DOCSLIB.ORG

Fler År För Gräshoppssvärmen

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fler År För Gräshoppssvärmen Jim Higgins Fler år för gräshoppssvärmen – International Socialists inifrån Denna bok tillägnas minnet av Harry Wicks (1905-1989), en revolutionär kommunist och sann arbetarklasshjälte Engelska originalets titel: More Years for the Locust. The Origins of the SWP Skämtteckningar: Phil Evans Översättning: Björn-Erik Rosin Innehåll Om Jim Higgins ......................................................................................................................... 1 Förord......................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduktion................................................................................................................................4 Kapitel 1 ................................................................................................................................... 12 Kapitel 2 ................................................................................................................................... 21 Kapitel 3 ................................................................................................................................... 27 Kapitel 4 ................................................................................................................................... 32 Kapitel 5 ................................................................................................................................... 40 Kapitel 6 ................................................................................................................................... 45 Kapitel 7 ................................................................................................................................... 53 Kapitel 8 ................................................................................................................................... 60 Kapitel 9 ................................................................................................................................... 66 Kapitel 10 ................................................................................................................................. 73 Kapitel 11 ................................................................................................................................. 80 Kapitel 12 ................................................................................................................................. 88 Kapitel 13 ................................................................................................................................. 95 Kapitel 14 ............................................................................................................................... 107 Bilagor.................................................................................................................................... 116 11 Om Jim Higgins Jim Higgins, James Robert Higgins 1930-2002, var en av ledarna för den brittiska vänster- grupp som är mest känd som International Socialists, i dag Socialist Workers Party. Den hade delvis sitt ursprung i den krets kring Max Shachtman i USA som under striderna inom Fjärde internationalen vid inledningen till andra världskriget vände sig mot Leo Trotskijs syn på Sovjet som en arbetarstat i någon mening. Efter andra världskriget skulle det leda till en ny brytning med Fjärde internationalen och ett helt annat sätt att betrakta Sovjet, Kina och de östeuropeiska staterna. Den som främst utarbetade den teorin, som skiljer sig såväl från Shachtmans syn som olika teorier om byråkratisk kollektivism, var Tony Cliff (egentligen Yigael Gluckstein). Cliffs teori gick ut på att Sovjet och Östeuropa var av statskapitalistisk karaktär. Vid sidan av Gerry Healys grupp Socialist Labour League skulle Cliffs grupp bli en av de mer betydande inom brittisk trotskism. Med betydande får man då ta i beaktande att det kanske rörde sig om några hundra medlemmar. Men det fanns en kraftfull intellektuell ådra där med namn som, förutom Tony Cliff själv, också räknade socialistiska tänkare som Michael Kidron, Peter Sedgwick eller Duncan Hallas. Jim Higgins tillhörde den fackliga delen av gruppen och ingick i ledningen för International Socialists. Han kom från arbetarklass och hade avancerat inom facket bland post- och telegrafanställda. Higgins hade kunnat bli förbundsordförande för de post- och telegraf- anställda, men valde att bli heltidsanställd för International Socialists. Där hamnade han snabbt på kollisionskurs med Cliff och skulle bli utesluten. Higgins var inte överens om Cliffs planer på att bilda ett mer leninistiskt orienterat parti. Efter några havererade försök att bygga upp en ny organisation vid sidan av Cliffs försörjde sig Higgins som journalist. Han medarbetade i såväl vänsterinriktade New Statesman som den konservativa veckotidningen The Spectator. Den engelska titeln på denna bok, ”More years for the locust”, kan förefalla märklig. Det medger Higgins själv också. Men som den djupt bildade och bibelsprängde person han var hade han hämtat titeln från Joels bok i Bibeln där det talas om alla år som slösats bort till gräsgnagarna, gräshopporna, gräsbitarna osv. Higgins hade redan tidigare byggt upp bilden av brittisk trotskism med boken ”Ten years for the locust”. Jim Higgins har skrivit en bok som är underhållande, stundtals obarmhärtig och som är ytterst tänkvärd för alla som haft något sällskap med den revolutionära vänstern i Sverige också. Översättaren 22 Förord Jag har ett möte med Döden På en omtvistad barrikad Jim Higgins har skrivit en välskriven och insiktsfull bok om socialisternas gäckade förhopp- ningar under 1960- och 1970-talet. I denna cyniska tid när tänkarna inom New Labour för- kunnar att ”socialismen är död” är det värt att påminna sig de dagar av betydande aktivism, massdemonstrationer och potentiell arbetarmakt då det inte bara ansågs som önskvärt utan möjligt att det brittiska samhället skulle kunna omvandlas i sant demokratisk och egalitär riktning. Det är värt att understryka för ledarna inom New Labour att den ”socialism” de så lättvindigt förvisar till skrotupplaget finns i två former: socialdemokratin och stalinismen och över dem fäller vi inga tårar. Aldrig har behovet av en grundlig samhällsförändring varit större än i detta vulgära och alltmer pråliga och snuskiga samhälle, där miljoner lever under ökad fattigdom och en minoritet stoppar fötter och trynen i privatiserade tråg och den industriella basen slås sönder i brådskan att basera ekonomin på tjänstesektorn och hamburgerrestauranger. Det främsta syftet med Jims bok är att skildra en nyss förgången tid i hopp om att misstagen från de åren inte ska upprepas. En del läsare kommer att reagera på den sarkastiska tonen och kärva humorn. Men då måste det framhållas att deltagarna i de strider som skildras gjorde stora uppoffringar för rörelsen för att snabbt ställas åt sidan av ”kamrater” som fullständigt struntade i den smärta de utsatte andra för. Jim tonar ned den viktiga roll han själv hade i de händelser han skildrar, men jag minns däremot mycket väl en man som plockades från en nyckelposition inom facket för att bli nationell sekreterare för International Socialists och som sedan sidsteppades på mindre än ett år. Han hade blivit offer för ett skamligt sekteristiskt agerande och hugg i ryggen. Den bittra och principlösa inre striden inom International Socialists medförde att en hel grupp av beslutsamma och begåvade personer gick förlorade för socialismen och nu hamnade i utmarkerna i stället för att ha en central roll. Det har sagts så många gånger att revolutionerna äter sina barn. Det har blivit mindre upp- märksammat att små revolutionära grupper har en tendens att göra sig av med sin avkomma långt innan den första barrikaden byggts. De stora förhoppningarna hos många medlemmar av International Socialists krossades på grund av en rad faktorer: bristen på långsiktig strategi, Tony Cliffs våldsamma kursändringar där demokratin trampades ned på ett sätt som hade gjort Tony Blair andlös av beundran. Det handlade också om att byråkrater och opportunister fick plats i stället för erfarna medlemmar samt ett hänsynslöst fördömande av kritikerna av den senaste ”linjen”. Det tragiska med International Socialists är att det inte började så. Som Jim berättar var gruppen i början baserad på äkta kamratskap och delad intellektuell begåvning. Jag kom från Gerry Healys Socialist Labour League och var i skriande behov av såväl ny olja som nytt syre när jag gick med i International Socialists. Jag blev imponerad av den öppna debatten, bristen på småaktiga envåldshärskare, den intellektuella hållningen i tidskriften International Socialism, den goda stämningen, alla goda öl vi drack efter mötena samt, inte minst, en anständig ödmjukhet över vad en grupp med bara några hundra medlemmar kunde uträtta. Vilken skillnad mot det International Socialists som senare drog slutsatsen att bristen på framgångar inte krävde återhållsamhet och självkritik utan det absurda språnget till vad som grovt skulle få namnet ”mini-masspartiet” Socialist Workers Party. Vilket skulle leda till uteslutning av de som protesterade mot den form av ”substitutionism” som International 33 Socialists tidigare alltid gjort narr av. Det handlar inte bara om att mycket vatten flutit under broarna. Behovet av socialism förblir lika stort som någonsin. Genom att granska och analysera tidigare misstag är Jim Higgins syfte enkelt: att undvika dessa misstag samt förhoppningen att en yngre generation kommer att skapa
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Charlie Van Gelderen (1913-2001)
    Charlie van Gelderen (1913-2001) https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article546 Obituary Charlie van Gelderen (1913-2001) - IV Online magazine - 2001 - IV336 - December 2001 - Publication date: Monday 10 December 2001 Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine - All rights reserved Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine Page 1/3 Charlie van Gelderen (1913-2001) Charlie van Gelderen was the last survivor of those who attended the 1938 Founding Conference of the Fourth International in Paris. He attended as an observer on behalf of South African Trotskyists, though he was already living in Britain by that time. He died peacefully at home in Cambridge on October 26 after a short illness at the age of 88, still a fully paid up and until very recently an active member of the International Socialist Group (British section of the Fourth International). Charlie was born in August 1913 in the small town of Wellington, 40 miles from Cape Town, South Africa. He became politically active as a young man, initially joining the Fabian Society, but in 1931 he became an enthusiastic supporter of the ideas of Leon Trotsky. Together with his twin brother, Herman, he was instrumental in setting up the first Trotskyist organisation in South Africa, the International Marxist League. Charlie was also involved in setting up the Commercial Workers Union in the Cape and for a time became its full time secretary. The South African Trotskyist movement split in 1932 in response to the "French turn", the position put forward by Trotsky at the time urging his French supporters to enter the French Socialist Party.