Brecht Collected Plays: 3: Lindbergh's Flight; The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent; He Said Yes/He Said No; The Decision; The Mother; The Exception & the ... St Joan of the Stockyards (World Classics)
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THE THREE AGITATORS: We come from Moscow.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: We were expecting you.
THE THREE AGITATORS: Why?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: We are getting nowhere. There is disorder and want, a lot of fighting and not much bread. Plenty of people with courage but not many who can read. Not many machines, and no one to understand them. Our railway engines have been driven till they are wrecks.
No. 2a RECITATIVE
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Did you bring us any railway engines?
THE THREE AGITATORS: No.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Have you brought any tractors with you?
THE THREE AGITATORS: No.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Our peasants still harness themselves to old-fashioned wooden ploughs. And we have nothing to put in our fields. Have you brought us any seed?
THE THREE AGITATORS: No.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Well, at least you’ll have got machine guns and ammunition for us?
THE THREE AGITATORS: No.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: There are two of us here to defend the Revolution. So you surely must have a letter from the Central Committee for us, telling us what to do?
THE THREE AGITATORS: No.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: So you mean to help us yourselves?
THE THREE AGITATORS: No.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: We live in our clothes day and night, beating off the forces of hunger, demoralisation and counterrevolution. And you have nothing for us.
THE THREE AGITATORS: That is right: we have nothing for you. But for the Chinese workers across the frontier in Mukden we have the teachings of the Marxist classics and their propagandists, the ABC of Communism. For the ignorant, to shed light upon their situation; for the oppressed, to teach them class-awareness; and for the class-conscious, the experience of the Revolution. What we are supposed to get from you is an automobile and a guide.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: So that was a bad question I asked?
THE THREE AGITATORS: No, it was a good question followed by a better answer. We know that impossible demands have been made of you, but still more is going to be demanded: one of you two will have to guide us to Mukden.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Then I am to abandon my task which was too much for two people and will now have to be done by one. I shall go with you. Marching ahead, spreading the teachings of the Communist classics: the World Revolution.
No. 2b PRAISE OF THE USSR
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
All the world was telling of
Our misfortune.
But still there sat at our
Bare board
The hope of the numberless exploited which
Lives on water alone.
And our teacher was Knowledge, who
Behind our broken-down door
Gave clear lessons to all those present.
Once the door’s been broken, we
Sit on inside, plainly visible
Whom no frost can kill off, nor hunger
Ever tireless, debating
The future of the world.
THE FOUR AGITATORS: So the young comrade from the frontier post approved the nature of our work and, as four men and one woman, we reported to the director of the Party house.
2
THE OBLITERATION
THE FOUR AGITATORS: But our work in Mukden was illegal, and so before we crossed the frontier we had to obliterate our faces. Our young comrade was in agreement. We will repeat the incident.
One of the Agitators plays the Director of the Party house.
THE DIRECTOR OF THE PARTY HOUSE: I am the director of the last Party house. I agree that the comrade from my post should go along as their guide. However, there are disturbances in the factories at Mukden, and at present the eyes of the whole world are turned on that city to see if any of us can be seen leaving the Chinese workers’ huts. What is more I have been told that there are gunboats in a state of readiness on the rivers and armoured trains on the railway embankments, all ready to attack the moment one of us is seen there. So I propose that the comrades should cross the frontier as Chinamen. To the Agitators: You must not be seen.
THE TWO AGITATORS: We will not be seen.
THE DIRECTOR OF THE PARTY HOUSE: If anyone is injured he must not be found.
THE TWO AGITATORS: He will not be found.
No. 3a RECITATIVE
THE DIRECTOR OF THE PARTY HOUSE: Are you prepared to speak and to keep on until you stop, but to disappear before anyone looks at you, so as to conceal both those left alive and the dead too?
THE TWO AGITATORS: Yes.
THE DIRECTOR OF THE PARTY HOUSE: Then you’ll be different people. You’ll not be Karl Schmitt from Berlin, you’ll not be Anna Kjersk from Kazan, and you’ll not be Peter Savitch from Moscow; no, you’ll be without either surname or mother – empty pages upon which the Revolution writes what it has to say.
THE TWO AGITATORS: Yes.
THE DIRECTOR OF THE PARTY HOUSE gives them masks which they put on: Then you’ll find you won’t be nobodies any longer, but from that moment, probably till you vanish off the face of this planet, you will be unknown workers, Chinese, militants, and children all of Chinese mothers, yellow-skinned, speaking Chinese in dream and delirium.
THE TWO AGITATORS: Yes. They put on their masks.
THE DIRECTOR OF THE PARTY HOUSE: For the sake of Communism, agreeing to the forward march of the proletarian masses of every country, saying yes to the revolutionising of the world.
THE TWO AGITATORS: Yes. And the young comrade said yes. Thus he showed that he agreed to the obliteration of his face.
