"NOT WANTED"

  ———<>———

BY BRITISH DEMOCRACY

DOCTRINE OF REVOLUTION

RAMSAY MACDONALD ON COMMUNISM

(By H.- Hessell Tiltman— Copyright No. 4)

With sections of the Australian Labor Party still flirting with Communism, an expression of opinion by Britain's Labor Prime Minister on that issue is of supreme interest.

Ramsay Macdonald, even before the war, had fought for the principle of democratic evolution as against revolution. Those were the days of the Second International, when the Socialists of Europe were being driven into rival camps on that very issue.

The British Democracy, Ramsay Macdonald has continually urged, has the power of Government in its own hands, and that being so, there is no case for catastrophic upheavals in British countries.

There has been a good deal of misrepresentation with regard to Macdonald's personal view on Communism.

 The popular press took little account of International gatherings before the war, and few were aware of, much less interested in, the disputes regarding democracy as against revolutionary methods. Macdonald had engaged in these disputes and had written at length in defence of Parliamentarianism.

 The arguments ran highest among the Russians, however. Many people, even to-day, fail to realise that there were two revolutions in Russia. The first, that led by Kerensky, a Menshevik Democrat, was impelled by the massacre of the flower of Russia's manhood along with the starvation of its peasantry, and aimed at establishing a Russian Parliamentary system on Western European lines. That was the revolution hailed by British Socialists and Radicals, Macdonald amongst them.

 It was the Allied attempt, with Kerensky's unwilling aid, to whip the unarmed and starving Russian army to further offensives against Germany that led to his summary displacement by Lenin, his colleague Trotsky, and others of the Third, or Communist, International. Lenin realised that the only possible chance of a Russian recovery was an immediate peace.

 There was no occasion for surprise in this development, and many, including Macdonald, who quite understood the secret of Lenin's power and popularity in Russia, disagreed fundamentally with his philosophy as he and his colleagues sought to apply it to other nations.

 It was because of his great faith in the British democracy and the powers that lay at its feet that he fought with all his vigor against the attempt by the tiny group of British Communists to influence the Labor Party, first by seeking to secure a "United Front," by direct affiliation, and when that tactic had failed, by organising cliques and "Left Wing" coteries among the rank and file of the party.

 Writing in the "Socialist Review," in 1920. Macdonald made his attitude to the Communists quite clear:

 "The real Third International stands as the embodiment of a belief in force and armed revolution as the one universal means of attaining to Socialism." The Third International is the product of two things: Russian conditions and a dogmatic logic which spins policy from fancied necessity. The grand coup d'etat in Russia and its successful defiance of the whole of armed and financial Europe have particularly affected the minds of those who have entered the Socialist movement since 1914.

 "They find it impossible to pay tribute to the courage and strength of will of the Russian leaders and to demand that European reaction and spitefulness shall let them alone, without also supporting the Moscow International. I do the first two, but decline to do the third."

 "... The objection I have taken to the Third International is its domineering methods which ally it with theological fanaticism. It is metaphysical in its spirit and not scientific. It is to impose upon the National parties a philosophy, a method, a shibboleth, and a purge."

 Strong Historic Sense

 In a word, Macdonald's historic sense holds the balance of his mind. His continued interest in the Cromwellian revolution in England, and the gradual but certain broadening of British political institutions, give point to his arguments for democratic rights.

 A visit to Georgia in 1920 gave great satisfaction to Macdonald, as he found there valiant attempts were being made by a released democracy to face the political and economic problems imposed by a sudden return to peace by way of revolution. When, soon after his return to England, he learned of the invasion of Georgia by Bolshevik armies, directed from Moscow, he found confirmation of all his opposition to Communist expansion by armed force. 

Other visits paid at odd times to Turkey, to Palestine, to Egypt, and to Ceylon have all helped to ripen an experience of world affairs that is to-day unrivalled in British public life.

 It is notorious that Macdonald was opposed to the path of secret diplomacy that led to the World War, and that with other Socialists and Radicals suspected the activities of the armament manufacturers of the leading nations of Europe.

 He held that there were forces making for war elsewhere than in the Central Empires, He knew that Lord Fisher, when First Lord of the Admiralty, had urged upon King Edward VII. that "the British fleet should 'Copenhagen' the German Fleet at Kiel, a la Nelson," and that he "lamented that we possessed neither a Pitt nor Bismarck to give the order."

 "It seemed to me," said Lord Fisher, '"simply a sagacious act on England's part to seize the German fleet when it was so very easy of accomplishment, in the manner I sketched out to his Majesty, and probably without bloodshed."

 Appeal to Masses

 It was the knowledge of the existence of this sort of mentality in high responsible quarters that impelled Macdonald to appeal to the masses to recognise their common interest in peace.

 The late Lord Morley shared an intimate friendship with Macdonald, and early in their acquaintance indicated to a political colleague that Macdonald had the "Front Bench mind." That was true enough, as the House of Commons discovered when he was elected the leader of the Opposition in 1922, and when he emphasised the view from the Treasury Box as Prime Minister in 1924.

 From that vantage-ground he became a voice, a conscience for all thinking men whose souls longed for international peace, and now, in 1929, he returns once more, strengthened in his faith, more ardent than ever in his efforts to bring the nations of the world into a secure and trustful co-operation.

 It is a remarkable tribute to his influence that he has risen from the depths of obloquy to the heights of world-wide statesmanship by sheer fidelity to the fundamental principles he has continually sought to promote, both nationally and internationally.

 The visit paid by Ramsay Macdonald to Australia and New Zealand in 1906 has been fruitful in many ways.

 The Commonwealth had been an experimental seed-plot for Labor legislation for many years, and since 1891 Labor parties, built on a British trade union basis for the most part, had been created and were active in all the States. Labor was also a growing political force In the Commonwealth as a Federal party, and already In 1904 had been responsible for a Labor Cabinet, headed by J. C. Watson, a working compositor, as Premier.

 Both Macdonald and his wife had been keen students of the Factory Acts, particularly in their application to women's working conditions. They amassed a wealth of information on industrial law, and again made countless friendships among the many trade union and Labor leaders with whom they came into contact.

 Many of these have visited their London home in later years, as State Premiers and members of the Commonwealth Parliament, as proud of their development and contribution to the advancement of the workers of Australia, as was Macdonald himself of the achievements of the British Labor Party.

Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Thursday 24 October 1929, page 19