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DORIS LESSING
a solid block against this influx of alien thought - not as champions
of the Natives, of course not, but because it was necessary to attend
to first things first. "We have to take over the country first, by
democratic methods. That won't take long, because it is obvious our
programme is only fair, and after that we can decide what to do
about the Natives." The six railway workers then left, leaving the
nine from last week, who proceeded to form their Party for De–
mocracy, Liberty and Socialism. A steeering committee of three was
appointed to draft a constitution.
And that was the last anyone ever heard of it, except for one
cyclostyled pamphlet which was called "Capitalism is Unfair. Let's
Join Together to Abolish it. This Means You!"
The war was over. Intellectual ferments of this sort occurred
no more. Employees of the
post
office, all once again good citizens
properly employed in sport and similar endeavours, no longer told
the citizens in what ways they were censored and when.
Dick did not stay in the Post Office. That virus, politics, was in
his veins for good. From being a spokesman for socialism for the
whites, he became, as a result of gibes that he couldn't have socialism
that excluded most of the population, an exponent of the view that
natives must not be advanced too fast
in
their own interests, and
from there he developed into a Town Councillor, and from there into
a Member of Parliament. And that is what he still is, a gentleman
of distinguished middle age, an indefatigable server on Parliamentary
Committees and Commissions, particularly those to do with the Na–
tives, on whom he is considered an authority.
An elderly bulldog of the bulldog breed he is, every inch of him.
