[OND THE FRAGMENIS an Row bodham, Jynne Segral…]

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OND THE FRAGMENIS an Row bodham, Jynne Segral •Nen The accove in Rovnud tho The essays in Beyond the Fragments are essentially concerned with the organisational problems of uniting the numerous, fragmented left groups in Britain into a coordinated anti-capitalist campaign.

The authors believe that the differences which distinguish left groups are not so great that they cannot work together. At the moment their resources and individual strengths remain ineffective because of their isolation.

Wainwright's introduction quite correctly recognises that different forms of oppression -oppression of women, of blacks, of workers-are interconnected. Each of these oppressed groups is in confrontation with the state, which directly or indirectly maintains their subordination.

In response to this, however, she argues that there are two immediate problems to be resolved. "Common programme"

"One problem is that of drawing up a common prog ramme of political and social change meeting the needs of all oppressed groups and arguing for it among each group.

"The other problem is that of gathering together all the different sources of strength, uniting the social power of the community with the industrial power of those in production and pitting this popular power against the existing state." (p.4)

This immediately points to some of the fundamental weaknesses of the Beyond the Fragments programme.

The authors are not so naive as to imagine that there are not important differences of aim, programme and. tactics between many left groups.

Federal structure

However they do not appear to acknowledge that this fact in any way precludes the unification of the left. It is quite acceptable in their view to unite on a minimal programme.

"In organisation terms this could imply some sort of federal structure which provides • a framework for united action following from the fundamental principles on which revolutionaries could agree, for collective discussion of our differing experiences and traditions, and autonomy to take initiatives when tactical disagreements keep us. apart."(p.6)

Thus, far from being democratic centralist, this new organisation, it is proposed, will guarantee to each member group the right to act autonomously.

Presumably in some instances this would mean federated groups taking contradictory positions and action for the disagreements between left groups are not merely tactical. They stem from a fundamentally different orientation towards such basic mass organisations as the social democratic parties, the trade unions, and towards international groupings.

•Propaganda The "fundamental principles on which revolutionaries could agree would necessarily be extremely broad in character and few in number.

But there is little possibility that the federation floated in Beyond the Fragments would be faced with the spectacle of its members fighting on different sides of barricades-because none of the campaigns envisaged go beyond the level of propaganda.

The authors specifically criticise those socialists organised in the Labour Party and Wilson, appears here. "Leninist parties" on the grounds that:

"both are organised in ways more appropriate to seizing power-governmental power and state power respectively -than to the necessary preliminaries of raising and extending socialist consciousness and grass root organisation among the majority of working people." (p.2)

For Rowbotham and Co., any programme to confront the state is, at the moment, premature. Such a stage would only emerge when the working class and oppressed groups:

"have developed a level of consciousness, sense of purpose and degree of self confidence to re-make society. The purpose of socialist organisation now should be to develop that consciousness, together with a vision of an alternative society."

Swapping ideas

Then, at some indetinite time in the future, when everyone is aware of the need for socialism, we can begin to accomplish our plan for an alternative society. Until then, the task is simply one of swapping ideas:

"exchanging the understandings arrived at by different movements-industrial militants, for example, contributing their sharp sense of the material sources of working class power, that flows from a detailed knowledge of how production is organised, or feminists challenging the competitive egotripping and ego-trampling arrogance which still erodes the collective strength and democracy of many trade union and socialist organisations. • •a forum for political debate and discussion through which the truths and weaknesses of different traditions can be sifted and tested in relation to the contemporary problems. "(p.12)

It is hard to see how participants in the open-ended discussion would in any way come into conflict with the labour movement bureaucracy or break away potential revolutionaries from the politics of reformismthe main barrier to a mass anticapitalist movement.

Consciousness-raising But having discovered that the route to left unity through renouncing practical struggle in favour of propagandism, then the demand that the left should "learn from the insights of the Women's Liberation Movement" follows on naturally.

The WLM is the prime example of a broad-based propaganda organisation-one which has developed the notion of "consciousness-raising" as a The WLM has also grouped around itself a whole series of 'organisational structures'reğional networks, women's centres, conferences, publishing groups, theatre groups, folk and rock bands, film collectives, trade union caucuses, food co-ops...

