the 0014-1690 record 1990...the 0014-1690 record...

The ISSN 0014-1690

Ethical RecordVol 95 No. 4 APRIL 1990

.;:lca,CaraSiisalSarCarsizatoZgneaviZ311:21c2,42b22312Car,:231:21(3a4X,C3e.Ca•Ca3 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY

The ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Will take place at 2.30 p.m. in the Library at Conway Hall

on Sunday, May 20, 1990(Registrations from 2 p.m.)

Nominations for the General Committee of SPES, and Motions should beaddressed in writing to the Secretary. Nominations for the Committee shouldarrive by Sunday, April 15.

Motions should be given to the Secretary by Sunday, April 15. Formal Noticeof the Meeting and text of Motion to be proposed will be posted in Conway Hallon Sunday, April 22.

Refreshments will be served at 4 pmThe Report to the Society for the 1989-90 year is being prepared, and will be

circulated in due course.NICHOLAS HYMAN,Secretary

InvenSvivissen1/423,-"mieRes CZ-MiZversiel.Editorial

THE CREATIVE WRITERJIM HERRICK'S TALK ON APRIL ISI,"E. M. FORSTER as a Humanist", andthe presentation to the Society of anew portrait of the author, highlightForster's importance to the humanistmovement. Also, those who read theeditorial for the February issue willrecall the reference to Forster, specifi-cally to his famous phrase "Onlyconnect".

Forster is in fact just one example ofthe vital contribution made tohumanism by creative writers, as dis-tinct from philosophers, anthropolo-gists, psychologists, social and political

scientists, and others who 'think withina largely impersonal framework.Novelists, poets and dramatists aren'tusually very conceptual or systematicin their thinking, and their work mayoften lack the intellectually tight-knitquality required for writing in otherfields. But this doesn't prevent themfrom achieving and expressing funda-mental insights, sometimes with a raresuccinctness and completeness. Take,for instance, Forster's definition of thegenuine humanist, in an essay onANDRE GIDE: "The humanist has fourleading characteristics — curiosity, afree mind, belief in good taste, andbelief in the human race—and all four

CONTENTS PageComing to Conway HallTowards a Republic—MARTIN GREENThomas Paine—A Playwright's Enigma—ALAN ROSENBERGThe Life and Times of Ralph FOX—STIJART MONRO . .Viewpoints

The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society.

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Published by the South Place Ethical Society, Conway Hat Red lion Square, London

SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETYThe Humanist Centre, Conway Hall

25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Telephone: 01-831 7723

Hall Lettings: 01-242 8032. Lobby: 01-405 4125

Appointed Lecturers: Harold Blackham, T. F. Evans, Peter Heales, RichardScorer, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe, Nicolas Walter.

Trustees: Sam Beer, Christine Bondi, Louise Booker, John Brown, AnthonyChapman, Peter Heales, Don Liversedge, Ray Lovecy, Ian MacKillop, VictorRose, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe.

Honorary Representative: Norman Bacrac. Chairman General Committee:

Barbara Smoker. Deputy Chairman: Diane Murray. Honorary Registrar: Lesley

Dawson. Honorary Treasurer:. Don Liversedge. Secretary: Nicholas Hyman. Hall

Manager: - Geoffrey Austin. Honorary Librarian: Edwina Palmer. Editor, The

Ethical Record Tom Rubens (assisted by Nicholas Hyman, Lesley Dawson andJim Addison). Concerts Committee Chairman: Lionel Elton.

General Committee: The Officers and Jean Bayliss, Louise Booker, RichardBenjamin, Cynthia Blezard, Raymond Cassidy, G. N. Deodhekar, Martin Harris,Ellis Hillman, Naomi Lewis, Alice Marshall, Lisa Monks, Terry Mullins, DianeMurray, Les Warren and David Williams.

Finance Committee: Chair: Don Liversedge, Jim Addison, Victor Rose; membersof General Committee.Development Working Group "A": Chair: Diane Murray.

Development Working Group "B": Chair: Raymond Cassidy.

Continued from previous page

are present in Gide". In this short sen-tence, Forster makes as inclusive andas trenchant a generalisation as is to befound anywhere in the literature ofhumanism. Probably most of us willfind it hard to add anything basic towhat he has said; likewise with certainkey moments in . work of othercreative writers 1..ho are explicitlyhumanistic.

T. F. EVANS, in a Sunday lecture onBYRON some time ago, made the pointabout trying to understand a particularsociety or era by looking at it throughthe eyes of its literary artists — soemphasising the role of the mainly non-conceptual mind. Let's remember thatmany of the most enduring statementsabout social mores and behaviour, asindeed about the human being as awhole, have come from the pens ofthose who work by perceptive intuitionand concentrate on the personal andparticular.

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The literary outlook, then, deservesas large a place in the humanist canonas that occupied by other kinds of pers-pective. And because that outlookstrives, as much as any, for self-honestyand the constant testing of ideasagainst experience, it can be trusted ina way that abstract and impersonalthinking often cannot. A work ofliterature is essentially a record of ex-perience, and so provides the illumina-tion which other types of writing, forall their air of relevance and certainty,frequently fail to deliver. It may be anoverstatement to say, with SHELLEY,that poets are "the antennae of therace", or, with AUDEN, that creativewriters are "the conscience of theirgeneration"; but it is surely true thatcreativity is among those antennae,and part of that conscience. Withoutan appreciation of it, no fullydeveloped sensibility is possible.

Ethical Record, April 1990

TOWARDS A REOUBLICby MARTIN GREEN

Text of a Lecture given at SPES on Sunday, December 17, 1989AT THE END OF LAST YEAR, feeling that something had to be done towardsimproving the system of political representation in the country, a system thatallows a party without a majority of votes in the country to have an overwhelmingmajority of seats in the House of Commons, I wrote a letter addressed to eachof the leaders of the three opposition parties. It said:

"You know, as does everyone else in the country who cares about the future,that as long as there is a divided opposition, MARGARET THATCHER Will win afurther term of office at the next election. That is, barring divine intervention,sickness or an assassination.

"How •can you then, with a clear conscience, ask your party followers tosupport you in going to the polls to ensure another victory for Mrs. Thatcher?

"It must be the first hope of everyone in the country who is not a ThatcherConservative, that she and her party are removed from office at the next election,whosoever replaces her.

"Why don't you combine with the other anti-Thatcher parties to make a dealover seats to ensure that this comes about, at the same time making a commit-ment to proportional representation which will ensure that such a backward-looking autocratic government can never abuse democracy in the same wayagain? It would be a step towards social justice, which is something your partybelieves in."

The first to reply was PADDY ASHDOWN, who said, in short:"We in the alliance in the last election discovered only too well that the

British public are extremely sceptical of pacts. You will recall that the problemof our party (the alliance) at the last election was the confusion it caused withtwo leaders, etc. If our alliance, Which was one of principle between two partieswho agreed over 95% of their policy, failed to work at the last election, how muchless would an alliance of pure expediency between parties who disagreed on mostsubstantial matters (as in the case of Labour) fail at-the next?

"I regret that my belief is that we will only remove Mrs. Thatcher by puttingtogether a genuine alternative, which is strong enough to govern the country inher place ."

The second to reply was Dr. DAVID OWEN:"I have long argued for the opposition parties to get their act together along

the lines of agreeing to introduce proportional representation, support for thewelfare state and maintain a nuclear deterrent as long as the Soviet Union hasnuclear weapons. Such would, I believe, be a popular opposition stance. I amenclosing a copy of part of my speech to the SDP Conference in Torquay whenI dealt with this particular question, which I thOught you might be interestedto read." •

The speech in question was immensely long, but you will see that whatDr. Owen was offering was an agreement on proportional representation, pro-vided the other parties agreed to his stance on nuclear weapons. This, being thathe was willing to press the button that would destroy the world, was somethingthe bulk of the Labour Party would not agree to. Not for nothing has he earnedthe nick-name of Dr. Death.

The Ethical Record is posted free to members. The annual charge to Subscribersis £6. Matter for publication should reach the Editor, Tom Rubens, Conway Hall,25 Red Lion Square, London WCIR 4RL (01-831 7723) no later than the first ofthe month for publication in the following month's issue:

Ethical Record, April 1990 3

Mr. KINNOCK was the last to reply, and his reply came via an assistant. Shesaid:

"While he shares your eagerness to get rid of this government and its disas-trous policies, he is concerned that the next government must be a labourGovernment implementing Labour policies if we are to ensure recovery for thecountry. This is why he is so insistent that there can be no dilution of our prin-ciples and policies nor electoral arrangements with any other party.

