Letters

Liquidate into RS21

As a fervent reader of the Weekly Worker, I was incredibly excited to read the first few reports on the Forging Communist Unity process. A merger of the five groups initially involved seemed like such a huge step forward for Marxists in Britain that I even wrote about it for the newly founded magazine, Paraat!, of my own organisation, ROOD.

However, most of my excitement has since waned, after it became clear that Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, Why Marx? and half of the Prometheus editorial board would not commit themselves. I now seriously doubt whether the actual fusion of CPGB, Talking About Socialism and half of the Prometheus EB will number over a hundred members - a negligible number in the UK - let alone be able to make a serious dent on the wider British left. Seeing these two sects and less than 10 individuals argue about the specifics of a political programme disappointed me even more. Truly, what’s the point?

Even though I understand that even this small merger is progressive, in the sense that it can set an example, and that even in small cases the fusion organisation will be stronger than the sum of its parts, I can’t help but feel that a different route to communist unity is preferable. My solution would be this: the CPGB, TAS and the pro-party faction of the Prometheus EB should liquidate themselves organisationally into RS21 - strengthening it as a whole, as well as strengthening the Erfurtian faction. This Marxist unity faction would find a strong press organ in the Weekly Worker and would be strengthened immensely by the influx of experienced advocates of Marxist unity.

In this situation, RS21 could become, without a doubt, the anti-sectarian sect that takes itself and its revolutionary activism seriously in the meantime.

Koen de Kooter
Netherlands

Depressing attack

I was depressed to read Carla Robert’s attack on David Miller (‘From SWP to Iranian asset’, April 3). She proclaims that he should be allowed freedom of speech, at the same time as she tells pro-Palestine groups that they should have nothing to do with him. But surely it is exactly within such groups that Miller’s views (if they are as unsavoury as Ms Roberts claims) should be discussed. Iran’s treatment of women is dreadful, but does that mean its support for the Palestinian cause cannot be welcomed?

How best might we tackle the overwhelming support of Jews for Israel? By shutting down examination of these questions - by making out that David Miller should be shunned for raising such matters - we are seeing yet another leftwing witch-hunt in action. It appears to be so much easier to attack fellow travellers than allow open debate in the places where views might be explored and challenged.

This narrow-minded condemnation of fellow pro-Palestine campaigners, as frequently practised by Tony Greenstein and now by Carla Roberts too, is symptomatic of a lazy, tribal approach to politics that so bedevils the left. The endless splittism it encourages is why the Tories so often end up winning- they stick together by tolerating a wide range of views, coming up with new ideas that so often leave the left on the defensive.

To conclude, it diminishes the Weekly Worker to publish such personal attacks, which advocate ‘no-platforming’, especially upon one who has already been persecuted for his anti-Zionist views. It undermines your claims to support freedom of speech.

Pete Gregson
Edinburgh

Trotsky fanboy

Thanks to the Weekly Worker editor for the correct title he gave to Tony Clark’s letter: ‘Stalin fanboy’ (April 3). The accusation of ultra-leftism directed at Trotskyism in general and me in particular equally applies to Lenin, Marx and Engels for daring to propose the ultra-left notion of the socialist revolution to overthrow capitalism - so brilliantly successful in October 1917, and the greatest single event in human history.

Tony’s attack on Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution reverts to the typical Stalinist stages theory. Lenin’s April theses represented the realisation of that theory in practice: he consigned the ‘democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry’ slogan to history and ‘All power to the soviets’ became the Bolshevik’s new orientation, after Lenin overcame the opposition of Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin. Since Nikolai Bukharin wrote his book Imperialism and world economy in 1915, to which Lenin wrote a very favourable introduction and his own 1916 Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism, they had understood and propagated the theory that class-consciousness was not a national phenomenon, but was global - albeit with each nation’s own particularities.

The 1917 February revolution was the first stage of the October revolution: it was not possible to make a bourgeois revolution first, which awaited a whole historical period for capitalism to develop, until Russia, or any other third world country, became ready for the socialist revolution. This was the Menshevik theory, which led them to support the Provisional government and would have resulted in a counterrevolution defeat if followed.

