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The Semi Monthly Organ of the Opposition Group in the Workers (Communist) Party of America It is necessary that every member of the Party should study calmly and with the greatest objectivity, first the substance of the differences of opinion, and then the development of the struggles with in the Party. Neither the one nor the other can be done unless the documents of boti sides are published. He who takes somebody word for it is a hopeless idiot, who can be disposed of with a simple gesture of the hånd. Lenin MILITANT VOL. II, No.
NEW YORK, MARCH 1, 1929 PRICE CENTS War, Kellogg Pact and the Soviet Union in est of capitalism while the cler:against the to move the imepierialist to peoples and oppressed in bandits and They.
for the next theit State that is surrounded by imperialist powers By Max Shachtman separable. That the demand for disarmament alwas outlined a decade and more ago by the leaders ways results in actually disarming the working class Bolshevism, Lenin and Trotsky. Its course is diposes upon its participants certain obligations of a peace. before its class enemy, because capitalism will not rected to warding off all interventionist and counful character, it has without delay adhered to it. Soviet and cannot disarm. That those who create the im ter revolutionary movements no matter what their Union Review, Feb. 1929, page 31. And this is not meant as polite diplomatic rig pression that capitalism can disarm as the only esform may be; so that the Workers State may be marole, for Litvinov repeats it in worse form to the the working class. That the only real road.
guarantee. are drugging able to lengthen the period which it strengthens. Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union is the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the victory peace the socialist forces on December 10, 1928: revolutionary of socialism. That the appeal for disarmament is pro Our government took into consideration the fact that letariat in the imperialist countries gathers suf. the states signing the Kellogg Pact thereby placed them reactionary utopianism. Lenin said a thousand ficient strength to overthrow their own bourselves under a certain moral (so. obligation to public times: opinion with respect to non aggression.
geoisie. The Soviet power must therefore aim to December 20, 1928, page 1703. Inprecor, The Kautskyan preaching of disarmament. which is aid in every possible way the revolutionary addressed chiefly to the present goveroments of the ment in other countries, to free If this is not enough to make a cat laugh, as the masses everywhere from the to help and and pacifist Messrs, Briand, Chamberlain, Stresemann, Musso Stalin would say, it is at least enough to throw ism, of bourgeois pacifism, actually calculated In spite of the good intentions of the gentle Kautskyan. to di.
lini vert the workers from the class struggle. For such a proof the foreign geoisie, arouse the workers against them, and and Pact is supposed to impose upon its participants thought that the present bourgeois governments of the rallying center certain ang of the world. Sucher moral obligations. Why doesn the Soviet threads of finance capital and tens of hundreds of cort Locarno Pact, or join the World imperialistic agression) SECRET TREATIES between sulted or the the overthrow.
Some time later, this same policy resulted in the impose moral obligations of a peaceful character zial Demokrata, December 1969 victorious qusting of Menshevism and imperialism Stalin Rykov) would have us believe that the Kel pose the inherent counter revolutionary nature of ead: If the Workers State does not constantly ex from Georgia and the establishment of a Soviet Republic. In the struggle against the Black In logg Pact is less the instrument of the imperialist the imperialist po that these powers can be made but, on the contrary, creternational of the League of Nations the Commun and the League of Nations?
war mongers than the Versailles Treaty, ates the impression ist International was built.
to disarm and establish peace, who is deceived?
The signing of the Kellogg Pact by the Soviet shee not this babble fly in the face of all Bol Certainly not the Hoovers, the Briands, the Chamteachings, of the whole tradition of Soviet berlains and the Stresemanns.
Union the whole course of Soviet foreign policy policy? Lenin said that the Soviet power, on the in their sleeves at the very idea of laugh from this revolutionary path. Instead of in the recent period, in fact. marks Sectra question of peace, or peace and at all the pitiful talk of Litvinov.
