I am just writing to remind you of our existence.
We have been surprised for a long time that even those least sympathetic to left-wing ideology do not appreciate the urgency of the need to make possible the publication of different points of view. In the last war, Winston Churchill appreciated the importance of propaganda, but since then only exponents of politically correct socialist or ‘liberal’ ideology in this country have done so, and pumped out their propaganda in schools and universities, the Press and the media.
One might hope that the recent terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre might have given pro-capitalists, who see some point in preventing the total downfall of Western civilisation, some sense of urgency.
There is now, of course, some expression of determination to fight back against terrorism, but it continues to be true that the defenders of capitalism and of individual liberty remain on the defensive, justifying themselves by reference to the standards proposed by those who wish to undermine them. Even in writing of an outrage so terrible as the recent attacks, it was clear that there was a strong tide of underlying anti-American and anti-capitalist opinion, and several journalists expressed or hinted at the view that, while such outrages could not be condoned, there was a sense in which America had brought them on itself by being successful and ‘superior’ and failing to flood the world with food and medical supplies.
In the context of a climate which permitted any serious expression of pro-capitalist and anti-socialist views, there might have been more effective defence against what happened on the part of intelligence and other services. Meanwhile potential terrorists have continued to pour into this country, where they are protected by law against imprisonment and extradition, and by political correctness against suspicion. This situation may now be ‘remedied’ by draconian restrictions on the liberties of British, and especially middle class, citizens, something that has in many unacceptable ways already happened, without any serious inconvenience to terrorists of any nationality, who are well-provided with financial and technological resources.
Whatever opposition to terrorism takes place will be in the context of an ideology that is fundamentally sympathetic to the destruction of capitalism, the middle class, and anything that is worthy to be called civilisation. In your letter of 26th July, you said, ‘Keep up the good work’. I regret to say we are not able to. Although we have released some capital by selling our Oxford house and moving to East London, we are as yet unable to pay for enough staff for any real progress to be made with the writing and publishing of books.
It is simply not possible for the four of us to do any more than we are doing at present without more money and more support staff, since the greater part of our energy has to be devoted to supporting ourselves, and we are constantly aware of the risk that the health of one of us might break down, so that he or she was unable to make even the contribution being made at present to our situation.
We do need support urgently in order to publish even a small quantity of what needs to be said, and is not being said by anyone else. Even in America, defences of capitalism are defensive and half-hearted, and heavily outweighed by advocacy of socialist policies.