The Newsletter, vol. 1 no. 6

By our Industrial Correspondent OW LONG wili Frank Foulkes and Frank Havxell, H the leaders of the Electrical Trades Union, remain in the Communist Party following their rout at the hands of delegates to the union’s annual conference last week?

This was the question in the minds of delegates as they came away from Folkestone. having put the Stalinist leadership to Might. Monday's rank-and-file victory on Hungary was catastrophic for the two Franks: but by the end of the week they were humiliated men. with a lot of explaining to do to Communist Party industrial organizer Peter Kerrigan.

Whut made their defeat so crushing was that it was not inHicted by Right-wingers. but by a vigorous Left-wing opposition, supported by many Communist Party members, which hammered them over and over again on both political and industrial questions.

In the debate on a resolution. carried unanimously. asking for a contracting electricians’ charter. every specs floor criticized the leadership Why had the Evecutive conducted no canipaign to improve vonditiens jn the contracting industry’? Why had structed me $ to return to work in numereus strikes for better cond or against victimization What really upset the Stalinists But what really upset the Stalinists was the statement bs mover, Mr. Allum (Reading):

"You say that you are agaist stabilization of wases itt engineering industry and that you opposed the agreement a six and a half per cent increase plus strings.

‘Can you tell the conference haw it was that you agroed to an understanding with the contracting employers for an increase of [our and a half per cent (twenence halfpenny an heur) and stability in “ages for one year”

And lo preve his point the delegate quoted iram the ECs own minutes.

The platform was again embarrassed in the debate on automation and redundaney.

Moving a resolution asking for a struggle for the principle of ‘no sackings. Mr. Hadley (Shetlicld) criticized the redundancy settlements reached last year at Standards. BMC. Nertons and Briges.

(Continued on back pz2ge} HUNGARY AVH. Among them are the communist journalist Gabor Folly.

THERE arF more Hungarian communists in Kadar’s prisons than were imprisoned under Horthy.

they include such veterans of the Hungarian work movement as Zoltan Vas and Geza Lesonezy: the com intellectals Vibor Dery and Gyula Hay: the young novelist Yardos: the journalists Haraszti aad Gimmes; the young communist Gabor Tanozes. secretary of the Pelofi Circle: the communist officers Mateter and Kopacsi: the communist student leaders Markus, Janos Varga and Pozsar.

Hundreds of communists have been executed by Kadar’s the communist poet Istvan Eorsi. Maleter’s lieutenants Praszmaser and Kabalaes. Istvan Angyal. leader of the revolutionary youth of the Ninth District of Budapest. Balint Papp. leader of the party’s youth organization in Dunapentele iSztalinvaros) ...

Kadar's police have, however, at last found a real live White Terrorist. whom they have put on trial for killing progressive people. He is 70 years of age, and his crimes date from , . . 1919. Why he was not punished between 1945 and 1956 has not been explained. :

me BRITISH GOVERNMENT have scrapped the special controls on China trade. No doubt the Tory leaders will cite this in order to soothe those “Suez rebels’-in their party who have demanded that the Government assert its independence of the USA. The decision has -been ‘criticized by some American statesmen, such as the Assistant Secretary of State for Asian Affairs, Mr. Robertson.

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It is clear however that decisive sections of the American capitalist class were not displeased. Britain's decision drew only a mild rebuke from Senator Knowland, the Republican leader. The Manchester Guardian commented that his speech was ‘for the record rather than for any sustained campaign’. Britain’s action was given an almost unanimous welcome in the leading American newspapers. In fact it is quite likely that it was taken after full discussion with the US Government. who may have encouraged it in order to prepare the way for similar action on their part.

American big businessmen are more and more demanding a shift of policy towards China. ‘The fiction that Chiang would one day return from Formosa to “liberate” the mainland by force has long been buried in America. wrote The Observer last Sunday, in an editorial asking the US Government to ‘move boldly and bring its policy into line with realities’ and calling for a policy that would seek to exploit the differences between the Chinese and Soviet leaders.

It is just such a policy that American statesmen are preparing. Eisenhower himself has been reported as doubting the effectiveness of ‘policies which could serve only to cement Russia and China’. Soon after the lifting of the special embargocs on China trade by Britain he declared that the time might bz approaching for a reconsideration of trade with China. The end of the American embargo has been advocated by Henry Ford If and the Wail Street Journai.

* RESSURE for the lifting of the embargoes ts not due solely to a desire to exploit the tensions in Sino-Soviet relations. In the background is the increasing competition for the world’s markets. Britain was herself driven into action out of fear that Japan and West Germany were preparing to jump into the China market. The U § textile manufacturers see a lifting of embargoes as bringing release from the pressure of Japanese textiles. The choice before the US Government is cither to let Japan trade with China—or give increasing aid to Japan to preserve an economy cut off from its traditional Chinese markets.

China certainly has a vast need for goods. To meet that need properly capitalist industries would have to be planned in Jine with Chinese economic development, and there would have to be cheap long-term credits. To build China's economy in this way, and so strengthen the non-capitalist. world, clashes with the interests of British and American big business. The fight for East-West trade and the fight for socialism are closely linked. Junrt 15, 1957

CANADA; Winning 110 seats oul of 265, Tories defeatol a Liberal Government for the first time since 1935.

FRANCE: By 240 votes to 194 the National Assembly approved M. Maurice Bourgés-Maunoury (Socialist Radical) as Prime Minister.

JAPAN: The Meteorological Institute announced that radieactive fall-out from the first Christmas Island test on May 18 had been recorded in Japan, ALGERIA: Twelve Muslims were killed and over 30 wounded, 100 shops were wrecked and twenty cars burned. in antiMuslim riets by gangs of French youths.

