Letters

Who, me?

I can reassure comrade Cozens (Letters, February 2) that I am not some wild-eyed ultra-leftist who is pursuing a hateful one-man vendetta against the left (indeed, some of my best mates are leftwing). Nor am I a diabolical MI5/Tory mole.

Also, I am not remotely “sectarian” (me, I’ll talk to anyone) or “elitist”, nor am I engaged in a quasi-mystical quest for “perfection”, communist or otherwise. Yes, I too respect “diverse opinions” (isn’t it amazing how many left groups are petrified silly by the prospect of open ideological discussion?), and I am also “very pro-working class”.

I must confess that I am slightly puzzled as to how fighting for revolutionary communism is to “divide the working class ... for the Tories” (presumably passively voting for Blair’s Labour Party does not?), or how one can get misty-eyed about a savage imperialist world war (the Great Patriotic War indeed) in which the world communist movement “sank their differences” with imperialism.

Comrade Cozens, you are more than welcome to join the Communist Party. I suspect that you might be surprised at finding so many imperfect, “fallible” comrades. In fact, mere mortals just like you.

Eddie Ford
South London

Diverse mix

DC Cozens feels Eddie Ford expresses the “elitism” he thinks is inherent in the CPGB.

Eddie writes with all the youthful zeal of someone who has a passion for what he believes in. He expresses his opinion in his articles. We all have our own opinions and should be encouraged to give them.

Comrade Cozens writes that others in the CPGB feel like Eddie, with contempt for other left groups and individuals.

For myself, I have no contempt for others on the left, who have the same desire for change in society as I, and others in the CPGB. If we did, we would not bother to devote so much space in polemics with other organisations, debating correct tactics for revolutionaries.

We do take the working class as it is, warts and all, because we believe it will in time aspire to become the ruling class in society.

We also believe the CPGB of coming years will contain all kinds of disparate views and tendencies, and welcome such a diverse mix in the revolutionary organisation that will give revolutionary consciousness to the working class.

Eddie Ford, I am sure, will contribute much to such an organisation, as indeed would comrade Cozens.

Stan Wallis
Manchester

Stalin fan club

I recently had an interesting chat with two comrades from the Communist Action Group. Whilst the talk was friendly and comradely, I must admit that I was slightly alarmed by some of the viewpoints expressed.

Two ‘orientations’ in particular stood out. The first was a near disdainful attitude towards the working class in Britain. Comrade Bill expressed his support for the Revolutionary Communist Group’s view that the (white) working class is a complete dead loss, whose members had all become ‘aristocrats’, mindless consumers, etc; he just felt that the RCG drew the “wrong conclusions” from this.

Indeed, if anything, the working class in Britain had “let down” the Soviet bureaucracy and ‘comrade’ JV Stalin, who were urging them to take to the streets and overthrow the bourgeois state - what monstrous ingratitude!

On a similar vein, both comrades enthusiastically endorsed Stalin’s barbaric terror, especially that directed against Communist Party members. Apparently, all Stalin was doing was clearing away the (potential) counterrevolutionary deadwood who were objectively impeding the anti-fascist war effort. Naturally, along the way, “many innocents were killed”, but such is life.

When I expressed some surprise at this blithe justification for the butchery of hundreds of thousands of communists, the comrades shrugged their shoulders wisely and slurped their tea nonchalantly; after all, what was I getting so fretful about? After the terror had subsided membership of the Communist Party rose to an all time high. The comrades clearly believe that it is quantity not quality that matters.

While I have no desire to insult or slander the comrades, what are we to make of an organisation which so casually, and cynically I would argue, dismisses the working class and is so unmoved by the massacre of untold communists; which takes unswerving loyalty to Stalin as an absolute ‘communist’ bench mark?

Danny Hammill
South London