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 YOUNG COMRADE: So what’s in it?
THE POLICEMAN: I don’t know. To the Second Worker: So what’s in it?
THE SECOND WORKER: I know nothing about that leaflet. I didn’t distribute it.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I know he didn’t.
THE POLICEMAN to the Young Comrade: Did you give him that leaflet?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: No.
THE POLICEMAN to the Second Worker: Then you gave it him.
THE YOUNG COMRADE to the First Worker: What are they going to do to him?
THE FIRST WORKER: He could be put in prison.3
THE YOUNG COMRADE: What do you want to put him in prison for, officer? Aren’t you a worker too?
THE POLICEMAN to the Second Worker: Come along. Hits him on the head.
THE YOUNG COMRADE tries to stop him: It wasn’t him.
THE POLICEMAN: Then it was you all along.
THE SECOND WORKER: It wasn’t him.
THE POLICEMAN: Then the two of you were in it together.
THE FIRST WORKER: Go on, run, your pockets are stuffed with leaflets.
The Policeman knocks the Second Worker down.
THE YOUNG COMRADE to the First Worker, pointing at the Policeman: He’s killed an innocent man, you witnessed it.
THE FIRST WORKER attacking the Policeman: You corrupt pig!
The Policeman draws his revolver. The Young Comrade grabs the Policeman’s neck from behind, the First Worker twists his arm slowly backwards. The revolver goes off, the Policeman is disarmed
THE YOUNG COMRADE shouts: Help, comrades, help! They’re killing innocent bystanders!
THE SECOND WORKER getting up, to the First: Now we’ve assaulted a policeman we’ll never be able to go back to the factory, and – To the Young Comrade. – it’s all your fault.4
THE FOUR AGITATORS: And instead of distributing leaflets he had to hide, for they reinforced the police guard.
DISCUSSION5
THE CONTROL CHORUS: But is it not correct to stop injustice wherever it occurs?
THE FOUR AGITATORS: He stopped a small injustice, but the big injustice was the strike-breaking, and that continued.
No. 7b
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
We are in agreement.
5
BY THE WAY, WHAT IS A MAN?
THE FOUR AGITATORS: Daily we fought against the old organisations, against submissiveness and against despair; we taught the workers to transform their fight for better pay into a fight for power. Taught them to handle weapons and how to conduct demonstrations. Then we heard that the business community was involved in a dispute about tariffs with the English who controlled the city. So as to exploit this division among the rulers for the benefit of the ruled we sent the Young Comrade with a letter to the richest of the business men. It said ‘Arm the coolies.’ We told the Young Comrade ‘Conduct yourself in such a way that you get the weapons.’ But once the food was put on the table he couldn’t keep silent. We will show it.
One Agitator acts the Merchant.
THE MERCHANT: I am the merchant. I am expecting a letter from the coolie organisation about a joint operation against the English.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Here is the coolie organisation’s letter.
THE MERCHANT: I invite you to eat with me.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I am honoured to be permitted to eat with you.
THE MERCHANT: While they are preparing the food I will tell you what I think about coolies. Kindly sit there.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I am most interested to know what you think.
No. 8a RECITATIVE
THE MERCHANT: Tell me why I can get things twice as cheap as the others? And tell me why my coolies work for such miserable pay.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I’ve no idea.
THE MERCHANT: Because I am a shrewd man. And you are also shrewd men, for you know how to get the coolies to pay you a good income.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: We know how to. Incidentally, are you going to arm the coolies against the English?
THE MERCHANT: We’ll see, we’ll see. I know how one has to handle a coolie. You have to provide sufficient rice for him so he runs no risk of dying, otherwise how can he work for you. Are you with me?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Yes, I am with you.
THE MERCHANT: That’s where you’ve got it wrong. Because if coolies cost even less than does rice, why not go and buy myself a new one? Are you with me now?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Yes, I am with you now. Incidentally, when will you start sending arms into the Lower City?
THE MERCHANT: Soon, soon. You ought to see how the coolies who pack my leather buy the rice in my canteen. D’you think I pay a high price for my labour?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: No, but your rice is expensive. And your labour has to be up to standard. But your rice is below standard.
THE MERCHANT: Yes, you are shrewd people.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: And are you going to arm the coolies against the English?
THE MERCHANT: We can have a look round the armoury after we’ve eaten. First I must sing my favourite song.
No. 8b SONG OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND
THE MERCHANT:
Rice can be had down the river.
People in the remoter provinces need their rice.
If we can keep that rice off the market
Rice is bound to get dearer.
Then the men who pull the barges must go short of rice
And I shall get my rice for even less.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: By the way, what is rice?
THE MERCHANT:
Don’t ask me what rice is.
Don’t ask me my advice.
I’ve no idea what rice is
All I have learnt is its price.
In winter time the coolies need warm clothing.
