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No. 35 OCTOBER 1955 NINEPENCE ", .

FORUMOCIALIST DISCUSSION JOURNALTOWARDS BETTER UNDERSTANDING

The Progress of ManIt would seem that someone who uses

many words as F. Evans is bound to saysomething in the end; yet one felt that, atthe conclusion of his FORUM contributionwords had literally failed him. No doubtEvans has ideas, but he is so excited sostimulated by them that he cannot findappropriate language to express themadequately. This leads him to permutatehis propositions in as many different ways~s possible in the hope of getting a winningline, t .e., gettmg a combination of wordsthat will concretely formulate what he istrying to put across.Because direct speech, cannot support

the strain and stress ofhis mental processeshe falls back on the artifices of metaphornEl---s-imile, _analogies and comparisonsich spark and sputter over the pages~ntil one wonders whether they areintended to clarify his meaning or arepart of the meaning itself. Evans' methodof assault on the "citadel" is not toimpinge on it sentence by sentence but tofuse whole groups of sentences into verbalblock-busters in an attempt to blast us outof our fifty years' "prepared position."It is not easy, therefore, to find the nub

of Evans's criticism of the Party. At timeshe appears to say more than he actually

IN THIS ISSUEHINTS ON 'PUBLIC SPEAKING.'Second article: invaluable advice.MARXISM AND LITERATURE.Galleons, gold and Shakespeare.THE COLO,UR QUESTION.Judd asks Dunne some questions.CUTTINGS.Facts about modern industry.

The opinions expressed in FORUM are thoseof the 'contributors, and are not to be taken asthe Socialist 'Party's official views.

means, on other occasions he seems tomean more than he actually says. Shortof setting it to music, one can only try tounravel the tangle of his sentences in orderto find-what precisely is his criticism, whathe means by historical materialism andhis conception of the nature of socialdevelopment. .A major difficulty is that Evans has

given no -systernatic exposition of hisviewpoints; another that he seems to holda number of confused and contradictorynotions on the same subject. But, what-ever one can finally boil down the bonesof his contentions to, they do not inmy opinion represent the standpoint ofMarxists, Undoubtedly Evans has tickledthe ears of a few Party groundlings, whofeel that he has contributed in somesignificant way to the understanding ofthe problems of our times, though in justwhat way they aren't quite sure. If forthat reason alone, an examination of hiscontribution is necessary for purposes oftheoretical clarity.As I read Evans, it seems that he viewssociety primarily as an organism rather

t~at a social organization working towardsglVen ends. In fact, his article in theFebruary, 1953 PORUM suggests thatman is not man by virtue of his being amember of human society, but because hepossesses more highly-developed socialinstincts than the rest of the animal world.Social organization, on this view, is theproduct of biological, qualitative change.Such views are not an advance onMarxism but a retreat. They represent thematerialistic philosophy of more than acentury ago: viewpoints which, if Evanscares to read Marx on Feuerbach, Hessand Strauss were emphatically repudiatedby him. They were the views of Kautskywhen he abandoned Marxism for" socialDarwinism" in his Maierialist Conceptionof History, in his attempt to formulatewhat he called " a more comprehensivebasis forlVIarx's views." Some ofKautsky' serrors can be discovered incipient in thechapter " Darwinism" in his Ethics andthe ]II[ aterialist Conception of History.Evar;-s's idea of the ineluctable process

of social development, with its heavy

overtones of religious certainty, seeks,ala~, to find comfort and security in thebelief that social co-operation, altruismand morality are part of man's biologicalendowment. However, many "socialDarwinists" who accept those assumptionswould be quick to retort that the endow-men~ also includes aggressiveness, cruelty,egotIsm, selfishness, etc. Thus it seemsthat what Evans calls" the natural ally"of the social instincts loses on the rounda-bouts what it gains on the swings. Marxists,o~ course, ~o not accept this metaphysicalVIewof social anthropology. Man may bep~rt of nature, but he cannot be equatedWIth natural phenomena. Neither can thesocial behaviour of man be reduced to thebehaviour observed in a colony of ants orbees. Nor can the laws of social develop-ment be discovered in the gregariousorganisation of other animals: In fact,man cannot be compared with any otheraspect of n

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:an is not .merely born into society, but.truth society is born in him. Strip aof his social dependencies and younothing recognizably left. Marxists,

like Evans, donot set up a false anti-sis between a biological entity on oneand nature on the other.

For :Vlarx, human society consists of thessoluble unity of an environmentally-de man and a man-made environment.-ni-he made the starting-point for the:nstigation of human beings. Not humanas considered in unreal abstraction,concretely observed in the active,

.ofthcir socially-organized:orts. The interaction of men withture constitutes their history. HistoryXlarxists is not the outcome of ghostlymal categories, nor of some omnipotentdeveloping matter. It is the story ofcially'-organised individuals in theconditions in which they find

:n elves. It is these changes whichnstitute the dynamic of human develop-3.Iarx's g:eat insight was to see humanmre, not as an essence, not somethingfiven, not as a sum of fixed-"'vulses and instincts which in somesterious way are socially projected, buta historic variable, modified by men'scial activity. To talk of any originalman nature or some eternal assence ofn is to utter the barest of 'propositionsich can never be tested in practice andwhich there is no referential point.If.we.ask. then , whatj;;___tb~pur120se of _ial organization, the answer is clearlyn's needs. But those needs are notimal needs: not a biological adaptationproduction and reproduction, but socialeds which can only be satisfied in aial manner. Men do not confrontue as biological entities but as a socialIce. The fact that they have been ablechange quantitatively and qualitativelyeir material continuum is due, not toeir big brains and opposite thumbs ash, but to social co-operative labour.:an's tool-making propensities are notoutcome of his biological gifts, asutsky came to believe and Evans??ears to follow, but the products ofial orsanization. It is not then men's!)~o'!icalunctions which bring into beingsocial division of labour, but the

