socialism in the behit of in the first Outlook for inswer: even the most Quiland, the event'# 23 Thatcher » third term on anti-zionism and Socialisa weekend:
a turn to the right whether markctisation of the cconomy was an integral part of the socialist programme for democratisation inside the Soviet Union, and whether the left in general, and revolutionary socialists in particular, should In this In the last issue of Soctalist Outlook we published an article on Gorbachev and the lett' by Oliver MacDonald, one of the editors of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, MacDonald asked not give some sort of critical support to Gorbacher — to become the left wing of Gorbachevism'. Gorbachev - USS R John Arthur series
There is noching wrong in itself with and effectiveness of these deal when bourgeoisic and so can make deals stick. wing governments: they represent the they are done. Paralocital as it may scem, this leads Moscow to prefer right- while reformist governments only show Brezhner went a long way in supporting and Gorbacles is happy to be used to As for the Furopcan CTs. the "Gor- looked to Moscow for an alternative to Morcover. Moscow's policy towards that the bourgeoisie is weak, and threa- ten the possibilny of a crisis which would destabilse peaceful co-cxistence'- Thus Giscard d'Estiny ax French president. Krayan i summit achievement whach will help the Republican candidate in the ground but from under those lefts who the semi-colonial third world follows boos! Thantier's poll ratings and to give the stalinist tradition of sacrificing the and was onc of the last governments to Commenis Party on South African working class for the sake of deals with this or thar bourgeois rigime. Moscow ference in Philippines internal affairs, withdraw recognition from the Marcos tion - an idea which, though it tits with the oider ideas of the South African cions to endorsement of Rotha's "reformi" The Moscow-based exile leadership of the Chilean CP has taken a sharp rurn to SOCAUST OUTLOOK no 5 January February 1988 bachev turn' has strengthened the euro. presenter the fall of Marcos as US inter: regime. On South Africa, the Moscow press has suggested a multiracial federa somely: comes close in present conde- the right, advocating negotiations with Pinochet. The USSR His reduced oil supplies to Nicaragun and (in a move possbie connected with the fact that further contribution to the debate SUE OWEN argues that Gorbachevism, especially viewed through the communist right-wig and the euros political collaper next presidential election, agreements with this or that bourgeois the INF tracy, the result will be a There is noching wrong in itself with a stue making partial diplomatic ful purpose — all the more when, as with stato, or indeed with making military substantial saving of resources and the weapons abandoned have no pracrical military use. The problem comes when moted, and when the march for them leads to policies which demobilise and Fifty vears ago. in the 1930caffer the Nazi coup in Germany, Moscow pur: sued for some time a policy of seeking to get collective security agreements with with a view co protection against Hitler. Both the Spanish revolution and ife mass movement of workers in France were sacrificed by Stalin in pursuit of this policy. When no such deal was Hitler and sacrified the remainder of the illusions in these agrcements are pro: the democrane? bourgeoisie in Europe. forthcoming, Stalin turned to a deal with Europcan working class for the illusory follows this illusory mad in relations with the imperialist powers — seeking "good bourgcos" who will do deal and promoting illisons in che permanence concessions where these serve some use Gorbacher, like Brechner before him, the Polish referendum tells us • glasnost presents limited something important security of the Hitler-Staiin pant. openings' disorient the working class. prism of foreign policy, is a turn to the right. IN FARLY DECEMBER we were trealed to the spoutacle of Mikhail Gorbaches; gencral sccretary of the CPSU, holding an amicable meeling with Margarct bachev signed an agreement to get rid of which the world's press has hailed as a trol. I is not clear, however, that the policy shifts in Moscow, which have made possible both the deal and Gorba- heads, the USSK 1500, The result is weakening western fear of the USSR) Thatcher at Brize Norton and then pro- cecding to Washington to be fêted by fundamental breakthrough in arms con- chev's popularity with the capitalist and with right-wing party arc positive developments for The INF treat has been made possible by the Soviet Icadership offering conces- sion after concessions under the now treary the Us must destros 300 war- very much a partial de-nucicarisation: dy talking of replacing the lost missiles with submarine launched ones. and Reagan i left free to gu ahead with the Us project of ensuring a first-strike Nor does the Soviet leadership's new realism" seema, so far, to be having the that are often claimed for it: after all Thatcher had no difficuley in playing the "red threat card in the June 1987 gen The INF trcaty can be presented as at victory lor the peace movement aglunst the irrationality of the arms race: but its effect scems as likely as not to be a partial demobilisacion of this movement and a return to thr belief that it is possible to Ronald Reagan. Reagan and Gor Margarct Thatcher and others are alrea Icave these questions to the politicians. climinaung capacity through Star Wars! the world's working class. propaganda intermediate eral election:
*abused by revisionist and right-oriented groups" (Guardiar, 5 December) - and: more importantly. Jaruzelski's referen- dum on reforms" in Poland, where a majority of the population either ab- The Polish relerendum also tells us ses in Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia are the direct result of the pursuit, over a substantial period, of the lype of policies now advocated by Gorbachev and his rr-thinkers. Although these policies res- alied in a good deal of loosening up of the repression of the dissident intelli- gentsa, for the wurking class they did not mean greater fredom nf action or control over thr ceonomy. They meant, wage cuts and speed-up and legal and semi-legal repression of working cass something important. The economic cri rather, econome dislocation, price rises. stained or cored against. Trotsky remarked, in Thr Revolution where and always a continuation of Gorbachev's Beneyed, that foreign policy is every- domestic policy, for it is conducted by the same ruling class and pursues the torcign policy tells us something about his domestic policy, which on the surface links carher airactive to much of the His pulicy towards the other workers! states tells us something very important, and that is that glewd is entirely subor- dinate and lunetionally related to peres- S R Cuba is due this year to start repaving its vast Soviet delt) # senior adviser to Gorbachev has made n sharp attack on Moscow's hims that it may respond to us pressure for rapid withdrawal from Atghanistan show a complete lack of interest in any solution to this problem in the interests of the Alghan working class and poor pcasantry, or even in the detonce interests of the USSR: Alghan- istan is purely an irritation and a diplo- Cuban comomic policy and manage
