tense, alarmed atmosphere came a scem the epitome of iudicious and small news item from Scotland Yard: unhysterical forethought. They care almost as an after-thought they men- fully leak, not only to the highly tioned that due to the possibility of questionable gossip-mongering pres mob violence, they were sending but lo those pillars of respectability many of their ordinary policemen among newspapers, hair-raising di (it was stressed) for brief training coveries of imminent blood-baths and sojourns in crowd control at a Hen- planned revoiutionary carry-ons whitr don training centre, But this training at the same time arranging for their consisted only, they assured us, official spokesman to deny the pro 'refresher courses'. ceedink of investigation(thereby sparing themselves the bur Admittedly indulging in specula- den of proof. tion, let us imagine a mythological And what is the image left in the police force, panie-stricken by revolu.
public mind? An eminenily reason. countries, deciding that they must lionary activily in neighbouring able police force harassed in the carrving out of ite duty be irreston create their own effective force for sible. rumour-flosging journalist» suppression lest "fanatically' idealistie youths in their land take hope from And what is the public image o left-winur demonstrators land activist. foreign however, our imazinary police forco uprisings. Inconvenientiv. (nona of wham hava hoen arenat allan.
We are writing to you in connecticn with the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the armed forces of the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and East Germany. An invasion which you have described as a 'flagrant violation of Czech sovereignty', but which nevertheless you have gone on to justify in political terms.
Having read vour speech on the subject we gather that your main excuse for supporting Czech intervention was your belief that the new regime was: "marching towards and inexorably towards Imperialism —we did not have the slightest doubt about that".
We disagree with you Comrade. There was not the slightest evidence to suggest that the socialised property relations which prevail inside Czechcslovakia were in danger. Does this mean that we justify the economic policies of the Dubcek regime. No! A hundred times no! But then there is very little difference between the economic trends in Czechoslovakia and other East European countries including the Soviet Union. If the Czechs ta movisa •nekarakly townrds canitaliam" then aa are tha Rusalana. GUNS Adrian Mitchell They seem to have all the guns.
Most of the guns in Britain are British/American government property, Police property Or the property of gentry-gangsters Who are British/American government property. Nobody I love has a gun. Not in Britain. The rich are rich because they fuck people about. They call it the Quality of Leadership And they have special school-machines producing Leaders to fuck people about, internationally People with guns Tend to fuck other people about The people they tend to fuck about Are people who don't have guns.
None of my friends has a machine-gun ready. Let alone a tank
They were particularly in- covered an aris cache, etc. and countrien, deciding that they m ted him, they explained, that Scotland Yard had officially create their own effective force for use of his riot control experience denied having held secret investiga- suppression lest "fanatically' idealistic long Kong. They were especially tions with such findings. Who else youths in their land take hope from pus to recruit as many former but the police, of course, could have foreign uprisings. Inconveniently, ary personnel as possible. Our led the eminently responsible Times however, our imaginary police fores an, attracted by the job secur- had signed up. He was shortly, to print the first claim? Times would not have printed hearsay Surely The resides in a nation with a long tradi- tion of civilized tolerance for dissent old us, to go off to a police centre only an authoritative statement and a consequent distaste for militarendon for training. Shortly after, from somewhere in the police force ism and repression on the part of its vanished as he had predicted, would have led to their printing the police. Alas! In order to make their rently to take up his new career. account all even though they new militant steps palatable, the phoned Scotland Yard for a ment. They reacted with shocked pointed out that the official spokes- man of Scotland Yard had made a police public terror and outrage at would- authorities must whip up or: they knew nothing of such denial. be violence-mongers to a sufficient uad. They recruited men only In the midst of wild stories and a degree to maks their own action Roland Muldoon Howing in the wake of the rise Therefore, what remains is a lot of constitute what is now referred to as evolutionary consciousness has devoted people who, when all is said the extra-parliamentary opposition. the demand for a socialist sub- and done, amount to a couple of re. But so far all that has drama groups, folk singers, and a So as we have developed we are few good poets. There is also the presented with the problem of aped is a conglomeration of halfemergence of art design as a recog proaching three types of audiences. d often misapplied ideas that nised weapon, the beginnings of a First the progressive left and here tunately reflect the uncertainty left-wing press, and Unity, a run- we have tried to avoid the obvious neral schizophrenia of the Move. down old theatre of the orthodox pitfalls of preaching to the converted ....in the wrong way. It is left (which often seems more inter- by trying to reflect its own schizo easy to come up with a widely ested in West End recognition than phrenia... in, we hope, the correct example of this, so Centre the sub-culture). way. The second audience is the ill have to suffice, Although this youth, who are generally much more ment never claimed to be re- What then are we to do? It is aware than their elders because of ionary, it expressed a desire to important for our embryonic move- the pop-explosion and therefore we culture to the workers. It had ment to be backed up (in' this age have set out plays somewhere in that vincial tour, which was an abys. of mass media) with an art move- media. The third is the most difficult failure, and then retreated to ment that reflects the classical and -and that is the workers. This is s Roundhouse. There it attempted modern alienations of the workers, hard market to define and very often collect money to convert that students and intellectuals. they dislike the material which ing into a mausoleum worthy' appeals to the other two. As yet we alin himself. When unable to When we started three years ago have not come up with a satisfactory orking class support, it attempt- presenled material about the answer in any way to their particular borrow money -trom the classical alienation facing the young type of demand and so we are curlishment. Caught between the everyman in the western world. This rently trying to develop a play which fire tha two, it produced was well received by all types of will interest them but will not be ng. audiences but generally those which covered by bourgeoise culture.