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critical and Comparative Analysis of Organisational Forms of Selected Marxist Parties, in Theory and in Practice, with Special Reference to the Last Half Century
    Rahimi, M. (2009) A critical and comparative analysis of organisational forms of selected Marxist parties, in theory and in practice, with special reference to the last half century. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/688/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] A critical and comparative analysis of organisational forms of selected Marxist parties, in theory and in practice, with special reference to the last half century Mohammad Rahimi, BA, MSc Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movement Faculty of Law, Business and Social Science University of Glasgow September 2008 The diversity of the proletariat during the final two decades of the 20 th century reached a point where traditional socialist and communist parties could not represent all sections of the working class. Moreover, the development of social movements other than the working class after the 1960s further sidelined traditional parties. The anti-capitalist movements in the 1970s and 1980s were looking for new political formations.
    [Show full text]
  • Week School on Political Issues from the History of AWL
    Week school on political issues from the history of AWL Day One Session: Heterodox, orthodox, and “orthodox Mark 2” 1. Why we started: 1966-8 Trotskyism: http://www.workersliberty.org//taxonomy/term/555 http://www.workersliberty.org/wwaawwmb The AWL's tradition: http://www.workersliberty.org/node/5146 Session: Party and perspectives What happened in 1968 and how the left responded ***************** Why we fused with IS (SWP) Timeline 2. Ireland: 1968-71 1964 July 2: After years of civil rights agitation in USA, Civil Rights http://www.workersliberty.org/node/10010 Act becomes law. October 15: Labour wins general election, after 13 years of Session: The debates in 1969 - “withdraw subsidies”, Tory rule “southern arsenals”, “troops out” before August 1969, “Catholic economism” and transitional demands, “troops out” 1965 in August 1969. January 31: USA starts bombing of North Vietnam. Vietnam war, and movement against it, escalate. Day Two February: SLL, then biggest revolutionary group in Britain, launches its own independent "Young Socialists" as a 3. The Tories and Labour 1970-4 response to limited expulsions by Labour Party after SLL wins majority in Labour youth movement. Session: General strike Our Labour Party debate then: syndicalism, economism, and 1966 politics Summer: Beginning of "Cultural Revolution" in China: a faction of the bureaucracy mobilises gangs to purge rivals 4. Stalinism 1968-75 reinforce autarkic, ultra-statist policy. But many leftists in the West will admire the "Cultural Revolution"; Maoism will Session: Czechoslovakia 1968 be a big force on the revolutionary left from 1968 to the “Soviet dissidents” mid-70s, though less so in Britain than in other European Vietnam and Cambodia 1975 countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Ted Grant (1913-2006)
    Ted Grant (1913-2006). Avec la mort d'Isaac Blank, connu dans le mouvement ouvrier international sous le nom de Ted Grant, c'est l'une des dernières grandes figures du combat révolutionnaire ayant traversé le XX° siècle qui s'en va. C'est aussi le "père" de l'un des "vieux" courants historiques du trotskysme qui disparaît (parmi les derniers survivants dont on peut en dire autant, restent Guillermo Lora et Pierre Lambert). Le chauvinisme conscient ou inconscient qui sévit en France fait que pour beaucoup, ce nom ne dit rien, et qu'apprendre qu'il s'agit du fondateur d'un courant trotskyste risque de ne pas être très encourageant. Il est vrai qu'avant même d'être un militant ouvrier révolutionnaire, ce qu'il fut de sa quinzième année (1928) à sa mort, Ted Grant avait l'avantage d'être issu d'une famille cosmopolite, un père juif russe et une mère française, installée en Afrique du Sud, ce qui l'aura sans doute aidé à penser à l'échelle de la planète. Afrique du Sud. Isaac Blank fut gagné au marxisme par un militant du Parti communiste sud-africain que logeait sa mère, Ralph Lee, en 1928. L'année suivante c'est ensemble qu'ils lisaient le journal des trotskystes américains, The Militant, et se ralliaient aux idées qu'il contenait, fondant un petit groupe trotskyste à Johannesburg, qui devait gagner des militants et construire des syndicats dans les milieux noirs et indiens de la blanchisserie et du nettoyage, d'où des liens ultérieurs de Ted Grant avec des militants indiens et ceylanais.
