TROTtKY ,°». NEW MAtfEt
^MILITANH»«l»It»l»e«l "M"wfce a Monti* toy the Commanlst lLeagaac> of America (€>ppositie»iuT) Vol. III. No. 27. Telephone: DRYdock 165S NEW YORK, N. Y| SATURDAY JULY, 26, PRICE 5 CENTS at Fish Committee Means A Fighting United Front Needed Against the Sharpening Offensive of the Capitalist Class
The bubble of the Whalen documents racy, the aristocracy blamed this movement Union is the friend and ally of the inter- frequent play. has been loudly and derisively punctured. on the gold of the French regicides. The national revolution which is the only guar- As the counter-action to this capital- That clown and former police commissioner source of all evil, the Czarist bureaucracy antee that socialist society can be built up ist offensive, the workers must organize "Whalen presented these documents as had it, were the Jews. In our present epoch and maintained in any country. But the a fighting united front. To make th» "proof" that Amtorg the official Soviet trad- of proletarian struggle, the capitalists find development of the class struggle takes most powerful appeal to the masses in the ing agency in New York was the center of the key to all the riddles of the universe in place on the basis of the conditions in approaching elections, the Communist Par- Communist propaganda for the United . . . Moscow gold. The one thing they will each capitalist country. The world organi- Uy should demonstrate its re:)Hne|-i to States. not awmit is that the roots of the revolu- zation that fights for the establishment place itself at the head of a movement for Three witnesses called before the Fish tionary are sunk deep in the crisis of a of a chain of Soviet Republics is the Com- working class unity. The immediate ob- Committee have conclusively demonstrated class society that has outlived its historic munist International. The functions of jectives of this movement should be the from different angles that these "docu- usefulness. the Soviet Government and the Comintern release of all class war prisoners, federal, ments" are absolute and unadulterated for- Commissioned by Congress to investigate are sufficiently distinct without P. A. Bog- state and municipal grants for the relief geries. The first witness exposed sixteen Communist propaganda for the overthrow danov, the Amtorg head, having resort to of the workless, the enactment of unem- internal mistakes and discrepancies that of the government, the Fish Committee was Sokolnikov's worthless, dangerous and ployment insurance and old age pensions, pointed to their fabrication by Russian in reality an expedient to distract attention revisionist subterfuge at the Geneva Econ- the six hour day and the five day week, and white guards. A newspapermen testified from the misery of the unemployment crisis. omic Conference to the effect that capi- the recognition and extension of lar(je- that the "documents" had been offered for In line with this policy, the Fish Com- talist and socialist systems can cohabit the scale credits to the Soviet Union. sale in Washington six weeks before Whal- mittee made a rabid attack on Amtorg. It world peacefully side by side! —MAURICE SPECTOR en released them to the New York press. is no pleasure to the workers of Russia It is imperative to arouse the widest But the most deadly testimony came from to have to trade with the eneral Electric possible mass movement against this Fish the man in whose print-shop on East Tenth or Henry Ford but power in the United Committee and its probable consequences. The 16th Congress of street the letterheads of the Whaleu docu- States still lies in the hands of the capi- Elihu Root has already advanced the idea ments were printed. talist, not the working class. The devel- of creating a special secfet Federal police, No one in the least familiar with the opment of trade even under these condi- a sort of American Ochrana to spy more the C.P.S.U. history of the series to -which Whalen for- tions is, however, of direct interest to the effectively over the revolutionary workers. Convoked after two years of calculated geries belonged could have entertained the American working class. Amtorg bought Whether Root's proposal in this form is rea- manoeuvcring for factional advantage th» shadow of a doubt as to their true char- more than $107,000,000 of American goods lized at this time or not, the coming storm sixteenth congress of the Communist Par- acter . The Sisson documents of some years in 1928-9 and was planning to double that and stress period in the class struggle ty of the Soviet Union was one of the most ago, setting out to prove that Lenin and in the near future. The goods that Amtorg will mark more and more vicious attempts ominous events in the annals of the Octo- Trotsky were "German spies" could have purchases here mostly with hard cash go to place heavier shackles on the labor ber Revolution. There has been nothing been convincing only to such a product of towards facilitating the work of socialist movement. The Department of Justice will quite like it in the entire history of Bol- the New York Forward as Moissaye Olgin. construction in the Soviet Union and at be more extensively «nl«:dized and I\,s shevism. The celebrated Zinoviev letter could impose the same time inevitably alleviate unem- stool pigeon activities re-enforced. The Enthroned in the midst of the fawning only on the willing credulity of a social- ployment for thousands of American work- revolutionary press will have a constant ers. adulation of his faction agents ("Comrade imperialistl like Macdonald. struggle against being barred from the Duranty of the New York Times included) This exposcre will, of course not stay The baiting of Amtorg by the Fish Com- mails. The industrial espionage system will rose the sinister figure of Stalin, the man the activities of the Fish Committee. It is mittee aided by the Matthew Wolls consti- be intensified. The jailing of militants who against whose aims and methods Lenin the time-honored practise of the ruing class tutor, part and parcel of an attack on the organize the workers will gain momentum. warned in his last testament, striking a always to explain away "social unrest" as iniarests of the American working class. The capitalist campaign to terrorize the note of the most poignant alarm. Every a malicious foreign importation. When the The defense of the Soviet Union is their foreign born workers by the finger-print major leader of the October Revolution had masse:) were once struggling in England own best defense. This does not mean that and passport route will revive. The crimi- been eliminated and crushed by the bureau- for the blessings of parliamentary democ- the U.S.S.R. is any substitute for the ac- nal syndicalism and sedition laws of the cracy and its intrigue. But what was worSe tion of the American proletariat. The Soviet various states will be brought into more —or an accompaniment—the Party moment- arily lies prostrate. A measure of the degeneracy that hag set in, is the spectacle of the Right lead- ers Rykov and Tomsky and others who were The Mass Workers Join the Opposition! compelled by Stalin to drink the bitterest! drcks of personal and political humiliation. George J. Saul Also Demands TKat Party Reinstate Our Group For such self-abasement there is absolute- Comrade Saul haa addressed a state- ly no Bolshevist tradition. Lenin never Por the balance of the summer period, the Kansas and is making his way Bast and ment to the Central Executive Committee South for his trial in South Carolina. The conceived of such a thing against his op- Militant has been compelli tl to change of the Communist Party, in which he de- ponents inside the Party in the most des- its frequency o£ issue to a semi-monthly Left Opposition welcomes comrade Saul clares his support for the platform of the into his ranks. The following represents perate days ot the civil war. But the key- basis. This change, which we shall attempt Left Opposition. He joins the Communist note of this congress was that in Stalin, to make as brief in duration as possible, some of the views expressed by comrade League of America (Opposition) and de- Saul on the situation and needs of the the apparatus-bureaucracy have far more was forced upon us by two factors: the mands of the Communist Party that it re- Communist movement: reason to be satisfied than ever under Len- severe unemployment situation which has instate all expelled members of the Left in. sharply affected the financial income of the "The contradictions of imperialism are Stalinism reigned supreme at the six- Opposition and adopt its platform in the sharper than ever. The objective situation paper, and, added to it, the summer months, United States; and in the Comintern. teenth Congress There was no critical during which a certain organizational and is favorable to the revolutionary movement analysis of the course of political and econ- financial relaxation usually sets in. The adherence of George Saul to the of the workers toward the proletarian revo- omic events for the past two years. There The change to a semi-monthly is an ad- Communist League following the action of lution and communist society. was no honest and searching admission of justment to this situation. It should be Hugo Oehler, is still further evidence of "At the same time there is not the close mistakes. Self-praise and self-content per- distinctly emphasized to all our comrades the movement of the mass workers in our relationship between our Party and the vaded the whole Stalin faction. The Con- and sympathizers that the change is in direction and the dissatisfaction of the workers as a class which anticipates a gress was a mere fig leaf. It met; it dis- no sense o£ the word a permanent/ one. honest Communist */orkers with the present growing confidence in our party as the persed. A few organizational charges were Plans are even now being elaborated for disastrous Party course, and the steady leader in the class struggle. arranged to make the "Master's" power the return to a weekly publication basis growth of influence among the Commun- "This is explainable when one consid- even more air-tight. Such "congresses" are early in the Fall, and a corresponding ex- ists of the ideas of the Left Opposition. ers the inner-party situation, the non-Len- of the soil of Bonapartism. pansion of the publishing, as well as the Comrade Saul only recently returned from inist tactics being employed .... It is not the cowardly Rigl I a and general activities of the Opposition. work for the Communist Party and Inter- "The inner-Party situation, internation- their captive leader Rykov who can give The change is undoubtedly a blow to national Labor Defense in the South where ally and nationally ,is as follows: Mechani- leadership to the Russian proletariat in the our movement, from which all our sup- he was very active in helping to organize cal control by bureaucrats; the non-Lenin- great crisis that looms up ahead of it. porters can help us recover more speedily the Southern textile workers into the Na- ist tactics being applied in connection with That leadership will come from the iron by immeasurably increasing their financial tional Textile Workers Union. His activity the colonial and semi-colonial uprisings; Bolshevik-Leninist Opposition led by Trot- assistance, beginning immediately. A in the Gastonia and other Southern re- in trade union activities and strike strug- sky. It will come from the thousands of broadly grounded financial support, OR- gions brought about his arrest by the south- gles; too much emphasis on legaligm— revolutionists who have been imprisoned GANIZED NOW will not only signify a ern bourbons and a sentence of six months re-suiting in isolating the workers' support. and deported. It is from the Left Opposi- on the chain gang. A new trial was recent- swift return to the weekly Militant, bub its "The strongest defense of the Soviet tion in the Party that the Thermidorians re-issuance on a sounder basis. ly granted him and Comrade Saul is return- will meet with the resistance that will give ing forthwith to stand trial. Union; the most effective struggle against United, conscientious efforts are re- war and imperialism in Europe, in Anxwi- leadership to the revolution in the crucial quired. We expect the militants through- Comrade Saul was also one ot the lead- ca, throughout the world, will be made events that are maturing behind the fog out the country to bend their efforts for ers and active workers for the Communist through the adoption by the Communist In- of the sixteenth congress. In the next is a generous response. The return of the Party, along with comrade Hugo Oehler, ternational of the Leninist line of march sue of the Militant we propose to pub- Weekly is our Joint responsibility. Let id in the Colorado Coal miners strike. He is sponsored by Comrade Trotsky and tha lish a detailed analysis of the significance to* - '"'\t*\h the necsssary speed ! at present working in the harvest fields of of this congre-.T and the situation in thi (Continue:! r>n •;]?<• %t Sooviet Union. THE MILITANT Saturday, July 26, 1930 Page 2
