FUTURE OF SOCIALISM
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Britain can only get free of America by dropping the attempt to be
an extra-European power. The English-speaking Dominions, the
colonial dependencies, except perhaps in Mrica, and even Britain's
supplies of oil, are all hostages in American hands. Therefore there
is always the danger that the United States will break up any Euro–
pean coalition by drawing Britain out of it.
3. Imperialism. The European peoples, and especially the Brit–
ish, have long owed their high standard of life to direct or indirect
exploitation of the colored peoples. This relationship has never been
made clear by official socialist propaganda, and the British worker,
instead of being told that, by world standards, he is living above his
income, has been taught to think of himself as an overworked, down–
trodden slave. To the masses everywhere "socialism" . means, or at
least is associated with, higher wages, shorter hours, better houses,
all-round social insurance, etc.,etc. But it is by no means certain
that we can afford these things if we throw away the advantages
we derive from colonial exploitation. However evenly the national
income is divided up, if the income as a whole falls, the working-class
standard of living must fall with it. At best there is liable to be a long
and uncomfortable reconstruction period for which public opinion
has nowhere been prepared. But at the same time the European
nations
must
stop being exploiters abroad if they are to build true
socialism at home. The first step toward a European socialist fed–
eration is for the British to get out of India. But this entails some–
thing else.
If
the United States of Europe is to be self-sufficient and
able to hold its own against Russia and America, it must include
Africa and the Middle East. But that means that the position of the
indigenous peoples in those countries must be changed .out of recog–
nition-that Morocco or Nigeria or Abyssinia must cease to be colonies
or semicolonies and become autonomous republics on a complete
equality with the European peoples. This entails a vast change of
outlook and a bitter, complex struggle which is not likely to be settled
without bloodshed. When the pinch comes the forces of imperialism
will turn out to be extremely strong, and the British worker, if he has
been taught to think of socialism in materialistic terms, may ultimately
decide that it is better to remain an imperial power at the expense
of playing second fiddle to America. In varying degrees all the Euro–
pean peoples, at any rate those who are to form part of the proposed
union, will be faced with the same choice.
4. The Catholic Church.
As
the struggle between East and West
becomes more naked, there is danger that democratic socialists and
