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On 29 Jun 2019 at 8:15, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote: > http://links.org.au/anatomy-revolution-trotsky-marxism-pre-revolutio > nary-spain This article, and part 2, http://links.org.au/anatomy-revolution-trotsky-marxism-test-events-spain, hide a number of crucial facts that discredit Trotsky's stands and actions. With regard to Trotsky, it is hagiography. Take for example, its description of Trotsky's attitude to POUM, and of his attitude to the right to self-determination of Morocco. Let's start with POUM. Part 2 tells us that "This decision [POUM's participation in the Popular Front] provoked a political and organizational break with ILO, although Trotsky remained open to communication with the POUM through the Civil War." This passage creates that impression that Trotsky was a principled comrade despite differences. In reality, Trotsky sought to crush POUM through the most unscrupulous and uncomradely methods, calling them criminal betrayers of the working class, and calling Victor Serge a "strikebreaker" for maintaining contact with them. After a careful study of Trotsky's stands, I wrote "An example of Trotsky's version of centralism can be seen in his fight against the Spanish Trotskyists of POUM. Because of its role in the Spanish Civil War, POUM is one of the best-known of the Trotskyist parties of that period. In the mid-30s, it achieved a certain mass support and was larger than the rest of the world Trotskyist movement combined. But due to differences between Trotsky and POUM's leadership, it was regarded with hostility by the official world Trotskyist organization. The differences weren't dealt with by comradely means but by raw sectarian pressure; Trotsky sought to destroy the POUM. He denounced its leadership in harsh terms as bankrupt, criminal, betrayers of the working class. In 1936 the International Secretariat sent people to Spain to form a Trotskyist 'section' in Barcelona with the intention of replacing POUM; it spent a good deal of its time issuing material denouncing POUM, but accomplished little. And Trotsky promoted the development of factional work within POUM. (See note 28) "Meanwhile Trotsky and the International Secretariat (IS) pressured Trotskyists elsewhere to denounce POUM; for example, Trotsky turned on Victor Serge and others, calling them 'strikebreakers' for their friendly relations with POUM. The intervention by the IS in the factional disputes of various other Trotskyist sections was made dependent on the attitude of the local Trotskyist leaders towards POUM; it wasn't sufficient for Trotskyists to have criticism of POUM's policies, they had to be hostile to POUM. For example, the Belgium Trotskyist leader Vereeken was critical of the POUM leadership, but wouldn't call them 'traitors' or 'renegades'. As a result, while Trotsky and the IS agreed with Vereeken on the main local dispute of the moment among Belgium Trotskyists, they denounced him [Vereeken] anyway, saying he 'wants to separate the Belgian question from the Spanish question'. World Trotskyist organization amounted to mechanical dictation against its local sections. (See note 29) "The murderous Stalinist repression against POUM put Trotsky's attacks on it into the background. The Stalinists killed large numbers of members and leaders of POUM, and viciously slandered POUM in order to justify these murders. But Trotsky's campaign against POUM illustrates his own attempt to deal with differences by suppression. "Overall, Trotsky as leader of the Fourth International didn't pay serious attention to building up durable organization, but reduced matters to centralism alone, and he created a repulsive form of centralism. From an organizational point of view, the world Trotskyist movement of that time, and since then, has displayed two contrasting aspects. The many splits--along with the theorizing on factionalism that will be mentioned in a moment--gave rise to a loose splintered movement, while the official movement around Trotsky, and some of the subsequent Trotskyist organizations, was rigidly and bureaucratically centralized. This was not party-building, but a caricature of it." Notes: (28) See Vereeken, Chapter 11 "The Spanish Civil War" and Chapter 13 "The final break between the International Secretariat and the POUM", The GPU in the Trotskyist Movement. Trotsky defended carrying out "factional work" within POUM and other dissident Trotskyist organizations in "Once More on Comrades Sneevliet and Vereecken", Writings of Leon Trotsky (1937-38), p. 33. (Text) (29) For Trotsky's denunciation of Serge as a strikebreaker, see "Discussions with Trotsky, March 20, 1938" in Writings of Leon Trotsky (1937-38), pp. 287-8. For Trotsky's connection of Belgium and Spanish issues, see "Two Manifestations of the Same Tendency, May 12, 1937", Writings of Leon Trotsky (1936-37), p. 290. (Note that 'Vereecken' is apparently an older spelling or transliteration of Vereeken. ) Vereeken wrote that all the fuss was 'because we had not used the terms traitor and renegade in referring to the leaders of the POUM'. (Vereeken, Ch. 14, Ibid. , p. 193) He also sought to soften Trotsky's responsibility for the wrecking campaign against POUM by noting that Trotsky tried to send a private letter to Nin and other POUM leaders in 1936 with a more conciliatory approach. (Ch. 11, Ibid. , p. 164-6) It doesn't strike him that there was something two-faced in Trotsky's combining a private approach to POUM leaders with a continuing public campaign against them -- and anyone who would talk to them -- as strikebreakers and class traitors, and that this showed a contemptuous attitude on the part of Trotsky towards the world Trotskyist organization as well as towards POUM." (See the full article at http://www.communistvoice.org/34cTrotsky.html) With regard to Morocco, part 2 talks about the importance of the Moroccan question and writes that "Trotsky and the OCE demanded the self-determination for Morocco." But Trotsky never paid much attention to the right to self-determination of Morocco. I tried to find places where he wrote about this, and finally concluded: "Trotsky supported some of the anti-colonial struggles against the European powers, but he was indifferent to others. For example, although he devoted a certain attention to the Spanish Civil War of the mid-1930, he said next to nothing about the right to self-determination of Spanish Morocco. Yet this was an important colonial issue. The Rif tribespeople of Morocco had risen against Spanish and French colonialism in the 1920s, but had been defeated. The most reactionary officers of the Spanish army had earned their spurs in suppressing the Moroccans, and thus became known as 'Africanists' (Spanish Morocco being in northern Africa). The fascist general Franco used Morocco as his base for revolting against the Spanish Republic, and large numbers of Moroccans were used as cannonfodder in the fascist army. Had the Republic recognized the right to self-determination of Morocco, this might have helped undermine the loyalty of Franco's army. But the Republic never did. And the Stalinist-dominated Communist Party of Spain, which had earlier supported the right to self-determination of Morocco, itself abandoned this in the mid-30s in order to avoid upsetting the imperialist-minded liberal bourgeoisie. And Trotsky, who denounced the Stalinists for everything he could think of, seemed to have been silent on this issue. (23) Notes: (23) Thus Trotsky said nothing about the Moroccans in his extensive article "The Lessons of Spain: The Last Warning", which appeared in the Socialist Appeal on January 8 and 15, 1938. Transcribed for the Leon Trotsky Internet Archive by Matt Siegried. Available at <www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/spain/1938-sp01.htm >. (See http://www.communistvoice.org/30cTrotsky.html) <> --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
