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Trotsky on Stalin and Blumkin

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Trotsky on Stalin and Blumkin Vol. I l l , No. 9, Telephone: DRYdock 1656 NEW YORK, N. Y. Saturday, March"T" 1930 i— p r ic e 5 CENTS The Murder of Blumkin is An Act Build A Broad Movement Against the Russian Revolution To Aid The Unemployed The coll-b'ooded and cynically cal­ tion has been proved correct on every ma­ culates murder of the Bolshevik, Blumkin, jor issue before the C. P. S. U. and the Tlirough out the United States millions demand- for compensation, for wages must by Stalin for his adherence to the ideals of Communist International. What cynicism, of unemployed workers, their ranks in­ be made upon Industry and the government, the Left Opposition is bringing in its wake what brutality and coarseness, vhat creased by tens of thousands in recent local, state and national. swift revulsion against these latest meth­ disregard of the interests of the proletar­ weeks, face a future of increased misery, ods of the Stalinist bureaucracy toward iat of the Russian October, mark this Organise Unemployed on Elementary Issues degradation, poverty and starvation. U. S. Under the conditions it is possible to the Leninist Bosheviks in the U. S. R. Stalin and his conscienceless cliinovnlks, capitalism offers fine words to the unem­ The worker-Communists and the proletar­ the Molotovs, Thaelmanns, Fosters, Minors, develop a broad movement on behalf of the ployed but no work or compensation. In unemployed masses, as has been previously ian forces throughout the world are put­ Cac-hiLs! With one hand they wave the November 1929, immediately after the Wall shown by the Militant. This can be done If ting the question: Why the imprisonment, red flag of the revolutionary proletariat Street crash, President Hoover called a the class concious workers, the revolution­ exile and now shooting of the Left Oppo­ and with the other they persecute and conference of millionaire bankers, industri­ aries and particularly the Communists, use sitionists? What is behind it all? Stalin even shoot the best fighters of October and alists and manufacturers at Washington to correct tactics; that the broadest conceiv­ and his. bureaucrats, in firm unltv for the international revolution. The prolet­ map out a vast industrial and building pro­ able movement is sought and worked for; ariat, the CommunU. workers demand an years with the Bucharin-Rylcov Right wing, gram that would “ normalize'’ business again that simple elementary demands, such as, answer! carried out a program that was swiftly and provide employment for the mass of un­ Work or Compensation from industry and giving renewed life and strength to the .Stalinists Politically and Morally Bankrupt employed workers. That conference has re­ the government of the bosses, are put in the The acts of Stalin against the Oppos- Nepmen and Kulaks in the Soviet Union. sulted for the workers in exactly—nothing. forefront. Mere noise and bombast and They were thereby earning the gratitude sition, now culminating in the murder of Leading capitalist and governmental demonstrations (here today and gone tomor­ of the bourgeoisie throughout the' world. the noble fighter for the Revolution, Blum­ officials are now less sanguine about the row) w ill not serve the purpose. Sectarian, The expulsions and persecutions in the kin, are acts against the fundamental in ­ prospects for a swift and huge economic narrow movements, in which the main object most vicious forms of the Opposition led terests of the Revolution. Stalin performs revival. Lieutenant-Governor Lehmann of of the leaders Is only to express their par­ by L. D. Trotsky went on simultaneously. the work of an anti-Bolshevik when he the State of New York, in which unemploy­ ticular views, and who regard the workars decimates the ranks of the Communist But the Opposition, firm ly rooted in the ment Is greater than in any other section of involved, but as objects of agitation, w ill working masses of the Communist Party movement. In far-off China, the Stalinist the country, states: “ We are not going to also not get anybody very far, and least of and the country continued to stand by followers shot at a leader r'f the Chinese return to normalacy overnight. There never all the-unemployed worker who is looking their platform; for an industrialization Opposition. In the United States the Fos- was chance of that, in spite of over- for a job, food, clothing and shelter. optimistic predictions.” The participation of workers in such The gravity of the situation, the misery movements of struggle, however, serves as rampant throughout the country, rise every­ an excellent preparatory school in the class TROTSKY ON STALIN where to confound with stark facts the