Sandy Irvine

Hermanos!

From International Socialism, No.66, February 1974, p.29.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

Hermanos!
William Herrick
Penguin, 40p.

THIS IS one of the best novels yet written about the Spanish Civil War. It is about the men who fought in the International Brigade, and about the politics that guaranteed their sacrifices would be in vain.

The author himself served in the American contingent, and now he pulls no punches in this fast-moving and racy story. It is written with great compassion as well as great humour. The battle scenes are brutally realistic: Herrick has no romantic urge to idealise these bloody struggles. Perhaps most impressive are the great set-piece verbal confrontations in which many of the key political points are made.

The events described may have taken place over 35 years ago, yet the issues they raised still face socialists throughout the world. The vital question was how was fascism to be fought, whether by a ‘broad’ movement limited to a defence of parliamentary democracy or as part of a struggle for socialism. Herrick puts a resounding case for the latter, and totally demolishes the argument for postponing the socialist transformation.

An equally important question was the nature of the Russian regime, one still of special importance for those in countries fighting imperialism who look to the Russian bloc for aid. Herrick’s account documents the pitfalls involved in having any illusions about the ‘socialist’ pretensions of the Russian leaders. The degeneracy and treachery of the Communist Party are brought out as we follow the experiences of the American volunteers.

The story centres on Jake Starr, a high-up Party leader, who is slowly but surely trapped within the Stalinist apparatus, first made accomplice to, then agent of its criminal practices. Herrick is good at portraying the psychological make-up underlying his characters’ ideological labels, and there are many superb portrayals – of genuine proletarians, of Stalin’s henchmen, of fellow travellers.

Of particular interest is Herrick’s concern over why otherwise sincere people were prepared to swallow Stalin’s lies and murders. We witness the worst corruptions of socialist ideals being justified in the name of ‘objective necessity’, the ‘iron laws of history’ and so on. But, as one character remarks, ‘when a man lives like a beast, he becomes a beast.’

Herrick seems to imply that all this stems to some extent from marxism itself, that marxism’s abstract, impersonal theorising can provide the justification for anything once the individual is absolved from personal responsibility. Truth becomes relative, personal integrity an irrelevance, and the Party – the organisational expression of these theories – becomes a law unto itself. How fair are Herrick’s suspicions about marxism itself?

It is true that throughout its history both enemies and false friends alike have equated marxism with notions of economic determinism and a belief in the inevitability of its own predictions, all of which render individual moral choice meaningless. Even today, for instance, we find self-styled ‘Trotskyists’ who misuse marxist terminology to prove someone is ‘objectively’ on the side of the class enemy. But other traditions have voiced a different and authentic marxism.

People like Herrick have hearts that are obviously in the right place, and it is up to those who work to rebuild an authentic revolutionary marxist movement to allay their fears. Perhaps we ourselves need to pay more attention to the problems of what is and what is not permissible in the name of socialism and of the relationship of individual behaviour to the vast, seemingly impersonal struggles necessary to change society.

At any rate, a book which discusses all these points and which is additionally a pleasure to read, all at the modest price of 40p, certainly deserves a wide readership.

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