HUNGARY: Six ‘counter-revolutionaries’ were sentenced to death. (eo others jailed for life. five sent to. prison for terms ranging from six months to fwo years, alter a twoweek tial at Gyér-. {VALY: The government of Signor Zoli resigned, alter corrected figures of a confidence vote showed 11 had failed by one vote to obtain a majerity—unless Zoli was prepared to accept the votes of the neo-fascists.

SOUTH AFRICA: Thousands of professors, lecturers and students of Capetown University paraded through their city in profest against the Unive: s Apartheid Bill, whi sill forbid multi-razia: unive education in Seuth Af ALBANIA: Diplomats reaching Belgrade from Albania said siege-like conditions prevailed in Albania following the Night to Yugoslavia of Panajot Plyaku, Police and military forces had been built up to 100.000—one in ten of the population USA: The Senate internal security sub-committee subpoenac:!

Dr. Linus Pauling, Nobel prize-winning chemist. to explain whether “communist organizations’ were behind the petition signed by 2.000 scientists calling for an international agreement to stop H-bomb tests.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Deputy Prime Minister Dolansky called for a ‘revision’ of “age fates and a tightening of wages discipline. warned that picce-work bonu sould be slashed. said it “as urgently necessary for Czechoslovak industry to raise productivity.

USA: Refusal of Trans-World Airlines to hire a stewarcess on the grounds that her legs are ‘ugshapely’. her teeth ‘anallractive’ and her complexion ‘poor is to be challenged yy » York State: The girl is 21. shapely. attractive. intellisent—and a Negro. A State investigator alleges that TWA “has mainiained a policy of barring Negroes from employment as Hight hostesses’ and thus contravened New York's Fair Employment Act.

Tim Roche's record was set out in The Newsletter last week. He resigned after a Congress report-hack meeting in Leeds, at which the vote on the Congress decisions was 32 in favour, 27 against. Yorkshire district secretary Bert Ramelson commented: ‘We spent £5,000 on the Congress, and this is what we getAFTER twenty-seven years’ membership of the Communist Party find that 1 can no longer remain within its ranks. It is with regret that 1 take this decision since it will mean that ‘T will no longer have regular contact with some of the finest men and women in the British Labour movement.

, 1am leaving the Communist Party because refuse to place it before the working-class or before truth and justice for the whole of humanity.

The crisis in the Communist Party reaches further back than the Twentieth Congress or the events in Hungary. Before these events there was a decline in membership, in Daily Worker sales. in the influence of the party. that indicated that something was fundamentally wrong inside the party.

The Khrushchev speech at the Twentieth Congress was 2 blinding light making clear what had previously been unclear. The events in Poznan and Hungary underlined the lessons to be learned. :

These events should have been the signal for the British party leadership to encourage and promote the maximum amount of criticism and discussion in order to probe deeper into the reasons for the continued isolation from the British Labour movement and the working class.

Instead of placing itself at the head of such a movement, the leadership caxhibited all the worst features of a rigid, uncompromising bureaucracy and decided to stand firm. Nevertheless pressure compelled it to shift its pesilion repeatedly and ultimately forced a special congress.

Those of us who thought that this would mean a comradely airing of differences and an earnest desire on the part of everybody to sift truth from falsehood and to find the way forward for the British people were soon disillusioned.

We saw the leadership acting as a faction against the membership, making every effort to prevent delegates being elected who had 2 critical point of view.

At the special congress itself hundreds of amendments io rules were denied discussion. Of the hundreds of amendments on the party’s programme and the political resolution. only a handful were discussed, and these were chosen by the Execulive Committee nominees. Yet the leadership say that the Communist Party has more democracy than any other political party!

We saw a sham fight between Emile Burns and R. Palme Dutt on oposing fraternal association’ or ‘promoting fraternal x ons —an insulting deception of the members. Its real object was to prove the impossible. i.c., that it is possible for a minority to become a majority under the present leadership.

Rank and file kept in ignorance At the same congress it was re-emphasized that those who hold minority views on leading committees are not permitted fo pul them belore members. An EC member must not give his own point of view cxcept to the EC. A District Committee member cannot put his own point of View to his own branch or an aggregate meeting of members in his own locality.

The rank and file must be kept in ignorance of ideas as well as facts. They must not aliend schools or conferences organized by socialist forums. They must not meet together and discuss politics except in party branches and organizations where a check can be kept on them.

The definition of education is that it is for the purpose of teaching how correct the EC is. ‘They want to bring a famine upon our minds when we shall know nothing but what is measured by their bushel’.

Three hundred years separates the British people from such nonsense.

The CP has now a self{-perpetuating bureaucracy, which not

only interprets rules, it also makes them.

Tt has an anti-democratic organization aimed to indoctrinate but not to educate. It pretends infallibility, always speaking ex cathedra, and hiding from be! eceari behind quotations and slogans. These are for the ever-dwindling faithful, For the unfaithful there are always plenty of labels that excuse argument Tts policy has become reactionary on conscription, on the H-bomb, on elections and on unity. On all these questions the leaders further isolate the members from the British Labour movement and the working class, Their characterization of the murder. torture and kidnapPings of socialists, communists and others. that took place abroad, was that these were ‘errors’, ‘mistakes or “abuses”.

Such a bureaucracy can never win the British people or lead them to socialism. With their dual morality they are nut to be trusted. Because I want to remain a socialist T am compelled lo withdras all support from the bureaucracy, trade is therefore falling: in 1934 it was 20.42 per cent, in 1985 19.7 per cent. in 1956 nineteen per cent, This constant [all has been going on steadily since 1950, when Britain's proportion was 25.7 per cent. And it is this Process which is worrying the Treasury.

