UNDER SOUTH AFRICA'S 90-DAY LAW
Lionel Bernstein, the one major defendant in the Rivonia trial in South Africa to be released by the judge ~~ only to be immediately arrested by the police again [see World Outlook June 19] -- testified that the police threatened he would be detained for periods of 90 days indefinitely unless he gave information,
"Every statement made by a person who gives his evidence under duress, in circumstances which I regard as torture, is very much open to question," che said,
The mental torture consisted of solitary confinement, with | nothing to do, no one to speak to, nothing to read. He became so affected by this that his memory was impaired, he suffered exoruciating anxiety attacks, his hands began to shake violently. It became so bad that he even welcomed the sight of the police who oame to torture him further.
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SINO-SOVIET DISPUTE AFFECTS JAPANESE LABOR MOVEMENT
By Si Okatani
TOKYO -- As a direct consequence of the Sino-Scviet conflict, the Japanese Communist party [scp]. in particular and the workers and» peace movements as a whole have reached a turning point. Taking a clear stand in favor of Peking's line, the JCP, which, since the last national conference at Hiroshima, has organized dts own rallies. in the name of the Japanese Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, expelled ‘its top representatives in the two houses of parliament. The recent course of the JCP testifies to the strong backfccrl. of Stalinism in both the JCP and the Chinese. Communist party CCP .
Defeat of the Pro-Moscow Tendency
When the House of Representatives voted. in favor of the par-= tial nuclear test-ban treaty on May 15, the only dissenters were four of the five Communist members. This was not surprising in view of the opposition of the JCP to the treaty. But what was surprising was the vote of the fifth Communist representative, Yoshio Shiga, a member of the Central Committee. He cast a "white ballot," meaning approval of the 1963 Moscow Treaty.
‘What then happened would seem to indicate that the JCP is committed more than ever to Peking as against Moscow. On May 17, Akahata [Red Flag], the JCP organ, carried a front-page official statement on Shiga by the Central Committee, Shiga's conduct, said the statement, was “antiparty" because he had not consulted any of the party podies beforehand and because he held a press interview (after the vote) in which he expressed views that ran counter to the interests of the people and in violation of the decisions and policies of the party leadership,
Shiga's action, however, was not entirely unexpected in view of his previous deeds and words, Last September he submitted a memorial to the leadership, criticizing its pro-Peking position, A few other members of the Central Committee concurred,
In October at its Seventh General Meeting, the Central Committee considered a resolution not to support the partial test-ban treaty. Shiga and a few others such as Shigeo Kamiyama and Shigebaru. Nakano indicated support for the test-ban pact and abstained from. voting, As a result, the Central Committee's disapproval of the treaty was not a unanimous decision but a majority one == a rare event indeed in the history of the JCP,
At a press conference on May 21, the. JCP announced that Yoshio Shiga and Ichizo Suzuki had been expelied from the party on grounds. they had engaged in actions contrary to party policies, This was after the Eighth General Meeting of the Central Committee where the
expulsion of the two party leaders was decided on. Out of 60 Cen~ tral Committee members, 57 were present, including Shiga and Suzuki. Of these, 53 reportedly voted for the expulsions, Three (Shiga, Suzuki and Shigeharu Nakano) were opposed and one (Shigeo Kamiyama ) abstained.
Ichiro Suzuki is a member of the Upper House and a prominent leader of the National Railway Workers! Union, He was expelled on the ground that he had dissented against the attitude of the JCP toward the April 17 nation-wide strike, Anti-Nuclear Weapons Movement
The Sino=Soviet dispute registered its first consequences in. the mass movement in Japan in the antinuclear weapons sector,
At the Hiroshima conference last August, the JCP came out with Pekingts line and the members of the Japanese Socialist party [JSP], who favor Moscow's attitude toward peace movements and the partial nuclear test-ban treaty, walked out, holding a separate meeting, The rift between the JCP and the JSP has worsened since then. It reached its lowest point at the tenth anniversary of the Bikini incident, commemorated at Yaizu on March 1, Socialists and Communists held separate rallies, the Socialists and members of Sohyo [the General Council of Japanese Trade Unions] at Yaizu and the Communists at Shizuoka. - -
The trouble developed when the Communists accused the Socialists of not permitting them to attend memorial services conducted by the widow of Aikichi Kuboyama who died from exposure to radioactivity. The JCP repeatedly charged in Akahata that the Socialists had forcibly kept Mrs, Kuboyama in seclusion so that she would not be able to contact the Communists,
In the columns of Shakai Shinpo [Social News], the Socialists and members of Sohyo countered that it was the JCP that blocked the JSP plan to hold joint JSP-JCP memorial services for the late Kubo= yama,
After the separate rallies on March 1, the Socialist party and Sohyo decided at their liaison meeting that the national conference of the Japanese Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs had already disintegrated and that a new national movement should be organized,
The animosity has led the two parties to schedule separate rallies in August. The Socialists will hold meetings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Communists at Kyoto.
