A paper of Marxist polemic and Marxist unity

Supplement: Before, n Letters and debate n Pandemic hits third world during and after the 1921 n Spring Communist University March Action in Germany n Inequality keeps growing No 1346 May 6 2021 Towards a mass Communist Party £1/€1.10 Rent-seeking as mass murder weekly 2 May 6 2021 1346 worker LETTERS

PCS they will always call in recently told that 125 branches about that. annual leave, sick pay, etc) for Letters may have been opposition speakers to ensure a had responded, but not which Another practice I did not like above-inflation pay rises is that shortened because of space. Some names balanced debate. However, the option most branches favoured at annual conferences was the fact they have taken major groups of  may have been changed online conference arrangements nor what the comments were. the standing orders committee members out of the supposed PCS require branches to state, in One huge problem of (SOC) seemed to place the NEC’s national fight to secure annual advance, who is to speak on PCS merging with another motions on major issues at the pay bargaining with the treasury. PCS merger? a motion and whether they union will be that it might be top of all the relevant sections, My last activity before I retired The Public and Commercial are supporting or opposing it. affiliated to the Labour Party. so the NEC dominated all the in 2018 was to get the ministry of Services union is claiming that It can be seen that delegates Whilst the Provisional Central major debates. If the industrial, justice GEC to recommend that its forthcoming conference in will probably not know this Committee of the CPGB would political or international situation members reject their version of June will be the most democratic information in advance, so we be ecstatic about that, most changed between the submission selling T&C for a pay rise and across the trade union movement. cannot see if the debate is fair. of our members and activists of motions and the conference this resulted in members voting Branches can register as many This also precludes delegates would not. As I’ve previously itself, this resulted in branches against it by 93% - the highest delegates as they like, but only wishing to speak who want to reported in the Weekly Worker, sending in emergency motions. rejection vote of a pay deal I can one will be allowed to vote and respond to a point made in the I was one of the main delegates Amazingly, so did the NEC. recall in over 35 years of activity. they will use their card vote on debate if they haven’t registered making successful arguments And once again, thanks to the But then I am an independent every motion (the number of this in advance. The president at previous conferences against very obliging SOC, the NEC’s socialist not in a faction. votes each branch will have will will know, and can choose, who motions wanting to affiliate PCS emergency motions were also Given the latest employers’ be the number of members of that to call in (and will know which to the Labour Party and against placed at the top of the relevant ruse of ‘fire and rehire’ being branch). I have no quibble with factions most delegates are in) merging with the Unite union. sections, so would be debated applied to Asda workers, British branches having more delegates and who not to. There is no explanation as first. The NEC speaking first on Gas and now Go North West, than they would normally be Pre-2021 branches could to how we can do this (unless all major debates gives them a whose Unite members are on allowed to have - this means, send in as many motions as they individual members can opt dominating kudos and the crucial strike, it seems that unions in principle, far more members liked. But the online conference out of paying the Labour Party ‘right of reply’ to any branches actively recommending members might attend and observe this arrangements make clear that levy?). However, this still leaves arguing against their position. to sell their T&C for pay rises online conference. I never forgot there are four subject groupings PCS affiliated to Starmer’s New So the NEC gets both the first gives the green light to employers my first conference (in 1981, I and branches can only send one Labour party and, far from (as and last word in the debates and to go for ‘fire and rehire’. That think), so enthralled was I by motion under each category. As the CPGB continually argues) can bring in Mark Serwotka, who affects all workers, whether in the cut and thrust of the debates, the duration of the conference meaning PCS can pull the Labour has huge support from activists a union or not, and whether in a and the politics - I never missed will be the same as at physical Party to the left, that would in (being our general secretary for job or not, so we have to win this a subsequent conference for the conferences, it is not explained reality mean we would be told the last 20 years, having easily fight. next 35 years until I retired. why there is this limitation. by the larger unions to shut up won four elections), as their We are now seeing people In theory, yes, more members It is not needed. My former and stop rocking the gravy train main speaker. Mark rarely loses taking to the streets on a number can attend an online conference branch typically puts in 20 (sorry, boat). a debate at conference and in his of issues. The Weekly Worker watched from their homes, motions to conference and now Although the union we might opening address always sets out often sneers at street protests, than would/could attend down could only send in four. That is merge with has never been the priorities for PCS as he sees but they at least show people are in Brighton, but you still have less democracy, not more - our named, many activists expect it them (they are related to the NEC willing to stand up and be counted to be interested in debate and branch AGM had to discuss, will be Unite. The criticisms Len motions to be debated later, of and that they care about an issue making union policy in the first in one section, which motion McCluskey has made and his course). enough to do so. We have seen an place. Whilst branches had to we were sending in and which support for Jeremy Corbyn are PCS used to have well over impressive level of self-activity hold their AGMs this year via two, in the same category, we close to the beliefs of most PCS 200,000 members. It now has and organising in recent years - Zoom, some saw an increase in weren’t. activists. We have also been told 185,000 - 15,000 short of the 2020 first with Extinction Rebellion, attendees (like ours), whereas My grave suspicion is that the union merger has to make recruitment target and related then Black Lives Matter, then another branch I know saw a this conference will be PCS’s ‘industrial sense’. to the job losses imposed on the over the murder of Sarah Everard fifth of their usual attendees. last. Earlier in the year there I do not have to explain to civil service. It may be that PCS, and now Kill the Bill (against Priti At a physical conference, was a consultation of branches Weekly Worker readers how financially, should merge with Patel’s Police Crime and Court you can look around the hall on the future of the union. all the super-unions created another union, but we will lose Sentencing Bill). The trade union and see how many delegates Branches were consulted on two via mergers have not been, as our unique identity and some of movement has stated the absolute wish to speak and whether they options: improving the way PCS was argued by others at the the progressive policies we have need to recruit young workers, are for or against the motion is structured and organises; and time, powerful, massive unions that many other unions do not. We but on all these hugely supported under debate (we have coloured whether to save money, or to making governments quake. will lose our democratic culture street protests it has been mainly cards to hold up that say ‘For’, merge with another union (which National industrial action by (way ahead of most unions and invisible. Trade unions are not ‘Against’ or ‘Abstain’). In union was unspecified). We were the super-unions has been rare the Labour Party). I have been a seen to be interested in issues and I put that down to them all PCS fanatic all my working life young people clearly are. being affiliated to Labour, which and even in retirement am active We have seen ever larger has become a conveyor belt for in the retired members section. anti-lockdown protests and Online Communist Forum sell-out union full-time officers I’m also on my local trades even football fans coming out becoming sell-out Labour MPs. council and have helped revitalise against the creation of a Super PCS itself has lost two national a Unite the Community branch in League. Something seems to be industrial action ballots in a row Calderdale. in the air - increasing numbers (the votes were overwhelmingly The NEC elections used to be a of people are taking to the streets for action, but the turnout was walkover for the unprincipled pact against the mainstream media and below the Tories’ legal 50% that is the ‘Democracy Alliance’ establishment narrative. Yet the threshold) - to the astonishment between Left Unity and the PCS Weekly Worker will still hector of the general secretary and the Democrats, which was originally us to join Starmer’s Labour national executive committee, intended to keep the ‘moderate’ Party to ‘pull it left’! Hundreds given the efforts put in to win the group out (they collapsed years of thousands of young people do votes. In my view this is because ago), but now operates to keep think they will get more by taking the PCS industrial action strategy out factions like the Independent to the streets than by joining does not have the confidence of Left (dominated by the Alliance largely invisible trade unions or the majority of members, who are for Workers’ Liberty). Well, there the hopelessly divided Labour fed up with the previous ‘one day is a new faction now - the Broad Party. here, one day there’ strikes that Left Network, formed by activists The danger remains that, if saw little media coverage and angered by Mark Serwotka’s the left cannot form a credible petered out without the leadership shocking interference in getting alternative workers’ party, then Sunday May 9, 5pm formally ending them. PCS still assistant general secretary (and a charismatic, far-rightwinger gets only about 10% of members member of the Socialist Party in and a new party could grow A week in politics to vote in NEC elections - pretty England and Wales) Chris Baugh very quickly. There remains Political report and discussion from poor for a left-led union, I think. voted out of office. a widespread distrust of the CPGB’s Provisional Central Committee Although PCS confidently The Broad Left Network (BLN) organised left and anger at their thinks it will have the best ever is very critical of the current constant prioritising of divisive Register in advance for this webinar: attendance at the June online leadership and condemned the identity politics over those of us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ve14N_wIRFGwuQK2jepsRA conference, I’m not so confident. recent recommendation of PCS to class. Sunday May 16, 5pm We’ll see. sell terms and conditions (T&C) of Dave Vincent A week in politics The problem with only service in exchange for an above- Manchester Political report and discussion from allowing one delegate per branch inflation multi-year pay deal. CPGB’s Provisional Central Committee to vote means that the controlling I think they were right, but the Misunderstanding faction can organise the largest members voted overwhelmingly A few thoughts on the weekend’s Previous OCFs can be viewed or heard at these places: branches to vote for the NEC’s to accept this levelling-down Spring Communist University. YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/communistpartyofgreatbritain preferred positions and motions, deal. I suspect that a number of Jack Conrad misunderstood Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/cpgb-pcc which will mean that if the NEC BLN activists, when previously my point about the relationship Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/412z90d6iSHN3bqwxAaP8h wants PCS to merge with another on the department for work and between austerity and Brexit Apple Podcasts: union (or not) the vote can be pensions (DWP) group executive - indeed the ‘Red Wall’ podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/marxist-report/id1494068795 predetermined and mobilised via committee (GEC) of PCS, as Left constituencies voted against the factions. How is that open, Unity members recommended a austerity in 2019, as they had done Organised by CPGB: www.cpgb.org.uk and transparent and democratic, similar deal to DWP members, in 2017, but Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party Marxists: www.labourpartymarxists.org.uk rather than secretive, organised which was also accepted. The and John McDonald’s increasing For further information, email Stan Keable at and a stitch-up? If it is to be the problem with these multi-year capitulation to capitalism in those [email protected] last conference of PCS as a union deals selling terms and conditions two years in their attempts to we can do nothing afterwards of service (such as overtime rates, assure the City of London they BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX l www.weeklyworker.co.uk l [email protected] weekly worker 1346 May 6 2021 3

were no threat to them reversed been exactly 100 years of partition paramilitary bedfellows must no Shi’ism with Iran certainly seems bourgeois state. their conceptions of who to - 100 years of unionist control longer have a veto on progress to be evidenced by his response It is a peculiar form of Marxism blame. of the state and 100 years of on the island of Ireland. End the to my letter, in which he presents that - contrary to Lenin’s views - If hope of blaming capitalism discrimination and sectarianism, veto. End partition. Let Ireland - a dichotomy between supporting prevents its adherents from ‘going was gone among those older and state-endorsed denial of the rights once a province - be a nation once the “Islamic Republic” and “the among all classes of the people’, now demoralised workers, then of the indigenous people to their again. struggles of Iranian workers”. and all social strata, to elevate the racist message from Nigel culture, language and traditions. Fra Hughes This appears to be a diversion their political consciousness. Farage and Boris Johnson struck The Irish people and Catholics Belfast tactic. Rather than unpicking his Moreover, Lenin has already home - it was those immigrants, have been second-class citizens own apparent anti-Shi’ism and explained comprehensively blacks and Asians who were in their own country. Anti-Shi’ism? Iranophobia, he cloaks the issue why materialist analyses must ‘taking our jobs, houses and NHS Though many things have Writing in the Weekly Worker in confused notions of dialectical not degenerate into vulgar beds’, etc. The capitulation of changed - from the civil rights (Letters, April 8), in reply to a materialism and internationalism. materialism or ‘purely trade Corbyn and McDonnell to the marches of the 60s demanding previous letter I wrote regarding What results is an astounding union’ economism (which I infer bogus anti-Semitism witch-hunt reform of the state, through professor David Miller (Letters, example of vulgar materialism from Derek’s emphatic use of the was the successful form which the armed campaign for Irish April 1), Derek James explained and imperialist intrigue. phrase “workers’ movement”). that capitulation took. reunification and British why he would not “correct or But it is even worse than that! The materialist method must be I appreciated Jack’s withdrawal, to the Good Friday retract” a statement that he made In his reply, Derek states: “... in lockstep with the ‘real life’ counterfactual ‘what if’ talk. But agreement, which saw an end in an article published earlier we do not support [professor of society, in which religion I feel some took this approach to armed conflict by some and this year (‘Defend David Miller’, Miller’s] political position and can often play a major role and too far. Dismissing the possibility transition into political power by March 18). In my previous letter, alignment with the Muslim affect people’s social being. To of raised expectations by partial Sinn Féin - some things haven’t I explained (albeit briefly) why organisations [like those attempt to artificially divorce victories leading to a leftward changed. The Irish Language Act, I had taken issue with Derek’s cited above], whether Shia or the “workers’ movement” from surge in the working class was which was part of the new decade reference to “pro-Shia groups”. Sunni”. Derek’s preoccupation everything else would, ironically, wrong. This was creating “the sea ‘new deal’ agreement, has yet to In view of Derek’s reply, some about working with Muslim- be contrary to the principles of for the fish to swim in” in Mao’s see the light of day. As yet there further questions must be posed. led organisations (I do not call dialectical materialism. famous dictum. The new mass is still no official recognition Derek’s reply largely misses them “religiously-oriented Ammar Kazmi membership of Labour was that of the Irish language having the the point. I had not sought to organisations” because