book notes ipulation
Fax: +33 1/43792961 E-mail: 100666.1443@compuserve.com
• Australia $33 • Britain £25 • Canada $80 • Denmark 380 DKK • Ireland £25 •
• South Africa R100 • Sweden 400 SEK • New Zealand $35 • USA $70 •
Ireland: The Promise of Socialism Joe Craig, John McAnulty and Paul Flanagan This book is a timely intervention into the debate about the future of socialism in Ireland. It takes issue with the two major strands in the argument on the left: those who believe that the national question is an outdated distraction from real class politics and those who put their hopes for socialism in a blind tail-ending of the Republican movement.
Its scope is wide ranging. It situates the struggle for socialism in Ireland within a broad framework covering the fall of the
Stalinist states of Eastern Europe, European integration, the relationship between the struggle for socialism and women's liberation and the question of the environment.
The starting point is the failure of both partitioned states; the South, paralysed by a massive international debt and saved only in the short term by EU aid, and the North, totally dependent on political, military and economic aid from Britain.
Some, including John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party in the North believe the solution to the problem of what he calls the divided people of Ireland is regional self government within a federal EU. The Dublin ruling class is keen on this idea and believes that closer union within the EU is the way to overcome the country's historic dependence on Britain. Thus Irish independence is to be achieved by greater European unity. Unfortunately for them a large section of the Conservative and Unionist Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland does not share this Euro ideal. Neo-colonialism
This exchange of dependence on Britain for dependence on the EU is precisely what occurred after 1960 in the South. The attempt at native economic development between 1932 and 1958 ran into the sand by the late fifties. What followed was an abrupt aboutturn by the Fianna Fail government - opening the economy to foreign capital and a dash for membership of the European Union. The effect of the influx of foreign capital was a rapid growth in the number of jobs controlled by multinational capital and the decimation of domestic industry.
Analysis with Attitude
The book takes issue with the argument, put forward by the Socialist Workers
Movement and others, that the South is not a neo-colony. This would have us believe that
There is only one magazine in the English language where
• the leaders of France's trade union left debate how best to articulate the new mood of resistance to public sector cuts and unemployment.
• Tahiti's NGO activists explain why they feel Greenpeace marginalised them during the campaign against French nuclear tests.
• Indian activists argue that we shouldn't ban imports on countries with deficient environmental and labour legislation.
Founded by Ernest Mandel,
International Viewpoint is the world's largest international Marxist news and analysis magazine.
Correspondents in over 50 countries report on popular struggles, and the debates which are shaping the left of tomorrow. Direct from the front line in the fight against neo-liberalism.
СИЕИРОІ the South is not to be bracketed with the underdeveloped world, that it is no more subject to the ebbs and flows of international capital than other economy and finally, that Dublin is capable of acting on its own behalf outside the control of its colonial masters.
The fact is that the Irish economy was shaped in Britain's interests, that what determines capital accumulation in Ireland is the capital flows of the imperialist countries and, finally, that despite those sectors, such as drugs, computers and electronics which have sprouted since the influx of multinational capital in the 1960s and which make such a big difference to the balance of trade, there remains a high dependence by native capital on the British market. This dependence was clear in the big devaluation of the Irish pound after the British currency crashed out of the ERM in 1992.
One of the most important consequences of this dependence on multinational capital is the fact that about 12% of GDP is repatriated
This magazine is a window to radical alternatives worldwide. For a free trial subscription (three issues), call us now, or mention this advert to our local sales agent! Australia: International Viewpoint, PO Box 1638, Collingwood 3065, Victoria Britain: Outlook International, PO Box 1009 London N4 2UU (081) 800 7460 Canada: Socialist Challenge, PO Box 4955, Main P.O, Vancouver V6B 4A6 USA: International Viewpoint, PO Box 1824, New York, NY 10009 / BP 85, Paris cedex 11, 75522 France © +33 1/43792961 30 International Viewpoint by the same multinationals. The lack of investment which accompanies such massive capital outflows means that manufacturing productivity in both parts of Ireland is about 75% of that in Britain and Britain is by no means a world leader in this area. The National Question
As well as being a neo-colony (the South) and a colony (the North), Ireland has an unresolved national question. British rule has never been accepted by the majority of the people of Ireland and Britain can only maintain that rule through repression and sectarianism. For the authors, there is only one legitimate response to this oppression;
immediate withdrawal and disbanding of the repressive forces which it has brought into being.
