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WORDS THE LEADER CANNOT BEAR TO HEAR In the ministries it is well known that the Leader winces Whenever he hears words which begin with the syllable PRO- Such words as *proletarian" "prose", "provocation" or "pro and con". and "profit" seem to disquiet him too. Whenever these words are mentioned in his presence He glances up shyly with a hunted, guilty expression Which the speaker is hard put to explain. Another syliable which causes him difficulty Is the syllable GRAM, occurring in the word "gramme" Which designates a small unit of weight, and in words such as • Since the Leader Exhibits such antipathy toward these two syllables, it follows Quite naturally that, above all, a word which contains them both Wherefore, at Party and theatrical functions The word PROGRAMME is always replaced by the expression "sequence of events"
Why poetry in Scottish Socialist and why this poem? Firstly, to provide the socialist movement with a wider awareness of the major socialist poetry of such writers as Brecht, MacDiarmid, Mayakovsky and Neruda.
Secondly, this particular poem because of the cunning way it unfolds its meaning in the final line and the increasing importance of that meaning. Clarity of thought is conveyed in language close to spoken speech - in Brecht's own phrase he *watched the people's mouth".
In this country the gulf between writers and activists is particularly wide yet this is not inevitable, universal or desirable. In many other countries censorship betrays the deep-seated fear repressive governments have of political writers and audience coming together.
At Pablo Neruda's funeral in 1973 the Chilean people chanted the poet's name with that of his friend Allende first public demonstration
combatiente » Y 1 Allende un solo they were indeed one fighter and the struggle to honour Allende by restoring democracy in Chile continues and is fuelled by the poems and songs of Neruda.
Perhaps this seems to digress from what Brecht called his *rhymeless verse with irregular rhythms" - But, as his own statement of the circumstances surrounding this attack on the Third Reich makes clear, their form was anything but the product of artistic self-indulgence: "The German Satires were written for the German Freedom Radio. It was a matter of projecting single sentences to a distant, artificially Scallered audience. They had to be cut down to the most concise possible torm and to be reasonably invulnerable to interruptions (by jamming). Rhyme seemed to me to be unsuitable, as it easily makes а рост seem selfcontained, lets it glide past the саг. Regular rhythms with their even cadence fail in the same way to cut deep enough, and they impose circumlocutions; a lot of everyday expressions won't fit them; what was needed was the tone of direct and spontaneous speech." "Cut deep enough" using "everyday expressions" and *the tone of direct and spontaneousspeech" the method of Brecht's poetry in the fight against fascism still remains valid.
If knowledge of the genesis of
Brecht's polemic against Hitler increases respect for the poem, so too In Britain in 1976 the poem invites slightly different interpretations. In the context of a Labour Government which continues to react "sequence of events" acquires an added irony.
But interpretation need not stop negatively there. Socialists today have to come to terms with the Labour Party's record of consistently preaching socialism without putting it into Even looking at what is apparently one of the most positive examples of the Labour Party implementing socialist policies — nationalisathe way in which it has been carried out has only served to make the tasks of socialists more difficult. As Raymond Williams wrote in the "The systems taken into public systems no longer attractive in profit terms (coal, railways), new systems requiring heavy initial investment (airways) and systems formerly municipally or publicly developed (gas, electricity). Some of these systems have been much more successful than is generally allowed, but it remains true, first, that they have not only failed to alter the "profit before use" in the general economy but have also been steadily themselves reduced to this old criterion, and, second, that they reproduced. Sometimes with apalling accuracy, the human patterns, in management and working relationships, of industries based on quite different social principles. The multiplication of such effects is indeed uninviting, and the easy identification of these institutions, supposed new society, has added to the back to the processes of the old dysleed
yet at the same time offered as witnesses of the new, they have so deeply damaged any alternative principle in the economy as to have emptied British socialism of any effective meaning.
These comments are depressingly easy to bring up to date when the British Steel Corporation redundancies to make itself *profit- creates able" and pensioners freeze so that the Central Electricity Generating Board can prove itself competitive in strict capitalist terms.
Brecht's poem illustrates the kind of regime which does not plan for the people. But for any long term planning. control of the economy is essential. Every political party is now publicly agrinst unemployment but only a socialist party controlling the "commanding heights" can hope to do more than mouth platitudes.
After all, Nixon's directive on Chile to "make the economy scream" equally well be applied to Scotland by either Ford or Carter through mani pulation of American investment. The for any ensuing "sequence of events" could not be written by any Scottish government unless the people owned or took into ownership the means of production, distribution and The socialist teeth of a clause 4 have not been drawn, only blunted by it must be the job of socialists to make them bite. We need to put Scottish Labour Party must fight for a programme of socialist nationalisation and for a planned socialist economy. Only in this way will it be protected against unprincipled pragmatism where
DAVE McKIE