that is so Nottingham “sea” and I was one of the first same position in the state as the engage in a debate between vague as to be meaningless) is that “fish” to be hooked out by the English language - a language dialectical materialism and Marxists must “not accommodate Strip her of CBE rise of reaction in Labour. with equal status to be used in idealism (which is a red herring our politics to them or give them The former chief executive of the Also ‘what if’ failed civil society and in interactions that is often used to dispense with, credibility”. This is the sort Post Office, Paula Vennells, has to appreciate - or rather with state institutions, such as the rather than analyse, questions of chauvinism to which I have quit as non-executive director of sought to apologise for - the courts. It is the British who will of religion). Some Anglophone referred above; it is antithetical to high street chains Morrisons and counterrevolutionary role of decide when a border poll can be Marxists have, paradoxically, the aims and methods of Marxist Dunelm. Ms Vennells, who ran Stalinism (David Broder) and called in an effort to gauge the adopted dialectical materialism political education that were the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, the same for its antecedents in appetite for Irish reunification. itself as a ‘religion’ - applying it espoused by Lenin. Indeed, Lenin pursued prosecutions against Kautskyism and Menshevism The withdrawal of Great Britain in a reactionary way, particularly warned against dividing the hundreds of sub-postmasters, (Lars T Lih). Togliatti was not and Northern Ireland from the against Muslims - forgetting that workers with ‘anarchistic phrase- accusing them of theft and false a figure who, ‘on the one hand, European Union has exacerbated it is a scientific tool to understand mongering’ against religion, accounting. did some bad things, but, on the the demise of unionism, as the and interpret the world. There is which he labelled ‘infant-school’ On April 21 the court of appeal other, has some achievement we people here overwhelmingly perhaps no better example of this materialism. quashed the convictions of 39 can point to’, as David Broder voted to stay in the EU, and than the British left’s fascination Does Derek mean that no former sub-postmasters. The implied. Neither was Kerensky. the new Irish Sea border allows with anti-imperialist and anti- Marxist should participate in court said Post Office bosses knew What could he do with all those Northern Ireland to remain in colonial mass movements in Latin events hosted by some of the there were “serious issues” with ‘committees’ (soviets of workers the customs union and places America (to which Catholicism organisations listed above, the Horizon IT system, developed and soldiers) questioning his customs checks between Britain and other faiths are often central). because to do so would be by Fujitsu, yet they continued to every command? What would and Northern Ireland at Northern Most western Marxists prefer a political concession? Was bring criminal charges, using data you do in his shoes, but try Ireland ports. To some unionists not to even acknowledge such professor Miller wrong to attend taken from it. to eliminate them, as Lars T and many loyalists this dilutes the contradictions; there are very few events hosted by Muslim-led Ms Vennells was given a Lih suggested? And, although union. It has led to street violence who rush to denounce liberation groups, using his expertise on ‘Commander of the British it wasn’t mentioned, Trotsky and more recently illegal parades theology as ‘revisionist’ or ‘non- Islamophobia to highlight the Empire’ award in 2019 for her overruled that in the Red and protests, which contravene dialectical’. Yet, we see precisely racism of the British state? And ‘services’ to the Post Office and Army and made his commands the Covid emergency laws. the opposite situation with respect is it surprising that a leading to charity. She was also until immediately operable. Arlene Foster - the Northern to mass movements in west Asia. expert on Islamophobia would recently an unpaid priest in the But there was no substantial Ireland first minister and leader There is much to be said about be invited to speak on that very diocese of St Albans. The Scottish misunderstanding in the Red of the Democratic Unionist Party that disparity. topic by a variety of Muslim-led Republican Socialist Movement Army that Trotsky was fighting who resigned from both posts last However, let us first examine organisations? Professor Miller calls for Vennells to be stripped for the socialist revolution and week - failed to deliver on the Derek’s singling out of Shia was not sermonising on a pulpit: of her CBE. for them; and the soldier soviets protocol changes demanded by Muslims. In his article, he wrote: he was engaging in political We note that the sub- in Kerensky’s (and Kornilov’s) rank-and-file loyalists and has “our full support for professor debates about the outrageous postmasters accused of offences armies knew they were fighting paid the price. The next leader Miller’s democratic rights does abuses of the British state and suffered imprisonment, shame, for the government of landlords - tipped to be a fundamentalist, not extend to unconditionally its racist, imperialist attacks on humiliation, financial loss and capitalists, not just simply for rightwing conservative, who backing his politics … His Muslims. Derek must surely know and ill-health. We call for full a non-class vlast. believes the earth is 6,000 years alignment with pro-Shia groups this, but he seems to oppose any compensation for those affected. Gerry Downing old; who believes a woman’s and work with religiously- collaboration with Muslim-led And we call for a full public Socialist Fight place is best served as a mother, oriented organisations like organisations, even if the result of inquiry. wife and daughter; and who states the Islamic Human Rights such alliances is the furtherance Alan Stewart 100 years homosexuality can be countered Commission points only to a of political agitation against the SRSM national organiser As a young nationalist, I was by gay conversion therapy - is the sectional and religiously sectarian always told by those in power ideal man to circle the wagons form of politics.” in Stormont and Westminster with the loyalist paramilitaries First, professor Miller is not Fighting fund that, ‘so long as the majority of and draw us all back 100 years to ‘aligned with pro-Shia groups’. the people of Northern Ireland 1921. To be ‘aligned’ with a group does wish to remain part of the United Unionists and loyalists who not mean to have spoken at a Kingdom, that will be the position adhere to the union will never meeting hosted by them. I am not Shortfall of the British government’. vote to accept reunification and ‘aligned’ with the Weekly Worker nfortunately, despite a brilliant could do with making up some Today we are living with the will always threaten violence by virtue of having submitted this Ueffort by some comrades, (or all!) of April’s shortfall in hangover of partition. Ireland was as their response to ending letter! Second, despite using the we fell rather short of our May. And I can report that, as I divided by Britain and two states the colonial link with Britain. plural (“groups”), Derek is only £2,000 fighting fund target for write, we have £236 in the kitty emerged - the Irish free state, With this in mind, to those who able to cite as an example one April. As I reported last week, after five days. comprising 26 counties, and the claim 50%+1 is not enough to solitary group, the IHRC (even we needed over £500 in less Mostly that’s down to those new state of Northern Ireland, ensure a peaceful transition to a though the IHRC is non-sectarian than two days, and we ended up standing orders that arrive in comprising the remaining six. This reunited island I would say this: and identifies as ‘Islamic’ rather with a total of £1,687 - in other our account at the start of every state of affairs came about after there will always be friction and than ‘Shia’). Third, contrary to words, £313 short. month. There were 11 of them the Irish War of Independence violence, when the colonial rump Derek’s assertions, professor Five comrades had rushed - thanks go to AC (£50), CG against Britain’s continued of Britain’s presence in Ireland is Miller has mostly appeared to help. JC made a magnificent (£30), MD (£16), MT (£15), occupation had forced the British forced to accept equality with the with Sunni-led organisations bank transfer of £100, while BK TM (£12), MM (£11), DI, YM to concede partial autonomy for indigenous population. In order like Middle East Monitor, Cage, chipped in with £50. Both LC and AN (£10 each), BG (£7) and a part of Ireland, while creating to defer violence a recalcitrant Mend, EuroPal Forum, the (£50) and MM (£20) clicked on PBS (£5). On top of that there a situation whereby they could unionist base must be convinced Cordoba Foundation, and so on. our PayPal button, while VP’s were PayPal donations from continue to have an input into the it will be better off in a united In other words, there is nothing end-of-the-month standing TDB (£5) and NC (£10). politics of Ireland by influencing Ireland. exceptional or “pro-Shia” about order for £10 took the additional Thanks very much to all those in the north. The Irish If 50%+1 gets a withdrawal professor Miller’s associations amount received last week to comrades, but now we need to Republican Army resisted the from Europe in a national with Shia groups. £230. But, as I say, we were step things up to make sure that, British-imposed partition, who referendum in Britain, it should That being the case, what was over £300 short of that £2K at the very least, we make that imposed it under the threat that also be enough for a democratic the purpose of singling out Shias? target. £2K target in May! l otherwise we would face a brutal, mandate from the people here Was Derek suggesting that Shias And that’s a pity, as our Robbie Rix all-out war, with Britain using for unification - but I believe the are “religiously sectarian”, whilst costs are about to shoot up - all the military strength at its result will be much, much higher. Sunnis are not? Or was he simply don’t forget, by this time next Fill in a standing order form disposal. In reality if you are a democrat trying to use ‘Shia’ as a stand-in month we’ll almost certainly (back page), donate via our The bastardised state of you must accept the will of the for ‘Iran’, hoping that this thinly be printing again! (Watch this website, or send cheques, Northern Ireland came into being people. veiled reference might provoke space for the exact date.) So we payable to Weekly Worker on May 3 1921, so there have now Unionism and its loyalist revulsion? That he was conflating weekly 4 May 6 2021 1346 worker LAW Rent-seeking as mass murder The row over vaccine patent waivers reveals the inhuman logic of intellectual property, argues Paul Demarty s a new wave of Covid-19 why on earth is it acceptable to rips through many countries, enforce such rights further up Anotably India, Argentina and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? What, Brazil, it is disconcerting to look on really, is the injustice in people other from the vantage point of a country than Disney being permitted to create where things are - for now - well Star wars content? (Especially given under control, with over half the that most copyright profits, including population at least partly vaccinated. Star wars, come merely from buying With scientific opinion - and up and milking others’ ideas …) plain common sense - united in the certainty that Britain and the few Contradiction other rich countries which have had There is an important contradiction a successful vaccination programme involved here. As capitalism develops, still cannot protect themselves so and technology revolutionises the long as some of the most populous forces of production, an increasingly countries on earth are effectively important input into the productive giant Petri dishes for the emergence process is information. The physical of new variants of the virus, scrutiny machines themselves, large and must rightly fall on Britain’s failure small, are commoditised. There is to aid the global effort adequately. only so much innovation possible in And, while much of the discussion the sewing machine, but we still need focuses on how many spare vaccine clothes and shoes, and so capitalist shots are ‘donated’, there is a far firms must compete to meet those more serious moral failure on display needs. They do so in part by in the present situation. optimising information - industrial That is the matter of the patents technique, logistical organisation on the various vaccines so far and so on. developed. Many countries in the Yet unlike a physical machine global south have pleaded for the or raw material, which cannot be patents to be waived temporarily; duplicated without having your own but the response - from Britain and machine-tool factory or your own especially the European Union, mine, information is trivially copied. where most of the vaccines were Instructions for the manufacture and developed - has been foot-dragging storage of a vaccine will take up a at best and stonewalling at worst. few kilobytes of data: it is no more It need hardly be stressed that work for an internet-connected every minute’s delay means more Intellectual property rights endanger human wellbeing device to copy such a thing than it is fatalities; so the interference of to receive an SMS message or email. pharmaceutical companies and their with our constitutionally created like the Tory government in this 2020 amounted to $21 million. This As the old techno-utopian slogan ‘friends’ in government amounts to protected-property right of a country, ‘incentivised’ the production is the sort of windfall that rather tests puts it, ‘Information wants to be mass murder. patent.2 of vaccines - not by the promise of one’s opposition to the death penalty. free’. When something ‘wants’ to be It is not only the pharmaceutical future profits, but by guaranteed We previously ‘explained’ all this free, making it unfree is reduced to a firms who have a hand in this sordid The reference to Sputnik presumably payments, even for vaccines that by simply declaring the protagonists’ mere matter of force. It comes down saga. In some ways it began last made more sense in context - even did not in the end make the cut. The evil, but of course we cannot be to the intimidation of those who year, when researchers at Oxford Chris Coons must be aware that that Trump administration ploughed satisfied with that. Bill Gates is the would copy - in the current context, University declared their intention was the Russians: we guess that he $10 billion into the coffers of big pertinent case - what the hell is it to him via the World Trade Organisation to freely release their vaccine has in mind some bromide about pharma. Nobody who truly believed if AstraZeneca gets to manufacture and other institutions of US imperial formula, in the hope that it would America’s triumphs being borne in the power of patent protections the vaccine exclusively or not? supremacy. By means of strenuous be made more widely available and from adversity. There is no Apollo to incentivise production would His own explanation - that making legal artifice, the achievements also feed into further research. Bill without Sputnik. have done so - after all, a successful vaccines is very complicated and you of scientific progress, of cultural Gates decided to talk them out of it, His philosophy, then, makes a vaccine would have no shortage need the expertise of a reliable firm ingenuity, are transformed into a and thus was born the ‘partnership’ certain amount of logical sense: it of buyers. The scientific marvels - is risible, not because the premises source of monopolistic rents. with AstraZeneca. On the face of it is essentially a reformulation of the undertaken by the researchers could are false, exactly, but because it flatly This is, in fact, true of ‘physical’ this was a baffling act, as if Gates ideas of the philosopher, Leo Strauss, only be done so quickly because ignores the fact that the global south commodities too - but it is not so had decided suddenly to pack in his who was a major influence on the some of the ideas involved had long has plenty of manufacturing capacity obvious, since scarcity looms larger smug philanthropy altogether and original neoconservatives, and very been floating around, but somehow for generic medicines already. Like over them, and thus it ‘makes sense’, resolved, like Milton’s Satan, that “to much the same sort of thing we are no pharma corporation had ever the old-fashioned colonialist he is, assuming we consider private do aught good never will be our task, getting from Biden, who ominously found the money to invest in them. he seems to have a stereotype of property to be natural, that people but ever to do ill our sole delight”. sells his major policies as a question This is, in the end, because vaccines subsistence farmers boiling vaccines should have legal recourse to defend In the case of another actor in of ‘competition’ with China. If it is are not where the profit is in ‘normal’ up in their shacks. ‘their stuff’. The fundamental this drama, we find further prima coherent, however, it is still a moral times. This is best illustrated with What is truly at