Jenny Beale: Getting it together — Women as trade unionists; Richard Minns: Take over the city — The case for public ownership of financial institutions; Charlie Clutterbuck and Tim Lang: More than we can chew — The crazy world of food and farming; Colin Thunhurst: It makes you sick — The politics of the NHS, all published by Pluto Press, 1982, £2.50
Pride of place in the blurbs and promotional matter for Pluto Press' new Arguments for Socialism series edited by John Harrison is given to this testimonial from Tony Benn: 'One of the main reasons why the Tories swept to power in 1979 was that the Labour movement had over the years almost ceased to argue for socialism. This new series ... can play a significant part in re-establishing the necessity for a socialism that is democratic, libertarian and humane.' These are strong words even if one may be excused for wondering whether it is not rather the capacity to struggle for and achieve a libertarian, humane and democratic socialism which needs to be (re-)established, rather than its necessity.
Unfortunately, on the evidence of the first four books in the series, we have a very long way to go, however the task is defined. Another reviewer, in the New Statesman, has suggested that Arguments against Capitalism would have been a more accurate series title. This is certainly true; but what is missing is not just a vindication of the potential of socialism to resolve the particular problems discussed but also any suggestion of how the discussions presented relate to socialist strategy.
In all cases (except Jenny Beale's book which is about how women workers can establish their rightful positions in the labour movement today and therefore constitutes, I suppose, an Argument within Capitalism) there is little to suggest what we can do about the iniquities the books catalogue.
Certainly the books all provide food for thought. And the publishers and series editor deserve congratulation for designing a format appropriate for activists with little time to read, to be confronted with areas of political importance at some remove, but no less relevant for that, from their normal spheres of activity. More than we can chew, although excessively facetious, is packed with interesting information and makes many relevant connections between normally highly disparate facts and ideas.
Take over the city has much to say about the hidden financial institutions from merchant banks to pension funds that control the proceeds of the fruits of our labour. It is, however, in many ways the weakest book politically, begging such large questions as what nationalisation means, and under whose control it should take place, and treating alternative investment strategies as largely technical rather than political questions.
It makes you sick is an excellent book which successfully summarises a wide range of research-based information without ever being dry or boring, and puts this together with highly relevant memories of pre-NHS medicine and glimpses of the potential of socialist health care.
Getting it together does not set itself the task of developing a socialist strategy for the liberation of women; in its more limited objective of arguing for and suggesting a line of advance for women's organisation and advance within the unions it succeeds well although important issues of current debate are hardly touched upon.
But while all four books — especially at the very reasonable price of £2.50 — are well worth buying and will hopefully be read beyond the traditional left-book-buying-audience, there is a crying need for books which tackle and present popularly questions of socialist politics and socialist strategy and provide some kind of guide to action. When will it be met?