PAGE THE 4th NOTES OF JOURNALIST By Alpha the SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1934 THE MILITANT THE SOVIET UNION INTERNATIONAL (Continued from the last Issue)
The Class Nature of the Soviet the social roots of the latter, maintaining itself and falling together with it. State Capitalism Class Exploitation and Social Parasitism During the last period, Urbahns, incidentally, has State. by Leon Trosky Laurat will say that he does not object to the burcreated a new theory: the Soviet economic structure, it appears, is a variety of state capitalism. The progress eaucracy being paid for its labor insofar as it fulfills the the subsequent development of Soviet economy, of industry necessary political, economic, and cultural functions; but lies in that Urbahns has descended from his terminological in particular, as a competition between the state captalist what is involved is its uncontrolled appropriation of an exercises in the sphere of the political superstructure down and the pure state enterprises.
to the economic foundation. But this descent alas did absolutely disproportionate part of the national income: preWe trust that is clear now within what limits Lenin cisely in this sense does it appear as the exploiting clase.
him no good.
used this term which has led Urbahns into temptation. In This argument, based on undubitable facts, does not, howAccording to Urbahns, the newest form of self defense order to round out the theoretical catastrophe of the leader Lver, change the social physiognomy of the bureaucracy.
of the bourgeois regime is state capitalism: one need only of the Lenin. Bund. we must recall that contrary to Always and in every regime, the bureaucracy devours take a look at the corporate planned state in Italy, Ger Lenin original expectations neither the concessions nor the no small portion of surplus value. It might not be uninmany, and the United States. Accustomed to broad ges mixed companies played any appreciable role whatsoever in teresting, for example, to compute what portion of the natures, Urbahns also throws in here the We shall the development of Soviet economy. Nothing has now re tional income is devoured by the Fascist locusts in Italy or speak of this later. Insofar as the matter touches the capi mained generally of these state capitalist enterprises. On Germany! But this fact, of no small importance by itself, talist states, Urbahns concerns himself with a very import the other hand, the Soviet trusts whose fate appeared so very is entirely insufficient to transform the Fascist bureaucracy ant phenomenon of our epoch. Monopoly capital has long murky at the dawn of the NEP underwent a gigantic devel into an independent ruling class. It is the hireling of the since outgrown both the private ownership of the means of opment in the years after Lenin death. Thus, if one were bourgeoisie. True, this hireling straddles the boss neck, production and the boundaries of the national state. Parto use Lenin terminology conscientiously and with some tears from his mouth at times the juciest pieces, and spits alyzed, however, by its own organizations, the working class comprehension of the matter, one would have to say that on his bald spot besides. Say what you will, a most inconwas unable to free in time the productive forces of society the Soviet economic development passed by completely the venient hireling! But, nevertheless, only a hireling. The from their capitalist fetters. Hence arises the protracted stage of state capitalism. and unfolded along the channe! bourgeoisie abides with him because without him, it and its epoch of economic and political convulsions. The produc of the enterprises of the consistently socialist type. regime would absolutely go to the dogs.
tive forces pound against the barriers of private property Here, however, we must also forestall any possible misand of national boundaries. The bourgeois governments understandings, and this time of just the opposite characMutatis Mutandis (changing what should be changed. are obliged to pacify the mutiny of their own productive ter. Lenin chose his terms with precision. He called the what has been said above can be applied to the Stalinist forces with a police club. This is what constitutes the so trusts not socialist enterprizes, as the Stalinists now label bureaucracy as well. It devours, wastes, and embezzles a called planned economy. Insofar as the state attempts them, but enterprizes of the socialist type. Under Lenin considerable portion of the national income.
manageto harness and discipline capitalist anarchy, it may be call pen, this subtle terminological distinction implied that the ment costs the proletariat very dearly. In the Soviet soed conditionally state capitalism.
trusts will have the right to be called socialist not by type, ciety, it occupies an extremely privileged position not only But we should remember that originally Marxists un not by tendency, that is; but by their genuine content, after in the sense of having political and administrative prerogaderstood by state capitalism only the independent economic the rural economy will have been revolutionized; after the tives but also in the sense of possessing enormous material enterprises of the state itself. When the reformists dream contradiction between the city and the village will have been advantages. Still, the biggest apartments, the juicest steaks, ed of overcoming capitalism by means of the municipaliza destroyed; after men will have learned to fully satisfy all and even Rolls Royces are not enough to transform the tion or governmentalization of ever greater numbers of human wants; in other words, only in proportion as a real bureaucracy into an independent ruling class.
