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November 15, 1928.
THE MILITANT Page Page THE MILITANT November 15, 1928.
Concerning Our Expulsion: in of genuine or cussion becomes ing a deep cleavage in mhet Stalin Group the of a not labors grow is indeed a when a Bolshevik fighters, workers as they prch force pressure of another class upon the Party of the its world historical importance, a real discussion 18. The arbitrary decisions made against us proletariat, was absolutely correct then and is even of the problems of the Chinese revolution, with cannot in the slightest degree change our position more so now. The adoption of this position by all the documents being made available, is imper as Communists, since the Party we helped to found Zinoviev, Kamenev and others in 1926, and the ative for all Parties of the Comintern. The pro and build is our Party. Reserving the right to attempt of Stalin to adopt it now, demonstrates hibition of this discussion must be broken down, express our viewpoint and opinion on these disthe tremendous pressure of class forces which imthe truth must be told and the enormous errors ex puted questions, we will continue to to the posed down to their roots. Only this decisions of the Party as Party as heretofore.
this platform. The struggle for Party democracy, the great lessons af the Chinese revolution be Under all circumstances we will contin continue to live against bureaucratism and for a regime work for its Leninist self criticism are burning questions now 11. We demand the publication of all the 19. We demand that simultaneously with the documents of the Russian Opposition without announcement of the decision of the Polcom on b) The necessity for a more relentless struggle which the Party members do not and cannot know the outcome of this hearing, our statement shall against the Kulak and the Nepman for an orient. the essential issues of the be given to the Party in the same manner.
e struggle and cannot form ation exclusively upon the workers and JAMES CANNON. Member of the Polhired intelligent opinions hands, united with the village poor and lower these issues heretofore has been conductitical Committee and peasantry and in alliance with the middle ed in an atmosphere of prejudice, misrepresentaMARTIN ABERN. Member of the peasantry proclaimed by the Opposition, tion, terrorism, outlawing of all thought and in MAX SHACHTMAN. Alternate to the clearer every day. The events and the quiry, the substitution of official say so for the irresistible pressure of class forces is already driv study of documents and facts on disputed the leadership of the Com questions. All this has been part of a campaign of of wat and Lenin right the struggle against the bacharins Ferofution and the comintern, and was accomvacillating between the two. The platform of the panied by the falsification of the history of the rev The past year has witnessed a sharp turn in the Russian Opposition, prepared for the Fifteenth blution itself.
tactics of the party and the left wing in the direc Congress of the indicates the revol.
We intend, at the coming Plenum of the tion of organizing the unorganized and forming utionary policy for the present situation in Soviet Central Executive Committee, to propose that our new unions. The sharpening of the class struggle Union. The prediction and warning contained in Party shall take the initiative in demanding the and the crisis in the labor movement created the this platform against the inevitable growth and conditions for this turn and the Party was not return from exile and the re instatement into the ahead of the situátion, but lägged behind it. This aggressiveness a genuine right wing in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union with full Par mrmed in the intervening period, particular rights, of Trotsky and the (Rykov, Tomsky, etc. has been other imprisoned and arose from the natural conservatism of the Party exiled members of the Russian Opposition. Violleadership and its inability to understand the pro in recent months. The activities of this right wing, ence and persecution against counter revolution cesses going on in the working class and in the movement. It was the hammering of the aries is a revolutionary duty; violence and perhave already necessitated organizational meas, ures in the Moscow and other organizations secution against tried and loyal Bolsheviks is a Opposition and the pressure of the which of the Party a proof of the awakening of the crime.
compelled the formal adoption of the new lineand this only after many favorable opportunities proletarian masses of the Party to this 13. The consolidation of the Opposition in the had been lost.
danger.
The left course of the Stalin group in the American Party, which logically and inevitably How direction of a struggle against the right dangers, merges with the path of the Opposition in the has this new line been carried out? In for Party democracy and self criticism, against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union led by the recent months the question of the new trade bureaucrats, the Nepmen and the Kulaks, can be Trotsky, has developed in the struggle against the to the field of practice. The forces of the Party union policy passed over from the field of debate dons zig zag movements, adopts the whole plat this Opposition as a right tendency, related to form of the Opposition, and reinstates the tested non Communist elements such as Lore who have ling battles, and in at least three industries Coal who have been expelled, to mining, Textile and Needle Trades definite, exbeen their rightful places in in the Party fighting the Party from the right, and anti perience in the formation of new unions has been Communist elements like Salutsky, who have gone gained.
The attempts to revise the basic Marxist completely over to the side of the labor lieutenants again proved themselves to be The Communists and c)
left wing to be the leading dynamic in socialism in one country have been rightly resist political reality and is designed to cover the the labor movement in these struggles.
