia as RBG, Barrett could use her high- himself. Young women tattooed via the miracle of re-interpretation. appointees - it switched gears in and denouncing Trump as a tool court seat to impose such beliefs on a her image on their arms, little girls This in a nutshell is what America’s 1937 by approving a minimum-wage of the Kremlin, CNN - owned by hapless nation until the year 2059 or donned RBG costumes for Halloween, great constitutional wars are all about. law it had previously opposed. One Warner Media, the world’s biggest 60, and there will nothing that liberals while in 2018 a shop opened up in As the constitution grows older and liberal wag called it “the switch in communications conglomerate - will be able to do in response. The Washington DC, offering a long list older, two basic trends are discernible: time that saves nine”. The upshot is anointed her the “face of the resistance” court’s current 5-4 conservative line- of RBG-themed merchandise: yoga (1) It departs more and more from the that, by the McCarthyite 1950s, the and produced an adoring documentary up will give way to an unbreakable mats, water bottles, action figures - needs of larger society; and court had suddenly emerged as the in 2018 entitled RBG. 6-3 Republican majority, which means the works. Hollywood even rolled out (2) It turns more rigid and change- most liberal show in town. In 1954, “I can’t tell you how happy it makes that, even if Trump loses in November, a biopic, On the basis of sex, about a averse. it issued its epic decision in favour of me to see her name on campus T-shirts his Supreme Court legacy will live on pioneering sex-discrimination case she The difficulty lies with article V, school desegregation. Beginning in as the Notorious RBG,” gushed Gloria for a decade or more. argued in 1970. which stipulates that two-thirds of each 1962, it declared that southern state Steinem - the same Steinem who As awful as this is, the consequences, “The word ‘woman’ does not appear house of Congress plus three-fourths governments could no longer stack caused an uproar by declaring that believe it or not, could be even worse even once in the US constitution,” the of states must give their say-so before the deck in favour of conservative young women were only flocking to if the nomination fails. With just eight film has a federal judge intone. “Nor the document can be modified in the rural voters while short-changing city the Bernie Sanders campaign because members, ‘the Supremes’ could find does the word freedom, your honour,” slightest. In 1790, the three-fourths dwellers and suburbanites. Starting “the boys are with Bernie”. Ginsburg themselves split down the middle if the spunky young attorney replies. The rule meant that four out of 13 states in 1963, it ruled that all criminal revelled in her newfound celebrity, the presidential election winds up in judiciary’s role - liberals would call it could block any constitutional change, defendants must have access to an sporting an RBG tote bag in public and their hands the way it did in December a moral duty - is to fill in such lacunae, even though they represented as little attorney and be informed of their distributing RBG T-shirts to friends 2000. If so, the constitution outlines so that the law can be made even “more as 10% of the population. Since nearly rights before undergoing police and admirers. a bizarre procedure for resolving the perfect” (to quote the constitution’s half the states allowed slavery, the interrogation. Other decisions vastly deadlock, dictating that the election preamble) than it already is. effect was to paralyse politics until the expanded the right of free speech, Supremes must then move to the House of But, as the current crisis shows, Civil War. Today, with the number of free expression, sexual equality and This is why the high priestess’s death is Representatives, where members will there is a problem with the Ginsburg states now at 50, the same rule allows privacy. generating such widespread grief. But be required to vote en bloc as state story - several, in fact. One is that the 13 of them to do the same, even though It was a classic ‘revolution it is also generating fear about what the delegates. This means that California’s high court was already moving to the their population share is now down to from above’, with all the usual coming period holds. With less than 52 representatives will have the same right when Bill Clinton nominated her as little as 4.4%. contradictions. Formerly, liberals six weeks left to the election, Trump weight as demographically-challenged in 1993. As a centrist who alarmed The constitution is thus 2.2 times had denounced the court as a font of has announced his determination Wyoming’s three, even though its feminists by arguing that Roe v Wade - more change-averse than it was at its high Toryism. But now they defined to ram through a replacement. The population is nearly 70 times greater. the landmark 1973 ruling establishing constitution says the Senate must No one knows what will happen the right to an abortion - had been Now there are eight of them ... but Trump and the approve any such nomination, and or who will prevail under such absurd wrongly argued and had gone too far, Republicans are determined to ensure a conservative at the moment it looks like enough circumstances, but there is a good she was thus part of the problem members of the Republicans’ 53-47 chance that the whole undemocratic and only raised the alarm when majority for a generation to come majority will go along with it. If they process will collapse of its own the drift, in her estimation, had do, the implications are chilling. weight, if it has not done so already. gone too far. The leading candidate is a 48-year- News outlets are filled with gloom and Another problem is old federal appeals judge named doom articles about the chaos that the that after suffering Amy Coney Barrett, whose upcoming elections may well bring. repeated bouts academic record is just as stellar But now Americans have even more of cancer, she as Ginsburg’s, but who is a cause for worry. clearly held onto graduate of a rightwing Such is the price of abject her judicial legal brotherhood constitutional worship. After placing position for known as the their bets on a lifetime judiciary, too long, and, liberals now find themselves prisoners out of what until recently, of arcane 18th-century procedures that appears a member of are beyond their control. to have a secretive Things may work out this time been Christian around, but America’s luck will pure charismatic eventually run out l group Notes 1. E Bazelon, ‘Stop telling Ruth Ginsburg to retire: it’s counterproductive’ Slate December 18 2013: slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/12/ruth-bader- ginsburgs-retirement-stop-telling-the-supreme- court-justice-to-quit-so-obama-can-appoint-her- successor.html. 2. D Lithwick, ‘Ruth Bader Ginsburg is irreplaceable: all you liberals trying to push her out, think about that’ Slate March 19 2014: slate.com/ news-and-politics/2014/03/ruth-bader-ginsburg- shouldnt-retire-shes-irreplaceable.html. 3. nytimes.com/2017/09/28/us/amy-coney-barrett- nominee-religion.html. 4. ndsmcobserver.com/2013/01/law-professor- reflects-on-landmark-case. weekly 6 September 24 2020 1316 worker UNITED FRONT

BirthJohn Riddell spoke to Communist Universityof 2020 about a the struggle tactic of communist parties to win over the majority of workers n the Communist manifesto, Karl ranks, especially in Germany. in Stuttgart took the lead. “We did not Marx and Friedrich Engels stated United front policy was rooted then have any theory of united front,” Ithat communists ally with “every in Bolshevik initiatives toward their one communist later recalled. “But revolutionary movement against the Menshevik rivals before the October [we] instinctively applied this policy existing social and political order of Revolution. The soviets of 1917 were whenever there was a demonstration things” - that is, with bourgeois forces also a type of united front. The October against inflation and [wage-cutting].”6 acting in a revolutionary way and also revolution was organised by a soviet The successful resistance to the Kapp working class forces inclined to socialism: united-front sub-committee and led to putsch gave the revolutionary left new a coalition government of Bolsheviks energy. A majority of the centrist USPD The communists fight for the along with the peasant-based Left voted in October to join the Comintern attainment of the immediate aims, for Socialist Revolutionary Party. and fused with the KPD in December, the enforcement of the momentary There was a similar pre-history creating a united party with more than interests of the working class ... But in central Europe, where united 300,000 members. Even so, the KPD they never cease … to instil into the workers’ and soldiers’ councils led the enjoyed the support of less than a fifth of working class the clearest possible revolutionary overthrow of the German the working class. recognition of the hostile antagonism and Austro-Hungarian empires in In November 1920, the Stuttgart between bourgeoisie and proletariat.1 November 1918. This unity was soon ranks took a promising initiative to shattered by the armed assault against break this deadlock. Communists in the Here we have it: the logic of what later German workers’ councils organised by local metalworkers’ union petitioned came to be called the ‘united front’. the ‘official’ Social Democrats in the the union’s leadership for united action. But that term was introduced only months that followed. The first step to The leadership of 26,000 Stuttgart 70 years later to describe initiatives in a heal the breach came in Hungary, and metal workers responded by adopting different environment, where unity seemed it was initiated, paradoxically, by social five demands “held in common by all distant. The united front’s gestation took democratic forces. workers”: place in the early Communist International In a country shaken by war, economic 1 Reduce prices for necessities of life. between 1920 and 1923. collapse and revolution, in March 1919 2 Produce at full capacity and increase Before recounting this intricate the Hungarian social democrats called unemployment benefits. story, I am going to suggest four leading upon the newly formed Communist Party 3 Reduce taxes paid by workers and questions to help you stay on track: to join them in forming a government raise taxes on the great private fortunes. 1 Are initiatives coming more from the and, moreover, to seal the pact through Zinoviev, Bukharin and Lenin consult 4 Establish workers’ control of supply leaders in the national communist parties an organic fusion of their two parties. and distribution of raw materials and or from the working-class base? The Hungarian communists agreed. But the general strike continued. already find the entire united front policy, foodstuffs. 2 On the international level, do initiatives They dominated the joint government, Strikers demanded a new government adapted to British circumstances”. 