Tvvo Vievvs on the Dialectics of Nature To William F. Warde tal to Sartre and Hyppolite. There is and I hope it will precipitate in this I have just read your article, "Is Na­ one point in your article, however, with country a greater appreciation of the ture Dialectical?" in the Summer 1964 which I would take some exception. problem and wide discussion of it. That is when you argue against the issue of the International Socialist Re­ Yvonne Groseil view, and I was quite impressed by it. anti-dialecticians by pointing out the Although I must plead guilty to a advances made in science, especially by November 15, 1964 rather superficial knowledge of Marx­ Oparin, through the use of dialectical ism, I am very interested in Hegel's method. Dialectical logic may help the Reply work. During my study of Hegel, I have scientist reach some useful hypotheses Here are some comments on the main come to the conclusion that the ques­ for later investigation, but this is not questions of theoretical interest raised tion of the philosophy of nature is a the essential point here. by this friendly letter. crucial one. In my opinion, Hegel's I t seems to me that the method or 1. Would knowledge of the method of philosophy falls apart into a dualism of means by which scientific discoveries the materialist dialectic, which is based mind and matter instead of being the are made is secondary in this argument. on the most general laws of being and synthesis he desired just because of the What is really vital is the fact that only becoming, assist the physical scientist failure of his philosophy of nature. a dialectical view of nature can provide in his investigations of nature? This failure is not, I submit, a failure an adequate framework in which these Up to now almost all scientists have of the dialectical method, but the re­ new discoveries can be seen in their carried on their work without conscious sult of the lack of sufficient scientific total relationship. That is, how one gets understanding of the dialectical laws knowledge at Hegel's time plus Hegel's to the discovery is not so important as of universal development just as most insistence on bending the inadequate the realization that this new "fact" can people speak very well without know­ knowledge he did have into his philos­ only be thoroughly explained and relat­ ing the history or grammar of their lan­ ophic system. It is the latter fault that ed to the rest of our knowledge through guage, breathe without awareness of makes his philosophy of nature appear a dialectical viewpoint. the physiological processes of respira­ downright silly to-day; but it is only tion, and acquire the necessities of life to-day that we are beginning to attain Pierre Teilhard de Chardin without comprehending the principles of the scientific knowledge that makes a There is one other point that seems political economy. dialectical view of the facts the only appropriate to this discussion: I read Western philosophers and scientists reasonable one. recently that Roger Garaudy was to almost unanimously believe that the This part of Hegel's philosophy has write an introduction to a Russian trans­ dialectical view of nature is false, ir­ been largely neglected, but I consider lation of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's relevant and even positively harmful it vital to a serious consideration of his Phenomenon of Man. Now Teilhard cer­ in the theory and practice of science. thought today. Therefore, your article tainly is not a dialectical materialist in This prejudice, rooted in our predom­ on the dialectics of nature was a very any sense of the word. However, be­ inantly empirical and positivist intel­ welcome piece of writing to me. On the neath the theological portion of his lectual traditions, has been reinforced whole, I agree with your position - thought, one finds a view of evolution by the arbitrary and ignorant interfer­ the laws of dialectics apply to nature that is certainly dialectic - in a ence of the Stalinist bureaucrats with as well as man. Hegelian, if not a Marxist, sense. And scientific theory along with their nar­ The scientific knowledge available Teilhard's work seems to have been a rowly schematic, distorted and dogmatic now can only be understood thorough­ little too "materialistic" for the Roman interpretation of Marxist method. ly by the use of dialectics. This ap­ Catholic Church. (Continued on Page 30) pears most obviously in the realm of Teilhard's work in itself deserves stu­ evolution and biology in general, but the dy, but simply in connection with the inter-relationship of all aspects of our question of the dialectics of nature, it world means that it is applicable to the seems to me that it may be a sign that other sciences as well. we are approaching a higher synthesis of thought. The static conceptions of THE MILITANT Existentialist Position "idealism" and "materialism" may give The existentialist position would way to a newer, more adequate realiza­ A four-month trial subscription to create a complete alienation between tion of their inter-dependence through­ man and the world, and would destroy out the whole sphere of nature. That The Militant for only $1.00. Send can only be achieved if we recognize the objectivity of our knowledge and this coupon with payment to: thus our ability to act. Sartre's position, the objective character of dialectics - as described in your article - that man that it applies to nature as well as to The Militant, 116 University Place, can never attain to the "reality" of history. The perpetuation of alienation things, that our knowledge and the laws between "mind" and "matter," man and New York 3, N.Y. of our (dialectical) logic apply only to the world, nature and history, can serve man and human society, etc. - sounds no good purpose, but only leads to frag­ like that of a resuscitated Kant. mentation and confusion in philosophy and action. It can only lead to a divided world­ Name ...... view, a denial of the possibility of true Dialectics by its nature has to be an knowledge and, ultimately, to excesses "open" system which not only allows for of subjectivity rather than creative ac­ the addition of new knowledge but also tivity. The existentialists may begin admits man's freedom and ability to their philosophic inquiry from the shape history. The recognition of nature Street ...... standpoint of the individual, but that as dialectical is the only way to a whole does not mean that they can stop there world-view that includes man in the without losing sight of the essential world while recognizing his unique posi­ thing - that man is in and of the world. tion and frees him to control his own City...... Zone...... State...... The points made by Vigier and future. Your article is an excellent state­ Garuady were, I felt, an excellent rebut- ment of the issues and their importance,

2 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1965 SOCIALIST Volume 26 No.1 REVIEW

FROM LENIN TO CASTRO: Importllnce of tile IndividulIl in History-Milking

By William F. Warde

I the same tasks, though in a different style. The eclipse of alternate candidates creates the optical illusion of N THE third chapter of The Prophet Outcast, the final the sole irreplaceable personality. If the objective pre­ I volume of his biography of Trotsky, where he treats requisites are ripe and the historical demand forceful of "The Revolutionary as Historian," Isaac Deutscher enough, a range of men can fulfill the indicated func­ discusses the role of personality in the determination tions of command. The Chinese and Yugoslav examples, of social events in a highly instructive context. The writes Deutscher, demonstrate how rising revolutions problem is raised in connection with Trotsky's appraisal can utilize men of smaller stature than a Lenin or Trot­ of Lenin's place in the Russian Revolution. sky to take power. The class struggle can press into Deutscher holds that Trotsky shuttled between two service whatever human material is available to ful­ discordant positions. In the History of the Russian Rev­ fill its objectives. olution, a letter to Preobrazhensky in 1928, and in his This theme has an importance surpassing Trotsky's French Diary Trotsky maintained that Lenin was ab­ judgment on Lenin's significance for the Russian Rev­ solutely indispensable to the victory of October. It olution or Deutscher's criticism of Trotsky's alleged in­ would not have been achieved without him. Elsewhere, consistencies on the matter. The reciprocal action of in The Revolution Betrayed, says Deutscher, Trotsky the objective and subjective factors in the historical reverted to the orthodox view of historical materialism process is one of the key problems of social science. which subordinates the quality of the leadership to the It is no less a key to revolutionary practice in our own more objective factors in the making of history. Is this time. a wavering on Trotsky's part? Historical materialism unequivocally gives primacy, Marxism does teach than no individual, however tal­ as Deutscher emphasizes, to such objective factors as ented, strong-willed or strategically situated, can alter the level of the productive forces and the state of class the main course of historical development, which is relations in the making of history. But there is more shaped by supra-individual circumstances and forces. to the matter than this. Therefore, reasons Deutscher, the revolution would have triumphed in 1917 with other leaders even if Lenin A Relative Relation had been removed from the arena by some accident. In the first place, the social phenomena divided into Trotsky himself, or a team of other Bolshevik chiefs, opposing categories are only relatively objective or sub­ might have filled his place. jective. Their status changes according to the relevant Deutscher divines that Trotsky's lapse into a subjec­ connections. If the world environment is objective to tivism bordering on "the cult of the individual" in the nation which is part of it, the nation in turn is regard to Lenin was motivated by a psychological need objective to the classes which constitute its social struc­ to exaggerate the role of individual leadership as a ture. The ruling class is objective to the working class. counterweight to Stalin's autocracy in his mortal po­ The party is subjective to the class whose interests it litical combat with him. He seeks to correct Trotsky represents and aims it promotes while groups, tenden­ by reference to the ideas expressed in Plekhanov's clas­ cies, factions and their combinations are subjective to sical essay on The Role of the Individual in History. the movement or party which contains them. Finally, This was a polemic against the Narodnik school of sub­ the individual has a subjective status relative to all jective sociology which exalted the hero as an auton­ these other factors, although he has an objective exist­ omous creator of history at the expense of the masses ence in relation to other individuals. and other objective determinants of the class struggle. In the second place, the mUltiple factors in any his­ Arguing against the thesis that the collective demand torical process do not, and indeed cannot have, an equal for leadership could be supplied by only one remark­ and simultaneous growth. Not only do some mature able individual, Plekhanov pointed out that the per­ before others but certain of them may fail to achieve son hoisted into supreme authority bars the way of a full and adequate reality at the decisive moment, or others who might have shouldered and carried through indeed at any point. The coming together of all the

WI NTER 1965· various factors essential for the occurrence of a par­ the other factors of a more objective sort have come ticular result in a great historical process is an excep­ into being. These set the stage for his decisive role tional or "accidental" event which is necessary only in and provide the means for carrying through the pur­ the long run. poses and program of the movement he represents. The leadership, collective and individual, embodies The great man, who helps start a novel line of de­ the conscious element in history. The influence of an velopment in any field, comes as the last link in the individual in determining a course of events can range assemblage of conditions and the concatenation of from negligibility to totality. The extent of his effec­ events. Weare all familiar with the straw that breaks tiveness in action depends upon the stage of develop­ the camel's back or the drop that overflows the cup. ment of historical conditions, the correlation of social The individual who makes all the difference serves as forces, and the person's precise connection with these the precipitant that transforms quantity into quality at a given conjuncture. in the process whereby the new supersedes the old. There are long stretches of time when the strongest­ However, he must intervene at the critical turning willed revolutionist cannot in the least avail against point of development for his action to have so decisive the march of events and practically counts for nothing an influence. Such fortunate timing, which does not in redirecting them. On the other hand, there are "tides always depend upon his own awareness, permits him in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, lead to become the final cause in the cumulative sequence on to fortune." of conditions which are necessary determinants of the Ordinarily, individual action takes place somewhere outcome. between these two extremes. What men do - or do not do - in their personal capacity affects to some Variation in Historical Spans limited degree the velocity and specific features of The discrepancy noted by Deutscher between Trot­ the main line of development. sky's observations that Lenin was indispensable for the The case in point is: where and when can an indi­ October victory and that the objective laws of history vidual exert the maximum weight and become the de­ are far more powerful than the special traits of the cisive force in the outcome of a struggle? This can protagonists involved is to be explained by the differ­ happen only when his intervention is inserted at the ence between the short and the long run of history. cUlminating point of a prolonged evolution when all The calculus of probabilities applies to human history as well as to natural events. Given enough chances in the long run, the forces representing the objective nec­ essities of social progress will break through all ob­ INTERNATIONAL Published quarterly by the International stacles and prove stronger than the defenses of the old Socialist Review Publishing Association, 116 order. But that is not necessarily true at any given SOCIALIST University Pl., New York 3, N. Y. Second stage or in any instance along the way. Here the class postage paid at New York, N. Y. REVIEW quality of the leadership can decide which of the genuine alternatives growing out of the prevailing con­ Contents ditions will be realized. The conscious factor has a qualitatively different im­ CORRESPONDENCE 2 port over an entire historical epoch than it has in a specific phase or situation within it. When antagonistic social forces vie for supremacy on a world-historical FROM LENIN TO CASTRO ...... by W. F. Warde 3 scale, such favorable and unfavorable circumstances as the character of the leadership tend to offset and cancel TEST OF CUBAN REVOLUTION.... by Joseph Hansen 8 one another. The underlying historical necessities assert themselves in and through the aggregate struggles and LETTER FROM BRITAIN...... by Roger Protz 20 override the more superficial and chance features which can decide the upshot of any particular encounter. QUESTION OF ALLIANCES ...... by Geo. Breitman 21 Moreover, an ascending class in the long run benefits more than its opponent from the accidents of develop­ UPHEAVAL IN BOLIVIA...... by Livio Maitan 24 ment since the receding class has less and less reserve strength to withstand and overcome small variations in the relation of forces. The total assets of the one INTERVIEW WITH MINER ...... 27 increase as those of the other diminish. Time is an all-important element in the conflict of BOOKS IN REVIEW ...... 28 contending social forces. The indeterminate phase when events can be diverted in either direction does not last long. The crisis in social relations must be resolved Vol. 26 - No.1 - Whole No. 170 quickly one way or the other. At that point the activity or passivity of dominant personalities, groups, parties and masses can tip the scales on one side or the other. Editor, Tom Kerry; Business Manager, Karolyn The individual can enter as the ultimate factor in the Kerry; Assistant Editor, Dick Roberts. total process of historical determination only when all SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 1 year (four issues) $1.50; 2 years (eight the other forces in play are temporarily equalized. Then issues) $3. Add 50 cents per year for Canada, Latin America and his added weight can serve to tip the balance. overseas; single copy 50 cents, bundlp" 35 cents a copy for five Almost everyone can recall occasions where his own copies or more, domestic or foreign. inA.ervention or that of others proved decisive in re­ ~345 solving an uncertain situation. What happens in the

4 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW small incidents of life applies to big events. Just as party. His paramount role came from the fact that he the single vote of the chairman can decide when the led the leaders of the revolution. forces on an issue are evenly divided, so the outstand­ Trotsky knew better than anyone else how Lenin ing qualities of great figures are manifieted when his­ could sway the higher echelons as well as the ranks tory arrives at a deadlock. Their decision or decisive­ of his party. His authority was a considerable help from ness breaks the tie and propels events along a defi­ April to October in getting his correct proposals adopt­ nitely different line. This holds for counterrevolution­ ed over the resistance of other Bolshevik chiefs. This ary as well as revolutionary tendencies. Hitler was im­ accumulated capital of prestige was not at the disposal portant because he took Germany into fascism and war. of others, including Trotsky, who had a different or­ But he did not direct German or world history into a ganizational history and relations. That was the objec­ qualitatively new channel. He simply helped write a tive basis for his opinion that the October Revolution further horrible chapter in the death agony of cap­ would most likely not have taken place unless "Lenin italism. was present and in command." Lenin's imperishable contribution was the push he To be sure, it is not possible, as Deutscher remarks gave to opening an entirely new path for Russian and and Trotsky himself recognized, to be utterly categor­ world history, redirecting it from the dead-end of cap­ ical on this point. But Trotsky's conclusion, which is italism onto the new beginning of socialism. to be found in all his writings after October and be­ fore the rise of Stalin, was not based upon a regret­ The Problem of Possibilities table lapse into excessive subjectivity. It came from This brings us back to the specific problem Deutscher applying the Marxist dialectic to the facts as he wit­ discusses. He does not question the fact that in the nessed and assayed them. If he was wrong, it was not actual unrolling of the 1917 Revolution Lenin func­ because of any deviation in principle or abandonment tioned as the final cause in the October victory. The of method induced by unconscious political-psycholo­ difference between Deutscher and Trotsky concerns the gical motives, which Deutscher considers to be the case. uncertain realm of historical possibilities. Could an­ but the result of misjudging the facts. other revolutionist such as Trotsky, or a combination of them, have assumed Lenin's place? II Trotsky somewhat categorically said no. Deutscher IDNEY HOOK has entered this controversy from the objects that if others on hand could not have per­ formed the same job of leadership, then the position S opposite end. In a review of The Prophet Outcast of historical materialism on the lawful determination in the May 11, 1964, New Le,ader he seizes upon Deut­ of events must be abandoned. Either the objective or scher's criticism of Trotsky'S subjectivism for his own the subjective factors decide; it is necessary to choose purposes. Instead of condemning, he compliments Trot­ between them. sky for discarding the dogmas of dialectical material­ ism and attributing "the most important social event In my opinion, Deutscher here takes a too constricted in human history" to the purely personal and con­ and one-sided stand on historical determinism whereas tingent circumstance of Lenin's presence in Russia. In Trotsky employed a more flexible and multisided in­ his eyes the October Revolution was the accidental con­ terpretation based upon the interrelation of mutually sequence of the work of an individual. Hook repeats opposing categories. He tested his conception, first in the view expressed in his book on The Hero in History, practice, then in theory, in the successive stages of the cited by Deutscher, that the October Revolution "was Russian Revolution where the importance of the con­ not so much a product of the whole past of Russian scious factors stood out with remarkable clarity. history as a product of one of the most event-making In the Light of Experience figures of all time." Whereas Deutscher in the name of Marxist ortho­ The type of leadership was very different in the two doxy inclines to make the objective factors virtually revolutions of 1917. The February Revolution was not self-sufficient and thus underrates the crucial impor­ planned or directed from above. Trotsky points out in tance of Lenin's leadership, Hook practically nullifies the chapter of his History, "Who Led the February the other and prior determinants by making the Oc­ Revolution?" that it was led "by conscious and tem­ tober victory wholly dependent upon a single individ­ pered workers educated for the most part by the party ual. His approach falls below the standards of the most of Lenin." As educator and organizer of these key enlightened liberal historians who at least placed ob­ workers, Lenin was to that extent necessary to the jective factors on a par with the ideas and intervention February overturn, even though he was not on the spot of great men. in person. Between February and October he became more and Trotsky's View more decisive because of his resolute and far-sighted Hook has to falsify Trotsky's standpoint in order to stands at a series of crucial moments, starting with convert him into a pragmatist as superficial as Hook the reorienting of the Bolshevik cadres in April and himself. Trotsky's Histor,y is explicitly devoted to dem­ CUlminating in his insistence on insurrection in Oc­ onstrating the necessity of the Russian Revolution and tober. According to Trotsky, Lenin's role could not have its specific outcom,e as the result of the whole previous been duplicated. This was not simply because of his evolution of world capitalism, the backwardness of personal gifts but even more because of his excep­ Russia complemented by its concentrated industrial tional standing in the Bolshevik party which was large­ enterprises and advanced working class, the stresses ly his creation. of the First World War upon a decayed Czarist auto­ The question of leadership in the Russian Revolution cracy, the weakness of the bourgeoisie, the failure of had a dual aspect. While the Bolsheviks led the work­ the petty-bourgeois parties and the bold vision of the ers and peasants to victory, Lenin led the Bolshevik Bolsheviks headed by Lenin.

