. disliked pretentiousness

Who is this Nicholas?

Recently, there appeared in
New York a weighty volume—
584 pages—the fruit of a Mr.
Robert Massie’s labors. The pub-
lication of this solid opus, under
the title “Nicholas and Alex-
andra” was obviously: timed

* with the 50th Anniversary of

the October Revolution.. Every-
one in his own way . . . The

‘New York Times’ book review,

for example, warmly greets the

opus as one Which has been.

long awaited. The reviewer,
Robert Payne, in writing about
the book’s main character, em-
phasizes a multitude of sterling
qualities. Here are but a few
possessed by this pure and out-
standing personality. —

—He was generous and mod-
est; in dealing with people out-
standing in pleasant simplicity.

—in home surroundings he
and
avoided luxury.

—wise, highly cultured, cap-
able of recognizing talent, he
was one of those who truly
lived for his people.

Particularly exciting and
charming is the characterization
of the hero as a political figure:

—he hated war...

—he ‘hoped to resolve all con-
flicts arising between nations by
peaceful means .. .

So who is this Nicholas?

The person in question is none
other than the last Romanoy —
dumped into the refuse heap

of history; the narrow-minded

and. vicious ignoramus, whom
the people called Nicholas the
Bloody after his suppression of
the 1905 Revolution.

But the above is far from ex-
hausting all historical discov;
eries contained in Mr. Massie’s
book. With astonishing ease, he
discovered the direct intercon-
nection between the October
Revolution and . . . Queen Vic-
toria who reigned in 1837.

Proof? ;

Please.

. Fact One: Did not the Czar,
Emperor of all Russia, Nicholas
the Second have a son and heir-
apparent named Alexis?

Fact Two: And did not the
said heir-apparent suffer from
non-coagulation of ‘blood, name-
ly, haempophillia?

Fact Three: Did not Queen,
Empress Alexandra ‘appeal for
help to a man called Rasputin
who, as rumor had it, possessed
the gift of healing the sick?

Fact Four: And was not this
Rasputin a rogue who cleverly
imbued their erial Majesties
with his ideas and judgments?

Fact Five: And was not the
infant, heir-apparent the great-
grandchild, on his mother’s side,
of English Queen. Victoria from
whom he inherited not only his
blood, but. the non-coagulation
of said blood as well? 3

And this hereditary disease
of the heir apparent, according
to Mr. Massie, started the chain
reaction which brought about
the Bolshevik Revolution. De
facto, Alexandra first turned to
Rasputin to save her son and
after that to save the Imperial
regime. Under the influence of
Rasputin she passionaately

‘argued against any softening of

Imperial authority, and Nich-
olas, giving in, to his spouse
turned a deafi éar to any talk of

reform, thus making inescapable -

the triumph of Lenin.

And so you must agree that
the connection between Queen
Victoria and the October Revo-
lution .has been: firmly estab-

FEBRUARY 16, 1988—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 10,

‘lished—that is, if all sense of hu-

mor has perished.
It is precisely this sense that

Robert Massie, the author of -

Nicholas and Alexandra is com-
pletely bereft of.

Even the American magazine
Newsweek is wryly distrustful.
In reviewing the book, it ami-
ably advises the author hence-
forth not to overestimate the
influence of the ill-fated Victo-
ria-Alex-Rasputin axis on the
fate of Russia. The magazine re-
calls that the Czarist regime
was rotten to the core and rea-
dy to “collapse by itself” and
that Rasputin’s vices- merely ag-
gravated the faults and vices of

Czarist society but did not cre-
ate them.

It is difficult not to agree with
these sober remarks.

And by the way: one wishes .
the magazine had found it ne- ;;

cessary to say a few words as
to why such balderdash has to
appear in this God’s world. How-
ever, since it was silent, we have
to do it ourselves. It is very
simple: in the Anniversary year
of Soviet Power, the demand for
“anti-anniversary” stuff is so
much greater than the supply,
that Mr. Massie is picked up
“from sheer hunger.”

Translated from Soviet Humor

Magazine “Crocodil”
by Misha Cohen.

COMPOSER FREED

Strategy for labor

STRATEGY FOR LABOR: A RA-
DICAL PROPOSAL. By Andre
Gorz. Boston: Beacon Press.
$8.50.

How does a_ revolutionary
working class movement survive
when socialism is not on the
agenda? :

Does it resign itself to wait,
vulture-like, for capitalism to ex-
pire? Does it promote reforms
that make capitalism more ruth-
lessly efficient?

Andre Gorz attacks this prob-

lem in a fresh, exciting . way.
What he calls “anti-capitalist
structural reforms” are part of a
strategy’ for revolutionizing a
non-revolutionary’ situation.
They include workers’ control
through their union of all as-
pects of the work situation,
“>. So that all modifications
in the productive process. must
be negotiated with the workers,
and so that the workers can
materially influence the man-
agement of the enterprise and
orient it ‘in a given direction.”
Moreover, structural reforms
are carried out or controlled by
those who demand them. This
includes not only factory work-
ers,. but technicians, research
personnel, scientists as well.
Gorz devotes special attention

Tia

Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis embraced by his children, Mar-
garet, nine, and George, seven, at home after his release from prison.

to education, where he says,
‘“. . industrial. capitalism will
provoke the revolts which it at-

tempts to avoid in its factories.” °

Unlike “reformist” reforms,
structural reforms. cannot be
absorbed by the system. They
hurt the system, sharpen exist-
ing contradictions,. and involve

-a shift in the balance ef power
from oppressors to oppressed.  .