5 Disarm reactionary gangs and arm the come more from Comintern’s Moscow- based on workers’ councils, that ruled and decisive action against the rightist The united front approach was workers. based executive committee or national for four months, until its overthrow by militarist threat. Carl Legien, chair of the tested when the Polish government The demands were overwhelmingly parties? invading capitalist armies. Comintern union confederation, proposed that the invaded Soviet Ukraine in April 1920. adopted by a general assembly of 3 Is policy developed in a democratic writers criticised the unprepared top- SPD’s coalition with bourgeois parties In response, pro-Soviet solidarity Stuttgart metalworkers. Radek remarked, fashion or from the top down? down fusion of the communist and social be replaced by a workers’ government, actions across Europe halted arms tellingly: “If I had been in Moscow, the 4 Does the communist movement show democratic forces, which had eliminated formed by the SPD, the Independent shipments to Poland. In Germany, the idea would not even have crossed my a capacity to correct its errors? the communists as an independent force, Social Democratic Party (USPD) and social democratic and union leaderships mind.”7 while leaving the regime vulnerable to the trade unions. The leadership of the formed joint committees to lead the Leading bodies of the unions, the Split in socialism betrayal. But were communists wrong Communist Party (KPD) expressed actions, in which communists were able USPD and the SPD at first ignored the Our story starts in the Second to consider a governmental alliance with support for this proposal, promising to participate at a local level. Stuttgart initiative. In local union bodies, International. Launched in 1889, it drew the social democrats? That vital question to act towards such a government as however, it found a warm welcome. together nearly all socialist and labour got little attention. a “loyal opposition”. But the centrist Anti-colonial Soon, according to the trade union parties in Europe and North America. The most explicit comment came USPD refused to take part, killing the Another arena for united action opened editor of the KPD’s leading newspaper, But that unity was shattered by the from Comintern leader Karl Radek. A proposal. The strike gradually died up after 1917 with the spread of liberation “resolutions of support were piling up impact of World War I and the 1917 coalition government of this type was away, and the government and army struggles among the oppressed Asian in our office by the hundreds”.8 But the Russian Revolution. appropriate under some circumstances, brutally re-established control. peoples within the old tsarist empire. The SPD and USPD found pretexts not to When the Communist International he said, but communists should not give The KPD’s “loyal opposition” left wing of these movements viewed the support the initiative. or Comintern was founded in 1919, the up their separate organisation. statement came under strong criticism soviet government as their peoples’ best Impressed by the strong response to world socialist movement was split into from many party leaders and was defence against religious, national and the Stuttgart initiative, the KPD central three mutually hostile camps: first, the Against a coup rejected by the party central committee racial oppression, and sought alliances leadership (the Zentrale) decided on discredited forces that had backed the During the months that followed, the in a 12:8 vote. One of the minority with the communists. The Second December 29 to initiate a generalised war; second, revolutionary socialists Comintern focused its attention on comrades pointed out that the workers’ Comintern congress, held in July- movement for united working class who identified with the Russian Soviet unifying truly revolutionary forces government concept was similar to August 1920, proclaimed the need for action. Although supported by Radek, the republic; and, third, forces critical of and gave little attention to alliances. In the Bolsheviks’ call, shortly before such coalitions across the colonial world, decision was opposed by many members both sides, termed ‘centrists’. March 1920, however, the need for a the October 1917 revolution, for pledging the International’s support for of the party leadership, on the grounds In late 1918 and 1919 a tide of coalition of workers’ forces was posed Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries “the revolutionary movement among that the newly united party needed to revolution swept across Europe, inspiring again, first on a trade union and then to break with the bourgeoisie and form a the nations that are dependent and do not focus on its own initiatives rather than communists with hope that workers’ at governmental level. Both times the government based on the soviets. Radek have equal rights”. searching for allies. The decisive Ruhr power would quickly spread westward initiative came, once again, from the denied that the Russian example was In September, the Comintern convened region, however, responded that they had across Europe. By late 1920, however, social democratic side. relevant. Lenin, however, judged the the First Congress of the Peoples of the already taken such a united initiative. capitalist rule had been restabilised, at Germany’s newly formed capitalist KPD statement to be “quite correct both East - a gathering of 2,000 delegates from The outcome was an open letter of least for the moment. Outside Russia, republic was under attack from rightist in its basic premises and in its practical across Asia in Baku, Azerbaijan. The the KPD to other workers’ parties and social democratic leaders committed to plotters. On March 13 1920, they conclusions” and affirmed that the congress acclaimed the call “Workers four trade union federations, calling on the defence of capitalism still enjoyed mounted a coup, led by Wolfgang Kapp, Bolsheviks’ approach in 1917 was indeed of all lands and oppressed peoples of them to come together in actions to fend majority support among workers. which drove the government into flight. relevant to the German discussion.2 the whole world, unite!” - an expanded off the bosses’ offensive against workers These forces blocked not only socialist That same day, the SPD-led trade unions Lenin’s comments had sufficient version of the Communist manifesto’s for demands similar to those in the revolution, but effective defence of called for a general strike to defend authority to end the discussion, but the historic appeal. The Baku congress Stuttgart appeal, in order to achieve “the workers’ living conditions. the republic. The Communist Party, disagreement remained unresolved. manifesto proclaimed a “holy war for the minimum that the proletariat must have The Communist International amazingly, declined to rally to support Meanwhile, the prominence of united liberation of the peoples of the east”. now in order not to perish”.9 adopted the united front policy as a way the strike. There was no point in opposing action committees during the Kapp At a conference on the Far East two Once again, the response from to reopen the road to united working the Kapp putsch, they said, because the struggle drew criticism from Comintern years later, Comintern leader GF Safarov national leaderships was negative. Yet class action. Its core idea was that the real struggle was for workers’ power, and leader Béla Kun, former head of the short- summarised the communist attitude to this did not stem the wave of support communist parties should approach that lay in the future. lived Hungarian soviet government and the nationalist movement in China, led from rank-and-file union and social the social democratic movements As workers across Germany rallied well-known for his ultra-leftist views. by Sun Yat-sen: democratic organisations, and the KPD at both leadership and membership to the general strike, the communists The “unity ideal” expressed in the Kapp soon reported that more than two million levels, seeking united action around quickly corrected their error and soon actions was “counterrevolutionary”, We support your struggle in so far workers were on record as favouring the basic demands supported by the entire played a leading role in joint workers’ Kun said;3 communists should act alone. as it is a matter of a nationalistic open-letter demands. workers’ movement. Communists strike committees. Still, the pre-war Others shared Kun’s viewpoint. and democratic uprising for national Soon there was motion in the social pledged to loyally apply the decisions social democracy would not have made In 1920 Lenin wrote a celebrated emancipation. But at the same time democratic camp. The SPD appealed of united front bodies, while reserving that error. Somehow, the principle pamphlet on the errors of “leftwing” we shall independently carry on our for aid to destitute unemployed workers. the right to advance their own point of of defending democratic rights - so communism.4 He did not comment communist work of organising the A Berlin assembly of factory council view. fundamental to the Second International specifically on united fronts, but his proletarian and semi-proletarian representatives called for a united national Proclaimed in December 1921, the - had slipped from view. pamphlet did recommend that British masses of China.5 action to counter unemployment. On policy had evolved over several years The strike was solid across the communists give electoral support February 26 1921 the unions’ executive in a process marked by dissension, country. Workers’ armed resistance to Labour candidates and apply for Open letter published 10 demands to “combat ambiguities and many false steps. It was spread, sometimes led by unified affiliation to the party. Two years later, In the summer of 1920, the German unemployment”. The KPD, while driven forward mainly by the thinking workers’ councils, and after four days Comintern president Gregory Zinoviev comrades began efforts to recreate the criticising the union demands, declared it and initiatives of the working class the putschists fled. said that in these proposals by Lenin “we fighting unity of the Kapp days. Workers would do everything possible to support weekly worker 1316 September 24 2020 7 OVERHEAD them and help achieve their victory. When the 3rd Congress of Comintern against hunger and poverty” as a basis in the executive committee’s united strategic arc, reaching from today’s No major action resulted. The SPD convened in June 1921, supporters of for efforts towards united action both front resolution of December 18 did movements to a struggle for power. leadership viewed the united-front the March action seemed likely to win a nationally and locally. not mention fascism and praised the campaign as partisan, an attempt to shift majority. Clara Zetkin led a minority of Hours after the congress closed, an Italian CP for its implementation of a Troubled legacy the relationship of forces in the KPD’s KPD delegates in opposition. ultra-right organisation assassinated a policy to which it was in fact strongly During the years following its adoption, favour. There was a kernel of truth in this: leading German bourgeois politician, opposed. the united front policy continued only by radically increasing its influence Steps to recovery Matthias Erzberger, whom they Bukharin took up this failing in a to encounter resistance within the in unions and the working class could Yet, even as the KPD majority pressed hated for having signed the armistice subsequent letter to the Italian party. Comintern, particularly from the leftist the KPD gain the leverage to achieve for backing from the 3rd Congress, the ending World War I. The KPD’s Rote But there was no follow-up from the current in Germany led by Ruth Fischer. united action and create the conditions trade union base of the party pulled it Fahne immediately called for united executive committee. The Italian CP’s In 1924, Comintern’s congress withdrew for revolutionary victory. back onto the ‘open letter’ course. On action, including with the Christian failure to carry out united anti-fascist the proposal to discuss common To work through these contradictions April 15 1921, a circular from the KPD trade unions linked with Erzberger’s resistance contributed decisively to actions with leaders of non-communist required time, and in March 1921 time Zentrale, while defending March Action pro-Catholic Centre Party. In Berlin Mussolini’s triumph in November formations. The policy was thus reduced suddenly ran out. policies, also upheld the demands of the all three workers’ parties called for 1922. At Comintern’s 4th Congress to an appeal for the working class ranks open letter as a platform for common a united demonstration, which drew that convened later that month, the to support communist initiatives, which Setback struggle against the capitalist offensive. half a million participants. Marches need for an anti-fascist united front meant essentially no united front policy Even as the German communists’ The KPD’s ‘May Day appeal’ went and strikes across Germany embraced was raised - not by the Italian CP, at all. There were two further reversals, campaign for unity scored gains, there further, calling for support for the ‘10 about five million protestors. not by the Comintern executive of course, later in the 1930s. were increasing calls in the KPD for demands’. The union leaders rebuffed During the months that followed, committee, but by communists from During the Nazi rise to power in the party to take bolder initiatives in this overture, but the communists the KPD fully resumed the course Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria Germany, Comintern rejected an anti- struggle - on its own, if necessary. The swung into action on a local level and of the open letter, and its initiatives and Switzerland, who secured fascist alliance with the social democrats, strain between these two approaches achieved many united actions. Many for united action made encouraging adoption of their position as the thus repeating the error committed a reflected divisions within the German party leaders continued to nod in the headway. Among the most successful congress ended - too late for inclusion decade earlier in Italy, with the same working class as a whole. After the direction of the theory of the offensive, was an international campaign for aid in the resolutions. disastrous results. In 1935, Comintern defeat suffered by revolutionary while implementing a diametrically to war-torn Soviet Russia, launched Six months after Mussolini’s switched to what it called a ‘people’s workers in early 1919, the class struggle opposed policy. By mid-June, as the on July 27 1921 in response to a triumph in Italy, a celebrated address front’ policy, which involved