ef the fact that all of the railroad unions have officially gone on record recognizing the six hour day as a necessity. Saul Joins Opposition But among all these demands no room (.Continued from Page 1) fould be found for the pressing one of Opposition comrades of the Left. The Unemployed Gather large scale credits from this country to the "The way to overcome the serious mis- the Soviet Union to further insure her suc;- takes in the internal life of our Parties By ARNE SWABECK cessful industrialization and build the bonds is to do what Comrade Trotsky and others of solidarity between the working classes were expelled for wanting to do, namely, the short socaUed strike of the I.L.G.W.U. CHICAGO— of both countries. The -Stalinists will 'to raise the level of political life in the The Chicago unemployment convention, in New York; the strikes of the Plttsburg probably answer that the Soviet Union taxi drivers, St. Louis bus drivers and the Communist Parties in all their organiza- the first of its kind, sharply denoted, in "does not need" such credits. But that tional Jinks on the basis of wider internal more thaii one respect, the present degree recent strike of the Pittston anthracite is contrary to facts. Simeon Zuckerman, democracy' .... miners. All these were defensive strikes of development of the unemployed move- vice president of the Amtorg, reports that "The bureaucrats have lied to us long ment in the United States. It was the first and none under the leadership of the Left, orders m the United States for machinery, Where the Left does play a role has been on enough concerning the contentions of the culmination point around this burning issue equipment ,etc. averaged $10,000,000 month- Opposition. The methods of the bureaucrats facing the working class. Called by the a small scale in the New York cafeteria ly for the first six months of the fiscal strikes and the present Flint automobile has only resulted in the isolation of the Trade Union Unity League, its policies be- year. In April and May of this year, they Party from the workers,_at a time when the came those of the official Communist Party. workers strike. fell to $3,000,000 while orders placed in objective situation tends for radicalizing While the crowded one day session Such is the picture at the present mo- Germany ran to $10000,000 because Ger- ment. Within it is contained the visible Hie politically backward workers .... brought out many healthy aspects it also many offered a full 100 per cent credit for "In view of these facts 1 a'iM my' glaringly showed the extremely narrow outlines of the upward curve in which the eighteen months and on some deals for two resistance, as yet isolated, can become a strength nnd energy to the support of the character of the movement to date. More- years or more. He adds: movement led by the Left Opposition. I over ,the policies adopted will, instead of workers' offensive of possibly broad "A big Soviet construction program in sweep and; surely of much sharper conflicts. stand for bhe adoption of the fundamental overcoming the difficulty, tend further to the Urals—metallurgic plants, tractor and views of the Left Opposition by Comintern narrow a basis where now the broadest Each such curve requires its specific tac- machine plants—were planned with the aid tics. Each has possibilities of growth for internationally and of the views of the scope is not only essential but also possible. of American specialist j who are cooperat- Communist League of America (Opposition) the movement and the tactics of one must ing in building. But in the present difficult Man)' Extravaganzas simultaneously be the preparation for the in the United Slates. I stand for the im- period, which our leaders never attempted mediate reinstatement of the expelled Oppo« A summary of the speeches made, all other. bristling with a healthy militancy, would to deny or disguise (so!) credits play an sitionists into the Party and Comintern. Indicate the Complete absences* of a serious First Tasks important role. If we get better terms from "For a genuine World Eolshevik Par- tackling of the problem—how to set the At this moment the flrst necessity is Europe we must place orders in Europe ty' For the Proletarian Revolution! working masses into motion aginst their the most elementary ground-work. Mil- insteada pf America." —GEORGE J. SAUL class enemy. They were well typified by lions of workers are unemployed and only The Chioagtt unemployment conven- the first speaker from the floor, following a small section set into motion. Millions tion did not take up or attempt adequately the main report. This speaker, on behalf are still blissfully ignorant of their future to solve the tasks which the present situ- of the New York delegation, extravagantly status as members of a standing army of ation had placei upon it. Despite its nar- pledged: to build the mass unemployed unemployed. That is the first point to rovrtiess, a correct policy could have made councils to build the mass "revolutionary bring home. The bourgeoisie have se to a substantial beginning toward laying the The Daily Worker of July IS, ]930, unions"—to build the mass Communist work actively to divide the ranks of the un- foundation for a broad genuinely united prints the report made by Stalin at the 16th Party, etc., etc. Nor were any of the "dem- employed workers from those having jobs movement of the worsing class against the Congress of the Communist Part^, of the ocratic encumbrances" of "ordinary" labor and already with some success to isolate present captalist reaction and in the strug- Soviet Union. In it, Stelin says: gatherings apparent at this convention. the unemployed movement in its organized gle for the unemployed. The Left Commun- "The Chinese workers a.rtl peasants A.11 was cut ready to order ,it® first business expression fro the working masses. Can ist Opposition must intensify its fight for have already replied by forming Soviets being the selection of a presidium from a these efforts of the bourgeoisie be effective- such a policy. and Red Armies. IT IS REPORTED that previously made up slate. The presidium ly defeated in any way than the broadest Soviet Governments are being formed. IP then proceeded to select those who were application of the slogans for work or THIS IS TRUE, I do not find any cause for to speak from the floor, as per its an- compensation, unemployment relief, shorter The Iron Heel Grinds wonder. There can be no doubt that no- announcement from lists submitted in ad- workday, credits for Russia, etc.? Obvi- thing but the Soviets can save China from vance by district delegations. This method ously not. Certainly the successful carry- final ruin and impoverishment." "gently" eliminated in advance anyone ing on of the struggle for the unemployed or "It is reported"; "if this is true'1—• •who might not hew closely to the official means to spare no efforts really to unite that is how Stalin speaks of the much-ad- vertized "Chinese Soviet regime". The "line". the working class, which cannot be done The white terror in Mexico continues in On its positive side the convention had within the narrow framework of the still greater force than formerly, there Daily Worker, and with it the international some- real healthy aspects sho\vn for ex- T.U.U.L. There could hardly be any situa- having been within the last few weeks nu- Stainist press, Jiave been filled for weeks ample in a lar^'e Negro delegation, 153 out tion where correct united front policies merous, especially vicious, attacks on the with columns of clap-trap sensationalism of a total of the announced 1120 registered are so essential than precisely in this one working class organizations on the part with "wirelesses from Shanghai", about the delegates. Many splendid proletarian types Could the hypocrisy and deceit of the so- of the bourgeois counter revolution. Se- 80,000,000 Chinese who have established a had answered the call and came clearly ev- cial reformists and self-styled progressives veral \.orking clasL, leaders have been mur- Soviet regime in Southern China. These idencing the signs of pressure of the econ- on the burning issue of unemployment be dered by the present regime in widely sep- stories were used to justify the false pol- omic crisis drawing workers toward the better exposed than just through a cerrect arated sections of the country. Recently icy of Stalinism in China and to confound Left, themselves being 'attracted by a move- and genuine united front policy? in an armed clash between a Communist the "Trotskyist renegades". Stalin now ment which had fearlessly taken up their These, however, were not the matters demonstration protesting the governments sings another song. Has the Daily Worker battles. Otherwise the composition of the given serious consideration at the unem- anti-labor policy, twenty comrades were been bluffing, as we said it hsid? delegation showed but little sweep of the ployment convention. It was keyed up to killed at Matamaros Leguna, State of Co- Has an organized Chinese Soviet regime movement beyond the general periphery of a very revolutionary phraseology but forgot ahuila. been established? Does the Comintern real- the Communist Party and closely sympathe- its elementary tasks. William F, Dunne, The Communist Party and C.S.U.M. ly know anything about it or not? VES OK tic organizations and groups. 484 delegates in his report for tbo T.U.U.L. correctly (Cnitarian Labor Federation affiliated to NO? came from the Chicago district alone, 150 stressed the necessity of unification of all the R.I.L.U.) have been entirely incapable from Michigan, 73 from Minnesota, 92 from of the struggles of the workers But from of resisting these attacks t._ t' e part o^1 the Ohio, 56 from Indiana, 53 from New York that came the wrong conclusion, in the pro- reactionary forces. The masses jinder pieces as a result, biit the Communists' and a sprinkling from some other states. gram of action adopted, entirely to limit pressure of the general crisis, with its remain for the most part at their posts in There were none of those Southern workers the unemployed movement within the frame- continuous shut-downs, and unemployment the existing state labor federation. who had taken such splendid part in the work of the T.U.U.L. Thus the exact oppo- reaching the 700,000 mark, continua h. a Comrades Eduardo Calero and Jorge strikes of the Carolinas. site of unification. Each union and indus- swing towards the Left. '"he Commun- Pino, members of the Central Executive To understand the basic cause of the trial league is to set up unemployed coun- ists, however, are nd. able properly to or- Committee of the Young Communist Fed- present narrow limits upon a movement cils in their industry as a part of the T.U.V. ganize this growing discont .t, with the eration of Mexico, have been expelled for which has grea^ possibilities and has other- L. General councils, according to the pro- result that the anarcho-syndicalists of the disagreement with the present Party "line". wise displayed vitality in struggle .should gram, are not to be organized where a sec- General Confederation of Labor, also suf- Comrade Calero has issued a statement in now be the object of serious efforts of tion of the T.U.U.L. exists These ade mech- fering at. the present time the government's support of the Left Communist Opposition, all militants. Without that no shortcomings anical limits which isolate the movement persecutions, are reaping a big harvci.: in by which step the Mexican Opposition group will be remedied. It is wrong to conclude and confines it to that section of the work- Welds of organization and influence. Low- finds itself reinforced by one of the finest as the Party does, that the present situa- ers ready to join the "revolutionary er California is becoming the scene of great elements of the youth movement. tion is one of a "revolutionary upsurge of unions". There could be no better way of struggles and the anarcho-syndicalists are Pino and also comrade David Alfaro the working masses in the United States." actually preventing a mass basis of strug- siuviug activities far exceeding those of Siqueiros, recently expelled from the C.E.C. Riding the crest) of such a wave which is gle for the unemployed. The social re- the Communists in both the Imperial Val- of the P^rty and from the Party itself as artificially constructed will at best get us formist will thus have a free field to rally ley Region and in the mining camps of mentioned ia a former issue of the Militant, caught in the dip, and at the worst pre- all those workers who by vain search for a Santa Rosalia in the central part of the are both among those remaining in jail, pare us for serious defeat when the offen- job are turning away from capitalist ide- peninsula. after their arrest for participation in the sive begins. The March Sixth and other ology but are not yet ready to join the Not only is the Party incapable of car- May Day demonstrations. They are being unemployment demonstrations have mani- "revolutionary unions". In that broad field rying its struggle to new fields but is held together with a number of Party and fested splendid working class response, but they can continue to sow their seeds of il- even losing heavily in sections where it Y.C.F. comrades without bail and iviMiout nevertheless what is most outstanding at lusions and deceit. And it is precisely also formerly had great strength. In the State trial. the present moment is a downward curve. in that field where a united front strufgle of Michoacan, the local labor federation, The Mexican section of the Interna- Everywhere Increased capitalist reaction? around the burning isaue of unemployment while actually manipulated by the state tional Red Aid, which for a time, under innumerable jail/ings of Communist and as well as Communist activities has such governor who is posing as a "Left" and a the able (!) "direction" of Enea Sormenti, workers on strike (many delegates were rich potentialities. "laborlte", has been greatly (subject to made a big stir on the basis of plenty of arrested on the way and in Chicago); The Program of Action Communist influence from some time back. bluff but with no substantial national basis, break-up of demonstrations; intensified The program of action lists the im- Recently the Central Committee ordered is unable to do more in the present crisis speed-up; wage cuts, directly and indirect- mediate demands to be made: Work or the Party comrades in Michoacan to affil- with mass arrests, terror and almost, com- If; the trade unions, including the new wages, unemployment relief, no evictions, iate the state labor federation to the C.S. plete illegality than to shout an occasional industrial unions, losing members. With 7-hour day, free employment ogencies, U.M. or else organize a dual organization slogan or issue a few leaflet;! in protest. this reaction also increasing signs of etc. A total of 17 demands. Unquestionably dependent on the C.S.C.M. Vhe Michoacan- The Party claims that Pino and Slf,ueiroa •workers' resistance through small defen- the lew most pressing ones, which are also comrades, realizing that no profit could are government stool-pigeons and that'they sive strikes. There have lately been, for, the most elementary ones, must become be effected by this policy which the masses had themselves arrested in order to !? THE MILITANT, Vol. Ill, No. p7, July 27, 1930. Published twice monthly by the Communist League of America (Opposition) at 25 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y. Sub* scriptlon rate: $2.00 per yearj foreign $2.50. Kve cent per copy. Bundle rates 3 cents per copy. Editorial Board: Martin Abern, James P. Cannon Max Shachtman. ?.'--r Ice Spector, Arne Swabeck. Entered as se-cond class mail matter, November 28 1928 at the Pout Office at New York, N. Y. under the act of March ?,. 1.879 Coral v- Saturday, July 26. 