Adios, Tariq Ali! grew stouter..' Tariq All addressing Socialist Outlook rally in happier days bish? his death bed, Ezra had a 'partial- rades. Tariq knows very well that the accidental fact of their Jewish ly erect member'), there is an un- class in these days of retreat and tion to sexual activities (even on Jewishness of many of the com- Apart from the undue atten- births played little or no part in the political or social life of the his reputation and the goodwill would have given the working above. Why did Tariq Ali risk This is the sort of message Ring out than ever before. which an Engels or a Trotsky So now we have to try to answer the question we pose necessary emphasis on the leaders of the movement. defeat. Europe and the Soviet Union. He counter-revolutionary restoration quotation from Goethe, the last Take up thy life once more: In thine own bosom build it refuses to believe that the reel resistance from the proletariat. dimmed as is illustrated by his is taking place without violent car run backward', and that a letter to his daughter, with the Ezra's optimism remains un- Great child of the Earth Let a lovelier stream Run the race again! sex, most people on the a more dubious type of the dramatis personae, Of course, the book the leader of the World politicos who will read described might attract author seems to have a haired editor. Even the this book to see if they is 'obsessed with sex'. editorial committee of love hate relationship, home truths. As Ezra, Eastern Europe is not have been included in character in the book, With a finer worth Despite the change of left will recognise the Party surveys what is verse of which reads: editorial collective of happening in Eastern Ezra, with whom the contains some bitter the thinly disguised High and clear prematurely white- Apart from the Even the chief Build it again, Build it again, New Life Journal. Labour Focus on the sexual antics on high SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 28, November 1990 spared. reader. satire is not one of them. There is women are portrayed sympatheti- known up till now, as to be al- now. He has become a media per- His current production Rear Win- prestige productions which could timer will know who the descrip- tion, to which we shall return, Tariq is riding very high right was an excellent introduction for cow Gold currently staged by the 'groupuscles' and the strange be- haviour of their eccentric leaders thirties, and the 'four-lines-only- a touch of understatement. Tariq every character is a gross carica- a soft spot for Renard, who tried most unbelievable. The ques- one. It is best when applied with ture of the original. Some of the cally, and Tariq appears to have recognise most of the characters never have been written. It is The art of satire is a difficult dow is well worth watching. He no subtlety in this book. Nearly RSC at the Barbican. These are Trotsky by co-operating with a This is a book which should problems of the "Third World". is gifted with many talents, but is joint author of the play Mos- fascism' was applied to in the But now we have Redemp- who is not eccentric or worse. in the book. Who, but an old- - and there is not one of them dung File which he co-edited sonality. The TV series, Ban- tion. This is supposed to be a Only the cognoscenti will satire on Western Trotskyist tion 'the twin evils, war and only enhance his reputation. so out of character of the to raise finance to support Tariq Ali the world has Western audiences to the is why did he write it? per-page-of-foolscap*? Gelderen prostitutes' collective.
Phil Hearse, writing in Socialist Outlook 27, sets out to refute the state-capitalist ing form his own argument, namely Marx's concept of alienated labour. East and West, workers are alienated not only from the and creativity, considerations of health and safety are overridden by the drive for If the workers have no control over There is however, something essential lack- products of their labour but from the activity of labour itself; work is drained of interest productivity, and a hierarchy of supervisors production or the state, by what logic can analysis as "a theory that lacks something". OUTLOOK SOCIALIST and managers exists to discipline them. What power to the workers? REVIEWS/LETTER the Tories came to office with less votes than The irony is that Labour would gain an are currently lost due to tactical voting in seats enormous number of votes under PR which Hands up for PR Vladimir Derer of CLPD: like many on the Labour left, he opposes PR Proportional Representation By Richard Kuper Published by Electing for Democracy: and the Left. Terry Conway
inflicted by the forced collectivisation of societies like Russia or China be regarded as degenerate or deformed workers' states? Only by making a fetish of state ownership and planning, as if these were enough to transcend capitalism, irrespective of the real relations of production as experienced by the bureaucracy is driven, by its position in the global system, to accumulate capital, offers no explanation for the enormous suffering agriculture and the Stakhanovite speed-up under Stalin, or the corresponding policies in Mao's China, the 'People's Communes' and workers in the factories and farms. As the Tories have gerrymandered the con- stituency boundaries still further, the days of Labour winning general elections on under 40% of the vote are gone. It could now never win an election without a massive 45% of the vote. Its extra votes under PR would push it government, Richard Kuper The type of wholesale transformation of where Labour comes third, and complacency reminds us, 'depends first and foremost on the degree of mobilisation of popular forces in up to the magic 50% barrier. where its victory is assured. support of radical change.' Yet the whole electoral system is rotten. members. This relic from our imperialist priority for many left wing Labour Party past, which we also foisted on the USA, Defence of the indefensible First past somehow sacrosanct to socialists who the post' electoral system is a strange Reviewed by Davy Jones India, New Zealand, and Canada, is will happily condemn 'bourgeois Socialist Society, £3.95. democracy.
