4. A turning point: the attack on the USSR [July 1941 – December 1942]¶
Core Argument¶
Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 forced the Communist International to abandon its opposition to the imperialist war and adopt collaboration with the ‘democratic’ nations against fascism. The Communist Party of Great Britain overnight switched from agitating for peace on Hitler’s terms to supporting Churchill’s war plans, becoming a strike-breaking force. This provoked a crisis within the CPGB while working-class unrest grew, particularly among miners. The Workers’ International League exploited this by developing fractional work inside the CPGB and orientating towards the Independent Labour Party, which alone opposed the war.
The WIL’s growth attracted attacks from Stalinists and the government, leading to a Parliamentary debate on banning Socialist Appeal. The WIL counter-attacked with humour, exposing Stalinist contradictions. The Kremlin bureaucracy’s pursuit of ‘socialism in one country’ and its class-collaborationist policies—the Hitler-Stalin pact, the theory of social-fascism, and the popular front—had enabled Hitler’s rise and left the USSR isolated. Molotov’s nationalist appeal, invoking Tsarist rather than revolutionary traditions, revealed the bureaucracy’s bankruptcy. The Red Army’s heroic resistance could spark revolution in Germany and Europe, but only the overthrow of capitalism and the Kremlin bureaucracy, and the restoration of workers’ democracy, could defeat fascism and save the USSR.
Despite the bureaucracy, the basic conquests of October—the abolition of capitalist private ownership—remained, and the masses rallied to defend them. Stalin could not wage a revolutionary war; the bureaucracy fought to preserve its privilege, not for socialist revolution. Stalin relied on Churchill and Roosevelt, deceiving the masses about Anglo-American imperialism’s aim to reintroduce capitalism. Churchill and Roosevelt calculated on mutual exhaustion of Germany and Russia. The war would strain Soviet industry and worsen privations; bureaucratic corruption would provoke resentment. The ‘socialism in one country’ dream was destroyed. The Soviet regime could not be saved without workers’ intervention in capitalist states.
The WIL assessed its own shortcomings. Although the Nazi invasion of the USSR trebled Socialist Appeal sales, the WIL failed to make deep inroads into the confused Communist Party rank and file. Members lacked confidence, clung to abstract theory, and were overawed by reformist and Stalinist bureaucrats. The WIL called for a turn towards independent activity among CP members while intensifying work inside mass organisations, advancing the Fourth International’s transitional programme.
The mainstream of working-class development remained through the Labour Party; the Labour bureaucracy’s hold was not broken by war. The Communist Party retained key industrial militants and would exploit revolutionary sentiments via popular front channels. Revolutionary activity must remain rooted in mass organisations, using transitional slogans—expropriation, arming workers, colonial freedom—to win advanced elements. The main obstacle remained the Labour bureaucracy, but class struggle would surpass the Chartist and post-war periods, including the general strike.
The ILP leadership’s ‘Socialist Britain Now’ campaign was condemned as a pacifist, peacetime programme irrelevant to the realities of 1942. It offered no concrete action for war, failing to provide a workers’ military policy. The immediate task was to demand Labour break the coalition and take power on a socialist programme. By-elections showed growing anti-capitalist sentiment, with workers voting against government candidates despite Labour and Communist Party efforts to hold them back.
British imperialism extracted £150 million annually from India, where 90 percent were illiterate, peasants lived on less than two pence a day, and millions died from malnutrition. The Indian masses faced intense dissatisfaction due to low wages and heavy taxation. The British dared not arm Indians, who would likely overthrow both Japanese and British rule. India’s freedom required workers taking power and peasants seizing land. The theory of the permanent revolution held that the bourgeoisie in backward countries could not solve the tasks of the bourgeois revolution because it was tied to foreign capital and landlordism. The proletariat must therefore lead the peasantry, take power, and advance to socialist tasks, supported by international revolution.