Communist Party crisis (1) The real disrupters

A • national newspapers CCORDING to the a large-scale purge of members of the Young Communist League and Communist student organisations is now under way.

Mr. William Lauchlan, national organiser of the Party, in a statement ('Daily Worker' May 9) entitled 'Disruption their purpose said:

It has recently come to our attention that the Socialist Labour League, a Trotskyist organisation, has sent some of its members into our Student and Young Communist League branches for the purpose of disruption Mr. Lauchlan is well aware that this is a lie from beginning to end.

The Socialist Labour League has not sent a single member into the Communist Party.

Discontent

It has no need to because so great is the discontent, especially amongst the youth, with the reformist 'peaceful co-existence' policies of the leadership that they are quite capable of politically exposing people such as Lauchlan by themselves.

The present purge began when a young student, who was present at the National Conference of the Socialist Labour League on March 14, 15 and 16, after a great deal of pressure in an interrogation lasting several hours, handed over one of our conference documents to the leaders of the Communist Party in King Street.

List

From this 'evidence' the witch-hunting Party chiefs have compiled a list of young oppositionists whom they want to get rid of at all costs. Some of these are amongst their most influential leaders in the universities and the Yeung Communist League.

Their procedure is simple and very much like that employed by the right wing of the Labour Party.

An 'enquiry' is arranged, to which a number of people are invited ostensibly to discuss their political opinions.

In practice this 'enquiry' turns out to be a court which forthwith recommends the expulsion of those whom they want to get rid of, without any charges or evidence being brought against them. It is anticipated that the present purge may well involve over a hundred young people.

The crude frame-up methods of the Stalinist chiefs is similar to the technique employed by Stalin himself. He coined the phrase 'enemies of the people'. Gollan and Lauchlan call the opposition 'enemies of the party.

The vilest slander of all is the charge that those who want to discuss their differences of policy within the Party are guilty of disruption.

No one has done more to besmirch the good name of communism in Britain than the present leaders in King Street. They covered up and justified all Stalin's crimes against the international working class.

Examples

Let us take a few examples.

In his speech to the 20th ongress of the CPSU in 1956, hrushchev referred to Lenin's st Testament which said:

'Stalin is excessively rude, and this defect, which can be freely tolerated in our midst and in contacts among us Communists, becomes a defect which cannot be tolerated in one holding the position of the Secretary General. Because of this, I propose that the comrades consider the method by which Stalin would be removed from this position and by which another man would be selected for it, a man who, above all, would differ from Stalin in only one quality, namely, greater tolerance, greater loyalty, greater kindness and more considerate attitude towards the comrades, a less capricious temper, etc.' Throughout Stalin's lifetime Andrew Rothstein, a leading member of the Communist Party, insisted that this statement was a Trotskyist forgery.

After the 20th Congress speech, he admitted that he knew of the existence of the Testament since the middle of the 1920s.

Whilst Stalin was organising the murder of Lenin's old colleagues in their thousands and disrupting the CPSU, Rothstein remained silent and deliberately misled the rank and file of the British Party Needless to say he has not been expelled for disruption.

J. R. Campbell, in his book *Soviet Foreign Policy and its Critics 1939' justified the trial and execution of General Tukhachevsky on the grounds that he was an agent for the fascist Trotsky. Tukhachevsky The murder of Tukhachevsky and the generals who associated with him endangered the Soviet Union militarily, making it easier for the Nazis to organise their invasion in 1941.

Although this was revealed by Khrushchev in his 20th Congress speech, J. R. Campbell has not written a single line to explain his support for Stalin's actions-actions which cost the Soviet Union very dear.

In 1951 James Klugman, another leading member of the Communist Party, wrote a book denouncing Tito as an agent of Trotsky and international fascism.

Lies

Although this book was later admitted to be a pack of lies, Mr. Klugman not only remains a full-time functionary at King Street, but is also educational director of the Party.

Mr. W. Lauchlan, who is now leading the witch-hunt, was national organiser of the Party during the Electrical Trades Union ballot rigging scandal era.

As an important Party functionary, he worked alongside Mr. Frank Haxell, then General Secretary of the ETU and member of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party.

The antics of Haxell resulted in the right wing gaining a decisive victory under conditions where this progressive union is now entirely under right-wing leadership.

Funds

In the April 1964 issue of the Electrical Trades Union journal, 'Electron', Mr. Haxell describes some of the things he got up to during the time he was sitting on the Executive Committee meetings alongside Mr. Lauchlan:

In 1959, when I was General Secretary of the Union, Mr.

Odlin, otherwise known as Dick Reno, made certain allegations as to the use of the Union's Funds for my benefit. Among the allegations was one that a considerable amount of the Union's cash had been spent without authority on the improvement of property known * No. 57 Clarence Road, Bromley, Kent, in which I lived and on • the installation of a garage there.

'At the Annual Delegate Conference of the Union held at Bridlington in June 1959, in secret session, I said:

'"Now, of course, we have the position of the building repairs and decorations to the premises in which I live. This did not start from an inspection of the books, because there is nothing in the books in connection with it. Indeed, how could there be? The funds of the Union have not been involved.

I say to you very clearly, very definitely and decisively that not one penny of the Union's funds has been used in costs involved with either this property, its repair, building of garages or decorations. When I say the funds of the Union' I mean cash, time or labour costs. I think quite frankly, that that is one of the most low and despicable stories ever put around this Union." lYLY statement was received with applause. It was well known to the audience that Mr. Odlin, who was present at the meeting, was one of those who had put around the story to which I have referred.

I now find it necessary to correct what I said and to state to my deep regret that the funds and labour of the Union had in fact been involved to a substantial extent in the repair and improvement of No. 57 Clarence Road, which included the installatión of a coke-fired central heating system with piping throughout the house which was at a later date converted to an oil-fired system.

'Accordingly I tender this my public apology to Mr. Odlin and all those who supported him.

'After I ceased to be General Secretary and a new Executive Council had been elected, the Union changed its solicitors and began proceedings against me and my wife in the course of which it was alleged:

(1) That it was arranged for the Union to spend a considerable sum of money upon the repair and improvement of No. 57 Clarence Road, which then belonged to someone else.

) That he let the property e at the cuarter v rent ‹ £14 12s. 6d.

(3) That in September 1958, he sold the property to my wite for £950.

As a result largely of the repairs and improvements made at the Union's expense, the property was then worth very much more.

(4) In October 1959, iny wife sold the property t0r $4,000.

With the proceeds she purchased another house elseand I therefore consider it right involved in any loss.

agreed that 1 pay the Union a 'Accordingly also I tender this and all its members.

Signed F. L, HAXELL?

Snoop

Betty Reid who is the big snoop for the Organisational Department in King Street and prides herself on being able to spot a Trotskyist a hundred miles away, rubbed shoulders with Haxell all the time and saw nothing wrong.

After Khrushchev's 20th Congress speech, the Communist Party lost 7,000 members. Having found out that they were politically and deliberately misDockers No one will suggest that Mr. Lauchlan knew about Mr.

They simply could not would do such a thing, or a peny intormer who denounces his colleagues as Trotskyists.

From all this it should be perfectly clear that those who are really responsible for disrupting the Communist Party are the same people who are now conducting the witch-hunt. Next week the second of this series of articles on the crisis of Stalinism called "Trotskyism V. Stalinism' will appear in