January 1941 - Marxists Internet Archive

~age 24 FOURTH INTERNATIONAL January 1941
by the Left Opposition from 1923-1929, and then continued in
-exile; the struggle which led to the founding of the Fourth
International, and still goes on today.
The tremendous role. played in history by defeated revolutionary
movements invariably escapes the notice of
Philistines. They see only "victories" and this, long after
they have been achieved. The role and importance of the defeated
Paris Commune was understood and appraised by
Marx and Engels. Lenin and Trotsky understood the significance
of the Moscow uprising of the proletariat in 1905.
All the Plekhanovs were only able to lament it as a "mistake,"
something that should and could have been avoided. Yet the
victory of 1917 was made possible only because the lessons of
the 1905 defeat- were learned, assimilated and applied by the
vanguard of the Russian proletariat. Any liberal, any professor,
any scribbler can repeat it today as "concrete" truth.
Beyond the vision of all professors and their disciples, however,
is the vital importance of the Hdefeated" struggle of the
Left Opposition and the struggles of its heir, the Fourth International.
To be sure, the fruition of the "defeated" struggle could
not have been realized in a period of reaction and defeats,
when every developing movement was crushed in blood by
the opponents of Marxism, by pseudo-Marxists and their
allies. Nonetheless the "defeat" of the Russian Opposition
wiII have its realization, just as the defeat of 1905 was consummated
by the victory of 1917.
I n the arsenal of world labor, and of the Soviet workers
in particular, the great tradition, the vital lessons and program
of this struggle, conducted in its initial stages by the
isolated Soviet vanguard under Trotsky's leadership, constitut€s
the most powerful force on the road of mankind's
emapcipation.
In the period of the first two Five Year Plans, the Soviet
workers posted signs in factories: "Hands off Our Wages!"
and hung portraits of Leon Trotsky above them. They are
now beginning to seek a more eloquent language in which to
address the masters in the Kremlin. Stalin's GPU murdered
Trotsky. But Trotsky's program will cut its way through to
the Soviet masses because it is the only key with which the
gates of their prison can be unlocked.
III
Letter From Natalia Trotsky
December 12, 1940
Dear Friends :
Thank you for the forwarded material. Among other
things I received there was also a Minority leaflet from which
I learned that Comrade Shachtman continues to call himself:
IIEditor of Trotsky's Works." As indeed he used to be, but
that was When he still belonged to our organization. However,
now that. Comrade Shachtman has split from us; today
when the organ of the Minority polemicizes against us covertly
or openly; when individual comrades of the Minority, carried
away by factional feelings and corresponding views, per ..
mit themselves to voice, without any justification whatsoever,
their disregard for the personality of L.D.-I consider it
necessary to state that Comrade Shachtman cannot any longer
come forward as Editor of Trotsky's Works. This, side by
side with another of his "callings," that of National Secretary
of the "Workers' Party," is not only illogical but demagogic.
NATALIA SEDOV TROTSKY
I[==:!rom the Arsenal of Marxism
(EDITORIAL NOTE: This discussion
on the history Of the Left Opposition
was held; in Ooyoacan in April, 1939.
The summary (it is not a detailed; stenogram)
was made by Oomrade Johnson;
it was not phecked by Oomrade Trotsky.)
• • •
TROTSKY: Comrade Johnson has studied
this subject with the greatest attention and
the numerous "annotations I have made are
evidence of the care with which I have read
his memorandum. It is important for all
our comrades to see our past with insistence
on revolutionary clarity. In parts the
manuscript is very perspicacious, but I have
noticed here the same fault that I have
noticed in World Re-voZution-a very good
book-and that is a lack of dialectical approach,
Anglo-Saxon empiricism and formalism
which is only the reverse of empiricism.
C. L. R. James makes his whole approach
to the subject depend on one date-the appea
ranee of Stalin's theory of Socialism in
On the History of the Left Opposition
a single country, April 1924. But the theory
appeared in October 1924. This makes the
whole structure false.
In April 1924 it was not clear whether
the German revolution was going forward
or back. In November '23 I asked that all
the Russian comrades in Germany should
be recalled. New strata might lift the revolution
to a higher stage. On the other,
the revolution might decline. If it declined,
the first step of the reaction would ·be to
arrest the Russians as foreign agents of
disorder. Stalin opposed me: "You are always
too hasty. In August you said the
revolution was near; now you say that it
is over already." I didn't say that it was
over, but suggested that this precautionary
step should be taken. By the summer of
1924 Stalin had convinced himself that the
German revolution was defeated. He then
asked the red professors to find hi~ something
from Lenin to tell the people. They
searched and found two or three quotations
and Stalin changed the passage in his book.
The German revolution had more influence
on Stalin than Stalin on the German revolon
Stalin than Stalin on the German revolution.
In 1923 the whole party was in a fever
over the coming revolution. Stalin would not
have dared to oppose me on this question at
the Central Committee. The Left OppOSition
was very much to the fore on this question.
JOHNSON: Brandler went to Moscow
convinced of the success of the revolution.
What changed him?
TROTSKY: I had many interviews with
Brandler. He told me that what was troubling
him was not the seizure of power, but
what to do after. I told him "Look here,
Brandler, you say the prospects are good,
. but the bourgeoisie are in power in control
of the state, the army, police, etc. The
question is to break that power ... " Brandler
took many notes during many discussions
with me. But this very boldness of his was
only a 'cover for his secret fears. It is not
easy to lead a struggle against bourgeois
society. He went to· Chemnitz and there
II
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