WILSON'S Ur FRO U0 WITH WORLD JUPERTALISM
By: Ernest Germain wed “For the past half ceentury it has been. a general rule that. Sogial-Democratic. governments,..or those led by Social, Democrats, in the-major countries of’ Western Europe are brought down sooner on | later by national and international finance capital after they have completed the function they were designed for in the eyes of the bourgeoisie. .: ‘This happened.to the Herman Miller government in Gere many~-in!1930-andto Ramsay.MacDonald's Labour government in 1931, The :downfall-of the first. Léon Blum ("popular front") government in 193% WS a. ielassical example.
"During mid: November. the pattern: seemed to be repeating itself in Great Britain, The Labour cabinet of Harold Wilson appeared to be the target of .a-vast conspiracy mounted’ by the "faceless bankers of Zurich." In other words, it looked: like. ihternational. finance capital had decided to force, ” down the pound. For a few hours it almost seemed that they had won..and that. Wilson would have to devaluate and devaluate heavily. (Optimists: among the “capitalists even added: thet he, would have to form a. coalition with: the: ‘Tiberal. party.) os
~.t Then a strange “thing happened. -Whe¥eas’ private ‘nternational finance. capital had béen gnawing away at the’ pound and the Wilson cabinet, “public” international, finance capital rushed to the aid of the beleaguered Wilson and the British pound... Within a few hours, the governors and board of directors of the U.S.Federal Reserve. - System, the German Bundesbank, the Banque de France, the Italian, Swiss, Dutch, Belgian and Swedish national tanks “poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the British treasury. All told, Wilson was handed a purse of $3,000,000,000 =~ and the pound was saved.
Why this strange behavior, which doesn't seem. to correspond at all to the rules of international capital? Have the international bankers suddenly become reconciled, with socialism, if it is "introduced at a snail's pace't in accordance with the credo of the British Labour party bureaucrats? Or does the dramatic operation prove. that in the eyes of the international bourgeoisie Wilson is really "a better. servant of capitalism than the Tories," as a few fossilized ultralefts in Britain maintain, and therefore worthy of a really big gold medal? :
Despite the attractive simplicity, neither line of reasoning is satisfactory. The international central banks are neither going socialist nor rewarding Wilson for. being more capitalist than the Tories.
. In the. first place, the international monetary system. governing the capitalist world economy today is a very delicate and‘vulnerable structure, Under the gold exchange standard the currencies of all capitalist countries (except the United States) are covered by
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gold and U.S. dollars. Through this system the “creeping inflation" characteristic of contemporary capitalism in countries like the U.S. and Britain is spread over the whole world system. This is the price capitalism had to pay for the possibility of slowing down the rate of crises due: to overproduction and transforming big crises into "smaller" pecessions, As a result of this permanent inflationary trend, all currencies today are both ptenly vulnerable and ‘ientay inter-— linked,
The New York, Frankfort and ‘Paris central pankers. ‘feared -~ and. rightly so -=: -that devaluation. of the pound would be rapidly followed: by a general breakdown of the present exchange rates of all currencies and by contraction of international trade which, under the present conditions of slow down of economic expansion in Western Europe (with a recession in Italy and near. stagnation in France), couid precipitate a full-scale economic.crisis. In,rushing to the defense of the pound, they didn't act. out! of love for Harold Nilson. They: had their own. interests in mind. : noe
' Secondly, the Wilson Labour government has hardly fulfilled the task which capitalism has designated for it, a. task inherent in the Labour program of accepting the capitalist state as the limiting frame for projected reforms. The job laid out for the Labour government. is to get the British working class to accept what the Tories have notoriously been unable to impose} namely, wage restraints.
To topple Wilson. through a conspiracy. of finarieé capital before the unions: have.been inveigled into accepting a restrictive. Wincomes! policy" would most certainly. provoke sharp radicalization. of the British Labour movement. Wall Street, Frankfort. and. Paris’: are not that stupid, They try to estimate the relationship of:. nelasa forces in Britain in a realistic way. ,
Thirdly -- and this should be noted most carefully -- the $3 ,000,000,000 windfall. for Wilson-was, not one~sided.:; It. was a: ee quid pro quo. In return for a strengthened financial: hand, Wilson; betrayed some of his most. 7 emphatic: promises in- the fiela. of t foreign policy. moe :
In the very same, week in. ‘which ‘the world's central banks came to his rescue with a big purse, : Wilson made three momentous decisions in complete contradiction to the avowed foreign policy of the Labour party. | (1) He decided, “after-all, to carry out the Tory agreement to sell Buccaneer planes to South Africa's fascist-like Prime Minister Verwoerd, thereby strengthening the apartheid regime. How scandalous this decision was can be judged from the fact that the econservative-liberal weekly The Economist favored cancelling the contract: for moral reasons t :
(2) He extended “Ehe facilities of Ascension Tslana- to the
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U.S. and Belgian governments... for their counterrevolutionary para-trooper operation against the. Stanleyville government, thereby be-. | coming an accomplice in: the imperialist aggression against the Congolese revolution. He even went so far as to publicly approve this -. infamous MOVE «
(8) He suddenly reversed his stand ‘on MLF- (NATO's multileteral nuclear force) and the Nassau agreement, agreeing. to continue construction of three submarines to be armed with Polaris missilos equipped with nuclear war heads, agreeing to consider setting up a: special NATO fleet equipped with nuclear weapons (to which his government would eventually add the three submarines under construction: on condition that veto rights are maintained on use of the nuclear weapons), and agreeing even to integrate the West German Bundeswehr, with its Nazi-trained and Nazi-inspired high command, in the proposed NATO nuclear force!
The proposals in whidhWilson Has iow acquiesééd constitute direct military threats against the Soviet Union and the East European workers states.
The throe betrayals” are. sizeable: They provide help: for the. international bourgeoisie. in some very difficult situations. re -cast. additional revealing light on the alacrity with which $3, 000,- -900,000 was rounded Up.: for the Bank of England.
Revolutionary Marxists in ‘Britain and elsewhere are duty . bound to denounce and oppose these betrayals. But in doing so they should not descend to mere name calling or make the gross error of consadering a Labour government and a ‘Tory government as cquivalonts.
: ‘Lenin long ago pointed out in his treatise on. the infantile: “disorder of. ultraleftism.that the overwhelming majority of. the . British working class consider the Labour party to be their party and a Labour government to be their government, as is indeed the case since the Labour movement is based. on the trade unions. This reality cannot be disregarded by any. British Marxist seeking to-win: mass influence. The penalty for brushing it aside is political tsolation,. = - Los oe oe
Wilson's course must be carefully analyzed into its compononts so that his actual bétrayals’ stand. out clearly. .In the current -insatance, Wilson's betrayals involve the foreign policy which the: -British workers were led to believe.would be followed if: Labour . ~were elected, His departures from this: policy must be denounced, ° me What: the Labour government requires, if it is: to win.re-. election by a thumping majority, is a foreign policy-that. will arouse enthuslasm,and hope among the workers and their aliies not only in Britain but throughout the world,
‘Tt must be demanded thet ‘the. Labour government initiate a
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genuine socialist policy. In the instances before us, this would include an effective boycott of Verwoerd's apartheid regime, sincere moves toward an alliance with the African revolution, and energetic moves towards unilateral nuclear disarmament, .
If these demands are put in a reasoned way, with careful _emphasis on the basic difference between a Labour government and a Tory government, the vanguard of the British