Communist Party Supports Right-wing Labour Policies

By G. HEALY The Daily Worker editorial of November 2 asked the question: ‘Is disarmament possible while capitalism _continues to exist?? The answer the Daily Worker gave was, in effect, yes, and it concluded its editorial with the statement that: ‘The advance of socialism can take place without the loss of millions of lives and with the least possible hardship to humanity.’

The leaders of the Communist Party responsible for this editorial are getting ready for a new period of class-collaboration. On the question of disarmament they find themselves in the company of the Right-wing Labour leaders who, ever since the 1914-1918 war, have been sermonizing on the grandeur of disarmament.

Meanwhile, millions of people have lost their lives in capitalist wars. Small wonder the editor of the Daily Worker found difficulty in quoting historical precedents to justify his argument that capitalism can be got rid of without tears, so to speak. There are no such precedents.

The editorial talks about the concern among capitalists over the effects of ‘the arms race and the burden it means, especially of new houses, schools and hospitals are urgently needed... . when socialism is challenging capitalism in the economic in the underdeveloped countries there is a vast potential field.’ market. They need industrial goods to build up their industry Competition between capitalist countries has always ex- and agriculture.’ pressed itself in the export drive for new markets backed up All these things are very true, there has always been a need by a constant search for cheap sources of raw materials, and for schools, homes and hospitals in Britain, and the squalor a drive to reduce wages. and misery of the British colonies is not something that has The effects of this competition lead to a crisis of over- been discovered in recent years. But these needs did 10t production when the existing markets are exhausted. To re- prevent capitalism from embarking on the first and second divide these markets the capitalists go to war. Herein lies the world wars for the simple reason that the essence of capitalism basic reason for the first and second world wars. is investment for profit. Its job is not that of a pious beneIf we are to take the Daily Worker’s policy of competition factor to humanity. — : between the Soviet Union and the capitalist nations seriously, Capitalism has not resolved the problems of under-developed we may well ask where it will end. What markets are countries or the shortage of housing, hospitals and schools, involved and what will happen when these markets are simply because investment in these things does not provide a exhausted?

fresh source of profit.

Further to this there is the undying hatred of the capitalists Try as it may, the Daily Worker cannot get over the fundafor the nationalized property relations in the USSR, which is mental conflict between the economic systems of the Soviet in itself a source of friction. The Daily Worker assumes a lot Union and the capitalist countries, and the contradictions in when it argues that these basic conflicts can be charmed away capitalism inherent in its system of profit-making and greed. by disarmament.

Imperialists, Soviet bureaucrats opposed to class war The future of the USSR depends upon the class struggle The present bureaucratic leaders of the Soviet Union, whose Marxists maintain that the future of the USSR can only be every word is law to the editor of the Daily Worker, want to decided in the struggle between the forces of the international avoid at all costs the extension of the class struggle to the point working class and world imperialism. We believe that it is where the working class take power under their own revoluimpossible for the status quo to prevail in this conflict. The tionary parties.

Communist Party maintains that if ways and means are Every Communist Party member working in a factory in discovered to prevent a war by peaceful co-existence then Britain today is aware of the class struggle and of the un-. capitalism will grow steadily weaker and eventually collapse.

bridgeable gulf between him and the employer, Since 1945, however, the preservation of the status quo ':as led to the strengthening of the Right-wing all over Western Every colonial worker in the vast continent of Asia is aware Europe. This was underlined by the Tory victory a few weeks of the same thing. That is why the great Chinese revolution, ago. In spite of the economic advances of the Soviet Union far from having spent itself, is coming constantly in conflict in that period, the capitalist nations which surround the with outgrown feudal relations, as in Tibet, and also with USSR have more strongly entrenched Right-wing governments the capitalist Nehru regime of India. now than at any time since 1945. The Soviet Union, whose fate depends upon the struggle of the international working The Class Struggle is All-powerful class is correspondingly weaker. It is the class struggle in Britain and the class struggle in There is no getting round the fact that the fight for socialism Asia which is responsible for a continuous disruption of the is based on the class struggle. The Soviet Union is itself the plans of the bureaucrats in the Soviet Union and those of the product of that struggle. This is not a peaceful pursuit, capitalists. Washington, like Downing Street before the war, chiefly because the capitalists will not hand over their profits talks about disarmament in order to sow illusions among .he and property to the socialists, nor will they disarm because working class, thereby enabling it to defeat this class in “he the Daily Worker asks them to. struggles that lie ahead.

The bureaucracy in the Soviet Union is mortally afraid of The drive for profit this working class because the day that it is victorious will be The Daily Worker paints too rosy a picture of capitalist the day that working-class democracy will return to the Soviet society. It poses the question: ‘If disarmament is carried through does it inevitably mean full-scale depression and mass The Daily Worker, far from making a fresh discovery about unemployment?’ It replies: ‘On the contrary, it would open new roads to socialism by peaceful means, is in fact playing a up new possibilities for the people to fight against crisis and role of confusion which may well threaten the human race: unemployment. In the capitalist countries themselves millions with extinction.

[INDUSTRY] men at that station were able to retain a 7 per cent. bonus for all employed in the station, and not as in other stations only those who were employed before vesting day.

Some power workers feel that the ban on overtime begun ct