Review: 'The impenetrable curtain'

The impenetrable curtain | Grey, Stalin: man of history, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1979, pp547, £12.50.

P. Bellis, Marxism and the USSR: the theory of prolearian dictatorship and the Marxist analysis of Soviet society, Macmillan, London, 1979, pp267, £12.00.

V Fišera (ed), Workers' councils in Czechoslovakia: documents and essays 1968-69, Allison and Busby, London, 1979, pp200, £3.95.

J Bloomfield, Passive revolution: politics and the Czechoslovak working class, 1945-48, Allison and Busby, London, 1979, pp290, £3.95.

The Soviet Union is no mystery for the bourgeoisie. Grey's Stalin deals with the way a 'great man' changed the course of history, instead of how historical forces were expressed in the action of this individual. The book, like so many others written by Western authors, analyses the Soviet Union in cultural and psychological terms. The facile explanation is that Stalin's personality shaped the development of the Soviet Union. The working class movement needs a scientific theory of East European societies. Left-wing authors have written many texts on this issue but have failed to penetrate their subject matter. Many Western authors are unfamiliar with the available source material and often write superficial accounts based on secondary data. The real problem however is a theoretical one. The concepts and categories applicable to Western capitalist society cannot be used indiscriminately 30

for the study of Eastern Europe. A failure to grasp the laws of motion of Eastern Europe leads to a narrow and impressionistic investigation of the subject matter.

Bellis has written a useful summary of theories of Soviet society. It can aid the reader unfamiliar with the literature to acquire a knowledge of the basic texts. But, unfortunately, Marxism and the USSR is nothing more than a summary; the author's review of the texts is not based on a coherent theoretical standpoint. Such a book may be useful for undergraduate courses but it does not advance working Of the two books on Czechoslovakia, Fišera's is the better one. It is a useful compilation of essays and documents written during the years 1968-69. This book will be welcomed by those who are familiar with developments in Czechoslovakia. However, the insubstantial introduction to the text does not provide any guidance for the Western Bloomfield's Passive revolution deals with the crucial developments of the immediate post-war period in Czechoslovakia. The establishment and consolidation of the Stalinist regime resulted in the destruction of the Czechoslovak working class movement. Bloomfield's detailed study of these years lacks any scientific content. As a result he is unaware of the counter-revolutionary role of the Soviet bureaucracy and its allies in Prague. Passive revolution remains captive to the preoccupations of bourgeois poli- Cambridge Journal of Economics Editors: Francis Cripps, John Eatwell, Mario Nuti, Suzy Paine, Ajit Singh, Shaila Smith, Roger Tarling, Terry Ward, John Walls, Frank Wilkinson Publication: Quarterly, March-December Subscription: Volume 4, 1980 €13.50 (UK) £16.90 / $39.50 (overseas) Since the early 1960s a new intellectual approach has been developing in economics, While clearly rooted in older Keynesian and Marxian traditions, this approach draws on the mass of empiricai evidence now available to deal with contemporary economic problems. In the light of this work older theories are being revised and reconstructed, and a new economic analysis is The Cambridge Journal of Economics, and the Cambridge emerging. Political Economy Society which manages it, have been founded to provide a focus for this work, which is taking place in universities and research departments thoughout the world. The Journal publishes theoretical and applied articles on major contemporary issues, with strong emphasis on the provision and use of empirical evidence and the formulation of economic policies.

From recent issues H. Flakierski: Econamic reform and income distribution in Hungary.

M. de Cecco: Origins of the post-war payments system. J.

Papantoniou: Foreign trade and industrial development: Greece and the EEC. C.C. Roberts: Economic theory and policy making in West Germany: the role of the Council of Economic Experts. A. Vyas: Primary accumulation in the USSR revisited. R. Boyer: Wage formation in historical perspective: the French experience. S. Bruno: The industrial reserve army, segmentation and the Italian labour market. Academic Press A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers San Francisco New York Toronto Sydney London NW1 7DX, England 24-28 Oval Road, London 111 Fifth Avenue. New York, NY 10003, USA

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published 6-8 times a year by Gruppe Rheinische Zeitung (GRZ) RZ 22: German trade unions 1918 • 1933; questionable salidariry for opposition ir the German Democratic Republic?: Strauss programme for economy and the political system: Nicaragua (published November 1979 IZ 20: Stee! workers' strike 1978/79: Experiences and a discussion of sociali sas pad rade uned and ry igolitical development of the workin 'Beitraege zur Strategiediskussion" brochures): I. State and Economy (the reformist errors of state monopolistic capitalism and the correct relation of state and economy ir marxist theory & their strategic relevance etc.). II. A rendency cowards change in trade - All publications are in German - Order from: Kritische Politik GmbH, Kaiserstr. 46, D-5300 Bonn 1, Fed. Rep. o) Germany. Send S IRCs for 1 RZ (ó IRCs for RZ 20), 7 IRCs for one of the brochure.

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Books received O Anweiler, The Soviets: the Russian workers, peasants and soldiers councils 1905-1921, Merlin, 1979, PP337, £5.00.