This demand is a democratic one but should not, as some socialists do, be counterpoised to socialism. As the book points out:
"Avoiding or fudging political issues while promoting purely economic ones... surrenders these questions to the capitalist class....
At the same time, the struggle for self determination, while it may improve the conditions for the struggle for socialism, is not the same thing. A unified 32 state is not the solution to the problems of Irish workers."
Workers in Britain have a responsibility to demand British withdrawal, if only because of the classic Marxist dictum that a nation which oppresses another can never itself be free - a phase which has been borne out repeatedly in the history of relations between Britain and Ireland. Workers Unity
The book argues that Protestants are not a separate nation and it is because they cannot clearly identify themselves as British, Irish, Northern Irish or an Ulster nationality that they define themselves by religion. The call for Protestant self-determination is an attempt to give their reactionary and pro-imperialist role a democratic cover. The Northern state was and is based on a sectarian
Sectarianism cannot be reduced to the ideas in peoples heads - it is woven in to the very fabric of the northern statelet which was to its founders to be a Protestant State with a Protestant Parliament. Seeing sectarianism in this way feeds easily into the view promoted by the British that the war is an irrational feud which needs the presence of themselves to keep the fanatics apart. The authors argue that socialists need to challenge the sectarian ideas held by many Protestant workers: not capitulate to them.
Many socialists so strongly desire workers unity that they ignore or play down inconvenient facts. Employment discrimination is a manifestation of the sectarian nature of the Six County State and, as the book points out, the differential in Catholic and Protestant unemployment has changed little under the benign reigns of various British direct rulers. Neither do the authors counterpoise the fight against employment discrimination, as some "equality-of-misery" socialists would have it, to a general fight against unemployment as it affects all workers.
Demanding unity between Catholic and Protestant workers while ignoring the fact that the majority of the workforce refuses even to accept that discrimination exists, is a false and fragile unity. On the same tack, the authors place no reliance on anti-discrimination legislation from Britain or pressuring the investment policies of US transnationals.
The struggle for national self determination is not a diversion from what some call the bread and butter issues in the North of Ireland. On the contrary, the fight to dismantle the sectarian state grew out of basic issues such as discrimination in jobs and housing. Attempting to unify the working class around these issues while ignoring the political divisions will not succeed. Sooner or later they will fall apart under the pressure of the Unionist ruling class which bases itself
The usual response for the trade union leadership in the North to sectarian murders has been to call on the British State - in the guise of the Army or the police (RUC) - for protection, this in spite of the well documented collaboration between both of those and loyalist murder gangs. The only true defence is workers self defence.
The first step is to denounce all attacks on workers because of their religion and to demand that all organisations which claim to defend workers campaign against sectarian attacks. Such a defence campaign would necessarily be anti-Loyalist since loyalist is based on Protestant sectarianism. For Republicans, targeting mainly Protestant towns, accepting Protestant civilian casualties which wouldn't be accepted if they were Catholics, and refusal to confront the bigotry of the Catholic Church, are rightly denounced.
Rejection of Protestant self-determination does not mean rejection of the need for minority rights in a united state. Worries about the sectarianism of the South should not however lead socialists to support Protestant sectarianism in the guise of Protestant self determination or unity by consent.
Reformists put forward the demand for workers unity in the north as the alternative to sectarianism but limit it to unity between Catholic and Protestant workers in the North. Only a programme of unity of all workers North and South, offers an alternative to both Loyalist and bourgeois nationalism. The Republicans and armed struggle
The book defends republicans who fight against imperialism, including their right to use armed force. While it doesn't demand of republicans as a precondition of support that they adopt a socialist programme, this implies in no way support for the republicans nor for their methods. Military struggles by their nature are elitist and many republicans elevate armed struggle into a principle. The republicans have furthermore combined militarism with reformist politics and more recently developed a strategy of alliance with the bourgeoisie North and South in the so- called pan-nationalist alliance.
