PRODUCTION AND PLANNING .sx IN the Plebs of February last we published an article on the gold famine stunt .sx That article had as its purpose the discrediting of the much-boomed idea that the present economic crisis was due to the scarcity of gold , an idea that was being pushed not only by economists but was even attracting leaders in the Trade Union and Labour Movement .sx In the course of that article it was pointed out that the fundamental cause of the crisis was the fact that world production was not planned and that until production was brought under social control , crisis would be followed by crisis .sx Events since then have gone to show that big business and high finance are being driven to realise the need for planning of a sort .sx A great deal of the planning is limited to planning by single industry not a very new idea .sx The tin producers , for example , have been doing their best to come to an agreement , and as this article is being typed , it is stated that the diamond producers have agreed to sink their differences .sx Agreements , however , by producers of one product or a series of allied products have as their purpose the protection of the profits of the capital invested in the industry concerned .sx There is no question of serving any social need or bringing production under social control .sx Still , they do indicate that competition and individual enterprise are .sx more and more being recognised as belonging to the infancy of machine production .sx Much more ambitious is the Bank of England plan , to which the Manchester Guardian referred some time ago .sx The Bank of England actually sponsored a plan for the organisation of a kind of international .sx league of financiers .sx One of the main purposes admittedly the most novel of the purposes was to plan the transference of the money available for loans from lenders to borrowers so that the quickest and easiest results in the way of renewed economic activity and employment might be acquired .sx It is true that it is no new thing to lend money all over the world , but it has been lent without real planning as to how the money was to be used and what part that .sx use would play in world economic conditions .sx The Bank of England scheme was for a co-ordinated plan .sx Incidentally the plan would mean the lending of money to Germany and Eastern European countries such as Roumania , Poland and the Balkan States , and of course the scheme would require to ensure that the borrowers would remain solvent .sx Apparently the idea was that if the leading financiers of the world put their heads together they could insist on such countries remaining solvent , just as the financiers have recently been controlling Australia's policy to ensure that the bond-holders get their pound of flesh despite unparalleled economic difficulties .sx It is questionable whether such a scheme is likely to get sufficiently widespreadsupport , and even if it did , the scheme would again not be a scheme for bringing production under real social control , but a scheme for guaranteeing the profits of groups of financiers .sx At the same time , however , it is evident from the activities of the financiers themselves that they re-cognise that the planning of international industry is now becoming a practical pro-position .sx Russia itself is drawing attention to the tremendous importance of a planned economy , because it is busily engaged on its famous five-year plan , and if that plan is successful and this matter is discussed in a special article on another page it will not only strengthen Russia but will serve to draw working-class attention to the lack of .sx plan in the industrial system of Great Britain and of other capitalist countries .sx The Bank of International Settlements was undoubtedly a first step for regular and conscious co-operation between the central banks of various important states .sx The B.I.S. , however , deals with little save short-term funds .sx It cannot undertake any long-term financing or planning and that is where the Bank of England scheme shows a still further advance in the attempt and incidentally , an attempt doomed to failure to bring Capitalism in line with its own world-wide productive powers .sx IS THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN FAILING ?sx By H. WYNN CUTHBERT .sx ( Author of the New Plebs Pamphlet Why , How and What to Read ) .sx IT is impossible to over-emphasise the importance of Russia in world affairs at the present time .sx As an educational body the N.C.L.C. should aim at affording the workers a knowledge of the facts about Russia , together with the opinions on the subject of those entitled to express them ; uncritical approval of the Soviet regime or sweeping condemnation of its policy are alike out of place .sx Some attempt should perhaps be made to examine facts and opinions from the Marxist standpoint , and the student may then be left to draw his own conclusions .sx We must first be clear as to the facts .sx If one's reading is restricted to the perusal of Communist literature , and the statements made therein are accepted at their face value , Russia would appear to be almost a proletarian paradise .sx On the other hand it is easy to select an impressive mass of facts which go to prove that the conditions of the workers in Russia are steadily going from bad to worse , and that it is only a matter of time before the system must collapse .sx This latter view is the one held by the veteran Social Democrat , Karl Kautsky .sx His latest work on the subject ( which has been translated into English under the title Bolshevism at a Deadlock ) contains a temperate but complete condemnation of all that goes under the name of Bolshevism .sx He offers some criticism of the Five Year Plan and the introduction of Collective Farms , and claims that the economic policy of the Bolsheviks is fundamentally unsound .sx " What I particularly reproach them for , " he says , " even more than for the revolting methods they are employing , is that they will not reach .sx their goal , and that their Plan will achieve one thing only , i.e. the consolidation and strengthening of the foundation upon which it is built , the wholesale pauperisation