Jaruzelski pur proposals for more of the same to the vole, the rosult was cicar rejection. Tr was resistance to this sort of treform whirt sparked the emergence of Solidarnose in Poland, even if the main Icaders of thr musement cvolved more and more jowards frec-market
Oliver MacDonald argued in the last issuc of Socialis Onlook chac the working
35 itself over and over again to be prepared to pay an astonishingly high econome price for grcater political freedom'. Te would he mire arcurate. copecially in that The Laderships of the working class class tronghont the world has shown the light of the Polish referendum. to say are willing that the workers should pay an extronimarile high economic price for a political treedom' whose principal boncficiery will be the leaders. not the Overall, Gorbachev represents a turn to the right in the policy of the Moscow bureaucracy, as much in its domestic as in its forcign policy. Gleen does pres- cor certain linuired openings for move- ments ofoppusition in the USSR. But the Ief will be lost and separated from the workers, or will mislead them, if it does not start from the firm understanding that the altacks on the working class which are central co the perestrika must be resisted; that the only feasibile social- ism" is one which is based on democratic central planning under the control of the workers, not the Irer play of market mechanisms with limited "social protec- tion: and that reliance on diplomatic deals with sechions of the bourgonsie is a snare and a delusion The only real security for the workers! states against imperialist attack lies in the exlension of the world revolution workers themseives. the talk of 'openness and carning from toila, to the economic reforms'. For all diverse experiences, a policy uf the perestroike type is being imposed from the top down on the castern Europcan bureaucracies, using cconomic pressure. polemnics like those levelled against the Cubans (anil also against the Bulgarian leadership) and all the bureaucratir possesses. In places the results descend into farce, as in the claim by the Coch CP leadership that the Dubeek period was one of the cconomic retorms similar to Corbachev's which, however, were Gorbachev with Reagan — he seeks 'good bourgeois' who will do deals the Sovier A counter-revolutionary internatonal policy has always been one of the most notable features of stalinist. The only distinguishing feature of Gorbache- vise in this respect is the abandonment of the occasional left manoeusres, and limited support for colonial revolutions, which have been a feature of Moscow's forcien policy since the opening of the colil war in 1948. Gorbaches carries to new levels the stalinise tradition of substituting diplomatic arrangements for any attempt to usc the strengths of the workers" states in the interests of the SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 5 January/Februmiy 1998 international workime class. the workers"
Robert Del Tredici, Al mort 1n bomb actempte to answer these bouk. Al cort in Me felds of the the felds of the dumb, Harrap. astonishingly powerful new made? How do they work? weapons? Where are Lies culture WHO MAKES nuclear Roberr Del Trodici's NICK ROBIN Bomb 19:95
our imagination, and that this Del Tredici's proposition ix questions, mosty in pictures. that the frightening power ol nuclear wcapons has frozen
SDCIALISTOUTLOOK no January/February 1989 for at least a hundred thousand pharahs have been there for a. Pause the 'bero", Bessmertis observes: the pyramuds of the mere five thousand vears. Bur nuricar psramd thuse remaur abc a little berter prepared to do contaio the radiarion, your This book did not leave mo over and emotional, yes, But despairing: Utterleworked Tame to cave 10 00T strugule bur the lucure • that's some descendants, isn/t in?" vmins the man who mamaturised the Cherubyl, Sorophages, by the future. 1.168.000.000 searvis remarkable Soviet play about: also the story of uraniutu-238 and is by-products. They. of As the Windscale cover-up: becomes public, AlimE in thr 15 nuclear arscmal? cen it as the hall-life of uranium 230, fields of the bowed has an coric course, have one hill of a science correspondont of Del Tredict informs us: topicality. In a recent something. What we wanted so failed, this book, tur thanks to The Juture! The muelear age make happened in he designed possible" — Tbeodore Tavior. sinister, others matter-of-fact, others extremely moving — al - some makers/'We wanted to make the quality of the images and bas robbed us ol our capacity the story of the bombrand its to imagine one. For if thisis to kill as mariv people as their curelul mixture succeeds and accurate to hang on to as it imagination something graphic After all, whar do you think of And it works. Del Treditils: accompanying connients and wishes to add some new basic when you thunk of the bonh? It's unlikcly that you think , writes Del Tredici, strives to come to terms with interviews chable us to make produce the nuclcar arsenal sec rhe preparations for cur Perlaus you draw a blank? secrecy surrounding bomb own extermination, und to A mushrom aloud? A city protagonists, Ir could have images of the bomb to our frecze is reinderced by the limited visual vocabulary, production. He therefore atreaking across the sky?. of the factories that mass that leap of imagination turned to ash? Missiles is to give the collective and all is wares. "My Tisten to some of the the bomb's realiry: phorographs and purpose, 36
Sadako. Sadako was 2 years old when the bomb dropped and 12 years old when she Shigeo, holds a portrait of their doughter contracted leukemia. She did not wish to die. She refused all medication and took Left: Fujiko Sasaki, beside her husband tiny birds before she died.