war. Such movements teach the workers Hooverian sooth-sayers. The capitalists and the nature of class society, the role of the their hired scribblers and mind-befogging governing classes, and certainly aid the de­ AND BLUM KIN professors find themselves unable to put velopment of the workers towards a class "Blumkin did visit me at Constantinople... forward any capitalist remedies that can conscious ideology and action. This is the “I told him among other things, that my exile as well as the imprison­ relieve the acute conditions of existence and objective to be sought. But such confer­ ment of other comrades did not change our fundamental line; that in the starvation that affect the lives of millions ences of the unemployed as the one called moment of danger the Oppositionists would be In the most advanced posts; of working people. On an international and held by the Trade Union Unity League that in the difficult hours Stalin would be forced to call upon them, even as scale, in fact, the deadly pall of unem­ of New York City, on Wednesday February Tseretelli appealed to the Bolsheviks for aid against Kornilov....... ployment hangs over tens of millions of 19th, at the Manhattan Lyceum w ill end “ ....... The Stalinist repression against us does not yet signify a change workers and their families. Their need is, only in a swamp, and bring about no bona- in the class character of the State, but only prepares and makes more easy in short, bread. They are ready to work fide organization of the unemployed workers that change; our course remains, as in the past, that of reform and not that to get it. I f they cannot get work, the to make effective their demands upon the of revolution; the Implacable struggle for our ideas must be based on the bosses and the state. perspective of a long delay.” New York T. U. U. L. Conference a Talkfest —Excerpt from a letter of comrade Leon Trotsky of January 5tli, 1930 40 Percent Jobless The T. U. U. L. nationally, as the trade at Prinkipo, Turkey. union instrument of the Communist Party In Bay State in the United States, has set a task to or­ program for the Soviet Union, presenting ter-uovestone cliques adopted the methods ganize the unemployed of this country, their projects in 1927 in the form of a of the underworld, of gangsterism, against BOSTON—During Janaury but 60% of which is to culminate in an international 6 Year Plan; for the policy of collective the Communist Opposition. Why? WTe ask the 260,000 workers who would be em­ demonstration on March 6th agaist the and Soviet Farms and against the en­ and w ill continue to demand adequate re­ ployed normally in 1,106 Massachusetts fac­ scourge of unemployment In all capitalist croachments of the Kulak; against the plies o f the Stalinist regime for their de­ tories and mills were at work on fu ll time countries, The New York Conference of growing bureaucracy in the Party, the So­ fenseless acts against the Opposition, schedule. Jobs, part time and fu ll time, the T. V. U. Li therefore serves as a pic­ ture of what is undoubtedly being dupli­ viet Union and the trade unions; and many against the Revolution. could be found for only 213,000 of the other principle and tactical issues. These brutal acts only show more con­ quarter m illion or more, states the Massa- cated in other cities where it has or is calling similar conferences. Opposition Pressure Forces Stalin to the clusively the political and moral bankrupt­ chusettts labor department. cy of Stalinist Centrism. I t is the replace­ Employment declined 1% between De­ A t the New York Conference, 300 people le ft representing, according to the chairman, Under the pressure of the Opposition, ment of a political line with the bureau­ cember and January and average earnings Sadie Van Veen, 12 unemployed councils, cratic power of a corrupt apparatus. The sank from $24.16 a week to $24.08. An up­ the Stalin Centrists have been compelled left wing unions, T. U. U. L. groups, work­ murder of Blumkin w ill but serve to con­ turn in the shoe industry of 17% kept the to swing back from a Right course toward men s circles, working class housewives, the Left, and piece-meal to adopt the Plat­ solidate more firmly than ever before the average from sinking far lower. In 31 In­ growing ranks of the Opposition. A t the dustries employment dropped below the etc. were present. The chairman. Van Veen, form of the Opposition. The M ilitant has was not elected, she just served and opened same time the murder will call forth the December level. During the month seven made and w ill make further evaluations the meeting with a speech of some 30 min­ protest of the Communist and class-con­ factories went out of business. Including of this latest Stalinist zig-zag, the so-called utes length.
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