The OCI (U)'S Betrayal

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The OCI (U)'S Betrayal Nahuel Moreno The OCI (u)’s Betrayal CEHuS Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Nahuel Moreno The OCI (u)’s Betrayal 1981 (Translated from Panorama Internacional, Year VI, No 19, Madrid, 1982) English translation: Daniel Iglesias Cover and interior design: Daniel Iglesias www.nahuelmoreno.org www.uit-ci.org www.izquierdasocialista.org.ar Copyright by CEHuS , Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Buenos Aires, 2017 [email protected] CEHuS Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Table of Contents The OCI (u)’s Betrayal Chapter I The Theory of Progressive Bourgeois Camps .............................1 1. From the Possibilists to Bernstein ..........................................................3 2. Menshevik revisionism: the theory of progressive bourgeois camps .................... 4 3. The Bolshevik and Trotskyist response ................................................................ 5 4. Stalin and the popular front ....................................................................6 5. Mao and the theory of contradictions .....................................................6 6. Revisionists and Marxists: summary of differences ...............................7 Chapter II Revisionism in revolutionary parties .......................................10 1. Kamenev-Stalin vs. Lenin and Trotsky ..................................................12 2. Stalin and socialism in one country ......................................................13 3. Marceau Pivert and the combat popular front ......................................14 4. Molinier and Schachtman: the first appearance of the camps theory in our ranks ...............................................................................................15 5. The Pabloite version of the camps theory ............................................16 6. Bolivia and Nicaragua: Two applications of Pabloite revisionism ........17 7. The reasons for a capitulation ..............................................................17 Chapter III The Anti-imperialist United Front as Expression of the Theory of Progressive Bourgeois Fronts ...........................................19 1. The Lambert-Favre theory of the anti-imperialist united front .............19 2. Stalin, Mao, and the struggle against “militarism” and “imperialism” in China .....................................................................................................20 3. Mao and the Japanese invasion of China ..............................................21 4. The policy of the Third International for the colonial and semi-colonial countries ...............................................................................................23 5. The theoretical context of the Third International positions ................25 6. The Chinese revolution and Trotsky’s theoretical evolution ................26 Chapter IV French Reality Seen Through the Camps Theory .....................29 1. Two incompatible camps .......................................................................29 2. The seed of a civil war ..........................................................................30 3. A new agreement between Pablo and Lambert .....................................31 4. A deliberate confusion ..........................................................................32 5. The actual French reality ......................................................................33 6. The true incompatibility .......................................................................34 7. Who foresaw the current French situation? ..........................................34 Chapter V The politics of the OCI (u) .........................................................36 1. The Lambert-Forgue theory of the “Mitterrand camp” ..........................36 2. The other member of the “progressive camp” ......................................37 3. Driving the bourgeois government towards anti-capitalist positions ..38 4. Is planting hopes different to depositing trust? ...................................39 First example: The Health Insurance Fund.............................................................. 39 Second example: The strike at the airport .............................................................. 40 3. Lambert, adviser to Mitterrand .............................................................40 4. A strange break with the bourgeoisie ..................................................42 5. Lying to the masses to protect the government ...................................44 6. Protect the government or fight it? .......................................................44 7. The Lambertist version of the combat popular front ...........................45 8. The OCI applies a Stalinist policy .........................................................46 9. A tradition betrayed ..............................................................................46 10. The revolution by stages, Lambert version ........................................47 11. The OCI has no government slogan ....................................................48 12. A clear prediction ................................................................................49 Chapter VI What if there is a Civil War in France? ......................................51 1. Civil war between the “camps” .............................................................51 2. Civil war without armament of the proletariat .....................................52 3. Civil war without destruction of the bourgeois army ...........................53 4. The special virtues of the popular front ...............................................55 5. The three examples of Lambert ............................................................56 Fight with Kerensky against Kornilov ..................................................................... 