unity not had remained deadlocked for four 3rd Congress convened, the KPD had widespread famine. A wide range by Clara Zetkin21 finally provided only with other workers’ parties, but with years: the objective conditions cried out rebuilt some of its influence and was of non-communist intellectuals and Comintern with a clear stand for unity a wing of the imperialist bourgeoisie - for revolution, but the working class once again able to initiate united mass workers rallied to support this effort. against fascism. violating a basic principle of Comintern was unable to break through. demonstrations. A leading role in this work was in Lenin’s time. In the words of Clara Zetkin, the Early in 1921, the KPD also initiated played by the Communist Women’s Three-part strategy Given this confused legacy, we workers were “almost desperate”, yet a broadly based committee for defence Movement, led by Clara Zetkin. The Comintern’s new united front policy need to seek guidance from the original “unwilling to struggle”.10 A member of working class political prisoners, Comintern women scored similar encountered far more opposition in presentation of the united front in Lenin’s of the left opposition within her party chaired by Zetkin. It was the forerunner successes in building broad support the member-parties than it had in the time. I have pulled together relevant later commented: “Everything was of International Red Aid (Russian for International Women’s Day and executive committee. One of the most short readings on my blog under the title, bogged down. We faced a wall of acronym: MOPR), founded during the campaigns for women’s political and frequently voiced objections was that ‘First formulations of the united front’.22 passivity. We had to break through it, 4th Comintern congress in November reproductive rights.18 the united front should be built ‘from What was it that made the united whatever the cost.”11 In a discussion 1922 - which achieved impressive scope Recalling, two years later, the below’ rather than ‘from above’: that front concept so problematic for the with Zetkin, Lenin referred to and reputation, notably in its defence of 1921 united front discussions in the is, social democratic workers should communist movement during Lenin’s “discontented, suffering workers who the framed US anarchists, Nicola Sacco Comintern leadership, Zinoviev said: be recruited directly to communist time? Yes, we can point to serious errors feel revolutionary, but are politically and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. It was among “Actually, I too had misgivings then. campaigns, without reference to their of leadership. But in my opinion, during raw and confused … World history does the Comintern’s most successful united Much was not yet entirely clear … It organisations. EC leaders responded these years, events were shaped by two not seem to hurry, but the discontented front initiatives. was a difficult transition, and we went that it was precisely the impossibility of underlying factors: first, the widespread workers think that your party leaders Comintern’s 3rd Congress (June through an intense inner struggle.”19 forging effective unity in this way that impatience for action among the most don’t want it to hurry.”12 23 - July 12 1921) was dominated No record is available of how made a formal approach to the social militant workers, and also among many In the Moscow leadership, Zinoviev by debate on issues arising from the the Bolshevik leaders came to an democratic leaderships necessary. communists; and, second, sectarianism and Nikolai Bukharin were sympathetic March Action. Bolshevik leader Leon agreement. However, at the end of When an expanded plenum of the - that is, an impulse to place the party’s to those impatient for a breakthrough - a Trotsky later wrote that at the start of November 1921, Zinoviev, Radek and executive committee met in Moscow, perceived short-run interests above those view also promoted by Kun and other the congress the prevailing mood was Bukharin proposed to the Bolshevik from February 24 to March 4 1922, of the working class as a whole l left-inclined Hungarian leaders who had to generalise the KPD’s March policy, political bureau that the Russian party the united front was the main agenda been incorporated into the Comintern an “attempt to create a revolutionary support extension of the German item. One hundred and five delegates John Riddell - a veteran socialist general staff. situation artificially - to ‘galvanise united-action policy to Comintern as attended, from 36 countries. Among activist based in Toronto - is chief Kun’s concerns were also shared the proletariat’, as one of the German a whole. The bureau’s motion, drafted the five most influential Comintern editor and translator of the first by a new ‘left’ opposition in the KPD, comrades put it”.15 by Lenin, approved this course and sections outside Russia, the French eight volumes of the Communist dominant in the decisive Berlin-area This view was argued by the German also directed Bukharin to write up the and Italian parties opposed the Publishing Project. region, which opposed the ‘open letter’ leadership majority, with initial support Bolsheviks’ pre-1917 experience of united front and the Norwegian policy. Their views found support on the from Zinoviev, Bukharin, and Radek. blocs with the Mensheviks; it appears majority believed it did not apply He blogs at johnriddell.com, Comintern executive, where there was The opposition to this course was led in the executive committee united front to their country. In Czechoslovakia where a more detailed 2011 talk of the KPD’s “alarming wavering by Lenin and Trotsky in the Russian resolution adopted later that month. and Germany significant minorities version of this text is available, towards opportunist tendencies and delegation, and Zetkin in the KPD. The Bukharin’s write-up evoked little resisted the policy. Opinion was titled ‘The origins of the united an element of passivity”.13 Bukharin congress decision, which sought to quell discussion, and the Bolsheviks’ united similarly divided in smaller parties. front policy’.23 and Zinoviev articulated these views, ultra-left impulses, was summarised in front experience in the revolutionary At the close of the plenum, the while Radek defended the open letter. a sentence of its ‘Theses on tactics’: “At year of 1917 remained unexamined. united front policy was adopted by a Notes Lenin sent a message, terming the the present moment the most important On December 4, Zinoviev 46:10 vote. The executive committee 14 1. marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/ KPD’s tactic “absolutely correct” - task of the Communist International recommended to the Comintern the made no attempt to force member- communist-manifesto/ch04.htm. which prevented its condemnation, but is to win a dominant influence over adoption of the united front. Theses parties to apply the policy. However, 2. VI Lenin CW Moscow 1971, Vol 31, pp109 and 166. resolved nothing. the majority of the working class and on the united front, presented for through a succession of discussions 3. B Kun, ‘Die Ereignisse in Deutschland’ (1920) In late February, tensions in the involve the workers in direct struggle” - vote on December 18, bore the mark and experiences in national sections, Kommunismus No11-15 (March-April), pp349, 441. 4. marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/ German party came to a head. A new a strategy summed up in the slogan, “To of Zinoviev’s thinking. The united acceptance of the united front policy index.htm. 16 leadership took the helm, formed the masses”. front was motivated on the basis of widened. 5. Comintern The First Congress of the toilers of of those favouring what was now Two aspects of the 3rd Congress the current conjuncture. The workers’ At the 4th Congress, in November- the Far East London 1970, pp193-94. becoming known as the “theory of decisions prefigured the united front government slogan was endorsed, December 1922, debate focused on 6. Comintern Protokoll des Vierten Kongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale 1923, p384. the offensive” - that is, the notion that policy adopted by the Communist although only for Germany. The how to utilise it. The congress moved 7. P Broué The German Revolution 1917-1923 communists - even with only minority International six months later: KPD’s experiences in pressing for to apply the united front concept to Leiden 2006, p469. support among workers - should launch  First, the Theses on tactics endorsed united action were not dealt with. a broader range of situations: not 8. A Reisberg An den Quellen der an all-out assault on capitalist power. the KPD’s open letter as an “excellent Hardly a mention was made during just during a working class retreat, Einheitsfrontpolitik 1971, p51. 9. Ibid p54. Less than two months after its adoption, example” of its strategy. the united front discussion of the rising but also during its forward march to 10. C Zetkin, ‘Die Lehren des deutschen the open letter was dumped.  Second, the theses articulated a new fascist movement then terrorising and power; not just immediate, but also Eisenbahnerstreiks’ Kommunistische In March the policy of the offensive conception of the type of programme destroying workers’ organisations transitional demands, which put in Internationale No20, 1922. was put to the test in Germany. In that communists should advance in a across Italy. The question did come up, question capitalist property rights; 11. Quoted by Trotsky in the Third World Congress: Protokoll des III Kongresses der conditions of great social tension, period of preparation for a struggle for however, at the December 4 executive not just by placing demands on the Kommunistischen Internationale 1921, pp642-43. the party geared up for a showdown. power. The heart of this approach was committee meeting. Italian delegate regime, but by replacing it with a 12. C Zetkin Reminiscences of Lenin International Comintern’s executive committee summarised in a single sentence: Egidio Gennari argued that there was workers’ government. Publishers.1934, p38. intervened. Three EC emissaries no basis for a united front policy in his Here the Comintern grasped the 13. A Reisberg An den Quellen der Einheitsfrontpolitik 1971, pp82, 84. arrived from Moscow - Béla Kun and In place of the minimum programme country. Bukharin responded: concept of a workers’ government, 14. VI Lenin CW Moscow 1971, Vol 45, pp124-25. two others sympathetic to his ultra-left of the reformists and centrists, the raised in Germany during resistance to 15. L Trotsky The Stalin school of falsification views. They threw their full authority Communist International proposes a In a country where fascists are the Kapp putsch. Such a government (1937), London 1971, p33. behind the drive for a revolutionary struggle for … a system of demands shooting down the workers, where would rest on the mass movement of 16. marxists.org/history/international/ comintern/3rd-congress/riddell-translations/ offensive. The government staged a that, in their totality, undermine the the entire land is burning, the mere working people and act to meet their Tactics-and-strategy.htm. provocation: an attack on workers’ power of the bourgeoisie, organise existence of the fascist organisation is needs. It could be based on workers’ 17. Comintern Thesen und Resolutionen des strongholds in Saxony. The KPD the proletariat and mark out stages in enough for us to say to workers, ‘Let councils, as in Russia, but winning a III Weltkongresses der Kommunistischen responded with a call for an the struggle for its [rule].17 us unite to strike down this riffraff.’20 parliamentary majority could also play Internationale 1921, p47. 18. Documents on this process make up the ninth insurrectional general strike. a role in its establishment. In any case, major volume of the Comintern Publishing Project, Across Germany worker ranks were This strategic vision came to be Bukharin’s suggestion fell on stony it would be a transitional government, which will appear next year. deeply divided, and only a minority known as a programme of ‘transitional soil. The Italian communists, then striking blows at capitalist power and 19. Comintern Die Tätigkeit der Exekutive und followed the KPD call. In some cases, demands’. led by Amadeo Bordiga, held to their seeking to open the road to socialism. des Präsidiums des EK der Kommunistischen Internationale vom 13 Juli 1921 bis 1 Februar communist activists seeking to enforce view that communists should conduct A year later, in 1923, the Comintern 1922 pp12-13. a strike clashed with workers trying to KPD embrace anti-fascist resistance on their own, broadened the formula to encompass 20. Ibid pp317-18 enter their factories. The strike failed. The 3rd Congress did not end the without alliance with workers’ groups possible workers’ and farmers’ 21. marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/06/struggle- When the dust cleared, the KPD had conflict within the German party and outside their ranks. When workers governments. against-fascism.html. 22. johnriddell.com/2020/08/02/first-formulations- lost more than half its membership, the Comintern leadership. Yet the spontaneously formed anti-fascist The Comintern thus tied together of-the-united-front. and its ties to the ranks of workers were KPD congress in August adopted a combat groups, the Communists united front, transitional demands 23. johnriddell.com/2011/05/04/the-origins-of-the- greatly weakened. 12-point programme for a “struggle opposed them. The passage on Italy and workers’ government in a single united-front-policy-3. weekly 8 September 24 2020 1316 worker CENTENARY

