Stalinism's terminal crisis SUPPLEMENT her und heute lg * HELMUT KOHL
last legs It survives only through hureaucratic inertia in Cuba North Korca and South Fast Asia, as well as Why communism is far from finished dire example of Poland stares them in the face, with its programme of privatisation and cap in-hand appeals By Harry Sloan over Eastern Europe, but the spirit The spectre of capitalism bangs of class struggle is also being
was never "For marxists, "communism' synonymous with the corrupt, grey, bureaucratic progressive foundation - nationalised Though based on a historically tiny Albania: it required last year's Beijing massacre to keep control in however. "communism" was never synonymous with the compt, grey, bureaucratic police regines established by stooge "Communist Parties" under Stalin's armed might after the defeat of Ger- man imperialism in World War Two Police regimes marxists, For China. Arrogant capitalists sponsor new. road which could transfom their countries into dependent sweatshops wester industrialists minning alongade growing povelty, starvation and unemployment for the working immediately corrupt, right wing par- positionists in East Europe down a with the exploited status of under- developed Asian, African and Latin American capitalist states Against the pressure for capitalist restoration lies and cynically beckon ormer up- class: 5 must now surely have to change its *Communism" Is pronounced wing press, hut also by the new forces ing journals like Marxism Today nther fonner "Communist pouties renewed as a new workers" move. dead, not only in the exultant right catupultert into power after the col Tapse of stalimist regames, and by (which, like the Italian and many deleutist elements on tie left includ ment has sprung to life. name!}
armed might police regimes established under Stalin's after World War Two" Page 13 owners, and working to a form of workers" state. Though the proletariat grotesque deformed parodies of a than regimes were never more than was notionally the ruling class, and and not private ownership of produc- tion, after the eradication of the rem- nants of the old capitalists and lanc linked to a capitalist market" - these there was a complete break from im- centralised planning rather So are the bourgeois Idcologists In the narrow, superficial sense in which the mass media use the term - as a shorthand expression for the burcaucratised, stalinist regimes of Easter Europe - then, if not quite dead. "communism' is certainly on its there appears lintle or no coherent right? Is communism dead? mass socialist resistance, SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 23, April 1990 are urged to 'reform" themselves along cupitalist lines, even while the Bankrupt East Faropen regimes: five: yet in Britain all the indicators • huge popular revulsion against Thatcher and the free market We we lectured on all sides on the view that reform has now triumphed over revolution: the "market" over the plan; the individual over the collec- capitalism she epitomises. show a huge show
With no confidence in the work: ing class, these left Jeremiahs jom ments of the bourgeoisic, exaggerat- ing the extent to which a harrage of capitalist propaganda, access to glitzy West Berlin shops and a wild fling of savings ran out) can override the rule that they would prefer to ex- hands with the most optimistic ele- material circumstances of the work- ing class and make them cager advo change it for a new proletariat? ganization, and those leaderships which have altempled to accomodate This kind of political adaptation to stalinism must Ingically lead ou to working class in Eastern Europe. In Poland, the Solidamose government is today leading the bureaucracy's disastrous austerity drive against the working class: does this mean it was closer to 'socialism" than those who fought for workers" self-or questioning the past struggles of the the demands of the mass movement. SUPPLEMENT perialist economic and military allian- held more than a tokenistic pretence the political and economic collapse of these regimes banal as branding the collapse and defeat of the last Lubour government in Britain as the definitive defeat of "socialism'. It may make handy head- lines, but it does little to enlichten the ces, the working class was never al- lowod to organise itself, and never with the defeal of communism is as what is actually of politicul power.
