REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22335, 24 February 1938, Page 7

REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM

TO TUB EDITOR OF THB PRESS. Sir—l have to thank you for your courtesy in grarttlhg so rtidch space to this correspondence. (1) Neither Mr Beck nor G.B.S. has commented On the conclusion I arrived at irt niy first letter, viz: That certain literature sounded to me very like treason. Therefore, I must assume that they, and “D.H.C.,” who also ignored my first letter, agree with me d) Such being the case, they must admit that such literature should be banned and that organisations which, by distributing such reading matter, foster revolution, should be suppressed. ~ T . . , (3) In my second letter, I convicted Russia out of her own mouth of aiming at the destruction of the British Empire—to which “G. 8.5.” retorts, “Neither (one man hdr dne nation) can declare world revolution.” In what manner this is meant to refute my charge against Russia is beyond me. At any rate, every Russian leader during the last 2ti years has declared world revolution as thfe goal of Soviet CommUnlstn, but “the revolution cannot be conceived as. a Single event occurring simultaneously, all dyer the World (Programme df the Communist international Workers’ Library Publication, 1936;) . , _ , (4) Mr Beck challenges the figures of “Patriot,” but may I point out that mere denunciation is no argument, and that “Patriot” at least did give Us figures and state that they were from official sdUrcbs. Further, it is asking tdo much df pedple’s credulity to expect them tb think that the Bolshevik revolution Was almost bloodless, wheh every Bolshevik leader has advocated violence as the only way to reach the dictatorship of the ptoleadmit that, at the outset, the Russian revolution may have been partly a democratic rising—but has the result Been a democracy? Since the Communists are the greatest fighters in the world for democracy,” it is logical to argue that in Russia; after 20 years of Communist rule, we should find the greatest democracy. Mr Beck having failed to give any proofs that such Is the case, I shall tty td repair the omission, although I fear that the Conclusions df most Who bead them Will hot tally with those Of Mr Beck. (a) All citizens have the vote—good! —but they may only Vdte for candi(Jates offered and approved by the Communist Party, numbering approximately per cent, of the population and a close corporation. (b) All citizens have, the right td Work—gddd!—but they . have not, the right nfat tb work. Strikes ard illegal fiitd participants “must be shot and shot and shot” (“Pravda”), or, if they avoid sUCh a Charming end, Will have theit Wfii’k tickets marked “disorganisCr of labour,'* the result being that from theft dftWafds, all Work, fodd, 6f lodging is denied them. < c> The Wfirkfirs may form tfauC ÜBioris—good!—but only “to strengthen

and develop the Socialist State,” which, of course, is ihuch more important than the furtherance of decent wages and conditions! . (d) Freedom of speech is allowed—good!—b7t only “in order .to strengthen the Socialist system.” Tactics may sometimes be criticised, but nothing else. The students of the Commercial institute of Movosibifsk took “freedom Of speech” serioUsly—and found, unfortunately, that it was a more serious matter than they thought. (e) There is a code of justice—good! —but under it practically :.ny offence, however trivial, may be construed as plotting against the State, “wrecking or “sabotage”—and the length, type, etc., of the sentence are entirely at the discretion of the Court. Do these facts appeal as democracy? Do the repeated purges argue that democracy exists? Do the methods of the Cheka and later of the O.G.P.U. smack of democracy? And when Stalin says, “There is soil for only one party in the U.S.S.R., which can only be the Communist Party”—"which party of \\ per cent, of the population rules and governs the other 98J per cent. —does it not savour mOfe Of a dictatorship than of a democracy? (6) I must thank Mr Beck for admitting that the ultimate aim of the Communists is the establishment of Soviet “democracy.” I trust I have made reasonably plain in my above remarks just what this democracy stands for. I also trust that my first two letters gave reasonably clearly the objects and methods of Russian Communism. The fact that Russia has adopted (and with her, of course, the Communist International), the tactics of the United Front—as Dimitrov said at the Seventh Congress, “We must use wooden horse tactics” —should not blind us to the fact that her ambition is, as always, world revolution with the overthrow of all capitalistic systems and ideas. „,, ~. (7) With the permission of the editor, I shall give a little space to “D.H.C.” He, as I expected before the fitiish of this correspondence, produces the Fascist smoke-screen, sb dear to Communist sympathisers. The idea is, of course; that there are only two alternatives, Fascism or Communism. Now, to mi Fascism, Nazism, and Communism are all anathema, because they are all dictatorships—and I strongly object to dictators, whether they wear black, brown, or red. I like to think that there are still some people in the world who would like a say in governing themselves —and our system of government, with all us weaknesses, at least allows us to say who shall legislate for us—we are not made to bow to the whims of cranks who are concerned with men only in so far as theii family tree or their capacity to act as robots makes them acceptable. , (8) Dear old Spain is also dragged in by the heels, wounded unto death by Hitler and Mussolini! Of course. “D.H.C.” would have us believe that Russia’s only desire is to preserve democracy in and that she had no interest in Spain until the present civil war. May I please state briefly the following few points? (a) In 1922 Lenin said, “The next country in which Soviet rule will be established is Spain, and in the same year there was set Up in Moscow a museum in preparation for the Spanish Bolshevik revolution. (b) In 1931. Trotsky laid down the following scheme for Bolshevisms Spain:—(l) The Republicans are to piill doWh the crown; (2) The churches and landowners are to be despoiled; (3)The Republic is to be overthrown and a proletarian dictatorship set up. (c) In April, 1936, Caballero fa member of the A,D.P., the Soviet Atheist League) said, “The dictatorship of the proletariat is at hand, and the new ,regime will not be able to establish it by peaceful means but by violence.” . . (d) In the same month, Bela Kun fthe arch-fiend of the Hungarian terror in 1919) arrived from Russia with some 200 propagandists to arrange for the setting-up of the Soviets in Spain. I am very gratefiil for the consideration you have shown us in this correspondence, and shall conclude by saying that subversive propaganda directed by a foreign Power should have no place in this country, and that those who serve such a Power with the ultimate ambition of overthrowing the Empire and all its institutions are a wholly undesirable and obnoxious element in our society.—YbUr£, etc^_ February 21, 1938. [This correspondence is now closed.— Ed., “The PreSs.”]