and degradation of the Russian people .sx " " Russia's collapse is near .sx " There is nothing new , of course , in this prophecy ; it is a common assertion made by all the diverse elements opposed to the Soviet Government .sx Coming from Kautsky , however , it is at least deserving of respect , and we turn with interest to examine the evidence he adduces in support of his views .sx He commences with an analysis of the Agrarian Revolution in Russia .sx At the outset it must be said that his method invites criticism alike on the grounds of fact and commonsense and on those of Marxist theory .sx A statement is made of the ideal conditions under which an agrarian revolution could be carried out , and the methods by which the change from private to public ownership should be effected .sx With these are contrasted the imperfections of the Bolshevist methods , and their Plan is shown to be an utter failure because it does not conform to the conditions and methods laid down by Kautsky .sx Such a view fails to recognise what were and indeed are the conditions under which the Bolshevists are working .sx They must build and fight at the same time in an economic sense if they are not at the moment engaged in actual warfare .sx No allowance is made here ( or indeed elsewhere in this book ) for the difficulties with which the Bolshevists have to contend .sx On the contrary these difficulties .sx are held to be entirely due to Bolshevist mismanagement , waste or corruption .sx Such .sx methods are indicative of controversial in- .sx genuity rather than of a fair statement of the facts .sx The inevitable failure of the collective agricultural experiments must , it is claimed , follow from the speed with which production is carried on .sx The larger the crop , the poorer the quality .sx The production quota of tractors for 1929-30 turned out by the Putilov Works was actually surpassed , but the output was so defective that the tractors were useless .sx Much valuable machinery has been ruined by the unskilled workers operating it at a high speed .sx The ruthless expropriation of the former owners of industry , together with " crude , " hasty , unthought-out methods of nationalisation are said to lead to the same results ; output in the Soviet industries is claimed to be declining and the quality of the products .sx shows a steady deterioration .sx Soviet statistics of the success of the Five Years' Plan are dismissed as fictitious .sx Altogether it is a gloomy picture and one that suggests the question ( if the facts about Russia are as Kautsky states them ) :sx How is it that the Soviet system has not long since collapsed ?sx So far indeed from such being the case , be the causes what they may , the Bolshevist regime has survived revolution , civil war , foreign intervention , economic boycott and famine , and to-day is admitted to be the gravest menace to the stability of capitalist society and that despite tragic mistakes and grave errors of policy and the admitted hardships which the Russian people are called upon to endure .sx The most serious defect , in short , of Kautsky's criticism is that he fails to account for the vitality of Bolshevism .sx Notwithstanding many crude , grim features that repel us , the thing is alive and growing , and as such it challenges the capitalist order which everywhere displays indications of disruption and decay .sx This is the central fact which demands serious attention .sx Is Bolshevism Socialism ?sx But the more important part of this work is devoted to a consideration of Soviet politics .sx Russia , it is claimed , is ruled , not by the Soviets , not even by the Communist Party , but by a small group of autocrats whose despotism is maintained by means of the Red Army and the Police .sx Dictatorship .sx there certainly is , not of the Proletariat , but of " the appallingly ignorant persons in the Kremlin .sx " According to Kautsky , Bolshevism is not Socialism at all .sx The Russian Revolution should have stopped short with Kerensky , and the only hope for the future lies in " a democratic Revolution " whereby , after " the Kremlin autocrats " have been overthrown by the combined forces of peasants and workers , a " democratic republic " is to be brought into being .sx A Constituent Assembly , elected by universal suffrage will , it is hoped , result in a government being formed of the ( non-communist ) Socialists of all shades of conflicting opinions in conjunction with " the non-socialist democrats .sx " " If there should be a collapse of Bolshevism in Russia , " he writes , " no Democratic or Socialist party will be strong enough there to form a government alone .sx If Democracy is to be victorious , all its various elements must co-operate in unison ; at any rate , at least the different Socialist .sx parties and sections must unite .sx " The intellectuals and professional classes are expected to assist " the democratic government " under which freedom of the Press and of public expression of opinion are to be assured to all .sx But how shall a democratic regime act towards the nationalised industrial production which it will find in the Soviet State ?sx A new N.E.P. it seems is to be brought into operation .sx State enter-prise is to continue , but " the new economic freedom gained " is to find expression in " the free enterprises of capitalist , co-operative or communal nature flourishing side by side with State undertakings , and after private enterprise is allowed , commercial dealings will be brought into operation again .sx " " The trading monopoly belongs to the State organisation of Soviet Russia , which operates most tyrannically and must cease as soon as possible , to make way for free trading .sx " This policy is an application to Russia of Kautsky's theory of the nature of the State .sx " The political problems of the proletarian parties in Europe have been fundamentally altered by the overthrow of the military monarchies and its consequences in the Great War .sx The state in which the workers live ( e.g. , Germany ) is no longer a military monarchy , but a democratic Republic , which is threatened by the reaction and finds certain protection only in the proletariat .sx It is now our function .sx