1930. THE MILITANT capitalists). France In the recent Minnesota Primary elec- tion the labor vote for the Farmer-Labor ticket was very small. Thousands of work- Opposition Progress ers paid no attention to the election as they could not see any objec": in voting. The The minor effects of the world crisis workers have been fed up on broken cam- which French industry has already come to In the last seven years no question has tion is controlled by conservative farmers, paign promises by office seekers masquer- experience (textile, wines, etc.) and the received more serious study and attention small-town lawyers, small business men ading behind the Farmer-Labor label. Tha pessimistic perspectives created for it by tiy American Communists than the socalled and individual office-seekers, all of them wrong make-up and program of the F.L.A. the recently adopted U.S. protective tariff, Farmer-Labor Party, or Labor Party ques- incapable of political leadership by de- has completely blurred both party and class do not as yet lead the French bourgeoisie tion. Up to and including the 1928 elec- cree of history. At the last state conven- lines, and party issues in the campaigns to seek methods of despair ("fascisation") tions the Minnesota Communist Party de- tion the organized workers with their mild have degenerated to meaningless issues as the Party here would have us believe. voted more time, money and energy to the program.were overwhelmingly defeated by between individuals. Since the F.L.A. has It senses trouble for the futureto be sure. 'Farmer-Labor Party" idea than to any the reactionary elements in control. At become a plaything for ambitious politi- It knows that the crisis is not going to other question on its program. Numerous each succeeding election the Farmer-Labor cians of the Shipstead-Starkey type the leave France economically immaculate. And pamphlets and much literature wan issued by Association is merely being used as a vote- endorsements of the Association mean no- for this very reason it strains every effort the Party to show why Communists should getting machine for individuals like Ship- thing to the workers and are generally ig- to reinforce and consolidate its present po- participate in the "Farmer-Labor" move- stead. Wefald Starkey and others. The nored. That was the case in the Primary litical domination in the country. A stable ment and there fight for a "genuine Labor worker members of the Association merely election just past where several endorsed bourgeois bloc, purged ot all "extremist" Partj-,". furnish the votes and the campaign ex- state and congressional district candidates elements, is its chief aim. After chasing tins Labor Party phan- penses. were defeated by individuals who carried no endorsement. This was clearly, demonstrated by the tom from the moment it made ita appearance A "Two-(las*" Party retent speech of Tardieu at Dijon. By in the post war days the Minnesota work- As mentioned above, one of the moat All the efforts which have been wasted threat and by persuasion he hopes to win ers, who by training and experience should serious defects of the Farmer-Labor Asso- In the last ten years by the Communist over the Radicals to his Republican Con- be best qualified to analyze the question, ciation is that it is reformist in program movement to build and maintain Farmer- centration, because it is these that he have come to the conclusion that this en- -.and outlook. Second, it is made up of two Labor parties in the United States can be needs to assure stability to his class-gov- tire Farmer-Labor Party increment has clr/iara, farmers and workers, with the laid to the Right wing opportunist policy ernment. He openly admits that there are nothing constructive to offer the American wrong class, the farmers, leading or rather of the Stalin leadership of the Communist serious problems facing his class (the agri- •working class. strangling the movement. By the laws of International. This false conception con- cultural crisis, financial disorder, etc.) Reformist Labor Parties economic development farmers and smalt cerning the role of Farmer-Labor parties, and he makes a strong plea for cooperation In the first place it should be made business men are unable to furnish po- is but another blunder added to tire long to the different bourgeois parties on the •clear to the workers that there are two litical leadership for either the workers string of wrong united fronts sponsored basis of what he has already "accomplish- kinds of political parties, revolutionary and or the capitalists, but. on the other hand, by the Stalin gang in the C.I. It will be ed." Aa a major part of his "accomplish- reformist. Practically all Farmer-Labor. must of necessity follow one or the other the duty of the Communist League, the ments" he cites his strong-handed suppres- or Labor Parties, belong to the last named class. For this reason, any political move- Left wing of the Communist' movement, to sion of Communist influence! This Com- group. Like other political parties, the ment headed by farmers or small business furnish the American workers with a cor- munist influence, two, three years ago, character and classification of a working- will soon find itself in a blind alley or, will rect political program which will guide was menacing. Today it is impotent! Now, class political party is determined by its be forced to surrender its leadership to the them along the most direct path toward he sees as the task of the government: . organization and program. The Farmer- workers or the big bourgeoisie, (the big their ultimate goal. —A.EKSTROM "positive" achievement. Labor Association in Minnesota is of the reformist variety. That is. there is nothing The Party up a Blind Alley in its program which calls for the over- Why Doesn't Lovestone Answer Trotsky? The Party writers pass over in painful throw of the present ruling class and to silence this enemy class estimate of th« place the working class in power. Like all More than three months ago. the fol- we think, .1 assume Uiat if not the Revolu- movement. For, it is the solemn truth. Th« labor parties of the reformist character, lowing letter from comrade Trotsky was tionary Age as F. whole, then at least a First of May, the inaction displayed in th« the F.L.A. simply intends to function as a transmitted to Harry Winitsky business section around it, no longer regards us as campaign for the 13 martyrs of Yen-Bay party of a subordinate class to ask for manager of the Revolutionary Age, organ "counter-revolutionists". Would it then not attests it. Yet nothing stirs the leadership favors from the ruling class, the capitalists. of the American Right wing: be in place to acknowledge this openly? from their Philistine complacency. Va- Therefore, it can be seen, that a reformist I raise this question not in my interest cant, optimistic phrases are still the sub- political party of a subordinate economic Buyuk-iVda, April, 16, t'^10 but. in the interest of political clarification stitute for effective class action. As long class cap only obtain for its members such Dear Comrade Winitsky: In general. as the Party will not realize that a strong, favors as the ruling class is willing to I have received your organ regularly. Iu this spirit I also sign myself. solid working class resistance must ba grant them. On the other hand, revolution- The various addresses signify the same. Fraternally, assembled to oppose the concentrated pow- ary parties like the Communist Parties, In thanking you for your kind attention. L. TROTSKY er of the bourgeoisie, its influence is going have for their main purpose to put the I nevertheless feel the need of expressing Three months, and many issues of the to decline still further. And such a work- working class in power as the ruling class. openly to you a certain surprise on my part Revolutionary Age, have elapsed, but no ing-class resistance cannot be achieved by Communist (revolutionary) parties o£ in connection with your letter. The Rev- answer has been made in that paper, un- the workers stand for this because it is "third period" antics, by mechanical con- olutionary Age has from its very beginning, less one can count as such "the continued trol of the mass organizations, by bureau- necessary. They know that the producing and its present director* long before its misrepresentations of Trotsky's and the class cannot even realize their immediate cratic execution of the trade union work, by appearance, constantly and energetically Opposition's standpoint that appear in it leaving the basis of reality. By these me- needs under capitalist economy and capit- denounced me and my friends as counter- regularly. The letter, it is true, was re- alist rule, to say nothing about their legit- thods, it only drives the workers into the revolutionists. I cannot doubt that this ported at the recent ''convention" of the arms of the reformists of all shades so- imate aims. Communists also know, and they happened out of honest conviction. Lovestone group, and interpreted by bhe teach the workers this fact, that history cialists, popists or syndicalist minoritaires. You sign yourself, dear comrade Wiu- professional Trotsky-slayer, Port Wolfe, as By these methods it discredits Communism does not disclose a single instance where itzky. fraternally". The sincerity of this a "bid for unity" with the Right wing! But as a whole in the eyes of the workers. The a ruling class relinquished power because salutution. 1 also have absolutely no right Wolfe's conjuring tricks are not yet enough they were out-voted. More persuasive masses have to be educated through all pos- to question. But since we are no diplomats, to obviate the need for_ an open reply to sible phases of collective struggle for their means were 'necessary to replace them and what we say must correspond to what comrade Trotsky's letter. Votes are only practical in settling disputes historic class task and not by light-headed What have Winitzky and his paper to optimism and talk. between a class, but votes are useless in "Trotsky refers to Jay l/jvestone. settling disputes between classes. This, Opposition («rowtli of course, refers to cases where there are material issues involved, and not to such With all this tragic sterility of tha immaterial questions as to whether Hoover The Man Stalin Chose to Succeed Blumldn! Party leadership, the situation is, however, or Smith should be the President of the by no means hopeless. The Left Opposition Untert States or whether Shipstead or Nel- The French press is announcing new the methods of struggle that Stalin uses is always there, watchfully exerting its Boti should have a seat in the Senate. On revelations on "the activities of the G.P.U." against the Left Opposition. In the same pressure, struggling to revitalize the Par- such issues the capitalists do not object to They are supposed to come from a high So- declaration, Agabekov says that while he ty. The progress of the Left group is in- abide by the result, of the vote. viet functionary. In fact, it refers to a was yet in Moscow he no longer believed creasing. It was the Ligue Commnniste With this all too brief analysis of the new deserter of Bessedovsky'a type, who in the dictatorship of the proletariat and which in conjunction with a majority of aim cind purpose of political parties, -let ua as soon as he passes "over the other side that he "considered it as the dictatorship Annamite Communists here (who, after eum up the net results of ten years of of the wall", goes over body and soul to over the proletariat". But Stalin does not having, carefully studied the events of the Farmer-Labor activity in Minnesota. the bourgeoisie and swears to fight Bol- trouble about such a trifle provided the Chinese revolution .know where to fln;d Theory of Labor Reformism shevism with all his power. functionary is faithful to him and accepts proper Communist guidance for their »wn) The Farmer-Labor Association is sup- The cases of desertion by functionar- all the dirty jobs against the Opposition. organized the first, real protest demonstra- posed to be the organized political expres- ies of the .rotten apparatus abroad have All the rest—conviction, fidelity to Com- tion against the executions of Yen-Bay, be- sion of the workers and farmers in the become very frequent. Diplomats, military munism, etc.,—are secondary matters. The fore the president's palace. This demon- State of Minnesota. The intention is, on attachees. commercial agents, bank direc- Opposition, hunted driven from their posts, stration and the impression it made upon the surface at least, that through this or- tors, the whole fine gang that is often re- deported like Rakovsky or shot like Blum- the bourgeoisie contributed a great deal ganization the workers and farmers shall cruited from the bourgeois world, seeks kin arc replaced by the Bessedovskys and to awaken the membership of the Party to control the legal Farmer-Labor Party which the first opportunity to betray the prolet- by the Agabekovs. toe insufficiency of the leadership and to appears on the ballot together with the The Agabekov case shows us again that force the Party itself into (belated) action, Republican and Democratic parties. The that is why we have not bothered ourselves in the bitter struggle against the Left Op- governmental measures striking our com- Farmer-Labor Association is supposed to with these people in our press. position, against the Bolshevik- ^vanguard rades heavily (expulsion and prison). furnish the program and endorsed candi- But the case of the latest deserter is that has remained loyal to Communism, dates for the State Farmer-Labor Party. very characteristic of the Stalinist appar- Stalin employs covert or open counter- In the North of France a strong d»- However, this theory has not worked out atus and of the struggle that Stalin, with revolutionists, people who are ready at! the tatchment of the regional C.G.T.U. has join- Tery well in practise.. the aid of the apparatus, conducts against flr.st occasion to betray the Soviet state. ed the Opposition Unitaire (which rallies the Left Opposition. about the political program of the Left In the first place the organizational —0. Structure of the F.UA. Is wrong as a Agabekov, the name of the new desert- Opposition and the Verite.) The C.G.T.U. labor party in that it is partly based on er was charged with a secret mission of Left Opposition ia rapidly developing, par- Individual membership. This arrangement the G.P.U. for Turkey, Greece, Syria. Pal- ryin,? (successfully the calumniating at- admits politicians and office seekers whose estine and Egypt. And here is what Agab- tacks of the both the Stalinist majorit- ekov says in Miliukov's paper. Posliedn! alrea and the syndicalist minoritaires sole ambition is to use the Farmer-Labor •&LORKEMT Wo. 4 Association as a stepping stone to climb Novest! (Latest News) of July 2nd, 1930: ("Committee for Trade Union Independ- Into some soft job. The representation to "It is Blumkin who was charged befora Note thai the fourth number o£ Klorkeiti, ence") In the Party itself, different! nuclei me with this mission. Last fall he wa« re- and subsections (Tours, 13th Arrondlss- the F.L.A. conventions, where tha political organ of tha