Hitherto philosophers have interpreted the world in  various ways. The point however is to change it. Karl Marx
Economic & Philosophic Science Review
(Weekly.  Subscriptions £10/3 months;  £30/p.a.)  [P&P Bulletin Publications, PO Box 50. London SWl7 9NL.] [Post Office Regd.]
No 882 Tuesday December 3 1996                                                                                                                        10p
Xmas social Dec 14, not Dec 7.

The SLP 'left opposition' is a stunt by an "alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers" (Lenin). The anti-Marxist subjective idealism of these middle-class sects now calls Scargill 'Stalin' in its demented dislike of a workers movement speaking with authority. These same petty-bourgeois fake-'lefts' were at work against the 1984-85 miners' strike supporting the MI5 bogus 'democratic rights' campaign to undermine the class strength of the picket-line with an individual ballot. This 'left unity' posturing wants the SLP disrupted by opening its doors to organised factions from the SWP and Militant who have always poured out more hatred of the workers states than the big bourgeoisie. Such 'unity' of the 'left' swamp would destroy the SLP. Boot it out.

The 'left opposition' mentality, which is trying a take-over on the Socialist Labour Party, represents exactly the same class forces as the anti-communist and anti-Soviet swamp of the Cold War era.

They are dilettante stooges of an individualist philosophy which poses ultra-left because it knows that capitalist society is indefensible, but which fears workers-movement authority even more.

This would-be 'left opposition' is pushing its campaign to hysterical levels against the SLP, alleging "constitutional conspiracy" in its latest headline screech, because it sees workers turning to Scargill's party en masse.

The self-righteous tone of this latest onslaught, - denouncing the SLP leadership for "barefaced lying", "Scargill dictatorship", "bureaucratic manipulation", "anti-democratic straightjacket", "cowering the comrades", etc, - reveals its petty-bourgeois class hostility to the SLP's success.

The same note was struck when the CPGB Trots, typical of this anti-SLP swamp, sided with the MI5 provocation against the 1984 NUM strike, declaring "the miners should have balloted".

The correct instinct of using working-class strength to picket out the rest of the coalfields in a class war against the Tory state and bourgeoisie, was incomprehensible to these middle-class day-tripper 'lefts'.

The individual ballot paper, to be filled in isolation, surrounded by all the influences of bourgeois society from TV, radio, press, pulpit, and the individual struggle for survival, - automatically seems natural to these fake-'lefts' class instincts.

They are identical to the "intellectualist factions" and "workerless groups" led by Trotsky, Martov, Plekhanov, etc, denounced by Lenin (see quotes below) as nothing more than "an alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers".

In idealistic terms, they pretend to be for socialism. In materialist practice, they cannot accept the organised discipline of a real workers movement.

Their abusive campaign against Scargill & Co is not remotely in the interests of socialism, the working class, or the SLP. On many issues such as Ireland, voting Labour, the imperialist crisis, immigration controls, etc, the SLP has a more 'revolutionary' line than the more backward attitudes to be found in the 'left' swamp, which includes such anti-theory philistines, anti-Soviet groups, and demented anti-communists as Militant and the SWP, in whose favour the SLP is also being urged to abandon its workers-party constitution.

These sects exist solely to represent petty-bourgeois opportunism, - class instincts utterly hostile to the interests of a workers state building socialism in Britain.

There are serious alternative positions on programme, strategy, and tactics which can be argued, - and do get argued, - within the SLP to reach a clearer perspective on how capitalism really will be abolished in Britain. This is a matter for comradely collective struggle to create better leadership and inspiration for workers.

But this petty-bourgeois 'left opposition' is by its class position incurably defeatist, and cynically sneers at all such perspectives on imperialist crisis.

Their whole secret agenda is for manipulative attacks on Scargill & Co, mostly mounting purely formal, bureaucratic, pettifogging campaigns with a moralising tone about how the SLP goes about building its party.

Endless insane rigmaroles go on about how this SLP cannot be seen as "Scargill's party" but "belongs to the whole working class", about how the SLP founders should not be allowed to have the constitution they wanted to build the party with; and about how that constitution is now being "lied about" and "manoeuvred".

There is no hint of class solidarity with the SLP workers movement by this petty-bourgeois 'left', and all talk of 'unity' and 'openness' is a hoax.

When a CPGB member of this 'left opposition' was asked by Scargill about its shallow 'alternative revolutionary platform', the response was "I demand that anything you have to say to me be put in writing".

When a 'left oppositionist' was asked by his branch to explain his campaigning on behalf of the CPGB agenda for the SLP, he could only reply with evasions and abuse. 

This is the real conspiracy, - minds racing to think of something to say, - anything, - to avoid getting caught out. No 'open' and frank political discussion about the CPGB's agenda for the SLP because the one thing it clearly cannot be, and is not meant to be, is 'open' despite all the Weekly Worker's fatuous claims (see last week's Review).

