Automation and Social Progress, by S. Lilley

[p036] Automation and Social Progress by S. Lilley, M.Sc., Ph.D. (Lawrence & Wishart, 21s.) THE TWO great advances of the post-war years are nuclear energy, the greatest fruit of theoretical science since the dis- covery of fire; and automation, the child of modern tech- nology. These two developments are only ten years old. It is the latter that is the concern of this book, and it is fitting that this exciting new phenomenon should be presented in such an exciting book. Those readers who are already acquainted with the pre- vious works of Dr. S. Lilley will expect a book which is enthralling and stimulating, which takes into the sweep of its imagination theoretical problems and future prospects. They will expect to find this against a background of factual detail, written clearly, and simple to understand. They will find just that. The book begins with the prehistory of automation. It shows how the work of the skilled craftsman was broken up and converted into unskilled work by the application of the principle of interchangeability of standard parts. These parts are fitted together on the assembly line, and this is the basis of modern mass production, the most typical example of which is the car industry. In this process each item of work is so simplified and standardized that the worker is reduced to functioning like a machine. The next step obviously is to re- place him by a machine; and this is the first stage of auto- mation, which uses the ‘transfer machine’ to replace the machine-like unskilled worker. The higher stages are then described, from the automatic assembly line to the programme- controlled machines. The discussion ends by considering not only future possibilities in the way of automated factories, but also the complete reorganization of the principles of engineering construction. Two fascinating byways are des- cribed: one the application of automation to industries other than engineering; the other, its application to ‘white collar’ jobs. Here the sober description of what is now actually being done commercially reads like pages from a science- fiction magazine. The speed of development in this field is well illustrated by the fact that the book refers to work on the development of machines for translating one language into another. These machines now exist and their product is read- able and comprehensible. Having dealt with the purely technological aspects of automation, Lilley goes on to consider its social significance. He emphasizes that this is fundamentally no different from previous technological advances, except that it is so much faster. The economies in human labour give an overall in- crease in productivity, not of five to twenty per cent as before, but of the order of five to twenty times. Only human society can decide whether this will lead to increased wealth, in all its aspects, or increased unemployment and economic crisis. A brief outline of fundamental economics serves as the basis for a chapter which demonstrates that only under soci- alism can full advantage be taken of this new stride forward. The contrast between what has been going on in the Soviet Union and the capitalist world is then given specifically and in detail. Perhaps the most illuminating parts of this section are those dealing with automation and monopoly, and the factors retarding the development of automation. Coming down to further details, the book contrasts the attitude of the TUC and the trade union leaders to the im- plications of automation under capitalism, with that of the car industry shop stewards. The former have expressed them- 96 selves in vague platitudes and pious hopes; the latter called two conferences in 1955 and their resolutions gave a clear programme to the organized workers. The book ends with suggestions for action that may be taken even under capital- ism, the main emphasis being on the need for active participa- tion of the trade unions before and during all changes, and the role of East-West trade in opening up new markets. * * * This brief outline of the work does scant justice to it. For those who are philosophically minded, it will be of pro- found interest to see how the author brings out clearly the change from the skilled worker making small quantities of goods to the unskilled worker making vast quantities. with simple machines, and then back to the skilled supervisor of automatic machinery making even vaster quantities. Again, it is interesting to learn how the first introduction of transfer machines to mass production, whch needs a standard product made for a large market, can be applied only by increasing the standardization and where even larger markets are avail- able; but the new forms of programme-controlled automation can now be applied to the production of small quantities of goods in runs of many different varieties. There is a further question of some importance: how is it that the Soviet Union is lagging behind in the application of transfer machines, but is developing and introducing the very highest forms of automation. Dr. Lilley makes it clear that only in a planned economy is it possible to skip the earliest stages, as these require much capital investment which would be wasted by becoming out of date too quickly. M.H. A Valuable Reprint The New Course by Leon Trotsky (New Park Publi- cations, 3s. 6d.) It WOULD be difficult to imagine any work of the early twenties having a more striking and immediate relevance for socialists today than this collection of articles written by Trotsky in 1923. ‘The party was living, as it were, on two storeys: the upper storey, where things are decided, and the lower storey, where all you do is learn of the decisions.’ (p. 15) ‘The apparatus, in spite of the ideological growth of the party, continued obstinately to think and decide for the party.’ (p. 16) The comparison between the problems of the Russian Communist Party in 1923 and our own problems in Britain today is not accidental, but derives from similar necessities, in each case demanding a ‘new course’. Again a quotation will serve to highlight the comparison: ‘The party as a whole is about to move on to a higher historical. stage. The bulk of the communists are saying in effect to the lead- ers: “... We not only want to be led by you but to participate with you in the leadership of the class.” ’ (pp. 14-15) Not only in the Communist Party, but in the British Labour move- ment generally, there exists a contradiction between the growing militancy and need of Marxist leadership on the one hand, and the persistence of a conservative bureaucracy in hanging on to effective control on the other. The situation analyzed by Trotsky not only provides his- torical parallels with our own, but is also a decisive part of the same continuous process. In 1923 the end of the post-1917 revolutionary wave was clearly recognizable, and set the stage for the dominant tendencies in the movement subsequently: in the Soviet Union and the Communist Patries of the capi- talist States, the sacrifice of the world revolution to the in- terests of ‘socialism in one country’, and in the reformist parties and trade unions the open rejection of independent working-class politics. To initiate this process in the Soviet Union, Stalin’s bureaucracy had necessarily to destroy the revolutionary traditions of the Bolsheviks. Trotsky’s articles published in this booklet expose the process in its very ori- gins, thus forming an essential part of the answer to that question so many of us are asking: How could it all happen? Here one can see the soil in which the full flower of bureau-- cratic degeneration was later to prosper. The defeat of the German working class, the completion of a long and exhaust- ing period of isolation and intervention, tremendous industrial difficulties—all these factors encouraged that weariness in the class leading the struggle that has succeeded every great re-