Britain cannot afford to spend on armaments the amounts she has spent in the past six years. She must increase her inYestments and modernize her industry or be outdistanced by all her competitors when the expansion in world trade ceases, as it will with the slowing down of arms orders, The arms programme need not be Seriously cut to cause an end to the growth in world trade. Even if the cost of armaments is stabilized at its present level world trade will in fact begin to shrink.

Already there are signs of overproduction of more raw materials: foods, metals, fibres. for example.

India is restricting the import of capital goods and the USA has put a quota on the import of woollen goods. The beginnings of a much more intense competition in the world’s

By our Economic Correspondent Wortp trade in manufactured goods has been expanding since 1950, thanks to the enormous expenditure on arms since then and thé consequent need for large investments in industry in order to cope with the additional demand.

The industries particularly affected are fron and steel, heavy and light engineering and the motor car industry. plus the fuel industry and the auailiary trades depending on these industries.

Sinse coal is not capable of rapid expansion. the expansion in fuel has been largely in oil. Production has increased from +66 million tons in 1948 to 857 million tons in 1956.

At the same time the oil companies’ share prices have flared [SCIENCE ] markets can be clearly seen.

THE TRUTH ABOUT BRITAIN’S H-BOMB By J. H. Bradley Numrrous Press reports in the last few weeks have suggested that the first British H-bomb was in some sense a ‘clean’ bomb. as it did not lead to heavy fall-out.

Tn the normal triple-decker, or fission-fusion-fission bomb. the second (fusion) stage is facilitated by the heat and neutrons generated by the third (fission) stage, so that they procred in part simultaneously, The theory is that the last stage of the normal fssionfusion-fission bomb was eliminated, leaving only a uranium or plutonium detonator and a lithium deuteride fusion bomb. If this were so, jt would mean that Britain had reached. the same point as the USSR was at in August 1953. with the conceivable difference that the Soviet bomb could not then

Every time President Eisenhower vomited last Monday Wall Street registered a fall in share values of 500 million dollars.

Two thousand million dollars had been lost before reports that the President was recovering caused a rally.

How stable is an economy tied so closely to the President's belly?

up by nearly 700 per cent—from an index figure of 95.2 in 1950 to 640.6 on May 29, 1957, But this expansion is not enough. New sources of power are needed. Reliance on oil is also unsatisfactory for political rezsons, as the Suez crisis showed Therefore new investment due to the technological changes in fuel production was added to the investment needed to cope with the expansion of industry caused by arms expenditure.

Atomic energy is not the only technological change. Pressure on industry and manpower has compelled industrialists to speed up research into electronics.

The full extent of these changes must not be exaggerated. But their effect has been to put pressure on the supply of both cspital and labour.

The colonial revolution has also added to the pressure on the supply of capital goods. Asian. African and South American countries. deliberately prevented in the past, as far as possible, from developing their own industries, are today expanding their industries.

‘The result of all these developments is that world trade in manufactured goods has increased in the past three years from 29.086 million dollars in 1954 to 33.894 million dollars in 1955 and 38.545 million dollars in 1957.

Britain’s share in this expansion is constantly rising with the world total, but at a slower rate. Her proportion of world be dropped from an aircraft Thus we would have made a bomb which. according to highly unreliable American sources and The Times. would be more advanced than any American bomb.

There seems to be no published evidence for such ideas. The American Press reports upon which certain Labour MPs based their questions can be traced to a United Press dispatch from London on May |9—and are therefore derived from Mr. Macmillan.

It is much more probable that Britain has used the principle discussed in the first issue of The Newsletter. and has exploded a triple-decker bomb high in the atmosphere (three miles of more) over water, Huge propaganda campaign a blind in this way nearly all the radioactive products formed are sept into the stratosphere, and as Mr. Macmillan claimed, very little fell near the test site, The huge propaganda campaign by the Government and Press. and such former scientists as Lord Cherwell. is seen as a pure blind.

Although there is no evidence that it has actually been msde by Britain or the USA. it is instructive to consider the possible purposes of a clean H-bomb, i.e. one containing little or no uranium or plutonium.

A modern aircraft can carry a load of about ten tons. A large part of the weight of any H-bomb is firing and control mechanisms. as may be worked out from the published masimum explosive power of 14 megatons, It. therefore. Britain had not heen able to make a tripledecker which an aircraft could carry, she might make a double-decker, which could still explode.

Such a bomb would be very expensive per unit explosive power compared to a triple-decker, but might still work rather inefficiently; lithium deuteride is probably about $400 a pound, against a [ew cents per pound for U2, On the other hand. many of the tests by all countries are

designed to make a bomb small cnough to go into an intercontinental missile. A bomb for this purpose might have to be a double-decker. again because of weight and space limiiations.

Some American reporis suggest that we have done this. but should be treated as pure speculation. The Japanese will probably publish their findings in a few weeks. If they show any appreciable amount of fission products, U>7 or Pu 75°. the Government version will be proved corapletely misleading.

Japanese measurements of the tidal wave produced will give some idea of the height of the caplosion. Such information is normally available only in the American scientific Press.

Meanwhile. the problems about the last Soviet H-bomb temain unsolved (The Newsletter, No. 1). The figure of 4Mev. given there for the least energy required to make U5? out of 1i234_ is wrong and should be 7Mey. The error does not affect the argument.

