TROTSKY: THE THIRD PERIOD THE Weekly Organ of the Communist League of America Opposition Vol. III, No. 4, Telephone: DRYdock 1656 NEW YORK, Saturday, January 25, 1930 PRICE CENTS Leninism Lives!
The Opposition Carries It Forward Every class society not only produced the working class as master of one sixth the movement working for its destruction of the earth. The Bolshevik party successbut the directing genius with whose name fully repulsed not only the attacks of the the movement is associated. Luther, Na enemy in the country but also the armed poleon, Cromwell, Lincoln, Bismarck, Rob intervention of the imperialist world from espierre each of them marks turning without. The Bolshevik party successfully point in society. They are men who were at organized production and set into motion once the made and the makers of history. the wheels of Industry that had been But these men, their contemporaries and Jammed by the imperialist and civil wars.
predecessors, were limited by the very na The Bolshevik party initiated the formature of the milieu. While their names tion of the Communist International, the are associated with the progress of socie mightiest weapon with which the internaty in one way or another, they were all the tional working class could be equipped to banner bearers of classes which, in liber fulfill its mission in the period of preparating themselves from the fetters of a rul ing the world revolution, ing class, enslaved others in turn. Party Not a Sect The Great Men of the Proletariat It is necessary to emphasize, particu The fundamental difference between larly in the present day, that Lenin conthe great men of bourgeois history and all ception of the revolutionary party was not preceding societies, and the great men of that of a sect separated from the working the proletarian revolution is that the lat class as a whole, living a life of its ows ter, in the movement for working class outside the domain of the living struggle, freedom from capitalist class rule, finally pursuing special interests of its own. liberate all of humanity from class society mass movement for the sake of numbers and open up an entirely new historical was no fetich with him, for he was preers. For this įrofound social reason, the eminently a fighter who could swim against leaders of the proletarian revolution al the current of prevailing opinion. What ready tower above all the doers of the past, was essential for him was a party basingitand the niche they occupy in history still to selt on the interests of the whole working be written will make them even more prom class so that the strength necessary for Inent. And of these leaders, one of the victory could be mobilized. He always greatest If not the outstanding man among proceeded from the standpoint of the rethem all Lenin.
quirements of the main task: the dictatorWithout capitalism and without the ship of the proletariat, to which all others revolutionary proletariat, there could be no must contribute.
Lenin. He was the child of their present Just as the proletarian party was conand the father of the future. The symbol sidered by Lenin to be the principal arm of the final struggle, he presided over the of the working class, so the theories of dying writhings of the one and the pain Marxisın were considered the granite forful birth of the other. The struggle be mation and strength of the party. Revotween the new and the old therefore stamp lutionary theory was his most powerful ed his whole life and work.
weapon, and in the struggle against those No article can pretend to give even who endeavored to revise Marxism Lenin the briefest resume of his life. It can only produced many of the fundamental works mention its most prominent and character of the movement today. He contributed istic features, those that raised Lenin far more than any other man to the fact that above the shoulders even of his fellow Russia attained Marxism, the only revoluUnemployment is general throughout labor apparent and part time Operation of fighters and made his name the shibboleth tionary theory, by dint of fifty years trathe United States, according to the Decem many factories. Some automobile plants of a world movement.
vail and sacrifice, through the greatest reye ber bulletin of the Employment Ser were closed down. Ohio general view Foremost in Lenin was his unswerving olutionary heroism, the most incredible vice, issued Jan. 20 by Director Jones. was that practically all trades were sufferconfidence in the victory of the proletar energy and devotion, in seeking, educating From Maine, where a seasonal recession ing from lack of jobs. Automobile, steel lat, organized and led by its most conscious practical experience, disappointment, checking and comparison with European exin production was reported from all sec. and miscellaneous plants were operating and determined section, the revolutionary tlong, to Washington State, where the vol on part time schedules. Rubber factories party. For more than twenty years he deperience.
ume of employment was reported as de had let out a considerable part of their voted himself to the formation, clarifica His regard for theory and unshakable creased as usual at this season, the force. Thousands of bituminous miners tion and strengthening of the principal arm belief that it is only by proceeding from it employment agents have found excuses for were idle.
of the Russian working class, the Bolshev that the practices of the movement could be the reduction of jobs, but they have admitIndiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minneik Party. Ho persistently pointed out that correct deserve special emphasis in the ted the fact that great numbers of men the working class as grouped together by struggle today, when an entirely different sota were among the states whose induscannot find means of earning a livelihood.
Massachusetts reported that curtailed had a surplus of railroad maintenance oftries slowed down in December. Chicago capitalist production, without organization, spirit prevails in the official Communist or even with the elementary organization parties. It is a characteristic of the deschedules obtained in the shoe, textile, way and shop workers, bullding tradesmen, of trade unions, cooperative groups, etc. parture from the teachings of Lenin that machinery, hosiery and cellulola Industries could carry on a defensive struggle against has taken place in the movement since his and common labor, much of which came in various sections of the state, with rather in from smaller cities.
the daily encroachments of the capitalist death, that the leader of the Communist limited opportunities locally for the reclass, but never the successful struggle International and the Russian Party today leased workers in their individual communfor power. It was a cardinal point in his is one whose Ignorance of Marxist Leninist ities. Building trades and unskilled labor PATERSON, FP) Sixteen hun work, tested and proved in life in 1917, theory yields only to his contempt for it.
were also hard hit.
dred men lald off by the Wright Aeronautthat only by possessing an organized po It is characteristic of the alienation c: the New York noted that December showed ical Corp. of this city recently waited anJitical vanguard, a party embracing he official movement from Leninism that it decreased activity in manufactures, and xiously for the return of their jobs. They most active, devoted and clearest elements has allowed to prevail such anti revolutionhad been told that an inventory was the that inventory taking and repairs to plants of the class, embodying and crystallizing ary theories as socialism in one country, reason for theirlay off and were led to were under way in many of the larger esall the experiences of the struggle, serv Joint workers and peasants parties, the tablishments, throwing large numbers of believe that they would soon be put back ing as a guide and leader, could the work subordination of the proletariat to the bourto work. Most of them have experienced workers out of employment. Hollday extra ing class rise to the position of the ruling geoisie in the colonial revolution and the help in stores were let out at the end of bitter disappointment as the plant gradu class and free itself from exploitation. socialist development of the rich peasantry the month, and the usual flow of unemally reopened to find themselves still unemWith Lenin, the revolutionary proletarian to mention only a few of the contribuployed unskilled labor from the country ployed, while the plant filled their places party was the only door through which the tlong made to Marxist thought by Stalin with womenat 14 a week. The men had into the cities had begun.
working class might enter the realm of since Lenin diod.
New Jersey reported that some unembeen getting about 50 cents an hour.
power and maintain itself there.
Just as pernicious as ignorance, from.
ployment was apparent in practically all The 1917 revolution in Russia the Lenia point of view, is the contemptuoua cities. Pennsylvania found the same con DURIIAM, FP) Distress is be greatest experience of the international light mindedness with which new langled dition, with part time operation in many coming acute among unemployed workers working class demonstrated the validity theories are formulated one day only ta of the fron and steel mills. Detroit, Pon who have been pouring into Durham from of Lenin life work. The Bolshevik par be substituted by equally novel concep tiac and Flint, in the automotive production other stricken cities and from the farm ty was the instrument that brought order tions the next day, a system that has ded out sides, seeking work.
and of capitalist chaos installed area of the Michigan, reported surplus of Continued on Page Mass Unemployment Continues