According to the London Evening News of November 8, several members of Her Majesty's Government are claiming that if they had been in Russia in 1917 they would have been Bolsheviks. Lord Chalfont, Minister of Disarmamemt and Wilson's man in Europe said: "I would undoubtedly have been a Bolshevik," Minister of Health, Kenneth Robinson, was no less emphatic: "Oh, yes, a Bolshevik, certainly", in reply to the question of where he would have stood on that fateful November day. Mr. Peart, Minister of Agriculture, had no doubts that he would have been outside the Winter Palace helping to oust the old regime, Anthony Wedgwood-Benn and Anthony Greenwood, perhaps with memories of Aldermaston marches, felt the same, "I would have been fighting." said Wedgwood-Benn, It is, of course, very easy to cast yourself in an heroic role in events which took place half-a-century ago, But what is stopping these brave gentlemen from acting like Bolsheviks today? The Bolsheviks, when they seized power in November, 1917, had only one simple aim to destroy the power of capitalism forever, not only inside Russia but throughout the world. No matter how one interprets subsequent history in the Soviet Union, this is what the October revolution was about, The storming of the Winter Palace was only a means to this end, Messrs, Peart, Robinson, Greenwood, Wedgwood~Benn and Lord Chalfont are all members of the Labour Government. This government has not exactly shown any Bolshevik determination to make a frontal attack on capitalism in Britain. On the contrary, it has acted as its staunchest defender - playing the role of Kornilov and Kerensky rather than that of the Bolsheviks, As far as is known, these self-proclaimed would-have-been Bolsheviks have done nothing at all about this, They have been content to draw their Ministerial salaries and support the anti-working class measures of the government of which they are members, The Bolsheviks of 1917 were International Socialists, One of their first acts when in power was to proclaim their solidarity with all the oppressed peoples of the world, Our self-styled heroes are members of a government which gives moral support and material assistance to the aggressive war against the people of Vietnsm, They belong to a government which is now preparing to sell the people of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) down the river,
This is not Bolshevism! This is cowardice and hypocrisy and the sooner these Labour leaders are replaced with men and women with the spirit, the determination and the internationalist socialist zeal of the Bolsheviks the better for our movement,