Hornsey-what next? protest from the D.E.S. Militant we've got most of, and that's militant the workers to the "heights" of the bourgeoisie or the per bourgeois Culot seations of formerly the students at the barricades, they Comrades, occupied their factories. They were For some time now I have ex- prepared to fight. Many tendencies pressed grave misgivings about the in this country and in Europe and editorial policy of the Black Dwarf, the United States based a theory on its statements, its slogans, the con- this concrete and special phenometent of the paper, its political direc- non and assigned to the students the tion. These misgivings should be role of detonator of revolutions. The discussed, because I feel they are Dwarf itself carried the front page, involve questions of principle. Since important to the movement, and they revolutionary vanguard". The politi- claiming students as "The May when the Dwarf first appeared cal situation throughout the world is in print political events throughout in a state of conflict; the students the wotld have developed at an un- are restless, the young are restless, that precedented pace. Questions of the revolutionary role of the working. class questions of the Vietnamese revolu- in Metropolitan countries, France. What is incorrect is to build Events in France were peculiar to there is an impatience. But revolu- tion is not based on short cuts.
tion. revolutionary role of Salinism, ques- questions of the counter- a general theory out of this. To a Marxist, there is only one class that tions of the intervention of Soviet can overthrow capitalism, and that is troops in Czechoslovakia, questions the working class. If the working of the of the working class do not respond to moral class in this country as they face exhortations, it is because their daily one of their biggest fights in history, struggles are of a different order, a questions that are not academic but struggle of survival, a struggle of have been sharply posed. Our task in a newspaper of and concretely warring classes, the capitalist against the working class, a process which is this kind is to examine and analyse largely unconscious. Since Marx the these questions, push forward theory task of all Marxists revolutionaries and give a political lend on the basis has been to make the unconscious role of Stalinism and its parasitic editorial to form a non-sectar lesson was rammed home only too what does this mean? It can n bureaucracy. And if we did the extra parliamentary opposition.
only one thing - a centrist com tragically in Czechoslovakia. In this necessary clarification the struggles of the working class! mise, of which in the history of Dwarf has offered only confusion.
And nowhere more clearly is this examples, It is this that this -p are only teo many tranche confusion found than in its associa- has called for, an unprincipled tion with the Vietnam Solidarity ance with Stalinists, State capita New Campaign, a campaign which has anarchists and let us not forget made more about turns than the Irish Guards in front of Buckingham waiting in the wings once they Palace. In the name of a united front it has formed an alliance with Labour lefts. That is what the been deposed from office precisely those Stalinists that be- parliamentary And where are the working ch opposition trayed the French revolution. Never this? Nowhere. Left to figh once did this campaign call upon the battles with the capitalist clas support of the working class, never their side-kicks the Labour Ge once did it connect the struggle in ment, left to face their stri Vietnam with the pending struggles of the British working class against against the prices policy, against wage restrictio and the Prices and Incomes Act. The possible anti-Trade Union Law question that must be asked is what a more decisive blow against But. the working class dos imperialism, a march or a massive need the "extra-parliamentar strike? No Marxist can be in any Yet we heard no such dis- position" Downing Street. This is not that ends up cussion from the leadership of that doubt. feated class, this is a class march. Instead what did we have? fishting, that is coming forwan And in spite of the adventurist calls from the leader of this paper to wit- and more. This class needs bug, of, reformist, theorie leadership, not an epportun
by KIM HOWELL protest from the D.E.S. Militant For a brief seven weeks we tasted staff have been sacked while the a kind of freedom. For seven weeks teachers union have all stood by we were spared the mind numbing silently like the sheep that they are. shit poured out by the heroes of the The college itself has been turned bourgeois art magazines, we were into a fortress. Steel doors have been spared the lies of the aesthetes, erected aCrOSS strategic corridors, the art historians and of the adminis- searchlights hung on the outside tration. We kicked our way out of walls, spikes placed on the drainthe ivory tower which had been pipes, iron bars on the windows and such an effective shield against the what was formerly the "subversive" evil realities of life outside the make General Studies department is now a believe of pretty colours, pseudo- converted flat