issue is the objection to that ‘common sense’ facie evidence of radical evil. The scandal: the logic is that Indians must another unconscionable crime of the principle of the thing - Coons, on in fact predates Marxism - which media industry - as soon as the pay for America’s national healing pharmaceutical industry that began, that point, is right. Whatever Gates’s is that a product is in fact the Biden administration let it be known with their blood. likewise, with the manipulation of personal holdings in biotech and culmination of a great diversity of that a patent waiver was on the It is also straightforwardly absurd. the patent system. Purdue, a smaller pharma companies, it is irrefutable physical processes, of many acts table - dispatched hordes of furious Patents only make sense in the context pharma outfit in the US, patented a that a large part of his personal of human labour and of nature too. lobbyists to Washington to muddy of private industry; yet the very new kind of slow-release painkiller, wealth came from entering into Yet, outside of petty bourgeois the waters even further. Sure, it case Coons mentions as his model which was marketed as oxycodone. monopolistic deals with computer enterprises, the people who profit would be nice to save a few lives - the space race - had as its actors Thus began the notorious opioid hardware manufacturers and, by the thereby are precisely the people who in India, Brazil and wherever else; rival states, and only incidentally addiction crisis. There are two same token, skilful manipulation do not contribute meaningfully; the but we could not risk the far greater involved private companies as reasons why this scheme made for of the patent-licensing system. people who have happened upon evil of people manufacturing C-3PO manufacturing contractors and so on. such great business: the new patent Likewise, Disney and the other enough wealth to move the rest of action figures without paying the If Apollo 11 is the thing to emulate, gave them a monopoly; and it could media corporations taking an interest us around like chess pieces. We are proper licensing fees, or singing then the sanctity of patents would be marketed as a means of long-term only make money because they have sure Pfizer’s biochemists are well- ‘Happy birthday’ unmolested by be wholly incidental; if top Nasa pain management, which meant a the exclusive rights to recycle and compensated, but not to the tune of Warner Music’s lawyers.1 people had complained to John F regular recurring income. imitate their ‘own’ dreck year in, year $21 million. Lest it be thought that we are Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson that The trouble with vaccines is that, out - much of which is accumulated Thus the classic phrase of overselling this cannibalistic patent litigation was interfering even for the flu, you only need one a through endless mergers and Marx about the revolution: “the reasoning, let us quote Chris with the progress towards the moon year at most. There is also uncertainty acquisitions. expropriation of the expropriators”. Coons, the Democratic senator landing, then we rather suspect about the long-term effectiveness Once we have suspended In other words, rent-seeking is not a from Delaware. According to The that the offending patent would be of the Covid vaccines - hence the patents in this one case, of course, distortion of capitalism, as bourgeois Washington Post, Coons, “a close dispatched to oblivion with a flick of desperation to get as much money out the question is begged: why not economists think, but a good enough ally of Biden, has even invoked the the presidential pen. of them as possible, while the going in others? Stopping Covid is image of its essence. Overthrowing January 6 storming of the Capitol is good. For the pharma executives, obviously necessary, and therefore capitalism involves taking back among the reasons to protect patents, Artificial as for the masses of Brazil, India and obstructionism rightly appears as what was stolen from us. There is saying it revealed the need to unite The story of the Covid vaccines, the whole global south, the clock is morally corrupt. But why, then, surely no more repellent example of the country.” The paper quotes meanwhile, illustrates the opposite ticking. It has worked out well for would we not also suspend patents in such theft than the abandonment of Coons as saying: of Coons’s point: far from being a the former so far, as is illustrated by the fight against malaria (which has billions of people to the whims of a ‘natural’ part of the patriotic furniture the case of Pfizer, which pocketed a occupied so much of Gates’s time), deadly virus l All of this is a wake-up call - a way to ensure reward for taking little under $2 billion from Trump. or Aids, which claimed many more for us that we need to have risks on research and development CEO Albert Bourla, the same day lives than necessary in sub-Saharan [email protected] another Sputnik-like moment - the patent windfall demanded by that he announced the success of Africa because of big pharma rent- of reinvestment in American Pfizer, Moderna and so forth is a the trial of his company’s vaccine, seeking in the 1990s and 2000s? Notes 1. theintercept.com/2021/04/27/covid-vaccine- innovation and competitiveness … strenuously artificial attempt to get pocketed $5.6 million from selling But then, if companies doing work copyright-hollywood-lobbyists. A central part of being successful paid twice for the same piece of work. Pfizer stock after the price bounced of life-and-death importance have no 2. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/30/biden- in this competition is continuing Donald Trump’s administration, just on the news, and his total pay for moral right to intellectual property, administration-debates-waiving-vaccine-patents. weekly worker 1346 May 6 2021 5 COVID-19 Nobody is safe till everybody is safe As the horrific situation in India proves, writes Eddie Ford, the pandemic is far from over he good news is that in Britain the number of Covid infections Tand deaths is steadily decreasing - on May 4 there were 1,946 cases and four deaths reported, representing an eight-month low. And 51.9% of the population have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Everything seems to be going in the right direction. Neil Ferguson, previously dubbed “professor lockdown” by the tabloids, said the recent data was “very encouraging” and he was “feeling fairly optimistic” that by the summer we would be back to “something which feels a lot more normal”. But globally it is a very different picture, with nearly 3,242,000 deaths and 155 million cases. If anything, in many parts of the world things are going from bad to worse - especially in India, which has descended into Covid hell. On May 5 deaths in India from Covid rose by a record 3,780 in 24 hours, making it a total of 226,188 fatalities, while daily infections rose by 382,315. This means India accounted for one in four Covid deaths and nearly half of all cases reported worldwide last week. These are staggering statistics, as the virus mercilessly squeezes the world’s second-most populous nation of almost 1.4 billion. The crucial question now about India is whether the infection rate is actually beginning to slow down or not. Erratic testing, poor official record-keeping and governmental incompetence - not to mention generalised corruption - makes it extremely difficult to gauge the significance of the statistics coming And the bodies still keep coming out at the moment. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s government shows the grim reality of India’s campaign in the elections (which he cases and 412,000 deaths, whilst comes to opening the borders - has been widely and deservedly infrastructure. As always, those who lost badly). In the words of an angry Mexico has well over 200,000 there is always the possibility of condemned for not acting sooner could afford to do so rely on private restaurant owner, Narendra Modi deaths. When the pandemic first a vaccine-busting mutation or to suppress the second wave amid hospitals for treatment - while the and the local Bharatiya Janata Party began, Bolsonaro madly described it variant emerging, particularly from a severe shortage of hospital beds, poor struggle to get even a doctor’s leaders are guilty of “abandoning as a “fantasy” created by the media countries like India and Brazil. There oxygen, ventilators, vaccines and appointment. Recent schemes, like Varanasi and its people to their own and his son, Eduardo - wanting to are various newspaper reports about other medicines to treat the disease. health insurance and subsidised fate” - they have “switched off their get in on the act - tweeted about how an aggressive Covid variant tearing Indeed, sounding like his fellow medicines, are making very little phones” at “the time people need the Communist Party of China was through Brazil that spreads “at more idiot, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, difference because hardly anything them”. With leaders like these, who to blame for the worldwide spread of than double the rate of previous Modi declared that Covid had been has been done to increase the actual needs enemies? the virus. Like Modi, the Brazilian circulating strains” and “can also “beaten” after official statistics in number of medical staff or hospitals. president has organised numerous reinfect between 20 and 40 per cent January and February showed that India has less than 10 doctors per League of shame super-spreader events and essentially of people who have already had the number of daily cases had fallen 10,000 people, but in some states it Nepal is facing a deadly Covid wave dismissed - if not mocked - the need Covid before” - thus it can evade to under 20,000 from peaks of around is less than five. India’s healthcare similar to India - districts are already for safety measure, despite getting some immunity (P1 variant).1 What 90,000 in September last year. spending (including both private reporting an alarming spike in the virus himself. Did he still think must not be allowed to happen is Foolishly and recklessly, all places and public) has been around 3.6% cases and shortage of hospital beds it was a “fantasy” then? Similarly, a relaxation of the restrictions too of public gathering were re-opened - of GDP for the past six years - the and oxygen. In the Banke district, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel quickly, risking another wave of including the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu lowest percentage in the so-called doctors at the Bheri hospital said it López Obrador, continued to hold the virus, whether in Britain or festival that attracts millions. In the Brics countries. was turning into a “mini-India”, with super-spreading rallies - being elsewhere. campaign for the state assembly Compounding the misery, by a the coronavirus spreading “out of literally hands-on with crowds and Over the last six weeks, Gordon elections, Modi and government dreadful irony India is one the world’s control”. generally downplaying the threat of Brown has conducted a whirlwind ministers addressed large, unmasked biggest producers of vaccines - yet is So far Nepal has registered coronavirus, with predictable results. campaign to persuade the UK-hosted public gatherings - nor did they facing a severe shortage of supplies. 323,187 cases and 3279 Covid-19 Nor must we ever forget the almost G7 summit to fund a $60 billion two- wear face coverings themselves. Vaccination rates are down from 3.7 deaths, but cases are going up 128,000 who have perished in the UK year vaccine and healthcare support Inevitably, all these ‘super-spreader’ million doses a day about a month at breakneck speed. The peak in due to the criminal incompetence and package for the poorer countries - a events helped unleash a second ago to just 1.7 million a day now. Just October was 5,743 cases in a single bungling of the British government, fraction of the sums spent fighting wave at the beginning of March over 10% of India’s population have day, but the current surge in cases has for all the obvious success it has now Covid-19 domestically in countries much larger than the first - aided had one dose and only about 2% both reached more than 7,000 new cases had with the vaccine rollout. such as the UK, which borrowed and abetted by most not adhering to doses. The chief executive of India’s in a day. Last week, Kathmandu, As we speak, the UK government £300 billion to fight the disease. Covid safety protocols, thanks in part Serum Institute, the world’s biggest the capital, went into a two-week is agonising over which countries Nobody is safe until everybody to confused messages coming from vaccine manufacturer, has warned lockdown - the Nepal Communist will be put on the so-called ‘green is safe. For Brown, what the G7 officialdom. Making things even that shortages will last quite a while. Party health minister confessing list’ from May 17, meaning no need to “spent in billions it would gain in worse, Modi has resisted all calls for It is due to deliver 220 million doses that the country’s healthcare system quarantine on return. Current reports trillions”. If his figures are anywhere another national lockdown - stupidly over the next few months, which “can’t contain the pandemic”. Only suggest the likes of Portugal, Malta, near accurate, then it does seem like citing worries about the impact on would still only cover 8% of the about 7% of the population have Iceland, Finland, Gibraltar, Israel a small price to pay to vanquish the economy. He is clearly living population. Reports indicate that the received their vaccine shots. At and possibly the US could make it Covid-19 - just so long as we in an alternative universe, where a Indian government is in discussions first, Nepal was a beneficiary of onto the list. In turn, the European adequately prepare ourselves for the rampaging pandemic does not itself with Pfizer, which is seeking an Delhi’s “vaccine diplomacy”, with Union is now deciding who it will next pandemic, which is bound to damage the economy. Then again, “expedited approval pathway” for its India donating 100,000 doses to its add to its own green list. As it stands, happen at some point. Donald Trump thought the same - at Covid-19 vaccine. neighbour. But when all vaccine only visitors from Australia, New For too long each state - not least one point calling Covid-19 a “hoax”, Residents in Varanasi, Modi’s exports were halted recently, Nepal Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South in the advanced capitalist countries then insisting it was the “Chinese own constituency, have complained was forced to rely on China for doses Korea and Thailand are allowed - has focused overwhelmingly on virus”. that the prime minister has gone into and as a consequence, the vaccine entry into the EU for non-essential itself. As if national measures can The devastation wrought by “hiding” - for all of his professed programme has slowed down matters. A senior official said the end a pandemic that, by its very Covid has exposed the chronic “special bond” with the river Ganges, considerably. UK could be added to the green list, nature, knows no borders l underfunding and neglect of the the ancient city and the city’s people. Meanwhile, along with the US but it would depend on a reciprocal public healthcare system in India The virus has ravaged the city and the and India, Brazil and Mexico are willingness to open its borders to [email protected] - as elsewhere, of course. The medical infrastructure has collapsed, still right at the top of the league of all EU citizens - what’s good for the horrific images of large crowds but Modi has stayed clear - despite shame and will continue to remain goose is good for the gander. Notes gathered outside hospitals - people making 17 trips to West Bengal there until the pandemic is over. Obviously, extreme caution 1. thesun.co.uk/news/14800658/covid-variant- dying without getting treatment - between February and April to Brazil is getting near 15 million needs to be exercised when it brazil-spreads-twice-fast-uk-on-guard. weekly 6 May 6 2021 1346 worker SUPPLEMENT