What are the results and lessons of this exede beyintien positioproedubes e Teretake in manibers en live drift art. she Patterneders bei decrethues riebti perience, the successes and the errors? One will fields of Comintern activity and its ideological life responsible Party work, and even from the Party seek in vain to find answers to these questions in general have proceeded from this faise theory itself, along with the proletarian Communists who ficient authentic information recorded there from To this in part at least can be traced the false line support us, while at the same time the control of which deductions could be made.
in the Chinese revolution, the debacle of the the Party apparatus and the Party leadership in Anglo Russian Committee, the alarming and unIt is time now to review the experience and draw the needle trades consolidates more some necessary conclusions for the trade union precedented of bureaucratism in the firmly in the hands of the opportunists, who fight work of the next future. Such indeed is the paraComintern, an an incorrect attitude and mount task of the Party. In order to do this it will 45 Joviet Union, etc. etc. This new lucy in the their Communist worker critics with expulsion and theory is physical violence al this can only accelerate the necessary to proceed from an understanding of bound up with an overemphasis on the power and rapprochement between the right wing leadership the situation as it actually exists; to know the sober duration of the temporary of capital of the Party and right wing and petty bourgeois facts which have been hidden behind the blatant ism. Herein lies the true source of pessimism re, elements now out side the Party.
world the proletarian press agentry; to lay bare the enormous errors revolution. One of the principle duties of every opportunist political outlook, its petty bourgeois been covered up by optimistic official reports.
14. The Lovestone group leadership, by its (and worse) of the Party leadership which have The document on the Right Danger in the figist along with the Opposition for the teachings acigen uits corrupt factionalism, its careerism and Party, in the trade union section (writof Marx, Engels and Lenin on this basic question. menace to the Party. Its mechanical grip on the ten by Foster) which is printed in when it demanded the immediate rupture of the apparatus of the Party grows steadily tighter and The Militant, speaks warningly of the harmfui Anglo Russian Com ttee and the concentration trustworthy comrades are one by one removed lettantes and opportunist faction mongers gain con of all the fire of the Comintern and the British the from responsible posts and replaced by faction leaders of the British Trade Union trol and direction of Party upon mass agents, incompetents, upstarts, unknown and inexGeneral Council (Purcell, Hicks and Co. im perienced in any serious work in the class struggle.
fraught with the gravest consequences for the future of the mediately after the betrayal of the general strike.
movement, is written in blazing The Party itself, the mass work and the mass or letters in the experience of the past year, and The maintenance of the Anglo Russian Committee after that event did not serve as ganizations under the influence and direction of particularly the past six months, of the Party a are thereby undermined.
trade union work. The longer this lesson remains of the British masses but as a partial shields to the the 16. By its whole character the Lovestone lead unlearned the greater the prices to be paid for the traitorous leaders from the fire of the Communists. ership is the logica! American banner bearer of knowledge.
e) Rarely before in history has a Marxist Lenin, the demogogic and unscrupulous international forthcoming issues of the Militant while we ist appraisal and forecast been so completely and campaign against the leaders of the Russian Op are denied our rights to expression in the Party position.
theses and proposals (Trotsky, Zinoviev) on the press we intend to deal at ength with the in the American Party to grasp of the Opposition in tion of the Party trade union policy and work; problems and and to do so not only from a general standpoint, line of the casks of the Chinese revolution. The this banner for themselves are pathetically futile formulated by Stalin, BuchThe hopes of the Foster thereby She Lovestone group arin, Martynov, etc. and the repection of the pro the factional persecution of but also from the standpoint of the concrete experience and the actual facts connected with itsecure their organizational positions can and with specific and particular reference to the and concealed from the Parties of the Comintern, succeed only insofar as they surrender their former Miners. Textile and Needle Trades Unions.
and hampered whole course of the opposition standpoint. The the genine development of the Communist Party Lovestone group, which has no roots in the labor of China and the revolutionary democratic dieta THE MILITANT movement, is toward a monopoly of the Party aptorship of the workers and peasants. In view of paratus and cannot be otherwise.
Published twice a month by the Opposition Group in the PAMPHLETS COMING 17. We declare our intention to appeal to the Workers (Communist Party of America The Editors of The Militant are undertaking the task of Plenum of the Central Executive Committee to Box 120 Madison Square Station New York, publishing all the suppressed documents of the Russian reverse the action of the Polcom against us, which Subscription rate: 00 per year. Foreign, 50 Opposition, a treasure of Leninist literature, in pamphlet is motivated by neither principle foundation nor 5c per copy Bundle rates, 3c per copy.
form as well as serially in The Militant. Your help is needed in this revolutionary work Follow the example of Party interest, and is the result purely of factional Editor Associate Editors a group of Communist workers in New York who are considerations and bureaucratic fear of discussion James Cannon Martin Abers, pledging a regular amount weekly.
and criticism.