E Mandel, Trotsky: a study in the dynamic of his thought, New Left Books, 1979, pp156, £2.95.

M Wallace, Black macho and the myth of the superwoman, Platform, 1979, pp182, £2.50.

R Sayigh, Palestinians: from peasants to revolutionaries, Zed, 1979, pp206, pbk £2.95, hbk £8.95.

R Nader and J Abbotts, The menace of atomic energy, Melbourne House, London, 1979, Pp414, £7.95.

N Furniss and T Tilton, The case for the welfare state: from social security to social equality, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and London, pp249, £9.80 E Mandel, Revolutionary Marxism today, NLB, 1979, pp236, N Ginsburg, Class, capitaland social policy, Macmillan, 1979, pp192, pbk £4.95, hbk £10.00.

W Beckerman, Poverty and the impact of income maintenance programmes, International Labour Organisation, pp90, pbk £4.40, hbk £6.90. B E Clements, Bolshevik feminist: the life of Aleksandra Kollontai, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and London, 1979, €10.50. I Gough, The politicaleconomy of the welfare state, Macmillan, London, 1979, pp196, £4.95.

P Stansky and W Abrahams, Orwell: the transformation, Constable, London, 1979, pp240, £6.95.

S Holdaway (ed), The British police, Edward Arnold, London, 1979, pp 188, £3.95.

N Parry, M Rustin and C Satyamurti (eds), Social work, welfare and the state, Edward Arnold, 1979, pp202, £3.95.

M Prior and D Purdy, Out of the ghetto: a path to socialist rewards, Spokesman, Nottingham, 1979, pp193, £2.50.

J C Laurence, Race propaganda and South Africa, Gollancz, London, 1979, pp215, £6.95.

K Coates (ed), What went wrong?, Spokesman, Nottingham, 1979, pp256, £2.95. C Mouffe (ed), Gramsci and Marxist theory, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1979, pp288, pbk £5.95, cloth £9.50.

DR Gandy, Marx and history, from primitive society to the communist future, University of Texas, Austin and London, 1979, pp190, £10.50. 32 R Yürükoğlu, Turkey - weak link of imperialism, ISCININ, 1979, pp178, £2.50. D Hallas, Trotsky's Marxism, Pluto, London, 1979, pp122, M Poster, Sartre's Marxism, Pluto, London, 1979, pp133, B Burkitt and D Bowers, Trade unions and the economy, Macmillan,1979, pp124, pbk £3.95, hbk £8.95.

A Heitlinger, Women and state socialism, Macmillan, London, 1979, £12.00. P Spriano, Antonio Gramsci and the party: the prison years, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1979, pp192, £6.95.

A Peace, Choice, class and conflict: a study of Southern Nigerian factory workers, Harvester, Brighton, 1979, pp204, £16.00. Sartre by himself, Pluto, New York, 1978, pp112, £1.95.

J Semprun, Communism in Spain in the Franco era: the autobiography of Federico Sanchez, Harvester, Brighton, 1980, pp271, £10.50. H Beynon and H Wainwright, The workers' report on Vickers, Pluto, 1979, pp208, £2.40.

P Hain (ed), Policing the police, volume 2, John Calder, London, 1980, pp213, pbk £4.50, hbk £8.95.

Z Leyton-Henry (ed), Conservative Party politics, Macmillan, London, 1980, pp 286, £6.95.

P McCormick, Enemies of democracy, Temple Smith, London, 1979. N Bosanquet and P Townsend, Labour and equality: a Fabian study of Labour in power 1974-79, Heinemann, 1980, pp312, £4.50. DJ Smith, Overseas doctors in the National Health Service, Policy Studies Institute, 1980, pp295, £12.50.

G Hutchinson, The last Edwardian at Number Ten, Quartet, £6.50 A Mosely Lesch, Arab politics in Palestine 1917-1939, the frustrations of a nationalist movement, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1979, pp257, £10.50.

D N Jacobs (ed), From Marx to Mao and Marchais: docthe development of communist variations, uments on Longman, 1979, Pp359, pbk £5.95.

T Rakowska-Harmstone and A Gyorgy, Communism in Eastern Europe, Indiana University Press, 1979, pp338, pbk N Branson, Poplarism 1919-1925: George Lansbury and the councillors revolt, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1979, pp242, £7.50. P Townsend, Poverty in the United Kingdom: a survey of household resources and standards of living, Pelican, 1979, H Magdoff, Imperialism: from the colonial age to the present, Monthly Review Press, New York and London, 1978, Pp279, £7.50. L B Francke, The ambivalence of abortion, Penguin, London, 1979, pp261, £1.95. M Raptis, Socialism, democracy and self-management, Alison and Busby, London, 1979, pp208, pok £3.95, cloth £7.95. T Bennet, Formalism and Marxism, Methuen, London, 1979, pp200, f2,50. K Joseph and J Sumption, Equality, John Murray, London, 1979, pp130, £4.95. I Seabrook, What went wrong? Working people and the ideals of the labour movement, Gollancz, London, 1978, pp286, pbk £2.95.

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