Pure Militancy Is Not Enough

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A review of The Case Against the Social Contract' by the Group of Independent Socialists "Adolph the Superman Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk"

This pamphlet was produced by a group of ex-members of the International Socialists who resigned because they saw n the 'Right to Work' and election campaigns gimmicks replacing steady trade union work and the building of the rank and file groups.

It is not surprising, therefore.

Heartfield was a Stalinist and strictly followed the Comintern line. Hounded out of Germany in 1933, he moved to Prague, then to London, and died in 1968 in East Berlin.

The exhibits are "tactfully" chosen. For the period during which the Stalinist bureaucracy labelled the Social Democrats "Social Fascists" who had to be defeated before it was possible to tackle fascism we are shown very few pictures.

BETRAYALS

Similarly with the Stalinist betrayals in Spain during the Civil WaI. Instead, accompanying the exhibition, is an apologetic and sickening text: the "opportunism of the Social Democrats" is blamed for policies during the Third Period, and we are told that the Spanish Republicans were defeated "due to Italian and German intervention".

"Dada" is now seen as a force that "fought on the side of the international proletariat' and Popular Fronts existed before 1935!

These faults cannot however detract from the overall strengths of this exhibition, (which also features a collection of contemрогату West German photomontages) strengths which derive from Heartfield's method itself.

The exhibits are local and real periodised ver timeless:.e: :elegate where taus ras "Direc and fuel the only rises is illusion"

The SIDE * that the pamphlet reflects the syndicalist notions which dominate the IS, (now the SWP).

The style of the pamphlet however, is appealing. The authors attempt to answer everyday questions that workers are likely to ask those militants who lead wage controls help the low paid? What about price controls? Don't we need to make sacrifices for the economy?-and a host of others.

There is a mass of interesting and useful facts about wages, prices, profits and cuts.

In general however, the pamphlet fails to give a lead on the way forward or even a serious analysis of the crisis.

Despite reference to 'investment difficulties' the pamphlet repeats the traditional IS "nasty employer" argument. The crisis is laid at the door of those who prefer to drink champagne rather than invest wisely.

INFLATION

The absence of a Marxist analysis of the crisis of capitalism shows itself most clearly in the section on inflation.

"In a moment of rare honesty in 1970, even the Tories admitted the truth. Britain faces the worst inflation for 20 years. This is mostly the result of tax increases and devaluation.

What the authors fail to show is that any attempt by the government to restore profitability to British capitalism is simply a reaction to the crisis. And while government measures inevitably exacerbate the crisis (for nothing short of the total defeat of the working class could restore a temporary equilibrium) they must never be mistaken for its cause.

Those like the Group of Independent Socialists (GIS) who go to ruling great lengths to point to class mismanagement as the origins of unemployment, inflatio and declining living standards come close to merely arguing for "benevolent' capitalism.

Whilst devoting a page to the causes of British inflation (devaluation, the Common Market other government policy), world in Mation is seen as the result of 'comp licated reasons' DEEPER The GIS will need to go a lot deeper than this if they want to drive reformism out of the workers movement!

It must be made clear that the tendency for the rate of profit to fall is a fundamental contradiction of capitalist production. It is generated by the very process of the accumulation of capital.

In this way we can locate the cause of the crisis in the anarchic capitalist system itself. The essential demands for workers to organise around can then be shown to be those which point to nationalisation and workers control of production and planning.

The GIS shopping list of forms of opposition to attacks on wages and conditions can, we are told, 'defend OuT existing living standards'-but in the absence of any organs of workers' control this is clearly impossible.

Correctly exposing the fraud of government price controls, the GIS project simply a trade union response.

IRECT ACTION t action over rents, fares bills can get results. But real defence against price wage rises. All else is Warren: Jemand is :3: = it ::: introduce the important element of workers control which will point the way to an independent working class solution to the crisis.

The general political weakness illustrated here is repeated throughout the pamphlet's list of demands in the section 'What happens now?' On unemployment, the cuts and prices the only answer offered is militant direct action.

Workers looking tor a way to fight sackings, stop cuts and increase wages should look to the Trotskyist Transitional Programme, which offers an independent class struggle programme and a strategy for winning socialism through workers control.

In the section "If the Social Contract is so bad why was it agreed?" • the GIs points to the growing incorporation of the trade union leadership into the government and the increase in its policing role.

However, in not pointing out the way in which votes for the Social Contract were bureaucratically forced through the trade unions the GIS comes dangerously near blaming the working class for its acceptance.

The central task facing the working class is the construction of a conscious leadership-a revolutionary party.

The GIS do not address themselves to this problem and simply say that their policies 'can help to build a movement towards a society which doesn't depend on wrecking our standard of living' We have reviewed this pamphlet (sales of which are now reported to be at the 4,000 mark) because we think the ideas within it need to be combatted.

SHARP

If the GIS comrades are to go forward towards the correct Trotskyist programme then the points of difference with them must be sharply argued.

Otherwise Trotskyists are saying that their own theory and programme are optional extras.

The first issue of Socialist Challenge reviewed this pamphlet and made much of its wages policy.

Here is what Will Reese wrote:

"The pamphlet's proposal that wage agreements should be open-ended and re-opened if prices keep rising comes very close to the call for automatic wage rises for every rise in the cost of living. This is an important step forward from the syndicalist position which sees this demand as a threat to the militancy of the working class."

NOT MUCH DIFFERENT If there has been a step forward -and the formulation in the pamphlet is, in fact. not significantly wifferent from that sometimes used by IS-the fact that there is no demand for inflation to be assessed by workers and housewives price committees is a considerable weakness.

The pamphlet as a whole is in fact completely devoid of any concept of transitional demands and workers' control. Trotskyists must insist on these demands and be absolutely precise on the nature of the sliding scale demands if any political development is to be made with new forces such as these.

Copies of the pamphler are obtainable: at 10p each plas postage. from:

31. Greshan R:== . Wavertee R:

By Keith Were and Jo Him a=:

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