Then you must buy cotton so that
You can keep cotton off the market.
When a cold spell comes, then clothes get more expensive.
Our cotton-spinning mills pay too high wages.
And cotton’s too plentiful in any case.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: By the way, what is cotton?
THE MERCHANT:
How can I say what cotton is.
How can I give my advice.
I’ve not the least notion what cotton is
All I have learnt is its price.
Men like these need too much feeding
And this makes a man dearer.
To provide for their feeding you need more men.
The cooks may get it done cheaper, but look at
The eaters making it dearer.
And men are in short supply in any case.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: By the way, what is a man?
THE MERCHANT:
Don’t ask me what a man is.
Don’t ask me my advice.
I’ve no idea what a man is
All I have learnt is his price.
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
He can’t tell what a man is
He only knows his price.
THE MERCHANT to the Young Comrade: And now we will eat my good rice.
THE YOUNG COMRADE standing up: I cannot eat with you.
THE FOUR AGITATORS: Those were his words, and neither ridicule nor threats could induce him to eat with a man he despised; and the merchant threw him out, and the coolies were not armed.
DISCUSSION
THE CONTROL CHORUS: But is it not correct to put honour above everything else?
THE FOUR AGITATORS: No.
No. 9 ALTER THE WORLD, IT NEEDS IT
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
Whom would the just man fail to greet, if it helped him to stop an injustice?
What medicine tastes too nasty to save
A dying man?
How much meanness would you not commit if the aim is
To stamp out meanness?
If you’d found out how the world could be altered, what would you
Refuse to do?
What would you refuse to do?
; Sink deep in the mire
Shake hands with the butcher: yes, but
Alter the world, it needs it!
Who are you?6
For some time we have listened to you less
As if judging you, more as
Men who must learn.
THE FOUR AGITATORS: Even as he left, the Young Comrade realised his mistake, and volunteered to be sent back over the frontier if we wished. We were well aware of his weakness, but we still needed him since he had many supporters among the youth organisations, and did much at that time to help us knit the Party’s network together under the guns of the capitalists.
6
THE BETRAYAL7
THE FOUR AGITATORS: During that week the repression became exceptionally severe. All that we had left was a hideout for our printing machine and leaflets. But one morning there were major hunger riots in the city, and from the countryside too major riots were reported. On the evening of the third day, after a dangerous journey to our place of refuge, we were met at the door by the Young Comrade. And there were sacks standing in the rain outside. We will repeat the conversation.
THE THREE AGITATORS: What sacks are those?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Those are our propaganda material.
THE THREE AGITATORS: What is supposed to be done with them?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I have something to tell you: the new leaders of the unemployed came here today and convinced me that we must start the operation right away. So we should distribute the material8 and storm the barracks.
THE THREE AGITATORS: Then you misled them. But tell us your reasons and see if you can convince us.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Misery is on the increase and there is growing unrest in the town.
THE THREE AGITATORS: The ignorant are starting to realise their situation.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: The unemployed have accepted our teachings.
THE THREE AGITATORS: The oppressed are becoming class-conscious.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: They are out on the streets aiming to smash the spinning mills.
THE THREE AGITATORS: They have no experience of revolution.9 Our responsibility is all the greater.
THE YOUNG COMRADE:
The unemployed cannot go on waiting and I
Cannot go on waiting.
There is too much misery.
THE THREE AGITATORS: But still too few militants.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Their sufferings are monstrous.
THE THREE AGITATORS: Suffering isn’t enough.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Inside there we have seven who came to us on behalf of the unemployed; behind them stand seven thousand, and they know that unhappiness does not grow on one’s skin like leprosy; poverty does not fall from above like a roof tile; on the contrary, unhappiness and poverty are men’s handiwork; famine is cooked for them, but their lamentation is consumed as food. They know everything.
THE THREE AGITATORS: Do they know how many regiments the government has?
THE YOUNG COMRADE: No.
THE THREE AGITATORS: Then they don’t know enough. Where are your weapons?
THE YOUNG COMRADE showing his hands: We shall fight tooth and nail.
THE THREE AGITATORS: That won’t be enough.10 You see only the misery of the unemployed, not that of the workers. You see only the city, not the peasants in the plains. You see the soldiers only as oppressors, not as miserable oppressed creatures in uniform. Go then to the unemployed, cancel your advice to storm the barracks, and convince them that they must join tonight’s demonstration by the factory workers, while we try to convince the disaffected soldiers that they too must demonstrate in uniform alongside us.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I told the unemployed not to forget how often the soldiers had fired on them. Am I now to tell them that they are to demonstrate alongside murderers?
THE THREE AGITATORS: Yes, because the soldiers may realise how wrong they were to fire on miserable members of their own class. You should recall comrade Lenin’s classic advice not to treat every peasant as a class enemy but to make rural poverty your ally in the fight.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Then let me ask: do the Marxist classics allow misery to be kept waiting?