Any reader who wants a fuller semi-technical account of these matters is advised to read Dr. Ralph Lapp’s series in the Bulleting of Atomic Scientists (Chicago), particularly September 1956, and Prof. J. Rotblat’s article in May 1958. This journal can often be borrowed through your public libtary. or in the Science Museum and Patent Office Libraries.

June 15, 1957 the International Geophysical Year is to elucidate how lie ty of the air varies with height up to 600 miles above the carth. These studies are important both for aerodynamic control mechanisms and in order to avoid overheating missiles.

Warheads for anti-aircraft missiles will almost certainly consist of atomic. or small. ‘clean’ hydrogen bombs. in order to avoid heavy fall-out on the defending country. Low power weapons will have to be used to avoid blast. heat and radiation damage to Jand underneath.

Anti-aircraft missiles under ground guidance need to. be much faster than attacking missiles. which means at least ten times the speed of sound in the near future. During World War Il. proximity fuses exploded at a fixed distance of about 40 feet from the target.

No doubt modern fuses can explode at the point of nearest approach. but it is doubtful whether this is now the best solution. with missiles moving almost as fast as blast waves.

The solution has probably been worked out at the tavpayers expense—and uill be checked by extensive and fabulously expensive trials. :

While blast may be sufficient to deflect ballistic missiles off-course. homing missiles must be destroyed by heat as they are insensitive to blast because their own high accelerations already require strong structures.

By our Science Correspondent THiS ARTICLE contains some facts the military had rather keep quict. It may help Blimp to realize how futile his secrecy really is,. for it is based on nothing but elementary scientific considerations.

Unfortunately, any government which has not understood from the Geneva Conference on Nuclear Energy that secrecy is a myth. is unlikely to learn now.

We are threatened with Soviet rockets able to deliver an H-bomb on London. a range of about 1,000 miles. ‘There also evist anti-aircraft (or anti-rocket) and ‘short-range’ (200 miles) missiles carrying H-warheads: 5,000-mile missiles are under development.

‘The long-range missiles are at present all ballistic. Le. the metor werks only for a short time at launching. after which it may as well be dropped. and the missile coasts to its desfination like @ shell.

Ballistic missiles cannot be deflected by radio interference: on the other hand. they cannot evade counter-missiles. The nest stage will probably be to fit small wings. so that some steerage can be obtained at the end of the journey.

Anti-aircraft and short-range missiles neca power during their Night. and much more complex guidance systems.

Considerations of weight require that as much of the guiding mechanism as possible shall be at the ground stalion. which plots the path of the missile by radar. issues contre] signals, and explodes the warhead at the right moment.

The transitors work happily Any radar sets in the missile use transiters as far as possible instead of valves. as these are smaller, lighter. require less weight of batteries, and work happily even at very high accelerations.

Ultimately missiles will be built using radar or infra-red homing systems, magnetic or celestial navigation. er even doubly-iniegrating accelerometers such as those developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Manchester Guardian, April 20. 1957). which are a sophisticated version vf dead reckoning.

Missiles might even become capable of evasive actiun, or tortuous pre-sel courses designed to hinder interception. Coverings Which do not reflect radar waves will not be used yet, as they add too much to the size of the missile, and therefore to air-drag.

Vast improvements in non-reflecting coatings will be needed before they will absorb radar beams of all wavelengths.

Metals are the best reflectors of radar waves, and will ai first be used for the skin in order to withstand very high temperatures generated by air friction.

The principal aim of the artificial satellites to be Jaunched Every effort will be made to intercept attacking missiles over the sea or sparsely populated areas, since it is possible to fit devices to make them explode when struck by a strung blast or heat wave. In that case the attack would cause some damage, even though not nearly as much as desired.

Far beyond our resources Tt is the existence of missiles so difficult to intercept which has led many scientists to believe Civil Defence impossible. If just one were to reach London, the rescue problems would be far beyond our resources: the blood supply is not cnough to cure even the potentially savable casualties from a 1945 atomic bomb.

Dispersal of British industry and housing is impossible. and putting even our main factories underground prohibitively expensive.

Any government which seriously imagined Civil Defence to he feasible would have insisted that at least new factories be underground. Ours does not even credit our people with the wit to understand the problems involved. so all the explanations are Jeft to anti-government scientists.

In writing this article I have been helped by the excellent handbook on Civil Defence published by Voennizdat, Moscow. and by many articles in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Chicago.

[USA] WITCH-HUNTERS HIT A LABOUR SCHOOL From our Los Angeles Correspondent Tur California Labour School has been since 1942 the largest. best-known Labour and Left-wing educational institution on the West Coast.

Its services were used by over a hundred unions. In 1945, when the United Nations was launched in San Francisco. the US State Department designated the school official host to the labour delegates.

In March 1958S. Attorney General Brownell instituted proceedings against the school under the McCarran Act. This spring. the Subversive Activities Control Board branded it a ‘Communist-Front organization’.

The Attorney General had previously included the school in his notorious subversive list. Its students were tailed and harassed by FBI agents.

The Treasury Department stepped in and tock away its taxexemptions as an educational body. All but the boldest financial contributors were frightened off. ‘hen the school was hooked for back taves under an cx-post-facto ruling. After a compromise settlement was reached and the money paid, the government revoked its promise.

The final act came early this May when US Treasury tay agents padiocked the school properties and forced it to cease operalons.

All this to a private educational institution!

The directors of the school were right in saying: “Thought control, as practised by the US government these days, is a rough, tough proposition. ihe idea is to hit the victim from all sides with everything you have.”