The class essence of this 'politics' is petty bourgeois manoeuvring for a take-over. As such it is totally alien to the interests of socialism, the working class, and the SLP. Workers should have no compunction or hesitation in routing it from the SIP.

And it is clear that this now needs to be done organisationally as well as politically.

This 'left' swamp agenda, orchestrated within the SLP by the CPGB and its stooges, aims to destroy attempts by Scargill & Go to build a disciplined workers movement akin to the 1984-85 miners strike and its support within the working class.

With the maximum hypocrisy expected of middle-class self-righteousness, the latest onslaught is headlined "Constitutional Conspiracy" (by these complete conspirators who boast about defying the SLP constitution in order to organise the CPGB secretly within the SLP, but who always deny CPGB membership when challenged), and contains the following destructive abuse:

President Arthur Scargill coolly informs public rallies that his draft constitution is no draft, but binding law. It was "adopted" by the membership at the inaugural conference of May 4, he maintains. The Fiscites make exactly the same mendacious claim. 

For the SLP this is a matter of the greatest significance. The draft constitution is being used to straightjacket the SLP politically and organisationally. Nevertheless the ham-fisted way in which it is being done shows how fragile the leadership considers its hold over the SLP. Bureaucratic manipulation and barefaced lying are not signs of strength, but profound weakness. 

Scargill's draft constitution - both the December 1995 and the May 1996 version - plagiarises the Labour Party electorialist-reformist model. 

Perhaps the main distinguishing feature between the Scargill draft and old Labour is the Bonapartist powers it enshrines for the president. Comrade Scargill as a personality is a big asset for the SLP. However, like Ferdinand Lassalle and Joseph Stalin, he seems to entertain the ambition of becoming a worker-dictator.

Expect gerrymandering and underhand manoeuvering. Correspondence will be lost in the post or mislaid. Branches will be closed, forgotten or not recognised. Resolutions will be ruled out of order or referred to the NEC. Two dozen different constitutional 'amendments' from two dozen different branches will allow the NEC to divide and rule by arranging it that what they find most detestable be talked off the agenda. In all likelihood the NEC will have in reserve their own batch of amendments and will encourage others to submit their own amendments to soak up time.

On these two short subsections pivots the whole system of witch hunting and fear. They have been used to void and cower comrades. They are used to justify anti-communism and the imposition of a bureaucratic regime.

The pretence that these CPGB stooges sincerely wish to support the SLP is so laughable that none but the most naïve and backward workers could be fooled by it. At this stage, the SLP is unalterably identified with the initiative of Scargill and his closest colleagues. The notion that they built this party in order than it should NOT have the sort of constitution and unity which they intended for it is so bizarre as to question the sanity of the 'left opposition'.

In fact Trots are not mad, they are just inveterate parasites on the international workers movement, growing fat in the decades after 1917 in the more affluent Western countries by enabling petty-bourgeois 'lefts' to posture their 'revolutionary' determination (hammer & sickle symbols, singing the Internationale, etc) but without the need to defend or argue for the difficult decisions the Soviet workers state had to take, or declare unconditional solidarity with the Soviet workers state still, when things went wrong or mistakes were made.

Trotskyism's own record of achievement in building a workers state and socialism? Obviously perfectly unblemished, - because they have never won the support of the working class ever, anywhere on earth, for building a workers state and socialism.

And the record of the 'alternative leaderships' they have put up everywhere as 'left oppositions' to genuine workers parties? Wrong analysis after wrong analysis, mistaken perspective after mistaken perspective, organisational catastrophe after organisational catastrophe, personal scandal after personal scandal,- for decades, in country after country.

But it is all unrecorded, of course, for who cares what the political record is of these 57 varieties of petty-bourgeois 'left' sectarianism?

It is the history of the development of the Soviet workers state, of Peoples China, of the Vietnam Revolution, of Socialist Cuba, etc, which occupies the history books.

The ludicrous mistakes made by 'left opposition' pronouncements from 57 varieties of anti-communist 'left' posturing since 1917, falling for every imperialist stunt going against the workers states, are all conveniently forgotten.

This "alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers" (Lenin), headed by Trotsky, Martov, and Plekhanov to try to prevent a mass workers party from being built by the Bolsheviks, - is up to its age-old tricks again now, against the SLP.

Every week, fresh abuse against the "authoritarian leadership" of Scargill & Go. Every week, instant amnesia about the clown-like 'leadership' utterances of the 57 varieties, trying to give an 'alternative analysis' of the world and what to do about it.

The CPGB's record of irresponsible stupidity and light-mindedness is particularly familiar to Review readers because EPSR has been making a special study of these 'communist' Trot mountebanks.

All year, they vacillate from one catastrophically incorrect political pronouncement to another, and then back again, - never ever offering to account to the working class for this criminal light-mindedness.

The problem is not that any analysis can be mistaken. The problem is that when wrong, this "alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers" simply walks away from the laughable mess created by its attempts to give 'revolutionary leadership' to workers, and hopes that no on will remember their previous fatuous pronouncements while they get on with the next self-righteous pontification.

