Rajani Palme Dutt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rajani Palme Dutt (1896–1974) was a leading figure in the Communist Party of Great Britain. His father was an Indian doctor of Bengali-Dutch mix living in the United Kingdom and his mother was Swedish, directly related to former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. Brought up in Cambridge and educated at The Perse School, Dutt was suspended from Balliol College, Oxford as a conscientious objector in World War I, having been sentenced to 56 days imprisonment.
In 1920 he joined the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain and in 1921 founded the magazine Labour Monthly, which he edited until his death. He was on the executive committee of the CPGB from 1923 until 1965 and was the party's chief theorist for many years.[1] He also played an important role for the Comintern by supervising the Communist Party of India for some years.
Palme-Dutt was loyal to the Soviet Union and to communist ideals. In 1939, when the CPGB leader Harry Pollitt supported the United Kingdom's entry into World War II, it was Palme-Dutt who promoted Stalin's line, forcing Pollitt's temporary resignation. As a result, he became the party's General Secretary until 1941. In his book 'Fascism and Social Revolution' a scathing criticism and analysis of fascism is presented with a study of the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy and other countries. He called fascism a violent authoritarian,ultra nationalist, and irrational theory, in his own words :'Fascism is antithetical to everything of substance within the liberal tradition.'[2]
A critic of his book notes that "Students of fascism cannot understand the phenomena without reading R. Palme Dutt's classic, Fascism and Social Revolution. Dutt's genius was his ability to apply the basic principles of Marxist political economy to the European economic and political crisis of the late 20s and early and mid-30s, when the book was written. Dutt was prescient enough to understand the crisis of overproduction which propelled the growth of fascism in Europe, including Germany and Italy. He also understood that the resolution of the economic crisis would inevitably lead to war, and that war would not only lead to the destruction of the capital responsible for excess production, but also of "excess" population. When the book was written, in 1936, he noted that the crisis of overproduction was responsible for the destruction of food, but would eventually escalate to the destruction of people. More precisely he noted that "Now they are burning food, soon they (capital) will be buring people." His comment may actually be one of the earliest and most precise predictions of the Holocaust."
After Stalin's death Palme-Dutt remained a loyal Stalinist who disagreed with the CPGB's criticisms of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He opposed the CPGB's increasingly Eurocommunist line in the 1970s and retired from his party positions, although remaining a member until his death.[3]
His wife and fellow communist was Salme Dutt (née Salme Murrik), sister of Hella Wuolijoki.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Harry Pollitt |
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain 1939 - 1941 |
Succeeded by Harry Pollitt |
[edit] References
- ^ Beckett, F. Enemy Within: Rise and Fall of the British Communist Party (London: The Merlin Press Ltd, 1998)
- ^ http://books.google.ca/books?id=ZO1-mHHZchQC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=palme+dutt+fascism&source=bl&ots=YwlaBiVVCF&sig=EBitIn6ORQbkf0cmRR9HAkuCFkI&hl=en&ei=5BwCSsToBo2Ntgfk_-WMBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4
- ^ Callaghan, J. Rajani Palme Dutt (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1993)
[edit] External links
- "Fascism and Social Revolution: A Study of the economics and Politics of the Extreme Stages of Capitalism in Decay" (1934)
- R. Palme Dutt Archive Marxists Internet Archive