: Junr 15, 1957

From our Zurich Correspondent FOUNDATION member and prominent leader of the Swiss Communist Party (Partei der Arbeit der Schweiz), Emil Arnold, has left the party in protest against reStalinization.

Believing that the party is too dominated by bureaucracy to carty through the necessary discussions on overcoming the harm done by Stalinism, he has appealed to party members to join with other socialists in a new socialist Left.

A friend of Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and Willi Muenzenberg in the First World War. Arnold was jailed in Germany as a Spartacist. and was a member of the Execulive Cemmittee of the Communist International in the twentics.

He was arrested and jailed several times in Switzerland, the lest time in 1952.

Ose of the factors in the discontent of Hungarian students in the period leading up to last October's outbreak against the Rakosi-Geré regime was the wasting of their time with compulsory attendance at lectures on ‘Marxism-Leninism’.

These lectures “ere given by incompetent hacks in a spirit e= mechanical dogmatism.

An article in the Moscow journal Party Life (No. 9 of 7) shows that Soviet students sulfer under the same imen. and also that they are beginning to revolt against if. z Entitled “The Teaching of Social Science in Higher Educaal Establishments, the article includes the following “A considerable proportion of the lectures in social science = delivered in a dull way and with insufficient power of Sition, * “At times one can observe a scene like this in the lecture fali-—the instructor reads from his script, not looking al his sudience and totally indifferent as to whether his students are bsening to him or not.

“Meanwhile the audience leads its own life: some read newsraners. some do their homework and others exchange opinMany are annoyed by the fact that their time is being wasted.

“At a party meeting in one institute the following incident quoted, An instructor, reading a Jecture on the history, of a Sse CPSU. and paying no attention whatever to the meaning Ft in, ‘ what he was reading. uttered some absurdity.

‘When the astonished students asked him how they were to and what he had just said. the lecturer replied: “Sorry. ades. I must have skipped a couple of lines in my text.” lis not accidental that less than half of the students atjend the lectures of some instructors; but the latter are, as a4 far from the idea of blaming themselves for this.

“The Deans of faculties and party bureaux concerned, in@ead of demanding that the instructors improve the quality ef Geir lectures and helping them to do this. appeal instead uo the students’ sense of discipline...”

LH.

FraNce-sor carried a dispatch quoting Polish communist sources which stated that Stalin died of a fit of rage after threatening to deport all Jews from Russia.

The details, the paper said, were revealed by Ponomarenko, Soviet Ambassador in Warsaw. during an interview with Polish communist journalists.

According to Ponomarenko. at a Politburo meeting in Febtuzry 1953 Stalin alleged there was a “Zionist asd imperialist plot’ directed against the Soviet Union. He threatened to deport all Jews to Biro-Bidjan in the Soviet Far East. Biro-Bidjan already held thousands of Jewish exiles.

Molotoy, whose wife was Jewish, told Stalin that this would have ‘2 deplorable effect’ on public opinion outside the Soviet Voroshilov is reported to have thrown down his Party card, saying: ‘If such a step were taken J should be ashamed to remain a member of our party, which would be completely dishonoured_ Stalin flew into a rage and shouted at Voroshilov: ‘It is T who will decide when you no longer have the right to keep your membership card’. Then Stalin had a stroke fram which he died a few days later.

France-Soir said it accurately reported the interview given by Ponomarenko.

The repeal of Stalin's law penalising abortion has encouraged open expression in the USSR of a demand for the repeal of his restrictions on the right of divorce—restrictions which made divorce practically unobtainable except for persons who were both comparatively well-to-do and of good standing with the party.

The Literaturnaya Gazeta of February 21, 1957, published a survey of the many letters it has received in response to an article it carried on September 13. 1956, under the litle ‘Does Love Fxist®’, dealing with this question.

Most of the writers supported the views of the author of this article. V. Kiselev, urging ‘the elimination of the existing “red tape” that surrounds the obtaining of a divorce’. One of them declares: ‘Life demands a return to those principles of family law that were worked out with the direct participation and under the guidance of V. I. Lenin’

The first two volumes of the oflicial Soviet ‘History of the

Civil War came out in 1935 and 1942 respectively and were widely criticized for suppression and distortion of facts.

According te an interview given to Literaturnaya Gazeta by Professor S. Naida. of the Institute of Maraism-Leninism, Volume Three. covering events between Novernber 1917 and March 1919, will be ready for publication very shortly.

Volume Four. going down to February 1920, is to be published in time for the Forticth Anniversary of the October Revolution. and Volume Five. bringing the history to its conclusion in Noxember 1922. before the end of this year.

During 1958 the first two volumes will be revised and the revised versions published.

(This is the fourth in the series of articles “Talks with Soviet Leaders on the Jewish Question’.)

AFTER attempts for cight years it finally became possible to officially take up th: whole question of Jews in the Soviet Union with the top leaders of the Soviet On August 21, 1956, an official delegation of four representing the Labour-Progressive Party arrived in. Moxow to present a number of political questions to the Central Committee of the CPSU.

The status of Soviet Jewry was one of these questions. I was very gratified to see this tormenting question finally placed by an entire party delegation as a central problem.

4]

With regard to this, our delegation made history.

For, although representatives of many Communist Parties often made inquiries about developments in Soviet Jewish life that were difficult to understand, no other party—to my knowledge—had ever placed this question not as a marginal matter but as one of central importance requiring full discussion with the Soviet leaders.

Fourteen hours in conference We were given a great deal of time. There were many discussions and meetings with leading individuals and groups. Four official conferences with top leaders and assistants took up about 14 hours over four separate days.

Among the chief leaders taking part in ene or more of the sessions were Ponomarey. member of the CPSU Central Committee: Susloy, member of the Politburo and Khrushchev. first secretary of the party.