Placehile the 1st Congress of the support offor the Communist allwould settle once morecommunists the urgent struggles, was also present, along comrades still left outside the Communist Party of Great International from afar. The CI - task of unity and the forging of with the Left Wing group, whose party, despite the calls from the WBritain (July 31-August 2 with its vast authority - had played the strongest possible CPGB. comrades still thought they could new CPGB and the Communist 1920) brought together the British an active, hands-on role in the Targeted specifically was Sylvia win the ILP over to communism. International itself. The subsequent Socialist Party, the Communist mergers, pressing the remaining Pankhurst’s ill-named organisation, The items below from the political and organisational Unity Group (which originated in recalcitrant British comrades on the ‘Communist Party - British CPGB’s weekly paper, The degeneration of these isolated Socialist Labour Party), the South the urgent need for principled Section of the Third International’, Communist, illustrate the new individuals and tiny sects Wales Communist Council and unity. Immediately following the as well as the Communist Labour party’s patient and constructive underlined the fact that they had others, the job of pulling together a CI’s Second Congress, its executive Party (based on the shop stewards attitude towards unity - and the not simply stood versus this or that single CPGB was not yet complete. committee issued a new call for the movement in Scotland), the Socialist eventual fruits of their labours in policy (eg, the affiliation to Labour However, two facts immeasurably merger of communists in Britain. Labour Party and the left wing of the form of the Leeds conference at controversy), but the tide of history strengthened the case for unity. Still, however, there were the Independent Labour Party. the end of January 1921. itself. First, like it or not, the new revolutionary groups which held Pankhurst’s group eventually So, in all, nearly two years of Our revolutionary left today CPGB had arrived. It now back - despite their declarations accepted the position of the often fraught negotiations were could (and should) learn volumes existed as an important factor in of loyalty to the CI - occasionally Comintern EC and attended needed to make the CPGB a reality from the brave, patient comrades national politics and had drawn because of the petty proprietorial the unity convention, as did the - from the first tentative talks of the 1920s. The place to start into its ranks the most important attitude of leaders: people who Communist Labour Party. The CLP in 1918, through the qualitative would be with the simple maxim revolutionary organisations (outside feared the loss of their specific also included former members of breakthrough represented by the that the place for all communists Scotland). This was a qualitative ‘brand’. the Socialist Labour Party rump, London Unity Convention of July is in a Communist Party. With breakthrough; a chance to move Comintern, however, would which had refused to join the 31-August 2 1920 (ie, the CPGB’s principled unity such as this, the beyond the heroic amateurism of have none of this. It correctly previous year. first congress), to the Leeds fight for communism and human the groups and make a real impact. denounced these aloof, sectarian The National Shop Stewards and Convention in late January 1921 liberation would be qualitatively Second, this breakthrough poses and demanded the calling Workers’ Committee Movement, (the second congress). advanced l did not just have the enthusiastic of a second unity congress which born out of the wartime industrial In the end, there were talented William Sarsfield Thoughts about unity The Communist Its efforts are causing at present a is being thrown into the melting pot unturned, even at the expense of our ‘communists of tomorrow’, who November 25 1920 radical cleansing of the Italian Socialist elsewhere, the comrades at the centre own self-love, to bring onto the right only mistakenly call themselves Why does the EC of the Communist Party; they are driving the French of the International are justifiably track other elements that are not so ‘left’, because they do not understand International insist on a new unity Socialist Party towards a definite break impatient at what appear to them to be orthodox, but nonetheless are sincere that nothing can be more ‘left’ than conference? Because in the first place with its ambiguous and opportunist past; the petty squabbles, petty bickerings, revolutionaries and genuinely devoted communism. In Bukharin’s words, “If it is devoting its energies at present to they have split the great Independent petty regards for prestige, which keep to the cause of communism. there are only 30 of them and you bring the realisation in every country of the Social Democratic Party of Germany the British communists divided into To quote Zinoviev, “We have to them in, it will be worthwhile.” world of the principle laid down at from top to bottom, and have created, several groups. Secondly, while they fight against both right and left, but In this respect, of course, we at any the 2nd Congress - that one powerful with one hammer blow, the largest recognise that, all things taken into not at all in the same way or with rate are under no illusions as to the Communist Party, or rather one section Communist Party in the world. consideration, our Communist Party is the same methods.” The first are our numbers in question. The problem, of the Communist International, and It is obvious that where the party the ‘orthodox’ organisation for Britain, class enemies, with whom there can however, is one not of numbers, but of one only, should exist in each country. allegiance of hundreds of thousands they insist that no stone must be left be no compromise; the second are principles l Unity conference The Communist industrial workers who were members successfully in the industrial battlefield, February 5 1921 of the Communist Party to participate but for showing mental courage in One hundred and seventy delegates in the work of the shop stewards’ the realms of international policy and representing the branches of the movement. Many people who did not social reconstruction. On the battlefield Communist Party (BSTI), and various understand communism were being the Russian communists had shown independent communist groups impelled to move in that direction, and a heroism outshining that of any army assembled at the Victory Hotel, Leeds, it was our duty, while clearly organising ever raised in the past. on Saturday and Sunday, with the object our own party, to see that we harmonised A lengthy discussion was naturally of merging the various organisations on every point we could all those anticipated by some, but the general into a united Communist Party. tendencies in a revolutionary direction, feeling of the Congress was that Jack Tanner (National Shop which manifested themselves inside the further speech upon this resolution was Stewards and Workers’ Committee workshop ... unnecessary. It was agreed that the vote Movement) was voted to the chair. When the congress reassembled be taken at once; the whole assembly Certain preliminary matters, such as in the afternoon, the first business rose, sang the Internationale and cheered; the appointment of a orders before it was the resolution to merge and, the vote then being formally taken, committee, having been disposed the Communist Party of Great Britain, the resolution was carried unanimously of, the chairman briefly addressed the Communist Labour Party, the with renewed applause. the delegates, telling them they were Communist Party (BSTI) and the Then came the most dramatic assembled to carry out the first duty to independent communist groups moment of the conference. From the the international communist movement First two years were about unity, unity, unity represented at the congress into a united chair it was announced that comrade and to the working class of Britain Communist Party. William Gallagher Friis, a fraternal delegate from the in particular. They were proposing to all intents and purposes wound up its he wanted this to be the introduction to (CLP) moved this resolution. He said executive of the Third International bring about a united Communist Party. affairs; its members would be party to the practical task which the Communist there had been numerous delegates from and representing also the Norwegian The work of the conference was to any decisions arrived at by the present Party had before it in relation to the rest Britain at the Moscow conference, but comrades, had arrived in Leeds construct a machine, and there should be conference. of the movement in this country. The the British communists there had not despite the fact that a passport had no question in the mind of any delegate The resolution was then put and NAC of the shop stewards’ movement made a creditable display. Each section been refused him. Friis immediately as to what the purpose of that machine carried, and, on the suggestion of the had played an important part in the had seemed more anxious to impress mounted the platform and was greeted was. It must be constructed to carry on chairman, certain other matters of a negotiations which had culminated in the the congress with its own revolutionary by a volley of cheers and the singing an intensive and ruthless fight against rather formal nature were included in it. present conference, yet the movement fervour than to get together with the of the Internationale, then, after he had capitalism and reaction wherever they GH Brown (fraternal delegate from the itself was not in the same category as other sections and do something really spoken in terse, effective sentences of manifested themselves. Left Wing of the ILP) then conveyed a political party, but embraced workers valuable. admirable English, he left the hall, This was probably the most important hearty greetings from the communists who were not communists. Thus the unfortunate position had and, by the way he came, set out again task that the revolutionary movement he represented to the conference. He The fact that the NAC of the shop been arrived at where the executive to Norway. in this country had yet to face, and he said that a fortnight or three weeks ago stewards had played the part it had committee of the Communist He said: “I come here in a double trusted delegates would concentrate as the national committee of the Unity done with regard to the development of International had been obliged to take capacity. First at the instruction of never before their efforts on the task Convention Arrangements Committee the Communist Party arose out of the matters out of the hands of the British the executive of the Communist before them. The conference would had carried a resolution that the left fact that the movement had come into delegation, and make arrangements for International. From it, I carry hearty be an index from which comrades in wing should continue to work inside being as a result of the revolutionary bringing the communists of this country greetings and congratulations. I come all parts of the world would be able to the [Independent] Labour Party until impulses which had been given to the together and getting a definite and well also as a delegate from the Norwegian judge the earnestness, determination Easter, and that if then the communists industrial movement. Revolutionists had organised party started. We had failed in party to offer fraternal salutations. The and understanding of the communist lost on the floor of the conference at dominated the situation throughout, and the past because so many of us had been fact that I’m here is a proof of our movement in this country. Southport, they should come for advice now practically every member of the too concerned with personalities rather determination to defy and our ability JV Leckie (CLP) moved the to the executive committee of the national committee of the shop stewards than with principles; but from now to overcome bourgeois laws and adoption of the Unity Committee’s united Communist Party. If that advice was a member of some Communist onwards the one thing that must count regulations. This movement of ours report, taking the occasion to speak should be to the effect that the left wing Party. was the world movement. has friends at every frontier, comrades of the position of the CLP. T Watkins should leave the ILP and come into the It was because the national committee William Paul (CPGB) seconded on every ship, helpers at every station. (CP-BSTI) seconded the resolution. As Communist Party, he, along with a great was of the character it was that it was the resolution, saying that at that By your resolution you have become representative of his party he would say many others, were determined to take possible for it to play the part it had conference we had forged a weapon a living link with the revolutionary they had been actuated throughout with that advice. done in helping on the negotiations for which we were going to use in the near movement all over the world - with the spirit of unity that was necessary JT Murphy (fraternal delegate the development of a united Communist future in order to upset and eliminate Moscow and Norway.” to make the conference a success. from the Shop Stewards and Workers’ Party. It would stress the necessity for its the capitalist class. We thanked our As he left the hall at the end of his A MacManus (CPGB) supported the Committees) said that he wanted to do active members to join the Communist comrades in Moscow for showing us speech, Friis was again given an ovation, resolution. He said that his party had to more than merely welcome the congress: Party and reciprocally would expect all that not only could communists fight and again the Internationale was sung l. weekly worker 1316 September 24 2020 9 POLEMIC Building models for the future What is the relationship between democracy and socialism? Can bureaucracy and managerialism be overcome under present conditions? Levi Rafael replies to Mike Macnair

