Wilson and Washington continued. alienate her from the Free World - consequently, from the same point of view, while it remains desirable that Malaysia should be defended, it is even more desirable that Britain should do so and not America, For Washington, this is a rational division of imperialist labour. For London, it looks a little less rational. But. what can London do about it, since it is in general committed to being a kind of accomplice in American leadership and strategy ? The British have eagerly sold their souls to the devil, honing that he will accord them occasional help and priv.leges in return, That is, they have sold their only real bargaining asset, their only way of forcing the devil to be kind, and must denend upon his good nature. At bottom, they think he is a gentlemen, Which Way to Peace ?
Wilson's justification for Labour's fundamental attitude can be put in a few words. They are not the words Labour leaders use, but indicate the same facts in a different perspective. American hegemony, and the rational systemization of that hegemony, are indispensable to prevent nuclear war. Bettera unified imperialism under . strong leadership than a fragmented imperialist world, because the latter course will lead to the dissemination of nuclear arms and to the impossibility of control and disarmament - and hence, in the end, to war, This is why Gaullism can be represented as Original Sin,
This theology is - to say the least of it - onen to question. To put it crudely: the Original Sin lies in the nature of imverialisn, and not merely in that minor province of which it is in France, And because this is so, it is at bottom the most utter lunacy to confide the destinies of half the world entirely to the most powerful of the imperialist nowers. Nothing less is at stake, in the negotiations centred on the MNLF. This is what matters, not the minor troubles of British imperialism and the small ambitions of the Labour government.
The peril of the diffusion of nuclear arms is a genuine one, it may be more likely to heppen, in a divided capitalist world (though it is certainly not clear how American hegemony can prevent it happening, at least to some extent, as nuclear technology develops), However, this peril cannot be compared - as does Harold Wilson - to the safe assurance of American control. God is not installed in either the Pentagon or the White House; the powers of the universe cannot be put into his hands. The choice is between evils, Cnly a little reflection will define them,
The imperfalist (and the social-democratic) theology has it that the world's troubles come from comaunism: “If it were not for NATO, war would have happened a long time ago", one right-wing Labour M,P. primly commented last week, Not the slightest trace of tolerance towards Stalinism, not the slightest degree of comnlaisance towards many (or even most) of the »olicies currently pursued in and by the communist nations, is required for the utter refutation of this notion. There is not, there never has been, any evidence for it; every day,