The book asserts that the struggle for self determination for the whole of the Irish people is fundamentally democratic and must be supported. How that self-determination is expressed is itself a matter of struggle. For socialists, it is clear that real democracy and equality will only be possible in a workers republic. This is why, the authors argue, socialists should fight for the concrete expression of self determination (without giving up unconditional support for the struggle for self determination, whether it makes socialism its goal or not.)
Republican politics offers no solution to the problems of the working class north or south, let alone to loyalist workers. Breaking out of the impasse of republican politics requires mass action and a programme which is not only democratic but addresses the needs of workers especially in the South. The Southern working class is the key to the destruction of the sectarian northern statelet but these workers will not be mobilised around the demand the demand for self determination though the vast majority favour self determination and Irish unity.
A large part of the failure of the Republicans to win significant support in the South has been its failure to confront the backward, bigoted and reactionary ruling class on the question of women's rights. Never having challenged the notion of family, republicans have been sidelined as more and more cases of violence against women, abuse of children and the hypocrisy of many priests who preached celibacy but acted otherwise, have emerged from behind the facade of the Irish catholic family.
The book criticises the so-called social partnership promoted by the leadership of all the main unions in the South and which is nothing less than class collaboration. This has left the mass of workers open to the attacks represented by unemployment, emigration, cuts in welfare, new management techniques and privatisation.
A key political requirement in the South is to break the working class from its support for Fianna Fail, and encouraging workers to identify with the need for a party which represents their interests. The authors do not support the Irish Labour Party, which they argue cannot be reformed, but they argue that building a genuine workers party means first of all winning workers to support class politics. The success of such initiatives have no small impact on the struggle for socialism in England, Scotland and Wales. * reviewed by David Coen Self-published, Belfast, August 1996. Cheques (£5.00 +50p p+p) to Socialist Democracy, PO Box 40, Belfast, N. Ireland
January 1996 #284 31
The New South Africa and the Socialist Vision Thomas K. Ranuga Many books analyzing South African politics during and after apartheid have appeared on the Left over the past three decades. What sets Professor Ranugas book apart and makes it invaluable is that it is written by an African with a revolutionary Marxist perspective. Professor Ranuga is a supporter of the Workers Organization for Socialist Action (WOSA), led by Dr. Neville Alexander. This book provides a concise and clear analysis of the political origins and evolution of the major African nationalist and Marxist political parties and organizations in South Africa for the past seventy years.
Understanding the ideological evolution and interaction between Marxists and nationalists in South Africa in the context of world political upheavals is essential for comprehending why the South African revolution was deferred by an "historic compromise" between the main liberation forces led by the African National Congress (ANC) and the apartheid government of De Klerk.
An active participant in the South African liberation movement, Kanuga authoritatively analyzes the historical roots of the revolutions derailment. He explains how a failure to fuse Marxism with African nationalism allowed the forces of compromise to win hegemony in the liberation movement.