"The Labour Party does not believe that a system of proportional representa-tion would enhance the quality of British democracy."

So there we have the divided opposition, determined at all costs to ensureanother victory for Mrs. Thatcher's Government.

Feeling dissatisfied with these replies, I next wrote to TONY BENN, MP, andI asked him how he could, in good conscience, and being an avowed socialistas well as a believer in democracy, ask his supporters at the next election to votefor him, knowing that the first act he would make on entering Parliament wouldbe to take an oath of allegiance to The Queen, thus helping to perpetuate ourmonarchical heritage for another five years.

I had a swift and immediate reply, which said:"Dear Martin. Thanks. As you will see I have been thinking about this for

some time."Among various enclosures was a Bill :"To provide a new Oath to be taken by the Crown on the occasion of the

Coronation, and by Privy Councillors, Members of Parliament, holders of alljudicial offices, all civil and military officers, Lord Mayors, Mayors, LordsLieutenant, and others holding positions of authority within the UnitedKingdom."

The ForM of Oath was as follows:"I do swear by Almighty God (or solemnly declare and affirm) That I will be

faithful and bear true allegiance to the peoples of the United Kingdom, accordingto their respective laws and customs; preserving inviolably their civil libertiesand democratic rights of self government, through their elected representativesin the House of Commons, and will faithfully and truly declare my mind andopinion on all matters that come before me without fear or favour."

In the unlikely event of getting the Bill through Parliament, it will be interest-- ing- to see whether. .Mr. Benn and those who supported his Bill, ERIC HEFFER,

JEREMY CORBYN, KEN ' LIVINGSTONE, BERNIE GRANT, ALICE MAHON, BOB CLAY,EDDIE LOYDEN, RONNIE CAMPBELL, HARRY BARNES, Jimmy WRAY and CHRISMULLINS, will take their oath of allegiance to The Queen again, or to thepeople. And naturally, the Bill would have to make its way through the Houseof Lords before being passed, and it is unlikely that their Lordships would passa Bill that challenges their very existence.

Thinking about the failure of our Parliamentary system to be anything otherthan a self-perpetuating oligarchy supported by, and supporting in its turn, themonarchy, I was driven to the work of Tom PAINE. Initially, it was my intentionto write a play about the great and good man, for the bicentenary of the FrenchRevolution, in which he played such an important but often neglected part. Thisproved difficult, thanks to the various countries in which he found himself,first in England, then America in the War of Independence, and finally in Franceduring the Revolution. But it did lead me to read his own work thoroughly,as well are CARLYLE'SThe French Revolution and BURKE'SReflection on the

French Revolution, the book which inspired The Rights of Man.

It then became plain to me that as long as we have our present system, with aself-perpetuating monarchy, supported by a subservient House of Cominons, thatthere is little chance of our ever having a just and socially responsible repre-

. 4 Ethical Record, April 1990

sentative government; and that the goal of a republic is the only answer to ourpresent and future political ills.

I have subsequently written a short book, called Towards a Republic, andit is my enthusiasm for Paine's ideal that brings me here today. Before the recentevents in Russia and in Eastern Europe, the idea of working towards a republicin Great Britain would have seemed nothing but the vain glorious hopes of aharmless madman. Since then, an attempt to challenge the present system hasbeen given an impetus that is now not wholly without serious credibility.

How is it possible to remove an hereditary monarchy by the force of argumentwhen the monarchy is kept in place by the force of arms? One way would be tohave a referendum but one such held in this country today, with no republicantradition, would inevitably be in favour of the monarchy. Or so one wouldimagine, though it would be of interest to find out, simply in . order to makepeople think, for the first time, as to their hereditary tutelage. In Italy in 1946,after World War II, their referendum gave them 10.7 million in favour of themonarchy and 12.7 against. The balance against, no doubt, was because thepeople had seen that what their monarchy had willingly abetted was a fascistdictator who had led the country into a war from which it was only just begin-ning to recover. It might have been a similar result in this country had we hada referendum in 1945, though it is possible that the balance would have been infavour.

It is difficult to see how Parliament itself could remove the monarch's hereditarytutelage, since each new Parliament commences with the incoming memberstaking an oath of allegiance to the Crown, as their very first act. One way wouldsimply be for the Treasury, with Parliament's backing, to cut the strings of thePrivy Purse, thus depriving the Royal Family of the wherewithal to keep upBuckingham Palace and their sundry other country establishments. Their assetswould have to be frozen at the same time, and their property taken away by thenation to prevent them living on. their interest, or selling-off or letting-out theirproperty.

It is unlikely that we will ever see a revolution here of the sort that toppledthe French monarchy 200 years ago, with .a passive people who are willing towitness their traditional rights eroded as they have over the last ten years, whentrade-union brother can no longer go to the assistance of trade-union brother. Itwould seem that monarchy has corrupted the soul of the nation.

The freedom and justice so loudly proclaimed by the Prime Minister of theday are manifestly circumscribed. The only rights we have in law, as free-bornEnglishmen or women, are to be tried by our peers, and that of habeaS corpus;though this latter has now seriously been eroded under the Prevention ofTerrorism Act, which enables the police to hold a suspect for up to seven days,enough time to get almost anyone to admit to almost anything, as we have seen.

, We have the right to vote for whomsoever we want to in a parliamentaryelection, but the candidate of our choice will be either in one of the establishedpolitical parties, none of whom espouse a change in our monarchical system, orone with little or no hope of election, like SCREAMING LORD SUCH of the MonsterRaving Loony Party, whose candidature enhances many an.otherwise colourlessconflict.

It would seem, from the foregoing, that we have no way open to us towardsthe formation of a republic, except by fomenting a continuous debate about theiniquity of an hereditary monarchy and an upper house of Parliament based onprivilege and hereditary succession.

Individually, there is little we can do, save refuse royal patronage in terms ofhonours, remain seated when the national anthem is played in public, refuse topay our taxes or to wave flags. We can ask our parliamentary candidates whythey will insist on the propagation of the monarchy by taking an oath ofEthical Record, April 1990 5

allegiance to the Crown, when they should be taking one in the name of thepeople. We can as individuals write direct to the Queen and ask her to abdicate,knowing however that if she did, she would immediately be succeeded by her sonand heir. It is up to the people to remove the burden of hereditary monarchy,yet the people are deprived of any lawful method of so doing. We live in acountry where suffering through want has largely been eradicated, thanks mainlyto the concept of the Welfare State, brought about after World War II, to rid thecountry forever of the evils inflicted on the unemployed following World War I.As we have seen, unemployment is still with us, though for those who find them-selves in that invidious position, there will be no starvation, however else they maybe shabbily treated by the Department of Health and Social Security. Thiscushioning, as it is seen by successive Conservative governments, means that wedon't have the suffering in which a revolutionary society can flourish, though itshould not also mean that we abnegate our intellectual responsibilities.

We are ostensibly an educated people, a people with a tradition for assertingclaims for justice, who have gained such rights as we have by fighting for them.It is as if, as a people, we have no collective consciousness any more, as we didat the time when SHAKESPEARE was able to tap the collective persona and tocreate a poetic drama out of it which has long outlived the age in which it wascreated, as his fellow poet and playwright BENJONSON predicted.

Man is separated from the other animals in one way because he has the learningprocess, and he can pass his learning on. He sees cause and effect and how hecan exploit this. In science this has led to extraordinary discoveries, the harnessingof power for the common good. It has also led to discoveries in military weaponrythat have brought humanity to the brink of self-destruction. Moral progress hasnot followed pace.

Political awareness along with moral progress has lagged behind the giantstrides taken in science, medicine and technology. The ideal of the republic hasbeen around since PLATO, 300 years before the birth of CHRIST, and yet it has onlycomparatively recently taken root in Europe and the rest of the world, initiallyin America, after the War of Independence, and subsequently in France, after theRevolution. In this country the republican ideal seems to have been side-steppedprimarily as a result of the Napoleonic Wars (and yet it should be rememberedthat it was Britain that declared war on France, after the execution of the FrenchKing, and not the other way around). Thereafter, we had our empire to protect,and to protect us, though this has now finally withered away, barring the oddremote island or promontory.