The problem is not that the stooges supporting these 57 varieties of "intellectualist factions", and "workerless groups" ranged against the SLP, cannot be forced to admit occasionally that their sectarian 'alternative leaderships' have got things wrong.

The problem is that mistake after mistake does not make the slightest difference to a petty-bourgeois class position which is subjectively dominated entirely by its own individual self-righteousness, and which, if it can see the SLP as a serious workers party at all, - hates what it sees.

Despite crass mistake after mistake in their attempted 'revolutionary' analysis of the world which fronts for their middle-class emotional defeatism and philistine ignorance, this 'left' "alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers",(led by Trotsky, Martov, and Plekhanov against the rise of the Bolshevik workers party, and by the modern 57 varieties against the rise of the SLP workers party) - never remotely considers that it might be wrong about anything.

Its self-righteousness is all-consuming. It is a ferociously defensive class position, petty bourgeois in origin but infecting many individualist-minded workers, which will not be persuaded about the incorrectness of its understanding and actions no matter how much success the genuine workers party has amongst the working class.

Lenin's conclusion (see quotes below) was that these intellectualist sects, these self-righteous individualists, and these irresponsible light-minded opportunist dilettantes were poison to the workers movement and should not be united with, or given factional rights, at any price.

It is Leninist politics, therefore, to not only rout this "alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers" politically, but to rout them organisationally too, - right out of the SLP.

Their non-stop conspiratorial undermining of the SLP makes working hard to build up the SLP's influence a complete mockery, a waste of time.

No serious workers party should entertain such fakers in its ranks.

Consider the latest disruption campaign against the SLP, launched by these light-minded hypocrites.

Not content with charging the SLP leadership with "constitutional conspiracy" for applying its own constitution forbidding the organisation of any other party within the ranks of the SLP, yet secretly manoeuvring themselves precisely to create the only 'constitutional conspiracy', — these illegitimate and bad-faith entryists then have the cheek to openly advertise their new disruptive campaign against the SLP:

The Scargill constitution must be challenged lock, stock and barrel at the May 1997 congress.  There must certainly be a fight to ensure that all votes at this first constitutional congress are by a simple majority.

Nevertheless if that fails then the left must be ready to concentrate its fire at a single strategic point. Remember, for Constituency Socialist Labour Parties of 1,000 members or less it is one amendment to the constitution and nothing more (see clause six, sub-sections six and 11).

Therefore as many Constituency Socialist Labour Parties as possible must be won to submit a standard constitutional amendment to replace the MacDonaldite clause two, subsections four and five.

Subsection four needs to be replaced with the simple formulation: "All working class and progressive organisations are eligible to affiliate to the party".

The left needs to coordinate its plans, actions and forces at the highest level. We are a minority. But we are an influential and large minority that on certain issues is surely capable of winning a majority, perhaps even the two-thirds majority which is necessary under the Scargill constitution in order to overturn a chair's ruling.

The maximum number of delegates must be secured. That means carefully marshalling our supporters into "constitutionally recognised" CSLPs. Leave in place ad hoc regional bodies to oversee the general election campaign and for joint discussion and mutual aid.

Take the initiative. Move quickly. Come together above; regroup below.

Workers who thought they were joining and helping to build the Scargillist SLP should take note. They might be joining and helping to build the Trotskyite CPGB instead.

The dishonesty is truly amazing. Countless times, CPGB stooges have been challenged that their mistaken tactics towards the SLP flowed from their weird fantasy that the SLP could be turned into THE revolutionary party, ie a larger version of their own opportunist sect. It has always been disingenuously denied. But the anxious urgency of the above campaign is clearly inspired by one ambition only, - to take over and control as much of the SLP as possible as quickly as possible.

The claimed wish to "build the SLP" is even further exposed for the fraud it is by a final rallying call to the forces of 'left opposition' fight against the forces of SLP darkness:

Of course such a victory is only possible if we overcome petty sectarianism, factional exclusiveness and localise heads-down timidity. Unity is urgently needed. Division is reactionary and serves only the right.

Not unity with the SLP, of course, and certainly not the overcoming of CPGB factionalism, exclusive or otherwise.

This is unity against the SLP which is recognised as the majority but is insolently called "the right" by these shallow middle-class parasites.

And this is to overcome the "factional exclusiveness" of the SLP majority itself, somehow now regarded as a trouble-making faction against itself.

These destructive entryists clearly hate everything that the actual Socialist Labour Party itself stands for, the party as everyone knows it, as founded by Arthur Scargill and his close colleagues.

But no individualist stooge of the CPGB is ever going to admit this. 

The SLP must fight for clarity about the 'left opposition's' real aims and class sentiments, instinctively hostile to the disciplined workers-state implications about a new mass workers party launched on the basis of the 1984-85 class-war struggle of the miners and their working-class support groups.

"Division is reactionary" mouth these frauds with maximum humbug, - except, of course, for division against the basic proletarian spirit and politics of the 1984 strike, now brought up to date by Scargill's frank acceptance that a Labour Government is now the last thing workers need, - and was equally delusory in 1984, it must now be admitted.