24 см 00000000000 CONSUME -000000000 ON police carrying out of its duty by Irre sible. rumour-flogging And what 1s. Ine public image left-wing demonstrators and activis (none of whom have been arrested or charged, and whose alleged arse accumulation and bomb-making is still unproved?)
And what is the public response they hear the announcements: that the police have in fact, created a militaristic, control branch so that their land can have a CRS of its very own?
We do, however, feel it essential that we create an ambiance with all those concerned in creating a sub-culture (and not requiring recognition for its own sake). We should get together because it simply isn't good enough just to feel that you are trying to do something and not reaching the widest audience possible. It tends to become a nightmare: you have to sort out what's happening and, when doing this, you begrudgingly realise that the ICA and imitators in the hippy underground generally have more effect. They present, at least to the youth of this country, a rival culture. Ultimately, however, those with genuine intention will emerge as strong minority. In the short term we are expecting people attractaway from bourgeoise society to sort out where they are for themselves or at the worst and in the absence of other alternatives to let the International Times the Melody Maker and the Arts Lab to do it for them.
Alised property relations which prevail inside Czechoin danger. Does this mean that we justify the economic policies of the Dubcek regime. No! A hundred times no! But then there & very little difference between the economic trends in Czechoslovakia and other East European countries including the Soviet Union. If the Czechs financial deals the Soviet bureaucracy has contracted with capitalism. Surely you know the deal made with Italian capital to produce Fiat cars in the Soviet Union- -to name but one firm!
There is also talk of imperialist elements' in Czechoslovakia. What clements are these? West German tourists? There are more of them in Bulgaria! Americans? There are more of them in the Soviet Union itself! Capitalist propaganda? It flourishes throughout Eastern Europe.
No Fidel! What the leadership of the CPSU feared most was the penetration of critical COMMUNIST ideas inside a communist state. They are frightened that the example might spread as indeed it will. What they fear is NOT the penetration of capital but the penetration of ideas. What they fear is that soon the new generation inside the Soviet Union itself will begin to demand that the platform of the Left Opposition be published! That the butchery, both physical and intellectual, perpetrated by Stalinism e exposed fog once and for all and that the present bureaucratic regim in the Soviet Inion be exposed as having betrayed the fundamental tenet of Leninism.
Fidel you imply that a few honest revolutionaries asked for Soviet intervention. The Koldar clique-all three of them—are neither honest nor revolutionaries. They are the most backward and Stalinist elements inside the bureaucracy who want to preserve the status quo. They are the Escalantes of Eastern Europe!!
Of course there are bourgeois forces present in Czechoslovakia as there are in most communist countries but they had been politically sterilised by the actions of the Czech communists. If anything has revived them it is the Soviet intervention. The Dubcek regime had laid the basis for a genuine political revolution which would have progressed with the growth of a genuine revolutionary movement in the whole of Europe. The Stalinists in the Kremlin have tried to crush this, but in the long run they will not succeed. How can they. History is beginning to catch up with them.
Fidel you know better than us that revolutionary socialism cannot be forced down people's throats at bayonet point. If it is politically justifiable for a Communist country to intervene in order to remove a regime it dislikes, how can we argue that it is wrong for Yankee Imperialism to try and preserve its client states by military force? The moral base of Marxism must not be debased.
Stalinism has converted the ideas of Marx and Lenin into a sterile dogma in much the same way as a Roman Catholic catechism. Stalinism has made Eastern Europe completely apolitical so that it cannot understand the nature of the struggles taking place in Vietnam, Latin America and Africa. It will take time for revolutionary politics to flower inside Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union again but flower they will and when they begin to bloom it will sound the death-knell of neo-capitalism in Western Europe.
The Soviet Union refuses to recognise that the main enemy is U.S. Imperialism. How can it with its declared aim of peaceful co-existence'. The Soviet Union prefens to concentrate its wrath on "German re. vanchism' which it knows full well is merely an off-shoot of a larger monster Soviet intervention has come as a blow to the anti-imperialist movement in the West.
It is for all these reasons that we are saddened by your support of the Russian intervention because we, Fidel, never thought that you could ever be on the same side, albiet objectively, as men like Monje and others of his ilk in Latin America. Men who have dishonoured Marxism and are betraying the Revolution. All of us have supported the achievements of the Cuban Revolution! Most of us have visited Cuba since its liberation! We still do! We are in complete solidarity with the struggle begun by Che in the jungles of Bolivia and we shall continue to help in the struggle against U.S. Imperialism, But it is precisely because of our political position on these questions that we ask you Fidel: WHY???
Tariq Ali, Roger Smith, Clive Goodwin, Irving Teitlebaum, David Mercer, 7 Carlisle St.. London. W.1. EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION GROUP, Tarig Alloitelbaum, Fred Clive Goodwin, Robin Fior, David Mercer, Halliday, Barney Fulcher, Tyrrell, Warren Sharpe. by The Black Dwarf Carlisle London cople with Tend to fuck other people about.
The people they tend to fuck about Are people who don't have guns.
None of my friends has a machine-gun ready.
Let alone a tank, A few yards ahead of us. a row of truncheons.
Behind the truncheons, rifles.
Behind the rifles, grenades Behind the grenades, machine-guns, Behind the machine-guns, tanks, Behind the tanks, bombs.
And behind the bombs the rich.
The rich are as stupid as guns.
They will be killed by their own guns.
In every capital The fuckedabout of the world are linking arms.
The people of the world Want the world.
We are going to take it.
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----- pull-quotes -----
when, softened ap by this compaign, Big Daddy of police
were moving "inexorably towards capitalism" then so are the Russians, so are the Poles, the Bulgarians and the Rumanians. Surely you know of the
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