There is a strange lacuna in the consciousness of the English when it comes todemocracy. If someone was appointed chairman of a local committee, cricket orfootball club, and suddenly announced that not only was he going to be chairmanfor life, but that his heirs and descendants would follow him in the post foreverafterwards, the committee or club would rise up as a man and tell him he mustbe mad, and he'd be drummed out of office without further ado. And yet thesesame people, putting fair play and the rules of the game before everything, arewilling to accept a subject status under a hereditary monarch who, ultimately,has absolute power and can even declare war in the name of the people, one inwhich they will find themselves fighting regardless of the rights of the cause, andwhether they are in favour or otherwise. Or, in the present circumstances, awar in which our effort will contribute to the destruction of mankind.

Looking back to the arrival of WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR in 1066, there haveonly been a couple of times that there was any serious challenge to the monarchy,GUY FAWKI,S apart. The first occasion was the so-called Peasants' Revolt of 1381,when a priest, JOHN BALL, along with WATTYLER and JACK STRAW seized theTower of London. The other was when CHARLES I was executed and for a briefperiod there was a Protectorate under OLIVER CROMWELL The former was a

6 Ethical Record, April 1990

genuine uprising of the people against the imposition of the Poll Tax in 1379,and was defeated by RICHARD II telling the people to go home and that all theirdemands would be granted—immediately afterwards reneging on his word andviolently dispatching the ring-leaders, including John Ball, who was hanged,drawn and quartered at St Albans. The second was a rising of Parliament toprotect the interests of the Parliamentarians and their class, and was concluded,after the Restoration and the death of Charles II, when the Dutchman WILLIAMOF ORANGE was asked to take up the Crown to ensure that together the twoparties, Crown and Parliament, would hold power and privilege between themfrom that day onwards into perpetuity. That there has not been any significantmanisfestation of republicanism since 1649 does not necessarily mean that thestatus quo will be preserved forever, nor that it should be, and perhaps it is onceagain time for the people, in all walks of life, to take stock and to make achallenge to the mindless acceptance of a system that is unjust, unjustifiable andundemocratic. The introduction of a new Poll Tax would be a good time to makea move.JAMES CONNOLLY, an Irish republican who was executed for his pains, said thatone nation that enslaves another shall never itself be free. We could up-date this,perhaps, and say that one nation that misgoverns itself can never be equal amongthose nations that govern themselves justly. Liberty, equality and fraternity arenot a bad foundation for such a government. In the words of the poet GEORGEBARKER :

When will men againLift irresistible fistsNot bend from endsBut each man lift menNearer again? 0

Corrections to the text of "IHEU and Human Rights" (by John Leeson). Thetext appeared in the February 1989 issue of Ethical Record.Page 3: Under Section (1). Third paragraph: opening line:"Much of the current budget" rather than "Most . ."Page 4: Third paragraph: Second sentence: "Due to organisational problems"rather than "Due to shortage of money".Page 4: Seventh paragraph: opening sentence: "Despite strenuous efforts" ratherthan "Despite the restructuring mentioned above"

Please also note that on Page Three the 4th line from the bottom should beomitted. Editor

HUMANIST HOUSING ASSOCIATIONThe Humanist Movement has always been most supportive of the HumanistHousing Association, certainly with encouragement and praise, and, on the fewoccasions we have asked- for it, with money. Most of your money has been usedover the years to provide things for our houses which public funding would notrun to—garden furniture, and record players, pianos, film screens and so on for

the communal lounges. Recently charitable funds have paid £24,000 for a chairlift at Balmoral House—a real help to the frail elderly people who live there.Many years ago now, our charitable donations helped us to buy outright our officebuilding in Kentish Town. Financial help has usually been by donations orcovenants through Friends of Humanist Housing, but we have from time to timereceived legacies, including houses which are an enormous boon provided theyhave no restrictions preventing us from selling them to realise capital.Ethical Record, April 1990 7

Things have changed a lot in the 31 years since we started in a modest waywith one converted house providing a dozen self-contained small flats for elderlypeople who needed warden assistance. In those days priority was given toHumanists in need, though we never meant to be exclusive and always housedreligious people as well. Today we have nearly 900 one bedroom units, not all ofthem for elderly people, and a number of sheltered lease-hold schemes for elderlypeople whose means, though fairly modest, preclude them from publicly subsidisedhousing, particularly since the country's housing problems have become sodesperate for so many.

In our 33 years, our Management Committee, until a couple of years ago drawnexclusively from the Humanist Movement, has had to meet ever changing chal-lenges, not least the all too frequent Housing Acts produced at regular intervalsby every government. You read a lot last year of the negative effects of the 1988Housing Act on the homeless and all people on low incomes. Basically, there willno longer be 100% loans from public funds, and Housing Associations who wantto continue building will have to use their own resources, or, more likely, go tothe financial markets. We, like many other Housing Associations, are a nonprofit-making charity, so we have very little in the way of free resources. Andfinancial institutions want to make a safe return on their investments, and home-less people and those on low incomes don't look like a good investment.

So what does Humanist Housing Association do? Of course we could decide torest on our laurels and just act as caretakers of the property we already have.But we have a determined management Committee and good, experienced staff.We want to raise a million pounds! Our surest way of raising charitable fundsis by coming back to the Humanist Movement with our begging bowl. A millionpounds sounds an awful lot. But it is only half a dozen or so ordinary houses—in the south east at least! And we don't need all the money immediately. Noteveryone can leave us a house, but most of you can make a covenanted donationor even a once only gift. No matter how small your help, we shall certainly wel-come it and we can promise that the money will be put to good use. If anyonereading this has experience of housing management, care of the elderly, financialinstitutions, financial risk management, or Housing Associations finance, andwould like to discuss the possibility of joining our management committee, weshould be delighted to hear from you. We can promise you an interesting andchallenging time, and the job is not too arduous!

Please let us hear from you if you would like any further information or wouldlike to help us in any way.

DIANA ROOKLEDGE, Chair.

Some facts about Humanist Housing Association:Functions in London and within a 100-mile radius.Value of property as cost—£16,256,000.Number of rent schemes-24.Number of rent units-863.Number of leasehold schemes-4.Number of units-102.Number of staff-48 full-time, 58 part-time,Director—P. A. R. WARD, FCA.Registered Office-7-311 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2TJ. Tel: 01-485 8776.

Covenant forms can be obtained from this address.

BOOK LAUNCH: TUESDAY, MAY 10 7.30 pm in the Library of Conway Hall

JAMES JOYCE AND THE POLITICS OF DESIREby

Suzette Henke


THOMAS PAINE-A PLAYWRIGHT'S ENIGMALecture to SPES on January 19, 1990

by ALAN ROSENBURG, author of Pity the Plumage

I AM HONOURED, HERE IN CONWAY HALL, IO have the opportunity to talk with youabout THOMAS PAINE: for MONCURE CONWAY, born just twenty four years afterPaine's death in 1809, stood firmly with Paine in his abhorrence of the obscenityof slavery, the barbarities of war and colonialism, and the tyrannical abuse ofpower practised, all too frequently, by those accustomed to rank and privilege.Like Paine, Conway displayed a sturdy independence of mind and a scepticalcontempt for literal interpretations of the Bible. Like Paine he stood firmly inthe nonconformist tradition with those who believed that rationality was a humandeterminant in the pursuit of human happiness and fulfilment. Both men wereconsidered heretics by their more orthodox and conventional contemporaries:Both made a spiritual voyage seeking either, "a firm belief or else a truthfuldisbelief of historic Christianity". Both were charged with atheism.

Without wishing to overreach the parallel, it is worth noting that Conway, thegreat biographer and collator of Thomas Paine, loathed hypocrisy, institutionalsubservience and superstition. Conway's "Life of Thomas Paine", published inc1892, is still widely regarded as the best published, and his four volume collectionof Paine's writings did much to redeem the sullied reputation of one of England'sgreatest political activists.

These seekers after a more just social order both resided in America, Britainand France. Both ended their lives in some measure disillusioned by the apparentfailure of the ballot box to advance the causes of rationality and liberty.

None of us should be surprised that Conway revered Paine, because though onewas a theological mover and the other a political thinker, the objective of theirenergies and influence was the attainment of human rights, reflected in individualliberty for men and women of all races, based upon rational procedures, in aworld from which tyranny had been outlawed.

This talk on Paine is from the perspective of a playwright—and from thatperspective I should emphasise that all of us would create different portraits ofthe man. My work—a five hour Radio Drama in ten episodes—reqUires, as doesany drama, an interpretation of the personal tensions and conflicts consequentto any action. We construct and reconstruct our Paine as we play different lightsupon his life, lifestyle and personality. A historical drama is not a history book.The dramatist's job is to portray the man and attempt to illuminate the privatetensions, ambiguities and inconsistencies as well as the triumphs and disasters ofany public life.