Before, during and after March Ben Lewis explores the multiple causes behind what was a badly calculated bid to artificially induce revolution in Weimar Germany Heavens above, what is going n police provocation initiated by (VKPD) was a mass organisation coloured by what might be called on here! Genuine remorse, German social democracy; Derailed train: with deep roots in the working the national question: responding even if enforced, or nothing of n developments within the KPD; sabotage was a widespread class and a wide influence in to the reparations crisis in the kind? Do you really know n the significance of the German society. Its membership Germany caused by the onerous what you have done? The best Communist Workers Party of tactic employed in the is estimated at around 500,000; it terms of the 1919 Versailles action, the noblest and Germany (KAPD); KPD’s March Action produced 40 regular publications. treaty, French troops occupied the highest cause ... a cause that n the role of the executive It is perhaps of little surprise Ruhr, Düsseldorf and Duisburg; god just for once put in your committee of the Communist that the events of March 1921 there were also border disputes hands, you have treated like International (ECCI) in general were centred around the city of with a redrawn Poland and the muck in a pigsty and some of its representatives in Halle in Saxony. Back then, in possibility of military conflict. Germany in particular. Paul Levi: the Weimar Republic, Saxony We also should recall that (Gerhart Hauptmann - This will be followed by a was also part of the Free State the events of March 1921 came cited by Paul Levi in his discussion on the aftermath of branded the March Action of Prussia (which made up the just a year after the Kapp Putsch Our path against putschism) the March Action - a time of “the greatest Bakuninist bulk of Germany’s population of March 1920 - an abortive harsh repression, anti-communist putsch in history” and territory). While Prussia was seizure of power by some very his article, which is based propaganda in the press and dominated by the SDP, Saxony rightwing generals, with whom on a talk I gave to the self-justification on the part of was the ‘beating red heart of the SPD had allied in the name of TOnline Communist Forum in many leading KPD members. German communism’ - the region ‘democracy’ and ‘stability’. It was March, represents a first attempt After taking a look at some of that was characterised by mining, the massive general strike by an to revisit and reinterrogate the the major historical disputes and engineering and a young and armed working class - both social complex chain of events known schools of thought, I will offer very radical working class. In the democratic and communist - that as the ‘March Action’ or - more some - necessarily tentative - provincial elections of 1921, the saw off this attempt to ‘restore accurately - the ‘March struggles’ conclusions. VKPD emerged as the strongest order’. of 1921, which culminated in a Let us start with the backdrop. party by some margin. It received failed attempt to bring about a The KPD had recently merged 197,113 votes, compared to the Role of chance general strike nationally and seize with the left of the Independent SPD’s 70,340 and the USPD’s The March Action has been power by the Communist Party Social Democratic Party 74,754. These figures are quite called “an insurrection without of Germany (KPD). However, of Germany (USPD). The astounding if we recall that in insurrectionaries, a general looking back a hundred years unification in December 4-7 Prussia, and nationally too, the strike without strikers”.1 Both on, things appear more like a 1920 saw communism become exact opposite was the case - the descriptions, as we will soon ‘Whodunnit’. a mass force for the first SPD remained the dominant party see, have some real purchase in Given the convoluted story, I time. At the time of its among the working class. describing what happened, but will begin with some contextual formation (New Year’s The post-World War I it is difficult to do justice to the information and an attempt to Eve, 1918-19), the KPD period in Germany was sheer complexity of events with a reconstruct the most significant was a marginal force, but a time of great unrest. catchy phrase or epithet: chance events. Following this, I will look the United Communist Moreover, the social played an occasionally fateful at four overlapping factors: Party of Germany question was undoubtedly role and there were a number of weekly worker 1346 May 6 2021 7

unintended outcomes on both either an exaggeration, a complete Conducted under the pretext when the (so-called) Spartacus sides of the struggle. misreading of the situation, or of ‘law and order’ and the uprising in Berlin was brutally In March 16 1921, Otto both. prevention of looting, etc, the suppressed, the new leadership Hörsing - an SDP member and What is worse, pressure was police mobilisation was obviously under Heinrich Brandler, August Oberpräsident (governor) in exerted on KPD activists to directed against the KPD in central Thalheimer, Paul Frölich and Saxony - announced that troops ‘prove’ this reading of events. Germany. But what about the others saw the rapidly developing were to occupy the Halle- There were faked kidnappings SPD? Around 70,000 had voted socio-political antagonisms as Merseburg region, which would of worker militants, arms depots for it in the Halle-Merseburg requiring a new approach. become the focus of the March were blown up, trains derailed region and it is interesting to I have already pointed out that events. At the same time (March and then - in order to create the note how they responded. They actions were artificially created 16-17), an extraordinary crisis impression of reprisals - the were clearly not particularly in order to give the impression meeting of the KPD leadership destruction of the workers’ own happy with the actions of the of the heightening of tension was being held, during which strongholds, such as cooperative SPD administration in Prussia, and the necessity of revolution the ‘theory of the offensive’ buildings. The idea was to give but neither were they particularly and an armed uprising. That is was discussed in some detail. the impression of a national happy with the revolutionary left. implicit in some of the arguments The idea here was that the counterrevolution, against which This fact cannot be separated from of the left within the party at this situation in Germany was ripe for the workers of Germany would the internal political differences time. According to Thalheimer, revolutionary developments and rally - in the way they had playing out in the KPD, not least the KPD must “create conflict, that, even though still a minority, responded to the Kapp Putsch in its parliamentary fraction. incite the security police and all the KPD could ‘speed them up’ a year before. While there were Two who played a prominent counterrevolutionary elements. by initiating bold actions, or even solidarity strikes in cities such role here were Clara Zetkin and If we succeed in doing so, there provocations, to set that train as Hamburg and Berlin, only Paul Frölich, as well as the joint will be clashes”, but “these have in motion. However, beyond a some 3,000 were able and willing leader of the party, Paul Levi. never hindered our strength”.2 general expectation that things to take up arms. So there was As we have seen, the KPD had In other words, many things would heat up, there was not much nothing approaching the “final gone from a minority grouplet can be justified in an attempt to by way of concrete proposals as decisive struggle for the victory to a mass party within just under heighten the contradictions: even to how the party might exactly go of the world revolution”. three years, and this was in no provoking paramilitary rightwing onto the offensive. Nonetheless, On March 23, using his small part thanks to the leadership militias. these considerations aside, the constitutional powers, German of Paul Levi, who managed to There were two variants of the KDP leadership was quickly president Friedrich Ebert of the steer the organisation away from ‘theory of the offensive’ adopted made aware of Hörsing’s police SPD declared a state of emergency revolutionary posturing (the by the KPD leadership at this offensive in the Halle-Merseburg in several parts of the country, parliamentary and even trade- time. The first was about posing region and some saw it as an including in Hamburg. The army union boycotts advocated by the question of power directly; the opportunity to put this ‘new was not deployed, however. It was the expelled KPD members who second, more guarded, approach theory’ to the test. thought that such a move would formed the KAPD, for instance) (probably including that of Radek) A meeting of the KPD regional only play into the hands of the towards a serious approach to was: ‘We have to accept that leaders in central Germany was insurrectionaries, as the influence those still under the influence of the situation is so pregnant with called, and there was a bit of of communists over workers social democracy. possibilities that we do need a pushback from some comrades. might increase as a result. True to Levi was also instrumental shift towards our own initiatives’. Was it really possible to use this as form, the SPD was engaged in the in the formulation of the ‘open an occasion to go on the offensive, tricky balancing act of serving the letter’ of January 1921. Based on Other factors to imagine soon achieving state wishes of German capital without the experience of the struggles Another influence was the role power? A compromise was unduly alienating its mass base. of Stuttgart metalworkers in played by the executive committee reached. It was agreed to take The police forced occupying particular, this letter called on of Comintern (ECCI) and the steps to build a movement, to strikers out of the workplaces, the party to organise alongside “Turkestanis” (Levi’s phrase), bring the workers out if they often deploying extreme violence. social democratic and non- referring to Béla Kun and the could - but in such a way that Although defeat was looking communist workers in general other Comintern emissaries, who they would be able to wind things increasingly probable, the KPD in the unions, for union rights, had been sent to Berlin in order down if necessary. leadership did not concede until better working conditions and to ensure that the ‘correct’ line on On March 19, the so-called April 1, when strike action was so on, to strengthen the united Italy was accepted and that fusion ‘protection police’ entered the officially called off. organisation of the working class. was achieved with the KAPD - region. They certainly were not One of the factors behind this This successful tactic fed into something that Levi vehemently, ‘bobbies on the beat’: they were delay by the leadership, of course, and informed Comintern’s united and in my view correctly, opposed. made up by armed units. The was the fact that the party was front policy, adopted at its Third However, throughout this KPD’s daily newspaper, Die Rote riven by factional rivalries and Congress later in the year. whole episode, actions were Fahne, issued a national appeal disputes. A complete cessation However, a number of factors sometimes initiated by the KPD - ie, not just to its readers in and of action was regarded by the eventually led to the sidelining of without the approval of the ECCI. around Halle - which read: majority as playing into the hands Levi, along with Zetkin and others Moreover, one of the emissaries, of the oppositional faction around who supported this approach. Abraham Guralski, was working Workers, do you already own Paul Levi and Clara Zetkin. Neither Zetkin nor Levi was unofficially behind the scenes a weapon? Or do you wish to Their ideas and criticisms will be particularly happy with the line with KAPD organisations and stand aside when the great discussed below. adopted by Comintern towards military units, as well as strike liberation struggle rises, the split in the Italian Socialist committees that circumvented which will lead the German Causes Party to form the Communist the officially supported workers’ proletariat to the side of the Then there was the SPD-led Party of Italy, in what was seen councils. Interestingly, when Russian heroes, to the side of police force in Prussia. There had as an Italian version of USPD. the KPD leadership reported the the revolutionary proletariat of been consistent complaints from Should the communists unite fateful meeting in March, it did the whole world for the final rightwing political opponents, with and win over the centrists, or not let the membership know that decisive struggle for the victory the bourgeois press and leading should they be done with the lot of representatives of the ECCI had of the world revolution ... industrialists, not least the them? As it turned out, the KPD been present. Workers, wake up! And wake powerful magnate, Hugo Stinnes, leadership eventually decided, I am not suggesting, as German those who are sleeping! Get who claimed that the entire region by two votes, that Comintern’s social democracy did, that the hold of weapons! Death looms was becoming ‘ungovernable’. approach - breaking with the lot March Action had been a ‘Moscow if you do not fight! Several high-profile stunts, such of them in Italy - was correct. plot’, but it is worth reminding as raids on factories, searching for Overlapping with this dispute ourselves that developments in There was great pressure on local rifles and ammunition, had been was another over the question Russia were not irrelevant to how leaders to demonstrate how an staged by the police, but without of whether Levi’s leadership, to things unfolded in the west. There attack could be the best form of much in the way of tangible Béla Kun: quote Radek, was “possibilist” and were reservations, for example, defence of the Halle region. Things results. So the police authorities in “quietist”. There were misgivings amongst the Bolsheviks about the initially started well, as the KPD’s Prussia were under great pressure one of Comintern’s about the orientation towards New Economic Policy - a massive call for strike action on March 22 to pull off something they could “Turkestanis” social democracy and the mass of gamble, according to some - and was largely followed. Yet, in spite present as success. workers who still voted SPD. As many thought that it was necessary of the desire to escalate things, the What about the leftist splinter, a result Levi and his co‑thinkers to speed things up internationally, leadership prudently thought that the KAPD? On March 13 it was were defeated and a new ‘left’ particularly in Germany. it would be unwise to go further behind a failed bomb plot on the leadership around the idea of the Guralski, along with Nikolai until after the Easter weekend had Victory Column in Berlin. The ‘theory of the offensive’ emerged. Bukharin, was very much in passed. So what then? police claimed to have traced This leadership’s guiding ethos favour of manoeuvring workers This is where the history starts those responsible to an address was to move away from united into action, but there was certainly to get a bit blurred - there are in central Germany, although this class action to more daring no monolithic approach within many contradictory statements could have been just a convenient initiatives that could ‘expose’ the ECCI on these questions. in the subsequent recollections discovery. But it does not really the backwardness and treachery That said, in hindsight the role of key players. Beyond doubt, matter whether this was true, of social democracy. Given played by Kun and Guralski was on March‑22, KPD leader Hugo because what came next provided how unstable Weimar Germany disastrous and it was clearly a Eberlein arrived in the area in the much needed excuse: the was, they claimed, it was now mistake entrusting them with order to drive things forward. He authorities had caught incumbent upon the KPD to focus leading roles in the German declared that the working class wind of the Communist on its own actions and establish movement. Béla Kun, for instance, movement was seeing not just a International sending its own momentum in order to held a private meeting with Clara provocation by the police in one emissaries to Berlin - stamp its imprint on events. Zetkin, who was politically close particular area, but a decisive move there was a threat of So, whereas Levi’s leadership to Levi and was against the ‘new on behalf of the counterrevolution communist revolution, was characterised by an left’ leadership. Afterwards, she nationally which would involve incited by Moscow! ‘anti-putschist’ approach, informed the party that she would not just the police, but wider That was when the following the disastrous not agree to meet him alone again paramilitary forces. This was tide started to turn. ‘January days’ of 1919 because of his ‘rudeness’ and weekly 8 May 6 2021 1346 worker SUPPLEMENT the unacceptable nature of his offensive by the bourgeois press, leftwing voluntarism and, on the thinkers and historians in West suggestions. which often reprinted some of the other hand, opportunism - all at the Germany, for instance, tended to take Responding to Zetkin’s claims, politically fruitier resolutions we expense of political consistency the view that the inadequacies of the Kun wrote the following to Lenin: have mentioned above, the party and strategic patience. KPD in those days resulted directly “The old woman is suffering from felt it had to defend its honour, The factional struggle against from the line coming from Moscow, senile dementia and is living which produced a tendency to Levi and his supporters perhaps fed to it via Comintern emissaries. proof that Lafargue did the right gloss over, or downplay, the prevented a more serious I hope to have shown that this was thing with his wife.”3 That was mistakes that had been made. discussion. Paul Frölich, who not the case: the situation was far a reference to Paul Lafargue That said, there was a huge fallout wrote a useful biography of Rosa more convoluted than that. There and his wife, Laura Marx (Karl within the communist movement Luxemburg, said it was necessary were differences amongst both the Marx’s daughter): in old age both internationally - not least at to “drive forward the masses” to KPD leadership and Comintern, committed suicide when they felt Comintern’s Third Congress. “provoke escalation”, while in and between these bodies and the they could no longer play any Lenin later wrote to Zinoviev: Bavaria the KPD had to ensure members of the party on the ground. useful role in the struggle. that “conflicts erupt between As for the ‘official