Harry Ratner -Reluctant (Socialist Platform £5.95) Reviewed by Charlie van Gelderen HARRY RATNER sub-titles his autobiography Reluctant Revolutionary -but there was nothing reluctant about his activities during his nearly thirty years in the Trotskyist movement in Britain and France.
Whether working clandestinely with the French Trot> skyists at the start of the Second World War, propaganda work in the armed forces, active militant in the trade union movement during the late 1940s and 1950s - there was nothing reluctant in the energies with which he threw himself into the movement.
It was not reluctance which got him re-elected, year after year, as a shop steward in the AEU or in the leading role he played in the strikes and protests against redundancies in the textile machinery industry. Harry Ratner was one of the most successful leading Trotskyist militants in the industrial field.
Feverish
It was precisely this record of almost feverish activities, in the trade unions, in the Labour Party, in France and Britain which was to led to his eventual disillusionment.
As he sums it up in his postscript:
"In terms of its own perspectives and of the tasks it set itself the Trotskyist movement is no nearer achieving its goals in 1993 than it was. at its inception.
"Despite all their valiant efforts and occasional successes, all the Trotskyist groups have remained marginal to events. This is true not only of Britain but worldwide.
"Nowhere, except for short periods in Argentina, Bolivia and Ceylon, and perhaps Indochina, have Trotskyist parties come anywhere near becoming a significant force in the working class movement."
His experiences in the Trotskyist movement - the endless splits and factionalism, only fed his growing pessimism about the prospects for the revolutionary movement as a whole.
None of the attempts to explain away the failures of the movement - the treachery of social democracy, the Stalinist misleaders of the working class, the weakness and fragmentation of the revolutionary forces or other 'secondary' factors, give satisfactory answers.
He asks "why have the social democrats and Stalinists, despite their repeated 'betrayal' and 'exposures' - correctly foretold by the Trotskyists - still been able to maintain the support of larger masses of workers than have the Trotskyists, despite their 'correct' policies?"
Not revolutionary He comes to the conclusion that, whether we like it or not, the working class is not as revolutionary as the Marxists have posited.
Despite the 'revolutionary situations' in post liberation Italy and France, France 1968, Portugal in the 1970s and other sharp situations, reformist policies have found a deeper echo within the working class - the mass of the working class have remained attached to reformism and impervious to revolutionary ideology.
They want higher wages, better housing, good education for their children today, not socialism tomorrow.
Whether one agrees with the author's view or not, this is an important book.
Here, as Peter Fryer writes in his introduction, with *roughness, pimples and everything', is a true picture of what it was like to be an active Trotskyist in the years between 1936 and 1960.
If, one day, the Trotskyist movement plays a more significant role in the labour movement than it has hitherto, the 'reluctant' activities of Harry Ratner and others who have travelled the same path, will have significantly contributed to that.
WHAT'S happening in Cuba? reportback from Cuba Solidarity Campaign brigade. 7.30pm Old White Horse, 261 Brixton Rd SW9 Thurs 8 BEYOND the Famished Road: new policies for common security Public meeting with Alan Simpson MP Janet Bloomfield (CND) and Bruce Kent (Pax Christi) 1.00pm (refreshemnts 12.30) Jubilee Room House of Commons SW1 details: 0602 582506 Sat 10 LIBERATION! committee meeting 11am London The tasks of such groups are clear - raising finance to pay strike pay, joining picket lines and raising public awareness of the issues behind the dispute.
In the current climate this has not proved hard. For instance, the RMT Southern District has already organised tours of dozens of union branches with RMT speakers, a number of public meetings and meetings for railworkers and mass leafleting at mainline stations.
Nearly £5,000 has been raised in two months, pickets organised at a number of major signal boxes, and this week saw a successful march through The RMT left, through the Campaign for a Fighting RMT Southern District Council Jimmy Knapp, Jeremy Corbyn, John Tilley (RMT EC ON THE ROAD to Parkside photo exhibition in support of women's pit camp appeal 10am-4pm Working Class Movement Library, The Cresent, Salford. Sun 11 ARAfest anti-racist festival with Galliano, Fun^da^mental, General Levy and China Black. 12 noon to 6pm Victoria Park, London E3 Liberation! and Socialist Outlook sellers meet 12 noon at Mile End tube SUMMER PICNIC and games 12 noon Kensington Gardens by Peter Pan statue (Lancaster Gate tube) with West London Socialist Outlook £5/£3/children free includes food Democratic Union, has organised a rally at the Trade Union Congress, and forced Knapp to organise an official TUC rally as well. The Congress must act as the springboard for activity across the country, to culminate in a TUC organised national march.