No. 3b SPEECH CHORUS
THE CONTROL CHORUS: All those who fight for Communism must know how to fight and how not to fight; to tell the truth and not to tell the truth; to be servile and also how not to be servile; to keep one’s promises and also not keep them; how to confront a danger, how to avoid danger; to be known by sight and unknown. All those who fight for Communism have just this to be said in their favour: that they are fighting for Communism.
THE FOUR AGITATORS: We went to Mukden as Chinamen, four men and one woman, to make propaganda and to reinforce the Chinese Party by means of the teachings of the Communist classics and their propagandists, the ABC of Communism, bringing to the ignorant new light on their situation, to the oppressed class-consciousness, and to the class-conscious experience of the Revolution.
No. 4 PRAISE OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITY
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
Best of all
To raise your voices for the working class.
Loud and clearly calling on the masses to struggle
Stamping firmly on all oppressors, freeing all victims of oppression.
Useful and difficult are all those small routines
Secret and obstinate knots in
That mighty net the Party weaves
Under the rifle barrels of the bosses.
Speaking, but
Without betraying the speaker.
Winning, but
Without betraying the winner.
Dying, but
Without declaring the death.
Who would not do a lot for fame? Who
Would do as much for silence?
But it is just the poorest of all that make Honour their guest
It’s out of the meanest hovel that comes forth
Irresistible Greatness.
And when Fame asks who did
The great deed, it will ask in vain.
Show yourselves
Just for an instant, you
Unknown men; you can cover your face while we
Utter our thanks.
THE FOUR AGITATORS: In the city of Mukden we made propaganda among the workers. We had no bread for the hungry, merely knowledge for the ignorant, and so we spoke of the causes of poverty: did not abolish poverty itself but spoke of abolishing its causes.
3
THE STONE
THE FOUR AGITATORS: To start with we went to the Lower City. Some coolies on the river bank were
tugging a barge with a rope. But the ground was slippery. When one of them slipped and the overseer struck him we told the young comrade ‘Go after them and make propaganda among them. Tell them that in Tientsin you saw boots for barge-hauliers with wooden bars underneath to stop them skidding. Try to get them to insist on boots like that. But don’t let yourself become sorry for them!’ And we asked ‘Do you agree?’ and he agreed, and hurried off, and at once let himself become sorry for them. We will show it. Two Agitators act the part of Coolies by tying a rope to a stake and pulling it over their shoulders. One acts the Young Comrade, and one the Overseer.
THE OVERSEER: I am the Overseer. I have to get this rice to Mukden before evening.
THE TWO COOLIES: We are the coolies and we are hauling the rice barge up the river.
No. 5 SONG OF THE RICE-BARGE HAULIERS
THE FIRST COOLIE:
In the town further upstream
There’ll be a bowl of rice for us.
– Only the barge we’re hauling is heavy
And the water’s flowing downhill.
We’ll never get this barge up there.
MEN’S CHORUS:
Pull harder, men’s mouths are
Waiting for the next meal.
Pull steadily, don’t push
The man in front.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: How hideous to hear the lovely way these men cloak the torment of their work.
THE OVERSEER: Pull harder.
THE FIRST COOLIE:
Now night’s almost come. A bunk
That would seem too cramping for a dog’s ghost
Costs as much as half a bowl of rice.
And this bank is so slithery
We can’t budge from the spot.
MEN’S CHORUS:
Pull harder, men’s mouths are
Waiting for the next meal.
Pull steadily, don’t push
The man in front.
THE SECOND COOLIE slipping to the ground: I can’t go on.
THE FIRST COOLIE while the coolies halt and are whipped until
the fallen man picks himself up:
We know we’ll never
Survive the rope that cuts our shoulders.
The whip which he wields has seen
Four generations like us
Nor are we the last one.
MEN’S CHORUS:
Pull harder, men’s mouths are
Waiting for the next meal.
Pull steadily, don’t push
The man in front.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: It is hard to look at these men without being sorry for them. To the Overseer: Can’t you see the ground is too slippery?
THE OVERSEER: What about the ground?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Too slippery.
THE OVERSEER: Are you trying to tell me that this towpath is so slippery they can’t haul a bargeload of rice?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Yes.
THE OVERSEER: So you don’t believe they need rice in Mukden?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: If these men fall down they can’t haul the barge.
THE OVERSEER: Is it my job to lay stones for them all the way to Mukden?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I’ve no idea what your job is but I know theirs. It’s to stick up for themselves. To the coolies: Don’t you imagine that what has been impossible for two thousand years is going to be impossible for ever. In Tientsin I saw barge hauliers with boots that had wooden bars underneath to stop them sliding. They achieved this by making a joint demand. You make a joint demand for boots like that.
THE COOLIES: Sure, we can’t go on towing this barge without boots like that.
THE OVERSEER: But the rice has got to be in Mukden tonight. He whips them, and they pull.
THE FIRST COOLIE:
First our fathers shifted the barge from the river mouth
Just a bit upstream. And our sons will
Get to the head springs, but our place is
In between them.
MEN’S CHORUS:
Pull harder, men’s mouths are
Waiting for the next meal.