Jewish Left Opposition group programs are written and candidates en- called to Moscow, and. suspected of Trot- ment, Paris etc.) have started a struggle dorsed is based on territory instead of in- skyism, he was shot. I was designated if in France, has arrived. It contains among agaiast the false policy of the leadership, dustry. The territorial basis is the county. his place and I was given the order to re- backing and declaring their full support lieve from their posts all hig collaborators other articles the fourth installment of of the Left Opposition. The struggle for the There are 87 counties in the state. The comrade Trotsky's "The Third Period nf farmers control 84 of them. Tha result suspected of Trotskyism, too." Party and for the reestablishment of a of this is that the Farmer-Labor Associa- This declaration explains a lot about the Mistakes of the Comintern." Leninist line has only begun. —S.GORDON THE MILITANT Saturday, July 26, 1930 Wiaat the 'Mew TMtassns* Refused to Print Concerning the «Derenders» of the October Revolution Dear Friend: whole world, were far more helpful tu the I have received a copy of the New York By L. D. TROTSKY bourgeoisie than the theoretical reflections magazine the New Masses containing art- the bourgeoisie and the social democracy? proletariat against the bourgeoisie. This or historical explanations of Trotsky. But icles about my autobiography and about come yesterday. They have accepted every aberration is easily explained: Fooling what interest has the anarcho-eonservative the suicide of Maiakovsky. I do not regret change in tihe governmental course as pat- around the fringes of two hostile classes Bohemia in all this? It takes all the fore- the fifteen minutes I have spent getting riotic officials accept a change of uniform. and revolving continually on their own going events, because stamped wth the offi. acquainted with tihe American Left intel- There are always potential Chinovniks sit- axes, the Barbusses of all countries natur- cal :>tamp, as once for all given and eternal. ligentsia. Magazines like this are to be ting around Bohemia. These people are ally get mixed up as to where is the bour- Criticism of th-: Stalin regime is impos- found in several _ countries. One of their courtiers of the Soviet power, not soldiers geoisie and where the proletariat. Their sible to them, not because the Stalinistt, are most important tasks is said to be the of the proletarian revolution. criteria are simple. Since the work of right, but because the Stalinists are today "defense" of the Soviet) Union. This is a The workers state, as a state, may have the Left Opposition decisively criticises the government. I repeat. These are cour» wholly praiseworthy undertaking, regard- need of such characters for temporary the domestic policy of the Soviet Union and tiers of the Soviet power, and not rovolu« less of whether the Messrs. "Defenders" goals, although I have always thought that the world policy of t'he Comintern, and tionists. fulfil it from inward conviction or—as is the near-sighted epigones greatly exagger- since the bourgeois newspaper-writers ex- For revolutionists, the question is de- sometimes the case—from less lofty mo- ate tihe weight of these groups—just as ult in this criticism and try to make use cided by the class line, the content of ideas, tives. Dut it would be foolish to exaggerate they exaggerated the value of the "defense" of it—why, the conclusion is perfectly ob- the theoretical position, the historical prog- tlhe importsnce of this defense. These of Purcell or the "friendship" of Chiang vious : The courtiers are In the camp of nosis, and the political methods, of each groups, sufficiently variegated n their com- Kai-Shek. As for these characters them- the revolution, and we, toe Left Commun- of the opposing sides. If you tMnk, as we position, busy themselves on one side with selves, I am ready to acknowledge that it ists, in the camp of its enemies! This is think—and as we have proven on a world fringes of the bourgeoisie, on the other is better to be a courtier of the Soviet the usual depth of the political thinking s' , 3 through the experiment of the last with the fringes of the proletariat, and of- power than of the oil kings or the British to be found in Bohemia. si., years—that the policies of the Stalin, fer no guarantee whatever as to their own secret service. But the proletarian revolu- The bourgeoisie would be |;tupid if faction are weakening the October revolu- future. As the majority of pacifists strug- tion would not be the proletarian revolu- they did not try to use the inner disagree- tion, that they destroyed the Chinese revo- gle against war only in times of peace, tion if iti allowed its ranks to be confused ments in the camp of the revolution. But lution, that they are preparing the defeat so these radical "defenders" of the Soviet with this problematical, unreliable, fickle was this question first raised in my auto- of the Indian revolution and undermining Union, its titular "friends" from the ranks and wavering brotherhood. biography? Wasn't the expulsion from the the Comintern, then—and only then—our of Bohemia, will fulfil their mission only Their moral triviality assumes cynical Party of the President of the Comintern, policy is justified. The bourgeoisie will so long as this does not demand real cour- and sometimes insufferable form when they, Zinoviev, and one of the presidents of the grab up the fragments of our truo and nec- age and genuine devotion to the revolu- in the character of "friends of the family", Soviet government, Kamenev, a gift to the essary criticism of course! But does that tion. These qualities they do not possess. interfere in the inner problems of Commun- bourgeoisie? Did not the exile and sub- change in the slightest degree the essence And where indeed should they get them? ism. To this testifies the aforementioned sequently the banishment, of Trotsky give of a great historical problem? Has not Their radicalism needs a protective col- number of the New Masses (a paradoxical tlie bourgeois press of the whole world a revolutionary thought always developed by oration. For that reason it finds its chief name by the way for an organ of Bohem- welcome theme for agitation against the the road of ruthless inner struggle, at expression in the "defense" of the Soviet ia!). These people, you see, think that October revolution? Was not the denun- whose fire the reaction always tried to Union—defense of a state possessing pow- my autobiography will serve the bourgeoi- ciation of the head of the government, warm its fingers? er, wealth and authority. It is a question sie against the proletariat, while New Rykov, and the head of the Comintern Bu- I remark in parenthesis, however, that of defending what exists and is already Masses, Monde, and other publications of charin, as "bourgeois liberals" usod by the whole bourgeois press, from the New achieved. For such defense it is not at all this kind, are obviously necessary to the These facts, brought to the attention of the York Times up to the Austro-Marxist Ar- necessary to be a revolutionist. You can beiter Zeitnug, in its political estimate of quite well remain a mixture of anarchist the struggle of the Left Opposition with and conservative. But at the same time Stalinist Centrism, stands incomparably you can seem rsvolutionary, deceiving nearer to the Centrists and never conceals others and, to some extent, yourself. We Hypocrisy for Art's Sake in the New Masses it. You could publish a whole anthology have seen this in the example of Bar- of press clippings to prove this. Thus, in, buMo and the French paper Monde, which Correspondence between Max Eastman, Walt Carmon, Mike Gold addition to all the rest, the "friends" and belongs to the same category as New Mass- "defenders" of the revolution, having no- es. From the standpoint of time, their The following letters are virtually self- Moreover it was a / t abandonment thing in common either with the old or radicalism is chiefly directed toward the explanatory. They arose out of a letter sent of the policy of your pu.._.' wliich bad been the new masses, crudely distort the genu- past. From the standpoint of space, it is to Michael Gold, editor of tlie New Masses, to pussy-foot on this whole innue of the ine picture of the distribution of polit.'cal directly proportional to the square of the by Comrade Max Eastman. In this letter Left Opposition. You refused to let me write sympathy and antipathy among the bour- distance from the scene of action. Jn re- comrade Eastman enclosed the article by about it as a member of your Executive geoisie and the social democrats. lation to their own country, these bold Trotsky (printed in this issue of the Mili- Board, even with an answer by a Stalinist Lying, by the way, is a necessary ac- boys always were and always will be in- tant) and demanded the r % ication of the in the same number. When I resigned, the complishment in a courtier. In the article finitely more cautious and evasive than in latter in the New Masso.i, in view of the pussy-foot policy was carried to the point about Maiakovsky, as I turned over the relali'on to other countries—especially those slanderous attacks made by Gold and Earl of not printing my letter of resignation. leaves of the magazine, I hit upon the name in the East. Browder against the Opposition in general, When I stated this fact in a communication of Rakovsky. I read eight or ten sen- The best representatives of this type, and Trotsky and Rakovsky in particular, to The Nation, suggesting that this was not tences, and although I am accustomed to excelling the rest by many heads both in in a previous issue of that periodical. The a shining example of "brave thinking'', much, nevertheless what I read made me gifts and character, is undoubtedly Maxim first reply to Eastman's letter was in the you replied justifying yourself on the gasp. It is related here how Maiakovsky Gorky. He sympathized for years with affirmative from "Wilt Carmon, managing ground that "We none of us used the mag- "hated war" ("hated war"—what n vulgar the Bolshevik;; and considered their ene- editor of the New Mns*es, followed by a azine to express our opinions". (I quote formulation of the relation to war of a mies his enemies. This did not prevent cowardly negative reply from the editor, this confession of yours from memory.) revolutionist!) and how, fn contrast to him from appearing aft the time of the Gold, which is answered by comrade East- 'Moreover about a year ago when f met thrt, Rakovsky, at Zimrnerwald "was going proletarian revolution in the camp of its man. The three letters are printed below. you on 7th Ave. and asked how the mag- to take off his coat and punch Lenin and. enemies. After tihe victory of the revolu- —Ed. azine was. getting on, you volunteered the Zinoviev.. .in the jaw" for their revolu- tion he long remained in the camp of its cD information that, "We're through with the tionary struggle f gainst war. Ilakovu'ty is enemies. He reconciled himself with the NEW MASSES Party, we've learned that much anyway." tamed here for no purpose, whatever ox- Soviet Republic when it became for him 112 East 19 St. New York, N. Y. (Here too I am quoting from memory but i*Ft for that of spreading th!> scandalous an unalterable fact—that is, when he could July 7, 1930 my memory is good.) It struck me strange lie. It is necessary to spi'OMd i.'.i boeau^a reconcile himself with it w'thout depart- Max EaslS an. that you should offer me this piece of in- KaVcvsky is in exile and .t l^i necessary ing from his essentially conservative out- Chilmark, Mass. side information, when all previous negotia- to justify bis bi-fng there. Ana so the look. There is irony in the fact that Gorky Dear Max Eastman: tions with me had been conducted under ci'U'.tier beccme'j a contemptib'a slanderer. •warred against Lenin at the greatest period This will acknowledge receipt of your the pretense that the magazine was inde- He spreads this stupid scandal instead of of Lenin's creation, buO now long after- note and article by Leon Trotsky. We are pendent of the Party—a "free revolution- seating—once bo has named Kakov.sUy In, ward, gets along very peacefully with Sta- certain to use this in the coming issue. ary magazine" as it advertised itself. Upon roi.rection with the war—with what ''evo- lin. What can we expect of the pencil - Mike Gold is not in town. Back in a few reflection I wondered whether this gratui- lutionary courage Rakovsky struggled sized Gorkys? days. You will probably hear from him tous declaration of independence might not ajifiinst war i.ncer a hail-storm of perse- The essence of these people from as well on his return. mean that you are now directly subsidized cution, slander, assault and polico prose* the Left wing of the bourgeois Bohemia is Yours, by the International. cj-jons. Exac if for that struggle Kakov. that they are capable of defending the rev- WALT CARMON » * * Whether because you are subsidized, or sky was thro*'ii into prison by the Rou- olution only after it is accomplished and because you depend upon the party for r.:;mian oUsiucliy and was saved from the has demonstrated its permanence. In de- NEW MASSES sales, the fact is that in publishing these tiiif of L°. A".e.'bt and Ro.^sa Luxembourg fending the yesterday of the revolution 312 E. 19 St. New York, N. Y. attacks on Trotsky and Rakovsky you have only by thp mo'u'ionary Russian finny. they adopt an attitude of conservative hos- July 16, 1930 at last shown your political colors. You That Is enough. If the October revo- tility tto all those who are laying the Dear Max: are now overtly what you were before un- lution had depended upon its future cour- road to its tomorrow. The future can only I'm sorry, but I really don't think we der cover, a Stalinist organ. And yet you tiers, It would never have appeared in, be prepared by revolutionary methods, me- should print this in New Masses. We re- have the brass to tell me that you wont the world. And If its further destinies thods as foreign to the cons :rvative Bo- viewed Trotsky's book, because it was "lit- publish Trotsky's rejoinder because you depended upon their "defense", the revolu- hemia as were the ideas and slogans of erature's but all of us here agree that the are too "literr.ry". tion would be condemned to ruin. The the dictatorship of the proletariat on the mag. 