Editorial

[p006] EDITORIAL and led only by those who have fought for Marx- ism and to defend the gains of the proletariat against every enemy inside and outside the workers’ movement. Only the banner of the Fourth International can claim this title. The International Youth Assembly, convened in England in August 1967 by the Young Social- ists (Britain) and Révoltes (France) and attended by 800 delegates from 12 different countries, was a truly fitting commemoration of the October Revolution. Here were the first contingents of a generation of revolutionary youth which is now grasping Marxism, in opposition to Social Demo- cracy and Stalinsm, as the only effective weapon in their struggle against imperialism. Here was the answer to the miserable sceptics who opposed the foundation and building of the Fourth Inter- national. It was only those who fought for the programme of Lenin and Trotsky who could bring together these hundreds of revolutionary youth. . 7 The mass forces which they will mobilize in preparation for the International Conference of Revolutionary Youth will build on the basis of the Programme of the Fourth International. The revolutionary parties of the Fourth International will find an inexhaustible supply of proletarian cadres from this radicalized youth. Here is the carrying forward of October! The disintegration of Stalinism and of Social Democracy will not be permitted to throw the working class on to the mercy of the imperialists. Instead, there will be new Octobers. And the workers of Russia will be among the most prominent and most valiant in this next stage. They will rally behind a new party, based on the programme of Lenin and Trotsky, in political revolution against the reactionary Kremlin bureaucracy, in order to take their place beside the vanguard of the working class in every country. Long Live the October Revolution of 1917! Long Live the World Socialist Revolution! Long Live the Fourth International! 71

[p007] inevitable future.’ ‘At the present moment in history ... all countries something—and something highly significant—of their near and it is the Russian model that reveals to Lenin in 1920! ‘I remember so well what happened when the Russian Revolution occurred. J remember the miners when they heard that the Tsarist tyranny had been overthrown, rushing to meet one another in the streets with tears streaming down their cheeks, shaking hands and saying: “At last it has happened” . . . the revolution of 1917 came to the working class of Great Britain not as a disaster, but as one of the most emancipating events in the history of mankind.’ Aneurin Bevan in 1951? THE OVERTHROW of reactionary Tsardom in Russia, the seizure of power by the proletariat and the setting up of the first Soviet Socialist Republic showed the working class of the world, and especially its revolutionary vanguard, that workers’ power could be taken, and kept. It thus altered the nature and perspective of workers’ struggle everywhere. The effect of the Revolution in 1917 was literally world-shattering, and in Britain, as in other countries, the working class and the revolutionary movement underwent com- plex changes in organization, theories and methods of struggle. The theoretical development of the revolutionary groups, the response of the bureau- cracy and other aspects of the many-sided impact of the Revolution require separate treatment in subsequent articles. Here two particularly import- ant episodes in the history of the British working class in the post-revolutionary years have been selected for attention. Lenin described the soviets as amongst the greatest contributions made by the Russian Revo- lution to the international working class. From the Paris Commune of 1871 to the Hungarian rising of 1956, all-inclusive local workers’ com- mittees have been a vital weapon in the prole- tarian struggle to defend its conditions, and to overthrow the capitalist order. In Britain such workers’ committees never reached the advanced 72 stage of development attained elsewhere. However, on two occasions at least in the period 1917-1920 workers’ committees did spring up in Britain. The Councils of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates in 1917 and the Councils of Action in 1920 were inseparably linked with the defence of the Russian Revolution by thousands and millions of British workers. It was a real proletarian internationalism which brought into existence institutions which could have heralded the beginning of a British revolution. The complex reasons for the failure of revolu- tionary possibilities in Britain in this period to mature can be seen in these events. The craven betrayals of the right wing in supporting their ‘own’ bourgeoisie in 1914, in joining the govern- ment and in surrendering trade-union rights are well known. The first Imperialist War could only have been carried on with the compliance of the Hendersons and the Thomases. Less often realized is the role of the centrists, such as MacDonald and Smillie, who talked of opposition to the war, but co-operated in the Government’s schemes for enlistment, and for the direction and control of labour. These men were in at the beginning of 1 In Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder (Collected Works, London, 1966, Vol. 31), p. 22. 2 Labour Party, Report of the Fiftieth Annual Conference (1951), p. 121. FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, NOVEMBER, 1967

[p008] every revolutionary development to smother it and hand it over to the bourgeoisie. The role of the revolutionaries, and especially of the British Socialist Party (BSP) was of central importance but of limited impact. Their theoretical back- wardness, their idealist attitude to workers’ struggles, their failure to fight for their own leadership, these meant they could not bring for- ward to a higher plane the revolutionary possibili- ties that existed in the period. From February to October 1917 As soon as the February revolution broke out there were demonstrations and meetings of support in Britain. The first demonstration took place on March 24, within days of the news arriving. 7,000 people attended a meeting at the Memorial Hall, Mile End Road, sponsored by Russian refugee groups with the support of the BSP, and the Women’s Socialist Federation (WSF). ‘During the whole meeting again and again outbursts of bound- less enthusiasm filled the immense hall with un- ending applause and shouts.’ The meeting also indicated its views on the further development of the revolution when it ‘expressed its conviction that those who have at heart the cause of the workers and of all the labouring masses in Russia must rally around the Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Delegates for the successful achievement of the work of the revolution in the Republic of Russia’.® There were many more meetings in the weeks that followed. For instance, over the weekend of March 31 to April 1 over 20,000 people ex- pressed their solidarity with the revolution in meetings at the Albert Hall.‘ On May Day 70,000 demonstrators in Glasgow called for ‘the over- throw of capitalism and the establishment of a co- operative commonwealth as the only solution to poverty and unemployment’. Thousands in Man- chester cheered and applauded Robert Williams, leader of the Transport Workers’ Federation, when he said that ‘revolutions like charity begin at home’. In Liverpool 150 Russian sailors headed the demonstration and received a tumultuous re- ception at the meeting afterwards. In London nearly 50,000 marched in solidarity with the revolution, against conscription, for votes for all and for an immediate peace.° . Early in May a Convention was summoned at Leeds to commemorate the revolution. This was called by the United Socialist Council, a body formed in 1913 by the BSP and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) after they had failed to amal- gamate on the instructions of the International