    [Show full text]
  • North East History Volume 42 2011 East
    north east history north north east history volume 42 2011 east N history orth Volume 42 2011 Resistance against the cuts E 1934-5 ast H istory 42 2011 Ray Challinor: historian and political activist Ray Challinor in full flow The Meadowell Riots 1991 Horace Green: trade unionist and Communist The north east labour history society holds regular meetings on a wide variety of subjects. The society welcomes new Life in the shipyards and on the railways members.We have an increasingly busy web-site at www.nelh.org Supporters are welcome to contribute to The birth of Easington colliery discussions Volume journal of the north east labour history society 42 http://nelh.org/ 2011 journal of the north east labour history society north east history north east history Volume 42 2011 NORTHUMBERLAND ISSN 14743248 © 2011 Printed by Azure Printing Units 1 F & G TYNE & Pegswood Industrial Estate WEAR Pegswood Morpeth Northumberland NE61 6HZ Tel: 01670 510271 DURHAM TEESSIDE journal of the north east labour history society www.nelh.net north east history north east history Editorial 4 Books reviewed Alastair Campbell & Richard Stott, The Blair Years – Extracts from the Note on Contributors. 7 Alastair Campbell Diaries. Hutchinson, 2007. (Archie Potts) John Prescott with Hunter Davies, Prezza – My story pulling no punches. Ray Challinor: Historian and Political Activist John Charlton 8 Headline Review/Hachette UK 2008. (Archie Potts) Peter Mandelson, The Third Man. Harper Press, 2010. (Archie Potts) Ray Challinor and North East History Don Watson 19 Tony Blair, A Journey, Hutchinson, 2010. (Archie Potts) Gordon Brown, Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the first crisis of Meadowell riots of 1991 David Reed 24 globalisation.
    [Show full text]
  • To Download As
    Solidarity& Workers’ Liberty For social ownership of the banks and industry Reminiscences of Ted Knight, 1933-2020 By Sean Matgamna am saddened by the death of Ted Knight (30 March 2020). I knew him well long ago in the Orthodox Trotskyist organisa- Ition of the late 1950s and early 1960s. When I first encountered him, Ted was a full-time organiser for the Socialist Labour League (SLL), responsible for the Man- chester and Glasgow branches, alternating a week here and a week there. He was on a nominal wage of £8 a week and was lucky if he got £4. He recruited me, then an adolescent member of the Young Communist League, to the SLL. I’d come to think of myself as a Trotskyist, but was unconvinced - didn’t want to be convinced, I suppose - that a revolution was needed to overthrow the Rus- sian bureaucracy. Ted Knight (in middle background) with Bertrand Russell (right Ted lent me his copy of Trotsky’s The Revolution Betrayed. I foreground) and Russell’s secretary Ralph Schoenman (bearded, didn’t take a lot of persuading, as I recall it. left). From The Newsletter, 25 June 1966 That Ted Knight would have been very surprised to find his obituary in the Morning Star headlined “A giant of the labour of the Orthodox Trotskyist Labour Review when it became a big movement” (as if the Morning Star would know about such A4-sized magazine designed for (successful) intervention into things!). the crisis-ridden Communist Party from January 1957. But in The Manchester SLL branch I joined early in 1960 was going 1959-60 there was still a great deal of the old hostility to Trot- through a bad period.
