Ont er-revolutionary! model he was following here was Stalin's line of 1927, that the Trotskyists had ceased being a working class tendency and had become an agency of imperialism by taking their programme to the streets. But Stalin's version had involved a supposedly incorrect line being taken to This time what was declared to be counter-revolutionary was taking a correct line to the masses!
As for the Kadar claim that there would have been a Minszenty-led return of the ancien regime, this was not on the cards. Minszenty had indeed protested against the land reform in 1945 and undoubtedly remained its enemy. After all the Catholic church had been the biggest single landlord in the country. But Minszenty was not only an ultra-reactionary: he was a fool and always equivocating as Cardinals do.
In his broadcast speech during the uprising, he did not actually say that the land reform should be overturned: he made allusions which could be interpreted in that way. But a return of landlordism was completely out of the question. Whoever tried to carry it through - and it is conceivable that Minszenty might have tried it later - would have committed political suicide: after all the main social base of any clerical reaction would have been the Catholic peasantry.
When I left Hungary, through the Catholic, Western part of the country, the peasants on the train were saying how much they had been attached to the Cardinal: "After all', they said, 'he was the only really couragéous man who had stood up against the Communists; and what a disappointment it was for us that his speech had called for the land to be returned to the landlords.' Actually he hadn't said this, but I was delighted to hear the peasants misinterpreting him in exactly the right way.
Of course, anti-communist moods were very obvious among the masses after the start of the uprising. But they must be put into perspective.
1 remember asking a worker what he thought the chances of the Nagyled CP were. And he said: "Oh, nil. They might get 4 or 5 per cent. No Communist has a chance, even if he is Imre Nagy.' What then was needed? 'A completely new Hungarian workers party', he replied.
To test the reaction, I asked: 'You wouldn't want a united workers and peasants party?' And his response *Oh, no. It's only communism that the interests of the workers and the peasants will be the same, and then both classes will disappear." sort of thing common: people expressing anticommunist attitudes, but at the same time showing that they had internalised many of the transformations that had taken place during previous 10 years.
Undoubtedly some kind of antithough one cannot say to what extent. Nor can one rule out the possibility of a return of small capital, perhaps going further than NEP in Russia. All these pessibilities remain realm of speculation, would have been decided in the course of a political struggle which Russian intervention precluded.
Not since 1917 have we seen workers councils of such an scope and level of organisation as thrown up in the Hungarian revolution. played a key part in setting up pest central council. How was it formed?
After the second Soviet intervention I returned to Ujpest to see what was happening to the workers there, to which I had earlier been elected. In the town hall both the Stalinist town council and the revolutionary workers council were operating, occupying separate rooms. full And when I arrived the two councils were having a joint meeting. This was typical: they kept on arguing with the Stalinists, and I thought, what's the was point?
Anyway, listening to the discussion I came to the idea of creating central workers council. I drafted a proclamation, and when the meeting ended 1 put my proposal to the revolutionary workers council.
The proclamation simply said that just there on paper, it's non-existent. There are only two powers: one is the Russian armed forces, and the other is the Hungarian people and in the first place the and class.
One of these two ganised — the Russian army - but the other is still unorganised, so we must organise it. We must create a central workers council.
They accepted it. tion was handed over to the students advanced revolutionary council for tion. We were calling a meeting of delegates of workers councils to se were up the central body along with a newspaper that would be its organ.
You meeting of workers council delegates and I felt I had to have backing, Buda- otherwise people would say: who is workers this adventurer? What does he represent? So the carpenter chairman of the Ujpest council agreed that I the Ujpest council that was convening the meeting, and speak first.
council Ujpest town hall, democratic workers council. formed the presidium.
represented.
turn the SuuaLol farcical.
elderly you from?' "None', I said.
LTUC return:
urgent matters to confront."
ostentatiously looking at his watch.
word 'compromise'. promise on other questions.
Budapest
powers is orThe proclamadistribuI was to present the plan to the should sit as part of the presidium of The meeting was to be at the but when we arrived it was surrounded by Russian ratisation. tanks and the members of the Ujpest council had all been arrested the previous night (as I learned later, many of them were hanged). We moved the meeting to United Electric, a big factory making sophisticated electrical appliances, with a consequently very revolutionary So this council There were about 80 or 90 delegates from different factories: not as many as we had hoped for, but about 30 of the biggest factories were Each delegation stood the internal question. up in turn and read out their demands, one two three four, amazingly identical. was alone, with no backing, and when it came to my became almost democratic chairman asked:. 'What factory are "What right have you to be here?' I said that I had actually organised the meeting. The chairman replied: "This is unThis meeting is an historical in- strike was called off. evitability.' So I was demagogic in *These kind of philosophical points should be discussed after the events are over. Now we have more So the chairman said: "All right, must stop. speak for 10 minutes.' And he was There were some unpleasant noises in the hall after I had mentioned the And in fact 1 had started with it, saying that it was very impressive how identical all the demands were, but so far nobody had said a single word about how to jective. win them. Ideal demands are not enough. We have to decide to get the essential thing, and be ready to comWhat was important was to have nothing to do with the Kadar regime turned into a real force for democAt CHORICHL we shoudn't talk to anybody and should they develop the general strike, but with a more organised leadership.