transport and industrial enterprises, the Marxists used to socialist society would arise on the bases of nationalized inInequality, moreover, such crying inequality, would, reply in refutation: this is not socialism but state capitalism. dustry and collectivized rural economy. Lenin conceived of course, be absolutely impossible in a socialist society. But Subsequently, however, this concept acquired a broader that the attainment of this goal would require the successive contrary to official and semi official lies the present Soviet meaning, and begun to apply to all the varieties of state labors of two or three generations, and moreover, in indisregime is not socialist but transitional. It still bears within intervention into economy; the French use the word etat soluble connection with the development of the international it the monstrous heritage of capitalism, social inequality in ism (statification) in this sense.
revolution.
particular, not only between the bureaucracy and the proBut Urbahns not only expounds the travails of state To summarize. Under state capitalism, in the strict letariat, but also within the bureaucracy itself and within capitalism he appraises them after his own manner. In sense of the word, we must understand the management of the proletariat. At the given stage, inequality still remains, sofar as it is generally possible to understand him, he pro industrial and other enterprizes by the bourgeois state on within certain limits, the bourgeois instrument of socialist nounces the regime of state capitalism to be a necessary its own account, or the regulating intervention of progress: differential wages, bonuses, etc. as stimuli for and, moreover, progressive stage in the development of bourgeois state into the workings of private capitalist enteremulation.
society, in the same sense as trusts are progressive com prises. By state capitalism in quotes Lenin meant the While it explains the inequality, the transitional charpared with the disparate enterprises. So fundamental an control of the proletarian state over private capitalist en acter of the present system nowise justifies those monstrous, error in appraising capitalist planning is enough to bury terprizes and relatiors. Not one of these definitions applies open, and secret privileges that have been arrogated to themany approach whatsoever.
from any side to the present Soviet economy. It remains selves by the uncontrolled tops of the bureaucracy. The While, during the epoch of the capitalist upswing to a deep secret what concrete economic content Urbahns him Left Opposition did not await the revelations of Urbahns, which the war put an end, it was possible to view. under self puts into his understanding of the Soviet state capi Laurat, Souvarine and Simone Weil, etc. before ancertain political pre conditions the various forms of stati talism. To put it plainly, his newest theory is entirely nouncing that the bureaucracy in all its manifestations is fication as progressive manifestations, that is, consider that built around a badly read quotation.
pulling apart the moral tie rods of the Soviet society; enstate capitalism acts to lead society forward and facilitates the future economic labor of the proletarian dictatorship; Bureaucracy and the Ruling Class gendering an acute and a lawful dissatisfaction among the masses; and preparing the ground for great dangers. Neverthe present planned economy must be viewed as a stage There is, however, also another theory concerning the theless, the privileges of the bureaucracy by themselves do that is reactionary through and through: state capitalism non proletarian character of the Soviet state, much more not change the bases of the Soviet society, because the burstrives to tear economy away from the world wide division ingenious, much more cautious, but not any more serious. caucracy derives its privileges not from any special proof labor, to adapt the productive forces to the Procrustean The French social democrat Lucien Laurat, Blum col perty relations, peculiar to it as a class. but from those bed of the national state; to constrict production artificially league and Souvarine teacher, has written a booklet defend property relations which have been created by the October in some branches and to create just as artificially other ing the view that the Soviet society, being neither proletarian revolution, and which are fundamentally adequate for the branches by means of enormous unprofitable expenditures. nor bourgeois, represents an absolutely new type of a class dictatorship of the proletariat.
The economic policies of the present state beginning with organization, because the bureaucracy not only rules over tariff walls upon the ancient Chinese pattern and ending the proletariat politically but also exploits it economically, To put it plainly, insofar as the bureaucracy robs the with the episodes of forbidding the use of machinery under devouring that surplus value which hitherto fell to the lot people (and this is done in various ways by every bureauHitler planned economy attain an unstable regulation of the bourgeoisie. Laurat invests his revelations with the cracy. we have to deal not with class exploitation, in the at the cost of causing the national economy to decline, bring.
