The Worker on Hyman Levy’s Book

Bert Ramelson’s review

THE most serious feature of Bert Ramelson’s review -of Hyman Levy’s new book in the Daily Worker of March 11 is its implicit opposition to the very existence of the State of Israel.

‘Faced with the problem: of -how.-a- Marxist: could-justify- -what has been achieved as a result of ruthless imperialism [Levy] resolves it by simply ignoring historical fact’, wrote Ramelson.

This attitude is not surprising, in view of the resolution passed by the recent Cairo conference, under Soviet-Nasserite leadership, which condemned not just the government or the ruling class of Israel but the State itself as a menace. to Arab freedom.

But it compares oddly with what the Stalinist Press wrote in 1948-49. Take, for example, the Labour Monthly of September 1949 (p. 277):

‘The plans of imperialism were also foiled in Palestine . . . The Jewish people who had suffered so terribly in their long history, who had been murdered by the million by Hitler, and for whom the Western capitalist countries . did not provide security after the war, were firmly determined to fight to the end the: battle for their national independence.

‘But such was not the intention of Anglo- American imperialism. The reactionary governments of the Arab coun. .-tries..were.thrown-.against_the-young—Israeli-State.-.. _ Again, when Ramelson sneers at Levy’s advocacy that the .Soviet Government should ‘subsidize newspapers, books and plays-in.a. language that few under 50 years of age can understand’, presumably he forgets that for a long time—including some time after it had ceased: to be true!—the official encouragement of Jewish.culture in the USSR. was held up to-us an example of the enlightened national policy of Stalin.

Incidentally, it seems not to be as well-known as it should : be “among ‘people interésted in these matters that. there is a Gypsy theatre’ in Moscow, called the ‘Ronten”. (Romany): -Theatre.

Noyes thinks again

an "Alfred Noyes, the: poet, is reported as calling for: the: British Government to allow independent experts to examine the “91 alleged diaries of Roger Casement.

As head of British propaganda in the USA during the first world war Noyes was responsible for using extracts from: the ‘diaries’ to sabotage the campaign to get Casement reprieved.

Whatever one’s view of the probable facts of the matter, it does. the old man credit that, being now shaken in his - belief ~in “the “authenticity “of-the- documents; he “should “raise ~ ‘his voice for an investigation.

One would like to see a little of the same selfless: honesty among prominent Western Stalinists, who must surely by now be doubtful—if they were ever sure—about the genuineness of the Moscow trials.

What a sensation it would cause if, say, Pollitt or Dutt were to call for independent examination of the NKVD records to check on the ‘evidence’ linking Trotsky with the Gestapo!

Machines and tractors

The decision to transfer to the collective farms the machinery formerly owned by the Machine and Tractor Stations has been accompanied by a lively discussion in the Soviet Union of the theoretical as well as the practical problems. involved.

Some, who saw the destiny of the collective farms as being transformation into State farms, held that the new measure was a step in the wrong direction.

The comment on this view in Khrushchev’s ‘theses’ on the -MTS (given in full. in Soviet News of March 7) reflects significantly the pressure for greater control of the economy by ‘the producers theinselves.

In effect he says that it is rather the State farms that must become more like collective farms, in so far as powers of self-management of the State farms by their workers ought to be increased. (‘Leninism teaches us that as we advance to communism we must manage. the economy on an increasingly broader democratic basis.’)

[ Marx House gloom port -The...annual.. report: of » Marx House» for: 1957-58°=-makes . gloomy * reading, with its -account’' of’ fatting* membership, :

dropping income,+ireduced «humber ‘of: lectures’ entirety’ due to.the difficulty in obtaining lecturers’): and increasing ‘dependence on.-support from: abroad. pot :

The Marx Memorial Library contains much very valuable

material, some of it not easily accessible elsewhere, and this should be made more widely available.

Perhaps some way can be found to release it from the dead hand which is now obviously killing the organization in charge of. it? -What tangled webs Oh, what tangled webs they weave, whenever they practise to deceive!