"Why Thomas Paine?" many have asked me: — normally after asking me whoThomas Paine was. Even in Thetford, Paine's birthplace, graced by WHEELER'Sgolden statue, the author of The Rights of Man is little known and there is noagreement on the nature or importance of the man or his works. But he speaksacross generations to many.

The public Paine, in the country of his birth is largely unknown; the privatePaine remains enigmatic as legend vies with legend, and fictions merge with his-torical claims. How could so private a figure leave so few private footsteps?

Let the man speak for himself, for around the plinth of Thetford's statue arethese illuminating quotes:

"... I believe in the equality of man, I believe that refigious duties consist indoing justice, loving mercy and endeavouring to make our fellow creatureshappy"

"My country is the world,—my religion is to do good"Ethical Record, April 1990 • 9

"I will advocate the rights of man. It is an affront to truth to treat falsehoodwith complaisances".

And lastly, among my favourite quotes from this most quotable of authors, whichlinks an appreciation of human fallibility with the wisdom stemming from itsrecognition—

"I had rather record a thousand errors dictated by humanity than oneinspired by a justice too severe. Wisdom is 'not the purchase of a day"Gazing at the statue I knew that I had found my subject and began my reading

with a biography by MARY BesT—a straightforward life, I thought. I was wrong.There was nothing straightforward about it. Paine's life has the adventure, dramaand variety of a heroic epic and the daring deeds of a Harm novel. Even withoutthe images and phrases which hold relevance across two centuries, his life wasvivid, full lived and extraordinary.

Born to a quaker family and living in obscurity until nearly forty, Paine—as iffrom nowhere—exploded onto the scene. The power, style, and arguments ofThe Crisis Papers ensured the rise in morale which turned the course of theAMerican War of Independence. Soon, enmeshed in controversy and removedfrom influence, having whetted his appetite on one revolution, he became em-broiled in another in France. Once more he fell from grace, this time to sufferimprisonment and narrowly escape the guillotine. On returning to America—theRepublic he did so much to createhe was actually refused a vote. Disownedand traduced, this "Citizen of the World" had no constitutional home. Nor didPaine's turbulent wanderings cease with death. WILLIAM CORBETT', a late convertto Paine's cause, dug his coffin from its New Rochelle grave and brought it acrossthe Atlantic to England.

Before leaving England for Pennsylvania in 1774, Thomas Paine had marriedtwice. His .first wife, MARY, died young, possibly in childbirth. His second—Euvaturn—ran a small business. But their relationship was unsuccessful; indeed,the marriage was unconsummated. One can only speculate on the role of womenin Paine'xlife. While this gives a dramatist scope, it also gave his paid detractorstheir licence.

After working for his father as a staymaker—and practising that trade else:where, Paine secured a position as an Excise man. His was a lowly, illpaidoccupation in which negligence and corruption were rife—indeed Paine's first dis-missal from the service was for failing to check some incoming goods. But hispen was not idle. 4n "The Case of the Officers of Excise", he pleaded the causeof his colleagues. This contains the first significant indications of that penetratingand succinct turn of phrase which marks 'him, with BURKE, CARLYLE andCHURCHILL, as a declamatory writer.

Paine's England was that of the "bloody code", of children led screaming tothe gallows, of the gin mills and of rat infested prisons. His small home town ofThetford in Norfolk had two Members of Parliament representing thirty twovoters. The town was in the control of the Dukes of Grafton. Manchester, witha population of 60,000, had no representation at all.

How could anybody expect honesty in a country with rampant poverty ignoredor enforced by a leisured class— heedless of the sufferings on which their wealthand privilege were built?

"Poverty", said Paine, "in defiance of principle, begats a degree of meannessthat will stoop to almost anything... He who never was ahungered may arguefinely on the subject of his appetite .. Poverty like grief has an incurabledeaf ness".As we watch a growing and self perpetuating underclass being created in our

cities by the same engine's of greed masquerading as policy, and the suppressionof human rights and dignity elevated to economic principle, Paine's words ringclearly in our ears:


"The rich, in ease and affluence, may think I have drawn an unnatural por-trait; but could they descend to the cold regions of want, the circle of polarpoverty, they would find their opinions changing with the climate".Paine was, once more, dismissed from an excise post, perhaps because of thepamphlet, perhaps because he took time off to distribute it. What is important isthat he had written in a style and with a force which spoke directly to people--and which, in an age in which illiteracy was widespread, was inspiring read aloud.His declamatory style is oratory in prose.In 1744 then, Thomas Paine—jobless, bankrupt, and with two marriages behindhim—left for America with a letter of introduction from BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.Despite his low status, Paine was socially bold. Throughout his life he showed notthe slightest conpunction in making contact with men of power and prominence.This was no easy matter in a class-fettered society for the son of a Norfolk corsetmaker with no formal classical education. But there were places and interestgroups in which people could meet as temporary equals: Quaker meeting houses,small scientific groups and, of course Masonic Lodges. Benjamin Franklin wasboth a scientist and a Mason, and though there is no conclusive evidence thatPaine ever underwent initiation, it remains a fact that many influential peoplein Britain, France and America were Freemasons.In a series of articles, some under pseudonyms, Paine attacked slavery, duelling,cruelty to animals. He sought national and international copyright. He wrotecondemning the powerlessness and exploitation of women. Before WILBERFORCE,Paine publicly denounced Negro slavery. And in his early writings came his firstquestioning of monarchy and aristocracy.Paine had found a cause, an audience and a theatre. Engulfed by the tide ofindependence he threw himself into the cause. There is an Edenism in his workof this period—a millenial quality. "Away with superstition pomp and tyranny".Haunted by poverty, beckoned by a new Eden, Paine, like LINCOLN, who nevertired of reading him, set about establishing and planning the New World.

"I dream of a new world at hand such as the sun never rose on. Freedom hasbeen hunted round the Globe. England -has expelled her.In January 1776 Paine anonymously published Common Sense—the first opencall for independence. Cautious of all government, which he claimed was, "evenin its best state, a necessary evil", he laid into GEORGE THE THIRD and once againchampioned the common man:

"Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God thanall the crowned ruffians that ever lived".When he wrote, "No generation has a right to impose its choices upon pos-terity," Paine outlined a notion which he later developed into a full blown attackupon hereditary succession.The simplicity and power of his language engage heart and mind:

"It is absurd to suppose that a continent can be perpetually governed by anisland. Nowhere has nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet.Paine's Edenism was boundless: "We have it in our power to begin the worldover again ... The birthday of a New World is at hand.Common Sense sold 150,000 copies. Everywhere it was on the tongue. It gaveform to vague desires, it converted Tories to Whiggery.There were, of course, pangs of conscience. War is the ultimate affront toQuaker principles, but Paine persuaded himself and others that in the entirelyjust cause of independence—faced with the "sullen Pharoah" of England and thedemonstrable economic irrationality of trading continental.wealth for defence byan island, and with the British laying waste to the land, a call to arms was notonly justified, but essential.

Ethical Record, April 1990 II

Paine was a great free trader and thought in terms of international commerceworking to mutual advantage, eliminating war and poverty. The cornerstone ofthe New World was to be an independent republic: a United States.

The obstacle was Monarchy, particularly British monarchy. Monarchy, avariceand superstition dwelt in perpetual war in Europe. Away with them! Start again!

"Securing freedom and property to all men; and above all things the freeexercise- of religion according to the dictates of conscience ... monirchy andsuccession have laid, not this or that kingdom only, but the world in blood andashes...Within this phrase we detect no envious attack on monarchy born of the "They

have—we have not" dichotomy. We see a total awareness of abuse of power anda cornering of the power market. As we watch events in Eastern Europe with"Peoples republics" falling week by week, as the activities of those rulers—whatever their motives— come under the scrutiny of those whose interests theyclaim to serve, we can only wonder at the political and psychological insightswhich illuminate the completion of the quote:

"... Men who look upon themselves as born to reign, and on others to obey,soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind, their minds are easilypoisoned by importance and the world they act in differs so materially fromthe world at large that they have but little opportunity of knowing its trueinterests".This is the spirit, perhaps nurtured in his youth and its immense social gulfs,

which was to inform Paine's further great works. Estranged power, as an alienpresence, mindful only of the need to ensure its own dominion in perpetuity,would maintain sovereignity over the world—unless, that is, the Rights of Mancould be established.

"The solution", he wrote, "is a Republic—a large and equal representation".Paine claimed never to have read LOCICE,-but he echoes that advocate of free

trade—and a just freedom to exercise one's talents without, in consequence orjustification, amassing vast intergenerational wealth.