We can take the case of South Africa today, which is an example of the outcome of a two-stage revolution. Here principled Trotskyists proposed the permanent revolution Workers’ charter as against the African National Congress/South African Communist Party People’s charter. The success of the latter gives us one black billionaire - Cyril Ramaphosa’s brother-in-law, Patrice Motsepe. Ramaphosa himself is worth ‘only’ between $500 and $750 million and all the leaders of the substantial parties are millionaires; they were bunged again and again to ensure their loyalty to the apartheid establishment and its six white billionaires. The black working class and poor are now worse off than under apartheid - South Africa is the world’s most unequal country, if measured by the Gini coefficient. Elon Musk - the world’s richest man at $362.5 billion - is from South Africa.

In the July days Lenin correctly understood that the masses were not ready for the seizure of power - they had not yet captured the crucial soviets. Following the state crackdown, Lenin had to flee abroad and Trotsky was arrested. In August general Kornilov attempted a coup by marching on Petrograd. The Provisional Government under Kerensky had to call on the Petrograd soviet to defend the city and he was forced to arm them, which then made the existing dual power situation even more radical. The Bolsheviks responded correctly, forcing a united front - Trotsky, then released, organised the Petrograd Red Guards in the defence of the city. Bolshevik agents also infiltrated Kornilov’s forces and there were big desertions. By the end of August Kornilov’s coup had failed and he was arrested. This set the scene for the advance of the Bolsheviks in the soviets - Trotsky taking control of the Petrograd soviet, as he had in 1905. The consequent leap in class-consciousness of the masses saw them lead the revolution in October, confirming the correctness of the theory of permanent revolution.

Tony writes in reference to the Brest-Litovsk treaty of March 3 1918 that Trotsky was wrong. It is true that Trotsky tried to string out the negotiations in the hope of a revolution breaking out in Germany. Ironically one did break out, but it was as a result of mass desertions from the Germany army being reposted to the western front.

“Trotsky had previously fought this ultra-left mistake, but he did so from another ultra-left stance, which would have strengthened fascism,” he writes in reference to the third period of Stalinism - 1928-34/5 - in which all political forces were termed ‘fascist’ apart from themselves. In particular Stalin identified the social democrats as the main enemy and actually allied with the Nazis and several rightwing parties against them in the Prussian Landtag in what they called the ‘red referendum’ in 1931, which failed due to a low turnout.

This alliance with the Nazi trade union sector was repeated in the Berlin transport strike of December 1932, just a few short weeks before Hitler came to power in January 1933. Tony fails to tell us what was Trotsky’s position, which he thinks would have strengthened fascism. In fact, Trotsky demanded a united front of the communists and social democrats against the fascists, from above and below: ie, placing demands on the social democratic leaders to expose them before the membership - in contrast to the Stalinist bogus ‘united from below’, which merely demanded that the membership join the communists.

The irony of a so-called democratic socialist championing Stalin’s actions during World War II can be lost on no-one. Remember the Moscow show trials of 1936-38, at which all the remaining members of Lenin’s central committee - apart from Alexandr Kollontai, who sensibly refused to return to Moscow from abroad - were executed, as were all the active participants in that great revolution that Stalin could apprehend. That was during the popular front of the war years and Tony supports the jailing of the Trotskyist leaders for opposing this political treachery of the communists in Britain and France, which saw them actively assisting the scabbing against the labour disputes in 1944.

The class struggle during the war reached a peak in 1944. The official number of strikes was 2,194 in that year, with more than 3,700,000 working days lost. These revived the labour movement and inspired the Labour victory in 1945, at a time when the Communist Party was still following Stalin’s instructions for a popular front with Churchill. The mass of the British working class was now to the left of Stalin and the CPGB. The heroic Trotskyists of the Revolutionary Communist Party - Roy Tearse (industrial organiser), Ann Keen, Heaton Lee and Jock Haston - were jailed for supporting these strikes.

Tony piles confusion on confusion, when he tackles my assertion that Donald Trump is in the process of creating a fascist state in the US. Finance capital will deal with Trump, he thinks, because isolationism is contrary to globalisation. But we must not forget that Hitler too was initially an isolationist. Just as the war eastwards for ‘Lebensraum’ was Hitler’s priority, war with China will be Trump’s, if he succeeds in installing the fascist state. We are confident he will not do so without provoking a major uprising of the working class and possibly a civil war.