'shouldn't become an organ of politi- And you have the folly to add, "All proletarian vanguard can guarantac the day before the Actober revolution. These cal discussion and if we give up a lot of future of the country of tihe SovieH, and gentlemen remain, accordingly, true to space to this Trotsky fight from now on— of us here agree etc.," although you know that ten days ago I receive;! a letter from prolong the road of the world revolution, themselves and to the social classes which we immediately lose our function as a only by a correct policy. We miiKt v.ork created them and feed them. Furthermore, literary vehicle— your associate Walt.Carmon stating—what any cou»ageoiw and independent editor out that policy, establish it theoretically, in' spit* of a formal veering to the Left, Sorry and defend it with tooth and nai] n.-rninst to the "new masses" (!), their conservativ- M:IKE GOLD having viciously attacked one man and * * * slandered another would state—that "We the whole world, and if necessary r' ,i:nst ism has really grown stronger since they the very "highest" institutions which have July 18, 1930 are certain to use this in the coming is- are leaning their backs against—not the sue." raised themselves up (or rather slM them- October revolution, no!—but against a Dear Mike Gold: selves down) on the back of the r-tober great state a8 an "institution", independent Your pretense that you will not publish What happened during these ten days? revolution. But of those questions v/o need of its- guiding ideas and of its • slicy. They Trotsky's rejoinder to your cheap attack Do you really expect any grown per- not speak in connection with tho -. :sc.do- were with Lenin and Trotsky—by no means on him because your magazine is too "lit- son to believe that having attacked a poli- revolutionary courtiers from the r; .} Concerning ZINOVIEV, MANUILSKY, and NOTES of a JOURNALIST ( «RADOVOy» ) by ALFA Zinoviev and the Evils of "...The petty bourgeois tendency with- Is that all? Yes, nothing more than that. political. The personal role of Losovsky in our own Party cannot struggle against But, a well-meaning reader will ob- is such that it is not of advantage to him Printing our Leninist views otherwise than by as- ject, can so much be expected from a young to expose himself to blows. In delicate cribing to us things we'never thought or Radovoy? He still has a chance to grow. moments of ideological clashes he prefers In Number 5 of the Bolshevik of this said." (ibid, page 72). After all it is not he who creates the modest anonymity, just as in the sharp, year, Zinoviev once more "fuses" with the The last lines were not only signed by trale union policy for France. For that acute hours of the revolutionary struggle Party—by that single method now access- Zinoviev, but, unless we are mistaken, were we have serious revolutionary strategists, he is inclined to solitary deliberations. This ible to him. Zinoviev writes: written by him. Truly Joseph Gutenberg tested in struggle, as for instance, the is the personal reason. As we have said, "In 1022, Trotsky predicted that 'the has rendered some people a very poor ser- general secretary of the Proflntern, Losov- there is also a political reason. Had Lo- real rise of socialist'economy will become vJc8.V Particularly when they have to sky. sovsky signed Losovsky, everybody would possible cnly after the victory of the prolet- "fuse" with the other "Joseph" who, it is Correct—we will reply to the reader— say: Is it possible that in the questions of ariat in the most important countries of true, did not invent printing, but works all this would be convincing if...if only the trade union movement, we really have Europe.' This prediction has not been very conscientiously at its destruction. the Radovoy were not Losovsky himself. nothing better than this? But seeing the confirmed, just as many other predictions And in the meantime, the matter stands signature of Rf.Vovoy (rank a »1 filer) of the author mentioned. The real rise of Has France Entered the Period thus: the bouquet of soured light-minded- under the article, the well-meaning reader our socialist economy became possible al- ness and flaccid wit is such thati it cannot retains the possibility of saying: We must ready prior to the victory of the proletar- of Revolution? deceive us. admit that Radovoy is a sorry scribbler, iat in the most important countries of Eur- The Left turn in the C.I. began in 1928. The leading general, under the modest But neverMielens we still have Losovsky. ope. The real rise is developing before our in July, the "third period" was proclaimed. pseudonym, defends his own acts With •very eyes." A year later, Molotov declared that Prance, rhymes he drapes the calamities he inflicts Another New Talent The same Zinoviev, beginning with the together with Germany and Poland, had upon the labor movement with his leader- same year 1922, accused Trotsky of "super- entered a period of "the greatest revolu- ship, in connection with that, be assails Only a few mouths have elapsed since industrialism'', that is, of demanding a too tionary events". All this was deducted the Left Opposition with all the magnifi- it was declared throughout the Comintern speedy industrial rise. How should this from the development of the strike move- cence of his vengeful irony: it can, don't by command of Molotov that the ideologi- be reconciled? ment. No figures, no facts were cited. They you see, be completely seated on one sofa. c«U struggle against "Trotskyism" mu.rt The Opposition was accused of non- limited themselves to two or three examples Let the Radovoy investigate: Are there be considered at an end. Well? The pub- toclicl in socialist construction and at the taken from the last numbers of the news- any sofas in the jails that are filled with lications of the Comintern, beginning with same time that it wants to rob the peasant- papers. We took (see Militant No. 29-33) Oppositionists? But if they really were the publications of the Communist Party ry. If that were so, why did it have to the question of the dynamics of the French so few ir. number as Lovosky would have it, of the Soviet Union ,are once more devot- "rob" the peasantry? In reality, the Op- labor movement in the light of figures and this would not frighten, us at all. At the ing an innumerable amount of columns and position spoke of compelling the Kulak and fact*. The picture fjiven by Molc.tov, beginning of the war, the revolutionary in- pages to the struggle against "Trotsky..sai". the upper layer of the peasantry in general prompted by the words of others (the role ternationalists of all Europe went to Zim- Even the most honoraMe Pokrovsky, who to bring sacrifices for socialist construc- of the prompters, we assume, was played merwald on a few carriages. We never is burdened with the labors of instructing tion—the one which the Opposition was by Manuilsky and Kuusinen) in no way feared remaining in the minority. It is the youth, has been moved to- the front supposed "not to have believed". A fiery coincided with reality. The strike wave Losovsky who, during the war, was very trenches. This corresponds approximately belief in socialist construction was mani- of the last two years had a very limited much afraid of remaining in the minority to the period in the imperialist war when fested only by those who struggled against character, even though it revealed a certain and therefore defended in print the Long- Germany resorted to the mobilization of "super-industrialism" and proclaimed the rise compared to the preceding year, which ueWsts, with whom he tried by all means those forty-five and fifty years old. This empty slogan "face towards the village". was the lowest of the decade. The weak to unite us, against us. During the October fact alone would suggest serious fears for Zinoviev proposed to the peasantry, in- development of the strike struggle in the revolution, Losovsky was afraid that the the condition of the Stalinist front. For* stead of cotton prints and a tractor, a last two years is all the more remarkable Bolshevik Party would be "isolated" from tunately, the Nestor of the Marxist histoiv pleasant smiling "face". because France, during 1928-1929 went the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries* iography has not only grand-children bu| In 1930 as well as in 1022 Trotsky through an undeniable industrial revival, and he therefor, betrayed the Party which 'even great grand-children. One of them is considers that "the real rise of socialist clear enough in the metal industry where he temporarily joined, and united with us, S. Novikov, tho author of an article on the economy in Russia will become possible the strike movement was the weakest of against us. During the October revolution, autobiography of L.D. Trotsky. This young only after the victory of the proletariat in till. Losovsky was afraid that the Bolshevik talent immediately established a record by the most important countries of Europe." One of the reasons for the fact that the Party would be "isolated" from tho Men- showing that one can fill one and a halt Only it must be understood—and this is French workers did not utilize the favor- sheviks and Social Revolutionaries, and he printed pages without presenting a singl» not so difficult, after all—that by socialist abla conjuncture is undoubtedly the ex- therefore betrayed the Party which he fact or formulating a single idea. Such economy we have here in mind precisely tremely superficial character of the strike temporarily joined, and united with its an exceptional gift could be developed socialist economy and not the contradictory strategy of Monmousseau and the other enemies in the most critical period. But only under the direction of an experienced tiranaitory economy of the NEP and that pupils of Losovsky. It became clear that even later on, when Losovsky did joi.i the master. And we involuntarily ask our- by a real rise we understanl such a riso they did not know the state of industry victorious Soviet power, his quantitative selves: Was it not Manuilsky, in the hours which will completely reconstruct the hab- in their own country. As a substitute for evaluations were just as little reliable as free from the direction of the Comintern, itual and cultural conditions of life of the that they characterized as offensive, revo- his qualitative ones. that nourished Novikov at his breast, this toiling masses .daitroying not only the lutionary and political strikes the isolated, After the victory of which he was not blessed baby of the "third period"? Or "queues", 0 wise Zinoviev, but also the defensive economic strikes primarily in the in the least guilty, Losovsky, putting the perhaps Manuilsky had no need of bring- contradiction between the city and the vil- light industries. minus signs where he had previously had ing up the young talent? Maybe Manuilsky lage. Only in this sense can a Marxist speak This is the essential part of the anal- his pluses, at the time of the Fifth Con- simly made use...of his own talents? We about a real rise in socialist economy. ysis we made in our work on the "third gress of the Comintern, declared in a trium- will not tire the reader any longer: Novikov After his struggle with "Trotskyism" period" in France. Thus far we have not phant manifesto that the French Socialist is Manuilsky. The same one who in 1918 in 1923-1026, Zinoviev in July 1926, official- seen a single article in which our analysis party "no longer exists," and in spile of wrote that Trotsky—no more, no less! — ly admitted that the basic core of the Op- is submitted to criticism but evidently a all our protests against this shameful liberated Hussion Bolshevism from national position of 1923 was correct in its prog- HmltediK'SN a» ft few weeks ago by another bombshell. bastic as language will allow. Not so tha This was the declaration of Hugo Oehler Party workers in the field. for the platform of the Opposition follow*- Deprived of the" right to discuss any-j ed the next week by a whole group o£ young thing really important in the official Party Communists in New York. There are more channels, the comrades begin to discuss er into to come. Just the other day we received among themselves. The gap between them a letter from a comrade in a city where and the leadership widens. This process By JAMES P. CANNON we had no supporters up till now. The has been goin.^ on now for a long time. letter states that a number of comrades That it has not exploded before now in a In a previous article on the character united front with the Party. Our participa- have been reading the Militant very at- faction struggle over questions of current and limits of our faction reference was tion in the demonstration for the Indian tentively for some time and that they are policy is accounted for by the terror regime made to the experiences of'the German revolution was an excellent illustration of about ready to make a declaration in our in the Party and the lack of "prominent." Leniubund. and to the flabbiuess of prin- this policy and we must follow more en- behalf. Hardly a week goes by without leaders. This lack of leadership is not al- ciple which brought it to impotence and ergetically in the future. On the same similar news. together a minus quality. While it retard* ruin. In this case, as always, confusion order is our offer to participate in the the open .manifestations of the proletarian and looseness on principle questions were New York election campaign, our repeated There can no longer be any doubt that our propaganda is penetrating into current it drives it deeper into itself, com- bound up with errors in tactics which con- attempts to enter into joint class struggle pels it to -weigh the questions more care- tributed to and hastened the debacle. One action with the official Party in behalf of the Party ranks and influencing the Com- munist workers more and more as they see fully and to relate them to the fundamental of the greatest errors of the Leninbund iu the unemployed, the class war prisoners, issues. this field, as the results have shown wa.