W~NTER 1965 5 Trotsky delineates the operation of this determinism defeats suffered by the working class elsewhere in Eu­ in living reality by narrating and analyzing the inter­ rope and Asia during the 1920's and 1930's, in the last connection of the salient events from the February analysis because of the lack of a collective and indi­ beginning to the October climax. The successive stages vidual leadership of Bolshevik-Leninist caliber. The of the revolution did not unfold haphazardly; they October victory coupled with the post-October defeats issued with inexorable lawfulness one from the other convinced the once dubious Trotsky of the decisive in a causally conditioned sequence. The aim of his role of leadership in an objectively revolutionary situa­ theoretical exposition was to find in the verified facts tion. These experiences led him to the generalization of the actual process the effects of the objective neces­ which was the keystone of the founding program of the sities formulated in the laws of the class struggle ap­ Fourth International, adopted in 1938, that "the histor­ plied to a backward great power under twentieth cen­ ical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of revolu­ tury conditions. He had already anticipated and arti­ tionary leadership." That is why he dedicated the last culated these in his celebrated theory of the Permanent years of his life to the task of attempting to assemble Revolution. such a leadership under the banner of the Fourth In­ Trotsky viewed the Bolshevik party as one of the ternational. components of this historical necessity and Lenin as Deutscher's disagreement with Trotsky over Lenin's the most conscious exponent and skilled practitioner part in the Russian Revolution is directly connected of the political science of Marxism based on these laws. with his difference with Trotsky over the latter's role It was not purely fortuitous that Lenin was able to in the post-Lenin period. Deutscher regards Trotsky's play the role that he did. He was no chance comer. assertion that the foundation of the Fourth Interna­ "Lenin was not an accidental element in the historic tional was "the most important work of my life - more development, but a product of the whole past of Rus­ important than 1917, more important than the period sian development." For years he had prepared him­ of the civil war, or any other ..." as an aberration. self and his party for the task of steering the expected The energy devoted to the Trotskyist groups was large­ revolution to victory. ly wasted, he believes, since the objective conditions There was no foreordination in the full compass of were not suitable for constructing a new International. the preconditions for October extending from the his­ In his opinion, Trotsky would have been better advised tory of Russia in the world to the political foresight to remain an interpreter of events instead of vainly and insight of Lenin. Their joint necessity was proved trying to change their course by means of a rival world in practice. Nor was the actual course of events real­ revolutionary organization. ized without the concurrence of many accidental cir­ J. B. Stuart has undertaken to answer Deutscher's cumstances favorable or unfavorable to both sides. criticism of Trotsky's unrealism in connection with the It was, for example, a lucky chance that the German Fourth International in the April 17-24 issues of World General Staff for its own reasons permitted Lenin to Outlook and there is no point in repeating his argu­ travel from his Swiss exile back to Russia through Ger­ ments. Here we are primarily interested in the real many in time to redirect the Bolshevik party. It was rationale behind Trotsky's positions. an historical accident that Lenin remained alive and Deutscher contends that Trotsky misjudged Lenin's active throughout the crucial months; it could have importance in the winning of the Russian Revolution been otherwise and indeed Lenin thought his murder and his own role in the period of world reaction after quite probable. In that case, if we credit Trotsky, the Lenin's death for psychological reasons which ran coun­ socialist outcome implicit in the situation could not ter to Marxist objectivity. Trotsky actually derived his have been achieved in 1917. position in both cases, it seems to us, from his concep­ This means that the history of the twentieth cen­ tion of the needs of the revolutionary process in our tury, which is now unthinkable apart from the Russian time. He thought that all major objective ingredients Revolution in all its consequences, would have been for the overthrow of capitalism had in general ripened. quite different. Not in the broadest lines of its devel­ What was missing for new Octobers was the presence opment but certainly in the particular course and fea­ of leadership of the type supplied by Lenin and the tures of the irrepressible contest between the socialist Bolsheviks in 1917. Such cadres had to be created to revolution and its capitalist antagonists. prevent the incompetent and treacherous bureaucracies There is nothing un-Marxist, as Deutscher seems to heading the different sectors of the workers' move- think, in acknowledging this. To link "the fortunes of mankind in this century" with Lenin's activity in 1917 is not subjectivist thinking; it is a matter of fact. Conversely, Lenin's absence could well have substract­ ed that margin of determinism from the total condi­ Subscribe tions required for victory which would have made the International Socialist Review subsequent sequence of developments in the world rev­ 116 University Place, N. Y. 3, N. Y. olution quite different. The great fortune of the Russian people and all man­ Enclosed is $3.00 for my subscription for the next kind is that in 1917 both .accident and necessity coin­ eight hsues. cided to carry the struggle of workers and peasants to its proper conclusion. This has not always happened in Name the decades since. "The Historical Crisis of Mankind" Street ...... Apt. No ...... Deutscher weakens his case considerably by focusing attention on Russia. The role of Lenin and his party City ...... Zone ...... State...... stand out more clearly and sharply in the light of the

6 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW ment from rUInmg more revolutionary opportunities. in history-making. Kennedy's assassination last Novem­ Thus world political, rather than individual psychol­ ber did not seriously interrupt any operations of the ogical, necessities accounted for his conclusions. U.S. government or shift its course at home or abroad. After assuming executive authority, Johnson has pur­ III sued essentially the same policies as his predecessor, I T IS TRUE, as Deutscher points out, that revoJutionary albeit with a Texas brand rather than a Harvard accent. power was conquered in Yugoslavia and China with Thus the abrupt removal of an extremely popular and leaderships trained in the Stalinist school which do not powerful personality has proved to be inconsequential match the standards of Lenin's Bolshevism. The 1963 compared to the automatism of capitalist rulership. Pro­ Reunification Congress of the Fourth International took capitalist individuals come and go; the system remains. cognizance of this development in its resolution, The At the same time the holder of supreme office in the Dynamics of World Revolution Today: "The weakness United States controls more massive military power of the enemy in the backward countries has opened the than any other person in the world or in human his­ possibility of coming to power even with a blunted in­ tory. On June 4 Johnson boasted that the national strument." strength "is stronger than the combined might of all the However, the document hastens to add: "The strength nations in the history of the world." of the enemy in the imperialist countries demands a The president can release enough bombs to destroy tool of much greater perfection." For the taking of all mankind. Who can question the overwhelming im­ power in the capitalist stronghold as weJl as the ad­ portance of the individual when one man's decision can ministration of power in the degenerated or deformed terminate human history on this planet? Kennedy was workers states, the building of new mass revolutionary eyeball to eyeball with this possibility during the 1962 parties and their unification in a new international Caribbean crisis. organization remains the central strategical task of the To be sure, the man in the White House does not act present period no less than in Lenin's and Trotsky's day. as an isolated individual. He is the chief executive of The Cuban Revolution the United States, commander-in-chief of its armed forces, and more significantly, agent of the profiteers This dialectical unity of the objective and subjective who run the economy and government. His personal factors in the making of a revolution has been both role by and large accords with the objective neces­ exemplified and theorized by Fidel Castro and his close sities of monopolist domination; and, in the last analy­ associates. If ever an historic event could be considered sis, the fundamental interests of the ruling class de­ the work of one man, that was - and is - the Cuban termine his political conduct. Revolution. Castro is truly its "lider maximo" [main But his representative functions do not nullify the leader]. fact that he alone is delegated to make the final de­ Castro has explained, notably in his December 21, cision and can give the command to press the H-button. 1961, speech on Marxism-Leninism, how the founders Personal decision is the crowning expression of social of the July 26 Movement did not wait for all the ob­ determinism, the last link in its causal chain. The social jective conditions required for revolutionary success to determinism operative in the world today is divided emerge spontaneously. They deliberately set about to into two irreconcilable trends, stemming from opposing create the still missing revolutionary conditions by class sources. One is directed by the capitalist war­ fighting. Their guerrilla warfare did bring about the makers whose spokesmen in the United States have moral, psychological, political changes needed to over­ stated that they will not refrain from using atomic throw Batista's tyranny. The general lesson of their weapons if necessary. The other is constituted by the experience for the further struggles against Latin­ masses of the United States and the rest of the world American dictatorships has been formulated as follows who dread this prospect and have everything to lose by Che Guevara in his handbook on guerrilla warfare: if it should occur. is not always necessary to wait until aU the con­ "It Which of these contending determinisms will prevail? ditions are ripe for the revolution; the insurrectional The fate of mankind hangs in the balance of this deci­ center can create them." sion. To dispossess and disarm the atomaniacs head­ The transformation of the balance of forces in favor quartered in Washington, a revolutionary movement of of the progressive side by the initiative of a small band tremendous dimensions and determination will have to of conscious revolutionary fighters dramatically dem­ be built. No single individual will stop them. But vic­ onstrates how decisive the subjective factor can be in tory in the life-and-death struggle for world peace making history. Yet Castro would be the first to cau­ against nuclear annihilation will require the initiative tion against an adventurism which ignores objective and devotion of individuals who, though they may not conditions, to disavow any cult of the individual, and possess the outstanding leadership capacities of a Lenin, to acknowledge that his intentions would have miscar­ Trotsky, or Castro, can act in their spirit. ried and his combatants would have been rendered powerless without the response they received, first from June 5, 1964 the peasants in the mountains and then from the masses in the rural and urban areas. The sensitivity of the Cuban leaders to the interplay of the subjective and The Long VielN 01 His'ory objective factors in the development of the revolution Price: 35 Cents and its regime at all stages has brought them to a deeper understanding of the ideas of Marx and of the Traces the main line of human development from need for a party like Lenin's. our remote animal ancestors to the present day. Assassination of Kennedy By William F. Warde Recent events ninety miles from Cuba have high­ Pioneer Publishers 116 University Place, N. Y., 3 N. Y. lighted the twofold aspects of the individual's weight

WINTER 1965 7 What the Record Really Shows: Tile Test 01 tile CUbOR RevolutioR Healy·s Position on Peng Shu-tse. Pierre Frank. James P. Cannon and the Cuban Revolution

By Joseph Hansen

OR several years Gerry Healy has British Trotskyist grouping headed The minority of the IC, headed by F been waging a persistent cam­ by Gerry Healy. By 1957 it became Healy, were invited to send a full paign against the Socialist Workers evident that the political differences delegation of their own. They turned party and, since the Reunification between the IS and the IC were nar­ down the invitation, refusing to send Congress of the Fourth International, rowing. James P. Cannon, the founder even a single observer. The majority against the majority of the world of the American Trotskyist move­ of the IC then participated in a Re­ Trotskyist movement. In recent ment and one of Trotsky'S closest col­ unification Congress.2 Posts in the months, the general secretary of the laborators in the Fourth Interna­ top bodies of the Fourth International Socialist Labour League has stepped tional took the initiative to try to were provided for all sections of both up his attacks, devoting considerable bring the two sides together. The ef­ the IS and IC. These actions were space in his press to this subject fort fell through. Within both the then left open to ratification. The In­ which seems to have become an ob­ IC and the IS, opinion nevertheless ternational Secretariat ratified as a session with him. grew that unification had become whole at once. The various sections To be the target of an attack is possible on the basis of the common of the International Committee rati­ nothing new for the SWP or the positions held by both sides. Healy fied one by one, beginning with the Fourth International. It has consti­ opposed this view although he was Chinese. tuted part of the normal education rather reticent about advancing it, As the Fourth International re­ of the cadres of Trotskyism since the confining himself by and large to united, Healy proclaimed the "con­ beginning. In the same way, the at­ quietly encouraging in the SLL a be­ tinuation" of the International Com­ tacks are normally answered, if po­ lief that the differences were widen­ mittee. Outside of the Socialist La­ litically warranted, or if something ing. At the same time he sought to bour League, the only support came can be learned from it. Healy's cam­ give the impression that he would go from scattered individuals and the paign, offering a rather stodgy brand along with efforts to reunify the La Verite grouping in France. of ultraleftism, happens to be of lit­ movement, if that was what the ma­ In justification of his position, the tle intrinsic interest.! Nevertheless jority wanted. Under Healy's in­ head of the SLL has worked out an the position he has been pressing of fluence, however, delays and a re­ elaborate rationalization. According late on the Cuban Revolution could markable dragging of feet featured to this, the entire world Trotskyist do injury in the colonial world, par­ these efforts until 1962 when the IC movement - saving himself and his ticularly Latin America, if the im­ made an abrupt turn in the direction supporters - has degenerated. The pression should gain ground that it of reunification by proposing that a prime evidence of the decay is the corresponds in any way to the views "Parity Committee" be set up be­ healing of the ten-year split. As of the Fourth International or the tween the IC and the IS. This was Healy sees it, the Socialist Workers Socialist Workers party. It has thus accepted by the IS and such a com­ party "betrayed," going over to become necessary, for prophylactic mittee was actually formed. A major "Pabloism."3 reasons, to deal with the challenge. hurdle to reunification had been The explanation offered by Healy overcome. The Split and the Reunification The Parity Committee functioned 2. For the programmatic documents on which usefully, doing much to prepare the the reunification was based see Fourth Interna­ First of all, we will indicate the tional, No. 17; Quatrieme Internationale, No. 19; background. A split occurred in the next step; i.e., healing the ten-year­ or Cuarta. Internacional, No.2. world Trotskyist movement in 1953- old breach and reuniting the bulk of 3. Michel Pablo, while greeting the reunifica­ tion, held views on a number of points con­ 54 over organizational and political the world Trotskyist movement on flicting with the position of the reunified move­ the basis of a principled program. At ment, his main stated difference concerning issues. Two international factions evaluation of the Sino-Soviet conflict (against emerged, one centered around the In­ the crucial point, however, Healy re­ critical support of the Chinese side). He reg­ istered his differences at the time of the Re­ ternational Secretariat, the other fused to proceed. He sought to post­ unification Congre1}s where his tendency rep­ pone final action for at least another resented a small minority. After the reunifica­ around thE) International Committee. tion, he developed further differences, the mo~t The latter had the support of the year, if not indefinitely, alleging the serious being on the application of democratic centralism. He argues that the norm for this Socialist Workers party and the need for more "discussion." The ma­ period should be the "coexistence" of group­ jority of the IC refused to be held ings. Acting in line with this position, he has gone so far as to issue his own public faction 1. The dismal ideological level, however, is back by any more delaying or pro­ organ and is at present suspended from leader­ offset by the pastel inks used to stimUlate read­ ship in the Fourth International. Like Healy on er interest in the Newsletter, weekly journal of crastinating maneuvers. The upshot this point, he finds the rules of democratic the Socialist Labour League. After sampling the was to send observers to the Seventh centralism fine in theory but not something to greens, blues and yellows, I find the lipstick be observed in practice . . . SCI long as he re­ pinks most intriguing. World Congress organized by the IS. mains in a minority.

8 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW for the "degeneration" is even given skyist movement contends that the UR first problem is Healy's tend­ a "sociological" basis. The Socialist Fourth International has registered O ency to view ideological differ­ Workers party has "succumbed" to major organizational successes out­ ences in personal terms. A good ex­ a bad environment; namely, the years side of proving itself capable of sur­ of prosperity and witch-hunting in viving despite the most powerful foes, ample is provided by the attack the United States. The leadership of ranging from Stalin, right through levelled in the October 10 Newsletter the SWP, the rationalization con­ Roosevelt and Churchill, to Hitler. against Peng Shu-tse. Comrade Peng tinues, was unable to effectively The Fourth International has grown wrote an Open Letter to Healy (pub­ counteract the unfavorable atmos­ and has spread Trotskyist ideas in lished in the fall 1964 International phere because of incapacity to de­ many areas; it has yet to lead a rev­ Socialist Review) the purpose of velop theory. Thus the SWP became olution. Outside of Healy, however, which was to call public attention to prey to the allegedly centrist views no Trotskyist leader denies that the a series of misstatements made in the of the International Secretariat. movement has been able to keep June 20 and June 27 issues of the Hence its position in favor of reunifi­ abreast of world events politically Newsletter concerning the position of cation of the Fourth International and to record significant achieve­ The gaps, holes and inconsistencies ments in theory. In fact, in arguing the United Secretariat in Ceylon. The in this view are rather striking. For against pessimists and skeptics who Newsletter claimed that the United instance, Healy holds that it was not seek to make much of the organiza­ Secretariat supported a capitulatory just the SWP leadership that failed tional weakness of the movement, the cen ter wing in the Lanka Sama to develop theory; the Fourth Inter­ Fourth International has been able Samaja party. The truth is that it national as a whole failed. How is this to point to its strength in the the­ supported the left wing against the to be accounted for in areas like oretical field and to its record in right wing headed by Dr. N. M. Europe, Asia and Latin America analyzing world events and trends. Perera. In addition to straightening where sociological conditions are By revising his opinion about this, out the record on these points, Com­ quite different from those in the Healy lays the ground for concluding rade Peng called attention to errors U.S.? Most pertinent of all, what that the Trotskyist movement failed of an ideological nature made by about Healy himself? in both fields. What then remains? Healy, ranging from his attitude to­ By his recent exertions in the field ward Messali Hadj and Aneurin Healy's Record of theory, Healy is evidently trying Bevan to the character of the Cuban state. Peng accused Healy of seeking In the theoretical life of the world to make up for much lost time. At Trotskyist movement, his record is the last moment, he will succeed factional advantage in the Ceylonese situation. not outstanding. In the struggle with where all the others have failed. By the petty-bourgeois opposition led by his feat he will salvage whatever is The response of the Newsletter was Shachtman and Burnham in 1939-40, salvageable in the wreck ("reorgan­ to call Peng Shu-tse "a kind of he played no role whatsoever. Dur­ izing" the Fourth International, as political house dog." This was ex­ ing the analysis of the character of he puts it diplomatically). A laudable panded: "He barks at opponents the East European countries in 1948- ambition, but one that carries an un­ when he is told to and wags his tail 50, he abstained. During the discus­ happy implication. What worth is in a disgruntled sort of way when sion of the charatcer of China and there in the program of Trotskyism, asked to be quiet." Further: "It is the Chinese Revolution in 1950-54, if, in a quarter of a century it could so long since Peng Shu-tse has been he remained silent. These were the not produce anything at all in the an active member of an organized great landmarks in the development way of a movement in either theory revolutionary party that he has com­ of theory in the Fourth International or practice except one lone lead2r, pletely lost touch with reality. Trot­ after it was founded, as universally even one as remarkable as Healy? sky used to describe such people as recognized by all sections and all But this last minute effort at rescu­ 'irremovable senators'." All this is tendencies, whatever their evalua­ ing the movement founded by Trot­ put in bold face. tions of other issues or differences. sky likewise appears doomed. Instead The tone thus set, the rest of the We do not hold it against Healy that of going ahead and making some "reply" consists of accusing Peng of he failed to make a contribution in solid contributions - these would acting "as a kind of double agent" this field. He contributed in other win acclaim from all sides - Healy in the International Committee, of ways, primarily as an organizer and wastes time complaining about the writing articles "vaguely critical of agitator, where his talents lie. These "unwillingness" of leaders of the So­ Pabloism, whilst still managing be­ fields are important, at certain stages cialist Workers party to engage with hind the scenes, to retain his toehold even decisive, in the development of him in a dispute. What does he ex­ in the Pabloite camp." (The truth is a revolutionary movement. So long pect, if, as he claims, they are bank­ that Comrade Peng was among the as Healy remained part of a rounded­ rupt? And why does he act as if his first to note the narrowing of political out team, he did very effective work. hands were tied by their alleged re­ differences between the two camps, But if failure to develop theory paves fusal? Can't he develop theory, after while the International Secretariat the way for degeneration in practice, all, unless the SWP leaders pitch in? mistakenly considered him to hold as Healy holds, where is the evidence The blind alley has no exit. quite divergent views on some key for this in his own case? Perhaps it It is true, of course, that leaders points.) The rest of the reply is a is his current excursion into the field of the SWP have displayed reluc­ heavy-handed attempt to m.eet Com­ of theory? tance to engage in a "discussion" rade Peng's challenge, made in pass­ Healy's claim that our movement, match with Healy. Perhaps the mem­ ing, to show in what way in the past following Trotsky's death, failed to ory of old ties fed an illusory hope they favored the left wing in the develop theory, carries grave impli­ that the spectacle might somehow LSSP. This is evidently intended for cations concerning the direction of be avoided. But, it seems, there is consumption among the ranks of the his course. No leader of the Trot- no choice. Socialist Labour League; since the

WINTER 1965 9

J Ceylonese Trotskyists reb u f fed Peng said in his Open Letter to Healy, away" from an "international discus­ Healy's pretensions. even if you were right, you should sion." That blast of hot air came from The five-column article was fol­ have given an explanation for your the jet engines as the author took lowed by a second installment. In turns. Peng is correct in this; arbi­ off for parts unknown. To make it this, Peng's reference to Healy's at­ trary turns do not educate the mem­ really good he challenged the "lead­ titude toward Bevan and Messali bership or sympathizing circles. But ership of the Socialist Workers Party" Hadj is selected as the target for a Peng's point is not answered; it is and all "the organisations affiliated broadside. avoided. to the Pabloite centre" to stop run­ First of all, Messali Hadj is put Likewise avoided are Peng's main ning away like Peng Shu-tse and to the side for the time being. That's points, particularly his stated reason start "discussing." a touchy subject; Bevan is the one for the Open Letter - the falsifica­ If the author is really serious about to concentrate on! The tactic followed tions in the Newsletter concernif'g asking for a "serious international in relation to the late left-wing lead­ the position of the United Secretariat discussion" as a "principled" matter, er in the British Labour party is of the Fourth International in the "not a tactical one," he could not be­ presented in the best possible light, Ceylonese situation, and Healy's hope gin better than by publishing a front­ the phase of support, according to to split the ranks of the Lanka Sama page box in simple plain black ink the author, being kept within rea­ Samaja Party (Revolutionary Sec­ with a suitable heavy black border sonable bounds. The strongest proof tion). What the experts on the N ews­ rectifying the falsifications published offered for this is the following: Letter did was to comb through Peng's by Healy. We know of no better way "During the years of Bevanism we Open Letter and single out what they by which the Newsletter might seek enjoyed the close co-operation of the considered to be the easiest line of to begin to overcome the painful im­ SWP leaders, who knew very well attack. This, they decided, was the pression created by its revolting per­ what was our attitude towards Bevan reference to Bevan. They then played sonal abuse of Comrade Peng Shu-tse and supported us fully on this." this up big in the Newsletter so that and its scandalous evasion up to now The Newsletter is soliciting the their deliberate failure to answer of the questions he raised. right people for a testimonial, and Peng's charges about the falsifications we are pleased to be called in as ex­ in the Newsletter and Healy's fac­ pert witnesses. Peng, as a member tional ax grinding in Ceylon might BOOKS - PAMPHLETS first of the International Secretariat be lost sight of in a gushing discharge I J and then the International Commit­ of printer's ink. The method, made - by J·ames P. Can/non tee until it finally participated in famous by the squid, speaks volumes the Reunification Congress, had an about the way issues are "clarified" The First Ten Years of excellent opportunity during the in the Socialist Labour League. American Communism 6.00 years in this leading position to be­ A third article in this series ap­ The History of American come very well acquainted with peared in the October 31 issue. By Trotskyism (cloth) 2.75 Healy and he reached certain con­ this time the author apparently feJt (paper) 2.00 clusions that deserve to be taken into that his audience was sufficiently The Struggle for a Proletarian account. The author of the N ewslet­ softened up and the main issues Party (cloth) 2.75 ter article, who was evidently work­ clouded enough to bring in Messali Socialism on Trial .50 ing under strong pressure to put up Hadj, former leader of the Algerian the best possible defense of Healy's nationalist struggle, once praised by America's Road to Socialism .35 record, offers as an exhibit, in op­ Healy as "a living symbol of this The Road to Peace .25 position to Peng's observations, the struggle." The delicate matter was Defense Policy in the Min- line followed by the movement as a deftly wrapped up and disposed of neapolis Trial .25 whole in the case of Bevan. In those by reference to the bloody factional Socialism and Democracy .15 days, Healy, to his credit, was respon­ fighting that broke out at one stage sive to the opinions of others, includ­ in the Algerian nationalist movement. American Stalinism and Anti- ing Comrade Pengo Under the sta­ Leaders were killed who had "exer­ Stalinism .15 bilizing influence of the international cised a very powerful restraining The End of the Comintern (The movement, the British organization left-wing [!] influence on Messali Manifesto of the Fourth In- was able to steer a reasonably steady Hadj." Thus is Peng's reference taken ternational - 1943) .15 course between the rocks of ultra­ care of and along with it the extrava­ The Russian Revolution (25th leftism and opportunism. gant literature picturing Messali Hadj - before his betrayal - as the "liv­ anniversary address - 1942) .10 Explanation Lacking ing symbol" of the Algerian Revolu­ The Coming American Revolu- But to get back to the issue. Com­ tion. tion .10 rade Peng had his own impression What of the charges levelled by To the Memory of the Old Man as to whether or not Healy at certain Peng Shu-tse about falsifications in (Leon Trotsky Memorial Ad- moments placed undue hopes in the Newsletter concerning the posi­ dress) .10 Bevan and Messali Hadj but he did tion of the United Secretariat of the not demand that his judgment be Fourth International in Ceylon and The Workers and the Second taken as definitive. What Comrade Healy's hope to split the Lanka Sama \Vorld War (1942) .10 Peng said was the following: "As to Samaja Party (Revolutionary Sec­ Notebook of an Agitator (cloth) 4.00 whether or not your attitude toward tion) ? Not a word in reply after three (paper) 2.50 Bevan was right or wrong, you never issues of the Newsletter devoted to offered any explanations either to the Comrade Peng's short Open Letter. PIONEER PUBLISHERS working class or to the members of Not a single word! The crowning 116UNIVERSITY PLACE your own group!" In other words, touch is a charge that Peng "runs NEW YORK 3, N. Y.

