Trotsky's article was not intended as a comprehensive analysis of Ethiopian society. It was just dealing with the question of whether socialists should support Ethiopia against the Italian invasion, despite the fact that Ethiopia was under the dictatorship of Haile Selassie. Trotsky's answer was yes.
Trotsky did not "sing psalms of praise to the Ethiopian dictatorship", as Joseph Green claims. What he said was that a victory by Ethiopia over the Italian invaders would have a progressive impact on world politics, by weakening Italian imperialism and by encouraging revolts against imperialism elsewhere: https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/04/oslo.htm Trotsky would not have been very surprised by Haile Selassie running away. He did not discuss this possibility in this particular article, because he was responding to the argument that socialists should not support Ethiopia because of Haile Selassie's dictatorial rule. I am not an uncritical defender of Trotsky. The theory of permanent revolution sometimes led him to a schematic approach. But in this case I think the criticism is invalid. Chris Slee ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Joseph Green <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, 13 August 2020 5:52 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [marxmail] Transitional Programme | A Transition to Nowhere | Prometheus On 12 Aug 2020 at 17:55, [email protected] wrote: > One of the issues dealt with in the article cited is Ethiopia. For > those who want to pursue this question I am offering this link to an > article by Trotsky on Ethiopia. > ken h > > https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/04/oslo.htm Yes, that is Trotsky's main article on the Italo-Ethiopian war, and I have cited it repeatedly in my articles on Trotskyism. It is definitely worth looking at. It's especially important to compare it to a history of what happened in the Italo-Ethiopian war, and afterwards. In the "Outline of Trotsky's Anti-Marxist Theories" I wrote: "...during the Italian fascist invasion of Ethiopia in the mid-30s, the most that Trotsky could do was call for support for Emperor Haile Selassie. The theory of 'permanent revolution' had nothing to say about the class relations in Ethiopia, so Trotsky compared Haile Selassie to Cromwell and Robespierre, who he described as 'dictators' who have played a 'very progressive role in history'. He put forward the perspective of Selassie striking 'a mighty blow not only at Italian imperialism but at imperialism as a whole'. Just over a week later, Selassie fled Ethiopia, leaving the Ethiopian people to resist Italy by themselves. Far from Selassie striking a blow at imperialism as a whole, discontent with his absolute monarchy simmered among the Ethiopian fighters, called 'patriots', who continued the fight against Italian occupation from inside Ethiopia. (14)" The quotes from Trotsky are from "On Dictators and the Heights of Olso". I had discussed this in more detail earlier in an article "Anti-imperialism and the class struggle". In the sections on "Trotsky and the Emperor of Ethopia" and "Trotsky's mechanical rules", I quoted Trotsky's article, and I talked about it at length. Part of what I wrote was: "The Italo-Ethiopian war was the continuation of a long struggle by Italian imperialism to enslave Ethiopia. Trotsky was right to denounce the ide0a that the outcome of this war was irrelevant to the working masses, just as Stalin was right to defend the Soviet policy of relations with Afghanistan. But Trotsky was wrong to sing psalms of praise to the Ethiopian dictatorship and speculate over revolutionary dictators, just as Stalin was wrong to theorize about the 'objectively' revolutionary nature of the Emir of Afghanistan. Trotsky ignored the 'social foundations' of the Ethiopian dictatorship, and he ignored the tragedy which this dictatorship was bringing to the Ethiopian people. The class nature of this dictatorship would hamstring Ethiopian resistance to the Italian invasion. "Trotsky was so enthusiastic about the supposed 'very progressive' nature of absolutist dictatorship that he envisioned an autocrat like Haile Selassie leading a revolt in India against British colonialism. India, unlike Ethiopia, had a significant proletariat, substantial class movements of the toilers, and an active communist movement, which was faced with the issue of dealing with a powerful bourgeois nationalist movement. But Trotsky envisioned that the Indian revolt might be led, and in a progressive manner, by an absolutist despot. This underlines the fact that Trotsky, in this passage, utterly separated the class struggle from anti-imperialism. He converted anti-imperialism into simply supporting this or that dictator or regime." I continued "Selassie's departure was a sign of the defeat of the official armies and the upper nobility by the Italian fascists, yet