Communism and the USSR

The recent Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the 25th, was given widespread coverage in the western news media, Their attention was naturally focussed on the speech of Enrico Berlinguer, the Italin Communist Party leader who, when speaking at the 25th Congress, asserted the “inalienable right of equality... and autonomy of each party”.

Berlinguer was however not alone in his stance. The leader of the French C.P, George Marchais accused the Soviet leadership of “unjust and unjustifiable” acts of repression against Soviet citizens. The growing autonomy of the Italian and French Communist Parties, the two largest in the capitalist world, and the increasing distance being placed between many C.P.s and the Soviet leadership overshadowed the crisis of internal perspectives that was a marked feature of the 25th Congress, Economic Stagnation Indeed the 25th Congress marks a new stage in the crisis of Stalinism, both in the Soviet Union and On sn international scale. In the Soviet Union the economy experiences one crisis after another. The ninth five year plan which ended in 1975 was @ partial failure, For the first time it planned to give Sector B (consumer goods) priority over Sector A (capital goods). While the Sector A target was reached, 46% increase, the target for Sector 6 49% increase, was not reached, instead the result was 12% short ie. 37%, In the agriculture sector the result fell short by 9% and asa result the objective for agriculture in the tenth five year plan (1976—1980) has been tailored to go litthe beyond the objective of the plan before it, The extreme centralisation that the Soviet bureaucracy has imposed on the economy inhibits the growth of the consumer goods sector, For Sector B to grow implies a loosening of the bureaucratic control over production, However the Minimum decentralisation of decision-making can produce forces at a local level which form a challenge to the bur@aueracy, On the other hand the growth of the consumer goods sector is important to the livelihood of the working class, The latest five year plan has reverted to the old formula of subordinating consumer to capital goods production. At the level of wages the new Hlan has even lower targets set than the ninth five yaar plan, The permanent crisis of Soviet agriculture will greatly affect the food industry and consequently the living standards of the working class e.g. meat production will remain it its 1975 level all the wey through to 1980, ‘hat is, about 15 million tons, In other words the tual stagnation of both the economy and nore $0, the living standards of the working class vill be the main content of the new five year Van announced by the 25th Party Congress. nternational Stalinism in Crisis Jn an international level the Perspective is even Heaker for Stalinism, With the risa of tha uropean working class and the growth of the atonal communist parties, the pressure on these ge reformist parties leads to a growing strangement trom Moscow, After the cold war nese parties sat themselves the task of breaking ‘weir igalation by seeking alliances with social democracy and tha trade-union bureaucracy, For the past twenty years the C.P.s in Europe hae followed this course, This period has hada profound affect on the composition of the Party memberships. Now many are in a position of taking part in coalition governments, This new situation is putting grave strains on their relationship with the USSR. If they are to be acceptable to the European bourgecisia they must show that their allegiances lie with their nation states and not with a foreign power i.e.

the Soviet Union, Also in terms of winning broad electoral support the present state of affairs with regard to democracy and civil liberties in the Soviet Union is vary damaging:

On this issue they also fear losing many of their working class militants to the growing anti-Stalinist jeft in Europe, Thus those parties with a real mass base, the French, Italian and more outspoken in their criticism of tha Soviet Union, Even the British C.P., which wile insignificant electorally, has a strong position in the combative sections of the Trade Union movement, has found that it is being squeezed between left-social democracy on the one hand Thus it has recently attempted to distance itself from the more obnoxious aspects of the Soviet regime, Articles have appeared in the “Morning Star” anda motion was passed at thelr last Congress criticising political repression in tha USSA. In the January issue of Marxism Today", the party's theoretical organ, John Gollan, general secretary of the party for 19 years, not only criticised the lack of democracy in the USSR but siso attacked the whole basis by which the Soviet Party runs the country, Gollan upbraided the Soviet leadership for infrequent Congresses, and pointed out that decisions taken by the Soviet leadership were accompanied by “little or no public explanation” let alone discussion, The Communist Party of Ireland does not hava the strength to chance any such daring criticisms but tensions exist here too as was shown by the “Irish Marxist Society” split (the significance of this was analysed in the last issue of Socialist Republic). Spanish Communist Parties have become more and and the predominantly Trotskyist left on the other, chose, Old Men in Moscow What was significant about the 25th Congress was it's total inability to deal with either the internal or external problems of the Stalinist leadership.

