Hyperbole Watch

In what might become a semi-regular feature, I'll be casting my eye over the exaggerations and official optimism that frequently peppers the left press. For example, who can forget Gerry Healy's classic predictions that the ruling class would shortly be readying concentration camps ready for trade unionists? How about the SWP's claim that the 90s was like the "1930s in slow motion"? That apartheid could only be overthrown by socialist revolution. Or Workers' Power's stubborn refusal to recognise Russia as anything but a workers' state of some years after the collapse of the USSR? The SP/CWI's "Red 90s" is another never-to-be-forgotten gem. And of course the week-in week-out predictions of capitalism's imminent meltdown and the overblown reporting of sparsely-attended demonstrations. Silly shibboleths and self-serving short sightedness are the hallmarks of what passes for Marxism on the left.

Hyperbole Watch's first outing was spoiled for choice by this week's issue of The Socialist. The Socialist Party has a well deserved reputation for sobriety and seriousness: that was one reason why I found them attractive as opposed to the fly by night SWP. And despite producing a paper so dull that the bulk of its regular readers are party members, it is usually a level-headed read. I say 'usually' because issue #640 carries a couple of whoppers. The editorial's claim that the high number of spoiled trade union ballot papers in the Labour leadership election is most likely due to an absence of anyone pushing "radical socialist policies" (a more mundane explanation here) almost clinched, if it wasn't for Peter Taaffe's latest essay on the cuts.

Enticingly titled 'Britain on the Brink', he argues that the working class will be made to pay for the crisis unless a socialist alternative barges onto the stage of history. Pretty much uncontentious stuff. But then the prospects of mass opposition allow the comrade to get carried away and his pen goes off the deep end. Following an (unattributed) quote of the head of the German Institute for Economic Research, Brother Taaffe writes "... a remarkable confession of bankruptcy. In effect what is promised is a civil war against everything the British working class has built up through struggle. It is a replay of the 1930s on a much higher level." [my emphasis]. Yes, that's exactly what the British working class is facing. The 1930s.

Many congratulations to Peter for winning Hyperbole Watch on its launch in the face of stiff competition from his own comrades. I'm sure the award will be winging its way to you again in the not too distant future.