Would declare that it expects nothing good from the They are secretly or openly preparing ing bourgeois geois illusions it strengthens them. In bourgeois governments and proposes to the workers of by all countries to overthrow them and transfer un relitical imperialist war as they must very nature, stead of strengthening the revolutionary moves as well as for a war to crush the workers repüb ment in other countries, it weakens it. Instead of power to Soviets of workers deputies. Lenin, How to lic. All their pacts, conferences and treaties are reactionary and war mak It is true that the Soviet Union has a reserva ing character of imperialism it conceals it. To be tion on the Pact. Its note says further: window dressing to hypnotize the workers while they themselves work feverishly for the sure, this is not the intention of the authors of this Summarizing what has been said above, one must to course, but it is its inevitable result. And the latter state the absence in the compact of obligations concern. of is the ing disarmaments, which is the only. essential ele the Soviet Union is grea is great, are deceived by the important question.
ment of peace guarantee. Current History, October disarmament palaver. Their illusions about peace In the official reply of the Soviet Government, 1928, page under capitalism, about the possibilities of disarm signing the Kellogg Pact, given out by Litvinov on We suppose that this unbelievable clap trap (we ament, are deepened when the Soviet Union signs August 31, 1928, is contained a series of the most will not use a harsher term) is accepted as very the Kellogg Pact. And the Communist Parties are astounding statements. Says the Soviet Commis clever Soviet diplomacy in some quarter, a type to denounce effectively the Kellogg Pact as an me sar for Foreign Affairs on the reservations made of Machiavellian stroke that outwits everybody. by Great Britain: perialist, war mongering document, when the This reservation the Soviet Government cannot but incept the bourgeoisie for whom it is apparently bourgeoisie can easily reply: Dear friends, your intended.
consider as an attempt to use the compact itself as an The Communists have persistently striven to per own Soviet Union has signed it and hailed it as instrument of imperialist policy. Current History, Octo ber 1928, page meate the proletariat with the idea that disarmaa step towards peace.
An attempt. We must take it, therefore, that ment talk under capitalism is the worst crime of For when the Soviet Union praises the imperialthe compact itself is not an instrument of imthe bourgeois pacifists. That capitalism, armaists as our friendly neighbors how can the Comperialist policy, but that the rascally British are ments, war and militarism are synonymous and inmunists in other countries expose their bourgeoisie making an attempt to use it for this purpose. If as enemies of the Soviet Union who are preparing advanced before the working class, crush it? When the Communist member of with all the authority of the Soviet Union behind Reichstag, Stoecker, denounces German imperialwhat becomes of the daily agitation in the Protest which continues to repeat and correctly. sothe social democracions against the Soviet Union, Chancellor, Mueller, triumphthat Versailles, Locarno, the Anglo antly replies with the Kellogg Peace Pact are all steps to The words of Kalinin, president of the Soviet ward a war of all imperialist powers against Soviet Union, who on his recent reception to the new German Russia. See Daily Worker, March Ambassador to Moscow, Dr. Herbert von Dircksen, as serted that the relations between the Soviet Union and the German Republic were thoroughly peaceful and Milliots read the doors of the Soviet Union, where only a read the Communist friendly.
Come and hear the truth about the present situa(New York Herald Tribune, February 27, 1929. press. Even if this were not so, the theory that the Workers State can talk one way and the wor tion in Russia and the reasons for the exile of The Communist deputy was unable to reply to kers another way, is fundamentally false.
Trotsky, the defender of the Workers Rule. this. Mueller could also have quoted Litvinov But this is not the worst. The Soviet note says speech (Inprecor, December 20, 1928, page 1706)
SPEAKERS: further: in which the German bourgeoisie is praised as the JAMES CANNON friend of Russia. Mussolini. in reply to the Italian Nevertheless, inasmuch as the Pact of Paris objective ly imposes certain obligations on the powers before pubMARTIN ABERN Communists, can also quote Litvinov speech: líc opinion and gives the Soviet Government a new MAX SHACHTMAN An example of the possibility of maintaining normal chance to put before all the participants of the compact and perfectly correct (9) relations to another state, in a question of disarmament, the solution of which is the at spite of different social political systems, is offered by only guarantee of prevention of war the Soviet Gov.
LABOR TEMPLE, 242 14th St.
our relations to Italy, which give rise to practically no ernment en presses its willingness to sign the Pact of mutual complaints. Inprecor, ibid. page 1706)
Paris. Current History, October 1928, page Tuesday, March 19th, 7:30 This amazing nonsense is repeated by Litvinov ADMISSION And Herbert Hoover, who is denounced very 25 CENTS properly in the Communist press here as an archin the Soviet note to the Polish government of Auspices New York Group of the Communist enemy of the Soviet Union and the working class, December 29, 1928: Opposition, can also reply to these attacks by quoting Litvinov. In so far, however, as the Soviet Government has We must openly admit that up to the considered that the Paris Agreement (Kellogg Pact) im.
CONTINUED ON PAGE Forevent we have to this analysis ism war press o French agree ment, TROTSKY Deportation 6, 1929.