Broadened
The dispute must be broadened to involve other railworkers and RMT members. Other disputes must be brought to a boil. The imposition by LUL of a 2 per cent pay award opened up one such possibility. Even if LUL management now retreat this dispute must be taken forward.
Directly flowing from the London Rally POLITICS OF SPORT day conference 10.30am-5pm University of London Union WC1 for deatails fax: Labour Briefing on 081 985 6785 Sat 17 SMTUC Steering Committee INTERNATIONAL Workers' Aid Steering Committee. Sun 18 WELFARE State Network initial planning meeting 12 noon-4pm Conway Hall Red Lion Square WC1 Sat 24/Sun 25 COVENTRY Conference: towards a working class politics 10am-4pm Barras Green Social Club Coventry Street CV2 cost £4/£1 details 051 260 9273 Sun 25 LABOUR Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights NC WORLD day of action against McDonald's and National Free Speech day details 071 837 7557 signal workers' strike the issue of health and safety on strike days needs to be taken up. Despite many near misses and dangerous incidents railworkers have been told by the RMT and ASLEF that they can only stop work if in imminent danger. This is not good enough.
We need to see a campaign to win action to halt work on strike days, led from the top. Drivers, guards and other railworkers with trackside duties are clearly frustrated that they BOB SMITH Memorial Fund book launch and dinner 7.30 South Camden Community School entrance by advance ticket purchance only. Send £12 (£7 students/UB40) to 'Bob Smith Memorial Fund', PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU by 15 October.
Small Ads 20p per word (minimun ten words) semi display £3.00 per column centimetre. Special offer three issues for the price of two. Larger ads by negotiation. All copy should reach here by first post Friday and must be accompanied by full payment and phone number (for verification). 'FASCISM AND MARXISM BETWEEN THE WARS' resource pack used at last month's Socialist Outlook Summer School. includes fascist programes and articles by Gramsci, Mussolini and Trotsky. Send £1 cheque/PO payable to 'Bob Smith Memorial Fund' to PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. HOUSESHARE large room in spacious three-bedroom are being told to work.
So far there have been only isolated incidents of individuals refusing to work but if encouraged and defended broader action is possible.
Refusing to work on grounds of safety is legally defensible. The union should be prepared to take the risk of calling on all its members to take such action. We need a campaign in the depots to coordinate that now.
We have to make it clear what we will do if Railtrack QUESTAS MOs house London N4 all amenities £67 pw tel: 081 292 7079.
FOLK music cassette by songwriter Pauline Bradley. Send £5 cheque payable to 'Bob Smith Memorial Fund' to PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU.
ACTIVISTS from the '70s & *80s. Are you wondering what to do with your old files of political leaflets, magazines and books? Socialist Outlook needs your historial material for its archive and your unwanted books and magazines for the education of a new generation of political activists. Please contact Outlook sellers in your city, or write to us at PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU.
BOSNA! A film by BernardHenri Levy on at the ICA, The Mall, SW1Y until Friday 9 September at 16.30, 18.45 and 21.00 hrs.
£6.50/£5 members. HEAR Ernest Mandel speak! tape available - Mandel on fascism - send £6.00 cheque/PO payable to 'Bob Smith Memorial Fund' to PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU.
Coming soon - 'Malcolm X speaks' Mandel on the Popular Front'. tries to sack strikers. RMT policy is to defy the law, as a last resort, if necessary. The union will be supporting the NUM on this basis at the TUC.
The threat of mass sackings is precisely the sort of situation where such action would be necessary - we should be preparing the groundwork now to call on all RMT members to act in defence of anyone sacked, irrespective of the legal position.
ME NEWS
Solidarity with the signal workers Tuesday Sept 137.30pm University of London Union,
OCTOBER Sunday 16
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 68, September 10 1994, Page 15 Sat 22