scientific sense of the word, but with social parasitism, alweighty formulae of Das Kapital, and, in this manner gives ing chaos into world relations, and completely disrupting the an appearance of profundity to his superficial and purely though on a very large scale. During the middle ages the monetary system which will be very much needed for social descriptive sociology. The compilator is obviously unclergy constituted a class or an estate, insofar as its rule ist planning. The present state capitalism neither prepares aware that his entire theory had been formulated, only with depended upon a specific system of land property and forced nor lightens the future work of the socialist state, but, or much more fire and splendor, over thirty years ago by labor. The present day church constitutes not an exploitthe contrary, creates for it colossal additional difficulties. the Russo Polish revolutionist Makhaisky, who was suping class but a parasitic corporation. It would be silly The proletariat let slip a series of opportune periods for erior to his French vulgarizer in that he awaited neither the to actually speak of the American clergy as a special ruling the seizure of power. Through this it has created the con October revolution nor the Stalinist bureaucracy in order class; yet, it is indubitable that the priests of the different colors and denominations devour in the United States a big ditions for Fascist barbarism in politics; and for the de to define the dictatorship of the proletariat as a scaffold structive work of portion of the surplus value. In its traits of parasitism, state capitalism in economy. After for the commanding posts of an exploiting bureaucracy. But the conquest of power, the proletariat will have to pay even Makhaisky did not suck his theory out of his thumb: the bureaucracy, as well as the clergy, approximates to the economically for its political lapses.
he only deepened sociologically and economically the anlumpen proletariat, which likewise does not represent, as is archistic prejudices against state socialism. Makhaisky, well known, an independent class.
The Economy of the by the way, also utilized Marx formulae but in a manner Having fallen into despair ver the unsuccessful experiments However, what interests us most within the limits of much more consistent than Laurat s: according to Makhai of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Simone well has found this analysis is the circumstance that Urbahns attempts to sky, the author of Das Kapital covered up, with malice solace in a new vocation: the defense of her personality against include also the economy of the under the term aforethought, in his formulae of reproduction (volume II. soicety. The boary formula of liberalism, vivified with cheap an state capitalism. And while so doing he refers it is that portion of surplus value which would be devoured by archistie exaltation! And think of it Simone Well speaks loftily about our Illusions. She and chose like her require many years hardly believable! to Lenin. There is only one possible the socialist intelligentsia (the bureaucracy. of stubborn perseverance in order to free themselves from the most way of explaining this reference: as the eternal inventor In our own time, a theory of this kind, but without an reactionary lower middle class prejudices. Appropriately enough her who creates a new theory a month, Urbahns has no time to exposure of Marx, the exploiter, was defended by Myasni dew views have found a haven in an organ that bears the obread the books he refers to. Lenin did actually apply the kov who procaimed that the dictatorship of the proletariat viously irlonle name, The Proletarian Revolution. This Louzon term state capitalism but not to the Soviet economy as in the Soviet Union had been supplanted by the hegemony publication is ideally suited for revolutionary melancholiacs, and political rentlers living on the dividends from their capital of rea whole, only to a certain section of it: the foreign concesof a new class: the social bureaucracy. In all probability, collections, and pretentious philosophizers who will perhaps adhere sions, the mixed industrial and commercial companies, and, Laurat borrowed his theory, directly or indirectly, precisely to the revolution. after it will have been achieved.
in part, to the peasant, and largely kulak co operatives unfrom Myasnikov, investing it only with a pedantically (To be continued)
der state control. All these are indubitable elements of learned air. For completeness sake it should also be capitalism; but since they are controlled by the state, and added that Laurat has assimilated all the mistakes (and only even function as mixed companies through its direct particithe mistakes) of Rosa Luxemburg, among them even those See the Play that Has Stirred Thousands pation, Lenin conditionally, or, according to his own exthat she herself had renounced.
pression in quotes. called these economic forms, state Let us, however, examine more closely the theory itcapitalism. The conditioning of this term depended upon self. The class has an exceptionally important and morethe fact that a proletarian, and not a bourgeois state was a scientifically restricted meaning to a Marxist. AT involved; the quotation marks were intended to stress just class is defined not by its participation in the distribution this difference of no little importance. However, insofar of the national income alone, but by its independent role in THE MILITANT BENEFIT SHOWING as the proletarian state allowed private capital and permit the general structure of economy and by its independent HERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL OUR ted it within definite restrictions to exploit the workers, it roots in the economic foundation of society. Each class FRIENDS AND SYMPATHIZERS TO WITNESS shielded bourgeois relations under one of its wings. In this (the feudal nobility, the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, ONE OF THE SEASON BEST PLAYS AND strictly limited sense, one could speak of state capitalism. the capitalist bourgeoisie, and the proletariat) works out AT THE SAME TIME HELP THE ONLY Lenin came out with this very term at the time of the its own special forms of property. The bureaucracy lacks MARXIST PAPER IN THE COUNTRY transition to the NEP, when he presupposed that the conall these social traits. It has no independent position in. THE MILITANT cessions and the mixed companies. that is, enterprises the process of production and distribution. It has no inbased upon the correlation of state and private capital, would dependent property roots. Its functions relate basically to Civic Reperatory Theatre, 14th St. 6th Ave.