Russia), by exploiting the labour power of the 'Great Leap Forward". All of this was an attempt to catch up with and overtake the West (or in Mao's case, both the West and the masses to the utmost. The failure to catch with the more advanced capitalist countries, together with the popular rebellion against dictatorship and poverty, lies behind the recent downfall of the 'Communist The concept of state-capitalism is by no means exclusive to the SWP, nor did it originate with Tony Cliff. It seems that a number of marxists, seeking to understand the transformation of the Russian revolution regimes of Eastern Europe. originate with Tony tion of a real popular majority. PR would critique of the existing electoral system and a handy guide to the numerous different types society which socialists seek is not going to be Our critique of the new realists is that they can neither introduce socialism nor win elec- tions. To do both now requires the mobilisa- Kuper's book is the best available short of proportional representation on offer - some Richard Kuper opts for a variant of the West German system, combining a vote for an individual in a constituency, with a second of which are as bad as 'First past the post'. sneaked in unnoticed past the electorate. help, not hinder that goal. There are no national assemblies for Scotland and Wales. There is no regional democracy. The Crown, the Church and the unelected The proportions of women and Black MPs are ment can manipulate its prerogative in calling (The Chartists called over 100 years ago for direct workers democracy, which Marxists have traditionally claimed to be a higher form According to Labour left mythology, Lords all have unjustified political powers. a disgrace. Thatcher has shown how a govern- elections, which can be up to five years apart. annual parliaments.) This is a long way from representation of democracy.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 28. November 1990 into its opposite, arrived at the category inde- pendently. Natalia Sedova Trotsky employed the term with regard to both Russia and China just before her death in 1962. However the first analysis based on an actual study of the Russian economy in the Stalin years was Russia as State- Capitalist Society, written by Raya Dunayevskaya (under the Richard Abernethy, Oxford pen name of Freddie Forest) in 1942. vote for a party in a regional constituency, from these regional lists with quotas for issue will not go away. Given the legacy of with Parliament topped up proportionally Labour conference has shown that the PR Stalinism the left cannot afford to concede the The left has nothing to gain by clinging on to an outdated, undemocratic and corrupt elec- ground of democracy to the liberal centre. women and Black candidates. governments, coalitions, no accountability of MPs and no more Labour Governments! All times with Communist Party support, have von an absolute majority of votes under proportional representation more than a dozen In Britain Labour, because of the votes of a parties, would almost certainly have won an absolute majority of seats not just in 1945, but also in 1951 when In Europe, social democratic parties, some times across seven different countries. of this is superficial rubbish. number of small left Page 32
CLPD's position. The main one concerns our Contrary to what Pete says, CLPD always recognised that registration was a device to casions. We rejected the NEC's proposal for Conference; campaigning within the Party, The article by Pete Firmin (Outlook 27) attack Militant and said so on many oc- a register and fought against it, but were un- able to stop it being carried by Conference CLPD has based its effective work over may years on the sovereignty of the Party's through constitutional channels, to reverse those decisions with which we disagree. I contained several misrepresentations response to the Register in the early '80s. CLPD misrepresented (1982). making any concessions to the brutality of I read with interest Phil Hearse's article on the SWP's theory of state capitalism (Socialist Outlook 27). I hope your readers will dip into the articles under review and make up their own hearing. We are not a supporting act for those Therefore, we ought to be clear. Without Hussein's regime, if it comes to a war, we should be on the side of Iraq. Socialist Out- look accepts this, but then totally undermines itself on a badly thought-out position over Counter-Revolutionary party? LETTERS Ged Peck, Luton minds on the subject. two murderers. Kuwait. All socialists ought to recognise that this is It appears that Socialist Outlook now sup ports a "pull-out' of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. particularly keep them brief! Letters any subject: but please Outlook, PO Box 1109, We welcome letters on over 400 words will be cut. Send to Socialist London N4 2UU and Iraqi Troops out? misguided completely
would have expected Pete to have agreed with this disciplined form of political prac- tice! Instead Pete infers that CLPd should destroying its credibilty in the process. And for what? Although it is very flattering, it is to suggest that the NEC's determination to get rid of Militant would have been affected in any way by what have behaved in an adventurist way, totally By 1983 (when CLPD registered) the Left were already on the retrat. CLPD had a strategy for minimising this retreat that would also have defended Militant. This involved campaigning for the constitutional recogni- tion of groups within the Party, subject to conditions acceptable to the majority of Party CLPD did over registration. complete nonsense However, I would like to comment on the normally associated with this journal and its tack on the working class...' But capitalism in the West has to constantly restore itself through miner or steelworker in Britain will be able to The position always associated with this only be restored in Eastern Europe through a As I write this letter, I am watching a counter-revolution live on my television screen, absence of any mention of the opposing theory Phil writes, '...capitalism can only be res- tored [in Eastern Europe] through a massive at- attacks on the working class. Any journal, as I understand it, is the capitalism can counter-revolution. predecessors. massive dangerous at a time when this is the central demand of US imperialism and its cohorts. First, it ignores the real, current, situation by posing things in an abstract even-handed manner. By arguing for withdrawal, this means accepting US domination. There is no other choice realistically available at the mo- ment, therefore, socialists should oppose such Second, it implies (even if it is rejected elsewhere in the article), that US imperialism nificance. This is nonsense. Imperialism is a system of monopoly capitalist domination, different. Undoubtedly, Hussein would like to be the Middle East's main imperialist power, and the Iraqi invasion are of the same sig- and in that sense the US and Iraq are totally The reasons are simple. calls.
