Vol. 1. - No. 7. 401 Saturday, September 25, 1937 5 Cents per Copy La Guardia Endorses George U. Harvey ------;------T) ------Erwin Wolf in Forward to the ‘People’s Front’ Candidate for Spanish Prison Convention New York’s Red-Baiter No. 1. The need of the hour for the sincere and revolutionary Trotsky Secretary Held socialists of the country is the speedy convening of an By G.P.U. in Barcelona emergency rank and file convention of the Socialist Party. Thomas Is ‘Shocked’—But Will Not Run Throughout the country, the usurpers of the National Executive Committee are splitting the party by the ex­ By a majority oven larger than the most estimates, Erwin Wolf, young Czech revo­ pulsion of the left wingers on the basis of an infamous, Fiorello H. La Guardia was nominated by the enrolled Republican lutionist who acted as secretary “loyalty oath” . , •voters cl’ New York City, as the Republican candidate tor Mayor. to Leon Trotsky during' the lat­ ter’s exile in Norway, has been As a condition for membership in the party, they are The Republicans know their man when they see hint. These enrolled arrested and imprisoned by the seeking to compel the comrades who are earnestly devoted voters were those who registered Republican in October, 1936, in Stalinist G.P.U. in Barcelona. to socialist principles, who are concerned with their so­ the midst of last year’s Presidential campaign. They are the real Over his head hangs the threat cialist integrity—to compel them to condemn the revolu­ die-hard Landonites. La Guardia has not been slowa of being assassinated in prison tionists who are fighting the betrayal of socialism perpe­ i r or of being shipped secretely to trated by the National Executive Committee when it sanc­ in showing hi? gratitude. On the the Soviet Union in the hope that tioned the support of the capitalist demagogue, La Guar­ eve of the primaries, in order to j the Stalinist Secret Police can dia, and declared the expulsion of all those who opposed make things perfectly clear to | the Republican machine, he went I get him to sign one of those this loathsome sell-out. WhenWill the notorious "confessions" which down the line fo r the regular! they have imposed on other vic­ On the basis of this “loyalty oath”, which they know Republican candidates for city- i tims of their frame-up system. will not be signed by a single self-respecting socialist any­ wide office: in particular, for Me- j This dreadful news comes from where in the country, comrades are being expelled Goldrick and Newbold Morris, Erwin Wolf’s wife, Hjordis, throughout the party and the locals are being organized both among New York’s most New World daughter of Konrad Knudsen, on the basis of support for “La Guardia Socialism.” prominent Landon supporters last Labor Party member of the Nor­ There is no other way of effectively combatting the year. wegian Parliament. She accom- Two days after the primaries, disruption of the movement, no other way of reconstruc­ La Guardia devoted his speech pcuued her husband several tin g th e socialist pai-ty on a revolutionary basis, Than by War Begin in celebration of the Constitu­ months ago when they travelled the rank and file taking matters into their own hands. to Barcelona. After his arrest, tion to an elaborate defense of Over the heads of the La Guardia socialists on the National she le ft for France. the Supreme Court as the guar­ It has been often noticed that Executive Committee, guilty of perfidy and treachery to dian of the people’s liberty. military tacticians are almost Betrayed by G.P.U. Spy socialist principle, the rank and file of the party must always caught off guard In the mobilize for their own national convention. Red-Baiter Endorsed In Barcelona, the Wbiis were first stages of a new war. The The State Executive Committee of the Socialist Party But the pay-off came on Mon-, recommended to a certain Dr. reason fo r ibis is easily explain­ Tioli by a Norwegian friend of of Ohio has already taken the initiative. By unanimous day. The morning's headlines Hjordis Knudsen, named Grete vote it has called for an emergency convention “for the gayly announced La Guardia’s ed: A t the conclusion of one war, Finnstad. Tioli allowed Wolf to purpose of throwing out the traitors, determining the endorsement of George U. Har­ the tacticians set about learning use his address fo r the receipt will of the membership on all important party problems vey, Republican candidade fo r the lessons which its campaigns have taught. They then base of mail from abroad. On the eve and reestablishing of the party on the foundation of the office of Borough President of Wolf’s return to France, Tioli of the Bronx. Few political fig­ their plans for the coming war revolutionary socialism”. The Ohio S.E.C. proposes that upon what they have learned (Continued on page 7) the convention be held in Chicago on or about the Thanks-'; ures in the city our better known than this same Harvey. It is from the war just finished, ex­ giving week-end. It has authorized the City Central Com­ granted in all camps that he'does pecting to correct "mistakes” mittee of Local New York, Left wing, to act as organiz­ not have even a rival as cham­ chiefly by extending the scope VICTOR HARRIS OUSTED ing committee on convention arrangements. pion Red-baiter of New York. of operations. Bat in modern The National Executive Committee of the Young Peo­ He never loses an occasion to times, during the intervening ple’s Socialist League has already given its unanimous, attack, in pubfic and in private, period of peace, vast technologic­ AS CONN. SECRETARY endorsement to the movement initiated by Ohio. every and any labor "agitator” al changes have profoundly al­ Victor Harris, militant secret­ The Executive Committee of Local Cook Country (Chi­ (Continued • on page 3) tered the instruments of warfare, ary of the Connecticut State or­ cago) has'adQpted a similar resolution. and social and political shifts ganization of the Socialist Party, - Local Lynn, Mass., has unanimously decided to join To Speak Friday have altered ways of handling has been ousted from his post for hands in the calling of the emergency convention of the masses o f people. Consequently, no other reason than his loyalty the lessons of the past war are to the principles of revolutionary rank and file. discovered not to apply to the socialism. Local Rochester, Ne\y York, has now7 gone on record new war, or to apply only indi­ against the La Guardia Socialists and echoes the demand At last Sunday’s meeting of rectly. The m ilitary staff have the State Executive Committee, for the emergency convention. to throw overboard most of their the right wing majority on the Local Allentown, Penna., has joined the movement for studies, and lean: afresh, from committee, representing the dead- the convention in Chicago on the Thanksgiving week-end. reality. wood and conservative mem­ Local Austin, Minn., has given a vigorous reply to the bership of the state, and mobil­ splitters and reformists of the N.E.C. and called for a Same In Politics ized under the direction of Devere special convention. The same difficulty is as com­ Allen, member of the National Local Philadelphia, Parkside branch, has taken the mon in political as in military Executive Committee, asked cor- same action and w ill be represented at the convention. tactic?. Painfully, exhaustively, rade Harris to resign the post Other local and state organizations throughout the , we learn the political lessons which he has occupied fo r some country, from Boston to San Francisco, are expected to ; from the last war. But, if we time. Harris refused to resign on take action on the question in the coming days.. \ apply them directly ar.d mechan- the ground that he, and not the Throughout the country, the local must act immediately jically to the new crisis, v,e are N.E.C., was faithful to the tra­ ¡le ft floudeving end disoriented, dition of the convention and of to endorse the Ohio resolution. Every day’s delay facili­ land have to learn our lesson? all socialism. The motion was then tates the criminal work of the right wing and their cen­ [over again. Valuable and instruc­ made to remove Harris, which trist tools. The revolutionary socialist party must be tive as are political analogies carried by a vote of 5 to 2. There restored and consolidated. drawn from the past, they are was not even a semblance of All hands united! On to the Chicago convention of the never a sufficient substitute for charges of violation of discipline. rank and file, of the revolutionary socialists! HARRY MILTON (Continued on page 2)

HEAR IRVING PLAZA 15th St. & Irving Place T h e T ru th Harry Milton Friday, September 24, 1937 Just Released from a G.U.P. Prison inSpain 8 p. m. A D M IS S IO N : 25 Cents About Spain! Albert Goldman Auspices, Socialist Party, N Y. Left Wing 2 SOCIALIST APPEAL September 25, 193* When Will the New World War Begin Imperialists Now Launch Conflicts Without Formal Declarations of War (C ontinued fro m pagfe 1) At no time in the past would henceforth the conflicts could manner not forseen by the m ili­ the direct analysis of living and this question even have been By James Burnham never be forced back within that tarists, to concrete events. concrete reality. Every new his­ raised. War was always a social framework, that it was now a torical drisis, deep as may be activity with certain convention­ race toward war on a world scale. What This Means al standards and rules. Wars be­ inter-imperialist war, at least as its roots in the past, is yet novel The phrase, "prelude to the The profound importance of gan with a formal announcement such a war has been up to now and unprecedented in certain of new world war", however, may this possibility for Marxists to that effect, called in modern understood. The invasions of its fundamental aspects. We are have had a more literal meaning should be apparent. If we do times a “Declaration of War”, Manchuria and Ethiopia were as likely to be fooled as instruct­ that was suspected even by those not take it into account, we may by the warring parties. This, in carried out by imperialist powers ed by memories; and convention­ who used it. It is the remark­ wake up some morning to find, turn, was a modified develop­ against backward nations. In the al formulas can never do the able and indisputable fact that not that war has suddenly start­ ment from the more elaborate past, such acts have been fre­ work of intelligence. since the beginning of the Ethio­ ed, but that it stared some long ceremones that preceded armed quent enough in the history of pian invasion there have been in while ago. The revolutionists conflict in feudal society. The all the great power; and very Central Task the world taken as a whole bodies would be caught completely off Declaration of War, in modem often the great power did not see Every serious person knows of armed men in conflict in num­ guard, organizationally and poli­ times, has itself almost invariab­ fit to dignfy the colonial aggres­ that the new world imperialist bers steadily' increasing month tically. Tactics applicable to a ly come as the conclusion of sev­ sion with a formal Declaration. war is coming, and is in fact not by month, almost without ex­ colonial civil war might be ap­ eral other standardized actions: Therefore, we are not able to far off. Every Marxist or near- ception. In form these armed men plied long after what began as an “Ultimatum” of some kind, conclude defintely from the evi­ Marxist realizes that in the new have been engaged chiefly iii two dominantly a colonial or civil “breaking off of diplolmatic rela­ dence of the Manchurian and war the fate of mankind w ill be "colonial wars” (Ethiopia and struggle had been subordinated tions”, “general mobilization”, Ethiopian affairs that the inter­ issue; that out of this war imperialist war itself w ill be un­ China) and in a civil war (Spain). to the inter-imperialist conflicts. and then the Declaration of War. But in the Ethiopian war, the w ill come either the workers’ declared. On the other hand, if this pos­ The past three or four years fleets of Great Britain and Italy revolution or a social barbarism But there is, when we examine sibility turns out to be the case, more terrible and devastating in