ision of labour which gives directionscope for their aptitudes.'Xhilebrain activity is involved in social~anization, social organization cannotreduced to brain activity. Neither caneas. Even the ideas of a Newton, a

or an Einstein are as much theciuct of social forces as the ideas ofJones and Robinson. All are the:.:come of historical development.~or can we say that thought can beuced to brain activity, i.e., that the:-ainproduces thouzht as the liver pro-:ces bile. The fact is that thought.:lTIotce equated with th e convolutionsde the skull, even such a highly-gifted

as that of homo sapiens. Language,

ideas, ethics, philosophy, do not existoutside human society, and therefore arenot to be located in the biological structureof man.In short, society cannot be explained

from an abstractly constructed matter ora fantastically conceived mind, but fromthe fact that community life alone makesa.ll things possible, including self-con-sciousness.When Evans says~as he did inFOR DCv} la.st December-s-that social

co-operative labour is the biological modeof human existence, one wonders justwhat misapprehension and confusion ofMarxism lies behind the statement. To-emphasize again, men have not a biologicalmode of existence but a social one. It istrue that men are so biologically con-stituted, living in and through a physicalenvironment, as to be need-seekingcreatures. But the needs of men are ofa specific and qualitative character whichcan only be derived from and fulfilledthrough their social organization. Men'sneeds are therefore never a biologicalmode of existence and can never beequated to animal production and repro-duction, for these needs have mental andspiritual elements-s-in short they includethe whole of his culture. If Evans doesnot mean what I think he means, I cannotfor the lite of me understand what he istrying to say.Marx never dealt with men's needs in

any abstract or idealistic fashion a laFeueToacl:r;"ttre-rre-e-d-for-men to-realizethe essence of their humanity or achievethe perfectibility of their species. For him,men's needs and the means of satisfyingthem rose out of the concrete demands ofpractical life and were related to a definitestage of historical production. That iswhy Marx began with the primary needsof men, viz., for food, clothing, shelter,means of transit and communication.These needs, however, are not a simplerepetitive process but are continuallychanging. Thus new needs arise which,either in whole or in part, replace oldneeds and are replaced in turn. This thenprovides the clue, not only to changes inhuman development but to changes inhuman beings. The changing character ofhuman needs is itself related to chances inproductive methods, which include' toolsand techniqu.es and which correspond toand are dependent upon the pr-evailingsocial division of labour. Changes in thecharacter of human needs are in part thenthe result of changes in productivemethods, just as changes in productivemethods are in part the outcome ofchanging needs.The productive activity of man is not a

bare, undifferentiated process. but anactivity of increasing scope and com-plexity. It is the activity above all otheractivities that brings into play the aptitudesand capacities of individuals and providesthe impetus for art, science, aesthetics, etc.Even ethics, religion and philosophy can

be shown to be connected in some way orother with the productive activities ofman, because it can be shown that theyserve to regularize and formalize a givenway of life. Even the towering edifice ofabstract speculation has its roots inpractical life. No matter how remote aphilosophical doctrine seems to be, analysisshows that to a considerable extent it is arationalization of a certain set of historicalconditions, and this serves the social needof explaining and justifying a given formof class relationships. If this is whatEvans means when he talks about institu-tions, ideologies, ctc., being aspects orfacets of social labour, he has certainlygone to involved and tortuous lengths toexpress it. Although why Evans shouldgo to such lengths to achieve so artificialand laboured a monism is hard to explain.Nevertheless, I feel that in Evans's

theories there are ambiguous and self-contradictory elements. In the first place,it does seem to me that he regards societyas analogous to a biological organism,and he appears to argue that there is a.natural growth of society as there is anatural growth of plant and animal life.Or, just as we proceed from infancy tomaturity as the result of inherent laws ofdevelopment, so does society developfrom the simple to the complex via its owninternal compUlsions without regard tohuman volition. It is true Evans makessome concessions to human activity, butit is an activity after the event-not before.An we can achieve, it seems, is a self-consciousness of what is happening; ouractivity can never be re-directive and sochance the course of events themselves.As I~understand him, Evans regards thecourse of social development asdeterminedin such a way that the end is as muchinvolved in the beginning as the beginningin the end. To me, this is not historicnecessity but a piece of fatalism-s-avariation on the theme that the stars incourses work for the coming of Socialism.

c c History is a sum which moves onlyone way," says Evans in one of his manyapocalyptic statements. There are manyother statements of his that seem to allegethat the laws of human development havethe same objective character as the move-ment of the solar system. While we canaccount for the movement of the heavenlybodies, we cannot deflect them from theircourses. In much the same way, it appearsfrom the statements of Evans, must weregard the movement of history. Thestream of events flows on to its appointedend or ends. "There is an historic destinywhich shapes our ends, rough-hew themas we may." Evans's criticism of theParty=-if such it can be called-s-is that weare vainly struggling against the streamwith an inflated set of principles acting aswater-wings to keep us just afloat. Hisadvice is that we should just flow, orperhaps drift, with the tide, and havea much more comfortable journey; butwhatever we do will make no difference,

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for the course of social evolution is given.The Mills of Evolution grind slowly, butevery day, every hour, they grind out thenew social order. The political revolution,says Evans with a contemptuous dismissalof the assumptions of our fifty years'existence, will be but the rubber stampsignifying an accomplished fact. Socialismwill come, apparently, not because it is asocial good but because Evans can provescientifically that it is the inevitable out-come of the laws of social progress workingout with iron necessity. There is no escape.For that reason, Ifind Evans's conceptof progress somewhat forbidding, evensinister. It does so much in the socialprocess and leaves so little for us that onecould only feel-if one believed it-thedepressing fact of being a supernumary tofhe whole business. For years we haveheld the illusion, it seems, that only byattempting to change the world do wechange ourselves and other people. Yetthe only effect of all this, vide Evans, is toget in the way of progress and be knockeddown for our pains. For years we havebelieved that poverty, exploitation, war,etc., were real social categories. Now,according to Evans, they are the mereappearance of things-in substance theyare aspects of progress. For Evans theS.P.G~B. version of capitalism is " a tale