10 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW To savor the full impact of the type Chinese sector of the international one named "Frank Williams." Who of reply to which the Newsletter re­ TrQtskyist Left Opposition. During he is, I don't know. Perhaps Healy sorted, it is necessary to know some­ the years of ferocious repression un­ will provide us with his recO'rd in thing about Peng Shu-tse. He was der Chian Kai-shek, they worked a cO'ming issue of the Newsletter. one of the founding members of the in the underground, organizing the Otherwise, we will never be able to Chinese Communist party. In 1920 workers in the cities. tell where he acquired the abomina­ at the age of 23, a young school In 1932 Peng and Chen were ar­ ble arrogance so reminiscent of white teacher from the same prQvince as rested. Chiang Kai-shek did not dare imperialist overlords and "old China Mao Tse-tung, he constituted part of to murder them as he did so many hands." And we will not know why the group that first responded in others - they were too well known. Healy thought it desirable to have China to the October 1917 revolution. For five years the two were held be­ such a person speak for him instead As one of the most promising youth hind bars in the dungeons of the of answering the Open Letter him­ he was selected to go to' Moscow in bloody dictator, finally being released self. 1921 for special training. He attended in 1937 along with other political How to Deepen Theory the Communist University of the prisoners in face of the military ad­ With a Dossier Toilers of the East, staying in Mos­ vance of Japanese imperialism. The "Frank Williams" contribu­ cow until after the Fifth Congress The older Chen Tu-hsiu had begun tion is no isolated instance. Healy of the Comintern in 1924. He thus to show the effect of the years of appears to breed similar poison­ learned his theory in the Soviet Un­ terror and repression. A rift de­ pen practitioners in the top lead­ ion in the time of Lenin and Trotsky veloped between the two leaders. ership of the Socialist Lab 0 u r when a premium was placed Qn in­ Peng returned to Shanghai where he League. Thus the July 25 Newsletter tegrity and loyalty to principles and resumed his tasks in the underground published a long article on the front independence of mind. among the workers. page about Pierre Frank, a member Back in Shanghai, he became a With the unforseen turn taken by of the United Secretariat, "who re­ member of the staff of The Guide the Chinese Revolution - an advance cently visited Ceylon." Weekly, the official organ of the by the peasants and the development The article presents material from Communist party. He was named of the Revolution from the country­ a dispute in the French Trotskyist or­ editor of New Youth, the famous side to the city, the wing of the ganization in 1934-35 - thirty years quarterly launched by Chen Tu-hsiu movement headed by Mao Tse-tung ago! - in which Trotsky said SQme in 1915 which became the theoretical came to the fore. Their attitude to­ sharp things about his young disciple. organ of the Communist party. In ward the TrQtskyists was determined As further "exposure," the NewsLet­ January 1925 he was elected to' the by their training in the school of ter reveals that Pierre Frank came Central Committee and made a mem­ Stalinism. They imprisoned or killed to' England in 1939 "to organise a ber of the five-man Standing Com­ the Trotskyists no matter what their struggle against Trotsky and the In­ mittee (the Political Bureau) where record or how willing they showed ternational Secretariat" and that he served as head of the Propaganda themselves to be in carrying Qut the some months after the outbreak of Board and thus as editor of both the tasks of the Revolution. Peng Shu-tse World War II he was "interned for New Youth and The Guide Weekly. had to leave his native country and a short period in the Isle of Man This was his position when the Sec­ direct participation in the revolution as an alien." ond Chinese RevQlution broke out. for which he and his wife, Pi-Ian, a This "alien" was later "released" In May 1927 he was transferred to well-known woman leader and Com­ by the "police" and he "worked in Peking due to differences troubling munist writer, had sacrificed so Britain for the duration of the war." the leadership over the line to be fol­ much. The purpose of this information, lowed as the revolution reached its Peng is a heroic figure, one of the taken out of the dossiers Healy keeps, height. He was among those leaders iron Communists whose selfless devo­ was to quote from a telegram sent most uneasy over the advice and in­ tiQn in the difficult years made pos­ by Trotsky in 1935, reading: "Frank structiQns coming from Moscow (un­ sible the success of the Chinese Rev­ letter reveals centrist demoralisation der Stalin's influence) which led to olution. He sees clearly and deeply stop consider rupture preferable to the defeat of the revolution. In the as was demonstrated by the fact that concessions." From a letter written spring of 1929, two documents writ­ he was among the few in this wQrld by Trotsky shortly thereafter, the ten by Leon Trotsky were brought to who correctly estimated the true im­ Newsletter publishes the accusation China by three students. They gave port of the "Great Leap Forward" - that "Molinier and Frank . . . are Peng his first real insight into what nO't afterward but when it was capitulating to the sQcial-patriotic had happened. He showed the docu­ launched. The world Trotskyist wave." ments to Chen Tu-hsiu, who was movement can feel proud that such Whether or not Trotsky exag­ China's most famous Communist a figure stands in its ranks, still an gerated, the Newsletter article itself figure at the time. The two decided active participant in today's titanic indicates that whatever the differ­ to oppose Stalinism. One of their first international class struggle. ences of that time might have been, acts was to send a letter to the Cen­ This is the piO'neer Trotskyist they were resolved at least eighteen tral Committee asking for correction whom the Newsletter slanderously years agO'. But this is dismissed by of the line of ultraleft adventurism. labels a "house dQg" and, at the end the Newsletter and we are given the They asked for the publication of of the article in the October 17 issue, conclusion: "Right from the early Trotsky's dQcuments within the party a "pO'litical degenerate." '30s Frank was always 'a demO'ralised and the opening of an internal dis­ And what is the record of the centrist'. He was regarded by Trotsky cussion. For this the Central Commit­ authO'r who uses such language? as a demO'ralised centrist and he con­ tee expelled them on direct orders The author does not happen to be tinues so to this day." The placard from Moscow; and on NQvember 10, Gerry Healy to whom Peng addressed is then hung on his neck: "political 1929, they formally constituted the his Open Letter. The author is some imposter."

WINTER 1965 II The occasion for this attack was a Shortly after that he became in­ grilled on his "Trotskyist views," he trip by Healy to Ceylon last June volved, together with Raymond Mo­ was ordered deported. But since at the same time as Pierre Frank. linier, another French Trotskyist France was under German occupa­ Healy demanded admission to a con­ leader, in one of the numerous in­ tion, the British authorities decided ference of the Lanka Sama Samaj a ternal struggles that have been a to send him to one of their own con­ party which was then being held. The standing problem throughout the his­ centration camps. There he was kept presidium, composed of representa­ tory of the French section and which under lock and key until the end of tives of the left, center, and right ended many times in splits. This was 1943. Upon being released, he re­ wings, unanimously turned Healy the period which Healy selected to sumed his Trotskyist political activi­ down - without consulting Pierre dig for quotations. ties where he had left off. Among Frank. Pierre Frank, of course, was But during this period of separa­ others with whom he worked in Eng­ seated as the official representative tion on factional lines, Trotsky never land was Gerry Healy, who by this of the Fourth International and changed his fundamental apprecia­ time had joined the Fourth Interna­ backed the left wing against the tion of his French disciple. In the tional. Only after the war was Pierre right-wing capitulators and the cen­ December 30, 1936, entry in his diary, Frank able to return to France. trists who trailed after them. When written aboard the Norwegian tanker Frank's Correspondence with Trotsky Healy wrote up the story, he charged Ruth on the way to Mexico, Trotsky in the June 20 Newsletter that Pierre includes him among "my French Let us go back now to his relations Frank had "j oined hands with the political friends" who took a letter with Trotsky and the Fourth Inter­ coalition renegades and urged that to the Soviet ambassador in Paris. national: Molinier succeeded in join­ Healy's application be rejected." In The Case of Leon Trotsky (the ing Pierre Frank in London in the Healy also said that the United Sec­ verbatim record of Trotsky's testi­ spring of 1940. In May of that year, retariat had backed the center group­ mony before the John Dewey Com­ Stalinist assassins machine-gunned ing. Pierre Frank answered these mission in 1937), he again mentions Trotsky's bedroom in Coyoacan, falisifications in an article carried by Pierre Frank as a "French friend." Mexico. Trotsky, his wife Natalia and the July 17 World Outlook. In the At the Founding Conferen~e of the their grandson managed to escape same reply he referred to Healy's Fourth International in 1938, which death, although one of the guards ultraleftism on the British political was held under Trotsky's guidance, was kidnapped and murdered by the scene. a motion was passed approving im­ Stalinists. Upon reading the head­ Instead of retracting the falsifica­ mediate accentance of the French lines, Frank and Molinier at once tions (the same one that aroused comrades without any delay, the only wrote a letter to Trotsky, expressing Peng Shu-tse), or trying to answer exception being Molinier and even their solidarity. They indicated that Pierre Frank on a political level, the here the door was left open under they had drawn certain lessons in Newsletter theoreticians dug through certain conditions. If the French the light of the tragic events of the the files for thirty years until they groun accepted the resolution, it was day and they asked about the pos­ found what Trotsky said in 1935. Or declared, no disciplinary measures sibility of a reconciliation. perhaps they had discovered it earlier would be taken against any comrade Trotsky answered them in a letter and were reserving it for just such on the ba<:::ic::; of the past dispute. dated July 1, 1940. He proceeded an emergency. In any case, what There is more to come, as we shall cautiously, as he was evidently not Trotsky said thirty years ago exactly see, but let us turn for the moment sure about the actual state of things fitted Healy's - and not Pierre to another item in Healy's "expo­ in the French organization or pos­ Frank's - trip to Ceylon in 1964. sure." Why did Pierre Frank visit sibly he was not certain where every­ Thus the crushing rejoinder to Pierre England in 1939? Was it "to organize one stood in relation to the struggle Frank: You are a "political impos­ a struggle against Trotsky" as a kind with the petty-bourgeois opposition ter." of anticioation of what he allegedly headed by Burnham and Shatchtman did to Healy during a visit to Ceylon which had just come to a head in Pierre Frank's Record twenty-five years later? Here, again, the Fourth International. Trotsky What are the facts? Pierre Frank's are the facts: stated that it was not clear to him radical record begins as a teen-ager In France, under the Daladier re­ from the letter he had received from in Paris expelled from school because gime, as the curtain rose on World them whether it was proposed that of his radical political views. A few War II, Pierre Frank was sentenced a reconciliation be made on the basis years later, in 1923 or 1924 he joined to ten years in prison for "defeatist" of loyally accepting international the Communist party. In 1929 he was activities against the French im­ discipline. If discipline was accepted, one of a group of Communists who perialist army. Molinier also received said Trotsky, using the guarded allu­ sent a representative to see Trotsky a heavy sentence. Had the two not sions required by the times, "a sin­ when the Bolshevik leader was exiled succeeded in escaping, they would cere reconciliation would present no to Prinkipo. Under Trotsky's guid­ most surely have been murdered un­ difficulty and I would be happy to ance, he helped found the Left Op­ der the Nazi occupation as occurred open direct conversations with your position in France. By 1931 he was with other Trotskyist leaders in Eu­ father [the International] on the elected to the International Secre­ rope during the war. question; but only under these con­ tariat and in 1932 became one of As a political refugee in England, ditions. I hope you will believe that Trotsky's secretaries in Prinkipo. He Pierre Frank was accorded all the in acting in this way, I am guided was with Trotsky for about a year, "courtesies" to be expected from exclusively by your interests and going with him on his famous Copen­ British democracy in such circum­ those of our family [movement] as hagen trip. A month or so before stances. He was arrested in October a whole, with my best wishes, your Trotsky moved to exile in France, 1940, charged with not registering uncle Leon." Pierre Frank returned to help make as an "alien," and sentenced to six Frank and Molinier responded with the preparatoins. months at hard labor. After being a letter dated August 5, 1940, assur-

12 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW •

ing Trotsky that they considered lished as the decision of the most thing that Trotsky fought for. His unity "imperative"; and they went authoritative body in the Socialist shameful silence is the silence of an the whole way, pledging to Trotsky Labour League. The victim has been opportunist coward who in the final that "we accept the rights and the taught a stern lesson in what a mortal years of his life rallies to the assist­ duties as defined in your letter of sin it is to complain about falsifica­ ance of a clique of renegades who July 1, without any reservations and tions in current issues of their news­ have destroyed a large portion of without any equivocation." As to the paper. Trotsky's Fourth International." practical side of ending the split in One wonders what kind of atmos­ Along with such delectable morsels the French movement, they left this phere reigns in the Socialist Labour the charge is again levelled that the up to the International and they League under such a Political Com­ reunified Fourth International is added that they had no doubt what mittee. guilty of "revisionism"; that it "en­ the effect of Trotsky's advice would If it is necessary to go back thirty couraged the capitulation in Ceylon." be there. years to understand the full meaning The epithet "open agents of im­ They never received an answer. of the current dispute, why was this perialism" is used for the first time, On August 19 a Stalinist assassin particular incident chosen? Wouldn't so far as I am aware, in Healyite drove a pick-ax into the brain of it have been much more useful and polemics against the Trotskyist move­ their teacher, comrade and friend. to the point to compare Healy's ment. It is emphasized to show that A little later Molinier made his charge that the SWP has degenerated it is deliberate. "All those leaders way to Latin America. Pierre Frank, politically with the similar charges associated with this betrayal are, we as we have seen, was invited to enjoy made by the ultraleftist Hugo Oehler repeat, the tools of imperialism.";) As the hospitality of Churchill's govern­ thirty years ago? An instructive com­ the paragraph cited above indicates, ment for "a short period in the Isle parative study might be made of Cannon, the founder of the American of Man as an alien." (The letter to Oehler's articles about the "cen­ Trotskyist movement, before that a Trotsky was forwarded, however, to trism" and "betrayals" of James P. founder of the American Communist the International Secretariat and Cannon to the centrists in 1934-35 party, one of the key figures directly they sent Pierre Frank a favorable and similar articles sponsored by linking world Trotskyism with Len­ response which was delivered to him Healy about the founder of the Amer­ inism, who saw the objective need in jail.) ican Trotskyist movement thirty to end the split in the Fourth Inter­ We have still not finished with years later. Young comrades could national seven years ago, not least of the facts. In 1944 a European Con­ learn something from that. all because of what could happen in ference of sections of the Fourth In­ A single example like this one pro­ Ceylon, is charged with guilt for ternational was held in defiance of vided publicly by Healy's Political what did happen in Ceylon. The proof the Nazi occupation. This gathering Committee is enough to induce a cold that is offered by Healy's Labour Re­ approved the unification of the two chill at what it reveals about the view is guilt by association and - French groups, including Frank and educational methods in the Socialist by silence. (Read the charge again: Molinier, both of whom were still in Labour League. "just as guilty" because he "rallies exile. In 1946 at the first World Con­ to the assistance of ... " by maintain­ ference after the war, Pierre Frank An Award for James P. Cannon ing "shameful silence ...") was there as a representative of the Still another example indicates One can imagine the sense of out­ French section. He was elected to that we are dealing with methods rage felt by Cannon. An "opportunist the International Secretariat, an ac­ that have become accepted prac­ coward"! The target of innumerable tion that Healy approved, so far as tice among leaders of the Socialist opponents since 1910, thrown into the we have been able to ascertain. Labour Lea~ue. The summer issue of ring with some of the toughest brass­ 4 carries an editorial SLL Political Committee Labour Review knuckle artists in the trade, only to entitled "Ceylon and the Fourth In­ end up pinked by a cork from a pop A little more patience and we come ternational." This pristine gem con­ gun. Let Comrade Cannon learn that to the end of this lesson on how to tains the following paragraph: in the Socialist Labour League, un­ deepen theory by rummaging around "James P. Cannon, one of the der Healy's regime, you are equally in a dossier. The "exposure" of Pierre closest collaborators of Trotsky, is guilty whether you boldly speak your Frank printed on the front page of just as guilty for what happened in mind like Peng Shu-tse, whether you the Newsletter is not signed by Healy. Ceylon as Pablo. He adamantly re­ take a trip to Ceylon like Pierre It appears over an anonymous signa­ fused to discuss with the Socialist Frank, or whether, choosing the ture, "A Statement by the Political Labour League and the organizations course of "cowardly opportunism," Committee of the SLL." Who are the of the [International?] Committee of you just continue reading your news­ members of this body? What are their the Fourth International the major paper. credentials? How long have they been political differences which have now in the movement? Did they, too, en­ been revealed through the agency of 5. In the October 31 Newsletter Frank Wil­ joy vacations on the Isle of Man as Mrs. Bandaranaike's coalition gov­ liams writes: "The Pabloites have no answer to our criticis:ns, so they proceed to denO'unce us Churchill's guests during the war and ernment. Cannon has betrayed every- as agents of Wall Street imperialism." The thus get to know Pierre Frank? author of course may argue that by "Pabloites" he m€'~ns a perfectly definite category in his The information is not divulged. A 4. Healy has changed the name of his theo­ own head - where the alleged denunciations retical magazine to Fourth International, appar­ also exist. In the context of the article the surreptitious conclave of unknown ently for the sake of adding to the confusion reference could, unfortunately, be taken to' created by the ultraleftist J. Posadas who split mean the United Secretariat of the Fourth In­ composition meets, constitutes itself from the Fourth International in 1962. PO'sadas ternational or leaders of the Socialist Workers into a kangaroo court, peers at vari­ issues publications that have duplicated those party. None of these, to my knowledge, have of the Fourth International down to the typo­ ever labelled the Healyites "agents of imperial­ ous items laid on the table by an graphy, but filled of course with his own mat­ ism," since all of them are perfectly aware that erial, mostly transcripts of his speeches. Posadas the correct label is "ultraleftists" and all of unnamed prosecuting attorney, and calls his grO'uping of isolated individuals in them knO'W the importance to Marxism of ac­ arrives at its ineluctable verdict: various countries t.e "Fourth International" curacy in terminology. Perhaps Williams is suf­ and uses the name "International Secretariat" fering from a bad conscience . . . if something "political imposter." This is then pub- the way Healy uses "International Committee." more deliberate is not involved.