communist’ However, although Kun does The final analysis of things government and the far-right German Democratic Republic, it not come across well in these shows that Levi was politically Freikorps” in order to provide an generally followed in the footsteps and other such exchanges, this right in many ways. The thesis opportunity and take advantage of of the likes of Kilian: ie, this was should not cause us to overlook of Thalheimer and Béla Kun is it. no putsch, but a heroic defensive the structural changes or the politically totally false: phrases When I first read Frölich’s struggle that should be celebrated as underlying tensions that produced … playing the radical leftist. memoirs, entitled In the radical part of the working class calendar. the disastrous outcome in March camp, I was very impressed. But Then there is the outstanding 1921. There was a certain amount This is undoubtedly true. But now, looking at what he wrote Trotskyist historian, Pierre Broué. of ‘cloak and dagger’ in the way I would say that the overall on the March Action, I must What is striking about his substantial that both the ECCI and the KPD assessment of the March Action admit I am less than convinced.5 book, The German revolution 1917- operated, and things got quite by Comintern was ambivalent. It actually represents a dishonest 1923, is that it contains a great deal nasty. Some ECCI representatives On the one hand, it was seen justification of his own role and it of detail about the aftermath of in Germany actually welcomed as a step forward - a welcome is far too soft on Béla Kun and too March 1921, but a lot less on the Otto Hörsing’s attack on manifestation of the willingness harsh on Levi. He points out all the events themselves. I think this is protesting workers, viewing it as a of German workers to struggle things Levi did wrong, but fails to partly a matter of insufficient source stimulus for revolutionary action. and their courage in the face of mention what partially justified material, so it is difficult to reliably The final factor to consider enormous state repression. On the his behaviour: a prototype for reconstruct these events in their is the role of the KAPD, whose other hand, it was often seen as a other subsequent explanations of entirety. Sigrid Koch-Baumgarten leftism can be seen in a 1920 problematic interpretation of the these events by KPD writers. - whose book, Der Aufstand der poster against standing or voting ‘theory of the offensive’, rather Similarly, he fails to Avantgarde. Die Märzaktion der in bourgeois elections, since than seeing a problem with that discuss the KAPD - which is KPD 1921, I read as part of the “parliament and its republic theory itself. remarkable, given its centrality preparation for the talk upon which protect the capitalist shark and kill What makes it worse is that to what occurred and the fact this article is based - is far more the working class”. The KAPD’s the original leadership – the one that emissaries from the ECCI nuanced on the events themselves, boycottism even extended to which was in place in February, were sent to try and unite the but I find three key weaknesses in the trade union movement - it not least Levi himself - split away two communist organisations. her account: shunned the official unions to form another group, which He talks instead about “objective n These events are seen as sealing and set up its own alternative: soon joined forces with the USPD conditions”, which he claims the KPD’s total political and the General Workers’ Union. and eventually ended up back in were not favourable. But, as we organisational dependence on Even though the split occurred the SPD. Lenin, who had held have seen, it was precisely the Comintern. after the leftists were expelled Levi in high regard, was of the “objective conditions” that were n We have a rather tired from the KPD in October 1919, view that he had lost his head - so central to the ‘theory of the cold-war narrative about the through the influence of Paul but “He, at least, had something offensive’. “hypercentralisation of Bolshevism”, Levi, the KAPD was nevertheless to lose; one can’t even say that Then there was Otto Kilian, which just cannot apply to “western” accepted by Comintern as one of about the others.”4 who is less well known. He societies. the legitimate representatives of In private correspondence, wrote the preface to the KPD’s n The claim that the young and German communism - something Lenin offered Levi the chance to pamphlet, White terror in central impoverished workforce in central that was later admitted to be a return to the fold in the interests Germany: the truth about the Germany ensured that there was mistake. of building a strong, united March struggles, published in “no material basis for a reformist- But the KAPD was significant Communist Party. But that did not November 1921, which we are oriented politics”. in two respects. First, it was happen and there was a protracted reproducing as an appendix to this A fully-rounded assessment a key organisation in pushing dispute about Levi’s role. In 1921 article. It gives a flavour of how of the source material from these forward militant action, and, he published a pamphlet - in the KPD responded to the political events - including the police records second, it played the role of a many ways very useful - called challenges it faced post-March once held in the former GDR - is constant leftwing pressure group, Our path - against putschism. 1921. Here too there is clear long overdue, and this article has influencing KPD members and the He subjected the ‘theory of the evidence of self-justification. The necessarily produced more questions workers’ movement as a whole. offensive’ to a contemptuous pamphlet itself is a stenographic than it has answered. The KAPD saw the March events and scathing critique, describing report of the Prussian state In my view, March 1921 reveals not as a defensive struggle, but the aborted March uprising as parliament, commissioned in a number of foundational problems as a struggle for power, and this “the greatest Bakuninist putsch October, which the KPD decided with the KPD: influenced those in the KPD who in history”. Levi quoted Marx to reproduce to convey the horror n the lack of a nationally coordinated felt that revolutionary horizons and Engels on revolution and of what Hörsing’s forces had strategy; were coming into view. Crucial uprisings, and the need to win a unleashed. n the view that bold and daring action in this regard was the role played majority to the cause, and even The March Action was nothing could - regardless of the balance of by Max Hoelz - an activist who cheekily appended to it an earlier to do with a communist attempt to political forces - potentially force a initially made a name for himself piece by Karl Radek criticising take power, he writes, or the call revolution; during the Kapp putsch by helping Austrian communists for their for proletarian revolution: it was n the fact that - long before the to organise groups of workers approach to the Vienna uprising Clara Zetkin: all a provocation by the social Stalinist instrumentalisation of the against the counterrevolutionaries. of 1919. He also revisited Rosa democrats. As I have pointed party - there were, as we have seen, His presence in Halle was Luxemburg’s writings on the hardly suffering from out, however, while Hörsing’s worrying steps in that direction, therefore important in convincing Russian Revolution, and that was “senile dementia” move was indeed an obvious with an increasingly militarised, but others that the events amounted when things started to get messy, provocation, it also represented faction-ridden, ‘vanguard’ that felt to a ‘Kapp mark two’. In 1921 as some of her initial concerns a kind of social democratic trap it could act as a substitute for the he was said to be close to the about the unfolding revolution - that the KPD walked into - sadly masses, and in which secret meetings KAPD (although his membership written from prison and without not for the first time, nor the last. and the withholding of information is disputed) and in March he access to reliable source material Kilian highlights the genuine were seen as unproblematic. launched his ‘Workers Fighter - were spun in a way that created barbarity, but this ends up being In the last analysis, it is here Troops’, which organised bank a largely artificial gulf between used as a way of glossing over the that the twists, turns and decline robberies and attacks against (so-called) ‘Luxemburgism’ KPD’s own failings - for example, of what was theoretically and the police. He was arrested for and ‘Leninism’ that continues to his claim that the accusation that organisationally the most important his role in this and sentenced to blight both leftwing and academic communists had attempted to revolutionary organisation in central life imprisonment. In 1928 he thought today. invoke armed struggle was Europe are to be found - not merely escaped, and eventually died in According to the April 2 1921 “groundless”. in the strengths, shortcomings, the Soviet Union in 1933. edition of Die Rote Fahne, “We whims and quirks of that party’s have called off this battle, but Conclusions leading personalities and writings l Looking back the whole situation cries out To conclude, the March Just under 200 were killed during for a new struggle.” In other Action provided a revealing the March Action, with thousands words, ‘Hopefully, next time couple of weeks in German Notes 1. Such as, for example, S Koch Baumgarten Die arrested and imprisoned. Although we’ll do it properly’! This politics and working class Märzaktion der KPD 1921 Cologne 1987, p83. the exact figures are disputed, the is symptomatic, I think, of politics more generally. 2. Cited in ibid p26. KPD is said to have lost around a the fact that the lessons While these events 3. Cf Hermann Weber, Jakov Drabkin, Bernhard quarter of its membership - some of the March Action are far less discussed H. Bayerlein and Gleb Albert (eds) Deutschland, Russland, Komintern Vol. 2: Dokumente (1918- 100,000 left the party. were not taken on board. today, what is 1943) Berlin 2014, p155. The party was subject to a bitter The KPD’s subsequent particularly 4. Cf L Trotsky What next? Vital questions for the witch-hunt and it established die political landscape striking is how German proletariat New York 1932, p103. Rote Hilfe - Red Aid - to provide was shaped by the they were later 5. The section of Frölich’s memoirs concerning the events of March 1921 has recently been reprinted assistance for those who had been constant pulls instrumentalised. in English by Jacobin magazine: jacobinmag. arrested, imprisoned or required between, on Anti- com/2021/03/march-action-tradegy-german- legal help. In the face of the the one hand, communist communism-history. weekly worker 1346 May 6 2021 9 APPENDIX Letting the facts speak for themselves Otto Kilian, preface to ‘White terror in central Germany: the truth about the March battles - stenographic report of the proceedings of the Prussian state parliament’s investigative committee over October 27‑28 1921’ (translator: Ben Lewis) hen, in March, the battles against captured workers. guilty parties. between the green police Human language is unable to The effect that these testimonies W[nickname for paramilitary characterise the vulgarities, brutalities had before the committee, the police formations known as the and atrocities carried out by shock and horror that they caused, ‘security police’] and the revolutionary members of Prussia’s armed forces will certainly also be felt among workers broke out in central Germany, on defenceless captured workers. the public. But they will arouse the bourgeois world was quick to The brutal atrocities perpetrated by the deepest disgust and the wildest denounce them as a ‘communist officers and temporary volunteers indignation among the proletarians putsch’, as a ‘Communist Party of the protection police who had of all parties. The disgraceful picture crime’. An enormous flood of lies and been sent to central Germany by the of the deeds of the bourgeois state’s slander rolled through the German Social Democrats in order to restore police force that has emerged from press in accordance with the orders order (which in reality had not been the proceedings of the committee of and wishes of the capitalists and their disturbed at all) and to enforce enquiry will not only arouse in them government. law and order could not have been the will for revolutionary revenge, not The communists had been put Arrested communists conducted any more viciously even only the highest zeal for the support down by force of arms - some of by the executioners of the ‘Okhrana’ and liberation of the victims, but their leaders had been murdered, as the fairy tale of the ‘action against (Kameradschaft Verlagsgesellschaft, in the prisons of tsarist Russia. And, in also the political realisation and the thousands had been thrown into criminality’ has been. Berlin). Not only was the operation more recent times, such atrocities can will to fight for the overthrow of the prison. The communist press in the Let the facts speak for themselves. against Mansfeld planned from the only be found in the White Terror of bourgeois world and the ‘capitalist’ combat zone had been suppressed in Severing wrote a polemic in Ekkhard outset, but the one against the Leuna [general Miklós] Horthy’s Christian mode of production, which must make order to deprive the persecuted party against the rightwing parties which works too. Moreover, according to the Hungary. Countless ‘murders’ can use of such cruel methods for the of the possibility of defending itself accused him of negligence and green book, police troops were also be proved to have been committed, oppression of the proletariat in order against the great lie of the “communist indulgence towards the ‘communist made available to “nip insurrectionary some of them following the terrible to preserve it. blood guilt”. The gagging of the plans for a putsch’. He wrote that the movements in the bud”. Hörsing’s maltreatment of the victims. Summary Friedrich Engels, when he still revolutionary proletariat and its purpose of the police operation against claim that he had expected the police executions have been conducted. The called himself a ‘communist’,1 once publications during the state of siege central Germany had been to “unleash action to be conducted peacefully shootings of those people ‘while wrote along these lines: was at the same time intended to a premature communist uprising that has thus been officially characterised escaping arrest’ have been shown to give the social democratic parties an was already in preparation in order to as a lie and, however one looks at be vicious, premeditated murders by The more the class struggles opportunity to make political deals. put it down by force of arms and thus the matter, there is only one way of assassins. One worker had a revolver advance in a country and the more Those who unleashed the struggles to be able to banish the communist interpreting the motives behind the “pressed into his hand”, with which he bourgeois society approaches its did so in the most calculated fashion. danger”. The ministerial director, police operation: political provocation. was forced to shoot himself. A second, collapse, the more severely it will In the most ingenious manner, they Abegg - one of Severing’s officials This automatically shows talk of who refused to go along with this, had use the state’s means of power prepared the police siege of the central - testified that “the preparation and the ‘Moscow diktat’, of the ‘German his skull sliced in two. The ‘Düsseldorf against the proletariat in order to German industrial area in advance, execution of the police operation communists’ decision on March 17’, Watch’ made martyrs of the prisoners preserve itself. and then set it in motion. against central Germany was to be a brazen swindle. The fact that in the Leuna silo day and night. The The claim that the Mansfeld exclusively the responsibility of the Hörsing’s police action of March 18 officers took great pleasure in doing The Germany of the bourgeoisie, in the workers would accept being political advisors of the ministry of was already fixed on March 13 so. And the bestiality did not even administration of which former social placed under police supervision the interior”. The commissioner for also shows perfectly clearly and stop at the dead. Although it seems democrats participate - at this time with without further ado, that the green public order, Weismann, reproduced unequivocally the real character of the almost unbelievable, it is a fact, as particular zeal as leaders of the Stinnes police’s invasion would have no a conversation with Severing, in struggles that broke out between the testified by a bourgeois doctor before coalition - proves the correctness of consequences, was a daring swindle. which the latter admitted that he revolutionary workers of Mansfeld the investigating committee, that after this characterisation of the brutal class From the outset, the responsible had “unleashed the uprising with and the police: this was a defensive being shot a member of the protective state. Ever since the foundations of authorities, especially the Prussian political intentions in order to get the struggle of the workers, who felt that police cut open the torso of the worker, capitalist rule have been shaken by government, expected resistance from opportunity