international relations have were brought into the Mediterra­ or is even partly true, we may witnessed a more complete break­ the question more closely, a sig­ nean; in the Spanish War, there than ever before known in his­ nificant difference between the anticipate a different tempo in tory. Every revolutionist under­ down in usual “diplomacy”, in have been tens of thousands of certain developments associated the conventional ways of doing Manchurian and Ethiopian inva­ men and hundreds of millions of stands that in the last analysis sions, on the one hand, and ear­ with the period following the De­ his central task is to prepare for things, than has ever before oc­ dollars worth of munitions pour­ claration of War: as for exam­ curred. Since the withdrawal of lier colonial enterprises on the ed in by the great powers, and the challenge of the coming war other. During the 18th and 19th ple, the passing of reformists with the unbreakable determin­ Japan from the League of Na­ there have been armed encount­ and labor bureoucrats over to fu ll­ tions, the act has come first, and centuries there was still left in , ers between the ships, airplanes ation that it shall be at once the the world vast “virgin" terri­ blown social-patriotism, measures death of the monstrosity of cap­ the form ality is either added on and submarines of the powers; by Governments for "consolida­ later or dispensed with alto­ tories, enormous areas as yet and in China there is present a italism and the birth of the new not brought under the sway of tion of the nation”, etc. In fact, world order. gether. Armies march, ships are considerable concentration of the the voting of the war budgets sunk, cities bombed, treaties vio­ capitalist exploitation, and often A ll the more fatal, then, w ill armed forces of the powers, some by the French Communist and lated, all without benefit of the not even definitely under the in­ he any miscalculation concerning of whose tactics have amounted Socialist Parties in January, and traditional “ rules ”. fluence of any single great na­ to at least partial intervention. "the nature and manner of the tion. But by the eve of 1914, al­ the ppo-Armament vote of the Does this mean that the new new war. A simple major error most the entire world had been British Trades Union Congress imperialist war will never be W hat Next? may well prove a disaster. Nor, divided up among the great pow­ this month, which we have tended formally initiated, never “declar­ to avoid miscalculation, is it ers, either as colonies, dominions, It is still, of course, possible to point to as an example of a dif­ ed” ? that a temporary “solution” can enough to rely passively on what subject nations, or as some other ference in the character of the be found for both the Spanish labor movement now as compared we have learned from the past. No Formalities type of “sphere of influence”. This meant that capitalism had and the Chinese struggles— w ith 1914 (when such votes oc­ though it is not possible that The New Aspect There was, as we know, no reached its progressive lim it, curred only after the Declara­ any solution could endure for tio n o f W a r), m ig h t seem to Right on the surface there is declaration of war when Japan and was entering its decline as a long. But the sequence of events invaded Manchuria, none when world system. The War of 1914- strengthen the possibility which & peculiarity of the present world •during the past three years now Italy invaded Ethiopia, and 18 was not a war of capitalist I have been discussing, and to situation which is all-important. raises also, as another and dis­ there has been none in connec­ expansion, but a war for the re­ suggest that the difference lies tinct possibility, the alternative rather in the changed form of This peculiarity is suggested by tion with the Spanish events. division, of the world among the that the process which began asking the simple question, How None of these situations is how­ great powers, and out of the war the development of the new w y. with the invasion of Ethiopia ‘War is a continuation oPJRm? ever, exactly comparable to an there did in fact come a re-divi­ w ill the new war begin? may continue, and that the armed tics by other means". A war sion, enshrined and “legalized” struggles now going on may pass period of peace. Heretofore we in the Versailles Treaty and the by a series of almost insensible have always had an easy con­ League of Nations. gradations into conflict on a vention to distinguish the two— Build the Appeal world scale, into the new im­ the convention of the War Declar­ WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN shall we do it? End of Versailles perialist world war. This pro­ ation. If this convention is, or -GETTING A CRITICAL MARX­ Circulation is the life blood of The Versailles system summed cess might, furthermore, be com­ may be, removed, we shall have IAN ANALYSIS. OF THE any periodical—be^it a capitalist p the relationship of forces which pleted with no formalities what­ to look more closely than ever "EVENTS IN THE U. S., RUS­ publication or the organ of a re­ held at the end of the war, after ever, above all with no formal at events themselves. In an ar­ SIA, SPAIN AND THE ENTIRE vo lu tio n a ry p a rty . W-E M UST the m ilitary defeat of the Cen­ Declarations of War. Military ticle next week, I propose to WIORLD? THE SOCIALIST AP­ BUILD THE APPEAL CIRCUL­ tral Powers. It could hold only tacticians have already speculated" make such an examination of the PEAL, OF COURSE! ATION! You can help in this! until intolerable inner conflicts with this notion from the point Spanish events, and to suggest This is the seventh issue of If you are already a subscriber, compelled some one of the pow­ of view of its m ilitary desirabili­ certain political conclusions that the new Socialist Appeal. It’s it is your duty to help us get ers or group of powers to at­ ty; it now becomes related, in a fo llo w . success thus far has been the more subscribers. The blank be­ tempt to change it. Japan in result of your financial and moral low is for your subscription or Manchuria gave the first power­ support plus the vigorous and a friend’s or comrade’s. And if ful blow to the Versailles sys­ -enthusiastic work of the Appeal you want additional subscription tem; but the system itself was Erber and Gould on Tours Staff. While the Revolutionary blanks, a request on a penny able still to stand up under that Socialists are being expelled post card w ill bring them to you blow. wholesale by the reformist right by return mail: It was Italy’s invasion of Ethio­ GOULD ERBER wingers, who are left with an BESIDES SUBSCRIPTIONS pia, more or less simultaneous almost defunct organization,) WE NEED FUNDS! In this re­ with Hitler’s de facto repudia­ 1. New York, N. Y. Sept. 17 1. Gardner, Fitch- •our most potent weapon against organization period every e ffort, tion of the provisions of the Ver­ 2. Newark, N. J. Sept. 21 their bureaucratic slander is our is being made to stabilize expen­ burgh, Worces­ sailles Treaty, which showed that 3. Philadelphia, Pa. Sept. 22-23 own SOCIALIST APPEAL. 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Minneapolis, St. Paul, 4. Syracuse, N. Y. Oct. 2 of the APPEAL is now one of to us at once with your subscrip­ linked together by the chains of Austin, Minn. •our most important tasks. How tion or contribution OR BOTH! world capitalism, Italy’s cam­ 5. Ith a ca, N. Y ...... Oct. 3 paign could not be regarded as Fargo, N. D., 6. Rochester, N. Y. Oct. 4 Socialist Appeal a mere ‘private” subjugation of Nebraska ...... Oct. 13-20 the single backward country of 100 Fifth Ave. 10. Denver, Col...... Oct. 24-25 7. Detroit, Mich. Oct. 7 Room 1609 Ethiopia. It was an armed at­ tack on the whole political struc­ 11. S a lt Lake C ity, 8. Toledo, Ohio .. Oct. 8 New York City ture of the world as it has exist­ U tah ...... Oct. 27-28 9. Chicago, 111. Oct. 9-16 I enclose $ ...... for which please send me the ed since 1918. 12. San Francisco, Socialist Appeal. One year— ($2.00) ; Six Months— Prelude To The War Berkeley, Oak­ 10. Indianapolis, Ind. Oct. 17 land, Calif. Oct. 30-Nov. 5 ($1.00). When Italy struck in Ethiopia, 11. L o u isville , K y . ..O c t. 18 I enclose $ ...... as my contribution toward Marxists said that this was “the 13. Stockton, Fresno^ 12. Columbus, Ohio. .Oct. 19 building the Socialist Appeal. prelude to the new world war. C a lif...... Nov. 6-8 By that, they meant what has 14. Los Angeles, San been stated above, that the stage 13. W ashington, D.C. Oct. 26 Nam e ...... Diego, Pasa­ of national and international con­ 14. B a ltim o re , Md. Oct. 21 Address ...... flicts had reached a level beyond dena, Calif.. . Nov. 9-14 solution within the framework 15. Phoenix, Ariz. Nov. 16 15 P hiladelphia, Pa. Oct. 22 C ity ...... of tKe League of Nations and the 16. St. Louis, M o... Nov. 20-21 v______/i post-war Peace Treaties, that 16. New Y o rk, N . Y. Oct. 23 September 25,1937 SOCIALIST APPEAL 3 Who Does the Constitution Belong To? Should the Working Class Celebrate Its Birthday or Prepare Its Funeral ? The Constitution of the United' the legislative, executive, and the striking railroad workers in revolutionary representatives of the social and political problems States is one hundred and fifty juducial, the greatest contribution 1893. of the people. that confront the working class years old. Last week all the of the Constitution to statecraft The Stalinist defenders of this It would be foolish to take a under capitalism. worshippers at the shrine of and to stable government. The “democratic document” forget purely negative attitude toward When the capitalist and slave­ bourgeois democracy held birth­ Republican Senator has a keen that this article affords full the Constitution, either from the holders, the original authors of day parties in its honor. The class sense. The tripartite system legal warrant for a m ilitary dic­ historical or the practical political the Constitution, could no longer Republican presidential aspirant, of "checks and balances" was tatorship of the capitalist over standpoint. live together in the same house, Vanderberg, swore to defend this expressly designed to strangle the working class! It accomplished the task that and contended for its exclusive citadel of capitalist conservatism legislation unfavorable to the Such is the real character of the popular masses proved unable possession with arms in hand, governing group. What could not from all assault. The Democratic the Constitution as it was, as it to perform by themselves, the the Constitution was nullified. President rejoiced in “ the wisdom be maimed or miscarried in Con­ has been, as it is today. Repub­ unification of the thirteen states The Confederacy wrote a new: of the Constitution" and pledged gress might be vetoed by the lican in form, anti-democratic in into a single government. It le­ one; the Union suspended its own, himself to defend it against its President; what the Chief Execu­ gitimized a bourgeois-democratic essence. and then amended it to insure “misinterpreters. “ The most tive (of the ruling class!) could republic and made impossible a the dictatorship of the bour­ stalwart, the most belligerent not put out of the way, the Sup­ B ill of Rights? monarchial restoration. For all geosie. champions of the Constitution reme Court could kill. No cleverer, its reactionary features the Cons­ When the combat between the were the Stalinists, who called no more efficient machinery for But, the Stalinists expostulate, titution and the state system it reactionary bourgeosie and the upon “all liberty-loving Ameri­ obstructing the expression of the the B ill of Rights! True, it was set up was the most advanced revolutionary American workers cans" to fight for this palladium popular w ill in a republic has offered as a bribe to dissident of its day, and served as a model matures, the capitalist reaction of their rights against “the ever been devised. elements to facilitate adoption for the progressive and demo­ w ill scrap the Constitution and princes of privilege." and initial operation of the Cons­ cratic forces of the early nine­ the proletarian revolution w ill The monied and mercantile Why Two Houses titution. But the primary pur­ teenth