Manawatu Daily Times The Decline of-Communism

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6735, 11 October 1928, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times The Decline of-Communism

QOMMUNISM, prior to the war and the Russian Revolution, was chiefly important as- an academic hypothesis. As a hypothesis it had defenders, whose diatribes against the status quo were interesting but seldorii dangerous. With the war and the overturn in Russia, however, the followers of Marx believed their great day had come. The events of 1914 to 1918 were hailed as a fulfilment of Marxian prophecy. In Russia a regime was established to prove, once and for all, the practical workability of Communist doctrines. Beyond Russia, surging tides of unrest seemed to point to an extern sion of the revolution. The Communist star rode toward the zenith. f ; 1 But one after another the dreams of those days have glimmered away toward oblivion. Central Europe—even with Bela Kun, flying his red flags in Budapest—regained its anti-Communist equilibrium. Attempts to overthrow tfle German Republic which were making headway, particularly in radical Saxony, in 1925, came, finally, to defeat. The general strike in Great Britain in 1926, eagerly anticipated in Moscow, furnished proof not of Communist advances but of the strength of the bulwarks with-which those advances were opposed. Russian plots in Syria and North Africa went badly awry. In the Far East, where, Communist agitators had counted most heavily on victory, there were temporary successes. China, as late as the early spring of 1927, appeared ready to surrender its nationalist movement to rod domination. But the notably sound common sense of the Chinese asserted itself. Moscow’s emissaries were ousted. Even in Russia, itself, Communism has become, again, a shibboleth rather than a manner of government. Close association with the hard facts of a capitalistic world has brought about a rapid evolution in the purposes of those who drove Kerensky from power in the autumn of 1917. Trotzky, to be sure, still cries out for the abandoned gospel. But he cries from exile, and but few pay him heed, least of all the authorities who direct affairs from within the walls of the Kremlin. The recent meeting of the- all-embracing British Trade Union Congress gave further evidence of the extent of this Communist decline. It has been a persistent strategy of the Soviets to capture the labour movements. A strong left wing of the British labour movement, up to very recently, has aided these tactics. Now, however, “ disruptive ” elements are being handled in a summary fashion. The veteran leaders of British labour no longer look toward Moscow as toward some developing Utopia. It has been agreed, after the experiences of the last decade, that co-operation between Communist and non-Communist labour movements is impossible. Thus, again, Communism is reverting to its pre-war status as an academic hypothesis. In that fact the proponents of constructive progress can find considerable satisfaction. The flaws in the present economic order cannot be hidden. But ten years of Communist effort have served to convince even those who cry out most loudly for inform that the necessary changes arc more likely to come by evolution than by violence. „ •