Editorial: What of the Future? (1938)

Editorial from the November 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard

Socialists have always and rightly resisted the blindly optimistic reformist view which can, against all experience, hope that things will right themselves and life become progressively better without a fundamental change in the basis of human society. That means hoping that the capitalist leopard will change its spots, and we know it will not. But the people who at one time can hope for impossible benefits from a Labour Government are the same people who, at the present time, are paralysed with fear because they believe the worst about the future of the civilised world. German expansion is on the march and in their eyes it is an avalanche which will gain power and momentum until all is destroyed. They see Germany victorious and greatly increased in population and resources, but they fail to realise the basic instability of capitalism everywhere, dependent as it always is on finding markets for its abundant products. A useful corrective is to consider the position of the victors in the last war. In 1918 Britain, France, Italy and U.S.A. had won history’s greatest struggle. They had the defeated Central Powers at their mercy, and the world at their feet. Yet within a few months British troops with steel helmets and tanks were marching in Glasgow streets to overawe striking engineers. Within a year miners, railway, iron and steel workers and many others were fighting bitterly against the employing class. After a short trade boom in 1920 the sudden oncome of depression in 1921 had forced unemployment up to a level not reached again until 1932. France was faced with similar struggles, and Italy was on the verge of civil war. Internationally the Allies were at each other’s throats over the division of the spoils.

Those who run away with the idea that there is something in the German character which explains the present aggression forget that capitalism everywhere produces its would-be aggressors. Only 40 years ago Britain was devouring the Boer Republics. As recently as 15 years ago France was represented to be the bully of Europe, and the late Arthur Henderson could get up at a Labour Party Conference and speak of war with France as a reason why Britain should not disarm. The Franco-Polish treaty was not directed against Germany, but against Russia. Another year or two may see Europe in still another capitalist grouping, brought about in answer to the present preponderance of German capitalism.

True, the Dictators have perfected a technique of terrorism which makes open resistance by their own populations seemingly impossible for all time, but history shows time and time again that as discontent becomes widespread the apparently all-powerful oppressors prove vulnerable. Bismarck, after 12 years of brutal repression of Social-Democrats and Catholics, had to admit failure, and capitalism to-day even more than half a century ago cannot fail to go on producing discontent among the workers.

The duty of Socialists is, therefore, not to give up the task as hopeless, but remember that economic forces, as well as human reason, are on our side against the brutal power of the propertied class and their agents.

Obituary: Death of Comrade A. Guiver (1938)

Obituary from the November 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard

We regret that Comrade A. Guiver died on August 14th after several years’ illness. This West Ham comrade was prevented in recent years from carrying on his former active work for Socialism, but older members will recall his tireless enthusiasm. He spent every available minute of his leisure selling party literature and would tramp miles in order to attend meetings where he could do this. Although in poor circumstances, he was always cheerful and carried on his party work with unfailing enthusiasm. He is another of those workers, out of the limelight, who are a sad loss to the party. He joined on July 2nd, 1906, thirty-two years ago.

Hitler the "Socialist" (1938)

From the November 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard

Many anti-Nazis who are also anti-Socialist are only too pleased to discredit Socialism by pretending that Hitlerism is what Hitler claims: a form of Socialism. The Evening Standard, serialising “My Struggle," headed its extracts on October 6th, 1938, “Hitler—Socialist." This is what the Evening Standard says: —

  It required an Austrian to lift up Germany, and an anti-Marxist to impose Socialism upon her. Hitler gave fair warning. Roughly half of the Twenty-five Unalterable Points of the Nazi creed, laid down in 1920, would make the British Labour Party shudder at their extremism.
   (i) Abolition of unearned income; (ii) ruthless seizure of all war profits ; (iii) nationalisation of trusts; (iv) share-out of profits from wholesale trade; (v) ban on land speculation; (vi) death for crimes against the nation, for profiteers, usurers and exploiters; (vii) communalisation of chain stores; and so on.
  As for “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle), there Hitler pours forth sentiments that have brought cheering to their feet millions of workers, and hundreds of thousands of ex-Socialists and Communists.

This might make the British Labour Party shudder, but it does not make Hitler’s programme a Socialist programme. Here it is necessary to add a word of explanation. When Hitler talked of the “abolition of unearned income” he did not mean what Socialists mean, for he borrowed from the Labourites the absurd notion that there are “two kinds of capital, one which is the outcome of creative labour, the other which owes its existence to speculation." It was the latter only that he promised to abolish. So even if Hitler had kept his promises (which he has not) Germany would still be what it is now: a capitalist country operating under fairly rigid State control.

One of the popular ideas about Germany is that Hitler has made life impossible for the capitalist. It has even been claimed that profit has been extinguished. That this is untrue can easily be shown by the fact that one of the major sources of Government revenue is a tax on profits. The Economist correspondent in Berlin wrote as follows (Economist, August 6th, 1938): —

  . . .  Now the taxation of profits has been sharply increased. . . . The increase is in the corporation tax. This tax is levied on the net profits of joint stock companies at a uniform rate (with some inconsiderable exceptions) of 30 per cent. Compared with depression times, its yield has increased more than that of any other impost, owing partly to the increase in its rate from 20 per cent, to 30 per cent, made in 1936, but mainly to the revival of company profits.

Before leaving Hitler and his attitude towards reformism it is interesting to read (Daily Telegraph, October 22nd, 1938) an official admission by the Nazi authorities that last winter no fewer than 9,000,000 German workers received help from the Winter Aid Fund, the reason being that their wages are too low to provide the necessities of life. The excuse given by the Nazis is that this condition of affairs is a legacy from the Government which preceded them, which they describe as a Government of “Marxists." Precisely the same excuse was used by that Government and is used by every Government unable to make capitalism satisfactory to the workers.

Another fact which indicates how little changed Germany is under Hitler, in spite of his nearly six years in office, is given by the Berlin correspondent of the Sunday Times (October 23rd, 1938). He gives figures showing that there are about 2,000,000 domestic servants in Germany, obviously indicating the continued existence of a large propertied class able to pay to be served and waited on.

In conclusion, the following statement by Hitler in "My Struggle" should serve as a warning to those who interfere with Mosley's meetings: —

  We chose red (as the Nazi Party colour) after exact and careful consideration; our intention was to anger the Left, get them in a rage, and so induce them to come to our meetings—if only in order to break them up—so we got our chance of talking to them.

Edgar Hardcastle