told by idiots, full of sound and fury,signifying nothing."Again, socialists-and even non-socialists-may consider war a bad thing. Evanscan rise above such pettifogging notions.Where ordinary people see technicaldevelopment as something incidental towar, Evans regards war and preparationfor war as prime movers in social develop-ment. In an earlier article, I gave reasonsto show that this could not be substantiatedin actual fact. The trouble with universalprogress a la Evans is that everything hasto serve its ends and imaginary attributeshave to be given to different aspects ofsocial life in order to let the theory beconsistent with itself. This is, of course,a naive teleology. If,Evans had set outto show what, in his opinion, were pro-gressive elements in present-day society,he would have contented himself withfactual and empirical analysis insteadof world-shattering generalizations. Hewould have had to show tendenciesagainst as well as for, and after cancella-tion his net results would not have addedup to his extravagant claims. In that Casehe would have presented his case with thegreatest economy, and not wrapped it upin words as' if he were hiding a guiltysecret.

If it is said that I have over-statedEvans's views, I would remind anybody:

Has not Evans invented a device whichhe calls the economic process to showhow Evolution, Destiny, Social Progress(or whatever term is used) achieves itsinscrutable ends? 'Were we not toldthat the mechanism of relative surplusvalue, without regard to men's wishes,irrespective of employers or wage-earners,irons out silently and remorselessly alldifferences of class and privilege? And sothe path to the promised land is no hardand stony one, but a well-upholsteredPullman ride. A sort of Fabianismde-licxe,This article is necessarily in the natureof a preliminary in order to show that, inmy view, Evans's viewpoints are notMarxist ones but are akin to the views ofCornte and Spencer and the doctrines ofBentham-" the greatest happiness of thegreatest number." Into all this he hasspatchcocked Hegelian categories by aleft-handed dialactical twist. Thus hisviews are a mixture of the abstract evolu-tionism of Spencer and the social teleologyof Hegel. In my next article I propose tocontrast Evans's views of social develop-mentwith those of Marx, to scrutinizehis statement that social systems arearbitrary abstractions-and to try andshow that social algebra is capable ofbeing factorized. E.W.

(Jorrespondence

TI-IECOMRADES,May I make one or two comments onthe article of the above name?First, we are not" working for a societywhich, as yet, exists only in the minds ofa little ever a thousand people." IfF. Dunne had not written another word,this alone would convey his inability tograsp' the essentialsof :thesocialist approachto history. This reproach that Socialism isonly an idea that exists in the minds of a

few half-wits and cranks is one which ispeculiarly symptomatic of the opponentsof Socialism, and if our comrade is at allexperienced in combating that sort ofattitude he'll not fail to appreciate thispoint. If his statement were true, of course,I should have packed up being a socialista long time ago and devoted myselfexclusively to bee-keeping or some otherpractical pastime. As a matter of fact, theonly reason we can tell people that socialistsociety" will be based on comrnou owner-ship " is that it is the only historicallypossible society to emanate from thepresent conditions. Since" brevity is thesoul of wit," let this suffice for the moment

COLOUR QUESTIONas far as that point is concerned.Second, is it possible to " agree with alot of socialist ideas" any yet displayanti-negro prejudice? I think not. Aresocialist ideas just a lot of baggage fromwhich one dips casually for a few frayedgarments? Again, I think not. No one,I think, may be called a socialist whowhilst utilizing a few half-digestedformulae has not yet grasped the essentialcomprehensive approach of the socialist

viewpoint. True, the comprehensivenessmay grow and enrich itself from smallbeginnings, but even at the outset it mustcover a certain area of understandingwhich would certainly include the disabus-ing of the mind of anti-negroism.Third-" that there will be harmfulconflicts due to colour and cultural pre-judice is hardly to be doubted." The onlything here to be doubted is Dunne's graspof the materialist conception of history,That he imagines this to be an explanation"on strictly economic lines" merelyemphasizes his present inadequate under-standing of our approach to human

behaviour. The conflicts which arise on

the colour question arise (we argue)because of particular or general capitalistinterests, and the general social andpsychological climate that such intereststend to foster-e.g., South Africa. Wherethe ruling interests tend no longer to findthe colour-bar useful, the drift goes theother way-e.g., the U.S. Supreme Courtruling ending segregation in education.Where, as in Socialism, ruling interestsexist not at all, there will not be any" serious disruption of social harmony."(Judging from the Benin contribution tothe plastic arts, the negro has yet to makehis great contribution to the life of man,and the so-called white people in socialistsociety will welcome it with open arms).Last, should it be necessary to reminda fellow socialist that Socialism means theestablishment of social equality and notthe sterile conception of economic equality(to which piece-work is more akin thanSocialism) and that it is this equality andthe liberation of man from fear, oppressionand anxiety that tears at the roots ofcolour prejudice?

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IIINTS

:;_ould-be speaker IS strongly:0 read 01' re-read the previous- -B"" ""rom now on it is assumed he

-:.ll:ds the fundamentals dealt with= J : t ~ ~ . ' FORUM.are three parts to oral self-:-sion, as follows: First, DISCOVERYJ = ideas (b) of words; second,~-~,GE:\IENT (a) of ideas (b) of

third, DELIVERY (a) of ideas= = words.discovery of ideas and words will

C:::~:: with later, and the arrangement: "e a , ; ; treated when we come to theof note-preparation. The deliverymraunication of ideas is fundamental:OlillS of verbal self-expression, and: re there is hardly a line in thesewhich does not have some bearingThe arrangement of words inis a matter of syntax, and is"ce the scope of these notes.