Much of the book is a fascinating and informative exposition of Marxian and African nationalist responses to the rise and consolidation of racial-capitalism, from the birth of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress The National Question and the ANC
While recognizing that the concept of a "nation" can be defined by objective factors such as territory, language, culture, etc. as well as subjective ones, Professor Ranuga eschews narrow formalist, criteria, stating that nationalism of the oppressed is "the political desire by a self-willing people to rid itself of internal and/or external domination so as to achieve the objective of self-determination leading ultimately to the creation of a nation state. In the case of South Africa, the dispossessed and historically dominated people are the African majority and hence the rise of African nationalism in that part of the world. "(p.9)
Tracing the present political reality of South Africa to the ideological roots of the African National Congress which was founded in 1912, Ranuga points out that the "ANC was, strictly speaking, not a nationalist movement for national liberation and independence" but essesentially a civil rights organization. Their ideology is deeply rooted in the European Christian/liberal tradition of the English speaking Cape Province. The nation, for the ANC, has never been "an African nation evolved and based on the democratic principle of One person, One vote or majority rule, but a multiracial nation based on the notion of a pluralistic sharing of power or representative government. The ANC was therefore not aiming at the establishment of a nation-state based on the government of, by, and for Africans, with all those who owe their allegiance to the African nation-state being considered Africans...theirs is a liberal type of nationalism as opposed to the orthodox type of African nationalism."(p.10)
Ranuga extensively explores the rise of orthodox African nationalism (which in South Africa was founded by Antone Muziwahke Lembede), and its evolution in subsequent organizations such as the Pan African Congress (PAC) and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM, led by Steven Biko). Ranuga cuts through the slander that these orthodox nationalists are racists. He explains that they do not exclude whites from a future African state: rather their concern is that the dispossessed African majority must recover possession of the land. White people are welcome to stay: provided they accept the rule of the African majority. This is quite different than the "power sharing" strategy of the ANC, which is: Blacks can participate in the government, provided that they accept the actual rule of the white minority. White Working Class and Racism
Much of the responsibility for the failure of Marxism to fuse with orthodox African nationalism can be laid at the doorstep of the South African Communist Party. During the 1922 white miners strike in the Rand, which aimed at stopping the government from hiring more Black workers in the mines, the all-white mine workers union raised the slogan "Workers of the World, Fight and Unite for a White South Africa". The Communist Party supported this racist strike. Incredibly, they issued an appeal to Africans "for interracial solidarity against the of a situation where the overwhelming attitudes of the strikers and their leaders were patently hostile to Black workers...The divisive effect on labor solidarity was beyond measure."
Closely examining the evolution of the African National Congress, the Pan-African Congress and the Black Consciousness Movement over the next seventy years, Ranuga concludes that In the final analysis, aversion to communism had more to do with the fear of domination or cooptation by Whites than with the ideology of marxism
The ideology of the Communist Party was far from Marxist however. What the book makes clear is that the evolution of the official positions of the SACP, after a brief support for the idea of a Black Republic, quickly evolved toward a position that Black liberation could be achieved without the Black working class taking power in its own name and for its own interests: in other words, that democracy could be implemented without a Black-led socialist revo-
A Non-Sectarian Approach
Thus the alliance of the SACP to the ANC in the 1950s was not based upon winning the ANC to a Marxist program. On the contrary Ranuga shows how the current program of the ANC, the 1955 Freedom Charter, is a liberal document.
For example, the charter does not address "the central question relating to the historical injustice of land usurpation and forcetul removal of the African people to make room for White settlers".It was the SACPs support for this liberal program rather than for a revolutionary African nationalist program that allowed it to ally with and simultaneously reinforce the reformism of the liberal ANC While revealing the real history and nature of the ANC/SACP alliance, Professor Ranuga calmly addresses the issues in language that would not offend a Black member of the ANC or SACP. He is respectful of the stature of Nelson Mandela in the liberation movement and gives due credit to the revolutionary role of specific SACP leaders, such
"When Chris Hani, the SACP chief and ANC National Executive Committee member, was assassinated in April 1994, the Left lost one of its most militant and committed advocates. This was one revolutionary individual who was ardently trying to promote a socialist agenda, and in tact just two weeks before he fell to an assassins bullet, he was in the process of canvassing for a national conference of all forces and individuals on the Left to discuss and redefine the socialist program in South Africa. His revolutionary dream never materialized, but the militant reaction of the workers and young comrades to his untimely death made it abundantly clear that the socialist cause he had so courageously espoused had deep political resonances and a potential for proliferation. (p.141)
Ranuga sees the 1949 Programme of Action of the Congress Youth League, which provided the ideological fuel for the 1952 Defiance Campaign, as a nationalist program that briefly broke with the old ANC liberal tradition. However, this nationalist direction was reversed with the adoption of the 1955 Freedom Charter which reasserted the liberal political perspective of the ANC.