Communist Attitude in the April 17 Strike
Ichizo Suzuki was expelled from the JCP allegedly because he refused to follow party directives in the April 17 strike, The
spring labor offensive was severely blunted by cancellation of the half-day strike of 800,000 workers which had been scheduled for April 17 by the National Council of the Government Enterprise Work ers Union (Korokyo), [The Korokyo is composed of employes of the national railways, telephone and telegraph, postal services, the government monopoly in tobacco, the mint, government printing offices and two other public services, J.
The Private Railway Workers Union and most other unions in private industry which were scheduled to stage a mass walkout in concert with the Korokyo strike, also called off their action, .
Thus what the Sohyo had called "the biggest postwar action resorting to force" failed to materialize,
It was a betrayal by the Communists that was decisive in bringing about cancellation of the strike.
The major goals of the "spring labor offensive" were a 25 per cent pay hike aimed at "catching up with European wage standards, establishment of a minimum wage rate, and improved safety MeASUPES » Tied in with these economic and labor demands were such political issues as opposition to the talks between Japan and Korea, insistence on immediate ratification of ILO [International Labor Organization] Convention No, 87 and similar slogans.
The Joint Spring Labor Offensive Committee, with 150 unions under Sohyo and the Federation of Independent Unions participating, had notified member unions not to compromise with management by accepting a meager wage increase, But the JCP feared that a futile strike at this time might open the way for management to take pot shots at Communist elements within Korokyo. The party opposed the strike,
Almost all the leaders of the unions are Socialists. But the Communists exercise strong influence among rank and file unionists. For example, about one-sixth of the National Railway Workers Union are believed to be members or sympathizers of the JOP.
When the JCP announced through the columns of Akahata that the party would not co-operate with the strike, some members simply refused to follow the party line, Ichizo Suzuki, a leader of the National Railway Workers Union and a member of the Central Committee and therefore conspicuously in the limelight as a labor spokesman for the party, showed by his actions that he did not agree with the party line. Most Communists, however, obeyed the party and this ruined the possibility for the union to open strike action,
Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda met with the chairman and the general secretary of the Sohyo and promised to study a six-point _. demand which they submitted. The 12=hour strike was averted. The six points seek higher wages, accident prevention measures, a
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national minimum wage scale and government acceptance of a mediation ruling by the Labor Relations Commission,
A big: debate over cancellation of the strike was touched off, The JSP criticizes the attitude of the JCP as a betrayal. and some unions, such as the National Railway Workers and the National. Tele-. phone. and Telegraph Workers, have punished - Communist members who refused to back strike: action.
Interview with Pierre Frank
SPECTRE OF TROTSKYISM IN SINO=SOVIET’ CONFLICT
[As official representative of the Fourth International, Pierre Frank attended the June 6-7 conference of the Lanka Sama Samaja party, where he supported the left wing in its struggle against the. proposal of opportunist right-wing leaders to: enter abourgeois coalition government, During his stay.in Ceylon, the press sought his views on various topics. The.following interview was carried by the June 14 Sunday Observer which has one of the largest: cireulations:in Ceylon, The interview appeared under the title, “The speotres that are haunting Mir « Khrushchev, oe TY
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uestion: Mi ‘Prank, an esl ee the current Sino-Soviet
You are no doubt ‘aware “that there have been frequent refer= ences to Ceylon in these angr exchang es. .While this gives us in guing is the use of Trotskyism as a big stick to beat each other.
It is almost as ifa spectre were haunting the Communist: amove= ment, the spectre of Jrotskyism. 7
Would you agree? : =
Answer: Yes, it does puzzle many people. But first, about - Ceylon,
You see, here in Ceylon, you reversed the normal process, Trotskyism was first a faction in the Communist movement and then an independent movement, But here the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the © first Marxist Party was Trotekyist. and the Communists, _were a breake
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away group from them,
But, about the debate, I agree that it is intriguing to find two huge powers, one of 600-700 million people and the other the second biggest industrial nation in the world, charging each other of being corrupted by this “little fellow, wn? Trotskyism, which the Soviet Union thought it had buried long ago * when they buried Leon Trotsky and anybody known to have Trotskyist ideas in Russia,
However, first of all, I must say something about the debate itself, It is not as some think, an argument for its own sake, These are not dilettantes, mere intellectuals engaged in argument, These are serious and responsible leaders of powerful states, involved in world politics and with global interests, ae
So it is a very serious dispute, .