:::n.ilarly, consideration of the deliveryleads into the realms of elocution.2.L::emptwill be made in these notes to~ti.Out-iGH-,byt-it will. be touched on.,Progressive Plan.ere many would-be speakers fail is",:tempting too much at the outset.do not realize that, in seeking toire skill, it is a matter of beginning atoeginning with the simplest exercises..-=ece and common sense are called for::: ~ will come with practice.'-::tefollowing may be taken as the- steps in the oral communication

(1) The written and read speech:the written, memorized and recited(3) the prepared speech deliverednotes; (4) the prepared speechyered without notes; (5) the extemporehese five stages are truly progressive,IO write out and read an address is the6t form of speech-making (in fact, itot making a speech at all), whilempore speaking is the highest form.o- out the first and second stages, wei) adopt the prepared speech withs, the prepared speech without notesthe extempore speech as our threevoid from the outset the practice ofing a prepared speech. It is a blind- from which one can only retreat by aht-about turn. Exactly the same is trueillespeech which is learned and recited.secret of forceful public speaking istability to the occasion and audience.

ON PUBLIC SPEAKING: 2

The "speaker" who has carefullymemorised his speech often finds that hisaudience for some reason is not receptiveto it. The speech is wasted, because hehas not been prepared to adapt it to achanged situation: he delivers it, consciousof its shortcomings.

"Please will youwritesome notes on how torestrain a ready wit ?!l

The First Stage.The first true stage in public speakingis the prepared speech delivered fromnotes. Itmust be made clear, by the way,that " prepared speech " does not meanone written out at length. The preparationconsists of the discovery and arrangementof ideas, the inspiration of the momentbeing largely relied upon to clothe thoseideas in words.Let us assume that your efforts to speakin public have been confined to askingquestions. Clearly, it is logical for you tolearn to speak from notes. Trying tospeak extemporaneously from the start isunwise: one's abilities are not equal to it.Furthermore, in speaking from notes the

application of the "progressive" principlesuggests beginning with a few notes, evena single note, and working up to a twentyor thirty-point speech lasting an hour.Imagine your audience.Practise in private, always to animaginary audience. Ope may be sus-pected of "having a screw loose" if oneis surprised haranguing a non-existentaudience (though to have one's finersusceptibilities dulled a little by ridiculeis in itself a useful experience for awould-be speaker). In any case, the timemay come when one's sanity will be openlyquestioned by an opponent!Take your subject and make, say, halfa dozen three- or four-word notes onvarious aspects of it. Take simple,straight-forward points, self-contained asfar as possible. Drop these notes, whichshould be written on separate pieces ofpaper, into a box. Then put the box ona table and take your stand behind it,facing your imaginary audience. Takeout a note and deal with it in a sentence,or at most in two or three sentences;guard above everything against wanderingfrom the point, or talking round the pointinstead of straight to it. Continue theprocess until all the notes in the box have

been dealt with. It should be noticed thatno attempt is being made at this stage tocombine the notes or deal with them inany sort of logical order. The aim of theexercise is to secure facility in producingcoherent sentences-speeches in miniature.The Question and Answer Exercise.A variation is to imagine that one hasdelivered an address and a number ofquestions have been asked. Write downthese questions, put them in the box, anddeal with them in the manner described.The next stage is reached (and itshould not be reached until you are able

to deal with isolated points with fluencyand precision) when you can take, say,ten points which have some commonrelationship within the subject and placethem in logical order. These points shouldthen be dealt with in strict order; nolonger as isolated but as related points.In other words, an attempt should bemade to deliver a coherent speech, makingforward or backward reference to theother points as necessary to clearness andconciseness of. expression. Graduallyincrease the number of points, until youare dealing with thirty or forty in a singlespeech.. (At this stage one should deliberately

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begin to practice clearness of delivery,articulating each word clearly and dis-tinctly. This matter of delivery ismentionedhere only in order that it may be remarkedthat to gabble your speech is a grave fault-even to an imaginary audience. The badhabit of gabbling and mumbling does notneed to be cured if never acquired. Talkto your imaginary audience as you wouldto a real one.Speaking without Notes.Let us assume now that we have reachedthe stage of being able to deliver in privatea speech of' twenty or thirty minutes'duration from carefully prepared and veryfull notes. iWe now begin a new stage inour practice, the object of which is toenable us to dispense with notes as far aspossible.Again ,beginning at the beginning, wewrite down on slips of paper the titles onlyof half a dozen ten-minute speeches.Prepare notes in the ordinary way foreach of them, in order to have the ideasready and mentally arranged. But thenotes are put aside and not spoken from.The day following the preparation ofthe notes, the title-slips should be placedin the box. Take one out, glance at it,and at once try to visualise YOU1' notes.If you have reached this stage by adequatepractice, you should be able now to con-centrate on what you are going to sayinstead of how you are going to say it.In other words your thoughts should beconcentrated on the ideas, not on thewords with which to clothe them Thoughyou have no notes to guide you, if youhave prepared your speech beforehandproperly-that is, discovered and arrangedyour ideas-you should have no difficultyin keeping to your point and saying allyou want to say in the time at yourdisposal.Developing Conciseness.This reference to time suggests anothervery useful exercise. Time yourself witha long speech from notes. Repeat it onsubsequent days, until you can deliver itin about two-thirds of the time it originallytook. The object of this exercise is not toincrease your speed of delivery, but todevelop conciseness of expression andeliminate the relatively unimportant andthe irrelevant.You should now have arrived at thestage when you can deliver a preparedspeech-If only a short one-withoutnotes. Try to visualise your notes anddeliver your lecture not as rememberedbut as visualised, so that you can adaptthe lecture as circumstances demand.Easy-to-Follow Notes.When beginning to lecture it is a goodplan to use full notes. I am going todigress to suggest the following plan becauseI believe it to be useful. 'Write your noteson large quarto sheets, dividing each sheetinto two with a pencil line from top tobottom. On the left, write the reallyimportant points (compressed into a few

