I FIRST MET Tony Cliff shortly after his arrival from Palestine in September 1946. As Ygael Gluckstein, he was already well known in Trotskyist circles through his penwhat we in those days referred to as the Middle East, a geographical conception of that territory between the Westem impenalist powers (Britain, France, the Netherlands) and their possessions in the Far East. Not without some justification, Jock Maston, ten a ader of Brush rotsayists. spoke of him as 'the Lenin of the Middle Cast At that time, I was living with my wife and daughter in a two roomed flat in Ladbroke Grove, London, sharing a kitchen and bathroom.
Cliff and his South African born wife, Chanie. came for a meal with us. When Tony saw the 'opulence" in which we were living, he exclaimed, 1 'So much room for only three people. In Palestine there would be at least two families living in such Monday.' That is just what they did. He was living with me when the debate about the class nature of the Soviet Union opened in the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), the British section of the Fourth International.
The question was raised by Jock Haston, suported by Ted Grant, at the conference of the RCP in 1946. The Intemational Secretariat asked Cliff to take up the cud. of the International, that the Soviet Union was d workers sute, diber wi bureau cratic deformations. I still remember vividly Cliff saying The grave and already they want to renege on He took time off from active political work to go to the British Museum Reading Room. 'I will destroy them!" he said to me before disappearing.
I think he spent about six weeks to tho that period the discussion in the RCP continued and we eventually came to the conclusion that not only was the USSR still a deformed workers' state, but that this appelaton aiso sopico to tse counties which came under Soviet domination and where the economy was restructured to assimilate to that of the Soviet Union.
When Tony emerged from his seif.
one of his first meetings was with Ted Grant. 'You are quite right, Ted, the Soviet Union cannot be defined He then elaborated his conclusions in the biggest internal bulletin ever produced by the RCP. it was reprinted in a special edition of Workers International News and Marxist Analysis. The State Capitalist Ue nos vul History has pronounced judgement on Cliff's theories. In my view, the manner of of the Soviet Union proves him wrong. But this is still open to argument.
salute Tony Cliff for hs tremendous contributions to Marxist theory and, despite episodes like the Korean War, his layalty to the working class and his lifelong battle for interational socialism.
monthly marxist review. No 34. May 2000. 50p Vote London Socialist Alliance for Greater London Assemby For public services Vote KEN LIVINGSTONE for London Mayor Against privatisation ISSN 0951-8657 Published by Socialist Cutook PO Box 1109 London N4 2UU. All rights reserved. Printed ty Eastway Offset (TU all depts)