56 The Japanese invasion of China ............................................................................. 57 The Spanish civil war ............................................................................................. 57 6. True Bolshevik and Trotskyist politics .................................................58 We fight militarily in the popular front camp .......................................................... 58 The military alignment is a tactical episode ........................................................... 58 Transforming the struggle between camps in class struggle .................................. 58 Overthrowing the bourgeois government and seizing power ................................. 59 Chapter VII The Policy for the Counter-revolutionary Workers’ Parties .....60 1. The OCI does not fight the counter-revolutionary workers’ parties .....61 2. Instead of denunciation, fraternal criticism .........................................61 3. The OCI (u) calls the SP and the PCF to form a united front .................62 4. A theoretical confusion at the service of betrayal ................................64 5. A united front within the united front ..................................................65 6. The true politics of Lenin and Trotsky .................................................66 7. An exceptional tactic for an exceptional circumstance .........................67 8. The origin of the united front tactic .....................................................67 9. A contradictory tactic ............................................................................69 10. The united front in our ranks .............................................................70 11. The tactic of entryism .........................................................................71 12. The workers’ and peasants’ government ............................................72 13. The revolutionary workers’ front .......................................................72 14. The only strategy of Trotskyism ........................................................74 Chapter VIII The OCI abandons the Transitional Program for a Minimal Program .................................................................................75 1. The OCI acknowledges it has no program ............................................75 2. Trotsky versus Frank-Molinier-Lambert ................................................76 3. The tasks and slogans of Pablo and Lambert .......................................77 4. A policy based on the hopes of the masses ..........................................78 5. The Trotskyist policy starts from the objective factor .........................78 6. A “confusion” in the character of the slogans ......................................79 7. The nature of our Transitional Program ...............................................80 8. The axes of the Transitional Program ...................................................81 9. The reformism of the OCI .....................................................................82 Chapter IX An Opportunistic Program in the Face of the Minimum Needs of the Masses .........................................................................84 1. The situation of the French proletariat .................................................85 2. The OCI does not fight against the misery of the French proletariat ...86 3. Unemployment ......................................................................................87 4. Support for government nationalisations .............................................89 5. Education ..............................................................................................90
Recommended publications
  • Pablo Bio-Bibliographical Sketch
    Lubitz' TrotskyanaNet Michel Pablo Bio-Bibliographical Sketch Contents: Basic biographical data Biographical sketch Selective bibliography Basic biographical data Name: Michel Pablo Other names (by-names, pseud. etc.): Abdelkrim ; Alain ; Archer ; Gabe ; Gabriel ; Henry ; Jérôme ; J.P. Martin ; Jean-Paul Martin ; Mike; Molitor ; M.P. ; Murat ; Pilar ; Michalēs N. Raptēs ; Michel Raptis ; Mihalis Raptis ; Mikhalis N. Raptis ; Robert ; Smith ; Spero ; Speros ; Vallin Date and place of birth: August 24, 1911, Alexandria (Egypt) Date and place of death: February 17, 1996, Athens (Greece) Nationality: Greek Occupations, careers, etc.: Civil engineer, professional revolutionary Time of activity in Trotskyist movement: 1928 - 1964 (1995) Biographical sketch A lifelong revolutionary, Michel Pablo for some one and a half decades was the chief leader of the Trotskyist Fourth International – or at least of its majority faction. He was perhaps one of the most renowned and at the same time one of the most controversial figures of the international Trotskyist movement; for all those claiming for themselves the label of "orthodox" Trotskyism, Pablo since 1953 was a whipping boy and the very synonym for centrism, revisionism, opportunism, and even for liquidationism. 'Michel Pablo' is one (and undoubtedly the best known) of more than about a dozen pseudonyms used by a man who was born Michael Raptis [Mikhalēs Raptēs / Μισέλ Πάμπλο]1 as son of Nikolaos Raptis [Raptēs], a Greek civil engineer, in Alexandria (Egypt) on August 24, 1911. He grew up and attended Greek schools in Egypt and from 1918 in Crete before, at the age of 17, he moved to Athens enrolling at the Polytechnic where he studied engineering.