WINTER 1965 13 And who are the doughty warriors present "discussion" whether we are relations. (In Yugoslavia a genuine now enlisted in Healy's army of de­ dealing with basic flaws in character revolution was the main driving force tractors of James P. Cannon? Healy's or simply bad habits. We trust we albeit under an opportunist leader­ magazine has two editors, Tom Kemp are not accused of unfairly raking up ship.) These developments were re­ and Cliff Slaughter. They bear re­ the unsavory school in which they flected in the theory of "deformed" sponsibility for the editorial. Both of received their political training. As workers states - new workers states them were British Stalinist intellec­ they are well aware, we long sought bearing the imprint of both the pro­ tuals until 1956. In that year, they to avoid having to beard them in pub­ perty forms that came out of the Oc­ acquired their wisdom from Khru­ lic on their theoretical level. If we tober 1917 Revolution and its subse­ shchev at the Twentieth Congress of do so now, it is in large part because quent Stalinist degeneration. the Communist party of the Soviet of their own insistent demands and The next big advance in theory re­ Union. They were among a sizeable the evidence that they still employ flected the victory of the Chinese group in England who found their the methods they learned there.6 Revolution. In this the role of the way to the Trotskyist movement. Soviet Union was not quite so direct. Healy and the Cuban Revolution This was to their credit. It is also In addition, quite new things ap­ to their credit that they stayed when Having waded in hip boots through peared - the positive role of guer­ others who came at that time proved all this muck we reach the solid rilla warfare (already anticipated in less firm-or, if we are now to be­ ground of Healy's vaunted theory. Yugoslavia), the capacity of a peas­ lieve their tales, had weaker stom­ Will it prove worth the effort? The antry to create an organized armed achs. But to this day they are appar­ gist of the matter can be put very force, the advance of a revolution ently convinced that at least part of briefly. from the countryside to the cities. their training in the Stalinist move­ The big advances in the field of The main theoretical conclusions ment was invaluable. They cling, for theory made by the world Trotsky­ reached in Eastern Europe applied in instance, to the scientific terminology ist movement are primarily reflec­ China but with differences because that every Stalinist theoretician must tions of the extension of the October of the new features. master. "Political house dog," "polit­ Revolution. Four main facts have had The theoretical conclusions in rela­ ical degenerate," "political imposter," to be accounted for. First, successful tion to China were generally accept­ "open agents of imperialism," "clique revolutions have not yet occurred in ed in the movement only after re­ of renegades," "opportunist coward" the advanced imperialist countries. peated re-testing of basic positions. are some of the more restrained Secondly, revolutions have smashed The inferences were considerable due examples of the edifying art of through to power only in areas where to China's size, her population, the Stalinist polemic. Perhaps Kemp and capitalism was weakest. Thirdly, up potential of the country as a world Slaughter still cherish this dubious to now the revolutions in these areas power and the influence its example acquisition because they met with no have succeeded without the working would have. If some differences still rebuff while perfecting this art in class taking the open direct lead from remain over China and new ones the SLL. On the level of "theory" the beginning. Fourthly, this has oc­ have appeared, they do not concern they find a common meeting ground curred without the prior formation the basic appraisal of China as a with their new leader. of revolutionary-socialist Leninist­ workers state. In any case, up to this As a matter of curiosity we wonder type parties. The latter two facts point, Healy, as we have indicated what kept Tom Kemp and Cliff raised a number of difficulties in earlier, offered neither contributions Slaughter in the Stalinist movement theory which were solved only after of his own nor objections to the theo­ until Khrushchev roused them from deep consideration and long discus­ retical conclusions of others. their dogmatic slumbers? We rule sion. The next great landmark was the out, of course, the possibility that The first extension of the October Cuban Revolution. From the view­ they might have been motivated by Revolution occurred in Eastern Eu­ point of theory its major importance opportunism or cowardice. This rope (including Yugoslavia) after the was the confirmation it provided to leaves either ignorance or stupidity. victory of the Soviet Union in W or ld the main conclusions in the previous Neither of these are dishonorable but War II, the advance of its armed analyses. The confirmation was most why, then, their intellectual preten­ forces beyond the Soviet border, and brilliant. The line of theory now sions? We should like to hear their the Kremlin's subsequent decision to stands unbroken from its begining in answer so that we can judge in the carry out an overturn in property 1939-40. Most heartening of all from

6. As a recent example of how the Healyite result of the revisionist policies of the Unified "Apart from these formulations, the main school operates, we offer the November 7, 1964, Secretariat who have once again betrayed ..." question in our opinion is the necessity to' as­ issue of the Newsletter. The following item, In the Healyite brain, the "Pabloite centre" sociate with the united front the plantation on a background of tomato red, appears on page wields almost demoniac powers as can be seen workers who represent the bulk of the agricul­ 3 as an insertion in a six-column article con­ in the state relations of some countries. tural workers in Ceylon. As these workers are cerning the scandalous deal between the heads The fallowing is the actual text of the per­ not organised in any working class political of the Ceylonese and Indian governments to tinent part of the July 1 letter written to the party, the assO'ciation can be ensured only deport 675,000 Indian residents now in Ceylon: then official secretary of the Ceylonese section through a collaboration with their trade unions, "On July 1 last year, the Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International: the DWC and CWC." of the Fourth International wrote from the By cutting eighteen words out of a sentence Pabloite centre in Paris to Leslie Goonewardene, "The Unified Secretariat concretely proposes in one of the above paragraphs and providing Secretary of the Lanka Sarna Samaja Party, that an additional clause be inserted in point their own "explanation" of the meaning of the saying: 'We recognize there is nothing wrong 14 (a) to make it clear that the party stands phrase thus separated from its cClIltext, our in the principle of negotiations between India for equal oppO'rtunity for the Tamil language "theoreticians" are able to "prove" that the and CeylClIl on the subject' rthe citizenship in relations between citizens and the Central "Pabloite centre" stood for the exact opposite rights of Tamil workers]. The present agree­ Administration. of what it actually stood for. The monstrousness ment is a result of the revisionist policies of the "Concerning point 14 (b) we think that in of what they did - its deliberateness - can be Unified Secretariat who have CIIlce again be­ order to avoid any ambiguity it must be made judged by simply reading the original sentence. trayed workers in Ceylon. Once again members clear that the option of deciding the citizenship What compels the leadership of the SLL to of the Unified Secretariat stand exposed and rights of persons of Indian origin should nat be resort to such falsifications? Do they really conedemned r sic 1 as traitors to the working left ultimately to the goodwill of the govern­ think they can get away with "discussion" of class." ment of India, but to the people directly con­ this character simply because their victims are This is exactly the way the box was printed, cerned, although we reco~nize of course that likely to throw up their hands at the appalling with the exceptiClIl of the "sic" which we added. there IS nothing wrong in th" principle of nego­ work required to reply? Whatever their reason­ Note the charge that the shameful agreement ne­ tiations between India and C_ylon on the sub­ ing may be, these methods clearly have nothing gotiated by the Ceylonese prime minister "is a ject. whatsoever in cammon with Trotskyism.

14 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW a political point of view was the ap­ him. Since no Trotskyist party was angle, the Cuban Revolution revealed pearance in Cuba of a leadership organized in Cuba prior to the Rev­ that world capitalism is much weaker whose origin was completely outside olution, obviously no successful rev­ than its appearance indicates. It is the Communist movement but which olution could occur there. It is just far gone in its death agony. Even evolved in the course of the revolu­ as obvious to Healy, for the same tiny Cuba could "get away" with it! tion itself toward Marxist positions. reason, that there was no overturn in In contrast to Healy, who sees only Thus dawned the bright perspective property relations in Cuba. The another dreary "betrayal," the for which the Trotskyist movement Cuban state remains "capitalist" and Fourth International drew fresh in­ had struggled since its inception Castro is just another "Chiang Kai­ spiration from the Cuban Revolu­ against the conservatism of both the shek." (This is really Healy's posi­ tion. Healy came to the conclusion Stalinist and Social-Democratic bu­ tion!) Anyone who expostulates, that it was necessary to perpetuate reaucracies. Theory now proclaims pointing to the destruction of the cap­ and deepen the split in the world that the Cuban Revolution, the first italist and big landholding classes, to Trotskyist movement. The majority socialist revolution in the Western the extensive nationalizations, the of both the International Secretariat Hemisphere, is the harbinger of a beginnings of genuine planned econ­ and the International Commit1tee and great new wave of revolutions that omy and the many social and eco­ the Socialist Workers party took it as will end with world capitalism going nomic gains of the workers and peas­ fresh evidence for the need to close down in its main centers. ants such as the agrarian reform is ranks, to subordinate secondary dif­ denounced by Healy as an "empiric­ ferences, and to unite on the basis of Healy Demurs ist." An even gamier label may be a principled program, the better to It was at this point that Healy awarded as we have seen. Healy fails take advantage of the new opportu­ raised a finger: "I object." completely to see why the Cuban nities. Healy's objection insofar as he has Revolution is of primary theoretical That is where the differences stand been able to reduce it to rational importance for the whole Trotskyist today on the theoretical level. They statement is as follows: According to position on the question of the nature will remain right there until Healy Marxist theory it is impossible to of the workers state, including Trot­ grasps the import of the challenge to have a successful revolution without sky's position on the USSR. examine the grounding of the Trot­ prior organization of a Trotskyist He fails to see why the Cuban Rev­ skyist position on Cuba, in our prior party; whoever says otherwise is a olution is much more dramatic evi­ positions on China, Yugoslavia, East­ revisionist. dence of the true balance of world ern Europe, and the Soviet Union. To the request to look at the Cuban forces than were the overturns in Revolution, Healy again objects: Eastern Europe or even the Chinese HEORY is tested in practice. And "That's being empirical." Revolution, the theoretical apprecia­ T while a broad theory may not When asked about China, Yugos­ tion of which Healy did not question. appear to have immediate conse­ lavia, Eastern Europe, and ultimate­ But without the direct inspiration quences this can prove to be a most ly the character of the state in the and guidance of a Trotskyist party deceptive appearance. In the case of USSR as analyzed by Trotsky, our in Cuba, how could a revolution win Healy his theory led to the separa­ deepener of theory, whose press is so there? The answer is that given the tion of the Socialist Labour League loquacious when it comes to "discuss­ development of class forces to the from the Cuban Revolution and, in­ ing" the character of James P. Can­ point of explosion inside Cuba, the deed, the whole Latin-American rev­ non, Peng Shu-tse and Pierre Frank, revolutionary-minded leadership at olution. finds that the best principle is to hand proved capable of drawing in­ This is due to the fact that Healy's keep a firm grip on his tongue. spiration from the example of the theory blocks the SLL from finding The meaning of the demand that Chinese Revolution (ultimately the practical ways of offering concrete he study the continuity of the theory October Revolution) and of learning support to the Cuban Revolution. It is apparently not grasped by him al­ key lessons from revolutionary ex­ is true that you will occasionally find though his French supporters ap­ perience in Latin America (Guate­ a phrase in the Healyite press de­ peared for a time to have caught a mala and Bolivia as well as Cuba's claring "support" for the Cuban Rev­ glimmering; they promised to go own revolutionary past). They built olution. However, it is not clear just back to the origin of the concepts a tightly disciplined grouping of what Cuban Revolution is meant, the that found confirmation in Cuba. Not armed partisans who, in the course of one that conquered in 1959 and led much has come of this promise, how­ struggle, became conscious revolu­ to establishment of a workers state ever. tionists. With this they were already in 1960, or a future revolution that As for the chief theoretician of the well on the way to Marxism. Begin­ finally meets Healyite specifications. SLL, he has simply sought other ning as rebels, they became revolu­ If they are talking about the present points of difference such as estimates tionists and eventually socialists. An Revolution, their "support" amounts of the relative weight of the revolu­ empirical path, but still a path! In to little more than a stock sentence tion in colonial and imperialist coun­ addition, the mere existence of the added once in awhile to an article tries and whether or not it is a fact Soviet Union and China as world condemning the Cuban government that for a time the main arena of powers affected the perspective in - if the editor doesn't forget. revolutionary activity has been the Cuba because of the aid, either in­ On the basis of his new thinking, colonial world (Healy denies it). In direct or direct, that could be ob­ it is true, Healy can claim that the these endeavors it can scarcely be tained. The Cuban Revolution echoed best possible "support" is the critic­ said that he has come up with any the October 1917 Revolution in Rus­ ism he occasionally provides. Revolu­ stunning successes. sia, as the Cuban leaders themselves tionary criticism is a good thing if it The Cuban Revolution thus offers admitted when they stood back and is correct and makes a genuine con­ Healy no theoretical problem and is began sizing up what they had ac­ tribution to better understanding of indeed of little theoretical interest to complished. Looked at from another the revolutionary process and defense

WINTER 1965 15 of its interests. We are all for that. of the revisionists in Europe and "Castro proposed to halt all mat­ But this is not the nature of what America have been proved demon­ erial aid to Latin American revolu­ Healy has chosen to offer. strably false by events in Cuba." tionaries," says the Newsletter, ex­ A recent example was the full­ And on what factual basis does citedly repeating the falsification in page attack in the July 18 Newsletter this well-timed "exposure" of Castro Eder's interview. entitled "Bankrupt middle-class pro­ rest? An interview by N ew York "This was part of a whole series gramme leads Castro into US Hands." Ti'mes correspondent Richard Eder. of proposals whose end result would This article was based on extensive The accuracy of this interview was be the re-integration of Cuba into quotations from an interview con­ questioned on all sides at the time by the capitalist world market." The ducted by Richard Eder and pub­ supporters of the Cuban Revolution. "end result" is not Castro talking. It lished in the July 6 New York Times. In Paris, World Outlook wrote for is the Newsletter's own little con­ In order to better evaluate the instance that the "offer" which Eder tribution; or, if you wish, the author's Newsletter's contribution to "clarifi­ claimed Castro made to "withhold contribution. The author is "Ed Stil­ cation" on the subject of the Cuban material support from Latin-Amer­ well." We never heard of him but Revolution, the timing should be ican revolutionary movements if the let us suppose that he is a new writ­ noted. During June and July U.S. United States and its hemispheric er, who, by way of encouragement in imperialism was driving its hemis­ allies would cease their material sup­ starting out in the four-page News­ pheric campaign toward a paroxysm port of subversive activity against letter, was told to go ahead and take of hatred for the courageous regime Cuba" is "quite contrary to the line all of page two. that dared to defy the nuclear goliath Castro and his government have fol­ Slanted reporting of the garbled or and defend the little country's sov­ lowed." World Outlook pointed out falsified interview continues. "This ereignty and socialist achievements. that the official Spanish version of pattern should be clear enough," says The pressure was on in the Organ­ the interview said nothing about any Stilwell. "Castro is proposing first of ization of American States to con­ such offer. Inquiries made in Havana all to turn his back on the struggling demn the Cuban leaders on charges by other supporters of the Cuban masses of Latin America if the United of seeking to extend the revolution Revolution s 00 n established that States will guarantee the security of across the Caribbean to Venezuela. either Eder had not understood Cas­ his regime." That's not Castroism in The motion that was finally passed tro, had garbled what he said, or it Cuba or anywhere else in Latin July 26 actually reads, "the Repub­ had been garbled or falsified in the America; it's just pure Healyism in lic of Venezuela has been the target office of the New York Times.7 distant London. of a series of actions sponsored and How to Mix Up Cuban Sugar We finally reach a paragraph that directed by the Government of Cuba, touches Healy's theoretical position: And British Coal openly intended to subvert Vene­ "These steps, without a single de­ zuelan institutions and to overthrow Yet on the basis of this garbled nationalization, will mean the com­ the democratic government of Vene­ interview or deliberate falsification, plete integration of the Cuban econ­ zuela through terrorism, sabotage, printed during a ferocious imperialist omy into the world capitalist econ­ assault, and guerrilla warfare." lynch campaign against Cuba, Healy's omy and furthermore its integration The motion called on every coun­ Newsletter dared to shriek "betrayal" as a subordinate, colonial, dependent try belonging to the OAS to "suspend and devote an entire page to "ex­ section of this world economy." all trade" except a few items for posing" the "absolute bankruptcy" of Such an economy, we are told, "humanitarian reasons"; to "suspend Castro's "petty-bourgeois ideology"! "will have even less weight" than all sea transportation" to Cuba ex­ A little closer look at this master­ the nationalized coal industry in cept what might be necessary to piece of Healyite "theory" will prove Great Britain's economy. And just as transport the "humanitarian" items; enlightening. the nationalized coal industry "sup­ and warned the Cuban government plies cheaply an important raw mat­ that if it persisted in its revolution­ 7. Castro said, diplomatically, that he had erial for Britain's giant capitalist been "misunderstood." By way of rectification, ary course it could signify "individ­ the New York Times under a July 27 dateline establishments, so a nationalized from Santiago de Cuba quoted from a speech ual or collective self-defense, which made by Castro the previous day in which he economy in Cuba will supply an im­ could go so far as resort to armed made a specific denial. Here are some key sen­ portant raw material, sugar, for the tences which we have translated from the text force ..." of the speech: American capitalists of the North." "But in one of the questions, he asked me: The lynch campaign covered the 'And the question of aid from Cuba to the rev­ This platter of coal dust, served up front pages of the entire capitalist olutionary movement, in Latin America, is that with a sugar frosting, goes for theo­ negotiable?' Well, I thought that the question press from Point Barrow to Pata­ referred to this aid that they say we are giv­ retical reasoning in the Socialist ing to revolutionary movements in Latin Amer­ gonia. Day and night the hate-Cuba ica; and I didn't say yes or no. In other Labour League. Let us extend the propaganda pounded the American words, I didn't say whether we have been analogy. All of British industry, helping them or not helping them. I limited public over radio and TV. This was myself to answering his question. And I told banking and transport, might be na­ him: 'Look, aid to the revolutionary move­ the time chosen by Healy to add his ments can't be negotiated, it can't be nego­ tionalized; key sectors of the land, bit: "Moves by Fidel Castro to offer tiated' - I told him [Applausel. 'If you ask too; the British bourgeoisie gracious­ me another question, that is, if you ask me an 'Alliance for Progress' to the if our country is capable of living up to inter­ ly given exit visas to go to Boston national norms, I would then say, yes; but we United States reveals the absolute are not going to negotiate solidarity. This would the way the Cuban bourgeoisie went bankruptcy of his petty-bourgeois not be worthy of revolutionists; and if we hap­ to Miami; a planned economy might pen to give 50me aId or ask for some aid, it's ideology . . . deal . . . lays bare the not in order to negotiate on the basis of such be begun; a whole series of gains for aid, no." complete betrayal of the Cuban peo­ The July 31 issue of World Outlook, published the masses instituted, such as cutting ple by the Soviet bureaucracy . . . the pertinent extracts from the Spanish text rents in half; the economic orienta­ of the interview, quoted the rectification pub­ blind-alley into which the Cuban lished by the New York Times and specifically tion of the country shifted into the called attention to the blunder of the News­ leaders have empirically led the letter in utilizing the Eder interview as the Soviet bloc; the government that Cuban people ... slow disintegration basis for its one-page spread in the July 18 is­ came to power in a great popular sue. To this day the Newsletter has not seen of a once-popular rebellion ... ideas fit to print a rectification. revolution leading to the destruction