Year Pointer Trist in the water to the left of the tent.
37 was at Los Alamos the night they bombed Hiroshima, This Meet Sam Cohen, the 'father of the neutron bomb'. Sam is what he saw: 'the scientists were a bunch of howling savages, ebullient beyond imagination, as pleased as punch at what they'd accomplished'. powder, b) incinerate it, c) sell if to Egypt. - contaminated with cesium 137 Cheche 50 tons ride Me chil government has tried to: a) bury the Prom Chernobyl. The tavarian SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no5 Jummy/f-mom1988
Presbyterian sermon on a dank For the political calvinisrs — BOB PENNINGTON Fariq Ali, Street Fighang Years: Sunday evening, Tang Ali s FiRsT. Thad beter sound a Street Fighting Years in not fir warning If you prefer your and we have more than cur politics dished up like a Collins £11.95. you.
Ir's far too anerdoral. Ir is very: written in a racey style that the personalived. And it commits conimits all the crimes going. Share un the left — this book the greatest sin of all, it is
never seen ur been part of mass was possible But he still knows There is another reason he is social and political revolt ticis sinner who is at peace with his waat surely is coming again • qualified to write much a book the power of Lie international opunusu, than the cowardly cautiousness that cornes from Sher all he ican атерептепт nothing but contempt for his class struggic. It will remand Horowiz and Rege Debray children of 68 and the prict read. Ir will remind them of faults ul revolutionary over- them of whar was ther, and rhat it is hetter to suffer the who have male their pence For the youth who have gendrations il is niso to be nid romrades like David ideological past and has a book to read. For the accommodating lo the established under. with imperialism An unrepentant rebel Ver, his impatience for quick Tania is in a unique position marxists ulten got carried away many nider militants restoring coninutment to socilism, and results has now been tempered wuke hundreds and hundreds inspired. They re-invigorated breaking down their isolation of that period drew into their of thousands of young people te chronicle those vears. 1le. But not just the young were exploited and the oppressed knows that our desires often those that arguel that what obscured our vision of what more than anvohn, was the spokesperson in Britain for hy an understanding of the errors we all made in those on a cloud of euphuria. He controntation between the years. He appreciates the and capital and its social their confidence in their democratic hungers on. mattered most was the socialism a 'human fice. Ticte democratic counterparts. Onor stalinist bureaucracies 0 morc Animals and The Beatles were again the tocsin of change was Ireedom, than die their social vibraril. Above all, the events ringing out across continents. affreted, ir hoosterl and aided at their most iconoclastic and immune from questiobing or Little or notbing renamed family. Tr was the time when Czechoslovakia tried to give In the name year in an al criticism. Social mores were education and even the holy workers and intellectuals in barricades went up in the precepts.of.rhc bourgcois emanciparion, its effects the Rolling Stones, Thri was a reminder that the too brief Prague spring, spoke for sucialism and the fight for women's reacher into the arts. streets ol Paris Brando, the North Vietnamese: quiescence in the western world against the unconquerable" US average Mary or Toc Soap ca reminiscences gives rhe book a threatening to reshape society: When the author recalls his mectings and discussions with premiere: Pham van Dong, as all sides of the social spectrum imperialists, but knocking the offensive burst into our living: rooms. Before our own. olter French workers came out in a courtesy of television the Ter well as Malcolm X and John insight into how people from Vietnamese liberation forces such diverse personalitics as hell out of them, Just across that narrow stretch of water understand. Yet its sryle of After 20 years of relative not only were lighting back reacted to events that were Bertrand Russell, Marion Tennon you are given an Europe, in May 1968 thc that divides Britain from journalistic and political the 1960% exploded: By general strike and thr incredulous cycs, the particular quality
Jonuary/February 1988 SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 5 38
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'Afterwards when we have won (as we will) or instead when we will estahlish that the eyidence. failed then it was impossible to shows. if we succeeded, that it was impossible to fail, or if we as Brich has