Gerry Downing
Socialist Fight

Wartime flip

My thanks to Tony Clark for reminding me that there are some activists in the labour movement who have (possibly deliberate?) memory loss, when it comes to the Communist Party and World War II. According to Tony, the CPGB had an uninterrupted popular front policy throughout the war, supporting the efforts of British imperialism in their war with Germany.

Unfortunately Tony has omitted the infamous removal of Harry Pollitt as CPGB secretary in September 1939, when Harry and others were slow to grasp the change in the Comintern line following the non-aggression pact (the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact) between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, signed on August 24 1939. Comintern now declared its opposition to an imperialist war. Pollitt, who had only just published his pro-war CPGB pamphlet How to win the war, was sent back to Moscow for re-education. Only when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 did the line zig-zag again and full support to British imperialism return as Comintern and CPGB policy.

Throughout this latter period the CPGB used its shop stewards to oppose trade union actions designed to defend workers’ rights. It was rewarded when Churchill’s government lifted the ban on the Daily Worker. In return the CPGB agitated for the ‘People’s War’ (sic) and supported attacks on workers’ conditions by employers.

Facts can be inconvenient, of course, but Tony Clark’s omissions show disregard for those many fine trade unionists and socialists who fought to retain union rights and opposed both British imperialism and fascism between 1939 and 1945. Tony and others may enjoy my best-selling novel, A peal of socialism, which covers these issues and this period.

Graham Durham
Socialist Labour Bulletin editor

Whose interests?

Coming up is the anniversary of the Easter Rising and the obligatory Irish Republican parade in Derry on Easter Monday - plus a commemoration event in a cemetery somewhere, maybe on Easter Sunday. It’s all pomp and charades, of course, and rhetoric harking back to antiquated times, when the cause meant something: ie, a release from Britain’s institutionalised, discriminatory rule in Ireland - towards something approaching self-rule. Irish nationalists won equality in Northern Ireland in the period from the 1970s to 1998.

This isn’t to say there’s been an end to all kinds of discrimination towards Irish nationalists living in Northern Ireland from successive British governments, but unionists have also experienced similar discrimination. British governments, like all governments across the world, have been heavily influenced by finance capital, which is blind to political affiliations and only seeks greater and greater profits for a wealthy elite - which is internationalist, or stateless, in outlook. In all the cliched ramblings we’ll hear over Easter from a ragtag bunch of amateurs playing the Irish militant Republican card, we’ll hear nothing about finance capital, which is what rules over Ireland today and everywhere else.

Of course, none of these paramilitary-uniformed actors will be arrested, as that would go against everything the spectacle is meant to achieve. Arrests would draw attention towards particular individuals, which could risk blowing their cover and having their personal details scrutinised, leading to their real identities as British agents or operatives. It seems the state today prioritises arrests solely for people who use hurty-hurty words on social media. Parents arrested and detained for criticising their child’s school in a WhatsApp group is the latest state overreach. This, as Gaza is flattened and Palestinians slaughtered with British complicity. But, of course, it is those who protest against the genocide in Gaza who are now being labelled as terrorists, like Palestinian Action cum Filton 18.

There’ll be intermittent phrases in embarrassingly bad Irish Gaelic and even the English parts will be stammered through, as anyone who has ever borne witness to one of these events can affirm. If these are the best spokespersons they can muster for such a prestigious occasion, then it only adds to the pantomime. It feels that the people are reading from a script they’ve only just been handed - written, one might conjecture, by members of the British army’s 77th Brigade, I would think.

The events themselves complement the agenda of the British state, as they imply there is still a threat from Irish militant Republicanism, which there isn’t - apart from sections of Irish republicanism funded, managed and controlled wholly by British covert agents. The existence of Irish militant republicanism also justifies a militarised British state, which will use its prowess against striking workers and/or generally against those opposing the official narratives - as we’ve seen recently against protestors, for example.