" key" words). Below and on the right,

write the subsidiary points. Thus, if theleft of the line is filled the right is leftblank, and vice-versa. When complete,the notes should look like a number ofsteps-left, right, left, right-down thepage. It is almost impossible to lose yourplace in such notes. Any imperative pointscan be underlined with red ink. Thismethod of note preparation is very usefulto those who are prone to nervousness.Extempore Speaking.We come now to the highest form oforal expression-extempore speaking. Thedifference between speaking without notesand extempore is this: in the former, weknew beforehand that we had to speakand were able to marshal our ideas,arrange them and maybe impress them onour memory by writing them down-inthe latter, our being called upon to speakis unexpected, and we get on our feet tocollect our ideas, arrange them and deliverthem practically simultaneously. For. example, I may attend a Party meetingon a subject about which it is knownI have some expert knowledge. Thechairman invites me to reply to certaincriticisms: if I accept, I must give anextempore speech, for I came to listenonly.The difference between prepared andextempore self-expression is that in theformer we have some tangible evidenceof our idea-arrangement to guide us, butin the latter we have not. As has alreadybeen said, in extempore speaking thesorting, sifting and arrangement of Ourideas is a mental process occurring inthe main simultaneously with physicalexpression. A practised extempore speakeris always thinking a little ahead of whathe is saying.The ideas are present in the minds ofthe prepared and the extempore speaker,but the former does not trust his abilityto call to mind all the points he desires todeal with, or deal with them in their rightorder, so he speaks from notes. It is amistake, however, to suppose that theextempore speaker gets to his feet with anempty brain and then gives expression toideas which float from nowhere into hisconsciousness. Like the ,prepared speaker,he must have taken in a load of ideasbefore they can give out!Mere glibness can never be a substitutefor knowledge of one's subject. The manwho tries to speak extempore on a subjecthe knows next to nothing about will eithertalk irrelevancies or find himself in deepand dangerous waters.Freshness and Spontaneity.It should be the aim of all would-bespeakers to speak extemporaneously. Alloutdoor work demands this ability in ahighly-developed form, and there areoccasions when it is required at an indoormeeting. It is considered 'by many thatthe extempore speaker is always moreinteresting to listen to than one who hasmade elaborate preparation; certainly it

is true that there is far more spontaneity

in the remarks of the extempore speaker,who seems far more sensitive and responsiveto his audience.A Party speaker must ai:n both atspeaking extempore and at lecturing fromnotes in the best possible way.Exercise in Extempore Speaking.The best practice in extempore speakingis obtained by speaking, not on a subjectone has made peculiarly one's own, buton subjects of general interest. A fewsuggested topics for practice:-Is the payment of fines in Trade Unionsa good practice?Is 'Superstition dead?How can the roads be made safer?Is religion still "the opium of thepeople "?Are the wireless programmes too high-brow?The question form of topic makes itpossible to take up a " Yes" or " No"attitude according to one's view's on thematter.If the subjects are chosen immediatelybefore the exercise, one cannot" cheat"

by mentally preparing 'beforehand. Whenpractising extempore speaking, you mustalways endeavour to think ahead. Adopta rather slower and more deliberatedelivery than usual, so as to give yourselftime to sort and sift your ideas as you goalong. Think quickly and talk slowly-that might be adopted as the golden ruleof extempore speaking.Enter the Audience!So far, all the attempts at public speakinghave been made before that well-behavedaudience, the imaginary one. Now, how-ever, we must get ready to do our publicspeaking publicly.The first thing is to get used to thesound of one's voice i p _ public: not assimple as it may sound. However, thesame progressive plan can and should befollowed. It is best to begin not in therole of speaker but as a chairman, thoughit is assumed you have sufficient knowledgeto pass the Party Speaker'S Test. Aschairman at an indoor meeting you willget used to facing an audience: you willbe expected to introduce the speaker andsubject, and this will give you the oppor-tunity of speaking extemporaneously, orwith notes, for five or ten minutes. Next,take every opportunity of being chairman

at outdoor meetings: this usually meansthat you are in fact the first speaker. Partof your job is to attract an audience; thisin itself is good training and will giveample opportunity for extempore speaking.When you have got used to the sound ofyour own voice and feel the urge toprogress farther, a good idea is to offeryour services to thcpropaganda committeeto speak at outdoor meetings in companywith experienced speakers.Remember: as a Party speaker you willneed tact, patience, humour and theability to handle an audience, and youwill have to accustom yourself to disap-pointment as well as the occasional(Continued on page 760)

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EDITORIAL. : : .c " "3 t , our apologies to everyone for the_inthe appearance of FORUM. When

difficulties first appeared, thee:::.Lionwas to 'bridge them by publish-an _\ugust-September issue; later, itdecided simply to omit issues for thoseo raoriths and start from October withc.ean sheet. From November, the-~ar issue will be resumed at approxi-.:e>" the middle of each month, withmore gaps.= - 0 our regret, too, the price of FORUMhad to be raised. The circulation has:eased a little, but not by anything likesure which would have knockedwn our deficit. Ninepence was the onlywer. Perhaps it will not sound too- to point out that the price can beuced at any time in the future whencirculation justifies it.ecause of the delay which made theject rather stale, the review of the...'\."toniography has not been published.are resuming the publication of a:omhly drawing in this issue, and aular column about books is to appearMeanwhile, we are looking forcontributions-particularly as ourials obviously won't go on for ever!w people seem to want to argue withcontentions of present contributors,crh they offer plenty of scope foroversy: FORUM has not ceased to.nction as a medium for argument.Filially, about bound volumes. Itaped our notice that the changed layoutFORUM from May onwards hadved also a slightly different size andth of margin. This meant that ther issues from January to April thisexcluded from last year's collection,ld not conveniently have been boundthis year's. It was therefore decidedinclude those four issues with the 1954ume, and the alterations to the indexe caused the delay in the appearancethe volume.

Contributions to "Forum" should beressed to the Internal Party Journalmmittee, at Head Office. If they cannottyped, articles should be written in inkone side of the paper only, and con-utors are asked to give their addressesthe names of their Branches. Con-utors intending series of articles shoulde an indication of the scope of their series,t send merely a first article.

