Fabian International Essays, by T.E.M. McKitterick and Kenneth Younger

[p033] Fabian International Essays, ed. T. E. M. McKitterick and Kenneth Younger. Hogarth Press, 1957 (18/-). Seven ‘essays on various aspects of international politics by leading right wing politicians contain a certain amount of use- ful analysis of current problems (e.g. Thomas Balogh’s Political Economy of the Cold War, T. E. M. McKitterick’s The Middle East). But in general they strikingly illustrate the utter pov- erty of Fabian theory as a contribution to the socialist move- ment. The views expressed could, for the most part, be expected of a group of Liberals or even moderate Conservatives. The most radical of the group, Thomas Balogh, sharply and cor- rectly criticising “liberalising’” economic policies insisted on by the Americans, nevertheless hardly writes as a socialist economist. And the keynote article, “Co-existence with Soviet Communism’, is written by the Foreign Affairs Commentator of the Observer, Richard Lowenthal. Nobody could pretend that the newspaper for which this man is a spokesman stood, in any way, for socialist principles. And yet socialists are ex- pected to treat seriously as a contributor to the thought of their movement one whose views, week after week, appear in the leading independent organ of British capitalism. It would not be unfair to say of these essayists that they are hardly concerned with the furthering of the interests of socialism internationally. They are obsessed with the. danger represented by the bloc of states dominated by the U.S.S.R. to the “western” world. Since most socialists who take their political convictions seriously are under the impression that the “western” is a capitalist world, the keynote author finds it necessary to explain (in a sort of shortened version of Strachey’s Modern Capitalism) that the western capitalist states are all evolving, more or less rapidly, and under the guidance of the late Lord Keynes, towards socialism. At the same time, imperialism is being liquidated and there is no intensification of imperialist rivalries. The Fabian socialist conscience is consequently troubled only by weaknesses in the anti-communist front. Mr. Dennis Healey, whose article is oddly entitled ‘Beyond Power Politics’, concerns himself mainly with the mechanics of co-operation between the capitalist powers. Like any other spokesman for British capitalism, he is naturally suspicious of supra-national authorities, but extols certain inter-governmental bodies. His favourite is NATO—“military co-operation ...may sometimes be the surest means to creating an international community”. 62 * For him “real achievements” include the peacetime build-up of £700 million worth of bases and supply lines all over Western Europe, and an increase in the number of military airfields from 15 to 165. No socialist, and not many communists these days, would want the foreign policy of the British Labour movement to be lined up with the interests of those descendants of the Great Russian chauvinists at present in occupation of the Kremlin. But this panic Fabian defence of the interests of the old col- onial powers and their American protector (?) is equally re- mote from the real interests of the movement. Owing to the stupidity of Soviet policy in Poland and Hungary, and the gross over-playing of a potentially good hand in the Middle East, there is a revival of the cold war atmosphere of 1950. Even so, this does not constitute the aggressive menace which justifies (for instance) Strachey’s dream that Britain shall possess her own nuclear weapons. Isaac Deutscher has pointed out that the despotism of the Stalin and post-Stalin regimes are compatible with a non-aggressive (if noisy) foreign policy. The danger of world war still resides mainly in the economic and political instabilities of the capitalist world with its dreams of imperial restoration. These are the dangers which the Labour movement must watch, and bridle. In any case, the supposedly monolithic Communist bloc is showing signs of development. The re-emergence of the crea- tive forces of the revolution will derive no assistance from the supra-national or inter-governmental agencies of the western capitalists beloved of these Fabian essayists. NATO is not only Mr. Healey’s friend but a prop for the heirs of Stalin.