    [Show full text]
  • WIRFI Journal 15 February 2016
    WORKERS INTERNATIONAL Print JOURNAL version £2 Political and theoretical journal of Workers International (to Rebuild the 4th International) No 15 February 2016 Special obituary edition Farewell Comrade Balazs Nagy! 1927 - 23 August 2015 ALSO INSIDE Bill Hunter and Charlie Pottins: Two veteran British Trotskyists pass away 2015 also saw the loss of Bill Hunter and Charlie Pottins, two former members of the Socialist Labour League / Workers Revolutionary Party in the UK who participated in the 1985-6 split in the Party and the expul- sion of its former leader Gerry Healy. Although they were no longer members of Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International, we had remained in touch with them and mourn their loss. We joined with the families and comrades who gathered to mark their passing and record their life’s work. See appreciations inside. WORKERS Inside this issue INTERNATIONAL of Workers’ International Journal we JOURNAL Political and theoretical journal of reproduce a selection of the tributes Workers International to Rebuild the 4th International paid to our founding secretary Balazs PO Box 68375, London E7 7DT, UK Nagy (Michel Varga) by present and workersinternational.info Email: former comrades [email protected] Workers International Journal February 2016 Page 1 Comrades and relatives of Balazs Nagy gathered in Albi, France, in August 2015 to bid him farewell. BOB ARCHER pronounced the eulogy on behalf of Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International “It is impossible to do justice to our comrade Balazs Nagy in a few minutes. He spent all his adult life fighting for that vital thing ̵ the party which leads the struggle of the working class ̵ and to oppose all deformations within it.
    [Show full text]
  • Método De Interpretación De La Historia Argentina Interpretación La Presente Reedición Reproduce La Publicación De Pluma De 1975
    Bases para una interpretación científica de la historia argentina Folletos mimeografiados desde 1965 Primera edición de imprenta en sección publicaciones Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Universidad Nac de Córdoba, 1972 Método de Primera edición ampliada y corregida por el autor, con la colaboración de Hugo Kasevich, por Editorial Pluma, Buenos Aires, 1975 bajo el título: Método de interpretación de la historia argentina interpretación La presente reedición reproduce la publicación de Pluma de 1975 de la historia Cuatro tesis sobre la colonización española y portuguesa Ediciones mimeografiadas desde 1948 Revista Estrategia, Nº 1, 1957 argentina Fue republicado junto a otros trabajos en: Feudalismo y capitalismo en la colonización de América, Ediciones Avanzada, julio 1972 Para comprender la historia, George Novack, Pluma, Buenos Aires, 1975 Ediciones El Socialista, noviembre 2012 Maquetación: María Isabel Lorca Nahuel Moreno Queda hecho en el depósito que establece la Ley 11.723 www.izquierdasocialista.org.ar www.uit-ci.org www.nahuelmoreno.org ©Copyright by Ediciones El Socialista Buenos Aires, 2012 Ediciones PRESENTACIÓN por el castrismo, quien morirá trágicamente en julio de 1964 junto Presentación con casi toda la primera célula de un abortado proyecto foquista.1 En ese período, el rearme teórico era decisivo: el partido de Moreno estaba en tratos de unidad con el Frente Revolucionario Indoamericano Popular (FRIP), un grupo que actuaba en Tucumán y Santiago del Estero, liderado por los hermanos Amílcar, Mario Nahuel Moreno, el político y Francisco “el Negro” Santucho, un apasionado de los estudios de historia colonial. Dotar al partido de una visión estructurada que “hizo historia” de la historia nacional permitía debatir temas que concluían en cuestiones programáticas y teóricas de primera importancia, como las consignas de transición hacia el socialismo, el papel de Por Ricardo de Titto* la clase obrera y del campesinado y la pequeñoburguesía urbana en esa lucha y, por consiguiente, el propio carácter del partido.
    [Show full text]
  • What Happened to the Workers' Socialist League?