Q: Yes, but how does Trotskyism enter the picture?
A: You see, both sides see in each other's argument. ideas which are Trotskyist or tendencies which are Trotskyist. and they are frightened, truly scared, The Ghost of Trotsky is haunting both the ibe Union and China,
The Soviet Union ‘sees such ideas itiplicit in the Chinese position on an uninterrupted colonial revolution which is not the same as Trotsky's theory of the permanent revolution, but close to it,
Similarly they suspect Trotskyist influence in Chinese ocriti-« cism of the pacific, parliamentary way to socialism and of peaceful co-existence as. a method of disarming” he “biass- Sbruge des: - On the ‘ other” hand, “the” ‘cniness- are Hervous” “About Khrushéhevts denunelation of Stalin which fully” ‘vindicated Trotskyist exposures ~ of the repressive ‘nature of the Stalin’ regime. —_ a
A: The etitire “bureaucratic ‘system of the Soviet’ Union’ (a China, it is a little) paternalistic) Ts based” ‘on authority and a77 strict hierarchic order,
But why this teary “EHS: extraordinary nervousness?
The very notion that the ideas ‘of Khintisiénev or Mao are not © sacred but can be questioned and challenged, that. a communist, that a communist party, a marxist movement or even a country can think for himself or itself and that they can be as right as what Moscow or Peking says is a concept which cuts deep into the foundations of the system,
They cannot allow such: ideas to grow and spread, ~ Qt In this sense would you not say that it is the fear of. heretical ideas natural to any dogma or “Church?
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A: Yes, but itis the challenge to the system. that is feared...
Q: But wasn't it Khrushchev who began this whole process with his 20th Congress speech denouncing Stalin?
Ar “True. But we have a paradox here, Khrushchev denounced © Stalin But He inherited and operates the same system though he has ~~ ° dismantled the more repressive apparatus. His methods may be different, but the system is the same’ in its basic nature,
Like Napoleon the Third, who liberalised to preserve the | empire and not to destroy it, Khrushchev has liberalised but in order to protect the system,
‘Q: Protect it from what challenges? .
A: That is really an interesting question, ‘You see there are sweeping changes going on in Soviet society, To put it very simply, the great advance in material standards, in living standards has meant a higher. educational and cultural level and people, especially young, thinking people and the intelligentsia are , beginning tothink freely, to ask questions,
That is one change.
‘Another | is the gradual “disappearance ‘of the ‘Wrear complex" which gripped the first generation of revolutionary Russia when the young. nation was surrounded by enemies and threatened by all sides, This fear complex, especially after the war, when the balance of forces changed in’ the world, is fast disappearing and ideas are mov-= ing freely to and from the Soviet Union. a
‘Yet another change is the shift from heavy industry to consumer articles in the Soviet economy, In the first phase, bureau+ cracy and technocracy determined everything but in the economic sphere, with the accent now on production of consumer articles, the ordinary people have to be given a more decisive role,
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“A: I would say that Soviet society is in intellectual ferment but I want to ‘stress one. thing.
How ‘would you describe “the character of these. changes?
“Nobody is challenging the economic structure, Nobody is prescribing capitalist ideas as it happened sometime ago in Poland and East Germany, -. But everybody, writers, scientists, artists, economists, students, they are demanding the right to think freely... We in the. -. Fourth International, we hear of these things -= of clandestine groups and illegal meetings, of leaflets and literature,:..
246
Q: Can you cite any specific instances?
A: Well, you know of course about the new writers, But there are many others, . a
There is a very’ well=known film director who has” addressed a ~ meeting and one of his remarks was: "I want the right to think before the party Central Committee meeting -- “not after its"
We know of a certain "school" of young “philosophers in one of Russia's leading universities who are producing ideas which are " tt new, .