CUTTINGSFrom the" Financial Times" Review of BritishIndustry, 1955Manufacturing output in total is now50 per cent. greater than in 1937. Butbecause of the need to devote moreresources to exports, to defence and toreconstituting our capital the increase ofconsumption has been much less thanproportionate to the increase of gross

domestic product. The latter, in realterms, is probably between 25 and 30 percent. greater than in 1938. But of this,only about ,64 per cent., as against about71 per cent. in 1938, now goes to con-sumption; about 20 per cent., as against15 per cent. in 1935, goes to currentGovernment expenditure on goods andservices; about 1,6per cent., as against 14per cent. in 193.8, goes to gross capitalformation. Because of the reduced shareto consumption, we enjoy in aggregateonly about 14 per cent. greater real con-sumption than before the war. But sincepopulation has risen by 7 per cent., realconsumption per head is only about 7 percent. higher than in 1938. It is only inthe last two years, and briefly in 1950before rearmament, that it has been at allappreciably above the 1938 level.(Arthur Robinson: The Changes inOur Economic Circumstances).

* * *

the gap between scientific advance andtechnological utilization is growing shorterevery day, but large-scale industrialdevelopments need very big capital invest-ments which tend to introduce a buffertime of a decade or two.(Sir Francis Simon ; The Next. Twenty Years).* * *Experience, both in Britain and America,has shown that the introduction of anincentive payment scheme is not the onlyor even the main purpose of Work Study.As a by-product, such a scheme may havevaluable results in raising the standard ofwork, particularly where through badhabits it has fallen to low levels, but it isgenerally found that the scientific study ofthe methods employed, not only in themanual operation involved but in theprocess as a whole, yields results whichare more valuable and more permanently

fruitful of further progress than thoseresulting from the monetary incentiveswhich maybe given as a result of append-ing an incentive scheme to the achieve-ments of the Work Study itself.(Monetary Incentives for Workersas an Aid to Higher Output).* * *Man-made fibres offer an easy object ofromantic speculation, and it is not surpris-ing that modern means of communicationand propaganda have occasionally exag-gerated, inevitably if quite unintentionally,the volume, scope and likely future ofproduction. The true synthetic fibres have

suffered an overdose of publicity, notablyin the United States, but also in thiscountry.Textile technologists have long known,and by now ordinary people have realisedthat the sheep farmer, the cotton grower,and even the silk farmer , have ahead ofthem a reasonable life's work.(Daniel 'Duxbury: Rising OutP~tt ofMan-i'vlade Fibres).* * *There is another important aspect to theadvent of commercial programmes. It 'willbring to the fore and develop a replace-ment demand for TV which has alreadystarted to make itself felt. Sets made priorto 195'0, with their smaller screens andlacking the refinements in circuit designsince developed, are approaching the endof their useful life. The durability of thesesets has surprised many people, as fiveyears was generally reckoned as theserviceable life of the early receivers.(John Hay: The Prospect f01'Radioand Television Set j ] I J .akers) .* *

Within the next ten years there will be anew generation of better educated youngmothers-and if the annual school leavingrate of girls is an accurate guide about 21million more. The education of girls hasbeen streamlined; they are now instructedin the use of electric power in the homeand they are able to see, inspect, andadapt themselves to the use of up-to-dateequipment in laundry, cooking and house-wifery classes... in some localitieshousecraft centres provide for instructionin electric cooking, laundering and house-hold maintenance. 'When it is realisedthat in the centres of one locality alonesome 9,000 students receive instruction fortwo-and-a-half hours a week at two tofour-year courses, a better impression ofthe future demand for efficient electricalequipment can be gained.(Ivor Williams: Domestic Efficiency).

* *

*While very little can 'be said about theresults of future pure research, we canbe fairly sure that they will not beresponsible for large-scale technologicaleffects in the next 20 years. It is true that

It is already found in America thatworkers tend to choose the better buildingswhen seeking employment. It gives a manadditional self-respect when he can pointto the factory he works in with in withpride, and a cleanly designed and colourfulinterior inspires a hiaher morale andtherefore better standards ofworkmanship.Already a number of manufacturers, awareof these facts, are enlisting the advice ofconsultants to advise them on interiortreatment. The interiors of the factoriesof tomorrow will be far more attractiveand colourful than those of today.(Ralph Tubbs: The Architectureof TOm01'1'07V) .

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MARXISM and LITERATURE: 4

" What did a young man care about theapproval of respectability, or honourableguild privileges handed down for genera-tions, when the wealth of India beckonedto him, the gold and silver mines ofMexico and Potosis? "(Engels: The Origin of the Family)." Let not our babbling dreams affrightour souls; Conscience is but a word thatcowards use, Devisd at first to keep thestrong in awe: Our strong arms be ourconscience, swords our law."(Shakespeare: Richard the Thi1'd).There is the outlook of the sixteenthcentury gentry, as they coalesced with thetrading class and became, in Marx'swords, "children of their age to whommoney was the power of all powers."The Elizabethan era was not a " happyinterlude between two worlds" (Tawney'sphrase) ; far from such a sort of historicalhalf-time (which is impossible anyway),it was capitalism's age of primary accumu-lation, when agriculture and industry weretransformed and a new phase in classstruggles began.Popular historians love the Elizabethanera. Its ,profusion of personalities, theopportunities-and the penalties-forambition, that independent private produc-tion made; the conspicuous consumption,in splendiferous dress and lavish patronage;the severance from mediaeval tradition,and the enthusiasm for new ideals . . .these were the romantic externals, rataplanand oompa for rent-rolls and profits. Thatis not to say capitalism had extinguishedfeudalism. In the north and west countrieslandlords still held undisputed sway, andin the towns, new industries struggledagainst the guild system. But, as Tawneysays in Social History and Literature:"The bourgeois elements in society,which formed the majority--peasants withenough land to produce a small surplusfor the market; the more prosperousyeoman, small masters and tradesmen;the gentry who farmed their own lands orleased them to farmers; the businessclasses generally-had the wind behindthem. "The diversity of interests and motive"in this society ;produced a many-sidedliterature. And here something importanthas to be said. To relate literature (or any-thing else) to economic and social life is notto say that men are puppets in the handsof "economic conditions." Historicalmaterialism is a determinism, certainly,but one in which man's reaction upon hisenvironment is itself a determining 'factor.