    What Happened to the Workers’ Socialist League? By Tony Gard (as amended by Chris Edwards and others), September 1993 Note by Gerry D, October 2019: This is the only version I have of Tony Gard’s docu- ment, which contains the unauthorised amendments as explained in the rather tetchy note by Chris Edwards below. [Note by Chris Edwards (May 2002). War is the sternest possible test for any Trot- skyist organisation. While many British organisations failed this test in the case of the Malvinas/Falklands War (e.g. the Militant group with its “workers war” against Argen- tina position), the British proto-ITO comrades did attempt to defend a principled posi- tion against the bankrupt positions of the leadership of their own organisation, the British Workers Socialist League (WSL). This is an account of the tendency struggle over the Malvinas war and many other is- sues to do with British imperialism. This document was written with the stated purpose of being a “balance sheet” of the tendency struggle. It was somewhat ironic that, Tony G, the author of most of this document, and the person who had played the least part in the WSL tendency struggle during 1982-3, felt himself most qualified to sit in judge- ment on the efforts of those who had been centrally involved in the tendency struggle. This was despite his insistence that he did not wish to do so at the beginning of this ac- count (see below). In fact, one of the barely disguised purposes of this “balance sheet” was to rubbish and belittle the efforts of the comrades who had been centrally involved in the tendency struggle.
    [Show full text]
  • Joseph Hansen Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf78700585 No online items Register of the Joseph Hansen papers Finding aid prepared by Joseph Hansen Hoover Institution Archives 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA, 94305-6003 (650) 723-3563 [email protected] © 1998, 2006, 2012 Register of the Joseph Hansen 92035 1 papers Title: Joseph Hansen papers Date (inclusive): 1887-1980 Collection Number: 92035 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 109 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 3 envelopes, 1 audio cassette(46.2 linear feet) Abstract: Speeches and writings, correspondence, notes, minutes, reports, internal bulletins, resolutions, theses, printed matter, sound recording, and photographs relating to Leon Trotsky, activities of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States, and activities of the Fourth International in Latin America, Western Europe and elsewhere. Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives Creator: Hansen, Joseph, Access The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Joseph Hansen papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Archives. Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1992. Accruals Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at http://searchworks.stanford.edu . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number of boxes listed in this finding aid.
    [Show full text]
  • The-Party-1943.Pdf
    CEHuS Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Nahuel Moreno The Party Nahuel Moreno The Party 1943 (Taken from the Grupo Obrero Marxista’s Discussion Bulletin, Year I, No 4-5, November/December 1944, by courtesy of Fundacion Pluma) English translation: Daniel Iglesias Cover and interior design: Daniel Iglesias Cover Art: May Day, Latifa Mohamed www.nahuelmoreno.org www.uit-ci.org www.izquierdasocialista.org.ar Copyright by CEHuS , Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Buenos Aires, 2017 [email protected] CEHuS Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Table of Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................. 1 Preface October 1944 ............................................................................................... 4 The Party Nahuel Moreno Julio 1943 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 6 The problem of youth ............................................................................................... 8 Dialectic negation applied to the organisation of the movement .............................. 10 We are a group of propaganda and not agitation ..................................................... 11 Symbols and opportunist Quebracho ....................................................................... 15 The newspaper as main and urgent task ................................................................. 17 Where and how we can act .....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Perú Y La Estrategia Armada En Los Años Sesenta: La Reactualización De Un Debate
    Contenciosa , Año IV, nro.6, primer semestre 2016 - ISSN 2347-0011 PERÚ Y LA ESTRATEGIA ARMADA EN LOS AÑOS SESENTA: LA REACTUALIZACIÓN DE UN DEBATE MARTÍN MANGIANTINI (Instituto Ravignani – CONICET / UBA) Facultad de Filosofía y Letras / Universidad de Buenos Aires Becario del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas / Instituto Ravignani (25 de Mayo 221, 2° piso, CABA) [email protected] Resumen A principios de los años sesenta, la organización trotskista argentina Palabra Obrera decidió el envío de tres militantes al Perú con el objetivo de construcción e inserción política en un contexto de importante convulsión social, principalmente a partir de la toma de tierra y la sindicalización campesina en la región del Cuzco. La puesta en práctica de acciones armadas por parte de este grupo generó un proceso de discusión y debate que, recientemente, se trajo a colación a raíz de una serie de nuevos insumos documentales. Es objetivo de este artículo analizar este hecho a la luz de estas flamantes herramientas de discusión. Palabras Claves Lucha armada - Trotskismo - Movimiento campesino - Guevarismo Abstract At the beginning of the sixties, the Trotskyist Argentine organization Palabra Obrera (Working Word) decided to send three militants to Peru with the aim of construction and of political insertion in a context of important social convulsion, principally from the capture of land and the rural unionization in the region of the Cuzco. The implementation of armed actions by this group generated a process of discussion and debate that, recently, was brought to collation immediately after a series of new documentary inputs. It is the aim of this article to analyze this fact in the light of these brand new discussion tools.
