The Class Struggle in Parliament, by Eric Heffer (Gollancz, £3.90)/ There was a time in the remote past when Eric Heffer was a good old British syndicalist. This book shows conclusively that he has come a long way since then. What it also shows, unfortunately, is that he hasn't learnt much on the way:
It is, however, in a morbid soft of way, a useful book as it gives a blow by blow account of the Labour left's participation in the act of God" strategy of fighting the Industrial Relations Act. (This strategy is known as the act of god" because it relies essentially on divine providence to arrange a suitable lightning bolt to strike down simultaneously thirty or so Tory • from the masses, been decided upon by the M.Ps as they are approaching the voting lobbies in the House of Commons. In other words, to fight the Act in any way primarily through Parliament is a farce because the Government, precisely because it is the Government, has a majority and will therefore win all the votes.) This book is also generally revealing on the present state of mind of Tribunism'. CLASSIC IDEAS As regards this latter question, we find in the book all the classic ideas of the Labour left. Firstly, the idea of a golden past: "The Labour Government of 1945-51 was positively revolutionary compared to that of 1964-70 (p.278), which somehow succeeds in missing such little' points as the Malayan war which was, except for decrepit British imperialism's "unfortunate lack of the most sophisticated technology of mass murder, quite as vicious as Vietnam. Indeed, even the Johnson regime did not feel it expedient, as did the British, to allow soldiers to pose for photographers holding as 'trophies' the freshly severed heads of guerilla fighters. Furthermore, this view is discreetly silent on the fact that most of the welfare reforms had already, under pressure war-time government lead by that well known socialist Sir Winston Churchill.
The second myth is the idea that we are slowly progressing towards democracy. Indeed, Heffer goes so far as simply to refer to "our democratic society" (p.284). This idea of 'gradual progress' really is one of the most bankrupt peddled by the Labour left. Far wards. Just ponder one fact, Mr. Heffer. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries such 'harmless' men as Karl Marx and Lenin were left in relative peace by the bourgeoisie to potter around the British Museum. Now, however, in this period of 'gradual advance", if you happen to be Bertrand Russell's secretary or a German student with a bullet through your brain you are clearly too dangerous to be left in the country.
"A MISTAKE' Third and final myth is the view that the Labour left's failure to take a real stand on the key issues was always somehow merely a mistake.' The absolute classic here is Heffer's statement that "We opposed the (Labour) government over the Seamen's strike although tactically I think we can be faulted for not voting against the emergency powers"(p.268). How touching. This is rather like saying that upon coming across a thug beating someone round the head with a club you protested but made a tactical mistake" by not trying to take away the weapon.
In short, in a strange sort of way, this is a useful book for anyone who wants to get a real glimpse of the complete confusion reigning in the heads of the realistic men of the Labour left. However, at almost £4 a copy not many people are going to make the effort. Unless your taste is for going to horror movies just to see how bad they are you won't have missed much.
exposition under the title "Frantz Fanon and Picasso is dead. He left 220.000.000. Already a torrent of culogistic gibberish is flowing off the presses all over the world in praise of his "genius. To get this arlist in perspective we can do no better than the following composite quotation from John Berger's excellent book Success and Failure of Picasso:
*Picasso is the typical artist of the middle of the twentieth century because his is the success story par excellence (yet ) he has invited success as little as Van Gogh invited failure. Success has been Picasso's destiny and that is what makes him the typical artist of our time, as Van Gogh was of his... "Consider how in the last twenty vears the rebels and iconoclasts of the years before have been honoured... or consider the phenomenon from the consumers rather than the producers point of view. Art, and especially "experimental" art, has now become a prestige symbol, taking the place in the mythology of advertising. of limousine cars and ancestral homes. Art is now the proof of success **For the first time (1917) we see the modern artist serving despite his own intentions. the bourgeois world and therefore sharing a position of doubtful privilege. The rest of the story of Picasso's life is a story of how he has struggled to overcome the disadvantages of his position "To be successful is to be assimilated into society. just as being a failure means being rejected. Picasso has been assimilated into European bourgeois society - and this society is now essentially unreal "The unreality.. is at base economic. The prosperity of capitalism depends, through investment. on the raw materials and labour of the under-privileged countries. But they are far away and unseen - so that at home most people are protected from the contradictions of their own system: those very contradictions from which all development must come. "Once it was perfectly possible to live off the loot of the world. to ignore the fact, and still to make progress. Now it is impossible "The example of Picasso is not only relevant to artists. It is because he is an artist that we can observe his experience more easily. His experience proves that success and honour, as offered by bourgeois society, should no longer tempt anyone. It is no longer a question of refusing on principle but of refusing for the sake of self preservation. The time when the bourgeoisie could offer true privileges has passed. What they offer now is not worth having a "The example of Picasso is also an example of the failure of revolutionary nerve ... to sustain such nerve one must be convinced that there will be another kind of succes: a success which will operate in a field connecting. for the first time ever. the most complex imaginative constructions of the human mind and the liberation of those people in the world whe until now have been forced to be simple, and of whom Picasso has always wished to be the reproseatative."