ike Macnair, in his response organisation of social labour, challenge this caricatured view of during the first five-year plan in to my article, ‘Bourgeois the first step towards which is ‘Young steel workers’ (1961) Soviet society. 1930-31 are a good case in point. or proletarian democracy’ socialism, rests - and will do so Since the advent of the five-year plan, M by Ivan Bevzenko. There was (Weekly Worker August 13), warns more and more, as time goes on - Self-organisation workers in various enterprises began against the managerial coopting of on the free and conscious discipline ‘socialist’ competition, but Another example of this way of organising themselves into various workers’ organisations, and argues of the working people themselves, thinking can be found in Macnair’s associations - such as work brigades - was this self-organisation or that overcoming managerial and who have thrown off the yoke both ‘Theses on the fall of the USSR’, that engaged in voluntary competition bureaucratic tendencies is essential of the landowners and capitalists ... another form of exploitation? where he states: “Without a labour with other workers. Contemporary for working class political power This new discipline does not market - which implies freedom of consensus generally agrees that these (‘Property and the propertyless’, drop from the skies, nor is it born movement of workers and of capital - initial campaigns were the result of September 3). from pious wishes: it grows out of a working class is not a proletariat in grassroots efforts by the workers On this point, I really have no the material conditions of large- the sense of Marx’s analysis, but an themselves to exceed quotas and to objections, and in fact my entire scale capitalist production, and out urban serf class.”3 increase production. polemic about the differences between of them alone. Without them it is But, even while taking a highly By 1931, workers were using bourgeois and proletarian democracy impossible. And the repository, critical view of Stalin’s regime, do we production conferences to initiate centres on this issue. It is also the or the vehicle, of these material need to accept this idea that workers in ‘counter-planning’ campaigns. reason why I place so much stress on conditions is a definite historical the Soviet Union were merely “urban Counter-planning involved workers the Yugoslavian model of a socialist class, created, organised, united, serfs” who were incapable of political in revising quotas established by republic. Macnair’s emphasis on this trained, educated and hardened by self-organisation? A study by Robert planning authorities, thus developing point is in fact very helpful to my large-scale capitalism. This class is Thurston challenges these assertions into a mass movement of workers point about the need to move beyond the proletariat.1 of Macnair (and of Hillel Ticktin) and making decisions on economic a merely popular democracy to one shows how, even in the harshest days planning. That these mass production that begins the transition from the In the excerpt he quoted from his book of the Stalin regime, workers still felt campaigns and socialist competitions “administration of people” to “the Revolutionary strategy, Mike Macnair Josip Broz Tito: did he usher empowered to criticise managers and were at least partially an expression administration of things”. claims that under the Soviet and other officials, at least at the enterprise and of grassroots workers organising in a system of working class A main point that appears in my kindred regimes there was “neither local level.4 Furthermore, unlike the is evident by Stalin’s eventual polemic with comrade Macnair is institutional means in the regimes self-organisation? restricted mobility of serfs, Soviet crackdown on the “production that the dictatorship of the proletariat through which the ‘non-revisionists’ managers actually struggled with communes”.6 These communes not is not merely a system of democratic could resist revisionism, nor any out-of-control turnover of labour, and only collectively organised to make governance, but that it is also the objective tendency in the regimes managers found that they had a hard decisions on planning and work, but incubator for a new type of labour towards ongoing mass working time attracting workers and keeping also distributed earnings to members in discipline - one based on the class self-organisation, on which them at important industrial jobs.5 an egalitarian manner. Stalin criticised democratic self-discipline of workers’ opponents of revisionism could base Thurston’s study is interesting in this egalitarianism as detrimental associations. This association of the themselves”.2 It is statements like these examining the reality of workers’ to incentivising production and as a dictatorship of the proletariat with that cause me to place Macnair, and organisational culture under the Soviet challenge to managerial authority. the self-discipline of the workers can others who make similar arguments, regime. The situation was certainly a Nevertheless, the Soviet regime be found in Lenin’s works, but also in in the Fukuyama consensus. At the very far cry from an ideal workers’ continued to encourage socialist some of Karl Kautsky’s, in particular very least, it repeats the dogmas of democracy, and participation and competition and the organising of The social revolution. In his article what in the academy is called the criticism were generally workers into cost-accounting brigades, covering the first Subbotniks (voluntary ‘totalitarian school’ of interpretation permitted only on the which participated in counter-planning. teams of workers who completed extra of Soviet and communist local and enterprise These brigades continued throughout hours of work for the civil war effort), history. Even amongst level. Those who the history of the Soviet regime, being Lenin describes how each mode of contemporary bourgeois criticised higher- revived under Khrushchev and were production is characterised by a certain historians, this school of level officials later codified as official institutions type of labour discipline, and in what thought is considered to be faced greater risk (workers’ collectives) in the 1977 direction labour discipline will evolve increasingly inaccurate of repression. constitution. under socialism: and outdated - a relic of Nevertheless, This is not to ignore the very real state-department anti- Soviet workers bureaucratic inequities and autocratic The feudal organisation of social communism, which were not blind managerialism that existed. On labour rested on the discipline of was bent on painting and mute the whole I still endorse Trotsky’s the bludgeon, while the working communist-led automatons, criticisms of Stalinist bureaucracy. people - robbed and tyrannised by regimes as essentially incapable Nevertheless, I think it is a disservice a handful of landowners - were some new form of self- to Soviet workers, and those in similar utterly ignorant and downtrodden. of slavery. One organisation. regimes, to imply that there were no The capitalist organisation of social does not have to The alternatives for internal reform. Many labour rested on the discipline be an apologist production Soviet workers developed various of hunger ... The communist for Stalinism to communes organisations that facilitated mass weekly 10 September 24 2020 1316 worker POLEMIC participation in monitoring production, proletarian dictatorship in favour of an committed to ensuring proletarian it would be this class. This should be managerial usurpation of workers’ amending economic plans, inspecting essentially ‘above-class’ form of state: representation and discipline, and even more reason for the need to draw power. As Macnair says, this is a citizens complaints, etc. True, the suppressing bourgeois influence. a clear line of demarcation between a fundamental political problem. And it bureaucracy ensured that these In the political sphere, the distinction Macnair argues that the bourgeoisie bourgeois and a proletarian form of is precisely because of this fact that a projects never presented much harm of the new constitution from the old is able to rule by virtue of its power democracy. democratic republic - established on a to the existing elite of intelligentsia, is its return from the Soviet system over the creation of wealth. He also The weakest part of Macnair’s purely territorial basis, with no clear bureaucracy and worker-peasant of election according to class and argues that the bourgeoisie does not rule argument is the point about the distinction of class relations and an aristocracy. But even these rudimentary industrial groups to the system of directly, as did the feudal class before relationship of bribery to the state. He indirect connection to the organisation forms of organisation demonstrated the bourgeois democracy based upon it. The bourgeoisie is quite content to accuses me of focusing too much on of labour - is an inadequate form of capacities of the Soviet working class. the so-called “universal, equal delegate both state and managerial the subjective motives of individual democracy for the proletariat to solve The other thing to consider is that and direct” vote of an atomised authority to members of the petty capitalists instead of seeing it as a this task. the vast majority of workers, despite all population. This is a matter, to put bourgeois intelligentsia. He also argues broader system. But this is exactly Earlier, I referenced Trotsky’s of the very real problems, had generally it briefly, of juridically liquidating that the bourgeoisie, because it is an the weakness that I find in Macnair’s passage from chapter 10 of The considered themselves supportive of the dictatorship of the proletariat. ever declining minority, must gain the argument about the bribery of officials. revolution betrayed, where he argues the regime and therefore looked to Where there are no capitalists, support of the petty bourgeois layers - He says that democracy makes it much that the Stalin constitution of 1936 existing Soviet institutions, such as there is also no proletariat - say the both its salaried and propertied variants. harder for the capitalist class to bribe more or less juridically liquidated the trade unions and control commissions, creators of the new constitution - By virtue of its power over wealth, it is officials, because they can be recalled dictatorship of the proletariat. This as a means for popular participation. and consequently the state itself, able to frustrate the functioning of the at any time. But these points only is because it replaced the original But, lest I be considered an from being proletarian, becomes state, or it can fund alternative sites focus on how the capitalist class bribes constitution, based fundamentally apologist, I will say that I am in full national. This argument, with all its of power, should the state act against individual officials, and does not really on workers’ associations and their agreement with Macnair’s point about superficial