century. write a new one. men, who together with the pose of the B ill of Rights (i.e. An important cog in this sys­ Today, however, it is thorough Southern planting aristocrats, the first ten amendments) was tem is the bicameral Congress ly obsolete. The Stalinists are Our Constitution framed the Constitution; the to safeguard state rights. They with its upper and lower houses, guilty of criminal folly in idealiz­ slaveholding oligarchy who em­ are limitations on the Federal The new Constitution of the so admirable a check that the ing, glorifying, and defending ployed it to extend and maintain government, but not on the states. worker’s state w ill not sanctify French Republican bourgeoisie this document in competition with their "peculiar institution;" and Until the due process clause of private property, appropriation, copied it.. By requiring t}je con­ the outright spokesmen of the the industrial and financial bour­ the Fourteenth Amendment be and accumulation; it w ill elimi­ currence of both houses for the capitalist regime. The American geoisie who have ruled the country came the bulwalk of reaction, nate them entirely and forever. passage of legislation and at the Constitution is not “the property since the Civil War, each of these Article IV—the most radical­ It w ill not be based upon a par­ same time allotting two Senators of the people;” it is the property governing minorities has founcj sounding of the B ill of Rights— of the reactionary bourgeosie. It liamentary form of government to each state regardless of popu­ the Constitution adequate to en­ was the instrumentality for pro­ is no “bulkwark of democratic designed to frustrate the w ill of lation, the control of the law­ sure their souvereignty over the tecting property, especially slave •ights,” it is the ultimate legal the majority but upon a flexible m ajority of the American people making machinery was concent­ p ro pe rty. mtrenchment of the ruling class. system of workers and farmers and a few' subject peoples to boot. rated in the hands of the masters What did Article One, Section councils, democratically elected of the upper house. Thereby the One of the B ill of Rights, gua­ How to Fight and controlled, sensitive to the Undemocratic slave oligarchy prolonged their ranteeing freedom of speech and needs, demands, and interests of rule long after they had lost of the press mean to Eugene V. While it is necessary to fight the masses. It w ill not create a For the Constitution is essen­ popular support. Moreover, bien­ Debs in Atlanta prison? What for the maintenance of all those national state but w ill envisage tially an undemocratic document. nial election of one third of the did the right of the people to political rights that have been itself as one among a federation It was the product of a period wrested from the ruling classes Senators not only facilitates peacefully assemble, mean to the of world socialist republics. of reaction in the development in a century arid a half of strug­ Not to defend the outworn clique control of the Senate Southern Negroes, the abolition­ of the first American revolution, gle, and to support any genuine­ Constitution that w ill be the first through ‘‘rotten borough states” ists, the workers in company the climax of a protracted strug­ ly democratic reform of the cons­ victim of the coming revolution, but also allows time for popular towns, striking workers, meetings gle for power between the petty- broken up by the police? Almost titution, the workers must al­ but to mobilize the forces in a bourgeois farmers and artisans, protest or indignation to expend every state has laws today res­ ways remember that these can struggle for a new socialist cons­ who composed the mass of the itself or be extinguished before tricting or denying Article Two: be obtained under contemporary titution and society. Such is the nation, and the Southern planters the Senate can be changed. the right to keep or bear arms conditions only as the result of task and the outlook that revolu- and Northern capitalists, who shall not be infringed. What did the most intransigeant struggle ionary Socialists set for them­ succeeded in suppressing them. Indirect Elections Article Four, asserting the right and direct mass action, and that selves on this birthday of the It is a truism for Marxists that Elections were as indirect as of the people to be secure in their all together they w ill not solve bourgeois Constitution. such constitutions are always possible. The President was to be persons, houses, property, and (as Marx put it) a compromise chosen by an electoral college. In effects mean to the thousands among "contending factions of case of tie or a disputed election involved in the Palmer raids ? the ruling class..... which allow the election was thrown into the The whole Bill of Rights has LaGuardia for Harvey them to continue the struggle House of Representatives where been worth less than five cents between themselves and at the each state was given one vote. on the dollar in wartime, as the same time to keep the exhausted (Continued from page 1) to the New York State Election Judges were to be appointed by Civil War and World Was ex­ masses of the people out of it.... Laws, automatically eliminates! the President and ratified by the periences demonstrate. And the out of the city. He has time and it sanctioned the monetary vic­ his name from the ballot as can­ Senate. formal political right of the again openly praised Mussolini tory of the old society over the didate for any City Office. The It must be remembered that people to “be secure in their and Hitler, and declared that revolution." “La Guardia Socialists” do not the Constitution was a compact persons, property and effects,” strong arm methods are the only The Constitutional Convention even have the courage of the between the slaveholders and remains a mockery during peace­ ones to use in dealing w ith “ com­ was a self-constituted group of Stalinists >n presenting in a; capitalists. It therefore legalized time in a social system which munists”. Probably no man in large property holders, who had forthright and unambiguous slavery and although slaves were condemns the masses to perpetual no mandate from the people. the country can point to a more manner, the Republican-Fusion- given no right whatsoever they exploitation, periodic destitution, consistent anti-working class re­ They met to consolidate their Progressive-A. L. P. candidate formed part of the basis of re­ and deprives them of the oppor­ cord. victory over the masses; to safe­ as their very own. They have presentation and taxation. It re­ guard themselves against further tunity of obtaining the material The endorsement of Harvey quired a revolution to root out decided instead to give him their assaults from within and from means of that security. brought immediate howls from slavery from the Constitution. full support in the most apolo­ without; and above all to promote Class Instrument the La Guardia “ Communists”, getic and hypocritical manner and protect their own immediate Amendments Balked the La Guardia “ Socialists”, and conceivable. and narrow social interests. This The point is that the Consti- the La Guardia Laborites. Israel Despite Thomas’ withdrawal conspiratorial clique conducted The method of amendment was tion must necessarily be interp­ Amter, C. P. State organizer, from the ticket, the revolution­ its affair in the dark. No hostile made as cumbersome as possible. reted and administered by the and Alex Rose, A .L.P . secret­ ary socialists are determined to intruders, no direct representa­ Amendents could be made only ruling class and in its interests. ary, were “keenly disappointed”. carry on the best tradition of tives of the farmers and artisans by the consent of three fourths The Dred Scott decision which Norman Thomas, in anguish, the elass-conscious labor move­ were admitted to the sessions of the states. That means today legalized the extension of slavery told the press that the news “w ill ment, and to make sure that in held behind closed doors; no notes that five pei'cent of the popula­ throughout the country was the come as a great shock”. this election, the New York of the proceedings were allowed tion in thirteen states can frus­ most glaring instance before the These gentlemen, apparently, workers w ill have the opportunity to be published. The final draft trate the demands of ninety five Civil War. The Fourteenth are shocked and keenly disap­ of expressing their class posi­ was forced down the throats of percent of the population. Amendment did not give either pointed when one capitalist de­ tion by a vote for a working class' the states by gerrymandering, Witness the fate of the Child- social equality or political rights magogue endorses another. candidate for Mayor. electoral frauds, and conventions Labor Amendment. to the Southern negro. And for with the most hasty and restrict­ Finally, a most interesting every decision the Supreme Court Thomas to W ithdraw ed representation. The whole article which we quote in toto: has rendered in defense of civil No doubt, however, Thomas SOCIALIST APPEAL procedure was in effect nothing Article IV, Section 4. “ The United liberties under the Fourteenth w ill have time to get over his but a coup d’etat. So much for V o l 1. No. 7 Saturday States shall guarantee to every Amendment, it has rendered ten “shock” by Saturday. As is the circumstances of the origins State in this Union a Republican to safeguard the rights of cor­ known, the La Guardia “social­ September 25th, 1937 of the Constitution. Form of Government, and shall porate property. ists” have already decided to Could one expect that this Published every week by the protect each of them against According to the Daily Worker, withdraw Norman Thomas as the bastard child of reaotion, con­ Socialist Appeal Pub. Assn. Invasion; and on Application of the Constitution of the United party candidate for Mayor in ceived by usurpation, brought the Legislature, or of the Execu­ States and the Stalinist Consti­ order that they may be able to Published a t Room 1609 forth in illegality, and adopted tive (when the Legislature cannot tution are “the two great juridical complete their sell-out to the A. by main force, could be a demo­ 100 F ifth Avenue, New Y o rk ¡be convened) against domestic monuments that mark the prog­ L.P. bureaucracy and the La cratic document? i Violence." ress of the human race at dif­ Guardia machine. Subscriptions: $2.00 per year; Some Features I Washington and Hamilton used fèrent epochal historical pe­ The withdrawal—the Appeal is $1.00 for 6 months. Bundle this clause to send Federal troops riods.” But the Stalinists refrain in a position to state—w ill go orders 3 cents per copy. Single A volume would be necessary against the so-called “ Whiskey from revealing all the traits of through on schedule and w ill be copies 5 cents. to enumerate and describe all of | Rebellion” in 1794, the first at- similarity between the two do­ effected in a particularly shame­ A ll checks and money or­ its anti-democratic features. Let ¡tempt of the bourgeois state to cuments. Both were the offspring faced manner. Thomas is to be of usurping and reactionary ders should be made out to us lim it ourselves to a few of the 'suppress its own citizens. It was nominated by his clique as can­ most important. ¡used against the railroad strikers cliques, granted to the exhausted the Socialist Appeal. didate for the delegate-at-large Yandenberg sees in the division lolf the 1870’s. It was used by revolutionary masses by their Application for entry as to the State Constitutional Con­ of the government into three se- ¡Democratic President Cleveland benevolent masters rather than second class matter is pending. parate and autonomous branches, ¡to send Federal troops against formulated and adopted by the vention, a move which, according V.______/ SOCIALIST APPEAL September 25. 