Beyond Perestroika? RE VTE WS - is what attitude to taice towards not just divide these two authors through the whole left and does policy, although within that we Soviet troops from Afghanistan The nub of the difference - overall drift of Soviet foreign can welcome some moves, in particular the withdrawal of one which of course goes and the INF treaty. Revolution from Above Ernest Mandel, Verso Tariq All, Hutchinson Beyond Perestroika £9.95 (published Reviewed by
refors. Mandel's conclusion is. turing of the surew at the cost. the perestroika "marketisation" "All the talk about "market socialism" reduces itself to a of consumption in order to Union by two authors whọ Gorbachev and the Soviet THE near-simultaneous appearance of books on Paul Lawson
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 14 April 1989 reform, economic refom and the project, and giving support to the post-cupitalist socicties generally masses lo rc-awaken politicaily, reassembic them to make overall working class living standards - socialiste in Britain in the 1980s Evgeny Ambartsumov (Soviet economist), Olga Ivanova (Sovlot concemed with approaching the qusetion in Eastern europe, women's emancipation, models of Plenary sessions on socialism and democracy, tho economies of socialism, International relations, and the future of Europe. Greens), Luciana Castellina (Italian Communist Party), Branke Registration; €10 per day, E15 per weekend (unwaged; E5 por giving them more freedom for Speakers Include Otto Latsis (deputy editor of Kommunist), opens up opportunities for the liberalisation, on the contrary, them individually, and then to fominist), Peter Glotz (German SPD), Steffi Engert (German Gorbachev and the European Left new foreign policy - camine information and organisation For further information conatet; Gus Fagan, 30 Bridge St, Also a large number of workshops, Including the national should be only too aware of! Horvat (Yuogslav economist), Emest Mandel, Tony Benn, and this is something which generally ends up attacking sense of what is happening. whole business as a unified Tariq's book is much more and to formulate their own meticulously to dissect the Gorbachev's forelgn policy is also part of perestrolka Gorhachevism - political Mandel's approach is different components of St Cross Buiding, Oxford University Oxford demands. Economic Socialist Conference Wlodzimierz Bras and many ofhers. Oxford 0X2 OBA Tel 0685 723207 planning and the Yugoslav crisis. 3/4 June USSR which want to put ether a we must more or less accept, or who have the most radical views on political reform, who demand process, a unified project, which which would have very negalive cffccts on many Soviet workers. and many-sided upheaval in the In this, particulariy striking perestroika economic reforms, attitudes which marxists adopt towards political liberalisation whale business corne unstuck. and to economic liberalisation 'All Power to the Sovicts: but All approaches to the grant Soviet Union. Some of these "tick" or a 'cross" against the To put it al is most basic, the are the views of some of the leaders of the socialist clubs rapid implementation of the people who demand a moro part and parcel of the samc which have emerged in the real democratically elected ,are the self-same morc or less reject. Sovict version of austerity (p64). stages. To sweeten the medicine, Soviet Ünion, from left and right conclusion we can draw from all Now I have read Tariq's book perestroika as the basic motor of thing; the objective effects of the something cisc again. And it is a name of efficiency. It is for these Irom clear what his attitude is to bureaucrats - see it as a threat. It workers, af leas not in its initial that glasnost and perestroika are standards of the Soviet working his supporters want to do is one decidedly mixed, and that many increase labour productivity. In thercfore, there will be political the removal of subsidies from a mistake reflects the ideology of cconomic changc. He certainly alike, there is, in my opinion, a thir in that perestroika will not is hard to understand why it is reading. What Gorhachev and reasons that the working class benefit the mass of the Soviet economic reforms which they involves, among otber things, wide range of basic consumer matter of fact that perestroika the Gorbachevites: it is to say economic stagnation, it is far goods like housing, food and contemporary conflicts in the condemnation of centralised unemployment as the labour market is "shaken out" in the euree orthe annin as the 'beneath contempt to point Gorbachev and his advisors. other words it amounts to a class as 'beneath contempt Thin makes very strange transport, and the de facto In many analyses of the response to perestroika is hasic flaw. This common And therefore: "The only Sovict werkers - not just want to altack the living condemns the view that are pushing through is twice, and while he is source of the country unambiguous in his these things out. product of several rocent visits to fascinating first hand material on , and Yeltsin's. Taniy declares, in effect, that a the different approaches from conflict with the corrupt cabal of predocessor in the Moscow party Gorbachev, on a line with which wished, by a movement from the to the upheaval in the USSR. the opinion that the events in the has started in the Soviet Union - qualified welcome to the foreign criticial 'ycu" to glasnost; 'no" to USSR are the most important in own self-declared objective - as us an opportunity to contrast revolution in 1949 - an opinion Moscow bureaucrats around his this has stated from above, and above", He chidee the far left in policy initiatives of Gorbachev. bave for decades been close question in clearly a touchsone neither this joural nor the new and perestroika. His line can he political collaborators gives on. In particular his account of a political intervention into the und perestroika, and hie gives a within the Marxist tradition Mandel starts his book with the debates and changer going full-scale "political revolution" Mandel's book, by contrast, world politics since 1968, and book by Mandel are in accord. the USSR, containing a fot of Britain and internationally for working class helow. For him differentiate between glasnost being blinded by the fact that Teadership, Victor Grishin, is But Tarig's book has to be means the victory of glasnost summed up by the formula: a the success of this revolution judged by the entenon of is a political revolution from perestroika; and 'no' lo the cicarly shared hy Ali. Thin porhaps even the Chinese not, as we would have all debate on the left about for marxist politics. the "Yeltsin affair'. particularly useful.