16 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW of the old army, police, and state ap­ have indeed sucked a great deal of world market are presented as de­ paratus could call itself Marxist­ journalistic pap from Eder's thumb. cisive in determining the character of Leninist and begin intensive mass Note the twists and turns and loaded a workers state. All the criteria used education, using the works of Marx language: "C as t r 0 admits" ... up to now by Trotsky and the world and Lenin as texts; and still at 186 "admits"? "if" one pays no attention Trotskyist movement have been Clapham High it would be said this to what he says. And Castro, Ben dumped. The criteria of a popular is only "bourgeois nationalism," the Bella and Nkrumah constitute one revolution (or Soviet control), of the proof being that if trade relations reactionary crew of demagogues, all destruction of bourgeois rule and were resumed with the capitalist three being just "bourgeois national­ bourgeois property relations, the na­ USA then all the nationalizations in ists." Yes, "bourgeois" was the word tionalization of property and the es­ Britain would have no more signifi­ chosen by the theoreticians of the tablishment of a state monopoly of cance than municipal ownership of London Newsletter. foreign trade and then a planned the subway system in New York. Let's proceed a bit more deeply economy have all been discarded by As can be seen, the dish of British into the statements offered as theo­ the Newsletter's "Marxist" contribu­ coal and Cuban sugar tends to end retical analysis of the Cuban Revolu­ tor. Everything now hinges on Cuba's up as an intestinal obstruction. Rea­ tion: "These steps . . . will mean." relation to the world market. But soning by analogy has its dangers. The tense is in the future. If a num­ why confine this to Cuba? What Yet with such methods the leaders ber of steps ~re carried out, some­ about Yugoslavia? What about the of the Socialist Labour League de­ time in the future, this will then Paris Commune? And in the case of termine their policies in relation to mean that the Cuban Economy will the Soviet Union ... was it the re­ the Cuban Revolution. Read further: be integrated ... completely ... and duction of ties with the world market "It is becoming increasingly clear "will supply" the U.S. with cheap that made it a workers state? (As the that the Cuban Revolution, though sugar; therefore the Cuban Revolu­ first workers state it could not shift the most radical colonial revolution tion has not "brought" about a defi­ to relations with a Soviet bloc.) of the last decade, has not brought nitive break with "world" capitalism The most ridiculous part of the about a definitive break with world and "in no sense" has a workers state analysis is that if only this single capitalism and in no sense has a "been established." The tense has revisionist criterion were applied, workers' state been established." suddenly shifted to the past. A pre­ Cuba would have to be called a Continue reading: "Castro now diction establishes a past condition, workers state today. It's principal admits this if one looks a little deeper operating retroactively before it is economic relations are with the So­ than the radical rhetoric which he confirmed. Healy, we are compelled viet bloc. Therefore if the Healyite uses in common with other bourgeois to admit, has developed Marxist formula is correct, Cuba became a nationalists I ike Ben Bella and theory to new and quite unforeseen workers state when the U.S. estab­ Nkrumah." heights. lished its economic blockade and The publishers of the Newsletter Trade relations with the capitalist forced Cuba to carryon the bulk of VICTIMS OF APARTHEID TERROR APPEAL FOR AID

The trial of the noted South Afri­ mine whether they are concealing can scholar, Dr. Neville Alexander, weapons. originally scheduled for December Prisoners are allowed to get only of this year, has been postponed to one letter and one visit per half year. March 1965. The trial is being held­ Dr. Alexander's case is one of the most important in the growing up because South African prison world-wide struggle against apart­ authorities refuse to allow defense heid. Defense committees for Dr. attornies to obtain signatures from Alexander and his co-defendants Dr. Alexander and his seven co-de­ have been formed in many countries, fendants, who are imprisoned in including West-Germany, where Dr. Robben Island - South Africa's Alexander studied, Japan and Eng­ version of a Nazi concentration land. camp. Funds are urgently needed to sup­ port this case. Of the $12,000 which The fact that prison authorities will be necessary to carry through won't allow his lawyers to see Dr. an appeal, about $5,000 have been Alexander and his comrades is fur­ collected, mainly in West Germany. ther evidence of the maltreatment Your contributions may be sent di­ of prisoners in this camp. Heinous rectly to Franz J. T. Lee (Secretary) crimes and atrocities are committed Dr. Alexander Defense Comm., Uni­ against the native African prisoners, versity of Tiibinger, 74 Tiibingen, including the notorious Tau s a Froschgasse C 2, West Germany, or "dance" in which the prisoners are to the International Socialist Review, made to strip naked before the ra­ 116 University Place, New York 3, cist prison guards allegedly to deter- Dr. Alexander N. Y.

WINTER 1965 17 its trade with the Soviet bloc. By any Latin-American opposition ef­ of the Newsletter that the liberal the same logic it will remain a work­ fectively even if he wanted to, and Kennedy sponsored the armed inva­ ers state until such time as those his Communism has been a disillu­ sion of Cuba that ended in defeat at trade relations actually come to an sIonment, not an appeal, in the hem­ Playa Giron. As for the potentially end. isphere. still more liberal Johnson (as the At this point we could say that if "The 26th of July celebrations un­ Newsletter sees him), he discarded this Healyite theoretician really be­ derline Dr. Castro's effectiveness as even the shreds of Kennedy's "Al­ lieved his own theory, it would be a subversive agent. It is the fact that liance for Progress," sponsored a possible to make a political bloc with he and his regime survive after more counterrevolution in Brazil last April, him in defense of the Cuban workers than five and a half years of turmoil, and did not hesitate during his cam­ state. We know that Eder's interview economic collapse, the exodus of a paign to order the bombing in the was either garbled or falsified and in great number of middle-class and Gulf of Tonkin. In the term of office any case the alleged "offer" by Cas­ professional elements, and after ev­ now before him, Cuba will remain tro was rejected by the State De­ erything that the United States could one of his main targets - as it was partment the very day after the in­ do to him short of a military inva­ for Eisenhower and Kennedy. The terview was printed. Thus, if the sion, which gives him his greatest truth is, as a rudimentary class an­ criterion is valid, Cuba will remain impact on Latin America. So long alysis should show anyone, it is "ob­ a workers state for some time unless as he remains a towering figure on viously" in the best interests of it is crushed by the U.S. or under­ the hemispheric scene hated, American imperialism to crush the goes such prolonged isolation that it feared and despised by many; loved Cuban Revolution, thus counteract­ eventually completely degenerates, a and admired by some - he will be ing the example it has set and teach­ possibility that appears little likely a grave danger to Latin America and, ing the rebellious Latin American in the world of today. So why not because of his connections with Rus­ colonial slaves a fearful lesson. Under join in common efforts to keep the sia, to the United States." present circumstances, the Cubans Cuban workers state safely trading Healy's toying with Trotskyist have every reason for their alert­ with the Soviet bloc? The trouble is theory presents him, as one of ness, their nervousness, and their re­ that our author is too unstable and the rewards, with an impenetrable peated warnings about Washington's too illogical. He doesn't stick with mystery. His revisionist conclusions intentions. If American imperialism the revisionist criterion he has ad­ block any rational understanding of does not move in a sudden violent vanced, he won't hold to its logic. the course of American imperialism way to crush Cuba it is because the He is motivated by other considera­ in relation to Cuba and the rest of Wall Street brain-trust calculates that tions. To confirm Healy's line, the Latin America. Thus, to refer again the overall relationship of class forces Cuban government must "betray" - to the "clarifying" article on Cuba in on a world scale is not propitious yesterday, today, tomorrow, conti­ the July 18 Newsletter, we read: for the operation. If, under certain nuously, all the time. "There is, of course, some question circumstances, they should be com­ And so Stilwell, this scintillating as to the attitude of the United States pelled to "recognize" the Cuban Rev­ new addition to the Newsletter's towards these developments. On the olution as Henry Ford finally had to staff, continues on the theme of surface, the US stance seems to com­ recognize the Auto Workers union, Castro having "turned to the capital­ pletely preclude any kind of coming it would be due to a new change in ist camp." (How can a bourgeois na­ to terms with Cuba - even though the relationship of class forces, furth­ tionalist turn to the capitalist camp? this would obviously lie in the best er weakening the American position. Was he then in some other camp?) interests of US imperialism." With the counterrevolutionary vic­ "Castro's policy was thus a sort of Contrary to the Newsletter there tory for American imperialism in peaceful co-existence with a ven­ was no question about the U.S. at­ Brazil last April, the immediate per­ geance." Even "partial support for titude. It was restated by the State spectives for Cuba darkened. The limited revolutions was not to last for Department the day after the Eder chances for another military thrust long." The proof advanced by the interview. Two issues are "not nego­ under Pentagon auspices rose. But author for this remarkable assertion tiable," a State Department spokes­ that does not mean another attack is is none other than Venezuela, the man told the press. One is "Castro's inevitable. The combined strength of very country that was being used by promotion of subversion elsewhere in the Soviet Union, the East European Washington to spearhead the cam­ the hemisphere" and the other is his countries, the swiftly rising power of paign against Cuba while Stilwell "ties of dependency with the Soviet China, the newly freed colonial coun­ was working on his contribution for Union ..." tries like Algeria, and solidarity with the Newsletter. In this way we are Our Newsletter pundit, however, the Cuban Revolution - which re­ offered the sharpest possible contra­ knows better. To him it's obvious mains a mighty force in Latin Amer­ diction between Healy's estimate of where the "best interests of US im­ ica, and even inside the United Castro and that of the imperialists. perialism" lie. He speculates that States, Canada, Great Britain and We cite as evidence of the impe­ similar "intelligence" is "not totally Europe - can compel American im­ rialist estimate, two paragraphs from excluded" among the U.S. rulers and perialism to procrastinate, to post­ the editorial which appeared in the that after the election Johnson might pone the military showdown it would New York Times of July 27, the day "be in a position to carry out some like to undertake just as it has pro­ after the OAS passed its ·counterrev­ international wheeling and dealing crastinated and postponed its time­ olutionary resolution. that would make Kennedy look like table for World War III. If this can "The real issue in the much-feared a conservative." The implication is be accomplished it will be a trem­ subversion of Latin America by that Johnson might just pick up that endous victory for the Cuban Revolu­ Marxist-Leninist Cuba is not a phy­ "offer" reported in Eder's garbled or tion and for the socialist revolution sical one," say the editors. "Premier falsified report. on a world scale. It is a realizable Castro is not in a position to arm We would remind the publishers goal.

18 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW Healy sees otherwise. His stand on ended under Castro? Will he smash was founded. The main sectors of the the Cuban Revolution has taken him Batista's army, police and state by movement independently reached the farther and farther away from the leading a true armed insurrection same basic conclusions on a new world Trotskyist movement. from Pico Turquino? If the economic major world event, the Cuban Rev­ "The recent events in Cuba," the and social overturn accomplished olution. For whatever reasons, Healy Newsletter claims in its assessment under Castro was only the "radical proved incapable of keeping up. He of the garbled or falsified Eder inter­ rhetoric" of a "bourgeois nationalist," suffered the most unhappy fate that view, "have confirmed irrefutably a "Chiang Kai-shek," what kind of can befall a revolutionist. He was that no petty-bourgeois leadership "radical rhetoric" does Healy pro­ unable to recognize a revolution and party can establish a workers' pose? It would be well for him to when he saw one. The events in state. The working class in Cuba have inform the Cuban proletariat - Cuba, in the whole colonial world, neither power - nor the semblance peasants, too - more specifically were beyond him. of it - the militia, the agrarian re­ about how he proposes to accomplish His comrades and friends, even at form and the nationalizations not­ what has already been accomplished the cost of some abuse, allowed him withstanding." before he sets out from the London a couple of years to discover that his In other words, we are told, there docks in a British Granma. position was untenable and that wis­ is no workers state in Cuba today dom called for a retreat. He chose and no hope of establishing one so Recent Binge the opposite course. The result was long as the Castro government re­ Is Healy, then, incapable of any­ that he ended up in a minority in the mains in power. Healy has ruled out thing but the most barren ultraleft­ International Committee. When the consideration of the Castro regime as ist course? Not at all. In the case of majority decided that it was time to even a Workers and Peasants Gov­ Bevan, he was, with the help of the go ahead, that it was a necessity to ernment, the possibility of which was international movement, able to avoid proceed with the unification of the forecast and discussed by the Com­ shipwreck. The leaders of the Social­ world Trotskyist movement, Healy munist International in Lenin's time ist Workers party can testify to this, broke ranks. Instead of joining in the and referred to again by Trotsky in and they are expert witnesses, as we Reunification Congress and abiding the Transitional Program. Incapacity know from the Newsletter itself. It by the rules of democratic central­ to distinguish shadings, incapacity to is just that now, having cut off his ism, which would have permitted appreciate their importance, readi­ international ties, Healy gives way to him to present his point of view in­ ness to brush them aside, are quite moods he has probably long resented side the movement, he decided to characteristic of ultraleftism. curbing. He is on an ultraleft binge. take his case to the public. What conclusions do the SLL re­ The evidence could not be cJ earer. In the process he deepened his er­ visionists of Trotskyist theory draw The Newsletter reveals in its pseudo rors. He began floundering. On the from this? reply to Comrade Peng that Healy eve of the British elections, readers "Cuba can and will be defined as was capable of offering critical sup­ of the Newsletter must have been a workers' state only when a revolu­ port to Bevan - when Bevan was hard put to determine who was the tionary party based on the program­ moving to the left. But did Bevan main enemy, the Tories, Pablo, James me of the Fourth International has ever move as far to the left as Cas­ P. Cannon, Harold Wilson or Peng successfully overthrown the capital­ tro? Take a look at the record. In Shu-tse. (From the ultraleft view­ ist state - at present represented by contrast to the genuine revolutionist point, of course, there wasn't much the bonapartist dictatorship of Cas­ Castro, what was Bevan? A "fake difference, the whole world outside tro - and replaced it by the dicta­ left," as the Newsletter might say. of the Healyites being one reaction­ torship of the working class." Now if Healy could at one time offer ary mass.) Much worse than the ridi­ Note that. Stilwell can and will critical support to the fake left Bevan culous figure Healy made of himself define Cuba as a workers state "only - and it was correct to do so at a with his display of unbridled faction­ when a revolutionary party ..." And certain stage - yet today refuses to alism was such an error as finding what happened to the criterion offer critical support to a truly rev­ himself issuing a private declaration brought down with such authority olutionary figure like Castro, it is of war on the beleaguered Castro earlier in the same article, accord­ possible to draw only one logical con­ government at the very moment the ing to which a country's relations clusion: Healy has changed. His po­ Johnson administration was ramming with the world market are absolutely litics are no longer the same. He is through its warmongering OAS re­ decisive in determining the class now on an ultraleft binge. Today solution. character of the state? Tossed in the Healy will not offer critical support During the period leading up to the wastebasket. That, we might say, is to a government that has carried out Reunification Congress, the Chilean where it belongs. The framework of a genuine socialist revolution - even Section of the International Com­ Healyite theory is not sturdy enough when it is suffering an economic mittee warned Healy that his position for any other use. blockade, diplomatic assault, and the on the Cuban Revolution would If Healy succeeds in overthrowing standing threat of military aggres­ signify political hara kiri for anyone the Castro government, what eco­ sion organized by the world's mighti­ who clung to it. They pleaded with nomic and social program will he put est imperialist power. He calls for him to reconsider. Healy paid no at­ into effect? Does he propose to un­ the beleaguered government to be tention. The inevitable has now oc­ dertake an agrarian reform, the ex­ overthrown as "capitalist." curred. So far as the Latin-Amer­ propriation of the bourgeoisie, ex­ The true situation is this: Neither ican revolution is concerned, Healy tensive nationalizations, the institu­ the Socialist W or kers party nor the committed hara kiri publicly in the tion of planned economy - in brief, majority of the world Trotskyist pages of the July 18 Newsletter. the measures already carried out movement have given up the funda­ Even in Great Britain, if I am not under Castro? Will he mobilize the mental political course they have fol­ misinformed, such a mishap is con­ youth to end the illiteracy already lowed since the Fourth International sidered bad for one's political health.

WINTER 1965 19 might easily overspill the Liberal Party, with its laissez­ faire programme, and form the nucleus of an extreme, au­ Letter from Britain thoritarian party - unless Labour can make a dynamic effort to win the allegiance of the middle class. But at the moment, all eyes are on Labour. Harold Wil­ son has declared that however small and tenuous his major­ Labour Party In Power ity, he will govern for as long as possible and will press ahead with the reforms outlined in his election manifesto: By Roger Protz nationalisation of the great steel industry, riddled by price The Labour Party has come to power in Britain with a rings, which even the Tories admitted was not being run cliff-hanging majority of 5 over the Tories and Liberals. in 'the national interest'; repeal of the Rent Act, a hated The tide that seemed to be running so strongly for Labour piece of Tory legislation, which allowed landlords free receded at the last moment; the middle class dithered reign to push up rents and mercilessly evict tenants often pondered, worried, then either stayed at home or voted fo~ with the help of thugs and alsatian dogs; push the ~ld-age pension - Britain's old people are probably the most the Liberals. But there was no mass swing to Labour. They govern almost by default. disgracefully treated of any western country - and general reforms of the social services. This is a very limited and But they do govern, however small the majority and timid programme, but, if it is pushed through, could bring it is an historic occasion for the British labour move~ent which has emerged from the political twilight after 13 some relief to many sections of the community. years of Tory rule. It is an astonishing result. The Tories, Wilson knows that he will have a tough time getting the entrenched, ruthlessly-efficient party of the ruling class, some measures, especially the nationalisation of steel are out of office at a time of relative economic and polit­ through the House of Commons; both Tories and Liberal~ ical stability and British politics are in the melting pot. will unite to oppose him. A united party is therefore vitally Why did the Tories lose? The economic stability is indeed necessary. In order to try to tame his left wing - and it very relative; underlying the apparent affluence are all the will not need much taming, for Labour's left-centrist lions cross-currents of crisis and, although only the myopic sec­ have a traditional habit of tucking their tails between tarians of the left would see in the present balance of pay­ their legs and scurrying towards the right at a time of ments crisis the rapid downfall of British capitalism, it crisis - Wilson has taken a number of their spokesmen seems clear that the post-war boom will end with a bang into his cabinet. Barbara Castle leads a new ministry for not a whimper. ' overseas development, Frank Cousins, boss of the giant, British industry has failed to modernize. The monopolists bureaucratic Transport Workers union also. has a new job and big employers have been content in recent decades Minister for Technology, and Anthony' Greenwood, once a~ to rest on their laurels and dream of their once dominant impassioned nuclear disarmer, goes to the colonial office, position in world trade. Cut-throat competitors meanwhile where his first move was to refuse to dismantle the Tory have been forging ahead on the continent a~d in Japan: gerrymandering in British Guiana, designed to unseat Ched­ and, thanks to heavy handouts from the United States even di J agan at the next, enforced, election there. the vanquished of World War II have overtaken the s~mno­ lent British lion. Ray Gunter Britain flounders at the bottom of every economic league. Wilson has also stocked his cabinet with a number of Now there is a frenzied spate of activity. Modernisation staunch right-wingers, of whom the most dangerous, as far and planning are the key words on everyone's lips (well, as the left is concerned, is the little Welsh demagogue Ray almost everyone: we have a few latent Goldwaters of our Gunter, who goes to the Ministry o.f Labour. Gunter, a lead­ own). Schemes and blueprints for the 'new Britain' are on ing hatchet man against the Marxist left in recent years, countless drawing boards. Tory ministers and their allies is a pronounced campaigner for trade union reform and in big business looked optimistically to the future but, in will attempt to speed up the Tory plans to embroil the their hearts, knew that their plans could only succeed with union bureaucrats more closely into the state machine a frontal assault on the mighty British labour movement. through various planning bodies. All these pressure have been at play inside the Tory Party Everything points to the first major upsurge against the for the past few years and even those calm, unruffled ranks social democrats coming from the rank and file of the trade were knocked sideways by a sudden series of events which unions. While Labour Party activists will prefer to bide mirrored the economic crisis: the Profumo affair, which their time and 'give Wilson a chance,' industrial workers, revealed a half-hidden world of rich pimps and influential ignoring the frantic advice of their union leaders, will press prostitutes and produced the startling anachronism of a ahead with their struggles for better wages, hours and con­ capitalist politician who had most pronounced egalitarian ditions, hoping at first that Wilson will be kindly disposed traits so far as his sexual prowess was concerned; followed towards them but soon finding out what his real inten­ by the rough removal of premier Harold Macmillan and tions are. And once the union militants move into action the obscene picture of bourgeois gentlemen fighting like it will not be long before the Labour Party left-wing, which alley cats for his discarded mantle. Even feudal Lords has strong links with the unions, joins the march. joined in, discarding crowns, coronets and ermine in all di­ A fruitful and vital period lies ahead for the British rections in order to get a piece of the game. Lord Hailsham Marxist movement. With patience and perseverance, push­ became a Hogg, but was pushed aside in the melee and ing aside all sectarian tendencies, it can build a strong base the cadaverous Lord Home, now the more plebian Sir' Alec in the coming months. Already Wilson is attempting to solve Douglas-Home, was chosen as leader. the balance of payments crisis in a purely capitalist way - heavy taxes on imports and free handouts to monopolies Middle Class Panic and even the most backward British ind.ustrialists, a step Although Labour came to power, the party's vote was which will undoubtedly draw retaliatory measures from fractionally down, compared to the 1959 result Labour's Europe and only make worse the present situation. stock 12 million supporters, predominantly working class, Frenzied screaming from the ultra lefts about 'traitors' were again solidly behind Harold Wilson, but the party made and 'scabs' will not help unseat Labour's right-wing; on no inroad at all to the middle-class vote. The Liberals the contrary, it will turn many possible supporte,:s of Marx­ trebled their vote, to over 3 million, but, because of the ism away in distaste and help to further entrench Wilson vagaries of the electoral system, have only 9 members in and company. If instead the Marxists can calmly counter­ the new parliament. But the size of this Liberal vote pose to Wilson's solutions, thoroughgoing socialist proposals, holds a great menace for the left; here lie many of the we can win a great army of support and look with en­ seeds of middle-class discontent which, in the next decade, thusiasm to the future.