At the same time, Ranuga explains why the very terms of the current "Historic Compromise" will not allow the Mandela government to end the oppression and exploitation of the African majority, let alone resolve such basic questions as the restoration of expropriated African land to its rightful owners. "The ANC, whatever its declared aims to implement reform, will be hampered in its efforts by entrenched constitutional principles agreed to before the national
These "constitutional principles" commit the ANC to the preservation of private property, which in South Africa is owned by the white minority. If the ANC does not step over these "constitutional principles" and "continues along the path of trickle-down economics that is reminiscent of the Reagan
administration in the United States, the ANC government may resort to more conservative and possibly authoritarian measures that could lead to a widening ,gulf between the owning and working class.
Hence the thesis that the basic tasks of the South African democratic revolution remain on the agenda. According to Ranuga, the responsibility for completing that revolution falls on the Black South African working class, the class that is the object of exploitation of the system of racialcapitalism. Although "at the present historical conjuncture, a socialist victory is not imminent in South Africa", Ranuga foresees that if the, "AN government of National unity fails to deliver on its promises, then the spirit of peace and goodwill could be seriously threatened as Black leaders, now waiting in the wings, come forward with more radical solutions such as nationalization of the commanding heights of the economy, equitable distribution of wealth through taxation, and the restoration of land forcefully taken from its rightful owners."
Although this is not likely to occur during Mandelas presidency, the very nature of the "historic compromise" between the liberation forces and racial capitalism means that the tasks of the South African democratic revolution will only be solved by the African working class, who will eventually create their own working class government and thus re-open the road to socialism for South Africa and the world. An Invaluable Theoretical Tool
At the beginning of the book, and running through it as a theme, is a profound quote from Frederick Douglass; "Power concedes nothing without a demand." It is an urgent reminder that it has taken the sacrifices and commitments of countless numbers of Africans just to arrive at the present tenuous compromise in South Africa. But for committed revolutionary Marxists the goal remains the seizure of political power by the masses of Africans. In order for that to happen, theory first has to seize the masses.
The formidable weapon of revolutionary Marxism in the hands of a thoroughly organized and highly politicized labor movement can pose a serious challenge to racial capitalism and therefore pave the way for an alternative and qualitatively superior way of life. In other words the combination of marRemember when... The Interational Viewpoint 1996 Bound collection is now on sale for only E10/$20. Bound volumes for 1990,91, 92, 94, and 95 cost only, f5/SUS 10. All orders -20% postage charge for orders of 3 volumes or less.
xism as a weapon of theory and organized black labor as a political force can ultimately bring the capitalist system in South Africa to its knees and achieve the just and ideal society envisaged by true marxism.(p.131)
For Professor Ranuga that qualitatively superior way of life can best be summed up in the African proverb "umntu ngumntu ngabanye abantu" that is: a person is a person through other people, a concept of compassion, co-operation and sharing which is the very anti-thesis of the sheer greed inherent in free-enterprise capitalism. Reviewed by Jim Miles & Vera Wigglesworth Published in 1996 (154 pages) by Humanities Press, 165 First Avenue, 07716-1289 (902)-872-1441 Sozaboy, a novel in rotten English Ken Saro-Wiwa Since the Sani Abacha military regime seized power in 1990, the Ogoni tribe, an ethnic minority living on the Niger delta in southeastern Nigeria, has suffered extremely brutal repression. Amnesty International points to government-instigated attacks resulting in at least 100 extrajudicial executions, 600 Ogoni detained, and the destruction of dozens of villages.
Last November 2nd a kangaroo court convicted nine key Ogoni leaders of inciting to murder. Defying international human rights concerns, the regime carried out the executions on November 10th.
Ken Saro-Wiwa was the most prominent of those executed. He was the author and producer of probably Africa's most popular TV series, "Basi & Čo." Running in the mideighties for more than 150 episodes, the soap opera had upwards of 30 million viewers
Saro-Wiwa was also the author of at least seven books, including novels, plays, poems, an autobiography (On a Darkling Plain) and children's books. His 1992 manifesto, Genocide in Nigeria: the Ogoni Tragedy, outlined the exploitation and pauperization of the Ogoni people by both the Nigerian government and Shell Petroleum Develop-
Instrumental in setting up the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), he helped it to carry out effective and nonviolent mass protests and became its chief spokesperson.