to put it down”. The same their freedom, their existence and the Poblenz, in Schraplau and tore out war, collapse and revolution, it has the workers. For it was precisely this witness took part in a conference in gains that they still enjoyed in the his intestines. Hörsing expressed his ruthlessly used the most brutal means resistance that they were interested which Hörsing concluded by saying Ebert Republic were under threat. gratitude for this barbarity. against the revolutionary vanguard in. They had Hörsing [SPD president that “the police action would now Accordingly, as a truly revolutionary Capitalist society, on behalf of of the proletariat in order to suppress of Saxony] occupy the Mansfeld begin with the occupation of the party, the KPD (at the time the VKPD), which these murderers ‘moved’ it: lies and slander, informants, region in order to provoke a struggle endangered districts and factories”. of course had to support this defensive into central Germany with the provocations, warfare, common crime from the revolutionary workers. They Police major Folte, generalissimo struggle of revolutionary proletarians other police officers; the rightwing up to and including murder, and the wanted to create an opportunity to of Severing and Hörsing’s forces, - despite the unfavourable situation - socialists, whose confidants in the incarceration of innocent people crush the communist movement. In complained bitterly to the committee and make it its own. government offices ordered this through a political justice based on thinking up and organising the ‘coal of inquiry that he had not been given On March 19, the Halle- provocation; the social democratic vengeance. If we look back at the affair’ (against Mansfeld) and the any knowledge of the economic and Merseburg district leadership of the parties that supported or approved of history of the German revolution from ‘spring expedition’ (against the Leuna political conditions of the district when party drew the workers’ attention this criminal enterprise against the [Gustav] Noske to Hörsing, we see factory), they proceeded solely from the order was given, and that he had to the imminent dangers and on ‘revolutionary heart of Germany’, that bankrupt German capitalism’s use of the shameful idea of deploying masses also not been sufficiently informed March 24 called for a general strike opposed from the outset the economic these means appearing clearly and of armed men to challenge the fighting about the mood of the population. in central Germany in support of the defensive measures proposed by the systematically. But the truth does break vanguard of the German revolution “The only thing” he had been given Mansfeld workers’ struggle. Because communists in order to bring about the through. In spite of all the suppression and to subject it to a bloodletting. as a document, he said, was a list of their significance, in the appendix withdrawal of the mass deployment and persecution, it has also prevailed This view, which has been expressed with the “names of the communist to this pamphlet we reproduce of the police; the SPD and the USPD against the lies about the March by the Communist Party and its leaders”. From this, it follows these calls, as well as Hörsing’s that organised strike-breaking in Action. May this publication reveal publications ever since March 17 - the unequivocally that the police attack appeals. A glance at the content of favour of Hörsing and of capital - all the truth to the German proletariat as day of the publication of Hörsing’s on the central German proletariat was the communist appeals shows the of them have incurred an immense a whole. first proclamation to the people - has not about dealing with criminality, groundlessness of the accusation guilt. The Prussian state parliament’s The testimonies are reproduced been unequivocally confirmed by the but a politically provocative attack that the communists invoked investigative commission, which according to shorthand notes taken political evidence gathered by the aimed at destroying the revolutionary armed struggle. This did not even was supposed to produce a great during the negotiations. Unfortunately, Prussian state parliament’s committee vanguard of the proletariat and thus happen in Eisleben, where bloody indictment of the communists and some gaps in the transcript were of inquiry. the proletarian revolution. battles nevertheless spontaneously their crime, has become a tribunal at caused by the fact that the witnesses The fairy tale first used by Hörsing broke out among the mass of the which the opponents and saboteurs sometimes spoke most unclearly and to deceive the entire working class Provocation workers, who were outraged by the of the proletarian struggle have been their voices were drowned out by the - namely that the police action was It was prepared long in advance - provocation [Eisleben was the centre found guilty. noise of the parliamentary hustle and directed against thieves and property not by the communists, but by their of Max Hoelz’s political operations]. The hearings caused a tremendous bustle. As a result, it was sometimes seizures - had already been destroyed opponents. As early as February 12 By showing the talk of the stir. Eye and ear witnesses, men and only possible to summarise what was by [SPD Prussian minister of the and 23, at the request of the big ‘communist Easter putsch’ to be a women, spoke and recalled their said. But this does not apply to the interior Carl] Severing’s confession industrialists, the government organs brazen hoax, much of the mountain experiences. As far as possible, most important statements that were in the article he wrote for Ekkerhard. addressed the action. On March 13 of lies and slander piled up against the communist representatives on made. The reader will certainly be The proceedings of the committee, in it was discussed in detail and agreed the communist movement has the committee had deliberately able to find these important passages particular the questioning of the two upon in Magdeburg, with the simultaneously been cleared out of overlooked all witnesses with without any difficulty. In order to save Social Democratic government men agreement even of representatives the way. The counterrevolutionary communist views and only suggested space, deletions have only been made and the political and police officials of the USPD [Independent Social newspapers’ lies about an organised bourgeois or social democratic in passages that were of secondary of Berlin, Magdeburg and Merseburg, Democratic Party]. and armed ‘Red Army’ in central witnesses to present evidence. The importance or that contained put the matter to rest. The picture On March 11, in line with the Germany has been characterised more powerful and forceful their superfluous repetitions l that presents itself to the objective decision of the conference held the by the testimony of imperial testimonies, the less likely they were observer at the close of the political day before, the supreme president of disarmament commissar, Peters, as to be objected to as untrustworthy Notes evidence that has in the meantime Saxony, Hörsing, demanded that the what it really was: the machinations or partisan. Even the government 1. I can only assume that this is a response to some polemical attacks from social democracy along been collected makes it clear that there Prussian government “occupy the of informers. And the question of representative was convinced of this the lines of ‘Engels was a social democrat’ and/or can no longer be any doubt about industrial area of the administrative which side committed crimes in the at the meeting on October 28, when the claim that ‘In the 1890s Engels wrote that the the plans, intentions, resolutions and district of Merseburg with March battles has been dealt with he declared that the testimonies of time for street battles was over’, etc. If it is such a preparations of the organisers of the Schutzpolizei [state-level ‘protection equally unequivocally by the cross- the witnesses would absolutely and response, then unfortunately it is not a very good one: I am unable to find the quote Kilian cites in police offensive during Easter week. police’]”, as was admitted in the official examination of eye-witnesses to the without further ado oblige the judicial German or English, and he seems to take as good The big lie of the ‘communist putsch’ green book The March unrest of 1921 countless atrocities committed by authorities to initiate investigative coin the notion that at some point Engels stopped has been destroyed just as thoroughly and the Prussian protection police members of the protection police and criminal proceedings against the referring to himself as a communist. weekly 10 May 6 2021 1346 worker REPORT Coups, putsches and revolutions Not only real, but counterfactual history too, can provide valuable political insights. Derek James reports on the Spring Communist University, held over the long bank holiday weekend of April 30-May 3

rganised by the CPGB and to deal with the challenge that the PCd’I had failed to mobilise composition of the Nazi movement Labour Party Marxists, Spring the militant Italian working class Benito Mussolini (centre) any effective response to fascism and its relationship with elements 2021 CU, was designed, movement posed to capitalism and and discussed the impact of of the state and the ruling class. O and his bemeddled in part, to cast a sharp light on the the constitutional order. He argued the Communist International’s In tracing the political, social and momentous January 6 events in that the fascists were not simply an blackshirts during the intervention on the development of economic dynamics that enabled the Washington. Titled ‘Coups, putsches instrument of capital, but constituted the party’s strategy. It was clear that Nazis to grow into a mass movement and revolutions’, its aim was, a middle class reaction which had its March on Rome communists internationally were and a significant electoral force though, designed not just to assess own dynamics. faced with a new phenomenon in following the 1929 great depression, what exactly happened with Donald Basing himself on this movement the form of fascism, and this was comrade Bean showed how the crisis Trump, Capitol Hill, the boogaloos, of the petty bourgeoisie, Mussolini reflected in the shifting assessments had a major impact in radicalising the DC police and the servile GOP was able to act as an interlocutor of the possibilities of both revolution the petty bourgeoisie. He stressed establishment, but to provide a much and a political broker between the and fascist counterrevolution in Italy. that, whilst the Nazis had developed wider picture, so that we can draw movement and the liberal political Furthermore, the formation of “autonomously” and were not operative conclusions when it comes elite, the state and the Catholic the PCd’I was coterminous with simply instruments of capitalist to our own revolutionary practice in church. The March on Rome the emergence of fascism, while rule, key sections of the state and the future. was in no way a ‘revolution’, but the debate within the international the army, along with conservative Speakers came from three rather a piece of theatre - part of a communist movement on the united and reactionary politicians, saw continents, and there were process of political manoeuvres front was at an early stage in 1922. Adolf Hitler and his movement as participants from Britain, the and negotiations between liberal For many comrades this raised the useful allies to be deployed against Netherlands, Ireland, the United politicians and Mussolini, which significant distinction between the the left and the working class. As States and a whole number of other resulted in a coalition government in united front and the popular front, with Mussolini, Hitler’s assumption countries besides. There was, too, a which the fascists were a minority. Donald Trump: and the ways in which communists of power as chancellor was not a wide range of leftwing opinions and Comrade Broder argued that the should work to mobilise the labour ‘revolution’, but rather represented factional alignments in contention. consolidation of a fascist regime Jan 6 was his last throw of movement against fascism and a political manoeuvre, in which From our point of view, all very was drawn out throughout the 1920s the dice win the working class for socialist German capitalism helped the Nazis welcome. We positively seek to and, although it resulted from a top- revolution were also important topics to gain control of the state and launch promote internationalism, frank and down process of integration which in the discussion. The issues of class, a concentrated counterrevolutionary honest debate on the left and, of moulded existing state structures party and leadership, which were so assault on the organisations of the course, the unity that is only possible into a new order, its conservative clearly posed by the development working class. While the traditional on the solid foundations provided economic policies and wage of fascism and the consolidation of bourgeois and petty bourgeois by a principled Marxist minimum- compression made it clear that Mussolini’s regime, were of central parties were eventually all abolished, maximum programme. Mussolini ruled on behalf of capital. importance and would re-emerge the fundamental economic structures David Broder began the series The resulting questions and elsewhere in the revolutions and of capitalism remained untouched. of talks with ‘Mussolini’s march on discussion covered a wide range counterrevolutions of the 20th The relationship between Nazism Rome - glorious myth and sordid of issues, which also came up in century. and big business was a major theme reality’. As he headed the world’s other debates over the weekend. A In the following session Kevin in the subsequent discussion, along first expressly fascist regime, the key theme in this opening session Bean considered whether Hitler’s with the related question of how study of Benito Mussolini’s rise was the nature of the working class November 1923 ‘beer hall putsch’ close Germany was to socialist to power is an important starting movement during the ‘Red Years’ was a ‘dress rehearsal for 1933’. He revolution in this period. Attention point for our understanding of the (1920-21) and the impact that the outlined the history of the ‘national was paid by comrades to the analysis nature of fascism, and raises the development of the Communist socialist’ Nazi Party and its early and strategy that the Communist question of how far we can define Party of Italy (PCd’I) had on the development in the turbulent period Party of Germany (KPD) adopted what happened in October 1922 as a ruling class assessment of revolution and counterrevolution to combat the Nazis. The KPD’S coup. David outlined the main events of the threat of in Germany in the aftermath of so-called ‘third period’ strategy, its leading up to the ‘March on Rome’ revolution in World War I. In particular description of social democrats as and how the fascist movement 1922. he described how the beer ‘social fascists’ and the party’s failure could be described as heading a Comrades hall putsch illustrated to build an effective united front of “preventative counterrevolution” asked why the petty-bourgeois working class organisations to fight weekly worker 1346 May 6 2021 11

