GANG Something stop Jones coffin

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Choice of Evils, a television play by Jim Allen (author of 'Days of Hope') is an attack on the collaboration of the Catholic Church with fascism during World War II.

During the Nazi occupation of Italy Pope Pius XII signed a 'noninterference' agreement (concordat) with Hitler, as he had done with Mussolini.

God's representative on earth uttered no word when tens of thousands of Jews were deported from Italy and murdered in concentration camps by the Nazis.

Nor did the Vatican have anything to say about any other of the Nazi atrocities. 'Choice of Evils' is about such an incident.

One day in March 1944 a bomb placed by the resistance kills 33 Nazi soldiers. Hitler decides on instant vengeance-Killing 330 Italian hostages (10 for every dead Nazi). Among those chosen is a priest.

The Nazis make sure Pius will make no protest which might provoke more action against Nazi occupation.

Apart from • the Nazi officers necessary to the plot, the play consists essentially of four characters-Pius XII (unflinchingly indifferent to the fate of the hostages since anything is preferable for him to the spread of communism; Maria Cinelli, a resistance fighter; the priest, father Borelli, who acts as a courier for the resistance; and Cardinal Volpone, sometime resistance sympathiser and a one-time friend of Cinelli and Borelli.

MITIGATE

Volpone is anxious for the Vatican to intervene to mitigate the Nazi vengeance and save its tarnished image as collaborator in genocide.

He speaks to Pius with the words of "liberalism". ', distorting. the demands of his resistance friends. And he speaks to Cinelli and Borelli in the words of the Pope.

But his attempt to persuade the Pope that for the Church to intervene would actually undermine the influence of communism is dismissed by Pius with callous disdain. The Pope is waiting for US imperialism to replace the Nazi invaders as the Church's ally against communism.

And Volpone's attempt to get Borelli to sign a denunciation of the bombing in order to save his life receives only scorn and contempt.

Both as a presentation of the events and as political symbolism Jim Allen's play is a success. But the play for all its power fails satisfactorily to resolve a dilemma common to most efforts to put drama to the service of revolutionary politics PROBLEM This is the problem of combining naturalistic emotions and political symbolism in the characters of the play. In 'Choice of Evils' the symbolism is so clear that the characters fail to "live" • This partly weakens the ultimate political purpose of the play.

Allen tries to show how Borelli's principles would be betrayed by FOR led by the Communist Party and ultimately by Stalin.

Stalin was to betray the struggle against fascism to prevent it from developing momentum.

Volpone reveals therefore that as a senior Vatican diplomat he knows of the deal which Stalin had made at the Tehran conference to divide the post-war world with imperialism into pre-arranged spheres of influence.

He predicts the post-war settlement-the Stalinist betrayal of the Greek revolution, and the return of Italian Communist Party leader Togliatti to arrange a coalition But this crucial political point lacks dramatic credibility, and the revolutionary interpretation of history has less force than it should have because there is no character suitable to express it.

REPUDIATION

The arch-opportunist Volpone merely uses these facts in an unsuccessful attempt to hammer Borelli into signing his repudiation of the bombing.

And as a result the words come over confusingly. But despite this the play is powerful. And the fact that the authorities of the Church were sufficiently frightened by it to suppress its performance for six years is some testimony to its truth. drug companies or professors.

And the descriptions of team work given in the book demonstrates the wealth of knowledge which all workers can contribute to the productive process.

The ward cleaner observes the patients with as much perception and for longer than doctors flitting in and out of wardrounds. Which consultant has ever asked his or her opinion?

Workers in a factory know the faults and strengths of the machines they use but which design engineer utilises that experience?

ELITE This valuable working class knowledge is so often dismissed as 'old wives tales' by the chosen elite of "specialists" , when, particuarly in medicine, there is more and more evidence that in some circumstances the old ways are as good if not better than the new alternative expensive technological ways.

And for this reason the main content of the book--the questioning of established bourgeois notions of medicine and of workers' control -is of particular importance today as workers fight NHS cuts and hospital closures, coupled with the growth of private practice in all fields of medicine.

While the interests of capitalist private profit and proper medical care for all come increasingly into conflict, the method of Marxism and the fight for development of medicine and all fieds of science and technology can be shown to be It was a dangerous way for 'Daily Mail' readers to start the week.

They are given, as a group, to uncontrollable outbursts of fury, frothing at the mouth and savaging workers with furled umbrellas.

It was therefore asking a lot of their self control to splash across the front page the news that the Social Contract had been assassinated.

BURIES

Twice as large as life the headline blared "Jack Jones Buries the Contract" . In case anyone missed the message this was topped with a strap line reading: "Union chief admits: Pay curbs have failed"

For those who had the strength to read on the news looked grim. There was Jones, the architect of the Social Contract, apparently washing his hands of any more of the same. Dreadful memories began to stir that this man had once been public enemy number one.

Yet all is not quite what it seems.

The story started firmly enough. "The Social Contract has failed" Mr Jack Jones, its principal architect, admitted yesterday.

"It had not curbed inflation, nor had it cut unemployment"

But from this promising beginning the death agonies of capitalism took on a slightly less dramatic hue.

The devastating alternative Jack Jones was announcing to a shell shocked world was ... an 'orderly return to free collective bargaining'.

The Mail droned on about Jones being forced by pressure from the miners and other workers to shift his ground. "Mr Jones has no alternative other than to concede a return to orderly collective bargaining in the hope that this will prevent huge demands"

"Mr Jones the political realist, is bowing to overwhelming pressure building up within the union movement against the Social Contract"

Jones, far from bowing or yielding to this pressure, was in fact announcing for the umpteenth time that he intended to ignore it.

SCOTTISH TUC

The Times thought that hopes of Phase. III had been dealt a "severe blow' . But in their account of the speech Jones made on the eve of the Scottish TUC the paper blew the gaff on his motives.

Far from ending the Contract Jones was trying to get the Scottish TUC to support it. "He is seeking support from the Scottish TUC... for an extension of the understanding between the unions and the Cabinet on pay policy but the prospects are not good"

As it turned out, of course, the prospects were good enough, despite the TGWU delegation taking Jones at face value and voting to support the miners' motion.

Encouraged perhaps by the real substance of Jones' remarks the Scottish TUC voted for another year of wage controls. 'We do not want a whole series of massive demands and massive strikes that could ruin the economy" • said Jones.

So the Daily Mail can relax. Jack Jones was not after all buryin : the Contract. He was giving it the kiss