It is as a free trader and believer in the benign effects of commercial enter-prise that the THATCHERS and REAGANS of the world claim him as their own.

But as the polemicist who brought the light of his reason to bear upon thetrappings of power and privilege (bolstered by superstition nurtured in ignorance)to give a republic birth, he is unequalled in English writing.

Common Sense was followed by The Crisis Papers—a call to arms ranking withthat of SHAKESPEARE'S Henry the Fifth or Churchill's war time clarions.WASHINGTON, whom Paine revered at the time, and whom he was later to regardas his betrayer, was disconsolate with his bedraggled army hungry and frozen. Hehad the first crisis paper read to his troops.

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sun-shine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country; but hethat stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyrannylike hell is not easily conquered".Washington's army subsequently crossed the Delaware.Back in England he returned to his earlier scientific interests, occupying himself

with the design and construction of a single span iron bridge—but across theChannel another revolution, another inchoate republic, called. Paine obeyed itssummons and, abandoning bridges, took pen in reply to BURKE'S malign andhyperbolic "Reflezions on the Revolution in France". "The Rights of Man"established Paine's position, as a liberating spirit, in Europe. He answered, withmature and simple elegance, the prolix defence of Monarchy and eternal sub-jection argued by Edmund Burke.


Paine's iron bridge never spanned the Seine or Thames, but he bridged, onceagain, the Atlantic—exporting Revolution. Let the adversaries speak for them-selves in this excerpt from Pity the Plumage.Thomas Paine:

(writing) To Edmund Burke—Events in France are going well. Therevolution is certainly a forerunner to other revolutions in Europe. Theleaders of the Assembly surpass in patriotism. They are resolved to set fireto the four corners of France rather than not reduce their principles to prac-tice, to the last iota. Do not fear the army, we have gained them. You mustdo what you can to introduce Revolution into England—by its establishedname— of reform.

Edmund Burke:(exploding with jury) Do you really imagine, Mr. Paine, that the constitutionof this country requires such innovations, or could exist with them?

TP From your generous support of the cause of the independence of the AmericaStates I know you to be a friend of reform and a champion of the freedomsof mankind.

EB You are aware that I have, all my life, opposed such schemes of reform,because I know them not to be reform. I'll give them reform, revolution, callit what you will, the devil names the deed. Upstarts, meddling in the affairsof state—no worse—messing with the State itself. The brutish masses stirredto envy by provincial lawyers; clerks and clerics who take from the peopletheir great history and their place in it and give them in return—abstractions—metaphysics. The alchemy of brutality. A pox on the contagion ofRevolution—banditry, barbarism. I'll give an answer to those who woulddeprive the people of Europe of Nobility.

FADE

TP Mm ... Reflections on the Revolution in France.EB All things taken together, the French Revolution is the most astonishing thing

that has happened in the world. In viewing this montrous, tragi-comic scene,the most opposite passions necessarily succeed, and sometimes mix with eachother in the mind; alternate contempt and indignation; alternate laughter andtears; alternate scorn and horror.

TP To George Washington, President of the United States of America. Sir, Ipresent you with a small treatise in defence of those principles of Freedom,which your exemplary virtue has so eminently contributed to establish. Thatthe Rights of Man may become as universal as your benevolence can wish,and that you may enjoy the happiness of seeing the New World regeneratethe Old, is the prayer of, Sir, your obliged and obedient humble servant,Thomas Paine. -

EB Could I, in common sense ten years ago, have felicitated France on herenjoyment of a government (for she then had a government) withoutinquiring what the nature of that government was, or how it was adminis-tered.

TP Is this the language of a rational man? Is it the language of a heart feelingas it ought to feel for the rights and happiness of the human race? On thisground, Mr. Burke must compliment every government in the world, whilethe victims who suffer under them, whether sold into slavery, or tortured outof existence, are wholly forgotten.

EB Rights! Rights? To choose our own governors; to cashier them for mis-conduct. Rights! To frame a government for OURSELVES!

(PRINTING PRESS. USE FENCING, MUSKET FIRE, THE GUILLOTINE)


The people utterly disclaim them. They will resist the practical assertion ofthem with their lives and fortunes.

TP That men should take up arms, and spend their lives and fortunes, not tomaintain their rights, but to maintain that they have not rights, is an entirelynew species of discovery, and suited to the paradoxical genius of Mr. Burke.

EB If the people of England possessed such a right before the Revolution of1688, yet that the English nation, at the time of the Revolution mostsolemnly renounce and abdicate it, for themselves, and for all their posterity,for ever.

TP There never did, there never will, and there never can exist a parliamentpossessed of the right, or the power, of binding and controlling posterity tothe end of time.

EB Who ever came in, or however he came in, whether he obtained the crownby law or by force, the hereditary succession was either continued or adopted.

TP Man has no property in man, neither has any generation a property in thegenerations which are to follow. The vanity and presumption of governingbeyond the grave is the most ridiculous and violent of all tyrannies.

EB People will not look forward to posterity who never looked backward totheir ancestors.

TP Mr. Burke is contending for the authority of the dead over the rights andfreedom of the living.

(USE FENCING, MUSKET FIRE AND THE GUILLOTINE FALLING IN BACKGROUND)

EB We have seen the French rebel against a mild and lawful monarch, withmore fury, outrage and insult than any people has been known to rise againstthe most illegal usurper or the most sanguinary tyrant.

TP Mr Burke's book has the appearance of being written as instructive to theFrench nation—it is darkness attempting to illuminate light.

(FADE)EB When the poor rise to destroy the rich, they act as wisely for their, own pur-

poses as when they burn mills.TP Through the whole of Mr Burke's book I do not observe that the Bastille is

mentioned more than once, and that with a kind of implication as if he weresorry it were pulled down.

EB We have rebuilt Newgate and tenanted the mansion and we have prisonsalmost as strong as the Bastille for those who dare to libel the queens ofFrance.

TP Every office and department has its despotism. Every place has its Bastille,and every Bastille its despot.

EB It is now sixteen years since I saw the Queen of 'France, then the Dauphiness,at Versailles and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemedto touch, a more delightful vision.

TP Mr Burke should recollect that he is writing history, and not plays, and thathis readers will expect truth, and not the spouting rant of high-tonedexclamation.

EB I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards toavenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalryis gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded, andthe glory of Europe is extinguished forever.

TP In the rhapsody of his imagination he has discovered a world of windmills, .and his sorrows are that there are no Quixotes to attack them.


EB The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manlysentiments is gone.

TP Othello's occupations gone.EB All the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off.TP He pities the plumage but forgets the dying bird.EB We look with AWE to kings, with affection to parliaments, with reverence

to priests and with respect to nobility.TP When it is laid down as a maxim that a king can do no wrong, it places him

in a state of similar security with idiots and persons insane.EB They have a determined hatred of all privileged orders — the portentous

comet of the rights of man from its horrid hair strikes pestilence and war.TP Much as he dived for precedents, he still had not boldness enough to bring

up William of Normandy and say—There is the head of the list! There isthe fountain of honour! The son of a prostitute and the plunderer of theEnglish Nation.

EB Along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be cast intothe mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.

TP I proclaim the rights of man.EB I'll not attempt in the smallest degree to refutee Paine's principles. This will

most probably be done by others—if such writings shall be thought to deserveany.other refutation than that of Criminal Justice. (echo) Criminal Justice .. .(echo) Criminal Justice.

(FADE)

A. J. AYER has traced with clarity and élan the precursors of the philosophyof The Rights of Man. Here there is only time to observe that the idea lives inthe minds of men; that governance and dominion are not synonyms; that theauthority of the representatives of the people rests with the people.

The England which Paine fled, on the advice of WILLIAM BLAKE, had an under-growth of radical, hence subversive, pressure groups. Courageous publishers hadto face criminal proceedings. Seers such as Blake, campaigners such as MARYWOLLSTONECROFT and scientific investigators such as PRIESTLEY, existed to besure—but the. prevailing social orthodoxy was of an immutable class structure.Worse still, in Paine's beloved America, with independence established, a societydeveloped based on the work ethic for some and leisure for others—Paine's sum-mer soldiers and sunshine patriots emerged as a ruling, slave-owning oligarchy.

Faced with prosecution for seditious libel, Paine sought Revolutionary purityin France—becoming Deputy of the Convention, for Calais. To this momentousassembly our man of words brought Quaker sympathies, feelings of loyalty toLouts vt, a distrust of peoples' tribunals, fear of Burke's "Swinish Multitude"and no skills in the Language.

