SUPERMAN OR SUPERSTATE?

...In its beginnings that movement was anti-militarist, anti-imperialist, and anti-nationalist...

...Thus, in effect, the Party exercised a dictatorship over the people...

...Conceivably, it represents a "necessary" step in the development of corporate conduct of economic life, or, to use another term, in that trend toward collectivism which is obviously strong even in countries where the ideology of collectivism or socialism is anathema...

...The Soviets were organs for the direct expression of the popular will...

...Those who have read such books as Bertram D. Wolfe's Three Who Made a Revolution know how much of a dictatorship Lenin himself exercised over the Party and that in a sense he paved the way for Stalin...

...It would certainly be easier then for the Communist propagandists to refute the charge that Communism is Russian nationalism...

...Obviously such a coalition would not consent to be an integral part of the American military orbit...

...This tends to bind them to Communism, for even if Communism is not so noble in this field as its propagandists try to make out, its appeal is greater than the prevailing attitudes of Western peoples toward the "backward" black, brown, and yellow people...

...There is in evidence no such effort on the part either of an individual or of a ruling group to take over Stalin's mantle, as Stalin did three decades ago to compel recognition that Lenin's mantle had descended upon him and him alone...

...It is well nigh impossible seriously to entertain the notion that Mao will submit to dictation by Malenkov or Beria or some other Russian Communist czar...

...There is no Communist today in Russia or elsewhere who outranks or equals Mao as a Marxist-Leninist theoretician or as the personal architect and leader of a victorious revolution in a great nation, the most populous on earth...

...Economic pressures would certainly be brought to bear upon China if it ,attempted to form a "Third Force...

...Probably the greatest obstacle to the spread of Communism—certainly one of the most effective arguments of Western propaganda— is the fact that Communism now means subordination to the dictatorship of the Russian Communist Party and hence to the needs and dictates of the Russian State...

...It might well "pay" to do just that and not only in the sense that such a broader approach mjght enable Malenkov and Co...

...It is in the presence of such factors as these, whether clearly envisaged or uneasily sensed, that the proposal that the West, and especially the United States, try to drive a wedge between Russia and China emerges...

...Great changes would have to take place in American public opinion before a U. S. administration could make such drastic sacrifices in order to win concessions from a Communist China regime, even if it were certain that such a regime could be counted upon to keep the bargain of withdrawing from a bloc with Russia...

...Pravda recently declared: "The principle of collectivity in work means . . . that decisions on all important questions of principle adopted by party committees are the fruit of collective discussion...

...It is hardly necessary to mention the impact the kind of Soviet bloc I am imagining would have on the peoples of Indo-China, Malaya, Thailand, Burma—and, yes, Japan...

...one-man rule in the direction of democratic centralism...

...Whatever the surface appearances, the underlying crisis remains everywhere acute...

...But suppose the " Communist movement now succeeds in developing a collective, i.e., internationalist, leadership...

...Nor is there any convincing evidence that American capitalism can provide a solution for the world's economic problems...

...There are those who argue that one-man iron rule is the only pattern that can obtain in a totalitarian regime, and this is especially so in Russia, given her history and present situation...

...The attempt to do so is virtually certain to stiffen resistance,, especially in Russia and China, against the would-be invader, a resistance which will not be quelled except by a bloody showdown...

...There was another flaw in the pattern from the beginning...

...Under the conditions of "collective" leadership I am discussing, Mao and the other Communists in Asia would not have the reasons or the need to go Titoist in order to escape subordination to a Russian Communist czar or junta...

...Much of the appeal of the early Communist movement undoubtedly rested on its passionate devotion to a true "Internationale" and the prospect for the abolition of war and -the hope of world peace it seemed to hold out to the masses...

...The decisive fact seems to me that here are two next-door neighbors, each actually and potentially powerful, who either have to fight each other, or, in spite of divergence of interests, work pretty closely together...

...A good many Western Europeans are speculating that Malenkov may be trying to replace Stalin's Socialism in one country by the planned industrialization of the whole European heartland with nearly one billion people...

...The case of the nine doctors accused of a plot to kill high Soviet officials and the accompanying campaign marked by anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism suggests, however, that it may not be sound to dismiss too lightly the new emphasis on collectivity as against individual leadership...

...But the reality of "Sovietism" did not last long, although the name has...

...From a party which exercises a dictatorship over the masses to one in which the Politburo exercises a dictatorship over the Party to one in which the Party Secretary exercises a dictatorship over those of his colleagues whom he has not yet liquidated, is a case of the traditional facile descent into hell...

