NO ‘THAW’ FOR SOCIALISTS

The Newsletter, vol. 3 no. 122, 17 October 1959 · scan page 6

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Last week’s article by Dan Roberts on the Khrushchev visit to the USA seemed to me to be somewhat wide of the mark. His main concern was the ‘thaw’ in public opinion brought about by the trip, and the consequent creation of an atmosphere in which socialists will be more able to spread their ideas.

It is true that the decline of virulent anti-communism will make it easier to talk socialism, and that will do good. But if the ‘thaw’ means a strengthening of the illusion that the heads of states can solve the question of war or peace, then both Khrushchev and Eisenhower will be very pleased.

What they both fear, each for his own reasons, is the force of the international working class. We are entering a period of increasing cut-throat competition in the world market, necessitating an attack on the labour movement in all the capitalist countries; this, following the great colonial people’s upsurge of the past few years, is the first political consideration of America’s rulers.

For this reason they temporarily prefer a relationship with the Russian ruling clique which helps to disarm the working class politically. K’s speeches in the USA, and the line taken by Communist Party and ‘progressive’ commentators, helps them in this.

These writers follow K in describing the road to socialism, not as a bitter struggle between enemy classes, but as a prolonged ‘peaceful competition’ between the two systems.

K also sits on a volcano. Hungary was no nine-dayswonder, but represented an elemental class revolt against the bureaucratic rule of the Stalinists. No wonder spokesmen on both sides of the old ‘Iron Curtain’ have suggested that with agreement between the two great powers there are no disturbances in any part of the world which cannot be settled.

Therefore 1 think Dan Roberts is wrong to stress the ideas which socialists will be able to put across in an atmosphere of ‘relaxation of tension’. It is a question rather of consolidating the strength and consciousness of the working class in action, on the industrial and political arenas, to build an international movement capable of toppling both the American imperialists and the Soviet bureaucracy, who come together at the Summit as part of their strategy against the working people.