"Division is reactionary" -(the phrase itself is reactionary and undialectical because it deliberately conceals the priceless importance of the split from non-Marxist fake-leftism, the split which was the making of the Bolshevik Party, - see Lenin quotes) - except, of course, the division and destruction of the SLP itself.

This specious nonsense-phrase sums up the entire position of this "alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers".

Everything is a pose, a shallow fraud, - their parasitic entry into the SLP; the rapprochement of all the 'lefts'; their 'world view' which they simply forget about or double-back on every time it goes wrong; and the verbal diarrhoea of their 'programme' and the endless, pointless, abstract arguments about a 'dual-power federal constitution' and about 'leader centralism versus democratic centralism', and the like.

Another attack on the SLP printed this week by these phony 'SLP supporters' maligns an SLP candidate in a Leicester City ward by-election, polling Thursday.

It charges Leicester SLP with sectarianism for not making an electoral pact with Militant Labour, and contrasts the SLP candidate unfavourably with the ML candidate opposing him.

The pretence of the piece is that electoral agreement by all 57 'left' varieties to avoid standing against each other would maximise the 'challenge to capitalism', etc.

In other words, it is another plank in the CPGB 'revolutionary platform' hidden agenda to drag the SLP back into the anti-communist 'left' swamp so that it should disappear without trace, leaving the eternal world of intellectualist factions and workerless groups undisturbed.

Once again, the wordy posturing is everything, - posing and dissembling to cover up their own hypocritical behaviour and to fool workers about the real class positions of these fake 'lefts'.

Take the following specious humbug, posing as highflown sentiments:

Ideas need to be organised openly for all to evaluate if they are to take our class towards the science necessary to transform the whole of society.

This is in reply to the Leicester SLP candidate's argument that serious communist socialists who believe that the final process of abolishing capitalism will be a revolutionary one, can work for socialism democratically, properly, and successfully within the constitution of the SLP without deliberately disrupting it by organising a party within a party.

To this, the standard reply of the CPGB hidden agenda, - parroted by all their stooges in identical words, as are their amendments to the constitution and their condemnation of Scargill's 'mendacity' about the SLP having a constitution, - is repeated that 'revolutionaries must not allow themselves to be cowered into the straight-jacket of atomised individuals' etc.

Then follows the above ringing declaration about 'openness' being crucial if the working class is ever to be convinced about the argument for socialism. So would the CPGB entryists into the SLP canvass on the doorstep saying: "I want you to vote for the SLP because its president is a liar, its executive is mendacious, its constitution is Bonapartist to allow Scargill to become worker-dictator just like Joseph Stalin, and its conference is a completely undemocratic stunt of gerrymandering and manoeuvring to make sure that witch-hunting and fear prevails and nothing gets discussed that will challenge the rightwing anti-communist bureaucracy"?

No they would not. These CPGB entryists clearly plan to canvass for the SLP's socialism concealing their real thoughts about it, just as their hoped-for anti-Scargill allies in Militant Labour used to canvass for the Labour Party's 'socialism', concealing their real thoughts about that.

And what good did that bit of bogus "open organisation of ideas" do for the working class or for socialism?

This other branch of fake 'revolutionaries', ML, another part of the "alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers", - helped prop up the Labour Party's incurably reactionary bourgeois essence for years by providing it with a fake-'left' wing to carry on fooling the working class with.

Round these 'revolutionaries' would go, diligently working in their constituencies for the return to Parliament of a Janner, or a Hattersley, or a Foot, or a Healey, or a Kinnock, or a Blair, or a Prescott, etc, - telling the workers on the doorstep it was for 'socialism', all because of their own hidden fantasy-agenda that one day, these self-styled petty bourgeois 'revolutionary' socialists would triumph inside Labour.

Now that these middle-class ultra-left sects have been booted out from posturing inside Labour, they have turned their attentions onto the attempt to build a genuine workers party for socialism, the SLP, (which has emerged from the final reactionary self-assertion of the rotten bourgeois essence of the Labour Party), - some entering it, some hovering outside demanding electoral pacts or a coalition, or legal entryism, etc.

Workers do not want to be fooled by this middle-class anti-Leninist nonsense about "let all the 'lefts' get together". The entire record of Militant stinks of anti-communism and pro-imperialist opportunism, like their refusal to demand defeat of Thatcher's imperialist-colonialist aggression in the Falklands War; and their blocking with so-called "protestant workers" (meaning the exploited dupes of dying British colonialism) to oppose the legitimate Irish national-liberation struggle to free the Occupied Zone of Ireland from British imperialist police-military dictatorship; to say nothing of their instant enthusiasm for every Cold War anti-Soviet stunt going.

Militant have expressed contempt for every workers state that has ever struggled to build socialism - so that they could avoid having to defend anything that was attacked by imperialist propaganda. In this cowardly way, they could keep their "spotless Trotskyist banner" for continuing their entryism within the system, - which culminated, of course, in the phenomenon of Derek Hatton. What a star. What an achievement. Tommy Sheridan, you're on next. Jimmy Reid, the CPGB's former idol, is getting a bit past it.

