UNITED WE FALL
FOR some time now Soviet leaders and Communists all over Europe have been grinding out siren songs for the benefit of Western Socialists. At the recent party congress In. Moscow Mr. Khrushchev set the tone : 'Not a few of the 411sfortunes harassing the world today are due to the fact that in rilanY countries the working class has been split for many ears. . . . If the working class conies out as a united cirganised force and acts with firm resolution, there will be no war.' And his ukase has been echoed by Signor Togliatti in ! talY, by Mr. Palme Dutt in this country and by M. Thorez in France. A number of Western Socialists have been invited to Russia—French, Norwegian and Danish delegations have i'4eadY gone and even the British Labour Party has received its svitation in spite of the famous row over dinner. Every effort i :belhg made to attract individual Socialist politicians, journal- i,s's and trade union officials, while the abuse usually heaped un Social Democrats by the party press has been stilled. The purpose of all this billing and cooing is the creation of eunited fronts' throughout the, West. Let the Socialists, say °111Munist leaders, but join with them in defending peace and resisting capitalist exploitation, and all will be gas and gaiters ,a sort of Red Dean's paradise.
western for the architects of this policy the leaders of "stern Socialism have shown themselves alive to the threat behind the display of cordiality. The meeting of the Socialist anternational, which took place in March in Zurich, rejecting Chnlore conciliatory British amendment, declared that 'the n Changes of tactics which emerged from the last Soviet Com- ehlil, n'st Party Congress were not adequate proof of a genuine skange in the principles and policies of Communist dictator- thq1P. and the executive bureau of the International later stated More 'Socialism and Communism have nothing in common.' clore recently there has been the quarrel between Mr. Khrush- tilev and the leaders of the British Labour Party, while, in their fril' the German Social Democrats have repelled an advance 01°111 the Eastern Socialist Unity Party. Even in Italy, where IT: ilehni Socialists do form a united front with the Com- ovutusts, the results of a 'soft' policy and Signor Togliatti's s„ertures to the Right-wing (Saragat) Socialists have not been a d'oecess, The he manner in which the dethroning of Stalin was tone seems to have offended Signor Nenni, while the accep- thece of a Parliamentary policy has provoked a revolt against bei Party leadership. In France M. Mollet shows no sign of ng wheedled—his position as head of a coalition govern- 8ment would hardly allow him to be—and no substantial gains tritie so far accrued to the party from the new line. As for the i ,,s.11 Communists, it is hard to see what anyone could hope gain by allying themselves with them. For, after all, the leaders of Western Socialist parties are men possessing both minds and memories. Mr. Khrushchev may have renounced Stalin and his policies, but, when that re- nunciation is echoed by Mr. Pollitt or M. Thorez, it is being repeated by men who kowtowed for whole decades with the utmost servility, men who danced the gopal without a gun at their heads. There may now be amnesties in a number of Iron Curtain countries, but, as the British Labour Party well knows (the German SPD knows it better still), there are still Social Democrats in prison in Eastern Europe—to say nothing of those for whom the change of party line has come too late to be of more than academic interest : men from the Baltic States, or Ehrlich and Alter, the leaders of the Jewish Socialist Bund in Poland, who were shot in 1941 after being released and then re-arrested. In face of this it is not surprising that Communists' advances are received with some scepticism by their Socialist comrades.
Moreover, the past history of popular fronts is not encourag- ing. This was the instrument used after the war to enslave Eastern Europe. This was the means which in Spain enabled the Communists to liquidate the Trotskyists. The tactics are always the Same : alliance with other Left-wing parties, some of whose leaders may be fellow-travellers and others just plumb silly, and a gradual strangling of their independence until even- tually the fools can be dropped and the rogues liquidated. A Hungarian Social Democrat who became a Communist gave the game away pretty badly when he wrote in the Cominform journal : 'Only unification made it possible for former Social Democrats to master successfully the great weapon of Marxist- Leninist theory and to become fine, selfless Communists.' Piquancy is added to the quotation by the fact that the author was himself sentenced to a long term of imprisonment for political offences soon after publishing his give-away.
The leaders of Western Socialist parties know these things. What then do the Communists hope to gain by their united front tactics? First, the reassuring of their own working-class supporters who, in France and Italy, are sincerely worried by this rift between them and the Socialists. Secondly, they hope to gain the cranks. In all Western Socialist parties there are a certain number of people who have little actual influence, but make a good deal of noise and have the persistency and nuisance value of mosquitoes. This lunatic fringe tends to cling to the ideas of 1900 and to a revolutionary rhetoric rendered obsolete by the course of events. For them the cry of 'popular front' has emotional connotations, which make them quite un- able to judge either its practicability or its wisdom. A good example of this voluntary blindness is to be seen in the reaction to recent events of Professor G. D. H. Cole, who protests passionately against the idea that 'Socialism and Communism have nothing in common' and, while admitting that 'terrible, horrible things have been done in the name of Socialism' by Communist parties, nevertheless leaps at the prospect of a new start being made under the auspices of col- lective leadership and declares that it is time for 'individual Socialists and Communists to begin talking one with another [sic] very seriously . . . about the issues that divide them, in the hope that they may . . . succeed in building on what is agreed between them a basis for reuniting the world working- class movement for a common struggle against capitalism. imperialism and reaction.' The categories in which Professor Cole expresses himself are so outworn that it might be possible to neglect his article completely, were it not for the fact that it is precisely reactions of this kind that the popular front agitation is intended to excite. What does Mr. Palme Dutt mean when he talks of an 'effort from below' to achieve unity between the Labour movement and the Communist Party? He means people like Professor Cole trying to dissolve the Labour move- ment from within in the name of a mythical Socialism, which never existed in the past and which could certainly never exist in 1956. He means infiltration of the trade unions, the stirring-up of feeling about automation and the inducing of the odd innocent MP abroad to make kind statements about East Germany. In Britain the gain from this may be minute, but in Europe the damage could be extensive.
The remedy is uncertain. To advise some Left-wing intellec- tuals to think deeper and better is probably a counsel of despair, but, happily, the worst examples of inadaptation to the modern world seem to come from an older generation. The Labour leaders should persist in their attitude and, if necessary, be prepared to be tough with those of their followers who do not do likewise. This does not mean the rejection of all advances by the Russian Government, but it does mean continued suspicion of Communist political activities in the West. What- ever changes may have come over Russia recently, the leader- ship in the Western Communist parties remains the same as it was under Stalin. After their past behaviour it is for them to prove themselves innocent. The only way for them to do this would be to cease their attempts to disrupt Social Democrat trade union and political movements.
Previous page
