EDUCATION FOR SOCIALISTS ISSUED BY lHE NATIONAL EDUCATION DEAt\RTMENT SOCIALIST WORKERS FWrrY 14 a-tARLES LANE NEW YORK, N.Y.10014 TOWARDS A HISTORY· OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL Part V:- .TENYEARcS: ,HISTORY 'AND-PRINCIPLES OF THE'LE,FTOPPOSITION By Max Shachtman April 1974 40( Introduction, by Joseph Hansen 3 Foreword, by Max Shachtman 5 ~ ..> , .. ;~t .~~ TenY'ears:History and~J"inci~es"oth~~J.eft Opposition, by Max Shachtnlah' . ' 6 The Left Opposition and the Communist Movement 6 The Fight for Party Democracy 7 The ~~s.()ps of.()ft9Qer '. )"\, jlY £/": 9 The Theory Of S(l,cialism 'W 0rie ~PUb~ 10 The BdtisliGeneral Strike of'1926: ~ 13 The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution 15 Planned Economy: Industrialization and Collectivizati<>n of Agriculture 17 The Break~up'of,tb;e!JJlq.• ~~(Ween(he llight \Ving .' andtheCenter~ndtbe'w.lmchtng'6fjb.e .•.• "Third Period." 18 The Dangers of Thermidor and Bonapartism 21 The International Left Opposition 23 Introduction Nexf'fall the world Trotskyist movement will celebrate collaboratiOnism of s.uIUmit c();Df'flrences. Yet that was. the the fiftieth anniVersary of·the fol'matiunofthe Left Op­ case. .. And, Stalinist, ultraJeftism was expressed. not. onl)" position,the f8ietion in·the Russian CommunilJt party·, in, sec:tfiriaJ;l.policit~s; it,Wl,lsalso expressed in violent ac" that cam~ to the defense' of the' program of Leninism . tions, min.(jIriiyvioienct;!. to,\lSea current'expression.:rhe against the' 1hreat to it.emanaiingfrom the rising bu­ turn ,to PORJllar t'rqntism and "peaceful coexistence" came, r~aucracy in .the Soviet Union. TILe 'struggle under the after the victory. of Hitl~r,; becoming the "new line"l;I.t leadership of Leon Trotsky against therefrograde:forces' the sevtlnth.congress of<!AepommJJ,~iSt International., in. 1935. headed by Stalin"becameextendedthroughout the Third ;". " International, ,leading' in 1930· to formation of the 'lnter~' lfowever. thepoli~ of,~peaceful coexiste~~":Aid not national Lefl"Opposition. Thisinterriational faction:pre­ appear .JullbloWDi.·It goes-back to 1924,being rooted pared the way'for'1he .Fourth International,the World in 'Stalin's theory ..arid" practice ,ofbuildfug"socialism in Party of the SocialiSt Revolution,' whlch·wa:s.foundedin one counfry.~It:iseasyIn17.eadingTenY~r8--History 1938. and Principles of the<;Lejt•.Opposition to trace the lineage prepatat~onsforobserVing AS part c, of the the fiftieth of "peaceful coexistence." > anniversary, we have decided torepublish7:'en Years.;..,.· ThE!" date Shachtm8:ll placed: on his pamphleLwas .. Jan­ History aridPrinciples~fthe'Left OppoSition, a'pam­ uary1933.·His flireword,however, was dated; Novem~' phlet .published"' in. 1933, 'in 'celebratioll of the'tenth' anni;., , ber;iI933.,The delay'inrpublication was; probably;caused versary oUhe' Left Opposition/The author, Max Shaehk by.·the. extraoJ'dinaryliefforts the .Communist :League. of mah,wasafthattime one of themafuileaaeI-sof the Ame:r1ca" went,;toin the intervening period to arouse the Aniei"iC"ari Trotskyistniovement.. Commuhist InternatiOnal to'ilie;dangerHitlel' represented. In its day,. this pamphlet helped edllCate' ageneiafion The" small orgamz8:tion;..of American Trotskyists'concen­ of English-speaking revOIUti0Ila:ry'Matidsts..Today it'has trated ,all itsresource~ ondramatwingthroughevery p08­ been, virtu~lly :forgottilIi,· in part" ·because-efDie subsequent sible avenue the meaning ofthe Nazi sewure of power and politic'al evolu~on of, the author; Wti6·ended tip' iii the tb-ethreatthisrepreserited,particnlarly to the Soviet Union. dghtwing of .the Sdeial 'DemOCracy.