1937 September 25,1937 SOCIALIST APPEAL f; An Article Concerning the Roots and Traditions of Stalinism and Bolshevism the Movement for the Fourth International By Leon Trotsky Reactionary epoch* like ours not only disintegrate the same frame-ups against which Schlamm now mobil­ vacuum. Bolshevism, however, is only a political tenden­ proletariat to seize power first in a backward country In view of the elimination of all other parties from and .veakeu the working class and its vanguard but also izes his motheaten metaphysical absolutes. cy, closely fused with the working class but not identical such as Russia. But the same alignment of forces proves the political field the antagonistic interests and tenden­ lower the general ideological level of the movement and The psychological mechanism of the ideological re­ with it. And aside from the working class there exist beforehand that without a more or less rapid victory of cies of the various strata of the population must, to a throw political thinking back to stages long since passed action of Schlamm and his like, is not at all complicated. in the Soviet Union a hundred trillion peasants, various the proletariat in the advanced countries the workers’ greater or less degree, find their expression in tbe gov­ through. In these conditions the task of the vanguard For a while these people took part in a political move­ nationalities, and a heritage of oppression, misery and government in Russia will not survive. Left to itself the erning party. To the extent that the political center of is above all not to let itself be carried along by the back­ ment that swore by the class struggle and appealed, in ignorance. The state built up by the Bolsheviks reflects Soviet regime must either fall or degenerate. More gravity has shifted from the proletarian vanguard to ward flow; it must swim against the current. If an un­ word if not in thought, to dialectical materialism. In not only the thought and w ill of Bolshevism but also the exactly: it will first degenerate and then fall. I myself the bureaucracy, the party has changed in its social favorable relation of forces prevents it from holding both Austria and Germany the affair ended in a catas­ cultural level of the country, the social composition of have written about this more than once, beginning in structure as well as in its ideology. Owing to the im­ the ¿positions that it has won. it must at least retain its trophe. Schlamm draws a wholesale conclusion: this is the population, the pressure of a barbaric past and no 1905. In my “History of the Russian Revolution” (cf. petuous course of development, it has suffered in the ideological positions, because in them is expressed the the result of dialectics and the class struggle! And since less barbaric world imperialism. To represent the pro­ “Appendix” to the last volume: “Socialism in One Coun­ last fifteen years a far more radical degeneration than dearly-paid experience of the past. Fools will consider the choice of revelations is limited by historical ex­ cess of degeneration of the Soviet state as the evolution try”) are collected all the statements on this question did the social democracy in half a century. The present this policy ‘'sectarian”. Actually it is the only means perience and... by personal knowledge, our reformer of pure Bolshevism is to ignore social reality in the made by the Bolshevik leaders from 1917 until 1923. purge draws between Bolshevism and Stalinism not sim­ of preparing for a new tremendous surge forward with in his search for the Word falls on a bundle of old rags name of only one of its elements, isolated by pure logic. They all lead to one conclusion: without a revolution in ply a bloody line but a whole river of blood. The an­ the coming historical tide. which he valiantly opposes not only to Bolshevism but One has only to call this elementary mistake by its real the West, Bolshevism will be liquidated either by inter­ nihilation of all the old generation of Bolsheviks, an im­ to Marxism as well. name to do away with every trace of it. nal counter-revolution or by external intervention, or by portant pari of the middle generation which participated T he Reaction Against Marxism and Bolshevism At first glance Schlamm’s brand of ideological reac­ Bolshevism, at any rate, never identified itself either a combination of both. Lenin stressed again and again in the civil war, and that part of the youth which took tion seems too primitive (from M arx... to Kerensky!) with the October Revolution or w ith the Soviet state that that the bureaucratization of the Soviet regime was not seriously the Bolshevik traditions, shows not only a issued from it. Bolshevism considered itself as one of political but a thoroughly physical incompatibility be­ G.'eat i»oUtical defeats inevitably provoke a recon­ to pause (Her. But actually it is very instructive: pre­ a technical or organizational question, but the potential the factors of history, the “conscious” factor—a very tween Bolshevism and Stalinism. How can this■■•be ig­ sideration of values, generally occurring in two direc­ cisely in its priznitiveiiess it represents the common de­ beginning of the degenration of the workers* state. important but not the decisive one. We never sinned in At the Eleventh Party Congress in March, 1923, Lenin nored? tion*. On the one hand the true vanguard, enriched by nominator of all other forms of reaction, particularly historical subjectivism. We saw the decisive factor—on spoke of the support offered to Soviet Russia at the time the experience of defeats defends with tooth and nail the of those expressed in a wholesale denunciation of Bolshe­ the existing basis of productive forces—in the class of the N. E. P. by certain bourgeois politicians, particu­ succession of revolutionary thought and on this basis vism. Stalinism and “ State Socialism” struggle, not only on a national but on an international larly the liberal professor Ustrialow. “I am for the sup­ attempts to educate new cadres for the mass struggle to scale. port of the Soviet power in Russia,” said Ustrialov, al­ come. On the other hand the rontinists. centrists and “Back to M arxism”? The anarchists, for their part, try to see in Stalinism When the Bolsheviks made concessions to the peasant though he was a Kadet, a bourgeois, a supporter of in­ dilettante*, frightened by defeat, do their best to destroy the organic product not only of Bolshevism and Marxism tendency to private ownership,-set up strict rules for tervention— "because on its present course it is sliding the authority of revolutionary tradition and go back- Marxism found its highest historical expression in but of “State socialism” in general. They are willing membership in the party, purged the party of alien ele­ w&ro in their search for a “New Word.“ Bolshevism. Under the banner of Bolshevism the hirst back into an ordinary bourgeois power.” Lenin prefers to replace Bakunin’s patriarchal “federation of free com­ ments, prohibited other parties, introduced the N.E.P., One could indicate a great many examples of ideo­ victory of the proletariat was achieved and the first the cynical voice of the enemy to “sugary communistic munes” by the more modern federation of free Soviets. granted enterprises as concessions, or concluded diploma­ logical reaction, most often taking the form of prostra­ workers* state established. Nothing can erase these facts babble.“ Soberly and harshly he warns the party of the But, as formerly, they are against centralized state tic agreements with imperialist governments, they were tion. All the literature of the Second and Third Interna­ from history. But since the October Revolution has led danger: “What Ustrialov says is possible, one must say power. In fact: one branch of “state” Marxism, social drawing partial conclusions from the basic fact that had tionals. a> well as of their satellites of the London in the present stage to the triumph of the bureaucracy, it openly. History knows transformations of all kinds; democracy, after coming to power became an open agent been theoretically clear to them from the beginning: Bureau, consists essentially of such examples. Not a with its system of repression, plunder, and falsification it is absolutely trivial in politics to put one’s faith in con­ of capitalism. The other gave birth to a new privileged that the conquest of power, however important it may suggestion of Marxist analysis. Not a single serious at­ —to the “dictatorship of the lie”, to use Schlamm’s happy viction, devotion, and other excellent moral qualities. A caste. It is obvious that the source of the evil lies in the be in itself, by no means transforms the party into a tempt to explain the causes of defeat. About the future, expression—many formalistic and superficial minds leap small number of people have excellent moral qualities. state. From a wide historical viewpoint, there is a grain sovereign ruler of the historical process. Having taken not o le fresh word. Nothing but clichés, conformity, lies, to a summary conclusion: one cannot struggle against The historical outcome is decided by gigantic masses of truth in this reasoning. The state as an apparatus over the state the party is ahie, certainly, to influence and above all solicitude for their own bureaucratic self- Stalinism, without renouncing Bolshevism. Schlamm. w*ho. if they are not pleased with this small number of of constraint is undoubtedly a source of political and the development of society with a power inaccessible to preservation. It is enough to smell ten lines from some as we already know, goes farther: Bolshevism, which people, will treat them none too politely.” In a word, the moral infection. This also applies, as experience has it before; but in return it submits itself to a ten times Hilferding or Otto Bauer to know this rottenness. The degenerated into Stalinism, itself grew out of Marxism; pariy is not the only factor of development and on a shown, to the workers’ state. Consequently it can be greater influence from all other dements of society. It theoreticians of the Comintern are not even worth men- consequently one cannot fight Stalinism while remaining larger historical scale is not the decisive one. said that Stalinism is a product of a condition of soeiety can. by the direct attack of hostile forces, be thrown out tioniig. The famous K m itroff is as ignorant and cora- on the foundation of Marxism. There are others, less “One nation conquers another,” continued Lenin at the in which society was still unable to tear itself out of tbe of power. Given a more dragging tempo of development mov; lace as a shop-keeper over a mug of beer. The consistent but more numerous, who say on the contrary: same congress, the last in which he participated...“This strait-jacket of the state. But this situation, contain­ it can degenerate internally while maintaining itself in mine«' of these people are too lazy to renounce Marxism: “We must return from Bolshevism to Marxism.” How? is quite simple and understandable to everyone. But what ing nothing for the evaluation of Bolshevism or Marx­ power. It is precisely this dialectic of the historical pro­ the. prostitute it. But it is not they that interest us To what Marxism? Before Marxism became “bankrupt” of the culture of these nations? That is not so simple. If ism, characterizes only the general cultural level of man­ cess that is not understood by those sectarian logicians now. Let u* turn to the “innovators”. in the form of Bolshevism it had already broken down the conquering nation has a higher culture than the de­ kind, and above all—the relation of forces between prole­ in the form of Social Democracy. Does the slogan “Back who try to find in the decay of the Stalinist bureaucracy feated. it imposes its culture on the latter, but if the con­ tariat and bourgeoisie. Having agreed with, the anar­ T former Austrian communist, Willi Schlamm. has to Marxism” then mean a leap over the periods of the an annihilating argument against Bolshevism. trary is true then the defeated nation imposes its culture chists that the state, even the workers* state, is the off­ devoted a small book to the Moscow trials, under the ex- Second and Third Internationals... to the First Inter­ In essence these gentlemen say: the revolutionary on the conqueror. Did not something like this occur in spring of class barbarism and that real human history pre**'*ive title. “The Dictatorship of the Lie”. Schlamm national? But it too broke down in its time. Thus in the pariy that contains in itself no guarantee against its the capital of the R.S.F.S.R. and was it not in this way will begin with the abolition of the state, we have still is c- gifted journalist, chiefly interested in current af­ last analysis it is a question of returning... to the com­ own degeneration is bad. By such a criterion Bolshe­ that 4,700 communists (almost a whole division and all before us in full force the question: what ways and fairs His criticism of the Moscow frame-up. and his plete works of Marx and Engels. One can accomplish vism is naturally condemned: it has no talisman. But of them the best) were submitted to an alien culture?” methods will lead, ultimately, to the abolition of the exjiosure of the psychological mechanism of the “volun­ this heroic leap without leaving one’s study and even the criterion itself is wrong. Scientific thinking demands This was said in the beginning of 1923, and not for the state? Recent experience proves that they are certainly tary confessions”, are excellent. However he does not without taking off one’s slippers. But how are we to a concrete analysis: how and driiy did the party degener­ first time. History is not made by a few people, even “the not the methods of anarchism. con?