Their concern is with the concept of freedom,
At the moment, they are. critical of the prevailing ideas only by implication, But "that's ‘a beginning; you séé6é, and that's the paradox which confronts Khrushohevs x! +is
You cantt start to liberalise and ‘yet halt it when the process develops so far that it becomes: dangerous. You can't turn on and turn off ideas, like a tap. Khrushchev whose speech about Stalin | encouraged the writers to write more freely is now criticising them for writing too freely, That's the dilemma.
Q: How does all this strike you as a Trotskyist?
A: Well, we are very happy about the development of this de= bate which is really on fundamental questions like war and peace, the colonial revolution, etc,
As for ‘the changes in the Soviet Union, one of the slogans of the new intelligentsia is "back to Lenin," and one of their demands is that the minutes of the Russian Communist Party Congresses from 1920-1925 be published. If that happens, Trotsky whose role has been distorted and villified by the. Soviet bureaucracy will be fully vin-= dicated before the world, . pote
But isntt this debate a revival of an ola debate debate faivtabed by the Left Oppo osition?
A: Yes, but there's an important difference. “Here, states are involved and state power, mass propaganda, .and communications have encompassed the whole communist movement, Don!t underestimate state power, The first real threat to Stalin.came from Yugoslavia which was.a state and had all the powers of a state including the ability to propagate its ideas freely and internationally,.
Q: You don't think that the Sino-Soviet dispute is nationalist in origin? I mean, rooted in conflicting national interests?
A‘. It may have started. that way, but it is now truly inter=
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- The Soviet Union thinks internationally; so do. the Chinese who are beginning to as sume a greater role. tin international affairs.
TI admit that China: may believe that the Soviet: Union. wants to make a deal with the USA and that China herself. may be part of that deal,
a But ‘the debate has, gone ‘weyond ‘all: that.
“One last uestion: ‘The: Russians: have accused the Chinese
“gs of > exploiting colour and race, Would you say that is fair? =
: A: Utterly unfair. ‘It is a Soviet slander, and we Trotskyists are: quite accustomed to these methods. .. 3}
Q: Wouldn't you agree, however, that in Asia and Africa, the Chinese view has greater appeal?
A: Yes, but not on grounds of race, Among the radical and the militant, Chinese ideas. have. far greater impact because the Chinese position accords with these national revolutionary movements which want quick decisive. Setion against. imperialism.
The Russions whose foreign. policy. has always been. conservative, in the sense of trying to maintain the status quo through bargain with imperialism, are seen:by Asian-African militants as trying to hold back these anti-imperialist movements. ...
STATEMENT BY THE :-REVOLUTIONARY SECTION OF THE LSSP
. [The following statement by Edmund Samarakkody, a member of “the Ceylonese parliament and one of the ledders of. the Revolution= ary Section of the Lanka Sama Samaja party, was issued June 7. ]
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The decision of the reformist majority of the LSSP to enter into-a coalition with the capitalist SLFP [Sri Lanka Freedom party] government and thereby to become an instrument of the capitalist class in Ceylon, constitutes a complete violation of the basic principles of Trotskyism on which the revolutionary program of the party is based.
This degeneration is the logical outcome of the parliamentary reformist line which the majority of the leadership of the party has followed for several years and the substitution of parliamentary and réformist struggle in place of elass struggle and revolutionary perspectives, and the systemdtic’ recruitment of nonrevolutionary elements into the party on that basis,
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The revolutionaries of the LSSP have, in this situation, decided to organise themselves on the basis of the party program, They therefore withdrew from the conference and will hereafter func tion as a separate organisation under the name of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary Section).
In order to carry forward the revolutionary struggle for power, the LSSP (Revolutionary Section) calls upon all the adherents and supporters of the LSSP in the country to rally round the revolutionary banner which. it. refuses: to surrender to the SLEP Government and the capitalist class, — :
(Signed) Edmund Samarkkody, Secretary,
Provisional Committee of the LSSP
(Revolutionary Section),
ON THE SITUATION FACING THE LANKA SAMA SAMAJA PARTY
[The following resolution was passed unanimously by the _ ; United Secretariat, the executive body of the Fourth International,~and released to the press June 22,]
The United Secretariat takes the following stand on the deal negotiated by N.M.Perera with the Prime Minister of the Ceylon government in which, in return for his betraying the program of the Lanka Sama Samaja party and the basic principles on which the world Trotskyist movement is founded, he and two others whom he _ designated were added to the cabinet: : oe
- (1) We condemn the secret personal negotiations with the head of a bourgeois government which N.M.Perera engaged in behind the back of his party, without the authorisation of the party's Central Com- ~ mittee, without the knowledge of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International and in defiance of the express opposition voiced by the United Secretariat to any course except one leading to the estab-= lishment of.a workers and peasants government, The fact that NM, Perera later submitted the results of these back=room negotiations == in part or in whole -- to the Central Committee and to a summarily — called party conference that had no time to adequately study or debate the life-and-death issue involved, in no wise mitigates his: monstrous violation of Leninist organisational procedures,
In logioal continuation with these shady manoeuvres, which were part of his preparations to split the party, Perera acceded to ~ the demand of the Prime Minister that she be given personal author~ ity to decide on the list of candidates which the group he heads. will run in the next election, By this act he transferred his lead»
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ership to the head of the Sri Lanka Freedom party and publicly dis~ played his role as an agent of a bourgeois party.