This meant organising a really strong central workers council in Budapest. And when the Russians realised that they couldn't stabilise without us, they would have to talk to us. Kadar was irrelevant: there is no point in talking to the servants when the masters are there. This was frankly a compromise plan - it did not take up the question of the Warsaw Pact, but concentrated on The speech made no impact. The meeting decided to set up the central workers council, but the only other decision was diametrically opposite to my conception: a delegation was elected to go and negotiate with Kadar, while simultaneously insisting that it did not recognise him.
The central workers council continued to exist and held a second full meeting, but the working class was trapped. Kadar was ready to promise just about anything after the general The workers demand the right to strike? He fully agreed with the workers. He wholeheartedly concurred that the workers should be able to strike, but first this particular strike The Russian troops must withdraw? Absolutely! And as soon as law and order was re-established, he would personally start negotiations to this effect. In short, Kadar was sufficiently trained in the art of politics to know how to concentrate on the essential and reach his obdiscussions went on until Kadar and the Russians felt strong enough to arrest some of the workers" leaders and then mass arrests followed. The workers councils continued in many areas through Novemher and into Decemher. council in Csepel, the working class bastion, issued a declaration - thai didn't want to deceive the working class any longer by a resistance that was a sham resistance. So in order to be true to their class they had decided to declare their own dissolution. The workers council movement had ended. The repression of the leaders of the working class was terrible.
Could you sum up the meaning of the Hungarian revolution?
I have often remembered the 19th Party Congress in the Soviet Union in 1952. Stalin kept silent throughout the Congress till the very end when he made a short speech which covers about 2½ printed pages. He said that there were two banners which the progressive bourgeoisie had thrown away and which the working class should pick up - the banners of democracy and national independence. Certainly nobody could doubt that in 1956 the Hungarian workers raised these two banners high. 11. Janos Kadar. seen here with Susloi after the second Russian intervention, had supported Nagy during the early days or the revorution, but went over te Russians just before the second Russian intervention. He organised the
monus.
JOHN MAGEE reports from Belfast MORE THAN 150,000 FAMILIES in the Six Counties are living below subsistence level, and more than one-third of heads of households have net weekly incomes of £25 or less. These facts were disclosed in a recent report by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive on a survey of living accommodation and conditions. Taken along with the 11.4 per cent unemployment level, such information gives a clue as to why 16,000 people have emigrated from this part of Ireland in the last 12 by the Quigley report states: The Northern Ireland economy is in very serious difficulty. and if no new measures are taken the outlook is grim'. The Quigley Report also predicts a bleak future for shipbuilding, clothing, textiles all industries which have seen a loss of tens of thousands of jobs in the last two decades. The conclusion to which both reports point is that the Six County statelet is just one big slum. Of course these reports are not without recommendations, but they are only emergency measures designed to deal with emergency conditions.
This is have not always been so exaggerated.
be dependent and peripheral to the British economy.
regimes in the last 50 years, Bann where carnolics are in a majority, nas. That this grim picture could become blacker yet has been underlined Report on the economy, also recently released. This all very well until one reflects that the emergency conditions have existed since the foundation of the state, though perhaps they And no amount of emergenc alter the fact that the Northern Ireland state and economy are both artificial. No amount of emergency measures can alte the fact that in the present set-up, the economy of the Six Counties must No amount of emergency measures, either, can hide the fact that the British ruling class, by studiously ignoring the policies of the Unionist bears responsibilty for ine renalous discrimination that has resulted in the fact that the area west of the River * 43 per cent of households with a weekly income of E25 or less:
* 30 per cent of 'heads of households' unskilled or semi-skilled;
* 6 per cent of average rate for the Six Counties This situation was deliberately caused by Unionist administrators in order to safeguard their rule. Since the introduction of direct rule there has been no indication on the part of the British Government that they will reverse this process.
It would be wrong to say that the trade union leaders do not recognise this reality. But they are so concerned with maintaining the paper unity which exists in the trade union movement that they are shy of translating this recognition into practical measures. campaign reveals this in a very clear way, for its demands for the right to work, adequate housing and so on completely ignore the legacy of Unionist rule.
workers have been subject to, and by translating such an understanding into clear demands as can the ills of the working class as a whole DOWer, Protestants, not just the Northern workers removed. Speed the day.
"heads of households' unemployed - twice the Only by recognising the specific oppression that the anti-Unionist part and parcel of a programme for workers - not just the