determined as to where the guilt centrality of the rape scene. It is remains central. Sarah remains brutal and very upsetting - but America. Though The Accused the film ended women cheered normal shit that usually makes does not provide any solutions lies and so her character is not analyse why men rape women that of the stereotyped victim. then rape is. There in one mpe The Accused avoids all the it is not a depressing film. As reported every six minutes in for women who are raped, or about the film because of the violence against the woman main theme, in this film the Many women feel unhappy commercial film shows the true that this scene is long, films like this onbearable. The reality of rape and clapped; for once a Sarah - seen by her lawyer as a bad witness reality of rupe. The relationship between the onlookers of the rape, and ends: Whilst other films about rape to get her story known, But it is consultation with Sarah, agrees Katherine is not very bothered Katherine has all the power the only avenue that Sarah has money, she's articulate, she is up critically ill in hospital that she is forced to take her anger have taken vengeance as the in the relationship - she has endangerment. Legally this denied her chance to speak. to pica-bargain to a lesser meant that the rape never happened, and Samb was only after Sarah has been charge - that of reckless by the case - it is simply confronted by one of the two women is icalistic. Katherine, without any I EW S fact that much of The Accused's make a bad witness because she The Accused is the story of a young working class woman with her boyfriend, goes to a Tame rests on a rape scene leads watched and encouraged by been raped. She is represented by a public prosecutor, a fairly who decides that Sarah would bar for a drink and ends up the rapists just before the rape. producers of Fatal Attraction The strongest aspect of the unsympathetic post-feminist in America. She has a row Despite consistent praise, the women's lives. Stanley Jaffe which was not renowned for you to expect the worst. The was young, attractive, drunk being raped on a pin ball packaging women's rage'. audience but that Sarah has The film is made by the film manages to contradict machine by three men, film is no question for the it's sensitive portrayal of and Sherry Lansing have RE a number of others. Barbara Green Reviewed by The Accused Film, starring and was 'flirting" Jodie Foster bothered to visit the Sovict Onion that the Khmer Rouge are still the "political settlement" at the behest the far left to think that this in the Recent information has shown Pol Pot's forces back in power in for the people of that unfortunate majonty, as he somelimes seems Tarig is too knowledgable about only endorse enthusiastically the and, by inference, wrong to give to the withdrawal of Vietnamese clear, a few words in defence of usefully leam. Its author is quite. an equally enthusiastic response of China and the US which puts Revolution from Above. Having "taking the capitalist road' - but against Emest Mandel. It seems Sovict invasion of Alghanistan, respective countries, as Mandel the radical wing of the socialist Having made our preference pan-Eumpean socialist strategy political sell out, and a disaster think that Gorbachev is simply Yeltsin in the bureaucracy and between these two approacher perestroika/glasnost process - packed with information from to imply. And this journal can Vietnamese troops to oust Pol camped on the Thai border, A several times, Tariq's book is reviewer sides with Tariq Ali which anyone on the left can and Soviet troops from these On one specific point this bone-headed sectarians who to me quite wrong to put the Pot on the same level as the Kampuchea would he a real invasion of Kampuchca by anti-Victnamese guernllas most radical wing in the right - there are a lot of which he outlines in his real force behind the seems to do. conclusion. country. clubs.