(2) We condemn N.M.Perera!s crossing of class lines. His acceptance of a post in Mrs, Bandaranaike's bourgeois government on. a strictly reformist platform belongs to the long series of opportunist capitulations to the class enemy committed in the past. by Social Democratic and Stalinist parliamentarians with such ‘bitter consequences for the working class and its socialist aspirations, The. same condemnation applies to Perera's disciples, Anil Moonesinghe and Cholmondeley Goonewardene, who joined him in capitulating to the Prime Minister. These three former. Trotskyists, by giving up their revolutionary aims and joining in Mrs. Bandaranaike!s frantic efforts to bolster her crisis-ridden government and. to save capitalism. in Ceylon, have betrayed the most elementary principles of revolutionary socialism. .
(3) Through their own actions, these three placed themselves eutside the ranks of the Fourth International. The United Secretar~_ iat recognises this fact and in view of the gravity of the crime. -. expels them forthwith, In addition the United Secretariat suspends ~ all members of the Lanka Sama Samaja who voted at the June 6-7 conference for Perera's proposal to enter a bourgeois coalition government,. referring further action to the next meeting of the Tntornational Executive Committee,
(4) ‘We urge those members of the Lanka Sama Samaja party who supported Perera in the mistaken hope that his proposal to enter a bourgeois coalition might signify a step forward, to reconsider their position. We urge all those who continue to collaborate with Perera, in the mistaken hope that this will save the unity of the ISSP, to break at once and to rally to the side of the comrades who are upholding the program of Trotskyism on which the party was : founded,
Perera!ts course invites a major disaster for the Ceylonese workers and peasants, As the government crisis deepens, this will become glaringly apparent. Mrs. Bandaranaike wanted Trotskyists in her cabinet in order to gain time and temporarily relieve the orisis, but above all to compromise the Trotskyists, since they offer the main possibility for a workers and peasants government to come to power, Her scheme is to manoeuvre the Trotskyists into sharing the nationwide disapproval and unpopularity of which her bourgeois’ regime has already become. the target... She hopes to achieve this by associating the Trotskyists with measures against the working olass and the minorities, especially by crippling industrial action. Through this she counts on making it more difficult for a government based. on the program of revolutionary socialism to move into office ° and open a genuinely new altérnative for Ceylon. However, if suoh’ a government -~ now :on the order of the day in Ceylon -- does not come to power, then the ultrarcactionary right wing will eventually install a brutally repressive regime, Perera's capitulation helps
pave the way for such a catastrophe.
While a bourgeois coalition government may offer minor, temporary reforms, the Sinhalese and Tamil: peoples can solve their basic problems only by breaking out of the framework of capitalism the way the Russians did in 1917, the way the Yugoslavs did in the aftermath of World War II, the Chinese in 1949-52, the Cubans in 1959-60, and as the Algerians are now in process of doing.
(5) We commend all the leaders and members of the Lanka Sama Samaja party who launched an internal struggle against Pererats opportunism, who fought his capitulationist course without concessions, who have done their utmost to maintain the honor and integrity of Trotskyism in Ceylon, and who have continued to battle for establishment of a workers and peasants government as the only realistic road for the Ceylonese masses,
We urge all members of the Fourth International and groups and parties sympathetic to its aims throughout the world to do every-= thing in their power to help the Revolutionary Seotion of the Lanka Sama Samaja party to maintain and to advance the program of revolutionary socialism in Ceylon. The capitulation of Perera will prove to be only a passing episode in the class struggle in Ceylon. The loyal. and far-seeing leaders and members who grasped the implications of Perera's opportunist parliamentarism some time ago and. who organised a struggle against it have already passed a difficult test. Through their firmness these comrades kept together the precious basic cadres needed to repair the damage in the shortest possible time,
With the help of the international Trotskyist movement they will proseed with all the more self-confidence in the task of building a revolutionary-socialist party capable of guiding Ceyton onto the road of socialism,
June 22, 1964
CEYLON GOVERNMENT LOCKS OUT WORKERS
One of the first acts of Ceylon's new "Centre-Left" coalition government was to lock out 5,000 workers at the central workshop of the nationalized transport board, which comes under Minister of Com-~ munications Anil Moonesinghe, a former Trotskyist. Before the coalition, a slow=down was in progress at the shop as part of a protest against unfair pay differentials, When the unrest culminated "in. acts of indiscipline" such as the throwing of nuts and bolts, the government cracked down June 17, The move, said the Colombo” correspondent of the London Times, indicated that the "coalition Government intends to be firm in labour disputes."