Thus, Marx: "Man makes his ownhistory, but he does not make it out of thewhole cloth, he does not make it out ofconditions chosen 'by himself, but out ofconditions such as he finds close at hand"(The Eighteenth Brumaire), And again:c c Labour is, in the first place, a processin which both man and nature participate,and which man of his own accord starts,regulates, and controls the material re-actions between himself and nature. Heopposes himself to nature as one of herown forces, setting in motion arms andlegs, head and hands, the natural forcesof his body, in order to appropriatenature's productions in a form adapted tohis own wants. By thus acting on theexternal and changing it, he at the sametime changes his own nature" (Capital,Volume I).In the upheaval ofthose times, ideologieswere - plentiful. Dominant among theintellectual tendencies of Europe was theone called Humanism-drawn, in fact,from the ideas of classical antiquity. InGreece and Rome, as in sixteenth-centuryEurope, there had been commodity pro-duction and commerce; but, as Kautskysays, ""V hat had been in Antiquity thezenith of social development was at theclose of the Middle Ages the starting pointof a new society." Th'2 humanists heldthe wisely ruled nation-state as the meansto their end of a human, political culture-not excluding the Catholic Church, towhich most of them belonged.Thus, Dante, Machiavelli, Boccacciowere humanists (the last guying the fatpriests and slow-witted peasants who werefeudal symbols). There was the fantasticalRabelais, lampooning the Church butpresenting a monastic utopia where enjoy-ment and science ruled in place of asceticscholasticism-new wines for the old papalbottles. There was the Utopia itself,vision of the humanist Thomas More.The European princes and the EnzlishTudors took humanist scholars to helpthem govern; they required" not merelythe material resources of the bourgeoisie,but also the services of its ideologists"(Kautsky). So, though the Reformationturned Catholic 'Humanism into Jesuitism,the humanist outlook went on to find itsbest expression in Shakespeare.Individualism-man a free agent, subjectonly to conscience and patriotism; causation-man rejecting the metaphysical, seekingthe rational; optimism-man fightina tobrine; his aspirations true. There you havethe ideology of the revolutionary middle

" In every historical epoch, the prevail- .ing mode of economic production andexchange, and the social organizationnecessarily following from it, form thebasis upon which is built up, and fromwhich alone can be explained, thepolitical and intellectual history of thatepoch." MARX .

class, which Shakespeare expounded.Other writers had it too, of course, inwhole or in part. The strength and ruth-lessness of the growing master class wereexpressed magnificently by ChristopherMarlowe. Tarnburlaine, Faustus, the Jewof Malta-tremendous figures, standingagainst the world and heroic even indownfall: Shakespeare wrote nothing moregripping than the last hour of Faustus.No writer (except Marx) has had morenonsense written about him than Shake-speare. The Elizabethan poets, of whomhe was one, were not " a nest of singingbirds," a unique profusion of genius.As Catherine Ing shows in her ElizabethanLyrics, they were conscious, diligentworkmen, creating new forms of verse-mostly on Italian models-to break fromthe media-val traditions. Shakespeare'slearning was not phenomenal but wascommon to the merchants' sons classicallyeducated at the newly established grammarschools; Marlowe, Nash, Webster, Jonsonand the rest had it too. Not everythingShakespeare wrote is wonderful; at timeshe produced dull, uninspired stuff. Always,however, his drama is the drama of theworld he lived in, carefully observed andscrupulously portrayed.It is impossible here to consider Shake-spear's plays, though each has somethingto say about its time-even the lightcomedies, affirming the new humanistconceptions of personal relationships: asA Midsummer Night's Dream, wheretradition gives in to love; and TwelthNight, caricaturing puritianism and degen-erate nobility. And The Merchant ofVenice-not a play of racial conflict (asso many think) but a struggle betweenusurers' capital and merchants' capital.The chronicle plays are concerned withstate power, expressing Shakespeare's-the early bourgeoisie's-ideal of a strongmonarchy supported by the people. Henrythe Fifth is more concept than king.Shakespeare's greatest, most powerfulplays are the ones concerned with personalconflict, however: Hamlet and King Lear,their subject-matter the moral cataclysmas one world gave place to another.Hamlet the humanist, driven by conscienceas a man must be in the individualizedcommodity world-caught, as Smirnovsays, "between the corruption of thecourt, the vulgarity of the growinl' bour-geoisie, and the masses in whom he hasno belief. " King Lear's theme is nothingless than the downfall of the mediaevalworld. Lear is the personification of feudal

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l1gship, beaten down by his elderughters and Edmund, representativesthe new order with all its ruthlessBefore the end of Shakespeare's life thenitalist outlook was changing rapidly.he luxurious merchant-adventurer was anaissance figure; by 16-00 ' he was beingeded by the money-grubber puresimple-soon to become the Puritan,greedy abstinence his religion. Therty-capitalist virtues were sung byhomas Deloney, author of Thomas ofding, The Gentle Craft and Jack ofbe1'1'Y.' chronicles of manufacturingpointing the rewards of honest indus-usness. And, because feudalism wasvet dead, there were Beaumont andetcher, aiming to eulogize absolute1O'shipand producing effects of decadencestead-compare Fletcher's lingeringndness for incest and perversion withakespeare's realistic treatment of sexual(Venus and Adonis, for example).One other writer needs to be mentioneden Jonson, middle-class political pro-