Page 29 survive scandal, and retum, after maybe it was just an odd kind of connection, for the effects of the love story. At that level, it was a The film would have been more good evening out, but a missed a decent interval, to public life. successful, perhaps, at drawing unmasking of Rackman led to beneficial legislation which is Stephen Ward to take the rap. figures yet surely the point is There is no nced, today, for a present-day parallels if it had illuminate cither period, then that nowadays most of them made more of the Rackman only today being destryed. If it was not designed to A whiff of sixties Scandal opportunity. context, it is hard to see why the and rain-hats attacking Christine Keeler on the steps of the courts. 1989, it also fails. Yes, there are If it is designed to illuminate If it is designed to illuminate skilled and funny in portraying Ward and his world, with little actions can be seen. Without a forays into Notting Hill, but it does not provide a framework that of women in plastic macs slightly salacious enjoyment? comprehend some scenes like significance of its characters* pohticians and establishment profound, and impossible to effect of the scandal was so superficial level. It is both 1963, it fails except at a casy parallels to current against which the real its villains are. They are the men Scandal, the film of the story they think they can purchase as the meeting of Christine Keeler and provides everything from a their tables with monster glass The film tells the story from fot alleged procuring. li has an Ward's suicide during his trial rood laugh to a sense of moral knows, for the most part, who their lives with young women and Stephen Ward, through to enjoyable sense of the absurd, of the 1963 'Profumo Affair'. phalluses and try to decorate establishment who decorate superiority. But is there any provision of two hours of of a hypocritical British more behind it than the easily. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 14 April 1989 Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, at the dark-spectacled figure unanimously with revulsion of Peter Rackman waddling Michael Caton-Jones, knock a film that can get a packed audience giggling IN A WAY, it's hard to lan McKellen and Felicity Harvest Film directed by with John Hurt, Bridget Fonda Reviewed by into a nightclub. Scandal
CLR James — the Artist CLR £22.95 Hardback, Paul Buhle, Verso £7.90 Paperback as Revolutionary Reviewed by
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 14 April 1989 there was a place for him and his This is not the place to debate him, he is one of the few people reviewer, who has continued to Party towards a realisation of the ulthough he abjures the leninist Realiving Nicrumah's leadership ran up against the stone wall of break with him and publish his concept of the vanguard party. Nkrumah's radical nationalism Nkrumah's regime entered the abilities, he sent him to George cult. James did not hesitate to Jamee and Raya Dunayevscaya radical thoughts in the Fourth considers himself a leninist — thought. In the opinion of the almost completely ahandoned trotskyism. Today James still Padmore for political training. value his personal friendship, proletariat to the revolutioanty alive today that has enriched Trotsky himself, in tuming the James also played a role in introduced by Dunayevskaya. degeneration and personality Despite our differences with marxist theory with original International. We are all the revolutionary potential of the American Socialist Workers process in the United States. then still incipient women's the development of Kwame Nkrumah, to whom he was (Johnson-Forest) were also amongst the first to sce the By this time, Padmore had his influence, together with poorer for his departure. marxism for Pan-African James' differences with nationalism. As a result neo-colonialism. When importance of the black path of bureaucratic Piroduced within be leer fot this apparent in his World Revolution revolution which enabled him to wtite his magnus opus The Black 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of a formative experience for James James was to develop serious In the field of theory, James" Jacobins, the history of the first shes eat but ankle in ely the vicious stalinist campaign of Moscow trials of 1936-8. James had been a marxist for only three Fouth International or the 1936 Further, he ignores what was - his active rolc in combatting our movement has produced, at feared by the stalinists as being most notable contribution was (1937). But it was his grasp of mention James' participation in such as Pollitt and Palme Dutt. contact with trotskysim, James, made full use of his talents. In the founding conference of the was probably the finest orator more than a match for people the Communist International Britain he was the one person Padmore, avoided falling into some of which were already least in the English speaking trotskyists which reached its - and the movement sucessful slave revolt since unlike his old friend George Butle fails completely to slander against Trotsky and Spartacus. If he had never Geneva conference which differences with Trotsky the theory of permanent frenzied peak during the Cricket, art and politics are dialectically inter-related once in the book. the stalinist trap. tour de force. apparent from Buhle's account, which gives the impression that Leader were models of marxist James rose to prominence at struggles in dialectic unity. He the time of the Italian invasion articles in the TLP joumal New Labour Party, he joined the ILP published by Socialist Platform with Al Richardson and others, Marxist Group, In an interview frankly "1 joined the Trotskyist living as cricket correspondent movement", This is not at all fledged marxist at this point. of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). His for the Manchester Guardian. pamphleteering, linking the when he moved to England in Swiftly disilusioned with the in 1933, where he came into James was already a fully- Lancashire and caring his in 1987, James states quite anti-imperialist and class CLR James as he is today contact with the trotskyist marxism in the Trotskyist movement and | leamed 1932, settling in Nelson, It was his observations on the Dustanding players, like Wilton never completed his memoirs or awakened him to the injustices wider literary life really began Charlie Van Gelderen. not undeserved self esteem, his better justice to its subject than autobiography. Even given his St Hill, were left out because become a legend in his own known in cricketing circles fluent pen could not fail to do of colonial rule in his native Wet Tian than si far the time. His home in Brixton It is a pity that James has radicals from all over the as a maverick, This term Trinidad. Mediocre white especially cricket, art and NOW IN HIS 88th year. Trinidad, James became unsabisfactory Marxism in wide-spread interests - a the book under review, by Beethoven and a growing Beyond the Boundary, he because they were white. CLR James has lived to divergent spheres. In the has become a focus for politics are dialectically describe his impact on cricket field which first Shakespeare, Verdi and involvement in politics. reputation, he is still as world. In his youth in could also be used to semi-autohiographical expanded them into an argues that sport, and Now an octagenarian, From an early age, passion for cricket, with a world wide interested in these they were black. the author of the CLR developed Page 30 Marxism. the USA.
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