20 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW Question 01 Allillnces in Negro Freet/om Struggle

By George Breitman

As much as any tendency in this ing entangling alliances; 3) the Ne­ the pacifist movement, etc.) Rustin ·country, the Socialist Workers Party gro-labor-liberal alliance must be has "long been identified with mili­ has attempted to understand and ex­ forged on the civil rights move­ tant and radical views," but he now plain how much the Negro people, al­ ment's own terms, not by sinking expresses "a distinct political tenden­ though a minority, can accomplish to the level of current liberalism cy in the civil rights movement whose through struggle on their own, alone but by pushing the labor move­ appeal is militant and radical in rhe­ and unaided if necessary. (See the ment beyond liberalism." toric, but quite the contrary when put SWP's 1963 convention resolution, Bottone is opposed to Strategies into action ... His views illustrate Freedom Now: The New Stage in the No. 1 and 2, and favors No.3. We how seemingly radical conceptions Struggle for Negro Emancipation, and think we know what he means by can have a conservative influence How a Minority Can Change So­ No.3, but his formulation is rather and lead away from building and ciety.) At the same time we have al­ confusing. He says he wants a Negro­ strengthening a militant movement." ways believed and stated that in labor-liberal alliance, but he doesn't Bottone documents his indictment, -order to win genuine and complete want it at "the level of current lib­ showing that on a wide range of in­ ·equality the Negroes will need pow­ eralism." Jokes could be made at his cidents and issues Rustin has become erful and reliable allies, at home as expense: Does he want an alliance a foremost opponent of militant ac­ well as abroad. at the level of past liberalism or tions that might embarrass or an­ But not all alliances are good. future liberalism? Is he silly enough tagonize white liberals and labor Recognition of this fact is the chief to think that liberalism is capable of leaders. This is hardly a new posi­ virtue of an article about the prob­ becoming its radical opposite, or that tion in the Negro movement. But lem of Negro-white alliances, "The if it did, it should still be called lib­ Rustin presents it in the following Negro Revolt: The Push Beyond Lib­ eralism? We doubt that, judging by modern, sophisticated, pseudo-radical eralism, " by Sam Bottone in New the generally critical appraisal of lib­ dress: Politics, Summer, 1964. Bottone is a eralism elsewhere in his article. The civil rights movement has now member of the Socialist Party's na­ Then why does he include the lib­ gone as far as it can on its own; its tional committee and evidently a erals in the kind of alliance he economic and social objectives can member of one of its left wings since favors? What he actually wants, if be won only if fundamental changes he opposed support of Johnson. His we read him correctly, is a Negro­ are made in society; such changes views on the Negro struggle are un­ labor alliance supported by other sec­ can be made only through a realign­ ,orthodox in his party; another SP tions of the population, with the labor ment of the political structure into leader, Paul Feldman, attacking Bot­ component of that alliance pushed consistently liberal and conservative tone's position on Johnson in the Oct. "beyond liberalism," which is labor's parties; and only a Negro-labor-lib­ 15 New America, needles him this present ideology. In short, an alliance eral alliance can bring about such a way: "Does Bottone support the of the Negro movement with a rad­ realignment. But you can't get allies Freedom Now Party? ... His articles icalized labor movement, that is, a by doing things they don't like. So on the civil rights movement hover labor movement considerably differ­ you must stop doing such things, and on the brink, but he has not publicly, ent from the one that now exists. We limi t yourselves only to things they to my knowledge, taken the plunge." shall return to this point after con­ approve of. "The question of Negro-white al­ sidering his remarks about Strategy Don't call this Uncle Tomism, call liances," writes Bottone, "is of vital No.2. it Bayard Rustinism. Whatever it's importance and in the long run, the called, this policy would, in Bottone's Rustin Tendency success of the civil rights movement words, disarm the civil rights move­ will hinge on the alliances it devel­ On Strategy 1, Bottone is at his ment "ideologically in the face of the ops." With this we concur, provided best. Here he is writing about the enemy, who would transform it into that the phrase "in the long run" is predominant position of his own par­ a pale appendage of liberalism and not overlooked. He continues: ty, although he refers to it as the the Democratic Party." Not only "Three distinct strategies on this "Bayard Rustin tendency." (It is also would, but has, with few exceptions. question have begun to emerge: 1) essentially the position of the Com­ Much less satisfactory is Bottone's the Negro-labor-liberal alliance is munist Party, the labor bureaucracy treatment of Strategy No. 2 ("the the movement's most imm,ediate and various middle-class radical Negro-Iabor-liberal alliance is a need and must be achieved at al­ groupings. ) fraud; the Negro must achieve his most any cost, even the sacrifice of Rustin, as Bottone notes, is one of freedom by his own efforts, avoid­ the movement's militancy and, if the most influential figures in the ing entangling alliances"). This posi­ necessary, the weapons [demon­ civil rights movement. He "has con­ tion he attributes to "various sep­ strations, d ire c t action, etc.] siderable influence with Martin aratist and black nationalist tenden­ which brought it into being; 2) the Luther King, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, cies in the Negro movement" and to Negro-labor-liberal alliance is a and sections of CORE and SNCC" "'left' political tendencies" "operat­ fraud; the Negro must achieve his (and also the Reuther section of the ing on their fringes." freedom by his own efforts, reject- AFL-CIO bureaucracy, sections of In the first place, the way he pre-

WINTER 1965 21 sents this position is neither clear nor that they do not aim at assimilation ulate its program and strategy. Some adequate. If somebody wants to avoid into the present society? Desegrega­ members may "reject any relation­ entangling (impeding, obstructive) tion and assimilation are not the same ship to other social forces in Amer­ alliances, does that mean he is op­ thing, although both words unfor­ ican society"; others don't; and still posed to all alliances, to non-entan­ tunately are widely used as syno­ others are trying to decide what rela­ gling alliances? nyms for "integration." If I, or Bot­ tionships to other forces are possible, tone, fight to end racist segregation now or in the future, before deciding Unrelated Groups and discrimination and at the same whether or not to reject them. (DOles Some Negro tendencies are un­ time express the belief that Negroes BQttQne really think that N egrQes doubtedly opposed to all Negro-white will never get equality in a capitalist breaking with the capitalist parties~ alliances now and forever; others are society, does that make us rejectors breaking to' the left of them, WQuid opposed to harmful alliances, like of integrationist goals? Bottone is a really reject any relatiQnship to' a Strategy No.1, but are open, by im­ long way from clarifying things about mass revolutiQnary working class plication at least, to other kinds, to the FNP that are closely connected mQvement fighting for a prO' gram useful and helpful alliances, if not with the question of alliances. that included the eradicatiQn Qf rac­ now then later. Lumping together ism?) different and unrelated groups under FNP PrQgram Similarly, some FNP members may Strategy 2 - Black Muslims, Free­ This becomes even clearer when be sure that an independently or­ dom Now Party, Liberator, Socialist he declares, "The program of the ganized Negro community does have Workers Party, MO'nthly Review, Freedom Now Party is 'radical': it the power, by itself, to win its de­ Progressive Labor Movement, Rev­ rej ects the existing parties and calls mands from this society; others may olutionary Act ion Movement or for the nationalization of basic in­ not be sure but want to test the RAM, - merely because they have' dustries." Bottone is plainly ignorant validity of this proposition by or­ some similarities, may make it easier of the fact that the FNP groups ganizing and fighting and letting the for Bottone to dismiss them all, but scattered throughout the country answer be given through the out­ it prevents clarification of the al­ have never had a national convention come of struggle. (Not at all a bad liance question. and have never adopted a program. way to find an answer.) At any rate, We don't have room here to discuss The FNP's only state convention so nobody knows at this point what the all the groups Bottone takes up under far was in Michigan, and all it adopt­ FNP, when constituted on a national Strategy 2. Some of them are really ed was a brief, general, state plat­ basis and with an adopted program, irrelevant; the Muslims do not en­ form, with no reference whatever to will decide about such questions. gage in politics at all, and RAM, in nationalization of industry. AII-N e'grQ Party its own ultra-leftist way, similarly The FNP is therefore in an inci­ Bottone isn't only weak on the facts has no time for such mundane activi­ pient stage, its program still in the about the FNP, he is deficient in his ty as the Freedom Now Party's ef­ process of being worked out and far grasp of the whole concept. This be­ forts to organize the Negro people in from being adopted. It doesn't even comes manifest when he says: "An political opposition to the Democratic call itself radical as yet, although all-Negro party makes sense only if and Republican parties. by rej ecting the existing parties and the movement rejects integrationist But let us discuss the FNP, which proposing a political alternative for goals and seeks economic, political is relevant to the question of political the Negro people it surely occupies and cultural separation from white alliances. Bottone locates it "some­ an objectively radical position in the society." But saying so doesn't make where to the left" of the Muslims as American political spectrum. (We it so. Let us check the correctness of one of the "separatist and black na­ leave it to' BQttQne to' explain why Bottone's statement about the "only" tionalist" groups expressing a new he insists 6n using qUQtatiQn marks thing that would make sense of an "ideological militancy which rejects arQund "radical" when he talks Qf all-Negro party by imagining we are integrationist goals as conservative." the FNP, as he does when he de­ listening to a discussion between an It would have helped if Bottone scribes the SWP as "left.") agitator for a Negro party and an­ had defined some of these terms, in­ Continuing his remarks about the other Negro he is trying to con­ stead of assuming that everyone ac­ FNP, Bottone says: vince. cepts the same definitions. For ex­ "Its focus is Qn building an Qr­ A: We want genuine equality in ample, what does "separatist" mean ganized Neg r 01 political PQwer this country. to him? That the FNP wants to sep­ which can pressure the white PQW­ B: You mean integration? arate the Negro people into a nation er structure intO' granting the N e­ A: We don't mean what they call of their own? No unit of the FNP grQ eCQnomic and cultural freedom. integration in the North today. We anywhere has taken that position. But the FNP rejects any relatiQn­ mean full freedom, where we have Does it mean that the FNP seeks to ship to' Qther social forces in Amer­ the same rights and opportunities as organize the Negroes independe,ntly, ican sQciety, and therefore ends up anybody else. But call it what you in their own party? This of course is with the idea that the NegrO' CQm­ like. To get it, mighty big changes its primary aim, but independent is a munity, if Qrganized around SQme­ have to be made. Right? better and more precise word to de­ thing like the FNP, has sufficient B: Right. scribe it than separatist. (BQttQne PQwer to' win its demands frQm a A: But we've learned from long seems to' feel NegrO' PQlitical "sep­ hQstile and inherently racist white and sad experience that the Demo­ aratism" is bad; dOles he alsO' think sQciety. The very nature Qf this ap­ crats and Republicans are our ene­ NegrO' PQlitical independence is bad?) prQach pushes the FNP toward sep­ mies, political agents of our oppres­ And what does he mean by "reject aratist sQlutiQns." sors. So we need a new party really integrationist goals"? That FNP It is premature, we repeat, to speak dedicated to our freedom. We have members are opposed to' desegrega­ of the FNP "ending up" with an idea also learned from experience that we tion of everything everywhere? Or when it is virtually starting to form- can't trust white or white-dominated

22 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW groups. Very few whites seem to or informally, temporarily or per­ have come up historically. But the want a new party anyway. So we've manently. unions defaulted, they clung to the got to organize ourselves and all * * * Democratic Party, they did every­ other Negroes into a party of our Doesn't this concept of an all-N e­ thing they could to keep the Negroes own. That way we can have a party gro party, which is held and has been in the same trap. And they are still controlled by ourselves and won't expressed by at least some FNP doing this today. have to worry about it selling us out members, make as much "sense" as That is why the FNP arose and to the white power structure. Bottone's dictum that such a party strives to become a national party. B: Our people have been brain­ must reject integrationist goals and It may tUrn out that the FNP, washed so bad it will be hard con­ seek separation ? We are not saying through its example of independence vincing them to build such a party. that this concept will or should shape and through the effects it will have A: Everything worth doing is hard, the strategy ultimately decided on by on the Democratic-labor coalition if it but we think it can be done. Why the FNP forces; we are saying only is successful in tearing the Negroes don't you pitch in and help us? that it is perfectly compatible with away from that coalition, will be a B: But what are you going to do the organization of an all-black party. major factor stimulating the unions after you get a lot of Negroes in your Bottone is a prisoner of rigid, into long-overdue entry onto the road party? What can 10 percent of the formalistic, undialectical categories. of independent labor political action. population do by ourselves? ("Integration" through "separation" This surely is not a logical impossi­ A: Ten percent can do a lot. In seems impossible where thinking is bility. areas where we are a majority, and frozen this way.) This becomes pain­ Bottone's Strategy 3, if we inter­ they are many because of segregated fully clear when Bottone discusses preted it correctly as well as charit­ housing, a mass Negro party could the organizational structure of the ably, calls for a Negro alliance with elect its own city, county, state and political alliance needed to destroy a radicalized labor movement, at­ congressional representatives. They racism in this country. He says: tracting the support of other forces wouldn't owe their election to the "The civil rights movement must willing to accept the leadership of Democrats or Republicans but to the express itself through a political that kind of alliance. But there is no black community, so we would con­ party which fights uncompromis­ such labor movement yet, unfor­ trol them. For the first time we ingly for its goals, a party free of tunately. The labor movement today would have real representatives in ties to status quo forces. This is not is not pushed "beyond liberalism," office, who could speak and act for and cannot be the Democratic Par­ but stuck deep in the quagmire of us without divided allegiances and ty. Nor can it be, as some have pro­ liberalism. So what does Bottone ad­ without having to get permission posed, an all-Negro party. It must vise militant Negroes to do in this from the major parties, the liberals be a party which all working p'eo­ situation? or the labor leaders. pIe can support and in which they Does he advise them to WAIT, to B: But we'd still be a minority. can participate actively and demo­ wait politically until the labor move­ A: Sure, but in a much different cratically; a party which translates ment begins to move? That of course and much better position than now. the demands of the civil rights is what the liberals in and out of By solidly organizing a decisive part movement in a broad economic and the labor movement advise and insist. of the Negro community into our own social program which will shape Or does he advise the Negroes to go party, we will have some real, un­ and guide the future of the entire ahead and organize themselves po­ diluted political power for the first nation." litically? time. Meanwhile, the other side will On the whole, very good. We have That is just what the FNP is try­ be weaker. only one but. Why must there be a ing to do, at a time when strong and B: What do you mean? political party, one political party and acceptable allies are not in sight. If A: When Negroes walk out of the only one, to accomplish what he he can unfreeze his thinking a little, Democratic Party, it will be weaker. wants? Who has ordained, on earth Bottone surely should be able to see Without the Negro vote it won't be or in heaven, that this job can be that the organization of a mass FNP, the majority party, it won't be able done only by one party? Why can't disrupting the present coalition to win elections, it will begin to come there be two or more than two par­ around the Democratic Party, is pre­ apart. The unions' ties to the Demo­ ties, an aLLiance of parties as well as cisely one of the factors that will crats will be strained and, if it can't of social forces - and why can't one push the labor movement beyond lib­ win elections, broken. The whole pol­ of these be a party built by the eralism and toward the kind of al­ itical structure will be scrambled up Negro people, having their confi­ liance he wants. merely by our getting together in our dence, and maintained by them as a One of the most encouraging de­ own party. safeguard against sellout until such velopments of recent years has been B: But won't we still be a minor­ time as they no longer need fear one? the way some Negroes have freed ity? themselves from fetishes about "sep­ A: Yes, but I keep telling you, we'll Unions Default aration," "integration," "two-party be in a better position than ever be­ If the union movement had done its system," etc. The result has been the fore because we will have some real job 25 years or even 10 years ago, if unleashing of political creativity and political power, which we'll be able it had created an independent labor initiative, which this country so to use for bargaining and negotiating party fully committed among other badly needs. It is time for white purposes. things to the struggle for Negro radicals to overcome their fear of B: Bargaining and negotiating with equality, then it is possible, even like­ being ridiculed as white "black na­ whom? ly, that the Negro people would have tionalists" and get rid of some A: With any "other social forces" flocked to its banner as they did to fetishes of their own. The result here that are willing to work together the CIO in its early days, and the too would be refreshing and produc­ with us on our "own terms," formally question of a black party might never tive all along the line.

WINTER 1965 23 Ferment in Latin America UpllellvlIl in Bolivill: An Eyewitness Report By Livio Maitan

LA PAZ, Nov. 20 - The commen­ split to the right under the leadership a struggle in protest against an in­ taries in the world press on the events of Walter Guevara Arze.) The elec­ crease in the price of notebooks. of recent weeks in Bolivia have tions of last May 31 were completely Again the streets of the country's played up a number of contradictory fraudulent and Paz was elected for main city became the scene of dem­ themes, talking about a victory of the third time in face of open op­ onstrations and struggles against the the gorillas [reactionary officer position from the miners and the repressive forces. caste], of "Nasserite" tendencies in urban petty-bourgeoisie and the in­ At the same time, the government­ the army, of conflicts between the difference of the peasants. which had already taken notorious miners, the students and the peasant His days were numbered. Paz had measures against leaders of the polit­ militia, of defeats suffered by the no popular support whatsoever, hav­ ical opposition, compelling them to miners, etc. As for the Bolivian press, ing become in reality the symbol of go into exile or underground - took it speaks of a revoluci6n restauradora open acquiescence to American im­ another grave step by establishing [restorative revolution] and there perialist domination of the country. censorship of the press. has been a flowering of publications, Even the peasants, to whom the MNR This provoked another wave of resolutions,communiques, declara­ regime had - partially - given the protest, including protests from con­ tions of positions. Bolivia is undoubt­ land could not forget the very limit­ servative newspapers who decided to edly enj oying a period of "democratic ed character of the agrarian reform temporarily suspend publication. At liberties" which has few precedents and the inescapable fact that their the University of La Paz, demonstra­ in the history of the country and one standard of living had undergone no tions began that were to spread to all quickly becomes aware of the relief actual improvement. the principal towns of the country everybody feels at being able to go In the final analysis, Paz based and culminate in the setting up of home without finding the police there, himself exclusively on the support barricades on the La Paz campus by without feeling that they are being of the American embassy and a re­ students and vanguard workers; and fonowed, or that they must think pressive apparatus whose unbeliev­ in the brutal occupation of the uni­ twice before voicing their opinions able extent, organization, and cruel versity by forces made up of the in public. and barbarous character were dis­ police, the special militia of the MNR However, it would be a serious closed by the recent events. Given (including women), and contingents mistake to go by surface appearances the country's constantly worsening of the army. and pass things off by drawing an economic conditions and the impos­ Clearly something more was at the analogy with other situations in sibility for the regime to grant any bottom of all these demonstrations Latin-American countries in the past concessions, even if only to certain than the incidental reasons cited (despite the actual existence of cer­ sectors of the population, a profound above. In truth, the whole movement tain analogies). In reality the process ground swell became inevitable. had a very clear oppositional political under way is specific and new for Beginning with September, in fact, significance of increasingly violent Bolivia itself. this surge took on concrete expres­ nature against the Paz regime, which It is necessary first of all to cite the sion, marking, it can be said, the be­ now came under attack not only from essential facts (all the more so since ginning of a new rise in the mass the left but also from the center­ the major press services gave very movement in Bolivia. It is significant right and the right. that the urban petty-bourgeoisie partial and tendentious reports). Intervention of the Miners were the first to mobilize. Opposition to the MNR The first struggle of some scope The student demonstrations at The erosion of the MNR [Movi­ was the teachers strike which lasted Oruro inevitably brought in the miento Nacionalista Revolucionario] , almost a month. (The teachers de­ miners. Casualties in these demon­ headed by Victor Paz Estenssoro, had manded an increase in their miser­ strations included dead and wounded been going on for some years. Last able salary which amounts to ap­ and the repression was brutal even year it reached an extreme degree proximately $40 [U.S.] a month.) during the funerals that were held with the December events, the split The government took drastic mea­ for the victims. with Juan Lechin, and the founda­ sures, proclaiming a "stage of siege." The army decided to move against tion of the PRIN [Partido Revolucio­ (The strike was accompanied by fre­ "San Jose," the mine center in the nario de Izquierda Nacionalistal quent demonstrations in the streets outskirts of Oruro where the miners (The MNR had already suffered a of La Paz and serious conflicts with have a radio station. Thanks to a the police.) A part of the national relation of forces in its favor, the Livio Maitan is a correspondent leadership of the unions, directed by army came out on top. But mean­ for World Outlook, a news service the MNR, then decided to capitulate, while the decisive miners' centers of in Paris and of Quatrieme Interna­ signing a contract that was a sellout. Siglo Veinte, Catavi and Huanuni tionale, official organ of the United Nevertheless, the strike continued in were drawn into the struggle. The Secretariat of the Fourth Interna­ some cities. miners' forces from these centers met tional. He has recently concluded a Almost immediately after, the stu­ a contingent of the army close to the extensive tour of Latin America. dents in the secondary schools opened small village of Sora-Sora. The en-

