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has been built there.

The state in the Soviet Union we are told, no longer represents the rule of any single class: it is no longer a dictatorship of the proletariat, but is instead "a state of the whole people"

That such a classless 'state of the whole people' completely distorts everything Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky ever taught on this subject is of course no problem to the Soviet constitutionalists. For this "classless' people's state has been cynically introduced to bridge the gap between the official theory of the Soviet Union and what exists in reality.

Officially, all the tasks of proletarian dictatorship have been accomplished; the USSR has "achieved socialism" and is now on the road to communism and the classless society.

In reality, a monstrous state machine, controlled by a wasteful, reactionary and parasitic Stalinist bureaucracy exists there-as the workers of Hungary? Czechoslovakia and the USSR itself know only too well.

'WHOLE PEOPLE'

The red professors of the Kremlin resolve this contradiction by merely yoking the myth and the reality • together: the state exists, yes; but it is a classless state, belonging to "the whole people"

From the standpoint of Marxism such a concept is of course nonsense.

In general, the state is a product of irreconcilable class antagonisms, and arises precisely because of class oppression and division within society.

A necessary corollary of this is that the state is an organ of class rule, and that as long as classes exist, it too will exist.

The working class of the Soviet Union of course carries on its back not the state machine of a capitalist class, but one controlled by and in the interests of the Kremlin bureaucratic caste.

That bureaucracy's inflated living standards and privileges rest on its vice-like grip on political power, even within a state where the means of production are nationalised.

"The soviet oligarchy possesses all the vices of the old ruling classes but lacks their historical mission. In the bureaucratic degeneration of the Soviet state it is not the general laws of modern society from capitalism to socialism which find expression but a special exceptional and temporary refraction of these laws under the conditions of a backward revolutionary country in a capitalist environment. The scarcity in consumer goods and the universal struggle to obtain them generate a policeman who arrogates to himself the function of distribution. Hostile pressure from without imposes on the policeman the role of 'defender' of the country, endows him with national authority and permits him doubly to plunder the country"

(Trotsky, In Defence of Marxism)

It is in this way that class pressures still find a reflection within the Soviet state.

Of course Trotskyists unconditionally defend the USSR and its nationalised property relations against any imperialist attack: but at the same time we recognise that the achievement of socialism-the abolition of privilege and of wantrequires the political overthrow of the Kremlin oligarchy.

And such an overthrow cannot be brought about by peaceful self-reform measures: it must be carried through by the mobilisation of the Soviet working class led by a revolutionary party.

Instead of this the Kremlin bureaucracy claims to have established a classless state, a "state of the whole people" which not only is not withering away but has absolutely no intention of ever doing so.

Not only does the constitution amit any reforence to a prores of "safeguard the interests of the Soviet state, to contribute to the strengthening of its might and prestige" .. (Article 62, emphasis added).

The "state of the whole people" stands revealed as nothing but a piece of bureaucratic humbug, a formula designed to conceal and entrench the privileges which the bureaucracy enjoys.

Section 4 of the Constitution (Articles 88-105) concerns itself with "the Soviet of People's Deputies and Procedure of their election"

The title again signifies the change mentioned above: the state is a "people's state", , therefore the Soviets are to be composed of "people's deputies"

NONSENSE

But this again is nonsensical: soviets are nothing other than organs of class rule-a non-class soviet is a contradiction in terms.

Complementing this new name is a declaration that the bourgeois method of electing deputies will be used i.e. "on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by universal ballot". • (Articie 94).

In the early years of the Soviet Union, elections to soviets were public affairs, by show of hands, and were weighted so as to ensure working class dominance of the Soviet state. (For example the 1918 Constitution stipulated that in working class areas, one delegate represented 25,000 voters, while in the countryside the ratio was one per 125,000 inhabitants).

In addition, elections generally look place at the place or work. again reinforcing the class nature of the voting as opposed to the bourgeois "secret ballot" which atomises the working class, allowing them to vote only as "individuals"

TROTSKY

This point is made forcibly in Trotsky's analysis in the Transitional Programme of the Fourth International:

"The bureaucracy replaced the soviets as class organs with the fiction of universal electoral rightsin the style of Hitler-Goebbels. It is necessary to return to the soviets not only their free democratic form but also their class content. As once the bourgeoisie and kulaks (rich peasants) were not permitted to enter the soviets, so now it is necessary to drive the bureaucracy and the new aristocracy out of the soviets. In the soviets there is room only for representatives of the workers, rank and file collective farmers, peasants and Red Army men.

Democratisation of the soviets is impossible without legalisation of soviet parties. The workers and peasants themselves by their own free vote will indicate what parties they recognise as soviet parties."

(tolrose edition, p. 36)

On this point the 1977 constitution merely reproduces the positions advanced by Stalin in 1936. Both constitutions legally liquidate the soviet as a class organ, but in doing so they only mirror the actual liquidation of the soviets that occurred during Stalin's rise to power.

The bureaucracy cynically retains the name soviet out of expediency only: just as Napoleon Bonaparte called the empire over which he ruled "a republic" , so do these latter-day Bonapartists call their bureaucratic caste rule "a soviet society".

REALITY

But the constitution itself cannot help but betray the reality which it seeks to cover up.

Chapter 1 of section 2 is entitled "The Basic Rights, Freedoms and Duties of Citizens of the USSR" and is the longest chapter in the entire draft, covering 29 articles. Innumerabie "rights' are guaranRecent events in the Soviet Union also give the lie to the constitution's claim that "this is a society of true democracy". (Preamble).

The unexplained fall from power of USSR President Nikolai Podgorny on May 24 is testimony to the continuing in-fighting within the bureaucracy - a grappling match less bloody, but no less fierce, than the intrigues of "the Stalin era"

Podgorny's demise was sealed with the appointment on June 16 of Leonid Brezhnev as President of the Soviet Union, who now becomes the first man in Soviet history to hold the post of party leader and President at the same time.

Stalin the title used by Stalin, and i Russian equivalent of "Fuhrer" "Il Duce"

Both the 1977 Draft Cons tution, and Brezhnev's rise undisputed power, testify to t continuation of bureaucratic rule the Soviet Union.

FAMILY Articles such as numbers 53 al 66, which enshrine the bourge‹ family and oblige "citizens ... devote themselves to the upbringi of their children" show how far t USSR is from achieving socialist in which all domestic labour » be completely socialised.

Interestingly enough, t Morning Star review of the Dri Constitution on June 6 failed draw attention to these article: presumably because of the Cl uncritical alliance with bourger feminism). Trotsky wrote of t 1936 Constitution that it sealed:

... the dictatorship of t privileged strata of Soviet socie over the producing masses."

(Documents of the Fourth Int national, p. 105).

The 1977 Draft reaffirms it dictatorship, and reveals again t need for a political revolution oust the ruling bureaucracy GAINS The enormous gains of E October revolution-nationalisati of land and industry, state mon poly of foreign trade, elements planned economy-have not y been reversed by bureaucral domination of the USSR.

But now, as in 1936. th bureaucracy is a fetter on t extension of those gains, and mi be overthrown before any re progress towards genuine socialis can be achieved.

As the Transitional Programn points out:

"Only the victorious remolatio ary uprising of the oppres masses can revive the Soriet regi and guarantee its further develo ment towards socialism. There but one party capable of leadi the Soviet masses to insurrection the party of the Foun International!" (p. 37).