·· Yet 'it, is still of The delay inputJlication left its. mark in. the·pamphlet.· value, providing m'partlcildara' elearpresentatioJi'of The foreword declares the bankruptcy of the Communist the 'key 'piogtllmJDatie ···lfJsues·di"VidingTrotsky1Smfrom IIiternationakand 'calls for building :"a new Communist . Stalinisni '" as' they stood fbrty· yeats(a:goartd astliey(stllt· International." The dOC\1menL itself· was written in·a:ccor­ starid inthemaiIi ., dance with <an analysIS :that pointed to a ditIerenteon­ clusion·--"againstforming' a .... new .' international and for It Is, hardly nel;e~sary"t~(.llt17ess'th'fa~ttIi~tthepam­ remaittlng a faction devotedtol!eforming' the· COmJDunist phlet is now Chiefly of his\qf~~tin~erest.\Vliat ,~sUJ'PJ'isin~ IDtemlitional. This w/iI.8the· pOsition> of the Trotskyist isp.O\'llweU it .still ,stands up. ,0( cQuJ'se soiIle'9fthee"ents . movement up until July 1933.- d~( With', ,now .. appe~rl'enlOU; and.~fl~i:.q~mes m~n 'Flte finmediate reasons for theehange in position in nqthin~.,to . the ..PJ',~~n,i·'geB.eJ'ap.on h~~~;~<~ell-kno\'V.Jl the.J~~,o.1; move~ent., 1983'wetepolitical. Thed'ebaCle in>Germany, where· the !btt¥:NonceweEe in·.i:hileft :and' in CoriuMmtst pennittedthe Nazis toeoUilno power tl},~.8e party. Fo/. !Vho. W,ou},<!.l,Qte ,:Qiwe infQrmapQn on. theBe 'pfus'~fanureofthe€dmmunist tQi>i~! '!V~s~gge!l(U1evolu~es()t Trotski':~,WflUni~ .P~Q;, withduta fight, par" ties"in other tounlrtea to recognize the' enormity of the de.. lilJ~e.d b,~,ijJ.e la~t ew Ye~rs byJ>athfln,der.IT~~s! ~lti~. ~~!I~: t . feat, or even that a defeat had occurred......ae· taken'as tain excellent. notes covering that period. 1saac DeutS~e*:~ pr06fof' a qualitatWe','Change for the worse In the de.. biography of Trotsky is also a good reference so-i!.ice:'· generation'of theCornmunist'Intetnatidnal.The Stalinist On the political and theoretical level the pamphlet bas btireaucracy had shOWn itselfto be incapahle oftesponding in certain aspects long been superseded. Itmay be worth- itla vigoroUs way to even suc:h'athreat as tb:e·Nazlc()n~ While t() iadi(:a~ these., . .. , qtieBt'olpower'inthelieart of Europe; 1 T,he m08tglaring,f',plN'hl,lps, .ill .the absenee. of anyr~ ereQce 'to "peflceful c~"'teg.e.e." The reasoiQ. Jor' .tQi.s'~ F170mthe vie1fpoint of Marxist tlileory... 1).owever, the siInple enougq. ,The'pamphlet'was written.w-hen the Stalin-. eD1piricai,evip,crn~~" daxnning . a~ it was, ,-as insUfficient. ist:m.ovement was, follOwing an ultralefteourse-- the"thmi .A deeper" analysIS' was'" called for. UP. to. this tiIne the period."as.it·· wa&·· eaDeth.in .the ,Stalinist.lexicon.•Co~ Stalinillt.cup-ent. )l~.dbeen Characteri$ed as'::~ureaucratic quently·thea\lthor .s~~e& Afir<! ag~st., StaIinilitultra~ centrism," a,,cQI).Cept .. ~~tconstitutes the "~~4i:9g .line in leftlsm.• · '. Sh.achtmaiQ. 'sporb.'a~~i of .~talinism..in h~.pam~hlet. As That Stalb$m. Went Ulfo\JgP. .s1.Jcl1 a period mayse~m ShaCh~iln.iex:pJ,aJ.n~ioiQ.eCi)fthe, main featur~s .0ftlleStaliIl­ hardlycredible;.,lQ those.who., ~ekiQ.own it only inasso­ ist~on+hQ;d.1:?