    [Show full text]
  • In Spite of History? New Leftism in Britain 1956 - 1979
    In Spite of History? New Leftism in Britain 1956 - 1979 Thomas Marriott Dowling Thesis Presented for the Degree of PhD Department of History University of Sheffield August 2015 ii iii Contents Title page p. i Contents p. iii Abstract p. vi Introduction p. 1 On the Trail of the New Left p. 5 Rethinking New Leftism p. 12 Methodology and Structure p. 18 Chapter One Left Over? The Lost World of British New Leftism p. 24 ‘A Mood rather than a Movement’ p. 30 A Permanent Aspiration p. 33 The Antinomies of British New Leftism p. 36 Between Aspiration and Actuality p. 39 The Aetiology of British New Leftism p. 41 Being Communist p. 44 Reasoning Rebellion p. 51 Universities and Left Review p. 55 Forging a Movement p. 58 CND p. 63 Conclusion p. 67 iv Chapter Two Sound and Fury? New Leftism and the British ‘Cultural Revolt’ of the 1950s p. 69 British New Leftism’s ‘Moment of Culture’? p. 76 Principles behind New Leftism’s Cultural Turn p. 78 A British Cultural Revolt? p. 87 A New Left Culture? p. 91 Signifying Nothing? p. 96 Conclusion p. 99 Chapter Three Laureate of New Leftism? Dennis Potter’s ‘Sense of Vocation’ p. 102 A New Left ‘Mood’ p. 108 The Glittering Coffin p. 113 A New Left Politician p. 116 The Uses of Television p. 119 History and Sovereignty p. 127 Common Culture and ‘Occupying Powers’ p. 129 Conclusion p. 133 Chapter Four Imagined Revolutionaries? The Politics and Postures of 1968 p. 135 A Break in the New Left? p.
    [Show full text]
  • CLR James, His Early Relationship to Anarchism and the Intellectual
    This is a repository copy of A “Bohemian freelancer”? C.L.R. James, his early relationship to anarchism and the intellectual origins of autonomism. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/90063/ Version: Accepted Version Book Section: Hogsbjerg, CJ (2012) A “Bohemian freelancer”? C.L.R. James, his early relationship to anarchism and the intellectual origins of autonomism. In: Prichard, A, Kinna, R, Pinta, S and Berry, D, (eds.) Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red. Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke . ISBN 978-0-230-28037-3 © 2012 Palgrave Macmillan. This is an author produced version of a chapter published in Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialist Workers Party Records
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1k40019v No online items Register of the Socialist Workers Party records Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Archives Staff Hoover Institution Archives 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA, 94305-6010 (650) 723-3563 [email protected] © 1998, 2016 Register of the Socialist Workers 92036 1 Party records Title: Socialist Workers Party records Date (inclusive): 1928-1998 Collection Number: 92036 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 135 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box(57.8 linear feet) Abstract: Correspondence, minutes, resolutions, theses, and internal bulletins, relating to Trotskyist and other socialist activities in Latin America, Western Europe, Iran, and elsewhere, and to interactions of the Socialist Workers Party with the Fourth International; and trial transcripts, briefs, other legal documents, and background materials, relating to the lawsuit brought by Alan Gelfand against the Socialist Workers Party in 1979. Most of collection also available on microfilm (108 reels). Creator: Socialist Workers Party. Access Collection is open for research. The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Socialist Workers Party Records, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Archives. Acquisition Information The Hoover Institution Archives acquired records of the Socialist Workers Party from the Anchor Foundation in 1992.