ANALYSIS OF THE SLFP-LSSP COALITION
By V. Karalasingham
[The efforts of Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike to alleviate the crisis which her government faces by bringing "Trote skyists" into her cabinet created a political sensation in Ceylon,. occupying the headlines and many columns in the press day by day. The public interest extended to the intense struggle led by the left wing of the Lanka Sama Samaja against the proposal of the opportunist right-wing leaders to concede to the maneuvers of the government party. The June 5 Times of Ceylon, for instance, published an extensive summary of an analysis of the situation by V. Karalasingham, a member of the Central Committee of the LSSP and one of the leaders of the left wing. Written before the projected coalition was consummated, and circulated in the LSSP. during the internal discussion, . it indicates the views of the left wing who now constitute the Revolutionary Section of the LSSP. The following has been extracted from. this summary, |
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Since the prorogation of parliament the heat of the controversy over the question of socialist participation in a coalition government under Mrs, Bandaranaike has generated. so much heat as. to lead to the virtual reduction to cinders of the much vaunted United Left Front. The present overtures of Mrs. Bandaranaike to the Left and the discreet feelers by the official leaders of the Left represent the first serious attempt to form a Gentre-Left Coalition in Ceylon. Two capitalist. parties having ruled the country alternatively since 1947, that the invitation to the Left should raise hopes in the broad masses that support it is not surprising. This first attempt to draw the main working-class party into governmental responsibility also leads to widespread illusions and in false hopes within and outside the Party.
The first need now is to understand the nature of coalitions, In his "Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution," Lenin has emphasised the two distinct methods of rule of the bourgeoisie. The first method is violence. . The second method, best developed by the English and French bourgeoisie, is that of "deception, flattery, fine phrases, promises by the million, petty sops, and concessions of the unessential while retaining the essential." —
The method is what is described as Democracy. But this holds good only as long as the division of forces is in favour of the bourgeoisie, To maintain this balance there is on the opposing side, those leading the workers who "threaten, exhort, beseech, demand, and proclaim," similar to what the leadership of the LSSP has been doing when not trailing behind the masses,
When the class struggle develops, posing a threat to the bour-
geoisie, they resort to the tried and tested method of coalition government, i.e., a joint cabinet formed of members of the bour-~ geoisie and renegades from socialism, The real purpose of this offer of a coalition to the Left, in the words of Lenin, is to "FOOL, DIVIDE, AND WEAKEN THE WORKERS . " There can be no bigger crime * against the. working class and the socialist movement than this, and Lenin brands those accomplices of the bourgeoisie who agree as renegades from Socialism,
The role of the Socialist participants in a> coalition is simple -~ that of whitewashing the bourgeois cabinet, They invariably prove to be "figureheads, puppets, screens for the capitalists, and an instrument for deceiving the workers."
‘This is the future that is in store for those who abandon the revolutionary movement for portfolios in the bourgeois government, The public utterances already made by the ministerial aspirants in the ranks of the Left are an ominous warning that even in Dhamma .- Deepa the propositions of Lenin hold good and true,
The first coalition government in Russia came when the bour= geois government was threatened by the workers during what is referred to in history as the "April Days." The bourgeois reply to the threat was to include six socialists in the cabinet. In Ceylon the genius of Mrs,: Bandaranaike consists in her intelligent anticipation of impending events and the skill with which she is moving to forestall any possible mass .movement hostile to her class and government. In the events since prorogation she has emerged as a true leader of her class -~ displaying both foresight end breadth of vision, the. essential attributes of leadership,
She is ; clearly not waiting for a Ceylon viation of the "April Days." She realises the benefit to her class in reaching agreements before the storm breaks, Her government has lost the mass support it enjoyed in July 1960. It shows a congenital ineapacity to taokle pressing problems. Isolated but sustained working-class action has in different sectors (CTB, Port, Banks, Wellawatte Mills, etc.) been tackled in a “piecemeal” manner. The extra-parliamentary action of the masses in the North and East and working-class action has compelled the. Government to resort to Emergency rule..