occupy a major position in Soviet economy alongside of the the political technique of class rule. The existence of a THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 8, 1934, at 8:45 pure state trusts and syndicates. In contradistinction to bureaucracy, in all its variety of forms and differences in Tickets at 30e, 45e, 60e, 75e, 00 are available at 126 16th St. the state capitalist enterprises, concessions, etc. that is specific weight, characterizes every class regime. Its power Lenin defined the Soviet trusts and syndicates as enter is of a reflected character. The bureaucracy is indissoluNew York City or 154 Watkins St. Brooklyn, prises of a consistently socialist type. Lenin envisioned bly bound up with ruling economic class, feeding itself upon. KOLTZOV IN PARIS By means of telegraphic dis.
patches from Paris, Koltzov, the correspondent of the Pravda, keeps the Russian workers informed about the course of the Leipzig Trial. Here is what he writes: The former Trotskyite, the present Nazi deputy to Reichstag, Karwahne takes the witness stand. His present role betits his past most properly. What is most remarkable about Karwahne deposition is that it is entirely devoted to the defense of the position of the Trot.
skyite Katx group who fought, if you please, against the impossible luternal regime of the German Communist Party, a Fascist deputy champloning Trotskyite theses dur.
ing a Fascist trial and in the presence of Communist fighters who are being condemned to death there you have the proper and be litting harvest that has sprung from the seeds of Trotskylte teachings!
Stulinists by tens of thousands have deserted and are deserting to National Socialism. Many of them passed in review during the Leipzig triul as witnesses. Among the renegades, of course, there could have il former Left Oppositionist. But heither the group of Ivan Katz nor Karwahne ever had the slightest connection with Trotskyisin Kar.
wahne renounced not only the ideas of the Communist party of which he was one time a member but also the semi anarchist ideas of Ivan Katz group. Koltxov, however, retuses to forgive Karwahne his just. Koltzov is adamant as regards the past. Is it, perhaps, because his own past is not entirely unblenished. No; that is not the reason why.
Koltzov is the consummation of the type of appointed careerists. During the period of the October rev, olution he was the most rabid foe of the Bolsbeviks; during the years of the Civil War he prowled in the Ukraine working for Petlura and other white guardist papers. After the Red Army had cleared the Whites out of the Ukraine, he arrived in Aloscow. Knowing full Well that he had no choice, Koltzoy offered his sprightly pen to the services of the proletarian dictatorship (naturally with the proviso that he receive rooming quarters and a privileged pyok. rations card. The then editor of the Pravda Buchrin was in a considerable quandry. His pen is sprightly enough said he but his personality is awfully dirty.
After the inception of the Left Opposition, Koltxoy did not know for a long time which way to turn, and lie tried to secure himself with both camps. Moreover, because of his congenital make up, he had become very much accustomed to wag his Vail before Sosnovsky, the outstanding and most intluential of Soviet Journalists. The moment the leaders of the Left Opposition were sent into exile (December 1927. Koltzov began spreading gossip about Sosnovsky in order to purify himself completely in the eyes of the rulers.
He did not get off scot free. Sosnovsky wite slapped his face in the Bolshoi Theatre at Moscow Not only the Left Oppositionists but even the most hide bound bureaucrats welcomed warmly the gesture of the energetic revolutionist; everybody without exception concur.
red that never had a slap in the face reached its destination so expeditely and so appropriately.
After this bit of biographical information, we trust that Koltzov l arisian communiques regarding the Trotskyism of Karwahne will 110t require any further commentaries. PUMPKIN THE DIRECTOR OFFICE The Pravdat falls into raptures de scribing how a director in charge of a plant producing precision instruments is busy at the same time with a garden, a dairy, and a rabbit farm and so forth. This summer writes the newspaper during the drouth, the workers at the close of the working day came to the gardens of the Sovkhox with their pails and watered. the plants, in order to save them from withering away. We are here told about factory garden. But what happens in this event, to the hour working day? The Pravda, still enraptured.
reports the results of the double labor: the factory kitchens will be completely supplied with vegetables. no small portion of the crop will be allotted to the workers for individual use. What a fearful tenseness in the foodstuffs situation peeps out at us from this pathetic article. PEACE ON EARTH over BRONX OPEN FORUM WHAT IS CONGRESS DOING FOR THE WORKERS!
Speaker: WILLIAM MATHESON Thursday, January 25, 1934, P.
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