-s etc. By these means we are continually it borne out by events. What is happening its false attitude toward the Party. In refuting in action the slanders of the Party now is not the adhesion of Isolated indi- 'The logic of the situation drives the common with the entire International Op- overseers against us and gaining in the viduals here and there, but the beginning proletarian revolt in the Party toward the position we have drawn the lessons of the sympathy of the Communist workers. of a movement for the Opposition. We are platform of the Opposition. Only on that split in the Leninbund and reacted to a The Centrist leaders are always breaking through the wall reared against basis can it develop into a real power. firmer intransigeance in regard to prin- aroused to the greatest fury by our at- us by the Centrist leadership. The second There are some who understand this al- ciple questions. We must make use of tempts to make a united front with the layer of Oppositionists Is taking shape In ready but who shrink from its implications. these lessons also in determining our at- Party in common struggle against the class the Party. To think the conflicts through to the end means to connect the contradictions In titlude toward the Party, It i3 particularly enemy. And that fact ought to be instruc- The Character of the »w Movement necessary now because we stand on the tive for our own members. The bureau- local policy with the national, and the na- eve of new developments n the Party which crats fear our contact with the Party work- The new movement for the Opposition tional with the international. This leads will be vitally affected by our tactics. ers on the firing line of the class struggle. shows certain distinctive features. Ita inevitably to a consideration of the stand- They fear the influence of our example. They point of the Opposition. To study the plat- A Question of Tactics main current is made up of the best types form of the Opposition objectively and hon- For us this is a tactical question, Wa fear our arguments and our slogans. They of proletarian Communists who have been want to tear us away from all contact estly means, for a conscientious worker do nofl make a fetish of the Party organ- attempting to carry out the policy of the Communist, to support it. This means ization; our disregard of the bureaucrats' with the proletarian Communists.. This Party on the battle-field of the class strug- ambition of theirs is quite understandable. "disgrace". Loss of. "position". Expulsion. "discipline" is a sufficient indicatic-u that gle. Here they are confronted with the Slander. The severing of social relations we do not put the form before the sub- But we must not help them realize it by contradiction between the bluff and the fak- false tactics. and other trifles. Some fear this. Others stance. What we are concerned with at ery of the Party jacks-in-ofiice and the go forward resolutely and tell the truth to the present! moment is the composition o£ The Party—that is the Party member- realities of the situation. The more these the Party. Such a type is Hugo Oehler. the Party, its influence among the radical ship—is not a dead body. It is a living comrades in the field try to apply the offi- There will be other Oehlers. workers and the present relation of forces organism constantly under the pressure of cial policy the more they bump their heads Closer Bonds tilth the Ranks iu the struggle in the Commuist ranks. the class struggle. It cannot be kept in against this contradiction. The result ia It is our most important task at the Our task is to win over the workers' a strait-jacket. The Party reacts to events. a gradual awakening to the fact that some- moment to establish closer bonds with this vanguard to the platform of the Oppo- It is influenced by criticism—especially so thing is amiss. coalescing proletarian movement in the sition. A tactic which gives us the best when the Party 'members see the criticism They begin to criticise and to propose Party and help it to take shape as a genu- approach to them is the one we must seek confirmed in life. Things which have just modifications, and are met with accusations ine political force. We must help from a and apply. A tactic which hampers our recently happened in the Party and others of'Right wing tendencies" and threats ot political standpoint. We must stimulate approach to them is wrong on the face of which are in a course of preparation bear discipline. The swivel-chair generals in the its organization. it. Such a tactic would block the path of out this contention. Party office have no sympathy for the griev- future development for the Opposition. A long time after the echoes of our ances and complaints of the fighters in the Regardless of the vacillations of some Where are the American revolutionary expulsion had died down in the Party, after field. Slogans and "instructions" cost the of the potential leaders, this movement in workers today? This question we must! it seemed on the surface, that all our con- Browders nothing; they don't have to carry the proletarian ranks of the Party will answer first of all. Unless we close our tact was broken—the Party was startled them out. Therefore they can be as bom- develop and go forward. It will do this eyes to all reality we have to recognize because it is rooted in the deepest needs that the great bulk of revolutionary work- of the Party of the proletariat to coordin- ers who play an active role in the class ate its policy with the realities of the class struggle today are in the Party, and around struggle. And this is not a question of the Tarty. The Party has the unquestion- The Truth About the Bolivian «Revolution» empirical and short-sighted shrewdness and able hegemony in the Left wing llabor practicality. It is a question, in the last analysis of the Marxist fundamentals oa the movement. Take the needle trades as an The much talked of " revolution" in have profited by the Bolivian revolution* example. It is true that Communist influ- main issues of international import from Bolivia is nothing more than a change are certain military groups, some of the which, and only from which, the correct ence has declined as a result of the mon- of power from the hands of one clique to liberal petty-bourgeois elements and Brit- s'trous errors of the Party leadership; but everyday tactics flow. To make this clear another of the same semi-feudal military ish imperialism, this latter onl., in case to the revolting workers in the Party ranks the Party remains the decisive leading force exploiting class. It is one of those many the new regime does not1 reach an under- in tihe Left wing. The same thing applies is the task of the Leninist Opposition. In "revolutions" so frequent in the turbulent standing with United States finance capital. order to do this we must have the closest to other fields, for instance, the miners'. and instable "democracies" of Latin These internal struggles among the ex- There are many Communist workers not in co;| act with the Party. We must go America at the same time that it re- ploiters in order to steal the booty from deeper into the Party. T^ie decisive trend the Party; there are many who have drop- flects the struggle between those elements one another, offer an impulse to the masses ped out ot the Party—thousands of them—- of this movement in our direction, already favorable to British imperialism attempt- for spontaneous participation in street noticeable, is a justification of our attitude but (they are not an organised force. ing to snatch the political control of the fighting where they serve the ends of the It is possible, with an agressive pol- toward the Party. The successful devel- country from the hands of those indisput- opposition group, and as soon as the work- opment of the movement Into a new fight- icy and an energetic independent activity, ably on side of the North American bank- ers and peasants demand certain conces- to reach some of these revolutionary work- tag regiment for Leninism will confirm ers. sions bettering their conditions, they find these tactics beyond all further dispute. ers directly and bring thenrinto the ranks The recent occurrences in Bolivia have the machine guns turned on them for the of our organization. This we must) do. But As the new developments show, the not the revolutionary class character that) restoration of "order" and the ''pacification" Party cannot bo judged by the apparatus. the main road of approach to them is the Dally Worker gives them when it of the country. through the Party. Under the present cir- With most of these people political stultific- states in a recent issue that the workers A situation similar to that in Bolivia ation has been blended with moral corrup- cumstances and relation of forces a com- and peasants almost captured power, which plete break with the Party—a course to- existed in Ecuador in 1925, and there were tion, and their reclamation is beyond the the Party organ interprets as proof that many comrades who interpreted the milit- power of politics. Not to trust them, but ward the organization of another Party— the revolutionary movement in Latin Amer- would weaken, not strengthen our connec- ary rebellion at that time as a "social to fight them; not to count on them for ica is becoming "deepened and extended". revolution", while others thought that a the regeneration of the Party but to sea tion with frhe Left wing workers who are In other Issues of the Dally Worker dur- sympathetic to Communism. petty bourgeois democratic revolution had that they will be its first victims—that is ing the last few days declarations are taken place; in reality it was nothing but our attitude toward them, it is different This relation is not fixed and final for made Li the sense that the Bolivian mass- all time; it simply determines the atti- a replacement of the dull swords of the old with the Communist worker who has no es, truly viciously exploited by financial military chiefs for the sharper, newer one* axe to grind. Let us not forgst this dis- tude for the present and the near future. capital are already completely radicalized In comrade Trotsky's letter published in ot the younger elements. tinction, in the spirit of the "Third Period". This Pacts should not be exaggerated in Our JixIejX'iKk'ut \ctlrlt} the Militant some months ago he expressed is a false and childish method of analyzing the opinion that) the relation of forces in this manner. A real analysis of each sit- One way—and one of the very best America justified an orientjation on our the situation, born perhaps of the desire uation should be made in order to draw ways—to give real support to those com- to make it appear that a real mass move- correct conclusions so as to better or- rades fighting for our views inside the part toward the formation of an Indepen- ment exists throughout Latin America. dent party. We did not agree with it at ientate the revolutionary movement of Lat- Party is to increase the independent ac- "Revolutions" of the Bolivian type, in in America in particular and the interna- tivity of the Comm'unist League. The the time and we thought comrade Trotsky countries where the mass of the population would change his opinion when he recieved tional movement in general. stronger we are as an independent force, is made up of peasants with few workers, —CAMILO TORRES the more rapid will be our progress in the more complete and detailed material on and where no true class consciousness has the situation in the Communist and Left Party ranks. The steps we have taken wing labor movement. This proved to be yet developed, always turn out to be means since the Plenum of our National Commit- by which certain cliques of the exploiting Trotsky's Autobiography has proved tee toward the formation of an Opposition case, as attested by a second letter from classes dispute for power and for the right him. to be a dangerous subject for critics of his group in the needle trades unions as an to serve imperialist interests. standpoint to review. The bad luck of the independent factor has a special value and Need Flexible Tactics The state of disorganization of the New Masses with this enterprise has not! The peculiarities of our position as a Importance in this regard. toilers of Bolivia, in the mines as, well as only caused these dilletantes to regret the- We cannot foretell every fluctuation of body of expelled Communists impose upon ir venture into the field of politics; it has us a flexibility of tactics. Dogmatic nar- in the countryside could not be less prom- the struggle for Leninism in the Commun- ising. In Bolivia there is no Communist frightened away others who once posed as ist movement nor the forms it will altvaya rowness and one-sidedness will be fatal to experts on the menace of Trotskyism. The our future development. We are confront- party, nor ,for that matter any real work- take. The main tasks and the main line, ing class organization. Under these cir- Revolutionary Age announced in a previous however, are clear to us. Under a shower ed with the necessity of maintaining our po- issue that it would review the book, but in sition as a fraction of the Party, despite cumstances how could the workers and ol slander we are organizing the funda- peasants take power. With this state ot the intervening period it thought better ot mental nucleus of the future Communist the prohibition of the officialdom, and at affairs, to speak of the workers and pea- this rash promise. It serves up Instead a Party and we must connect this nucleus the same time of developing an independent quotation from a German paper of the Right organization wltto its own independent ac- sants almost capturing power, results only with the larger body of worker revolution- in cheap phrase-mongering; It is a mis- wing, We would like to know what Love- aries and win them for our platform. At tivities and Us own discipline. To combine stone has to say about the book. Or does he these tasks, to make each supplement the erable bluffing attitude towards the work- the present stage of the struggle—which Other is our problem. ers that read the Party's press, disfiguring intend to surrender leadership In tre strug- we visualize as a long one—it is above all The most Important means of nnnr«"oh the facts. gle against Trotskyism to the New Leader, a fight for the Party. A clear undersa-uul- lo (the Party members is the tactic of to* At the present time the only ones who th« New Masses, and the Daily Worker? idg of tWs will hasten our victory. iturday, July 26, 1930. T HE MILITANT Page t PUyjew and Criticism blacklisted, arrested, evicted and terror- ized textile workers. The Lying Campaign One of the outstanding weaknesses of Some of our Jewish comrades may hay» our work brought to the surface by this read the account of the India demon- period of reaction following June 7th was stration given in tlhe Freiheit. In the The Communists in the Sooth that all members recruited in the union midst of overwhelming paragraphs describ- were admitted through the Gastonia cen- ing the heroism of the workers in defend- By HUGO OEHLER tral office AND IN THIS WHOLE PERIOD ing their demonstration, was a short re- NO MILL LOCALS HAD BEEN SET UP, ference to the part played by the Com- (Continued from Last Issue) before it materialized and the terror ,ot yet we had plenty of material and time to munist League of America (Opposition). Success or failure of any struggle de- the thugs increased with a plan of end- do so. If a few mill locals had been set up The FreJaeit reported that we appeared, pends on how wide your first break is, ing it all before the new drive would start. the union would have been able to weather surrounded by a bodyguard of detectives. and how fast you