The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 21, 1927, Page 8

* “ The Great Man Has Passed : By PAT DEVINE —Sketched by Boardman Robinson. T= leader of his majesty’s opposition and erst- while leader of the Independent Labor Party in Britain is gracing America with his austere pres- ence, “Ramsay Mac” as he was lovingly called, has had a most adventurous career during which the traditional diplomacy, for which~he is- notori- ous, enabled him to bluff the rank and file of the ¥. la? In the years preceding the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain, many present members of that Party were members of the I. L. P. They constituted a Left Wing that bitterly fought the opportunism of MacDonald, Snowden and many others of that ilk. . The big fight at I. L. P. conferences after the Russian Revolution, was on the question of the Second or Third International. A Scottish Confer- ence held in Paisley, adopted practically unant- mously the following resolution: -“To disaffiliate with the Second International and affiliate with the Third International.” This resolution automatically went on the agenda of the National Conference (representing the British Isles) as the opinion of Scotland, “Ramsay Mac” and his colleagues knew the over- whelming feeling in the I. L. P. was against the Second International . .. and that the resolution as it stood, would be adopted. Accordingly, they put on their thinking caps in order to devise some scheme for surmounting the difficulty. The National Conference saw the results of this thinking. When the Standing Orders Committee reported on the resolution they stated it was a double barrelled one... dealing with two dis- tinctly different questions. They therefore recom- mended that two resolutions be made of it, namely: 1. “To disaffiliate with the Second International.” 2. “To affiliate with the Third International.” The first resolution was unanimously adopted. It ts a matter of fact, however, that for years after that decision, Ramsay still remained an official of the Second International. Treachery and double deal- ing have always been his stock in trade. On the Second resolution, the now historic ~21 points evolved. After much wrangling and misin- formation, the I. L. P. decided (some time after) to give allegiance to the 2% or Vienna Inter- national. : The Left Wing left the Independent Labor Party at the Southhampton Conference, and became part of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The evil genius of all the right wing fights was the “saintly” Ramsay, who never stopped his bitter attack on the progressive elements inside and out- side of his party. Opposition to his policy was being built up by the Left Wing inside the I. L. P. once more. The Wheatleys, Maxtons, Buchanons, Lansburys, etc., etc., began to definitely oppose his blatant oppor- tunism. With the great influx of voters to the British Labor Party, Ramsay’s prestige as a National figure increased. The extreme tendencies of his followers became a nuisance. How could he prove to the capitalists that he could run capitalism better than they, if his army of back benchers inside Parlia- ment were so bitterly class war in their attitude. At last he found a remedy! With the coopera- tion of Henderson, (the labor member of the capi- talist war cabinet), Thomas (the treacherous leader of ‘the Railwaymen,) and Snowden, (the Liberal statesman ‘who always fought militant working class action), he devised the scheme of expelling. Communists from the Labor Party. This was carried by the inner leadership of the Labor Party, and an attempt. was made’ to have it enforced in the local labor parties. Resolutions are easily passed but not so easily put into practice. The majority of the Labor Party were against Communist exclusion, and refused to expel them from the Party. Time passed with the Communists still in the Labor Party, and Ramsay fighting like the mischief to keep them out. The Labor Party was returned to Parliament in 1924 as the second biggest single party in Britain. No party without the assistance of the Liberals could take over the government. The Libergls de- cided to support MacDonald and the Labor’ Party went into office. The Cabinet selected caused much fighting because of the obvious passing over of many of the best working class leaders for men like Lord Thomson, and Trevellyan, who were nothing more or less than glorified liberals. The hand of MacDonald was clearly seen in the composition of the Cabinet which in reality was a coalition between Liberals and Laborites. During its brief term of office, the Labor Party passed: the Dawes Plan—which enslaved Europe and placed the hegemony in the hands of Wall Street. The Transport Strike saw MacDonald threaten the leaders with the enforcement of the Emergency Powers Act, which would have totally crippled the unions and placed all power in the hands of the employers. No definite bill was submitted to Parliament that was an attempt to concretely better the working class conditions. With the pass- ing of the Dawes Plan, the Liberal support of Mac- Donald departed, making a General Election necessary. MacDonald, instead of going to the country on a question of labor principals, allowed the election to be fought on the question of the “Campbell prosecution” now famous as the “Don’t shoot case.” : It is proper to mention that during his period of office, MacDonald allowed the shooting down of the natives of Iraq. Militarism was nourished instead of starved. The.Labor Party passed out without bettering its position. During a bitter fight on the “Socialism in our time” I. L. P. resolution between the Maxtons, Wheatleys and the Campbells, Stevens and Mac- Donald, an article appeared in the Glasgow Forward —foremost Socialist Weekly—designating the Left Wing as “easie oosie asses.” MacDonald was definitely fighting to discredit the militant section