Issue 186 of SOCIALIST REVIEW Published May 1995 Copyright © Socialist Review
Books are weapons, so it's said, and in that sense the best weapon in my armoury is the Communist Manifesto.
I find Marx and Engels' 150 year old battle plan as sharp as ever. I use the Manifesto as a practical day to day tool. I was in Cambridge the other day and a group of young men saw copies of Socialist Worker fall from a laden comrade. One asked if he could have a copy, and for the next ten minutes we argued our way through every anti-working class argument imaginable--too 'lazy, stupid, greedy'. I had at least one of the youngsters agreeing with what Marx and Engels and I--of course--had to say.
Lenin referred to our Manifesto as worth volumes. 'To this day its spirit inspires and guides the entire organised and fighting proletariat.' Hear, hear.
My first introduction to George Orwell was shouted by a bullying English teacher. My second was having an old Communist Party member bemoan him. But my later experience was much better. Homage to Catalonia--this is his real bullets flying account of the Spanish Civil War. The opening paragraphs leave the reader in no doubt whose side Orwell was on. 'When one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming, It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle... Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivised; even the bootblacks had been collectivised and their boxes painted red and black.'
I like James P Hogan's Voyage into Yesteryear. A spaceship adventure with the crew doing a Christopher Columbus style colonialising expedition to reclaim a star. However, this bunch of natives have a secret weapon up their sleeves. The ship's officers fight a losing battle as more and more of the crew abandon ship and go along with the idea of not wanting for the basic things of life, where people do the work they like as often as they like. The officers are forced to retreat to the bridge where, in the time honoured way of colonialism, they threaten the planet with annihilation I reckon Hogan has read the Communist Manifesto!
For my sins I am working with a cabaret group--politics and a good time! My first experience in front of an audience, making an attempt to entertain, was reading Hugo Dewar's 'Arsy Versy' from his collection of socialist poems. This is an inspiring and joyful read, and encouraged me to read more poetry. I found none more accessible. Let me whet your appetite with 'If':
Eyewitness in Hungary by Peter Fryer is an account of a revolution which was brutally put down by Stalinist forces exposing the lie that Russia was a workers' country. Peter Fryer was a member of the Communist Party, working as a journalist on the Daily Worker when he was sent to Hungary to report. They censored all his work. There was no doubt he was on the side of the rebels. This book explains how collections were taken up for the families of those killed in the resistance to the Russian onslaught. Suitcases were left on street corners where they were filled to bulging with contributions. No one stood guard over them. They were simply collected in the morning and distributed. It shows that when the people unite values change.
Suitcases full of money are nothing compared to the wealth of comradeship and solidarity. Comrades may wonder how people could have fallen for the Stalinist line. Well, here I have a confession to make. I read the Morning Star for two years. This book reinforced my decision to cancel my subscription.