Ridicule was his weapon::dicule for superstition (The Alchemist),(Bartholomew Fair), depravityvery Man in his Humour). In jonson'ses, people got the rulers they deserved;Sejanus and Catiline are dramas oftyrants begotten by corrupt society.im, like every great satirist, he hopedto correct morals through ridicule."is tremendous stuff, portrayingavaricious low-lifes and parasitesonson knew. " Conscience? v . cries'tis the beggar's virtue! "\\'hy did the drama flower, as they say,the Elizabethan era? Call it the theatre,d you are half-way to the answer. ThecediGevaldrama was a part of community:e, originating in round dances andllage mumming. It was taken up by thehurch, and later by the guilds, for theresentation of "mysteries" and moralityays. From church porches and marketnares it went to inn-yards, which, withieu surrounding balconies, set the patternthe first playhouses. And at thisint, at the close of the Middle Ages,ma became the theatre. The moderntertainment industry was born; socialusement became a profession, andA writer needed a patron. Most poetswealthy men themselves: Sir Philipidney. Sir 'Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomasthe Earls of Oxford, Dorset,urrey-s-look down the index of Thexiord Book of Sixteenth Century Verse.:-iese apart, there was printing and thereas a small reading public, but no-oneould live by writing books. Patrons werescarce: the upper classes, the aristocratsnd the rich merchants, expected to payusicians and poets and dramatists to?;:,ovidetheir entertainment and help give

them an aura of culture. Having foundpatrons, the writers had one supremeconcern-to please them. Perhaps theycould please some of the patrons all thetime, and possibly they could please allthe patrons some of the time . . , but,without any doubt, it was a difficultbusiness.The rise of the theatre provided some-thing new in patronage: the paying public.

They still had to be pleased (the reasonwhy almost every Shakespeare play hasa funny man), but it was a differentproposition.v- Every writer looked to thetheatre, hoping to associate himself withan acting company. Leaving out theLords and 'Sirs, there is scarcely a notablefigure among the Elizabethans who wasnot primarily a playwriter. To be a pro-fessional writer meant writing for thetheatre then, just as it means writingfiction to-day.The Puritans objected to the theatre.It kept people from work, it made themspend their money, it was bawdy and itwas likely to make a hardworking mandissatisfied (for that reason, Catholic priestsare forbidden to attend theatres to-day).The sentiments spread as puritanism grew,until in 1642 the theatres were suppressed-and remained so for eighteen years,until the Restoration. 'What happenedafterwards is described by Plekhanov:" When the restoration of the Stuartste:nporarily re-established the rule ofthe old nobility in England, this nobility- 'not+only -d id not reveal - the slightestaspiration to imitate the extreme repre-sentatives of the revolutionary pettybourgeoisie, the Puritans, but showedthe strongest inclinations to habits andtastes which were the direct opposite ofthe Puritan rules of life. The Puritanshad been very religious; Restorationsociety made a display of its irreligion.The Puritans had persecuted the theatreand literature; their fall was the signalfor a renewed enthusiasm for both . . .Because it was a century which saw avery marked sharpening of the strugglebetween the nobility and the bourgeoisie-or rather, the whole " third estate."(Art and Social Life).

Before reaching that point, somethingmust be said of the religious poets andtract-writers who were the chief literaryproduct of the half-century before 1660(because all other art was suspect to thePuritans). The Anglican Church stoodfor the monarchy and nobility, Puritansfor the small and Presbyterians for thelarge bourgeoisie. That was the nominalline-up in the seventeenth-century strugglefor political power, each class aimingto impose the religious outlook whichexpressed its own interests. The manyfacets of this religious concern displaythemselves in poets like Herbert,Crashaw,

Traherne and Andrew Marvell, and in theprose and verse of J ohnMilton.Milton was puritanism's great advocate,seeing it as a revolutionary force whosevictory would mean a regenerated Englandleading the world, And, whatever onethinks of him as a poet, it is worth remem-bering that in the twenty years of Puritandomination his entire output was ofpolemics and pamphlets. Perhaps that iswhy his verses have little appeal to-daycompared with those of Donne, who wasno puritan at all. John Donne, parsonand bedfellow, trying to reconcile forhimself the media-val with the new con-ception of things and settling finally for ametaphysical solution-in the emotionallonging, the moody sensuality, the uncer-tainty and questioning of everything,there is a great deal which rings bells inthis age. It is hard to be out of sympathywith a writer who can go from this-" No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of theContinent, a parte of the maine; if aClod be washed away by the Sea,

Europe is the lesse, as well as if aPromontorie were, as well as if aMannoI' of thy friends or of thine ownewere; any man's death diminishes me,because I am involved in Mankinde;and therefore never send to know forwhom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."To- " For Godsake hold your tongue,and let me love." R. COSTER.NOTE: In preparing this section, thewriter has been particularly indebted toKautsky's Thomas M01'e and his Utopia,A. A. Smirnov's Shakespeare: A Marxist

Interpretation, and Chapter 31 of thefirst volume of Capital. He also madereference to F. A. 'Ridley's The Revolu-tionary Tradition in England and thoughtit ineffable twaddle.

HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING(Continued from page 157)

triumph. In other words, you mustdiscipline yourself and be subordinate toParty interests-many potentially goodspeakers have failed because they did notsee the necessity of these simple require-ments. Experience and continuous practicewill solve most of the problems you willmeet.Next month it is proposed to go furtherinto the question of notes, a most impor-tant part of any speaker's equipment,And I would suggest that interested readersof those notes may find it useful to keepthe issues of FORUM containing them:though published in serial form, they canusefully be read as a whole.

R. AMBRIDGE.

Published by the Socialist Party of Great Britain, 52 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4 and printed by Gillett Bros. Ltd. (T.U. all depts.),Jewel Road, Walthamstow, London, E.17.Subscriptions: 12 months 7/6, 6 months 3/9. Cheques and P.O's. should be made payable to E. Lake, S.P.G.B.