The CPGB's hidden agenda to drag the SLP into the proposed 'left' swamp of amalgamated Trotskyite sects is just about the most nonsensical, destructive and reactionary proposal to keep anti-communism alive in the workers movement that can be imagined.

Turf all these CPGBers and their stooges straight out of the SLP. 

They have demonstrated themselves to be an incurable obstacle of petty-bourgeois individualism to the building of a successful workers party. Their 'revolutionary socialism' is a complete posture, and their whole lives are eaten up with their self-righteous moralising hypocrisy about their 'rights' etc, and their self-comforting subjective-idealist distortions of 'Marxism'.

Should not all of this have been obvious before the attempt began to help build the SLP alongside these fake-'lefts', met within the SLP's ranks?.

Clearly so, but the lessons from Leninist science (below) are one thing when remembered and understood from the book, but a lesson a million times more powerfully grasped when learned and reaffirmed in the course of living struggle.

All the best knowledge of Marxist-Leninist science comes from the application of that understanding to modern history where the behaviour and movement of all class forces re-asserts in a new way the essential dialectical-materialist explanation of such historical phenomena in society and the economy.

In addition, the practice of combating this "alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers" has helped achieve a more serious and involved estimation of the SLP phenomenon and what to do about it. Human activation and motivation cannot be taken ready-made from off the shelf and worn like a new hat. All self-development, or even self-recycling, has to be fought for.

The battle to expose this petty-bourgeois entryist and swamp-amalgamation nonsense has been well worthwhile, and reflects enormous credit on all who have supported the work of the EPSR. Build Leninism. JH

That is exactly what they are—sterile! The "unity" of the varied intellectualist little groups is bought by the Narodniks at the price of their utter political impotence among the masses. And with us Marxists, too, it is the Trotskyists," the liquidators, the "conciliators", and the "Tyszka-ites","those who shout loudest about group unity, who display the same intellectualist impotence.

This conclusion is that attempts to create "unity"  by means of  "agreements" or "alliances" among intellectualist groups, which in fact express tendencies which are injurious to the working-class movement (Narodism, liquidationism,  etc), lead only to complete disintegration and impotence. Both Narodism and liquidationism have proved this by their lamentable example.

Only in opposition to these groups and grouplets (in a strenuous struggle,  which is inevitable under bourgeois conditions and amidst a host of petty-bourgeois vacillations) is real unity building up among the working-class masses led by the majority of the class-conscious proletarians.

Naïve people will ask: How are we to distinguish the intellectualist groups which are causing damage to the working-class movement by disintegrating it and condemning it to impotence, from that group or groups which ideologically express the working-class movement, rally, unite and strengthen it? There are only two ways of distinguishing one from the other: theory and practical experience. It is necessary seriously to examine the theoretical content of such trends of thought as Narodism and liquidationism (the principal petty-bourgeois trends that are disintegrating the working-class movement). It is necessary to carefully study the practical experience of the mass working-class movement as a means of rallying the majority of class-conscious workers around integral and considered decisions. 

He who gives close thought to the theory of Marxism and close attention to the practical experience of the last few years will realise that the elements of a genuine workers' party are rallying in Russia in spite of the motley, noisy, and vociferous (but essentially futile and harmful) groups of Narodniks, liquidators, and so forth. Unity of the working class is emerging from the disintegration of these groups and their isolation from the proletariat.

NARODISM AND LIQUIDATIONISM Proletarskaya Pravda No. 12, December 20, 1913

Trotsky, however, has never had any "physiognomy" at all; the only thing he does have is a habit of changing sides, of skipping from the liberals to the Marxists and back again, of mouthing scraps of catchwords and bombastic parrot phrases. In Borba you will not find a single live word on any controversial issue.

This is incredible, but it is a fact. The question of the "underground"? Not a word.

Does Trotsky share the views of Axelrod, Zasulich, F. D., L. S. (Luch No. 101) and so forth? Not a murmur.

The slogan of fighting for an open party? Not a single word.

The liberal utterances of the Yezhovs and other Luchists on strikes? The annulment of the programme on the national question? Not a murmur.

The utterances of L. Sedov and other Luchists against two of the "pillars"? Not a murmur.

Trotsky assures us that he is in favour of combining immediate demands with ultimate aims, but there is not a word as to his attitude towards the liquidator method of effecting this "combination"!

Actually, under cover of high-sounding, empty, and obscure phrases that confuse the non-class-conscious workers, Trotsky is defending the liquidators by passing over in silence the question of the "underground", by asserting that there is no liberal-labour policy in Russia, and the like.

And these near-Party people, who are unable to unite on their own "August"platform, try to deceive the workers with their shouts about "unity"! Vain efforts! Unity means recognising the "old" and combating those who repudiate it. Unity means rallying the majority of the workers in Russia about decisions which have long been known, and which condemn liquidationism.