Nazism were important topics in the Kornilov. However, others suggested Biden’s presidency and what his colonialism and the cold war. There discussion. that, as war is the continuation of present neo-Keynesianism told was a particular focus on the nature Many comrades were clear that politics by other means, military us about the orientation of the US of imperialism and its historical it was the function of Nazism as a support is political support in its most capitalist class and its relationship origins. counterrevolutionary movement concentrated form. Thus, Bolshevik with the Democrats. Was it Esen Uslu’s outline of and its relationship with capitalism statements that they did not support possible to develop a clear political ‘Turkey 1980 - the nature and the that we should stress. Above all, the provisional government, differentiation between bourgeois significance of the generals’ coup’ there was general agreement that the and acted solely in defence of politicians and the left by working began by giving us a very detailed contemporary insights of Trotsky the soviets against the landlord- within the party and standing on a account of the role of the army in and his description of fascism as the bourgeois reaction represented by Democratic ballot? One response Turkish politics and society in the mobilisation of the petty bourgeoisie Kornilov, should be taken seriously rejected this argument and suggested 20th century. He explained the into a movement - a “battering - not casually dismissed in service that instead the left must make a importance of the army in the nation- ram” - that can smash the labour of unprincipled backing for various savage critique of the Democrats building project following the end of movement in order to maintain reactionary ‘third world’ regimes and go for a clean break. Above all, World War I and the disintegration of the rule of monopoly capital, were and movements. demands for political independence the Ottoman empire, and the ways useful guides, both in analysing Alongside this was the Bolshevik should not be limited to simply in which capitalism was developed the reasons for the defeat of the strategy of arming the working calling for a ‘Labor Party’, but to sustain the power and role of the German workers’ movement in class and splitting the army rank should instead focus on building a army. Given Turkey’s membership 1933, and for understanding the and file away from the officers and revolutionary Marxist party and a of Nato and its pivotal role during function such movements might the high command. This was key programme committed to the real the cold war, the significance of the play again in the future. Given the to the Bolshevik seizure of power, transformation of the US. Turkish army as a political force widespread tendency by many on and today’s left should likewise increased in the post-1945 period, the left to indiscriminately label take the issue of the army seriously Middle East alongside the development of a all authoritarian governments and if it wanted to build a movement to ‘The August 1953 coup against military-industrial complex within rightwing politics as ‘fascist’, this successfully overthrow the capitalist Mohammad Mossadegh - the CIA’s the country. Comrade Uslu also theoretical and historical clarity is state. It was also clear from both first Middle Eastern coup’, a talk stressed the importance of wider vital if we are ever going to move Lars’ account and the responses that given by Yassamine Mather, Turkish economic development, beyond the politics of slogans and the study of revolutionary history is looked at the role of the US and which not only resulted in the growth ahistorical labels. vitally important - not as a simplified Britain in overthrowing the elected of an urban working class and a ‘authorised version’, but rather as prime minister in Iran. Yassamine decline in the rural-based population, Kornilov to Trump a subject for constant research and provided a detailed background but also saw militant protests and The talk by Lars T Lih, on ‘How re-examination following a close, to the history of British and later revolutionary politics emerge in the the August 1917 Kornilov coup accurate reading of the primary American interventions in Iran, 1960s. was defeated’, discussed one of the evidence. focusing both on oil and diplomatic In response to this growing turning points during the Russian Alexander Gallus, from the interests, as well as explaining opposition, the right launched the Revolution. Lars reconsidered the American magazine Cosmonaut, led the close relationship between the ‘Grey Wolves’ campaign of violence widely accepted account of the the discussion on ‘Left responses to ruling Pahlavi dynasty and British against the left and the working class attempted coup by the ex-tsarist the events of January 6’. He began imperialism. The nationalisation movement, which only intensified general, and the way in which it by outlining some of the different of the British-owned oil industry the tensions and polarisation in was defeated, by taking a fresh positions on the left in the United in 1950 raised tensions between society. The September 12 1980 look at the contemporary evidence States on what most saw as an Iran and the British and formed the coup aimed to restore order and and assessments of the attempted attack on democracy, but found it immediate backdrop to the coup. further modernise the Turkish coup. He focused on the key hard to clearly define its character According to official documents economy and society under the aegis concept of power (vlast, in Russian) as an attempted coup. The two released in the last 10 years, the CIA of the army as the embodiment of in the politics of the revolution, poles of the varying responses, he and its British counterpart, MI6, the nation. Turkey was opened up and how conflicts about the class suggested, were provided by Left cooperated in 1953, using local to foreign capital, and state controls nature of ‘the vlast’ played out in Voice and the Communist Party of agents to spread disinformation and over key areas of economic life were different approaches to the army. the USA (CPUSA). There are those build tension within the country. lifted. This was combined with the Lavr Kornilov and the provisional who see the storming of the Capitol Significantly they also attempted to repression of the opposition by the government wanted to restore the as somehow representing working press the shah to dismiss Mossadegh generals, who detained over 100,000 old discipline, and that meant getting class anger against the political and and reverse his policies. political prisoners in an attempt to rid of soldiers’ soviets, long political economic system. Therefore there Whilst the shah dithered, stabilise the regime. debates and demands for the election should be no siding with bourgeois Mossadegh seized the initiative Esen also discussed the of officers. The Bolsheviks wanted liberals in condemning the attack. after hearing rumours of a coup development of the Communist exactly the opposite. Others argue that Hitler had come and mobilised the army to protect Party of Turkey and its record. Lars went on to look at how the to the USA and, that, therefore, we his position in Tehran. Despite He argued that its version of defeat of the coup strengthened the had to support Joe Biden to save appearing to have the upper hand, proletarian internationalism was left in general, and the Bolsheviks democracy from an existential threat. events then moved quickly against not really related to the other in particular. The generally accepted Alexander traced the origins him, following a pattern of US struggles going on in the region: it view on the left - reinforced by the of the attack to Donald Trump’s intervention that would become saw the world and its neighbours accounts of Leon Trotsky and John capture of the Republican Party familiar over the next 50 years. through the prism of the USSR and Reed - was that the Bolsheviks had and his constant questioning of Local gangs, religious leaders and a its state interests. However, given taken the lead in mobilising workers the legitimacy of a Biden election wide range of ‘dirty tricks’ were used the diplomatic support the USSR and soldiers to resist Kornilov and to victory. The protest was disorganised to encourage division, violence and gave to the generals’ regime for its undermine the coup by fraternising and, having wound up his followers, disorder to undermine Mossadegh’s own strategic purposes, the party’s with his troops, and that this success Trump departed the scene and denied government over a four-day period leadership was clearly in a bind had boosted the Bolsheviks after the all responsibility. Comrade Gallus in August 1953. and failed to adequately respond to low point of the July Days, when went on to look at the wider political The CIA also persuaded the crisis: the result was that critics they had been driven underground, implications of January 6 and the policymakers of the necessity for of the leadership who wanted a and proved to be the beginning of first months of the Biden presidency intervention by stressing the threat more determined opposition were a sustained surge in support that for the development of the left in the to western interests posed by the expelled. culminated in the October revolution. US. The immediate task for the left, ‘official communist’ Tudeh party. These issues were taken up Lars was unsure that the he said, should be to focus on raising Troops from a rural background in the discussion, along with the Bolsheviks, as such, played the working class awareness and class- and loyal to the shah entered question of how far the coup could leading role, although he agreed that consciousness by calling for the Tehran to ‘restore order’ and the be accurately described as ‘fascist’. the soviets, where the Bolsheviks political independence of the labour Lavr Kornilov: US client, general Fazlollah Zahedi, Comrades pointed to the size and were strong, were the vital agencies movement, rather than remaining defeated because the army was declared prime minister. This militant nature of the working class for mobilising support to counter tied to the Democrats. was followed by executions and movement, and how, despite that, Kornilov. For Lars, the important In the following discussion a was split and the soviets thousands of arrests, which crushed the general’s coup all but destroyed results of the Kornilov affair were the number of comrades from the US revived the opposition and consolidated the the Turkish, as opposed to the strengthening of ‘anti-agreementism’ offered a range of perspectives, shah’s regime. Kurdish, left. Comrade Uslu agreed and the further undermining of both on January 6 and the long-term Comrade Mather stressed that that ‘fascism’ should not be used as support for Aleksandr Kerensky and strategy for the left. There were these events took place in the context a catch-all term and that revolution his government. For the Bolsheviks, differing assessments of the coup of the cold war and long-standing was impossible without splitting the the soviets had come back to life attempt, but most comrades argued diplomatic rivalries between army. and proved that they constituted a that it was part of a strategy to create imperialist powers, and later the The discussion also considered real and effective vlast that could chaos in an attempt to change the Soviet Union, for control of Iran. recent developments following now govern Russia and carry out the outcome of the presidential election. She argued that the overthrow of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s demands of the working class and Given Donald Trump’s position Mossadegh’s regime helped shape defeat of an attempted coup by peasants. as head of state and commander- Iranian politics in the years that dissident army units. Has the army The discussion that followed in-chief, this was a serious action followed and reinforced an existing finally been tamed? Esen thought his talk turned on both the specific - a self-coup that had some of the hostility to foreign intervention in not. There is, after all, the ongoing and general aspects of Bolshevik characteristics of Louis Napoleon’s Iranian affairs. Above all, the coup war against the Kurds and Turkey’s tactics during the crisis. What were 18th Brumaire, one American against Mossadegh provided a model wider strategic ambitions in the the political implications of the comrade argued. All were agreed for US policy in organising future eastern Mediterranean, north Africa Bolsheviks’ united front strategy that these dramatic events were coups ‘on the cheap’ - without the and in the Turkic-speaking regions to against Kornilov, and how applicable very significant and showed the direct intervention of American the east. The possibilities of conflict is it today? Some comrades made uncertainty and instability at the troops and all the bother of in all these regions and the impact of a distinction between political heart of the world hegemon. openly controlling a country. this instability on the working class and military support and saw the As might be expected, the future In the discussion comrades movement were also raised as being Bolshevik approach as taking the of the Democratic Party was central looked at both the specific important factors in the immediate form of a bloc with Kerensky and to the debate. Some contributions history and politics of Iran, future. the provisional government against looked at the early stages of and the wider issue of neo- Finishing off the sessions on weekly 12 May 6 2021 1346 worker What we fight for military coups, Joel Beinin talked only in Egypt, but throughout the of a constitutional system. The of the politics of the Labour left and n Without organisation the about ‘The Egyptian coup d’état of Middle East. Interestingly, comrade experience of the Brexit referendum the reasons why the ruling class was working class is nothing; with July 3 2013’. Again, this was a very Beinin, a member of the Democratic in Britain came into the discussion, as so vicious in its attacks on Corbyn. the highest form of organisation detailed, informative account, which Socialists in the USA, refused to did the classical Marxist opposition He argued that Corbyn’s leadership it is everything. gave a clear picture of the role of the advocate a party. It is, apparently, a to referendums as instruments to was both the perfect opportunity army in Egyptian society from the failed model … Egyptian workers frame political debate, weaken party for the Labour’s official left to n There exists no real Communist 1950s and the nature of the various will find their own way forward. politics and split the working class demonstrate the ‘correctness’ of Party today. There are many movements and protests in the period True, in part … but sooner or later along artificial lines. its strategy to achieve socialism so-called ‘parties’ on the left. In before the 2013 coup. Joel detailed Egyptian workers will of necessity The penultimate session was the though parliamentary gradualism reality they are confessional sects. the relationship that the army had form themselves into a party (not this presentation by Daniel Lazare on and a tragic demonstration of the Members who disagree with the to the various elites in Egyptian or that confessional sect). ‘The nature and global significance utopian nature of left reformism. prescribed ‘line’ are expected to society, as well as their relationship of January 6’. Daniel’s wide-ranging Jack indulged in a counter-factual gag themselves in public. Either with the US. He outlined the protests Napoleon to Trump opening looked at the changes in thought experiment, imagining an that or face expulsion. against the Mubarak regime in 2011, Mike Macnair’s discussion of the international situation and the alternative reality in which Labour n Communists operate according explaining that the various strands, ‘Louis Bonaparte’s 1851 self-coup: increasing instability, both within had resoundingly won the December to the principles of democratic such as the movement amongst the the army, universal suffrage and and between states, following 2019 general election. What would centralism. Through ongoing debate youth, the protests against police referenda’ took us back to one of the the 2008 financial crash and the the reaction of the ruling class be we seek to achieve unity in action repression and the demands from seminal works of Marxism, which period of ‘endless wars’. It was to such an extraordinary event? and a common world outlook. As the intelligentsia for democracy, still has a great deal to say to us about in this context of political crisis Comrade Conrad posited a number long as they support agreed actions, had little regular contact with the how we can understand coups and and uncertainty, comrade Lazare of constitutional options that were members should have the right to working class - which developed the role of the state during a political argued, that the ruling class was open to the bourgeoisie - such as speak openly and form temporary a rapidly increasing willingness crisis and a revolutionary period. faced with growing discontent and the queen appointing an alternative or permanent factions. to protest and strike over its own, Mike began with an account of events constitutional malfunctioning. Thus prime minister from the Labour n Communists oppose all impe- largely economic, demands during in France following the February the emergence of populist reaction. right, who could command a rialist wars and occupations but this period. 