    [Show full text]
  • MPS-0738381 International Marxist Group -Meeting METROPOLITAN POLICE November 1969 1. I Was Present Today with D.C. at Conway Ha
    MPS-0738381 METROPOLITAN POLICE r7- )t /7b SPECIAL BRANCH Special Report ) day of November 1969 SUBJECT__ International 1. I was present today with D.C. at Conway Hall, ed Lion Square, where a pub_; debate took Group Marxist place on the sub' ct, "What is Trotskyism, between rnest MAN1 L f the.Secr ariat of the 1Vth International, -meeting and Monty JOHNSON, of t Young Communist League. The meeting began at 7.45 .m. and ended at 10.30p.m. About 500 persons w e present. The meeting became to Papers Reference excited at times but there was no disorder. 2. The debate had been organised by the International .arxist Group who were well represented in the audience, as were the International Socialists, the Revolutionary Socialist League, and the New Left Review Group. Tabists were present and made frequent interuptions. The Communist and Y.C.L. contingent numbered about 20 persons. 5. The meeting had been;..advertised in "Tribune" and in the "Morning Star". Admision cost 2/6 per head but tere was no col ction. 4. The Chairma as Robin BLACKBURN of the New Left Review Group. He acterTIMOUghouVrwith authority and with strict impartiality. He allowed the two speakers an initial period of half an hour each to make their statements, then followed a period of about an hour for five-minute contributions from the floor, and then came the summing up speeches, leaving MADEL with the last word. 5. Ernest !1ANDEL s d that it was not his purpose to argde--WITh Mon j JOH1SON on what Trotsky may or may not have said in the past, nor was he concerned to refute some of the wilder allegations that had been made by communists about Trotsir..yists.
    [Show full text]
  • In Defence of Trotskyism No. 6
    In Defence of Trotskyism No. 6 £1 waged, 50p unwaged/low waged, €1.50 The Marxist theory of the state: Deformed and Degenerated Workers’ States and Capitalist States Reply to RCIT Part 3 (assessment also of the positions of Workers Power/LFI, Ted Grant and the Socialist Party/CWI, Socialist Appeal/ IMT, the Spart family ICL/IBT/IG, Mandelites/USFI/US SWP, David North’s SEP/WSWS/ICFI and a passing look at the Cliffite UK SWP). Berlin Airlift-June 24, 1948 to May 12, 1949 and debate on Buffer States Page 2 The Marxist theory of the state Where We Stand ets/workers’ councils to sup- reformist leaders of the Labour press the inevitable counter- party and trade unions 1. WE STAND WITH revolution of private capitalist 5. We oppose all immigra- KARL MARX: ‘The emancipa- profit against planned produc- tion controls. International tion of the working classes must tion for the satisfaction of so- finance capital roams the planet be conquered by the working cialised human need. in search of profit and Imperial- classes themselves. The struggle 3. We recognise the necessity ist governments disrupts the for the emancipation of the for revolutionaries to carry out lives of workers and cause the working class means not a serious ideological and political collapse of whole nations with struggle for class privileges and struggle as direct participants in their direct intervention in the monopolies but for equal rights the trade unions (always) and in Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan and duties and the abolition of the mass reformist social demo- and their proxy wars in Somalia all class rule’ (The International cratic bourgeois workers’ parties and the Democratic Republic of Workingmen’s Association despite their pro-capitalist lead- the Congo, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • In Perspective: Tom Nairn
    In perspective: Tom Nairn NEIL DAVIDSON The 1960s saw an upsurge of separatist nationalisms at the core of the capitalist system, with the movements in Catalonia, Eskudai, Occitania, Quebec, Scotland, Wallonia and Wales all making their first serious impact during that decade. Nationalist demands went on to play a role-—although by no means the most important role--in the social upheavals which shook the capitalist system between 1968 and 1976. And although none of them succeeded in establishing new states, several--Catalonia, Quebec and, more recently, Scotland--gained a significant degree of formal autonomy within the state framework of the dominant nation. These events inspired a number of important studies of nationalism, the majority of which appeared in two clusters. The first appeared between 1977 and 1982 and the second between 1989 and 1992, following a further and, in terms of establishing new states, more successful revival of nationalist aspiration in Eastern Europe. Whatever criticisms might be levelled at these works the best have nevertheless helped to advance our understanding of the phenomenon in important, if partial, ways.1 Only a minority of these studies approached the question from an avowedly Marxist perspective. One of them was by the Scottish writer Tom Nairn, who is regarded by many as the foremost modern theoretician of the subject. It is ironic, therefore, that his contribution emphasised the supposed inadequacy of the Marxist tradition as a tool for understanding nationalism, persuading many on the left that, in the famous opening sentence of one key essay, 'The theory of nationalism is Marxism's greatest historical failure'.2 Most of the essays in which he put forward these arguments were collected in a book first published in 1977 called The Break- Up of Britain, but Nairn has recently returned to the subject in a further collection of essays called Faces Of Nationalism.
    [Show full text]