It is still early days. We of the Central Committee are all aboard the train taking us on the GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM. We stop. Led by Lenin we climb down from the C.C. carriage. What to do? We ask Vladimir for guidance. He said we should discuss the problem with the Party membership and through them with the working class, the peasantry, intellectuals and the other revolutionists. Exercising power through the Soviets they will take us forward on the GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM.
A bit further on we stop again. Stalin pushed everyone out first, checked the scene for security and then issued a directive. Go out, said Joe, harness a few million workers, peasants, throw in some intellectuals (shoot any who resist particularly Party members) and bring them here. Using them as rails, sleepers and ballast they will take us on the GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM.
Many years later we again grind to a halt. Comrade Khruschov politely ushers us out and follows. What I think we should do, says Nikita, is try to round up the workers, peasants and some others, get them to tear up the tracks behind and lay them in front. Then off we'll go on the GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM.
But before long it happens again. We all jump out except for Leonid who fell. Comrade Brehznev pulls himself together and says. Everyone back in the train, pull down the blinds and start rocking the carriage. Then the whole world will think we are an the GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM.
Then came the final shuddering halt. Making sure Mikail got off first we followed. After a lot of discussion Comrade Gorbachov agreed to make the announcement. Comrades, he said, spread out from here, ask all those still prepared to listen - workers, peasants, anyone else, even capitalists. When we've got attention we all yell out in unison: THERE IS NO GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM! (Hannah's story taken with licence).
Yes. History can indeed be hard in its judgement. History is also reality. It can be seen with clarity or distortion depending on the personal prism through which it is viewed. In our country recently, some have not been able cope with defeats. They have been so overawed with the resilience of the capitalist system and, lacking any real faith in the working class and its allies or understanding of the political process, have succumbed. But enough of them. Brecht was right. Its all so simple but so difficult. But never before have so many millions been engaged in bitter struggle to create a better life. Marx wrote once that capitalism was born in a sea of blood and could die the same way. This prescience is being ratified with each passing day. Lenin was right about the need for an organised detachment of the class. Even read, if you like, Stalin on organisation. Once the political line is determined then organisation becomes the crucial factor. All our activist/theorist cadres, those at the centre of people's lives, are at present building through hard won experience the necessary knowledge to create whatever forms are needed at whatever time.
The analysis made by some over the last five or ten years that the 'right' were so strong and the 'left' so weak and 'marginalised' that they had to seek 'new forms organisation'. Well they did. With disasterous and costly results. And where are the bogey-men now? Bond, Morgan, Connel, Skase, others and their ideologists and political hangers-on. Some have been jailed and others are heading that way. The movement in all its many strands is in good shape. There is a multi-level struggle well under way that speaks well of the present generation and also of the years of consistant and devoted struggle and education by Communists before us. Whatever glory there is, is theirs.
A bit further on we stop again. Stalin pushed everyone out first, checked the scene for security and then issued a directive. Go out, said Joe, harness a few million workers, peasants, throw in some intellectuals (shoot any who resist particularly Party members) and bring them here. Using them as rails, sleepers and ballast they will take us on the GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM.
Many years later we again grind to a halt. Comrade Khruschov politely ushers us out and follows. What I think we should do, says Nikita, is try to round up the workers, peasants and some others, get them to tear up the tracks behind and lay them in front. Then off we'll go on the GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM.
But before long it happens again. We all jump out except for Leonid who fell. Comrade Brehznev pulls himself together and says. Everyone back in the train, pull down the blinds and start rocking the carriage. Then the whole world will think we are an the GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM.
Then came the final shuddering halt. Making sure Mikail got off first we followed. After a lot of discussion Comrade Gorbachov agreed to make the announcement. Comrades, he said, spread out from here, ask all those still prepared to listen - workers, peasants, anyone else, even capitalists. When we've got attention we all yell out in unison: THERE IS NO GLORIOUS ROAD TO COMMUNISM! (Hannah's story taken with licence).
Yes. History can indeed be hard in its judgement. History is also reality. It can be seen with clarity or distortion depending on the personal prism through which it is viewed. In our country recently, some have not been able cope with defeats. They have been so overawed with the resilience of the capitalist system and, lacking any real faith in the working class and its allies or understanding of the political process, have succumbed. But enough of them. Brecht was right. Its all so simple but so difficult. But never before have so many millions been engaged in bitter struggle to create a better life. Marx wrote once that capitalism was born in a sea of blood and could die the same way. This prescience is being ratified with each passing day. Lenin was right about the need for an organised detachment of the class. Even read, if you like, Stalin on organisation. Once the political line is determined then organisation becomes the crucial factor. All our activist/theorist cadres, those at the centre of people's lives, are at present building through hard won experience the necessary knowledge to create whatever forms are needed at whatever time.
The analysis made by some over the last five or ten years that the 'right' were so strong and the 'left' so weak and 'marginalised' that they had to seek 'new forms organisation'. Well they did. With disasterous and costly results. And where are the bogey-men now? Bond, Morgan, Connel, Skase, others and their ideologists and political hangers-on. Some have been jailed and others are heading that way. The movement in all its many strands is in good shape. There is a multi-level struggle well under way that speaks well of the present generation and also of the years of consistant and devoted struggle and education by Communists before us. Whatever glory there is, is theirs.