The success of the Government in handling the isolated work ing~class struggles had led the urban workers to respond to. the idea of unified action. For the first time the organisations of the plantation workers, too, have joined in and the 21 demands have been drafted, The birth of the Joint Committee of Trade Unions has roused the working class from that earlier mood of dejection. The suocessful CMU strike of January this year has dealt a crushing blow to the Government, It is in this context that Mrs. Bandaranaike has made her moves for a coalition with the Left, .
-Her moves have a two-fold purpose. The main object is to
bring in the official leaders of the left into her government on her terms, to perform those duties they are especially hired to discharge; namely, "to fool, divide and weaken the workers,"
Her other aim is to "discipline" the workers, Her public statements are frank on this point, despite the double talk of others. In her speech to the SLFP [Sri Lanka Freedom party] Exeou-~ tive Committee she said: "Disruptions, especially strikes and go~ slows must be eliminated and the development of the country must proceed," Hér answer to this was to dismiss the suggestions of dicta~ © torship, bayonet rule, and national government made by her minister-_ ial colleagues and to. initiate talks with the leaders of the working class -- Mr, Philip Gunawardena and Dr.N.M. Perera.
However brimful may be the illusions ‘of the "learned" leaders of the left, the housewife with a modest secondary school eduéa~ tion who is now the Prime Minister is coldly and brutally realistic in her approach,
Whatever the academic limitations, a fifth generation Kandyan aristocrat must necessarily show a subtler and finer estimation of the measures necessary for the defence of property than upstart ministers, lobbyists of special capitalist interests and editorial hacks: ‘of the Lake House and Times.
There is no doubt that in the event of a coalition with the left being realised, in the initial period at any rate, mass senti-~ ment would be with the new government. No ‘less certain is the fact that even if the present negotiations prove abortive, the mass move~ ment would be put back several stages. In either ‘event, Mrs, Band aranaike has the last laugh in the current negotiations, *
- What of the arguments being brought in support ‘of a coalition | with the SLFP? The first is the familiar theme that the coalition is an answer to the threat of the UNP [United National party, rightwing bourgeois party formerly in power]. There is no bigger lie than this. The certain way of guaranteeing the later triumph of ‘the UNP or a more rightist formation is by coalescing with the SLFP, When the inevitable disillusionment with the Centre-Left coalition sets in, the very masses that enthusiastically supported it will turn away and look in the direction of those parties who had more consis~ tently opposed it. If the revolutionary party of the Left is com | promised by collaboration with the Centre government, the masses, not prone to fine distinctions, will tend to identify the hopelessness of their worsening economic conditions as much with the Left as with the SLFP.
What of an agreed programme? It is sought to safeguard the left by means of an agreed programme, When the development of the class struggle forces the bourgeoisie to seek understanding with the working class, it will agree to even the programme of the Socialist revolution. - But such agreement will be just a scrap of paper, The
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purpose of the bourgeoisie seeking agreement with the Left in the words of Trotsky is "in order to thus transform us into guarantors before the working class, In July 1960 the SLFP needed no guarantors, That is why the laboured courtship of it by the right wing of the LSSP produced nothing. In the final year of its bankrupt parliamentary life, the SLFP is in urgent need of guarantors -~ hence the seeking of help from the Left,
Some seek power through more portfolios for the Left. In reality, more portfolios for the Left means more errand boys and menials for the bourgeoisie and nothing more, Wielding of power requires control of the police and Armed Forces ~-- the one ministry that Mrs. Bandaranaike will keep for herself,
Still others seek to bring about an "impure" revolution through coalition, To them the Russian Revolution is the pure ideal, That is not possible, Hence the need for an “impure” revo~ lution, They forget that a revolution creates new organs of power vested in the working class, All that happens in a coalition is that certain new faces replace others in "Government" while the old machinery of "State" with its standing army, police and Bureauoraoy continue as of old,
There are those who recall the setting up of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe in the post-war period through coalitions, They forget or ignore that the real power in those instances was the Red Army of the Soviet Union that occupied those countries, The military arm of the workers! state succeeded in altering the balance of class forces in favour of the working class, In Ceylon the state power remains with the bourgeoisie and the socialist ministers will be prisoners,
The question now emerges as to how the leadership of the LSSP, which voluntarily set itself the aim of leading the working class to power and overturning present society, suddenly finds itself on the verge of abject prostration before the very classes it sought to overthrow,
The first serious proposal of seeking a coalition with the bourgeoisie was mooted prior to the July 1960 general election, Thereafter held in abeyance, it is now being shamelessly flaunted publicly. This position was long implicit in the policies of the LSSP, particularly since the formation of the first Bandaranaike government in 1956, The LSSP!s current bid to join the government of Mrs. Bandaranaike directly flows from the decision of the Party in 1956 to give "responsive co-operation" to the then SLFP government.