Pull steadily, don’t push
The man in front.
THE SECOND COOLIE: Help me!
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Are you inhuman? I’m picking up a stone and laying it in the mud. To the coolie: Now step on that.
THE OVERSEER: Quite right. What help are boots in Tientsin? I’d sooner have your tender-hearted comrade follow with a stone and lay it in front of anyone who slips.
THE FIRST COOLIE:
This barge bears rice. The farmer who
Sowed and gathered it was paid
With a heap of small change. Our
Payment is even less, because we
Are too many. One ox costs more.
One of the coolies slips and falls, the Young Comrade lays a stone in front of him, the coolie picks himself up.
MEN’S CHORUS:
Pull harder, men’s mouths are
Waiting for the next meal.
Pull steadily, don’t push
The man in front.
THE FIRST COOLIE:
Once the rice has arrived at last
And the children want to know just
Who hauled the heavy barge, they’ll hear: That’s
A barge that got hauled here.
One of the coolies slips and falls, the Young Comrade lays a stone in front of him, the coolie picks himself up.
MEN’S CHORUS:
Pull harder, men’s mouths are
Waiting for the next meal.
Pull steadily, don’t push
The man in front.
The foodstuff from downstream gets to
The eaters upstream. Those
Who hauled it have not
Had their food yet.
One of the coolies slips and falls, the Young Comrade lays a stone in front of him, the coolie picks himself up.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I can’t go on. You must insist on other boots.
THE FIRST COOLIE: He’s simple, they’re laughing at him.
THE OVERSEER: No, he’s one of those agitators. Hold him, you men!
THE FOUR AGITATORS: And instantly he was held. And they hunted him for two days, then he met us and for a week they hunted us and him all over Mukden, and it became impossible for us to show our faces in the Lower City.
THE LEADER OF THE CONTROL CHORUS: Discussion!
No. 6a DISCUSSION
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
But is it not correct to take the side of the weaker
To help him wherever he may be –
The exploited one – in his daily sufferings?
THE FOUR AGITATORS: He was no help to the weaker, but hindered us from making propaganda in the lower part of the town.
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
We are in agreement.
THE FOUR AGITATORS: The Young Comrade realised that he had separated thinking from feeling. But we comforted him and repeated the words of comrade Lenin:
No. 6b LENIN QUOTATION (SPEECH CHORUS)
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
He’s not wise who never makes mistakes.
He is wise who makes mistakes and puts them right.
No. 6c CANON ON A LENIN QUOTATION
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
He’s not wise who never makes mistakes.
He is wise who makes mistakes but puts them right.
4
JUSTICE
THE FOUR AGITATORS: We set up the first cells in the factories and trained the first Party cadres, started a Party school and showed them how to produce the forbidden literature in secret. After that we worked in the textile factories, and when wages were cut a section of the workers went on strike. However, the rest of the workers continued working, and so the strike looked like being a failure. We told the Young Comrade ‘Go to the factory gates and hand out our leaflets.’ We will repeat what was said.
THE THREE AGITATORS: You messed things up with the coolies.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Yes.
&nb
sp; THE THREE AGITATORS: Did that teach you anything?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Yes.
THE TWO TEXTILE WORKERS: Will you do better in the strike?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Yes.
Two of the Agitators act Textile Workers and one a Policeman.
THE POLICEMAN: I am a policeman, and those in power give me my bread so I can fight discontent.
No. 7a STRIKE SONG2
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
Comrade, come and join us, and risk
Your penny that’s worth nothing at all
Your sleeping-place that’s always sodden
And your place of work which you’ll lose any day.
Join us in the coming struggle!
Surely you can’t want us to fail.
Help yourself by giving us help. Let
Solidarity prevail.
THE YOUNG COMRADE:
Give up what you have got, comrade!
You have got nothing.
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
Comrade, come and join us. Confront their rifles
And insist you get your pay.
Once you know that you’ve not all that much to lose
Their police will find those rifles simply aren’t effective.
Join us in the coming struggle!
Surely you can’t want us to fail.
Help yourself by giving us help. Let
Solidarity prevail.
THE TWO TEXTILE WORKERS: After the last shift we go home; our wages have been cut, but we don’t know what we ought to do, we just go on working.
THE YOUNG COMRADE gives one of them a leaflet, as the other stands idly by: Read this and pass it on. Once you’ve read it you’ll know what you ought to do.
The First Worker takes it and walks on.
THE POLICEMAN taking the leaflet from the First Worker: Who gave you that leaflet?
THE FIRST WORKER: I don’t know: somebody walked past and shoved it in my hand.
THE POLICEMAN to the Second Worker: You gave that leaflet to him. The police are looking for people distributing leaflets like that.
THE SECOND WORKER: I didn’t give anyone a leaflet.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Is it a crime to teach the ignorant to understand their position?
THE POLICEMAN: Your teachings have terrible effects. Spread them in a factory like this, and it doesn’t know who it belongs to. This little leaflet is more dangerous than a battery of artillery.