THE ROAD TO ANTI-COMMUNISM. PART 2

Throughout his life whether on the left or the right— Jack Tanner maintained implacable opposition to the construction of revolutionary Marxist parties.

At the Second Congress of the Communist International, at which Tanner was a delegate from the Shop Steward's and Workers' Committee Movement, the report on the construction of communist parties was given by Gregori It was immediately opposed by Tanner. "The main point of Zinoviev's argument' he said, 'was the absolute necessity for a strongly disciplined highly centralized Communist Party, and also that the dictatorship of the proletariat is synonimous with the dictatorship of the Communist Party. He has not clearly proved his argument.

'What has taken place in Russia and what is now taking place must not be set up as a model for all other countries. In England, we are sure, things will be quite different.

'For us in the shop stewards movement, the dictatorship of the proletariat means something entirely different from the meaning conveyed by comrade Zinoviev. The revolutionary minority of the proletariat in England is expressed through the shop stewards' movement.' There was no need for a Bolshevik-type party in Britain, Tanner argued. 'We have in England a much greater number of conscious proletarians than there were in Russia. A number of those who are active in the shop stewards' movement are not greatly concerned about the formation of the party because they are convinced from their experiences in other parties that it was a loss of time to share in the work of such parties.

For Tanner, being outside the revolutionary party was much better than being in it. 'But because these individuals are unattached it does not follow that they are less revolutionary. On the contrary, they are more so,' he claimed.

Direct action would come from the shop stewards.

Zinoviev, according to Tanner, had not studied the 'new outlook' of the British and the Russian Bolsheviks being 'dogmatic'.

'The Russian comrades must not base their judgement solely on the experience of Russia. They have been removed from all contact with the masses in other countries for some years.

'We have to make the revolution in England. Our Russian comrades cannot do that. The Second International was loose in form and vague in aim. But the Third International should not go to the other extreme and be too dogmatic.

We must provide that every organization has sufficient freedom of movement within its respective country to deal with and adjust itself to any special conditions.

Lenin, however, succeeded in gaining an assurance from most of the British delegates —including Tanner - that they would support the formation of a Communist Party when they got home.

But when a special meeting of the Workers' Committees National Administrative Council (NAC) was held to hear a report back from the Congress, Tanner led a group which argued that they should The NAC was instructed to prepare a statement on the relationship of the Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee Movement to the Communist Party-but this was never done.

The reason was because shop stewards' movement was split on the issue.

Ranged against the Tanner wing was a group led by J. T. Murphy, who was now convinced that the way ahead lay through the Communist Party.

Despite Tanner's equivocal position, he chaired the 'unity convention' held in Leeds on January 29, 1921. This was a gathering of 170 delegates, mainly from the Communist Party of Great Britain, Sylvia Pankhurst's Communist Party (British Section, Third Internationaland the smaller Glasgow organization, the Communist Labour Party, one of whose leading members was William Gallacher.

The left wing of the Independent Labour Party and the Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee Movement was also represented.

It was here that decision to go ahead ers Pankhurst and Shoo STewares Communist Party was taken, although there was soon to be a split with Pankhurst.

Nevertheless, the MurphyTanner battle continued in the shop stewards' movement. When, in April 1921, the NAC declared that it could only support one paper and that would be "The Worker' and not Tanner's 'Solidarity, the latter announced that he would start a new paper to be called 'The Liberator' He wrote in 'Solidarity' or April 29, 1921, that his new paper would be 'devoted to the class conscious workers ... who are working for the industrial revolution • • • unhampered by connection with any official or unofficial political group or political party?

Tanner's flirtation with communism was virtually over (though he was to find himself on the same line as the Stalinists in World War Il after the invasion of Hencefor h he was to devote himself to work as a trade unionist, to emerge as a loyal servant of capitalism at the head of the engineers. CONTINUED TOMORROW

Prèts, Wednesday