Marx and Mussolini .
New 'Trends in Socialism. Edited by G. E. G. Catlin. (Lovat , Dickson. 5s.)
FA.SCISM ranks high among the powers of brutality and buffoonery ; but all of us have our uses. Even Crippen probably served as an awful warning to somebody, and Mitsgolini is no exception to the rule. Out of the enormities ofliinself and his fellow-dictators one good thing has arisen : the ideology surrounding the British Labour Party is being finally purified of a good deal of Marxist nonsense. "Ex- plosion of a Marxist Myth " would have passed muster as a headline to an account of last week's Labour Party Con- ference at Brighton. It would do equally well as an alterna- tive title to the book under review. It is true that one (Dr. Come) out of its fifteen essayists is heard plaintively protesting that a certain " analysis may be marxist. It is, however, correct." But what is said, and still more what is implied, by the bulk of the other essays is so overwhelmingly aptiXarxist that the mild statement just recorded sticks in one's memory as unique.
This growing contempt—though I am sure that the authors of this book would repudiate the word—this growing contempt for ,Karl Marx among our younger Socialist intellectuals has not come a moment. too soon. Marx, for all his perversity, Was an economic historian of genius, and, regarded post- humously, a disinterested propagandist who knew his job. But as an economic theorist he was either a foxy old humbug or a muddle-witted old 'fool—probably the former. And as a political prophet he bequeathed to the working-class of the Continent a legacy of hatred that, whether in Italy, Germany or Russia, has reacted cruelly against themselves.
English Socialists have mercifully kept pretty clear of But they have often slipped into using his horrible jargon and seductively simple categories ; and his complete practical doctrine has always been round the corner, with its wells of-Mystery and venom, from which it was always the danger
that the Labour Party might be driven to refresh itself in a moment of despair ; 1931 was just such a moment, with its world crisis, electoral rout and betrayal of rank-and-file by leaders,' and more than once since then one has feared that the Marxist venom would triumph. But the Labour Con- ference last week, and now in a smaller way New Trends in Socialism, are welcome symbols of a recapture of sanity. Perhaps it will not be long before we are witnessing a return to John Stuart Mill', the greatest original source of British Socialist theory. For after all there is quite enough Socialist.; economics, combined with quite enough Christian ethics, in John Stuart Mill to make a Socialist of anyone—given, what Mill lacked, a. passion for equality and a sublime confidence in one's fellow-men.
But what, it will be asked, is the precise connexion between, Fascism and the laying of the Marxian spectre ? You can see the connexion in this book in various ways. Surely, it -is a, study of Fascism that hag made Mr. Crossman realise that while the world remains primarily capitalist, " a Socialist Govern- ment would be constrained to act as beseems any rational- creature who finds himself alone in a jungle," i.e., would be, compelled to pursue, national ends. Surely it is Fascism that has made Mr. Hardie so confident in his advocacy of collective sanctions that the "good " Powers will be found inside the - League and the " bad " ones outside. It is hard to say whether Marx would be more shocked by Mr. Crossman or Mr._ Hardie. Again, it is Fascism that has brought home to writer after writer that, contrary to all Marx's predictions, the middle- class has grown with such astonishing rapidity that in Mr.', Fraser's words it is now " as significant in its way as either the working-class or the capitalist class." It is with Fascism donii- nating their minds that writer after writer comes forward to denounce revolutionary force, to insist on .democratic and., evolutionary procedure, and to preach the doctrine (quoting ‘: Mr. Fraser again) that " a Socialist can with intellectual self-.. respect associate with Conservatives for defined ends, but not with Communists." Till finally we have Mr. Allan Young announcing that " today it is far more important to defeat Fascism than to discover short cuts to Socialism." Personally, I see the connexion between the rise of Fascism and the col- . lapse of Marxist influence as twofold : Marx on the one hand ^. forgot the middle-class (or reckoned that it would soon be possible to forget them), and on the other hand failed to foresee the League of Nations, and the possibility that wars might be' fought by a capitalist country for the sake of an ideal, e.g.,. collective security. It has been the peculiar achievement of Fascism, by its glaring.misdeeds, by the force it has been able to mobilise against working-class progress, and by its assault on Abyssinia, to make patent these oversights of Marx, and to demonstrate that he overlooked all the real problems before, Socialists.
Inevitably a review like this of fifteen essays cannot give fair attention to any one author. Let it be said briefly that if bouquets are to be distributed, the prize for forceful writing goes to Mr. Crossman, whose essay is the only one that a person with no special interest in Socialism would read for pleasure. Mr. Jay's exposure of some of Marx's major futilities is the most trenchant, as Mr. Gaitskell's plan for averting a financial crisis is the most systematic thing in the book.' Mr. Durbin, in an essay on planning, gives the impression of ,• the greatest power in reserve, but an almost oriental inscru- tability on the subject of how the price system and planning are to be linked together leaves one with the suspicion that his more profound thoughts on this question are being reserved for a more spectacular occasion. The prize for the most , pretentious essay is not awarded, though the standard under . this head is high.
It is interesting to notice that outstanding Wykeharnists, whose predecessors have for so long been content to influence policy from Whitehall, are now emerging as forces in left-wing politics, fired no doubt by the Oswald Mosley of Socialist days," and the Stafford. Cripps of today. Of the four writers just'. singled out, Messrs. Crossman, Gaitskell and Jay are referred to as having been at Winchester, while Mr. Durbin is described as having been at "a public school"---Winchester, one presumes. -
Professor Catlin is to be congratulated on the general quality of the authors he has collected—of those not already mentioned Miss Ellen Wilkinson is the most original—and altogether. on a compilation that is striking and significant in more
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