NOT. FROM
PEKING
A curious article about. the alleged activities of British Trotskyists appeared in Le Figaro November 19, It is signed by Pierre Bertrand, listed as the Paris daily's “special permanent correspondent" in London,
Commenting briefly about. the activities of a pro-Chinese faction in the British Communist party, he asks, "Is the Peking government seeking to penetrate the British Communist party?"
Mr. Bertrand answers his own question: "Everything strengthens the belief, whatever the facts may be, .that this attempt at infiltration, of which the Communist leaders are not without uneasiness, has chosen as instrument various Trotskyist groups across the. Channel who have displayed for several months a revival of activity which can be ill explained if it is not due in part to support thanks to financial aid, the origin of which remains obscure, w
‘Following this obscure insinuation, Mr, Bertrand refers to the Socialist Labour League which, he says, was founded by members of the Communist party who left in disillusionment over the Hungarian events in’ 1956, After some "ups and downs" this organization lost a good part of its "6lan" and the British Communist party seemed to be re-establishing its position at the beginning of this year,
"But the international Trotskyist movement, in England as elsewhere," continues Bertrand, “seems to dispose of vast resources, So that at the beginning of July again the "Socialist Labour Leaguet was able to launch a drive to cover the costs of its weekly organ, it has just organized-a series of conferences in the principal industrial centers and announced ambitious plans for developing its activities," .. The rather unusually knowledgeable correspondent. of ‘Le Figaro now. turns to “another Trotskyist organization, the 'Revolutionary gate no
Party,' which presents itself as the British section o ne IV nternational, "an organization that has "just seen the light of day ‘in England. If the number ‘of its adherents remains rather limited, its organ the 'Red Flag,' does not hesitate at any expense to assure its diffusion, It calls or the creation of a trevolutionary! left within the Labour Party and the Communist Party. In the best style of Peking, it refuses to .exclude recourse to an armed conflict to assure the success of the world revolu-#tion,
“Bertrand ends up by again hinting at the lavish use of obscure funds:
"Here is a mass of facts which, in the context of the present rivalry between the USSR and China, cannot be explained it would seem by mere coincidence, In British Communist circles, in any case, it seems that they are.convinced, observes the 'Yorkshire Post,! that China is at present not. sparing any effort -- including the financial plane -- to try to build a new Communist international obedient to Peking,"
If Pierre Bertrand conscientiously provided himself with all the facts, he reached most singular conclusions, Red Flag is a four-page
tabloid published once every two months by members of the ultra=leftist Posadas tendency. Its principal means of diffusion is hawking at places like trafalgar Square. It involves the activities of at most a half dozen people. .
If these zealots do not "hesitate at any expense," this scarcely exceeds the sacrifices they make out of their own wages to print the paper and the wear and tear on six pairs of shoes,
As for the Socialist Labour League, the weekly publication referred to is The Newsletter, a four-page tabloid which the editors have long hoped to increase to six or eight pages, According to Mr. Bertrand, the vast sums that China is throwing with a free hand into Britain in order to subvert the Communist party through the instrument of Trotskyism enabled the Socialist Labour League "to launch a drive to cover the costs of its weekly organ." The fund drive, made possible by China, evidently did not net enough to expand The Newsletter. If they now succeed in the coming period in getting enough finances to pay for another whole four pages, tabloid size, it will, of course, be due to similar timely "Chinese" money, which, we suspect, boils down to sacrifices by the rank and file of this organization.
The Socialist Labour League like the Revolutionary Workers party,’ itshould be noted in passing, happens to be at odds with the majority of the world Trotskyist movement and opposed the recent reunification of the Fourth International.
The question that is really raised by. Mr. Bertra nats type of report= ing is what is the true source of his information? His insinuations smack of the type of slanderous attacks against Trotskyism and the Fourth International which have recently appeared in the Khrushchevist publications Izvestia and Communist. As is well-known, there is a good deal of gold available to these Stalinist rags and: their international network of hacks but it is not from Peking. - . ; [ror the attacks in Izvestia and Communist, etc., see World Outlook | September 27, October. 4, November 8 and November 22. ]
BRITISH CP