SOCIALISM & DICTATORSHIP

B W Hale suggests my letter criticising inappropriate use of dispersal powers by the police do not apply to the states that he mentions (Echo 8/12/14). On the contrary, my argument applies to all dictatorships.

To describe the USSR, Cambodia and China as ‘socialist’ suggests confusion as to what that word means; this is understandable given that the agencies of capitalism have for decades used these totalitarian states as a weapon to discredit socialism.

My letter to the Echo a few days ago said: ‘Socialism is nothing if not democratic from top to bottom.’ A description definitely not applying to the states mentioned.

As for ‘thanking my lucky stars’ that I don’t live in a one-party state, my lucky stars have nothing to do with it. The freedoms we enjoy today are due to the struggles of previous generations who fought for the right to vote, the right to free assembly, the right to strike and for a fair and just society.  Rights being undermined by a ConDem government pursuing savage austerity and the maximisation of the wealth of their paymasters.

Tony Mulhearn