The official leadership of the Party, which was capable of fighting foreign imperialism and the UNP, was simply unequal to the task of standing up to a "democratic" capitalist government enjoying popular support, In fighting the imperialists and the UNP, wide
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layers of the petty bourgeoisie gave ‘the leadership tacit support, as they were themselves oppressed by the UNP and imperialism, “The leadership saw no isolation from the masses of their social milieu, Hence this period saw the full flowering oftheir revolutionary activity, to whioh a socialist hue was given.
The official leadership of. the Left: stepped 3 into the vaouun created by the desertion of the working class leadership by Mr, Goonesinghe in the thirties. Along with their anti-imperialism, their vague socialism made the leaderless working class hold them captive, In that captivity. they: even .embraced Trotskyism, though it was only. the conversion of a prisoner, But they were’ throughout: struggling to break loose from the class that held them captive. - © This struggle became moré-.desperate after 1948 with the emergenoe of the Nehrus, Aung Sans, Nkrumahs and Kenyattas. That is why under the test.of the events of 1956, the LSSP leadership, as a revolutionary proletarian leadership, collapsed so ignobly. That was the grand opportunity-for "freedom" from the working class that. held them captive. ‘They achieved this freedom under the formula of “responsive co-operation" ‘tothe first Bandaranaike. What has happened there~ after is their progressive assimilation into the politicos of the SLFP, Now at last the "socialism" of the London School of Economics finds its proper resting place in the Cabinet: of the "liberal" bour= geoisie,
AS BLINDLY AS A FORCE OF NATURE
On the eve of World War II, Leon Trotsky predicted that if the United States emerged victorious, as seemed likely, the resulting "peace" would prove’to-be highly unstable. The world's mightiest capitalist power would pour over the planet like an erupting voloano,
How accurate was Trotsky's prognosis! The facts leap daily from the pages of the press, A truly impressive example occurred in the past week in the New York Times,
The opening sentences of the lead editorial in the June 16 issue read: "The United States is coming to act more and more like Nature; it abhors a vacuum, When the British had to pull out of Grecce in 1947, the United States moved in, and bolstered Turkey to boot. When the Communists conquered the mainland of China in 1949, it was the United States fleet and American arms that held Taiwan and saved the remnant of Nationalist China. When the French were driven out of Indochina in 1954, the United States filled the vacuum,
"and when the United Nations and NATO seemed unable to handle Cyprus, it was the United States again, | in the last week, whioh moved in to fill the gap."
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The title of this editorial was, appropriately enough, "Policeman to the World," a
The very next day, on June 17, the State Department had to confess that American forces were involved in still another theater, "Civilian pilots" had flown combat missions in behalf of the Congo= lese government against the. rebellious people in the eastern province of Kivu,
On June 19, the New York Times again came out with a lead editorial about this situation, The “civilians” operating in the Congo “are Cuban exiles," it said, "The connection. between Cuban exiles and the Central Intelligence Agency has been uninterrupted — since long before the Bay of Pigs invasion,"
This editorial, which is entitled “Whose War in the Congo?" ended up by expressing concern over the withdrawal of UN troops from the Congo on June 27, “What happens afterward is something to worry about, but the cause for worry will be greater still if the United - States should find itself blundering into an unsought role as police-~ man to fill still another vacuum, this time in Africa," i An "unsought role"? Or one assigned by "Nature"? -- the nature of imperialism, that is. ..
NEXT WEEK
A discussion on a difficult. point in history -- and :
materialist dialectics -- by William F, Warde: “How Im. i
‘portant Is the Individual in Making History?". With par- i
ticular reference to the roles of Lenin and Trotsky.
Directeur-Gérant: Pierre FRANK, 1'éditeur),.