India: Sacred Jobs
Recent demonstrations in Lucknow by over 1,000 Uttar Pradesh primary school teachers, over wage demands and the non-payment of salaries (some being months in arrears), brought forth a peroration from the Chief Minister, Mr. Gobind Ballabh Pant on the sacredness of teaching. According to Janata (organ of the Praja Socialist Party, Bombay, 1/3/53) he is reported to have advised the teachers “to follow the ideals set up by the Gurus of ancient India and to take their jobs as sacred work for the progress of the country.” Mr. Pant stressed that it was the importance of their task that made the teachers the most important section of the nation. It is, therefore, he said, not dignified for those who had a sacred task to perform, to think of petty things. We can be sure that Miss Horsbrugh will take note of this, for the next Burnham report on Teachers' pay.
Despite Mr. Pant's exhortations to the teachers, there has been no cessation of their activities. On the other hand, we haven’t noticed that Mr. Pant has taken any of his own advice.
As most teaching is done by inculcation, perhaps the Minister thinks that the old maxim is true, “That empty vessels make most noise."
India: A Reckless Report
A report on India’s prison administration was recently submitted to the United Nations by Dr. Walter Reckless, an American criminologist on loan to U.N. (Janata, 1st March). Dr. Reckless thinks that the Indian prison system is in a parlous condition and needs reorganising drastically—too many Black holes and not all in Calcutta. The treatment of prisoners seems to be wholly punitive, with all of which our eminent criminologist disagrees. Not that he wants to abolish prisons, he just wants to make them better to live in! He wants to substitute corrective and rehabilitative training for the present punitive system, the idea (as if we didn’t know) being, that with training prisoners will face life anew, full of confidence, and that their bitterness against society will disappear. In other words, they won’t steal, any more property.
The amazing thing is that the report recognises that environment plays a part in the make up of a criminal, but contains no talk of changing the environment, only the prisoner. Many of the convicts in India’s gaols are there because they could not subsist outside without stealing.
There was no mention of that other class of criminals; the 10 per cent. who live on the plunder which they steal legally from the workers. But then who expected there would bet
Labourism in India
Mr. B. S. Mahador Singh, Chairman of the State Praja Socialist Party, a body roughly analogous to the British Labour Party, has been voicing criticisms of the Indian Congress Party Government which he and his followers helped to establish.
Speaking at the Fourth Annual Conference of the State Mazdoor Sangh early this year he said:—
"Any legislation that imposes restrictions on the right of the workers to strike, regardless of providing other avenues of settlement, will be strongly resisted by the Hyderabad State Mazdoor Sangh, for in the opinion of the Sangh the right to strike should be assured to all workers.” (Janata, 1/3/53.)
At the moment of writing the P.S.P. has only 22 seats in the National Assembly, which still does not bring them anywhere near the Communist Party’s total of 41 members and position as chief opposition party. Still the P.S.P. leaders have hopes of getting into power and, like Social Democrats throughout the world, are prepared to tell workers almost any tale (witness the above) in their endeavour to achieve this.
One thing they don’t tell workers, is that capitalism can only run in the interests of the capitalists and that all Governments put down strikes. Witness the Labour Party in this country, which engaged in strike-breaking when in office, although telling another story when out. We can be sure that if the P.S.P. ever achieves power they will do likewise and that Mr. Singh will forget the hot words he poured forth at Hyderabad.
National Bank of Egypt
We are often exhorted by various newspapers and political leaders in general not to scuttle from Egypt. The information below may give one of the reasons why our rulers are so keen to stay there.
The recently published report of the National Bank of Egypt, shows that a gross profit of £E2,317,817 was made for the year ending December, 1952. A dividend of 20 per cent. the same as the year before, was paid to the shareholders. The capital of this Bank is mainly British. (Manchester Guardian 10.4.53, Company report)
Israel. Soviet Jews
Mr. Ben-Gurion, Israel’s Premier, is reported as saying at a meeting of immigrants on April 5th, “That he hoped that the Soviet Government would now allow Jews in Russia to emigrate to Palestine and resume diplomatic relations with Israel.”
If this news manages to percolate through the Iron Curtain, the two and a half million Jews should not take it too seriously, for even if Malenkov and Co. were willing, it must be remembered that legislation was passed last year in Israel which limits immigration to certain categories. 80 per cent. of the immigrants must be under 35 years. The other 20 per cent., the over-35’s, must have trades or professions, or sufficient resources to arrange for their own accommodation. All immigrants must pass a medical examination, supervised by Israeli physicians (Manchester Guardian, 3.12.51).
This of course will exclude a large part of the Jews in Russia, and those who are eligible, are liable to think twice about giving up home and job to go to Israel where unemployment is rife. The above legislation makes a mockery of the hoary cliches which are still trotted forth by Ben Gurion and his supporters, such as the “ Ingathering of the Exiles.”
Many of those who are in the “National Home” are thinking twice about it. Up to December, 1952, 39,000 are reported to have left the country, and 25,000 people inside Israel have preferred to keep the nationality of the country they came from (Jewish Observer and Middle East Review, 12.12.52), which speaks for itself.
The S.P.G.B. has pointed out since its inception that Nationalist movements or for that matter any reformist organisation cannot solve the workers' problems; only the ending of capitalism and establishment of Socialism can do that Ben Gurion (who called himself a Socialist and refers to his Mapai Party likewise) is not interested in Socialism. He wants emigrants from Russia, or anywhere else for that matter, to help build up capitalism in Israel. Technicians, teachers, doctors, scientists and maybe a few Rouble millionaires will be more than welcome. But if aged over 35, sick, unskilled, or without financial .backing, the signboard says “No vacancies.” Which is capitalism all the world over.
Israel Jewish Unemployment
Unemployment as we all know, is one of the many horrible aspects of capitalism and has increased in many countries since Malenkov made his peace statement. Israel is no exception and has one of the highest (if not the highest) percentages of unemployed in the world. Out of a population of 1,629,000 there are twenty-five thousand registered as unemployed (Jewish Observer and Middle East Review, 12th December, 1952). This does not include part-time workers and those who would not register anyway; such as most of the Arab population which forms the largest part of the 179,000 non-Jews.
Working on the assumption that the average family in Israel has at least four members, it can be seen that a very large section of the population is affected.
The supreme irony of the situation, lies in the fact that many of these people dissipated their energies over the years in the Zionist movement and other “Jewish ” Nationalist organisations in the endeavour to form a “National Home,” only to find that they can suffer just as much in Israel as elsewhere. For Israeli capitalists are no different from the rest of their class and are quite impartial about exploiting either Jewish or Gentile workers.
Jon Keys
Jon Keys signed this article as 'J.K.'
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