Writer against ‘new class’

is merely: old-style re

ERE it not for ex-Com-
munists, big business
would be hard put to find
authors of “best sellers” dedi-
cated to a passionate defence
of capitalism. That, at least,
is the thought that occurs to
one on reading the latest in
the overworked series of “ex-
posures” of communism.

Of this one, Milovan Dijilas’
The New Class: An Analysis
of the Communist System,
much is expected presumably:
after all) was not the author
a member of the Tito leader-
ship, one of the initiators of
“national communism,’ and-
one who now forswears com-
munism of any or all vari-
ties”? “

The expectation is cruelly
let down. In place of the ad-
vertised . “inside stuff,” in

place of any facts whatever,
~ one gets only a dull and repe-

titive re-hash of the “free en-
terpriser’s” caricature of com-
munism — in the most ab-
stract, unsubstantiated and
dogmatic form. (For example,
the only single, solitary al-
leged “fact” about inequali-
ties of income in the USSR is
in a quote from a Paris
Whiteguard relating to wages
—in 1935!).

core

First, Djilas repudiates
Marxism, In its claim to pro-
vide a_ science of social
change, enabling man_ to
transform society, “are hidden
the seeds of its despotism.”
The claim of the Communists

to leadership in this trans-

formation on the basis of their
understanding of the science
of social change is “the ma-
jor error of their system.”

That they know the laws of

- social development is “an il-

lusion.” No such laws were

‘discovered by Marx: the most

he did- was to “clarify some
social laws” relating to “early
industrial capitalism.”

As against the bumbling ef-

_forts of Marx (who is present-

ed as something of an ignor-
amus), there is but one “im-
mutable law” (which, it, is
inferred, has been discovered
by Djilas) —that human soc-
ieties “strive to increase and
perfect production.” 3
Gone are social ~ systems
(artificial creations of the
Communists), the class strug-
gle, the state: instead, there
is just “production.” (The
use to which this seemingly
harmless abstraction is put by
the author will be apparent

shortly.)

Then, having blown away
their ideological foundation,

Jeadership by the Commu-

MILOVAN DJILAS
An assist for Dulles

nists is consigned to limbo —
on two grounds, one of which
is almost original. Not only
is_ it asserted that Commu-
nists have a boundless “pow-

-er-lust”; but it is claimed that

by taking power, the Com-
munist party becomes a “new
class in society — its mem-
bers béing the aetual owners
of the collective property of
the state. This is a lulu.

It is Djilas’s addition to the
dogmas of Dulles. “It seems
unusual that a political party
could be the beginning of a
new class,’ concedes the
author with disarming candor,
buts; there. sit. is... <The
Communists are the real,
though secret owners of the

nationalized plants, industries,

construction sites.

Of this monumental non-
sensicality no proof is offered:
just the barefaced assertion,
(One. could likewise assert
that the locomotive engineer

and conductors on a CNR, }§
--onward, shaping with serene

train. are its owners: but
someone might ask. you to
prove: it.) :

With the flat assertion that
the Communists in the USSR
are an “exploitive possessing
class,” the ground has been
laid for what Djilas and his
employers are really after.

Tig ae x

Since the Communists (who,
according to, Djilas, “usurped”
power) are an “exploiting
class”. whose despotic rule is
more “totalitarian” than all
other “types of modern. de-
spostism”; and since the ex-
istence of a group of social-
ist states with one market
is “the major reason for world

negade

strain” (along with the Soviet
Union’s striving to overtake
the U.S. in per capita. pro-
duction: “Such plans are. ag-
gressive in themselves,’ says

Djilas!) — what objection can -

thefe possibly be to a cru-
sade aimed at the wiping out
of the socialist society in the
Soviet Union?

Not only would it be a
righteous undertaking, but a
historically progressive. one,
inasmuch as according to
Dijilas: “Communism’s so-call-
ed socialist ownership is the
main obstacle to world unifi-
cation.”

'“Worldwide- unity. of pro-

duction” is what is needed,
and the direction in which
we are to look for its achieve-
ment is hardly in doubt: “In
the West, economic means
which operate toward world
unification have become domi-
nant.” -

As for imperialism, if the
Western powers “exploit the
undeveloped countries,” it is
“solely because they are more
developed.” (1)

503 sos x

Djilas is an object-lesson in
the logie of revisionism and
“national communism.” They
lead right back to_ subservi-
ence to capitalism.

His book which is boosted
by the whole big business
press,, is a service to their
cause.Not a whit does it con-
tribute towards a constructive
discussion of the problems of
correcting mistaken and dam-
aging tendencies in the social-
_ist world —’a process that
has been under way for sev-
_eral years already,

On the contrary, it simply
adds its bit to the atmosphere
of. poisoned hostility with
the peoples building social-
ism have to reckon as they go

confidence a new- and better
life.

Guided By Marxism, led by |

the Communists, they have
transformed society and record-
ed achievements, material and
cultural, that have no parallel
in history. ‘In face of in-
credible obstacles, they are
building a society founded
on truth and the brotherhood

of man, on collective posses- ~

sion of the tools of modern
labor.
Of their songs, their staunch-
ness and pride in their heart-
lifting achievements, there’ is
no echo. in this book.
There is only hate.
—STANLEY RYERSON

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