KNOWLEDGE IN THE BATTLE

LET’S STUDY, LEARN—AND APPLY OUR ONE of the most important parts of the draft political resolution to be submitted to the Whitsun conference of the Socialist Labour League is section x: ‘What It Means to be a Marxist.’

For too long the British Labour movement has _ been permeated by a contempt for theory, an attitude of ‘muddle through’, ‘let’s get on with the job’, ‘suck it and see’.

This ‘empirical’ way of thinking, as it is called, springs from the economic position of Britain. Until recently, imperialist exploitation enabled the British ruling class to give concessions to some sections of the workers.

Thus the Labour leaders were helped to avoid going to the root of the problems facing the working class—the capitalist system itself.

Gcing to the root Marxists can go to the root of the problems. They carry arguments to their conclusion precisely because their aim in life is to get rid of capitalism through the achievement of workers’ power.

From cradle to grave every one of us is subjected to the pressure of capitalist ideas. Press, radio, television, films, schools and universities pour out a stream of words every day.

Their aim is to persuade us to accept society as it is. They try to convince us that the ruling class is far too strong for its rule to be challenged. _ Far easier to forget the whole business. If you must meddle in politics, limit yourself to helping the system to work smoothly with the minimum of hardship and trouble all round.

To be a socialist is to combat these lies by word and deed, ~ to show the real nature of this social set-up and to demonstrate how it can be smashed by the power of the working The scientific study of the way society develops enables us to see the general, long-term interests of the working class.

On the other hand reformers and do-gooders, not to mention genuine Right-wingers, get no further than sectional and short-term solutions.

Not a finished product An example of this is the Communist Party’s position on the cessation of opencast working as an answer to pit closures, By dividing the working class this proposal weakens the miners. Only through the united action of the workers as a class can the miners defend their conditions.

For us, the principles of Marxism are not dogma. Nor are they the bright ideas of clever men.

They are the collective experience of the working class, generalized and formulated in decades of discussion and argument.

In them is contained the product of years of defeats and victories, splits and fusions, betrayals and self-sacrifice.

That is why we have to study, not only the history of the working class as a whole, but especially the history of the Marxist movement itself.

Nor is Marxist theory a finished product. Marx and Engels

no took the ideas of the Utopian socialists and fused them with the work of German idealist philosophy and English bourgeois political economy.

Lenin added to these theories the experience of the Paris Commune, the development of capitalism in its imperialist stage, the degeneration of social democracy and the need for new forms of Marxist organization.

L“scussions, schools and lectures Troisky had the task of analysing the changes in Russia after the revolution and the effect of the growth of bureaucracy on the international struggles of the working class.

We have to apply these ideas to the new problems which arise from the further decline of capitalism, if we are to guide the working class and prepare it for its present-day tasks.

The building of a Marxist movement therefore implies the organization of discussions, schools and lectures, and the publication of books and pamphlets.

These must help members and supporters to study the Marxist works on economics, politics and philosophy and to get to know the history of the workers’ struggle.

By discussing the problems facing the movement we can learn to apply these ideas to our particular sector of the battle for socialism.

The coming struggles in British society are going to aid the Socialist Labour League in its fight against the old ways of thinking in the Labour movement.

In turn, the equipping of workers with the Marxist method will enable them to bring these struggles to a victorious conclusion.

Wembley (Middx.) Cyril Smith STRUGGLE of course, ‘socialist realism’ in the arts and the posturing of charlatans like Lysenko in the sciences—in short, the stultification, not only of Marxist science, but of all categories of original thought. Surely the first task of Marxist rethinking must be to avoid the pitfalls of dogmatism.

There is a powerful but confused state of unrest among many siudents, as can be seen from the Aldermaston march, the vigorous protests against repression in Nyasaland, and even from the current vogue of the Liberal Party. which is ihriving among young people by adopting a_ specious radicalism.

But only a small minority of students regard themselves as Marxists, and the main reason is that they take on trust the academic dismissal of Marxism as mere ‘metaphysics mas-querading as science’.

I am afraid that the dominant trend of Peter Cadogan’s letter will only serve to confirm the erroneous impression of Marx as a Hegelian in materialist disguise.

If they are to succeed in the universities Marxists must show that their ideas are really an invigorating theoretical approach and a flexible guide to action.

St. John’s College, Oxford J. Hicks I am a Leeds housewife and a factory worker. I’m not an expert on politics,