Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

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power to keep them on 5 days a week, & to improve their conditions of work; & I disapproved of Chamberlain & [Simon?] & Hoare & such people, & connected them with the Conservative party. But I was thinking in a muddled way, or not at all, & only sliding about the surface. I always felt that it was wrong that you and I could spend £5 in an evening & yet some man & wife & 2-3 children would be pleased to have that much to live on for 2 weeks. But I could always justify that by thinking that we did not do it very often, & even when we did, we were pretty broke for a week or two afterwards. And I could also justify myself by saying that I did work hard for my money, but I never really considered my advantages of education & opportunity & family & special apprenticeship. I used to worry generally, about inequalities in money & wealth, but in a very wrong & muddled & not at all a Socialist way

I dont ask or aim for complete equality now or ever that would be a calamity & a failure. But what I do aim for is complete equality of education _ that is, primary education & opportunity for all. An end to the frightful inequalities of money - an end or somewhere near an end, to inheritance. An end ot class, & this horrible snobbishness. And in other words, really, an end to our whole blasted system.

Now, what has caused my development , & what has caused me to begin thinking, as I think, more clearly? More than anything else, I think, it has been my contact & dealings with the Regular

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Army people & members of the ruling class out here. At home you know, I did not meet them so much - & such people as I met who had money, worked for it, & my muddled thinking of those days allowed such people to make money at the expense of the workers. But these people I meet out here are so indescribably snobbish, & self satisfied & cynical, & so inefficient & lazy & unrealistic. They look upon the workers, the soldiers + N.COs. as so much cattle - on the Jews & Arabs as inferior people - & they dislike Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Czhecks, Poles, Free French - & even Americans. In fact, they only consider themselves - the ruling classes - the Regular Army. the civil service, London [illegible], & the countries: This may sound pretty good [illegible] [illegible], but by God, it's true. And nobody can say that I am embittered - except in so far as I hate their skins & souls for having allowed this war to happen, & cause me to come out here, away from you.

But meeting them & coming in contact with them, has convinced me that they must go - or else completely change their minds & ways of life. It is utterly [illegible] to have such people ruling our country, - coming to all the parts of the Empire & carrying on in the same way.

What annoys me so much about many articles which I read in magazines & papers, & about post-war [reconstruction?], is that they all presume a return to the old system of capitalism & profit making & competition - & they ponder to some extent to better wages & working

8/ conditions + increased security- + then they go on to talk about increased efficiency + methods + management + finances + so on: some of them even go as far as entirely low profit, but must also be for the good of people. But all that is just fucking about, neither more nor less. As long as you have any profit making, you have competition, + vice versa. And when you have those things, the workers immediately become subordinate to them + all security for them goes. The cost of labour is an important, if not the main cost of all goods- therefore in profit making it must be employed at as low a wage as possible + it must be used + driven as hard as possible. You must remember the time + effort I spent in working out how to cheese + pare here + there, + fighting the union for lower wages + price rates. why the hell should this vast majority be [?] created like coal + steel + timber + bargained about in order, to employ as little of it as possible for the least amount of money - in order that a small minority can pile up money. And people like me, who come in between the two, share + wear out their minds + bodies in aiding + checking that minority- in order to turn L 600 into L700 - L 700 into L 1000 + so on. How much better to have L 500 + work peacefully + well for the good of the communuity as a whole.

9/ Tuesday. May 12th Midnight came last night. But I want to push on + say more about all this + I do hope I am not boring you. I realise that I am probably not saying anything very original, but I want you to know what I am thinking + I am burning to know if you agree with all I say + what your ideas are about our future. I am very anxious that you should agree with me + then we really can feel a common purpose + aim. I am perfectly convinced of my rightness + as you are an honest + intelligent person + have no false ideas about having a rightful place in the world except by your own mind + qualities + efforts I am equally certain that you will be with me- + so will anybody else of similar qualities. In my opinion, the capitalist profit making, land + property owning system has two major + intolerable defects. Firstly, because the workers + wage earners + that includes foremen + clerks + shop assistants , yes, + managers too are pinned down to as low a wage as possible + geared up to as much work as possible; in the case of workers on newer wages, their standard of life is very low, they have very few comforts + pleasures, + no security at all. And secondly it leads to inevitable international rivalry in trade + so on to war; this war, + the last were caused by German capitalism's effort to expand + the British + French capitalism's efforts to prevent it doing so; its not a question of National Socialsim + Democracy at all + anybody who says differently is talking balls. The only alternative method to Socialism for preventing for future wars is the continuance of capitalism in Britain + America + this will keep going a large army, navy + air force to deal with any further German attempts to rise up that might or might not see you + I through

10/ our lifetime- but sooner or later war would come again. Either by means of our capitalists rearming Germany again, as they have done before- or else by means of Russia having had enough of us + herself living up with a socialist Germany to march against us. That is another very excellent reason why socialism is necessary in Britain. I have never read any Marx or Lenin at all but I feel quite certain that their only reason for wanting world revolution was to make a world in which war would be impossible because it would be unnecessary - + not for the futile popular conception that they enjoyed revolution + looked upon it as some game or national sport. And now Stalin is condescendingly praised because he forsook the policy of world revolution + carried on + minded his own business in Russia. Once again I do not know but I feel sure that Stalin weighed things up very carefully + decided that world capitalism was too strong an oponent for him + that he must wait for the impulse to come from within a country such as ours. And the Heavens be praised, he went on to make his preparations for this war. But I do not think for one moment that Stalin is going to sit back again + wait for the next one. And if we do not forsake capitalism, he will concentrate on Germany + the rest of Europe. And then we shall have to fall in a rather bad last- or else our capitalists will lead us into another war + next time, Canada + Australia + S. Africa will NOT come to our aid. A socialist world, as I see it, is one in which