~.it8,tendency to zigzagull,c:ier. tl},e pres- ciation.witll: "PQpularAr9~~.. a:ndthe flagrant,~ia~, . sur, oL~op,~ad~or)'; ~o/ces~,Tbus it h~din'ade'unprin~ cipleda.nd~~Y~BgerQ\lsconcessAonsto. the kula)ts in *He·died. November 4, 1912, at the age of sixty.;eighl For an the <Spyiet ,Unio.nand to. such bourgeoispolitic~Jforn!a­ account of his political evolution see "Max Sha<h.tman 1904" tions ,abr~d., a8 the KuOmj,ntallg. Yetit lia~ al~o .. r~~ponde:d 1972" by Milton Alvin in the December 1, 1972, issue of The (in its owri ~ay) to the pressure of the Left Opposition, Militant, and "Max Shachtman: A Political Portrait" by GeOrge taking over, for insta:nce, the Left Opposition's program Novack in the February, 1972, issue of the International Social­ of industrialization and economic planning in the Soviet istReview. Union. Why, then, had the "bureaucratic centrist" faction 3 •. "f-- _. ~oo-.~_.~.. ==__ ._. ._ ............~_ failed to respond to pressure from the left in face of the layer is determined by the economic patasi~m of~' obviously immense danger represented by Hitler's rise vast state bureaucracy. to power? Viewed from this angle, Stalin, as the chief representative The .underlying .theoretiC!al . problem was .ta1(en up .by of'thebure.ucratic.caste, stood,to the .right ·of the'faction Trotsky in an article dated'Febritary 1,i935, "TheWotk~ headed by Bukharfu.The bureaucratic. caste llwept over ers' State; 'ffiermiaor and Bon'apartish'1"'(see Writ1ng~ of all .the group.ings that dated from the pro1~tarian democ­ LtionTi'otsky [1984-35L pp.166-84).Trotskyheld'in this racy ,of. Lenin's time.) The proeess begun by the Soviet article that it was necessary to make an adjustrrlent in the Thermidor led to the 'liquidation of the October 1917 analogy that had been drawn~Y the Left Opposition be­ generation a.. a ,.'hole, culminating in the assassination, tween' the degeneration of the Russiari:r-evolution arid the of Ttotskym1940. .; degeneration of the French revolution. The Left Opposi­ Trotsky, dropped further use of. the terlJ1<'!bure~lUcratic tion had' held that the Soviet-Unionfaced the danger centriSm!', In ac;letterto. James P.. Cannon",d~t~d October of··"Therrnidor" but that Thennicklr had·not yet occurred. 10"1937,<hElsH1oted:in passing how dn~ppr,opri!l,te the, (This view standsatfheheattolShachtman's pamphlet) teli.nha(f:b~QQ)e: !',Some cOR1J:'adefj' continue· tQ. charac­ Trotsky saidtliat''Closeranalysis,showed'that the Soviet terize·StalbU~.\a8''bureaucratic centrism.' This cparacteri- . Thermidor "i8"not before us' but'already far behind." It zation is now totally out of date. On the international had occurred "approximately" in 1924-25. aren.-" Stalipislnis no longer centrism, ,1>ut"thectudest However, Trotsky pointed ou~ 'it was.necesStlryto refine form ,of! .opportu'nism and 'oelal patrio~m. See Spainl" the concept of the Soviet Thermidor.Whereas the Boyiet, SbJlchtma.Jlfailed'to grasp the.fullttl~ni~o£.Trotsky's Thermidorhadpreviously' beenfuought ,ofa8'a,counter-! newcoJJtr,ibution. The keydiffiell1~" i~ b4¥:ame clear later, revolution that'wouid' testorecapitalist ptopertyl'tiations, W~8).1~ ~l\~P.i~ toenteftaitJ, the,.cpl}~pt.of s~ch a highly what, had! actually occurred was the dispossession of the co.J;ltr~dl,ctQl'y,.,:Phenomenol} all the .hureaucratic caste.