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Cannon • Japan Faces the Abyss by Li Fu~Jen • How the Trotskyists Went to Jail by Joseph Hansen

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Cannon • Japan Faces the Abyss by Li Fu~Jen • How the Trotskyists Went to Jail by Joseph Hansen =============February 1944 our • .0 erna lona The First Days of Alllerican COlllmunism By James P. Cannon • Japan Faces The Abyss By Li Fu~Jen • How The Trotskyists Went To Jail By Joseph Hansen From the Arsenal of Marxism Military Doctrine or Pseudo-Military Doctrinairism By Leon Trotsky _------=====-=-========-======================================-========Tw e n t y C en t, MILITANT, as well as PiDneer bDDks. As a grDup is nDW in ex­ IManager's Column I FOURTH INTERNATIONAL istence there, this is Df vital 1m- portance." The lettel"s received during VDlume V February 1944 NO'. 2 ("ThDle NO'. 41) the mDnth from Dur readers at Publ(,hed 1nOftthlv bv the The follDwing* *letters, * concern­ hDme and abrDad indicate the Fourth InternaHonal P'UbluMng A'Boc(at~Oft ing the article 'Myth Df Racial FOURTH INTERNATIONAL is 116 University Place, New York 3, N. Y. TelephDne: AlgDn­ Superiority' by Grace CarlsDn being read and appr9iciated by i quin 4-8547. Subscription rates: $2.00 per year; bundles, 15c which appeare'd in January, an ever-widening circle Df work­ fDr 5 copies and up. Canada and FDreign: $2.50 per year; 1944 issue of FOURTH INTER­ ers. We qUDte frDm SDme Df the bundles, 16c fDr 5 cDpies and up. NATIONAL, were delivered to' letters: Entered as secDnd-class matter May 20, 1940, at the PDSt Dffice at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. us just after the prison gates Lorain, Ohio: "I wDuld like to' closed Dn the authDr of this ar­ en t e r my subscriptiDn fDr EditO'r: FELIX MORROW ticle: FOURWH INT'ERNATIONAL. West Haven, 0011,11,.: "My dear "I never' knew that such an CONTENTS Miss Carlson, I am writing this organizatiDn Dr publicatiDn ~x­ The Month in Review letter to' YDU cDncerning your isted until late in NDvember, DissDlutiO'n Df CPUSA ........................................... 35 very excellent article, 'The Myth 1943, when I was talking to' a RDDsevelt's Turn to' ReactiDn .................................. 36 Df Ra'cial SuperiDrity,' in the fellDw wDrker about wDrld af­ January number Df }:i'OURTH The First Days O'f American CDmmunism fairs and I was handed the Sep­ INTERNATIONAL. It is a very tember, 1943, issue Df FOURTH By James P. Cannon 38 coherent and thoughtful discus­ INTERNATIONAL. HDW the TrDtskyists Went to' Jail.. .. By Joseph Hansen 43 sion of the prD'blem ... "The next issue I got was the Japan Faces the Abyss "I hDpe YDU dDn't mind my December, 1943 issue, so I I. Distinguishing Features Df Japan's EcO'nomy taking the liberty Df writing would desire if pD'ssible,fDr my you this way. I thDught perhaps By Li Fu-J en 48 subscri'ptiDn to' start with the cDrrespDndence wDuld be wel­ current January issue. LeDn SedDv ...................................... By John C. Wright 54. come. YDU hav~ my support in "I agree with YDur stand New Trends in NatiDnalist ThDught Dn EurO'pean this MinneapDlis affair and I'm against hypDcrisy and double PrDblems (BDDk Review) ............ By J. B. St',tart 56 Dn YDur side." dealing which is characteristic From the Arsenal of Marxism * * * Df the wDrld leaders of tDday New York: "Dear Miss CarI- Military DDctrine Dr PseudO'-Military and that includes all Df them­ SDn, I have read yDur articles religiDus, pDlitical and CDmmer­ DDctrinairism ................................ By Leon Trotsky 60 which have 'been appearing from cial. ~II" time to' time in THE MILITANT "E,nclDsed find check fDr one and hav,e just read the Dne in year subscriptiDn." FOURTH INTERNATIONAL. delible imprint Dn the mind Df Ireland: "EnclDsed is a letter All of the articles including this * * * the British wDrking class, from an Internment camp in Evanston, Illinois: "EnclDsed Dne are exceptiDnally gDDd a.nd especially the miners whO', per­ Ireland. Will YDU place his name find 25c. Pleas'e send me a CDpy I have enjoyed all Df them. haps more than any Dther sec­ on YDur mailing list? AlsO' send Df the January issue of FOURTH Keep up the gODd wDrk. YDU tiDn Df the wDrkers, knDw just him a cDpyof all the Old Man's INTERNATIONAL. AlsO' tell arie dDing a splendid job, one whO' the present British leaders material as well as anDther copy me when I c~n get the Feb­ that I am sure will bear fruit in Df 'RevDlutiDn and CDunter­ ruary issue. And siend a list of are and what their past 'demDc­ the future." all TrDtskyist literature avail- ratic' recDrds are. Revolution in Spain.' There are "I was disgusted when read­ many ex-InternatiDnal Brigadiers * * * able." St. Paul: "We are w0ndering ing Df Kelly Postal's appeal be­ in this camp whO' wDuld read if YDU have SDme Df the last * * * ing turned dDwn by the State this latter work with