Edgar Hardcastle
Source: Socialist Standard, March 1942.
Transcription: Socialist Party of Great Britain.
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Early in 1939 when Mr. Churchill was not in the Government the Communists wanted him in. As soon as he got in they were demanding his removal. Now they are supporting him again. The following statements deserve to be recorded.
At the People's Convention held in January, 1941, the Communists were demanding a People's Government and a People's Peace, and Mr. Harry Pollitt said that he wanted to see "the victory of the people of this country over its real enemies in the Churchill Government and the policy it is pursuing at the present moment." He added: —
When we are united we are powerful. Let us be proud of our power and use it. The Churchill Government will be removed and a Government giving realisation to the programme and policy you are deciding to-day will be brought to power.—Report, page 48.
Just a year later, when a vote of confidence in the Churchill Government was carried in the House of Commons (28th and 29th January), Mr. W. Gallacher, the Communist M.P., was one of the 464 who voted for the vote of confidence. In his speech he particularly condemned some Tory M.P.s because, he said, their desire "is to weaken the Prime Minister." He ended his speech by saying, "in spite of my opposition to the Municheers and my feeling that there is much that is wrong in the Government, I will give a vote for the Government when the Division takes place" (Hansard, 28th January, col. 859).
The various somersaults of the Communist spokesmen in this country must be considered in relation to the changes of policy of the Russian Government, and it will not have escaped notice that a little earlier the Moscow radio's official announcer, when sending greetings to Churchill on his birthday, had said: —
The Soviet people join with the British ally in their good wishes for their leader Winston Churchill. We are glad that England has the right man at the helm in the decisive hour.—Daily Mail, December 1st, 1941.
Messrs. Pollitt and Gallacher will claim, of course, that their views are their own, honestly arrived at. We do not question this, but we may be forgiven for remarking that they are so spell-bound by the Russian example that their minds are unable for any length of time to reach or hold any conclusion other than that of Moscow.