Few socialists would defend the stalinist view that to defend "socialismi the masses must be denied democracy and forcibly contained in a "workers' paradise, A socialism im- Some socialists, however, would disagree, They believe that the working class itself has already suffered a qualita- tive defeat as a result of the crumbling of stalinist mic,
Yet for marxists the key issue 1s The logic of such an approach is cumstances in which this cnuld necur which could he scen as a weakening fering at least a temporary advantage to pro-impenalist and restorationist. the liheration of the working class, and the extent to which struggles mobilise the workers, enabling them Such a dynamic threatens not only stadinist rule, but also the rule of stalinist burcaucracy - for whatever rcason - is scen pendent rule for the working class in the west or (especially) the cast, hut also ignores the squalid history of perialist and anti capitalist struggles to rejoct the Trotskyist position of fighting for a working class-led politi- cal revolution that would overthrow the bureaucracies and replace them with orguns of prolelaman power - since there have never heen cir- without a profound political upheaval of the 'anti-imperialist' camp, and of- to leam politically in mass action. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 23, April 1990 posed on the masses is not socialism ar all. Yet still some on the left are led inexorably towards a view, seeing the world divided into just two counterposed blocs' - imperialism on perialists (including the stalinist regimen) on the From this: standpoint. weakening of the as a weakening of the proach not only excludes any inde- stalinist political sabotage of anti-im- struggle. This ap- from the 1930s to the present day. crude "campert" anti-imperialist collapsing politically into the arms of socialists are so disappointed at the idcologically imperfect working class crealed by four decades of stalinist to support the millions of defied repression and fught under the Solidamose hanner lo throw off we turn our heads against some of their leaders, too, may later niove to that the mass movements in Easter socialiste: hut it does not follow that because they are not, we should fall into the trap of implicitly prettifying old stalinist regimes. When would be marxists lament the exodus of East Germans to West Germany since the Wall was opened, or com- plain at the pace at which the GDR - stripped of its police-state rigidity - is Helmut Kohl, they should also say whether they want to see the Wall rebuilt, or a revived Honecker-style regime resume its repression of the struggles because Polish workers who ten ycars ago the yoke of burcaucratic rule? Should Obviously all marxists would wish Europe were headed by revolutionary Demanding democracy in Moscow today's workers" The problem with this pessimistic, writes off any independent role for the working class, and today fies in workers aspirations, It assumes that Such socialisty, who draw no en- old repressive regimes ure forced lo ignore or play down the decisive role of mass working class action in removing their hated stalinist rulen - most significantly in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. They wind up stalinist regimes - or indeed the con- servalive Ligachey wing of the Soviet bureaucracy - which have maintained the leaviest repression of the working class, and made least changes in the are somehow implicitly suggesting that those bureaucracy, under the hanner of simplistic view of today's East European events is that it effectively the face of most East Europcan these workers will simply do as they are lold by the westem bourgeoisie, acting an unwitting dupes, urging on courgement run the ousting of the the drive to capitalist restoration. imperialism. Such notions British left which, since the USSR, have leaned towards the stalinist political view of the world. We saw evidence of this in 1980-81, in the equivocal or openly hostile Line taken by many on the Labour left, including let MPs; and by leaders like towards the strugeles of the characterise as a victory for prevail in sections of the days of the Cold War forced the lahour movement to "take sides betwoen the USA and direction of "glasnost" Scurgill in the Honecker-style exodus of East since the Wall West Germany repression of was opened, whether they the working rebuilt, or a want to see they should Germans to lament the resume its would-be marxists the Wall also say revived regime class" "When Page 14
SUPPLEMENT mon than the class stood ax the science of class struggle - and revolu- politics, remain valid so long as revolution remains the only solution ever lo have succeeded in Nothing in the recent East European events has has not been superceded struggle has come to a halt: Marxism - propery under- productive forces Expanding the gop and perialism. capitalism breaking tionary uny among capitalism: the indecent haste of the West German bourgeoisie to speed through unification is motivated at Least in part by the anxiety to head off however, there is still a problem to be answered. It is clear that even though an immediate, full-scale restoration of capitalism is not feasible throughout setting their sights on driving much Inroads into the any further radicalisation and the pois- sibility of a new, mass, democratic IF we cast aside the hype, and ig- responses, Eastem Europe, the capitalists are Rolling backwards? sncialist current emerging the knee-jerk German workers. deeper private поле
Capiralism developed as proletariat, owning nothing other than its labour power, finds itself geoisie, in whose hands are the privately-owned means gued that such a system questioned the basic marx- ing society is the history of the most simplified expres gles, in which the property: exploited by the hour- Marx and Engels ar history of all hitherto exist- sion of these class strug Ist propusition that of production. tionals, it certainly does appear that nationalised economies. They want to exploit a vast pool of well educated yet cheap labour, and to maximise the market for consumer goods, In a more gecisie is also hoping to demolish the Warsaw Pact, leaving NATO powers parties change names, ditch leaders, drop program- mes, lose members hy the thousand and face virtual extinction at the polls, and as yesterday's monolithic global sense, the imperialist bour- "workers" states' urge in the multina the wheel of history is rolling back- wards, Do these developments sug- As 'Communist' ascendant in Europe.
between rich poverty line, rampant the idea that population a-widening gap homelessness, *With a third of below the and poor, and problems of the British As the productive forces advance and expand, their potential to create commoditics comes into conflict with the quest for profit - the limitations tion-state and small enterprise. Lenin went beyond Marx to develop an analysis of the drive to monopoly, to finance, and the dominance of the banks and finance have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduc- tion becomos a life and death ques- of the market, restrictions of the ma- tion for all civilised nations... (Communist Manifexto) multi-national the bourgenis epoch from all carlier dynamic which forces the capitalists to continuously develop the produc tive forces in pursuit of competitive advantage and super profits. The Communist Manifesto might almost be writlen about Thatcherism when il production, uninterrupted disturbance al all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, venerable prejndices and opinions are swept away, all new-formed ones he- revolutionising lions - among which is a Contained huge contradic- with their train of workers" movement, is now really Should all marxists ape Marxism No. The very fact that some socialists have such a rosy view of the "popularity" of capitalism reflects their remoteness from the problems (and political views) of large sections of the working class. With a third of the British population cxisting at or below the poveity linc, an ever- widening gap between rich and poor. gest that