The ‘Jewish question’ played a prominent part in these conferences and the last session, at which all the above-mentioned Icaders were present, was almost entirely devoted to discussion of Jewish problems in the Soviet Union.

And whereas the other questions discussed are of great political and social significance—and I might write of them on another occasion—I will here limit myself to the “Jewish + For the sake of brevity I will indicate the main questions we raised in this connection and the explanations we received. At the end will attempt to draw conclusions.

And now to our questions.

In view of the fact that no official explanation has been given of events of 1948 and 1949 during which all Jewish institutions—including the Jewish publishing house and the paper Ainikeit—were closed and Jewish writers, cultural workers and community leaders arrested: and the circumStances around the arrest of the Jewish doctors have not been sufficiently clarified, there is a strong body of opinion in other countries—particularly among Jewish people—that an official or at Icast an authoritative statement openly drawing proper conclusions is necessary to clear the air and create the social and political atmosphere for the renewal of Jewish culturalsocial activity within the Soviet Union.

The answers were in substance the following.

Tt is true that Jewish writers and leaders suffered at the hands of the Beria gang. but writers and leaders of all other peoples and republics suffered no less.

The Ukrainian writers suffered proportionately more than Jewish writers. The same was the case with the Georgians. Russian writers also were victims.

Dead Jewish writers rehabilitated As for the ‘doctors’ affair’ more non-Jewish than Jewish physicians were arrested at the time. When I interjected that the official charge against the doctors was a plot to kill Soviet leaders on order from the “Joint Distribution Committee” and Zionists and that therefore the affair had taken on an anti-Jewish character. I was told that a number of the non-Jewish doctors indicted were also accused as agents of foreign countries. (Whether the answer is satisfactory is another question.)

Since Beria and his group were exposed. everything is being done to correct the wrongs, they said. The government has openly condemned the frame-up of the doctors and all of them are back at their previous posts.

‘The dead Jewish writers have been rehabilitated along with others. their families are being assisted and their works published. Those who did not perish have also been rehabilitated and are continuing their work.

Regarding the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, we were told it became in its later stages a sort of aid society engaged in securing jobs and living accommodation for Jews. This called forth great dissatisfaction in some ‘circles.

People asked why this committee intervened and sought special concessions for Jewish citizens while all others took up their problems directly with local government bureaus.

About Ainikeit, the organ of the Anti-Fascist Committee, we were told that this paper had done great damage. playing into the hands of anti-Semitic elements by constantly exaggerating the role Jews performed in the post-war reconstruction of ruined cities and regions.

‘That Jew is head of the project in Minsk—That one is head of the project in Vilna... and so on. It went so far that many Jews complained about it.

When later I asked a very respected Jewish activist whether these claims were justified, he sat stunned. It is not true. he said. that the Anti-Fascist Commitice engaged in such work What may be true is that Mikhoels, eager to help everyone, may have given letters to individuals needing a place to live in those post-war years. But even if he did that. he did it as a member of the Moscow Sovict.

A public explanation ‘unnecessary’

‘These things were thought up by Jewish renegades who played the part of informers. The same was true.” he argued, ‘about Aintkeit.”

The answer to our request for a public explanation was that in their opinion it was neither necessary nor welladvised.

Not necessary because the wrongs are being corrected and actions speak for themselves. And not well-advised because such a Statement would create much dissatisfaction. Other pevples and republics who also suffered [rom Beria’s onslaught on their culture and artists would wonder; why 2 statement only about Jews?

Well. again it's the same. Whether the answers are satisfactory or not, is a separate matter and J will write about that later, But these were the replics to our first question.

One of the most effective speeches at last week's annual conference of the Electrical Trades Union was that made by the youth observer Bernard Parkinson, of Wigan.

This 23-year-old skilled maintenance electrician was elected chairman of the union's Eighth (and for the time being last) Annual Youth Conference at Ramygate last November.

We give here the full text of his speech.

ON BEHALF of the youth observers, 1 would like to say how pleased we are to attend our first policy conference to represent the youth of the ETU.

This week we have witnessed discussions on industrial. political and international problems which we have found very interesting.

Some people may say that these problems are too deep for the younger members to understand, but I think if you would care to examine the report of last year’s national youth conference and previous youth conferences. you will find that the level of discussion reached a very high and sensible standard, but what I think is still lacking is encouragement from some of our older members to help us in the struggles and conflicts of our own minds.

Engels. the famous German socialist, once stated that conflict is the mother of all political parties; perhaps we can take this a step further and say conflict is the father of trade unions. We are not ashamed of conflict, cither when we are fighting for conditions on the job or when we are arguing for our own ideas on the conference floor.

* This week we youth representatives have witnessed ideas being presented and principles being fought for, and T think we have all learned how to fight for ideas new and old.

Naturally. youth likes new ideas, but let us hope we have also respect for the old principles which have been with the Labour and trade union movement for many years. principles which were tried and tested by the international working Youth faces many problems which are the same as those of our older brothers and some that are dilferent. Like our older

LETTERS Ex-Communists: The Debate Goes on brothers. we are exploited by the capitalist class. Like our alder brothers. we are affected by the housing problem, by rising prices, by war and the threat of war.

Our separate problems are mainly due to the fact that we are more severely exploited by capital—we need new homes, we receive Jess pay. we have our education programmes cul and we suffer from conscription . . . and will until 1962. We look to the confercnce to take up these questions and help the youth wherever possible.

