50 Years Ago: Looking Back and Looking Forward

A sign of the times is that with Russia a first-class Power, represented at “Big Three”conferences, the Communist Party falls into line as defender of the Allied capitalisms (including, of course. Russian State Capitalism). Last time it was the “right wing” labour leaders (denounced by those who later formed the Communist Party) who supported capitalist campaigns to get the workers to work harder and join in the scramble for more trade. Now it is Mr Harry Pollitt who “has sent an appeal to all his mining members to speed up coal production” (Daily Express, February 19th). The Express report continues:-

  “His [Pollitt’s] more serious concern, however, is that lack of British coal supplies for devastated European countries will delay the fruits of victory, and substitution of American and South African coal supplies may permanently injure British export markets”