follow this up with ad- The Company's plan, like the union's this storm in a far greater stable fashion According to the reporter, our only purpose ditional attacks before the bosses can mob- fell short wth the muriderous raid of and chaos would not have reigned. And in attending the meeting WE(S to advertise ilize a counter attack. This is trui in every Chief Aderholt and his death through the instead of the auxiliary organizations re- our organ, the Militant. Probably the re- etage of the development of the struggle. workers' self defense on June 7, The plan- organizing and laying a base they would porter was too exhausted by his struggles For example in Passaic, the first attack of ned drive of the union was transformed have acted in a helpful secondary fashion sto read the whole of the placard displayed ie workers was followed up with not one into a counter attack of the law with the and on the whole we would have been by the Communist League of America (Op- It several victories before the bosses Committee of 100 to follow up and clean able tc answer this with greater success. position). Or perhaps it is more conven- oould begin an important counter-attack. them out. The first part of this counter The mill bosses through the control of ient to forget that our banner, as well aa If our first attack is not broadened attack of the bosses' legal uroops was Gaston County and the City < of Gaatonia those of the Party, supported the Indian before the bosses—answer, we are not so transformed into their defeat by the heroic government as well as the state govern- Revolution. able to withstand these blows but If we action of the striking textile workers. The ment, lost no time and indicted 23 for The comrades made short work of us Blake big inroads and then the bosses at- bosses force followed up the June 7th raid murder—16 for first degree murder. "counter - revolutionaries" prevented our tack, it is not felt so easily and we can with terror for a week, wholesale arrest. The fact that the union did not answer breaking up of the meeting, and destroyed not! only better withstand their blows but Intimidation, searching of homes, beatings, uhie attack and inidictman)t and replace our papers and leaflets, says the article. answer them much faster before the bosses attempted lynching of Beal and others who Deal at once, lost our forces valuable time In spite of the confident report of the can follow up. were jailed. that as far as the Loray strike was con- FreBioit. however, many of our member* Such was not our fortune in Gastonla. cerned could not be made up. remarked the sympathy of the surrounding With the entire force of active strikers Party comrades. Most them objected to, Our mass picketing was very good, but and leaders arrested, held without right of The new force sent in over a month did not enable us to follow up this first, rather than helped in, the work of dis- bail, the police closed the destroyed tent after this terror, July 12MJ, inherited the persing us. This in itself Is a significant point with anything of consequence. The colony and union headquarters and reaction strike of Loray and Bessemer that weeks bosses answered the firsti blow with the fact. It seems that they are beginning to and terror rode the county. before had been settled as far as life and realize that in a matter, such as the In- Loray Committee of 100, organized from In this atmosphere came the national immediate .demands were concerned but a overseers, thugs and superintendents, led dian demonstration, in which we are at one representatves of Ihe W.I.R. and I.L.D. strike that was sUll officially on. On top with the Party, to divide forces and fight by Major Bulwinkle of Loray Mill. To this and although at first arrested and intimi- of this they inherited the bombastic action was added wholesale arrests by the local among ourselves is the stupidest folly, and dated the W.I.R. took the lead and opened of the fly by night organizers sent in, and the best inducement to police intervention. police and the cavalry terror, the church a new tent colony with the I.L.D. preparing add to this, the loss of records and chaotic and the local press. April 10th the caval- Having dubbed us "renegades", the for legal aid. This force brought new hope conditions of the union forces after this program. In spite of the persistent lies, ry was removed and 35 deputized American to the shattered and scattered forces of month period. "" Legion men replaced them- In the mean- Party cannot reconcile this supposed char- time the National Textile Workers Union acter of the Left Opposition with our con- •was doing its best to push ahead. Several tinued support of the correct part of lt» hundred struck in Bessemer City several however, Party members are becoming miles from Gastonia. The small force of The Sources of Manoilsky and Co. more and more sympathetically inclined organizers who had strike experience were towards the Left Opposition. Manuilsky is now drooling about the regards to Trotsky. —LILLIAN BORD pressed to handle this mass of determined "Bonapartist" tendencies of Trotsky. The "Therefore" , it says in • the review, but inexperienced workers. cheap Bohemia of the >"ew Musses and "he let loose at Trotsky. Here the author The Strike in Full Swing other publication of the same type have puts into motion his whole baggage of the ernment to the Middle peasantry, and By April the 15th the strike was in also seized on this theme. For these peo- most impossible lies, slanders and charla- speaks of rumors to the effect that Len- full swing with the W.I.Ri, the I.L.D., ple, Bonapartism is an individual feature of tanism. In the face, the beard, the lips— in and Trotsky are not in harmony, that and Communist youth handling the work. character and not a regime flowing from in everything he anxiously looks for con- there are big disagreements between The use of police, militia, gunmen and press class relations, from the policy of veering firmation for his calumnious words. First them, and especially upon this subject could be expected. between classes. Where must one's eyes be of all—power. 'He (Trotsky) wanted the of the middle peasant. We did not have long to wait. On to discover at present Bonapartism in the hevolution,' it says there, 'because he want- Comrade Trotsky has already given April 18, a bosseis' mob, under police and Opposition when all the preparations for ed himself. Others spoke about the seizure his answer in Izvestia for Febraury 7. deputy protection wrecked the union office the Sixteenth Congress represent a repiti- of power because they .considered the his- Comrade Trotsky says that the rumors In a well-planned fashion. The demolish,- tion, a rehearsal of Bonapartism on the torical moment ripe for the transfer of of disagreement between him and me are Jng of the W.I.R. supplies and the continual Party proscenium! power to the last powerless class. He a. monstrous lie, propagagated by the wholesale evictions, arrests and intimid- But we do not wish to raise here gen- spoke about the seizure of power because landlords and capitalists or their con- ations of strikers through the rest of April eral questions, but to contribute some his- he considered himself ready to fake pos- scious or unconscious servitors. I, upon and in May showed us that the bosses were torical data on the source of the spiritual session of the power.' (Page 83.) in the my part, fully confirm this statement of gaining in the counter attack. inspiration of Manuilsky and his Ameri- building of 'Trotsky's ministry' exemplary comrade Trotsky. There are no dis- In this whole period from the strike to can and other pupils. order and cleanliness prevail. Aha! This agreements between him and me, and. in the mob terror the spiriti of the strike rose In 1923 a book by Oskar Blum appear- is the secret of Trotsky's personal power. regard to the middle peasants there are and repulsed each atack with sacrifice ed in Germany giving the personal charac- In Trotsky's military orders, military style no disagreements not only between Trot- and determination but without effective tristics of the leaders of the revolution. is felt—Aha! There are the signs of the sky and me, but in genera] in the Com- counter-offense, entirely confined to coun- This book was firsti to discover in Trotsky new Corsica)!. And the palace guard, and munist Party of which we are both mem- ter-defense. In tiliis period of attack on signs of the "new Corsican". Before we the body gurad—true, not in gilded livery, bers. the workers we could have answered in a give a characterization of the book, how- but—'in the orderly uniform of the Red Comrade Trotsky in his letter ex- more positive way, if our leading force had ever, it is necessary to say a few words Gaurd!'. . .The pamphlet ends with a trans- plained clearly and in detail why the been handled right. about the author. parent insinuation: 'Material power is in Party of the Communists and the pres- Half tha time Beal and the other lead- In the period of the first revolution, his hands. What next?' " (Proletarian ent workers and peasants government Ing comrades were sent back and forth Oskar Blum was considered a social dem- Revolution, November 23, 1923. pages 247- elected by the Soviets and members of from Elizabethton to Lexington, etc. hun- ocrat and a Marxist, a partisan of Plekhan- 248). that Party ,do not consider the middle dreds of miles with mo:/; of those sin ov. In the years of reaction he was sus- Now take Manuilsky's article on Trot- peasants their enemieij. I subscribe the Gastonia area handicapped and those pected of connections with the gendarmerie. sky's "Autobiography". Take the review of with both hands to everything Trotsky in New York ordering these drives as Arriving from Riga to Vienna, he addressed the >'ew Masses and the rest of the reptile wrote." (Lenin Vol. XIV, pp. 28-29, though they were sending some one from himself to Trotsky with a request to help press: In what do they differ from Oskar Pravda, No. 35, February, 1919). New York City to Passaic. Such a broad- him re-establish hi revolutionary honor. Blum? In nothing. What have they added This is the way the epigones and their ening out activity and especially in relation On the basis of his own tales, Trotsky to his revelations? Nothing. Their writ- office-holders, among them also the so- to A.F.L. activity musu be carried on but came to the conclusion that Blum could not ings are a direct plagiary from the stipen- called Friends of the Soviet Union, simply not at the expense of our base and South- be tolerated in the" revolutionary ranks. ary of the Riga gendarmarie. Is it not repeat for a number of years what Lenin ern center and that only further played After the revolution of 1917, documents because these gentlmen themselves have in 1919 characterized as "lies spread by Into the hands of a powerful enemy attack- were found which proved conclusively that the psychology of stipendaries, which is ir- landowners, etc— or their conscious or ing ii n on all sides in the Gastonia area Blum was in the employ of the gendarmerie reconcilable with the psychology of revo- unconscious servitors." Added to this improper draining of the of Riga. Eilum was arrested and after- lutiosists? This is how sadly matters stand. And field center was the sending of comrades wards, through someone's thoughtlessness, Lenin on Uie Libellers of Trotsky not by accident. Centrism is not very in- such as Crouch and Pershing, etc., who he was freed from jail after which he fled At any rate, the source of Manuilsky's ventive. It is ideologically poor and pos- myy be able to function some places under abroad where he published the book about Inspiration is revealed very accurately. sesses a short memory. When this inter- proper leadership but who only "messed the leaders of the revolution. The general This, however is not the only incident. mediary, shaky, unprincipled currcnti leads thiri»s up" in the strike area with bombast- character of the book can • be sufficiently There is a more important one which, by a struggle against the revolutionary wing, ic (;i',':otinected "radicalism". dtermined by the character of its author: the way, has already been quoted by the it must necessarily borrow conclusions This first mob action and police attacks it is scurrilovis libel. Opposition, but we will bring it to mind from the Right wing. It has none of its were answered by rebuilding and contin- A Plagiary from Oskar Blum once more because it has incomparable own and by its very nature, it can not have uing ;fce work. Broken picket lines were A review of Blum's book was printed conviction. It. is known that the whole And because by the logic of the struggle, ref:.;med. Throughout the country the in the organ of the Bureau of Party His- campaign against "Trotskyism" began with Centrism is compelled to deepen its ac- issue was raised for Gastonia and funds tory, Proletarian Revolution, in November, the question of the peasantry: Contrary cusations against "Trotskyism" it is by started to flow in to help. Mass meetings 1923, when the campaign of the epigones to Lenin, Trotsky is supposed to have un- that itself compelled to look for all the •wei"i lield daily at the Union headquarters against Trotsky was already being widely der-estimated the peasantry in general and more muddy sources of inspiration. On in Giistonla and workers for many miles diffused. Nevertheless, in that period, the the middle peasant in particular. The epi- this road matters have reached plagiarism around came in and asked for organizers brains of the Party and the Comintern were gones have forgotten the source of this leg- of Manuilsky and Co. from the agent of for their mill towns. Hundreds were sign- not yet piled up with the tons of gossip end. Nevertheless it is rooted in the agi- the Okhrana, Oskar Blum. ed up into the Union from all parts of the and slander and generally with all kinds of tation carried on by the White Guards What next? D. ar.^>.' The "unorganizable" were starting refuse, and the official publications had among the peasants during the Civil War. to anlze. not yet gotten out of the habit of using the Lenin, in his day, took advantage of the If the number on your wrapper Is 'H rebuilding and recruiting inspired language they were writing in Lenin's time. first suitable occasion in order to dispose ne •>pe and the stubborn picket lines The author of the article in the Proletarian of this legend. These are his own words: r." firm ranks. The union planned to Revolution, not knowing that Blum had "In the Izvestia of February 7th, 52 f i. ) this drive with a new drive on sufficient personal'reasons to be dissatisfied there appeared a letter from the pea- then your subscription to the Militant ha* 1 • close the mill. This belated at- with Trotsky observed in bewilderment sant G. Gulov, who asks about the re- expired. Renew Immediately in order t« l.