Ten years ago this extraordinary man wrote a brilliant antiwar novel, which is now available in Longman's African Writers
During the Nigerian civil war (1967-70) - when one million people died, mostly from starvation and disease — Saro-Wiwa worked as a civilian administrator in Bonny, a crucial oil port on the Niger River delta. At books * the war's outbreak he fled from the new
Saro-Wiwa did not identify with the aspirations of General Ojukwu, who was from the area's dominant tribethe Ibo. For Saro-Wiwa, then, the rhetoric of self-determination was hollow. As he has pointed out in several of his essays, colonialism isn't simply European, but has been long practiced in Africa by dominant tribes against smaller
In Sozaboy the Biafran government's representatives are absent. Instead, their orders are carried out through the tribe's chiet, who organizes the special war tax and makes sure to get his cut. In other places, lower-level army officers do the job. Throughout Saro-Wiwa is merciless in his portraits of those who operate on behalf of the state: they are corrupt and brutal.
From the novel's first sentence"Although, everybody in Dukana was happy at first"-the direction is downhill, in the trouble's direction. Given the unrealistic expectation of overcoming the corruption of the previous regime, hope quickly recedes. In its places comes even greater corruption, followed by fear and the prediction that the
Mene, the novel's everyman, worries about whether he will ever be able to have a life-meaning marriage, a job, a family. And so he naively chooses to become a soldier, consequently losing everything with the first roll of the dice.
Mene is totally naive, and remains so until the final page of the novel. The reader sees from the prism of Mene's vantage point, but always knows more than he does. Yet despite his limited knowledge, Mene always manages to land on his feet while the others-who started out with him-quickly
Mene is the anti-hero, who sets off on a long journey, manages to survive against incredible odds, yet returns only to find his village destroyed, his mother and wife dead. He is perceived by his fellow villagers to be a ghost whom they must kill in order to survive. He has survived, but to what purpose? There is no place for him.
In contrast to the novel's main character is the tall man who appears throughout the novel as Mene's chief tormentor. We meet him first in the African Upwine Bar. If Mene is everyman, the tall man is fate. As he explains, there is "trouble." And trouble means
His companion asks him to judge the situation, but the tall man refuses:
"Well, I don't think it is good thing or bad thing. Even sef I don't want to think. What they talk, we must do. Myself, if they say fight, I fight. It they say no fight, 1 cannot fight. Finish." (p. 17)
Mene encounters the tall man several times in the course of his life as a soldier. The tall man is the enemy soldier, the nurse, the traitor and prison guard all rolled into one. The tall man saves him, only to become his savage prison guard at another stage. Finally the tall man is ordered to kill all the
* books deserters only to discover he has run out of
As with so many other troubles Mene has, pondering the reality of the tall man proves to be a difficult task:
"And now this Manmuswak is again with our own sozas and no longer with enemy sozas. Or abi na which side the man dey now? At first I could not believe my eyes because I cannot understand how this Manmuswak can be fighting on two side of the same war. Is it possible? Or is it his brother? Or are my eyes deceiving me because I am sick since a long time? Or is it ghost I am seeing?" (166)
First Mene believes the tall man is an apparition, but when he doesn't fire, Mene opens his eyes, sizes up the situation—-and escapes his fate.
It is only in the last page of the novel that Mene grapples with what he has learned. It is the knowledge of his own survival that forces him to extract a lesson. Cast out of his own village, he meditates on the death of his wife
"And as I was going, I was just thinking how the war have spoiled my town Dukana, uselessed many people, killed many others, killed my mama and my wife, Agnes, my beautiful young wife with J.J.C. Johnny Just Come—i.e. pointed breasts] and now it have made me like porson wey get leprosy because I have no town again.
"And I was thinking how I was prouding before to go to soza and call myself Sozaboy. But now if anybody say anything about war or even fight, I will just run and run and run and run and run. Believe me yours sincerely."
The deep cynicism that pervades the novel becomes explicit. There are no ideas worth fighting for, all is simply the superficial and silly view that being a soldier is somehow noble.