for a permanent night intellectual jargon and trendy varia- watchman and his family. tions on themes of high powered These are however, measures typisalesmanship that were the staple cal of, and to be expected from, an educational meals of the whiz-kids set of neo-fascist bank of Hornsey. managers and launderet owners of The progress of the sit-in matters the kind that control education at only superficially. Our revolution Hornsey. It is impossible to negotiate went the way of many others, that even communicate with such is to say that the social democrats morons as these, the only alternawe've got most of, and that's militant the workers to the "heights" of the students. Great sections of formerly bourgeoisie or the pely bourgeois politically backward people WCIC intellectuals, if means raising the suddenly kicked their pre- level of art in the direction in which dominately sedate middle class arses the prolateriat is advancing. We and were subjected to the worst kind must learn from the workers and of hack borough politics. They very aim to find the proper relationships quickly learned that our democracy between that aesthetic appreciation was more democratic than the elec- that so-called *creative tion of the American president, that artists" possess (or are supposed to the press actually told lies, and that possess anyway) and its relevance to politicians were really not the con- the struggles of the mass of the cerned, aware, implicitly honest men working class in this country. I and of the people that they previously many others detest the elitist cul believed them to be. You revolu- tural systems that exist in England, tionary comrades reading this will, and challenge anyone to defend their of course, have known these facts of position as a lackey of that wealthy life since birth but you must try and parasitic minority who make the realise that until the sit-in most of most nauseating pretentions imaginthe good people at Hornsey were able about their understanding of concerned with the real issues of our "great" art. All but a very few of making useless art the teachers that I have ever met are objects for the elitist bourgeoise of guilty to a lesser or greater degree struggle of survival, a struggle of sharply and concretely warring classes, the capitalist against posed. Our task in a newspaper of the working class, a process which is this kind is to examine and analyse largely unconscious. Since Marx the these questions, push forward theory and give a political lead on the basis task of all Marxists revolutionaries of a Marxist analysis of the inter- has been to make the unconscious national struggle of the world's pro- process conscious. But it is based on one principle, that the working class letariat. are the decisive class and the only In this respect I can only conclude decisive class. that the Black Dwarf has been evasive of its task. From France another thing The Black Dwarf first appeared at came clear. revolution the height of the revolutionary betrayed by the Stalinist Party. What events in France. One lesson 1031 was crucial was not that the French was clear from this was that the pro- working class were not prepared to letariat of the metropolitan countries fight, but that they lacked revoluwere not dormant as so many ten- tionary leadership to take the power. dencies had claimed. The students This was the lesson, a lesson that fought against police oppression must be digested by the movements and the French working class found in Britain. The crucial question is an echo in their own struggles, a the need for the building of a revoworking class that had been be- lutionary working class party to take trayed, bullied, cajoled in the name The power. We need no further of capitalist expansion. They joined evidence of the counter revolutionary wrike? No Marsat can be in any doubt. Yet we heard no such dis- Downing cussion from the leadership of that feated class, march. Instead what did we have? fighting, that is coming forward n And in spite of the adventurist calls and more. This class needs Mar from the leader of this paper to leadership. not an opportunist *Not Demand, Occupy/" we wit- bag. of, reformist, swearies, Th what the Dwart should be addr nessed last Sunday the most craven example of reformism in the shape ing itself to, this is the struggle of a letter that was delivered to Dwarf should be giving clarifica be- number 10 Downing Street, which began "Dear Harold" and ended to. overthrow of this vile corrupt sy This should be its strategy. WaS "Fraternally." Apart from the flip- which holds the masses of the w in brutal subservience, that of pant irresponsibility of this letter (was this why one hundred thousand nothing but oppression and vich marched to say "Dear Harold"?) to further its own greedy what we have is the opposition" leading "extra- These are the questions to be pe The building of revolution parnamentary this demonstration back to where leadership through and in the every British radical movement has class that can transform the wi ended and been betrayed - to Parlia- the working class. ment. ROGER SMITH.
It is in this light that we must discuss the plea of the Dwarf Hamilton Gdns., N