But the liquidators and Trotsky, the Seven and Trotsky, who tore up their own August bloc, who flouted all the decisions of the Party and dissociated themselves from the "underground" as well as from the organised workers, are the worst splitters. Fortunately, the workers have already realised this, and all class-conscious workers arc creating their own real unity against the liquidator disruptors of unity.

BREAK-UP OF THE AUGUST BLOC  Put Pravdy No37 March 15 1916

'In a petty-bourgeois country, which is passing through a historical period of bourgeois reconstruction, it is inevitable that a motley assortment of intellectuals should join the workers, and that these intellectuals should attempt to form all kinds of groups, adventurist in character in the sense referred to above.

Proof is provided by the history of the last decade (1904-14), which is most eventful and significant.

During these ten years members of these groups have displayed the most helpless, most pitiful, most ludicrous vacillation on serious questions of tactics and organisation, and have shown their utter inability to create trends with roots among the masses.

Now Plekhanov has begun to repeat—with the liquidators, with Bogdanov and the rest—phrases about the unity of "all trends". We emphatically condemn this line, which should be relentlessly combated.

Nowhere in the world do the workers' parties unite groups of intellectuals and "trends"; they unite workers on the following terms: (1) recognition and application of definite Marxist decisions on questions of tactics and organisation; (2) submission of the minority of class-conscious workers to the majority.

Witless people may abuse the Pravdists and call them factionalists, splitters, and so forth, but these phrases and abuse will not/wipe out the unity of the workers.…

ADVENTURISM Rabochy No.   7, June 9,   1914

But— and this is the whole point—no task is more unpleasant, undesirable, and unacceptable to the liquidators than that of ascertaining our main differences on questions of theory, programme, tactics and organisation. All their subterfuges, distortions and abuse in connection with the Bureau's resolution are solely designed to obscure its demand (or a preliminary clarification of differences. We say: the organisation to be created as a result of unity should be based on such and such principles—acceptance of the old programme, a definite form of organisation, uncurtailed slogans," resolute tactics, etc. But you immediately declare that this formulation of the programme, tactics and tasks of the organisation, is nothing but a "complete list of liquidators' sins". We are sorry for you, but neither we nor the Bureau know of any method of building new organisations other than by clarifying their programme, their tactics, and so forth.

We are guilty of a still more grievous sin, however. Not only have we proposed the conditions for the creation of an organisation, i. e., clarified the terms of peace, but we have, moreover, submitted these terms to the bar of the workers'  opinion. But the liquidators, of course, will to the very last shun this path, for the simple reason that neither a precise formulation of their political views nor the submission of these views to the bar of the broad circles of the  workers is in the interests of their group. Under these circumstances they will inevitably strive to substitute for the definite "clarification of differences" demanded by the Bureau, petty personal squabbles, distortions, and wilful misrepresentations.

ONCE MORE ABOUT I.S.B. AND LIQUIDATORS      Proletarskaya Pravda No.11 December 19, 1919

The publicists' alliance that we see today among the leaders of Narodisn (Chornov, Rakitnikov and Sukhanov) and various Social-Democratic intellectualist factions that are either openly opposed to the "underground", i.e., the workers' party (the liquidators* Dan, Martov and Cherevanin) or else help these liquidationist workerless groups (Trotsky and Sher, Bazarov, Lunacharsky and Plekhanov), is in fact nothing more nor less than an alliance of bourgeois intellectuals directed against the workers. We regard Pravdism as the expression of the workers' unity on the basis of genuine recognition of the "underground" and of definite decisions that co-ordinate and guide tactics in the old spirit (the decisions of January 1912 and of February and the summer of 1913).

It is a fact that this workers' unity is built on the firm basis of integral, complete and, in principle, consistent decisions on all questions affecting the lives of the Marxist workers.                               

BOURGEOIS INTELLIGENSIA'S METHODS OF STRUGGLE  June 1914

NATIONAL-LIBERATION TRIUMPH

British imperialism's enforced snail's-pace withdrawal from the Occupied Zone of Ireland creeps on despite the Tory Government's latest propaganda stunt, - revealing more concessions via a pretended rebuff to the lengthy secret talks.  

But prior decommissioning of IRA arms is now completely dropped, as is the provocative demand for any ceasefire to be declared 'permanent'. 

Sinn Féin will enter talks soon after a ceasefire, and a timetable for agreeing a new Ireland will be set. 

Paisley is right to see a "sell-out" of the old 'Northern Ireland' racket, now doomed. DB

World Socialist Review
(edited extracts form a variety of anti-imperialist struggles.)

During the months of September and October 1995, the grass-roots Party and Young Communist League (UJC) organizations carried on a wide-ranging debate of the document entitled "Party Work in the Current Circumstances." This document, issued by our Party's Central Committee, attempts to conceptualize the socio-economic, political and ideological reality which our country has lived through and in many ways continues to live in, as a consequence of the collapse of the socialist bloc, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the intensification of the U.S. blockade, which led us to adopt a survival and development strategy known as the special period in peacetime. This text was enriched by the opinions and suggestions of provincial Party committees, first secretaries of municipal committees, and comrades from the auxiliary structure of the Central Committee and other agencies.