of his Party. Much water has flown under the bridge since then. The General Strike saw MacDonald once more actively sabotaging the workers. Not one word of encouragement came from his lips during that most important period. Rather was he doing all he could to break down the morale of “his peo- ple” who by their actions were proving how in- capable they were of following a milk and water reactionary leader. When Sir John Simon stated the General Strike was unconstitutional, MacDonald hastened to disassociate himself from it... he being a constitutionalist. The raid on the Russian Trade Delegation in Lon- don is only a continuation of the anti-Soviet tac- tics of the British Die-hards . .. rationalised by MacDonald. As a result of the raid much forged material will be “discovered” that willbe of use to the right wing reactionaries in their fight against the progressive workers of Britain. It is significant that the raid should come Just as the Communists were mobilizing the workers for action against the notorious trade union bill now before Parliament. MacDonald used the last Government Blue Book—on Communist activity— in his fight to expel the Communists from the Labor Party. The impending disclosures are most oppor- tac for “Ramsay” who must once more fight those progressive elements who still believe in the work- ing class fighting against all inroads into their hard won Trade Union Rights. Was it chance that led MacDonald to America at this time, I WONDER? ; By WILL DE KALB Me: HILAIRE BELLOC, the English essayist who is kept as busy as a professional state’s witness at a Communist trial defending the Roman Catholic Church with his suave pen, announced in his bi- weekly statement to the clerical press—syndicated at regular “big-name” rates — that he has “gone over to the ranks of the revisionists of history. This will come as a shock to Rupert Hughes, W. E. Woodward, H. G. Wells, H. W. Van Loon, and oth- er members of that scholastie group, familiar though they may be with the catholic publicist’s opportun- istic precocity. “Let us rewrite history!” appeals Mr. Belloc, with boyish enthusiasm. Lf he did not qualify it by at- tempting to grind his ever dull axe, a liberal-mind- ed person might throw in his support with a doubt- ing aye. But Mr. Belloc makes no attempt to con- ceal the motive underlying his new move in affiliat- ing with a school of historians much hated and attacked by his cassocked pagan contemporaries. “It is high time we began to react,” he says. “We must begin to rewrite and to reread the his- tory of our own past (ie. that of the Catholic Church—dismal reading for the catholic!) and of the past of Europe as a whole. Catholic history is simply true history (!) for it was the Catholic Church that made Europe. . .and if you read the story of Europe or England in the light of anti- catholicism, you get its whole form distorted.” To this, I can only add “sic!” I need not ridicule the paragraph; its author has already done so. With holy horror, Hilaire relates how he was brought up on a history book written by “old Frank Bright, a typical Oxford book, profoundly anti- catholic in its whole presentation of the past.” If Belloe’s parents had been good catholics, they would have sent him to the Jesuit University of Dublin, where all his schoolbooks would have been strictly kosher. However, with much sadness and regret in his wavering voice, the medieval apologist recounts the poisoning of his mind by what I consider an un- important, thought fair, (to the bourgeoisie) his- tory book. That Belloc’s mind is poisoned, I cannot, in view of his literary activity, gainsay; but I think it is more accurate philologically to classify it as nar- cotized. i An analytical study of the essays written by the British lay churchman leads one to suspect that he has never read any educational work that took its place in the bookstalls sans the imprimatur of one of the pope’s business agents. Belloc is very naive in despairing his partial education, acquired by read- ing expurgated books. Education, I know, is a pro- cess looked upon with much fear and disdain by those who sell the gospel over the bargain counter; yet one hardly expects an apologist, clever essayist though he may be, to speak so frankly. One can easily imagine the kind of history Mr. Belloc and his business friends would write. It would be quite an orderly thing, I assure you. The story would begin some 5,900 years ago, for a catholic “revisionist” would consider it an honor and a duty to plagiarize Genesis. A few clerical scholars are in doubt of this point; some are spon- soring the blasphemous belief that the world is more than six thousand years old. But I doubt if this would make much difference, for Mr. Belloc wants his history book to be strictly conformistic. It would proceed onward to 33 B. C. almost like a popularization of the Old Testament—Dr. Will Durant, of “Story of Philosophy” fame, and Bruce Barton, the puritanic discover of The man, and The book, could be valuable assistants here—except that the forged predictions of the prophets concerning the coming of the Messiah might be touched up a bit, to appear more convincing. The scores of minor contradictions, of strictly scientific and historical importance, would have to be ironed out, of course. But there are always Jesuit and Dominican lackeys handy, capable of the task. And no doubt Dr. James J. Walsh, who is always a stickler fer accuracy when it doesn’t mean much, will insist upon the Joshua fable being made to harmonize with current astronomical theories. For (Continued on page 6) THE MINER GOES ON STRIKE By H. G. WEISS Down in the bowels of the earth he digs for coal, Wielding a pick above his sweating face; There is no room within the narrow space To stand upright; he burrows like a mole; - And like a ole is all but blind; the light Stuck in his cap is burning red, not white; place;