lure, is either 19 years its interests. Furthermore, Macnair get to the heart of how the capitalist occupations, with a purely territorial the relationship of the intelligentsia to late or many years in advance of its argues that the control that capitalists class can use its wealth to influence system of pseudo-parliaments with little the bureaucracy and Soviet society: time. exercise over the media also expresses democracy. to no connection to the organisation of In expropriating the capitalists, its influence on politics. On all of these I find this argument surprising, workers. The original Soviet system Classes continue to exist after the the proletariat did actually enter points I am in absolute agreement. given Macnair’s otherwise spot-on was replaced by a Bonapartist hybrid, fall of capitalism and until the petty upon its own liquidation as a class. But these arguments should be observations about how capitalist which atomised the population into proprietors are absorbed into the But from liquidation in principle turned back on Macnair’s contention power over wealth means that they individual citizens operating in an proletariat. The “petty proprietors” to actual dissolution in society is that the bourgeoisie must always rely can influence power without direct economic vacuum. This is a feature includes not only peasants and a road more prolonged, the longer on the to retain its power. He control over the state. The problem is of bourgeois rule, which maintains a artisans, but also the owners of the new state is compelled to would be on stronger ground if he said not merely the bribing of individual purely artificial separation between intellectual property, particularly the carry out the rudimentary work of that there have been hardly any points officials, but the influence that the the operations of government and the intelligentsia/professional middle capitalism. The Soviet proletariat in history where the bourgeoisie was capitalist class, in whole and in part, has division of labour: ie, the ‘economic’ classes. The absorption of this still exists as a class deeply distinct willing to tolerate a fully democratised over officials, as well as the electorate. or ‘civic’ sphere of society. This was segment of the petty proprietors from the peasantry, the technical republic. But all of the points he An “extreme” democracy that does pretty explicitly the case with the into the proletariat occurs through intelligentsia and the bureaucracy listed are reasons why a state based not go beyond bourgeois ‘popular’ Stalin constitution, which was created the skills, which they monopolise - and moreover as the sole class on universal suffrage, with authority relations at best makes exercising this precisely to give the illusion that a as a class, becoming devalorised interested right up to the end in concentrated in a unicameral elected influence inconvenient. But it does not classless society had been achieved, through all proletarians acquiring the victory of socialism. The new body, would not prevent bourgeois address the more systematic problem when in fact the old division of labour them (universal education/higher constitution wants to dissolve this rule. The fact that the bourgeoisie of potential bourgeois influence on remained. This constitution was a education; workers’ control leading class in ‘the nation’ politically, long does not need to rule directly means democracy. major victory for the bureaucratic and to workers’ management; rotation of before it is economically dissolved that, given the right circumstances, But there are several other factors managerial intelligentsia. It was this managerial and state posts; abolition in society.8 it could tolerate a highly popularised that Macnair neglected to mention constitution, not the pre-1936 soviets, of all forms of state and commercial government, so long as its power over that make “extreme” or ‘pure’ that the later ‘people’s democracies’ secrecy and confidentiality; etc).7 the creation of wealth was preserved. It democracy problematic for proletarian (with the exception of Yugoslavia Petty bourgeoisie can afford to be relatively indifferent to dictatorship. For one thing, there is the after 1963) and other bureaucratised I am in complete accord with Macnair Comrade Macnair’s arguments about the form of state, so long as it is able to problem of ruling ideology, which does workers’ states used as their model. on this point. The same ideas can be the relationship of the bourgeoisie seem maintain its social position. not require any direct action on the part It is precisely this problem of found in Trotsky’s writings on Soviet to confirm many of the reasons why I While it is true that the bourgeoisie of the bourgeois class, as it is constantly the relationship of managerialism bureaucracy, as well as in the critiques argue that a democratic republic could does not depend on direct rule, and to reproduced even amongst the to workers’ power that I argue is levelled by the Yugoslav communists in fact be coopted in the interests of an extent requires a certain distance proletarian masses. Religion, bourgeois insufficiently addressed by Mike against the Stalinist technocratic capitalist rule. from the state, in concrete reality it does political and cultural ideology, and Macnair, the CPGB and its programme system. I would argue that it is this truth I am actually surprised that Macnair not at all hesitate to take a direct part in above all the continued division of for a “democratic republic” that, while that separates Stalinism from Leninism. did not use a stronger argument against state rule. Thus, under the majority of labour provide fertile ground for the laudable for its level of democracy, Whereas Lenin recognised that classes my statement that democracy is not circumstances it will seek to maintain reproduction of bourgeois relations. does not yet cross the border into the and the class struggle continue under inherently antithetical to bourgeois power through some sort of limited This point about the division of division of labour and the structure of the dictatorship of the proletariat, rule. He is correct in saying that democracy, with strong state checks labour in capitalist society is part social relations. Though certainly the Stalin bureaucratically declared that democracy is the most inconvenient on how powerful this democracy can of the reason that I put so much CPGB has in mind a more authentically socialism had been “achieved” and form of state for bourgeois rule, as the be. But this still does not mean that the emphasis on the need to include the democratic system than Stalin’s, the that classes had been “obliterated” by empowering of the vast majority of bourgeoisie could not maintain its rule occupational franchise in a programme democratic republic that the CPGB Soviet development. people to participate in politics gives within even a radically democratised for a proletarian democracy. In the advocates is in form not much different But it is also because of this far too much leeway to the proletariat. state. In all likelihood, a truly bourgeois final analysis, it is the division of from the 1936 constitution. For this agreement that I have to depart from Macnair would be right to say that one democracy could only come into labour brought about by the existence reason, it requires significant revision Macnair on the question of “extreme” would be extremely hard pressed to find being in the face of a very strong of bourgeois relations, and the in the direction of occupational democracy, which in every case that a truly democratic republic since the proletarian movement threatening to longstanding division between mental franchise, quotas for workers’ I’ve seen it presented really just means French Revolution that operated under seize power. Such a democracy would and manual labour that creates obstacles representation, a workers’ and not a a more radical version of a “people’s bourgeois rule. But his description of probably have to be ruled by some preventing the proletariat from civil militia, state aid for independent democracy”. In his criticism of Stalin’s how the bourgeoisie rules (and I am sort of social democratic party, or else effective democratic participation. It is workers’ organisations, safeguards attempt to gloss over class inequalities in general agreement with most of his some petty bourgeois or pseudo-left this division of labour that a proletarian against petty bourgeois (including in the USSR, Trotsky connected points here) seems like a very strong civil libertarian party, as an attempt to democracy must tackle directly, and managerial) influence, regulation this with the adoption of the 1936 argument for the case that democracy form a political compromise with the that the programme for a merely of bourgeois representation, etc, in ‘Stalin’ constitution, which essentially can be coopted by the bourgeoisie if masses so as to neuter any independent popular democratic republic, however order to constitute a real proletarian abolished the soviets as organs of that democracy is not institutionally workers’ movement (a ‘Pirate Party’ “extreme”, does not adequately dictatorship that will begin at once to government, for example). address. I intend to go into more details address the issue of managerialism. But this is all hypothetical. The on these problems in a future article. I disagree with comrade Macnair point is that the bourgeoisie does not on two further points: the first, that Online Communist Forum necessarily need to maintain direct Managerialism mere democratic association is control over the state, as Macnair Usurpation of workers’ democracy enough to train workers in the spirit correctly points out. Therefore, by managerial authority is the central of socialist discipline; and the second, maintenance of rule-of-law checks on theme of Macnair’s argument against that the factory organisation has only democracy are not absolutely necessary my interpretation of the dictatorship a minor influence on this discipline. for bourgeois rule. They are certainly of the proletariat. But, as with the In reality, socialist discipline must be a the most ideal and convenient methods arguments for ‘unfettered’ democracy, synthesis of the two. Mere democratic of rule for the bourgeoisie. But, should these arguments should be points organisations teach one how to make they be forced to compromise, they are in favour of my argument for a decisions collectively, but they do not capable of adjusting their relationship democracy that does not merely grant show how the division of labour can be to democracy. ‘equal rights’ and universal suffrage. It transcended. The other point where I agree should be an argument for a democracy At the library where I work, the with Macnair is that the bourgeoisie based on workers’ organisations that local neighbourhood association must rely on the petty bourgeoisie for are guaranteed representation and state holds monthly meetings that operate political stability. But democratic- support, and that begins to transform on a democratic basis. Residents of republican radicalism has been economic relations in the direction the neighbourhood are free to join historically associated with this class. It of socialisation and proletarian self- this association and make decisions Sunday September 27, 5pm could be argued that the only real basis discipline. within it. But the association has no A week in politics for a bourgeois democracy exists within Take the example of the real connection to how the library in this class. This too is problematic, as occupational franchise. Macnair has that community is operated, how the Political report and discussion the modern petty bourgeoisie, facing said that this might be a feature of a various shops in the area provide basic from the CPGB’s Provisional Central Committee far graver threats to its stability than in workers’ democracy. He says he is for consumer services, how managerial If you wish to take part in these Zoom meetings, the 19th century, tends towards fascist workers’ management and “councils authority is delegated, etc - in other email Stan Keable at: [email protected] and neo-fascist political movements, of action”, but only “when the need words, with the fundamental labour that doubting the efficacy of even petty for the struggle poses them”. But keeps that neighbourhood running. The Organised by CPGB: www.cpgb.org.uk and bourgeois democracy. But, if there is the need that poses these forms of association may organise a community Labour Party Marxists: www.labourpartymarxists.org.uk a class that could be said to have an workers’ democracy is precisely the garden or a trash clean up, but it is interest in a fully democratic republic, prevention of the bureaucratic and otherwise divorced from any real weekly 11 worker 1316 September 24 2020 What we fight for process of social labour. Furthermore, Hopefully it will be clear now that not any future victories. But to