01.05.1997

Form and content

Mark Fischer reviews The labour movement and the Internet: the new internationalism by Eric Lee (Pluto Press 1997, pp212)

As implied by the subheading to this book, Eric Lee makes great claims for the Internet. He picks up on the comment of Marx and Engels, that the union of the workers is “helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry” (Communist Manifesto, cited p2). From that, he suggests that “thanks to the Internet, a century-long decline in internationalism has already been reversed. For thousands of trade unionists who log on every day, the International has already been reborn” (p186).

It is shame that Lee makes such grandiose and palpably untrue claims for the World Wide Web (WWW), as the substantial content of his book is useful and thought-provoking. He attempts to “focus on how the labour movement can use the technologies described” (p 15) and for the most part manages to be concise and interesting. The emphasis is on practical information for the novice, with answers to question such as ‘What do I need to use E-mail?’ or ‘How do I produce a home page for the WWW?’ This a useful guide book for activists in political campaigns or trade unions thinking of going on line to reach an estimated three million people across the globe.

As I have indicated, problems pop up when Lee attempts to draw political implications from this new technology. Thus, he writes, the technical innovations of the new world order

“is giving birth to a new internationalism. Participants in the international labour movement have begun to transcend their own local and national limitations and feel themselves to be part of a global community based ... on ... a vision of a new society” (pl86).

The idea that a technical development in and of itself automatically engenders a developed political expression - in this case an ‘International’ that Lee explicitly likens to the First, Second and Third - is a caricature of materialist thinking. I am reminded of the earnest comrades who seriously asked Krupskaya what “change in technique” had prompted the Bolshevik/Menshevik split in 1903.

Thus, Lee confuses the forms of new technology - which objectively break down national boundaries - and the political content of much of the traffic on the Internet. The WWW is a potentially useful tool to fight for genuine internationalism, nothing more.

In that context, we are pleased to announce the opening of a Communist Party of Great Britain website which will go on line at midnight on April 30/May 1. This site will be a useful auxiliary propaganda instrument in the fight for a new Communist International - it most certainly will not be a replacement.

Mark Fischer