*.-ie him self to th is : he wants to create a new theory ate? No one but the Bolsheviks themselves have up to go from our classics (M arx died in 1883, Engels in 1895) best” ; and not only that: these “best” can degenerate in The leaders of the C. N. T., the only important anar­ of ««ociaHsir. which would insure us against defeats and the present time, given such an analysis. To do this they to the tasks of our own time, omitting several decades the spirit of an alien, that is a bourgeois culture. Not chist organization in the world, became, in the critical frar o-ups in the future. But since Schlamm is by no had no need to break with Bolshevism. On the contrary, of theoretical and political struggles, among them Bolshe­ only can the Soviet state abandon the way of socialism, hour, bourgeois ministers. They explained their open me? s a theoretician and is apparently not well ac- they found in its arsenal all they needed for the clarifica­ vism and the October Revolution? None of those who but the Bolshevik party can, under unfavorable historic betrayal of the theory of anarchism by the pressure of qua-.'ted with the history of the development of socialism, tion of its fate. They drew this conclusion: certainly propose to renounce Bolshevism as an historically “bank­ conditions, lose its Bolshevism. “exceptional circumstances.” But did not the leaders he return* entirely to pre-Marxian socialism, and nota­ Stalinism “grew out” of Bolshevism, not logically, how­ rupt" tendency has indicated any other course. So the From the clear understanding of this danger issued of German social democracy invoke, in their time, tbe bly to its German, that is to its most backward, senti­ ever, but dialectically; not as a revolutionary affirma­ question is reduced to the simple advice to study “Capital”. the Left Opposition, definitely formed in 1923. Record­ same excuse? Naturally, civil war is not a peaceful and ment»1 and mawkish variety. Schlamm renounces dia­ tion but as a Thermidorian negation. It is by no means We can hardly object. But the Bolsheviks too studied ing day by day the symptoms of degeneration, it tried ordinary but an “exceptional circumstance.” Every lectics and the class struggle, not to mention the dictator­ the same. “Capital” and not with their eyes closed. This did not to oppose to the growing Thermidor the conscious will ship of the proletariat. The problem of transforming serious revolutionary organization, however, prepares however prevent the degeneration of the Soviet state of the proletarian vanguard. However, this subjective society i> reduced for him to the realization of certain T he F undamental Prognosis of Bolshevism precisely for “exceptional circumstances.” The experi­ and the staging of the Moscow trials. So what is to be factor proved to be insufficient. The “gigantic masses” ence of Spain has shown once again that the state can “eie:•ial" moral truths with which he would imbue man- The Bolsheviks, however, did not have to wait for the done? which, according to Lenin, decide the outcome of the be “denied” in booklets published in “normal circum­ kino. Mill u.ider capitalism. W illi Schlamm’s attempt Moscow trials to explain the reasons for the disintegra­ struggle, became tired of internal privations and of stances” by permission of the bourgeois state, but that to ■' •st. socialism by the insertion of the moral gland is tion of the governing party of the U.S.S.R. Long ago Is Bolshevism Responsible for St a lin is m ? waiting too long for the world revolution. The mood of the conditions of revolution leave no room for “denial’ greered with both jo.'*’ and pride in Kerensky's review they foresaw and spoke of the theoretical possibility of the masses declined. The bureaucracy won the upper of the state; they demand, on the contrary, the conquest “N o •. Aya K osmh” (an old provincial Russian review now this development. Let us remember the prognosis of Is it true that Stalinism represent* the legitimate hand. It cowed the revolutionary vanguard, * trampled cf the state. We have not the slightest intention of puV:'hed is. Paris): a* the editors justifiably conclude. the Bolsheviks, not only on the eve of the October Revo­ Schlamm ha* arrived at the principles of true Russian product of Bolshevism, as all reactionaries maintain, a* upon Marxism, prostituted the Bolshevik pariy. Stalin­ blaming the anarchists for not having liquidated the Stalin himself avows, as the Mensheviks, the anarchist*, lution but years before. The specific alignment of forces ism conquered. In the form of the Left Opposition, Bol­ state by a mere stroke of the pen. A revolutionary party, socivism. which a long time ago opposed the holy pre­ in the national and international field can enable the cepto of faith, hojie and charity to the austerity and and certain left doctrinaires considering themselves shevism broke with the Soviet bureaucracy and its Com­ even after having seized power (of which the anarchist har'Vne** of the class struggle. The “novel” doctrine Marxist, believe? “We have always predicted this.” they intern. This was the actual course of development. leaders were incapable in spite of the heroism of the of toe Russia.» “Social Revolutionaries” represents, in its say. “Having started with the prohibition of the other COMING AS A »PAMPHLET To be sure, in a formal sense Stalinism did issue anarchist workers) is still by no means the sovereign “thc-.*retical” premise*, only a return to the socialism of socialist parties, the repression of the anarchists, and from Bolshevism. Even today the Moscow bureaucracy ruler of society. But we do severely blame the anarchist pre-March (1348!) Germany. However, it would be un­ the setting up of the Bolshevik dictatorship in the soviets, The essay Stalinism and Bolshevism is being continues to call itself the Bolshevik party. It is simply theory, which seemed to be wholly suitable for times of peace, but which had to be dropped rapidly as soon fair to demand a more intimate knowledge of the history the October Revolution could only end in the dictator­ ; reprinted here by arrangement with the Pioneer using the old label of Bolshevism the better to fool the ship of the bureaucracy. Stalin is the continuation and as the “exceptional circumstances” of the... revolution of ioeas from Kerensky than from Schlamm. Far more J Publishers. It will appeagfc a few days as a 32 masses. So much the more pitiful are those theoreti­ also the Iwnkruptcy of Leninism.” cians who take the shell for the kernel and the appear­ had begun. In the old days there were certain generals im N'riaut is the fact that Kerensky, who is in solidarity : page pamphlet for mas^d^hbution. Single copies The flaw in this reasoning begins in the tacit iden­ are available at 10 centaP H ^V ers of five or more ance for the reality. In the identification of Bolshevism —and probably are now— who considered that the most with Schtomm wa>, while head of the government, the tification of Bolshevism, October Revolution and Soviet at reduced rates. W rit^toTne publishers at 100 and Stalinism they render the best possible service to the harmful thing for an army was war. In the same class instigator of persecutions against the Bolsheviks as Union. The historical process of the struggle of hostile Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. Thermidorinns and precisely thereby play a clearly reac­ are those revolutionaries who claim that their doctrine agents of the German general staff: organized, that is. forces is replaced by the evolution of Bolshevism in a tionary role. is destroyed by revolution. (Concluded in nest iseuc).

t SOCIALIST APPEAL September 25, 1937 The Wave of Trials In The U.S.S.R. Mass Executions, Disrupting Economy, Reveal Reactionary Role of Stalin The corrosion of the very of “enemies of the people" some of accounts is reacting sharply janitors, are ordered to remove foundations of the Soviet Union of whom have been executed for By Jack Weber against the whole system of all names of their tenants .so by the fttahmst police regime is sabotage. The Civil Aviation Ad­ planning. The plans were laid that any visitor must in-pure increasingly exposed to view by m inistration is also honey-combed on the basis of the swollen figures doomed as a Rightist organiza­ from the janitor where so-ar.d-so the wave of trials. These trials with “ enemies of the people" and and were therefore bound to be tion which sabotaged and dis­ lives. And janitors the world over occur with each alrtfost mono­ numerous -engineers and execu­ at variance with the possibilities. rupted socialized agriculture and are used by the police. If any­ tonous regularity that one pieks tives have been dismissed and Instead of the amount of coal body has too many visitor; he up the paper wondering only who arrested, including the recently ordered an armed rebellion and assassinations in Georgia. No or cotton figured to enter into must be a central figure in a spy Stalin's next victims w ill be. But appointed head Petrozhitsky. At the various fields of production, doubt the resulting trials w ill in­ plot. Report him! even for the least class-conscious' Azov in the Black Sea Region 13 less was available. The ton layer clude “confessions" to ‘besmirch worker there emerges from the veterinarians and minor agricul­ of the bureaucracy, which was the name of Mdivani. Already Youth Endangers St aim news the conviction that the So­ tural functionaries were placed prim arily responsible for creating one Zitlidze, former leader of viet-Umon is passing through a on trial for spreading disease But it is the youth especially the Signakh regional committee this situation by its methods, severe and deep-going crisis. The among cattle in order to disrupt then turned on the lower layers that must be watched. The youth of the CP, has confessed terror­ very mass nature of the trials, the economy. These- disrupters in a fury for having in part mis­ that grew up under the Soviet their wholesale character, the were, naturally, in contact with ist orders from the premier Mga- regime and knows no other. Even loglishvili, removed from office led it. But in doing this, arresting systsmatic pattern which they Trotskyists. the Stalinized YCL is a constant in June, and from the vice-pre­ thousands of experts and special­ «titotiew , lay hare not only the source of danger, if only because mier Agnyashvili. ists for “sabotage", the bureauc­ reahty of the crisis, but its na­ Far Eastern Trials racy merely disrupted economy it permits the youth to m ture as weH. In the Far East the Military Some Revealing T rials all the more by removing (in the together—and youth can b : so The- bureaucratic methods of Tribunals have been extremely process o f choosing scapegoats) engagingly frank! Since the plnmaxg and the usurpation of active. No doubt many spies are Stalin must stop the mouths the ones best acquainted w ith the youth cannot be kept entirely apecied priviteges-hy the Stalinist at work in Siberia, particularly of all those who are capable of in d u stry. Thus we see th is pecul­ apart, the next best thing is