24 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW counter ended in the complete rout minable speeches. He listened to talking about mobilizing under the of the army and the capture of arms everybody, offering guarantees in all Christian Democratic banner (par­ and even some prisoners [see inter­ directions (promising above all to ticularly the Social Christian party view below]. The miners then de­ hold an "honest" election in the rela­ and the Falange [Falange Socialista cided to draw back to their bases tively near future), including over­ Boliviana] ). They are trying to pre­ before the army could open a coun­ tures in the direction of the miners. sent the Christian Democracy as a teroffensive. He offered verbal assurances that he new, revolutionary experiment, in the was inclined to examine the pos­ Chilean style, calmly forgetting the The Military Junta sibility of re-establishing workers' specific Bolivian context. The significant and symptomatic control with the right of veto - which For his part, the former president occurrence at Sora-Sora, together Paz had cancelled - and one of his Siles Suazo - who was exiled by with the progressive deterioration of ministers went so far as to come out Paz Estenssoro last September - is the situation in La Paz, were with­ flatly for restoring workers'control. seeking to reorganize the MNR by out doubt the decisive factors that In reality the junta has not fol­ cleaning out Paz and his group. He determined the attitude of the mil­ lowed a settled line up to now. The is advocating the reunification of the itary, above all Alfredo Ovando Can­ situation, as we said, remains fluid. forces that left the MNR because of dia, the chief of staff, and Rene The new government has no impor­ the policies of the former leadership, Barrientos Ortuno, chief of the air tant base - at least at this stage - particular]y the PRA [Partido Revo­ force and vice president of the re­ outside of the army, which also is lucionario Autentico] of Guevara public. According to sources here in not altogether sure (it must not be Arze and the PRIN of J aun Lechin. La Paz who are in position to know, forgotten that with the exception of As for the military, their political a meeting had already been held a a contingent the Bolivian army is not inexperience is glaring. In addition it few days before in which represen­ composed of mercenaries and that the is probable that there are two dif­ tatives of the army and a represen­ soldiers are in the great majority the ferent tendencies. If the reactionaries tative of the American embassy met sons of peasants and workers). Ba­ are, without the least doubt, pre­ with Paz Estenssoro himself. They rrientos and those with him are com­ dominant, certain "Nasserite" aspira­ came to the conclusion that Paz had peJIed to operate in a context char­ tions unquestionably also exist. Bar­ to go and that Guevara Arze would acterized by the fact that all the rientos, in the final analysis, may be the candidate to succeed him. anti-MNR currents developed a con­ seek to play the bonapartist ro]e However, events did not permit such vergent action, symbolized by the and, along this road, stake out his a well-calculated operation and it establishment of the Revolutionary political future. At bottom, his was under pressure of the situation Committee of the People which in­ speeches and his tours imply that he which was precipitated that Barrien­ cludes all political formations from has a perspective of this kind. tos turned to open rebellion at Co­ the extreme right to Lechin's PRIN In general, everybody is trying to chabamba. A little later, despite the (only the Trotskyist POR [Partido gain time and, in the final analysis, fact that Barrientos' rebellion was Obrero Revolucionario] and the Com­ the junta is maintaining itself be­ limited to this city, the army decided munist party being excluded). cause none of the major currents are to bring down Paz (probably with actually struggling against it, not his agreement) and to name a mil­ "Democratic" Period even those holding the biggest reser­ itary junta. At present, all the classes and all vations concerning it. The PRIN has At La Paz, crowds poured into the the social layers - all sectors - are a very equivocal position of waiting streets and then marched toward the utilizing the "democracy" to state in relation to the junta and of col­ government palace with Juan Lechin, their respective demands, to press laborating to a certain degree with who came out of the underground. their claims; and it goes without say­ even rightist currents in the Revolu­ Shots were fired at the crowd in fear ing that the ghosts of the old regime, tionary Committee of the People. Up that Lechin would be installed in the the rosea, don't want the same things to now Lechin has far from repulsed palace as the new president. Upon the as the miners or the radicalized petty­ the advances made by Siles about a arrival of Barrientos from Cochabam­ bourgeoisie and the political currents new edition of the MNR. The Com­ ba, it was announced that two presi­ that are taking shape and announc­ munist party is divided at present dents had been named, Ovando and ing themselves. Even old reactionary into two branches. The right wing, Barrientos. But the crowd displayed parties, the rosqueros, are reappear­ led by Kolle, flatly pro-Soviet, is its hostility to Ovando, considering ing such as the Liberal party and the waiting for the junta to provide him to be a military chief of the PURS [Partido Unido Republicano "democratic" elections. In the left MNR, and after two hours Barrientos Socialista]. Some parties are speak­ wing, certain leaders, including Esco­ announced the resignation of his col­ ing up which claim to be new, call­ bar of the Siglo Veinte mine, have league. ing themselves "movements" which invited Barrientos to visit the mine Thus began the rule of the junta did not exist in the past. Barrientos centers. headed by Barrientos. To a large ex­ can only tack according to the wind Basic Social Forces tent they depended for the time being and insist above all on his guarantee on the old personnel of the MNR and of a "democratic" election. Behind all these groups and parties, Barrientos named as ambassadors to It is clear that various maneuvers behind all these operations, what are Washington and Paris figures of the are being prepared and proj ected of the real social forces involved and days of the rosca [the tin barons]. which it is difficult to foresee what are their present postures? However, the situation remained whether they will actually be carried The miners came out of the recent fluid and the junta resorted to a out or not. However, their present battles with the conviction that they policy of balancing between the con­ meaning can be deciphered. made an essential contribution to the tending forces. Barrientos began One of these maneuvers is the busi­ downfall of the MNR. They are more touring the country, making inter- ness of rightist or center-right parties resolute, more politically conscious,

WINTER 1965 25 better armed than ever. They have they are now waiting expectantly. It In general, the relationship of withdrawn to their strongholds is true that they are aware that the forces is quite favorable to the revo­ where the central government power landlords raised their heads and they lutionary sector. But an element of does not exist and where the only are distrustful of the new regime. In considerable weakness persists. If one authority - even it is sometimes any case they cannot be considered probes the causes which made it pos­ challenged - is that of the unions. to be partisans of the junta. They sible, despite the rise in the mass Siglo Veinte and Catavi justifiably may follow either a new MNR or movement, for the preventive coup consider themselves to be "free ter­ become aJlied with the left, if it is d'etat to succeed (it has unquestion­ ritory." The left organizations - able to develop a clear, concrete and ably dammed and interrupted the PRIN, the CP and the POR - are by audacious policy. process for the time being), and for far the most dominant. Guevara now This, in sum, is the alignment of the army to remain intact as a whole, has a sma1l base, particularly at forces. It can be added that every­ to which should be added the pas­ Huanuni; the Falange and the Social body is trying to exploit to the sivity of the peasants, it is necessary Christians are very weak. In some of maximum the present "democratic" without the slightest doubt to single the less politically sophisticated sec­ pause in order to organize or reor­ out the absence of a centralizing tors there is some expectancy that ganize their respective forces. What leadership capable of setting a clear the junta might actually organize exists at present in Bolivia is a pause, unifying aim. elections and some are asking if an interval, a highly transitional If, for example, the struggle at the Barrientos won't take the road fol­ phase, even if it cannot be said university of La Paz is considered, lowed by Colonel German Bush and whether it will last for weeks or it is to be noted that it had no pre­ Major Gualberto Vi1laroel. months. cise aim whatever except to voice vehement protest against the regime Deep unrest is apparent among the Symptoms of Conflict urban petty-bourgeoisie and they are of the MNR. Even the combat at struggling with great energy. There The first sign,e; of the com~ng con­ Sora-Sora, which was of such im­ is no doubt, however, that a con­ flicts are already apparent. Barrien­ portance, had no other aim but to siderable sector - the majority of tos has raiser} the question, evidently express solidarity with the demon­ students - are following the Falange. a major one for him, of turning over strators at Oruro. This clearly implies a very grave all arms to the army. When he visited This lack of leadership persists. danger in view of the character of the mine districts. the union repre­ Lechin is proving to be more centrist leadership of this party and its com­ sentatives reolied by presenting the than ever. The CP has no line, and pletely reactionary components. But demands of the workers and explicit­ even the program advanced by the among the petty-bourgeoisie the sup­ ly stating that the arms will not be COB [Central Obrera Boliviana] port to the Falange is, by and large, given up. Miners at the Siglo Veinte which reveals Trotskyist inf]uence, of a "Peronist" nature. The students mine told me that they would sooner has remained theoretical up to now. particuJarly seek democratic liber­ give up their wives and children than The POR, despite its important ties ties and emancipation from the im­ their arms. and its degree of influence in the perialist tutelage. In the countryside, reactionary decisive sectors, has not yet had the The bourgeoisie as such is extreme­ Falangist eJements have begun to opportunity of proceeding as the ac­ ly limited, not representing an ap­ vigorously demand that the land tual direct leadership on a national preciable social and political force. should be returned to its former own­ scale. It is nourishing hopes in the junta ers (in the Potosi region) and they It is probable that a relative pro­ and wou~d suo port any possible 8hift have even gone into action in the longing of the present situation would offerinq a guarantee of succe8S. The Sud Yungas region. The heads of the favor the attempt to set up a new ~'landholders" - a good part of them department of agrarian reform have MNR - whatever its name; that is, disoossessed of their land - are more found it necessary to issue a press the rightist course of Lechin, the dynamic and aggressive. They ~up­ release declaring that the titles PRIN and the COB itself. Conserva­ port the Falange above aJl and they granted under the reform still re­ tive or reactionary pressure - for hope that the hour of their rescue main in effect. example the success of the junta's has sounded. They can wield in­ It is clear that the present situa­ campaign for arms to be given up or fluence in bourgeois and petty-bour­ tion cannot extend for a long period. a generalized attack by the land­ geois sectors, particularly in certain Instead there will soon be new de­ lords against the peasants - could towns. velopments, new dramatic battles. precipitate sharp outbursts by push­ The big unknown is the peasants. ing into struggle not only the miners Much has been made of their al­ The Young Socialist but the broad masses who are at legedly siding with Paz Estenssoro in Read the only youth socialist pub­ present hesitant. the October struggle. In reality, this lication in the United States, now Bolivia can again become the cen­ occurred only in exceptional in­ in magazine form. tral revolutionary hotbed of Latin stances. At Sucre where it assumed America in the coming months. It is some proportions, the evident ex­ Send $1 for five issues to: objectively possible that a new breach planation is that in this rampart of The Young Socialist, P.O. Box 471, will be opened in the system of im­ the reaction, the students are under Cooper Station, N.Y. 3, N.Y. perialist capitalism in this continent the influence of the Fa]ange. Else­ which keeps on boiling despite the where it was not the peasant militias Name gains of reaction, particularly in that were involved in the battles but Street Brazil. More than ever the outcome the mercenary militia and the MNR will depend, in the final analysis, shock forces. The truth is that the City ...... on the role which a revolutionary peasants stood largely aside (minor­ State ...... Zone ...... leadership of the Bolivian masses can ity forces helped the miners) and play.

26 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW Interview With Bolivia1n Miner Vivid Account of the Battle of Sora-Sora IDuring a trip to the mine centers Q: And the other trucks? pampa, occupying the surrcunding of Catavi and Siglo Veinte, a special A: One went as far as Machacamarca. hills.] The CP people switche:i back and correspondent from World Outlook in­ But later the militants of the CP re­ forth a little, going back and then mov­ terviewed V. E., a member of the Par· turned to Huanuni. ing ahead again. tido Obrero Revolucionario, Bolivian sec· Meanwhile the men in the first truck Q: And the army? tion of the Fourth International, and got a truckdriver to take the wounded. A: The encounter took place quite other miners who were with him at the In the morning everybody returned to rapidly. The miners started attacking battle of Sora·Sora. On the table of the Huanuni and started accusing the mili­ with dynamite, moving against a hill small room where the interview took tants of the CP for not helping the first where a military contingent was en­ place, a machine gun, captured from the truck when it was attacked by the army. trenched and they defeated them. One government troops at Sora·Sora, lay Q: What happened then at Catavi and soldier dropped, killed. The other sol­ rather symbolically in full sight. The Siglo Veinte? diers began to run in a disorganized following is a translation of the inter· A: The radio station at Huanuni, con­ way, dropping their arms. They didn't view.] trolled by the miners, broadcast the want to fight. Some of them fired, but Question: When did the miners begin news about the first encounter. The in the air without hurting the miners. to mobilize? situation was confused. They talked The min~rs captured some prisoners Answer: They began mobilizing as about sixty dead. This was when other and a lot of arms. soon as the news reached Siglo Veinte­ trucks left Catavi and Siglo Veinte. I Q: Did the miners try to advance Catavi about the demonstrations in Oru­ was in one of these trucks. We reached towards Oruro? ro and the repressions by the police and Huanuni around eleven o'clock while A: No. There the army had really the army. We heard that people had other people were arriving. After a moved in a much bigger force, and been killed and wounded and that fights quick lunch, we left the town and got brought up artillery. At the same time, had broken out even during the funerals to Sora-Sora around noon. it began to blow very hard and there for the victims. Actually the news we Q: And then? were such clouds of dust that you heard was that there were a lot of A: We decided to advance on foot couldn't see anything. The miners de­ dead and wounded which explains why across th-:: prrmpa [open flats], armed cided by a majority vote to return to the miners reacted so quickly and so with dynamite and guns. We moved their bases despite an opposing opinion violently. toward Machacamarca. held by some. Q: What was their reaction con­ After feeding those who hadn't eaten On its side, the army decided to stay cretely? at Huanuni, a meeting was held in which in its positions and not to come to A: The evening of the twenty-eighth almost 200 miners participated. We had Huanuni, not to speak of Siglo Veinte [of October] they began to mobilize. reached a crossroad. and Catavi. During the night, 150 to 200 miners left Q: How did the meeting turn out? Q: Did the miners return to Catavi­ Siglo Veinte in three trucks in the direc­ A: Ordonez, who is the leader of the Siglo Veinte? tion of Huanuni-Oruro armed with dy­ CP at Sig10 Veinte and at the same time A: Yes, they returned and the popula­ namite and old guns. A truck left at the main trade-union leader, proposed tion was waiting for them, worried be­ the same time from Catavi. During the we shouldn't go any further and about cause there had been talk of a mas­ same night they reached Huanuni where a hundred men, more or less, answered sacre. there was a concentration of forces. A by getting into their trucks. The others, Later a meeting was held to draw up discussion developed between the cadres the Trotskyists and the miners who a balance sheet. Ordonez, the secretary of the CP [Communist party] - who liked their attitude decided to go ahead. of the union and a member of the CP, are in the majority at Siglo Veinte - Later the partisans of the CP followed wasn't able to speak. They shouted at and the Trotskyist militants (aherents in turn. him: "Nurse. Servant girl." [He drove of the Partido Revolucionario Obrero, Meanwhile a lot of other miners an ambulance during the struggle.] The Bolivian section of the Fourth Interna· showed up. [The total number of miners report was made by a Trotskyist. tional, and of the newspaper Masas, the involved was around 3,000. Some con­ Well, those are the main facts. The tendency led by Guillermo Lora]. tingents of peasants joined them, accord­ miners now feel stronger and more con­ Q: What was the discussion about? ing to reports. They went across the fident than ever. A: The partisans of the CP didn't want to proceed into combat. Their fun­ damental argument was: the Trotskyists are armed the best so let them go first. So a truckload of Trotskyists moved to T\NO Important Reprints the head of the convoy. Two other trucks followed. At Sora-Sora they separated to go by different routes. In Defense of Marxism The Revolution Betrayed Q: Where was the army? By Le(i)n Trotsky By Leon Trotsky A: The army was on the other side of Sora-Sora and actually the first truck A handbook of Marxist Theory that A monumental study of the origin and made contact with them right after probes the class nature of the Soviet development of the bureaucratic de· leaving the village. Someone shouted at Union and provides a major exposition generation of the Soviet State under the first truck to stop. But at the same of dialectical materialism. the Stalinist regime. time the soldiers started shooting at the truck. It was still dark. The miners Paper ...... $2.50 Paper ...... $2.50 jumped out immediately and tried to hide along the side of the road. But Pioneer Publishers seven - all of them Trotskyists - were 116 University Place New York 3, N. Y. wounded.

WINTER 1965 27 IN REVIEW

The Leap from Open Shop To Industrial Unionism

By Tom Kerry

LABOR'S GIANT STEP: TWENTY functions as the executive arm of the leadership. They failed. And therein YEARS OF THE CIO by Art Preis. employing class. It is no surprise there­ lies the real tragedy of the historic Pioneer Publishers, 1964. 538 pp. $7.50. fore, that Preis applies his scalpel to the movement sparked by the CIO. most pernicious myth of all-the legend By Tom Kerry of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Unifinished Task There have been in recent years a friend and champion of labor and the scourge of the moneylenders who ruled I t remains one of the unfinished tasks spate of books published decrying and of Labor's Giant Step from virtual non­ bemoaning the decline in prestige and the Temple of Mammon in Wall Street - and Washington. organization to the building of what is influence of the American trade union numerically the largest and potentially movement. The liberal "friends" of la­ Myth of Roosevelt the strongest organized labor movement bor are especially distraught over the in the world. In the short span from absence of that crusading spirit which Roosevelt's "New Deal" was a rescue the rise of the CIO in the early 1930's characterized the explosive birth and operation designed to pump new blood to the outbreak of World War II the development of the CIO in the middle into the sclerotic veins of American American working class proved unable 1930's. They tend to "identify" with capitalism. In order to assure mass ac­ to overcome its political immaturity. It the movement of social reform which ceptance of the real and tangible sub­ did develop to a high degree its spirit developed parallel with the rise of the sidies doled out to business and agricul­ of union consciousness. Thanks to the CIO, little dreaming that it was pre­ ture Roosevelt felt constrained to make restraining influence of its leadership cisely the liberal reform program, pol· some concessions to the unemployed it failed to develop a comparable de­ icy and practice embraced by the labor and to the organized segment of the gree of political consciousness. leaders which sapped the energy and American working class. The most high­ The wartime reaction and post-war devitalized the fighting spirit of the ly touted was Section 7-A of the Na­ period of prosperity-reaction served to ranks. tional Labor Relations Act. further retard the political development Other critics go further. They pro­ Under Section 7-A the workers were of the American workers. While gain­ claim the labor movement a putrefying ostensibly guaranteed the "right" to or­ ing many concessions in trade union corpse and write off the American work­ ganize and bargain collectively through battles with the employers they still ing class as the historical agency of unions of their own choosing. The work­ remain captive to the class collabora­ social transformation. Such sentiments ers soon learned that this concession tionist policies of the conservative are nothing new. With greater justifica· was more fictitious than real. To win bureaucrats who head the union move­ tion the Cassandra's of the "roaring this "right" labor was compelled to ment. But, it would be the most colossal 20's" wept over labor's lost cause and struggle on a massive scale. In prac­ error to prematurely pronounce a re­ predicted in sepulchral tone that the tically all of the key union battles of quiem over so lively a corpse. As Mark American workers would never, but the early period of the "New Deal" the Twain observed when he was informed never, succeed in unionizing the mass central demand was for "union recogni­ that his obituary had been published: production industries in this country. tion." Invariably, Roosevelt's interven­ "The news of my death has been great­ The great merit in Art Preis's book tion aimed at undercutting, compromis­ ly exaggerated." is that he takes as his point of departure ing and weakening labor's struggle for The lesson Art Preis teaches is that the profound wisdom of the sage who union recognition - sometimes through of the enoromous potential that is opined: "Ours not to weep but to un­ government "mediation" and when that lodged in powerful loins of American derstand!" To understand means to com­ failed, by force. labor. Since the rise of the CIO the prehend and relate the truth, the whole All this is part of the record. Despite American working class has suffered truth and nothing but the truth. It is Roosevelt's role the labor leaders con· no major defeat. While its native mil­ only thus that correct lessons can be tinued to cling to his coat-tails and itancy has been temporarily damped its derived from the history of labor's along with them the Stalinists, especial­ explosive quality has not been impaired. struggles. In the telling some sacred ly after Moscow laid down its People's Those who absorb the lesson Preis cows are gored, some hoary myths are Front line at the Seventh World Con­ teaches and are able to probe below laid. How can it be otherwise? gress of the Communist International in surface appearances can already discern The twenty year period covered by 1935. Time and time again the more ad­ the embryonic stirring of the molecular Labor's Giant Step encompasses some vanced sections of the working class process that erupted with such volcanic of the most bitterly fought class battles tried to break through the class col­ force to accomplish Labor's Giant Step in the history of the American labor laborationist political barrier erected by in the few short years of the middle 30's. movement. When the class struggle the conservative labor and Stalinist This is the book of a man who has reaches such peaks of intensity it lays lived, breathed and acted the events he bare the anatomy of class society and describes. It is an indispensable anti­ discloses the true relationships between dote to the poison of pessimism that capital and labor and, more to the point, Subscribe Now! permeates the literary output of the between labor and government, which prophets of despair.

