78
PARTISAN REVIEW
and I find myself repeating this word for word as late as the middle of
1942. This probably colored my judgment of actual events and made me
exaggerate the depth of the political crisis in 1942, the possibilities of
Cripps as a popular leader and of Common Wealth as a revolutionary
party, and also the socially levelling process occurring in Britain as a result
of the war. But what really matters is that I fell into the trap of assuming
that "the war and the revolution are inseparable." There were excuses
for this belief, but still it was a very great error. For after all we have not
lost the war, unless appearances are very deceiving, and we have not
introduced Socialism. Britain is moving towards a planned economy,
and class distinctions tend to dwindle, but there has been no real shift
of power and no increase in genuine democracy. The same people still
own all the property and usurp all the best jobs. In the United States
the development appears to be
away
from Socialism. The United States
is indeed the most powerful country in the world, and the most capital–
istic. When we look back at our judgments of a year or two ago, whether
we "opposed" the war or whether we "supported" it, I think the first
admission we ought to make is that
we were
all
wrong.
Among the British and American intelligentsia, using the word in
a wide sense, there were five attitudes towards the war:
( 1) The war is worth winning at any price, because nothing could
be worse than a Fascist victory. We must support any regime wh,ich will
oppose the Nazis.
(2) The war is worth winning at any price, but in practice
it
can–
not be won while capitalism survives. We must support the war, and at
the same time endeavor to turn it into a revolutionary war.
(3) The war cannot be won wh,ile capitalism survives, but even if
it could, such a victory would be 'worse than useless. It would merely
lead to the establishment of Fascism in our own countries. We must
overthrow our own government before lending our support to the war.
(4)
If
we fight against Fascism, under no matter what government,
we shall inevitably go Fascist ourselves.
(5) It is no use fighting, because the Germans and the Japanese
are bound to win anyway.
Position ( 1) was taken by radicals everywhere, and by Stalinists
after the entry of the USSR. Trotskyists of various colors took either
position (2) or position (4). Pacifists took position (4) and generally
used (5) as an additional argument. ( 1) merely amounts to saying, "I
don't like Fascism," and is hardly a guide to political action: it does
not make any prediction about what will happen. But the other theories
have all been completely falsified. The fact that we were fighting for
our lives has not forced us to "go Socialist," as I foretold that it would,
but neither has it driven us into Fascism. So far as I can judge, we are
somewhat further away from Fascism than we were at the beginn,ing