[p037] volution. With the working class thus weakened, and the petty bourgeoisie revived by the New Economic Policy, a bureaucratic regime, backed by the dogmatic theory of ‘socialism in one country’, was well in accord. In the first two sections of this book, Trotsky attempts a task most unfamiliar to communists of today; he analyzes the party itself in a historical, dialectical way, under the headings ‘The Question of the Party Generations’ and “The Social Com- position of the Party’. In the following chapters, ‘Groups and Factional Formations’, ‘Bureaucratism and the Revolution’ and ‘Tradition and Revolutionary Policy’, there is described, on the basis of this analysis, the type of party needed to re- store a truly revolutionary spirit and type of work. The final chapters, ‘The ‘“Underestimation” of the Peasantry’ and ‘Planned Economy’, will serve to dismiss some hoary myths about Trotsky’s views later put around by the Stalinists. The timely re-issue of this material will prove an ad- mirable beginning for the re-examination of a vital period, especially as it deals specifically with such important prob- lems. Trotsky’s basic conclusion, that the question of factions and splits is only solved by revolutionary action based on Marxist analysis and undertaken after truly democratic dis- cussion, is a warning to modern heresy-hunters. ‘To avert [a split] the leading organs of the party must lend an ear to the voice of the broad party mass, not consider every criticism as a manifestation of factional spirit, and thereby drive conscien- tious and disciplined communists to maintain a systematic silence or else constitute themselves as factions.’ (p. 28) S. Books Received The following books have been received and will be re- viewed in forthcoming issues: The Case for Industrial Partnership by G. D. H. Cole (Mac- millan, 7s. 6d.) Watcher on the Rhine by Brian: Connell (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 21s.) The Story of Lola Gregg by Howard Fast (Bodley Head, 10s. 6d.) vet Social Class and Educational Opportunity by J. E. Floud, A. H. Halsey and F. M. Martin (Heinemann, 12s. 6d.) Guilty Men 1957 by Michael Foot and Mervyn Jones: (Gol-- lanez, 12s. 6d.) The see of Literacy by Richard Hoggart (Chatto and Windus, 5s. The Rationalist Annual, 1957 (Watts, 5s.) British Constitutional History since 1832 by R. L. Schuyler (Macmillan, 8s. 6d.) The Torment of Secrecy by Edward Stils (Heinemann, 15s.) \ We hope to publish the article by Bob Davies on “The Inadequacies of Russian Trotskyism’, which is still being pre- pared, in the next issue of Labour Review. A number of letters, including one from George Gray (Manchester) criticizing the views of Wolfgang Harich (the savage sentence imposed on whom demands the protest of every socialist), are unavoidably held over to the next issue owing to shortage of space. Our Contemporaries WE WELCOME the forthcoming appearance of The New Reasoner under the editorship of John Saville and E. P. Thompson. We go to press before the first number is pub- lished, but the contents as announced will clearly be of great interest to readers of Labour Review. They include articles by Professor Hyman Levy on ‘Soviet Socialism’, Peter Wors- ley on the ‘Anatomy of Mau-Mau’, E. P. Thompson on ‘Soci- alist Humanism’ and Eric Hobsbawm on ‘Dr. Marx and Victorian Critics’. The New Reasoner costs 4s. per copy or 15s. for four issues and can be obtained from E. P. Thomp- son, Holly Bank, Whitegate, Halifax. - We welcome too the first of the series of Reasoner pamphiets: The Communist Party and the Labour Left 1925- 1929 by Joseph Redman. It will be reviewed in our next issue. Lastly we offer congratulations to the energetic students who have brought out Universities and Left Review and whose club of the same name in London, at which contributors to the magazine lead discussions, is helping the great new ferment of ideas on the Left. Printed by Plough Press, Ltd., r.o. 180, Clapham High St., London, S:W:4,

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