While fellow deputies cried for the King's head, Paine pleaded for the life ofthe man to whom America owed so great a debt.

"Kill the King—not the man", he implored, reminding ROBESPIERRE of hisearlier abhorrence of the death penalty.

Prison followed,—a sentence made intolerable by the enormity of "the terror",by fear of imminent death and by the apparent betrayal of his belovedWashington. The hand of Governor MORRIS, a peg-legged high Tory, was atwork again. The man who had once described Paine as, "a mere adventurer fromEngland, without fortune, without family or connections", had failed to pleadPaine's cause with the American President.

Desolation followed. Paine's letter to Washington reads like that of a manjilted.


"I declare myself opposed to almost the whole of your administration ...Monopolies of every kind marked your administration almost in the momentof its commencement ... the interest of the disbanded soldier was sold to thespeculator.

"You beheld yourself a President in America and me a prisoner in France.You folded your arms, forgot your friend and became silent...."In my play Pity the Plumage, the relationship with Washington, and the latter's

apparent indifference to Paine's needs and entreaties, provides a wealth of dramaticpotential as well as suggesting the emotional attachment Paine had forWashington. A historical play is, of course, not a history book but thecharacters and personalities of those historical actors who move history is theprovince of the playwright. We cannot know—we can only work backwards, soto speak, from the actions and deeds—to the person who made them.

In prison Paine wrote The Age of Reason:—a sweeping attack upon revealedreligion:

"My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churcheswhether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than humaninventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind and monopolise power andprofit."Once again Paine had tilted his lance—but this time there was no enthralled

populace hanging on his every word. In England, where his effigy had beenburned in every town with a population exceeding 3,000, his status fell from thatof traitor to that of heretic. In his beloved America, the rich, God-fearing leadersdisowned him—all, that is, except JEFFERSON, who stayed faithful to the end.

More than 40 refutations and attacks were published in England. Priestley wasoutraged, COLERIDGE showed. Paine had handed to his enemies the weapon theyneeded to leave him in obscurity.

Paine died in 1809 in America, having penned "Agrarian Justice", an impor-tant work in which he clearly sees that political and constitutional tinkering with-out reform of the principles of land tenure can have no lasting effect.

His writings bring with them detailed thoughts on minimum standards of living.He advocates a system of family allowances, universal education, the right of theaged to support, help for the unemployed.

Poor Paine was denied citizenship in the Republic he helped to create.Enlightened America sank to the lowest depths of intolerance—"Tolerationis not the opposite of intolerance, but it is the counterfeit of it".

We can only wonder at the depths of sadness of the man who wrote, "There ismore consolation in the silence of resignation than in the murmuring wish of aprayer".

What sort of person then was my central character? Complex—certainly,perspicacious and intensely private, a widower who never again enjoyed a full andloving relationship with a woman, a splendid advocate—a man's man. There isabout him a certain "outsideness" as he re-invents the world; defining Rights withsuch rhetoric and imagery that through much of the world the establishment ofhuman rights and civil liberties is a principle purpose of representative govern-ment: Was he, in the end, doomed to be a victim of snobbery and the class struc-ture; 'merely used by his political masters—a hired pen? Where lie his loves andloyalties? To Washington—in whose coat he slept? To his great friend CLIORICKMAN? To his dead wife MARY? Or do we find them in a vision in which menand women are not slaves: not chattel slaves nor wage slaves: not work units orconsumer units: not voting fodder or assets to be exploited or stripped?

MAN, he declares HAS NO PROPERTY IN MAN. This fundamental claimhas yet to be realised by politicians throughout the world—not least in Europe.

(ALAN ROSENBURO IS a Labour Party activist. He was twice Parliamentarycandidate for S.W. Norfolk. He is Vice-President of the Thomas Paine Society).


UNFINISHED BUSINESS. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RALPH FOX

Precis of a talk at South Place Ethical Society on January 21, 1990

by. STUART MONRO

RALPH WINSTON Fox, THE SECOND OF FIVE CHILDREN, was born in Halifax,Yorkshire, on March 30, 1900. His father was general manager of an engineer-ing firm. When only 36 years old, Ralph gave his life while fighting with theInternational Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. Writer, literary critic, historian,traveller and political organiser, Ralph Fox's short life was one of tremendousactivity as well as thought. As a member of the Central Committee of theCommunist Party, from 1932, he was centre stage in momentous times—a creatoras well as recorder of history. An examination of his work must perforce givea better insight into his times. A veil is being drawn over the great movementsand class battles of the '30's, and the enthusiasm and optimism felt by millionsat the construction of socialism in the young and. vigorous Soviet Union. RalphFox's entire life was bound up with this great struggle, and an examination ofhis work and politics must help to unravel the web of lies now being drawnaround the period.

Ralph Fox lived 1900-1937, a time of great national and internationalupheaval. In his work Communism—and a Changing Civilisation (1935), he says"1900 opened a new period of storm and stress in human history and did so insuch a way that every Englishman who was able to read the signs could tellthat the end of the old isolation was here. . . ." While at Oxford he becameinvolved in the "Hands off Russia" campaign against the undeclared war ofintervention by the imperialist powers in the newborn Soviet Union. He'd alsobroken his study for a brief spell in the army, and thus come into contact withthe war-weary soldiers back .from the trenches of World War One; then seenmany of these remobilised for intervention both in Russia and in Ireland. The"Hands off Russia" campaign was a precursor to the founding conference ofthe Communist Party in Britain in 1920, and Fox was a founder member inOxford. At only 22 years old, the budding Oxford poet and academic decidedthe "ivory tower" was not for him and went to Russia, for the first time, withthe Quakers Famine Relief Mission.

His experiences in the Soviet Union, where he spent months with the nomadsin Samara, and also visited Moscow, were related in his first autobiographicalwork People of the Steppes (1925). "The only thing I shall live for when I getback", he said, "will be to return to Russia". He returned in 1925, to work inthe Far Eastern section of the Communist International—the Comintern, whereit is likely he first met DIMITROV, the hero of the Reichstag fire trial who wasdestined -to become General Secretary of the Comintern in 1934. He also metand married his wife MADGE, before returning to England in time for the 1926General Strike5 During the following three years Fox wrote regular literarycriticism for the Sunday Worker and brought out his first polemical work In

Defence of Communism, and first novel Storming Heaven. In 1929 he was backin Russia as English librarian in the Marx-Engels Institute, returning to Englandin 1932.

A monograph published shortly after Fox's death says of the ensuing period:"The third return from Moscow found him fully equipped for the work to whichhe had set himself. He was now a profound Marxist scholar, and a completeintellectual conviction was integrated with the emotional and humanitarianimpulse which had carried him so far. In a short time he was a recognised forcein the revolutionary working-class movement in this country and abroad." Tothis period belong his works Marx, Engels, Lenin on the Irish Revolution, The


Class Struggle in Britain (two volumes), Biography of Lenin, Colonial Policy ofBritish Imperialism, Communism and a Changing Civilisation, Genghis Khan and,published posthumously. This was their Youth and Novel and the People. He wasalso publishing almost daily reviews in the Daily Worker. The monograph adds,"But it must be said that for him all this was always put second to his personalwork, as an ordinary member of his party, among the workers with and forwhom he fought; to these he was intimately known not only as a teacher but asa friend and comrade, simple, human, and understanding, who was never toobusy to help". Fox left for Spain with the International Brigade late in 1936,where, as an assistant political commissar it was he who liaised with the Party.He was killed in early January 1937. The regard in which he was held by broadacademic circles as well as by his comrades, is reflected in the picture paintedof him in prefaces to his works and in his obituaries:Howard Fast: ". . . a man of splendid and brave stature . . . a combination ofintellect and faith, theory and action: a peculiary and wonderfully new servantof humanity".C. D. Lewis: "Ralph Fox was one of the finest talents of his generation—alert,serious and unsectarian. The conscience and integrity which informed his writingcompelled him also to fight fascism and to die for human freedom. . . ."Stephen Spender: His death . . . "was a great loss to literature as well as to theworking class movement. I was struck by his simplicity and his obvious sincerity... his life and death are an example to us all".

A recent history of English literature published by the University of Tirana,Albania, says, among other things: "Ralph Fox is by far among the mostadvanced of the proletarian writers . . his pen and rifle were every ready atthe service of the loftiest ideals of mankind".