This view stands in sharp contrast to the writing of Ken Saro- wiwa's fellow countryman Chinua Achebe, who finds the ideology of the Biafran secessionist vision still a noble cause that has been compromised by corruption. Achebe, an Ibo, was a spokesperson for the Biafran side. (See his story, Girls at War:) Saro-Wiwa gave a subtitle to his novel, "a novel in rotten English." His antiwar novel, then, is experimental in its sustained use of pidgin English. Other authors, notably Achebe, have used such English in their dialogue, but Sara-Wiwa has constructed its language in order to reflect the reality.
In fact, the novel ends as if it were a letter Mene had written home to his family, thus the novel is a kind of monologue Mene-not the author!-has composed.
In his preface to the novel, Ken SaroWiwa explains:
"Sozaboy's language is what I call 'rotten English,' a mixture of Nigerian pidgin English, broken English and occasional flashes of good, even idiomatic English. This language is disordered and disorderly. Born of a mediocre education and severely limited opportunities, it borrows words, patterns and images freely from the mother-tongue and 34 International Viewpoint finds expression in a very limited English vocabulary. To its speakers, it has the advantage of having no rules and no syntax. It thrives on lawlessness, and is part of the dislocated and discordant society in which Sozaboy must live, move and have not his
Above all, Saro-Wiwa reflects the chaos and lawlessness of the war by introducing the chaos and lawlessness of the language. Of course it only appears to be chaotic. But it creates an idiomatic rhythm that both functions to provide comic relief and the power
Yet it is only at the novel's end that one realizes the whole story is like a letter read aloud. The glossary in the back lets the reader not only look up the unfamiliar expressions, but gives evidence to the writer's control over the chaos. * Reviewed by Dianne Feeley Source: ATC Longman Publishing Company, 10 Bank Street, White Plains, NY 10601-1951. ($10.95 paperback.) Notebooks for the Grandchildren: Recollections of a Trotskyist Who Survived the Stalin Terror, Mikhail Baitalsky, translated and edited by Marilyn Vogt-Downey. Many valuable memoirs of life during the time of Stalinist terror have been published. Notebooks for the Grandchildren is unique in that it was written by someone who had been active in the Trotskyist opposition to Stalin and who sought to reflect on how the revolutionary society created by the October Revolution came to be succeeded by
In so doing, he confirmed in terms of his own personal experience a number of sig
International
Viewpoint
1996m
The 1996 collection costs 210/$20.
Bound volumes for previous years
(*90, "91, '92 94, 95) cost E5/$10.
20% Discount on orders of four or more volumes. Full Index included.
nificant points of the analysis that Leon Trotsky made in his book, The Revolution Betrayed. Though, of course, Baitalsky had no access to the work of the exiled Trotsky or to that of his co-thinkers. Baitalsky began writing his notebooks in 1958 after his release from his second stay in the notorious Vorkuta camp, where he spent most of his 11 years of imprisonment. He continued work on them for 12 years.
Fearful of being imprisoned once more, Baitalsky wanted this book to be published only after his death. He died in 1978, but 17 years more elapsed before it was possible to secure American publication. Vogt-Downey has translated and edited the manuscript, and added useful annotations that clarify Baitalsky's references. * Reviewed by Paul Siegel Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, N.J. 1995. 447+xviiii pp. $75. Psychology and Society: Radical Theory and Practice lan Parker, Russel Spears (Eds.) International Viewpoint's founder, Ernest Mandel, was supposed to write a postscript to this work, which originally bore the title Psychology and Marxism: Coexistence and Contradiction. Ernest withdrew from the project after a serious heart attack, and, on 20 July 1995, he died. By coincidence, that same day the publishers requested that the two editors "tone down" the title. Booksellers, it seems, now have little confidence in their abilities to sell a book with Marxism in the title. So, Radical Theory and Practice
Parker and Spears bring together contributors from different countries, covering a wide range of social science and social welfare traditions within psychology: from behaviourism to psychoanalysis.