Don’t think that youth leaves all its problems to the adults to solve. In spite of Tory and Right-wing propaganda, there has been an awakening of militancy in the youth of Britain. Young engineers played their part alongside their older brothers in recent industrial disputes.

In the Labour Party there is a revival of youth activity— despite Transport House and not because of if: in the Young Communist League there has been a growth of a critical Left wing. determined to re-examine the roads to Socialism, particularly alter the events in the Sovict Union and in Hungary.

In the universities too, there has been a growth of new ideas and a questioning of old dogmas. by young undergraduates. Students and young trade unionists were right at the head of the Suez demonstrations.

Not only in Britain is youth astir but all over the world. In Western Germany there have been huge demonstrations by young trade unionists against militarization. In Cyprus, school children and teenagers have battled against British occupation. The same story could be told of Egypt and Algeria.

IS A NEW MARXIST PARTY THE ANSWER?

Botu Mary Vernon and Dick Goss seem to express the confusion that exists about the future of ex-Communist Party members and the best way of establishing socialism in Britain.

The existence of the various journals and forums now coming into being make it possible to study genuine Marxism. untarnished by ‘official’ explanations of the Communist Party leaders who for so long have masqueraded as the ‘only Marxists.

It seems to me that what is needed is a really democratic revolutionary party linked to the existing Labour movement, and with a programme and policy different from those of the Communist Party and the Labour Party.

R. Grange, London, N.W.9.

JuNE 15, 1957 And to complete the picture, was it not the youth of Hungary who demonstrated in fayour of a genuine socialist democracy, against bureaucracy on the one hand and against a revival of Horthyite fascism on the other?

Of course. British youth is influenced by these events. Of couTss. many young people turn to politics and to the trade unions. It is up to the adult movement to welcome and encourage them.

Ta this respect may I conclude on a critical note: the youth of this union is the future leadership. If economies are to be made, then we believe youth should be the last and not the first for the chopper.

I am sure the youth of our union is prepared to forgo delegation fees to discuss and (we hope) to make union policy.

Surely, by sacrifices of an even smaller dimension by the delegates 10 annual conference, or by the membership as a whole. youth could still have its conference!

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If the Labour and trade union movement is to progress towards the day when we shall establish a real socialist society, to end capitalism with ifs perpetual war and crises, then youth must not be curbed.

Finally, brothers. may I once again thank you for the oppoeuainty of being here and of being able to tell you what we think.

lf we are critical here and there, if you don’t agree with all we say, Iet us agree that frankness and plain speaking is the best way to build our union into an even more powerful weapor in the hands of our class.

Mary VERNON looks at the Labour Party, sees only Right-wing leaders with their “bans and proscriptions” and concludes therefore that work in the mass party is both fruitless and frustrating.

Doesn't this ignore the increasing Left-wing development of the rank and file, which has thrown up the Bevanite movement and made Tribune the public expression of its opposition to the leadership?

The victory of Bevan in the struggle for the treasurership —a fight lasting over three years which was finally won by the pressure of the trade union militants on their respective leaders—signalled, not bewildered and frustrated ranks, but 2 movement mobilizing itself for action.

Tt is here that Marxists can provide leadership. Those cntering from the Communist Party will find others working inside the constituency parties, putting forward demands. indicating the necessity for the overthrow of capitalism and not its reform. and the need for a new leadership relying on the Strength of the working class.

Comrade Vernon should ask herself if it is possible today to talk in terms of a socialist programme and yet ignore the party in which the working class secks its political expression.

We cannot lcad from the outside, but must fe through the experience of our class, and on the basis of clarification and consistent programme build a new leadership that will carry the working class forward to socialism.

Norman Tennant, London, S.E.27

IT June 15, 1957

DurinG their lifetime Marx and Engels applied their techniques of analysis to many current problems. The yours since their death have seen vital new developments in many fields, _The conclusions they arrived at are no longer valid. The method by which these conclusions were obtained alone remains, for us to apply to a distinctly different world.

Tt is necessary to create the essential organizations for the education and linking together of scientific socialists.

Organizations for discussion. education. research, publication need to be created, linked together but not held in a rigid framework. This is the primary need of today.

These organizations can then influence others in a creative manner, and can rekindle the spirit of creation that is so necessary to scicnce and that is so important a part of the radical tradition in this country.

The other outstanding need is the setting-up of the necessary machinery for the collection and dissemination of news —the creation of a Marxist Press which will give the basic facts and interpret them in accordance with the principles of scientific socialism.

Such a service would be more than a service to socialists, but a service to the whole working class in its struggle.

The question of political parties is not an immediate issue. ‘The Labour Party is the mass working-class party, and the more Labour people who can participate in the, study of Marxism the better for the whole movement.

But IL do not believe that at this moment it-is political parties that are decisive in the movement towards socialism. The period ahead is bound to create new political forms, but it is carly to predict precisely.

Answering the question “Where do we go from here?’ I would say that we must bring together all socialists into organizations for discussion and study: that we must develop serious organizations for truly intellectual activity and collect funds for this purpose.

We must unashamedly go to the recognized organizations of the people, such as trade unions and co-operatives, for support.

We must also pay particular attention to creating a socialist newspaper, bearing in mind the need to convey the news accurately, and also the vital réle of a newspaper as a political organizer, more ficxible than a political party, and one which can be of enormous value.

Peter W. Roe, Bushcy (Herts.).

PROFESSOR Carr's The Interregnum, Deutscher’s Russia After Stalin, Heretics and Renegades and The Prophet Armed were never sent to the Anglo-Soviet Journal for review. As Mr. Veall knows, the Society for Cultural Relations cannot afford to buy books.