Out of the grass-roots discussions came overwhelming approval of the document's content, even though some grass-roots organizations asked for explanations or expressed dissatisfaction with some specific aspects.

Although the document in question does not respond to all the questions a reader may have on this subject, it is a summary and evaluation of the difficult and complex situations in which our Party and the Cuban people in general have worked and continue to work.

For that reason, we have decided to offer this analytical document to the readers of Granma International.

Part two.
1994 revealed a modest 0.7-percent growth in the gross domestic product compared with 1993, thus changing the economic dynamic. This growth was greater in 1995, with 2.5 percent, and even higher in the first half of this year with 9.6 percent. A positive tendency has been maintained, with the improvement of internal finances, and the state budget deficit has been considerably reduced.

These first achievements, which signal a long and difficult phase of economic recovery, are still not substantially reflected in the people's standard of living, but they do allow us to state and demonstrate our capacity for turning around the economic crisis; for preserving the principal achievements of the Socialist Revolution, including the very political system which guarantees unity, sovereignty and national independence; and for permanently overcoming the special period.

Although the acute recessive economic crisis, produced by phenomena external to Cuban society, generates ideological and political effects and complications, the special period has not caused a crisis in Cuban society's political institutions, which have retained their full capacity for reflection and renovation in accordance with the country's economic transformations in the current and future frameworks.

A basic concept that Party members should always keep in mind, when we attempt to comprehend and explain the nature of the current situation, is that the crisis which we are undergoing has not been fundamentally the result of our errors, but rather something imposed beyond our will and capacities: the disappearance of socialism in Europe.

The process of rectifying errors and negative tendencies demonstrated once again the Revolution's continuing capacity for self-criticism, and better prepared our society for facing the challenges of the special period. Obviously, our own past and persisting errors also have effects on our economy, but the causes of the drop in production, the recession and the sudden deterioration of the standard of living are external and not dependent on us.

Social stability — particularly in our political institutions, as demonstrated by the popular support for the appeal by the Party and the Revolution, in partial and general People's Power elections, in daily efforts in production, in services and in the daily management of difficulties and shortages — constitutes a basic condition for the changes we are making.

Party members must be alert and prepared to counteract the propaganda promoted by the Revolution's enemies, to the effect that we are not making changes or that the changes are insufficient. The essence of this effort is, on one hand, to discredit our capacity to successfully confront the difficulties and, on the other, to push us into taking positions of surrender and desperation with foreseeable chaotic effects.

Above all, we must take into account that these economic transformations must be assimilated by the society, and for that reason the pace at which they are made cannot surpass the possibilities for understanding and acceptance. Furthermore, the transformations must respond in a substantive way to the urgent need for revitalizing the national economy.

Some of the steps we have taken have positive economic effects, but in a social context have mixed consequences, and logically, the explanation of their causes and motivations are less acceptable. Such is the case with the de-criminalization of foreign currency possession and the opening of stores selling goods in dollars. Other measures, highly significant and with great strategic value, only directly affect a part of the population. Such is the case with the creation of the basic units of cooperative production (UBPCs); the rest of the population can only judge the results by the supply of agricultural produce in the markets.

The vast majority of the population now understands the economic need to increase international tourism, but many cannot accept the fact that Cubans do not have access to those installations in Cuban pesos, and the inequality represented by the fact that workers in that sector receive part of their income in foreign currency through tips. Meanwhile, other aspects associated with the development of this sector are rightly criticized, including bribery, prostitution, procurement and certain forms of corruption.

Other measures reflect a strategy which has been developed in relation to the complex structure of a blockaded country which in a short period of time has lost its habitual economic and commercial ties, and which has an open economy and scarce energy resources of its own.

Among these measures are authorization of broader categories of self-employment; opening up of different branches of the national economy to foreign capital and the creation of joint ventures and other forms of economic association; establishment of the farmers' markets; establishment of the industrial and arts and crafts markets; conversion to complete self-sufficiency in sectors and enterprises making up the national economy; decentralization of foreign trade into different enterprises and economic branches; and, most recently, sale of real estate and approval of three duly-free zones in the country.

The measures which most directly affect the population, such as those related to the gradual improvement of internal financing and the proposed social security contributions, have been discussed in great detail by the workers before their implementation.

The list of measures is much longer, but the ones mentioned here demonstrate that the country is taking on the challenges imposed by the crisis seriously, systematically and with determination.

The alternative to the road we have chosen would be a return to capitalism, a return to the past, to the brutal exploitation of the working masses, a return to a society divided into antagonistic classes, to poverty, to begging, to dependence, to the loss of sovereignty, national independence and cultural identity. The U.S. mass media would present that divided society subordinate to U.S. interests, that society which has. returned to the past as an example of liberty, democracy and progress. The revolutionary and humanist history of the Cuban people, and their solidarity, would be wiped out in a stroke of the pen; old and worn-out forms would be presented as something new and emerging. A lack of solidarity would be the accepted rule, transculturation would be justified as an objective and inevitable process, and the masses — once again dispossessed —would have imposed on them a philosophy of resignation and inertia through the absorption of imperialist interests.

