THE POISON AND THE CAGE

their day-by-day tasks and take a long, hard look at capitalist society. We need to remind ourselves just what it is we are fighting to overthrow. This is all the more important since there are a good many ‘new thinkers’ about who are doing their best to convince themselves and anybody who will listen to them that capitalism is not so black as Marx painted it; that the class struggle is merely a Trotskyist dogma; that the working class is incapable of bringing a new society into being.

Two news items this past week show the rottenness if the society we live in.

British scientists working in government establishments are producing a poison cailed botulinus. This substance is so deadly that 840z of it, properly distributed, could kill everyone in the world. It will kill within six hours anyone who breathes it or touches it. British scientists are also experimenting with forty other deadly germs. Dr Brock Chisholm, former director-general of the World Health Organization, says: ‘If anyone is still not convinced that war and suicide are synonymous, this should convince them.’

Whoever retains any illusions in ‘western values’, or fancies that there is respect for human dignity in our ‘free society’, let him read how at Eastleigh (Hants) the local carnival committee have a plan to put a man in a cage on show in a public park. He would stay in the 12ft by 12ft cage for eight days and nights. “We are looking for a volunteer ready to play the part of a human ape,’ said the committee secretary. ‘We will offer him a gratuity of £25 plus food. Feeding times will be posted up outside the cage as in a ZOO.’

Science fiction writers have sometimes used the theme of our species being nearly exterminated in a nuclear holocaust, one or two specimens of Homo sapiens remaining as exhibits in the zoo of some succeeding species. The British government evidently has something much more efficient than H-bombs, and no doubt much cheaper. The logical outcome of its experiments is that no one would be left to enact in reality the macabre fantasy that is to regale the good citizens of Eastleigh.

Is botulinus an impossible nightmare? Is the ‘human ape’ idea a triviality? If we dismiss them thus, we are blinding ourselves to the real nature of capitalism. The inner connexion between these two things is the inability of capitalism to ensure a human existence for those it exploits. Unless we destroy capitalism, it will destroy us. Unless we overthrow the system that degrades people, sucks profit out of their labour, uses them as cannon-fodder and conducts hideous experiments without consulting them, we run the risk of being poisoned or blown to pieces. Petitions, deputations, hunger strikes and heroic gestures are not enough. Working-class action aimed at working-class power alone will show the capitalist class that the workers are not ‘human apes’ to be exploited, poisoned or massacred—but human beings resolved to assert their humanity by wiping out an inhuman system. paign of his own party comrades for a mass protest.

According to militant miners in Lancashire, the statements of Edwin Hall at the area conference made it quite clear that the national executive of the NUM really oppose any type of demonstration.

Having accepted pit closures, they view ever the lobbying of Parliament as an embarrassment.

To accusations that unofficial activities ‘disintegrate’ the union—an accusation made by the NEC member for Lancashire—militant miners reply that it is the policy of the leaders which can lead to ‘disintegration’ of the union.

The leaders try to create illusions that miners in areas such as Lancashire can escape unemployment. They try to put barriers in the way of developing united action against National Coal Board policies.

FISHER AND LUDLOW MEN CUT THROUGH