Campaign against Garaudy continues

THE PERIOD leading up to the National Congress of the French Communist Party is witnessing an unprecedented campaign against the ideas of Roger Garaudy, leading spokesman in the 'dialogue' with the Church and opponent of the Soviet military intervention in Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

Although Garaudy has been permitted to have his say in an article published in the Party daily, 'L'Humanité', a methodical attack on his position is being carried out.

Contributions

These include contributions from Party members in the same paper and a 20-page critique in the monthly journal directed to party intellectuals, 'La Nouvelle Critique'.

Garaudy for a long time enjoyed a licensed position to engage in discussion with reverend Jesuits and generally to show how 'flexible' the Party could be. RAIL ACCIDENTS ON THE INCREASE 'THE GENERAL upward trend in train accidents of all types is continued,' says the chief inspector of railways in a recent report to the Ministry of Transport on the safety record of railways in Britain during 1968.

The most alarming Increase was in derailments, with an increase of 43 per cent in goods train derailments over the four years up to 1968.

This type of accident is doubly serious as the possibility always exists of other trains running into the derailed wagons.

The figure of total derailments for 1968 is given • as 367 (31 passenger and 336 goods). The report states that:

•.. the upward trend in train accidents is caused mainly by technical defects His own record is that of a firm Party-liner for many years who, amongst other things, wrote an orthodox, 1.e. Stalinist, thesis which earned him a doctorate from Moscow University in Stalin's day.

Garaudy was able to square his conscience with the needs of the Stalinist bureaucracy and with Thorez for many His pen was always at their disposal to pervert Marxism and cover up their tracks.

He saw many of his old friends denounced by Party hacks, expelled or forced to leave. He accepted the Soviet version of the Hungarian Revolution just as he swallowed many other things about which, in his position as a member of the Central Committee and a frequent visitor to Russia and eastern Europe, he could hardly plead ignorance.

It is now easy for his enemies in the Party to show that the rightward course was visible many years ago.

Whatever his personal contribution, there is no doubt that in the main he was faithfully interpreting the Party line. Even over Czechoslovakia he only carried the official criticism of the intervention a stage further.

The important thing now is to destroy Garaudy politically; a task which is rendered all the easier by the nature of his political position. although recently an increase in human errors has played its part.' On the reason for the derailments the report states:

'In recent years the increase in goods derailments has been wholely the result of increases in those in which the first vehicle to leave the rails was a two-axle short wheelbase i We vase of i0 feet or lein. (W wagon one havins Another alarming trend which continued into 1969 was the increase in buckling of continuous welded rail: seven cases in 1968.

Plans exist to install this type of line at the rate of 500 miles a year with all the major main line and commuter routes completed by 1974.

The number of fires in trains also rose from 157 in 1967 to 208 in 1968, and some types of locomotive were withdrawn from service.

Before the Party membership cies such as the Unified Socialhe can be denounced as an ists (PSU). unreliable intellectual who has broken with Marxism.

The 'dialogue' with the Catholics, treated sceptically by many worker-members anyway, can, by implication, be used to discredit him.

At this time, too, the Garaudy affair performs useful function.

It draws criticism away from the Party leaders and focuses it on one deviant individual.

Tactics

There have been many occasions in the history of the French Party when similar tactics have been used: against the famed 'Barbe-Celor group' in the early 1930s, then against Doriot, and, since the war, against Auguste Leceur, André Marty and others.

It is not surprising that Garaudy is unable to make a Marxist critique of the Party's past or of its relations with the Soviet bureaucracy.

Instead of turning towards the working class, Garaudy sees a special role for intellectuals, technicians and other sections: the very clientele courted by 'new left' tendenA Czechoslovak youth attempts to reason with a Russian soldier during the Stalinist invasion.

Garaudy's denouncement of the invasion only carried the officia criticism a stage further.

The government's drive for 'efficiency' and a profit at all costs can only result in a deterioration in public services whatever safety precautions are taken.

Productivity deals give priority to speed-up and staff reductions; all else is secondary • In this situation it is comparatively easy to load railway workers with work sequences and schedules beyond normal capacity, then proclaim 'human error' when they fail to react like machines to abnormal circumstances.

Safety officers concerned with the welfare of all railway workers and users should certainly expose the use of ancient and out-dated rolling stock, but would do well also to closely examine the clauses of the August 1968 productivity deal agreed by the NUR executive.

Perhaps it is in the Party of Rocard that Garaudy will find his next political home.

Garaudy is a product of French Stalinism which he has done sO much to make palatable to the intellectuals. It is significant that when he began to remove the blinkers with which the Party had equipped him for so long, he moved instinctively towards the position of reformist socialism.

In a negative way he exposes the hypocrisy of the official line which has long pointed out and cautiously followed the road which he pursues at break-neck speed.

Criticisms

The official criticisms of Garaudy's writings are valueless as contributions to Marxism, correct as some of them may formally be.

It would be necessary to carry the criticism much further, to take in all the revisions of Marxism which the Party has officially encouraged for the past 40 years.

Criticism of the Party is probably more ready to break out in the rank and file than at any previous time. There is the obvious question of the Party's role in the May-June events in 1968.

The leadership must avoid a fundamental discussion about the general strike and whether or not there was a revolutionary situation.

Its position on Czechoslovakia also evokes criticism both from those who regard it as retreating from its initial stand of opposition to military intervention under Soviet pressure and that from those oldtimers who regard the original opposition as being a betrayal of the Soviet Union.

CINEMA THE RECKONING' directed by Jack Golc and written by John McGrath, now showing at the Plaza, is, I think, a dangerous film.

At the outset I must say that this is not due to the intentions of the makers, but there are elements in the film which are confused and ambiguous which turn their intentions against them.

It is worth examining these weaknesses because I believe they flow from a basic political and theoretical confusion and they provide at the same time some insight into their sources.

First, let's see what is the film's narrative.

Mick Marler is a pushing, ambitious, ruthless sales By Brian Moore