That the WLM is also predominantly middle class, displays a huge political disparity between one town and the next, and achieves few tangible results, are of course, not regarded as valid criticisms!

But while the WLM and propagandist left groups «M S AI ID ROVIDES ¡EFUGES ' FOR i BATTERI ED WOMEN BA THEIR CH V'OM per d continue their efforts to convince people, the capitalist class is proceeding to launch a wholesale attack on the rights and living standards of the working class-mass sackings and closures; public spending cuts; anti-union laws; and witch hunts and victimisations of militants.

The propagandist authors of Beyond the Fragments take no account of the fact that their fight to "raise consciousness' cannot take place in a static situation, but in the midst of an escalating economic and political crisis.

Try as they might, no oppressed group can rest content with simply attempting in today's conditions to change the world through changing TENA people's ideas. As Marx wrote 150 years ago, it is not enough:

"merely to produce correct consciousness of an existing fact; for the real communist it is a question of overthrowing the existing state of things' (C.W. Vol 5 p.58)

Since Kowbotham and Co. 41. apparently doubt even this basic principle, it is hard to see how they claim to be Marxists at all.

But Beyond the Fragments goes beyond this fundamental error, and overlooks the fact that by the very act of engaging in a practical struggle against the Tory offensive and fighting for principled demands, revolutionaries are at the same time "doing propaganda work"

Class consciousness, and "GIUNN awareness of an alternative society is best developed in the material conflict with the existing social order-whether this be a unionisation dispute, a fight against redundancies, or a campaign to save a threatened hospital.

Crucial to this is the Trotskyist Transitional Programme which contains a system of demands that are both immediately relevant to today's struggle of the working class, and also point the way towards the wresting of power from the capitalists, and the establishment workers management of a socialist The Transitional Programme thus provides a bridge between today's consciousness of the masses and the socialist consciousness that is necessary for the mass mobilisation of workers against the capitalist system.

Thus the fight to open the books of industry, or to achieve a sliding scale of wages to protect against inflation, offer a means of both raising consciousness and advancing workers' struggles.

When Lynne Segal argues, with her fellow contributors, that "our social relations must now reflect or 'prefigure' the social relations we want to create after the revolution" (p161), she too shows a failure to grasp the significance of the Trotskyist programme.

The transitional demandsspelling out for instance the need for elected factory committees to assert workers' control over production, and for broad-based councils of action or soviets to mobilise the masses in UpPUSINI LU LIt SUITES ransnitina tha haneronio state-point precisely to the kind of organisation needed after the revolution.

'Undemocratic

Such demands combine propaganda for socialism, with agitation and practical action against today's capitalist offensive.

It is for this reason that the narrow propagandist limits imposed upon revolutionary activity by the Beyond the Fragments team must be rejected.

But their call for unity on a minimal political basis is combined with their rejection of "hierarchy" , leaders and centralism as 'undemocratic' In this they echo the WLM, which regards these as means whereby individuals can gain positions of power over others even within a socialist organisation.

Obviously there is more need for centralised control in an organisation engaged in practical struggles than in the one envisaged by the Beyond the Fragments authors, dedicated to simply an exchange of ideas.

Answerable If a revolutionary party is to be built on a basis to lead the working class in struggle against the labour movement bureaucracy and the machinery of the capitalist state, it is essential that it have a clear and united programme and a central decision-making body to make day-to-day decisions which need to be acted upon immediately and in coordinated fashion.

What is of course crucial in this is that this central leadership is made answerable to the membership, and denied the scope to erect itself as a 'hierarchy.

Equally it is important that the elected leadership act in accordance with programme and policies democratically arrived at py ine broadest possibie 11. - Laura dand mannilala involvement of the membership. • Obviously there will almost always be a minority who dissent from particular policies. But if an organisation is to operate effectively minorities must agree to be bound by majority decisions while retaining their political right to disagree within the movement.

In other words the Leninist method of democratic centralison is of vital importance to such an organisation. It is

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LIST PRESS, Wednesday 27 August

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