Phone: Gramercy 5411 Max Shachtman Letter to a Comrade hy James Cannon Dear Comrade: Editors Note. The following letter was written to an questions around which the whole life and future We were very glad to receive your letter and active party worker in reply to a letter from him in of the International Communist movement revolve which he raised a number of questions similar to those to hear of your reaction against our expulsion and dealt with in numerous other letters from comrades in. Trotsky has been in the main correct and the your wish to receive more information and advice various parts of the country who have asked information true defender of Leninism.
as to proceаure. Enough of such letters have al. and advice on the question of our expulsion from the party and the issues connected with it.
Regarding our expulsion and the expulsion of ready it clear that the others which is already being prepared a few words to dispose of the attempt to questions we should be said. The great significance and ur have raised by the simple mechanical expedient of bounded the issues involved.
consequences of ance from the worker Communists in the ranks. The wisdom of our action in presenting a clear Political Committee cannot be overestimated and Your communists and direct statement of our position was quesstatement that our other took you by to subordinate such an issue. It will inevitably rise surprise and that the comrades want to know tioned; but it seems quite clear that its correctness The up and confront the Party at every turn has already been established. The Party needed more than they can learn from the official commu.
echoed in other letters also, and quite nications is an alarm bell; it needed an awakening from the expulsion, for their views alone, of loyal Com stupor of factional intrigue over small questions.
munists, founders of the Party, with honorable.
naturally. Another letter which came today from records of 15 20 years of activity in contradistincThe Party needs a Communist coal miner says, At the beginning thing. Strategy, of course, is not to be excluded plain speech now above everytion to the shady records of many of those who was tremendously surprised. The entire matter hit me so hard that don know whether have in such a fight, but it must be strictly subordinated expelled us cannot be covered up or minimized inated by any kind of slander. For we are revolutionaries to the major task of telling the truth and stimulat come back to carth or not. The people who mulate who will fight for our right to belong to the Party ing the Party members to demand the truth. This gamble with the proletarian movement regard the is the real duty of leaders now. It is from this The Polcom settled the question by summarily and will not let anything tear us away from it.
al fighters for the Party as a clever serick, a quick and easy solution in our opinion, that you and the other leading comrades must decide your course from questions. The rank and file militants and the after the election campaign when others will de serious revolutionaries who have built the move standpoint of your responsibility as leaders to mand our reinstatement and are also expelled.
the Party and to the rank and file comrades who Expulsion is dangerous fire to play with in a have confidence in you and look to you for will take another view in exact proportion as they Party which has all too few forces of the kind Icama the facts and understand the dicruptive con guidance.
sequences of this criminal act. Our foremost task uestion true that the raising of the fundamental and working for a pelled forces loyal to the Party is to make these facts known to the Party and little in building the Party and establishing we will endeavor to do this at all cost.
international scale over a period of five years plays its prestige among the workers. As the struggle The suddenness with which the whole issue havoc with second rate and tenth rate questions of controversy and the group which concerns itself part. The Polcom majority declared us expelled has burst upon the Party was unavoidable on our exclusively with them. The fate of the loval more and more Party members the issue will expulsion of prole from the Party for our views without even waitOpposition to Lovestone and Peppėr is tarian fighters while the petty bourgeois careerists sad one. But the fate of ing for the Plenum of the Central Executive Comall which base and adventurers are attracted and drawn to the mittee, before the party members had the slightest themselves on purely local or national issues can inkling of the situation and before we had the be not center this is the only possible logic of the expulotherwise the larger questions are sion course initiated by the Polcom. brought up. At the Chicago meeting Sofronity to inform them. Their object was to the majority has aiready demanded united sup We do not believe it is in principle possible for the Party members with our expulsion port of the in the fight against Trotsky any comrade who disagrees with such a course and as an accomplished fact and then to terrorize them understands its unavoidable consequences to give into an endorsement of it before the slightest inthe first. The group which wants to fight Trot any kind of support to our expulsion. To say that have expelled many good communists be Lovestone Pepper group which has a copyright on a protest against our expulsion can be made only one agrees with the position of the Russian Op fore, in order to position on all points seems to us to be putting the speaking to the Party as Party members. Then that fight and makes its political living that way; question upside down. It would be more correct they tell the Party it has no right to listen to us another where the greatest danger lies and because we are not members of the Pårty that the say Such expulsion can be endorsed only where to direct its blows, will and one is convinced that shallow trickery can be based only on the most quickly demonstrate its complete bankruptcy. important points and that we have become enemies profcund contempt for the intelligence of the rank There is no place for it. Its elimination from the of the Party, which no Communist adult believes.