...I surmise there is nothing in the nature of things to predetermine that such a corporation has to be less efficient than Western corporations or cartels...

...In any event, it does not seem to me that there is any basis for the idea that American military pressure can "contain" Communism and "liberate" the Communist peoples...

...If a serious effort is being made to devolop a - collective leadership, the fact that beyond a certain point stark dictatorship in a complex society leads to stagnation may have something to do with this...

...So far as propaganda goes, it would certainly be easy to argue that it represented "people's democracy" as against "capitalist-imperialist exploitation" by Western "exploiters...

...Muste, an ordained minister of the Presbyterian church, lectures widely for the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the American Friends Service Committee...

...He will demand that the U.S...

...So far as the present moment is concerned, I see no likelihood that the United States is prepared to concede what the Chinese are certain to demand as the price for a break, or at least loosening of the present close ties with Russia...

...It seems to me virtually certain that India under Nehru or other leadership would soon enter—and not altogether unwillingly or unhopefully—into an economic alliance and a "non-aggression pact" with a Communist bloc such as I have suggested...

...Rather, the strong attachment to Marxism-Leninism as a world-view and a proven generator of revolutionary discipline and dynamism would tend to bind them together and quite possibly weld them into a force with immense drive and stupendous drawing power among the masses who live on the edge of starvation and under the weight of centuries-old exploitation...

...assume a "hands off" attitude toward Formosa and that Japan cease to be an American base and that it be opened to trade with China...

...The alternative is the development of a collective leadership, whose top figures will of necessity include others than Russians...

...These peoples, moreover, are united by the strong emotional and social bond of hatred for "white supremacy" and the determination to put an end to it...

...From another view, this may be regarded as pointing to the evolution of a Soviet (international) corporative state...

...Space does not permit elaboration here on the shock which the development of a Communist bloc reaching from the eastern border of Germany to the Pacific and around to India would mean to Western European nations or the change it would bring about in the distribution of power in the entire world...

...to avoid extreme stresses within the leadership of the Communist bloc...

...They have to fight or they have to walk and work together...

...The organizational pattern of the Bolshevik Party originally was not a one-man dictatorship but "democratic centralism...

...A Chinese government, like any other, would adhere to such a course only if it believed this to be in its own interest and were not subjected to pressure from Russia...

...The price Mao would exact, as sketched in the preceding paragraph, might be one the United States would be well advised to pay, in its own "national interest," if the East Asian bloc were to constitute a "Third Force" able to exert a substantial impact on both the Russian and Western blocs, restrain their warlike propensities, and effect a balance of power...

...but once the decision is made, all must join in carrying it out and defending it...

...On the negative side, there has been a studied de-emphasis of the Stalin-cult...

...II It is true that this may simply mean that Beria is telling Malenkov he must still listen to Beria, or vice versa, but with no intention that this is to last forever or for long...

...In fact, an attempt is being made to establish the concept that party leadership is based on collectivity...

...This analysis cannot be lightly dismissed...

...In other words, the price we would have to pay to secure Chinese support or even neutrality in its power conflict with Russia is the abandonment of our power position on the Asian mainland and in Japan and Formosa...

...I refer to the relation between Mao Tse-tung, both as an individual and as typical of non-Russian revolutionary leadership, and Mal-enkov-Beria-Molotov...

...It will have to be a movement which can match and surpass Communism in providing a world-view or philosophy of history and the spiritual dynamism which creates discipline and unquenchable hope...

...But I suggest that another factor may be of greater and more pressing importance...

...It seems patently foolish to suppose that the United States and such allies as it might be able to muster would be able to contain this force by military means...

...By defini-> tion, the Party was an elite, assigned to manipulate the masses into achieving their "own" proletarian revolution they did not have the sense to achieve by themselves...

...Russia, for its part, is unlikely to look with favor upon an independent China-Southeast Asia-India bloc...

...Moreover, if such a leadership existed, it would inevitably have to take into account the interests of China and the European satellite countries...

...The effort to do so could only lead to war with no assurance of victory and the certainty that nominal victory would also be disastrous...

...Failure to make satisfactory progress in the atomic weapons field may have driven the lesson home...

...If such leadership were achieved, it jnight strengthen the Communist movement in another respect...

...If something like this is in the works, then we have here further illustrations of how Communism is a product of the West, a carrying forward of Western tendencies and patterns of which the West itself may be incapable...