eagerness. England: "WDuld YDU please issue ·of FOURTH INTERNA­ Supreme Court. Another in­ "AlsO', please see that the send me regularly a CDPY of TIONAL left. This is the Dne stance Df the methods adopted Egyptian comrade, whose ad­ FOURTH INTERNATIONAL with Gra'ce CarlsDn's article on by the 'demDcratic' allies to' sub­ dress we have previDusly sent, and THE MILITANT. I shDUld racism, and quite a few peDple jugate the militant strata of is supplied with FOURTH IN- alsO' like to' have a CDPY O'f J. in St. Paul wDuld like to' have wDrkers." TERNATIONAL and THE P. Cannon's 'Struggle fDr a it, aside frDm thos~ whO' receive Proletarian Party.' the magazine regularly. "I have recently been drawn We still have in stock bound volumes "We wDuld like abDut 12 addi­ towards the TrDtskyist mDV,e­ tiDnal copies. If YDU can't get ment here in Britain, mainly of The NEW INTERNATIONAL and this many to' us, please send thrDUgh the persuasiveness Df FOURTH INTERNATIONAL for the fol. what YDU can." anDther worker, whO' perhaps is * * * nDt unknDwn on YDur side Df lowing years: Our PZentywood, Montana, the Atlantic, alsO' of CDurse 1938 $5.00 agent 'pledges himself to' carry thrDugh the CDrrect ideas and Dn the wDrk mDmentarily inter­ pDlicy put fDrward by FOURTH 1939 5.00 rupted when our 18 cDmrades INTERNATIONAL. 1940-41 4.00 were railrDaded to prisDn: "In'cidentally, I ShDUld like to "Received the F.I. tDday 80' pDint out that the cDrrectness of If you do not already have your bound will send $1. I have nDt had a the programme of the ~'. 1. is volume, get it now. chance to lo'ok it Dver, but the becDming mDre apparent to' the Order from reports Dn it are very gDDd. SO' workers here in Britain as the Business Manager the good work goes on even If EurDpean events unfDld. The some Df the leading comrades reactionary pDlicy and vicious Fourth International are nDt there. We wUl have to' strike-breaking tactics of the 116 University Place New York 3. N. Y. dO' our best and carry the fight Stalinists here is leaving an in- to' the last." FOURTH INTERNATIONAL VOLUME [) FEBRUARY 1944 NUMBER 2 1"'he Month in Review On the Dissolution of the During the last imperialist LENIN'S TEACHINGS ON slaughter Lenin warned inces­ American Communist Party BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY santly that the decay of the cap­ italist system could lead only to In carrying out the Kremlin's the ascendancy of blackest reaction unless the workers inter­ BROWDER AND COMPANY order to dissolve the American vened with their socialist solution. Thus, in 1916 he wrote: A VOW THEIR RENEGACY Communist Party and turn it "The di.fference between the republican-democratic and openly into an appendage of the monarchist-reactionary imperialist bourgeoisi~ is obliter­ the two capitalist parties, Browder and Co. found themselves ated pr~cisely because both are rotting alive." (Oollected Works, compelled to depart from their customary device of duping English Edition, vol. XIX, p. 338.) their followers by some brazenly distorted quotation from Marx Lenin taught the workers: or Lenin. For the first time the American Stalinists have pub­ "Not a single fundamental democratfic demand can be licly acknowledged that they are unable to extract from the achiev~d to any considerable extent, or any degree of perman­ Marxist classics so much as a single phrase that could be ency, in the advanced imperialist states, except 'by revolution­ palmed off as a justification for their current policy. ary 'battles under the !banner of ~ocialism." (Idem, p. 67.) In his speech at Madison Square Garden in New York City, In this same period he wr\Jte: announcing the liquidation of the C.P.U.S.A., Browder admitted "Capitalism in general, imperialism in Iparticular, trans­ that he had "no formulas from the classics which give us an forms democracy into an illusion-and at the sam,e time answer," and then added: "We are departing from ortho­ capitalism generates democratic tendencies among the massesl doxy . ."{Daily Worker, January 13.} creates democratic institutions, accentuates the antagonism betw,een imperialism, which repudiates demo:cracy, and the On January 16, the editor of the Daily Worker likewise con­ masses which strive toward democr8lcy. Capitalism and imper­ fessed that Browder's "proposals" were "accompanied by well­ ialism cannot be overthrown through any reforms-not even defined changes in traditional approach on a number of basic the mo'st 'ideal' democratic reforms---:but through an economic questions." overthrow." (The Hoover Li,brary: The BOlsheviks and the World War, p. 226.) Here we have the undisguised and unabashed voice of renegacy. The Stalinists are repeating today the traditional Any number of similar quotations can be adduced. words of their real historical predecessors, the opportunists of These basic ideas of Lenin on the class nature and bank­ .
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