THE THREE AGITATORS: They are talking about methods which deal with misery as a whole.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: So don’t the classics accept the supreme importance of giving immediate help to any individual in misery?
THE THREE AGITATORS: No.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Then the classics are crap, and I am going to rip them apart; for man, real live man, is crying out and his misery rips through the limitations of their teachings. That is why I shall launch the operation instantly and at once; for I am crying out and ripping through the limitations of their teachings.
He tears up their writings.
THE THREE AGITATORS:
Do not rip them apart! We need them
Every page of them. You must face reality.
Your revolution is hastily made and will last a single day
And tomorrow it will be strangled.
But our revolution will begin tomorrow
Conquering and altering the world.
Your revolution stops when you stop.
When you have stopped
Our revolution will continue.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Listen to what I say. With my own two eyes I have seen that misery cannot be kept waiting. That is why I oppose your decision to wait.
THE THREE AGITATORS: You have not convinced us. So go to the unemployed and convince them that they must join in the revolutionary front. You are to treat this as an order in the name of the Party.
THE YOUNG COMRADE:
Who do you think is the Party?
Does it sit in a big house with a switchboard?
Are all its decisions unknown, all its thoughts wrapped in secrecy?
Who is it?
THE THREE AGITATORS:
We are it.
You and I and them – all of us.
Comrade, the clothes it’s dressed in are your clothes, the head that it thinks with is yours
Where I’m lodging, there is its house, and where you suffer an assault it fights back.
Show us the path we must take, and we
Shall take it with you, but
Don’t take the right path without us.
Without us it is
The most wrong of all.
Don’t cut yourself off from us!
We can go astray and you can be right, so
Don’t cut yourself off from us!
That the short path is better than the long one cannot be denied.
But if someone knows it
And cannot point it out to us, what use is his wisdom?
Be wise with us.
Don’t cut yourself off from us!
THE YOUNG COMRADE: Because I am right I cannot give way. My own two eyes tell me that misery cannot wait.
No. 10 PRAISE OF THE PARTY
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
One single man may have two eyes
But the Party has a thousand.
One single man may see a town
But the Party sees six countries.
One single man can spare a moment
The Party has many moments.
One single man can be annihilated
But the Party can’t be annihilated
For its techniques are those of its philosophers
Which are derived from awareness of reality
And are destined soon to transform it
As soon as the masses make them their own.
Who do you think is the Party?
Does it sit in a big house with a switchboard?
Are all its decisions unknown, all its thoughts wrapped in secrecy?
Who is it?
We are it.
You and I and them – we all are.
Comrade, the clothes it’s dressed in are your clothes, the head that it thinks with is yours
Where I’m lodging, there is its house, and where you suffe
r an assault it fights back.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: None of that is valid now: the prospect of battle makes me reject everything that applied yesterday, I withdraw my agreement with everyone, I shall do the simple human thing. Here is an operation. I shall be its spearhead. My heart beats for the Revolution. The Revolution is here!
THE THREE AGITATORS: Be quiet!
THE YOUNG COMRADE: There is oppression here. I am for freedom.
THE THREE AGITATORS: Be quiet! You will betray us.
THE YOUNG COMRADE: I cannot be quiet, because I am right.
THE THREE AGITATORS: Right or wrong, if you speak we shall be lost. Be quiet!
THE YOUNG COMRADE:
I saw too much
Therefore I shall appear before them
As who I am, and say how it is.
He takes off his mask and shouts:
We have come to help you.
We are from Moscow.
He rips up his mask.
THE FOUR AGITATORS:
And we looked at him, and in the half-light
We saw his naked face
Human, open, guileless. He had
Ripped up his mask
And from the houses came the
Cries of the exploited: Who is
Disturbing the sleep of the poor?
And a window opened and a voice called:
Look! Foreigners! Down with the agitators!
So we were recognised
And at the same time we heard there were riots
In the Lower City, and the ignorant were waiting
In the meeting houses and the unarmed on the streets.
But he would not stop shouting.
And we struck him down
Picked him up and hurriedly departed that place.
7
EXTREME PERSECUTION AND ANALYSIS
No. 11 RECITATIVE
THE CONTROL CHORUS:
They departed that place!
Unrest was growing in the town
And yet the leaders were making their getaway.
What is your decision?
THE FOUR AGITATORS:
Wait for it.
It is easy to know the correct course
Away from the shooting
With months to spare
But we
Had five minutes to spare and
Did our thinking under the guns.
When we had got away as far as the lime pits outside the town we could hear our pursuers behind us. Our young comrade opened his eyes, heard what had happened, realised what he had done, and said: We are lost.
THE CONTROL CHORUS: In a time of utmost persecution, confusing all our ideas, militants are forced to take stock and pause, weighing the effort against the objective.