1848 revolution and the suppression He drew attention to the particular majority in the Commons. This was constantly strive to bring to the fore The events of January 25, which of the French workers’ movement difficulties experienced by the US, a perfectly constitutional process, the fundamental question–ending war overthrew president Hosni Mubarak, during ‘June Days’. He explained the Britain and France. although for a long time it had not is bound up with ending capitalism. were, comrade Beinin argued, “half dynamics of the revolutionary period Daniel rested his case on a close been needed. Other options were n Communists are internationalists. revolution, half coup”, with the army and showed how, in the aftermath of analysis of the situation in the US also available, Jack continued, Everywhere we strive for the closest ‘joining’ the uprising and assuming this repression, the ‘alliance’ between and the political stasis that results ranging from an organised run on unity and agreement of working class power through the Supreme the working class and the republican from what he described as a pre- the pound and a ‘strategy of tension’ and progressive parties of all countries. Council of the Armed Forces - middle class was shattered. modern constitution, which binds a to sap the will of a Corbyn-led We oppose every manifestation which remained in control until the One of the results of the 21st century society to the dictates of government, through to more direct of national sectionalism. It is an inauguration of Mohamed Morsi revolution was a new constitution, the 18th century ‘founding fathers’. methods using the organs of the internationalist duty to uphold the as president in June 2012. Morsi which granted manhood suffrage Focusing on the events of January 6, state, such as the army, intelligence principle, ‘One state, one party’. was the candidate of the Muslim and a government headed by a comrade Lazare argued that Trump services and the police, if push came Brotherhood - the only organised directly elected executive president. aimed to create chaos and use the to shove. The bloody experience n The working class must be group with a national profile and The ‘Party of Order’ in the national resulting confusion to overturn the of Chile on September‑11 1973 organised globally. Without a global coherent structure in a position to assembly had hoped to elect a results of the election, declare a showed what can be done against a Communist Party, a Communist mount any real challenge to army president - general Louis-Eugène state of emergency and so remain timid left-reformist government. International, the struggle against dominance. Conflict between the Cavaignac, the butcher of the June in office. It was a serious attempt at The thought experiment capital is weakened and lacks elected president and the army Days - who could ‘save society from a coup, he believed, and cannot be continued with Jack suggesting coordination. culminated in a popular campaign anarchy’, but it was Louis Napoleon easily dismissed as a comic opera. that the election of a Corbyn n Communists have no interest for his recall, organised covertly by Bonaparte who was elected in a As regular readers of the Weekly government, even with its very apart from the working class the army and military intelligence landslide. In building support and Worker will know, comrade Lazare limited ‘bourgeois socialist’ as a whole. They differ only in and supported by the Saudi and consolidating his power, Bonaparte has defined the political divisions as programme, had already produced recognising the importance of United Arab Emirates regimes. utilised latent nostalgia for the akin to a civil war and he developed a bourgeois fear of a crisis of Marxism as a guide to practice. Tensions mounted, as large-scale glories of the Napoleonic period, this argument during his introduction expectations amongst the working That theory is no dogma, but demonstrations - crucially those in but also presented himself as both to the discussion by reference to the class. Faced with this possibility, must be constantly added to and Cairo’s Tahrir Square - demanded a man of the left and a supporter of growth of white militia groups and the what would have happened? Jack enriched. that Morsi resign in June 2013. The the Catholic church, as the occasion Black Lives Matter protests, and the ended his ‘what if’ counterfactual n Capitalism in its ceaseless army stepped in, using the familiar suited. carrying of the battle by Republicans by suggesting that the official search for profit puts the future arguments about ‘restoring order’, Comrade Macnair discussed to restrict voting rights into even left’s binding commitment to a of humanity at risk. Capitalism is and deposed the president. The coup Bonaparte’s strategy after his more states. There may be a period Labour government as the only synonymous with war, pollution, drew in a range of support from the election and the way in which he was of temporary calm under Biden, he way to implement a step-by-step exploitation and crisis. As a global independent trade unions, feminists, able to manoeuvre and manipulate argued, but he believed the structural programme of ‘socialism’ would system capitalism can only be leftists, liberals and Salafi Islamists. the divisions in the assembly and the causes of this crisis of governance produce a political disaster and superseded globally. Those opposed to the army’s Party of Order, alongside a media cannot be easily wished away. There calamitous defeat for the working overthrow of the elected president campaign to spread fake news. By was every reason to believe that the class. n The capitalist class will never included, of course, the Muslim placing the assembly in the wrong political and economic crisis would How would a Corbyn government willingly allow their wealth and Brotherhood and regional powers because they wanted to restrict male only intensify in the years to come. and the official left have reacted to power to be taken away by a such as Turkey, but not the left. The suffrage, he gained the advantage, During the discussion these the inevitable pushback by Mike parliamentary vote. coup was met with demonstrations which allowed him to move against issues were taken up by a number of Pompeo, the Labour right, the n We will use the most militant by the Brotherhood, which in turn his opponents in December 1851. comrades, who agreed that January Tories, the secret state, the media methods objective circumstances faced severe repression and brutal His ‘18th Brumaire’ entailed 6 was a serious coup attempt and and the capitalist class? As they allow to achieve a federal republic violence by the army. bringing loyal troops into Paris and that this showed the extent of the are not serious about challenging of England, Scotland and Wales, During his discussion of the post- arresting leading members of the divisions within the American ruling the constitution or the nature of a united, federal Ireland and a coup period, comrade Beinin looked assembly. He followed this up with class. However, given that the state state power, they would only lead United States of Europe. at the role of the US and its support for a plebiscite, which gave him a 92% - especially the army and the key our movement into a deadly trap. n Communists favour industrial the Egyptian army. He also discussed vote in favour of extending his term bureaucratic elements - were clearly The historical experience of the unions. Bureaucracy and class the role, social composition and in office - and a further consolidation opposed to Trump, the chances of Bolsheviks shows how we must compromise must be fought and politics of the Muslim Brotherhood. of his power in November 1852, the coup succeeding were limited. seriously prepare for power by the trade unions transformed into Another important issue was the which saw the re-establishment of Some comrades also took issue explaining to the working class the schools for communism. position adopted by the left, both the empire - this time confirmed by a with Daniel’s claims about the pre- nature of the state and how we must n Communists are champions of in Egypt itself and internationally. 96% majority in a referendum. modern nature of the US constitution. undermine its counterrevolutionary the oppressed. Women’s oppression, What should our position be towards Mike concluded by looking at However, at least when it comes to the power by splitting the army and combating racism and chauvinism, a reactionary movement like the the role of plebiscites and manhood future, there was agreement between winning its rank and file to the side and the struggle for peace and Muslim Brotherhood and how suffrage in legitimating the coup, comrade Lazare and ourselves that of the revolution. ecological sustainability are just should we react to the overthrow of together with the significance of Marxists in the US need to fight to As was to be expected, comrade as much working class questions an elected president like Morsi by Marx’s analysis of the character of abolish the presidency, the Senate, Conrad’s talk prompted a wide- as pay, trade union rights and the army? Surely, the left ought to Bonapartism. He argued that Marx’s state rights, the Supreme Court and ranging discussion on the nature of demands for high-quality health, be able to oppose the army and yet writing on this is still taken seriously the standing army. There has to be a revolutionary strategy in Britain and housing and education. not support the Brotherhood. Surely, by many bourgeois historians and new, democratic constitution. the way in which Marxists should the left could defend a revolutionary commentators, but that does not Comrade Lazare wound up by orientate towards Labour. Issues n Socialism represents victory situation and the democratic space mean that we should treat his work arguing that the US faced a profound raised included the perspective in the battle for democracy. It is that had been gained after the fall as an infallible text, to be learnt existential crisis and was increasingly of transforming Labour into a the rule of the working class. of Mubarak, against what was the and repeated ad nauseum as ‘holy dysfunctional. ‘united front of a special kind’, the Socialism is either democratic or, army’s restorationist coup. writ’. Thus, he argued, we should relationship between the cycles and as with Stalin’s Soviet Union, it The political gymnastics read Marx critically as a stimulus Our strategy phases of economic and political turns into its opposite. undertaken by the Socialist Workers to analysis, not simply as a form of The final session was opened by struggle, and the dominant place n Socialism is the first stage Party in Britain and its Egyptian citation grazing or the confirmation Jack Conrad on ‘Why prime that the ‘crisis of expectations’ of the worldwide transition to co‑thinkers in the Revolutionary of ‘orthodoxy’. minister Jeremy Corbyn would occupies in the strategy of the communism - a system which Socialist group showed the These points helped to frame a have faced a coup and how we can contemporary left. knows neither wars, exploitation, ideological and political bankruptcy lively discussion on the nature of defeat counterrevolution’. Jack Jack summarised both the money, classes, states nor nations. of many on the left. It seemed to Marx’s analysis of Bonapartism looked at the emergence of the session and the Spring Communist Communism is general freedom the comrades taking part in the and the state, and how far his Corbyn movement and the series of University as a whole by arguing and the real beginning of human discussion that this would continue ‘predictions’ had been borne out by challenges his leadership faced from that political rearmament and history. to be a recurring pattern in the later developments in France. It also the Labour right and their friends education, such as we are The Weekly Worker is licensed by absence of a working class party provoked a discussion on the role in the armed forces, the secret undertaking, are essential if we are November Publications under a Creative that could generalise and unite the of referenda in bourgeois politics state and the media. This required to arm the working class, win the Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence: various protests around a coherent and what the attitude of Marxists a detailed account of the politics movement to Marxism and build a creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ programme as a force for socialist should be towards them - especially of the last six years, but comrade revolutionary party that alone can legalcode. ISSN 1351-0150. revolution and transformation - not where they are an accepted part Conrad concentrated on the nature see the back of capitalism l No 1346 May 6 2021 Rich keep getting richer Coefficients and inequalities The distribution of income reveals marked differences, but, as shown by Michael Roberts, it is wealth that is the real give-away

A tiny minority owns a huge proportion of the total world’s wealth

have written before about the wealth and financial wealth. A highlighted several years ago.3 in South Africa to similar ‘emerging Institute of Technology.5 A total of fact that, both in advanced and larger section of the population The latest data for Italy, one of economies’, and also historically 737 companies control 80% of it all. Iso-called ‘emerging economies’, has property wealth, although this the top Group of Seven economies, since the end of apartheid. Extreme This is the inequality that matters wealth is significantly more is very unequally distributed. But confirms this increased inequality wealth inequalities in South Africa for the functioning of capitalism - unequally distributed than income.1 financial wealth (stocks and shares, of wealth. In a new study of Italian have got worse, not better, since the concentrated power of capital. Moreover, the pro-capitalist bonds, pension funds, cash, etc) inheritance tax records, researchers the end of the apartheid regime And, because inequality of wealth World Economic Forum (WEF) is the province of a tiny number found that the wealth share of the in 1994. Today, the top 10% own stems from the concentration of the reported in 2018: “This problem of people and so is even more top 1% (half a million individuals) about 85% of total wealth and the means of production and finance has improved little in recent years, unequally distributed. increased from 16% in 1995 to 22% top 0.1% own close to one-third. in the hands of a few, and because with wealth inequality rising in 49 The latest figure in the United in 2016, and the share accruing to South Africa continues to hold the that ownership structure remains economies.”2 States for financial wealth the top 0.01% (the richest 5,000 dubious honour of having the worst untouched,6 any increased taxes on The usual index used for inequality is truly staggering on adults) almost tripled from 1.8% wealth inequality among the major wealth will fall short of irreversibly measuring inequality in an this measure. The richest 1% of to 5%. In contrast, the poorest economies of the world. The South changing the distribution of wealth economy is the Gini index - US households now own 53% of 50% saw an 80% drop in their African top 1% share has fluctuated and income in modern societies l named after the Italian sociologist, all equities and mutual funds held average net wealth over the same between 50% and 55% since 1993, Corrado Gini. A Gini coefficient by American households, while period.4 The data also revealed the while it has remained below 45% in Michael Roberts blogs at of zero expresses perfect equality, the richest 10% own 87%! Half of growing role of inheritance and Russia and the US and below 30% thenextrecession.wordpress.com where all values are the same (for America’s households have little or life-time gifts as a share of national in China, France and the UK. example, where everyone has the no financial assets at all - indeed income, as well as their increasing But, as I have argued before, real Notes same income). A Gini coefficient of they are in debt. And that inequality concentration at the top. The huge wealth concentration is about the 1. thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/07/15/ one (or 100%) expresses maximal has been rising in the last 30 years. wealth of a few individuals is ownership of productive capital, the wealth-or-income. inequality among values (eg, for a And, as the WEF says, after getting larger, because it can be means of production and finance. It 2. www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Forum_ large number of people where only the huge rise in the prices of passed on to relatives with little or is big capital (finance and business) IncGrwth_2018.pdf. 3. T Piketty Capital in the twenty-first century one person has all the income or property and financial assets over no taxation. that controls the investment, Harvard 2014. See also thenextrecession.wordpress. consumption and all others have the last 20 years (fuelled by cheap But the concentration of personal employment and financial decisions com/2014/04/28/reviewing-piketty-again. none, the Gini coefficient will be credit and reduced taxation), this wealth in the advanced capitalist of the world. A dominant core of 4. voxeu.org/article/growing-concentration-wealth- nearly one). concentration of personal wealth economies is nothing compared 147 firms, through interlocking italy. 5. See thenextrecession.files.wordpress. For the US, the current Gini has increased sharply - something to what is happening in the poorer stakes in others, together control com/2013/07/147-control.pdf. index for income is 37.8 (pretty that Thomas Piketty in his book, nations of the world. A new study 40% of the wealth in the global 6. thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/10/18/ high by international levels), but Capital in the twenty-first century, compared the inequality of wealth network, according to the Swiss capital-not-ideology. for wealth distribution the Gini index is 85.9! Or take supposedly Subscribe Name:______Standing order egalitarian Scandinavia. The Gini 6m 1yr Inst. To ______Bank plc ______index for income in Norway is just Address:______UK £30/€35 £60/€70 £200/€220 24.9, but the wealth Gini is 80.5! It Branch address ______Europe £43/€50 £86/€100 £240/€264 ______is the same story in the other Nordic Rest of £65/€75 £130/€150 £480/€528 Post code ______Account name ______countries - they may have lower world ______Sort code ______Account No ______than the global average inequality New UK subscribers offer: of income, but they have higher 3 months for £10 ______Please pay to Weekly Worker, Lloyds A/C No 00744310 sort code 30-99-64, the sum of ______every month*/3 months* than average inequality of wealth. until further notice, commencing on ______This replaces any previous order from this account. (*delete) Another way of measuring UK subscribers: Pay by standing order and Tel:______save £12 a year. Minimum £12 every 3 Date ______inequality is to consider the share Email:______of wealth or income that the top months... but please pay more if you can. Signed ______Name (PRINT) ______10%, or top 1%, etc, have. And we Send a cheque or postal order payable to ‘Weekly Worker’ at: Sub: £/€ ______Address ______can break personal wealth down Weekly Worker, BCM Box 928, ______into two main categories: property London WC1N 3XX Donation: £/€ ______