his absence didn't mean the war was over. The Italians ended up controlling all the towns and main roads, but Ethiopian resistance continued in the countryside. It was carried on by people who were called the Patriots. It was mainly led by local landowning chiefs in the countryside (balabats), although some members of the nobility took part. It was not a revolutionary movement of the peasantry and was not aimed against the old exploitation, as the Patriots were led by chiefs and landowners, although mainly not the nobility. But its existence showed the fallacy of dreaming that Haile Selassie would be the revolutionary dictator liberating the Ethiopian people. Indeed, during the war, there was grumbling among the Patriots against the failures of the Selassie regime, and some talk of eliminating the absolute monarchy or, at least, cutting down Selassie's powers." I also discussed this in the article "The sad story of Leon Trotsky and Haile Selassie", part one (http://www.communistvoice.org/DWV-150831.html), and I gave a list of important events in the Ethiopian struggle in part two ("From the history of Ethiopian resistance to Italian occupation", http://www.communistvoice.org/DWV-150908.html) This history can help one make one's own judgment about Selasssie role in history. It shows how the first thing Selassie did, upon returning to Ethiopia with British help, was to suppress various revolts, such as the Woyane uprising in Tigray in 1943. And, a few years after World War II, he took over Eritrea, which eventually led to three decades of bloody warfare. It also referred to his backward role in the general anti-colonial movement in Africa. As of yet, I have never seen any Trotskyist source evaluate Trotsky's stand in the light of what actually happened in Ethiopia. Who needs facts after Trotsky has spoken? Instead of studying Ethiopian history, it's easier to repeat dogma and lie about other people. Take, for example, the RCIT's Yossi Schwartz. He is the author of a big pamphlet entittled "The National Question: The Marxist Approach to the Struggle of the Oppressed People" (September 2019 - https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/the-national-question). He claims that I have supposedly denounced the struggle against Italian aggression and the anti-imperialist struggle, and have the same stand as the pacifist Maxton. Now, what is truly pathetic is his method of argumention. Although he quotes me defending the Ethiopian struggle, he regards this as irrelevant. In essence, he argues that since I criticize Trotsky 's views, by definition I am opposing the Ethiopian struggle. For him, the only thing that matters is whether one agrees with what he calls "Trotsky's method" of defending the struggle. And one lies follows another. He pretends that Trotsky talked about Selassie being a reactionary, when in fact Trotsky said in "On Dictators and the Heights of Oslo" that Selassie was a dictator who might "play a very progressive role in history". "Very progressive" gets translated as "reactionary". It's truly ludicrous. Here's his passage about me: "The middle class reformists and centrists who refused to defend the semi-colonies because of their reactionary leadership, attack Trotsky’s method of defending the semi-colonies when they are led by reactionaries while they fight imperialism, have the same argument that the ILP, led by Maxton, had in 1936. For example, Joseph Green, a leading member of the pseudo-revolutionary group that publishes Communist Voice wrote in 2015: 'Selassie was one of the absolute rulers of the Ethiopian Empire; he was Regent from 1916 to 1930, and Emperor from 1930 to 1974. Trotsky was right to back Ethiopia against Italian invasion and occupation during the latter 1930s, but wrong to prettify Selassie’s absolutism and wrong to regard Ethiopia as a blank slate, without significant internal struggles. On April 22, 1936, Trotsky wrote that workers faced 'making a choice between two dictators', either Mussolini or Haile Selassie. He didn’t look towards the victory of the Ethiopian people, but the 'victory of the Negus'; 'Negus' referred to Haile Selassie, and Trotsky was saying something like 'victory of his royal majesty'. Trotsky held that 'the victory of the Negus... would mean a mighty blow not only at Italian imperialism but at imperialism as a whole, and would lend a powerful impulsion to the rebellious forces of the oppressed peoples.' [44]" (Yossi Schwartz, "The National Question", p. 17, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/the-national-question) <> [https://ipmcdn.avast.com/images/icons/icon-envelope-tick-round-orange-animated-no-repeat-v1.gif]<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=icon> Virus-free. www.avast.com<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=link> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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