Since Khrushchov made his speech laying dowi the line for the
artists and officially ending the brief period of 'freadom,' all the trends —
in the international Communist movement have taken a position on the question,
The Bulgarians and Bast Germans, as one might expect, have merely parroted
K's formulations, The Poles have agreed in words tut made it clear they aren't
going to impose the new Lines, 57 6 Hungarians have not publicly disagreed with
K. but have issued statements put the contrary point of view, Togliatti, in
the middle of an election campaign,has simply said he thinks the Russians are
wrong in their attitude. However to one section K. can do no right. In the
April issue of their cultural magazine the Albanians accused kK, of making the
speech to cover up his revisionism in the field of arts!$
ALDSEMASTON - 1963 som RarLucTIoNS- 4555 dy a Nottingham participant
Year after year, certain 'left' critics of the C.N.D, movement have pre~ dicted that Aldermaston would be a flop, Year after year, instead, the march has become bigger. This a fact mist be faced and examinod before other concl— usions are drawn, There is no other political movomont at this stage which can evoke such a response, This is all the more pointed because the domonstr ation is successful, despite, not bacause, the middle class pacifists who havo placed themselves at the head of C.N.D, Tho winning of thousands of young people for action in support of tho transitional slogan of unilateralim is of first rato significance and is phonomsna which noeds desp analysis,
This year the march was dominated by tha 'Spies for Poace! pamphlet. The disclosures in it undoubtedly help.d to make tho march a numerical success, They also carricd out another service, that of bringing out fake lefts into the open. Because this kind of thing is really 'anti-ostablishment', it sots the latter off scurrying sideways, like crabs, to disassociate themselves from people 'who threaten Eritain's socurity'. The arguments vary, but inevtiably those pursuing reformist policies show thoir true colours, The Daily Worker donounced those who had produce? the pamhlet as aplitters, and when it reported Lord Russell's message of grautings to Aldermaston cut all reference to ' Spies for Peace’, actually winking it appear to say something it didn't, Tribune bemoaned the damage done to the movement and claimed that it had helped the capitalist press to smear it, Of course, if they would ban young poople from the march and carry 'God save the Quoen' instead of '"Ban the Bomb!’ it would be impessible for the capitalist to smear it (or would it), maybe this would suit Tribune, Other journals, such as New Stateman, acted in a manner one has come to expect.
Tribune's claims looked pretty thin when the Observer, tho Sunday after Waster, carried a report of a survey carried out in London suburbs, 54% of people asked had supported tho aims of the Aldermaston marchers (although only 35% the march itself), questions about the 'Spies for Peace" got a break-down which shows not a sien of ‘widesproad horror at what had beon done,' The 'Spies for peace’ carried out a good function in showing that despite all the talk about defending freedom, the first result of a mclear war would be a military Government in Britain, It showed too, that the ruling circles in this country do take muclear war seriously, These two factors facilitate mass socialist ‘axplanation about the nature of war,
Some people have genuine doubts about the tactics of those who rofuse to obey police instructions, The latter bolisve that it is of some important that there should be large numbers of people prepared to slash with the state machine, That this helps to harden out a cors of people who can be relied on in the struggles of the future, and that, anyway it prevents to whole affair from merely being a safety valve, What is wrong is for the latter to behave in such a way that they seprate themselves from new and no so advanced people, They should instead bo very patient in oxplaining their point of view to those who are just breaking from convention by supporting C.N.D.. They should look upon the latter as potential allies who can be won for socialim,
Arguments have been heard for ceasing to participats in tho anti-nuclear weapons, While some of these people (and not just S.P.G,Bors) discuss over a pint of beer whether Aldermaston is a divorsion from Labour Party working, I and others on tha demonstration were persuading pacple to join the Labour Party. Lenin and the Bolsheviks Party are quoted as authority for this abstentionist attitude, In 1905, the Bolsheviks denounced the petition to the Tsar organised by father Gapon as a provocation. Howovor, once it was realsied that the masses of St. Petersburg were taken in, the Bolsheviks decided to participate. Several Bolsheviks wore among the hundreds killed by the Tsarist cossacks, Marxists must always go through the experience of the masses with them (with tae ivty of eriticien,) Abstentionism has no place in Marxism,