...Appearances may, of course, be deceiving, but intriguing developments have occurred...

...Moreover, it is quite possible that all the countries involved in such a coalition would stand to gain rather than lose by being closely tied to Russia in working out a planned economy covering the whole vast area...

...He is the author of several books, including "Non-Violence in an Aggressive World and "Not by Might...

...it could mean a "return" to the pre-Stalin aims and ideals of that movement...

...Is the pattern to remain that of "Superman" control, or will another pattern emerge...

...The Soviet corporation would not be operated by a "capitalist class" for "private profit...

...The chances favor the latter, as I propose to show later...

...It will have to provide a sounder and less costly means than Communism for solving the economic problem of the disadvantaged peoples...

...Since Stalin's death there are some indications that a departure might occur from this pattern of A. J. MUSTE, executive secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, has long been a close student of Marxism and its contemporary products...

...The answer to Communism will have to be a movement as internationalist as the Communist movement, or rather, more genuinely internationalist...

...According to this concept, the party "line" is to be arrived at by frank and even ruthless internal discussion...

...This reference to planned industrialization of a large part of the planet suggests the pattern of a huge corporation or integrated group of corporations not altogether dissimilar to the business corporations and cartels with which the West is acquainted...

...Leaders are exhorted to "subordinate their will to the will of the collective...

...I see no evidence that private capital and the piddling efforts symbolized by the Point Four program are able to satisfy the requirements...

...Yet I think it is wise to consider a possible alternative, even though we are largely limited to speculation...

...They contend that a serious change in this pattern would involve collapse of the regime and liquidation of the present rulers, and that the latter cannot be expected to permit this without first forcing a showdown...

...They all share the position of countries which are technologically backward and want to move rapidly away from this status...

...This would probably mean that China would be the dominant force in an economic bloc and a political coalition which would include Korea, Japan, Indo-China, Malaya, Burma, and probably India...

...Mao will demand that the U. S. and other foreign troops quit Korea and the regime in Korea be "friendly" to China...

...V It seems unlikely that such a pattern will emerge...

...But openly to accuse the security organization itself of cooking up an outrageous plot, unequivocally to apologize to the people for this, and so expose the possibility that deepest corruption existed at the very center —this is somewhat unusual...

...By 4. J. Muste IF WE put aside questions about the immediate significance of the considerable shifts in Soviet and Communist attitudes since the death of Stalin and seek to probe the possible long-run implications of these developments, there are two fundamental problems requiring analysis: One—What is happening to the internal machinery and control of the Soviet government and the Communist Party...

...Consequently, no matter how the struggle for power at the top may be camouflaged, it is bound to be waged until the successor to Stalin as czar is determined and his rivals purged...

...In other words, the attempt to maintain the Stalin pattern of one-man dominance will necessitate a bitter struggle for the top position in the higher echelons of the Russian Communist Party and this will also entail a bitter struggle between X and Mao, between the Russian and the Chinese Communist Parties...

...For the Communist high command to reverse its course overnight as it did in disavowing the charges is, of course, nothing new...

...But this is another story...

...Ill It is substantially correct, as some argue, that economic and military power is decisive in such matters...

...As for India, Nehru's "neutralism" has long irritated the United States...

...Two—What is to be the relation between Red China's Mao Tse-tung and Malenkov-Beria-Molotov...

...It is not necessary to dwell on the extent to which Stalinism has meant militarism and aggressive nationalism...

...What Communist bloc pressure from without and Communist penetration from within may then accomplish in India is not hard to imagine...

...It is true that in the beginnning democracy was supposed to belong in this context...

...If, on the other hand, a collective leadership develops in Russia, it will not be possible to sustain the claim that Mao and others do not belong in such a "collegium...

...IV This line of reasoning leads to the suggestion that a "collective leadership" of the Communist movement would be analogous to corporate or corporation leadership...

...VI It may be that no development such as I have speculated about will take place in the internal pattern of the Communist movement...

...Basically, it reflects the hard fact that China and India cannot live in separate worlds...

...When they go a step further and suggest that comparatively advanced Russia decisively outweighs relatively backward China in such power, 1 dissent...

...I have only to add, lest there be any misunderstanding, that if the pattern of "collective" multi-national leadership about whidi I have speculated should come into existence, it would still, in my view, be necessary to find "the answer to Communism" if mankind is to be delivered from regimentation, mechanization, and dehumanization...