    [Show full text]
  • Trotsky, by Pierre Broué: an Attempt at a Biography
    Published on League for the Fifth International (https://fifthinternational.org) Home > Printer-friendly PDF > Printer-friendly PDF Trotsky, by Pierre Broué: an attempt at a biography Thu, 30/03/1989 - 10:59 History plays strange tricks. In 1954, one year after the death of Stalin, and at the beginning of a period of so-called ?de-Stalinisation?, Isaac Deutscher published the first book in his three volume biography of Trotsky.1 Deutscher?s work, despite its many faults, gave a clear account of Trotsky?s life and struggle, and countered the Stalinist lies which, even today, are still perpetrated about the founder of the Red Army. And now, at a time when reasoned public discussion of Trotsky in the USSR is allowed for the first time in over fifty years, Pierre Broué, Professor of History and long-time member of Pierre Lambert?s Parti Communiste Internationaliste (PCI), has published a massive new biography of Trotsky in French which both rivals and surpasses that of Deutscher. During the 1970s the English speaking world saw the publication of a huge amount of Trotsky?s work, notably George Breitman?s edition of the Writings (1929-40),2 and material on the history of the Fourth International (FI), in the form of the American Socialist Workers Party?s (SWP) ?Towards a History of the Fourth International? series.3 At the beginning of the 1980s this situation changed. The SWP abandoned their formal adherence to Trotsky in favour of Castro and Maurice Bishop. Consequently the last volume of Trotsky?s political writings was published as long ago as 1981! 4 In France, however, an opposite process has been taking place.
    [Show full text]
  • The Democratic Socialist Party & the Fourth International
    The Democratic Socialist Party & the Fourth International Jim Percy & Doug Lorimer 2 The Democratic Socialist Party & the Fourth International Contents Introduction ..................................................................................3 Trotskyism & the Socialist Workers Party by Jim Percy.................4 Isolation & the circle spirit....................................................................................6 Making a fetish of ‘program’................................................................................ 9 Two errors........................................................................................................... 14 Internationalism & an international................................................................... 18 Clearing away obstacles...................................................................................... 20 Lenin’s method.................................................................................................... 23 Learning from the Cubans................................................................................. 25 Organising the party........................................................................................... 26 The 12th World Congress of the Fourth international & the future of the Socialist Workers Party’s international relations by Doug Lorimer......................................30 Debate on world political situation.................................................................... 32 Debate over ‘permanent revolution’.................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • No. 245, December 7, 1979
    WORKERS ,,16(;0I1R' 25¢ -~.... ~-, ... No. 245 .. •J:l.... '~y X·523 7 December 1979 Desnite Khomeini'sDeath Wish for Iran 010 It ;;an't go on much longer without a ready to die for the "imam" and the head-on crash between the world's most Americans who have made a fashion of dangerous imperialist power and the "Nuke the Ayatollah" T-shirts. world's most powerful medievalist The U.S. media counts off the days religious fanatic. Not for much longer for a frustrated. angry and humiliated can Khomeini threaten to hold trials population. while a group of congress­ and execute the hostages at the U.S. men have organized a campaign to "set embassy in Teheran while he calls forth the date" for military retaliation. ABC­ Islamic wrath against the "American TV runs a near-nightly news special Satan." and taunts Carter for having entitled. "America