Excerpts from his letters to his wife and the Party bring him to life: To hiswife: ". . . This that is happening here is really the greatest thing since 1917.Victory means the end of fascism everywhere sooner or later, and most likelysooner. In any case the very fact of the resistance has wakened up the demo-cratic forces, encouraged them and weakened the enemy to an extent we don'tyet quite realise. So however dull one's work may be and exasperating, you dofeel it counts, is history and must be effective...."

To the Party: (on mobilisation) ". . . military experience is really essential andonly a very small proportion of those without it should be allowed—these to begood, loyal and tried comrades, not odds and sods from Bloomsbury, of whom wehave had a few, or the poor kind of student . . . we have had some bad experi-ences (not with the Spanish yet) from the enemy's work within our ranks andvigilance is essential. It is quite certain we shall get, and probably already havegot, agents of the enemy".

Before he went to Spain, Fox had been working on a novel in which he hadplaced a Communist as the hero. In The Novel and the People which was pub-lished posthumously, Fox says in his chapter on socialist realism : "Fielding, indiscussing the theory of the novel always emphasised its epic and historicalcharacter. You cannot, he insists, show man complete unless you show him inaction". In his chapter "Man Alive", Ralph Fox develops this point in relationto the heroic action of the Bulgarian Communist Dimitrov who faced the fascistcourt in Liepzig in 1933, accused of starting the Reichstag fire. Resistance tothe cultural and educational corruption endemic to capitalism, says Fox,"becomes in its highest form, resistance to war, to fascism, to political reactionin every form, it becomes conscious defence of human culture, it brings aboutgreat heroic actions of the people and creates heroes, new types of men andwomen. . . ."

Following his death, a memorial volume Ralph Fox—Writer in Arms was pub-lished, and the Party brought out a beautifully produced memoir for the family.

18 • Ethical Record, April 1990

Novel and the People has since been published periodically, the last publicationbeing in 1979. In the years after the war a 'Memorial Committee was set up inHalifax, where a memorial seat was placed in a prominent site in the town. From1950 annual lectures were held in Halifax, speakers including G. D. H. COLE,C. D. LEWIS, D. N. PRITT, DONNA TORR. The lectures were reinaugurated in1986, the 50th anniversary of civil war. There is a constant demand for hisbooks, he is referred ,to in many literary histories, and I know of at least twoother sources of current research into his life and work.

Communism and a Changing Civilisation was published in 1935, when theCommunist Party was at the height of its influence. Describing the movementat that time, Fox says: "The Communist International today unites over 60sections . . . in China the Party has grown from a few score in 1921 to 420,000today. . . In Germany an organised army of 90,000 Communist workers main-tains the fight against the Hitler terror . . . the German working class maintainsan active fighting force over four times the size of the Bolshevik party in January1917 . . . in fifteen years the army of Communists outside the Soviet Union hasgrown to a strength of 860,000.. . ." In the mid to late '30's, this was the situa-tion: Socialist Russia contained one-sixth of the world's people; there werePopular Front governments in France and Spain. The British party was growingat a rapid rate, with big desertions from the ILP, etc., and its working-class com-position was also rapidly increasing. The National Minority Movement and othermass organisations led by the Party were also growing; influence in the tradeunions was considerable. The Daily Worker, in which Fox had a daily column forsix months in 1935/36, had gone up to eight pages, and gave the class's view-point immediately and on every relevant issue, as well as catering for wide sec-tions and interests. There was a Marxist school, as well as a summer schoolattended by 300 workers. There were cultural organisations such as Workers'Music Association, Writers International, Writers against Fascism and War (bothof which Fox played a prominent role in founding), Artists International Associa-tion, the Unity Theatre, a party publisher, Lawrence & Wishart, which broughtout a host of publications about Marxism; as well as "Left Book Club" run byGollancz, which itself founded and ran discussion groups in many part of thecountry; and other reviews and magazines such as "Left Review", and"Viewpoint". The allies and sympathisers, especially with the development ofthe united front, grew to include eminent religious figures such as Dr HEWLETTJOHNSON (known as the Red Dean), as well as literary figures such as AUDEN,SPENDER and CORNFORD. At the same time, the bourgeoisie's attempts to unleashfascism were being vigorously blocked by mass and individual action (Olympia,Cable Street, etc.).

By 1935 the communists, leading the progressive and democratic forces, poseda real threat to the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie responded with a combinationof force and deception. Force: internationally through the backing or appease-ment of fascism—MussouNI in Abyssinia, Franco in Spain, Hitler in Germany,and Tojo in Japan; nationally: Moseley and the BUF. But following the defeatof the fascists on the streets in the battle of Cable Street on October 4, 1936,came the deception—the activation of various agencies to confuse and divert theworking class movement. Thus the Public Order Act, &Scribed by the DailyWorker as a "bill against liberty", was supported by the Labour .Party. ThusC1TRINE and the TUC leaders were activated against the Soviet Uunion (particu-larly over the trials)—it was essential to undermine confidence in the socialist SoviotUnion, especially the confidence of the working class. At the same time thesocial democrats and various opportunists worked to misrepresent the nature androle of the united front against fascism and war called for by the 7th Congressof the Comintern in 1935; they said that this was a strategic change by thecommunists, that a "broad front" policy was replacing the basic strategy of "classagainst class", which was labelled "sectarian" so as to isolate the communists

Ethical. Record, April 1990 19

and thus to split the anti-facist movement. And later, the aims of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact of 1939 were completely misrepresented, turnedupside down so as to slander the motives (and later the role) of the Soviet Unionin World War Two. But it was the headlong rush to war that in fact set thehistorical stage, and it was to stem the fascist tide that Ralph Fox and thethousands of others gave their lives in Spain and played a major role in ensuringthe victory over fascism in 1945.

Ralph Fox's life assunies a special and deeper significance nowadays, becausealong with the current upheavals in eastern Europe, a great effort is being madeto rewrite the history of the communist and progressive movement, to paint it asa reactionary tyranny equal to the fascism that Ralph Fox and millions after himgave their lives to bury, and to present the evils that are in fact the product ofcapitalist restoration in the former socialist Soviet Union and the people'sdemocracies over the last 30/40 years, as the product of socialism. It was theCommunists, with the Soviet Union at their head, who led the defeat of fascism—the Soviet Union had called for collective security; the West refused. Whenwar came, it was the Soviet Union, with great heroism and sacrifice, that rescuedEurope. But after the war the West obstructed the wiping out of fascism inGermany and elsewhere—to preserve their system and out of hostility to socialism,as before. Now the US has taken up mantle of Hitler, joined later by the SovietUnion. The danger of fascism and war is still with us. This is Ralph Fox'sunfinished business. In his day he was prominent among those who foresaw whatwas happening and took action, and this is his greatest significance. Progressivepeople should be aware as he was of the dangers, stand up for the same principlesand fight for them. 0

ViewpointsI am unable to find any good reason for PETER BACOS to reach the conclusion

that BERNARD SHAW "wrote a lot of nonsense". He was a man who was con-stitutionally incapable of nonsense. High spirits, persiflage and a distinctive ironyare surely not the product of a nonsense-monger; and flashes of insight will alwayslook like nonsense to those whose reassuring reflex is the blink or the rubbing ofeyes. No such reflex is applicable in the Shavian domain. Like IBSEN, he taughtthe xixth century to think (consider The Quintessence of Msenism to sub-stantiate this analogy) with writings as far apart as the novel Immaturity and theplay Mrs Warren's Profession (the first of these undeservedly forgotten, for all itsZolaesque power; and the second wrongly regarded as little more than a stick tobeat Lord Chamberlains with); but on top of that he taught the century that fol-lowed to think better than the less gifted publicists were encouraging it to.Wherein, then, lies the point of the wisecrack at the end of this review of thesecond volume of HOLROYD'S scholarly biography? Why, indeed, should "TheLure of Fantasy" (not an "epithet", by the way, but an expression) be thoughtapplicable to Show's entire career? Those four words would better suit thosesulking children of this progressively less progressive century, D. H. LAWRENCE

and TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, both of whom aimed, with their work, lower than theysupposed they were aiming. One basis of the hostility to Shaw may originate withGEORGE ORWELL'S own animus, traceable in his linking The Intelligent Woman'sGuide with Hampstead matrons seeking to be intellectually distinctive (nothingmore than a sneer, of course; though intended to hit hard, for the comment wasmade while Shaw was still alive).


