MIA > Archive > Thomas Bell
From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 1 No. 16, 13 December 1921, pp. 131–132.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive
The folly and political bankruptcy of the politicians who framed the Versailles Peace Treaty is coming home to the British proletariat with a vengeance. The specious pleas of a year ago, urged by the bourgeois politicians and their labor lieutenants alike, that the remedy for the economic ruin brought upon the peoples by the capitalist imperialists lay in more and more production, increased output and cheapness, have been put io the test. Output, in the absence of artificial restriction, as for example in the cotton industry, has been well maintained. Every grade of worker without exception has suffered a severe cut in wages. There has even been a general cut in prices, especially in wholesale business. But that prosperity which was promised the masses of the toilers is as far away as ever.
Try as the ruling class may it cannot break through the vicious circle of its own creation in which it moves. Respectable bourgeois journals confess that there are more millions of men, women and children bitterly suffering in England to-day from unemployment than in France from the consequences of the invasion. The root of all this trouble is the complete failure of capitalism to provide for the elementary economic needs of the working class. Indeed, that is the predisposing cause of the world’s economic chaos. The situation in England, however, is aggravated by the infamous exactions from Germany in the shape of indemnities. And little wonder! You cannot hand over to a shipbuilding country like England thousands of tons of shipping without producing a slump. It would be foolish to suggest that the clever British bourgeoisie did not anticipate that. The intense greed and passion for gain, however, could not be resisted. Result, shipbuilding on the Clyde, Tyneside and the Wear is at a complete standstill with the consequent starvation and destitution of the millions dependent upon the industry for their livelihood. The effects on machine construction and the collateral industries are corresponding. Thus on November 4th, 14.6 per cent of the twelve millions on the Government’s insured list were in receipt of unemployed relief. The funds of the trade unions are in many cases completely exhausted. The wealthy unions are rapidly being reduced to bankruptcy by the enormous drain on their funds taking place month by month. In the coalfields the once powerful Miners’ Federation is for the moment demoralised by the reaction of this year’s strike and the increase in unemployment. South Wales is especially suffering, and only this week another 10,000 miners were added to the list on account of the closing down of the mines in the Rhondda and Rhymney districts. The folly of the imperialists’ cry of “Make the Germans Pay!” is now self-evident to the working-class and the bourgeois publicists this week are openly discussing a moratorium. Mention of the moratorium following upon Herr Stinnes’ visit to London indicated sinister forces at work in solving the problem of security for British and German capitalists alike, the difficulties in that direction are aggravated by the swashbuckling demands of the French bourgeoisie, whose hopes have been based on the Wiesbaden agreement. But it is quite clear that if this agreement stands in the way of the restoration of British commercialism, then it will have to be torn up as the present policy of drift is undermining the basic fabric of capitalism in England. Unemployment has now become a veritable cancer that is gnawing at the vitals of the British bourgeoisie, and bourgeois and yellow labor alike are at their wits’ ends to resist the possibility of a recurrence in London of the Vienna incidents of this week. Politically the dominant issues are Ireland and Washington. The proceedings of the latter have gone underground with a view to sorting out the differences between the Entente on the one hand, and Japan, Britain and America on the other hand. The proposal of a limitation in armaments was immediately met here by a demand from the armament ring for a subsidy or compensation for idle capital. There was no question of compensation for the workers who would be scrapped as a consequence. At the moment the uncertainty surrounding Washington is aggravating the economic situation particularly in the munition towns, and the jingo press are demanding the presence in Washington of the Prime Minister who is easily the cleverest illusionist the bourgeoisie has, and who can be calculated to again do the needful in glossing over an awkward situation.
The general political situation offers a glorious opportunity for the Labor Party to jump ahead, if it were not for the supineness of the leadership which cannot rise above the aspirations of commonplace Liberalism.
The young Communist Party has already come to the front by its close association with and activity among the unemployed. During the recent municipal elections, the Party contested 26 wards in twenty big towns and polled slightly over 15,000 votes and returned three candidates. The number of votes in no way reflects the actual results of the elections. Hundreds of thousands of leaflets, manifestos, etc., were circulated while enthusiastic demonstrations and ordinary political meetings were an outstanding feature of the contests wherever the Communists ran a candidate. The Party is making preparations for the general election and will give a good account of itself. A National Conference of all the Unemployed Committees in the country was recently held in Manchester. Our comrades received overwhelming votes of confidence for work done and were elected to all the official positions. The influence of the Party among the unemployed has been a knockout for the Labor politicians who invariably exploit such movements purely for municipal and parliamentary jobs. The unemployed organisations are now forcing the hands of the yellow leaders and driving them much further ahead than they are anxious to go.
The C.P. Executive has ratified the various Theses and Tactics of the Moscow Congress, and preparations are on foot for a Party Policy Congress during the middle of January at which, besides the discussions of the Theses, the relations between the C.P. and the Labor Party will come under review. The potentialities for Communism in the present situation in England are good, and the Communists are ready to buckle down to the tasks before them.
Last updated on 14 February 2019