The Soviet Party leadership now rivals the Catholic Church as an ageing gerontocracy. The average age of the Politoboro is now 66 years, but the average age of the “inner” group is 71, with the old stalwarts Pelsh and Susiov, 78 and 75 years old respectively, The ageing of the Soviet leadership is not only sumbolic of the ossification of the party hierarchy but also of the obvious predicamants raised by succession prob lems.

Such |s the fear of the repercussions of even Personnel mobility that such changes pose themselves as minor crises in themselves, especially ete time of the build-up of social and national tensions within the Soviet Union, Such is the dissension in the world Stalinist movement that Soviet leadership has almost given up its attempts to convene a conference of national communist parties, It now fears the advent of left governments with C.P. participation, unstable by their very nature, subject to-all kinds of pressure and liable to be outflanked on the left, The Soviet leadership prefers to maintain the Present status quo in Europe without any critical convulsions just as it did in the 1930s, This will in the future be a very severe source of conflict as Santiago Carrillo leader of the Spanish C.P. put it: “We must not nourish excessive illusions, either about the United States, .. or about the way in which the USSR will react to the formation of a bloc of socialist countries — or ones in the process of becoming such — not dependent on the USSR itself, and which have Political structures different from those of the peoples democracies... We cannot ignore the fact that in Moscow this will be viewed with concern”. The political project of the CP's is thus. in conflict with the foreign policy of the USSR, Opening of a new period?

Within the USSR perhaps the central problem is the inability of the bureaucracy to provide an incentive for the working class to produca. The complete lack of any control or democracy by the workers within industry and agriculture is the chief reason for this. To really remedy this the bureaucracy would have to commit suicide |.@, to abolish itself. Instead it tries ta make economies by leaning on the warking class. For exampia in the new five year plan Productivity is expected to increase by 30-34% but wages by only 16—17% — over 5% down on the last plan. But they daren’t lean too hard, because although the Soviet working class is both atomised and apathetic the events of Poland in 1970 and Czechosiovakia in 1968 are never far from the minds of the Soviet leadership, While Brezhnev absolved the party from all responsibility for the currant economic failures by placing the blame on the “managers” who had allegedly misapplied the correct line of the party the next five years might give the Soviet working class the chance to voice its own, perhaps less subtia, criticisms. It is however improbable that such eriticisms will be voiced from the platform of the | Party Congress, Of the 4,900 delegates present at the 25th party Congress a maximum of 60 were workers in factories or collective farms — an astonishing figure by any reckoning. While tha 25th Congress was not ¢ landmark in the history of Stalinism, like the 20th Congress in 1956, it does Indicate that the years of stability, of social and economic peace may be coming toa