That will never be our people's future. Our national will, sustained in an essentially patriotic and socialist political culture, will not permit it.

All of the economic transformations that we have made, bravely and optimistically, and the ones we have yet to make, have had the purpose of defending our achievements and working for everyone's happiness. The key to success lies in understanding that only by producing more and with greater efficiency can we reach our objectives.

Party members must be able to distinguish between unequal circumstances and the inequalities which stem from individual effort, preparation, the quality and quantity of works, and the results achieved.

For that reason, a society like this one, which even in the most difficult conditions has not renounced totally equal access to education and health care, as well as [social] security and assistance for all Cubans who need them, must become more demanding [that it be done] more efficiently, in line with people's revolutionary and moral values.

The Party, its agencies, organizations, members and cadres, along with defending our democratic system and the humanism and solidarity it promotes, must resolutely fight against paternalism and egalitarianism, conscious of the fact that efficiency is indispensable and is the path toward even better results, so that we can become competitive in the world. Without this, a country like ours cannot defend its independence, identity and happiness in the future.

It is the Party's job to explain to people the other inequalities with which we are faced today. The recovery of production in centers that are now being operated partially or are shut down because of a lack of resources is not always achieved in line with our priorities.

On occasion, possibilities appear for markets, capital and technology for forms of production which, although they must be recovered, are not among the first which we would prefer to start up. If we have no choice and it is appropriate for the country, we should accept those options.

It must be explained that we cannot achieve a uniform recovery of the whole economy, because there are not enough resources for that. Recovery must be gradual, and the workers and their families linked to centers which are among the first recovered will be in a better situation than others who are not directly linked to those economic sectors. These inequalities will endure until the economy is fully recovered, and the time when this is achieved will be hastened to the extent that we are able to produce more with greater efficiency. Therefore, it is important to support and promote human solidarity on the part of collectives and workers, expressed in terms of concrete contributions and socially beneficial actions.

Today, there is no activity related to the economy, production or services which is not important. Every task, every job is necessary and we should do them efficiently. However, we must be aware that even with all the advances we make in emerging branches of our economy, we will only achieve full economic recovery with the recovery of the sugar industry.
For that reason, in order to save the Revolution, we must produce more sugar at a lower cost. We must plant cultivate and obtain more cane with higher yields. We must grind and produce sugar with the necessary efficiency.

THE COUNTRY'S OBJECTIVE LIMITATIONS FOR SPEEDING UP THE SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS

Cuba's main resource is in its own people, in the work it is capable of doing, in what it is capable of producing. Work will be the source of wealth. Dealing with reality head on requires understanding, first of all, that we have an open economy, dependent on the prices of sugar and oil cm the world market, and the relationship between these two prices has been unfavorable to us for years, without any foreseeable changes.

Like all underdeveloped countries, we have the burden of the foreign debt. For Cuba, it is much more difficult to renegotiate that debt, even partially, due to the additional difficulty brought about by the discriminatory attitude toward Cuba in the capital market.

We must add to this the United States' economic blockade and the constant attempts to strengthen it.

In addition, Cuba today lacks technologies, capital and markets for many of the products that it could produce, and when we manage to produce something, including items which are unique, U.S. efforts to block those products are added to the reality of the transnationals' domination of the markets. Furthermore, state enterprises still have objective limitations on the attainment of their real potential.

We should not be discouraged by a clear understanding of these objective realities. Even with them, we have demonstrated our ability to get out of the special period without conceding a single basic principle. We must remain aware, above all, of the importance of unity, discipline, hard work, a demanding attitude and efficiency.

THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CHANGES IN THE ECONOMY

The Party must be very clear that our society is moving toward a mixed economy, with a greater presence of mercantile relations in the national economy. The social sector will predominate, and it must demonstrate equal or greater efficiency than the private sector or the joint ventures.

In this context, the answer does not lie in subsidies, aid or the egalitarian distribution of goods and services, except in regard to education and health care. Social security and assistance will be provided according to more just criteria; and emphasis will be put on efficiency, conservation, jobs with multiple tasks, individual and collective initiative and effort, real results and earnings strictly determined by the quantity and quality of work done and its usefulness for society.

Party members must take into account that, in the treatment of social and individual problems, along with the humanism and justice that have characterized our efforts ever since the people have exercised revolutionary power, today, without fail, we must also be demanding. We must always ask ourselves what duty is the counterpart of a fight, what contribution goes along with a request, what effort stands behind a demand.

Workers' consciousness, so indispensable today, should be a principle of the Party's ideological and political work Strengthening confidence in our own possibilities, promoting an optimistic attitude, taking the greatest possible advantage of our potential, giving rather than receiving should be the premises of Party activism.

To be continued.