But as it is now decided that socialism is truly unsocial, I am sure that manywho might wish to league themselves with Mr. Bacos will be coming to the forewith similar hatchet jobs. PATRICK FETHERSTON, London W3

National Secular SocietyNational Secular Society, Annual Dinner, Saturday, April 21st, 7 pm at the Bonnington Hotel, Southampton Row, London WC1. Guest of Honour, MICHAELFOOT, MP; other speakers MERVYN JONES, NICHOLAS WALTER and BARBARASMOKER. Price per ticket £16. Dress informal. All welcome. Bookings to theSecretary, 702 Holloway Road, London N19 3NL. Tel. 272 1266.

-0-

Conference Date"Moral Thinking" is the title of a conference in Saarbriffiken (FRG), June 27 to30, 1990, attended by about 25 moral philosophers from various countries. Theconference critically discusses one of today's most prominent ethical theories,viz, universal prescriptivism. Papers and discussions treat the theory's meta-ethics,.general Material ethics, Pracitical Ethics and its motivational power. The founderand best-known defender of universal prescriptivism, RICHARD M. HARE, will par-ticipate, give a paper and reply to his critics. Further participants are: DIETERB1RNBACHER, CHRISTOPHER FERIGE, ULRICH GARDE, RAINER HEGSELMANN,WILFRIED HINSCR, HANS-ULRICH HOCHE, NORBER HOERSTER, A NNA KUSSER,FRANZ VON KUTSCHERA, E.-J. LAMPE, ANTON LEIST, WOLFGANG LENZEN,CHRISTOPH LUMER, GEORG MEGGLE, ELIJAH M1LLGRAM, EDGAR MORSCHER,JULIAN NIDA-RLIMELIN, 'PETER ROHS, ANDREAS SIEBENHONER, THOMAS SP1TZLEY,RUDOLF STRANZINGER, RAINER TRAPP und JEAN-CLAUDE WOLF. Conference lan-guages are German and English. For further information contact the organizers:Georg Meggle and Christoph Fehige, FR 5 . 1 — Philosophic, Universitat desSaarlandes, D-6600 Saarbrficken, Federal Republic of Germany. Tel: 0681/302-3301', FAX: 0681/302-4224, from N.H

Review Keeping HeartDINAH LIVINGSTONE. Katabasis. 240pp £6.50. ISBN 0 904872 I I 4

We have a record here of the poet's work from 1967 to the present.As a body of work giving evidence of what it was like to live and struggle in the

period covered, the feel of London (its purlieus rather than the formal City) muchto the forefront, the poems make an arresting impression on the reader, whetherhe or she has already been familiar with Miss Livingstone's writings or not.

For what we have here could almost be called the sounds of history; for example,"Camden Town Garden":

Neat, rigid, bleak, pounded,how you humbled and hounded me hardwith your huge heavy hammer strokes,dull thud, dull thud, you thunderon the thick concrete oblong slabalong the shabby house front.

certainly leaves a mark of that kind. And if one wanted to learn something ofthe inception of a xxth century poem, a good few clues might be found in theselines from "Office":


Not religion, discipline.Watch and praythat you don't fall.Such ascesis, idleness,is to put your mindin the right frame—notice, listen, see,then get it accurate.

In other poems the reader will find a quiet humanism at the foundation of thework that is cumulatively far more convincing than any sermon of a denomina-tional sort. But then, for a searcher after sermons, Keeping Heart will prove adisappointment! Indeed one particularly interesting feature here is, besides theLondon "feel" already referred to, the geographical secularity—and scope—discoverable in this extract from "Spanish Summer" as well as elsewhere :

Squat village inn with verandah,meandering foreign streamin a corner of Spain warmer,though rather like Devon,her damp now dream-crammed home.

No spires there nor cassocks. On the other hand, ethical concern, better expressedthan by many an ethicist, is present in much of the poetry collected in thisattractively produced book.

PATRICK FEATHERSTON

Sutton Humanist Group

MEETINGS AT FRIENDS HOUSEMeetings so far arranged are set out below. They will all be at Friends House,

Cedar Road, Sutton, beginning at 8.00 pm. Tea, coffee and biscuits are servedfrom 7.30 pm.Wednesday April 11

Third World Women on the March: DIANA ROOKLEDGE, past Com-missioner of the Equal Opportunities Commission; Vice-Chair of theFawcett Society; and President of the Hampstead Humanist Society

Wednesday May 9The Community Relations Council in the London Borough of Sutton:EDWARD BAILEY, Community Worker

Wednesday June 13The Samaritans: Our Member WENDY STURGESS and DOUGLAS,

another member of the SamaritansWednesday July 11-

UNESCO and the International Literacy Year: GEORGE MEPHAM ourSecretary

Wednesday September 12Do Humanists need marriage?: KEITH GIMSON, one of our committeemembers

Wednesday October 10(not yet decided)

Wednesday November 14The Future of Community Care in Sutton. ROGER MATTINGLEY,

Director of Social Services, London Borough of SuttonWednesday December 12

(not yet decided)


SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETYThe Humanist Centre, Conway Hall

25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Telephone: 01-831 7723/242 8032

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

COMING TO CONWAY HALL HUMANIST CENTRE

Sunday (morning) Lecture (Free—collection)

(Afternoon) Forums and Socials (Free)

South Place Sunday (evening) Concerts (tickets £2.00)*

All the Society's Meetings, Forums, Socials and Classes

are held in the Library (unless otherwise indicated)

Concerts are held in the Main Hall

APRILSunday April 1at 11 am Lecture: JIM HERRICK: E. M. Forster as a Humanist. Jim

Herrick, whose successful course on Humanism included anassessment of Forster, considers one of our centuries mosthumane writers. Prior to the Lecture MAUREEN DUFFY in hercapacity as President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Associa-tion, will present to the Society a new portrait of E. M. Forster,to join the pantheon in the Library, in the alcove where at themoment H. G. Wats and WILLIAM MORRIS are to be seen.

at 2 pm Forum: Policy and Programme. NO MEETING at 3 pm.

at 6.30 pm Concert: Malcolm Messiter (Oboe), Tina Gruenberg (Violin),Yuko Inoue (Viola), Lowri Blake (Cello). TELEMANN, BEETHOVEN,BRITTEN, MOZART.

Sunday April 8at 11 am Lecture: HYMAN FRANKEL: Christopher Caudwell as Physicist.

Christopher Caudwell who was killed in the Spanish Civil Warhaving already written remarkable criticism and some poetry,was also a writer on science. Hyman Franckel considers thisaspect of Caudwell.

at 3 pm Forum: MARIKA SHERWOOD: Black People Organising in Britain1930-1950. Marika Sherwood, whose book on Belizeans working in forestry as part of Scotlands war effort is a moving and accessible work of history, has made a special study of this theme.

at 6.30 pm Concert: Endellion String Quartet. HAYDN, BARBER, SCHUBERT.

Sunday April 15NO MEETING.


Sunday April 22at 11 am Lecture: HAROLD BLACKHAM:What is Understood by The Rule

of Law'? Harold Blackham, grand old man of British humanismand an Honorary Lecturer of the Society brings his zest andacuity to a theme which recent events in Eastern Europe, andperhaps Britain too, make especially timely.

at 3 pm Forum: Jim CTAYSON:Citizen Richard Lee (c. 1775-c. 1807)Republican. Just prior to St. Georges Day Jim Clayson seeks toreconstruct the world of 'The Liberty Tree' and English—andScottish, Irish and American-Republicanism in a revolutionarydecade.

at 6.30 pm Concert: Dartington Ensemble. SUK, MARTINU, JANACEK, MOZART,

Sunday April 29Lecture: Ulu DAVIS: Perdition, origins of the Israeli TransferPolicies, and Lessons from the Holocaust. Dr. Ufi Davis,Honorary Research Fellow at the Dept of Politics in theUniversity of Exeter, is a dissident, scholar and activist of dualIsraeli and British citizenship. He is also Director of Jerusalemand Peace and author of many books on the Israeli-Palestineconflict.

at 3 pm Forum: LOUISE BOOK.Saragosa (illustrated talk).

at 6.30 pm Concert: Musicians Benevolent Fund Charity Concert. FitzwilliamString Quartet. SCHUBERT, MOZART, HADYN.

MAYThursday May 17at 6.30 pm Meeting of South Place Ethical Society Trustees. AGM see Page 1.

Sunday May 20at 2.30 pm Annual General Meeting (Registration from 2 pm, see also page 1).

• Tickets, season tickets and information: from Honorary Concerts Committee Treasurer:Miriam Elton, Toad Hall, Copperkins Lane, Amersham, Bucks HP6 5QE. Telephone:0494 726106.

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the 0014-1690 record 1990...the 0014-1690 record...

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