Professor Carr's other books were sent for review and were reviewed. have always presumed that the reason “The Interregnum’ did not arrive was the smallness of the ASJ's circulation and a publisher's restriction on the number of review copies sent out.

The SCR is a non-political organization and the AST does not reyiew works thal are strictly political.

The works of Stalin —admittedly very much a borderline case—contain much economic and social matter: the reviews of them in the ASJ. which are the only part of the book reviews wilh which crilics can legitimately quarrel, were dealt with openly and publicly at the last Annual General Meeting. when the reviewer agreed that his general attitude had bee; wrong. How long wil! Mr. Veall fleg this dead horse?

There is nothing remotely approaching ‘crude Marxist dogma’ in such reviews as Professor Willan’s on electron diffraction, Professor Cahen’s on orientalism. T. Shebunina’s on ‘wanslations’ of Gorky. J. Ellis’s on philology. B. Lubetkin’s on architecture. or for that matter my own on various literary subjects.

ETU (Continued from front page)

He attacked the ETU Executive for covering up for the Right wing of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Fngineering Unions. whose inadequate fight had been responsible for the sacking of thousands of men.

He demanded an explanation from the EC for sending three electricians back to work at Nortons on June 25, in a strike which was officially recognized by the Amalgamated Engin2ering Union from May 29 to the beginning of November.

EC spokesman Mr. Gokiberg justified the return te work ot the electricians on the ground that only a minority ef the Norton workers was on strike.

Mrs. Walker (Finchley). a shep steward at Standard Telephones, criticized the EC for not bringing presstire te bear on the Conlederation to organize a real campaign for higher wages for women.

By Thursday it was clear that the EC was beating 2 retreat f Gn all the major political motions. One calling {or the abolition of conscription was supported by the EC (against ihe Communist Party linc). although the previous year they had opposed abolition and had asked instead for a twelve months” call-up.

In a debate on peace the EC accepted two motions. both of which linked the struggle against war with tye struggle for socialism, which Havell had explicitly objected to in the debale at the 1956 conference.

‘Then came what for the platform was the most disastrous session of all: Thursday afternoon. when the uniun’s journal Electron was discussed in secret session.

Electron should be more representative ‘The major contieversy was on a motion asking for Electron to be ‘more representative of the viewpoints of the rank and fiic’. for it to be controlled by ‘an clected rank-and-file committee of five, plus three officers’, and for ‘four pages of the paper to be freely available for correspondence of a tontroversial nature from members of the union’.

Speakers referred to the bias in reporting: the suppression of minority opinion: the silence over past events in Hungary and the reticence over recent executions of workers there: the silence over the trial and imprisonment of Professor Harich.

One speaker said there had been ‘a whole series of glowing culogies on Eastern Europe by delegations . . . which have been shown to be fairy stories’.

Foulkes said the motion had been defeated. but when asked Published be Peter Freer. 180, Clapham High St, London, SW I do not think I should have received a grateful letter from a recent university author for a piece of ‘crude Marxist dogma’.

We have not reviewed any legal book—because we have riot received any for some time now. We have. however, published more recent legal matter—Statule on Procurator’s Control. Need for Constitutional Reform. Local Government—than anyone else.

Tt would be patently ridiculous to exclude Marxist writers from the Anglo-Soviet Journal, Certainly some of the reviews are Maraist. Equally certainly many of them are genuinely non-political.

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May [implore your subscribers to do us the justice of actu. ally reading it before concluding that they would prefer an Anti-Soviet Journal?

Stella Jackson, Assistant Editor. Anglo-Saviet Journal.

[With all due respect, may not the reason why some publishers have ceased to send review copies to the ASJ (while continuing to send them to such journals as Soviet Studies and Slavonic Review) be that they have found the reviews published in the ASJ unfair?

We would instance two reviews of legal books which the ASJ has published in recent years, both by its President. Mr. Pritt.

Incidentally, can Miss Jackson confirm that the reviewer who has sat so long on ‘Notes for a Journal’ is Mr. Andrew Rothstein himself?—Ed.] to use tellers on the vote he refused. For a few minutes there was pandemenium, while Foulkes and the mover disputed hotly.

Thursday saw. too, the collapse of the EC on the following notion:

This conference is disturbed at the continued division of Germany. It protests ut the banning of the West German Conmumist Party, the growing militurization of West Germany and its participation in Nato.

It also protests at the continuing lack of freedom for alternative gennine independent working-class parties in Eavi Germany.

Conference also regrets that the Western Powers and Russia look on Germany as a pawn in the jockeying for positions in Europe. Conference urges the Executive Council to mobilize the maximum support in the Electrical Trades Union for a campaign in the broad Labour and trade union movement for:

1) The immediate withdrawal of ail troops from West and Fast Germany:

2) The right of the German people to choose their own government by immediate free elections:

3) The legalization of the West German Communist Party and the legalization of alternative working-class parties in East Germany.

Bricfed to oppose this motion. Mr. Batchelor for the EC was told to support it in a bricf whispered conversation on the platform with Haxell during the speech of the mover.

The earlier decision of the Communist Party fraction on this motion was therefore ignored.

The fact that under pressure the Stalinist leaders of the EIU accepted such a motion without a fight suggests that some of them may be considering deserting the party.

The conference showed what a basic change there has been in the ETU. The Communist Party machine has been seriously weakened. while Left Labour and dissident communist elements have grown.

In the EC elections next September the EC nominees may well be defeated in a number of districts.

Aed the ETU conference will assuredly widen the gap between the industrial members of the Communist Party and their leaders at Hayes and King Street.

{A Young Worker Speaks Out: page 42)

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