to ruling caste have brought Rus­ along the border and along the revealing the truth about the iar contradiction: the wholesale establish the closest surveillance sian economy to the brink of railroads. But we w ill perhaps frame-ups, whether that involves arrest of scapegoats, and at the over them. The YCL becomes a disaster. How explain the fact, never know how many of those the death of a Yagoda, one of same the attempt to reassure tool of the police. Kosarieff per­ after reporting such resounding who were shot, allegedly as spies those mainly responsible and “in these same elements when they formed this function of police successes in the fulfillm ent of were in actuality merely scape­ the know", or of some obscure are paralyzed by fear and really agent not so well, hence he is the cftve year plans, that pro­ goats or really revolutionists in relative of a Gamarnick or Tuk- sabotage by refusing to take any reprimanded and given a warn­ duction m such varied and im­ unyielding opposition to the pre­ hachevsky who knows the truth initiative. Thus on July 27 the ing for next time. Evidently he portant industries as coal, oil, sent bloody regime. For all these and can prove the falsehood. But Donetz Basin coal industry had allowed too much freedom among' pig iron production, cement; lum­ trials are shot through and as the circle widens the number been so disrupted by the impri­ the youth to suit the apparatus. ber, ’textiles, should not only be through w ith the clumsy attempts of such people becomes legion sonment of so many of the tech­ But freedom and initiative are laggiag behind the norms set for at amalgams of real scoundrels and Stalin’s task becomes utter­ nicians, that 445 of these special­ precisely what the youth de land. them, hut in many instances .with framed-up oppositionist vic­ ly impossible. The truth w ill out! ists had to be released from Hence the bureaucracy find = it­ should he considerably below the tims. The press of July 5 re­ Some of the trials take on a prison for “false arrest" to try self at every turn in the sharpest figures reported for the year ports laconically that 22 more macabre comic air. There is the and straighten matters out antagonism to the younger gene­ 1936? A similar situation exists were executed as spies in the case of the Izvestia editorial -Stalin learned that the method ra tio n . in the agricultural field, fruit, Far East. On July 8 we learn writer Suvinsky. Evidently he of choosing scapegoats has its The wave of trials in the USSR vegetables, sugar, cotton, flax, that 64 more were shot. etc. Some either took the matter of sabot­ lim its ! are clear indications, then-f ire, butter and margarine showing of these “spies” were accused of age seriously or pretended so. Nevertheless the bureaucracy of the deep-going crisis through alarming drops. sabotage on the Trans-Siberian Wfien certain bureaucrats in the can only continue to act in the which the Soviet Union i- ¡m ss-, Railroad, some of sabotage of Saratov region hastened to charge fashion of a whip. It can in no ing. The crisis is one which shows Stalin’s Alibi gold production. The Orsk Gold the farm workers with deliberate sense evoke the initiative that the growing antagonism between Statin has an infallible explan­ Trust in the Urals is raked over sabotage (thereby getting the has become essential for the the bureaucracy and the -masses», ation which has “worked" by and the coals for being run by Trot­ jump on some of these workers carrying on of planned produc­ It reveals that the bureau racy, large up till now. It is the work skyists who reported a higher who might have 'been inclined to tion by the masses. Such initiative can play no progressive »vie in of Trotskyist wreckers and scoun­ production of gold than was ac­ reverse the charge) Suvinsky can only be exerted against the Soviet economy, but can only, drels from the right and from tually achieved! defended the maligned workers bureaucracy and in antagonism serve as a brake on the produc­ the left (some are already in­ against the heads of the collec­ to it. Precisely because of that tive forces. The bureau erbey cluded from the center, Stalinists The National Problem tives, saying that they were rais­ the Stalinist 'bureaucracy has stands in the way of the initiative frorft beginning to end!). Such The Stalinist bureaucracy acts ing the cry of sabotage to cover become a tremendous brake on of the woi’king masses, it stands scapegoats serve a double pur­ its the greatest disrupter not only their own inefficiency. This was the forces of production. It is also, in the way of planned ec-m-uny, pose for Stalin: they divert at­ of the economic system but of too much for the bureaucracy. It of course, a tremendous over­ it stands in the way of the youth. tention from the real culprits in the political and social system in touched home too closely and in­ head. Not only by its recognized In order to maintain its power the TCremlin and, so Stalin hopes, the USSR. The completely volved by generalization an ex­ privileges but by the bribery and the bureaucracy resorts t > an allay the discontent among the democratic methods of the Oc­ pose of the entire bureaucracy. corruption, and above all by the oppressive and bloody police masses by punishing the ones tober Revolution in the handling Hence Suvinsky was hastily re­ diverting of all sorts of raw regime worse even than that o f supposedly responsible for goods of the national question served moved and arrested. material and finished' products H itle r. shortages and for the unbearable to tie the national republics firm ­ The motive behind the attack for its own purposes. The Stalin­ living conditions of the workers ly together in a close economic made on the Young Guard Pub­ ist bureaucracy are the true Stalin Teaches H itler and peasants, union. Stalinism acts as a cen­ lishing House, producing works “diversionists"! For it teaches Hitler th.- art f t is impossible to give more trifugal force, driving them apart. for youth, is transparent also. of extorting confessions by tor- than a brief summary of some Evidence of this is clear in the It is stated that the Director Hidden Strikes ture for the purpose of bolster- Leschiner, is a friend of Fein- o f the cases reported in the press trials and executions in the out­ The masses are beginning to ing up a regime. How such con­ berg, recently removed from the recently. Most of the trials, even lying republics. It is nothing new realize that the bureaucracy fessions are wrung from the Central Executive Committee of that small number that reaches for Stalin, the Georgian, to act, stands in the way. Under the victims is heart-i'endingly told in the YCL. That is surely reason the- press of the outside world, in the fashion of a Great Russian present apparatus of suppression the book “ I Confess" containing enough for removing him. But arable*# (4f.they are held at -gill) ^oppressor ‘ of nationalities. When the workers have not yet managed the account of the experiences of we learn of a far more important behind closed doors. Rarely is Stalin and Erdjonikidze first re­ to organize themselves indepen­ the German communist Weiss in motive: the director of the divi­ the-public admitted to the court- moved Mdivani from his leading dently and to strike against the the Soviet Union. The entire ap­ sion of history had spent a whole robfo and that only when some post in Georgia in 1922-3 Lenin, bureaucracy. But the mass walk­ paratus of the Stalinist l-egime, year w riting a biography on Tuk- spectacular, and therefore all the even though on a sick-bed, en­ outs in many plants, the tremend­ above all the GPU, is devoted to hachevsky. Could this have been more unconvincing, confession tered into a fierce controversy ous turnovers of labor, take on the task of keeping the workers anything bat laudatory? What has. boon extorted from some un- against Stalin precisely on this the character not merely of in­ disunited. To terrorize the masses a danger for the youth to know fortnnate prisoner. Then a score. Now on J u ly 13 o f th is dividual resentment against low into complete silence Stalin re­ the truth about the brilliant Tuk- “ show" can be made of the trial. year Stalin takes his final rev­ wages and frightful conditions, sorts to systematic frame-ups on hachevsky! enge. After a closed trial Mdi­ but of a hidden form of strike a scale never before seen in his­ Some Recent Trials vani and 7 others are executed tory. These frame-ups, the stock- Economy & Bureaucracy aimed at the bureaucracy. The Thu." the press of August 27 as terrorists and conspiratorial bureaucracy finds itself in the in-trade of Thermidorean reaction, reports that “A Show' Trial Is p lo tte rs. In the early stages of planned sharpest antagonism to the are used against real and fancied Being Made of Seven Important Sim ilarly whole executive com-: economy, the bureaucracy, de­ masses of workers and collectiviz­ opposition, and also against per* -Agrtcwttnral Executives in a Le­ mittees, heads of the republic, spite all its inefficiency and ad­ ed peasants. It is fearful above fectly innocent victims who m ningrad Province near the Finn­ are removed in such places as venturism, could play a certain everything else that centers may dragged in haphazardly ti suit ish Border". In this case Chief Uzbekistan and Kazakstan for “progressive”, role by acting to develop around which the masses the schemes of the GPU. The Agronomist Samokhvalov con­ resisting the adventurist agricul­ achieve the plans set. The only w ill rally for political action. earlier frame-ups of the engine­ fessed to -disruption of collective- tural plans of the bureaucrats method they knew, however, was Hence Stalin, in the name of the ers, the Mensheviks, Zinoviev^ farming by false planning to re­ who would-have caused wholesale to whip the workers and peasants bureaucracy, must act to keep Kamenev, Trotsky and all the duce yields, all. for the purpose ‘starvation of the local peasants into over- exhausting and under­ the workers disunited, must Old Bolsheviks, engender the in order to make a “showing" in of seeing capitalism restored. paid labor. The speed-up system establish a completely totalitaran need for more and more. The One Taras ink, Chairman of the their particular sector of planned in its worst forms was adopted regim e. economy. Most recently Tursun present wave of trials thus gat­ Diatriet Executive Committee of quite naturally b y the “fists" put To create a psychological terror Khodpieff, Commissar of Domes­ hers momentum, but at the same the OP, -confessed that he led a in charge of industry. The ex­ which w ill prevent one worker group of Rightists since 1935 in tic Trade, has been removed in treme top layers put added pres­ time represents the death agony Uzbekistan. The utter disregard from talking frankly to his a -campaign to disrupt collective sure on the layers just below in neighbor, and which w ill frighten of the Stalinist regime. For it agrtetdture. In resolutions de­ of national rights and of the pe­ order to haye them apply the pro­ the worker away from any indicates that the bloody and op­ manding the death penalty for culiarities of local economy have per pressure to the lowest strata. these executives,^ significantly brought about a tense situation When the pressure became too “ group", Stalin starts a spy scare pressive regime comes into more enough, the demand is also made in the smaller republics which great and lack of fulfillment campaign. “ Russians Are Told and more violent conflict with for the death of Bukharin, their Stalin seeks to “liquidate" by might easily lead to the prison Informing Is a Duty”. The police the masses and their needs. It id the methods of bureaucratic ter­ “ real" leader! cell, if not worse, the lesser regime must establish itself right this sharpening conflict tlw.it w dj On Aug. 20 eight people were rorism . bureaucrats and those further up among the masses! Every work­ inevitably bring about the sweep­ shot for “Trotskyist counter-re­ Since the liquidation of Mdi­ defended themselves by falsify­ volutionary activities in two fac­ vani, a further drive has been ing the accounts to make things er must learn to distrust his ing aside of the Stalinist bureau­ tories“. On Aug. 12 we