28 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW (8% x 11 inches) $10 through Dec. 21 the federal government ganged up with Cuba and the CIA then $12.50. the railroad tycoons to smash the strike THE BAY OF PIGS: THE LEADERS' STORY A handsome volume containing a fine there emerged the most prominent fig­ OF BRIGADE 2506 by Haynes Johnson, collection of Wobbly songs, poems, ar­ ure of the American Socialist move­ with Manuel Artime, Jose Perez San ticles from representative leaders, sto­ ment, Eugene V. Debs. The strike and Roman, Erneido Oliva, and Enriqque ries of many historical labor struggles, its aftermath had a profound effect on Ruiz-Williams. W. W. Norton, New cartoons and drawings from the LW.W. the future development of unionism in York, 1964. 368 pp. with index. $5.95. press, etc. Culled from the extensive the railroad industry. Haynes Johnson purports to tell, for Labadie Collection of Labor Materials the first time, the full history of the in the University of Michigan Library. COMMUNISM IN EUROPE: CONTI­ Bay of Pigs fiasco and the ultimate fate Every student of the American labor NUITY, CHANGE AND THE SINO­ of the Cuban counter-revolutionary pris­ movement will be delighted with this SOVIET DISPUTE, Vol. I, edited by oners. Most of the information is not volume. William E. Griffith. Massachusetts In­ new; it is a compilation, in book form, stitute of Technology Press, Cam­ of the events as seen from the invader's THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL bridge, 1964. 406 pp. $12.50. point of view. As such, it does present by Rosa Luxemburg, trans. A. F. some new information (that the first Schwarzwald. Monthly Review Press, man ashore was an American CIA THE SINO-SOVIET RIFT by William New ork, 1964. 485 pp. $7.50 cloth. E. Griffith. Massachusetts Institute of agent, for example) as well as omitting $3.95 paper. facts which tend to question the "in­ Technology Press, Cambridge, 1964. 508 pp. $2.95 paper. dividual and group heroism, dedication A classic of Marxist economics first to principle, (and) self-sacrifice ..." published in 1913, Luxemburg's study Both books present detailed accounts of the members of Brigade 2506 (the is a critical examination of Marx's the­ of the ideological disputes which have name given to the main landing force ory of capital accumulation. Reprinted characterized, since their beginnings, which trained in Nicaragua). Also, based with a new introduction by Joan V. the evolution of the Communist parties on interviews with the counter-revolu­ Robinson, British economist, it is re­ in Europe. The first work contains sep­ tionaries and authorized by four of the quired reading by every student of arate essays on Yugoslav, Polish and Brigade's officers, it underplays or Marxist thought. Hungarian communism, and an essay on ignores the spirit, unity and determina­ the Italian Communist Party; to Grif­ tion of the Cuban militia, army and en­ GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY: fith's work on the Sino-Soviet dispute tire population in defense of their rev­ 1918-1933 by Richard N. Hunt. Yale is appended a helpful and representa­ olution. University Press, New Haven, 1964. tive collection of recent Soviet and However, it does reflect the disillu­ 292 pp. $7.50. Chinese documents. sion of the counter-revolutionaries with THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY the CIA-Pentagon operation. And in this OF GERMANY: FROM WORKING­ BRENDAN BEHAN'S NEW YORK by respect, some revealing new insights CLASS PARTY TO MODERN PO­ Brendan Behan with drawings by into CIA operational procedures are LITICAL MOVEMENT. Yale Univer­ Paul Hogarth. Bernard Geis Asso­ brought to light. sity Press, New Haven, 1964. 257 pp. ciates, distributed by Random House, Edward Shaw $6.50. New York. 1964. 159 pp. $5.95. The two volumes taken together con­ The many drawings by Paul Hogarth stitute a study of the evolution and de­ are admirable. However, it is not the generation of the German Social Demo­ guide book you would choose to give RECOMMENDED cratic Party from the post-World War I your old grandmother, coming to visit Weimar Republic to the present day. New York for the first time. The text The counter-revolutionary role of the is too unorthodox. READING Social Democrats led ineluctably to the victory of Hitler in 1933 and then, fol­ THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PRO­ REVOLUTION IN SEATTLE by Harvey lowing World War II, to the jettisoning LETARIAT by Karl Kautsky, with O'Connor. Monthly Review Press, of any trace of Marxism. Valuable as an introduction by John H. Kautsky. 1964. 300 pp. $5.00. a study of bureaucratic degeneration of University of Michigan Press, Ann An excellent account of the 19D what was once the largest and strongest Arbor, 1964. $1.75 paper. Seattle General Strike written by a party in the Second (Socialist) Inter­ This is Kautsky's pamphlet of August, participant, who as a youth freshly im· national. 1928, against which Lenin polemicized bued with the ideas and ideals of social· in The Proletarian Revolution and the ism - and who still remains a rebel - AMERICAN SOCIALISM: 1900-1960, Renegade Kautsky, and Trotsky in Ter­ actively engaged in the great events edited by H. Wayne Morgan. Pren­ rorism and Communism. It remains one now set down in the form of a "memoir." tice-Hall, Englewood, N. J., 1964. 146 of the significant early polemics against pp. $1.95 paper. the Bolshevik Party. THE SEATTLE GENERAL STRIKE by A compilation of brief articles, com­ Robert L. Freidheim. University of ments and statements gathered from THE MOVEMENT: DOCUMENTARY Washington Press, 1964. 224 pp. $5.50. the Socialist press, books, magazines, OF A STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY. A professorial commentary which etc., including fugitive selections from Text by Lorraine Hansberry. Simon seeks to bolster the author's thesis that leading spokesmen beginning with and Schuster, New York, 1964. 127 the general strike was an unmitigated Eugene V. Debs to Norman Thomas. pp. $1.95. catastrophe for the American labor This is a photographic essay, compiled movement. Freidheim strains to main­ THE PULLMAN STRIKE: THE STORY with the aid of the Student Nonviolent tain a posture of fine impartiality but OF A UNIQUE EXPERIMENT AND Coordinating Committee. A large num­ his prejudice keeps peeping through his OF A GREAT LABOR UPHEAVAL ber of Danny Lyons' photos capture the academic veneer. Recommended for its by Almont Lindsey. University of essence of the Southern Struggle, from basic factual material. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1964. 385 pp. the viewpoint of a participant - and $2.95 paper. they comprise a collection otherwise not REBEL VOICES: AN LW.W. ANTHOL­ Account of an important event in available to the public. The book can OGY by Joyce L. Kornbluh. Univer­ American labor history. Out of the be obtained from SNCC, 6 Raymond sity of Michigan Press, 1964. 419 pp. crucible of this great event, in which St., Atlanta, Ga.

WINTER 1965 29 Tvvo Vievvs on the Dialectics of Nature (Continued from Page 2) any clear notions of the logic underly­ a "radial" spiritual energy. Second, he This correspondent has a more favor­ ing their investigations or even with advocates orthogenesis as the principal able attitude toward the dialectical erroneous ideas of the world. But would mechanism of evolution. Unlike natural conception of nature. But she suggests not the work of individual scientists selection which is based upon random that it may be far less important in benefit - as much as science as a whole and multi-directional trends of evolu­ facilitating progress in physical science - if they could rid their minds of these tion, orthogenesis holds that evolution than it is for explaining and correlating errors and inconsistencies which run proceeds in a uni-directional, predeter­ its discoveries after they have been counter to a scientific outlook and bring mined and even purposive manner. made. their general ideas about the universe Simpson severely censures Chardin Such a one-sided emphasis runs the and their logical theory into closer ac­ for his spiritualistic "double-talk" which risk of lapsing into the very Kantian cord with their experimental practice really has nothing to do with science. dualism which she correctly criticizes and the requirements of science itself? He writes that "Teilhard was primarily in the case of the Existentialists. What That is why Marxists contend that a a Christian mystic and only secondarily is here involved are the organic connec­ comprehensive grasp of the logic of a scientist." tions among the unity of reality, the dialectical materialism would not only sum total of our knowledge, and the clarify w hat science has already Roger Garaudy scientific inquiry which shuttles be­ achieved but enable contemporary sci­ Roger Garaudy, who is mentioned, tween them. If the dialectical method entists to promote and improve their likewise deals with Chardin in his 1959 can be useful in clarifying the relation­ work. Science is still in its infancy and book Perspectives of Man. Ironically, ships of the knowledge of nature once is only now being applied on a grand this foremost French Communist philos­ it has been acquired, why cannot it be scale. There are more scientists in the opher is far more conciliatory toward equally valuable in helping scientists world today than in all previous history. the views of the Jesuit Father than the to arrive at verified results? After all, This sudden and sharp jump in the American biologist, Simpson. Garaudy's the dialectical characteristics which are number of scientists and the facilities at book undertakes a critical analysis of disclosed in the body of known facts their disposal demands a corresponding the main currents of contemporary must already have existed and been ef­ expansion in their understanding of the French thought: Existentialism, Cath­ fective in the objective realities from logic of evolution which so far has been olicism and Marxism. He claims that all which they have been derived. best provided by the school of dialectical three are engaged in a common effort materialists. If scientists should approach the prob­ to grasp "man in his totality" and he lems for which they seek solutions in 2. The works of Father Pierre Teil­ seeks to emphasize their "possible con­ their particular fields with an informed hard de Chardin can throw light on this vergences." He concludes that the rad­ understanding of the fundamental traits matter, although not entirely in the ical existentialists, the liberal Catholics of development formulated in the laws way intended by our correspondent. and Communists can cooperate "not as of dialectical logic, why can't these While Chardin is an inconsistent dia­ adversaries but as explorers in a com­ serve as a general methodological guide lectician, he is not at all materialist mon venture" which proceeds by dif­ in their concrete inquiries? in his philosophy and procedure. One ferent paths toward the same goal. of the world's most eminent biologists, This theoretical position is the reverse Dialectical Assumptions who was a friend of Chardin's and has of that taken by Garaudy in the days of In fact, the most creative scientists read both his published and unpublished Stalin-Zdhanov. It is motivated by the have assumed the truth of this or that manuscripts, George Gaylord Simpson, desire for a philosophical rapprochement rule of dialectical logic in conducting concurs with this judgment in his new among these incompatible schools of their work, although they have done so book This View Of Life (1964). There, thought to accompany the C.P.'s quest in a piecemeal, haphazard, semi-con­ in a chapter entitled "Evolutionary for a political alliance of all "demo­ scious manner. Without referring to past Theology: - the New Mysticism," cratic, progressive, peace-loving" forces examples, let's take the many non­ Simpson states that Chardin's ideas are as prescribed by the policy of "peace­ Marxist scientists around the world who mystical and non-scientific in two major ful co-existence." are cooperating with Oparin in study­ respects. First, he divides all energy into Those unorthodox features of Char­ ing the specific steps by which the most two distinct kinds which cannot be veri­ din's thought which scandalized his elementary processes and mechanisms fied: a "tangential" material energy and superiors in the Jesuit order and the of life have emerged from inanimate Church and attract liberal Catholics lend matter. Unlike him, they pay no heed themselves to this purpose. It is true, to the fact that the transition of the New Reprint New Reprint as Garaudy points out, that Chardin lifeless into the living exemplifies at recognized certain dialectical character­ least two laws of dialectical logic. istics in the process of evolution, such One is the unity of opposites which An Iintroduction as the universal interconnection and states that A equals non-A; the other is reciprocal action of all things, the trans­ the transformation of quantity into to the formation of quantity into quality in quality. That is to say, a sufficient ag­ connection with bio-genesis (though gregate of chemical reactions of a spe­ not in the transition from biological to cial type gave rise to new properties lOGIC OF MARXISM social life), and the transmutations of appropriate to a new and higher state matter in an ascending series of higher of material existence on this planet, the By William F. Warde forms. biochemical level of which mankind is But the "finalism" and "vitalism" the most complex and advanced em­ which permeate his thought, based on bodiment. the supposition that evolution heads in Just as Teilhard de Chardin's religious 107 Pages ...... Price: $1.00 only one direction, toward greater "cen­ views did not prevent him from parti­ trocomplexity," toward the Omega point cipating in the discovery of Peking Man where humanity will merge with God, in 1929 and thus adding to our knowl­ PIONEER PUBLISHERS is not only irreconcilable with dialec­ edge of human origins, so practicing tical materialism but, as Simpson in­ physicists, chemists and biologists can 116 University Place, N. Y. 3, N. Y. sists, with any acceptable scientific c:p­ and do promote their sciences without proach to universal evolution.

30 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW 3. Somewhat in the spirit of Chardin, Emergence of E.volutionary Novelties" is highly pertinent to our own discus­ our correspondent intimates that "the by Ernst Mayr, Agassiz Professor of sion of logical method in science be­ static conceptions of 'idealism' and Zoology at Harvard, in The Evolution cause it indic?.tes how a biologist con· 'materialism' may give way to a newer, of Life (University of Chicago Press, cerned with the fundamental problem more adequate realization of their inter­ 1960). It deals with the key problem of of evolution has been impelled to invoke dependence throughout the whole sphere explaining the origin of entirely new the dialectical law of the transformation of nature." A Marxist cannot agree with biological phenomena on the basis of of quantity into quality in order to ex­ this for numerous reasons. random variations. plain the generation of novelty in living First, there is nothing "static" about Mayr points out that "the exact defi­ beings. a consistently dialectical and materialist nition of an 'evolutionary novelty' faces Indeed, how would it be possible to view of nature which is based upon the the same insuperable difficulty as the comprehend how the mere piling up of proposition that everything is in flux definition of the species. As long as we quantitative variations could give rise because of the opposing forces at work believe in gradual evolution, we must to something decisively different from within it and in the universe. Material­ be prepared to encounter immediate its antecedents unless this law was ist dialectics is dynamic, mobile, evolu­ evolutionary stages. Equivalent to the operative? tionary through and through. cases in which it is impossible to decide It may be objected that Mayr has not Second, the valid and valuable con­ whether a population is not yet a spe­ used this law to discover anything new tributions made to the store of human cies or already a species, will be cases but only to clarify how new biological knowledge by the great idealists of the of doubt as to whether a population is phenomena come into existence. But, as past like dialectical logic itself have already or not yet an evolutionary nov· Dalton's atomic theory of the chemical been - or ought to be - incorporated elty. The study of this difficult transi­ elements, Darwin's theory of evolution into the structure of dialectical mate­ tion from the quantitative to the quali­ and Plancks' quantum theory testify, rialism without surrendering or com­ tative is precisely one of the objects of the discovery of the general laws at promising its fundamental positions that this paper" (p. 351). work, the basic features and essential reality consists of matter in motion and Mayr finds that there are three main relations in any field of reality, is the that social life and intellectuality are kinds of evolutionary novelties: cellular highest expression of scientific activity. the highest manifestations of the de­ biochemical innovations (the uric acid A correct and comprehensive conception velopment of matter. and fat metabolism of the cleidoic egg of the production of novelty in organic Idealism, on the other hand, makes of the terrestrial vertebrates); new evolution is more important for the ad­ spiritual, supernatural, ideological, or structures ( eyes, wings, stings); and vancement and reinforcement of biolog­ personal forces the essence of reality. new habits or behavior patterns (the ical science than the discovery of some Such a fundamentally false philosophy shift from water to land or from the new aspect of functional adaptation to has to be rejected in toto. earth to air). a habitat by a particular group of fauna. N or can these two opposing concep­ The saltationists and mutationists of Mayr is one of the most eminent of tions of the world and its evolution be various schools argued against the na­ contemporary American biologists. It amalgamated into some superior syn­ tural selectionists that new structures can be assumed that he is not a Marxist thesis eclectically combining the "best could only have come into existence or an adherent of dialectical material­ features of both," as Sartre tries to do suddenly and all ready for advantageous ism. He has resorted to one of the major with his neo-Marxist Existentialism use whereas Darwin held that they laws of dialectics empirically without a and Father Chardin in his blend of reli­ would have to be formed by numerous, full awareness of the type of logical gious mysticism and evolutionism. successive and slight modification of thinking he was applying, just as an­ Modern thought and science can be preexisting organs. "The problem of the other naturalist of lesser stature might most effectively advanced through a emergence of evolutionary novelties," explore a novel type of adaptation of a firm repudiation of all religious, myst­ writes Mayr, "then consists in having to group of organisms without concerning ical and idealistic notions and the con­ explain how a sufficient number of himself about a general explanation of scious adoption, application and devel­ small gene mutations can be accumulat­ evolutionary novelty as Mayr has done. opment of dialectical materialism. Work­ ed until the new structure has become Mayr's acknowledgment of the indis­ ing in equal partnership, Marxist logic sufficiently large to have selective pensability of this law of dialectics in and the sciences can enable mankind value" (P. 357). He calls this the solving the problem of the emergence to penetrate more surely and deeply "threshold problem." of evolutionary novelties provides in­ into the nature of the world we live in. His paper undertakes to demonstrate voluntary and forceful testimony to its the ways in which different organisms value for the natural scientist. Evolutionary Novelties have actually effected the changeover P.S. After finishing this reply, I from one structure to another in the William F. Warde chanced to read an article on "The evolutionary process. Mayr's treatment November 18, 1964

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION for whom such trustee is acting, also the statements in the two para­ (Act of October 23, 1962; Section 4369, Title 39, United States Code) graphs show the affiant's full knowledge and belief as to the circum­ stances and conditions under which stockholders and security holders 1. Date of filing: Oct. 1, 1964. who do not appear upon the books of the company as trustees, hold 2. Title of Publication: International Socialist Review. stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a bona fide owner. 3. Frequency of issue: Quarterly. Names and addresses of individuals who are stockholders of a corpora­ 4. Location of known office of publication: 116 University Place, New tion which itself is a stockholder or holder of bonds, mortgages or other York. N. Y. 10003. securities of the publishing corpora to in have been included in paragraphs 5. Location of headquarters or general business offices of the pub­ 7 and 8 when the interests of such individuals are equivalent to 1 per­ lishers: 116 University Place New York, N. Y. 10003. cent or more of the total amount of the stock or securities of the pub­ 6. Names and addresses of publisher, editor and managing editor: lishing corporation. Publisher, International Socialist Review Publishing Association. Editor, 10. This item must be completed for all publications except those Tom Kerry, 116 University Place, N.Y.C., N.Y. 10003. Assistant Editor, which do not carry advertising other than the publisher's own and which Dick Roberts, 116 University Place, N.Y.C., N.Y. 10003. are named in sections 132.231, 132.232, and 132.233, Postal Manual (Sec­ 7. Owner (If owned by a corporation, its name and flddress must be tions 4355a, 4355b, and 4356 of Title 39, United States Code). Average stated and also immediately thereunder the names and addresses of stock. no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: A. Total no. copies holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of stock. printed (Net PrQSS Run) 3,375; B. Paid circulation: (1) To term sub­ If not owned by a corporation, the names and addresses of the individual scribers by mail, carrier delivery or by other means, 1,154; (2) Sales owner must be given. If owned by a partnership or other unincor­ through agents, news dealers, or otherwise, 1,570; C. Free distribution porated firm, its name and address, as well as that of each individual (including samples) by mail, carrier delivery, or by other means, 126; must be given.) Farrell Dobbs, 116 University Place, New York, N. Y. D. Total no. of copies distributed. (Sum of lines B1, B2 and C), 2,850. 10003; Constance Farr, 116 University Place, New York, N. Y. 10003; Single issue nearest to filing date: A. Total no. copies printed (Net Beatrice Allen, 116 University Place, New York, N. Y. 10003. Press Run) 3,500; B. Paid circulation; (1) To term subscribers by mail, 8. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning carrier delivery or by other means, 929; (2) Sales through agents, news or holding 1 percent or more of total amount fo bands, mortgages or dealers, or otherwise, 1,970; C. Free distribution (including samples) by ather securities (If there are none, so state). None. mail, carrier delivery, or by other means, 137; D. Total no. of copies 9. Paragraphs 7 and 8 include, in cases where the stockholder or distributed. (Sum of lines B1, B2 and C) 3,036. security holder appears upon the books of the company as trustee or I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and com­ in any other fiduciary relation, the name of the person or corporation plete. (Signed) Karolyn Kerry, Business Manager.

WINTER 1965 31