’ According to the Reuter report from Moscow, the volume of the Large Soviet Encyclopedia containing the article on Stalin, which has just appeared, states that ‘Beria, Yagoda and Yezhov . . . used Stalin’s “erroneous thesis that the _-Class struggle would intensify” as Socialism progressed to “liquidate a number of men who were honest and faithful ta-the party”. -- fone en But Yagoda was removed from the headship of the NK VD in September 1936, wheréas Stalin’s ‘thesis’ was given to the world at the February-March 1937 -plenum of the central ; :

From Arnot to Klugmann Last _week’s World News reveals that ‘on the recommendation, of the {Communist Party] history commission, the executive agreed to appoint James Klugmann to prepare the draft of the history of the party’.

Klugmann was the author of “From Trotsky to Tito’ (1951), which was subsequently withdrawn by the party.

R, Page Arnot, orginally named as writer of the history draft, appears to have been dropped from the job.

BRIAN PEARCE THERE is*need:at:the present for reassessment of. the strength and weakness of the trade union structure and its ability to:cope with the demands likely to be imposed on it in the near future.

;

The tendency is still strong, even in the ranks of the militant lay membership, let alone the mass, to approach the problems of to-day in the laissez-faire way of the days when capitalism was based on free private competition.

Many still believe that the form. of organization suitable -for those conditions can be- used successfully in these modern times.

‘A-lesson to -be learned is: monopoly capitalism. does not . : rest on the free initiative of private enterprise, but depends on the more effective power of centralized command. -The cliques at the head of trusts, syndicates, banking consortiums, hold. the key to economic power which can be wielded not only against the worker but . equally forcibly against the private enterpriser who may menace their interests.

They view their economic life from: the same lofty. pinnacle as the State, cherishing the power reposed in them by the - ownership and control of the major industries in the country.

This forces them at every step to collaborate with the State.

Cannot exploit the competition This centralization and concentration of capital in the hands of the few, particularly in the main centres of industry, has deprived the trade unions of the possibility of exploiting the competition between the various groups of employers in their efforts to secure wage advances or other reforms for their members.

They are now confronted by a more powerful adversary, .one that is closely bound up with the State.

In three major indystries the monopolist is none other than the State itself and has at its disposal the full State Marcu-22, 1958 apparatus, which will. be used if the need arises,-in the future as in the past. er Due Since the trade unions have elected to remain reformist in theory and practice, and have accepted in principle the sanctity of private property, they must adapt themselves ‘to the capitalist State and become contenders for its support and co-operation:

Many of the trade union bureaucrats believe they can influence the State to come over to their side. They believe the State can be freed from the embrace of capitalism, thus emasculating the trusts. ;

This position harmonizes with the attitude of the Labour bureaucracy, which is content to receive a crumb which. falls from the rich man’s table.

It is clear that the present trade union movement has become .an appendage of the State, having accepted without demur “ “thé role of “handmaiden’ to its superior authority.

The leaders are shackled : ,, The ‘leaders’ are content to be consultative agents in -preference to ‘protectors’ of the members’ interests.

yep ago : They have allowed themselves to be shackled to thé poly system, to become its faithful guardian.

HF An immediate task of the trade union member is for himself from the lethal embrace of the ‘bureaucracy, democracy to the organizations and transform them into) of class emancipation.

—"

Let us not be ensnared into the belief that the present leadership will act as generals in a conflict against the ‘big monopolies and the State.

They may be pushed into it, but they will be there to woe . destroy and not: to carry the struggle through to its Iggical ‘conclusion. Therefore, let us not be deceived.

London, W.2 Jack Bayswater [The above letter. was submitted with the aim of opening ‘a __theoretical as well as practical discussion on the tole ‘of the_ trade unions in modern society”. As with other signed contributions, it should riot be taken as necessarily expressing the views of the Editorial Board.] ;