learn that made against the Georgians. appear more rosy. In the present neighbor. Make it difficult for cracy as outworn, corrupt reac­ Hie lumber industry is chock full Eleven minor executives are period the mass of falsificationpeople to visit each other. The tionary to the core. September 25,1937 SOCIALIST APPEAL 7 The Case of Leon Trotsky A Review of the Dewey Sub-Commission’s Hearing in Mexico City Last April, in a crowded little refutable fabrications. Actually, of their "confessions"? Emphati­ strikingly and attest to the in­ the record, aims and teriiiniqnes room in a suburb of Mexico City, of course, Moscow’s brazen dis­ cally no? And precisely by that dustrial impasse to which the of Stalin’s Thermidorian mqoMi- Leon Trotsky made a promise to regard for consistency and ele­ token Trotsky’s legal argument bureaucracy’s frantic drive for tion conclusively exposed and the Preliminary Commission of mentary fact is due both to the and case take on added import. records has led. explained. The materials in this In q u iry w hich may have seemed impossibility of falsifying Trot­ “The absence of proofs," speech, plus his fascinating ex­ unsusual, over- amibitious, and, sky’s activities and conditions of Trotsky repeated tirelessly before On Terrorism planations of revolutionary prob­ indeed, incapable of fulfillm ent. life, regulated and recorded as lems, perspectives, strategy and the Commission, “is the most In relation to terrorism, the Professor Charles A. Beard they are down to the most minute terrible proof against Stalin." tactics, make of the entire vo­ detail, and to a careless cynicism record contains long excerpts lume an indispensable primer for ’(though he indicated that Vys­ Trotsky’s voluminous proofs not from Trotsky’s writings since the born of bureaucratic impunity. every revolutionist. The lessqn hinsky's puppet-shows were on only demonstrate the innocence turn of the century, revealing a which Trotsky drives home page the same level as the trials of of the chief defendants, but fling consistent advocacy of mass pro­ the Inquisition), had stated that Physically Impossible the crimes back in Stalin’s face. after page, and which is itself the paganda as against the futile and most crushing condemnation qf it was impossible for Trotsky to Not only are Trotsky's hands self-defeating violence of desper­ the accusations and the whole “prove a negative by positive The documentation, as indi­ clean, but Stalin’s are stained ate individuals. The social roots bloody Stalinist regime, is the evidence." and declared that the cated by the extracts in the re­ with the blood of hundreds of of the new terrorist tendencies port, is complete in every im­ necessity of firm, patient, and burden of proof still rested upon innocent victims. That is the fu ll amongst the younger Soviet gen­ portant case: literally hundreds principled education of the mas­ Stalin and not Trotsky. significance of Trotsky’s legal eration are analyzed and located of documents and affidavits de­ ses, as opposed to all sorts of Trotsky, however, promised in the new social stratification monstrate the physical impossi­ desperate adventures, impatient “ direct and, moreover, quite posi­ and concentration of privilege. maneuvers and alliances w ith the tive proof of the ‘negative fact'"; bility of Trotsky’s alleged meet­ Provides Political Regarding the charge of allian­ ing with Romm in Paris, or with enemy class. he pledged not only to raise a ce with Hitler and the Mikado, Holtzman, Olberg, David and Understanding In the era of the People’s Front reasonable doubt but to establish there are introduced Trotsky’s Berman-Yurin in Copenhagen, of betrayal, Trotsky’s teaching, his innocence beyond the shadow Although public opion has published writings, in which a Sedov’s alleged presence in Co­ brought out by his testimony and of a doubt, and, by the same been increasingly skeptical since consistent anti-Fascist line is token, to prove Stalin guilty of penhagen, of Pyatakov’s alleged the extension of the blood-purge by his still more eloquent life, maintained, a class-struggle stra­ of undeviating loyalty to and re­ the basest and most blood y fra­ flight to Oslo and meeting with to the Red Generals the question tegy of combating fascism sys­ liance upon the class strengbt of me-up in history. The task which Trotsky. Straight down the line, of Stalin’s motivation, the why tematically developed, and the the proletariat assumes added he as.-umed was not simply a every factual charge of any im­ of the trials and persecutions, hopeless position of Germany and significance and timeliness; and defensive one, a refutation of the portance is crushed to bits. has been the stumbling-block for Japan in the coming war laid this record, which systematically charges against him, but vigor­ What, then, is left of the whole considerable sections of bewilder- forth. Finally, the true political expounds the real nature of the ously offensive: he undertook to flim sy framework of falsehoods? •ed liberal thought. The political nature of the trials is exposed revolutionary spirit and program, Irand his accusers for all time If confessions, of and by them­ documentation in the record, be­ by a fully documented analysis w ill go far toward rejuvenating as falsifiers and murderers, the selves, do not constitute con­ sides exposing the absurdity of of the way in which Stalin’s that spirit and inspiring it with assassins of revolutionaries and clusive proof (and none other the charges of terrorism, sabota­ charges against the Opposition new hope. the grave-diggers of the Russian than Vyshinsky has so affirmed, ge, alliance with Hitler and the shifted with the winds of Russia’s Revolution. in a standard Soviet handbook Mikado, etc., furnishes indispen­ political alliances and the chang­ The American Committee for on criminal procedure), then sable keys to the understanding ing needs of the bureaucracy. the Defense of Leon Trotsky is Verbatim Report Stalin’s whole case must stand of the trials, reveals their roots to be congratulated for providing or fall with the evidence which in the political exigencies of the A Great Speech a special paper-bound edition of The verbantim report of the Vyshinsky submitted. Stalinist bureaucracy and relates this big book at a sales price of Mexican hearings has now been them to events within the Soviet By itself, Trotsky’s 136-page two dollars. That means that we published . (The Case . of Leon Of what did this "substantiat­ Union and throughout the world. concluding speech is a brilliant can put it into the hand of every Trotsky, Harpers) and it is pos­ ing evidence" consist? A calling- historical document. Here all the. comrade—to whom it can serve card with two letters scribled on In lengthy testimony, the sa­ sible for all to weigh Trotsky’s lient facts of Trotsky’s biography threads are brought together ; as a handbook of the revolution­ it (significance unexplained), a promises against the actual proofs are set forth, showing how devo­ the factual material summed up. ary movement in a ll its phases— passport proving that Olberg presented. tion and loyalty to the working- in a running argument; the po­ and systematically distribute it The investigation has not yet entered Russia as a Honduran litical core and background of the. to every radical worker and in­ citizen, an alleged letter from a class movement run like a red drawn to a close; the Commission thread through his career. trials ruthlessly brought to light,. tellectual in the country. qf Inquiry is still in session, col­ "Japanese diplomat'’ (not intro­ duced into the court record), a The categorical facts of Trots­ lating the work of the Mexican, ky’s life throw the lie in the face Parisian and New York sub­ German telephone directory.... ERWIN WOLF DULLEA To RUN and nothing more! Beyond this— of his accusers, the most voci­ commissions, examining the ferous of whom served in the wealth of new evidence which only references to “ conspiratorial letters" from Trotsky, and falsi­ October Revolution.... on the IN SPANISH IN SPITE OF has come to light, and on this other side of the barricades. basis w ill pronounce its verdict. fied and distorted "quotations" from Trotsky’s writings, which Nevertheless, these 600 pages DUNGEON CLARITYI TES any literate person c-an look up The Capitulators of the record, incomplete though and refute. they may be, contain such a bulk Vyshinsky faced another knotty (Continued from page 1) psychological problem: to explain CLEVELAND, Ohio—The So­ of persuasive juridical evidence, telephoned, insisting on seeing The Role of Confessions away the repeated capitulations cialist mayoralty campaign, with furnish such weighty political Wplf once more and giving him of all the known defendants, their and psychological analysis, offer what he called urgent mail that Robert Dullea as candidate, is It is clear why Vyshinsky had grovelling and abject bootlicking, auch complete historical docu­ to extract from Pyatakov, Romm had arrived. Meeting in a cafe, being waged in vigorous fashion mentation, that hesitations and their fiery denunciations of the and others trumped-up stories Tioli declared that he had for­ despite all sabotaging effort»-of suspended judgements are now arch-demon Trotsky and the about meetings with Trotsky and bitter attacks which the Opposi­ gotten the mail but would go to the right wing. bereft of the slightest foundation. Sedov at which they received h is room and b rin g i t back. H'e Trotsky has here already proved tionists have launched for long their "directives": otherwise the years against the renegades from did not return, and in his stead The last act of the La Guardia bis case to the hilt, and turned appeared the police, now con­ attempt to implicate Trotsky, their ranks. For him there is a Socialists was to announce to the the charges into a terrible indict­ backed up by not one iota of ma­ trolled by the G.P.U., who ar­ ment of his accusers. simple explanation: “camoufla­ press that they had withdrawn terial proof, would have been too g e." rested Wolf on the spot. His patently absurd to stand the light present whereabouts are un­ their support from Dullea. Previ­ Trotsky’s analysis of the his­ Documentation of day. Vyshinsky, despite the known. ously the Clarity-right wing preliminary investigations reports tory of the capitulations, his combine had moved for no inde­ Exclusive of Trotsky’s oral ample quotations from the con­ testimony, the documentary evi­ allegedly filling dozens upon Konrad Knudsen reports from pendent political action and had temptuous articles of the Oppo­ Oslo the »(formation that a dence submitted to the Commis­ dozens of volumes, could present had been decisively defeated by not one trace of material docu­ s itio n press 6ince 1927 on the ! Norwegian worker who travelled sion was of two chief types: (a) "traitors" and “scoundrels" and the membership. q category of purely legal docu­ mentary evidence. From a juri­ through the Soviet Union last "deserters" as well as from the summer as a tourist, was cross- ments, refuting the few charges dical standpoint, therefore, his When Frank Stern, Campaign case hangs by the slenderest of miserable writing of the capitu­ examined by the G.P.U. concern­ o f a specific and factual character, lators themselves, make it crystal- Manager, and Esther Levine, Ad­ those which alleged certain cons- threads to those few depositions ing Erwin Wolf and his wife. A clear that, as he says, “It is a ministrative Secretary, returned pirative meetings and correspon­ which attempt, however half­ friend of Knudsen from whom heartedly, to name names, give historical and political law that the Appeal has just heard, writes to Cleveland from the Y.P.S.L. dence; (b) a political category the relationship between the Op­ Cf historical materials bearing on places and dates. The hundreds that he fears that the G.P.U. convention, they found that a positionists and the capitulators 1 plans to ship Wolf secretly out Trotsky’s record in the revolu­ of documents submitted by new lock had been placed en the Trotsky refute every attempt to was all these years more bitter i of the country and to the Soviet tionary movement, his relations door of the party office by Bob establish a concrete link between than the relationship between the I Union, where he is doomed to with the various defendants and Oppositionists and the Stalinists." j Parker, Clarity leader, in a des­ with Lenin,. his attitude over him and the “ conspirators." Thus, . fall victim either to a hideous even when viewed purely legali- , frame-up or a murder in the perate attempt to knife the eam- years and decades on the subjects paing for Dullea. Comrade Stem, stically, the frame-up is cry.