We are researching material for a book on the history of post-War British Trotskyism. If anyone has any information about any part of Fimin's article Labour's Witch-hunt this period, written or verbal, please get in ticularly keen to interview comrades who were active in the Trotskyist movement in the ested; preferring the usual, mindless, 'all or 2643 or send material c/o Socialist Outlook. We are par- members. Unfortunately a section of the Left, particularly the sectarian left, were not inter- nothing' approach. Predictably they turned what should have been an orderly retreat into Pete Wilisman, CLPD touch with us on 081 802 Help on History escalates', in the last issue of Socialist Outlook was timely. It correctly argued that Fighting all aspects of the witch-hunt is an act of basic solidarity, and took up those tendencies on the and a very strange counter-revolution it is too. ing champagne corks as workers in East (and If capitalism has been restored through the ballot box in East Germany, perhaps capitalism can be got rid of in this country in the same way Not the sound of gunfire but the sound of poop- Clive Hopkins, Islington SWP West) Germany celebrate re-unification. Mention the Mention! - via the Labour Party perhaps? but this is far removed from any reality with Third, the worse scenario (along with a war) is the re-establishment of the USA's be detrimentally affected would be the wider domination of the region. Those who would Arab working class. A US victory would un- doubtedly give people like Mubarak a lifeline Additionally, it would not assist the Iraqi working class at all who would then have a financially powerful nation dominating them; another reason for opposing any concessions Fourth, I would guess that the majority of Arab workers throughout the Middle East don't so much love Hussein, but certainly hate respect to imperialism's financial function. (not to mention the al-Sabah family). over the Kuwaiti situation.
Page 33 SOCIALIST OUTLOOK Sam Inman and Kate Ahrens early part of this period. Many thanks Haringey left who have placed conditions on the defence of those victimised or have failed to respond Unfortunately the valid political criticism of tually incorrect statement that 'Militant..has not Militant did in fact carry a brief five paragraph article in its 31 August issue opposing the witch- hunt of SO. Too little, too late, certainly; but it was published ten days before your final copy date of September 10. Socialist Outlook should Militant, in particular, is coupled with the fac- witch-hunt against SO. adequately to the attack on Socialist Organiser. publish a correction and/or explanation. Keith Sinclair, Hull even mentioned the SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 28, November 1990 the Americans, and would not like to see a US victory. It is the duty of socialists to stand taken in by Hussein's propoganda. I suggest you try pushing the 'withdrawal' notion in Amman, or Cairo (not to mention Baghdad) alongside those workers who are genuinely and see how far you get with workers who Fifth, for socialists to accept withdrawal tion. That is the argument that is dominant among workers in Britain and America; the other political qualifications would not get a gives credence to Thatcher and Bush's posi- opposed to imperialism, even if know what the US is about!
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suffered deprivation caused by the strike but they have been attacked by Inkatha vigilantes with been involved in argircultural and health projects, a T-shirt making workshop and producing plays Birmingham and Sheffield, but venues are still to be In 1985, 1000 workers at Britsh Tyre and Rubber factory were sacked after a two day strike for union recogntion. This is the longest running strike in South African history. Not only have the workers In response to the hardship they have suffered they established a workers co-operative, which has Nov 20 Link Community Centre, Cumbernauld, Nov 24(12.30-1.30) STUC Marquee, George Sq, Glasgow (7.30 - late) Club Mandela, Maryhill, The tour will then be visiting Nottingham, Nov 23 George Sq Theatre, Edinburgh Bambatha's Children started touring Britain in October and will be here till December Nov 22 Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling Nov 27 Hammersmith Town Hall Nov 26 Greenwich Town Hall .... in Solidarity with the BTR Sarmcol Struggle Nov 29 Lambeth Town Hall Nov 28 Camden Town Hall confirmed Glasgow Nov 8 Peterborough Sports and Social Club Nov 17 Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne Nov 13 Doncaster (venue to be confirmed) Nov 1 Slaithwaite Civic Hall, Hudersfield Nov 16 Durham (venue to be confirmed) Nov 10 Ipswich Caribbean Assocaition Nov 15 Buddle Arts Centre, Wallsend Nov 6 Winding Wheel, Chesterfield, Nov 9 Corn Excange, Cambridge, Nov 3 Leeds Trades Club, Leeds Nov 7 Victoria Hotel, Lowestoft Nov 11 Norwich Labour Club over 150 workers murdered. of which this is the third.
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