|
|
|
|
BORSTAL
BOY
BRENDAN
BEHAN at the age of sixteen came from Dublin to Liverpool with an
I.R.A. “do it yourself kit,” for the purpose of blowing up
Cammell Lairds. He was arrested, and after a stay in Walton Detention
Prison, Liverpool, was sent for three years to a Borstal Institution
in East Anglia. The book (published by Hutchinson) tells of his
experiences in these places. (…)
In
spite of all the tumult and violence of the book, it has a monastic
quality in that nothing of any significance from the outside world
ever seeps in. not even the war which was going on at the time is
mentioned, in fact, the author never seems to have really noticed it.
There is no serious discussion, not even about Ireland. Behan
indulges in rodomontade about Irish politics, religion and history,
but never indicates that he has any grasp of the underlying economic
and factors of Irish history. (…)
Behan
at least went to Borstal wearing a slightly glamorised would-be
Martyr’s crown. He came out none the worse, perhaps even a little
better for it. But what of the mal-adjusted, the misfits and the
unfortunates; what happened to them? That, perhaps, is the most
disquieting thing of all, but Behan never mentions it.
He
has nothing to say against patriotism or nationalism either of the
English, Irish or any other variety. He seems to regard many
Englishmen as stiff-necked and arrogant, but sees no reason why they
should not be either in their native country or to people who come
from other countries. But in a world of conflicting national
interests, being pro Irish, English or American, means even at the
best of times being negatively anti-something else. In the worst
times such feelings take on an active and hostile form.
(From
book review by E.W., Socialist Standard, December 1958)
|
Declaration
of Principles
This
declaration is the basis of our organisation and, because
it is
also an important
historical document dating from the
formation
of the party
in 1904, its original language has been retained.
Object
The establishment of a system of
society based upon the
common ownership and democratic control of the
means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in
the interest of the whole community.
Declaration of Principles
the socialist Party of Great Britain
holds,
1.
That society as at
present constituted is based upon the ownership of the means of living
(i.e., land, factories, railways,
etc.) by the capitalist or master class, and the consequent enslavement
of the working class, by whose labour alone wealth is produced.
2.
That in society,
therefore, there is an antagonism of interests, manifesting itself as a
class struggle between those who possess but do not produce and those
who produce but do not possess.
3.
That this antagonism
can be abolished only by the emancipation of the working class from the
domination of the master class, by the conversion into the common
property of society of the means of production and distribution, and
their democratic control by the whole people.
4.
That as in the order
of social evolution the working class is the last class to achieve its
freedom, the emancipation of the working class will involve the
emancipation of all mankind, without distinction of race or sex.
5.
That this
emancipation must be the work of the working class itself.
6.
That as the machinery
of government, including the armed forces of the nation, exists only to
conserve the monopoly by the capitalist class of the wealth taken from
the workers, the working class must organize consciously and
politically for the conquest of the powers of government, national and
local, in order that
this machinery, including these forces, may be converted from an
instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipation and the
overthrow of privilege, aristocratic and plutocratic.
7.
That as all political
parties are but the expression of class interests, and as the interest
of the working class is diametrically opposed to the interests of all
sections of the master class, the party seeking working class
emancipation must be hostile to every other party.
8.
The Socialist Party of
Great Britain, therefore, enters the field of political action
determined to wage war against all other political parties, whether
alleged labour or avowedly capitalist, and calls upon the members of
the working class of this country to muster under its banner to the end
that a speedy termination may be wrought to the system which deprives
them of the fruits of their labour, and that poverty may give place to
comfort, privilege to equality, and slavery to freedom.
|
|
|
|
|
|