ipeaking in the British House of Commons on March 25th this year, Merlyn Rees declared hat one of the main reasons for the British Government's decision to end political status nthe North was to make it easier for the RUC to operate throughout the 6 Counties. Given he central importance that Imperialism therefore gives to this latest attack on the Republican esistance, one could have expected that the defence of political status would be raised as a ey issue amongst the anti-unionist population by the various anti-imperialist organisations. jut such expectations have certainly not been fulfilled since the ending of political status in March. ‘he Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) has said mot a word on the issue, their silence being matched only by The Provisional Sinn Fein have taken up the question, but a review of their response shows it to be mited to press statements, articles in. An Phobjacht and Republican News and ineffective protests limited > members of their Cummain. The Provisional IRA have of course taken action against prison officials, ut the futility of this action clearly asserted itself when the only consequence was to subject Provisional Of course, it can be argued that the time is not yet ripe for a campaign in opposition to the removal of olitical status. The measure does not affect the prisoners that are present held, only those sentenced for ffences committed after March 1st this year, and so it won't start operating until July or August. But uch a view ignores the fact that Imperialism has approached the question in this way precisely to facilitate ne sowing of confusion amongst the Nationalist minority and place obstalces in the way of uniting Instead of falling into line with Britain's scheme, anti-imperialist organisations should have from the Another argument that has been put forward and finds favour particularly with Official Republicans, i that Republicans should not demand spacial treatment over and above that dished out to other risoners, After all, everyone in the North's jails is a prisoner of the capitalist system in the North’s jails Despite the apperent principled character of this position, it completely fails to take account of the Not only does this measure, by introducing individual cells for political prisoners as against the compound f Long Kesh and Magilligan, make it much easier for the authorities to isolate and demoralise the iilitants of the anti-imperialist organisations; much, more importantly, it aims to isolate the anti-imperialist Imperialism is fully aware of the political character of the struggle being waged in the North, 15,000 ritish troops aren't in the North to fight Belfast's Al Capone or Derry's Ronald Biggs, The UDR and the (UC are not equipped with armoured cars and SLA rifles to catch the likes of Billy the Kid, The Special on-jury Courts, the admission of evidence obtained by torture don't exist to stop the Raginald Maudlings nd John Stonehouses of the 6 Counties from escaping the wrath of ‘Justice’, All of these exist for one urpose alone — to force the nationalist minority back onto its knees, The ending of political statys is imed not at the members of the republican organisations alone but at the entire population of the It goes hand in hand with the British Government's policy of “restoring the primacy of the police” and using the UDA in street confrontations. Imperialism knows that if it can convince the anti-unionist population that the Republican prisoners are ‘gangsters and thugs’ then it will be well on the way to stabilising the situation and establishing the AUC and UDA in contro! of the catholic ghettoes.

The general character of this attack ensures that it will only be defeated by the mobilisation of the mass of the anti-unionist working class in defence of the political prisoners. Only in this context will action For this reason the Movement for a Socialist Rapydlic (MSA) gives its full support to the petition demanding the retention of political status which has bean launched by Peoples Democracy {PD}.

The petition is being taken into the ghettoes, signatures collected, and discussions organised to decide on action around the issue. In this way it is hoped to lay the basis for a campaign which will draw in much FOR FURTHER INFORMATION WRITE TO PLOUGH BOOK SERVICE, 2 Mary Street, risoners to even further hardship behind the wires.

Opposition, ovement asa whole from the anti-unionist population, ationalist ghettoes, Dublin Explosion ) because it denies the ole of conscious democra ‘ic mass action. ‘)because each act of indi ‘idual terror merely provi les an excuse for intensif ‘ing state repression.

oth these conclusions ha fe been amply borne out si ce the explosion last mon ch. New laws are being dr ifted to impose heavier se itences on those who organ se against the state and the Coalition government h he Social and Democratic Labour Party (SO LP) and the Official Republican Movement, eginning prepared the basis for a mass campaign capable of frustrating these plans, rave threat posed to the anti-imperialist struggle posed by the removal of political status.

in the prisons be effective, JOHN MAGEE (cont. from p.10) 4 Use of conspiracy charges.

can and socialist.

Just be met with irreconcil tance to the government?s are reminded of Trotsky?s words on this subject; wider forces and begin to mobilise the mass opposition which Is so desperately needed.

Dublin 2, or PLOUGH BOOK SERVICE, 72 Castle Street, Belfast, as talked of making wide u The Irish Times has talked in terms of the banning of organisations both republi In our view actions su ch as this assassination m able opposition within the anti-imperialist camp. The re is no substitute for th e mass mobilisation of the working class as any resis measures will show. We a Irish prisoner after army beating "But the smoke from the ex plosion clears away,the pa nic disappears,the success or of the murdered ministe er makes his appearance, 1i fe again settles into the old rut,the wheel of capit alist exploitation turns as before; only police re pression grows more savage and brazen. And as a resul t,in place of the kindled hopes and artificially ar oused excitement come disi Illusion and apathy."

National Committee, MSR.

men & gays The 1967 Sexual Offences Act in Britain, which legalised homosexual relations between consenting adults (over 21) in private, does not apply in the backfired in the face of the police. However, the names and addresses of people who are intensely afraid of exposure have been taken by the RUC in

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