and file of the Party. To allow such methods to scene proceeds inevitably from the whole situation. We surely intend to advise a certain tactical line succeed would be to give the power of self per of the apparatus and to reduce the principeront tude of those comrades who seriously and from expulsion without repudiating their principles, but leaders to whom the whole Party is looking are duty bound to to speak clearly and tell the Party just to such procedure the fact of expulsion sets the sky position prior to 1917 against himo usuch an We what they even if it is not a But in the absence of any preliminary know that Trotsky and Lenin had differences in sup complete port of one position or other. What is wrong discussion, the Party can decide the question wise gainst expulsion when one does not ly and responsibly only if it knows why the expul de la peine deutligen shape rasties and condikterw that know the facts and has not had sufficient oppor sion took place and what the expelled members founded on the basis of Lenin doctrine to which tunity to adopt a definite position one way or the have to say. Party member who does not de mand that right, who keeps quiet, or who votes Trotsky from 1917 fought side by side with Lenin Trotsky came over. Do we not know also that Party, what form of Party democratic rights exist, when members feel compelled to vote one way or fear of expulsion is not acting like an upstanding afterward Lenin never allowed a campaign against the other on the spot without real knowledge Communist whose vote means understainding and of their own? Party uprising against this whole conviction.
fidence in him and helped to elevate him to the system will be one of the most fruitful results of How does it happen that you highest positions? To our own knowledge he porter of the Russian Opposition and insist so spoke at the Fourth Congress the Comintern as It is to be expected that those who deprived us categorically on the right to defend it even up the outstanding leader (next to Lenin) and he of all rights to defend our views in the normal Party? This is the question asked by many comto the point of temporary expulsion from the made the main report. We know that he had less Party way will now raise a great hue and cry be.
differences with Lenin after 1917 than any one cause we take other means of bringing our posi rades as well as by of the other leaders, although they do not tell us years old, Trotsky is expelled and the questions that in the official information.
great Leninist principle of discipline based on a are settled why bring it up again? Well, it is correct revolutionary policy into an instrument for true the We have not the slightest doubt, from a study shutting the mouth of the loyal Party member and is old, but it is by no means question is settled of all the material dealing with the period of 1917 and cannot be settled on the present protecting their opportunist policies and disloyal basis.
1928 that we have been able to secure, that TrotThis is the answer. We are late in learnskyism as a political tendency in conflict with acts from any real criticism and exposure. Such ing the truth, late with the performance of our Leninism international duty, but that is by no means entirely, was bureaucratic machinations have nothing in com liquidated prior to the October rev mon with Leninist organization principles.
The We or even mainly, our fault. It was possible for us the center of the fight against Trotsky in recent would be unworthy of the name of revolutionists to secure adequate information and judge for our if we allowed our views to be suppressed by such years only because his opponents and defamers selves only recently.
are not able to stand up against him on the actual sophistical methods We do not demand or expect anyone to accept merits of the present controversies. What is the It is only miserable bureaucrats and philistines our views on our say so. All we ask of those who who can keep silent about their views on principle have stood closest to us in the past, and of the and Kamenev in uniting with Trotsky in 1926 but broad circles of the Party which are being stirred Trotskyism in 1923 5 had been a false one?
an acknowledgement that the campaign against issues of the Russian Opposition, and their indis soluble connection with our own to a new interest in the question by our stand and will be discussed by the problems pur expulsion, is that they study the question Zinoviev, who above all others educated us in Party in spite of all And honestly and objectively on the basis of the ma.
our task to see to it that this is not a one this campaign said so in so many words.
one sided which we will provide. Frou honest study The struggle of the past five years has resolved but a presentation of them to the Party as they discussion, or rather distortion, of the questions, of the material will case with us. We have no doubt, either, that they around the living issues of the present period. It really are.
our absolute conviction, based on the most ob The regeneration of the Party and will defend these convictions as we do, regardless jective study of all material we could secure and the reconstitution of its leadership on a proletarian of personal consequences, because the very essence carried on in the face of a previous prejudiceCommunist basis will proceed from this.
of the matter is the overshadowing importance of Yours fraternally, that on all of these basic questions of the period the CANNON to naturally very growth stabilization of an it in the any a sup our fight.
work.
This warning, you.
that questo terial come conviction as was the