-nown to the Committee of 100 the particular viriousnexs of Blum with lation of our Workers and Pe,< rm'-, ;;o\ avoid missing any issues. Pkn 9 THE MILITANT Saturday, juiy zt>, also transform the Labor Sports Union, into a mass organization and win a mass The Leagued New «Plan of Action* circulation for the Young Worker, as well as double the League membership, create Durhig the first weeks of tho execu- campaigns in eight industries and holding 48 shop nuclei, 85 shop bulletins, and re- tion of the so-called Plan of Action adopted Negro youth conferences in seven districts cruit 10,000 young workers into the T.U.U.L. by the National Executive Committee of by August 15 which must culminate in a "That is what we, Bolsheviks, call a gen- the Young Communist League, we predict- mass youth organization affiliated to the uine attack." (Stalin). This last quotation The Young Vanguard, begin- ed that it could not be sucessfully accom- A.N.L.C. by September 30, we are going confirms the correct line of the Shock Plan. ning with tlil» present Issue will plished with the present false policies and to have, unquestionably, mass unemploy- publish » number of important opportunist regime. No doubt there were ment youth conferences and a National On September 30, let every member of documents and "statements by Len- the Y.C.L. demand an accounting. Let him many members of the Y.C.L. who really Youth Unemployment Day Demonstration in concerning the youth. believed that our prophecies were based demand the truth and not be satisfied with on August 20. And of course it goes with- The Importance of such pub- on nothing but a malicious desire to see specious figures. Then let him draw his lication I* manifest although i. the Plan fail. But the facts of reality are out saying that by September 30, we will own conclusions. —GEORGE RAY one were to judge by the engkct daily demonstrating that the criticism of of this elemenury educational work the Left Opposition is based on a thorough by the official Y.C.L.. which wastes Marxian evaluation of the situation. The Scranton Police Seize Communist Workers tons of paper on harmful drivel, unvarnished fact of the matter is that one would not at all think so. June 30, the last day of the Plan, revealed Five workers arrested last week in under arrest, confiscated all books, records All young workers should read an enormous disproportion between the fig- Scranton and charged with sedition are fac- and letters and took the organizers to the these fundamental documen-s- ures on paper and the negligible gains ac- ing 20 years in prison. They were jailed state police barracks where they were phot- tually made. Did the N.E.C. attetnpt to when the anthracite mine owners and their ographed and finger-printed. Only after In this first installment we publish, make an objective political analysis Of the flunkies in political office feared that a being held 10 hours were they charged with the Resolution proposed by Lenin at tha situation and initiate a discuss! >n in the strike of 1,200 members of the United Mine sedition. Since the arrests several more Second Congress of the Rivslan Social ranks on the basis of the experience of the Workers Union for equalization of work raids have been made on the headquarters, Democrats in 3903 on the attitude towards last few months? To be sure not! For would develop into a militant struggle led a move to smash the militant labor move- the student youth. to do so would expose the complete bank- by the National Miners Union. The strike ment being the apparent objective. Previous to ] 905, the various political rutcy of its false ultra-Left line. Instead however, was short-lived as the Lewis- The International Labor Defense which parties of Russia obtained their propa- there is much yelling that the membership Boylan machine ordered the men to return is conducting the defense of the five work- gandists and agitators from the students. of the Y.C.L. is not doing enough work, to work. ers must develop a broad united fr'ont This to a large extent included the work- that they are substituting phrases far movement for their liberation. Not only Ing class party. With the clearing ot deeds, and that, forsooth, is a very crass Those arresteu, and held in jail for the N.M.U. locals which are very weak, but the atmosphere that resulted from the expdession for the "Left" danger itself. the Pall Grand Jury are: Dan Slinger, the rank and file of the U.M.W. must be storm of the 1905 revolution, and subse- quent sharpening of the class war the. The New "Shock Plan" district organizer, National Miners Union; appealed to and asked to participate in John LitMe, youth organizer, Trade Union situation changed and the intellegentsia In order to evade drawing the bal- the campaign. This is an issue that can Unity League; Sylvan A. Pollack, district be used to strengthen the Left wing move- of which the student youth is a section, ance of the so-called Plan of Action, it has organizer, International Labor Defense; gravitated toward their own petty bourge- been renovated, refurbished with a new ment in the anthracite if properly handled. Joe Tash, National Executive Board mem- If a sectarian defense campaign is allowed ois -nd bourgeois parties.—Eds.) name—Shock Plan—and extended for three ber, N.M.U.; and Phil FrankCeld, Commun- months, to September 30. This however, to be conducted, conviction of the five ist Party organizer. Joe Tash was arrest- workers is certain and the many class war CONCERNING THE STUDENTS will nob prevent every sincere member of ed when speaking at a mass meeting at llesolutton moved by comrade Lenin on th« the Y.C.L. from putting the question prisoners in the United States will have Dunmore where he was exposing the Lewis new recruits. On the other hand, a real attitude towards Students squarely to- himself (and hone tly trying machine. The others were taken into cus- to discover the underlying cause of the united front movement will not only be a (Passed at the Second Congress of the tody the following day when state troopers step for the freedom of the arrested work- Russian Social Democratic Labor Party whole unsavory situation. and deputy sheriffs raided the headquarters Paper plans cannot be substituted for ers but a reservoir of strength for the held in 1903, with the exception of that of the I.L.D. and N.M.U. in Scranton. With- Left wing movement in general and the portion in parathenses.) a correct line grounded on the actual sit- out a warrant they placed the workers uation among the young workers. Admin- N.M.U. In particular. This Second Congress of the Russian istrative decisions and bureaucratic com- Social Democratic Labor Party welcomes mands and noise. The Shock Plan is a the revival of independent revolutionary combination of all those negative qualities. activity among the utii'dent youth, calls It is a screen for all the recent failures, Eastman's Correspondence with Gold upon all branches ot the Party to render and an artificial attempt to make good all ( Continued from Page 4 ) Liberator. Have you forgotten that' your every possible aid to the youth in its striv- these reverses. An examination of its nounce thinking through a passion for "lit- publicity when you started the magazine ings to organize and recommends to al measures conden.n. it as an adventurist erature", do not necessarily renounce hon- was to the opposite effect? What is the groups and student circles: first, to mak enterprise. orable and- decent editorial conduct. reason for this change? Is this one more it their first duty to imbue their-members First, the Plan callu for a whole ser- with a complete philosophy and to get fieiu What is your real reason? trick suggested by your bureaucratic mas- ies of industrial youth conference;!. These ters for grabbing prestige at tihe expense to study Marxism seriously on the one conferences are to be hold in eight different Either you backed down because you both of sincere ideals and real facts? Did hand, and Russfan Narodnik-ism and West industries—all by September 30. The in- are too cowardly to print Trotsky's classi- it not once occur to you jwtiile you were European opportunism on the cither aa dustrUs are: textile, needle trades, mining, fication pf you, or else you consulted your composing that sweet history, and using my the principle opposing group's within the steel auto metal mining, lumber and ag- masters, the bureaucrats of the Workers name in advertising your magazine, that it modern fighting progressive tendencies. riculture. The N.E.C. in all its recent Party, and they forbade you to print the might be honest to mention among those Secondly, to beware of the false friends oi resolutions and thesis has recognized an letter. other charming incidents the fact that I the youth who are distracting it from ser- iinsaiisf-'.dory situation in the Y.C.L. But Either position marks off your paper resigned from the Executive Board of New jous revolutionary education by vapid, rev- "' ' ••'•• ''• •> Y.O T,. 1'iR f.oquired such completely from The Masses, from which it Masses stating that I despised its sly pussy- olutionary, idealistic phraseology and phil, immense strength and vitality, such- re- borrowed its name. And yet I notice you footing policies and total lack of intellect- listine chatter about the harm and super- e.o. >.. .. co runny toiccr. and organizers, have chosen just this moment to get out ual and moral courage? fluousness ot sharp controversy tenden- a new line of publicity giving what you call that it can simultaneously in the i eriod of Yours sincerely, cies, for these false friends, as a inntter of a few months entor eight different indus- "the autobiography of the New Masses", fact .cultivate merely lack of principle and tries of tho United States, and can success- in which you falsely pretend that it is a MAX. EASTMAN. a frivolous attitmde towards revolutionary fully carry on campaigns which will cul- mere continuation of the Masses and The P. S. I offer this letter also for publication. work, and thirdly) in taking up practical minate in mass—mind you, the Plan says activity to strive to establish connectioa "mass"—youth conferences. Do the Steu- with social democratic organizations be- bens, Harveys, Greens, and tho other mar- forehand in order to be able to be guided ionettes, who place all these directives so Camp Nitgedaiget in Boston by thei instructions and to avoid as far easily on paper, understand the significance BOSTON— in view of the iact that 718 was invited to as possible important errors in the very of these grandiose schemes? Is this not beginning of the work. Another Left wing organization is being the camp banquet not so long ago? stupid and criminal adventurism? Can't «',,,.,.. • I'ir.ed" under the leadership of a these light-minded people realize that" it And now a question to the ex-manager would be far better to concentred on few Party members: the cooperative camp of Camp Nitgedaiget who, is now chairman some one or two industries—yes, we are Nitgedaiget of Boston. When the camp of Branch 718: How does your own med- modest and sensible enough • to ask for was founded in 1927, individuals as well icine taste, Mr. Robinson? We rtill re- only one or two-—where the objective con- as organizations were approached to buy member last cummer when the shoe work- ditions are most favorable and reallv hold shares. One of its .shareholders is John ers of Boston were on strike,and a com- Reed Eiranch 71R of the Workmen's Cirol*. mittee came to camp with an effort to out I a successful mass youth conference? Whom nr» these' bureaucrats trying'to befuddle and like most shareholders participated in raise funds for the strikers. Mr. Robin- BULLTT1N OF RUSSIAN OPPOSITION camn affairs and contributed toward its son bitterly attacked the shoe workers' com- Double No. 12 — 13 for June— July.1930 with their loud prattle? establishment. mittee for coming on his ground to exploit Second, the PHin. as nnrt of its re- Containing: To the opening of the camp this season, ''Is workers anj was greatly in favor o. cruitment quota, calls for the gaining of putting the committee out of the camp. Towards the 16th Congress of the C. P. S. 500 young Negro workers for the Y;C.L. Branch 718 was formally invited as usual U. — The Revolution in India, by Trotsky— Here the inventors of the Shock Plan real- to the banquet and responded by sending It is interesting also to hear some of The Pjriod between the 15th and 16th Con ly become realistic. In order to win GOO a delegate with instructions to buy another the members of 718 crying for a free plat- gresses of the C. P. S. U., by Dingelstaedt young Negro workers it is necssary to do share. The branch in turn felt t'hat Camp form for discussion- when we recall an in- —Note s of a Journalist, by Alfa — Numerous mags Negro work, you understand. This Nitgedaiget is iti home and applied tor the cident of about a year and a half ago letters from the metropolises and centers Is actually stated in the Plan. So in ad- camp grounds for its annual outing which when comrade Cannon was in Boston and of exile in the Soviet Union. — Tw8 C'oncep dition to carrying on mass campaigns in was to take place on June 29. our branch of the Communist League (Op- tions, by Trotsky — Stalin and the Red Army eight industries, we are going to hold mass The board of directors of the camp ex- position) appealed for the platform and by Markin —Lette r to the Spanish Opposi- —nothing but mass, mind you—Negro youth tended their welcome to Branch 718 and all was rejected by these very members. It tion, by Trotsky — What Is Centri?m? by conferences against lynching, in seven was fine and dandy, until a few days before seems that it makes a difference into whose Trotsky — The German Situation, by Roman League districts by August 15, and by Sep- the outing was to take place a letter was window the stone falls. Well — The Jewish Movement la France, by tember 30 we are going to have a mass received by the secretary of 718 stating We hope that the camp board of di- Senine — The Opposition in South America, (note well!—mass) Negro youth organiza- the withdrawal of the invitation to the rectors will realize before it is too late by Dvorin —Lette r from Prap e — Etc., etc. tion affiliated to the American Negro Labor branch for its outing, due to the fact that the detrimental policy they are adopting 25c a copy $2.00 i, yea the board of directors suddenly realized that Congress (another mass organization whose In barring workers from the camp grounds Send orders and funds to eictatence Is grossly exaggerated). Presto! the .To'