-tal- On Sabotage dark of the night—the fate that Of terrorism, fascism, sabotage ; supported by a majority of the *nd industry, war, etc. (The latter ! dea r. • has befallen so many already. Concerning the charge of I ¡county committee, immediately materials, to be sure, are also of With Trotsky and Sedov’s in­ sabotage, Trotsky introduces ex­ With the memory of Andres 1 rented new quarters from which basic legal importance, since nocence, the bloody proceedings tracts from his writings which Nin’s fate still so fresh in the to continue the campaign. The Vyshinsky made definite allega­ are ‘ hopelessly compromised. analyzed the bureaucratic setting minds of all, it cannot be too new headquarters are at 737 tions regarding Trotsky’s w rit­ Trotsky was pictured as the |of industrial tempos and warned strongly emphasized that Erwin Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, ings and activities.) master-mind, the prime-mover of the ruinous outcome of dizzy .Wolf’s life depends upon the A t a general membership meet­ Never, from a purely . legal of the “plot" in whose hands the i speeds, making it compellingly most immediate and vigorous point of view, has a refutation ing, a score of members of the others were but passive puppet-; clear that the “saboteurs" are protest to the Spanish Govern­ been so completely and relentlessly Jugoslav Federation, ¡v-iny of Trotsky’s name appears on almost scapegoats selected to conceal the ment, and a demand for his im­ whom had never attended n So­ •established in a case of like na­ every page of the Court record, industrial crisis which now exists mediate release. We appeal to cialist Party meeting, *« ie ture and magnitude. It would usually several times. If Zinoviev, in the economy of the Soviet all groups and individuals to brought down by the Olantyites almost seem as if Vyshinsky, in Kamenev, Pyatakov, Radek and Union. Lengthy documents acquir- send cablegrams immediately to to vote the left wing down. A the few charges which he dared the others weve forced to utter 1 ed from the Danish engineer, the Valencia regime. to fill with some small amount such monstrous lies about their i Wpnfeld-Hansen, who occupied a roll call vote disclosed that at o f precision; deliberately resorted ("master", can anyone then place high technical post in Russia, ! E rw in W o lf's life m ust be least two people present were only to the most absurd and easily the slightest credence in any part bear out Trotsky’s predictions I saved. not members of the party 1 8 SOCIALIST APPEAL September 25, 1937 Save U. S. Business in China, Is C. P. Appeal ------‘New Masses' Ask Roosevelt to Yes, Yes, But What About His Friends? Intervene for American Capital

the gap between promise and By Li Fu-jen chievement (it has warned Japan, ROBERT FORSYTHE ARCHIBALD MacLEISH you see, b u t has never re a lly To meet the situation created acted — L.F.J.). The Japanese iby Japan’s assault, a revolution­ themselves are keenly aware of ary workers’ party would place our unsatisfactory role in the demonstrations of proletarian Far East and they are counting solidarity with the Chinese work­ upon it to continue..... The Roose­ ers and peasants, and efforts to N E W M A S S E S velt administration, however, is organize workers’ sanctions probably faced with a choice far AUGUST 2 4 1 9 3 7 FIFTEEN CENTS against the robber imperialists, graver than that confronted by at the center of its activity. previous administrations. The The Stalinists, however, pajr question arises: how much longer only lip service to revolutionary is it possible to postpone conc­ principles. Actually they have rete action to restore peace and •merged as the social-patriotic China’s sovereignty in the Far defenders of American imperialist E a s t? ” interests in China and they ap­ peal to the Washington govern­ Poisoned P ill ment in thinly-'veiled terms to defend those interests against The references to “ peace” and Japan in concert with other “China’s sovereignty” are the “ peace-loving” im perialist powers. sugar-coating for the poisoned In some cases, as we shall show, pill of social-patriotism. The the appeal for war is not even traitors of the Seeond Interna­ dormahy based on defense of the tional employed in 1914 such Chinese massed against the' Ja­ phrases as ‘freedom and demo­ panese -imperialists, but upon the cracy” and “ defense of the father- preservation of W all Street profits land.” The Stalinists know full and investments. Indeed, the well, however, that American Roosevelt government has not imperialism cannot be driven to .voiced anything like the concern fight a war to preserve “peace” over American “ interests” in the and “ China’s sovereignty.” They Ear East that the Stalinists ex­ must prod Washington with more press. As always, the flunkey is telling arguments. Listen to D ra pe r! H u g o more vociferous than the master. “It is good business for the “ Collective "Security” United States to keep China’s The Daily Worker, as the of­ vast but undeveloped resources ficial mouthpiece of the Stalin­ out of Japanese control, despite ists, still finds it necessary to the short-sighted attitude, from B la c k use rather guarded language in the viewpoint of their own self- «•pounding its betrayal of the interest, of some big business principles of revolutionary inter­ men in this country. nationalism. Its editorial com­ “Secondly, China remains the A M a n w ith ments on the Sino-Japanese war greatest potential market and consist' in the main of vague source of capital investment in the Right Kind mumblings about the necessity fo r the world.... Our present stake in applying a system of “collective China is but. a tiny fraction of security” in the Pacific. our potential stake in a unified of Enemies It has been left to such unof­ and revivified China. Political ficial organs as the New Masses friendship would be a first-rate and China Today to unfold the business asset.” fu ll social-patriotic line in all its Flunkeys in Line By Wallace Moore vulgar splendor. This is part of the Stalinist system o f double China as a business asset to bookkeeping. Should need arise, American imperialism! The Chi­ these journals can always be nese workers as fit subjects for pudiated. exploitation by the money-bags of Wall Street! Surely enough, Jingoes At Work American imperialism is girding Reprinted without permission from the cover-page of the “New Masses” of August 24, 1937. In a featured article by Theo­ for the march to its goal of world dore Draper on September 14, domination. The Stalinist flunkeys Japan, also makes groveling ap­ Stalinists (as we do not) is putt­ the New Masses devotes two fu ll of imperailism have fallen into New York Workers: peals for imperialist intervention. ing up a “fight to a finish” pages to the most blatant pro­ line even before the first bugle Wang Chcng-hui, Nanking’s against Japanese imperialism! paganda for imperialist war that has sounded the call to arms. A tte n tio n ! foreign minister, in an interview has ever disgraced a journal pre­ The magazine China Today, published in the New York Times A ll In Together tending to serve the interests of which describes itself as an organ September 18, emphasized China’s Registration of voters for the the exploited and oppressed. The of the “Friends of the Chinese A united front—the bourgeois- regret over the American isola­ writer, a well-known party People,” dispenses sim ilar social- Kuomintang government, the New York elections w ill be held tionist attitude toward the Chino- member, copies the style and patroitic poison. In the September “peace-loving” imperialists, and the week of October 4th. If yon Japanese warfare.” ideas of such bourgeois comment­ issue, R. A. Howell calls for an the Stalinists! It remains only do not register you cannot vote for the workers to recognize the ators on Far Eastern affairs as all-in ( ?) imperialist war against Real Intervention in the elections. Be sure to regis­ Nathaniel Peffer, notorious as an Japan. Like Draper (perhaps fact of this united front and its O nly fo u r days e a rlie r U . S. ter so that you w ill be able to advocate of war by American they are one and the the same inevitable consequences—betrayal Marines went into action against imperialism against Japan. person), he wants American im­ of the workers and oppressed vote for the independent working striking Chinese flour-m ill work­ “We,” says Draper (the “we” perialism to go to war with Japan everywhere. class candidates! ers at Shanghai, as a result of meaning Draper, the New Masses to protect its business interests which 25 were sent to hospital and the imperialist government in China and, also like Draper, suffering from the effects of tear at Washington), have continually he wants the true aims camouf­ gas ’ and scalp wounds. This in­ postponed coming to grips with laged so that the support of the cident perturbed the Chinese Register for the School! the real issues.” He is complain­ masses for the imperialist war ing ’ that the robber barons of bourgeois minister no more than may be assured. Listen again: The Fall Semester of the Marx­ Wall Street have allowed the it did the Daily Worker, which 4. Socialism and War — Japanese imperialists to get away Plan to Deceive published the report without a ist School, organized by the N. Max Shachtman single word m condemnation of with toe much in China and that Y. Local of the Socialist Party Tuesday, 8:45 P. M. 10:15 P. ML ‘Resistance to aggressors w ill the use of forces of American it is time to call a halt. not be effective if it is limited (Left Wing) w ill open the week imperialism for strike-breaking 5. The American Trade Union Recruiting Officer Draper to defense of lives and property, in China. of October 18th. There w ill be Movement. for the broadest support of the Wkng “echoed recent Chinese five four-week lecture eburses T-he pronouns “ w e” and “ o u r” James P. Cannon. peoples cannot be mobilized be­ arguments for intervention saying and a weekly Sunday open forum. are used by this Stalinist flag- hind such a policy.” From the it seemed to him that materialis­ The courses are: Friday, 7:00 P. M.—8:30 P. M. waver just as they m ight be used imperialists themselves the Stal- tic, not to mention moral, consi­ 1. Elementary Marxism by any bourgeois writer. Not so insists have learned how neces­ derations demanded such a step. Registration fee w ill be seven­ John G. W rig h t. much as a hint is given that the sary it is to drug the masses with He professed his inability to de­ ty-five cents in each lecture- Monday, 7:00 P. M.—8:30 P. M. Roosevelt government is a go­ false ideals and specious promises cide whether powers such as Great course or twenty-five cents ad­ vernment of the bourgeoisie and in order to get them to fight the Britain and the United States 2. China and the Far East.— mission for each session. that the workers must therefore dirty battles of their explooiters. were reconciled to abandoning Rob’t Graves. necessarily be hostile to all its The school w ill be held at thd| Meanwhile the bourgeois- their trade, investments and inf­ Monday, 8:45 P. M.—10:15 P. M. aims. Class lines are completely Kuomintang government of China, luence in China, which he said Party headquarters 116 Univer­ obliterated. facing certain defeat in the would certainly result from a 3. Political Currents in Amer­ sity Place, where registration is “ The Roosevelt administration, m ilitary struggle because it fears Japanese victory.” This from the ican Labor Movement. now open. like its predecessors,” Draper to arouse the masses and draw representative of a government Maurice Spector. Watch the APPEAL for further continues, “ Is still hamstrung by them actively into the war against which, if we were to believe the Tuesday, 7:00 P. M.—8:30 P. M. details