say that we fact that the Yugoslav communists n Without organisation the its merely democratic character makes only do I agree with comrade Macnair must completely solve the problem of probably did more than most other working class is nothing; with no distinction of class amongst its on the need to tackle managerial managerialism is to confuse the higher communist-led states to address the the highest form of organisation members. Although in theory it is open distortions within workers’ democracy, stage of communism with the tasks of issue of bureaucracy under a workers’ it is everything. to all residents, most of the membership but that the thrust of my arguments proletarian dictatorship. The only way state (what the Yugoslavs called is made up of retirees with time on their against his idea of a democratic that managerialism and bureaucracy ‘technocracy’). n There exists no real Communist hands, and the attendees are typically republic as the form for a workers’ will be completely eliminated from Overcoming bureaucracy is a long- Party today. There are many petty bourgeois, or of the better-paid state is precisely on the basis that a social relations will be through term project that can be completed only so-called ‘parties’ on the left. In and educated layers of the proletariat. mere democratic republic is inadequate the development of the productive under fully developed communism. reality they are confessional sects. Socialist discipline is not merely to solve these issues. Any form of forces and the subsequent abolition Until then, practising the maximum Members who disagree with the democratic. It is also a democratic democracy that is divorced from the of the division between mental and level of democracy possible within prescribed ‘line’ are expected to method of collectively organising real relationships between classes, and manual labour that high communism workers’ parties and organisations, gag themselves in public. Either social labour - a step which begins from the real division of labour, will will bring. But managerialism and and later applying this democracy that or face expulsion. to break down the division between inevitably fall into managerialism. The bureaucracy cannot be abolished to administrative functions normally n Communists operate according mental and manual labour. problem of division between a formally under the proletarian dictatorship, let restricted to the private sector, is the to the principles of democratic This is why the “factory” - or more democratic organisation of state with alone before such a state is established. best way to mitigate the influence of centralism. Through ongoing debate accurately the workplace or enterprise an undemocratic division of labour will I believe that it was one of managerialism. we seek to achieve unity in action - cannot be dismissed so easily as it is remain unsolved. the greatest weaknesses of the and a common world outlook. As by Macnair. The modern workplace not Taken by itself, an issue such as Bolsheviks that they believed that Political parties long as they support agreed actions, only shows the worker that they cannot occupational franchise would be a this problem could be solved faster The issue of the one-party state is not members should have the right to labour individually, but it connects distraction if it were divorced from than it actually could. I would really part of my contention over the speak openly and form temporary it with modern labour processes the broader programme of proletarian even argue that this naive view differences between bourgeois and or permanent factions. that hold the potential to gradually dictatorship. But this could be said probably contributed to the need for proletarian democracy. Nevertheless, n Communists oppose all impe- liberate humanity from the necessity about all of its features, including unfavourable compromises with the I should try to clarify my stance on rialist wars and occupations but to labour in general. In Lenin’s time, its purely democratic aspect. The bourgeois specialists. Nevertheless, this issue. My defence of the one- constantly strive to bring to the fore the focus was on getting workers’ fundamental aspect of the dictatorship as time went on, it became apparent party system really extends only the fundamental question–ending war organisations to adopt Taylorist of the proletariat must be that it to the Bolsheviks that bureaucracy to historically existing states like is bound up with ending capitalism. methods of management. This was is not merely democracy. It must could not be abolished under the Yugoslavia, and to a more conditional n Communists are internationalists. because, despite the dehumanising and be a democracy that explicitly proletarian dictatorship. All that extent in the USSR, Cuba, China, etc. Everywhere we strive for the closest bourgeois aspects of Taylorism, the recognises class inequalities could be done was to mitigate it and Unlike the other measures of unity and agreement of working class system of scientific management also between proletarian and bourgeois, lay the foundations for its eventual proletarian dictatorship, I do not and progressive parties of all countries. held out the possibility of simplifying proletarian and intelligentsia, and abolition. Even in a highly developed believe that a one-party system is a We oppose every manifestation the administration of the labour process proletarian and petty proprietor. It capitalist country like the UK or the universal necessity for a workers’ of national sectionalism. It is an and reducing the necessary hours must be a democracy committed to US, some level of managerialism and state. I even think it highly unlikely internationalist duty to uphold the needed to work. This dual process - the progressive breakdown of the bureaucracy will be necessary. in a future workers’ state. One-party principle, ‘One state, one party’. simplification of administration and division between mental and manual This is one of the reasons that I states - whether communist, non- reduction of working time - constituted labour, and therefore the incubator defend the Yugoslav model, despite the communist or even anti-communist n The working class must be the value of incorporating Taylorism of socialist labour discipline. It is existence of bureaucratic distortions. - tend to arise in nations with semi- organised globally. Without a global into workers’ democracy. for this reason that measures like Post-war Trotskyist groups tore or pre-capitalist economies, enforced Communist Party, a Communist Scientific management subordinated the occupational franchise and the themselves into pieces, arguing over underdevelopment, and often with International, the struggle against to the workers’ state should aim to bring restrictions on the bourgeois and petty whether or not this or that state (eg, a recent legacy of semi-feudalism capital is weakened and lacks administrative skills within the grasp of bourgeois layers are so fundamental, Cuba) was a ‘healthy’ or a ‘deformed’ or colonialism, where bourgeois- coordination. ever broader numbers of workers, and and not merely “possible” forms of workers’ state. But the reality is that democratic revolutions and ideology n Communists have no interest increase the available time for creative proletarian dictatorship, as Macnair a purely ‘healthy’ workers’ state (as (Enlightenment) either never occurred apart from the working class administrative work. For today’s argues. It is precisely these measures in a state without bureaucratism) is or were severely unstable. In such as a whole. They differ only in purposes, I think that Taylorism has that are best suited for reducing the an impossibility. If it were possible, contexts, as in the volatile context of recognising the importance of been superseded by far more modern managerial distortion of democracy. there would be no need for proletarian rival nationalisms in Yugoslavia, any Marxism as a guide to practice. versions of scientific management: dictatorship as a transitional state government - whether proletarian or That theory is no dogma, but namely the Kaizen system, often Pace of change to socialism. Bureaucracy and bourgeois - was very unlikely to have must be constantly added to and used in manufacturing; and the The final disagreement, though, managerialism find fertile soil on developed into anything but some enriched. Agile system, used in the growing is about the pace of overcoming the cultural underdevelopment of the sort of authoritarian state. n Capitalism in its ceaseless software and knowledge economy. managerialism and bureaucracy. masses created by capitalism, and the This touches on the disagreement search for profit puts the future Unlike Taylorism, these systems of Comrade Macnair says that we must continued division of labour brought over managerialism that I have of humanity at risk. Capitalism is management depend on circles of solve the problem of managerial about by as yet underdeveloped with Macnair. Like managerialism, synonymous with war, pollution, workers who make collective decisions distortion now. I understand the thrust productive forces. authoritarian state practices cannot exploitation and crisis. As a global on their work processes. To be sure, of his argument to be that we must Macnair acknowledges that classes be overcome through proletarian system capitalism can only be these systems are tools of bourgeois fight bureaucratic and undemocratic and the class struggle continue under willpower alone. They can only superseded globally. exploitation, but, like the Taylor practices that exist in party, labour the proletarian dictatorship, and that be overcome in regards to the system, these management methods union and other types of workers’ the petty bourgeois layers of the development of the productive n The capitalist class will never can and should be incorporated into a organisations. I do not disagree that intelligentsia and small proprietors forces. Productive forces here mean willingly allow their wealth and workers’ democracy with the goal of this is a pressing issue, and that failure cannot be abolished in one stroke. A not simply the level of technological power to be taken away by a harnessing them for socialism. to address it in the present will prevent socialist state will inevitably inherit advancement, but also the cultural and parliamentary vote. the cultural and economic legacy material wellbeing of the labour force n We will use the most militant of capitalism, and will even have to - primarily the proletariat. When these methods objective circumstances use these remnants to some extent factors are underdeveloped due to the allow to achieve a federal republic Fighting fund until bourgeois norms of distribution legacy of an agricultural economy, of England, Scotland and Wales, can be overcome. Until socialism semi-feudalism, monarchy, colonial a united, federal Ireland and a becomes a global system, it will be or imperialist oppression, etc. social United States of Europe. impossible to operate otherwise. contradictions are aggravated. n Communists favour industrial Let’s think about it In the transition period, the focus But this should not be interpreted unions. Bureaucracy and class ith exactly one week to go Well, thanks very much for cannot be on immediately abolishing as an ideal scenario. In countries like compromise must be fought and Wto reach our £2,000 fighting your concern, comrade, but bureaucracy, but on mitigating it the United States, with a long history the trade unions transformed into fund target for September, our we did know that - in his first by drawing the working people of advanced capitalist development, schools for communism. running total stands at £1,374. In letter (August 13) he described directly into participation in state and as well as an established, yet n Communists are champions of other words, we still need £626 in himself as a “paleoconservative administrative functions. beleaguered, democratic political the oppressed. Women’s oppression, seven days. libertarian”. He thinks that we on This, of course, excludes the culture, a proletarian state would combating racism and chauvinism, That compares to the £513 that “the anti-capitalist left” should join possibility of completely solving the and should be far less authoritarian. and the struggle for peace and came our way over the last week forces with members of the “anti- problem of managerialism before The issue of a one-party state is not a ecological sustainability are just - a large chunk of which (£455 no monopoly capitalist libertarian the establishment of a proletarian contention that I have with the CPGB as much working class questions less!) took the form of standing right” like himself, in order to dictatorship. Undoubtedly, we programme, and I do not hold that a as pay, trade union rights and orders - thanks to SK, PM, MM “dismantle the corrupt influence of cannot use this as an excuse to one-party state is a necessary feature demands for high-quality health, and GB for your brilliant regular big government and big banking”. ignore bureaucratism and violations of every proletarian dictatorship l housing and education. payments! Another comrade who Hmm, let’s think about that one, of democracy within workers’ makes a monthly donation is LC, shall we? organisations. But, while radically n Socialism represents victory Notes in the battle for democracy. It is this time via PayPal, but that £50 Joking aside, our letters pages mitigating these tendencies, we must 1. VI Lenin A great beginning: marxists.org/ is just as valuable (well, not quite, give space to those with all sorts have a sense of reality and proportion. archive/lenin/works/1919/jun/19.htm. the rule of the working class. as we do have to pay a small of ideas - including weird ones This is the defect that I find with most 2. M Macnair Revolutionary strategy London Socialism is either democratic or, transaction charge, but let’s not like that. In a strange kind of of the ‘libertarian’ left - they demand 2010. as with Stalin’s Soviet Union, it 3. M Macnair, ‘Theses on the fall of the USSR turns into its opposite. worry about that!). way they can sometimes be quite an impossible level of egalitarianism and the nature of Soviet and Soviet-type regimes’, Finally, comrade IR sent us a educational! that is only possible, on a large scale, London 2004. n Socialism is the first stage cheque (yes, we’re still getting Anyway, back to the job in under fully developed communism. 