The collection is the first to tackle many of the crises facing both radical politics and psychology in the light of multifarious "post" debates. Providing a lucid overview and keen discussion, this collection contextualises developments at the interface between politics and psychology within a historical materialist framework and connects the political practice of radicals in psychology with perspectives for change in contemporary Marxism. Cutting-edge and controversial, this volume creates a unique site for psychologists on the left to explore key issues in a changing political climate.
The book is dedicated to Ernest Mandel, "an inspiration to many comrades dedicated to practical and theoretical work against oppression." * Pluto Press, 1996. ISBN 0-7453-0880-5 hbk * Pluto Press, 345 Archway Rd., London N6 5AA, Britain A Pluto Press, 1436 West Randolph, Chicago, Illinois, 60607, USA
To order the books and magazines mentioned in International Viewpoint, try your nearest progressive bookstore, contact the publishers directly, or write to La Brèche, 9 rue de Tunis, 75011
Paris, France 0 (+33 1) 43 67 63 57 fax
43 79 29 61 (English, French and
Spanish spoken).
Where no price is given, we suggest you enclose a donation of USS 10 in any convertible currency to cover the postage costs of the publisher.
To announce your publication in this free listing, send a sample copy to
"Book reviews" c/o International
Viewpoint, PECI, BP 85, 75522 Paris cedex 11, France.
Living in
Jerusalem
An Assessment of Planning
Policy, Housing and Living Conditions in the Light of the
Palestinians' Right to
Adequate Housing A Report by the Palestine Housing Rights Movement to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, May 1996 Contents: A Executive Summary A Letter from the UN Committee for Social, Economic and Cultural Rights to the Government of Israel (21 May 1996) A Legal Status vs. Politics A Housing and Planning Policies: Institutionalised Discrimination (with case studies) A Residency, Separation and Services: Living Conditions: Denial of residency rights; closure; building permits, taxes (with case studies) A Consequences of Israeli Policies: Palestinian emigration; impact on children; inadequate housing A Israeli Policies vs. International Law A Recommendations for Action by the UN Committee for Social, Economic and Cultural Rights AAnnex 1: Jerusalem Declaration -Draft Charter of the Palestine Housing Rights Movement •Annex II: UN Security Council Resolutions on Jerusalem To order, send a cheque for $15 or equivalent to the Alternative Information Center (AIC), PO Box 31417 Jerusalem © +972-2-241159, 740585 Fax: +972-2-253151 E-mail: aicmail@trendline.co.il http://www.aic.org
TEMAS
SER CUBANAS
Luisa Maria Isabel Lourdes Nara
GLOBALIZANDO POR L)
ZQUIERDA à artodowns a liberales fe
ANESLLADH
Temas
.Ir. indépendent Marst magazine from Cuba.
Sahscription four issues): Americas US$ 60,
Europe S 75, rest of the world 580 institutional ratenbers - 530
Scheriptios + Caen Project - Latin American
Institute Unitersity of New Mexico,
Нотти Ne Mor. 87131. 21SA
Editona ° Irritato Cabano del Libro, Calle 4 no. 205 entre Lomes y 1I. El Vedado, Havana,
CP 10400 Cadu C 303005. 9766
Single irac zowie 510 50FF from La
Breche. 9 rue de Taras 75011 Paris, France
Networking
International Diewpoint list server
This service enables you to receive
International Viewpoint articles as they are translated into English. Several weeks earlier than they are available in paper form! As well as annoncements and updates from our sister organisations around the world.
We also have ists in French. German and
Spanish.
To add your name to our English, French.
German and/or Spanish listservs (electronic mailing list)
send a message to:
<100666.1443 @ compuserve.com».
For a trial period only. this service is free of charge.
International Viewpoint is at
<180666.1443@compuserve.com>
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
• 48 bed conference centre with six channel interpretation system, library and television room, ten minutes from the centre of Amsterdam and 2 minutes from a park
• Contact Robert Went or Peter Drucker to discuss holding your event at the IIRE tel. (+31) 20/671 7263 fax 673 2106
PO Box 53290, 1007 RG Amsterdam
Netherlands. e-mail < iire @ antenna.nl>