Held Hostage." and "no guts." It cannot go on indefinitely. Tillli' magazine's tlag-and-eagle cover thiS gathering of U.S. warships and demands to know: "Has America Lost aircraft off the coast of the Arabian Its Clout')" peninsula and these storm clouds of war No. it can't go on much longer. sentiment on the streets of America and Despite the efforts to "play it cool." Iran. Carter's war threats are real. and the In the bizarre events of the last month conscLJuences terriblc~tor the masses there IS a tearful S) mmetr) in the lunatiC of Iran and the international proletanat. pronouncements of the 79-year-old nut For the ultimate target in the \\'1'1" with state powcr in Qum who says that room of U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Livio Maitan Bio-Bibliographical Sketch
    Lubitz' TrotskyanaNet Livio Maitan Bio-Bibliographical Sketch Contents: Basic biographical data Biographical sketch Selective bibliography Sidelines, notes on archives Basic biographical data Name: Livio Maitan Other names (by-names, pseud. etc.): Claudio ; Domingo ; Fausto ; Claudio Giuliani ; L.M. ; Libero ; Livio ; Claudio Mangani ; Mario Date and place of birth: April 1, 1923, Venezia [Venice] (Italy) Date and place of death: September 16, 2004, Roma [Rome] (Italy) Nationality: Italian Occupations, careers, etc.: historian, lecturer, journalist, translator, editor, party leader, professional revolutionary Time of activity in Trotskyist movement: 1947 - 2004 (lifelong Trotskyist) Biographical sketch This short biographical sketch is chiefly based upon autobiographical notes which Livio Maitan sent to me on request in 1996 and on some of the obituaries listed below (see Selective bibliography: Books and articles about Maitan, below). Livio Maitan – together with Ernest Mandel and Pierre Frank the European top-leader and chief the- oretician of the Fourth International (International/United Secretariat) during the 1950s-1980s – was born in Venezia (Venice) on April 1, 1923 as a son of a teacher and a housewife. Maitan got married in 1954 and was divorced in 1983; he had two sons, Gianni (b. 1959) and Marco (b. 1963). In 1942, when studying classical literature (Greek and Latin) at the University of Padua, he became active in the anti-fascist resistance movement and in 1943 he joined the illegal PSIUP (Partito So- cialista Italiano di Unità Proletaria, Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity). In 1944 he was sen- tenced by a fascist court, escaped to Switzerland and had to spent several months in internment camps there before he could return to Italy in May 1945.
    [Show full text]
  • Wfjrkers ,,IN'ij,IR'25¢
    WfJRKERS ,,IN'IJ,IR' 25¢ No. 316 .~~~~. X-S23 29 October 1982 Protesters·Rout Klan- Boston COliS Riot UPI .iiiJII'iI BOSTON, October 16-Hooded and j 1 I • white-sheeted Ku Klux Klansmen were • surrounded by an angry, jeering crowd of 1.500. pelted with eggs. and. scared II ;:,ut of their w~ts, were tlln off the sheets of Boston today. Not even a full-scale riot by scores of motorcycle and mounted police defending the KKKers could disperse the protesters. who came determined to stop the fascists' provoca­ tion. It was the first solid anti-racist stand after years of unrelieved racist terror for black people in Boston. October 16 was a stunning blow against the cross-burners and lynchers that has been heard across the whole country. Under Reagan reaction, the KKK figures it has a license to spew out its race-hate poison everywhere. A Klan­ endorsed president in the White House, Democrats and Republicans united in an anti-Soviet war drive have made it open season on unions and minority rights at home. And Boston is where rampaging mobs ofwhite racists took to the streets against busing. An ideal place for a Klan march, figured "imperial wizard" Bill Wilkinson. But the all­ WV Photo purpose hate mongers of the KKK not (Above) Boston cops protect Klan. (Below) Spartaclst contingent on October 16. only target blacks, Jews, communists, labor: Catholics are also high on their TV cringing. The cops, meanwhile, protesters in Cambridge Street. Motor­ the Plaza, directed this time at the hit list. So when Wilkinson said he'd began beating on anyone around, cycle cops roared into the crowd in City police.
    [Show full text]