4. RW Thurston. ‘Reassessing the history of Soviet of the worldwide transition to the odd one of those!) for £8. He hand. Can you help us cross that This also means that, while not workers: opportunities to criticize and participate communism–a system which in decision-making, 1935-1941’ in S White (ed) accompanied that with a letter, in finishing line by this time next refraining from criticising even the New directions in Soviet history Cambridge 1992, knows neither wars, exploitation, which he thanked us for our efforts week? Another £626 is needed, best of communist-led states, we pp160-88. money, classes, states nor nations. and also gave us a word of warning and every little helps.l cannot criticise them for not achieving 5. L Siegelbaum, ‘Production collectives and Communism is general freedom about one of our correspondents - Robbie Rix the impossible. communes and the “imperatives” of Soviet and the real beginning of human industrialization, 1929-1931’ Slavic Review Vol a certain Oliver Healey, who has The Yugoslavian self-management 45, No1, pp65-84. history. had an occasional letter published. system did not create a classless Fill in a standing order form 6. Ibid Comrade IR said he knows for a society, and a combination of 7. M Macnair, ‘Theses on the fall of the USSR The Weekly Worker is licensed by (back page), donate via our November Publications under a Creative fact that Mr Healey is a rightwinger, bureaucratic practices and market and the nature of Soviet and Soviet-type regimes’, Commons Attribution-NonCommercial website, or send cheques, London 2004. so we mustn’t consider letting him influence did allow for a degree of 4.0 International Licence: payable to Weekly Worker 8. L Trotsky The revolution betrayed chapter 10: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ join our ranks. managerial capture of these bodies. marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/ch10. legalcode. ISSN 1351-0150. But it would be wrong to ignore the htm. No 1316 September 24 2020 A Labour Party mark two is to rerun failure Pathetic confusion SPEW’s approach to Labour combines classic sectarianism with run-of-the-mill reformism, writes Peter Manson ou may have missed this gone so far as to officially advocate the steering committee agreed that there headline, which was posted on the standing of candidates against should be a “Tusc appeal to leading Y the website of the Trade Unionist Starmer’s Labour Party. It has certainly trade unionists” - sent out by comrade and Socialist Coalition on September been the most influential component of Nellist, Tusc national chair and leading 4: “Back at work! Tusc to stand in Tusc - whose “steering committee will SPEW member - “inviting them to elections again against pro-austerity only take decisions by consensus”, by consider joining the Tusc national politicians”.1 the way. steering committee”. Tusc was set up in 2010 by the It was the RMT that ensured a change The appeal takes the form of a letter, Socialist Party in England and Wales in policy two years ago, as Tusc itself which reminds us once again that the as the successor to the short-lived readily admitted. In its final posting “founding aim” of Tusc had been “to help Campaign for a New Workers’ Party before the Tusc website shut up shop, it in the process of re-establishing a political (also established by SPEW, back in was reported on November 8 2018: voice for the working class, given, at that 2006), and both organisations were point, the transformation of the Labour open in their aim of establishing a new ... at the November steering Party into Tony Blair’s New Labour and mass party to replace Labour. As we in committee the representatives its role in implementing the austerity ...” the CPGB have consistently pointed of the RMT ... were unable to Comrade Nellist tells the unnamed out, the intention was nothing more than commit the union to authorising “leading trade unionists” that under the creation of a Labour Party mark two. any Tusc candidates to stand in Corbyn “here was an opportunity to This was explained by SPEW next year’s local elections, even on re-establish working class socialist central committee member Clive the selective basis - against Blairite political representation on a mass Heemskerk, writing in The Socialist on opponents of Jeremy Corbyn who basis”. (Who would have thought you February 3 2010: are implementing austerity - that has could do that within the “capitalist operated in the past three years.4 party” into which Blair had transformed The Socialist Party believes that the Labour?) But now, Labour Party has now been totally That signalled the total suspension not transformed into New Labour, which only of Tusc’s contesting elections, with Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership bases itself completely on the brutal but any activity. As I say, that was the of the Labour Party, the situation logic of capitalism. Previously, Dave Nellist: fronting for a worthless project final posting on the website until the has changed once again. The as a ‘capitalist workers’ party’ ..., one I referred to right at the beginning opportunities for achieving working the Labour Party always had the SPEW comrades. Firstly, they had been and centre were targeted. But what did of this article. (Interestingly, just like class political representation within potential to act at least as a check arguing that the Labour Party was now Tusc (and SPEW itself) recommend in Tusc, the website of the Campaign for the Labour framework created by on the capitalists. The consequences a complete diversion and we should the May 2018 local elections in wards a New Workers’ Party was never closed Jeremy’s leadership have receded of radicalising the Labour Party’s concentrate exclusively on alternative where pro-Corbyn Labour candidates down, even though there has been no ... Consequently, the Tusc steering working class base was always a forms of political organisation: ie, were contesting? The truth is, there new posting there for almost a decade, committee has agreed to resume factor the ruling class had to take SPEW itself and those like Tusc, which was no call for a Labour vote anywhere since the CNWP was quietly wound up standing candidates in future into account. it was promoting. Secondly, how could - how was that supposed to aid the in favour of Tusc.5) elections ... with due regard to it explain the fact that Labour’s (now Corbyn wing and the “campaign to Furthermore, just as the decision to particular circumstances.6 However, greatly expanded) mass working class transform Labour”? suspend standing had been driven by membership was enthusiastically the RMT, so it was with the decision It is difficult to find words to describe Now the situation is completely backing a leader who had always RMT to resume. Tusc’s September 4 posting SPEW’s contradictory attitude to different. Without the re- claimed to stand for socialism? The most significant organisation reported that its steering committee the Labour Party. Do the comrades establishment of at least the basis of SPEW never came near to admitting for SPEW, when it comes to taking had met two days earlier and that it really still believe, following the independent working class political its error in consistently claiming decisions on such matters as standing had decided that “the changed situation developments within Labour over the representation, the capitalists will for the best part of two decades that candidates against Labour, has required a changed response”: last five years, that the party should be feel less constrained in imposing Labour was now just a straightforward undoubtedly been the Rail, Maritime totally written off as a site for struggle? their austerity policies. capitalist party like the Conservatives and Transport union. Representatives from the biggest And, even if that was the case, what on or Liberal Democrats. In fact it was The RMT was expelled from Labour component organisation of Tusc, earth is the point of supposed Marxists Tusc’s ultimate aim was stated by as though, thanks to Corbyn, a totally in 2004 after some of its Scottish the RMT transport workers’ attempting to set up a Labour Party comrade Heemskerk to be: “A new new bourgeois workers’ party had been branches donated funds to the Scottish union, reported to the meeting mark two? l mass political vehicle for workers, a new created. In 2018 SPEW deputy general Socialist Party in protest at Blair’s that the union’s national executive workers’ party”.2 In other words, the re- secretary Hannah Sell - now general refusal to renationalise the railways, committee had debated the matter [email protected] establishment of a Labour Party as it was secretary, albeit under Peter Taaffe’s and as a result it decided to support Tusc over the summer. They had agreed prior to Tony Blair, who, following his supervision - wrote that “the support for from the beginning. that “in the new conditions of a Notes election as leader back in 1994, ensured Corbyn has created the potential for a As The Socialist points out, Starmer leadership and the continued 1. tusc.org.uk/17410/04-09-2020/back-at-work- that it was “totally transformed into mass democratic party of the working implementation of austerity cuts by tusc-to-stand-in-elections-again-against-pro- austerity-politicians New Labour” - a party which “bases class” - which meant that there now ... the Tusc national steering many Labour-led authorities, we 2. socialistparty.org.uk/issue/610/8762/03-02-2010/ itself completely on the brutal logic of needed to be “a determined campaign committee has also included at believe it is correct for Tusc to lift its trade-unionist-and-socialist-coalition. capitalism” (my emphasis). to transform Labour into a party capable various points national officers suspension of electoral activity”. 3. socialistparty.org.uk/articles/27313/06-05-2018/ According to SPEW, Labour was of opposing austerity with socialist or national executive committee local-election-results-are-a-major-warning-sign- 3 for-labour. no longer a working class party of any policies, in deeds as well as words”. members of other unions - from Dave Nellist points out that the RMT 4. tusc.org.uk/17408/08-11-2018/tusc-suspends- type, not even a “bourgeois workers’ But, in total contradiction to this, the PCS civil servants union, the had been “the second biggest donor to electoral-activity-national-steering-committee- party”. That, of course, was Lenin’s SPEW continued its policy of opposing National Union of Teachers, the both of Jeremy’s leadership campaigns, statement. phrase to describe Labour, which relies the affiliation of unions to Labour, Fire Brigades Union and the Prison in 2015 and 2016, behind only the 1.4 5. You can still read all about this long-gone grouping at cnwp.org.uk/index.htm. on the sponsorship of the trade union while Tusc continued to stand against Officers Association (September 9). million-member Unite union”. 6. tusc.org.uk/17410/04-09-2020/back-at-work- bureaucracy and therefore limits itself Corbyn’s party - with the difference that But now, following the decision to tusc-to-stand-in-elections-again-against-pro- to at best winning pro-working class now only Labour candidates of the right But the RMT is the only union to have “lift its suspension of electoral activity”, austerity-politicians. reforms under capitalism. 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