Protests at home are being treated as terrorist offences, whereas sending spy planes to fly over Gaza, and providing the Israel Defence Forces with bombing coordinates for civilian infrastructure they want to target, is merely a ‘nothing to see here’ moment (Declassified UK). The ‘threat’ of militant Irish republicanism has to be maintained by British intelligence, as there always needs to be the option available, if the need arises, to misdirect people’s attention and to instil hatred on both sides. For example, if a mass secular movement of people within Northern Ireland gained enough participation and momentum to challenge not just British rule, but the rule of international finance, usury, etc, possibly the militant Irish Republican card would be played and the other side’s militant antagonists, formerly kept in storage, unleashed in kind.

These are the issues that encompass the bedrock of all states’ power across the world. The secret society networks and oligarchical gangs in control around the world don’t fear the loss of British state rule from Ireland, as it’s just a reflection of their own rule, which can be interchanged so easily with a tricolour, whenever that stage in the delusive narrative is reached. So, as always - and to evoke the parroted phrases of ‘Our day will come’ and ‘No surrender’ that each side readily appropriates, helping to rigidify each side’s bigotry - that day will never come until at least the issue of finance capital starts to be addressed. On the flipside, all of us will continue to surrender our rights every day and things will continue this way until we decide that finance capital is not the benevolent landlord we may have once thought it was.

I think anyone believing vehemently in a united Ireland or union with Britain hasn’t spent enough time studying the world, as a united Ireland will be controlled by the same financiers who control both sides of the border today. Britain, with its long history of blood-stained hands, being caught again facilitating genocide in Gaza, isn’t worth seeking union with and can never be reformed.

Louis Shawcross
County Down

Zionist Passover

Jewish festivals are traditionally favourite times for attacking Jews. Such attacks, of course, include the physical, but also spiritual, political, cyber and propagandistic: conspiracy theories and ‘free speech’ will be the order of the day.

Among the left-leaning union and student bodies, Friday nights are popular occasions for demonstrations, conferences and resolutions against Israel, Jews and ‘Zionism’. Jews and some who are Jew-ish are conveniently less likely to attend and object.

An interesting, yet predictable, opportunity for social observation, research and introspection occurs next week, centred on Friday April 11, which is the eve of Pesach (Passover). Jewish households all the previous week will have been in a frenzy of maniacal cleaning, expunging the household of the most minor traces of food and dust that may contain unleavened material - the very essence of ‘Kosher for Passover’.

Most Jews will sit at a family/community meal and service. The ancient story of Exodus will be told, while formalised, old (and some new) prayers will be offered. Symbolic food will be central, while dishes from the traditions of Afghanistan, Persia, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey and two dozen other lands will be there. Emphasis is placed on the centrality of children. We will sit leaning to the left, drink (at least) four cups of wine (whisky is forbidden!), eat (and hide to be held hostage) matzah (flatbread; no Christian blood - sorry, folks, that’s not our thing) and we remember ‘Vihi Sheamda …’: in every generation they rise up to destroy us. And we offer “all who are hungry - let them enter and eat”. The service is formally concluded with the prayer/declaration/hope: “Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem!”

For those of you who want to learn a little of what Passover is, I recommend you get hold of the Pesach user manual. It is called The Haggadah (‘the telling’). It describes in minute detail the seder: that is. the ‘order’ of the event and songs and stories. You could find them old-fashioned - for children, adults in comic format, every artistic and cultural approach imaginable. It’s an inexpensive pamphlet, and often given out free. In the Anglosphere, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, the Aramaic and Hebrew is accompanied by English, side by side.

Pesach paints the picture of those who are Jews and Jew-ish - and those who are not. It is also the most intense intersection between Judaism and only-resort Zionism of all the festivals in modern times. If you have not been to a Pesach seder or had it explained to you in detail, you do not know Jews.

It is also historically one of the most popular times to attack Jews. And this year - what a great and fearsome opportunity! Pesach occurs on a Friday! The streets can be confidently expected to roil with outrage on Saturday April 12. Many of the demos will have already been scheduled.

If you have any questions, and know not who to ask, send them to the editor. I’m sure he’ll be kind enough to forward them to me!

John Davidson
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