The simple economic demand
for “more” can be
granted, since it can be just as
easily whittled away later on.
But when workers seize for
themselves some of the alleged

“prerogatives of management,”

the entire nature of the struggle
changes from the. economic to
the political. Politics is a mat-
ter of power. When workers
begin to acquire some measure
of control over their own lives,
they acquire power.

Structural .reforms also in-
volve questions about the. qual-
ity of life people are leading,
and what they are working for.

Once people learn, through
real, tangible gains, what pow-
er over one aspect of their lives
means, this precondition has
been established. Gorz does not
claim that the gradual piling-
up of structural reforms will

easily:

1968 as the ‘Year of

Human Rights.’ A most
commendable objective, but
hardly original. I seem to re-
call from my school days
something about a despotic
king being compelled to set
his signature to a Charter of
Human Rights away back in
1215. Magna Carta they called
it, under which no man could
be denied his freedom, rights,
justice, etc. etc., or his life
placed in jeopardy without a
fair trial by a ‘jury of ‘his
peers’ and so forth.

Wonder what happened to
old Magna Carta? It was—
and still is a very venerable
and worthy document.

My school books also told
me of another great docu-
‘ment on the. subject of ‘hu-
man rights’ entitled the De-
claration . of Independence,
written in the main by
Thomas Jefferson and adopt-
ed by a majority of the First
Continental Congress on July
4, 1776, with its fundamental
principles on the inalienable
human right to ‘life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness’
embodied in the Constitution
of the USA. -

Wonder what has become

human rights? It was — and
still is probably one of the
noblest documents éver pen-
ned by living man. Perhaps
like the long grey oblong
boxes coming back to Ame-
rica by the thousands: from
Vietnam; that Declaration has

ington as “non-viewable!”

Nazi barbarity, partially re-
vealed in the war crimes trials
of the Hitler criminals at
Nuremberg, one of the early
undertakings -of the young
United Nations Organization
was to propound and set
down in cold clear type a new
UN Declaration of. Human
Rights in which all the con-
cepts of what constituted the
rights of the individual, re-
gardless of nation, race, color
or creed, were implicitly re-
- corded—to serve as a guide
- in social relations — at home
or with our neighbors abroad.

A most excellent docu-
ment, to which most member
nations of: the UN gave un-
qualified .accent. Canada’s
UN representatives too, with
the most unctious piety and
platitude, an area in which a
lot of our Establishment ‘Joe
boys’ excel, gave unqualified
approval of this UN Decla-
ration of Human Rights. Un-
fortunately however our own

as with others of similar ilk,
are always much ‘more hon-
ored in the breach than the

HE UN has designated

of that great declaration on

also been labelled by Wash-:

Following the horrors of.

. courage—and standing firmly

special breed of ‘diplomat,’ °

observance’ when it comes to
human rights for the mass.

The problem of © human
rights—mainly the lack of
them, does not arise because —
of any shortage of ‘declara-
tions,’ ‘conventions’ docu-
ments, or what-have-you on
the subject. Nor can anyone,
myself included, have any
objections to the UN decree-
ing to make 1968, or any.
other year the ‘Year of Hu-
man Rights’ any more than
we'd object to the SPCA put-
ting on a ‘Be Good To Fido
Week.’ Naturally our fears
would centre around what
happens to poor Fido during.
the other 51 weeks?

The simple inescapable re-
ality remains—in our chang-
ing and uncertain world, now
more glaringly than ever be-
fore, that human rights, like
peace, must be fought for—
and when won, continuously
fought for to preserve. With-
out that unceasing and un-
ending struggle, all ‘declara-
tions,’ ‘documents’ etc., which
merely tabulate or repeat
such ‘rights’ are just so many
worthless scraps of ‘paper.

“Wihin someone _ gives
y’ez a roight,” sez the inimit-
able Mr. Dooley to his bosom °
friend and co-philosopher Mr.
Hinnissey, “t’is merely a
wrong turned -inside out. If
y’ez wants y’er roights, y’ez
’av got to foight for thim—’an
foight to kape thim.”

The basic rights’ for which
the heroic people of Vietnam
fight and die are known
to the whole world—and com-
mand a world’s admiration,
homage and support.

The story of an American
father asserting his right is
not so well known. His two
sons, all the. family he has,
are in Vietnam. One is killed
and a father asserts his right
by demanding of the Penta- «
gon the other be sent home.
That right is short-circuited”
by -the information that his
other son has also been killed.
Now all this father has left is
a Right—but if endowed with

by the graves of his Penta-

gon-murdered sons, America

and Vietnam will live again—

because the cause of Human -
Rights and Peace are indivis-

able.

By all means, lets join with
the U.N. in. making 1968 a
‘Year of Human Rights’—but. |
in relentless struggle against
all those who violate and de-
grade human relations—and
cover their infamy with plati-
tudes, apoligies, and frothy
pronouncements.

“Y’ez don’t ask fer roights’.
s’ez/ Mr. Dooley, ‘y’ez take
them.’

lead. to - socialism. He does
claim, very convincingly, the
fight for structural reforms will
link immediate struggles and
needs with the question of a
socialist alternative,
“Strategy for Labor” has met
with an enthusiastic, response

from some younger trade-union-

ists. This reviewer. hopes the
book and the strategy it pro-
poses can become a focal point
for discussion in the progres-
sive movement as a whole.

Perhaps a note of caution is
neccessary here: Gorz wrote for

French readers. Much of his?
material concerns the labor
movements of France, Italy

and Yugoslavia. Any strategy
for the Ameri an labor move- |
ment, of coursé, 'must deal with ;

the additional factors of a fear- | .

fully oppressed black proleta-
riat and the most powerful im-
perialism in the world.

—TOM FOLEY